Hojo Tokimasa

Japanese: 北条時政 - ほうじょう・ときまさ

Year of death: Kenpo 3.1.6 (1215.2.6)
Year of birth: 1138
A politician of the Kamakura Shogunate and its first regent. He founded the Kamakura Shogunate together with Minamoto no Yoritomo. Born to the daughter of Hojo Tokikata, a local government official in Izu Province, and Tomo no Tamefusa, he was known as the "hero of the province." After he married his daughter Masako, Minamoto no Yoritomo, who had been exiled to Izu, he followed Yoritomo in raising an army. According to the Azuma Kagami, on April 27, 1180, an order from Emperor Mochihito to defeat the Taira clan was delivered to his mansion, and the Shogunate was established by Yoritomo and Tokimasa, and this is where the Shogunate began. After raising an army, Yoritomo headed for Kamakura, which was the land that Tokimasa's ancestor Taira no Naokata had handed over to Minamoto no Yoriyoshi. He lost his eldest son Munetoki in the Battle of Ishibashiyama, but he eventually invited the Kai Genji clan to join Yoritomo's army in the Battle of Fujigawa. After that, Masako's grandson Yoriie was born, and Tokimasa became important as an external influence for Yoritomo, but in November 1185, when Minamoto no Yoshitsune issued an imperial decree to pursue and kill Yoritomo, Tokimasa led a large army to Kyoto as Yoritomo's deputy. The Imperial Court responded by issuing an imperial decree to pursue and kill Yoshitsune, but Tokimasa went further and had the authority to appoint shugo and jito in various provinces and manors, and to collect military rice, and he conveyed Yoritomo's policy of reforming the Imperial Court politics and had them carried out. Thus, Emperor Goshirakawa's close vassals were removed from the Imperial Court, and Kujo Kanezane, who was recommended by the shogunate, became the regent, and Imperial Court politics were renewed. However, Tokimasa's actions in Kyoto after that were not to Yoritomo's liking, and when Ichijo Yoshiyasu went to Kyoto as Yoritomo's deputy, Tokimasa was relieved of his duties, and returned to Kamakura, entrusting the security of Kyoto to his nephew Tokisada. His subsequent actions are unclear, but he served as the guardian of Izu and Suruga, and in 1203 he built Ganjojuin Temple in Hojo, Izu, in hopes of pursuing the Fujiwara clan of Oshu, and participated in the Oshu War. Eventually, Tokimasa's actions began to stand out as the situation shifted around who would succeed Yoritomo. When Minamoto no Sanetomo was born in 1192, he performed the birth ceremony, and in the following year, when the Soga brothers took revenge at a hunting party in Fujino, he was thought to have been involved, as he was the one who set up the hunting ground, and Soga Goro Tokimune was Tokimasa's eboshi-ko (a woman wearing a hat). After Yoritomo died in January 1199, he assisted Yoriie and led the shogunate's politics together with Masako. In 1203, he became the head of the administrative office and regent. He reduced Yoriie's personal discretionary powers and established a system to reflect the opinions of his vassals in the shogunate's politics, and was appointed as the governor of Totomi Province as Yoriie's guardian. However, as he removed the influence of Yoriie's close associates, he came into conflict with Hiki Yoshikazu, who had become Yoriie's in-laws, and he invited him to his own residence and murdered him, installing Sanetomo as shogun and becoming head of the administrative office, seizing real power in the shogunate. However, he did not agree with his sons Yoshitoki and Masako, and failed in his attempt to support Hiraga Tomomasa of the Minamoto clan, who had become the husband of his second wife Maki no Kata, as shogun, and was forced to retire to Izu, where he died. <References> Yasuda Motohisa, "Kamakura Shogun Retsuken Retsuden"

(Fumihiko Gomi)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

没年：建保3.1.6(1215.2.6)
生年：保延4(1138)
鎌倉幕府の政治家,初代の執権。源頼朝と共に鎌倉幕府をつくる。伊豆国の在庁官人北条時方と伴為房の娘との間に生まれ,「当国の豪傑」と称された。伊豆に流されていた源頼朝を娘政子の婿にとったことから頼朝に従って挙兵。治承4(1180)年4月27日に平氏を討てとの以仁王の令旨がその館にもたらされ,頼朝と時政の手によって開かれたところから幕府は出発したと『吾妻鏡』は語る。挙兵後,頼朝は鎌倉を目指すが,ここは時政の祖先平直方が源頼義に譲った地である。石橋山の戦に敗れて長子の宗時を失うが,やがて甲斐源氏を誘い,富士川の戦で頼朝軍と合体する。その後は政子に孫の頼家が生まれたことから,頼朝の外威として重きをなしたが,文治1(1185)年11月には頼朝追討の宣旨が源義経に出されたのに応じて,頼朝の代官として大軍を率いて上洛する。朝廷は義経追討宣旨を出すことでそれに対応したが,時政はさらに諸国,荘園に守護,地頭を置く権限や兵糧米を徴収することを認めさせ,また頼朝の目指す朝廷政治の改革の方針を伝えてこれを実行させた。こうして朝廷からは後白河法皇の近臣が除かれ,幕府の推す九条兼実が関白となって朝廷政治は刷新された。だがその後の京都での時政の動きは頼朝の望むところではなく,一条能保が頼朝代官として上洛したのを受けて任を解かれ,京都の警備を甥の時定に託して鎌倉に戻る。その後の動きははっきりしないが,伊豆,駿河の守護として活動,文治5年には奥州の藤原氏追討を願う願成就院を伊豆の北条に建立し,奥州合戦に従う。やがて頼朝の後継者をめぐる動きとともに時政の行動は目立ちはじめ,建久3(1192)年に源実朝が生まれると,その誕生の儀式を行い,翌年の富士野での巻狩りで起きた曾我兄弟の仇討ち事件では,その狩り場の設定者として,また曾我五郎時致が時政の烏帽子子となっていたことなどから,事件への関与も考えられる。正治1(1199)年1月に頼朝が亡くなると,政子とともに頼家を補佐して幕府政治を主導した。建仁3(1203)年政所別当,執権。頼家の親裁権を削減するとともに御家人の意見を幕府政治に反映する体制を築き,自らは頼家の後見として遠江守に任じられた。しかし頼家の側近の勢力を排除するなかで,頼家の外戚となった比企能員と対立が生じ,これを自邸に誘って謀殺し,実朝を将軍に据えて政所別当となって幕府の実権を握った。しかし子の義時や政子と路線が合わず,後妻牧の方の娘婿となっていた源氏の平賀朝雅を将軍に擁立することを計って失敗,伊豆に引退させられその地で亡くなる。<参考文献>安田元久『鎌倉将軍執権列伝』

(五味文彦)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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