Minamoto no Yoriie - Minamoto no Yoriie

Japanese: 源頼家 - みなもとのよりいえ

Year of death: 14 August 1204 (18 July 18 Genkyu 1)
Year of birth: 1182.9.11 (Juei 1.8.12)
The second Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate. Childhood name was Manju or Juhata (Man). He was born as the eldest son of Minamoto no Yoritomo and Hojo Masako at Hikigaya Palace in Kamakura. It is said that Yoritomo himself ordered his retainers to build the Dankazura of Kamakura Wakamiya Oji, hoping for a safe delivery. Yoritomo had high hopes for his eldest son, and when he had Yoriie shoot a deer at the Omakigari hunting event at Fuji in 1193 (Kenkyu 4), it was to demonstrate his status as head of the family to the Kanto retainers, and when he accompanied him to Kyoto in the same year, it was with the intention of gaining recognition from the Imperial Court as the Shogunate's successor. In January 1199 (Shoji 1), Yoriie inherited the position of Kamakura Shogun upon his father's death, received an imperial decree recognizing Yoritomo's inheritance of the ruins, and in July 1202 (Kennin 2), he became Seii Taishogun. At first, Yoriie inherited the policy towards the Imperial Court that Yoritomo had followed in his later years, and it seems that he tried to make it possible for his younger sister Miwata to enter the Imperial Court, but he was influenced by Tsuchimikado Michichika, an ambitious man at the Imperial Court like his father, and this led to another mismanagement. Soon, within the shogunate, direct decisions on lawsuits were stopped and they were passed over to a council of 13 senior retainers, including his maternal grandfather, Hojo Tokimasa. Yoriie tried to resist this measure, treating his attendants extremely well and trying to forcefully lead lawsuits, but the shogunate history book, Azuma Kagami, states that he became absorbed in kemari and engaged in numerous "debaucheries," which shows that the people had already turned away from him. Finally, in August of the third year of the Kennin era, Hojo Tokimasa took advantage of the sudden illness of Yoriie to plot the division and transfer of shogunal power (to Yoriie's younger brother Chihata, who later became Sanetomo and his son Ichiman), provoking Yoriie's father-in-law Yoshikazu and other members of the Hiki clan, and in September, killing them along with Ichiman. Sanetomo was installed as the new shogun, and regent Tokimasa took the lead in the shogunate government, but Yoriie became a monk and was confined to Shuzenji Temple in Izu, and was eventually killed by assassins from the Hojo clan. Okamoto Kido's "Shuzenji Monogatari," which covers this incident, is famous as a classic of new kabuki. His grave is located next to Shigetsuden in Shuzenji Town, and his handwritten copy of the "Heart Sutra" remains at Izu Mishima Taisha Shrine. <References> Omori Kingoro, "Research on the Samurai Era," 3 volumes; Okutomi Takayuki, "The Three Generations of the Genji"

(Takao Sugihashi)

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

Japanese:

没年：元久1.7.18(1204.8.14)
生年：寿永1.8.12(1182.9.11)
鎌倉幕府の第2代将軍。幼名万寿,または十幡(万)。源頼朝と北条政子の長男として,鎌倉比企谷第に誕生。鎌倉若宮大路の段葛はこの折の安産を願い,頼朝みずから御家人を指揮して造らせたものという。頼朝が長男に寄せる期待は大きく,建久4(1193)年の富士の大巻狩りで頼家に鹿を射止めさせたのは,関東御家人への家督披露のためであり,同6年の上洛に同伴参内した行為には,幕府の後継者として朝廷の認知を得る意図が込められていた。正治1(1199)年1月,父の死により頼家が鎌倉殿の地位を相続,頼朝の遺跡継承を認める宣旨を受け,建仁2(1202)年7月には征夷大将軍となった。当初頼家は,頼朝晩年の対朝廷政策を受け継ぎ,妹三幡の入内実現に努めたようだが,父と同じく宮廷の野心家土御門通親に乗ぜられ,再度の失政を招いた。幕府内にあっては,まもなく訴訟の直断を停止され,外祖父北条時政以下13人の宿老による合議に移された。頼家はこうした処置に抵抗を試み,近習を極端に厚遇し,強引な訴訟指揮に打って出たりしたが,幕府の史書『吾妻鏡』に,蹴鞠に熱中し数々の「乱行」をくりかえしたとされていることは,すでに人心が離反した事実を示す。ついに建仁3年8月,北条時政は頼家が急病に陥った間隙を突いて将軍権力の(頼家の弟千幡,のちの実朝と子一幡への)分割譲与を画策,頼家の舅能員ら比企一族を挑発し,9月一幡もろともにこれを屠った。新将軍には実朝が立てられ,執権時政が幕政を主導することとなるが,頼家は出家のうえ伊豆修禅寺に幽閉,やがて北条氏の討手により殺害された。この事件に取材した岡本綺堂の『修禅寺物語』は新歌舞伎の古典として名高い。墓所は修善寺町指月殿の傍らにあり,自筆の『般若心経』が伊豆三島大社に遺っている。<参考文献>大森金五郎『武家時代の研究』3巻,奥富敬之『源氏三代』

(杉橋隆夫)

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