The Battle of Wada: The 1213 War in Which Yoshitoki Concentrated Power in Kamakura

In the fifth month of 1213 (Kenryaku 3), in Kamakura. The clan of the Samurai-dokoro Bettō Wada Yoshimori raised troops and clashed with the army of Hōjō Yoshitoki within the city of Kamakura.

After two days of urban warfare, the Wada clan was nearly annihilated. It is called the Battle of Wada.

Yoshimori was an elder statesman since Yoritomo's day and a meritorious founder of the shogunate.

By destroying this Wada house, Yoshitoki also gained the office of Samurai-dokoro Bettō, which oversaw the shogunate's military and police.

Wada Yoshimori was of the Miura clan and a senior retainer since Yoritomo's uprising.

As the first Samurai-dokoro Bettō, he had borne the shogunate's military affairs and the control of the gokenin.

As a meritorious figure from Yoritomo's time, he had the deep trust of the gokenin, and for the Hōjō he was a powerful presence standing on equal footing within the shogunate.

For Yoshitoki, who sought to gather substantive power into the Hōjō, the strength of the Wada had become an obstacle that could not be overlooked.

In 1213, Yoshitoki cornered Yoshimori on the pretext of a rebellion affair in which members of the Wada clan were said to have been involved.

Yoshimori's son and nephew were seized, and Yoshimori's honor was crushed. The 'Azuma Kagami' suggests that Yoshitoki's side deliberately provoked the Wada.

The cornered Yoshimori at last raised troops and attacked into Kamakura under the banner of overthrowing Yoshitoki.

For Yoshitoki, it became a good opportunity to remove the Wada by force.

After two days of fierce fighting, Wada Yoshimori was cut down and his clan perished.

In addition to the Mandokoro Bettō office he already held, Yoshitoki now also held the Wada's Samurai-dokoro Bettō office.

By grasping both powers of the Mandokoro (administration) and the Samurai-dokoro (military) in one hand, the power of the shikken was institutionally established.

This concurrent holding of both bettō offices became the basic form of the power of the later Hōjō shikken.

The Battle of Wada was the decisive engagement in which Yoshitoki concentrated the substantive power of the Kamakura shogunate in the Hōjō.