SUBJECT FILE NO. SA-0053
BUSHI ARCHIVE
Kiso Yoshinaka
Kiso Yoshinaka
Barbarian-Subduing Shogun; Governor of Iyo
SECTION I -- SUBJECT PROFILE
| Name | Kiso Yoshinaka |
|---|---|
| English | Kiso Yoshinaka |
| Origin | Japan |
| Lifespan | 1154–1184 |
| Gender | Male |
| Century | 12th C. |
| Clan / Role | Samurai |
| Title | Barbarian-Subduing Shogun; Governor of Iyo |
SECTION II -- OVERVIEW
Born in 1154 （Kyūju 1） at Ōkura-yakata in Musashi Province （the modern Ranzan Town, Saitama Prefecture） as the second son of Minamoto no Yoshikata.
The following year, his father was killed by Minamoto no Yoshihira, son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo. The infant Komaōmaru was hidden by his wet-nurse's husband Nakahara Kaneto and raised in Kiso Valley in Shinano Province （the modern Kiso Town, Nagano Prefecture） — the origin of the name 'Kiso Yoshinaka.
' In 1180, he raised troops in Shinano in response to Prince Mochihito's call to arms. At the Battle of Kurikara Pass in the fifth month of 1183, he broke the great army of Taira no Koremori, and in the seventh month entered Kyoto.
He drove the Taira house out of the capital, and was appointed Barbarian-Subduing Shogun by Emperor Go-Shirakawa. But he lost the court's trust from the requisitioning of provisions by his troops in Kyoto and from his attack on the Hōjū-ji Palace of Emperor Go-Shirakawa.
In the first month of 1184, defeated at the Uji River by the Kamakura force under Noriyori and Yoshitsune, he was killed at Awazu （the modern Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture）.
He was thirty-one. His final scene, accompanied by the female warrior Tomoe Gozen （this site's id 28）, is described tragically in the Tale of the Heike.
SECTION III -- CHRONOLOGY
SECTION IV -- NOTABLE STATEMENTS
“Tomoe, though a woman, is a warrior worth a thousand. You — flee quickly.”
SECTION V -- FIELD NOTES
[A]The 'Fire Ox' Stratagem — the Weight of Tradition
At Kurikara Pass on the eleventh day of the fifth month of 1183, the Tale of the Heike describes Yoshinaka releasing 'oxen with torches lashed to their horns' into the Taira camp — the 'Fire Ox' stratagem.
But the contemporary Azuma Kagami carries no specific description of fire oxen. The literary invention of the Tale of the Heike most likely traveled on its own.
That Yoshinaka's army mounted a night attack and threw the Taira into confusion in the narrow pass is itself corroborated in multiple sources.
SECTION VI -- LEGACY & IMPACT
The first Genji warrior to score a real battlefield victory in the pursuit of the Taira, ahead of Yoritomo. But through his mismanagement in Kyoto he lost the trust of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, and was destroyed in Yoritomo's pursuit.
He is inscribed in history as the representative case of 'mismanagement after victory.' Gichū-ji in Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture, survives as Yoshinaka's grave site, and it is also known that the Edo-period haiku poet Matsuo Bashō had his own grave built there.
SECTION VII -- MAJOR DEEDS
- [01]Uprising in Shinano (1180)
- [02]Victory at Kurikara Pass (1183)
- [03]Entry into Kyoto and expulsion of the Taira from the capital (1183)
- [04]Appointment as Barbarian-Subduing Shogun (1183)
- [05]Early Genpei War Genji victory as 'Rising-Sun Shogun'
SECTION VIII -- REFERENCE MATERIALS
PRIMARY SOURCES & ARCHIVES
- PRIMARY
Azuma Kagami
Compiled by the Kamakura shogunate
Records Yoshinaka's career from the perspective of the Kamakura regime
- SCHOLARSHIP
The Genpei War
Uwayokote Masataka / Shueisha
Standard study that locates Yoshinaka within the whole of the Genpei War
- ARCHIVE
Gichū-ji
Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture
Yoshinaka's grave site; also the site of Matsuo Bashō's grave
Visit archive →
RECOMMENDED READING
SECTION X -- RELATED REPORTS
SA-RPT
From the Mountains of Kiso: Whose Child Did Yoshinaka Grow Up As?
In 1155, the two-year-old Komaōmaru lost his father. The boy raised in Kiso Valley in Shinano Province rose in response to Prince Mochihito's call to arms at twenty-six. Tracing the prehistory of the man who became the first true battlefield victor over the Taira.
SA-RPT
Kurikara Pass: Why Did Taira no Koremori Collapse in May 1183?
On the night of the eleventh day of the fifth month of 1183, at Kurikara Pass on the border of Etchū and Kaga. The Taira pursuit army of seventy thousand under Taira no Koremori was annihilated in a night attack by Yoshinaka. The tradition of the 'Fire Ox' stratagem and the record. Tracing the decisive moment of the Taira decline.
SA-RPT
The Uji River, and Awazu: Why Was Yoshinaka Cast as Court Enemy Half a Year After Entering the Capital?
In the seventh month of 1183, Yoshinaka entered Kyoto and was appointed Barbarian-Subduing Shogun. But half a year later he was killed as a court enemy by the Kamakura army. What happened in the capital? A record of the half-year of mismanagement from the entry to Kyoto to the death at Awazu.
SECTION IX -- LINKED SUBJECTS
SA-0028 / JPN
Tomoe Gozen
The woman warrior of the Genpei War whose existence historians cannot quite confirm or deny
SA-0023 / JPN
Minamoto no Yoritomo
The founding shogun who built warrior government as a system that lasted six and a half centuries
SA-0051 / JPN
Minamoto no Yoshitsune
The Genji general who destroyed the Taira at Dannoura, then was killed by his own brother Yoritomo
SA-0052 / JPN
Taira no Kiyomori
The first warrior to become Chancellor of the Realm, who built the Taira ascendancy and laid the ground for warrior government