Hōjō Tokiyori

Born in 1227 (Antei 1) as the son of Hōjō Tokiuji. His grandfather was the third shikken Hōjō Yasutoki; his father Tokiuji died young.

In 1246 (Kangen 4), at twenty, he succeeded the fourth shikken Hōjō Tsunetoki as the fifth shikken. In the same year he sent the former shōgun Fujiwara no Yoritsune back to Kyoto, and in 1247 (Hōji 1) destroyed the powerful gokenin Miura Yasumura at the Hōji Battle.

He established the 'tokusō politics' — the concentration of power in the Hōjō main line, the tokusō house. In 1252, Tokiyori received Prince Munetaka of the imperial house in Kamakura as the first imperial shōgun, clarifying the division of roles between the shogunate and the tokusō.

In 1256, at thirty, he resigned the shikken office and took the tonsure, taking the Buddhist name Dōsō. He continued to hold real political power thereafter.

He protected Zen Buddhism and built Kenchō-ji in Kamakura (founded 1253), inviting Song monks including Rankei Dōryū. He died in 1263 (Kōchō 3) aged thirty-seven.

His son became the eighth shikken Hōjō Tokimune (this site's id 29), who would meet the Mongol invasions.

“Without hearing the grief of the people, one should not conduct government.”

The tokusō politics established in Tokiyori's era defined the governance structure of the Kamakura shogunate thereafter, and became the foundation for his son Tokimune's (this site's id 29) response to the Mongol invasions.

Tokiyori's protection of Zen Buddhism was a watershed in the history of Japanese Zen, laying the foundation for the Kamakura Five Mountains system.

Kenchō-ji still stands as the head temple of the Rinzai-shū Kenchō-ji-ha. The Tokiyori Provincial Circuit tradition, represented by 'Hachi-no-ki,' was widely received by later generations of Japanese as the ideal of 'a ruler who sees the life of the people,' and has been transmitted from Muromachi nō plays through Edo-period kabuki to modern textbooks.

He became a rare figure in whom the historical Tokiyori and the legendary Tokiyori coexist.