[Off to Kamakura (6)] The Kai Genji Clan Undermined by Minamoto no Yoritomo
First, for those knowledgeable about history, the name "Kai Genji" likely brings to mind the "Takeda" clan and "Takeda Shingen."
This time, we will look at the Takeda clan around the time of the founding of the Kamakura Shogunate.
This is a continuation of the following.
Please also take a look at the biography of Minamoto no Noriyori.
The Independent Force: The Kai Genji
When the Genpei War began, the head of the Takeda family was a warrior named Takeda Nobuyoshi, who was the great-grandson of the Takeda family founder, Shinra Saburo Yoshimitsu.
Minamoto no Yoshitomo was killed in the Heiji Rebellion, leading to the decline of the Kawachi Genji, but the Kai Genji, who had kept their distance from the turmoil in the capital, had built up their strength by the time the Genpei conflict arrived.
In many maps of the Genpei War, including those in history textbooks, the Kai Genji are often colored the same as Minamoto no Yoritomo's forces, but this is somewhat different from the reality.
Red = Taira Clan, Blue = Kiso Yoshinaka, Green = Minamoto no Yoritomo, Yellow = Oshu Fujiwara Clan
In the 4th year of Jisho (1180), the Kai Genji also received Prince Mochihito's imperial command and raised an army, but this was a mobilization based on their own judgment, neither ordered by nor in response to Minamoto no Yoritomo.
In other words, the Kai Genji were a "third Genji" force, distinct from both Minamoto no Yoritomo and Kiso Yoshinaka.
The Battle of Fujigawa, famous for the anecdote where the Taira clan retreated without fighting after mistaking the sound of waterbirds for a surprise attack by the Genji, is now widely accepted to have been fought against the Kai Genji, not Yoritomo's forces.
The relationship between the Kai Genji and Yoritomo at this point is considered to have been an alliance against the Taira, not a master-servant relationship.
It is also said that because the Kai Genji took control of Suruga and Totomi on the Tokaido by force, Yoritomo prioritized building his strength in the Kanto region rather than marching on the capital.
A Loose Coalition: The Kai Genji
Takeda Diamond
However, even though the Kai Genji were connected by blood, each house had a strong sense of independence; they did not form a tightly knit family, but rather a loose coalition.
Takeda Nobuyoshi's younger brother, Yasuda Yoshisada, participated in Kiso Yoshinaka's campaign to the capital from the neighboring province of Shinano on his own initiative and advanced his troops to Kyoto.
Also, other younger brothers, Kagami Tomomitsu, and Nobuyoshi's fourth son, Isawa Nobumitsu, succeeded in approaching Yoritomo and gaining his trust, later establishing positions within the Kamakura Shogunate.
This strong independence of each house and the geographical situation of being sandwiched between Yoritomo and Yoshinaka can be said to be the factors that prevented the Kai Genji from becoming a major power.
In the 2nd year of Juei (1183), as the relationship between the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Kiso Yoshinaka deteriorated, Yoritomo received an order from the Imperial Court to hunt down Yoshinaka and gained military command over the eastern provinces, making the power dynamic between Yoritomo and the Kai Genji clear. Their relationship gradually shifted from an equal alliance to one of master and servant.
The Takeda Clan Undermined by Yoritomo
When Yoritomo dispatched his younger brothers Noriyori and Yoshitsune to hunt down Kiso Yoshinaka, the Kai Genji, including Yasuda Yoshisada who had been acting with Yoshinaka, joined them.
They subsequently joined the battles against the Taira clan.
However, on June 16 in the first year of Genryaku (1184), after the battle against Kiso Yoshinaka, Takeda Nobuyoshi's heir, Ichijo Tadayori, was suddenly killed during a banquet under Yoritomo's orders.
"Arrogant and disturbing the peace"is cited as the reason, but if the alleged arrogant attitude was true, it suggests a gap in whether the relationship between the Kai Genji and Minamoto no Yoritomo was considered equal or subordinate.
With his son killed, Takeda Nobuyoshi retired, and the fifth head of the family became Nobuyoshi's fourth son, Isawa Nobumitsu, who was pro-Yoritomo.
The position of Suruga Shugo was also transferred from Takeda Nobuyoshi to Hojo Tokimasa, and the Takeda clan was incorporated into the Kamakura Shogunate.
The Fierce Warrior of the Kai Genji: Yasuda Yoshisada
Among the Kai Genji being undermined by Yoritomo, the one who maintained independent and strong power was Takeda Nobuyoshi's younger brother, Yasuda Yoshisada.
Yoshisada's strength and characteristic lay in the fact that he was appointed directly as Governor of Totomi by the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa as a reward for participating in Kiso Yoshinaka's march to the capital and driving the Taira clan out of Kyoto.
By being appointed without going through Yoritomo and the Shogunate, he established a legal dual-allegiance state where he followed Yoritomo while also following the Imperial Court.
Yoritomo forbade his vassals from being appointed directly to government posts by the Imperial Court.
This was intended to prevent the Imperial Court from disrupting the hierarchy of the vassals or using government posts to undermine them.
However, in Yoshisada's case, he had already been appointed by the time he submitted, so he could not be forcibly removed from office.
Yoritomo appointed him as Shugo of Totomi to retroactively approve his appointment as Governor of Totomi by the Imperial Court. (The provincial governor is an Imperial Court post, while the Shugo is a Shogunate post.)
Originally, Yoshisada was a powerful figure of the Kai Genji who stood on equal footing with Yoritomo. As he was appointed directly by the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa as Governor of Totomi, he held a rather unique position under Yoritomo's command, and it is said that Yoshisada's residence in Kamakura was located next to the Shogun's palace.
From Yoritomo's perspective, Yoshisada must have been a warrior in a clearly difficult position to handle, but favoring the Yasuda clan, a branch family, was likely effective in keeping the Kai Genji divided.
Yasuda Yoshisada also expanded his power by utilizing Yoritomo.
He broke ties with Kiso Yoshinaka and participated in the campaign to suppress him, and also served in the battles against the Taira clan and the Oshu Fujiwara clan.
Yoshisada's son, Yoshisuke, was also recommended for the position of Governor of Echigo.
In the first year of Kenkyu (1190), Yoritomo had Yoshisada transferred from Governor of Totomi to Governor of Shimosa through the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, but the following year, Yoshisada was reinstated as Governor of Totomi.
It is thought that Yoritomo's intention was to separate Yoshisada, who held such an exceptionally special position, from Totomi, his power base, in order to weaken him. However, since Yoritomo was forced to retract this after only one year, it shows just how exceptional Yasuda Yoshisada was among Yoritomo's subordinates.
Destroyed by a Love Letter
This finally connects to Part 5 of the main series.
For Yoritomo, for whom the era of war had ended and it had become important to stably pass on the shogunate to his own descendants, the Yasuda clan, who were powerful fellow Genji with abundant combat experience, were nothing but a nuisance.
This is very similar to Minamoto no Noriyori, whom I explained last time. It does not matter whether the person themselves has the intention to become Shogun or not.
The mere possibility of being supported by someoneis a potential threat to Yoritomo.
The Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had once appointed Yoshisada as Governor of Totomi, passed away.
Yoritomo finally decided to eliminate the Yasuda clan, whom he had treated as a key member of the Genji family despite them being difficult to handle.
On November 28, 1193, Yoshisada's son, Yasuda Yoshisuke, was reported by Kajiwara Kagetoki for sending a love letter to a lady-in-waiting during the memorial service at Eifuku-ji Yakushi-do, and was executed the following day.
If this were today, would it be like getting fired the next day for inviting the company president's secretary on a date via LINE after a company event?
It's absurd.
It was an excessively harsh punishment, not stopping at just execution, but also displaying his head in Kamakura.
His father, Yoshisada, also had his territory confiscated, was dismissed from his position as Shugo of Totomi, and went into retirement.
However, Minamoto no Yoritomo is not a man who would leave it at that.
The following year, 1194, Yasuda Yoshisada was killed on charges of treason.
A common occurrence in the Kamakura period where an assassination squad comes even after you've fallen from power.
Yasuda Yoshisada, who had built a privileged position within the shogunate, was driven to destruction because of a single love letter from his son.
With the death of Yasuda Yoshisada, the position of the Kai Genji as an independent force became a thing of the past.
The Kai Genji Thereafter
As mentioned earlier, the main Takeda family was inherited by Ishiwa Nobumitsu, the fourth son of Takeda Nobuyoshi, who became Takeda Nobumitsu, and later served as the commander-in-chief of the shogunate's Tosando army in the Jokyu War.
And that lineage continued to the 16th head, Takeda Shingen, in the Sengoku period.
From the descendants of Kagami Tomomitsu, the younger brother of Takeda Nobuyoshi who was consistently pro-Yoritomo along with Nobumitsu, branch families such as the Ogasawara clan and the Nanbu clan developed.
These clans survived even after the fall of the main Takeda family and reached the Meiji Restoration as daimyo families of the Edo Shogunate.
Next Episode Preview
I wrote about the period from 1193 to 1194 with the fall of the Yasuda clan, but this time was essentially an extra edition about the Kai Genji.
Next time is "Minamoto no Yoritomo, First Visit to Kyoto in Five Years."