The first Kamakura Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, was born on this day, May 9, 1147
Yoritomo’s paternal grandfather, Minamoto no Tameyoshi was head of the noble Minamoto clan, while his maternal grandfather, a member of the illustrious Fujiwara clan, was the chief priest at Atsuta Shrine, Japan’s second most venerated Shinto Shrine after the Great Shrine of Ise. His mother had returned home to what is now Nagoya, and Yoritomo was born in Atsuta, on the site where the Seigan-ji Temple stands today.
In 1156, a short civil war, the Hogen Disturbance, erupted over a dispute regarding the Imperial Court, which had split into two branches, fronted by the former Emperor Toba, supported by members of the influential Fujiwara clan and Taira no Kiyomori, and Toba’s eldest son, the former Emperor Sutoku, supported by other members of the Fujiwara clan, hereditary Imperial regents.
Following the insurrection, his father became Minamoto…
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Notes from the Green Dragon Tavern 