Today, in 1182, Minamoto no Yoriie, was born. He would be the 2nd Kamakura shogun.
Unfortunately he didn't rule long. Long story short, he will killed by his grandfather only a few short years after becoming Shogun. How we got to that point is a bit confusing but bear with me.
Yoriie's mother was Hōjō Masako. You may remember her from a previous post where I wrote about her husband and Yoriie's father, the first shogun Yoritomo. She came from the very powerful Hōjō family and their support was instrumental in Yoritomo winning control of the country.
After Yoritomo died, she shaved her head and became a nun, as was expected of women in her position. She did not, however, move into the monastery but rather worked behind the scenes to maintain power.
She insisted almost immediately that Yoriie stay out of politics. This was less because of any dislike of her son, and more because of uncertainty of where his loyalties were and her desire to secure the Hōjō family's control of the country. Yoriie was stripped of all power and forced to become a monk. He was still nominally shogun, but all political power was given to a council of 13 elders headed by Masako's father Hōjō Tokimasa.
That might have been the end of it, but Yoriie's father-in-law, Hiki Yoshikazu, didn't want to lose his influence and so he persuaded Yoriie to retake control. Yoriie had always felt very close to Yoshikazu so he was easily convinced. Yoriie's idea was to abdicate and appoint his son, Ichiman, and his brother, Sanetomo, to rule together. Yoshikazu countered that they should kill Sanetomo and have Ichiman rule by himself, conveniently with Hiki as regent. Masako overheard this conversation.
She told Tokimasa about the plot but insisted he not harm Yoriie. He had Yoshikazu killed, the entire Hiki family crushed, and forced Yoriie to abdicate in favor of his younger brother and then placed him under house arrest. Later when the chance presented itself he had Yoriie and Ichiman killed without Masako's knowledge. We're talking Godfather level stuff right here. "Today I settle all family business." Gotta tie up all those loose ends, I guess.
Yoriie's brother Sanetomo became the next shogun and the final Minamoto shogun. He also didn't last long. But by this point Masako wasn't too happy with her father and she forced him to shave his head and become a monk, leaving her as the most powerful person in the shogunate and in Japan, hence her nickname "the Nun Shogun". She continued to control the shogunate from behind the scenes till her death, and her family, the Hōjō, continued to run the shogunate from the shadows until the government collapsed in 1333.
Back to Yoriie. He was only 21 when he was killed. His other son, Kugyō, would later get some revenge for his murder. Unfortunately the revenge was bittersweet, as he also lost his life shortly thereafter.
Just another backstabbing story of the shogunate.
Today is Taian 大安, one of the rokuyō, the Buddhist horoscope. This is the luckiest day of the system. Yah! Enjoy your good luck today!
(Read more about the rokuyō here)
On the old calendar, today would have been the sixteenth day of the eighth month. It is the 1st microseason of Hakuro (white dew, 草露白), called kusano tsuyu shiroshi, Dew glistens on the grass ().
"Beautiful Woman and Autumn Garden" by Takeuchi Keishu
In old times it was said that when the morning dew starts to take on a cloudy appearance, true autumn was here. It's still hot during the day, but increasingly evenings and mornings are chilly.
Here's a haiku from Issa:
鶺鴒がたたいて見たる南瓜哉
sekirei ga tataite mitaru kabocha kana
a wagtail
testing it with a thump
kabocha
We used to translate kabocha as Japanese pumpkin, but the past few times I've visited the States I see supermarkets use the Japanese word kabocha so maybe it's safe to leave the word as is. Whatever you may call it, it is delicious! It's also a season word for mid-autumn, which is where we are according to the traditional calendar.
A wagtail is a bird, by the way. Did Issa see a bird testing out kabocha as a human would by thudding on it to see if it sounds right? Or was this only his imagination?
| David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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