History of Asia

What kind of person is Masako Hojo, the nun who supported the Kamakura Shogunate even after the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo? ??

Hojo Masako known as the regular room of Minamoto no Yoritomo, who established the Kamakura Shogunate Is the 2022 NHK Taiga drama [13 Lords of the Kamakura] The protagonist of [ Hojo Yoshitoki ] Is also known as an older sister.

After Yoritomo's death after the establishment of the Shogunate, she supported the Kamakura Shogunate with her passion, strength of defeat, and her political power. What was the life of Masako Hojo, who was later called Shogun? ??

The birth of Masako Hojo and the encounter with Minamoto no Yoritomo

Masako Hojo Is 1157 In Izu Province's influential tribe [ Hojo Tokimasa ] Was born as the eldest daughter.

1160 Lost in the Heiji rebellion [ Minamoto no Yoshitomo ]'S child, Yoritomo, was exiled to Izu, and Tokimasa Hojo, who was a government official, was appointed as the supervisor.

At that time, Minamoto no Yoritomo was 14 years old and Masako was only 4 years old.

The two met when they were still children, but as Yoritomo spent 20 years in exile and spent time in Izu, Masako and Yoritomo developed into a love affair.

The relationship comes to light in 1177 . At that time, the two wanted to get married, but because Mr. Hojo was following the Taira clan, the marriage with the hostile Minamoto no Yoritomo was opposed by the people around him.

[ Genpei Jōsuiki According to [ Kanetaka Yamaki ] from the Heike clan, his father, Tokimasa, tried to prevent the marriage of the two. ] And Masako was engaged. However, Masako escaped from Yamaki's residence and escaped to Minamoto no Yoritomo, and ran off and got married.

This anecdote is said to be a creation, but it can be said that it is a strong expression of Masako Hojo's feelings for Yoritomo.

The ruthless side of mercilessly imprisoning her real son ...

Tokimasa, who was defeated by Masako's strong feelings, admitted to marrying Minamoto no Yoritomo, and Masako gave birth to a second son and a second daughter.

1182 The eldest son, later the second shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, Minamoto no Yoriie 1192 The third generation, Minamoto no Sanetomo, was born in.

But 1199 Minamoto no Yoritomo died suddenly, and Yoriie became the second shogun at the young age of 18. After that, in order to prevent Yoriie's dictatorship, 13 influential gokenins such as Hojo Tokimasa, Yoshitoki, and Hiki Yoshikazu [ 13 council system ] Will be launched.

In this way, Yoriie could not directly cut the proceedings.

Minamoto no Yoriie tended to favor something, such as using his own nanny's husband, Hiki Yoshikazu, and choosing his concubine from Mr. Hiki. In addition, the birth of the eldest son between Yoriie and the daughter of Hiki Yoshikazu brought Hiki into power.

In such a situation of the Shogunate, Minamoto no Yoriie collapsed due to illness in 1203 and temporarily fell into a critical condition.

Taking this opportunity, Masako Hojo and his father, Tokimasa, who were afraid that Mr. Hiki, who was the backing of Yoriie, would rise in earnest, will support his younger brother, Minamoto no Sanetomo, as the third shogun. However, Yoriie, who recovered from his illness, learned of this and ordered Hiki Yoshikazu to subdue Mr. Hojo.

In the end, the subjugation of Mr. Hojo was unsuccessful, and Minamoto no Yoriie was confined to "Shuzenji" by his mother, Masako Hojo, and was killed.

He was also involved in the expulsion of his father, Tokimasa Hojo

Tokimasa Hojo was appointed to take over the role of assistant to Minamoto no Sanetomo, who officially succeeded Genji's reign.

At that time, the 12-year-old Minamoto no Sanetomo had no ability to control politics, so Tokimasa Hojo, who was in power, controlled politics in the shogunate and monopolized the actual power.

In addition, Tokimasa said that while Minamoto no Sanetomo was following the shogun, his second wife, Maki , ] And the son-in-law of the eldest daughter [ Asama Hiraga ] Will be planned for the next shogun. Hojo Masako, who heard this plan, expelled Tokimasa and Maki to Izunokuni along with her younger brother Yoshitoki.

After that, Hojo Yoshitoki Will wield power as the second-generation authority.

In this way, Masako Hojo, who punished her real son and father one after another, is often thought of as a very ruthless woman, but the desire to survive the Kamakura Shogunate created by her beloved Minamoto no Yoritomo made this decision. It can be said that it was.

But 1219 At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo is the second son of Minamoto no Yoriie, Kugyo . An assassination will occur, and Genji's torrent will be cut off.

Hojo Masako, who lost her real son in a sudden assassination, is struggling to find a person who will become the next shogun soon after sadness.

And I was related to Genji [ Kujo Yoritsune ] Was invited from Kyoto to become the 4th Shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate. However, Yoritsune was still a baby, so Masako Hojo became the guardian, and the politics of the shogunate took control with the second generation of authority and Yoshitoki.

At this time, he had already left home and became a nun, so [ Shogun ] Will be called.

Hojo Masako's famous speech in the Jokyu War

The imperial court, including the Emperor, who had been deprived of power from the Kamakura Shogunate, was eagerly looking for an opportunity to regain power. Originally, Genji was a family that followed the flow of the Emperor's family, but the relationship between Genji and the Emperor's family was lost due to the loss of Genji's blood due to the assassination in the morning.

After seeing the real morning incident as an opportunity, Emperor Go-Toba 1221 In (3rd year of Jōkyu), he ordered the lords who served the Kamakura Shogunate to avenge the Shogunate. As a result, Jokyu War Outbreak.

Even though it was established by the samurai government, the Kamakura Shogunate, the emperor was an absolute existence. The gokenins who received the order to subdue the shogunate from their existence were worried about which side they would be on, the imperial court side or the shogunate side, and were in a state of being pinched.

Knowing the suffering of the Gokenins, Masako Hojo gives a speech to inspire them.

[ This is my last word ] And the content of Hojo Masako's speech that started with the introduction is ...

What the Gokenins were concerned about was that they were attached to the shogunate side [ morning enemy . ] Was not treated. Therefore, Masako emphasized that it was not Emperor Go-Toba who was bad, but the person who tempted the emeritus behind the scenes, and even if he was on the side of the shogunate, he would not be an enemy in the morning.

According to Azuma Kagami, all the gokenins who heard this speech shed tears and none of them attended the imperial court.

In Japan at that time, many men did not listen to women.

In such common sense, it is thought that the reason why the Gokenins were moved by Masako's speech was that they showed the Gokenins their efforts as a nun for the survival of the Kamakura Shogunate after the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo. .. This famous speech will continue to posterity [ Quotations ], The unity of the Shogunate army will increase, and the Shogunate army will win the turbulence of Jōkyu.

With the power of Masako Hojo, who was able to accurately grasp the hearts of the Gokenins like Minamoto no Yoritomo, the Kamakura Shogunate's samurai government continued for a long time.

The death of Masako Hojo and the subsequent Kamakura Shogunate

According to Azuma Kagami, Masako Hojo is May 1225 . It is reported that he was ill. He had signs of recovery at one point, but he got worse again and became a man who never returned a month later.

The day after Masako's death was announced, many gokenins such as the Kamakura Shogunate's mandokoro deacon, Yukimori Nikaido, and others are mourning.

As a regular room of Minamoto no Yoritomo, he devoted his life as a nun after the death of Yoritomo and laid the foundation of the Kamakura Shogunate.

After the death of Masako Hojo, his nephew Yasutoki Hojo took office as the third generation of authority, changing the dictatorship that had been dictatorship until then, and [ Hyōjōshū . ] Is set up and a collegial system [ politics of authority ] Will be established.

The name of Hojo Masako was given after his death! ??

Hojo Masako is one of the most famous female politicians in the history of Japan, but there was a common wisdom that her real name would not be made public, so this was also the case with Hojo Masako.

In other words, Masako is not her real name, and when she was 62 years old, she was third rank from the imperial court. ], She had to keep a record of her, so she hurriedly [ Masako Hojo . ] Was given the name.

Until now, Masako has been Minamoto no Yoritomo's [ Midaidokoro . ] Was called.

After Yoritomo's death [ Nun Odai ], Which literally meant the wife of a noble man who had left home.

After that, she took control of the shogunate and became known as a nun, and when Masako was named, Minamoto no Yoritomo, Yoriie, and Hojo Tokimasa had already died. So her name, Masako, may not have been known to her father or her husband.

Actually, for convenience, it is said that the imperial court just wrote [Masako] because it is the daughter of Hojo Tokimasa according to the custom. From that, she is not aware of [Masako] herself, and her fact is that there is no [Masako] signature on her lifelong letters.

The name Hojo Masako appeared in books during the Edo period and seems to have become established since then. It seems that it was used as [Masako] and [Masako Hira] in the textbooks of the Meiji and Taisho eras, but it was not mentioned as [Masako Hojo].

It is said that Masako Hojo was believed to be her real name in the Showa era when Japanese dictionaries wrote it as Masako Hojo. It seems that Hojo Masako was a dictionary term.

We use [Hojo Masako] without any doubt, but it is only used for convenience, and her real name may become clear when we unravel the history.