, also known as or , was the second son of the second Kamakura shogun

Kamakura shogunate

The Kamakura shogunate was a military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura. The Kamakura period draws its name from the capital of the shogunate...

 of Japan, Minamoto no Yoriie

Minamoto no Yoriie

was the second shogun of Japan's Kamakura shogunate, and the first son of first shogun Yoritomo.- Life :Born from Tokimasa's daughter Hōjō Masako at Hiki Yoshikazu's residence in Kamakura, Yoriie had as wet nurses the wives of powerful men like Hiki himself and Kajiwara Kagetoki, and Hiki's...

. At the age of six, after his father was killed in Shuzenji in Izu, he became his uncle Sanetomo

Minamoto no Sanetomo

Minamoto no Sanetomo was the third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate Sanetomo was the second son of the founder of the Kamakura shogunate Minamoto no Yoritomo, his mother was Hōjō Masako, and his older brother was the second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie.His childhood name was...

's adopted son and, thanks to his grandmother Hōjō Masako

Hojo Masako

was the eldest child of Hōjō Tokimasa by his wife Hōjō no Maki, the first shikken, or regent, of the Kamakura shogunate. She was the sister of Hōjō Yoshitoki, and was married to Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shogun of the Kamakura period...

's intercession, a disciple of Songyō, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's bettō

Betto

is a term which originally indicated the head of an institution serving temporarily as the head of another one, but which came to mean also the full-time head of some institution...

 (head priest). After his tonsure

Tonsure

Tonsure is the traditional practice of Christian churches of cutting or shaving the hair from the scalp of clerics, monastics, and, in the Eastern Orthodox Church, all baptized members...

 he was given the Buddhist name "Kugyō" replacing his childhood name Yoshinari. He then went to Kyōto to take his vows, coming back at age 18 to become Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's new bettō, the shrine's fourth. In 1219 he murdered his uncle Sanetomo on the stone stairs at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in the shogunal capital of Kamakura, an act for which he was himself slain on the same day.

Assassination

The assassination is chronicled in the Azuma Kagami

Azuma Kagami

The , or "mirror of the east", is a Japanese medieval text that chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō and his return to Kyoto in 1266...

 and in the Gukanshō

Gukansho

is a historical and literary work about the history of Japan. Seven volumes in length, it was composed by Buddhist priest Jien of the Tendai sect c. 1220....

. What follows is the Azuma Kagamis version of events.

At about six in the evening of February 12, 1219 (Jōkyū

Jokyu

, also called Shōkyū, was a Japanese era name after Kempō and before Jōō. This period spanned the years from April 1219 through April 1222...

 1, 26th day of the 1st month), on Buddhist New Year, shogun Sanetomo had just finished the Ceremony of Celebration for his nomination to Udaijin

Udaijin

Udaijin , most commonly translated as the "Minister of the Right", was a government position in Japan in the late Nara and Heian periods. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 702. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the Udaijin in the context of a central...

. It had been snowing the whole day and there were more than 60 cm of snow on the ground. The shogun left the shrine's gate and started descending the stone stairs accompanied only by the sword bearer, a man called Nakaakira. Hōjō Yoshitoki, son of Regent

Shikken

The was the regent for the shogun in the Kamakura shogunate in Japan. The post was monopolized by the Hōjō clan, and this system only existed once in Japanese history, between 1203 and 1333...

 Hōjō Tokimasa

Hojo Tokimasa

was the first Hōjō shikken of the Kamakura bakufu and head of the Hōjō clan. He was shikken from the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo in 1199 until his abdication in 1205.- Background: The Hōjō Clan :...

 and a future Regent himself, should have been the sword-bearer, but had gone back to his mansion in Komachi

Komachi (Kanagawa)

is a locality in Kamakura, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, defined as the part of town north of the Ebisubashi bridge on the Namerigawa. The part of town south of the same bridge is called .- References :...

 early because he wasn't feeling well. Unexpectedly Kugyō the bettō came up from near the stone stairs, yelled and struck him with a sword, cutting his head off. The assassin then killed Nakaakira the swordbearer, and according to the Gukanshō he did this thinking he was Hōjō Yoshitoki, as he should have been.

Sources do not always agree. Kugyō is for example described as wearing either a woman's clothes (in the Azuma Kagami) or his betto's uniform. It is often said that he was hiding behind the great ginkgo tree, but the Azuma Kagami simply says he came . The detail of the ginkgo first appears in the Shinpen Kamakurashi

Shinpen Kamakurashi

The is an Edo period compendium of topographic, geographic and demographic data concerning the city of Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and its vicinities. Consisting of eight volumes and commissioned in 1685 by Tokugawa Mitsukuni to three vassals, it contains for example information about...

 and is therefore an Edo period invention.

Kugyō's death

Having killed his uncle, Kugyō took his head, left the shrine and, without going back to his official residence, went to hide temporarily at the home of its guardian in Yukinoshita. From there he sent a messenger to Miura Yoshimura

Miura clan

The ' was one of the branch families descended from the Taira clan. They held large fiefs, and great political influence. They were one of the primary opponents of the Hōjō family of regents, in the mid-13th century, and again at the beginning of the 16th...

's home in Nishi Mikado

Nishi Mikado

is the name of a neighborhood in Kamakura, a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km south-south-west of Tokyo. Nishi Mikado lies north-east of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū.- Etymology of the name:...

, explaining that he was now the new shogun and wanted to talk to him as soon as possible about what was to be done. Yoshimura and his family had an extremely close relationship with Kugyō, whose milk-mother had been a Miura

Miura clan

The ' was one of the branch families descended from the Taira clan. They held large fiefs, and great political influence. They were one of the primary opponents of the Hōjō family of regents, in the mid-13th century, and again at the beginning of the 16th...

. To buy time, Yoshimura sent back a message in which he asked Kugyō to stay where he was because he would send some soldiers to pick him up. While Kugyō waited, knowing Yoshitoki was alive Yoshimura sent a messenger to Yoshitoki's residence in Komachi. Yoshitoki immediately sent back the order to execute the assassin. Yoshimura gathered the family council to decide how to do that. Nagao Sadakage, a samurai known for his strength and reliability, was then entrusted with the task. Left with a group of five men, on the way Sadakage met Kugyō himself who, unable to contain himself and wait for Yoshimura's escort, had left his refuge and was already in Nishi Mikado on his way to Yoshimura's mansion. While one of the five men engaged him, Nagao Sadakage beheaded him. His head was then brought to the Regent's residence in Komachi for identification.

Debate about Kugyōs motives

According to the traditional interpretation of events, Kugyō's act had been instigated by Yoshitoki and the Hōjō, who wanted to get rid at one stroke of the last two male members of the Seiwa Genji

Seiwa Genji

The ' were the most successful and powerful of the many branch families of the Japanese Minamoto clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto warriors, including Minamoto Yoshiie, also known as "Hachimantaro", or God of War, and Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate, were descended...

 line. Historians however now see the theory as unsupported by facts and probably untrue. Beyond the fact that the assassination undoubtedly ended up serving Yoshitoki's interests, it's unclear why Kugyō would have willingly helped the Hōjō family, who was responsible not only for his father's death, but also for that of his brother Ichiman

Minamoto no Ichiman

was the eldest son of second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His mother Wakasa no Tsubone was Hiki Yoshikazu's daughter, and the child was brought up by the Hiki clan...

 and of the entire Hiki clan

Hiki Yoshikazu

was a Japanese warrior-noble of the Kamakura period related to the ruling Minamoto clan through his daughter's marriage. He, and much of the Hiki clan, were killed for allegedly conspiring to have one of the Minamoto heirs killed, in order to gain power himself....

. The killing of Nakaakira the sword-bearer makes it likely that Kugyō meant to kill Yoshitoki too. His relationship with Yoshimura was extremely close (Yoshimura's wife had been Kugyō's wet nurse), and it seems more plausible that the two had planned together the assassination of both Sanetomo and Yoshitoki to get rid of the Hōjō and of their puppet Sanetomo to assume power. Sanetomo's wet nurse had been Masako's younger sister, making the shogun emotionally close to the Hōjō, and this failed coup d'état was probably just an episode in the ongoing war between Hōjō and Miura, which continued until the Miura's defeat in 1247. Realized that Yoshitoki had avoided death out of sheer luck and that their plan was doomed, Yoshimura could very well have decided that he had to betray Kugyō to save himself and his family.