(died 28 August 1057) was the head of the

Abe clan The was one of the oldest of the major Japanese clans (''uji''); and the clan retained its prominence during the Sengoku period and the Edo period.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit." Universität Tübingen (in German). The ...

Emishi The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...

who were allowed to rule the six Emishi districts ( Iwate, Hienuki, Shiwa, Isawa, Esashi and

Waga Waga ( si, වග, ta, வாகா) is an area or a cluster of villages in Colombo District, Sri Lanka. Administrated by Seethawaka Pradeshiya Sabha (Divisional Council). It is within the Seethawaka Divisional Secretariat Division. Waga is said ...

) in the from

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . ...

Hiraizumi is a town located in Nishiiwai District, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 7,408 and a population density of in 2,616 households. The total area of the town was . It is noted for the Historic Monuments and Sit ...

in what is now

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectur ...

Background

The clan emerged from the Appi River basin in what is now Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture, early in the 9th century. They provided a number of generals and governors throughout the 9th and 10th centuries. By monopolizing the gold, iron and horse trade in northern Honshū the family became enormously wealthy. They were also innovative in designing a new type of stockade which could withstand a long siege. The 9th and 10th centuries saw a weakening of central power as a new land management system of tax-immune estates, or ''shoen'', took hold.

Campaign

Yoritoki and the Abes came into conflict with the

Minamoto clan was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was most prevalent during the ...

as it began to expand north into Abe territory. The Abe clan began to raid territories south of their border. In 1051 Yoritoki led an army of Emishi into northern Miyagi and defeated a government army at Onikiribe that had been sent to stop the raids. This event triggered the Former Nine Years' War (

Zenkunen War The , also known in English as the Former Nine Years' War or the Early Nine Years' War, was fought between the Imperial Court and the Abe clan in Mutsu Province, in Northeast Japan, from 1051 to 1063. It resulted in Imperial Court victory and t ...

Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was a Japanese samurai lord who was the head of the Minamoto clan and served as '' Chinjufu-shōgun''. Along with his son Minamoto no Yoshiie, he led the Imperial forces against rebellious forces in the north, a campaign called the Zenkunen War, ...

was then deputized as the new '' Chinjufu Shogun'' and sent to chastise Yoritoki in 1053. In 1056 Yoritoki's eldest son, Sadato, began skirmishing with the Minamotos. War erupted in 1057 and Yoritoki was killed in battle by a stray arrow.Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982). Lessons from History: the Tokushi Yoron, p. 120. Yoritoki's sons continued fighting for a time but were finally overwhelmed by combined Minamoto and Kiyowara armies in 1062.

Legacy

Yoritoki was the father of - *

Abe no Sadato was a samurai during the Heian period of Japan. In the Zenkunen War, Sadato fought alongside his father against the Minamoto. Life Sadatō was born in 1019, to the Abe clan, as the son of Abe no Yoritoki, the '' chinjufu-shōgun'' (general ...

(1019–1062) who occupied the Kuriyagawa Stockade; *

Abe no Munetō was a samurai of the Abe clan during the Heian period of Japan. He was the son of Abe no Yoritoki, the head of the Abe clan of Emishi who were allowed to rule the six Emishi districts in the from Morioka to Hiraizumi in what is now Iwate ...

(1032–1108) who was based at the Isawa Stockade; *

Abe no Masato Abe or ABE may refer to: People and fictional characters * Shinzo Abe (1954–2022), former Prime Minister of Japan * Abe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Abe (surname), a list of people and ...

who occupied the Kurosawa Stockade; *

Abe no Norito Abe or ABE may refer to: People and fictional characters * Shinzo Abe (1954–2022), former Prime Minister of Japan * Abe (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Abe (surname), a list of people and ...

who stayed at the Koromo Stockade with his father; * a daughter who married Taira no Nagahira; * a daughter who married Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo. Through this daughter Yoritoki became the grandfather of

Fujiwara no Kiyohira was a samurai of mixed Japanese-Emishi parentage of the late Heian period (794–1185), who was the founder of the Hiraizumi or Northern Fujiwara dynasty that ruled Northern Japan from about 1100 to 1189. Biography Kiyohira was the son of Fuji ...

, the founder of the

Northern Fujiwara The Northern Fujiwara (奥州藤原氏 ''Ōshū Fujiwara-shi'') were a Japanese noble family that ruled the Tōhoku region (the northeast of Honshū) of Japan during the 12th century as their own realm.

dynasty. Yoritoki is also one of the distant forefathers of

Shinzō Abe Shinzo Abe ( ; ja, 安倍晋三, Hepburn: , ; 21 September 1954 – 8 July 2022) was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 20 ...

, the prime minister of Japan, through Munetō.

Notes

References

* Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron.'' Brisbane:

University of Queensland Press Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house. Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...

.
OCLC 7574544
* Sansom, George Bailey. (1958)
''A History of Japan to 1334.''
Stanford: Stanford University Press. ; {{DEFAULTSORT:Abe no, Yoritoki People from Iwate Prefecture 1057 deaths Samurai Japanese warriors killed in battle People of Heian-period Japan 1011 births