was the eldest son of the 2nd Kamakura shōgun

Minamoto no Yoriie was the second ''shōgun'' (1202–1203) of Japan's Kamakura shogunate, and the first son of first shōgun Yoritomo. His Dharma name was Hokke-in-dono Kingo Da'i Zengo (法華院殿金吾大禅閤). Life Minamoto no Yoriie was born to Hōjō M ...

.Kamakura Citizen's Net His mother, Wakasa no Tsubone, was

Hiki Yoshikazu was a Japanese samurai lord and a powerful ''gokenin'' of the Kamakura Shogunate during the Kamakura period. He was related to the ruling Minamoto clan through his daughter's marriage. He, and much of the Hiki clan, were killed for allegedly cons ...

's daughter, and the child was brought up by the

Hiki clan The Hiki clan (比企氏, ''Hiki-shi'') was a Japanese samurai family descending from the Fujiwara clan. As close retainers of shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, they served the Kamakura shogunate during the early Kamakura period, wielding considerable ...

. A year after he was born, his grandfather,

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...

, died. The child was murdered at the age of 6. His father would later be murdered a year later.

Life

When in 1203 Yoriie became seriously ill, the

Hōjō clan The was a Japanese samurai family who controlled the hereditary title of ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate between 1203 and 1333. Despite the title, in practice the family wielded actual political power in Japan during this period ...

supported his brother Senman (future third shōgun

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

) as a future successor, while the Hiki supported son Ichiman.According to Japanese Wikipedia's "源一幡" (Minamoto no Ichiman) article (see interwiki link below), the

Gukanshō 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 . Political problems arising from the relations between the Imperial government and the ''bakufu ...

and the

Azuma Kagami is a Japanese historical chronicle. The medieval text chronicles events of the Kamakura Shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's rebellion against the Taira clan in Izokuni of 1180 to Munetaka Shinnō (the 6th shōgun) and his return to Kyoto in 12 ...

disagree on the reasons for the clash between clans. This article describes the Gukanshō's version of events. According to the Azuma Kagami, Yoriie wanted to split the shogunate between his brother and his son, then Hiki proposed him the murder of Sanetomo, but the conversation was overheard by Hōjō Masako. This is also the version of events described in the article

.
According to the same Japanese Wikipedia article, the Azuma Kagami claims Ichiman was killed by the Hiki, and not by the Hōjō. To avoid power falling into the hands of the Hiki clan, the Hōjō decided to get rid of the Hiki clan and their protégé. On a pretext,

Hōjō Tokimasa was a Japanese samurai lord who was the first ''shikken'' (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate and head of the Hōjō clan. He was ''shikken'' from 1203 until his abdication in 1205, and Protector of Kyoto from 1185 to 1186. Background The Hōj ...

invited Hiki Yoshikazu to his home and assassinated him. A battle between the clans ensued; the Hiki were defeated by a coalition of the Hōjō, Wada, Miura and

Hatakeyama clan The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in battle ...

s and exterminated. Six-year-old Ichiman also died during the fight. The Hiki residence was destroyed by fire and in its place in the Hikigayatsu valley now lies the Buddhist temple of Myōhon-ji. In its cemetery still stands Ichiman's grave, next to the Hiki clan's

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

. Ichiman's younger brother

Kugyō is the collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre- Meiji eras. The term generally referred to the and court officials and denoted a court rank between First Rank and Third Rank un ...

was forced to become a Buddhist priest, and in 1219, he assassinated his uncle,

was himself immediately executed for his crime, thus bringing 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 ...

to a sudden end.

Notes

References

Ōmachi
by the Kamakura Citizen's Net, accessed on September 30, 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Minamoto no, Ichiman Minamoto clan 1203 deaths 1197 births People of Kamakura-period Japan