was the third ''

shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...

'' of the

Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no ...

. He was the second son of the

founder,

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 ...

. His mother was Hōjō Masako and his older brother was second Kamakura shogun Minamoto no Yoriie. His childhood name was . He was the last head of 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 th ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. His

Dharma name A Dharma name or Dhamma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The nam ...

was . He was an accomplished '' waka'' poet.

Early life

After the death of Yoritomo in 1199, Sanetomo's grandfather

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 H� ...

usurped the political and military power of the Shogunate, relegating the position and title of '' Sei-i Taishōgun'', or ''shōgun'', to a figurehead. Through hereditary succession, Sanetomo's older brother Yoriie became ''Sei-i Taishōgun'' in 1202, only to be stripped of the title a year later and put under house arrest for plotting against 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 ...

. This was presumably to keep the ''shōgun'' a child and thus needing a regent (''shikken'') to make decisions in his place. Shortly thereafter in 1203, Sanetomo became head of the Minamoto clan and was appointed ''Sei-i Taishōgun''. A year later, Yoriie was assassinated by the Hōjō. Sanetomo was never more than a puppet for his mother Hōjō Masako, who used him as a pawn in her war with her father Tokimasa; Tokimasa tried to depose his grandson a number of times, beginning in 1205, causing Sanetomo to fear for his life thereafter.

''Waka'' poet

Sanetomo, understanding his own powerlessness and not wanting to meet the same fate as his brother, put his time and energy into writing

waka poetry is a type of poetry in classical Japanese literature. Although ''waka'' in modern Japanese is written as , in the past it was also written as (see Wa, an old name for Japan), and a variant name is . Etymology The word ''waka'' has two differ ...

and gaining posts within the powerless but honorary imperial court. Sanetomo was a talented poet, writing over 700 poems between the age 17 and 22 while he was tutored by

Fujiwara no Teika , better-known as Fujiwara no Teika"Sadaie" and "Teika" are both possible readings of ; "...there is the further problem, the rendition of the name in romanized form. Teika probably referred to himself as Sadaie, and his father probably called ...

. He published his private waka collection ''Kinkai Wakashū'', even having one of his

tanka is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and one of the major genres of Japanese literature. Etymology Originally, in the time of the '' Man'yōshū'' (latter half of the eighth century AD), the term ''tanka'' was used to distinguish "short ...

included in the anthology ''Ogura

Hyakunin Isshu is a classical Japanese anthology of one hundred Japanese ''waka'' by one hundred poets. ''Hyakunin isshu'' can be translated to "one hundred people, one poem ach; it can also refer to the card game of ''uta-garuta'', which uses a deck compos ...

'' ("100 Poems by 100 Poets"), a collection of Japanese poems of the

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto * Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms) * ...

and early Kamakura periods. Sanetomo reached the third highest post of the imperial court, ''

Udaijin 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 administ ...

'' (Minister of the Right or "vice-premier") in 1218.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Sanetomo" in Eventually, Sanetomo lapsed into inactivity and despair, plagued by fear of assassination and tormented by his chronic

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

(an addiction which Priest

Eisai was a Japanese Buddhist priest, credited with founding the Rinzai school, the Japanese line of the Linji school of Zen Buddhism. In 1191, he introduced this Zen approach to Japan, following his trip to China from 1187 to 1191, during which he w ...

once tried to break by replacing alcohol with tea).

Death

Under heavy snow on the evening of February 13, 1219 (''

Jōkyū , also called Shōkyū, was a Japanese era name (年号, ''nengō'', lit. year name) after '' Kempō'' and before '' Jōō.'' This period spanned the years from April 1219 through April 1222.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Jōkyū''" i '' ...

1, 27th day of the 1st month''), Sanetomo was coming down from the Senior Shrine at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū after participating in a ceremony celebrating his nomination to

. His nephew,

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 ...

, came out from beside the stone stairway of the shrine and assassinated him.Azuma Kagami; Mutsu (1995/06: 102-104) For his act, he was himself beheaded a few hours later, thus bringing the

Seiwa Genji The is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa, which is the most successful and powerful line of the clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto warriors, including Minamoto no Yoshiie, Minamoto no Yoritomo, the f ...

line of the Minamoto clan and their rule in Kamakura to a sudden end. Minamoto no Sanetomo was succeeded by Kujō Yoritsune as fourth ''shōgun'' of the Kamakura shogunate.

Family

* Father:

* Mother: Hōjō Masako

Eras of Sanetomo's ''bakufu''

The years in which Sanetomo was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of ...

or ''

nengō The , also known as , is the first of the two elements that identify years in the Japanese era calendar scheme. The second element is a number which indicates the year number within the era (with the first year being ""), followed by the literal ...

''. * '' Kennin'' (1201–1204) * '' Genkyū'' (1204–1206) * ''

Ken'ei was a after ''Genkyū'' and before '' Jōgen.'' This period spanned the years from April 1206 through October 1207. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1206 : The new era name was created to mark an event or a number of events. The prev ...

'' (1206–1207) * '' Jōgen (Kamakura period)'' (1207–1211) * ''

Kenryaku was a after '' Jōgen'' and before '' Kempo.'' This period spanned the years from March 1211 through December 1213. The reigning emperor was . Change of era * 1211 : The new era name was created because the previous era ended and a new one co ...

'' (1211–1213) * ''

Kenpō is the name of several arts. The word kenpō is a Japanese translation of the Chinese word "''quánfǎ''". This term is often informally transliterated as "kempo", as a result of applying Traditional Hepburn romanization, but failing to use ...

'' (1213–1219) * ''

'' (1219–1222)

Notes

References

''Azuma Kagami''
accessed on September 4, 2008

* * * * * * Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1962). ''Sovereign and Subject''. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. * *

External links

New York Public Library Digital Gallery, an early photograph of Shrine steps where Sanetomo was killed.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minamoto no, Sanetomo 1192 births 1219 deaths 12th-century Japanese people 13th-century Japanese poets 13th-century shōguns Kamakura shōguns Minamoto clan People of Kamakura-period Japan Assassinated Japanese people Hyakunin Isshu poets 13th-century Japanese calligraphers Deified Japanese people