The siege of Hōjūjidono (法住寺合戦, ''Hōjūji kassen'') was a siege that took place in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, Japan in 1184. It was part of the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yoritomo, who appointed himself ...

and a key element of the conflict between

Minamoto no Yoshinaka , , or Lord Kiso was a general from the late Heian period of Japanese history. A member of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his cousin and rival during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and the Taira clans. Yoshinaka was born in Musas ...

and his cousins

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 hi ...

and Yoshitsune for control 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 the ...

Overview

During the

(1180–1185), the retired and cloistered Emperor

Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''ins ...

supported the Minamoto clan, but got caught up in the internal power struggles.Jacques, Tony. ''Dictionary of Battles and Sieges''. Greenwood Press. p. 453. . For some time, Yoshinaka had desired to seize control of the clan from his cousins. Upon returning to

from his victories at Shinohara and Kurikara, he decided to split from the clan, plotting with

Minamoto no Yukiie was the brother of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, and one of the commanders of the Minamoto forces in the Genpei War at the end of the Heian period of Japanese history. In 1181, he was defeated at the Battle of Sunomatagawa by Taira no Shigehira. After ...

to kidnap

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''ins ...

, and establish a government of their own, in the provinces north of

. But Yukiie did not, in the end, aid Yoshinaka in this scheme. Yoshinaka attacked the Hōjūjidono (also known as the Hōjūji Palace), set it aflame, killed the defenders, and seized Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Yoshinaka brutally attacked the emperor's troops in addition to gaining control over Shirakawa's Imperial Prison. He was opposed by a number of court nobles and warrior monks from

Mount Hiei is a mountain to the northeast of Kyoto, lying on the border between the Kyoto and Shiga Prefectures, Japan. The temple of Enryaku-ji, the first outpost of the Japanese Tendai (Chin. Tiantai) sect of Buddhism, was founded atop Mount Hiei by S ...

and

Miidera , formally called , is a Buddhist temple in Japan located at the foot of Mount Hiei, in the city of Ōtsu in Shiga Prefecture. It is a short distance from both Kyoto, and Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake. The head temple of the Jimon sect ...

, but ultimately made it out of the city victorious, with the cloistered emperor as hostage. However, at this point, the

Minamoto 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 ...

armies, under Yukiie,

, Yoshitsune, and Noriyori were surrounding the capital. Yoshinaka fled across the Bridge of

Uji is a city on the southern outskirts of the city of Kyoto, in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. Founded on March 1, 1951, Uji is between the two ancient capitals of Nara and Kyoto. The city sits on the Uji River, which has its source in Lake Biwa. ...

, where he fought the second Battle of Uji.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siege of Hojujidono 1180s in Japan 1184 in Asia Hojujiden 1184 Hojujiden 1184 Conflicts in 1184 Japanese imperial history