was a

samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...

of the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese. ...

(794 – 1185) in the service of

Minamoto no Yorimitsu , also known as Minamoto no Raikō, served the regents of the Fujiwara clan along with his brother Yorinobu, taking the violent measures the Fujiwara were themselves unable to take. He is one of the earliest Minamoto of historical note for his mil ...

(948 – 1021), a regent of the

Fujiwara clan was a powerful family of imperial regents in Japan, descending from the Nakatomi clan and, as legend held, through them their ancestral god Ame-no-Koyane. The Fujiwara prospered since the ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

. Suetake was formally known as , and also appears in literature as and . Suetake assisted Yorimitsu throughout his life, being referred to as one of '' Shitennō'', or "Four Guardian Kings" of Yorimitsu. Suetake originated from the House of Seiryū (Blue Dragon). In addition to Suetake, the other ''Shitennō'' of Yorimitsu were

Usui Sadamitsu was a warrior of the mid-Heian period. His official name was . According to Otogizōshi stories compiled several centuries later, Sadamitsu was a retainer of the Japanese legendary hero Minamoto no Raikō. Sadamitsu is known as one of The Fou ...

Kintarō is a folk hero from Japanese folklore. A child of superhuman strength, he was raised by a yama-uba ("mountain witch") on Mount Ashigara. He became friendly with the animals of the mountain, and later, after catching Shuten-dōji, the terror of t ...

, and

Watanabe no Tsuna (953–1025) was a Japanese samurai, a companion in arms of Minamoto no Yorimitsu (also known as Raikō), one of the earliest samurai to be famed for his military exploits in a number of tales and legends. Watanabe no Tsuna was the first pers ...

. Suetake is the subject of a tale in the

Konjaku Monogatarishū , also known as the , is a Japanese collection of over one thousand tales written during the late Heian period (794–1185). The entire collection was originally contained in 31 volumes, of which 28 remain today. The volumes cover various tales fr ...

, a collection of folk legends compiled in the late Heian period. The Japanese tale in which Suetake appears is known as Ōeyama. He died in 1022 at the age of 73.

References

Samurai {{Samurai-stub