Itō Sukechika (伊東祐親, died March 20, 1182) was a Japanese

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

lord and ''

gōzoku , in Japanese, refers to powerful regional families. In historical context, it can refer to powerful non-royal families regardless of their area of influence, in contrast to the Imperial Family. The most powerful ''gōzoku'' families of the Yam ...

'' of the

Izu Province was a province of Japan in the area now part of Shizuoka Prefecture and Tokyo. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Izu''" in . Izu bordered on Sagami and Suruga Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . The mainland portion of Izu Prov ...

in the late

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 Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

. He was the 6th head of the Kudō clan and the founder of the Kawazu clan. He is also known as Kawazu Sukechika.

Life

Itō Jirō was born in

as the second son of

Itō Sukeie Itō Sukeie (伊東祐家) was a Japanese samurai of the Heian period. He was the father of Itō Sukechika, and the great-grandfather of Soga Tokimune and Soga Sukenari, Sukenari, known for the Revenge of the Soga Brothers incident. Life He wa ...

. His grandfather was Kudō Suketaka, the founder of the Itō clan. He fought against his nephew (also said to be his cousin) Kudō Suketsune over the division of the territory of his family estate, Itō Manor. The manor was ultimately inherited by Suketsune, but Sukechika took over the manor while Suketsune was in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Sukechika also made his daughter, Mangō Gozen, who was married to Suketsune, divorce him. Suketsune was deeply angered over these events and ordered the assassination of Sukechika. In October 1176, a group of thugs attacked Sukechika, who was hunting in Okuno, Izu Province with his son Kawazu Sukeyasu. The arrow shot at Sukechika missed, and hit Sukeyasu instead, killing him. Sukeyasu's two sons, Tokimune and Sukenari later killed Suketsune in 1193, which came to be known as the

Revenge of the Soga Brothers The Revenge of the Soga Brothers (曾我兄弟の仇討ち, ''Soga kyōdai no adauchi'') was a vengeance incident on 28 June 1193, during the Fuji no Makigari hunting event arranged by shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo. The Soga brothers, Soga Sukenari ...

. Sukechika later served the

Taira clan The was one of the four most important Japanese clans, clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian period, Heian period of History of Japan, Japanese history – the others being the Minamoto clan, Minamoto, the Fujiwara clan, Fuji ...

, and governed the Kawazu Manor in Izu Province. He took the name Kawazu from the Kawazu Manor he lived in, thus establishing the Kawazu clan. Sukechika attempted to kill

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

, who was exiled to Izu Province, over an alleged relationship between Yoritomo and Sukechika's daughter. In 1180, Sukechika surrounded Yoritomo at Ishibashiyama, and succeeded in

rout A rout is a Panic, panicked, disorderly and Military discipline, undisciplined withdrawal (military), retreat of troops from a battlefield, following a collapse in a given unit's discipline, command authority, unit cohesion and combat morale ...

ing Yoritomo's force. However, during the Battle of Fujigawa, Sukechika was caught by the

Minamoto clan was a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...

, and his captivity was entrusted to his son-in-law, Miura Yoshizumi. Thanks to Yoshizumi's relentless efforts, Sukechika was pardoned, but committed suicide by the sword from his own shame on March 20, 1182.

Genealogy

The Itō clan were a ''

'' clan that claimed descent from the

Fujiwara clan The 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 ancient times and dominated the imperial court until th ...

, a powerful family of Japanese

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

s and court nobility, through

Fujiwara no Korekimi was a Japanese aristocrat and statesman of the Nara period. He reached the court rank of Junior Second Rank and the position of Minister of the Right (''udaijin)'', and was posthumously promoted to Junior First Rank. He was also called . Li ...

(727–789). Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)
, p. 17 "Itō" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 17 [PDF 21 of 80
/nowiki>">DF 21 of 80">"Itō" at ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 17 [PDF 21 of 80
/nowiki> retrieved 2013-4-30. The two grandsons of Sukechika, Tokimune and Sukenari, known as the Soga brothers, are known for the

incident of 1193. In the early modern period, the Itō clan were the lords of Obi Domain in Hyūga Province.

Family

* Father:

* Siblings: ** Brother: Itō Suketsugu * Wife: Unknown ** Son: Kawazu Sukeyasu ** Son: Kawazu Sukekiyo ** Daughter: Miura Yoshizumi's wife ** Daughter: Mangō Gozen ( Kudō Suketsune's first wife, Dohi Tōhira's wife) ** Daughter: Yaehime

In popular culture

TV series

* ''

Kusa Moeru is a 1979 Japanese television series. It is the 17th NHK taiga drama. It is also the first Taiga drama to standardize the use of modern language in dialogue starting with this one onward. On the other hand, characters did not use first names to ...

'' (1979) NHK Taiga Drama, Akira Kume as Itō Sukechika * ''

Taira no Kiyomori was a military leader and '' kugyō'' of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan. Early life Kiyomori was born in Japan, in 1118 as the first son of Taira ...

'' (2012) NHK Taiga Drama, Ryūta Mine as Itō Sukechika * ''

The 13 Lords of the Shogun is a Japanese historical drama television series starring Shun Oguri as Hōjō Yoshitoki. The series is the 61st NHK taiga drama. Cast Starring role *Shun Oguri as Hōjō Yoshitoki. Kōki Mitani pointed out some similarities between him and Mi ...

'' (2022) NHK Taiga Drama, Kazuyuki Asano as Itō Sukechika

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ito, Sukechika People of the Heian period 12th-century Japanese people 1182 deaths Year of birth unknown