Kudō Suketaka (工藤祐隆) was a Japanese

feudal lord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or s ...

who was the lord of Kusumi Manor in

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 ...

and the 6th head of the

Kudō clan Kudo or KUDO may refer to: * KOAN (AM), a radio station (1080 AM) in Anchorage, Alaska, United States, which held the call sign KUDO from 2002 to 2013 * Kūdō, a martial art and a combat sport, also called daido juku People Kudō (工藤; Kudo ...

. He founded the

Itō clan The are a Japanese clan of ''gōzoku'' that claimed descent from the Fujiwara clan through Fujiwara Korekimi (727–789) and Kudō Ietsugu. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papi ...

and is an ancestor to the Kanō clan and the Kawazu clan. He was also known as Itō Ietsugu. Suketaka's division of his territory between his son and his grandson would lead to a chain of revenge, 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 ...

incident being the most well-known.

Life

Suketaka gave the Kudō clan's ancestral home, the Kanō Manor (upstream of the

Kano River The is an A class river in Shizuoka Prefecture of central Japan. It is long and has a watershed of . The Kano River originates from Mount Amagi in central Izu Peninsula and follows a generally northern path into Suruga Bay at Numazu is a ci ...

) in Izu Province, to his fourth son, Kudō Shigemitsu. Here, Shigemitsu would later establish the Kanō clan. Suketaka himself would move to the Kusumi Manor to the east from the Kanō Manor and establish the Itō clan. The Kusumi Manor was made up from four smaller manors, the Itō Manor, Usami Manor, Ōmi Manor and the Kawazu Manor, which would later become the subject of an inheritance struggle. Suketaka was not blessed with a successor, as his heir,

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 ...

, had died prematurely, so he adopted a son from his second wife's previous marriage as

Kudō Suketsugu Kudō Suketsugu (工藤祐継, 1120 - 1162) was a Japanese samurai of the late Heian period. He was also known as Kudō Takiguchi Suketsugu. Life Suketsugu was born in 1120, the son of Kudō Suketaka and his second wife. It is also said that ...

to succeed him. Suketaka gave Suketsugu his main territory, the Itō Manor and the Usami Manor, and gave the Kawazu Manor to his grandson, Itō Sukechika (founder of the Kawazu clan), the son of his eldest son Sukeie, and thus decided to divide his territory. However, Sukechika, dissatisfied with this measure, seized the territory after Suketsugu's death. Kudō Suketsune, the son of Suketsugu, shot and killed Sukechika's son Kawazu Sukeyasu, out of resentment. In response, Sukeyasu's two sons,

Soga Sukenari Soga Sukenari (Japanese: 曾我祐成, 1172 - June 28, 1193) was a Japanese samurai in the early Kamakura period. He and his brother Soga Tokimune are known for being the perpetrators of the Revenge of the Soga Brothers incident. He is a centr ...

and Tokimune took their revenge on Suketsune, known as the

, as depicted in ''

Soga Monogatari ''Soga Monogatari'' () is a Japanese military chronicle-tale based on the vengeance incident, Revenge of Soga Brothers. The story is often known as ''The (illustrated) Tale of the Soga Brothers'' or ''The Revenge of the Soga Brothers''. It is ...

'', creating a chain of revenge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kudo Suketaka Japanese warriors

Life

See also

References