Minamoto no Sanetomo

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

Death

Grand stairway at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura – the scene of Sanetomo's assassination

Shinto symbolism encompasses the girth of the ancient ginkgo tree at the foot of the stairs leading to the upper level of Kamakura's great Hachiman Shrine. The tree survives near the spot where Sanetomo was ambushed and killed.

Cenotaph honoring Sanetomo in Kamakura's Jufuku-ji's cemetery

Under heavy snow on the evening of February 13, 1219 (Jōkyū 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 Udaijin.[2] His nephew, Kugyō, came out from beside the stone stairway of the shrine and assassinated him.[2] For his act, he was himself beheaded a few hours later,[2] thus bringing the Seiwa Genji 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.

• Father: Minamoto no Yoritomo
• Mother: Hōjō Masako

The years in which Sanetomo was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.

• Kennin (1201–1204)
• Genkyū (1204–1206)
• Ken'ei (1206–1207)
• Jōgen (Kamakura period) (1207–1211)
• Kenryaku (1211–1213)
• Kenpō (1213–1219)
• Jōkyū (1219–1222)

• Azuma Kagami

• Azuma Kagami, accessed on September 4, 2008; National Archives of Japan 特103-0001, Digitized image of the Azumakagami (in Japanese)
• Brinkley, Frank; Kikuchi, Dairoku (1915). A history of the Japanese people from the earliest times to the end of the Meiji era. The Encyclopædia Britannica Co.
• 神谷道倫 (2006). 深く歩く鎌倉史跡散策上. ISBN 978-4-7740-0340-5.
• Jeffrey P. Mass (1995). Court and Bakufu in Japan. Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2473-9.
• David Murray; Kentarō Kaneko (1906). Japan: Continuing the history to the close of 1905, with the provisions of the treaty of Portsmouth between Russia and Japan, and supplementary chapters. Putnam. p. 504.
• Mutsu, I. (1995). Kamakura: Fact and Legend. PeriplusEdition. ISBN 978-0-8048-1968-8.
• Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1962). Sovereign and Subject. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 1014075
• Frédéric, Louis; Roth, Käthe (2002). Japan enciklopedia. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5.
• Rin-siyo, Siyun-zai (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon. Oriental Translation Fund.

• New York Public Library Digital Gallery, an early photograph of Shrine steps where Sanetomo was killed.