Wada Yoshimori

Wada Yoshimori (和田 義盛, 1147 – May 24, 1213) was an early Kamakura period military commander. A gokenin of the Kamakura shogunate, he was the first director (bettō) of the Samurai-dokoro.

In this Japanese name, the surname is Wada.

He was the son of Miura Yoshiaki and grandson of Sugimoto Yoshimune, making him a descendant of the Heike.[1] Among his sons were Wada Yoshinao, Asahina Yoshihide, and Wada Yoshishige.[1] He also had a nephew, Wada Tanenaga.[1]

Yoshimori "was attached to Noriyori as his saburai daisho (general of soldiers)."[2] He fought in the battle of Ichi-no-Tani (1184).

He also fought in the Battle of Dan-no-ura, where he engaged Chikakiyo of Iyo in an archery duel.[3]

Later, he participated in the campaign against Kiso Yoshinaka (1184) and Fujiwara Yasuhira (1189).

Like many others, he and his family became victims of the struggle for power that followed the death of the first Kamakura shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo. Tension had been growing between the Hōjō Regents and Wada, and open war started when Wada Yoshinao, Wada Yoshishige and Wada Tanenaga were accused of conspiracy and arrested.[1] Yoshimori, who was in Kazusa, returned to Kamakura and managed to free his two sons.[1] Tanenaga was however detained and exiled to Mutsu province.[1] War ensued (the so-called Wada Gassen (和田合戦)) and in 1213 he was defeated and killed together with his family.[1] The Wada are traditionally supposed to be buried in the Wadazuka Mound in Kamakura, however this is only an unproven theory born after excavations in situ during the Meiji period.[4]

References
  1. Kusumoto (2002:68)
  2. Sato, Hiroaki (1995). Legends of the Samurai. Overlook Duckworth. p. 128. ISBN 9781590207307.
  3. The Tales of the Heike. Translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Press. 2006. pp. 137–138. ISBN 9780231138031.
  4. Kamakura Citizen's Net, Yuigahama accessed on November 2, 2008

Further reading
  • Kusumoto, Katsuji (July 2002). Kamakura Naruhodo Jiten (in Japanese). Tokyo: Jitsugyō no Nihonsha. ISBN 978-4-408-00779-3. OCLC 166909395.


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