Minamoto no Yoriyoshi

Who was Minamoto no Yoriyoshi?

Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was a head of Japan's Minamoto clan who is perhaps most notable for having led, along with his son Minamoto no Yoshiie, the Imperial forces against rebellious forces in the north. This campaign would be called the Zenkunen War, and would be followed some years later by the Gosannen War.

He held the title, passed down from his father, of Chinjufu-shogun, Commander-in-chief of the Defense of the North. Yoriyoshi accompanied his father Minamoto no Yorinobu on his own missions to defend the Empire, quelling rebellions and disturbances. Thus he gained much of his knowledge of tactics and strategy. The Zenkunen War in which he fought began in 1051 and lasted, with some brief breaks, twelve years. In 1063, Yoriyoshi founded Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura which was to become, roughly a century later, the primary shrine of the Minamoto clan when they began the Kamakura shogunate.