Minamoto no Yoriyoshi

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Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (源頼義)(998-1082?) 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.

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 1073, Yoriyoshi founded the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura which was to become, roughly a century later, the primary shrine of the Minamoto clan when they began the Kamakura shogunate.

[edit] Reference

• Sansom, George (1958). 'A History of Japan to 1334'. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.