Hiki Yoshikazu

Hiki Yoshikazu (比企 能員, died October 8, 1203) was a Japanese warrior-noble of the Kamakura period related to the ruling Minamoto clan through his daughter's marriage. He, and much of the Hiki clan, were killed for allegedly conspiring to have one of the Minamoto heirs killed, in order to gain power himself.

Originally from Musashi province, Hiki Yoshikazu rose to prominence in the shogunal court as a result of being adopted by Minamoto no Yoritomo's nurse.

Hiki's daughter was married to Minamoto no Yoriie, the second shogun of the Kamakura shogunate. Seriously ill, Yoriie proposed to name both his younger brother Sanetomo, and his young son (Hiki's grandson) Minamoto no Ichiman to succeed him; the two would split power, governing separate parts of the country.^[1] It seemed natural that Hiki would then be the regent, even if unofficially, to young Ichiman. He therefore suggested to Yoriie, who would be assassinated shortly afterwards by a separate faction (the Hōjō clan), that they arrange to have Sanetomo killed. Hōjō Masako, Yoriie's mother and wife of the first shogun Yoritomo, overheard this conversation.

Though Masako may have sought to have Hiki formally accused of treason and executed, the Hōjō, under Hōjō Tokimasa, got to him first. In their schemes to dominate the regency and control the shogunate as a puppet government under their clan, Hōjō warriors assassinated Hiki Yoshikazu, and then attacked the palace of young Ichiman, setting a fire and killing both the young heir and a great number of members of the extended Hiki family.

Notes

1. According to Japanese Wikipedia's "源一幡" (Minamoto no Ichiman) article, the Gukanshō and the Azuma Kagami give different versions of the events. This is the Azuma Kagami's version. According to the Gukanshō, when in 1203 Yoriie became seriously ill, the Hōjō clan supported his younger brother Senman (future third shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo) as a successor, while the Hiki supported son Ichiman. To avoid power falling into the hands of the Hiki, the Hōjō decided to get rid of the Hiki and their protege. This is the version of events described in the article Minamoto no Ichiman.
   According to the same Wikipedia article, the Azuma Kagami claims Ichiman was killed by the Hiki, and not by the Hōjō.

References

• Frederic, Louis (2002). "Japan Encyclopedia." Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
• Sansom, George (1958). 'A History of Japan to 1334'. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.