Shimazu Tadahisa

Who he is

Name

Shimazu Tadahisa

Title

Steward (jitō) of Shimazu-no-shō and constable (shugo) of Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga, by house tradition

Since

Named constable of Satsuma in 1186 and went south in 1196 (English Wikipedia, Shimazu clan); the three-province charge is dated 1196 or 1197 in the house genealogies

Born

traditionally about 1179; on the likely course he dies in 1227 (English Wikipedia gives the death)

Family

Claimed son of Minamoto no Yoritomo by a sister of Hiki Yoshikazu; the same page notes that he was probably head steward (a household officer) of the Konoe family before he claimed Genji descent. Married a daughter of Koremune Hironobu and first used the name Koremune. Shioda in Shinano is his home estate

Confidence

medium

English Wikipedia (Shimazu Tadahisa; Shimazu clan). The three-province charge is a house tradition and the date is marked as such in the brief.

Overlord

Minamoto no Yoriie (Kamakura); the Konoe regent house as proprietor of the estate

What it holds

• Shimazu-no-shō (Konoe's estate) as steward, with the Shimazu-in in the Miyakonojo basin as headquarters
• The constable's rights over Satsuma, Ōsumi and Hyūga (house tradition)
• Shioda in Shinano (home estate, held by deputies)

How it was acquired

1185 and 1186 by Yoritomo's grant (the date of the steward's grant rests on recollection); 1196 or 1197 by the house tradition for the south in full.

Allies and rivals

Allied with Hiki Yoshikazu (by the tradition) and the Honda deputies; rivals: local families of Satsuma (the Ata, Kawabe and others, whose names are not checked here), the Ōtomo in the north, and the Aso and Usa estate-men.

How things stand that morning

Newly in the saddle. The offices stand on a house tradition; the province's old local families still hold the ground. There is no war but the hold is loose, and no source here shows raids.

Wealth

The estate revenue of the Konoe, shared with the steward; no figure used.

Military

Tadahisa's own housemen, the Honda deputies and the local families he has taken into the service; no numbers.

Threats

• Local families resisting a steward from the east
• The fall of his Hiki kin in 1203 (later)

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1203, after the Hiki incident (Kennin 3/9/2, 8 October 1203 Julian)Tadahisa loses his constable's posts for his ties to Hiki Yoshikazu; Satsuma and Ōsumi are later restored to him (recollection)Depends on: The Hiki fall depends on the Hiki and Hōjō quarrel, which is not in view on 1 January 1200 Stopped by: No Hiki incident

Places of note

• Shimazu-in: Headquarters of the estate in the Miyakonojo basin (Hyūga)
• Kokubu: Ōsumi's provincial seat, in his charge by tradition

Where the sources disagree

• Board: 'has held the south since 1196' as fact. English Wikipedia gives 1186 for Satsuma and 1196 for his arrival; the three-province charge is a house genealogy (brief).

Evidence: English Wikipedia (two pages) for the main facts; the house tradition is marked; the 1203 loss is recollection.

On the map: Shown as held at the headquarters and claimed in the two provinces whose hold is a house tradition.

Primary sources for Kamakura regime

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
• Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
• Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
• Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
• Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
• Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
• Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
• The Tale of the Heike, Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Shinano no Zenji Yukinaga, performed and reshaped by blind reciters (early thirteenth century in its first form; the standard Kakuichi text was fixed in 1371). The epic of the Genpei war, in the form the reciters gave it over the century after 1200. Read online