The Watanabe are a band of families at the mouth of the Yodo, where the river traffic of the capital meets the Inland Sea at Watanabe-tsu.
They keep boats, men and the ferry crossings; they served the Minamoto leader Yorimasa at Uji in 1180 and then passed to the Kamakura side or to the cloistered emperor's guards. The famous monk Mongaku, Yoritomo's friend and Go-Toba's enemy, is of this band.
Who he is
- Name
- not known as a single head
- Title
- Band of the Watanabe families (tō)
- Family
- Descendants of Watanabe no Tsuna (10th-century retainer of the Minamoto) [not yet checked against the source]; the monk Mongaku was born Endō Moritō of this band [not yet checked against the source]
- Confidence
- low
Recollection; the English Wikipedia page for the clan was not fetched.
Overlord
the cloistered emperor's household; Kamakura for those who are gokenin
What it holds
- Watanabe-tsu and the ferry crossings of the lower Yodo [board]
How things stand that morning
The band is quiet and in demand: Go-Toba's guards recruit among such men.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Recollection.
Primary sources for Kyoto court
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
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. 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
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.