The Miura Sea Forces (2)

     In 1180, when Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199) raised an army to fight the Taira Clan, all the Miura Clan banded together to support Yoritomo.  In the first battle at the foot of Mt. Ishibashi, one clan member, Sanada Yoshitada (1155-1180), was killed.  The clan’s stronghold, Kinugasa Castle, was attacked by Hatakeyama Shigetada (1164-1205), and Miura Yoshiaki (1092-1180), Tameyoshi’s great great grandson, was killed in the battle.  His son, Yoshizumi (1127-1200), fled across the sea to Awa Province, taking almost the same route that Yamato Takeru, an ancient Japanese legendary prince, took on his conquest of the eastern land.  This coincidence implies that powerful enough sea people had been there since ancient times.

     About half a century after the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate, the Miura Clan lost conspiratorial power struggles against the Hojo Clan, and its 260 samurais and over 240 followers and family members committed a mass suicide in front of Yoritomo’s portrait painting enshrined in Hokke-do Temple in Kamakura.