The Miura Sea Forces (3)

     At the end of the Kamakura Shogunate, Miura Tokitsugu (?-1335) followed Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), who would later be the first shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate in 1336.  In 1333, the Kamakura Shogunate collapsed, and Tokitsugu was awarded with steward samurai positions in Musashi and Sagami Provinces.  However, when Hojo Tokiyuki (?-1353), the son of Takatoki (1303-1333), the last Regent of the Kamakura Shogunate, took arms against Takauji, Tokitsugu took Tokiyuki’s side only to be defeated by Takauji and to be slashed to death.  Tokitsugu was succeeded by his son, Takatsugu (?-1339), who had taken Takauji’s side.

     In 1416, when one third of the Muromachi Era had passed, the Deputy Shogun in Kamakura, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), and his butler, Uesugi Zenshu (?-1417), got at war, Miura Takaaki (?-?) took Mochiuji’s side.  Mochiuji won, but, 10 years later, Takaaki was deprived of the position of the Sagami Province Guardian Samurai by Mochiuji.

    For a couple of more times, the Miura Clan betrayed others to survive, and survived from being betrayed, and finally had to face a new enemy during the Warring States Period; Ise Shinkuro (1432-1519).  He came from Kyoto to Suruga Province in 1469, which lay east to Sagami Province, to make a warring-state-period hero, and actually carried out his plan.  In 1493, he first started unifying Izu Province, which lay between Suruga and Sagami Provinces, and then raided Sagami Province.  In 1512, he reached Miura County, the easternmost part of the Sagami Province.