Who Is Minamoto no Yoritomo (Kamakura-dono)?
Founder of the Kamakura shogunate and Yoshitsune's older brother
Minamoto no Yoritomo is the head of the Minamoto clan who founded the Kamakura shogunate, and Minamoto no Yoshitsune's older half-brother. He was known as Kamakura-dono, "the Lord of Kamakura."
When he raises an army in Izu, Yoshitsune rushes from Ōshū to join him, and the brothers have a tearful reunion at the Kise River. But after the Taira are destroyed, Yoritomo believes the slander of Kajiwara Kagetoki and others, refuses to let Yoshitsune enter Kamakura, and does not forgive him even after the Koshigoe Letter. He then sends the assassin Tosabō and dispatches pursuers everywhere to hunt Yoshitsune down. He is enraged by the song of the captured Lady Shizuka and has her child killed.
After Yoshitsune's death, Yoritomo also destroyed the Ōshū Fujiwara clan and strengthened the system of government by the samurai.
Episodes featuring this character5
NEWEpisode 6
Each Win Pushed His Brother Further AwayThe Reunion at Kisegawa and the Koshigoe Letter
When Yoshitsune hears his brother Yoritomo has risen against the Heike, he rushes to join him, and the two brothers, meeting for the first time, weep together. But after winning battle after battle and wiping out the Heike, Yoshitsune finds the road to his brother barred.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 7
Assassins Came. The Hero Slept.The Night Raid at Horikawa (Shizuka Gozen)
Yoritomo sends the assassin Tosabō to kill his brother, and Yoshitsune accepts Tosabō's false oath because he wants so badly to trust his brother. That night, it is Lady Shizuka, the famous dancer, who senses danger first. She wakes him, straps him into his armor, holds up the lights in the dark, and finally sets the mansion ablaze to call Benkei and the others to the rescue.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 8
He Abandoned the Capital to Save ItThe Storm at Daimotsu Bay (Yoshitsune's Flight)
Hunted by his own brother, Yoshitsune refuses to turn the capital into a battlefield and flees west, setting sail from Daimotsu Bay. But a violent storm scatters his fleet, and only a handful are washed back to shore. Having lost everything, the survivors set out for Mount Yoshino.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 10
The Woman He Trusted Sold Him OutSato Tadanobu: The Siege at Horikawa
On snowy Yoshino, Tadanobu posed as his lord to cover his escape and survived. In Kyoto he turns to a woman he once loved, but she betrays him and a huge force surrounds him. Holed up in his lord's old Horikawa mansion, Tadanobu chooses to die the way his brother Tsuginobu did at Yashima.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 11
She Sang of Him to the Men Hunting HimLady Shizuka's Dance at Tsurugaoka
Shizuka parted from Yoshitsune on a snowy mountain as he fled his brother Yoritomo. Now she is captured and sent to Kamakura. She refuses to say where Yoshitsune is, and the baby she gives birth to is taken from her. With only her dance and her pride left, she is ordered to dance at the shrine for Yoritomo and Masako. There, in the heart of enemy territory, she boldly sings of her longing for the man she loves.
19 pages