Kugyō (Minamoto no Yoshinari)

Kugyō (公暁, 1200–February 13, 1219), also known as Minamoto no Zensai (源善哉) or Saemon Hokkyō Yoriaki (左衛門法橋頼暁), was the second son of the second Kamakura shogun of Japan, Minamoto no Yoriie. At the age of six, after his father was killed in Shuzenji in Izu, he became his uncle Sanetomo's adopted son and, thanks to his grandmother Hōjō Masako's intercession, a disciple of Songyō, Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's bettō (head priest). After his tonsure he was given the Buddhist name "Kugyō" replacing his childhood name Yoshinari. He then went to Kyōto to take his vows, coming back at age 18 to become Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū's new bettō, the shrine's fourth. In 1219 he murdered his uncle Sanetomo on the stone stairs at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in the shogunal capital of Kamakura, an act for which he was himself slain on the same day.

The assassination is chronicled in the Azuma Kagami and in the Gukanshō. What follows is the Azuma Kagami's version of events.

At about six in the evening of February 12, 1219 (Jōkyū-1, 26th day of the 1st month), the Buddhist New Year, Sanetomo had just finished the Ceremony of Celebration for his nomination to Udaijin. It had been snowing the whole day and there was more than 60 cm of snow on the ground. The shogun left the temple's gate and started descending the stone stairs accompanied only by the sword-bearer, a man called Nakaakira. Hōjō Yoshitoki, son of Regent Hōjō Tokimasa and a future regent himself, should have been the sword-bearer, but had gone back to his mansion in Komachi early because he was not feeling well. Unexpectedly Kugyō came up from near the stone stairs, yelled: "I strike my father's enemy!" (父の敵を討つ), and struck him with a sword, cutting off his head. The assassin then killed Nakaakira, and according to the Gukanshō, he did this thinking he was Hōjō Yoshitoki, as he should have been.

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