Koga Kubo-kan(Koga shogunate castle) November 2020

Kamakura is a place with a very rich history for the Genji clan. Yoriyoshi Minamoto, who was active in the Zen Kunen War, became Naokata Taira's son-in-law, and through this connection, he was given a mansion in Kamakura as a base in the eastern part of Japan. On his triumphant return from Tohoku, he commissioned Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine and built Yui Hachimangu Shrine, which later became Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. Later, Yoshitomo had a mansion here, and Yoritomo established the shogunate, but it was also an important place for the Ashikaga family, who recognized themselves as the direct descendants of the Minamoto clan.

Kamakura Kubo began as Kamakura Prefecture in 1349, with Motouji, the younger brother of the second Shogun Yoshiakira, as its founder, but the rivalry with the Shogun family was strong throughout the generations, and the fourth generation, Mochiuji, despised the Muromachi Shogun family. After showing signs of independence, they were destroyed by Kanto Kanrei Norizane Uesugi. After this, Mochiuji's surviving son, Nariuji, assassinated Kanto Kanrei Noritada Uesugi and established an imperial palace in Koga (Kyotoku Rebellion), and since then the Koga Kubo family has been divided into Masauji, Takamoto, Haruji, and Yoshiuji after Nariuji. It has continued for 130 years through five generations, surviving the Sengoku period in the Kanto Plain.

Although Yoshiuji had a daughter (Ujihime), he died without a successor (1583), and after the conquest of Odawara, Hideyoshi regretted the loss of the famous lineage, and was the grandson of Takamoto's younger brother Yoshiaki (Kobō Koyumi), he revived the Kubo family by appointing Kunitomo as the son-in-law of Ujihime, and sealed it in Shimotsuke Kitsuregawa. Ieyasu Tokugawa took over this treatment.

In the end, Kunitomo passed away early, and his younger brother Yoriuji remarried Ujihime and had a successor (Yoshichika). Although Yoriuji moved to Kitsuregawa, Ujihime and Yoshichika continued to live in Koga, and It is said that her grandson, Takanobu finally moved to Kitsuregawa after Yoriuji's death (1630). It seems that even under the Tokugawa regime, Ujihime and her children did not abandon their pride as Kubo families and had no intention of leaving the land inherited from their ancestors.

The Tokugawa family's use of energy is unusual; there is no master-servant relationship in the Tokugawa family; they are treated as guests, and there are no burdens such as sankin kotai(the obligation to stay in Edo every years). After the Meiji Restoration, the Kitsuregawa family changed their surname back to Ashikaga.

The Koga Kubo-kan ruins became part of the Koga domain during the Edo period, when Koga Castle was built there, but as expected, the ruins of a mansion that unified the entire Kanto region are vast and have been turned into a park.

It seems that Nariuji moved some temples and shrines from Kamakura to this area, but I would like to take a closer look next time.