Chiba Tsunetane

Chiba Tsunetane was a warrior of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods and the third head of the Chiba clan, of the Kanmu Heishi Yoshifumi line. Born in 1118, he died in 1201 at the age of 84. He styled himself Kazusa-no-gon-no-suke and Shimosa-no-gon-no-suke, and his office name was Chiba-no-suke. His father was Chiba Tsuneshige.

In 1146 he recovered the post of district governor of Soma in the dispute over the Soma estate and donated the land to the Ise Shrine. He fought under Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Hogen Rebellion of 1156, and the Soma dispute with Satake Yoshimune continued.

He is said to have joined Minamoto no Yoritomo's uprising in 1180, though the time and place of their meeting are debated. After the battle of Fujikawa he restrained Yoritomo's haste to march on Kyoto and urged an attack on the Satake, regaining the Soma estate. When Kazusa Hirotsune was put to death in 1183, Tsunetane became head of the Boso Taira. He fought at Ichinotani in 1184, won distinction in Bungo, and commanded the Tokaido route in the Oshu campaign of 1189. In 1193 he served as manager of the rebuilding of the Katori shrine.

His sons include Chiba Tanemasa, Soma Morotsune, Takeishi Tanemori, Osuga Tanenobu, Kokubu Tanemichi, Azuma Taneyori and the Onjo-ji monk Nichiin. He is said to have raised Minamoto no Yoritaka secretly and presented him to Yoritomo, and Yoritomo is said to have called him a father figure, though historians are cautious about taking such moving anecdotes as fact. Main sources are the Azuma Kagami, the Genpei Seisuiki and the Chiba Daikeizu. He is regarded as a founder of Chiba Prefecture and City and a typical Kanto landed lord and Kamakura housenin. A stone pagoda said to be his stands at Dainichi-ji in Chiba.