Miura Yoshizumi
三浦義澄
The Sagami Retainer Who Supported Minamoto no Yoritomo — Elder Statesman of the Kamakura Shogunate's "Council of Thirteen"
Description
Life
Miura Yoshizumi was born in 1127, the son of Miura Yoshiaki, a powerful local lord of Sagami Province. The Miura clan was an influential warrior band based on the Miura Peninsula in Sagami, and the gokenin Wada Yoshimori was Yoshizumi's nephew.
Service to Minamoto no Yoritomo
When Minamoto no Yoritomo raised his army in Izu in 1180, the Miura clan responded to his call. Following the Battle of Ishibashiyama, Kinugasa Castle fell to an attack by Taira-aligned forces including Hatakeyama Shigetada, and Yoshizumi's father Yoshiaki was killed in the fighting; Yoshizumi and the rest of the clan fled to Awa Province, where they rejoined Yoritomo and thereafter supported the campaigns that led to the founding of the Kamakura shogunate.
Major Campaigns
Throughout the Genpei War, Yoshizumi fought as one of Yoritomo's most powerful gokenin, reportedly taking part in the campaigns against the Taira clan as well as the Ōshū campaign. Under Yoritomo's rule, he was esteemed as one of the leading gokenin of Sagami Province.
The Council of Thirteen
In 1199, following the death of Minamoto no Yoritomo, his young successor Minamoto no Yoriie assumed leadership, and a collective governing body of thirteen senior gokenin — the "Council of Thirteen" — was established to oversee decision-making. Yoshizumi, by then already over seventy, was counted among its senior-most members.
Later Reputation
Miura Yoshizumi is remembered as a steadfast supporter of Yoritomo from the time of his uprising and as an elder statesman who helped sustain the fledgling Kamakura shogunate; after his death, the Miura clan continued to be one of the shogunate's most powerful gokenin families until its destruction in the Hōji Uprising of 1247.