Born: 1156, Japan
Died: 16 August 1225
Country most active: Japan
Also known as: 北条 政子
Hōjō Masako, known as the “nun shogun”, exercised significant political power in the early years of the Kamakura period (1192 to 1333).
The Hōjō clan were the de facto rulers of Japan as shikken (regent) of the Shōgun from 1203. Masako was the oldest daughter of Hōjō Tokimasa and sister of Hōjō Yoshitoki, who served as shikken 1203-1205 and 1205-1224, respectively. She also help significant power as the wife to the first Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo (ruled 1192–1199), and mother of the second Minamoto no Yoriie (1202–1203) and third Minamoto no Sanetomo (1203–1219) Kamakura shōguns.
The oldest of 15 children, Masako was instructed in horseback riding, hunting, fishing, and ate with men of the household. She married Yoritomo around 1177, against her father’s wishes. As his wife, she participated in the government administration and eventually became a representation of power for the men of the Hōjō clan.
The Genpei War, the final war between the Minamoto and Taira clans, began in 1180, ending in 1185 when Minamoto won – supported by Masako and the Hōjō clan. During the war, Masako rode with him on campaigns and reputedly was never defeated in battle. Taira emperor Go-Shirakawa gave Yoritomo the power to collect taxes, and “appoint stewards and constables in all provinces”. After his death in 1192, Kamakura shogunate was established, with all of Japan under Yoritomo’s rule as shogun.
When Yoritomo died in 1199, he was succeeded as shōgun by his and Masako’s son, Minamoto no Yoriie. Because he was only 18, Masako’s father Hōjō Tokimasa declared himself shikken (regent) for Yoriie. Masako held a strong political position as mother of the shōgun. Because her husband was dead, she shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun, but she did not move to a monastery or a nunnery, and continued to involve herself in politics, leading to her being known as ama-shōgun, or the “nun-shōgun”. With her father and her brother Yoshitoki, Masako established a council of regents for Yoriie. However, her son hated the Hōjō and preferred his wife’s family, the Hiki clan, and his father-in-law, Hiki Yoshikazu.
When Masako overheard Yoshikazu and Yoriie conspiring, she turned in her own son to her father, who did not hurt Yoriie but had Yoshikazu executed in 1203. Yoriie was reportedly very sick and retired to Izu Province, and was murdered in 1204, presumably by Tokimasa’s orders. It is believed that Masako was not aware of this. During the murders and purges of the Hiki clan, Ichiman, Yoriie’s eldest son and heir and Masako’s grandson, was also executed because he was part Hiki.
In 1203, Masako’s other son, Minamoto no Sanetomo, became the third shōgun with Tokimasa as regent. Sanetomo was closer to his mother than his elder brother had been, and still a child when appointed shōgun, in contrast to his brother, who was forced to accept regency as an adult. However, Masako and Yoshitoki, who was heir to the Hōjō, were angry with their father, especially after their mother, Hōjō no Maki, died in 1204. Masako’s sister’s husband was wrongfully executed on Tokimasa’s orders even after Yoshitoki, Masako and their brother told Tokimasa he was not guilty of the “treason” he was accused up.
By 1205, Hōjō Tokimasa was the most powerful man in Kamakura. Masako heard rumors that he was planning to execute Sanetomo and replace him with one of his allies, so Masako and Yoshitoki immediately ordered Tokimasa to step down and go into priesthood or they would rebel. He abdicated in 1205, and was sent to a monastery, where he shaved his head and became a monk, dying in 1215.
Sanetomo became shōgun, Yoshitoki, succeeded as shikken for Sanetomo and Masako herself remained in a powerful position as a court negotiator with the court. In 1218, she was awarded the Junior Second Rank (Ritsuryō (律令)) by the imperial government. During this time, Yoshitoki sent her to the Cloistered Emperor Go-Toba, to ask if Sanetomo might adopt one of his sons as an heir. The emperor refused.
In 1219, Sanetomo was killed by Yoriie’s son Kugyō, marking the end of the Minamoto line of shōguns. Masako and Yoshitoki chose Kujō Yoritsune, known as Fujiwara no Yoritsune, as the next shōgun. Because he was still an infant, Masako was able to act as de facto shōgun until her death. Yoritsune’s grandmother was the niece of first shōgun Yoritomo, so although he was not strictly a member of the Hōjō clan he was still a figurehead for them.
During the Jōkyū War of 1221, Go-Toba rebelled against the Hōjō. Despite great upset in their capital of Kamakura, Masako is said to have calmed the people with her celebrated speech to Kamakura vassals. Azuma Kagami, the official chronicle of the Kamakura shogunate, states that Masako summoned the vassals and had these words delivered by the vice-governor of Akita Fortress: “Listen carefully to my final words. Since the days when Yoritomo, the late Captain of the Right, put down the court’s enemies and founded the Kantō regime, the obligations you have incurred for offices, ranks, emoluments, and stipends have in their sum become higher than mountains and deeper than the sea. You must, I am sure, be eager to repay them. Because of the slander of traitors, an unrighteous imperial order has now been issued. Those of you who value your reputations will wish to kill Hideyasu [ja], Taneyoshi [ja], and the others at once in order to secure the patrimony of the three generations of shoguns. If any of you wish to join the ex-emperor, speak out.”
Yoshitoki and his eldest son, Hōjō Yasutoki, responded to the rebellion by regaining the previous capital city of Kyoto, resulting in the exile of Go-Toba. Masako continued to consolidate power under the advisory council, manage relationships between imperial and aristocratic families, and administer judgments and postwar rewards. Masako’s work enabled the Hōjō clan to dominate the Kamakura Shogunate until the government’s downfall in 1333.