Hojo Masako

The Most Important Woman in Japanese Military History

Hojo Masako Died on This Day, August 16, 1225

Said to be “The most important woman in Japanese military history”, political leader Hojo Masako was born in 1156 during the tumultuous warring of the late Heian period Hogen and Heiji Rebellions, two short civil conflicts fought over the Imperial succession. The Hogen no Ran in particular is seen as the basis for the emerging dominance of the samurai class.  

Masako was the eldest daughter, the first of fifteen children born to the Lord of Izu Province, Hojo Tokimasa and his second wife. She would go on to become the wife of the first Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo. Masako was also the mother of the following two Shogun, Minamoto no Yoriie and Sanetomo. As a child, it is said that she was instructed in the martial arts and excelled in horseback riding, and that she ate with the warriors rather than with the women.

portrait of Hojo Masako

Her father had sheltered the defeated Minamoto Yoritomo when he had been forced as a 13 year-old child to flee Kyoto. Masako’s father assisted Yoritomo back to his rightful noble position, leading to the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate.  Against her father’s wishes, Masako married Yoritomo around 1177, and their first daughter, O-Hime was born to them two years later. As Yoritomo's wife, She took an active role in government administration and paved the way for the men of the Hojo clan to gain influence over the shogunate.

With the rival Taira clan’s defeat in the 1185 Battle of Dan-no-ura, thanks to Hojo Masako and her family’s support, Minamoto no Yoritomo was the undisputed leader of Japan.

Masako is said to have ridden alongside her husband on most of his military campaigns, being absent only when giving birth to her children, and was comfortable both riding a horse and handling weapons, although she never took part in actual battle. Instead, she was seen as a leader of warriors, more so than actually being one.

Hojo Masako’s husband, Minamoto no Yoritomo.

Upon the death of her husband, Yoritomo, in 1199, Masako shaved her head, and become a Buddhist nun, but refrained from entering a temple or monastery, instead choosing a political career, supporting her son as Shogun. She held considerable sway in court, surrounding her son with a Council of Regents, one that the willful son was not pleased with, and turned against in favour of his own wife’s family, the Hiki clan. This led to warfare between the Hojo and the Hiki, that led to the utter destruction of the Hiki. Shogun Yoriie was later forced to abdicate on account of illness. He named his younger brother and a son as heir, expecting the nation to be divided and ruled accordingly, but was assassinated by his grandfather, Tokimasa and an uncle  shortly afterwards, something his mother, Masako seems to have been unaware of at the time.. His younger brother Sanetomo, still a child aged just 11 and closer to his mother than Yoriie, was invested as the third Shogun. He too would be assassinated 1219 by his own nephew.

Masako would remain politically active, negotiating through various wars and political turmoil within the shogunate, to the extent that she became known as the Ama-Shogun, or the Nun Shogun. Masako died August 16, 1225, aged 69. Her tomb can be found at the Jufuju-ji Temple in Kamakura.

Despite her importance to samurai history, her real name is unknown, she was called Masako after her father's name Tokimasa by later researchers.