Minamoto no yoritomo biography

Minamoto no Yoritomo (源 頼朝) (May 9, 1147 – February 9, 1199), was a Japanese warrior and clan leader who founded the bakufu, a system of feudal lords which governed Japan for seven centuries, and became the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan.

The surviving heir of the Minamoto clan, which was crushed after the Heiji Rebellion in 1159, he lived in exile for twenty years before issuing a call to arms and rising up against the Taira clan. He established a headquarters in Kamakura, from which he began to organize the war lords and samurai into an independent government.

After the Taira clan was defeated in 1185, Yoritomo established the administrative offices of shugo (constables) and jito (district stewards) throughout Japan, and rewarded his samurai retainers with strategically-placed feudal estates.

With the assistance of scholars recruited from