JM,
RE: For my question, can anyone here provide me with more info about the
Miura family? All I know about them is that they were of great help in
putting the Minamoto family into power and that they were from the Kinugasa
region(somewhere near Kamakura?).
The Miura claimed descent from Taira Takamochi, a son of Katsurabara-shinno
(himself a son of the Emperor Kammu). Miura (Taira) Tamemichi established
himself at Kinugasa in the mid-11th Century. By the late-12th Century, they
were acting as vice-governors (suke) of Sagami Province. Miura Yoshiaki
(d.1181) and his son Yoshizumi (d.1200) supported Minamoto Yoritomo from the
outset of the Gempei War, though the former was killed early in the
fighting. After the Minamoto victory, Yoshizumi was named as one of the 13
members of the Shukurou (or council of elders, established in 1199 to check
the power of Minamoto Yoriie). Yoshizumi was also to evidently act as shugo
of Sagami, and the Miura would later recieve Kawachi and Kii. Miura
Yoshimura (d.1239) thus became quite influential under the Hojo bakufu and
his family might have been the only Minamoto Gokenin capable of threatening
the Hojo's grip on Kamakura. This, it would seem, was their undoing, for on
1247 the Hojo and Adachi family made a sudden attack on the Miura residences
and killed (or forced into suicide) some 500 members of the latter family.
Minor branches of the Miura endured, however. The most notable of these
became powerful once again in the Muira area under the leadership of Miura
Tokitaka. He adopted his heir Yoshiatsu from the Uesugi, but when a natural
son was born to Tokitaka, he forced Yoshiatsu into the priesthood.
Yoshiatsu suddenly rebelled and Tokitaka was attacked at Arai and killed
along with his son in 1496. Yoshiatsu (the son of Uesugi Takamasa and also
known as Miura Dousun) established his own son Yoshimoto at Arai while he
resided in Okazaki (not to be confused with the Okazaki of Mikawa). He
became involved in a war with Hojo Soun when the latter attacked Odawara
Castle. Yoshiatsu allied with the uesugi but was subsequently attacked at
Okazaki and fled to Arai, which fell to the Hojo after a long siege in 1516.
He commited suicide along with Yoshimoto (I'm not sure what became of
Yoshiatsu's 2nd son Yoshimasa - perhaps he also died at Arai).
Another branch of the Miura, descended from a grandson of Muira Yoshizumi),
was established as daimyo by the Tokugawa in 1639 in Shimotsuke Province.
FWS
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