Fujiwara Motofusa (1144-1191) was the daimyo of the Kubota Fujiwara branch of the Fujiwara and was an imperial regent for emperors Rokujo and Takakura. He was enemies with the Taira since an incident in 1170 with Taira Kiyomori's grandson, the Minamoto since a few proxy wars in the later 1170s, and with his own relative Fujiwara Hidehira since 1177. He died in the Kenkyu War, in which he sided with Emperor Go-Toba, and was succeeded by Fujiwara Moroie.
Biography[]
Motofusa was born in Matsudono, near the city of Kyoto, to the wealthy Fujiwara clan's Kubota Fujiwara branch. Motofusa was married to Fujiwara Hoshi at a young age to make a diplomatic bond. He served as Sessho (1166-1172) and Kampaku (1172-1179) for two emperors of Japan, but could not become the daimyo of the Fujiwara due to an 1170 incident in which his troops smashed the carriage of Taira Kiyomori's grandson when he refused to make way for the Emperor. By doing this, he made enemies with the powerful and rival Taira clan, and in the mid-1170s he also made hostilities with the Minamoto. The Fujiwara were further weakened when the Kubota and Hiraizumi Fujiwara split their alliance and fought, and he waged war on his relative Fujiwara Hidehira.
In the later 1180s he faced a newer threat: the Kamakura Minamoto, who had made most of the rest of Japan their vassals or allies. Motofusa suffered a declaration of war and had to resist the Minamoto, but was in 1188 defeated when he lost both Miyagi and Uzen Provinces. He was pushed to the northwestern corner of northern Honshu and was forced to become a vassal in exchange for possession of Minamoto Tanefusa as a hostage and 3,000 koku. In 1190 he betrayed the truce and executed Tanefusa, as he was following a mandate by Emperor Go-Toba to defeat the Minamoto "enemies of the state". He was one of the major Imperial clan heads of the Kenkyu War.
Downfall[]
Preparing a massive army built around his son Fujiwara Iefusa (Commissioner for Supply), Kiyohara Iesada, Fujiwara Tadataka, and Tachibana Takezumi, and invaded Uzen Province in early 1191. But their army failed to take it from Minamoto Yoritomo, who won a pyrrhic victory, before launching a counter attack. The Fujiwara army was destroyed, and all of the generals were killed.