Kikkawa Tsuneyoshi (吉川経義)

Tsuneyoshi KIKKAWA (1132 - 1193) was a busho (Japanese military commander) who lived during the times between the Heian and Kamakura periods. He was the head of a local ruling family in Suruga Province and gokenin (an immediate vassal of the shogunate) of the Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun). Tsuneyoshi's father was Kageyoshi IRIE (the great-grandchild of Korekiyo FUJIWARA). Tomokane KIKKAWA was his child. Masayoshi SATAKE was Tsuneyoshi's father-in-law.

The Yoshikawa clan was one of the Irie family that descended from FUJIWARA no Otomaro, who was the grandchild of FUJIWARA no Kamatari and the fourth son of FUJIWARA no Muchimaro of the Southern House of the Fujiwara clan. On the occasion that Irie-no-sho in Suruga Province became his territory, FUJIWARA no Korekiyo began to refer to himself as the "Irie clan."

With the Irie clan growing, in 1183, on the occasion of receiving the territory of Yoshikawa-no-sho in Suruga Province from MINAMOTO no Yoritomo, Tsuneyoshi, the eldest legitimate son of Kageyoshi IRIE, took the name of the "Kikkawa clan" (吉川氏) (also written in different kanji characters such as吉河 or吉香). The name of "Kikkawa" subsequently became established during the times of Tsunemoto KIKKAWA, the great commander who was referred to as Oni Kikkawa (literally, Kikkawa, the devil) (the nickname of Tsunemoto KIKKAWA).

Tsuneyoshi died in 1193. His child Tomokane KIKKAWA succeeded Tsuneyoshi.

[Original Japanese]