achi, and Chiba, Minamoto Yoritomo was able to appoint his vassals to estates where they had not been before. Yoritomo's stewards and protectors watched over his interests and asserted his right to a share in the taxation and administration of those estates entirely outside the structure of the civil government. Thus, Yoritomo was able to establish direct administrative control over most of Japan and create numerous small, but effective, provincial armies. After establishing his shogunate, Yoritomo moved his wife, Hojo Masako, and her family to their new home on Mount Okura in Kamakura. The same year he was named Shogun, Masako gave birth to his second son, Sanetomo, at the Hojo family villa called Hojo Yakata, located at Shokado in the Nagoe hills in Kamakura. Family life did little to mellow his warrior heart, for within one year he became a cruel and merciless tyrant who trusted no one but himself. He moved swiftly to solidify his position by eliminating his enemies, actual and potential alike. Not even family members were safe. After a dispute with his brother Yo*censored*sune, who successfully eliminated the Taira at Dan-no-ura, Yoritomo had him killed along with other members of his family. He also murdered another younger brother, Minamoto Noriyori, out of jealousy and suspicion. In the Ayamedani Valley near Heian-kyo, Minamoto samurai captured Rokudai Gozen, the son of Taira no Koremori, the only Taira warrior with direct family ties to the former dictator Taira Kiyomori. On December 23, 1198, more than thirteen years after the Taira clan suffered near annihilation, Rokudai Gozen was brought to Kamakura to face the wrath of Minamoto Yoritomo, who ordered him beheaded and buried on the bank of the Tagoe River in Sagami. Just four days after Rokudai Gozen's execution, the fifty-three-year-old Shogun Yoritomo was returning home from the ceremonial opening of a bridge in Sagami, when he was thrown from his horse. Seventeen days late...
