Hojo Takatoki

The site where Takatoki and a number of others committed suicide in 1333 (Hôjô Takatoki Harakiri Yagura), a short distance from the grave of Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, in Kamakura.

• Born: 1303
• Died: 1333/5/22
• Japanese: 北条高時 (houjou takatoki)

Hôjô Takatoki was the 14th and last of the Hôjô clan regents (shikken). He was forced to commit suicide during the 1333 fall of Kamakura to pro-Imperial forces led by Nitta Yoshisada on behalf of Emperor Go-Daigo.

Takatoki became regent in 1310.

The site where Takatoki and other members of the Hôjô clan killed themselves can still be found today, a few tens of meters from the grave of Minamoto no Yoritomo, but Takatoki was afterwards entombed at the Zen temple Engaku-ji founded by his grandfather Hôjô Tokimune.

References

• Arai Hakuseki, Joyce Ackroyd (trans.), Told Round a Brushwood Fire, University of Tokyo Press (1979), 312n48.