Soga Brothers
Samurai of the early Kamakura period famous for their retribution
The Soga brothers were samurai of the early Kamakura period (1180-1333). The brothers, Sukenari (1172-1193) and Tokimune (1174-1193), were the sons of Kawazu Saburo Sukeyasu, member of a powerful family of Izu Province. In 1172 Sukeyasu was killed by Kudo Suketsune in a territorial battle. When their mother remarried to a man named Soga Sukenobu, the young brothers were given the surname Soga.
Suketsune, a favorite of Minamoto no Yoritomo and a senior vassal of the Kamakura shogunate, sought to kill the Soga brothers, but a band consisting of Hatakeyama Shigetada and Wada Yoshimori saved them. The brothers, who were now adults, wanted to kill Suketsune, but no opportunity presented itself.
In the fifth month of 1193, when the Yoritomo court conducted a hunt in Fujino (in the foothills of Mount Fuji), Suketsune accompanied the hunting party. The brothers determined where Suketsune was staying and in the middle of the night, braving the wind and rain, broke into the inn, killed Suketsune, and avenged their father. But Sukenari was killed by the night guard Nitta Tadatsune, and Tokimune was captured and later beheaded.
This incident was described in the heroic legend Soga monogatari (The Tale of the Soga Brothers). From there the legend spread to various types of popular Soga materials, such as Noh songs, recitative dances (kowakamai), Noh plays, and old-style jorurui (storytelling accompanied on the shamisen), which spread the legend throughout Japan.
Related People, Things and Events
Books
Sogamono works derived from Soga Monogatari (“The Tale of the Soga Brothers”)
Related Works
Kabuki plays based on Soga Monogatari: Ya no Ne
Kabuki plays based on Soga Monogatari: Kusazuribiki
Kabuki plays based on Soga Monogatari: Taimen
Kabuki plays based on Soga Monogatari: Sukeroku
Soga no Goro in ukiyo-e paintings
Soga no Juro in ukiyo-e paintings
Kudo in ukiyo-e paintings
Oisotora in ukiyo-e paintings
Historical audio records (SP records) of Soga Monogatari
Past Exhibitions
| Title | shusai | Place | open | close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 国立公文書館 | 2011/4/2 | 2011/4/21 | ||
Institutions Holding Related Materials
静岡県富士市HPより。曾我兄弟の仇討ちについて、市内の名所・旧跡などを紹介しています。
静岡県富士宮市の観光情報「ふじのみやNAVI」より。これらの名所は、市内の有名な白糸の滝の近くにあります。
エムワイスターが運営するサイト「湘南プロムナード」の「湘南物語」より。曾我兄弟に関わる名所・旧跡などが紹介されています。
The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.
As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.
Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.
General Museum and Research Institute of Japanese History / A member of National Institutes for the Humanities, Inter-University Research Institute Corporation
The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.
This institution strives to serve researchers in the field of Japanese literature as well as those working in various other humanities fields, by collecting in one location a massive archive of materials related to Japanese literature from all corners of the country.
The Art Research Center was established in 1998. Since then, the Center’s mission has been not only to conduct historical and social research and analyses of both tangible and intangible human cultural properties such as visual and performing arts and craftsmanship, but also to record, organize, preserve, and disseminate the research outcomes. To make the vast amount of database of resources on Japanese culture kept at the Art Research Center available to joint researchers in and outside of Japan, while providing the hitherto accumulated digital archiving and database management technologies as the basis for research project activities to promote information archiving and the circulating of joint research on knowledge. Through these undertakings, the Center aims to “become a world class research center” in the field of Digital Humanities.
From 1996 to 2018, Aomori Prefecture has compiled the history of itself and published 36 volumes of "The History of Aomori Prefecture" and 14 volumes of "The History of Aomori Prefecture Series". These have covered a wide range of fields and long timeframes: Nature, Archeology, Ancient, Medieval, Early modern, Modern, Folklore and Cultural property. In the process of compiling, with the cooperation of many institutions and persons, we recorded or collected various historical materials. After compilation, we are publishing these historical materials through “Digital Archives of the History of Aomori Prefecture”.
External Links
国際日本文化研究センター(日文研)のサイトより。データベースの米国議会図書館所蔵奈良絵本のうちとして『曾我物語』25巻が閲覧できる。
平成23年度 春の特別展「国立公文書館創立40周年記念貴重資料展Ⅰ 歴史と物語」より。展示された資料は貞享4年(1687)刊で、紅葉山文庫旧蔵のもの。
神奈川県小田原市HPの「小田原デジタルアーカイブ」より。物語の成立についての解説や、浮世絵に描かれた曾我物語などが紹介されている。
昭和31年(1956)に設立された演劇と映画の専門図書館。パソコンでの検索も可能。トップ画面の利用案内「資料検索 資料検索はこちら」をクリックし、検索ボックスのタイトルに「曾我兄弟」「曾我物語」などと入力して検索する。なお、実際の図書館は東京都中央区築地に所在し、こちらも利用できる。
References
- 石井進著,小学館,石井, 進(1931-)||イシイ, ススム <AU00249673>
- 坂井孝一 著,吉川弘文館
- 「曽我兄弟」の項
- 「曾我兄弟」の項
- 「曾我兄弟」の項
- 「曾我兄弟」の項
- 歴史学研究会 編,岩波書店
- サンプルページ「曾我物語」の項
- サンプルページ『曾我物語』が載っている。