Nanba Yoritsune (難波頼経)
Yoritsune NANBA (year of birth unknown - 1217) was a retainer of the Imperial Court during the late Heian period to early Kamakura period. He was the eldest son of Gyobukyo (Minister of Justice) Yorisuke NANBA. His rank was Jushiinoge (Junior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade), and he was a governor of Bungo Province as well as a gyobukyo. Munenaga NANBA and Masatsune ASUKAI were his children.
From the Ninan era (Japan) (from 1166) to the Jisho era (from 1177), he served as a provincial governor of Iki Province and Bungo Province. While he was a governor of Bungo Province he was ordered by his father, Yorisuke, who was a chigyo kokushu (provincial proprietor), to go down to Bungo Province. He then worked to control the local ruling families. When the Taira family was exiled from Kyoto in 1183, he directed the people of Bungo Province such as Koreyoshi OGATA to search out and conquer the Taira clan in accordance with the command from the retired emperor. Accepting this order, Koreyoshi activated the anti-Heike (the Taira clan) movement, and he ultimately managed to drive their power out from Dazaifu (local government office in the Kyushu region).
After the fall of the Taira clan he became a powerful ally of MINAMOTO no Yoshitsune, and he worked actively to get Koreyoshi and the people of Bungo Province to side with Yoshitsune. It is said that Koreyoshi's punishment for attacking and burning down Usa-jingu Shrine was lightened due to Yoshitsune and Yoritsune's doing. At the same time, he also allied himself with the trusted vassals of Retired Emperor Goshirakwa, such as Yasutsune TAKASHINA, and he worked against the Kamakura bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) that planned to search out and conquer Yoshitsune.
Such a political stance of Yoritsune made the probe by the bakufu inescapable. In December of 1185, he was dismissed from his position as a gyobukyo to which he was recently appointed. Then he was exiled in Awa Province. In March of the following year, he was temporarily pardoned and he returned to Kyoto. However, because he did not change his intention of supporting Yoshitsune, he was exiled once again to Izu Province in March of 1189 (at the same time, his eldest son, Munenaga, was also dismissed from his government position).
The descendants of Munenaga, the eldest son, continued as the Nanba family, and those of Masatsune, the second son, continued as the Asukai family into the later generations, and they both played central roles in the ways of kemari (a game played by aristocrats in the Heian period) and waka (a traditional Japanese poem of thirty-one syllables).