Background
Tadahisa Shimazu was born in 1179. According to a record of his life, he was reportedly born in Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka. Tadahisa was a son of the Shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) by the sister of Hiki Yoshikazu.
忠久 島津
Tadahisa Shimazu was born in 1179. According to a record of his life, he was reportedly born in Sumiyoshi Taisha in Osaka. Tadahisa was a son of the Shōgun Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199) by the sister of Hiki Yoshikazu.
He was initially Koremune no Tadahisa (惟宗忠久) but after being given the territory of Shimazu, Hyūga Province to rule from by Minamoto no Yoritomo, he took the name of Shimazu.
The Kamakura Shogunate made him Sahyoe-no-jo (high officer of the Imperial Palace Guard) (1185) and governor of Satsuma, Osumi and Hiuga provinces in Kyushu (1186).
Distinguished himself in the Shogunate campaign in the Ou District (1189) and was rewarded with appointment as governor of Wakasa Province (Fukui Prefecture).
He sent Honda Sadachika to take possession of the province in his name and accompanied Yoritomo in his expedition to Mutsu in 1189. He went to Satsuma in 1196, subdued Hyūga and Ōsumi provinces, and built a castle in the domain of Shimazu (Hyūga) which name he also adopted. He is buried in Kamakura, near his father's tomb.
He married a daughter of Koremune Hironobu, descendant of the Hata clan, whose name Tadahisa at first took.