坂上田村麻呂
Tamuramaro no Sakanoue was born in 758. The members of the Sakanoue family were hereditary military leaders in the service of the court. Tamura- inaro’s father, Karitamaro, demonstrated his bravery at the time of the Emi no Oshikatsu uprising in 764.
Tamuramaro came to enjoy the favor of Emperor Kammu and to be entrusted with the military affairs of the court. In 794 he was sent on an expedition against the Ezo people, who lived in the Tolioku region of northern Japan, and in 797 was given the newly created title of seii-taishogun (roughly, “commander-in-chief against the barbarians”), the first time the military title of shogun was used.
In 801 he was dispatched on a second expedition against the Ezo, this time at the head of a force of over forty thousand soldiers.
After his death, his grave in Kyoto, called the Shogunzuka, became an object of veneration among military men, and it was said that they would customarily visit it to pay their respects before setting oil to battle. He is also said to have been the founder of the Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto.
