Minamoto no Sanetomo, renowned as the third Kamakura shogun, died at the age of twenty-eight, assassinated on the steps of Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura by his own kinsman. Partly because of his premature death but also because of the excellence of his poetry, Sanetomo has attracted readers generation after generation, and many books have been written about his life and poetry. The primary sources of information on Sanetomo's life and work are Azuma kagami (Mirror of the East Country, thirteenth century), an historical record compiled by the Kamakura shogunate, and Kinkai wakashu (Collection of the Kamakura Minister), a collection of Sanetomo's uta which seems to have been put together initially by the poet himself in 1213.

Sanetomo was born the second son of Minamoto no Yoritomo in the same year that Yoritomo was appointed by the Kyoto court as the seiitai shgun, or “barbarian-subduing generalissimo.” Yoritomo selected Kamakura...