Search

Japanese monk. Kūkai, who was given the name Kōbō Daishi (koh-boh di-shee) posthumously in 931, was born to lady Atō Tamayori and Saeki Tagimi, aristocrats whose family was in political decline. A prodigy, at age fifteen, he began studying Chinese classics with a renowned Confucian scholar Atō Ōtari and, at age eighteen, entered the National University, typically a path to an elite bureaucratic career. However, Kūkai eventually dropped out, becoming a wandering Buddhist ascetic without official status.

Japanese shogun (1192-1199). Minamoto Yoritomo (mee-nah-moh-toh yoh-ree-toh-moh) rose to prominence as a leader of provincial warriors in eastern Japan. The circumstances of his birth were central to his career. He was the son of Minamoto Yoshitomo (1123-1160) and a court lady, the daughter of Fujiwara Sukenori, and had eight brothers or half brothers. Little is known of Yoritomo’s first twelve years except that he lived in Kyoto (he would later demonstrate that he was comfortable with courtiers in his regime).

French philosopher. Isidore-Auguste-Marie-François-Xavier Comte (kahnt) was the eldest of his parents’ four children. His father, Louis-Auguste Comte, was a tax official, a man of strict habits and narrow interests; his mother, Félicité-Rosalie Boyer, twelve years older than her husband, was a warm, emotional person who devoted her life to her children. Both parents were devout Roman Catholics and royalists.

German-born French philosopher. Holbach hosted the most renowned philosophical salon in Paris for four decades, was a major contributor to the Encyclopedia, launched a relentless attack against Christianity, and developed a secular moral and political philosophy. He influenced the French Revolution and later anticlerical writers.

General. Minamoto Yoshitsune and his older half-brother Minamoto Yoritomo were sons of Minamoto Yoshitomo, who helped Taira Kiyomori gain power but later died attempting a coup. A second Minamoto rebellion started the Gempei War (1180–1185). Clan leader Yoritomo’s cousin Minamoto Yoshinaka captured Kyoto but proved untrustworthy and was crushed in 1184 at Uji (March 5) and Ōmi by Yoshitsune and another half-brother, Minamoto Noriyori. The Minamoto then attacked the Taira base at Ichinotani (March 20). Yoshitsune’s surprise descent down a steep ravine with a small band brought confusion and defeat to the Taira, who fled by sea to Yashima. The following year, Yoshitsune crossed in a violent storm to Shikoku and marched overnight to attack Yashima (March 2, 1185) at dawn from the landward side, frightening the Taira to their ships before they grasped his modest numbers. A month later, he engaged them at Dannoura (April 25) in the straits between Kyushu and Honshu. Closing only when treacherous tides turned favorable, he used archers to decimate their seamen, then boarded and annihilated his foe.