Minamoto no Mitsutsune (源光経)

MINAMOTO no Mitsutsune (year of birth unknown - January 10, 1184) is a samurai in the closing years of the Heian period. A second son of MINAMOTO no Mitsunaga, Hoki no kuni no kami (Governor of Hoki Province). His older brothers include MINAMOTO no Kuninaga and MINAMOTO no Mitsuhira, and his children include Mitsufusa (Hachijoin Kurodo) and Mitsusuke NAGASAWA (Dewa no kuni no kami [Governor of Dewa Province]).

It is recorded in "Sonpi Bunmyaku" (a text compiled in the fourteenth century that records the lineages of the aristocracy) that he resided in Kyoto together with his father Mitsunaga, who was the family head of the Toki clan of Mino-Genji (Minamoto clan), and assumed such titles as Kebiishi Saemon no Jo (third-ranked officer with judicial and police powers in the Left Division of Outer Palace Guards), and when his father sided with the army of the Retired Emperor Goshirakawa in the Battle of Hoju-ji Temple in 1184, he also accompanied his father and fought together in a fierce battle, but he and his father were killed in action and their heads were exposed to the public.

Mitsutsune's second son Mitsusuke later resided in Nagasawa, Ecchu Province, and continued his family line by the name of Nagasawa, and Mitsukuni NAGASAWA was one of the known descendants who lived in the Sengoku period (period of warring states).

[Original Japanese]