Shimazu Tadahisa, the first of the Shimazu clan lords, was the son of the Shogun, Minamoto no Yoritomo, and was born in the Sumiyoshi Taisha shrine in Osaka as Koremune Tadayoshi, receiving his mother’s family name as his own until changing his family name to Shimazu after his fief in Shimazu, Hyuga Province, (now Miyazaki Prefecture) later awarded to him by his father.
Tadahisa was made Lord of Shioda (Shinano, now Nagano Prefecture) in 1186 and three years later later became the governor of Satsuma province, when Honda Sadachika took the region in his stead while Tadahisa accompanied his father, Yoritomo, on his campaign to Mutsu (Currently the Tohoku region, north east Japan). In 1196 Tadahisa went to Satsuma and subdued Hyuga and Osumi provinces, (now Kagoshima) and established a castle in Shimazu, which became his clan name. Tadahisa’s grave is along side his father’s in Kamakura.
