The was a short
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
fought in order to resolve a dispute about political power. The
Heiji no ran encompassed clashes between rival subjects of the
cloisteredThe Insei system , or cloistered rule, was a specific form of government in Japan during the Heian period. In this bifurcated system, an Emperor abdicated, but he retained power and influence. The emperors who withdrew to live in monasteries continued to act in ways which were intended to...
Emperor Go-ShirakawaEmperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
of
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
in 1159. It was preceded by the
Hōgen RebellionThe was a short civil war fought in order to resolve a dispute about Japanese Imperial succession. The dispute was also about the degree of control exercised by the Fujiwara clan who had become hereditary Imperial regents during the Heian period....
in 1156. This struggle is seen as a direct outcome of that earlier armed dispute; but unlike
Hōgen no ran, this is not a dispute between members of the same clan. Rather, it becomes a struggle for power between two rival clans; and it is also seen as a precursor of a broader civil war.
Context
Emperor Go-Shirakawa stepped back from his formal role as emperor, but his abdication implied no ceding of political and other powers to his successor.
- September 5, 1158 (Hōgen
was a after Kyūju and before Heiji. This period spanned the years from April 1156 through April 1159. The reigning emperors were and .-Change of era:* January 24, 1156 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events...
3, 11th day of the 8th month): In the 3rd year of Go-Shirakawa-tennō 's reign (後白河天皇25年), the emperor abdicated; and the succession (senso) was received by his eldest son. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Nijō is said to have acceded to the throne (sokui).
After Nijō was formally enthroned, the management of all affairs continued to rest entirely in the hands of Go-Shirakawa.
In late 1159,
Taira no Kiyomoriwas a general of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan.After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he...
, head of the Taira clan and supporter of
Emperor NijōEmperor Nijō was the 78th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spaned the years from 1158 through 1165.- Genealogy :...
, left
Kyōtois a city in the central part of the island of Honshū, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the imperial capital of Japan, it is now the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as a major part of the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.-History:...
with his family, on a personal pilgrimage. This left his enemies,
Fujiwara no Nobuyoriwas one of the chief allies of Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji Rebellion of 1159. As a member of the Fujiwara clan, Nobuyori might have been in line to become regent, and he desired power, which he obtained for a short while following the Rebellion....
and the Minamoto clan, a perfect opportunity to effect an uprising.
- January 19—February 5, 1160 (Heiji
was a after Hōgen and before Eiryaku. This period spanned the years from April 1159 through January 1160. The reigning emperor was .-Change of era:* January 21, 1159 : The new era name was created to mark an event or series of events...
1, 9th—26th day of the 12th month): The Heijirebellion|, also known as the Heiji disturbance or the Heiji insurrection or the Heiji war.
Combat
In the
Siege of Sanjō PalaceThe Siege of the Sanjō Palace was the primary battle of the 1159 Heiji Rebellion. In early January of 1160, after Taira no Kiyomori left Kyoto on a family pilgrimage, Fujiwara no Nobuyori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo saw an opportunity to effect changes they sought in the government...
, Nobuyori and his Minamoto allies abducted the former emperor
Emperor Go-ShirakawaEmperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
and Emperor Nijō and set fire to the Palace.
Minamoto no Yoshitomowas the head of the Minamoto clan and a general of the late Heian period of Japanese history. His son Minamoto no Yoritomo became shogun and founded the Kamakura Shogunate, the first shogunate in the history of Japan.-Hōgen Rebellion:...
and
Fujiwara no Nobuyoriwas one of the chief allies of Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji Rebellion of 1159. As a member of the Fujiwara clan, Nobuyori might have been in line to become regent, and he desired power, which he obtained for a short while following the Rebellion....
placed Go-Shirakawa under house arrest and killed his retainer, the scholar
Fujiwara no Michinori, also known as ', an aristocratic Confucian scholar and monk, was one of the chief advisors to Emperor Nijō, and one of the chief allies of Taira no Kiyomori, particularly during the Heiji Rebellion of 1159....
. Nobuyori had himself declared imperial chancellor, and began to see his plans for political power fall into place.
However, the Minamoto did not plan well enough, militarily, and were unprepared to defend the city against Kiyomori's return. Upon his return, the Minamoto made no decisive moves and hesitated.
Kiyomori, who returned to Kyōto, offered to surrender to Nobuyori. However, this was a plot. While Nobuyori was careless, Kiyomori let the Emperor Nijō and the former emperor Go-shirakawa escape to Kiyomori's side.
Kiyomori received an imperial grant from the Emperor for attacking Yoshitomo and Nobuyori.
Taira no Shigemoriwas the eldest son of the Taira clan patriarch, Taira no Kiyomori. He took part in the Hōgen and Heiji rebellions. He died of illness in 1179....
(the eldest son of Kiyomori) led 3,000 cavalry and attacked the Imperial Palace where Yoshitomo and Nobuyori were holed up. Nobuyori ran away immediately, but
Minamoto no YoshihiraMinamoto no Yoshihira was a Minamoto clan warrior who fought alongside his father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, in the Heiji Rebellion....
(the eldest son of Yoshitomo) fought back and a fierce battle ensued. Yoshihira fought hard and chased Shigemori within the Imperial Palace.
The Taira force retreated and the Minamoto force left the Imperial Palace in pursuit. This was a plot of Kiyomori. A detached Taira force occupied the Imperial Palace. The Minamoto force was cut off from the way of retreat. The Minamoto force charged at Rokuhara of a base of Kiyomori. It became a fierce battle, but finally the Minamoto force fled in disorderly retreat.
Outcome
Ultimately,
Taira no Kiyomoriwas a general of the late Heian period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the history of Japan.After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he...
defeated Yoshitomo, killed his two eldest sons and Nobuyori, and released Go-Shirakawa. Yoshitomo was eventually betrayed and killed by a retainer while escaping from Kyōto in
Owariwas an old province of Japan that is now the western half of present day Aichi Prefecture, including much of modern Nagoya. Its abbreviation is Bishū .-History:The province was created in 646....
.
Afterwards, Taira no Kiyomori banished Yoshitomo's son
Minamoto no Yoritomowas the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...
, seized Minamoto wealth and land, and eventually formed the first of four
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
dominated governments during the feudal
history of JapanThe history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...
.
Legacy
The rivalry between the Minamoto and Taira clans was exacerbated by the Heiji rebellion. This led to the
Genpei WarThe was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the late-Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192....
, ending with the decisive Taira defeat at the
Battle of Dan-no-uraThe ' was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On March 24, 1185, the Genji clan fleet, led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, defeated the Heike clan fleet, during a half-day engagement.The Taira were outnumbered, but...
in 1185.
The
Kamakura periodThe is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
epic
Tale of the Disturbance in HeijiThe Tale of Heiji is a Japanese war epic detailing the events of the Heiji Rebellion of 1159-1160, in which samurai clan head Minamoto no Yoshitomo attacked and besieged Kyoto, as part of an Imperial succession dispute, in which he was opposed by Taira no Kiyomori, head of the Taira clan...
is about the exploits of the samurai that participated in the Heiji Rebellion. Together with the
Tale of the Disturbance in Hōgenis a Japanese war chronicle or military tale which relates the events and prominent figures of the Hōgen Rebellion. This literary and historical classic is believed to have been completed in the Kamakura period ca. 1320. Its author or authors remain unknown...
and the
Tale of Heike, these war stories (
gunki monogatariis a literary form in traditional Japanese literature, an extended prose narrative tale comparable to the epic. Monogatari is closely tied to aspects of the oral tradition, and almost always relates a fictional or fictionalized story, even when retelling a historical event...
) describe the rise and fall of the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans.