The
Hōgen Rebellion (保元の乱) was a Japanese
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
fought in 1156 over Japanese imperial succession and control of the Fujiwara clan of
regentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
s. However, it also succeeded in establishing the dominance of the
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...
clans and eventually the first samurai-led government in the
history of JapanThe written history of Japan begins with brief information of Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century AD. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper paleolithic period...
.
After the death of the
cloisteredThe Insei system , or cloistered rule, was a specific form of government in Japan, in which the Emperor abdicated, but kept exerting power and influence. Retired emperors are called Daijō Tennō or Jōkō...
Emperor TobaEmperor Toba was the 74th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1107 through 1123.- Genealogy :...
,
Emperor Go-ShirakawaEmperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
and the retired
Emperor SutokuEmperor Sutoku was the 75th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
disputed over succession to the throne and continuation of the cloistered government.
The
Hōgen Rebellion (保元の乱) was a Japanese
civil warA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
fought in 1156 over Japanese imperial succession and control of the Fujiwara clan of
regentA regent, from the Latin regens "reigning", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Thus, the common use is for an acting deputy governor....
s. However, it also succeeded in establishing the dominance of the
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...
clans and eventually the first samurai-led government in the
history of JapanThe written history of Japan begins with brief information of Twenty-Four Histories, a collection of Chinese historical texts, in the 1st century AD. However, there is evidence that suggests people were living on the islands of Japan since the upper paleolithic period...
.
After the death of the
cloisteredThe Insei system , or cloistered rule, was a specific form of government in Japan, in which the Emperor abdicated, but kept exerting power and influence. Retired emperors are called Daijō Tennō or Jōkō...
Emperor TobaEmperor Toba was the 74th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1107 through 1123.- Genealogy :...
,
Emperor Go-ShirakawaEmperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
and the retired
Emperor SutokuEmperor Sutoku was the 75th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
disputed over succession to the throne and continuation of the cloistered government. Sutoku and Go-Shirakawa were sons of Toba.
Fujiwara no TadamichiFujiwara no Tadamichi was the eldest son of the Japanese regent Fujiwara no Tadazane and a member of the politically powerful Fujiwara clan.In the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156, Tadamichi sided with the Emperor Go-Shirakawa....
, first son of regent
Fujiwara no Tadazanewas a Japanese noble and the grandson of Fujiwara no Morozane. He built a villa, the Fukedono north of the Byodo-In Temple in 1114....
, sided with Go-Shirakawa while his younger brother
Fujiwara no YorinagaFujiwara no Yorinaga of the Fujiwara clan held the position of Imperial Palace Minister of the Left.Born in 1120, Yorinaga ascended quickly through the political ranks achieving formidable office by the age of 17...
sided with Sutoku. Each rival side in turn beckoned the Minamoto and Taira clans of samurai.
Minamoto no TameyoshiMinamoto no Tameyoshi was head of the Minamoto samurai clan during his lifetime, and grandson of Minamoto no Yoshiie; he led the Minamoto in the Hōgen Rebellion. Tameyoshi is also known as Mutsu Shirō....
, head of the Minamoto clan, and Taira no Tadamasa sided with Sutoku and Yorinaga while on the other hand
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:...
, first son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi, and
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 nephew of Taira no Tadamasa, sided with Go-Shirakawa and Tadamichi.
On July 10, both forces faced each other in
Kyotois 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....
. On the Sutoku side,
Minamoto no Tametomo' was a samurai who fought in the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156. He was the son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi, and brother to Yukiie and Yoshitomo....
(son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi) suggested a night attack on an enemy palace, but Fujiwara no Yorinaga rejected this strategy. Meanwhile, their enemy Minamoto no Yoshitomo suggested the same, and followed through on it.
At night of July 11, Kiyomori and Yoshitomo led 600 cavalry and attacked a palace of Sutoku. Kiyomori attacked West gate where Tametomo protected. Tametomo repulsed Kiyomori's force by his outstanding archery. Then Yoshitomo attacked Tametomo but also he was repulsed. Sutoku's samurai fought hard, and a fierce battle continued.
Yoshitomo suggested that they set aflame the enemy palace. This was done and, fighting both the flames and Go-Shirakawa's forces, the Sutoku's samurai fled leaving Go-Shirakawa's allies victorious on the battlefield.
The forces of Go-Shirakawa went on to defeat Sutoku making the way for
Emperor NijōEmperor Nijō was the 78th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession...
to be appointed to the throne and Go-Shirakawa becoming the new cloistered emperor in 1158. Sutoku was banished to
Sanuki provincewas an old province of Japan on the island of Shikoku, with the same boundaries as modern Kagawa Prefecture. It faced the Inland Sea and bordered on Awa and Iyo Provinces. Across Naruto strait it bordered Awaji Province too. Administratively it was included as a part of Nankaidō...
of
Shikokuis the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...
, Fujiwara no Yorinaga was killed in battle, and Minamoto no Tameyoshi and Taira no Tadamasa were executed. Tametomo survived the battlefield and forced to flee. Minamoto no Yoshitomo became head of the Minamoto after the death of his father and together with Taira no Kiyomori, succeeded in establishing the two samurai clans as major new political powers in
Kyotois 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....
.
The outcome of the Hōgen Rebellion and the rivalry established between the Minamoto and Taira clans led to the
Heiji RebellionThe was fought between rival subjects of the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa of Japan in 1159. It was preceded by the Hōgen Rebellion in 1156. In many ways, this struggle is seen as a direct outcome of that earlier armed dispute....
in 1159.
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 HōgenThe Tale of Hōgen is 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...
is about the exploits of the samurai that participated in the Hōgen Rebellion. Together with the
Tale of 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...
and the
Tale of Heike, they describe the rise and fall of the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans.