Taira
The Taira ( Japanese 平 ) were next to the Fujiwara , Minamoto and Tachibana one of the four most influential clan families that dominated the politics of Japan during the Heian period . According to the Sino-Japanese reading of their name, this family is also known by the names Heike ( 平 家 ) and Heishi ( 平 氏 ). Its rise and fall was recorded in the Heike Monogatari in the 13th or 14th century and is still used today as the basis for theater , film and television productions .
origin
The name Taira was first given in the 9th century to descendants of the 50th emperor Kammu ( 桓 武 , 781-806). Since the numerous descendants of the emperors were often unable to hold offices at court, more and more princes were made subjects by receiving a surname and given land or offices in provinces outside the capital Heian , particularly during the Heian period . In the course of time, the original Taira family also developed several secondary branches, e.g. B. the Miura or the Hōjō , so that families of both the Taira and other clans were scattered across Japan. Often these branch families named themselves after the region in which they owned land, e.g. B. the Ise-Taira. Most of the Taira holdings were concentrated in eastern Japan.
Heian period
In order to defend their land holdings against neighbors, the descendants of the emperor built private armies in the provinces. Like the Minamoto, the Taira soon developed into warrior powers , whose military strength was often used by the imperial court to suppress rebellions against the government. The taira not only served the dominant and secretly ruling Fujiwara at court. From the beginning of the 11th century, the Ise-Taira formed an armed force for the ex-emperors living in the monastery , whose aim was to reduce the political influence of the Fujiwara at court. There were also clan members from the earliest times who used their power against the state and incited rebellions themselves, e.g. B. the rebellion of the Taira no Masakado in the year 939. With the aim of establishing a second court, he occupied the provincial office in Hitachi, thus seized control of the provinces in the Kantō area and was proclaimed as the new ruler of the country . After only a short time his rebellion was put down by the army of Taira no Sadamoris and Fujiwara Hidesatos on behalf of the court in Heian and Masakado was killed.
The claim to power of the warrior nobility over the incapacitated court nobility was already apparent at the time of Masakado, but the final triumph and rise did not follow until 200 years later under the leadership of Taira no Kiyomori .
Political rise
From the 11th century onwards there were increasing internal conflicts and disputes among the nobles at the imperial court itself, which paved the way for the loss of power of the kuge , court aristocrats like the Fujiwara. At the same time the rise of the bushi, the warrior families like the Taira and Minamoto, began. The success of the Taira was based primarily on the ambition and the skillful politics of their then head Taira no Kiyomori. During the Hōgen rebellion in 1156 they fought under his leadership at the side of Minamoto no Yoshitomo for the interests of Tennō Go-Shirakawa , who ultimately prevailed against the ex-Tennō Sutoku , whereby both families gained importance in politics. Over this newly won power, the former allies fell apart and the rivalry between the two warrior families increased so much that it was fought at gunpoint in 1159/1160 in the course of the Heiji Rebellion . In the end, Yoshitomo and his eldest sons were killed and his three youngest sons, including Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune , were exiled. As a result, the Taira had prevailed against the Minamoto for at least the next two decades and were able to considerably expand the range of their power in the country. Kiyomori himself not only amassed land and wealth, but initially exercised direct influence on politics in the office of Daijō daijin, a kind of chancellor. Within a very short time, he relieved the powerful Fujiwara of their high offices and filled them with family members and allies of the Taira. After a short time he gave up the office of chancellor and pulled the strings at court from the background. Through a clever marriage policy, he united the line of the Taira with the imperial family and above all secured his own position of power. So he married his sister-in-law to the ex-emperor Go-Shirakawa and later also her son Norihito, Emperor Takakura , with his own daughter Toku.
case
The rapid rise and concentration of political power in the hands of the Taira, and especially in the hands of one man, soon led nobles, former allies, and even clan members to oppose Kiyomori. When he then forced Emperor Takakura to abdicate in 1180 and put his two-year-old grandson Antoku on the imperial throne, Prince Mochihito , Takakura's brother in particular, felt that he was being left out. In the same year he allied himself with the Minamoto and other enemies of Kiyomori. Over the next five years there were a number of clashes that later went down in history as the Gempei War . Since in the years 1177–1180 several natural disasters, famine and epidemics had struck the capital of Heian at the time, the mood among the people was also irritable. In connection with the conflict at the court in Kyoto , all of Japan therefore recorded uprisings against the representatives of the court in the provinces, most of which, thanks to Kiyomori, belonged to the Taira clan or were its allies. After Kiyomori's death from illness in February 1181, the Taira headed straight for their doom. In the battle of Dan-no-ura in March 1185, the Minamoto under the leadership of Yoritomo won the last battle. In addition to the numerous soldiers of the Taira, Kiyomori's widow and the young emperor Antoku were also killed in this battle. In order to put the country back in order, the victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo established the first shogunate in Kamakura in the following years .
Kamakura time
Despite the defeat by the Minamoto and the great losses, the Taira were not completely wiped out and their political influence was not completely shattered. In the Kamakura shogunate, too, a branch of the Taira managed to lead politics from the background. In 1203 Hōjō Tokimasa , Minamoto no Yoritomo's father-in-law, received the office of Shikken . He was the regent for the Shogun , d. This means that de facto the Shikken and thus the Hōjō held the entire political power. Their monopoly of power finally ended in 1333 with the overthrow of the Kamakura shogunate by the Ashikaga .
Important personalities
These were important members of the Taira clan.
- Taira no Takakiyo (1173-1199)
- Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181)
- Taira no Shigehira (1158-1185)
- Taira no Tomomori (1152–1185)
- Taira no Munemori (1147–1185)
- Taira no Shigemori (1138–1179)
- Taira no Tadanori (1144-1184)
- Taira no Masakado (903-940)
literature
- GB Sansom: Japan - a short cultural history . Cresset, London 1987
- AL Sadler: A short history of Japan . Angus and Robertson, London 1962
- Malcolm Kennedy: A history of Japan . Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London 1963
- Conrad Totman: A history of Japan . Blackwell, Malden 2000
- John Whitney Hall: The Japanese Empire . Fischer library, Frankfurt am Main 1968
- Judith N. Rabinovitch: Shōmonki. The story of Masakado's rebellion . Sophia University , Tokyo 1986
- Karl F. Friday: Hired Swords . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1992
- G. Cameron Hurst: Insi . Columbia University Press, New York 1976
- Mikael S. Adolphson: Heian Japan, centers and peripheries . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu 2007
- Karl F. Friday: Samurai, warfare and the state in early medieval Japan . Routledge, New York 2004
