Taira no Kiyomori
Taira no Kiyomori ( Japanese 平 清盛 ; * 1118 ; † 1181 ) was a general in the late Heian period in Japan . He established the first samurai- dominated government in Japanese history .
Life
After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori took over the leadership of the Taira family and entered the political stage with great ambitions, on which he had previously only played a minor role. In 1156 he and Minamoto no Yoshitomo , the leader of the Minamoto clan, suppressed the Hōgen rebellion . The Taira and Minamoto established themselves as the most powerful political forces in Kyoto .
However, their new power resulted in their previous allies becoming bitter rivals. The conflict culminated three years later in the Heiji Rebellion of 1159. Kiyomori triumphed and became the main political power in Heian-kyō , Yoshitomo and his two eldest sons perished. At the request of his wife, Kiyomori showed mercy and exiled Yoshitomo's three youngest sons, Yoritomo , Noriyori and Yoshitsune, and took over most of his rivals' territories.
As the greatest political power and holder of most of the fiefdoms in Japan, he amassed undisputed wealth and power.
In 1167, Kiyomori was the first samurai to be appointed Daijō Daijin , Supreme Government Minister and de facto administrator of the Imperial Government. Although he relinquished that position and official leadership of the clan later in the year, he continued to pull the strings of government policy and successfully placed family members and allies in most government posts and administrations in nearly half of Japan.
In 1171, Kiyomori enforced the marriage between Emperor Takakura and his daughter Tokuko. Their first son, Prince Tokihito, was born in 1178. In 1179, Kiyomori staged a coup d'état, forcing his rivals to resign from all government posts and banning them. He filled the vacant posts with allies and relatives. He took the abdicated Emperor Go-Shirakawa prisoner and in 1180 forced the Emperor Takakura to abdicate and put Prince Tokuhito on the throne as Emperor Antoku .
With the expansion of the power and wealth of the Taira and Kiyomori's new monopoly on governmental authority, many of his allies, most of the samurai in the provinces and even members of his own clan, turned against him. Prince Mochihito , brother of Emperor Takakura, called on Kiyomori's old rivals from the Minamoto clan to fight the Taira and thus started the Gempei War in mid-1180 .
In June 1180, Kiyomori arranged for the capital to be moved to Fukuhara-kyō , which was moved back to Heian-kyō in November. Kiyomori died of malaria early the following year, leaving his sons with the decline and destruction of the Taira clan by the Minamoto.
Taira no Kiyomori is also the main actor in the epic Heike Monogatari from the Kamakura period . Taira no Kiyomori donated a new building complex and sutras for the Itsukushima Shrine .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 平 清盛 . In: ブ リ タ ニ カ 国際 大 百科 事 典 小 項目 事 典 at kotobank.jp. Retrieved November 21, 2014 (Japanese).
- ↑ Liew, Christine: Geschichte Japans, Stuttgart 2012, p. 37.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Taira no Kiyomori |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 平 清盛 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | General in the late Heian period in Japan |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1118 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1181 |