Japanese history overview Pt. 2: The Heian era
Welcome to part two of this overview of Japanese history. For those who haven’t read part one, I recommend doing so. Even if you already have a decent knowledge of ancient Japan, it never hurts to review. We’re going to pick up where we left off at the end of part one: the Heian era. This era more or less marks the end of ancient Japan and the beginning of the age of the samurai. Things are about to get very interesting and very bloody!
The Heian era: 794 – 1185
You can probably tell from the above dates alone that this is a beast of an era! In fact, it’s the longest of all periods of recorded Japanese history. Its name literally means ‘tranquillity’, and is taken from the name of the capital: Heian-kyō―a very appropriate name, considering the fact that for many years after the capital was moved from Nara, the court experienced a long and enjoyable period of peace.
You might have noticed that there’s a ten year gap between the end of the Nara era and the start of the Heian era. This is because the capital was first moved to a place called Nagaoka, which is located half-way between Heijō-kyō and Heian-kyō. Nagaoka remains a mystery; historians aren’t quite sure as to why plans to relocate there were scrapped so quickly. Hopefully, archaeological excavations will provide the answer one day. Heian-kyō, however, was far from the reaches of the power-seeking Buddhist sects in Nara, and it had no enemies to speak of. This allowed nobles to focus less on political matters and more on enjoyable pursuits, such as music, poetry and art.
The Imperial court
One problem to speak of was the growing Imperial Family; emperors had princes who, in turn, had princes, who, in turn, had more princes. The number was growing exponentially and creating a strain on the court, which had to constantly increase its budget in order to accommodate the expenses of the ever-expanding Imperial Family. They solved this problem by ‘demoting’ a number of princes, essentially expelling them from the family and sending them off to remote parts of the country to fend for themselves. This wasn’t as bad a deal as it sounds though: the relegated princes were given a decent amount of land and granted a kabane to let the locals know that while they ranked lower than court nobles, they still ranked higher than the rural wealthy families.
Emperor Kanmu’s grandchildren were the first to receive this treatment; they were awarded the ‘Taira’ kabane, formed from the Chinese character 平. Most likely, the name was taken from the capital, Heian-kyō(平安京), to express the fact that these former princes still had a connection to the court. The other most popular kabane was ‘Minamoto'(源). This kabane was first used in China. It means ‘origin’, suggesting that anyone holding this kabane originated from the court.
Buddhism
Elsewhere, two new forms of Buddhism popped up soon after the new capital’s construction: Tendai-shū and Shingon-shū. These were established by two monks named Saichō and Kūkai respectively, who both spent time in Tang studying new forms of Buddhist teachings. After gaining the trust of the court, they each expanded their sects until they became the two most widespread religions in the country.
Expanding the empire
The Emishi
Having gained solid control over the five provinces surrounding the capital, the court was focussed on both establishing more direct control over the rest of its empire and driving away the Emishi―a tribe of people living in the very north of Japan. Over the next few hundred years, the court led sporadic attacks on the Emishi―who were surprisingly resilient―before finally succeeding in driving the majority of them off to what is now Hokkaido, and interbreeding with the ones who remained to thin their bloodline.
Shōen
The rest of the country proved to be a bigger problem; laws established in the Nara era regarding ownership of land had allowed a large number of farmers, court nobles and religious sects to control significant chunks of the country. These estates became known as shōen. Poorer farmers who couldn’t afford to pay taxes donated their land to shōen in return for the right to tend the owners’ fields and keep a share of the harvest. The court sent governor-type figures known as zuryō to keep an eye on these wealthy landowners and stop them from becoming powerful enough to start a rebellion.
This system backfired horrendously; while many of the zuryō were kind and fair to the people occupying the land under their jurisdiction, others turned into tyrants. The zuryō were issued just one command from the court: collect a certain amount of crops, fish, vegetables and cloth each year as tax, and bring it all back to the capital. As long as they were able to do that, the court tacitly agreed to turn a blind eye to whatever questionable activities they may have been involved in. And so, a number of zuryō got carried away, charging additional taxes and pocketing the profit. When they discovered they could easily get away with this, they took it a step further and began to straight out raid the estates of the wealthiest landowners, stealing anything of value.
Knowing full well they would never be able to stand against the imperial army, the landowners had no choice but to put up with the zuryōs’ invasions. Some were able to escape the situation by bribing officials in the capital or marrying their daughters to nobles, thereby gaining allies within the court and, in some cases, even receiving official decrees preventing the zuryō from entering their land. Others took a very different approach: they trained their farmers and staff in the art of sword wielding, archery and horse riding, so that the next time the zuryō marched his men on their land, they were able to defend themselves. Landowners who built these small armies began to make deals with each other: if the zuryō’s men invaded one of their territories, the other would send his men to help fend them off. This evolved into a small network of mercenaries, who eventually banded together under notorious and powerful figures living in or near their areas. In most cases, these were members of the Taira or Minamoto. This created a hierarchy of rural soldiers many times stronger than the imperial army. In short, Japan had entered the age of the samurai.
The age of the samurai
The rise of the Fujiwara
Meanwhile, prominent members of the Fujiwara family continued to fight amongst themselves for control of the court until in 850 or so, Fujiwara no Yoshifusa succeeded in marrying his daughter to the emperor. When the emperor died, his son(Yoshifusa’s grandson) took the throne, awarding Yoshifusa the opportunity to become the first sesshō. This effectively solidified his family’s position within the court and ensured that his descendants would continue to occupy the roles of sesshō and kanpaku. For hundreds of years, the Fujiwara family continued this tradition of marrying their daughters to emperors and advising their grandsons when they took the throne.
However―as is often the case in history―the larger a family of importance grows, the greater the risk of family feuds. In the early Heian era, these conflicts were internal and had little effect on the country; in the late Heian era, however, they would become an indirect reason for the weakening of the court and the rise of the samurai.
A double whammy of rebellions
In 894, the court decided to stop sending envoys to Tang, having received word that it was close to collapsing. Their timing was pretty much spot on as the dynasty fell just thirteen years later. This, however, caused a major social problem in the west; many port towns along Japan’s inland sea made their living out of selling supplies to ships passing through on their way to Tang. With envoys no longer being sent, these towns lost their main source of income and ended up having to resort to piracy―a problem that would persist for at least the next two hundred years.
In 936, a man by the name of Fujiwara no Sumitomo was sent to tackle the piracy problem. However, having lost his father at an early age and with no one else to back him in the court, Sumitomo had very little chance of being able to rise to anything more than court lackey. So it was pretty much inevitable that he would end up sympathising with the pirates and joining their cause. By the year 939, he had become their leader and begun a rebellion against the court. The timing of this rebellion couldn’t have been worse for the court as it coincided with a rebellion in the east led by a samurai named Taira no Masakado. With all their manpower focussed on Sumitomo, the court had no choice but to rally local samurai to take on Masakado. The rebellions were put down in 940 and 941, but the fact that the court had to rely on samurai to take down their enemies hinted at a changing of the tide.
The rise of the Minamoto
In the early 11th century, the Fujiwara peaked, with Fujiwara no Michinaga rising to the top of the court and succeeding in marrying four of his daughters to four different emperors―a record that would remain undefeated for the rest of history. Michinaga had a number of private soldiers he used to do his bidding, one of the most loyal of whom was a man by the name of Minamoto no Yorinobu. Yorinobu was the grandson of Minamoto no Tsunemoto, who, in turn, was grandson to Emperor Seiwa. Tsunemoto had been involved in both the Taira no Masakado and Fujiwara no Sumitomo rebellions, earning his branch of the Minamoto family a foot in the court’s door. Yorinobu too helped to put down a Taira rebellion, gaining the clan even greater notoriety. All this, however, was merely the prelude to the Minamoto’s legendary story.
In 1053, Yorinobu’s son, Yoriyoshi, was called on to deal with a rebellion that had broken out in the north. It took him approximately nine years to finish the job, but he got it done, earning him a great deal of respect among the court. Twenty years later when the north started causing trouble again, Yoriyoshi’s son, Yoshiie, took it upon himself to sort the situation out. In the long run, this act would make him a legend among samurai across the country for hundreds of years to come. In the short run, however, it would cripple the Minamoto.
The fall of the Minamoto
It was a case of bad timing, really. While Yoshiie was busy up in the north, Emperor Shirakawa decided he had had enough of the Fujiwara family pulling the court’s strings, and so he set up a new system known as insei. While this would eventually go on to create a number of problems for the court, it ensured that at least for the immediate future, the Fujiwara family would be essentially powerless. The establishment of the insei system happened to coincide with the Minamoto’s rise to power. If Emperor Shirakawa didn’t want the Fujiwara interfering in the court, he certainly wasn’t about to let the Minamoto! So, he called Yoshiie out on a technicality: while Yoshiie had done the court a great service by ending the fighting in the north, the court hadn’t actually asked him to do it. In short, not only did Yoshiie receive no reward for his efforts, but the court refused to deal with him in any way until he recuperated all the lost tax he had incurred during his time away from his territory. While the emperor expected that this would hamper the Minamoto’s growth for the foreseeable future, however, it took Yoshiie just ten years to pay back all the tax and even reward his men out of his own pocket, proving to samurai everywhere he could be trusted, and transforming the Minamoto brand into the biggest samurai faction in the country.
As is often the case when a great man builds an empire, though, his idiot children ruin it just one generation later. In Yoshiie’s case, his son started a rebellion which was put down by a man by the name of Taira no Masamori. The Minamoto had spent over 150 years subduing the Taira and building their reputation only to end up handing the country over to their rivals on a plate.
The rise of the Taira
The Minamoto limped on under the control of Minamoto no Tameyoshi―Yoshiie’s grandson. Meanwhile, the Taira set to work building their reputation by taking it upon themselves to deal with the pirate situation in the west. Elsewhere, tension was building in the capital; a succession dispute broke out among the Fujiwara, coinciding with a succession dispute among the Imperial Family. The weakening of the Minamoto had caused bad blood among the clan and driven a wedge between Tameyoshi and his oldest son, Yoshitomo. It all came to a head in 1156, when the Imperial Family, the Fujiwara, the Minamoto and the Taira all divided up into two armies and had it out in the capital in a battle that would be remembered in history as the Hōgen rebellion.
Emperor Go-Shirakawa emerged the victor. He rewarded all the men who fought by his side. But one man in particular received a much greater reward than any other: Taira no Kiyomori, grandson of Masamori. This upset Yoshitomo, who felt that he should have been granted the lion’s share on account of the fact that not only had he fought just as hard as Kiyomori, but he had also been made to kill his father and a number of brothers when the battle was over. His resentment grew over the next few years until an opportunity arose to dethrone his rival: the Heiji rebellion. This was quickly put down by Kiyomori, who had his men hunt down and kill Yoshitomo before killing and exiling his sons.
There was nothing stopping Kiyomori now; having fought on the winning side of two of the most famous battles of the Heian era, the court had no choice but to rely solely on the Taira. Kiyomori’s power continued to grow until eventually, in 1167, he was proclaimed dajōdaijin―the highest rank attainable in the Ritsuryō hierarchy. For extra measure, he even married his daughter to the emperor and had their son ascend the throne when he was just one year old! As both dajōdaijin and grandfather to the emperor, Kiyomori looked to be unstoppable. But history loves a good twist…
The return of the Minamoto
Had Kiyomori not had his grandson proclaimed emperor, the title would, in all likelihood, have gone to Prince Mochihito, third son of retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy. He called on the remaining Minamoto hiding out around the country to join him in taking arms against the Taira. A number of men answered his call, thus beginning a five-year war between the Minamoto and the Taira. Prince Mochihito died early on in the war, but it raged on nevertheless, the grudge bore by the Minamoto still strong even twenty years after the death of Yoshitomo.
In the end, Yoshitomo’s third son, Yoritomo, drove the Taira west and finished them off, gaining control of all western and eastern regions of Japan. He quickly found an excuse to attack the north and add it to his portfolio, essentially granting him dominion over every region of the country barre the capital―which was still under the rule of the court. Go-Shirakawa proclaimed Yoritomo ‘sei-i-taishōgun’, a title that literally translates to ‘General in charge of defeating the barbarians’. This title was originally used for generals charged with attacking the Emishi in the north of the country. As a descendant of Yoshiie―who finished off the Emishi for good―Yoritomo felt the title to be appropriate. Until the end of the samurai era, it would continue to be used for the top samurai in the country.
Yoritomo went on to establish Japan’s first shōgunate in 1185(or possibly 1192. Historians are divided on the definition of ‘establish’). This marked the end of the Heian era and the beginning of the Kamakura era―Kamakura being the area in which Yoritomo settled to build his new empire. While it took a while for the shōgunate to find its feet, from the very beginning it was already more powerful than the court could ever hope to be again. Close to 700 years of samurai rule had begun. Join me in part three to see how it all plays out.
