The Genpei War Pt. 2
Welcome to part two of this four-part series of articles on the Genpei War. Part one finished off with the war having barely begun and none of the major players even having made an appearance, which means we have a lot to get through this time! This part promises at least twice the action and drama of part one at double the pace. For anyone who hasn’t read part one, you’re going to be severely lost. Go back, read it and familiarise yourself with all the necessary background information before reading any further and accidentally catching a glimpse of any spoilers. You have been warned!
For the rest of you, refer to the map of feudal Japan to find the locations of the various provinces that are going to pop up this time, and refer to the family trees below to refamiliarise yourself with the various members of the Imperial Family, the Taira and the Minamoto who are going to be made mention of. (Click on individual images to open them). If you’re now all ready, let’s throw Minamoto no Yoritomo into the chaos of the Genpei War!
Minamoto no Yoritomo’s Uprising
We ended part one with the death of Prince Mochihito and Minamoto no Yorimasa. If you’ll remember back, before they began their rebellion, they sent Minamoto no Yukiie around the country looking for members of the Minamoto clan to join their cause. One stop on his journey was his nephew, Yoritomo, who had spent the past twenty years imprisoned in Izu.
That’s not to say he was chained to a stone wall peering through iron bars in a small window and dreaming of the day he could bathe in sunlight again; his past status combined with the fact he had imperial blood flowing through his veins gave him access to almost celebrity-level treatment. Other than the restrictions put in place regarding how far he could travel outside of his area of confinement, he was free to do pretty much whatever he wanted. He even managed to impregnate his warder’s daughter(although his warder drowned the baby as soon as it was born for fear of what the Taira would do to him should they find out).
Yoritomo refused his uncle’s request and sat on his hands while Mochihito’s rebellion failed. However, when the Taira decided to conduct a Minamoto witch hunt, Yoritomo realised he had no choice but to take arms. He wasn’t without allies though; many powerful families in the east had lost their land and positions at the hands of the Taira. They were more than willing to band together under a member of the Minamoto—no less one descended from the legendary Minamoto no Yoshiie.
Conquering Izu
With a few hundred men under his belt, Yoritomo selected his first target: Yamaki Kanetaka—a representative sent by the Taira to govern Izu in their place. Yoritomo picked the night a religious festival was scheduled at the local shrine, suspecting that many of Kanetaka’s men would be in attendance, and thus security at his residence would be thin. His intuitions were correct. Kanetaka was holding a banquet, protected by only a handful of soldiers. Yoritomo set his men on them. Despite their small numbers, Kanetaka’s men put up a fight, continuing the battle long into the night, but in the end, Yoritomo’s army pierced their defences and invaded the building, taking their leader’s head.
The Battle of Ishibashiyama
With the Taira’s main man in Izu having been taken out, Yoritomo was free to march his men east without fear of his enemy attacking him from behind. Word reached the Taira quicker than he had expected, though. They ordered an ally, Ōba Kagechika, to hunt down the rogue Minamoto army. Kagechika led 3,000 men towards Izu.
When Yoritomo heard of this development, he hastily led his men up the nearest mountain, Ishibashiyama, and fortified the surrounding area as best he could. On August 23, Kagechika led his men up an adjacent mountain and stared down Yoritomo, hoping the sight of his significantly larger army would force a surrender. That night, a storm broke out. The sound of their attack silenced by the rain, Kagechika’s army descended their base and initiated a stealth attack. Yoritomo didn’t stand a chance. His men fought as best they could before their enemy cut down enough of them to convince the rest to flee. Yoritomo himself fled to the neighbouring mountain with just a handful of men.
| Taira | Minamoto | Kiso |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 | 0 |
Kajiwara Kagetoki
The defeated remnants of the Minamoto army hid themselves in a small cave. When day broke, Kagechika’s men began their search. After a while, a soldier by the name of Kajiwara Kagetoki entered the cave and found the tired, drenched men huddled together. The game was up. Or was it? As luck would have it, Kagetoki was sympathetic to Yoritomo’s cause. He promised to keep his secret if Yoritomi accepted him into whatever kind of establishment he was trying to form once the war was over. Kagetoki told the other soldiers the cave was clear and that their targets had probably escaped to a mountain further away, putting them off the scent and allowing Yoritomo and his men to make a final escape.
Growing the Resistance
Once down the mountain, Yoritomo and his men trekked 9 miles to the Manazuru peninsula, where they travelled by boat to Sunosaki port in Awa province. There, they met with the Miura, whose attempts to reach them had been thwarted by Taira sympathisers since the start of the uprising. Yoritomo sent scouts to the Takeda clan, who ruled over the Kai province. Those of you familiar with Japanese history will recognise this name instantly. Yes… Yoritomo intended to get Takeda Shingen’s ancestors on side! Since the Takeda clan was a branch of the Minamoto, there was a good chance they’d take him up on his offer.
With his scouts out in search of allies, Yoritomo led the rest of his men north through the Bōsō peninsula, seeking out others to join his cause. Since the Taira governed the entire peninsula, it wasn’t hard to find disenchanted samurai clans who had been robbed of their statuses. The Kazusa clan in particular brought an army of 20,000 to the table! By the time Yoritomo had left the peninsula, his small band of tired, soaked and defeated soldiers had grown to an army of 30,000 strong.
On October 6, he led this army to Kamakura—the area he decided upon for his base. Kamakura had been an important location for the Minamoto for over 100 years, ever since Minamoto no Yoriyoshi(Yoritomo’s great-great-great grandfather) was awarded the Sagami province and married a daughter of Taira no Naokata, who gifted him the land. That’s right… Taira no Naokata. Minamoto no Yoritomo too had Taira blood flowing through his veins! The very same Taira who had heard word of the growing rebellion in the east and sent an army led by Taira no Koremori to destroy him.
The Taira’s advance
While Yoritomo had been busy escaping Izu, the Takeda had been busy taking down the Taira’s allies in Kai. Once they’d finished off the last of them, they headed south and took out the Taira’s substitute governor in Suruga, kicking off their territory-expanding campaign.
Wth the Minamoto and the Takeda having taken over half of the east, the Taira could no longer just sit back and watch. On the other hand, the country was experiencing a drought, which had resulted in a poor harvest that year. This made it difficult to gather enough food to sustain a sizable army for any significant length of time. The effect of the drought was particularly disastrous in the west; diaries left behind by noblemen tell us of streets running through the capital littered with the bodies of those who had starved to death.
This situation, however, put Yoritomo at an advantage. By the time Taira no Koremori had gathered the supplies he needed, both the Minamoto and the Takeda had expanded their land and armies to the point where they now posed a significant threat to the Taira. Koremori led his men east, recruiting as many additional soldiers as he could from each town they passed through. Historical texts state that by the time he reached Suruga, he had a vast army of over 70,000 men—more than enough to take down both Yoritomo and the Takeda. However, concerns over the shortage of food supplies were starting to cause a lack of morale, and rumours they heard from townsfolk regarding the brutality of the samurai in the east(likely spread by Yoritomo himself) were beginning to take their toll on the troops. Slowly but surely, the men began to desert.
The Battle of Fujigawa
On October 16, Yoritomo sent his men out from Kamakura. Takeda Nobuyoshi led his men towards Fujigawa River, where the Taira had set up camp. By this time, the Taira army was down to just 2,000 men! Nobuyoshi led his army north of the camp in order to cross the river undetected. However, as they began to cross, they startled a flock of geese, who took off into the sky, in turn startling the already spooked Taira army. There was mass panic. Soldiers fled in all directions, leaving behind their weapons, armour and supplies. Some stole their comrades’ horses in a bid to escape faster. Some were so panicked they forgot to release the rope tying their horse to the shore and ended up spinning around in circles. Prostitutes who had been brought in from nearby towns were trampled by fleeing hooves.
While it’s widely believed that the story regarding the geese is pure folklore, the fact that when Nobuyoshi’s army arrived at the Taira camp not a single man was left is believed to be true. Koremori had no choice but to return to the capital with his tail between his legs. When he arrived, just ten men of his 70,000 plus army remained.
| Taira | Minamoto | Kiso |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 0 |
Minamoto no Yoshitsune
Despite having contributed nothing towards the victory, being the most famous of the Taira’s enemies, Minamoto no Yoritomo received the credit. A few weeks after his army arrived in Suruga, a young samurai claiming to be Yoritomo’s younger brother made his way towards the Minamoto camp and requested an audience with Yoritomo. Yoshitsune had been less than a year old when his father lost the Heiji rebellion. The Taira had agreed to spare him on the condition that he be sent to a temple to live out his life as a priest. For that reason, Yoritomo, having been exiled to Izu, had never had the opportunity to meet his youngest brother. Nevertheless, he cried upon meeting Yoshitstune and welcomed him with open arms. Yoshitune would later become one of his top generals.
Elsewhere, the Takeda succeeded in taking over not only Suruga but also Tōtōmi, building themselves a small empire. Although they were not opposed to Yoritomo’s rebellion, they preferred to face the Taira themselves rather than get swallowed up by Yoritomo’s vast Kamakura army. Yoritomo was ready to make his way to the capital, but his allies warned him against this, advising that subduing the Taira’s remaining allies in the east was a better course of action. Rather than risk losing their support, he opted to stay in Kamakura and focus on building his army and expanding his power base.
The Burning of Nanto
As for the Taira, they were busy putting down a small rebellion led by members of a different Minamoto branch in Ōmi province. While the enemies’ forces were small and the rebellion ended as quickly as it had started, Taira no Kiyomori wasn’t happy about the fact that two of the country’s major temples, Onjōji and Kōfukuji, had supported the rebels. And so he sent his 5th son, Shigehira, to burn down over 600 of Onjōji’s buildings before heading south to Yamato province to deal with Kōfukuji.
Since Kōfukuji was considerably more powerful than Onjōji, Shigehira decided to try negotiating with them rather than repeat the stunt he’d pulled in Ōmi. The negotiations broke down, however, and a number of his men were killed by Kōfukuji’s priests. Left with no choice, Shigehira fought his way into Yamato and burned down a number of civilian houses to provide light during the dark night. (Civilian houses were a convenient source of light in battle situations—much larger than torches, and they didn’t have to be carried.) But misfortune struck; it was a particularly windy night. The wind carried the flames across the surrounding area and spread them to Tōdaiji and Kōfukuji, burning down two of the largest and most important temples in the region.
The Taira’s misfortune didn’t end there; one month after the incident, Retired Emperor Takakura—Kiyomori’s son-in-law and father of the current emperor—died. The Taira lost their greatest connection to the court. A short two months after that, Kiyomori himself died of illness. Due to the timing of the deaths, many in the capital believed the two had been cursed by Kōfukuji.
The Battle of Sunomatagawa
Shortly after his father’s death, Shigehira led the Taira army east once more(perhaps in an attempt to escape the thousands of people who were furious at him over the destruction of two major temples). This time, he opted for the path that led through Owari province. While the Takeda had been busy fighting their way south and Yoritomo had been busy recruiting samurai in the east, Minamoto no Yukiie, who you’ll remember was largely responsible for encouraging both parties to rebel, had formed a small army of his own based around Owari and Mikawa. When he heard word of the Taira’s approach, he set up camp along the bank of Sunomatagawa River.
Being heavily outnumbered, Yukiie decided his best option was an ambush. He waited for nightfall before having his men wade through the river to get to the Taira’s base on the opposite shore. It didn’t go as well as he’d planned though; despite the initial shock of the attack, the Taira soldiers quickly realised that their enemy was soaking wet, making it easy to distinguish between the enemy soldiers and their comrades.
When enough of his men had been struck down, Yukiie fled with the remainder of his army. Their escape route was covered in marshland, however, halting their progress significantly and providing the Taira with an opportunity to catch up and try to take out the rest of them. As the Taira army neared Yoritomo’s territory however, they suddenly retreated—perhaps out of fear—ending the battle and allowing Yukiie to(miraculously) escape with his life. Among the casualties of his failed crusade was his nephew, Yoritomo’s younger brother, Gien.
| Taira | Minamoto | Kiso |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 0 |
Breaking into Hokuriku
After returning to the capital, Taira no Munemori—Kiyomori’s third son and the new leader of the Taira clan—decided that food provisions had to take priority over attacking their enemies. The nearest food supply still under Taira control was in the Hokuriku region, northeast of the capital. Having been relatively unaffected by the drought, this area was the Taira’s best bet for replenishing their dwindling supplies. However, several factions in the region had decided to turn against the Taira. They needed to be put down quickly.
A small Taira army advanced into Hokuriku, but after months of struggling against local anti-Taira factions, they were forced back to the capital. Munemori wouldn’t attempt to enter the region again for another year and a half, when the drought was finally over. That, however, is a story for another article. Join me in part three, where the hungry Taira army finally awakens the sleeping dragon of the Hokuriku region: Kiso Yoshinaka.
