Japan: From the Japanese Government History

by Unknown

All this while, courtiers and officials of Kyōto despised administrative duties, whether civil or military, so that in the event of a disturbance or of a feud among themselves, they were driven to rely upon the military classes, thus involuntarily but surely strengthening the influence of the men whom they professed to contemn. Although the Fujiwara remained in Kyōto and filled all the important posts in the general government, their sway was only apparent. The reins of state affairs were in reality held by the military classes dispersed throughout the provinces. There were also certain singular circumstances at court which not only hastened this revolution, but also brought the military forces from the provinces into a clash in the streets of Kyōto. These circumstances, which we shall briefly describe below, were in the main owing to two causes, namely, the undue wealth and power of the Buddhist priests, and the struggle for power among different political factions in the palace. The former was largely due to the devotion of the imperial house, particularly the Emperor Shirakawa (1073-1087), who greatly depleted the treasury by erecting thousands of temples and images, and ordering the performance of rites and the giving of alms with unprecedented profusion. The priests, who had already grown rich and powerful, began to be engaged in quarrels among themselves and with the outside world, for which purpose the greater monasteries maintained considerable military forces.

These sacerdotal soldiers were called sōhei. The principle of maintaining them was adopted at many temples, but nowhere did they exhibit such truculence as in the case of Enryaku-ji near Kyōto. When the lord high abbot of a temple was appointed, it was the custom that the priests of the temple, if they objected to the appointment, or if, subsequently, they had cause of complaint against his ministration, should appeal to the imperial court for his removal. On such occasions, it became customary for the complainants to wear armor and carry bow and spear when they submitted their grievance. They did not shrink even from attacking the residence of the prime minister. During the reign of Shirakawa, the military priests developed such lawless independence that on more than one occasion they entered Kyōto in turbulent force, dragging with them sacred cars, the sight of which restrained the hand of the martial defenders of the court. Not only against the government, but also among themselves, the temples openly used arms and caused bloodshed. It was said that there were found among these fighting priests men originally belonging to the military class, who, failing to obtain promotion in the regular routine of feudal administration, adopted the cowl as a means of working out their ambitious designs. This state of things aggrieved the Emperor Shirakawa, but he appears to have been unable to check it. On one occasion, lamenting the arbitrary conduct of the Buddhists, he said: "There are but three things in my dominions that do not obey me: the waters of the Kamo River, the dice of the 'sugoroku' game, and the priests of Buddha." Finally, the sovereign was driven to invite the Minamoto clan to defend him against the rebellious proceedings of the priests, and from that time dates an era of feuds between the followers of religion and those of the sword.

It was the same Emperor Shirakawa who instituted the peculiar system of the Camera administration (Insei), which powerfully tended to break down the last remains of the Taikwa reformation. After a reign of fourteen years he resigned in 1087, only to retain the administrative power in his hands, with his special court and special ministers. The reigning emperor and his government had few functions to discharge, as the entire control of the state affairs rested in the Camera of the ex-emperor. Shirakawa sat in the Camera till 1130, and was succeeded for twenty-eight years by the ex-Emperor Toba. All this while Buddhist soldiers behaved with the greatest lawlessness, constantly disturbing the peace of the capital, and the military class simultaneously became turbulent and vicious.

Among these scenes of tumult and violence, the court itself was torn by disputes and its corruption became a subject of public scandal. Toba had many female favorites, of whom Bifukumonin enjoyed the largest share of his affections. Being on bad terms with his eldest son, the reigning sovereign, Toba took advantage of the birth of a son by Bifukumonin to bring about the abdication of the emperor and cause his favorite's child to succeed to the throne at the age of two years. This was the Emperor Konoye. His uncle, Fujiwara-no-Tadamichi, was appointed regent. The ex-Emperor Sutoku, being still young, was much incensed at having been obliged to abdicate, and when Konoye died after a reign of fourteen years, Sutoku desired ardently that his son, Prince Shigehito, should succeed to the throne. The Regent Tadamichi had a brother named Yorinaga, and their father's partial treatment of him had produced a feud between the brothers.

Yorinaga, active, learned, and able, then held the post of second minister of state, and strongly supported the design of the ex-Emperor Sutoku. Bifukumonin and Tadamichi, on their side, acting in concert with Toba, opposed the accession of Prince Shigehito, and alleged in objection that the untimely death of the late Emperor Konoye had resulted from sorcery practiced by Sutoku. The candidate to whom they gave their support was Goshirakawa, brother of Konoye, who was counted a youth of inferior capacity. Sutoku's anger against these proceedings was intense. Being informed just then of the death of Toba, he proceeded to the latter's palace, but the guards refused to admit him, pretending that the deceased had desired his exclusion. This insult incensed Sutoku beyond endurance. Repairing to the residence of Yorinaga, he took council with him, and finally, retiring to the Shirakawa palace, declared open war against his opponents, being bravely succored by Minamoto-no-Tameyoshi, Taira-no-Tadamasa, and their followers. Bifukumonin and Tadamichi placed the young Emperor Goshirakawa in the Higashi Sanjō palace. They counted among their chief allies Yoshitomo, the eldest son of Tameyoshi, Minamoto-no-Yorimasa, and Kiyomori, the nephew of Tadamasa. One sanguinary engagement sufficed to break the power of Sutoku. He became a priest, and was ultimately exiled to the island of Sanuki. Yorinaga died of an accidentally inflicted arrow-wound, and Tameyoshi and Tadamasa, together with many other men of note, were slain. The name of the era being thereafter changed to Hōgen, this affair was spoken of by posterity as the Hōgen Insurrection. The battle that ended the long struggle lasted for only one day, but its character and circumstances can never be forgotten. It was veritably an internecine fight; Sutoku against his brother Goshirakawa; Tadamichi against his brother Yorinaga; Tameyoshi against his son Yoshitomo; Tadamasa against his nephew Kiyomori. Men spoke in after years of this unnatural contest as the battle that destroyed human relations and ignored all the principles of morality.

The Hōgen disturbance had not long been settled when fresh troubles arose. Among the councilors of state at that era, Fujiwara-no-Michinori, who had stood high in the estimation of the Emperor Goshirakawa, was a conspicuously able politician. Even after the accession of the Emperor Nijō, Michinori continued to enjoy the imperial confidence. But he had many enemies. In connection with some private affair he had given deep umbrage to Fujiwara-no-Nobuyori, an official holding the office of chūnagon kebüshi (councilor of state and chief police official), who had been a favorite of the Emperor Goshirakawa after the latter's abdication. Minamoto-no-Yoshitomo also was disaffected. Believing that his services in the Hōgen disturbance had been more meritorious than those of Taira-no-Kiyomori, he nevertheless saw the latter rewarded with much greater liberality; and having offered his own daughter in marriage to a son of Michinori, the proposal had been abruptly declined, Michinori choosing Kiyomori's daughter in preference. Nobuyori and Yoshitomo ultimately raised the standard of revolt, in the first year of the Heiji era (1159 A. D.), and having secured the coöperation of the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa by intimidation, forced their way into the palace and obtained possession of the person of the reigning sovereign. Nobuyori then procured for himself the posts of chief minister of state and generalissimo, promoted Yoshitomo, and caused Michinori to be put to death. The revolution was short-lived. Nobuyori had not administered the affairs of state for ten days before the emperor made his escape to the mansion of Taira-no-Kiyomori and the ex-emperor fled to the temple Ninnaji. Thereupon Kiyomori with his son Shigemori attacked the insurgents and utterly routed them. Nobuyori was captured and slain. Yoshitomo succeeded in effecting his escape to Owari, but was finally put to death by the Taira adherents. All the other leaders of the rebellion and those who had prominently participated in it, were exiled. This affair is known as the Heiji Insurrection. The power of the Minamoto clan had been greatly broken in the Hōgen disturbance, when Tameyoshi and his followers fell, and the loss of Yoshitomo and his adherents in the Heiji trouble brought the great clan almost to complete ruin. Among the few of its scions who survived was Yoritomo, son of Yoshimoto. He was exiled to the eastern provinces, thence to emerge at a later date and win one of the greatest names in Japanese history.

After the quelling of the Heiji disturbance, the Taira family attained preëminent prosperity and power. The fortunes of this great house had been materially advanced by Tadanori, a brave and able captain, who enjoyed the favor of the ex-Emperor Toba. His son Kiyomori, also a man of daring and decision, raised the family's prestige still higher by his services at the Hōgen crisis, and carried it to its zenith by the conspicuous ability of his action in the Heiji disturbance. On the other hand, the rival family of Minamoto having been reduced to insignificance by the death of its chief, Yoshitomo, and by the events that immediately ensued, the whole military power of the empire came into the hands of the Taira. Kiyomori was promoted to the position of gondainagon (vice-councilor of state), an event that attracted much attention. The Taira family, though of imperial lineage, had been looked down upon by the high court nobles on account of its military career, and it was considered a notable occurrence that Kiyomori should have been nominated to a post of such consequence. This was, in truth, the first instance of a military noble's participation in the administration of state affairs, and it may be regarded as the dawn of an era when they were to fall entirely under military control.

A sister of Kiyomori's wife bore a son to the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa. Kiyomori's favor at court was so great that he succeeded in getting this child named heir apparent, and he ultimately ascended the throne in 1169 as the Emperor Takakura. Throughout his reign the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa was the actual ruler. Meanwhile, Kiyomori had steadily risen in imperial favor, until in 1167 he became chief minister of state. Shortly afterward, however, he resigned that post, and taking the tonsure, became a priest under the name of Jōkai. None the less he remained at his previous place of residence, Rokuhara, in Kyōto attending to the management of state affairs as before. From that time dates the custom subsequently followed by the military class of making Rokuhara the seat of administration.

When the influence of Kiyomori reached its zenith, he conceived the design of securing permanent official supremacy for himself and his heirs by contriving that the consort of the sovereign should be taken from his family, as had been the habit in the case of the Fujiwara. In pursuance of that project, he induced the emperor to marry his daughter. Shigemori, his son, held the important offices of lord keeper of the privy seal and generalissimo of the left, while almost the whole of his kinsmen and followers occupied prominent positions in the central and local government. The number of provinces over which the sway of the clan extended was more than thirty, and it came to be a saying of the time that a person not belonging to the Taira family was no one. The members of the Fujiwara clan could not compete with those of the Taira. Even the regent, Motofusa, and the chief minister of state, Motomichi, saw themselves reduced to comparative insignificance. Naturally such conspicuous ascendency caused offense in many quarters, and the Court Councilor Fujiwara-no-Narichika, a favorite official of the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa, in combination with several others, elaborated a plot to overthrow the Taira sway. But the scheme was detected, and its authors and promoters were all put to death by order of Kiyomori. Having been informed that the ex-emperor had countenanced the plot, Kiyomori conceived for him a strong hatred, which was greatly accentuated when, on the death of the Taira chief's son Shigemori, the ex-emperor, after consultation with Motofusa, caused the estates of the deceased nobleman to be confiscated. Too haughty to brook such a slight Kiyomori set out from his mansion at Fukuhara, and entering Kyōto, caused the ex-emperor to be seized and confined in the Toba palace, and thirty-nine of his majesty's high officials to be dismissed at the same time.

Toward the reigning sovereign the demeanor of the Taira was so arrogant and his methods so arbitrary, that the emperor finally abdicated in favor of the crown prince, who reigned under the name of Antoku. This sovereign was the son of the retiring emperor and his mother was Kiyomori's daughter, so that the Taira then stood toward the imperial house in the same relation as that formerly occupied by the Fujiwara, with the tremendous difference, however, that the former also possessed the whole military power of the time, which gave them unprecedented influence and supremacy. Nevertheless, even among the members of a family so puissant, there were to be found some feeble nobles who had no skill in military exercises nor could boast any accomplishment except the art of composing stanzas, playing on musical instruments, or practicing some effeminate pastime.