Rebellion of Heiji

The rebellion of Heiji (平治の乱 Heiji-No-ran , literally “war of the Heiji era”) is a short war with the Japan of the era Heian. It makes following the events of the Rébellion of Hōgen of 1156.

Causes

After the Rebellion of Hōgen, the clans Will conceal and Minamoto, the two principal families of Bushi S, exerted a great influence on the imperial court, and the relations between the two clans were degraded quickly. Will conceal, anxious to see the power of Minamoto increasing, approach in 1158 the emperor Go-Shirakawa, now withdrawn and replaced by his/her son the Empereur Nijō.

Unfolding

In December 1159, Taira No Kiyomori leaves the capital Kyōto with its family, to go in pilgrimage to the temple of Kumano.

The next month, Minamoto No Yoshitomo and Fujiwara No Nobuyori benefit from the occasion to make a Coup d'etat. At the beginning of January 1160, they attack the palate of Sanjō with an army of approximately 500 men and capture the emperor withdrawn Go-Shirakawa and his son.

They attack then the manor of Fujiwara No Michinori, vassal out of Go-Shirakawa and kill everyone inside, except for Michinori itself, which later is captured and carried out. Nobuyori forces the young emperor to appoint it imperial Chancelier, thus marking a decisive stage of its takeover.

Kiyomori, accompanied by his/her son Shigemori and some men, returns in haste in Kyōto. Minamoto, reinforced by the arrival of warriors brought since Kamakura by Minamoto No Yoshihira, the oldest son of Yoshitomo, have the advantage of the number, but are not at all prepared and prove to be hesitant in front of the return of Kiyomori, which proposes to go to Nobuyuri. It is then authorized to turn over in the family fortress of the district of Rokuhara, where it can gather its army and prepare to counter-attack.

It initially makes, at the end of January, evacuate the adolescent emperor, disguised as a woman, in an oxcart, then his father, before launching out to the attack of Minamoto.

In the morning of the February 5th, Yoshitomo and its men, cut off in the imperial palace, prepare to defend oneself against the inevitable attack of Taira. Will conceal No Shigemori, the oldest son of Kiyomori, leads approximately 3000 riders to the attack of the palate. Defense holds during one moment, until part of the Taira troops pretends the retirement, attracting the Minamoto warriors with their continuation out of the palate. A small Taira troop then hastens to precipitate inside, thus cutting the retirement in Minamoto. The men of Yoshitomo are then forced to attack the fortress of Kiyomori with Rokuhara, but their attack fails and they flee Kyōto, meeting throughout the way a resistance exerted by the monk-warriors of the Mont Hiei, which they had attacked during the previous decades.

Consequences

Taira end up catching up with them and kill the rebels, decimating the Minamoto clan. The infants of Yoshitomo however are saved and exiled. After that, Taira No Kiyomori takes the control of the richnesses and the grounds of Minamoto, before being named Daijō-daijin (Prime Minister) by Go-Shirakawa in 1167, thus forming the first government Samurai of the Histoire of Japan. Arrived at the top of its power, it gives his daughter in marriage to the emperor Takakura and controls in collaboration with the emperor withdrawn Go-Shirakawa. However, with the wire of time their relation is degraded, until bursts the Guerre of Gempei in 1180.

The rebellion of Heiji in the literature and the cinema

The events of the rebellion of Heiji are described in the Heiji Monogatari , Romance warrior making following the Hōgen Monogatari . They also form the historical framework of the film the Door of the hell, of Teinosuke Kinugasa.

References

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