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Taira no Kiyomori (平 清盛
1118 -
1181) was a general of the late
Heian period of
Japan. He established the first
samurai dominated administrative government in the
history of Japan.
After the death of his father Tadamori in
1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the
Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he had
previously only held a minor post. In
1156, he and
Minamoto no Yoshitomo, head of the
Minamoto clan, suppressed the
Hogen Rebellion. This established the Taira and Minamoto samurai clans
as the top political powers in
Kyoto. However, their new strength in effect caused the allies to
become bitter rivals which culminated three years later in the
Heiji Rebellion in
1159. Kiyomori, emerging victorious with Yoshitomo and his two eldest
killed, now remained the greatest political power in Kyoto. Kiyomori then
exiled Yoshitomo's three youngest sons
Yoritomo,
Noriyori, and
Yoshitsune and seized most of the
manors of his rivals.
As the greatest political power and owner of the majority of manors in
the
Japan, he amassed unrivaled wealth and power. In
1167, Kiyomori was the first samurai to be appointed Daijyo Daijin,
chief minister of the government, the
de facto administrator of the imperial government. Though he
relinquished the position later in the year and relinquished the
leadership of the clan, he remained the orchestrator of the government
policy and successfuly placed his family members and allies in most of the
government posts and as magistrates of nearly half of the provinces of
Japan.
In
1171, Kiyomori forced the marriage between the
emperor Takakura and his daughter Tokuko. Their first son, Prince
Tokihito was born in
1178. The next year, in
1179, Kiyomori staged a
coup d'etat forcing the resignation of his rivals from all government
posts and subsequently banishing them, then filled the open government
positions with his allies and relatives, and imprisoning the cloistered
emperor
Go-Shirakawa. Finally, in
1180 Kiyomori forced the emperor Takakura to abdicate and give Prince
Tokuhito the throne, becoming the
emperor Antoku.
With the exertion of Taira power and wealth and Kiyomori's new monopoly
on authority, many of his allies, most of the provincial samurai, and even
members of his own clan turned against him.
Prince Mochihito, brother of emperor Takakura, called on Kiyomori's
old rivals of the Minamoto clan to rise against the Taira beginning the
Genpei War in the middle of 1180. Kiyomori died early in the next year
from sickness, leaving his sons with the downfall and destruction of the
Taira at the hands of the Minamoto.
Taira no Kiyomori is also the main character in the
Kamakura period epic, the
Tale of Heike.
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