The Genpei War
The Genpei War ran from 1180 to 1185 between the Taira and Minamoto clans, and it ended the rule of the imperial court over Japan. Both were provincial warrior families descended from imperial cadet lines who had grown powerful doing the court's fighting. The Taira under Kiyomori had won the previous round in 1160, taken over the government, married Kiyomori's daughter to the emperor, and put his infant grandson Antoku on the throne in 1180. Prince Mochihito, passed over, issued a call to arms, and the Minamoto rose. The war is the subject of the Tale of the Heike, which is why so much of it is remembered as literature — recited for centuries by blind monks with lutes, and opening with the line about the bell of the Gion temple and the impermanence of all things. Minamoto no Yoshinaka drove the Taira out of Kyoto in 1183; his cousin Yoshitsune then destroyed him, and won the two actions that decided the war — a surprise attack downhill at Ichi-no-Tani, and the pursuit that ended at Dan-no-ura in the straits of Shimonoseki in April 1185. The tide turned there and so did the battle. The six-year-old emperor Antoku was drowned by his grandmother, who jumped holding him rather than be taken, and the imperial sword went with them. Yoritomo, the eldest brother, then hunted Yoshitsune to death and built his government at Kamakura. Japan was ruled by soldiers for the next seven centuries. The Taira dead are said to survive as the heike crabs of the Inland Sea, whose shells bear the pattern of a samurai's face.
- Year: 1180 CE
- Category: Military
