Gempei War

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Gempei wars (1180-5). The term ‘Gempei wars’ is drawn from the Chinese reading of the names of the two samurai families whose rivalry culminated in a fierce civil war that changed the direction of samurai history. ‘Gen’ refers to the Minamoto family, and ‘Hei’ to the Taira. The Minamoto heartlands were the north-east of Japan, while the Taira were located in the west, along the coast of the Inland Sea. The Taira, in the person of Taira Kiyomori, had acquired great influence in the Japanese imperial court by marrying daughters to crown princes, and the two families had come to blows on two occasions, the Hōgen Rebellion of 1156 and the Heiji Rebellion of 1160, although it was only in the latter of these incidents that there was a direct Taira/Minamoto clash, a forerunner of the Gempei wars.

In 1180 a claimant for the imperial throne received support from Minamoto Yorimasa, who was forced to withdraw from Kyoto with his army and made a stand at Uji, using the river as a natural moat while he waited for reinforcements from the sōhei from Nara. The Taira attacked across the broken bridge, and Minamoto Yorimasa was forced to commit suicide in a manner that was to set the standard for future samurai to emulate. The Taira reacted to the rebellion by burning the temples of Nara. Several months later another Minamoto warrior, Yoritomo, also led a disastrous rebellion against the Taira-dominated court and was heavily defeated at Ishibashiyama.

The first inkling that the Minamoto had that the Taira might be vulnerable occurred with the so-called battle of the Fujigawa, when a flock of birds made the Taira samurai think an attack was being launched against them, and they abandoned their camp. The tide finally turned for the Minamoto with the victories in 1183 of Minamoto Yoritomo's cousin Yoshinaka, who defeated a Taira army at Kurikara. At this battle Yoshinaka held a Taira army in place on a mountain pass by fighting a leisurely battle, then as night fell confused them by stampeding a herd of oxen along the path. He then forced them to retreat towards the capital with the Minamoto in pursuit. Yoshinaka's army entered Kyoto in triumph, but their depredations caused such havoc that the court welcomed the intervention of his cousins Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, who defeated Yoshinaka at Awazu in 1184.

During 1184 Minamoto Yoshitsune carried out a series of brilliant campaigns against the Taira. His first victory was at Ichi no tani, a fortress built on the shore near present-day Kobe. While the bulk of his army attacked from both sides along the beach, Yoshitsune led a detachment of mounted samurai in a daring rear attack down a precipitous slope. The Taira took to their ships, and Yoshitsune pursued them to Yashima on the island of Shikoku, where he again defeated them. Many of the most celebrated accounts of single combat in samurai warfare occurred at these two battles. At Ichi no tani several individual fights took place on the beach as the Taira escaped to their ships. Yashima is also remembered for the feat of Nasu Yoichi, who shot a war fan (a heavy, iron-mounted fan with a colourful emblem) from off the top of the mast of a Taira ship to demonstrate his skill.

The final battle of the Gempei wars was Dan no Ura in 1185. The Taira fleet held a strong position in the straits of Shimonoseki, the narrow gap of water that divides Honshu from Kyushu. The Minamoto attacked in a fierce sea battle, and concentrated their arrow fire on the steerers of the rival ships. A deserter informed them of the presence of the child-emperor, Antoku, on one of the ships. As the tide of battle turned against them the infant's grandmother committed suicide by jumping into the sea with the young emperor in her arms. She was followed by a mass suicide, and it was said that the seas ran red with the blood of the slain and the red dye from the Taira flags.

The end of the Gempei wars gave the samurai an ideal of behaviour that was to be cherished for centuries. It also established the Minamoto as the most powerful samurai family in Japan, and Yoshitsune's elder brother Yoritomo was proclaimed shogun, the first military dictator of Japan. With this act the government of Japan passed decisively from the imperial court to the military class.

— Stephen Turnbull