The was a powerful clan of the far north of

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

during the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kammu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means in Japanese. It is a ...

, descended from Prince Toneri, son of

Emperor Tenmu was the 40th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 天武天皇 (40) retrieved 2013-8-22. according to the traditional order of succession. Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). ''The Imperial House of Japan'', p. 53. He ascended ...

(631–686).

Kiyohara no Fusanori The was a powerful clan of the Tōhoku, far north of Japan during the Heian period, descended from Prince Toneri, son of Emperor Tenmu (631–686). Kiyohara no Fusanori (9th century) had two sons: the elder was the ancestor of the samurai bra ...

(9th century) had two sons: the elder was the ancestor of the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

branch family of

Dewa Province was a province of Japan comprising modern-day Yamagata Prefecture and Akita Prefecture, except for the city of Kazuno and the town of Kosaka. Dewa bordered on Mutsu and Echigō Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History Early per ...

; the younger of the ''

kuge The was a Japanese Aristocracy (class), aristocratic Social class, class that dominated the Japanese Imperial Court in Kyoto. The ''kuge'' were important from the establishment of Kyoto as the capital during the Heian period in the late 8th ce ...

'' (court nobles) branch of the clan. The position of

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

of Dewa province was passed down within the family; the Kiyohara are particularly known for their involvement in the Zenkunen and

Gosannen War The Gosannen War (後三年合戦, ''gosannen kassen''), also known as the Later Three-Year War, was fought in the late 1080s in Japan's Mutsu Province on the island of Honshū. History The Gosannen War was part of a long struggle for power ...

s of the 11th century. The erupted in 1051, when Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie arrived in the north, from

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

, as agents of the Imperial court. They were there to put an end to a conflict between the Governor of Mutsu Province (which bordered the Kiyohara's Dewa) and the '' Chinjufu-shōgun'' (Defender of the North), Abe no Yoritoki. The Kiyohara Governor of Dewa contributed warriors to the Minamoto effort, and aided in their victory over the

Abe clan The was one of the oldest of the major Japanese clans (''uji''); and the clan retained its prominence during the Sengoku period and the Edo period.Meyer, Eva-Maria"Gouverneure von Kyôto in der Edo-Zeit." Universität Tübingen (in German). Th ...

, which was achieved in 1063. The Kiyohara then took over the administration of Mutsu, along with Dewa. Within the next twenty years, quarrels and conflicts arose within the family over differing interests arising from intermarriage with different warrior families. Kiyohara no Masahira, Iehira and Narihira, heads of branches of the family, created such a disturbance that Minamoto no Yoshiie, who had taken the formerly Abe post of Defender of the North, felt it necessary to interfere in the conflict. In 1083, he was appointed Governor of Mutsu, and arrived in the north to attempt to resolve the situation peaceably; he soon was forced to resort to gathering his own troops. After much fighting, the violence came to an end; Iehira and his uncle Kiyohara no Takahira had been killed, the other Kiyohara leaders surrendered. Control of both Dewa and Mutsu then passed to

Fujiwara no Kiyohira was a samurai of mixed Japanese- Emishi parentage of the late Heian period (794–1185), who was the founder of the Hiraizumi or Northern Fujiwara dynasty that ruled Northern Japan from about 1100 to 1189. Biography Kiyohira was the son of Fuj ...

, an ally of Yoshiie. The ''kuge'' branch continued their legacy of scholarship, spawning writers, scholars, poets and artists. The descendants possessed hereditarily the office of ''daigeki''.

Kiyohara no Yorinari The was a powerful clan of the far north of Japan during the Heian period, descended from Prince Toneri, son of Emperor Tenmu (631–686). Kiyohara no Fusanori (9th century) had two sons: the elder was the ancestor of the samurai branch fam ...

(1122–1189), son of the ''Daigeki''

Kiyohara no Suketada The was a powerful clan of the far north of Japan during the Heian period, descended from Prince Toneri, son of Emperor Tenmu (631–686). Kiyohara no Fusanori (9th century) had two sons: the elder was the ancestor of the samurai branch fam ...

, was governor of Etchū Province and excelled in law, literature and history. The clan's Kyoto mansion, along with all the books and scrolls contained within, was destroyed in the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...

of the late 15th century.

Kiyohara of note

* Kiyohara no Fukayabu * Kiyohara no Motosuke *

Sei Shōnagon , or , was a Japanese author, poet, and court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000, during the middle Heian period. She is the author of . Name Sei Shōnagon's actual given name is not known. It was the custom amon ...

- daughter of Motosuke, and one of the most famous women poets in all of Japanese history * Kiyohara no Natsuno - jurist of the 9th century * Kiyohara no Takahira * Kiyohara no Iehira * Kiyohara no Masahira * Kiyohara no Narihira

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kiyohara Family Japanese clans Imperial House of Japan