The was one of the four most important

clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

that dominated Japanese politics during the

Heian The Japanese word Heian (平安, lit. "peace") may refer to: * Heian period, an era of Japanese history * Heian-kyō, the Heian-period capital of Japan that has become the present-day city of Kyoto * Heian series, a group of karate kata (forms) * ...

period of Japanese history – the others being the

Minamoto was a noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility since 814."...the Minamoto (1192-1333)". ''Warrior Rule in Jap ...

, the Fujiwara, and the Tachibana. The clan is divided into four major groups, named after the

emperors The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/ grand empress dowager), or a woman who rule ...

they descended from: Kanmu Heishi, Ninmyō Heishi, Montoku Heishi, and Kōkō Heishi, the most influential of which was the Kanmu Heishi line. In the twilight of the Heian period, the Taira controlled the boy emperor Antoku (himself the grandson of the powerful ''

Kugyō is the collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. The term generally referred to the and court officials and denoted a court rank between First Rank and Third Rank un ...

'' Taira no Kiyomori) and had effectively dominated the Imperial capital of

. However, they were opposed by their rivals the

Minamoto clan was a Aristocracy (class), noble surname bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the List of emperors of Japan, line of succession and demoted into the ranks of Nobili ...

(the Genji), which culminated in the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

(1180–1185 AD). The five-year-long war concluded with a decisive Taira defeat in the naval

Battle of Dan-no-Ura A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

, which resulted in the deaths of Antoku and Taira leaders. Following the war, the victorious Minamoto established Japan's first shogunate in

Kamakura , officially , is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the tota ...

. The name "Genpei" comes from alternate readings of the ''

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

'' "Minamoto" (源 ''Gen'') and "Taira" (平 ''Hei''). The clan is commonly referred to as or , using the character's

On'yomi , or the Sino-Japanese vocabulary, Sino-Japanese reading, is the reading of a kanji based on the historical Chinese pronunciation of the character. A single kanji might have multiple ''on'yomi'' pronunciations, reflecting the Chinese pronuncia ...

for ''Taira'', while means "

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

", and is used as a suffix for "

extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...

". The clan is the namesake of ''

The Tale of the Heike is an epic account compiled prior to 1330 of the struggle between the Taira clan and Minamoto clan for control of Japan at the end of the 12th century in the Genpei War (1180–1185). It has been translated into English at least five times. ...

'', an epic account of the Genpei War.

History

Taira-Clan-Warriors-Ukiyoe-Utagawa-Yoshitora

Along with the

, Taira was one of the honorary surnames given by the emperors of 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 ...

(794–1185) to their children and grandchildren who were not considered eligible for the throne. The clan was founded when the Imperial Court grew too large, and the emperor ordered that the descendants of previous emperors from several generations ago would no longer be princes but would instead be given noble surnames and ranks. The decision became applicable during the reign of Emperor Kanmu (782–805) and thus, together with the Minamoto clan, the Taira clan was born. Some grandchildren of Emperor Kanmu were the first to bear the name of Taira, after 825. Later, descendants of Emperor Nimmyo, Emperor Montoku and Emperor Koko also received the surname. The specific hereditary lines of these emperors are referred to by the posthumous name of the emperor followed by Heishi, for example ''Kanmu Heishi''. The Kanmu Heishi line has two major branches. One was founded in 889 by Taira no Takamochi (great-grandson of the 50th Emperor Kanmu, who reigned from 781 to 806) proved to be the strongest and most dominant line during the

. A great-grandson of Takamochi, Taira no Korehira, moved to

Ise Province was a province of Japan in the area of Japan that is today includes most of modern Mie Prefecture. Ise bordered on Iga, Kii, Mino, Ōmi, Owari, Shima, and Yamato Provinces. Its abbreviated form name was . History The name of Ise appears ...

(currently part of

Mie Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Mie Prefecture has a population of 1,781,948 () and has a geographic area of . Mie Prefecture is bordered by Gifu Prefecture to the north, Shiga Prefecture an ...

) and established an important

Daimyo were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to ...

dynasty. Masamori, his grandson; and Tadamori, his great-grandson, became loyal supporters of

Emperor Shirakawa was the 72nd emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 白河天皇 (72)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Shirakawa's reign lasted from 1073 to 1087. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum T ...

and

Emperor Toba was the 74th Emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 鳥羽天皇 (74)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Toba's reign spanned the years from 1107 through 1123. Genealogy Before his ascension to the Ch ...

, respectively. Later, Tadamori's son, Taira no Kiyomori, created what was considered the first

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 ...

government in the history of Japan. Taira no Kiyomori, son and heir of Tadamori, rose to the position of Daijō Daijin (great Minister of State), after his victories in the Hōgen Rebellion (1156) and the Heiji Rebellion (1160). Kiyomori succeeded in enthroning his youngest grandson as Emperor Antoku in 1180, an act that led to the

(Genpei no Sōran, 1180–1185). The last leader of the Kanmu Heishi bloodline, was eventually destroyed by

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

's armies at the

Battle of Dan-no-ura A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

, the last battle of the Genpei War. This story is told in the Heike Monogatari. This branch of the Kanmu Heishi had many collateral branches, including Hōjō, Chiba, Miura and Hatakeyama. The other major branch of Kanmu Heishi was founded by Takamune-ō (804–867), the eldest son of Prince Imperial Kazurahara and grandson of Emperor Kanmu, who received the title of Taira no

Ason was a hereditary noble title in Japan, used mainly between the Asuka and Heian periods. At first, it was the second highest, below '' Mahito'', which was given to members of the Imperial family, but after the Heian period it became the highes ...

in the year 825. Members of this branch served as middle-class

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 ...

in the Imperial Court of Kyoto. The

Oda clan The is a Japanese samurai family who were daimyo and an important political force in the unification of Japan in the mid-16th century. Though they reached the peak of their power under Oda Nobunaga and fell soon after, several branches of the ...

at the time of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

(1534–1582) also claimed Taira descent, they were descendants of Taira no Chikazane, grandson of Taira no Shigemori (1138–1179).

Genpei War

During the Heiji Rebellion (1160), the

Seiwa Genji The is a line of the Japanese Minamoto clan that is descended from Emperor Seiwa, which is the most successful and powerful line of the clan. Many of the most famous Minamoto members, including Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Minamoto no Yoritomo, ...

leader, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, died in battle. Taira no Kiyomori gained power in

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 ...

forging alliances with retired emperors Shirakawa and Toba. Kiyomori sent

(1147–1199), the third son of Yoshitomo, into exile. In 1180, Yoritomo organized a large-scale rebellion against the rule of the Taira (the

or ''Taira-Minamoto''), culminated with the destruction of the Taira by the

and the subjugation of eastern Japan in five years. In

1192 Year 1192 ( MCXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1192nd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 192nd year of the 2nd millennium, the 92nd year of the 12th century, and the 3rd year ...

received the title

shogun , officially , was the title of the military aristocracy, rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor of Japan, Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, exc ...

and created the first

bakufu , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

based in

(Kanagawa Prefecture).

Branches

The Taira clan had four main branches:The Samurai Crab
/ref> *Taira Kanmu (Kanmu Heishi, 桓武平氏) – descended from the princes, children of 50th Emperor Kanmu. *Taira Nimmyō (Nimmyō Heishi, 仁明平氏) – descended from the princes, grandchildren of the 54th Emperor Nimmyō's lineage. *Taira Montoku (Montoku Heishi, 文徳平氏) – descended from princes, children of 55th Emperor Montoku. *Taira Kōkō (Kōkō Heishi, 光孝平氏) – descended from the princes, grandchildren of the 58th

Emperor Kōkō was the 58th emperor of Japan,Imperial Household Agency (''Kunaichō'') 光孝天皇 (58)/ref> according to the traditional order of succession. Kōkō reigned from 884 to 887. Traditional narrative Before the emperor's ascension to the Chr ...

's lineage.

Clan members

These were important members of the Taira clan. * Taira no Masakado (903–940) * Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181) * Taira no Shigemori (1138–1179) * Taira no Tadanori (1144–1184) *

Taira no Munemori was heir to Taira no Kiyomori, and one of the Taira clan's chief commanders in the Genpei War. As his father Taira no Kiyomori laid on his deathbed, Kiyomori declared, among his last wishes, that all affairs of the clan be placed in Munemor ...

(1147–1185) * Taira no Tomomori (1152–1185) *

Taira no Shigehira (1158–1185) was one of the sons of Taira no Kiyomori, and one of the Taira Clan's chief commanders during the Heian period of the 12th century of Japan. Famous battles Following the Battle of Uji (1180), Battle of Uji in 1180, Shigehira fo ...

(1158–1185) * Taira no Takakiyo (1173–1199)

Mon of the Taira

The ''mon'' (crest, emblem) of the Taira clan is an Agehanochō (揚羽蝶, Swallowtail butterfly) with raised wings.

Gallery

File:Yoshitsune_aangevallen_door_Taira_geesten-Rijksmuseum_RP-P-1979-177.jpeg, Yoshitsune and Benkei defending themselves in their boat during a storm created by the ghosts of conquered Taira warriors (by

Utagawa Kuniyoshi Utagawa Kuniyoshi (, ; 1 January 1798 – 14 April 1861) was one of the last great masters of the Japanese ukiyo-e style of woodblock prints and painting.Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric ''et al'' (2005). "Kuniyoshi" in He was a member of the Utaga ...

)

Notes

References

{{reflist Japanese clans