The Taira Flight from the Capital in 1183: Emperor Antoku and the Three Sacred Treasures Carried West

The Taira flight from the capital (Heike miyako-ochi) took place on the 25th day of the 7th month of Juei 2 (1183), when Taira no Munemori, head of the Taira clan, left Kyoto for the western provinces with his clan, Emperor Antoku and the Three Sacred Treasures. It came two years after the death of Taira no Kiyomori and about two and a half months after the defeat at Kurikara Pass. Unable to hold the capital, the Taira chose to withdraw with the emperor. The departure marked the loss of the capital for the Taira regime and changed the course of the Jishō-Juei War.

The situation before the flight

Kiso Yoshinaka, who raised troops in Jishō 4 (1180) after Prince Mochihito's edict, expanded his power from northern Shinano along the Hokuriku road. In the 4th month of Juei 2 (1183) a Taira army under Taira no Koremori marched to Hokuriku but was beaten at the Battle of Kurikara Pass on the 11th day of the 5th month, and Yoshinaka also won the following Battle of Shinohara. In the 6th month he advanced from Echizen into Ōmi and negotiated with Enryaku-ji, and on the 22nd day of the 7th month he is said to have set up a fortification at Sōji-in on the Eastern Pagoda precinct.

Around the same time, the pressure on Kyoto came from every direction. The force of Minamoto no Yukiie approached Iga Province, and 3,000 riders under Taira no Sukemori and Taira no Sadayoshi were stopped at Uji by Yukiie's men. In Settsu, Tada Yukitsuna seized boats and cut the supply route, and Yasuda Yoshisada advanced on the capital along the Tōkaidō. Taira no Tadanori, who had 100 riders in Tamba, withdrew. Munemori posted 3,000 riders under Tomomori and Shigehira at Seta and Taira no Yorimori at Yamashina, but the defense was hopeless.

The Taira were thus caught between Yoshinaka to the north and Yukiie and the Settsu forces to the south and west, with their provisioning routes being cut. The prospect of holding Kyoto in a single battle had already vanished.

The 24th and 25th days of the 7th month

On the 24th, Emperor Antoku made an imperial visit to Hōjūji-dono. Rumors of a move of the capital were already circulating, and it is thought that a withdrawal to the west had been planned from an early stage.

In the early hours of the 25th, Go-Shirakawa slipped out of Hōjūji-dono and made for Enryaku-ji. News of this began to spread around four in the morning and was confirmed by about eight. Munemori was so shaken that he is described, in the phrase "kokoro mo usete miekereba," as visibly out of his wits; he set fire to Rokuhara and left Kyoto with Emperor Antoku, Kenreimon-in, Konoe Motomichi and the clan.

The entourage was smaller than at the imperial progress to Fukuhara three years earlier. Koremori and Sukemori of the Komatsu branch, unable to reach the retired emperor, had little choice but to follow Munemori; Sukemori had been facing Yukiie's force at Uji just before. Taira no Yorimori and Konoe Motomichi, on the other hand, broke away along the road and remained in Kyoto.

Go-Shirakawa's absence and the Sacred Treasures

The Taira left with Emperor Antoku and the Three Sacred Treasures but could not take Go-Shirakawa. Because he had fled to Mount Hiei and did not accompany them, the legitimacy of the Taira, who now held the emperor, is said to have weakened.

On the 27th, the retired emperor returned to the capital under the escort of a son of Yamamoto Yoshitsune, and on the 28th Yoshinaka and Yukiie entered Kyoto. On the 20th day of the 8th month, Prince Takahira, a half-brother of Antoku, acceded as Emperor Go-Toba on the retired emperor's decree, without the regalia. Here "accession" (senso) means succeeding to the throne, while "enthronement" (sokui) refers to the ceremony that shows it to the world, and an "inzen" is a document issued on behalf of a retired sovereign. An accession on Go-Shirakawa's inzen shows that he stayed in the capital and held the initiative at court. His enthronement ceremony followed on the 28th day of the 7th month of Genryaku 1 (1184). For the first time in the official histories, two emperors stood at once, and the situation lasted about two years.

The Three Sacred Treasures are the Yata mirror, the sword Kusanagi (Ame-no-Murakumo), and the Yasakani jewel. What the Taira carried west was the full set, including the sword treated as the sacred sword. In the history of the Japanese sword, this blade was the one the court valued most as a symbol of legitimacy, and its fate became bound up with that of the Taira.

The Taira in the west

Munemori went west by sea from Fukuhara toward Dazaifu. The Taira landed in Kyushu in the middle of the 8th month, but Usuki in Bungo and Kikuchi in Higo did not move, and an alliance with Usa Shrine failed. In Bungo, Ogata Koreyoshi lay in wait, and Sukemori's attempt at persuasion also failed.

In the 9th month, Munemori wrote to Go-Shirakawa protesting that he had no intention of defying his sovereign. The retired emperor ignored the letter and ordered Yoshinaka to destroy the Taira. In the 10th month the Taira were driven out of Kyushu and, with the help of Taguchi Shigeyoshi of Awa, landed in Shikoku. At the Battle of Mizushima on the 1st day of the intercalary 10th month they halted Yoshinaka's advance, and they built an imperial residence at Yashima as a new base.

Meanwhile the relationship between Yoshinaka and Yukiie in Kyoto also strained. Yukiie left the capital on the 8th day of the 11th month on the retired emperor's order to attack the Taira, in effect exchanging places with Yoshinaka, but on the 29th he was defeated at the Battle of Muroyama in Harima by the forces of Taira no Tomomori and Shigehira. The Taira thus kept their strength in the west and were still able to push back the Minamoto forces that left the capital.

Dan-no-ura and the sacred sword

On the 24th day of the 3rd month of Juei 4 (1185), the Taira were defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-ura and the clan was destroyed. Emperor Antoku entered the sea and died at the age of eight by Japanese reckoning. The Yasakani jewel and the mirror were secured by the Minamoto forces, but the sacred sword is said to have been lost. It is regarded as certain that the court failed to recover it. Later, between the reigns of Go-Toba and Juntoku, a sword presented by Ise Shrine is said to have been adopted as the official sacred sword.

The Tale of the Heike and the Taiheiki also record interpretations of the sword's sinking to the seabed. Still, no firm conclusion based on historical sources exists about where Kusanagi actually is or what it looked like.

Timeline

To summarize the above in date order (old-calendar dates, Juei 2, 1183):

- 5th month, 11th day: Koremori's army is defeated by Yoshinaka at Kurikara Pass. - 7th month, 22nd day: Yoshinaka sets up a fortification at Sōji-in on the Eastern Pagoda precinct of Enryaku-ji. - 7th month, 24th day: Emperor Antoku makes an imperial visit to Hōjūji-dono. - Early hours of the 7th month, 25th day: Go-Shirakawa slips out of Hōjūji-dono for Enryaku-ji. Munemori sets fire to Rokuhara and leaves Kyoto with Emperor Antoku and others. - 7th month, 27th day: Go-Shirakawa returns to the capital. - 7th month, 28th day: Yoshinaka and Yukiie enter Kyoto. - 8th month, 20th day: Prince Takahira accedes as Emperor Go-Toba, without the regalia. - Middle of the 8th month: the Taira land in Kyushu. - 9th month: Munemori writes to the retired emperor and is ignored. - 10th month: the Taira are driven out of Kyushu and cross to Shikoku. - Intercalary 10th month, 1st day: Battle of Mizushima. - 11th month, 29th day: Yukiie is defeated at Muroyama by Tomomori and Shigehira.

The Taira were destroyed at Dan-no-ura on the 24th day of the 3rd month of Juei 4 (1185), and the sacred sword was lost. Laid out this way, the Taira fought on in the west for about one year and eight months after the flight. Having lost Kyoto, they tried to regroup there, but once the court enthroned Go-Toba the advantage of holding an emperor was gone.