Taira no Kiyomori as Grand Minister — The First Warrior to Reach Japan's Highest Office

On the 11th day of the 2nd month of Nin'an 2 (March 4, 1167), Taira no Kiyomori was appointed Daijo-daijin. The Daijo-daijin was the highest office in the ritsuryo system, and in the Heian period it was also a symbol of the exclusive authority of the Fujiwara clan. For a warrior (originally a group of capable men responsible for guarding the court and maintaining public order in the provinces) to hold this post was an unprecedented historical event. Kiyomori resigned the post after only three months, but this fact announced the coming of an age in which the warrior class would take control of the center of government.

Hogen and Heiji Disturbances and the Rise of Kiyomori

Taira no Kiyomori (1118–1181) was born as the eldest son of Taira no Tadamori. Tadamori was a capable warrior who served the retired emperors Shirakawa and Toba, and Kiyomori inherited his family standing and personal connections. Two political upheavals made Kiyomori's rise decisive.

In the Hogen Disturbance of Hogen 1 (1156), Kiyomori sided with Emperor Go-Shirakawa and, together with Minamoto no Yoshitomo, defeated the forces of retired Emperor Sutoku and Fujiwara no Yorinaga. This civil war marked a turning point from the earlier role of warriors, who fought to protect the authority of the emperor, to a new stage in which warriors became the main players in political conflict.

In the Heiji Disturbance of Heiji 1 (1159), Minamoto no Yoshitomo and Fujiwara no Nobuyori rose in arms while Kiyomori was on pilgrimage to Kumano, and drove Shinzei, a close adviser to the cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa, to suicide. Kiyomori hurried back to the capital, defeated them, and won a complete victory. Minamoto no Yoshitomo was killed while fleeing, and his son Minamoto no Yoritomo was exiled to Izu. As a result of the Heiji Disturbance, control of the court's military power effectively passed into Kiyomori's hands.

Maternal Policy and Economic Power — Foundations of Taira Domination

Even after Kiyomori's appointment as Daijo-daijin, the expansion of Taira power continued. Kiyomori's daughter Tokuko was sent into the court as the chugu (empress consort) of Emperor Takakura, and the child born to them was enthroned as the 81st emperor, Emperor Antoku, in Jishō 4 (1180). As a result, Kiyomori became the maternal grandfather of the emperor. Preceding this, in the coup of Jishō 3 (1179), Kiyomori had placed the cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa under confinement at the Toba Palace and had fully seized actual power.

The Taira's power was economically supported by trade with Song China. Kiyomori developed the port at Hyogo (Ōwada no tomari) and promoted direct trade with the Song. Ceramics, copper coins, spices, and books were imported from the Song, while gold, gold dust, swords, and sulfur were exported from Japan. Japanese swords (tachi) were especially highly valued in the Song and became one of the Taira's important export goods. The vast wealth gained from this trade made possible Kiyomori's military power, his recruitment of personnel, and his rewards to his retainers.

The Taira's chigyo provinces (provinces in which members of the Taira clan monopolized the post of provincial governor) numbered more than thirty at their height, and the clan produced 16 court nobles. In effect, the Taira replaced the positions within the court that the Fujiwara had once monopolized.

Warrior Sword Culture and the Taira Regime Period

The late Heian period, when Taira no Kiyomori was active, was also a time of rapid development in the styles of Japanese swords. In this period the curved, single-edged long sword known as the tachi (a blade with a curve) was established as the main sword worn by warriors, and the sword-smith groups of Bizen, Yamashiro, Yamato, and Sōshū (from the Kamakura period onward) developed advanced techniques.

The fact that Japanese swords became one of the export goods in trade with Song shows that the quality and reputation of these swords were recognized overseas as well. The poem "Song of the Japanese Sword" (Rìběn dāo gē) by the Song figure Ouyang Xiu sings of the beauty of the mountings and form of Japanese swords, which were called precious swords. Japanese swords that reached China on the Taira's trade ships became an important medium of cultural exchange between China and Japan thereafter.

The Taira's warrior groups were practical military organizations centered on mounted combat, and each of their commanders was equipped with high-quality tachi and armor.

Fall of the Taira Regime and the Road to the Kamakura Shogunate

Kiyomori died of a fever at the age of 64 in Jishō 5 (1181). After his death, the Jishō-Juei War, led by the eastern warrior groups centered on Minamoto no Yoritomo, intensified, and in the Battle of Dan-no-ura in Bunji 1 (1185) the Taira sank into the western sea.

However, the precedent that Kiyomori had established, that warriors could stand at the very top of politics, did not disappear. When Minamoto no Yoritomo was appointed Sei-i taishogun in Kenkyu 3 (1192) and opened the Kamakura shogunate, part of its legitimacy rested on the Taira precedent that warriors too could hold the highest political power. Taira no Kiyomori's appointment as Daijo-daijin was the historical prototype of the warrior regime, a political form unique to Japan.

Kiyomori and the Transmission of Swords

Traditions about swords associated with Taira no Kiyomori were handed down to later generations. Among the tachi transmitted as having Taira connections are swords dedicated to Itsukushima Shrine, which Kiyomori deeply revered. Because the Taira revered Itsukushima Shrine, many arms and swords were dedicated to and collected by the shrine, leaving an important example of the practice of shrine dedication within the sword culture of the medieval period.