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Discovered on the 1st day of the 6th month of Angen 3 (1177); those implicated were punished from the 6th through the 7th month of the same year
Shishigatani, Higashiyama, Kyoto (present-day Sakyō Ward, Kyoto)
Forces
The anti-Taira conspirators (close attendants of the retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa)
The Taira regime
About 19 min read
In Angen 2 (1176), the death of Taira no Shigeko (Kenshunmon-in), the beloved consort of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa, removed the buffer who had mediated between the retired emperor and Taira no Kiyomori, and relations between the two rapidly grew tense. The following year, Angen 3 (1177), saw the Hakusan Incident, in which the warrior monks of Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei made a forceful petition demanding the punishment of the governor of Kaga Province. In this incident, Go-Shirakawa first exiled the Tendai chief abbot Meiun, but when the Enryaku-ji assembly reclaimed him by force, the retired emperor abruptly reversed course and ordered Taira no Shigemori and Taira no Munemori to attack Enryaku-ji.
As tension between the court, the cloistered government, and the Taira, a warrior house, mounted, some of Go-Shirakawa's close attendants grew increasingly resentful of the Taira clan, which was expanding its power at a rapid pace. For Go-Shirakawa, who led the cloistered government, the situation in which Kiyomori was coming to grasp real authority threatened his own authority, and within the retired emperor's circle of attendants a movement favoring the overthrow of the Taira by force was beginning to take shape.
In this period, the Taira clan, since Kiyomori was appointed Daijō-daijin in Nin'an 2 (1167), saw the sons and younger members of the clan rise one after another to high rank and office, and, with the economic strength of trade with the Song dynasty as a backdrop, markedly raised their presence within the court. The Taira's glory, symbolized by the saying "Those who are not of the Taira are not people," appeared to the existing Fujiwara regent houses and the retired emperor's close attendants as a rapid concentration of power that threatened their own positions. It is thought that this sense of crisis among those with established interests became the soil for the plotting at Shishigatani.
Shishigatani is a quiet mountain valley located at the foot of Mount Nyoigatake in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto, and in the Heian period it was known as a resort where aristocrats' and monks' villas (bessō) were built. The mountain villa where the plotting took place was one such bessō, and its location, away from the bustle of the capital and not easily seen by others, is thought to have been one reason it was chosen as a place for secret plotting. Even today, old temples such as Hōnen-in and Anraku-ji dot the area around Shishigatani, preserving the quiet, secluded mountain-village atmosphere that has existed since the late Heian period.
Against this backdrop, Fujiwara no Narichika, a close attendant of Go-Shirakawa; the monk-attendant Saikō; and the monk Shunkan became the central figures in a repeated series of plots to overthrow the Taira. The meetings took place at a mountain villa in Shishigatani, in present-day Sakyō Ward, Kyoto; the Tale of the Heike records it as Shunkan's mountain villa, while the Gukanshō records it as the mountain villa of Seiken, a son of Shinzei. Gathered there alongside Narichika, Saikō, and Shunkan were Taira no Yasuyori, Fujiwara no Naritsune (son of Narichika), and the Genji warrior Tada Yukitsuna, who together are said to have hammered out concrete plans for the Taira's downfall.
Tada Yukitsuna was a warrior descended from the Settsu Genji and, at the time, a man who commanded a certain degree of military strength in the area around the capital. A long-standing theory holds that Go-Shirakawa himself was involved in the plotting to a certain degree, so that this was not merely the reckless action of overzealous attendants but had the retired emperor's intentions behind it. However, opinions differ on the degree of the retired emperor's own involvement based on the interpretation of the historical sources, and no definitive conclusion has been reached.
Why Tada Yukitsuna betrayed his comrades at the last moment and ran to Kiyomori to inform on them has been explained in various ways since ancient times. Some accounts hold that he doubted the feasibility of the uprising plan itself and feared the harm that failure would bring to his clan, while others say that he had secretly contacted the Taira in advance and been promised a reward. However, these views lack confirmation from contemporary historical sources, and Yukitsuna's true intentions remain a mystery of history.
However, when Tada Yukitsuna, who had joined the plan, ran at the last moment to inform Taira no Kiyomori, the plot was quickly exposed. On the night of the 1st day of the 6th month of Angen 3, Kiyomori, who had returned to Kyoto from Fukuhara, mobilized troops the moment he received Yukitsuna's report, halted preparations for an attack on Mount Hiei, and set out to seize those who had taken part in the plot.
Thanks to Kiyomori's swift response, Fujiwara no Narichika, Saikō, Shunkan, Taira no Yasuyori, Fujiwara no Naritsune, and others involved were taken into custody one after another. As a result of the interrogations, Saikō was beheaded after being tortured, and his sons Fujiwara no Moritaka and Morotsune were also executed. Fujiwara no Narichika, who was regarded as the ringleader, was exiled to Bizen Province despite a plea for clemency from Kiyomori's eldest son, Taira no Shigemori, and is said to have been killed there shortly afterward. Shunkan, Taira no Yasuyori, and Fujiwara no Naritsune were exiled to Kikaigashima (Iō-jima) in Satsuma Province, far to the south of the capital.
In Jishō 2 (1178), an amnesty was carried out to celebrate the birth of a prince (the future Emperor Antoku) to Imperial Consort Taira no Tokuko (later Kenreimon-in). Under this amnesty, Taira no Yasuyori and Fujiwara no Naritsune were pardoned and returned to the capital, but Shunkan alone was excluded from the pardon and was left behind on Iō-jima. Shunkan's tragedy, said to have ended in despair and death without ever returning to the capital, later became a representative scene of the Tale of the Heike, and has been repeatedly performed as the Noh and Kabuki play "Shunkan," becoming an enduring subject in Japanese classical literature and performing arts.
In the "Ashizuri" chapter of Volume 3 of the Tale of the Heike, a scene is vividly depicted in which Shunkan is left behind on the shore as the pardon ship departs, and he falls to the ground in grief, stamping his feet and weeping, and this passage has repeatedly provided material for adaptation to later writers and playwrights. Chikamatsu Monzaemon's joruri Heike nyogo no shima, including its "Shunkan" scene, is also a masterpiece drawing on this anecdote, and it continues to be staged as an important play in Kabuki and Bunraku to the present day.
The Shishigatani Conspiracy has been debated for a long time regarding its historical reality. Researchers are divided on whether the overall plan was truly aimed at overthrowing the Taira, or whether it was instead a plot devised by Kiyomori as a pretext to eliminate the faction of retired emperor's close attendants who stood in his way. In any case, after this incident Kiyomori grew even more wary of the retired emperor's close attendants, and the policy of cooperation between Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa effectively collapsed.
The Shishigatani Conspiracy itself ended in failure before it could be carried out, but the political aftershocks it caused were considerable. The conflict between Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa reached a stage beyond repair, and tensions between them continued to rise. In Jishō 3 (1179), Kiyomori finally took the drastic step of confining Go-Shirakawa at the Toba Palace and suspending the cloistered government. This is the so-called Jishō 3 Coup, and the Shishigatani Conspiracy is positioned as an important step leading to this coup.
Furthermore, this chain of political tension led to Prince Mochihito's uprising in Jishō 4 (1180) and the subsequent armed uprisings against the Taira by Minamoto no Yoritomo, Minamoto no Yoshinaka, and others, which developed into the Jishō-Juei Civil War (the Genpei War). The Shishigatani Conspiracy was, as an individual incident, merely a small failed plot, but it exposed the internal contradictions of the Taira regime at the height of its power, opening the first stage of a series of political upheavals that eventually led to the fall of the Taira, and it holds an important place in medieval Japanese history.
About two years after the Shishigatani Conspiracy, in Jishō 3 (1179), Kiyomori went up to the capital at the head of several thousand troops, stripped more than thirty of Go-Shirakawa's close attendants of their offices all at once, and then took the unprecedented drastic step of confining the retired emperor himself at the Toba Palace. Through this Jishō 3 Coup, the cloistered government under Go-Shirakawa was driven to effective suspension, and Kiyomori established a de facto dictatorship through his son-in-law, Emperor Takakura. The prevailing view today holds that Kiyomori, whose distrust of the retired emperor's close attendants had deepened through the Shishigatani Conspiracy, sealed off the retired emperor's political influence in a more thorough form two years later. Through this coup Kiyomori reached the peak of his power, but at the same time opposition from the retired emperor, the court nobility, and the religious institutions also reached its height, and it served as a seed leading to the following year's uprising of Prince Mochihito.
Today, at Shishigatani in Sakyō Ward, Kyoto, the site of the events, a place believed to be the remains of Shunkan's mountain villa and legend sites that preserve the memory of the plotting in the area around the nearby Anraku-ji and Hōnen-in temples remain, and people still visit them today to trace the traces of the political strife of the late Heian period. The Shishigatani area is also close to the Philosopher's Path and is known as a famous spot for autumn foliage, and in the quiet atmosphere of Anraku-ji and Hōnen-in, the memory of the secret discussions held here more than 800 years ago quietly lives on. The monument marking the former site of the Shishigatani villa, which conveys Shunkan's tragedy, is also introduced as part of a sightseeing course visiting historical sites associated with the Tale of the Heike, making it an essential destination for people interested in both medieval Japanese history and classical literature.