Former Nine Years' War

The Former Nine Years' War (1051–1062), fought across Mutsu Province in the northeast (modern Iwate and Akita prefectures), witnessed the prolonged, fierce clash between father-and-son Minamoto Yoriyoshi and Yoshiie against Abe Yorichiká and Sadato, and is remembered as the decisive epoch in Japanese history establishing samurai autonomy and the Minamoto clan's paramount rise.

The designation "Former Nine Years' War" distinguishes it from the subsequent "Later Three Years' War" (1083–1087); contemporary sources called it the "Ōshū Campaign" or "Mutsu Uprising." The name "Nine Years' War" is a later coinage; the actual conflict spanned twelve years intermittently.

**The Abe Clan and Eastern Independence — The Imperial Court's Limits of Power**

In the mid-Heian period, the northeast was inhabited by people called "Emishi" (Ezo), and the imperial court's direct control barely reached this "frontier." While provincial officials (kokushi) of the ritsuryo system formally claimed sovereignty, regional strongmen held actual power.

The Abe clan, based in the Six Districts of Ōshū (Ōsawa, Esashi, Waka, Hienuki, Shiwa, and Iwate — modern central-southern Iwate Prefecture), had consolidated substantial autonomous rule. Abe Yorichiká, originally named Abe Yoriyoshi, though appointed as Mutsu Viceroy (Mutsunooryōshi) by the court, conducted himself as a highly independent regional ruler.

Relations with the court deteriorated from around Eishō 6 (1051) when the Abe clan began refusing taxes to the provincial authorities and resisting the authority of Minamoto Yoriyoshi, appointed as Mutsu Governor (Mutsunokami). This escalating conflict eventually led to armed confrontation.

**Kuriyagawa Stockade and the Battle of Kinomi — The Hardships of Protracted War**

The first half of the Former Nine Years' War (1051–c. 1057) brought unrelenting hardship to Minamoto Yoriyoshi. The Abe clan's strongholds were protected by fortified defensive positions called "saku" (wooden stockades), and confronted by the Abe's intimate mastery of the rugged northeastern mountains, Yoriyoshi's forces faced constant difficulties.

The Battle of Kinomi in Tenki 5 (1057) was the fiercest engagement of the Former Nine Years' War and is known as Yoriyoshi's most harrowing combat. His forces suffered a catastrophic defeat before Abe Sadato's skillful tactics, losing thousands of soldiers. Yoriyoshi's heir, Minamoto Yoshiie (Hachimantaro), fought valiantly but was forced to retreat.

After this defeat at Kinomi, Yoriyoshi found himself in dire straits. Yet here he displayed crucial diplomatic acumen. He requested military aid from Kiyohara Takemori, a regional strongman in Dewa, and succeeded in allying himself with a vast Kiyohara force (reported to number over ten thousand mounted warriors).

**The Final Battle at Kuriyagawa Stockade — Kiyohara Reinforcements and the Abe's End**

In Kōhei 5 (1062), with the overwhelming advantage of Kiyohara reinforcements, Minamoto Yoriyoshi and Yoshiie captured the Abe clan's final strongholds: Kuriyagawa and Ubato stockades.

Abe Yorichiká had fallen in battle in Tenki 5 (1057); his son Sadato commanded the final defense. At Kuriyagawa Stockade's decisive battle, Abe Sadato was slain despite fierce resistance. One account records that as Yoshiie closed in, he called out: "The warp threads of the garment have come undone" (衣のたてはほころびにけり), and Sadato replied from the ground: "Long years have tangled the threads — what anguish!" (年を経し糸の乱れの苦しさに). This famous poetic exchange, preserved in works such as the Konjaku Monogatari Shū, epitomizes the Heian warrior ideal: deadly prowess fused with literary refinement.

Abe Munetō surrendered and was exiled to Iyo and Chikuzen. Munetō's descendants later took root in Kyushu and reportedly formed connections with warrior groups such as the Matsuura clan.

**Minamoto Yoshiie (Hachimantaro) and Swords — The War God and the Blade's Legend**

The warrior who gained supreme renown through the Former Nine Years' War was Minamoto Yoshiie (Hachimantaro Yoshiie). Yoshiie underwent his coming-of-age ceremony at Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine and assumed the title "Hachimantaro." Hachiman, venerated as the war god by samurai, transformed Yoshiie into a deified figure — the living "avatar of the war god" in later memory.

No reliable records document the specific swords Yoshiie wielded; however, the blades used by eastern samurai of this era (mid-11th century) are believed to have been large tachi of the old Bizen and old Hōki schools. Mid-Heian swords possessed pronounced curvature at the hilt and were predominantly long, heavy tachi optimized for sweeping strikes from horseback.

Yoshiie later served as battle commander in the "Later Three Years' War" (1083–1087), earning even greater martial fame. Through both the Former and Later Three Years' Wars, Yoshiie became known as "heaven's foremost warrior" and secured the Minamoto's position as the paramount clan. From Yoshiie's lineage descended Minamoto Tameyoshi (ancestor of Yoritomo), whose descendants persisted through the Hōgen and Heiji Disturbances and the Genpei War, ultimately founding Minamoto Yoritomo's Kamakura shogunate.

**Sword Culture and Eastern Samurai's Distinctive Character**

The mid-11th century, when the Former Nine Years' War was fought, was a critical juncture in Japanese sword technology. It marked a transitional period between old Bizen's zenith (10th–11th centuries) and the gradual emergence of Yamashiro and Sōshū styles in the early Kamakura age.

The weapons wielded by northeastern warrior bands were locally produced or imported from the Kantō and central regions; most were thought to be practical blades called "jikataná" — anonymous, utilitarian swords. Master smiths' works concentrated among the central aristocracy and elite samurai, while frontier warriors more commonly carried sturdy, unsigned blades.

Yet the combat prowess demonstrated by eastern samurai through the Former Nine Years' War — their mastery of the longbow, cavalry tactics, and endurance in harsh mountain terrain and punishing winters — attests to their high caliber as sword wielders. The "tightly bound, mighty eastern bow" recurs throughout Heian military chronicles, and the swords borne alongside those bows embodied eastern warrior excellence.

Some 130 years after the Former Nine Years' War, in the Genpei War, the eastern samurai forces on which Minamoto Yoritomo depended were precisely those steeled through the Former and Later Three Years' Wars. The "tale of martial prowess" of the Minamoto, originating in Ōshū, closed its opening chapter with the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate.