* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Fujiwara no Sumitomo
藤原純友
Leader of the Seto Inland Sea Pirate Rebellion — "Sumitomo of the West" in the Jōhei-Tengyō Disturbance
Description
Life
Fujiwara no Sumitomo is said to have been born around 893 into a mid-ranking noble family descended from the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan. With his father Yoshinori dying early, his path to advancement at court was effectively closed, and he took up the provincial post of Iyo no Jō (Junior Secretary of Iyo Province).
From Pirate Suppression to Rebellion
Sumitomo is said to have initially carried out faithfully his assignment of suppressing the piracy that ran rampant in the Seto Inland Sea. Around 936, however, he established his base on Hiburi-jima Island off Iyo, brought the pirate bands and provincial officials along the Inland Sea coast under his command, and shifted from suppressor to one who directed piratical activity himself.
The Tengyō Disturbance
Sumitomo's forces threatened maritime traffic throughout the Seto Inland Sea, and from 939 his activities escalated into full-scale rebellion against the court. In the fifth month of 941 his forces captured the Dazaifu government headquarters, but that same year the uprising was suppressed by a punitive force dispatched by the court, and Sumitomo is said to have died in battle in the sixth month of that year. Together with the contemporaneous rebellion of Taira no Masakado in the Kantō region, the two uprisings are collectively called the Jōhei-Tengyō Disturbance, and at the time the pair were spoken of together as "Masakado in the east, Sumitomo in the west."
Later Reputation
The rebellion of Fujiwara no Sumitomo, along with that of Taira no Masakado, is regarded as a major upheaval that shook the court's ability to govern in the mid-Heian period. It is frequently cited as an early example of a regional power that had built up military strength in the provinces rising against the central government, and it is considered a formative episode in the history of the emergence of the Japanese warrior class.
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