* 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 was born around 893 into a mid-ranking noble family descended from the northern branch of the Fujiwara clan. After the early death of his father, Yoshinori, 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 initially served faithfully in the task of suppressing piracy that plagued the Seto Inland Sea. However, he did not return to the capital when his term ended, remaining instead in Iyo Province. By around 936, based on Hiburi-jima Island off Iyo, he had brought local pirate bands and provincial officials along the Inland Sea coast under his own command, shifting from suppressor to leader of the piracy himself.
The Tengyō Disturbance
Sumitomo's forces came to threaten maritime traffic throughout the Seto Inland Sea, and from 939 his actions escalated into open rebellion against the court. In the fifth month of 941 his forces captured the Dazaifu government headquarters in Kyushu, but that same year an imperial punitive force suppressed the uprising, and Sumitomo is recorded as having died in battle the following month. Together with the contemporaneous rebellion of Taira no Masakado in the east, the two uprisings are jointly known as the Jōhei-Tengyō Disturbance, and the pair were spoken of in their time as "Masakado in the east, Sumitomo in the west."
Later Reputation
The rebellion of Fujiwara no Sumitomo, alongside that of Taira no Masakado, is regarded as one of the major upheavals that shook the Heian court's authority over the provinces in the mid-10th century, and is frequently cited as an early example of a regional power that had accumulated its own military strength rising against the central government — a formative episode in the history of the Japanese warrior class.
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