Background
Kiyomori no Taira was born in 1118 in Japan. He was the son of Taira no Tada- mori, and because of his father’s influence at court, became well known at a very early age.
平 清盛
Kiyomori no Taira was born in 1118 in Japan. He was the son of Taira no Tada- mori, and because of his father’s influence at court, became well known at a very early age.
In 1156 a struggle broke out between Emperor Goshira- kawa and his elder brother, Retired Emperor Sutoku, and the nobles proceeded to take sides with one or the other faction, members of the same family often finding themselves on opposite sides. Taira no Kiyomori joined Minamoto no Yoshitomo in supporting Emperor Goshirakawa, who emerged victorious. This conflict, known as the Hogen uprising, though it originated with the imperial family and the court nobles, was settled by families of the newly arisen military class such as the Taira and Minamoto and showed just how powerful the men of this class had become. It also served to increase the influence of such men over the court, which by this time had become all but powerless.
In 1159 Minamoto no Yoshitomo tried to wrest power from his rival Kiyomori, holding Emperor Goshirakawa as hostage, but Kiyomori quickly defeated and killed Yoshitomo, putting an end to what is known as the Heiji uprising. From this time on, Kiyomori was unchallenged, and in 1167 he assumed the highest position in the government, that of dajodaijin.
From his base in Fukuhara, in the present-day city of Kobe, Kiyomori worked to establish trade with China. In addition, the members of his family controlled over half the territory of the country, so that it was said that if one wrere not a Taira, he was not fit to be regarded as a human being. When Kiyomori died of fever in 1181, however, the son of Minamoto no Yoshi- tomo, Yoritomo, determined to avenge his father’s death, defied the Taira by declaring himself in revolt, and after four years of fighting he had succeeded in destroying them and founding a military government, the Kamakura shogunate.
Shortly after the downfall of the Taira family, the story of their dramatic rise and fall was made into a romance, the Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike), which is regarded as one of the masterpieces of Japanese literature.
He married his daughter Tokuko to Emperor Takakura, and when a son was born from the union, he quickly had him declared ruler in an effort to consolidate the power of the Taira family (Heike). The child ruler, known as Emperor Antoku, died in tragic circumstances a few years later.