Flames rained upward into the sky, smoke burned his nostrils.
The enemy had succeeded in setting the palace walls alight.
It seemed all was lost.
Alright you guys, this is the last video in the Hogen Rebellion series.
A year after Ex-Emperor Toba put Emperor Go-Shirakawa on the throne, Toba died.
Go-Shirakawa wasted no time.
Remember that a feud had been brewing in the Heian court for a while between the Imperial
faction, Go-Shirakawa’s faction, and the Fujiwara Regency faction, Ex-Emperor Sutoku’s
faction.
You don’t need to memorize all these names for the test, but if you look at their clan
names, you had Fujiwara vs Fujiwara, Taira vs Taira, Minamoto vs Minamoto.
It was people of the same family fighting each other, brother against brother, father
against son.
After Toba died, Go-Shirakawa immediately banned key members of the Fujiwara Regency
faction from raising military troops, then ordered the capture of Fujiwara no Yorinaga’s
residence.
We can see that everyone expected shenanigans after Toba’s death.
Retired Emperor Sutoku, of the Fujiwara Regency faction, called his banners to his palace
to defend him.
Poor Sutoku though, sometimes the banners you order are not the banners you get.
He got itty bitty banners.
The armies that came were tiny.
You see, back then, they didn’t have huge standing armies trained and ready for battle
when the call came.
Warlords had to go around convincing local warbands and groups to join their cause.
The Fujiwara Regency faction went around doing this, but they were clearly the underdogs.
Usually you like rooting for the underdog, but risking your life for the underdog is
a different story.
They had a hard time finding supporters.
So Ex-Emperor Sutoku’s allies gathered at his palace with a tiny force, and Emperor
Go-Shirakawa’s Imperial allies gathered at another palace nearby with Sauron’s freaking
army.
It was warriors from all over Japan, ready to demolish the pathetic defenders at
Helm's Deep, I mean Sutoku’s palace.
Now the defenders actually had a legendary figure on their side.
Their military leader, Minamoto no Tameyoshi, had a son named Minamoto no Tametomo.
Tametomo was their Legolas, a legendary archer who will never ever date you, Jenny.
They said he once sunk a ship with a single arrow.
They said his left arm was a few inches longer than his right, allowing him to draw his bow
further than the average person and to scratch his back more easily, which is critical in
battle.
There are a bunch of folktales about this guy.
Ex-Emperor Sutoku’s war council was discussing what to do.
Tametomo feared a night attack from the Imperial forces, so he suggested they immediately strike
first.
Attack the Imperials at night in their palace, catch them off guard.
Tametomo and his allies at the table may be constipated with desperation, but perhaps
they could squeeze out a victory in the end.
However, Fujiwara no Yorinaga overruled him.
He said it was dishonorable to fight in such a sneaky way.
As an alternative, he laid out his genius plan to let the Imperial forces come, and
then both armies would commence the battle in one glorious charge.
For some reason, the war council deferred to Yorinaga’s stupid plan and scrapped the
plan to strike first.
Then that very night, the Imperial forces did a surprise attack.
At night.
Striking first.
Yorinaga said, “Huh.”
Imperial troops charged towards one of the gates of the palace.
So historical details about the coming battle is scant.
Most of our info comes from the Hogen monogatari, which was a story, a historical dramatization.
Like watching a movie based on a true story, you can’t trust everything in it.
For example...troop size.
The Imperial forces overwhelmed the Fujiwara Regency forces, but how big was that army?
The Hogen monogatari says 4500 men.
Back then, the main warriors in the field were mounted archers.
Each warrior usually had one or two accompanying foot soldiers or helpers.
The 4500 number only counts the mounted warriors, so if you add in their groupies, the Imperial
army was probably around 13000.
But this number was most likely an exaggeration.
Among other things, the palace where they fought at was way too small for so many people.
Luckily, we do have another source: a diary belonging to the Minister of War.
He said they had 600 horsemen.
Add in the groupies and you get about 2000 men, which is probably more accurate.
That’s a pretty small force for an Imperial army made of people from all over the country.
And the other side was even smaller.
This gives us a sense of what warfare was like in the Heian days.
Mounted warriors in small units.
This was a major battle, so regular bite-sized battles must have been tiny.
The Hogen monogatari also has soldiers do this funny thing.
In battle, a warrior would proudly call out his name and titles and accomplishments then
choose an opposing warrior to fight a duel with.
This contributed to the idea that samurai fought in duels.
A battlefield was a bunch of men yelling out their names, challenging each other, and engaging
in one-on-one archery duels.
Like everything you learn in high school history class, this was BS.
In the chaos of battle, no one’s gonna hear you talk.
No one’s gonna stand and watch you give a speech about yourself.
They’d rather watch their arrow go through your face.
The reason this happens in the Hogen monogatari and other similar texts was probably because
it was a literary device to introduce or familiarize a character to the reader.
They didn’t actually fight in duels for honor or whatever.
So Imperial troops, soldiers who came from all across the country, attacked one of the
gates of the palace.
Minamoto no Tametomo, our legendary archer, led the defense of this gate.
He rode around yelling his name and his enemies responded with “Hurghh--” as his arrows
met their eyeballs.
It seemed like the defense was going really well, but things started going downhill.
Fujiwara no Yorinaga, the guy who vetoed the first strike night attack plan, received a
serious arrow wound to match the wound to his ego.
The attackers were having a hard time, so they decided to burn down the palace complex.
Tametomo saw it.
Flames rained upward into the sky, smoke burned his nostrils.
The enemy had succeeded in setting the palace walls alight.
It seemed all was lost.
So what do you do when the rest of the country attacks you?
You run.
Tametomo and his men fled, along with Ex-Emperor Sutoku and his allies.
The entire palace burned down.
The Imperials had won.
The Hogen Rebellion lasted one battle, a few hours.
The Fujiwara Regency traitors did not fare well afterwards.
Fujiwara no Yorinaga, the stupid who said they shouldn’t have attacked at night first,
died from his arrow wound.
Ex-Emperor Sutoku was exiled from the capital and died in exile, far away from the Chrysanthemum
Throne that he yearned for.
After he died, a story arose about him becoming a ghost, returning to seek vengeance upon
the country that wronged him.
I did a video about Sutoku’s ghost, check it out.
As for Legolas, they cut the tendons in his left arm to negate his bow powers and banished
him to a faraway place.
There, he eventually committed ritual suicide, the first recorded act of seppuku.
Some of Sutoku’s allies were executed.
The executions caused a big ruckus in court because the court hadn’t officially ordered
an execution in a long time, it preferred exile.
The two victorious warriors, whose names would be heard for years to come, were Minamoto
no Yoshitomo, who led the attack, and Taira no Kiyomori.
Yoshitomo’s father, Tameyoshi, had fought for the losing side.
But Yoshitomo was still a son and pled for his father’s life.
Emperor Go-Shirakawa did not relent and in the end Yoshitomo had to give the order to
execute his own father.
Taira no Kiyomori faced a similar situation and had to execute his own uncle.
The win cemented Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s power and devastated the Fujiwara clan.
Go-Shirakawa abdicated the throne to control the court as a retired emperor, and would
exert power over multiple consecutive sitting emperors.
But how the two warriors, Yoshitomo and Kiyomori, were treated would have a huge effect on the
future of the country.
The court rewarded the two for their service, but not equally.
Yoshitomo, who had organized the attack, got a promotion and a government position: the
Provisional Head of the Left Horse Guards.
It was.. okay.
But Kiyomori was promoted to a higher rank, and became the governor of Harima province,
a huge boost to his income.
The court favored the Taira, you see.
Yoshitomo and his followers were not happy.
The Minamoto had lost their place as the top warriors of the land.
This started a bloody rivalry between the Taira and Minamoto clans.
The Hogen Rebellion was a key event where court politics was resolved not by plans and
schemes, but by the bows and spears of the warrior clans.
It was a sign of where the country was heading.
A rising warrior class meant that the relative peace of the Heian Period was coming to an
end.
Alright congrats to user Mana Eternal for answering the previous video’s contest question
first, and winning the book Premodern Japan.
Woohoo!
And I’ve already sent the book.
I’ve also finished shipping out all of the kami charms for everyone who participated
in the Patreon special offer thing last month.
They should all be purifying your mailbox within one or two weeks.
These aren’t sold anywhere so there’s no way you can get them at the moment, but
maybe I’ll think of some giveaway.
Alright, if you want more details on early Japanese wars and weapons and military type
stuff, I really recommend the book Heavenly Warriors by William Wayne Farris.
It’s where I got a lot of the info about the Hogen Rebellion.
Link in the description.
Okay it’s time butcher the names of the new patrons this week, Abū Nūh Khalīl I’m
sorry, David Cote, Octave Parango, and A.L.
Hornbeck.
Thanks you guys.
Much love, and spread the knowledge!