What would you do if you showed mercy to someone, but he comes back later to destroy you?
Today on History for People Not Named Peter, we continue with the Genpei War.
Historians traditionally split up the war into 3 chapters.
The first chapter I’ll call Yoritomo’s Butt Kicking, because that’s what he does
in it.
The next two chapters are Be Quiet, and I’ll Get to it Later.
Let’s talk about the man Minamoto no Yoritomo.
He had a tough childhood.
At 13 years old, he saw his father killed by the Taira in a war and he himself was likely
to be executed for the crime of being a son.
He should’ve known that crime doesn’t pay.
The only reason Taira no Kiyomori didn’t execute him was because Kiyomori’s stepmother
begged him not to.
Why?
The war tales tell us it was because Yoritomo reminded her of her own son who died, but
it also could’ve been because of a backroom request from someone friendly to Yoritomo’s
parents.
Whatever the case, Kiyomori eventually said “Fine fine, stepmother” and chose instead
to exile Yoritomo from the capital.
He sent the boy to Izu Province, into the care of the Hojo clan.
The Hojo clan was a minor branch of the Taira.
For 20 years, Yoritomo stayed in exile and Kiyomori left him alone.
He married the daughter of the Hojo clan chieftain.
Now you may be saying,
“Bloody hell, Kiyomori was quite stupid for leaving this Minamoto
bloke alone for decades,
init guvnor pip-pip rumpy-pumpy Bob’s your uncle bit ‘n bobs.”
But Kiyomori wasn’t stupid, he just didn’t read the Heike monogatari like we did.
To him and everyone at the time, the Minamoto clan was finished.
Yoritomo was the Minamoto heir, and he married into the Hojo, a branch of the Taira.
For 20 years, he stayed quietly in the countryside.
Everyone thought the Minamoto had been assimilated by the Taira.
The Minamoto were impotent.
Luckily, Prince Mochi’s call to arms was just the Viagra that Yoritomo needed.
He used that as the primary reason for his rebellion, but if you were Yoritomo you would’ve
probably despised the Taira for destroying your clan.
The once legendary Minamoto name was worthless.
It turned out Yoritomo was a genius politician, maybe even rivaling Kiyomori.
Kiyomori had sent him into the arms of the Hojo, assuming that would keep him under control.
But those arms held a knife.
Kiyomori actually gave him a dangerous asset.
The Hojo clan had influence in Izu Province.
The head of the Hojo was Yoritomo’s father-in-law,
and he must have seen potential in the younger man.
He backed Yoritomo’s ambitions.
Yoritomo raised a samurai army, went over to the government headquarters of Izu Province,
and said “Hey guys, this is mine now.”
He declared against the Taira.
Far off in the capital, Kiyomori was recorded as saying, “Oops.”
Yoritomo’s brothers Yoshitsune and Noriyori, who were in different parts of the country,
heard the call and came running over to join him.
The three brothers had never met before.
Yoritomo’s war almost ended right after it started.
A few days after his declaration, he was riding around with a small army and rode right into
the army of a Taira-friendly house and got demolished.
He had to hide in the mountains for a while.
He eventually escaped.
But like the old saying goes, when you fall off horse, you get right back up and start
a civil war that changes the course of your country.
Yoritomo’s rallying cry was anti-Taira, but was friendly to the Heian government.
He wasn’t calling for treason, he was rescuing the court from Taira fingers.
But as the war went on, it became clear that he had a bolder plan.
Did he start out with this plan in mind, or did he just happen to stumble upon it through
the course of the war the way you stumble upon a thesis through the course of writing
your essay that’s due tomorrow?
His plan?
To create an independent warrior state in the Kanto region, led by himself of course.
Now the Kanto had a history of giving the court headaches, and it was about to give
the court its biggest migraine.
The region was full of badass warriors whose favorite hobby was scoffing at authority while
placing the authority’s head on a stick.
200 years earlier, Taira no Masakado, often called the first samurai, also tried to kick
the central government out of the Kanto.
The people there always had a fondness for freedom.
It was a smart move for Yoritomo.
Move the focus away from helping the government remove the Taira.
The Kanto warriors were not fans of John F. Kennedy and just kept asking,
“What has the government done for me?”
The government was full of greedy outsiders who just stayed in the capital and took their
tax money and told them what to do, and also controlled their land.
Thing is, these people had a point.
The only people that mattered to nobles in the capital were nobles in the capital.
People outside of it were uncivilized and did silly things like provide food for everyone.
Probably explains why Kiyomori ignored the exiled Minamoto for 20 years.
Yoritomo offered them a different path, a red pill.
A chance to own their own lands, free of the court.
A chance for samurai to govern themselves, under him of course.
Yoritomo had to be ready, the Taira attack could come at any moment.
He gathered followers, promising them land and power.
At first, people were all,
“I dunno, man, we’ve rebelled before and we’ve always failed.”
But he did get enough support to build a base at a coastal village called Kamakura.
Then like Taira no Masakado before him, he went around capturing
the government headquarters of all of the Kanto provinces.
The more he defeated his enemies, the more followers he got.
Oh, that’s my problem.
Clans that were traditionally friendly to the Taira switched sides to join him.
People said, “Yes! I wanna be a part of this new warrior society.”
But there were also people who said,
“Yeah new society, whatever, I better get behind
this guy who’s going around conquering everything before he goes after me.”
Yoritomo welcomed his former enemies and even recognized some minor clans,
winning their loyalty.
The others, he crushed, even other Minamoto branch houses.
Within a few months, the Kanto was his.
The country was divided into West and East.
Then Kiyomori finally sent a force to the east, after having to delay it due to a famine.
The Taira were bringing a can of whoopass to the Kanto.
Unfortunately the can had holes in it and was leaking whoopass juice along the way.
What the hell am I talking about?
The Heike monogatari says that the Minamoto army was 200,000 men strong.
That’s almost certainly exaggerated, let’s be honest, but you get the gist.
The Minamoto army was big.
Taira soldiers just kept on leaving.
By the time they got to the site of the Battle of Fujikawa, a place called Fujikawa,
the Taira force had 4,000 mounted warriors.
Though you’re never sure of estimates from those days, it’s pretty clear that the Taira
were outnumbered.
But the brave Taira army got ready, took off their armor, and ran away.
Even the Heike monogatari chuckles about how scared the Taira men were.
It goes like this, the night before the battle, the Taira camp saw fires appear in the darkness
all around them.
They lamented that those must be fires from countless Minamoto camps.
In truth, they were only cooking fires from peasants who were hiding from the battle
all across the region.
The Taira were camped near a river that had a lot of birds.
That same night, something random startled the birds and they flew in a great flock,
their wings beating like thunder in the sky.
The Taira men panicked, thinking it was the hoofbeats of horsemen coming from all sides,
and they all ran away.
There’s actually an old song that describes this retreat.
It goes like this.
Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo-doo
The next morning, Yoritomo found an empty Taira camp and was like, “Bob’s your uncle.”
Only the Taira commander and 10 men returned to the capital.
An entire army just poofed, disappeared like Cheetos in the pantry.
To be fair to Taira no Kiyomori, he was at a disadvantage.
He had a whole country of dirty rebels to deal with.
He also had bureaucracy to deal with.
Doing anything in the Heian government was as slow as
hmm what’s the slowest thing you can think of,
oh an Apple iOS update,
and you can bet there were anti-Taira court officials making things a little slower.
Kiyomori decided to leave the Kanto alone for the time being.
With the pressure off, Yoritomo focused on leveling up.
He upgraded his base in Kamakura into a city.
Now this may surprise you.
Before, there were only two cities in Japan:
Heian-kyo the capital,
and Hiraizumi in the wild lands of the north.
Everywhere else was just small villages and hamlets.
Kamakura became a third city, the capital of the east.
Yoritomo appointed civil officials and formed a Kanto government with him at the top.
He wasn’t exactly a boss you wanted to work for.
He didn’t take no BS.
He killed suspected traitors,
killed those who murdered their lords just to gain his favor,
even killed those who followed his orders if they turned out to be bad orders.
He gave land to his followers, many of whom were rivals of the people he had killed.
So where was the Japanese aristocracy in all this?
The elites, the nobles, were all hunkered down inside the Heian capital.
Most of the elites found themselves powerless, spectators to their own fate.
It seemed the samurai had taken over.
Hey guys, if you want to read more about wars and Japan’s early military, check out William
Wayne Farris’ book Heavenly Warriors.
Besides the cool name, he goes into detail about how Japan’s military evolved and tactics
and like every single conflict that happened before 1300.
I have a link in the description.
Alright here’s today’s quiz you ready?
What are the names of the two stars that meet in the sky during the Tanabata festival?
Winner gets one of these, I’ll pick a winner in 24 hours.
Previous winner was Aditya M. Good luck!
We have a new emperor this week, Bo’s Mind Space, helloooo.
And we also have new patrons Ryansheppard and Dix-chan.
Thank you so much you guys.
Alright much love and spread the knowledge!