to the office of kwampaku, and
he conferred on his son, Munemori, the function of guarding Kyoto,
strong bodies of soldiers being posted in the two Taira mansions of
Rokuhara on the north and south of the capital.

*See Murdoch's History of Japan.

THE YORIMASA CONSPIRACY

In 1180, at the instance of Kiyomori and partly, no doubt, because of
the difficult position in which he found himself placed with regard
to his imprisoned father, the Emperor Takakura, then in his twentieth
year, resigned the throne in favour of Kiyomori's grandson, Antoku
(eighty-first sovereign), a child of three. This was the culmination
of the Taira's fortunes. There was at that time among the Kyoto
officials a Minamoto named Yorimasa, sixth in descent from Minamoto
Mitsunaka, who flourished in the tenth century and by whose order the
heirloom swords, Hige-kiri and Hiza-kiri, were forged. This Yorimasa
was an expert bowman, a skilled soldier, and an adept versifier,
accomplishments not infrequently combined in one person during the
Heian epoch. Go-Shirakawa, appreciating Yorimasa's abilities,
nominated him director of the Imperial Estates Bureau (Kurando) and
afterwards made him governor of Hyogo.

But it was not until he had reached the age of seventy-five that, on
Kiyomori's recommendation, he received promotion, in 1178, to the
second grade of the third rank (ju-sammi), thus for the first time
obtaining the privilege of access to the Imperial presence. The
explanation of this tardy recognition is, perhaps, to be sought in
Yorimasa's preference of prudence to loyalty. In the year of Heiji,
he held his little band of bushi in the leash until the issue of the
battle could be clearly forseen, and then he threw in his lot with
the Taira. Such shallow fealty seldom wins its way to high place. Men
did not forget Yorimasa's record. His belated admission to the ranks
of the tenjo-bito provoked some derision and he was commonly spoken
of as Gen-sammi (the Minamoto third rank).

But even for one constitutionally so cautious, the pretensions of the
Taira became intolerable. Yorimasa determined to strike a blow for
the Minamoto cause, and looking round for a figure-head, he fixed
upon Prince Mochihito, elder brother of Takakura. This prince, being
the son of a concubine, had never reached Imperial rank, though he
was thirty years of age, but he possessed some capacity, and a noted
physiognomist had recognized in him a future Emperor. In 1170, at
Yo