ed the Masakado revolt).
|
Korehira (of Ise province)
|
-------
|
-------
|
Masamori (governed Ise, Inaba, Sanuki, etc.;
| quelled the rebellion of Minamoto
+----------+ Yoshichika).
| |
Tadamasa Tadamori (served the Emperors Shirakawa,
| Horikawa, and Toba;* subdued the
| pirates of Sanyo-do and Nankai-do)
|
Kiyomori (crushed the Minamoto and temporarily
| established the supremacy of the Taira).
|
Shigemori

In its attitude towards these two families the Court showed
short-sighted shrewdness. It pitted one against the other; If the
Taira showed turbulence, the aid of the Minamoto was enlisted; and
when a Minamoto rebelled, a Taira received a commission to deal with
him. Thus, the Throne purchased peace for a time at the cost of
sowing, between the two great military clans, seeds of discord
destined to shake even the Crown. In the capital the bushi served as
palace guards; in the provinces they were practically independent.
Such was the state of affairs on the eve of a fierce struggle known
in history as the tumult of the Hogen and Heiji eras (1150-1160).

*It is of this noble that history records an incident illustrative of
the superstitions of the eleventh century. The cloistered Emperor
Shirakawa kept Tadamori constantly by his side. One night, Shirakawa,
accompanied by Tadamori, went to visit a lady favourite in a detached
palace near the shrine of Gion. Suddenly the two men saw an
apparition of a demon covered with wirelike hair and having a
luminous body. The Emperor ordered Tadamori to use his bow. But
Tadamori advanced boldly and, seizing the demon, found that it was an
old man wearing straw headgear as a protection against the rain, and
carrying a lamp to kindle the light at the shrine. This valiant deed
on Tadamori's part elicited universal applause, as indeed it might in
an era of such faith in the supernatural.

THE HOGEN INSURRECTION

It has been related in Chapter XXII that Taiken-mon-in, consort of
the Emperor Toba, was chosen for the latter by his grandfather, the
cloistered Emperor Shirakawa, and that she bore to Toba a s