. At fifty-one, he fell seriously ill and
took the tonsure by way of soliciting heaven's aid. People spoke of
him as Dajo Nyudo, or the "lay-priest chancellor." Recovering, he
developed a mood of increased arrogance. His residence at Rokuhara
was a magnificent pile of building, as architecture then went,
standing in a park of great extent and beauty. There he administered
State affairs with all the pomp and circumstance of an Imperial
court. He introduced his daughter, Toku, into the Household and very
soon she was made Empress, under the name of Kenrei-mon-in.

Thus completely were the Fujiwara beaten at their own game and the
traditions of centuries set at naught. A majority of the highest
posts were filled by Kiyomori's kinsmen. Fifteen of his family were
of, or above, the third rank, and thirty were tenjo-bito.
"Akitsushima (Japan) was divided into sixty-six provinces. Of these
thirty were governed by Taira partisans. Their manors were to be
found in five hundred places, and their fields were innumerable.
Their mansions were full of splendid garments and rich robes like
flowers, and the spaces before their portals were so thronged with
ox-carriages and horses that markets were often held there. Not to be
a Taira was not to be a man."*

*Gen-pei Seisuiki (Records of the Vicissitudes of the Minamoto and
the Taira).

It is necessary to note, too, with regard to these manors, that many
of them were tax-free lands (koderi) granted in perpetuity. Such
grants, as has been already shown, were not infrequent. But they had
been made, for the most part, to civilian officials, by whose serfs
they were farmed, the proceeds being forwarded to Kyoto for the
support of their owners; whereas the koden bestowed on Taira officers
were, in effect, military fiefs. It is true that similar fiefs
existed in the north and in the south, but their number was so
greatly increased in the days of Taira ascendancy as almost to
constitute a new departure. Kiyomori was, in truth, one of the most
despotic rulers that ever held sway in Japan. He organized a band of
three hundred youths whose business was to go about Kyoto and listen
to the citizens' talk. If anyone was reported by these spies as
having spoken ill of the Taira, he was seized and punished. One day
Kiyomori's grandson, Sukemori, met the regent, Fujiwara Motofusa, and
failing to alight from his carriage, as etiquette required, was
compelled by the regent's retinue to do so. On learni