ere selected from families
devoted to military service. The Taira family was of this class. Hei is
the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese name Taira, and is more often used
in the literature of the times. The Taira family sprang from the Emperor
Kwammu (A.D. 782-806) through one of his concubines. The great-grandson of
Kwammu, Takamochi, received permission to adopt the name of Taira, and
thus became the founder of the family. They were the military vassals of
the crown for many generations.

A little later than the Taira arose another family, the Minamoto, whose
equivalent Chinese name was Gen. It sprang from the Emperor Seiwa (A.D.
859-880). His son Tadazumi became minister of war. Tadazumi had two sons,
who were granted the family name of Minamoto; the descendants of one of
them, Tsunemoto, being created military vassals.

The almost constant wars in which the empire was engaged led to the
extension of the military class. From the time now under discussion the
military class came to be looked upon as a distinct and separate part of
the population. It was composed of those who in the time of war showed an
aptitude for arms, and who were most serviceable in the campaigns which
they undertook. Gradually they became distinct from the agricultural
peasantry, and by education and training came to look upon arms as their
legitimate profession. They naturally attached themselves to the military
commanders who led them in their various expeditions, and thus were in
time regarded as the standing troops of the empire. This growth of a
military class, whose commanders were restless and ambitious, gradually
undermined the authority which the Fujiwara up to the tenth century had
almost unrestrictedly exercised. The employment of commanders from the
military families raised in them an ambition to share in the powers of
government. The struggles which ensued, first between the Fujiwara and
Taira, and then between the Taira and Minamoto, continued to keep the
country embroiled for more than a century. The suffering and desolation
resulting from these weary internecine wars can only be paralleled by such
conflicts as that between the White and Red Roses in England, or the
Thirty Years' War in Germany. Of these struggles it will be possible to
give only an outline.

It has already been mentioned that the Taira family sprang from the
Emperor Kwammu,(112) whose great-grandson, Takamochi received permission
to take Taira as his family n