A Tohoku (Northeast Japan) Story in 1189
In 1157, Fujiwara Hidehira succeeded his father to be head of samurais of the Fujiwara clan and govern half of the north part of Honsyu Island of Japan today called Tohoku Region (where the 3/11 Tsunami Disaster occurred on March 11, 2011).
Fujiwara Hidehira could command 170,000 samurais in the region then called Ousyu from the regional capital Hiraizumi. Hiraizumi was as prosperous as Heiankyo (Kyoto), the then imperial capital of Japan. Buddhism was also actively pursued and revered in Hiraizumi with various elegant temples, including a golden temple. Ousyu provided alluvial gold and excellent horses for Hidehira. With riches the region produced, Hidehira worked on the imperial family and other noblemen in Kyoto, 1,000 km southeast of Hiraizumi, to consolidate his power, as the whole Japan was still under the imperial authority, though nominally in politics but substantially in culture, religion, and tradition. Yet, as Ousyu was so remote from Kyoto, the territory of Hidehira looked like an independent nation as it was so free from political influences from the imperial court in Kyoto which was at the time actually governed by a strong samurai clan called Heishi.
But, another samurai clan called Genji rose and took over political power from Heishi through a fierce civil war and wide-area battles covering most of the south and central part of Japan. With the victory, the chief of the Genji clan Minamoto Yoritomo became institutionally the head of all the samurai clans in Japan. Imperial families and noblemen lost any remaining political power that had been connected with military power of the Heishi clan. Then, Minamoto Yoritomo set his headquarters in Kamakura (500-km east of Kyoto and 40-km southwest of Tokyo) as he was steadily supported by samurai clans living in the Kanto region sourounding Kamukura that faces the Pacific Ocean through a big bay near Mt. Fuji. With time, Yoritomo naturally started to think about conquest of Ousyu, the only region out of his control in Japan.
Then, there occurred a ticklish incident that his younger brother Yoshitsune obtained a high post in the imperial court without permission from Yoritomo. Yoritomo got angry and tried to capture Yoshitusne to punish him; then Yoshitsune ran away to Ousyu and hid in Hiraizumi under protection of the Fujiwara clan.
So, Minamoto Yoritomo, who had already installed himself as the head of samurais all over Japan, requested Hidehira to hand over Yoshitsune as if testing loyalty from the Fujiwara clan in Ousyu. But Fujiwara Hidehira rejected it. Hidehira told his two sons to promise him to regard Yoshitsune as their lord and protect him till the end. His sons wrote a letter of promise. Soon after this episode, Hidehira died of illness.
Subsequently, Minamoto Yoritomo sent an order to the Fujiwara clan in the name of the emperor to hand over his fugitive brother Yoshitsune. But, following the instruction of their father, Hidehira's sons turned it down. When the imperial order was rejected again, Yoritomo tried to obtain an imperial order to subjugate the Fujiwara clan for real. This time, Hidehira's sons were afraid of coming war. So, they killed Yoshitsune and sent his head to Yoritomo as a proof of their obedience. But Yoritomo blamed the Fujiwara clan for having killed Yoshitsune without permission from the head of samurai who was Yoritomo. Yoritomo then again asked the emperor for an imperial order to subjugate the Fujiwara clan. But, before the imperial order was issued, Yoritomo started to mobilize samurais from all over Japan and organize troops (since he was the head of all the samurai in Japan, he did not need imperial permission to put down other samurai); then he started from Kamukura to Ousyu with nominally 280,000 samurai troops in 1189. The Fujiwara clan with tens of thousands of samurai troops finally got determined to fight a desperate war which eventually turned out to be one of the greatest civil conflicts in the Japanese history.
Minamoto Yoritomo eventually won this great war. His samurai government in Kamakura now literally ruled all the samurai clans in Japan and all the territories in Japan. Though he received an imperial title Shogun from the imperial court in Kyoto, the political capital of Japan was for the first time placed in eastern Japan, Kamakura. Samurais came to constitute a new ruling class in Japan. Unlike the Heishi clan who had governed Japan through a tie-up with the noble class in Kyoto, Kamakura samurai began to rule Japan directly with their own authority. As the official start of Yoritomo's reign all over Japan from Kamakura was dated in 1192, this year was regraded as the starting point of the warrior rule or the rule by the sword in Japan that lasted till 1867.
Even today, psychologically, I feel that Tohoku people have some complex feelings to Tokyo (also a samurai capital governed by the Tokugawa clan till 1867), since troops that destroyed glory of the Tohoku region the Fujiwara clan had established came from Kamakura which is close to Tokyo.
Yet, the glory of Hiraizumi, the capital of the Fujiwara clan, was fairly appraised and honored globally in 2011.
Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi is a group of five sites from late eleventh- and twelfth-century Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture,Japan. Proposed jointly in 2001 for inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria ii, iii, iv, and vi, it was inscribed in 2011.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Monuments_and_Sites_of_Hiraizumi
http://www.town.hiraizumi.iwate.jp/hiraizumi/top.html
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Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
Job 1:7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.