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源平合戦図屏風(江戸時代)― 屋島合戦 扇の的 / 東京国立博物館

The Genpei War was a civil war that occurred in late antiquity. In Japanese, it is called either Genpei kassen (the Minamoto-Taira Wars) or Genpei no soran (the Minamoto-Taira Strife). It was not simply a war between the Minamoto and Taira clans. Rather, it was a war between two groups of warriors centered around the Minamoto and Taira clans. This war is also called the Jisho-Juei War, after the two era names of the period. In this sense, the Genpei War designates the civil strife that occurred from the fourth month of 1180, when Prince Mochihito issued a call to arms to the Minamoto forces of the provinces, to the third month of 1185, when the Taira were defeated at Dan-no-ura in Nagato Province (present-day Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture). A broader definition of the Genpei War (not adopted here) includes the civil strife occurring from the Hogen Rebellion (1156) to Yoritomo's pursuit and destruction of the Northern Fujiwara (1189).


In the middle of the twelfth century, the conflict between the imperial and aristocratic forces and conflicts between leaders of samurai factions came together to produce the Hogen rebellion in 1156 and the Heiji rebellion in 1159, after which the Taira emerged dominant. In 1179 Taira no Kiyomori confined the cloister emperor Goshirakawa, suspended his cloister rule, and solidified a system of Taira dictatorial rule. This dictatorial rule led to increasing dissatisfaction among local samurai and a strong reaction among aristocrats centered around the Fujiwara clan and among the clergy, including Kofuku Temple in the south and Enryaku Temple in the north. In these circumstances, Prince Mochihito, after consulting with Minamoto no Yorimasa and others, issued the above-mentioned call to arms to suppress the Taira in the fourth month of 1180. Minamoto no Yukiie sent this call to the Minamoto forces in the provinces, with the result that forces arose throughout Japan and the civil war took on the appearance of a confrontation between the Minamoto and Taira clans.


In the eighth month of the same year, Minamoto no Yoritomo, a member of the direct Minamoto line who had been exiled to Izu Province, took up arms, but was thoroughly defeated in the Battle of Ishibashiyama (present-day Odawara, Kanagawa Prefecture) and fled by sea to Awa Province. There he regrouped and on the 6th of the tenth month entered Kamakura in Sagami Province and established his base. On the 20th of the tenth month in the middle of the night, an army led by Taira no Koremori was routed without a fight (the Battle of Fujigawa). As a result, most samurai of the eastern provinces joined the Minamoto forces, and Yoritomo, from his base in Kamakura, proceeded to quickly pacify the eastern provinces. Then in the intercalary second month of 1181, Kiyomori, the commander of the Taira forces, died, and the Taira forces began a continual decline.


On another front, Minamoto no Yoshinaka, lord of Kiso, raised forces in Shinano Province and advanced into the Hokuriku region. In the fifth month of 1183, he defeated the Taira forces at Mount Tonami on the border between Kaga and Etchu provinces (the Battle of Kurikara), and toward the end of the seventh month, he entered the capital, Kyoto. Consequently, the Taira forces, with the young Emperor Antoku and the three imperial regalia in tow, fled to Saikai.


Later the conflict between Yoritomo and Yoshinaka in the Minamoto camp became so extreme that it broke out into open combat. Yoritomo put Noriyori and Yoshitsune, his younger brothers, at the head of two armies and had them advance to the west. They met the now isolated Yoshinaka and defeated him in the Battle of Uji. He was killed while fleeing at Awazu in Omi Province (present-day Otsu, Shiga Prefecture).


While this was happening, the Taira forces retreated to Kyushu and took advantage of the Minamoto clan's internal strife to recover. They then advanced east to the old capital Fukuhara in Settsu Province (present-day Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture) with the aim of recovering Kyoto. In response, the Noriyori and Yoshitsune forces, which had obtained another imperial command from the cloistered emperor to repress the Taira, advanced toward Fukuhara in the second month of 1184 and, by means of Yoshitsune's surprise attack downhill from Hiyodorigoe Pass, won the Battle of Ichinotani. The Taira forces retreated to Yashima, Sanuki Province, in Shikoku (present-day Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture). The Minamoto forces could not pursue them because they lacked military provisions and transport ships.


It was only in the second month of the following year that Yoshitsune was able to cross the sea and attack the encampment at Yashima (the Battle of Yashima). The Taira forces fled to the island Hikoshima in Nagato Province (present-day Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture), but in the third month were defeated in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Emperor Antoku drowned himself. Taira no Munemori, Taira no Tokuko (Kiyomori's daughter and Emperor Takakura's empress-consort), and others were captured. In short, the Taira clan was completely destroyed.

Related People, Things and Events

Books

Accounts of the Genpei War in Azuma Monogatari, Heike Monogatari, and Genpei Seisuiki

Related Works

Genpei War in ukiyo-e paintings

Major characters in the Genpei War depicted in Yoshitoshi Musha Burui (“Yoshitoshi’s Courageous Warriors”) by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Videos

地図で探す

Historical audio records (SP records) of Genpei War

Past Exhibitions

TitleshusaiPlaceopenclose
国立公文書館2011/4/22011/4/21

Institutions Holding Related Materials

  • The National Diet Library (NDL), founded in 1948, is the library which belongs to the Diet. The NDL assists the activities of the National Diet. The Library collects and conserves materials and information both from Japan and abroad, serving as a foundation of knowledge and culture and providing library services to administrative and judicial entities and Japanese citizens.

  • The National Archives is an organization for preserving, as historical materials, public records and archives of importance transferred from state organs, and providing them for public use, with the aim of achieving appropriate preservation and use of such public records and archives that are kept in the National Archives or state organs as historical materials.

  • As Japan’s representative museum, Tokyo National Museum collects, preserves, displays, and researches the cultural properties of Asia with a focus on Japan, and also provides educational programs.

  • Kyoto National Museum collects, preserves, displays, researches and provides educational programs focusing on cultural properties from Heian- through to Edo- period Japan, when the capital was located there.

  • The Tokyo Fuji Art Museum is founded on November 3, 1983, in Hachioji, a thriving university town in the western suburbs of the Japanese capital. Priding itself as “a museum creating bridges around the world” to facilitate the exchange of different cultures, our museum has forged cordial relations with art museums and cultural institutes in 32 countries and territories to date. We do so by bringing the world’s finest works of art to Japan while reciprocating in kind by introducing the finest Japanese treasures to the world through special exhibitions that showcase their beauty and wonder through a unique new set of prisms and perspectives. Our museum possesses some 30,000 pieces of artworks from various periods and cultures including Japanese, Eastern and Western works, ranging from paintings, prints, photography, sculptures, ceramics and lacquer ware to armor, swords and medallions. Especially noteworthy is its outstanding collection of Western oil paintings that spans a five-hundred-year period from the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Romanticism to Impressionism and contemporary art, as well as its exceptional collection of photographic masterpieces that can give an overview of the history of photography from the birth of the photograph to the present age.

  • The University of Tokyo is promoting the construction of digital archives. The University of Tokyo Archives, The University Museum, Information Technology Center, and University of Tokyo Library System collaborate on this project.

  • The Art Research Center was established in 1998. Since then, the Center’s mission has been not only to conduct historical and social research and analyses of both tangible and intangible human cultural properties such as visual and performing arts and craftsmanship, but also to record, organize, preserve, and disseminate the research outcomes. To make the vast amount of database of resources on Japanese culture kept at the Art Research Center available to joint researchers in and outside of Japan, while providing the hitherto accumulated digital archiving and database management technologies as the basis for research project activities to promote information archiving and the circulating of joint research on knowledge. Through these undertakings, the Center aims to “become a world class research center” in the field of Digital Humanities.

External Links

  • 兵庫県立博物館が運営するサイト「歴史博物館ネットミュージアム ひょうご歴史ステーション」に載る「歴史ステーションセミナー」の中で見られる。屏風の細部にわたっての解説がある。

  • 「刀剣ワールド」HPより。右隻の右から「安徳天皇」、「三草山の戦い」、「屋島」、「梶原の二度駆け」、「しころ引き」、「鷲尾三郎義久」、左隻の右から「詞戦い」、「扇の的」、「能登守平教経」、「生田口の開戦」、「直実と敦盛」、「義経弓流し」のそれぞれ六扇からなる屏風を解説している。

  • 香川県高松市玉藻町に所在。HPのトップ画面の「収蔵資料」をクリック→「館蔵品データベース」をクリック→さらに「香川県立ミュージアム館蔵品データベース はこちら」をクリックし、キーワードに「源平合戦」などと入力すると、収蔵資料を事前に調べることができる。

  • 富山県小矢部市商工観光課などが運営するサイトより。寿永2年(1183)5月の倶利伽羅峠の戦い(砺波山の戦い)の古戦場について紹介しています。

  • 山口県の下関市公式観光サイト「楽しも」より。壇ノ浦の合戦の平家に関するゆかりの地を、「しものせき物語」のepisode.4「壇ノ浦の合戦」として源平合戦・清盛略年譜などとともに紹介している。

  • 平成23年度 春の特別展「国立公文書館創立40周年記念貴重資料展Ⅰ 歴史と物語」より。展示された資料は紅葉山文庫旧蔵のもの。

  • 平成23年度 春の特別展「国立公文書館創立40周年記念貴重資料展Ⅰ 歴史と物語」より。展示された資料は室町時代の写で、紅葉山文庫旧蔵のもの。

References

  1. 竹内理三 著,中央公論新社
  2. 上横手雅敬, 元木泰雄, 勝山清次 著,中央公論新社
  3. 川合康 著,吉川弘文館
  4. 黒板勝美, 国史大系編修会 編,吉川弘文館
  5. 五味文彦, 本郷和人 編,吉川弘文館
  6. 五味文彦, 本郷和人 編,吉川弘文館
  7. 佐竹昭広 [ほか]編,岩波書店
  8. 佐竹昭広 [ほか]編,岩波書店
  9. 「源平の合戦」の項
  10. 「源平争乱」の項
  11. 「源平合戦→治承・寿永の乱」の項
  12. 歴史学研究会 編,岩波書店
  13. サンプルページ「平家物語」の項
  14. 『平家物語』が載っている。