In 1180, Japan was plunged into civil
war. The dominant Taira clan faced an
uprising by its rivals, the Minamoto,
after prime minister Taira Kiyomori
had installed his infant grandson
Antoku on the imperial throne. After
initial setbacks in this conict—called
the Genpei War—the rebels acquired a new leader, Minamoto
no Yoritomo, who secured eastern Japan, and whose armies
then captured the imperial capital, Kyoto, in 1183. The Taira
clan ed, taking the young emperor with them, but Yoritomo’s
half-brother Yoshitsune forced them from their refuge on
Yoshima island and pursued them with a large eet.
At Dan-no-ura, on the straits between Honshu and Kyushu
islands in southwestern Japan, the Taira eet turned and
fought. They tried to take advantage of the strong tides in the
straits, which owed eastward in the morning and kept their
enemy from approaching. Their attempts at encircling the
Dan-no-ura
1185
◼
SOUTHWESTERN JAPAN
◼
MINAMOTO CLAN VS. TAIRA CLAN
GENPEI WAR
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55
DAN-NO-URA
◼
1185
1
THE DEATH OF TAIRA TOMOMORI
Son of Kiyomori, Taira
Tomomori won the rst major battle of the Genpei War, at Uji,
in 1180. His error of judgment in trying to use the tides at
Dan-no-ura to outank the Minamoto eet led to disaster, and
he was one of many Taira leaders to commit suicide by jumping
into the waters. Severely wounded, he ensured his death by
tying himself to a heavy anchor, shown here.
1
THE FIRST SHŌGUN
Dan-no-ura was a turning point
for Minamoto no Yoritomo. Leader of the anti-Taira rebellion
in 1180, he survived a disastrous defeat at Ishibashiyama,
consolidated his forces, and captured much of eastern Japan.
After Dan-no-ura, Yoritomo exiled his half-brother, Yoshitsune,
by now his most dangerous rival, and in 1192 became shōgun,
beginning a line of military rulers that lasted until 1335.
In context
Minamoto failed when the maneuver took too long and the tides
turned, allowing the Minamoto’s ships to surround them, helped by
the defection of a section of the Taira eet. Many Taira ships were
seized or sunk, and in the panic the Taira drowned the infant emperor
to avoid the shame of him being captured. Taira Tomomori himself
committed suicide (see right), and with the Taira leadership
weakened, Yoritomo assumed the title of shōgun (the de facto
ruler of the country) and established a military government at
Kamakura that went on to rule Japan for a century and a half.
1
CLASH OF CLANS
In this 19th-century depiction, the Taira and
Minamoto eets are shown clashing at Dan-no-ura. Despite their traditional
naval superiority, the Taira were outnumbered by 840 ships to 500. This was
thanks to Yoshitsune no Minamoto, who had managed to recruit hundreds of
ships from towns bordering Japan’s Inland Sea.
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