Talk:Hōgen rebellion

Hogen Disturbance

This text was formerly in the article Hogen Disturbance:

The Hogen disturbance (保元の乱) took place in 1156 during the Heian Period.

The conflict was a result of the Retired Emperor Toba forcing his son, the Emperor Sutoku, to reliquish the thrown in favor of Konoe, Toba's two year old son by his favorite consort. When Konoe died in 1155 Toba made matters worse. Instead of choosing Sutoku's son, he placed his half-brother, Go-Shirakawa, on the throne.

When Toba died in 1156 a challenge was brought by Sutoku and the Fujiwara chief Yorinaga. Sutoku and Yorinaga gathered warriors led by former Minamoto chief Tameyoshi and the minor Taira figure Tadamasa. They intended to overthrow Emperor Go-Shirakawa to place Sutoku back on the throne.

Go-Shirakawa anticipated such problems and had enlisted the Minamoto chief Yoshitomo and Taira chief Kiyomori. Attacking at night Go-Shirakawa's faction won. Yorinaga was killed by an arrow as he fled. Tameyoshi and Tadamasa were executed. Sutoku was exiled to Sanuki Province.

The Hogen disturbance marked the entry of the military clans into the capital as political forces to be dealt with. Tensions between the victorious Taira and Minamoto clans would lead to the Heiji disturbance four years later.

question

The articles for both the Hogen rebellion and the Heiji rebellion claim to be the beginning of a warrior-dominated government in Japan. Which one is it? AdamBiswanger1 01:33, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Both served as preludes to the Genpei War (1180-1185) which was followed by the establishment of the first shogunate, i.e. warrior-led government. Both events are representative of the emergence of trends and shifts within Heian society towards greater influence & power on the part of the warrior-class (specifically the Taira and Minamoto clans), as evidenced by the very fact that these wars were fought by those two clans over influence at court, etc.

Over the course of the early 12th century, through the Hogen Rebellion, up until the end of the Heiji Rebellion in 1156, the various clans bore significant influence within the Court and, to varying degrees at different times, could be said to have pulled the strings from behind the scenes. From 1156 until his death in 1181, Taira no Kiyomori dominated the Court, blatantly displaying his power rather than acting behind the scenes. But he still acted from within the Imperial Court. By contrast, it was not until after the Genpei War that the samurai class (the Minamoto clan) established a separate capital, a separate administrative bureaucracy, and began to rule in stead of the Court, turning the Emperor into more or less a figurehead.

Thus, I would argue that it's sort of a sliding scale of influence, not a direct black-and-white issue of which event marked the beginning of samurai dominance. The language in both articles right now, I believe, more or less accurately reflects the symbolic and representative role of these events; the Hogen Rebellion was one part of a series of events which together represent a trend towards increasing Taira/Minamoto power. It serves as a prelude leading up to the Heiji Rebellion, after which Kiyomori more explicitly seized power, though it was not until after the Genpei War that warrior *rule* (rather than influence) came into being. LordAmeth 07:41, 9 October 2007 (UTC)