2.6 Late Heian or Fujiwara Era: Insei or Cloistered Rule

Insei or Cloistered Rule

The Fujiwara maintained power, authority, and position through marriage: a prince or emperor would marry a Fujiwara bride, a prince born of that union would be raised by his Fujiwara grandfather, the emperor would abdicate in favor of the boy, and the boy emperor would be guided by his maternal grandfather as regent.  It depended only upon two things: Fujiwara females and their sons. Fujiwara no Michinaga did a magnificent job; however, things changed in the next generation. His sons Yorimichi and Norimichi, their daughters, and the emperors, Go-Suzaku, Go-Ichijo, and Go-Reizei either produced no offspring or infertile daughters. When Go-Reizei died in 1068, there was a problem. Neither he nor Go-Ichijo nor Go-Suzaku had direct male heirs.  Therefore, Takahito, who had been named many years before by Emperor Go-Suzaku, took the throne as Go-Sanjo.

When Go-Sanjo became emperor, Yorimichi was 74 and Norimichi was 72. Go-Sanjo was 34 and the heir-apparent as kampaku was Morozane who was only 24. A reversal occurred, instead of a mature Fujiwara regent controlling a child emperor, it was the emperor who was in his prime of life dealing with two elderly men and a young man. Go-Sanjo chose his chief advisors from the Murakami Genji, the descendants of Emperor Murakami.

What followed was The Period of Insei, or rule by “cloistered emperor”, dominated by three successive powerful former emperors – Shirakawa, Toba, and Go-Shirakawa – who replaced the reigning emperors and the regents as the supreme political figures.

Emperor Shirakawa (1053-1129) continued to strengthen the throne while weakening the regency. A kampaku was in place, but Shirakawa attempted to rule directly. In 1087 Shirakawa formally abdicated and took tonsure. Shirakawa had occupied the throne for 14 years; and for the next 43 years, he would exercise even greater powers in what came to be called insei or cloistered rule. Emperor Toba (1103-1156) was four years old when his father, Emperor Horikawa died. He was taken to his grandfather, Shirakawa, and later reigned for 16 years as titular emperor. When he turned 20, Shirakawa forced him to abdicate in favor of his three-year old son, Akihito (Emperor Sutoku). After Shirakawa died in 1029, retired-Emperor Toba ruled for the next 26 years. Following his father’s example, Toba forced Emperor Sutoku to abdicate in favor of retired-Emperor Toba’s three year old son (Emperor Konoe).  This scheme was working well until 1155, when Emperor Konoe died at the age of 17 without heirs.

Go-Shirakawa (1127-1192) ascended to the throne after Emperor Konoe. In 1158 he abdicated to his son Nijō and became cloistered emperor, through the reigns of five emperors until his death in 1192. However, it was not the same; Go-Shirakawa never enjoyed the privileges of the previous insei emperors for the focus of power had changed. By now an entirely new class appeared that wielded power: the military.

During insei, the monarchy became the prime source of land commendation in the shōen system. By now there were powerful outlying groups on these estates. Powerful local individuals merged into large military cliques (bushidan) to challenge state control of land they owned and managed. In the capital and other cities the huge Buddhist institutions assembled armies and terrorized the court when their demands were not met.

A series of disturbances over many years made the military an absolute necessity. There was an armed rebellion by Taira Masakado. The pirate Sumitomo who commanded 1000 ships, terrorized the Inland Sea.  These revolts were put down by Minamoto no Tsunemoto (894 – 961) who was the progenitor of the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. The relationship between the Fujiwara and the Seiwa Genji continued for nearly two hundred years and the Seiwa Genji were known as the “teeth and claws “ or the “running dogs” of the Fujiwara. Mitsunaka’s sons, Yorimitsu and Yorinobu, continued the tradition. Yorinobu put down the insurrection in Shimosa by Taira Tadatsune. In 1051 there was a rebellion, the Nine Years War, that was put down by Minamoto Yoriyoshi, the son of Yorinobu. Yoriyoshi’s son, Minamoto no Yoshiie, became worshiped as Hachimantarō, “Child of Hachiman,” the god of war. There also had been disturbances caused by warrior monks, particularly  the monks from Tōdai-ji and from Kōfuku-ji.

Because of these many outbreaks in the provinces, military men had become crucial to the maintenance of civil government. Before and even during the Fujiwara Era warriors enjoyed no prestige among the aristocrats. It had been an insult to suggest that one was knowledgeable in martial arts. But by the time of insei they became important and especially in the Hōgen Rebellion in 1156 and the Heiji Rebellion in 1160, the military became important within the capital, becoming indispensable and even dominant in court politics.

2.7 Late Heian or Fujiwara Era: The Rise of the Warrior Class