Ninety years later, Taira-no-Tadatsune, vice-governor of the province of
Kazusa, forcibly took possession of the provinces of Kazusa and Shimōsa,
but was defeated by Minamoto-no-Yorinobu, a grandson of Tsunemoto. Soon
afterward local chiefs raised an insurrection in the remote northern
province of Mutsu, and maintained their authority for nine years. This
was followed soon after by a three-year revolt of the Kiyowara family,
which threw the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa into a state of tumult.
These troubles were quelled, respectively, by Yoriyoshi, the son, and
Yoshiiye, the grandson, of Yorinobu. Thus the influence of the Minamoto
clan became paramount among the military men of the eastern provinces.
All this while, courtiers and officials of Kyōto despised administrative
duties, whether civil or military, so that in the event of a disturbance
or of a feud among themselves, they were driven to rely upon the
military classes, thus involuntarily but surely strengthening the
influence of the men whom they professed to contemn. Although the
Fujiwara remained in Kyōto and filled all the important posts in the
general government, their sway was only apparent. The reins of state
affairs were in reality held by the military classes dispersed
throughout the provinces. There were also certain singular circumstances
at court which not only hastened this revolution, but also brought the
military forces from the provinces into a clash in the streets of Kyōto.
These circumstances, which we shall briefly describe below, were in the
main owing to two causes, namely, the undue wealth and power of the
Buddhist priests, and the struggle for power among different political
factions in the palace. The former was largely due to the devotion of
the imperial house, particularly the Emperor Shirakawa (1073-1087), who
greatly depleted the treasury by erecting thousands of temples and
images, and ordering the performance of rites and the giving of alms
with unprecedented profusion. The priests, who had already grown rich
and powerful, began to be engaged in quarrels among themselves and with
the outside world, for which purpose the greater monasteries maintained
considerable military forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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