Kiyomori's family came from Ise: his father and grandfather held the Ise coast and the Ise Heishi's estates and boats made the Taira the first sea-borne warriors of Japan.
When the main line fell at Dannoura in 1185 Kamakura took the Taira estates as war booty (the Heike mikan-ryō) and put stewards on them, but in Ise and Iga many small Taira families stayed on their land, bound to the local temples and shrines and to the boatmen of the Ise coast. The brief lists them as a Taira remnant who 'wait for a reason to rise'. They are not a power in the winter.
They are a danger, because the Ise-Iga ground lies on the road between Kyoto and the east and because, in the recalled sequel, the Taira rise in 1203 in Ise and Iga and are put down by Kamakura's men (recalled).
Who he is
- Title
- No lord: scattered Taira families of Ise and Iga
- Since
- After 1185
- Family
- The Ise Heishi are the family from which Taira no Kiyomori's own line grew; the main Heike were destroyed at Dannoura in 1185.
- Confidence
- low
The brief; recollection of the Ise-Iga risings of 1203 and the pursuit of Heike remnants. No source on them for 1199 to 1200 was opened.
Overlord
The court's governor of Ise; Kamakura's constable and stewards on confiscated estates
What it holds
- Scattered small lands and the loyalty of boatmen on the Ise coast (not itemised)
How it was acquired
By inheritance from the Ise Heishi.
Allies and rivals
Rivals of Kamakura's stewards; kin to the Taira exiles; neighbours of the Ise Jingū priests (Watarai and Arakida).
How things stand that morning
Quiet.
Wealth
Small estates and the coastal trade of Ise; no figure.
Military
Local warriors with boats; no numbers.
Threats
- Kamakura's stewards confiscating the last holdings
- An attempt to rise when the news of a Kamakura crisis arrives
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- Kennin 3 (1203, recalled)A Taira rising in Ise and Iga, put down by Kamakura's men.Depends on: The weakness of Kamakura in the year of the Hiki affair Stopped by: Quick action by the Kyoto guard
Where the sources disagree
- The assignment names the Taira remnants of Ise; no named family is pinned for 1200 in any source we could open.
Evidence: Brief and recollection only.
On the map: Scattered lands are drawn as a soft zone round Tsu and Suzuka for orientation only.
Primary sources for Kyoto court
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
- Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
- Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
- Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
- Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- KJA_BRIEF.md and the OMNIA board for sheet kja (the lead's notes: [own] computation, [not yet checked against the source] recollection, [en] English Wikipedia)
- Azuma Kagami (the Kamakura chronicle), Kenkyu 10 to Shoji 2 entries, recalled and through the brief; ja.wikipedia and ja.wikisource were refused in this session, so no entry was re-read
- Jeffrey P. Mass, Warrior Government in Early Medieval Japan (1974), from memory; the archive.org full text could not be opened
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.