In law the Taira hold nothing: their estates (the 'Heike lands') became Kamakura's by the grant of 1185, and the direct line of Kiyomori's heirs was hunted down.
The survivors are a few women and in-laws. The last male of Kiyomori's direct line, Koremori's son Rokudai (Takakiyo), was spared in 1185 and lived on as a monk under the protection of Mongaku; the Heike story has Kamakura put him to death after Mongaku's fall in 1199, and we could not fix whether that came before or after 1 January 1200 (recollection, no source reached). Treat him as dead or about to die, never as a rival.
Kenreimon-in, Kiyomori's daughter and the emperor Antoku's mother, lives as a nun at Jakkō-in in Ōhara, north of Kyoto, where Go-Shirakawa visited her in 1186. The regent Konoe Motomichi is Kiyomori's son-in-law. The Kantō Taira houses (Hōjō, Miura, Chiba, Hatakeyama and others) are the winners of the war, not refugees. The Heike refugee villages of legend (Iya in Awa, Shiiba in Hyūga, the Tokara and Amami islands, Tsushima's origin stories) are tales of later centuries: we draw none of them as records.
Who he is
- Name
- Taira no Tokuko (Kenreimon-in), nun at Jakkō-in in Ōhara; the Konoe regent Motomichi as Kiyomori's son-in-law [en]
- Title
- Survivors of Kiyomori's line
- Born
- Kenreimon-in about 1155 [not yet checked against the source]
- Family
- Kiyomori's daughter, widow of Takakura and mother of the drowned emperor Antoku; her sister Sadako married Konoe Motomichi (English Wikipedia)
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Motomichi) for the marriage; Kenreimon-in at Ōhara from the Heike story and the records of Go-Shirakawa's visit of 1186 (recollection).
What it holds
- Nothing in law; Jakkō-in in Ōhara is a small nunnery
How things stand that morning
Kenreimon-in is alive at Jakkō-in (she dies about 1213 [not yet checked against the source]). No Taira heir holds a province. Rokudai, the last male of the direct line, is dead or about to be (1199 or 1200, not pinned) [not yet checked against the source].
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.
- 1199 or 1200, not pinnedRokudai (Takakiyo), Koremori's son, is put to death by Kamakura after Mongaku's fall [not yet checked against the source]Depends on: Mongaku's exile to Sado after Yoritomo's death (English Wikipedia, Mongaku) Stopped by: Not known: a source that dates it would decide
Places of note
- Jakkō-in, Ōhara: Kenreimon-in's nunnery [not yet checked against the source]
- Iya valley (legend): A legend of Heike refugees; not a record
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Mostly the literary tradition; the marriage is checked on English Wikipedia.
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
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- Konoe Motomichi, English Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.