[Beautiful Japan] HIROSHIMA Taira no Kiyomori

Taira no Kiyomori (The inland sea,Hiroshima Prefecture)

Taira no Kiyomori, who loved the Inland sea, and brought Japan into a new ago

The dashing figure of Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), the first ‘samurai’ warrior to reign supreme in Japan, appears out of the chaos accompanying the collapse of the ancient nobility after nearly four centuries of the country’s ‘Heian’ period. His turbulent life gives him great popular appeal, and he remains a major figure in Japanese history. Earning
the trust of the Emperor Go-Shirakawa during the Hogen Rebellion of 1156, and defeating his warrior rivals Minamoto no Yoshitomo and Fujiwara no Nobuyori Heiji in the Heiji Rebellion of 1160, he was named the Emperor’s Chief Minister and thus effectively controlled the government with his military strength as well as throug, h a role in which he is credited with being an able administrator who brought the nation into a new age. Suppressing the pirates who flourished on the many islands of the Seto Inland Sea,
he sought to make Japan wealthier by developing reliable shipping lanes in the Seto Inland Sea and increasing trade with Song-dynasty China. The legend of his ‘calling back the setting sun’ and ordering stones engraved with holy sutras thrown into the sea
in place of the traditional human sacrifice during the excavation of the Ondo no Seto strait reveals a man of warmth and empathy. His posthumous name, meaning
‘calm sea’, perhaps reflects his ardent but unachieved and everlasting aspiration
for the waters of the Seto Inland Sea, famous for both their beauty in good weather and
their violence at other times.