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Japan The Rise of the Military Class
Under the early courts, when military conscription had
been
centrally controlled, military affairs had been taken out
of the
hands of the provincial aristocracy. But as the system
broke down
after 792, local power holders again became the primary
source of
military strength. Shoen holders had access to
manpower and,
as they obtained improved military technology (such as new
training
methods, more powerful bows, armor, horses, and superior
swords)
and faced worsening local conditions in the ninth century,
military
service became part of shoen life. Not only the
shoen
but also civil and religious institutions formed private
guard
units to protect themselves. Gradually, the provincial
upper class
was transformed into a new military elite based on the
ideals of
the bushi (warrior) or samurai (literally, one who
serves;
see
The Bushido Code
, ch. 8).
Bushi interests were diverse, cutting across old
power
structures to form new associations in the tenth century.
Mutual
interests, family connections, and kinship were
consolidated in
military groups that became part of family administration.
In time,
large regional military families formed around members of
the court
aristocracy who had become prominent provincial figures.
These
military families gained prestige from connections to the
imperial
court and court-granted military titles and access to
manpower. The
Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto were among the most
prominent
families supported by the new military class.
Decline in food production, growth of the population,
and
competition for resources among the great families all led
to the
gradual decline of Fujiwara power and gave rise to
military
disturbances in the mid-tenth and eleventh centuries.
Members of
the Fujiwara, Taira, and Minamoto families--all of whom
had
descended from the imperial family--attacked one another,
claimed
control over vast tracts of conquered land, set up rival
regimes,
and generally broke the peace of the Land of the Rising
Sun.
The Fujiwara controlled the throne until the reign of
Emperor
Go-Sanjo (1068-73), the first emperor not born of a
Fujiwara mother
since the ninth century. Go-Sanjo, determined to restore
imperial
control through strong personal rule, implemented reforms
to curb
Fujiwara influence. He also established an office to
compile and
validate estate records with the aim of reasserting
central
control. Many shoen were not properly certified,
and large
landholders, like the Fujiwara, felt threatened with the
loss of
their lands. Go-Sanjo also established the Incho, or
Office of the
Cloistered Emperor, which was held by a succession of
emperors who
abdicated to devote themselves to behind-the-scenes
governance, or
insei (cloistered government).
The Incho filled the void left by the decline of
Fujiwara
power. Rather than being banished, the Fujiwara were
mostly
retained in their old positions of civil dictator and
minister of
the center while being bypassed in decision making. In
time, many
of the Fujiwara were replaced, mostly by members of the
rising
Minamoto family. While the Fujiwara fell into disputes
among
themselves and formed northern and southern factions, the
insei system allowed the paternal line of the
imperial
family to gain influence over the throne. The period from
1086 to
1156 was the age of supremacy of the Incho and of the rise
of the
military class throughout the country. Military might
rather than
civil authority dominated the government.
A struggle for succession in the mid-twelfth century
gave the
Fujiwara an opportunity to regain their former power.
Fujiwara
Yorinaga sided with the retired emperor in a violent
battle in 1158
against the heir apparent, who was supported by the Taira
and
Minamoto. In the end, the Fujiwara were destroyed, the old
system
of government supplanted, and the insei system left
powerless as bushi took control of court affairs,
marking a
turning point in Japanese history. Within a year, the
Taira and
Minamoto clashed, and a twenty-year period of Taira
ascendancy
began. The Taira were seduced by court life and ignored
problems in
the provinces. Finally, Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-99) rose
from his
headquarters at Kamakura (in the Kanto region, southwest
of modern
Tokyo) to defeat the Taira, and with them the child
emperor they
controlled, in the Genpei War (1180-85).
Data as of January 1994
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