THE FIRST SHOGUN

How an exile took power in an age of murderous intrigue and a teetering empire

- Miguel Miranda

For all its majesty and splendour, the imperial court of Kyoto was awash in vengeful plots hatched by the feuding bloodlines that crowded the austere palace. For almost 300 years the era known as Heian, where the former capital of Nara was moved further north to Kyoto, dubbed Heiankyo to lend it an air of magnificence, featured shaky alliances that dampened the risks of civil war. As an antidote to factionalism the emperors cultivated an excess of refinement; frivolous art and gracious manners served as a thin veneer hiding the bad blood among these sovereigns and their jealous kin. Contrasting this was the emergence of the samurai, or the ones who served, in the beginning of the 9th century as a distinct social class and ad hoc national army. The edification of bushido as a code of ethics and martial jurisprudence helped distinguish Japanese society from its neighbours as its civilisation spread over the main island of Honshu and reached Hokkaido, which was beyond government control in previous eras.

But samurai and their fealty to regional clans were a bigger headache than they appeared. For Emperor Go-Shirakawa his own safety was at stake when he enlisted two samurai clans of imperial descent, meaning their respective founders were born in the imperial household, to defend Kyoto against any upstart. Where once the Fujiwara clan had entwined themselves in the imperial household by the middle of the 12th century, Go-Shirakawa elevated his favourites, the Heike clan, to the highest offices in the land. Of course, this meant eliminating the Heike’s main rivals – the elite Genji clan – in a brief civil war. Their family names were the Taira and the Minamoto, respectively.