Who Was Taira no Kiyomori, and Why Did the Taira Fall? Heian Power, Cloistered Rule and the Tale of the Heike
Who was Taira no Kiyomori, and why did the Taira fall? Takahiro Mitsui, a Japanese philosopher born in 1991, writing every Friday from inside Japan and outside academia, reads the twelfth century as one system ending: a samurai shakes the trade routes of Mount Hiei, builds a hegemony in one generation, and loses it because no successor stands behind him. Not a theory of the past but a way to read power, for readers in their 20s and 30s, alive today.
How did a samurai rise at the Heian court, and what was cloistered rule (insei)?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Zen could not be separated from the samurai, 2026-01-08): the rise of Zen cannot be thought of apart from the rise of the samurai; in a new system the two became one, set against the machinery of power that Heian-kyo and Mount Hiei had been for centuries.
The rise of Zen in Japan cannot be thought of apart from the rise of the samurai.
In Tadamori's day the samurai were still only watchdogs for the nobles, and holding real political power was a dream of dreams.
Put simply, cloistered rule is this. The emperor's position is crowded with everyday ceremonies, so a sovereign disliked it and, to keep real power behind the scenes, deliberately abdicated while still living, handed the throne to another heir, and as "retired emperor, the 'in'" went on holding real political power.
But with the rise of the system of cloistered rule born of the imperial family's selfish desire, attention fell in an unexpected way on the samurai, who had not been noticed before.
How did trade with Song China shape the rise of the warrior class?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (Zen could not be separated from the samurai, 2026-01-08, A system concentrated into a living corpse, 2026-01-12): Kiyomori's new trade route through the Seto Inland Sea shook the route through Fukui and Lake Biwa on which Mount Hiei held its interests, and Heian-kyo could not feed itself from its own basin.
The new trade route Kiyomori set out was a landmark.
Kiyomori proposed introducing not this exchange in goods but a monetary economy using Song coins imported in large quantities from Song.
From antiquity, the basin of Heian-kyo had never been able to sustain itself on its own food and material production; it had always depended on supplies brought in from the provinces.
When an old power falls, what is left? There is no outside
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (A capital designed to guard itself, 2026-01-10, When a civilization ends, there is no outside, 2026-01-10): no system is permanent, and Mount Hiei, the winner of centuries, collapsed in a flash at the appearance of one person who carried the new age; those who took one small corner for the world met a reality with neither inside nor outside.
History teaches that even systems that seem to have absolute strength, the ones we actually experience day and night, have collapsed many times. No system is permanent.
History tells us that even Mount Hiei, the winner of centuries, collapsed in a flash at the appearance of a single person who would carry the new age.
People who had lived in peace taking one small corner of Kyoto to be the entire world were suddenly forced to confront a reality in which the system had neither an inside nor an outside. That is what always happens when a civilization comes to an end.
What is a zombie institution, and how does it end?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (A system concentrated into a living corpse, 2026-01-12): the old system of Heian-kyo had concentrated vested interests so densely in a narrow space that it had become a living corpse; moving to a new place is the surest way to sweep away an entrenched old system, and the illusion of endless upward growth is always only an illusion.
Because the old system of Heian-kyo, which had endured for centuries since 794 within a tiny district of modern-day Kyoto, had concentrated vested interests so densely in that narrow space that it had turned into a living corpse.
Seen in the light of history, moving to a new place is the surest way to sweep away an entrenched old system.
Yet the illusion of endless upward growth is always only an illusion.
What does the opening of the Heike monogatari mean for today?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (A system concentrated into a living corpse, 2026-01-12): the rise and fall of the Taira is a lesson that no matter how great the power a person holds, no one can defy the workings of nature or the flow of time; the question he leaves the reader is what to prepare until that hour comes.
Watching the Taira clan rise to unprecedented splendor only to perish within a few short decades, people of the era saw a living lesson in the rise and fall of human fortune, and sublimated it into The Tale of the Heike around two Buddhist principles: shogyo mujo (諸行無常), that nothing in this world remains unchanged, and josha hissui (盛者必衰), that whatever flourishes must inevitably decline.
The rise and fall of the Taira is not mere history; it is a lesson that no matter how great the power a person holds, no one can defy the workings of nature or the flow of time.
Until that day arrives, what will you do, and what will you prepare?
Why does a hegemony without heirs not last?
Takahiro Mitsui's thesis (A hegemony of two generations, 2026-01-22, The protagonist of an age passes on, 2026-01-15): a line of strongmen that swept Heian-kyo for two generations has no hegemony to speak of if no one comes after, and at the moment an unknown exile with neither force nor wealth awoke, the protagonist of the age passed from Kiyomori.
The decisive factor was the weakness of their successors.
A line of strongmen that had swept Heian-kyo through two generations, from the father Taira no Tadamori (1096–1153) to the son Kiyomori, has no hegemony to speak of if no one comes after.
His name was Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199). At the time he was an unknown figure.
At the moment Yoritomo awoke, the protagonist of the age passed from Kiyomori.
Essays to read
- Zen could not be separated from the samurai — How did Zen and the samurai rise together in Japan? Zen cannot be separated from the samurai, Takahiro Mitsui holds: together they were the strongest force against a centuries-old power machine.
- A state run as one network's private property — What is Hiyoshi Taisha? Running a state as one network's private property can last long and still end in ruin, Takahiro Mitsui warns, as it did in the twelfth century — Mount Hiei and Hiyoshi Taisha as the front line of shinbutsu shugo.
- A capital designed to guard itself — How does medieval Japan resemble the lost thirty years? Heian-kyo was designed with Mount Hiei and onmyodo barriers to guard itself, Takahiro Mitsui shows, yet lost its function when the old forces fell — the demon gate in the northeast, where Mount Hiei stood guard.
- When a civilization ends, there is no outside — What happens to people living inside a system when a civilization ends? Those who took one corner for the world find, when a civilization ends, that the system has neither inside nor outside, Takahiro Mitsui writes.
- A system concentrated into a living corpse — What is a zombie institution and how can one person break it? A system packed with vested interests becomes a living corpse that one man can break, Takahiro Mitsui argues of Kiyomori's Heian-kyo.
- The protagonist of an age passes on — Who was Minamoto no Yoritomo and how did he rise from exile? An unknown exile with neither force nor wealth awoke just as Kiyomori's plans failed, Takahiro Mitsui shows: the protagonist of an age can change in a moment.
- A hegemony of two generations — What does if one is not of the Taira, one is not human mean? A line of strongmen has no hegemony if no one succeeds them, Takahiro Mitsui argues, as the Soga and the Taira showed.
- Project 2049, Vol.0 (free in full) — begin here; Project 2049 continues every Friday