Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast.

Episode 149, The Birth of the Samurai, Part 4.

We left things off with the Hogan Rebellion of 1157, a battle between the behind-the-scenes

powerbroker and former emperor Sutoku and the sitting emperor Gosherakawa.

The latter had won out thanks to the daring and bravado of one of his foremost supporters,

Tyranokio Mori.

Now, violent squabbles between different court factions were certainly not anything new,

during the Heon period, though the Hogan Rebellion was unprecedented for its size.

The traditional thing for the victor to do in such circumstances was to punish the defeated

side's ringleaders in some way, exile being the most common. However, Kiyomori was not

interested in this traditional solution, and had in mind something far more permanent.

After the last of Sutoku's forces surrendered, Kiomori ordered the leading warriors among them,

some 50 people and all, executed.

This included Minamoto no Tamayoshi, the heir of the Sewa Minamoto.

His eldest son-in-air, Tame Tomo, the heir of the Sewa Minamoto.

His eldest son and heir, Tame Tomo, had also been on the wrong side, but successfully escaped Kyoto and was now on the lamb to avoid sharing his father's fate.

Ordered to perform the execution of Tameyoshi, none other than Minamoto no Yoshitomo, Tamayoshi's second oldest son.

Yoshitomo had disagreed with his father on which side to support in the conflict, and had probably expected to do well out of how things had turned out, perhaps being named heir to replace

his older brother.

And he kind of got what he wanted just in a slightly more fratricidal and patricidal way.

Because, oh yeah, before I forget, Tamitomo is not going to make it far from Kyoto before he gets caught and killed himself.

Now, I've heard slightly different versions of how this story plays out.

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