While the nobility in the metropolis were devoting themselves almost entirely to pleasure seeking, administration in the country districts was entrusted to unprincipled officials. It was an important feature of the Tailcwa reforms that all the land in the country became state property, and at the same time was allotted to individuals under certain conditions, which, however, in the course of time, fell into neglect. The rich acquired large tracts: to nobles and temples land property was granted, and, more over, uncultivated lands were suffered to re main in the possession of individuals to get them cultivated. Cunning people evaded the public duties by nominally transferring their lands to nobles and temples, while they them selves acted as stewards. Thus the land of private possession having greatly increased, not only the power of local authority, but also the revenue of the government gradually dimin ished and became one of the chief causes of the decline of Imperial administration.
On the other hand the rise of the military clans is a most noteworthy event in this epoch. During the reigns of the Emperors Kwammu and Saga the.plan introduced, mainly from the financial point of view, of reducing some of the Imperial princes to the rank of subjects and giving them family names. Taira (Heishi) and Minamoto (Genji) were the most important instances. Some of these reduced princes ac quired large influence in the districts admin istered by them, and each trained a large body of retainers in the arts of war, availing himself of the inefficiency of the conscript laws of the Taihoryo. Such was the origin of the military clans.
In 939 A.D. a man of the Taira clan, by name Masakado, in the eastern provinces, and Fujiwara-no-Sumitomo of the Fujiwara clan, in the western, rebelled against the Imperial au thority, but were immed'ately defeated. These revolts afforded important occasions for clan as cendency. In 1031 A.D., Yorinobu, a grandson of Tsunemoto, who defeated Sumitomo, achieved success in the Revolt of Tadatsune of the Taira clan, and the two insurrections were quelled respectively by Yoriyoshi, the son, and Xoshiiye, the grandson. Previously, in 1019 A.D., Takaiye of Fujiwara frustrated the invasion of Kyushu by plundering tribes of Toi of Manchuria. His descendants secured a military stronghold in Kyushu. Thus, while the Fujiwara family was rapt in dreams of grandeur, the reins of power came into the hands of the military classes, composed of the clans Minatomo, Taira, and a branch of Fujiwara.
6. The Age of the The unbridled omnipotency of the Fujiwara family began to wane in the reign of the 71st em peror, Gosanjo, who was sagacious and austere and had no lineal relations with the Fujiwara family. His elaborate scheme of reforms, how ever, was not realized because of his untimely death. The Emperor Shirakawa, also a man of
resolution, interfered with state affairs even after his abdication of the throne in 1086, which was the earliest precedent of that peculiar sort of government called Insei (Ex-Emperor's Ad ministration).
Luxury in dress, magnificence of dwellings and fanatic devotion to Buddhism were the chief features of this epoch. Large temples in the vicinity of Kioto, such as Yenryaku-ji, Onjo-ji, Kofuku-ji, etc., possessed rich properties, and each maintained thousands of sacerdotal sol diers, who if dissatisfied with any measures of the government, armed with bow and arrow, would make descent on Kioto in great force to obtain their will. Accordingly, it was always to military men in the provinces that both the emperor and the Fujiwara family resorted when feuds broke out or the.Buddhist soldiers acted lawlessly, and thus the elevation of mili tary men to positions of power was most natural.
The struggle for political pre-eminence by the Fujiwara family and the long years of moral corruption of the Heian-cho epoch resulted in a disturbance in 1156 In that year the 76th emperor, Konoye, died, and the ex-Emperor Sutoku, seconded by Fujiwara-no-Yorinaga, Minamoto-no-Tameyoshi and others, tried to ascend the throne once more; whereas the Regent Tadamichi, brother of Yorinaga, not being on good terms with his brother, with the help of Kiyomori of the Taira clan, and Yosh itomo, son of Tameyoshi, crowned Goshirakawa emperor. Thus a bloody war called "Hogen Disturbance" ensued, which ended in the rout of the ex-emperor. In this way the military classes forced their wav into the administrative authority of the state. Three years after the Hogen Disturbance, an insurrection arose, known in history as the °Heiji Disturbance," in which the power of the Minamoto clan was almost completely broken by the loss of Yoshi tomo, its leader, and the Taira clan speedily attained ascendency. The period (1166-85) is called the Taira Age. Kiyomori, by virtue of his success in the two disturbances, was ap pointed Chief Minister of the State, and all his kinsmen and followers were given prominent positions, and the reign of the Fujiwara family was practically over.
Arbitrary power, and• especially the attitude of Kiyomori toward the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa, greatly incensed his opponents, and Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, a son of Yoshi stomo, and Yoshinaka, his cousin, raised a force of troops in compliance with the mandate of the Prince Mochihito, a son of the ex-emperor, and after several battles drove out the Taira party from Kioto. In the traffc sea-battle at Dan-no-ura (1185 A.D.) the Taira clan was completely crushed by the forces of Yoshitsune, Yontomo's younger brother.