Gosannen War
11th century war in Honshu, Japan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Gosannen War (後三年合戦, gosannen kassen), also known as the Later Three-Year War, was fought in the late 1080s in Japan's Mutsu Province on the island of Honshū.[1]
| Gosannen War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Clan disputes of the Heian period | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Forces of various branches of Kiyohara clan |
Forces of Minamoto no Yoshiie Governor of Mutsu province | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Kiyohara no Iehira Kiyohara no Takahira Others |
Minamoto no Yoshiie Fujiwara no Kiyohira | ||||||
History
The Gosannen War was part of a long struggle for power within the warrior clans of the time.
The Gosannen kassen arose because of a series of quarrels within the Kiyohara clan (sometimes referred to as "Kiyowara"). The long-standing disturbances were intractable. When Minamoto no Yoshiie, who became Governor of Mutsu province in 1083, tried to calm the fighting which continued between Kiyohara no Masahira, Iehira, and Narihira.[2]
Negotiations were not successful; and so Yoshiie used his own forces to stop the fighting. He was helped by Fujiwara no Kiyohira. In the end, Iehira and Narihira were killed.[2]
During the siege of Kanezawa, 1086–1089, Yoshiie avoided an ambush by noticing a flock of birds take flight from a forest.[3][4]
In art
Much of the war is depicted in an e-maki narrative handscroll, the Gosannen kassen emaki, which was created in 1171.[5] A copy of the work is owned today by the Watanabe Museum in Tottori city, Japan, the original having been lost.