The Heiji Coup and Kiyomori’s Counterattack

In the twelfth month of 1159, while Taira no Kiyomori was away from Kyoto, Fujiwara no Nobuyori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo attacked the Sanjō Palace. They seized retired emperor Go-Shirakawa and brought Emperor Nijō under their control. Their court rival Shinzei fled and died by suicide; his head was displayed after his body was found. Control of the sovereigns allowed the coup leaders to claim authority and change appointments.

Kiyomori returned, and the sovereigns escaped the coup faction’s custody. With Nijō at his Rokuhara residence, Kiyomori could present his counterattack as action for the emperor. Fighting defeated Nobuyori and Yoshitomo’s forces. Nobuyori was executed, while Yoshitomo fled toward eastern Japan and was killed in Owari. The pursuit and punishment extended into 1160.

Yoshitomo’s sons met different fates. Yoshihira was executed; Yoritomo was spared and exiled to Izu, where he remained until the uprising of 1180. The boy later known as Yoshitsune also survived. The immediate victory greatly reduced Kiyomori’s Minamoto rivals and strengthened his place in court government; the surviving boys’ political careers developed afterward.

The Heiji conflict became the subject of illustrated scrolls. The famous Sanjō Palace scene belongs to a thirteenth-century pictorial tradition; the National Diet Library’s displayed copy is later still. Its crowds, fire and violent movement give the coup a lasting visual form, but the image was created long after the attack.