Taira no Tadamori
Taira no Tadamori was a prominent estate-holder of the 12th century. He was the father of Taira no Kiyomori, and grandfather of Emperor Antoku, Taira no Atsumori, and a number of other notable figures.
He was a son of Taira no Masamori.
As of 1133, Tadamori held the shôen (estate) of Kamizaki in Hizen province, and was overseer of the retirement palace of Retired Emperor Toba. He had notable involvement in foreign trade, and at that time, on at least one occasion, claimed exclusive right to the cargoes of a particular Chinese trading ship, resisting the involvement of the Dazaifu (the Imperial Court's branch office in Kyushu which ostensibly oversaw all foreign trade).
The flute Saeda which features prominently in the Noh play Atsumori was supposedly - in the play and other literary versions of the story - a gift from Emperor Toba to Tadamori.[1]
References
- Richard von Glahn, "The Ningbo-Hakata Merchant Network and the Reorientation of East Asian Maritime Trade, 1150-1350," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 74:2 (2014), 267-268.
- ↑ William de Bary, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol 1, Columbia University Press (2001), 278-280.