Taira clan

• Japanese: 平氏 (Heishi) or 平家 (Heike)

The Taira clan was one of the four most prominent families of court aristocracy in the Heian period, along with the Minamoto, Tachibana, and Fujiwara clans; in the 1150s-1180s, under Taira no Kiyomori, they became the most powerful clan in the realm. The Taira were defeated by the Minamoto, however, in the Genpei War of 1180-1185, and all but destroyed. The Taira would never achieve prominence again, but many prominent samurai clans claimed descent from the Taira, whether legitimately, or in order to claim more elite ancestry, and legitimacy as rulers.

The story of the fall of the Taira is related in the eponymous romantic / fictionalized epic, The Tale of the Heike.

Prominent Members of the Taira

• Taira no Masamori
  • Taira no Tadamori - son of Masamori
    • Taira no Kiyomori - son of Tadamori, clan head, dominates Court politics for much of 1160s-1170s
    • Taira no Tokitada - brother of Kenshunmon-in, brother-in-law of Kiyomori
      • Kenreimon-in - daughter of Kiyomori, consort of Emperor Takakura
      • Taira no Shigemori - son of Kiyomori, Kiyomori's successor as clan head
        • Taira no Sukemori - son of Shigemori

References

• Helen McCullough trans., The Tale of the Heike, 3-4.