Taira clan

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  • Japanese: (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 most prominent and powerful lineage or family within the broader clan was the Kammu Heishi, who claimed descent from Emperor Kammu, through four of the eight sons of Takamochi, son of Takami, who in turn was the son of Prince Kazurahara, eldest son of Emperor Kammu.[1]

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

Taira Lineage

Other Members of the Taira clan

References

  • Helen McCullough trans., The Tale of the Heike, Stanford University Press (1990), 3-4.
  1. Karl Friday, Samurai Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Routledge (2004), 9.