| Gosannen War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Clan disputes of theHeian period | |||||||
 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Forces of various branches ofKiyohara clan | Forces ofMinamoto no Yoshiie Governor of Mutsu province | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Kiyohara no Iehira Kiyohara no Takahira Others | Minamoto no Yoshiie Fujiwara no Kiyohira | ||||||
TheGosannen War (後三年合戦,gosannen kassen), also known as theLater Three-Year War, was fought in the late 1080s in Japan'sMutsu Province on the island ofHonshū.[1]
The Gosannen War was part of a long struggle for power within the warrior clans of the time.
TheGosannen kassen arose because of a series of quarrels within theKiyohara clan (sometimes referred to as "Kiyowara"). The long-standing disturbances were intractable. WhenMinamoto no Yoshiie, who became Governor of Mutsu province in 1083, tried to calm the fighting which continued betweenKiyohara no Masahira,Iehira, andNarihira.[2]
Negotiations were not successful; and so Yoshiie used his own forces to stop the fighting. He was helped byFujiwara 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]
Much of the war is depicted in ane-maki narrative handscroll, theGosannen kassen emaki, which was created in 1171.[5] A copy of the work is owned today by theWatanabe Museum inTottori city,Japan, the original having been lost.
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