Who Is Taira no Kiyomori (Taira Kiyomori)?
The all-powerful head of the Heike clan
Taira no Kiyomori was a warrior at the end of the Heian period who rose to become Grand Chancellor (Daijō-daijin), the first warrior ever to hold that office, and who built the glory of the Taira (Heike) clan. After becoming a Buddhist monk, he was known as the Lay Priest Chancellor (Nyūdō Shōkoku). He married his daughter Tokuko to Emperor Takakura, put his grandson Emperor Antoku on the throne, and ran the country as he pleased.
In The Tale of the Heike, his name appears in the famous opening passage as the most recent example of a proud man who falls. The story shows both his strength and his frightening side: he casts aside the dancer Giō on a whim, flies into a rage over the Shishigatani plot, and refuses to pardon Shunkan alone among the exiles. After forcing the capital to move to Fukuhara, he falls ill with a burning fever and dies, leaving the final order: "Hang Yoritomo's head before my grave."
The famous saying "Those who are not of the Heike are not human" is not spoken by Kiyomori in the tale. It is said by Taira no Tokitada, the younger brother of Kiyomori's wife Tokiko.
Episodes featuring this character6
NEWEpisode 1
First Victory of a Clan Doomed to the SeaThe Night Attack at Court (Tenjō no Yamiuchi)
Episode 1 of the series. Taira no Tadamori becomes the first samurai ever allowed into the emperor's inner hall, and jealous court nobles plot to ambush him in the dark on a festival night. With his son Taira no Kiyomori watching, Tadamori never swings a blade. A "sword" that gleams in the dark and his loyal retainer Taira no Iesada are all he needs to silence the men who looked down on him.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
She Saved the New Girland Lost Her Stage — Giō (The Tale of the Heike)
Giō, a dancer adored by Kiyomori, the most powerful man in the capital, stands up for Hotoke, a bold young girl who shows up uninvited. Overnight, Giō is thrown out of the mansion. Humiliated and in despair, she becomes a nun. Then one autumn night, Hotoke comes knocking, having given up everything.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 3
Our Coup Was a Pun. Someone Was Listening.The Shishigatani Plot
One night at a mountain villa in Shishigatani, a sake flask called a "heiji" tips over, and plotters laugh about toppling the Heike clan. But one of their own talks, and Kiyomori's revenge begins. Shunkan, the villa's owner, who laughed loudest of all, is about to lose everything. And when Kiyomori, clad in armor, goes too far, only one thing stops him: the tears of his son Shigemori, who arrives without armor. Episode 3.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
Two Were Pardoned. My Name Wasn't There.Shunkan on Kikai-ga-shima
Three men were exiled together to a volcanic island, but when a pardon finally arrives, one name is missing: Shunkan's. He clings to the departing ship and is left alone on the beach. Years later, a boy crosses the sea to find him.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
The Army That Lost to a Flock of BirdsBattle of Fujigawa / Death of Kiyomori
Having moved the capital to Fukuhara, Taira no Kiyomori hands a vast army to his grandson Taira no Koremori to crush Minamoto no Yoritomo's uprising. But the Heike troops, already shaken by the old warrior Saitō no Sanemori's tales of eastern fighters, flee without a fight when a flock of waterfowl takes off in the night. The year after Nara's Great Buddha Hall burns, Kiyomori, a tyrant who still had a soft spot for his own family, is seized by a fever like fire. His last command: "Hang Yoritomo's head before my grave."
19 pages
NEWEpisode 14
He Doomed Her ClanThen Came to Visit — The Imperial Visit to Ōhara (Kenreimon-in)
the series finale. Kenreimon-in was the only one of her clan pulled alive from the sea at Dan-no-Ura. Now she spends her days in prayer at a mountain hermitage in Ōhara. One early summer, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the man who ordered the war that destroyed her family, comes to see her in secret. She tells him to his face how much she has resented him. Then she begins to tell her life story as a journey through six realms.
19 pages