ruggle of the great families of Japan for precedence, the lords
of the Fujiwara held the civil power of the realm, while the shoguns, or
generals, were chosen from the Taira and Minamoto clans. Bred to arms,
leading the armies of the empire in many a hard-fought war, making the
camp their home, and loving best the trumpet-blast of battle, they
became hardy and daring warriors, the military caste of Japan. While war
continued, the shoguns were content to let the Fujiwara lord it at
court, themselves preferring the active labors of the field. Only when
peace prevailed, and there were no enemies to conquer nor rebels to
subdue, did these warriors begin to long for the spoils of place and to
envy the Fujiwara their power.

Chief among those thus moved by ambition was Kiyomori, the greatest of
the Taira leaders. As a boy he possessed a strong frame and showed a
proud spirit, wearing unusually high clogs, which in Japan indicates a
disposition to put on lordly airs. His position as the son of a soldier
soon gave him an opportunity to show his mettle. The seas then swarmed
with pirates, who had become the scourge alike of Corea and of Japan and
were making havoc among the mercantile fleets. The ambitious boy, full
of warlike spirit, demanded, when but eighteen years of age, to be sent
against these ocean pests, and cruised against them in the Suwo Nada, a
part of the Inland Sea. Here he met and fought a shipload of the most
desperate of the buccaneers, capturing their vessel, and then attacking
them in their place of refuge, which he destroyed.

For years afterwards Kiyomori showed the greatest valor by land and sea,
and in 1153, being then thirty-six years of age, he succeeded his father
as minister of justice for Japan. Up to this time the families of the
Taira and the Minamoto had been friendly rivals in the field. Now their
friendship came to an end and was succeeded by bitter enmity. In 1156
there were rival claimants for the throne, one supported by each of
these great families. The Taira party succeeded, got possession of the
palace, and controlled the emperor whom they had raised to the throne.

Kiyomori soon attained the highest power in the realm, and in him the
military caste first rose to pre-eminence. The Fujiwara were deposed,
all the high offices at court were filled by his relatives, and he made
himself the military chief of the empire and the holder of the civil
authority, the mikado being but a creature of h