Battle of Locust Grove

The Gosannen War (後三年合戦, gosannen kassen), also known as the Later Three-Year War, was fought in the late 1080s in Japan's Mutsu Province on the island of Honshū.[1]

History

The Gosannen War was part of a long struggle for power within the warrior clans of the time.

The Gosannen kassen arose because of a series of quarrels within the Kiyohara clan (sometimes referred to as "Kiyowara"). The long-standing disturbances were intractable. When Minamoto no Yoshiie, who became Governor of Mutsu province in 1083, tried to calm the fighting which continued between Kiyohara no Masahira, Iehira, and Narihira.[2]

Negotiations were not successful; and so Yoshiie used his own forces to stop the fighting. He was helped by Fujiwara 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]

In art

Artwork of the Gosannen War in the 11th century

Much of the war is depicted in an e-maki narrative handscroll, the Gosannen Kassen E-maki, which was created in 1171.[5] The artwork is owned today by the Watanabe Museum in Tottori city, Japan.

See also

References

  1. ^ Varley, H. Paul. (1994). Warriors of Japan as Portrayed in the War Tales, pp. 40-45.
  2. ^ a b Sansom, George (1958). A history of Japan to 1334. Stanford University Press. pp. 249–252. ISBN 0804705232.
  3. ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. Cassell & Co. p. 199. ISBN 1854095234.
  4. ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1977). The Samurai, A Military History. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. pp. 22–25. ISBN 0026205408.
  5. ^ Varley, p. 41.

Further reading

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Later_Three-Year_War