Say “Heian aristocrat,” and what image comes to mind?
Men in resplendent robes, composing poetry, competing for advancement at court.
Fujiwara no Takaie, too, was born into a house near the very peak of that world.
His father was the regent Fujiwara no Michitaka. His mother was Takashina no Takako, known as a gifted woman well versed in Chinese poetry. His elder sister was Fujiwara no Teishi, who became empress consort to Emperor Ichijo, and his elder brother was Fujiwara no Korechika, who rose as far as Minister of the Interior.
His uncle was Fujiwara no Michinaga, who would go on to build the very peak of Fujiwara regency rule. Takaie was born at the absolute center of the court.
And yet this man’s life cannot be contained by the phrase “elegant court aristocrat.”
He became a senior noble in his teens, yet from a young age he was also at the center of violent incidents. His conflict with Michinaga’s faction spilled into brawls between their attendants, and in the second year of Chotoku (996), he and his elder brother Korechika were punished over the attack on Retired Emperor Kazan.
Twenty-three years later, in the third year of Kannin (1019).
The man who had once stood at the center of scandal in the capital was now in Dazaifu, Kyushu.
An armed fleet of more than fifty ships surged in from across the sea, striking Tsushima, Iki, and then Chikuzen.
The Toi Invasion.
The man who commanded the defense of Kyushu as Dazai Gon no Sochi at that moment was none other than Fujiwara no Takaie.
979 — “Ako,” son of Michitaka and Takashina no Takako
Fujiwara no Takaie was born in the second year of Tengen (979) as the son of Fujiwara no Michitaka and Takashina no Takako.
His childhood name was Ako.
His grandfather was Fujiwara no Kaneie, who rose to regent and chancellor. Michitaka, Michikane, and Michinaga were all Kaneie’s sons, and Takaie was born into the mainline of the Fujiwara Hokke.
In the first year of Eiso (989), Takaie was granted Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, at age 11. The following year, the first year of Shoryaku (990), his father Michitaka became regent, and later rose to chancellor.
As his father climbed to the summit of power, Takaie’s own rank rose rapidly in step.
In the eighth month of the fifth year of Shoryaku (994), he reached Junior Third Rank, joining the senior nobility at the age of 16 by Japanese count.
In the fourth month of the first year of Chotoku (995), he advanced to Acting Middle Counselor, still only 17.
His elder sister Teishi was empress consort to Emperor Ichijo, and Sei Shonagon served in her household. The brilliant salon of Teishi depicted in The Pillow Book was a world close to Takaie’s own daily life.
But in the very same month Takaie became Acting Middle Counselor, his father Michitaka died.
The peak of the Nakanokanpaku family’s fortunes ended abruptly.
(The family descending from Michitaka came to be known in later generations as the Nakanokanpaku family.)
The death of Michitaka — Korechika and Takaie clash with Michinaga
After Michitaka’s death, the government shifted dramatically.
Michitaka’s younger brother Michikane became regent, but died shortly afterward. A struggle over who would hold the reins next broke into the open, between Michitaka’s eldest son Korechika and their uncle Michinaga.
Backed by Emperor Ichijo’s mother, Higashi Sanjoin Senshi, Michinaga became Minister of the Right and was granted the right of nairan, review of documents before they reached the throne. Control of the government shifted to him.
Amid this conflict, matters around Takaie escalated into actual violence.
In the seventh month of the first year of Chotoku (995), Takaie’s attendants and Michinaga’s attendants brawled on Shichijo Avenue. In the eighth month, one of Michinaga’s own guards was killed.
The political struggle had escalated to the point of violence spilling out beyond the court itself.
Then, the following year, 996, an incident occurred that would seal the brothers’ fate.
996 — the attack on Retired Emperor Kazan’s party
In the first month of the second year of Chotoku (996), the party of Retired Emperor Kazan was attacked.
The later Eiga Monogatari describes the incident as follows.
Korechika had been visiting the daughter of the late chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu. Retired Emperor Kazan, meanwhile, was visiting a different daughter of the same Tamemitsu. Korechika mistakenly believed the retired emperor was visiting the woman he himself was seeing, and consulted his brother Takaie.
Takaie’s side ambushed the retired emperor’s party and shot arrows at them. The Eiga Monogatari describes an arrow piercing the sleeve of the retired emperor’s robe.
Meanwhile, the contemporary diary of Fujiwara no Sanesuke, the Shoyuki, records that a “violent clash” broke out between Korechika and Takaie’s side and Retired Emperor Kazan’s party, and that two of the retired emperor’s attendant boys were killed.
Their target was a former emperor who had taken religious vows. The incident proved fatal to the brothers.
Further charges piled on top of this, including accusations of casting a curse against Higashi Sanjoin Senshi.
This whole chain of events, which brought down Korechika and Takaie, is known as the Chotoku Incident.
(This incident is covered in full in English here.)
996 — demoted to acting governor of Izumo
On the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month, in the second year of Chotoku (996), the sentence came down.
His elder brother Korechika was demoted to Dazai Gon no Sochi; Takaie was demoted to acting governor of Izumo.
Takaie was 18 by Japanese count. A young man who had reached Junior Third Rank a mere two years earlier, and Acting Middle Counselor only the year before, was suddenly driven from the capital.
Takaie set out for Izumo, but on grounds of illness, stopped partway in Tajima Province.
The present-day northern part of Hyogo Prefecture.
In the third month of the following year, the third year of Chotoku (997), a general amnesty was declared praying for Higashi Sanjoin Senshi’s recovery from illness, and in the fourth month, Korechika and Takaie were permitted to return.
Takaie returned to the capital.
And in the tenth month of the fourth year of Chotoku (998), he was appointed Minister of Military Affairs.
The speed of his recovery from disgrace is itself a defining feature of Takaie’s life.
The deaths of Teishi and Korechika — the Nakanokanpaku family’s decline
Though Takaie himself returned to official life, the power of the Nakanokanpaku family continued to decline.
In the second year of Choho (1000), his elder sister Teishi died.
In the seventh year of Kanko (1010), his elder brother Korechika also died, at 37.
Over these same years, his uncle Michinaga had his daughter Shoshi enter the palace to serve Emperor Ichijo, consolidating his power as the emperor’s maternal relative.
Even under Michinaga’s regime, Takaie’s own rank continued to recover.
He returned to Acting Middle Counselor in the fourth year of Choho (1002), reached Junior Second Rank in the fourth year of Kanko (1007), and advanced to full Middle Counselor in the sixth year of Kanko (1009).
And in the fourth year of Chowa (1015), he reached Senior Second Rank.
The young man driven from the capital by the Chotoku Incident had climbed back into the upper ranks of the senior nobility.
That said, Takaie’s career would plateau at Middle Counselor. His path diverged sharply from that of his uncle Michinaga, who rose to regent and chancellor.
What ultimately sent Takaie to Kyushu was an eye disease.
An eye disease changed his life — Takaie sought out the post of Dazai Gon no Sochi
During the reign of Emperor Sanjo, Takaie developed an eye ailment.
Song merchants were visiting Dazaifu at the time. Takaie is said to have requested the Dazaifu posting himself, hoping to receive treatment from a Song physician.
On the seventh day of the eleventh month, in the third year of Chowa (1014), Takaie was appointed Dazai Gon no Sochi, and went down to Kyushu the following year, 1015.
Dazaifu was an important institution overseeing all the provinces of Kyushu, handling diplomacy with the continent and the Korean peninsula, and defending the western sea routes.
Roughly four years after Takaie’s arrival, in the third year of Kannin (1019), the day came when that defensive function would be put to the test.
1019 — more than fifty ships of “the Toi” arrive
Late in the third month of the third year of Kannin (1019), an armed fleet of a foreign people appeared off Tsushima.
The fleet numbered more than fifty ships.
The Japanese side called them “the Toi.”
The term “Toi” is thought to derive from a word used in Goryeo for foreign peoples, and the raiders are believed to have been a Jurchen group active around the maritime provinces.
The Toi killed residents of Tsushima and carried off large numbers of people. They then struck Iki.
On Iki, the provincial governor Fujiwara no Masatada led troops to meet them and was killed. The island’s monks and residents also suffered heavy losses.
The Toi then pushed on into Chikuzen, striking Ito and Shima Districts, and bearing down on Hakata Bay.
Here, Takaie’s own fight began.
Supreme commander of Dazaifu — mobilizing the warriors of Kyushu
On receiving word of the raiders’ arrival, Takaie sent urgent reports to the central government while simultaneously organizing the defense on the ground.
Among those recorded in the sources as fighting hard on the front lines were Okura no Taneki, Taira no Tamekata, and Fujiwara no Tomochika.
Takaie commanded the officials of Dazaifu and the armed forces of Kyushu, building a defensive line centered on the coastal guard posts of Hakata.
In the fourth month, the Toi appeared as well off Noko Island in Hakata Bay.
The Dazaifu army met them around the guard posts and pushed the Toi back.
The man who, in his teens, had stood at the center of a violent scandal in the capital was, in 1019, at 41 years of age by Japanese count, standing on the front line defending the western edge of the realm.
The Toi repelled — 365 dead, 1,289 abducted
Through the hard fighting of Okura no Taneki and others, the Toi withdrew from around Hakata Bay.
The Toi fleet then returned toward the Korean peninsula, where it also fought the Goryeo army. Goryeo rescued some of the Japanese the Toi had carried off, and sent them back to Japan.
Even so, the damage Japan suffered was severe.
According to the figures reported from Dazaifu to the court, 365 were killed, 1,289 abducted, 380 cattle and horses lost, and 45 houses burned.
The dead and the abducted together came to 1,654 people.
The Toi Invasion became a foreign attack that struck mid-Heian Japanese society with enormous force.
“Reward even those who fought before the imperial order arrived” — Sanesuke backs the logic of the men on the ground
After the Toi were repelled, the court faced the question of rewarding those who had distinguished themselves.
The warriors on the ground had fought before the imperial order to subdue the enemy had even arrived. This raised the question of whether fighting that predated the formal order should be eligible for reward at all.
Here, Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Sanesuke, a close associate of Takaie, played a crucial role.
Citing the precedent of an earlier repulsion of Silla raiders, Sanesuke argued that even those who fought before the order arrived should receive reward.
On the ground, there was no time to wait for orders to arrive from Kyoto.
In the end, rewards for Okura no Taneki and the other men of distinction were approved.
Takaie rallied the local military strength; Sanesuke argued their case in the capital, ensuring their achievements were recognized. The Toi Invasion is also an event in which the military strength of provincial warriors played a major role in national defense.
He appears in The Pillow Book too — Takaie and “jellyfish bones”
Takaie also has a side utterly unlike war and political struggle.
Sei Shonagon, who served Takaie’s sister Teishi, includes a famous scene featuring Takaie in The Pillow Book.
Takaie boasted to Teishi that he had obtained a rare fan rib, claiming it was “unlike anything ever seen.”
Sei Shonagon, quick-witted, shot back with something to the effect of “then it must be like a jellyfish’s bones.”
A joke referencing the fact that jellyfish have no bones at all.
Takaie found the reply delightful, and told his sister Teishi, in effect, that he intended to claim the line for himself.
Though Takaie is remembered chiefly for his rough-edged episodes, in Teishi’s salon he was also a courtier who enjoyed witty exchanges with Sei Shonagon.
This range is part of what makes Takaie such a fascinating figure.
December 1019 — leaving Kyushu
In the twelfth month of the third year of Kannin (1019), Takaie resigned as Dazai Gon no Sochi.
He returned to Kyoto the following year.
Despite his great achievement in repelling the Toi, it never brought him promotion to Major Counselor or minister.
In the third year of Jian (1023), he resigned as Middle Counselor, later serving in posts such as Minister of the Treasury.
In the eighth month of the first year of Choryaku (1037), he was appointed Dazai Gon no Sochi once again — more than twenty years after his first posting there.
In the first month of the third year of Chokyu (1042), he resigned the post.
And on the first day of the first month, in the first year of Kantoku (1044), Fujiwara no Takaie died.
He was 66.
He had become a senior noble at 16 by Japanese count, and fell from grace at 18 in the Chotoku Incident.
He returned to the post of Acting Middle Counselor in his twenties, became Dazai Gon no Sochi in his mid-thirties, and faced the Toi Invasion at 41.
Born into the same Fujiwara Hokke line as Michinaga, the fame Takaie carved into history was never that of a regent or chancellor.
In his youth, he fell from grace over the attack on Retired Emperor Kazan; in his middle years, he commanded the warriors of Kyushu from Dazaifu.
At the two ends of his life stand two figures so contrasting they scarcely seem to belong to the same man.
In 996, an eighteen-year-old who attacked a retired emperor’s party in the capital.
In 1019, a forty-one-year-old senior noble who moved the armies of Dazaifu against a foreign raiding force bearing down on Hakata Bay.
He made a name for himself in scandal in the capital, and won martial renown in Kyushu.
Fujiwara no Takaie lived a life that leapt clean out of the ordinary world of the Heian aristocrat.
(The attack on Retired Emperor Kazan is available in English here, and the Toi Invasion here.)
