The sixteenth day of the first month, in the second year of Chotoku (996).
In Heian-kyo, an incident broke out that shook the court to its foundations.
The target was Retired Emperor Kazan — a man who had sat on the throne only ten years before.
The men who shot the arrows were attendants of Minister of the Interior Fujiwara no Korechika and Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Takaie.
Korechika and Takaie were sons of the regent Fujiwara no Michitaka, who had died the year before. Their younger sister Teishi was empress consort to Emperor Ichijo. Michitaka’s line came to be known in later generations as the Nakanokanpaku family.
In other words, this was an incident in which a faction of young Fujiwara brothers, standing at the very center of government, turned armed force against a former emperor.
What is more, a surviving fragment of the contemporary source the Shoyuki records that two of Retired Emperor Kazan’s attendant boys were killed, their heads taken away.
In the very same age as the brilliant world depicted in The Pillow Book, Kyoto also saw an incident this violent.
And according to the later Eiga Monogatari, the spark behind it was neither political scheming nor rebellion.
It was Korechika’s own romantic misunderstanding.
Retired Emperor Kazan — the man who left the throne at 19
Retired Emperor Kazan was born in the first year of Anna (968). His father was Emperor Reizei; his mother was Kaishi, daughter of Fujiwara no Koretada.
In the second year of Eikan (984), he took the throne at 17 by Japanese count.
His reign lasted only about two years.
In the sixth month of the second year of Kanna (986), Emperor Kazan slipped out of the imperial palace at night and took religious vows at Gangyo-ji Temple in Yamashina. He was 19.
This became known as the Kanna Incident.
The man who drew close to Emperor Kazan while he grieved deeply over the death of his beloved consort Fujiwara no Shishi was Michikane, son of Fujiwara no Kaneie. Once Emperor Kazan had taken vows and abdicated, Kaneie’s grandson through his daughter, Prince Yasuhito, took the throne as Emperor Ichijo, and Kaneie became regent.
Ten years later, the romantic entanglements of the now-28-year-old Retired Emperor Kazan drew the brothers Korechika and Takaie into a major incident.
Korechika’s lover was “the third daughter” — Retired Emperor Kazan was visiting “the fourth”
The stage for the incident was the residence of the late chancellor Fujiwara no Tamemitsu.
According to the Eiga Monogatari, Korechika had been visiting one of Tamemitsu’s daughters — known as the third daughter.
Retired Emperor Kazan, meanwhile, was also visiting the Tamemitsu residence. But his visits were to a different woman — the third daughter’s younger sister, the fourth daughter.
The two sisters lived together in the same residence.
Korechika, however, became convinced that Retired Emperor Kazan was also visiting the residence to see his own third daughter.
Korechika was 23 by Japanese count at the time. Having risen to Minister of the Interior in the fifth year of Shoryaku (994), he held enormous political power as the heir of his father Michitaka, who had died the year before.
The man he believed to be his rival in love was no ordinary noble.
It was Retired Emperor Kazan, a former emperor himself.
“Let’s give him a scare” — the 18-year-old Takaie moves
Korechika brought this matter to his younger brother, five years his junior — Fujiwara no Takaie.
Takaie was born in the second year of Tengen (979), and was 18 by Japanese count at the time of the incident. Even so, he already held the high rank of Middle Counselor.
Around the young Takaie, violent incidents had already been breaking out.
In the seventh month of the previous year, the first year of Chotoku (995), Takaie’s attendants and those of his uncle Fujiwara no Michinaga had brawled on Shichijo Avenue. This was a period when the conflict between the Nakanokanpaku family and Michinaga had spread even to violence between their respective attendants.
According to the Eiga Monogatari, Takaie, on hearing his brother’s story, moved to “give Retired Emperor Kazan a scare.”
And on the sixteenth of the first month, 996, an arrow was loosed at the former emperor.
January 16, 996 — a single arrow pierces the retired emperor’s sleeve
The sixteenth day of the first month, in the second year of Chotoku (996).
Retired Emperor Kazan had gone to the Tamemitsu residence.
The Eiga Monogatari describes it as a moonlit night. Takaie, accompanied by two or three men, waited for Retired Emperor Kazan as he left the Tamemitsu residence.
The intent was intimidation, not murder. But the arrow that was loosed pierced the sleeve of Retired Emperor Kazan’s robe.
The later Nihon Kiryaku likewise records that attendants of Korechika and Takaie shot arrows at the place where Retired Emperor Kazan stood.
Those who actually loosed the arrows were not Korechika and Takaie themselves, but their attendants.
An act that had begun as mere intimidation became a grave incident: an assault by arrow against a former emperor.
And the disaster did not end with a single arrow.
Two attendant boys killed — even their heads were taken
A surviving fragment of the diary of Fujiwara no Sanesuke, a senior noble living through these very events, the Shoyuki, preserves even more vivid details of that day.
According to word that reached Sanesuke from Minister of the Right Fujiwara no Michinaga, Retired Emperor Kazan and Korechika and Takaie’s parties encountered one another at the late Tamemitsu’s residence, and a “violent clash” broke out.
As a result, it is said that two of Retired Emperor Kazan’s attendant boys were killed, their heads taken and carried off.
Two dead.
What had begun as intimidation over a romantic entanglement escalated into a brawl involving murder.
Reading the sources side by side is genuinely fascinating here.
The later Eiga Monogatari depicts Korechika’s misunderstanding over the third and fourth daughters, Takaie’s intimidation, and the arrow that pierced the retired emperor’s sleeve.
The contemporary fragment of the Shoyuki, meanwhile, conveys the encounter at the Tamemitsu residence, the violent clash, and the killing of two attendant boys.
Laying the two accounts over one another brings the shape of what actually happened on the night of January 16, 996, into view.
Why didn’t Retired Emperor Kazan press charges?
Even after an incident of this magnitude, Retired Emperor Kazan did not openly press charges himself.
The Eiga Monogatari even records the reason why.
Kazan was a retired emperor who had taken religious vows. If it became publicly known that a man in his position had been visiting women, it would bring him lasting shame.
And so Retired Emperor Kazan tried to keep the incident quiet.
Even so, this was an incident in which arrows had been shot at a former emperor, leaving two men dead. Word reached Michinaga, and Sanesuke came to know of it as well.
And in the spring of 996, further serious charges piled onto Korechika and Takaie.
Curses and a forbidden rite — three charges that cornered the brothers
The Shoyuki entry for the twenty-fourth of the fourth month records three matters connected to the punishment of Korechika and Takaie.
The first: shooting at Retired Emperor Kazan.
The second: casting a curse against Higashi Sanjoin Fujiwara no Senshi, mother of Emperor Ichijo.
The third: privately performing the Taigensui Rite.
The Taigensui Rite was an esoteric ritual performed for the protection of the state, and simply performing it privately was itself a serious problem.
Senshi was Korechika and Takaie’s aunt, and at the same time, a strong supporter of their uncle Fujiwara no Michinaga.
Roughly three months after the arrow incident of the New Year, the trouble surrounding the brothers had transformed from a romantic brawl into a political crisis shaking the court itself.
This whole chain of events is known as the Chotoku Incident.
April 24 — Korechika to Dazai Gon no Sochi, Takaie to acting governor of Izumo
On the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month, in the second year of Chotoku (996), the sentences for the brothers were decided.
Minister of the Interior Fujiwara no Korechika was demoted to Dazai Gon no Sochi.
Middle Counselor Fujiwara no Takaie was demoted to acting governor of Izumo.
Brothers who had stood near the very top of central government were suddenly cast down into provincial posts.
Korechika was 23 by Japanese count, Takaie 18.
Only the spring before, their father Michitaka had stood at the summit of government as regent. Korechika was Minister of the Interior, and Takaie too had become a senior noble in his teens; the future of the Nakanokanpaku family had looked bright.
In roughly a year, the brothers found themselves driven from the capital.
The fall of the Nakanokanpaku family became final here.
Officials enter the empress consort’s residence — Teishi cuts her own hair
Even once sentence was passed, the brothers did not immediately set out for their postings.
The court dispatched officers to apprehend them. Officials even entered the residence of their younger sister, empress consort Fujiwara no Teishi.
Teishi was consort to Emperor Ichijo, and Sei Shonagon served at her side.
Until the year before, Teishi’s residence had stood at the very center of splendor, home to the daughter of a regent. Now officials pursuing her brothers entered it.
The scene symbolizes just how abruptly the Nakanokanpaku family’s standing had changed.
And in the midst of this turmoil, Teishi cut her own hair and took religious vows.
On the sixteenth of the twelfth month that same year, Teishi gave birth to her and Emperor Ichijo’s first daughter, Princess Shushi.
Teishi had taken vows while pregnant.
Their mother, Takashina no Takako — “I want to see my son once more”
The mother of Korechika, Takaie, and Teishi was Takashina no Takako.
A gifted woman well versed in Chinese poetry and prose, she had stood at the very center of the family’s splendor as the wife of the regent Michitaka.
In 996, her two sons were demoted, and her daughter Teishi took religious vows.
Takako herself also cut her hair.
The Eiga Monogatari describes Takako, her illness worsening, repeatedly begging to see Korechika once more before she died.
At this time, Korechika was being held in Harima, Takaie in Tajima.
The year before, in 995, she had already lost her husband Michitaka.
And within 996, Takako too passed away.
Barely a year after her husband’s death. Michitaka’s family collapsed all at once from the very peak of its splendor.
Into Michinaga’s era — his greatest rival, Korechika, is gone
The fall of the Nakanokanpaku family dramatically reshaped the balance of power within the Fujiwara clan.
At the center of that shift stood Korechika and Takaie’s uncle, Fujiwara no Michinaga.
When Michitaka died in the fourth month of the first year of Chotoku (995), his younger brother Michikane became regent. But Michikane too died shortly after taking office.
The struggle over who would hold power next was fought between Michitaka’s eldest son Korechika and their uncle Michinaga.
Michinaga won. He was granted the right of nairan and became Minister of the Right.
And the following year, 996, his greatest rival Korechika was cast down to Dazai Gon no Sochi in the Chotoku Incident, with Takaie demoted to acting governor of Izumo as well.
The Nakanokanpaku family, the great rival power standing before Michinaga, retreated from the field.
In the seventh month of that same year, Michinaga advanced to Minister of the Left.
And in the first year of Choho (999), he had his daughter Shoshi enter the palace to serve Emperor Ichijo.
The splendor of Michinaga’s rule, later symbolized by his “This world, I think, is my world entire” poem, had its establishment dramatically accelerated by the Chotoku Incident of 996.
Sei Shonagon did not write about this great incident in detail
One more famous figure appears in this incident.
Sei Shonagon.
Sei Shonagon served Teishi and, in The Pillow Book, vividly preserved life at her court. Takaie appears in its pages too, trading a witty exchange over “jellyfish bones.”
And yet, on the Chotoku Incident — in which Teishi’s two brothers fell from grace and Teishi herself took religious vows — The Pillow Book says nothing resembling a detailed record of events.
What remains most vivid in The Pillow Book is the brightness and splendor of Teishi’s court, a brilliance that never faded even as the Nakanokanpaku family was politically cornered.
Once one knows the reality of 996 lying behind it, the splendor of The Pillow Book takes on a different expression entirely.
The sixteenth day of the first month, in the second year of Chotoku (996).
A misunderstanding over one woman, as told by the Eiga Monogatari, grew into an assault by arrow on a former emperor, and a violent clash that left two men dead.
Roughly three months later, Korechika and Takaie were driven from central government.
In the seventh month of that same year, Michinaga advanced to Minister of the Left.
And twenty-three years later, in the third year of Kannin (1019), Takaie — 18 and at the center of this incident — would stand as Dazai Gon no Sochi against the Toi Invasion.
The young man who fell from grace for shooting an arrow at a former emperor later became the commander who defended Kyushu.
The attack on Retired Emperor Kazan shaped not only the fate of the Nakanokanpaku family, but also the first half of Fujiwara no Takaie’s own life.
(A full profile of Fujiwara no Takaie is available in English here, and the Toi Invasion here.)
