1057 — the ruler of the Six Districts of Oku dies at Toribumi Stockade
The seventh month of the fifth year of Tengi (1057).
A wounded man was carried into Toribumi Stockade.
(A full profile of Abe no Yoritoki is available in English.)
He ruled the Six Districts of Oku, the vast territory spanning what is now inland Iwate Prefecture, and six years earlier had crushed a court army at Onikiribe.
What finally cornered Yoritoki was not a head-on battle against Minamoto no Yoriyoshi. Yoriyoshi’s scheming had drawn a powerful northern chief away from him, and Yoritoki himself set out to stop that defection from spreading. On the way, he was attacked and suffered a grievous wound.
He had won at Onikiribe. And yet in the end, he was brought down by a crack within the very coalition he himself had built.
How did the lord of the Six Districts of Oku end up so cornered?
The story goes back six years, to the sixth year of Eisho (1051).
What were the Six Districts of Oku? — a great power born on the northern frontier of the court
To understand the Former Nine Years War, it helps to first understand the Six Districts of Oku.
The Six Districts of Oku were the districts of Isawa, Esashi, Waga, Hienuki, Shiwa, and Iwate, in Mutsu Province — a vast area corresponding to today’s inland Iwate Prefecture, centered on the Kitakami River basin.
In the early Heian period, the court, through campaigns led by men such as Sakanoue no Tamuramaro, had pushed its control of the northeast further north, building strongholds such as Isawa Castle. Roughly 250 years later, by the eleventh century, one clan had come to dominate this region overwhelmingly: the Abe.
The Abe held a network of fortified “saku” across the Six Districts of Oku, binding the local fushu people together under them. A saku was never merely a fort — it combined the functions of a residence, a defensive installation, and a regional seat of power.
Meanwhile, the provincial capital governing Mutsu Province stood at Taga Castle, in what is now Tagajo, Miyagi Prefecture — south of the Abe’s own home base.
In other words, though the Six Districts of Oku were formally an administrative division of Mutsu Province, real power on the ground belonged overwhelmingly to the Abe.
This double structure would eventually bring the provincial government and the Abe into collision.
Abe no Yoriyoshi — the man who led the Six Districts of Oku
At this point in the story, Yoritoki was not yet “Yoritoki.”
He went by the name Abe no Yoriyoshi.
Accounts of the Abe’s origins vary. What is certain is that by the mid-eleventh century they had grown into the dominant power over the Six Districts of Oku, and that by Yoriyoshi’s own time their influence extended south across the Koromo River, past the southern edge of the Six Districts.
The Mutsu Waki, the principal war chronicle of the Former Nine Years War, describes Yoriyoshi as “chief of the fushu” of the Six Districts of Oku. It records that his family had wielded military power since his grandfather’s generation, and that by Yoriyoshi’s time they had stopped paying the taxes owed to the provincial government and pushed south of the Koromo River.
The Mutsu Waki is a source that frames the war around Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie, and needs to be read with that bias in mind. Even so, it is certain that by Abe no Yoriyoshi’s time, tension between the Abe and the provincial government had reached its breaking point.
That tension finally turned into war.
1051 — Fujiwara no Narito moves against the Abe
In the sixth year of Eisho (1051), the Governor of Mutsu, Fujiwara no Narito, made his move.
Narito gathered several thousand troops and attacked Abe no Yoriyoshi. He was joined from the Dewa side by Taira no Shigenari, the Akita Castle Deputy, who served as vanguard commander. His name is also rendered “Shigenari” with different characters in some sources.
The Former Nine Years War did not begin as a war of “the Minamoto against the Abe.” The Governor of Mutsu at the outbreak of fighting was Fujiwara no Narito, and the Minamoto only entered the picture after the provincial army had already been defeated.
The Battle of Onikiribe — thousands of provincial troops routed
The two armies clashed at Onikiribe, in Tamatsukuri District.
The site is generally identified with the area around Naruko Onsen, in present-day Osaki, Miyagi Prefecture.
Fujiwara no Narito marched north with several thousand men, Taira no Shigenari leading the vanguard and Narito himself commanding the rear. Abe no Yoriyoshi met them with troops gathered from across the Six Districts of Oku.
The battle as told in the Mutsu Waki is brutal.
The Abe forces broke the provincial army at Onikiribe. Narito’s army suffered heavy losses and fled the field.
A provincial army several thousand strong had been defeated head-on. This single battle demonstrated the Abe’s military strength beyond doubt.
The court then removed Fujiwara no Narito from office.
The man sent to Mutsu in his place was a commander of the Kawachi Genji: Minamoto no Yoriyoshi.
The man the court sent — Minamoto no Yoriyoshi
By this point, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was already a Kawachi Genji commander with a well-known name in the east.
His father was Minamoto no Yorinobu.
Yorinobu was the man who had ended the rebellion of Taira no Tadatsune, which had shaken all of Bando, and who had deepened the Minamoto’s ties to the warriors of the east. Yoriyoshi, as Yorinobu’s eldest son and heir, inherited that martial foundation.
Yoriyoshi himself was skilled with bow and horse, and had inherited his father’s ties to the eastern warriors as well. He was sent to Mutsu immediately after the provincial army’s crushing defeat at Onikiribe precisely because the court needed real military strength.
The martial authority Yorinobu had built in Bando was now, through his son, being carried into Mutsu.
Yet once Yoriyoshi entered Mutsu, something unexpected happened.
Abe no Yoriyoshi submitted to him.
Why did Abe no Yoriyoshi submit to Minamoto no Yoriyoshi?
The Abe had won at Onikiribe, and now faced a newly appointed Governor of Mutsu in Minamoto no Yoriyoshi. But the fighting paused for a time.
In the seventh year of Eisho (1052), a general amnesty was declared to mark the recovery of Jotomon-in Shoshi from illness, and the Abe were included among those pardoned. Shoshi was a daughter of Fujiwara no Michinaga, consort of Emperor Ichijo, and mother of Emperors Go-Ichijo and Go-Suzaku.
Abe no Yoriyoshi submitted to the newly appointed Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and showed a posture of deference toward him.
The Mutsu Waki preserves a striking episode from this moment: Abe no Yoriyoshi changed his own name.
Both “Yoriyoshi” the Abe chief and “Yoriyoshi” the Minamoto governor were read the same way in Japanese.
Reluctant to share a name with the Governor of Mutsu himself, Abe no Yoriyoshi renamed himself Yoritoki.
From this point on, the name Abe no Yoritoki enters the historical stage.
The man who had defeated the court’s forces at Onikiribe now paid full deference to the new Governor of Mutsu, even changing his own name for the occasion. Yoritoki had chosen the path of repairing his relationship with Minamoto no Yoriyoshi.
The war appeared, for a moment, to be over.
1053 — Yoriyoshi also becomes Commander of the Chinjufu
In the first year of Tengi (1053), Minamoto no Yoriyoshi took on the post of Commander of the Chinjufu (Pacification Headquarters) in addition to his role as Governor of Mutsu — an unusual arrangement, holding both offices at once.
It is worth sorting out these two bases of power here.
The provincial capital of Mutsu stood at Taga Castle — the administrative center for the whole of the province.
The Chinjufu, meanwhile, was based at Isawa Castle, in what is now Oshu, Iwate Prefecture — positioned deep within the southern reach of the Six Districts of Oku.
Yoriyoshi was now both the Governor of Mutsu overseeing the provincial government at Taga Castle, and the Commander of the Chinjufu responsible for military affairs on the northern frontier from Isawa Castle. He stood facing the Abe on both the administrative and military fronts at once.
Even so, no major fighting broke out for some time.
Roughly four years of peace — the war was supposed to end here
From the amnesty of 1052 until 1056, no large-scale fighting between the Abe and Yoriyoshi can be confirmed.
Yoritoki held his power in the Six Districts of Oku, and Yoriyoshi served out his term as Governor of Mutsu.
Then, in the fourth year of Tengi (1056), Yoriyoshi’s term as Governor of Mutsu was drawing to a close.
Had Yoriyoshi simply left Mutsu at this point, the conflict that began at Onikiribe should have ended there, without reigniting.
But on the way back, an incident occurred.
This was the Akutogawa Incident, the event that turned the Former Nine Years War into a drawn-out, grinding conflict.
1056 — the Akutogawa Incident
In the fourth year of Tengi (1056), Yoriyoshi, on his way back from Isawa Castle toward Taga Castle, camped for the night near the Akutogawa River.
That night, an incident occurred.
The camp of Yoriyoshi’s retainers Fujiwara no Mitsusada and Motosada was attacked by unknown assailants, and men and horses were killed and wounded.
Suspicion quickly fell on the Abe.
According to the Mutsu Waki, Mitsusada had previously refused a marriage proposal from Yoritoki’s son, Sadato, for Sadato’s own sister. Mitsusada claimed the attack was an act of revenge for that refusal.
Suspicion settled on Abe no Sadato.
Yoriyoshi demanded that Yoritoki hand Sadato over.
Yoritoki refused.
No source establishes that Sadato actually carried out the attack. What the Mutsu Waki records is only that Mitsusada named Sadato, and that Yoriyoshi, accepting the accusation, demanded Sadato be handed over.
Even so, this accusation alone set history in motion.
Yoritoki’s decision — “I will fight before I hand over my son”
Here, Yoritoki made a momentous decision.
Roughly four years after submitting to Yoriyoshi and even changing his own name for it —
he refused Yoriyoshi’s demand, and protected his son Sadato.
The Mutsu Waki attributes to Yoritoki words to the effect that the bond between parent and child is fundamental to human nature, and that even if Sadato had done something foolish, a father cannot cast aside that bond.
For Yoritoki, handing over Sadato was never simply a father abandoning a son. As the chief standing at the head of the Six Districts of Oku, surrendering a member of his own clan under mere accusation, at the provincial governor’s demand alone, would have undermined his authority over his own followers as well. His feelings as a father and his position as a political leader were one and the same here.
Yoritoki strengthened his defenses around the Koromo River, and chose the path of war with Yoriyoshi once again.
The Former Nine Years War resumed in earnest.
Cracks begin even within Yoriyoshi’s own army — the killing of Taira no Nagahira
Yet almost as soon as fighting resumed, Yoriyoshi’s own army began to crack as well.
At the center of it was Taira no Nagahira.
Nagahira was a son-in-law of Yoritoki, but at this point stood on Yoriyoshi’s side.
According to the Mutsu Waki, while Yoriyoshi’s army was on the march, Nagahira was seen wearing a silver-plated helmet, among other things, which led Yoriyoshi to suspect he was signaling to the enemy.
Yoriyoshi had Nagahira killed.
Another of Yoritoki’s sons-in-law, present in the camp, witnessed this.
His name was Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo.
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo defects to the Abe
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo was also a son-in-law of Abe no Yoritoki. With Nagahira killed on suspicion of colluding with the enemy, the same suspicion could easily fall on him next. Tsunekiyo left Yoriyoshi’s camp and turned to the Abe side.
This is a name worth remembering.
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo was the father of Fujiwara no Kiyohira, who would later found the Oshu Fujiwara clan and build Hiraizumi.
Kiyohira was Tsunekiyo’s son. Kiyohira would go on to prevail in the Later Three Years War, and eventually become the founding lord of the Oshu Fujiwara, based at Hiraizumi. The bloodline that would one day lead to Hiraizumi was already present, here on the battlefield of the Former Nine Years War.
Having lost Nagahira, and now with Tsunekiyo gone over to the enemy as well, Yoriyoshi turned to a strategy of breaking the Abe’s own coalition apart from within, rather than relying on frontal assault alone.
Yoriyoshi undermines the Abe from within
Yoriyoshi set his sights on a fushu power further north than the Six Districts of Oku themselves.
Abe no Tomitada.
Yoriyoshi worked through the district magistrate of Kesen, Kon no Tametoki, to reach out to Tomitada and win him over.
This changed the entire shape of the war. Among the fushu groups around the Abe, some now began moving toward Yoriyoshi’s side.
Yoritoki’s power across the Six Districts of Oku had rested on binding together the local chiefs and fushu groups of the region.
If that unity broke, Yoritoki’s own rule itself would be shaken.
The defection of Tomitada and his followers struck directly at the foundation of Yoritoki’s power. Yoritoki did not leave this matter to others — he went north himself.
1057 — Yoritoki personally sets out to persuade the defectors
The fifth year of Tengi (1057).
Yoritoki went north himself, hoping to win Tomitada and the others back to his side.
That the lord of the Six Districts of Oku himself went to negotiate shows just how serious the northern defection was.
But Tomitada’s side attacked Yoritoki instead. Yoritoki suffered a grievous wound.
Abe no Tomitada’s attack — Yoritoki gravely wounded
Gravely wounded, Yoritoki withdrew and entered Toribumi Stockade.
The remains of Toribumi Stockade, in present-day Kanegasaki, Isawa District, Iwate Prefecture, mark an eleventh-century Abe stronghold. Excavations there have confirmed traces of buildings and moats, and the site was designated a National Historic Site in 2013.
Six years after Onikiribe, the end was closing in on the man who had once broken a provincial army several thousand strong.
Toribumi Stockade — Abe no Yoritoki dies
The seventh month of the fifth year of Tengi (1057).
Abe no Yoritoki died at Toribumi Stockade.
It was the sixth year since the Former Nine Years War had begun.
Yoriyoshi had not cut Yoritoki down in a direct battle. Yoritoki, moving to stop the erosion of his northern allies, was mortally wounded in an attack by Tomitada’s side. The lord who had crushed a provincial army several thousand strong at Onikiribe was, in the end, brought down by a fracture within his own sphere of power.
Yoriyoshi, having deprived the enemy of its leader, had won a major victory.
And yet the war was about to grow fiercer still from here.
The father was dead. But the Abe were not finished
Yoritoki’s successor was Abe no Sadato. His brothers, including Munetō, and Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo, all remained on the Abe side.
The Abe did not collapse with their father’s death. From here, the counterattack led by Sadato began.
About four months after Yoritoki’s death, in the eleventh month of the fifth year of Tengi (1057), Minamoto no Yoriyoshi and his son Yoshiie pursued the Abe army to Kinomi.
There, Yoriyoshi’s army was beaten to the brink of annihilation.
This was Minamoto no Yoriyoshi‘s greatest defeat in the entire Former Nine Years War: the Battle of Kinomi.
(Continued in Part 2 — read it in English here.)
