1070: Eight Years After the Former Nine Years War, an Army Marches Further North
Enkyu 2 (1070).
Eight years after the Former Nine Years War came to an end, a large-scale military operation began again in Mutsu Province.
This time, the battlefield lay even further north than the six districts, the Oku-Rokugun, once ruled by the Abe clan.
The names that appear in the sources are these:
“the wild barbarians of Kiso-betsu-shima” and “the mountain warriors of the seven villages of Hei.”
The army was led by the Governor of Mutsu, Minamoto no Yoritoshi. Backing his campaign was the Kiyohara clan, the victors of the Former Nine Years War.
This conflict, later known as the “Enkyu War” or “Enkyu Ezo War,” left behind far less detailed battle records than the Former Nine Years War. We don’t know troop numbers, the movements at each battlefield, or the names of enemy commanders. Even so, from documents connected to Yoritoshi himself and records of an incident at the provincial headquarters, we can confirm that in 1070 a large court army carried out a major expedition into northern Oshu.
And it was the Kiyohara clan that grew even stronger from this war.
With the Abe Clan Gone, the Kiyohara Become the New Power in Oshu
Kohei 5 (1062).
Kuriyagawa Stockade fell, and Abe no Sadato and Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo both died.
The Former Nine Years War came to an end.
The man who played the decisive role in that war was Kiyohara no Takenori, of Dewa.
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi had struggled against the Abe clan for years, and when Takenori entered the war with over ten thousand men, he cornered them in short order.
The following year, Kohei 6 (1063), Takenori was rewarded for his achievement with the post of Chinjufu Shogun.
And the Kiyohara clan extended its reach into the Oku-Rokugun, once ruled by the Abe clan, on top of its original base in Senboku, in Dewa.
Isawa. Esashi. Waga. Hienuki. Shiwa. Iwate.
These are the districts that run through the interior of present-day Iwate Prefecture — the Oku-Rokugun.
Once the Abe clan was gone, it was the Kiyohara clan that filled the enormous vacuum they left behind.
There is one more thread here. The widow of the executed Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo — a daughter of Abe no Yoritoki — remarried Takenori’s son, Kiyohara no Takesada.
The child she brought with her from her first marriage was Fujiwara no Kiyohira.
He was about seven years old at the time.
The boy whose father Yoriyoshi had put to death grew up in the household of the very clan that had destroyed his father.
Kiyohira came of age within the Kiyohara family, survived the Later Three Years War, and would go on to build Hiraizumi.
By 1070, that same Kiyohara clan stood on the side supporting the court’s northern expedition.
“The Seven Villages of Hei” and “Kiso-betsu-shima” — Where Was the Battlefield?
Before the Former Nine Years War, the court’s major foothold for controlling the north had been Isawa Castle.
In the days of the Abe clan, the Oku-Rokugun spread out even further north of that.
Once the Abe clan fell in 1062, the influence of the court and the Kiyohara clan reached one step deeper into the Oku-Rokugun.
The next problem, then, was the region beyond that, further north still.
The key place names for understanding the Enkyu War are “the seven villages of Hei” and “Kiso-betsu-shima.”
Hei corresponds to the present-day eastern part of Iwate Prefecture, spanning the Kitakami Mountains down to the Sanriku coast.
Research from Iwate University has pointed out that, by 1070, the Hei region had a strong degree of independence, built on its own iron production.
The location of Kiso-betsu-shima, on the other hand, remains debated. Multiple theories place it anywhere from the Shimokita Peninsula to the Tsugaru Strait and even Hokkaido, and no single spot has been pinned down.
The Aomori Prefectural history reconstructs this campaign as a military operation covering a wide area north of the 40th parallel. At minimum, we can say with confidence that the court’s military action pushed past the Oku-Rokugun and into northern Oshu.
Minamoto no Yoritoshi — A Different Branch of Genji Came to Mutsu
The Minamoto no Yoritoshi who led the army belonged to an entirely different branch of the Genji than Minamoto no Yoriyoshi of the Former Nine Years War.
Yoriyoshi belonged to the Kawachi Genji.
Yoritoshi belonged to the Yamato Genji.
He became Governor of Mutsu in Jiryaku 3 (1067) and took charge of the provincial headquarters at Taga Castle.
In other words, by 1070, Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was no longer in Oshu.
Yoriyoshi had finished with the Former Nine Years War and had become Governor of Iyo.
His son Yoshiie was not Governor of Mutsu at this point either.
It was the new governor, Yoritoshi, who joined forces with the enormous local power of the Kiyohara clan and advanced the army north.
Here lies a key difference from the Former Nine Years War.
Yoriyoshi had fought the Abe clan, the rulers of the Oku-Rokugun, directly.
Yoritoshi, by contrast, allied himself with the Kiyohara clan — who had defeated the Abe and taken the Oku-Rokugun for themselves — and pushed on from there, even further north.
1069: Emperor Go-Sanjo’s Prayer for the “Conquest of the Eastern Barbarians”
The reigning emperor at the time was Emperor Go-Sanjo.
In the fifth month of Enkyu 1 (1069), records show that Emperor Go-Sanjo made a pilgrimage to Iwashimizu Hachimangu and prayed for the “conquest of the eastern barbarians.” Preparations for the northern expedition appear to have begun around this time, and it is thought that Minamoto no Yoritoshi set out as “Great General” and “Punitive Commander” around the sixth or seventh month of the following year, 1070.
Advancing an army into northern Oshu required more than just soldiers — food, horses, transport routes, and guides who knew the terrain were all necessary. It was the Kiyohara clan, with its base spanning Dewa and the Oku-Rokugun, that supported Yoritoshi’s expedition.
Kiyohara no Sadahira — A Kiyohara Warrior in the Records
The historical figure recorded as accompanying Yoritoshi on this campaign is Kiyohara no Sadahira.
His true identity is debated. Because the name “Sadahira” does not appear in surviving Kiyohara genealogies, some scholars see him as a miswriting or alternate rendering of Kiyohara no Sanehira, who appears in the Later Three Years War, while others construct a separate lineage treating him as a distinct person. It is safer not to assume the two men were one and the same.
What can be said with confidence is that Kiyohara military strength played a major role in the Enkyu War, and that a figure from the Kiyohara side was tied to that success and became Chinjufu Shogun.
This is the key point.
In the Former Nine Years War, Kiyohara no Takenori had come to the aid of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi.
Eight years later, in the Enkyu War, a Kiyohara commander was once again supporting Minamoto no Yoritoshi’s expedition.
The Kiyohara clan had grown into a force the court could not do without whenever it wanted to take military action in northern Oshu.
“The Great Bandits of Three Directions” — How Did the Expedition Move?
We cannot trace the fighting of the Enkyu War day by day, the way we can with Kawaguchi or Kuriyagawa Stockade in the Former Nine Years War.
The surviving records are simply too thin.
Troop numbers are unknown. The location of each battlefield cannot be pinned down. The names of enemy commanders have not survived.
Even so, an important phrase survives in a petition Yoritoshi submitted years later.
“The great bandits of three directions.”
This is the phrase Yoritoshi used in a later petition.
The Aomori Prefectural history uses this to reconstruct a three-pronged operation: Yoritoshi’s provincial army advancing from the Kesen area toward Hei, while the Kiyohara forces pushed from Dewa toward Tsugaru. That said, this is a reconstruction built from fragmentary sources, not a military chronicle recording the actual routes each unit took.
It is enough to understand that the Enkyu War’s battlefield was not confined to a single castle or river, but spanned a wide area of northern Oshu.
The Seven Villages of Hei — No Detailed Battle Record Survives
The sources speak of “the mountain warriors of the seven villages of Hei.”
Which seven specific settlements made up these “seven villages” is not known.
What we do know is that Hei was the region spreading from the coastal area of present-day Iwate Prefecture into the Kitakami Mountains.
Yoritoshi’s own report states that the enemy rose up, threw the population into turmoil, and that he drove them back to their base, took heads, and captured prisoners.
Unlike Kawaguchi or Kuriyagawa Stockade, there is no record detailed enough to tell us who attacked from where, or how many died. The battle scenes of the Enkyu War simply cannot be reconstructed in fine detail.
What remains, instead, is Yoritoshi’s own report describing how he drove the enemy back to their “main position,” took heads, and captured prisoners. What can be confirmed from the sources is that armed conflict took place, and that it produced both dead and captives.
December 26, 1070: Yoritoshi Sends His Report of Victory to the Capital
The 26th day of the twelfth month of Enkyu 2 (1070).
Minamoto no Yoritoshi submitted a report to the court from Mutsu Province.
In it, he wrote that he had driven the northern forces back to their main position, taken their heads, and captured prisoners.
He even offered to travel to the capital himself, bringing the heads and captives with him.
But by this point, Yoritoshi had already been relieved of his post as commander partway through the campaign. It was an extraordinary conclusion: the very general who reported the victory was denied the reward for it.
The cause lay not on the battlefield, but in an incident that broke out at the provincial headquarters while Yoritoshi was away.
The Provincial Seal and Its Key Were Stolen
Right after Yoritoshi marched north, a major incident struck Mutsu Province.
A local official, Fujiwara no Mototsune, stole the “seal and key” of the provincial government and fled.
The “seal and key” refers to the official provincial seal and the key to the provincial storehouse.
The provincial seal was needed for the governor to issue official documents.
The storehouse key controlled the province’s goods and finances.
In modern terms, it was as if someone had stolen both a state government’s official seal and the key to its treasury at once.
And Yoritoshi was the Governor of Mutsu.
He was the man ultimately responsible for the provincial headquarters.
While he was off fighting the enemy in the north, the very symbols of provincial authority had been stolen right out from under him.
This was no time to continue the expedition.
Fujiwara no Mototsune Fled to Minamoto no Yoshiie
The story does not end there.
Fujiwara no Mototsune, having stolen the seal and key, went into hiding.
And the man he fled to was none other than Minamoto no Yoshiie, then serving as Governor of Shimotsuke.
This was the same Yoshiie — “Hachiman Taro” — who had fought through the disaster at Kawaguchi during the Former Nine Years War.
Mototsune went to Yoshiie and surrendered.
Yoshiie immediately reported the matter to the court.
Yoshiie reported the affair and called for Yoritoshi to be recalled from his campaign in the north.
The court acted.
On the first day of the eighth month of Enkyu 2 (1070), an imperial edict dismissed Minamoto no Yoritoshi from his post as punitive commander.
Not much time had passed since Yoritoshi had set out for the north.
The commander of the army had vanished, mid-campaign.
The “Yoshiie Mastermind” Theory — A Scholarly Hypothesis, Not Established Fact
Why did Fujiwara no Mototsune flee specifically to Yoshiie? This question has led some researchers to propose a theory: that Yoshiie deliberately worked behind the scenes to bring about Yoritoshi’s downfall.
Yoritoshi belonged to the Yamato Genji. Yoshiie belonged to the Kawachi Genji.
If Yoritoshi succeeded in a major campaign against the northern peoples, his reputation as a military aristocrat would rise sharply.
For Yoshiie, who had already built his own military reputation in the Former Nine Years War, Yoritoshi could become a genuine rival.
That said, there is no direct source proving that Yoshiie set Mototsune in motion. What we can confirm is only this: that Mototsune stole the seal and key, that he fled to Yoshiie, that Yoshiie reported it to the court, and that Yoritoshi was relieved of his command on the first day of the eighth month.
Given that the Yamato Genji’s Yoritoshi and the Kawachi Genji’s Yoshiie stood in a relationship of competing for military renown, this makes for a fascinating incident — but the “mastermind” theory itself must be treated as a hypothesis, not a settled fact.
Yoritoshi Was Dismissed Midway — the Kiyohara Still Won Recognition
Yoritoshi could not command the campaign through to its end, and had to return to the provincial headquarters. Even so, the military operation in the north continued, and it was the Kiyohara clan whose standing grew from it.
Later records and research say that a Kiyohara figure recognized for his achievements in the Enkyu War was granted the post of Chinjufu Shogun. He is named as Sadahira, though there is also a theory identifying him with Sanehira, and the question of exactly who this was remains unsettled.
Yoritoshi, meanwhile, the supreme commander of the expedition, received no reward to match.
The Kiyohara clan gained recognition. Minamoto no Yoritoshi lost his command partway through.
The gap between the two was enormous.
Kiyohara no Takenori had already become Chinjufu Shogun after the Former Nine Years War, and now, in the next generation, the Kiyohara clan won that same post a second time.
Official rank granted by the court, and the enormous military power the clan held on the ground.
The Kiyohara clan was beginning to hold both at once.
Sixteen Years Later — Yoritoshi Claims He Was “No Less Than Yoriyoshi”
Sixteen years after the Enkyu War.
In Otoku 3 (1086), Minamoto no Yoritoshi brought this war up once again.
His goal was an official appointment.
Yoritoshi submitted a petition to the Regent, Fujiwara no Morozane, asking to be appointed Governor of Sanuki.
As his grounds, he pointed to the northern expedition of 1070.
Yoritoshi argued that the achievements he had earned as Governor of Mutsu were no less than the achievements of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi in the Former Nine Years War. If Yoriyoshi’s war record had earned him the governorship of Iyo, the logic went, then Yoritoshi too deserved a provincial governorship of his own.
Even sixteen years later, Yoritoshi still believed he had never been given proper credit.
That he chose to compare himself to Yoriyoshi, the hero of the Former Nine Years War, shows just how much weight a warrior’s achievements in Oshu carried at the time.
There Were Real Results. But Northern Oshu Was Not Fully Subdued
The Aomori Prefectural history concludes that, because Yoritoshi himself was relieved of command partway through, he was never able to fully achieve the domination of the north that he had originally set out for.
Yoritoshi’s own 1070 report emphasizes the enemy heads and captives taken, but says little about which territory was actually brought under lasting control.
Thirteen years later still.
Even by the time of the Later Three Years War, powers remained in northern Oshu that had not been easily folded into court control.
The Enkyu War cannot be written up as “the war in which the court fully conquered northern Oshu.” Yoritoshi’s own report stresses beheadings and captives, while leaving unclear exactly which territory was brought under permanent control. Even so, the fact that a court army moved on a large scale beyond the Oku-Rokugun into northern Oshu, eight years after the Former Nine Years War, remains significant.
After the Enkyu War — the Kiyohara Clan Keeps Growing
Minamoto no Yoritoshi was relieved of his post as punitive commander partway through the campaign.
The northern powers were not entirely destroyed, either.
But this war marked a turning point after which the Kiyohara clan’s presence in northern Oshu grew even larger.
In the Former Nine Years War, it was Kiyohara no Takenori’s military strength that destroyed the Abe clan.
After the war, Takenori became Chinjufu Shogun and pushed into the Oku-Rokugun.
Eight years later, in the Enkyu War, the Kiyohara clan again supported the court’s military operations, and again tied their war record to the post of Chinjufu Shogun.
Senboku in Dewa. The Oku-Rokugun. And now northern Oshu beyond that.
The Kiyohara clan’s influence spread over a wider range than it ever had in the days of the Abe clan.
As their influence spread — from Senboku in Dewa, through the Oku-Rokugun, and into northern Oshu — the question of succession within the clan grew heavier and heavier.
Within the Kiyohara household was Kiyohira, who carried the blood of the Abe clan.
There was also Iehira, who carried the Kiyohara clan’s own blood.
And standing at the head of the main line was Sanehira.
Within the Kiyohara household were Kiyohira, born of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo and the daughter of Abe no Yoritoki; Iehira, who carried the Kiyohara clan’s own blood; and Sanehira, standing at the head of the main line.
The Kiyohara clan had emerged victorious from the Former Nine Years War and had grown further still through the Enkyu War. And within that vast clan, a fracture was about to open.
Then, in 1083, one man returned to Oshu as its governor.
He was the young warrior who, at nineteen, had fought at Kawaguchi.
Thirteen years after the Enkyu War.
This time, the battlefield would see the very Kiyohara clan that had won the Former Nine Years War split apart from within.
The curtain was rising on the Later Three Years War.
