1062: More Than Ten Thousand Troops Appear Before Minamoto no Yoriyoshi
Kohei 5 (1062).
Twelve years into the Former Nine Years War.
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi had still not managed to defeat the Abe clan.
Five years earlier, at Kawaguchi, he had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Abe no Sadato, driven down to barely seven riders including himself. Since then he had failed to secure a decisive victory, and even his term as Governor of Mutsu had already ended.
And then, before Yoriyoshi, a great army finally appeared.
More than ten thousand men.
The man who led them was not a Genji.
He was Kiyohara no Takenori, a fushu chieftain from the northern reaches of Dewa.
Yoriyoshi’s own army numbered around 3,000.
Takenori’s force was more than three times that size.
And once the Kiyohara army entered the war, a conflict that had barely moved for years suddenly turned.
In the eighth month, Komatsu Stockade. In the ninth month, Koromogawa Barrier, then Toriumi Stockade, then Kuriyagawa Stockade.
In roughly two months, the Abe clan’s defensive line collapsed one stronghold after another, and on the 17th day of the ninth month, Abe no Sadato was dead.
The image of “the Genji who won the Former Nine Years War” is a powerful one.
But if you look only at the final two months, the single greatest force that turned this war was the Kiyohara clan.
The man who led that army was Kiyohara no Takenori.
The Kiyohara of Northern Dewa — Where Did Takenori Come From?
Kiyohara no Takenori’s year of birth is unknown.
No detailed record survives of his early life, either.
What is clear is that Takenori was the younger brother of Kiyohara no Mitsuyori, a fushu chieftain of northern Dewa.
“Northern Dewa” refers to the northern part of Dewa Province.
What matters most for understanding the Kiyohara clan’s base is the Senboku region, centered on what is now the Yokote Basin in Akita Prefecture.
His elder brother Mitsuyori had built enormous power in this region.
A genealogy survives tracing the Kiyohara clan back to Prince Toneri, a son of Emperor Tenmu. Still, the basic view of the 11th-century Kiyohara clan is that they should be understood as a local, in-place clan of fushu chieftains rooted in northern Dewa.
And it is as the man who carried the military weight of that vast Kiyohara clan that Takenori steps onto the historical stage.
Why Did Yoriyoshi Need the Kiyohara?
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi had not been allied with the Kiyohara clan from the start.
If anything, Yoriyoshi turned to the Kiyohara clan only after being driven into a corner.
The eleventh month of Tengi 5 (1057).
Yoriyoshi suffered a crushing defeat against Abe no Sadato at Kawaguchi.
The Abe clan’s momentum did not slow after that.
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo went so far as to issue his own “white tally” tax documents in defiance of the provincial government’s “red tally,” and extended his reach into official tax collection.
Yoriyoshi requested reinforcements.
But not enough troops came from the capital.
So he turned his attention west, to Dewa, where the Kiyohara clan held enormous military strength.
Elder brother Mitsuyori. Younger brother Takenori.
Yoriyoshi approached the two brothers again and again.
The Mutsu Waki describes Yoriyoshi sending rare and valuable gifts to win the Kiyohara clan’s cooperation.
They did not move right away.
That was only natural, from the Kiyohara clan’s point of view.
The Abe clan was a vast neighboring power controlling the Oku-Rokugun.
Entering a war between Yoriyoshi and the Abe clan meant committing the whole clan to a major conflict.
With no way to know who would win, there was no reason to commit troops lightly.
Local accounts from Yokote City also describe the Kiyohara clan taking a cautious stance for a long time, despite Yoriyoshi’s repeated requests for help.
Yoriyoshi Sent Gifts Again and Again — Until the Kiyohara Finally Moved
Yoriyoshi’s overtures did not stop after a single attempt.
The Mutsu Waki records that Yoriyoshi lavished “flattering words” on the brothers Mitsuyori and Takenori, and sent rare gifts again and again. Even so, the Kiyohara clan did not commit to joining the war, and held their position for a long time.
For Yoriyoshi, there was nothing to do but keep asking. Ever since the disaster at Kawaguchi, he had no way to break the Abe clan with his own strength alone.
In the seventh month of Kohei 5 (1062), the Kiyohara clan finally moved.
Elder brother Mitsuyori sent his younger brother, Kiyohara no Takenori.
Takenori led an army of more than ten thousand men, including his own sons and relatives.
The reinforcements Yoriyoshi had waited years for had finally entered Mutsu.
Yoriyoshi’s 3,000 Against Takenori’s 10,000 — A Force Large Enough to Shift the Balance
The 26th day of the seventh month, 1062.
Yoriyoshi led his 3,000-plus troops out from the provincial headquarters.
On the 9th day of the eighth month, he joined forces with Takenori at Kurihara District’s Kagaoka.
The Kiyohara army was already waiting there.
More than ten thousand men.
Simply added together, that made over 13,000.
Of course, the troop figures found in premodern military chronicles should not be read as precise modern census counts.
Even so, it means something that the Mutsu Waki clearly distinguishes Yoriyoshi’s over 3,000 troops from the Kiyohara clan’s over 10,000.
Takenori’s army was far larger than Yoriyoshi’s own.
And Takenori did not simply lend his troops.
He went to the battlefield himself.
Seven Formations — Takenori Brought His Entire Clan to War
The 16th day of the eighth month.
The combined Yoriyoshi-Takenori army split their forces into seven formations.
This alone tells you the scale of the Kiyohara clan.
The first formation was led by Kiyohara no Takesada, Takenori’s son.
The second formation was led by Tachibana no Sadayori.
The third by Kimiko no Hidetake.
The fourth by Tachibana no Yoresada.
The fifth included Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, Kiyohara no Takenori, and officials of the provincial government.
The sixth was led by Kimiko no Buchu.
The seventh by Kiyohara no Takemichi.
This was not Takenori alone.
His sons, relatives, and the leading men of Dewa who were tied to the Kiyohara clan were all leading troops of their own.
In other words, what Yoriyoshi had gained was not “one warrior named Takenori.”
It was the entire military network the Kiyohara clan had built across northern Dewa.
“I Will Not Spare My Life” — the Oath Takenori Made Before His Army
The Mutsu Waki gives a vivid picture of Takenori before the campaign began.
Takenori bowed in the direction of the capital.
Then he swore his oath to Heaven, Earth, and the god Hachiman.
He had answered the general’s orders, bringing his sons and clansmen with him.
He had come to uphold his duty and honor.
If he failed to fight without regard for his own life, he would accept the punishment of the gods.
That was the substance of his oath.
It is a dramatic scene, the kind found in military chronicles.
But it comes through clearly that, for the Kiyohara clan, this was no light reinforcement.
Having committed over ten thousand of the clan’s own troops, there was no turning back halfway.
Takenori had come intending to fight through to the destruction of the Abe clan.
August 17, Komatsu Stockade — Takenori Changes the Mood of “Not Today”
The first major battlefield was Komatsu Stockade.
In the area of present-day Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture.
On August 17, the combined army advanced to Hagi no Baba, roughly five cho from Komatsu Stockade.
But they had arrived late in the day, and the day itself was considered unlucky.
There was a mood on Yoriyoshi’s side of holding off any full assault that day.
Then scouting troops made contact with the Abe side, and fighting broke out on its own.
This is where Takenori moved.
According to the Mutsu Waki, when Yoriyoshi asked his opinion, Takenori answered that the men’s anger had already been stirred by the enemy’s attack, and that now was the time to strike.
He did not stick to the plan and wait until the next day.
He read the mood of the troops and the momentum of the battlefield, and switched to attack on the spot.
Takenori led his men and surrounded Komatsu Stockade.
Twenty Men Climb a Cliff — the Fall of Komatsu Stockade
Komatsu Stockade was a natural fortress.
A deep current to the southeast. A rock wall to the northwest.
Neither cavalry nor infantry could easily approach.
So Otomo no Kazusue and more than twenty men made their move.
They cut footholds into the cliff with their swords and used their weapons as supports to climb the rock face.
Then they reached the stockade and broke inside.
The Abe side fell into confusion. Abe no Munetada then rode out of the stockade with more than 800 horsemen.
The exhausted vanguard was pushed back.
The combined army committed even the Bando warriors under Yoriyoshi’s direct command.
After fierce fighting, Munetada’s force was defeated. Komatsu Stockade burned.
The Mutsu Waki records the Abe side’s losses in this battle as more than 60 dead.
The combined army suffered 13 killed and 150 wounded.
Even the winning side had paid a considerable price.
And from here, the final stage of the Former Nine Years War began moving fast.
The Weakness of a Force Over Ten Thousand Strong — Running Short of Food
The reinforcement of more than ten thousand men had turned the tide of the war. But moving a large army meant that food consumption rose sharply as well.
To make matters worse, the rains in Oshu would not let up.
Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army, short on food, sent troops out to various areas to harvest rice and gather provisions.
As a result, the main camp’s troop strength dropped.
Abe no Sadato saw his opening.
On September 5, Sadato attacked with a force of more than 8,000.
Yoriyoshi’s side had only about 6,500 remaining at the main camp.
In numbers, the Abe army had the upper hand.
Under normal circumstances, this would have been a crisis.
Instead, Takenori welcomed the fact that Sadato had come out to fight.
“He Has Come Out for Us” — Takenori Sees His Chance in Sadato’s Attack
Why did he welcome it?
As long as the Abe army stayed holed up in its solid stockades, it was the attacking side that suffered.
The expeditionary force was burning through supplies.
Rain kept falling. Their supply lines stretched far behind them.
The longer this went on, the harder it became for Yoriyoshi and Takenori.
But if Sadato brought his great army out into open ground, a decisive battle could be fought without the protection of a fortified position.
That was what Takenori saw.
On September 5, the two armies clashed.
The fighting lasted from midday into the evening. Minamoto no Yoshiie and Yoshitsuna both stood on the field as well.
Then the Abe army broke.
Fleeing soldiers surged toward the river.
Some fell in. Some drowned. Some were cut down as they ran.
The Mutsu Waki describes a scene of dead men and horses lining the escape route.
The Abe side’s dead numbered more than 100.
Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army seized more than 300 horses.
Sadato’s army, which had tormented Yoriyoshi ever since Kawaguchi, broke apart decisively here.
Winning Wasn’t Enough — Takenori Moves Into a Night Pursuit
Takenori did not let up his offensive after the victory. He gave the fleeing enemy no time to regroup.
Takenori selected 800 elite troops and sent them out on a night pursuit.
He also had men infiltrate the area and set fire to the Abe camp.
Darkness. Sudden flames rising. War cries echoing from multiple directions.
In the confusion, the Abe army abandoned Takanashi Post and Ishizaka Stockade and retreated north.
Takenori did not stop pressing his advantage even right after the victory.
He kept up the pursuit before the Abe clan could regroup behind stockade walls again.
This pursuit robbed the Abe army of any chance to rebuild its defensive line.
September 6 — a Three-Pronged Attack on Koromogawa Barrier
The next day, September 6.
Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army closed in on Koromogawa Barrier.
This was the southern gateway into the Abe clan’s home territory, the Oku-Rokugun.
The terrain was harsh.
Felled trees blocked the roads.
Cliffs had been collapsed. The rivers ran high from the long rains.
The combined army split into three directions.
Takenori’s son, Kiyohara no Takesada, took the barrier road.
Tachibana no Yoresada took the upper Koromogawa road.
And Takenori himself took the lower road.
Despite fighting from afternoon into night, they could not break through.
Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army suffered 9 killed and more than 80 wounded.
A frontal breakthrough was difficult. So Takenori inspected the riverbank instead.
What caught his eye were trees stretching out over both banks.
Thirty Men Cross the River — Breaking Koromogawa with a Surprise Attack
Takenori had his men cross to the far bank.
First, Hisakiyo made it across by climbing along the trees.
Then, using ropes and vines, more than 30 men followed him across.
This small band of men circled around behind the Abe positions.
Then they set fire to the stockade held by Fujiwara no Narichika.
In front, Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army kept attacking.
In the middle of that fight, flames rose from behind.
The Abe army collapsed.
The Mutsu Waki records that more than 70 of the Abe side were killed in this surprise attack.
Sadato and the others abandoned Koromogawa and retreated to Toriumi Stockade.
The defensive line at the southern edge of the Oku-Rokugun, which had held off Yoriyoshi for years, was broken through in less than a month after the Kiyohara clan entered the war.
Toriumi Stockade — Yoriyoshi Acknowledges Takenori’s Achievement
September 11.
The army advanced to Toriumi Stockade.
This was the crucial position where Abe no Yoritoki had drawn his last breath five years earlier.
But Abe no Munetada and Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo did not fight here.
They abandoned the stockade and retreated further north.
Dozens of jars of sake had been left behind at Toriumi Stockade.
According to the Mutsu Waki, Yoriyoshi, wary of poison, did not let his men drink right away, and only allowed the sake once he had confirmed it was safe.
Here, Yoriyoshi told Takenori that it was thanks to his “loyalty” that they had, that very day, finally set foot in Toriumi Stockade — a place he had only ever heard about by name for so long. Takenori tried to defer the credit back to Yoriyoshi, but Yoriyoshi went on to praise, once again, how Takenori had led his sons and clansmen to break through the enemy’s fortified positions.
It is one of the most striking scenes in the entire Mutsu Waki — Yoriyoshi directly acknowledging Takenori’s achievements.
The Last Fortress — Kuriyagawa Stockade
The place where the Abe clan made its final stand was Kuriyagawa Stockade.
Near what is now the western part of Morioka City.
Kuriyagawa Stockade and Ubato Stockade stood close together — the Mutsu Waki puts the distance between them at seven or eight cho.
The defenses were formidable.
Rivers. Cliffs. Moats. Palisades. Watchtowers.
And bows and arrows, stones, and boiling water.
On September 15, Yoriyoshi and Takenori’s army surrounded both Kuriyagawa and Ubato Stockades.
On the 16th, they launched a full assault from morning. It did not fall.
The Mutsu Waki records that Yoriyoshi’s side suffered hundreds of dead that day.
Even with the more than ten thousand troops of the Kiyohara army added in, a frontal assault alone could not bring it down.
September 17: Kuriyagawa Stockade Burns
The next day, the 17th, their approach changed.
They gathered timber and reeds from the surrounding area and set them alight.
The Mutsu Waki describes Yoriyoshi praying to the god Hachiman, and a wind rising that carried the flames into the stockade.
The fire spread to the watchtowers.
People fled from inside the stockade.
Even so, hundreds of Abe warriors put on their armor, took up their swords, and tried to break through the encirclement.
Here, Takenori gave one order.
Open a gap in the encirclement.
He created an escape route. Seeing the opening, the enemy troops rushed toward it.
The combined army then struck them from the side.
Rather than surround the enemy completely and force them to resist to the last man, he opened an escape route to break their formation, then cut them down as they emerged.
Kuriyagawa Stockade’s defenses collapsed.
Abe no Sadato was gravely wounded and captured, and died before Yoriyoshi.
He was thirty-four.
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo was also captured and executed.
The Former Nine Years War was settled, here.
Thirty-Nine Days from the Linkup — the Front Line Pushed All the Way to Kuriyagawa
Simply laying out the numbers shows just how great a shock Takenori’s arrival was.
November 1057: Yoriyoshi suffers his crushing defeat at Kawaguchi.
For roughly five years after that, he could not defeat the Abe clan.
July 1062: Takenori enters the war with more than ten thousand men.
August 9: he links up with Yoriyoshi.
August 17: Komatsu Stockade falls.
September 5: Sadato’s force of more than 8,000 is broken.
September 6: Koromogawa Barrier is broken through.
September 11: they reach Toriumi Stockade.
September 17: Kuriyagawa Stockade falls.
Thirty-nine days from the linkup to the fall of Kuriyagawa Stockade.
Thirty-nine days from the linkup to the fall of Kuriyagawa Stockade. The front, which Yoriyoshi had been unable to move for roughly five years since Kawaguchi, surged all the way north to the Morioka area in that span.
Yoriyoshi commanded the Bando warriors, the provincial garrison, and, above all, the more than ten thousand men of the Kiyohara army that Takenori had brought with him. And of these, it is clear from the course of the fighting recorded in the Mutsu Waki that the Kiyohara clan’s entry into the war was what decisively changed the outcome.
1063: Takenori Becomes Chinjufu Shogun
The 27th day of the second month of Kohei 6 (1063).
Rewards for the Former Nine Years War were distributed.
Minamoto no Yoriyoshi was promoted to Junior Fourth Rank and became Governor of Iyo.
Minamoto no Yoshiie became Governor of Dewa. Yoshitsuna became a Left Gate Guard officer.
And Kiyohara no Takenori too received a great reward.
Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade. And Chinjufu Shogun.
Chinjufu Shogun was an important post responsible for military affairs in northern Mutsu.
It was a post once held by men such as Sakanoue no Tamuramaro.
Takenori, once a fushu chieftain of northern Dewa, had risen — through his achievements in the Former Nine Years War — to a position the court recognized as the man in charge of military affairs in Tohoku. The Hyakurensho also records that on the 27th day of the second month, 1063, Takenori was promoted in rank and appointed Chinjufu Shogun.
The Oku-Rokugun, Left Behind by the Abe Clan — the Kiyohara Move In
After the war, the Kiyohara clan extended its reach into the Oku-Rokugun, the Abe clan’s former territory.
Their previous base had been centered on the three districts of Ogachi, Hiraka, and Senboku in Dewa Province — the Sanboku region. Now the Oku-Rokugun was added on top of that, and the Kiyohara clan grew into one of the largest powers spanning both Mutsu and Dewa.
The Former Nine Years War was not simply a war that destroyed the Abe clan. It was also the war that replaced the Abe clan with the Kiyohara clan as the leading power in Oshu.
The Wife and Son of the Enemy Commander Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo Also Entered the Kiyohara Family
There is one more important episode to note when discussing the Kiyohara clan after the war.
Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo, executed at Kuriyagawa Stockade, left behind a wife and a young son.
His wife was a daughter of Abe no Yoritoki.
The son was Fujiwara no Kiyohira, who was about seven years old at the time.
Tsunekiyo’s widow remarried Takenori’s son, Kiyohara no Takesada.
And so Kiyohira grew up within the Kiyohara household.
The child of a defeated enemy had entered the very clan that had brought his father down.
Takesada and Yoritoki’s daughter then had a son of their own, Kiyohara no Iehira.
In Takesada’s household, Kiyohira, Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo’s son, and Iehira, Takesada’s own son, grew up together as half-brothers.
The relationship between these two men would shake Oshu badly, more than twenty years later.
Takenori’s Death — When Did He Die?
The year of Kiyohara no Takenori’s death is unknown.
This is not a date that can be filled in with any confidence.
What can be said with confidence is that, after the Former Nine Years War, Takenori himself never appears on the battlefield of the Later Three Years War.
The Later Three Years War begins in Eiho 3 (1083). The figures who appear there are Takenori’s son Takesada, his other son Takehira, and after them Sanehira and Iehira, along with Fujiwara no Kiyohira, who had grown up in the Kiyohara household — all of a later generation than Takenori.
The power that Takenori had expanded so greatly in the Former Nine Years War was carried on by the next generation.
But the clan that had grown so vast would come apart from within.
“Show Me That Bow” — Takenori’s Astonishment at Yoshiie’s Strength
The Mutsu Waki preserves an intriguing story about Takenori and Minamoto no Yoshiie after the Former Nine Years War.
Takenori asked Yoshiie to let him test the power of his bow.
According to the Mutsu Waki, they hung sturdy layered armor on a tree and had Yoshiie shoot at it; the arrow pierced straight through the armor. Takenori, seeing the strength of that bow, praised Yoshiie as nothing less than a manifestation of the divine, and was left in awe.
Ever since Kawaguchi, Minamoto no Yoshiie‘s skill with the bow is praised again and again throughout the Mutsu Waki.
Yet Takenori himself was a battle-tested warrior who had led more than ten thousand troops in cornering the Abe clan.
And even this veteran Takenori was left marveling at the bow of the young Yoshiie.
It is the kind of embellished expression typical of a military chronicle celebrating the prowess of the Genji house. Even so, it leaves a memorable impression: the seasoned Takenori, who had led the Former Nine Years War to victory, acknowledging the young Yoshiie’s own martial skill.
Takenori’s Victory Set the Stage for the Next War
In 1062, Takenori joined Yoriyoshi’s forces with more than ten thousand troops, and within thirty-nine days, had brought down Kuriyagawa Stockade, the Abe clan’s final stronghold. The following year he became Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, and Chinjufu Shogun, and the Kiyohara clan’s power spread from northern Dewa into the Oku-Rokugun.
Kiyohira, who had lost his father Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo at Kuriyagawa, also entered that same Kiyohara household. Raised under Takenori’s son Takesada, Kiyohira and Iehira grew up as half-brothers.
Takenori’s year of death is unknown. By the time the Later Three Years War began in 1083, Takenori himself had already vanished from the historical record.
What remained was the Kiyohara clan, grown enormous through the victory of the Former Nine Years War.
In time, within that household, Sanehira, Kiyohira, Iehira, and Takehira would find themselves divided into enemies and allies. And returning to Oshu as its governor was the very man whose powerful bow had once left Takenori in awe — Minamoto no Yoshiie.
The victors of the war Takenori had brought to an end would, some twenty years later, turn their blades on one another within that same Kiyohara clan.
This was the Later Three Years War.
