Taira Tadamori's Family Line (1)

     Taira Sadamori (?-989) was fighting around the northern part of the Kanto Plain against Taira Masakado (?-940), who corresponded in the East to Fujiwara Sumitomo (?-941) in the West, the first pirate king in Japan.  After Masakado’s defeat and death, Sadamori was promoted to make a provincial officer in Tanba and Mutsu Provinces.  He seems never to have worked in Ise Province.

     Somehow or other, his son, Korehisa (?-?), was fighting in 998 against Taira Munenori (?-1011), whose grandfather was a younger brother of Sadamori’s father, over “kami-no-kori” (literally gods’ counties).  There used to be 6 gods’ counties in Ise Province, and 3 of them were located in the northern part, where both Korehisa and Munemori were based.  The counties' taxes were spent to support Ise Shrine.  The fight lasted for 2 generations, and finally Muneyori’s son, Munetsune (?-?), was arrested at Yokokawa in Mt. Hiei in 1021 officially by the police and judicial chief but virtually by Korehira’s son, Masamori (?-?).

     During the fight, probably to make his position better, Munetsune donated Masuda Manor in Kuwana County, Ise Province, in 1013 to Fujiwara Yorimichi (992-1074), who was the eldest son of Michinaga (966-1027), the most powerful man in Japan at the time.  Even after his arrest, he donated a navy blue lapis lazuli salvia jar to Todai-ji Temple.  The jar, which is still kept in Shoso-in, is presumed to have been made at Fergana in Turkistan and might have been brought by sea to Masuda Manor, where a base of the sea people who were active around Ise Bay was located.

     Even in the 12th century, we can find a document about a lawsuit between Kume Tametoki, a low-ranking official, and Kuwana Kanbe, a low-ranking shrine priest, over port tolls in the manor.  Later during the Warring States Period in Japan, the northern part of Ise Province produced the Mukai Family, a pirate samurai family, who made the sea force magistrate of Tokugawa Shogunate.