Taira Tadamori’s Family Line (4)---The Revolt of Minamoto Yoshichika (1)---

    Minamoto Yoshichika (?-1108) infested Kyushu Island together with Takashina Motozane (?-?), who was his father-in-law and was a provincial officer in Higo Province, and others.  Cloistered Emperor Shiwakawa (1053-1129) dispatched an official, and Yoshichika's father, Yoshiie (1039-1106), sent his right-hand man, Fujiwara Sukemichi (?-?).  Sukemichi, however, took Yoshichika's side and killed the official.  On December 28, 1102, it was ordered that Yoshichika should be exiled to Oki Province, an island province off Izumo Province in the Sea of Japan.  It was not recorded who arrested Yoshichika or who transported him.  His next appearance was in 1107.  He killed a provincial agent officer and officials in Izumo Province, and captured tax products accumulated in the provincial government office.  Moreover, some local powerful families were rumored to side with Yoshichika.

 

     Let me present my hypothesis.  Yoshichika could have been trying to trade with the Liao Dynasty illegally, which had damaged Dazai-fu's, it means Oe Masafusa's, rights and interests severely, which had caused Masafusa's excessive response to Yoshichika's violent manner, and which made Yoshichika so influencial in Kyushu.  The cloistered emperor's governance was staying in business on the balance among central powerful clans and the central middle-ranking families who belonged to the "zuryo" class.  They might have mediated between Oe and Minamoto in a narrow sense, or maintained the equilibrium at large, and the compromise might have been that Yoshichika should retreat to Oki Province, where he could continue the illegal trade with the Liao Dynasty, however inconvenient the place might be.  Yoshichika voluntarily moved to Oki, or to Izumo at the very least, or at the worst.