Siege of Nara

What Happened

On 15 January 1181, Taira forces under Taira no Shigehira (平重衡, たいらのしげひら) attacked the city of Nara and set fire to its great monastic complexes. The temples of Kōfuku-ji (興福寺, こうふくじ) and Tōdai-ji (東大寺, とうだいじ) were burned. The date corresponds to the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of the Jishō era in the Japanese calendar then in use; by the Gregorian reckoning it falls in January 1181, in the first year of the Yōwa era (養和, ようわ).

The operation was not a siege in the sense of an army surrounding a fortress and starving it out. Nara was a city of monasteries, and the targets were the temple complexes themselves. The burning of Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji destroyed buildings, libraries and stores of records that had accumulated for centuries.

The attack came at the end of a year of open warfare between the Taira and the Minamoto. It followed directly from the defeat of Prince Mochihito (以仁王, もちひとおう) and Minamoto no Yorimasa (源頼政, みなもとのよりまさ), who had risen against Taira rule and died in the fighting.

Background

The Genpei War (源平合戦, げんぺいかっせん) was the struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for dominance at the end of the Heian period (794–1185). In 1180 Prince Mochihito, a son of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa, issued a call to arms against the Taira, and Minamoto no Yorimasa joined him. The rising failed. Prince Mochihito and Yorimasa were defeated and killed.

Before their defeat, the anti-Taira forces had found shelter at Miidera (三井寺, みいでら), a temple complex also known as Onjō-ji, near Lake Biwa. After the prince and Yorimasa were destroyed, Taira forces burned Miidera down for having harboured them.

The Taira then turned to Nara. The city's monasteries had not been neutral in the conflict, and the great temples of Nara were a power in their own right, with armed monks and wide estates. Burning them removed a potential base for Minamoto resistance in the region and punished the religious establishments that had sided, or might side, with the enemy.

Taira no Shigehira, a son of the Taira leader Taira no Kiyomori, led the assault. The action is dated to 15 January 1181, the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of Jishō 4 by the calendar in use at the time, in the first year of Yōwa.

Why It Mattered

The burning of Nara was one of the most destructive acts of the Genpei War. Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji were not ordinary temples. Tōdai-ji housed the Great Buddha, the Daibutsu (大仏, だいぶつ), a colossal bronze image that had been dedicated in the eighth century and was among the most important religious monuments in Japan. The fire damaged the temple and the hall that contained the image.

The destruction extended beyond buildings. Manuscripts, monastic archives and works of art held at the two temples were lost. The scale of the loss shaped how the event was remembered: the burning of Nara became a byword for the ruin that the Genpei War brought on the old capital's religious institutions.

The attack also intensified the conflict. The destruction of Miidera and then of the Nara temples turned the major religious establishments more firmly against the Taira. The war continued for four more years, ending with the Taira defeat at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in 1185 and the establishment of Minamoto rule under Minamoto no Yoritomo.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the event is 南都焼討. It is read なんとやきうち in kana, and romanised as Nantō yakiuchi. The form Nanto yakiuchi also appears. The name is sometimes rendered in English as the "Nanto Arson Campaign".

Breaking the name down character by character:

• 南 — read なん (nan) in this word. It means "south".
• 都 — read と (to) in this word. It means "capital" or "metropolis". Together, 南都 (Nanto) means "the southern capital" — a traditional name for Nara, which was Japan's capital before it was moved to Kyoto. Nara lies south of Kyoto, hence "southern capital".
• 焼 — read やき (yaki), from the verb 焼く (yaku), "to burn". It means "burning" or "burn".
• 討 — read うち (uchi), from the verb 討つ (utsu), "to attack" or "to strike down". It means "attack" or "striking".

So 南都焼討 is literally "the burning and attacking of the southern capital" — the burning of Nara. The compound 焼討 (yakiuchi) combines "burn" and "attack" and is used for a raid in which buildings are put to the torch. The name records exactly what the Taira did: they did not occupy Nara, they burned it.

Key Figures

Taira no Shigehira (平重衡, たいらのしげひら) commanded the Taira force that burned Nara on 15 January 1181. He was a son of Taira no Kiyomori, the head of the Taira clan and the dominant figure in Japan at the outbreak of the Genpei War.

Prince Mochihito (以仁王, もちひとおう) was a son of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa. He issued the call to arms against the Taira in 1180. He was defeated and killed before the burning of Nara, and his rising set in motion the sequence of events that led to it.

Minamoto no Yorimasa (源頼政, みなもとのよりまさ) was the Minamoto leader who joined Prince Mochihito's rising. He was defeated and died alongside the prince, after which the Taira burned Miidera and moved on Nara.

Taira no Kiyomori (平清盛, たいらのきよもり) led the Taira clan during the opening phase of the Genpei War. He was the father of Taira no Shigehira, who carried out the burning of Nara.