The Genpei War: The Samurai War That Ended an Era

The Genpei War (1180-1185 CE) is one of the most important socio-political events in Japanese history. It brought an end to Japan’s Heian Era of classical antiquity and ushered in a new, feudalistic age in which Japan’s warrior families, known to us today as the samurai, began to take political control of the country. Beyond that, it left a massive cultural impact on the country’s society, with its colorful characters and dramatic events being immortalized in theater, literature, and artwork for centuries to come, with many of them remaining household names even today. This video is a long-form, documentary-style deep dive into this epic conflict, covering the historical lead-up, the war itself, and the half-dozen-or-so years of its immediate aftermath. I highly recommend watching it as the grand finale of my four-part series of videos on the history of the Heian Period!

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Prologue
0:49 Intro
3:44 ACT ONE: Taira no Kiyomori
11:21 Stormclouds
14:19 The Shishigatani Incident
17:24 Taira Takeover
21:10 Prince Mochihito’s Uprising
24:56 Capital Transfer
26:39 ACT TWO: Minamoto no Yoritomo
29:31 Yoritomo’s Rebellion
33:59 The Embarrassment at the Fuji River
38:15 Goodbye, Kiyomori
43:49 Hell on Earth
46:15 ACT THREE: Kiso Yoshinaka
51:37 Yoshinaka Triumphant
56:41 The Unraveling
59:32 ACT FOUR: Minamoto no Yoshitsune
1:02:56 Ichi no Tani
1:06:49 Yashima
1:10:30 Dan no Ura
1:16:32 Brothers’ War
1:25:26 Aftermath
1:28:52 Outro

Main Information Sources:
図説：平清盛 (樋口 州男・鈴木彰・錦昭江・野口華世)
源頼朝：東国を選んだ武家の貴公子（高橋 典幸）
京・鎌倉　ふたつの王権 (本郷 恵子)
武士の成長と院政（下向井龍彦）
歴史・文化ガイド：源義経の時代（奥富敬之）
平清盛：悪人か英雄か (Gakken Mook)
源平争乱：群雄ビジュアル百科（ポプラ社）
１日で読める平家物語（吉野敬介）
鎌倉幕府開幕：源頼朝（朝日カルチャーシリーズ）
図説：源平合戦人物伝（歴史群像シリーズ）
８００年の時を経て蘇る鴨長明「方丈記」時代の事件簿（Town Mook)
Intro Monologue stitched together from Tale of the Heike translations by Burton Watson, Royall Tyler, and A.L. Sadler

Music:
Intro/Outro beat produced by Buyuuden (me) using samples from “Tetegobashi” from Lone Wolf and Cub

Images from:
The Hayashibara Museum of Art’s Heike Monogatari Picture Scroll
The Umi-Mori Art Museum’s Hogen-Heiji Monogatari Picture Scroll
The Okada Museum of Art’s Heike Monogatari Folding Screen (One picture)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Google Earth
Some photos of out-of-copyright artwork from books I own

Public Domain Photos:

Graphics:

[BuyuudenJapaneseHistory]

There are a few tiny technical blips in the video, but after three days of overtaxing my tiny laptop with exports and re-exports, I decided this is as close to perfect as we're gonna get. Hope you guys enjoy the video, and thanks for watching!

[ts_classic]

As a Japanese and a history fan, this video was the most impressive thing I have EVER watched on youtube. I never expected a youtube video explaining japanese history this deep and effective. not only the knowledge but use of sources and capacity of summurising and retelling. Just amazing.
Thank you very much I really enjoyed and appreciate it.

[comfyactor]

Your use of drawings and maps from old sources is first-rate, your narrative expertly done. To anyone who wants to read Heike Monogatari (in any of its translations, or in the original), I strongly recommend watching this video a number of times.

[nujabeslistener]

Thanks! I now know
What Aoi Todo was referencing

[Shineon]

Thanks! This was incredibly fascinating. Great work. Subbed ❤

[aliwish]

Please, please, please keep making these videos! I was worried you stopped. I'd pay to watch these.

[tatamaksa]

If I had but a quarter of this man’s narrative skill, I could write a comment worthy of this stunning work.

But I don’t.
So I can’t.

All I can do is applaud and say “Bravo!”

[pickledblowfish]

This miiiight be the most underrated history channel on YouTube. Your stuff is great. Very high-quality writing, cozy narration, and excellent image selection. Very well done. You quickly became my "put on one I've seen before, as i fall asleep or do something" channel, if you know what i mean. Keep this up, and you'll be a youtube staple of this particular niche in no time.

[shaynedavidson]

Impressive, impressive! Your ability to make sense of this massive, complex story is quite amazing!

[strawberrycheesecake]

Once again, thank you for putting all of this effort into these videos. They really draw you into the past, with the way you follow these individual people, the different legends and bits about how the general population felt about what was happening. I had a great time following this story along.

[pyrodude]

I've never read such a detailed and interesting documentary about the Genpei war before. Thank You for your great job.👍👍👍

[IlyassZahid]

Thank you so much for this masterpiece!
I've been looking for a documentary about the Genpei War for so long, everything from soundtracks to maps and photos and voice narrator is on point 1h30min past so fast :D

[__Patrick]

Amazing job describing the Heian period of Japanese history. I feel so sad for many of the people in this story, but mostly for children, who deserved a better world than they lived in, during the time.

[danielchapman]

'It was as if to say, "Well, guess you won't be needing THIS anymore." '

I love the way you describe historical events in such a funny, relatable way. Wish you'd of been my history teacher.

[wfcoaker]

Watching thing for the umpteenth time. You tell a great story! Seriously, this video is very skillful storytelling. It's clear, engrossing, and informative. I know you're proud of this video, and you should be. I'm a 60 year old from Eastern North America, and I am very smug, thanks to you. I can be ever so knowoedgable about what my anime loving juniors are talking about. Lol. And I'm one of those old guys who likes to surprise young people wiyh my eccentricity. Lol. You and Linfamy have given me the tools to do that lol

[GOMBE]

I do appreciate the time and tremendous efforts you poured into for making this video available as usual. Apart from the academic history, I like the Genpei war and poor Yoshitsune's story as a sort of novel, so I enjoyed this video very much, recalling what I read repeatedly during my childhood. Thanks again.

[misterhiggledypiggle]

As soon as I saw the run time of this video I was excited! This was excellent, and I learnt so much about the history and legends of The Genpei war and late Heian/early Kamakura period. It's interesting that I already knew about the Battle of Dan-no-ura because of the Heikegani being mentioned in Carl Sagan's Cosmos documentary series, so it felt a bit like coming full circle to learn the full story. Can't wait for the next video!

[simonshah]

really great video, info, editing and music all top notch. Really appreciate as a westerner exposure to this information.

[harushinonomiya]

Great video, the rise and fall of the Taira (Heike) is my favorite part of Japanese history because the characters involved are so epic. Thank you very much for the video, it is very pleasant to see people striving to transmit and pass this story to the world. I felt your love for this content when you said you planned to tell this story from the very beginning of your channel.
This video added to the recent anime Heike Monogatari made me very happy. Maybe you think I'm an asshole, but I have a small observation: Emperor Go-Shirakawa's death should be approached with more drama (something kind of sad, because with him went the long but passionate Heian period). Once again, great video, I'm so glad I saw it. Finally, something that unites me a lot in this story is the fact that I am descended from Kumagai Naozane, the murderer of Atsumori; and even though I am his descendant, I find Atsumori's death immensely sad.

[Lenskee]

What a story! Watched it like a movie. Breathtaking narration, fantastic legends, especially the last one. Great, great video, sir. Keep up the good work!