Fujiwara no Motohira
Fujiwara no Motohira was the second ruler of Northern Fujiwara in Mutsu Province, the son of Fujiwara no Kiyohira and the father of Fujiwara no Hidehira. Fujiwara no Motohira is credited with expansion of the residence of Northern Fujiwara. In particular, he founded Mōtsū-ji, his wife built Kanjizaiō-in, adjacent to Motsu-ji. Both sites survived, though all the buildings from the Heian period were lost, are listed as constituents of a World Heritage Site, Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi, he expanded Chūson-ji, where he was buried, along with his father and his son
Tōhoku region
The Tōhoku region, Northeast region, or Northeast Japan consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures: Akita, Fukushima, Iwate and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains a reputation as a scenic region with a harsh climate. In the 20th century, tourism became a major industry in the Tōhoku region. In mythological times, the area was known as Azuma and corresponded to the area of Honshu occupied by the native Ainu; the area was the Dewa and the Michinoku regions, a term first recorded in Hitachi-no-kuni Fudoki. There is some variation in modern usage of the term "Michinoku". Tōhoku's initial historical settlement occurred between the seventh and ninth centuries, well after Japanese civilization and culture had become established in central and southwestern Japan; the last stronghold of the indigenous Emishi on Honshu and the site of many battles, the region has maintained a degree of autonomy from Kyoto at various times throughout history.
The haiku poet Matsuo Bashō wrote Oku no Hosomichi during his travels through Tōhoku. The region is traditionally known as a less developed area of Japan; the catastrophic 9.0-Magnitude earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, inflicted massive damage along the east coast of this region, killed 15,894 people and was the costliest natural disaster which left 500,000 people homeless along with radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Masamune, feudal lord of Date clan, expanded trade in the Tōhoku region. Although faced with attacks by hostile clans, he managed to overcome them after a few defeats and ruled one of the largest fiefdoms of the Tokugawa shogunate, he worked on many projects to beautify the region. He is known to have encouraged foreigners to come to his land. Though he funded and promoted an envoy to establish relations with the Pope in Rome, he was motivated at least in part by a desire for foreign technology, similar to that of other lords, such as Oda Nobunaga.
Further, once Tokugawa Ieyasu outlawed Christianity, Masamune reversed his position, though disliking it, let Ieyasu persecute Christians in his domain. For 270 years, Tōhoku remained a place of tourism and prosperity. Matsushima, for instance, a series of tiny islands, was praised for its beauty and serenity by the wandering haiku poet Matsuo Bashō, he showed sympathy for Christian traders in Japan. In addition to allowing them to come and preach in his province, he released the prisoner and missionary Padre Sotelo from the hands of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Date Masamune allowed Sotelo as well as other missionaries to practice their religion and win converts in Tōhoku; the most used subdivision of the region is dividing it to "North Tōhoku" consisting of Aomori and Iwate Prefectures and "South Tōhoku" consisting of Yamagata and Fukushima Prefectures. The population collapse of Tōhoku, which began before the year 2000, has accelerated, now including dynamic Miyagi. Despite this, Sendai City has grown due to the disaster.
The population collapse of Aomori and Akita Prefectures, Honshu's 3 northernmost, began in the early 1980s after an initial loss of population in the late 1950s. Fukushima Prefecture, prior to 1980, had traditionally been the most populated, but today Miyagi is the most populated and urban by far. Tōhoku, like most of Japan, is mountainous, with the Ōu Mountains running north-south; the inland location of many of the region's lowlands has led to a concentration of much of the population there. Coupled with coastlines that do not favor seaport development, this settlement pattern resulted in a much greater than usual dependence on land and rail transportation. Low points in the central mountain range make communications between lowlands on either side of the range moderately easy. Tōhoku was traditionally considered the granary of Japan because it supplied Sendai and the Tokyo-Yokohama market with rice and other farming commodities. Tōhoku provided 20 percent of the nation's rice crop; the climate, however, is harsher than in other parts of Honshū due to the stronger effect of the Siberian High, permits only one crop a year on paddy fields.
In the 1960s, steel, chemical and petroleum refining industries began developing. Designated citiesSendai Core citiesIwaki Koriyama Akita Morioka Aomori Hachinohe Other citiesAizuwakamatsu Daisen Date Fukushima Goshogawara Hachimantai Hanamaki Higashimatsushima Higashine Hirakawa Hirosaki Ichinoseki Ishinomaki Iwanuma Kakuda Kamaishi Kaminoyama Katagami Kazuno Kesennuma Kitaakita Kitakami Kitakata Kuji Kurihara Kuroishi Minamisōma Misawa Miyako Motomiya Murayama Mutsu Nagai Nan'yō Natori Nihonmatsu Nikaho Ninohe Noshiro Obanazawa Oga Ōdate Ōfunato Ōsaki Ōshū Rikuzentakata Sagae Sakata Semboku Shinjō Shiogama Shirakawa Shiroishi Sōma Sukagawa Tagajō Takizawa Tamura Tendō Tome Tomiya Tōno Towada Tsugaru Tsuruoka Yamagata Yokote Yonezawa Yurihonjō Yuzawa Mount Bandai Three Mountains of Dewa Hakkōda Mountains Mount Hayachine Mount Iwaki Lake Tazawa Lake Towada Kitakami River Oirase River Valley the islands of Matsushima Bay Mount Osore Sanriku Coastline Bandai-Asahi National Park Miss Veedol Beach Rikuchu Kaigan National Park Towada-Hachimantai National Park 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami 2006 Kuril Islands earthquake Geography of Japan Tōhoku dialect List of regions in Japan Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth..
Japan encyclopedia. Cambr
Fujiwara no Hidehira
Fujiwara no Hidehira was the third ruler of Northern Fujiwara in Mutsu Province, the grandson of Fujiwara no Kiyohira. During the Genpei War, he controlled his territory independently of the central government, he offered shelter to the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune. For many years, Hidehira was Yoshitsune's benefactor and protector, it was from Hidehira's territory that Yoshitsune joined his brother at the start of the Genpei War; when Yoshitsune incurred his brother Minamoto no Yoritomo's wrath, he returned to Hiraizumi, lived undisturbed for a time. Yoshitsune was still Hidehira's guest when the latter died in 1187. Hidehira had his son, Fujiwara no Yasuhira, promise to continue to shelter Yoshitune and his retainer Benkei, but Yasuhira gave in to Yoritomo and surrounded the castle with his troops, forcing Yoshitsune to commit seppuku and resulting in the famous standing death of Benkei. Yasuhira had Yoshitsune's head preserved in a jar of sake and sent to Yoritomo; this did nothing to appease him, Yoritomo destroyed the Fujiwara domain and killed Yasuhira, son of Hidehira in 1189.
According to legend Hidehira was raised by wolves
Hiraizumi, Iwate
Hiraizumi is a town located in Nishiiwai District, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. As of 31 July 2017, the town had an estimated population of 7,803 and a population density of 123 persons per km² in 2,648 households; the total area of the town was 63.39 km². It is noted for the Historic Monuments and Sites of Hiraizumi, which achieved UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2011. Hiraizumi is the smallest municipality in Iwate Prefecture in terms of area. Located in a basin in south-central Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu, the town is surrounded by the Kitakami Mountains. Iwate Prefecture Ichinoseki Ōshū Hiraizumi has a humid climate characterized by mild summers and cold winters; the average annual temperature in Hiraizumi is 10.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1265 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month; the temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.4 °C, lowest in January, at around -1.9 °C. Per Japanese census data, the population of Hiraizumi has declined over the past 40 years.
The area of present-day Hiraizumi was part of ancient Mutsu Province. It was the home of the Northern Fujiwara clan for about 100 years in the late Heian era, during which time it served as the de facto capital of Ōshū, an area containing nearly a third of the Japanese land area. At its height the population of Hiraizumi reached 50,000 or more than 100,000, rivaling Kyoto in size and splendor; the first structure built in Hiraizumi may have been Hakusan Shrine on top of Mount Kanzan. A writer in 1334 recorded that the shrine was 700 years old. Although rebuilt many times, the same shrine is still standing in the same location. In about 1100, Fujiwara no Kiyohira moved his home from Fort Toyoda in present-day Esashi, in the city of Ōshū to Mount Kanzan in Hiraizumi; this location was significant for several reasons. Kanzan is situated at the junction of the Kitakami and the Koromo. Traditionally the Koromo River served as the boundary between Japan to the south and the Emishi peoples to the north.
By building his home south of the Koromo, Kiyohira demonstrated his intention to rule Ōshū without official sanction from the court in Kyoto. Kanzan was directly on the Ōshū Kaidō, the main road leading from Kyoto to the northern lands as they opened up. Kanzan was seen as the exact center of Ōshū which stretched from the Shirakawa Barrier in the south to Sotogahama in present-day Aomori Prefecture. Kiyohira built the large temple complex known as Chūson-ji; the first structure was a large pagoda at the top of the mountain. In conjunction with this, he placed small umbrella reliquaries every hundred meters along the Ōshū kaidō decorated with placards depicting Amida Buddha painted in gold. Other pagodas and gardens followed including the Konjiki-dō, a jewel box of a building intended to represent the Buddhist Pure Land and the final resting place of the Fujiwara lords. Hiraizumi's golden age lasted for nearly 100 years, it was destroyed in 1189, after the fall of the Fujiwara clan, the town sank back into relative obscurity, most of the buildings that gave the town its cultural prominence were destroyed.
When the poet Matsuo Bashō saw the state of the town in 1689 he penned a famous haiku about the impermanence of human glory: Natsukusa ya! / Tsuwamono-domo ga / yume no ato Ah, summer grasses! / All that remains / Of the warriors' dreams. Modern Hiraizumi village was created on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the post-Meiji restoration municipality system. Hiraizumi was raised to town status on October 1, 1953, it annexed neighboring Nagashima village on April 15, 1955. The town lost some land to the city of Ichinoseki on September 1, 1956, again on May 1, 1964; the local economy is based on tourism. Hiraizumi has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by the town government; the town does not have a high school. East Japan Railway Company - Tōhoku Main Line Hiraizumi Tōhoku Expressway – Chusonji PA – Hiraizumi-Maezawa IC Japan National Route 4 China – Tiantai County, Zhejiang Province, China – friendship city since 2010 Hiraizumi has a number of listed National Treasures and other culturally or notable sites.
Chūson-ji, including the Konjikidō Golden Hall Mōtsū-ji with a'Pure Land' style Jōdo Garden The ruins of Kanjizaiō-in with its'Pure Land' style Jōdo Garden The ruins of Muryōkō-in Takkoku no Iwaya Bishamon chapel Takadachi Gikeidō Yanagi-no-Gosho Palace Site Media related to Hiraizumi, Iwate at Wikimedia Commons Official website
Imperial Court in Kyoto
The Imperial Court in Kyoto was the nominal ruling government of Japan from 794 AD until the Meiji period, after which the court was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo and integrated into the Meiji government. The shogunate system came after the Imperial Court, with Minamoto no Yoritomo being the first to establish the post of the shōgun as hereditary, in 1192. Since Minamoto no Yoritomo launched the shogunate, true power was in the hand of the shōguns, who were mistaken several times for the Emperors of Japan by western countries. Five regent houses Heian Palace Kyoto Gosho
