The Heike Story

by Eiji Yoshikawa

First published 1950

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3.7(16)

Taira no Kiyomori raises his clan to unprecedented power at the imperial court, but the political order he builds creates resentments that spread through aristocratic and warrior society. As rival branches of the Minamoto recover from defeat, family ambitions, court factions and personal loyalties pull Japan towards the Genpei War.

Yoshikawa reshapes the material of The Tale of the Heike into a modern historical novel, moving between court politics, military households, romances and battle. The rise and fall of the Taira becomes both a dynastic tragedy and an account of the transition from aristocratic rule towards the warrior government established by Minamoto no Yoritomo.