Heiji Rebellion

1160

A palace coup in Kyoto drew the Taira and Minamoto warrior clans into open battle in the streets. Taira no Kiyomori won, executing his Minamoto rivals but sparing a boy named Yoritomo. The spared child would topple Kiyomori's house twenty years later. The rebellion's aftermath was immortalized in the Heiji Monogatari scroll paintings, among the finest narrative artworks of medieval Japan.