East Asia · Fragmentation, Song and the conquest dynasties
Northern Fujiwara
c. 1087–1189
The Northern Fujiwara (Ōshū Fujiwara; c. 1087–1189) were a warrior-noble family who ruled the Tōhoku region (Mutsu and Dewa) of northern Japan as a semi-independent realm from Hiraizumi (Iwate). Founded by Fujiwara no Kiyohira (1056–1128), of mixed Japanese-Emishi parentage (son of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo), after the Later Three-Year War.
- Existed
- c. 1087–1189
- Shown on the map
- 1094–1191
- Peak area
- 45k km²
- Region
- East Asia
Overview
The Northern Fujiwara (Ōshū Fujiwara; c. 1087–1189) were a warrior-noble family who ruled the Tōhoku region (Mutsu and Dewa) of northern Japan as a semi-independent realm from Hiraizumi (Iwate). Founded by Fujiwara no Kiyohira (1056–1128), of mixed Japanese-Emishi parentage (son of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo), after the Later Three-Year War. Their wealth came from gold mining, horse trading, and acting as middlemen in trade in luxury goods from continental Asia and the northern Emishi. Under Kiyohira, Motohira, and Hidehira the clan reached its zenith, introducing Kyoto culture and building magnificent temples—most famously Chūson-ji (founded 1095) with its gold-leafed Konjikidō—now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Neutral in the Genpei War, they fell when Hidehira's son Yasuhira, pressured over sheltering the fugitive Minamoto no Yoshitsune, was destroyed by Minamoto no Yoritomo at the Battle of Ōshū (1189).
Common questions
- What was Northern Fujiwara?
- The Northern Fujiwara (Ōshū Fujiwara; c. 1087–1189) were a warrior-noble family who ruled the Tōhoku region (Mutsu and Dewa) of northern Japan as a semi-independent realm from Hiraizumi (Iwate). Founded by Fujiwara no Kiyohira (1056–1128), of mixed Japanese-Emishi parentage (son of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo), after the Later Three-Year War.
- When did Northern Fujiwara exist?
- Northern Fujiwara existed c. 1087–1189. On this map it is drawn 1094–1191.
- How large was Northern Fujiwara?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Northern Fujiwara covered about 45,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Northern Fujiwara en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Fujiwara
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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