Taira Masakado The First Samurai

A shadow emerges from the flames atop a horse. Digging his feet into the stirrups, he burns like a crazed dragon, over the corpses of his enemies and their houses. Before long, all of Japan will know the name of Taira Masakado, the greatest warrior in the realm, a New Emperor for a new era. And all of this could have been avoided.

Masakado was born in 903 CE, a great-grandson of Emperor Kammu, and a member of the powerful Taira clan. To ease the royal coffers, his grandfather, Prince Takamochi, renounced his royal lineage and settled in the eastern Kanto plain – the fertile lowland surrounding modern Tokyo – where his sons rapidly became powerful landowners. While the state had once held a monopoly on land, now most was privately owned – by temples, shrines, individuals and local clans.

Due to high imperial taxes, most peasants preferred to work for private landowners – who, with property disputes on the rise, armed them with spears and taught them archery, hunting and horse riding. Among the new class of private landowners were absent noblemen, living the high life in the capital of Heian, or modern Kyoto, retired governors who had settled in their former postings, and local clans with historic roots to their