go-sannen

Updated: May 21, 2025

The spectacle of this renowned soldier giving instruction in the art of music to the son of his deceased teacher on moonlit nights as he travelled towards the battlefield, has always appealed strongly to Japanese conception of a perfect samurai, and has been the motive of many a picture. This Go-sannen struggle furnished also another topic for frequent pictorial representation.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

It is easy to comprehend that in the Kwanto it became a common saying, "Better serve the Minamoto than the sovereign." Fujiwara Kiyohira, who is mentioned above as having espoused the cause of the Minamoto in the Go-sannen, was descended from Hidesato, the conqueror of Masakado. After the Go-sannen outbreak he succeeded to the six districts of Mutsu which had been held by the insurgent chiefs.

F. (Frank) Brinkley - A History of the Japanese People : From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era