The land of beauty -A Hiraizumi Fujiwara campaign in ROTS .

[Owlparrot3]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

200 turns for 4 per year and starting in 1175 .To all moderators -Some parts of this chapter are from official description in game .Description of Hiraizumi Fujiwara is framed by the author from Wikipedia .

(Link to map)


Chapter 1 .

It was a very simple period, a primal period. Japan was beautiful and untouched then. The birds still played among the cherry blossoms and the waves of the blue seas still crashed on the sullen shores .
The people lived simply. The largest settlements of the time were nothing more than the smallest villages of today .


The core of a typical settlement consisted of just a small lord's mansion. Not a castle mind you. A small wooden mansion with multiple floors.The only building with multiple floors for miles around. This was surrounded by huts. Houses, utility places, and other huts.


This was further surrounded by farms and on the horizon loomed the forests and wildlands beyond which were the huge mountains or the silent seas .



Thus in those times of yore when nature ruled over man and dominated him in every aspect, humanly politics hardly mattered. Every small village was surrounded with forest and wildlands for miles on all sides, and so maintaining central authority was an impossible task for the emperor in faroff Kyoto. Thus, every chief was emperor in his own territory.
Power was concentrated into the hands of Daimyos and their armies of locals and tribesmen(The Samurai as a separate class was yet to emerge). Due to all this, anyone wanting to expand his power beyond the boundaries of his birthplace was seen as either mad or legendary .

The era was known collectively as the Heain period after the capital city(Another name for Kyoto). By no means did the emperor have as much power in this period as they say. While there were no Shogun nor Samurai, there were other constraints to his power,. These constraints most notably the ambitions of mighty families and clans. Three families in particular became so powerful that they were no longer seen as just clans or warlords. No, the Taira, Minamoto, and Fujiwara were slowly turning into political institutions themselves, with all the major and minor clans over Japan pledging their alliance to at least one of them.

These families were already heavily involved in the politics at both, the capital and the rest of the land and thus a delicate balance was established between them. So when the Taira made their move to interfere in the succession of the imperial princes, that balance was shattered and war broke out. It was called the Genpei war.




The Fujiwara were great, once. They could be great again. Educated, urbane, sophisticated and worldly, they were consummate courtiers and scholars, and had the ear of the emperor in all matters. They ruled from the shadows, with influence over the emperor, and over the upbringing of many imperial heirs. For that matter, the mothers of many imperial offspring were Fujiwara ladies.


All of that power slowly slipped away from the family after the coronation of the Emperor Go-Sanjo; his mother was not a Fujiwara. The northern and southern halves of the family quarrelled, and the quarrel became virtually open warfare. The “Hogen Disturbance” when the Fujiwara tried, and failed, to impose their choice of imperial heirs did not help their fortunes at all. The Fujiwara star was eclipsed by the power of other families, the Minamoto and the Taira. To the wider world their reduced position looked secure, but the Fujiwara leadership retired from politics, concentrating instead on their lands, the arts, and literature.

The Hiraizumi Fujiwara were also known as the northern Fujiwara. During the 12th Century, at the zenith of their rule, they attracted a number of artisans from Kyoto and created a capital city, Hiraizumi, in what is now Iwate Prefecture. They ruled over an independent region that derived its wealth from gold mining, horse trading and as middlemen in the trade in luxury items from continental Asian states and from the far northern Emishi and Ainu people. They were able to keep their independence vis-a-vis Kyoto by the strength of their warrior bands. By the time of the Genpei war, they were now the most optimistic among the elites to gain back the lost power of the Fujiwara family .

War had now come and on the throne was the resourceful but aging leader Fujiwara Hidehira.

Fujiwara Hidehira .This distinctive style of painting portrait effectively disguised old age in great men .He was born in 1122

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This last paragraph is from Wikipedia .

[theSilentKiller]

Sweet, a new TWS2 AAR, and a ROTS too! I like the time period, it's rather unexplored and has a fresh feeling to it. Looking forward to seeing what you'll do with this.

[Owlparrot3]

Thanks very much for commenting my man .Please continue to do so .Comments help a person like me to write better .

[Owlparrot3]

Chapter 2 .

"I have you surrounded so" scowled Hidehira with a look of triumph in his eyes. His son Kunihira, handsome and sharp had no words to say. They had been playing a game of Igo in their palace in Miyagi and his father had completely eliminated him. To celebrate his win, the father took another great swig of the drink. For a moment he was silent and then with a great sigh he collapsed onto the floor.

"FATHER" shouted Kunihira .

The servants immediately called help. But by then his father seemed to have opened his eyes and recovered.
The servants came in and pressed Hidehira's legs.

Five minutes later they were gone and once again only son and father remained in the room.

"You should really control the drink my lord, or else one of these days it may poison you" said Kunihira .

Hidehira however wasn't listening to him, his gaze had gone out of the window beyond the small town of Miyagi and beyond to the great hills which separated his cousin Kubota from his realm.Evening was creeping in and he sighed. Then suddenly he remarked "How weak i have become" .
Kunihira knew well enough not to comment on this statement in any way. Ever since his right hand had had to be cut off due to some unknown disease 2 and a half years ago, Hidehira had become immensly depressed.

Not to say that he was weak, he had improvised on the situation. His left hand had no thumb due to some battle of old. So he instead with the help of a very talented local artisan, made a very intriguing invention which allowed him to join his sword directly to his hand in battle. As a result, he could swing his right hand or what remained of it and inflict a deadly sword cut on whatever enemy was brave enough to reach his person through his band of ferocious bodyguards .

Fujiwara Kunihira .

Alone in his room that evening, Hidehira thought and thought. He had observed how his son had not reacted when he had complained of his arm. His son was now becoming responsible. Hidehira could clearly see the making of a good heir.

The sun had now gone down. It was a moonless night. Looking out of the window was now useless. All that he could see outside was the dark mountain. There were some occasional light from the outpost, the iron mine or some small settlement. Beyond that was the dark and imposing mountain. The beautiful thing was that, at one point of the very horizon, on the very peak of the mountain, the earth and heavens seemed to dissolve into a black mass, a void, as if the world seemed to end at that point. Hidehira could feel it in his veins now. Yes the time had come, but before that, he would go with a bang .



'The Edict of Kunihira' as it would be known ever since was not the spectacular event that historians say. Kunihira was of a new breed of Japanese nobility who believed that order came before personal liberties and that a true soldier must always choose honour before everything else.
That death was a small price to pay for honour. Such thoughts had of course existed in Japan before this time, but it was the 'Edict of Kunihira' that finalized and properly framed it. Kunihira started writing it in early 1175 and probably finished it a few months later. Thus the clan now started researching Bushido ideas.



However Kunihira was not without his own vices. For one, he was brash and intolerant to Buddhists. He was an even stauncher conservationist than his father and he hated to see the clan's power diminished. He was in private life, an extremely short tempered man and as some pesants said, he was 'Cruel' . But above all, his mouth was not sealed in the bond of diplomacy. One fine day in late 1175, the spy Kuninobu reported to Hidehira that Kunihira was openly making statements about conquering Fukushima to some merchants of the Soma clan. It took Hidehira's cool mind and sweet tonguye to please to them. While war with the Soma was apparent on the horizon, this was not something to brag about.

According to Hidehira, war was never something to brag about. It was painful and tragic, and while it was the duty of a general to fight war, it was also his duty to prevent unnecessary war, though Hidehira knew that this one could not be prevented.
Hidehira always said 'War is sweet to those who have never experienced it'. It was now the time to teach this to his son.

By 1176, tensions with the Soma had reached their nadir. The Soma were among the most loyal supporters of the Taira. In early 1176, Hidehira made one last attempt to take them to the Fujiwara side by offering a rich bribe, but the Soma did not accept. When they refused, Hidehira declared war.
But now the question was, who would fight this war, everyone knew that Kunihira was like a volcano waiting to burst and there were many young nobles who wanted Kunihira to succeed his father before the latter's death. All of a sudden, Hidehira now had to prove his ability to command the people for a second time. But he was no loser, he immediately made it public that it would be him and not his son who would fight, the loud cheer of the people in the courtyard of the castle in Miyagi after his declaration felt good.

The campaign itself turned out to be a failure in terms of pre planning. The Fujiwara army raided farm, destroyed dirt roads, killed travelers all summer and Autumn hoping to draw the Soma forces out of their castle, but their leader, Soma Jobi, an over defensive man, resisted all attempts made by his advisers ad family members to persuade him to march out.

Finally, in winter, Hidehira marched straight on to Fukushima and attacked it, the time to draw the sword had come.

[Owlparrot3]

Chapter 3 .

In spring 1177, Jobi finally sallied out. Soma had a 100 men more than the Fujiwara under his command, however, the Fujiwara troops had been better trained. Both armies consisted of purely infantry, the only troops on horses were the bodyguards of both the generals. The battle of Fukushima would be a bloody one.

Fukushima was located on a small hill, as a result, artists exaggerated it the 'Battle of the hill' .

vs

(Soma),*5,*4................VS.............(Fujiwara), ,*3,*4

There was a thin off season fog on the day, a signal of good for some, bad for others. Unknown to Hidehira, many of the Soma men had rebelled the previous week and had been disbanded and chained so now he had the numerical advantage.

The battle itself started at noon when the fog was at its minimal. Like all battles of those old times, they began with a standard approach, archers sallied forward, in this case uphill to fire at enemy archers.

Now in here the contest seemed unfair, the Soma archers had the advantage of height while their Fujiwara counterparts had none. But an interesting fact about Fukushima negated this advantage very slightly, Fukushima, unknown to contemporary Japanese, used to be the site of an old proto Shinto Honshu grave shrine. When the Honshu were eliminated from the region, the shrine was never pulled off just because nobody bothered to do so, now Soma asked his men to fire their arrows with low height and high speed rather than over their heads, like a child throwing a ball straight rather than throwing it like a sport. As a result, the stones and the small fog and the low height negated about half of this advantage. Still casualties were still severe and finally Hidehira gave the order to to his Naginata levies to march ahead. The climb uphill was riddled with kills by the Soma arrows, but it allowed the Fujiwara archers some respite.

In the resulting clash, which should have been even, the Fujiwara had one single devastating advantage, they had one troop of me armed with swords which the Soma lacked entirely, these few hard men could go under the Soma naginatas and destroy their brigades. The move worked and in vicious hand to hand combat, the Soma ultimately lost their morale though it was a close call for the Fujiwara as well.

Finally, Hidehira ordered his infantry to surround the palace of Jobi. It was then that he received a shock, Bushido still wasn't a style back in those times as later, it appeared that Soma Jobi had managed to escape the town itself in the confusion and would have entirely escaped the field and survived to join his Taira patrons had it not been for a few retreating Naginata soldiers who seeing him outside town gained back their morale and persuaded him to fight back again. For some time, the battle took heat again, Hidehira himself fought off atleast 7 to 8 people(Referring to him and his bodyguards, not his person). However a well taunt string and a sharp eye proved to be his demise, Jobi was hit in the mouth by a fatal arrow which punctured his face bones. He did survive for 4 more minutes before being hacked to death by an unknown Fujiwara soldier.

A painting of Jobi's last stand. He is at the upper left side. Notice the fatal arrow approaching him. Two rather than one.

The battle had been won and Hidehira did not allow any men to escape, he tracked the fleeing men down and killed or captured as many as he could, due to that his infantry men who had remained in town ignored his orders and burnt down the Soma palace.

Still it was a close victory which would have easily gone astray had the Fujiwara had not had swordsmen and better archery.

The final results were thus, Fujiwara had lost 766 men out of 1856,
The Soma had lost all of their 1103 men(Remember the men who had been disbanded did not fight) .

The aftermath was not that bad, Hidehira returned in time and the rest of the village was spared of looting so people said that he had peacefully occupied it !

[Alwyn]

Like theSilentKiller, I am interested in this time period, before the Shogun and samurai.

In your first post, you commented that the final paragraph came from Wikipedia. It's good that you gave credit for your source. I suggest either writing descriptions in your own words or, if you are quoting, adding quotation marks to show which text you're quoting.

I'll wonder will happen at the battle of Fukushima, will better training or superior numbers prevail?

[Owlparrot3]

Like theSilentKiller, I am interested in this time period, before the Shogun and samurai.

In your first post, you commented that the final paragraph came from Wikipedia. It's good that you gave credit for your source. I suggest either writing descriptions in your own words or, if you are quoting, adding quotation marks to show which text you're quoting.

I'll wonder will happen at the battle of Fukushima, will better training or superior numbers prevail?

Thanks so much for commenting man .I am gonna do the battle of Fukushima soon .I love that you love this time period and my AAR .Having someone loving your work is a unique feeling which you have given me since the first time you posted on my 'Rebirth of Papal control' AAR .Thanks so much for that man .

About quotations - Yeah, unfortunately, i found this out the hard way(A couple of months back)...................if you know what i mean .
Hence the cautious approach .

[Owlparrot3]

Chapter 4 .

While his father was out on conquest, Kunihira wasn't silent. His father's tact had proven to be right, put into the forefront of civil matters, Kunihira's diplomatic and managament skills also flowered like his military skills. During his one year tenure, Kunihira constructed fields, built roads, empowered the navy and spread the net of agents deep into enemy territory. Miyagi slowly started developing more and more into an actual town under him.

Hidehira must have been pleasantly surprised when he came back to Miyagi. Kunihira had developed it a lot.

During this time he also continued to write relentlessly, he wrote so many books that they say "The Korean merchants of paper took bags of gold coins with them back home". He wrote another lengthy edict on honour and how a warrior should behave, one of those edicts was specifically based on how an archer should function as a part of the war machine. It was during this time, that the first steps towards developing the ideal soldier, the Samurai emerged though such units were still the future.

Kunihira busy at work.

During this time, he also began to take the other pleasures of life. He had never loved his wife Misako much primarily because she was a Kubota, Kunihira always viewved them as traitors, however in mid 1177 he surprised everyone by naming her as an honorary member of his special bodyguard unit .
While judging by the fact that they had no son at this time, their relations were still minimal, it appeared that their love was finally flowering.



It was one of his father's diplomats that broke him the news in winter 1177. The unholy alliance between the lesser Kubota and the Hiraizumi was now at an end. The reason was due to a Taira plot.

Apparently a Taira diplomat come to the court of Kubota and asked him which family was superior.

To this Kubota had obviously replied "Kubota".

To this then the Taira agent asked "Then why keep pretences with that lesser family" .

Thus, Kubota angrily lashed out that the alliance was over .

Its reported that Kunihira laughed, this was the opportunity that he had been waiting for.



When something breaks, something else fixes, with Kubota out of the way, the Amakasu clan of Echijo immediately declared their support to the Hiraizumi Fujiwara.

The settlement of Echijo.

Kunihira had not wait long, in mid Autumn, the traitorous Kubota declared open war. Worse, three Hiraizumi trade caravans in Kubota had been put to death and their heads arrived a day after their bodies. While Kunihira had lashed out in Miyagi like he always did, speaking about how the Kubota dogs had been traitorous from the moment they were born and how the Hiraizumi were the superior clan, in Fukushima, his father had a different reaction.

After the Kubota diplomat left, Hidehira looked out from the window. The fog had came faster this time and nothing much could be seen beyond the trees in the courtyard of the now restored palace, he simply remarked to his attendants "How can the Kubota harbour such ill will against us, they who are our brothers?"

The dark fog harbouring the dark ambitions of dark men.


Three days later Hidehira, his army battle tested and ready, marched out to invade the Fujiwara.

Blood smelled salty and bad, but to a warrior, it was nectar. Hidehira couldn't agree less, he was experiencing it first hand. Like a majestic river it spurted out from his cheek down to his aging neck and from there on to his thick green robes. For a second he just stared down at that majesty before his throat finally recovered, he was about to shout when the same was done by a young soldier on the sideline,

"AMBUSH" he cried out.




Within a minute, scores of Kubota horsemen had attacked the Hiraizumi army in that small crammed mountain pass. Left and right soldiers were dying all around him. Then suddenly like a swarm of summer bees, arrows fell upon them, hundreds of them, even as he watched, Hidehira's three bravest bodyguards simply crashed down to the ground with their lifeless horses running amok among his ranks.

Hidehira unsheathed his sword, it was time to fight. After two more dead bodyguards, one man finally reached him, he was on horseback, but unlike Hidehira's wounded horse, his was fresh, the man held a Naginata in his young hands. Hidehira quickly started thinking, looking how an old warrior like him, armed with a sword could take down this brute.

Suddenly the brute swung his Naginata with full force, it connected right on Hidehira's chest and he fell down from his horse. With all hope gone, Hidehira awaited his final meeting with the immortals when to his astonishment his mind realized one thing, it wasn't the Naginata's blade that had hit him, he had only been hit by the support staff under it.

Like an animal, Hidehira leapt up from the ground and thrust his sword in the brute from between his hands. The brute had no defence as Hidehira's removed the sword from his stomach brutally dismembering his body. With a heavy thud, he fell down with his Naginata. But Hidehira had only one brief window of opportunity to survey the grisly scene of the battle before another man, an enemy came up to him, this man it appeared was not interested in close quarters fighting, he simply charged at Hidehira brutally, it took just side swing from the latter to send this rash cavalryman crashing to the ranks of Hiraizumi guards who cut him down, Hidehira chuckled.

All around him, cavalrymen and infantrymen were fighting with enemy cavalrymen, while the initial shock had been bad for his men, they had recovered, unknown to Hidehira, a Fujiwara archer had slain the head cavalry officer of the enemy army second only to their general and this had been a huge blow to the enemy's morale. Then all of a sudden, another trumpet was sounded in front of them, it was the Kubota infantrymen, apparently, the Kubota wanted to finish it all here and then.

Another arrow hit Hidehira, this time on the knee, he scowled in pain, by then however, his bodyguards had managed to reach him. The enemy infantrymen had now resorted to charging and firing tactics.



Then yet another arrow hit him, this time in the stomach.

Then all went black.

When he woke up, Hidehira was lying near some brown autumn leaves. His men were fighting like bravehearts now and Hidehira ignored the pleas of the soldier(Who was administering medical aid to him) and tried to stand up, with a scowl of pain he fell down to the ground. He tried to stand up again, nope.

His men had slowly managed to turn the tide of battle by now, the enemy general had already retreated and his infantrymen and archers were covering him.

Hidehira was unable to bear the queerness of the whole scene, on one hand his men were winning, on the other, he was, despite his best tries, unable to stand up to join them. He tried twice more to wake up, but no, his stomach burned like the pits of hell. After three more tries, he went black again.

That day,
The Fujiwara lost 687 out of 1153 men
The Kubota scoundrels lost 913 out of 1168, their ambush having turned on them because of the cowardliness of their general.

[Kilo11]

Hey mad orc, the storytelling here is nice, and you taking the pains to set it apart from the general feel of Rome and Medieval is cool (no big cities, different cultural/political layout, less ambition, etc.). I think the main things to be improved are the "nuts and bolts" of the writing, getting the phrasing a bit cleaner and polishing up the way things sound (as always, I mean sound literally; the cadence of speech is an important part of any communication if you want it to be effective). Given that, I'm gonna provide you comments by making general suggestions/observations about a section, then closing that section of your text in a contentbox and editing it within, so that you can see all the changes and suggestions, but so that my post isn't as long as your original one (I don't want to spam your AAR page). Things I think should be deleted I'll mark red and things I add I'll mark blue. Let me know if this method is working for you, and if you find the comments at all helpful. Anyway, here we go!

Setting the scene

The setting here is very nice, but your use of simple modifiers (e.g. "very") detracts from the feel of it. Modifiers are good (but not necessary), but you want to make sure you're using ones which fit the tone of your writing for a specific piece. Given that you're highlighting simplicity here, I'd suggest removing them entirely, and making your writing mirror the society you want to capture. It was a very simple period, and primal period. Japan was very beautiful and untouched then. The birds still played among the cherry blossoms and the waves of the blue seas still crashed on the sullen shores . The people lived simply. The biggest largest settlements of the time were nothing better more than any of the smallest villages of today . The core of a typical settlement consisted of just a small lord's mansion. [This is not true. The settlement consisted of more than just the lord's mansion. I take it you mean the core or heart of the settlement was just the mansion, but you should make this clear] Not a castle mind you. A small wooden mansion with multiple floors.The only building with multiple floors for miles around. This was surrounded by huts. Houses, utility places, and other huts. This was further surrounded by farms and on the horizon loomed the forests and wildlands beyond which were the huge mountains or the silent seas .

Hmm... I was planning on going through the whole first post, but it takes a lot longer than I expected to do editing on here (no comment feature, no ability to strike through text, no automatic highlighting of changes). If what I've posted so far is of use, and you'd like more of the same, shoot me a pm and we can try to sort out a somewhat easier method for me to comment it.

[Owlparrot3]

Impressive. I can't believe you are going to such lengths to help me.
Please continue on. I don't mind if my AAR page gets washed or spammed or whatever up.
I just wish for more.
Very very very good my man and +rep.

[Owlparrot3]

Chapter 5.

The chill had set in. Kunihira's hands had almost frozen. The war with the Kubota had came to a standstill. All the mountain passes through which either army could attack the other had become impassable. Yes, it was indeed Kunihira who was leading the forces now. His father, wounded too much at the battle of Senpiko pass had to be taken back to Miyagi. All of a sudden Kunihira had gotten the chance to prove himself first hand. Without the restrictive gaze of the elders back in Miyagi and without his father, Kunihira felt a new kind of freedom that he had never felt before.

The soldiers had been skeptical at first about their new commander, however he had proved himself to his men by leading them to twin victories against Buddhist rebels with the help of a Kubota advance force. Yes, such was the hatred for Buddhism among the Fujiwara that they had agreed to unite against those rebels. After all, religion came first, family differences later.

A painting showing a Buddhist statue collapsing to the ground.


Worse, the Buddhist also kept slaves, when Kunihira liberated some of them, he found out that one chap made such excellent bows that they were rumoured to last for a 100 years. After testing his skills, Kunihira immediately appointed him as his chief Bowyer.

Meanwhile, a very glorious development took place down south, the Satake clan of Hitachi weakened by civil war and economically pushed down by Taira politics acknowledged its allegiance to the Fujiwara. Hidehira, still from his bed side, gladly accepted their allegiance and sent a small army to secure the province to appease its insecure leader.
This however was not digested well by either the Taira or the emperor himself(Who by this time was nothing more than a Taira puppet), however the Minamoto lord was said to have chuckled.

"WHY HASN'T Kunihira marched ahead yet" shouted Hidehira to the diplomat(Kunihira's). It was early 1178 and Hidehira's fury was enough to burn down the crisp clear vegetation that was growing in this beautiful spring. However, his son's inexperience was showing off so clearly. Despite the end of winter, Kunihira hadn't attacked Uzen yet.

The frightened diplomat replied "My lord, your son says that the Kubota have pulled back from the mountain passes and his army needs some repleni.....................

"What foolishness, what impudence, how can he disregard my command so easily, I hadn't asked him to do as he pleased, it was my order to attack Uzen "

"Yes, sir but he..........................

"Go and tell him that orders are meant to be followed, I am his lord first, father later, I need him to attack Uzen immediately"

"Yes lord"

"You may leave"

The diplomat reporting back to Kunihira.


Kunihira couldn't quite decide if summer was good or bad. On one hand, the heat was piercing him like a thousand needles, on the other, which heir wouldn't feel happy seeing the lands so full of prosperity from the harvest, which man wouldn't like to see nature in all its majesty, the birds chirping, the animals running, the sky opening up with the white clouds. Nature always beats man.
He now found himself at the very location where his father had been at autumn last year, thankfully, not only did he have a rich net of spies operating ahead, but the Kubota were up to no mischief this time around.

He shuddered to think what would have happened if he had been with his father in person, judging by that diplomat's excited account of his father's legendary anger and savageness, not very pleasant.

While still in his deep thoughts, an excited looking man was brought before him by his guards.

"This man claims to know some information about the region up ahead" said the head guard.

"What is it my good man?" asked Kunihira.

"I am Kuna, i lead a pack of hunters, when me and my men were doing our job in the hills a few miles from here, we saw a group of men holding the standard of your family, we tried to stay out of their way, but unfortunately, having grown suspicious of us, they caught us and asked about us, after everything had been sorted out, i realized that these men were part of an advance party of a larger army sent to attack Uzen by your father, they were led by ..........................your borther Tadahira!" said the man .

"Amazing, so my father has decided to punish me by letting my 18 year old kid brother lead another army?"

"You may go my man" said Kunihira. Then he shouted to the guards "Give this man a rich reward" .

Alone in his tent that night, Kunihira repented "I am sorry father, please forgive me, i accept the punishment for my mistakes, i know that you love me"
And then he shouted out loud "I WILL PROVE TO YOU FATHER, THAT AFTER ALL, I AM YOUR SON, I WILL SHOWER DEATH UPON THOSE KUBOTA DOGS"

Then in s smaller tone he said "Lets hope they expect no mercy, because i am going to show them none"

Fujiwara Tadahira.

Many miles ahead of Kunihira, Tadahira Fujiwara was feeling that strange excitement and tension that a general feels when he is leading for the first time, no doubt his job was just to prove as a divergence and a source of quick replenishment for his brother, no doubt that his father had sent some experienced warriors along with him, sweat still appeared on his fair face.

When leaving Miyagi his father had said
"I want you to obey your brother when your two forces amalgamate, on no account are you to disregard his commands, he is a good leader and you will only support him, i want you and him both to be victorious" .

To which Tadahira had simply replied in his boyish voice "Yes lord" .

[Kilo11]

Hey mad orc, here are the rest of the comments/edits for the first chapter. To make comments or more involved suggestions easier to locate, they are offset with brackets [], italicized, and purple, but the rest of the scheme is the same as before, with red being things I'd delete, and blue being things I'd add. And again, as before, these are all simply suggestions and based on my own tastes and preferences, so feel free to ignore or object to any of them. If you've any questions, feel free to ask away.

Chapter 1

.....scene-setting scene already commented on....

[PICTURE]

Power and families

Thus in those times of yore when nature ruled over man and dominated him in every aspect, humanly politics hardly mattered. Every small village was surrounded with forest and wildlands for miles on all sides, for miles to come meant that and so maintaining central authority was an impossible task for the emperor in faroff Kyoto. Thus, every chief was emperor of in his own area[I'd suggest another word here that conveys not just a spacial aspect, but also one of power. Something "dominion" or "territory" come to mind for me] . Thus,[try to avoid the repetition of "thus"] pPower was concentrated into the hands of Daimyos [I would suggest putting a translation of this word in parentheses immediately afterward, so the reader can more easily follow.] and their armies of locals and tribesmen(The Samurai as a separate class was yet to emerge)[if you want to include this detail, I'd do it via a star pointing to a footnote]. Due to all this, anyone wanting to expand his power beyond the boundaries of his birthplace was seen as either mad or legendary . The era was known collectively as the Heain period after tsthe capital city[I thought the capital was Kyoto? That's what you said two paragraphs above. If Heain is another name for Kyoto, then at least put Kyoto in parentheses so that we aren't confused]. By no means did the emperor have as much power in this period as they say. While there was were no Shogun nor Samurai, there were other constraints to his otherwise unlimited power,. These constraints were powerful most notably the ambitions of mighty families and clans. But tThree families in particular became so powerful that they were no longer seen as just families[find a synonym that suits you --> "family" has been too many times in the last couple sentences] or warlords. No, the families of Taira, Minamoto, and Fujiwara were slowly turning into political institutions thmselves, with all the major and minor clans over Japan pledging their alliance to at least one of them. These families were already heavily involved in the politics at both, the capital and the rest of the land. T and thus a delicate power balance was established between them. So when the Taira made their move to interfere in the succession of the imperial princes, thate delicate balance was shattered and war broke out. It was called the Genpei war. The name "Genpei" (sometimes romanized as Gempei)[this point is unnecessary, especially as Genpei and Gempei are similar enough for anyone familiar with the one term to recognize the other] comes from alternate readings of the kanji "Minamoto" (源 Gen) and "Taira" (平 Hei). The conflict is also known in Japanese as the Jishō-Juei War , after the two Imperial eras between which it took place.[This paragraph actually seems like it could be entirely removed. I don't see why the name of the war is important, especially as your campaign won't be a reenactment of that war. I'd drop the whole thing]

[PICTURE]

Fujiwara

The Fujiwara were once great, once. They could be great again. Educated, urbane, sophisticated, and worldly, they were consummate courtiers and scholars, and had the ear of the emperor in all matters. They ruled from the shadows, with influence over the emperor, and over the upbringing of many imperial heirs. For that matter, the mothers of many imperial offspring were Fujiwara ladies. All of that power slowly slipped away from the family after the coronation of the Emperor Go-Sanjo; his mother was not a Fujiwara. The northern and southern halves of the family quarrelled, and the quarrel became virtually open warfare. The “Hogen Disturbance”, when the Fujiwara tried, and failed, to impose their choice of imperial heirs did not help their fortunes at all. The Fujiwara star was eclipsed by the power of other families, the Minamoto and the Taira. To the wider world their reduced position looked secure, but the Fujiwara leadership retired from politics, concentrating instead on their lands, the arts, and literature. The Hiraizumi Fujiwara were also known as the northern Fujiwara. During the 12th Century, at the zenith of their rule, they attracted a number of artisans from Kyoto and created a capital city, Hiraizumi, in what is now Iwate Prefecture. They ruled over an independent region that derived its wealth from gold mining, horse trading, and as middlemen in the trade in luxury items from continental Asian states and from the far northern Emishi and Ainu people. They were able to keep their independence vis-a-vis Kyoto by the strength of their warrior bands. By the time of the Genpei war, they were now the most optimistic among the elites to gain back the lost power of the Fujiwara family . [PICTURE=FUJIWARA EMBLEM] War had now come and on the throne was the resourceful but aging leader Fujiwara Hidehira. Fujiwara Hidehira .This distinctive style of painting portrait effectively disguised old age in great men .He was born in 1122[I would suggest that you center the picture and place the explanation underneath rather than beside it]

[Owlparrot3]

Whoa, that is big my man. I really love it.
You are the best thing that has happened to this AAR. I actually feel so bad(and selfish) that neither can i help you out that much in your AAR's, nor can i rep you 75 times !

and to all people concerned - Kilo 11 has also given me permission to directly use the changes that he has made as copy paste.

[Alwyn]

I like the way that you comment on the effects of attitudes towards religion as well as the impact of the changing seasons. It sounds like Kunihira has a difficult relationship with his father. I wonder if Tadahira will follow his father's order. Good chapter!

[Turkafinwë]

Just caught up with this new story. An interesting period of which many of us, I guess, don't know much about. I very much like the mood this is set in, the very beginnings of the Bushido code. A time when Japan wasn't obsessed with honour and the Samurai class. It seems Kunihira will be a promising leader when the time comes to take over from his father.

Look forward to more of this! Great job! +rep

[Owlparrot3]

Just caught up with this new story. An interesting period of which many of us, I guess, don't know much about. I very much like the mood this is set in, the very beginnings of the Bushido code. A time when Japan wasn't obsessed with honour and the Samurai class. It seems Kunihira will be a promising leader when the time comes to take over from his father.

Look forward to more of this! Great job! +rep

Thanks man. I have worked very hard to make it stick out as different from the Sengoku period and judging by your comments, i ain't doing too bad.
Thanks so much for commenting. Your comments empower me always.
And +rep as promised.

To Alwyn -Thanks for commenting man, yes, i want to make this AAR 'Beautiful' themed. No dark things, no bloodshed, nothing, just plain beauty.

[Owlparrot3]

Chapter 6.

The Autumn of 1178 was a dark one for the clan. Unrest in Fukushima, declaration of war by the Kamakura Minamoto, death of Hidehira's wife Lady Fujiwara Miken.

You name it, it happened, but for Kunihira, it was even worse.
Sensing that they would not be able to win at Uzen, the Kubota retreated to the north leaving only a small garrison of two units of archers inside. As a result, Hidehira ordered Tadahira(Who was within half a week's distance from the settlement) to storm it without meeting up with his brother.

Understandably, Tadahira achieved an easy victory and at last there was some light for the Hiraizumi.

Fortunately for the people of Uzen, Tadahira was no Hidehira or Kunihira, he peacefully occupied the town and business continued as usual.

The peaceful occupation of Uzen.


Tadahira felt good, to have a palace of his own without his father's watchful eye. He ruled Uzen like a king. Taking every decision that he could to improve the finances into the town, meting out justice to those in need, beautifying the town by building a garden, he really wanted to enjoy the time before his elder brother arrived in Uzen however little it may be.

Fortunately for Tadahira that time was lengthened as Kunihira arrived late. He was taking a cautious strategy fortifying the mountains. Kunihira, in what would be known as 'Kunihira no biruburittsu'(国平のビルブリッツ) or 'Building Blitz of Kunihira', constructed 11 forts in the mountains between Fukushima and Uzen in one season.

When he finally arrived in Uzen, Tadahira had to hand over governance of the town to him.

[Alwyn]

It sounds like Tadahira has earned the respect of the people of Uzen. I wonder if Kunihira's forts will be needed, how the relationship between the brothers will develop, and what Tadahira will do now that he is no longer a governor.

[Owlparrot3]

It sounds like Tadahira has earned the respect of the people of Uzen. I wonder if Kunihira's forts will be needed, how the relationship between the brothers will develop, and what Tadahira will do now that he is no longer a governor.

Thanks for commenting man. Yes, the relationship between the brothers will be explored.
I haven't updated for long because i was watching Narcos, it taught me a lot on how to humanize characters. You can expect slightly better from me................i guess.
+rep as promised.

[Turkafinwë]

Good update! I, like Alwyn, am also very interested to see how the two brothers will develop. Especially the younger of the two, Tadahira, a character with great potential I find. Beware the second son I always say.