Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/215



BOUT eight hundred years ago, a fierce war was waged between the two great clans, the Tairas and the Minamotos. The balance of fortune swayed some years towards the former family, and other years towards the latter. The stronger always ruled Japan with the reigning Emperor on their side. The Tairas, who had predominated for the previous twenty-five years, were at last driven out of Kyōto by the Minamotos. Kyōto was then the Imperial capital, and the expelled clan had been forced to take refuge in far-off Kyūshū. Afterwards they regained some of their pristine power, and came back to the province of Settsu. They formed a strong camp at Ichi-no-tani, a village on the shores of the Inland Sea, about fifty miles to the south-west of the metropolis. Nevertheless they were hardly in the position to make headway against the Minamotos. 155