Heian Romance: 11. The Seed of Flame

11. The Seed of Flame

The year was 1143 when The Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi’s first son was born. It has been 20 years ever since Tadamichi married, the poor couple wasn’t gifted a son until the age of 40.

Before that due to the demanding of an heir for the Fujiwara Regent Clan, Tadamichi’s father Fujiwara no Tadazane instructed him to adopt his brother Yorinaga with the age gap of 20 as his own son.

Yorinaga was adopted by Tadamichi at the age of 6 and was given the name of Ayawaka as a child. With his born with intelligence and adorable look, Ayawaka had earned the hearts of people in the clan at young age. His real father Fujiwara no Tadazane the head of Fujiwara Regent Clan in Uji is especially fond of him and looks high on him as the one who will bring back past glory to the clan. Tadazane’s overly pampered attitude towards Ayawaka had made him became a spoilt child afterwards.

Ayawaka refused to learn poetry and preferred horse-riding instead, this gave his adopted father Tadamichi who is also a talented poet a migraine. Even until now Yorinaga doesn’t ever compose a poem; he would call his servant or teacher to write for him, which makes Tadamichi very angry as this is plagiarism.

Things changed when Tadamichi first son was born. As day after day Tadamichi’s love towards his new born son grows, his hatred and disgusts on Yorinaga became more and more obvious.

The patience of Tadamichi reached his limit when he saw Yorinaga caning his 7 years old son for he had failed to memorize the Chinese philosophy Four Books and Five Classics properly.

“Stop this madness immediately, Yorinaga! You don’t have the right to cane my son! ”

“But I was teaching him for the sake of becoming a good politician.”

“You have no authority in my son’s education! Get out of my sight and never set foot to my house again!!”

One month later Tadamichi went to Uji to beg his father Tadazane to cut off the foster father and son bond between him and Yorinaga. Tadazane was furious with this idea due to the fact that he knew his son’s plot. Tadamichi wanted his own son to become the heir of the clan instead of his younger brother Yorinaga.

Tadazane rejected his son’s request many times until Tadamichi called the involvement of the Emperor, which leaves Tadazane no choice except to accept the request but on one condition that is to make Yorinaga the head of the clan. Tadamichi accepted the request reluctantly as this is the best bargain he could get.

As the new head of the Fujiwara Regent Clan, Yorinaga was promoted to the Minister of Left and was given the power to inspect the Emperor’s edict a job which equivalent to his older brother the Regent Fujiwara no Tadamichi.

Thus it marks the beginning of a series of unending quarrels and wars not only within the clan but the whole capital which cause the downfall of the monarch and the upraise of the Warrior Class in the not far future…