Taira Masakado was tenth century provincial noble, who, while pursuing private feuds with other members of the local warrior aristocracy, ended up in rebellion against the Imperial authorities - apparently more or less by accident. Later accounts claim that he proclaimed himself the New Emperor and hoped to conquer all Japan, but contemporary accounts know nothing of this. He may simply have hoped that by resisting long enough he'd convince the court it was more cost-effective to pardon him and let him keep his local status than to crush him: something other provincial rebels had got away with.

In any event, after some initial successes he was defeated and killed by his local rivals who had been formally charged by the Imperial court to restore order. After his death, he became a legendary character, credited with supernatural powers and worshipped to this day as a minor Shinto deity, despite an attempt by the Imperial government to quash his cult in the 19th century - nearly a millennium after his death!

Friday's book is a happy medium between academic rigour and popular accessibility, with most discussion of alternative interpretations hidden away in the endnotes. While basically following the chronological evolution of Masakado's rebellion, Friday makes many detours covering many respects of tenth century Japanese warfare and politics.

I liked it a lot.

Friday uses the career of Taira Masakado to illustrate the contraints and opportunities of a professional fighting man in Classical Japan; and a lively story it is. However, Friday's main point is to show (as he has argued in his scholarly work) that the rise of men such as Masakado should not be seen as representing the breakdown of the Heian polity, but were an evolutionary response to the question of how the state would secure itself. ( )