In 1156, three large feudal houses (Fujiwara, Taira and Minamoto) clashed with each other in a struggle for supreme power. The fourth side of the struggle were large Buddhist monasteries. All participants had their own military formations (samurai squads near feudal houses, detachments of warrior monks near monasteries) and were divided into two warring camps. One of these camps put forward ex-Emperor Sutoku as a contender for the throne, the other - his brother Goshirakawa. About individual episodes of these events (“the turmoil of the years of reign under the motto Hogen”), several decades after their end, blind storytellers Biwa-Hoshi began to tell many listeners to the accompaniment of the Japanese biwa lute. Listeners gathered in Buddhist temples, and in feudal estates, and at the imperial court, and among the fields in the provinces. The interest of the listeners was aggravated by the fact that the medieval Japanese believed that stories about dead heroes contributed to the repose of their souls. Published in Russian for the first time.