This story tells the story of the time when the name Taira first spread throughout Yamato. But people did not glorify this name - they were afraid of this man, who, overwhelmed by anger, rebelled. Why did he decide to do this? Taira Masakado (903?–940) - a descendant of the emperor in the fifth generation - was offended because he was bypassed by the Fujiwara family when distributing positions, and it was a representative of that family, and not he, Masakado, who took the position the chief of police of the capital, on whom he counted so much. In those same years, he waged fierce wars in the province of Simosa with his relatives over his father’s land plots, which were to be inherited by him. In the process, Masakado captured the provinces of Hitachi, Shimotsuke, Kozuke, Musashi and Sagami, subjugating half of the Kanto region. And this is a lot. And the victories inflamed Masakado so much that, having forgotten his duty of subjection to the Sovereign, in 939, he dared to declare himself the “new emperor”, which had never happened either before or since. For more than five years, Masakado committed outrages while his relative , Taira no Sadamori did not put an end to it. Although the rebellion was suppressed and Masakado was killed, it marked the beginning of a new stage in Japanese history. Tradition attributes to Masakado the famous phrase: “People become rulers in this world only by achieving victory by force.” "Shomonki" is the oldest work that gave rise to the gunki genre - military history.