Fujiwara no Kiyohira Biography . Kiyohira was the son of Fujiwara no Tsunekiyo and a daughter of Abe no Yoritoki whose name is not known . He was born somewhere in the Kitakami Basin in 1056 . His father was of the Hidesato branch of the Fujiwara clan which was known for their fighting ability . Even so Tsunekiyo was a mid - level bureaucrat at Fort Taga in present day Sendai , Miyagi Prefecture when he married his Emishi wife , left his position and went to live with his wife ' s family in present day Iwate Prefecture . Thus , Kiyohira was born in an Emishi household in Emishi territory to a father who was considered a traitor by the Japanese authorities . Much of his early life was spent in a community at war with the Japanese central authorities . The Earlier Nine Years War ( Zenkunen War , 前九年合戦 ) was fought on and off from 1050 to 1062 while the Latter Three Years War ( Gosannen War , 後三年合戦 ) ran from 1083 to 1087 . He lost his grandfather , Abe no Yoritoki , in battle in 1057 , his uncle Sadato in 1062 and all of his mother ' s brothers were deported to Kyūshū in the same year . His own father was personally beheaded by Minamoto no Yoriyoshi ( 源 頼義 ) with a blunt sword . These are the events which would shape his life and influence his decisions as long as he lived . After he lost his father in The Earlier Nine Wars , his mother became the concubine of his enemy , Kiyohara no Takehira , who had helped Minamoto no Yoriyoshi in the last war . Kiyohira was brought up in this enemy clan as Kiyohara no Kiyohira , with his elder stepbrother Sanehira and younger half - brother Iehira . The Later Three Years War involved a struggle among the three brothers in this complex relationship . Kiyohira won the final victory in the war in 1087 , with the aid of Minamoto no Yoshiie ( 源 義家 ) , the son of another of his old enemies , Minamoto no Yoriyoshi . Kiyohira , however , lost his wife and son during the war , killed by his half - brother Iehira . Victorious in the Latter Three Years War , Kiyohira returned to his home at Fort Toyota ( Iwayadō Castle ) , in present day Esashi Ward , Ōshū City , Iwate prefecture , to plan his future . Sometime around 1090 to 1100 he built a new home on Mount Kanzan , " Barrier Mountain " in what is now Hiraizumi Town . There appear to be three main reasons for his choice of site . First was its location directly on the Frontier Way , the main highway leading south to the capital and other major cities and north to the lands he controlled . Secondly it was determined to be the center of their realm , Ōshū , as measured from the Shirakawa Barrier in the south to Sotogahama in present day Aomori Prefecture in the north . Thirdly this location is on the South side of the Koromo River , in what had traditionally been Japanese territory . Previously Emishi forts were always built on the North side of East or West flowing rivers . There is evidence that Kiyohira did not use the name Fujiwara but the name Kiyohara until 1117 , when he was more than 60 years old . But he did use it and passed it on to his children . Kiyohira had several wives and consorts including a Taira wife from Kyoto who was called the mother of his six children . She seems to have tired quickly of life on the remote frontier , returned to Kyoto , married a policeman and never returned . He is also known to have had two Emishi wives , a Kiyohara and an Abe . His eldest son and rightful heir was Koretsune . His second son and eventual successor was Motohira , born about 1105 , likely to one of Kiyohira ' s Emishi wives . After setting up house in Hiraizumi , Kiyohira began an ambitious Buddhist temple building program on the top of Mount Kanzan , Chūson - ji . This complex of temples , pagodas , repositories and gardens was to be his legacy , the embodiment of his vision for himself , his family and his domain for all time .