Taira no Tomoyasu (平知康)
TAIRA no Tomoyasu was a noble who lived in the late Heian period (years of his birth and death, not known). He was the son of TAIRA no Tomochika who was Iki no kami (governor of Iki Province). He was a kebiishi (a police and judicial chief) and the saemon no jo (a secretary of the Left Division of Headquarters of the Outer Palace Guard) and he was good at tapping a tsuzumi (hand drum) and, therefore, called Tsuzumi no Hogan.
He was a Hokumen no Bushi (Imperial Palace Guard) and he won the confidence of the Emperor Goshirakawa and became a trusted vassal of Goshirakawa. In July 1183, when MINAMOTO no Yoshinaka entered into Kyoto chasing Ise Heishi (Taira clan from Ise), he visited Yosinaka several times as an errand of the Cloistered Emperor. In "Heike Monogatari" (The Tale of the Heike), it is described that, when Tomoyasu required Yoshinaka to suppress riotous behaviors by soldiers, he was bewildered by Yoshinaka's question, 'Is the reason why you are called as Tsuzumi no Hogan that you have been hit or tapped by many person?' and he suggested the Cloistered Emperor to subjugate Yoshinaka.
Tomoyasu raised an army at Hojuji-dono Palace, which was the palace of the Cloistered Emperor Goshirakawa, and openly confronted Yoshinaka. The Cloistered Emperor's side required Yoshinaka to go out of Kyoto and notified that they would issue a senge (imperial proclamation) if this senge was not honored. On January 10, 1184, Yoshinaka became angry and attacked Hojuji-dono Palace and Tomoyasu, who took command of a defensive battle, and suffered a crushing defeat. Goshirakawa was caught by Yoshinaka and confined (Battle of Hoju-ji). The defeated Tomoyasu was dismissed.
In 1185, he was reappointed to the kebiishi and approached Yoshitsune who was in Kyoto. After the fall of Taira family, when MINAMOTO no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune fell out with each other and Yoshitsune was exiled from the capital, Tomoyasu was dismissed again.
Later, Tomoyasu went away from Kyoto to Kamakura and worked under MIMAMOTO no Yoriie, who was the second Seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians"), and became his close aide. In 1203, when Yoriie was exiled and confined in Shuzen-ji Temple in Izu Province, Tomoyasu came back to Kyoto.