by VIKING ADULT
face east and say good-bye to the Grand Shrine of Ise;
then, trusting that Amida will welcome you into his Western Paradise,
face west and call his Name.
Our land, a scattering of remote millet grains, is not a nice place.
I am taking you now to a much happier one, the Pure Land of Bliss.’
In these words she addressed him, weeping.
Robed in dove gray,308 his hair in side loops
like any boy’s, cheeks streaming with tears,
he pressed his dear little hands together,
prostrated himself toward the east,
and bade farewell to the Ise Shrine,
then turned to the west, calling the Name.
Lady Nii then took him in her arms
and sank with him into the deep.
At the sight, tears blinded my eyes
and I felt the heart within me fail.
I would gladly forget but cannot;
nor can I bear the memory.
The shrieks and screams of those who remained
sounded to me as deafening
as the cries of sinners burning in hell.
Then warriors seized me, and I went with them up to the city. At Akashi, in Harima, I dropped off briefly to sleep and dreamed that I was somewhere even more beautiful than the palace of old. My son, the former emperor, was there, and with him all the noble gentlemen of our house, in magnificently solemn array. I had not seen the like since we fled the capital, and I asked where I was. A figure I took to be Lady Nii replied, ‘This is the Dragon Palace.’ ‘Everything is so beautiful!’ I said. ‘Is there then no suffering here?’ ‘The Sutra of Dragons and Other Beasts describes it,’309 she answered. ‘Pray for us devotedly in the life to come.’ Then I woke up.
I gave myself more and more after that to reading the sutras and calling the Name,
praying for their enlightenment in the hereafter.
What I have been through corresponds, so it seems to me,
to experiencing the agonies of the six realms of reincarnation.”
To this His Cloistered Eminence replied,
“In China the Tripitaka Master
Xuanzang, entering enlightenment,
saw those six realms, and in our land,
by the power of Za Gongen,
the saintly Nichiz saw them, too—310
so I have heard. But now, I gather,
you have seen them with living eyes.
That, truly, is a rare wonder!”
Weeping robbed the sovereign of speech.
All his gentlemen wrung their sleeves.
Kenreimon-in, too, burst into tears
and, with her, her gentlewomen.
5. Kenreimon-in Enters Paradise
Meanwhile the bell of Jakk-in
sounded the end of another day.
The late sun sank toward the west.
Deeply regretting the need to go,
the sovereign nonetheless, near tears,
started out once more for the city.
Her memories fresh again in her mind,
Kenreimon-in wept helplessly.
From afar she watched while his train
dwindled slowly into the distance,
then addressed the Buddha on her altar.
“May the former emperor’s sacred spirit,”
she prayed, “may all the spirits of my house
attain perfect awakening
and swiftly achieve enlightenment.”
So she spoke through a flood of tears.
Once she had faced east to invoke
the Ise Shrine, the Great Buddha Hachiman,
imploring them to prolong the emperor’s years
and to grant him ten thousand autumns;
now it was westward, with joined palms,
that she prayed for the holy departed
to find his way straight to paradise.
Such was the sad burden of her plea.
She wrote on the door of her sleeping room,
When was it my heart
learned to entertain these thoughts
so troubling lately:
longing for all those I knew
in service at the palace?
Those times I once knew
have faded now into the past
and become a dream,
and so, too, my wattled door
can hardly last much longer.
And Lord Tokudaiji Sanesada,
who had accompanied the sovereign,
pasted this, so they say, on a pillar:
Once you were to all,
in those days of long ago,
the moon in the sky,
who in this mountain village
dispel the darkness no more.
Amida comes with his heavenly host to welcome Kenreimon-in (behind the screen) into paradise. On the left: Awa-no-naishi and Dainagon-no-suke.
Kenreimon-in was reflecting on past and future, dissolved in tears,
when a cuckoo called, at which she:
So be it, cuckoo!
Let us, you and I, compare
the flow of our tears,
for I, too, in this sad world
do little but lift my cry.
The men captured at Dan-no-ura had been paraded through the streets and beheaded or banished far from their wives and children. Not one remained alive or present in the capital, apart from the grand counselor Yorimori. However, no action had been taken against the forty or so women, who were still there with relatives of one kind or another.
Even within their jeweled blinds,
the lofty felt chilly blasts of wind;
even behind their brushwood doors,
the lowly watched dust shift in the drafts.
Couples once pillowed side by side
now were torn far from each other;
parents and lovingly raised sons
no longer knew where the other was.
Affection remained as ever fresh,
yet life offered nothing but sorrow.
And all of this had come to pass
because the chief minister, Kiyomori,
had held the realm and the four seas
before him in the palm of his hand,
without fear of the One Man above,311
without kindness for the people below,
passing, exactly as he pleased,
sentence of death, sentence of exile,
in utter contempt of all the world.
It was now clear beyond a doubt:
The fathers’ sins fall upon the sons.
So the months and years went by, until Kenreimon-in became unwell.
The five-colored cord in the hand of Amida, in that central place on her altar,
she now took in her own and prayed, calling the Name,
“All hail, Amida Buddha, savior and lord of the Western Paradise,
O come, come and take me into your Pure Land!”
To her left and right, Dainagon-no-suke and Awa-no-naishi
wailed in bitter grief that her life should end.
Her voice calling the Name died away.
In the west a purple cloud appeared,
a perfume not of this world filled the room,
and sweet music sounded in the sky.
Her time had come. In Kenkyū 2,312 [1191]
midway through the second month,
she breathed her last. Her companions,
with her since she rose to empress,
were lost and helpless once she was gone.
Their old ties had died out long since,
and now they had nowhere to turn.
It is so touching that nevertheless
they managed each holy service due her.
At last they followed the Dragon Princess313
in attaining complete awakening
and fulfilled, like Queen Vaidehī,314
their hope for rebirth in paradise.
293. Lines inspired by a poem by Bo Juyi,
as excerpted in Wakan reishū.
294. This lady retired into obscurity in the Shangyang Palace when Emperor Xuanzong became infatuated with Yang Guifei.
295. An old poem also included in Wakan reishū, among other classic collections.
296. Both were younger sisters of Kenreimon-in.
297. “Ten-foot-square” (hj) has powerful associations that include the room occupied by the great layman Vimalakīrti (Japanese: Yuima), as described in the Vimalakīrti sūtra (Japanese: Yuima-gy).
298. Both palace names refer to the palace of the Han empress.
299. The festival took place in the middle of the fourth month, circa modern May 15.
300. Empress to Go-Reizei (reigned 1045–68).
301. The source of these lines is unknown. They liken mists and moonlight to the incense and flame kept perpetually burning on an active temple altar.
302. Shinobu, the name of a kind of fern, also means “remember.” A “forgetting lily” is wasuregusa, a kind of tiger lily.
303. From a complaint about poor treatment by Tachibana no Naomoto (circa 950), included in Wakan reishū. Yan Yuan was a major disciple of Confucius.
304. She had been his nurse.
305. e no Sadamoto renounced the world in 988, went to China in 1003, and died there in 1034.
306. A woman may become neither a divinity like Brahma or Indra, nor a buddha, and she owes submission to her father as a child, her husband as a wife, and her son in old age.
307. Sanji, the three periods of the day (sunrise, daytime, sunset) and of the night (beginning, middle, late).
308. The color named (yamabato-iro [“mountain-dove color”], also kikujin) is a gray-green reserved exclusively for imperial use. This is noted here rather than in 11:9 so as not to interrupt reading at that dramatic point.
309. No such sutra exists.
310. Za Gongen is the divinity of the mine mountains, between Yoshino and Kumano. In 941 the ascetic Nichiz recorded a vision in which Za Gongen showed him the afterworld. In this vision Nichiz met the triumphantly vengeful spirit of Sugawara no Michizane.
311. The emperor.
312. Other versions and sources give the year of her death as 1213, 1223, or 1224.
313. The dragon girl in the Lotus Sutra, who attained enlightenment (through a flash of reincarnation as a man) despite the teaching that no woman can do so.
314. An imprisoned Indian queen who was enlightened after hearing the Buddha’s teaching.
AN 4, THIRD MONTH, FIFTEENTH DAY: [1371]
Jichi Kengy finished taking down from my dictation my complete, secret text of the twelve books of Heike monogatari, with the addition of Kanj-no-maki. Unworthy as I am, I am now over seventy years old and cannot expect to live much longer. After my death, a disciple of mine might forget this phrase or that and provoke a dispute on the subject. I have therefore had this reference text written down in order to forestall any disagreement. Under no circumstances may it be given or even shown to anyone outside my line. Let no one but my direct disciples copy it, not even my associate teachers and their disciples. May whoever violates these injunctions suffer divine chastisement.
Kakuichi, a follower of the Buddha315
315. The relationship between this colophon and the one at the end of Book Twelve is unclear. Kakuichi died in the sixth month of 1371.
GENEALOGIES
THE IMPERIAL LINEAGE
THE HEIKE (TAIRA) LINEAGE
THE GENJI (MINAMOTO) LINEAGE
THE FUJIWARA LINEAGE
MAPS
THE PROVINCES
THE CAPITAL
THE GREATER PALACE COMPOUND
THE INNER PALACE COMPOUND
THE CAPITAL AREA
CENTRAL HONSHU
SHIKOKU AND NEIGHBORING HONSHU
NORTHERN KYUSHU
HOURS, ERAS, AND EMPERORS
THE TWELVE HOURS OF THE DAY
The day was divided into twelve “hours” (six for daytime and six for night), each named for one of the twelve beasts of the zodiac. These “hours” shortened or lengthened as the relative length of day and night changed from season to season. At the equinox, an “hour” therefore corresponded to two clock hours. The clock times indicated in the text correspond to the midpoint of the “hour” named.
Rat 11 P.M.–1 A.M.
Ox 1–3 A.M.
Tiger 3–5 A.M.
Hare 5–7 A.M.
Dragon 7–9 A.M.
Serpent 9–11 A.M.
Horse 11 A.M.–1 P.M.
Sheep 1–3 P.M.
Monkey 3–5 P.M.
Cock 5–7 P.M.
Dog 7–9 P.M.
Boar 9–11 P.M.
ERAS, OR YEAR PERIODS, NAMED IN THE TALE
Japan counts years not from a point of origin like the birth of Christ but within an “era” or “year period” (neng) that belongs in a succession of similar eras. In modern times these eras coincide precisely with an imperial reign (Meiji, Taish, Shwa, Heisei), but earlier they did not. A new era could be proclaimed at any time during the course of any year. Thus Kiyomori moved the capital to Fukuhara in Jish 4 (1180) and died in Ywa 1 (1181). These Japanese years correspond only approximately to 1180 and 1181, because the calendar then was lunar, not solar. A lunar month (like a lunar year) began roughly six weeks later than its numbered solar counterpart. For this reason the burning of Nara (5:14), conventionally dated to the end of 1180, properly occurred in the first days of 1181.
Angen 1175–77
Bunji 1185–90
Chkan 1163–65
Daid 806–10
Daiji 1126–31
Eich 1096–97
Eikyū 1113–18
Eiman 1165–66
Eiryaku 1160–61
Engi 901–23
Enkyū 1069–74
Enryaku 782–806
Gangy 877–85
Genryaku 1184–85
Heiji 1159–60
Han 1120–24
Hen 1135–41
Hgen 1156–59
Jinki 724–29
Jiryaku 1065–69
Jish 1177–81
Jgan 859–77
Jh 1074–77
Jkyū 1219–22
Juei 1182–85
Kah 1094–96
Kanji 1087–95
Kank 1004–13
Kanna 985–87
Kanpy 889–98
Ka 1169–71
Kash 848–51
Kenkyū 1190–99
Kh 964–68
Kwa 1099–1104
Kyūju 1154–56
Nin’an 1166–69
Ninpei 1151–54
h 1161–63
wa 961–64
Saik 854–57
Shan 1171–75
Shhei 931–38
Shryaku 1077–81
Shtai 898–901
Shwa 834–48
Shuch 686
Taika 645–50
Ten’an 857–59
Tengy 938–47
Tenki 1053–58
Tenpy 729–49
Tenroku 970–73
Tenryaku 947–57
Tensh 1131–32
Tentoku 957–61
Ywa 1181–82
EMPERORS NAMED IN THE TALE
Emperors earlier than the mid-sixth century are listed in italics. The dates attributed to their lives and reigns are not considered reliable.
EMPEROR NUMBER LIVED REIGNED
Antoku 81 1178–85 1180–85
Chūai 14 ?–200 192–200
Daigo 60 885–930 897–930
En’yū 64 959–91 969–84
Genmei (empress) 43 661–721 707–15
Go-Reizei 70 1025–68 1045–68
Go-Sanj 71 1034–73 1068–72
Go-Shirakawa 77 1127–92 1155–58
Go-Toba 82 1180–1239 1183–98
Hanzei 18 ?–410 406–10
Heizei 51 774–824 806–9
Horikawa 73 1079–1107 1086–1107
Ichij 66 980�
��1011 986–1011
Ingy 19 ?–453 412–53
Jinmu 1 711–585 B.C. 660–585 B.C.
Jit (empress) 41 645–702 690–97
Kaika 9 208–98 B.C. 158–98 B.C.
Kanmu 50 737–806 781–806
Kazan 65 968–1008 984–86
Keik 12 13 B.C.–a.d. 130 71–130
Keitai 26 450–531 507–31
Kinmei 29 509–71 539–71
Kken (empress) 46 718–70 749–58
Knin 49 709–81 770–81
Konoe 76 1139–55 1141–55
Ktoku 36 596–654 645–54
Monmu 42 683–707 697–707
Montoku 55 827–58 850–58
Murakami 62 926–67 946–67
Nij 78 1143–65 1158–65
Ninmy 54 810–50 833–50
Nintoku 16 257–399 313–99
jin 15 200–310 270–310
Reizei 63 950–1011 967–69
Richū 17 d. 405 400–405
Rokuj 79 1164–76 1165–68
Saga 52 786–842 809–23
Saimei (empress) 37 594–661 655–61
Sanj 67 976–1017 1011–16
Seimu 13 84–190 131–90
Seiwa 56 850–80 858–76
Senka 28 467–539 535–39
Shirakawa 72 1053–1129 1072–86
Shmu 45 701–56 724–49
Shtoku (empress) 48 (reigned earlier as Kken) 764–70
Sujin 10 148–30 B.C. 97–30 B.C.
Sushun 32 ?–592 587–92
Sutoku 75 1119–64 1123–41
Suzaku 61 923–52 930–46
Takakura 80 1161–81 1168–80
Tenchi 38 626–71 668–71
Tenmu 40 ?–686 673–86
Toba 74 1103–56 1107–23
Uda 59 867–931 887–97
Yzei 57 868–947 876–84
Yūryaku 21 418–79 456–79
