The Tales of the Heike

by Burton Watson

Thus this terrible year [1180] came to an end, and the fifth year of the Jishō era began.

  1. This is a reference to Chengui, a Tang-period ethical text.

  2. By becoming the father of an empress, Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–720) was one of the first of his clan to rise to great power in the aristocracy.

  3. Emperor Shōmu (701–756, r. 724–749) was famous for his acts of Buddhist piety.

  4. The protuberance and the tuft of hair are two of the thirty-two distinguishing marks of the body of the Buddha.

  5. The Ten Evil Actions are killing, stealing, committing adultery, lying, using duplicitous language, slandering, equivocating, coveting, becoming angry, and holding false views.

  6. The Kōfuku-ji temple and the Tōdai-ji temple were centers for Hossō school and Sanron school studies, respectively.

  7. According to Buddhist mythology, King Udayana was the creator of the first Buddhist statue. Vishvakarman is the patron god of artisans.

  GOSHIRAKAWA: retired emperor and head of the imperial clan.

  KIYOMORI (Taira): lay priest, prime minister, and retired Taira clan head.

  MUNEMORI (Taira): son of Kiyomori and Taira clan head.

  NUN OF THE SECOND RANK (Taira): wife of Kiyomori.

  YORITOMO (Minamoto): leader of the anti-Taira forces in the east.

  YOSHINAKA (Minamoto): cousin of Yoritomo and leader of the anti-Taira forces in the north; also called Lord Kiso.

  The New Year’s ceremonies are shortened and do not have their normal luster owing to the burning of Nara. The gloom is deepened by the death of Retired Emperor Takakura. Yoshinaka of Kiso, working to overthrow the Taira, begins to gather allies in the north. The Taira’s rule continues to weaken, and rebellions break out in Kyushu, Shikoku, and elsewhere.

  The Death of Kiyomori (6:7)

  After this, all the warriors of the island of Shikoku went over to the side of Kōno no Michinobu. Reports also came that Tanzō, the superintendent of the Kumano Shrine, had shifted his sympathies to the Genji side, despite the many kindnesses shown him by the Heike. All the provinces in the north and the east were thus rebelling against the Taira, and in the regions to the west and southwest of the capital the situation was the same. Report after report of uprisings in the outlying areas came to startle the ears of the Heike, and word repeatedly reached them of additional impending acts of rebellion. It seemed as though the “barbarian tribes to the east and west”1 had suddenly risen up against them. The members of the Taira clan were not alone in thinking that the end of the world was close at hand. No truly thoughtful person could fail to dread the ominous turn of events.

  On the twenty-third day of the Second Month, a council of the senior Taira nobles was convened. At that time Lord Munemori, a former general of the right, spoke as follows: “We earlier tried to put down the rebels in the east, but the results were not all that we might have desired. This time I would like to be appointed commander in chief to move against them.”

  “What a splendid idea!” the other nobles exclaimed in obsequious assent. A directive was accordingly handed down from the retired emperor appointing Lord Munemori commander in chief of an expedition against the traitorous elements in the eastern and northern provinces. All the high ministers and courtiers who held military posts or were experienced in the use of arms were ordered to follow him.

  When word had already gotten abroad that Lord Munemori would set out on his mission to put down the Genji forces in the eastern provinces on the twenty-seventh day of the same month, his departure was canceled because of reports that Kiyomori, the lay priest and prime minister, was not in his customary good health.

  On the following day, the twenty-eighth, it became known that Kiyomori was seriously ill, and people throughout the capital and at Rokuhara whispered to one another, “This is just what we were afraid of!”

  From the first day that Kiyomori took sick, he was unable to swallow anything, not even water. His body was as hot as though there were a fire burning inside it: those who attended him could scarcely come within twenty-five or thirty feet of him so great was the heat. All he could do was cry out, “I’m burning!’ I’m burning!” His affliction seemed quite unlike any ordinary illness.

  Water from the Well of the Thousand-Arm Kannon on Mount Hiei was brought to the capital and poured into a stone bathtub, and Kiyomori’s body was lowered into it in hopes of cooling him. But the water began to bubble and boil furiously and, in a moment, had all gone up in steam. In another attempt to bring him some relief, wooden pipes were rigged in order to pour streams of water down on his body, but the water sizzled and sputtered as though it were landing on fiery rocks or metal, and virtually none of it reached his body. The little that did so burst into flames and burned, filling the room with black smoke and sending flames whirling upward.

  Long ago, the eminent Buddhist priest Hōzō was said to have been invited by Enma, the king of hell, to visit the infernal regions. At that time he asked if he might see the place where his deceased mother had been reborn. Admiring his filial concern, Enma directed the hell wardens to conduct him to the Hell of Scorching Heat, where Hōzō’s mother was undergoing punishment. When Hōzō entered the iron gates of the hell, he saw flames leaping up like shooting stars, ascending hundreds of yojanas into the air. The sight must have been much like what those attending Kiyomori in his sickness now witnessed.

  Kiyomori’s wife, the Nun of the Second Rank, had a most fearful dream. It seemed that a carriage enveloped in raging flames had entered the gate of the mansion. Stationed at the front and rear of the carriage were creatures, some with the head of a horse, others with the head of an ox. To the front of the carriage was fastened an iron plaque inscribed with the single word mu, “never.”

  In her dream the Nun of the Second Rank asked, “Where has this carriage come from?”

  “From the tribunal of King Enma,” was the reply. “It has come to fetch His Lordship, the lay priest and prime minister of the Taira clan.”

  “And what does the plaque mean?” she asked.

  “It means that because of the crime of burning the one-hundred-and-sixty-foot gilt-bronze image of the Buddha Vairochana2 in the realm of human beings, King Enma’s tribunal has decreed that the perpetrator shall fall into the depths of the Hell of Never-Ceasing Torment. The ‘Never’ of Never-Ceasing is written on it; the ‘Ceasing’ remains to be written.”

  The Nun of the Second Rank woke from her dream in alarm, her body bathed in perspiration, and when she told others of her dream, their hair stood on end just hearing about it. She made offerings of gold, silver, and the seven precious objects to all the temples and shrines reputed to have power in such matters, even adding such items as horses, saddles, armor, helmets, bows, arrows, long swords, and short swords. But no matter how much she added as accompaniment to her supplications, they were wholly without effect. Kiyomori’s sons and daughters gathered by his pillow and bedside, inquiring in anguish if there were something that could be done, but all their cries were in vain.

  On the second day of the second intercalary month, the Nun of the Second Rank, braving the formidable heat, approached her husband’s pillow and spoke through her tears. “With each day that passes, it seems to me, there is less hope for your recovery. If you have anything you wish to say before you depart this world, it would be good to speak now while your mind is still clear.”

  Kiyomori (right) lies in bed, seriously ill and surrounded by those concerned with his welfare. The attendants (left) pour water on him, attempting to cool off his heated body.

  In earlier days the prime minister had always been brusque and forceful in manner, but now, tormented by pain, he had barely breath enough to utter these words. “Ever since the Hōgen and Heiji uprisings, I have on numerous occasions put down those who showed themselves enemies of the throne, and I have received rewards and acclaim far surpassing what I deserve. I have had the honor to become the grandfather of a reigning emperor and to hold the office of prime minister, and th
e bounties showered on me extend to my sons and grandsons. There is nothing more whatsoever that I could wish for in this life. Only one regret remains to me—that I have yet to behold the severed head of that exile to the province of Izu, Minamoto no Yoritomo! When I have ceased to be, erect no temples or pagodas in my honor, conduct no memorial rites for me! But dispatch forces at once to strike at Yoritomo, cut off his head, and hang it before my grave—that is all the ceremony that I ask!” Such were the deeply sinful words that he spoke!

  On the fourth day of the same month, the illness continuing to torment him, Kiyomori’s attendants thought to provide some slight relief by pouring water over a board and laying him on it, but this appeared to do no good whatsoever. Moaning in desperation, he fell to the floor and there suffered his final agonies. The sound of horses and carriages rushing about seemed to echo to the heavens and to make the very earth tremble. Even if the sovereign of the realm himself, the lord of ten thousand chariots, had passed away, there could not have been a greater commotion.

  Kiyomori had turned sixty-four this year. He thus was not particularly advanced in age. But the life span decreed him by his actions in previous existences had abruptly come to an end. Hence the large scale ceremonies and secret ceremonies performed on his behalf by the Buddhist priests failed to have any effect; the gods and the Three Treasures of Buddhism3 ceased to shed their light on him; and the benevolent deities withdrew their guardianship.

  And if even divine help was beyond his reach, how little could mere human beings do! Although tens of thousands of loyal troops stationed themselves inside his mansion and in the grounds around it, all eager to sacrifice themselves and to die in his place, they could not, even for an instant, hold at bay the deadly devil of impermanence, whose form is invisible to the eye and whose power is invincible. Kiyomori went all alone to the Shide Mountains of death, from which there is no return; alone he faced the sky on his journey over the River of Three Crossings to the land of the Yellow Springs. And when he arrived there, only the evil deeds he had committed in past days, transformed now into hell wardens, were there to greet him. All in all, it was a pitiful business.

  Since further action could not be postponed, on the seventh day of the same month Kiyomori’s remains were cremated at Otagi in the capital.4 The Buddhist priest Enjitsu placed the ashes in a bag hung around his neck and journeyed with them down to the province of Settsu, where he deposited them in a grave on Sutra Island.

  Kiyomori’s name had been known throughout the land of Japan, and his might had set men trembling. But in the end his body was no more than a puff of smoke ascending in the sky above the capital, and his remains, after tarrying a little while, in time mingled with the sands of the shore where they were buried, dwindling at last into empty dust.

  The Taira are able to beat back a Minamoto advance but cannot press the attack into the Minamoto strongholds in the east. Several obvious signs—the death of the leader of a Taira campaign, the deaths of priests praying for Taira victory and prosperity—foreshadow defeat for the Taira. Nevertheless, Munemori, the leader of the Taira clan and commander in chief of their armies, spends his time solidifying his position in the court bureaucracy.

  1. A phrase used in China to refer to provinces in all four directions.

  2. This refers to the Great Buddha of the Tōdai-ji temple.

  3. The Three Treasures of Buddhism are the Buddha, the Buddhist law, and the community of Buddhist priests.

  4. Otagi is a famous crematorium and cemetery in the eastern part of Kyoto.

  MUNEMORI (Taira): son of Kiyomori and Taira clan head.

  SANEMORI (Taira): elderly warrior.

  TADANORI (Taira): brother of Kiyomori.

  YOSHINAKA (Minamoto): cousin of Yoritomo and leader of the anti-Taira forces in the north; also called Lord Kiso.

  The Taira summon warriors from all the provinces, but those who gather are mainly from the west. This army goes north to attack Yoshinaka and his troops. Yoshinaka traps and crushes the Taira army at both Kurikara Valley and Shinohara. Sanemori, an elderly Taira vassal, had pledged to die fighting during the battle at Shinohara.

  Sanemori (7:8)

  Although all his fellow warriors on the Taira side had fled, Sanemori of the province of Musashi, one lone horseman, kept turning back again and again to engage the enemy and block their advance.

  Purposely hoping to pass as a young man, he put on armor laced with greenish yellow leather over a battle robe of red brocade. He wore a horned helmet and carried a sword with gilt fittings, arrows fledged with black and white eagle feathers, and a rattan-wrapped bow. He was seated in a gold-rimmed saddle astride a gray horse with white markings.

  Tezuka Mitsumori, one of the warriors under Lord Kiso, spotted Sanemori and, thinking he would make a worthy opponent, called out to him, “What valiant man is that who goes there? I admire you for fighting on alone when all your comrades have fled. Tell me your name!”

  “And who may you be?” asked Sanemori in return.

  “Tezuka Mitsumori of the province of Shinano!” came the reply.

  “Then we are well matched,” Sanemori answered. “With all due respect to you, however, I have reasons for not wanting to reveal my name. Come on now, Tezuka. Let’s see what you can do!”

  As the two men prepared to lock in combat, one of Tezuka’s retainers, rushing up from behind in order to protect his lord from attack, threw himself at Sanemori.

  “Ho there, little fellow! Would you presume to grapple with the bravest man in all Japan?” said Sanemori. Dragging the retainer to his side, he pressed the man’s head against the pommel of his saddle, cut it off, and tossed it aside.

  His retainer cut down before his eyes, Tezuka wheeled around to Sanemori’s left side and, lifting up the lower fringe of his armor, struck him two blows with his short sword. As Sanemori faltered under the impact, Tezuka seized him and dragged him from his horse.

  Still fierce enough in spirit, Sanemori was by this time exhausted from the battle, and moreover, he was an old man. Thus Tezuka was able to overpower him. When another of Tezuka’s retainers arrived late on the scene, Tezuka ordered him to cut off Sanemori’s head, and then he galloped off to show it to Lord Kiso.

  “I have met up with a very strange adversary!” said Tezuka. “I took him for an ordinary samurai, but he was wearing a brocade battle robe. He might be a commanding general, I thought, but he had no troops. I asked him repeatedly to reveal his name, but he refused to do so. He spoke with an eastern accent.”

  “Aha,” said Lord Kiso. “This must be Sanemori of Musashi. I met him once when I was visiting Kōzuke Province. I was only a boy then, and he already had flecks of gray in his hair. By now he should be completely white headed. But this man’s beard and sidelocks are black—something strange is going on. Higuchi Jirō is well acquainted with Sanemori; send for Higuchi!”

  The moment that Higuchi Jirō laid eyes on the head, he said, “Ah, how pitiful! Yes, this is Sanemori.”

  “If so,” said Lord Kiso, “then he must be at least seventy by now. He should be completely white haired. Why are his beard and sidelocks still black?”

  The tears streaming down his face, Higuchi replied, “You’re right. I should have explained about that, but I was so touched by the sight that before I knew it these tears overcame me. Even on less than momentous occasions, a man of arms should be able to say something worth remembering. And Sanemori could do that, because I recall how he always used to tell me, ‘If you’re over sixty when you go into battle, you should dye your beard and sidelocks black so you’ll look like a younger man. It may be childish to try to compete with the young ones to be the first to attack, but at least you won’t be treated with contempt just because you’re old!’ So I’m sure he must have dyed his beard and sidelocks. Wash them and see.”

  “You may be right,” said Lord Kiso. And when he had the beard and sidelocks washed, they did indeed turn out to be white.

  As to the fact that Sanemori was
dressed in a brocade battle robe, when he took his final leave of the Taira leader, Lord Munemori, in the capital, he stated, “Last year when we rode east to attack the Genji, I did not shoot a single arrow. So timid I was that I shied at the sound of a water bird taking wing. And then with the others I fled back to the capital from Kanbara in Suruga Province. I was not the only one who did so, and yet I regret it deeply as a shameful blot on my old age. Now that we are setting out to attack the northern provinces, I am determined to die in battle.

  “I originally was a native of the province of Echizen in the north. In later years, because a domain was bestowed on me there, I had occasion to live in Nagai in Musashi Province. The old saying has it that when you return to your native land, you should do so wearing brocade.1 So I would like permission to wear a battle robe of brocade.”

  “Nobly spoken!” said Munemori. And thus, we are told, he gave Sanemori permission to wear brocade.

  In ancient times Zhu Maichen in China brandished his brocade sleeves in triumph when he returned to his home at Mount Kuaiji. And in our own time Sanemori has won renown for himself among the populace of the northern provinces. But how sad to reflect that imperishable as his fame may be, he himself is now no more than an empty name, his mortal remains gone to dust by the roadside to Echizen!

  On the seventeenth day of the Fourth Month, when a hundred thousand or more Heike horsemen rode out from the capital, one might have supposed that no one could stand up against them. And yet now when they returned in the latter part of the Fifth Month, they had been reduced to slightly more than twenty thousand!

  Try to catch all the fish in the stream and you’ll get plenty of fish this year, but no fish next year. Burn down the whole forest and you may shoot lots of game this year, but none the year after. As some people have pointed out, it is not wise to use up all your resources at one time.