The Tales of the Heike

by Burton Watson

  Likewise, Yosōbyōe and Ishidōmaru, calling on the sacred name of Amida, one after the other threw themselves into the water.

  News of Koremori’s end reaches the Taira. Suffering further defeats, the Taira escape to the sea.

  1. The biwa is a member of the lute family. The koto, or “zither,” as it sometimes is translated, is a larger instrument.

  2. Tachibana Hiromi (836–890) was a scholar and courtier.

  3. Sotoorihime is one of the tutelary deities of Japanese poetry.

  4. The Threefold World is the world of unenlightened beings. In turn, it is subdivided into the world of desire (whose inhabitants have appetites and desires), the world of form (whose inhabitants have neither appetites nor desires), and the world of formlessness (whose inhabitants have no physical forms).

  5. The Seven Treasures are gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, agate, ruby, and cornelian.

  6. The Heaven of the Thirty-three Gods is located on top of Mount Sumeru and is considered to be the second heaven of the world of desire.

  7. An arhat is a being who has achieved Buddhist enlightenment.

  8. The Three Evil Paths of Existence are hell, the world of hungry ghosts, and the world of animals.

  9. This is a quotation from the Hōjisan, a Tang-period Buddhist text.

  ANTOKU: emperor and son of Emperor Takakura and Kenreimon’in.

  GOSHIRAKAWA: retired emperor and head of the imperial clan.

  KAGETOKI (Kajiwara): deputy commander of Minamoto forces and rival of Yoshitsune.

  KENREIMON’IN (Taira): daughter of Kiyomori and Nun of the Second Rank.

  MORITSUGI (Taira): warrior serving Munemori.

  MUNEMORI (Taira): son of Kiyomori, Taira clan head, and leader of the Taira forces at Yashima.

  NORITSUNE (Taira): nephew of Kiyomori and leading Taira commander.

  NUN OF THE SECOND RANK (Taira): widow of Kiyomori and grandmother of Emperor Antoku.

  YOSHIMORI (Minamoto): warrior serving Yoshitsune.

  YOSHITSUNE (Minamoto): younger half brother of Yoritomo and leader of the Genji forces at Yashima and Dan-no-ura.

  After landing with a small force on the island of Shikoku, Yoshitsune leads his Genji troops to the rear of the Taira camp at Yashima, where the Taira have set up their headquarters. With a small force, he manages to bluff the Taira, led by Munemori, into retreating to their boats.

  The Death of Tsuginobu (11:3)

  That day Yoshitsune wore a red brocade battle robe and a suit of armor shaded deep purple at the lower edge. He carried a sword with gilt-bronze fittings and arrows decorated with black and white feathers. Gripping the middle of his rattan-wrapped bow, he glared at the enemy boats and in a loud voice called out his name: “Minamoto no Yoshitsune, envoy of the retired emperor, fifth-rank lieutenant of the imperial police!” He was followed by Nobutsuna of Izu, Ietada of Musashi, Chikanori of Musashi, and Yoshimori of Ise. Next came Sanetomo, his son Motokiyo, Tsuginobu of Ōshū, his brother Tadanobu, Genzō of Eda, Kumai Tarō, and Musashibō Benkei, each galloping forward to announce his identity.

  “Shoot them down!” cried the Heike men, whereupon some of the boats discharged powerful long-range arrows, and others showered down volleys of lighter ones. The Genji warriors surged ahead, shooting arrows now to the left, now to the right, shouting and hallooing as they pressed forward or rested their horses in the lee of the beached boats.

  Sanetomo, one of the Genji leaders and a seasoned warrior, did not join in the fray but instead forced his way into the makeshift imperial palace and, setting fire to it here and there, instantly reduced it to ashes.

  The Heike leader, Munemori, summoning his samurai attendants, asked, “How large are the Genji forces today?”

  “At the moment they number only about seventy or eighty mounted men,” the attendants replied.

  “This is absurd! With that small a force, we could have picked them off one hair at a time and still had no trouble overwhelming them. But instead of attacking, we scrambled to board the boats and so gave them a chance to burn the palace. How disgraceful! Where is Noritsune? We must beach the boats and engage them at once!”

  “As you command,” replied Noritsune, and setting out in one of the smaller boats along with Moritsugi, he made his way to the beach in front of the burned-out main gate of the camp, where he drew up his forces in battle formation. The more than eighty men under Yoshitsune’s command meanwhile advanced to the point where they were within range of the enemy’s arrows, and there they halted.

  Speaking from the deck of one of the boats, Moritsugi shouted to the Genji forces, “We heard you calling out your names, but with so much water between us we couldn’t make out the words distinctly. Who did you say was the commander of the Genji forces today?”

  Spurring his horse forward, Yoshimori of Ise replied, “What need is there to repeat it? Yoshitsune, younger brother of the lord of Kamakura and tenth-generation descendant of Emperor Seiwa!”

  “Ah, now I remember,” said Moritsugi. “The orphan of that man who was killed some years ago in the Heiji fighting. He was an acolyte at the Kurama-ji temple and later served as flunky to a traveling merchant. The little fellow who used to carry goods back and forth to the Ōshū region!”

  “Watch how you let your tongue run on when you speak about my master!” said Yoshimori. “You’re the ones who were trounced in the fighting at Tonamiyama and barely escaped with your lives, are you not? And then, after wandering around in the Hokuriku area, you came whimpering and begging your way back to the capital!”

  “Why would we have to beg?” replied Moritsugi. “Thanks to our lord’s largesse, we had all we needed and more! But I’m told that you’ve been robbing people holed up around Mount Suzuka in Ise to get by and feed your families, living the life of bandits so you can feed yourselves and your wives and children!”

  At this Ietada spoke up from the Genji side: “Enough of this useless slander, gentlemen! Hurling groundless insults back and forth will never decide the matter. But last spring at Ichi-no-tani I believe you saw what our men, the young lords of Musashi and Sagami, could do in battle, did you not?”

  Before he had finished speaking, his younger brother Chikanori, who was at his side, selected an arrow of unusual length and, fitting it in place, drew his bow far back and let it fly. The arrow struck Moritsugi in the chest, passing all the way through the breastplate of his armor, and this put an end to the battle of words.

  “Battling from a boat has its own requirements,” declared Noritsune. He had not put on a long battle robe but was wearing only a short sleeved jacket with a rolled Chinese design and a suit of finely laced armor. At his waist he wore an enormous sword; on his back was a quiver holding twenty-four arrows fledged with black hawk feathers; and he grasped a rattan-bound bow. Once he had been the strongest bowman and the fiercest fighter in the capital, and no one could come within range of his arrows without being felled. And today he had determined to shoot down none other than Yoshitsune himself.

  But the Genji warriors anticipated his intentions. Tsuginobu, his younger brother Tadanobu, Yoshimori, Hirotsuna, Genzō, Kumai Tarō, Musashibō Benkei, and the others, each a match for a thousand ordinary warriors, pressed forward on their horses, jostling with one another for first place and forming a barrier to meet Noritsune’s arrows.

  “You worthless fellows, get out of the way of my arrows!” Noritsune shouted helplessly. Again and again he fitted arrows to his bow and sent them flying, and in an instant ten or more armored warriors were felled. Among them was Tsuginobu of Ōshū, who was pierced by an arrow that entered his left shoulder and came out on his right side, and he tumbled headlong from his horse.

  A young boy in Noritsune’s service named Kikuō was famous for his strength and daring. Wearing a greenish yellow stomach guard and a three-plate helmet, he drew from its sheath a wooden-handle halberd and rushed forward in hopes of cutting off Tsuginobu’s head. But Tsuginobu’s brother Tadanobu, determined to thwart him,
drew his bow all the way back and aimed an arrow. It struck the back joint of the boy’s stomach guard and shot through him, sending him sprawling on all fours.

  Observing what had happened, Noritsune leaped from his boat and, grasping his bow in his left hand, used his right to seize Kikuō and drag him into the boat. Thus he prevented the Genji men from taking the boy’s head, although the boy died of his wound. He had originally been a page in the household of Noritsune’s older brother Michimori, but after the latter’s death, he had been taken into Noritsune’s service. He was only eighteen at the time of his death. Noritsune was so grief stricken at what had happened that he took no further part in the day’s battle.

  Meanwhile Yoshitsune, giving orders for the stricken Tsuginobu to be carried to the rear, got off his horse and, taking Tsuginobu’s hand, asked, “How are you feeling?”

  Speaking in a faint and breathless voice, Tsuginobu replied, “This is the end for me.”

  “Is there anything more you want to say?” asked Yoshitsune.

  “I have nothing more to say,” was the reply. “I’m sorry only that I must die before I have seen my lord gain his rightful place in the world, that’s all. Any man who takes up bow and arrow knows that one day he may die by the arrows of his enemy. But in future ages, when they talk about these wars between the Genji and the Heike, if they say that Tsuginobu of Ōshū fell on the beach at Yashima in Sanuki, giving up his life to save that of his lord, then that is all a warrior could hope for by way of recognition in this life and remembrance in the life hereafter.” As he spoke, his voice grew fainter and fainter.

  Speaking through his tears, Yoshitsune asked whether any worthy monks were nearby. When one was found, Yoshitsune told him, “This man is now dying of his wounds. See that you spend the day copying out sutra texts for the repose of his soul.” Then he took a sturdy, well-fed black horse fitted with a gold-bordered saddle and gave it as payment to the monk. The horse was known as Lord Black of the fifth rank and had been given to Yoshitsune when he was promoted to the post of fifth-rank lieutenant. Yoshitsune had ridden this very horse when he crossed over Hiyodori Pass to attack Ichi-no-tani.

  Tsuginobu’s brother Tadanobu and the other warriors all looked on in tears, exclaiming, “For a lord like this, a man could give up his life without having the smallest particle of regret!”

  Nasu no Yoichi (11:4)

  In the provinces of Awa and Sanuki those persons who had stopped siding with the Heike and were awaiting only the arrival of the Genji now began to appear, fourteen or fifteen horsemen here, twenty horsemen there, coming down from the mountains or emerging from caves where they had been hiding, until Yoshitsune in no time found himself with a force of more than three hundred mounted men.

  “The day is too far gone,” he announced. “There’s no hope of a decisive victory today!” He had just begun withdrawing his men when a small boat, beautifully decorated, appeared in the offing, rowing in the direction of the shore. When it had come within a couple of hundred feet of the shore, it turned sideways.

  “What is that?” exclaimed the onlookers, for they could now see a woman of eighteen or nineteen, very lovely and refined in bearing, wearing crimson trousers over a five-layer robe of green-lined white. Attached to a pole she held a crimson fan with a golden sun painted on it. Wedging the pole into the siding of the boat, she beckoned toward the shore.

  Yoshitsune called Sanemoto to his side and said, “What do you suppose is the meaning of that?”

  “I think she wants us to shoot at the fan,” he replied. “But I suspect they are trying to entice you to move forward where you can get a better view of the beautiful lady. Then they’ll order one of their expert archers to shoot you down. Even so, we should get someone to shoot at the fan.”

  “Do we have anyone on our side capable of hitting it?” asked

  Yoshitsune.

  “We have many first-rate archers. There’s Yoichi Munekata, the son of Nasu no Tarō Suketaka. Small as he is, he’s an expert marksman!”

  “How can you tell?”

  “If we have a contest shooting birds on the wing, he always manages to down two out of every three he aims at.”

  “Then send for him!” said Yoshitsune.

  Yoichi, a man of around twenty, wore a dark blue battle robe trimmed with red brocade at the lapels and sleeve edges and a suit of greenish yellow–laced armor. He carried a sword with a silver cord ring and a quiver, visible above his head, containing the few black spotted white eagle-feather arrows left from the day’s shooting. These were fledged with black and white eagle feathers, and with them he carried a deer-horn humming arrow with hawk feathers and black and white eagle feathers. Holding his rattan-bound bow under his arm and doffing his helmet so that it hung from his shoulder cord, he made his obeisance before Yoshitsune.

  “Now then, Yoichi—hit that red fan square in the middle and show these Heike what you can do!”

  “I’m not sure I can do that,” Yoichi replied in a respectful manner. “And if I should fail, it would reflect badly on our side for a long time to come. It would be best to summon someone whose skill is certain to succeed.”

  Yoshitsune was furious. “All you fellows who have left Kamakura and come west with me are expected to obey my orders! If you are going to quibble over every little detail, you can leave my command at once!”

  Thinking it inappropriate to decline any further, Yoichi replied, “I’m not certain I can make a hit, but since it is my lord’s wish, I’ll see what I can do.”

  Retiring from Yoshitsune’s presence, he got on a sturdy black horse fitted with a tasseled crupper and a saddle decorated with a sand-dollar design. Readjusting the bow in his hand and taking up the reins, he advanced toward the edge of the water. The Genji troops kept their eyes fixed on him from the rear, exclaiming, “This lad will make a good showing, you may be sure!” Yoshitsune too watched with confident expectation.

  Because the target was too far to be within range, Yoichi advanced some forty feet into the water, but he could see that the fan was still more than two hundred and fifty feet away. It was the eighteenth day of the Second Month of the lunar calendar, around six o’clock in the late afternoon, and a strong north wind was blowing, sending high waves surging up on the beach. The boat was wobbling up and down on the waves, and the fan, not firmly fastened, flapped back and forth. Out in the sea the Heike watched from their boats strung out over the water while the Genji, their horses lined up side by side, looked on from the shore.

  Yoichi closed his eyes. “Hail to Bodhisattva Hachiman and to the gods of my homeland of Shimotsuke, the Buddha in his manifestation at Nikkō, and the gods of Utsunomiya and the Yuzen Shrine in Nasu. Help me hit the fan in the center, I pray you. If I fail in this attempt, I will break my bow and end my life, never to show my face before anyone again. If you would have me return once more to my native land, may my arrow not miss the mark!” Such was the prayer he offered up in his heart.

  A beautiful woman (right) in a Heike boat raises a fan as a challenge to the Genji archers. Under orders from Yoshitsune, Nasu no Yoichi (left) hits the target with his arrow.

  When he opened his eyes again, he found that the wind had died down a little and the fan had become a somewhat less difficult target. Yoichi took out the humming arrow, fitted it to his bow and, pulling the bow all the way back, sent it whistling on its way.

  Yoichi was small in stature, and the arrow measured only three fingers more than the usual ten handbreadths and three fingers in length, but the bow was powerful and the arrow made a long droning noise that resounded all across the water. Then with a crack it struck the fan about an inch above the rivet, knocking it loose. As the arrow plunged beneath the waves, the fan rose up into the sky. For a moment it fluttered about in the empty air, buffeted this way and that by the spring breeze, and then all at once it plummeted into the sea. In the rays of the setting sun, the red fan face with its golden sun could be seen bobbing and sinking as it drifted over the white wave
s.1

  Offshore the Heike drummed on the gunwales of their boats to signal their admiration while on the beach the Genji shouted and pounded on their quivers.

  The Lost Bow (11:5)

  Perhaps he was carried away with the excitement of the moment: in one of the Heike boats a man of about fifty, wearing armor laced with black leather and carrying a wooden-handle halberd, stood up in a spot near where the fan had been displayed and began to do a dance. Yoshimori of Ise, having advanced on his horse to a position right behind Yoichi, said, “The commander has ordered you to shoot down that man!”

  This time Yoichi took one of the plain arrows from his quiver and, fitting it into place, drew the bow back fully. With a thud the arrow struck the man’s collarbone and sent him tumbling headfirst into the bottom of the boat. The Heike side looked on in silence while among the Genji, some once more rattled their quivers and shouted, “Good shot!” but others exclaimed, “Heartless!”

  This was more than the Heike could endure. Three of their warriors, one bearing a shield, a second with a bow, and a third with a halberd, made their way to the beach and, planting the shield there, beckoned to the enemy and shouted, “Attack us if you can!”

  “Some of you young fellows on good horses—attack them and kick them out of the way!” ordered Yoshitsune.

  Five horsemen—Shirō, Tōōjichi, and Jūrō of Mionoya in Musashi, Shirō of Kōzuke, and Chūji of Shinano—let out a yell and charged forward in a group. From behind the shield the Heike shot a large arrow with a black lacquer shaft and black feathers. Jūrō was riding at the head of the group, and the arrow struck his horse in the left side near the chest rope, burying the tip of the arrow in the horse’s flesh. The horse fell over like a toppled screen.