Her two female attendants, who from the time she became imperial consort had never once been parted from her, were beside themselves with grief at her passing, helpless though they were to avert it. The support on which they had depended from times past had now been snatched from them, and they were left destitute, yet even in that pitiable state they managed to hold memorial services each year on the anniversary of her death. And in due time they, too, we are told, imitating the example of the dragon king’s daughter in her attainment of enlightenment and following in the footsteps of Queen Vaidehi, fulfilled their long-cherished hopes for rebirth in the Pure Land.
1. When Yang Guifei came to monopolize the affections of Emperor Xuanzong, the other ladies who had enjoyed his attentions were forced to retire to seclusion in the Shangyang Palace. The passage alludes to a poem by Bo Juyi on the fate of one such lady.
2. Kiyohara no Fukayabu was a tenth-century courtier and poet who was later designated as one of the thirty-six sages of poetry.
3. The empress was the wife of Emperor GoReizei (r. 1045–1068).
4. A dying person took hold of the cord attached to Amida’s hand to ensure that he or she would be reborn in the Pure Land, or Western Paradise.
5. The Sixth Heaven is the highest realm in the world of desire and is inhabited by gods.
6. The Five Marks of Decay are when human beings’ clothes become dirty, their hair flowers fade, their bodies smell, they sweat, and they no longer enjoy their original status.
7. Brahma and Indra are two of the main gods of Hindu mythology. They were incorporated into Buddhist cosmology as protectors of Buddhism, although their heavens are located in the Six Paths of Existence.
8. According to Buddhist belief, a woman may not become (at least directly) a Brahma, an Indra, a devil king, a wheel-turning king, or a buddha. She is expected to submit to and obey her father in childhood, her husband in maturity, and her son in old age when she is widowed.
9. The Four Sufferings are the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness, and the suffering of death.
10. The Eight Sufferings are the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness, the suffering of death, the suffering of separation from loved ones, the suffering of being with those one hates, the suffering of frustrated desires, and the suffering of attachment to self.
The characters in The Tales of the Heike are usually listed under their personal (given) names, with cross-references provided where necessary. Emperors appear under their posthumous names used in the text (for example, Antoku). Abbreviated book and section references (for example, 1:1) in boldface type indicate the passages in which the historical figures appear in this translation, and those in lightface type signal events in other portions of the narrative. Variant texts of the Heike monogatari other than the Kakuichi version translated here and key episodes in later prose and dramatic genres are cited as well.
AKUGENDA: see Yoshihira.
AKUSHICHIBYŌE: see Kagekiyo.
ANTOKU, EMPEROR (1178–1185, r. 1180–1185): son of Emperor Takakura and Kenreimon’in (Tokuko). Taken by the Taira as they flee from the capital, he drowns at Dan-no-ura. He is also known as “the nation’s ruler,” “the late emperor,” “the emperor,” and “my son, the late emperor” [1:5, 7:16, 7:20, 11:9, Initiates 1, 2, 4, 5; 3:3, 4:1, 5:1, 7:9, 8:1, 8:3, 11:1].
ARIKUNI: Musashi no Saburōzaemon Arikuni, Taira samurai commander at the battle of Uji. He dies in the campaign against Yoshinaka [4:11; 7:4, 7:7].
ARIMORI (d. 1185): son of Taira no Shigemori. He takes his own life at Dan-no-ura [11:10; 6:10, 7:14, 7:19, 9:8, 10:1, 10:14].
ARIŌ: boy in Bishop Shunkan’s service. He travels to his master’s place of exile, witnessing his death. After cremating his master’s body, he takes religious orders [3:8, 3:9].
ASARI: see Yoichi (1).
ATSUMORI (1169–1184): son of Taira no Tsunemori and nephew of Kiyomori. He dies at the hands of Naozane at Ichi-no-tani. Atsumori’s death inspired many later works, including a work for the kōwaka-mai performance tradition, the nō plays Atsumori and Ikuta Atsumori, and Muromachi prose tales about the appearance of Atsumori’s ghost to his son (Ko Atsumori) [9:16; 7:19].
AWA-NO-NAISHI: daughter of Fujiwara no Shinsei (or, according to other texts, his granddaughter). One of Kenreimon’in’s companions in the Jakkō-in refuge, she is referred to as “an elderly nun” [Initiates 3–5].
BENKEI: Musashibō Benkei (d. 1189), warrior monk serving under Yoshitsune. Although Benkei has only a small role in the Kakuichi version, he plays an important part in the history of the Yoshitsune legend. Benkei is a central figure in The Tale of Yoshitsune (Gikeiki) and in shorter medieval prose tales like The Tale of Benkei (Benkei monogatari). He also appears in many nō and kabuki plays (Hashi Benkei, Funa Benkei, Ataka, and Kanjinchō) [9:9, 11:3, 11:7; 9:7, 12:4].
BEPPU NO KOTARŌ: young warrior in Yoshitsune’s entourage [9:9; 9:7].
CHANCELLOR: see Kiyomori.
CHIKAKIYO: Taira archer from Iyo Province at the battle of Dan-no-ura [11:8].
CHIKAKU: monk at Mount Kōya. He is consulted by Koremori when he takes holy orders [10:10].
CHIKAMASA: Fujiwara Chikamasa (1145–1210), sent by Regent Motomichi with a message for the Nara monks [5:14; 11:11].
CHIKANORI: [Kaneko no Yoichi] Chikanori of Musashi Province, serving under Yoshitsune [11:3; 9:7, 11:1].
CHIKAYOSHI: Saiin [no Jikan] Chikayoshi (1133–1208), official serving under Yoritomo [10:7; 8:5, 10:14].
CHŪJI OF SHINANO: [Kiso no] Chūji, serving under Yoshitsune [11:5].
COMMANDER: see Yoshitsune.
DAINAGON NO SUKE, LADY: daughter of Major Counselor Kunitsuna, wife of Taira no Shigehira, and wet nurse to Emperor Antoku. Captured at Dan-no-ura, she accompanies Kenreimon’in to the Jakkō-in refuge [Initiates 2, 3, 5; 10:2, 10:4, 10:6, 11:10, 11:11, 11:19].
EMPEROR: many of the references to “the emperor” or “the late emperor” are to Antoku. Other emperors and retired emperors mentioned by name are GoShirakawa, GoToba, Kanmu, Seiwa, Shōmu, Takakura, and Toba.
EMPRESS: see Kenreimon’in.
ENJITSU: Buddhist priest who buries Kiyomori’s remains [6:7].
FUHITO: Fujiwara no Fuhito (659–720), Lord Tankai, son of Kamatari. A leading political figure of his day, he was the founder of the Kōfuku-ji temple [5:14; 1:11, 7:9].
FUKAYABU: Kiyohara no Fukayabu, tenth-century courtier and poet [Initiates 3].
FUKAZU: Taira warrior at the battle of Uji [4:11].
GENTA: Tsuzuku no Genta, warrior on Prince Mochihito’s side at the battle of Uji [4:11; 4:10].
GENZŌ OF EDA: Eda no Genzō, warrior serving under Yoshitsune [11:3; 9:7, 11:7, 11:13, 12:4].
GINYO: younger sister of Giō. She is a shirabyōshi dancer [1:6].
GIŌ: daughter of Toji. She is a shirabyōshi dancer favored by Kiyomori [1:6].
GISHIN (also read YOSHICHIKA): leader of a rebellion in western Japan in 1100 [1:1; 5:5, 5:11, 6:6].
GOSHIRAKAWA, EMPEROR (1127–1192, r. 1155–1158): fourth son of Emperor Toba and retired emperor from 1169 until his death. His sons include Emperor Takakura and Prince Takakura (Mochihito), and Emperors Antoku and GoToba were his grandsons [1:6, 2:6, 2:7, 3:1, 5:19, 6:7, 7:16, 7:20, 10:5, 12:9, Initiates 3, 4; 1:5, 1:7, 1:9, 1:11–14, 2:1, 2:3, 2:10, 2:12, 2:16, 3:3, 3:15, 3:19, 4:1–4, 4:6, 4:8, 5:1, 5:10, 5:11, 6:1, 6:4, 6:5, 6:7, 6:10, 6:12, 7:13, 8:1, 8:2, 8:5, 8:10, 8:11, 9:1, 9:5, 9:17, 10:1, 10:13, 11:13, 12:1].
GOTOBA, EMPEROR (1180–1239, r. 1183/1185–1198): fourth son of Emperor Takakura and retired emperor until 1221, when he is exiled to the island of Oki. He is chosen to succeed his brother Antoku, whom the Taira have taken with them on their flight from the capital [12:9; 8:1, 8:10, 10:14; 11:13, 11:14].
HABUKU: warrior on Prince Mochihito’s side at the battle of Uji [4:11; 1:15, 4:10].
HARENOBU: doctor of divination [11:8].
HEYAKO NO SHIRŌ: Taira warrior at the
battle of Uji [4:11].
HIDEKUNI: Kawachi no Hangan Hidekuni, Heike samurai commander [4:11; 7:2, 7:6].
HIDETŌ OF YAMAGA: Yamaga no Hyōdōji Hidetō, Heike commander of the vanguard boats at the battle of Dan-no-ura and the “finest archer in all of Kyushu” [11:7; 8:4].
HIGUCHI JIRŌ: see Kanemitsu.
HIROMI: Councillor Tachibana no Hiromi (837–890), author of the poem in Chinese (Wakan rōeishū, no. 693) recalled by Shigehira [10:7; 6:10].
HIROTSUNA (1): Genpachi Hirotsuna, Genji warrior serving under Yoshitsune [11:3, 11:7; 9:7, 11:11].
HIROTSUNA (2): Sanuki no Hirotsuna, Heike warrior at the battle of Uji [4:11; 9:7].
HOKKYŌ (DHARMA BRIDGE): Buddhist priest from Onaka in Kumano Province [9:15].
HŌNEN (1132–1212): “Priest Hōnen of Kurodani” on Mount Hiei, one of the founders of Pure Land Buddhism in Japan. He administers Buddhist precepts to Shigehira [10:5].
HOSSHŌ-JI ADMINISTRATOR: see Shunkan.
HOTOKE: shirabyōshi dancer from Kaga Province, whose name means “Buddha.” She is the subject of the nō play Hotoke no hara [1:6].
HŌZŌ: high-ranking tenth-century Tōdai-ji priest who was said to have visited hell (Genkyōshaku, book 4) [6:7].
ICHIRAI: warrior monk on Prince Mochihito’s side at the battle of Uji [4:11; 4:10].
ICHIJŌ OF KAI: see Tadayori.
IESADA: Sahyōe-no-jō Iesada, retainer of Taira no Tadamori [1:2].
IETADA OF MUSASHI: Kaneko no Jūrō Ietada, one of the “Kaneko brothers,” warriors serving under Yoshitsune [11:3; 9:7, 11:1].
IKE NUN: second wife of Taira no Tadamori, stepmother of Kiyomori, and mother of Yorimori. Her name (Ike no zenni) comes from the Ike home, Ike-dono (Pond Mansion), at Rokuhara. After the Heiji rebellion (1159), she asks that the thirteen-year-old Yoritomo be exiled rather than executed [5:10, 7:19, 10:13, 11:18].
IMAI: see Kanehira.
IMPERIAL CONSORT, IMPERIAL LADY: see Kenreimon’in.
INSEI: Reverend Insei (or, in some texts, Inzei), Chōraku-ji priest who administers Buddhist precepts to Kenreimon’in [Initiates 1].
ISHIDŌMARU: boy who accompanies Koremori, drowning with him [10:8, 10:9, 10:12].
JŪMYŌ MEISHŪ: warrior monk on Prince Mochihito’s side at the battle of Uji [4:11; 4:10, 4:16].
JŪRŌ OF MIONOYA: warrior serving under Yoshitsune [11:5].
KAGEIE (1): third son of Kajiwara Kagetoki and Genji warrior [11:3; 9:7, 9:11, 11:7].
KAGEIE (2): governor of Hida Province and Taira samurai commander [4:11; 2:3, 4:12, 7:9].
KAGEKIYO: Akushichibyōe Kagekiyo of Kazusa Province, Heike warrior. He continues to fight against the Genji after the battle of Dan-no-ura. Some variants of The Tales of the Heike describe how he is captured as he tries to assassinate Yoritomo at Nara. He also is the subject of nō drama (Kagekiyo) and other genres [4:11, 11:5, 11:7; 7:2, 8:9, 9:10, 10:14, 11:11, 12:9].
KAGESUE: eldest son of Kajiwara Kagetoki and Genji warrior [9:15, 11:7; 9:1–3, 9:7, 9:11].
KAGETAKA (1): second son of Kajiwara Kagetoki and Genji warrior [11:3; 9:7, 9:11].
KAGETAKA (2): son of Kageie, the governor of Hida Province, and Taira warrior. He dies in the northern campaign against Yoshinaka [4:11; 7:2, 7:6].
KAGETOKI: Kajiwara [no] Kagetoki (d. 1200), Genji commander. His dislike of Yoshitsune leads him to speak slanderously of him to Yoritomo [11:7; 4:5, 9:7, 9:11, 9:16, 10:6, 10:7, 11:1, 11:6, 11:17, 12:4, 12:9].
KAGETSUNE OF HIDA: dies at the battle of Dan-no-ura trying to rescue his foster brother Taira no Munemori [11:7; 10:14, 11:10].
KAJIWARA: see Kagesue; Kagetoki.
KAMADABYŌ: Kamadabyō Masakiyo (1132–1160), retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitomo in the Heiji rebellion (1159). He later is assassinated [10:10; 12:2].
KANEHIRA: Imai [no] Kanehira (d. 1184), foster brother of Kiso no Yoshinaka and brother of Higuchi no Jirō Kanemitsu and, possibly, of Tomoe. Depicted as both a loyal retainer of Yoshinaka and a wise adviser who tries to restrain some of his master’s excesses after his forces occupy the capital (book eight), he remains with Yoshinaka to the end, taking his own life after Yoshinaka dies. He is the subject of the nō play Kanehira [9:4; 7:1, 7:4, 7:7, 8:6, 8:8, 8:10, 9.1].
KANEKO BROTHERS: Ietada and Chikanori, serving under Yoshitsune [11:5; 9:7, 11:1, 11:3].
KANEMASA: Fujiwara no Kanemasa (1144–1200), accompanies Emperor GoShirakawa to Ōhara. Married to one of Kiyomori’s daughters, he rises to the position of minister of the left [Initiates 3; 1:5, 1:12, 2:8].
KANEMITSU: Higuchi no Jirō Kanemitsu, elder brother of Imai no Kanehira and leading retainer of Kiso no Yoshinaka. He is executed after their deaths [7:8; 7:4, 7:7, 8:9, 8:10, 9:5].
KANEYASU: Senoo Kaneyasu, chief of police of Yamato Province. Sent as a messenger to the Nara monks, he is Kiyomori’s right-hand man in this narrative as well as in those dealing with the earlier Hōgen and Heiji rebellions (1156, 1159) [5:14; 2:4, 2:9, 3:12, 7:6, 8:8].
KANMU, EMPEROR (737–806, r. 737–806): sovereign from whom Kiyomori’s branch of the Taira family descended [1:1, 1:2; 5:1, 7:12].
KEISHŪ: Reverend Master Keishū of the Jōen Cloister (Mii-dera) [4:11; 4:9, 4:10].
KENREIMON’IN: Tokuko (1155?–1213?), daughter of Taira no Kiyomori and Tokiko (Nun of the Second Rank); sister of Munemori, Tomomori, and Shigehira; and, from 1171, consort of Emperor Takakura, with whom she has four sons. Her first son becomes Emperor Antoku, and her fourth son becomes Emperor GoToba. She is also known as the “imperial consort,” “imperial lady,” and “empress.” She takes religious precepts after the Heike’s defeat in 1185 at the battle of Dan-no-ura and dies as a recluse in Ōhara. Several documents state that she died at the age of fifty-eight or fifty-nine in 1213, but other sources say the date could be as early as 1191 or as late as 1224. Unlike early versions of the Heike narrative that close with the death of Rokudai, the Kakuichi version ends with “The Initiates’ Book” (Kanjō no maki), describing Kenreimon’in’s fate. She also is the subject of the nō play The Imperial Visit to Ohara (Ohara gokō) [1:5, 3:1, 3:2, 5:14, 11:9, Initiates 1–5; 3:3, 4:2, 5:1, 6:2, 6:12, 7:13, 7:19, 11:1, 11:2, 11:10, 11:11, 12:3].
KIKUŌ: young boy in Noritsune’s service. He is killed at the battle of Yashima [11:3].
KIRIU NO ROKURŌ: Heike warrior at the battle of Uji [4:11].
KISO, LORD KISO: see Yoshinaka.
KIYOMORI (1118–1181): descendant of Emperor Kanmu; eldest son of Taira no Tadamori; brother of Tsunemori, Norimori, Yorimori, and Tadanori; and father of Shigemori with his first wife and of Munemori and more than a dozen other children with his second wife, Tokiko (Nun of the Second Rank). He is also known as “the Taira Chancellor.” According to an anecdote in section 6:10, Kiyomori’s real father was Emperor Shirakawa, who had Tadamori adopt him. Kiyomori succeeds Tadamori as head of the Taira clan in 1153. The Hōgen and Heiji rebellions (1156, 1159) give Kiyomori an opportunity to eliminate political and military rivals. Over the next twenty years, he wields great political power. Kiyomori rises swiftly up the court hierarchy, becoming prime minister (daijō daijin) and junior first rank in 1167. He takes Buddhist orders and the religious name Jōkai after an illness in 1168 and becomes the father-in-law of the reigning emperor after his daughter Tokuko (Kenreimon’in) becomes the empress of Takakura in 1171 [1:1–6, 2:6, 2:7, 3:1, 3:2, 5:14, 6:7, 7:20, 10:5, 10:12, 12:9, Initiates 1, 5; 2:1, 2:3–5, 2:9–12, 2:16, 3:3–5, 3:11, 3:15–19, 4:1–9, 4:13, 4:16, 5:1, 5:3, 5:4, 5:12, 5:13, 6:4–6, 6:8–10, 7:5, 8:4, 8:11, 9:7, 10:2, 10:4, 10:14, 12:2–4].
KIYOMUNE (1171–1185): grandson of Taira no Kiyomori and son of Munemori. Captured at the battle of Dan-no-ura, he is brought as a prisoner to Kamakura and is executed [4:14, 7:12, 7:19, 9:17, 11:10, 11:11, 11:13, 11:16, 11:18].
KIYONORI: Takechi Kiyonori of Iyo Province, Taira defender at the battle of Ichi-no-tani [9:12].
KIYOTSUNE: Middle Captain Kiyotsune (1163–1183), grandson of Taira no Kiyomori and son of Shigemori. He takes
his own life after the Heike are driven from Kyushu. Kiyotsune is the subject of the nō play Kiyotsune [10:10, Initiates 4; 6:10, 7:14, 7:19, 8:4, 10:13].
KOJIRŌ: see Naoie.
KOREMORI (1157–1184?): grandson of Taira no Kiyomori, eldest son of Shigemori, and father of Rokudai. He is unsuccessful as a leader in battles against Yoritomo (Fuji River, 1180) and Yoshinaka (Mount Tonamiyama, 1183). When the Heike flee from the capital, Koremori leaves his wife and children behind. He does not participate in the battle of Ichi-no-tani and abandons the rest of his clan during the campaign in Shikoku. Crossing to Kii Province, he takes religious orders and makes a pilgrimage to Kumano and Nachi, where he drowns himself [1:5, 10:8, 10:10, 10:12, 12:9; 1:16, 2:4, 2:11, 3:3, 3:11, 3:12, 5:11, 5:12, 7:2–4, 7:6, 7:12, 7:14, 7:19, 7:20, 9:7, 10:1, 10:9, 10:12–14, 12:7, 12:8].
KOREYOSHI: Okata no Saburō Koreyoshi of Bungo Province in Kyushu. In 1183 Koreyoshi allies himself with the Genji and drives the Heike from Kyushu, where they had sought safe haven [Initiates 4; 6:6, 8:3, 8:4, 9:4, 11:16, 12:5].
KOZAISHŌ: Third-Rank Lady of Echizen and wife of Taira no Michimori, governor of Echizen Province. On the eve of the battle of Ichi-no-tani, Michimori brings Kozaishō to the camp to say good-bye but sends her back to the Heike ships offshore when his brother Noritsune disapproves. Michimori was overjoyed to hear that Kozaishō is pregnant. After Kozaishō learns that her husband has been killed, she cannot bear to go on living and drowns herself. The section ends with an account of how, with the help of Empress Kenreimon’in, Michimori married Kozaishō. More details are revealed in the diary of another lady in the empress’s service (The Poetic Memoirs of Lady Daibu) [9:9, Initiates 1; 9:19].
KUMAGAE: see Naozane.
KUMAI TARŌ: retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitsune [11:3, 11:7; 9:7, 11:13, 12:4].
KUMAŌ: see Yoshihisa.
KUNITAKA: Kondō Kunitaka, given charge of Mongaku in exile [5:10].
The Tales of the Heike Page 19
