by VIKING ADULT
Norimori, Taira no (1128–87). Younger bother of Kiyomori, father of Michimori and Noritsune, father-in-law of Naritsune. Despite the tale’s account, he survived Dan-no-ura. (1:15; 2:5, 9, 15; 3:1, 3–4, 7; 7:12, 19; 9:6–7, 19; 11:10)
Noritsuna, Inomata no Kobeiroku (?–?). A warrior from the province of Musashi. Craftily managed to kill Taira no Moritoshi during the battle of Ichi-no-tani. (9:2, 12, 13)
Noritsune, Taira no (1160–85?). Nephew of Kiyomori, younger brother of Michimori, and a valiant warrior. Despite the tale’s account, he was killed at Ichi-no-tani. (7:13, 19; 8:7; 9:6, 9–10, 12, 18–19; 11:3, 5–6, 10)
Noriyori, Minamoto no. Half brother of Yoritomo and Yoshitsune and overall commander of the Genji campaign. His achievement fell far short of Yoshitsune’s. Eventually executed by Yoritomo. (8:11; 9:1–3, 5, 7, 11; 10:1, 14–15; 11:1, 7, 17; 12:5)
Rokudai (1173–?). Son of Taira no Koremori and the last scion of the Heike. Spared at the plea of Mongaku, he was executed at some time during the first decade of the thirteenth century. (7:14, 19; 10:1, 10, 12; 12:7–9)
Sadayoshi, Taira no. A warrior and provincial governor in the close service of Kiyomori. On behalf of the Heike he conducted a successful military campaign in Kyushu. (2:3–4, 6–7; 3:11–12; 6:11; 7:13, 19; 10:13)
Sanehira, Doi no Jir. A major commander under Minamoto no Yoritomo. (5:4; 7:1; 9:4, 7–11, 16; 10:2, 5, 14; 11:7, 13, 17)
Sanemori, Sait (1126–83). Active first on the Genji side, then served the Heike, joining the Heike northern campaign as an old man. His poignant death is particularly famous. His two sons, Saitgo and Saitroku, served Koremori. (5:11; 6:7; 7:7–8, 14)
Sanesada, Fujiwara no (1139–91). Known as the Tokudaiji left minister, this successful courtier was particularly close to Go-Shirakawa. (1:12; 2:11; 3:4; 5:1–2; 8:1, 11; 10:1, 15; 13:3, 5)
Sasaki. See Takatsuna.
Seno-o. See Kaneyasu.
Shigehira, Taira no (1157?–85). Fifth son of Taira no Kiyomori (called “fourth” in the tale because Motomori, Kiyomori’s original second son, was dead by this time). Responsible for burning the great temples of Nara, he was eventually beheaded by the Nara monks. (1:15; 2:3; 3:3; 4:11, 16; 5:12, 14; 6:10, 12; 7:12–13, 19; 8:9; 10:1–8, 11, 13, 15; 11:17, 19)
Shigemori, Taira no (1138–79). Eldest son of Kiyomori. His early death removed the last restraint from Kiyomori’s tyranny. (1:5, 9, 11–13, 15–16; 2:4–8, 10–11, 16; 3:1, 3–4, 6, 11–15, 18; 4:6; 5:10; 6:10; 10:10–12, 14)
Shigenori, Fujiwara no (1135–87). Fourth son of Shinzei and father of Kog. Known as Sakuramachi because of his love of cherry blossoms. (1:5; 4:1; 6:4)
Shigetada, Hatakeyama no Jir (1164–1205). A young Musashi warrior and a commander under Yoshitsune. Played a prominent role in the crossing of the Uji River. (9:2, 3, 7, 18)
Shigeyoshi, Taira no. Awa no Minbu Shigeyoshi. A Heike vassal in the province of Awa (Shikoku). First assisted the Heike but then, at Dan-no-ura, betrayed one of their crucial secrets to the Genji. (6:8; 9:17; 10:14; 11:2, 6–8, 11)
Shinzei (d. 1159). Religious name of Fujiwara no Michinori, an exceptionally learned scholar whose ambition led to his involvement and death in the Heiji Conflict. (1:12–13; 2:4; 3:15; 8:2, 11; 13:3)
Shunkan (1143–79). A prominent member of the Shishi-no-tani plot against the Heike. Kiyomori banished him to Kikai-ga-shima, where he died. (1:12–13; 2:3, 10, 15; 3:1–3, 6, 8–9, 18)
Sotsu-no-suke. Wife of Tokitada and Emperor Antoku’s first wet nurse. (3:4; 4:1; 5:1; 11:11; 12:3)
Sukemori, Taira no (1158–85). Shigemori’s second son, drowned at Dan-no-ura. Known especially for his youthful clash with the regent. (1:11; 4:2; 7:12, 14, 19; 8:4; 9:8; 10:1, 13–14; 11:10)
Tadamori, Taira no (1096–1153). Father of Kiyomori, Tsunemori, Norimori, Yorimori, and Tadanori. (1:1–3, 5; 2:3; 4:8; 6:10; 9:16)
Tadanobu, Sat Saburbye (1161–86). A warrior from the north, younger brother of Tsuginobu, and a close retainer of Yoshitsune. (9:7; 11:3, 5, 7)
Tadanori, Taira no (1144–84). Younger brother of Kiyomori, distinguished both as a warrior and as a poet. (1:3; 4:11, 16; 5:11, 13; 7:2, 4, 13, 16, 19; 8:3; 9:14, 18)
Tadayori, Ichij no Jir (?–1184). Genji warrior from the province of Kai, challenged by Yoshinaka just before Yoshinaka’s death. (4:3; 5:12; 9:4)
Takafusa, Fujiwara no (1148–1209). Ranking Fujiwara noble, son-in-law of Kiyomori and lover of Kog. (1:5; 4:1–2; 6:3–4; 13:2, 4)
Takatsuna, Sasaki Shir (?–?). An mi Genji warrior. Received the horse Ikezuki from Yoritomo and rode it first across the Uji River. (9:1, 2, 3, 7)
Tokimasa, Hj (1138–1215). Father-in-law of Yoritomo and, like his daughter Masako, a major figure in the Kamakura bakufu government that Yoritomo founded. (12:5, 7–8)
Tokitada, Taira no (1128–89). Brother-in-law and distant relative of Kiyomori. Exiled after being captured at Dan-no-ura. (1:4, 10, 16; 3:4; 4:1; 5:1; 7:13, 19; 8:2, 4, 11; 10:3–4; 11:10–11, 13, 15; 12:3)
Tomoe (?–?). In the tale a great warrior under Kiso no Yoshinaka and presumably his mistress. No historical document confirms her existence. (9:4)
Tomomori, Taira no (1152–85). Fourth son of Kiyomori (called “third” in the tale because Motomori, Kiyomori’s original second son, was dead by this time) and an outstanding leader in war. Died at Dan-no-ura. (1:5, 15; 2:3; 4:11–12; 5:13; 6:10; 7:4, 12–13, 15; 8:4, 7, 11; 9:11, 17; 10:11, 15; 11:1, 7–9, 10–11, 18; 12:9)
Tsuginobu, Sat Saburbye (1158–85). A warrior from the north, elder brother of Tadanobu, and a close retainer of Yoshitsune. (9:7; 11:1, 3)
Tsunemasa, Taira no (d. 1184). Son of Tsunemori and brother of Atsumori, known for his skill on the biwa. (7:2–3, 17–19; 8:3; 11:10)
Tsunemori, Taira no (1124–85). Younger brother of Kiyomori, father of Tsunemasa and Atsumori. (7:12, 19; 8:3; 9:16–17; 11:10)
Yasuyori, Taira no (?–?). A member of the Shishi-no-tani conspiracy, exiled to Kikai-ga-shima with Naritsune and Shunkan. (1:12; 2:3, 10, 15; 3:2)
Yorimasa, Minamoto no (1104–80). After fighting in the Hgen and Heiji conflicts, Yorimasa was already old when he drew Prince Mochihito into a failed rebellion against the Heike. (1:11, 15; 4:3–6, 10–12, 14–15; 5:9; 7:10; 11:19)
Yorimori, Taira no (1131–86). Son of Tadamori and a half brother of Kiyomori. Yoritomo promised him protection because his mother was Lady Ike, who saved Yoritomo’s life. He therefore stayed in the capital when the Heike fled (1183). The only senior Heike noble to be neither exiled nor executed. (1:15; 3:4, 6; 4:2, 13; 5:1; 7:12, 19; 10:9, 13; 13:5)
Yoritomo, Minamoto no (1147–99). Third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, half brother of Noriyori and Yoshitsune, cousin of Yoshinaka. Exiled to Izu after the Heiji Conflict, thanks to the intercession of Lady Ike, he eventually raised rebellion against the Heike and prevailed. Founded the Kamakura bakufu. (3:17; 4:3; 5:3–4, 6–7, 10–12; 6:5–7, 12; 7:1–2, 7, 12, 19; 8:4–6, 10–11; 9:1, 3–5, 9–10, 12; 10:3–7, 13–14; 11:1, 7, 10, 14–15, 17–18; 12:2–9)
Yoshinaka, Kiso (Minamoto) no (1154–84). Cousin of Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, usually referred to in the tale, somewhat pejoratively, simply as “Kiso” after his home region or sometimes as “Lord Kiso.” Although first into the capital after the Heike flight, he was later killed by Yoritomo’s men. (4:3, 14; 6:5–6, 11–12; 7:1–19; 8:1–2, 4–11; 9:1–5; 10:13, 15; 11:1, 17; 12:4; 13:4)
Yoshitomo, Minamoto no (1123–60). Father of Yoritomo, Yoshitsune, and others. Killed in the aftermath of the Heiji Conflict. Yoritomo longed to avenge his death (1:7; 2:6; 4:3, 10; 5:7, 10; 10:1, 4; 11:18; 12:2)
Yoshitsune, Minamoto no (1159–89). Half brother of Yoritomo and one of the most celebrated heroes in Japanese history. Despite his daring successes on Yoritomo’s behalf, Yoritomo eventually (beyond the end of the tale) had him pursued into northern Japan and killed. (4:3; 8:11; 9:1, 3, 5, 7–9, 12; 10:1, 5, 14–15; 11:1–8, 10–13, 15–18; 12:3–5, 8)
Yukiie, Minamoto no (?–1186). Yoritomo’s uncl
e and one of his commanders. Originally Yoshimori, he changed his name to Yukiie in 1180. Yoritomo eventually had him killed. (4:3; 7:4, 6, 13; 8:1–2, 9; 9:5; 12:5, 8)
Yukitaka, Fujiwara (Nakayama) no (1130–87). Father of Yukinaga, named in Essays in Idleness as the original Heike author. Favored by Kiyomori, oversaw rebuilding of the Great Buddha Hall and building of the new capital at Fukuhara. (3:17; 5:1; 6:9)
Yukitsuna, Tada no. The Shishi-no-tani conspirator who revealed the plot to Kiyomori. (1:12–13; 2:3; 3:1; 4:3)
BOOK ONE
1. The Jetavana Temple
(song)
The Jetavana Temple bells
ring the passing of all things.
Twinned sal trees, white in full flower,
declare the great man’s certain fall.1
The arrogant do not long endure:
They are like a dream one night in spring.
The bold and brave perish in the end:
They are as dust before the wind.
Far away in the Other Realm,2
Zhao Gao of Qin, Wang Mang of Han,
Zhu Yi of Liang, Lushan of Tang
spurned the governance established
by their lords of old, by sovereigns past,
sought pleasure and ignored all warnings,
blind to ruin threatening the realm,
deaf to the suffering people’s cries.
So it was that they did not last:
Their lot was annihilation.
Closer to us here, in our own land,
Masakado in the Shhei years, [931–38]
in the Tengy era Sumitomo, [938–47]
during Kwa, Yoshichika, [1099–1104]
during Heiji, Nobuyori, [1159–60]
each stood out in pride and valor,
yet all still pale beside that man
among us in the recent past:
the novice monk of Rokuhara,
former chancellor, his lordship
Taira no Kiyomori.
Taira no Kiyomori,
tales of whose deeds and ways
surpass the imagination,
exceed all that the tongue can tell.
What ancestry could this lord claim?
He was the firstborn of Tadamori,
lord of Justice; his grandfather
Masamori, governor of Sanuki,
looked nine generations back
to a prince of the first rank:
Kazurahara, lord of Ceremonial,
the fifth son of Emperor Kanmu. [r. 781–806]
That prince’s offspring, Takami,
died without holding rank or office.
His son, known as Takamochi,
first received the surname Taira
with appointment as deputy
to the governor of Kazusa.
Imperial no more, he was a subject.
Next, his son, Yoshimochi,
the guardian of the Northern Marches,3
assumed a new name: Kunika.
Six generations followed him,
Kunika down to Masamori,
living as provincial governors.
None of them was ever granted
listing as a privy gentleman.
2. The Night Attack in the Palace
(recitative)
So it was until Tadamori, then the governor of Bizen,
put up for Retired Emperor Toba [r. 1107–23]
Tokujju-in, the temple that His Eminence4 had vowed to build.
Tadamori made it thirty-three bays long, and within,
he enshrined a thousand and one buddhas.
The dedication took place in Tensh 1, third month, thirteenth day. [1131]
His Eminence decreed in return
that any governor post then vacant should go to Tadamori.
Tajima, which chanced to be open, became his.
By way of thanks, he also granted Tadamori admission to the palace.
Thus in his thirty-sixth year Tadamori gained this privilege at last.
The jealous cloud dwellers5 then plotted together:
On the night of the Gosechi Warmth of Wine banquet,6
in the twelfth month and on the twenty-third day,
they would arrange to assassinate him.
Their plot reached Tadamori’s ears.
“I have never been a scribe,” he said.
“No, I was born a warrior,
and to my house, just as to me,
sudden shame would be a bitter blow.
There is, after all, that saying
that a man’s duty is to live
so as always to serve his lord.”
In this spirit, he prepared to act.
Tadamori went to the palace, a large dagger thrust loosely beneath his robes,
faced the room’s shadowy depths,
softly drew it, and held it to his sidelocks.
It gleamed like ice.
Every gentleman present stared, wide-eyed.
(speech)
Among Tadamori’s men was one Iesada, a junior officer of the Left Watch, a grandson of Sadamitsu (himself once a Taira) of the Bureau of Carpentry, and a son of Suefusa, an officer of the Right Ward of the city. Under a pale green hunting cloak Iesada wore green-laced armor, and he clasped beneath his arm a sword with a bowstring bag attached. He settled, ready and waiting, into the small court next to the hall. The head chamberlain became suspicious of him, and so, too, did everyone who saw him.7
“You, this side of the rain tank, next to the bell rope,
in the plain hunting cloak: Who are you?
You are out of order! Remove yourself!”
A sixth-rank chamberlain spoke their command.
Iesada replied,
“My lord from generations past,
the governor of Bizen province,
has heard that there may be tonight
an attempt made against his life.
I am here in case he should need me.
I cannot possibly leave now.” He would not move.
The conspirators must have seen
that their plot had come to nothing.
That night there was no attack.
Called by His Eminence to dance,
Tadamori responded promptly,
at which the company sang a new song:
“This Taira from Ise:
Look at his squinty eyes!”—
words fraught with a double meaning:
“This wine jug from Ise:
It’s just a vinegar jar!”
And it is true enough: The Taira—
be this said with all due respect—
while descended from Emperor Kanmu,
had come to live far from the city,
as local squires in Ise province.
There was nothing that Tadamori could do.
He slipped from the hall before the music ended.
Behind the emperor’s residence, in plain view of some privy gentlemen,
he called over a lady palace official and had her take his dagger.
Only then did he leave. Iesada was waiting for him.
“What happened, my lord?” Iesada asked.
Tadamori wanted to tell him the story,
but he knew that if he did, a man like Iesada would charge into the hall,
brandishing his murderous sword.
“Nothing,” he answered.
Gosechi merriment as a rule
involves singing light, amusing songs:
“Paper white and fine,
paper purple-dyed,
gaily thread-wound brushes,
brushes lacquer-handled,
painted with swirl-patterns…”
and other ditties in that vein.
But there lived not that long ago
a gentleman named Lord Suenaka,
a provisional Dazaifu viceroy,
so dark-complected that his familiars
knew him only as Viceroy Black.
In his early, head-chamberlain days,
Suena
ka, too, danced his Gosechi dance;
at which the company, in the same way,
struck up a new song, all their own:
“Black, black is the color,
black the color of the Head:
What manner of man, pray,
lacquered him so black?”
Then there was Lord Tadamasa, a former chancellor.
Tadamasa was in only his tenth year when he lost his father, the counselor Tadamune.
Lord Fujiwara no Ienari, still the governor of Harima,
took him as a son-in-law and made much of him.
When he did his Gosechi dance, all sang,
“This Harima rice
must be pure scouring rush,
pure muku-leaf brush,
the way it brings up a youngster’s shine!”
“Yes,” people conceded, “things like that did go on in those days.
Nothing actually happened, though.
In this latter age, you never know what to expect.
There could be trouble.”
Sure enough, once the Gosechi festivities were over, the privy gentlemen protested with one voice, “To appear at an imperial banquet equipped with a dagger or to frequent the palace with an armed attendant—such things are permitted only in conformity with rules and regulations. They require the emperor’s express authorization. Lord Tadamori, however, joined the Gosechi company with a warrior in a plain hunting cloak, supposedly a hereditary retainer of his, posted in the small court beside the hall and with a dagger at his side. Both offenses are unprecedented, and each compounds the other. Leniency is out of the question.
He must be struck from the roster at once and dismissed from his duties.”
The astonished retired emperor called Tadamori in for questioning.
Tadamori respectfully replied,
“As far as that man of mine is concerned,
stationed to serve me in the small court,
I never knew that he was there.
But there have been rumors, lately,
concerning a plot against my life;
and he, being an old retainer,
in all likelihood heard them, too,
so that he acted to spare me shame
without breathing a word to me.