by VIKING ADULT
on mornings beneath the blossoms,
on nights bright with a perfect moon,
to make music and poetry,
to sport at kickball, archery,
to vie for the prettiest fan,
for the most attractive painting,
the most amusing bug or plant!”
So they shared their memories
to relieve the melancholy
of the lengthening spring days.
On the eleventh of the first month,
Kiso no Yoshinaka called on Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa
to announce his approaching departure for the provinces of the west
on a campaign to suppress the Heike.
On the thirteenth, even as word went out that he was leaving,
news came that Yoritomo was on his way from the east
with many tens of thousands of mounted men,
aiming to put a stop to Kiso’s insubordination,
and that he had reached even now the provinces of Mino and Ise.
Kiso, thunderstruck, dismantled the Uji and Seta bridges
and divided what men he had to mount a defense.
At the time there were few enough of them.
To meet the main attack, at the Seta Bridge,
he dispatched there eight hundred men
commanded by Imai no Shir Kanehira.
To the Uji Bridge went Nishina,
Takanashi, and Yamada no Jir,
at the head of five hundred horse.
To Shida no Sabur Yoshinori,
his uncle, Kiso assigned Imoarai
to hold with a band of three hundred.
The main Genji force, coming from the east,
followed the orders of Noriyori,
the flanking force those of Yoshitsune.
Thirty lesser commanders led,
in all, sixty thousand warriors.
Lord Yoritomo had two superb horses in those days: Ikezuki and Surusumi.
Kajiwara Kagesue had often begged him for Ikezuki, only to be told,
“When the time comes, I will ride Ikezuki into battle.
Surusumi is just as good, though.” He gave Kajiwara Surusumi.
When Sasaki Takatsuna came to say good-bye, Yoritomo replied for some reason,
“Many others have asked for him. I want you to know that.”
And he gave Sasaki Ikezuki. Sasaki respectfully answered,
“On this horse I shall be first
of all men across the Uji River.
(speech)
If you hear that I died there, you will know that someone crossed before me. If you hear that I am still alive, you will know that I crossed first.” With this, Sasaki withdrew from his lord’s presence.
Those present, great and small, whispered among themselves,
“He certainly talks big!”
Each corps of men left Kamakura,
some taking the route by Ashigara,
some preferring to go by Hakone.
On reaching Ukishima-ga-hara
in Suruga province, Kajiwara
rode up to a high place and there paused
to consider all the horses below.
Each one carried a different saddle,
each a crupper in a new color.
Some followed a single lead rope, some two.
There were thousands and thousands of them,
and among the endless procession
Kajiwara noted with pleasure
none to compare with the Surusumi
he had received as a gift from his lord.
But then all at once it seemed to him
that he saw before him Ikezuki:
gilt-edged saddle and tasseled crupper,
foaming mouth and spirited prancing
that defeated the constant efforts
a crowd of grooms made to control him.
Kajiwara rode up to them and asked who owned the horse.
“He belongs to Lord Sasaki, sir,” they replied.
“I don’t like this at all,” Kajiwara muttered to himself.
“Sasaki and I both give our lord equal service,
but somehow our lord has come to prefer him. This is very galling.
I might go up to the capital and die in battle
against Imai, Higuchi, Tate, and Nenoi, Kiso’s famous Four Heavenly Kings,
or I might continue on toward the provinces of the west
and die fighting Heike warriors known each gladly to face a thousand,
but neither course would help if my lord feels that way about me.
No, better to fight Sasaki, to kill him and die by his hand,
and so at a stroke to deprive Lord Yoritomo of two good men.”
So he reflected while awaiting Sasaki himself.
And here he came, walking along,
unsuspecting, thinking no harm.
Move up beside him and grapple?
Meet him head-on and topple him?
One or the other;
but first Kajiwara confronted him in words. “Well now, Sasaki,” he said, “our lord seems to have made you a present of Ikezuki!”
Sasaki suddenly remembered hearing that Kajiwara, too, had longed to get his hands on the horse. “This is what happened,” he answered. “There I was, setting off on this crucial campaign, certain that they would have dismantled the bridges at Seta and Uji, and I had no horse up to swimming a river. I thought of asking for Ikezuki, but I gathered that even you had been refused him, and the idea seemed hopeless. So I decided to risk whatever I might have coming to me later on.
On the night we were to leave, I got one of the grooms to help me
steal our lord’s treasured Ikezuki,
and here I am now, riding him to the capital!
What do you think of that?”
Kajiwara forgot his anger.
“Damn,” he exclaimed, “I should have stolen him myself!”
And off he went, roaring with laughter.
2. First Across the Uji River
The mount granted Sasaki Shir was a dark chestnut,
muscular and powerful in the extreme,
that bit any horse or man who came near him:
hence the name Ikezuki, “Pound of Flesh.” He was unusually tall.
The horse given Kajiwara was equally powerful
and so black as to be named Surusumi, “Ground Ink.”
Neither yielded anything in quality to the other.
From Owari on, the army advanced in two bodies, the main and flanking forces.
Noriyori commanded the main force,
and with him rode Takeda no Tar,
Kagami no Jir, Ichij no Jir,
Itagaki no Sabur, Inage no Sabur,
Hangae no Shir, Kumagai no Jir,
and Inomata no Kobeiroku,
leading thirty-five thousand horse.
They came to Noji and Shinohara
in the province of mi.
The flanking force rode under the orders of Kur Yoshitsune,
accompanied by Yasuda no Sabur, uchi no Tar, Hatakeyama no Jir,
Kajiwara Genda, Sasaki Shir, Kasuya no Tda, Shibatani Uma-no-j,
and Hirayama Mushadokoro, leading twenty-five thousand.
They passed through the province of Iga and drove on to the Uji Bridge.
The planks were gone from both bridges,
Uji and Seta, and abatis
tied to stakes in the riverbed
strained against the rushing current.
It was the first month of the year,
and well past the twentieth day.
From the mighty peak of Hira,
from all the mountains of Shiga,
from Nagara the winter snows
had vanished; with the last of the ice
melting now from every valley,
the river was rising. Foaming waves
surged past on the mounting flood,
roaring rapids broke the current,
eddies spun at dizzying speed.
Night was giving way to dawn,
but thick mist along the river
turned both horses and armor gray.
The commander, Yoshitsune, strode to the bank and gazed across.
Perhaps he wished to try his men’s mettle, for he remarked,
“This looks bad. Perhaps we should go around by Yodo or Imoarai.
Or perhaps we should wait for the river to drop.”
Hatakeyama was then in only his twenty-first year,
but he stepped forward nonetheless. “In Kamakura,” he declared,
“we heard all about this river.
It is not as though you saw before you
a river of which you know nothing.
This river drains the lake in mi.212
Wait? No, we could wait forever
before the water level drops.
And who, then, will build us a bridge?
Look at that battle during Jish:213
Ashikaga Tadatsuna
crossed well enough—do you suppose
some god or devil carried him?
I, Shigetada, will test for you the depth and footing.”
Five hundred riders, mostly of the Tan League,
pressed forward, bridle to bridle, to join him.
From the tip of a little promontory,
Tachibana-no-kojima,
just northeast of the Byd-in,
two warriors galloped at breakneck speed.
Kajiwara Kagesue was one,
the other Sasaki Takatsuna.
No one had guessed what they were planning,
but secretly each had sworn to be first.
Kajiwara was several lengths ahead
when Sasaki shouted, “Of all the rivers
here in the west, this is the biggest!
Your girth looks loose. Better tighten it!”
Kajiwara must have believed him:
He held the stirrups away from his mount,
tossed the reins over the mane,
undid the girth, and cinched it tighter.
Meanwhile Sasaki galloped past him
and plunged with a splash into the river.
No doubt knowing he had been tricked,
Kajiwara plunged in right behind him.
“Look out, Sasaki! Don’t play the fool
out of a desperate thirst for fame!
There must be ropes stretched underwater!”
So he shouted, at which Sasaki
drew his sword and slashed through the ropes
that already threatened his horse’s legs.
Riding none other than Ikezuki,
the most marvelous steed in the world,
he cut straight across the Uji River
and scrambled up on the opposite bank.
Kajiwara, on Surusumi,
found himself swept far down the river
before he, too, came up on dry land.
Sasaki rose in his stirrups and in a great voice declared his name:
“Descended from Emperor Uda
nine generations in the past,
fourth son of Sasaki Hideyoshi,
I am Sasaki Shir Takatsuna,
the first man across the Uji River!”
Hatakeyama’s five hundred men crossed then and there. An arrow from the far bank, from the bow of Yamada no Jir, sank deep into the forehead of Hatakeyama’s mount. In midstream Hatakeyama abandoned the stricken animal and continued on foot, bracing himself with his bow. Waves crashing over the rocks spattered his helmet to eye level, but he ignored them. He got across, treading the bottom, and was about to climb onto the bank when he felt a sharp tug from behind.
“Who’s that?” he demanded to know.
“Shigechika!”
“What? kushi Shigechika?”
“Yes.” Hatakeyama had presided over Shigechika’s coming-of-age.
“The current was so fast it swept my horse from under me,” Shigechika explained. “I had to hang on to you.”
“You youngsters, you’re always getting grown men like me to save you!”
Hatakeyama hauled him up and tossed him onto the bank.
Instantly Shigechika righted himself.
“kushi no Jir Shigechika,
from Musashi: Yes, I am he,
the first across the Uji River!”
he announced, and, friend or foe,
all who heard him roared with laughter.
Hatakeyama had found a new mount
when one of the enemy came forward,
red-laced armor worn over olive green,
gilt-edged saddle on a dappled gray.
“Who are you, advancing on me?”
Hatakeyama asked. “Name yourself!”
“I am a kinsman of Lord Kiso,
Nagase no Hangandai Shigetsuna.”
He was the day’s offering to the god of war:
Hatakeyama moved beside him,
gripped him fiercely, threw him down,
twisted his head around, and cut it off.
One of his men, Honda no Jir,
tied it onto the back of his saddle.
So for Lord Kiso’s men it began:
Those sent to secure the Uji Bridge
managed to hold it a little while,
but the easterners, once all across,
cut them to pieces and sent them fleeing
for the Kohata hills and Fushimi.
As for Seta, Inage Shigenari
devised their success: At Tanagami,
they crossed over the Kugo shallows.
3. The Battle Beside the River
Kiso’s forces were beaten.
A courier raced to Kamakura with an account of the battle.
“And Sasaki?” asked Yoritomo at once. “What about him?”
“He crossed the Uji River first,” the courier replied.
Yoritomo opened the formal report and read,
“First across the Uji River: Sasaki Shir Takatsuna.
Second across: Kajiwara Genda Kagesue.”
There it was, in writing.
On learning that Uji and Seta had fallen,
Kiso went to Rokuj, where Go-Shirakawa was staying, to bid him farewell.
The sovereign and the senior nobles and privy gentlemen around him
were wringing their hands, crying, “This is the end of the world!
Oh, what are we to do?” and making impassioned vows.
Kiso got as far as the main gate,
only to hear that the men from the east had driven on to the bank of the Kamo River.
Having nothing really to say to His Cloistered Eminence, he turned back.
A gentlewoman whose company he had begun frequenting
lived near the Rokuj-Takakura crossing.
He went to her for a last farewell and could not soon tear himself away.
There was a new man in his service, one Echigo no Chūda Iemitsu.
“How can you dawdle like this?” Iemitsu reproved him.
“The enemy is already at the Kamo River. You risk dying like a dog.”
But still Kiso could not bring himself to leave.
“Very well,” said Iemitsu, “then I will go on ahead and await you on the Mountain of Death.”
He cut open his belly and died on the spot.
“That was a call to act,” Kiso acknowledged. At last he left.
His men numbered a mere one hundred—
chief among them, from Kzuke province,
Naha no Tar Hirozumi.
They ventured onto the riverbank
at Rokuj and saw before them
thirty men, seemingly from the east.
Two warriors rode forth from among them.
Shionoya no Gor Korehiro was one,
the other, Teshigahara no Gosabur Arinao.
“Should we await reinforcements?”
wondered Shionoya. Teshigahara:
“A beaten force leaves stragglers weakened.
After them!” And, with war howls, they charged.
/> Kiso fought with all the fury
of one who knew that this day was his last.
The men from the east advanced on him,
each of them eager to take his head.
Yoshitsune, their commander, left the fighting to his men
out of concern for the cloistered emperor, to assure whose protection
he took five or six men in full armor to Rokuj, where the sovereign was staying.
Shaking with fear and surveying the scene from up on his east wall,
Naritada saw half a dozen warriors riding his way, visibly fresh from battle—
their helmets having slipped back over their shoulders—and brandishing a white banner.
Their left sleeves in fluttering tatters, they galloped toward him, raising black dust.
“Oh, no, here comes Kiso!” Naritada cried.
“This is the end, then!” The sovereign and his entourage lapsed into panic.
“But no!” Naritada reported again. “Their badges are different!
They must be the eastern warriors who have just entered the city!”
He had no sooner spoken than Yoshitsune
raced up to the gate, dismounted, knocked, and announced in a great voice,
“I am Kur Yoshitsune,
younger brother of Yoritomo,
arrived from the east, at your service!
Be kind enough to open the gate!”
Naritada was so relieved that he jumped straight down off the wall and hurt his back. Too happy to feel the pain, he dragged himself inside and reported Yoshitsune’s arrival. His Cloistered Eminence, deeply stirred, had the gate opened at once.
Yoshitsune wore that day, over a red brocade hitatare, armor laced with purple cords shaded from light to dark, a helmet with spreading kuwagata horns, a gold-trimmed sword, and, in his quiver, arrows fletched with mottled feathers. An inch-wide strip of paper spiraled, right to left, down the upper part of his bow. It showed him plainly to be in command.
The cloistered emperor peered out through the slats of a window by the gate.
“These look like sturdy fellows,” he said. “Have them announce their names.”
So they did: first their commander, Kur Yoshitsune,
then Yasuda no Sabur Yoshisada, Hatakeyama no Jir Shigetada,
Kajiwara Genda Kagesue, Sasaki Shir Takatsuna, Shibuya no Uma-no-j Shigesuke.
They were six including Yoshitsune, each in armor of a different color but equally resolute in demeanor. The sovereign had Naritada conduct Yoshitsune to the broad aisle before his chamber and questioned him at length on the day’s conflict.