A History of the Japanese People Part 39

ENGRAVING: SWORD-GUARDS (Tsuba) HAND-CARVED IN BRONZE

CHAPTER XXV

THE EPOCH OF THE GEN AND THE HEI (Continued)

OPENING OF THE CONFLICT

WHEN, after the great struggle of 1160, Yoritomo, the eldest of Yos.h.i.tomo's surviving sons, fell into the hands of Taira Munekiyo and was carried by the latter to Kyoto, for execution, as all supposed, and as would have been in strict accord with the canons of the time, the lad, then in his fourteenth year, won the sympathy of Munekiyo by his n.o.bly calm demeanour in the presence of death, and still more by answering, when asked whether he did not wish to live, "Yes, since I alone remain to pray for the memories of my father and my elder brothers." Munekiyo then determined to save the boy if possible, and he succeeded through the co-operation of Kiyomori's step-mother, whom he persuaded that her own son, lost in his infancy, would have grown up to resemble closely Yoritomo.

It was much to the credit of Kiyomori's heart but little to that of his head that he listened to such a plea, and historians have further censured his want of sagacity in choosing Izu for Yoritomo's place of exile, seeing that the eastern regions were infested by Minamoto kinsmen and partisans. But Kiyomori did not act blindly. He placed Yoritomo in the keeping of two trusted wardens whose manors were practically conterminous in the valley of the Kano stream on the immediate west of Hakone Pa.s.s. These wardens were a Fujiwara, Ito Sukechika, and a Taira, who, taking the name Hojo from the locality of his manor, called himself Hojo Tokimasa. The dispositions of these two men did not agree with the suggestions of their lineage.

Sukechika might have been expected to sympathize with his ward in consideration of the sufferings of the Fujiwara at Kiyomori's hands.

Tokimasa, as a Taira, should have been wholly antipathetic. Yet had Tokimasa shared Sukechika's mood, the Minamoto's sun would never have risen over the Kwanto.

The explanation is that Tokimasa belonged to a large group of provincial Taira who were at once discontented because their claims to promotion had been ignored, and deeply resentful of indignities and ridicule to which their rustic manners and customs had exposed them at the hands of their upstart kinsmen in Kyoto. Moreover, it is not extravagant to suppose, in view of the extraordinary abilities subsequently shown by Tokimasa, that he presaged the instability of the Taira edifice long before any ominous symptoms became outwardly visible. At any rate, while remaining Yoritomo's ostensible warden, he became his confidant and abettor.

This did not happen immediately, however. Yoritomo was placed originally under Sukechika's care, and during the latter's absence in Kyoto a liaison was established between his daughter and the Minamoto captive, with the result that a son was born. Sukechika, on his return, caused the child to be thrown into a cataract, married its mother to Ema Kotaro, and swore to have the life of his ward. But Yoritomo, warned of what was pending, effected his escape to Tokimasa's manor. It is recorded that on the way thither he prayed at the shrine of Hachiman, the tutelary deity of his family: "Grant me to become sei-i-shogun and to guard the Imperial Court. Or, if I may not achieve so much, grant me to become governor of Izu, so that I may be revenged on Sukechika. Or, if that may not be, grant me death." With Tokimasa he found security. But here again, though now a man over thirty, he established relations with Masa, his warden's eldest daughter. In all Yoritomo's career there is not one instance of a sacrifice of expediency or ambition on the altar of sentiment or affection. He was a cold, calculating man. No cruelty shocked him nor did he shrink from any severity dictated by policy. It is in the last degree improbable that he risked his political hopes for the sake of a trivial amour. At any rate the event suggests crafty deliberation rather than a pa.s.sing pa.s.sion. For though Tokimasa simulated ignorance of the liaison and publicly proceeded with his previous engagement to wed Masa to Taira Kanetaka, lieutenant-governor of Izu, he privately connived at her flight and subsequent concealment.

This incident is said to have determined Yoritomo. He disclosed all his ambitions to Hojo Tokimasa, and found in him an able coadjutor.

Yoritomo now began to open secret communications with several of the military families in Izu and the neighbouring provinces. In making these selections and approaches, the Minamoto exile was guided and a.s.sisted by Tokimasa. Confidences were not by any means confined to men of Minamoto lineage. The kith and kin of the Fujiwara, and even of the Taira themselves, were drawn into the conspiracy, and although the struggle finally resolved itself into a duel a l'outrance between the Taira and the Minamoto, it had no such exclusive character at the outset.

In May, or June, 1180, the mandate of Prince Mochihito reached Yoritomo, carried by his uncle, Minamoto Yukiiye, whose figure thenceforth appears frequently upon the scene. Yoritomo showed the mandate to Tokimasa, and the two men were taking measures to obey when they received intelligence of the deaths of Mochihito and Yorimasa and of the fatal battle on the banks of the Uji.

Yoritomo would probably have deferred conclusive action in such circ.u.mstances had there not reached him from Miyoshi Yasun.o.bu in Kyoto a warning that the Taira were planning to exterminate the remnant of the Minamoto and that Yoritomo's name stood first on the black-list. Moreover, the advisability of taking the field at once was strongly and incessantly urged by a priest, Mongaku, who, after a brief acquaintance, had impressed Yoritomo favourably. This bonze had been the leading figure in an extraordinary romance of real life.

Originally Endo Morito, an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he fell in love with his cousin, Kesa,* the wife of a comrade called Minamoto Wataru. His addresses being resolutely rejected, he swore that if Kesa remained obdurate, he would kill her mother. From this dilemma the brave woman determined that self-sacrifice offered the only effective exit. She promised to marry Morito after he had killed her husband, Wataru; to which end she engaged to ply Wataru with wine until he fell asleep. She would then wet his head, so that Morito, entering by an unfastened door and feeling for the damp hair, might consummate his purpose surely. Morito readily agreed, but Kesa, having dressed her own hair in male fashion and wet her head, lay down in her husband's place.

*Generally spoken of as "Kesa Gozen," but the latter word signifies "lady."

When Morito found that he had killed the object of his pa.s.sionate affection, he hastened to confess his crime and invited Wataru to slay him. But Wataru, sympathizing with his remorse, proposed that they should both enter religion and pray for the rest of Kesa's spirit. It is related that one of the acts of penance performed by Mongaku--the monastic name taken by Morito--was to stand for twenty-one days under a waterfall in the depth of winter.

Subsequently he devoted himself to collecting funds for reconstructing the temple of Takao, but his zeal having betrayed him into a breach of etiquette at the palace of Go-Shirakawa, he was banished to Izu, where he obtained access to Yoritomo and counselled him to put his fortune to the test.*

*Tradition says that among the means employed by Mongaku to move Yoritomo was the exhibition of Yos.h.i.tomo's bones.

THE FIRST STAGE OF THE STRUGGLE

The campaign was opened by Hojo Tokimasa on the 8th of September, 1180. He attacked the residence of the lieutenant-governor of Izu, Taira Kanetaka, burned the mansion, and killed Kanetaka, whose abortive nuptials with the lady Masa had been celebrated a few months previously. Yoritomo himself at the head of a force of three hundred men, crossed the Hakone Pa.s.s three days later en route for Sagami, and encamped at Ishibashi-yama. This first essay of the Minamoto showed no military caution whatever. It was a march into s.p.a.ce.

Yoritomo left in his rear Ito Sukechika, who had slain his infant son and sworn his own destruction, and he had in his front a Taira force of three thousand under Oba Kagechika. It is true that many Taira magnates of the Kwanto were pledged to draw the sword in the Minamoto cause. They had found the selfish tyranny of Kiyomori not at all to their taste or their profit. It is also true that the Oba brothers had fought staunchly on the side of Yoritomo's father, Yos.h.i.tomo, in the Heiji war. Yoritomo may possibly have entertained some hope that the Oba army would not prove a serious menace.

Whatever the explanation may be, the little Minamoto band were attacked in front and rear simultaneously during a stormy night. They suffered a crushing defeat. It seemed as though the white flag* was to be lowered permanently, ere it had been fully shaken out to the wind. The remnants of the Minamoto sought shelter in a cryptomeria grove, where Yoritomo proved himself a powerful bowman. But when he had tune to take stock of his followers, he found them reduced to six men. These, at the suggestion of Doi Sanehira, he ordered to scatter and seek safety in flight, while he himself with Sanehira hid in a hollow tree. Their hiding-place was discovered by Kajiwara Kagetoki, a member of the Oba family, whose sympathies were with the Minamoto.

He placed himself before the tree and signalled that the fugitives had taken another direction. Presently, Oba Kagechika, riding up, thrust his bow into the hollow tree, and as two pigeons flew out, he concluded that there was no human being within.

*The Taira flew a red ensign; the Minamoto, a white.

ENGRAVING: MINAMOTO YORITOMO

From the time of this hairbreadth escape, Yoritomo's fortunes rose rapidly. After some days of concealment among the Hakone mountains, he reached the sh.o.r.e of Yedo Bay, and crossing from Izu to Awa, was joined by Tokimasa and others. Manifestoes were then despatched in all directions, and sympathizers began to flock in. Entering Kazusa, the Minamoto leader secured the cooperation of Taira Hirotsune and Chiba Tsunetane, while Tokimasa went to canva.s.s in Kai. In short, eight provinces of the Kwanto responded like an echo to Yoritomo's call, and, by the time he had made his circuit of Yedo Bay, some twenty-five thousand men were marshalled under his standard.

Kamakura, on the seacoast a few miles south of the present Yokohama, was chosen for headquarters, and one of the first steps taken was to establish there, on the hill of Tsurugaoka, a grand shrine to Hachiman, the G.o.d of War and tutelary deity of the Minamoto.

Meanwhile, Tokimasa had secured the allegiance of the Takeda family of Kai, and was about to send a strong force to join Yoritomo's army.

But by this time the Taira were in motion. Kiyomori had despatched a body of fifty thousand men under Koremori, and Yoritomo had decided to meet this army on the banks of the Fuji river. It became necessary, therefore, to remove all potential foes from the Minamoto rear, and accordingly Hojo Tokimasa received orders to overrun Suruga and then to direct his movements with a view to concentration on the Fuji. Thither Yoritomo marched from Kamakura, and by the beginning of November, 1180, fifty thousand Taira troops were encamped on the south bank of the river and twenty-seven thousand Minamoto on the north. A decisive battle must be fought in the s.p.a.ce of a few days.

In fact, the 13th of November had been indicated as the probable date. But the battle was never fought. The officer in command of the Taira van, Fujiwara no Tadakiyo, laboured under the disadvantage of being a coward, and the Taira generals, Koremori and Tadamori, grandson and youngest brother, respectively, of Kiyomori, seem to have been thrown into a state of nervous prostration by the unexpected magnitude of the Minamoto's uprising. They were debating, and had nearly recognized the propriety of falling back without challenging a combat or venturing their heads further into the tiger's mouth, when something--a flight of water-birds, a reconnaissance in force, a rumour, or what not--produced a panic, and before a blow had been struck, the Taira army was in full retreat for Kyoto.

YOs.h.i.tSUNE

In the Minamoto camp there was some talk of pursuing the fugitive Taira, and possibly the most rapid results would thus have been attained. But it was ultimately decided that the allegiance of the whole Kwanto must be definitely secured before denuding it of troops for the purpose of a western campaign. This att.i.tude of caution pointed specially to the provinces of Hitachi and Shimotsuke, where the powerful Minamoto families of Satake and Nitta, respectively, looked coldly upon the cause of their kinsman, Yoritomo. Therefore the army was withdrawn to a more convenient position on the Kiso River, and steps, ultimately successful, were taken to win over the Nitta and the Satake.

It was at this time that there arrived in Yoritomo's camp a youth of twenty-one with about a score of followers. Of medium stature and of frame more remarkable for grace than for thews, he attracted attention chiefly by his piercing eyes and by the dignified intelligence of his countenance. This was Yos.h.i.tsune, the youngest son of Yos.h.i.tomo. His life, as already stated, had been saved in the Heiji disturbance, first, by the intrepidity of his mother, Tokiwa, and, afterwards, by the impression her dazzling beauty produced upon the Taira leader. Placed in the monastery of Kurama, as stipulated by Kiyomori, Yos.h.i.tsune had no sooner learned to think than he became inspired with an absorbing desire to restore the fortunes of his family. Tradition has surrounded the early days of this, the future Bayard of j.a.pan, with many romantic legends, among which it is difficult to distinguish the true from the false. What is certain, however, is that at the age of fifteen he managed to effect his escape to the north of j.a.pan. The agent of his flight was an iron-merchant who habitually visited the monastery on matters of business, and whose dealings took him occasionally to Mutsu.

At the time of Yos.h.i.tsune's novitiate in the Kurama temple, the political power in j.a.pan may be said to have been divided between the Taira, the provincial Minamoto, the Buddhist priests, and the Fujiwara, and of the last the only branch that had suffered no eclipse during the storms of Hogen and Heiji had been the Fujiwara of Mutsu. It has been shown in the story of the Three Years' War, and specially in the paragraph ent.i.tled "The Fujiwara of the North," that the troops of Fujiwara Kiyohira and Minamoto Yoshiiye had fought side by side, and that, after the war, Kiyohira succeeded to the six districts of Mutsu, which const.i.tuted the largest estate in the hands of any one j.a.panese n.o.ble. That estate was in the possession of Hidehira, grandson of Kiyohira, at the time when the Minamoto family suffered its heavy reverses. Yos.h.i.tsune expected, therefore, that at least an asylum would be a.s.sured, could he find his way to Mutsu. He was not mistaken. Hidehira received him with all hospitality, and as Mutsu was practically beyond the control of Kyoto, the Minamoto fugitive could lead there the life of a bushi, and openly study everything pertaining to military art. He made such excellent use of these opportunities that, by the time the Minamoto standard was raised anew in Izu, Yos.h.i.tsune had earned the reputation of being the best swordsman in the whole of northern j.a.pan.

This was the stripling who rode into Yoritomo's camp on a November day in the year 1180. The brothers had never previously seen each other's faces, and their meeting in such circ.u.mstances was a dramatic event. Among Yos.h.i.tsune's score of followers there were several who subsequently earned undying fame, but one deserves special mention here. Benkei, the giant halberdier, had turned his back upon the priesthood, and, becoming a free lance, conceived the ambition of forcibly collecting a thousand swords from their wearers. He wielded the halberd with extraordinary skill, and such a huge weapon in the hand of a man with seven feet of stalwart stature const.i.tuted a menace before which a solitary wayfarer did not hesitate to surrender his sword. One evening, Benkei observed an armed acolyte approaching the Gojo bridge in Kyoto. The acolyte was Yos.h.i.tsune, and the time, the eve of his departure for Mutsu. Benkei made light of disarming a lad of tender years and seemingly slender strength. But already in his acolyte days Yos.h.i.tsune had studied swordsmanship, and he supplemented his knowledge by activity almost supernatural. The giant Benkei soon found himself praying for life and swearing allegiance to his boy conqueror, an oath which he kept so faithfully as to become the type of soldierly fidelity for all subsequent generations of his countrymen.

KISO YOSHINAKA

Looking at the map of central j.a.pan, it is seen that the seven provinces of Suruga, Izu, Awa, Kai, Sagami, Musashi, and Kazusa are grouped approximately in the shape of a j.a.panese fan (uchiwa), having Izu for the handle. Along the Pacific coast, eastward of this fan, lie the provinces of Shimosa and Hitachi, where the Nitta and the Satake, respectively, gave employment for some time to the diplomatic and military resources of the Minamoto. Running inland from the circ.u.mference of the fan are Shinano and Kotsuke, in which two provinces, also, a powerful Minamoto resurrection synchronized with, but was independent of, the Yoritomo movement.

The hero of the Shinano-Kotsuke drama was Minamoto no Yoshinaka, commonly called Kiso Yoshinaka, because his youth was pa.s.sed among the mountains where the Kiso River has its source. In the year 1155, Yos.h.i.tomo's eldest son, Yoshihira,* was sent to Musashi to fight against his uncle, Yoshikata. The latter fell, and his son, Yoshinaka, a baby of two, was handed to Saito Sanemori to be executed; but the latter sent the child to Shinano, where it was brought up by Nakahara Kaneto, the husband of its nurse. Yoshinaka attained an immense stature as well as signal skill in archery and horsemanship. Like Yoritomo and Yos.h.i.tsune, he brooded much on the evil fortunes of the Minamoto, and paid frequent visits to Kyoto to observe the course of events. In the year 1180, the mandate of Prince Mochihito reached him, and learning that Yoritomo had taken the field, he gathered a force in Shinano. Between the two leaders there could be no final forgetfulness of the fact that Yoritomo's brother had killed Yoshinaka's father, and had ordered the slaying of Yoshinaka himself. But this evil memory did not obtrude itself at the outset. They worked independently. Yoshinaka gained a signal victory over the Taira forces marshalled against him by the governor of Shinano, and pushing thence eastward into Kotsuke, obtained the allegiance of the Ashikaga of Shimotsuke and of the Takeda of Kai.

Thus, the year 1180 closed upon a disastrous state of affairs for the Taira, no less than ten provinces in the east having fallen practically under Minamoto sway.

*This Yoshihira was a giant in stature. He shares with Tametomo the fame of having exhibited the greatest prowess in the Hogen and Heiji struggles. It was he who offered to attack Kyoto from k.u.mano a measure which, in all probability, would have reversed the result of the Heiji war.

CONTINUATION OF THE CAMPAIGN

Kiyomori expired in March, 1181, as already related. His last behest, that the head of Yoritomo should be laid on his grave, nerved his successors to fresh efforts. But the stars in their courses seemed to be fighting against the Taira. Kiyomori's son, Munemori, upon whom devolved the direction of the great clan's affairs, was wholly incompetent for such a trust. One gleam of sunshine, however, illumined the fortunes of the Heike. Two months after Kiyomori's death, a Taira army under Shigehira attacked Yukiiye, Yoritomo's uncle, who had pushed westward as far as Owari. This Yukiiye never showed any qualities of generalship. He was repeatedly defeated, the only redeeming feature of his campaigns being that he himself always escaped destruction. On this occasion he was driven out of Owari and forced to retire within the confines of the Kwanto.

But now the home provinces and the west fell into the horrors of famine and pestilence, as described above; and in such circ.u.mstances to place armies in the field and to maintain them there became impossible. The Taira had to desist from all warlike enterprises until the summer of 1182, when a great effort was made to crush the rapidly growing power of the Minamoto. Commissions of provincial governor were sent to Jo no Nagashige, a puissant Taira magnate of Echigo; to Taira no Chikafusa, of Etchu, and to Fujiwara Hidehira, of Mutsu, who were all ordered to attack Yoritomo and Yoshinaka.

Hidehira made no response, but Nagashige set in motion against Yoshinaka a strong force, swelled by a contingent from Kyoto under Michimori. The results were signal defeat for the Taira and the carrying of the white flag by Yoshinaka into Echigo, Etchu, Noto, and Kaga.

DISSENSIONS AMONG THE MINAMOTO

Meanwhile discord had declared itself between Yoritomo and Yoshinaka.

It has been shown that the records of the two families afforded no basis of mutual confidence, and it has also been shown that the Takeda clan of Kai province were among the earliest adherents of the Minamoto cause. In view of Yoshinaka's brilliant successes, Takeda n.o.b.u.mitsu proposed a marriage between his daughter and Yoshinaka's son, Yos.h.i.taka. This union was declined by Yoshinaka, whereupon n.o.b.u.mitsu suggested to Yoritomo that Yoshinaka's real purpose was to ally his house with the Taira by marriage. Whether n.o.b.u.mitsu believed this, or whether his idea had its origin in pique, history does not indicate. But there can be no hesitation in concluding that a rupture between the two Minamoto chiefs was presaged by Yoritomo's entourage, who judged that two Richmonds could not remain permanently in the field.

Things gradually shaped themselves in accordance with that forecast.

The malcontents in Yoritomo's camp or his discomfited opponents began to transfer their allegiance to Yoshinaka; a tendency which culminated when Yoritomo's uncle, Yukiiye, taking umbrage because a provincial governorship was not given to him, rode off at the head of a thousand cavalry to join Yoshinaka. The reception given by Yoshinaka to these deserters was in itself sufficient to suggest doubts of his motives. Early in the year 1183, Yoritomo sent a force into Shinano with orders to exterminate Yoshinaka. But the latter declined the combat. Quoting a popular saying that the worst enemies of the Minamoto were their own dissensions, he directed his troops to withdraw into Echigo, leaving to Yoritomo a free hand in Shinano.

When this was reported to Yoritomo, he recalled his troops from Shinano, and asked Yoshinaka to send a hostage. Yoshinaka replied by sending his son Yos.h.i.taka, the same youth to whom Takeda n.o.b.u.mitsu had proposed to marry his daughter. He was now wedded to Yoritomo's daughter, and the two Minamoto chiefs seemed to have been effectually reconciled.

ADVANCE OF YOSHINAKA ON KYOTO

Yoshinaka's desire to avoid conflict with Yoritomo had been partly due to the fact that the Taira leaders were known to be just then straining every nerve to beat back the westward-rolling tide of Minamoto conquest. They had ma.s.sed all their available forces in Echizen, and at that supreme moment Yoritomo's active hostility would have completely marred Yoshinaka's great opportunity. In May, 1183, this decisive phase of the contest was opened; Koremori, Tamemori, and Tomonori being in supreme command of the Taira troops, which are said to have mustered one hundred thousand strong. At first, things fared badly with the Minamoto. They lost an important fortress at Hiuchi-yama, and Yukiiye was driven from Kaga into Noto. But when the main army of the Minamoto came into action, the complexion of affairs changed at once. In a great battle fought at Tonami-yama in Echizen, Yoshinaka won a signal victory by the manoeuvre of launching at the Taira a herd of oxen having torches fastened to their horns.

Thousands of the Taira perished, including many leaders.

Other victories at Kurikara and Shinowara opened the road to Kyoto.

Yoshinaka pushed on and, in August, reached Hiei-zan; while Yukiiye, the pressure on whose front in Noto had been relieved, moved towards Yamato; Minamoto no Yukitsuna occupied Settsu and Kawachi, and Ashikaga Yoshikiyo advanced to Tamba. Thus, the capital lay at the mercy of Yoshinaka's armies. The latter stages of the Minamoto march had been unopposed. Munemori, after a vain attempt to secure the alliance of the Hiei-zan monks, had recalled his generals and decided to retire westward, abandoning Kyoto. He would have taken with him the cloistered Emperor, but Go-Shirakawa secretly made his way to Hiei-zan and placed himself under the protection of Yoshinaka, rejoicing at the opportunity to shake off the Taira yoke.

RETREAT OF THE TAIRA

On August 14, 1183, the evacuation of Kyoto took place. Munemori, refusing to listen to the counsels of the more resolute among his officers, applied the torch to the Taira mansions at northern and southern Rokuhara, and, taking with him the Emperor Antoku, then in his sixth year, his Majesty's younger brother, and their mother, together with the regalia--the mirror, the sword, and the gem--retired westward, followed by the whole remnant of his clan.