Samurai Gaiden: Minamoto no Yorimasa

Note: During the busy changeover time and all that in June and July I realized I managed to forget to include the announcement on the 2nd of our ‘Seppuku’ series videos.  So here is the link and full transcript on…Minamoto no Yorimasa.  This Friday will still be the usual August Samurai Gaiden post and video.

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All last month we talked about the Hogen Disturbance, the fight between Emperors Sutoku and Go-Shirakawa where Taira no Kiyomori first began his ascent into power. In that discussion we centered on the two sons of Minamoto no Tameyoshi…the first person to perform what eventually became seppuku, Minamoto no Tametomo and his elder brother who was first to murder basically his entire family, Minamoto no Yoshitomo.

Today we’re going to talk about the brothers’ uncle, Minamoto no Yorimasa.

Yorimasa in his younger days.

The Hogen Disturbance occurred in the year 1156, and Minamoto no Yoshitomo’s rebellion against Go-Shirakawa and the Taira occurred four years later, in 1160, known as the Heiji Disturbance. As we mentioned Yoshitomo died as a result of the Heiji Disturbance.

One prominent member of the Minamoto was a respected warrior, poet, and politician who had avoided the ebbing tides of the Minamoto clan. He was Minamoto no Yorimasa, who was personal friends with Taira no Kiyomori, and had managed to stay relatively neutral in the conflicts between his clan and the Taira.

When Yoshitomo rebelled against the Taira-favored court, Yorimasa sided with the Taira. Yoshitomo’s failure nearly ended the Minamoto clan’s prosperity, allowing the Taira to completely take over the court and replace the Fujiwara as the dominant clan in power.

In the year 1180, though, Kiyomori grew too powerful. He had married his daughter, Taira no Tokuko, to a former Emperor and they had born a young Prince next in line for succession two years earlier. But Kiyomori was growing old, he had to ensure the Taira clan lived on in prosperity after his death.

Kiyomori placed his grandson, the Imperial Prince, on the throne as two-year-old Emperor Antoku. He then went about banishing his political rivals from the court and assigning positions to his relatives and allies.

This was one step too far, as far as another member of the Imperial family was concerned, former Emperor Go-Shirakawa, himself. Go-Shirakawa, who Kiyomori had backed during the Hogen Disturbance, was now orchestrating a new rebellion against the Taira.

Go-Shirakawa sent his son, Prince Mochihito, to gather supporters from among the Minamoto. The downtrodden tend to befriend the other downtrodden. Prince Mochihito and Yorimasa gathered together and called upon the support of whatever Minamoto allies still remained.

One of those major allies was the monks of the Temple Complex as Mii-dera. When Kiyomori discovered Go-Shirakawa’s plans he sent men to capture, and presumably murder, Mochihito. Mochihito fled to the Mii-dera temple complex, but found their loyalties wavering. Mii-dera, located at the base of Mt. Hiei. Kiyomori had allied with the monks in nearby Enryakuji and Mii-dera found it difficult to get other monasteries to lend their support.

The Minamoto forces were unable to get into position to defend the temple in time and so Yorimasa, Mochihito, and the Mii-dera monks loyal to their cause fled the temple with Taira forces right behind them.

They passed over the bridge across the Uji River and took up a position at the Byodo-in Temple. Yorimasa led a combined force of Minamoto samurai and Mii-dera warrior monks in the defense of Byodo at the Uji River crossing.

Taira no Kiyomori, too old to lead his own troops now, had sent two of his sons, Tomomori and Shigehira to lead the Taira advance. They came upon the Uji River and found a poor scene:

The monks of Mii-dera had broken up the bridge, tearing the planks out so that the Taira forces could not cross it. Only a narrow beam remained in the center which the Minamoto and Mii-dera monks could protect easily.

After some time of fierce fighting the two Taira sons were beginning to consider going further down the river and crossing at the Seta Bridge, instead of the Byodo-in bridge. But this would delay their crossing, giving Yorimasa and Mochihito a chance to escape to more numerous allies.

Instead, one of the Taira captains took a force of three hundred men across the river by fording it on horseback. When they reached the Minamoto side there was little that could stop them. They attacked the bridge defenders from the flank and the Taira forces were able to cross shortly thereafter.

Now Yorimasa’s back was to the wall. He urged Prince Mochihito to flee while the monks of Mii-dera sacrificed themselves to protect the man whom they hoped would be the future emperor and their allies.

Yorimasa had two sons involved in the battle, a Nakatsuna and a Kanetsuna, and together with his sons he gathered up a small force and the prince. They departed the temple to flee to their friends in Nara, to the south.

But as Yorimasa prepared to leave, he was struck by an arrow. Wounded, he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the fleeing de facto imperial guard. He urged the prince to keep going and he retired to a small grove of trees to rest.

Yorimasa in his later years.

The token force that remained with him were quickly overrun by Taira soldiers. Yorimasa drew his war fan and dipped his finger in the blood of his wound. Upon the fan he wrote the following words…

Umoregi no,

Hana saku koto mo,

Nakarishi ni,

Mi no naru hate zo,

Kana shikari keru.

Like a fossil tree, from which we gather no flowers,

Sad has been my life, fated no fruit to produce.

With that done he pulled off his breastplate, drew his dagger, and sliced open his abdomen. A nearby retainer slashed at Yorimasa and cut off his head. That retainer tied a heavy rock to Yorimasa’s head and rushed to the river’s edge, hurling the weighted skull into the water. It was one trophy the Taira would not be getting this day.

During this time his younger son, Minamoto no Kanetsuna, was struck by an arrow in the head and died. The elder son, Minamoto no Nakatsuna, was also wounded by an arrow, but only maimed. Nakatsuna limped over to his father’s headless corpse, dropped to his knees, and drew forth his own dagger.

Minamoto no Yorimasa was not the first to commit seppuku, nor was he certainly the last. But he created a template for which all other samurai would look up to, when and if forced to perform seppuku.

~RCS

Samurai Gaiden: Minamoto no Tametomo

Did you folks like the…extremely depressing story…of Arimaka no Yorozu? Well today we’ve got a surprise for you then: We’re going back to a pre-Sengoku situation; this time legitimately Heian. This month and the next, we’ll be talking about seppuku. Later in the months we’ll talk about what seppuku is, specifically, and how and why it was performed.

But for now, we’re going to talk about the first recorded occurrence of seppuku happening. Now seppuku had evolved throughout the years, as any ritual does. If you haven’t guessed yet, today we’re going to talk about Minamoto no Tametomo.

Let us start in the year 1156. Japan is ruled over by Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who wishes to oust the politically powerful Fujiwara clan who has dominated his family for centuries. Go-Shirakawa was put on the throne after his elder brother died, instead of another of his elder brothers being put back on the throne. This was orchestrated by his father and a Fujiawara lord.

However in 1156 there was a dispute, what with their father now dead, and Go-Shirakawa went to war with his elder brother, retired-Emperor Sutoku.

At this time the three biggest, most powerful clans were the Taira, the Minamoto, and the Fujiwara; of which the Fujiwara were the reigning champions.

In any imperial succession conflict you wind up with people taking sides. The heads of the Minamoto clan backed retired-Emperor Sutoku, but the heads of the Taira clan backed the current-Emperor Go-Shirakawa.

Now it wasn’t as cut and dry as that, because at this time the Minamoto and Taira are essentially friendly rivals. Many Taira served on the Minamoto side of the conflict and many Minamoto served on the Taira side of the conflict.

Even the Fujiwara were split in the conflict with the Fujiwara brothers taking opposing sides, the elder, Tadamichi, siding with Go-Shirakawa and the younger, Yorinaga, taking the side of Sutoku.

The younger brother, Fujiwara no Yorinaga, convinced Minamoto no Tametomo and Taira no Tadamasa to side with him. Meanwhile the elder brother, Fujiwara no Tadamichi, convinced Minamoto no Yoshitomo and Taira no Kiyomori to side with him.

Now this gets even more complicated when you realize that both Yoshitomo and Tametomo…are sons of Minamoto no Tameyoshi.

We’re specifically talking about the dude precipitously circled in red.

Take a moment to try to get a grasp on that…this is not merely a battle of cousin vs. cousin, but of brother vs. brother, for numerous families. The Fujiwara brothers have taken sides, the Minamoto brothers have taken sides, and the Taira cousins are taking sides against each other.

Now, this is where Tametomo really shows his abilities. You see both forces are gathering on opposing sides of the capital city of Kyoto. Tametomo was one of the chiefs of Sutoku’s forces at, and this will be confusing for a moment, Shirakawa Palace. Yes, they occupied the building named with the same name as their enemy; probably just to confuse non-Japanese scholars centuries later.

Actually it was because it was named after their ancestor: Emperor Shirakawa. In case you were curious.

So Tametomo is helping to lead the Sutoku forces at Shirakawa Palace.

Taira no Kiyomori and Tametomo’s elder brother, Yoshitomo, led the Go-Shirakawa forces at Takamatsu Palace.

Tametomo suggested launching a night attack against Takamatsu, advising that his brother was surely planning to attack Shirakawa palace and he wanted to get the drop on him. However, Fujiwara no Yorinaga didn’t like the plan.

Yorinaga wanted an epic war with his brother in true gentlemanly fashion. They would wait until both sides had collected all their warriors and allies, then they would move to a strategic position, and finally they would engaged in gentlemanly war.

This plan was dashed to the wayside when Tametomo’s brother had convinced Yorinaga’s elder brother to launch a night attack on Shirakawa palace; just as Tametomo anticipated.

Taira no Kiyomori, backed by the Ito clan, led a valiant cavalry charge against Shirakawa palace.

Tametomo rode out and engaged the Taira-Ito forces in battle. He fired an arrow killing one of the Ito commanders, Ito no Roku, in a single shot.

With one of their commanders dead, the other Ito commanders Ito no Go and Ito no Kagetsuna, fell back and prepared to assault the palace from another direction.

Though Tametomo’s bravery had saved the moment, the Taira-Ito forces just set the palace on fire and the forces loyal to Fujiwara no Yorinaga and Sutoku were forced to flee the area in defeat.

This put Go-Shirakawa’s forces on the winning side of things with Taira no Kiyomori taking most of the credit. Minamoto no Tametomo was banished to an island off the cost of Izu province. Now before we go too far into what happened after the conflict, let’s talk about what happened before it.

Tametomo was, as mentioned, a son of Minamoto no Tameyoshi, he was the 8^th son as a matter of fact. Tametomo spent much of his youth in the western-most island of Kyushu where he is said to have married a woman named Taira no Shiranui, the daughter of Taira no Tadakuni.

Tametomo was known as an amazing archer, part the reason owing to the fact that he is rumored to have been born with one arm about four inches longer than the other. This allowed him to have an unusually long draw-length to his bow.

“My arm’s not the only thing four inches longer, eh ladies? *wink, wink*

So now, back to Tametomo’s defeat during the Hogen Disturbance. He was apparently exiled to the Izu-oshima islands; rumor goes that since he was such a renowned archer, the victorious forces may have cut the tendons on his longer arm. Most legends state that his arm was able to heal relatively quickly, though.

Now supposedly he managed to escape his exile by marrying the local governor’s daughter, Shimagaimi, and siring three children with her. He then took over the island and escaped to the islands of Ryukyu, modern-day Okinawa, where he married a chieftain’s daughter, Nei, who gave birth to another child of his, Shunten.

From Tametomo and Shunten, supposedly, comes the royal line of kings of Ryukyu. However this is most likely all legend in order to validate the Japanese occupation of Okinawa during the Edo period. One of the biggest arguments against this theory is that Izu Oshima is on the other side of the country from Ryukyu.

Perhaps if he had been exiled to one of the islands off of Kyushu, such as Tanegashima or Kikiagashima, it might make sense. But even the theory that he escaped Izu Oshima and made it to Hachijojima (a veritable half-way point), then to Ryukyu is farcical.

So, aside from the Tokugawa casus belli for occupying Ryukyu, the story of Tametomo’s days in exile go somewhat like this…

Tametomo was spared after the Hogen disturbance, however after the Taira took total control of the government from the Minamoto and Fujiwara after the Heiji disturbance, they remembered that Tametomo was a popular and brave warrior of the defeated clan. Some sources say it was because he took over the islands of Izu Oshima and legends talk of him conquering islands filled with demons.

The Taira sent troops to Izu Oshima and Tametomo was made aware that they were coming to murder him. He donned his armor, girded on a quiver of arrows, and strung his bow. He waded out into the water of the coastline and watched the Taira men sail toward him.

He began firing arrows at the encroaching enemy forces, however he was only one man against many. He was able to draw the bow and fire his arrows with such force that he managed to sink one of the boats. With an arrow!

With a frickin’ arrow!

He struck the boat just below the water line and it started taking on water. While his enemies stopped to collect their sinking brethren he fired his last few arrows and retired back into his home. He stripped off his armor, took out a knife, and cut himself across the abdomen.

He leaned against a pillar and closed his eyes, bleeding to death in a serene, albeit painful fashion. When the Taira soldiers made it to the island they invaded his home and found him, back propped against the pillar, he was sitting so upright and stalwart that they didn’t believe he was dead.

Finally a brave soldier stepped forward, identified him as dead, and cut off Tametomo’s head.

Thus a brave end to a brave man, Minamoto no Tametomo, was the first recorded case of seppuku, as we know it, having occurred. Some stories suggest he simply died at Izu Oshima, others say he was murdered by the Taira soldiers while he was defenseless. But sinking a boat with an arrow and then cutting your own abdomen open is a pretty badass way to go out, if that is what really happened.

Now before we go I have to point out one final story about Tametomo. You see Tametomo and four of his younger brothers were of the side of retired-Emperor Sutoku, as was Tametomo’s father, the head of the Minamoto clan: Minamoto no Tameyoshi.

When Shirakawa palace fell, Tametomo had called for his father and the Fujiwara lord to flee north to make another stand while he protected them. But in the end they decided to surrender, instead. It was then that Tametomo’s arm tendons were severed and he was exiled.

As far as having his arm maimed, the only detailed account I found was that while he was in a bath, Taira soldiers rushed into the room, held him in the water, and sliced at his arm.

He was still revered for his skill even into the Meiji Period.

If only they had followed Tametomo’s advice, perhaps they might have survived long enough to wage a counter-revolution against the Taira? Of course if they had listened to Tametomo and attacked before Taira no Kiyomori attacked them, maybe they could have even won the initial conflict?

Unfortunately Tametomo was not heeded and because of this, ultimately, we have the ritual of seppuku arising from the events.

Join us again later in the month for more on the story of seppuku, and next month as well. And if there’s anything else you want to hear about, anything related to the old days in Japanese history, let me know in the comments.

~RCS