Overview — In this eventful chapter, the focus on Kiso no Yoshinaka is given over in favor of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and the Taira who have been gathering for a counter-offensive are decisively beaten at last. This chapter includes one of the most famous battles of the tale, that of Ichi-no-tani, and also one of its most famous sections, the one recounting the death of Atsumori.

Multimedia

The below map gives some idea as to the distribution of lands controlled by Kiso no Yoshinaka, Minamoto no Yoritomo, and the Taira clan at the beginning of this chapter.

9-[1] The Matter of Ikezuki — Yoshinaka must take up defensive positions against Yoritomo. Though they are both of the Minamoto clan, it is clear to Yoritomo, rightful heir to the clan, that Yoshinaka is continuing to expand his power and grip on government. Yoritomo, based in Kamakura, is preparing to dislodge Yoshinaka from the capital. Ikezuki is the name of a horse.

Character notes

Yoshinaka, the Minamoto general who has so effectively fought the Taira from his base in the north, and who marched into the capital to restore Go-Shirakawa to power, is growing increasingly independent and interested in governing the country.

Minamoto no Yoritomo, who is still based in the east but is the rightful heir to the Minamoto clan.

Kagesue (Kajiwara Genda Kagesue), a samurai who is part of Yoritomo's forces and who is intent on finding and killing Yoshinaka

Takatsuna (Sasaki Shirô Takatsuna), another samurai who is part of Yoritomo's forces and who is also intent on finding and killing Yoshinaka

Section summary

1184 begins as a dreary year, with both Go-Shirakawa and the Taira unable to engage in the usual celebrations.

Just as Yoshinaka is ready to head west (towards Kyûshû) to vanquish the remnants of the Taira clan, Yoritomo is rumored to be preparing an attack on Yoshinaka, from the east. He prepares for battle, setting up fortifications around the Capital at various places.

The story of two horses — Ikezuki and Surusumi — that Yoritomo owned is told as a way of describing the competitive eagerness of spirited warriors who are fully ready to ride into battle against Yoshinaka. To avoid a fight, the owner of Ikezuki, the best of the two horses, lies about how he received the horse; that is, he claims he stole it rather than receive it as a gift from Yoritomo.

9-[2] The First Man Across the Uji River — This section continues with the competition between the two owners of the fine horses given them by Yoritomo, as they seek to be the first to cross Uji River in an attack on Yoshinaka. With this section, the battle for control of the Capital begins. Yoshitsune scores his first big victory.

Character notes

Kagesue (Kajiwara Genda Kagesue), a samurai who is part of Yoritomo's forces and who is intent on being the first to cross the Uji River in the attack on Yoshinaka's forces

Takatsuna (Sasaki Shirô Takatsuna), another samurai who is part of Yoritomo's forces and who is also intent on being the first to cross the Uji River in the attack on Yoshinaka's forces

Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159–1189), ninth son of Yoshitomo and so little brother to Yoritomo. He will lead the Minamoto against the Taira in many successful campaigns. Later Go-Shirakawa will set him against Yoritomo, but unsuccessfully. Today, Yoshitsune is one of the best-loved military figures of the Gempei War.

Section summary

Yoshitsune leads the rear-assault on the Uji bridge defended by Yoshinaka.

Kagesue and Takatsuna compete to be the first to cross the wide Uji River in a brave attack on Yoshinaka's defensive position.

Yoshinaka's forces are routed at both Uji and Seta.

Reading notes

<287> "Shigetada started across immediately with his five hundred men." — Shigetada is part of the force commanded by Yoshitsune.

Multimedia

9-[3] The Battle at the Riverbed — This refers to Yoshinaka's desperate fight for his life when he is confronted by Yoritomo warriors. He dallied too long with a lover to escape from the capital.

Character notes

Takatsuna and Kagesue, as above in Sections [1] & [2]

Section summary

Yoritomo hears of the competition between Takatsuna and Kagesue, two very fierce warriors.

Yoshinaka determines he must flee the capital, given the defeats of his forces at both Uji and Seta. However, he is so slow in parting with a lover whom he has come to enjoy while living in the Capital that one of his retainers, Echigo no Chûta Iemitsu, kills himself to send a strong message to Yoshinaka that he must put his mind on matters of war, not love, at this critical moment.

Reading notes

<289> "easterners" — Here, and elsewhere, this refers to warriors loyal to Yoritomo. Yoritomo's forces have determined that Yoshinaka is an enemy, nor longer an ally to be trusted.

Yoshitsune hurries to where Go-Shirakawa resides, to protect him. He arrives triumphant. (Yoshitsune and Go-Shirakawa will develop a close bond.)

Yoshinaka flees while beating back those in pursuit; he barely survives with his life. The story notes how far he is fallen from his best days when he rode into the capital commanding 50,000 horsemen.

9-[4] The Death of Kiso — Yoshinaka is run down and killed, together with his foster brother Kanehira and others; a very skilled woman archer named Tomoe escapes with her life.

Character notes

Tomoe, a brave woman archer of great skill

Kanehira, Imai no Shirô Kanehira, a "foster brother" in the sense that he is the son of Yoshinaka's wet-nurse; a wet-nurse had a very close and important connection to the children she cared for. We meet Kanehira first in Chapter Seven, Section [1].

Section summary

Many good warriors fight at Yoshinaka's side, in a losing battle for they are vastly outnumbered. One of them is Tomoe, a beautiful archer who kills a feared samurai before escaping to the east.

Yoshinaka fights for some time, but is certain to die. Kanehira defends against Yoritomo's forces, giving Yoshinaka time to kill himself. However, he is shot in the face with an arrow and dies. Learning of this, Kanehira commits suicide by falling on his sword.

Multimedia

Doomed to die, Yoshinaka turns to attack his attackers.

9-[5] The Execution of Higuchi — The heads of Yoshinaka and his close warriors are paraded in the city; followers of his are executed; the Fujiwara Regent who had been sympathetic to Yoshinaka (appointed at his suggestion) is replaced by one sympathetic to Yoshitsune/Yoritomo, and so the transfer of power in the Capital is complete. The Taira, meanwhile, are gathering their forces to the west, at Fukuhara and Ichi-no-tani. Thus they have advanced on the capital quite a good distance from their original place of retreat in Kyûshû. They number more than 100,000 horsemen. Ichi-no-tani will be the place where the decisive battle of the Gempei War will be fought. It is described at the end of this chapter with lyric beauty.

9-[6] Six Battles — When the Taira move north towards the Capital, they leave behind local lords who are unhappy with them. Trouble develops to the rear of the Taira forces. These six skirmishes involve warriors of the Shikoku region who have turned against the Taira.

9-[7] The Array of Forces at Mikusa — Minamoto forces led by Yoshitsune and his elder brother Noriyori prepare to attack a Taira outpost at Mikusa.

Character notes

Minamoto no Noriyori (d. 1193), sixth son of Yoshitomo, thus elder brother to Yoshitsune and younger brother to Yoritomo. He fights at Yoshitsune's side; these two remain loyal to one another throughout.

Munemori, Taira no Munemori, clan head.

Koremori, son of the deceased Shigemori; had not his uncle Munemori become clan head, he would have held this honor.

Section summary

Noriyori and Yoshitsune are now the ones who offer to Go-Shirakawa to ride west and defeat the Taira. (This had also been Yoshinaka's intention before he came under attack by Yoritomo's forces.)

The Taira (through the imperial edicts of Antoku, their puppet emperor) distribute new government posts to their own.

The Minamoto are ready to attack, but show respect to religious days, and wait a few days.

Reading notes

<299> "forbidden direction" and "travel was interdicted" — What activities should best be carried out on what days as well as which directions one can travel were regulated by the calendar, one with origins in Chinese folk religion but which had long been in use in Japan. We read similar comments in The Tale of Genji, in particular as an excuse for why a man cannot stay with a certain woman on a specific occasion.

Multimedia

Map of the two-pronged plan of attack on Ichi-no-tani to be led by Noriyori and Yoshitsune

9-[8] The Battle at Mikusa — A night attack by the Minamoto, lit by burning the houses of local farmers. The Minamoto win, and the surviving Taira flee to Ichi-no-tani.

9-[9] The Old Horse — This section functions as something of a buildup towards the actions that will be the battle at Ichi-no-tani. The infamous Benkei (Musashibô Benkei) is introduced into the story. Also, at the end of this chapter Yoshitsune's ultimate fate is clearly stated: he will die, estranged from Yoritomo. The old horse refers to a clever tactic to use an old horse to help find a back way through the difficult mountains towards where the Taira are camped.

Character notes

Benkei (Musashibô Benkei) (d. 1189), a warrior who fights for Yoshitsune that became legendary for his strength and raw courage. He features in other military tales from this period, as well as in later Noh drama and kabuki plays. He was indirectly introduced into this story at the end of Section [7] of this chapter, where he is the last name on the list of warriors.

9-[10] First and Second Attackers — Similar to how the beginning of the battle at Uji River was described, with two brave samurai competing to see who would be the first to attack enemy forces, here Kumagae no Jirô Naozane and another warrior (Sueshige) both try to be first to find action in battle.

Character notes

Kumagae no Jirô Naozane is best remembered in The Tale of Heike as the warrior who must kill Atsumori. (A story not yet told at this point.)

9-[11] The Double Charge — Further descriptions of the early stages of the Ichi-no-tani battle.

9-[12] The Assault from the Cliff — This is the famous near-vertical descending charge Yoshitsune's horsemen courageously make as the decisive, dawn rear-guard attack on the Heike forces at Ichi-no-tani. Taira make a retreat to the shoreline where rescuing boats are able to evacuate some of them, but many die.

Reading notes

<311> "Hiyodorigoe track" — These are the hills behind the fortifications at Ichi-no-tani; a flat, small plain at beachside. Exactly where this descent happened is a matter of dispute. Also called just "Hiyogoe".

Multimedia

A wax museum depiction of Yoshitsune's descent, an Edo period painting of the same descent, and two contemporary photographs of the likely area of the battle.

Original link to the above two photographs:
http://members.jcom.home.ne.jp/fujinone/battlefield2.html

<311> "You wasted precious arrows in order to commit a sin." — Though it is in fact true that it is sinful to take any type of life according to Buddhist teaching; the footnote here misses the point that deer in particular are considered sacred because they were present for Buddha's first pronouncement of the four noble truths (thus the free-ranging deer at Nara, etc.).

9-[13] The Death of Etchû no Zenji — The Ichi-no-tani battle continues; we are given "close-ups" of some of the action in these several sections. In this section, a Taira warrior, Etchû no Zenji Moritoshi, known for his legendary strength, dies at the hand of a clever, silver-tongued samurai fighting for the Minamoto. "Zenji", by the way, has nothing to do with the Zen Buddhist sect.

9-[14] The Death of Tadanori — The Ichi-no-tani battle continues. Tadanori is Kiyomori's youngest brother, and the man who, when he fled the capital, first paid a visit to the famous poet Fujiwara no Shunzei. (See Chapter Seven, Section [16].) He is killed here at Ichi-no-tani, while trying, after being seriously wounded, to recite ten Buddhist invocations before his life expires.

Character notes

Please do not confuse Tadanori, Kiyomori's youngest brother, with Tadamori, Kiyomori's father and clan head.

9-[15] The Capture of Shigehira — The Ichi-no-tani battle continues. Taira no Shigehira is younger brother to the late Shigemori, who was the estimable leader of the Taira clan until his early death. He is the only son of Kiyomori to be captured alive. His is, of course, a possible heir to the Taira clan should all the others be killed or commit suicide.

Character notes

Taira no Shigehira (1157-1185), fifth son of Kiyomori. Shigehira burned the Miidera temples in Chapter Four, Section [16].

Kagesue, See Sections [1] & [2] of this chapter; Kagesue is one of the Minamoto warriors who receives a fast horse from Yoritomo and is anxious to be the first to cross the river during the attack on Kiso no Yoshinaka's rebellious forces at the Uji River.

Reading notes

<314> "Middle Captain Shigehira"— Such titles as these should by no means be considered low ranking titles. "Middle" is a position superior to "right" and "left" and "captain" seems to me too weak an English equivalent for the "shô" of this title. A fully literal translation of what is on the page at this spot might be "Commander of the Center Shigehira, Imperial Rank the Third, Esquire, the Vice Commander of the Army from Ikutani no Mori . . ." This type of oral delivery starts out the section to let us know we are now to read/hear the details of a very important man, a textual mood lost in the translation.

9-[16] The Death of Atsumori — The Ichi-no-tani battle continues. This is beyond a doubt one of the most famous passages of The Tale of Heike. It has inspired many paintings and plays. (This web site have a few notes about the Noh play 'Atsumori' elsewhere.)

Character notes

Taira no Atsumori (1169–1184), the youngest son of Tsunemori (a brother to Kiyomori), and known as a flautist. He is thus not directly part of the main line of authority of the Taira, but is of course very much at the heart of the clan nevertheless.

Kumagae no Jirô Naozane, often called just "Kumagae" or "Naozane". We read of him in Section [10] as a warrior fiercely eager to go into battle.

Section summary

Atsumori is at the point of escaping to a Taira boat when Naozane calls him back. They grapple. When Naozane sees that it is just a boy who he is about to behead, he hesitates since he has a son nearly the same age. Nevertheless, someone will certainly kill Atsumori if not him, so he takes his life and prays for Atsumori's salvation. After his death, he finds a flute beneath his armor.

9-[17] The Death of Tomoakira — The Ichi-no-tani battle continues. A Taira warrior falls protecting his father in battle. A horse loyal to the father is left behind on the shore, neighing. It later becomes the possession of Go-Shirakawa.

9-[18] The Flight — The Ichi-no-tani battle ends, with the surviving Taira fleeing by boat in many directions. The hopes among clan members of a return to power are completely crushed.

9-[19] Kozaishô's Suicide — Taira no Michimori's pregnant wife, hearing that her husband has been killed in battle, commits suicide by drowning. The story of how they met is also told, with an interesting lost letter involved.

Character notes

Taira no Michimori is the eldest son of Norimori and so a half-brother to the beheaded Atsumori of Section [16].

Michimori's wife, called Kozaishô before her marriage to him.