Tale of the Heike: Book Ten

Follows Shigehira and Koremori

● Koremori
○ Sensitive soul
○ Loves poetry
○ Loves his family
■ “To be again with the family he loved so much” (548)
○ Struggles with Buddhist principles
● Shigehira
○ Great commander
○ Moreso a warrior poet than Koremori
Main Ideas and Themes
● Battlefield becomes a sacred space
● Significance of poetry
● Buddhism
● Samurai Ethics
● Karma
● Women
Sacred Space: Kumano
● God of Kumano accepted everyone
● 9th-12th centuries
○ Popular with aristocracy
● 14th century- samurai
● 17th century- common people
● Kamikura Shrine- first shrine the god of Kumano descended to
● Symbol of Kumano Sanzan- Yatagarasu
● Nachi Fire Festival
○ Drives away misfortunes and purifies the body
● Hot springs- Tsuboyu
○ Purified bodies
青岸渡寺，三重塔
“I might as well instead renounce the world here and extinguish
my life in fire or water” (553).
 Mount Koya Pilgrimage

The shrine of Toumitsu Shingonshu(東密真言宗)

Danjogaran is the first structure on Mount Koya.it is the
Konpon Doujo(根本道场）of Shingonshu.

First settled by monk Kukai in 819. Rebuilt by

Taira no Kiyomori in 1156

Okunoin(奥の院)
Danjogaran(壇上伽藍)
Konpon Daito (根本大塔）
Kongobu-ji (金剛峯寺)
Poetry
● Heavy use of poetry throughout Book 10
○ Love exchange between Shigehira and the gentlewoman
○ Takiguchi & Yokobue
○ Reflective of Koremori’s character
■ Sensitive
■ Aristocratic poet
○ Effects of the actions of the Heike

● Discussion: Function of poetry

○ Why poetry? Why not songs or other formats?
○ What does it used for? Shape the characters?
Imagism
● Definition: Clarity of expression through the use of precise images.
● Imagism emphasized simplicity, clarity of expression, and precision through
the use of exacting visual images.

● Typical and common in Asian literature

○ “River of salt tears!”
○ “This dewdrop of life”
○ “Beneath unknown skies, this earthen-floor house of mine”
○ “In the east the blossom I love may now be falling.”
○ “Let these spindrift lines gathered from my tide-borne brush
be your memory of me.”
Poetry
● An amazing poet: Jijū, a woman who used to serve Lord Munemori, surprised
Shigehira by her nice poems
○ Typically, men of high aristocratic standing master poetry

Jijū: Shigehira:
“Beneath unknown skies, “My home, the city,
this earthen-floor house of mine, no, I do not miss at all
doubtful as it is, beneath unknown skies:
must make you miss all the more not even the capital
the city so long your home. can shelter me to the last”
(539) (539)
“What am I to do?
Springtime in the capital
I would sorely miss,
yet in the east the blossom
I love may now be falling.”
(540)
Imagery: Cemetery on Mt.
Kōya(高野)
● language that causes people to
imagine pictures in their mind

Mount Koya:
“The nearest settlement is far off;
no human voices break the silence.
Only breezes rustle the green leaves;
the setting suns sheds a tranquil light.
Eight peaks rise,
eight valleys drop away.
The heart there can be truly at peace.
Flowers bloom on the misty forest floor,
Oku-no-in temple
while bells ring from the clouded heights.
Ferns grow from between the tiles;
mosses cloak the long compound walls
in this realm of timeless stars and frosts.”
(554)
Imagism or Imagery?
 李煜: The last ruler of the Southern
Tang Dynasty of China
Imagism or Imagery?
Attendance Quiz: Karma
● Do you think Kiyomori’s son Shigehira and grandson Koremori are suffering
the consequences of Kiyomori’s actions?
● Is the entire Taira clan suffering and losing power because of Kiyomori’s lust
for power and the horrible things he did to achieve it?
○ “Should we by some miracle regain our standing in the world, they must go to Rokudai”
Karma
● The impact of bodily, verbal and mental behavior
● Karma transcending generations
○ “Poor man! What karma was his, to make him deserve this. That this should happen to him,
of all Kiyomori’s many sons!” (524)
● Are Shigehira and Koremori still paying for Kiyomori’s actions?
● Symbol of water is present- Iwada River
○ “For him who once crosses this river all evil karma, all the passions, all sins from
beginningless time melt away” (559).
Koremori
● Modern man
● Very realistic
○ Sensitive
○ Hesitant
● Stark differences between him and Shigemori and Kiyomori
● Carving his, Kiyomori’s, and Shigemori’s names and ranks in a tree vs.
yelling name on battlefield seen in earlier chapters
Taira no Koremori Taira no Shigemori
Taira no
Kiyomori
Buddhism and Impermanence
● Symbol of cherry blossoms: “When Lord Koremori stepped forth from their
circle to dance Blue Sea Waves, with a spray of blossoms in his hair” (562)
● “All those who are born must die, it is true. All who meet must part. That is
simply the way of the world” (564)
● “You would not escape that final sorrow, my lord, even if you came to pride
yourself on the pleasures of a long life. The same grief would find
you in the end, as it does now, even if you were to live a
hundred years” (564)
● “Should we by some miracle regain our standing in the world,
they must go to Rokudai” (558)

Examples of impermanence in history- fallen civilizations, leaders, etc?

Koremori’s Struggle With Buddhist Principles
● “No man should have a wife and children. In this life they are a constant
worry…they hinder enlightenment in the next” (562)
● Became a monk at Mount Koya and made a pilgrimage
● Drowned himself at hama-no-miya(浜の宮)
Bushido 武士道

righteous ( 義 Gi), courage(勇Yu), compassion(仁jin), respect(礼rei),

integrity( 誠 makoto), honor(名誉meiyo), loyalty( 忠義 chugi), self-control(自
制jisei)

What do you think is the most important?

Samurai Ethics
● Killing yourself rather than being captured
○ “They took Shigehira prisoner, they paraded him through the streets, they subjected him to
ghastly shame in the city and Kamakura, and should I fall into their clutches, my fate would
bloody my father’s grave” (548)
○ “Assuming that the riders would seize them, he and his party put their hands to their daggers,
ready to slit their bellies” (559)
● Take your responsibility and complete it
● Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

How does this connect to European or American wars?

● Honorable being a prisoner of war - John McCain

● U.S. even awards Prisoner of War Medals
● Chivalry
Attendance Quiz !
● In Episode 2, Shigehira, apparently, loves his wife and delivers love
messages to her with tears while he knows that he is going to die soon.
● Meanwhile, this episode focuses on the love between him and a
gentlewoman, not between him and his wife!
● Does this mean that Shigehira is not loyal to his wife? What’s your
explanation to this?
Women in the Heike
● Koremori’s relationship with his wife
○ “Alas, I would have no regrets now if only my dear family could have seen me one last time”
(558)
○ “The lady became a nun at once and gave herself, as best she could, to pious rites and
litanies and prayers for her husband in the hereafter” (571)
● Takiguchi x Yokobue
○ “I will spurn the fleeting sorrows of the world and follow the true path instead” (549)
○ “All right, so he renounced the world- but he could at least have let me know!” (549)
● Used as a way to gain status and political power
○ “And there he met Yokobue, a girl in the service of Kenreimon-in. He fell desperately in love.
“There I was looking to make you some fine gentleman’s son-in-law and set you up well
in life but no, you have to fall for a girl who is nothing!” (548)
● Become the victims of politics. (Taira no Tokuko)
● Imposed the burden of whole family (Taira no Tokiko)
Shigehira is a Ladies’ Man
● Shigehira is lowkey sexist and terrible but we are meant to pity him
○ “Although I suppose that my mother might, being a woman” (525)
● Pathos through poetry
“River of salt tears! “Your presence with me
As I am, I spread abroad and this dewdrop life of mine
a most dismal fame, have this in common:
yet for all that I still long that tonight, for all I know,
for one last moment with you.” the end is to come for both”
(527) (528)
● Does he deserve to have all these women praying for him?
○ “She at once entered religion, put on robes of the darkest black, and prayed for him in the
afterlife” (529)
○ “She put off all her finery, clothed herself in the deepest black,... and prayed only that in the
next life bring him rebirth in paradise” (547)
Which statement is wrong?
A. Lord Koremori died during the war of Ichi-no-tani
B. Heike need to restore the the regalia in exchange for Lord Shigehira’s return
C. Lord Munemori did not give up the regalia even though Lady Nii was
desperate
Answer
A. Lord Koremori died during the war of Ichi-no-tani
How did Koremori die?
A. Drown
B. Fire
C. Killed in battle
D. Kira wrote his name in the death note
Answer
A. Drowns himself
Who does not die in this chapter?
A. Yokobue
B. Takiguchi
C. Koremori
D. Shigekage
Answer
B. Takiguchi
Which did Yorimori not receive from Yoritomo
A. Silk rolls
B. Feathers
C. 30 unsaddled horses
D. Sword
Answer
D. Sword
Which does Koremori not carve into the tree trunk at
Nachi?
A. His religious name
B. His rank
C. Kiyomori’s name
D. Shigehira’s name
Answer
D. Shigehira’s name
Who is the “Holy Man?”
A. Honen
B. Munemori
C. Ishidomaru
D. Senju-no-mae
Answer
A. Honen
Who/What/Where is Jiju?
A. Eastern sea of Japan
B. One of the sacred treasures
C. Daughter of Yuya
D. Southern Sea of Japan
Answer
C. Daughter of Yuya
What are the names of the heirlooms (suit of armor
and sword) Koremori wants to pass to Rokudai if the
Heike regain their status?
A. Kuroko and Kagami
B. Kararasy and Kogakawa
C. Karakawa and Kogarasu
D. Kurokawa and Kagarasu
Answer
C. Karakawa and Kogarasu
Which of these statements is correct?
A. Tokiyori met Yokobue and they grew old together
B. Tokiyori thought Yokobue was his rival
C. They never met each other
D. Tokiyori fell in love with Yokobue
Answer
D. Tokiyori fell in love with Yokobue
Who did the God of Kumano accept?
A. Everyone
B. Only men
C. Only women
D. Samurai
Answer
A. everyone
When Shigehira and the gentlewoman exchange
their love for eachother, what do they use?
A. Novel
B. Snapchat
C. Song
D. Poetry
Answer
D. Poetry
Reference
● Gempei_war-battles picture:http://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat16/sub107/entry-5314.html
● <ahref="https://www.tripadvisor.ie/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g1121341-d324938-i48661660-Koyasan_Okunoin-
Koya_cho_Ito_gun_Wakayama_Prefecture_Kinki.html#48661660"><img alt="" src="https://media-
cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/e6/84/9c/okunoin-approach.jpg"/></a><br/>This photo of Koyasan Okunoin is courtesy of
TripAdvisor
● http://japan-magazine.jnto.go.jp/en/1506_kumano.html
● http://sonic.net/~tabine/heike081003/Heike_Graphics_Chpt10/koremori_drowns_X12.jpg
● https://info.painfulpleasures.com/blogs/art-body-branding
● Credit:By ja:User:味っ子, Uploaded by 百楽兎 - ja:Image:一ノ谷の戦い.png, CC BY-SA 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1676538
● http://japan-magazine.jnto.go.jp/en/1506_kumano.html
● https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/brief-guide-imagism
● http://www.chinese-poems.com/y11.html