Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII OF HISTORY OF JAPAN IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Mild Meme HISTORY OF JAPAN IN WORDS OF ONE SYLLABLE
By Helen Ainslie Smith CHAPTER VII THE RULE OF THE HOUSE OF GEN Though Kiyomori had put to death the chief men of the house of Gen lest they should rise up in their strength and drive him from the high place he had won
he had said he would spare the lives of two of the old chief's sons the first one from whom he had the most to fear was dead he thought and the young ones were sent to live with some Buddhist monks and grow up to be priests But Kiyomori should have known that these boys had the hot blood of their brave sires in their veins and since he had been so bad as to kill them
he should have done the same to their sons if it was his wish to keep all that he had won for his own race. The first son, Yoritomo, had got off with his life as well as the two young ones though he was in the last fight which his sire had lost and had the ill luck to fall in the hands of one of the Taira men. But through the aid of some folks who felt for the boy, he was not put to death, but was sent to live far off in the fief of Idzu, in the care of two Tyra men.
He had all the gifts of a great man. His will was strong, his heart brave. He knew how to feel joy, grief or wrath and not show them in his face, as he had to both in the fall of his race and in the ills of war. At the same time he won the love and best will of those he was with So when the proud hard ways of Kiyomori got to such a pitch that a prince of the blood made up his mind to rid the realm of him
if he had to put him to death this prince knew that Yoritomo and the Gen clan would be just the men to help him He wrote to Yoritomo and he in turn wrote to his bold young brother Yoshitsune
and to his friends to join him and take up arms to put down the old foe of their race. Now there was not in all the isles of the realm a knight more great and good than this Shoshutsune. He was not so old as his brother by twelve years, but he was, as we say, the flower of his age. He had been put with his small brother to live with the monks when his sire was put to death, But he had too much love for life and sports and was too true a son of the shogun to want to spend his years with books.
So one day he ran off from the monk's house with some man of trade who had come from the east to sell steel to the folks who dwelt near the monks. The man did not want to take him but the boy would go and they soon came to be warm friends. On their way, they made a stop at Katsusa which was then a prey to a band of thieves with whom Yoshitsune had some fights
and did such bold deeds to drive them out that his friend had to beg him not to put forth his strength too much or the Taira would hear of it and know at once from what race he came and that would be the end of him
So the young man kept as still as he could and went on with his friend to Mutsu where he went to live with a prince of the old Fujiwara house. He spent his time in the chase, in the sports of which he was fond, and in drill at arms, and in the meantime grew to be strong and brave,
and in all things the type of a Japanese knight. When the call came to him from Yoritomo, he went to the field at once, and the grand fight that he made for the pride of his race did more to place the house of gun at the head of the state and to drive out the Taira than all the spread of Yoritomo,
though he got the place of chief and most of the spoils. In the first of this fight, when the Taira race and the House of Gun met in strife once more, the Taira beat Yoritomo and he had to flee for his life. But he found a new band that would let him lead them
and ere long he made up a large force from the folks who had once been led by his sires, but who till now held back in fear of the might of the Tyra sway. Like the true Japanese shogun that he was when he found the folks glad to join him he lost no time ere he had made up a large force
and got them all in fine shape for war. He woke his clan to a new life and drew to his side not a few of the men who had lost their love for the Tyra or had found their schemes at court to fail
and would now put forth all the might they had to push on the plans of their great arch foe. In the meantime, Kiyomori had been at work and had got up a large force which was sent to the east just in time to get to one side of the Fuji River, just as Yoritomo came up to the other. But this is the most swift of all the streams in Japan, and though both troops had a great wish to meet and fight, they could not cross the flood. At last
the Taera took flight and fled in haste, sure that the Gen were at their heels, while they, for their part, soon went back to Kamakura, where Yoritomo set out to build a great town that in time came to be more grand in size and wealth and to have more sway in Japan than old and great Kyoto itself. He now made it his work to build up the might of this town and fix the sway of the Gin house here, and to wipe out the name of Taira from the face of the earth. In the meantime,
His brother and brave kinsfolk led the host in the fierce war which soon spread through the whole realm. Ere long Kiyomori fell sick and died at Kyoto, and his son soon took his place at the head of the house of Tyra. But the star of that race was now on its downward course, for the gun troops won in the east, in the north and the west, and at last they got to Kyoto itself, the chief town, the seats of the court and state in their hands. The Tyra, the young Mikado, his folks and near friends had to flee
while his brother was put on the throne and the wealth of the proud Tyra went to the chief who had sent them forth Yoshitsune, then the first man-at-arms of the whole realm went so far as to lay siege to the forts where the Tyra had tried to set up their strength and to plan means by which to get back what they had lost
and he drove them from place to place till at last they were on the sea where each had a fleet of junks that met in a great fray that was to bring the dread war to an end. While the gen had all the odds in this fray, the Tyra fought best and would have won
if one of their men had not been false to them and lent aid to Yoshitsune. It was a fierce fight to the end and the day was not won till there was scarce a child of the Tyra left in all the fleet.
Then all that were on land were sought out and put to death ere their foes felt free to be gay over the great things they had done and the way they had paid off to the race of Kiyomori, the score he had left them when he slew their sire to make way for his own rise. While this dread strife went on, Yoritomo's great task was to build up his strength and sway at
Kamakura and to keep on in his plans till he had the whole of the real rule of the land in his hands. So it came round that Japan at last was under twofold form of rule. The Mikado at Kyoto was still the emperor and held his court at the great head of the realm. Though no one else had such a thought as to take the throne, his reign was not his rule, while the great shogun, who still had to own the mikado as his chief, had the reigns of rule. He had a seat and a sort of court of his own,
three hundred miles from that of the mikados. He made more than one charge in the state, chief of which was to form a council which saw to the ways and needs of the realm. He set up a court too which tried all who did any crime, most of all the thieves, of which there were then great bands in Japan. Scores of new ways to deal with the folks were laid out and brought up to the Mikado, who let them be put in force in his name, though some of them were far from the old forms of his sires and not just what he would have done himself.
In this way, Yoritomo got the royal word to wipe out the Tyra house from all the posts of trust and to put his own kin in their stead. He took arms and all tools of war from the monks, too. They had come to have great stores of this sort, and could use them with much skill, so that when they felt they had cause to fight, they could oft send out as fine a set of troops as was kept by the state in any part of the realm.
They had wealth, too, and so far lost sight of the aim they laid claims to in life, that they kept themselves like sets of real troops, and trimmed to break forth any day and fight the cause of any side they chose to take. This was not good for the realm, and Yoritomo soon broke it up. Thus, step by step, he got more rights from the throne,
and brought things round to suit himself, till at last he had a sure place at the head of the realm. In the five great fiefs shoguns were put in charge, where there had been governors of the civil class. In the small fiefs, the civil governors were made to share their posts with,
or to yield them in all but name, the chiefs-at-arms of the Gen race. and in all parts of the realm a tax was laid on to keep them in troops so that a good force might be on hand at all times and there would be no need to call out the troops of the east where small feuds broke out in strife.
There long he sent folks to live in the lands of the north and the east which had been made to own the sway of the Mikado and pay tax to him. Soon those lands were made a part of the realm with the same form of rule as the rest. Still more lands at the north did he add
and from the year 1180 on he had more might than any man in the empire, even the Mikado himself and all the lords of the court paid to him the most high honours that were known to them. In that year he made a visit to the Mikado and when he went back to Kamakura it was with more sway in the state than the old Fujiwara had held at any time and more might at arms than the great House of Taira had known. In a few years he was made Seitai Shogun or Great General which was a
rank that had not been known in Japan ere this but which was kept up till 1868. From that time it meant much more to be a shogun than it had in the past. It meant so much that folks who went to Japan from strange lands thought that they were two heads of the empire. But that was not so. Great as was the shogun's rule It was at all times in the name of his lord
The Mikado at Kyoto With the last rise of Yoritomo Peace came to Japan And the great general Spent the prime of his life in plans
To make his rule sound and sure And to have his sons And all his race brave and strong So that they could hold the place He had made for them through all the years to come
But there is one blot of his fair name so long as he could use men for his own aims he was good to them but as soon as he thought they might come to be great in themselves in fear that they might rise to outshine him he got them out of the way
and most of all he did this with his good brother Yoshitsune who in truth won more for Yoritomo than the great shogun did for himself but who won so much love from all folks as well as such great fame by his deeds in war that his brother came to fear lest he should rise too high
and then to hate him and at last to give work to have him put to death but though Yoritomo got all that he tried to and more and ranks as one of the first of all Japan's great men in the state
and in arms it is not he but Yoshitsune whose name is now held most high whose place is thought to be with the gods and to whom the folks have built shrines and pray
the young folks are told the tale of his life and his great deeds his face is on their kites and they all think of him as the type of what a true Japanese knight should be Yoritomo spent his life to serve himself and when he died his rule fell
his town was burnt to the ground and he was put in his grave with few to think of him in time to come but his young brother's fame still lives and the boys of Japan are still taught to be good and brave and to have high aims in their lives as this knight of old had in his.
End of chapter 7
