STORY NOTES

[The following story notes were inadvertently omitted from Usagi Yojimbo #68 part three of the “Sumi-e” story line.]

The Minamoto and the Taira clans had been at odds since the turn of the 12th century. The Minamoto fought rebels in the north, while the Taira made their reputation fighting pirates in the south. It was natural that these two forces would eventually clash. The first battle took place in 1108. In 1159, Minamoto Yoshitomo and Fujiwara Nobuyori conspired to destroy the Taira in what came to be called the Heiji War. They captured Emperor Go-Shirakawa, destroyed his palace, and put many of his retainers to death. Taira Kiyomori sent his son Shigemori against the rebels. The emperor was rescued, and the conspirators were soundly defeated. Nobuyori was slain in battle, and Yoshitomo was later killed. The Taira’s power was solidified. Kiyomori spared the lives of Yoshitomo’s sons. Yoritomo, Noriyori, and Yoshitsune. That act of mercy, however, brought about the downfall of the Taira clan in the Gempei War of 1180-85 (see UY Book 12: Grasscutter).

At the age of 15, Minamoto no Yoshihira (1140-60) was nicknamed Kamakura Akugenta (Wicked Genta of Kamakura), after killing his uncle and other relatives at the Battle of Okura. During the Heiji War, he left the city of Kamakura and traveled to Kyoto to join his father, Yoshitomo, in his fight against the Taira clan. They were defeated and fled to Owari. While recruiting troops in the north, he learned of his father’s death at the hands of a Taira assassin. Yoshihira, disguised as a peasant, returned to Kyoto to avenge his father but was recognized and captured. He was taken to Nunobiki Waterfall, where he was executed by Namba no Jiro. When he was cut down, Yoshiira’s body sprang into the air and took the form of the Thunder God. Beating upon his drums, Yoshihira killed Namba with a tremendous bolt of lightning.

Background on the Heiji War was from The Samurai 200-1500 A.D. by Anthony J. Bryant and Angus McBride, published in 1991 by Osprey Publishing of the U.K. The story of Kamakura Akugenta can be found in Yoshitsune’s Thirty-Six Ghosts by John Stevenson, published in 1983 by John Weatherhill Inc. of New York and Tokyo. Additional information was found in the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Japan by E. Papinot, published in 1972 by Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. of Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan.

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