Biographies XC: Fujiwara-no-Fujifusa, Suefusa, Toshimoto, Minamoto-no-Tomoyuki, Taira-no-Narisuke, Fujiwara-no-Suketomo and Kunimitsu

Fujiwara-no-Fujifusa

¶Fujiwara-no-Fujifusa was at first named Korefusa. He was the eldest son of Nobufusa, Gon-Dainagon (Provisional Major Counsellor) (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). He served Emperor Go-Daigo, was appointed Sadaiben (Senior Controller of the Left), and after serving as Sangi (Counsellor) rose to Chūnagon (Middle Counsellor). Before long he concurrently held the posts of Saheie-no-kami (Captain of the Left Gate Guards) and Kebiishi-no-betto (Superintendent of the Imperial Police), and attained Senior Second Rank (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the first year of Genkō (1331), when Hōjō Takatoki was about to send troops to attack the capital, Imperial Prince Moriyoshi dispatched a messenger by night to report the crisis. Fujifusa, his younger brother Suefusa, and the Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Morokata were on night duty, and the emperor summoned them to consult. Fujifusa said, "The situation is urgent. Your Majesty should leave the palace at once." They therefore fitted out a carriage in the manner of one used by ladies, loaded the emperor and the Three Sacred Treasures into it, and, announcing that "the Empress is proceeding to the Kitayama mansion," went out by the Yōmei Gate. By the time they reached the Sanjō riverbank, Imperial Prince Takayoshi and several court nobles had caught up with them (Note: for Takayoshi, following the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki and the Masukagami). The emperor then changed to a shoulder-borne palanquin (Note: the Masukagami says he rode on horseback). It was carried by Shigeyasu, Daizen-no-daibu (Master of the Palace Table), the Kurōdo Kiyofuji (Note: the surnames of both are unknown), the court musician Toyohara-no-Kaneaki, and the guardsman Hata-no-Hisatake and others. Fujifusa and the rest followed, all in disguised dress, and made for Nara and at last reached Kasagi (Note: following the Taiheiki; for Kiyofuji, following the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). But the rebels attacked the temporary palace by night and set it on fire; smoke and flames filled every direction, and by ill luck wind and rain were fierce as well. The princes and court nobles lost their way and were scattered, and only Fujifusa, Morokata, and the Gon-Chūnagon Minamoto-no-Tomoyuki (Note: for Morokata and Tomoyuki, following the Masukagami) stayed to assist the emperor, hiding by day and walking by night. The emperor's progress was extremely arduous, and only after three days did he reach Mount Arimine (Note: the Masukagami gives Takama-yama). Misu Saburō (Note: for Saburō, following the Kōmyōji Zōsho Zanpen; the Masukagami gives Tarō) and a certain Matsui, soldiers of the rebel side, found the emperor and pressed in on him. The emperor said to Misu, "Why do you not receive Heaven's favor and seek your own advancement?" Misu secretly wished to let the emperor escape, but, wary of Matsui behind him, in the end surrounded the emperor, Fujifusa, Tomoyuki and the others and led them away. The emperor was taken into the southern office of Rokuhara (Note: that Fujifusa and Tomoyuki accompanied him and that he entered the southern office follows the Kōmyōji Zōsho Zanpen and the Masukagami). Hōjō Takatoki permitted Fujifusa and Minamoto-no-Tadaaki, Sakonoe-no-shōshō (Lesser Captain of the Left Palace Guards), to attend on the emperor. In the second year of Genkō (1332), Takatoki exiled Fujifusa to Hitachi. In the third year (1333), Takatoki was put to death and Fujifusa returned to the capital. By then the whole realm had been pacified, and the emperor commanded the Gon-Chūnagon Fujiwara-no-Saneyo to deliberate on rewards for those who had contributed to the restoration. Warriors and officers vied with one another to submit statements of merit, and those who gathered numbered in the tens of thousands, but many had falsified or inflated their service, and Saneyo was unable to distinguish true from false. After a full month he finally selected a little over twenty men and gave them rewards. Before long the selection was cancelled as disorderly, and the emperor ordered Fujifusa to take over the task. Fujifusa then inquired into who had been diligent and who negligent, distinguished the true from the false, and had more or less settled who should receive awards. But special rinji (imperial edicts) were issued from within the palace, and bestowals were made on a large scale. Fujifusa realized that remonstrance would be useless, and, pleading illness, ceased to attend at court. The emperor then had Fujiwara-no-Mitsutsune, Minbukyō (Minister of Popular Affairs), act in his place. Mitsutsune consulted the generals, ascertained which soldiers had been loyal and which not, and was about to submit his findings and carry them out. But by confidential orders from within the palace, Takatoki's estates were assigned to the imperial household, the estates of Ōsaragi Sanenao were given to the favored consort of the Fujiwara clan, the Hōjō family's estates were granted to Imperial Prince Moriyoshi, and the remainder was divided among the officials of the guards' offices, the women of the palace, temples, and entertainers of song, dance and miscellaneous arts, until almost no land was left. The warriors and officers who had earned merit were left empty-handed; Mitsutsune could do nothing about it, and the months merely dragged on.

¶When he first returned to the throne, the emperor applied himself eagerly to government. He established a Ketsudansho (Court of Decisions) outside the Ikuhō Gate to adjudicate miscellaneous suits, and the realm gradually came to be free of trouble. The emperor, thinking there was now nothing to worry about, shut himself away in the depths of the palace and gave himself over to music and the pleasures of women. His favored attendants monopolized the receipt of petitions, obscured the emperor's discernment, and acted wickedly as they pleased. Those who flattered skillfully and gave bribes obtained favors beyond their hopes, while many who relied on their own services were left stalled and unrewarded, and officials merely occupied their posts and fawned. Even matters that had been deliberated and settled were often altered by confidential edicts that no longer passed through the proper offices, and those in charge could not even argue their case. As a result decisions contradicted one another, and at times a single estate was granted to several persons at once, each of whom contested possession; the confusion greatly disturbed the world, and the realm began to think of disorder again (Note: following the Taiheiki). Some people wrote anonymous tracts criticizing the government of the day, taking as their first target the chaos of the imperial edicts (Note: following the Kenmu Ninen-ki). In the first year of Kenmu (1334), the ministers petitioned that the palace was cramped and that it did not accord with the institutions of a sovereign for the hundred officials of differing offices to share the same chambers, and so the building of a Great Imperial Palace was ordered; but the cost was enormous, and even levying a twentieth of the revenue of the provincial jitō (estate stewards) was not enough. Paper money was therefore issued and coins cast to meet the expense. A riding-ground hall was also built at Nijō Takakura, and the emperor frequently made progresses there by carriage and horse. In the course of banquets he took pleasure in watching mounted archery. Enya Takasada, Shugo (Protector) of Izumo, presented a horse of a thousand-league breed whose bone structure was extraordinary: it left Izumo in the morning and reached the capital by evening. The emperor, greatly delighted, had it kept in the Left Bureau of Horses and called it the Heavenly Horse. One day he visited the riding-ground hall and asked Fujiwara-no-Kinkata, Naidaijin (Inner Minister), "I have never heard of the appearance of a Heavenly Horse. It has come in my reign without being sought. What sort of auspicious omen is it?" Kinkata cited a variety of old precedents and praised it as an auspicious sign of the age. The ministers offered congratulations, but Fujifusa arrived late, and the emperor questioned him in turn. Fujifusa replied:

¶"I have heard it said: 'King Mu of Zhou loved his eight steeds and his government declined, while Emperors Wen and Guangwu of Han turned away horses of a thousand leagues and their states flourished.' If one looks at the traces of these two choices, the results, order and disorder, are plain. As to the appearance of a Heavenly Horse in this sacred reign, I, in my foolishness, cannot know what omen it may be. Yet I privately think that it may be because there is much in the government that falls short of the times that Heaven has produced an especially rare object to cloud Your Majesty's mind. For at present the realm has only just been settled and the people's wounds are not yet healed. This is precisely the time when those who hold the government should interrupt their meals to listen to the people's voices, when remonstrating ministers should submit their memorials, when the suffering people should be comforted and errors set right. Yet many of the senior ministers and officials strive only to flatter and please Your Majesty, a spirit of license has spread, and the safety and danger of the state are left unattended and unheeded. I shall set out one or two points roughly; may Your Majesty examine them with care. In the past, when the emperor was driven from the capital and wandered in exile, the warriors of the realm who vied to rally to the righteous cause did so with the aim of winning merit, receiving rewards, and attaining rank and wealth, and fortunately they lived to see the world restored to order. Hoping to receive the emperor's favor, they crowded at the palace gates, and day after day pressed into the Kirokujo (Records Office) and the Ketsudansho, each submitting his statement of merit. At first the gates and courtyards were almost like a marketplace, and they waited with craned necks for the imperial command to descend. The petitions submitted piled up like a mountain, yet those in charge never issued a decision, and in the end the rewards reached only the emperor's favored attendants or their subordinates. Many of the warriors and officers who had earned merit were left off the records, and in their resentment and anger gave up hope. Even those who had already submitted petitions did not wait for replies but scattered one after another back to their home districts, and those who secretly lament the injustice of the present government and resent the partiality of its officials number in the thousands. And yet if people look at the daily dwindling of those who bring suits and take it to be the result of Your Majesty's virtuous influence, as when the states of Yu and Rui gave up their lawsuit, how mistaken that would be! The ministers who deliberate on government ought to grant rewards and distribute estates in order to soothe the unquiet hearts of the soldiers. Yet, looking about, I see that they are vigorously undertaking building works that are not urgent, constructing the Great Imperial Palace and doubling the tax burden on the districts and counties. Soldiers and farmers, after the disorder, are in grave distress, and still harsh exactions are being made. In the provinces the governors hold power, and the petty officials of the governors' deputies rely on that power to seize violently the estates newly established since the Jōō era. The zaichō kanjin (provincial officials), the kebiishi, the kondei-sho (militia offices) and the like exercise their authority as they please. Meanwhile the shugo are lamenting the loss of their posts. The title of shogunal housemen has been handed down from generation to generation since Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, but in this sacred age it has been abolished altogether. The warriors of the shōmon, the military houses (the source glosses the word "ikusakado"), have been reduced to the rank and file and enrolled among the common people, so it is only natural that their resentment is not slight. Ashikaga Takauji, Nitta Yoshisada, Kusunoki Masashige, Akamatsu Enshin and Nawa Nagatoshi are equal and of a piece in merit, and there ought to be no ranking among them. Yet Enshin alone has been stripped of the office of shugo to which he was previously appointed and has been granted only his original holdings. I do not know what crime Enshin committed, but such is Your Majesty's treatment of him. The ancients said, 'If rewards match the merit, the loyal come forward willingly to serve; if punishments match the crime, the guilty withdraw.' The present government not only fails to match rewards and punishments, but invites reproach for its imperial edicts being reversed from one day to the next. With Your Majesty's government in this state, this horse has happened to appear; in my view it is rather the seed of calamity and the beginning of disorder, and most likely not an auspicious sign. Moreover, the spread of virtue travels faster than relay horses carrying orders, and when sacred virtue extends its influence there is no need of such an object. If lawless men were to take advantage of the slackening of the court's discipline and raise rebellion in the very shadow of the Son of Heaven, this horse would be useful only as a means of carrying news of urgent military danger. I humbly beg Your Majesty to put aside the love of rare and curious things and to extend the benevolent virtue that rescues the people at large."

¶The emperor was greatly displeased and ended the audience. Fujifusa submitted his opinions repeatedly after that, but they were not heeded. Fujifusa said, "I have fulfilled the way of a subject, as far as it lay with me." That winter, while attending the emperor at night, he remonstrated indirectly by drawing on the stories of Bigan (Bi Gan) and of Hakui and Shukusei (Boyi and Shuqi), and when he withdrew toward dawn he sent back his carriage and attendants, went into Iwakura on Kitayama, and became a monk (Note: following the Taiheiki; that this was the winter of that year follows the Kugyō Bunin and the Rekidai Kōki). The emperor was greatly startled and ordered Nobufusa to search for Fujifusa with a view to employing him again. Nobufusa sent a messenger to summon him, but Fujifusa replied with a poem (Note: that a messenger was sent to summon him, and what follows, are according to the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). Nobufusa hurried to Iwakura himself, but Fujifusa had already left. Later, when Ashikaga Takauji rebelled, the emperor sent an envoy with the Heavenly Horse to summon Nitta Yoshisada to Owari, but the horse collapsed and died on the way, exactly as Fujifusa had said (Note: following the Taiheiki. The Tenshō-bon Taiheiki says that Fujifusa became a monk, took the name Kanzanshi, wandered through the provinces, and died when his boat capsized on reaching Tosa. The Yoshino Shūi says the following. In the reign of Emperor Go-Murakami, a herd boy came to the gate of Fujiwara-no-Saneyo and said, "This morning I went to the western outskirts and there was a haggard-looking monk, who asked me to deliver this letter." A poem was written in the letter. Saneyo looked at it, recognized it as Fujifusa's, and went to court to report it. An edict was issued to the barrier officials of the provinces to search for him, but he was not found. Wakiya Yoshisuke came from Echizen to Yoshino and said, "My retainer Hata Tokiyoshi once entered Mount Takanosu and on returning said, 'In the mountains I met a monk. He lived in a rock dwelling, with a mat of grass spread, and a Buddhist sutra set on a stone. When I tried asking him, the monk on the contrary confirmed Tokiyoshi's name, then answered only, "This poor monk is from the eastern provinces," and went on reading his sutra and said nothing more. His features resembled Fujifusa's.'" Yoshisuke then hastened with Fujiwara-no-Yukizane to the hermitage, but the monk was no longer there. Yukizane recognized the poem written on the stone as in Fujifusa's hand. They searched further, but in the end could not find him. Examining the biographies of the Zen patriarchs, we find the statement that Juō Sōhitsu, the second patriarch of Myōshinji, was none other than Fujifusa. Yet if we consider the facts as they stand, Fujifusa had already withdrawn from the world and did not let even his lord or his father know where he was; how could he then have succeeded to the dharma of Kanzan Egen and gone to a famous temple in the capital? Had he gone there, among the ministers serving at court, who would not have known his face? That is quite impossible. Fujifusa's line continued generation after generation and remains a distinguished house to this day, but his family does not transmit any such story. The Enta Ryaku and other authentic records contain no mention of it either. It was only when the monk Eichō wrote the Myōshinji-ki that this theory was first fabricated by false association. Recently compilers of monks' biographies have cited it as proof, but it is probably an erroneous theory. As what is recorded in the three books has no clear basis, it is not adopted here.) His younger brother was Suefusa.

Fujiwara-no-Suefusa

¶Fujiwara-no-Suefusa was appointed Sangi (Counsellor) and concurrently held the posts of Udaiben (Senior Controller of the Right) and Chūgū-no-suke (Assistant Master of the Empress's Household) (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Kugyō Bunin). When the emperor made his progress to Kasagi, the Empress Fujiwara hid herself beside the Nonomiya, and Suefusa followed her. Soon afterwards he shaved his head, and when he went outside he was captured (Note: the Taiheiki says that Suefusa, together with Fujifusa, accompanied the emperor at Kasagi and was taken prisoner, but this is probably an error). Takatoki exiled Suefusa to Shimotsuke, and he died at his place of exile (Note: following the Masukagami; the Taiheiki gives Hitachi). His son was Nakafusa, who rose to the office of Gon-Dainagon (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku).

Fujiwara-no-Toshimoto

¶Fujiwara-no-Toshimoto was a son of Tanenori, Daigaku-no-kami (Director of the University). He passed the taisaku (the examination in policy), and was appointed Sakonoe-no-shōgen (Lesser Captain of the Left Palace Guards, Third Class), Shōnagon (Lesser Counsellor), and Dainaiki (Senior Secretary). In the third year of Genkyō (1323) he was made Kurōdo-no-tō (Head Chamberlain) (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). His family had pursued Confucian learning as its profession for generations, and since he excelled in talent and scholarship he enjoyed particular favor. Together with Fujiwara-no-Suketomo, Chūnagon, he took part in the plans to restore the authority of the court. Because his duties were so busy that he had no leisure, he constantly wished for a chance to withdraw from public view and plan the great enterprise. On one occasion, in connection with a petition from Enryakuji, Toshimoto deliberately misread the character "ryō" in the petition as "man." People who saw it laughed and said, "The character 'sō' is made up of 'tree' and 'eye'; do you read this one as 'tree' too?" Toshimoto put on a look of shame, pleaded illness, and for half a year did not attend at court; in secret he disguised himself as a shugenja (mountain ascetic) and travelled through the home provinces, the Kantō, and the western provinces, examining in full everything he saw of strategic strongholds and local customs (Note: the Masukagami says that Toshimoto traveled through the provinces on the pretext of bathing in a hot spring in Kii to cure an illness). Suketomo, using banquets and outings as a pretext, laid plans together with Toshimoto and others. He also had the monk Genne give lectures. In time the matter leaked out; Hōjō Takatoki seized Toshimoto and Suketomo (Note: following the Taiheiki), had officials interrogate them, and had them questioned about the so-called "bureikō" (gatherings without rank). Toshimoto answered, "Matters touching on armed disorder are no concern of the court nobles. As for something called a bureikō, I do not even know what it is. I am a Confucian official, and when I had leisure I invited the monk Genne to lecture on literature; perhaps this was misreported." Takatoki thought his words reasonable, and since he was a close courtier with an outstanding literary reputation, he did not have him tortured but placed him in the custody of the Samurai-dokoro (Note: following the Shimazu-ke-bon Taiheiki). The following year Takatoki pardoned him and sent him back to the capital (Note: following the Masukagami and the Taiheiki). In the first year of Genkō (1331) he advanced in rank and became Uchūben (Middle Controller of the Right) (Note: following the Benkan Bunin). When the monks Monkan and Chūen were arrested in Kamakura and made a full confession of the court's plans, Hōjō Takatoki again sent men to seize Toshimoto (Note: following the Taiheiki). Toshimoto fled and hid within the palace, but soldiers burst in and captured him (Note: following the Masukagami) and sent him to Kamakura. Realizing that he could not escape his fate, on reaching Kikugawa he wrote a poem on a pillar of the post station. In it he recalled that there had been precedents of the same kind in earlier days, and wondered whether he too would sink in the same current at Kikugawa, the river whose name suggests "hearing." This was because, at the time of the Jōkyū Disturbance, Fujiwara-no-Muneyuki, Chūnagon, had been killed by the Hōjō at this very place, and so he composed it in this way (Note: following the Taiheiki. In this book the name given is Mitsuchika instead of Muneyuki, but this has now been corrected on the basis of the Azuma Kagami and the Jōkyū-ki). The following year, when the emperor made his progress to the western provinces, Toshimoto was killed at Kuzuharaoka (Note: following the Jōrakuki; the Taiheiki places Toshimoto's death in the first year of Genkō). As he faced death he composed a gatha, saying in effect that from ancient times there has been a single phrase in which there is neither death nor life, that when the clouds have cleared for ten thousand leagues the long river runs clear. It happened that Gotō Sukemitsu, a retainer of Toshimoto, came from the capital to the place of execution carrying a letter from Toshimoto's wife; weeping, he bade his lord farewell, cremated the body, and buried the remains on Mount Kōya (Note: following the Taiheiki). His sons were Toshitaka and Toshinari (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). A daughter, known as Ben-no-Naishi, was gifted in waka and served at the courts of both Go-Daigo and Go-Murakami (Note: following the Yoshino Shūi).

Minamoto-no-Tomoyuki

¶Minamoto-no-Tomoyuki was a son of Moroyuki, of Junior Third Rank (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Kugyō Bunin). During the Bunpō era he served in turn as Ukonoe-no-chūjō (Middle Captain of the Right Palace Guards) (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). From the time when Emperor Go-Daigo was still living in his residence before accession, he was treated with particular intimacy and given heavy responsibility (Note: following the Masukagami). After the accession he was gradually promoted to Gon-Chūnagon and granted Junior Second Rank (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). When the emperor plotted the punishment of Hōjō Takatoki, in the first year of Genkō (1331) he ordered Tomoyuki to levy soldiers in secret (Note: following the Masukagami). When the plot was exposed and the emperor made his progress to Nara, Tomoyuki accompanied him to Kasagi (Note: following the Masukagami and the Taiheiki). He conferred with the monk Ryōchū and issued edicts summoning the troops of the provinces (Note: following the Taiheiki). When Kasagi fell, he fled with the emperor together with the Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Morokata and the Gon-Chūnagon Fujiwara-no-Fujifusa. Hōjō Takatoki seized Tomoyuki and confined him. In the sixth month of the second year of Genkō (1332), Takatoki ordered Sasaki Takauji to have him killed at Kashiwabara in Ōmi (Note: following the Masukagami and the Taiheiki). Facing death he asked for an inkstone and wrote a gatha, saying in effect that he had wandered free between life and death for forty-three years, that the mountains and rivers had been transformed in a single turn, and that heaven and earth were now open and clear (Note: following the Taiheiki. This book gives forty-three years as forty-two years, but now, reckoning from the Kugyō Bunin, the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki has been followed).

Taira-no-Narisuke

¶Taira-no-Narisuke (Note: the Kōmyōji Zōsho Zanpen writes the "suke" of Narisuke with a different character) was a son of Koresuke, Gon-Chūnagon. He served in turn as Chūgū-no-suke and Kurōdo-no-tō, was appointed Sangi, concurrently held the posts of Jibukyō (Minister of Civil Affairs) and Danjō-no-daihitsu (Senior Assistant Master of the Board of Censors), and advanced to Senior Third Rank (Note: following the Heishi Keizu and the Kugyō Bunin). When the emperor plotted the punishment of Hōjō Takatoki, he ordered Narisuke and others to gather righteous troops (Note: following the Taiheiki). Nakahara-no-Akifusa, Daihanji (Senior Judge), remonstrated against this, so the emperor, fearing that the matter would leak out, secretly ordered Narisuke to kill him. Narisuke accordingly recruited assassins and had him stabbed to death (Note: following the Shimazu-ke-bon, Kanagawa-ke-bon and Kinshōin-bon Taiheiki). When the emperor made his progress to Kasagi, Rokuhara seized Narisuke (Note: the Taiheiki says that Narisuke was captured when Kasagi fell, but here the Masukagami and the Kōmyōji Zōsho Zanpen are followed) and he was killed at Hayakawajiri in Sagami (Note: following the Heishi Keizu and the Taiheiki; the genealogy and the Kugyō Bunin give Izu in place of Sagami, and the Masukagami gives Suruga). His son was Yukisuke (Note: following the Heishi Keizu).

Fujiwara-no-Suketomo

¶Fujiwara-no-Suketomo was a son of Toshimitsu, Gon-Dainagon, and his house was called Hino (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). His talent and learning surpassed others, and the emperor treated him with particular generosity (Note: following the Taiheiki). He served successively as Monjō-hakase (Professor of Letters), Kurōdo-no-tō, Uchūben, and Saheie-no-kami. In the first year of Genkyō (1321) he was appointed Sangi. In the third year (1323) he was granted Junior Third Rank and became Kebiishi-no-betto. Having been sent on an imperial mission to Kamakura, on returning to the capital he became Gon-Chūnagon (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). The emperor was secretly planning to restore the authority of the court, and made Suketomo and Fujiwara-no-Toshimoto, Kurōdo-no-tō, the centers of the plot (Note: following the Taiheiki). He once disguised himself as a shugenja and traveled secretly in the eastern provinces, gathering soldiers (Note: following the Masukagami). Toki Yorisada and Tajimi Kuninaga of Mino were renowned for their courage, and Suketomo, through connections, was able to meet them. It happened that Yorisada and Kuninaga were on guard duty in the capital, so Suketomo wished to bring them into the plot; but fearing that the matter would leak if they refused, he repeatedly invited Yorisada and Kuninaga, together with Toshimoto, the Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Morokata, the Chūnagon Fujiwara-no-Takasuke, the Saemon-no-kami Fujiwara-no-Saneyo, the monks Yūga and Genki (Note: the "gen" is in one text written with a different character), and the warrior Asuke Shigenori, and formed close ties with them. At every gathering all went with their topknots bared and hair loose, those without rank were seated in the places of honor, and some twenty women in thin silk robes poured the wine; this was named the "bureikō." When the talk at the banquets had grown intimate, he at last disclosed the plan. Yorisada and the others joined in the planning wholeheartedly, but also feared that word would get out. When the monk Genne lectured on the poetry collection of the Tang writer Han Yu and came to the poem "On Going to Chaozhou," everyone said, "These are ill-omened words; now we should lecture only on the military treatises of Sun Zi and Wu Zi," and so they abandoned it. In time the matter leaked, and Hōjō Takatoki sent men to seize Suketomo and Toshimoto, brought them to Kamakura, placed them in the custody of the Samurai-dokoro, and before long exiled them to Sado (Note: following the Taiheiki). After seven years, when Takatoki sent the emperor into exile on Oki, he ordered Honma Yamashiro Nyūdō, Shugo of Sado, to kill Suketomo (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin, the Masukagami and the Jōrakuki; for Honma Yamashiro Nyūdō, following the Taiheiki. The Taiheiki places Suketomo's killing in the first year of Genkō, whereas one account in the Jōrakuki gives the fourth year of Gentoku; which is right is not known). Suketomo had studied the Buddhist Law and practiced Zen, and called himself Waō (Note: following the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). As he faced death he wrote a gatha, saying in effect that the five aggregates have taken shape only provisionally and the four elements now return to emptiness, and that offering his head to the white blade is like cutting through a gust of wind (Note: following the Taiheiki. This gatha was composed by the Jin monk Sengzhao when he faced execution. It differs in wording between this book, the Kinshōin-bon Taiheiki and the Masukagami, but since it is an ancient verse, the variants are not noted here). Once, when Tamekane, Gon-Dainagon, had been seized by Takatoki on the charge of plotting to endanger the Hōjō and exiled to Sado, Suketomo met him at Ichijō, watched him go, and sighed, "For a man to live in the world and end like this would be the fulfilment of his wish," and long admired and lamented him. Once, when he was on night duty with Fujiwara-no-Sanehira, Naidaijin, the monk Jōnen of Saidaiji came to the palace. Sanehira, seeing that his waist and back were bent and his eyebrows were pure white, showed him respect. Suketomo said, "He is merely old and worn out; what is there to revere?" Later he brought the skin of an old dog, worn and with its hair fallen out, and gave it to Sanehira, saying, "This too is worthy of reverence." Suketomo also once loved potted trees and had collected many with twisting branches and trunks. One day he happened to go out and took shelter from the rain at the gate of Tōji; beside him were several beggar children, many of them crippled or lame. Suketomo found their strange forms amusing and gazed at them for a long time, but their ugliness began to repel him, and he said, "What the world calls grotesque is always a thing that has gone against its own nature, and after all it cannot match the worth of what is plain and straight. The twisted and crooked potted trees I recently admired are no different from these." By the time he reached home he had pulled up and thrown away all the potted trees he had planted. In general his aims and principles were outstanding, and he was not carelessly swayed by the world's likes and dislikes, as this shows (Note: following the Tsurezuregusa). His three sons were Tomomitsu, Kunimitsu and the monk Jishun (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku).

Fujiwara-no-Kunimitsu

¶Fujiwara-no-Kunimitsu was called Kumawaka as a child. In the third year of Genkyō (1323), Hōjō Takatoki exiled Suketomo to Sado and ordered Honma Yamashiro Nyūdō to kill him. Kunimitsu was then only thirteen years old and was hiding with his mother beside Ninna-ji. Hearing that his father's death was near, he wished to go to Sado, meet him, and take his leave in this life. His mother wept and forbade it. Kunimitsu pretended outwardly to agree, but secretly planned with a servant of the household to go. His mother, having no choice, equipped him and sent him off (Note: following the Saigen'in-bon Taiheiki. The printed editions say that his mother strongly forbade him, and that Kunimitsu wept and said, "If you will not let me go, I will throw myself into the river and die," so that his mother reluctantly let him go). In the fifth month of that year Kunimitsu at last set out with his servant, traveled on foot for more than ten days, took a merchant ship, and arrived on Sado; he went to Honma's residence but hesitated there for some time. A monk happened to come out and ask him his business, and Kunimitsu said, "I am Suketomo's son and have come from the capital. I beg you to take pity on me and let me see him once." When Honma heard this, he ordered the monk to entertain him courteously, but for days he did not allow a meeting. When an official asked Suketomo to come out of his prison room to bathe, Suketomo understood that he was to be killed and said, "I hear that my son has come from far away, and it is sad that I am not to see him even once." Then he composed his countenance, said no more, and wrote a gatha to give to Kunimitsu. Its sense was this: that Heaven and Earth have no fixed master and the sun and moon no fixed hour; that although men speak of raising the three powers and upholding the three bonds, when one thinks of it all is like a dream, a phantom, a bubble, a shadow; that Waō had held in his heart a longing like that of Qu Yuan for the state of Chu, and, in the calm of waiting through the turns of fortune, had lived until this day; and that he would say one word to his son: a three-foot blade of autumn frost can never bury the steadfast pine. A man of resolve, seeing this, should open his eyes wide and, free and unburdened, stand alone between Heaven and Earth. The gatha ends with a shout (Note: the gatha follows the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). Suketomo was then killed. A monk collected the body, cremated it, and handed the remains to Kunimitsu. Kunimitsu wailed and threw himself on the ground, saying, "Do you let me see only white bones?" He had his servant carry the remains back and bury them on Mount Kōya, and, pleading illness, stayed on there. By day he always lay down, and at night he went out, watching for a chance to strike Honma. One night, judging that the wind and rain were fierce, he went to Honma's sleeping quarters, approached the door and peered in, but Honma happened to be away. Honma's son Saburō (Note: that Saburō was Honma's son follows the Tenshō-bon) was sound asleep under a lamp, with two swords leaning at his pillow. Kunimitsu thought, "I hear that this man too was a prime mover in my father's killing. He too is my father's enemy; it is enough to kill him." He took the swords and meant to stab him, but fearing he would be noticed, he hesitated for some time. Just then moths were swarming, so he spat on the paper sliding door to tear it, let the moths in to put out the lamp, then crept in, took a sword, and was about to drive it into the man's chest. Thinking, "A sleeping man is as good as dead," he kicked the pillow. Saburō started up in alarm, but by then the blade had already gone through his belly and out at his back, and Kunimitsu cut his throat as well and killed him; he went outside and hid in a bamboo thicket. Before long the guards noticed, lit torches, and searched everywhere. Kunimitsu was about to kill himself, but thought again: "The enemy has already been repaid. There is no profit in dying for nothing. Better to hasten to my sovereign, accomplish something, fulfil my earlier aim, and perfect both loyalty and filial duty." When he went out to flee, there was a moat some two jō wide, and beside it grew many large bamboos. Kunimitsu climbed one, let it bend under him, and reached the far bank. He walked on, and when dawn came he lay hidden in a hemp field. Several dozen pursuers passed by, calling out and searching. At nightfall Kunimitsu came out again and walked on; on the road he met a shugenja and begged him, out of pity, to save his life. The shugenja carried Kunimitsu on his back to the harbor, where a merchant ship happened to be about to sail, and asked for him to be taken aboard. The pursuers arrived just as the ship had already left the shore, and so Kunimitsu escaped. He reached Echigo and returned from there to the capital (Note: following the Taiheiki). When Takatoki was put to death, Kunimitsu entered government service and became Sahyōe-no-gon-no-suke (Provisional Assistant Captain of the Left Gate Guards) (Note: following the Iwashimizu Rinji-sai-ki). In the reign of Emperor Go-Murakami he was transferred to Saheie-no-kami. In the fifth year of Shōhei (1350) he carried out an imperial command in Chinzei (Kyushu), urging Uji Koresumi to raise troops and strike the enemy (Note: following the Aso-sha monjo). Later he became Chūnagon (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the sixteenth year of Shōhei (1361), together with Fujiwara-no-Takatoshi, Chūnagon, and Hosokawa Kiyouji, he attacked Ashikaga Yoshiakira and defeated him. Soon afterwards the army was withdrawn (Note: following the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). His son was Sukeshige (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku), who was Usōben (Lesser Controller of the Right) (Note: following the Shin'yō Wakashū).