Biographies XCV: Toki Yorikane, Tajimi Kuninaga, Asuke Shigenori, Nishikori Toshimasa, and Others

Toki Yorikane

¶Toki Yorikane (Note: the Taiheiki gives his name as Yorisada; various variant texts of the Taiheiki and the Hōreki Kanki give it as Yoritoki) was styled Jūrō. He was a man of Mino and a descendant of Minamoto-no-Yorimitsu. His great-grandfather Mitsuyuki, acting on an edict of Emperor Go-Toba, struck down a certain Ikeda, and his grandfather Mitsusada captured a certain man of Sanuki; for these services both received official posts. His father Yorisada was Hōki-no-kami, Governor of Hōki (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku).

¶Tajimi Kuninaga was a kinsman of Yorikane, styled Shirō Jirō, and served as Kurōdo, Chamberlain (Note: following the Tajimi Keizu). He and Yorikane were alike renowned for their courage. When Emperor Go-Daigo planned the overthrow of Hōjō Takatoki, the two happened to be on night guard duty in Kyoto. Fujiwara-no-Suketomo drew them into the plot, and Yorikane's kinsman Yoriharu (Note: the present text of the Taiheiki gives Yorikazu, and the variant texts give Yoritada, but here the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Nawa Keizu are followed) joined them as well.

¶Yoriharu's wife was a daughter of Saitō Toshiyuki, a Rokuhara bugyō, magistrate. One night Yoriharu spoke to his wife of what would happen after his death and wept with grief. His wife grew suspicious and questioned him, and in the end Yoriharu confessed the whole matter, warning her sternly never to let it out. The wife thought: "If the plan fails, my husband will die. If it succeeds, my own family will be destroyed. Better, then, to inform against the plot at once, let my husband earn merit by denouncing the conspiracy, and keep my family safe as well." So she told Toshiyuki. Toshiyuki was greatly alarmed and rebuked Yoriharu, saying: "Why did you devise so ill-omened a scheme? If word of it should leak out, our whole house will be put to the sword." Yoriharu answered that the plan had been conceived by Yorikane and Kuninaga, and begged Toshiyuki to look to his safety.

¶Toshiyuki hurried to report to Tokiwa Norisada, the Rokuhara Tandai of the northern office. It happened that at this very time peasants in the village of Kuzuha in Settsu had fallen to quarreling and a disturbance had broken out. Norisada, claiming that he meant to pacify the estate, summoned every soldier of the forty-eight kagariya, the watch-fire stations, and every warrior then in the capital, intending thereby to take Yorikane and the others by surprise. He therefore had Yorikane and Kuninaga added to the muster as well. Yorikane and Kuninaga, knowing nothing of the matter, put on their armor and waited for dawn.

¶The next morning Norisada sent Yamamoto Tokitsuna and Ogushi Noriyuki with three thousand troops to seize Yorikane and Kuninaga respectively. Tokitsuna alone crept stealthily up to Yorikane's sleeping quarters. Yorikane had just risen and was arranging his hair, but when he saw Tokitsuna's attack he sprang out in a fury, sword in hand, and fought him. When the great host of the enemy pressed in, however, Yorikane knew he could not escape; he ran back to his chamber and cut open his own belly and died. His retainers all fought to the last and fell in battle.

¶Noriyuki led his troops against Kuninaga. Kuninaga had been lying drunk with wine and scrambled up in confusion. He had a courtesan who was beside him fetch his armor and help him put it on. Ogasawara Michihiro (Note: the name Michihiro follows the Konshōin text; the source reads 今勝院本, evidently a slip for the Kinshōin text) happened to be in the house; he went out, saw the enemy forces, and told Kuninaga: "The plot has already been exposed. You must resolve yourself." Taking up bow and arrows he climbed the gate tower, shot twenty-four men dead, and then, with a sword held in his teeth, threw himself from the tower and died.

¶In the meantime Kuninaga, with some twenty soldiers, shut the gate and awaited the enemy. Itō Akizumi and his three sons (Note: the name Akizumi follows the Kinshōin text) crawled in through a narrow gap between the gate leaves and were cut down at once. The enemy, afraid, would not come near, so Kuninaga threw the gate open and hurled abuse at them, challenging them to fight. Enraged, the enemy vied to be first to attack, but Kuninaga drove them back. The enemy fought in relays, pitching camp and fighting on from the hour of Tatsu to the hour of Uma, and more than two hundred were killed or wounded.

¶Presently more than a thousand soldiers of Sasaki Tokinobu pulled down the houses of the townspeople and attacked from the rear of the residence. Kuninaga, seeing that he could hold out no longer, died by mutual stabbing together with twenty-two soldiers (Note: following the Taiheiki. The Masukagami says that Yorikane and Kuninaga were both taken alive, but that is not adopted here).

Tajimi Kuninaga

¶Asuke Shigenori was styled Saburō and was a descendant of Minamoto-no-Mitsumasa, Chinjufu Shōgun, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacification Headquarters. His ancestor five generations back, Shigehide, was a maternal grandson of Minamoto-no-Tametomo. At first he lived at Asuke in Mikawa province and was called Asuke Kanja (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku).

¶Shigenori was a master archer and, together with Nishikori Toshimasa, was celebrated for his bravery. When Emperor Go-Daigo planned the overthrow of Hōjō Takatoki, Shigenori and Toshimasa received a secret edict and took part in the plot. The matter was discovered, and the emperor made a progress to Mount Kasagi. Hōjō Nakatoki and Hōjō Tokimasu, the commanders at Rokuhara, sent troops to attack the temporary palace.

¶Shigenori climbed the gate tower and cried out: "Are not the vanguard before me men of Mino and Owari? I, Asuke Shigenori, respectfully bearing the sacred command, am guarding this gate myself. This fortress is where the emperor resides, and Lord Rokuhara himself must surely come here. I have had my Yamato craftsmen prepare a few arrowheads. Gentlemen, try them." He loosed an arrow and shot down Arao Yukitada (Note: the name Yukitada follows the Kinshōin text). Yukitada's younger brother Yagorō shielded his brother's body with his own, beat his breast and shouted: "Your skill is not what rumor makes it. Shoot again!" Shigenori saw that he trusted in his armor, aimed at his helmet, shot through it, and the arrow went on through to his neck and felled him.

¶When Yamada Shigetsuna spurred his horse up against the earthworks, Shigenori shot back at him as well. The rebel troops then pressed forward in close order with their shields linked. Within the fortress a war cry went up, and every soldier fought prepared to die.

¶By chance a monk of Hannyaji in Nara named Honshō had come to the temporary palace on some business. Honshō was a man of great strength and hurled huge boulders, several dozen of them, from the heights one after another; enemy men and horses were swept down and piled on one another, and the dead could not be counted. The rebel troops, appalled at this, kept away for several days.

¶But when the fortress fell, Shigenori was taken prisoner and executed in Kyoto. Shigenori's kinsmen Shigenobu, Kenson, and Shigenari joined the imperial army in the third year of Genkō (1333) in the campaign against Takatoki, and all died in battle at Kamakura. In the reign of Emperor Go-Murakami, when Prince Muneyoshi, acting on an edict, was campaigning in the eastern provinces and was residing at the castle of Ii, a certain Asuke Shigeharu received the prince in Mikawa province and planned an advance, but the prince's enterprise did not come to fruition.

Asuke Shigenori

¶Nishikori Toshimasa was Hangandai, Deputy Magistrate (Note: following the Taiheiki; the name follows the Kinshōin text; Toshimasa is by one account also written Kagenori). At the time of the Jōkyū disturbance, a certain Nishikori Hangandai, acting on an imperial edict, sided with the court, was defeated, and was taken prisoner (Note: following the Azuma Kagami. The Sonpi Bunmyaku says that Nishikori Hangandai Yoshitsugu was a grandson of Yamamoto Yoshitsune, and this may be the man in question). Toshimasa was probably his descendant.

¶Toshimasa went into Kasagi with the emperor together with Asuke Shigenori and the others. When the fortress was about to fall, the officers and men fell into total rout. Toshimasa said: "Since we took up arms against the rebels on the strength of an edict, righteousness requires that we repay it with our deaths. Where would we flee now?" He stripped to the waist and fought with all his strength. When his arrows were spent and his sword broken, he at last cut open his belly and died, together with his son and thirteen of his kinsmen.

¶At that time a man named Ishikawa Yoshizumi, who was Hida-no-kami, Governor of Hida, had been the first to answer the summons and come to Kasagi. When the fortress fell, he took his own life together with his son Yoshisuke.

Nishikori Toshimasa

¶Sakurayama Koretoshi (Note: the name follows the Kinshōin text) was styled Shirō and was a man of Bingo. When the emperor was at Kasagi and Kusunoki Masashige raised troops, Koretoshi also raised troops at the Ichinomiya, the chief shrine, of his home province, but his men all scattered, and he realized that there was no prospect of success. He therefore went to worship at the Kibitsu Shrine, first stabbed his wife and children to death, set fire to the shrine buildings, and took his own life. Twenty-three men died with him (Note: the Kinshōin text says more than thirty).

¶Koretoshi had always held this deity in deep reverence and had long wished to build new shrine halls, but had never been able to do so. He thought to win merit in arms, receive a reward, and use it to pay for the work; so he raised troops, led more than seven hundred stout fighters, and brought the province largely under control, and the neighboring districts responded to him. But Kasagi fell, and Masashige's castle also fell, though Masashige escaped by feigning death; Koretoshi's army was defeated, Koretoshi fell in battle, and the shrine buildings were wholly consumed by fire. He had done this in the hope that the court would rebuild them.

¶In the Engen era (1336-1340), a certain Sakurayama Sakon-no-shōgen, Lieutenant of the Left Guards, again held Bingo and served the imperial cause (Note: following the Taiheiki; the name of the Sakon-no-shōgen follows the Kinshōin text). He was probably a kinsman of Koretoshi.

Sakurayama Koretoshi

¶The monk Enkan lived at Hōshōji and served as kaishi, preceptor of the precepts, to successive emperors. The monk Mon'kan was Zasu, Head Abbot, of Daigoji and Tōji-chōja, Senior Prelate of Tōji. The monk Chūen lived at Jōdoji; all three were sōjō, Archbishops.

¶Emperor Go-Daigo had from the first been deeply devoted to Buddhism. In planning the overthrow of the Kamakura shogunate, he considered that it would not be easy to muster the warriors of the realm suddenly, and he sought to rely on the strength of warrior monks and put them to use in war. He therefore made repeated progresses to Enryakuji, Tōdaiji, Kōfukuji, and other temples, wishing to win the hearts of their monks in advance. Enkan, Mon'kan, and Chūen were involved in this as well.

¶In the spring of the first year of Genkō (1331), the emperor, under the pretext of praying for the safe delivery of the Empress, summoned monks of the various temples in great numbers, and especially called Enkan and Mon'kan into his presence and had them perform rites to lay a curse upon the Hōjō. But when the appointed day came the matter was exposed, and Hōjō Takatoki sent envoys to seize Enkan and Mon'kan. Chūen, who was also customarily favored by the emperor, was sent off along with them. Because Enkan had been preceptor to successive emperors, he was treated with considerable courtesy.

¶When they came to be questioned, Mon'kan was interrogated severely and in the end confessed to the cursing. Chūen was timid; he was the first to admit his guilt of his own accord, and wrote out in detail the court's secret deliberations and the names of the ringleaders and handed them over. Takatoki exiled Mon'kan to Iōjima and Chūen to Echigo, and confined Enkan in Mutsu. When the disturbance was put down, all three returned to live in their respective temples.

¶Mon'kan, relying on the emperor's favor, grew arrogant and overbearing, amassed wealth, and laid in stores of weapons. Whenever someone flattered him, he would at once petition on that man's behalf and have him granted rewards against all reason, so that those who sought him out from greed numbered in the hundreds. Whenever he went to court, soldiers went before and behind him as an escort.

¶When the army of Ashikaga Takauji attacked Kyoto, Mon'kan, together with Wakiya Yoshisuke and others, defended against it at Yamazaki, but his own troops were weak and surrendered one after another, and Mon'kan fled in defeat (Note: following the Taiheiki). Mon'kan died in the twelfth year of Shōhei (1357). Enkan died in the eleventh year of Shōhei (1356) (Note: following the Jōrakki. There was a monk of Hōshōji named Echin; in the seventh year of Shōhei (1352), when Emperor Go-Murakami made a progress to Otokoyama, Ashikaga Yoshiakira is said to have sent Echin to petition that the imperial side lay down its arms, and the emperor pretended to agree; this appears in the Taiheiki and the Entairyaku. One account holds that Echin was another name of Enkan, but which is correct is not known).

The Monk Enkan

¶The monk Shōjin was a son of the Kampaku, Regent, Mototada, and was Daisōjō, Grand Archbishop. He served as Hōmu, Director of Affairs, of the Tōnan-in of Tōdaiji, as Betto, Superintendent, of Tōdaiji, and as Zasu of Daigoji (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Mōri-ke and Tenshō texts of the Taiheiki), and also held concurrently the post of Betto of Kasagidera (Note: following the Kasagidera Engi).

¶In the first year of Genkō (1331), when the emperor made his southward progress and came to the Tōnan-in, Shōjin installed him in Shōreiji (Note: the name Shōreiji follows the Mōri-ke and Tenshō texts of the Taiheiki), but did not yet make the progress public, and observed which way the monks leaned. However, Kenpō, the chief monk of the West Chamber of Tōdaiji (Note: the present text of the Taiheiki gives Kenji, but here the variant texts are followed), was a kinsman of Hōjō Takatoki. The monks feared him, and none came forward to rally to the righteous cause.

¶Shōjin saw that there was no prospect of success, and again escorted the emperor to Mount Jubu in Yamashiro province. But the place was remote and inconvenient, so he moved the imperial seat to Mount Kasagi. Relying on its steep terrain as a temporary palace, and with people's hearts somewhat settled, he called up troops from the neighboring provinces. The officers and men of the neighboring provinces gradually gathered.

¶But before long the rebel army sent out a great force and attacked, and the fortress fell. The rebels seized Shōjin and sent him to Rokuhara. The following year he was exiled to Shimōsa. When Takatoki was put to death, Shōjin was permitted to return to Tōdaiji, and, on imperial command, rebuilt Kasagidera, which the rebels had once burned. Of Chūen and Shōjin, nothing further is known of either after this.

Mon'kan

¶The monk Ryōchū was a grandson of the Kampaku Yoshizane. His father Ryōhō was Gon-no-daisōzu, Provisional Senior Master of Discipline. Ryōchū became an adopted son of his uncle, the Kampaku Morotada. He was granted the rank of Hōin (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku) and was called Tono-hōin (Note: following the Taiheiki). He was a close attendant of Prince Moriyoshi (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Taiheiki).

¶At the beginning of Genkō, Ryōchū followed the emperor to Kasagi and, together with Minamoto-no-Tomoyuki, Gon-chūnagon, Provisional Middle Counsellor, planned to escape from the fortress and distribute edicts calling for the raising of troops in the various provinces. When the temporary palace was defeated and the emperor was moved to Rokuhara, Ryōchū tried to seize the emperor back but did not succeed, and was soon captured.

¶Hōjō Nakatoki had an official say to him: "The present attempt to destroy the Kamakura shogunate is something not even the Son of Heaven could accomplish. How crude was what you people did! We hear that you spied out the lay of our ground and plotted to take back the former emperor. For that crime death is the penalty. Confess everything you planned." Ryōchū answered at once: "All under heaven is the king's land. In rescuing a lord in peril, what could be contrary to the Way? To strike down rebels in the name of righteousness - why call that crude?" His words were fierce and vehement, and he did not yield in the slightest. Nakatoki deliberated about putting him to death, but someone stopped him, saying, "We should keep him alive and draw out his accomplices"; so he was placed in the custody of an official and shut up in a room. Ryōchū was a man of great strength, and in the night he secretly broke down the door and escaped.

¶In the fourth month of the third year of Genkō (1333), Ryōchū attacked Rokuhara together with Akamatsu Norimura but gained no advantage; in the fifth month he attacked again together with the other commanders and took it. But his men broke into the storehouses of townspeople's houses and plundered goods. Ashikaga Takauji seized more than twenty of them, had them beheaded and their heads displayed on the Rokujō riverbank, and set up a large notice board reading: "Men of the Tono-hōin Ryōchū, attendant of Prince Daitō, executed for the crime of theft." Ryōchū was deeply resentful of this and plotted with Prince Moriyoshi to put Takauji to death. Later, when the emperor believed slanders and confined the prince, more than thirty men who had followed the prince were all killed (Note: following the Taiheiki. This work contains no record of Ryōchū's death, but he was probably killed with the rest).

Chūen

¶The monk Yūkaku (Note: the character 祐 is also written 宥) at first lived at Hōshōji, studied the monastic precepts, and was called Kakuōbō (Note: following the Imagawa-ke, Hōjō-ke, Saigen'in, and Nanto texts of the Taiheiki). When Emperor Go-Daigo was at Mount Senjō, he entered Enryakuji and became a monk of the Sanmon, the Mountain Gate, calling himself Dōjōbō Suke-no-chūki, and raised troops and labored in the imperial cause.

¶He also followed Nitta Yoshisada on the eastern campaign against Ashikaga Takauji. When Ashikaga Tadayoshi made a stand on the ridge of Hakone, Yūkaku dressed ten page boys and more than thirty warrior monks in splendid armor. The pages all wore hanakatsu ornaments on their helmets and advanced at the head. The enemy shot at them and brought down eight, but the warrior monks pressed on behind them and fought fiercely, and the enemy army collapsed.

¶Presently the imperial army was defeated and the emperor made a progress to Enryakuji. The monk Eiken arrived first, and Jōsō of the Enshūin also came to guard the emperor with more than five hundred men, assigning temples and townspeople's houses everywhere to quarter the troops. Yūkaku followed, leading over a thousand troops, and sent out a call to the whole mountain. The monks assembled in great numbers and presented sixty thousand kan in coin and seven thousand koku of grain. Yūkaku distributed them, and the army was greatly steadied by this.

¶Before long Minamoto-no-Akiie, Chinjufu Taishōgun, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacification Headquarters, arrived in Ōmi with a great army. On hearing of this, the emperor ordered Yūkaku to provide more than seven hundred boats and sent him to meet Akiie. Then ten thousand monks and the various commanders divided their forces to strike Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto. The monks first attacked Utsunomiya Kintsuna at Kaguraoka. Yūkaku, leading three hundred men, was the first to scale the earthworks. Jōsō followed with five hundred men and supported him.

¶The rebels defended with all their strength, and arrows and stones fell like rain. There was a man of Inaba named Tate Zenson, long known for his courage. Holding an arrow with a large head in his hand, he waited until enemy soldiers climbed the wall and stabbed them through the loopholes, piercing their armor and bringing them down. The enemy army was seized with fear, and the monks seized the moment, attacked all at once, broke the enemy, and put them to flight. People of the time called Zenson "Tebokko Inaba," Inaba of the Hand-Spear.

¶When the emperor again made a progress to Enryakuji, Yūkaku again urged on the monks and collected coin and grain for the army's use. After several months, however, the funds ran dry. Moreover, the troops of Ashikaga Takatsune and Ogasawara Sadamune blocked the supply routes, and the army was in great want. Yūkaku led five thousand men to attack Sadamune at Nojino-Shinohara and would not give way. When the emperor returned to Kyoto, Yūkaku accompanied him into the capital, but Ashikaga Takauji hated him as the ringleader of the spies of the Sanmon and had him beheaded.

Shōjin

¶The monk Sōshin trained at Yoshino, was granted the rank of Hōin, and lived at the Kissui-in. When Emperor Go-Daigo left the Kazan-in and made a progress to Anō, he sent his attendant Ōe-no-Kageshige, Gyōbu-no-taifu, Senior Assistant Minister of Justice, to inform Sōshin that he would settle his temporary palace at Yoshino. Sōshin thereupon dispatched three hundred warrior monks to meet the emperor and built a temporary palace to receive him.

¶Soon after, when the emperor died, people's hearts were shaken and everyone lost the will to hold their posts. Sōshin went before the court and addressed it: "On the point of death the late emperor left a final edict ordering us to assist the young sovereign and strike down the rebels. That last command is still fresh in our ears; how can we scatter now, all at once? And besides, Sōshin is here. Gentlemen, do not be shaken. Look now at the imperial forces in all quarters: in Kōzuke there is Nitta Yoshioki, in Musashi Nitta Yoshimune, in Echizen Wakiya Yoshisuke and Yoshiharu. Of the other kinsmen holding districts and provinces, there are in all more than four hundred. Beyond these, in Tsukushi there are the Kikuchi, Matsura, Kusano, Yamaga, Dohi, and Akaboshi; in Shikoku the Doi, Tokuno, Eda, and Hayuka; in Awaji the Ama and Shichi; in Aki the Arii; in Iwami the Misumi and Naria; in Izumo and Hōki the Nawa; in Bingo the Sakurayama; in Bizen the Imaki, Ōtomi, Wada, and Kojima; in Harima the Kikkawa; in Kawachi the Wada, Kusunoki, Hashimoto, and Fukuzuka; in Yamato the Miwa, Saia, Maki, and Hōjumaru; in Kii the Yuasa, Yamamoto, Ien, and Katō; in Tōtōmi the Ii-no-suke; in Mino the Neo; in Owari the Atsuta Daiguji; in Echizen the Oguni, Ike, Kazama, Nezu, and Ōta; in Ōmi the Giga, Takayama, Nomura, and Kumagai. Among the monks of the Sanmon there are Nangan and the Enshūin. All of these are men whose loyalty is firm as metal and stone and who do not change their constancy with safety or danger. Promptly distribute the edict, encourage them, and plan the restoration. If that is done, who would throw away the merit already won and willingly submit?"

¶Just then Kusunoki Masatsura and Wada Masatake came leading troops to guard the palace, and people's hearts were greatly steadied by this (Note: following the Taiheiki. The surnames of the imperial forces differ among the various texts, but the present text is followed here. According to the Kissui-in documents, a man named Shinpen lived at the Kissui-in and assisted Prince Moriyoshi in holding Yoshino; when the fortress fell he followed the prince south, and when the disturbance was put down he returned to live there. Shinpen is probably another name of Sōshin. After Shinpen came Jōhen and Sonjumaru, and the line is said to have continued through successive generations. According to the traditions of the people of Yoshino, the two houses of the Kissui-in and the Shin-Kumano took turns in holding the office. When Prince Moriyoshi was at Yoshino, he favored the Kissui-in exclusively, so Gangiku of the Shin-Kumano resented it, sided with Kamakura troops, served as their guide, attacked the fortress, and brought it down. When Emperor Go-Daigo entered Yoshino, his favor toward the Kissui-in grew ever deeper; he gave an imperial princess in marriage there, a son was born, and he bestowed the name Sonjumaru).

The Monk Ryōchū

¶The monk Saia was a man of Miwa in Yamato province. In the second year of Engen (1337), when the emperor was at Yoshino, he issued edicts to the various provinces to strike down Ashikaga Takauji. Saia answered the edict and raised troops, holding the castle of Sekichi. Takauji sent troops to attack it but could not take it (Note: Sekichi is by one account also written Sekizumi, or Sekichii).

¶When the emperor died, people's hearts were filled with unease and fear, but Saia held to his principles and did not waver. In the second year of Kōkoku (1341), Takauji again sent Hosokawa Akiuji, Sasaki Sadauji, and others to attack. Saia defended but gained no advantage, abandoned the castle and fled, gathered troops, and again shut himself up in it. Akiuji and the others besieged it further, but in the end could not take it.

¶Afterward Saia, together with his son Ryōen, followed Kusunoki Masatsura and resisted the army of Kō-no-Moronao at Shijōnawate, but they could not prevail, and father and son both fell in battle. His kinsmen are still at Miwa and are said never to have changed their loyalty to the imperial cause.