The First Samurai , livre ebook

THE
FIRST
SAMURAI
THE
FIRST
SAMURAI
THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE WARRIOR REBEL
TAIRA MASAKADO
KARL F. FRIDAY
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2008 by Karl F. Friday All rights reserved
All illustrations and maps Karl F. Friday.
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Friday, Karl F.
The first samurai : the life and legend of the warrior rebel Taira Masakado / Karl F. Friday.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-471-76082-5 (cloth: alk. paper)
1. Taira, Masakado, 903 or 4-940. 2. Generals-Japan-Biography. 3. Japan-History-Tengyo Revolt, 938-940. I. Title.
DS852.T3F75 2007
952 .01092-dc22
2007035510
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Chie, who makes it all worthwhile
Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.
-Robert Southey
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Map: Japan in the tenth century

1 Masakado and His Legacy

2 Masakado s World

3 Masakado and His Uncles

4 New Enemies and New Friends

5 Insurrection

6 Apotheosis

Epilogue

Notes
Bibliography
Credits
Index
Illustrations follow page 85.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No book writes itself, and no author works entirely on his or her own. This project could not have been undertaken without help and support from dozens of friends and colleagues on both sides of the Pacific, to all of whom I express my profound appreciation and gratitude.
A special round of thanks goes to my editor, Stephen Power, and my production editor, Rachel Meyers, at John Wiley Sons for shepherding the book from conception to publication; to Peter Hoffer for his advice and counsel throughout; and to Tanaka Atsuko, Nick Adams, Wendy Giminski, and Money Hickman for their work on the maps and illustrations that adorn this volume.
Some of the research for this study was funded by grants from the Japan Foundation, whose support I gratefully acknowledge. I am also deeply indebted to professors Kond Shigekazu, and Ishigami Eiichi and the rest of the faculty and staff of the University of Tokyo Shiry hensanj who gave me a place to work and took time away from their own labors to assist me with mine.
This book is part of a larger project reexamining warrior rebellions in Heian Japan that began with a paper delivered at a conference held at Harvard University in June 2002. My thanks, therefore, to Mikael Adolphson and Edward Kamens, whose invitation to participate in this event got me started. And an extra thank-you goes to Mickey, for his invaluable bibliographic and editorial help.
Once again, however, my greatest debt is to Chie, my wife and the wind behind my sails. She listened patiently to my ideas, graciously ignored my frustrations, and kept me going with enthusiastic responses and cogent suggestions. Most important, she gives me a reason to go home at the end of each day.
Japan in the tenth century
Chapter 1
Masakado and His Legacy
The history we read, though based on facts, is, strictly speaking, not factual at all, but a series of accepted judgments.
-Geoffrey Baraclough, History in a Changing World
Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian, ignorance which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits.
-Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians
On the twenty-fifth day of the second month of 940, according to the old lunar calendar, * the capital was all atwitter with the news that Taira Masakado, the warrior rebel who had held the city and the imperial court in terror for the past two months, was dead-slain twelve days earlier in battle with imperial forces led by Fujiwara Hidesato and Masakado s kinsman Taira Sadamori. Ten days later, official dispatches from Hidesato and from the provinces of Kai and Shinano confirmed the news. 1
Excitement, anticipation, and anxiety intensified over the next few weeks as further messengers reported that Hidesato and Sadamori were on their way to Kyoto, and rumors that Masakado s warriors were marching on the city to avenge their master swirled through the streets. In the end, however, the rumors proved baseless. Nearly two hundred of Masakado s core followers had died with him, and the rest of his men and allies scattered or were tracked down and killed in a matter of weeks. The court breathed a collective sigh of relief and sat back to discuss appropriate rewards for the victors, while Kyoto waited eagerly for the arrival of Masakado s head. 2
The gruesome custom of gathering enemy heads after a battle ( buntori, literally taking one s share ) became common practice in Japan at least as early as the seventh century, when the imperial state ( ritsury ) legal codes laid out a flexible point system for assessing battlefield merit and awarding promotions in rank. Points, explained the Statute on Military Defense ( Gunb ry ), have no fixed meaning. In one year s battles one point may require the taking of ten heads, while in another year s fighting five heads can make a point. 3
By the tenth century, warfare and law enforcement had become the preserve of professional warriors who fought for rewards for their services paid by the government or private employers. Recompense, however, required proof of success, making careful accounting and confirmation of one s kills a matter of considerable importance. Warriors concocted numerous devices toward this end, ranging from marking arrows with their names to commissioning illustrated accounts of their exploits, but the cardinal warrior trophies throughout Japan s premodern epoch were the heads of those they were contracted to run down. Heads were severed in the heat of battle, usually by means of a warrior s short sword ( katana ), or in the aftermath, as a substitute for live prisoners when capture or transport of the latter was impractical. Heads collected in accord with government warrants were assembled, identified, marked with the names of their former owners, and brought to the capital for inspection. Those belonging to important criminals were paraded through the streets and placed on public display. 4
Hidesato and Sadamori reached the capital on the tenth day of the fifth month of 940 and entered the city through the Rash mon gate to the south, where they were met by envoys from the Office of Imperial Police ( Kebiishi-ch ). The heads of Masakado and his men had previously been marked with red tags attached to the topknots and packed in salt to preserve them for transport to Kyoto. Now they were removed from the packing material, impaled on the tips of spears, and paraded northward up Suzaku Grand Avenue, while on both sides of the route the carts and horses of high and low gathered like clouds to watch the spectacle. An Imperial Police officer in full armor and on horseback led the procession, bearing a brightly colored banner announcing Masakado and his crimes. Behind him followed five armored foot soldiers carrying Masakado s head and guarding it with bared spears. Next rode Hidesato and Sadamori, also in full armor, but without their helmets so that they might be more easily recognized. And behind them came three or four dozen mounted warriors and foot soldiers who served Hidesato and Sadamori, followed by other Imperial Police officers, bearing the heads of the rest of Masakado s lieutenants. The parade ended outside the gate to the East Market, where Masakado s head was ceremoniously hung from a tree for display. 5 (See the illustrations on pages 86-87.)
Reliable historical records have little further to say about Masakado s remains. But popular rumors and legends, which had found their way into print by the early medieval period, relate that his was no ordinary head. For three months, they say, it hung outside the East Market, its eyes never closing and its color remaining unchanged, while in the evenings it gnashed its teeth and wailed, Where is my mortal form, that which was cut away? Come to me, that this head might do battle once again. And all who heard it trembled in fear. T