In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Selections from the Taiheiki: The Chronicle of Great Peace
  • Translated by Kyoko Selden and Joan Piggott (bio)

From Chapter 13
3.5 Minister of Defense Prince Moriyoshi Dies.
Appended: The Matter of Kanchiang and Bakuya

After Ashikaga Tadayoshi (1306-52), Chief of the Royal Left Stable, had passed Yamanouchi,1 he summoned Fuchibe, provincial Governor of Iga, and said to him, “We have withdrawn from Kamakura due to lack of troops, but if we raise enough troops in Mino, Owari, Mikawa, and Tōtōmi, and if we then quickly attack Kamakura, we can destroy Sagami Jirō Tokiyuki easily. But Prince Moriyoshi (1308-35) will always be an enemy of the Ashikaga family.2 Although there has been no royal edict to execute him, I want to seize this opportunity. Rush back to Yakushidō Valley and stab him to death.”

Fuchibe responded, “Yes, sir,” to Tadayoshi’s command and, with his followers, seven in all including the commander, he rode back to the cave where the Prince was being held. Confined in an earthen prison that always seemed dark regardless of the time, the Prince was reading sutras by candlelight, unaware that it was morning. Fuchibe told him that he had come for him. Seeing the carriage placed in the garden, the Prince said, “I know you have been sent to take my life.” He ran toward Fuchibe to seize his tachi sword.3 Fuchibe gripped the sword firmly and struck the Prince hard on the knees. Having been stooped for half a year in jail, it seemed that the Prince could not stand upright as he wished, and, although his spirit was brave, he fell face down. Fuchibe sat astride the Prince, pinning him down as he struggled to rise. And drawing the short sword he wore at his waist,4 he tried to cut off the Prince’s head. But the Prince turned his head and firmly caught the tip of the sword between his teeth. Now Fuchibe, a man of considerable strength, pulled back on the sword to prevent the Prince from seizing it, leaving about one inch of the tip broken off [in the Prince’s [End Page 17] mouth]. So Fuchibe threw away the short sword and, pulling out his wakizashi sword,5 pierced the Prince twice in the chest. When the Prince appeared to be weakened from the stabs, Fuchibe grabbed his hair and sliced off his head. When Fuchibe ran out of the cell to inspect the head in the light, he saw that the Prince’s mouth was still biting the tip of the sword, and his eyes looked alive. Fuchibe thought, “Precedent would suggest I not show a head like this to my master.” So he threw it away in a nearby thicket and rejoined [Tadayoshi’s] troops.

The Lady of the South Wing,6 who had served the Prince, witnessed these events. She sat there with her body frozen from fear and sorrow, and she was unable to stand up. After a while she regained composure and picked up the head left in the thicket. Its skin was not yet cold, its eyes not yet closed, and its complexion no different than before. “Could this be a dream?” she wondered with tears and grief. “If so, let there be a reality to awaken to!” Much later, an elderly monk at Richikōin7 said that he had heard about what had happened and performed the funeral rites. The Lady of the South Wing had her hair cut right away and,8 shedding tears incessantly, she headed to Kyoto.

Now there was a reason why Fuchibe left the Prince’s head in the thicket instead of presenting it to [Ashikaga] Tadayoshi.9 Long ago late in the Chou Dynasty,10 the King of Ch’u, aspiring to take All Under Heaven by force, accustomed himself to the ways of battle and cherished his sword for many years. One day, his wife Moyeh, while cooling off by leaning against an iron pillar, felt strange and suddenly became pregnant. After ten months, she went into painful labor and gave birth to an iron ball. The King of Ch’u did not see this...

pdf