War without Blood? The Literary Uses of a Taboo Fluid in Heike Monogatari

The graphic representation of the bodily viscera of war—blood, guts, and severed heads—is something contemporary readers intuitively associate with visual and literary texts of war. Yet blood is largely absent from Heike monogatari, the war tale that charts the violent transition from the courtly world of Heian Japan to the "age of the warrior." This article considers the anomaly of a war tale without blood by showcasing its contemplative view of death and its taboo avoidance of bloody discharge from the wounded body. It then delves into Heike monogatari's politicization of hematic expressions unrelated to war (blood tears, blood ink, blood of the womb, blood on a father's corpse), which the tale uses to mark sociopolitical trespasses. In so doing, Heike monogatari uses blood as a "zero signifier," its absence sacralizing death and its presence marking political foes. The anomalous Heike monogatari is thus both a case study and a foil for considering the broader politics of blood during Japan's medieval period.