We know that of course everybody is well and truly dead, but it's sad to say that nobody lived happily ever after. Yorimasa lasted longer than Konoe, but both men did not part from this world in a way they probably would have liked.
Emperor Konoe
We have to remind ourselves that Konoe was not a grand old emperor when the nue appeared above his bedroom, but a boy of 14. He was thought to have been a sickly child, and the illness that befell him that year was likely one of many. With the nue exterminated, he did not go on to live a long and prosperous life. In just two years he was dead, not having sired an heir.
Emperor Konoe was one of a series of emperors sired by Emperor Toba. During Konoe's reign and the reign of his brothers, it was Toba who ruled behind the scenes as a "retired" cloistered emperor. Perhaps to Konoe, the nue is a symbol of his sickly and impotent youth... a ruler by name but never in control.
Emperor Konoe is buried on the grounds of Anrakuju-in (安楽寿院) in Kyoto, a temple built by his father Emperor Toba, also buried on the grounds. Anrakuju-in is 7 minutes on foot from (subway/Kintetsu) Takeda Stn. (竹田駅). Below, Konoe's tomb is highlighted in red. Emperor Toba's tomb is the structure with the similar layout just northwest of it.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Map courtesy of Google Maps
By the way, Konoe's predecessor, his half-brother Emperor Sutoku (having reigned until 1142), was exiled to Shikoku in 1156 following the Hogen rebellion. Upon his death, he was said to have either become a vengeful spirit, or onryo (怨霊); or to have transformed into an O-Tengu, one of the so-called "three great evil yokai."
Minamoto no Yorimasa
Yorimasa was in his mid-to-late 40s during his encounter with the nue and went on to live for another 25 years.
In his 70s, Yorimasa (then head of the Minamoto clan) supported Prince Mochihito in his bid for the imperial throne. The head of the rival Taira clan, Taira no Kiyomori, sent a force after Mochihito, who eventually fled with a small Minamoto contingent that included Yorimasa and two of Yorimasa's sons to Byodo-in in present-day Uji city. Here the Battle of Uji was fought, kicking off the Genpei War between the Minamoto and the Taira.
Utagawa Yoshitora, 1843-47 (Source: Museum of Fine Arts, https://www.mfa.org/ via http://ukiyo-e.org)
He and his sons (Nakatsuna and Kanetsuna) fought hard on the banks of the Uji River and on the bridge known for the Hashihime legend and made famous in the Tale of Genji. The younger son Kanetsuna fought fiercely to his death. Even after catching an arrow in the face, he fought until completely overwhelmed. Nakatsuna the elder son had been severely injured and committed suicide by having himself beheaded (the Tale of the Heike matter-of-factly describes how his head was thrown under a veranda... of course this was to prevent it from becoming a war trophy).
Yorimasa himself had taken an arrow to the left knee and was in a bad state. He ordered that his head be cut off, but it was too much for the retainer, who protested that he could not do it while his master was still alive. Taking pity on the retainer, Yorimasa dealt himself a mortal blow by, pay attention here, cutting open his own stomach. His retainer then dutifully cut off his head.
The retainer, a fellow by the double-barreled title of Watanabe no Chojitsu Tono, smuggled the head through the enemy ranks and, having tied it to a rock, threw it in the Uji River. Now if you'll recall our earlier entry here...
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/12/x-arrowhead-jizo-and-tomb-of-yorimasas.html
...you'll remember that in an alternative telling the retainer smuggled the head all the way to Kameoka and gave it a proper burial. The Tale of the Heike has it being sunk in the river though, and that is the account that most people go with.
Yorimasa's grave (likely to be his actual grave this time) is still within the grounds of Byodo-in, which just so happens to be the most popular site to visit in the Uji area. Its Phoenix Hall is the last remaining example of Heian period temple architecture and also appears on the Japanese ten yen coin. Byodo-in (平等院) can be accessed from either JR or Keihan Uji Stn. (宇治駅).
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Image courtesy of Google Maps
One of Yorimasa's cultural legacies, just in case you missed it, was being the first celebrated account of Seppuku ("belly slicing"), better known in the West as Harakiri. This extreme method of ending one's life would form a part of the warrior's code, or bushido, and continue as a ritual right up until the 20th century.
I no Hayata
The exploits of Hayata, the fellow who entered from stage left to deal the nue the killing blow, deserve more attention. There are several accounts of his movements after Yorimasa's suicide and the man has "graves" in no less than five prefectures. One of them is a stone marker in Nishiwaki City that can be visited along the way to Chomei-ji.
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Image courtesy of Google Maps
The marker, known as the I no Hayata Memorial Monument (猪早太供養碑) was built upon his burial. Memorial services continue to be held here by his descendants.
See the entry on Chomei-ji here:
http://yokaitourbus.blogspot.jp/2015/12/ix-arrow-bamboo-grove-of-chomei-ji-or.html
The Nue
So what was the nue, and why was its killing and death so elaborate? There are a few theories floating around.
The nue was evil incarnate. You can keep it at bay and flush it down the toilet, but it will turn up stinking again in some form. One theory has the nue coming back as Yorimasa's horse (of course, of course). The idea is that as a horse it purposely served him badly at the Battle of Uji, leading to his injury and ultimately his death. It's an interesting tale, but if I was a supernatural creature my revenge would be a lot more timely and straightforward.
Another theory was that the nue was Yorimasa's mother. The story goes that she transformed into the monster in order to initiate a crisis in which her son could step forward and prove his worth. When the nue is killed, his mother dies soon after. I like this interpretation a lot better, as it evokes some pretty potent symbolism (though perhaps my Western brain may want to see things that way).
One idea that I had was that the curse of the nue was a symbol of the degradation and eventual disuse of the original Heian Palace. Then again Japanese people never had a problem with moving the palace/capital, so that idea kind of goes out the window. I still don't think it's a terrible interpretation, but it doesn't really account for the overt symbolism. Another idea I played with was the nue as a symbol of Konoe's physical impotency; his weak constitution and his inability to father offspring. The nue elicits very strong ideas of impurity, and I can't help wonder if perhaps it represents a stillbirth or terminated pregnancy. Not being an expert on anything that might back up that theory, I'll leave it there.
We've already been to several nue graves, so you'd think that would be the end of it. To wrap things up though, I have one more site that I was pretty amazed to find. You'll recall in our last post that the nuezuka in Kyoto was excavated to make room for the Fourth National Industrial Exhibition in 1895. Once examined, the mound was discovered to be from the Kofun Period (250-538 AD), putting it several centuries before an emperor held court in the Heian capital. As exciting as this news was, the mound itself turned out to contain only a few ornaments. But just like in Osaka, its removal was said to reawaken the nue's curse, and in what must have been a rather bizarre series of events the excavated contents were relocated to the grounds of the tomb of Emperor Chukyo (r. 1221, great-great-grandson of Konoe's half-brother, Emperor Go-Shirakawa). You can still visit these remains today. They're located near Keihan line Tobakaido Stn. (鳥羽街道駅), which is one stop north of Fushimi-Inari Stn. (so named for its proximity to Fushimi Inari Taisha, which is a place you might have on your to-do list).
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Map courtesy of Google Maps
Image courtesy of Google Maps
The excavated contents are marked with a stone post with the following characters on it. The first character in the top right is the Chinese character for "nue."
Driver Gragma (yokaitourbus "at" mail "dot" com)
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