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passage from the Taiheiki
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Early forms of michiyuki
‘travel sequences’ in works of Japanese literature are to be found in a few of the songs and poems in the eighth-century Kojiki
, Nihon shoki
, and Man'yōshū
. They continued to be used in general literature and, through sung entertainments such as imayō
, enkyoku
, and kusemai
, appeared also in various forms of drama. The best examples are to be found in the medieval military tales and in the puppet plays of Chikamatsu Monzaemon 
(1653–1724), where the treatment of the travel sequence reaches its peak by a combination of text, music, and movement. One of the most famous michiyuki texts, however, is this passage from the Taiheiki
, a fourteenth-century war tale, which describes the journey from Kyōto 
, the imperial capital, to Kamakura 
, the seat of the military government in the eastern part of the country, made by a court noble in 1331 after he was arrested for being implicated in the emperor Go-Daigo's 
second plot to overthrow the Hōjō 
military rulers.
1 For example, Kojiki, bk. III (Iwanami Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei (hereafter INKBT)), vol. I, p. 270; Nihon shoki, bk. XVI, INKBT, vol. LXVIII, p. 12, ll. 3–5; and Man‘yōshū, bk. XIII, no. 3230, INKBT, vol. VI, pp. 338–9.
2 The one followed here is that given in INKBT, vol. XXXIV, pp. 67–70. Another English version of this passage is to be found in McCullough, H. (tr.), The Taiheiki, New York, Columbia University Press, 1959, 38–42Google Scholar .
3 Bk. x, ‘Kaidō-kudari’ 
, INKBT, vol. XXXIII, pp. 257–60.
4 Pts. 1–3, Enkyokushū 
, INKBT, vol. XLIV, pp. 83–7.
5 Kentarō, Sanari (ed.), Yōkyoku taikan 
, vol. VI, pp. 62–8Google Scholar
. For a translation. of this, see my Early nō drama, London, Lund Humphries, 1958, 149–50 and 153–60.
6 1324.
7 By the monk Chūen 
who, ‘being of a cowardly nature, wrote out a scroll of confessions … even before he was tortured’, Taiheiki, bk. II, INKBT, vol. XXXIV, p. 64.
8 In the year 1331.
9 of. a poem by Shunzei, Fujiwara
in the Shinkokinshū 
, no. 114, INKBT, vol. XXVIII, p. 59Google Scholar
: Mata ya min / Katano no mino no / sakuragari / hana no yuki chiru / haru no akebono ‘Shall I see the like again? Hardly, for during my cherry-viewing on Katano moor I saw a fall of snowy blossom in the spring dawn’.
10 cf. a poem by Fujiwara Kintō 
in the Shūishū 
, bk. III: Asa madaki / Arashi no yama no / samukereba / momiji no nishiki / kinu hito zo naki ‘So cold is Mount Arashi before morning comes that there is none who does not wear his maple-leaf brocade’.
11 5 syllables instead of 7.
12 The Ōsaka barrier had long been renowned for its clear, pure water.
13 A play (kakekotoba 
) here on uchide: (a) 
‘emerge from’; (b) the place-name Uchide 
.
14 The fresh-water Lake Biwa.
15 A common play here on kogare: (a) 
‘yearn/long for’; (b) 
being rowed'; from another meaning of kogaru 
‘burn, scorch’, hence ‘evaporate (sea-water to obtain salt)’, it is also an associated word (engo 
) introduced by the preceding shio ‘salt’ and umi ‘sea’.
16 A play here on uki: (a) 
‘grief’; (b) 
‘floating’.
17 The Heike monogatari, bk. x ‘Kaidō-kudari’, has a very similar phrase: Seta no Kara-hashi (‘Chinese-style bridge’) koma mo todoro to fuminarasu.
18 A play here on ō: (a) 
‘meet’; (b) part of the province name Ō 
.
19 A play here on u: (a) as part of yo no u(ki) 
‘the grief of the world’; (b) part of the place-name Une 
.
20 A notable example here of alliteration and assonance: yo no Une-no-no ni naku.
21 Cranes were traditionally regarded as being particularly devoted to their young; cf. the use of the same idea in the Wakan rōeishu 
bk. II, ‘Kangen’ 
‘String instruments’, INKBT, vol. LXXIII, no. 463, p. 167: ‘The third and fourth strings (of a koto) are clear and high-pitched—the cry at night of a crane in a coop, thinking of its young’.
22 A play here on mori: (a) 
‘to drip’; (b) part of the place-name Moriyama 
.
23 Tsuyu chiru ‘(from which) the dew scatters’ are associated words introducing shino ‘bush bamboo’.
24 A play here on shino: (a) = 
‘bush bamboo’; (b) part of the place-name Shinohara 
.
25 8 syllables instead of 7.
26 A play here on oi: (a) = 
‘grow old’; (b) part of the place-name Oiso 
.
27 cf. the enkyoku ‘Kaidō’, pt. I (in Enkyokushū, bk. IV, INKBT, vol. XLIV, p. 83), which has Oiso no mori no / shitakusa no / shigemi ni koma o / todomete mo ‘Though we stop our horses amid the luxuriant undergrowth in the forest of Oiso’.
28 This name is written with the characters 
, literally ‘undestroyed, indestructible’.
29 A play here on moru: (a) 
‘defend’; (b) 
‘drip’.
30 6 syllables instead of 5.
31 Plays here on mi no and owari: (a) mi no owari 
= ‘the end of one's life’; (b) Mino 
and Owari 
are the names of provinces through which Toshimoto passes at this stage of his journey.
32 There is a shrine of this name in the southern part of the great Atsuta Shrine, but some editors are of the opinion that what is meant here is the sacred sword known as Kusanagi no Tsurugi 
‘the Grass-Cutter Sword’, which is said to have been taken from the tail of the eight-headed monster by the god Susano-o and was eventually enshrined at Atsuta.
33 A play here on naru: (a) (shiohi ni …) naru = 
‘become (low tide)’; (b) part of the place-name Narumi 
.
34 A play here on tō: (a) = (sue wa izuku to) tou 
‘he asks (where the end will be)’; (b) part of the province name Tōtōmi 
.
35 Shizumihatenuru 
must be taken twice here, once literally with the preceding sute-obune: ‘(a small abandoned boat) completely sunk’; and again figuratively with the following mi ni shi areba: ‘(since his was a fate in which) he was utterly cast down’.
36 syllables here instead of 5.
37 A play here on awa: (a) the negative form awa- of the verb au 
‘meet’, suggesting awvamu and the meaning ‘who is there to meet him?’; (b) part of the noun aware 
, used here to mean ‘How sad/moving!’.
38 A play here on yū: (a) = 
‘say’; (b) part of the noun yūgure 
‘evening’.
39 1184.
40 The fifth son of Taira no Kiyomori 
. He had successes in battle against the Minamoto, and burned the Tōdaiji 
and Kōfukuji 
temples which had given them help, but was captured by them (referred to in the text as tōi 
‘eastern barbarians’ in that they were based on Kamakura and their main strength lay in the east) at Ichinotani — 
. From there he was taken to Kyōto and then Kamakura, and in 1184 was executed near Nara and the temples he had destroyed.
41 5 syllables instead of 7.
42 5 syllables instead of 7.
43 7 syllables instead of 5.
44 The Heike monogatari, bk. X, ‘Kaidó-kudari’, INKBT, vol. XXXIII, p. 259, which tells of this episode, gives the first line of this poem as Tabi no sora ‘(Under) skies on a journey’, i.e. ‘While travelling away from home’.
45 The girl referred to here is the Yuya 
(or 
) of the famous nō play of that name, although the Heike monogatari, ibid., gives Yuya as the name of her mother.
46 8 syllables instead of 7.
47 8 syllables instead of 7.
48 9 syllables instead of 7.
49 6 syllables instead of 7.
50 4 syllables instead of 5.
51 4 syllables instead of 5.
52 The complete poem by Saigyō 
, which is included in the Shinkokinshú, bk. X, INKBT, vol. XXVIII, no. 987, p. 216, reads: Toshi takete / mata koyubeshi to / omoiki ya / inochi narikeri / Sayo-no-nakayama ‘Never did I think that, in my later years, I would cross this pass again, but such has been my life — Sayo-no-nakayama’.
53 8 syllables instead of 7.
54 An expression, derived from Chinese and often used in Japanese literature, to describe the swift passing of time.
55 8 syllables instead of 7.
56 4 syllables instead of 5.
57 8 syllables instead of 7.
58 4 syllables instead of 5.
59 8 syllables instead of 7.
60 This civil war of the Shōkyu 
era took place in 1221, when the retired emperor Go-Toba 
sent orders to all provinces to raise troops to overthrow the Hojō.
61 Fujiwara Mitsuchika 
did in fact write the imperial proclamation, as stated in the text, but he was executed by the Hōjō at Kakozaka in Suruga 
province, and it was Fujiwara Nakamikado Muneyuki 
who wrote the Chinese poem at Kikukawa 
and was then killed there.
62 A line of irregular metre: it has 12 syllables in all, but no satisfactory caesura.
63 4 syllables instead of 5.
64 8 syllables instead of 7.
65 A play here on kiku: (a) = 
‘hear of’; (b) part of the place-name Kikukawa 
.
66 6 syllables instead of 7.
67 6 syllables instead of 5.
68 A river with a name which sounds the same runs beside Arashiyama, near Kyōto.
69 4 syllables instead of 5.
70 8 syllables instead of 7.
71 11 syllables instead of 7.
72 7 syllables instead of 5.
73 7 syllables instead of 5.
74 6 syllables instead of 5.
75 8 syllables instead of 7.
76 4 syllables instead of 5.
77 A play here on okabe: (a) = 
‘Beside/near/on the hills’; (b) the place-name Okabe 
.
78 6 syllables here instead of 7.
79 This and the next five lines in the Japanese text (seven in the English version) contain echoes of the Ise monogatari 
, pt IX, INKBT, vol. IX, pp. 116–17.
80 11 syllables instead of 7.
81 Ariwara no Narihira 
(825–80), a famous poet whose compositions form the basis of the Ise monogatari.
82 8 syllables instead of 7.
83 6 syllables instead of 7.
84 The complete poem reads: Suruga naru / Utsu no yamabe no / utsutsu ni mo / yume ni mo hito ni / awanu narikeri ‘Here beside the Utsu hills in Suruga, neither in reality nor even in my dreams have I met my loved one’.
85 8 syllables instead of 5.
86 6 syllables instead of 7.
87 4 syllables instead of 7.
88 8 syllables instead of 5.
89 6 syllables instead of 7.
90 6 syllables instead of 5.
91 A play here on izu: (a) = 
, the name of the province; (b) part of izuku ‘where?’.
92 A play here on mi (a) = 
‘see’; (b) part of the place-name Miho-ga-saki 
.
93 8 syllables instead of 7.
94 8 syllables instead of 7.
95 A play here on tago: (a) = 
‘countryman’; (b) = the place-name Tago(-no-ura) 
‘(the Bay of) Tago’.
96 A play here on mizu: (a) = 
‘water, waters’; (b) part of mizukara 
‘oneself, himself’.
97 Uki 
‘floating’ (or, as 
‘sadness, grief’), is used three times in these lines, together with a number of words associated with water and sea. This part ending in uki is almost identical to the second half of a poem in the Genji monogatari 
, ‘Aoi no Ue’, INKBT, vol. XIV, p. 330: … oritatsu lago no / mizukara zo uki.
98 There are plays here on kuru and kuruma: (a) (ukiyo o meguru) kuru… suggests … kurushimi 
and the meaning ‘the suffering (of going around this floating world)’; (b) … kuruma 
means ‘the wheel/carriage (which rolls through this floating world)’; (c) both are parts of the place-name Kurumagaeshi 
.
99 A play here on take-no-shita: (a) = 
beneath the bamboos’; (b) the place-name Takenoshita.
100 A play here on ashi: (a) (yukinayamu) ashi 
‘(to go along with painful) feet/steps/tread’; (b) part of the place-name Ashigara-yama 
.
101 8 syllables instead of 7. Coming from the west, the travellers would have passed through Koiso before Ōiso but, presumably for euphony, the order was reversed in the text.
102 A play here on nami: (a) (sode ni mo) nami suggests namida 
‘tears (even on his sleeves)’; (b) = 
‘waves’.
103 A play here on koyuru: (a) (nami wa) koyuru 
= ‘(the waves) pass over’; (b) part of the place-name Koyurugi 
.
104 A play here on iso: (a) = 
‘beach, strand’; (b) part of the verb isogu 
‘hurry’
105 4 syllables instead of 5.
106 8 syllables instead of 7.
107 This section in poetic metre ends with two parts of 7 syllables each, like a traditional poem.