Your armor is gone,
left behind at the Fuji—
then, Tadakiyo,
just put on the ink-dyed robe
and wear it for the next world
- Meaning
-
Your armor is gone, left at the Fuji—then simply put on the ink-dyed robe, Tadakiyo, and wear it for the sake of the next world.
- Commentary
-
Volume Five: The Gosechi Dances
This lampoon takes up the fact that the captain of the guard, Tadakiyo, Governor of Kazusa, left his own armor behind at the Fuji and got away quickly.
Tadakiyo was the man who, when two of the boldest robbers in the home provinces shut themselves in the treasure house at Toba and no one dared take them, went over the wall alone in broad daylight, killed one and seized the other, and left a name behind him. That man had thrown off his armor and run at the sound of waterfowl.
Tadakiyo puns on the name and on tada kiyo, "simply wear." You have thrown away your armor; then simply wear the ink-dyed robe—that is, take vows.
"For the next world" means for one's rebirth. For a warrior to throw away his armor ordinarily means that he has died or entered religion. Tadakiyo did not die; then nothing remains but the tonsure. As irony directed at a man who had made his name, nothing could go further.
Of the four lampoons, one mocks Munemori and Koremori, one the whole house, and two name Tadakiyo. That two of the four fall on a single captain of the guard shows exactly where the world thought the responsibility for the rout lay. The commanders were sons of a great house; the man who actually moved the army was the captain of the guard.
yoroi……armor.
sutetsu……has thrown away.
sumizome no koromo……an ink-dyed robe; a monk's habit.
tadakiyo……puns on the name and on "simply wear."
nochi no yo……the world to come.
Kazusa no kami Tadakiyo……Itō Tadakiyo, a Taira captain of the guard.
samurai-daishō……the officer who actually commanded troops in the field.
tsuiji……a wall of pounded earth.
gokinai……the five home provinces around the capital.
- Source
-
Heike Monogatari
- Other
-