Mukashidani shizumuuramio okinoumini namitachikaeru imazokashikoki

English Translation

Even in the past
a resentment sank and stayed
in the sea of Oki—
and now, as the waves come back,
how awesome a thing this is

Meaning

In the sea of Oki a resentment once sank and stayed; and now, as the waves come back, how awesome a thing it is.

Commentary

Book Twenty: Tsukikusa no Hana

Spring came to that island, but the wind off the bay was still cold, the waves rough, the ice at the water's edge slow to melt, and his heart was bound in gloom without end. In that faint and forlorn dwelling he was dismayed to think that a whole year had gone by. The year was Shokei 2, with an intercalary second month. From the beginning of the later second month he set himself especially to the secret rites of the esoteric teaching, and after many nights without sleep he was worn out. Dozing at dawn against his will, between dream and waking, he saw Go-Uda plainly as he had been in life, telling him many things. Starting awake and realising it had been a dream, he found the parting unspeakably sad and could not check his tears. It was like the dream in which the Genji captain saw his father at the bay of Suma, which he found moving and reassuring; his resolve grew firmer, and he began to wait for some fishing boat to come for him as in that story. From the Otonomiya prince too, messages came constantly by way of the fishermen. Since the world in the capital was still said to be unquiet, he took comfort from everything and watched for the moment when the guards should sleep. The time had come, it seems: the warriors set to watch him understood something of his wishes and were inclined to submit to him, so that a plan was made among those who could be trusted, and at dawn on the twenty-fourth of the same month he was carried off in careful secrecy. Disguised as a poor fisherman's boat, they pushed out under cover of the dark before dawn. A heavy mist came down so that they could not see ahead, and it seemed dangerous; but he composed himself and prayed, the wind blew from the quarter they wanted, and by late afternoon that day they reached the province of Izumo. On the twenty-fifth he moved to a place called the bay of Inatsu in Hoki. In that province was one Nawa no Matataro Nagatoshi, a man of common birth but bold and wealthy, with a wide connection, shrewd and substantial. An edict was sent to him, and thinking it a great honour he came at once with more than five hundred horsemen to fetch him. The next day he entered a place called the Kamo shrine, which reminded him of the shrine in the capital and gave him confidence. From there he went to Senjoji and made it stand for the palace, and from there edicts went out to the warriors of the provinces to destroy his enemies. Word was sent to Hiei as well. At Oki there was uproar from noon on the day of his departure; the former governor of Oki was said to be in pursuit, which was alarming, but the party fought hard and drove him back. The consternation in the capital and in the east may be imagined. The third month came. Past the tenth there was a sudden commotion: word came that a man from Harima, the lay monk Enshin of Akamatsu, was attacking in obedience to the former emperor's command, and the capital was thrown into confusion. As usual the emperor went to Rokuhara, and the two retired emperors too, and everyone was in uproar. Rokuhara's forces were strong and the attackers withdrew that night, so things quieted a little; but since such talk had begun there was no ease, and on the twenty-sixth the crown prince also went to Rokuhara. The Inner Minister attended his carriage and, anxious for one so young, kept watch there himself. Past the tenth of the fourth month many more warriors came up from the east, among them Ashikaga Takauji, Master of the Ministry of Justice, who had gone against Kasagi two years before. The retired emperor was reassured and issued an edict that he should march on Senjo in Hoki. On leaving the east he had written a solemn oath that he harboured no double heart; but what lay at the bottom of it, and rumours went about. Takauji was descended from Yoriyoshi of old, so his stock was distinguished, and since the Joukyu years no Minamoto had raised his head; yet his connections were wide, his power reached everywhere, and many in the provinces favoured him, so that people whispered that he might seize such a moment of danger, and it proved plain enough. Giving out that he was marching on Hoki, he stopped one night about Nishiyama and Ohara, and on the seventh of the fifth month, from first light, threw open the gates of Omiya and came in seven divisions east along Seventh Avenue from Nijo, banners flying, sweeping toward Rokuhara like cloud and mist, with no one to face him. He had long before received the former emperor's command, and was now turning to destroy the capital's rulers. The war cries fell like thunder and shook the ground, and no one could think for the noise. Half the warriors had gone to Kongosan, so the rest, all that were in the capital, gave battle. It was a fight to the finish and the din was past describing. Arrows fell thicker than rain and men died before one's eyes past counting. After a day and a night of it, both Rokuhara headquarters held out to the last, but the lines were broken at length and the end was plain. All day the smoke rose from Hachiman, Yamazaki, Takeda, Uji, Seta, Fukakusa and Hosshoji until it filled the sky on every side and blotted out the sun, and darkness came as though ink had been ground. Fire reached them there too, and they broke out through the rear line, which had been strongly held, and escaped like men walking in a dream. The emperor was disguised in wretched clothes, which was an ill-omened sight. The two retired emperors could only clasp one another's hands and were helped out. The nobles and ministers gathered up their trousers, not noticing when their caps fell off, and walked as though on air, scattering east and west along the riverbed. Since the two Rokuhara commanders, Nakatoki and Tokimasu, fled eastward, the imperial party was taken the same way. The Major Counselor Kinmune of Saionji went to Kitayama. The Inner Minister, with his son the Chief Officer Michifuyu, reached his own house at Sanjo Bomon Madenokoji in the dark before dawn on the eighth. His wife ran out to the gate in her joy that he had come home safe; the minister was in his robe with his trousers hitched up and was plain to see, but the Chief Officer, worn out by the road, wore a folded cap and a cloth jacket and, being slight and young, was lost among the attendants and was not at once visible. Since there were no proper lights, she could not tell in the dark, and thinking he must have perished she asked, with her voice trembling, again and again, what had become of him—which was natural enough, and very moving. The imperial party reached Omi, and near Ibuki a certain prince who had taken orders, being of the former emperor's party and having some skill in such matters, lay in wait and shot at them. Pursuit was also reported from the capital, so Nakatoki of the northern Rokuhara took the emperor, the crown prince and the two retired emperors into the hills at a place called Bamba. Some of his men still followed him, but he could not fight, and at last he cut his belly there. Tokimasu of the southern Rokuhara had not come so far, and is said to have died near Moriyama. It was a wretched business. Among those who remained in attendance were the Major Counselor Toshizane, the Middle Counselors Tsuneaki and Yorisada, the Major Counselor Sukena, the Consultant Sukeaki and Takakage. Toshizane, Sukena and Yorisada cut off their topknots there. The senior retired emperor returned to the capital. People gathered at the Hoki residence, nobles and courtiers past counting. Meanwhile in the east, as if forewarned, Nitta no Koshiro Yoshisada, a man of Takauji's collateral line, raised troops in Musashi with Takauji's four-year-old son as nominal commander. The shogun in the east at this time was Prince Moriyoshi, with the lay monks Takatoki, Sadaaki, Enmyo and Enki as his guardians; alarmed, they sent Takatoki's younger brother, Yasuie, now a lay monk, down as commander. He left Kamakura on the fourteenth of the fifth month with more than a hundred thousand horse. The house of Takatoki and its followers filled the land, and from Yoritomo and Tokimasa, when Kamakura began, many years had accumulated; it seemed impossible that they should be destroyed by a mere provincial like Nitta. Yet on the fifteenth word came that the enemy was already near Kamakura, and houses were pulled down amid uproar; people said afterwards that it seemed the end of the world. Yasuie was beaten, and since all his warriors went over to Nitta he came back to Kamakura on the night of the sixteenth with only five or six hundred who could not desert him. That it should come to this in barely a day seemed a dream. Beaten daily, Takatoki and the rest cut their bellies and died on the twenty-second. In the capital there was uproar at the return from Hoki. He entered Toji first and matters were settled there. The former Minister Michihira of Nijo was summoned and came. His entry into the palace should properly have been a second accession, but since he had kept the box of the seal with him it was decided that it should be merely the return of a distant progress. As no regent was to be appointed, Michihira was proclaimed head of the clan and given charge of affairs in the capital. On the sixth of the sixth month he entered the palace from Toji in the manner of an ordinary progress. There are no words for how splendid it was. To recall how terrible the previous spring had been was beyond comparison; and though the warriors of the escort now surrounded him in even greater numbers than before, which would ordinarily be frightening, this time they did not seem hateful but reassuring, and it struck people as a fine guard—which the narrator observes is how the eye judges by the moment. The van reached the palace at Nijo Tominokoji while the rear still stretched back to the gate of Toji, or so it was said. Masashige was in attendance, and Nawa no Matataro, now Governor of Hoki, mingled with the palace guards, which was a strange and novel sight. Amid the swelling excitement, people wondered why, since it could come to this, they had let him be so wretchedly grieved; and even in the splendour they thought of former ages. The line of carriages was beyond anything at his going down. Among those who came to watch, someone composed a poem, thinking, no doubt, of the past. The eastern warriors who had been at Kongosan came in with bowed heads, vying to submit, so that it seemed like the beginning of the Han. Reiseimon'in was again called empress. On the night of the sixth she entered the palace; she had taken the tonsure some years before. Council was held from the eighth, and all the men of the old days gathered again. On the thirteenth the cloistered prince of Otonomiya entered the capital. In those months he had let his hair grow and had become a strikingly handsome man. He rode wearing an armour robe of Chinese red brocade, surrounded by formidable warriors, in a train hardly inferior to the emperor's own, and was promptly given the shogunal edict. Those who had been exiled hurried back like withered trees and grasses meeting the spring. Only the Consultant Suefusa, whose keeper must have been a hard man, had been killed in the confusion in the east, so that although his elder brother the Middle Counselor Fujifusa returned, his father the Major Counselor and his mother the nun grieved without end. The Middle Counselor Takasuke of Shijo, who had taken the tonsure, also let his hair grow again. He had not truly left the world but had shaved his head as a makeshift to hide from his enemies, so that now, when he could breathe freely again, those of like mind agreed there could be no objection to his becoming a layman once more. Since even the cloistered prince who had been Tendai abbot did so, they said, how much the more. A poem heard at that time, by whom no one knows, is quoted, and the work ends.
The former emperor is Go-Daigo, who leaves Oki in this book, establishes himself at Senjosan in Hoki, and returns to the palace on the sixth of the sixth month. The cloistered prince of Otonomiya is his son Sonun, who returns to lay life and receives the shogunal edict. The emperor is Kogon, the two retired emperors are Go-Fushimi and Hanazono, and the crown prince is Go-Fushimi's son. Reiseimon'in was the former emperor's empress, again called empress in this book. Nawa no Matataro Nagatoshi was a man of Hoki who received an edict and came with more than five hundred horsemen to fetch him; the lay monk Enshin of Akamatsu attacked from Harima. Ashikaga Takauji, Master of the Ministry of Justice, came up from the east and attacked Rokuhara; he was descended from Yoriyoshi of old. Nitta no Koshiro Yoshisada raised troops in Musashi and destroyed Kamakura. The shogun in the east was Prince Moriyoshi, with the lay monk Takatoki and others as guardians; they perish in this book. The former Minister Michihira of Nijo was proclaimed head of his clan and given charge of affairs in the capital. Kusunoki Masashige, the Consultant Suefusa, his elder brother the Middle Counselor Fujifusa, and the Middle Counselor Takasuke of Shijo also appear.
On the sixth of the sixth month of Shokei 2 he entered the palace from Toji in the manner of an ordinary progress. There are no words for how splendid it was, and to recall how terrible the previous spring had been was beyond comparison.
The van reached the palace at Nijo Tominokoji while the rear still stretched back to the gate of Toji, or so it was said. Masashige was in attendance, and Nawa no Matataro, now Governor of Hoki, mingled with the palace guards. The line of carriages was beyond anything at his going down.
Someone among those who came to watch composed this poem. The text does not give the poet's name; the narrator says he must have been thinking of the past.
The narrative then tells how the eastern warriors from Kongosan came in with bowed heads, and how Reiseimon'in was again called empress.

The restrictive particle in the first line means even in the past. The past here is the earlier case of a sovereign carried to the same Oki who never returned, told in the second and third books of this work. In the second line the word for resentment carries, through the sea imagery, the sound of the word for a bay, so that a resentment sunk and lying in the bay of Oki holds both scene and feeling in one word. The third line fixes the place and carries into the lower lines. The fourth is the coming and going of waves, and the phrase for their returning also means to come back to where one was, so that the ordinary motion of the sea becomes the word for this return from exile. At the close the emphatic particle is answered by the attributive adjective, which means awesome or worthy of reverence. Where once the resentment sank and stayed, now a sovereign has come back from the same sea like a returning wave, and the two cases of Oki are laid over one another in a single poem. Quoted as the work of an onlooker, it shows that the people of the capital watched this return with the earlier precedent in mind, and the account of the second and third books is called back here.

Source

Masukagami

Other