Woolley, Elesabeth Amber (2019) ‘Suspicious Steeds and Evil Deeds’ : Ambition and Misconduct in the Genpei Jōsuiki. PhD thesis. SOAS University of London. http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/32202 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. ‘Suspicious Steeds and Evil Deeds’: Ambition and Misconduct in the Genpei Jōsuiki Elesabeth Amber Woolley Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2019 1 Abstract Japan’s Genpei War (1180-1185) has inspired generations of storytellers, artists and playwrights, whose work has brought alive stories featuring the warrior families of Minamoto and Taira. Many of the best-known tales about Genpei War warriors exist because of a collection of War Tale (gunki monogatari) texts known as the Heike Monogatari, which detail the highs and lows of the war, with embellishment and artistic licence. While much scholarly attention has focused on one fourteenth century performance version of this text, other variants have not been so closely studied. One such is Genpei Jōsuiki, the longest variant text of the Heike Monogatari family. Unlike the performance texts, Genpei Jōsuiki is not celebrated for its artistic properties. Instead it comprises what Matsuo Ashie terms a “pseudo-history,” using many sources to reinvent these individuals for later period audiences. This thesis explores how Genpei Jōsuiki presents both stories and its characters. Using close textual analysis and inter-textual comparisons, I explore how Genpei Jōsuiki frames praiseworthy and aberrant behaviour, and how these depictions influence the reputations of the key participants. Genpei Jōsuiki emphasises the role of horses, even blaming one for starting the war. I argue that horses are not just battle equipment in War Tale texts but used in scene construction to foreshadow and influence the fates of individual characters. By identifying key themes from scenes where characters and horses interact in my first chapter, I establish three main case studies for my subsequent chapters. I argue that ideas of centrality and peripherality are also related to legitimacy and hierarchy in these scenes, and that the text’s assessment of what makes aberrant behaviour depends more on the character’s standing than their actions. Through textual 3 analysis, I posit that Genpei Jōsuiki’s morality suggests it is sixteenth century text, reflecting ideas of the late Warring States period. 4 Contents Abstract 3 Acknowledgements 9 Thesis Introduction 10 Literature Review 14 Defining and Contextualising the concept of ‘Misconduct’ 18 A note on Heike Corpus texts used in this study. 20 The Heike Corpus in Context – Genpei Jōsuiki and the Date Debate Introduction 21 The Provenance of Genpei Jōsuiki in historical records 25 The Textual Message of Genpei Jōsuiki – from Shinto to symbolism 30 Genpei Jōsuiki and Oda Nobunaga’s heritage 34 Genpei Jōsuiki and the early Tokugawa Period 36 Tsugunobu’s Horse and Kenreimon’in’s Lover: Themes of a later age 39 Conclusion: Genpei Jōsuiki, the Sengoku Moral Tale 45 Why horses? Japan and the symbolic equine. 46 Methodology: Centre, Periphery and intertextual analysis. 54 Chapter One: Horses and Misconduct as Themes of Representation in Genpei Jōsuiki Introduction 63 Section I: Horses in the Japanese War Tales 65 - Case Study: Mutsu Waki (Circa 1060s) 65 - The Dismount Principle and Political Status in the War Tales 73 - The Value of a Horse in Mediaeval Japan 77 5 Section II: Equine Representation and Genpei Jōsuiki 81 - Case Study: The Dismount Principle in Kurikara Valley 81 - Loyal Unto Death: The Case of Kinebuchi Shōgenta Shigemitsu 85 - Wild Horses: Mitsuhira’s Ambition and Yoritomo’s Conquest 88 - Equine Liminality: Mochizuki’s Mice 94 - The Ritual Horse: Horses and Religious Offerings 98 - Equine Catalysts – The Horse in the Hot Springs 107 Conclusion 110 Chapter Two: For Want of a Horse: The Matter of Konoshita and the Loyalty of Kiō Introduction 112 Section I: For Want of a Horse: A (Hi)Story in Transition 113 - Filling History’s Gaps: Legitimisation through Storytelling 115 - The Horse that Caused the Genpei War 122 Section II: Wicked Deeds and Suspicious Steeds: Personal Ambition and a Warrior’s Horse 128 - The Politics of the Branding Iron: Konoshita, Nanryō and Nakatsuna’s Obsession 128 - A ‘Suspicious Steed Unparalleled Beneath Heaven’: The Fate of Emperor Mu 135 - Three More Horses: Replacement, Recruit and Returned in Disgrace 139 - The Common Good: The Moral Example of the Emperor Wendi 145 Section III: Serving One Master: The Loyalty of Kiō and the Warrior Hierarchy 147 - Resentment and Rank: The ‘Military Equals’ 147 6 - A Retainer’s Duty: The Loyal Service of Watanabe Kiō 153 Conclusion 157 Chapter Three: Takatsuna, the Horse Thief: Legitimacy, Loyalty and Hierarchy Introduction 159 Section I: Takatsuna, the Horse Thief: Murder for the sake of the Realm. 164 - The Story of Takatsuna, the Horse Thief 164 - Loyalty and Legitimacy 167 - A Criminal Act? Kinosuke’s ‘Evil Happening’ and the loyalty of his horse 171 - Status and the Horse: Hakamadare and Takatsuna 174 Section II: Ikezuki and Surusumi 179 - The Eastern Army’s Horses: Nineteen Beasts and Counting 180 - Ikezuki and Surusumi: Liminality and Hierarchy 184 - Yoritomo’s Indecision and Takatsuna’s Guile 191 - Kagesue: Gullible Fool or Taira Scapegoat? 198 - Zō-Ō Taishi’s Elephant and the Warrior Thief 202 Conclusion 204 Chapter Four: Second Sons as Scapegoats: The Start of the Taira’s ‘Evil Deeds’ Introduction 207 Section I: The First Scapegoat – Sukemori in the Saddle 213 - Denka Noriai and the Start of the Taira Evil Deeds 222 - Wisdom, Rank and the Courtly Warrior, Michisada 226 - Carriage vs Horse: Sukemori’s Individual Responsibility 230 - Genpei Jōsuiki and the Question of Blame 234 - Loyalty to One Lord: The Regent’s Retinue 240 7 Section II: The Second Scapegoat – The Doomed Motomori 246 - Motomori’s ‘Disruptive Deeds’ 249 - Redemption of the Sinner: The Drowning of Motomori 253 - An Ongoing War: The Legacy of Hōgen and Heiji 256 Conclusion 259 Thesis Conclusion 261 Bibliography 266 Appendices: I: Translated Scenes 277 II: Biographies 314 8 Acknowledgements I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support of the following people and organisations, without whom this project would not have been possible. The Wolfson Foundation, whose generous scholarship for Languages allowed me to pursue my studies full-time and present my work at conferences. The Japan Foundation Endowment Committee, for providing financial support for my three months of fieldwork in Japan. The Toshiba Foundation and the European Association of Japanese Studies, for enabling me to attend a Doctoral Workshop in Lisbon and receive helpful feedback on my project from peers and academics. My supervisory committee – Professor C A Gerstle, Professor T Screech and Dr A Lockyer, for advising my work at various stages of the process. Dr Jenny Preston, for teaching me Classical Japanese and for being just an e- mail away whenever the text foxed me. Uemura Takeshi-san, for his unwavering assistance in accessing Genpei locations when in Japan. Dōshisha University in Kyoto, for allowing me access to their resources and Professor Yamada, for enabling me to pursue my research there. Dr Hamish Todd and the British Library for allowing me access to the Amakusabon Heike. SOAS University Library, in particular Kobayashi Fujiko-san My examiners, Professor M Adolphson and Dr C Gerteis for their valuable advice and constructive criticism in the improving of this work. Finally, my family, who now have a disturbingly detailed knowledge of Japanese mediaeval horses and warfare. 9 Introduction The horse in Japan has always been a multi-faceted beast. As Hidaka Shōji states, ‘It might be surprising to realise that horses do not just carry people and luggage, they also carry the burden of literary history on their backs’.1 This quotation, written in the introduction to an article on modern Japanese literature, addresses the dual relationship between the physical animal and its symbolic role. The inspiration for Hidaka’s comment derives principally from research done on twentieth century works, for example, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke’s Uma no Ashi, but the dual role horses play in Japanese literature is no less true for the pre-modern period. While horses have had a complex and ritualistic presence in Japanese tradition since ancient times, the most prominent genre of texts featuring equine representation is that of the ‘War Tales’ (gunki monogatari), stories of military valour, heroism and tragedy. These texts nominally recount historical events, often with a flair for the dramatic and a dubious grasp of the facts. Among the most well-known of these texts are the many versions of the Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike - hereafter referred to collectively as the Heike ‘corpus’), which recount stories of the twelfth century Genpei War (1180-1185). This conflict, which gets its popular name from the two main clans who nominally contested it in popular tradition (the Minamoto, or ‘Gen-ji’, and Taira, or Hei-ke), resulted in the founding of Japan’s first military government in 1185. Japan would continue to have predominately military governments until 1868, making the Genpei War, with the benefit of hindsight, something of a ‘how it all began’ story for warrior authority.