660. Dawn of the Samurai: Japan’s Greatest Warrior (Part 3)
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Who was Benkei and what is his significance in samurai history?
And so they fought, now closing, now breaking. What shall Benkei do? For when he thinks that he has conquered, with his little sword, the boy thrusts the blow aside. Again and again, Benkei strikes. Again and again, his blows are parried, till at last even he, mighty Benkei, can do battle no longer. So that's a scene from the Japanese Noh play, if you like Noh theatre. It's called Benkei on the Bridge, and it was written in the 15th century. And it describes perhaps the most celebrated fight in the entire history of the samurai. So the British Museum right now, there are three different illustrations of this tremendous encounter. Tom, you love the story of Benkei on the Bridge, don't you? I do.
Who doesn't love the most famous fight in samurai history? Surely it's your favourite too. It's certainly in the top five of samurai fights. Yeah. And it's famous because it's endlessly retold and it's endlessly illustrated. And the backdrop to it is that Benkei is a lawless warrior monk, always the most dangerous kind of warrior monk. He is built like a rugby player. He's got bloodshot eyes. He wears black armour and he holds seven weapons. So he has a sword. He has a staff. He has an axe. He has a sickle. He has a mallet. He has a nagatana. and he has a saw and a rake. He's not holding them all at the same time, presumably. No, he's not holding them all at the time. And I like the fact he has a saw and a rake so he can do a spot of gardening or something if he's... Yeah, yeah.
Those sort of Zen gardens of a lot of gravel.
Yes.
He could be raking his Zen garden.
He's ready and prepared for anything. I said he's a lawless warrior monk. And as lawless warrior monks often do, he vows to rob a thousand men of their swords. And so he stands on a bridge in Kyoto, the story goes, And every samurai who tries to cross it, Benkei fights him. And he is so invincible that he ends up with 999 swords. So he's got one sword to go to make the thousand. And the scene which you narrated, this is him trying to get his thousandth sword. And his opponent is a very slight... Elegant youth wearing a woman's cloak, who'd been playing the flute as he approached the bridge. So, you know, kind of faint hint of the girly about him, I guess.
Yeah, but maybe lulling him into a false sense of security, is he?
Well, maybe, because he turns out to be so formidable an opponent that Benkei ends up defeated. Oh. And we're told in the no play, he can do battle no longer. And he submits to his opponent. And from this point on, he is the victor's loyal follower. So he becomes his samurai. That's what samurai means, retainer.
And who is this person who's defeated him?
Well, he is a guy called Minamoto no Yoshitsune. And we actually met him in our previous episode in which listeners may remember we were describing the outbreak of the great war between the Taira clan and the Minamoto clan.
So we're in 12th century Japan, so medieval Japan. The emperors have become slightly sort of… Kind of ciphers almost. Yeah, ciphers, almost like puppet figures. And these two clans, loosely related to the imperial family, sort of semi-detached from the imperial family… What are they called? The Taira and the Minamoto. They are fighting for supremacy. And remind me, which is the one that is strongest in the west, in the Kansai area?
So the Taira have control over Kyoto, the great imperial capital. They have the imperial family under their thumb. And they had expelled the Minamoto pretty much from the kind of civilized center of Japan. And they've all been dispersed to the barbarous northeastern stretches of Japan. Yoshitsune is a member of this clan, hence Minamoto no Yoshitsune. This is the background for the fleeting appearance, as we said, of Yoshitsune in our previous episode. He was the baby who had been folded in the cloak of his mother, the concubine Tokiwa as she attempted to escape Kyoto in a snowstorm. Tokiwa had become the concubine of Kiyomori, who was the most powerful man in Japan, the leader of the Taira clan, and so therefore the inveterate enemy of the rival Minamoto clan.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Who was Benkei and what is his significance in samurai history?
0:12–13:55
2
What events led to Yoshitsune's rise as a prominent samurai?
13:55–29:20
3
How did Yoshitsune's childhood shape his future as a warrior?
29:20–54:35
4
What role did the Taira clan play in the samurai civil war?
54:35–59:07
5
How did Kiso's strategies impact the outcome of the battles?
59:07–59:10
Speakers
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