Before I start, allow me to state why I'm going to try finishing this by tomorrow. If you need proof that there's something surreal about Singaporean holidays, look no further than the 9th of August. That day is famous for two things and less known for the third:
1. It's the day Singapore declared independence through non-violent means due to violent riots.
2. It's the day the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew cried on public TV.
3. It's the same day Singapore would be liberated from Japanese rule twenty years ago. Don't believe me?
They bombed Nagasaki 20 years before Singapore became independent. Literally.
While there's nothing surreal about Zouk continuing its closed borders policy until 10th May, 3rd May in Singapore is a public holiday just like 3rd May is a public holiday in Japan. One is called Hari Raya Puasa, and the other is called Constitution Memorial Day.
Since I'll only resume work on Wednesday, I decided to try and see whether I can finish this by my country's 3rd May instead of Japan's 3rd May. Hopefully, Evan "he truly answered NHK's call" Call can push me all the way.
In the last two final parts, I'll be dealing with two things: Minamoto no Yoshitsune's rise as a military genius and his tragic fall from grace. Depending on whether you're pro-Yamato or pro-Ainu, either he died or he... well, didn't. Hopefully, the second part won't come out wrong due to Japan's racial history.
The image of Samurai Charming and sheer genius
In the previous post, I did mention Minamoto no Yoshitsune's legendary status as a lady's man. Not only did he probably "resemble" the Korean Suga, he's known to be a fast mover as Saitō Musashibō Benkei would find out on a bridge. At the age of 15, boys would be busy talking about girls and girls would be busy talking about boys. At the age of 15, Yoshitsune demonstrated his skill as a swordsman against a bandit chief called Kumasaka Chohan. Needless to say, a 15 year old boy bested a mafia boss.
While plenty of details about Yoshitsune were embellished, one thing which I believe wasn't would be his status as a military genius. In fact, I'd compare him to Han Xin, the undisputed military genius of his time. In this part, I will go over three notable battles he fought: Battle of Ichi-no-tani, Battle of Yashima, and Battle of Dan-no-ura.
What defines a military genius?
If there's one weird thing about military geniuses, it'd be why they tend to be short. Napoleon Bonaparte was only 1.68m. That's short by a white person's standard. Alexander the Great was only 5ft+ together with his fellow Greeks. Cao Cao was said to be 1.55m. Tokugawa Ieyasu was 1.56m-160m while Date Masamune was shorter at 1.59m. As for Yoshitsune, he's actually not as tall as Suda "his real name is Taishō" Masaki at 1.76m or even Takizawa "unrelated to Karen" Hideaki at 1.66m. He's only as tall as me at 1.60m. Of course, not every military genius was short. Oda Nobunaga was said to be 1.70m although he's probably as thin as me according to his Roman Catholic friend Luís Fróis.
Ultimately, the proof of genius lies in what the person is capable of instead of the things he/she can't do. One stupid thing I noticed about the idea of a genius was the assumption that one is defined by romanticisation. I've got no problem in recognising Max "Imperial Maximus" Zeng as a true genius. But what about Vincent van Gogh? Did having mental disorders mean he's an idiot? We all know Vincent van Gogh was a genius, but how many of us had the guts to acknowledge his mental problems?
Another dumb thing about misunderstanding a genius is the instinctive assumption of genius=prodigy instead of prodigy=genius. Just because a seven-year-old displayed exceptional intellect doesn't mean every genius functions the same way. Thomas Edison was believed to be mentally addled by his educational system. Oda Nobunaga was called the Fool of Owari while Liu Bang was seen as a useless bum of little to no education. As for Han Xin, he clearly had no university degree and a victim of schoolyard bullying.
For Yoshitsune, he ended up in the "worst" place to nurture a genius. Namely, a religious institute. As a child, Yoshitsune didn't have the best deal. His father Minamoto no Yoshitomo died as a result of the Heiji Rebellion. The winner, Taira no Kiyomori, was attracted to his enemy's concubine. In the classic moment of "my enemy's wife is my wife", Kiyomori took Tokiwa Gozen as his wife due to her exceptional beauty. One of her sons with Yoshitomo was none other than Yoshitsune who was exiled to the Kurama Temple due to his identity as Yoshitomo's child. Nicknamed Ushiwakamaru, young Yoshitsune was clearly uninterested in religion.
Location wise, Kurama Temple was situated at the foot of its namesake mountain in Kyoto. Interestingly, Kyoto was still the capital of Japan back then, a reality which remained consistent before the bakufu era consisting of Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo respectively. However, it could also be said that it's far better to send a dangerous kid to a religious institute rather than somewhere else more dangerous.
Mount Kurama is know for two things: Its temple and its tengu. The former is self-explanatory. As for the tengu, they'd be what the West called goblins. Mythical beings of chaotic neutral morality, the tengu were portrayed as troublemakers. From possessing innocent maidens to seduce equally innocent monks to abducting religious figures, they're a mythical force of nature to reckon with. In fact, the Japanese has a phrase "tengu ni naru". While that's a polite way of calling a person an arrogant bastard, it literally means "becoming a tengu".
Interestingly, the mythical king of tengu wasn't interested in committing child abuse. Instead of emotionally torturing Yoshitsune, the grand Sōjōbō taught him all that he needed to be great one day. This was interestingly reminiscent of how an unknown old man seemingly trolled Zhang Liang when he was as impetuous as yours truly ten years ago. His respect for the elderly paid off when he was given the Strategems of Taigong manual. Zhang Liang would eventually went on to become Liu Bang's number one strategist and was known as the Saint of Strategies. Remember what Daily Mail said? If the Book of Eight Styles of Kurama was real, that'd make it the Japanese version of Strategems of Taigong.
So what did Yoshitsune learn under Sōjōbō? Skills like military tactics, swordsmanship, and... magic. Seriously, what would you expect otherwise from a magical being? Because the legend of Yoshitsune was clearly way more embellished than the Legend of Koizumi manga, a question about where Yoshitsune learnt his craft would be this: What if Sōjōbō was a human being just like me and you?
While that'd dismiss Yoshitsune's jumping ability as some sort of grand sorcery, it wouldn't dismiss the fact that swordsmanship and military tactics could be taught without magic tricks. While I used to dismiss Yoshitsune's major feat at the Battle of Dan-no-ura (no pun intended), a part of myself wondered what if it's real? Would that be an implied moment of ninjutsu usage? For a samurai to attempt something like this was preposterous. But that's due to a matter of training (i.e. no samurai would be trained to do this).
Then you have the issue of military tactics. As a child exiled to a religious institute, what were the chances of him learning such things? The monks of Kurama Temple were esoteric, but that didn't mean they're a bunch of violent people. I do have a strong reason to believe:
1. Sōjōbō did exist and he taught Yoshitsune the arts of fighting, jumping, and military tactics.
2. Sōjōbō didn't need to be a tengu to pull that off.
Moment of genius: Battle of Ichi-no-tani
Now the information I gleaned was very little, so I have to try making the most of what I have.
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Ichi-no-Tani
Ichi-no-tani was a Taira fortress easily defensible. Hence, it's imagineable how confident the Taira was in holding fort. In fact, the kanji Ichi indicated the manner of the fortress location wedged between two mountains. Because that'd effectively be a defensive point within a valley, hence the kanji Tani. Literally translated, Ichi-no-tani means Valley of One as in how the number would look in kanji form.
Due to how narrow the Taira bulwark was, mobility itself would be a massive problem. But because a highly defensible position would offset this (only in theory as Yoshitsune would very soon proved just that), the assumption would be nothing was going to happen so long the infantry could hold ranks and the archers firing away. The difficulty in mobility, at the same time, would also present a case of mutual handicap. The reason behind the Taira faction's confidence, in this case, would be a case of subtraction math.
In a daring moment of military deployment, however, the Minamoto army split itself into two forces. One led by Minamoto no Noriyori and the other his most famous half-brother Yoshitsune. Noriyori's mobilisation route was clearly the direct one heading straight for the jugular. Interestingly, the map labeled 7th February indicated Noriyori was engaging the Taira a distance away from Ichi-no-tani. At the same time, the map labelled 4th February to 7th February implied that Yoshitsune managed to route the opponent forces en route to Ichi-no-tani. This indicated Yoshitsune possibly had the majority half of the army as it'd make splitting his force into three much easier.
By attacking the west along the coast, Yoshitsune effectively cut off the enemy lines linking to Ichi-no-tani. That's the first detachment under his command. The second detachment would attack the other flank. This resulted in the enemy fortress being isolated (refer to the green arrows on the map labeled 7th February). Then you have the third group in charge of overlooking Ichi-no-tani from the north. Interestingly, it was implied that all three groups converged to set fire on the namesake fortress. This comes to the question of how if Yoshitsune and Noriyori's forces were still in the state of engagement. Because the plan was to set fire on the fortress, eliminating the enemy troops beforehand was both unnecessary and impossible. By burning the fortress while the Minamotos kept hammering away, that'd imply a group splitting off from two detachments each. More specifically from both of Yoshitsune's forces with the third group being those near Ichi-no-tani. Because mobility was a massive handicap for the Taira, setting Ichi-no-tani on fire effectively rendered the subtraction math moot. In other words, the Minamoto forces in charge of the fighting were never intended to target the enemy base. They're intended to distract the defensive forces while at the same time crippling their response via three fronts (i.e. you have three green arrows from Yoshitsune and one blue arrow from Noriyori). While Ichi-no-tani was indeed notoriously hard to maneuver, the same couldn't be about the surrounding region.
This comes to mind the nature of Yoshitsune's genius. The Taira's belief in their invincibility was based on an assumption: The Minamoto army would try to storm the fort. Why? Because they assumed this was the only way. But what if Yoshitsune already knew what the Taira were thinking? If you can't beat them at their own game, defeat them through yours. The Taira's game was absolute defence. Yoshitsune's game was burning down their defence. It didn't matter how the battle went along the enemy lines. Ichi-no-tani was behind the enemy lines. Once the base went up in fire and panic, how many remaining troops the enemy had was moot.
Note: Interestingly, this was also the battle where Benkei famously fought alongside Yoshitsune. This actually reminded me of a Kumamon meme.
Moment of genius: Battle of Yashima
https://www.yashima-navi.jp/en/history/entry-154.html
If there's a battle proving the CIA wasn't lying when it said Yoshitsune was a master of shock tactics, the Battle of Yashima would be it. This battle took place after the Battle of Ichi-no-tani. By then, the Taira were already pinned against the ropes. The strength of the Taira was based on one person: Kiyomori. If you need proof that no titan can ever sustain a kingdom, you don't have to ask Singaporeans whether they feel this way. Look no further than two names: Imagawa and Taira. For the Imagawa, Yoshimoto's disastrous defeat (and subsequent death) at the hands of Oda Nobunaga was that one block creating a domino effect. For the Taira, it'd be Kiyomori's death. Depending on whether you believe the narrative from Heike Monogatari, the elder statesman might or might not had a peaceful death.
At the same time, Kiyomori was both the reason why the Taira became great and the architect of its downfall. The Heiji Rebellion propelled him to the highest point of political power where being a no-man could result in suspicions that you're a *gasp!* Minamoto sympathiser. Kiyomori being the cause of his own clan's downfall was down to two reasons:
1. Autocracy. If you need proof that autocracy is bad for your country, look no further than Kiyomori. By appointing his clan members to important positions, Kiyomori clearly hoped to cement his position and that of the Taira. But because there are only this many names one can cram into any political cabinet, this resulted in unwanted isolation. There were indeed those who admired Kiyomori at first but later believed he had changed. Way too much.
2. Mercy. What if Kiyomori decided to execute Yoritomo and Yoshitsune? While killing children would constitute to a crime against humanity, it remained true that mercy played a major role. One would eventually be the hand bringing down the Taira and the other the blade held by that very hand. In retrospect, however, mercy would have been a moot factor if Kiyomori chose not to be an autocrat. Or at least not autocratic to the point where even the Imperial family couldn't take it.
The starting point was at modern day Osaka, the very same place the guy who played Yoshitsune in The 13 Lords of the Shogun was born. But there's a problem: In the same manner William the Conqueror had to stare at the storm blowing against him during the Battle of Hastings, Yoshitsune had to do the same.
Interestingly, the Minamoto decided to set sail during the middle of the night. However, Yoshitsune only set off with 50 boats. In total, only 50 horses and 150 soldiers crossed the sea. That'd amount to 50 mounted troops and 100 infantry troops. Not the best way to start a fight.
The storm apparently didn't die down. Yet the time took to reach Katsuura was surprisingly short. This meant the wind was clearly blowing hard along that direction. But there's a problem: Yashima was at modern-day Kagawa prefecture while Yoshitsune landed at the modern-day Tokushima prefecture. This was where usage of shock tactics came into place. In short, it's blindsiding the opposition. Tokushima is situated just behind Kagawa. This was like the Allied forces landing at Normandy with German backs facing then. A large part of this was down to the help of the Watanabe family who had extensive knowledge of the sea area. Just don't ask me whether he charmed a Watanabe ojou-san to pull this off.
Yoshitsune was a charismatic leader who knew how to galvanise his troops. The typical commander has to stayed in the rear in order to direct the process. But not Yoshitsune. Unlike how Russian commanders got themselves killed, morale wasn't the reason why Yoshitsune decided to be that 死に急ぎ野郎. No one forced his hand. But because no one forced his hand, his men were all the more willing to...
1. Fight alongside him.
2. Die for him.
Once landed on Katsuura, Yoshitsune made haste to attack the Taira. One person of note was Kondo Chikaie, a local of the region. Like how the Watanabe family aided the Minamoto in dealing with the sea, Kondo helped them in navigating the land. Once they reached Yashima, Yoshitsune did NOT attack. Instead he did something... well, very controversial. More specifically, he told his men to set fire on the surrounding commoners' homes. Note that this wasn't Ichi-no-tani where a fire was set upon military infrastructure. This was Yashima where fire was set upon civilian infrastructure. I don't know how the Minamoto soldiers saw it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yoritomo wasn't amused by his half-brother's act of arson.
Unlike your typical bored delinquent, Yoshitsune wasn't doing this for fun. Instead, it was to bluff the enemy in thinking:
1. The enemy had attacked.
2. The enemy had an army of 25000 instead of just 150.
The first point was logical, the second a case of jumping the gun. The enemy's assumption was that without an army, the Minamoto wouldn't come knocking at their doorstep with a sledgehammer. One vital ingredient in making shock tactics work isn't about getting things done fast. Proper usage of shock tactics involve a mind going against the fast-food mentality culture we're all living in. If you want to make things work, you don't have to do it fast. Yoshitsune's intention was never to attack. Rather, it's making the enemy think he'd attack. A force of 150 would be one associated with reconnaissance, not combat. Just like Ichi-no-tani, Yoshitsune exploited the weakness of subjective assumption. At the same time, the Taira expected the Minamoto to attack from the north while Yoshitsune actually landed at the south. Hence, the panic factor made it even harder for the Taira clan to make the correct call. Coupled with the fact that the child Emperor Antoku was with them, the reaction was only to be expected.
After setting fire on the surrounding civilian housing, the Minamoto proceeded to set fire on the Taira palace (I believe you all have seen a consistent theme of arson here). By doing so, the Taira had no turning back. Remember what I said about Yoshitsune's men being willing to die for him? Well, that literally happened when Taira no Noritsune took aim and fired an arrow. Had not Satō Tsugunobu taken the arrow willingly, Yoshitsune would have died. Sadly, Satō wasn't as lucky as Fa Zheng when a similar thing happened. He died like Pang Tong.
Needless to say, the Taira tried seizing back Yashima with no success. With that being said, at least part of the remaining Minamoto troops might have managed to land and reach Yashima as it'd make retaking Yashima much more difficult for the Taira.
Moment of genius: Battle of Dan-no-ura
https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura
It's now 12.38 am and my brain is swimming. So this part most probably wouldn't be that good. Because I wanted to finish this Minamoto mina-san series by 3rd May, I decided to soldier on.
The Battle of Dan-no-ura was clearly the final battle of the Genpei War with the defeat of the Taira and Taira no Munemori (played by none other than the firstborn son of Japan's most popular politician). Unlike the previous two battles, arson wasn't part of the fight. If the climax battle was the Battle of Yashima, then Dan-no-ura would be the Battle of Hakodate to Yashima's Battle of Toba–Fushimi.
The battle was one where shock tactics were... well, useless. This was a battle of attrition where victory and defeat would be decided by the turning of the tide. Literally. And therein Yoshitsune had a problem. A very massive and decisive one: The tide was in favour of the Taira. Munemori knew this as well. If there's a chance for the Taira to recoup its losses, the Battle of Dan-no-ura would be it. Defeat for the Minamoto would be a massive setback, but defeat for the Taira would be the end. Munemori clearly had so much more to lose than Yoritomo.
Because the Battle of Dan-no-ura mostly involved artillery and soldiers fighting on their sampans, there's nothing much for me to say. There are three things of note:
1. The nature of the tide proves Yoshitsune's genius in another way.
2. The defection of Taguchi Shigeyoshi
3. Dan-no-ura Hassou-tobi
The nature of the tide flowed in two interesting directions. The first would be to the Taira faction's advantage. The tide ended up pushing the Minamoto side all the way to the north. Interestingly, the Minamoto fleet had plenty of space around it. On one hand, it allowed the Taira to surround them. On the other, however, it still gave the Minamoto enough space to manoeuvre. For the Taira to win, they had to make sure the tide wouldn't turn against them. For the Minamoto to win, they had to weather the storm. Not because they're forced to but because they had to. This battle would be one where the longer it took, the likelier a Minamoto victory.
Then it happened. The tide turned. And the Taira... well, they're screwed. When the tide turned in favour of the Minamoto, the Taira got themselves into a geographical pinch. If you look at the third tactical map, you could see clearly the tide took the Taira fleet straight into a literal bottleneck. Wedged between two coasts, the Minamoto could seize the initiative and do two things:
1. Surround them.
2. Force them into the corner. Literally.
This comes to Yoshitsune's understanding of the tide. Considering the Battle of Yashima resulted in other powerful families defecting from the Taira, it's only natural someone would inform the Minamoto how the tide functioned. This was a case of simple calculation, high risk attrition. What Yoshitsune knew, the Taira should understand as well. But once both sides entered the fight, that's it. Both had to accept the tide would never be with them forever. Psychologically, it could be advantageous to the Minamoto instead of the Taira. The reason was that for the Taira, they're racing against time. For the Minamoto, it's all about holding firm and keeping faith in the tide. Terrain wise, the Taira had the upper hand. Psychologically, Yoshitsune clearly had the advantage.
The second part would be the defection of Taguchi Shigeyoshi. The one problem the Taira had with him was his loyalty. Or rather the lack thereof. Apparently, he was captured by the Minamoto only for him to be either released or rescued. There was a capable commander called Taira no Tomomori. Apparently, he had no problem with everyone on board except for Shigeyoshi. Although Tomomori's stance was of suspicion instead of suspicion proven, Taira no Munemori committed a fatal mistake. By reinstating Shigeyoshi, he proved Tomomori to be correct. So how did Shigeyoshi betray his liege? One important part of political legitimacy in the history of Japan would be the Emperor. In the present, Emperor Naruhito is a constitutional monarch just like Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands. Before Japan's defeat in World War II, however, it was a different ball game. To have the Emperor at your side means having the mandate to govern the nation. In this sense, there's no difference between the Meiji era and the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, the presence of the Emperor was an important part of legitimising the Taira rule. At the same time, the child Emperor Antoku was the grandchild of Kiyomori when he arranged a marriage between the previous Emperor and his daughter.
The struggle between the Minamoto and Taira boiled down to two heirs apparent: Antoku backed by the Taira and Go-Toba backed by the Minamoto. For the Minamoto to win, they had to do something about Antoku. It clearly didn't matter to them we're talking about a six-year-old. Long story short, Shigeyoshi told Yoshitsune that...
1. Antoku wasn't in the boat he should be in.
2. The kid was at another boat. Simply put, the Taira tried to game Yoshitsune at his... well, own game.
With this knowledge, the Minamoto artillery was directed at the correct boat. Chaos reigned and tragedy ensued. Kiyomori's widow, Taira no Tokiko committed suicide by drowning herself. And with her, poor little Antoku was dragged into a watery grave.
Then we have the third part: Dan-no-ura Hassou-tobi. More specifically, was it physically possible? Initially, I believed it's physically impossible due to a samurai's armour weight. To leap from one boat to the eighth would be more insane than trying to finish a PhD within 2 years. 3 years, possible. But 2 years? If it's jumping from one boat to the next to reach the eighth, that's equally implausible in face of the laws of physics. On the other hand, Yoshitsune's jumping ability shouldn't be dismissed as nonsense. Even the most outlandish myths would have a grain of truth justifying either the lie or embellished.
Notably, Yoshitsune's childhood name was Ushiwakamaru. Maru is a nickname for a boy instead of a cat while Ushiwaka means young bull. If this was an indication of anything factual, chances were that Yoshitsune's insane athleticism would have something to do with the relevant level of strength. This comes to mind the Ainu folksong involving him escaping to Ainu-Mosir (i.e. the modern day Hokkaido).
Next: The final part.
To be continued...
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