The moonlight fight between Yoshitsune (centre) and Benkei (L) in Kyoto.
With the success of ‘Shogun’ on Disney, why rely on a western telling of a Japanese semi-fictional tale, when there are plenty of amazing true stories from Japanese history?
Who needs Robin Hood and Little John when you have Yoshitsune and Benkei?
Don’t let historical facts get in the way of a good tale, but let me lay it out for you.
Picture this; the early Medieval period in Japan, a fated warlord is on the losing side of a rebellion and he and his eldest sons pay the ultimate price and are butchered in retribution for their affrontery. This was Minamoto no Yoshitomo and the year was 1160. The villains are the Taira clan.
The boy warrior.
Enter our hero, ten-year-old Minamoto no Yoshitsune, younger son of the above-mentioned Yoshitomo. He is whisked off into exile and away from danger to a Buddhist monastery, Kurama temple, hidden in the deep mountains near Kyoto.
The temple and the mountains are famous for the supernatural entities and spirits related to the far older tradition of Shinto.
Chief among these are the Tengu, fierce and ethereal beings, part human part crow, whose warrior skills are second to none; masters of swordsmanship to a level that humans can only dream of. The Tengu are associated with the mountain warriors, the Yamabushi; wandering hermit-like ascetics with formidable martial arts skills.
The Tengu come in a variety of forms, but are characterised with their long noses. Chief among the Tengu is an individual known as Sojobo, who is associated with Mount Kurama.
The boy Yoshitsune (also known in folklore as Ushiwakamaru) is befriended by Sojobo, who, whether to make mischief or to right wrongs, takes him under his Tengu wing and teaches him the skills of the sword and the war fan.
Yoshitsune in the mountains, sparring with the Tengu. Sojobo far right.
There comes a time when Yoshitsune must sneak away and leave the temple and set off on the road to destiny.
A fearsome monk.
Meanwhile, another outcast with a strange backstory is the warrior monk Benkei.
His father was reputedly the head of a temple shrine who raped a blacksmith’s daughter and the ‘demon child’ that was Benkei was the product of this violent union.
Angry young man Benkei joined monastic orders while very young and became a skilled fighter who was successful in part because of his monstrous size, well over six feet tall he must have been quite a sight. He was skilled in sword, naginata and the use of a huge staff. But, he had a justifiable attitude problem.
He became an itinerant nuisance; travelling from region to region.
The story goes that once in Kyoto, Benkei either takes it upon himself to teach arrogant samurai a lesson and sets himself the task of winning 1000 duels and taking 1000 swords as his prize. Or, Benkei is instructed by master swordsmith Kokaji Munenabu to collect 1000 swords to forge armour for himself. Nobody knows.
When he gets to 999 he meets a boy armed with a distinctive sword, this was Yoshitsune. The sword he named ‘Usumidori’ (‘green light’). You can always spot Yoshitsune in Japanese artwork because the sword saya (scabbard) is a tiger tail.
A duel takes place on a bridge (like Robin Hood and Little John), the diminutive eighteen-year-old Yoshitsune against the giant Benkei. Yoshitsune’s agility and skill defeat Benkei (sometimes the boy’s ease at beating Benkei is shown as him casually handling a flute as Benkei is unable to lay a blow on him).
Another version:
“One night, by a bridge..[Benkei] is waiting for his final victim when he sees a slender young figure approaching alone in the dark. The youth is nonchalantly playing a flute and wears a silk cloak over his head and shoulders in a style common among temple acolytes. The monk at first refuses to regard this effeminate stripling as a worthy opponent, but when they start fighting it becomes clear that Yoshitsune’s secret lessons in the mountains have made him invincible. According to one version, Yoshitsune ends the final bout in a triumph of skill over brawn when he discards his sword and downs the gargantuan monk with his fan.”
Source: ‘The Nobility of Failure’ Ivan Morris.
Benkei realises that the boy is something special and becomes his loyal retainer. Thus strikes up a relationship that lasts all the way to their ill-fated end.
Another version of the famous duel.
This is the beginning of the rise of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, who, to cut a long story short, became a hugely successful military leader in his quest to avenge himself against the Taira clan.
The decline.
After an amazing run of success due to his skill in strategy and warfare he is finally brought down by betrayal and he and Benkei, facing unbelievable odds, come to a sticky end.
Holed up against huge opposition, Yoshitsune has no choice but to commit suicide the traditional way, while Benkei protects his master on a walkway against a whole army, supposedly slaying 300 opponents. The enemy could not get past him, so resorted to peppering his armoured body with arrows. But, seemingly propped up by the arrows, Benkei remains standing, until the attackers realise that he is already dead.
A universal tale that is common across cultures.
The story of Yoshitsune and Benkei has been long-established in Japanese culture. The whole Taira/Minamoto clash is a huge thing in Japanese history; like the Wars of the Roses in England, or the crusades in the Holy Land.
But the dynamics between Yoshitsune and Benkei has that whole formulated archetypal friendship, relationship thing; like Butch and Sundance, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza and dare I say Thelma and Louise.
I also think there is enough in the Minamoto Yoshitsune story to shine a light on the Japanese mindset, particularly related to its history and folklore, for much of the story is so overlayed with folk mythology as to make you wonder if he ever even existed. Rather like the mercurial Robin Hood, who may have been a composite of several characters – which may well be the real truth about Benkei.
My potted version of Yoshitsune and Benkei probably does little justice as to how the story has been told in Japan over the centuries, particularly in traditional drama.
A message for the makers of Disney’s ‘Shogun’, perhaps here is your next storyline; but one where you don’t have to put a westerner at the heart of the tale.