Minamoto no Yoshitsune: The Story of the Warrior Who Crossed the Sea, Part 5-4

Chapter 14: The Same Person Theory, Part 1

“If you speak of it, do not tell. If you tell of it, do not speak.”

The footprints left by Yoshitsune and his party were kept secret in each region they passed through, never to be leaked, and were instead passed down through secret oral traditions. However, after the Kamakura Shogunate established by Minamoto no Yoritomo and the Hojo clan collapsed and the Muromachi period began, these stories began to spread beyond their local regions. Yoshitsune's journey to Ezo became a topic of conversation among the common people as the Otogi-zoshi tale, 'Onzoshi Shimawatari' (The Young Lord's Island Crossing), and spread throughout Japan. The fact that this story, which was purely for entertainment, was spread through the mouths of commoners proves that subsequent rumors and legends were propagated in this way. Looking at this, it is likely that rumors began to call to rumors among the people immediately after it was said that Yoshitsune had died, and these rumors, combined with the sympathy for the underdog (Hangan-biiki), permeated society.

After this, the era entered the Sengoku period, triggered by the Onin War. The theory that Yoshitsune survived began to emerge in earnest during the Tokugawa period, when the age of war had ended and people's hearts had more room for leisure. Moreover, the first person to publicly advocate this was Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. He might be better known as Mito Komon. In the process of compiling the 'Dai Nihon Shi' (Great History of Japan), which records history from the first Emperor, Jimmu, to the 100th Emperor, Go-Komatsu, Mitsukuni dispatched a research team to Ezo to compile the Yoshitsune legends remaining in Oshu and various parts of Ezo, and announced that Yoshitsune did not die at Koromogawa but crossed over to Ezo. Since then, the Confucian scholar Arai Hakuseki published 'Ezo-shi' (Record of Ezo) and advocated the theory of Yoshitsune's voyage to Tartary, and the Confucian scholars Hayashi Razan and his son Gaho introduced in 'Honcho Tsugan' (Comprehensive Mirror of Our Court), by order of the Shogunate, that Yoshitsune crossed to Ezo and left descendants. Furthermore, the explorer Mamiya Rinzo actually crossed from Sakhalin to the continent and found a document on-site stating that the Emperor of China was a descendant of the Japanese, and heard similar stories from the local people. In Japan, it is named the Mamiya Strait after Mamiya Rinzo, who is considered the first to have crossed it, but in reality, Benkei and Yoshitsune crossed the same strait, the Tartar Strait, more than 600 years earlier.

As if keeping pace with the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, the Qing dynasty held hegemony in China. In the archives of the Qing imperial court, there was a national history called 'Tushu Jikanroku' (Record of Collected Verifications of Books), which was kept strictly confidential. In this historical record, which successive emperors were involved in compiling, the sixth emperor, the Qianlong Emperor, wrote the following in his preface:

“My surname is Minamoto, a descendant of Yoshitsune. My lineage comes from Seiwa. Therefore, I named the country Qing.”

The current Chinese government has not clarified the existence of this record. Even if they knew, they could never admit that a Japanese person once had the blood of the emperor who ruled this country. They would never acknowledge it.

After the fall of the Yuan dynasty, the descendants of Genghis Khan fled to Mongolia and Manchuria, where they married the daughters of tribal chiefs and left descendants. Nurhaci, who led a tribe of 400,000 at the time and later became the first emperor of the Qing dynasty, is said to be one of them.

During the Yuan dynasty, Kublai Khan, the fifth emperor of the Mongol Empire, moved the capital from the previous capital, Karakorum, to Dadu, present-day Beijing, as the winter capital of the Yuan, and built an imperial palace there.

That site came to be called the Forbidden City in the Ming dynasty that succeeded the Yuan, and it is now one of the top tourist destinations not just in Beijing, but in all of China. In the Qing dynasty that succeeded the Ming, the major buildings were named with the kanji 'He' (Harmony), such as the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihedian), the Gate of Supreme Harmony (Taihemen), the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohedian), the Gate of Harmonious Union (Xiehemen), and the Summer Palace (Yiheyuan). Just as the 'Qing' of the Qing dynasty was named after the Seiwa Genji and Emperor Seiwa, 'He' (Harmony) represents their ancestral land, Japan.

The Qing emperors, who had ties to Japan, demonstrated their origin by incorporating the character for 'Harmony' into the names of the main palaces located in the center as a symbol of ruling the country. These palace names were all changed under the direction of the politician Yuan Shikai in the Republic of China, which succeeded the Qing dynasty, but since the era of the People's Republic of China, many of the buildings have returned to the same names they had during the Qing dynasty.

What is interesting is that the Qing dynasty sought its roots not in the Mongol Empire, but further back, in Japan. It is said that even on the continent, the Japanese Imperial Family was revered from ancient times as having an unbroken line of succession.

It is unknown whether the book Mamiya Rinzo saw in the Qing dynasty was the 'Tushu Jikanroku'.

Chapter 15: The Same Person Theory, Part 2

During the Edo period, historical figures with influence on the era spoke of these theories of Yoshitsune's survival and his voyage to Ezo, each from their own position and perspective.

Here, let me introduce one more person who is said to be a regular in history textbooks. However, this person is not Japanese. In 1823, Philipp Franz von Siebold, a German physician who came to Japan as a doctor at the Dutch trading post in Dejima, Nagasaki, and was also a botanist, zoologist, and geographer. He was the first person in history to position Yoshitsune and Genghis Khan as the same person. This learned genius carefully read the books of Arai Hakuseki and Hayashi Razan translated into German, and considering the remnants and customs of the Mongol Empire that once deeply influenced his home region of Germany and the Netherlands, he concluded based on Western scientific and rational judgment that Yoshitsune was indeed Genghis Khan.

At the beginning of this story, I mentioned the correspondence between the Dutch 'voet' and the Japanese 'shaku', but this was something Siebold first pointed out and discussed. Here, I will record some of the contents that Siebold investigated as grounds for the same-person theory.

• In 1206, when he first called himself Genghis Khan at the Kurultai, he raised a white flag with nine tails, named after the name 'Kulo' by which he was called by those nearby. • The 'Khan' in Genghis Khan is the same title as the Japanese 'Kami' (Governor), as Yoshitsune was the Governor of Iyo (Iyo no Kami), a title that originally existed only in Japan. • The twelve zodiac signs originated in ancient China. Regarding the 'Boar' (亥) among them, it refers to a pig in China. However, in Japan, where there were no pigs at the time, '亥' refers to a wild boar. Mongolia is the same. Siebold, who went to China, had a Chinese interpreter translate an inscription written in Mongolian called the 'Jianjingning Temple Record', and...

"The founder of the Yuan Dynasty was originally Japanese. Having incurred his brother's wrath, he crossed to Ezo with his retainers, traveled from Manchuria to Mongolia, ruled China, ascended to the imperial throne, and borrowed the name of the Minamoto clan to rename his country the Yuan."

Siebold recorded this text. It is said that something resembling a Japanese torii gate was carved on the side of the monument. Furthermore, in his research, he appealed to the government of the time, the Tokugawa Shogunate, to elevate the theory that they were the same person to official history, as there were as many commonalities with Japan as one could find, extending even to the names of Mongolian castles and buildings.

Siebold, who was interested not only in Yoshitsune but also in the island nation of Japan floating in the Far East, conducted extensive research on Japanese plants, animals, and even the culture passed down in Japan since ancient times. When he returned home in 1828, he attempted to take a map of Japan along with other materials to assist his research. However, this came to the attention of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which was enforcing a policy of national isolation at the time, and it became a famous incident known as the 'Siebold Incident,' which everyone knows if they open a Japanese history textbook today. And Siebold's name continues to remain in the memories of many Japanese people. Siebold himself may have simply wanted to show the people of his home country what kind of country Japan was, but even if it was an island nation, from the perspective of the Tokugawa Shogunate that ruled it, that act could have been considered a form of espionage. After being expelled from Japan and returning to the Netherlands, Siebold published a book titled 'NIPPON,' which became a bestseller in various European countries. And in it, he also recorded the truth about Genghis Khan, the first emperor of the Mongol Empire. In 1859, when the internal situation had changed from the time of national isolation, he visited Japan again. This time, he brought his son and reportedly traced Yoshitsune's footsteps as far as Ezo.

In the Meiji era, Suehiro Kentaro, a diplomat who studied at the University of Cambridge in England after gaining the favor of Ito Hirobumi, who would become the first Prime Minister, published a paper in English stating that Genghis Khan was the same person as the Japanese hero, Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Suehiro later married Ito Hirobumi's second daughter. Around the same time, a disciple of Fukuzawa Yukichi named Uchida Yahachi published 'Yoshitsune Saikoki' (The Record of Yoshitsune's Revival).

There is a person who read this book in his childhood and became interested in the Ainu issue and Yoshitsune's subsequent life. That person, Zenichiro Oyabe, studied abroad at Yale University, a prestigious school with a long history in New Haven, Connecticut, in the eastern United States, and while studying there, he became devoted to Christianity, became an ardent believer, and was baptized.

Returning to Japan as a Christian pastor, Oyabe went to Hokkaido and worked on missionary work and education for the Ainu people. In the course of that life, he heard that Okikurumi, the god of the Ainu people, was a reincarnation of Yoshitsune, and his interest in Yoshitsune, which he had held since he was a child, was rekindled. Just as he was thinking of somehow crossing to the continent to find the truth about Yoshitsune, he learned that there was an examination for army interpreters and passed it.

Oyabe, who crossed to the continent, risked his life to travel all over Manchuria for a full year, and based on the information obtained from there, he published 'Yoshitsune is Genghis Khan' after returning to Japan. This book became one of the biggest bestsellers from the end of the Taisho era to the beginning of the Showa era. Looking back at his footsteps, it is clear that much of what has been written in this story so far was born from Oyabe's research.

While staying in Manchuria, Oyabe found what was called the Ancient Monument of the Great General Yoshitsune about 100 kilometers inland from Nikolsk. In reality, what Oyabe saw was the turtle-shaped pedestal where the ancient monument had been placed, and the stone monument itself had been taken away to a museum in Khabarovsk by the Soviet army a little earlier. Hearing this, Oyabe tried to visit the museum, but the area was already under the jurisdiction of the Soviet army, and because there were security issues, he petitioned the army to investigate it for him.

According to the military's report after investigating the inside of the museum, there was a stone monument mixed in with parts of old Japanese-style armor and an old sutra desk with the Sasaryndo crest, but unfortunately, the whole thing was covered in plaster, so it was impossible to distinguish specific characters or crests.

However, there is a story from another person about this. It was nearly a year before Oyabe visited Manchuria. Reading his memoirs, it is recorded that he saw a stone monument placed on a turtle pedestal behind a park. It was Kiichiro Higuchi of the Army, who had graduated from the Army War College and was dispatched to the Manchurian region at the time. On that stone monument, the Minamoto clan's family crest, the Sasaryndo, was carved in the upper center of the inscription, and looking at the Chinese characters written below it, he claimed he could read 'Minamoto no Yoshitsune.' Seeing the Soviet Communist Party just before the revolution walking around Manchuria as if it were their own, Higuchi said, "This is not your land. In ancient times, a Japanese warrior named Minamoto no Yoshitsune controlled this entire region. This stone monument is the proof." The Soviet soldiers appeared to listen to the story solemnly, but he recorded that when he visited again a few days later, it had already been removed. It is thought that from the perspective of the Soviet army, if it became known that a Japanese warrior had been involved in the region since ancient times, it would hinder future espionage activities, so they removed it.

Unfortunately, Oyabe himself could not see the monument. However, even excluding that, Oyabe's achievements are extremely significant. Now, although there may be some overlap, let me record here some of Oyabe's actual achievements from his visits to Manchuria for research. ・When Genghis Khan was asked about his birthplace by a Middle Eastern merchant, he answered 'Kiyat village in Niron,' but could this not mean he was from Kyoto, Japan? ・Genghis Khan's other name is Kuro. Could this not have been taken from Kuro Hangan? If so, the white flag with nine streamers, nine as a lucky number, and white as a sacred color for the Mongols just as it is for the Japanese, all connect here. ・The name of Genghis Khan's mother, Ike, and the official name of the Mongol Empire, Ikh Mongol Uls, could they not both come from Ike no Zenni, Yoshitsune's savior? Genghis Khan bestowed the title of Empress Sensi upon his mother. ・The country name 'Yuan' (Gen) leads to 'Minamoto' (Gen). ・There are many people with the surname 'Minamoto' in Manchuria. ・Both were short and could not drink alcohol at all. ・They call the art of mounted archery 'Yabusameru.' ・From the end of the Heian period to the beginning of the Kamakura period, warriors of the time, including the Minamoto clan, often engaged in military training called 'makigari' (hunting by surrounding game), where they chased down and shot prey. Around the same time, Genghis Khan in Mongolia also loved makigari and frequently practiced it with his retainers. When Oyabe watched a play near Nikolayevsk, he saw a scene of makigari performed by actors wearing Japanese-style jinbaori (surcoats) with the Sasaryndo crest and Japanese-style helmets. ・There is a house that used the Sasaryndo family crest as a design for its outer wall. This is something Oyabe happened to find and photograph while exploring Nakhodka, a part of the area, while searching for traces of Yoshitsune throughout Manchuria. The actual photo is published in Chapter 10 of this story. Looking at this, could it not be said that it is one of the pieces of evidence for the magnitude of the influence Yoshitsune brought to this region, at least until modern times? ・When I asked a high-ranking Lamaist monk to pronounce 'Minamoto no Yoshitsune Khan' (Gen-gi-kei-kan), no matter how many times I asked, he repeatedly pronounced it 'Chingis-khan'. ・There are many place names in Manchuria and Mongolia that are thought to be of Japanese origin, such as Cape Hangan. Examples include Heisen (Hiraizumi), Chita (Chita), Hirota (Hirota), Aga (Oga), and Chiba (Chiba). Chita is the place where Yoshitsune's father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo, lost his life. Furthermore, in the area deeper into the continent, near Qiqihar, there stands an ancient monument called the 'Saitabo Monument,' named after a monk who came from Japan. That Saitabo refers to Musashibo Saito Benkei. If you include place names that might have Ainu origins, there are still many place names with connections remaining.

Chapter 16: The Theory of Denial

The person who raised objections to Oyabe's theory that Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Genghis Khan were the same person was Kindaichi Kyosuke, a prominent linguist and ethnologist whose name every Japanese person has heard at least once through the compilation of Japanese dictionaries and other works. He was also well-versed in the field of Ainu language research. In the process of researching the Ainu language, Kindaichi interacted with Oyabe, who had become a pastor in Hokkaido for the purpose of educating the Ainu people.

"Historical papers should be discussed objectively, but Oyabe's theory is subjective, as if he were a religious person appealing for faith."

Kindaichi criticized Pastor Oyabe as if to mock him, but his criticism lacked specificity, and in fact, Kindaichi's own logic was more subjective and flawed.

Another historian, Nakajima Riichiro, denounced Oyabe even more fiercely than Kindaichi. For example, Oyabe estimated that Genghis Khan was from Kyoto, Japan, based on his origins, but Nakajima argued that 'Niron' is not a word that leads to Japan, but a contraction of the Mongolian word 'Naran.' Also, he claimed that 'Kiyat' is not Kyoto, but the plural form of 'Kyan,' which means a spring falling into rocks, and has nothing to do with Kyoto. However, one has to wonder why Nakajima brought up such a vague argument about a spring falling into rocks in such a place, and above all, his reasoning lacks logic.

However, in reality, the word 'Naran' that Nakajima wrote was more concerning than this word. When you translate the Mongolian word 'Naran' into Japanese, it means 'Sun.' It might be a coincidence, but it is also a word that means Japan, the land of the rising sun, yet he did not touch upon that at all. Many scholars belonging to the historical societies of the time ended up attacking the wording that was off the essence, and disparaged Oyabe's theory.

So why did they deny it so strongly? It began in 1890, the 23rd year of the Meiji era, with a certain lecture by a certain professor at a certain university, but I would like to write about that another time.

“To believe only in ancient documents is like fishing with a line without a hook.”

Kotaniibe retorted this to the historians of his day, who relied solely on literature without ever setting foot in the field to conduct careful surveys. From the perspective of Kotaniibe, who had actually walked the land of Manchuria and traced the deep-seated memories of Yoshitsune that still remained, the arguments of scholars who kept shouting from within their shells seemed as if they would easily crumble and collapse if struck with any real force; it was not just ridiculous, but perhaps even pathetic.

The more one hears these denial theories from scholars who did nothing but nitpick, the more their intention to artificially distance themselves from the truth stands out, and one can only conclude that it reinforces the impression that their arguments are nothing but empty theories.

∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫

Side Story: Kiichiro Higuchi

Here, I will digress slightly from the main topic to write about Kiichiro Higuchi, who actually saw Yoshitsune's stone monument in Manchuria. When people speak of the Japanese who saved the lives of Jews from Nazi persecution, the name that first comes to most people's minds is likely Chiune Sugihara, the diplomat who worked at the consulate in Lithuania. Sugihara continued to issue life-saving visas to Jews seeking asylum, saving six thousand lives. Compared to Sugihara, unfortunately, Higuchi is not generally well known. Perhaps this reflects the attitude of this country, which still harbors unspoken considerations, wanting to keep things from being made too public, perhaps due to the difference in their positions—one a civilian and the other a military man.

The actual Higuchi devised a plan and provided assistance to help twenty thousand Jews, who had boarded the Trans-Siberian Railway to escape German persecution and fled as far as Manchuria, to seek asylum in the United States via Shanghai.

Around the time Higuchi saw Yoshitsune's stone monument, in 1919, he was a special service agent for the Imperial Japanese Army, boarding with a Russian-Jewish family in Vladivostok, Manchuria. It is said that he learned of the Jewish problem while talking with the young Jewish people who lived in the same house. Later, while serving as a military attaché at the legation in Poland starting in 1925, he caught a glimpse of the sorrow of the Jewish people, a wandering race that continued to suffer discrimination and persecution.

In 1938, Japan concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany. Under these circumstances, what Higuchi, who had become the Chief of the Harbin Special Service Agency, chose to do was to rescue the Jews. Although there were many voices of opposition from the government at the time and he was criticized, he stood firm and refused to yield, based on humanitarian grounds.

On August 15, 1945, Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration and faced defeat. Higuchi, who was then the Commander of the Fifth Area Army in Sapporo, responsible for the northern defense of Hokkaido, Southern Karafuto, and the Kuril Islands, ignored the ceasefire order from Imperial General Headquarters on the 18th, after the Imperial Rescript on the Surrender had been issued. He directed a self-defense war against the Soviet forces that had invaded the northern tip of the Kuril Islands, inflicting heavy damage on the Soviet landing forces at the water's edge of Hokkaido.

Upon receiving that report, Imperial General Headquarters protested to MacArthur, who had already arrived in Japan as the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, regarding the Soviet forces that had attacked after the acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. During the subsequent Tokyo Trials, Stalin lobbied GHQ to have Higuchi tried as a Class A war criminal, but MacArthur, who was aware of the circumstances, rejected the request.

Chapter 17: Monologue to a Brother

Having crossed to the continent, worked to harmonize with neighboring countries starting from Su-cheng, and spent many years there, Yoshitsune, upon fully mastering the land and becoming confident in his power, finally turned his course westward and began his journey.

In the ten years leading up to that, the land where Yoshitsune had taken root and grown accustomed—the land that until recently was called Manchuria—had been dotted with kingdoms known as the Eastern Royal Houses from the reign of Genghis Khan until around the 16th century.

According to The Secret History of the Mongols, Temujin grew up among seven brothers in total: his eldest brother Temujin, three younger brothers and sisters under his father Yesugei and mother Hoelun, and two younger brothers born to a concubine.

When Temujin was nine years old, his father, Yesugei, was caught up in a conflict with another tribe and poisoned. After the master of the house, who had been the center of the clan, was gone, those nearby drifted away like a receding tide—five yesterday, ten today—until finally, it was only Temujin's family left.

The family, living from hand to mouth, had nothing to eat from day to day, and everyone lived by cooperating with one another. In such circumstances, when Temujin and his three brothers went fishing, his half-brother Behter snatched the fish that his young brother had caught. When his mother heard the story from Temujin, she said,

“We have no friends but our shadows and no whips but our horses. Now that we have become an isolated family, we should not be at odds with each other.”

Although Temujin was admonished in this way, he could not suppress his feelings of anger, and shortly thereafter, he shot an arrow at his brother Behter, taking his life.

∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫

I first learned this story when I was in my first year of high school, so a long time ago, when I read Yasushi Inoue's 'The Blue Wolf.' The brothers, who had become six after one was gone, worked together to overcome the difficulties that befell them one after another, and in 1206, he finally changed his name to Genghis Khan as the first emperor of the Mongol Empire, and continued to expand his territory thereafter.

Earlier, I wrote that Temujin was the eldest son born between Yesugei and Hoelun, but in reality, Yesugei abducted Hoelun, who had been married to another tribe, and Temujin was born after that. Growing up in Japan, the very act of stealing someone who had married into another family and making her one's own wife is unthinkable to me. Doesn't that mean committing a crime? My head was a bit confused while reading. However, that was not the end of the story. In fact, the same thing happened to Temujin himself after he grew up and married a girl named Borte.

The clan led by Temujin, having been raided by another tribe, had his wife Borte abducted, of all things. Vowing to rescue his wife and take revenge on the enemy, Temujin borrowed the power of influential neighboring clans to launch a surprise attack on the enemy, annihilating the tribe and reclaiming his wife. However, Borte's appearance had changed slightly from before. She was carrying a life in her womb. Some time later, their first child was born. Temujin named the baby boy Jochi. In the Mongolian language, that meant 'guest'.

At the time I read this novel, unlike Japan, Mongolia had experienced almost nothing in its history that could be called civilization or culture. In fact, it hadn't even come close. I was impressed that a person capable of sweeping across much of the Eurasian continent could emerge from a region so backward in so many ways. The more I admired it, the more I wondered if this had really happened. Even though it was a biography, the only thing that remained strongly in my memory was the aftertaste of having read a dream story that was somewhat detached from the real world.

Amidst this, having become interested in the theory that Yoshitsune and Genghis Khan were the same person, I looked through The Secret History of the Mongols for the first time to understand his character. There, I found a world reminiscent of what Yasushi Inoue had spun—or, to be more precise, the reverse. Yasushi Inoue had read this secret history thoroughly and used his imagination as a novelist to sublimate it into a new story.

Having read The Secret History of the Mongols, I was struck by the feeling that the sediment that had been in the corner of my heart for many years had finally begun to dissolve. I would like to say that, but since I had actually almost forgotten about it, it might be better to say that I remembered it.

Bekter, the half-brother killed by Temujin, reminds me of Yoshitsune himself, the half-brother who was hunted down by Yoritomo and said to have been killed at Koromogawa. Also, the anecdote that visited both Temujin and his son Jochi, coincidentally, over two generations of father and son, might be an allegorical expression directed at us readers, asking how Yoshitsune, who became a guest on the unknown continent of Mongolia, could be recognized as a descendant of the Blue Wolf. If so, the true form of the heroic tale known as The Secret History of the Mongols seems to emerge.

Then what about the other brothers? Actually, I had felt a little uncomfortable about this since the time I read 'The Blue Wolf'. The younger brothers, who had appeared as a record of their fierce fighting and fought together until the unification of Mongolia, almost completely disappeared as characters after the unification—that is, after he changed his name to Genghis Khan—as if they were actors who had finished their roles. Or, since everyone gets older, it would have been fine to have stories about their sons, but those don't appear either. They should have been participating in battles, but there are no such stories.

Although one cannot simply compare Mongolia and Japan, it is not limited to the feud between Yoritomo and Yoshitsune; Ashikaga Takauji, who founded the Muromachi Shogunate, killed his younger brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi, who had fought alongside him as his right-hand man and helped build and govern the regime, during the Kanno Disturbance. Also, Oda Nobunaga, who had such a fierce temperament that he threw incense at his father's mortuary tablet during his funeral, was shunned by his own mother, Tsuchida Gozen, and such a complex eventually overlapped with his jealousy and resentment toward his younger brother Nobuyuki, whom his mother doted on, leading to his assassination. Takeda Shingen of Kai banished his father, Takeda Nobutora, who had implemented misgovernment, to another country. Furthermore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had intended to have his nephew Hidetsugu succeed to his position, not only forced Hidetsugu to become a monk when his son Hideyori was born and he became an obstacle, but also massacred his entire clan, including those related to Hideyoshi by blood. In this way, the Sengoku period was certainly a time when mental balance was not maintained and family ties themselves seemed to have become thin, but in reality, it was also an era that advocated the importance of the family house far more than today.

Considering that, as the proverb says, 'brothers are the beginning of strangers,' the closer the blood, the more these conflicts of interest and differences in values are highlighted, leading to feuds. Strife between flesh and blood. It is by no means a good thing, but it is also human nature, our true character.

Then, unlike Japan, did the Mongolia of that time have no such problems at all? No, that is not the case. Rather, weren't they facing an era even more intense and fierce than Japan?

Looking at the creation of The Secret History of the Mongols, especially the descriptions of the early days of Genghis Khan and his clan, he himself was involved. That is my conclusion after reading this far. To be more precise, original work by Genghis Khan, dramatization by Qiu Chuji. If you look at it with that in mind, the true form of this episode becomes clear. Bekter, Temujin's half-brother who is compared to Yoshitsune, was not killed. No, he didn't even exist in the first place. There were no other younger brothers either. What existed were the influential local figures who opened the road to the continent, invited Yoshitsune, fought alongside him for 10 years, and helped him.

For Yoshitsune, who crossed to the continent as a reborn person, they were true comrades who fought with him and acted as his shield in both body and mind. He felt indebted to them, opened his heart to them, and treated them as his own brothers. That is not strange at all if you decipher the principles and personality he has shown so far.

To go back a little, in 1180, when Yoshitsune, who was in Oshu, raised an army to overthrow the Taira clan, Fujiwara no Hidehira sent his own close aides, the brothers Sato Tsugunobu and Tadanobu, as companions to Yoshitsune and sent them off to Kamakura. The activities of those two were remarkable, and it is said that Yoshitsune treated them as his own younger brothers, thinking of them as reliable. In the Battle of Yashima in March 1185, their performance was also tremendous, but Tsugunobu took an arrow aimed at Yoshitsune by the Taira side as a shield and died. Yoshitsune, who mourned the death of Tsugunobu, who had died acting as his shield, called a monk to pray for the repose of Tsugunobu's soul. And it is said that he gave his own famous horse, Tayu-guro, to the monk who had gone to the battlefield regardless of the danger, to reward him for his efforts. He never spared his gratitude to those who served him so well. This is one of the anecdotes that gives a glimpse of Yoshitsune's kindness.

Then what happened to his younger brother Tadanobu?
Tadanobu, who had been accompanying Yoshitsune even after being hunted down by Yoritomo, encountered the Yoritomo side around the time Yoshitsune passed Mount Yoshino, where he had parted from Shizuka Gozen. Tadanobu, who had made up his mind that he could not escape from the fierce pursuers, acted as a shield for Yoshitsune, and it is said that he escaped to Kyoto while shaking off the pursuers, and was hiding with one surviving retainer, but was surrounded by the Yoritomo side and lost his life.

I noticed something in the process of researching the customs of the continent at that time. It is said that if one had the capacity to make people want to follow, people would work and fight together as subjects regardless of their ethnicity. Thinking about that, perhaps Yoshitsune, who crossed the sea, had already been invited into a new history called the world from that point on.

The Eastern Royal Houses, to whom Yoshitsune granted royal titles as the key to the east of the continent, were eventually absorbed into one of them, the Otchigin Kingdom, and as they entered the late 1500s, when Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing dynasty, ruled, they were incorporated as one of the military and administrative organizations of the Qing called Banners.

∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫∫

I have written this far, drawn and guided by Yoshitsune's sadness and the kindness that envelops it. Of course, his charm is not limited to this. He also possesses the strength to achieve his goals without losing sight of them even when falling into adversity. I want to convey the true figure of Yoshitsune to you all, so I will write about those deeper thoughts in the final chapter. By doing so, I can share a new view of Yoshitsune with you all. Believing that, I head to the final chapter. There is only one truth.

←5-1

←5-2

←5-3

Part 5-5→

This is a related work.