Karl F. Friday - The First Samurai: The Life and Legend of the Warrior Rebel, Taira Masakado

THE

FIRST

SAMURAI

THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE WARRIOR REBEL

TAIRA MASAKADO

KARL F. FRIDAY

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright 2008 by Karl F. Friday All rights reserved

All illustrations and maps Karl F. Friday.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Friday, Karl F.

The first samurai : the life and legend of the warrior rebel Taira Masakado
/ Karl F. Friday.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-471-76082-5 (cloth: alk. paper)

1. Taira, Masakado, 903 or 4-940. 2. GeneralsJapanBiography. 3. JapanHistoryTengyo Revolt, 938-940. I. Title.

DS852.T3F75 2007

952'.01092dc22

2007035510

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Chie, who makes it all worthwhile

Ambition is an idol, on whose wings great minds are carried
only to extreme; to be sublimely great or to be nothing.

Robert Southey

No book writes itself, and no author works entirely on his or her own. This project could not have been undertaken without help and support from dozens of friends and colleagues on both sides of the Pacific, to all of whom I express my profound appreciation and gratitude.

A special round of thanks goes to my editor, Stephen Power, and my production editor, Rachel Meyers, at John Wiley & Sons for shepherding the book from conception to publication; to Peter Hoffer for his advice and counsel throughout; and to Tanaka Atsuko, Nick Adams, Wendy Giminski, and Money Hickman for their work on the maps and illustrations that adorn this volume.

Some of the research for this study was funded by grants from the Japan Foundation, whose support I gratefully acknowledge. I am also deeply indebted to professors Kond Shigekazu, and Ishigami Eiichi and the rest of the faculty and staff of the University of Tokyo Shiryhensanj who gave me a place to work and took time away from their own labors to assist me with mine.

This book is part of a larger project reexamining warrior rebellions in Heian Japan that began with a paper delivered at a conference held at Harvard University in June 2002. My thanks, therefore, to Mikael Adolphson and Edward Kamens, whose invitation to participate in this event got me started. And an extra thank-you goes to Mickey, for his invaluable bibliographic and editorial help.

Once again, however, my greatest debt is to Chie, my wife and the wind behind my sails. She listened patiently to my ideas, graciously ignored my frustrations, and kept me going with enthusiastic responses and cogent suggestions. Most important, she gives me a reason to go home at the end of each day.

Japan in the tenth century

The history we read, though based on facts, is,
strictly speaking, not factual at all, but a series
of accepted judgments.

Geoffrey Baraclough, History in a Changing World

Ignorance is the first requisite of the historian, ignorance
which simplifies and clarifies, which selects and omits.

Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians

On the twenty-fifth day of the second month of 940, according to the old lunar calendar,

Excitement, anticipation, and anxiety intensified over the next few weeks as further messengers reported that Hidesato and Sadamori were on their way to Kyoto, and rumors that Masakados warriors were

The gruesome custom of gathering enemy heads after a battle (buntori, literally taking ones share) became common practice in Japan at least as early as the seventh century, when the imperial state (ritsury) legal codes laid out a flexible point system for assessing battlefield merit and awarding promotions in rank. Points, explained the Statute on Military Defense (Gunbry), have no fixed meaning. In one years battles one point may require the taking of ten heads, while in another years fighting five heads can make a point.

By the tenth century, warfare and law enforcement had become the preserve of professional warriors who fought for rewards for their services paid by the government or private employers. Recompense, however, required proof of success, making careful accounting and confirmation of ones kills a matter of considerable importance. Warriors concocted numerous devices toward this end, ranging from marking arrows with their names to commissioning illustrated accounts of their exploits, but the cardinal warrior trophies throughout Japans premodern epoch were the heads of those they were contracted to run down. Heads were severed in the heat of battle, usually by means of a warriors short sword (katana), or in the aftermath, as a substitute for live prisoners when capture or transport of the latter was impractical. Heads collected in accord with government warrants were assembled, identified, marked with the names of their former owners, and brought to the capital for inspection. Those belonging to important criminals were paraded through the streets and placed on public display.

Hidesato and Sadamori reached the capital on the tenth day of the fifth month of 940 and entered the city through the Rashmon gate to the south, where they were met by envoys from the Office of Imperial Police (