Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/290

RV 260 of the Gods to its pre-Buddhistic condition as a basis of the divine origin and right of the Emperor. (See the Index.)

Kumagai Naozane was a famous Minamoto warrior. During a siege of the Gempei war, he challenged a Taira, about to depart from the besieged fort. The Taira, who was a noble youth named Atsumori, accepted the combat, and soon succumbed to his older antagonist. Tearing off the helmet of his victim, Naozane was filled with pity by the youth and beauty of the face thus revealed, resembling that of his lately fallen son. He determined at first to let Atsumori escape, but finally, steeling his heart, he cut off the head, and carried it to his commander, Yoshitsune; then, overwhelmed by remorse, he refused all rewards, abandoned his career, and became a Buddhist monk. The incident has been often reproduced by artists, and dramatised.

Kusunoki Masashige was one of the heroes of the court of the Emperor Godaigo, and is worshipped as the beau ideal of stainless loyalty. He made the restoration of the Imperial power the aim of his life, but his first attempt in 1331 was unsuccessful. He assisted in over-coming the Hōjō domination in 1333, and when Takauji turned his sword against the Emperor, Masashige drove him from the capital. But the loyal success ended here. Masashige's plans for destroying the Ashikaga general were rejected and their author accused of cowardice. In answer to the taunt, he gathered a small body of his followers and charged upon the main body of the enemy. All were quickly slain except fifty, and with these Masashige retired and committed suicide. (See the Index.)

Masa, daughter of Hōjō Tokimasa, was one of the famous women of Japan. She was wooed and won by Yoritomo under romantic circumstances, and contributed largely to his rise. After his death, she turned her unusual intellectual and administrative ability to fostering the power of her own house, the Hōjō, at the expense of her husband's, the Minamoto. (See the Index.)

Masakado, a prominent member of the Taira clan in the tenth century, was one of the historic rebels of Japan. He was a governor in the East, but aspired to the control of the whole section, and set himself up as a pseudo-Emperor. Against him the Imperial Court sent an army and invoked divine aid through a miraculous image of Fudo. Masakado was defeated and slain, but his spirit continued to trouble the neighbourhood of what is now Tōkyō, and to appease it a shrine was erected. The rebel thus became a tutelary divinity. When the Imperial troops entered Yedo in 1868, they destroyed the image, but Masakado is still reverenced as the embodiment of daring.

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