Page:The Surviving Works of Sharaku (1939).djvu/214



any of the heroes of the Kabuki stage had taken actual parts in the mediaeval wars of Japan, but successive generations had embroidered the historical narratives of their lives with purely legendary exploits until their stories became, like those of Roland and the other Paladins of Occidental story, embellished with an accretion of entirely fanciful events.

Minamoto no Yoshiiye, the hero of the present play, was an eleventh century general who in his youth conducted against the rebellious Abe clan of Northern Japan a series of campaigns in which he distinguished himself through skill and bravery. He was known as Hachimantarō, which has the implications of The War-God Boy. In these campaigns the Minamoto, at least in theory, were defending the Emperor, and this fact combined with Yoshiiye’s personal qualities and his known