The Heike Story (39 page)

"Hey, Tota! Better look out what you say!"

Juro laughed. "Here, here, no telling tales on each other! Jiro doesn't seem to mind in the least!"

"Looks like more snow before night. Let's hope it won't start snowing before we reach Eguchi."

The riders suddenly stopped to listen to the honking of wild geese in the clouds.

Their skillful horsemanship showed that these three, though they came from the capital, were warriors trained in eastern Japan. With the exception of Jiro, the others had come to the capital in answer to Yoshitomo's mustering orders and had taken part in the battle at Shirakawa. Jiro had arrived too late for the fighting, but had remained in Kyoto on General Yoshitomo's orders and been assigned to the Horse Guards.

In the two years since the end of the Hogen War, many changes had taken place in Kyoto. The Emperor's Palace was rebuilt. New ministers headed the various departments of state, and new laws were enacted. Traditional court ceremonials, in abeyance for more than a century, were revived; the Academy of Music and the training school for court dancers once more opened their doors. Wrestling contests were held as before in the Palace park, and a general air of peace prevailed, when without warning or apparent cause the Emperor Goshirakawa was dethroned and the Emperor Nijo ascended the throne.

Toward the end of November, when a lull came in the busy ceremonials of the Court, members of the Guard in turn received several days' leave; now it was the turn of these three warriors who had heard so much about the fabulous beauties at Eguchi. Fearing to be looked down on by their fellow Guards as mere provincials, they made plans to spend a night at Eguchi near the mouth of the Yodo River.

The Kamo and Katsura rivers, merging several miles south of the capital as the Yodo River, formed a delta at Naniwa (Osaka). Vessels loaded with cargo for Kyoto, fishing craft, and other boats from east and west put in at Naniwa, whose inlets were dotted with fishers' settlements among the tall reeds. Eguchi, a short distance above the river mouth, was a village of inns, teahouses, and brothels. The usual mode of travel from Kyoto to Eguchi was the leisurely trip by water, but the three had not time for this.

"So, this is Eguchi and its teahouses!"

"Livelier than the other places we just passed."

"Now for a place to spend the night."

The warriors dismounted and led their horses with some disappointment along the main thoroughfare, peering into each house they passed. Faces pale as moonflowers were pressed against the latticed windows of structures that seemed no larger than birdcages. Now and again they saw dancing-girls in small shelters set up against a board fence, squatting beside clay stoves, cooking or fanning the embers. As they went farther, however, the houses appeared more elegant and prosperous. They saw a few women with winter chrysanthemums in their hair. Some others in wide hats or muffled in their cloaks passed them, accompanying visitors from a landing-place. Somewhere from above them in a second story came the strumming of a harp, and the water running in the ditches carried a faint odor of perfumes.

Toward dusk the warriors tethered their horses outside a house that looked more like an aristocratic villa than a teahouse. There seemed to be several rooms separated from each other by enclosed gardens. A balustraded veranda overlooking the Yodo River extended along one side of the house.

". . . Wine, food—now what about the dancing-girls?"

"You'll have to call for those."

"Doesn't this seem like a warrior's house?"

"There's not much point to staying next to a teahouse and minding our manners."

"No dancing-girls—do we provide our own entertainment?"

"Wait, I'll go and see."

Tota left the room and returned almost immediately.

"They'll be here—very soon."

"Coming? At last—"

"The girls live in that wing with the mistress of the house—a nun."

"A nun, did you say?"

"Seems so. I hear they're quite particular about their guests. They seem to think we're respectable."

"That's bad. We shan't have our fun."

"Too soon to complain. We'll have to see the girls first."

The dancing-girls soon appeared in their flowing multicolored robes. Their bearing, their coiffure, and their elaborate toilette reminded the young men of court ladies, and the ornaments they wore showed that merchants who bartered with smugglers from China were regular guests here.

Juro, the eldest of the three, asked: "Will you tell us your names?"

". . . Senzai."

". . . Kujaku."

". . . Ko-Kannon."

Instead of staying one night as they had planned, they stayed three. Ko-Kannon seemed greatly taken with Jiro's naivete and his quaint-sounding eastern dialect, and Jiro found Ko-Kannon completely enchanting. While his companions spent their time drinking and playing dice games, or dancing and singing to the music of lutes with the other entertainers in the establishment, Jiro withdrew to a small room with Ko-Kannon. Drowsy with wine, he stared at her pale eyelids and asked: "How long have you lived here in Eguchi?"

"For the last three years."

"Since the Hogen War, then?"

"Yes, my home was destroyed in the fires," Ko-Kannon replied, lowering her gaze. "My father died then, and all my relatives were scattered."

"Oh?"

"I tell you in confidence—my father sided with the ex-Emperor and was beheaded."

"So your father was a courtier? How cruel to take an unfortunate young girl and make her a professional entertainer! If your father were living, you would be a grand lady in your own right."

"Don't say such things, I beg you. . . . I'm not the only one who came here after the war was over. There are other of nobler birth who have—"

"With all those courtiers and generals killed, it's not strange that many guiltless women have had to face misfortunes of every kind. Not all of them, however, seem to have become nuns."

"Not all, to be sure, for here is our Mother, as we call her, who enjoys this kind of life and who chose to come to Eguchi. All the houses here are not what they appear to be, nor all the entertainers mere harlots."

Jiro, who had heard so much of the famous courtesans of Eguchi while he was still in the east, looked at Ko-Kannon with admiration.

"There must be many courtiers and gentlemen who come here. What makes you receive us eastern warriors so hospitably?"

Ko-Kannon smiled at Jiro's query. "We no longer have any respect for those painted, perfumed aristocrats—the ministers and high officials. It vexes us beyond words, after a while, to entertain them. To us those gay, smiling merchants who cross the angry seas and you young warriors seem like real men. I don't know exactly why—and it's not only I that thinks so."

"We'll leave tomorrow," the young men told each other. "Now for our last night of junketing. No jokes about our lady-loves. We'll leave Jiro alone with Ko-Kannon to make his farewells."

But Jiro and Ko-Kannon, exchanging pleased smiles at the teasing, joined in the noisy games and dancing, of which neither Juro nor Tota seemed to have had enough. Cup after cup of wine was emptied as the dancing, singing, miming, and joking went on. Toward midnight the entertainers suddenly vanished one by one, until only a sleepy-eyed serving-girl remained to pour the wine. "What's this all of a sudden?"

"They couldn't be ghosts—and without any explanations. Even Jiro's Ko-Kannon has left us."

"Some important guests just arrived from the capital, I suppose."

"Blossoms before a hurricane—I wonder who they are." They peered through the branches overhanging the water and saw an elaborately furnished boat touch the shore. Lights streamed down to the water's edge, and presently a gentleman in a hunting cloak, accompanied by attendants, came toward the house.

Ko-Kannon, meanwhile, reappeared; taking Jiro aside, she whispered something to him and then left. "What did she say, Jiro?"

"She was just explaining things, and apologizing, and crying."

"I was told that that visitor we saw now is not one of the usual travelers, or a wealthy merchant, but some close relative of the proprietress here."

"What's that to us? We're guests, too."

"Losing your temper? It won't do us any good."

"It's all very well to say that when you enjoy having Ko-Kannon crying on your shoulder, but what about us?"

"It doesn't look well for a warrior to appear so irked. Wait until I explain. Those people who just arrived are housemen and servants from Rokuhara. Kiyomori of the Heike is going on a pilgrimage to Kumano Shrine in Kishu and is to stop here on the way, and these people have arrived to get things in order for his arrival in a day or two."

"From Rokuhara!" gasped Tota and Juro, staring at each other.

"There was talk that he was making this pilgrimage, but the day has actually been set, has it?"

"That means we'll have to leave for the capital at once. We had our instructions from General Yoshitomo of the Genji."

"We mustn't lose a moment getting back."

The three warriors quickly prepared to leave. "Our horses—are they ready?"

"They will be brought around immediately. Unfortunately, we're rather busy. ... A little patience, please," a manservant replied soothingly.

"No, we're not annoyed. Urgent business takes us back to the capital. . . . Where's the stable? We'll leave from there."

"This way, sirs. Let me take you."

Ko-Kannon waited outside with a lantern and led them through an inner garden, then through a gate. The stable was in a vacant lot between the house and an adjacent building.

"Please don't forget us, and come again," Ko-Kannon said.

"Next time Jiro shall come alone," laughed Tota and Juro as they saddled their horses and prepared to mount. When they looked round for Jiro, they found him peering through a hedge.

"Is that the neighboring house?"

"No, that is where we live with our Mother."

"Jiro! You wretch, peeping! Ko-Kannon, scold him!"

"No, that light over there is in our Mother's room. Ours is on this side of the garden."

Tota immediately thrust his reins into Juro's hands and ran to join Jiro. Despite the cold, a shutter had been left open, and they saw the dignified figure of the woman who sat within. It was difficult to judge her age. The white folds of a nun's coif framed her face becomingly; she seemed to be in her fifties. Her skin gleamed palely in the lamplight and the painted eyebrows gave a youthful comeliness to the face outlined by the headdress. Her nightingale-colored robes lent her distinction as she conversed with someone on the other side of the tall lampstand. Both Tota and Jiro at once recognized this man whom they had seen frequently in the capital, and they gaped at each other in astonishment. It was Kiyomori's younger brother Tsunemori, an officer of the Fifth Rank since the Hogen War.

That night the young warriors hurried toward Kyoto. As they stopped to rest on the way, they discussed what had happened that night. Juro, who had not seen all that Jiro and Tota had, added: "I know that Kiyomori's brother was to arrive earlier than the rest of the party, but who do you suppose the mistress of that house could be? I wonder what her name is."

Then they attempted to recall whether they had said anything indiscreet during the days spent at Eguchi, for they had heard that the mistress of the establishment was in some way related to Kiyomori.

"Now, don't worry about that," Jiro assured the others.

"Jiro, Ko-Kannon surely told you something. It's all very well for you to tell us not to worry, but what makes you say that?"

"I'm inclined to believe what she said, and yet I'm skeptical about it. . . ."

"There, you see! Ko-Kannon must have told you something."

"She did, and this is what she said: that their Mother used to be a dancing-girl in the capital, and that she had once been the Emperor Shirakawa's mistress; she used to be called 'the Lady of Gion.'"

"The Lady of Gion? Seems to me I've heard that name before."

"The Emperor Shirakawa gave her to Tadamori of the Heike as his wife. They had several sons, and the eldest was Kiyomori. Only a few people know this, and Ko-Kannon made me promise to tell no one."