Tengu

Preface:  To understand the names in this story, you need to know that in Japan the last name comes before the first name. Minamoto is the clan name (last name) and Yoshitsune is the first name, therefore Minamoto no Yoshitsune.  Tengu are a type of demon that were thought to live on the mountains in Japan.  The name literally translates into 'heavenly dog' but they're more of a human/bird hybrid.

April 1175

Sojobo was a slave-driver.  I suppose I cannot really fault his methods, but it seems like we have done nothing but train with our wooden swords known as bokken.  He is a true master at the art, but who really knows how old he is?  He may have been practicing for centuries.  You can't really tell his age, but he has incredibly long white hair so he must be very old.  He's been known as the King of the tengu for longer than anyone can remember.  There have even been rumors that he is as powerful as one thousand normal tengu combined. 

I still remember the first time I saw him.  His long white hair and his long nose were almost scary.  He was also dressed like a Shugendo, or mountain monk.  I saw him in passing at the time.  Tengu, such as Sojobo, are said to be protectors of nature in all of its forms, but especially mountains and their surrounding forests.  I am really very fortunate he decided to train me.  I had been exiled to Mount Kurama after Taira no Kiyomori assassinated my father, Minamoto no Yoshitomo.  At my birth in 1159 I went by the name Ushiwakamaru, but I later decided to use the name Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

March 1180

I have heard rumors that my brother, Minamoto no Yoritomo, has raised an army at the request of one of the princes.  It seems they may have finally decided the Taira clan that assassinated my father is too dangerous to allow them to live.  I will be joining this army, and it seems another of my brothers, Minamoto no Noriyori, is also a member.  It is quite amazing, since none of us have even met. 

My training with Sojobo, the King of the tengu, should definitely start to pay off.  Despite the fact he nearly beat me to death with the bokken in an effort to train me with a real katana sword, he also spent numerous hours training me in strategy and tactics.  I am curious to see how my battle prowess stacks up against my brothers, and the other elite members of their army.  I have little doubt that the Taira will prove to be a difficult enemy, but I have even less doubt about our success.

January 1184

I fought my cousin, Minamoto no Yoshinaka, at our most recent battle with the Taira clan.  His reasons for fighting for the Taira clan are his own, but he was definitely worthy of our battle.  I am also becoming very popular amongst the men.  My training with Sojobo is probably the reason.  I am one of the best swordsmen within the army, and perhaps even the best.  My knowledge of strategy and tactics is second to none.  On top of all of this, Sojobo also took the time to train me in magic. 

February 1184

We have finally defeated the Taira.  By the time the final battle began, I had become one of the most important members of the army.  Many people even attribute our victory to me, saying Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeated the Taira.  I am forever grateful to Sojobo and his teachings.  People regularly have bad opinions of tengu, and an even worse opinion of the demons.  Some still hold onto old superstitions that the tengu are harbingers of war.  It was even difficult for me to overcome some of my initial fears.  It is very ingrained in people.  However, my own experience with Sojobo has proven to many people that not all demons are bad.  They realize that at least some of them are good and decent creatures.

June 1185

After the defeat of the Taira, I joined with Emperor Go-Shirakawa, an Emperor who had abdicated power but still influenced the country.  At this time, we were forced to flee to the protection of the powerful regional lord Fujiwara no Hidehira due to my brother Minamoto no Yoritomo amassing an army against Emperor Go-Shirakawa.  This is the region I was originally exiled to when my father was assassinated, Mount Kurama, and Hidehara had become a father-figure to me as a young boy.  While with Hidehira, I was betrayed by his son.  This betrayal eventually led to my loss at the Battle of Koromogawa against my brother Minamoto no Yoritomo who had been declared a Shogun, or general.  Much of my brother's success and ascension to the rank is due to my notoriety during the battle against the Taira clan, but he has increasingly grown jealous of me.  Due to my defeat at his hands, I am being forced to commit seppuku, a ritual suicide in which one slits his own stomach.  Even worse than seppuku for myself, my wife and daughter are also being forced to commit seppuku due to my own dishonor.

Author's Note:  There's a lot to this story.  Yoshitsune is often shown as the model of what a Japanese samurai was supposed to be.  He was considered honorable and one of the most brilliant warriors of all time.  The dates I used are relatively accurate, but some of the months I made up.  A lot of the battles I've seen in Japanese legends usually took place in winter months, so I decided to stick with winter or spring for any months I needed to make up.  This is also a bit of a change from my normal story type, since I'm using journal entries.  If I had written the way I previously had, it would take me 2000 or more words to tell this story because of all the transitions I would need to use from scene to scene.  This story is also the only story I wrote in which the demons are depicted in a good sense.  To put it into more of a perspective of how well respected Yoshitsune was, they created a word out of his title, hangan.  The word is hangan-biiki which means "sympathy for a tragic hero."  The paragraph at the end also may require a little explanation.  In ancient Japan, dishonor was a very serious issue.  If you were dishonored for some reason, you practically became a leper or something else to that extent.  It was better to commit seppuku than to live with it.  Seppuku was also a method to 'regain' your honor with your death.  I have had a bit of a problem finding more information about what happened in the battle.  All I've found is that he had been defeated by his brother many times, and eventually the Koromogawa battle was a particularly crushing defeat.  In it Yoshitsune lost one of this best friends and quite possibly his most stalwart ally.