retreat—and then Daisuke cowed them into submission. Literally. He had hit upon the novel tactic of strapping flaming torches to the horns of a herd of cattle, which he stampeded directly into the terrified mass of Heike soldiers. In their haste to escape the flaming beasts, some ten thousand men tumbled from the narrow confines of the Kurihara Pass to their deaths. Some speculate that he may have gotten the idea from a Chinese story in which cattle with daggers tied to their horns were sent careening across a battlefield. (History is silent as to whether Team Nishina celebrated their victory with hamburgers afterwards.)
Trivia
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
As eventually refined, the Togakure-ryu school of ninjutsu employed a variety of then unique weapons: senban shuriken, distinctive diamond-shaped throwing stars; shuko, spiked bands slipped over palms or feet for climbing like a cat; oni-bi, the use of fireworks and monster masks to terrify opponents before they have a chance to attack; the use of hollow bamboo tubes that doubled as blowgun and snorkel; and a distinctive knife called the kyoketsu shoge: a forked dagger attached to a metal ring via a length of rope originally made of braided horsehair. And the best part? Designed from commonly found materials, all could be carried without arousing the suspicion of the authorities.
Togakure training
In contrast to other martial arts, the Togakure-ryu is a largely defensive style of ninjutsu, focusing on avoiding detection and incapacitating opponents rather than direct assaults. While it utilizes a wide variety of tools and weapons, the heart and soul of the art is the ability to defeat enemies even while totally unarmed. To this effect, it includes a wide variety of physical training such as kosshi-jutsu, strengthening one’s fingers to the point where they can be used to “defeat a raging beast.”
All of this requires serious endurance. Basic training involves walking some 120 to 160 kilometers a day (80 to 100 miles) at a speed fast enough to keep a straw rain-hat pressed to one’s chest, wind-sprints in high wooden geta clogs across frozen lakes, and long jogs with buckets of water slung over one’s shoulders.
TOMOE GOZEN
NINJA RIVALS
1184 A.D.
Name: TOMOE GOZEN
巴御前
Birth/Death: 1157?-1247?
Occupation: Taisho (Military Commander)
Cause of Death: Unknown
Gender: Female
A.K.A.: Lady Tomoe
伴絵 (alternate kanji for "Tomoe")
鞆絵 (alternate kanji for "Tomoe")
Known Associates: Minamoto no Yoshinaka
Preferred Technique: Decapitation
Hobbies: Horseback riding
Clan Affiliation: Minamoto
Existence: Confirmed
The Woman
A lone female face amid a millennium of testosterone-fueled warriors, it is tempting to compare Tomoe Gozen to another fighting femme from times of old: Joan of Arc. But the comparison ends with the swords and armor, for unlike Joan, Tomoe wasn’t a warrior of God. She was a warrior of love.
The thousand-year-old Tale of the Heike describes her thus:
Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swordswoman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot.
Tomoe wasn’t a ninja in any sense of the word. She was, if anything, a samurai. But her bravery on the battlefield undoubtedly served as an inspiration to generations of women who found themselves having to engage in battle, including female ninja. In fact, she may well have crossed paths with at least one proto-ninja of sorts: Togakushi Daisuke. Tomoe was one of the commanders of the legendary battle of Kurikara Pass in 1183, in which Daisuke secured victory for the Minamoto by stampeding flaming cattle directly into the midst of enemy Heike forces. While it is unlikely that he was under her direct command, word of Daisuke’s innovative strategy undoubtedly spread through the ranks back to her.
The Moment of Glory
The battle of Awazu, January 21, 1184. Tomoe is twenty-seven. Sheathed in samurai armor, she sits astride her steed surveying the carnage of the just-concluded battle. Does a rivulet of the blood of fallen enemies mingling on her tachi blade drop upon the trampled grass below?
She turns to face her lover, her confidant, her superior officer: General Minamoto no Yoshinaka. Officially, she was but another of his (ahem) “consorts.” But she was no stay-at-home concubine. Tomoe was an ass-kicker to rival any Amazon out of ancient Greece. That this manly man in an age of manly men deigned to ride into battle alongside someone with two X chromosomes is a testament to the respect in which she was held. A beast on the battlefield, her beauty was equally legendary; even in crimson-spattered armor, with an elaborate helm hiding her silken tresses, Tomoe must have been a sight to behold.
But her fellow warriors proved no match for those of the enemy, Yoshinaka’s cousin and rival, the legendary Minamoto no Yoshitsune (see p. 30). The once-proud army of Yoshinaka, a thousand men and one woman strong, now numbers just five survivors.
Yoshinaka is no fool. He knows he and his men will not be returning from this battle. But as a woman, Tomoe Gozen is exempt from the normal code of conduct for a samurai. So he tells her to run.
Of course she refuses. It is unthinkable. But the general stands fast. Precious moments remain before his inevitable last stand, and there is no time to argue. In desperation he orders Tomoe off the battlefield, forcing her hand with the only currency he now possesses: he declares that her continued presence is an embarrassment to his honor. It must sting Tomoe to the quick—not out of humiliation but rather because it means her Yoshinaka will really and truly never return.
Tomoe grudgingly acquiesces —but follows with a flourish only she could pull off. Spurring her horse directly into the midst of the enemy forces, she clotheslines the biggest soldier she can find, physically dragging the utterly surprised man from his steed onto her saddle. Viciously twisting her opponent’s neck while drawing her blade, she severs his head from his body with a fluid motion driven in equal parts by skill and fury. Does she turn and raise the gruesome trophy in a
