forces unscathed.
The End
Legend also has it that she never took up the sword again, marrying and spending her remaining years first as a devoted wife and later, after her husband’s death, as a Buddhist nun. She eventually passed away at the age of ninety-one, some six decades after cheating death alongside General Yoshinaka.
Trivia
FACT OR FABLE?
The Tale of the Heike is more saga than history book, and there is no physical or even circumstantial evidence proving that Tomoe actually fought on the battlefield. On the other hand, neither is there any evidence conclusively proving that she did not. The topic remains controversial among historians.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
“Gozen” is not a name, but rather an archaic title for a woman of high social rank. It literally means “one who stands before an honorable individual,” but more colloquially translates into something along the lines of “her ladyship” or “my lady.” Interestingly, she is never actually referred to this way in The Tale of the Heike. The title “Gozen” seems to have become associated with her many centuries later in the Edo period, when Noh and kabuki plays based on her life story debuted, transforming her from a historical footnote into a pop-cultural superstar. Tomoe’s actual surname remains unknown.
HINO KUMAWAKA-MARU
NINJA’S NINJA
1332 A.D.
Name: HINO KUMAWAKA-MARU
日野阿新丸
Birth–Death: 1320?-Unknown
Occupation: Faithful son
Cause of Death: Unknown
Gender: Male
A.K.A.: Kumawaka
Master Kumawaka
Known Associates: A certain unnamed monk
Hobbies: Watching and waiting
Preferred Weapon: A Sharp Sword
Clan Affiliation: None
Existence: Unconfirmed, but believed to be fact
The Man
The very first official account of a ninja-like assassination concerns not an actual ninja but rather an enterprising thirteen-year-old by the name of Kumawaka-maru. Think of it as the sort of tale ninja fathers tell their children as a bedtime story.
Kumawaka-maru was the son of a man named Hino Suketomo, a talented imperial counselor. After it came to light that the emperor was plotting to undermine the shogun’s authority in a coup d’etat of sorts, the ever-loyal Suketomo took the fall for his master, accepting banishment to await a death sentence.
Kumawaka-maru knew that his father had been sent to the distant realm of Sado, a desolate island located in the Sea of Japan. Ignoring his mother’s pleas, he resolved to see his father one last time. Donning a sedge hat to keep off the sun and rain, his feet shod in nothing but a pair of straw sandals, he set off on a ten-day journey to reach the coastline. He paid a local merchant to take him across the strait in a boat, and made a beeline for the mansion of a certain Lord Honma, protector of the island, in whose home Suketomo was incarcerated.
Although Honma greeted Kumawaka-maru politely, he declined to allow to the boy to see his father, explaining that it would only make death harder to bear for the man. But that said, explained Honma magnanimously, Kumawaka-maru was welcome to remain as a guest and accept his father’s remains once the sentence was carried out.
The execution took place several days later. Whether Honma really felt as though he was doing Suketomo and his son a favor, or whether he actually intended to snub the lad as a final insult to his prisoner, we’ll never know. But the news of his father’s demise sent Kumawaka-maru into a slow burn.
The Moment of Glory
Presented with his father’s cremated remains, Kumawaka-maru collapsed, apparently stricken by a combination of grief, exhaustion, and sickness. Carried back to his room, he lay abed for days, accepting the ministrations of Honma’s servants.
But the illness was a ruse. Kumawaka-maru spent his nights silently prowling the dark corridors of Lord Honma’s residence, memorizing every corner and staircase, and eventually discovering the room where the master himself slept.
One night a violent storm descended upon the island. Kumawaka-maru knew his chance had come, and made his way to Honma’s room, only to find it empty (like many samurai, Honma often slept in different rooms as a safety precaution). Frustrated, the boy began making his way back, only to spot the light of a lamp burning in a small room along the way. He peered inside to find—what luck!—a sleeping Honma. Even better, he was alone, protected by nothing save the lamplight.
Kumawaka-maru spied the traditional pair of swords lying at the ready next to the samurai’s bed. He knew he would have precious little time to get his hands on the weapons, so he devised an ingenious plan. This being summer, he knew the outside-facing doors would be covered with hundreds of moths of all sizes, attracted both by the light and the chance to shelter from the storm. Creeping outside, he quietly slid the outer screen open. The insects silently swarmed the lamp, extinguishing it—and giving Kumawaka-maru his chance.
He unsheathed Honma’s tachi blade, the same one used to kill his father. Taking position with his feet planted on either side of the sleeping man and the tip of the sword grazing his bedclothes, he kicked the pillow to awaken his prey. And struck. Steadily he drove the sword’s razor-sharp tip into Honma’s navel, leaning into it with all his weight, driving it through the man’s torso, through the mattress, even to the tatami mats underneath; and then he swiftly withdrew it and sunk it again into his throat to silence the terrible death-screams. Leaving the longsword behind, he retreated to a bamboo grove outside to evade Honma’s guards.
The Escape
The series of small, bloody footprints leading away from the scene left no doubt as to its perpetrator, and Honma’s men set up a perimeter to search for the boy. The Honma residence was surrounded by a deep moat some eighteen feet wide to prevent unauthorized entry or escape, but Kumawaka-maru bided his time. When he noticed a break in the search pattern, he scampered to the top of a bamboo stalk and used his weight to ride it downwards, like a pole-vaulter in reverse, to safety on the other bank.
Of Kumawaka-maru’s life after his successful escape from the “crocodile’s mouth” there is no record; but this one exploit was easily enough to make him
