One interesting characteristic about the Tale of the Heike is that all variants open the same way, with the “Gion shōja” episode. This episode is so consistent across the variants that Heike scholar Tomikura Tokujirō referred to it as “that which is inseparable from the Heike monogatari.”
The thematic concerns of this section are Buddhist, and this passage is often considered one of the most prominent medieval statements on mujokan, the impermanence of all things (and particularly good things). The narrative geographically moves from India to China to Japan, tracing what was a well-established historical trajectory for the arrival of Buddhism in Japan. After its opening statement, it works through a list of great traitors in China, to great traitors in “our realm,” Japan, ending with Kiyomori.
“Gion shōja” frames the story to follow as a parable about Taira no Kiyomori, scion of the Taira clan and the man whose ambition brought about the Genpei war. Like other rebels before him, this opening tells us, he will fall because those who rise are fated to fall. This Buddhist worldview, remember, introduces all variants of the Heike and remains an important thematic concern.