Honor & Loyalty

Honor and loyalty are huge themes throughout the entirety of Tale of the Heike, and with so many battles taking place in Chapter 9, it is an excellent place to examine these themes, as they can be found in several places. The first example would be at the beginning of the chapter, as Sasaki Takatsuna lies to Kajiwara Kagesue in order to preserve is loyalty to Yoritomo. It is only a minor detail, but this is just the beginning.

The deaths of Kiso no Yoshinaka and Imai Kanehira are the next instance of honor and loyalty in the story. This was also discussed in the section on last stands, but Yoshinaka and Kanehira both choose to commit suicide (although Yoshinaka fails) in order to preserve their honor. Futhermore, Kanehira decides to fight so he can protect Yoshinaka while he takes his own life, showing an immense amount of loyalty to him.

Moving on to Episode 5, Higuchi no Jiro Kanemitsu shows honor and loyalty in his execution, and many respect him greatly for this. As Higuchi goes back to the capital to fight and die after hearing that Kiso and his brother have been killed, he proves that he has chosen to die with honor. When he is captured, Yoritomo respects Higuchi’s honor and loyalty to the point that he wants to spare him. In the end, although Higuchi is executed at the request of Minamoto nobles, he was honored by being allowed to march through the streets with his fallen comrades before being killed.

Finally, one last example of honor can be found in the case of Atsumori. Despite being completely able to flee Ichi-no-Tani with his life, Atsumori heeds Kumagae’s call to battle, and returns to the shore to preserve his honor. These themes of honor and loyalty are arguably more prominent in Chapter 9 than most other chapters in the Tale of the Heike, and studying them is an excellent way to see some of the roots of Japans honor-bound bushido warriors that are soon to come.