IT WAS BRILLIANT OF Ivan Morris to describe Yamato Takeru, Yamato the Brave, as the archetype of the “Japanese heroic parabola” in his book, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. Yamato Takeru, most likely a composite mythological figure, accomplished a great deal in the early part of his life but died a “poignant, lonely” death without being accorded due recognition or reward. Japanese history abounds with such failed heroes.
Every country has a special place for similar figures. In the United States, for example, men like Jesse James, George Armstrong Custer, and Robert E. Lee have been and continue to be extolled because they were valiant losers. The endless fascination with the South as a whole accrues from the simple fact that it was the loser in a war that tore the nation apart. What might make Japan somewhat different is that the losers, mythical or historical, have provoked a far greater amount of sympathy, adulation, and exaltation than the winners. Yamato Takeru stands out among them because he is the earliest such figure who is fully described, and because Yamato, which initially appears to have designated a small corner of Nara, in time became a symbolic name of all Japan. (Many imperial sons and daughters in the mythological and semi-mythological periods are given the name Yamato, but this particular prince outshines them all.)
Yamato Takeru appears in both of the two earliest official histories of Japan: the semi-mythological Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), compiled in 712, which is the oldest extant book in the country, and Nihon Shoki (History of Japan), compiled in 720.
Yamato Takeru was one of the many sons of the twelfth emperor Keik
, who, unlike his better-known offspring, may have actually
existed in the fourth century. His initial name was Ousu, “Small Mortar”-as in a mortar and a pestle–and he had a brother
by the name of Ousu, “Big Mortar.” The Nihon Shoki says: “Both Prince Ousu and Prince Ousu were born of the same placenta as twins in one day. The emperor, exasperated, warned the mortar. Therefore, he named the two princes Big Mortar
and Small Mortar.”
Keik’s puzzling behavior as regards a mortar has been explained by some scholars by referring to the folk custom that requires
the husband to carry a heavy mortar around the house when his wife is having difficult labor. Keik, whose official name was
Otarashi-hiko-oshiro-wake, uttered his warning to the mortar because, we are told, it took so long for the second of the twins
to be born. At any rate, the son so born “grew to be ten feet tall and strong enough to lift with ease a large ritual vessel
made of copper,” as the Nihon Shoki puts it with a bit of Chinese hyperbole. (The Nihon Shoki was written in Chinese as Chinese was the official language of the day.) Hyperbolic or not, the language used to describe
Yamato Takeru is equal to that reserved for the emperor, and his consorts are called empresses. In at least one ancient text
he himself is called emperor.
In the Kojiki, from which the rest of the story will be taken, Ousu, our hero, begins his career by murdering his twin brother in a rather unceremonious fashion. From the description of his hairdo, he was at best an adolescent at the time.
The emperor said to Prince Ousu, “Why is it that your big brother doesn’t come to our meals in the mornings and in the evenings? You go to him yourself and persuade him.”
After he said this, five days passed, but Prince Ousu still hadn’t shown up. So the emperor asked Prince Ousu, “Why is it that your big brother hasn’t come in so long? Haven’t you talked to him yet?” The prince replied, “I’ve already persuaded him.” The emperor said, “How did you do that?”
The prince replied, “When he entered the privy at daybreak, I waylaid him, grabbed and squashed him to death. Then I tore off his limbs, wrapped them up in straw mats, and threw them away.”
When he heard this, the emperor became terrified of his own son’s brave, wild mind and told him, “Toward the west there are two braves in Kumaso. They are rebellious people who refuse to surrender to me. Go and kill them.”
He then sent him away. At the time the prince still had his hair done up on his forehead.
Prince Ousu received from his aunt, Princess Yamato, a robe and a trouser-skirt, put a dagger in his breast, and set out.
When he arrived at the house of the Kumaso Braves, he saw that it was surrounded by three cordons of soldiers and that a pit-dwelling had just been built. People were talking and moving about as they prepared a feast to celebrate the pit-dwelling and laid out food. The prince went near the dwelling and walked about as he waited for the feast day.
When the feast day came, he combed down his hair like a girl and put on the robe and the trouser-skirt his aunt had given him. So disguised as a girl, he mixed with the women, slipped into the pit-dwelling, and sat down. When the Kumaso Braves, two brothers, the older and the younger, saw him, they were taken with his maidenly beauty, let him sit between them, and made merry.
At the height of the feast, the prince pulled out his dagger from his breast, grabbed the older brother by the lapel, and stabbed him through the chest.
The younger brother was terrified to see this, and ran. The prince sprang after him and, at the foot of the staircase, took hold of him at the back, and stabbed him through the ass. At this the younger Kumaso Brave said, “Don’t move the dagger. I have something to say.”
So the prince held him down for a while. The Brave said, “Who are you?”
The prince said, “I am a son of Emperor Otarashi-hiko-oshiro-wake, who, seated at the Hishiro Palace in Makimuku, rules the Great Eight Islands, and my name is Boy Prince Yamato. His Majesty heard that you two Kumaso Braves haven’t surrendered or paid your respects, so he sent me here to kill you.”
When he heard this, the Kumaso Brave said, “That’s quite correct. In the west there’s no other Brave, no strong man other than the two of us. But in the Great Country of Yamato is a man far braver than we are. May I give you a new name? From now on you should call yourself Prince Yamato Takeru.”
As soon as this was said, the prince killed him by splitting him like a ripe melon. From then on people honored the prince by calling him Prince Yamato Takeru. On his way back he subdued and pacified all the mountain deities, river deities, and the deities of straits.
When he entered Izumo Country,1 he decided to kill the Izumo Brave. So he became friends with him. He secretly made a sword out of oak and flaunted it as a regular sword as he went to bathe in the Hi River with the Izumo Brave. He came out of the water first, picked up the sword that the Izumo Brave had untied and left, and said, “Let’s exchange our swords.”
Later, when the Izumo Brave came up from the river and put on Yamato Takeru’s sword, the prince challenged him, saying, “Let’s cross our swords.”
When each tried to draw his sword, the Izumo Brave couldn’t draw his. But the prince drew his and struck and killed the Izumo Brave. He then sang this song:
Yatsume sasu Izumo Takeru ga hakeru tachi
tsuzura sawa-maki sa-mi nashi aware
The Brave of Izumo where eightfold clouds rise wears a sword, bound many times with black vines it has no blade, what a pity!
Having so swept and conquered the country, he returned and gave a report.2
The emperor again said to Prince Yamato Takeru, “Subdue and pacify the wild deities and the people who haven’t surrendered to us in the twelve countries to the east.” When he sent him off with the ancestor of Kibi no Omi, whose name was Misuki-tomo-mimi-take-hiko, as second in command, he gave him a long spear made of holly.
When so ordered and on his way, the prince stopped by the Great Shrine of Ise, offered prayers at the Seat of the Goddess, and said to his aunt, Princess Yamato: “His Majesty must wish I were dead. Otherwise, why should he send me away, without many soldiers, to subdue the evil people of the twelve countries to the east, when not much time has passed since I returned from the mission to strike down the evil people to the west? When I think of all this, I’m convinced he wishes I were dead.”
He prepared to leave, troubled and weeping, when Princess Yamato gave him the Grass-Laying Sword, as well as a bag, saying, “When you find yourself in an emergency, untie the string and open the bag.”
When he reached Owari Country, he entered the house of Princess Miyazu, the ancestor of the Governor of Owari. He wanted to marry her at once. But deciding to do so on his way back, he went on to the countries to the east and subdued and pacified all the wild deities of mountains and rivers as well as the people who had not surrendered.
When he reached Sagamu Country, the governor there lied and said to him, “There’s a large swamp in the middle of this plain. The deity who lives in the swamp is a terribly unruly one.”
To see the deity, the prince went into the field. Then the governor set the field afire. Realizing that he had been deceived, the prince opened the bag his aunt had given him, and found flint stones in it. So he first mowed away the grass with his sword. Then he struck the flints and set a counterfire which burned away from him. When he came out of the field, he cut the governor and his men to death, and set fire to them and burned them. This is why the place is now called Yaizu, “Burning Ford.”
When he went out of the country and tried to cross the sea called Running Water, the deity of the strait stirred up the waves and turned his ship round and round, so the prince could not make any headway. When she saw this, his empress,3 whose name was Princess Ototachibana, said, “I’ll go into the sea in your place. You, milord, must complete your mission and report to His Majesty.”
She then had eight reed mattresses, eight leather mattresses, and eight silk mattresses laid on the waves, and went down to sit on them. The rough waves quieted down on their own, and the prince’s ship could now proceed. The empress sang:
Sanesashi Sagamu no ono ni moyuru hi no
honaka ni tachite tohishi kimi wa mo
The flames burning the field of Sagamu where the hills rise nearby,
standing in their midst, you asked for me!
Seven days later her comb was washed up on the shore. They picked it up, built a tomb, and placed the comb in it.
When he went out of the country, subdued all the wild emishi4 and pacified the wild deities of mountains and rivers, and was on his way back, the prince reached the slope leading to Mt. Ashigara. He was eating dried rice there, when the deity of the slope transformed himself into a white deer and stood near him. The prince picked up one end of the hiru plant he hadn’t finished eating, and struck the deer with it. He hit it in the eye and killed it. So he climbed up the slope, stood at the top, heaved a sigh three times, and said, “My wife!” This is why that country was named Azuma, “My Wife.”
He went overland out of the country and came out of it to Kai. When he was at the Sakaori Palace, he sang:
Niibari Tsukuba o sugite ikuyo ka netsuru
Since passing Niibari and Tsukuba, how many nights have we slept?
An old torch-lighter followed the song with:
kaga-nabete yo niwa kokonoka hi niwa t
ka o
Add up the days, and of nights there are nine nights, of days, ten days.5
When he went overland from that country to Shinano Country, the prince quickly subdued the deity of the Slope of Shinano and returned to Owari Country where he went to stay with Princess Miyazu, with whom he had made a pledge at an earlier date. When she dedicated a large banquet to him, the princess also dedicated a large sake cup to him. She had a stain of menstrual blood on the hem of her outer garment. When he saw the menstrual blood, the prince sang:
Princess Miyazu sang in reply:
Our Prince of the high-shining sun,
our Sovereign familiar with the eight corners,
as each year, with a new resolve, passed,
so has each month, with a new resolve, passed.
Sir, sir, I couldn’t wait for you any more,
and on the hem of the outer garment I wear there the moon has risen.
There and then he married her and, leaving his Grass-Laying Sword with her, went to kill the deity of Mt. Ibuki.
There he said, “I’ll take on the deity of this mountain empty-handed, face to face.” When he climbed the mountain, he ran into a white boar. It was as large as an ox. When he saw it he made a forbidden assertion,6 saying, “This thing in the guise of a white boar must be the messenger of the deity. I won’t kill it now, but I will on my way back.” He then continued to climb. Seeing this, the deity let loose a great rainfall and completely dazed Prince Yamato Takeru. So he went back down. As he reached Shimizu, “Clear Water,” of Tamakurabe, and rested, he gradually came to his senses. This is why the clear water there was named and is called Isame no Shimizu, “Clear Water Where He Came to His Senses.”
When he left that place and came near Tagino, the prince said, “I’ve always thought I could fly through the sky. But now I can hardly walk, my legs tottering.” This is why the place was named and is called Tagi, “Totter.”
When he went a little farther from the place, exhaustion overtook him, so he walked slowly with a stick. This is why the place was named and is called Tsuetsuki-zaka, “Slope with a Walking Stick.”
As he reached the lone pine at the cape of Otsu, there was still the sword he had forgotten when he’d had a meal there before. Seeing it, he sang:
When he went out of the place and reached Mie Village, he said again, “My feet are crooked threefold and are quite fatigued.” This is why the place was named and is called Mie, “Threefold.” When he went out of the place and reached Nobono, he longed for his own country and sang:
Yamato wa kuni no mahoroba
tatanazuku oakaki
yama-gomoreru Yamato shi uruwashi
Yamato is prominent in the country.
In layers of blue fences,
secluded in mountains, Yamato is beautiful.
He sang again:
Inochi no matakemu hito wa
Heguri no yama no kumakashi ga ha o
uzu ni sase sonoko
Those of you full of life,
wear on your hair, all of you, large oak leaves
of woven-mat Heguri Mountain!
This is a country-longing song. He sang again:
Hashikeyashi wagihe no kata yo kumoi tachikumo
How lovely! From the direction of my house, clouds rise!
This is a katauta, “half-song.” At that moment his illness suddenly worsened. He sang:
As soon as he finished singing, he passed away. This news was taken to the emperor by horse relay.
The prince’s empresses and children who were in Yamato came down in various groups and built a tomb. Then they crawled about in the adjoining paddies and, weeping, sang:
Nazuki no ta no inagara ni
inagara ni hahi motohor toko-kazura
Among the rice stalks in the adjoining paddies,
among the rice stalks crawl the vines of wild yam.
At this the prince turned into a large white bird, flew up into the sky, then toward the beach. His empresses and children followed, bruising and tearing their feet on the stumps of bamboo grass, but forgetting their pain as they wept. They sang:
Asaji no hara koshi nazumu
sora wa ikazu oshi yo ikuna
The bamboo grass field hampers our waists.
We can’t move through the sky, though our feet move.
They then waded into the sea and, as their movements were hampered, sang:
Umi ga ikeba koshi nazumu
-kawara no uegusa
umiga ha isayou
The seagoing hampers our waists.
Like grasses grown in a large river,
we can’t move forward or back in the sea.
When the bird flew again and rested on the shore, they sang:
Hamatsu chidori hama yowa ikazu iso-zutau
Beach plovers don’t move along the beach but along the shore.
They sang these four songs at the prince’s funeral. This is why they have been sung at every emperor’s funeral ever since.7