MURAOKA NO GOR AND
HAKAMADARE:
TO KNOW WHEN TO BE ALERT

A SAMURAI MUST KNOW WHEN he must be alert and when he need not be. This lesson is illustrated by another episode about the great robber Hakamadare in Konjaku Monogatari Shu (vol. 29. sec. 19).

Some scholars think Muraoka no Gor, whose official name was Taira no Sadamichi, may be the same as Taira no Yoshifumi who appears in “The Duel,” pp. 19-21.

saka Barrier is a checkpoint on Mt. Osaka between present-day Shiga and Kyoto. It is said to have been built in 646 and abolished in 814. While in existence it was regarded as the “entrance” to Kyoto from the East. By the time of this story it had become a mere name, though famous as an uta-makura, “poetic place name.” The best-known poem about the barrier, attributed to Semimaru, a legendary player of a lute-like instrument, the biwa, is included in the second imperial anthology, Gosen Sh (no. 1090). It puns on Osaka, which means “meeting slope”:

Kore ya kono yuku mo kaeru mo wakarete wa

shiru mo shiranu mo Osaka no seki

So this is it: both those who go and those who return do part,

both friends and strangers meet at Osaka Barrier!

Because his business was robbery, the robber Hakamadare was once arrested and imprisoned. But at the time of an imperial pardon he was kicked out. He had no place to stop at and stay and couldn’t think of anything to do. So he went to Osaka Barrier, stripped himself completely naked, and laid himself by the roadside, pretending to be dead.

Passersby who saw him gathered around him and made a lot of commotion, saying, “How on earth did he die? He doesn’t have a wound or anything!”

A warrior armed with bow and arrow and riding a fine horse came from the direction of Kyoto, accompanied by many armed men and servants. When he saw the many people gathering in one spot and looking at something, he stopped his horse, summoned an attendant, and told him to find out what they were looking at. The attendant came back soon and said, “There’s a dead man there, sir, without a wound or anything!”

He had hardly finished saying that when the warrior called his men to order, readjusted his bow and arrow, kicked his horse ahead, and passed by, warily glancing at the dead man.

The people who saw this clapped their hands and laughed, saying, “A warrior accompanied by so many soldiers and servants runs into a dead man and gets scared! What a great warrior he is!” They continued to deride him and laugh at him until he was out of sight.

Not long afterward, when all the people had dispersed, leaving no one around the dead man, another warrior on horseback came by. This one didn’t have any soldiers or servants, but was simply armed with bow and arrow. He rode up carelessly to the dead man.

“What a pitiful fellow! How on earth did he die? He’s got no wound or anything,” he said, and poked at him with the tip of his bow. Suddenly the dead man grabbed the bow, jumped up, and pulled the man off his horse.

“This is how you’d avenge your ancestors!” he cried, drew the sword the warrior wore, and stabbed him to death.

He then stripped the warrior of the trouser-skirt he wore, put it on, hoisted the bow and quiver on himself, climbed upon the horse, and headed eastward as swiftly as if flying. In the end, as planned, he joined ten to twenty naked men who had been similarly kicked out of prison. By robbing every man he met on the road of his trouser-skirt, horse, bow, arrows, army staff, and all, he clothed and equipped his men. As he and these twenty to thirty men rode away from Kyoto, he didn’t meet a single worthy opponent he couldn’t handle.

A man like Hakamadare could do that sort of thing to you if you were off your guard even slightly. If you didn’t know better but went near enough for him to touch you, how could he not grab at you?

When people inquired about the first rider who had passed by in all alertness, he turned out to be no less than Muraoka no Gor, more officially known as Taira no Sadamichi. People then understood why he had acted the way he had. He had many armed men and servants, but he knew what he knew, and didn’t allow himself to be off guard. That was wise of him.

In contrast, the warrior without a soldier or servant who got too close and was killed was stupid. Thus people praised the one while criticizing the other.