TAIRA NO MUNETSUNE
THE SILENT ONE

QUIET BUT EFFICIENT–men endowed with these qualities have always won admiration, but among such men Taira no Munetsune (982-1023) has cast a long shadow because of the following episode in Konjaku Monogatari Shu (vol. 23, sec. 14).

Though the episode describes a night escort during which nothing murderous happened, behind it is an age in which men in arms constantly fought with one another. Munetsune’s father, Muneyori, when Governor of Mutsu, assaulted Taira no Korehira, another governor and his “competitor in the way of the warrior,” and was exiled to the island of Oki. While a lieutenant of the Outer Palace Guards, Left Division, Munetsune himself was charged with the crime of engaging in a private war and was once prosecuted by the Imperial Police for a murder. In his poem included in the sixth imperial anthology, Shiika Sh (no. 335), Munetsune expresses gratitude to Archbishop Genkaku for winning a pardon for some imperial offense he had committed.

During the time when the Lord of Uji¹ was in his prime, Myson,² Archbishop of Mii Temple,³ was once in attendance for all-night prayers at the court. No lighting oil was used.

After a while, without telling anyone what its purpose was, the Lord of Uji thought of an errand and decided to send out Myson and have him return before the night was over. He had a horse, which was neither nervous nor jumpy but dependable, taken out of the stable and saddled, and asked aloud, “Is there anyone who can escort this gentleman?”

Munetsune, then a lieutenant of the Outer Palace Guards, Left Division, was on duty. “Munetsune is at your service, sir.”

“Very good,” the lord said, and because Myson at the time was not an archbishop but a mere monk, he added, “A monk must go to Mii Temple tonight but return before the night is over. As his escort, see to it that he does that.”

“I understand, sir.”

Munetsune always kept his bow and quiver leaning against a wall of his night duty room and a pair of straw sandals hidden under the floor mat. Also, he had only one man in his service, who was apparently of base stock. So everyone who observed him would say, “What an economical fellow!”

When he was given the escort order, Munetsune immediately tucked up high the hems of his trouser-skirt and tied them. He then took out the straw sandals from where he always kept them, put them on, put the quiver on his back, and came out to the place where the horse was.

The monk asked, “What’s your name?”

“Munetsune, sir,” was the reply.

“We’re going to Mii Temple,” said the monk. “How come you’re standing around like that as if you were going there on foot? Don’t you have a mount?”

“Even if I’m on foot, I’ll never be left behind, sir. Let’s be on our way,” Munetsune said.

The monk wondered to himself, “This is very odd.”

When they had gone seven or eight hundred yards, with Munetsune’s servant leading the way with a lantern, Myson was terrified to see, walking straight toward him, two men dressed in black and armed with bows and arrows. However, upon seeing Munetsune, they dropped to their knees and said, “Here’s your horse, sir!” Then a few horses trotted out of nowhere. Because it was night the monk couldn’t make out the color of the horses, but he saw the men had also brought a pair of riding boots with them. Munetsune put these on over his straw sandals and mounted his horse.

Feeling secure now that he had two mounted men with quivers accompanying him, Myson continued on his way for another two hundred yards, when two men dressed similarly in black and armed with bows and arrows appeared from the roadside. This time Munetsune didn’t say a word. The two at once led out their horses and joined the escort. The monk said to himself, “They are also his men. What a fabulous thing to do!”

They went on another two hundred yards, and two more men showed up in similar fashion and joined the escort. Munetsune said nothing. The men who joined the escort didn’t seem to have anything to say among themselves, either. From then on, too, at every one or two hundred yards a new duo joined up, so that by the time they had gone the distance of the riverbed of Kamo, there were thirty-odd men. While he was marveling at the mysterious doings of Munetsune, Myson arrived at Mii Temple.

Having done what he was instructed to do, he began his trip back before midnight. He traveled as if enveloped before and after by the same men-at-arms, feeling absolutely secure. The men didn’t slip away until they reached the riverbed. After they entered Kyoto proper, however, without any word from Munetsune, the men began to disappear two by two at each spot from which they had appeared. By the time they had only a hundred yards to go to the Lord of Uji’s mansion, there were only the two men who had appeared first. Munetsune dismounted at the spot where he had mounted his horse, took off the riding boots, and walked off in the straw sandals in which he had come out of the mansion. The two men picked up the boots and, leading the horses on foot, they too walked away to hide themselves. Now only Munetsune and his lowly servant remained, and these two together walked in through the gate in their sandals.

Mystified by the way both men and horses had emerged as if by prior understanding, Myson went to see Lord Yorimichi, determined to tell him about it. Yorimichi had waited without going to bed. After reporting on the errand he had been told to carry out, Myson made sure to observe, “Munetsune is a baffling sort of a fellow,” adding, “He has quite a group of capable men lined up for himself.”

Contrary to his expectations that he would ask for details, Yorimichi somehow didn’t follow up Myson’s observations with any questions. The monk was disappointed.

Munetsune was a son of the warrior by the name of Taira no Muneyori. He was brave and, unlike regular men, used very large arrows. So people used to call him the Lieutenant of Big Arrows of the Outer Palace Guards, Left Division.