Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, Episode 615, I am legend, part two.

And just to start with, yes, this is episode 615, I made a mistake recording last time,

didn't have time to go back and fix it.

But the numbering is corrected now, at least on the posts, if nothing else.

So, we left off last week in our discussion of the history and mythology of Minamoto

no Yoshitsune with the way his fall from grace is depicted in our discussion of the history and mythology of Minamoto-No Yoshitsune with the way his fall

from grace is depicted in our oldest source on his life, Azuma Kagami or the Mirror of the East.

For a quick refresh, Yoshitsune, the brother of Japan's first ruling shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo,

is depicted as an able commander whom Yoritomo can rely

upon, but also as a man with a bit of an ego, who balked at jobs he saw as beneath him,

and who was hungry for acknowledgement, prestige, and rewards. To be fair, that would not make him

unusual by the standards of most samurai.

Remember, the purpose of service for samurai was to receive rewards from your lord.

Loyalty was not a one-way street.

It was reciprocal.

Rewards were given for able and talented service.

But Yoshitsne's ambition ran up against the suspicions of his brother, egged on by Yoritomo's

other retainers, primarily, though not solely, won Kajiwara Kagetoki, who likely feared losing

influence to Yoshitsune, and has a bit of a historical reputation, for reasons we'll see,

for buttering up Yoritomo and just being terrible to

everybody else. Possibly their split was egged on by the sitting emperor Ghotoba,

who showered Yoshitsune with titles and honors, possibly out of the hope that it would

...