early days of this, the future
Bayard of Japan, with many romantic legends, among which it is
difficult to distinguish the true from the false. What is certain,
however, is that at the age of fifteen he managed to effect his
escape to the north of Japan. The agent of his flight was an
iron-merchant who habitually visited the monastery on matters of
business, and whose dealings took him occasionally to Mutsu.

At the time of Yoshitsune's novitiate in the Kurama temple, the
political power in Japan may be said to have been divided between the
Taira, the provincial Minamoto, the Buddhist priests, and the
Fujiwara, and of the last the only branch that had suffered no
eclipse during the storms of Hogen and Heiji had been the Fujiwara of
Mutsu. It has been shown in the story of the Three Years' War, and
specially in the paragraph entitled "The Fujiwara of the North," that
the troops of Fujiwara Kiyohira and Minamoto Yoshiiye had fought side
by side, and that, after the war, Kiyohira succeeded to the six
districts of Mutsu, which constituted the largest estate in the hands
of any one Japanese noble. That estate was in the possession of
Hidehira, grandson of Kiyohira, at the time when the Minamoto family
suffered its heavy reverses. Yoshitsune expected, therefore, that at
least an asylum would be assured, could he find his way to Mutsu. He
was not mistaken. Hidehira received him with all hospitality, and as
Mutsu was practically beyond the control of Kyoto, the Minamoto
fugitive could lead there the life of a bushi, and openly study
everything pertaining to military art. He made such excellent use of
these opportunities that, by the time the Minamoto standard was
raised anew in Izu, Yoshitsune had earned the reputation of being the
best swordsman in the whole of northern Japan.

This was the stripling who rode into Yoritomo's camp on a November
day in the year 1180. The brothers had never previously seen each
other's faces, and their meeting in such circumstances was a dramatic
event. Among Yoshitsune's score of followers there were several who
subsequently earned undying fame, but one deserves special mention
here. Benkei, the giant halberdier, had turned his back upon the
priesthood, and, becoming a free lance, conceived the ambition of
forcibly collecting a thousand swords from their wearers. He wielded
the halberd with extraordinary skill, and such a huge weapon in the
hand of a man with seven feet of stalwart stature co