nstituted a
menace before which a solitary wayfarer did not hesitate to surrender
his sword. One evening, Benkei observed an armed acolyte approaching
the Gojo bridge in Kyoto. The acolyte was Yoshitsune, and the time,
the eve of his departure for Mutsu. Benkei made light of disarming a
lad of tender years and seemingly slender strength. But already in
his acolyte days Yoshitsune had studied swordsmanship, and he
supplemented his knowledge by activity almost supernatural. The giant
Benkei soon found himself praying for life and swearing allegiance to
his boy conqueror, an oath which he kept so faithfully as to become
the type of soldierly fidelity for all subsequent generations of his
countrymen.

KISO YOSHINAKA

Looking at the map of central Japan, it is seen that the seven
provinces of Suruga, Izu, Awa, Kai, Sagami, Musashi, and Kazusa are
grouped approximately in the shape of a Japanese fan (uchiwa), having
Izu for the handle. Along the Pacific coast, eastward of this fan,
lie the provinces of Shimosa and Hitachi, where the Nitta and the
Satake, respectively, gave employment for some time to the diplomatic
and military resources of the Minamoto. Running inland from the
circumference of the fan are Shinano and Kotsuke, in which two
provinces, also, a powerful Minamoto resurrection synchronized with,
but was independent of, the Yoritomo movement.

The hero of the Shinano-Kotsuke drama was Minamoto no Yoshinaka,
commonly called Kiso Yoshinaka, because his youth was passed among
the mountains where the Kiso River has its source. In the year 1155,
Yoshitomo's eldest son, Yoshihira,* was sent to Musashi to fight
against his uncle, Yoshikata. The latter fell, and his son,
Yoshinaka, a baby of two, was handed to Saito Sanemori to be
executed; but the latter sent the child to Shinano, where it was
brought up by Nakahara Kaneto, the husband of its nurse. Yoshinaka
attained an immense stature as well as signal skill in archery and
horsemanship. Like Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, he brooded much on the
evil fortunes of the Minamoto, and paid frequent visits to Kyoto to
observe the course of events. In the year 1180, the mandate of Prince
Mochihito reached him, and learning that Yoritomo had taken the
field, he gathered a force in Shinano. Between the two leaders there
could be no final forgetfulness of the fact that Yoritomo's brother
had killed Yoshinaka's father, and had ordered the slaying of
Yoshinaka himself. But this evil