, stamps him as something very rare among Japanese bushi--a
coward. He was the first to fly from every battle-field, and at
Dan-no-ura he preferred surrender to death. Tradition alleges that in
this final fight Munemori's reputed mother, Ni-i-no-ama, before
throwing herself into the sea with the Emperor in her arms, confessed
that Munemori was not her son. After she had borne Shigemori she
became enceinte and her husband, Kiyomori, looked eagerly for the
birth of another boy. But a girl was born. Just at that time the wife
of a man who combined the occupations of bonze and umbrella-maker,
bore a son, and the two children were surreptitiously exchanged. This
story does not rest upon infallible testimony. Nor does another
narrative, with regard to the motives which induced Kiyomori's widow
to drown the young Emperor. Those motives are said to have been two.
One was to fix upon the Minamoto the heinous crime of having done a
sovereign to death, so that some avenger might rise in future years;
the other was to hide the fact that Antoku was in reality a girl
whose sex had been concealed in the interest of the child's maternal
grandfather, Kiyomori.

YOSHITSUNE'S FATE

Yoshitsune's signal victories were at Ichi-no-tani and at Yashima.
The fight at Dan-no-ura could not have made him famous, for its issue
was determined by defection in the enemy's ranks, not by any
strategical device or opportune coup on the side of the victors. Yet
Japan accords to Yoshitsune the first place among her great captains.
Undoubtedly this estimate is influenced by sympathy. Pursued by the
relentless anger of his own brother, whose cause he had so splendidly
championed, he was forced to fly for refuge to the north, and was
ultimately done to death. This most cruel return for glorious deeds
has invested his memory with a mist of tears tending to obscure the
true outlines of events, so that while Yoritomo is execrated as an
inhuman, selfish tyrant, Yoshitsune is worshipped as a faultless
hero. Yet, when examined closely, the situation undergoes some
modifications. Yoritomo's keen insight discerned in his
half-brother's attitude something more than mere rivalry. He
discovered the possible establishment of special relations between
the Imperial Court and a section of the Minamoto.

Yoshitsune's failure to repair to Kamakura after the battle of
Ichi-no-tani inspired Yoritomo's first doubts. Japanese annals offer
no explanation of Yoshitsune's procedu