The night sky blazed red above the city. Burning houses illuminated the darkness. The bizarre, piercing cries of ayakashi summoned by sorcerers on both sides rang out all around. There must have been a battle between warriors of inhuman strength, as a pagoda to the west had been cleaved in half and lay in ruin. The capital had become a battlefield.
Masahito silently took in the strife-filled air. Though he now held the title of emperor, he possessed no means to quell the chaos. He was a puppet ruler with no power of his own. Around him, his close attendants held their breath, watching the course of the battle unfold.
“Driving my uncle into a corner with rumors of treason and goading him into staging a rebellion went well enough, but it’s a bit of a gamble from here, isn’t it? Do you think we’ll succeed, Shinzei?”
“Of course, Prince Morihito.” A man in priestly garb nodded at Masahito’s son, the imperial prince. “We’ve planned this out thoroughly. Our rivals will be brought to ruin.”
Suddenly, a panicked warrior came racing into the manor.
“I-I have a report, Shinzei!”
“What is it?”
“We’ve confirmed the extermination of the kishin Sukuna in Sagano! Our sorcerers are no longer picking up Haruyoshi Kuga’s cursed energy!”
A moment later, the group erupted into cheers. The man in priestly robes turned to the young prince with a smile.
“We’ve done it, Your Highness. If Haruyoshi Kuga sided with the retired emperor’s faction, our defeat would be certain. His elimination was our only obstacle. Our victory is now assured. The retired emperor and his attendants are finished. Everything has unfolded just as you planned.”
“What are you saying?” The young prince spoke with a fearless smile. “Was it not you who eliminated Haruyoshi Kuga? Few would even think of taking the children in his mansion hostage and turning his best disciple against him, let alone be capable of carrying it out. I’ll be counting on that brilliance during my reign.” The prince laughed happily.
At only thirteen years old, Masahito’s son Morihito had already grown into a cunning schemer. Yet neither Morihito nor his adviser Shinzei knew the truth—that Haruyoshi had been friends with not only Akihito, but Masahito as well.
The sorcerer who was hailed as the strongest in history and feared by so many was, contrary to his fearsome reputation, a caring and attentive soul. He would never turn his powers on a friend. From the beginning, there had never been any possibility that he would get involved in the rebellion—a conflict between Masahito’s and Akihito’s factions.
“I see...” Masahito muttered. “So even you can die, Haruyoshi.” Nobody replied. Nobody was paying attention to Masahito. He was a half-wit prince obsessed with imayou—even becoming emperor hadn’t changed that reputation.
“I suppose there’s nothing in the world that’s immune to change. Not even someone who has transcended humanity like you.” Something had begun to shift within the man who had once found solace in the unchanging. Masahito closed his eyes. “In that case...”
† † †
Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa (personal name: Masahito) is often regarded as one of the most cunning and shrewd politicians of the late Heian period. After abdicating in favor of his son, Emperor Nijou (personal name: Morihito), and beginning his cloistered rule, he repeatedly struggled for power with various political figures.
At times, he made use of the Taira clan’s strength, and when they grew too arrogant, he turned to the Minamoto to bring them down. His skill in manipulating the samurai led some to draw comparisons to the final days of his elder brother, the retired Emperor Sutoku (personal name: Akihito), and to call him Japan’s greatest tengu—a master deceiver.
Although history remembers Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa as a man who survived the chaos of the late Heian era through sheer cleverness, that was not always his reputation. In fact, the contemporary view of him was quite the opposite. He was derided as a half-wit prince obsessed with imayou songs, and a foolish ruler lacking in both literary and martial prowess. These assessments were, by and large, true—Go-Shirakawa had not been a particularly noteworthy man during his youth.
What changed him? The author believes it was the Hougen Rebellion, triggered by the death of Cloistered Emperor Toba (personal name: Munehito). This conflict—one of the largest in the Heian period, which left a third of the capital in ashes—is often described in textbooks as a power struggle between the reigning emperor and the retired emperor. Yet the reality was somewhat different.
To become Chiten no Kimi, the one who held true power in the system of cloistered rule, it was necessary not only to be a retired emperor, but to have one’s own child on the throne. For this reason, Go-Shirakawa’s faction sought to put Prince Morihito on the throne, while Sutoku’s faction wanted his son, Prince Shigehito, on the throne. The Hougen Rebellion was fought over whose son would take the throne, thus giving them power as cloistered emperor.
Emperor Go-Shirakawa lost two people close to him in this conflict. The first was his enemy, his older brother, retired Emperor Sutoku. The other was Haruyoshi Kuga, the great exorcist of the Heian era.
Though it might seem an unlikely connection, Go-Shirakawa and Haruyoshi were in fact acquainted. Evidence of their association appears both in Haruyoshi’s diaries and in parts of Go-Shirakawa’s Ryoujin Hishou, a twenty-volume anthology of imayou songs compiled by the emperor himself, who was a passionate enthusiast of the genre. Records indicate that Go-Shirakawa frequently attended the banquets held at Haruyoshi’s residence, suggesting that the two were likely close enough to be called friends.
At the same time, Haruyoshi had long maintained ties with retired Emperor Sutoku as well. This led Go-Shirakawa’s faction to view him as a threat, resulting in Haruyoshi losing his life in a surprise attack. What Go-Shirakawa, then largely a puppet ruler, felt during this turmoil remains unknown. No surviving records shed light on his thoughts at the time.
However, Shinzei, the monk who is believed to have been the chief instigator behind the murder of Haruyoshi Kuga, was later beheaded during the Heiji Rebellion. In addition, Emperor Nijou died young of illness without ever truly grasping power for himself. Nor did it end there—nearly all the leading figures involved in the conflict met an untimely end or fell from power, vanishing from the stage of history. Even the mighty Taira clan, founded by Taira no Kiyomori, who had once fought alongside Go-Shirakawa’s faction, was eventually destroyed by Go-Shirakawa’s own hand.
Most dismiss this as mere coincidence, but the author does not. During his lifetime, the monk Shinzei described Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the following words—
“If His Majesty sets his heart upon accomplishing something, he will see it done, regardless of any human law or restraint.”
Following the Hougen Rebellion, despite his at times forceful and improvised methods, Cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa became a statesman who always carried out what he had decided upon. It was as though he truly believed there was nothing in the world he could not change. Ironically, the cause of that belief might well have been the death of his friend, the immortal exorcist Haruyoshi Kuga.