The Dawn of the Warrior Age: War Tales from Medieval Japan

The war between the Heike and Genji clans in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is among the most compelling and significant moments in Japan's history, immortalized in The Tale of the Heike. Beyond the events recorded in this canonical text, the conflicts of the surrounding years are crucial to medieval Japanese culture and history. In 1156, power began to slip away from the court nobility in Kyoto. A shogunate was later founded in Kamakura, and in 1221, it won a decisive victory over the court. The three war tales translated in this book tell the story of these critical decades, vividly recording stages in the passage from rule by the imperial court in Kyoto to rule by the warrior government in Kamakura. "The Tale of the Hōgen Years" recounts a deposed emperor's disastrous attempt to regain the throne in 1156. "The Tale of the Heiji Years" narrates a bloody clash between rival courtier factions in 1159. "An Account of the Jōkyü Years" records Kamakura's victory over the imperial attempt to overthrow it in 1221. These works do not simply complete the story of The Tale of the Heike-they are classics of Japanese literature in their own right. Royall Tyler's lively translation masterfully conveys the nature of medieval Japanese warfare, rendering aristocratic power politics and the brutal realities of violence with equal aplomb. The Dawn of the Warrior Age is an essential book for readers interested in premodern Japanese history and literature.

Table of Contents:
Introduction The Tale of the Hōgen Years Summary and Note on the Text Book 1 1. The Accession of Emperor Go-Shirakawa 2. Retired Emperor Toba’s Pilgrimage to Kumano and The Oracle Delivered There 3. The Death of Retired Emperor Toba 4. Sutoku Moves to Rebel 5. The Emperor’s Forces Fan Out and Chikaharu and His Men Are Taken Alive 6. Sutoku’s Rebellion Comes to Light and A Move to Suppress It with Palace Minister Saneyoshi’s Advice 7. Sutoku Summons Tameyoshi 8. Yorinaga Comes Up to the Capital with His Arrival 9. The Mustering of the Emperor’s Forces 10. The Gates to Sutoku’s Residence Are Secured with A Debate on Battle Tactics 11. The General’s Barrow Rumbles and A Comet Appears 12. The Emperor Proceeds to Tōsanjō with A Roster of the Emperor’s Forces Book 2 13. Yoshitomo’s Night Attack on the Shirakawa Mansion 14. The Fall of the Shirakawa Mansion 15. Sutoku and Yorinaga Flee 16. Sutoku’s Escape to Mount Nyoi 17. The Burning of the Rebels’ Houses 18. Sutoku Renounces the World 19. By Imperial Command, Shigenari Guards Sutoku 20. The Regent Tadamichi Resumes His Rightful Duties with The Warriors’ Rewards 21. The Death of Yorinaga with Tadazane’s Grief Book 3 22. The Capture of the Rebels 23. Prince Shigehito Renounces the World 24. The Surrender of Tameyoshi 25. The Execution of Tadamasa, Iehiro, and Others 26. The Death of Tameyoshi 27. The Execution of Yoshitomo’s Younger Brothers 28. The Execution of Yoshitomo’s Child Brothers 29. Tameyoshi’s Wife Drowns Herself 30. The Inspection of Yorinaga’s Body 31. Retired Emperor Sutoku Moves to Sanuki 32. Yorinaga’s Sons and Other Rebels Start into Exile 33. Lord Tadazane’s Return to the Capital 34. The Capture and Exile of Tametomo 35. Sutoku Copies the Sutras in Blood and Writes a Curse at the End with His Death 36. Tametomo Crosses to Devil Island and His Death The Tale of the Heiji Years Summary and Note on the Text Book 1 1. The Rivalry Between Nobuyori and Shinzei 2. Nobuyori Plots to Destroy Shinzei 3. The Attack on the Sanjō Palace and The Burning of Shinzei’s House 4. Shinzei’s Sons Are Stripped of Office 5. How Shinzei Came to Renounce the World and The Matter of the Appointments List 6. The Inspection of Shinzei’s Head with His Flight to Nara and His Death 7. Shinzei’s Head Is Paraded and Hung at the Prison Gate 8. Rokuhara Sends a Courier to Kumano 9. Lord Mitsuyori Goes to the Palace with Kiyomori Returns to Rokuhara 10. The Sentence on Shinzei’s Sons Is Commuted to Exile 11. Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa Moves to Ninnaji 12. Emperor Nijō Proceeds to Rokuhara 13. The Roster of Nobuyori’s Forces 14. The Battle at the Taiken Gate Book 2 15. Yoshitomo Attacks Rokuhara with Nobuyori’s Flight and Yorimasa Backs the Heike 16. The Battle of Rokuhara 17. Yoshitomo’s Defeat 18. Nobuyori’s Surrender with His Death 19. Official Appointments for the Emperor’s Men with The Rebels Are Stripped of Offices and Honors 20. The Report to Tokiwa with The Exile of Shinzei’s Sons 21. Kon’ōmaru Races Back from Owari to Report Yoshitomo’s Death 22. Tadamune, Yoshitomo’s Killer, Hastens to Rokuhara with The Parading of Yoshitomo’s Head 23. The Execution of Akugenda 24. Tadamune’s Dissatisfaction 25. The Capture of Yoritomo 26. Tokiwa’s Flight Book 3 27. Kiyomori Spares Yoritomo with The War Between Wu and Yue 28. Tokiwa Goes to Rokuhara 29. The Exile and Recall of Tsunemune and Korekata 30. The Banishment of Yoritomo with Moriyasu’s Dream 31. Kiyomori Renounces the World and He Visits the Nunobiki Waterfall with Akugenda Becomes a Thunderbolt 32. Ushiwaka Goes Down to the North 33. Yoritomo Raises Righteous Forces with He Crushes the Heike An Account of the Jōkyū Years Summary and Note on the Text Book 1 1. The Cosmic and Historical Background 2. The Taira-Minamoto Conflict 3. The End of Yoritomo’s Line 4. Go-Toba Decides to Curb the Power of Kamakura 5. The Attack on Mitsusue 6. Go-Toba Decrees the Dismissal of Hōjō Yoshitoki 7. The Reaction in Kamakura 8. Kamakura Plans Its Campaign Book 2 9. Go-Toba Launches His Campaign 10. The Clash with Tsukui Takashige 11. Crossing the Rivers 12. Go-Toba Learns of the Defeat 13. The Deaths of Taneyoshi and Shigesada 14. Yasutoki at Rokuhara; Yoshitoki Ordains the Rebels’ Fates 15. The Retired Emperors Are Banished 16. Banishments and Executions 17. Noritsugu and Seitaka Significant Figures Mentioned in the Translations Maps Genealogical Charts

About the Author :
Royall Tyler is the award-winning translator of The Tale of the Heike and The Tale of Genji. His Columbia University Press books include The Miracles of the Kasuga Deity (2016) and Joy, Despair, Illusion, Dreams: Twenty Plays from the Nō Tradition (2024). After teaching at Ohio State University, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Oslo, Tyler retired from the Australian National University.

Review :
Tyler is the most eminent translator of premodern Japanese literature, and his translations render all three tales vividly and with his trademark accuracy. This volume is an important contribution for scholars and teachers of Japanese literature, culture, and history. Royall Tyler’s exquisite renderings of these three essential texts of Japan’s medieval past not only offer English-language readers a compelling introduction to the struggles that ushered in the age of the samurai: they also help explain the enduring power and fascination of this tumultuous period of history for the centuries of people who lived in its wake. Bridging the gap between our world and that of medieval Japan with an ease that comes only with the deepest of erudition, Tyler’s mastery of both prose and poetry allows us to feel the pathos (and contemporary resonances) of a time, when, as the oracle predicted, human folly and ambition led the world to turn over “like the palm of a hand.” Replete with helpful maps, notes and glossaries, the volume is ideal for classroom use and a perfect companion to Tyler’s magnificent, The Tale of the Heike. Indispensable. The world of twelfth- and thirteenth-century warriors comes alive in Royall Tyler’s powerful work, which showcases dramatic battles and illuminates a rich cast of characters, ranging from wily emperors and powerful generals to fleeing widows and defeated young men. Tyler’s translation, the first in English of the oldest versions of these three tales, reveals a refreshingly balanced portrait of some, such as the oft-maligned Taira Kiyomori. This volume is essential for understanding how Japan became destabilized by its aggressive sovereigns and how their untrammeled power was checked by the 1221 victory of Kamakura, Japan’s new warrior government. We owe a debt of gratitude to Royall Tyler for bringing together in one accessible place three works crucial for understanding the genesis of the cultural and historical memories pertaining to the transformational rise to political power of the Eastern warrior class from the late twelfth century. Tyler makes use of the advances of scholarship and textual study of the past several decades and provides helpful reference matter (the maps are most welcome). His elegant translations bring the warrior worlds alive. Tyler’s work is excellent as ever.