Twice ToldTaiheiki, book 16, Nihon chōteki no koto: Masakado's head at the prison gate
- Language
- Japanese
- Reading
- transcribed from the page image
- Translation
- ours
- Retrieved
- 15 October 2026
The Taiheiki (太平記) is a long war tale. Its sixteenth book opens with a list of those who rebelled against the throne (日本朝敵事), and Masakado’s entry is a few lines long. The text below is read from the page image of the Yūhōdō edition of 1922, a typeset print with readings beside the characters, which are left out here.
是のみならず、朱雀院の御宇承平五年に、將門と云ける者、東國に下て、相馬郡に都を立、百官を召仕て、自平親王と號す。官軍擧て是を討んとせしかども、其身皆鐵身にて、矢石にも傷られず、劔戟にも痛ざりしかば、諸卿僉議有て、俄に鐵の四天を鑄奉て比叡山に安置し、四天合行の法を行せらる。故に天より白羽の矢一筋降て、將門が眉間に立ければ、遂に俵藤太秀郷に首を捕られてけり。其首獄門に懸て曝すに、三月迄色不變、眼をも不塞、常に牙を嚼て、「斬られし我五體、何の處にか有らん。此に來れ。頭續て今一軍せん」と、夜な〱呼りける間、聞人是を不恐と云事なし。時に道過る人是を聞て、「將門は米かみよりぞ斬られける俵藤太が謀にて」と讀たりければ、此頭から〱と笑ひけるが、眼忽に塞て、其戸[尸?]遂に枯にけり。
Translation
Then there was Masakado. In the reign of the Suzaku emperor (the print says in the fifth year of Jōhei) he went down to the eastern provinces, set up a capital in Sōma district, took on officials of every rank and styled himself Prince Taira. The whole imperial army rose to put him down, but his whole body was iron. Arrows and stones did not wound him, and swords and halberds did not hurt him. So the ministers held a council, quickly cast iron statues of the Four Heavenly Kings, set them on Mount Hiei and had the rite of the Four Heavenly Kings performed. Because of that, one white-feathered arrow came down from heaven and stood between Masakado’s eyebrows, and at last Tawara Tōta Hidesato took his head.
They hung the head at the prison gate and left it on show. For three months its colour did not change and its eyes did not close. It constantly gnashed its teeth and called out night after night: “Where can my body be, the one that was cut off? Come here. Join on my head and I will fight one more battle.” Everyone who heard it was afraid. Then a man passing by heard it and made a verse: “Masakado was cut down at the temple of his head, by Tawara Tōta’s trick.” The head laughed aloud, its eyes suddenly shut, and the corpse at last withered.
Notes
- 百官 is the officials of every rank, not a count; 眉間 is the space between the eyebrows, where the arrow stands.
- The repetition marks in 夜な〱 and から〱と are the print’s own (the 〱 sign).
- The Taiheiki says nothing here of the head leaving the prison gate. Its head stays in Kyoto, calls for the body, and is silenced by the verse.
- The verse plays on words. 米かみ (kome-kami) reads as こめかみ, the temple of the head, where the arrow stood, and also contains 米, rice, as 俵 (tawara) is a rice bale; this is our reading of the joke, and the translation gives only its sense.
- The print gives the year of Masakado’s going east as the fifth year of Jōhei (935), which we have kept as printed and have not checked against other sources.
- In the last words, the character printed after 其 looks like 戸 and has the reading かばね (“corpse”) beside it; the usual character is 尸, and we translate it as “corpse”. Our reading of that one glyph is marked uncertain.
- The Shōmonki and the Teishin-kōki entry for 25 April 940 record the head’s arrival in Kyoto; this is the earliest text we read that tells what the head did there.