Many samurai earned their celebrity through their courage and martial skills, but few are as famous as Minamoto no Yoshitsune. There are many legends about him, including one that he didn’t committed seppuku after the battle of Koromo River (as the history recalls) and that he fled to Mongolia, where he further lived as Temujin, no other than the famous Genghis Khan. This is obviously unbelievable, but there are other more reliable legends about its childhood, when he was known as Ushiwakamaru (Minamoto no Yoshitsune being its samurai name).
On Mount Kurama, near Kyoto, several places are still reminding visitors of him: it is said that when he was a child, he was initiated in the martial arts by Sōjōbō, the tengu king. The stone surrounded by the fence, on the left of this photo, is said to be the stone on which Ushiwakamaru measured his height when he was 16 years old. It looks hard to believe because the stone is no taller than 1 meter, but we have to take into account that, after 800 years, the stone may have slid into the ground and the sediments also buried it…
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Yesterday’s Japan Photo:Old Japanese stories, Kyoto Gion Tatsumi Shrine |
