Heishōmon
Two of the Four Great Resentful Spirits of Ancient Japan
The new emperor of the East Kingdom who flies around in confusion
Japan’s own Until now, the only time in history that there was only one person who openly rebelled against the emperor's court in Kyoto and proclaimed himself the emperor, and that was Taira Shomon who started the war in Kanto after the middle period of Heian.
Ping Shomon will first talk about the origin of Shomon’s steel body.
According to the book "Kojitan", the mother of Shomon is not actually a human being, but a female big snake (usually a big snake in Japanese local legends) who has lived in Soma County of Shimonosego for a long time. It also represents the dragon, so another theory is that the mother of the general is the dragon god). On the third day after giving birth to Jiangmen, she transformed back into her original form at night and licked Jiangmen's entire body with her tongue. The demon power was attached to Jiangmen through the saliva on his tongue, giving him a body as hard and indestructible as steel. However, Jiangmen's mother forgot to lick the area between Jiangmen's eyebrows. In Jiangmen Ji, it is said about Jiangmen's temple. In addition, there are also legends about the right eye or the Yintang above the eyebrows. In short, this part that has not been licked off becomes the key to death if you touch the door. Of course, only Shomon's mother and Shomon himself know this secret. However, in the local legends of Kanto, there is a third person who knows Shomon's vital secret, namely Shomon's later concubine; and Shomon's later mortal enemy - Hide Fujiwara. Kikyo Mae, the younger sister of Go (ふじわらのひでさと).
Speaking of this, it happens to involve some associations from other places; stories about this kind of invulnerable steel body have appeared in myths and legends around the world, such as the fierce general in Greek mythology- Achilles (Note 1), the dragon-slaying hero of Norse mythology Siegfried (Note 2) and so on. They are all characters with invulnerable steel bodies, but they also have a fatal weakness.
[Edit this paragraph] The cause of hatred
In the Heian court far away in Kyoto, powerful ministers were in control of the government, and gangsters of various sizes from various places were causing chaos. The visions all indicate that this year is by no means a peaceful one.
Shoumon showed his strong character when he was young, and he would use his own abilities to get whatever he wanted. Among the Taira clan who were queen of King Gowang of the East Kingdom at that time, only Taira Sadamori (たいらのさだもり), the eldest son of Shomon's eldest uncle Taira Kunika (たいらのくにか), was in a similar situation to Shomon.
What is strange is that these two cousins ??are very similar in physique and temperament, but they both dislike each other. As long as two people meet, there will inevitably be a quarrel.
Time passed quickly, and after more than ten years, both of them have become strong and heroic young people and began to work hard for their own future. At this time, both of them left their hometown in Dongguo to seek employment in the Kyoto court.
After a lot of hard work, Zhensheng was awarded the position of Congqi Zuomayun. The shogunate served as an aide-de-camp under the then Taizheng Minister Fujiwara Chuhei. Not long after, there happened to be a vacancy in the post of Inspector General, and just when Zhongping was about to fill it with Shomon, news came from the East that Shomon's father, a good general, had died of illness. Due to the custom at that time of a father's death and a son's return to his hometown to observe filial piety, Shomon had no choice but to return to his hometown in Sarushima County of the Lower Kingdom to observe filial piety obediently. This also cut off his path to officialdom.
Shomon later inherited the two counties of Sarushima and Toyota (Toyoda) in the Shimonso Province left by his father. With his bravery and strength, he soon became a local tyrant in the Eastern Kingdom. According to the Records of Generals, he was not only extremely brave, but his whole body was as invulnerable as steel. Therefore, he is not afraid of anything, no one can do anything to him. However, it was his bravery and tough character that eventually led to irremediable consequences.
There is also a powerful local tycoon near Shomon's territory, the former Hitachi (ひたち) Kuni Daibu (だいじょう) Gengo (みなもとのまもる) who was born in the Genji family. This Gengo's background is not easy to mess with. Not only is he the former Otaku of Hitachi Kingdom (Otaku is the third-level local official below the national secretary), he is also quite popular in the local area. Not only that, Gengo was also the eldest uncle of the Shogun, Taira Kunika (the then Hitachi Daibo, Gengo's next successor), his second uncle Taira Kane (たいらのよしかね), and his uncle Taira Ryomasa (たいらのよしまさ). father-in-law. Therefore, the mother of Masato's most hated cousin, Sadamori, is Gengo's eldest daughter.
Not long after Jiangmen returned to his hometown, he had a dispute with his uncle Guoxiang over the territory. Since Kunika had a high status in the Higashi Kuni Taira clan at that time, and the territories of other uncles surrounded his territory, and they all leaned towards Kunika's side, Shomon knew that he would not be able to fight, so he had to temporarily Give up those disputed territories and strengthen their power in the Sarushima County area. Not long after, he married Ryoko (よしこ), the daughter of his second uncle Ryōkane. If he wanted to say this, Ryōkane would be on his side. Unexpectedly, when the incident broke out later, it was completely different.
The general who retreated to Sarumashima had a conflict with Gengo's son over the issue of land and fought against each other.
Uncle Guoxiang not only did not support him at this time, but also made matters worse by personally leading an army to support his three brothers-in-law from the Yuan family. This time, Jiangmen was so unbearable that he simply gave up. The irritated Shomon was indeed not someone to be bullied. He and Gengo's three sons, Genfu (みなもとのたすく), Gentaka (みなもとのたかし), and Genshige (Nayなもとのしげる), were in the Chuanqu area of ??Hitachi. There is a confrontation between the Koku-Hsiang United Army. Not long after the two armies faced each other, Jiangmen took the lead and rushed into the coalition's formation, killing the warriors who surrounded him in a few strokes. When the three brothers of the Yuan family saw what was going on and were about to retreat, Jiangmen rushed up and cut off all three of their horses.
At this time, Guoxiang saw that Jiangmen was unstoppable and wanted to run away. Unfortunately, he was discovered by Jiangmen. Jiangmen remembered that he had been bullied by Guoxiang before and completely forgot about the relationship between blood relatives. After catching up with Guoxiang, he rewarded his uncle with a knife to avenge the old grudges.
Jiangmen was killed very happily in this battle, but the disaster had already begun and could not be undone. The general simply took advantage of the victory and rushed into the village within the Yuan Protectorate, setting fire to and killing everywhere. At this time, his father-in-law, who was also his second uncle's good friend, was furious after hearing the news, and immediately raised troops to encircle and suppress him. Unexpectedly, after the battle, Liangjian's army was no match for Jiangmen's bravery, and almost all the troops were killed. Liangjian and he finally escaped from Jiangmen's pursuit and hid back in his own territory.
[Edit this paragraph] Shomon Rebellion
After receiving the petition, Yoshikane immediately wrote a complaint to the court. The court in Kyoto was also very upset after receiving the petition from Yoshikane. Difficult. Because there are more and more private fights among local local tyrants like this every day, and often the two parties in the private fights are backed by high-ranking officials in the capital or royal princes. The officials responsible for dealing with this kind of problem are very troubled. The only way is to turn a blind eye and send people to the two fighting parties to summon them to Beijing for confrontation. This kind of confrontation, to put it bluntly, is nothing more than calling the two parties into Beijing for mediation, so that the two parties can coordinate and solve the problem with each other. If the two parties causing trouble don't come to Beijing, it's treated as if they didn't see it. When the two parties come, they usually go back without incident under the arrangements of their backers. Therefore, when the Heian court received the complaint against Yoshikane, they recruited Yoshikane, Gengo, Shomon and others into Kyoto.
At this time, the general was still afraid of the Heian court in Kyoto to a certain extent, so he responded to the envoy's summons and went to Kyoto to attend the meeting. However, after he arrived in Kyoto, the court had put the case on hold due to the old Taizheng Fujiwara Tadhei who had been his master, which made the general look down on the Heian court. Not long after, Emperor Suzaku happened to be in a state of amnesty, and Shomon was pardoned and returned to his hometown safely without any guilt. When he was still staying in Kyoto, many people praised his bravery, which made him even more arrogant and looked down upon the power of the entire Kyoto Heian court.
The people who hate Shomen the most at this time are probably Shomen's cousin Zhensheng whose father was killed, and his second uncle and father-in-law Liang Jian. They originally thought that Shomon would be punished after arriving in Kyoto, but he could return to Bando with such arrogance. In grief and anger, the two planned to ambush Jiangmen on his way back and attempt to take revenge by killing him in one fell swoop. Unexpectedly, in a melee, although Jiangmen lost many of his followers, he was able to retreat safely and unscathed. Shomon forced his way through the siege and quickly fled back to his territory, Sarushima County, to regroup and lead his troops to fight Sadamori and Yoshikane again.
This battle was extremely brutal, and Shomon's battle was like a divine help in defeating the combined forces of Sadamori and Ryokane. It is said that during this battle, four fierce generals under Sadamori besieged Shomon and smashed Shomon's armor. However, Shomon had an invulnerable steel body, so all four men's swords were broken and Shomon was hacked to death.
After much thought, Sadamori, who was defeated and retreated, felt that he would never be able to defeat the powerful shogunate with such a private fight, so he quietly left the base with hundreds of soldiers overnight and headed for Kyoto, hoping to use his right Due to his official status, Ma Yun came to the imperial court in Kyoto to request troops to be dispatched to kill the generals. Unexpectedly, the news leaked out, and this time Jiangmen ambushed Zhensheng halfway on his way to the west, and killed all Zhensheng's subordinates in one battle. Thanks to his martial arts skills, Sadamori managed to escape and headed west to Kyoto alone.
When Sadamori arrived in Kyoto, he was able to mobilize troops as he wished. However, when he returned to the Kanto region, no one paid attention to the military talisman in his hand. Because the situation at that time had changed, Shomon had successfully established an unshakable force, and all the ministers of state in the Kanto countries at that time were leaning towards Shomon's side. In this situation, Liang Jian died of worry and anger, and Zhen Sheng could only hide and wait for the opportunity of revenge to come.
In the second year of Tianqing (939), Jiangmen's rebellious heart finally burned like a fire. He protected the rich man of Hitachi, Fujiwara Genaki (ふじわらのくろあき), who refused to pay taxes and robbed official warehouses. As the minister of state, Fujiwara Vikichi (ふじわらこれちか) was angry and led three thousand troops to pursue him. However, the battle at Jiangmen not only defeated Chang Lu's army, but even Wei Ji was captured alive.
The battle had just ended when the general mobilized his entire army to attack the government office in Changlu. Not only did he capture the government office in Changlu, he also took the official seal of the government department.
Now the situation has become a formal one of rebellion - there is no way out. On the eleventh day of the second month, Shomon captured the Shimono government office and captured Fujiwara Hiroya (ふじわらのひろまさ). Five days later, the Ueno government office was captured again, and the minister of state, Fujiwara Naofori (ふじわらのひさのり), was captured and snatched the official seal.
Just after the general captured the government office in Ueno, he held a banquet for the generals in the government office. During the banquet, a miko appeared from nowhere and broke into the official hall. She walked up to the general's seat like no one else and started to tremble. Then she fell to the ground unconscious.
At this time, the general and the generals looked at this scene with their eyes wide open. Suddenly, the miko stood up again and said majestically to the general: "I am the divine envoy of Hachiman Bodhisattva. Today's biography The Great Bodhisattva's decree: The general is the grandson of our emperor. Now the emperor is unruly and the Fujiwara courtiers have taken over the power, and the people have no return. I order you to take my place and rule the world of our country. I also order the two ministers on the left, Sugawara courtiers, Michizane. Commander, I have 80,000 heavenly troops to help you. Now I can welcome you with thirty-two Xiangle."
The general and others hurriedly bowed down, and at this time the witch disappeared. All the generals present here paid homage to the general and elected him as the new emperor.
Since then, the general was overjoyed and he named himself the "New Emperor". He imitated the imperial court in Kyoto in setting up hundreds of civil and military officials, and appointed his brothers, uncles, nephews, Fujiwara Xuanming and others as ministers of various ministries. A new capital was established in his hometown of Shijing, and his brothers were assigned to guard various passes in the Kanto region.
It is said that at this time, in order to prevent assassination, the general learned a secret technique from his mother. You can divide yourself into six identical clones as "Kagemusha". Moreover, these six clones are exactly the same as Jiangmen and cannot be distinguished at all. However, this secret was discovered by his concubine Kikyo Mae.
[Edit this paragraph] The Death of Shomon
Kikyo Mae told her brother Fujiwara Hidego: "The clone of Taira Shomon can actually be distinguished and decrypted. Every day when eating Only the real body can look like chewing and biting food. 2. Every morning, apart from the real body, his shadow warriors have no shadow. 3. The bodies of these shadow warriors are wooden figures, so when the weather is cold, only the real body will spit out food. In the mist, one of the shadow warriors of the four generals will hide in the nandina bamboo when the general is taking a bath. This shadow will give a warning when there is an enemy attack. One of the five shadows will be attached to the cycad (a kind of plant) and cut down the general's residence. The nearby cycads can kill this clone. The only way to crack the clone is to throw the amulet of Narita Fudo Myojin at the general."
At this time, the Bando Kingdoms can basically break it. Almost everything is under the general's control. In his eyes, the old man and the young man in Kyoto, far away in Kinki, were simply worthless wretches waiting to be slowly devoured by him. The so-called Ichiro refers to his old chief, Regent Fujiwara Tadahei, and the Ichibo is Emperor Suzaku who just ascended the throne. Of course, on the other hand, the old man and the young man have to worry about more than just the big bad debt in the east, Heishangmon. There is also a Fujiwara Junyu (ふじわらのすみとも) in the Seto Inland Sea in the west. Fujiwara Juntomo was originally the commander-in-chief of the Iyo Kingdom. One time, he was ordered to suppress pirates in the Seto Inland Sea. However, the pirates did not fight but instead joined forces with the pirates. Over the past few years, it has become the largest pirate group in Western Japan. Not only did they cause trouble in the Seto Inland Sea, they even invaded land from the Settsu Namba area several times, and also threatened the security of Kyoto. After several court discussions, Fujiwara Tadahei finally appointed counselor Fujiwara Tadafumi (ふじわらのただぶみ) as the general to conquer the east, and another counselor Ono Yoshiko (おののよしふる) as the pursuit envoy of the Western Kingdom. Go and repair Junyou.
Fujiwara Tadafumi, who became the general of the East Conquest, knew from the intelligence that the general had a mortal enemy, Taira Sadamori, who was still living in Bando, so he sent people to find out Sadamori and appointed him as the general of the expedition. The Eastern Pioneer was given official orders to dispatch soldiers locally.
After receiving the official order, Sadamori discovered a person at this time. He was Fujiwara Hidego, the commander of the Shimono Kingdom, nicknamed "Omote Tai". After the two men met, they began to secretly recruit soldiers in the area of ????Shimono and Ueno without telling Shogun's eyes and ears to prepare for the attack on Shogun. The two of them had narrowly escaped being attacked by Shomon many times, all thanks to Kikyo Mae, who was Xiuxiang's spy. So Xiuxiang collected information on Shomon's weaknesses on the one hand, and continued the recruitment plan with Sadamori on the other to counterattack. On the other hand, due to the huge threat posed by Shomon, Kyoto is always in fear, so various prayers and rituals for the victory over the rebels and the subjugation of the rebels are held on a large scale in various temples and shrines in Kyoto.
The fate of the "alive" general was finally decided in the decisive battle of Beishan on February 14th of the third year of Tianqing. The shogunate army, which was originally going smoothly, took advantage of the wind to blow against the opponent and massacred the Sadamori Hidego Allied Forces. Especially when there was not only "one" shogunate, but seven generals including clones. Fujiwara Hidego remembered what Kikyō had said about how to crack the clone, took out the talisman of Kanda Fudo Myojin, and threw it at the shogunate and clone who were coming towards him. The general who was hit by the amulet was able to break the clone method. At this time, the wind that was originally blowing against the Allied Forces of Sadamori and Xiuxiang turned into a favorable wind. Sadamori took out an arrow and aimed at Shogun's weakness that Xiuxiang told him. Taking advantage of the wind, he hit Shomon between the eyebrows with one arrow. Crucial.
Jiangmen, who was hit by an arrow and fell from his horse, was stabbed by Xiuxiang who rushed forward. Jiangmen, who was shot in the vital point and fell off his horse, was killed by Xiuxiang's knife.
Jiangmen’s dream of becoming a new emperor only lasted for more than seventy days. At this time, the crusade led by Fujiwara Tadafumi set off from Kyoto. They had not yet entered the Bando territory. They had just arrived near Toe River when they received the good news that Sadamori and Hidego had defeated the general.
[Edit this paragraph] The Resentful Spirit of General
After the victory, Zhenmori and Xiuxiang encountered strange things that night. First, Kikyo, who was serving as his brother's eyes and ears, suddenly bled to death from seven holes, and then the soldiers guarding Shomon's body hurriedly came to report that Shomon's body had disappeared without a trace. When Zhen Sheng and Xiuxiang ran to the other side to see the general's head being displayed in front of the public, the head suddenly opened his eyes and laughed at the two of them and said: "It's just cutting off my head. You don't have to be proud. It will take care of itself later." Someone will avenge me! I won’t go to hell like this, I will curse your descendants forever!” Later, when Shomon’s head was taken to Kyoto to be reported to Emperor Suzaku, all the ministers opened the package of Shomon’s head. He was so frightened that he lost his mind. The chief general inside the wooden box had an angry look on his face and his eyes were locked, and his mouth made the sound of teeth clashing when he was biting. Not only did he frighten the minister to the point of excrement and urine in public, but he even frightened Emperor Suzaku to the point of being bedridden for several months. Died and returned to the west.
Tadahei Fujiwara, who was very frightened, ordered the general's head to be taken to Kyoto's East Market for public display. Within a few days of the public display, news came out that the East Market area was haunted in the middle of the night. Some people saw many undead wearing armor haunting the general's head in the middle of the night, and those who saw it couldn't afford to get sick when they returned home. Some people also heard the general's head burst into loud laughter. At the same time, the area around Shomon's hometown of Ishii in Sarushima County, Bando Shita Province, was also haunted. In broad daylight, someone saw Shomon's body wandering around before disappearing without his head, as if looking for his own head.
There was such a commotion for half a month. Suddenly one day when there were a lot of people in the day, Shomon's head roared and then rose into the air, then flew in the direction of Bando, leaving behind There was a crowd of people stunned.
Shomon’s head flew all the way east, as if it was going to meet his body, and finally landed near Torio in Musashi Province. Later, in order to stabilize Shomon To express his resentment, Shomon Tezuka was built in Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo today. Hundreds of years later, when the Tokugawa clan took control of Edo Castle, they restored and rebuilt the Kanda Myojin Shrine in Edo Kanda to worship the shogun.
It is said that when Ieyasu took control of Edo, many strange incidents occurred. After divination, he found out that the shogunate was causing trouble, so he comforted his resentful spirit. Another theory is that Jiangmen's body did not disappear out of thin air, but was cut into pieces by his remnants and taken to various places for secret burial. Therefore, there are legends about the so-called "tombs" of shoguns all over Eastern Japan, and many shrines dedicated to shoguns have been created.
One day in September of the fourth year of the Kali calendar, a mound of earth suddenly rose up near Kanda Myojin Shrine, and then a huge thunder fell from the sky and hit the mound. In the lightning, nearby residents could clearly see the figure of a warrior wearing ancient armor. The frightened people waited for the thunder to pass and went out to investigate and found that the mound had cracks. After going in to investigate, they found out that the mound was an ancient tomb. However, the strange thing is that there is no coffin or other burial objects in the tomb, so there is no way to know whether this is the real tomb of Jiangmen. From then until the founding of the Edo government, we heard about the haunting ghosts of Shomon one after another. It was not until the shogunate completed the construction of the new Kanda Myojin Shrine that we no longer heard about similar strange incidents.
After the new Kanda Myojin Shrine was built, a grand spirit transfer ceremony was held in the name of the shogunate official in the era of Iemitsu III, and the spirit of Shomon was moved from the current Shomon Head Tomb to the new shrine. Kanda Akira Shrine. The first mound was located just inside the Mikami Domain's upper house, so the Mikami Domain continued to worship the first mound from generation to generation. Therefore, the belief in Kanda Myojin, the incarnation of Shomon, slowly spread from Edo and became one of the gods enthusiastically believed by the common people of Kanto during the Edo period. In the third year of Kanbun's reign, Emperor Gomizuo accepted the shogunate's suggestion and pardoned Shomon's crime of rebellion. As time went by, when the shogunate fell and the Meiji government was established and the capital was moved to Edo and changed to Tokyo, in the seventh year of Meiji, Emperor Meiji personally went to Kanda Myojin Shrine to offer sacrifices and was officially recognized and respected by the royal family.
In the early Meiji period, the new urban plan listed the Mikami Domain’s housing estates as the official residence of the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, all the old Mikami Domain housing estates were uprooted and converted into new official buildings, while the main mound of the gate was only The land centered on the tomb and a little bit around it was retained. Until the Great Kanto Earthquake suddenly occurred in the twelfth year of Taisho, more than half of the city of Tokyo was burned down, and the entire Ministry of Finance was burned down, and the Shomon Shou Mound was completely shattered. When the new Ministry of Finance was rebuilt, the general's head tomb was buried, and a new official building was built on it. Unexpectedly, when the Ministry of Finance was rebuilt in the Showa era, many strange things happened. First, the Tibetan Minister, who had just moved into the government office, died of a sudden illness within a few days, and then several section chief-level officials also died suddenly of illness. Just when everyone was suspicious, Parliamentary Secretary Sakuhei Takeuchi and several other junior bureaucrats of the Ministry of Finance also encountered an unknown strange commotion in the official residence of the government office and fled in fright. Therefore, the rumors that the door was causing trouble spread quickly, causing the residents of the entire Tokyo city to panic.
At that time, the Wakatsuki Reichiro cabinet had been severely damaged by the financial panic after the earthquake, and finally stepped down and was replaced by the Tanaka Giichi cabinet. At that time, there were rumors among Tokyo citizens that the reason Wakatsuki stepped down was because of Shomon's grudges. Moreover, these rumors about the grudges spread more and more widely, even in the Kansai region of Kyoto and Osaka. Therefore, after Tanaka came to power, he In the third year of the Showa era, the Tibetan minister Sanshi Tadzo entrusted Hirata Moriin, the deity of Kanda Myojin Shrine, to perform a memorial service at the Shomon head tomb. At that time, all cabinet officials from the Ministry of Finance and above, including the Minister of Finance and Prime Minister Tanaka, attended the ceremony. The rumors did not subside after the ceremony. Tanaka was reprimanded by Emperor Showa for the bombing that killed Zhang Zuolin in 2011 and was forced to step down. He died of illness the following year. Therefore, rumors at the time also said that Tanaka was also one of the victims of Shomon's resentful spirit.
At the end of World War II, Japan was defeated, and with the armistice treaty, Japan became a trusteeship of the US military. When the U.S. military stationed in Japan was reorganizing the city of Tokyo that was in ruins due to bombing, the U.S. military's Tokyo command headquarters happened to be located near Shomon's head mound. The Ministry of Finance's official office at that time was already in ruins. At that time, the US military took a liking to this ruins and wanted to clear it out as a parking lot for the US military headquarters. When the engineers who were doing the cleanup work arrived in front of the Shomon Head Tomb, the workers operating the bulldozers and excavators suddenly died suddenly. Then the US military staff officer in charge of the project also died suddenly at his residence two kilometers away. He took over the project. A U.S. Army engineer lieutenant also died in a car accident on his second day after taking over. One after another, even the designer of the parking lot project accidentally fell from the building, which made the old Tokyo people at that time think of the legends of the past and the story of the grudges causing trouble was spread again. This incident even alarmed the top brass of the US military, who decided in an informal meeting to scrap the plan to build a parking lot and instead allow private individuals to acquire the land here. At that time, a private group in Tokyo purchased the site at a cheap price and immediately began to rebuild the Shomon Head Tomb and hold a memorial ceremony again. In the late Showa era, the Shomon Shouzhong was restored again with a special grant from the Cultural Properties Protection Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
There are some strange rumors circulating in Tokyo today, and from time to time you will hear some strange legends about Shomen.
Some literary creations still revolve around this strange heroic figure who once caused great waves in the Eastern Kingdom. Maybe Shomon's battle is not over yet, and maybe the dark side of Tokyo is still continuing...