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As I suggested above, reading the Heike raises a number of questions for a modern reader as to the nature of the text itself, for what we read resembles no literary form with which we are familiar. It text shows epic qualities, but is not a poem. It is historically true yet shows considerable literary invention. Each incident is tightly focused, yet the whole seems sprawling and many-faceted. There is a striking consistency of theme, beautifully developed, but no one author. It reads well in print, yet the performance aspects of the text remain clear. As I suggested above, there are lots of verbal formulas included, particularly in the military sections, where there are set patterns employed that might be described as functional, such as "dressing the hero," "naming one's name before going into battle," and other devices familiar from older literature around the world, starting with Homer's Iliad. The Heike perforce deals with the fall of the mighty, yet shows sympathy for the ordinary population, whose lives are rendered difficult indeed because of the state of warfare into which the country was plunged.
The original Japanese language in which the Heike is written is a mixture of phonetics and Chinese characters and is, relatively speaking, straightforward and easy to read, at least compared to the arcane and subtle language of Genji, filled as it is with literary devices and indirect references. Many famous passages in the text are considered models of classical Japanese.
It is very difficult to sum up such a complex work in this brief space, but an explanation of a few themes from the Heike may help explain the long shadow it has cast, indeed still casts, over Japanese society and culture.
The Heike focuses on the struggle for power of two rival clans, the Taira (or Heike, in the Chinese reading) and the Minamoto (or Genji, in the Chinese reading, not a reference to the Murasaki novel, incidentally). Sympathy is shown for both sides. Taira no Kiyomori (1118-1181), the villain of the piece, is a blustering overweening warrior whose clan is assigned to defend the court, yet seeks mostly to aggrandize himself. He dies a horrible death halfway through the tale, but it is his machinations which set in motion the forces that will ultimately destroy the capital.
The Minamoto, long banished to the countryside, now want to take over the power and pull the Taira down. Their courageous leader, the young and vital Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1159-1189), who becomes one of the great romantic heroes of Japanese legend, is ultimately put to death by his elder brother, the sometimes sinister Minamoto no Yoritomo (1148-1199), who in the end assumes power as Shogun and begins military rule of the country from the northern city of Kamakura.
The Minamoto, countrified as they are, cannot but help admire the Taira courtiers. And the Taira themselves, although they effectively rule the country, are well aware of the ambiguousness of their position and of the folly of their leader. No one escapes censure, yet no one seems without at least some redeeming qualities, even Kiyomori. Each side thus feels sympathy for the other. Nowhere is this better captured than in the story of the Minamoto warrior Kumagai, who, when he meets the young Taira warrior Atsumori on the beach at Suma, one of the great battle scenes in the narrative, wants to spare him because the young man reminds him of his own son. In the end, however, he must do him in because of the presence of other Minamoto troops. This moving incident is one of the most famous in all Japanese medieval literature.
In the best episodes, the Heike seldom preaches but narrates. Events whirl by, and as in the finest adventure novel, the reader is to articulate the obvious moral and historical implications.
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