Samurai: A Concise History Michael

Wert
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/samurai-a-concise-history-michael-wert/
i

SAMURAI
ii
iii

SAMURAI
A Concise History

Michael Wert

1
iv

1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

© Oxford University Press 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN 978–​0–​19–​093294–​7

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2

Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America

v

To my wife, Yuko Kojima Wert

vi
vi

CONTENTS

Introduction | 1
1. Becoming Those Who Served | 4
2. Early Warrior Authority | 12
3. War and Culture | 33
4. Warriors in an Age of Peace | 64
5. Inventing the Samurai | 84

N OT E S | 111
F U RT H E R READING | 113
I N D E X | 117

vii
vi
1

Introduction

In the climactic battle scene at the end of the movie The Last
Samurai (2003), the protagonist, a samurai rebel, leads his army of
warriors as they charge to certain death against the newly formed,
modern government army. Wearing only their traditional clothing
and armed with bows, swords, and spears, they are mowed down by
Gatling guns and howitzers as the government’s general, himself an
ex-​samurai, looks on anxiously. This scene has all the familiar tropes
in the global fantasy about samurai: tradition versus modernity,
hand-​to-​hand fighting versus guns, and a celebration of honorable
death. The event depicted in the film is a historical one, the War of
the Southwest in Japan in 1877, when ex-​samurai refused to follow
a series of laws that stripped all samurai of their privileged status
and accompanying symbols; no more wearing swords in public or
maintaining topknot hairstyles. A more accurate description of the
battle scene flips the cinematic one—​the modernized government
army took shelter in a castle, the most traditional of defenses, while
ex-​samurai rebels bombarded them with cannon from outside. As
with anything else, the historical depiction is more interesting than
the popularized one.

1
2

2 S amurai

Samurai seem ubiquitous in popular culture; from the novel and

television show Shogun (1980) to The Last Samurai and the animated
series Samurai Champloo (2004–​2005), audiences never seem to tire
of them. They even appear in the most unlikely places; the corporate
name of a local coffee shop chain in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is Giri,
which the founder claims “comes from the Samurai code of honor,
Bushido, and can be translated to mean ‘social obligation.’ ” It sounds
nice, but “obligation” was simply a way to convince samurai to obey
their lords no matter the danger or, more likely, the drudgery.
There is no shortage of websites on samurai, and one can hardly
throw a rock without hitting some martial art instructor with a dis-
tinctive view on the samurai. There are plenty of glossy books that
give an overview of some aspect of samurai battles, warfare, castles,
and the like, but sifting through what is reliable and what is not can
be a chore. On the other hand, scholarly books tend to require too
much background information, familiarity with not only Japanese
but also Chinese history, religion, and art, disciplinary jargon, and,
for some older history books, significant language commitment.
I will describe how samurai changed from, roughly, the eighth
to the mid-​nineteenth centuries, impart a sense of warrior diversity,
and dispel common myths, such as the so-​called bushido samurai
code, swords as the “soul of the samurai,” and supposed fighting
prowess. Not all periods of warrior history are covered equally; there
are more details of samurai life from the seventeenth through nine-
teenth centuries (the early modern period) because most depictions
of samurai in the West coincide with warriors from that period, and
scholars know more about early modern Japan than about the me-
dieval period (ninth through fifteenth centuries). There are so many
documents from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that one
can buy them on internet auction sites for tens of dollars. A recent
auction for a collection of hundreds of documents from the eight-
eenth and nineteenth centuries, belonging to a single family, sold
on Yahoo Auction for 73,000 yen, about $660. Some texts from
early modern Japan even end up in the trash. After the earthquake,
3

Introduction 3

tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear disaster on March 11, 2011, local

historians scrambled to photograph historical documents found in
dilapidated storehouses slated for destruction and rebuilding. There
were so many documents that local museums and universities did
not have room to keep those deemed unimportant, and hence they
risked being thrown out. Documents from before the seventeenth
century are occasionally discovered but in ever fewer numbers, and
they are treated with greater care.
A final word about conventions. In Japanese, the surname
precedes the given name. I use the term warrior for the ninth through
sixteenth centuries, and samurai for the seventeenth through nine-
teenth centuries, when they existed as a narrowly defined social
status group. Warlord and lord both refer to daimyo, military leaders
who held territory and engaged in warfare during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries, but by the early seventeenth century, they had
become decidedly un-​warlike governors. In other words, I split
warrior history into two imperfect halves, the medieval and early
modern periods, with the early seventeenth century as the dividing
line. That is when the category of warrior narrowed, fundamentally
changing for this group their culture and relationship to the rest of
the Japanese population.
4

Chapter 1

Becoming Those Who Served

Colloquially, even in Japan, the term samurai is used as a synonym

for “warrior,” but this is incorrect. Samurai originally had a very
narrow meaning, referring to anyone who served a noble, even
in a nonmilitary capacity. Gradually it became a title for military
servants of warrior families—​in fact, a warrior of elite stature in pre-​
seventeenth-​century Japan would have been insulted to be called
a “samurai.” There were other more common terms for warriors in
classical and medieval Japan that reflected their various duties to the
state, nobility, and other superiors. Most specialists in Japan and in
the West use the generic term bushi, which means “warrior.”
Warrior is a usefully ambiguous term for referring to a broad
group of people, before the seventeenth century, with some military
function. This includes anyone expected to provide military service
to the state when needed and who received official recognition from
a ruling authority to do so, such as the nobility and court in Kyoto
or religious institutions. Even the term warrior is imprecise because
it incorrectly suggests that warfare was this group’s sole occupation.
Depending on the time period and status, warriors alternatively
governed, traded, farmed, painted, wrote, tutored, and engaged in
shady activities.

4
5

Becoming Those Who Served 5

Another caution when using the term warrior is the moral value
that modern people attach to the concept. The US military uses
“warrior” in its various training programs, such as “Warrior Mind
Training,” a meditation program created for soldiers to help them
cope with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to prepare
them for the rigors of combat. The developer used the image of
the samurai to sell the program, “rooting it in the ancient Samurai
code of self-​discipline.”1 No such code existed. Even phrases used
ironically assume the existence of an authentic admirable warrior
image—​for example, “weekend warrior,” suggesting that one is a
normal boring person during the week but becomes some other,
more primal person on the weekend. In this usage, a warrior is some-
thing one is, not an occupation one does.
But throughout Japanese history, people often despised warriors.
Artists and writers portrayed warriors as beasts, no better than dogs,
uncouth and murderous. Warriors pillaged, looted, and sometimes
murdered their way through villages. They found no love among
peasants, who feared warriors because peasants suffered the most
from their looting, pillaging, and collateral damage. Ironically, it was
only during an age of relative peace, in early modern Japan (1600–​
1868), that common people began to admire and imitate samurai.
Of course, warriors fought in combat, but in reality they spent
most of their time doing something else. That could mean trying to
improve their family’s position in an elite society dominated by no-
bility, managing farmers on their estates, or, for the lowliest warriors,
even engaging in occasional grift. The limit of samurai activities was
determined by the definition of “warrior” as it changed over time.
A samurai traveling back in time from the nineteenth century to the
ninth might hardly be recognized as belonging to the same category
of people.
Warriors of the distant past became a source of entertainment,
anxiety, and inspiration for samurai living in later times. One sam-
urai commentator in the early eighteenth century, an era of peace,
complained of his contemporaries, “So many men now seem to have
6

6 S amurai

the pulse of a woman,” nothing like the real warrior men of the pre-
vious century, a time of war.2 In the thirteenth century, a Buddhist
nun, Hōjō Masako, invoked the legacy of her late husband Minamoto
Yoritomo as a warrior founding father of sorts who fought against a
threat from an emperor in Kyoto. And let’s not forget the material
appeal of the past; samurai of higher status delighted in purchasing a
sword or tea bowl once owned by famous warriors.
Warriors used military skills as a means of advancing their
careers. Politically, they were outsiders, used as tools by powerful
nobles who needed them as muscle to police their lands or to act
as a check on other noble families intent on taking land by force.
Much of Japan technically belonged to the emperor (tennō, liter-
ally “heavenly sovereign”), who, according to ancient mythology,
was descended from gods, and warriors protected the interests of
the emperor’s regime based in the ancient capital cities of Nara,
Nagaoka, and from 794, Kyoto. They guarded against outbreaks of
violence close to the capital, attacked anyone in the provinces far
from Kyoto who might threaten the regime, and campaigned against
the many “barbaric” tribes located on the outskirts of Japan in the
northeast or southwest.
The term warrior typically does not include others who lived
by violence—​namely, mercenaries, bandits, and pirates. But before
the seventeenth century, a person’s status was not so neatly defined.
Some people temporarily connected to a ruling institution could
legally participate in warfare, governance, and commerce. For ex-
ample, though most warrior and royal authorities depicted pirates as
violent bandits operating at sea, they sometimes engaged in warfare
on behalf of a warrior regime called a shogunate, a religious insti-
tution such as a Buddhist temple, or a noble ensconced in the cap-
ital, Kyoto. They monopolized sea-​based trade, established rules of
conduct and expectations from people living along waterways, and
wielded authority like a warlord or warrior bureaucracy.
A debate about warrior origins has raged in both the Japanese
and English language scholarship on premodern Japan due, in part,
7

Becoming Those Who Served 7

to how one defines samurai. Were they simply a carryover from an-
cient soldiers? The earliest evidence for warrior-​soldiers predates
written history and Japan itself. Terracotta figures (haniwa)
depicting soldiers, servants, and animals were placed outside tombs
that dotted the ancient burial landscape between the third and sixth
centuries. The soldiers’ arms and armor reflect the influence of con-
temporary warriors in China and the Korean kingdoms and share
a common style that shows the existence of some primitive regime
that influenced mostly central and southwest Japan. Hunters and
landholders from the eastern provinces? Or professional warriors
hired by the Kyoto court? For the sake of argument, it is safe to
say that private military specialists emerged as a permanent feature
in Japanese history around the ninth century when some of them
began wielding authority over others rather than serving as mere
soldiers.
Written evidence for warrior history can be traced to the late
eighth and early ninth centuries, when the early Japanese state
adopted the administrative structure of Tang dynasty China (618–​
907), the dominant cultural and political power in East Asia. In
addition to adapting the various court titles, noble ranks, bu-
reaucratic structures, and culture, the early Japanese sovereigns
copied Tang military organization. The court required men to
serve in provincial units in times of need. Though a conscript
army existed on paper, most showed up only for occasional short-​
term assignments of up to thirty days or so—​for example, to
serve in the frontier guard. Most of the year they pursued their
own livelihoods. Conscripts were supposed to supply their own
weapons and equipment and did not spend much time training.
Only officers worked in the military for long periods of time, and
some historians have argued that those men were engaged in man-
agerial work rather than intense military training or warfare. Much
of the Tang administrative model was abandoned in Japan in the
late eighth century and was gradually replaced over the next cen-
tury and a half with specialist warriors.
8

8 S amurai

In the broadest terms, several different types of warriors existed

beginning in the early eighth century. Most warriors did not “own”
land, per se, but received a portion of an estate’s produce and the
rights to collect—​and skim—​taxes from estates owned by absentee
proprietors living in Kyoto. Some enjoyed relative freedom from
interference by authorities in Kyoto or their representatives in the
provinces. Some possessed land themselves and consigned some
of that land to a non-​warrior noble family in Kyoto in exchange
for patronage—​that is, for guarantees that others would not stake
a claim on a warrior’s land. Still other warriors were themselves
members of noble families, albeit of a lower rank than most of the
powerful nobles who controlled the top bureaucratic positions
in Kyoto. Of those, some had established local connections and
alliances during a tenure as provincial governor and remained there
permanently. They became warrior-​lords and relied on minor war-
rior families while maintaining connections to allies and resources
in Kyoto. As the center of rule and the largest city at the time, Kyoto
wielded a centripetal force on elite clans throughout Japan. People
with aristocratic Kyoto lineage occupied the top social strata in pro-
vincial society. Prominent families in the countryside worried about
Kyoto-​appointed governors sent to monitor them, and politics in
Kyoto could threaten local access to wealth.
There was no single model for how these warriors organized
themselves. Men might cooperate in bands of warriors connected
by kinship, personal loyalty, or common enemies. Others worked to-
gether for noble families located in the capital city, provincial officials,
or local strongmen. It is no surprise that the ability to fight and or-
ganize resources for a military campaign was more efficient among
these specialized groups than among conscripts whose livelihoods
were interrupted, not enhanced, by warfare. Eventually the state
depended on these professionalized warrior groups for police and
military functions. Dependency did not mean that warriors took au-
thority away from the state nor was it the beginning of the end for the
royalty, as was once taught; the court and nobility were still in charge.
9

Becoming Those Who Served 9

Most powerful warriors in classical and medieval Japan tended

to be those who were themselves nobles and thus had little incen-
tive to challenge the status quo of their community. Although they
never achieved the upper echelons of noble ranking, many large, in-
terconnected families that dominated Japan, such as the Taira and
the Minamoto, were descended from sons of emperors cast aside
because they were no longer in the running for the throne. An em-
peror bestowed a surname upon these sons who started clans of
their own and followed careers common to noble families: serving
as functionaries at court, working as important and influential
Buddhist clergy, or becoming professional warriors. But not all
families within a single surname, such as Minamoto, pursued the
same career trajectory.
One might wonder, though, did any warrior try to overthrow the
emperor in Kyoto or otherwise carve out a territory of his own, in-
dependent from the center? Taira Masakado was the first would-​be
rebel against the court. He lived in eastern Japan, not far from present-​
day Tokyo, surrounded by other Taira families who controlled land
in the east. Some of them served as the imperial court’s representa-
tives. Masakado had once lived in Kyoto under the court’s employ-
ment, but he was largely a man of the east, a land distant from the
center of political and cultural power. What began as a conflict over
land among different Taira families and Masakado’s own relatives—​
fighting that the nobility in Kyoto largely ignored—​turned into an
act of rebellion in 935 when Masakado retaliated against Taira men
who were the emperor’s representatives. Masakado might not have
intended to rebel against the emperor, nor did he have a force large
enough to threaten Kyoto directly, but he declared himself the “new
emperor” in the east, a career that did not last long—​he was killed
by a cousin in 940.
Another challenger to imperial and noble authority was Taira
Kiyomori. He, too, was descended from an emperor and was raised
in Kyoto like other aristocrats. When a succession dispute broke
out within the imperial family over who would become the next
10

10 S amurai

emperor, Kiyomori led the forces of the victor; the losers, mostly
under the control of Minamoto Yoshitomo, were sent into exiled
or killed. What began as a clash against forces representing noble
patrons turned into a rivalry between Kiyomori and Yoshitomo.
Kiyomori beat Yoshitomo and began accumulating aristocratic titles,
bureaucratic posts, and provincial landholdings. By the late 1170s,
he had become a real threat to imperial power. In Kyoto, he placed
allies in important positions not already under his direct control and
tried, unsuccessfully, to move the capital to what is now Kobe. There
he embarked on massive building projects, including his own head-
quarters and ports for trade with China. He was the first warrior-​
noble who attempted to dominate all warriors in Japan. He even put
his own grandson, the child emperor Antoku, on the throne. The
prince who had been passed up for succession when young Antoku
was enthroned asked warriors to overthrow Kiyomori. That chal-
lenge started the so-​called Gempei War (1180–​85) which lasted
longer, and was geographically broader, than any previous battle in
Japanese history. It even outlasted Kiyomori, who died of natural
causes in 1181.
No broadly conceived warrior identity existed before the Gempei
War. At the top of warrior society, the most powerful families were
themselves part of the aristocracy; the terms warrior and nobility
were not mutually exclusive. For the most part, warriors with noble
surnames such as Minamoto and Taira, who resided largely in the
countryside, had no incentive to fight against the imperial institu-
tion that their ancestors had helped build. Many acted as bridges
between Kyoto and the countryside; they feared relatives and
neighbors and were hardly in a position to rise up against the im-
perial institution. At the other end of the social spectrum, the lowly
nonaristocratic soldiers and mercenaries often engaged in nonmili-
tary work. Even midranking warriors shared little in common with
their royal betters.
This situation changed to a degree after Minamoto Yoritomo
emerged as the victor at the end of the Gempei War. He remained at
1

Becoming Those Who Served 11

his headquarters in Kamakura and is credited with creating the first

warrior-​centered regime, the Kamakura shogunate (1185–​1333).
Textbooks portray him as the originator of Japan’s warrior identity,
but that shared identity extended only to the warriors who gathered
around him in Kamakura. This beginning of so-​called warrior order
was not orderly nor did it involve only warriors. But it represented a
first step toward a broader notion of warrior culture and identity that
would develop over the subsequent centuries.
12

Chapter 2

Early Warrior Authority

Minamoto Yoritomo’s forces swept from eastern Japan to the west,

defeating the Taira armies in 1185. With the help of Kyoto-​born
nobility and warrior allies, Yoritomo created a warrior regime that
lasted until 1333, at which time several prominent warrior clans
destroyed the Kamakura regime in the name of the emperor. The
shogunate’s leading men, first Yoritomo and then a series of regents
ruling on behalf of weak titular leaders called shoguns, consolidated
their control over Japan at the expense of the nobility. Thus, the typ-
ical story about Japan’s first warrior regime centers on the institution
of the shogunate and how it became the center of a putative “warrior
order.” It focuses on men who managed estates, created a primitive
legal court, and interacted with noblemen as either employers, allies,
or foes. In popular culture, these men tend to be in armor on a bat-
tlefield constantly engaged in combat. In reality, they spent less time
fighting than movies and manga ( Japanese graphic novels) would
have us believe. The fullness of early warrior history is best captured
through its women. All warrior households had military obligations,
but those obligations were organized by family units in the broadest
sense: large clans comprising women, retainers, and servants who
fulfilled menial and complex duties. Military obligation included

12
13

Tomoe Gozen is shown dressed in armor—​depicted as a combatant rather

than as a docile wife. The artist describes her “wielding her halberd like a water
wheel.” British Museum, AN433673001
14

14 S amurai

supplying food, clothing, and labor; it was not simply engaging in

combat on the battlefield.
Moreover, the survival of any warrior family depended on
the efficient management of its wealth, smooth relations among
allies, and, especially for elite warrior families, connections with
nonwarrior aristocrats. Men dominated this process but could not
do so without women. In one sense, women were used as objects,
through marriage, to solidify an alliance between elite families. But
a woman retained any possessions given to her during her marriage,
and she continued to live on her parents’ estate or in her own resi-
dence, often separately from her husband, making her far more inde-
pendent than her samurai counterparts during later periods. Warrior
wives also wielded tremendous influence on their family’s position
in society. For example, they acted on behalf of either dead or absent
husbands; a widow could carry out her clan’s military obligations.
Indeed, there might not have been a Kamakura shogunate
without women. The Kyoto aristocratic custom of entrusting the fu-
ture of one’s child to female caretakers and their families provided
Yoritomo with a stable of warrior and nonwarrior connections vital
to his success. Since many of Yoritomo’s male relatives were killed,
he depended on the women who helped raise him as a child. They
supplied him with wealth, male allies in his youth, and information
from Kyoto. His mother was born into the Fujiwara clan, the most
powerful noble family before the thirteenth century. Her status
guaranteed Yoritomo’s high position within the Minamoto clan be-
cause his father’s other consorts were of lower noble blood. And
when Kiyomori defeated the Minamoto clan, he spared Yoritomo,
it is said, because Kiyomori’s stepmother intervened on his be-
half. Instead, he exiled Yoritomo to the Izu province in the east, far
from Kyoto’s center of wealth and power. There Yoritomo grew up
under the watch of Hōjō Tokimasa, the twenty-​two-​year-​old head
of a minor, obscure family distantly related to the Taira. Like other
Kyoto noblemen, Yoritomo was born into a pampered life and must
have been shocked by his move to a very rural area as an adolescent.
15

Early Warrior Authority 15

Elite warrior families like the Minamoto followed the courtier

model of marriage and child-​rearing in which women were at the
center. In Kyoto noble culture, nannies and wet nurses came from
minor noble families, and the boys placed in their care played and
learned alongside these women’s own children. Since the boys es-
sentially grew up together, they often became trusted allies as adults
despite differences in social status within the noble hierarchy. The
noblewomen who knew Yoritomo as a child ensured that he would
continue to maintain a decent life in Izu well into adulthood.
For example, one of Yoritomo’s wet nurses, the nun Hiki, consist-
ently sent him rice, a form of wealth. She controlled her family after
her husband’s death, and the heir that she adopted, Hiki Yoshikazu,
became one of Yoritomo’s closest allies and a top advisor in the
shogunate after Yoritomo died. Likewise, her son-​in-​law, Adachi
Morinaga, became a trusted advisor to Yoritomo, and his clan pro-
vided much-​needed economic support to Yoritomo. Hiki’s daughter
even served as the wet nurse to Yoritomo’s son, the second shogun
Minamoto Yoriie. A third wet nurse mediated the connection be-
tween Yoritomo and her grandson, Miyoshi Yasunobu, who served
Yoritomo in a bureaucratic rather than a military function. Indeed,
the only older male relative Yoritomo could count on while in Izu
was his maternal uncle, the Buddhist monk Yūhan, who sent a
servant to Izu once a month to bring Yoritomo news from Kyoto.
Yoritomo was not destined for greatness even though warriors in
later centuries would glorify him. He spent most of his adult life in
obscurity. It was not until he reached his early thirties, fully middle-​
aged for the time period, that he attacked the Taira clan and began
to create the Kamakura shogunate, an institution left incomplete
during his lifetime. His background, supporters, and the political
and economic environment for families in the east contributed to
his success in elevating warrior authority, a process that continued
long after his death.
Yoritomo gathered allies around him by taking advantage of their
economic anxieties. Warrior families did not own land per se but
16

16 S amurai

could access land and its resources, human and material, through
various managerial and policing duties granted to them by ab-
sentee landholders. Warriors did not control the appointment or
transferring of those duties, nor could a warrior hope to rise into
the upper echelons of nobility that would make him a proprietor.
Taira Kiyomori, for example, could not be a landowner and merely
appointed himself as protector and governor of lands. He had to im-
itate noble precedent by copying the Fujiwara family’s practice of
placing a grandson on the imperial throne.
Adding to economic insecurity were regional threats from neigh-
boring rivals or family members who might take land or titles by
force. It might seem counterintuitive, but the greatest threats came
from within one’s own clan. With no concept of primogeniture (the
oldest son inheriting everything), the death of a clan leader might
result in immediate infighting among cousins, uncles, and sons from
different women who lived separately from their husbands. For
lower-​ranking warrior aristocrats or clans not based in and around
Kyoto, sons were raised by the mother’s family, and the wife’s family
vied for control over wealth and influence.
Thus, when an imperial prince, Mochihito, put out the call for
people to oust Kiyomori from his position, those who responded
took into consideration intra-​clan politics, connections to Kyoto no-
bility, and local rivalries when deciding if, and how, they would act.
Yoritomo spent much of his time fighting relatives and clans tradi-
tionally allied to the Minamoto in the early stages of the Gempei
War. From the beginning, other Minamoto men such as Yorimasa,
who was defeated in 1180, and Yoritomo’s cousin, Yoshinaka, also
mobilized against Kiyomori, rivaling Yoritomo’s efforts. Yoritomo
gathered around him warriors whose loyalty he secured by prom-
ising them titles, access to land, and a pretext to attack local rivals.
He provided an alternative to Kyoto-​based authority for people
living in the east. In fact, once the Taira troops captured and killed
Prince Mochihito, the royal court, under Taira influence, declared
Yoritomo a rebel. Thus, unlike Kiyomori, whose career was made
17

Early Warrior Authority 17

within the bounds of the imperial government, Yoritomo could

confiscate lands from his enemies instead of forfeiting them to the
emperor.
The Gempei War did not unfold as one might expect. The initial
protagonist, Mochihito, and antagonist, Kiyomori, died in 1180 and
1181, respectively. Mochihito and his Minamoto supporters were
cornered and killed, while Kiyomori died of a fever so high, the lit-
erary version of the events in the Tale of Heike tells us, that it was
caused by the guardians and flames of hell coming to claim him.
Yoritomo was busy fighting local enemies and rivals, building
a headquarters and bureaucracy in Kamakura until 1184, when he
marched on Kyoto. In 1185, his half-​brother Yoshitsune pursued the
Taira as they retreated south from Kyoto. Yoshitsune, not Yoritomo,
led the more spectacular battles, including the final one along the
coast by the sea of Dan-​no-​Ura, far southwest from Kyoto and
Kamakura. The Minamoto forces destroyed the remnants of the
Taira clan, while the Taira noblewomen, one of them still holding
onto the child emperor Antoku, Kiyomori’s grandson, dived into
the seas of Dan-​no-​Ura, and drowned. So tragic was the defeat of
Taira warriors, noblewomen, and servants that local legend claims
the spirits of the Taira warriors imprinted themselves onto the cara-
pace of small crabs.
The significance of the Gempei War in Japanese warrior history
cannot be reduced to a neat list of losers and winners, nor of gains
and losses. The emperor had no choice but to recognize Yoritomo’s
emergence as Japan’s dominant warrior, making him the “constable”
(shugo) of all of Japan’s provinces. He restored Yoritomo’s court
rank, eliminating his status as a rebel, and recognized his right to as-
sign warriors as managers to estates throughout Japan. But warriors
did not control Japan; even Yoritomo coveted noble court rank and
recognition from Kyoto. In his portrait he is dressed as an aristo-
crat, not as a warrior in battle dress. The war engendered a sense of
unease for all elites, including Kyoto nobles, members of religious
institutions, warriors, Yoritomo and his allies, and prominent local
18

18 S amurai

A popular legend tells how defeated Taira warriors turned into crabs like this
one found in the seas around southwestern Japan. The crabs are said to contain
the spirits of the angry, dead warriors, particularly those killed in the pivotal
naval battle in the sea along Dan-​no-​Ura that ended the Gempei War (1180–​
85 ce). Author’s collection

families. Rather than simply “serving” the Kyoto nobility, warriors

now encroached on Kyoto’s prerogatives of rule, a process that even
Yoritomo could not control completely.

Yoritomo’s Kamakura

Kamakura, a humble village with ancestral connections to the

Minamoto, became a site of power during the 1180s. Called simply
“Ōkura Palace” at the time, it was the location of what is now referred
to as the Kamakura shogunate, Japan’s first warrior regime. Across
Japan, warriors who wanted to benefit from Yoritomo’s success
19

Elite warriors in early Japan valued their court-​appointed titles more than their
status as warriors. The only way a viewer might guess that this is a portrait of a
warrior, said to be Yoritomo, is from the short sword on his hip. Jingo-​ji Temple
20

20 S amurai

declared that they too were his vassals, called “housemen” (gokenin),
in an attempt to legitimize their local agendas. The shogunate’s
offices, staffed by minor nobles from Kyoto, monks, and warriors,
managed applications for houseman status and tried to adjudicate
lawsuits against warriors by other warriors and nonwarriors.
What makes the founding of the shogunate a watershed mo-
ment is that it forever changed how one group of warriors related
to another. Although this change was limited to those who lived
in the city of Kamakura itself, mostly Yoritomo’s vassals and those
who served the shogunate, it created opportunities for warriors
to meet each other on a daily basis. Before the twelfth century,
most warriors interacted only with family members, servants, and
retainers who may have served them. Other than occasional guard
duty in Kyoto or military campaigns, warriors of unrelated clans
rarely encountered each other. In other words, the shogunate, espe-
cially Yoritomo’s palace itself, became a place where warriors devel-
oped as a social group—​an exclusive one. Most of these warriors
were directly connected to Yoritomo. The palace functioned as a
space for official meetings and social gatherings. It became a place to
strengthen ties among warrior families, arrange marriages, and dole
out punishment. The day-​to-​day business of running a government
meshed with social events. For example, Yoritomo had one of his
vassals murdered during a board game session (sugoroku). Outside
the palace, warriors hunted together and engaged in ceremonies
that had both pseudo-​religious and martial functions—​for example,
bouts of sumo wrestling or shooting on horseback. These provided
opportunities for warriors to strengthen the bonds to each other and
to the shogunate, separate from the nonwarrior nobility in Kyoto.
Nonetheless, connections to nobility in Kyoto, especially through
marriage, remained important to warriors throughout the rest of
Japanese history.
Not all of Yoritomo’s vassals knew each other, and many falsely
claimed to serve him. It was not until 1189, when he ordered his
housemen to follow him into war against rebels in the northern
21

Early Warrior Authority 21

city of Hiraizumi, that he could finally distinguish between those

who were really housemen and those who were not. Housemen
who refused his command were stripped of their titles and
coveted privileges. For the most part, warriors were concerned
about local issues and only secondarily about relations with the
shogunate. Loyalty to the shogunate was sometimes loose and
did not extend to the many warriors across Japan who were not
Yoritomo’s vassals.
Much like Kiyomori before him, Yoritomo placed nobles favor-
able to him in important bureaucratic posts in Kyoto while building
his own independent headquarters. Yoritomo had no grand blue-
print for his rule, and he demanded that warriors follow local
practices and precedents established by the nobility. Moreover,
Yoritomo’s victory did not lead to an era of warrior dominance. He
and the shogunate reined in warrior aspirations; they did not take
over or destroy the Kyoto government. For the remainder of the
twelfth century and part of the thirteenth, Kamakura was a junior
ruling partner with Kyoto. Much of what defined Kamakura as a
semibureaucratic regime developed after Yoritomo’s death of nat-
ural causes in 1199.

Hōjō’s Kamakura

As was the custom for noble and elite warrior families alike, Yoritomo’s
sons were raised by women and the male relatives connected to their
mother, the widowed nun Hōjō Masako. She was the closest personal
connection between Yoritomo and the shogunate. This put her at
the center of a struggle for control over the shogunate that included
her brother (Yasutoki), her father (Tokimasa), her son (Yoriie) and
his wife’s family (the Hiki), and Yoritomo’s allies. Although many
vassals tried to uphold Yoritomo’s legacy through Masako, others
challenged that authority—​blind loyalty was not the norm. Nearly
a dozen people in the Hiki, Hōjō, and Minamoto families died in
2

22 S amurai

the succession disputes that followed, and Masako emerged as one

of the few sources of continuity in shogunal politics from the late
twelfth to the early thirteenth centuries.
Masako, far from being a protective mother supporting her son
Yoriie, the second shogun, was closer to her birth family, the Hōjō.
According to the late thirteenth-​century historical chronicle Mirror
of the East, Yoriie was an ineffectual leader. Not long after his father’s
death, Yoriie sent a close vassal of Yoritomo on a false errand in the
hope of taking the man’s lover while he was gone. The vassal returned
to Kamakura having learned about the ruse, and Yoriie planned
to preemptively attack the vassal’s mansion. Masako occupied the
vassal’s residence to stop her son’s attack, and then berated Yoriie in
writing. She also made the vassal promise that he would not retal-
iate at some later date. Even Minamoto men, such as Yoritomo’s half-​
brother Zenjo, sought Masako’s protection. She considered Zenjo
a potential threat to her family, however, and rejected him; he was
eventually hunted down and killed.
Masako’s efforts on behalf of her brother, rather than her son
Yoriie, pushed Yoriie closer to his in-​laws, the Hiki, thus setting the
scene for a showdown between the Hiki and Hōjō. The Hiki used
him to obtain posts in the shogunate and hold sway over his sons
who would inherit the shogun title. For example, the Hiki patri-
arch, Yoshikazu, envisioned his grandson inheriting the shogun title
after Yoriie, thus putting the Hiki in a dominant position in the sho-
gunate. But Hōjō Tokimasa had the same idea, and under his orders,
Yoriie’s heir was executed, as were some Hiki family members. In
1203, Masako and her father Tokimasa forced Yoriie to retire after
he fell ill. And when Tokimasa heard that Yoriie was planning to
have him assassinated, Yoriie too was killed, leaving the Hōjō victo-
rious. Naturally, Tokimasa, as the Hōjō patriarch, had his own ideas
about the shogunate’s future: he wanted children from his second
wife to control it. But Masako preferred her brother. In 1205 she had
her father arrested and she controlled the shogunate alongside her
brother Yoshitoki.
23

Early Warrior Authority 23

Tension among warrior families was complicated by warrior

connections to the Kyoto establishment. Once Yoriie fell ill and
died, the last remaining son of Yoritomo was anointed shogun, the
eleven-​year-​old Sanetomo. But he was less a warrior than an aristo-
crat, engaging in activities typically associated with Kyoto nobility.
He studied classical poetry assiduously, learning from one of the
greatest classical poets, Fujiwara no Teika. And he maintained rel-
atively close ties to Kyoto nobles including the emperor Go-​Toba.
Similar to his father, Sanetomo held the title “shogun” in less esteem
than positions awarded to him within the noble hierarchy. He even
surpassed Yoritomo in that realm, having received a prestigious ad-
ministrative title, “Minister of the Right,” a position, largely ceremo-
nial at this time, that oversaw Kyoto’s Council of State. He did not
enjoy that title for even a few hours, however; his nephew, Yoriie’s
son, murdered him during the ceremony, blaming his uncle for his
father’s death. Thus Yoritomo’s line ended with Sanetomo’s murder
in 1219.
Sanetomo’s relationship to the nobility represented a potential
high point between the court and the shogunate. Since he did not
produce an heir, Masako brokered an agreement with Go-​Toba in
1218 that would have resulted in an imperial prince becoming the
fourth shogun. This would have been an attractive possibility to
Go-​Toba, who could then influence both a new emperor and a new
shogun. Instead, Sanetomo’s murder became an opportunity for
Go-​Toba to accomplish what Go-​Shirakawa had tried to do in the
aftermath of the Gempei War—​bring warriors to heel under Kyoto
authority.

The Jōkyū Order

Go-​Toba’s attack against the shogunate, known as the Jōkyū War

(1221), named after the reign year, is hardly worth mentioning as
a military event. It pitted Go-​Toba’s hodgepodge of warriors, some
24

24 S amurai

Kamakura housemen, and many warriors from the west unaffili-

ated with the shogunate against the Hōjō and their supporters. Each
army had about a thousand soldiers and the fighting lasted less than a
month. But it was significant for its role in shifting power away from
the emperor and court in favor of the shogunate. The crown prince,
an emperor, and three retired emperors were all banished. Here
again, Masako seems to have played a decisive role, if the stories of
her speech are to be believed, by appealing to the Hōjō fighters’ sense
of loyalty to her late husband. Loyalty might have motivated some
warriors on both sides, but others used the war as a pretext to attack
rivals. Moreover, a Go-​Toba victory would probably have curtailed
warrior authority throughout Japan, not enhanced it. At any rate, it
took the Hōjō army only a month to defeat Go-​Toba’s forces.
Many of the titles, positions, and bureaucratic structures of the
Kamakura shogunate were fully developed during the thirteenth
century under the Hōjō after their victory. The Hōjō did not con-
duct themselves with impunity, yet warrior families were eager to
maintain stability in the countryside and protect themselves. Even
if they did not wholeheartedly support the Hōjō, they were at least
willing to cooperate with the shogunate for the time being. The
shogunate responded to these anxieties by incorporating a broader
range of warriors into the shogunate’s rule.
The Hōjō placed more warrior-​managers, including at least one
woman, on estates throughout Japan, particularly among those of
Go-​Toba’s defeated supporters and in regions where there had been
none before the shogunate was established. Rather than follow
the myriad pre-​Jōkyū customs for tax collection, the shogunate
attempted to standardize collection across all estates. These expan-
sive policies could not have worked under the early shogunate, when
Yoritomo and his immediate successors had neither the manpower
nor the know-​how to challenge Kyoto precedent. In those days,
the shogunate followed Kyoto’s lead, ruling with Kyoto rather than
against Kyoto. After the Jōkyū war, however, the shogunate expanded
warrior authority and intensified its penetration throughout Japan.
25

Early Warrior Authority 25

The Hōjō empowered military governors to stop rebellions, to

hunt down criminals, to defend the coasts against pirates, and, in
distant southern Japan, to try and judge criminals. These military
governors could move across estate borders and public land, which
local warriors could not do. Nonetheless, appointments to the mili-
tary governor position were not permanent; governors did not have
the power to tax, could not act independently of the shogunate, nor
infringe upon nonwarrior lands.
For example, the Kamakura shogunate’s first legal code, the
Laws and Regulations for Judgment (Goseibai Shikimoku), was not
enacted until 1232, as a response to the Jōkyū War. Although it
is typically described as a set of military laws, it reflects many is-
sues that had been common in the Kyoto bureaucracy. Calling it a
law overestimates the extent of its impact over the diverse groups
of people called warriors. The term law did not carry with it the
meanings it does in the modern world; for example, there were
few mechanisms for enforcing rules in the premodern world nor
was there a legal culture saturating daily life as there is today. No
premodern government could enforce, or even conceive of, the
monitoring and categorization of human life and property, from
birth to death, as a modern government does. Mostly, the Laws and
Regulations for Judgment established expectations and consequences
laid out for military governors and land stewards—​upper and
middle management. Many warriors in places far from Kamakura
simply ignored the code. Nonetheless, the Laws and Regulations
marked the first time that a warrior regime in Japan created a model
for behavior applicable to warriors across space and time; warrior
leaders and intellectuals studied it up to the nineteenth century,
long after the Kamakura shogunate had collapsed.
As a legal document, in keeping with the practice by the sho-
gunate since its beginning, it emphasized following precedent.
“Governors of provinces and estate [nonwarrior] proprietors may
exercise their normal jurisdiction without referring to the shogunate
authorities.”1 In fact, such proprietors were told that the shogunate
26

26 S amurai

would not even entertain requests from temples or shrines that

wanted guidance from the shogunate.
The code attempted to restrain newly empowered housemen
and administrators after the Jōkyū War. Stewards found skimming
tax collections or collecting more tax than was required “shall be
deprived of their posts.” Even if their deputies committed crimes
or otherwise “contravene[d]‌the laws and precedents,” the steward
would be held responsible if he knew about it and tried to shield
the deputy. Military governors who confiscated property for some
offense without making a proper report would “be dealt with
criminally.”
In the mid-​fourteenth century, a trial handbook titled A Book
for Those Unskilled in Legal Matters (Sata Mirensho) was created that
defined simple terms like plaintiff and more complicated concepts
such as miscellaneous civil cases and criminal cases. Among the civil
cases were “money or grain loans with interest; sale of paddy fields,
slaves, or semi-​free workers; and adduction of servants”; the crim-
inal cases included “rebellion, night attacks, robbery with violence,
secret theft, brigandry, piracy, murder, arson, battery, wounding with
a sharp weapon, arson, seizing and raping women, creating a panic
and stealing people’s valuables as they flee, or harvesting another’s
paddy or dry field.”
And what was life like for warriors across Japan? It depended on
whom you worked for and your position within that local hierarchy.
The shogunate expected its housemen to spend several months
during the year performing guard duty in Kyoto, providing service
to a provincial governor or perhaps working on an estate in some
bureaucratic and police function. Men might be rotated through dif-
ferent positions in order to learn the full range of duties required
of shogunal vassals. Warriors who were not directly connected to
the shogunate worked in similar capacities locally, serving various
functions for a noble family, a Buddhist temple complex, or pow-
erful clans in the countryside with loose or nonexistent ties to Kyoto
nobility or the Kamakura shogunate. Some warriors worked directly
27

Early Warrior Authority 27

for the emperor. Since Japan was not in a constant state of war,
however, duties tended to be mundane or physical; many warriors
worked in agriculture alongside commoners.
Most warriors struggled economically. Estate stewards were typ-
ically paid from the taxes they collected, and they often abused their
tax collecting power. Economically, clans that had access to land
suffered after several generations as the custom of equal inherit-
ance among sons and daughters had whittled away the family estate.
Building projects, patronizing Buddhist temples, buying artwork
from China, participating in courtly rituals: these were just some of
the drains on elite warrior wealth that forced them to borrow money
from local merchants, an indebtedness that was never resolved. Nor
could their traditional sources of income—​namely, produce from
land—​maintain pace with a growing commercial economy. These
problems did not occur suddenly, but they were exacerbated by the
Mongol invasions.

The Mongol Incursion

In 1215, Kublai Khan, the grandson of Chinggis Khan and leader

of the Mongols, achieved what his grandfather could not: the con-
quest of China. From Beijing, Kublai embarked on several decades
of invasions with mixed success. He subjugated Korea, for example,
but despite repeated attempts, failed to conquer Java, the Vietnamese
kingdoms of Dai Viet and Champa, and Japan. Warrior history was
never completely separate from events elsewhere in Asia, and al-
though the Mongols never made gains in Japan, their invasions
exposed weaknesses in the “warrior order.”
In the standard account of the invasions, the Mongol-​led forces,
which included many Chinese and Koreans, attacked the southern
island of Kyushu twice. In 1274 and again in 1281 the Japanese
warriors met a vastly superior force in terms of troop size, organi-
zation, and technology, including the use of explosives. Military
28

28 S amurai

historians blamed the so-​ called traditional form of Japanese

combat—​announcing one’s lineage and engaging in one-​on-​one
combat—​for the Japanese losses. The first invasion lasted only a
day before a great storm blew the Mongols back into the sea. The
Japanese prepared defenses along Hakata Bay, including a wall, and
held the Mongols off for several months before another storm came
along to save the day. The storms became known as the divine wind
(kamikaze), a term that became popular only in the wartime prop-
aganda of the 1930s and 1940s. During the end of World War II,
the Japanese military hoped that a “divine wind” of suicide pilots
would prevent a new invasion of another superior, foreign horde—​
the Americans.
Recent scholarship suggests that the storms might have been
a myth. Instead, religious institutions had pushed the divine in-
tervention story in order to accrue rewards for doing their part to
defeat the Mongols. Some historians claim that the storms alone
could not have defeated the Mongols. So why did the Mongols re-
treat? Perhaps the Japanese were not outmatched and defeated the
Mongols through combative effectiveness. Or the Mongols did in-
deed overwhelm the Japanese and only wanted to test Japanese mil-
itary strength, not commit to a full-​scale invasion. Kublai was still
fighting the Chinese throughout the 1270s and had embarked on
invasions elsewhere during the 1280s; he had neither the means nor
the inclination to fully invade Japan.
Defending Kyushu and preparing for a third invasion that never
came enhanced Hōjō presence in southern and central Japan. The
number of military governors in those areas increased, and they
were often members of the Hōjō family or its branches. The sho-
gunate recruited men from estates that had been free from any
shogunate intervention before the Mongol invasions. Once the sho-
gunate reached into estates not owned by its own vassals, they never
again left them alone. Hōjō jurisdiction over major temples and
shrines, previously limited to eastern Japan, now extended to those
in western Japan as well.
29

Early Warrior Authority 29

The Mongol invasions did not create new problems for war-
rior rule; rather, they exacerbated old ones. Many warriors who
mobilized their men to defend Kyushu hoped to receive rewards
for their efforts. With no national tax or much economic support
from the shogunate itself, the burden fell upon those warriors to
collect more tax from the lands around them. The Hōjō themselves
had few newly acquired lands to hand out, and those who received
some rewards were typically warriors in Kyushu. The Hōjō ordered
Kyushu families to limit inheritance to male offspring, taking eco-
nomic prerogatives away from daughters, a practice that, over time,
extended to warriors throughout Japan. Gradually, inheritance fell
to the oldest son, subordinating even the other male offspring.
The Hōjō also issued a series of prohibitions against warriors
selling their land or giving it to nonrelatives. These culminated in
a “virtuous edict” that forced anyone who had received land from a
warrior family, either as collateral on debts or as commodities sold
under the guise of gift giving, to return it to the original warrior
families. These debt cancelations were “virtuous” because land was
not a commodity to be bought and sold but an inherent part of a
warrior clan’s heritage. As with other premodern edicts, these were
often unclear. Many times, even the beneficiary’s claims were unen-
forceable, and some shrine priests believed the edict applied to them
too. Execution and enforcement of the prohibitions were frequently
impossible.

Kamakura in Decline

Rank-​and-​file Kamakura vassals and the shogunate suffered from in-

ternal disputes during the latter half of the thirteenth century. Two of
the Hōjō family’s most powerful vassals, Taira Yoritsuna and Adachi
Yasumori, began fighting each other after the death of the pow-
erful shogunal regent, Hōjō Tokimune (1284). In 1285, Yoritsuna
tried to hunt down Yasumori, which led to a series of murders,
30

30 S amurai

purges, and suicides among their supporters and underlings until

Yoritsuna himself was killed in 1293. Such violent political intrigues
rippled throughout Kyoto, where nobles split into groups of those
who resented Hōjō involvement in court politics and those who
supported the shogunate. Warrior branch families began breaking
off from the main clan by answering the call to defend Kyushu
on their own and not simply under the orders of the clan leader.
Gradually, warrior clans allied less with their geographically distant
kin and more with neighboring warriors.
Adding to the tensions at the top of society, at the bottom
there were growing numbers of bandits, pirates, mercenaries, and
marauders simply referred to as “evil bands” (akutō). Neither the
Kamakura shogunate and its vassals nor the court in Kyoto
maintained a monopoly over violence in Japan. In the latter half of
the thirteenth century these bands of men grew from perhaps a few
dozen at most to several hundred. Their numbers peaked during the
early fourteenth century as did their complexity; some even built
forts, joined forces with local warriors, or worked for local temples.
Many diverse groups of people armed themselves in order to attack
the ever-​monetizing, commercializing economy of the thirteenth
century and to defend themselves against threats from the top of so-
ciety as well as the bottom.

The Legacy of the First Warrior Regime

Toward the end of the samurai era, in the mid-​nineteenth century,

warrior pundits linked their existence to Yoritomo’s legacy. For them,
Yoritomo was a founding father of warrior rule. In general, however,
such lavish praise for Yoritomo occurred only late in premodern
warrior history. During his lifetime, Yoritomo was not universally
well regarded. Yoritomo killed his cousin (Yoshinaka) and his half-​
brother (Yoshitsune). When Yoritomo wanted to meet the Chinese
monk Chin’na Kei, who rebuilt the Todaiji Temple in Kamakura
31

Early Warrior Authority 31

after it burned down in 1180, the monk, repulsed by Yoritomo’s vi-

olent ways, rebuffed him. When Yoritomo sent him gifts, Chin’na
refused to receive them except for a horse saddle and a suit of armor.
He donated the saddle to the temple and had the armor melted
down and refashioned into nails. Political machinations within
the shogunal leadership throughout the late twelfth and thirteenth
centuries were violent. Kinsmen remained murder targets; none of
Yoritomo’s direct descendants died peaceful deaths, and his line did
not endure.
The story of Japan’s first warrior regime was one of gradual
change. Its existence began with the events in Kyoto among the
nobility and the emperors. Bureaucratic models, and often the
bureaucrats themselves; measures of wealth; patronage of reli-
gious institutions; literary conventions; and even marriage politics
originated in Kyoto. Whether claiming to be a Minamoto “man,”
invading noble or temple lands, or using their Kamakura-​appointed
position to rob locals, warriors had to contend with institutions and
customs not of their own creation.
On the other hand, the Kyoto elite could never contain war-
rior authority. The emperor “bestowed” the title of shogun but that
never implied control. Neither Yoritomo nor the Hōjō had to ask to
be shogun; they demanded it. At least several Kyoto sovereigns tried
to take back warrior power, first with Go-​Shirakawa who played
Yoritomo against his half-​brother Yoshitsune, and again with Go-​
Toba whose fight against the Hōjō was short-​lived. A third emperor,
Go-​Daigo, succeeded in challenging the shogunate in 1333, but even
then the court was unable to check warrior aspirations. Nobles in
Kyoto and prominent warriors in Kamakura never completely split
into separate realms. After Sanetomo’s death in 1219, shoguns came
from the Kyoto nobility, not from warrior families.
Legal documents from the Kamakura shogunate speak to the im-
portance of family, broadly defined, which included not only blood
relatives but also warrior retainers, nonwarrior servants, nannies
and wet nurses, and branch lines distant both geographically and
32

32 S amurai

temporally, all of whom could be one’s greatest allies or most dan-

gerous enemies. This is true not only of those at the top of warrior
society but also among marginal clans, whose desire to persevere
and expand could either be threatened or strengthened through mil-
itary, religious, and noble networks around Japan.
Weak though it might have been, the Kamakura shogunate es-
tablished a model for subsequent warrior regimes. In 1862, a war-
rior bureaucrat, complaining about meddling by the Kyoto nobility
and their supporters, noted that warriors had been in charge of
Japan’s politics since the Kamakura shogunate. His boss, Japan’s last
shogun, eventually surrendered to the emperor in 1868, and a year
later a newly formed modern government announced, “Now the evil
of misrule by the warriors since the Kamakura period has been over-
come and imperial government has been restored.”2
3

Chapter 3

War and Culture

The sixteenth-​century Jesuit Luis Frois described the pirate lord

Noshima Murakami as being “so powerful that on these coasts as
well as the coastal regions of other kingdoms, all pay him annual
tribute out of fear that he will destroy them.”1 His ships continu-
ally “flew across the sea.” Noshima, like other sixteenth-​century
warlords, no longer depended on patronage from Kyoto aristocrats
to secure wealth, power, and influence.2 During early warrior history,
the centers of power in Kyoto and Kamakura loomed large in the
lives of many warriors across Japan, but from the fourteenth to the
sixteenth centuries, there was a gradual shift to regional networks,
culminating in a century of war in which the “bottom overtook the
top” (gekokujo).
Warfare was endemic during the three centuries after the fall
of the Kamakura shogunate and the Hōjō family in 1331, which
affected the relationship between aristocrats and warriors and the
nature of warrior wealth and power. Yet, counterintuitively, at the
most violent moments in history, warrior support and participa-
tion in the art world was also at its height. The sixteenth-​century
conqueror Oda Nobunaga burned down Buddhist temples and
slaughtered thousands of lay supporters, but he also studied Noh

33
34

34 S amurai

theater—​performing parts of the play Atsumori before embarking

on the Battle of Okehazama.

The Kyoto Problem

The first crack in Hōjō power since the Jōkyū War (1221) coincided
with the rise of yet another emperor, Go-​Daigo, who plotted against
the Hōjō as Go-​Toba did in 1221. Go-​Daigo became emperor as a
stopgap between the death of the previous emperor, his half-​brother,
and the ascension of the next one. Unlike those other emperors,
however, he was an adult, not an easily controlled child, and he was
surrounded by advisors who could support his political aspirations.
Not only did he refuse to step down as emperor, which he, the sho-
gunate, and the nobility had agreed would be the case, but he even
installed his own son as the next emperor in order to maintain control
of Kyoto. He gathered a wide range of supporters, claimed suzerainty
over all warriors, and, in 1331, issued a call to arms against the sho-
gunate. The Hōjō quickly put an end to this, exiled him, and purged
many of his supporters. Still, not everyone abandoned Go-​Daigo’s
cause. His general, Kusunoki Masashige, kept organizing sympa-
thetic warriors not connected to the shogunate. Go-​Daigo prom-
ised them titles and wealth just as Yoritomo had done more than a
century earlier. Annoyed but confident, the Hōjō sent another army
led by Ashikaga Takauji, the newly ascended twenty-​eight-​year-​old
head of the Ashikaga clan, longtime powerful Hōjō allies. Instead
of fighting Go-​Daigo’s army, he attacked the shogunate’s headquar-
ters in Kyoto. Another Hōjō ally, the Nitta clan, similarly rebelled
against the Hōjō in the east. For the first time since the late twelfth
century, an emperor finally succeeded in ruling without having to
share power with a warrior regime.
But Go-​Daigo could not celebrate for long. For three years, from
1333 to 1336, he took control of the shogunate’s prerogatives, be-
coming the sole authority to guarantee warrior appointments and
35

War and Culture 35

land claims. Meanwhile, however, Takauji’s influence grew and

Go-​Daigo failed to restrain him. Takauji gathered warriors loyal to
him as he fought his way to Kamakura to put down a Hōjō resur-
gence there, and then he fought more enemies on his return trip to
Kyoto. Meanwhile, Kyoto erupted in violence. An anonymous au-
thor posted complaints about the political situation in Kyoto by the
Nijō riverbed: “Things common in the capital these days are night
attacks, robbers, counterfeit edicts, criminals, fast horses [to indi-
cate trouble in some place], random fighting, severed heads . . .”3
Like Taira Kiyomori centuries before, Takauji placed his own
candidate on the throne in Kyoto, and he began building what
would become known as the Muromachi shogunate (1336–​1573),
named after the district in Kyoto that became the center of his re-
gime. Go-​Daigo established his own court just fifty miles south of
Kyoto in Yoshino, where he died peacefully. Heirs from both sides
fought each other until 1392, when the Yoshino line was crushed,
but not forgotten—​at the end of World War II, one man claimed
to be descended from the southern court and demanded that he re-
place the northern imposter Hirohito.
The new Ashikaga shogunate depended upon regional warrior
families to govern. On the southwest island of Kyushu, where the
Mongols tried to invade, military governors essentially ruled as
they saw fit. Likewise in the east, around Kamakura, the Ashikaga
had to delegate authority to warriors who declared loyalty to them.
Though they were never completely independent of shogunal au-
thority, these governors nonetheless gradually assumed rights that
their Kamakura predecessors never had: levying taxes, judging and
enforcing laws without consulting the shogunate, and collecting fees
from local plaintiffs to carry out sentences. With greater revenue,
military governors built armies larger than those of the governors
of the Kamakura period. Still, not all land in Japan was under
the jurisdiction of a military governor. Local strongmen, those
not subsumed under the shogunate’s bureaucratic purview, also
controlled territory. Since many military governors lived in Kyoto
36

36 S amurai

and left their provinces to be managed by underlings, strongmen ei-

ther sought an official title from the shogunate or simply forced the
governor to recognize their dominance in the region. The shift to
local concerns happened gradually throughout the fifteenth century.
For men like the pirate Noshima, regional networks, concerns, and
sources of wealth mattered more than ties to the political center in
Kyoto. This is the origin of those who would become known as the
“great names” (daimyo), the warlords of the sixteenth century.

Tools of Warfare

Long before movies depicted samurai wielding lightsaber-​sharp

swords or charging into battle on mighty horses, warriors them-
selves enjoyed fantastical descriptions of warrior combat. Warriors
and nonwarriors alike read, listened to, and watched performances of
“war tales,” a genre of writing that had existed since at least the thir-
teenth century. Historians have cautioned against accepting these
tales as accurate portrayals of historical events, but even history
textbooks tend to include these problematic literary descriptions
of early samurai warfare. The most persistent myth is the belief that
warriors announced their family lineages before engaging in battle.
It has a wonderful cinematic appeal but is not backed up by histor-
ical evidence, and military historians no longer accept it as estab-
lished practice. A contemporary account of the Mongol invasions
describes Japanese warriors who actually tried this, only to be
laughed at by the Mongol troops. But these warriors might have
simply imitated the heroics described in war tales, in the same way
that Japanese Mafioso (yakuza) imitate the clothing style featured in
Japanese gangster movies.
Nevertheless, warfare was not only about combative effective-
ness. Warriors might ignore orders or even target an ally if they felt
offended. Warriors painted and decorated their armor not to intim-
idate but to be noticed as crowds gathered to watch battles unfold.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
gifts, and have received in return these priceless treasures.” Then
they showed the glass beads, a specimen too often approaching the
value of the gifts received by the strong from the weak. Montezuma
sat mute, scarcely heeding the messages sent him by Grijalva,
concerned most of all that vassals should not witness his dismay.
Here again was his phantasy before him, like the shade of dead
Hector before Æneas, warning him against hopeless resistance to
the preordained fall of Troy.
Bidding the men retire and keep secret what they had seen,
Montezuma hastily summoned his privy council,[146] King Cacama of
Tezcuco, his brother Cuitlahuatzin, lord of Itzapalapan, and laid
before them the mystery. After sage consultations, attended by
divinings and comparisons of signs, prophecies, and traditions, not
unlike the means by which we of to-day likewise ascertain the
unknowable, it was concluded that this commander was none other
than the fair-hued god himself, who had returned to resume the
throne, as he had said. Therefore resistance would be in vain; and
the only proper course was to tender worthy reception and conciliate
with gifts. The chiefs were sent back with orders for the governors of
the coast districts[147] to report any arrival or strange occurrence.
Following them was an embassy of five persons bearing rich
presents, with instructions to bid the god welcome in the name of the
emperor and of his court; yet they were to watch him closely. But the
embassy was too late. Grijalva had gone.[148]

FOOTNOTES
[138] When Francisco Cortés entered the town, shortly after the fall of Mexico, he
was met by a body of Indians with their hair tonsured like priests, and with crosses
in their hands, headed by the chief in flowing white gown and scapulary. This, they
explained, had been the practice of the shipwrecked crew, who had held up the
cross as a recourse from all danger. Frejes, Hist. Conq., 63-4. This authority
places implicit reliance in the story, and regards the strangers as a missionary
party driven from the East Indies or China. Jalisco, Mem. Hist., 30-2.

[139] See Native Races, iii. and v., 25-6, for the myths relating to Quetzalcoatl,
and to their interpretation, in which occur the characters of the Messiah and the
apostle Saint Thomas, with whom some pious chroniclers have identified him. The
Saint Thomas idea is advocated in Florencia, Hist. Prov. Comp. de Jesus, 234.

[140] The natives of Española are said to have received an oracle shortly before
Columbus’ arrival, announcing the coming of bearded men, with sharp, bright
swords. Villagvtierre, Hist. Conq. Itza., 33. The Yucatec records abound in
predictions to the same effect, more or less clear. The most widely quoted is that
of Chilam Balam, high-priest of Mani, and reputed a great prophet, who foretold
that, ere many years, there would come from the direction of the rising sun a
bearded white people, bearing aloft the cross which he displayed to his listeners.
Their gods would flee before the new-comers, and leave them to rule the land; but
no harm would fall on the peaceful who admitted the only true God. The priest had
a cotton mantle woven, to be deposited in the temple at Mani, as a specimen of
the tribute required by the new rulers, and he it was who erected the stone
crosses found by the Spaniards, declaring them to be the true tree of the world.
Cogolludo, Hist. Yucathan, 99-101, gives the prophecy at length, which is not quite
so clear as the version which he afterward quotes from Herrera. The latter calls
the priest Chilam Cambal, and says: ‘Esta fue la causa que preguntauan a
Francisco Hernandez de Cordoua, y a los suyos, si yuan de donde nacia el Sol.’
Dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. i. Alaman enters into a profound argument on the above, and
interprets Chilam Cambal to be the Chinese for Saint Thomas. In seeking to give a
date he mistakes the meaning of a Yucatec age and places the prophecy back at
the beginning of the Christian era. The opening lines of the prophecy read, ‘at the
end of the thirteenth age,’ which should be interpreted ‘at the end of two hundred
and sixty years.’ The name is also given as Chilam Balan and Chilan Balam, the
latter part savoring of the Canaanite divinity. Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 245-6;
Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 203-4. A priest of Itzalan, named Patzin Yaxun
Chan, is recorded as having urged his people to worship the true god, whose word
would soon come to them; and the high-priest of the same place, Na Hau Pech,
prophesied that within four ages—a Yucatec age equals twenty of our years—
news would be brought of the supreme God, by men who must be received as
guests and masters. Ah Ku Kil Chel, also a priest, spoke with sorrow of ills to
come upon the people from the north and from the east. In the age following the
date of his prediction no priest would be found to explain the will of their idols.
Another temple guardian announced that in the last age idolatry would cease, and
the world would be purified by fire. Happy he who repented! Cogolludo, Hist.
Yucathan, 97-101. Several prophecies therein quoted literally are reproduced in
Villagvtierre, Hist. Conq. Itza., 34-5, which also refers to Itzan predictions.
Among the Mexicans, says Mendieta, predictions were current some four
generations before the conquest of the coming of bearded men dressed in
raiments of different color, and with caskets on their heads. Then the idols would
perish, leaving but one supreme God; war would cease, roads would be opened,
intercourse established, and the husband would cherish but one wife. Hist. Ecles.,
180; Torquemada, i. 235-6. This smacks of an elaboration of the Quetzalcoatl
promise. Nezahualcoyotl, the wise Tezcucan monarch, who died in 1472, left
poems in which chroniclers have discovered vague allusions to a coming race.
The reader may, perhaps, be equally fortunate if he examine the specimens of his
poems given in Native Races, ii. 494-7. His son Nezahualpilli, equally celebrated
as a just king and a philosopher, versed in the occult arts, revealed to Montezuma
that, according to his astrologic investigations, their towns would within a few
years be destroyed and their vassals decimated. This, he added, would soon be
verified by celestial signs and other phenomena. Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 254-7.
The precursor of these harbingers of evil appears to have been the famine of
1505, which compelled many a parent to sell his children for the means to obtain
food, while others lined the road-side with their famished bodies. The cessation of
smoke from the volcano Popocatepetl, for twenty days, was a feature seized upon
by the diviners as a sign of relief; and true enough, in the following year, the
suffering people were cheered with an abundant harvest. Soon again their fears
were roused by an eclipse and an earthquake, in the very inaugural year of the
new cycle, 1507, and by the drowning of 1800 soldiers during the Miztec
campaign. Almost every succeeding year confirmed their apprehensions by one or
more signs or occurrences of an ominous nature. One of the most alarming was
the appearance, in broad day, of a comet with three heads, which darted across
the sky, eastward, with such speed that the tails seemed to scatter sparks.
‘Salieron cometas del cielo de tres en tres ... parecian ... echando de sí brasas de
fuego ... y llevaban grandes y largas colas.’ Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 179. ‘Cayó una
cometa, parecian tres estrellas.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq., i. 4; Native Races, v. 466.
After this, in 1507 or 1510, a pyramidal light, which scattered sparks on all sides,
rose at midnight from the eastern horizon till its apex reached the zenith, where it
faded at dawn. This continued for forty days, or for a year, according to some
accounts. ‘Diez años antes que viniesen los españoles ... duró por espacio de un
año cada noche.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq., i. 3. ‘Ocho años antes de la venida de los
españoles, ... y esto se vió cuatro años.’ Id., Hist. Gen., ii. 271. It occurred in 1509,
and lasted over forty days. Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough’s Mex. Antiq., v.
154; vi. 144. The interpreter of the Codex enters into a lengthy argument to prove
it a volcanic eruption, one of his points being that the original picture-writing places
the light as appearing behind, or from, the mountains east of the city. In 1510,
Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 278, or year five, toxtli. Codex Chimalpopoca, MS.;
Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 139. Torquemada, who had no other authority for the
preceding comet than Herrera, considered that by the comet was meant this light,
i. 234. Humboldt suggests that the fiery pyramid may have been a zodiacal light.
Astrologers announced that it portended wars, famine, pestilence, mortality among
the lords, every imaginable ill, in fact, and causing one general cry of fear and
lament. Montezuma himself was so troubled that he applied for advice to
Nezahualpilli, although they had not been on speaking terms for some time. This
royal astrologer showed his apprehensions by ordering all campaigns then upon
his hands to be suspended, and announced to his confrère that the disasters in
store would be brought upon the empire by a strange race. Montezuma expressed
his disbelief, and proposed a game of tlachtli to decide the interpretation. As if
resigned to the fate predicted for himself, and desirous of showing how little he
appreciated wealth and power, Nezahualpilli is said to have staked on the result
his kingdom against three turkey-cocks. The wager was not so hazardous,
however, as it seemed, for the king of Tezcuco was a good player. After allowing
Montezuma to win the first two points, and raising high his hopes, he stopped his
exultation by scoring the rest for himself. Still doubtful, Montezuma called on an
astrologer famous for his many true announcements, only to receive confirmation
of Nezahualpilli’s utterance, whereupon the irate monarch caused the house to be
pulled down over the diviner, who perished in the ruins. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich.,
278-9; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Méj., iii. 345-7. Clavigero, who connects the game with a
comet, is quite earnest in asserting his belief in traditions and presages of the
coming of Spaniards, as attested by native paintings and by witnesses of high
standing. ‘Se il Demonio pronosticava le future calamità per ingannar que’
miserabili Popoli, il pietosissimo Dio le annunziava per disporre i loro spiriti al
Vangelo.’ Storia Mess., i. 288-9. According to Duran, the summoning of
Nezahualpilli was due to a comet with an enormous tail, which burst upon the view
of a temple-watcher as it rose in the east and settled above the city. Montezuma,
who had been roused to witness the phenomenon, called on his sorcerers for an
explanation, and on finding that they had seen nothing, had them punished for
their sloth. The wise Tezcucan then came and presaged dire calamities, which
would also afflict himself. He was resigned, and would retire to await death. This
was to be the last interview between the two kings. Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 274-85.
Torquemada compares the comet to that which, according to Josephus, lib. vii.
cap. xii., presaged the entry of Titus into Judea. When Nezahualpilli returned to his
palace, a hare ran into the halls, pursued by eager domestics, but he bade them to
leave it, saying that even so would a strange people enter into Anáhuac without
resistance. Torquemada, i. 211-12, 214. Bernal Diaz speaks of a round sign in the
eastern sky, of a reddish green, to which was attached a streak extending
eastward. The consequent predictions of war and pestilence he finds fulfilled in the
campaign of Cortés, and in the smallpox epidemic introduced by Narvaez. Hist.
Verdad. (Paris ed. 1837), iv. 460-1. Among the accounts of celestial signs which
may be based on the preceding is one by Camargo, describing a brightness
observed in the east by the Tlascaltecs, three hours before dawn, accompanied by
a whirlwind of dust from the summit of Mount Matlalcueje. Remesal refers
probably to the same whirlwind under the guise of a white cloud, like a pillar, which
often appeared in the east before sunrise, and afterward descended upon the
cross erected in Tlascala by the Spaniards. The natives accepted this as an
intimation that the new-comers were heaven’s chosen people, and received the
cross. Hist. Chyapa, 304; Camargo, Hist. Tlax., 140. Gomara appears to connect
this eastern light with a thick smoke and with the fiery pyramid, which were
followed by a battle in the sky between bodies of armed men, attended with great
slaughter. Some of the courtiers surrounding Montezuma while he observed this
phenomenon, pointed out that the arms and dress of the victorious faction
resembled those in the chest which had been washed up on the coast. He
declared his conviction, however, that they must be relics of his divine ancestors,
not of mortal beings who fell on a battle-field, as these forms appeared to do. He
proposed, as a test, that they should break the divine sword. This they tried, but in
vain, and remained mute with wonder at its flexibility and strength. Hist. Mex., 214;
Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. ix. Mendieta places this sign in 1511. Hist. Ecles., 179.
The last celestial sign, as described by Mendieta, is a large, brilliant comet, which
appeared the very year of the Spaniards’ arrival, and remained immovable in the
air for several days. Hist. Ecles., 180. Before Nezahualpilli returned to his capital,
after interpreting the fiery signs, he was feasted by Montezuma, and the two
monarchs thereupon retired to the diviners’ chamber to search into the legends of
their forefathers for further light upon the omens. From this circumstance grew the
story that the twain had made a journey to the ancient home of their race.
Nezahualpilli, being a conjurer, took Montezuma through the air to the Seven
Caves, where they conversed with the brethren of their ancestors. On learning that
the first named was a descendant of the great Chichimecatl Xolotl, he was offered
the government of this region, but declined, promising, however, to return at a later
date. Torquemada, i. 212-13. Duran applies to the reign of Montezuma I. a similar
story, which is more appropriate to the present subject. Eager to acquaint his
ancestors with the glorious achievements of their progeny, and to learn something
of the old home, this monarch sent a force of sixty sorcerers on a mission to
Chicomoztoc, with numerous presents for Coatlicue, the mother of the divine
Huitzilopochtli. Transforming themselves into animals, they reached the sacred
region occupied by some Aztecs whom the god had left behind when he set out on
his career of conquest. These venerable settlers were not a little surprised to
behold in the effeminate and ephemeral specimens before them the descendants
of that doughty leader and of his companions. On reaching the abode of the divine
mother, the sorcerers found an old woman sorrowing over her lost son. The news
of his glorious fate roused her interest, and she was induced to reveal several
prophecies by her son, among them one concerning the coming of a strange
people to wrest the land from the Mexicans. The messengers were dismissed with
presents of food and clothing, and returned to their master with twenty of their
number missing. Hist. Ind., MS., i. 467-86. Additional facts may be found in Native
Races, v. 422-4, etc. Another visit to the spirit world is attributed to Papantzin,
sister of Montezuma II., who, shortly after his accession, had married the lord of
Tlatelulco. He soon died, and after ruling for a few years she, in 1509, followed
him to the grave. She was buried with great pomp in her garden, in a vault closed
by a flag-stone. The next morning she was discovered sitting on the steps of the
bath adjoining the vault. Her niece, a child of five or six years, was the first to
notice her. Too young to understand what would frighten older heads, she
fearlessly approached the resurrected woman, and was told to call Papantzin’s
mayordoma. This old dame, on receiving the summons, thought it a child’s prank,
and would not stir, but at last she yielded, and on seeing the form of her late
mistress, swooned with fear. Others proved more courageous, and carried her into
the house. Papantzin now enjoined silence, and wished to call Montezuma, but no
one daring to appear before the cruel and superstitious monarch, Nezahualpilli
was summoned, and he brought the brother with him to her dwelling, together with
several attendants. To them she related that, on being released from her earthly
bonds, she had entered a boundless plain, upon a road which soon divided into
several branches. On one side was a fiercely running stream, which she
attempted to cross, but was motioned back by a youth of fine stature, dressed in a
loose robe of dazzling whiteness. His face, bright as a star, was of fair complexion,
the eyes grey, and the forehead marked with a cross. Taking her by the hand, he
led her up the valley past heaps of dead men’s bones, from many of which rose
the sound of lament. She also observed a number of black persons, with horns
and deer legs, building a house. As the sun rose, large vessels could be seen
ascending the river, bearing white and bearded men in strange attire, with shining
head-gear, and standard borne aloft. They were children of the sun. The youth, in
pointing them out, said that God did not yet wish her to pass the river, which could
never be recrossed, but to wait and bear testimony to the faith coming with these
men, who were destined to wage great wars with her people and become their
masters. The lamenting bones were her forefathers—‘who had not received the
faith,’ is the uncharitable term used by Torquemada—suffering for their evil deeds,
and the house building was to hold the bones of those slain in battle by the fair-
faced crews. She must return to earth, await these men, and guide her people to
baptism. On being restored to her senses from the death or trance, whatever her
listeners chose to term it, she removed the stone from the vault and returned to
her chamber. Many of those present sneered at the story as originating in the
brain of a sick woman, but Montezuma was more deeply moved than he cared to
show. He never again saw his sister, who lived a retired life till the arrival of the
Spaniards. She then came forward, the first woman in Tlatelulco to receive
baptism, and under the name of María Papantzin rendered good aid in the
missionary cause. This account, says Torquemada, has been taken from old
native paintings, translated and sent to Spain, and was regarded as strictly true
among the natives, Papantzin being well known in the town. ‘Esta Señora era del
numero de los Predestinados,’ i. 238-9. Ixtlilxochitl, strangely enough, does not
refer to the resurrection. According to him, the mother of Ixtlilxochitl, king of
Tezcuco, was the first woman baptized, and this under compulsion from her
husband. She received the name of María. After her came Papantzin, now wife of
this king, who was named Beatriz. Cortés stood godfather to both. Sahagun refers
briefly to the resurrection of a woman of Tenochtitlan, who issued, four days after
her death, from the garden vault where she had been deposited. Appearing before
Montezuma, she announced that with him would cease the Mexican empire, for
other people were coming to rule and settle. This woman lived twenty-one years
after this, and bore another child. Hist. Gen., ii. 270-1. At this rate she must have
been alive when Sahagun arrived in the country; yet he fails to speak of her as a
princess. Boturini applies the story to a sister of King Caltzontzin, of Michoacan,
who died at the time the Spaniards were besieging Mexico, and rose within four
days to warn her brother not to listen to the Mexican overtures for an alliance
against the white invaders. The new-comers, she said, were destined by heaven
to rule the land, and a testimony hereof would appear on the principal feast-day in
the form of a youth, who, rising in the eastern sky, with a light in one hand and a
sword in the other, would glide over the city and disappear in the west. This sign
appearing, the king did as she bade him, rejected the Mexican advances, and
received the Spaniards in peace. Catálogo, 27-8. Clavigero censures Boturini’s
work, in this connection, as full of fables, and this after solemnly observing that the
Papantzin incident ‘fu pubblico, e strepitoso, acaduto in presenza di due Re, e
della Nobiltà Messicana. Trovossi altresi rappresentato in alcune dipinture di
quelle Nazioni, e se ne mandò alla Corte di Spagna un attestato giuridico.’ Storia
Mess., i. 289-92. He places the baptism of Papantzin in 1524. Veytia, Hist. Ant.
Méj., iii. 348-52; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 125-6. Torquemada gives the story
of what occurred in the spirit land in her own words; so does Clavigero, though he
differs slightly. See also his English translation by Cullen. As if in confirmation of
her story, ominous signs became more numerous than ever. The big lake of
Mexico began to boil and foam without apparent cause, the water rising high
within the city and creating great damage. The date generally accepted for this
occurrence is 1509, but Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 178, says 1499. The lake, like the
sky, was connected with more than one mysterious occurrence. A troop of
Huatuscan conjurers arrived shortly after this in the imperial city to exhibit tricks, in
one of which they cut off their hands and feet, disclosing bleeding stumps, and
then replaced the members. In order to test whether this was an illusion or not, the
emperor ordered the severed members to be thrown into boiling water before they
were returned to the performers. This unwarranted curiosity stirred the magicians
to the very core, and before retiring they predicted that the lake would be tinged
with blood, and that their avengers would soon appear in a strange people, the
conquerors of the empire. Not long after, Montezuma noticed streaks of blood in
the lake, mingled with a number of human heads and limbs. He called others to
witness the sight, but none save himself could see it. Sending to the injured
conjurers for an explanation, they replied that the vision denoted great and bloody
battles to be waged in the city by the strange people. Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap.
ix. About the same time some fishermen caught a grey bird, like a crane, with a
round comb or diadem, resembling a mirror. On being brought before Montezuma,
he was startled by seeing reflected in this mirror the heavenly bodies, although
none appeared in the sky, for it was yet daylight. The next moment the stars had
vanished, and in their place were seen beings, half man and half deer, who moved
about in battle array. Diviners were called to give their explanation, but when they
came the bird had disappeared. Torquemada appears to date this as early as
1505, i. 235. Camargo, Hist. Tlasc., 139-40. Another great bird is referred to, with
a human head, which soared above the lake uttering the prediction that speedily
would come the new rulers of the empire. Other monsters were found in the shape
of double-bodied and double-headed men, which dissolved in the air shortly after
being brought to the sorcerers’, or black hall, of Montezuma. A horrible animal was
caught near Tecualoia. Torquemada, i. 214. During all the years of these signs
could be heard, at frequent intervals, a female voice lamenting, ‘Oh, my children,
all is lost to us! My children, whither will you be taken?’ Id., 214, 233. A similar
voice was heard before the fall of Jerusalem. Josephus, lib. vii. cap. xii.; Mendieta,
Hist. Ecles., 180; Veytia, Hist. Ant. Méj., iii. 358; Sahagun, Hist. Gen., i. 5. In 1510
the imperial city was startled, one clear, quiet night, by a fire, which, bursting from
the heart of the timbers in the temple of Huitzilopochtli, burned all the fiercer under
the efforts made to quench it. A precursor of this had been the fall of a stone
column close to the temple, coming no one knew whence. ‘El chapitel de un Cú de
Vitzilopuchtli, que se llamaba Tlacoteca, se encendió.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq., i. 3-
4. Shortly after, the temple of the fire god Xiuhtecutli, at Zocomolco, was stricken
by lightning and burned. This occurred without the usual accompaniment of
thunder, and with but a sprinkle of rain; many regarded it as done by a sunbeam,
and consequently as particularly ominous. ‘Los Indios decian ... el Sol ha
quemado este Templo; porque ni hemos visto Relampago, ni hemos oido Trueno.’
Torquemada, i. 214, 234. Believing, or pretending to believe, the city attacked by
enemies, the Tlatelulcans rushed to arms, for which excess of zeal they were
punished by a suspension of all their townsmen who held positions at court. Native
Races, v. 461-67.

[141] Torquemada assumes that the 12,210 victims comprised also those offered
at the consecration of two new temples, Tlamatzinco and Quauhxicalli. See Native
Races, v. 471. Tezozomoc relates that the laborers, after striving in vain to move
the stone from its original site, heard it utter, in a muffled voice, ‘Your efforts are in
vain; I enter not into Mexico.’ The incident finds a parallel in the vain effort of
Tarquin to remove certain statues of the gods, to make room for Jupiter’s temple,
and in the firm adherence of Apollo’s head to the ground, shortly before the death
of the Roman ruler. But recovering from their alarm, they tried again, and now the
stone moved almost of its own accord. Another halt is made, a second oracle
delivered, and finally the stone reaches the bridge, where it disappears into the
water. Amid the invocation of priests, divers descend in search, only to come back
with the report that no vestige of it is to be found; but there is a fathomless pit
extending toward Chalco. While diviners are cudgelling their brains for clues, in
comes a messenger to announce that the stone, like the Penates of Æneas, had
returned to its original site, arrayed in all the sacrificial ornaments. Observing in
this occurrence the divine will, Montezuma let the stone remain, and recognizing
at the same time a menace to himself, perhaps of speedy death, he ordered his
statue to be at once sculptured by the side of his predecessors, on the rocky face
of Chapultepec Hill. Tezozomoc describes the statue. Hist. Mex., ii. 204-7. Duran,
Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 313-27. Clavigero, Storia Mess., i. 292-3. Among the troubles
which after this fell upon the doomed people are mentioned: An earthquake in
1513. Codex Tell. Rem., in Kingsborough’s Mex. Antiq., v. 154. A locust plague.
‘Vieronse gran cantidad de mariposas, y langostas, que passauan de buelo hàzia
el Occidente.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. ix. A deluge in Tuzapan, and a fall of
snow which overwhelmed the army en route for Amatlan. While crossing the
mountains, rocks and trees came tumbling down upon them, killing a large
number, while others froze to death. Ixtlilxochitl places this in 1514. Others say
1510. During the Soconusco campaign, see Native Races, v. 472, the ground
opened near Mexico, and threw up water and fish. The Indians interpreted this to
signify a victory, but the lord of Culhuacan intimated, with a shake of the head, that
one force expelled another, whereat Montezuma’s delight somewhat abated.
‘Quando prendio Cortes a entrambos, se accordò (Montezuma) muy bien de
aquellas palabras.’ Herrera, ubi sup.

[142] Meanwhile it came to pass that an eagle swooped down upon a peasant at
work in a field not far from Mexico, and seizing him by the hair in full view of his
neighbors, bore him out of sight. Landed high upon a mountain, the man found
himself led by invisible hands through a dark cave into a hall of dazzling splendor,
where Montezuma lay as if asleep. Less favored than Ganymede, he was
permitted to see no other form, but voices around explained to him that this was a
representation of the emperor intoxicated with pride and blinded by vanity.
Tezozomoc writes that the eagle assumed the form of a lord and spoke; but a
superior being can hardly be supposed to have assumed the office of carrying a
low peasant. A lighted pipe with a rose was placed in his hand, with orders to burn
a mark upon the monarch’s leg, and then proceed to court and relate to him what
had occurred, pointing out the blister in testimony. The gods were annoyed at his
conduct and rule, which had evoked the ills soon to overthrow him. Let him amend
and use well the short term still allotted to him. The next moment the peasant
found himself borne through the air by the eagle, which enjoined upon him to obey
the command received. The man did so, and Montezuma, recalling a dream to the
same effect, looked and found a wound, which now began to burn painfully.
Throwing the man into prison as an evil sorcerer, he sought his doctors for relief.
‘Lo que vio el labrador, pudo ser que aconteciesse en vision imaginatiua porque ...
no es increyble que Dios por medio de vn Angel bueno ordenasse ... que aquel
auiso se diesse.’ Herrera, dec. iii. lib. ii. cap. ix. Montezuma now resolved to seek
a refuge where none of the threatened evils might reach him. The place selected
was Cicalco, ‘house of the rabbit,’ painted by the myths as an abode of delight,
abounding in every product, sown with flowers, and flowing with crystal waters, a
place where death never entered. As a preliminary step four human victims were
flayed and their spirits sent to Huemac, the ruler of that region, to prepare the way
for the living messengers. These consisted of sorcerers, accompanied by dwarfs
and hunchbacks to carry the flayed skins as presents. Two hunchbacks were sent
with the skins of ten flayed men, says Duran. Entering the cave leading to Cicalco,
they were guided by its guardian into the bowels of the earth, and presented
themselves before the Aztec Pluto. With humble reverence they proffered the
skins with the prayer of Montezuma for admission into that abode of delight and
into his service. Unwilling to make an exception to the rule for admission through
death’s portals, Huemac sent the messengers back with presents, giving the
evasive reply that their master should confide to him his sorrows and await relief.
On receiving this report Montezuma angrily ordered the men to be cast into prison,
and sent other messengers with fresh skins, repeating his request for admission,
yet conforming in so far as to ask for an explanation of the many signs abroad.
Huemac, again avoiding a direct answer, told them that Cicalco was quite a
different place from what they supposed it to be. He and his comrades stayed not
of their own accord, but were kept there by a superior power, steeped in abject toil
and misery. This unsatisfactory report entailed upon the messengers the same
punishment as before. Two Acolhuan chiefs were now entrusted with fresh skins
and the request that Huemac should at least explain the signs which threatened
the emperor, if he still refused him admission. Among these signs is mentioned a
white cloud rising at midnight toward the sky. Propitiated by the higher rank or
qualities of these messengers, or by the earnest perseverance of their master,
Huemac explained that the sufferings and menaces were the result of his pride
and cruelty. Let him amend, and as a preliminary task begin a fast of eighty days.
This accomplished, Huemac would meet him at Tlachtonco, on the summit of
Chapultepec. Montezuma was so delighted with this answer that he rewarded the
chiefs most liberally, and made the necessary arrangements for the government of
the empire during his seclusion. Going at the appointed time to Tlachtonco, a
brilliant stone ordered him to make certain preparations and return in four days,
when he would be conducted to Cicalco. This he did, after enjoining secrecy upon
all who had assisted in the matter. Arrayed in a human skin adorned with precious
stones, gold, and feathers, he seated himself upon a feathered throne, surrounded
by his richly dressed dwarf and hunchback pages, and in this guise awaited
Huemac. Soon a light in the distance, brilliant as the sun, announced the approach
of the mysterious being, and hope leaped high in Montezuma’s breast. It stopped,
however, and the emperor was devoured by anxiety. Suddenly a human voice
recalled him from his absorption. It was that of the guardian of Tzoncoztli temple,
who related that Huemac, interdicted by supreme command from approaching the
emperor, had commissioned him to recall his master to duty. His presence is
needed in Mexico to direct public affairs and to infuse respect among the hostile
nations, who would rise the moment his disappearance became known. What will
his subjects think? He must obey the divine command, and remember that he is
emperor of the world. Montezuma yielded reluctantly and reëntered his palace,
taking to his side the faithful Tzoncoztli guardian, and charging all to keep the
secret. Tezozomoc, Hist. Mex., ii. 213-27; and in Kingsborough’s Mex. Ant., v. 469,
et seq.; Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 328-45.

[143] Codex Chimalpopoca, in Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 35-6.

[144] ‘Besaron todos las proas de las naos en señal de adoracion, pensaron que
era el Dios Quetzalcoatl que volvia.’ Sahagun, Hist. Conq., i. 5.

[145] According to Tezozomoc, an Indian, with ears, thumbs, and big toes cut off,
arrived from Mictlancuauhtla with the report that he had seen a round mountain on
the sea moving to and fro without approaching the shore. The informant was
placed under guard, and a chief with an attendant sent to Pinotl to verify the
statement, and to chide him for neglect to report. They soon returned to say that
from a tree they had seen two such mountains or towers, from one of which a
canoe had set out on a fishing trip. The men on board had white faces and hands,
long, thick beard, long hair, raiments of varied and brilliant colors, and round head-
covering. The mutilated Indian being now called to answer further questions, his
prison cell was found vacant. Hist. Mex., ii. 232-4; Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 359-
77.

[146] Torquemada, i. 379, names ten members, while Veytia, Hist. Ant. Méj., iii.
378, says there were twelve.

[147] Particularly at Nauhtla, Toztla, Mictla, and Quauhtla. Torquemada, i. 379;

Sahagun, Hist. Conq., i. 6, calls the districts Cuextecatl, Naulitlantoztlan, and
Mictlanquactla. Brasseur de Bourbourg, Hist. Nat. Civ., iv. 49, writes more correctly
Nauthtlan, Tochtlan, and Mictlan-Quauhtla.

[148] Torquemada, i. 379-80, expresses his disapproval of Gomara and Herrera

for following only Spanish versions, and ignoring the Indian records acquired by
himself and others, including Sahagun. The latter assumes that Montezuma has
been apprised of Grijalva’s departure before the embassy leaves, and this body is
therefore not sent till Cortés arrives. Hist. Conq., i. 7. This is not unlikely, for
council had to be first held and the future course determined, and messengers
were always on the way between the subject provinces and the capital, ready to
convey news. But most writers, followed by the Native Races, take the view
presented in the text. Herrera, dec. ii. lib. iii. cap. ix., who is very brief on Grijalva’s
visit, says, when it was learned that the Spaniards wanted gold, the governors on
the coast were ordered to barter with it, and to find out what further object they
had in coming. Ixtlilxochitl states that merchants from the coast fair brought the
first news of Grijalva to Mexico. Veytia, Hist. Ant. Méj., iii. 377-8, is brief on the
subject. Tezozomoc describes the necklace, bracelet, and other jewelry prepared
as presents by four of the leading goldsmiths and lapidaries. With these the chief
who had been to the coast to observe the floating towers is ordered to seek the
white men. Pinotl must prepare food for them, and if they eat, they are surely
Quetzalcoatl and his suite. ‘But if they prefer human flesh,’ says Duran, in his
version, ‘and wish to eat you, let them do so; I promise to look to the future of your
children and relatives.’ Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 366-7. ‘If you are convinced that it is
Quetzalcoatl,’ continued Montezuma, ‘adorn his person with these jewels made for
the purpose, and say that I beg him humbly to come and take possession of the
throne which I hold for him.’ Tezozomoc, Hist. Mex., ii. 236-9. This author
confounds Grijalva and Cortés, but allows the jewels and message to reach the
latter. According to Duran, Montezuma tells the chief to ask the god for permission
to finish his rule; after his death he is welcome to the throne. ‘Que me dege morir,
y que despues de yo muerto venga muy de norabuena, y tome su Reyno pues es
suyo y lo dejó en guarda á mis antepasados,’ ut supra. Acosta, Hist. Ind., 508-14
refers briefly to this subject, and to the various omens and visions, some of which
he regards as dreams imparted by angels. Meanwhile fresh messengers arrive to
report that the white captain had spread the wings of his floating mountains and
faded away in the east. They bring later drawings and gifts, including beads,
shirts, a hat, some biscuits and wine. The monarch crunches the biscuits and
admits them to be good, but the wine, with its penetrating sweetness, lulling the
senses and calling up happy visions, this delights him, and specimens of both are
deposited upon the altar of Quetzalcoatl at Tula. Finally, on seeing the glass
necklace, he declares the giver to be indeed the Acatl Ynacuitl, the travelling god
of the reed; and deeming himself unworthy of so brilliant an adornment, he
consecrates it to the gods. The best painters are called to give a superior
representation of the strange visitors from the rude drawings brought by the
messengers, and from their description, while the old and wise men are asked for
recollections and ideas which may throw light upon the subject. After much search
a tradition is raked up, wherein a race is to come from the east mounted on
serpents or masted mountains, and with them a white, bearded people, astride of
big deers and eagles, who will land at Tzonapan, and obtain possession of all the
land. They are also described as a one-legged people, with the face in the middle
of the body, of white complexion and with long beard. In confirmation thereof is
produced an old painting, which agrees with those depicting the late arrivals.
Convinced of the identity, Montezuma orders the governors of the coast provinces
to maintain a close watch for the return of the strangers, so that he may receive
speedy notice. Tezozomoc, Hist. Mex., ii. 241-50; Duran, Hist. Ind., MS., ii. 359-
92.
This chapter presents but a faint picture of the state of affairs within the
Mexican empire at the time of the arrival of Cortés. As I said at the outset, all this I
have given in my Native Races, and can not of course repeat it here. Further
authorities on omens and on the state of the Aztec empire, most of them, however,
of no value, are Carbajal Espinosa, Hist. Mex., ii. 5-12; Beltrami, Mexique, ii. 137-9
and 142-3; Zamacois, Hist. Méj., iii. 130-2; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 124-6;
Bos, Leben der See-Helden, 4-5; Hazart, Kirchen-Geschichte, ii. 505-8; Touron,
Hist. Gen. Am., iii. 127-34; Viagero Univ., xxvi. 192-237; Larenaudière, Mex. et
Guat., 73-5; Lafond, Voy., i. 105-7; Eggleston’s Montezuma, 11-17; Sammlung
aller Reisebesch., xiii. 289-91; Russell’s Hist. Am., i. 76-9; Laharpe, Abrégé, ix.
268-73; Du Perrier, Gen. Hist. Voy., 332-6; Burke’s Europ. Set., i. 71; Smollett’s
Voy., i. 214-19; Chevalier, Mexique, 7-22; Mexique Études, 9-10; Robertson’s Hist.
Am., ii. 17-18; Bussierre, L’Emp. Mex., 119-30; Manzi, Conq. di Mess. 14-19;
Roure, Conquête du Mex., 211-20.
 CHAPTER VIII.
THE COMBATANTS SALUTE.

April-May, 1519.

The Embassy from the Shore—The New Interpreter—Marina—Her

Appearance and Quality—Her Romantic History—She Cleaves to the
Spaniards and to Cortés—And Becomes One of the most Important
Characters of the Conquest—The Spaniards Land and Form an
Encampment—The Governor Comes with Presents—The Spaniards
Astonish the Natives—Who Report all to Montezuma—Cortés Sends
the Monarch Presents—Council Called in Mexico—Montezuma
Determines not to Receive the Strangers—Reciprocates in Presents a
Hundredfold—Cortés Persists—Montezuma Declines more Firmly—
Olmedo Attempts Conversion—Teuhtlile, Offended, Withdraws his
People from the Camp of the Spaniards.

Under San Juan de Ulua the fleet of Cortés rests at anchor, lying
lazily there, its fiery purpose clothed in peaceful white, like a snow-
capped volcano basking in the sunlight. The ships had been watched
from afar by expectant eyes; and now from the wondering multitude
that lines the Chalchiuhcuecan[149] shore come two large canoes,
whose occupants step to the deck of the flag-ship and reverentially
ask for the Tlatoani. Their language is new to Aguilar; none of the
company can understand it. What is to be done? Modestly speaks
one of the female slaves, “These are Mexicans, sent by Cuitlalpitoc,
[150] cacique of the nearest town, to welcome the white chief and
offer their devotion. They would likewise know whence he comes,
and why.”
Instantly all eyes are on the speaker, who under their continued
gaze draws back, abashed at her own temerity, while the warm
blood mantles beneath its clear olive confine, and the breath comes
inconstant between parted lips. Cortés regards her as she stands
there unconscious of the important service she has rendered him; for
possessed she the power of Thetis, to assume any form she
pleased, the fair interpreter could not at this juncture have appeared
before the chief in any other aspect half so fascinating. Who is she?
The one baptized Marina, at Tabasco; and who, being the greatest
lady there, was given to Puertocarrero, the greatest gentleman
present. Why had she been given to Puertocarrero? Why had not the
chief chamberer himself taken her? Cortés had weightier matters on
his mind. He was playing for empire, and would not now stop to
divide the petty winnings with his men. By and by right royally will he
reward the unsanctified within him for its abstinence. As for this girl,
he seems now for the first time to see her.[151] Had Marina, the
slave, been born in other lands, under different auspices, to what
exalted sphere might not her personal loveliness and beauty of
character have entitled her!
They say she was fair for an Indian; very beautiful she certainly
is, and of that order of loveliness that captivates the understanding
no less than the passions. The old as well as the young are ravished
with her beauty, even as with Helen were the elders of Troy. She is
about eighteen, and in form and features perfect; her long hair falling
over smooth, round shoulders, and from large lustrous eyes radiating
a tender melancholy that overspreads the face and tones to harmony
whatever falls beneath its influence. Sweet and frank in her
disposition, she is nevertheless resolute enough upon occasion; yet
in her ordinary mood there is a rare grace and femininity, in which
she is as liquid and pellucid as a passage in Herodotus. There is no
shame in her blush, nothing bordering on conscious inferiority in her
bearing; nothing that these or any other beings may do unto her can
lessen her self-respect. She scarcely knows she is a slave, the
plaything of passion; she finds the world made so, men the stronger
and wickeder, and she has but to acquiesce.[152]
Cortés is deeply interested. As if from heaven some bright being
had been sent to his assistance, so comes to him Marina now. What
is her history? Strangely romantic. She is the daughter of a cacique,
born at Painala, eight leagues from Goazacoalco. While yet a child
her father died; and upon a son, the fruit of a second marriage, the
mother centred all her affections. To secure to him the succession
and inheritance which rightly belonged to the daughter, Marina was
given as a slave to some travelling merchants of Xicalanco, while a
slave girl who had just died was passed off for Marina and buried
with the usual stately ceremonies.[153] Arrived at Tabasco, Marina
was sold to the cacique, and by him transferred to the Spaniards.
With a mind elastic and quick to learn, to her native Mexican tongue
she added at Tabasco a knowledge of the Maya, becoming afterward
proficient in Spanish. And now no longer slave, save to the passion
love, she is to queen it for a while as consort of the conqueror,
becoming in the conquest second only in power and importance to
Cortés himself, whom with her whole soul she loves, and to whom
alone she clings after the departure presently of Puertocarrero for
Spain. Accompanying the invaders as interpreter and adviser, she
shares their hardships and rejoices in their successes. For is not the
daring commander lord of her heart and person? Moreover, what
claim upon her has a nation which drives her into solitude beyond its
border, and for no crime? Therefore, if her newly found friends
sicken, she nurses them; if they despair, she comforts them.
Nevertheless she cannot forget her people, but freely exerts her
influence in their behalf, saving many a life and many a town from
destruction. Toward the end both races vie in showing her their
admiration, gratitude, and respect; and although to the Indian the
invaders become more and more objects of execration, yet he never
mentions with aught but loving reverence the name Malintzin, or
Malinche, as in his tongue is called Marina.[154]
To the embassy of Cuitlalpitoc Cortés makes friendly answer. He
will explain his purposes to the cacique in person. Meanwhile the
messengers are regaled with food; presents are given them, and
gold is shown as something Spaniards delight in. Then they return to
the shore, which appears not very inviting, with its broad reach of
sand and sandy hillocks whirled up by the northers. Likewise
vegetation hereabout is stunted, larger trees appearing only in the
distance. The place had been recommended by Grijalva, however,
as possessing good anchorage, and the people as being rich and
hospitable.[155]
Early on Good Friday Cortés landed, planted guns upon the
hillock, and began the construction of a fortified camp, consisting of
houses, huts, and sheds, high in the centre of which was placed a
large cross. Informed of this, the cacique sent men to carry timber,
plaster the walls, and put up awnings. Food was also provided, and
feather-work and gold were presented Cortés, with the information
that the governor would visit him presently. Meanwhile the natives
flocked in to trade, so that on Saturday the place presented the
appearance of a fair, rather than the encampment of an invading
army.
On Easter Sunday, while preparations were made for mass,
Cuitlalpitoc arrived with his chief, Teuhtlile, governor of the province,
whose residence was at Cuetlachtlan, eight leagues away.[156]
Attending them was a large retinue of nobles, and slaves[157]
bearing presents. Cortés, with an escort, advanced to receive them,
and after interchange of courtesies led the way to the altar, draped in
native cotton fabrics, where Father Olmedo celebrated mass,[158]
aided by Father Juan Diaz, Aguilar, and a trained choir. The service
over, Cortés invited the chiefs to dinner, and there informed them
that he was a captain of the greatest monarch the sun smiled on,
Charles V. of Spain, who, hearing of Montezuma’s fame, had sent
him presents and a message, which must be delivered in person
immediately.[159] How easy the way to him who knows it! Had Cortés
but spoken the simple word, “I am Quetzalcoatl, come to resume my
rule,” he might possibly at one time have ridden midst hosannas to
the capital, and seated himself without resistance on Montezuma’s
throne.
But the minion of an earthly monarch is quite a different being
from the fair god in the eyes of the Aztec officers, who answer
somewhat haughtily, “Be it known to you that our master is the
inferior of none; and for the present let these gifts suffice.” Saying
which the signal is given; the slaves advance and deliver their
burdens, consisting in part of food, cotton fabrics more than ten
bales, brilliant feather-work, and a cacaxtli, or basket, filled with
wrought gold set with rare stones and pearls. Cortés expressed
thanks, and gave for Montezuma in return a carved and inlaid arm-
chair, some engraved marcasite laid in musk-scented cotton, a bright
red cap, a gold medal stamped with the figures of St George and the
dragon, twisted strings of beads, and other articles; and would the
emperor deign to wear the cap and occupy the chair when it became
his pleasure to receive him? To the chiefs were also given some
trifles. Teuhtlile promised to deliver to Montezuma the gifts and the
message. Then pointing to the gilt helmet of a soldier, which
resembled in form the head-dress of the idol Quetzalcoatl, he
expressed a desire to show it to Montezuma. “Take it,” said Cortés,
“and bring it back filled with gold-dust, that we may show our
emperor what kind of metal you have.”[160]
Observing the native painters transcribing to amatl-paper the
several novelties, and wishing to impress them further, Cortés
mounted a horse, and ordered the troops to fall into line and the
cannons to be charged. The infantry first passed in review to the
sound of music with arms and banners displayed. Then came the
cavalry with the best riders, led by Alvarado, dashing past in varied
and swift evolutions. The graceful movements of the great animals,
their rearing and prancing, and above all their speed; the flashing
swords, the glittering armor, all seemed to these simple people like a
scene from the supernatural. Their admiration was changed to terror,
however, when the guns belched flames and smoke, and sent midst
many thunderings the stone balls scudding along the beach or
crashing among the trees. All, even their own fears, were faithfully
depicted by the painters. On leaving, Teuhtlile gave orders to supply
the Spaniards with every necessary, for which purpose two thousand
of his people were detailed to attend them, particularly to bring wood,
water, and food. For their accommodation another cluster of huts
was erected, so that within these few days two towns arose on the
sands of Chalchiuhcuecan. Cuitlalpitoc, who remained for a time to
superintend the service, received from his guests the name of
Ovandillo.[161]
Montezuma was quickly in possession of all these facts; and
when he saw the gifts, and read the picture writings, and learned
how a woman, beautiful as the sun, talked to his people in their own
language; more particularly when he compared the helmet with that
worn by Huitzilopochtli, and was told that the terrible strangers
insisted on an interview, apprehension filled his soul.[162]
Cuitlahuatzin, his brother, and Cacama of Tezcuco, were summoned
to aid in telling him what to do. The council was divided. There was
the popular belief regarding Quetzalcoatl with its attendant
prognostics; on the other hand these strangers did not behave like
gods. They had human appetites, overthrew the idols, claimed
allegiance to another power, and had proved themselves vulnerable
at Potonchan. Yet could beings wholly terrestrial so live without
women, mount gigantic deer, and tame the lightning? Cacama
thought they should have a hearing. The national honor demanded
it; beside, refusal implied fear. Cuitlahuatzin saw in the visitation only
evil to the commonwealth, and urged expulsion. The gods should
decide; and very foolish gods they would have been to vote
admission to their destroyers. And now behold the fatal folly of
Montezuma! Instead of vigorous action toward the end determined
on, he adopted a middle course. He would decline the interview, yet
not rudely drive the strangers hence, lest, peradventure, they might
be gods and successfully oppose him. He would send them liberal
gifts, and beseech them to depart, thus exposing at once his
weakness and his wealth.[163]
A diplomate of the first nobility was accordingly despatched to
the sea-shore. With him went Teuhtlile, returning after only a week’s
absence.[164] Numerous natives were in attendance, among them
over a hundred slaves. Bowing low before Cortés, who had on this
occasion put on greater pomp than usual, the envoy touched the
earth with his hand, carrying it to his lips, and then he swung the
copal censer.[165] Together with Teuhtlile he thereupon seated
himself beside Cortés; and it was remarked how much alike they
looked, the Spanish commander and the Aztec envoy, who, perhaps,
had been selected for this reason, with the aid of the portraits made
by the native painters, and as a mark of honor to the white captain.
The soldiers not inappropriately called him the Mexican Cortés.[166]
The slaves were then directed to lay down the presents; among
which were thirty bales of cotton fabrics, from gauzy curtains to
heavy robes, white, colored, plain, and figured,[167] interwoven with
feathers or embroidered with gold and silver thread; feathers and
plumes of all colors, embroidered sandals, and marcasite mirrors. All
these, however, were trifles beside the gold, the beautiful glittering
gold which was now disclosed, and likewise the silver. First there