Who Is Shōmonbō?
The monk who revealed Shanaō's true origins
Shōmonbō is a monk from Shijō in Kyoto who, in the Gikeiki, tells Shanaō (the future Yoshitsune) at Kurama Temple who he really is.
His father, Kamata Masakiyo, was Minamoto no Yoshitomo's foster brother, served Yoshitomo to the end, and was killed alongside him. Shōmonbō secretly visits Shanaō at night and tells him that he is of true Minamoto blood and how his father Yoshitomo died with his hopes unfulfilled. Hearing this, Shanaō resolves to overthrow the Taira.
This meeting is the great turning point that sends Shanaō, until then a studious temple boy, down the path of the warrior.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 1
Why the Temple Boy Sneaks Out at NightUshiwakamaru at Mount Kurama
The Legend of Yoshitsune, Episode 1. At a mountain temple, a boy named Shanaō is loved by everyone. One night a traveling monk visits him and reveals the truth: Shanaō is the son of the great Genji general Minamoto no Yoshitomo, who was murdered by a retainer hungry for a Heike reward. The monk hands him his father's sword. From that day on, Shanaō lives a double life: a model student by day, and by night a lone swordsman training in Sōjōgatani, the valley of the tengu.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
The Bandits Picked the Wrong GuestYoshitsune's Coming of Age at Kagami Inn
When Shanaō hears that a great lord in the far north is waiting to welcome a young Minamoto prince, he slips away from Mount Kurama in the spring of his sixteenth year without telling a soul. At the Kagami Inn he single-handedly drives off a bandit raid. Then, gazing at his own acolyte's reflection in the inn's old mirror, he travels on to Atsuta Shrine. With no grown-up there to give him a name, he holds his own coming-of-age ceremony and names himself Minamoto no Kurō Yoshitsune.
19 pages