Who Is Emperor Antoku?
The eight-year-old emperor lost at Dan-no-Ura
Emperor Antoku was the son of Emperor Takakura and Kenreimon-in (Tokuko), and the grandson of Taira no Kiyomori. He took the throne at the age of three by traditional Japanese counting and sank into the sea at Dan-no-Ura at eight.
In The Tale of the Heike, when the Heike flee the capital, he is carried away with the clan along with the Three Sacred Treasures, too young to understand what is happening. At Dan-no-Ura, held in the arms of his grandmother Lady Nii, he faces east to bid farewell to the Ise Shrine, faces west to recite the Buddha's name, and then enters the sea. In the final book, he appears in a dream of his mother Kenreimon-in, living with the clan in a splendid place like the palace of the Dragon King under the sea.
Akama Shrine in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is dedicated to Emperor Antoku.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 8
Fleeing a Burning City, He Turned BackTadanori Leaves the Capital
As the Heike flee west from the burning capital, the warrior-poet Taira no Tadanori turns back with a handful of retainers. At the barred gate of his poetry teacher, Fujiwara no Shunzei (Toshinari), he hands over a scroll of more than a hundred of his poems. Years later, Shunzei keeps his promise and places one poem in the realm's greatest anthology. But the poet's name has to be hidden as "Poet Unknown." It takes a very long time for that name to come home.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 13
An Emperor, Age 8, Carried Into the SeaThe Battle of Dan-no-ura / The Death of Tomomori
To the sound of a biwa, the Heike's final day begins. Taira no Tomomori is the first of his clan to realize the battle is lost. He watches a betrayal, the young Emperor and his grandmother sinking into the sea, and Noritsune's last fight. Then, saying "I have seen all that I needed to see," he takes the hand of Ienaga, the retainer who grew up beside him like a brother, and leaps into the waves.
20 pages
NEWEpisode 14
He Doomed Her ClanThen Came to Visit — The Imperial Visit to Ōhara (Kenreimon-in)
the series finale. Kenreimon-in was the only one of her clan pulled alive from the sea at Dan-no-Ura. Now she spends her days in prayer at a mountain hermitage in Ōhara. One early summer, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the man who ordered the war that destroyed her family, comes to see her in secret. She tells him to his face how much she has resented him. Then she begins to tell her life story as a journey through six realms.
19 pages