Who Is Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa (Go-Shirakawa-in)?
The cloistered emperor who outlasted the Genpei War
Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa was a former emperor who stayed at the center of politics long after giving up the throne, later as a cloistered emperor after becoming a monk. He survived the age of the Genpei War by joining hands with, and turning against, both Kiyomori and the Minamoto.
In The Tale of the Heike, he visits the villa at Shishigatani and is present at the secret meeting to overthrow the Heike. This angers Kiyomori, who nearly has him confined. The night before the Heike flee the capital, he secretly slips out of his palace so that he will not have to go with them. In the final book, he travels in secret to visit Kenreimon-in at her hut in Ōhara and weeps as she tells of the fall of the Heike clan.
He loved imayō, the popular songs of his day, and is also known for compiling the song collection Ryōjin Hishō.
Episodes featuring this character4
NEWEpisode 3
Our Coup Was a Pun. Someone Was Listening.The Shishigatani Plot
One night at a mountain villa in Shishigatani, a sake flask called a "heiji" tips over, and plotters laugh about toppling the Heike clan. But one of their own talks, and Kiyomori's revenge begins. Shunkan, the villa's owner, who laughed loudest of all, is about to lose everything. And when Kiyomori, clad in armor, goes too far, only one thing stops him: the tears of his son Shigemori, who arrives without armor. Episode 3.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 4
Two Were Pardoned. My Name Wasn't There.Shunkan on Kikai-ga-shima
Three men were exiled together to a volcanic island, but when a pardon finally arrives, one name is missing: Shunkan's. He clings to the departing ship and is left alone on the beach. Years later, a boy crosses the sea to find him.
19 pages
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 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