Who Is Kenreimon-in (Taira no Tokuko) (Empress Tokuko)?
The empress who alone survived her clan
Kenreimon-in
Kenreimon-in is the title of Taira no Tokuko, the daughter of Taira no Kiyomori and his wife Tokiko. She became the consort of Emperor Takakura and gave birth to Emperor Antoku. At the Battle of Dan-no-Ura, where the Heike were destroyed, she threw herself into the sea but was pulled out, becoming one of the few members of the clan to survive.
In The Tale of the Heike, while she is still empress, a pardon is granted to pray for a safe childbirth, and this frees the exiles on Kikai-ga-shima. At Dan-no-Ura, after watching her mother and son sink beneath the waves, she jumps in herself, but a Minamoto warrior catches her hair with a rake and hauls her out. In the final book, the "Initiates' Book" (Kanjō no Maki), she becomes a nun at Chōraku-ji temple in the capital, then lives in a hut near Jakkō-in temple in Ōhara, praying for the souls of her clan. When Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa visits her, she describes her life by comparing it to the Buddhist "Six Realms" of existence.
Jakkō-in still stands in Ōhara, Kyoto, and is known as the temple linked to Kenreimon-in.
Episodes featuring this character3
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 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