Who Is Shunkan?
The monk left alone on an island
Shunkan was a Buddhist monk who served as the chief administrator of Hosshō-ji temple in Kyoto. For taking part in the Shishigatani plot, a secret plan to overthrow the Heike, he was exiled to the island of Kikai-ga-shima.
In The Tale of the Heike, he lends his mountain villa at Shishigatani as the meeting place for the plotters. When the plot is discovered, he is exiled to Kikai-ga-shima along with Fujiwara no Naritsune and Taira no Yasuyori. Later a letter of pardon arrives, but his name alone is missing. Shunkan clings to the departing boat, then stamps his feet and wails as it sails away, a scene known as ashizuri ("foot-stamping"). Eventually Ariō, a boy who had served him since childhood, comes alone to the island. Told of his family's deaths and given a letter from his daughter, Shunkan stops eating and dies, with Ariō at his side.
Shunkan's story is also performed in Noh and kabuki plays titled Shunkan. As for where Kikai-ga-shima was, one theory places it at Iōjima in today's Kagoshima Prefecture.
Episodes featuring this character3
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 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