Who Is Taira no Munemori?
Head of the Heike after Kiyomori's death
Taira no Munemori was the third son of Taira no Kiyomori. After the deaths of his elder brother Shigemori and his father Kiyomori, he became head of the Heike clan.
In The Tale of the Heike, he takes the beloved horse of Nakatsuna, son of Minamoto no Yorimasa, and mocks him by branding the horse with the name "Nakatsuna," one of the triggers for Yorimasa's revolt. Impressed by Saitō no Sanemori's resolve, he allows him to wear a brocade robe. When the Heike flee the capital, he leads the clan while protecting Emperor Antoku and the Three Sacred Treasures. At Dan-no-Ura, Tomomori sees through Awa no Mimbu Shigeyoshi's betrayal and urges Munemori to have him executed, but Munemori refuses.
At Dan-no-Ura, he jumps into the sea but does not sink, and is captured alive. He is sent to Kamakura and later executed on the way back to the capital.
Episodes featuring this character4
NEWEpisode 5
An Old Monster-Slayer's Last RebellionThe Battle of Uji Bridge
Furious at an insult to his son, the aging Minamoto warrior Yorimasa rises against the Heike with Prince Mochihito, only to watch a young warrior lead a raft of horses across the river at Uji. Long ago, he brought down the Nue, a monster hidden in black clouds, with a single arrow. Now he looses one last arrow at an unseen target in the fog to let the prince escape, and writes his death poem at the Byōdō-in. The second arrow left over from that night has already traveled east with the prince's order, into the hands of a young Minamoto.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 7
He Won the Battle, Then Wept Over His FoeBattle of Kurikara Pass / Saitō Sanemori
At Kurikara Pass, Kiso no Yoshinaka drives the vast Heike army into a valley under cover of night. In the battle at Shinohara that follows, a nameless old warrior fights on alone to the very end. When his head is washed, the black dye runs out of his hair—and the white beneath is revealed.
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 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