Who Is Taira no Shigemori (Komatsu-dono)?
Kiyomori's heir, who held his father back
Taira no Shigemori was the eldest son and heir of Taira no Kiyomori, a Heike general who rose to the post of Minister of the Center (Naidaijin). He is portrayed as calm and principled, and was also known as Komatsu-dono.
In The Tale of the Heike, when Kiyomori, furious about the Shishigatani plot, puts on armor and prepares to confine even Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, Shigemori alone appears in ordinary clothes among the armed clan. Torn between loyalty to the throne and duty to his father, he tearfully talks Kiyomori out of it, a speech known as the "Letter of Admonition" (Kyōkunjō). He also pleads for the life of the captured Fujiwara no Narichika.
Shigemori died before his father Kiyomori. In the tale, after his death, nothing can stop the arrogance of the Heike.
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