Who Is Taira no Tadanori (Satsuma no Kami Tadanori)?
The warrior-poet who loved waka
Taira no Tadanori was the youngest brother of Taira no Kiyomori and a Heike general who held the post of Governor of Satsuma (Satsuma no Kami). He was also a poet who studied waka, classical Japanese poetry, under Fujiwara no Shunzei. He was killed at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani.
In the chapter "Tadanori Leaves the Capital," as the clan flees, he turns back with only seven riders and visits the house of his teacher Shunzei, whose gates are shut tight. He hands over a scroll of his poems, asks that even one be included in an imperial poetry anthology, and rides off west. Later Shunzei includes his poem beginning "The old capital of Shiga by the rippling waves lies in ruins" in the anthology Senzai Wakashū, but because the Heike were now enemies of the court, he lists it as "author unknown." At Ichi-no-Tani, Tadanori is killed by Okabe Tadazumi, and a poem tied to his quiver, beginning "If, benighted on my way, I take the shade of a tree as my lodging," reveals who he was.
Because "Tadanori" sounds like tadanori, Japanese for a free ride, "Satsuma no Kami" later became a joking term for someone who rides without paying the fare.
Episodes featuring this character3
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 10
They Said Only Deer Could Come DownBattle of Ichi-no-Tani (Hiyodori-goe) / Death of Tadanori
The Heike laugh that nothing but deer could come down the cliff behind their fortress at Ichi-no-Tani. Then Minamoto no Yoshitsune lets an old horse find the way through the mountains and leads his riders straight down the cliff to hit the fortress from behind. Taira no Tadanori, who left one of his poems with his teacher on the night the Heike fled the capital, is cut down in the chaos. But a single poem tied to his quiver turns him from an enemy's head with no name back into a poet.
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