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From 'Gosho Zakura Horikawa Youchi'

Benkei was a child of a princess of the noble class who was kidnapped. The princess had been pregnant for 18 months. When he was born, the baby looked like a two or three years old child. The kidnapper thought that the baby was a goblin, and tried to kill him. The princess stopped him, and the big baby was named Benkei. After that, always Benkei was in trouble everywhere. Benkei had traveled whole of the country, and he met Minamoto-no Yoshitsune at Kyoto. Benkei had been a loyal retainer of Yoshitsune until he was killed with Yoshitsune at the battle of Koromogawa in 1189. It is one of the legends about Benkei.

Momotaro, the peach boy, was born from a peach. Kaguya-hime, the princess of the moon, was born from a bamboo. Although both of them are Japanese old tales, a person who has a strange born story is always having a special ability. Benkei is one of them. He is a very big man, and has a strong body like iron. He looks a real goblin. A goblin, a fairy, and other evil spirits of Japan have a conventional image that is an abandoned child who has grown up. Benkei's visual image made a lot of legends about himself. He might have been also an abandoned child.

Benkei avoids a woman at this play 'Benkei Joshi'. When he was 16, he had the first sex with Osawa. After that, he hasn't had a sex with anyone. Although I don't intend to say that Benkei should be a lady-killer, it looks an unnatural matter. Perhaps it is a limited meaning, he avoids a woman only.

Osawa had searched for her one night lover for 18 years. But Benkei doesn't look to have any impression to Osawa, when he meets Osawa again. He has been wearing the red kimono without the left sleeve, because it was sewed by his mother. It doesn't mean the memory of Osawa. Benkei just admits that he is father of Shinobu, and he doesn't care of her mother. Benkei regrets to have killed his daughter, and he leaves from the mansion with the severed head of Shinobu, but Osawa is left alone. Osawa seems that she was searching for her lover to kill her daughter. Benkei doesn't have any love to Osawa at least.

Even if Benkei brought the severed head of Shinobu, or Kyonokimi, or Jiju Taro, Yoritomo doesn't intend to help Yoshitsune's life. Although Benkei intended to come to the mansion of Jiju Taro in order to help Yoshitsune, at the result he caused the useless death to two persons. After that, Benkei escapes toward the north area with Yoshitsune, but it means to delay a time of their death a little.

They were hidden by Fijiwara Hidehira, but after he died, his son Yasuhira killed them in 1189. Although Yoritomo hoped the death of Yoshitsune, his army attacked Yoshihira, because Yoshihira killed his younger brother. Yoritomo intended to eliminate both of Yoshitsune and Fujiwara clan from the beginning. Then Fujiwara clan was extinct finally. Although Yoshitsune was an able combat commander, Yoritomo was a very able politician.

When Yoshitsune fought against Yoshinaka who was a barbarous cousin of him, he made a gentle battle. But historians think that it wasn't much better than Yoshinaka. Actually, I have no idea what a gentle battle means, though. After that, Yoshitsune allows his army doing the crime actions, robber, rape, and arson gradually. Japanese think that Yoshitsune is a good person. When I didn't see Kabuki so often, I didn't care of the popularity of Yoshitsune. But now, I wonder when Japanese became thinking so from.

Yoshitsune and Benkei have been popular very much for a long time. As I mentioned before, this play is based to the legend of Yoshitsune who was a younger brother of Minamoto-no Yoritomo who was the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate government. Although Heike clan and Genji clan had fought each other for a long time, Heike clan was extinct at the battle of Dannoura in 1185. Yoshitsune was a commander of the Genji clan at that time. Yoshitsune was very able as a combat commander, but his elder brother Yoritomo thought that he was dangerous. After the battle of Dannoura, he decided to eliminate Yoshitsune.

Yoshitsune was the first commander of making an attack by an corps unit. At that time, a battle was fought between a warrior and a warrior. His fighting was out of regulations then. So Heike clan's army didn't have any method to fight against Yoshitsune's army. I think that only Yoshitsune's army won to Heike clan's army. But nobody learned anything from him. If Yoshitsune had trained the army of Kamakura Shogunate government, the government army could have been stronger. And they needed it after 90 years from Yoshitsune's death. The Mongol Invasions happened in 1274 and 1281. The Mongol army fought as a group, but Kamakura Shogunate government army had forgotten Yoshitsune's fighting. They were given a real thrashing then.

There is 'The Tale of Heike' that is a war chronicle about Taira-Minamoto war. It was transmitted orally at the beginning, and the story became popular for Japanese after that. Yoshitsune is written as a good person in this book. I think that 'The Tale of Heike' made a theory that Yoshitsune was a good person. Although Yoshitsune wasn't a good person, he was just an able combat commander.

'Bushido' that means the samurai spirit sometimes demands of a bushi to die for his lord, because the lord embodies the stable society. Yoshitsune wasn't a person who could show the stable society. I think that both of Benkei and Jiju Taro had known it. However Benkei killed his daughter, and Jiju Taro committed suicide for their lord Yoshitsune. It's a very sad matter, but they had no method except they had done a matter that they could. Because they were bushi. Any society that demands of a person to die must be wrong. I think so, especially I know the recent international situation. (2001,12,9)