the shipbuilding incident but also, and in
a far more flagrant manner, with the great fight at Yashima. He seems
from the first to have entertained doubts of Yoshitsune's loyalty to
Yoritomo, and his own bitter experiences may well have helped to
convert those doubts into certainties. He warned Kamakura in very
strong terms against the brilliant young general who was then the
idol of Kyoto, and thus, when Yoshitsune, in June, 1185, repaired to
Kamakura to hand over the prisoners taken in the battle of Dan-no-ura
and to pay his respects to Yoritomo, he was met at Koshigoe, a
village in the vicinity, by Hojo Tokimasa, who conveyed to him
Yoritomo's veto against his entry to Kamakura. A letter addressed by
Yoshitsune to his brother on that occasion ran, in part, as follows:

Here am I, weeping crimson tears in vain at thy displeasure. Well was
it said that good medicine tastes bitter in the mouth, and true words
ring harsh in the ear. This is why the slanders that men speak of me
remain unproved, why I am kept out of Kamakura unable to lay bare my
heart. These many days 1 have lain here and could not gaze upon my
brother's face. The bond of our blood-brotherhood is sundered.

But a short season after I was born, my honoured sire passed to
another world, and I was left fatherless. Clasped in my mother's
bosom, I was carried down to Yamato, and since that day I have not
known a moment free from care and danger. Though it was but to drag
out a useless life, we wandered round the capital suffering hardship,
hid in all manner of rustic spots, dwelt in remote and distant
provinces, whose rough inhabitants did treat us with contumely. But
at last I was summoned to assist in overthrowing the Taira house, and
in this conflict I first laid Kiso Yoshinaka low. Then, so that I
might demolish the Taira men, I spurred my steed on frowning
precipices. Careless of death in the face of the foe, I braved the
dangers of wind and wave, not recking that my body might sink to the
bottom of the sea, and be devoured by monsters of the deep. My pillow
was my harness, arms my trade. [Translated by W. G. Aston.]

This letter breathes the spirit of sincerity. But its perusal did not
soften Yoritomo, if it ever reached his eyes. He steadily refused to
cancel his veto, and after an abortive sojourn of twenty days at
Koshigoe, Yoshitsune returned to Kyoto where his conduct won for him
increasing popularity. Three months later, Yoritomo appointed him