d a scheme which might
possibly furnish a way between these terrible alternatives. She determined
to surrender herself and her children to Kiyomori, and depend upon her
beauty to save them from the fate which had been pronounced upon all the
Minamoto. So with her little flock she went back and gave herself up to
the implacable tyrant. Softened by her beauty and urged by a number of his
courtiers, he set her mother at liberty in exchange for her becoming his
concubine, and distributed her children in separate monasteries. The chief
interest follows the youngest boy, Yoshitsune, who was sent to the
monastery at Kurama Yama(113) near Kyoto. Here he grew up a vigorous and
active youth, more devoted to woodcraft, archery, and fencing than to the
studies and devotions of the monastery. At sixteen years of age he was
urged by the priests to become a monk and to spend the rest of his days in
praying for the soul of his father. But he refused, and shortly after he
escaped from the monastery in company with a merchant who was about to
visit the northern provinces. Yoshitsune reached Mutsu, where he entered
the service of Fujiwara-no-Hidehira, then governor of the province. Here
he spent several years devoting himself to the military duties which
chiefly pertained to the government of that rough and barbarous province.
He developed into the gallant and accomplished soldier who played a
principal part in the wars which followed, and became the national hero
around whose name have clustered the choicest traditions of his country.

Meanwhile, as we have seen, Yoritomo,(114) the oldest son of Yoshitomo,
and by inheritance the head of the Minamoto clan, had been banished to Izu
and committed to the care of two faithful Taira adherents. Yoritomo
married Masago, the daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, one of these, and found
means to induce Tokimasa to join him in his plans to overthrow the tyrant
Kiyomori, who now ruled the empire with relentless severity. Even the
retired emperor joined in this conspiracy and wrote letters to Yoritomo
urging him to lead in the attempt to put down the Taira. Yoritomo summoned
the scattered members of the Minamoto clan and all the disaffected
elements of every kind to his assistance. It does not seem that this
summons was responded to with the alacrity which was hoped for. The
inexperience of Yoritomo and the power and resources of him against whom
they were called upon to array themselves, led the scattered enemie