Hatakeyama
The members of the samurai clan
of Hatakeyama were descendents of the Taira clan which ruled during
the Heian Period (794-1185).
Hatakeyama Shigetada fought in
the Genpei War (1180-1185), a politically motivated struggle between
the Taira and Minamoto clans. He changed sides at the very end of the
conflict, going over to the Minamotos for the sea battle at
Dan-no-ura, in which the Taira were defeated.
After the Genpei War, when the
Kamakura shogunate was in power, Shigetada's warrior son, Shigeyasu,
was killed in 1205 at Yuigahama, a beach near Kamakura, by a member of
the Hojo clan, the result of political manouvering. Shigetada was
bold enough to protest and was rewarded for his former loyalty with
death for both himself and all the members of his family.
There are two tales told of
this father and son.
Once, while crossing a river
during the war, the father's horse was shot in the head with an arrow.
He left the horse to its own fate and employed his bow as a cane to
aid his successful crossing. But the soldiers had a sort of
competition going as to who would first make it across this river, and
when Shigetada was about to climb the bank on the other side, her
heard his godson calling for help. Shigetada, to his credit, didn't
let him drown, but he seized the boy and threw him roughly onto the
shore, and then claimed credit for the victory of the first to cross.
The tale involving Shigeyasu is
a much sadder one. When news of his death reached his wife, she
climbed to the top of a hill and her grief froze her into a stone.
She can still be seen there today, in the rock called
Bufuseki,
the husband-loving rock, which stands on a hill in Kamakura behind
the Zen Jufukuji Temple.
Hatakeyama Shigeyasu is buried
in Kamakura, his grave marked by a black stele which was erected in
1920 at the end of the
Wakamiya
Oji Dori nearest Yuigahama.
Sources:
wikipedia-Hatakeyama Clan
The Tale of the Haike
~Contributed by Feiyan Zhou
~Family plaque by Lalita Ashoka
