The Depiction Of Atsumori's Death

Atsumori’s death depicted in the war tale, Tale of the Heike, compiled by Yoshida Kenko and the noh play, Atsumori by Zeami Motokiyo are both considered heartrending episodes, where one must make an unwanted choice in unescapable circumstances. The story depicts a situation where one has no choice but to kill another in the battle. Both texts also dramatically express the absurdity of a warrior’s life through the characters of Taira no Atsumori and Kumagai Naozane. However, the depiction of Atsumori’s death in two genres are slightly different along with how the flute plays the crucial role and importance of forgiveness to move on. Tale of the Heike is more focused on Kumagai's heartbroken feeling about Atsumori’s irreversible death, whereas
the noh play focuses on the background of Atsumori’s situation and prejudices that occur in our human life.
Tale of the Heike revealed the appearance of Atsumori as a military leader and described the significant facts for two characters’ first encountering scene, which Kumagai's psychological pressure to kill a beautiful Atsumori who appeared to be the same age of his son.
His heartbroken feeling about Atsumori’s irreversible death is expressed through his inner struggles. As a result, Kumagai abandoned his warrior life and became a Buddhist monk to pray for Atsumori so that he can rest in peace. Kumagai says, “No life is as miserable as a warrior’s… What a cruel thing I’ve done!” (Tale of the Heike 395). This indicates Kumagai’s thought to become Buddhist monk because he felt the emptiness of life after he learned Atsumori’s identification. He realized that he had cut off the head of not only an aristocratic boy, but also a talented musician who played the beautiful flute a night before the battle. His talents have been wasted due to
war.
Furthermore, when Atsumori and Kumagai encounter as an enemy in the Tale of the Heike, they are different in the perspective of environment that they grew up, yet share similarities for keeping their pride and in honor of their clan. For example, Atsumori is a young cultivated aristocrat who is inexperienced in the battle, but he is thoroughly educated aristocrat and considers family honor is more important than his own life. Therefore, he refuses to disclose his name when Kumagai offers to save his life and chose to die. Atsumori says, “I don’t need to give you my name. I’m the kind of opponent you want. Ask about me after you take my head. Somebody will recognize me, even if I don’t tell you” (Tale of the Heike 395). Instead of begging for his life, Atsumori acted dignifiedly in front of death and died as a proud nobleman. Kumagai, on the other hand, was born into a military family who has a warrior spirit and trained to be an honorable warrior. So, he promises to pray for Atsumori before he kills the young opponent. Kumagai promises, “There are Genji warriors everywhere. You can’t possibly escape. It will be better if I’m the one to kill you, because I’ll offer prayers for you” (Tale of the Heike 395). It can be interpreted that Kumagai also kept his honor by fulfilling his duties in his way by becoming a monk after the war. As described, both Atsumori and Kumagai preserve their honor in the best way they can in each clan that they belong to. Noh play, on the other hand, explains the backstory of Atsumori’s death in details with the role of the flute.
For example, it describes how Atsumori was left alone at the battle of Ichi no Tani because of his love for music and playing the flute. The villager from the noh play states, “He prized this flute very highly and hated to leave it behind for the enemy’s taking. So he turned back, fetched the flute…” (Atsumori 43). Atsumori went back to get his flute because not only flute was given to the grandfather of Atsumori by the former emperor, but also flute itself was more important to him than his life. Therefore, he went back to fetch the flute although he knew he was risking his life. However, to Kumagai, who does not know the story of the flute that Atsumori carried, focuses more on the play of the flute. Kumagai explains, “I have reached Ichi no Tani in the province of Tsu. Ah, the past returns to mind as though it were before me. But what is this? I hear a flute from that upper field” (Atsumori 39). For him, the flute playing is just the sound of a beautiful civilization that impressed tens of thousands of warriors in a bloody battlefield. Whereas to Atsumori, playing the flute was his way of life. In fact, the sounds of the flute playing reminded Kumagai of Atsumori, which prejudiced that only beautiful, elegant boys like Atsumori can play such flute. Kumagai states “...mowers, was it one of you I just heard playing the flute? ‘How touching! For people such as you,
that is remarkably elegant thing to do!’” (Atsumori 40). Kumagai admits that unlike warriors, aristocrats carry such talent that can touch other’s heart.
The noh play also dramatically explains the afterthoughts on misunderstanding to reconciliation of two main characters and death to reincarnation that are not explained in Tale of the Heike. For example, after Kumagai became a monk named Renseo to pray for dead Atsumori, he encounters the mad spirit of Atsumori, who tries to kill Kumagai. However, he does not understand why Atsumori is mad and could not find enlightenment when he devoted to praying to Atsumori after his death. Kumagai says, “I do not understand you: for the Name has power to clear away all trace of sin” (Atsumori 45). Atsumori has not moved on to enlightenment because of his attachment to Kumagai, and Kumagai struggles to move on without Atsumori’s forgiveness. Therefore, Kumagai consistently seeks to ask forgiveness from Atsumori, and trying to calm his spirit. Finally, Atsumori forgives Kumagai by stating, “Rensho, you were no enemy of mine” (Atsumori 48). By meeting the mad spirit, Kumagai as a repentant monk and forgiving him, Kumagai accepts this forgiveness, so both of them move on to enlightenment. This scenery of forgiveness and reconciliation by sincerely comforting the angry Atsumori’s spirit and praying for reincarnation as a beautiful friend in the next world can be said that an author who wishes to reconnect the tragic relationship between Kumagai and Atsumori in their previous life. There will be no greater forgiveness and reconciliation than forgiving one’s murderer and becoming a friend. It is a work of wise medieval ancestors who gave great lessons and wisdom to contemporary generations who rebel against small things through novels, who easily get excited, and who cannot forgive each other with their greed, not true honor.
All in all, the depiction of Atsumori’s death in two genres are slightly different, but both show the heartbreaking expressions of Kumagai for killing young Atsumori along with the importance flute and importance of forgiveness. Tale of the Heike shows the Kumagai's heartbroken feeling about Atsumori’s irreversible death and honor of the clan, whereas the noh play focuses on the background of Atsumori’s situation and the encouragement of reconciliation of characters by understanding and forgiving many misunderstandings that occur in our human life.