パチ~ パチ~ パチ~
Ganbatte Yoshitsune!!!!!!!
The hero didn't even make his appearance yet! Hahahaha!!!!! Anyway, on to business! 
Sorry for the late update but I finally watched the 2nd episode two nights ago....
Yesh I'm taking my time for episode 2 but no more, no more taking my time for episode 3 because I'm quite 95% sure that he will appear in episode 3: The son of Genji. Haha... the minute I saw the title what I immediately thought of was the prayer for "Our Father"... should it be like...
Our Father Kiyomori, who art in Rokuhara.*WHACKS SELF*
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in all of Japan as it is in Rokuhara...
ANYWAY!!!!!! Just to keep everyone on track abou the plot, here's a not-so-brief summary on Episode 2: Our Father Kiyomori.
The episode started off at Taira Morikuni's residence, where Ushiwaka often visited to play. I'm not so sure how Morikuni is related to Kiyomori or Tokiko (Kiyomori's wife), but calls him "big brother". But in the NHK page it doesn't say he's her brother, just stated that he's a member of the Heike. Anyway, in the yard, Ushiwaka was playing sumo with the young Tomomori & Shigehira (Kiyomori & Tokiko's young sons) while Munemori (Kiyomori's 2nd son) yawns by the veranda. Then Shigemori (Kiyomori's eldest son) came with Morikuni. Shigemori then asked Morikuni, if that is Ushiwaka. Apparently this is his first time seeing the boy after hearing the people of the house perhaps talking about him.
*Quick notes:After seeing Ushiwaka, Shigemori went to see his father at once. I'm not quite sure really what he talks about but I caught some lines about Ushiwaka playing with Tomomori & Shigehira as though they were brothers, while in truth, Ushiwaka is an enemy bloodline.
Kiyomori has 5 children (from eldest to youngest) --> Shigemori, Munemori, Tomomori, Tokuko & Shigehira.
However, Shigemori is not the son of Kiyomori & Tokiko. Not sure who his mother is.
Munemori, Tomomori, Tokuko & Shigehira are the children of Tokiko.
Princess Tokuko will later then marry the emperor, thus bearing the title "Kenreimonin Tokuko", and her 8-year-old son, Antoku, will become a child emperor later on.
I know all these names sound very similar and confusing, but try to familiarize with the names and you'll be able to understand the story better!
Ushiwaka walks home from Morikuni's residence. As he was walking in the streets of the city, suddenly the crowd went into panic and started running. It turns out that there was a horse running loose in the middle of the street, and there was a little girl who was standing in its pathway, completely oblivious of the danger she's in. Ushiwaka then runs to save the girl. He pushes her aside and stood in front of the horse's pathway with his arms stretched out across to stop the horse. It seems to be the fearless and valor reflected in the young boy's eyes that made the horse halt to a stop. The horse then halted to a stop and stood on its hind feet, causing whatever is on its back to topple off to the ground. Food and stuff. Some people went and stole the stuff that dropped off the horse's back. Among them were two are Gotari & Karasumaru, two vagabonds or something. Ushiwaka went after them and told them something, not so sure. They shouldn't steal? They ignored him and just pushed him aside again and again. I think this scene is just to reflect on the virtues of Ushiwaka's character. That he is brave, fearless, yet he is also honest and pure.
He arrived home to his mother, and his mother was shocked at how dirty he looked and there were cuts and bruises on his face. Ushiwaka told his mother that he had been playing wrestling with Tomomori & Shigehira. In the meantime, back in the palace, Tokiko also found her two young sons caring for their wounds and she asked them what happened. And I'm not sure what she said but she seems to be reprimanding them about something.
Then came to the scene where Kiyomori was sitting in a room, he was looking at a folding screen with drawings of a city, with the palace and ports and boats on it. Tokiwa came in and asked him what he was looking at. Kiyomori said that this is Fukuhara, and he also tells Tokiwa that this place doesn't exist yet, but it is his dream capital city. He aspires to build a capital city like so. Meanwhile Ushiwaka was playing right outside with his taketonbo (bamboo flying thingy). The taketonbo won't fly or something and it drops to the ground. Kiyomori & Tokiwa came out to see Ushiwaka. As Tokiwa told Ushiwaka to greet Kiyomori, Ushiwaka merely greeted with a sad spiritless nod. Kiyomori asked him what is wrong and Ushiwaka said that his taketonbo won't fly. (In the previous episode, there was a scene where Kiyomori made a taketonbo for Ushiwaka and made it fly). So Kiyomori gave him instructions and Ushiwaka gleefully went, "Hai!" and he ran off to one side and started fixing his taketonbo. As Kiyomori and Tokiwa sat down by the veranda looking at Ushiwaka, suddenly to Tokiwa's surprise, Kiyomori asked, "Tokiwa, how old is Ushiwaka now?" And Tokiwa replied that Ushiwaka is now 7 years old, and she asks why did he ask, but he didn't say anything. Tokiwa starts to feel alarmed by the fact that Kiyomori asked about Ushiwaka's age, I suppose she is haunted by the fear that Kiyomori will send Ushiwaka away to the temple just like what he did to Ushiwaka's older brothers, Otowaka & Imawaka.
*Another quick note:In the summertime, the women of Heike went out for a picnic by the river. What a gorgeous scene it was. I was very impressed especially by the bright colored decorations that donned the scene. The traditional music, the beautiful scenery, the dragon-shaped boats floating across the river passing each other in a symmetrical harmony. It was simply a gorgeous scene. In this scene, Tokiko were drinking tea with the women in her court, including Muneko (Tokiko's sister-in-law) and Tsuneko (the wife of Shigemori). As they were laughing, suddenly Muneko mentioned something about Tokiwa (I think it was about the fact that she is Yoshitomo's captured concubine, and that Kiyomori is sparing her for a fishy reason or something). Tsuneko was alarmed for a moment and reprimanded Muneko not to say too much as it may shock and anger Tokiko. But Tokiko just laughed it off, but it was quite obvious she was surprised and displeased with what she just heard.
Just to clarify, if you hear a lot of "Rokuhara-sama" mentioned, it is actually a name to address Kiyomori.
Rokuhara is actually the capital in the Kyoto area that Kiyomori built, thus he is addressed also as "Rokuhara-sama".
Something that probably means, The Lord of Rokuhara, or something.
Sometime later, Tokiwa paid Morikuni a visit. I'm not sure what for, but it seems that Tokiwa wanted to consult with him about the fate of her and her child (either Ushiwaka, or the baby she's currently pregnant with--yes, she's pregnant with Kiyomori's offspring -_-) Not quite so sure what they talked about. But then suddenly Tokiko appeared and entered the room. She sat with them together, and asked who this woman was. Tokiwa then introduced herself, and Tokiko said to Morikuni, isn't this Yoshitomo's concubine, concerning what business is it that she came to see you, brother? (She refers to Morikuni as her brother). And then later on during the conversation, Tokiko suddenly realized and discovered that Tokiwa is pregnant. I'm not sure how she found out, but she said something about "kaori" which means some sort of scent... and then when Tokiwa said that the scent was hers, Tokiko suddenly gasped and realized she's pregnant? Maybe pregnant women those days wears some scent like that or what? Not sure.
An enraged Tokiko marched to Tokitada (her younger brother)'s residence and spilled her anger to Tokitada & Muneko (remember Muneko was also the one who blurted the fact about Tokiwa to her at the river picnic. Muneko is the wife of Tokitada). Tokitada then pointed out his puzzlement of why Tokiko is so enraged about this fact, supposedly Kiyomori has a lot of concubines or something or children that are not Tokiko's offspring. Tokiko then exploded again that Tokiwa was the concubine of Kiyomori's enemy, and that this is unacceptable. She also said that she did finally witness Tokiwa's beauty that everyone had been talking about, but she also said that behind that pretty face is nothing but a she-demon or something. Tokiko said that she will not acknowledge or accept such a woman. "Tokiwa to iu onna wo yurusanai." And she also said that if Tokiwa gave birth to a baby, Tokiko will take charge of the baby.
That night, there was a short scene where it shows while Tokiwa was deep in her own thoughts in that rainy night that she did not notice Ushiwaka curiously opening Kiyomori's folding paintings that he had shown to Tokiwa earlier about Fukuhara. Ushiwaka's eyes gleamed in delight.
The next morning, Kiyomori summoned his two sons Shigemori & Munemori. I'm not sure what he asked them about... I think Kiyomori asks them both to be present at a meeting with some foreigners... Shigemori immediately replied yes, but Munemori replied something that is not to Kiyomori's favour. I think Munemori replied something about that he has to go out to see someone? An onmyouji (paranormal) is it? A displeased Kiyomori scolded Munemori very harshly, I think he said something like how can you be a samurai if you keep having to go consult all these onmyoujis or something... he even grabbed his son by the collar and started shaking him then pushing him to the floor and left the room in a huff, leaving Munemori completely dumbfounded. Munemori then turned to his elder brother, and he asked does his father hate him so? Why does he seem to hate him so much. This scene shows to us just how strict Kiyomori is to his son, Munemori.
The day came, Kiyomori meets some guests (I believe they are Chinese? Because they look chinese, and then I hear them speaking broken chinese LOL!) He told his people to show the folding screen painting to the guests, and as the painting was opened, to everyone's shock there was scribblings done on the painting with black ink on brush. Immediately Tokiwa & Ushiwaka were summoned, to which Kiyomori immediately asked if that scribblings were done by Ushiwaka. Tokiwa immediately scolded Ushiwaka to bow down and apologize, but Ushiwaka didn't but he went up to Kiyomori and pointed to the painting. Ushiwaka said that "I see in the painting some houses. This is your palace and this is who and who's residence..." And then Ushiwaka pointed to the painting area where the ocean was painted, and he said, "But I don't understand what this is." Kiyomori stared at Ushiwaka for a moment, then it seemed that his anger melted away and he was quite amused at Ushiwaka's question. So instead of getting enraged at Ushiwaka, his face turned very yasashii, then he sat down and explained to Ushiwaka that it is the ocean. Ushiwaka said that he doesn't know what an ocean is. So Kiyomori requests that a brush and black ink be brought to him, and then at where Ushiwaka had scribbled a line on the painting, Kiyomori continued the scribbling and turned it into a doodle of a sailboat. Munemori was surprised at his father's conduct. He had expected his father to explode in rage but Kiyomori even then continued to explain things to Ushiwaka and drew on the painting. He was all yasashii about it, and even explained his plans to build Fukuhara to Ushiwaka, about how he planned to built ports here and there so that foreign ships could stop and trade businesses or something. To which Shigemori finds this completely unnecessary to disclose so much, moreover in front of the foreign guests that are present in the room.
That night, Munemori returned to that room with a handful of stones in his palm. In frustration, he started throwing stones into the painting, and then he left after venting out his anger.
Later on, I think it was wintertime. Tokiwa finally gave birth to a baby girl. The baby girl technically became Ushiwaka's half sister. She was named Yoshiko.
And then there was this one scene where Tokiko came to Kiyomori one night to talk about the children. She protested to Kiyomori about the comment he made that Munemori lacks the character to become a samurai. And about how she pitied Munemori, that Kiyomori is always so extremely strict and harsh to him, but then displays such extreme kindness towards Ushiwaka, what is he supposed to think of? (other than the fact that his father hates him so) I'm not sure what else she talks about here, I think she protests also about his relationship with Tokiwa, and about Tokiwa's baby. Tokiko was in tears. Kiyomori didn't say much and then he stood up and left. But I guess what Tokiko said kinda does sunk a little in his head, he does realize that the existence of Tokiwa bothers Tokiko a lot.
So Kiyomori then paid Tokiwa another visit to talk about some changes. He told Tokiwa that he will move her to live in the residence of Ichijou Naganari, the minister of finance. And then I'm not sure here but I think he then continued to say that, as for Ushiwaka, he will be sent off after his brothers to the temple, to which Tokiwa pleaded and begged him to have a little more time with Ushiwaka. And then I think Kiyomori complied, but then he told her that in exchange of Ushiwaka, he will take Yoshiko away from her and put the princess in the care of Tokitada and Muneko.
And so the baby princess Yoshiko was taken away from her mother and her elder brother. Tokiwa & Ushiwaka then moved to the residence of Ichijou Naganari. Supposedly Kiyomori ordered them to be married but I'm not so sure. One night, Tokiwa said to Ushiwaka, "From now on, we will be living here. So please think of Ichijou Naganari as your own father." But Ushiwaka then asked if Kiyomori is not his father? Tokiwa said that no, Kiyomori is not your father. Then Ushiwaka asked, "So, who is my real father?" to which Tokiwa immediately stopped the conversation and asked Ushiwaka not to ask anymore such questions. A disappointed Ushiwaka then ran off into the night. Being a child, he is right now completely oblivious of what is really going on. But in time he will soon discover more of the truth.
To be continued in Episode 3: Genji no onzoushi (The son of Genji)
we were getting excited chatting about the New Year party yo 
But then again I don't know other countries' censor policies and which courier service they tap into.......
パチ~パチ~パチ~~~
