渡辺綱

Watanabe Tsuna (953–1025) was the foremost of the Four Heavenly Kings who served Minamoto no Yorimitsu — the group of elite warriors whose exploits against demons and supernatural enemies became the defining mythology of the early samurai class. The story that made Tsuna immortal is the encounter at Rajōmon Gate: sent alone at night to prove his courage, he met a demon disguised as a woman in the darkness and, recognizing it instantly for what it was, cut off its arm with a single stroke of his sword Higekiri, given to him by Yorimitsu. He brought the arm back as proof; later the demon returned in the form of an old woman to reclaim it. This story — combining night, a lone warrior, a supernatural adversary, perfect swordsmanship, and unshakeable nerve — encapsulates almost every quality the Japanese warrior class was meant to embody. Higekiri itself, the sword he used, became one of the most celebrated weapons in Japanese history, passed through the Minamoto line from Tsuna to Yoshitomo to Yoritomo to Yoshitsune, preserved today at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine as 'Onikiri (Higekiri).' Tsuna also fought in the legendary demon-extermination expedition to Ōeyama against Shuten-dōji. He is venerated not only as a warrior but as the founding ancestor of the Watanabe clan, who became a significant mercantile and maritime power in medieval Ōsaka.