The sound of the bell of Gion Shoja echoes the impermanence of all things. The color of the sala flowers, said to have turned white when the Buddha died, reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not last; they are like a dream on a spring night. The brave too perish in the end; they are just dust before the wind.
If we look far off, to examples in other lands: Zhao Gao of Qin, Wang Mang of Han, Zhu Yi of Liang, An Lushan of Tang; none of them followed the rule of their former lords and emperors; they indulged every pleasure, heeded no warning, did not see that the realm was falling into disorder, and knew nothing of the people's suffering, and so they did not last, and perished. If we look near, to examples in our own land: Taira no Masakado of Johei, Fujiwara no Sumitomo of Tengyo, Minamoto no Yoshichika of Kowa, Fujiwara no Nobuyori of Heiji; their pride and ferocity were each great in their own way, but most recently, when one hears of the lay priest of Rokuhara, the former Chancellor Taira no Kiyomori, it is beyond imagining and beyond words.
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From his victory in the Heiji disturbance, Kiyomori rose to Chancellor, and the members of his clan all took high rank and office. Taira no Tokitada, the younger brother of Kiyomori's wife, declared, "Whoever is not of this clan is not a person." People imitated the Taira, praising even the way they folded their caps and wore their robes as "the Rokuhara style."
Kiyomori chose three hundred boys of fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, had their hair cut short in a bob, dressed them in red robes and set them loose in the capital. If anyone spoke ill of the Taira, they called their fellows, broke into the house, seized its goods, arrested the person and took him to Rokuhara. So even if people saw things and thought things, no one said them aloud. At Rokuhara, east of the Kamo River, the mansions of the Taira stood eave to eave, and their glory reached its peak.