was it fate or choice that had lead to a fruitless life?
He was a prominent Japanese poet. He served eight different emperors in his long career (holding high posts such as head of the arsenal). He was a warrior, leading armies. At the end of his life he became a monk. But life drew him back to war, and suffering defeat he had committed suicide. His assistant-in-death tossed his beheaded head fastened to a rock into the river so that it could not be found. His death poem speaks thusly: "Like an old tree From which we gather no blossoms Sad has been my life Fated to bear no fruit" Let us all remember Minamoto no Yorimasa with sadness. Let us all learn his lesson: never live life in a manner that might lead you to feel at your end that your life had been fruitless.