Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189) was a samurai of the Kamakura Minamoto clan, fighting in the Gempei Wars.
Biography[]
Minamoto Yoshitsune, a superb swordsman always accompanied by his faithful warrior-monk Benkei, is one of the most popular samurai figures in Japanese literary and cultural tradition. He was born in troubled circumstances. His father, Minamoto Yoshitomo, had made himself head of his clan by parricade in 1556, fighting in alliance with the Taira family against his own father. In 1159, the year Yoshitsune was born, Yoshitomo turned against the Taira in the Heiji Rebellion, but was defeated and killed, along with his two eldest sons. The baby Yoshitsune and his brothers, Yoritomo and Noriyori, were spared and exiled to different parts of Japan.
Defeating the Taira[]
Yoshitsune was reunited with his brothers at the start of the Gempei Wars in 1180. When Yoshitomo, the eldest, led an army against the Taira, Yoshitsune and Noriyori came to his support. There is no definite record of Yoshitsune's life until 1184, when he routed his cousin, Yoshinaka, in a Minamoto civil war. Yoritomo then authorized Yoshitsune to invade the Taira heartland around Japan's Inland Sea. Fast-moving and decisive, Yoshitsune took as his first objective the coastal fortress of Ichinotani. He divided his army, sending his brother Noriyori to attack the fortress from the front while he led a smaller force down a supposedly impassable cliff to the rear. The fortress was raided and the Taira defenders fled to their boats to escape by water. After a pause to consolidate his gains and build up his naval forces, Yoshitsune followed the Taira to the fortress fronting the beach at Yashima. While the enemy waited for him by sea, Yoshitsune landed his army on the coast some 30 miles distant and advanced on Yashima overland. The demoralized Taira once more fled to their boats.
In April 1185, Yoshitsune caught up with them at Dan no Ura. Although they had a far superior fleet, the Minamoto were wrong-footed as the Taira held the advantage of the tide in their favor. But the tide turned, the Taira were beaten, and the battle and the war ended in a mass suicide of the defeated.
Yoshitsune had little chance to enjoy his victory. Yoritomo, no doubt jealous and fearful of his militarily successful younger brother, became his mortal enemy. Yoshitsune fled into the hills and lived like a bandit with a small group of followers until he was hunted down at Koromogawa and, cornered, committed suicide.