10 questions · History
Minamoto no Yoshitsune was born in 1159, the year his father Yoshitomo lost everything in the Heiji Rebellion. The child, then called Ushiwakamaru, was spared and placed in Kurama-dera, a mountain temple north of Kyoto, where he was meant to become a monk. Legend tells that at night in the forest the tengu, long-nosed mountain spirits, taught the boy to fight with the sword. As a youth he fled the monastery for the far north and found protection with Fujiwara no Hidehira, the powerful lord of Hiraizumi. In Kyoto, on the Gojō Bridge, he is said to have met a giant warrior monk who took the swords of passers-by and had already collected 999. Musashibō Benkei wanted the thousandth, but the slender youth dodged every blow as lightly as a feather until the giant admitted defeat. From then on Benkei followed him everywhere, and the two became the most famous lord and retainer in all of Japan. When his half-brother Yoritomo rose against the Taira in 1180, Yoshitsune hurried to join him and became the most brilliant general of the Genpei War. At Ichi-no-tani in 1184, legend says, he led his horsemen down a steep slope thought impassable and fell on the Taira from behind. In 1185 he destroyed their fleet in the naval battle of Dan-no-ura; the child emperor Antoku sank beneath the waves with his grandmother. Fame was his undoing. Yoritomo distrusted the darling of the imperial court and had him hunted. Yoshitsune fled with Benkei and a few loyal men, while his beloved, the dancer Shizuka Gozen, was taken prisoner. In Hiraizumi, after Hidehira’s death, the lord’s son betrayed him, and in 1189 Yoshitsune took his own life, barely thirty years old. Later generations could not accept such an end: legends had him escape to the mainland and reappear as Genghis Khan.
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Dan-no-ura
The battle in the Shimonoseki Strait ended the Genpei War and the house of Taira.
💡 Did you know? Legend says the Heike crabs, whose shells bear a face-like pattern, are the spirits of the drowned Taira warriors.
Ichi-no-tani
With a few horsemen he descended the slope of Hiyodorigoe and surprised the Taira camp from behind.
💡 Did you know? He is said to have reasoned that if deer could get down the slope, so could horses.
Musashibō Benkei
The giant warrior monk lost to the young Yoshitsune and became his most loyal retainer.
💡 Did you know? In Yoshitsune’s last fight, Benkei is said to have died on his feet, pierced by arrows.
Ushiwakamaru
Under this name he appears in many Noh and kabuki plays, for example in his encounter with Benkei.
💡 Did you know? Childhood names ending in “maru” were common among samurai sons.
Kurama-dera
He was meant to become a monk there, so that he would no longer be a danger as a son of the defeated Minamoto.
💡 Did you know? In the woods around the temple the tengu are said to have taught him swordsmanship.
Tengu
Tengu are mountain and forest spirits of Japanese folk belief, often with red skin, a long nose or a bird’s beak.
💡 Did you know? Their king, Sōjōbō, is said to have lived on Mount Kurama.
Shizuka Gozen
After his flight she was captured and brought before Yoritomo in Kamakura.
💡 Did you know? There she is said to have danced at the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū while singing a song of longing for Yoshitsune.
Fujiwara no Hidehira
The head of the Northern Fujiwara had already taken him in as a youth and protected him until his own death late in 1187.
💡 Did you know? His son Yasuhira broke his word and attacked Yoshitsune in 1189 under pressure from Yoritomo.
1189
Attacked by Fujiwara no Yasuhira, he took his own life in his residence by the Koromo River near Hiraizumi.
💡 Did you know? His head was preserved in sake and sent to Kamakura so that Yoritomo could inspect it.
Genghis Khan
The legend arose in the 19th century and claimed he had fled to the mainland via Hokkaidō.
💡 Did you know? The Japanese tendency to sympathise with tragic losers is called “hōgan-biiki” after his court title Hōgan.
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