Japan in 1159 was in the midst of a civil war known as the “Heiji Rebellion.” At that time, there were two big clans; the Taira and the Minamoto. Both approached the emperor to legitimize their power and create links with arranged marriages, and the Taira gained an advantage in the court of Emperor Go-Shirakawa who helped them win the war.
The Minamotos were led by Minamoto no Yoshitomo, who escaped from Heian (the capital of the country and present-day Kyoto) but was betrayed and killed while bathing in an onsen. His remaining children; Yoritomo, Noriyori, and Yoshitsune were pardoned but exiled without their mother, Tokiwa Gozen who became a concubine for Taira no Kiyomori in exchange for her family’s safety.
Yoshitsune was only one year old when he lost his father and the Heiji Rebellion ended. He was confined to the Kurama temple near Heian to be a cloistered monk, under the name of Ushiwakamaru, separated from his brothers (Yoritomo was exiled to the Izu peninsula, and from Noriyori there is no record of his childhood). Yoshitsune was a child of unusual beauty, bordering on androgyny.
The youth of Ushiwakamaru
There are very few written documents about the young man, but we know for sure that he didn’t want to devote himself to religious studies. Leaving this temple, he met who looked like a Yamabushi (a hermit who lived in the mountains) but who in reality was none other than Sōjōbō, the king of the Tengu. The Tengu are Yokai famous for their superhuman strength and abilities, and their leader trained the young man to use the sword, martial arts, and magic.
It was only later that a gold merchant who knew the late Yoshitomo saw his son in the temple and invited him to accompany him. During the time they were together, the merchant told him who he really was and what lineage he came from, since the young Ushiwakamaru had no memory of his childhood. In 1174 (age 15), he began living in Hiraizumi in the province of Mutsu under the guardianship and protection of Fujiwara no Hidehira, one of the chiefs of the Fujiwara clan.
Benkei’s thousandth duel
Japan was not only full of samurai as a military class, but warrior monks (Sōhei) had also emerged who fought against the tyranny of many feudal lords who would not leave them alone or mistreat the people. One of the strongest of this era was the Saitō Musashibō Benkei.
Commonly known as Benkei, he was a two-meter tall man, abnormally large for his time, and of such strength and skill that he always carried seven weapons at once; sword, masakari (ax), kumade (rake), nagigama (sickle), hizuchi (wooden mallet), nokogiri (saw) and tetsubo (iron staff).
Because of his complicated childhood, he had absolute contempt for the samurai class, whom he considered arrogant. He challenged them in duels and kept the sword of the vanquished, reaching 999. To achieve his personal goal of obtaining 1,000 swords to forge armor with them, he met a young man playing the flute but with a sword in the shrine of Gojo Tenjin in Heian. He challenged him to a duel that took place on the Gojo bridge and against all odds, Benkei lost the fight. Frustrated and seeking revenge, he waited for him at Kiyomizu Temple where he lost again. His thousandth rival was Yoshitsune and he decided to serve him as a vassal.
Revenge against the Taira
While Yoshitsune was traveling with Benkei, the country still had open wounds from the last war and it reached the ears of both that their older brother Yoritomo was preparing to fight the Taira again at the request of Emperor Go-Shirakawa’s son, Prince Mochihito, as he considered Taira no Kiyomori to be causing much suffering to the people and usurping the imperial throne. Yoritomo had a personal score to settle against Kiyomori for the murder of his father and the exile he and his surviving brothers endured.
Yoshitsune reunites with his brother as well as Noriyori, the three meeting for the first time since his exile, reclaiming the Minamoto clan surname.
The Genpei Wars began in 1180. Taira no Kiyomori established with his victory in the Heiji Rebellion the first samurai government in Japanese history, but died in 1181 due to illness, leaving his son Taira no Munemori in charge of the Genpei Wars and on the imperial throne his grandson, Prince Tokihito (or Emperor Antoku) aged two after forcing Emperor Takakura to abdicate.
These were difficult years of poor harvests, famine, and natural disasters in the capital, due according to experts of the time to the curse of Emperor Sutoku who was banished and humiliated in life. The Taira and Minamoto factions were fighting until Yoshitsune and Noriyori were promoted to clan generals. Some of their battles in this role were the Second Battle of Uji, the Battle of Awazu, and the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani, all in 1184.
The battle of Dan-no-Ura
The Minamoto began to gain an advantage over their rivals, who retreated each battle until the Taira took the Shimonoseki Strait that separates Honshu’s main island from Kyushu’s island. The Minamoto samurai and many warrior monks were experienced in land battles, but the Taira had an advantage in naval battles, so they assembled a fleet of about 500 ships.
Yoshitsune was to lead this battle with a fleet of 300 ships (although other sources say there were as many as 800) for he knew that Emperor Antoku was on those ships and the end of him was the only chance of removing the Taira from the imperial throne.
Antoku, who was 6 years old and accompanied by his grandmother, Kiyomori’s widow, was on a boat with the three sacred relics of Japan, protected by Taira no Munemori, who hadn’t known how to carry out the wars his father Kiyomori had left him. He was supported by his brother Tomomori, who had more experience at sea.
The battle began with both clans firing showers of arrows until they were hit and fighting with swords aboard the enemy’s ships, while Yoshitsune with Benkei and Noriyori were searching for the ship where the emperor might be hidden. The armor they wore weighed enough to drown a warrior who fell into the water.
When the Taira began to find themselves in trouble, a man from their troops; Taguchi Shigeyoshi betrayed his own by sending his men against his own clan and also betrayed the ship where Antoku was hiding from the enemy. Although Munemori was aware of the suspicions some had about Shigeyoshi, he let him fight the same way and it would cost him the war. The Minamoto arrows and the ships were heading towards Antoku.
His grandmother, seeing the terrible fate she was about to suffer, took two of the sacred relics (the magatama and the sword) from the boy’s side and threw herself into the sea, the two drowned men dying. When a maid planned to launch herself with the third imperial relic (the mirror), an arrow left her nailed to the ship. Two soldiers who opened the box to look at the mirror would automatically have become blind, and impure.
Tomomori tied himself to an anchor and launched himself into the sea to ensure that he would drown and that his body would not float. Munemori was arrested to be executed later. Many Taira committed suicide and the local crabs are said to be the former Taira warriors drowned in this war. Yoshitsune would become a legend after this victory.
Treason
Minamoto no Yoritomo, clan leader, was rewarded by Emperor Go-Shirakawa with his own land in the Kanto region, where Tokyo is now located. He set up his capital in Kamakura, founding Japan’s first shogunate (or military regime), something Taira no Masakado had already tried, unsuccessfully. While Kamakura was the military capital, the traditional capital and home of the emperor would still be Heian (Kyoto).
Yoshitsune, who was considered a hero and after serving his revenge against the clan that murdered his father, allied himself with Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who invited him to join his court, where he met a court dancer named Shizuka Gozen. Yoritomo, who considered his brother’s alliance an insult to his power, decided to sever the blood ties and accuse him of treason, sending men to the capital to finish him off.
Yoshitsune and Benkei left Heian in 1185, leaving behind Shizuka, who was captured by Hōjō Tokimasa (loyal to Yoritomo) and gave birth at the age of 19 to a boy, Yoshitsune’s son. Some writings say that both were killed by Yoritomo’s order and others that she committed suicide, probably abandoning her son in a Buddhist temple.
Yoshitsune returns to Hiraizumi, where he has long lived under the protection of Fujiwara no Hidehira, who accepts him back. On Hidehira’s deathbed, his son Yasuhira promised to protect Yoshitsune. The shogun soon discovered his brother’s whereabouts and began threatening Yasuhira, who, blaming Yoshitsune for disturbing the tranquility of his life, decided to betray him.
Yoshitsune’s last battle
Yoshitsune and Benkei’s residence in Koromogawa was surrounded by hundreds of Yasuhira’s men.
The great warrior monk decided that his lord would not lose his life like any other dog and went out to face all enemies alone to give his lord time to perform seppuku and come to an honorable end.
Inside his house, he prepared to dig out his sword, hearing the cries of the soldiers who were trying to overthrow the giant whose presence was already spreading terror among his enemies. The archers began shooting through him repeatedly, to the point where Benkei could no longer fight. But to the surprise of the soldiers who perfidiously attacked, Benkei kept his cool, until they realized that the warrior monk had died standing.
That was enough time for Yoshitsune to commit suicide with honor. Yasuhira cut off his head and preserved it for the sake he sent to the shogun Yoritomo. He is enshrined in the Shirahata Shrine in the town of Fujisaka, although it is not the only shrine dedicated to this legendary hero. An alternative theory says that Yoshitsune may have fled and that the idea of committing seppuku was a ploy by Benkei to give him time to flee by deceiving his enemies. The samurai reached Hokkaido where he adopted the name Okikurumi or Oinakamui and resided in the town of Biratori, where he dedicated the Yoshitsune Shrine.
The legend of Yoshitsune
Minamoto no Yoshitsune is one of the main characters of “Heike Monogatari”, a 13th-century epic considered a classic of Japanese literature. This is a tragic, romanticized hero, played out by Noh and Kabuki, both by himself and by Benkei, his inseparable companion. Yoshitsune has been honored in other more modern literary works such as “Kurokuza”.
Akira Kurosawa made a film based on Yoshitsune’s Kabuki works, called “The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail” in 1945, which was banned by the U.S. occupation forces for holding Japanese values, although it was allowed to be shown in 1952. His figure has also been seen in Samurai Warriors 4, as well as both main characters and enemy video games, such as in Genji, Nioh, or Persona 5.
