Minamoto no Yoshinaka , , or Lord Kiso was a general from the late Heian period of Japanese history. A member of the Minamoto clan, Minamoto no Yoritomo was his cousin and rival during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and the Taira clans. Yoshinaka was born in Musas ...

made his final stand at Awazu, after fleeing from his cousins' armies, which confronted him after he attacked

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

, burning the Hōjūjiden, and kidnapping

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''ins ...

. During the pursuit he was joined by his foster brother

Imai Kanehira Imai Kanehira (今井兼平, 1152-1184) was a military commander of the late Heian Period of Japan. He was the milk brother of Minamoto no Yoshinaka. He became joint commander of Yoshinaka's faction during the Genpei War after Yoshinaka met up wit ...

and

Tomoe Gozen Tomoe Gozen (, ) was an onna-musha from the late Heian period of Japanese history. She served Minamoto no Yoshinaka during the Genpei War and was a part of the conflict that led to the first shogunate. Her family had strong affiliations with Yos ...

. During the battle, they fought valiantly, holding off Noriyori's large force of thousands of men for a time. However, in the end, they both died in battle. Yoshinaka was struck dead by an arrow when his horse became mired in a

paddy field A paddy field is a flooded field (agriculture), field of arable land used for growing Aquatic plant, semiaquatic crops, most notably rice and taro. It originates from the Neolithic rice-farming cultures of the Yangtze River basin in sout ...

. Kanehira committed suicide by leaping off his horse while holding his sword in his mouth.

Gallery

File:Toyoharu Awazu.jpg, Woodblock print of the battle of Awazu, by Utagawa Toyoharu, ca. 1760s. Yoshinaka and Kanehira's deaths are depicted in the left middle distance. File:Battle of Awazugahara.jpg,

in the Battle of Awazu—by Utagawa Yoshikazu.

References

1180s in Japan 1184 in Asia Awazu 1184 Awazu Awasu 1184 {{Japan-battle-stub