Battle of Awazu
Appearance
Battle of Awazu | |||||||
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Part of the Genpei War | |||||||
Tomoe Gozen defeats Uchida Ieyoshi and Hatakeyama Shigetada. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Minamoto clan loyalists | Minamoto clan rebels | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Minamoto no Yoshitsune Minamoto no Noriyori |
Minamoto no Yoshinaka † Imai Kanehira † |
Minamoto no Yoshinaka made his final stand at Awazu, after fleeing from his cousins' armies, which confronted him after he attacked Kyoto, burning the Hōjūjiden, and kidnapping Emperor Go-Shirakawa. During the pursuit, he was joined by his foster brother Imai Kanehira and Tomoe Gozen.[1][2]
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 a stray arrow when his horse became mired in a paddy field. Kanehira committed suicide by leaping off his horse while holding his sword in his mouth.[3][4][5]
Gallery
[edit]-
Woodblock print of the battle of Awazu, by Utagawa Toyoharu, ca. 1760s. Yoshinaka and Kanehira's deaths are depicted in the left middle distance.
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Tomoe Gozen in the Battle of Awazu—by Utagawa Yoshikazu.
References
[edit]- ^ Sansom, George (1958). A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford University Press. pp. 296–297. ISBN 0804705232.
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen (2016-07-28). The Gempei War 1180–85: The Great Samurai Civil War. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 58–63. ISBN 978-1-4728-1385-5.
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. Cassell & Co. p. 204. ISBN 1854095234.
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen (1977). The Samurai, A Military History. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. p. 66. ISBN 0026205408.
- ^ The Tales of the Heike. Translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Press. 2006. p. 88. ISBN 9780231138031.