Battle of Awazu

Tomoe Gozen defeats Uchida Ieyoshi and Hatakeyama Shigetada.

Date	February 21, 1184
Location	Awazu, Ōmi Province
Result	Minamoto no Yoshitsune et al. victory; Minamoto no Yoshinaka killed

Belligerents

Minamoto clan loyalists

Minamoto clan rebels

Commanders and leaders

Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Minamoto no Noriyori

Minamoto no Yoshinaka, Imai Kanehira, Tomoe Gozen

Genpei War

1st Uji Nara Ishibashiyama Fujikawa Sunomata-gawa Yahagi-gawa Hiuchi Kurikara Shinohara Mizushima Fukuryūji Muroyama Hōjūjidono 2nd Uji Awazu Ichi-no-Tani Kojima Yashima Dan-no-ura

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

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 had joined up with his companion and milk brother Imai Kanehira at Seta; Kanehira became joint commander along with Yoshinaka.

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: Yoshinaka was struck dead by an arrow when his horse became mired in a paddy field, and after Kanehira heard that Yoshinaka had been killed, he committed suicide by leaping off his horse while holding his sword in his mouth.

References

Sansom, George (1958). A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Turnbull, Stephen (1998). The Samurai Sourcebook. London: Cassell & Co.