Minamoto no Yoshitsune
Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源 義経) (1159 – June 15,1189) was a general of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian and early Kamakura period. Yoshitsune was the ninth son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo. Yoshitsune's older brother Minamoto no Yoritomo (the third son of Yoshitomo) founded the Kamakura shogunate. Yoshitsune's name in childhood was Ushiwakamaru 牛若丸.
Yoshitsune was born slightly before the Heiji Rebellion of 1159 in which his father and oldest two brothers were killed. His life was spared and he was put under the care of Kurama Temple, nestled in the Hiei Mountains near the capital of Kyoto, while Yoritomo was banished to Izu Province. Eventually, Yoshitsune was put under the protection of Fujiwara no Hidehira, head of the powerful regional Northern Fujiwara clan in Hiraizumi, Mutsu Province.
In 1180, Yoshitsune heard that Yoritomo, now head of the Minamoto clan, had raised an army at the request of Prince Mochihito to fight against the Taira clan which had usurped the power of the emperor. Yoshitsune shortly thereafter joined Yoritomo, along with Minamoto no Noriyori, all brothers who had never before met, in the last of three conflicts between the rival Minamoto and Taira samurai clans, known as the Genpei War.
Yoshitsune defeated and killed his rival cousin Minamoto no Yoshinaka at the Battle of Awazu in Ōmi Province in the first month of 1184 and in the next month defeated the Taira at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani in present day Kobe. In 1185, Yoshitsune defeated the Taira again at the Battle of Yashima in Shikoku and destroyed them at the Battle of Dan-no-ura in present day Yamaguchi Prefecture.
After the Gempei War, Yoshitsune joined the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa against his brother Yoritomo. Fleeing to the temporary protection of Fujiwara no Hidehira in Mutsu again, Yoshitsune was betrayed, defeated at the Battle of Koromogawa, and forced to commit seppuku along with his wife and daughter, by Hidehira's son Fujiwara no Yasuhira. Yoshitsune is enshrined in the Shinto shrine Shirahata Jinja in Fujisawa.
Yoshitsune has long been a popular figure in Japanese literature and culture due to his appearance as the main character in the third section of the Japanese literary classic Heike Monogatari (Tale of the Heike). The Japanese term for "sympathy for a tragic hero", hangan-biiki, comes from Yoshitsune's title hangan, which he received from the Imperial Court.
Contemporary media
- "Shike" by Robert Shea features a somewhat fictionalized account of the Genpei War in which Minamoto no Yoshitsune appears to be represented by the character Muratomo no Yukio. The names of the two rival clans have been changed, "Minamoto" to "Muratomo" and "Taira" to "Takashi".
- Akira Kurosawa's film The Men Who Tread on the Tiger's Tail dramatises a legend about Yoshitsune, based on the kabuki play Kanjincho.
- Yoshitsune's feat of cutting leaves as they fell from a tree has been referenced many times in Japanese pop culture. In some instances, characters attempt the feat to compare themselves to Yoshitsune, as in the beginning of Blade of the Immortal. Sometimes, variations upon this motif are seen, such as in the manga One Piece where Zoro the swordsman achieves the ability to cut steel because he can hold a falling leaf on his sword's edge without cutting it, or in Hajime no Ippo, where the main character is facetiously given the task of catching falling leaves with his bare hands before he will be allowed into a gym. Ippo's eventual ability to indirectly mimic Yoshitsune is seen as a sign of great potential by the other characters.
- NHK's 2005 taiga drama Yoshitsune is a fictionalized account of the samurai's life and the political intrigues that sealed his fate.
- Game Republic's 2005 PlayStation 2 video game, Genji: Dawn of the Samurai is another fictionalized account of the story of Yoshitsune and Saito Musashibo Benkei.
- Sogo Ishii's film Gojō Reisenki Gojoe retells, with considerable reinvention, Yoshitsune's encounter with Benkei at Gojō Bridge.
- In an unusual twist, Yoshitsune along with Benkei and two Minamoto clan members, Yoritomo and Yoshinaka, are the villains of an old Namco arcade game Genpei Toumaden. The hero of the game is Taira no Kagekiyo, who was portrayed as the villain of Genji: Dawn of the Samurai. All of them make an appearance in the crossover game Namco X Capcom.
- Kodansha is publishing a manga about Yoshitsune. The manga is titled Shana Ō Yoshitsune. It is being written by Hirofumi Sawada.
- Yoshitsune appears as "Ushiwaka" (or "Waka") in the videogame Ōkami as a Taoist Prophet who often gives the main character (the incarnation of Amaterasu as a wolf) prophesies in the form of unusual riddles.
- Minamoto Yoshitsune is the protagonist during a campaign on the Nintendo DS game, Age of Empires: The Age of Kings.
- Yoshitsune appears as the main character of the manga Kurozuka by Baku Yumemakura, serialized in Jump Comics Deluxe.
- Japanese doll and figure company Volks have released a SD10 sized Super Dollfie Ushiwakamaru based on Yoshitsune as a child.
- Though not a direct representation of Yoshitsune, the general of the Air Treck team Trident in the manga Air Gear by Oh! great is named Yoshitsune and served by a second-in-command named Benkei.
- A version of Minamoto wielding a "lightsaber" will be playable in the upcoming sequel to Koei's Warriors Orochi.
Traditional arts
In addition to The Tale of the Heike and Chronicle of Yoshitsune (Gikeiki), which relates events of Yoshitsune's life after the defeat of the Heike, a great many other works of literature and drama feature him, and together form the sekai ("world") of Yoshitsune, a concept akin to the Western notion of the literary cycle.
These include: