- Battle of Yashima
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Yashima
partof=theGenpei War
caption=Nasu no Yoichi firing his famous shot at a fan atop the mast of a Taira ship. From a hanging scroll, Watanabe Museum, Tottori Prefecture, Japan.
date=March 22 ,1185
place=Yashima, just offShikoku in theSeto Inland Sea
casus=
territory=
result=Minamoto victory
combatant1=Minamoto clan
combatant2=Taira clan
commander1=Minamoto no Yoshitsune
commander2=Various
strength1=100+ men, 140 ships
strength2=Unknown
casualties1=
casualties2=The naval Battle of Yashima took place on
22 March 1185 . Following a long string of defeats, theTaira clan retreated to Yashima, today's Takamatsu, just off the coast ofShikoku . Here they had a fortress, and an improvised palace forEmperor Antoku and the imperial regalia, which they had taken earlier in the war.Minamoto no Yoshitsune , setting out fromKyoto after a lull of several months in the war, found his way toShikoku with a small force, no more than about a hundred men. Most of his ships were destroyed or lost in a storm only days before; but he was re-supplied by an ally,Kajiwara Kagetoki .The
Taira were expecting a naval attack, and so Yoshitsune lit bonfires onShikoku , essentially in their rear, fooling theTaira into believing that a large force was approaching on land. They abandoned the fortress/palace, and took to their ships, along with Emperor Antoku and the imperial regalia. TheTaira even placed a fan atop the mast of one of their ships, and dared theMinamoto to knock it off. In one of the most famous archery feats in all of Japanese history,Nasu no Yoichi rode out into the sea on horseback, and did just that. TheMinamoto were victorious, but the majority of theTaira fleet escaped to Dan-no-ura, where they were defeated one month later in theBattle of Dan-no-ura .References
* Sansom, George (1958). 'A History of Japan to 1334'. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
* Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.
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