High Middle Ages · East Asia · War

1185

Battle of Dan-no-Ura

April 25, 1185

Minamoto Yoshitsune's fleet cornered the Taira clan and their child-emperor Antoku in the strait between Honshu and Kyushu. As defeat became certain, the emperor's grandmother clasped him in her arms and jumped into the sea. Five years of civil war ended with Minamoto victory. The drowning of the boy-emperor became one of the most iconic scenes in Japanese literature, retold in the Tale of the Heike with devastating pathos.