Battle of Dan-no-ura

Battle of Dan No Ura

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Battle of Dan-no-ura

The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War

Genpei War

The was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clan clans and in late-Heian period Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192....
, occurring at Dan-no-ura

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

is a cities of Japan located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is at the southwestern tip of Honshu, facing the Tsushima Strait and also Kitakyushu across the Kanmon Straits....
, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshu

Honshu

or Honshu is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait....
. On April 25 1185, the Genji (Minamoto) clan fleet, led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

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The was a major sea battle of the Genpei War

Genpei War

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi

Honshu

Minamoto no Yoshitsune

was a general of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian period and early Kamakura period. Yoshitsune was the ninth son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo....
, defeated the Heike (Taira) clan fleet, during a half-day engagement.

The Taira were outnumbered, but some sources say that they had the advantage over the Minamoto in understanding the tides of that particular area, as well as naval combat tactics in general. The Taira split their fleet into three squadrons, while their enemy arrived en masse, their ships abreast, and archers ready. The beginning of the battle consisted mainly of a long-range archery exchange, before the Taira took the initiative, using the tides to help them try to surround the enemy ships. They engaged the Minamoto, and the archery from a distance eventually gave way to hand-to-hand combat with swords and daggers after the crews of the ships boarded

Boarding (attack)

Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party....
each other. However, the tide changed, and the advantage was given back to the Minamoto.

One of the crucial factors that allowed the Minamoto to win the battle was that a Taira general by the name of Taguchi Shigeyoshi defected, and revealed to the Minamoto which ship the six-year-old Emperor

Emperor of Japan

The of Japan is the symbol of the state and of the unity of the Japanese people. He is the head of the Imperial House of Japan. Under Japan's present constitution, the Emperor is the "symbol of the state and the unity of the people," and is a ceremonial figurehead in a constitutional monarchy ....
Antoku

Emperor Antoku

Emperor Antoku was the 81st Emperor of Japan of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1180 through 1185....
was on. Their archers turned their attention to the helmsmen and rowers of the Emperor's ship, as well as the rest of their enemy's fleet, sending their ships out of control. Many of the Taira warriors, as they saw the battle turn against them, threw themselves overboard, committing suicide rather than having to face defeat at the hands of the Minamoto. Among those who perished this way were Antoku and his grandmother, the widow of Taira no Kiyomori

Taira no Kiyomori

was a general of the late Heian Period of Japan. He established the first samurai-dominated administrative government in the History of Japan.After the death of his father Taira no Tadamori in 1153, Kiyomori assumed control of the Taira clan and ambitiously entered the political realm in which he had previously only held a minor post....
, head of the clan. To this day, the Heike Crabs

Heikegani

Heikegani is a species of crab native to Japan, with a shell that bears a pattern resembling a human face. It is locally believed that these crabs are reincarnations of the spirits of the Taira warriors defeated at the Battle of Dan-no-ura as told in The Tale of the Heike....
found in the Straits of Shimonoseki are considered by the Japanese

Japanese people

The are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan....
to hold the spirits of the Taira warriors.

The Taira attempted to toss the crown jewels

Imperial Regalia of Japan

The , also known as the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan, consist of the sword, Kusanagi , the gemstone or necklace of jewels, Magatama#Yasakani no Magatama , and the mirror Yata no kagami ....
off the ship but only managed to get the sword

Kusanagi

is a legendary Japanese sword as important to Japan's history as Excalibur is to Great Britain, and is one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi but its name was later changed to the more popular Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi ....
and mirror

Yata no kagami

is a sacred mirror that is part of the Imperial Regalia of Japan. It is said to be housed in Ise Shrine in Mie prefecture, Japan, although a lack of public access makes this difficult to verify....
into the water before the ship holding the jewels was captured. The mirror was recovered by divers; many presume the sword to have been lost at this time, though it is officially said to have been recovered and enshrined at Atsuta Shrine

Atsuta Shrine

is a Shinto Shinto shrine located in Atsuta-ku, Nagoya, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture in Japan. The shrine is familiarly known as Atsuta-Sama or simply as Miya ....
.

This decisive defeat of the Taira forces led to the end of the Taira bid for control of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. Minamoto Yoritomo, the elder half-brother of Minamoto Yoshitsune, became the first Shogun

Shogun

is a military rank and historical title for Hereditary Commanders in Chief of the Armed Forces of Japan. The Japanese word for "general", it is made up of two kanji characters: sho, meaning "commander", "general", or "admiral", and gun meaning military troops or warriors....
, establishing his military government ('bakufu'

Kamakura shogunate

The Kamakura shogunate was a feudal military dictatorship in Japan headed by the shoguns from 1185 to 1333. It was based in Kamakura, Kanagawa....
) in Kamakura

Kamakura, Kanagawa

is a cities of Japan located in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, about south-south-west of Tokyo. It used to be also called . Although Kamakura proper is today rather small, it is sometimes considered a former de facto capital of Japan as the seat of the Shogunate and of the Shikken during the Kamakura Period....
.

In popular culture

In 1965, a dramatized version of the battle appeared as part of the movie Kwaidan
Kwaidan (film)

is a 1964 Japanese cinema anthology film directed by Masaki Kobayashi; the title means 'ghost story'. It is based on stories from Lafcadio Hearn's collections of Japanese folklore....
.

In his book and television series Cosmos
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

Cosmos: A Personal Voyage is a thirteen-part television program written by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan, and Steven Soter, with Sagan as global presenter....
, Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. was an United States astronomer, Astrochemistry, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences....
presents a brief, dramatic account of the battle in chapter/episode 2; "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue". Sagan then uses the Heike crabs

Heikegani

Artificial selection

Artificial selection describes intentional breeding for certain traits, or combination of traits. It was defined by Charles Darwin in contrast to natural selection, in which the differential reproduction of organisms with certain traits is attributed to improved survival or reproductive ability ....
.

In the Japanese remake of the spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western, also known in some countries in mainland Europe as the Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad Genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by Cinema of Italy, usually in coproduction with a Cinema of Spain....
movie Django
Django

Django may refer to:...
, Sukiyaki Western: Django
Sukiyaki Western: Django

is a 2007 in film Japanese film by Takashi Miike. The title of this English language western refers to the Japanese Dish_, sukiyaki, as well as Sergio Corbucci's spaghetti western film, Django ....
, this battle has a main focus within the plot.

The battle is also recounted near the beginning of the Usagi Yojimbo

Usagi Yojimbo

is a comic book series created by Stan Sakai in 1984.Set primarily at the beginning of Edo period Japan , with anthropomorphism animals replacing humans, it features a rabbit ronin, Miyamoto Usagi, who is partially based on the famous swordsman Miyamoto Musashi....
story arc Grasscutter

Kusanagi