What happened
Prince Mochihito’s call to arms in 1180 set the war off. Minamoto no Yoritomo raised the warriors of the east, while his cousin Kiso Yoshinaka took Kyoto in 1183.
Yoritomo’s brother Yoshitsune won the decisive battles: Ichi-no-Tani (1184), Yashima (1185) and the naval battle of Dan-no-ura (1185) in the Shimonoseki strait, where the Taira were destroyed and the child emperor Antoku drowned. Tradition says the sword among the imperial regalia was lost in the sea.
Background
Taira no Kiyomori’s dominance of the court had bred wide resentment.
Consequences
Yoritomo established a warrior government at Kamakura — the start of nearly 700 years of samurai rule. The war also gave Japan its great epic, the Tale of the Heike.