Who they were
Yoshitsune was the younger half-brother of Minamoto no Yoritomo. Raised at Kurama temple after his father’s death, he was later sheltered by the Northern Fujiwara at Hiraizumi.
What they did
As Yoritomo’s field commander he won the Genpei War’s decisive battles: the surprise descent at Ichi-no-Tani (1184), Yashima (1185), and the naval annihilation of the Taira at Dan-no-ura (1185). Yoritomo, suspicious of his fame and his court honors, turned on him. Hunted, Yoshitsune fled back to Hiraizumi, where after his protector’s death he was betrayed and forced to die in 1189. As tradition tells it, the loyal warrior-monk Benkei of legend died defending him — standing upright under a hail of arrows.
Legacy
Yoshitsune is Japan’s beloved doomed hero. Sympathy for the underdog is still called “hogan-biiki,” after his court title.