The Great Battle of Ichi-no-Tani
Title/text: Ichi-no-tani ô-kassen no zu, (一ノ谷戦之圖)
Description: Confusion in the Taira camp at Ichi-no-tani caused by Yoshitsune’s descent of Hiyodori-goe (right): Naozane calling after Atsumori (left) and Munemori escorting the women to safety (center)
Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1861)
Signature: Signed on all three sheets Ichiyusai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎 國芳 画) with kiri seal
Date: 1849-1852
Publisher: Yamamoto-ya Heikichi
Robinson: T226
Condition: Very Good impression, with finely applied bokshi and wood grain. Thinning and loss at bottom right corners of left and centre sheets. Los and repair of corner top right of centre sheet. full size
Price: TBC
Tale of the print: with a little twist
The Taira clan had been having a rough year. After losing battle after battle, they retreated to Ichi‑no‑Tani, a seaside fortress squeezed between a mountain wall and the ocean like someone had built a castle in a hallway. They thought this was brilliant strategy. Mountains behind them, sea in front — what could go wrong?
Enter Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a man who looked at “impossible terrain” and heard “fun challenge.” The Minamoto Plan: Distract, Confuse, Terrify.
Yoshitsune split his forces, Minamoto no Noriyori attacked the eastern edge at Ikuta Shrine, loudly, dramatically, and with enough shouting to convince the Taira that this was the main event. Meanwhile, Yoshitsune took one hundred horsemen up the back mountain ridge — a cliff so steep even goats would file a complaint. The Taira had left it unguarded because, logically, no sane person would ride a horse down it.
Unfortunately for them, Yoshitsune was not sane. He was Yoshitsune.
According to the Tale of the Heike, Yoshitsune wanted to test the slope first. So he did what any responsible commander would do …. he shoved a few riderless horses off the cliff. When they survived, he said, “Oky doky, let’s do that, but with people.”
And down they went — armoured samurai on horseback, galloping down a cliff face like they were late for a meeting with destiny. The Taira headquarters looked up, saw Yoshitsune descending from the heavens like an angry comet, and collectively thought, “Far out, we did NOT plan for this.”
The Taira were already busy fighting Noriyori’s forces to the east when Yoshitsune’s men burst into their rear, firing arrows and setting the fortress on fire. Suddenly the mountains behind them were full of screaming horsemen. The fortress was burning. Their formations collapsed like wet origami.
With nowhere to go but the beach, the Taira fled for their ships in a chaotic stampede that historians politely call a “tactical retreat” and everyone else calls “running for your life.”
The Taira lost thousands of warriors and several top commanders. Only about 3,000 survivors escaped by sea to Yashima — where Yoshitsune would, of course, show up again later to ruin their day a second time.
The Battle of Ichi‑no‑Tani became legendary not just for its strategic brilliance, but because Yoshitsune essentially defied the laws of gravity – before Newton had even told him what it was.