uch an enterprise in
such a tempest. Some fought resolutely, but ultimately all that had
not perished under the swords of the Minamoto obeyed Munemori's
orders to embark, and the evening of the 23rd of March saw the Taira
fleet congregated in Shido Bay and crowded with fugitives. There they
were attacked at dawn on the 24th by Yoshitsune, to whom there had
arrived on the previous evening a re-enforcement of thirty war-junks,
sent, not by Kagetoki, but by a Minamoto supporter who had been
driven from the province of Iyo some time previously by the Taira.

As usual, the impetuosity of Yoshitsune's onset carried everything
before it. Soon the Taira fleet was flying down the Inland Sea, and
when Kajiwara Kagetoki, having at length completed his preparations,
arrived off Yashima on the 25th of March with some four hundred
war-vessels, he found only the ashes of the Taira palaces and
palisades. Munemori, with the boy Emperor and all the survivors of
the Taira, had fled by sea to join Tomomori at Hikoshima. This
enterprise was even more brilliant and much more conclusive than that
of Ichi-no-tani. During three consecutive days, with a mere handful
of one hundred and fifty followers, Yoshitsune had engaged a powerful
Taira army on shore, and on the fourth day he had attacked and routed
them at sea, where the disparity of force must have been evident and
where no adventitious natural aids were available.

When every allowance is made for the incompetence of the Taira
commander, Munemori, and for the crippling necessity of securing the
safety of the child-sovereign, Antoku, the battle of Yashima still
remains one of the most extraordinary military feats on record. Among
the incidents of the battle, it is recorded that Yoshitsune himself
was in imminent peril at one time, and the details illustrate the
manner of fighting in that era. He dropped his bow into the sea
during the naval engagement, and when he essayed to pick it up, some
Taira soldiers hooked his armour with a grapnel. Yoshitsune severed
the haft of the grapnel with his sword and deliberately picked up the
bow. Asked why he had imperilled his person for a mere bow, he
replied, "Had it been a bow such as my uncle Tametomo bent, its
falling into the enemy's possession would not matter; but a weak bow
like mine would give them something to laugh at." Observing this
incident, Noritsune, one of the best fighters and most skilled
archers among the Taira, made Yoshitsune th