Battle of Kurikara

The battles of Kurikara , also known under the name of battles of Tonamiyama (砺波山), is the battle which marks the turning of the Guerre of Gempei in favor of the clan Minamoto.

Causes

Minamoto No Yoshinaka, commander of a quota of warriors of the Province of Shinano, had a few years earlier plundered the grounds of the Taira, before its raids, as well as the war itself, are put in pause because two years of famine. The conditions improving in 1183, them Taira seek to be avenged for Yoshinaka. Will conceal No Koremori, wire of Taira No Kiyomori, deals with the operation, assisted by Michimori, Tadanori, Tomonori, Tsunemasa and Kiyofusa. Their forces severely decreased by the combat and the famine, them Taira seek to recruit warriors in the surrounding grounds, with the risk to prolong the famine, the majority of these warriors being peasants leaving their farms. Although certain chronicles list their number with more: 100000, it is a highly improbable number, and other more credible sources estimate this number at approximately: 40000.

Minamoto No Yoritomo, the cousin of Yoshinaka, goes on this last to face it for the domination of the clan in March 1183, but Yoshinaka convinces it to give up, alleging that they must be plain against Taira. To prove its good intentions, Yoshinaka sends his/her Yoshitaka son to Kamakura as an hostage. Shortly after that, Yoshinaka receives news of the army of Koremori, and leaves to face it, accompanied by his/her uncle Minamoto No Yukiie, of his/her concubine Tomoe Gozen, and of its four vassal the most honest, Kanehira Imai, Kanemitsu Higuchi, Chikatada Tate and Yukichika Nenoi (called Shi-tennō , “four celestial guards”)

Unfolding

With the approach of the mountain master keys which connect the west and is of Honshū, Taira No Koremori divides its forces into two, a part holding the collar of Kurikara in the Tonamiyama mounts between the provinces of Etchū and Kaga, and the other penetrating in the province of Etchū via the Province of Noto in north, where it gains a minor victory completely eclipsed by the defeat with Kurikara. Minamoto No Yoshinaka, seeing the forces Will conceal to advance in the master key, lays out a great number of white flags (the white was the color of Minamoto) on a hill a few kilometres from there, with an aim of making believe that its forces were much more important than they were it actually. The purpose of this tactic was to force to them Taira to remain in top of the collar until fallen the night, in order to have time to set up the second part of its strategy.

It then divides its own forces into three. A group is sent to attack to them Taira by the back, second is placed in ambush in lower part of the collar, and the third, including Yoshinaka, is placed in the center. To divert the attention of Will conceal other detachments Minamoto, Yoshinaka seeks to make be held the battle in a very formal way. Thus, when them Taira go down from the mountain and that the battle itself starts, the central group of Yoshinaka engages the enemy in exchanges of archery. Follow of the individual combat to which Taira lend itself readily, in the hope to gain their personal places in the epic chronicles and poems the purpose of which would be to tell this war. In the majority of the chronicles, in particular the Heike Monogatari , them Taira are shown like not being as usual ways of the war as Minamoto, more declining, and being accustomed to the life of court gentlemen. It is very possible that was also the case in reality. Thus, the possibility of starting the combat in a formal and civilized battle is attractive for many Taira warriors who demandentpas better only to use their martial talents in the way of which they had learned them, most formal which is.

During this time, the other troops of Yoshinaka are put in position, and at midday, them Taira discover behind them a Minamoto detachment, carrying much more flags than a simple detachment should transport, to give the illusion of many troops again. During this time, the central group of Yoshinaka gathers oxen with the horns of which it makes attach lit torches, and the coward in the collar directly in the Taira army, causing panic among this one, in spite of its numerical superiority. Many Taira warriors charge in the horde, while many others are simply ejected trajectory of oxen, dying in rock gullies far downwards. Much more of them tries to make retirement, but is lost by various ways, where they meet the death of the hands of the Minamoto warriors placed there to await them, or while falling into various throats.

Exit

The survivors Will conceal, suffering many losses, panicked and demoralized, flee. Kurikara is a major victory for Minamoto, leading to the abandonment of Kyōto by Taira in August and their retirement with Shikoku with the emperor Antoku.

Sources

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