April 25, 1185

Battle of Dan-no-ura

Minamoto victory over the Taira at Dan-no-Ura

The court recovered the sacred mirror and jewel from the defeated fleet — but the sword went into the strait and stayed there.

25 April 1185, in the Kanmon Strait

A Minamoto fleet commanded in the battle by Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeated the Taira fleet at Dan-no-Ura in the Kanmon Strait between Honshu and Kyushu, on the day conventionally converted to 25 April 1185.

The main fighting probably ran from about noon to four in the afternoon. Azuma Kagami reports more than 840 Minamoto ships against more than 500 Taira vessels; other narrative sources give Minamoto totals ranging from more than 700 to more than 3,000.

The commonly listed figure of “some 300 ships” is not supported by any of the principal counts.

The child emperor and the regalia

The child Emperor Antoku drowned with his grandmother Taira no Tokiko during the collapse of the Taira fleet. He was six by modern age-counting and eight by traditional Japanese counting.

According to the principal narrative tradition, Tokiko carried the emperor into the sea.

Of the court's three sacred treasures, the mirror and the jewel were recovered; the ceremonial sword carried with Antoku's party was lost at sea.

What the epic added

The defeat destroyed the Taira's remaining organised bid for national power. Taira no Munemori and other survivors were captured, while numerous Taira leaders died or drowned themselves.

The detailed battle narrative depends heavily on sources such as The Tale of the Heike and later chronicles, which combine history, literary shaping, religious meaning and legend. Modern reconstructions dispute whether a reversal of the tide decided the fighting; one expert reconstruction places the current at only about one knot.

The battle ended the Genpei War's effective military contest, although Yoritomo's formal appointment as shogun came later, in 1192.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources not yet audited Traditional date

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Traditional date. This date is the conventional one, not one fixed by a contemporary record.

What the sources leave uncertain

The secure Japanese date is the 24th day of the third lunar month of Genryaku 2/Juei 4. Its conventional Western equivalent is 25 April 1185 in the Julian calendar; “24 March” is the Japanese lunar date, not a competing Western date.
The detailed battle narrative depends heavily on sources such as The Tale of the Heike and later chronicles, which combine history, literary shaping, religious meaning, and legend.
Modern reconstructions dispute whether a reversal of the tide decided the battle. One expert reconstruction places the current at only about one knot during the fighting.
Taguchi Shigeyoshi's dramatic mid-battle betrayal and Yoshitsune's supposed policy of shooting rowers and helmsmen belong to contested narrative traditions rather than securely recoverable facts.