five hundred men who had gallantly resisted Noriyori's army of
thirty thousand. Imai counselled instant flight eastward. In Shinano,
Yoshinaka would find safety and a dominion, while to cover his
retreat, Imai would sacrifice his own life. Such noble deeds were the
normal duty of every true bushi. Yoshinaka galloped away, but, riding
into a marsh, disabled his horse and was shot down. Meanwhile Imai,
in whose quiver there remained only eight arrows, had killed as many
of the pursuing horsemen, and then placing the point of his sword in
his mouth, had thrown himself headlong from his horse. One incident,
shocking but not inconsistent with the canons of the time, remains to
be included in this chapter of Japanese history. It has been related
that Yoshinaka's son, Yoshitaka, was sent by his father to Kamakura
as a hostage, and was married to Yoritomo's daughter. After the
events above related Yoshitaka was put to death at Kamakura,
apparently without Yoritomo's orders, and his widow, when pressed by
her brother to marry again, committed suicide.

*Japanese tradition loves to tell of a contest between Sasaki
Takatsuna and Kajiwara Kagesue as to which should cross the river
first. Kagesue was the son of that Kajiwara who had saved. Yoritomo's
life in the episode of the hollow tree.

BATTLE OF ICHI-NO-TANI

The victory of the armies led by Noriyori and Yoshitsune brought
Kamakura and Fukuhara into direct conflict, and it was speedily
decided that these armies should at once move westward to attack the
Taira. A notable feature of the military operations of that era was
celerity. Less than a month sufficed to mobilize an army of fifty
thousand men and to march it from Kamakura to Kyoto, a distance of
three hundred miles, and within ten days of the death of Yoshinaka
this same army, augmented to seventy-six thousand, began to move
westward from Kyoto (March 19, 1184). The explanation of this
rapidity is furnished, in part, by simplicity of commisariat, and by
the fact that neither artillery nor heavy munitions of war had to be
transported. Every man carried with him a supply of cooked rice,
specially prepared so as to occupy little space while sufficing for
several days' food, and this supply was constantly replenished by
requisitions levied upon the districts traversed. Moreover, every man
carried his own implements of war--bow and arrows, sword, spear, or
halberd--and the footgear consisted of straw sandals which never hur