He is mostly known for his early death at the Battle of Ichi-no-Tani and his appearance in the epic The Tale of the Heike, in which he was killed by the remorseful warrior Kumagai Naozane.

[1] Kumagai's great remorse as told in The Tale of Heike, coupled with his taking of a monk's vows, caused this otherwise obscure event to become well known for its tragedy.

He knocked off Atsumori's helmet to deliver the finishing blow, only to be struck by the beauty of the young noble.

He realized that Atsumori must have been one of the soldiers playing music before the battle and thought, “there are tens of thousands of riders in our eastern armies, but I am sure none of them has brought a flute to the battlefield.

Those court nobles are refined men!”[3] It is said that the beheading of Atsumori is what led Kumagai to take priestly vows and become a Buddhist monk.