In legends he is thought to be the son or avatar of Hachiman, and after his death, Yoshiie was elevated to Kami status, renamed “Hachimantaro”, lit.

“son of Hachiman”, the Shinto god of war, and was made by the Minamoto clan into their Patron Ancestral Kami.

Beginning in 1083, he battled the Kiyohara family, who had fought alongside him and his father against the Abe, but who had since proven themselves poor rulers of the northern provinces.

He was revered as a patron saint of the warrior class and was celebrated in Japanese literature and folklore for centuries after his death.

Of all of them, Hachimantarō is the most formidable.” This poem is proof that Minamoto no Yoshiie was especially feared among the Genji clan because of his brutal demeanor and strength.

As sung in the Ryōjin Hishō, Hachimantarō — or Minamoto no Yoshiie — was known for his exceptional skills as a warrior and was highly regarded as a hero of the Heian period.

By other countless famous figures from Minamoto no Yoritomo to Tokugawa Ieyasu, Yoshiie was considered to be the model of an ideal military commander.

The relationship between Yoshiie and his vassals, particularly during the Later Three Year War, developed into the basic principle of “loyalty and reward” that rose to prevalence in the Kamakura shogunate, during Minamoto no Yoritomo’s time.

This allowed the Kawachi Genji to easily gain the loyalty of lower-level samurais without directly requiring authority comparable to that of the Imperial Court.

As the Heian period drew to a close, and the stability that had marked this phase of Japanese history became increasingly fractured and strained, the imperial court frequently called Yoshiie and his Minamoto warriors into service to subdue rebels and quiet unruly segments of the country.

It was partially based on the gains made by Yoshiie during his career that the Minamoto clan established themselves as one of the pre-eminent military clans in the realm, positioning themselves for the ultimate wresting of political power from the emperor and the court in Kyoto, or those who controlled it, and the establishment of the shōgunate in Kamakura, barely a hundred years later, in 1192, under Minamoto Yoritomo.

Yet, despite his accomplishments as a warrior and general, he is largely remembered for events that are largely apocryphal in nature, embellished over time to give an even deeper luster to his undeniably impressive record: the episode at Yuhajino no Izumi ("The Spring Revealed by the Strike of a Bow"), an impromptu poetry competition held on horseback between Yoshiie and his enemy Abe Sadato during a chase, and an interpretation of the erratic behavior of a flock of birds to uncover an ambush during the Battle of Kanazawa...." "On a hot day in the spring of 1057, Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039-1106), then barely sixteen years old, was leading his troops into a battle against Abe Sadato.

Tracing the arrow to where it landed, Yoshiie used his bow to dig into the earth, releasing an unknown spring of water.

According to the picture scroll “Kawachi Meisho Zue”, Tenkoumaru is said to be a “sister sword” of Doujigiri, meaning that the two blades were forged from the same iron.

Hanahime set up camp on one of the mountains near a river, and with the help of monks and soldiers, she fought against the Abe clan alongside the Minamoto, but her struggle was futile and she was eventually overpowered.

The handmaids who had accompanied Hanahime followed suit and also threw themselves into the valley, and all of the remaining soldiers were killed in battle after that she became a dragon god.