During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles that toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-brother Yoritomo consolidate power.

When he was 10, Yoshitsune was placed in the care of the monks of Kurama temple (鞍馬寺),[4]: 61  nestled in the Hiei Mountains near the capital of Kyoto.

There he was taught swordsmanship and strategy, according to some legends by Sōjōbō, to others by Kiichi Hōgen (whose book, Six Secret Teachings, Ushiwakamaru stole).

[5] Following the Genpei War, Yoshitsune was appointed as Governor of Iyo and awarded other titles by cloistered emperor Go-Shirakawa.

His faithful mistress, Shizuka Gozen, carrying his unborn child, fled with him at first, but then was left behind, and soon taken into custody by forces loyal to Yoritomo.

According to Ainu historical accounts, he did not perform seppuku, but instead escaped the siege at Koromogawa, fleeing to Hokkaido and assuming the name Okikurumi/Oinakamui.

An alternative legend states that after evading death, Yoshitsune made his way past Hokkaido and sailed to the mainland of Asia, re-surfacing as Genghis Khan.

This story was invented by Suematsu Kenchō (1855–1920) while he was studying at Cambridge University in 1879, with the aim of improving Japanese prestige in the wake of the Meiji Restoration.

According to an old temple magazine and tradition, Hitachibō Kaison entrusted a monk Hitachi Nyūdō Nensai[8] with a child of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, Keiwaka, as demanded by Fujiwara Hidehira.

Furthermore, according to the tradition of Enmyō-ji temple in Hirosaki, Aomori, Chitose Maru, also known as Keiwakamaru was a child of Yoshitsune, entrusted to Date Tomomune by Kaison.

An excerpt:[2]: 85–86 So here I remain, vainly shedding crimson tears....I have not been permitted to refute the accusations of my slanderers or [even] to set foot in Kamakura, but have been obliged to languish idly these many days with no possibility of declaring the sincerity of my intentions.

[2]: 93–100 In addition to The Tale of the Heike and Gikeiki, a great many other works of literature and drama feature him, and together form the sekai ("world") of Yoshitsune, a concept akin to the notion of the literary cycle.