was a samurai warrior of the Kiso Minamoto clan who was most famous for dying at the hands of

Tomoe Gozen Tomoe Gozen (, ) was an onna-musha, a female samurai, mentioned in '' The Tale of the Heike.'' There is doubt as to whether she existed as she doesn't appear in any primary accounts of the Genpei war. She only appears in the epic "The tale of th ...

, the famous

onna-musha is a term referring to female warriors in pre-modern Japan, who were members of the ''bushi'' (warrior) class. They were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honour in times of war; many of them fought in battle ...

, whom he failed to capture in battle at the Battle of Awazu. In 1184, during the

Genpei War The was a national civil war between the Taira clan, Taira and Minamoto clan, Minamoto clans during the late Heian period of Japan. It resulted in the downfall of the Taira and the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto no Yori ...

Minamoto no Yoshinaka , also known as , was a Japanese samurai lord mentioned in the epic poem '' The Tale of the Heike.'' A member of the Minamoto clan, he was a cousin and later rival of ''shogun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo during the Genpei War between the Minamoto and t ...

, head of the Kiso Minamoto clan, betrayed his cousin

Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, ruling from 1192 until 1199, also the first ruling shogun in the history of Japan.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako ...

, head of the Kamakura branch, hoping to capture

Emperor Go-Shirakawa was the 77th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His de jure reign spanned the years from 1155 through 1158, though arguably he effectively maintained imperial power for almost thirty-seven years through the ''in ...

. This culminated in the Battle of Awazu between the Kamakura and Kiso, in which Uchida Ieyoshi participated alongside many other warriors such as

Minamoto no Yoshitsune was a commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan in the late Heian period, Heian and early Kamakura period, Kamakura periods. During the Genpei War, he led a series of battles that toppled the Ise-Heishi branch of the Taira clan, helping his half-br ...

and

Hatakeyama Shigetada was a samurai warlord of the late Heian and early Kamakura period Japan. He fought in the Genpei War, though originally for the Taira clan, he switched sides to the Minamoto clan for the Battle of Dan-no-ura, and ended the war on the winning si ...

. Uchida Ieyoshi faced down the wife of the enemy leader,

, hoping to capture her, alongside Hatakeyama. They charged, but Tomoe swung her katana and slew him.

References

1184 deaths Samurai Year of birth unknown {{samurai-stub