Who Is Minamoto no Yoshitomo?
Father of Yoshitsune and Yoritomo
Minamoto no Yoshitomo is a Minamoto clan warrior of the late Heian period and the father of the brothers Minamoto no Yoritomo and Yoshitsune.
Defeated by Taira no Kiyomori in the Heiji Rebellion, he fled toward the eastern provinces, but in Owari he was betrayed and killed by his own retainer Osada Tadamune, whom he had turned to for help. In the Gikeiki, hearing about his father's death and bitter end from Shōmonbō is what makes Shanaō at Kurama Temple resolve to overthrow the Taira.
When Yoshitomo died, Ushiwaka was still a nursing baby, and he grew up never knowing his father's face.
Episodes featuring this character3
NEWEpisode 1
Why the Temple Boy Sneaks Out at NightUshiwakamaru at Mount Kurama
The Legend of Yoshitsune, Episode 1. At a mountain temple, a boy named Shanaō is loved by everyone. One night a traveling monk visits him and reveals the truth: Shanaō is the son of the great Genji general Minamoto no Yoshitomo, who was murdered by a retainer hungry for a Heike reward. The monk hands him his father's sword. From that day on, Shanaō lives a double life: a model student by day, and by night a lone swordsman training in Sōjōgatani, the valley of the tengu.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 2
The Bandits Picked the Wrong GuestYoshitsune's Coming of Age at Kagami Inn
When Shanaō hears that a great lord in the far north is waiting to welcome a young Minamoto prince, he slips away from Mount Kurama in the spring of his sixteenth year without telling a soul. At the Kagami Inn he single-handedly drives off a bandit raid. Then, gazing at his own acolyte's reflection in the inn's old mirror, he travels on to Atsuta Shrine. With no grown-up there to give him a name, he holds his own coming-of-age ceremony and names himself Minamoto no Kurō Yoshitsune.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 6
Each Win Pushed His Brother Further AwayThe Reunion at Kisegawa and the Koshigoe Letter
When Yoshitsune hears his brother Yoritomo has risen against the Heike, he rushes to join him, and the two brothers, meeting for the first time, weep together. But after winning battle after battle and wiping out the Heike, Yoshitsune finds the road to his brother barred.
19 pages