Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189)(Part 2)
Yoshitsune's war efforts were recognized by the court, thus was granted the same titles as his brother Noriyori. This infuriated Yoritomo who didn't wish to see his youngest brother to be involved with court politics.
Well, too late.
Around this time our hero met the lovely Shizuka Gozen, a shirabyoshi, who performed dances for gods. She became his favourtie concubine, and during his last years, she followed as he fled from his capital residence and into hiding.
However, later she became pregnant and was deposited in a temple where she was found and brought to Yoritomo. Here she was questioned on the whereabouts of her lover but she stayed loyal and remained silent. She then gave birth to a baby boy who, by the orders of Yoritomo, was put to death.
If that wasn't enough, after she recovered, she was the ordered to preform a dance. She was forced to preform in front of Yoritomo. So she did and in the middle of it all, she burst into a defiant song declaring her love for Yoshitsune. This, of course, made Yoritomo pretty pissed and wanted her executed on the spot but because she was a dancer for the gods (a quiet famous to boot), he was convienced to do otherwise. She was commanded to shave her head and become a nun. She did so but a year later she died, presumably out of despair for her lost lover and dead son. She was only 19.
Yoshitsune continued on fleeing from the capital and went to his past mentor, Fujiwara Hidehira. Remember Fujiwara was already an old man before, so this time, he's practically on his deathbed. But before he died, he made sure Yoshitsune was installed in a small mansion, well cared and protected. However, this didn't last long, as after his death, one of his sons, Yasuhira, decided that Yoshitsune had to go.
Yasuhira went against his father's wishes and offered Yoshitsune's position to Yoritomo.
In the dead of the night, a small army crept close to the mansion, and it was there Yoshitsune with his faithful retainers faught their last battle. In the very last moments, Benkei, his most loyal friend and retainer, blocked the main door way with his very own corspe by impaling himself on his own sword. After Yoshitsune realised there was no escape, he killed his own wife and children, then commited sepukku. With the same dagger that old man Fujiwara Hidehira gave him. He was 30 yrs old.
"Their exploits and presonalities have been so embellished by legend and choronicle, so operatically distorted by Kabuki and Noh drama that, except for a few facts about their accomplishments and their deaths, they have become men of glamour and mystery."
"One can visit Benkei's tomb in the ruins of Hiraizumi but does the great monk really lie there? None one knows."
Lynn Guest, 'Children of Hachiman'
Of course, this doesn't stop Yoshitsune into becoming a legend in Japanese history.
Not only there are famous skits preforms by Kabuki and Noh based on his story, but there's a PS2 game also titled Genji (I'm playing it at the moment. The graphics are amazing but game play is alright. Nothing really exciting or new.) 
In Japan, there's a TV series playing, also based on his life. The actor playing Yoshitsune is Hideaki Takizawa.
Well, at least they weren't kidding when they said he was a hansome fella.
For a more detailed record go to this site http://www.samurai-archives.com/yoshitsune.html
It has dates, names, places where he battled, etc, then whole kebab. For some reason I can't find much on Shizuka Gozen. Perhaps she herself is a myth, incoperated into the his legend to bring in a sense of romance and tragedy. However, there are many people who believe that she really existed. She herself was also so popular in legend that...
"Centuries later, when the first Geisha appeared they claimed the beautiful and spirited dancer [Shizuka Gozen] as their ancestor."
Lesley Downer, 'Geisha : The secret history of a vanishing world'
As for his tyrant of a brother, Yoritomo, he went on to install the first Samurai Dokoro (samurai government if you will) and became Shogun (the highest rank a samurai can achieve) but his power and rule didn't last long.
He fell off his horse and suffered internal injuries. He died soon after. It was rumoured that he saw the ghost of the betrayed Yoshitsune, back to haunt him. Whether this is true or not, one can only imagine, however, keep in mind that a samurai is a superb horseman among other things. In one hand he might be delusional, on the other, his horse might have been startled by something else and threw its rider off.
The samurai dokoro's power soon became corrupted and full of conspiracies. The title shogun was, like the Emperor, placed on a child as a mere puppet for the real hands of power. The last was the Tokugawa shogunate which fell in 1868, around the time of Perry's first visit to Japan. The shogunate was Japan military government, 2nd in power only after the Emperor, for nearly 700 years.
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