strength, agility, and prowess with all manner of human weaponry. He also studied the basics of guerilla warfare under warrior monks in the area; the techniques he mastered—including kasumi, “The Mist,” for blinding opponents with dirt or other found objects; hien sandan-giri,“The Flying Swallow Triple Slice,” an aerial sword technique for killing opponents left, right, and front simultaneously; and his legendary ability to leap great distances—eventually formed the basis for what came to be called “Yoshi-tsune-style ninjutsu” centuries later.
Yokai or not, whoever taught Yoshitsune must have been good. By his late teens, he was second to none with a blade in his hand. And once he learned the truth about his lineage, he dedicated the remainder of his short life to making the Taira clan pay for what they had done to his family.
Yoshitsune and Benkei
The tale of how Yoshitsune met his best friend and constant companion, Musashibo Benkei, is as much a part of myth and legend as the men themselves. A bear of a man, Benkei supposedly spent a full eighteen months in the womb before finally emerging at the size of a normal three-year-old. By the time he completed training as a warrior monk at the age of seventeen, he towered some two meters tall and was near invincible with a naginata polearm in his hands.
Determined to prove the superiority of his abilities, Benkei stationed himself at Gojo Tenjin Shrine in Kyoto, challenging any and every swordsman who happened to pass to a duel. He had successfully deprived some 999 of them of their weapons when the diminutive, effeminate young Yoshitsune appeared, nonchalantly playing a flute. Understandably quite confident by this point, Benkei rushed his thousandth opponent without hesitation. But Yoshitsune leapt over the sweep of the blade, using Benkei’s own chest as a springboard to reach a perch atop a three-meter wall, where he continued to evade the giant’s increasingly furious attacks. It wasn’t until a second match on the veranda of Kiyomizu Temple that Yoshitsune even gave Benkei a taste of his sword. He inflicted so many nicks that the huge warrior called the bout, pledging allegiance to the mysterious young David who taught a Goliath never to judge a book by its cover.
The Moment of Glory
The battle of Dan-no-Ura, 1185. When it came to the Taira clan, Yoshitsune was a human Terminator. For years he had pursued his vendetta. Joining forces with his brother Yoritomo, long since given a reprieve from death and now head of the Taira’s archrivals, the Minamoto clan, Yoshitsune harried the Taira from the mountains to the plains to what must have seemed like the ends of the earth: a naval engagement off of Dan-no-Ura, the southern tip of the island of Honshu. The battle represented a desperate last stand for the outnumbered Taira, who had hidden the child-emperor Antoku aboard one of the ships. Using both intelligence gleaned from a turncoat Taira general and the tides to his advantage, Yoshitsune discovered the location of the prize. His archers pounded it with salvo after salvo, sending the emperor’s skiff out of control and throwing the enemy forces into chaos. Knowing their time was up, the emperor’s regents took their lives along with that of their charge, ending the Taira clan’s claim on the throne once and for all—and setting the stage for Yoshitsune’s brother Yoritomo to become first shogun of Japan by the end of the decade.
The End
Alas, a great warrior doesn’t necessarily make a great politician. With the Taira clan eliminated, Yoshitsune found himself adrift. A lone wolf far more fond of leaping right into the fray than in the subtleties of administration, he unwittingly became caught up in a political intrigue between his brother and Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Accused of treason and cornered by forces loyal to his brother, he chose suicide rather than capture. Benkei singlehandedly held off the incoming troops to give his master time to commit seppuku and preserve his honor; legend has it that he remained standing even after perforated by innumerable arrows, steadfastly protecting Yoshitsune even in death.
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* Notwithstanding the fact that his legendary beauty isn’t borne out by any actual historical evidence.
TOGAKUSHI DAISUKE
NINJA'S NINJA
1183 A.D.
Name: TOGAKUSHI DAISUKE
戸隠大助
Birth–Death: 1161?-Unknown
Occupation: Ninja Innovator
Cause of Death: Unknown
Gender: Male
A.K.A.: Nishina Daisuke (birth name) Togakure Daisuke (alternate pronunciation)
Hobbies: Training
Preferred Technique: The Flaming Cow
Clan Affiliation: Togakure
Existence: Confirmed
The Man
Nothing is known of Togakushi Daisuke’s physical appearance, which shouldn’t be particularly surprising for someone born close to eight-and-a-half centuries ago. Originally known as Nishina Daisuke, he was born in the village of Togakushi in present-day Nagano prefecture’s Northern Alps, whose soaring peaks were long used as sacred training grounds by the yamabushi warrior-monks of the Shugendo religion.
It’s safe to say Daisuke’s upbringing was far from the pampered standards of today’s youth. Under the yamabushi, he learned secret techniques such as bladed weapon throwing and the “flying bird,” an Olympic-worthy method of jumping extreme heights and distances.
At some point, Daisuke set out from his hometown to serve as a warrior under Minamoto no Yoshinaka, an early shogun of Japan. When his master was felled on the battlefield in 1184 by an arrow to the eye, Daisuke hacked his way through some three thousand enemy troops to escape. Terribly wounded, he managed to make his way to the mountains of Iga, where he was nursed back to health by the local martial artists.
It was there that he would fuse the Shugendo techniques he studied as a boy with guerilla warfare tactics he gleaned from the Iga inhabitants. His all-new system of deception, survival, and combat is widely considered to be the direct precursor of “modern” ninjutsu. In fact the teachings he left behind, refined by his descendents into a school called the Togakure-Ryu, represent the only ninja arts that are still openly taught today.
The Moment of Glory
Daisuke’s early interest in unorthodox tactics likely forecast his future as a ninja.
According to the local history of the Togakushi area, he led a special forces team called the Nishina-to (Team Nishina) during the battle of Kurikara Pass in June of 1183. The pass, part of a major alpine throughway, represented prime strategic ground in a battle playing out between the Heike and Yoshinaka clans for dominance in the region.
Late one evening, as the Heike forces bivouacked in preparation for another day of battle, Team Nishina launched a surprise assault. Raising a din loud enough to wake the dead,
