Taira (Heike)Taira (Ise Heishi)
Taira no Koremori
平維盛
“The Cherry-and-Plum Captain”
1158–1184 (aged 27)
- Rank / office
- Provisional Middle Captain of the Right Inner Palace Guards
- Domain / base
- —
- Banner / crest
- Swallowtail butterfly
- Battles in 3D
- 1 battle
Later imagined depiction · Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Eldest son of Taira no Shigemori and heir of Kiyomori, he was a courtly nobleman so praised for his looks and his dancing that he was called the "Cherry-and-Plum Captain" and "Genji reborn." In Jishō 4 he marched east as commander-in-chief against Yoritomo, only to flee at Fujikawa when the beating wings of waterfowl were mistaken for an attack. In Juei 2 he led the army sent down the Hokuriku road against Kiso Yoshinaka and camped at Kurikara pass on Mount Tonami, where a night attack and the fire-oxen stratagem sent his great army into the ravine. After the Taira fled the capital he parted from the clan, slipped away from Yashima, took Buddhist vows on Mount Kōya and is said to have drowned himself off Nachi in Kumano. He was twenty-seven.
Life and battlesGold dots mark battles you can watch in 3D
- 1158Hōgen 3
Birth
Born the eldest son of Taira no Shigemori.
- 1176Angen 2
The Cherry-and-Plum Captain
Danced the Seigaiha at Go-Shirakawa's fiftieth-birthday celebration; his beauty became the talk of the capital.
- 1180Jishō 4
Rout at Fujikawa
Marched east as commander-in-chief against Yoritomo, but fled in alarm at the sound of waterfowl.
- 1183Juei 2
Battle of Kurikara
Caught by Kiso Yoshinaka's night attack and fire-oxen stratagem, he lost his great army in the Valley of Hell.
Battle of Kurikara Commander-in-chief 30,000 troops Watch in 3D › Grandson and heir of Taira no Kiyomori, commander-in-chief of the Taira northern army. After Fujikawa he lost a great army once again at Kurikara and fled to Kaga with a handful of attendants. The nobleman hailed as "Genji reborn" was no general. - 1184Juei 3
Drowning off Nachi
Left Yashima, took vows on Mount Kōya, and is said to have cast himself into the sea at Kumano.
