Picture of the Great Battle of the Minamoto and the Taira at Dan-no-ura

The Battle of Dan-no-ura (1185) was the final engagement between the Taira and Minamoto clans, marking the end of a civil war and ushering in the new Kamakura shogunate. The ships are identifiable by the banners hanging over their sides: three Japanese gentian flowers over five bamboo leaves is the clan emblem of the Minamoto, and the swallowtail butterfly signifies the Taira. Two warriors swim under the swelling waves, their swords tied to their backs. Though the battle occurred nearly 700 years before Yoshitoshi’s time, it was remembered through the epic narrative The Tale of the Heike even into the 1800s.