In the second month of 1184, the Taira built a fortress at Ichinotani in Settsu. Mountains to the north, the sea to the south. They set barriers at the Ikuta woods to the east and at Ichinotani to the west, and waited for the Minamoto.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune, with just seventy riders, stood atop the cliff of Hiyodorigoe that towered behind Ichinotani. When the guide said, "Deer can pass down this slope, but not horses," Yoshitsune said, "Deer have four legs, horses have four legs. Where deer can pass, why should horses not?" and was the first to charge down. His men followed, urging their horses down a cliff like a standing screen. The Taira camp, struck from behind where they never expected it, fell into chaos and fled to the sea.
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Kumagai Jiro Naozane, a Minamoto warrior, was scouring the shore, hoping to win glory. Then a single rider in splendid armor rode his horse into the sea, heading for the ships offshore. Kumagai beckoned with his fan: "Showing your back to the enemy? How cowardly. Come back!" And the warrior turned back.
Kumagai pinned him down to take his head, pushed up his helmet and looked: it was a young warrior of sixteen or seventeen, lightly powdered, his teeth blackened. He was the same age as Kumagai's own son Kojiro, and very handsome. Kumagai did not know where to put his blade. "Tell me your name. I will spare you," he said, but the youth said, "Even if I don't, take my head and ask, and you'll know. Take it quickly."
Kumagai wanted to save him, but some fifty riders of his own side were closing in from behind. "If you must die at someone else's hands, better at mine, and I will pray for you afterward," he said, and weeping, he cut off the head. At the youth's waist was a flute in a brocade bag. It was Taira no Atsumori, Kiyomori's nephew. Kumagai came to know the sorrow of a warrior's life, and later took vows under the name Rensho.