In the second month of 1185, to attack the Taira at Yashima, Minamoto no Yoshitsune prepared to sail from the port of Watanabe in Settsu. But a violent north wind was raging, and the boatmen said, "In a gale like this, we can't possibly put out."
Kajiwara Kagetoki, the army's commissioner, proposed fitting the ships with "reverse oars" (oars at the bow, so they could back away), but Yoshitsune dismissed it: "What good is preparing to run from the start?" It is said a deep rift opened between the two men then.
"It's in a great wind that the enemy will be off guard. Put out now!" said Yoshitsune, and threatening the unwilling boatmen, he set sail at midnight with only five ships and about a hundred and fifty riders. A crossing that would normally take three days took only about four hours on the following wind, and they reached Katsuura in Awa.
Yoshitsune asked a man on the shore, "What is this place called?" "Katsuura," he answered. Yoshitsune was delighted: "What a lucky name: the Bay of Victory."
He brought a local warrior, Kondo Roku Chikaie, in as a guide and learned of the Taira's situation: the Taira at Yashima had sent most of their troops to attack the Kono clan in Iyo, and were thinly manned. "Now is our chance," said Yoshitsune, and crossed Osaka Pass on the border of Awa and Sanuki through the night, hurrying to Yashima.
On the way he met a messenger carrying a letter from the capital to Taira no Munemori at Yashima. Yoshitsune, feigning innocence, asked him to show the way, and took the letter from him. It said, "Yoshitsune is a fierce man; even in a gale he will force his way across. Be on your guard." "This is truly a gift from heaven," said Yoshitsune, tied the messenger to a tree, and went on to Yashima.
At Katsuura in Awa (near present-day Komatsushima, Tokushima), legends of the place where Yoshitsune landed still remain.