In the battle of Yashima, as the sun was setting, a small boat rowed out from among the Taira ships offshore toward the shore. In it was a beautiful lady of eighteen or nineteen in five willow-colored robes and a crimson skirt; on the tip of a pole she had fixed a fan with a gold sun on a crimson ground, set it up at the gunwale, and beckoned to the Minamoto on land. It was a challenge: "Try to shoot this fan."
Yoshitsune called for Nasu no Yoichi Munetaka of Shimotsuke. Yoichi was a young man of about twenty. "If I miss, it will shame our side. Please command someone sure to hit it," he declined, but Yoshitsune ordered him sternly: "Those who have left Kamakura for the western provinces must not disobey Yoshitsune's orders."
Yoichi rode a black horse about a dozen yards into the sea. The fan was still some seventy meters away. It was around six in the evening on the eighteenth of the second month; a strong north wind was blowing, and the waves breaking on the shore were high. The boat was tossed up and down as it drifted, and the fan fluttered on the pole, never still. Offshore the Taira lined up their ships to watch; on land the Minamoto lined up their horses to watch.
Yoichi closed his eyes and prayed: "Hail Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, gods of my land, Gongen of Nikko, Utsunomiya, Great God of the hot springs of Nasu: grant that I hit the very center of that fan. If I miss, I will break my bow and kill myself, and never show my face again."
When he opened his eyes, the wind had eased a little, and the fan was easier to shoot. Yoichi took a whistling arrow, fitted it, drew it full and let it fly. The arrow sang long and loud and cut the fan an inch above the rivet. The arrow went into the sea, and the fan flew up into the sky. Tossed once, twice by the spring wind, it scattered down onto the sea. In the glow of the setting sun, the fan with its crimson sun floated on the white waves, rising and sinking, rocking, and offshore the Taira beat their gunwales in admiration, while on land the Minamoto beat their quivers and roared.