What happened at Fukeinoura in the Genpei War?

[Tatsunoshi]

Recently I've been given a set of documents written by a British historian in Japan around 1880. One of them mentions "the celebrated incident at Fukeinoura during the Gempei Wars of the 12th century". And that's all he says about it, like everyone is supposed to already know what it is. I've never heard of this and wondered if anyone else here has. Here's what I've got:

Using information in the documents, I've placed Fukeinoura (Fukei No Ura) HERE around Yurano-uchi in the Kii peninsula. It's on the north side of the inlet about halfway in-a bit east of where you see the small island of Tobishima connected to the mainland. The kanji is 吹井の浦. It's NOT the Fukeinoura on the other side of the Kii peninsula in Ise.

I haven't found any mention of Fukeinoura whatsoever in conjunction with the Genpei Wars. At first I thought it might be where Yoshitsune had his run-in with Kajiwara Kagetoki before departing for Shikoku/Yashima, but that was at Watanabe in the Yodo River area of Settsu. It's possible that it might be a battle where the Taira where strengthening their hold on local allies. I suppose there could be some other Fukeinoura in Kii, but I doubt it.

Fukeinoura also seems to be a subject of a famous poem that uses its name as a pun, so maybe the writer confused a 'concept' with a 'place name',or even got it confused with 'fukei=scenery' using 風景.

At any rate, I'd appreciate it if anyone could add more about the "the celebrated incident at Fukeinoura".

[Tatsunoshi]

OK, found it in the Genpei Seisuiki, and like I thought it was tied into the Taira clan's battles to firm up control of traitorous vassals between the time of Yoshitsune's attack on Kiso Yoshinaka at Ujigawa and the battle of Ichinotani.

Ama no Rokuro Tadakage from Awaji turned back from a naval assault on Noto no Kami (Taira) Noritsune and put into Fukei no Ura, where another traitor, Sonobe no Hyoe Tadayasu, joined him overland. Noritsune pursued and in a day and a half long battle "decapitated two hundred of the defenders, hung up their heads, and returned to Fukuhara". Tadakage and Tadayasu ran off to Kyoto, leaving their men to fend for themselves.

Reading this reminded me what an utter badass Noritsune was,even though hardly anyone has ever heard of him. In a short span of time, he fought six battles involving completely different armies, chased traitorous vassals from one end of Shikoku to the other, then to the mainland and back (and repeated this process a few times). Fought six battles and obliterated the enemy in every one. He seemed to be the Taira's version of Yoshitsune. Most of you would know him as the Taira general at Dan-no-ura that went after Yoshitsune, got frustrated when Yoshitsune ran from him, kicked a Minamoto warrior into the sea, grabbed two more (one under each arm), and committed suicide by jumping into the drink (a story mitigated by the fact that the Azuma Kagami states that Noritsune had been killed at Ichinotani months earlier). Even given the hyperbole associated with the war tales and the fact he was hunting down traitors, he was an incredibly aggressive commander, one of the few on the Taira side who wasn't afraid to take the initiative. Too bad in this case it was just to keep Taira vassals from defecting to the Minamoto...

The end of the chapter where Nortisune squashes the traitors ends with "Declaring that there was nobody left worth fighting, Noritsune returned to Fukuhara..." And at Dan-no-ura, he goaded the Minamoto into attacking him by stating "Take me prisoner! I would like to go to Kamakura, because I got something to say to Yoritomo. Come on!" I bet it would have been quote-worthy, too. Gotta love it. Think I'll sit down and reread the Heike.

[Tornadoes28]

Thanks for the information! Very interesting!
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[Tatsunoshi]

My wife pointed out that both the Heike Monogatari and Genpei Seisuiki have Fukie-no-ura in Izumi Province (directly to the north of Kii). So either the Brit is wrong about the location, or the Heike/Seisuiki have it wrong (which has been known to happen in both as regards locations). Looks like it's the latter, as J-sites like this one have the battle being fought on the coast of Kii after Tadayasu and Tadakage merged at Fukei. If anyone knows of a Fukei-no-ura in Izumi and/or a source that shows this battle taking place there, obviously I'd appreciate hearing about it.