Benkei: From Gojō Bridge to Koromogawa

Legend says Benkei wandered Kyoto every night on a personal quest to take 1000 swords from samurai warriors, whom he thought arrogant and unworthy. He had collected 999 and was looking for his final prize when he met a young man playing a flute at Gojotenjin Shrine. The much shorter stranger carried a gilded sword at his waist. He was Minamoto no Yoshitsune. The two did not fight in the shrine itself, but walked together to a nearby bridge.

On Gojō Bridge the bigger Benkei ultimately lost to the smaller warrior, who happened to be Yoshitsune. It is the most famous scene of the legend. Some sources place the fight at Matsubara Bridge instead. The original bridge stood north of today's, which was built in 1959, and a sculpture near the current bridge shows the meeting of the two men.

Location precision: Sources disagree on whether the duel was at Gojō Bridge or Matsubara Bridge, and the original bridge stood north of the current one.

Visitor guidance: The sculpture of the meeting stands near the present Gojō Bridge.

Not long after the duel, Benkei, frustrated and looking for revenge, waited for Yoshitsune at the Buddhist temple of Kiyomizu, where he lost yet again. From then on he became Yoshitsune's retainer and fought with him in the Genpei War against the Taira clan. Kiyomizu-dera stands on Mount Otowa in Kyoto's Higashiyama area and can still be visited.

Location precision: The tale names the temple but not the spot where the second fight took place; the pin marks the temple.

Visitor guidance: Kiyomizu-dera is an open temple in the Higashiyama area of Kyoto.

In the kabuki play Kanjinchō, Benkei and Yoshitsune pass a checkpoint disguised as priests collecting donations for Tōdai-ji. Asked for the subscription list, Benkei reads from a blank sheet. When a guard suspects the porter is Yoshitsune, Benkei, thinking quickly, treats him as his personal porter and beats him. The guard Togashi admires Benkei's skill and daring and lets them pass. The barrier's historical existence is doubted. Its remembered site lies in the grounds of Ataka Sumiyoshi Shrine in Komatsu.

Location precision: Historians doubt that a barrier stood here at all; the pin marks the traditional site, now in Ataka Sumiyoshi Shrine.

Visitor guidance: The traditional site is in the grounds of Ataka Sumiyoshi Shrine in Komatsu, Ishikawa.

On 15 June 1189 Yasuhira led 500 soldiers against Yoshitsune at Koromogawa. Benkei stood guard on the bridge in front of the main gate. The attackers shot him with arrows, and long after the battle should have ended they saw him still standing, arrow-riddled. This is known as the "Standing Death of Benkei". A Benkei-do statue shows him in that posture. At Hiraizumi, Takadachi Gikeidō is a local attraction.

Location precision: The exact site of the Koromogawa residence is not given in the sources; the pin marks Yoshitsune hall (Gikeido) in Hiraizumi.

Visitor guidance: Takadachi Gikeidō in Hiraizumi is a listed local attraction.