Minamoto no Yoshinaka made his final stand at Awazu, after fleeing from his cousins' armies, which confronted him after he attacked Kyoto, burning the Hōjūjiden, and kidnapping Emperor Go-Shirakawa. During the pursuit he had joined up with his companion and milk brother Imai Kanehira at Seta; Kanehira became joint commander along with Yoshinaka.
During the battle, they fought valiantly, holding off Noriyori's large force of thousands of men for a time. However, in the end, they both died: Yoshinaka was struck dead by an arrow when his horse became mired in a paddy field, and after Kanehira heard that Yoshinaka had been killed, he committed suicide by leaping off his horse while holding his sword in his mouth.
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