The battle of Kurikara, also known as the battle of Tonamiyama (砺波山), was the battle where the tide of the war turned in the Minamoto's favor.

Taira no Koremori had split his forces in two, one part taking the Kurikara Pass up to Tonamiyama , and the other entering Etchu Province through Noto Province, to the north. Minamoto no Yoshinaka, seeing the Taira forces coming up the pass, arranged a large number of white flags (white being the Minamoto clan color) on a hill a few kilometers away, to trick his enemies into believing that his force was larger than it really was. Then he divided his own forces three ways. One group was sent to attack the Taira from the rear, a second were placed beneath the Pass, as an ambush party, and the rest were held centrally, with Yoshinaka. When the Taira descended the mountain, and the battle began, Yoshinaka's central force engaged the enemy in archery exchanges, to draw the Taira's attention away from the other Minamoto detachments. As the sun set, the Taira turned to find behind them a Minamoto detachment, holding far more flags than a single detachment should merit, again giving the illusion of greater numbers. Meanwhile, Yoshinaka's central force had gathered up oxen, and released them down the pass, directly into the Taira army.

The Taira, suffering heavy losses, confused and demoralized, fled. This was a major victory for the Minamoto, leading to the Taira abandonment of Kyoto. A few months after the battle of Kurikara, the Taira, along with Emperor Antoku, retreated to Shikoku.

References

• Sansom, George (1958). 'A History of Japan to 1334'. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
• Turnbull, Stephen (1998). 'The Samurai Sourcebook'. London: Cassell & Co.