Reply With Quote
Thank you for the praise, it is always a great motivating factor in my work!
@ SG - you'll notice on the Taira kamon, which is a swallow tailed butterfly, the lines within the graphic are very fine, and the battle banners they are placed on are very tiny, as well as having a red background (Taira colors were black on red). All those factors work against it for keeping it clean and crisp. The final map may be 200 ppi, to better show these fine details.
@ Bartmoss - I really want to keep the coastal areas as subtle as possible, though I might try a light colored outline just to enhance a bit, we'll have to see.
@ Ascension - yeah, that first font I chose for an oriental brush look, just looked cheap and tacky. So I replaced them with more easier to read fonts, that still had a classy, calligraphic like quality. I agree the news ones are much better. I also prefer the larger type used for my main island names in a semi-transparent white - much better than the previous map.
OK, next story - this one is not a Koizumi Yagumo story, rather its one of the historical accounts taken from the poem of Heike (another name for Taira).
The Challenge at Yashima...
By the start of 1185, the Taira were on the run, the great battle of Ichi no tane the year before, when Yoshi-tsune Minamoto made his hair raising charge from the top of a mountain down a steep incline onto the fortress at Ichi no tane with 50,000 troops caused a complete rout of the Taira forces there. The Taira greatly feared the warrior chief, Yoshi-tsune.
Yashima was a secondary castle for the Taira forces on the Island of Shikoku. The lack of ships for the Minamoto forces gave some relief to the Taira, though they knew that peace would not last long. On March 22nd 1185, the men on the walls saw smoke in the harbor and raised the alarm, Yoshi-tsune is attack us!
With fears of another 50,000 man army coming to their weakened defenses, Lord Kiyomori no Taira declared an evacuation was required. So the forces pulled themselves from their stronghold and headed for the west bay, where their ships could bear them away, along with the infant emperor, Prince Antoku. As they boarded the ships, Kiyomori realized that indeed it was Yoshi-tsune making the attack, but this time, he only had 5000 men doing so. Kiyomori considered returning to the castle and successfully holding off this smaller force - yet at that very moment the castle on the mountain began to burn. No choice, they must leave the island for their own safety then.
As the boats began to pull from shore the Minamoto army reached the harbor and began filling the sky with daikyu arrows felling the men and sailors aboard the 50 or so Taira ships.
Both as a means of redirecting the enemy arrows along with a challenge of honor, Kiyomori opened a fan, tied it to a rope and hoisted it up the mainsail of the Taira flagship.
In training and tournaments Japanese archers traditionally use a folding fan as a target tied to a rope or tree. Being about the size of a man's face, it was deemed a suitable target for practice.
Kiyomori sought to direct the Minamoto arrows at the fan, instead of his escaping people. Already far from shore, they were almost beyond the distance of arrow fire.
One young Minamoto samurai, determined to hit the fan or kill himself trying, rode is horse into the surf, pulled an arrow placed in his daikyu bow, aimed and loosed the arrow in a high arc. All were silent on the shore and sea. Finally the arrow struck and shattered the fan.
All historical accounts agree that both the Minamoto and the Taira cheered in awestruck pride at the miraculous shot.
Then the fleet headed west, aiming to place a new stronghold in Kyushu with plans to meet their Honshu forces at the Straits of Shimonoseki - the place known as Dan no ura, a place that would be remembered for all time...
GP
Originally Posted by ravells
