Ichirai Hōshi was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese warrior monk

Sohei

were Buddhist warrior monks of feudal Japan. At certain points of history they held considerable power, obliging the imperial and military governments to collaborate....

 who supported the Minamoto clan

Minamoto clan

was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the imperial family who were demoted into the ranks of the nobility. The practice was most prevalent during the Heian Period , although its last occurrence was during the Sengoku Era. The Taira were another such offshoot of...

 of samurai against their rivals, the Taira clan

Taira clan

The was a major Japanese clan of samurai in historical Japan.In reference to Japanese history, along with Minamoto, Taira was a hereditary clan name bestowed by the emperors of the Heian Period to certain ex-members of the imperial family when they became subjects...

.

He is most well known for his part in the battle of Uji

Battle of Uji (1180)

The first battle of Uji is famous and important for having opened the Genpei War.In early 1180, Prince Mochihito, the Minamoto Clan's favored claimant to the Imperial Throne, was chased by Taira forces to the Mii-dera, a temple just outside Kyoto....

. Hōshi was fighting behind Tsutsui Jōmyō Meishu

Tsutsui Jomyo Meishu

Tsutsui no Jōmyō Meishū was a warrior monk, or sōhei, from Mii-dera, who fought alongside Minamoto no Yorimasa and his fellow monks at the Battle of Uji in 1180, defending the Byōdō-in and Prince Mochihito from the Taira clan....

on the Uji bridge, but as the beams were so narrow he could not come alongside his ally, he is said to have leapt over the other monk, taking over the brunt of the fighting, and doing so until he fell.