“She was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or god, mounted or on foot” — description of Tomoe Gozen in The Tale of the Heike
When juicy ume plum and fluffy vanilla join forces, all bow before their fortitude and beauty, while the citrusy notes of bitter yuzu and divine hinoki wood stream behind them like a battle flag.
Legendary warrior Tomoe Gozen was a woman and a samurai. In fact, a samurai who out-samurai-ed all the other samurai. She led over a thousand men, she collected at least seven heads as trophies, and in her last recorded battle, she rode into a group of thirty enemies, grabbed their leader and ripped his head off with her bare hands. Unsurprisingly, the rest of his men scattered before her. She was a stunning beauty, of course, as all historical female samurai should be, and most likely a began as a concubine of Minamoto no Yoshinaka, for whom she fought. Sadly, his bid to become shogun went awry, and Tomoe Gozen one of only five survivors of their final battle. Where she headed after that, no one knows.
Notes:juicy ume plum, bitter yuzu, divine hinoki wood, fluffy vanilla
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