in the Shimonoseki Straits, drowning the child emperor, rather than allowing him to be captured by the opposing forces, and most members and generals of the Taira clan followed them in despair. Antoku came to be worshipped as Mizu-no-kami ("god of water"). This crucial battle was a cultural and political turning point in Japanese history: Minamoto Yoritomo became the first Shōgun, or military ruler, of Japan. Dan-no-ura marked the beginning of seven centuries during which Japan was ruled by warriors and Shōguns instead of Emperors and aristocrats. Cultural references In Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, the writer, Lafcadio Hearn, references the Heiki crab in "The Story of Mimi-Nashi-Hoichi." In the 1964 Japanese anthology film, Kwaidan, based on Hearn's stories, "Hoichi the Earless" recounts the story of the Battle of Dan-no-ura, which becomes the basis of "Hoichi the Earless." The narrator explains the myth, illustrated with prominent footage of the crabs. At the end of the "Hoichi the Earless" segment, Hoichi is seen playing the lute, with heikegani on his shoulders. In his 1980 science series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, Carl Sagan used heikegani to illustrate artificial selection. British biologist Richard Dawkins discussed the same idea in his 2009 book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. References External links Heike Ichizoku no Onryo – The Vengeful Ghosts of the Heike Clan at hyakumonogatari.com (English). Crabs Crustaceans of Japan Crustaceans described in 1824