Young Ushiwakamaru who was later known as Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeated the the older and more experienced warrior priest Musashibo Benkei at Gojo bridge in Kyoto. Their conflict is here represented as a game of sugoroku, a strategy game similar to backgammon. Ushiwakamaru wins and the poem observes that Benkei clenches his fist in frustration as though he were providing a place for a hawk to land. As the playing pieces of sugoroku are called colts, the game is associated with the year of the horse.