Yoshitsune decides to leave Kyoto to avoid making the capital a battlefield. At the request of Yoshitsune, the ex-emperor Goshirakawa gives an official order to Yoshitsune and Yukiie to go west. Before his departure, Yoshitsune tells his wife Moe to go back to Kamakura. Responding to Yoshitsune’s considerateness, Moe encourages Shizuka to go along with him. Shizuka hesitates to leave Kyoto first, being concerned about her mother who would be left alone, but makes up her mind in the end to accompany him. On the way to the westward, the boat Yoshitsune and his party are aboard is hit by a storm. In the storm, the ghost of Tomomori appears in front of them. Benkei manages to exorcise the ghost by intoning the Buddhist scriptures but the party gets scattered as their boat overturns. With Benkei and Shizuka, Yoshitsune looks for the other retainers. Meanwhile, Yoshitsune gets to know that the ex-emperor has issued an order to hunt down him and Yukiie. To ask the ex-emperor his true intention, Yoshitsune heads back to Kyoto. However, Kiichi Hogen appears in front of him and tells him not to go into the capital.
都を去る決意をした義経（滝沢秀明）に、後白河法皇（平幹二朗）は西国行きを命じる。静（石原さとみ）や郎党らと新しき国を築こうと船出する義経。だが大嵐を伴って現れた平知盛（阿部寛）の亡霊に襲われ、弁慶（松平健）の懸命の読経もむなしく船は転覆。はぐれた郎党を捜すうち、義経は自らの追討の院宣が出たと知る。法皇に真意を確かめようとする義経の前に鬼一法眼（美輪明宏）が現れ「都へは近づくな」と告げる。
