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Although many written accounts exist, there is but one detailed pictorial record of the second Mongol invasion. The samurai Takezaki Suenaga, who was also a veteran of the first invasion attempt, commissioned a series of scroll paintings to record his prowess during the battle of Hakata Bay. Known as the Moko Shurai Ekotoba, they today reside as part of the private Imperial Household Collection in Tokyo.

The defeat of the second Mongol invasion marked the beginning of the end of Imperial rule in Japan and the rise of the samurai warrior class. Whereas before, court nobility and aristocrats wielded power, under the Shogunate the samurai ruled supreme, guided by the strict tenants of bushido, the way of the warrior. Samurai families flourished, the Suenaga clan not excepted, for the next five-hundred years.

Although Suenaga’s fame for his exploits at Hakata Bay spread far, it was not enough to keep his creditors from his door. Heavily in debt from his war expenditures, he was hounded incessantly, to the point that he took the drastic step of changing his name, to Suenaka. A minor alteration, certainly, but evidently enough to avoid further financial persecution.