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Updated: June 19, 2025
After the death of Kusunoki Masashige, of Nitta Yoshisada, and of Kitabatake Akiiye, the strategical direction of the war devolved mainly upon Kitabatake Chikafusa, so far as the Southern Court was concerned.
Subsequently, he fell fighting against Morinaga's pursuers, but the prince escaped safely to the great monastery of Koya in Kishu.* The victorious Hojo then turned their arms against Akasaka, and having carried that position, attacked Chihaya where Masashige commanded in person. But the great soldier held his foes successfully at bay and inflicted heavy losses on them.
Then all the children sing it after him. Then he sings a second line, and they repeat it. If any mistakes are made, they have to sing the verse again. It is the Song of Kusunoki Masashige, noblest of Japanese heroes and patriots. I have said that severity on the part of teachers would scarcely be tolerated by the students themselves a fact which may sound strange to English or American ears.
The Emperor's guards, being too illiterate to comprehend the reference, showed the writing to Go-Daigo, who thus learned that friends were at hand. But Takanori could not accomplish anything more, and for a season the fortunes of the Throne were at a very low ebb, while at Kamakura the regent resumed his life of debauchery. Neither Prince Morinaga nor Masashige was idle, however.
Some two months later, January 23, 1337, Go-Daigo, disguised as a woman for the second time in his career, fled from his place of detention through a broken fence, and reached Yoshino in Yamato, where he was received by Masatsura, son of Kusunoki Masashige, and by Kitabatake Chikafusa.
In addition to these two armies, the Hojo had a powerful force engaged in beleaguering the fortress of Chihaya, in Yamato, where Kusunoki Masashige commanded in person. Nothing seemed less probable than that the Imperial capital itself should become the object of an assault by the partisans of Go-Daigo. But the unexpected took place.
When Masashige Kusunoki waged a hopeless war on behalf of one branch of the then divided dynasty, and finally preferred to die by his own hand rather than endure the sight of a victorious rebel, he is considered to have exhibited the highest possible evidence of devoted loyalty. One often hears his name in the sermons of Christian preachers as a model worthy of all honor.
This must have been fully apparent to Kusunoki Masashige, an able strategist. Yet a delay of some weeks occurred. A quasi-historical record, the Taiheiki, ascribes this to Yoshinaga's infatuated reluctance to quit the company of a Court beauty whom the Emperor had bestowed on him. Probably the truth is that the Imperialists were seriously in want of rest and that Yoshisada fell ill with fever.
Masashige uttered no remonstrance. The time for controversy had passed. He hastened to the camp and bid farewell to his son, Masatsura: "I do not think that I shall see you again in life. If I fall to-day, the country will pass under the sway of the Ashikaga. It will be for you to judge in which direction your real welfare lies.
Things now went from bad to worse in Kyoto, while in the provinces the remnants of the Hojo's partisans began to raise their heads. The ever-loyal Kusunoki Masashige and Nawa Nagatoshi entered the capital to secure it against surprise; Ashikaga Takauji, ostensibly for the same purpose, summoned large forces from the provinces, and Prince Morinaga occupied Nawa with a strong army.
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