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Updated: June 17, 2025


It was in vain that Horiguchi Sadamitsu recounted Yoshisada's services, detailed the immense sacrifices he had made in the Imperial cause, and declared that if the Emperor were determined to place himself in Takauji's hands, he should prepare his departure from Hiei-zan by summoning to his presence Yoshisada with the other Nitta leaders and sentencing them to death.

The matter was not mooted during Takauji's lifetime, but when, on his demise, the comparatively incompetent Yoshiakira came into power at Muromachi, certain military magnates of the eastern provinces urged the Kamakura kwanryo, Motouji, to usurp his brother's position. Motouji, essentially as loyal as he was astute, spurned the proposition. But it was not so with his son and successor, Ujimitsu.

Go-Daigo ought surely to have distrusted these professions. He must have learned from Takauji's original impeachment of Yoshisada how unscrupulous the Ashikaga leader could be on occasion, and he should have well understood the impossibility of peace between these two men. Yet his Majesty relied on Takauji's assurances.

A desperate struggle ensued, and the Ko generals had to retreat to Harima, where they joined with Takauji, the latter having abandoned his expedition to Kyushu. Meanwhile, Yoshiakira, Takauji's eldest son, had escaped from Kyoto and entered his father's camp.

The Hojo's resistance was feeble, and in a few weeks the Ashikaga banners were waving again over Kamakura. The question of returning to Kyoto had now to be considered. Takauji's brother, Tadayoshi, strongly opposed such a step.

Yoshisada, when he learned of the presentation of this memorial, seized the Ashikaga manors within his jurisdiction and addressed to the Throne a countermemorial in which he conclusively proved the falsehood of Takauji's assertion with reference to military affairs; charged him with usurping the titles of governor-general of the Kwanto, and shogun; declared that Prince Morinaga, the mainstay of the restoration, had become the victim of Takauji's slanders, and asked for an Imperial mandate to punish Takauji and his brother, Tadayoshi.

Takauji was succeeded in the shogunate by his eldest son, Yoshiakira, of whom so much has already been heard. The fortunes of the Southern Court were now at low ebb. During the year after Takauji's death, Kamakura contributed materially to the support of the Ashikaga cause. The Kwanto was then under the sway of Takauji's fourth son, Motouji, one of the ablest men of his time.

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