In 1318 a new emperor called Go-Daigo came to throne and attempted to restore the power of the imperial court over the shogunate. The result were the Nanbokucho Wars or the Wars between the Southern and Northern Courts. In the end the Northern Emperors were victorious whose line continues in the Japanese imperial family of today.

By the early 14th century the Hojo shikken (regency) was on its last legs: power was allocated to various individuals and offices while the man who was meant to be in charge, Hojo Takatoki, whiled away the hours in leisure and luxury. Emperor Go-Daigo seized the chance to emulate his ancestor Go-Toba in destroying the shogunate and restoring imperial authority to Japan. He began by nominating his son Prince Morinaga for shogun and attempted to ally himself with the sohei (warrior monks) of Mount Hiei, something which Go-Toba never managed to do. Takatoki also put forth his own candidate, Prince Kazuhito for emperor, who was from a rival branch of the imperial family. 

In 1331 Go-Daigo fled Kyoto for the mountains of Kasagi after troops were sent to arrest him from Kamakura, the shogunal capital, and with him went the imperial regalia; sacred artefacts which were necessary to confirm the legitimacy of an emperor. However, this did not pose much of a problem for the shikken who promptly placed their own candidate on the throne called Emperor Kogon. With Go-Daigo and his supporters firmly ensconced in the mountains the Hojo forces were subjected to warfare they had not encountered before. The mountain yamashiro (castles) on Kasagi and Mount Hiei had to be attacked. Foremost among the loyalist supporters was Kusunoki Masashige who commanded the defence of Chihaya. The paths to it travelled through dense forest and woodland and Masashige felled several great trees so that they would plunge onto the approaching Hojo forces and also unleashed volleys of arrows to increase their misery. The defenders poured boiling water and flaming oil onto the Hojo assault parties who promptly fell back in horror. Masashige then famously built a large pyre to make it look like the defenders had committed mass suicide which allowed them to slip away in the confusion. Not long afterwards the Hojo forces abandoned the fortress leaving Masashige to re-occupy it again.

Go-Daigo rallied his forces and managed to drive Emperor Kogon out of Kyoto. Hojo Takatoki then despatched Ashikaga Takauji, fresh from assaulting a fortress in Kasagi, to the capital to deal with him. However, when Ashikaga reached Kyoto he changed sides and proclaimed himself for Go-Daigo's cause. The war was going progressively worse for the Hojo when Nitta Yoshisada, one of their most accomplished commanders, also sided with Go-Daigo and attacked Kamakura, the headquarters of the shikken. This stronghold was well protected with mountains guarding three of its sides and the fourth by the sea. In response to this Yoshisada divided his forces into three so that a division could attack by the east, west and north. Yet resistance from the imperials was fierce and no breakthrough could be made, particularly on the western side in the Gokurakuji Pass where defenders fought behind wooden palisades. Yoshisada then famously took his army via the seaward side of Kamakura and according to legend he offered his sword to the Sun Goddess which in turn made the sea part allowing him and his army to pass through and according to the Taiheiki 'So he prayed, and cast his gold-mounted sword into the sea. May it not be that the dragon-gods accepted it? At the setting of the moon that night, suddenly more than 2,000 yards the waters ebbed away from Inamura Cape, where for the first time a broad flat beach appeared.'

Kamakura fell not long afterwards during ferocious street fighting. When all was lost the Hojo family and their close retainers committed mass suicide or junshi. Some Hojo samurai wrote poems before dying, a ritual copied by future generations of samurai. A warrior monk called Fuonji Shinnin wrote a poem on a pillar inside a temple using his own blood and another monk used his trousers before commanding his son to behead him, who in turn plunged the blade into his own body. The closest family members withdrew to a temple called the Toshoji, which means 'the temple of victory in the east', where they proceeded to commit mass suicide in a cave dug out of the rock at the rear of the compound. The temple itself no longer exists but the cave does and even today it attracts pilgrims. Fresh flowers can often be found at the cave entrance.

While Yoshisada was ruining the Hojo in Kamakura Ashikaga Takauji was busying himself with the destruction of the Hojo headquarters at Rokuhara in Kyoto. With two such great men on the loyalist side Go-Daigo had to try to accommodate them and problems arose when it came to rewarding them for their services. Takauji , being of Minamoto stock and therefore alone of all the loyalists could claim the dignity of shogun, felt he deserved more and an opportunity presented itself when remnants of the Hojo began to re-occupy the ruins of Kamakura. He struck out for the city, drove out the now thrashed Hojo and switched sides once again to his erstwhile enemies.

Go-Daigo sent Nitta Yoshisada to oust Takauji from Kamakura which he did with success, defeating him at the battle of Yahagigawa and ejecting him from the main island of Honshu altogether. At Kyushu Ashikaga gathered his strength and struck out for Kyoto. Although Go-Daigo was forced out Ashikaga did not remain long to celebrate his victory because Nitta Yoshisada returned to throw him out too. The seesaw effect of the Nanbokucho Wars continued as Takauji fled back to Kyushu. He seemed to have limitless strength as he won the battle of Tatarahama and then returned to Honshu where he defeated Masashige and Yoshisada at the battle of Minatogawa in 1336. Masashige was most unfortunate because he wanted to fight the forces of Ashikaga in the mountains but Go-Daigo chose an open battle and lost. Ashikaga Takauji advanced by ship along the coast of the Inland Sea, while his brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi advanced by land. They were joined by a large seaborne reinforcement from Shikoku led by the Hosokawa, who tried to land but were driven off and forced to land further along the coast. When the battle started, Nitta Yoshisada was attacked and was forced back, leaving Masashige isolated. Eventually he was surrounded and committed suicide after being horribly wounded.

Victory assured Ashikaga Takauji re-entered Kyoto and installed his own emperor, despite the fact that Go-Daigo had fled with the imperial regalia and without them no crowning of an emperor could be legitimate in the eyes of the gods. However, he did leave behind copies of the imperial replicas (the originals having been lost centuries ago) and Takauji used them to crown his new emperor in Kyoto called Komyo. Emperor Komyo thus was at the head of the Hoku-cho, or Northern Court, while Go-Daigo set up the Southern Court called the Nan-cho in the mountains of Yoshino in southern Nara. Thus began the schism between the Ashikaga Emperors and the Southern Emperors. In 1338 the Northern Emperor gave Takauji the title of shogun and the offices of the bakufu were moved from Kamakura to Kyoto to a suburb called Muromachi - hence the term Muromachi Period. In this same year Go-Daigo died and was succeeded by Go-Murakami who reigned as Southern Emperor.

The Nanbokucho Wars continued for another fifty years. It took until the reign of the third Ashikaga Shogun, Yoshimitsu, before the rival courts were reunited. Yoshimitsu became Shogun in 1367 and by 1374 the Southern Court were losing their grip as defeat followed defeat. He also led a successful expedition to Kyushu where supporters of the Southern Court were crushed and resistance from Nan-cho officially ended in 1383. Yoshimitsu's talent for generalship was evident when he routed the army of the Yamana clan (prominent opponents to the Ashikaga shogunate) outside Kyoto. Along with these successful campaigns Yoshimitsu was a consummate statesman and politician and set up embassies with Ming China, as the Yuan dynasty of the Mongols had been overthrown and Sino-Japanese relations were renewed. It is fitting that someone such as Yoshimitsu with a flair for diplomacy should end up reconciling the hostile courts. An agreement was brokered where the succession would alternate between the Northern and Southern lines but, as one would expect, it did not go according to plan. The Southern Emperor, Go-Kameyama, submitted and transferred the imperial regalia to the Northern Emperor, Go-Komatsu but when the latter abdicated in 1412 his son, Shoko, became emperor. When he died another Northern emperor succeeded to the throne and it has stayed with the Northern line to this day.

Although there was one emperor there were nevertheless supporters of the Southern Court who felt aggrieved that the crown stayed with the Northern Emperors. They believed that the crown should have gone to Prince Ogura, the son of Emperor Go-Kameyama, instead of Shoko. When Ogura died they continued to support his successors for many years to come but with limited success. The first revolt happened in 1413 but was quickly crushed and another attempt failed in 1428. After the murder of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1441 by the Akamatsu family a descendent of Kusunoki Masashige, called Kusunoki Masahide, capitalised on the confusion of his death by stealing the imperial regalia from the imperial palace. Next he took them and the heir to the Southern line, Prince Manjuji, to the protection of the warrior monks of Mount Hiei. They did not find respite there as samurai from the Ashikaga shogunate found them and the prince committed suicide. Yet Masahide managed to escape with Manjuji's two sons and the sacred jewel, as the replica mirror and sword were regained during the raid on Mount Hiei. In the mountains of Yoshino the elder of the two sons, Kitayama, was proclaimed emperor and his younger brother was given the title of shogun. This little remnant of the Southern Court survived in the mountains for eleven years until in 1457 a group of samurai from the Akamatsu family managed to gain entrance to this enclave in the mountains. During a heavy snow storm one group of samurai attacked the Southern imperial palace while another group assaulted the headquarters of the Southern shogun a few miles away. Emperor Kitayama, though valiant in his defence, was murdered and the sacred jewel was taken back to Kyoto.

Even during the Onin War between 1467-1477 a Southern emperor emerged in an attempt to counter the manipulation of the real emperor by various samurai clans but he did not gain enough support and warfare in Japan would never again hinge on pretenders to the imperial throne and who owned the imperial regalia. The Sengoku Jidai (Age of Warring States), the conflict after the Onin War, depended on huge armies and clever or lucky leaders.

Further Reading

Early Samurai - Anthony J Bryant.

Samurai Commanders (1) - Stephen Turnbull.

The Samurai - Anthony J Bryant.

Samurai (The World of the Warrior) - Stephen Turnbull.