Of course each complied with all the forms of Imperialism. Thus, whereas the Southern Court used the year-name Engen for 1336-1339, the North kept the year-name Kemmu for two years, and as there were different nengo names for half a century, a new element of confusion was added to the already perplexing chronology of Japan. In administrative methods there was a difference. The Northern Court adhered to the camera system: that is to say, the actual occupant of the throne was a mere figurehead, the practical functions of Government being discharged by the cloistered sovereign. In the Southern Court the Emperor himself, nominally at all events, directed the business of administration. Further, the office of shogun in the Southern Court was held generally by an Imperial Prince, whereas in the Northern Court its holder was an Ashikaga. In brief, the supporters of the Northern Court followed the military polity of the Bakufu while the Southern adopted Imperialism.
NATURE OF THE WAR
As the question at issue lay solely between two claimants to the succession, readers of history naturally expect to find the war resolve itself into a campaign, or a succession of campaigns, between two armies. Such was by no means the case. Virtually the whole empire was drawn into the turmoil, and independent fighting went on at several places simultaneously. The two Courts perpetually made Kyoto their objective. Regardless of its strategical disadvantages, they deemed its possession cardinal. Takauji had been more highly lauded and more generously rewarded than Yoshisada, because the former had recovered Kyoto whereas the latter had only destroyed Kamakura. Thus, while Go-Daigo constantly struggled to capture Kyoto, Komyo's absorbing aim was to retain it. This obsession in favour of the Imperial metropolis left its mark upon many campaigns; as when, in the spring operations of 1336, Yoshisada, instead of being allowed to pursue and annihilate Takauji, was recalled to guard Kyoto, and when, in July of the same year, Kusunoki Masashige was sent to his death rather than temporarily vacate the capital. It must have been fully apparent to the great captains of the fourteenth century that Kyoto was easy to take and hard to hold. Lake Biwa and the river Yodo are natural bulwarks of Yamato, not of Yamashiro. Hiei-zan looks down on the lake, and Kyoto lies on the great plain at the foot of the hill. If, during thirteen generations, the Ashikaga family struggled for Kyoto, they maintained, the while, their ultimate base and rallying-place at Kamakura, and thus, even when shattered in the west, they could recuperate in the east. The Southern Court had no such depot and recruiting-ground. They had, indeed, a tolerable place of arms in the province of Kawachi, but in the end they succumbed to topographical disadvantages.
DEATHS OF YOSHISADA AND AKIIYE
In the fact that he possessed a number of sons, Go-Daigo had an advantage over his fourteen-year-old rival, Komyo, for these Imperial princes were sent out to various districts to stimulate the loyal efforts of local bushi. With Yoshisada to Echizen went the Crown Prince and his brother Takanaga. They entrenched themselves at Kana-ga-saki, on the seacoast, whence Yoshisada's eldest son, Yoshiaki, was despatched to Echigo to collect troops, and a younger brother, Yoshisuke, to Soma-yama on a similar errand. Almost immediately, Ashikaga Takatsune with an army of twenty thousand men laid siege to Kanaga-saki. But Yoshiaki and Yoshisuke turned in their tracks and delivered a rear attack which scattered the besiegers. This success, however, proved only temporary. The Ashikaga leader's deep resentment against Yoshisada inspired a supreme effort to crush him, and the Kana-ga-saki fortress was soon invested by an overwhelming force on sea and on shore. Famine necessitated surrender. Yoshiaki and Prince Takanaga committed suicide, the latter following the former's example and using his blood-stained sword. The Crown Prince was made prisoner and subsequently poisoned by Takauji's orders. Yoshisada and his brother Yoshisuke escaped to Soma-yama and rallied their partisans to the number of three thousand.
The fall of Kana-ga-saki occurred in April, 1338, and, two months later, Go-Daigo took the very exceptional course of sending an autograph letter to Yoshisada. The events which prompted his Majesty were of prime moment to the cause of the Southern Court. Kitabatake Akiiye, the youthful governor of Mutsu and son of the celebrated Chikafusa, marched southward at the close of 1337, his daring project being the capture, first, of Kamakura, and next, of Kyoto The nature of this gallant enterprise may be appreciated by observing that Mutsu lies at the extreme north of the main island, is distant some five hundred miles from Kyoto, and is separated from the latter by several regions hostile to the cause which Akiiye represented. Nevertheless, the brilliant captain, then in his twenty-first year, seized Kamakura in January, 1338, and marched thence in February for Yoshino. He gained three victories on the way, and had nearly reached his objective when, at Ishizu, he encountered a great army of Ashikaga troops under an able leader, Ko no Moronao, and after a fierce engagement the Southern forces were shattered, Akiiye himself falling in the fight. This disaster occurred on June 11, 1338. A brave rally was made by Akiiye's younger brother, Akinobu. He gathered the remnants of the Mutsu army and occupied Otokoyama, which commands Kyoto.
It was at this stage of the campaign that Go-Daigo resorted to the exceptional measure of sending an autograph letter to Yoshisada, then entrenched at Somayama, in Echizen. His Majesty conjured the Nitta leader to march to the assistance of Akinobu at Otoko-yama. Yoshisada responded at once. He despatched his brother, Yoshisuke, with twenty thousand men, remaining himself to cover the rear of the expedition. But Otoko-yama surrendered before this succour reached it, and the Nitta brothers then combined their forces to operate against the Ashikaga. Nothing decisive resulted, and in September, 1338, Yoshisada fell in an insignificant combat near the fortress of Fujishima in Echizen. He caused a comrade to behead him and carry off the head, but the enemy identified him by means of the Imperial letter found on his person.
Yoshisada was only thirty-eight at the time of his death (September, 1338). Rai Sanyo (1780-1832), the great Japanese historian, says: "I saw a letter written by Yoshisada with his own hand for the purpose of admonishing the members of his family. In it he wrote: 'An officer in command of an army should respect the sovereign; treat his subordinates with clemency but decision; leave his fate in heaven's hands, and not blame others.' Yoshisada is open to criticism for not pursuing the Ashikaga when they fled westward from Kyoto; yet it must be remembered that he had no firm base, being hurried from one quarter to another. The strategy he used was not his own free choice nor were the battles he fought contrived by himself. But his devotion to the Imperial cause, his unfailing loyalty, and his indifference to self-interest have kept his memory fresh and will always keep it fresh. If, two hundred years after his death, a chieftain was born of his blood to carry the Minamoto name to the pinnacle of glory, who shall say that heaven did not thus answer the prayer put up by Yoshisada at the shrine of Hiyoshi?"
DEATH OF GO-DAIGO
During these events, Go-Daigo sojourned at Yoshino, which was protected by Kusunoki Masatsura, Wada Masatomo, and others. At the close of August, 1339, his Majesty falling ill, and feeling that his end was near, resigned the throne to his twelve-year-old son, the Crown Prince Yoshinaga, whose historical name is Go-Murakami. Go-Daigo's will declared that his only regret in leaving the world was his failure to effect the restoration, and that though his body was buried at Yoshino, his spirit would always yearn for Kyoto. Tradition says that he expired holding a sword in his right hand, the Hokke-kyo-sutra in his left, and that Kitabatake Chikafusa spoke of the event as a dream within a dream.