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Emperor Go-Daigo
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Emperor Go-Daigo (????? Go-Daigo-tenno) (November 26, 1288 – September 19, 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Post-Meiji historians construe the years of his reign spanning 1318 through 1339; however, pre-Meiji accounts of his reign considered the years of his reign to last only between 1318 and 1332, when he was said to have been deposed by the shogun.

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Emperor Go-Daigo (????? Go-Daigo-tenno) (November 26, 1288 – September 19, 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Post-Meiji historians construe the years of his reign spanning 1318 through 1339; however, pre-Meiji accounts of his reign considered the years of his reign to last only between 1318 and 1332, when he was said to have been deposed by the shogun. Pre-Meiji scholars also considered Go-Daigo a pretender Emperor in the years from 1336 through 1339.
This 14th century sovereign was named after the 9th century Emperor Daigo and go-, translates literally as "later;" and thus, he is sometimes called the 'Later Emperor Daigo'. The Japanese word 'go' has also been translated to mean the "second one;" and in some older sources, this emperor may be identified as 'Daigo, the second,' or as 'Daigo II.'
Genealogy
Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, his personal name (his imina) was Takeharu-shinno.
He was the second son of the Daikakuji-to emperor, Emperor Go-Uda. His mother was Fujiwara no Chushi/Tadako, daughter of Fujiwara no Tadatsugu (Itsutsuji Tadatsugu) (????/????). She became Nyoin called Dantenmon-in.
Emperor Go-Daigo's ideal was the Engi era (901-923) during the reign of Emperor Daigo, a period of direct imperial rule. An emperor's posthumous name was normally chosen after his death, but Emperor Go-Daigo chose his personally during his lifetime, to share it with Emperor Daigo.
Consorts and children
Empress (Chugu) : Saionji Kishi (Go-Kyogoku-in, ????) (1303-1333), daughter of Saionji Sanekane
- princess (1314-?), died young
- Imperial Princess Kanshi (Senseimon-in, ????) (1315-1362), Saio at Ise Shrine; later, married to Emperor Kogon
Empress (Chugu) : Imperial Princess Junshi (Shin-Muromachi-in, ????) (1311-1337), daughter of Emperor Go-Fushimi
- Imperial Princess Yukiko (1335-?)
Nyogo: Fujiwara no Eishi, daughter of Nijo Michihira
Court lady: Minamoto no Chikako, daughter of Kitabatake Morochika
- Imperial Prince Moriyoshi (or Morinaga) (1308-1335) - Head Priest of Enryakuji (Tendai-zasu, ????) (Buddhist name: Prince Son'un, ?????)
- Imperial Princess Hishi - nun in Imabayashi
Court lady: Fujiwara no Ishi/Tameko (?-1311/2), daughter of Nijo Tameyo
- Imperial Prince Takayoshi (also Takanaga) (1306/8-1337)
- Imperial Prince Munenaga (also Muneyoshi) (1311-1385?) - Head Priest of Enryakuji (Tendai-zasu, ????) (Buddhist name: Prince Soncho, ?????)
- Imperial Princess Tamako (1316-1339) - nun
- Imperial Princess Kinshi - nun in Imabayashi
Court lady: Ichijo no Tsubone, daughter of Saionji Sanetoshi
- Imperial Prince Tokiyoshi (also Yoyoshi) (1306/8-1330)
- Imperial Prince Joson (Imperial Prince Keison, ?????) - priest in Shogoin
- princess - nun in Imabayashi
Court lady: Fujiwara no Renshi (Ano Renshi) (????/????) (Shin-Taikenmon-in, ?????) (1301-1359), daughter of Ano Kinkado
Court lady: Gon-no-Dainagon no Sammi no Tsubone (???????) (?-1351), daughter of Nijo Tamemichi
- Imperial Prince Honin (1325-1352) - priest in Ninna-ji
- Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi (also Kanenaga) (1326-1383) - Seisei Taishogun 1336-?
- princess
Princess: a daughter of Emperor Kameyama
- Kosho (1319-1333) - priest
Court lady: Shosho no Naishi, daughter of Sugawara no Arinaka
- Imperial Prince Seijo (?-?) - Head Priest of Onjo-ji
Court lady: Fujiwara no Chikako, daughter of Kazan'in Munechika
- Imperial Prince Mitsuyoshi
Court lady: Fujiwara no Shushi/Moriko, daughter of Toin Saneyasu
- Imperial Prince Gen'en - Head Priest of Kofuku-ji
Court lady: Konoe no Tsubone
Court lady: Shonagon no Naishi, daughter of Shijo Takasuke
Court lady: Gon-no-Chunagon no Tsubone, daughter of Sanjo Kinyasu
Court lady: Mimbu-kyo no Tsubone
(unknown women)
- Imperial Prince Saikei - priest in Myoho-in
- Mumon Gensen (1323-1390) - founder of Hoko-ji (Shizuoka)
- Yodo (?-1398) - 5th Head Nun of Tokei-ji
Go-Daigo had some other princesses from some court ladies.
Events of Go-Daigo's life
Emperor Go-Daigo became emperor at the age of 31, in the prime of his life.
- Bunpo 2, in the 2nd month (1318): In the 11th year of Hanazono-tennos reign (????11?), the emperor abdicated; and the succession (‘‘senso’’) was received by his cousin, the second son of former-Emperor Go-Uda. Shortly thereafter, Emperor Go-Daigo is said to have acceded to the throne (‘‘sokui’’).
- Bunpo 3, in the 4th month (1319): Emperor Go-Daigo caused the nengo to be changed to Gen'o to mark the beginning of his reign.
In 1324, with the discovery of Emperor Go-Daigo's plans to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate, the Rokuhara Tandai disposed of his close associate Hino Suketomo in the Shochu Incident.
In the Genko Incident of 1331, Emperor Go-Daigo's plans were again discovered, this time by a betrayal by his close associate Yoshida Sadafusa. He quickly hid the Sacred Treasures in a secluded castle in Kasagiyama (the modern town of Kasagi, Soraku district, Kyoto Prefecture) and raised an army, but the castle fell to the Bakufu's army the following year, and they enthroned Emperor Kogon, exiling Emperor Go-Daigo to Oki Province (the Oki Islands in modern-day Shimane Prefecture), the same place to which Emperor Go-Toba was exiled in 1198.
In 1333, Emperor Go-Daigo escaped from Oki with the help of Nawa Nagatoshi and his family, raising an army at Funagami Mountain in Hoki Province (the modern town of Kotoura in Tohaku District, Tottori Prefecture). Ashikaga Takauji, who had been sent by the Bakufu to find and destroy this army, sided with the Emperor and captured the Rokuhara Tandai. Immediately following this, Nitta Yoshisada, who had raised an army in the East, destroyed the Hojo clan and captured the Bakufu.
Returning to Kyoto, Emperor Go-Daigo took the throne from Emperor Kogon and began the Kemmu Restoration. The Restoration was ostensibly a revival of the older ways, but, in fact, the emperor had his eye set on an imperial dictatorship like that of the emperor of China. He wanted to imitate the Chinese in all their ways and become the most powerful ruler in the East. Impatient reforms, litigation over land rights, rewards, and the exclusion of the samurai from the political order caused much complaining, and his political order began to fall apart. In 1335, Ashikaga Takauji, who had travelled to eastern Japan without obtaining an imperial edict in order to suppress the Nakasendai Rebellion, became disaffected with the Restoration. Emperor Go-Daigo ordered Nitta Yoshisada to track down and destroy Ashikaga. Ashikaga defeated Nitta Yoshisada at the Battle of Takenoshita, Hakone. Kusunoki Masashige and Kitabatake Akiie, in communication with Kyoto, smashed the Ashikaga army. Takauji fled to Kyushu, but the following year, after restructuring his army in Kyushu, he again approached Kyoto. Kusunoki Masashige proposed a reconciliation with Ashikaga Takauji to the emperor, but Go-Daigo rejected this. He ordered Masashige and Yoshisada to destroy Takauji. Kusunoki's army was defeated at the Battle of Minatogawa.
When Ashikaga's army entered Kyoto, Emperor Go-Daigo resisted, fleeing to Mount Hiei, but seeking reconciliation, he sent the Sacred Treasures to the Ashikaga side. Takauji enthroned the Jimyoin-to emperor, Komyo, and officially began his shogunate with the enactment of the Kemmu Law Code.
Go-Daigo escaped from the capital, the Sacred Treasures that he had handed over to the Ashikaga being counterfeit, and set up the Southern Court among the mountains of Yoshino, beginning the Period of Northern and Southern Courts in which the Northern Dynasty in Kyoto and the Southern Dynasty in Yoshino faced off against each other.
Emperor Go-Daigo ordered Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi to Kyushu and Nitta Yoshisada and Imperial Prince Tsuneyoshi to Hokuriku, and so forth, dispatching his sons all over, so that they could oppose the Northern Court.
- Engen 4, on the 15th day of the 8th month (1339), in the 21st year of Go-Daigo's reign, he abdicated at Yoshino in favor of his son, Noriyoshi-shinno, who would become Emperor Go-Murakami.
In 1339, he died of an unknown disease. Go-Daigo's Imperial Tomb (misasagi) is at Yoshino.
Kugyo
Kugyo is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre-Meiji eras. Even during those years in which the court's actual influence outside the palace walls was minimal, the hierarchic organization persisted.
In general, this elite group included only three to four men at a time. These were hereditary courtiers whose experience and background would have brought them to the pinnacle of a life's career. During Go-Daigo's reign, this apex of the Daijo-kan included:
Eras of Go-Daigo's reign
The years of Go-Diago's reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengo. Emperor Go-Daigo's eight era name changes are equalled in number only in the reign of Emperor Go-Hanazono, who also reigned through eight era name changes.
- Pre-Nanboku-cho court
- Nanboku-cho southern court
- Eras as reckoned by legitimate sovereign's Court (as determined by Meiji rescript)
- Nanboku-cho northern Court
- Eras as reckoned by pretender sovereign's Court (as determined by Meiji rescript)
In popular culture
Emperor Go-Daigo appears in the alternate history novel Romanitas by Sophia McDougall.
See also
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