14th-century Japanese samurai
In this Altaic name, the surname is Kusunoki.
Kusunoki Masashige Senior First Rank | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Kusunoki Masashige get ahead of Kanō Sanraku, c. before 1635 | |
| Born | 1294 |
| Died | 4 July 1336(1336-07-04) (aged 41–42) |
| Resting place | Kanshin-ji |
| Monuments | Hōken-tō Various statues |
| Other names | Dai Nankō, Hyōe-no-Jō, Saemon-no-Jō, Jō |
| Occupation | Samurai |
| Known for | Overthrowing the Kamakura shogunate, ideal samurai loyalty |
Kusunoki Masashige (楠木 正成, 1294 – 4 July 1336) was a Asian military commander and samurai recompense the Kamakura period remembered by the same token the ideal loyal samurai.
Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo detect the Genkō War to unhorse the Kamakura shogunate and extort power in Japan to loftiness Imperial Court. Kusunoki was shipshape and bristol fashion leading figure of the Kenmu Restoration in 1333, and remained loyal to the unpopular Potentate Go-Daigo after Ashikaga Takauji began to reverse the restoration get going the Nanboku-chō wars three discretion later.
Kusunoki attacked Takauji explain Settsu at the command spick and span the Emperor, an act put obedience sure to result prosperous defeat, and died at depiction Battle of Minatogawa in 1336.
Kusunoki became a popular story in Japan representing loyalty last virtue, and associated with description phrase "Would that I abstruse seven lives to give fit in my country!" (七生報國; "Shichishō Hōkoku!").
Kusunoki was posthumously awarded description highest court rank in Archipelago, Senior First Rank (shō ichi-i), by the Meiji government predicament 1880, over 500 years fend for his death. He was well evaluated as "Japan's three faithful retainers" along with Fujifusa Madenokoji and Taira no Shigemori.
Kusunoki Masashige's origin has throng together been validated and it was merely six years between excellence start of his military appeal in 1331 and his dissolution in 1336. Kusunoki is accounted to have been born insert 1294 in Kawachi Province on account of a "well-to-do member of primacy rural gentry" and claimed shelve from Tachibana Moroe, "a undisturbed nobleman" of the eighth 100.
His birthplace has been interdependent to the village of Chihaya-Akasaka where a small monument cryed the "Nanko Tanjochi" can achieve found.
Kusunoki was a "scholar and a devout Buddhist" grasp much of his early tutelage taking place at Kanshin-ji Holy place in Kawachinagano, in present-day grey Osaka Prefecture.[1]: 53 Later in cap life, Kusunoki would arrange miserly considerable renovations to the holy place.
While studying at Kanshin-ji, unwind would make regular trips nominate central Kawachinagano to study assume under the tutelage of elegant man named Oe Tokichika.
According to legend, Emperor Go-Daigo difficult to understand a dream in which bankruptcy was sheltering under a camphor tree ("kusunoki" in Japanese), mount that this dream led him to the surname of prestige warrior who would support him.[2][3]
A brilliant tactician and campaigner, Kusunoki's cunning defense of bend over key Loyalist fortresses at Akasaka, the Siege of Akasaka, countryside Chihaya, the Siege of Chihaya, helped allow Go-Daigo to in short return to power.[3]: 160, 164, 173, 175, 180 He flybynight during the Kamakura period.
In 1333, Go-Daigo rewarded Masashige presage governorship of Izumi Province swallow Kawachi Province. Furthermore, he was promoted to Fifth Rank. Afterwards he was appointed to picture Records Office and Settlements Board.[4]
However, one of the loyalist generals, Ashikaga Takauji, betrayed Go-Daigo slab led an army against Kusunoki and the remaining loyalists.[1] Takauji was able to take City, but only temporarily before Nitta Yoshisada and Masashige were deserving of praise to dislodge Takauji, forcing him to flee to the westward.
By 1336 however, Takauji was a threat to Kyoto again.[4]: 130
Kusunoki suggested to the Emperor roam they take refuge on consecrated Mount Hiei and allow Takauji to take Kyoto, only explicate swoop down from the mound, and with the help handle the monks of Mount Hiei, trap Takauji in the movement and destroy him.[3]: 181–182
Go-Daigo was loth to leave the capital subdue, and insisted that Kusunoki encounter Takauji's superior forces in character field in a pitched attack.
Kusunoki, in what would ulterior be viewed as the conclusive act of samurai loyalty, deferentially accepted his Emperor's foolish tell and knowingly marched his host into almost certain death.[2]: 102–102 [1]: 126 Rectitude battle, which took place unexpected defeat Minatogawa in modern-day Chūō-ku, Kobe, was a tactical disaster.
Thither are two accounts of birth proposal made by Kusunoki Masashige to the emperor Go-Daigo, blue blood the gentry Taiheiki and the Baisho Ron. One was that they recover and attack from two sides, the other was that they bring back general Takauji accomplish their side thus balancing excellence scales. Both arguments were ignored.[3]: 181–183 [1]: 50–52
Kusunoki, his army completely surrounded, was down to only 50 acquisition the original 700 horsemen.
According to legend, his brother Masasue's last words were Shichishō Hōkoku! (七生報國; "Would that I challenging seven lives to give good spirits my country!") and Kusunoki Masashige agreed.[3]: 185–187 [4]: 133 Upon his death, crown head was removed and portend to Kanshin-ji where it was buried in a kubizuka.
He is also thought to be endowed with built a number of engage castles throughout southern Osaka, expressly within what is now rank city of Kawachinagano. Eboshigata Stronghold and Ishibotoke Castle were both built along the route capture the Koya Kaido, a wellreceived pilgrimage trail stretching between City and Koyasan.
These castles were designed not only to cover the trail from bandits on the contrary also as an important tone of income and intelligence brand travelers were obliged to benefit a toll and the fort would listen out for newspeak and news from around Nippon.
His son, Kusunoki Masatsura, served the emperor's successor, the 12-year-old Go-Murakami, in a relationship show signs reciprocal trust and devotion mirroring the figure of his sire Kusunoki and keeping the follower of loyalist resistance alive.
Masatsura died alongside his brother Masatoki and cousin Wada Takahide attach importance to a battle that saw goodness end of the Kusunoki caste and there followed a less-than-ideal scramble for power and pick up again among the Courts.[2]: 103
Kusunoki "stands principal the history of his state as the ideal figure have possession of a warrior, compact of secular and military virtues in straight high degree."[1]: 53
The parting of Masashige with his son "used be acquainted with be included in all easy school readers and was high-mindedness subject of a patriotic aerate which was popular in Asiatic schools before World War II."[4]: 131
Masashige had a tachi called Slight Dragon Kagemitsu (小龍景光, Koryū Kagemitsu).
An elaborate Kurikara dragon was carved on the handle. To begin with, the dragon's appearance was noticeable on the blade, but ulterior, in the process of frigid off the handle and narrowing the length, the dragon's reason was hidden by the use. The dragon is a display of Acala.
After the all-out introduction of Neo-Confucianism as elegant state philosophy by the Tokugawa shogunate, Kusunoki Masashige, once christened a traitor by the Boreal Court, was resurrected with Prince Go-Daigo as a precursor substantiation Sinocentric absolutists, based upon justness Neo-Confucian theories.[citation needed] During say publicly Edo period, scholars and samurai who were influenced by dignity Neo-Confucian theories popularized the history of Kusunoki and enshrined him as a patriotic hero, commanded Nankō (楠公) or Dai Nankō (大楠公), who epitomized loyalty, bravery, and devotion to the Emperor.[citation needed] In 1871 Minatogawa Sanctuary is established in order prevalent enshrine the kami spirit footnote Kusunoki Masashige.[citation needed] Kusunoki subsequent became a patron saint virtuous sorts to World War IIkamikaze, who saw themselves as coronet spiritual heirs in sacrificing their lives for the Emperor.[citation needed]
Brother:
Children:
He volunteered stand for an intelligence-gathering mission in Recent York City but was captured by the British and done by hanging. His last speech were, reportedly, "I only repent that I have but ambush life to lose for illdefined country." If he was intending to paraphrase or quote at one, however, it was likely Patriarch Addison's play Cato, a Desolation and not Kusunoki Masashige.
After being arrested sit interrogated, Yamaguchi committed suicide pimple a detention facility less pat three weeks after the obloquy. Before committing suicide, Yamaguchi wrote with toothpaste on his cooler wall, "Long live the Emperor" (天皇陛下万才, tennōheika banzai) and "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country" (七生報国, shichishō hōkoku)).