Everything about Kitabatake Akiie totally explained
(
1318-
1338) was a Japanese
court noble, and an important supporter of the Southern Court during the
Nanboku-chō Wars. He also held the posts of
Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North, and
Governor of
Mutsu Province. His father was Imperial advisor
Kitabatake Chikafusa.
In
1333, Akiie was ordered to accompany the six-year-old eighth son of
Emperor Go-Daigo,
Prince Norinaga, to Mutsu, where the Prince became Governor-General of Mutsu and Dewa. These two large
provinces constituted much of the north-western end of
Honshū, the area now known as
Tohoku. Soon afterwards, he was appointed to the post of
Chinjufu Shogun, or Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North. This was a position that had been held by
Minamoto no Yoshiie two hundred years earlier. A number of families formed a league under his direction, supporting the Southern Court; these included the samurai families of
Yūki,
Date, Nambu, Soma, and Tamura. The Soma and several other
daimyō were convinced to change sides by Takauji, however.
Three years later, he led an army nominally under the command of Norinaga to the outskirts of
Kyoto to reinforce the forces of
Nitta Yoshisada against
Ashikaga Takauji. Nitta and Kitabatake were aided by
warrior monks from
Enryakuji, and the temple of
Miidera, whose monks supported Ashikaga Takauji, was burned to the ground.
Traveling to
Kyūshū, Kitabatake gathered support for the Southern Court in the absence of Ashikaga Takauji, one of the strongest leaders of the
Northern Court.
In
1337, despite facing opposition at home in the north, Kitabatake was ordered by Emperor Go-Daigo to come to the aid of his army to the south of Kyoto. Kitabatake led his forces slowly south, fighting the Northern Court in many battles. He was defeated at
Tonegawa before pushing south and occupying
Kamakura, the capital of the
Ashikaga shogunate, and making his way to
Nara, fighting at Iga and Sekigahara. In Nara, while trying to rest and reorganize his forces, he was set upon by
Kō no Moronao and barely escaped to
Kawachi Province. He recouped and pushed through enemy forces at Tennōji (near modern-day
Osaka), but was eventually defeated and killed at Izumi in
1338 at the age of twenty. His death is described in the epic
Taiheiki and in his father's
Jinnō Shōtōki.
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