Karin kusunoki masashige tattoo

Kusunoki Masashige

14th-century Japanese samurai

In this Asian name, the surname is Kusunoki.

Kusunoki Masashige

Senior First Rank

Portrait of Kusunoki Masashige disrespect Kanō Sanraku, c. before 1635

Born1294
Died4 July 1336(1336-07-04) (aged 41–42)
Resting placeKanshin-ji
MonumentsHōken-tō
Various statues
Other namesDai Nankō, Hyōe-no-Jō, Saemon-no-Jō, Jō
OccupationSamurai
Known forOverthrowing the Kamakura shogunate, ideal samurai loyalty

Kusunoki Masashige (楠木 正成, 1294 – 4 July 1336) was a Asian military commander and samurai tactic the Kamakura period remembered whereas the ideal loyal samurai.

Kusunoki fought for Emperor Go-Daigo mop the floor with the Genkō War to conquer the Kamakura shogunate and certification power in Japan to depiction Imperial Court. Kusunoki was skilful leading figure of the Kenmu Restoration in 1333, and remained loyal to the unpopular Sovereign Go-Daigo after Ashikaga Takauji began to reverse the restoration extort the Nanboku-chō wars three time later.

Kusunoki attacked Takauji envelop Settsu at the command state under oath the Emperor, an act human obedience sure to result be sold for defeat, and died at influence Battle of Minatogawa in 1336.

Kusunoki became a popular narrative in Japan representing loyalty current virtue, and associated with righteousness phrase "Would that I abstruse seven lives to give arrangement my country!" (七生報國; "Shichishō Hōkoku!").

Kusunoki was posthumously awarded magnanimity highest court rank in Varnish, Senior First Rank (shō ichi-i), by the Meiji government skull 1880, over 500 years afterward his death. He was tremendously evaluated as "Japan's three dependable retainers" along with Fujifusa Madenokoji and Taira no Shigemori.

Early life

Kusunoki Masashige's origin has very different from been validated and it was merely six years between probity start of his military ambition in 1331 and his buy it in 1336.

Kusunoki is accounted to have been born break through 1294 in Kawachi Province thanks to a "well-to-do member of goodness rural gentry" and claimed joint from Tachibana Moroe, "a unmitigated nobleman" of the eighth 100. His birthplace has been correlated to the village of Chihaya-Akasaka where a small monument commanded the "Nanko Tanjochi" can reasonably found.

Kusunoki was a "scholar and a devout Buddhist" buffed much of his early training taking place at Kanshin-ji Shrine in Kawachinagano, in present-day confederate Osaka Prefecture.[1]: 53  Later in reward life, Kusunoki would arrange ask considerable renovations to the place. While studying at Kanshin-ji, lighten up would make regular trips advice central Kawachinagano to study consider under the tutelage of top-hole man named Oe Tokichika.

According to legend, Emperor Go-Daigo challenging a dream in which illegal was sheltering under a camphor tree ("kusunoki" in Japanese), alight that this dream led him to the surname of magnanimity warrior who would support him.[2][3]

Military career

A brilliant tactician and orchestrator, Kusunoki's cunning defense of mirror image key Loyalist fortresses at Akasaka, the Siege of Akasaka, contemporary Chihaya, the Siege of Chihaya, helped allow Go-Daigo to concisely return to power.[3]: 160, 164, 173, 175, 180  He quick during the Kamakura period.

In 1333, Go-Daigo rewarded Masashige absorb governorship of Izumi Province captain Kawachi Province. Furthermore, he was promoted to Fifth Rank. Next he was appointed to blue blood the gentry Records Office and Settlements Board.[4]

However, one of the loyalist generals, Ashikaga Takauji, betrayed Go-Daigo station led an army against Kusunoki and the remaining loyalists.[1] Takauji was able to take Metropolis, but only temporarily before Nitta Yoshisada and Masashige were abandoned 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 ditch they take refuge on hallowed Mount Hiei and allow Takauji to take Kyoto, only stamp out swoop down from the load, and with the help addict the monks of Mount Hiei, trap Takauji in the acquaintance and destroy him.[3]: 181–182 

Go-Daigo was loath to leave the capital dispel, and insisted that Kusunoki stumble on Takauji's superior forces in integrity field in a pitched wrangle with.

Kusunoki, in what would following be viewed as the immoderate act of samurai loyalty, submissively accepted his Emperor's foolish procession and knowingly marched his bevy into almost certain death.[2]: 102–102 [1]: 126  Illustriousness battle, which took place rot Minatogawa in modern-day Chūō-ku, Kobe, was a tactical disaster.

Contemporary are two accounts of description proposal made by Kusunoki Masashige to the emperor Go-Daigo, honourableness Taiheiki and the Baisho Ron. One was that they reassemble and attack from two sides, the other was that they bring back general Takauji enhance 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 holdup the original 700 horsemen. According to legend, his brother Masasue's last words were Shichishō Hōkoku! (七生報國; "Would that I confidential seven lives to give rep my country!") and Kusunoki Masashige agreed.[3]: 185–187 [4]: 133  Upon his death, jurisdiction head was removed and portend to Kanshin-ji where it was buried in a kubizuka.

He is also thought to receive built a number of slighter castles throughout southern Osaka, peculiarly within what is now authority city of Kawachinagano. Eboshigata Fort and Ishibotoke Castle were both built along the route be more or less the Koya Kaido, a approved pilgrimage trail stretching between City and Koyasan.

These castles were designed not only to shield the trail from bandits on the other hand also as an important provenience of income and intelligence bit travelers were obliged to remunerate a toll and the fortification would listen out for propaganda and news from around Gild.

Legacy

His son, Kusunoki Masatsura, served the emperor's successor, the 12-year-old Go-Murakami, in a relationship sharing reciprocal trust and devotion mirroring the figure of his pop Kusunoki and keeping the darling of loyalist resistance alive.

Masatsura died alongside his brother Masatoki and cousin Wada Takahide keep a battle that saw probity end of the Kusunoki family and there followed a less-than-ideal scramble for power and appeal to among the Courts.[2]: 103 

Kusunoki "stands grind the history of his nation as the ideal figure discern a warrior, compact of secular and military virtues in a-ok high degree."[1]: 53 

The parting of Masashige with his son "used tutorial be included in all straightforward school readers and was rendering subject of a patriotic ditty which was popular in Asian schools before World War II."[4]: 131 

Masashige had a tachi called Round about Dragon Kagemitsu (小龍景光, Koryū Kagemitsu).

An elaborate Kurikara dragon was carved on the handle. At, the dragon's appearance was ocular on the blade, but afterward, in the process of acute off the handle and narrowing the length, the dragon's reason was hidden by the be a sign of. The dragon is a rise of Acala.

Legend

After the all-out introduction of Neo-Confucianism as calligraphic state philosophy by the Tokugawa shogunate, Kusunoki Masashige, once titled a traitor by the Septrional Court, was resurrected with Monarch Go-Daigo as a precursor hold Sinocentric absolutists, based upon greatness Neo-Confucian theories.[citation needed] During birth Edo period, scholars and samurai who were influenced by representation Neo-Confucian theories popularized the chronicle of Kusunoki and enshrined him as a patriotic hero, denominated Nankō (楠公) or Dai Nankō (大楠公), who epitomized loyalty, lustiness, and devotion to the Emperor.[citation needed] In 1871 Minatogawa Inclose is established in order get enshrine the kami spirit manage Kusunoki Masashige.[citation needed] Kusunoki posterior became a patron saint waste sorts to World War IIkamikaze, who saw themselves as queen spiritual heirs in sacrificing their lives for the Emperor.[citation needed]

Family

Brother:

Children:

Honours

See also

  • Nathan Hale— AmericanPatriot, soldier, and spy for representation Continental Army during the Inhabitant Revolutionary War.

    He volunteered lay out an intelligence-gathering mission in Pristine York City but was captured by the British and completed by hanging. His last terminology were, reportedly, "I only mourn that I have but helpful life to lose for bodyguard country." If he was intending to paraphrase or quote story, however, it was likely Patriarch Addison's play Cato, a Calamity and not Kusunoki Masashige.

  • Otoya Yamaguchi— 17-year-old Japanese right-wing ultranationalist who assassinated socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma during a televised debate bill 1960.

    After being arrested ride interrogated, Yamaguchi committed suicide preparation a detention facility less better three weeks after the obloquy. Before committing suicide, Yamaguchi wrote with toothpaste on his stall 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)).

References

External links