The emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇, Go-Daigo Tennō , November 26th 1288 - September 19th 1339) was the 96e emperor Japan, according to the traditional order of the succession, and reigned of the March 29th 1318 with the September 18th 1339.

Its personal name was Takaharu (尊治). Contrary to the majority of the emperors, whose posthumous Nom was selected after their death, Go-Daigo chose to it his of alive sound, in memory of that of the emperor Daigo (one can translate the prefix Go-, 後, by “posterior”, which thus gives “posterior Daigo Emperor”), because he regarded the era Engi reign of this last as his ideal.

Genealogy

Go-Daigo was the second child of the Empereur Go-Uda of the line Daikakuji-tō. It had several children, of which:

• First child: imperial Prince Moriyoshi (or Morinaga) (護良親王)
• Second child: Imperial prince Takashi (尊良親王)
• Third child: Imperial prince Muneyoshi (宗良親王)
• Fourth child: imperial Prince Tsunenaga (or Tsuneyoshi) (恒良親王)
• Fifth child: Imperial prince Norihito (法仁親王)
• Sixth child: imperial Prince Nariyoshi (or Narinaga) (成良親王)
• Seventh child: Imperial prince Noriyoshi (義良親王) (Emperor Go-Murakami)
• Eleventh child: Imperial prince Kaneyoshi, who will be also a large imperial wizard (懐良親王)

Biography

First reign

In 1318, Go-Daigo goes up on the throne when his/her cousin the emperor Hanazono, of the line Jimyōin-tō, abdicates in his favor under the terms of an agreement to alternate the throne between the two imperial lines every 10 years. The new emperor, watered since his childhood of the comments of the Nihon Shoki , of the lesson Shinto on the place of the emperor, going down from the goddess Amaterasu, starts to dream to restore the power and the imperial prerogatives, such as he imagines that they were a few centuries before.

Until 1321, his/her father Go-Uda reign as a emperor withdrawn, then Go-Daigo, starts to reign in its proper name, to reactivate certain bodies of the court and to plot to reverse the Shogunat de Kamakura. In 1324, its first coup attempt of State, called Shōchū No hen, is discovered, and two advisers and accessory to the emperor, the Suketomo brothers and Toshimoto Hino, are stopped by the Rokuhara Tandai whereas they try to join together an army. Go-Daigo, which denies to be informed of the plot, remains free.

Exile

At the time of its second attempt in 1331, called Genkō No ran, the plans of Go-Daigo is again discovered, this time because of the treason of its close adviser Sadafusa Yoshida. It hides the crowned treasures quickly in a moved back castle with Kasagiyama (current the Kasagi, in the Préfecture of Kyōto) and raises an army, but the castle falls the following year vis-a-vis the army from the Bakufu, and Go-Daigo is exiled in the Province of Oki (the islands Oki in current the Préfecture of Shimane, at the same place as Go-Toba in 1198) and a new emperor, Kōgon is put on the throne.

In 1333, Go-Daigo escapes from Oki with the assistance of Nagatoshi Nawa and its family, and starts to gather an army with the Funagami mount in the Province of Hōki (the current town of Kotoura in the Préfecture of Tottori). Takauji Ashikaga, sent by Bakufu to find and destroy this army, chooses finally the camp of the emperor and captures Rokuhara Tandai. Immediately after that, Yoshisada Nitta, which raised an army to the east, destroyed the Clan Hōjō and captures Bakufu.

Restoration of Kemmu

Of return to Kyōto, Go-Daigo takes again the throne with Kōgon and starts the Restauration of Kemmu. This one is openly a return to an older system, but in fact, the emperor aims at an imperial dictatorship similar to that of the emperor of China. He wants to imitate the Chinese in all the fields and to become most powerful directing Is.

However, of the impatient reforms, of the litigations on the land ownership, of the rewards, and the exclusion of the Samurai S of the policy cause much dissatisfaction, and its political organization starts to fall of pieces. In 1335, Takauji Ashikaga, which travelled towards the east of Japan without obtaining an imperial edict to repress the rebellion Nakasendai ( Nakasendai No ran ), gives up the Restoration. Go-Daigo orders in Yoshisada Nitta to seek and destroy Ashikaga. This last beats Nitta with the Bataille of Takenoshita (with Hakone). Masashige Kusunoki and Akiie Kitabatake, in agreement with Kyōto, crushes the Ashikaga army. Takauji flees with Kyūshū, where it restructures its army before going again on Kyōto the following year. Masashige Kusunoki proposes with the emperor a reconciliation with Takauji Ashikaga, but Go-Daigo disallows this proposal. It orders in Masashige and Yoshisada to destroy Takauji. The army of Kusunoki is overcome with the Bataille of Minatogawa (湊川の戦い).

When the army of Takauji enters Kyōto, Go-Daigo resists, fleeing with the Mont Hiei, but, seeking the reconciliation, it sends the (French) Treasury crowned to the Ashikaga side. Takauji puts on the throne Kōmyō, of the line Jimyoin-to, and begins officially its shogunat with the édiction of the code of law Kemmu.

Nanboku-chō time

Go-Daigo escapes from the capital, the crowned (French) Treasury that it had given to Ashikaga being only counterfeits, and establishes the Court of the South in the mountains of Yoshino, thus beginning the time from the northern and Southern Courses, or time Nanboku-chō, lasting which the dynasties of North with Kyōto and the South with Yoshino face.

Go-Daigo sends imperial prince Kaneyoshi to Kyūshū and Yoshisada Nitta and imperial prince Tsuneyoshi in the Région of Hokuriku, and so on, dispatchant all its wire, closely connected which they can be opposed to the Court North.

In 1339, it dies in Yoshino, one day after having abdicated in favor of his/her son Go-Murakami. Ashikaga Takauji builds the Tenryū-ji in Kyōto for its burial.

Eras of its reign

With eight change of eras, Go-Daigo is with equality with Go-Hanazono for the title of emperor having had the most different eras in only one reign.

• Bumpō

• Gen'ō
• Genkyō
• Shōchū
• Karyaku
• Gentoku
• Genkō
• Kemmu
• Engen

(Court of North)

• Shōkei
• Ryakuō

Rivals of the court of North

• Kōgon
• Kōmyō

Go-Daigo in the fiction

The Go-Daigo emperor appears in the novel uchronic Romanitas of Sophia McDougall.

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