Emperor Go-Daigo

Emperor Go-Daigo
後醍醐天皇
Emperor of Japan
Reign29 March 1318 – 18 September 1339
Enthronement30 April 1318
PredecessorHanazono
SuccessorGo-Murakami
Kōgon (pretender)
ShōgunPrince Morikuni
Prince Moriyoshi
Prince Narinaga
Ashikaga Takauji
Born26 November 1288
Heian-kyō, Kamakura shogunate
Died19 September 1339(1339-09-19) (aged 50)
Yoshino no Angū (Nara), Ashikaga shogunate
Burial
Tō-no-o no misasagi (塔尾陵) (Nara)
SpouseSaionji Kishi
Junshi
Issue
among others...
Posthumous name
Tsuigō:
Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐院 or 後醍醐天皇)
HouseImperial House of Japan
FatherEmperor Go-Uda
MotherFujiwara no Chūshi
Signature

Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 Go-Daigo-tennō) (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan,[1] according to the traditional order of succession.[2] He successfully overthrew the Kamakura shogunate in 1333 and established the short-lived Kenmu Restoration to bring the Imperial House back into power. This was to be the last time the emperor had real power until the Meiji Restoration in 1868.[3] The Kenmu restoration was in turn overthrown by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, ushering in the Ashikaga shogunate. The overthrow split the imperial family into two opposing factions between the Ashikaga backed Northern Court situated in Kyoto and the Southern Court based in Yoshino. The Southern Court was led by Go-Daigo and his later successors.

This 14th-century sovereign personally chose his posthumous name after the 9th-century Emperor Daigo and go- (後), translates as "later", and he is thus sometimes called the "Later Emperor Daigo", or, in some older sources, "Daigo, the second" or as "Daigo II".

  1. ^ Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō): 後醍醐天皇 (96); retrieved 2013-8-28.
  2. ^ Ponsonby-Fane, Richard. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan, p. 95.
  3. ^ Sansom 1977: 22–42.