Kenmu Restoration and Nanboku-chō Wars

The Kenmu Restoration and Nanboku-chō Wars began with Emperor Go-Daigo’s campaigns against the Kamakura shogunate. The Genkō War and the defection of leading warriors brought Hōjō rule to an end in 1333, allowing Go-Daigo to attempt a restoration of direct imperial government.

The settlement quickly fractured. Ashikaga Takauji broke with Go-Daigo, established a rival court in Kyoto and became shogun, while the emperor created a Southern Court at Yoshino. Commanders including Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada fought through a conflict in which court legitimacy, warrior landholding and regional power were inseparable.

The period is central to The Taiheiki, which turns the fall of Kamakura, the brief Kenmu Restoration and the early Northern and Southern Courts into a large-scale warrior epic. It supports historical fiction and classical literature about divided sovereignty, samurai loyalty, sieges, imperial ambition and the formation of the Ashikaga shogunate.