During the Meiji period, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911 established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants of Emperor Go-Daigo through Emperor Go-Murakami, whose Southern Court (南朝, nanchō) had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara.[3]
Until the end of the Edo period, the militarily superior pretender-Emperors supported by the Ashikaga shogunate had been mistakenly incorporated in Imperial chronologies despite the undisputed fact that the Imperial Regalia were not in their possession.[3]
1350 (Shōhei 5): Tadayoshi, excluded from administration, turns priest;[5] Tadayoshi's adopted son, Ashikaga Tadafuyu is wrongly repudiated as a rebel.[7]
1351 (Shōhei 6): Tadayoshi joins Southern Court, southern army takes Kyoto; truce, Takauji returns to Kyoto; Tadayoshi and Takauji reconciled; Kō no Moronao and Kō no Moroyasu are exiled.[5]
1350–1352 ((Shōhei 5–Shōhei 7): Armed conflict, variously known as the Kannō disturbance or Kannō incident (觀廣擾亂, Kannō Jōran) or Kannō no juran, developed from antagonism between Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji and his brother, Ashikaga Tadayoshi. Disagreement about the influence of Kō no Moronao diminished after death of Moronao. Tadayoshi was ordered to relocate to Kamakura. The brothers eventually reconciled before Tadayoshi's death in 1352.[8]
1352 (Shōhei 7): The grandfather of the emperor is advanced from the rank of dainagon to nadaijin.[9]
1353 (Shōhei 8): Kyoto occupied by southern forces under Yamana Tokiuji; and the capital was retaken by the Ashikaga.[5]
1355 (Shōhei 10): Kyoto taken by southern army; Kyoto retaken again by the Ashikaga forces.[5]
1356 (Shōhei 11): Minamoto no Michisuke was advanced from the court rank of dainagon to nadaijin.[10]
1356Shōhei 11): Ashikaga Yoshinori is raised to the second rank of the third class in the court hierarchy.[11]
1357 (Shōhei 12): Emperor Go-Murakami, who had captured former-Emperor Kōgon, former-Emperor Kōmyō and former-Emperor Sukō in 1352, released all three of them and permitted their return from Yoshino to Kyoto.[11]
^Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Nengō" in Japan encyclopedia, p. 880; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File Archived 2012-05-24 at archive.today.
^Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du japon, pp. 310-327.
^ a b cThomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). Reconfiguring modernity: concepts of nature in Japanese political ideology, p. 199 n57, citing Mehl, Margaret. (1997). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. pp. 140-147.
^ a bTitsingh, p. 297.
^ a b c d e fAckroyd, Joyce. (1982) Lessons from History: the Tokushi Yoron, p.329.
^Titsingh, p. 299.
^Historiographical Institute: "Ashikaga Tadafuyu's Call to Arms," Dai Nihon shi-ryō, VI, xiv, 43.
^Nussbaum, p. 474.
^Titsingh, p. 302.
^Titsingh, p. 303; n.b., Minamoto no Michisuke (源通相, 1326-1371) of the Koga family (久我家) will rise to become daijō daijin in 1366-1368.
^ a bTitsingh, p. 303.
^Titsingh, p. 304.
^ a bAckroyd, p.329.
^Titsingh, p. 305.
^Eigen-ji, Joint Council for Japanese Rinzai and Obaku Zen, "head temples;" Dumoulin, Heinrich. (2005). Zen Buddhism: A History, p. 205.