Background
Tenno Go-Murakami was born in 1328. He was the son of Emperor Godaigo; his personal name was Yoshinaga.
後村上天皇
Tenno Go-Murakami was born in 1328. He was the son of Emperor Godaigo; his personal name was Yoshinaga.
Growing up in the troubled times of the Northern and Southern Courts, he lived from childhood in an atmosphere of martial readiness and spent his adult years attempting to regain control of the capital and the government. In 1334, when his father was ruling in Kyoto, he was appointed protector of the region of far northern Honshu, though he was only six at the time; Kitabatake Akiie, the eldest son of Kitabatake Chikafusa, was assigned to serve him. When Ashikaga Takauji rebelled against the authority of the court, the prince went to Kyoto in 1335 and again in 1337 with the aim of attacking Takauji. He was eventually defeated, however, and forced to retreat to Yoshino, where his father resided as sovereign of the Southern Court.
In 1339 he set out for eastern Japan accompanied by Kitabatake Chikafusa. While at sea, he encountered a violent storm and was forced to return to Ise. He returned to Yoshino and the same year was declared heir apparent. With the death of Emperor Godaigo shortly after, he ascended the throne, continuing, like his father, to reside at Yoshino. He made several attempts to regain control of Kyoto, but by this time the military power of the Southern Court had waned, and all his efforts were unsuccessful. When the forces of the Northern Court launched an attack on his residence at Yoshino, he was forced to move about to Ano, to Sumiyoshi, and to the Kanshin-ji temple in Kawachi. He died in temporary quarters at Sumiyoshi in 1368 at the age of forty.
He was a distinguished poet, one hundred of his poems being included in the imperial anthology entitled Shin’yo wakashu.