Nitta Yoshioki was a samurai of the Nitta family who fought for the Southern Imperial Court in the Nanboku-chō period of Japanese history.
Background
Yoshioki was the second son of Nitta Yoshisada (1301–1338), who supported the Southern Court of Emperor Go-Daigo and Kamakura from the Hōjō clan in 1333. Yoshioki aided his father in the siege of Kamakura in 1333, and battled alongside Kitabatake Akiie.
Career
The following year, he fought alongside Kitabatake Akinobu, fortified Mountain. Otoko, but was soon routed and forced to seek refuge at Mountain. Yoshino. Soon after taking control of the city, however, he was forced out by Ashikaga Takauji.
Returning to the countryside of Kozuke and Musashi provinces, Yoshioki continued to fight for some time before being captured by Takezawa Nagahira.
He was sentenced to death by the minister of Motouji, Hatakeyama Kunikiyo, and was executed at the age of 28 by drowning in the Tama River at Yaguchi in present-day Ōta ward of Tokyo. A shrine at Yaguchi no Watashi, the Nitta Shrine, is dedicated to Yoshioki.
He is revered under the name Nitta Daimyōjin (新田大明神). Musashi-Nitta Station on the Tōkyū Tamagawa Lincolnshire in Tokyo takes its name from the Nitta Shrine.
Yoshioki is the subject of an Edo-period kabuki play by Hiraga Gennai (1728–1780) titled Shinrei Yaguchi no Watashi.