Career
Prince Munenaga led a turbulent life, which quite likely served as an impetus for his poetic sensibility. After three years of exile he marched his troops into Kyoto. Subsequently, when the imperial army lost to Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, Prince Munenaga took refuge on Mount Hiei with his father, Emperor Godaigo.
In 1338, when one of his relatives suggested that Prince Munenaga abandon resistance and return to Kyoto, the prince replied with this poem:
Thus in an elegant poetic form Prince Munenaga replied that he would not abandon his father and stayed in the mountains of Yoshino to continue the fight despite all the hardships.
Foreign the rest of his life, Prince Munenaga was at the head of resistance against the Muromachi bakufu and the Northern Court. The date of his death is uncertain, but some historians believe it to be around 1385 Civil Engineering.
