Tennō Go-Daigo was the ninety-sixth sovereign, he reigned from 1318 to 1339.
Background
Tennō Go-Daigo was born on 26th November 1288 in Kyoto. He was the second son of Emperor Gouda; his personal name was Takaharu. It was the custom to choose the rulers alternately from two rival branches of the imperial family known respectively as the Daikaku-ji line and the Jimyo-in line. Godaigo belonged to the former.
Career
When he first came to the throne, power was still in the hands of the insei (cloistered government) of his father, Retired Emperor Gouda, but from 1321 on Godaigo was able to rule in person. He selected such talented officials as Yoshida Sadafusa, Kitabatake Chikafusa, Hino Suketomo, and Hino Toshimoto to assist him.
Perceiving that the military clans were beginning to lose faith in the power of the Kamakura shogunate, he laid plans to overthrow the shogunate and restore power to the throne, but twice, in the Shochu disturbance of 1324 and the Genko disturbance of 1331, his plans were discovered. In 1331 his headquarters at Mt. Kasagi was attacked by the shogunate forces and he was taken captive. The following year he was exiled to the island of Oki.
In 1335 Ashikaga Takauji, raised the standard of revolt in eastern Japan, and after only two years of existence the Kemmu Restoration government was overthrown. In 1336 Kusunoki Masashige and other important military supporters of Godaigo’s cause were killed in battle, and Godaigo fled south to Mt. Yoshino in Yamato. Ashikaga Takauji thereupon set up a new ruler, Emperor Komyo of the Jimyo-in line of succession.
Godaigo retained possession of the imperial regalia and continued to proclaim himself the legitimate sovereign, establishing what was known as the Southern Court at his headquarters at Mt. Yoshino. But with the death in battle of his supporters Kitabatake Akiie and Nitta Yoshisada in 1338, his military power waned and he faced growing disappointment and loneliness.
After abdicating in favor of his son, Emperor Gomurakami, he died in 1339 in his palace on Mt. Yoshino. He was buried on the mountain and, at his own request, was given the posthumous name Godaigo; this last symbolizes the respect that he held for the great Heian period ruler Emperor Daigo (8.98-930) and his own fervant hopes of imitating Daigo’s example.