retaining the genuine articles himself. Takatoki
now issued orders for Go-Daigo to be removed to the island of Oki,
sent all the members of his family into exile elsewhere, and banished
or killed his principal supporters.

RAISING OF A LOYAL ARMY

Kusunoki Masashige had but five hundred men under his command when he
entrenched himself at Akasaka. There for twenty days he held out
against the attacks of the greatly superior Hojo forces, until
finally, no help arriving and his provisions being exhausted, he
would have committed suicide had he not realized that his life
belonged to the Imperial cause. He contrived to escape through the
enemy's lines, and thus the only organized loyal force that remained
in the field was that operating in Bingo under the command of
Sakurayama Koretoshi. Thither a false rumour of Masashige's death
having been carried, Koretoshi's troops dispersed and he himself
committed suicide. Kojima Takanori, too, commonly known as Bingo no
Saburo, was about to raise the banner of loyalty when the false news
of Masashige's death reached him. This Takanori is the hero of an
incident which appeals strongly to the Japanese love of the romantic.
Learning that the Emperor was being transported into exile in the
island of Oki, and having essayed to rescue him en route, he made his
way during the night into the enclosure of the inn where the Imperial
party had halted, and having scraped off part of the bark of a cherry
tree, he inscribed on the trunk the couplet:

Heaven destroy not Kou Chien,
He is not without a Fan Li.

This alluded to an old-time Chinese king (Kou Chien) who, after
twenty years of exile, was restored to power by the efforts of a
vassal (Fan Li). The Emperor's guards, being too illiterate to
comprehend the reference, showed the writing to Go-Daigo, who thus
learned that friends were at hand. But Takanori could not accomplish
anything more, and for a season the fortunes of the Throne were at a
very low ebb, while at Kamakura the regent resumed his life of
debauchery. Neither Prince Morinaga nor Masashige was idle, however.
By skilful co-operation they recovered the entrenchments at Akasaka
and overran the two provinces of Izumi and Kawachi, gaining many
adherents. The fall of 1332 saw Masashige strongly posted at the
Chihaya fortress on Kongo Mountain; his lieutenants holding Akasaka;
Prince Morinaga in possession of Yoshino Castle, and Akamatsu
Norimura of Harima blocking the two