the south simultaneously. Then Kusunoki Masanori passed into the
Northern camp. Few events have received wider historical comment in
Japan. The Kusunoki family stood for everything loyal and devoted in
the bushi's record, and Masanori was a worthy chief of the sept. So
conspicuous were his virtues and so attractive was his personality
that a samurai of the Akamatsu family, who had planned a vendetta
against him, committed suicide himself rather than raise his hand to
slay such a hero.

How, then, are we to account for Masanori's infidelity to the cause
he had embraced? The answer of his country's most credible annalists
is that his motive was to save the Southern Court. He saw that if the
young Emperor. Chokei, persisted in his design of a general campaign
against Kyoto, a crushing defeat must be the outcome, and since the
sovereign would not pay heed to his remonstrances, he concluded that
the only way to arrest the mad enterprise was his own defection,
which would weaken the South too much to permit offensive action.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was then shogun at Muromachi. He had succeeded to
that office in 1367, at the age of nine, and his father, then within
a year of death, had entrusted him to the care of Hosokawa Yoriyuki,
one of the ablest men of his own or any generation. There are strong
reasons for thinking that between this statesman and Masanori an
understanding existed. So long as Yoriyuki remained in power there
was nothing worthy of the name of war between the two Courts, and
when, after his retirement in 1379, the struggle re-opened under the
direction of his successor (a Yamana chief), Masanori returned to his
old allegiance and took the field once more in the Southern cause.
His action in temporarily changing his allegiance had given ten
years' respite to the Southerners.

PEACE BETWEEN THE TWO COURTS

The Southern Emperor, Chokei, coming to the throne in 1368, abdicated
in 1372 in favour of his brother, known in history as Go-Kameyama.
During his brief tenure of power Chokei's extensive plans for the
capture of Kyoto did not mature, but he had the satisfaction of
seeing the whole island of Kyushu wrested from Ashikaga hands. It is
true that under the able administration of Imagawa Sadayo (Ryoshun),
a tandai appointed by the Ashikaga, this state of affairs was largely
remedied during the next ten years, but as the last substantial
triumph of the Yoshino arms the record of Chokei's reign is
memorable. It