Kusunoki Masashige was a warrior of the late Kamakura and Nanboku-cho periods. Based in Kawachi Province (today’s Osaka Prefecture), he raised an army in response to Emperor Go-Daigo’s call to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate. His defense of Akasaka and Chihaya castles, holding off the shogunate’s huge armies with few troops, made him legendary as a brilliant strategist.
In the war chronicle Taiheiki, Masashige reads Prince Shotoku’s Miraiki at Shitennoji Temple and finds words prophesying Go-Daigo’s victory and the fall of the shogunate. He died in 1336 fighting the army of Ashikaga Takauji at the Battle of Minatogawa.
