The Retreat at Minatogawa: In 1336, Yoshisada Could Not Save His Sworn Friend Masashige

On the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month of 1336 (Engen 1 / Kenmu 3), at Minatogawa in Settsu Province (present-day Kobe City).

Ashikaga Takauji (this site's id 25), who had rebuilt his army in Kyushu, came up toward Kyoto by land and sea.

Meeting him: Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige (this site's id 16). But the difference in strength was plain.

The two armies, cut apart along the coast, were surrounded piecemeal; Masashige took his own life in a house at Minatogawa, and Yoshisada withdrew his soldiers and fled toward Kyoto.

In the breast of the surviving Yoshisada was carved the regret of not having been able to save his sworn friend.

Though Yoshisada and Takauji had together toppled the Kamakura shogunate, the two broke over the rewards and leadership of the Kenmu Restoration.

In 1335, when Takauji, on the occasion of the Nakasendai Rebellion, showed a move toward independence in the eastern land, Yoshisada was appointed commander of the army to hunt him down.

But he was defeated at Hakone-Takenoshita and thereafter stood on the losing side.

Warriors of the same Minamoto blood who had once ridden side by side now split the realm in two and killed one another.

Yoshisada's war sank, before he knew it, into a mire where great cause and private grudge could no longer be told apart.

When Masashige was isolated and cut down at Minatogawa, Yoshisada's army had already broken and turned to retreat.

In later ages, Yoshisada would be spoken of as 'the man who let Masashige die.' But in truth it is closer to reality that both armies were defeated piecemeal by Takauji's great host.

Even so, the contrast — the wise and valiant loyal subject Masashige dead, and the Yoshisada judged a mediocre general surviving — gave people of later ages fine material to disparage him.

Yoshisada himself carried the pain of losing his sworn friend for the rest of his life.

No longer able to hold Kyoto, Yoshisada withdrew to Mt. Hiei bearing Emperor Go-Daigo.

Before long, as Go-Daigo made peace with Takauji, Yoshisada was left behind. The man who had kept fighting for the emperor was about to be abandoned by that emperor.

Yoshisada chose the road down to the Hokuriku, bearing an imperial prince. Only three years after taking Kamakura, the hero who had stood at the summit of glory was now tumbling down the slope of his setting sun.