Siege of Kasagi

The 1331 siege of Kasagi was among the first battles of the Genkō War, which brought an end to Japan's Kamakura period. Emperor Go-Daigo, who had been plotting against the shogunate and the Hōjō clan regents, had hidden the Japanese imperial regalia in Kasagi-dera, a fortified Buddhist temple, atop Kasagiyama, just outside Kyoto, and was secretly raising an army from there.

The temple was raided in the night by Hōjō forces under Suyama Yoshitaka and Komiyama Jirō, who climbed the cliffs surrounding the fortress, and set it aflame. The Emperor, however, escaped and fled.

The temple was rebuilt in 1381, and destroyed by fire again less than twenty years later. Today, only a few buildings remain.

Woodblock print triptych by Ogata Gekkō. Emperor Go-Daigo dreams of ghosts at Kasagiyama

Outline of the Genkō War (1331-1333)

HISTORIC BATTLES

Genkō War (1331-1333)

Genkō War was a civil war in Japan which marked the fall of the Kamakura shogunate and end of the power of the Hōjō clan. The war thus preceded the Nanboku-chō period and the rise of the Ashikaga shogunate. Genkō is the name of the Japanese era corresponding to the period 1331-1334. View Historic Battle »

Siege of Kasagi: The temple was raided in the night by Hōjō forces under Suyama Yoshitaka and Komiyama Jirō, who climbed the cliffs surrounding the fortress, and set it aflame. The Emperor, however, escaped and fled.

Siege of Akasaka: The Siege of Akasaka was one of the earlier battles of the Genkō War between the figurehead Emperor Godaigo and the largely Hōjō controlled Kamakura shogunate during the final years of the Kamakura period in Japan.

Siege of Chihaya: Successfully defended the following year, by the Imperial forces led by Kusunoki Masashige. It would eventually fall to the Ashikaga shogunate in 1390.

Battle of Bubaigawara: It was fought on the banks of the Tama River in central Musashi province in what is now part of the city of Fuchū, Tokyo on May 15 and 16, 1333, it pitted the anti-shogunate imperial forces led by Nitta Yoshisada against the forces of the Hōjō-led Kamakura shogunate.

Siege of Kamakura: Forces loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo and led by Nitta Yoshisada entered the city from multiple directions and destroyed it; in the end, the Hōjō leaders retreated to Tōshō-ji, the Hōjō family temple, where they committed suicide with the rest of the clan.

HISTORY

Genkō War (1331-1333)

Genkō War was a civil war in Japan which marked the fall of the Kamakura shogunate and end of the power of the Hōjō clan. The war thus preceded the Nanboku-chō period and the rise of the Ashikaga shogunate. Genkō is the name of the Japanese era corresponding to the period 1331-1334.