#88
88. ASHIKAGA TADAYOSHI'S CALL UPON TERAO SHIGEHIRO TO
                 ARMED SERVICE, 1343

          (Terao docs. ; also KK, VIII; SK, XV; Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, vii, 613.)
IN 1339 died the unfortunate emperor Go-Daigo at his self-exiled abode on Mt. Yoshino, and was
succeeded by his son, Go-Murakami. Having already lost in battle many of its able warriors and
most of its strategic points on the main island, the position of the Southern Court had become
almost precarious. It would hereafter have to depend for any possible success in regaining the
throne at Kyoto, not so much upon sheer military strength, as upon an internal division of the
enemy and its own resourcefulness to take advantage of it. In this state of things, all the more
was expected of the unsettled conditions of affairs in the distant Kyu-shu. It is true that the com-
munication between the island and Yoshino had been severed, but the few barons there who were
loyally upholding Prince Kanenaga after his arrival in 1340 might yet gain an ascendency over
their rivals by winning over some to their side and defeating others; then the Ashikaga sho-gun
would be compelled to bend his energy to the task of reducing a great island so far away from his
base, and during his absence much might take place and be accomplished in other parts of Japan.
  In southern Kyu-shu, the two great champions of the sho-gun were: Shimadzu Sadahisa, the
shu-go, in Satsuma, and Hatakeyama Nao-aki (the later name of Yoshi-aki already mentioned),
the deputy of Takauji and new shu-go of Hiuga, in the latter province. Hatakeyama's chief oppo-
nent had been Kimotsuki Kaneshige, whom he, at last in 1339, dislodged from his stronghold at
Taka-zho in Mimata (see Nos. 84 and 85). Then the latter joined other supporters of the Southern
side at Kagoshima, in Satsuma. This was a great point of vantage: it embraced a splendid harbor
sheltered by the volcanic island Sakura-zhima; at this point converged the main routes by sea and
by land that connected it with the greater part of the three kuni and beyond; within its striking
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distance lay another strategic site, the capital of Osumi; and at the same time Kagoshima was
protected on the east and north by a series fo hills easy to defend but difficult to take. Here, in
1340, the Shimadzu lord succeeded in reducing some of the fortresses held by the enemy, and so
for the first time gained a foothold upon the ground which has since become the seat of his family.
Before his control of the point was secured, however, things took a sudden turn which made the
difficulty of his general position in Satsuma immensely greater.
   Prince Kanenaga, who had been invested by the late emperor Go-Daigo, his father, with
plenary powers to direct affairs in Kyu-shu,1 arrived in Higo in the spring of 1340. After two
years of arduous labor in central Kyu-shu, with the loyal aid rendered by he Kikuchi and the
Aso, the Prince left for Satsuma, with a view to strengthening the Southern cause there by personal
presence. Landing at an unnamed point in south Satsuma on 4 June 1342,2 he at once established
his quarters at Taniyama, some seven miles southwest of Kagoshima. Immediately men of great
warrior families of the kuni offered him their service, and several defenses of the enemy to the
north and west of Kagoshima were taken; hand-to-hand encounters took place between Taniyama
and Kagoshima. Shimadzu Sadahisa left Kagoshima and, probably going over Iriki Mts. through
the Tsusedo pass, fled to Sendai, near Ikari-yama; and there issued orders to the ji-to and go ke-
nin of Satsuma to join in his expedition to Taniyama. The response was scant and tardy.3After
an undecisive assault on the fortress of the Prince in early September 1342,4 Sadahisa abandoned
for a time his hope of reducing it, and turned his attention elsewhere.
   Some of the Shibuya had aided the enemy of the Shimadzu in south Satsuma (see NO. 85), and
Sadahisa had sent his heir Munehisa to chastize them, but he accidentally fell from his horse and
died at Kuma-no-zho early in 1340.5 Among the men who secretly pledged their allegiance to the
Prince on his arrival in Satsuma were the Togo.6 It is not known whether the Iriki-in and the
Terao still remained on the Southern side and were among those Shibuya men who are said to
have been with the Prince at Taniyama.7 The following document shows, however, that the sho-
gun called upon Terao Shigehiro, as he did others by similar orders, to serve under the direction
of the shu-go.

     "It is hereby [commanded] that you shall come to our side and render loyal
[service] in war.
  "Ko-ei 2 y. 4 m. 12 d. [6 May 1343].      (Ashikaga Tadayoshi's8 monogram. )
   "Shibuya Mago-zhiro9 dono. "


1Gojo docs. , I, in Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, v, 589. 2Two letters to the Aso from an unknown follower of the prince, in the Aso docs. ; Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, vii, 151. 3See Sadahisa's letter to a Shigehisa, 8 m. 1 d. (1 Sep. 1342); SK, XV 4Letters to Era Korezumi, 7 m. 18 d. ; Aso docs. , I, and Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, vii, 216; x, 711. 5Sei-han ya-shi, iii, 44; Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, vi, 26. 6Letter to Uji Koretoki from a follower of the prince, 7 m. 22 d. ; Aso docs. , VII. 7Shimadzu kun-ko ki, I, quoted in Dai Ni-hon shi-ryo, VI, vii, 292-295; no document is cited. 8Takauji's younger brother, writing in behalf of the sho-gun. 9Terao Shigehiro.