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#123
   123.  RYO-SHUN'S COMMENDATION OF A KIYOSHIKI, 1394

                           (Iriki-in docs.; also KK,II.)
THE Southern Court, having for a long time been cut off from Kyu-shu and gradually lost other
bases of support, finally, on 16 December 1392, after fifty-seven years of separation from Kyoto,
capitulated almost unconditionally to the Northern Court, and the imperial house was again united.
In Kyu-shu, also, when Prince Kanenaga died about 1383, his influence, which had once
swayed
the greater part of the island, had been much reduced by Imagawa Ryo-Shun. When the fusion of
the two Courts was effected nine years later, however, Ryo-Shun had achieved but little toward the
accomplishment of his second great aim, namely, the reduction of the great military families of
Kyu-shu; in some respects, he had by his conduct made the more difficult the task which would
at any event have been formidable. With the Northern party triumphant, therefore, the tan-dai
found himself still involved in a bitter, hopeless struggle with the Shimadzu, from which he hardly
knew how to extricate himself. The war in south Kyu-shu had for some time ceased to be one be-
tween truly loyal champions of the rival Courts; now it was largely a personal strife waged be-
tween Ryo-Shun and the Shimadzu.
  The Iriki-in apparently continued to support Ryo-Shun. The war at Yamato, in northwestern
Satsuma, to which the following document refers, receives no mention elsewhere; the Mino no kami
is probably Shigetsugu, known as Mino Goro Saemon no zho, the younger brother of Iriki-in
Shigekado.
P282
    "I HAVE heard with particular gratification that, at the battle at the fortress of
Yamato, on the 5th day of this month [5 May], you personally fought with the
sword, and killed rebels. On my going to Kyoto, this will be reported [to the sho-gun].
Stated thus.
  "Mei-toku 5 y. 4 m. 25 d. [25 May 1394].     Shami, (Ryo-Shun's monogram).
     "Kiyoshiki Mino no kami dono."