A report on Nanboku-chō period and Emperor Go-Daigo

The Southern Court (南朝) were a set of four emperors (Emperor Go-Daigo and his line) whose claims to sovereignty during the Nanboku-chō period spanning from 1336 through 1392 were usurped by the Northern Court.

After becoming increasingly disillusioned with the Kamakura shogunate over time, Takauji joined the banished Emperor Go-Daigo and Kusunoki Masashige, and seized Kyoto.

Emperor Kōmyō of the illegitimate Northern Court (see below) was installed as emperor by Takauji in opposition to the exiled Southern Court, beginning the turbulent Northern and Southern Court period (Nanbokuchō), which saw two emperors fight each other and which would last for almost 60 years.

The Northern Court (北朝), also known as the Ashikaga Pretenders or Northern Pretenders, were a set of six pretenders to the throne of Japan during the Nanboku-chō period from 1336 through 1392.

In 1333, when the Southern Emperor Go-Daigo staged the Kenmu Restoration and revolted against the Hōjō Kamakura shogunate, the newly minted shōgun Ashikaga Takauji (ironically, by Emperor Go-Daigo himself) responded by declaring Emperor Kōgon, Go-Daigo's second cousin once removed and the son of an earlier emperor, Emperor Go-Fushimi of the Jimyōin-tō, as the new emperor.

The Ashikaga shogunate was established when Ashikaga Takauji was appointed Shōgun after overthrowing the Kenmu Restoration shortly after having overthrown the Kamakura shogunate in support of Emperor Go-Daigo.

The Ashikaga shogunate began the Nanboku-chō period between the Pro-Ashikaga Northern Court in Kyoto and the Pro-Go-Daigo Southern Court in Yoshino until the South conceded to the North in 1392.

The Kenmu Restoration was an effort made by Emperor Go-Daigo to overthrow the ruling Kamakura Shogunate and restore the Imperial House to power in Japan, returning to civilian government after 148 years of de facto military government from Kamakura.

The Kenmu Restoration was ultimately overthrown when Takauji became Shōgun and founded the Ashikaga Shogunate in 1336, beginning the "Northern and Southern Courts" period and the Muromachi period.

Determined to restore power to the Imperial Court, in 1331 Emperor Go-Daigo tried to overthrow the shogunate.

For the first fifty years of the Shogunate the Ashikaga were unable to assert power over the entire country, as the descendants of Go-Daigo formed a rival court challenging their authority in the Nanboku-chō period.

Emperor Kōgon (光厳天皇) was the first of the Emperors of Northern Court during the Period of the Northern and Southern Courts in Japan.

Empress: Imperial Princess Yoshiko (懽子内親王) later Senseimon-in (宣政門院), Emperor Go-Daigo’s daughter

Emperor Go-Murakami (後村上天皇) (1328 – March 29, 1368) was the 97th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, and a member of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō period of rival courts.

When Emperor Go-Daigo began his Kenmu Restoration, the still very young prince, along with Kitabatake Akiie, in 1333 went to Tagajō in what is now Miyagi Prefecture, at the time Mutsu Province, to return the eastern samurai to their allegiance and destroy the remnants of the Hōjō clan.

Kitabatake Akiie (北畠 顕家) was a Japanese court noble, and an important supporter of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chō Wars.

In 1333, Akiie was ordered to accompany the six-year-old eighth son of Emperor Go-Daigo, Prince Norinaga (also read as Noriyoshi), to Mutsu, where the Prince became Governor-General of Mutsu and Dewa.