THE MILITARY EPOCH
followers, fled northward, taking with him the young prince. Attacked among the snows of Echizen by a greatly superior force, he barely escaped to Kanasaki castle, whither Takauji sent a powerful army to attack him by land and by sea. The nation looked to see Yoshisada surrender at discretion. But such a thought does not seem to have occurred to him. He resisted all assaults successfully until a chance arrow killed him. His end was less glorious though not less honourable than that of his comrade and peer, the grandly loyal soldier, Kusunoki Masashige.
Meanwhile in Kyōtō the Emperor's attempt to recover a semblance of power by submission to the Ashikaga, failed. Takauji trusted neither him nor his followers, but treated them as prisoners, until the Emperor, taking heart from some symptoms of provincial support, fled to the monastery of Yoshino. This took place in 1337, and from that time, during a space of fifty-five years, two sovereigns reigned simultaneously, Yoshino being called the Court of the Southern Dynasty, Kyōtō that of the Northern. Those fifty-five years were an epoch of almost incessant fighting. The Emperor Godaigo died at Yoshino with his sword grasped in his hand. His people class him with Tenchi and Kwammu as one of Japan's greatest sovereigns. Yet it is doubtful whether the same credit would be accorded to him had he occupied a less exalted station.
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