12 Facts About Kitabatake Akiie

Kitabatake Akiie was a Japanese court noble, and an important supporter of the Southern Court during the Nanboku-cho Wars.

Kitabatake Akiie held the posts of Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North, and Governor of Mutsu Province.

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

Nitta and Kitabatake Akiie were aided by warrior monks from Enryakuji, and the temple of Miidera, whose monks supported Ashikaga Takauji, was burned to the ground.

In 1337, despite facing opposition at home in the north, Kitabatake Akiie was ordered by Emperor Go-Daigo to come to the aid of his army to the south of Kyoto.

Kitabatake Akiie led his forces slowly south, fighting the Northern Court in many battles.

Kitabatake Akiie was defeated at the Tone River before pushing south and occupying Kamakura, the capital of the Ashikaga shogunate, and making his way to Nara, fighting at Iga and Sekigahara.

Kitabatake Akiie recouped and pushed through enemy forces at Tennoji, but was eventually defeated and killed at Izumi in 1338 at the age of twenty-one.

Kitabatake Akiie's death is described in the epic Taiheiki and in his father's Jinno Shotoki.

Kitabatake Akiie's kami is enshrined at Ryozen Shrine in Date, Fukushima Prefecture and Abeno Shrine in Osaka, both of which are among the Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration.

The tomb of Kitabatake Akiie is located nearby Abeno Shrine, in Osaka.

Kitabatake Akiie is depicted as a supporting character in Yusei Masui's manga, The Elusive Samurai.