Kikuchi Takemitsu

Kikuchi Takemitsu (c. 1321–1373) became the fifteenth head of the Kikuchi clan of Higo after displacing his ineffective brother Takehito. As the leading Southern Court general in Kyushu serving Prince Kanenaga, he defeated the tandai Isshiki Noriuji at Harisuruhara in 1353, crushed the Shōni at the Chikugo River in 1359 and occupied Dazaifu in 1361.

His eastward campaign of 1368 was blocked near Shimonoseki by the Ōuchi, and in 1372 the new tandai Imagawa Sadayo stormed Dazaifu. Takemitsu withdrew with the prince to Kōra-san in Chikugo and died in 1373.