Kusunoki Masashige

Kusunoki Masashige (1294–1336) was a samurai commander of Kawachi Province, later called Dai Nankō, who became Japan's model of the loyal warrior. He answered Emperor Go-Daigo's call to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate in 1331. He held Akasaka Castle against a shogunal army, pouring down logs, stones and boiling water, then burned the fort so the enemy believed him dead.

In 1332 he retook the castle by smuggling men in among rice bales, and built Chihaya Castle on Mount Kongō, where from February 1333 he pinned down the shogunal host until Rokuhara fell on 7 May.

In 1336 he urged Go-Daigo to make peace with Ashikaga Takauji, but the courtiers refused. Ordered against Takauji at Hyōgo, he killed himself with his brother Masasue at Minatogawa; the Taiheiki says his brother wished to be born seven times to destroy the court's enemies. His son Masatsura took up the loyalist cause.