The Story of the Japanese 01233 [The Very End of the Northern and Southern Courts Period] The Unification of Meitoku*
The Northern and Southern Courts are finally unified. It has been a long time, hasn't it? Yoshimitsu surely would have wanted to entrust this great undertaking to Yoriyuki Hosokawa himself. It must have been a regret for Yoriyuki to pass away without seeing the unification of the Northern and Southern Courts.
On March 2, the 9th year of Genchu/3rd year of Meitoku (1392), after witnessing the destruction of the main branch of the most powerful shugo, the Yamana family, and dealing a major blow to his political rivals, the Shiba faction, Yoriyuki Hosokawa passed away from illness at the age of 63. Around this time, Yoriyuki had been in charge of peace negotiations with the Southern Court under Yoshimitsu's orders, but that task was taken over by Yoshihiro Ouchi, who had newly become the shugo of Izumi and Kii.
For Yoshimitsu, unifying the Northern and Southern Courts was a great undertaking inherited from the days of his grandfather and father. In the first place, the reason peace could not easily be made with the Southern Court was that shugo who had fallen from power within the shogunate would one day after another surrender to the Southern Court, and each time they did, the Southern Court, which was on the verge of collapse, would be revived.
This time, too, the Southern Court had bestowed the brocade imperial banner upon Ujikiyo and Mitsuyuki Yamana, but with the defeat of the Yamana, their last resort was gone. The Southern Court must have finally given up and been mentally prepared to surrender.
On October 13, Yoshimitsu presented three conditions for unification to the Southern Court through Yoshihiro Ouchi.
1. Emperor Gokameyama of the Southern Court shall hand over the Imperial Regalia to Emperor Gokomatsu of the Northern Court and perform the 'ceremony of abdication'.
Since the Southern Court held the genuine Three Sacred Treasures, this meant acknowledging that the legitimate emperors had been on the Southern Court side until now. It is unclear whether they held the genuine treasures from the moment Emperor Godaigo fled to Yoshino, or if the genuine treasures were transferred to the Southern Court when Retired Emperor Kogon and Emperor Suko were abducted by the Southern Court during the Fourth Battle of Kyoto, but in any case, it meant that the Southern Court was legitimate at that time.
2. Regarding imperial succession, the two lineages shall alternate in the future.
This meant returning to the situation in the late Kamakura period, where the Jimyoin-to and Daikakuji-to lineages ascended the throne alternately.
3. Imperial estates shall belong to the Northern Court, and provincial government estates shall belong to the Southern Court.
In other words, the estates belonging to the Imperial Court were to be divided into two, to be shared between the Jimyoin-to and Daikakuji-to lineages.
At a glance, this was not a bad deal for the Southern Court. Although the Northern Court (Jimyoin-to) would occupy the throne for the time being, the Southern Court (Daikakuji-to) would be able to ascend the throne afterward, and above all, they would also receive a share of the estates.
Furthermore, there is no record of whether these conditions were consulted in advance with the imperial family and court nobles of the Northern Court. I would think that conditions such as alternating imperial succession would require the prior consent of the Northern Court emperor, but there is no trace of such matters being discussed.
The Southern Court held a council on October 15 and decided to accept this 'unification'. This is called the 'Unification of Meitoku'. Emperor Gokameyama and the rest of the Southern Court had no way of knowing yet that these conditions would be almost entirely reneged upon.
