Stories of the Japanese People 01235 [End of the Northern and Southern Courts Period] How to View the Northern and Southern Courts Period

I have written about the Northern and Southern Courts period in seven chapters, but here I would also like to introduce "how the Northern and Southern Courts period was discussed within the pre-war Imperial State historical view."
As I have already mentioned, during the Empire of Japan, the Southern Court was considered legitimate, and Ashikaga Takauji was regarded as a villain. Because the term "Northern and Southern Courts" treats the Southern and Northern Courts as equal, it was once taught under the name "Yoshino Period."
There is a historian named Kiyoshi Hiraizumi who played a major role in forming the so-called "Imperial State historical view" during the Empire of Japan. In "The Story of Japanese History," which Hiraizumi wrote for children, he devotes 4 chapters and 38 pages to the "Yoshino Period," while only 1 chapter and 11 pages are devoted to the "Muromachi Period." Hiraizumi explains the reason for this as follows.
"The Yoshino period was a time of suffering and sadness. However, within that suffering and sadness, there was a beautiful radiance of spirit. The morality of the nation of Japan was demonstrated in that hardship, and it would eventually awaken the conscience of later generations. In contrast, the 182 years of the Muromachi period were a series of disturbances, and those disturbances originated from self-interest and greed, lacking ideals and forgetting morality. (Omitted) Therefore, even though the Yoshino period was a short period of only 57 years, its contribution to our country's history is extremely significant, and the abundance of things to describe is solely because the loyalty of the lords and vassals of Yoshino vied with the sun and moon in brightness, and the Ashikaga master and servants merely acted in opposition to this. Therefore, the Muromachi period, in which the loyalty of Yoshino faded away lonely and the world was painted only in the single color of Ashikaga, has nothing of value to talk about, even if it lasted 182 years, which is more than three times the length of the Yoshino period."
It is a terrible way of speaking, but those of you who have read this article should be able to refute it sufficiently.
First of all, the Northern and Southern Courts period began because Emperor Go-Daigo sought his own self-interest in wanting to monopolize the imperial throne for his descendants, despite the agreement that the Jimyoin-to and Daikakuji-to would ascend the throne alternately. In order to remain on the imperial throne, he even deceived his allies, such as Nitta Yoshisada, and his own children without hesitation (see 00890), and this attitude, which lacks virtue, is criticized within the Southern Court in the great speech by Horiguchi Sadamitsu (see 00888) and the memorial by Kitabatake Akiie (see 00924). Furthermore, the story that "the real Three Sacred Treasures were held by Emperor Go-Daigo," which is the basis for the theory of the legitimacy of the Southern Court, is also highly likely to be false according to ancient documents handed down at Izumo Taisha (see 00812).
Also, while it is true that the Northern Court side was shaken by internal strife without a philosophy, the Southern Court side also experienced betrayals by Kusunoki Masanori, Hashimoto Masatada, Prince Okiyoshi, and others, so it was not exactly united.
Furthermore, the Muromachi period was an era that produced wonderful Japanese culture such as Noh, Kyogen, Yokyoku, Japanese architecture (shoin-zukuri), Japanese gardens, flower arrangement, and the tea ceremony, and there are many things worth seeing.
If you try to use history as a means of moral education, as Kiyoshi Hiraizumi did, your eyes will become clouded. I would like to write about the subsequent Muromachi period as neutrally as possible.