Stories of the Japanese 01448 [Muromachi/Saigoku/Eve of the Great War] The Kinketsu Incident: Discovery of the Kusanagi Sword

The thieves who stole the Three Sacred Treasures fled to the Konpon Chudo at Mount Hiei. They likely did so in the hope that Enryaku-ji would side with them. However, on September 24, 1443 (the 3rd year of Kakitsu), the Imperial Court issued an order to Mount Hiei to strike down the enemies of the court, and Mount Hiei pledged to the Kanrei, Hatakeyama Mochikuni, that they would not participate in the Southern Court rebellion.
Unaware of this, the rebel army continued to hide in the Konpon Chudo, relying on Enryaku-ji. Enryaku-ji began secretly preparing to strike the thieves.
Meanwhile, the Three Sacred Treasures were found in a different location.
Early on the morning of September 25, a monk named Shingetsubo Shokei, who was walking through the grounds of Kiyomizu-dera, was astonished. A sword had been carelessly discarded on the grounds, and there was a tag attached to it that read,
“This is one of the Three Sacred Treasures. Whoever finds it, please return it. You will face divine punishment if you treat it with disrespect.”
Shingetsubo Shokei immediately reported it to the shogunate. It is completely unknown why it was discarded in such a place.
September 26. Because the threat of an attack still remained, Emperor Go-Hanazono fled from the residence of Uratsuji Mochisue to the residence of Konoe Fusatsugu (1402–1488), and then further away to the residence of Fushimi-no-miya Sadafusa. Prince Sadafusa must have been in a panic upon hearing that his son had been attacked, but he must have been happy to spend some quality time alone with his son for the first time in a while.
On that same day, September 26, the monks of Enryaku-ji, acting on orders, struck down Kinzo-shu and Hino Arimitsu.
On September 28, Arimitsu's son, Hino Sukechika (?-1443), who had been captured alive, was beheaded at Rokujo-gawara. Another captive, Tsuzo-shu, was sentenced to exile, but on October 4, he was beheaded in Settsu Ota (Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture) while being transported. Beheading a member of the imperial family is an extremely rare occurrence, and the Muromachi Shogunate showed no mercy toward the Later Southern Court.
Speaking of the Southern Court, there was a time when Oguranomiya Seisho rose up in arms. That Oguranomiya Seisho had already passed away, but his son, Kyoson (1413–1443), was suspected of involvement in this incident and was exiled to Oki. He died of illness shortly after arriving in Oki, and with this, the Oguranomiya line came to an end.
With the deaths of Hino Arimitsu and his son Sukechika, the main Hino line also came to an end. From this point on, the Uramatsu family, a branch of the Hino family, came to be regarded as the main Hino line. From here on, we shall refer to Uramatsu Shigeko, the birth mother of Yoshikatsu and Yoshimasa, as Hino Shigeko.