Emperor Go - Daigo Emperor Go - Daigo ( 後醍醐天皇 " Go - Daigo - tennō " ) ( November 26 , 1288 – September 19 , 1339 ) was the 96th emperor of Japan , according to the traditional order of succession . Post - Meiji historians construe Go - Daigo ' s reign to span 1318 – 1339 ; however , pre - Meiji accounts of his reign considered the years of his reign to encompass only between 1318 – 1332 . Pre - Meiji scholars also considered Go - Daigō a pretender Emperor in the years from 1336 through 1339 . This 14th - century sovereign was named after the 9th - century Emperor Daigo and " go - " ( 後 ) , translates literally as " later ; " and thus , he is sometimes called the ' Later Emperor Daigo ' . The Japanese word " go " has also been translated to mean the " second one ; " and in some older sources , this emperor may be identified as ' Daigo , the second , ' or as ' Daigo II . ' Genealogy . Before his ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne , his personal name ( his " imina " ) was Takaharu " - shinnō " ( 尊治親王 ) . He was the second son of the Daikakuji - tō emperor , Emperor Go - Uda . His mother was Fujiwara no " Chūshi " / Tadako ( " 藤原忠子 " ) , daughter of Fujiwara no Tadatsugu ( Itsutsuji Tadatsugu ) ( " 藤原忠継 / 五辻忠継 " ) . She became Nyoin called Dantenmon - in ( 談天門院 ) . Emperor Go - Daigo ' s ideal was the Engi era ( 901 – 923 ) during the reign of Emperor Daigo , a period of direct imperial rule . An emperor ' s posthumous name was normally chosen after his death , but Emperor Go - Daigo chose his personally during his lifetime , to share it with Emperor Daigo . Consorts and children . Empress ( " Chūgū " ) : Saionji " Kishi " ( " 西園寺禧子 " ) ( Go - Kyōgoku - in , 後京極院 ) ( 1303 – 1333 ) , daughter of Saionji Sanekane ( 西園寺実兼 ) Empress ( " Chūgū " ) : Imperial Princess Junshi ( 珣子内親王 ) ( Shin - Muromachi - in , 新室町院 ) ( 1311 – 1337 ) , daughter of Emperor Go - Fushimi " Nyōgo " : Fujiwara no Eishi ( 藤原栄子 ) , daughter of Nijō Michihira Court lady : Minamoto no Chikako ( 源親子 ) , daughter of Kitabatake Morochika ( 北畠師親 ) Court lady : Fujiwara no " Ishi " / Tameko ( 藤原為子 ) ( ? – 1311 / 2 ) , daughter of Nijō Tameyo ( 二条為世 ) Court lady : " Ichijō no Tsubone " ( 一条局 ) , daughter of Saionji Sanetoshi ( 西園寺実俊 ) Court lady : Fujiwara no " Renshi " ( Ano " Renshi " ) ( 藤原廉子 / 阿野廉子 ) ( Shin - Taikenmon - in , 新待賢門院 ) ( 1301 – 1359 ) , daughter of Ano Kinkado ( 阿野公廉 ) Court lady : " Gon - no - Dainagon no Sammi no Tsubone " ( 権大納言三位局 ) ( ? – 1351 ) , daughter of Nijō Tamemichi ( 二条為道 ) Princess : a daughter of Emperor Kameyama Court lady : " Shōshō no Naishi " ( 少将内侍 ) , daughter of Sugawara no Arinaka ( 菅原在仲 ) Court lady : Fujiwara no Chikako ( 藤原親子 ) , daughter of Kazan ' in Munechika ( 花山院宗親 ) Court lady : Fujiwara no " Shushi " / Moriko ( 藤原守子 ) , daughter of Tōin Saneyasu ( 洞院実泰 ) Court lady : " Konoe no Tsubone " ( 近衛局 ) Court lady : " Shōnagon no Naishi " ( 少納言内侍 ) , daughter of Shijō Takasuke ( 四条隆資 ) Court lady : " Gon - no - Chūnagon no Tsubone " ( 権中納言局 ) , daughter of Sanjō Kinyasu ( 三条公泰 ) Court lady : " Mimbu - kyō no Tsubone " ( 民部卿局 ) Go - Daigo had some other princesses from some court ladies . Events of Go - Daigo ' s life . Emperor Go - Daigo became emperor at the age of 31 , in the prime of his life . In 1324 , with the discovery of Emperor Go - Daigo ' s plans to overthrow the Kamakura Shogunate , the Rokuhara Tandai disposed of his close associate Hino Suketomo in the Shōchū Incident . In the Genkō Incident of 1331 , Emperor Go - Daigo ' s plans were again discovered , this time by a betrayal by his close associate Yoshida Sadafusa . He quickly hid the Sacred Treasures in a secluded castle in Kasagiyama ( the modern town of Kasagi , Sōraku district , Kyōto Prefecture ) and raised an army , but the castle fell to the Bakufu ' s army the following year , and they enthroned Emperor Kōgon , exiling Emperor Go - Daigo to Oki Province ( the Oki Islands in modern - day Shimane Prefecture ) , the same place to which Emperor Go - Toba had been exiled after the Jōkyū War of 1221 . In 1333 , Emperor Go - Daigo escaped from Oki with the help of Nawa Nagatoshi and his family , raising an army at Funagami Mountain in Hōki Province ( the modern town of Kotoura in Tōhaku District , Tottori Prefecture ) . Ashikaga Takauji , who had been sent by the Bakufu to find and destroy this army , sided with the Emperor and captured the Rokuhara Tandai . Immediately following this , Nitta Yoshisada , who had raised an army in the East , destroyed the Hōjō clan and captured the Bakufu . Returning to Kyōto , Emperor Go - Daigo took the throne from Emperor Kōgon and began the Kenmu Restoration . The Restoration was ostensibly a revival of the older ways , but , in fact , the emperor had his eye set on an imperial dictatorship like that of the emperor of China . He wanted to imitate the Chinese in all their ways and become the most powerful ruler in the East . Impatient reforms , litigation over land rights , rewards , and the exclusion of the samurai from the political order caused much complaining , and his political order began to fall apart . In 1335 , Ashikaga Takauji , who had travelled to eastern Japan without obtaining an imperial edict in order to suppress the Nakasendai Rebellion , became disaffected with the Restoration . Emperor Go - Daigo ordered Nitta Yoshisada to track down and destroy Ashikaga . Ashikaga defeated Nitta Yoshisada at the Battle of Takenoshita , Hakone . Kusunoki Masashige and Kitabatake Akiie , in communication with Kyoto , smashed the Ashikaga army . Takauji fled to Kyūshū , but the following year , after restructuring his army in Kyūshū , he again approached Kyōto . Kusunoki Masashige proposed a reconciliation with Ashikaga Takauji to the emperor , but Go - Daigo rejected this . He ordered Masashige and Yoshisada to destroy Takauji . Kusunoki ' s army was defeated at the Battle of Minatogawa ( 湊川の戦い ) . When Ashikaga ' s army entered Kyōto , Emperor Go - Daigo resisted , fleeing to Mount Hiei , but seeking reconciliation , he sent the Sacred Treasures to the Ashikaga side . Takauji enthroned the Jimyōin - tō emperor , Kōmyō , and officially began his shogunate with the enactment of the Kenmu Law Code . Go - Daigo escaped from the capital , the Sacred Treasures that he had handed over to the Ashikaga being counterfeit , and set up the Southern Court among the mountains of Yoshino , beginning the Period of Northern and Southern Courts in which the Northern Dynasty in Kyōto and the Southern Dynasty in Yoshino faced off against each other . Emperor Go - Daigo ordered Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi to Kyūshū and Nitta Yoshisada and Imperial Prince Tsuneyoshi to Hokuriku , and so forth , dispatching his sons all over , so that they could oppose the Northern Court . The actual site of Go - Daigo ' s grave is settled . This emperor is traditionally venerated at a memorial Shinto shrine ( " misasagi " ) at Nara . The Imperial Household Agency designates this location as Go - Daigo ' s mausoleum . It is formally named " Tō - no - o no misasagi " . Kugyō . " Kugyō " ( 公卿 ) is a collective term for the very few most powerful men attached to the court of the Emperor of Japan in pre - Meiji eras . Even during those years in which the court ' s actual influence outside the palace walls was minimal , the hierarchic organization persisted . In general , this elite group included only three to four men at a time . These were hereditary courtiers whose experience and background would have brought them to the pinnacle of a life ' s career . During Go - Daigo ' s reign , this apex of the " Daijō - kan included : Eras of Go - Daigo ' s reign . The years of Go - Diago ' s reign are more specifically identified by more than one era name or " nengō " . Emperor Go - Daigo ' s eight era name changes are mirrored in number only in the reign of Emperor Go - Hanazono , who also reigned through eight era name changes . In popular culture . Emperor Go - Daigo appears in the alternate history novel " Romanitas " by Sophia McDougall .