Chrysanthemum League

### Ideology(ies)

Sapian nationalism, Ultranationalism (formerly), Traditionalism, Anti-communism, Monarchism

### Size

Approx. 25,000 (in Sapia, approx. 1,000 (in the ULR)Total size: 26,000

### Paramilitary wing

Taiyo-to-Hagane

The **Kikurenmei** (菊連盟), or **Chrysanthemum League** is a public militia and political movement in Sapia dedicated to the protection of the Sapian mainland, to traditional Sapian values and veneration of the Emperor. It was founded by known Sapian nationalist hardliner Nissho Chijimatsu, and today is currently led by Yoshiyuki Morie, though cell leaders like Kaminari Mukai and Anna Kuronuma are active in both the ULR and the Kaspierian Empire.

## Background

The Kikurenmei was created on December 19th 1907, recruiting its members primarily from all sectors of the Sapian population, with the lower, middle and working classes mostly trained on paramilitary tactics. The League's paramilitary wing, the Taiyo-to-Hagane (太陽と鋼, or 'Sun and Steel') was formed due to Chijimatsu's alarm over potential invasions of the Sapian mainland by both the United LOLs of Roflica, Rivetania and other nations who equal Sapia in power. Along with outdoor activities including placing recruitment advertisements in various communities across Sapia, the members of the League, who joined voluntarily, were subjected to rigorous physical training that included kendo and long-distance running.

In an unusual move, the Kikurenmei was granted the right to train with the Sapian Imperial Armed Forces. An account attributed this shift in Kikurenmei orientation when the second leader, Seitaro Manaka, associated himself with this military organization, aswell as his introduction to Imperial Diet member Yukawa Manabu, who primarily reports to the Director of War, general Saito Otomari, who would be appointed by Emperor Junichiro as Prime Minister in 1940.

## Attack on Matsushima's Jūkyo

In 1947, 2 years after the end of the Great Circum War, at a house in the ruined outskirts of Kichikawa (modern day Leafy City) in the southwestern United LOLs of Roflica, a group of Chrysanthemum League stragglers under sergeant Takari Matsushima have set up their position at this house in order to defend against a large Allied force led by Rivetanian Expeditionary Force commander Zenone Bianculli. The battle that resulted after Matsushima's setup would become known as the Attack at Matsushima's Jūkyo. Bianculli's forces charged at Matsushima several times during the day, but were repulsed by the tactics of his Taiyo-to-Hagane militiamen, which gave them some time until the sun sets to retreat away from the city.

**Participants**

* **Takari Matsushima**, Holdout leader (foreground)
* **Yokoi Yoshitora**, Taiyo-to-Hagane soldier (left, background)
* **Fujii Seison**, Taiyo-to-Hagane soldier (centre, background)
* **Umeda Seihachi**, Taiyo-to-Hagane soldier (right, background)

## Past Engagements

From June to November 2022, the **Empire of Kaspieria** was in a state of civil war, with the Imperial Government controlled by a now dissolved military junta pinned against the now dissolved anti-Sapian political outfit known as the **Red Seal Society**. The Chrysanthemum League cell there, led by **Uno Yoson**, who would later form the Darkened, had successfully set up defensive positions in the towns of Shinwara and Kikokonai during an offensive by the rebels, which was quickly repulsed by both the Taiyo-to-Hagane, and the few civilians that stayed behind. Yoson's Chrysanthemum League cell held sway in Shinwara and Kikokonai, and were supporting the remaining ethnic Sapian civilian revolters in Mutsurano by pinning the rebels down behind their own lines after the rebel patrol was completely killed by **Task Force Aphrodite** in Xuxing.