3 Reworking the Environment, I3 2 5-I33 I

Go-Daigo's activities in the first half of the 1320S had been characterized by an activist, aggressive assault upon virtually all areas that he felt needed to be reorganized and reshaped if he was to reform the emperor's role and, happily and concomitantly, establish a more positive future for himself and his progeny. Yet he seems to have emerged from these years and his immense gamble in trying to bring down the Kamakura bakufu both es­ sentially unscathed and unrepentant. He may not have achieved all that he wanted, but his position generally was much stronger than it had been at any time previously. And, if he pondered whether fate was on his side or not, he could only have come to the conclusion that it was. He had acted more boldly than any member of the imperial family in over a century; and, though his path had by no means been a smooth one and the bakufu still lingered in the background, it seemed almost as if there was nothing' he could do that would prompt decisive and final action against him. From this confident position Go-Daigo spent the rest of the 1320S moving into new areas of activity and consolidating his position 'as the most powerful figure in Kyoto, and by 1330 the only remaining brake on his ambitions was, once again, the Kamakura bakufu. Go-Daigo had a fairly consistent agenda to help him; he had the latitude to continue the policies that he had already initiated; and as we shall see, he was also the direct beneficiary of some major social changes.

72 Reshaping the Imperial Family 73

The Reshaping of the Imperial Family

The bakufu's scrupulous adherence to its interpretation of the "Bunpo Compromise," that only the order ofsuccession was to be upheld, provided Go-Daigo with just the leverage he needed to move beyond the inconclusive events oflate 1324 and assert his primacy in the imperial family. All through 1325, the bakufu refused pleas by both Crown Prince Kuniyoshi and the Jimyoin (linked to Kuniyoshi's fortunes, according to Hanazono, "as a fly to the tail of a horse") to give high priority to their claims on the succes­ sion. Instead, in spite of efforts to restrict Go-Daigo's authority over the physical assets of the Daikakuji, it held to the position that any changes regarding the imperial family's intangible property (i.e., accession to the throne) required Go-Daigo's express sanction. l Go-Daigo, who could read­ ily argue that his designated ten years was not yet up, evinced no interest in opening substantive discussions on the matter. At year's end the Jimyoin, who continued to be adversely affected by land disputes initiated by Go­ Daigo, were reorganizing their internal administration to meet the chal­ lenges of a new era.2 Shortly thereafter, in the third month of 1326, matters moved to another level when Kuniyoshi, with "his destiny but half-fulfilled" and an envoy waiting in Kamakura for the bakufu to permit his accession, finally succumbed to the ill health that had plagued him incessantly. Go­ Fushimi, sensing that the gods were now favorably disposed toward the Jimyoin, immediately sought to enlist their assistance: in the next two months he sent them fout petitions.3 Not surprisingly, the emperor re­ sponded more concretely and sought to renegotiate the question of suc­ ceSSIOn. Since the bakufu, in choosing Kuniyoshi, had evidently decided that Go-Daigo's crown prince was to be from the Daikakuji line, surely it made sense to continue this arrangement; and as Kuniyoshi's oldest son was only six, a more mature candidate was obviously preferable. As luck would have it, there were no fewer than four Daikakuji princes who could fulfill this requirement, namely Go-Daigo's own sons Yoyoshi, Muneyoshi (13II- 1382?), Takayoshi (13II-1337), and Moriyoshi (13°8-1335), all between the ages of thirteen and seventeen. The contrast between Go-Daigo's ability to transmit his genes and that of other members of the imperial family was pronounced. As if to drive this point home, by the end of1326 he had sired two sons by his new favorite Ano Renshi (13II-1359) "upon [whom] alone he lavished his wide-ranging favors."4 These two, Tsuneyoshi (1325-1338) and Nariyoshi (1326-1344) were, along with their younger brother Nori­ yoshi (1328-1368, later Emperor Go-Murakami) and half-brother Kane-