Emperor Go-Enyu

• Birth: 1358
• Death: 1393/4/26
• Japanese: 後円融天皇 (Go-en'yuu tennou)

Emperor Go-En'yû was the last emperor of the Northern Court, though he held little de facto power; the Ashikaga shogunate dominated actual governance in the capital.

In 1383, in an event known as the "Bloodletting Incident," Emperor Go-En'yû, suspicious that Azechi no Tsubone, one of his consorts, had been having an affair with Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, struck her on the head with a blade. Drawing a sword, or striking anyone with it, within the Imperial Palace was most unusual, and this incident caused quite an uproar. Assaulted with accusations, the emperor suggested he might retire to the mountains in Tanba province, and there commit suicide. He did not end up following through on this, however.

References

• Amino Yoshihiko, Alan Christy (trans.), Rethinking Japanese History, Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan (2012), 271-272.
• H. Paul Varley, "Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and the World of Kitayama: Social Change and Shogunal Patronage in Early Muromachi Japan", in John Hall and Toyoda Takeshi eds., Japan in the Muromachi Age, University of California Press (1977), 199.