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Kitabatake Chikafusa was an early nationalist/nativist Japanese scholar, known especially for the ''[[Jinno Shotoki|Jinnô Shôtôki]]'', which he wrote between [[1339]]-[[1343]].  

Kitabatake Chikafusa was an early nationalist/nativist Japanese scholar, known especially for the ''[[Jinno Shotoki|Jinnô Shôtôki]]'', which he wrote between [[1339]]-[[1343]].  

He was descended from the [[Murakami clan]]. He disliked and opposed [[Ashikaga Takauji]] and the [[Ashikaga Bakufu]], reportedly feeling that Takauji was a "greedy soldier of no great merit and not of a really good family." Chikafusa supported the [[Northern and Southern Courts|Southern Court]] in [[Yoshino]], and over the span of his career served five emperors – [[Emperor Go-Fushimi|Go-Fushimi]], [[Emperor Go-Nijo|Go-Nijô]], [[Emperor Hanazono|Hanazono]], [[Emperor Go-Daigo|Go-Daigo]], and [[Emperor Go-Murakami|Go-Murakami]]. He was sent by Go-Daigo to [[Mutsu Province]] as governor and worked to drum up support there for the Southern cause. He was hard-pressed by [[Ishido Yoshifusa|Ishidô Yoshifusa]], whom Takauji had dispatched in [[1335]] as a counter to Chikafusa and captured Taga, which was the loyalists' seat in Mutsu. In addition, Chikafusa was unable to convince the powerful [[Hitachi Province|Hitachi]] landholder [[Yuki Chikatomo|Yûki Chikatomo]] to throw in with the loyalists, and when the latter sided with the Ashikaga, Chikafusa was forced to flee to Yoshino. He died in [[1354]]. Chikafusa was the father of [[Kitabatake Akiyoshi]] and Akiie. Akiie was killed in battle in the summer of [[1338]]. Chikafusa was assisted in his endeavors by a younger brother, Akinobu.

He was descended from the [[Murakami clan]], and distantly from the Imperial line.<ref>Evelyn Rawski, ''Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives'', Cambridge University Press (2015), 211.</ref> He disliked and opposed [[Ashikaga Takauji]] and the [[Ashikaga Bakufu]], reportedly feeling that Takauji was a "greedy soldier of no great merit and not of a really good family." Chikafusa supported the [[Northern and Southern Courts|Southern Court]] in [[Yoshino]], and over the span of his career served five emperors – [[Emperor Go-Fushimi|Go-Fushimi]], [[Emperor Go-Nijo|Go-Nijô]], [[Emperor Hanazono|Hanazono]], [[Emperor Go-Daigo|Go-Daigo]], and [[Emperor Go-Murakami|Go-Murakami]]. He was sent by Go-Daigo to [[Mutsu Province]] as governor and worked to drum up support there for the Southern cause. He was hard-pressed by [[Ishido Yoshifusa|Ishidô Yoshifusa]], whom Takauji had dispatched in [[1335]] as a counter to Chikafusa and captured Taga, which was the loyalists' seat in Mutsu. In addition, Chikafusa was unable to convince the powerful [[Hitachi Province|Hitachi]] landholder [[Yuki Chikatomo|Yûki Chikatomo]] to throw in with the loyalists, and when the latter sided with the Ashikaga, Chikafusa was forced to flee to Yoshino. He died in [[1354]]. Chikafusa was the father of [[Kitabatake Akiyoshi]] and Akiie. Akiie was killed in battle in the summer of [[1338]]. Chikafusa was assisted in his endeavors by a younger brother, Akinobu.

In his writings, among many other topics and themes, Chikafusa challenged the notion, then common, that Japan was quite peripheral in the world, a number of scattered tiny islands on the edge of the world, like scattered grains of millet (''zokusan henkoku''); instead, he asserted that Japan was a grand continent unto itself, in a vast ocean to the northeast of Jambudvipa (a Sanskrit term for a southern region of India).

In his writings, among many other topics and themes, Chikafusa challenged the notion, then common, that Japan was quite peripheral in the world, a number of scattered tiny islands on the edge of the world, like scattered grains of millet (''zokusan henkoku''); instead, he asserted that Japan was a grand continent unto itself, in a vast ocean to the northeast of Jambudvipa (a Sanskrit term for a southern region of India).

==Sources==

==Sources==

*Marius Jansen. ''[[Warrior Rule in Japan]].'' Cambridge University Press, 1995

*Marius Jansen. ''[[Warrior Rule in Japan]].'' Cambridge University Press, 1995

*Fabio Rambelli, "The Idea of India (Tenjiku) in Pre-Modern Japan: Issues of Signification and Representation in the Buddhist Translation of Cultures," (source unknown)  

*Fabio Rambelli, "The Idea of India (Tenjiku) in Pre-Modern Japan: Issues of Signification and Representation in the Buddhist Translation of Cultures," (source unknown), 244.

[[Category:Samurai]]

[[Category:Samurai]]