Emperor Go-Daigo

Emperor of Japan

26 November 1288 Heian-kyō, Kamakura shogunate

19 September 1339(1339-09-19) (50) Yoshino no Angū (Nara), Ashikaga shogunate

Posthumous nameJapanese style: Yamato-neko-amatsumishirushi-toyosato no Mikoto (日本根子天璽豊聡慧尊 ), also Fukakusa no Mikado (深草帝 ) Chinese style: Emperor Ninmyō (天武天皇 )

This article is about the emperor. For the Japanese band whose name is sometimes spelled "Godaigo", see Godiego. Emperor of Japan Emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐天皇 Go-Daigo-tennō) (26 November 1288 – 19 September 1339) was the 96th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. He successfully overthrew the Kamakura shogunate in 1333 and established the short lived Kenmu Restoration to bring the Imperial House back into power. This was to be the last time the emperor had any power until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. The Kenmu restoration was in turn overthrown by Ashikaga Takauji in 1336, ushering in the Ashikaga shogunate, and split the imperial family into two opposing factions between the Ashikaga backed Northern Court situated in Kyoto and the Southern Court based in Yoshino led by Go-Daigo and his later successors. This 14th-century sovereign personally chose his posthumous name after the 9th-century Emperor Daigo and go- (後), translates as "later", and he is thus sometimes called the "Later Emperor Daigo", or, in some older sources, "Daigo, the second" or as "Daigo II".