Compilation of the Jinno Shotoki

Timeline

1. 1359Oda Castle, Hitachi · HitachiKitabatake Chikafusa retreated with the Southern Court to the Kantō region and was stationed at Oda Castle. Facing the Northern Court's occupation of Kyoto and the rise of the warrior government, Chikafusa felt compelled to prove the Southern Court's legitimacy through intellectual history and imperial genealogy, in order to rally Southern Court forces and win public support.
2. 1359Oda Castle · HitachiThe work in six volumes opens with the founding of Emperor Jimmu, traces the unbroken imperial line through the ages, argues that the Southern Court descended from Emperor Go-Daigo's direct line is legitimate, and condemns Ashikaga Takauji's installation of the Northern Court as treason. Blending Confucian and Buddhist thought with Japanese mythology, it became an important source for later imperial loyalist thought.