Biographies CXXXVI: The Shogunal Retainers, Part XIX

Kō-no-Moronao

¶Kō-no-Moronao was a descendant of Takashina-no-Mineo, Uchūben, Middle Controller of the Right. In the generation of Koresane, nine generations after Mineo, the family began to call itself simply "Kō" (Note: following the Takashina Keizu). From then on his descendants served the Ashikaga house generation after generation (Note: following the Taiheiki). Moronao's father Moroshige served as Uemon-no-jō, Third-Class Officer of the Right Gate Guards (Note: following the Keizu). Moronao became shitsuji, steward and household manager, to Ashikaga Takauji and was appointed Uemon-no-jō. During the Genkō years (1331-1334), when Takauji raised troops, Moronao followed him and took part in the campaign that destroyed the Rokuhara Tandai, the Kamakura shogunate's deputy in Kyoto (Note: following the Taiheiki). Soon afterward he was appointed Musashi-no-kami, Governor of Musashi. In the first year of Engen (1336), when Takauji raised an army and attacked the capital, Moronao went with him on the campaign and struck and defeated the warrior-monks of Enryakuji at the Ikisu shrine (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Baishōron). He then defeated Gon-Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Moromoto at the Mine hall on Nishiyama, and met Chūnagon Fujiwara-no-Takasuke at Tōji; on this occasion the situation turned against him and he withdrew. Toki Yorinao then arrived with reinforcements, and Moronao sallied out again and defeated the enemy.

¶In the third year of Engen (1338) he besieged Sakon'e-no-Shōshō Minamoto-no-Akinobu at Otokoyama. Akinobu's elder brother Kitabatake Akiie, Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Command, had encamped at Sakai-no-ura. Moronao reasoned: "Izumi and Kawachi have long been within the sphere of the Southern Court. If Akiie holds that ground and joins forces with the Wada, the Kusunoki and the other commanders, his strength will be hard to check." He therefore picked out elite troops, attacked Akiie at Abeno, and killed him. At this time Wakiya Yoshisuke was raising troops in the northern provinces, intending to attack Takauji and so relieve Otokoyama. Takauji ordered Moronao to return in haste, but Moronao feared that Akinobu would pursue him from behind; he sent spies to set fire to the shrine buildings on Otokoyama and burn up the stores and supplies of the besieged garrison. Yoshisuke hesitated and did not advance, and the Southern Court army was left isolated and out of provisions (Note: following the Taiheiki). Moronao further routed the armies of Sakon'e-no-Shōshō Minamoto-no-Mochisada and Minamoto-no-Iefusa (Note: following the Inke Zōzō Atobumi and the Genkō Nikki Uragaki). Akinobu, his strength exhausted, fled in defeat to Kawachi, and Yoshisuke also withdrew his troops and returned.

¶In the second year of Shōhei (1347), Hosokawa Akiuji and Yamana Tokiuji fought Kusunoki Masatsura and suffered a crushing defeat. In the following year (1348) Masatsura advanced on the capital. Takauji ordered Moronao to meet him, and Moronao led sixty thousand men to Shijōnawate. He divided his troops, giving Sasaki Takauji, Takeda Ujinobu (Note: for Ujinobu, following the Takeda Keizu), Agata Shimotsuke-no-kami and others a unit each to command, while he himself held the main force in the rear. Shimotsuke-no-kami engaged Masatsura's vanguard but was beaten and fell back. Ujinobu advanced and fought its following units. Takauji and the others sent in picked troops to charge, and defeated the enemy heavily. Masatsura selected three hundred men prepared to die and made them thrust forward sharply. Hosokawa Kiyouji, Niki Yoriakira and the others in Moronao's vanguard advanced one after another to fight, and all were defeated. Masatsura pressed his advantage and fought furiously, and Moronao's officers and men fled as if mown down. Moronao roused himself and shouted: "Moronao is here! Will you abandon me and run? With what face will you appear before the shogun?" The troops recovered somewhat, but Masatsura had singled out Moronao and drove straight for his headquarters. Kamiyama Rokurō-zaemon Takamoto falsely announced himself as Moronao, cut down five men with his own hand, and fell in battle (Note: for Takamoto, following the Jōrakuki; for the five men, following the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). Masatsura believed the head to be Moronao's and had it passed around for viewing, and in that interval Moronao escaped. Masatsura learned that Moronao was not dead, and, hoping to draw him out, gathered his troops and withdrew for the time being, but Moronao saw through the intention and did not pursue. When Kō-no-Morofuyu sent out troops in pursuit, Masatsura turned back, fought, and defeated them. Masatsura again advanced upon Moronao, coming within several tens of paces of him. Moronao's forces were scattered, and only seventy or eighty horsemen remained at his sides. Susuki Shirō (Note: the various texts of the Taiheiki give Tan Jirō) gathered up arrows that lay on the ground and shot them. Masatsura and his men took several arrows each in their bodies and could advance no further, and in the end they killed one another with their swords. Moronao pressed on to attack Yoshino, set fire to the temporary palace, and withdrew.

¶At the time of this battle Takamoto was serving in Moronao's army and happened to have come to Moronao's headquarters in ordinary dress. When Masatsura's troops broke in without warning, Takamoto had no time to run back to his own camp, and on the spur of the moment he took Moronao's armor and put it on. Moronao's attendants were angry and tried to stop him, but Moronao said: "This man will die today in my place. Even if the armor were famous and worth ten thousand pieces of gold, how could I begrudge it?" and he encouraged Takamoto and sent him out. Takamoto was deeply moved by these words, and in the end, it is told, he died in battle as Moronao's substitute.

¶Moronao won merit in battle again and again, and because Takauji had long trusted him deeply, his prestige and power were without equal. Even the leading men of the clan and the veteran commanders watched his moods and rose or fell in spirits accordingly. Yet by nature Moronao was arrogant, licentious and fond of luxury; he used his authority with violence and gave free rein to his wickedness, so that many suffered resentment and misery at his hands. He once took over the residence of the mother of the late Prince Moriyoshi, enlarged and repaired it, and made it his home. Its gates, halls and corridors were of the utmost splendor and stood side by side. He also seized great numbers of daughters of the imperial family and of court nobles and kept them divided among various hidden lodgings, visiting them night after night and indulging in debauchery. The people of the capital said of this: "When the Steward goes on a round of the shrines, there is no god who goes without an offering." He pressed himself upon a younger sister of the former Kampaku, the Nijō Regent, took her as his own, and had by her a son, Moronatsu (Note: following the Taiheiki). As time passed, their affection cooled somewhat, and the lady had never been comfortable with having a warrior as her husband. When Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Fuyunobu secretly sent a letter to seduce her, Moronao flew into a rage and secretly sent men to set fire to Fuyunobu's house, though Fuyunobu barely escaped (Note: following the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). Enya Takasada's wife was beautiful, and Moronao tried every means of courting her but was refused; he therefore plotted to bring Takasada down and take his wife, and in the end falsely accused Takasada of treason. Takasada fled to Izumo with his family. Moronao, enraged, said: "I regret that I did not act sooner; that beautiful woman has slipped away." He hurried to Takauji, had a punitive force sent out, and charged it to be sure to take the wife alive. The pursuers overtook them, but Takasada's wife lost her life on the road. Takasada heard of it after reaching Izumo and killed himself. Such, in general, was the extent of Moronao's lust and cruelty.

¶Uesugi Shigeyoshi and Hatakeyama Tadamune were on bad terms with Moronao and, hating his conduct, often denounced him to Ashikaga Tadayoshi. But Tadayoshi paid no attention. Earlier, Takauji had entrusted the government to Tadayoshi. Tadayoshi had long deeply revered the monk Myōtetsu (Note: this book writes the second character as "kichi," which is an error; it is corrected here on the basis of the Kamakura Ōzōshi), and court nobles and warriors vied to make gifts to him and to run errands for him, so that for a time the whole capital inclined toward this monk. Moronao and his brother Moroyasu constantly mocked him, saying, "What learning can this priest possibly have?" and never once passed through his gate. When they met him on the road they rode past on horseback without so much as a glance. Myōtetsu resented this and, as occasion arose, often spoke ill of Moronao. Tadamune and Shigeyoshi took advantage of this to press their slanders all the more, and Tadayoshi came to accept them (Note: following the Taiheiki). Tadayoshi appointed his nephew Tadafuyu as Chūgoku Tandai, Commissioner for the Chūgoku region, to prepare an outside base of support (Note: following the Entairyaku and the Taiheiki).

¶Tadayoshi, under some pretext, summoned Moronao and tried to have him killed. Aihara Kiyotane and others had at first taken part in this plot but changed their minds partway through. When Moronao took his seat at the invitation, Kiyotane signaled with his eyes that matters had suddenly turned dangerous, and Moronao understood and fled home. That night Kiyotane went to Moronao and revealed the whole scheme. From then on Moronao, pleading illness, gathered troops and fortified his surroundings. At that time Moroyasu was facing Kusunoki Masanori across the Ishikawa riverbed, and Moronao sent a messenger to inform him of all this; the whole capital was in an uproar. Akamatsu Sokuyū, son of Akamatsu Norimura (Enshin), and others led seven hundred troops and were the first to hurry to Moronao's aid. Moronao thanked them and said: "Lord Sanjō (Tadayoshi) is plotting to destroy my family, and matters are already urgent. I therefore intend to inform the shogun, raise troops, and put to death those who slander me. Most of the officers and men are on my side, and there is no need to worry about the capital. Only the Lord of the Right Hyōe-no-suke (Tadafuyu) is in the Chūgoku region, and he will surely come with troops to help his side. I ask you to take charge of this matter." He presented him with a famous sword called "Kaiken." Norimura returned to Harima, cut the Chūgoku road, and cut off Tadafuyu's reinforcements. Before long Yamana Tokiuji, Imagawa Yorikuni, Hosokawa Kiyouji, Niki Yoriakira, Toki Yoriyasu, Sasaki Hidetsuna and others also hurried to him on hearing of the disturbance. Very many others also joined his side, and his force reached about fifty thousand.

¶Takauji was greatly alarmed, summoned Tadayoshi, and consulted with him on what to do. At this time only some seven thousand officers and men answered Tadayoshi, but when they followed him to Takauji's residence and found it quiet and without defenses, they gradually grew inclined to desert, and went back to Moronao here and there, so that only about a thousand remained. Moronao's power grew greater still, and he finally advanced his troops and surrounded Takauji's residence. Takauji sent a man to demand: "Do you mean to kill me under some pretext?" But Moronao answered: "I have no other intention. Today I only wish to seize those who slander me and show that I am without fault," and he directed his troops to press closer. Takauji had no choice but to have Tadayoshi's conduct of government suspended and to sentence Shigeyoshi and Tadamune to exile. Moronao thereupon lifted the siege and withdrew, and sent troops to seize Myōtetsu, but Myōtetsu had already fled and no one knew where he was. Moronao also ordered the troops of the Chūgoku region to attack Tadafuyu; Takauji set up his own son Yoshiakira in Tadayoshi's place, and Moronao remained in the post of steward.

¶Earlier, when Tadayoshi had directed the government, Moronao too had feared his strictness and had not dared to act wickedly. But once Tadayoshi was set aside and the calculations of everyone, inside and outside, gathered around Moronao, his arrogance grew still worse; in the end he pressed Shigeyoshi and Tadamune in their places of exile until they killed themselves, and he also plotted to kill Tadayoshi. Tadayoshi, afraid, shaved his head and shut himself away. Moronao had Tadayoshi's contacts with the outside world strictly cut off (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the fifth year of Shōhei (1350), following Yoshiakira, he attacked Toki Yoriaki and brought him back as a prisoner (Note: following the Entairyaku, the Gion Shigyō Nikki and the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki).

¶At this time Tadafuyu was in Tsukushi, and Misumi Nyūdō, a man of Iwami, raised troops in response to him. Moroyasu went and attacked, but after several months he had not won. Soldiers answering Tadafuyu increased day by day, and the western provinces fell into great disorder. When Takauji asked whom he should send to suppress the trouble, Moronao replied: "It cannot be done unless the shogun goes in person. The people of Chinzei are all saying, 'The shogun and the Lord of the Right Hyōe-no-suke may be quarreling on the surface but perhaps not in their hearts,' and so they are doubtful and watching how things go. If they now hear that the shogun is taking the field, they will understand clearly which side to take, and the enemy will collapse at once." Takauji accepted this and set a day for his departure. Moronao meant to take this opportunity to kill Tadayoshi and cut off future trouble at the root, but Tadayoshi slipped away that same night (Note: following the Taiheiki). Moronao asked that they first search out Tadayoshi and only then depart, but Takauji did not agree (Note: following the Entairyaku. The Taiheiki says that when Tadayoshi fled, the commanders gathered at Moronao's residence and asked him to remain in the capital for a while and search for him, but Moronao did not agree, and the next day departed together with Takauji).

¶Soon Moronao heard that Tadayoshi was with Naishi-no-hara Kōsen, and urged Takauji to send a letter to Kōsen and have him killed. Tadayoshi fled to Ochi Iga-no-kami for refuge and there for the time being apologized and submitted. But the officers and men who had long borne a grudge against Moronao all hurried to Tadayoshi (Note: following the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). In the following year (1351), Takauji, in Bizen, heard that Tadayoshi had raised troops, and turned his army back to attack him. Moronao sent a messenger to summon Moroyasu, left his son Moronatsu in Bizen, and, waiting until Moroyasu arrived, turned back together with him. Moronao, together with Takauji, led his troops back and at Kyoto attacked and defeated Momonoi Tadatsune. But the next day Takauji's army collapsed of itself, and Moronao followed it in flight to Harima and holed up on Shoshazan. Tadayoshi sent Ishidō Yorifusa and others to attack, but just then Moroyasu's army arrived, and together they besieged Yorifusa at Kōmyōji. At this time Takauji's camp was on ground called "Hikio" and Moronao's camp on ground called "Nakio," and people took these as ill omens.

¶Takauji then sent Hatakeyama Kuniyoshi and others to the rear of Yorifusa, but Takauji and Moronao met them at Mikagehama and were heavily defeated, and in confusion fled into Matsuoka castle. Inside the castle there was little room, and it was packed with soldiers. They therefore had the soldiers sent out of the castle and the gate closed. The men said angrily: "Is the Steward so heartless? Can he be relied on to the end?" and all went away. As a result the officers and men who had remained in the castle also ran off in various directions. The force that had at first been called twenty thousand had by this time dwindled to a mere five hundred or so, including Akamatsu Norisuke. When Takauji asked Moronao, "Are Aiba Ujinao (Note: for Ujinao, following the Entairyaku) and Ebina Rokurō still here?" Moronao answered, "They have already fled." Then he asked, "Are Nagai Jibu and Satake Kaga here?" and was answered, "They too have already gone." Takauji, resigned that there was no escape, drank a farewell cup with Moronao and the others for this life. Just then Ujinao returned from Hatakeyama Kuniyoshi's camp and reported that a peace had been agreed.

¶Moronao consulted with Moroyasu and said: "Let the shogun stay in Akamatsu's castle, and let us flee to Shikoku," and added: "Lord Sanjō (Tadayoshi) holds a deep grudge against me. But if I shave my head and admit my fault, perhaps I may be forgiven." Yakushiji Kimiyoshi said: "In the past Minamoto-no-Tameyoshi shaved his head and admitted his guilt, but even his son Yoshitomo could not save his life, and in the end the monk's robe was stained with blood. How could you be safe if you now take monks' form and surrender? You would only expose your shame. And if you flee to Shikoku, you need to prepare boats. But the boats have not yet been arranged, and the pursuers are close at hand. Who could hold them off? Moreover, I hear that Hosokawa Akiuji's great army is at Mitsuishi. If they learn that the shogun is heading for Akamatsu, they will surely get in the way. You cannot go forward, and in retreating you will lose your footing. The only course is to fight bravely with the troops you have and settle life or death." Moronao and Moroyasu hung their heads and did not answer, wishing only somehow to escape death. Kimiyoshi wept and lamented, saying, "Cornered, our fortune spent, unable even to turn back in our confusion, we have come to this at last," shaved his head, took the name Genka, hid himself, and entered Mount Kōya (Note: following the Taiheiki).

¶Takauji made a secret pact with Tadayoshi to put the brothers Moronao and Moroyasu to death (Note: following the Entairyaku). Moronao and the others still did not know this; they shaved their heads and surrendered. Moronao changed his name to Dōjō and Moroyasu to Dōshō (Note: the Keizu gives Dōshō with different characters), and in monks' robes and hats, riding horses, they followed after Takauji. People snapped their fingers and said: "The merit of leaving the world is for saving one in the next life, but these men will not be able to escape even in this one." Moronao, trying to catch up with Takauji, raised his sleeve to hide his face and spurred his horse to pass by. Uesugi Akiyoshi, holding him to be his father's enemy, ordered his soldiers to gallop their horses and block his path. Two followers of Miura Hachirō-zaemon used insolent words, saying, "What sort of priest are you, hiding your face under a hat like that?" and tore off his hat; his hood also slipped, leaving half his face exposed. Miura slashed at him with a naginata. Moroyasu, seeing this, tried to run away, but Yoshie Tokinobu (Note: for Tokinobu, following the Kinshōin-bon Taiheiki) drew his spear and thrust at him. Moroyasu tried to draw the sword he had hidden under his robe, but one of Tokinobu's followers pushed at his stirrup, brought him down from his horse, and cut him down. More than ten of their kinsmen were also all killed by Akiyoshi's soldiers. Akiyoshi was a son of Shigeyoshi (Note: following the Taiheiki).

¶Moronao had four sons, named Moromoto, Morosada, Hisanao and Moronatsu. Moromoto, Buzen-no-kami, was killed together with his father (Note: following the Keizu). Morosada was called Musashi Shōgen. When Moronao died, Morosada hid among the common people; when Yamana Tokiuji attacked Ashikaga Yoshiakira, Abo Tadazane and others made Morosada their commander and had him defend against it, but he was defeated in battle and killed himself. Nothing is known of what became of Hisanao. Moronatsu was called Musashi Gorō (Note: following the Taiheiki, with the Entairyaku also consulted). When Moronao was killed, Moronatsu was only thirteen. The soldiers seized Moronatsu and asked him deceptively, "Do you want to live?" Moronatsu, hearing that his father was dead, said, "Ah, what use would it be to live now?" and was killed on the spot (Note: following the Taiheiki; that he was thirteen at death follows the Jōrakuki). Moronao's younger brother was Moroyasu (Note: the Keizu makes Moroyasu the elder brother, but here the Jōrakuki and the Taiheiki are followed).

Kō-no-Moroyasu

¶Kō-no-Moroyasu was appointed Echigo-no-kami, Governor of Echigo (Note: following the Keizu and the Taiheiki), and served as head of Takauji's Samurai-dokoro, the office in charge of warriors (Note: following the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). In the second year of Kenmu (1335) he took part in the campaign against Hōjō Tokiyuki, fought at the Sagami River, and defeated him utterly (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Baishōron). In the first year of Engen (1336) he led a separate force to attack Kanegasaki castle. Uryū Tamotsu and others raised troops on Somayama, backing Nitta Yoshiharu. Moroyasu detached six thousand men to attack them but could not take the place. The next year (1337) Uryū Tamotsu led his troops to relieve Kanegasaki, but Moroyasu ordered Imagawa Yorisada to meet him at a strong position, defeated him utterly, and took the heads of Uryū Tamotsu, Satomi Tokinari and others. By then Kanegasaki castle had been besieged for many days; the provisions inside were exhausted and the situation worsened daily. One of his men advised Moroyasu: "Lately they have not been washing their horses in the castle; they probably have no food left and are eating the horses. If we attack now we can take it." Moroyasu urged on his officers and men for a sudden assault. Inside, provisions had been cut off for more than ten days, the soldiers were all exhausted, and though they took up their weapons they could not fight. Prince Takayoshi and Nitta Yoshiaki killed themselves, the castle fell, and the Crown Prince (Prince Tsuneyoshi) was seized and brought back.

¶In the third year of Engen (1338), Kitabatake Akiie, Commander-in-Chief of the Defense Command, led a great army, broke Kamakura, and pressed on with the momentum of victory. Takauji consulted his officers; some said, "We should go to Chinzei, gather troops, and turn back to attack," while others said, "We should break down the two bridges at Uji and Seta and hold the line." Moroyasu said: "From of old there have been many who broke down bridges and defended behind them, but I have never heard that any of them won. This is because the attackers always have ample strength, while the defenders bind themselves by the ground. When strength is ample, morale is high; when bound by the ground, morale declines. That is the cause of defeat. To repeat the same mistake now would not be a good plan. I ask that we send troops out between Ōmi and Mino and sweep the enemy away outside the capital." Takauji accepted this. Moroyasu led ten thousand troops to Mino, camped between the two rivers Kurochi-gawa and Fuji-gawa, and showed a resolve to fight to the death. Akiie could not advance and withdrew his troops toward Ise. Moroyasu pursued as far as the Kumozu River but could not gain a victory and turned back (Note: following the Taiheiki; from "pursued as far as" onward, following the Nan-Taiheiki and the Mitoya Monjo).

¶In the first year of Kōkoku (1340), Takauji had Moroyasu campaign in the eastern provinces. Moroyasu went to Tōtōmi, attacked Ii castle, and took it. But soon Prince Munenaga gathered his scattered troops and again held Ii castle. Moroyasu again besieged and attacked it for several months, and at last the castle fell (Note: the Hōreki Kanki and the Tsurugaoka Shamuki are also consulted). The Prince fled to Echigo (Note: following the Rikashū). Moroyasu, relying on his military successes, grew arrogant. Once he wished to build a villa at Edabashi in Higashiyama, but the land contained the tombs of the Sugawara family, and he asked Sugawara-no-Aritaka to yield it. Aritaka asked that he be allowed to yield it after the graves had been moved. Moroyasu was enraged and said, "He is deliberately holding it back and deceiving me with excuses," and immediately sent laborers to cut down the trees and dig up the graves, threw away the remains, and built his villa on the site. Someone set up a poem tablet beside it, whose sense was a gibe at him for digging up and discarding the memorial stupas of the dead and building a house that left no grave standing. Moroyasu suspected Aritaka of this and secretly sent strongmen to stab Aritaka and his son Arihiro (Note: the name Arihiro follows the Sugawara Keizu and the Jōrakuki) to death. Earlier, while Moroyasu was building this villa, a retainer of Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Takakage passed by the place, saw how cruelly the laborers were being worked, and criticized Moroyasu slightly. Moroyasu heard of it and flew into a rage, chased down and seized the retainer, dressed him in a laborer's clothes, and made him carry earth and haul stones to shame him, and those who saw it found it ugly. Such, in general, was his violent and merciless nature.

¶In the third year of Shōhei (1348), he attacked Kusunoki Masanori and camped on the Ishikawa riverbed, but he let his troops loose to plunder the estates that supplied the Kamon-ryō (Note: for the Kamon-ryō, following the Entairyaku), the Bureau of Palace Furnishings, and the lands set aside for temple and shrine incense and lamp offerings, and took everything. He also had the finials of Buddhist pagodas taken and recast as tea kettles, and many of his soldiers followed suit. Of the pagodas in Izumi and Kawachi there was none that was not destroyed. When the quarrel with Tadayoshi arose, he lifted the siege and returned to Kyoto. Tadayoshi sent a messenger along the road to soothe him, saying, "Moronao is not fit for his post; from now on we will replace him with your son." Moroyasu said: "I already know the scheme of cutting the branches to reach the root. I will shortly present myself and speak with you directly." He then entered Kyoto in arms with three thousand armored troops and seven thousand foot soldiers, each carrying a shield. The matter was soon settled. In the fifth year of Shōhei (1350) he attacked Misumi Nyūdō and took five of his castles one after another. The thirty-two fortified posts in the province scattered at the mere sight of his force. Misumi Nyūdō shut himself in his castle and held it firmly, and Moroyasu built long siege lines to wear him down. The next year (1351), when Takauji was defeated by Tadayoshi, fled to Harima and shut himself in Shoshazan, Moroyasu turned his troops back to relieve him, and on the way fought and defeated Uesugi Tomosada and others. He advanced further and joined Takauji, and they besieged Ishidō Yorifusa at Kōmyōji. When peace was made, he was killed together with Moronao (Note: following the Taiheiki).

¶Moroyasu's son Moroyo was Sakon'e-no-shōgen, Lieutenant of the Left Palace Guards, and he too was put to death with his father (Note: following the Entairyaku). Moroyasu's younger brother Moroshige was Suruga-no-kami, Governor of Suruga (Note: following the Keizu and the Taiheiki). When Takauji fell back to Tsukushi, Kikuchi Taketoshi was about to meet him with tens of thousands of troops. At this time Takauji's troops numbered only about five hundred, and the army trembled. Just then two Kyushu clans, the Matsura and the Kōda, taking Takauji's force for a great army that had arrived, laid down their arms and surrendered. Takauji suspected that this was not sincere and ordered strict precautions. Moroshige remonstrated: "Men's hearts change easily and are truly hard to fathom. But if we do not win men over today, how can we get through this crisis? Even if they should again turn their minds to betrayal, if we deal with them sincerely, how can they fail to be of use? I beg the shogun not to hold any suspicion." Takauji thought this just and accepted it, and from then on those who surrendered came one after another, and all of Tsukushi submitted. Nothing is known of what became of Moroshige. Moroshige's younger brother, also named Moroshige but written with different characters (Note: the Taiheiki makes him a nephew of Moronao, but here the Keizu is followed), was Buzen-no-kami. In the first year of Engen (1336) he followed Takauji in the attack on Enryakuji, fought at Nishisakamoto and was badly defeated; wounded and unable to flee, he was at last cut down and his head was exposed (Note: following the Taiheiki).

Kō-no-Morofuyu

¶Kō-no-Morofuyu was a cousin of Moronao and became Moronao's adopted son (Note: following the Keizu). He was Mikawa-no-kami, Governor of Mikawa. In the fourth year of Engen (1339), because the eastern provinces had not yet submitted, Ashikaga Takauji ordered Morofuyu to subdue them. Morofuyu led troops to Shimōsa, attacked Konoe-no-Shōshō Fujiwara-no-Sanehiro at Koma castle, and went on into Hitachi to attack Jundaijin Kitabatake Chikafusa at Oda castle (Note: the Hōreki Kanki, the Tsurugaoka Shamuki, the Yabe Monjo and the Yūki Monjo are also consulted). The next year (1340) he took two castles in Hitachi (Note: following the Tsurugaoka Sha Engi). In a night attack he heavily defeated the garrison of Koma castle and captured Sanehiro. But soon Chikafusa sent out troops to counterattack; Morofuyu defended but was at a disadvantage, burned his camp, and escaped by night (Note: the Tsurugaoka Shamuki, the Genkō Nikki Uragaki and the Yūki Monjo are also consulted).

¶In the second year of Kōkoku (1341) he again sent out troops to attack Oda castle, and secretly sent a persuader to win over the lord of the castle, Oda Haruhisa. Haruhisa surrendered (Note: following the Tsurugaoka Shamuki, the Yūki Monjo and the Beppu Monjo), and Chikafusa fled to Seki castle. Morofuyu advanced and besieged it, and detached Mito Morochika (Note: for Morochika, the Kinshōin-bon gives Ujishige, but here one text of the Keizu is followed) to attack Daihō castle, but he was defeated by Minamoto-no-Akitoki (Note: following the Yūki Monjo). Morofuyu further built long siege lines, cut the roads to the two castles, and from time to time sent out troops to provoke the enemy. After a standoff of three years, the troops in the castles collapsed and ran out of provisions, and Chikafusa and Akitoki at last abandoned the castles and fled west. Morofuyu moved his troops to attack Isa castle, and that isolated castle could not hold out. Its chief commander Date Yukitomo surrendered, and with this the whole Kantō was pacified (Note: following the Yūki Monjo, the Beppu Monjo and the Saisho Monjo). Morofuyu returned in triumph to Kyoto (Note: following the Tsurugaoka Shamuki).

¶Soon he became Harima-no-kami, Governor of Harima, and together with Uesugi Noriaki assisted Ashikaga Motouji in directing the affairs of the eastern provinces. Later Noriaki raised troops in Kōzuke in response to Ashikaga Tadayoshi. Morofuyu tried to levy troops in the Kantō but no one responded, and with only five hundred men he set out with Motouji to attack him. But the soldiers mutinied and carried Motouji away with them. Morofuyu fled to Kai and held Susawa castle, but Suwa Takatane brought troops and besieged it. Among Takatane's troops was Suwa Sanechika, who requested: "The Steward (Morofuyu) did me the favor of being my eboshi-oya, the sponsor at my coming-of-age, and we are as good as father and son; I cannot turn against him." He rushed into the castle, fought, and killed himself together with Morofuyu (Note: for Takatane and Sanechika, following the Kinshōin-bon Taiheiki). Mito Morochika, called Mito Shichirō, was a child of Morofuyu's kin. When Morofuyu was defeated, Morochika was also wounded and fled. Later, when Takauji and Tadayoshi faced each other at Sattayama, Yakushiji Kimiyoshi persuaded Utsunomiya Ujitsuna to make Morochika his commander and respond to Takauji. Morochika suddenly went mad in camp and killed himself (Note: following the Taiheiki; for Ujitsuna, following the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki).