Battle of Tatarahama

Fought on the second day of the third month of Kenmu 3 / Engen 1 (April 13, 1336) at Tatarahama in Chikuzen Province (near the mouth of the Tatara River in present-day Higashi Ward, Fukuoka), the Battle of Tatarahama was a turning point in the wars between the Northern and Southern Courts. It marked the moment when Ashikaga Takauji, driven from the capital, achieved his comeback in Kyushu.

Having rebelled against Emperor Go-Daigo's faltering Kenmu Restoration, Takauji defeated Nitta Yoshisada at Hakone-Takenoshita and reached Kyoto, only to be beaten back by loyalist forces under Kusunoki Masashige and Kitabatake Akiie. He fled westward by sea and, aided by Akamatsu Norimura, landed in Kyushu welcomed by the Shōni. Most of Kyushu's warlords, however, sided with the loyalists: Kikuchi Taketoshi of Higo, together with the Akizuki, Aso Koretada, and other houses, gathered an army said to exceed 20,000, and the Shōni base was overrun, destroying the equipment Yorihisa had prepared for the Ashikaga.

Takauji's force numbered barely 2,000. Praying for victory at Munakata Shrine, he deployed at Tatarahama. Though the far larger Kikuchi army held the advantage at first, mass defections in mid-battle reversed the tide; the Kikuchi collapsed and their valiant general Aso Koretada was killed. Combat in this era centered on mounted warriors wielding the tachi, and the turbulence of the Nanbokuchō period is linked to the fashion for oversized ōdachi field swords produced by Bizen and Sōshū smiths. The victory brought nearly all of Kyushu over to the Ashikaga; leaving Isshiki Noriuji to hold the island, Takauji marched east and defeated Kusunoki Masashige at Minatogawa that fifth month, opening the road to the Muromachi shogunate.