Uesugi Yoshinori (上杉能憲)

Yoshinori UESUGI (1333 - May 22, 1378) is a busho (Japanese military commander) in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan). He led KO no Moronao and KO no Morofuyu to ruin.

His father is Noriaki UESUGI (the Yamanouchi Uesugi family). Noritaka UESUGI is his adopted child. His name is Saburo. His official rank is Shuri no suke (assistant officer of the Office of Palace Repairs) and Hyobu-shoyu (junior assistant minister of the Hyobusho Ministry of Military).

Career

He was adopted by Shigeyoshi UESUGI (the Takuma-Uesugi family), but the foster father was assassinated by KO no Moronao who was a steward in the Ashikaga family, due to his defeat of political war. Yoshinori served Tadayoshi ASHIKAGA, a younger brother of Takauji ASHIKAGA who was the shogun of Muromachi Bakufu, and contended against Takauji during the Kanno Disturbance with Tadayoshi in 1350. Yoshinori, 17 years old at the time, raised an army in Hitachi Province, and in 1351, he caused Moronao's cousin KO no Morofuyu's ruin by attack in Suzawa, Kai Province (Yamanashi Prefecture). After he got armed groups of Kanto region in his clutches he went to the West, and he exploited a gap while Takauji reconciled with Tadayoshi and returned with Ko clan including Moronao, he devised a stratagem and executed Moronao and a whole family in Mukogawa, Settsu Province (Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture).

Tadayoshi ASHIKAGA escaped from Kyoto again and opposed to Takauji, and Yoshinori was defeated by Takauji's troop at Kanbara, Suruga Province. He was sent into exile for a while, however, he was permitted later, and assisted the Kamakura kubo (Governor-general of the Kanto region), Ujimitsu ASHIKAGA as a Kanto Kanrei (A shogunal deputy for the Kanto region). Thereafter, the Uesugi family takes the Kanto Kanrei post by succession.

[Original Japanese]