Emperor Go-Kameyama 

Emperor Go-Kameyama (circa 1347 – 1424) was the ninety-ninth Emperor. He lived in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts and was the fourth and last Emperor in the Southern Court. He reigned from 1383 to 1392. His personal name was Hironari or Yoshinari.

He was the second son of Emperor Go-Murakami. His mother was Fujiwara Katsuko, also known as Kaki Mon’in was a waka poet.

Go-Kameyama acceded to the throne during Nanboku-chō, the period of the Northern Court and the Southern Court. Go-Kameyama became Emperor of the Southern court when Emperor Chōkei, his older brother, abdicated in 1383.

After fifty years of warfare, the Southern Court’s fortunes had ebbed and there were factions within the court. Emperor Chōkei wanted to continue the conflict, but the hopelessness of the situation led to the ascendance of the peace faction. Chōkei abdicated in favor of Go-Kameyama. For the next nine years, Go-Kameyama continued the Southern Court while open to peace negotiations.

In October 1392, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu presented a peace settlement between the Northern and Southern Courts. Go-Kameyama, at the insistence of the peace faction amongst his own courtiers, accepted the conditions.

The courtiers and other supporters of the Southern Court left Yoshino for Daikaku-ji Temple and on October 29 presented Three Sacred Treasures or Imperial Regalia to Emperor Go-Komatsu, ending the Southern Court. By presenting the Imperial Regalia to Emperor Go-Komatsu, Go-Kameyama was understood to have abdicated.

The courts were united and thus the period of Nanboku-chō came to an end. The imperial line was integrated into the line of the Northern Court.

Following his abdication, Go-Kameyama went into seclusion and entered into priesthood, calling himself Kongoshin.

By the conditions of the peace treaty, the Northern Court and the Southern Court were supposed to alternate control of the throne every ten years. However, Emperor Go-Komatsu reneged on his promise and continued his rule.

In 1410, Go-Kameyama left Saga at Daikaku-ji and went to Yoshino and spent several years there. In 1412, Emperor Go-Komatsu abdicated in favor of his son. Since then no descendant of the Southern Court has ever sat on the Chrysanthemum Throne again.

Go-Kameyama’s move to Yoshino has been interpreted as either due to dire poverty or as a protest to the violation of the peace agreement on the part of Go-Komatsu. Nevertheless, Emperor Shoko ascended the throne in 1412 and Cloistered Emperor Go-Kameyama returned to Daikaku-ji in 1416.

Go-Kameyama died on May 19, 1424. His age was 75 or 78.

In 1911, the Japanese government declared the Southern Court claimants were actually the rightful emperors despite the fact that all subsequent emperors, including the then-Emperor Meiji, were descended from the Northern Court, reasoning the Southern Court retained possession of the Three Sacred Treasures or Imperial Regalia, thus converting the emperors of the former Northern court into mere pretenders.