Page "Nanboku-chō period" Paragraph 12

However, the Kemmu Restoration was a failure.

It failed for a number of reasons, chief among these Emperor Go-Daigo's unrealistic desire to return to what he perceived to have been a golden age.

Although there is no evidence he wanted to go back to Heian period policies like Chikafusa, there is clear evidence he believed it possible to restore not only imperial power, but also its culture.

He even wrote a treatise called Kenmu Nenchū Gyōji for the purpose of reviving court ceremonies that had fallen out of use.

In 1336 Ashikaga Takauji rebelled against the imperial court and proclaimed the beginning of a new warrior regime.

After his proclamation, he was forced to retreat to Kyūshū after the imperialist forces of Kitabatake Akiie attacked and defeated him near Kyoto.

This betrayal of the Kemmu Restoration by Takauji blackened his name in later periods of Japanese history, and officially started the Nanboku-chō War.

Previous historical views tried to look at the failure of the Restoration at the level of ineffectiveness in the area of rewarding lands to the many petitions that flooded in from samurai ; however, it is now clear that, at the most important level, the judicial organs that determined land dispute cases, the Restoration was effective.

This forces us to conclude that Takauji's rebellion and desire to create a new warrior regime was a prime determinant in the Restoration's failure.

His rebellion encouraged a large body of dissatisfied warriors ( there were always those whose petitions were not granted ) who desired to see the creation of another warrior regime modeled after Kamakura.