He was the son of Emperor
Go-Daigo and his consort
Minamoto no Chikako. Moriyoshi was named by his father as the head abbot of the
Enryaku-ji temple on
Mount Hiei. Go-Daigo attempted to seize power in 1331 during the
Genkō War. Prince Moriyoshi joined forces with
Kusunoki Masashige. Moriyoshi tenaciously defended
Mount Yoshino. Masashige's heroics defending
Chihaya, together with Moriyoshi's efforts to rally troops, brought a large number of warriors to the loyalist cause. By 1333, the rival warlords
Ashikaga Takauji and
Nitta Yoshisada had both joined the cause; Yoshisada would
lay siege to Kamakura in the same year. When the city finally fell, Regent Hōjō Takatoki fled to
Tōshō temple, where he and his entire family committed suicide. This marked the end of
Hōjō power. Go-Daigo made the double mistake of giving the title to his sons Moriyoshi and Norinaga, two civilians, thus alienating Takauji and the warrior class, who felt he, as a military man and a descendant of the
Minamoto clan, should have been
shōgun instead. Takauji seized Moriyoshi in Yoshino "on imperial warrant", after rumors attributed to Go-Daigo's consort Renshi, that he was preparing an attack. Moriyoshi was then sent to Takauji's brother
Ashikaga Tadayoshi in Kamakura. Tadayoshi had Moriyoshi beheaded in late August 1335. Morinaga's wife Princess Hinaturu and his vassal took back Morinaga's head to Yamanashi. Morinaga's head was buried at the base of the katsura tree at Fujisan-Simomiya-Omuro-Sengen-Shrine. A Shinto shrine,
Kamakura-gū, was built around the cave where Prince Moriyoshi was imprisoned. It was dedicated to him by
Emperor Meiji in 1869. ==Family==