Kitabatake Akinobu (北畠顕信)
Akinobu KITABATAKE (c. 1317 - 1380) was a busho (Japanese military commander) who lived in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan). He was the second son of Chikafusa KITABATAKE. Appointed as a Sakone no shosho (Minor Captain of the Left Division of Inner Palace Guards), he referred to himself as Kasuga shosho (major general). He also called himself Tsuchimikado nyudo (lay-monk). He is also said to have been appointed as the udaijin (minister of the right) of Juichii (Junior First Rank) by the Southern Court (Japan).
In 1336, he took up arms in Ise Province and assisted the departure of Emperor Godaigo from the capital. In 1338, after his older brother died, he tried to go to Mutsu Province to take the place of his brother as the Chinju-fu shogun (Commander-in-Chief of the Defense of the North), but encountered a storm along the way and returned to Yoshino. In the following year, he headed for Mutsu again and attempted to take over Taga-jo Castle, which was a kokufu (ancient provincial office). Although he occupied the Castle temporarily, he was counterattacked by the samurai warriors and failed in the end. He based his activities on Mt. Ryozen (Fukushima Prefecture). In 1347, Ryozen-jo Castle fell. He moved to Uzumine. Because he had donated documents to Chokaisan-Omonoimi-jinja Shrine to pray for the restoration of the South Court and the peacefulness of Dewa Province in 1358, he was assumed to have been in Dewa in this period. His subsequent life is unknown. A rumor has it that he returned to Yoshino to work as the udaijin or moved down to Kyushu to support Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi. According to another theory, he escaped to the Tsugaru region.