Kitabatake Akiyasu (北畠顕泰)
Akiyasu KITABATAKE (c.1338 - 1412) was a court noble in the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan) to the Muromachi Period. The second family head of the Kitabatake family, Ise no kuni Kokushi (the governor of Ise Province).
He was born as the second son of Akiyoshi KITABATAKE, the first family head of the Kitabatake family in Ise Province. As his father died in 1383, he succeeded the family estate and became the second family head. He cooperated with the Southern Court (Japan) and fought for hegemony of Ise Province with the Toki clan who was Ise no kami (Governor of Ise Province) in the Northern Dynasty (Japan). Even after Meitoku no wayaku (unification of Northern and Southern Court) of 1392, he continued to resist the Muromachi bakufu (Japanese feudal government headed by a shogun) by using Genchu, which was the era name of the Southern Court, in his letter.
However the then Muromachi bakufu was at the height of its prosperity under Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA, the third Shogun, and he made peace with the bakufu by pledge of ryoto tetsuritsu (alternate accedence from two ancestries of imperial families) by Emperor Gokomatsu of the Northern Court and Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA. In the Oei War in December 1399 he participated as a member of the army of bakufu with his eldest son Mitsuyasu KITABATAKE and had military exploits, but Mitsuyasu died in the battle.
He died in September 1412 at his base Taki gosho (there are different opinions saying he died in October 1402 or later than 1415). As the eldest son Mitsuyasu had died in the battle, the second son Mitsumasa KITABATAKE succeeded.