Kusunoki Masasige

(1294–1336) was a fourteenth-century samurai who fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in his attempt to wrest the rule of Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate. He is remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty. In what would later be viewed as the ultimate act of obedience, he accepted a foolish command from his emperor, left his death poem with his young son Masatsura and knowingly marched his army to certain death.