06/12/2026
Statue of Kusunoki Masashige in Tokyo, Japan. Kusunoki is a popular legend in Japan representing loyalty and virtue, and associated with the phrase "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country!" (七生報國, Shichishō Hōkoku!).
He was a military commander and samurai of the Kamakura period remembered as the ideal loyal samurai.
Kusunoki was posthumously awarded the highest court rank in Japan, Senior First Rank (shō ichi-i), by the Meiji government in 1880, over 500 years after his death. He was highly regarded as one of "Japan's three loyal retainers" along with Fujifusa Madenokoji and Taira no Shigemori.
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