Partly because of this, since the 19th century, the Emperors of the Southern Imperial Court have been considered the legitimate Emperors of Japan. Moreover, the Southern Court controlled the Japanese imperial regalia. The Northern Court members are not considered legitimate Japanese emperors. They are called "Northern Court Emperors" now. One Southern Court descendant, Kumazawa Hiromichi, declared himself to be Japan's rightful emperor in the days after the end of the Pacific War. He claimed that Emperor Hirohito was a fraud, arguing that Hirohito's entire line is descended from the Northern Court. Despite this, he was not arrested for lèse majesté, even when donning the Imperial Crest. He could and did produce a koseki detailing his bloodline back to Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino, but his claims and rhetoric failed to inspire anything other than sympathy. Re-unification of Imperial courts Go-Kameyama reached an agreement with Go-Komatsu to return to the old alternations on a ten-year plan. However, Go-Komatsu broke this promise, not only ruling for 20 years, but being succeeded by his own son, rather than by one from the former Southern Court. During the Meiji period, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911, established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the direct descendants of Emperor Go-Daigo through Emperor Go-Murakami, whose Southern Court had been established in exile in Yoshino, near Nara. Northern Court emperors These are the Hokuchō or Northern Court emperors: Emperor Kōgon 1331–1333. – Emperor Kōmyō 1336–1348. Emperor Sukō 1348–1351. – Emperor Go-Kōgon 1352–1371. Emperor Go-En'yū 1371–1382. Emperor Go-Komatsu 1382–1392 (then went on to reign as legitimate emperor 1392–1412) Southern Court emperors These are the Nanchō or Southern Court emperors: Emperor Go-Daigo 1336–1339. Emperor Go-Murakami 1339–1368. Emperor Chōkei 1368–1383. Emperor Go-Kameyama 1383–1392. Notes References Dower, John W. (1999). Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II. New York: W. W. Norton. ; Mehl, Margaret. (1997). History and the State in Nineteenth-Century Japan. New York: St Martin's Press. ; OCLC 419870136 Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005). Japan Encyclopedia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ; OCLC 48943301 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard Arthur Brabazon. (1959). The Imperial House of Japan. Kyoto: Ponsonby Memorial Society. OCLC 194887 Thomas, Julia Adeney. (2001). Reconfiguring Modernity: Concepts of Nature in Japanese Political Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press. ; Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. (écrit par Hayashi Gahō en 1652). Paris: Oriental