Statue of Kusunoki Masashige in the Imperial Palace Plaza, Tokyo. . October 2018. Kusunoki Masashige was a 14th-century samurai who fought for Emperor Go-Daigo in the Genkō War, the attempt to wrest rulership of Japan away from the Kamakura shogunate and is remembered as the ideal of samurai loyalty. “The Way of the warrior (bushido) is to be found in dying.” - Yamamoto Tsunetomo.