Consequently, Takauji ASHIKAGA was regarded as a rebel, while Masashige KUSUNOKI, Yoshisada NITTA and others on the side of the Southern Court were idealized as loyal vassals (the Tokugawa shogunate family claimed that it had descended from the Nitta clan), with this continuing up through the Mitogaku, which led to sonno joi (revere the emperor; expel the barbarian) at the end of the Edo period, and koukoku-shikan (emperor-centered historiography) before the Pacific War.
これにより足利尊氏は逆賊であり南朝側の楠木正成や新田義貞などは忠臣として美化され（徳川将軍家は新田氏の末裔を称していた）、これがのちに水戸学として幕末の尊王攘夷運動、さらに太平洋戦争前の皇国史観へと至る。