During the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan), Emperor Godaigo of the Southern Court dispatched his Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi as seisei shogun (literally, "great general who subdues the western barbarians"), and the Southern Court who supported Imperial Prince Kaneyoshi who was backed up by the Kikuchi clan defeated the Northern Court, whose supreme commander was the Shoni clan, in the Battle of Chikugo-gawa River in 1351.
南北朝時代(日本)には、南朝(日本)の後醍醐天皇が皇子の懐良親王を征西将軍として派遣し、菊池氏に擁立された懐良親王を頂く南朝方は1351年の筑後川の戦いで少弐氏を総大将とした北朝方を破り、本拠とした。