In 1336, Ashikaga Takauji, who had turned against the Kenmu Restoration, fled once to Kyushu but marched on the capital again with a great army. Kusunoki Masashige proposed, "Let the emperor move to Mount Hiei for a time; we will draw the enemy into the capital and then attack from both sides," but the court nobles rejected it and ordered him down to Hyogo to meet Takauji. Masashige knew this would be his last battle.
On the way to Hyogo, at the post station of Sakurai in Settsu, Masashige called his eleven-year-old heir Masatsura and said: "This battle will decide the realm. When you hear I have died in battle, know that the realm will surely belong to the shogun (Takauji). But do not, to save your life for a moment, throw away years of loyalty and surrender. As long as even one of our clan survives, hold Mount Kongo and defend it with your life. That is the greatest filial duty you can do me." Having told him this, he sent Masatsura back to Kawachi.
On the twenty-fifth of the fifth month, the decisive battle was fought at Minatogawa. With only some seven hundred riders, Masashige charged Takauji's army of hundreds of thousands. After six hours of fierce fighting, his men were down to seventy-three, and Masashige himself had eleven wounds.
Masashige went into a farmhouse north of the Minatogawa and sat facing his brother Masasue. "They say one's last thought decides one's next life," said Masashige. "Of the nine realms, which do you wish for?" Masasue laughed aloud and answered, "Even if I am reborn seven times, I want only to be born a man again and destroy the enemies of the court." "It is a sinful wish," said Masashige, "but I feel the same. Come, let us be reborn and fulfill it." The brothers stabbed each other and died. Thirteen of their clan and over sixty retainers all cut their bellies there.
Masashige's grave is at Minatogawa Shrine in Kobe. The monument raised by Tokugawa Mitsukuni is carved "Alas, the Grave of the Loyal Retainer Kusunoki."