He trained at the Daigo-ji monastery and became a Great Master (Great Acharya) of Shingon Buddhism, and founded Shinnyo-en in 1936.
When Emperor Go-Daigo began his Kemmu Restoration, the still very young prince, along with Kitabatake Akiie, in 1333 went to Tagajō in what is now Miyagi Prefecture, at the time Mutsu Province, to return the eastern samurai to their allegiance and destroy the remnants of the Hōjō clan.
Go-Daigo fled to Yoshino, in Yamato Province and continued to lay proper claim to the throne, establishing what would come to be known as the Southern Court.
When Go-Daigo's attempt to seize power in 1331 failed (the Genkō War), Moriyoshi fled Enryakuji to the province of Kii, meeting up with Kusunoki Masashige.
Fleeing the Ashikaga, Nitta brought the Princes away from Yoshino, where the Southern Court of Go-Daigo was based, towards Tsuruga in Echizen.
Emperor Go-Daigo in the 14th century, Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 16th century, and many others used it to flee from conflict, to return to the core of the country (kinai), or to move troops.
Despite this, he was not arrested for lèse majesté, even when donning the Imperial Crest, because he had a koseki detailing his bloodline back to Go-Daigo in Yoshino, but has been unsuccessful at creating any political change other than sympathy.