Muromachi Period - Ashikaga Bakufu

Ashikaga Bakufu

Emperor Go-Daigo's brief Kemmu restoration for various reasons disappointed the samurai class. Ashikaga Takauji obtained the samurais' strong support, and deposed Emperor Go-Daigo. In 1338 Takauji was proclaimed shogun and established his government in Kyoto. However, Emperor Godaigo escaped from his confinement, and revived his political power in Nara. The ensuing period of Ashikaga rule (1336–1573) was called Muromachi from the district of Kyoto in which its headquarters – the Hana-no-gosho (花の御所?, Flower Palace) – were located by third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in 1378. What distinguished the Ashikaga bakufu from that of Kamakura Bakufu was that, whereas Kamakura had existed in equilibrium with the Kyōto court, Ashikaga took over the remnants of the imperial government. Nevertheless, the Ashikaga bakufu was not as strong as that in Kamakura had been, and was greatly preoccupied with civil war. Not until the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (as third shogun, 1368–94, and chancellor, 1394–1408) did a semblance of order emerge.

Yoshimitsu allowed the constables, who had had limited powers during the Kamakura period, to become strong regional rulers, later called daimyō. In time, a balance of power evolved between the shogun and the daimyō; the three most prominent daimyō families rotated as deputies to the shogun at Kyoto. Yoshimitsu was finally successful in reunifying the Northern Court and the Southern Court in 1392, but, despite his promise of greater balance between the imperial lines, the Northern Court maintained control over the throne thereafter. The line of shoguns gradually weakened after Yoshimitsu and increasingly lost power to the daimyō and other regional strongmen. The shogun's influence on imperial succession waned, and the daimyō could back their own candidates. In time, the Ashikaga family had its own succession problems, resulting finally in the Ōnin War (1467–1477), which left Kyoto devastated and effectively ended the national authority of the bakufu. The power vacuum that ensued launched a century of anarchy (see Provincial Wars and Foreign Contacts).