Ashikaga Yoshiakira

Ashikaga Yoshiakira (July 4, 1330 – December 28, 1367) was the second shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1358 to 1367 during the Muromachi Period. Yoshiakira was the son of the founder and first shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji.

His childhood name was Senjuo. He spent his childhood in Kamakura as a hostage of the Hōjō clan. His father Takauji joined forces with the banished Emperor Go-Daigo. Yoshiakira assisted Nitta Yoshisada (1301 – 1338) in his attack on the Kamakura shogunate that ended up destroying the Hōjō clan.

After the Kamakura shogunate was overthrown, Go-Daigo began restoring imperial authority which came to be known as the Kenmu Restoration. Go-Daigo made many mistakes during the Kenmu Restoration and eventually was forced to flee Kyoto. Go-Daigo kept the Imperial Regalia and started the Southern Court in opposition to the Northern Court set up by the Ashikaga.

After the removal of Go-Daigo, Ashikaga Takauji began governing. He divided responsibilities with his brother, Tadayoshi. Eventually the two brothers fought in the Kannō Disturbance that proved very costly and unsettling and the Southern and Northern Courts traded possession of Kyoto, depending upon the ebb and flow of their fortunes in war.

In 1358 Ashikaga Takauji died and the shogunate passed to Yoshiakira. Ashikaga Yoshiakira inherited an unstable situation.  The Kannō Disturbance had pitted his father, Takauji, against his uncle, Tadayoshi. The Southern court had had a resurgence. Adding to the instability, there was no strong, central court of justice. Furthermore, the Ashikagas controlled only eight provinces, requiring the shogunate to bargain with powerful landowners and warlords for support.

The Kannō Disturbance divided the bureaucratic and judicial institutions of Tadayoshi against the military with its vassal system of Takauji. Yoshiakira sought an intermediary institution to be a bridge. He created the Kanrei Council System, which was composed of the kanrei office and the Senior Vassal Council over which the kanrei presided. The Senior Vassal Council was composed of the most powerful shugo families: Hosokawa, Shiba, and Hatakeyama. The kanrei acted as a spokesman mediating between the Senior Vassal Council and the shogun. In Kyoto, the Board of Retainers (samurai dokoro), which exercised police functions and executed criminal justice, had a parallel system to the Senior Vassal Council. Together they tied the interests of the shugo with the shogunate.

In 1367, when only 37, Yoshiakira fell ill and died. He was succeeded by his son Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who became the third shogun in 1368. Yoshiakira was posthumously named (Hōkyōin), and his grave is at Tōji-in, Kyoto, at the same site as his father’s grave.