Japanese History Digest
The Muromachi Period
Kenmu Restoration
After overthrowing the Kamakura shogunate, Emperor Go-Daigo abolished the positions of regent and chancellor, aiming for a new government based on the ideal of direct imperial rule. In 1334, the era name was changed to Kenmu, so this government is called the Kenmu Restoration.
Emperor Go-Daigo established the Records Office, Warrior Office, Court of Miscellaneous Appeals, and Rewards Office in the central government, and in the provinces, set up the Kamakura Shogunate Office, Mutsu Shogunate Office, Seiseifu (Western Pacification Office), and provincial governors. Nitta Yoshisada was appointed as the head of the Warrior Office.
Although Emperor Go-Daigo’s Kenmu government was modeled on the ideal rule of the Engi and Tenryaku eras of the Heian period, it was a hybrid of aristocratic and warrior rule. As a result, both the aristocrats and the warriors became dissatisfied, leading to social unrest.
Ashikaga Takauji and the Nanboku-chō Period
Amid this turmoil, in 1335, the Nakasendai Rebellion broke out, led by Tokiyuki, the son of the last regent Hōjō Takatoki. Ashikaga Takauji, who went to Kamakura to suppress this, turned against the new government and rebelled. Ordered by Emperor Go-Daigo to subdue Takauji, he once retreated to Kyushu, but then allied with the Jimyōin line opposed to Go-Daigo and installed Emperor Kōmyō, aiming to establish a warrior government. Thus, the Kenmu Restoration ended, and the Nanboku-chō period began, with the Southern Court (Daikakuji line) led by Go-Daigo in Yoshino, claiming legitimacy with the Imperial Regalia, and the Northern Court (Jimyōin line) in Kyoto supported by the Ashikaga clan.
Establishment of the Muromachi Shogunate
After taking Kyoto from Emperor Go-Daigo of the Daikakuji line, Ashikaga Takauji installed Emperor Kōmyō of the Jimyōin line. Takauji and his younger brother Tadayoshi shared political duties and established the Kenmu Code, outlining the basic policies of the warrior government. In 1338, Takauji was appointed shōgun. Meanwhile, the Southern Court declined as Emperor Go-Daigo died and the warriors who had supported the Kenmu government were defeated.
Although it seemed an opportunity for reunification, the Northern Court was soon embroiled in the Kan'ō Disturbance, an internal conflict. The brothers, once praised as “Takauji for military, Tadayoshi for government,” fell into conflict when Tadayoshi’s aide Kō no Moronao clashed with Tadayoshi, leading to Moronao’s assassination by Tadayoshi and eventually open warfare between Takauji and Tadayoshi.
The Era of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
The name “Muromachi Shogunate” comes from the residence called “Flower Palace” built by the third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, in the Muromachi district of Kyoto at the end of the 14th century, which became the center of politics.
The chaos of the Nanboku-chō period subsided, and in 1392, the two imperial lines were unified, allowing the shogunate to complete its control over the country by subduing the shugo daimyōs.
The shogunate’s central government included the kanrei (deputy shoguns) from the Ashikaga family branches-Hosokawa, Shiba, and Hatakeyama (the “Three Kanrei”)-and the samurai-dokoro (warrior office) responsible for Kyoto’s security, managed by the Yamana, Akamatsu, Isshiki, and Kyōgoku families (the “Four Jobs”). In the provinces, there were the Kamakura Office in the east, the Kyushu Tandai in the south, and the Ōshū and Ushū Tandai in the north.
The shogunate’s finances relied mainly on income from direct territories and taxes on shugo and jitō. Other sources included land taxes (tansen), house taxes (munabetsusen), and tolls (sekisen).
In foreign affairs, the shogunate established relations with Ming China, exporting copper, sulfur, and swords, and importing copper coins, raw silk, and silk fabrics through tally trade (kangō trade).
The Mongol Invasions and the Shogunate
In the early 13th century, nomadic peoples led by Genghis Khan rose on the continent and subjugated Goryeo on the Korean Peninsula. In 1274, Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, renamed his state Yuan and demanded tribute from Japan. When the Kamakura shogunate refused, Yuan forces landed at Hakata Bay. The shogunate’s warriors, who fought in single combat, struggled against Yuan’s gunpowder and group tactics, retreating to Dazaifu, but a storm forced the Yuan army to withdraw (Bunei Campaign).
The Yuan invaded again in 1281, but another storm and resistance from Goryeo conscripts forced them to withdraw again (Kōan Campaign).
The shogunate gained nothing from these two Mongol invasions, and could not adequately reward its vassals, leading to their impoverishment.
Toward the Ōnin War
Under Yoshimitsu’s successor, Yoshimochi, the power of the shugo daimyōs, previously suppressed, grew. Ashikaga Yoshinori, who had entered the priesthood, was chosen as the sixth shōgun by lottery and sought to strengthen his authority. The Kamakura kubō (shogunal deputy in Kamakura) had long been at odds with the shogunate, and during the time of Ashikaga Mochiuji, the Kantō kanrei Uesugi Norizane clashed with the kubō. Yoshinori sided with Norizane and destroyed Mochiuji in 1439 (Eikyō Disturbance). He also destroyed the Yūki clan for sheltering Mochiuji’s child. Fearing Yoshinori’s reign of terror, Akamatsu Mitsusuke, shugo of Harima, assassinated him (Kakitsu Disturbance). Mitsusuke was then defeated by Yamana Mochitoyo, head of the samurai-dokoro, but from this time, the authority of the shōgun declined.
After Yoshinori’s death, succession disputes arose within the Hatakeyama and Shiba kanrei families, and also over the heir to the eighth shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Yamana Mochitoyo and kanrei Hosokawa Katsumoto also clashed. The shogunate relied on both men, and in 1467, the Ōnin War broke out between the Eastern Army, led by Hosokawa, and the Western Army, led by Yamana. The war lasted 11 years, devastated Kyoto, and left the shogunate’s power limited to just Yamashiro Province, marking the start of the Sengoku period.
The Beginning of the Sengoku Period
After the Ōnin War, as the shogunate weakened, shugo daimyōs were overthrown by their own deputies and local samurai, and the trend of gekokujō (the low overthrowing the high) spread throughout the country. In the Muromachi shogunate, the Hosokawa family controlled Kyoto, but their power was usurped by their retainer Miyoshi Nagayoshi, who was then overthrown by Matsunaga Hisahide. In the east, the Kantō kubō split between Ashikaga Shigeuji (son of Mochiuji) and Ashikaga Masauji (brother of the eighth shōgun Yoshimasa), but Hōjō Sōun expanded his power from Odawara, and under Hōjō Ujiyasu, controlled most of the Kantō region. In the west, Ōuchi Yoshitaka, shugo daimyō of Suō, was overthrown by Sue Harukata. In each case, sengoku daimyōs who formed master-servant relationships with local samurai and landowners became independent from the shogunate, ruling their own domains and enacting provincial laws that applied only within their territories.
Timeline of the Muromachi period
| 1333 AD | Fall of the Kamakura Shogunate |
| 1335 AD | Nakasendai Rebellion |
| 1335 AD | Ashikaga Takauji rebels against the government |
| 1336 AD | Promulgation of the Kenmu Code |
| 1378 AD | Ashikaga Yoshimitsu builds the "Flower Palace" (Hana no Gosho) |
| 1392 AD | Unification of the Northern and Southern Courts |
| 1394 AD | Ashikaga Yoshimitsu becomes Chancellor (Daijō Daijin) |
| 1399 AD | Ōei Disturbance |
| 1467 AD | Start of the Ōnin War |
| 1477 AD | End of the Ōnin War |
| 1543 AD | Introduction of firearms to Japan |
| 1549 AD | Introduction of Christianity (Francis Xavier) |
Facilities where you can learn about the Muromachi period
Imperial Household Agency Visitor Information: Facility Information – Kyoto Imperial Palace
https://kyoto-gosho.kunaicho.go.jp/en
Note: The Hana-no-Gosho was located at the northwest of today’s Kyoto Imperial Palace, diagonally across from the Karasuma-Imadegawa intersection within the Kyoto Gyoen National Garden.
Daishoji Temple(Kyoto City Kamigyo Ward Official Website)
https://www.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kamigyo/page/0000012472.html
Yoshino Town Promotion Website
https://www.town.yoshino.nara.jp/promotion/chosennochi-yoshino/yoshinonochosennorekishi/rekishi/331.html
Eizan-ji Temple (Nara Tabinet – Official Tourism Site of Nara Prefecture)
https://yamatoji.nara-kankou.or.jp/01shaji/02tera/04south_area/eisanji/
