History Muromachi Period (1338-1573)

The Ashikaga Shogunate

The Muromachi shogunate (1338-1573) was the second of Japan's three military regimes (幕府 , bakufu), following the Kamakura shogunate (1192-1333) and preceding the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867). Established by Ashikaga Takauji (足利尊氏, 1305-1358), its name derives from the Muromachi district of Kyōto , where the shogunal palace and administrative headquarters were located after 1378. It is also known as the "Ashikaga shogunate," referring to its ruling family. Under the Ashikaga, the shōgun and their government significantly expanded the scope of military rule, asserting authority over most political and military affairs of the country, including foreign relations, and leaving the Japanese emperor little more than marginal and primarily ritualised sovereignty. Contrary to the later Tokugawa rule, the Ashikaga shōgun failed to establish a balance of power between the shōgun and the local daimyō . Although it lasted more than two hundred years, the Muromachi shogunate rarely assumed the role of central authority.


To extend its influence beyond its headquarters at Kamakura, the first shogunate relied on its network of military land stewards (地頭 jitō) and provincial commanders (守護 shugo) selected from among its vassals (御家人 gokenin). Though limited, the Kamakura shogunate's authority had been exercised within the still-functioning structures of the imperial provincial government. Under the Muromachi shogunate, the shugo united the military powers they already had with most of those previously held by the provincial civil governors (国司 kokushi), thus becoming, in effect, military governors. The combined powers of the shōgun, shugo, and jitō constituted a system that resembled a national government. Even though the Muromachi bakufu dealt with a higher volume and a more complex range of administrative, legal, and military transactions than the Kamakura shogunate, neither shōgun nor shugo acquired the executive powers required to assert the authority they claimed fully. The balance of political-military power on which the Ashikaga house rested its rule was weakened because many shugo were as powerful as the Ashikaga house itself. The Ashikaga hegemony depended critically upon the support of vassal shugo houses and much less on its capacity to maintain a private force recruited from its numerous but individually weak jitō-rank vassals. The shōgun never commanded a private army that could hold its own against the strongest of their major vassals, let alone against a combination of shugo.

Towards the end of their rule, the Ashikaga family emerged as one of the most powerful Kamakura vassals. It held the shugo territories of Mikawa and Kazusa and estates in the provinces of Shimotsuke (modern-day Tochigi Prefecture), Kazusa (now part of Chiba Prefecture), Sagami (present-day Kanagawa Prefecture), Mikawa (now part of Aichi Prefecture ), and Tamba (now part of Kyōto and Hyōgo prefectures). For its military forces, it could count on a large number of branch families (collectively known as 一門 ichimon) from those provinces. In Takauji's generation, the ichimon included such names as the Hatakeyama (畠山), Niki (仁木), Hosokawa (細川), Kira (吉良), Imagawa (今川), Togashi (冨樫), Isshiki (一色), Shibukawa (渋川), and the Shiba (斯波). Countless warrior families allied themselves with the Ashikaga in their struggle for hegemony as tozama (外様 , non-kin) vassals.

Once he had become shōgun, Takauji posted members of reliable branch families as shugo in as many provinces as possible. By the end of the 14th century, of the 67 provincial appointments recorded, 42 were held by Ashikaga kinsmen. However, the family connection was never a reliable bond, as the many defections that occurred during the civil wars of the Northern and Southern courts (1336-92) proved. Also, the shugo were far from powerful in their assigned provinces.



Shugo were appointed to one or more provinces (国 kuni) in which they were to maintain order, administer justice, and ensure tax collection. Although military lords had considerable landholdings and a personal following, their lands were not necessarily located in their assigned provinces. Most of the area of any given province was occupied by the estates of court nobles, religious organisations, and local military proprietors (国人 kokujin), some of whom were direct vassals (gokenin) of the shōgun. Shugo, especially those brought in from outside by the Ashikaga shōgun, had to compete with these local proprietors for land and workforce. Being associated with the shogunate, the shugo had an edge in this contest: they could retain lands vacated due to judicial or military action for themselves or other warrior houses, thus enlarging their holdings or bands of retainers. They had the authority to levy certain provincial imposts (tansen and tammai) for particular purposes. They could award half-tax (hanzei) rights to local warrior families (a practice that permitted the local use of half the estate taxes due to absentee proprietors for wartime commissariat expenses). Resorting to such techniques and direct military action to acquire more lands and vassals, the shugo expanded their strength locally, but increasingly at the cost of the shōgun's interests.

During the 15th century, as some shugo and kokujin became more powerful and locally entrenched, they were able to assemble unitary domains, which, though initially not as large as whole provinces, were more compact and militarily viable. These shugo were called shugo daimyō. As this happened, the shogunate's connection became increasingly less valuable in the local power struggle. The shogunate, for its part, tried to keep the shugo dependent on the shōgun by juggling shugo appointments, by using its provincial gokenin to protect its local interests, and by interfering in the household affairs of its shugo houses. Such manoeuvres were common in Muromachi politics.

The Kamakura and the Tokugawa shogunates were based in the Kantō region , far removed from Kyōto. The Kamakura shōgun had been able to rely on an existing provincial government system to maintain the country's basic structure. At the same time, it exerted its influence through specific, limited administrative channels. The Tokugawa shōguns had the power to control Kyōto and the western provinces from the Kantō region. Ashikaga Takauji, even though his family's base of power was in the Kantō, was obliged to move to Kyōto, as his hold over the capital area was precarious. For the Muromachi shogunate, this relocation of power created a "Kantō issue".

To maintain a presence in the Kantō region, Takauji created at Kamakura a "branch shogunate" known as the Kamakura-fu (鎌倉府), to which he posted his second son with the title kantō kanrei (関東管領 Kantō deputy). The Kantō headquarters, though controlled by Kyōto, was given considerable freedom in local affairs. Its jurisdiction extended to the eight Kantō provinces plus Izu (now part of Shizuoka Prefecture) and Kai (present-day Yamanashi Prefecture), and later to Mutsu (now Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures) and Dewa (now Akita and Yamagata prefectures). Before long, the head of the Kantō Ashikaga house adopted the style of kubō (公方, a title reserved for the shōgun) and passed the office of kanrei to the Uesugi family , who had served as the chief managers of the Kamakura-fu. The tendency toward separatism became so intense that the Kyōto government was obliged to take military action. In 1439, the Ashikaga Kantō line was extinguished by an army assembled by the sixth shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshinori . After that, the Uesugi family, serving as kanrei, became the highest officials at Kamakura.

Kyūshū presented the Ashikaga in Kyōto with similar problems of control. In the southern island, most provinces had long been subordinated to entrenched military houses, such as the Shimazu, Otomo, Shoni, and Ouchi. Takauji had little choice but to leave these houses in place as shugo. As a regional representative of the shogunate in Kyōto, however, the Ashikaga shōgun kept in northern Kyūshū , usually at Hakata, the head of an influential branch family with the title of Kyūshū tandai (九州探題, Kyūshū deputy). Of these, Imagawa Sadayo, who served in the post from 1371 to 1395, was outstanding for his ability to bring the Kyūshū shugo to the support of the Muromachi shogunate. But Kyōto's ability to control the Western end of the Inland Sea and the Northern coast of Kyūshū, so critical to the then-flourishing tally trade with Korea and China, was never direct or complete, even under the strongest of tandai.

Thus, the power of the Muromachi shogunate extended directly only to the central region of Japan, some 45 out of a total of 68 provincial units (66 kuni and 2 shima, or islands). It was within this area that the Ashikaga stronghold was secure. There were 20 active shugo houses in these provinces since many simultaneously held more than one province. At the end of the 14th century, about ten Ashikaga branch families held 31 of the 45 shugoships in the central region. All shugo in this area were required to build residences in Kyōto to be available for shogunate service.

Although the government under the Ashikaga shōgun took shape as a balance of forces between the shōgun and his shugo, it is natural that the shōgun should have sought to occupy a status well above that of the coalition that supported him. From its own estates (御領 go-ryō), the Ashikaga house derived some income and military service. A critical source of income and military support came from placing the entire province of Yamashiro (now part of Kyōto Prefecture) under shogunate control by having the head of the Board of Retainers (侍所 samurai-dokoro) serve as shugo. Aside from this, the shōgun's lands were scattered over many provinces. These holdings were used as sources of income but, more importantly, as fiefs to support the household retainers who served as shogunate administrators and guardsmen. The shōgun's palace guards, the hōkōshū (奉公衆 ), were recruited both from shogunal estates and from lesser branches of shugo houses. But these units, while sufficient to maintain order in the capital city, never numbered more than a few hundred mounted men. Military action on behalf of the shogunate was always undertaken by troops under shogunal order from loyal shugo houses. Therefore, the ability of a shōgun to exert force depended greatly on his capacity to motivate a sufficient number of shugo to follow his direction. The one who managed this best was the third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu , who successfully sent out coalition armies against threats to the shogunate posed by aggressive shugo houses. However, the eighth shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa , proved unable to maintain the balance of power. The result was the Ōnin War (1467-77), which pitted all shugo houses against one another in a military struggle that lasted eleven years and ultimately ended the shogunate's ability to influence affairs beyond the capital city.

The shōgun's powers were not limited to military force alone. Vested in the office of shōgun were certain legal and customary prerogatives and a charisma derived from the possession of high court rank and an aristocratic style of life. The post of shōgun was an imperial appointment, and with it came the expectation of high court status. Takauji achieved the second rank, senior grade. Yoshimitsu moved a step higher to the first rank, junior grade; his successors, up through Yoshimasa, did likewise. Such ranks assimilated the Ashikaga house into the high court nobility, far above other military lords in prestige and proximity to the emperor, who was still revered as the official sovereign. A further dimension was added to the shōgun's public image when, in 1403, the emperor of the Ming dynasty in China conferred the designation "King of Japan" on Yoshimitsu. This, however, did not become a regular practice.


Part of the Ashikaga shōguns' demonstration of their new aristocratic status was their magnanimous patronage of the arts. Beginning with the shogunal residences, the so-called Hana no Gosho (花の御所, Palace of Flowers), the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion), and the Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion), the Ashikaga house gave expression to the values of a new elite culture, a fusion of the traditional style of the civil nobility and the dynamic culture of the warrior aristocracy. The rising religious, as well as artistic influence of Zen Buddhism and the proximity of the imperial court and the shogunate, resulted in the flourishing of the arts: architecture, literature, Noh drama, kyōgen ((狂言, lit. "mad words" or "wild speech"; comedy), poetry, sarugaku (猿楽, folk entertainment), the tea ceremony , landscape gardening, and flower arranging, all prospered. It is significant that this style of life was urban and cosmopolitan, and that the Ashikaga could continue it, even after losing effective power in the provinces, through control of Kyōto and its commercial wealth, as well as participation in the Chinese trade. The Chinese Ming Dynasty had been seeking Japanese support in suppressing the wakō (倭寇), Japanese pirates plaguing the Chinese coastal waters, resulting in half a century of closer ties between both countries. Yoshimitsu reinstated the Chinese tribute system, which involved exporting Japanese goods (such as wood, copper ore, sulfur, swords, and fans) and importing Chinese products (including porcelain, silk, books, and coins), resulting in a profitable trade for both sides.

The Muromachi government was primarily shaped by Ashikaga Takauji, a military organiser and strategist concerned primarily with maintaining the balance of power, and his younger brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi , who devoted himself to establishing the administrative organs of government. The promulgation of the Kemmu shikimoku (建武式目, Kemmu Code or Ashikaga Code) in 1336 demonstrated the Ashikaga's intent to follow the Kamakura model of military rule. They also recognised the need to bring peace to Kyōto and to protect their commercial interests. The early Ashikaga shōguns inherited a great deal from the Kamakura shogunate in terms of administrative organisation and personnel. Unlike the Minamoto line in Kamakura, the Ashikaga house retained its control over the office of the shōgun from beginning to end, and the first eight shōguns, at least, played significant roles in the Muromachi government.


For the first few years after its founding, the Muromachi shogunate was run by the shōgun with the aid of a steward (執事 shitsuji), a post held by a succession of kin and quasi-kin vassals. In 1362, the office was renamed kanrei and upgraded to what can be translated as "deputy shōgun". In 1367, just as Hosokawa Yoriyuki (1329-92) was named kanrei, Yoshimitsu succeeded as head of the Ashikaga house. He was then a minor, so the office of kanrei was briefly something of a regency. However, the post was not permitted to become the possession of any one family; instead, it was passed around in succession among three ichimon families: the Shiba, Hosokawa, and Hatakeyama. Rather than compete with the Ashikaga house, these three houses served as an inner bloc of powerful shugo committed to its support. Under the mature Yoshimitsu, the office of kanrei became a bridge between the shōgun and the provincial shugo. Evidence of this is seen in the establishment of a council of shugo (寄合 yoriai) consisting of the heads of the three kanrei houses and other powerful shugo houses like the Yamana, Isshiki, and the Imagawa clan .

The kanrei-yoriai system worked well up to the time of the sixth shōgun, Yoshinori, who tried to bypass the kanrei and yoriai and to exert a direct personal rule through his inner staff of hereditary administrators (奉行人 bugyōnin). This action put the shugo at odds with the shōgun. Yoshinori's assassination in 1441 by a disgruntled shugo marked the end of firm shogunal rule. Gradually, the office of kanrei became a means of manipulation through which provincial military lords sought to influence the shōgun for their ends.

The functional organs of the Muromachi shogunate were at first closely modelled on the Kamakura model. Some specialists in legal and administrative matters assisted in this process, with previous experience in Kamakura. In the Kamakura shogunate, the hyojoshu (評定衆, Council of State) established in 1226 had developed into the primary deliberative council under the Hōjō rule. Ashikaga Takauji set up a hyojoshu in Kyōto, staffing it with professional administrators like the Nakahara, Miyoshi, and Nikaido and the heads of several Ashikaga branch families like the Kira, Yamana, Ishibashi, and Isshiki. The development of the kanrei system inevitably affected this arrangement, and ultimately, the kanrei 's yoriai took over the functions of the hyojoshu.

Another essential office adopted from Kamakura was the Samurai-dokoro (侍所, Board of Retainers), which Takauji used as his war council. Its head, known as the shoshi (所司), was selected from among a group of four influential shugo houses, the Yamana, Akamatsu, Isshiki, and Kyōgoku. These families, two kin and two not, served as a secondary bloc of support for the Ashikaga house. The head of the Samurai-dokoro came to have two principal functions： to serve as shugo of Yamashiro, the "home province," on behalf of the shogunate, as well as to maintain law and order in the capital district. The second function was taken over from the imperial police (検非違使 kebiishi). It was carried out quite effectively until after the Ōnin War, when the Samurai-dokoro ceased to function as a distinct organ of the shogunal government.

The body that proved most influential and durable in the Muromachi shogunate was the mandokoro (政所) or Administrative Board. Established initially as the main office for managing the shōgun's household administration and finances, including tax collection, its heads were at first drawn from the Nikaidō, one of the families of administrative specialists that had served the previous shogunate. Later, it was headed by the Ise, a family that had long served as administrators in the Ashikaga household. The rise in importance of the Mandokoro came in two stages. First, under the sixth shōgun, Yoshinori, it was used to circumvent the kanrei-yoriai system and concentrate power in his hands. Yoshinori's assassination effectively ended this effort thereafter. Second, as the shōgun lost power and withdrew from participation in government affairs, the shōgun became increasingly the puppet of quasi-hereditary civil officers (bugyōnin) of the Mandokoro and military service families (hōkōshū) who made up the palace guard. These groups of lower-level service officers carried the now-powerless Ashikaga house into the 16th century.

By the start of the 16th century, the provinces were in the hands not of centrally appointed shugo but of self-made Sengoku daimyō - powerful military lords of shugo and kokujin origin who were rapidly extending both their territorial grasp and their autonomy from the central authority. In response to this development, the Ashikaga house could have moved in either of two directions: toward military self-strengthening that would make it competitive with the daimyō or toward retreat into merely ceremonial suzerainty. It chose the latter. As already noted, the eighth shōgun, Yoshimasa, unable to control his shugo, sat helplessly as the Ōnin War devastated his capital. Thereafter, the shogunate as a government declined rapidly, and only the status of shōgun remained. But it was kept alive by the interests that depended on that status, as by any sign of vigour in the Ashikaga house. Support came from three sources： the above-mentioned hereditary shogunate staff, various religious institutions that the Ashikaga house had patronised, and military houses that sought to legitimise their de facto local power by gaining recognition from the symbolic head of the warrior class. The occupation of Kyōto by Oda Nobunaga in 1568, for instance, was justified as an effort to support Ashikaga Yoshiaki , who was destined to be the last of the Ashikaga shōguns. When Nobunaga ousted Yoshiaki from Kyōto in 1573, the Muromachi shogunate ceased to function as a viable institution. The exiled Yoshiaki, however, continued to behave as a shōgun, and his pretensions were supported by powerful daimyō so that, strictly speaking, the Muromachi shogunate retained a shadowy legal existence until Yoshiaki's resignation in 1588.

The Ashikaga shōgun

In some instances, a successor was not named until several years after the death or the resignation of the former shōgun. Yoshitane was forced to resign in 1493 but was restored in 1508. Yoshiaki resigned legally in 1588, though the Ashikaga shogunate effectively ended in 1573.

Organisation of the Muromachi shogunate

Muromachi shogunate in the late 14th century (Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan). Click to enlarge.

References:

• Hall, John Whitney, Toyoda Takeshi. Japan in the Muromachi Age. Cornell East Asia Series 2001.
• Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. Japan Encyclopedia. Harvard University Press, 2005.
• Sansom, George. A History of Japan 1334-1615. Stanford University Press, 1961.
• Totman, Conrad; A History of Japan, Wiley-Blackwell; second edition 2005.