- Ashikaga Yoshiaki
was the 15th
shogun of theAshikaga shogunate inJapan who reigned from 1568 to 1573.Ackroyd, p. 332.] His father,Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shogun, and his brother,Ashikaga Yoshiteru was the thirteenth shogun. [Titsingh, Isaac. (1834) [http://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran#PRA1-PA385,M1 "Annales des empereurs du Japon," pp. 385] -389.]The absence of a effective central authority in the capital of Japan had lasted until the warlord
Oda Nobunaga 's armies enteredKyoto in 1568, re-establishing the Muromachi Shogunate under the puppet shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to begin theAzuchi-Momoyama period .Ashikaga Yoshihide , the fourteenth shogun, was deposed without ever entering the capital.Most historians consider 1573 to have been the year in which the Ashikaga shogunate ended. The power of the Ashikaga was effectively destroyed in
August 27 ,1573 when Oda Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Yoshiaki became a Buddhist monk, shaving his head and taking the name Sho-san, which he later changed to Rei-o In. [Titsingh, [http://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran#PRA1-PA389,M1 p. 389.] ]Some note that Yoshiaki did not formally relinquish his empty title; and for this reason, the empty shell of the shogunate could be said to have continued for several more years. Despite a renewed central authority in Kyoto and Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country, the struggle for power among warring states continued until unification and final peace was achieved long after his assassination in 1582.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi , the general who would later unite Japan, had wanted Yoshiaki to accept him as an adopted son. Yoshiaki refused.Events of Yoshiaki's "bakufu"
Significant events shape the period during which Yoshiaki was shogun: [see above] ]
* 1568 -- Nobunaga sets Yoshiaki up as shogun. [see above] ]
* 1569 -- Nijō Castle built. [see above] ]
* 1570 -- Ikkō monks defeat Nobunaga. [see above] ]
* 1571 -- Nobunaga destroys Enryaku-ji. [see above] ]
* 1573 -- Takeda Shingen dies; Yoshiaki deposed. [see above] ]Eras of Yoshiaki's "bakufu
The span of years in which Yoshiaki was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or "
nengō ". [Titsingh, pp. 382-405.]
* "Eiroku " (1558-1570)
* "Genki " (1570-1573)
* "Tenshō" (1573-1592)Notes
References
* Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) "Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron." Brisbane:
University of Queensland Press . 10-ISBN 0-702-21485-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-702-21485-1 (cloth)
* Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834), [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō , 1652] , "Nipon o daï itsi ran ; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon." Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. [http://books.google.com/books?id=18oNAAAAIAAJ&dq=nipon+o+dai+itsi+ran ... Click for digitized, full-text copy of this book (in French).]
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