The Ashikaga shogunate (Zu Li Mu Fu , Ashikaga bakufu, 1336-1573), also known as the Muromachi shogunate (Shi Ting Mu Fu , Muromachi bakufu), was a dynasty originating from one of the plethora of Japanese daimyo which governed Japan from 1338 to 1573, the year in which Oda Nobunaga deposed Ashikaga Yoshiaki from office. The heads of government were the shoguns. Each was a member of the Ashikaga clan.
This period is also known as the Muromachi period. It gets its name from the Muromachi district of Kyoto. The third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, established his residence on Muromachi Street. This residence is nicknamed "Hana no Gosho" (Hua noYu Suo ) or "Flower Palace" (constructed in 1379) because of the abundance of flowers in its landscaping.
This monopoly of power, as well as the Hojo vassals. Finally, in 1333, the Emperor Go-Daigo ordered local governing vassals to oppose Hojo rule in favor of Imperial restoration in the Kenmu Restoration.
To counter this revolt, the Kamakura shogunate ordered Ashikaga Takauji to quash the uprising. For reasons that are unclear, possibly because Ashikaga was the de facto leader of the powerless Minamoto clan, while the Hojo clan were from the Taira clan the Minamoto had previously defeated, Ashikaga turned against the Kamakura shogunate and fought on behalf of the Imperial court.
After the successful overthrow of the Kamakura bakufu in 1336, Ashikaga Takauji set up his own bakufu in Kyoto.


== North and South Court ==
After Ashikaga Takauji established himself as the shogun, a dispute arose with Emperor Daigo II on the subject of how to govern the country. That dispute led Takauji to cause Prince Yutahito, the second son of Emperor Go-Fushimi, to be installed as Emperor Komyo. Daigo fled, and the country was divided between a Northern Court (in favor of Komyo and Ashikaga), and a Southern Court (in favor of Daigo). This Nanboku-cho period continued for 56 years, until 1392, when the South Court gave up during the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.


== Government structure ==

The Ashikaga Shogunate is the weakest of the three Japanese bakufu governments. Unlike its predecessor, the Kamakura Shogunate, or its successor, the Tokugawa Shogunate, when Ashikaga Takauji established his government he had little personal territories with which to support his rule. The Ashikaga Shogunate was thus heavily reliant on the prestige and personal authority of its shoguns. The centralized master-vassal system used in the Kamakura system was replaced with the highly de-centralized daimyo (local lord) system, and because of the lack of direct territories, the military power of the shoguns depended heavily on the loyalty of the daimyo.
On the other hand, the Imperial Government was no longer a credible threat to military rule. The failure of the Kenmu Restoration had rendered the court weakened and subservient, a situation the Ashikaga Takauji reinforced by establishing within close proximity of the emperor at Kyoto. The authority of the local daimyo greatly expanded from its Kamakura times. In addition to military and policing responsibilities, the shogunate appointed shugos now absorbed the justice, economical and taxation powers of the local Imperial governors, while the government holdings in each province were rapidly absorbed into the personal holdings of the daimyos or their vassals. The loss of both political clout and economic base deprived the Imperial court of much of its power, which were then assumed by the Ashikaga shoguns. This situation reached its peak under the rule of the third Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
After Yoshimitsu however, the structural weakness of the Ashikaga shogunate were exposed by numerous succession troubles and early deaths. This became dramatically more acute after the Onin War, after which the shogunate itself became reduced to little more than a local political force in Kyoto.


=== Foreign relations ===
The Ashikaga shogunate's foreign relations policy choices were played out in evolving contacts with Joseon on the Korean Peninsula and with imperial China.


== Fall of the shogunate ==
As the daimyo increasingly feuded among themselves in the pursuit of power in the Onin War, that loyalty grew increasingly strained, until it erupted into open warfare in the late Muromachi period, also known as the Sengoku period.
When the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was assassinated in 1565, an ambitious daimyo, Oda Nobunaga, seized the opportunity and installed Yoshiteru's brother Yoshiaki as the 15th Ashikaga shogun. However, Yoshiaki was only a puppet shogun.
The Ashikaga shogunate was finally destroyed in 1573 when Nobunaga drove Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Initially, Yoshiaki fled to Shikoku. Afterwards, Yoshiaki sought and received protection from the Mori clan in western Japan. Later, Toyotomi Hideyoshi requested that Yoshiaki accept him as an adopted son and the 16th Ashikaga shogun, but Yoshiaki refused.
The Ashikaga family survived the 16th century, and a branch of it became the daimyo family of the Kitsuregawa domain.


== Palace remains ==

The residence of "Hana no Gosho" (Hua noYu Suo ) or "Flower Palace" was in Kyoto on the block now bounded by Karasuma Street (to the east), Imadegawa Street (to the south), Muromachi Street (to the west, giving the name), and Kamidachiuri Street (to the north). The location is commemorated by a stone marker at the southwest corner, and the Kanbai-kan (Han Mei Guan , Winter Plum Hall) of Doshisha University contains relics and excavations of the area.


== List of Ashikaga shoguns ==
Ashikaga Takauji, ruled 1338-1357
Ashikaga Yoshiakira, r. 1359-1368
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, r. 1368-1394
Ashikaga Yoshimochi, r. 1395-1423
Ashikaga Yoshikazu, r. 1423-1425
Ashikaga Yoshinori, r. 1429-1441
Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, r. 1442-1443
Ashikaga Yoshimasa, r. 1449-1473
Ashikaga Yoshihisa, r. 1474-1489
Ashikaga Yoshitane, r. 1490-1493, 1508-1521
Ashikaga Yoshizumi, r. 1494-1508
Ashikaga Yoshiharu, r. 1521-1546
Ashikaga Yoshiteru, r. 1546-1565
Ashikaga Yoshihide, r. 1568
Ashikaga Yoshiaki, r. 1568-1573


== See also ==
History of Japan
Kamakura period
Muromachi period
Nanboku-cho
Ashikaga clan
Japanese missions to Imperial China


== Notes ==


== References ==
Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. 10-ISBN 070221485X/13-ISBN 9780702214851; OCLC 7574544
Kang, Etsuko Hae-jin. (1997). Diplomacy and Ideology in Japanese-Korean Relations: from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Basingstoke, Hampshire; Macmillan. 10-ISBN 0-312-17370-9/13-ISBN 978-0-312-17370-8; OCLC 243874305
Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Nihon Odai Ichiran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Royal Asiatic Society, Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 5850691.


== External links ==
Ashikaga Bakufu from Washington State University website
Kyoto City Web