Ashikaga Mochiuji (足利持氏, 1398–1439) was the Kamakura-fu's fourth Kantō kubō during the Muromachi period (15th century) in Japan. During his long and troubled rule the relationship between the west and the east of the country reached an all-time low. Kamakura was finally attacked by shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori and retaken by force. Mochiuji and his eldest son Yoshihisa killed themselves to escape capture.
Mochiuji became Kubō while still a child after his father died suddenly of a disease. His violent and abrasive character from the beginning caused widespread resentment among his vassals. After disagreements with Mochiuji, his kanrei Uesugi Zenshū organized a rebellion against him (the so-called Zenshū no Ran) with the aid of nearly half the daimyōs in the northern and eastern provinces. Thanks to this support, Zenshū could take Kamakura and Mochiuji had to flee. However, despite his pursuing goals similar to those of the shogunate, Zenshū was after all rebelling against his lord, so the shogunate had no choice but to send troops to stop him. In 1417, Zenshū and his allies found themselves surrounded at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and Zenshū killed himself.
After this took place, Mochiuji attacked Zenshū's allies, which included families as the Oda and the Takeda, along with a few noble families from Musashi Province. The Ashikaga themselves thought Mochiuji's actions to be too much, and shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1432 ordered his army to destroy Mochiuji. This led to Mochiuji and Yoshinori to battle it out during the Eikyō Rebellion in 1438. In the end, Yoshinori successfully put an end to Mochiuji's rebellion in 1439. Kamakura's Kubō committed seppuku at the temple of Yōan-ji, west of the city. The events in Kamakura however caused widespread resentment among Yoshinori's generals and one of them, Akamatsu Mitsusuke, murdered him. [1]
The road that in Kamakura turns right before Zuisen-ji's ticket counter leads to a stele marking the spot where Yōan-ji (永安寺) used to stand. [2] It was here that Mochiuji made his last stand against the shogunate, finally disemboweling himself to avoid the shame of being taken prisoner. [2] He is buried together with three other kubō in a small cemetery within Zuisen-ji (closed to the public). [2] The stele reads: [3]
When Kantō Kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu died on January 11, 1398, [4] he was given the posthumous name Yōanji Hekizan Zenkō (永安寺壁山全公). His son Mitsukane built this temple and gave it his father's posthumous name. The temple's oshō Dombo Ushūō was a follower of Musō Soseki. On March 24, 1439, [5] Kubō Mochiuji, a descendant of Ujimitsu, fought here against shōgun Yoshinori, was defeated and disemboweled himself. The temple was burned and never rebuilt. This is where it stood.
Erected by the Kamakuramachi Seinendan in March 1926
There is however also a 3.2 m stone hōtō (宝塔, "treasure stupa") traditionally supposed to be his grave also at Betsugan-ji, a former Ashikaga family temple in Ōmachi. On the stupa is carved the date 1439, the year of Mochiuji's death, however the tomb seems stylistically to belong rather to the precedent Kamakura period, and the attribution seems therefore dubious. [6]
Mochiuji's eldest son Yoshihisa, 14 years old at the time, was also forced to kill himself at nearby Hōkoku-ji. [7] His three younger sons however escaped to Nikkō and in 1440 were led by Yūki Ujitomo, head of the Yūki clan, to his castle in Koga, Shimōsa Province, and survived. [8] When later his castle was attacked by the shogunate, they escaped. Two, Haruō-maru and Yasuō-maru, were caught and executed. [8] The lone survivor, Mochiuji's fourth child Shigeuji, would later become the last Kantō kubō.
Kamakura, officially Kamakura City, is a city of Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan. It is located in the Kanto region on the island of Honshu. The city has an estimated population of 172,929 and a population density of 4,359 people per km2 over the total area of 39.67 km2 (15.32 sq mi). Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939.
Ashikaga Yoshimasa was the eighth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 during the Muromachi period of Japan.
Ashikaga Yoshinori was the sixth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1429 to 1441 during the Muromachi period of medieval Japan. Yoshinori was the son of the third shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. His childhood name was Harutora (春寅). In 1433, he initiated the compilation of the last imperial waka anthology, Shinshoku Kokinwakashū, but was not satisfied with its compilation agenda which undermined his authority.
Ashikaga Yoshimochi was the fourth shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1394 to 1423 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimochi was the son of the third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the elder brother of the sixth third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshinori.
The Ashikaga clan was a Japanese samurai clan and dynasty which established the Ashikaga shogunate and ruled Japan from roughly 1333 to 1573. The Ashikaga were descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan, deriving originally from the town of Ashikaga in Shimotsuke Province.
Eikyō (永享) was a Japanese era name after Shōchō and before Kakitsu. This period spanned the years from September 1429 through February 1441. The reigning emperor was Go-Hanazono-tennō (後花園天皇).
Ōei (応永) was a Japanese era name after Meitoku and before Shōchō. This period spanned the years from July 1394 through April 1428. Reigning emperors were Go-Komatsu-tennō (後小松天皇,) and Shōkō-tennō (称光天皇).
This is the glossary of Japanese history including the major terms, titles and events the casual reader might find useful in understanding articles on the subject.
Uesugi Norizane was a Japanese samurai of the Uesugi clan who held a number of high government posts during the Muromachi period.
Tōshō-ji (東勝寺) was the Hōjō clan's family temple (bodaiji) in Kamakura during the Kamakura period. Its founder was Taikō Gyōyū and it was constructed in 1237 by Hōjō Yasutoki in memory of his mother, who had her tomb there. According to the Taiheiki, from its foundation until the end of the Kamakura shogunate every regent (shikken) was buried there. The temple no longer exists, since it was set on fire by the Hōjō themselves when the entire family committed suicide after Nitta Yoshisada's invasion of Kamakura on July 4, 1333. Its ruins were found in the Kasaigayatsu valley in today's Ōmachi. Tōshō-ji very probably used to occupy the entire valley. Standing at the top of a narrow valley shut off at its base by the Nameri river's deep gorge and by steep hills on the other three sides, and besides offering a clear view of the only road that crossed the river, it was a fortress surely valuable to the family also from the military point of view.
Kantō kubō (関東公方) was a title equivalent to shōgun assumed by Ashikaga Motouji after his nomination to Kantō kanrei, or deputy shōgun for the Kamakura-fu, in 1349. Motouji transferred his original title to the Uesugi family, which had previously held the hereditary title of shitsuji, and would thereafter provide the Kantō kanrei. The Ashikaga had been forced to move to Kyoto, abandoning Kamakura and the Kantō region, because of the continuing difficulties they had keeping the Emperor and the loyalists under control. Motouji had been sent by his father, shōgun Ashikaga Takauji, precisely because the latter understood the importance of controlling the Kantō region and wanted to have an Ashikaga ruler there, but the administration in Kamakura was from the beginning characterized by its rebelliousness. The shōgun's idea never really worked and actually backfired.
Kinbyōzan Zuisen-ji (錦屏山瑞泉寺) is a Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect in Nikaidō's Momijigayatsu Valley in Kamakura, Japan. During the Muromachi period it was the family temple of the Ashikaga rulers of Kamakura : four of the five kubō are buried there in a private cemetery closed to the public and first kubō Ashikaga Motouji's is also known by the name Zuisen-ji-den (瑞泉寺殿). Designed by prominent Zen religious figure, poet and Zen garden designer Musō Soseki, the temple lies on top of an isolated hill and is famous for both its garden and its Zen rock garden. The beauty and the quantity of its plants have gained it since antiquity the nickname "Temple of Flowers" (花の寺). The main object of worship is Jizō Bosatsu. Zuisen-ji is an Historic Site and contains numerous objects classified as Important Cultural Properties and Places of Scenic Beauty.
Tōkasan Jōmyō Zenji (稲荷山浄妙寺) is a Zen Buddhist temple of the Rinzai sect, Kenchō-ji school, in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Jōmyō-ji is Number Five of the five temples known as Kamakura Gozan, and the only one of the five not founded by a member of the Hōjō clan. Jōmyō-ji has instead, as nearby Zuisen-ji, deep ties with the Ashikaga clan, and was one of the family's funeral temples (bodaiji). For this reason the family's kamon, or crest, is ubiquitous on its premises. The first three characters of its full name mean "Inari mountain", presumably from the hill of the same name where it stands, in its turn named after an ancient Inari myth. Jōmyō-ji has given its name to the surrounding area, the characters for which have been however deliberately changed from 浄妙寺 to 浄明寺.
Ashikaga Motouji (足利基氏) (1340–1367) was a warrior of the Nanboku-chō period. The fourth son of shōgun Ashikaga Takauji, he was the first of a dynasty of five Kantō kubō, Kamakura-based representatives in the vital Kamakura-fu of Kyoto's Ashikaga regime. Meant to stabilize a volatile situation in the Kantō, a region where many warrior clans wanted the return of the shogunate from Kyoto back to Kamakura, the dynasty he started almost immediately developed the ambition to usurp the shogunate, becoming a serious headache for the central government. Motouji was the only kubō who always remained loyal to the Kyoto government. During the Kannō disturbance, a historical episode with serious repercussions on his life, he tried to reconcile his father with his uncle Ashikaga Tadayoshi and, after his father's demise, he collaborated with his elder brother, shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiakira, to stabilize the shogunate. He died still young during an epidemic.
Ashikaga Ujimitsu (足利氏満) (1359–1398) was a Nanboku-chō period warrior and the Kamakura-fu's second Kantō kubō, or Shōgun Deputy. Son of first Kantō Kubō Ashikaga Motouji, he succeeded his father in 1367 at the age of nine when this last suddenly died during an epidemic. It was during his reign that the Kanto kubō title became common enough to appear for the first time in writing. It is in fact contained in a 1382 entry of the Tsurugaoka Jishoan (鶴岡事書安). This title was in itself rebellious, because it was first adopted by Takauji himself and its use therefore implied equality with the shogun. In fact, sometimes the Kanto Kubō was called Kantō shōgun.
Ashikaga Mitsukane (1378–1409) was a Nanboku-chō period warrior, and the Kamakura-fu's third Kantō kubō,. Being the eldest son, he succeeded his father Ujimitsu in 1398 at the age of 21 when he died during an epidemic. Like his father, Mitsukane aspired more or less openly to the shogunate and, like him and his successors, failed to obtain it. He died suddenly at the age of 32.
Ashikaga Shigeuji (足利成氏) was a Muromachi period warrior and the Kamakura-fu's fifth and last Kantō kubō. Fourth son of fourth Kubō Ashikaga Mochiuji, he succeeded his father only in 1449, a full decade after his death by seppuku. His childhood name was Eijuō-maru (永寿王丸). His rule was from its onset troubled by hostilities with the central government: he was finally deposed in 1455 by shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, after which he escaped to Koga in Shimōsa Province, where he became known as Koga kubō. There, he ruled until his death in 1497.
The Kamakura-fu or Kantō-fu was a regional government installed in Kamakura, in today's Kanagawa Prefecture, by the Ashikaga shogunate which lasted from 1349 to 1455. It was headed by a dynasty of Ashikaga rulers called Kamakura Kubō. They were assisted by deputies called Kantō Kanrei traditionally chosen among the members of the Uesugi clan.
The Horigoe Palace site is an archaeological site containing the ruins of the Muromachi period residence of the Ashikaga clan in the Jike neighborhood of the city of Izunokuni, Shizuoka in the Tōkai region of Japan. The site was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1984, with the area under protection extended in 1987. The name is also sometimes transliterated as "Horigoshi Gosho".
The Yūki War was a 1440-1441 armed conflict in the Kantō region between the Uesugi clan and powerful local families who had supported former Kamakura Kubō Ashikaga Mochiuji, most prominently the Yūki clan. It can be considered a continuation of the Eikyō Rebellion that had concluded a year earlier.