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for him to nominate a new shogun in lieu of the fugitive Yoshitane.
He went to the Kwanto for a candidate. In 1461, Masatomo, brother of
Yoshimasa, had been nominated governor-general (kwanryo) of the eight
eastern provinces. His son, Yoshizumi, was chosen by Hosokawa to rule
at Muromachi, and Hosokawa himself became kwanryo. The new shogun
held office in name only; all administrative power was usurped by the
kwanryo and his nominees. Now, as Hosokawa Masamoto practised
asceticism for the better pursuit of necromancy, in which he was a
believer, he had no offspring. Therefore he adopted three sons: the
first, Sumiyuki, being the child of the regent, Fujiwara Masamoto;
the second and third, Sumimoto and Takakuni, being kinsmen of his
own. The first of these three was entrusted to Kasai Motochika; the
last two were placed in the care of Miyoshi Nagateru. These guardians
were Hosokawa's principal vassals in Shikoku, where they presently
became deadly rivals. Motochika, believing that Hosokawa's ultimate
intention was to elevate Sumimoto to the shogunate, in which event
the latter's guardian, Nagateru, would obtain a large access of
power, compassed the murder of Hosokawa, the kwanryo, and proclaimed
Sumiyuki head of the Hosokawa house. Thereupon Miyoshi Nagateru moved
up from Shikoku at the head of a strong army, and, after a fierce
conflict, Motochika and Sumiyuki were killed, and Sumimoto, then in
his eleventh year, became chief of the Hosokawa family, receiving
also the office of kwanryo.
The Motochika faction, however, though defeated, were not destroyed.
They conceived the plan of reinstating the shogun, Yoshitane, then a
fugitive in the province of Suwo, and of securing the office of
kwanryo for Takakuni, third son (by adoption) of the late Hosokawa
Masamoto. The powerful Ouchi sept, which had its manors in Suwo,
espoused the conspiracy, and escorted Yoshitane to Kyoto with a great
army, the result being that the shogun, Yoshizumi, had to flee to
Omi; that Yoshitane took his place, and that Ouchi Yoshioki became
deputy kwanryo.
These things happened in 1508. Thenceforth, the great protagonists in
the Kyoto arena were the two factions of the Hosokawa house, led by
Sumimoto and Takakuni, respectively; the former championing the cause
of the shogun, Yoshizumi, and in alliance with the Miyoshi; the
latter supporting the shogun, Yoshitane, and aided by the Ouchi. One
reverse befell the Yoshitane-Ouchi combination, but they quickly
recovered from it, and from 1508 until 1518 a gleam of peace and
prosperity shone once more in Kyoto under the administration of Ouchi
Yoshioki, who governed with skill and impartiality, and whose
influence seemed likely to restore the best days of the Bakufu. But,
in 1518, he was recalled to his province by an attack from the shugo
of Izumo, and by financial embarrassment resulting from his own
generosity in supplying funds to the Crown and the shogun.
Hosokawa Takakuni now became kwanryo, exercising his authority with a
high hand. Then the Sumimoto branch of the Hosokawa, taking advantage
of Ouchi's absence, mustered a force in Shikoku and moved against
Kyoto. Takakuni found himself in a difficult position. In the capital
his overbearing conduct had alienated the shogun, Yoshitane, and from
the south a hostile army was approaching. He chose Hyogo for
battle-field, and, after a stout fight, was discomfited and fled to
Omi, the position of kwanryo being bestowed on his rival, Sumimoto,
by the shogun. In a few months, however, Takakuni, in alliance with
the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki family under Sadayori, marched into
Kyoto in overwhelming force. Miyoshi Nagateru retired to Chion-in,
where he committed suicide; Sumimoto fled to Awa, dying there a few
months later, and Yoshitane, after brief refuge in the island of
Awaji, died in Awa, in 1523. Thus, Hosokawa Takakuni found himself
supreme in Kyoto, and he proceeded to appoint a shogun, without
awaiting the demise of Yoshitane. Yoshizumi, the eleventh shogun,
who, as related above, fled from Kyoto in 1508, dying three years
later in exile, left two sons: Yoshiharu, whom he committed to the
charge of Akamatsu Yoshimura, and Yoshikore, whom he entrusted to
Hosokawa Sumimoto. In 1521, Takakuni invited Yoshiharu, then eleven
years old, to the capital and procured his nomination to the
shogunate.
ANARCHY
From this time forward the confusion grows worse confounded. The
Miyoshi of Awa are found in co-operation with Yanamoto Kataharu
espousing the cause of the shogun's younger brother, Yoshikore, and
of Harumoto, a son of Hosokawa Sumimoto. We see this combination
expelling Yoshiharu and Takakuni from Kyoto, and we see the fugitives
vainly essaying to reverse the situation. Thereafter, during several
years, there is practically no government in the capital. Riot and
insurrection are daily features, and brigandage prevails unchecked.
Kataharu, though not holding the office of kwanryo, usurps its
functions so ostentatiously that the assassin's dagger is turned
against him. Again the two Hosokawa chiefs, Takakuni and Harumoto,
fight for power, and, in 1531, Takakuni is killed, Harumoto becoming
supreme. Soon the Miyoshi brothers, Motonaga and Masanaga, engage in
a fierce quarrel about their inheritance, and the former, with
Yoshikore as candidate for the shogunate and Hatakeyama as auxiliary,
raises the standard against Harumoto, who, aided by the
soldier-priests of Hongwan-ji, kills both Yoshitaka and Motonaga and
takes Yoshikore prisoner. Thereafter, Harumoto quarrels with the
Hongwan-ji bonzes, and being attacked by them, obtains the aid of
Rokkaku Sadayori and the Nichiren priests, with the result that the
splendid fane of Hongwan-ji is reduced to ashes. A reconciliation is
then effected between Harumoto and the shogun, Yoshiharu, while
Miyoshi Masanaga is appointed to high office. Yet once more the
untiring Takakuni, aided by Miyoshi Norinaga, Motonaga's son, called
also Chokei, drives Yoshiharu and Harumoto from the metropolis, and
presently a reconciliation is effected by the good offices of Rokkaku
Sadayori, the real power of the kwanryo being thenceforth exercised
by the Miyoshi family. Japanese historians have well called it an age
of anarchy.
YOSHITERU
In 1545, the shogun, Yoshiharu, resigned in favour of his son,
Yoshiteru. Two years of quiet ensued in Kyoto, and then the old feud
broke out once more. The Hosokawa, represented by Harumoto, and the
Miyoshi, by Chokei, fought for supremacy. Victory rested with the
Miyoshi. The Hosokawa's power was shattered, and Chokei ruled in
Kyoto through his vassal, Matsunaga Hisahide. The era is memorable
for the assassination of a shogun. Yoshiteru had become reconciled
with Chokei and was suffered to live quietly at Muromachi. But after
Chokei's death (he was poisoned by Hisahide), Yoshiteru's cousin,
Yoshihide, a son of Yoshikore, sought to be nominated successor to
the shogunate through the aid of Masanaga and Hisahide. In 1565, this
plot matured. Hisahide suddenly sent a force which attacked
Yoshiteru's palace and killed the shogun. Yoshihide replaced the
murdered potentate, and the Matsunaga family succeeded to the power
previously wielded by the Miyoshi. Yoshiteru's younger brother,
Yoshiaki, fled to Omi, but afterwards made his way to Owari, where
Oda Nobunaga took him by the hand and ultimately placed him in the
shogun's seat at Kyoto.
REVIEW OF THE ASHIKAGA
Among the fifteen representatives of the Ashikaga, two were slain by
their own vassals, five died in exile, and one had to commit suicide.
From the accession of Takauji, in 1338, to the death of Yoshiaki, in
1597, a period of 259 years, there was not so much as one decade of
signal success and efficient government. With justice the story of
the time has been summed up in the epithet "ge-koku-jo," or the
overthrow of the upper by the lower. The appreciation of the eminent
historian, Rai Sanyo, is most faithful. Every great conflict
throughout the era was marked by similar features. It is a weary
record of broken promises, violated allegiances, and family feuds. If
the Hatakeyama, the Hosokawa, and the Miyoshi set their own interests
above those of the shogun, the Ashikaga, in turn, sacrificed the
interests of the Throne on the altar of their own ambition. A river
cannot be purer than its source. If the Miyoshi vassals plotted
against their chiefs, so did the latter against the Hosokawa; so did
the Hosokawa against the Ashikaga; so did the Ashikaga against the
Imperial family, and so did one branch of the Imperial family against
another. Everywhere there was lack of loyalty.
The loyalty wanting among masters was equally deficient among
servants. There is no more treacherous episode in the Middle Ages
than Matsunaga Hisahide's poisoning of his liege lord to compass the
downfall of the Miyoshi family and slaying the shogun, Yoshiteru, to
overthrow the Ashikaga, though he enjoyed the confidence of both. The
Dai Nihon-rekishi (History of Great Japan) observes that the ethical
primers, with which a literary education had formerly familiarized
the nation, lost their influence in this military era. There was no
inordinate desire for landed property until the Gen-Hei epoch, when a
manor became the principal reward of a successful soldier.
Thereafter, greed for domains acquired strength every year. Again,
when Yoritomo became so-tsuihoshi (commander-in-chief) and so-jito
(general steward) of the whole country, and his meritorious vassals
were appointed shugo and jito in each province, local authority
passed from the Throne to the military families, and when, after the
Shokyu struggle, the shugo and the jito came into actual possession
of the estates they had previously administered, military feudalism
was practically established. The Hojo, by their just administration
and astute measures, brought this system into esteem, but under the
Ashikaga regime the reality of landed possession grew to be the
unique aim of existence, and, to achieve it, sons forgot their
paternal relation and vassals lost sight of fealty.
for him to nominate a new shogun in lieu of the fugitive Yoshitane.
He went to the Kwanto for a candidate. In 1461, Masatomo, brother of
Yoshimasa, had been nominated governor-general (kwanryo) of the eight
eastern provinces. His son, Yoshizumi, was chosen by Hosokawa to rule
at Muromachi, and Hosokawa himself became kwanryo. The new shogun
held office in name only; all administrative power was usurped by the
kwanryo and his nominees. Now, as Hosokawa Masamoto practised
asceticism for the better pursuit of necromancy, in which he was a
believer, he had no offspring. Therefore he adopted three sons: the
first, Sumiyuki, being the child of the regent, Fujiwara Masamoto;
the second and third, Sumimoto and Takakuni, being kinsmen of his
own. The first of these three was entrusted to Kasai Motochika; the
last two were placed in the care of Miyoshi Nagateru. These guardians
were Hosokawa's principal vassals in Shikoku, where they presently
became deadly rivals. Motochika, believing that Hosokawa's ultimate
intention was to elevate Sumimoto to the shogunate, in which event
the latter's guardian, Nagateru, would obtain a large access of
power, compassed the murder of Hosokawa, the kwanryo, and proclaimed
Sumiyuki head of the Hosokawa house. Thereupon Miyoshi Nagateru moved
up from Shikoku at the head of a strong army, and, after a fierce
conflict, Motochika and Sumiyuki were killed, and Sumimoto, then in
his eleventh year, became chief of the Hosokawa family, receiving
also the office of kwanryo.
The Motochika faction, however, though defeated, were not destroyed.
They conceived the plan of reinstating the shogun, Yoshitane, then a
fugitive in the province of Suwo, and of securing the office of
kwanryo for Takakuni, third son (by adoption) of the late Hosokawa
Masamoto. The powerful Ouchi sept, which had its manors in Suwo,
espoused the conspiracy, and escorted Yoshitane to Kyoto with a great
army, the result being that the shogun, Yoshizumi, had to flee to
Omi; that Yoshitane took his place, and that Ouchi Yoshioki became
deputy kwanryo.
These things happened in 1508. Thenceforth, the great protagonists in
the Kyoto arena were the two factions of the Hosokawa house, led by
Sumimoto and Takakuni, respectively; the former championing the cause
of the shogun, Yoshizumi, and in alliance with the Miyoshi; the
latter supporting the shogun, Yoshitane, and aided by the Ouchi. One
reverse befell the Yoshitane-Ouchi combination, but they quickly
recovered from it, and from 1508 until 1518 a gleam of peace and
prosperity shone once more in Kyoto under the administration of Ouchi
Yoshioki, who governed with skill and impartiality, and whose
influence seemed likely to restore the best days of the Bakufu. But,
in 1518, he was recalled to his province by an attack from the shugo
of Izumo, and by financial embarrassment resulting from his own
generosity in supplying funds to the Crown and the shogun.
Hosokawa Takakuni now became kwanryo, exercising his authority with a
high hand. Then the Sumimoto branch of the Hosokawa, taking advantage
of Ouchi's absence, mustered a force in Shikoku and moved against
Kyoto. Takakuni found himself in a difficult position. In the capital
his overbearing conduct had alienated the shogun, Yoshitane, and from
the south a hostile army was approaching. He chose Hyogo for
battle-field, and, after a stout fight, was discomfited and fled to
Omi, the position of kwanryo being bestowed on his rival, Sumimoto,
by the shogun. In a few months, however, Takakuni, in alliance with
the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki family under Sadayori, marched into
Kyoto in overwhelming force. Miyoshi Nagateru retired to Chion-in,
where he committed suicide; Sumimoto fled to Awa, dying there a few
months later, and Yoshitane, after brief refuge in the island of
Awaji, died in Awa, in 1523. Thus, Hosokawa Takakuni found himself
supreme in Kyoto, and he proceeded to appoint a shogun, without
awaiting the demise of Yoshitane. Yoshizumi, the eleventh shogun,
who, as related above, fled from Kyoto in 1508, dying three years
later in exile, left two sons: Yoshiharu, whom he committed to the
charge of Akamatsu Yoshimura, and Yoshikore, whom he entrusted to
Hosokawa Sumimoto. In 1521, Takakuni invited Yoshiharu, then eleven
years old, to the capital and procured his nomination to the
shogunate.
ANARCHY
From this time forward the confusion grows worse confounded. The
Miyoshi of Awa are found in co-operation with Yanamoto Kataharu
espousing the cause of the shogun's younger brother, Yoshikore, and
of Harumoto, a son of Hosokawa Sumimoto. We see this combination
expelling Yoshiharu and Takakuni from Kyoto, and we see the fugitives
vainly essaying to reverse the situation. Thereafter, during several
years, there is practically no government in the capital. Riot and
insurrection are daily features, and brigandage prevails unchecked.
Kataharu, though not holding the office of kwanryo, usurps its
functions so ostentatiously that the assassin's dagger is turned
against him. Again the two Hosokawa chiefs, Takakuni and Harumoto,
fight for power, and, in 1531, Takakuni is killed, Harumoto becoming
supreme. Soon the Miyoshi brothers, Motonaga and Masanaga, engage in
a fierce quarrel about their inheritance, and the former, with
Yoshikore as candidate for the shogunate and Hatakeyama as auxiliary,
raises the standard against Harumoto, who, aided by the
soldier-priests of Hongwan-ji, kills both Yoshitaka and Motonaga and
takes Yoshikore prisoner. Thereafter, Harumoto quarrels with the
Hongwan-ji bonzes, and being attacked by them, obtains the aid of
Rokkaku Sadayori and the Nichiren priests, with the result that the
splendid fane of Hongwan-ji is reduced to ashes. A reconciliation is
then effected between Harumoto and the shogun, Yoshiharu, while
Miyoshi Masanaga is appointed to high office. Yet once more the
untiring Takakuni, aided by Miyoshi Norinaga, Motonaga's son, called
also Chokei, drives Yoshiharu and Harumoto from the metropolis, and
presently a reconciliation is effected by the good offices of Rokkaku
Sadayori, the real power of the kwanryo being thenceforth exercised
by the Miyoshi family. Japanese historians have well called it an age
of anarchy.
YOSHITERU
In 1545, the shogun, Yoshiharu, resigned in favour of his son,
Yoshiteru. Two years of quiet ensued in Kyoto, and then the old feud
broke out once more. The Hosokawa, represented by Harumoto, and the
Miyoshi, by Chokei, fought for supremacy. Victory rested with the
Miyoshi. The Hosokawa's power was shattered, and Chokei ruled in
Kyoto through his vassal, Matsunaga Hisahide. The era is memorable
for the assassination of a shogun. Yoshiteru had become reconciled
with Chokei and was suffered to live quietly at Muromachi. But after
Chokei's death (he was poisoned by Hisahide), Yoshiteru's cousin,
Yoshihide, a son of Yoshikore, sought to be nominated successor to
the shogunate through the aid of Masanaga and Hisahide. In 1565, this
plot matured. Hisahide suddenly sent a force which attacked
Yoshiteru's palace and killed the shogun. Yoshihide replaced the
murdered potentate, and the Matsunaga family succeeded to the power
previously wielded by the Miyoshi. Yoshiteru's younger brother,
Yoshiaki, fled to Omi, but afterwards made his way to Owari, where
Oda Nobunaga took him by the hand and ultimately placed him in the
shogun's seat at Kyoto.
REVIEW OF THE ASHIKAGA
Among the fifteen representatives of the Ashikaga, two were slain by
their own vassals, five died in exile, and one had to commit suicide.
From the accession of Takauji, in 1338, to the death of Yoshiaki, in
1597, a period of 259 years, there was not so much as one decade of
signal success and efficient government. With justice the story of
the time has been summed up in the epithet "ge-koku-jo," or the
overthrow of the upper by the lower. The appreciation of the eminent
historian, Rai Sanyo, is most faithful. Every great conflict
throughout the era was marked by similar features. It is a weary
record of broken promises, violated allegiances, and family feuds. If
the Hatakeyama, the Hosokawa, and the Miyoshi set their own interests
above those of the shogun, the Ashikaga, in turn, sacrificed the
interests of the Throne on the altar of their own ambition. A river
cannot be purer than its source. If the Miyoshi vassals plotted
against their chiefs, so did the latter against the Hosokawa; so did
the Hosokawa against the Ashikaga; so did the Ashikaga against the
Imperial family, and so did one branch of the Imperial family against
another. Everywhere there was lack of loyalty.
The loyalty wanting among masters was equally deficient among
servants. There is no more treacherous episode in the Middle Ages
than Matsunaga Hisahide's poisoning of his liege lord to compass the
downfall of the Miyoshi family and slaying the shogun, Yoshiteru, to
overthrow the Ashikaga, though he enjoyed the confidence of both. The
Dai Nihon-rekishi (History of Great Japan) observes that the ethical
primers, with which a literary education had formerly familiarized
the nation, lost their influence in this military era. There was no
inordinate desire for landed property until the Gen-Hei epoch, when a
manor became the principal reward of a successful soldier.
Thereafter, greed for domains acquired strength every year. Again,
when Yoritomo became so-tsuihoshi (commander-in-chief) and so-jito
(general steward) of the whole country, and his meritorious vassals
were appointed shugo and jito in each province, local authority
passed from the Throne to the military families, and when, after the
Shokyu struggle, the shugo and the jito came into actual possession
of the estates they had previously administered, military feudalism
was practically established. The Hojo, by their just administration
and astute measures, brought this system into esteem, but under the
Ashikaga regime the reality of landed possession grew to be the
unique aim of existence, and, to achieve it, sons forgot their
paternal relation and vassals lost sight of fealty.
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