Japanese name
Japanese names in modern times consist of a family name, followed by a given name. More than one given name is not used. Japanese names are written in kanji, which are characters Chinese in origin but Japanese in pronunciation; the kanji for a name may have a variety of possible Japanese pronunciations, hence parents might use hiragana or katakana when giving a birth name to their newborn child. Names written in hiragana or katakana are phonetic renderings, so lack the visual meaning of names expressed in the logographic kanji. Japanese family names are varied: according to estimates, there are over 100,000 different surnames in use today in Japan; the three most common family names in Japan are Satō, Takahashi. This diversity is in stark contrast to the situation in other nations of the East Asian cultural sphere, which reflects a different history: while Chinese surnames have been in use for millennia and were reflective of an entire clan or adopted from nobles and were thence transferred to Korea and Vietnam via noble names, the vast majority of modern Japanese family names date only to the 19th century, following the Meiji restoration, were chosen at will.
The recent introduction of surnames has two additional effects: Japanese names became widespread when the country had a large population instead of dating to ancient times, since little time has passed, Japanese names have not experienced as significant a surname extinction as has occurred in the much longer history in China. Surnames occur with varying frequency in different regions. Many Japanese family names derive from features of the rural landscape. While family names follow consistent rules, given names are much more diverse in pronunciation and character usage. While many common names can be spelled or pronounced, many parents choose names with unusual characters or pronunciations, such names cannot in general be spelled or pronounced unless both the spelling and pronunciation are given. Unusual pronunciations have become common, with this trend having increased since the 1990s. For example, the popular masculine name 大翔 is traditionally pronounced "Hiroto", but in recent years alternative pronunciations "Haruto", "Yamato", "Taiga", "Sora", "Taito", "Daito", "Masato" have all entered use.
Male names end in -rō -ta or -o, or contain ichi, kazu, ji, or dai. Female names end in -ko or -mi. Other popular endings for female names include -ka and -na; the majority of Japanese people have one surname and one given name with no other names, except for the Japanese imperial family, whose members bear no surname. The family name – myōji, uji or sei – precedes the given name, called the "name" – or "lower name"; the given name may be referred to as the "lower name" because, in vertically written Japanese, the given name appears under the family name. People with mixed Japanese and foreign parentage may have middle names. Myōji, uji and sei had different meanings. Sei was the patrilineal surname, why up until now it has only been granted by the emperor as a title of male rank; the lower form of the name sei being tei, a common name in Japanese men, although there was a male ancestor in ancient Japan from whom the name'Sei' came. There were few sei, most of the medieval noble clans trace their lineage either directly to these sei or to the courtiers of these sei.
Uji was another name used to designate patrilineal descent, but merged with myōji around the same time. Myōji was what a family chooses to call itself, as opposed to the sei granted by the emperor. While it was passed on patrilineally in male ancestors including in male ancestors called haku, one had a certain degree of freedom in changing one's myōji. See Kabane. Multiple Japanese characters have the same pronunciations, so several Japanese names have multiple meanings. A particular kanji itself can have multiple meanings and pronunciations. In some names, Japanese characters phonetically "spell" a name and have no intended meaning behind them. Many Japanese personal names use puns. Few names can serve either as surnames or as given names. Therefore, to those familiar with Japanese names, which name is the surname and, the given name is apparent, no matter which order the names are presented in; this thus makes it unlikely that the two names will be confused, for example, when writing in English while using the family name-given name naming order.
However, due to the variety of pronuncia
Nanboku-chō period
The Nanboku-chō period, spanning from 1336 to 1392, was a period that occurred during the formative years of the Muromachi bakufu of Japanese history. During this period, there existed a Northern Imperial Court, established by Ashikaga Takauji in Kyoto, a Southern Imperial Court, established by Emperor Go-Daigo in Yoshino. Ideologically, the two courts fought for fifty years, with the South giving up to the North in 1392. However, in reality the Northern line was under the power of the Ashikaga shōguns and had little real independence. Since the 19th century the Emperors of the Southern Imperial Court have been considered the legitimate Emperors of Japan. Other contributing factors were the Southern Court's control of the Japanese imperial regalia, Kitabatake Chikafusa's work Jinnō Shōtōki, which legitimized the South's imperial court despite their defeat; the consequences of events in this period continue to be influential in modern Japan's conventional view of the Tennō Seika. Under the influence of State Shinto, an Imperial decree dated March 3, 1911, established that the legitimate reigning monarchs of this period were the Southern Court.
After World War II, a series of pretenders, starting with Kumazawa Hiromichi, claimed descent from the Southern Court and challenged the legitimacy of the modern imperial line, descended from the Northern Court. The destruction of the Kamakura shogunate of 1333 and the failure of the Kenmu Restoration in 1336 opened up a legitimacy crisis for the new shogunate. Furthermore, institutional changes in the estate system that formed the bedrock of the income of nobles and warriors alike decisively altered the status of the various social groups. What emerged from the exigencies of the Nanboku-chō War was the Muromachi regime, which broadened the economic base of the warriors while undercutting the noble proprietors, a trend that had started with the Kamakura bakufu; the main conflicts that contributed to the outbreak of the civil war were the growing conflict between the Hōjō family and other warrior groups in the wake of the Mongol invasions of Japan of 1274 and 1281 and the failure of the Kemmu Restoration, which triggered the struggle between the supporters of the imperial loyalists and supporters of the Ashikaga clan.
Disaffection towards the Hōjō-led Kamakura regime appeared among the warriors towards the end of the thirteenth century. This resentment was caused by the growing influence of the Hōjō over other warrior families within the regime; the Mongol invasions were the main cause behind this centralization of power that took place during the regency of Hōjō Tokimune. During the crisis, three things occurred: Hōjō family appointments to the council of state increased. Note a They narrowed down their constituents by including only Hōjō family members and direct vassals, at the expense of a broader base of support; when a coalition against the Hōjō emerged in 1331, it took only two years to topple the regime. Wealth in agrarian societies is tied to land, medieval Japan was no different. In fact, land was the main reason for much of the discontent among the warrior class. Since the rise of the warriors under the Minamoto, it was expected that victory in battle would be rewarded by land grants given to those who served on the victorious side.
However, unlike any war, fought until the Mongol invasions presented a problem since this war, seen by most Japanese as a patriotic duty, did not take place against another warrior family, but against a foreign enemy. After the foreign enemy's defeat there were no lands to hand out to the victors; this was a problem for those warriors who had fought valiantly and petitioned the Hōjō regents for land. In the beginning of the fourteenth century this discontent put a tremendous pressure on any regime that emerged, they had to satisfy this group in order to succeed. When Kamakura's rule was destroyed in 1333, Kyoto's court society emerged again to confront the warriors. In the transition from the Heian to the Kamakura period, the warriors emerged from the domination of court patrimonialism as an independent political force. With the demise of Kamakura, the imperial court attempted once again to restore its de jure power as an alternative to warrior rule; the Kemmu Restoration was the last desperate attempt on the part of the court to restore their leadership, not just to preserve their institutions.
Not until the Meiji Restoration of the 19th century did this occur again. In the spring of 1333, the Emperor Go-Daigo and his supporters believed that the moment had arrived to restore the glory of the imperial court; the Emperor Daigo, who lived at a time when the court had no rivals and effective rule was exercised directly from the throne, became Go-Daigo's adopted name and model. Of cardinal importance was the ideology that emerged with the Kemmu Restoration: it was a conscious movement to restore the imperial power vis-a-vis the warriors. Two of the movement's greatest spokesmen were Kitabatake Chikafusa. Prince Morinaga was Daigo's son, archrival to Ashikaga Takauji: he advocated the militarization of the nobles as a necessary step towards effective rule. Kitabatake Chikafusa epitomized what Prince Morinaga was looking for: a Kyoto noble who became the greatest of the imperialist generals, combining the ways of the warrior to his noble upbringing. During the long siege in Hitachi
Joseon
Joseon dynasty was a Korean dynastic kingdom that lasted for five centuries. It was founded by Yi Seong-gye in July 1392 and was replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897, it was founded following the aftermath of the overthrow of Goryeo in what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul; the kingdom's northernmost borders were expanded to the natural boundaries at the rivers of Amnok and Tuman through the subjugation of the Jurchens. Joseon was the last dynasty of its longest-ruling Confucian dynasty. During its reign, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Chinese Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society. Neo-Confucianism was installed as the new dynasty's state ideology. Buddhism was accordingly discouraged and faced persecutions by the dynasty. Joseon consolidated its effective rule over the territory of current Korea and saw the height of classical Korean culture, trade and science and technology. However, the dynasty was weakened during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the Japanese invasions of Korea in the 1590s and the first and second Manchu invasions nearly overran the Korean Peninsula, leading to an harsh isolationist policy, for which the country became known as the "hermit kingdom" in Western literature.
After the end of invasions from Manchuria, Joseon experienced a nearly 200-year period of peace. However, whatever power the kingdom recovered during its isolation further waned as the 18th century came to a close, faced with internal strife, power struggles, international pressure and rebellions at home, the Joseon dynasty declined in the late 19th century; the Joseon period has left a substantial legacy to modern Korea. By the late 14th century, the nearly 500-year-old Goryeo established in 918 was tottering, its foundations collapsing from years of war and de facto occupation from the disintegrating Mongol Empire. Following the emergence of the Ming dynasty, the royal court in Goryeo split into two conflicting factions: the group led by General Yi and the camp led by General Choe. Goryeo claimed to be the successor of the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo; when a Ming messenger came to Goryeo in 1388, the 14th year of U of Goryeo, to demand that Goguryeo's former northern territory be handed over to Ming China, General Choe seized the chance to argue for an attack on the Liaodong Peninsula.
Yi was chosen to lead the attack. He killed King U and his son after a failed restoration and forcibly placed a royal named Yi on the throne. In 1392, Yi eliminated Jeong Mong-ju respected leader of a group loyal to Goryeo dynasty, dethroned King Gongyang, exiling him to Wonju, before he ascended the throne; the Goryeo Dynasty had come to an end after 500 years of rule. In the beginning of his reign, Yi Seonggye, now ruler of Korea, intended to continue use of the name Goryeo for the country he ruled and change the royal line of descent to his own, thus maintaining the façade of continuing the 500-year-old Goryeo tradition. However, after numerous threats of mutiny from the drastically weakened but still influential Gwonmun nobles, who continued to swear allegiance to the remnants of the Goryeo and now the demoted Wang clan, the consensus in the reformed court was that a new dynastic title was needed to signify the change. In naming the new dynasty, Taejo contemplated two possibilities - "Hwaryeong" and "Joseon".
After much internal deliberation, as well as endorsement by the neighboring Ming dynasty's emperor, Taejo declared the name of the kingdom to be Joseon, a tribute to the ancient Korean state of Gojoseon. He moved the capital to Hanyang from Kaesong; when the new dynasty was promulgated and brought into existence, Taejo brought up the issue of which son would be his successor. Although Yi Bangwon, Taejo's fifth son by Queen Sineui, had contributed most to assisting his father's rise to power, the prime minister Jeong Do-jeon and Nam Eun used their influence on King Taejo to name his eighth son Grand Prince Uian as crown prince in 1392; this conflict arose because Jeong Dojeon, who shaped and laid down ideological and legal foundations of the new dynasty more than anyone else, saw Joseon as a kingdom led by ministers appointed by the king while Yi Bangwon wanted to establish the absolute monarchy ruled directly by the king. With Taejo's support, Jeong Dojeon kept limiting the royal family's power by prohibiting political involvement of princes and attempting to abolish their private armies.
Both sides were getting ready to strike first. After the sudden death of Queen Sindeok, while King Taejo was still in mourning for his second wife, Yi Bangwon struck first by raiding the palace and killed Jeong Dojeon and his supporters as well as Queen Sindeok's two sons including the crown prince in 1398; this incident became known as the First Strife of Princes. Aghast at the fact that his sons were willing to kill each other for the crown, psychologically exhausted from the death of
Imagawa Sadayo
Imagawa Sadayo known as Imagawa Ryōshun, was a renowned Japanese poet and military commander who served as tandai of Kyūshū under the Ashikaga bakufu from 1371 to 1395. His father, Imagawa Norikuni, had been a supporter of the first Ashikaga shōgun, Ashikaga Takauji, for his services had been granted the position of constable of Suruga Province; this promotion increased the prestige of the Imagawa family and they remained an important family through to the Edo period. During his early years Sadayo was taught Buddhism and Chinese, the military arts such as strategy and horse-back riding by his father, along with poetry, to become one of his greatest passions. In his twenties he studied under Tamemoto of the Kyogoku school of poetry, Reizei Tamehide of the Reizei school. At some point, he was appointed to head the boards of coadjudicators, he had taken religious vows when the Ashikaga bakufu called upon him to travel to Kyūshū and assume the post of constable of the region in 1370 after the failure of the previous constable to quell the rebel uprisings in the region consisting of partisans of the Souther Court supporting one of the rebellious Emperor Go-Daigo's sons, Prince Kanenaga.
By 1374–1375, Sadayo had crushed the rebellion, securing for the Bakufu northern Kyūshū, ensuring the eventual failure of the rebellion and the consequent success of the Bakufu Shogunate. Sadayo's skill as a strategist was obvious, he moved through northern Kyūshū with a great deal of success, bringing the region under his control by October 1372; this was an impressive achievement considering Prince Kanenaga had been fortifying his position in this region for more than a decade. Kanenaga was not defeated outright however, went on the defensive, leading to a stalemate that lasted through to 1373, when Kanenaga's general, Kikuchi Takemitsu, leaving his military with no strong leader. Sadayo planned a final attack. Sadayo met with three of the most powerful families on Kyūshū to gain their support in the attack, those families being the Shimazu, the Ōtomo and the Shōni. Things seemed to be going well until Sadayo suspected the head of the Shoni family of treachery and had him killed at a drinking party.
This outraged the Shimazu clan, the ones to convince the Shōni to throw their lot in with Sadayo, they returned to their province of Satsuma to raise a force against Sadayo. This gave Prince Kanenaga time to regroup, he forced Sadayo back North, prompting Sadayo to request assistance from the Bakufu. Sadayo to take matters into his own hands, but was aided by his son Yoshinori and his younger brother Tadaaki. Sadayo continued to push the loyalists forces until their resistance ended with Prince Kanenaga's death in 1383; the death of Shimazu clan chieftain Ujihasa in 1385 helped ease tensions between Sadayo and the Shimazu for a time. In 1395 both the Ōuchi and Ōtomo families conspired against Sadayo, informing the Bakufu that he was plotting against the shōgun, in a move, an attempt to restore the post of constable to the family that had held it prior to Sadayo, the Shibukawa family. Sadayo was returned to the capital. Sadayo had, in addition, acted independently in his negotiations with the Shimazu, the Ōtomo and the Shōni, in negotiations with Korea.
In 1400 Sadayo was once again questioned by the Bakufu, this time in relation to the Imagawa's province of Tōtōmi's failure to respond to a levy issued by the Bakufu—a negligence interpretable as treason and rebellion. This charge saw Sadayo stripped of his post as constable of Suruga and Tōtōmi provinces, gave him reason to believe he might be assassinated. With this in mind he fled the capital for a time, though was pardoned and returned to the capital, spending the rest of his days pursuing religious devotions and poetry until his death in 1420. Sadayo began composing poetry from an early age: by the age 20, he had a poem included in an imperial anthology, his teacher was Reizei no Tamehide. His poems were displayed to more effect in his popular and influential travel diary, Michiyukiburi, it was this travel diary that in large part won Sadayo a place as a respected critic of poetry: he felt that poetry should be a direct expression of personal experience, a fact that can be seen from his own poems.
Though Sadayo is better known for his criticism of the more conservative poetry styles, the Nijo school in particular, his tutoring of Shōtetsu, who would become one of the finest waka poets of the fifteenth century, than he is for his own output, it nonetheless provides a glimpse into the mind of this medieval scholar and his travels. Sadayo was active in the poetic disputes of that day, scoring a signal victory over the Nijō adherents close to the Ashikaga Shogunate at the time with 6 polemical treatises on poetry he wrote between 1403 and 1412, defending the Reizei's poetic doctrine and their cause. Ryōshun used a number of quotations to bolster his case, including notably a quote of Fujiwara no Teika's, that all of the "ten styles" (Teika had defined ten orthodox poetic styles, such as yoen, a style concerned with "ethereal beau
Shōgun
The Shōgun was the military dictator of Japan during the period from 1185 to 1868. The shogunate was their government. In most of this period, the shōguns were the de facto rulers of the country, although nominally they were appointed by the Emperor as a ceremonial formality; the shōguns held absolute power over territories through military means. An unusual situation occurred in the Kamakura period upon the death of the first shōgun, whereby the Hōjō clan's hereditary titles of shikken and tokusō dominated the shogunate as dictatorial positions, collectively known as the Regent Rule; the shōguns during this 134-year period met the same fate as the Emperor and were reduced to figurehead status until a coup d'état in 1333, when the shōgun was restored to power in the name of the Emperor. Shōgun is the short form of Sei-i Taishōgun, the individual governing the country at various times in the history of Japan, ending when Tokugawa Yoshinobu relinquished the office to Emperor Meiji in 1867; the tent symbolized the field commander but denoted that such an office was meant to be temporary.
The shōgun's officials were collectively the bakufu, were those who carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority. In this context, the office of the shōgun had a status equivalent to that of a viceroy or governor-general, but in reality, shōguns dictated orders to everyone including the reigning Emperor. In contemporary terms, the role of the shōgun was equivalent to that of a generalissimo; the title of Sei-i Taishōgun was given to military commanders during the early Heian period for the duration of military campaigns against the Emishi, who resisted the governance of the Kyoto-based imperial court. Ōtomo no Otomaro was the first Sei-i Taishōgun. The most famous of these shōguns was Sakanoue no Tamuramaro. In the Heian period, one more shōgun was appointed. Minamoto no Yoshinaka was named sei-i taishōgun during the Genpei War, only to be killed shortly thereafter by Minamoto no Yoshitsune. In the early 11th century, daimyō protected by samurai came to dominate internal Japanese politics.
Two of the most powerful families – the Taira and Minamoto – fought for control over the declining imperial court. The Taira family seized control from 1160 to 1185, but was defeated by the Minamoto in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. Minamoto no Yoritomo seized power from the central government and aristocracy and established a feudal system based in Kamakura in which the private military, the samurai, gained some political powers while the Emperor and the aristocracy remained the de jure rulers. In 1192, Yoritomo was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun by the Emperor and the political system he developed with a succession of shōguns as the head became known as a shogunate. Yoritomo's wife's family, the Hōjō, seized power from the Kamakura shōguns; when Yoritomo's sons and heirs were assassinated, the shōgun himself became a hereditary figurehead. Real power rested with the Hōjō regents; the Kamakura shogunate lasted for 150 years, from 1192 to 1333. In 1274 and 1281, the Mongol Empire launched invasions against Japan.
An attempt by Emperor Go-Daigo to restore imperial rule in the Kenmu Restoration in 1331 was unsuccessful, but weakened the shogunate and led to its eventual downfall. The end of the Kamakura shogunate came when Kamakura fell in 1333, the Hōjō Regency was destroyed. Two imperial families – the senior Northern Court and the junior Southern Court – had a claim to the throne; the problem was solved with the intercession of the Kamakura shogunate, who had the two lines alternate. This lasted until 1331, when Emperor Go-Daigo tried to overthrow the shogunate to stop the alternation; as a result, Daigo was exiled. Around 1334 -- 1336, Ashikaga Takauji helped; the fight against the shogunate left the Emperor with too many people claiming a limited supply of land. Takauji turned against the Emperor when the discontent about the distribution of land grew great enough. In 1336 Daigo was banished again, in favor of a new Emperor. During the Kenmu Restoration, after the fall of the Kamakura shogunate in 1333, another short-lived shōgun arose.
Prince Moriyoshi, son of Go-Daigo, was awarded the title of Sei-i Taishōgun. However, Prince Moriyoshi was put under house arrest and, in 1335, killed by Ashikaga Tadayoshi. In 1338, Ashikaga Takauji, like Minamoto no Yoritomo, a descendant of the Minamoto princes, was awarded the title of sei-i taishōgun and established the Ashikaga shogunate, which lasted until 1573; the Ashikaga had their headquarters in the Muromachi district of Kyoto, the time during which they ruled is known as the Muromachi period. While the title of Shōgun went into abeyance due to technical reasons, Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who obtained the position of Imperial Regent, gained far greater power than any of their predecessors had. Hideyoshi is considered by many historians to be among Japan's greatest rulers. Tokugawa Ieyasu seized power and established a government at Edo in 1600, he received the title sei-i taishōgun in 1603, after he forged a family tree to show he was of Minamoto descent.
The Tokugawa shogunate lasted until 1867, when Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned as shōgun and abdicated his authority to Emperor Meiji. Ieyasu set a precedent in 1605 when he retired as shōgun in favour of his son Tokugawa Hidetada, though he maintained power from b
Ashikaga shogunate
The Ashikaga shogunate known as the Muromachi shogunate, was a dynasty originating from one of the plethora of Japanese daimyō which governed Japan from 1338 to 1573, the year in which Oda Nobunaga deposed Ashikaga Yoshiaki. The heads of government were the shōgun; each was a member of the Ashikaga clan. This period is known as the Muromachi period, it gets its name from the Muromachi district of Kyoto. The third shōgun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, established his residence on Muromachi Street; this residence, constructed in 1379, is nicknamed "Flower Palace" because of the abundance of flowers in its landscaping. During the preceding Kamakura period, the Hōjō clan enjoyed absolute power in the governing of Japan; this monopoly of power, as well as the lack of a reward of lands after the defeat of the Mongol invasions, led to simmering resentment among Hōjō vassals. In 1333, the Emperor Go-Daigo ordered local governing vassals to oppose Hōjō 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 because Ashikaga was the de facto leader of the powerless Minamoto clan, while the Hōjō clan were from the Taira clan the Minamoto had defeated, Ashikaga turned against Kamakura, fought on behalf of the Imperial court. After the successful overthrow of the Kamakura regime in 1336, Ashikaga Takauji set up his own military government in Kyoto. After Ashikaga Takauji established himself as the shōgun, a dispute arose with Emperor Go-Daigo 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 Kōmyō. Go-Daigō fled, Japan was divided between a northern imperial court, a southern imperial court; this period of "Northern and Southern Courts" continued for 56 years, until 1392, when the South Court gave up during the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. The Ashikaga shogunate was the weakest of the three Japanese military governments.
Unlike its predecessor, the Kamakura shogunate, or its successor, the Tokugawa shogunate, when Ashikaga Takauji established his government he had little personal territory with which to support his rule. The Ashikaga shogunate was thus reliant on the prestige and personal authority of its shōgun; the centralized master-vassal system used in the Kamakura system was replaced with the de-centralized daimyōs system, because of the lack of direct territories, the military power of the shōgun depended on the loyalty of the daimyō. On the other hand, the Imperial court was no longer a credible threat to military rule; the failure of the Kenmu Restoration had rendered the court weak and subservient, a situation the Ashikaga Takauji reinforced by establishing within close proximity of the Emperor at Kyoto. The authority of the local daimyō expanded from its Kamakura times. In addition to military and policing responsibilities, the shogunate appointed shugos now absorbed the justice and taxation powers of the local Imperial governors, while the government holdings in each province were absorbed into the personal holdings of the daimyō or their vassals.
The loss of both political clout and economic base deprived the Imperial court of much of its power, which were assumed by the Ashikaga shōgun. This situation reached its peak under the rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. After Yoshimitsu however, the structural weakness of the Ashikaga shogunate were exposed by numerous succession troubles and early deaths; this became more acute after the Ōnin War, after which the shogunate itself became reduced to little more than a local political force in Kyoto. The Ashikaga shogunate's foreign relations policy choices were played out in evolving contacts with Joseon on the Korean Peninsula and with imperial China; as the daimyō feuded among themselves in the pursuit of power in the Ōnin War, that loyalty grew strained, until it erupted into open warfare in the late Muromachi period known as the Sengoku period. When the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru was assassinated in 1565, an ambitious daimyō, Oda Nobunaga, seized the opportunity and installed Yoshiteru's brother Yoshiaki as the 15th Ashikaga shōgun.
However, Yoshiaki was only a puppet of Nobunaga. The Ashikaga shogunate was destroyed in 1573 when Nobunaga drove Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Yoshiaki fled to Shikoku. Afterwards, he received protection from the Mōri clan in western Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi requested that Yoshiaki accept him as an adopted son and the 16th Ashikaga shōgun, but Yoshiaki refused; the Ashikaga family survived the 16th century, a branch of it became the daimyō family of the Kitsuregawa domain. The shogunal residence known as the "Flower Palace", was in Kyoto on the block now bounded by Karasuma Street, Imadegawa Street, Muromachi Street, Kamidachiuri Street; the location is commemorated by a stone marker at the southwest corner, the Kanbai-kan of Dōshisha University contains relics and excavations of the area. 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
