Greater Kyoto
Greater Kyoto is a metropolitan area in Japan encompassing Kyoto, the capital of Kyoto Prefecture, as well as its surrounding areas including Ōtsu, the capital of Shiga Prefecture. The metropolitan area is referred to as Keiji or Keishin; the name Keiji is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Shiga. The name Keishin is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Ōtsu; the greater Kyoto area is defined by Urban Employment Area as Kyoto Metropolitan Employment Area. The metropolitan area had a total population of 2,801,044 as of 2015 and is the fourth-largest in Japan; the cities and towns of the metropolitan area with their 2015 populations are listed below. A wider metropolitan area based on commuting patterns is defined by Kyōto Toshiken Jichitai Nettowāku Kaigi as the Kyoto metropolitan area; this area consists of 14 cities and towns of Shiga Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture, Osaka Prefecture, in addition to Kyoto MEA. The total population as of 2015 for the region was estimated at 3,789,750.
The following areas, along with the above Kyoto MEA, are included in the Kyoto metropolitan area, with their 2015 populations: Lake Biwa – the largest lake in Japan Ohmi Basin – Shiga Prefecture Kyoto Basin – the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture Mount Hiei – mountain on the border between Kyoto and Ōtsu Seta River, Uji River Kizugawa River Yasu River Katsura River 48 universities and colleges in the area participate in the Consortium of Universities in Kyoto. Bukkyo University – 5 campuses in Kyoto and Nantan Doshisha University – 2 campuses in Kyoto and Kyōtanabe Kyoto University – 3 campuses in Kyoto and Uji Kyoto Gakuen University – 2 campuses in Kameoka and Kyoto Ritsumeikan University – 4 campuses in Kyoto and Ibaraki Ryukoku University – 3 campuses in Kyoto and Ōtsu Kyoto Sanga FC – a football club MIO Biwako Shiga – a football club Kyoto Hannaryz – a basketball team Shiga Lakestars – a basketball team Lake Biwa Marathon Kyoto Marathon Kyoto Racecourse Kyoto Stadium Kyoto Shimbun – newspaper KBS Kyoto – TV and radio station BBC Biwako – TV station FM-Kyoto – radio station PHP Insutitute – publishing house Leaf Publications – publishing house Kyōto Station is a hub of the rail network in the area.
Tōkaidō Shinkansen – inter-city rail Biwako Line and JR Kyoto Line – regional and commuter rail Kosei Line – regional and commuter rail San'in Main Line – regional and commuter rail Nara Line – commuter rail Kusatsu Line – commuter rail Kyoto Line – regional and commuter rail Keihan Main Line and Uji Line – commuter rail Keishin Line – commuter rail and tram Ishiyama Sakamoto Line – commuter rail and tram Hankyu Kyoto Main Line and Hankyu Arashiyama Line – commuter rail Arashiyama Line and Kitano Line – commuter rail and tram Karasuma Line and Tōzai Line – Kyoto Municipal Subway Eizan Main Line and Kurama Line – commuter rail Meishin Expressway Shin-Meishin Expressway Kyoto-Jukan Expressway Keinawa Expressway Keiji Bypass Daini-Keihan Road Japan National Route 1 Japan National Route 8 Japan National Route 9 Japan National Route 24 Japan National Route 161 List of metropolitan areas in Japan by population 京都都市圏自治体ネットワーク Kyoto metropolitan area municipalities network on Facebook Kyoto metropolitan area municipalities network on Instagram Workers and Students Commuting to Kyoto-shi - Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
Buddhism
Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions and spiritual practices based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana. Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of Buddhahood. Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, their specific teachings and practices. Observed practices include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, observance of moral precepts, monasticism and the cultivation of the Paramitas.
Theravada Buddhism has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and Thailand. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Nichiren Buddhism and Tiantai, is found throughout East Asia. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian adepts, may be viewed as a separate branch or as an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth-century India, is practiced in the countries of the Himalayan region and Kalmykia. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of the Buddha born Siddhārtha Gautama, known as the Tathāgata and Sakyamuni. Early texts have his personal name as "Gautama" or "Gotama" without any mention of "Siddhārtha," which appears to have been a kind of honorific title when it does appear; the details of Buddha's life are mentioned in many Early Buddhist Texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. The evidence of the early texts suggests that he was born as Siddhārtha Gautama in Lumbini and grew up in Kapilavasthu, a town in the plains region of the modern Nepal-India border, that he spent his life in what is now modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother was Queen Maya, he was born in Lumbini gardens. However, scholars such as Richard Gombrich consider this a dubious claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the Shakyas community – one that gave him the title Shakyamuni, the Shakya community was governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead; some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, claims about the society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated at a time into the Buddhist texts. According to the Buddhist sutras, Gautama was moved by the innate suffering of humanity and its endless repetition due to rebirth, he set out on a quest to end this repeated suffering. Early Buddhist canonical texts and early biographies of Gautama state that Gautama first studied under Vedic teachers, namely Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, learning meditation and ancient philosophies the concept of "nothingness, emptiness" from the former, "what is neither seen nor unseen" from the latter.
Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of asceticism. This too fell short of attaining his goal, he turned to the practice of dhyana, which he had discovered in his youth, he famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in the Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, attained enlightenment, certainty about the Middle Way as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering from rebirths in Saṃsāra; as a enlightened Buddha, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma he had discovered, died at the age of 80 in Kushinagar, India. Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became over 18 Buddhist sub-schools of thought, each with its own basket of texts containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha.
The Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism: we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, dukkha, "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the endless cycle of repeated rebirth and dying again, but there is a way to liberation from this endless cycle to the state of nirvana, namely following the Noble Eightfold Path. The truth of dukkha is the basic insight that life in this mundane world, with its clinging and craving to impermanent states and things is dukkha, unsatisfactory. Dukkha can be translated as "incapable of satisfying," "the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena". Dukkha is most translated as "suffering," but this is inaccurate, since it refers not to episodic suffering, but to the intrinsically unsat
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was the 3rd shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, in power from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō. Yoshimitsu was appointed shōgun, a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten. In 1379, Yoshimitsu reorganized the institutional framework of the Gozan Zen 五山禅 establishment before, two years becoming the first person of the warrior class to host a reigning emperor at his private residence. In 1392, he negotiated the end of the Nanboku-chō imperial schism that had plagued politics for over half a century. Two years he became Grand Chancellor of State, the highest-ranking member of the imperial court. Retiring from that and all public offices in 1395, Yoshimitsu took the tonsure and moved into his Kitayama-dono retirement villa which, among other things, boasted a pavilion two-thirds covered in gold leaf. There, he received envoys from the Ming and Joseon courts on at least six occasions and forged the terms of a Sino-Japanese trade agreement that endured for over a century.
In recognition for his diplomatic efforts, the Chinese sovereign pronounced Yoshimitsu "King of Japan". In 1407, he set into motion a plan to become "Dajō tenno", a title customarily applied to a retired emperor. Although unrealized due to his sudden death the following year, this last venture was audacious because Yoshimitsu never sat on the Japanese throne. Late in his career, it appears Yoshimitsu sought to legitimize his transcendent authority through the idiom of Buddhist kingship, deploying ritual and monumentalism to cast him as a universal monarch or dharma king, not unlike his counterparts in Southeast Asia, his posthumous name was Rokuon'in. Significant events shape the period during which Yoshimitsu was shōgun: 1368 – Yoshimitsu appointed shōgun. 1369 – Kusunoki Masanori defects to Ashikaga. 1370 – Imagawa Sadayo sent to subdue Kyushu. 1371 – Attempts to arrange truce. 1373–1406 – Embassies between China and Japan. 1374 – En'yū ascends northern throne. 1378 – Yoshimitsu builds the Muromachi palace in Kyoto's elite district of Kamigyo, on the site of the former residence of the nobleman Saionji Sanekane.
1379 – Shiba Yoshimasa becomes Kanrei. 1380 – Kusunoki Masanori rejoins Kameyama. 1382 – Go-Komatsu ascends northern throne. 1383 – Yoshimitsu's honors. 1385 – Southern army defeated at Koga. 1387–1389 – Dissension in Toki family in Mino. 1389 – Yoshimitsu pacifies Kyūshū and distributes lands. 1390 – Kusunoki defeated. 1391 – Yamana Ujikyo attacks Kyoto – Meitoku War. 1392 – Northern and Southern courts reconciled under Go-Komatsu. 1394 – Yoshimitsu cedes his position to his son. 1396 – Imagawa Sadayo dismissed. 1397 – Uprising in Kyūshū suppressed. 1398 – Muromachi administration organized. 1399 – Ōuchi Yoshihiro and Ashikaga Mitsukane rebel – Ōei War. 1402 – Uprising in Mutsu suppressed. 1404 – Yoshimitsu is recognized as Nippon Koku-Ō by Yongle Emperor. 1408 – Yoshimitsu dies. Yoshimitsu constructed his residential headquarters along Muromachi Road in the northern part of Kyoto in 1378; as a result, in Japanese, the Ashikaga shogunate and the corresponding time period are referred to as the Muromachi shogunate and Muromachi period.
Yoshimitsu resolved the rift between the Northern and Southern Courts in 1392, when he persuaded Go-Kameyama of the Southern Court to hand over the Imperial Regalia to Emperor Go-Komatsu of the Northern Court. Yoshimitsu's greatest political achievement was that he managed to bring about the end to Nanboku-chō fighting; this event had the effect of establishing the authority of the Muromachi shogunate and suppressing the power of the regional age daimyōs who might challenge that central authority. Concordant with increased communication between the Muromachi Shogunate and the Ming Dynasty in modern day China, during this period Japan received a significant influx of Ming influence to its economic system, architecture and religion, writing. Although Yoshimitsu retired in 1394 and his son was confirmed as the fourth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the old shōgun did not abandon any of his powers. Yoshimitsu continued to maintain authority over the shogunate until his death. Yoshimitsu played a major role in the genesis of Noh theatre, as the patron of Zeami Motokiyo, the actor considered to be Noh's founder.
Yoshimitsu died in 1408 at age 50. After his death, his retirement villa became Rokuon-ji, which today is famous for its three-storied, gold-leaf covered reliquary known as "Kinkaku". So famous is this single structure, in fact, that the entire temple itself is identified as the Kinkaku-ji, the Temple of the Golden Pavilion. A statue of Yoshimitsu is found there today. Father: Ashikaga Yoshiakira Mother: Kino Yoshiko Wife: Hino Nariko Concubines: Ichijo no Tsubone Hino Yasuko Fujiwara no Yoshiko Kaga no Tsubone Kasuga no Tsubone Nefu'in Fujiwara no Kyoko Fujiwara no Tomoko Keijun'in Takahashi-dono Ikegami-dono Children: a daughter by Nariko Ashikaga Yoshimochi by Yoshiko Ashikaga Yoshinori by Yoshiko Ashikaga Yoshitsugu
Nara, Nara
Nara is the capital city of Nara Prefecture located in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture. Eight temples and ruins in Nara remain: Tōdai-ji, Saidai-ji, Kōfuku-ji, Kasuga Shrine, Gangō-ji, Yakushi-ji, Tōshōdai-ji, the Heijō Palace, together with Kasugayama Primeval Forest, collectively form "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara", a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During 710 CE - 784 CE, Nara was the capital of Japan, the Emperor lived there before moving the capital to Kyoto. By the Heian period, a variety of different characters had been used to represent the name Nara: 乃楽, 乃羅, 平, 平城, 名良, 奈良, 奈羅, 常, 那良, 那楽, 那羅, 楢, 諾良, 諾楽, 寧, 寧楽 and 儺羅. A number of theories for the origin of the name Nara have been proposed, some of the better-known ones are listed here; the second theory in the list, by notable folklorist Kunio Yanagita, is most accepted at present. The Nihon Shoki suggests. According to this account, in September in the tenth year of Emperor Sujin, "leading selected soldiers went forward, climbed Nara-yama and put them in order.
Now the imperial forces flattened trees and plants. Therefore the mountain is called Nara-yama." Though the narrative itself is regarded as a folk etymology and few researchers regard it as historical, this is the oldest surviving suggestion, is linguistically similar to the following theory by Yanagita. "Flat land" theory: In his 1936 study of placenames, the author Kunio Yanagita states that "the topographical feature of an area of gentle gradient on the side of a mountain, called taira in eastern Japan and hae in the south of Kyushu, is called naru in the Chūgoku region and Shikoku. This word gives rise to the verb narasu, adverb narashi, adjective narushi." This is supported by entries in a dialect dictionary for nouns referring to flat areas: naru and naro. Yanagita further comments that the way in which the fact that so many of these placenames are written using the character 平, or other characters in which it is an element, demonstrates the validity of this theory. Citing a 1795 document, Inaba-shi from the province of Inaba, the eastern part of modern Tottori, as indicating the reading naruji for the word 平地, Yanagita suggests that naruji would have been used as a common noun there until the modern period.
Of course, the fact that "Nara" was written 平 or 平城 as above is further support for this theory. The idea that Nara is derived from 楢 nara is the next most common opinion; this idea was suggested by Yoshida Togo. This noun for the plant can be seen as early as in Man ` Harima-no-kuni Fudoki; the latter book states the place name Narahara in Harima derives from this nara tree, which might support Yoshida's theory. Note that the name of the nearby city of Kashihara contains a semantically similar morpheme. Nara could be a loan word from Korean nara; this idea was put forward by a linguist Matsuoka Shizuo. Not much about the Old Korean language is known today, the first written attestation of a word ancestral to Modern Korean nara is as late as the 15th century, such as in Yongbieocheonga, Wolinseokbo, or Beophwagyeongeonhae, there is no evidence that proves the word existed as far back as the 7th century; these 15th-century books used narah, an old form of nara in Korean, its older form might be reconstructed *narak.
American linguist Christopher I. Beckwith infers the Korean narak derives from the late Middle Old Chinese 壌, from early *narak, has no connection with Goguryoic and Japanese na. Kusuhara et al. points out this hypothesis cannot account for the fact there are lots of places named Nara and Naro besides this Nara. There is the idea. In some Tungusic languages such as Orok, na means land or the like; some have speculated about a connection between these Tungusic words and Old Japanese nawi, an archaic and somewhat obscure word that appears in the verb phrases nawi furu and nawi yoru. The "Flat land" theory is adopted by Nihon Kokugo Daijiten, various dictionaries for place names, history books on Nara and the like today, it is regarded as the most likely. By decree of an edict on March 11, 708 AD, Empress Genmei ordered the court to relocate to the new capital, Nara. Once known as Heijō or Heijō-kyō, the city was established as Japan’s first permanent capital in 710 CE. Heijō, as the ‘penultimate court’, was abandoned by the order of Emperor Kammu in 784 CE in favor of the temporary site of Nagaoka, Kyoto which retained the status of capital for 1,100 years, until the Meiji Emperor made the final move to Edo
Japanese tea ceremony
The Japanese tea ceremony called the Way of Tea, is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of matcha, powdered green tea. In Japanese, it is called chanoyu or sadō, chadō, while the manner in which it is performed, or the art of its performance, is called temae. Zen Buddhism was a primary influence in the development of the Japanese tea ceremony. Much less Japanese tea practice uses leaf tea sencha, in which case it is known in Japanese as senchadō as opposed to chanoyu or chadō. Tea gatherings are classified as a formal tea gathering chaji. A chakai is a simple course of hospitality that includes confections, thin tea, a light meal. A chaji is a much more formal gathering including a full-course kaiseki meal followed by confections, thick tea, thin tea. A chaji can last up to four hours. Chadō is counted as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement, along with kōdō for incense appreciation, kadō for flower arrangement; the first documented evidence of tea in Japan dates to the 9th century, when it was taken by the Buddhist monk Eichū on his return from China.
The entry in the Nihon Kōki states that Eichū prepared and served sencha to Emperor Saga, on an excursion in Karasaki in the year 815. It was practiced by Japanese nobles. By imperial order in the year 816, tea plantations began to be cultivated in the Kinki region of Japan. However, the interest in tea in Japan faded after this. In China, tea had been known, according to legend, for more than a thousand years; the form of tea popular in China in Eichū's time was "cake tea" or "brick tea" —tea compressed into a nugget in the same manner as pu-erh. This would be ground in a mortar, the resulting ground tea mixed together with various other herbs and flavourings; the custom of drinking tea, first for medicinal, largely for pleasurable reasons, was widespread throughout China. In the early 9th century, Chinese author Lu Yu wrote The Classic of Tea, a treatise on tea focusing on its cultivation and preparation. Lu Yu's life had been influenced by Buddhism the Zen–Chán school, his ideas would have a strong influence in the development of the Japanese tea.
Around the end of the 12th century, the style of tea preparation called "tencha", in which powdered matcha was placed into a bowl, hot water added, the tea and hot water whipped together, was introduced to Japan by Eisai, another monk, on his return from China. He took tea seeds back with him, which produced tea, considered to be the most superb quality in all of Japan; this powdered green tea was first used in religious rituals in Buddhist monasteries. By the 13th century, when the Kamakura Shogunate ruled the nation and tea and the luxuries associated with it became a kind of status symbol among the warrior class, there arose tea-tasting parties wherein contestants could win extravagant prizes for guessing the best quality tea—that was grown in Kyoto, deriving from the seeds that Eisai brought from China; the next major period in Japanese history was the Muromachi Period, pointing to the rise of Kitayama Culture, centered around the gorgeous cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and his villa in the northern hills of Kyoto, during this period, the rise of Higashiyama Culture, centered around the elegant cultural world of Ashikaga Yoshimasa and his retirement villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto.
This period 1336 to 1573, saw the budding of what is regarded as Japanese traditional culture as we know it today. The use of Japanese tea developed as a "transformative practice", began to evolve its own aesthetic, in particular that of "sabi" and "wabi" principles. "Wabi" represents the spiritual, experiences of human lives. Its original meaning indicated quiet or sober refinement, or subdued taste "characterized by humility, simplicity, profundity and asymmetry" and "emphasizes simple, unadorned objects and architectural space, celebrates the mellow beauty that time and care impart to materials." "Sabi", on the other hand, represents the outer, or material side of life. It meant "worn", "weathered", or "decayed". Among the nobility, understanding emptiness was considered the most effective means to spiritual awakening, while embracing imperfection was honoured as a healthy reminder to cherish our unpolished selves and now, just as we are—the first step to "satori" or enlightenment. Murata Jukō is known in chanoyu history as an early developer of tea as a spiritual practice.
He studied Zen under the monk Ikkyū, who revitalized Zen in the 15th century, this is considered to have influenced his concept of chanoyu. By the 16th century, tea drinking had spread to all levels of society in Japan. Sen no Rikyū and his work Southern Record the best-known—and still revered—historical figure in tea, followed his master Takeno Jōō's concept of ichi-go ichi-e, a philosophy that each meeting should be treasured, for it can never be reproduced, his teachings perfected many newly developed forms in architecture and gardens and the full development of the "way of tea". The principles he set forward—harmony, respect and tranquility —are still central to tea. Sen no Rikyū was the leading teamaster of the regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who supported him in codifying and spreading the way of tea as a mea
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
