Page 28 - JAPAN THE SHAPING OFDAIMYO CULTURE 1185-1868

Ashikaga In 1333 the Kamakura bakufu was toppled by a coali-
shoguns and tion of imperial princes, warriors, and monk-soldiers
shugo daimyo kd by emperor Go-Daigo. Go-Daigo's attempts to re-
store direct imperial rule quickly alienated Ashikaga
Takauji, his leading warrior supporter, who in 1336
forced Go-Daigo from Kyoto. The emperor with his supporters took
refuge in the Yoshino Hills, south of Kyoto, where they set up the South-
ern Court and maintained the emperor's claim to the throne. Ashikaga
Takauji installed a rival "Northern" emperor in Kyoto, took the title of
shogun, and established a bakufu (shogunate) in the Muromachi district
of Kyoto. Culturally, the return of the bakufu to Kyoto was significant,
for it brought the Ashikaga shoguns, and later the daimyo on whose
support they depended, back into close contact with members of the
imperial court, the great Kyoto temples, and the burgeoning merchant
and artistic communities of the capital.
The early decades of Ashikaga rule were marked by civil war. But
even in the midst of war some daimyo, like Imagawa Ryóshun, found
time for literary pursuits as well as conquest. Ryóshun, born into the
Imagawa daimyo family in about 1326, served the Ashikaga bakufu and in
1371 was appointed governor general of Kyushu, charged with establish-
ing the authority of the bakufu in western Japan. Ryóshun loved waka
and renga and his skill was widely acclaimed. His writings were used as
literary copy books by later generations of young warriors. One of these
copy books begins with the line, "He who does not know the way of bun
can never ultimately gain victory in the way of bu" (Dore 1965,16).
Compared with the earlier Kamakura bakufu, the Muromachi
bakufu did not have a strong political reach. The Ashikaga shoguns ruled
as heads of an unstable warrior coalition of shogun and shugo, or provin-
cial constables. The shugo included some of the earlier Kamakura-period
shugo, members of Ashikaga cadet families or shogunal vassals. The
shoguns treated shugo as vassals and gave them military and administra-
tive responsibility for one or more provinces. The shugo took advantage
of their administrative authority from the bakufu to build up their per-
sonal territorial control and to enfeoff local warriors (kokujin). They en-
joyed the right to collect taxes on cultivated land (tansen) and to levy
taxes on public and private lands to raise troops (hanzei). They were
charged with keeping the peace, apprehending criminals, and settling
local disputes. They also sequestered the private holdings of absentee
proprietors, and divided spoils after war. As they added to their spheres
of influence, increased their fief lands, and added local warriors to their
vassal bands, they became territorial magnates on a grand scale; they
have been given the name shugo daimyo, or constable daimyo, by mod-
ern historians. Some, like the Yamana and Hosokawa, came to exert
nominal authority over half a dozen provinces. At the same time that the
shugo controlled the provinces, they also held offices in the shogunal
government. This simultaneously increased their influence, divided their
attention, and brought them out of the provinces to live in Kyoto. Three
influential shugo daimyo, the Shiba, Hatakeyama, and Hosokawa, held
the powerful bakufu office of Kanrei, or shogunal deputy.
Strong shoguns like Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the third shogun, and
Yoshinori, the autocratic sixth shogun, were able to impose their author-
ity on the shogun -shugo coalition by mobilizing alliances to crush unruly
members, taking hostages, requiring shugo to live in Kyoto, and com-
manding expensive gifts and favors. The assassination of Yoshinori by a
resentful shugo in 1441 and the protracted civil war (Onin War) of 1467-
1477 seriously weakened shogunal finances and military power. The sho-
gunate was reduced to bare control over Kyoto and the few nearby
provinces. In the Onin War shugo daimyo banded together in rival mili-

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