Name Ashikaga Yoshiaki Grandparents Ashikaga Yoshizumi Siblings Ashikaga Yoshiteru | Children Ashikaga Gijin Parents Ashikaga Yoshiharu | |
 | ||
Role Ashikaga Yoshiteru's brother Died October 9, 1597, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan People also search for Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, Ashikaga Yoshizumi | ||
Ashikaga Yoshiaki (足利 義昭, December 5, 1537 – October 19, 1597) was the 15th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan who reigned from 1568 to 1573. His father, Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shogun, and his brother, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was the thirteenth shogun.
Contents
Biography
The absence of an effective central authority in the capital of Japan had lasted until the warlord Oda Nobunaga's armies entered Kyoto in 1568, re-establishing the Muromachi Shogunate under the puppet shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to begin the Azuchi–Momoyama period. Ashikaga Yoshihide, the fourteenth shogun, was deposed without ever entering the capital. His childhood name was Chitosemaru (千歳丸).
Most historians consider 1573 to have been the year in which the Ashikaga shogunate ended. The power of the Ashikaga was effectively destroyed on August 27, 1573 when Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Yoshiaki became a Buddhist monk, shaving his head and taking the name Sho-san, which he later changed to Rei-o In.
Some note that Yoshiaki did not formally relinquish his empty title; and for this reason, the empty shell of the shogunate could be said to have continued for several more years. Despite a renewed central authority in Kyoto and Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country, the struggle for power among warring states continued until unification and final peace was achieved long after Nobunaga's assassination in 1582.
Family
Events of Yoshiaki's bakufu
Significant events shape the period during which Yoshiaki was shogun:
Eras of Yoshiaki's bakufu
The span of years in which Yoshiaki was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.