Ashikaga Yoshiakira

Ashikaga Yoshiakira (足利 義詮, July 4, 1330 – December 28, 1367) was the 2nd shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1358 to 1367 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshiakira was the son of the founder and first shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji. His mother was Akahashi Tōshi, also known as Hōjō Nariko.

Contents

• Family
• Eras of Yoshiakiras bakufu
• References

His childhood name was Senjuo (千寿王). He spent his childhood in Kamakura as a hostage of the Hōjō clan. His father Takauji joined forces with the banished Emperor Go-Daigo. The Kamakura shogunate was overthrown, and Go-Daigo began the process which came to be known as the Kenmu Restoration.

Yoshiakira assisted Nitta Yoshisada (1301–1338) in his attack on the Kamakura shogunate.

In 1349, an internal disturbance of the government caused Yoshiakira to be called back to Kyoto, where he found himself named as Takauji's heir. On 5 April 1352, Loyalist forces led by Kitabatake Akiyoshi, Kusunoki Masanori and Chigusa Akitsune occupied Kyoto for twenty days before Yoshiakira was able to retake the city. Loyalist forces led by Masanori and Yamana Tokiuji captured Kyoto again in July 1353, but were repulsed by Yoshiakira in Aug. In January 1355, Loyalist forces led by Momonoi, Tadafuyu, and Yamana captured Kyoto again. However, Kyoto was recaptured on 25 April by Takauji's and Yoshiakira's combined forces. Yoshiakira succeeded his father Takauji as Seii Taishogun after his death in 1358.

Significant events shape the period during which Yoshiakira was shogun:

Some months after his death he was succeeded by his son Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who became the third shogun in 1368. Yoshiakira was posthumously named 宝篋院 (Hōkyōin), and his grave is at Tōji-in, Kyoto, at the same site as his father's grave.