Akamatsu Mitsusuke

Akamatsu Mitsusuke (died 1441) succeeded his father Yoshinori as military governor of Harima, Bizen and Mimasaka in 1427. These provinces lay west of Kyoto. His household administered taxes, estates and policing through deputies, while Mitsusuke also held important offices in the capital. His regional power belonged to the shogunate’s governing structure, giving him both resources and obligations at court. [S01]

His position became less secure under Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, a different man from his father. The shogun favored another Akamatsu branch, confiscated Mitsusuke’s brother’s lands and punished other powerful lords. Rumors threatened further loss of his governorships. In 1441 Mitsusuke invited Yoshinori to a banquet at his Kyoto residence and had him killed. Those pressures explain the setting; they do not establish every private motive behind the assassination. [S01, S02]

Mitsusuke withdrew to Harima and arranged funeral rites for the dead shogun. Yamana and Hosokawa forces eventually defeated his household, and he killed himself that year. His son Noriyasu also died after fleeing. The Yamana received the three governorships and associated revenues. Killing the ruler had not freed Mitsusuke’s family from the institutions supporting that ruler; defeat redistributed the offices and land on which Akamatsu power had depended. [S01, S02]