Ashikaga Yoshihisa

Ashikaga Yoshihisa (1465–1489), the son of Yoshimasa and Hino Tomiko, became the ninth Ashikaga shogun while still a child. His birth had complicated plans for his uncle Yoshimi to succeed. It did not give the infant responsibility for the Ōnin War, the civil conflict in Kyoto. After appointment, his father, mother and maternal relatives retained much of the government’s practical authority. [S01]

Yoshihisa began taking a larger part in government during the 1480s, although Yoshimasa continued to wield power. He strengthened his position among the shogun’s close military followers. In 1487 he personally led a campaign against Rokkaku Takayori in Ōmi, in present-day Shiga, invoking recovery of lands belonging to temples, shrines and other estate holders. A headquarters at Magari supported the campaign. Restoring those lands also offered a means to expand his own authority and reward followers. [S01]

He composed waka, Japan’s short court poems, and sought advice on rule from the court scholar Ichijō Kaneyoshi, whose Bunmei Ittōki combined religious devotion with ethical and governmental counsel. Yoshihisa died of illness in the field in 1489. His reign ended during an effort to recover shogunal power, after a childhood spent as the object of succession bargaining. He had grown into an active commander with literary interests, but did not live to see his campaign concluded. [S01, S02]