Biographies CXII: The Shōguns, Part VII: Ashikaga Yoshiakira

Ashikaga Yoshiakira

¶Ashikaga Yoshiakira, whose childhood name was Sen'ju-ō (Note: following the Taiheiki), was the third son of Takauji (Note: following the Ashikaga Keizu. The Taiheiki calls him the second son, which is mistaken). In the second year of Genkō (1332), when Takauji obeyed the command of Hōjō Takatoki and went out to oppose the imperial army, Yoshiakira remained at Kamakura as a hostage together with his mother, of the Akahashi clan. When Takauji returned to his allegiance to the court, the retainers took Yoshiakira in their arms and fled to Shimotsuke. When Nitta Yoshisada destroyed Takatoki, more than two hundred retainers escorted Yoshiakira and joined Yoshisada, and he took up residence in Kamakura (Note: following the Taiheiki). Takauji sent Hosokawa Kazuuji, Hosokawa Yoriharu, and Hosokawa Moroji to Kamakura to assist Yoshiakira (Note: following the Baishōron). Many of the warriors of the Kantō left Yoshisada and attached themselves to Yoshiakira (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Baishōron. The details are given in the biography of Kazuuji). In the second year of Kenmu (1335) he was granted Junior Fifth Rank Lower (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the autumn of the second year of Engen (1337), when the Chinjufu Shōgun Minamoto-no-Akiie attacked Kamakura, Yoshiakira sent Hosokawa Kazuuji, together with Uesugi Noriaki and Kō-no-Shigemochi, to fight at the Tone River, but they were badly beaten and withdrew. In winter, when Akiie came on once more, joining forces with Hōjō Tokiyuki and Nitta Yoshioki, the generals debated whether to flee to Awa and Kazusa and so avoid the enemy's spearhead. Yoshiakira said: "I am the Kantō Kanrei. How could I be afraid and retreat, and meekly endure the contempt of an outside enemy? Today let us fight one battle prepared to die. If by good fortune we break free, we can fall back to Awa and Kazusa, follow behind the enemy as he marches west, advance as far as Uji and Seta, and catch him between ourselves and my father." Yoshiakira was then eight years old (Note: the original text says eleven, but here his age has been reckoned from the Kugyō Bunin and corrected). The generals marvelled and followed him, and sallied forth by separate roads, but the battle went against them and they fled, guarding Yoshiakira. In the third year (1338), when Akiie marched on the capital, Yoshiakira entered Kamakura again, and the generals pursued Akiie westward. Akiie was in the end killed in battle, just as Yoshiakira had foreseen (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the fifth year of Kōkoku (1344), the Retired Emperor Kōmyō conferred on Yoshiakira the post of Sama-no-kami (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the first year of Shōhei (1346) he was advanced to Junior Fourth Rank Lower (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga-ke Den). In the fourth year (1349) he came to the capital and, in place of his uncle Tadayoshi, took charge of military and civil government. Tadayoshi and his party submitted to the court (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the autumn of the fifth year (1350), Yoshiakira and Kō-no-Moronao together attacked Toki Yoriaki in Mino, took him prisoner, and returned (Note: following the Entairyaku, the Gion Shugyō Nikki-shō, and the Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). The Retired Emperor Sukō rewarded this service by appointing Yoshiakira Sangi, Councillor, and having him concurrently hold the post of Sakonoe-chūjō, Middle Captain of the Left Guards. In the spring of the following year (1351), Tadayoshi led imperial troops forward to Otokoyama. Momonoi Naotsune pitched camp at Sakamoto. At this time Takauji was about to attack his eldest illegitimate son, Tadafuyu, in Tsukushi. In the capital the troops were few, and many of them were secretly in communication with Tadayoshi, so that desertions and surrenders followed one another. Yoshiakira set up barriers to stop them, but the guards too fled one after another, and fewer than five hundred men remained. Hosokawa Kiyouji, Nikki Yoriaki, and the others therefore urged Yoshiakira to go west and join Takauji's army; Yoshiakira agreed, and together they abandoned the capital and fled westward. Just then Takauji, hearing of the upheaval, had turned back from Tsukushi, and the two met in the neighborhood of the Katsura River, and together entered the capital. The next day Takauji again hastened west, while Yoshiakira, with Nikki Yoriaki and Nikki Yoshinaga, stayed at Sekigan-ji in Tanba, took their stand on difficult ground, and built a stockade. The Ogino, Hōkabe, Kuge, and Nagasawa families and others gathered to them one after another, and their strength recovered somewhat. Before long Takauji made peace with Tadayoshi and returned to the capital. Yoshiakira too was summoned back, but soon afterwards Tadayoshi fled to Kamakura (Note: following the Taiheiki). In winter Takauji, intending to attack Tadayoshi, first feigned submission to the court (Note: following the Entairyaku) and ordered Yoshiakira to depose the Retired Emperor Sukō and the Crown Prince, Prince Naohito, and to adopt the Shōhei era name (Note: compare the Kugyō Bunin, the Rekidai Kōki, the Tōji Chōja Bunin, and the Zoku Jinnō Shōtōki). In the spring of the seventh year (1352) he presented to the provisional palace three thousand ryō of gold dust and ten horses, and gave saddled horses, gold, and silk, each according to rank, to the officials of the inner palace. In the intercalary second month, when the emperor made a progress to Otokoyama, he stationed soldiers in strict array there. Yoshiakira sent the priest Echin to memorialize: "I hear that the generals Wada and Kusunoki have declared a state of alert. I have already been cleansed of my offenses, and high and low are at peace with one another. I do not understand what these preparations are for." The edict replied: "The realm is not yet settled, and we cannot neglect extraordinary precautions. Do not doubt us." Yoshiakira believed this and made no preparations. But the imperial forces suddenly fell on him from every direction, and Hosokawa Akiuji and Hosokawa Yoriharu went out to meet them and were badly defeated. Yoshiakira fled east with a hundred and fifty attendants, taking with him the three retired emperors Kōgon, Kōmyō, and Sukō. Prince Naohito was captured by the imperial forces. When Yoshiakira reached Seta, the imperial forces had already burned the bridge and he could not go on. There was a soldier who was a strong swimmer; he swam to the far bank and brought back a boat (Note: the Tenshō-bon says, "Sasaki Takauji came searching for a boat"). When the whole party had crossed, Yoshiakira had the boat sunk and said with a laugh, "Now at last we have lived through it." When he reached Musa-dera, Toki Yoriyasu, a certain Ōtaka, and Sasaki Takauji came galloping up with the troops under their command. Yoshiakira advanced slowly with thirty thousand cavalry as far as Tōji, while the imperial forces withdrew and made camp at Otokoyama. When Hosokawa Akiuji and Akamatsu Norisuke arrived with their troops, Yoshiakira's strength grew greatly, and he had Akiuji, Shiba Ujitsune, Ujitsune's younger brother Ujiyori, Akikaru, and Hosokawa Kiyouji block the Tōjō road and cut off the supply of provisions to Otokoyama (Note: the original text says Yoshiakira himself blocked the Tōjō road, but here it has been altered with reference to the Entairyaku and the Mōri-ke-bon and Tenshō-bon Taiheiki). In the attacks on the fortress he won victory after victory. Yoshiakira combined the troops of the generals, fixed a day, and had them all advance at once; he burned the houses of the people at Takahashi, fought at Sonodonoguchi and at Sarashina, and broke the imperial forces badly, and at last pressed close to Otokoyama. The emperor broke through the encirclement and returned to Anō, and Yoshiakira's generals pursued him with picked troops, and took more than three hundred men, among them the Dainagon Fujiwara-no-Takasuke. In autumn Yoshiakira enthroned Iyahito, a son of the Retired Emperor Kōgon. This was the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon. In the summer of the eighth year (1353) Yamana Tokiuji joined the imperial forces and attacked, and his onslaught was extremely fierce. The generals begged Yoshiakira to take refuge in Ōmi, but he would not listen; he moved the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon to Higashi-Sakamoto and, leading the generals, took up a position at Kagura-ga-oka to resist, but without success. The next day he fled east, escorting the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon. The imperial forces lay in ambush at Manoura and attacked, and Sasaki Hidetsuna was killed in the fighting. Yoshiakira at last fled to Tarui, and the imperial forces held the capital. In autumn Yoshiakira led the troops of the three circuits of Tōkaidō, Tōsandō, and Hokurikudō and pressed on the capital. Tokiuji and the others fled without a fight (Note: following the Taiheiki). When Yoshiakira entered the capital, Takauji too returned from Kamakura. Yoshiakira went out as far as Kagami Station to meet him, and then entered the capital escorting the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon (Note: following the Entairyaku). Next he went west to Harima and encamped at Ikaruga Station to guard against Tokiuji. In winter of the ninth year (1354), when Ashikaga Tadafuyu marched into Tanba together with Yamana Tokiuji, Takauji fled to Ōmi (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the spring of the tenth year (1355) Tadafuyu and Tokiuji entered the capital and occupied it (Note: following the Mōri-ke-bon Taiheiki). At about this time the troops of Shikoku and the western provinces massed in great numbers at Ikaruga Station, and Yoshiakira plotted with Takauji to catch the capital between two forces. He therefore led Akamatsu Norisuke, Sasaki Takauji, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, and others to Jinnan and fought Tokiuji and his son Moroyoshi, and was defeated. When Moroyoshi charged straight into Yoshiakira's camp, Takauji and Norisuke fought desperately and in turn broke Moroyoshi and his men utterly. Takauji advanced to Higashi-Sakamoto, attacked Tadafuyu, and put him to flight (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the eleventh year (1356) he was granted Junior Third Rank (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga-ke Den).

¶In the summer of the thirteenth year (1358) Takauji died, and Yoshiakira succeeded him. The Retired Emperor Kōgon conferred on Yoshiakira the office of Sei-i Taishōgun (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Kugyō Bunin). Isshiki Naoeji, the Tsukushi Tandai, fought Kikuchi Takemitsu, was defeated, and returned to the capital. Takemitsu's military might was very great, and Yoshiakira, fearing that he would take advantage of his momentum to attack, sent Hosokawa Shigeuji to pacify the nine provinces (that is, Kyūshū). Shigeuji died of illness on the road (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the spring of the fourteenth year (1359) Yoshiakira additionally held the post of Musashi-no-kami (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga-ke Den). He made Hosokawa Kiyouji his Shitsuji. Kikuchi Takemitsu took Mimata Castle in Hyūga from Hatakeyama Shigetaka, and Hatakeyama Kunihisa abandoned Mutsugasa Castle and fled (Note: the names Shigetaka and Kunihisa both follow the Konshōin-bon). Shōni Yorihisa and Ōtomo Ujitoki fought Takemitsu, and each side won and lost in turn. At this time Yoshiakira's younger brother Motouji was at Kamakura governing the Kantō and had won the hearts of the people to a great degree, so Yoshiakira was somewhat wary of him. Motouji, fearing this, asked leave to send troops against Yoshino as a proof of loyalty. He had Toyama Kunikiyo lead troops and send them to the capital. Yoshiakira took the troops of Kunikiyo and the other generals and went out to Amagasaki. In the spring of the following year (1360) he sent Kunikiyo and others to be stationed at Tsutsuyama, facing the imperial forces. The Hatakeyama forces fought hard at Ryūmonzan and were badly defeated. Yoshiakira sent Hatakeyama Yoshihiro and others to support them. The imperial forces fled, and the generals before long took the castles of Ryūsen and Hiraishi. The imperial forces withdrew and held Mount Kongō. In summer Yoshiakira led his armies back. In autumn Wada Masatada and Kusunoki Masanori cut the Watanabe Bridge and were about to attack Konda Castle. Yoshiakira was alarmed and did not know what to do. Hatakeyama Kunikiyo and Hosokawa Kiyouji and the others led troops to Tennōji, but the imperial forces withdrew without fighting. Kunikiyo and the others took this occasion to discuss attacking Nikki Yoshinaga. When this became known in the capital, Yoshinaga confined Yoshiakira, set troops to guard him, and issued orders demanding that Kunikiyo be put to death. Yoshiakira had no choice but to comply, but in secret he planned with Sasaki Takauji to escape. When Yoshinaga attended on Yoshiakira at night, Yoshiakira, pleading illness, went into his bedchamber. After Yoshinaga left, Yoshiakira put on a woman's clothing, took three attendants, slipped out through a side gate, got the horses that Takauji had prepared, and galloped to Nishiyama. When the officers and men heard of this they scattered in all directions. The next day Yoshinaga fled east with his remaining troops and in the end went to Yoshino and surrendered. Kunikiyo and the others came back from Tennōji, and the imperial forces sallied forth again. In this way all the castles throughout Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, and Kii passed to the imperial forces, and the capital fell into turmoil. Kunikiyo, fearing that he would be held responsible, fled back to Kamakura. Afterwards Yoshinaga had his uncle Yoshizumi and Ishitō Yoriusa lead troops and pitch camp on Mount Ashiki. Sasaki Ujiyori attacked them, and Yoshizumi was defeated and surrendered (Note: the name Yoshizumi follows the Mōri-ke-bon). In the autumn of the sixteenth year (1361) Hosokawa Kiyouji and Sasaki Takauji fell out, and Yoshiakira, in fear, fled to Imakumano and received the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon there (Note: the reception of the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon follows the Gogumaiki, the Rekidai Kōki, and the Saigen'in-bon Taiheiki). He cut the bridges to defend himself. Kiyouji sent a man to beg forgiveness, but Yoshiakira would not agree. Kiyouji fled to Wakasa, and Yoshiakira sent Shiba Ujiyori and others to attack him. Kiyouji was defeated and surrendered at Yoshino; Kusunoki Masanori and Wada Masatake attacked Settsu, and Sasaki Hideakira and his younger brother Ujiakira fought at Kanzaki Bridge and were killed. In winter Hosokawa Kiyouji led the imperial forces in a great assault. Hosokawa Ujiharu brought the troops of Ise and Awaji and joined them. Akamatsu Norizane also went over to the imperial side. Yoshiakira sent Sasaki Takahide to Ninjō-ji (Note: the Imagawa-ke-bon writes the character 忍 as 恩, and the Konshōin-bon writes 常 as 鼎), Imagawa Sadayo to Yamazaki, and Kira Mitsusada and others to Ōwatari to hold them off. He dispatched other officers and men separately to guard Yodo, Toba, Fushimi, and Takeda. Takahide, on seeing the imperial forces, shut his camp and would not come out, Sadayo also fled, and the other armies all had no heart to fight. Yoshiakira therefore again escorted the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon in flight to Ōmi, and took up residence at Musa-dera. The imperial forces entered the capital and burned Yoshiakira's mansion. Before long Toki Yoriyasu and Nikki Yoshizumi fought the imperial forces in Ise and Tanba and gained the advantage. Ashikaga Takatsune and Akamatsu Norizane also attached themselves to Yoshiakira again, and his forces gathered like clouds. Yoshiakira pressed on the capital from every direction, and in addition sent Akamatsu Ujinori to make a surprise attack on Yoshino. The imperial forces, hearing of this, withdrew of their own accord, and Yoshiakira at last entered the capital. Before this, Yamana Tokiuji had taken Kurakake Castle. In the seventeenth year (1362) Hosokawa Kiyouji conquered Shikoku, and Yamana Moroyoshi toured and pacified Tajima and Tanba. Yoshiakira had Ishibashi Kazuyoshi (Note: the name Kazuyoshi follows the Mōri-ke-bon. The source writes the surname with the character 橘; this is evidently a slip for 橋), Imagawa Sadayo, and Ōshima Yoshitaka lead three thousand troops to hold Moroyoshi off, but Moroyoshi withdrew without fighting. Yoshiakira made Shiba Ujitsune Kyūkoku Tandai, Commissioner of the Nine Provinces. In autumn Hosokawa Yoriyuki fought Hosokawa Kiyouji in Sanuki and took Kiyouji prisoner. Kusunoki Masanori and Wada Masatake attacked Settsu, and the troops of Sasaki Takauji held them off at Kanzaki but were defeated. Shiba Ujitsune fought Kikuchi Taketoshi at Chōjabaru and was defeated. In this year Shiba Yoshimasa was made Shitsuji, but all matters of government were decided by his father Takatsune (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the eighteenth year (1363) the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon conferred on Yoshiakira Junior Second Rank and the post of Gon-dainagon, Provisional Great Counsellor (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the nineteenth year (1364) Ōuchi Hiroyo offered up Nagato and Suō and submitted. Yamana Tokiuji, Yamana Moroyoshi, Nikki Yoshinaga, Ishitō Yoriusa, and Uesugi Noriaki also submitted one after another (Note: following the Taiheiki. The name Ishitō Yoriusa follows the Mōri-ke-bon and the Tenshō-bon). In the twentieth year (1365), on the death of his mother, he put on mourning and resigned his offices, but soon returned to them (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the autumn of the twenty-first year (1366) Yoshiakira, heeding the words of his generals, meant to attack Ashikaga Takatsune and Yoshimasa, and ordered Sasaki Ujiyori to call out the troops of Ōmi. Takatsune pleaded tearfully that he was innocent, and Yoshiakira again spoke to him in gentle words and dismissed him. Takatsune and Yoshimasa then fled to Echizen. They held the two castles of Somayama and Kuriya and rebelled, and Yoshiakira sent Hatakeyama Yoshifuka, Yamana Ujifuyu, and others to attack them (Note: following the Taiheiki). In the spring of the twenty-second year (1367) he was advanced to Senior Second Rank (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga-ke Den). Kōrai, acting on the wishes of the emperor of the Yuan, sent an envoy and presented a letter asking that the people of the border regions be forbidden to trespass on and disturb the frontier. Yoshiakira replied: "This is the work of sea pirates, and it is difficult to put them down quickly," and sent the envoy home with armor, horses, patterned silk, and other gifts (Note: compare the Taiheiki and the Zenrin Kokuhōki). In this year Ashikaga Takatsune died and Yoshimasa submitted (Note: following the Taiheiki). Yoshiakira fell ill, and, since his son Yoshimitsu was still young, he chose someone to whom to entrust what would follow, and made Hosokawa Yoriyuki his Shitsuji (Note: compare the Taiheiki and the Hosokawa-ke Fu). In the twelfth month his illness became grave. On his deathbed he deeply entrusted the future to Yoriyuki and asked him to guide and support Yoshimitsu (Note: following the Hosokawa-ke Fu). When he died he was thirty-eight years old (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin, the Taiheiki, the Sonpi Bunmyaku, the Ashikaga-ke Den, and the Jōrakki). His Buddhist name was Zuizan Dōken (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Ashikaga-ke Den), and he was styled Hōkyōin. The Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon posthumously granted him the rank of Junior First Rank and the office of Sadaijin, Minister of the Left (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku, the Ashikaga Keizu, and the Ashikaga-ke Den). In his later years he lived at the Bōmon mansion and was known in the world as Bōmon-dono (Note: following the Ashikaga-ke Den and the Nan-Taiheiki).

¶Yoshiakira was fond of waka. At the time of Takauji's mourning, when the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon posthumously granted Takauji rank and office, Yoshiakira composed a poem in answer to the envoy, expressing his gratitude. Its words were extremely full of grief, and the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon included it in the Shinsenzai Wakashū (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Sonpi Bunmyaku). In the Shōhei years, when the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon held a poetry gathering in the Nakadono, Yoshiakira took part as well (Note: following the Taiheiki). Yoshiakira had two sons, Yoshimitsu and Mitsuakira. Mitsuakira reached Junior Second Rank and the post of Gon-dainagon. He died in the twenty-fifth year of Ōei (1418) and was posthumously granted Junior First Rank and the office of Sadaijin (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin, the Ashikaga Keizu, the Ashikaga-ke Den, and the Sakkaiki).