Biographies CXIII: The Shōguns, Part VIII: Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

¶Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, whose childhood name was Haru-ō, was a son of Ashikaga Yoshiakira (Note: following the Hosokawa Yoriyuki-ki, the Sonpi Bunmyaku, and the Ashikaga Kaden). In the sixteenth year of Shōhei (1361) the imperial army attacked Yoshiakira in Kyoto, and Yoshiakira fled to Ōmi. Yoshimitsu was still a small child; an attendant carried him in his arms and ran with him to Nanzen-ji. The monk Ryōhō covered him with his robe and hid him for five days, and afterward escorted him to Shirahata Castle of Akamatsu Norisuke (Note: following the Taiheiki and the Zenrin Shoso-den). The next year he returned to Kyoto. In the winter of the twenty-first year (1366), the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon conferred on Yoshimitsu the Junior Fifth Rank Lower, and wrote out a name with his own hand and bestowed it on him (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). In the winter of the following year (1367), when Yoshiakira fell ill, Yoshimitsu was raised to the Senior Fifth Rank Lower, and appointed Sama-no-kami, Head of the Left Bureau of Horses (Note: following the Goguchimai-ki). In the twelfth month Yoshiakira died, and Yoshimitsu succeeded to the headship of the house. He was only ten years old, yet he was quick of understanding and possessed an extraordinary breadth of character. Hosokawa Yoriyuki became Kanrei and devoted all his heart to assisting him, so that the generals too held him in awe and respect (Note: following the Taiheiki, the Kaei Sandai-ki, and the Hosokawa Yoriyuki-ki). In the autumn of the twenty-third year (1368) Ashikaga Ujimitsu sent troops and fought Nitta Yoshimune and Wakiya Yoshiharu between Echigo and Kōzuke. Yoshimune was defeated and killed, and Yoshiharu fled (Note: following the Kitsuregawa Keizu). In winter Yoshimitsu was appointed Sei-i Taishōgun (Note: following the Go-Shinkōin Kanpaku-ki, the Goguchimai-ki, and the Ashikaga Kaden). In the twenty-fourth year (1369) Kusunoki Masanori submitted. In autumn Momonoi Naotsune led troops and held Matsukura Castle in Etchū, and Akamatsu Ujinori held Nakajima in Settsu, so Yoshimitsu sent Akamatsu Norisuke and Akamatsu Mitsunori to attack them. Ujinori was routed and fled.

¶In the spring of the first year of Kentoku (1370), Shiba Yoshimasa, Military Governor of Etchū, fought Momonoi Naokazu and captured him, and Naotsune abandoned Matsukura Castle and fled. In the autumn of the second year (1371), the troops of Etchū and Noto fought Naotsune and defeated him (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki). In winter, disorder broke out in the western provinces; Yoshimitsu appointed Imagawa Sadayo as Kyūshū Tandai and had him put down the rebels together with Ōuchi Yoshihiro. They attacked year after year and gradually drew near to pacification (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki, the Ōei-ki, and the Kikkawa Kaden). Kusunoki Masanori came and had an audience, and Yoshimitsu sent Masanori back to Kawachi. The imperial army repeatedly passed back and forth between Kii and Kawachi to attack Masanori. For this reason Yoshimitsu took counsel with Hosokawa Yoriyuki and resolved to attack Yoshino with a great host. He summoned troops from the provinces and sent Hosokawa Yorimoto to support Masanori. The imperial army withdrew, and Yorimoto fought repeatedly and gained the advantage (Note: following the Go-Shinkōin Kanpaku-ki and the Kaei Sandai-ki). In this year the Retired Emperor Go-Kōgon yielded the throne to the Crown Prince, who was the Retired Emperor Go-En'yū. In the spring of the second year of Bunchū (1373), Yoshimitsu had Hosokawa Ujiharu attack the temporary palace at Amano. In autumn the Emperor made a progress to Yoshino to avoid it. Ujiharu fought Naidaijin Fujiwara-no-Takatoshi and captured him (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki and the Kyūrei Zōjiki). In winter Yoshimitsu was appointed Sangi, concurrently Sakonoe-no-chūjō, and raised to the Junior Fourth Rank Lower (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki, the Kugyō Bunin, and the Kitsuregawa Keizu. The Keizu says that "in this year Yoshimitsu himself led the generals and pacified the western provinces," but when one considers the Sandai-ki, Yoshimitsu was at this time in Kyoto and there is no record of any journey westward, so this is not adopted). In the autumn of the first year of Tenju (1375), Imagawa Sadayo fought Shōni Fuyusuke and killed him (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki). In winter Yoshimitsu was raised to the Junior Third Rank. In the spring of the fourth year (1378) he was appointed Gon-dainagon. He built a new residence at Muromachi and moved into it. The world called it the Hana-no-Gosho, the Palace of Flowers (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). In autumn he was made concurrently Ukon'e-no-taishō. In the spring of the fifth year (1379) he was made concurrently Umaryō-no-gokan, Superintendent of the Right Bureau of Horses (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga Kaden). Before this, Hashimoto Masatada, the commander of Tsuchimaru Castle in Izumi, had asked to surrender, and Yoshimitsu had accordingly sent troops south, which repeatedly defeated the imperial army. He further sent Yamana Yoshitada, Yamana Ujikiyo, and others, who attacked and took Tsuchimaru Castle. In the spring of this year the castles of Fujinami, Ishigaki, and others in Kii fell one after another, and he also sent generals to strike the Tōchi clan of Yamato (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki). Just then a rumor leaked out, in some part, that Ashikaga Ujimitsu was plotting rebellion, so Yoshimitsu hastily recalled the generals who had gone south and strengthened the defense of Kyoto (Note: following the Kitsuregawa Keizu and the Kaei Sandai-ki). Ujimitsu repented and begged for peace, and the matter was settled (Note: following the Kitsuregawa Keizu). In summer Yoshimitsu came to detest Hosokawa Yoriyuki's holding of power; resentment accumulated until they were estranged, and he gathered troops to guard himself, ordered Yoriyuki to withdraw to Sanuki, and was further about to send troops to attack him. Fortunately Yoshimitsu's anger subsided and the matter was settled. He made Shiba Yoshimasa Kanrei (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki; compare the Tōji Chōja Bunin). In the spring of the sixth year (1380) he was raised to the Junior First Rank (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin, the Kaei Sandai-ki, and the Ashikaga Kaden. The Sandai-ki, the Kaden, and the Sonpi Bunmyaku all state that "in the fourth year of Tenju he was raised to the Junior Second Rank," but the Bunin records him as Junior Third Rank throughout until this year, so this is not adopted). In autumn Yamana Ujikiyo fought the imperial army in Kii and defeated it utterly, capturing Hashimoto Minbu-no-taifu and others. He also broke a certain Suda, steward of the Kōya estates, and seized Ikuji Castle (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki).

¶In the first year of Kōwa (1381) he was appointed Naidaijin. In the spring of the following year (1382) he became Sadaijin, concurrently Betto of the Kurōdo-dokoro, was permitted to ride in an ox-drawn carriage, and became steward of the Retired Emperor's office (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga Kaden). Yamana Ujikiyo smashed the imperial army (Note: following the Wakan Gōun), and by this Yoshimitsu took all of Kawachi, Izumi, and Kii into his hands, and the court's side (the Anzai) barely held on to Yoshino alone (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki). In summer the Retired Emperor Go-En'yū yielded the throne to the Crown Prince, who was the Emperor Go-Komatsu (Note: following the Kōnendai Ryakki). In the third year (1383) Yoshimitsu became Betto of Junna-in and Shōgakuin, and Genji no Chōja. Previously the Koga clan had held the post of Genji no Chōja for generation after generation, but at this time it passed to the Ashikaga for the first time. Before long he was granted the status of a Jusangū, equal to the Three Empresses (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin; compare the Ashikaga Kaden, the Kōnendai Ryakki, and the Sonpi Bunmyaku). In winter the Emperor Go-Komatsu made a progress to the Muromachi mansion (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). The Ashikaga house had for generations deeply revered the Zen school, and with Yoshimitsu it flourished all the more; he established the Sōroku-shi, the Office of Monastic Registry, for the first time, and founded Rokuon-in and Hōdō-ji. In this year he also built Shōkoku-ji and ordered the military governors of the provinces to assist with the work, so that its scale and magnificence were without equal in that age. Later a seven-storied pagoda was raised within the temple precinct (Note: following the Zenrin Shoso-den, the Wakan Gōfu, and the Shōkoku-ji Kuyō-ki). In the first year of Genchū (1384) he resigned as Ukon'e-no-taishō (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In the spring of the fourth year (1387) the Emperor Go-Komatsu received the ceremony of coming of age, and Yoshimitsu served as the one who dressed the Emperor's hair (Note: following the Kōnendai Ryakki and the Ashikaga Kaden). In the summer of the fifth year (1388) he resigned as Sadaijin (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In autumn he went to Suruga and viewed Mount Fuji (Note: following the Tōji Chōja Bunin). In Kyoto two members of the Nitta clan were seized and beheaded (Note: following the Jōraku-ki). In the spring of the sixth year (1389) he went to Aki and worshipped at the Itsukushima Shrine, and intended to go in person to Tsukushi to inspect local customs. He ordered Hosokawa Yoriyuki to prepare ships, and arrived at Itsukushima, and then anchored at Iwaya in Suō. At the time great winds blew for days on end and the ships drifted about and could not reach their destination. Yoshimitsu took a small boat by special arrangement, reached Tajima Bay by night, and lodged in a fisherman's house. The next day he met Yoriyuki, and they returned east together just as they were (Note: following the Itsukushima-mōde-ki and the Wakan Gōfu). In the spring of the seventh year (1390) he sent troops to attack Toki Yasuyuki of Mino (Note: following the Wakan Gōfu; the Meitoku-ki places this in the sixth year). Yasuyuki asked to surrender, and Yoshimitsu pardoned him. In this year Yamana Tokihiro and Yamana Ujiyuki disobeyed orders, and Yoshimitsu sent Yamana Ujikiyo and Yamana Mitsuyuki to attack them. Ujikiyo asked, "Might we not give them a warning and let them reform of themselves?" Yoshimitsu was angry and said: "I have already ordered troops to be sent out. Because a man apologizes, I will never pardon him." Ujikiyo and Mitsuyuki finally attacked and drove them out. Yoshimitsu then divided the domains of Tokihiro and Ujiyuki to give as rewards, granting Hōki and Oki to Mitsuyuki and Tajima to Ujikiyo (Note: following the Meitoku-ki). In the spring of the eighth year (1391) he dismissed Shiba Yoshimasa. In summer he made Hosokawa Yorimoto Kanrei, and recalled Hosokawa Yoriyuki and had him assist in the government as before (Note: following the Tōji Chōja Bunin). Before this, Yamana Tokihiro and Yamana Ujiyuki had secretly entered Kyoto to apologize, and Yoshimitsu had been inclined to hear them. Yamana Ujikiyo and Yamana Mitsuyuki heard of this and were enraged. In winter they at last raised troops and advanced on Kyoto, and high and low were thrown into uproar. Yoshimitsu sent a messenger to Ujikiyo's elder brother Yoshitada to persuade Ujikiyo to stop, but he would not listen. Yoshimitsu wished to see which way the generals would lean, and at night summoned the generals to the mansion of Koyama Mitsufuji and held a council of war. Someone said: "For the state, the first thing is that there be no trouble. If they have grievances to state, why not hear them with the courtesy due to outside lords?" Yoshimitsu said: "They are aiming at the realm. What grievances can they state now? If I release them now, they will surely rebel again later. There is nothing better than to execute them without letting the moment pass. They probably think that we shall hold the steep ground of Higashiyama and Hiei and meet them there, and so they will come out from Tōji. Let us deploy the generals at Uchino, lure the enemy in, and strike him from both sides, and we can settle it in a single battle." Isshiki Akinori said: "Tōji and Uchino are separated by difficult terrain, and it will be hard to control advance and retreat. I beg the Shōgun to raise his banner at Horikawa, station the armies at Uchino to await the enemy's attack, and strike all at once when the opportunity comes. If the enemy comes along the riverbank, the armies at Uchino can divide their troops and meet him in the streets, and will certainly win. Moreover, if a separate force is stationed at Tōji and, hearing that fighting has begun at Uchino, follows behind and catches the enemy between two fires, that too would be a perfectly safe plan." Yoshimitsu followed this. The next day he took the field at Akinori's mansion at Horikawa, and detached eight thousand troops of Hosokawa Yoriyuki, Hosokawa Yorimoto, Ōuchi Yoshihiro, Akamatsu Yoshinori, Hatakeyama Mototsune, and others and posted them at places such as the Jingi-kan in Uchino. Eight hundred troops of Imagawa Yasunori and Sasaki Mitsutaka were posted at Tōji (Note: following the Meitoku-ki). The physician Saka Shibutsu presented a medicine. Yoshimitsu asked its name, and he answered, "Powder of Certain Victory." Yoshimitsu was greatly pleased (Note: following the Keikei Nichiroku). The next morning the vanguard of Yamana Ujikiyo reached Ōmiya, and Ōuchi Yoshihiro fought and defeated it, killing its general Yamana Yoshikazu and others. Hearing that the enemy's main force was coming on in further strength, he rode back at speed to ask for reinforcements. Yoshimitsu gave him his own sword and urged him to fight with all his might. He sent Akamatsu Yoshinori to help him. Hosokawa Yoriyuki and Hatakeyama Mototsune fought Yamana Mitsuyuki at Uchino, but things went badly. Yoshimitsu therefore led three thousand of his own household troops to the rescue and drove the enemy back. Ujikiyo too led two thousand men into Ōmiya, and his momentum was extremely keen. Yoshimitsu sent Isshiki Akinori to support Yoshihiro. When the fighting was at its height, Yoshimitsu himself directed his household troops and advanced beating the drums. The enemy soldiers saw Yoshimitsu's banner, and broke utterly and fled. Akinori finally captured Ujikiyo and beheaded him, and presented the head. Yoshimitsu pointed at it and said: "Heaven's punishment cannot be escaped. All of you, look well at what comes at the end for a rebel." Afterward a memorial service for the war dead was held at Uchino, and Ujikiyo was honored together with them. Those who heard of it all marvelled at his breadth of character. In the spring of the next year (1392) rewards were assigned according to merit, dividing the ten provinces that the Yamana had held: Yamashiro was granted to Hatakeyama Mototsune, Tanba to Hosokawa Yorimoto, Mimasaka to Akamatsu Yoshinori, Izumi and Kii to Ōuchi Yoshihiro, Tajima to Yamana Tokihiro, Hōki to Yamana Ujiyuki, and Oki and Izumo to Sasaki Takanori. Because Isshiki Akinori's merit was greatest, the Imatomi estate in Wakasa, which yielded the highest tribute, was granted to him specially. Before long he sent Yoshihiro to attack Yamana Yoshitada in Kii. Yoshitada abandoned his castle and fled. Yamana Mitsuyuki also fled (Note: following the Meitoku-ki). He ordered that Ashikaga Ujimitsu be given Mutsu and Dewa in addition to his holdings (Note: following the Kitsuregawa Keizu; the original text places this in the previous year, which is mistaken). In the third month Hosokawa Yoriyuki died, and Yoshimitsu put on plain mourning dress, wore straw sandals and carried a bamboo staff, and went in person to the funeral (Note: following the Meitoku-ki; the mourning dress, straw sandals, and bamboo staff are from the Hosokawa Keizu). In autumn the dedication ceremony of Shōkoku-ji was held. The Emperor Go-Komatsu, by imperial command, bestowed the meal of the Gosai-e (Note: following the Shōkoku-ji Kuyō-ki and the Ashikaga Kaden). After the Yamana clan was destroyed, there was none stubborn enough to dare defy his orders any more (Note: following the Meitoku-ki). In winter he ordered Ōuchi Yoshihiro to negotiate peace at Yoshino, and the Emperor Go-Kameyama agreed to it (Note: following the Ōei-ki). He then made a progress to Kyoto and transmitted the Three Sacred Treasures to the Emperor Go-Komatsu (Note: following the Zoku Jinnō Shōtōki, the Tōji Chōja Bunin, and the Ōei-ki). From the time Takauji had raised and set up the Emperor Kōmyō, five emperors had passed and fifty-seven years had elapsed, and now the Northern and Southern Courts were united. In the winter of this year he was appointed Sadaijin again. In the autumn of the fourth year of Meitoku (1393) he was granted armed guards, and before long resigned as Sadaijin (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin). In winter he resigned as Sei-i Taishōgun (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). In this year he dismissed Hosokawa Yorimoto and again made Shiba Yoshimasa Kanrei (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). In the autumn of the first year of Ōei (1394) Shōkoku-ji was damaged by fire and was rebuilt (Note: following the Wakan Gōfu). In winter he was appointed Daijō-daijin (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga Kaden). The people of the realm called him the "Kubō" (Note: following the Nan-Taiheiki and the Sonpi Bunmyaku). In the summer of the second year (1395) the Emperor made a progress to the Muromachi mansion (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). Yoshimitsu resigned as Daijō-daijin, shaved his head, and took the name "Tenzan Dōgi" (Note: following the Kugyō Bunin and the Ashikaga Kaden). In the autumn of the third year (1396) he made a pilgrimage to Enryaku-ji, and its ceremonial was likened to that of an imperial progress (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden). In the fourth year (1397), on the site of the Saionji of Fujiwara-no-Kinitsune, he built a villa at Kitayama and ordered the military governors of the provinces to assist with the work. He exhausted all that building and earthwork could do, made a three-storied pavilion, used boards one jō square for the ceiling, and gilded the floors, walls, pillars, and doors entirely. Shiba Yoshimasa had by this time already shaved his head and entered the Buddhist path; seeing it he said to Yoshimitsu, "This is exactly the Pure Land of the West itself." When it was completed Yoshimitsu moved in and had his son Yoshimochi live in the Muromachi mansion (Note: following the Kitayama Gyōkō-ki, the Ashikaga Kaden, the Ungai Nikken-roku, the Chinyōki, and the Bunroku Seidan). In this year he sent Ōuchi Yoshihiro to Tsukushi, where he struck and pacified the Shōni, Kikuchi, Chiba, Ōmura, and others (Note: following the Ōei-ki). In the fifth year (1398) he dismissed Shiba Yoshimasa (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). He made Hatakeyama Mototsune Kanrei (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku and the Hatakeyama Keizu). In the winter of the sixth year (1399) Ōuchi Yoshihiro rebelled and, leading troops, held Sakai Bay in Izumi. Toki Akinao raised troops in Owari, a certain Kyōgoku raised troops in Ōmi, and Yamana Tokikiyo raised troops in Tanba, all responding to him. Yoshimitsu sent a messenger to summon Yoshihiro, and also sent the monk Chūshin to persuade Yoshihiro, but he did not comply. Yoshimitsu said: "For more than thirty years he has wielded military power, and all of it was by my strength. Even such a man as Yamana Ujikiyo I have already destroyed. However strong Yoshihiro may be, now that he has turned against me, what can he do?" He then took the field in person at the hill of Kurumagaeshi, and sent Hatakeyama Mototsune, Shiba Yoshimasa, and Hosokawa Yorimoto (Note: for Yorimoto, following the Kitsuregawa Keizu), leading thirty thousand troops, to attack and take it. Yoshihiro was killed, troops were sent to attack Akinao, and the remnants were all broken up. At that time Ashikaga Mitsukane had agreed with Yoshihiro to attack Kyoto in concert from east and west, and had taken the field at the provincial capital of Musashi, calling it support for Yoshimitsu. In the seventh year (1400) Yoshimitsu granted Mitsukane the Ashikaga estate, and Mitsukane then disbanded his troops (Note: following the Kitsuregawa Keizu; compare the Ōei-ki). In the eighth year (1401), before this, Yoshimitsu had sent the monk Soa and the merchant Koitomi to Ming China to seek trade; the Ming emperor of the time repeatedly sent monks to seek trade and commerce, and also asked that the unruly people who raided the frontier be restrained, and from then on envoys came and went without interruption (Note: following the Zenrin Kokuhōki). In the twelfth year (1405) he dismissed Hatakeyama Mototsune and made Shiba Yoshishige Kanrei (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku). In the spring of the fifteenth year (1408) the Emperor made a progress to the Kitayama villa, and Yoshimitsu, wearing a monk's robe and holding prayer beads, led his young son Yoshitsugu out to meet him. Yoshitsugu was placed in a seat above the Kanpaku Fujiwara-no-Tsunetsugu (Note: following the Kitayama Gyōkō-ki, the Ashikaga Kaden, and the Chinyōki). In the fifth month Yoshimitsu died, at the age of fifty-one. He was styled Rokuon-in (Note: following the Ashikaga Kaden and the Rokuon-den Kōsō-ki). The court wished to confer on him the title of Dajō Tennō, but Yoshimochi declined it and would not accept (Note: following the Sonpi Bunmyaku).

¶Under Takauji and Yoshiakira the rule had been too lenient and control was not firm; the meritorious retainers grew arrogant and haughty and were apt to rise in rebellion. When Yoshimitsu took over the headship, he put military administration in order, and discipline was greatly restored. When the two houses of Yamana and Ōuchi were destroyed one after the other, all the stubborn opponents drew in their breath and fell silent (Note: following the Taiheiki, the Ōei-ki, the Meitoku-ki, the Hosokawa Yoriyuki-ki, the Kitsuregawa Keizu, and the Nan-Taiheiki). Because Yoshimitsu was born in a year of Tsuchinoe-Inu, people remarked: "The cyclical sign of his birth year follows the character for the halberd. That is why he was able to put down disorder by force of arms." From the time he first took over the headship, Hosokawa Yoriyuki recommended many experienced men, and men like Shiba Yoshimasa constantly spoke in remonstrance as occasion arose and corrected many errors. That disasters and disorders were put down, that domains were enlarged, and that the enterprise of the Ashikaga house flourished, was owing above all to the merit of those who stood at his left and right to assist and correct him. In his prime, however, he fell into arrogance and extravagance, and did many things that went beyond the law; he carried out government orders as he pleased, and so the generals too came to harbor resentment (Note: following the Ungai Nikken-roku, the Nikkō-shū, and the Nan-Taiheiki). In Takauji's time, government affairs generally followed the institutions of Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, and it is said that with Yoshimitsu those institutions were made still more complete (Note: following the Kaei Sandai-ki). His son Yoshimochi succeeded to the headship; next came Yoshitsugu, next Yoshinori, next the monk Shūsū, and next Gishō, Gishō, Hōson, Jien, and Sonman, who also all became monks (Note: following the Ashikaga Keizu).