Takauji Ashikaga was a the first Shogun of the period of the Northern and Southern Courts.
Background
Takauji Ashikaga was born on 18 August 1305 in Ayabe. The Ashikagas were a branch of the Genji family, and because there was an old saying that the Genji and the Heike would take turns wielding political power, it is said that Takauji’s forefathers had for a long time plotted how they might overthrow the Hojo family, who exercised control of the Kamakura shogunate and were descended from the Heike I.
Career
In 1331 Emperor Godaigo carried out a coup d'etat to free himself from shogunate control. Ashikaga Takauji and others were dispatched by the shogunate to go to Kyoto and restore control, but in the fourth month of 1333 Takauji declared himself an ally of the emperor and attacked and defeated the shogunate troops in Kyoto. Mean-while Nitta Yoshisada and others attacked Kamakura and overthrew the shogunate, thus clearing the way for the so-called Kemmu Restoration, which centered around Emperor Godaigo. The emperor, to show how deeply he appreciated the assistance that Takauji had rendered, bestowed on him a new character for his name, the element taka to be written with the character meaning “honored,” which was part of the emperor’s own name, Takaharu. But the new government that Emperor Godaigo formed was made up largely of court aristocrats, and men of the warrior class such as Takauji, who had done the actual fighting in the struggle to overthrow the Kamakura shogunate, could hardly help but feel disgruntled. Amidst this atmosphere of discontent, Takauji in 1335 at Kamakura declared himself in open defiance of the court. For a while, he was forced by the imperial armies to retreat to Kyushu, but in 1336, after defeating the forces of Kusunoki and Nitta, he entered Kyoto once more, set up the Muromachi shogunate, and became the first shogun. Emperor Godaigo retired to the mountains in the Yoshino area, south of Kyoto, whereupon Takauji set up a new ruler, Emperor Kömyö, as his rival. From this time until 1392 there were two emperors, one in Kyoto and one in the Yoshino area to the south, and the period is accordingly referred to as that of the Northern and Southern Courts.
Religion
These steps were taken on the suggestion of Musö Soseki, an eminent Zen monk whom Takauji respected greatly. Takauji himself was a devout believer in Buddhism, and there are extant religious paintings that he executed with his own hand.
Personality
According to a text written at the time, the Baishoron, Takauji was generous by nature and freely gave away weapons and other valuable goods. Though he defied Emperor Godaigo and engaged in a struggle with him, when the emperor died in 1339, Takauji founded a temple, the Tenryu-ji, expressly for the purpose of bringing ease to the departed emperor’s soul. He also drew up plans for the founding of a new temple in each province of the country.