Background
Yoshimitsu was a grandson of Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the Muromachi shogunate, and after the death of his father, Yoshiakira, he succeeded him in 1368 to become the third shogun.
足利 義満
Yoshimitsu was a grandson of Ashikaga Takauji, the founder of the Muromachi shogunate, and after the death of his father, Yoshiakira, he succeeded him in 1368 to become the third shogun.
Though the leaders of the Muromachi shogunate might hold the title of shogun, which proclaimed them the supreme military commanders of the nation, their control over the powerful warrior families in the provinces was still tenuous. Yoshimitsu set about devising various ways to strengthen and consolidate the control of the shogunate.
In 1391 he defeated in battle the leader of the Yamana family, which was said to control territories amounting to one-sixth of the entire country, and the following year he succeeded in healing the breach between the Northern and Southern Courts that had so long divided the state, arranging for the ruler of the Southern Court to abdicate in favor of the ruler of the Northern Court, whom Yoshimitsu supported, Emperor Gokomatsu. Through these measures, he greatly strengthened the stability of the shogunate.
In 1394 he was given the title of dajodaijin, or prime minister, the highest post in the court bureaucracy, becoming the first member of the warrior class to hold it since Taira no Kiyomori. Thus he found himself the holder not only of the highest military position, that of shogun, but of the highest civil position as well, first in the courtiers’ world as in the warriors’. He thereupon turned the shogunate over to his son, Yoshimochi, and in 1395 shaved his head and became a member of the Buddhist clergy. This last act, however, was a mere formality by which he hoped to control the aifairs of state more effectively by freeing himself from worldly ties. In 1399 his forces defeated and killed in battle Ouchi Yoshihiro, a powerful warrior who controlled six provinces in the southwest part of Honshu.
In 1401 he sent an envoy to the Ming court in China, requesting the opening of trade between the two countries. In his request Yoshimitsu, representing himself as the king of Japan, asked to be allowed to send articles of tribute to the Ming ruler in exchange for Chinese currency. The Ming recognized his title as king and complied with the request, and Yoshimitsu was thus able to exercise complete control over the flow of Chinese currency into the country. Yoshimitsu constructed a large villa for himself on a hill north of Kyoto called Kitayama, part of which remains in existence today as the temple of Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion.
He worked to introduce new elements of culture from Ming China, and under his patronage ink painting and the writing of poetry and prose in Chinese, which was particularly associated with the monks of the Gozan, the Five Great Zen Temples of Kyoto, flourished. It was also at this time that Zeami completed the creation of the No drama. The culture of this period, which is one of the most outstanding in the cultural history of the nation, is often referred to as Kitayama culture from the location of Yoshi- mitsu’s villa north of Kyoto.
