Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ( Japanese 足 利 義 満 ; * September 25, 1358 in Kyoto ; † May 31, 1408 in Kyoto) was a Japanese ruler in the 14th century. As the third Shogun of the Ashikaga lineage, Yoshimitsu succeeded in abolishing the 56-year split in the north and south courtyards ( namboku-chō ). Although the Ashikaga shogunate is considered the weakest system of government in premodern Japan, Yoshimitsu was able to build a period of certain political stability. Outside of politics, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu promoted culture , art, and Buddhism in Japan . Under his patronage, the "traditional arts" began to develop and form, and as a monk, the Ashikaga Shogun had a great influence on the design of Buddhism.

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Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was born on September 25, 1358 in Kyoto. His father was the second Shogun of the Ashikaga lineage, Ashikaga Yoshiakira (* 1330, † 1367). His mother, Yoshiko, was the daughter of Kengyō Tsūsei, a high-ranking official at Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. As a child, Yoshimitsu was known as Shun'ō.

When Yoshimitsu was three years old, Kyōto was attacked in the course of the war between the North and South Courts. While his father, Shogun Yoshiakira , fled to Ōmi Province , Yoshimitsu was taken to the priest Ranshū Ryōhō of Kennin-ji Temple . There he was disguised as a monk and kept in hiding for a week. Then the priest sent him to Akamatsu Norisuke in Harima Province . A year later, Yoshimitsu returned safely to Kyoto.

In 1367, Yoshimitsu was ordained by the high priest of Tenryū-ji , Shun'oku Myōha. Shun'oku Myōha and his disciple Gidō Shūshin remained spiritual advisors to Yoshimitsu for the remainder of his life. In the same year, 1367, his father Ashikaga Yoshiakira died of an illness. The following year, Yoshimitsu became shogun at the age of eleven. According to his father's wishes, the young Yoshimitsu was assisted by the military governor Hosokawa Yorisuke . This prepared him for his role and helped Yoshimitsu to consolidate the power of the shogunate.

In 1371, the Muromachi Palace was completed and thus the seat of the headquarters of the Shogunate. Because of its many flowers and magnificent gardens, the Muromachi Palace has become known as hana no gosho (" Palace of Flowers "). In 1379 the Ashikaga Shogun ordered the Shugo of the Mino , Ise and Owari lands to give up his lands in Owari to a relative. After the Shugo, Toki Yasuyuki , refused to do so, Yoshimitsu ordered his cousin Yorimasu to attack the Shugo. After a three-year war, Toki Yasuyuki lost and gave his province of Mino to Tori Yorimasu. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, this was enough to weaken Tori Yasuyuki's power. This war is known as the Toki Yasuyuki Rebellion.

In 1381 Yoshimitsu became Minister of the Interior in Kyoto. In 1391 the Yamana family tries to undermine the rule of the Shogun and is defeated by Yoshimitsu. This uprising is known as the Meitoku Rebellion . In 1392 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu made a promise to unite the two imperial courts and thus to end the war between the north and south courtyards. Yoshimitsu made a promise that the incumbents would alternate between the two lines. However, this plan was never carried out.

In 1394 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu finally achieved the office of Grand Chancellor , the highest rank at the court. Yoshimitsu officially retired as Shogun and passed power to his son Ashikaga Yoshimochi .

In 1397 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu began to build the Kitayama Palace ( Kinkaku-ji ). On November 18, 1399 Ōuchi Yoshiharu sent an army against the Shogun. Yoshimitsu defeated the army and with it the influential Ōuchi family . This attempt to break the power of the shogun is known as the Ōei rebellion . From 1401 onwards, Yoshimitsu made lively contact with China in order to officially reconcile trade at sea.

By suppressing the southern feudal lords, Yoshimitsu was now able to credibly assure the Chinese emperor that he had put an end to piracy. This brought Yoshimitsu to an end the - at least formally speaking - 600-year interruption in official trade with China. In 1403 Ashikaga Yoshimitsu signed a letter to the Chinese Emperor Yongle with "King of Japan, at the service of the (Chinese) Emperor". This enabled Yoshimitsu to vote benevolently for the Chinese emperor, so that he assured the sea trade full support.

From 1404, the two trading partners China and Japan used the installment business and golden seals to secure their ship trade.

In 1408 the Tennō Go-Komatsu came to Kitayama to visit. For the occasion, Yoshimitsu had a grand ceremony and a grand festival held. This visit is now known as the “Imperial Visit to Kitayama” and was a special event at the time.

Yoshimitsu died on May 31, 1408 at the age of 49 in Kyoto.

Political importance

One of the three most important political achievements of Yoshimitsu was the unification of the imperial court. His grandfather Ashikaga Takauji , the founder of the Ashikaga period, had banished the Go-Daigo to the hills of Yoshino in 1336 . Since then, the north courtyard in Kyoto and the south courtyard in Yoshino have existed in parallel. Both courts were convinced of their legitimate supremacy and were at war with one another. This time of division between the north and south courtyards, called namboku-chō jidai , could only be ended by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. He lured the Südhof with the promise that the order of the incumbents would be alternated. Although the promise was not kept and the Nordhof took office, the Südhof was so weakened by the decades of war that it could not achieve anything against this arbitrariness.

Another political triumph of the third Ashikaga shogun was political stability. While the Ashikaga period was a very turbulent and dangerous time due to the high power of the Shugo, Yoshimitsu managed to consolidate the pillars of his rule fairly well. The pillars were the same military governors of the Shogun. But Yoshimitsu was extremely good at dividing the balance of power between the Shugo evenly (the Shugo were then required to live in Kyoto and Kamakura ). While many Shugo were related by blood to the Ashikaga, a much more important factor were the loyal and strong Shugo families, mainly the Hosokawa , Hatakeyama and Shiba families . Yoshimitsu strengthened his position and friendship with the Shugo through numerous trips in which he exhibited his religiosity as well as his power and prestige. Especially in childhood, however, the support of his kanrei was very important for Yoshimitsu, but the kanrei was also of great importance later on . This importance is based, among other things, on the fact that the kanrei acted as a mediator between the Shugo and the Shōen owners. The power of the Shogun thus manifested itself in knowing the power of influential Shugo on your side and ensuring that no Shugo got too much power.

The third, important point of political success is the flourishing trade with China. The Chinese had not officially traded with Japan for centuries. Because of the Wako pirates in southwestern Japan, the Chinese emperor did not agree to Yoshimitsu's early attempts to restore trade. When the Shogun then suppressed the southern feudal lords and again sent a message to China, the Emperor Yongle agreed to a trade agreement with Japan. This newly established trade with China, as a political achievement, played an enormous role in the cultural and religious developments of the future.

Relationship to religion

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was closely associated with Zen Buddhism throughout his life . As a child of three years old at the latest, Yoshimitsu made his first acquaintance with Buddhism while he was hiding in the temple for a week.

A few years later, in 1367, Yoshimitsu was ordained by the high priest of Tenryū-ji. It was this monk, Shun'oku Myōha, who always encouraged Yoshimitsu to diligently practice the Buddhist practice of zazen (sitting meditation).

In order to express his affection for Zen, the desire arose in Yoshimitsu to have a temple built. In September 1382 he asked his teacher, Gidō Shūshin, and Shun'oku Myōha for advice at a ceremony by Musō Soseki in Saga. Shun'oku then proposed Shōkoku-ji as the name for a temple and his student Gidō Shūshin added the prefix jōten to express the emperor's approval .

Through the restored trade and shipping traffic with China, the exchange between Chinese and Japanese temples was enormously favored and the role of the Zen monasteries in the cultural field grew.

In 1386, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu introduced a Chinese-style hierarchy for the various Zen temples in Japan. Both in Kyōto and in Kamakura five official main temples ( gozan ) and ten secondary temples ( jissetsu ) were determined. The 60 provincial and over 200 local temples were also included in the hierarchy.

Zen Buddhism flourished on the one hand with the benefit of shogunal support, but on the other hand it was monitored and commanded by the shogunate. For example, salaries and ranks within the Zen sect were determined by the bakufu . On the other hand, high Zen priests were often important advisors to the shoguns.

Position on culture

The Ashikaga Shogun Yoshimitsu was very committed to art and culture and, as the patron of the arts, supported its development both directly and indirectly. His dissolute lifestyle, his magnificent buildings and his numerous festivals attracted many important personalities, but Yoshimitsu also gathered scholars, artists and priests around him as a Shogun and Zen monk. At the time of Yoshimitsu, culture gained in importance and spread, especially because, in addition to the court aristocracy, the warrior aristocracy and thus other sections of the population came into contact with culture and art. The warrior nobility, for example, strove for etiquette and literature, but also in arts such as the tea ceremony. The influences of mainland China on culture are not limited to Zen, but can be found in almost all the arts. The main arts that experienced an upswing during this period are:

• renga chain seal
• Ink painting
• Architecture and landscaping
• Tea ceremony
• No theater

As a special term of culture during the term of office of the third Ashikaga shogun, there is also the so-called Kitayama culture ( kitayama bunka ). This specifically refers to the period from 1369 to 1408 and refers to the import of Chinese cultural objects from the Ming dynasty .

Conclusion

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was an outstanding politician for his time who managed to consolidate his position as Shogun in an age of political reorientation and changing power relations. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu established himself as one of the strongest among the fifteen Ashikaga shoguns through staged self-expression and a well-considered system of power distribution on the one hand and the extermination of enemies on the other.

His path as a student of Zen Buddhism and his position as a political power holder enabled him to have a great influence and a strong promotion of Zen. The resumption of trade with China, however, made it possible to deepen the Chinese influence on the Japanese religious and cultural system.

The work and legacies of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu were a model for future Japanese cultural developments (cf. the Higashiyama culture of the eighth Ashikaga Shogun Yoshimasa) and remain the subject of intense scrutiny to the present day. It can also be assumed that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu ensured the focus on the capital Kyoto and the associated Muromachi district (hence the Muromachi period ) by defeating the south courtyard . Its Golden Pavilion in Kyoto was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 .

However, one should also note that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was heavily criticized for submitting himself to the letter to the Chinese emperor and, as King of Japan, offering his services to the emperor of China. However, whether this was a wise move to improve trade and political relations with China, or to be understood as serious submission, remains controversial.

Timetable

• 1336: Split of the imperial court through the banishment of Go-Daigo
• 1338: Establishment of the Ashikaga shogunate by Takauji
• 1358: Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is born
• 1367: Ashikaga Yoshiakira dies
• 1368: Yoshimitsu takes office, beginning of the Ming dynasty in China
• 1371: Completion of the Flower Palace
• 1379: Toki Yasuyuki rebellion
• 1381: Yoshimitsu becomes Chancellor of the Interior
• 1391: Meitoku rebellion
• 1392: The two imperial lines are united
• 1394: Yoshimitsu becomes Grand Chancellor and officially retires
• 1397: Construction of the Kitayama Palace ( Kinkaku-ji )
• 1399: Ōei rebellion
• 1401: Contacting China regarding ship trading
• 1402: Yoshimitsu suppresses piracy on behalf of China
• 1403: Signing of the letter submitting to China
• 1404: installment credit for the shipping trade ( tally trade )
• 1408: Imperial visit to Kitayama, death of Yoshimitsu

literature

• Hall, John Whitney: The Japanese Empire .14. Edition Frankfurt / M .: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1968 (Fischer Weltgeschichte, Volume 20)
• Hall, John Whitney, Toyoda Takeshi: Japan in the Muromachi Age . Berkeley et al. a., Univ. of California Pr., 1977
• Itasaka, Gen (Ed.): Kōdansha Encyclopedia of Japan , Tokyo Kôdansha Ltd. And New York: Kôdansha International Ltd. 1983 (Volume I and IV)
• Sansom, George: A History of Japan 1334-1615 . First Tuttle Edition, 1974, Sixth Printing, 1987. Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc. (Volume II)

Web links

• http://www.bridica.com/EBchecked/topic/38273/Ashikaga-Yoshimitsu
• http://www.barkica.com/EBchecked/topic/398169/Muromachi-period
• http://www.shokoku-ji.or.jp

Remarks

1. ↑ China and Japan had gold seals forged, which they broke in two. On one side there was the symbol for sun, on the other side the symbol for origin (together they make up the symbols for Japan). Both countries kept lists of the seals and were able to use this technique to prove the authenticity of embassies.
2. ↑ Yoshimitsu was at that time in the office of Chancellor on the left, called shōkoku . Therefore, the monk suggested choosing this name for the temple based on the Chinese model. However, when Yoshimitsu obtained this office is unclear, so it does not appear in the timetable.