Ashikaga Mochiuji

Ashikaga Mochiuji (足利持氏, 1398–1439) was the Kamakura-fu's fourth Kantō kubō during the Muromachi period (15th century) in Japan.

During his long and troubled rule the relationship between the west and the east of the country reached an all-time low.

[1] The road that in Kamakura turns right before Zuisen-ji's ticket counter leads to a stele marking the spot where Yōan-ji (永安寺) used to stand.

[2] The stele reads:[3] When Kantō Kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu died on January 11, 1398,[4] he was given the posthumous name Yōanji Hekizan Zenkō (永安寺壁山全公).

Erected by the Kamakuramachi Seinendan in March 1926 There is however also a 3.2 m stone hōtō (宝塔, "treasure stupa") traditionally supposed to be his grave also at Betsugan-ji, a former Ashikaga family temple in Ōmachi.

On the stupa is carved the date 1439, the year of Mochiuji's death, however the tomb seems stylistically to belong rather to the precedent Kamakura period, and the attribution seems therefore dubious.

Ashikaga Mochiuji disembowels himself at Yōan-ji, near Kamakura (from the Yūki Kassen Ekotoba )
Ashikaga Mochiuji's hōtō at Betsugan-ji, Kamakura