Ashikaga Tadayoshi

Ashikaga Tadayoshi (足利 直義, 1306 – March 13, 1352, Kamakura, Japan)[1] was a general of the Northern and Southern Courts period (1337–92) of Japanese history and a close associate of his elder brother Takauji, the first Muromachi shōgun.

[2] Like his brother, Tadayoshi resolutely abandoned the Kamakura shogunate (de facto ruled by Hōjō clan) to ally himself with formerly expelled Emperor Go-Daigo during the Kenmu Restoration of 1333.

Go-Daigo wanted to re-establish his rule in Kamakura and the east of the country without sending there a shōgun, as this was seen, just a year from the fall of its shogunate, as still too dangerous.

[6][7] The appointment of a warrior to such an important post was intended to demonstrate the Emperor that the samurai class was not ready for a purely civilian rule.

In April 1336, Ashikaga Tadayoshi, "drove the enemy before him" helping his brother defeat the Kikuchi clan, allies of Go-Daigo.

Both Tadayoshi and Takauji were disciples of famous Zen master, intellectual and garden designer Musō Soseki, under which guidance the first would later become a Buddhist monk.

Ashikaga Takauji was the formally-appointed shogun but, having proved incapable of ruling the country (namely, Northern Court), for more than ten years Tadayoshi had governed in his stead.

[10] In 1351 Tadayoshi rebelled and joined his brother's enemies, the Southern court, whose then emperor, Go-Murakami appointed him general of all his troops.

[8]: 86 Ashikaga Tadayoshi was buried at Kumano Daikyū-ji (熊野大休寺), a Buddhist temple which no longer exists, but whose ruins are now near Jōmyō-ji in Kamakura.

[5] According to the Kuge Nikkushū (空華日工集), the diary of priest Gidō Shūshin, in 1372 on the day of Tadayoshi's death Kamakura's Kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu visited Daikyū-ji.