Kantō kubō

[1] The Ashikaga had been forced to move to Kyoto, abandoning Kamakura and the Kantō region, because of the continuing difficulties they had keeping the Emperor and the loyalists under control (see the article Nanboku-chō period).

The Kantō kubō era is therefore essentially a struggle for the shogunate between the Kamakura and the Kyoto branches of the Ashikaga clan.

[1] He left behind his 4-year-old son Yoshiakira as his representative in the trust of three guardians: Hosokawa Kiyouji, Uesugi Noriaki, and Shiba Ienaga.

[2] This action formally divided the country in two, giving the east and the west separate administrations with similar rights to power.

[6] Later, Kantō Kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu was given by the shogunate as a reward for his military support the two huge provinces of Mutsu and Dewa.

[1][2] The first time the title appears in writing is in a 1382 entry of a document called Tsurugaoka Jishoan (鶴岡事書安), under second Kubō Ujimitsu.

[7] This inherently unstable double-headed power structure was made even more problematic by the continuous display of independence of the Kantō region.

[2] The intentions of the Kantō Ashikaga were made crystal clear by their confiscation of the Ashikaga-no-shō: the family piece of land in Shimotsuke Province that had given the name to the clan.

In 1455 Shigeuji was deposed by Kyoto forces and had to escape to Koga in Shimōsa Province, from where he directed a rebellion against the shogunate.

[1] This was the beginning of an era in which the Kantō and Kamakura were devastated by a series of civil wars called the Sengoku period.

In 1455 kubō Ashikaga Shigeuji, after clashing with Uesugi Noritada, moved to Ibaraki's Shimōsa and the residence was demolished.

According to the Shinpen Kamakurashi, a guide book published in 1685, more than two centuries later after Shigeuji's escape, the spot where the kubō's mansion had been was left empty by local peasants in the hope he may return.