Yoshiteru Ashikaga

Yoshiteru Ashikaga (, Ashikaga Yoshiteru ) (March 31st 1536 - June 17th 1565) was thirteenth Shoguns Ashikaga at the end of the Period Muromachi of the history of the Japan. Yoshiteru was the oldest son of the twelfth Shogun, Yoshiharu Ashikaga and reigned of 1546 with 1565. His/her young brother Yoshiaki was the fifteenth and last shogun Ashikaga.

Life

Come to power

After his/her father is forced to withdraw in 1546 after a political struggle against Harumoto Hosokawa, Yoshiteru becomes '' Seii Taishogun '', even if it is as his father handled by those which put it at the capacity. Yoshiteru does not have whereas 11 years and its ceremony of crowning place with Sakamoto has, in the Province of Omi, out of Kyōto. At the time of its reign, it will be several times forced to flee Kyōto and return to hide in the Province of Omi.

A handled shogun

Hardly crowned Yoshiteru have-you it that his/her Yoshiharu father makes a truce with Harumoto to turn over to Kyōto. However, Nagayoshi Miyoshi, vassal from Harumoto separates from him to take the party of Ujitsuna Hosokawa and both Hosokawa begin a war which leads Yoshiteru, his/her Yoshiharu father, but also Harumoto, out of Kyōto. In 1550, Yoshiharu, in impossibility of turning over to Kyōto, flees in Omi.

In 1550, Yoshiteru makes peace with Nagaharu to turn over to Kyōto. However, the following year, Yoshiteru and Harumoto begin a war against Nagayoshi to make disappear its influence. With the assistance of Yoshikata Rokkaku, the war starts well for Yoshiteru, but it must again flee Kyōto in 1558 after a counter-attack of Nagayoshi. This one does not press its victory to come to end from Yoshiteru, because it fears to be marked to have killed a shogun, also it signs a treaty which makes it possible Yoshiteru to return in Kyoto, kept under its influence. Nagayoshi becomes an adviser of Yoshiteru, with the result that this one is hardly more than one appearance hiding Nagayoshi.

Government

Surrounded by daimyō the purpose of which is single to use the authority of the title of shogun to their own advantage, Yoshiteru is arranged however to reaffirm its authority by active diplomacies which touch the whole of the Japan. While trying to arrange peace Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi, Takahisa Shimazu and Yoshihige Otomo, and Motonari Mori and Haruhisa Amago, the authority of the shogun becomes again recognized by various Daimyō. Although resource lack, Yoshiteru sees the occasion to give its Kanji " 輝 " with various samurais like Terumoto Mori to become a kind of " parrain". Yoshiteru is respected for its actions and much regard it as the last shogun worthy of this name. Nobunaga Oda and Kenshin Uesugi is among many the daimyō and samurais who travel in Kyōto to gain the respect of the shogun.

End of the reign

In 1564, that which since years was at the same time a support and an oppressor, Nagayoshi, dies of disease, and Yoshiteru sees the occasion there to restore the authority of the shogun completely. However, Hisahide Matsunaga and the three members of the council of Miyoshi, who are as much thirsty to be able as Nagayoshi had some, do all that is possible for them to get rid of Yoshiteru and to replace it by their puppet Yoshihide Ashikaga.

In 1565, Hisahide, the three Miyoshi and Yoshigutsu Miyoshi besiege the whole of buildings which were going later to become the Château of Nijo, or saw Yoshiteru. Yoshiteru likes the kenjutsu and received the teaching of Nobutsuna Kamiizumi and Bokuden Tsukahara in the art and the talents of the use of the Katana. It has with the castle more than one dozen of katanas which was given to him by various daimyō, and it is said that Yoshiteru killed itself a great number of enemies with his clean katana, a priceless part which ends up breaking. However, without assistance coming from the daimyō which had before supported it, Yoshiteru and its some troops are overflowed by Miyoshi. It is thought that his/her mother also dies this day.

Three years pass before his/her cousin Yoshihide Ashikaga becomes the fourteenth shogun.

The legacy of Yoshiteru

Because of its interior force and its talent to the Katana, which it practiced regularly, Yoshiteru is called the Kengo Shogun (剣豪将軍, literally the “shogun main fencer”), and was a shogun samurai and lord of war like had been to it his ancestor Takauji Ashikaga. Its method of government was very strongly credited, but its assassination completely destroyed all the recognition and the authority that Yoshiteru built.

The Waka that Yoshiteru wrote right before its death shows with which point he had dreamed and with which point its achievements were shorted-circuit.

五月雨は露か涙か不如帰

我が名をあげよ雲の上まで

Samidare ha Tsuyu ka Namida ka Hototogisu

Wagana wo ageyo Kumo No Ue made

Translation:

the rain fall, but are this my tears or the fog which surrounds me?

Hototogisu (a name of bird, the kanji can be read “never not to return” ) takes my name and goes up above the clouds

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