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| 1336–1568 |
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The Ashikaga (or Muromachi) period. The Ashikaga shogunate continued the outward forms of the military rule of the Minamoto and H j, but during most of the first and last centuries of the period, open warfare disrupted the nation, and at best the Ashikaga exercised limited control over the great feudatories who made their appearance at this time. The age was characterized by quickly shifting alliances and political instability, which at times amounted to anarchy. There was a general redistribution of feudal and economic rights, and the Kyoto nobility, which now lost most of its few remaining lands and provincial sources of income, was reduced to penury. The complicated feudal relations of the Kamakura era broke down into a simpler, more compact system in which virtually independent lords, often the former provincial constables, ruled large territories that were in turn subdivided into smaller units administered by their direct vassals. The collapse of clan unity and an organized feudal system necessitated stronger solidarity within the smaller family and feudal units. The division of patrimonies among heirs was abandoned, and women were reduced to subordinate status. Lords exercised closer, paternalistic supervision over their vassals, and the latter in turn served their lords with greater personal loyalty. | 1 |
The overseas trade and pirate enterprises of the Japanese increased in the Ashikaga period; the central government once more established official relations with China; and another important period of borrowing from abroad commenced. Foreign trade stimulated the growth of towns and provincial ports, such as Sakai (part of modern  saka), Hygo (modern Kbe), and Hakata (part of modern Fukuoka). Despite political disruption and incessant warfare, phenomenal economic development took place. Nascent industries grew and expanded, and trade guilds (za), usually operating under the patronage of a religious institution, appeared and flourished. However, the unrestricted rise of various levies and customs barriers proved a serious curb to the development of trade. | 2 |
| Kyoto was once more the undisputed political and cultural capital, and there the warrior class and the court nobility tended to fuse. Constant warfare made the period in some respects an intellectual valley, but political disunity helped to diffuse learning throughout the land. Zen monks dominated the intellectual and artistic life of the nation, and through their intimate contacts with China, where many had lived and studied, they expanded Japan's intellectual and artistic horizons. Although this was a great age for Zen, other sects, particularly the Amidist sects, flourished and sometimes developed powerful military organizations. Although still a thoroughly Buddhist age, intellectual life began to free itself from the bonds of Buddhism. Song Neo-Confucian philosophy was introduced from China, and stirrings of new life appeared in Shinto, where for the first time systemic, syncretic philosophies were developed. | 3 |
Despite the violent internecine strife of the early and late Ashikaga era, in the middle decades literature and art flourished, ruled by Zen standards of restraint and refinement. The literature of the Five Mountains, as the Zen school in Kyoto was known, revived poetic composition in Chinese, and the great lyric drama called n (in English, Noh) appeared. The Song style of painting, often in monochrome and usually of landscapes, reached its zenith with such masters as Sh bun (d. c. 1460) and Sessh (1420–1506), and the two greatest Japanese schools of painting, the Tosa and Kano, flourished. The independent architectural styles of the Kamakura era were blended to form a composite style. Arts such as landscape gardening, flower arranging, and the tea ceremony grew up. Under Zen's influence there developed a refined simplicity of taste and a harmony with nature that has had a lasting impact on Japanese art. | 4 |
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| 1336–92 |
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| Civil wars of the Yoshino period. When Takauji drove Godaigo out of Kyoto and set up a rival emperor, Godaigo and his partisans, Kitabatake, Kusunoki, and others, withdrew to the mountainous Yoshino region south of Nara, where Godaigo and three imperial successors maintained for almost 60 years a rival court, called the Southern Court because of its location. During this period, known as the Yoshino period, or the Period of the Northern and Southern Courts, civil war convulsed Japan. | 5 |
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| 1339 |
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| In support of the legitimacy of the Southern Court, Kitabatake Chikafusa wrote the Jinn shtki (Chronicle of the Direct Descent of the Gods), a history of Japan imbued with extreme nationalistic and patriotic sentiments. It was an important landmark in the growth of national consciousness and the imperial cult. | 6 |
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| 1392 |
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| The reunion of the two courts. Although at times the Yoshino warriors even captured Kyoto, gradually the hopes of the Southern Court waned. Eventually peace was made in 1392, and Gokameyama (r. 1383–92) of the southern line abdicated in favor of Gokomatsu (r. 1382–1412) of the northern line, with the understanding that the throne would thereafter alternate between members of the two branches of the imperial family, as it had for several reigns preceding that of Godaigo. However, the northern line never yielded the throne to its rivals, despite futile uprisings on their behalf. Official history regards those of the southern line as the legitimate rulers during the Yoshino period. | 7 |
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| 1395–1408 |
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| Rule of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as retired shogun. Yoshimitsu, the third Ashikaga shogun (b. 1358; r. 1369–95)—acter crushing his principal opponents, uniting the two imperial courts, and bringing Ashikaga power to its apogee—passed on the title of shogun to his son and retired as a monk to his Kitayama estate on the outskirts of Kyoto. The Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji) he erected there is the outstanding remaining architectural work of the day, and his coterie of artists formed the center of the artistic movements of the most creative epoch of Ashikaga rule. There, Kan'ami (1333–84) and his son, Zeami (1363–1443), perfected the highly refined n drama from earlier dramatic and terpsichorean performances. The luxurious but artistically creative life of the Kitayama estate was continued by Yoshimitsu's successors for several decades after his death. | 8 |
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| 1449–90 |
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| Rule of Ashikaga Yoshimasa (b. 1436; r. 1449–74) as shogun and retired shogun. This was the second great creative period of Ashikaga art. In his Higashiyama estate on the edge of Kyoto, Yoshimasa built the Silver Pavilion (Ginkakuji), which as an architectural work ranks second only to the Golden Pavilion, and there he and a brilliant group of artists and aesthetes, presided over by Nami (1397–1476), enjoyed a life of luxury and artistic elegance. | 9 |
| At the same time, the complete collapse of what little authority Ashikaga had exercised over the nation became apparent, and there was great social unrest, resulting in numerous popular uprisings. Under popular pressure, Yoshimasa, like other Ashikaga shoguns, repeatedly issued Acts of Grace, which, unlike those of the Kamakura period, were sweeping debt cancellations for the benefit of the whole debtor class. | 10 |
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| 1465 |
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| The monks of Enryakuji destroyed the Honganji, the central monastery of the True Pure Land sect in Kyoto. Such affrays between the great monasteries were common at this time. Renny (1415–99), the eighth hereditary head of the sect, fled to the region north of Kyoto, where his teachings met with great success and his numerous followers built up a military organization to defend their interests. | 11 |
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| 1467–77 |
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| The nin War, ostensibly a contest over succession in the Ashikaga bakufu and other great military families, was actually a reshuffling of domains and power among the feudal lords, who divided into two camps under the leadership of two great lords of western Japan, Yamana Mochitoyo (Szen, 1404–73) and his son-in-law, Hosokawa Katsumoto (1430?–73), long the shogunal deputy of the bakufu (1453–64, 1468–73). Kyoto was soon laid waste, but both leaders died in 1473, and exhaustion eventually brought peace in 1477. However, local struggles went unabated. In fact, the nin War was but the prelude to more than a century of almost uninterrupted warfare. This period, known as the Warring States period, witnessed a continuing shift of fiefs and power, the elimination of many of the old feudal families, and the emergence of a new group of territorial lords, now known as daimy. | 12 |
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| 1488 |
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| The True Pure Land sect followers north of Kyoto defeated and killed a local lord. This is considered the first of the Ikk ikki, or uprisings of the Ikk sect, another name for the True Pure Land sect. Such uprisings became increasingly common and acted as a medium for manifestations of popular discontent. | 13 |
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| 1493 |
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| Hosokawa Masamoto (1466–1507) drove the shogun Yoshitane (r. 1490–94, 1508–21) out of Kyoto and set up a puppet shogun (1494), acts which were repeated by his adopted son, Takakuni (1484–1531), in 1521. Yoshitane's successors suffered similar indignities as the prestige of the Ashikaga dwindled further. (See Japan, 1542–1793) | 14 |
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