Ashikaga Yoshiaki, also known as Kakukei
Ashikaga Yoshiaki, born 1537, and died 1597. Yoshiaki was known as Kakukei which is translated as the abbot of the Ichijoin in Nara. His older brother Ashikaga Yoshiteru was murdered in 1565. Yoshiaki decided to leave his Monastery position with his aid Hosokawa Fujitaka. His main goal was to be able to succeed past his brother. In the year 1565 Yoshiaki went to Echizen for protection which was promised by Asakura Yoshikage to help him.
A year later Yoshikage admitted that he was powerless and could not be of any assistance to Yoshiaki. He decided to seek assistance elsewhere and went to Oda Nobunaga who was an ambitious skillful warrior more than willing to assist Yoshiaki. On October 7, 1568, Nobunaga marched through the capital and accepted Matsunaga Hisahide’s surrender.
The Emperior Ogimachi acknowledged Yoshiaki as the new Shogun. Unfortunately Yoshiaki and Nobunaga ended up not getting along well together as Yoshiaki had wanted him to take the rank of Vice-Shogun (Kanrei) but Nobunaga wanted to be a man of his own. He ignored Yoshiaki’s requests by submitting in documents to curtail the order.
However, down the road Yoshiaki ended up in the same position that he Nob into where he was asked to be in a lesser role which is the same thing that happened to his brother. Historians say that he had conspired against others by sending secret letters to Mori Motonari, Takeda Shingen, the Asai, and Asakura.
Yoshiaka broke from Nobunaga officially in March of 1573 as he was inspired by Shingen’s activities by also breaking from Tiger of Kai and was focused on not challenging Nobunaga directly. Unfortunately Shingen passed away and had previously planned to keep his death a secret from everyone however Nobunaga had suspected that something was off and he moved quickly to surround Kyoto around May 3rd and forced Yoshiajki to negotiate.
During August Yoshiaki still was against Nobunaga and chose to leave Nijo with Mizubuchi Fujihide, and went out to the land near the Uji River and set up camp there. Yoshiaki continued to be forced into submission by other forces.
Nobunaga ended up gaining more power along the way and Yoshiaki begged for his life from Nobunaga which was granted as long her did not play a role in Kyoto politics. Nobunaga drove out the last of the Ashikaga shogun into exile, which forced Yoshiaki into seeking shelter in Shikoku. Yoshiaki continued to find others to see if they were willing to be against Nobunaga however no one took him up on his offer and he ended up moving to the western provinces to live out the rest of his life there.
The power Ashikaga was destroyed on August 27, 1573 when Nobunaga successfully drove Yoshiaki out of Kyoto. Yoshiaki later became a Buddhist monk, shaved his head, and changed his name to Sho-san, and later down the road he changed his name to Rei-o In. Nobunaga attempted to unify the country but there was a continuous power struggle between other states and the peace was not achieved until he was assassinated in 1582. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a general who later united Japan, and he requested that Yoshiaki to accept him as an adopted son however Yoshiaki refused that request.
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