Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Reign: 1369 – 1395
Life: 1358–1408

Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (春王). Yoshimitsu was appointed shōgun, a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten; at twenty he was admitted to the imperial court as Acting Grand Counselor (Gon Dainagon 権大納言). In 1379, Yoshimitsu reorganized the institutional framework of the Gozan Zen 五山禅 establishment before, two years later, becoming the first person of the warrior (samurai) class to host a reigning emperor at his private residence. In 1392, he negotiated the end of the Nanboku-chō imperial schism that had plagued politics for over half a century. Two years later he became Grand Chancellor of State (Daijō daijin 太政大臣), the highest-ranking member of the imperial court. Retiring from that and all public offices in 1395, Yoshimitsu took the tonsure and moved into his Kitayama-dono (北山殿) retirement villa which, among other things, boasted a pavilion two-thirds covered in gold leaf (Kinkaku shariden 金閣舎利殿).

During Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's reign, Murad I ruled Ottoman Empire, Ferdinand I of Portugal ruled Portugal, and Hongwu Emperor ruled China.

Further reading: A History of Japan to 1334 by George Sansom

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