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Ch.03.04 Ashikaga Decline
Ashikaga Decline
Ruling Japan for the better part of three centuries the Ashikaga Shogunate was responsible for the increased development in Alyska during the period. Encouraging the development of various feudal lords into the region settled by earlier Japanese settlers and bringing an end to the first age of Ronin.
However the shogunate was far from perfect. While the proceeding Kamakura Shogunate had possessed a centralized master-vassal system which they used to control the country, the Ashikaga did not possess sufficient personal property to adopt a similar system. Instead relying on the loyalty of increasingly powerful feudal lords, the Diamyo, in order to enforce their rule. Eventually these Diamyo would not only control land and military forces, but also law enforcement, taxation, and commerce in the territories they controlled.
This system led to increasingly difficulty in the latter years of the Shogunate, and even by the time of the Ashikaga invasion of Alyska the weaknesses of the Ashikaga system were becoming ever more pronounced. With the invasion and promise of new lands being a key policy for the shogunate during the period, allowing them to secure the loyalty of the nobles for a little longer.
As the fifteenth century continued on its course Japan became increasingly destabilized. With frequent succession crisis gripping the Ashikaga and disgruntled nobles causing ever more trouble. The short reigns of many Shoguns in the period did not help matters either.
The end of the Ashikaga would come in the Onin war, a civil war lasting from 1467-1477, which resulted from a succession crisis revolving around who would succeed Shogun Yoshimasa, with supporters coalescing around his brother Yoshimi, and infant son Yoshihisa. The war would expose the vulnerabilities of the Shogunate and plunge Japan into the Sengoku period, from which would eventually emerge the Tokugawa Shogunate.
In Alyska, as in the rest of Japan, Ashikaga decline would lead to increasing independence for local Diamyo and the region would be split into dozens, if not hundreds of small petty kingdoms and warlord fiefdoms.
Ruling Japan for the better part of three centuries the Ashikaga Shogunate was responsible for the increased development in Alyska during the period. Encouraging the development of various feudal lords into the region settled by earlier Japanese settlers and bringing an end to the first age of Ronin.
However the shogunate was far from perfect. While the proceeding Kamakura Shogunate had possessed a centralized master-vassal system which they used to control the country, the Ashikaga did not possess sufficient personal property to adopt a similar system. Instead relying on the loyalty of increasingly powerful feudal lords, the Diamyo, in order to enforce their rule. Eventually these Diamyo would not only control land and military forces, but also law enforcement, taxation, and commerce in the territories they controlled.
This system led to increasingly difficulty in the latter years of the Shogunate, and even by the time of the Ashikaga invasion of Alyska the weaknesses of the Ashikaga system were becoming ever more pronounced. With the invasion and promise of new lands being a key policy for the shogunate during the period, allowing them to secure the loyalty of the nobles for a little longer.
As the fifteenth century continued on its course Japan became increasingly destabilized. With frequent succession crisis gripping the Ashikaga and disgruntled nobles causing ever more trouble. The short reigns of many Shoguns in the period did not help matters either.
The end of the Ashikaga would come in the Onin war, a civil war lasting from 1467-1477, which resulted from a succession crisis revolving around who would succeed Shogun Yoshimasa, with supporters coalescing around his brother Yoshimi, and infant son Yoshihisa. The war would expose the vulnerabilities of the Shogunate and plunge Japan into the Sengoku period, from which would eventually emerge the Tokugawa Shogunate.
In Alyska, as in the rest of Japan, Ashikaga decline would lead to increasing independence for local Diamyo and the region would be split into dozens, if not hundreds of small petty kingdoms and warlord fiefdoms.
- Count of Crisco
- Word Count: 340