Ashikaga shogunate

The Ashikaga shogunate, the Muromachi bakufu, was Japan's second warrior government, ruling from Kyoto from 1336 to 1573. Ashikaga Takauji, unofficial head of the powerless Minamoto against Taira Hojo, made Shogun after the Kenmu Restoration he served had overthrown the Kamakura shogunate for Emperor Go-Daigo, governed as de facto military ruler with the daimyo lords while emperors reigned in name. Yoshimitsu's Flower Palace on Muromachi Street gave the age its name. The schism of courts, Northern in Kyoto against Southern in Yoshino, lasted till the South yielded in 1392. The shoguns chose tea, Noh and trade over armies, and the bill came due in 1467: the Onin War opened the Sengoku century of everyman against everyman, and in 1573 Oda Nobunaga cast out the last Shogun Yoshiaki, though control had died with Yoshinori in 1441 and Yoshiteru's 1565 murder had set up puppet Yoshiaki, closing two hundred thirty-seven years of elegant powerlessness.