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Also known as: Nihon, Nippon

Written by Akira Watanabe, Yasuo Masai • All
Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Last Updated: Sep 9, 2024 • Article History

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The Kamakura period (1192–1333)

The establishment of warrior government

The establishment of the bakufu by Minamoto Yoritomo at the end of

the 12th century can be regarded as the beginning of a new era, one in
zoom_in
which independent government by the warrior class successfully
opposed the political authority of the civil aristocracy. Modern
scholarly interpretation, however, has retreated from recognizing a
major break and the establishment of feudal institutions with the
founding of the Kamakura regime. During the Kamakura period, total
warrior dominance was not achieved. There was, instead, what
approached a dyarchy with civil power in Kyōto and military power in
Kamakura sharing authority for governing the nation. Institutions of
the Heian imperial-aristocratic system remained in place throughout
the Kamakura age, replaced with new feudal institutions when
Kamakura passed from the scene.
Minamoto Yoritomo Minamoto Yoritomo,
color on silk cloth attributed to Fujiwara
During the Gempei War, Yoritomo established his headquarters in Takanobu; in the collection of Jingo Templ…
...(more)
Kamakura and entrusted the suppression of the Taira to his younger
brothers Noriyori and Yoshitsune. Meanwhile, he gathered a
following of great eastern warrior leaders and began to lay the
foundation for a new military government. In 1180, for example,
Yoritomo set up the Samurai-dokoro (Board of Retainers), a
zoom_in
disciplinary board to control his multiplying military vassals. General
administration was handled by a secretariat, which was opened four
years later and known as the Kumonjo (later renamed the
Mandokoro). In addition, a judicial board, the Monchūjo, was set up
to handle lawsuits and appeals. These institutions represent the
emergence of Yoritomo’s regime (the term bakufu was used only later See article: flag of Japan

in retrospect).

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In 1185, after the destruction of the Taira family at the Battle of

0:00 / 0:58
Dannoura, Yoritomo was granted the right to appoint his vassals, or
Audio File: National anthem of Japan
gokenin (“housemen”) as military governors (shugo) in the provinces
See all media
and military stewards (jitō) in both public and private landed estates.
Head Of Government: Prime Minister:
It was the job of the shugo to recruit metropolitan guards and keep
Fumio Kishida
strict control over subversives and criminals. The jitō collected taxes,
Capital: Tokyo
supervised the management of landed estates, and maintained public
Population: (2024 est.) 123,953,000
order.
Currency Exchange Rate: 1 USD equals
157.826 Japanese yen
Although the Gempei War ended in 1185, a dispute between Yoritomo
Form Of Government: constitutional
and his brother Yoshitsune resulted in continued warfare until 1189, monarchy with a national Diet consisting of
when Yoritomo finally destroyed the northern Fujiwara family of two legislative houses (House of Councillor…
...(Show more)

Mutsu province (modern Aomori prefecture), which had sheltered his

See all facts & stats →
rebellious brother. Three years later Yoritomo went to Kyōto and was
appointed shogun (an abbreviation of seii taishōgun; “barbarian-
quelling generalissimo”), the highest honor that could be accorded a
warrior. Though he kept the title only briefly and was not known by Recent News
that term in the documents he issued to manage Kamakura affairs, Sep. 9, 2024, 9:36 AM ET (AP)
Stock market today: Wall Street opens
“shogun” ultimately emerged as the title associated with the head of a
higher and claws back some of last week's
bakufu. At first the chief base of the Kamakura bakufu lay in the losses
shōen seized from the Taira family and in the limited administrative
expand_moreShow more
revenues from public estates in provinces granted to Yoritomo by the
imperial court. But later the bakufu was able to expand its influence
over lands that were still controlled by the civil provincial governors,
zoom_in
as well as the private estates of the civil aristocracy and the temples
and shrines.

The Hōjō regency

After the death of Yoritomo in 1199, real power in the bakufu passed
into the hands of the Hōjō family, from which Yoritomo’s wife,
Masako, had come. In 1203 Hōjō Tokimasa, Masako’s father,
assumed the position of regent (shikken) for the shogun, an office that
was held until 1333 by nine successive members of the Hōjō family.
Taking advantage of disputes among Yoritomo’s generals, the Hōjō
overthrew and outmaneuvered their rivals, and after three
generations the direct line of descent from Yoritomo had become
extinct. Though wielding actual power, the Hōjō family was of low
Minamoto Yoshitsune on
social rank, and its leaders could not aspire to become shoguns horseback Minamoto Yoshitsune on
horseback, illustration by Utagawa… ...(more)
themselves. Kujō Yoritsune, a Fujiwara scion and distant relative of
Yoritomo, was appointed shogun, while Tokimasa’s son Hōjō
Yoshitoki (shikken 1205–24) handled most government business.
Thereafter, the appointment and dismissal of the shogun followed the wishes of the Hōjō family. Shoguns
were selected only from the Fujiwara or imperial houses, out of concern for pedigree.

The increasing political power of the military led to a conflict with the aristocracy. Hence, the emperor Go-
Toba, seeing in the demise of the Minamoto family a good opportunity to restore his political power, in 1221
issued a mandate to the country for the overthrow of Yoshitoki. Few warriors, however, responded to his call.

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Instead, the Hōjō family dispatched a bakufu army that occupied Kyōto, and Go-Toba was arrested and
banished to the island of Oki. This incident is known as the Jōkyū Disturbance, named for the era name
Jōkyū (1219–22). The bakufu now set up a headquarters in Kyōto to supervise the court and to control the
legal and administrative business of the western provinces. The several thousand estates of the civil
aristocrats and warriors who had joined Go-Toba were confiscated, and Kamakura vassals were appointed to
jitō posts in them as rewards. The political power of the bakufu now extended over the whole country.

Meanwhile, the regent Hōjō Yasutoki, to strengthen the base of his political power, reorganized the council of
leading retainers into a Council of State (Hyōjō-shū). In 1232 the council drew up a legal code known as the
Jōei Formulary (Jōei Shikimoku). Its 51 articles set down in writing for the first time the legal precedents of
the bakufu. Its purpose was simpler than that of the ritsuryō, the old legal and political system of the Nara
and Heian civil aristocracy. In essence, it was a body of pragmatic law laid down for the proper conduct of
the warriors in administering justice. In 1249 the regent Hōjō Tokiyori also set up a judicial court, the
Hikitsuke-shū, to secure greater impartiality and promptness in legal decisions.

The Mongol invasions

The establishment of the regency government coincided with the rise

of the Mongols under Genghis Khan in Central Asia. Beginning in
zoom_in
1206, in the space of barely half a century, they had established an
empire extending from the Korean peninsula in the east to as far west
as Russia and Poland. In 1260 Genghis Khan’s successor, Kublai,
became Great Khan in China and fixed his capital at present-day
Peking (Beijing). In 1271 Kublai adopted the dynastic title of Yüan, Mongol empire
and shortly thereafter the Mongols began preparations for an
invasion of Japan. In the autumn of 1274 a Mongol and Korean army
of some 40,000 men set out from present-day South Korea. On landing in Kyushu it occupied a portion of
Hizen province (part of present-day Saga prefecture) and advanced to Chikuzen. The bakufu appointed
Shōni Sukeyoshi as military commander, and the Kyushu military vassals were mobilized for defense. A
Mongol army landed in Hakata Bay, forcing the Japanese defenders to retreat to Dazaifu; but a typhoon
suddenly arose, destroying more than 200 ships of the invaders, and the survivors returned to southern
Korea.

The bakufu took measures to better prepare for a renewed invasion. Coastal defenses were strengthened, and
a stone wall was constructed extending for several miles around Hakata Bay to thwart the powerful Mongol
cavalry. Apportioned among the Kyushu vassals, these public works took five years to complete and required
considerable expenditure. Meanwhile, the Mongols made plans for a second expedition. In 1281 two separate
armies were arrayed: an eastern army consisting of about 40,000 Mongol, northern Chinese, and Korean
troops set out from South Korea, and a second army of about 100,000 troops from southern China under the
command of the Mongol general Hung Ch’a-ch’iu. The two armies met at Hirado and in a combined assault
breached the defenses at Hakata Bay. But again a fierce typhoon destroyed nearly all of the invading fleet,
forcing Hung Ch’a-ch’iu to retreat precipitately. The remnants of the invading army were captured by the
Japanese; it is said that of 140,000 invaders, fewer than one in five escaped.

The defeat of the Mongol invasions was of crucial importance in Japanese history. The military expenditure
on preparations, continuous vigil, and actual fighting undermined the economic stability of the Kamakura
government and led to the insolvency of many of the jitō. The bond between the Hōjō and the Kamakura
vassals was strained to the breaking point. The invasions also led to another prolonged period of isolation

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from China that was to last until the 14th century. Moreover, the victory gave a great impetus to a feeling of
national pride, and the kamikaze (“divine wind”) that destroyed the invading hosts gave the Japanese the
belief that they were a divinely protected people.

Samurai groups and farming villages

The Japanese feudal system began to take shape under the Kamakura bakufu, though it remained only
inchoate during the Kamakura period. Warrior-landlords lived in farming villages and supervised peasant
labor or themselves carried on agriculture, while the central civil aristocracy and the temples and shrines
held huge public lands (kokugaryō) and private estates in various provinces and wielded power comparable
to that of the bakufu. These shōen were managed by influential resident landlords who had become warriors.
They were often the original developers of their districts who became officials of the provincial government
and agents of the shōen. Under the Kamakura bakufu, many such individuals became gokenin and were
appointed jitō in lands where the bakufu were allowed access. As leaders of a large number of villagers, these
jitō labored to develop the rice fields and irrigation works in the areas under their jurisdiction, and they and
other influential landlords constructed spacious homes for themselves in the villages and hamlets where they
lived.

Among these landlords, some were vassals of the shogun, while others were connected to the aristocracy or
the temples and shrines. The jitō owed their loyalty to the shogun, for whom they performed public services
such as guard duty in Kyōto and Kamakura. In return, the shogun not only guaranteed these men security of
tenure in their traditional landholdings but rewarded them with new holdings in confiscated lands—such as
from the Taira or the supporters of Go-Toba. This connection between lord and vassal, on which grants of
landownership or management were based, gave Japanese society a somewhat feudal character.

But these lands were by no means complete fiefs: the Kamakura bakufu did not possess large tracts of its
own land that it could grant to its vassals as fiefs in return for service. Kamakura warriors could control
traditional land types (shōen and kokugaryō) or be newly appointed into confiscated lands. In either case,
there was a nominal absentee central proprietor—temple, shrine, or aristocratic or royal family—who
maintained substantial control over the land. Thus, there was a limit on the degree to which the Kamakura
warrior could exploit the land and people under his control. Conflict was endemic between central proprietor
(usually a local representative of the proprietor) and jitō: the former wished to maintain as much control and
income as possible while the latter was concerned with expanding his share. Since the jitō was entirely under
the control of Kamakura, disputes flooded the warrior headquarters from landowners seeking to curtail jitō
encroachments. Thus, the primary focus of Kamakura activity became the dispensing of justice in legal cases
involving land disputes. The Kamakura bakufu gained a reputation for fairness, issuing countless orders of
admonition to its vassals to follow the precedents on the land in question. By various means, however,
Kamakura warriors managed to whittle away significantly the absentee control of shōen proprietors.

Conflict also was endemic between the farming population and the warriors, stemming from the efforts of
the former to increase personal and economic autonomy, as well as to enlarge their holdings within the
shōen or kokugaryō. There were several different statuses among the peasantry, including myōshu,
prominent farmers with taxable, named fields (myōden) of significant size and long standing; small
cultivators with precarious and shifting tenures; and others who paid only labor services to the proprietor or
jitō. These groups, while distinct from one another, were also quite separate from transient agriculturalists
present in many estates. The lowest peasant category, called genin (“low person”), was made up of people
who were essentially household servants with no land rights.

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The samurai, in theory, performed military service on the battlefield and during times of peace, in addition to
managing agricultural holdings, engaging in hunting and training in the martial arts, and nourishing a
rugged and practical character. Medieval texts speak of kyūba no michi (“the way of the bow and horse”), or
yumiya toru mi no narai (“the practices of those who use the bow and arrow”), indicating that there was an
emerging sense of ideal warrior behavior that grew out of this daily training and the experience of actual
warfare. Pride of family name was especially valued, and loyal service to one’s overlord became the
fundamental ethic. This was the origin of the more highly developed sense of a warrior code of later ages.
Like his Heian predecessor, the Kamakura warrior was a mounted knight whose primary martial skill was
equestrian archery. The status of women in warrior families was comparatively high; like their Heian
predecessors, they were allowed to inherit a portion of the estates and even jitō posts, a practice that
gradually came to be restricted.

After the middle of the Kamakura period, the farming villages in which the warriors resided underwent
changes as agricultural practices advanced; other aspects of society were changing as well. Artisans were
frequently attached to the proprietors of the shōen and progressively became more specialized, responding to
a specific growth of consumer demand. Centers for metal casting and metalworking, paper manufacture, and
other skills appeared outside the capital, in various provincial localities, for the first time. The exchange of
agricultural products, manufactured goods, and other products thrived; local markets, held on three fixed
days a month, became common. Copper coins from Sung China circulated in these markets, while itinerant
merchants increased their activity. Bills of exchange were also used for payments to distant localities. In the
large ports along the Inland Sea and Lake Biwa, specialized wholesale merchants (toimaru) appeared who, as
contractors, stored, transported, and sold goods. Further, it became common for many merchants and
artisans to form guilds, known as za, organized under the temples, shrines, or civil aristocrats, from whom
they gained special monopoly privileges and exemptions from customs duties.

Kamakura culture: the new Buddhism and its influence

During the Kamakura period the newly arisen samurai class began to supersede the ancient civil aristocracy,
which nonetheless continued to maintain the classical culture. Vigorous overseas trade expanded contacts
with the continent, fostering the introduction of Zen Buddhism (in Chinese, Ch’an) and Neo-Confucianism
from Sung China. Chinese influences could be seen in monochrome painting style (suiboku-ga), architecture,
certain skills in pottery manufacture, and the custom of tea drinking—all of which contributed to the
formation of early medieval culture and exerted an enormous influence on everyday life in Japan.

In matters of religion, the great social changes that took place between the end of the Heian period and the
early Kamakura period fostered a sense of crisis and religious awakening and caused the people to demand a
simple standard of faith, in place of the complicated teachings and ceremonies of the ancient Buddhism. The
warriors of the farming villages, in particular, demanded a religion that would suit their personal experience.
Several new Buddhist sects sprang up that eschewed difficult ascetic practices and recondite scholarship.
Among these may be included the Jōdo, or Pure Land, sect mentioned earlier and its offshoot, the Shin
(True) school, which sought reliance on the saving grace of Amida, and the sect established by the former
Tendai priest Nichiren, which sought salvation in the Lotus Sutra. By contrast, the Zen school sought to open
the way to insight by self-effort (jiriki); hence, it met with a ready response, satisfying the demands of many
samurai. At the same time, scholarship and the arts were still deeply linked with the Tendai and Shingon
sects of esoteric Buddhism, which was a vigorous influence even in Shintō circles. Nonetheless, the new
forms of worship expanded popular participation in Buddhism tremendously.

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In scholarly and literary circles, the Kyōto nobility confined themselves largely to the annotation and
interpretation of the ancient classics and to the study of precedents and ceremonies. But at the beginning of
the Kamakura period, a brilliant circle of waka poets around the retired emperor Go-Toba produced a new
imperial selection of poems entitled the Shin kokin wakashū. The waka of this period is characterized by the
term yūgen, which may be described as a mood both profound and mysterious.

Just before the Jōkyū Disturbance the Tendai monk Jien (a member of the Fujiwara family) completed his
Gukanshō (“Jottings of a Fool”). This is the first work of historical philosophy in Japan to incorporate a
notion of historical causality, and it provides an interpretive picture of the rise and fall of political powers
from a Buddhist viewpoint. Meanwhile, as warriors began to contend and mingle with court nobles, many
warrior leaders developed a love of scholarship and a delight in waka poetry. One was Hōjō Sanetoki, who
collected Japanese and Chinese books and founded a famous library, the Kanazawa Bunko, in the Shōmyō
Temple (at what is now Yokohama). Reflecting the rise of the warrior class, military epics became popular.
The most famous is the anonymously written The Tale of the Heike (Heike monogatari), the various tales of
which were first recited throughout the country by Buddhist troubadours called biwa hōshi. After the middle
Kamakura period, as Buddhist pessimism grew fainter, various kinds of instruction manuals and family
injunctions were composed, while collections of essays such as Yoshida Kenkō’s Essays in Idleness
(Tsurezuregusa) also made their appearance. The new nationalistic fervor aroused by the successful struggle
against the Mongols found expression in Kokan Shiren’s Genkō shakusho (1332), a 30-volume history of
Buddhism in Japan.

In the visual arts the carving of wooden images of famous monks

flourished, and, after the middle of the Kamakura period, Chinese
zoom_in
styles of the Sung dynasty also influenced Kamakura wood carving. In
painting as well as sculpture, Buddhist themes began to give way to
more secular works; especially popular were picture scrolls
(emakimono), which took as their themes the history of temples and
shrines, the biographies of founders of religious sects, and,
increasingly, military epics and the secular life of both courtiers and
warriors.

Decline of Kamakura society

During the troubled state of society at the end of the Kamakura

period, the gokenin faced difficult times. They had borne virtually all
the expense of military service against the Mongols, but their claims
for reward went largely unanswered, since no lands or other wealth
were confiscated from the invaders. Thus, they were financially
pressed and often in debt. At the same time, important structural Kōshō: wood sculpture The priest Koya
(Kuya), wood sculpture by Kōshō, Kamakura
changes occurred in warrior houses. First, since warriors proliferated period; in the Rokuharamitsuji, Kyoto.
over generations while landholdings remained constant, the practice
of dividing lands among heirs gave way to single inheritance, often
entirely to the eldest son. The shift from divided to single inheritance was accelerated in the post-Mongol era
and became the primary means of inheritance in warrior families. Power thus became concentrated in the
head of the house, to whom other family members were of necessity subordinated. Second, deputies sent out
by the heads of eastern warrior families to oversee their distant landholdings often broke with the main
family. They formed strong ties with other local warrior houses, perhaps even becoming vassals of a shugo.
Minimally, their ties to the Kamakura regime weakened.

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General economic conditions began to undermine the position of the bakufu vassals. Yet, despite the social
crises among the landholders, trade was flourishing. Coins came increasingly into circulation, and the urban
lifestyle began to be imitated in the provinces. But landowners were often unable to meet their expenditures
from the income of their limited holdings, even if they practiced single inheritance. Therefore, they borrowed
money at high rates of interest from rich moneylenders, and many were forced to surrender their holdings
when unable to repay their loans. The bakufu responded with debt-cancellation edicts, which gave temporary
relief but neglected the long-term problem. Consequently, the gap between rich and poor became marked
among the bakufu. In particular, some shugo, who had the right to raise troops, attempted to turn resident
landlords into their vassals. Thus, the vassalage structure of the Kamakura regime began to unravel, and
powerful local magnates, nominally Kamakura vassals, began to challenge the authority of the Hōjō regents
in the bakufu.

The Ashikaga, Sasaki, Shōni, and Shimazu families were among the most powerful among these. Buffeted by
economic changes beyond its control, the bakufu began to totter, shaken also by the disputes between the
Hōjō family and the rival shugo. The Adachi family was forced into revolt and defeated by the Hōjō in 1285,
along with other warrior houses accused of plotting with them. Subsequently, the main Hōjō house turned
increasingly inward and autocratic, further alienating other vassal houses. When the Andō family raised a
revolt in Mutsu province at the end of the Kamakura period, the bakufu found it difficult to suppress, partly
because of the remoteness of the site of the uprising.

In addition, regional unions of small landlords developed in the Kinai (the five home provinces centered
around Kyōto). Elsewhere as well, local warriors with grievances increasingly took the law into their own
hands, seizing crops or otherwise disturbing local order. Termed akutō by the authorities, they included
many different elements: frustrated local warriors, pirates, aggrieved peasants, and ordinary robbers.
Cultivators as well took advantage of unsettled times to rise up against jitō or shōen proprietors.

These accumulating weaknesses of the bakufu prompted a movement among the Kyōto nobility to regain
political power from the military. The occasion was provided by the question of the imperial succession. In
the mid-13th century two competing lines for the succession emerged—the senior line centered on the Jimyō
Temple in Kyōto and the junior line centered on the Daikaku Temple on the western edge of the city. In the
last half of the century, each side sought to win the support of the bakufu. In 1317 Kamakura proposed a
compromise that would allow the two lines to alternate the succession. But the dispute did not cease. Finally,
in 1318 Prince Takaharu of the junior line acceded to the throne as the emperor Go-Daigo.

The Muromachi (or Ashikaga) period (1338–1573)

The Kemmu Restoration and the dual dynasties

On the accession of Go-Daigo, the retired emperor Go-Uda broke the long-established custom and dissolved
the office of retired emperor (in no chō). As a result, the entire authority of the imperial government was
concentrated in the hands of a single emperor, Go-Daigo. A party of young reforming court nobles gathered
around the emperor, who strove to renovate the government. But to realize his ideal of a true imperial
restoration, it was necessary for Go-Daigo to rid himself of the interference of the bakufu. His plans for its
overthrow were discovered, however, and he was arrested and exiled to Oki Island. But in the Kinai area,
local leaders, supported by militant Buddhist monks, raised an army to overthrow the bakufu. The imperial
forces were led by Prince Morinaga (or Moriyoshi) and Kusunoki Masashige, but the decisive victory was
brought about by the two powerful Kantō warrior families of Ashikaga Takauji and Nitta Yoshisada,
discontented vassals of the Hōjō family. In 1333 Takauji turned on the Hōjō and attacked the Hōjō
headquarters in Kyōto. Yoshisada meanwhile destroyed the bakufu in Kamakura, at which time most of the
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Hōjō leaders perished in battle or by their own hand. Thus, after 140 years’ rule, the bakufu government was
brought to an end.

The return of Go-Daigo to Kyōto in 1333 is known as the Kemmu Restoration. The emperor immediately set
about to restore direct imperial rule. He abolished the powerful office of kampaku and set up a central
bureaucracy. He revived the Records Office (Kirokusho) to settle lawsuits in the provinces and established
the Court of Miscellaneous Claims (Zassho Ketsudansho) to handle minor suits and a guard station (musha-
dokoro) to keep order among the warriors in Kyōto. He placed Morinaga in charge of his military forces and
set up members of the imperial family as provincial leaders in the north and east.

Many local warriors, however, who had joined the imperial forces in the overthrow of the bakufu were
disappointed in the division of the spoils and the direction of the emperor’s reforms. Ashikaga Takauji now
turned against Go-Daigo, raising a revolt that in 1336 drove the emperor from Kyōto. Takauji enthroned an
emperor from the senior imperial line, while Go-Daigo and his followers set up a rival court in the Yoshino
Mountains near Nara. For the next 60 years political power was divided between the Southern Court in
Yoshino and the Northern Court in Kyōto. It remained for Takauji’s grandson Yoshimitsu to establish peace
(1392) between the two courts; thereafter, imperial succession remained with the descendants of the
Northern Court. Throughout the long dispute, however, local warriors attached themselves to shugo, who
increasingly asserted their independence from central authority.

The establishment of the Muromachi bakufu

After the withdrawal of Go-Daigo to Yoshino, Ashikaga Takauji set up a bakufu at Nijō Takakura in Kyōto.
But in 1378 Takauji’s grandson, the shogun Yoshimitsu, moved the bakufu to the Muromachi district in
Kyōto, where it remained and took final shape. Yoshimitsu, assisted by the successive shogunal deputies
(kanrei) Hosokawa Yoriyuki and Shiba Yoshimasa, gradually overcame the power of the great military
governors (shugo) who had been so important in the founding of the new regime. He destroyed the Yamana
family in 1391, and, in uniting the Northern and Southern courts, attacked and destroyed the great shugo
Ōuchi Yoshihiro, thus gaining control of the Inland Sea. Yoshimitsu was now raised to the highest office of
prime minister, or dajō-daijin. He constructed the famed Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku-ji; see below The
establishment of warrior culture) northeast of the capital in Kitayama, taking great pride in its luxurious
display, and also reestablished trade and diplomacy with Ming dynasty China under the title “King of Japan.”

Muromachi government structure

The Muromachi bakufu inherited almost unchanged the structure of its Kamakura predecessor (see above
The establishment of warrior government), setting up a Mandokoro, Monchūjo, and Samurai-dokoro. But
after the appointment of Hosokawa Yoriyuki as kanrei, this post became the most important in the bakufu
government. The official business of the Mandokoro was to control the finances of the bakufu; and later the
Ise family, who were hereditary retainers of the Ashikaga, came to inherit this office. The Samurai-dokoro,
besides handling legal judgments, was entrusted with the control of the capital. Leading officials called
shoshi who held the additional post of shugo of Yamashiro province (now in Kyōto urban prefecture) were
next in importance to the kanrei. New offices were established to streamline judicial decisions and handle
financial matters, and the Ashikaga maintained their own private guard, the hōkōshū. In local
administration, a special administrator was set up in Kamakura to control the 10 provinces of the Kantō area.
This office came to be held by heads of the Ashikaga Motouji family. The 11 provinces of Kyushu were placed
under control of an office known as the Kyushu tandai.

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The crucial difference between the two bakufu, however, was the difference in the role of the shugo.
Appointed first by Takauji in the chaos of the war between the courts, many rose to positions of great power
in one or several provinces under their purview. By Yoshimitsu’s time, their number had been reduced and
their powers somewhat curtailed. But the structure of the bakufu was essentially a delicate balance between
the Ashikaga shogunal house and about a dozen major shugo houses, almost evenly divided between
collateral Ashikaga houses and nonrelated warrior families. Yoshimitsu made them all establish primary
residence in Kyōto, where they ruled in council with the shogun. This retarded their abilities to develop
stronger vassalage ties with local warriors in their provinces, and they often sent out deputies to manage
their provincial areas in their absence. Consequently, in later years many powerful shugo from the early and
middle parts of the Muromachi period were overthrown by their own deputies.

The finances of the Muromachi bakufu could not be met simply from its receipts from the lands under its
direct control, as Kamakura had managed to do. So, according to bakufu needs, the shugo and jitō of each
province were ordered to levy monetary taxes on either every unit of land or every household; this, however,
also was not fully effective in meeting financial needs. As a result, the bakufu extracted taxes from such
dealers as pawnbrokers and sake brewers, who were among the wealthiest merchants of the time. Financial
deficiencies also were supplemented by trading with China. Despite this more diversified tax structure, the
Muromachi regime maintained only a shaky hold on the nation. The foundations of the bakufu began to be
shaken by the increasing power of the shugo and by the frequent uprisings of local samurai and farmers.

In the Kamakura period the authority of the shugo was essentially limited to security matters—suppressing
rebellion, apprehending murderers, and mustering out vassals for service in Kyōto. In the latter half of the
Northern and Southern courts period, their executive power over the areas under their control was
increased. As the number of disturbances grew, they gained wide powers of military command. Sometimes
estates were made depots for military supplies on the pretext of protecting them from the depredations of
local warriors, and half their yearly taxes were given to the shugo. This was called the equal tax division, or
hanzei. Many shugo succeeded to their domains by inheritance, and in cases such as that of the Yamana
family a single shugo sometimes held a number of provinces. If the primary agent of the Kamakura bakufu
had been the jitō, the shugo was the defining office of the Muromachi regime. From the outset, the
controlling power of the Ashikaga bakufu was relatively weak, and, especially after the death of Yoshimitsu,
the tendency for powerful shugo to defect became marked. Hence, as time passed the office of shogun
became increasingly impotent.

The growth of local autonomy

In the villages around Kyōto, the status of farmers rose markedly as agriculture became more highly
developed, and commerce and small-scale manufacturing prospered. Also, confederations of the middle and
small landlords, or myōshu, proceeded apace and often led to uprisings against absentee control. Such
confederations appeared where farming by the larger myōshu had dissolved and middle and small myōshu
had established themselves on a wide scale. These smaller landlords endeavored to defend themselves
against the ravages of local warfare, forming unions to manage the forests in common and to maintain
irrigation works. In such confederations, a leader called the elder (otona) would be selected to head village
government. Assemblies were held regularly among its members at the village shrine or temple, and
regulations were drawn up for the maintenance of community life.

As self-government became strong in the communities, the resistance of farmers became fierce. After the
unification of the Northern and Southern courts, armed uprisings broke out among the farming villages, the
peasants demanding reductions in yearly taxes from the old proprietors and a moratorium on debts owed to

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the moneylenders. A large-scale uprising of this kind took place in 1428 in the last years of Yoshimitsu’s rule.
In 1429 an uprising broke out in Harima province (now part of modern Hyōgō prefecture) aimed at the
expulsion of the warriors from the province. In 1441 farmers living around Kyōto attacked the pawnbrokers
and demanded that the bakufu declare a moratorium on debts. Thereafter, uprisings occurred on a greater or
lesser scale almost yearly—testimony to the fading power of both the shōen system and the bakufu.

Trade between China and Japan

Trade with Ming dynasty China began after the bakufu agreed to suppress Japanese piracy. Ashikaga Takauji
had sent ships of the Tenryū Temple to trade with the Yüan (Mongol) dynasty. But trade then ceased because
of the internal disturbances, and pirates from the maritime districts of western Japan raided both China and
the Korean peninsula. When Korea came under the control of the Chosŏn (Yi) dynasty and in China the Ming
dynasty emerged, they both requested that the bakufu open formal trade relations, hoping to suppress
piracy. Yoshimitsu, both in response to the desires of the merchants and in order to supplement bakufu
finances, began formal trade relations with Ming China and Korea, repatriating a large number of Chinese
who had been taken captive by the pirates. In response, the Ming also began to trade with Japan, under the
form of tribute from Yoshimitsu, “King of Japan,” to the emperor of China. In order to distinguish between
pirate ships and trading ships, seals received from the Ming called kangōfu were used, hence the use of the
term kangō, or tally, trade.

Profits from the China trade were important to the bakufu, but control of this trade later came into the hands
of the western shugo families of the Hosokawa and Ōuchi, under whose protection trading merchants
became active in the ports of Hakata, Hyōgo, and Sakai. After the Ōnin War (see below The Ōnin War [1467–
77]), the Ōuchi controlled the trade—albeit in competition and often conflict with the Hosokawa—but with
the destruction of the Ōuchi the kangō trade ceased and piracy again became rife. Trade with Chosŏn
dynasty Korea was carried on through the agency of the Sō family of Tsushima, and various shugo and the
merchants of Hakata were actively involved in it, importing cotton and other goods. Japanese traders even
established settlements in southeastern Korea, including Pusan. Also included in the trade with China and
Korea were goods imported by Japanese merchants from the Ryukyu Islands, lying between Japan and
Taiwan, and dye materials, pepper, and other special products from the South Seas.

The Ōnin War (1467–77)

During the rule of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa a general civil war broke out in the area around Kyōto,
caused by economic distress and precipitated by a dispute over the shogunal succession. Indeed, severe
famines engendered rebellion nearly every autumn, and it is said that during his term as shogun Yoshimasa
issued 13 edicts for the cancellation of debts known as tokuseirei, or “acts of grace.” Lacking children of his
own, Yoshimasa at first proposed that his younger brother should succeed him. But when he later fathered a
child a serious dispute arose over control of the Ashikaga family. The two chief administrators, Shiba and
Hatakeyama, and most of the remaining shugo also took sides in the power dispute, with Hosokawa
Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen (Yamana Mochitoyo) at the head. In 1467, the first year of the Ōnin era,
fighting broke out between the “eastern” army of the Hosokawa party and the “western” army of the Yamana
faction. The eastern army had the advantage of the support of both the emperor and the shogun, but the
western army, assisted by the Ōuchi family, recovered its power, and fighting raged mainly in and around
Kyōto. Destruction around Kyōto was severe, many large temples and residences were burned, and large
numbers of citizens fled the city. After 11 years the war itself ended, but the fighting spread to the provinces.
As a result, farming villages held conferences and frequently mounted armed uprisings in self-defense. The
leaders of these uprisings were local samurai with village roots. Such men frequently established themselves

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as domain lords (daimyo) during the disturbances. They formed associations and often mounted uprisings
that extended over an entire province and challenged the great shugo. In the autumn of 1485, for example, 36
representatives of the local warriors of southern Yamashiro province met in the Byōdō Temple at Uji and
successfully demanded the withdrawal of the two Hatakeyama armies. As a result, southern Yamashiro
became self-governing for more than eight years.

During this constant warfare, the civil aristocracy and temple complexes lost much of their income from
shōen, which, in any event, had been declining. Many of them left the capital, moving to Sakai or Nara or
even taking up residence in the castle towns under the protection of local daimyo. This migration of
aristocrats and priests functioned to diffuse the higher culture of the capital to the provinces. Old traditions
were destroyed, but from the ashes a new culture was born.

The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, for example, ultimately turned his back on a troubled world and built a
detached residence—the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji)—in the Higashiyama section of Kyōto, where he lived in
elegance and refinement, paying little attention to matters of government. The political power of the bakufu
thus became virtually nonexistent, and real power came into the hands of the chief administrators of the
Hosokawa family (1490–1558). In the 16th century actual power devolved into the hands of their retainers,
the Miyoshi family (1558–65), until it was finally usurped by their own retainers, the Matsunaga family
(1565–68).

The Sengoku (“Warring States”) period

The emergence of new forces.

After the Ōnin War, the power of independent local leaders increased markedly, and in many instances
deputies of great shugo houses usurped the domains of their superiors, retainers overthrew their overlords,
and branch families seized power from main families. Because of this tendency for “inferiors to overcome
superiors” (gekokujō), the previous shugo almost completely disappeared from Kyōto and the surrounding
provinces; a new type of domain lord, the daimyo, took their place. Since this time was marked by constant
warfare among many such lords, it is called the Sengoku (“Warring States”) period, named for a somewhat
similar period in ancient Chinese history.

Until the first half of the 16th century, daimyo in the various localities were thus building up strong military
bases. During this period, the provinces held by the daimyo were almost completely free of bakufu control.
The daimyo turned local leaders into their retainers, taking away their independence by enforcing land
surveys and directly controlling the farming villages. Daimyo such as the Imagawa, Date, and Ōuchi issued
their own laws, called bunkoku-hō, to administer their own territories. These provincial laws, while drawing
on the precedent of warrior codes of the Jōei Formulary, also included regulations for farmers and applied
strict controls over retainers. In principle, for example, inheritance by retainers was restricted to the main
heir alone, and the lord’s permission was necessary for his vassals to inherit property or to marry. In farming
villages the daimyo, in addition to carrying out detailed land surveys, also built irrigation dikes and opened
new rice fields in order to stimulate production. To concentrate their power they also readjusted the
disposition of local fortified strongholds, gathered their retainers into castles, and reorganized roads and
post stations to center on their castle towns (jōkamachi).

Commerce and towns made marked development at this time in Japan’s history. Periodic markets also
sprang up throughout the country. Despite the obstructions of customs barriers (erected by both bakufu and
private interests), products from all parts of the country were available in these markets. In large cities such
as Kyōto, commodity exchange markets were set up to handle huge quantities of rice, salt, fish, and other
goods; wholesalers, or toiya, specialized in dealings with distant areas. The circulation of coined money also
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became vigorous, but in addition to the various kinds of copper coin imported from China of the Sung, Yüan,
and Ming dynasties, privately minted coins also circulated within the country, giving rise to confusion of
exchange rates. The bakufu and daimyo issued laws to prohibit people from hoarding good coins but with
little success. Muromachi guilds showed a strong monopolistic tendency in trying to protect themselves
against new-style merchants who emerged, while new guilds were set up in the castle towns under the direct
control of the daimyo.

Among the cities of the time, next to Kyōto and Nara, Uji-Yamada, Sakamoto, and other towns sprang up
outside the gates of major temples and shrines. Besides these, towns naturally grew up around the castles of
the daimyo, such as Naoetsu of the Uesugi family, Yamaguchi of the Ōuchi family, Ichijōdani of the Asakura
family, and Odawara of the later Hōjō. As the castles shifted from serving as defensive mountain fortresses to
administrative strongholds in the plains, markets were opened outside the castle walls, and merchants and
artisans gathered there to live. Harbor towns (minato machi) such as Sakai, Hyōgo, and Onomichi on the
Inland Sea, Suruga and Obama on the Sea of Japan, and Kuwana and Ōminato on Ise Bay also flourished as
exchange centers. Sake brewers, brokers, and wholesale merchants were leading townsmen (machishu), and
town elders (otona) were chosen to carry on local government through assemblies. In the trading port of
Sakai, for example, an assembly of 36 men drawn from the wholesale guilds administered the city. They
maintained soldiers and constructed moats and other defenses, and while profiting from the confrontation
between daimyo, they resisted their domination. The Jesuit missionaries (see below) compared Sakai to the
free cities of Europe in the Middle Ages and described its flourishing condition in their reports.

The arrival of the Europeans

As the warring daimyo carved out their territories, neither emperor nor shogun was able to govern the
domestic scene, let alone control overseas trade. Further, Japanese marauders in association with Chinese
pirates again became active. It was at this point in Japanese history that the Spanish and Portuguese made
their appearance in the archipelago. In 1543 several Portuguese were shipwrecked on the island of Tanega,
off southern Kyushu. These were the first Europeans to arrive in Japan, and the art of musket construction
they passed on at this time immediately spread to Sakai and other places. This new technology, eagerly
sought by the daimyo, revolutionized warfare in Japan.

In 1549 the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Kagoshima. After missionary work for more than two
years, he left Japan; but thereafter Jesuit missionaries arrived continuously. The missionaries utilized trade
in goods from the Portuguese ships to propagate Christianity, and there were cases in which merchant ships
would not enter the ports of daimyo who did not show good will toward missionary activity. Thus, the
daimyo of the Sengoku era, seeking profits of foreign trade and the acquisition of military equipment and
supplies, protected Christianity. Some daimyo became Christian converts. Three Kyushu Christian lords—
Ōtomo Sōrin, Arima Harunobu, and Ōmura Sumitada—even sent an embassy to Rome. Farmers also
increasingly became converts, in part because of the influence of the social relief work and medical aid that
accompanied missionary activity.

The establishment of warrior culture

While absorbing the traditional culture of the civil aristocracy, the warrior houses that established
themselves in Kyōto during Muromachi times also introduced the continental culture of the Sung, Yüan, and
Ming dynasties, especially the culture associated with Zen Buddhism, thus fashioning a new warrior culture.
This process began with the golden age of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu at the end of the 14th century, when
scholarship and the arts flourished in the five Zen monasteries of Kyōto under shogunal patronage. Renga

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(linked verse) and nō drama flourished. The essence of this culture found concrete expression in
Yoshimitsu’s Golden Pavilion at Kitayama (“Northern Mountain”). Destroyed by an arsonist in 1950 and
rebuilt in 1955, it is now officially called the Rokuon Temple and is located in northwestern Kyōto. Facing a
garden of refined elegance, the Golden Pavilion is built in the Japanese shinden style (a style of mansion
construction developed in the Heian period) in its first and second stories, while its upper story is in the kara
(“Chinese”) style of the Zen school. Thus Kitayama culture, while absorbing new Zen influences from China,
retained much of the earlier native aristocratic culture.

The era of the shogun Yoshimasa, following the destruction caused by the Ōnin War, was one of an even
deeper Zen flavor and showed a refined appreciation of simplicity and quiet profundity. Yoshimasa’s Silver
Pavilion and its garden in eastern Kyōto (now part of the Jishō Temple) truly reflect Higashiyama (“Eastern
Mountain”) culture. This somber temple (never covered, as planned, with silver) and its serene surroundings
—in marked contrast to the ostentation of the Golden Pavilion—represent the essence of this polished
cultural style. While adopted by the daimyo, Higashiyama culture also spurred the development of a new
culture centered on the townspeople of Kyōto and Sakai and was as well the forerunner of the Azuchi-
Momoyama and Edo cultures.

In Buddhism, the great ancient temples like the Enryaku Temple became mere shadows of their former
greatness with the gradual diminution of their shōen. Since the Kamakura period, the new Rinzai Zen sect
had been especially favored by high-ranking warrior houses. The Muromachi shogunal family (the Ashikaga)
gave special protection to followers of the priest Musō Soseki of this sect, which flourished in the Gozan
monasteries (the five most important Zen monasteries) in Kyōto. Gozan monks advised the bakufu in
matters of government, diplomacy, and culture; they studied the Neo-Confucian philosophy of Chu Hsi that
came from China along with Zen, published books, and wrote poetry and prose in the Chinese style. But the
Gozan monasteries became somewhat vulgarized because of their excessive links with the political world,
and consequently they ceased to prosper as the bakufu declined. In contrast, the Myōshin and Daitoku
temples—also of the Rinzai sect but outside the Gozan system—rose to prominence, the latter perhaps best
known for the work of the monk Ikkyū, who propagated his own special form of teaching.

It was during this period that Rennyo (1415–99) of the Shin (True) sect of Pure Land Buddhism rose to
prominence, teaching his principles in simple phrases. His base, the Hongan Temple in Kyōto, was attacked
and burned, however, by the still-powerful Enryaku Temple. Rennyo was forced to flee north to the coast of
the Sea of Japan, where he established a school at Yoshizaki. He then returned to the capital area, where the
Hongan Temple was reestablished and achieved its golden age. While also persecuted by long-established
temples, the Hokke (Lotus) sect continued to gain adherents among warriors and merchants. Moreover, it
was during this time that the custom of pilgrimages to the holy places of the Buddhist deity Kannon, to the
Shintō shrines at Ise, and to the summit of Mount Fuji also became popular. Accompanying this trend was
the development of a worldly Shintō belief. In the 15th century the scholar Yoshida Kanetomo attempted to
free Shintō shrines from Buddhist control; he believed that only a deep religious faith in Shintō could cure
the people of their despondency.

In the arts the nō drama developed in the Kamakura period out of the
older tradition of agricultural festival dances, and guilds (za) were
zoom_in
formed to serve at the ceremonies of temples and shrines and at
funeral services. Four such actor guilds were attached to the Kōfuku
Temple and the Kasuga Shrine of Yamato province (present Nara
prefecture), from which came the father and son Kan’ami and Zeami
Motokiyo; under the patronage of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, they laid the

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foundations for a flourishing nō drama, establishing the guidelines for

performance and bequeathing many texts. Kyōgen (dialogue plays
with dance), which developed from the comic elements of an older
form of entertainment called sarugaku, were performed in the
intervals of nō drama. Based on themes from the everyday life of the
common people, kyōgen were widely appreciated by them, especially
because they satirized the upper class. Traditional Japanese waka
verse was still composed, but renga (linked verse) became ever more
popular and was enjoyed by the warriors and the common people
alike. After a time, however, even renga became overly formal, as the
waka had, and lost its freshness; hence, the free-style verse called Grand Shrine of Kasuga The middle gate of
the Grand Shrine of Kasuga, Nara, Japan.
haikai was born.

As Zen prospered, the shoin architectural style closely connected with

this school was widely adopted by both warriors and civil aristocrats zoom_in
in the construction of their residences, becoming the foundation of
present-day Japanese domestic architecture. Originally a room in
which monks read the Buddhist scriptures, the shoin had several
distinctive features: an entrance called a genkan, straw mats called
tatami laid out over the entire floor of the room, paper-covered
sliding partitions (shoji) between rooms, and an alcove (tokonoma)
and shelves at different levels (chigai-dana) for displaying works of
art. The custom of hanging a monochrome painting in the tokonoma
and placing flowers or an incense bowl before it also became popular
at this time. In the construction of gardens, delight was taken in
adding the Zen mood of retreat from the world to the old shinden
style, making symbolic use of streams, flowers, and bushes. Later, shoin-zukuri interior in the Ginkaku
Temple Shoin-zukuri interior in the Ginkaku
even more symbolic gardens were constructed using arrangements Temple, Kyōto, showing a chigai-dana...(more)
(left…
only of stones, raked sand, and gravel.

The carving of images of the Buddha and the Buddhist paintings

that had flourished in the Kamakura period declined in later zoom_in
Muromachi times; so, too, did the ancient sects themselves, and
new ones arose. Yamato-e painting also declined, and the picture-
scrolls lost their freshness. In their place, the increased interest in
Zen led to the introduction of monochrome painting in the Sung
keyboard_arrow_right
and Yüan style by the Gozan monks. By the time of Yoshimasa, Sesshū: Landscape of Four
however, the great painter Sesshū broke away from imitation of Seasons Landscape of Four Seasons, ink
and light color on paper, detail of a…
...(more)
Chinese models and opened new frontiers in monochrome
paintings. The father and son Kanō Masanobu and Kanō Motonobu
introduced the gentle forms of Yamato-e to monochrome painting
and became the founders of the new Kanō school.

Tea drinking, introduced from Sung China by the Zen priest Eisai in
the Kamakura period, spread among warriors and even common
zoom_in
people from the mid-14th century. In the time of the shogun
Yoshimasa, Murata Shukō, a man of merchant background from
Nara, began the wabi-cha form of tea ceremony by bringing together
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the cha-no-yu of the civil aristocracy and the cha-yoriai of the

common people. This new form spread among the warriors and great
merchants and was further stylized by the Sakai merchant Takeno
Jōō. The development of the tea ceremony stimulated new forms in
tearoom architecture, flower arrangement, pottery, and even the
Japanese cakes served with tea. The Higashiyama cultural tradition
was further diffused among the common people, and as the levels of
wealth and education of urban merchants and artisans rose, they, too,
came to enjoy nō and kyōgen dramas, the tea ceremony, and renga.
Tai-an tea room The sukiya-style Tai-an tea
Fairy tales were also widely enjoyed, being easy to read, and included room, used for the tea ceremony (cha-no-
yu); in the Myoki-an, Kyōto.
stories that had been related among the people since ancient times.
These became popular not only among the children of the nobility
Load Nextwho
and warriors but also among those of the townspeople keyboard_arrow_down
Pagewere

educated in temples and shrines. Muromachi fiction celebrated the life of the burgeoning artisan and
merchant classes. Local daimyo also promoted culture within their domains, eager to enhance their dignity
as lords by building temples and shrines in their castle towns and by employing artists and scholars who
helped spread the culture of Kyōto.

Thus, while warfare was rife in the Muromachi period, it gave Japan some of its most distinctive cultural
institutions.

Takeshi Toyoda

G. Cameron Hurst

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