Product Code Database
The was the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start date, but there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what was traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573).
This period was characterized by the overthrow of a superior power by a subordinate one. The Ashikaga shogunate, the de facto central government, declined and the , a local power, seized wider political influence. The people rebelled against the feudal lords in revolts known as .
The period saw a breakdown in the traditional master-servant relationship between a lord and his vassals, with many instances of vassals rebelling against their lords, internal dynastic conflict over lordships within noble families (in which vassals would take sides), and the installation of figurehead lords by cadet branches of noble families. The period was also marked by the loosening of samurai culture, with people born into other social strata sometimes making a name for themselves as warriors and thus becoming samurai. In turn, events sometimes allowed common samurai to rise to the rank of sengoku daimyo; these included Hōjō Sōun (the first to do so), and Uesugi Kenshin, a who attained power by weakening and eventually replacing his lord. The most spectacular example of a sengoku-era rise is often considered to be that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who rose from a peasant background to successively become a samurai, sengoku daimyo, and kampaku (Imperial Regent).
Modern Japan recognizes Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu as 三英傑／さんえいけつ for their restoration of Japan's central government.
From 1346 to 1358, during the Nanboku-cho period, the Ashikaga shogunate gradually expanded the authority of the , the local military and police officials established by the Kamakura shogunate, giving the Shugo jurisdiction over land disputes between and allowing the Shugo to receive half of all taxes from the areas they controlled. The Shugo shared their newfound wealth with the local samurai, creating a hierarchical relationship between the Shugo and the samurai, and the first early , called , appeared.
In 1428, Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the fourth shogun, was ill and the question of his succession arose. Ashikaga Yoshikazu, the 5th shogun, died of illness at the age of 19, so the 6th shogun was chosen from among Yoshimochi's four brothers, and to ensure fairness, a lottery was held. The sixth shogun was Ashikaga Yoshinori. But he was not educated to be a shogun, and his temperamental and despotic behavior caused resentment. Akamatsu Mitsusuke assassinated him during the Kakitsu Rebellion. This led to instability in the Ashikaga shogunate system. The shogunate gradually lost influence and control over the daimyo.
The Kyōtoku Incident was a major war in the Kanto region that lasted from 1454 to 1482. The war began when Ashikaga Shigeuji of , the office of the Ashikaga shogunate in charge of the Kanto region, killed Uesugi Noritada of , Kantō kubō's assistant. The various forces in the Kanto region divided and fought between the Kubō and Kanrei sides, with the Ashikaga shogunate supporting the Kanrei side.
Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the 8th shogun, tried to strengthen the power of the shogun, but his close associates did not follow his instructions, leading to political chaos and increasing social unrest. Since he had no sons, he tried to install his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimi as the ninth shogun, but when his wife Hino Tomiko gave birth to Ashikaga Yoshihisa, a conflict arose among the shugo daimyo as to whether Yoshimi or Yoshihisa would be the next shogun. The Hatakeyama clan and Shiba clan clans were also divided into two opposing factions over succession within their own clans, and Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen, who were father-in-law and son-in-law, were politically at odds with each other.
In 1467, these conflicts finally led to the Ōnin War (1467–1477) between the Eastern Army, led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and including Hatakeyama Masanaga, Shiba Yoshitoshi, and Ashikaga Yoshimi, and the Western Army, led by Yamana Sōzen and including Hatakeyama Yoshinari, Shiba Yoshikado, and Ashikaga Yoshihisa. In 1469, the war spread to the provinces, but in 1473, Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen, the leaders of both armies, died. In 1477, the war ended when the western lords, including Hatakeyama Yoshinari and Ōuchi Masahiro, withdrew their armies from Kyoto.
The war devastated two-thirds of Kyoto, destroying many aristocratic and samurai residences, , and Buddhist temples, and undermining the authority of the Ashikaga shoguns, greatly reducing their control over the various regions. The war caused disarray which rippled across Japan. In addition to the military confrontations between separate states, there was also domestic fallout. In contempt of the shogunate, the daimyo who were subjected to remain in Kyoto instead returned to their provinces. Consequentially, some of these daimyo found that their designated retainers or shugodai, representatives of their states appointed in a daimyo's absence, rose in power either to seize control of the domain or proclaim independence as a separate domain.
Thus began the Sengoku period, a period of civil war in which the daimyo of various regions fought to expand their own power. Daimyo who became more powerful as the shogunate's control weakened were called , and they often came from shugo daimyo, Shugodai, and . In other words, sengoku daimyo differed from shugo daimyo in that sengoku daimyo was able to rule the region on his own, without being appointed by the shogun.
Historians often consider the Ōnin War, a ten-year conflict wrought by political turmoil, to be the trigger for what would come to be known as the Sengoku period. This civil war would clearly reveal the Ashikaga shogunate's reduced authority over its shogunal administration, the provincial daimyo and Japan as a whole; thereby a wave of unbridled conflict would spread across Japan and consume the states in an age of war. Furthermore, weariness of war, socioeconomic unrest and poor treatment by aristocrats provoked the wrath of the peasant class. Farmers, craftsmen, merchants and even villages would organize uprisings (known as "ikki") against the ruling class. An extraordinary example is the Kaga Rebellion, in which the local ikki had staged a large-scale revolt with the support of the True Pure Land sect (thereby establishing the term ikkō ikki) and assumed control of the entire province of Kaga ikki.Thornton, Sybil. "Ikkō Ikki." Japan at War: An Encyclopedia, edited by Louis G. Perez, ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 138–140. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2789100096/GVRL?u=psucic&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=b19f37eb. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023. It is suggested by both scholars and authors that " these succession disputes still might not have led to war were it not for the shōgun's lack of leadership."Streich, Philip. "Ōnin War (1467–1477)." Japan at War: An Encyclopedia, edited by Louis G. Perez, ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 296–297. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2789100191/GVRL?u=psucic&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=56a79408. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.Streich, Philip. "Civil Wars, Sengoku Era (1467–1570)." Japan at War: An Encyclopedia, edited by Louis G. Perez, ABC-CLIO, 2013, pp. 53–55. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX2789100045/GVRL?u=psucic&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=3f87bd69. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023.
Kaga ikki occurred in 1488, Hōjō Sōun conquered Izu province in 1491, and in 1492 Hosokawa Masamoto banished the 10th shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane from Kyoto and installed Ashikaga Yoshizumi as the 11th shogun. Around this time, civil wars began to occur frequently throughout the country, and Buddhist temples in various regions grew as armed forces.
Hosokawa Masamoto remained a bachelor for the rest of his life and adopted three people as his heirs. Following the advice of his vassals, Masamoto named Hosokawa Sumimoto as his successor instead of Hosokawa Sumiyuki, who had been adopted first. As a result, Masamoto was killed by Sumiyuki in 1507. This incident is called . This triggered a struggle for the succession of the Hosokawa clan, which was divided into the Hosokawa Sumimoto faction and the Hosokawa Takakuni faction, and started a war called , which was won by Hosokawa Takakuni.
Hosokawa Takakuni installed Ashikaga Yoshiharu as the 12th shogun. Meanwhile, Hosokawa Harumoto, son of Hosokawa Sumimoto, who had lost the war, collaborated with Miyoshi Motonaga to defeat Takakuni at the in 1527 and expel him from Kyoto. The authority of the Kanrei was thus destroyed, and with almost no support for Hosokawa Takakuni, he was forced to move from place to place. He gained the sengoku daimyo Uragami Muramune as an ally and fought Hosokawa Harumoto in a war called in 1531, but was defeated.
Hosokawa Harumoto seized power, but he alienated Miyoshi Motonaga, who was his retainer but still held a strong position of power. Harumoto seduced the Ikkō-shū into a Ikkō-ikki against Motonaga, which resulted in Motonaga's death in 1532.
By the time of the 13th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the shogun already had few direct fiefs and direct military forces, and his sphere of influence was limited to a few lands around Kyoto, losing both economic and military power. As a result, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was often chased out of Kyoto by the sengoku daimyo Miyoshi Nagayoshi and his forces, and was finally killed in an attack by the forces of Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Matsunaga Hisahide. Ashikaga Yoshiteru was known as a great swordsman and was a student of Tsukahara Bokuden, who was known as one of the strongest swordsmen. According to Yagyū Munenori, a swordsmanship instructor in the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was one of the five best swordsmen of his time. According to several historical books, including Luís Fróis' Historia de Japam, he fought hard with naginata and tachi during a raid, defeating many of his enemies, but eventually ran out of strength and was killed.
of [[:ja:三好長逸|Miyoshi Nagayasu]], [[:ja:三好宗渭|Miyoshi Soui]], and Iwanari Tomomichi supported the young head of the clan, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, in leading the Miyoshi clan. However, after the assassination of the 13th Shogun, the trio fell out with another Miyoshi follower, Matsunaga Hisashige, over the 14th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshihide, and war broke out. The latter three also came into conflict with Yoshitsugu. The Miyoshi regime virtually collapsed when [[Oda Nobunaga]] entered Kyoto in 1568. Miyoshi Yoshitugu and Matsunaga Hisahide submitted to Nobunaga, but were later killed by Nobunaga's forces. The trio was weakened and the Miyoshi clan declined.
Uesugi Kenshin (Nagao Kagetora) was a sengoku daimyo based in Echigo Province who fought various sengoku daimyo and increased his power through aggressive invasions. After unifying Echigo in 1551, he invaded the Kantō region several times from 1552 to 1569 and fought against Hōjō Ujiyasu. He also invaded the territory of Takeda Shingen, who ruled Kai Province and from 1553 to 1573, and fought in the Battle of Kawanakajima five times between 1553 and 1564. In 1559, Kenshin had an audience with Emperor Ōgimachi and the 13th Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru. When Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed by Oda Nobunaga's forces at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, the Alliance Kai-Sagami-Suruga formed in 1554 between Takeda Shingen in Kai, Hojo Ujiyasu in Sagami Province, and Imagawa Yoshimoto in Suruga Province was broken. Kenshin used this as an opportunity to seize Hojo Ujiyasu's territories one by one, and cornered the Later Hōjō clan at the siege of Odawara in 1561, but was unable to defeat them. On his return from the siege of Odawara, he performed a ceremony at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and assumed the position of Kanrei. Kenshin made peace with Hōjō Ujiyasu, who ceded part of his territory to him in 1569, and made Takeda Shingen a common enemy of Kenshin and Ujiyasu, but Shingen died of illness in 1573. After Takeda Shingen's death, he fell out with Oda Nobunaga and destroyed the Noto Hatakeyama clan, which was close to Nobunaga, at the siege of Nanao in 1577, pacifying Noto Province. He then defeated Oda Nobunaga's forces at the Battle of Tedorigawa. However, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1578 at the young age of 49.
At the same time, the Mōri clan overthrew the Ouchi clan in the Chūgoku region, and the Shimazu clan and became major powers in Kyushu. In this way, regional unification was promoted.
He was on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara, and as the first lord of the Sendai Domain during the Edo period, he developed Sendai and laid the foundations of the city as the center of the present-day Tōhoku region. In 1613, he sent Hasekura Tsunenaga as an ambassador to Europe, where he was granted an audience with the Pope Paul V.
| Hōjō Sōun seizes Izu Province |
| The Ashikaga shogunate destroys the Yamashiro ikki |
| Japan officially ends its recognition of China's regional hegemony and cancels any further tribute missions |
| Portuguese vessels bombard Moji at the request of Otomo Sorin, who fails to take it in a siege. |
| Hashiba Hideyoshi is granted the title of Kampaku, establishing his predominant authority; he is granted the surname Toyotomi a year after. |
| Toyotomi Hideyoshi announces the first anti-Christian sentiment |
| Toyotomi Hideyoshi achieves the unification of the entire country under the loyalty of the clans of Mutsu Province. |
One of the earliest instances of this was Hōjō Sōun, who rose from relatively humble origins and eventually seized power in Izu Province in 1493. Building on the accomplishments of Sōun, the Hōjō clan remained a major power in the Kantō region until its subjugation by Toyotomi Hideyoshi late in the Sengoku period. Other notable examples include the supplanting of the Hosokawa clan by the Miyoshi clan, the Toki clan by the Saitō, and the Shiba clan by the Oda clan, which was in turn replaced by its underling, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a son of a peasant with no family name.
Well-organized religious groups also gained political power at this time by uniting farmers in resistance and rebellion against the rule of the daimyōs. The monks of the Buddhism True Pure Land sect formed numerous Ikkō-ikki, the most successful of which, in Kaga Province, remained independent for nearly 100 years.
|
|
