Ashikaga Takauji

Ashikaga Takauji (1305–1358) founded the Ashikaga shogunate and split Japan into two imperial courts. In 1333 the Hōjō sent him against Emperor Go-Daigo's rising, holding his family hostage; he turned on them at Shinomura, and his allies took their Kyoto headquarters.

After the 1335 Nakasendai rebellion, unauthorized rewards to his followers had him declared a rebel. The Taiheiki says he cut his hair as a monk before riding out, and Kamakura's warriors copied him. Driven to Kyūshū, he returned to win at the Minatogawa in 1336 and enthrone Emperor Kōmyō, while Go-Daigo founded a Southern Court at Yoshino.

Made shōgun in 1338, he fell out with his brother and co-ruler Tadayoshi in the Kannō disturbance. A Zen master praised his calm and generosity, but later Confucian historians named him one of Japan's three great villains. He died of a back boil in 1358, succeeded by his son Yoshiakira.