Ashikaga

Japan was an island realm whose imperial court stood at Kyoto. In 1337 Ashikaga Takauji controlled the city while Emperor Go-Daigo maintained a rival court, beginning the Northern and Southern Courts conflict.

The southern court submitted in 1392, but the Ōnin War began in 1467. Oda Nobunaga ended the Ashikaga shogunate in 1573; Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Japan and invaded Korea in 1592. Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun in 1603. Under the Tokugawa, the 1635 alternate attendance system checked the daimyo; the Osaka uprising of 1837 exposed strains in their rule.