Ashikaga

The Ashikaga, a Seiwa Genji Minamoto branch, took their name from their Ashikaga manor in Shimotsuke Province, where Minamoto no Yoshiyasu settled in the 1100s; his son Yoshikane married Hojo Tokimasa's daughter, becoming a leading Kamakura vassal. When the main Minamoto line died out, they claimed its headship.

In 1333 Ashikaga Takauji helped Emperor Go-Daigo overthrow the Hojo regime, but by 1336 turned against the Kenmu Restoration, set up a Northern Court in Kyoto and took the shogunal title. The Northern and Southern Courts war ended in 1392 with the Southern Court submitting to Shogun Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu built the Flower Palace in Muromachi, Kyoto, giving the shogunate its other name; Zen culture and licensed Ming trade flourished under him.

Branch houses included the Hosokawa, Imagawa and Hatakeyama; a rival Kamakura branch, the Kanto kubo, fell in 1439. The 1467 Onin War shattered shogunal authority and opened the Sengoku age; in 1573 Oda Nobunaga drove out the last shogun Yoshiaki, ending Ashikaga rule.