(March 3, 1439 – February 15, 1491) was the brother of

Shōgun , officially , was the title of the military rulers of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, except during parts of the Kamak ...

Ashikaga Yoshimasa "Ashikaga Yoshimasa" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol. 1, p. 625. was the eighth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 du ...

, and a rival for the succession in a dispute that would lead to the

Ōnin War The , also known as the Upheaval of Ōnin and Ōnin-Bunmei war, was a civil war that lasted from 1467 to 1477, during the Muromachi period in Japan. ''Ōnin'' refers to the Japanese era name, Japanese era during which the war started; the war ende ...

Life

Yoshimi was the

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of a Jōdo monastery when he was first approached in 1464 by

Hosokawa Katsumoto was one of the Kanrei, the deputies to the Ashikaga shogunate, Shōgun, during Japan's Muromachi period. He is famous for his involvement in the creation of Ryōan-ji, a temple famous for its rock garden, and for his involvement in the Ōnin War ...

, who wished to support a bid for Yoshimi to become shōgun. He originally sought to stick to his religious life, and had no desires to become shōgun. However, by 1464, he was convinced to join his brother, the shōgun, and assist him, putting himself into a position to be the next in the line of succession. The birth of the Shōgun's son placed Yoshimi in an awkward situation, making his succession no longer definite, but he remained as Yoshimasa's Deputy. Despite Yoshimi's support by Hosokawa, it was Hosokawa's opponent,

Yamana Sōzen was originally before becoming a monk. Due to his red complexion, he was sometimes known as ''Aka-nyūdō'', "the Red Monk". He was one of the ''shogun'' ''daimyōs'' who fought against Hosokawa Katsumoto during the Ōnin War in Heian-kyō. Bi ...

, who stayed in Yoshimi's mansion for a time, and who attended a ceremony in March 1467 honoring the shōgun and his brother. Hosokawa did not attend, as he was preparing for the imminent war between himself and Yamana, who supported the succession of the shōgun's infant son Ashikaga Yoshihisa. Following the initial battles between Hosokawa and Yamana within the capital (

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

), the

turned into a war between Yoshimi and his brother the Shōgun. Through a set of complicated events, Yoshimi became one of Yamana's chief generals, and was declared a "rebel" by the

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

, and stripped of his court rank. That same year, 1469, the shōgun officially named his son heir. Yamana and Hosokawa both died soon afterwards, in 1473, and the Ōnin War came to an end in 1477, along with Yoshimi's political aspirations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashikaga, Yoshimi 1439 births 1491 deaths 15th-century Japanese people Samurai Japanese Buddhist clergy Yoshimi