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Updated: June 24, 2025
The murder of Yoshinori left the shogun's office without any designate occupant, but the heads of the great military families lost no time in electing Yoshikatsu*, the eight-year-old son of Yoshinori, and at the latter's nominal instance the Emperor ordered him to attack his father's assassin. In October, 1441, the stronghold fell.
Although the Restoration of 1868 nominally gave back to the Throne all it had been forced to leave in other hands since 1603, that transfer of power was imaginary rather than real, the new military organization which succeeded the Shogun's government being the vital portion of the Restoration.
Some Japanese historians describe this event as an access of "weariness" on the shogun's part towards the duties of administration. This is a euphemism which can be interpreted by what has been set down above.
But now it was clearly enacted that the feudatories of the east and those of the west should repair to the Bakufu capital, at different seasons in the year; should remain there a twelvemonth, in the case of feudal lords from the Kwanto only six months and should leave their wives and families as hostages during the alternate period of their own absence from the shogun's city, which they spent in the provinces.
To these he caused to be distributed presents of money or pensions, and he directed the littérateurs of the Hayashi family to write the biographies of the recipients of such rewards. In fact, the early years of the shogun's administration constitute one of the brightest periods in the history of the Tokugawa Bakufu.
It had become a custom on the occasion of each shogun's succession to issue a decree confirming, expanding, or altering the systems of the previous potentate. Yoshimune's first decree placed special emphasis on the necessity of diligence in the discharge of administrative functions and the eschewing of extravagance.
It is unnecessary to describe the organization and duties of the military guards to whom the safety of the castle was entrusted, but the fact has to be noted that both men and officers were invariably taken from the hatamoto class. In the o-oku, or innermost buildings of the shogun's castle, the harem was situated.
Incidentally it is mentioned in Arai's comments that 700,000 ryo were allotted for building an addition to Yedo Castle, and 200,000 ryo for the construction of the deceased shogun's mausoleum, out of which total Hakuseki explicitly charges the officials, high and low alike, with diverting large sums to their own pockets in collusion with the contractors and tradesmen employed on the works.
In the spring of 1863, they constrained Keiki, who had been appointed guardian to the shogun and who was then in Kyoto, to give an engagement that on the shogun's return to Yedo decisive measures to put an end to foreign intercourse should be begun.
The administrative power having been transferred from the Court to the Bakufu, it may be said that the sei-i tai-shogun exercised supreme authority throughout the empire. But the shogun himself did not actually discharge administrative duties. That was done by the kwanryo with the shogun's consent. During the Kamakura era, the Ashikaga family occupied a high place.
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