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Updated: May 5, 2025
It has been seen that the fifth Ashikaga kwanryo, Shigeuji, driven out of Kamakura, took refuge at Koga in Shimotsuke; that he was thenceforth known as Koga Kubo; that the Muromachi shogun, Yoshimasa, then sent his younger brother, Masatomo, to rule in the Kwanto; that he established his headquarters at Horigoe in Izu, and that he was officially termed Horigoe Gosho.
Curious and intricate was the attitude of the Hosokawa towards the rival aspirants to the shogunate. Sozen's aid, as related above, had originally been invoked and exercised in behalf of Yoshimasa, the shogun's son by the lady Tomi. Hence, it is not surprising to find the Yamana leader turning his back upon the sometime bonze, Yoshimi, in October, 1469.
Through one of his officers, Funada Yoshimasa, he obtained a mandate from Prince Morinaga, and then, feigning sickness, he left the camp in Yamato and returned to Kotsuke, where he lost no time in making preparations for revolt.
After the conclusion of peace between the Northern and Southern Courts the temple Shokoku-ji was destroyed by fire and it remained in ashes until the time of Yoshimasa, when the priest, Chushin, persuaded the shogun to undertake the work of reconstruction.
Yoshihisa, whose death took place in 1489, left no son, and his father, the ex-shogun Yoshimasa, made tardy atonement to his brother, Yoshimi, the sometime priest, by obtaining the high office of shogun for the latter's son, Yoshitane, a youth of twenty-five.
Landscape gardens also occupied his attention. Wherever, in province or in capital, in shrine, in temple, in private house, or in official residence, any quaintly shaped rock or picturesque tree was found, it was immediately requisitioned for the park of Higashi-yama-dono, as men then called Yoshimasa, and under the direction of a trio of great artists, So-ami, Gei-ami, and No-ami, there grew up a plaisance of unprecedented beauty, concerning which a poet of the time wrote that "every breeze coming thence wafted the perfume of tea."
Even after full allowance has been made for exaggeration, natural in the presence of such extravagance, there remains enough to convict Yoshimasa of something like a mania for luxury. Yet at times this same Yoshimasa was reduced to such straits for money that we read of him borrowing five hundred "strings" on the security of his armour, to pay for a parturition chamber.
The shogun Yoshimasa was in his thirty-ninth year at the time of this abdication, and he survived for sixteen years, not the least dissipated of his life, in which he instituted costly art reunions and carried self-indulgence to its extreme. The young Yoshihisa could scarcely fail to be tainted by such an environment.
The Chinese sovereign, Yunglo, sent a message of sympathy to the Japanese potentate's son, Yoshimochi, in which the deceased was designated "Prince Kung-hsien," but Yoshimochi, though not distinguished for ability, had sufficient wisdom ultimately to adopt the advice of the kwanryo, Shiba Yoshimasa, and to decline the rank of Dajo Tenno, as well as to break off relations with the Ming ruler.
As for grand structures like the "Silver Pavilion" of Yoshimasa and the "Golden Pavilion" of Yoshimitsu, they showed distinct traces of Ming influence, but with the exception of elaborate interior decoration they do not call for special comment.
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