Takauji and the two courts

One of Go-Daigo’s generals, Ashikaga Takauji, turned against him, set a rival emperor on the throne in Kyoto, and was appointed shogun by that emperor in 1338. Go-Daigo fled south to Yoshino, and for more than half a century Japan had two imperial courts, the Northern and the Southern, each with its own emperor.

The third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu, reunited them in 1392.

Muromachi

The Ashikaga shoguns stayed in Kyoto, and Yoshimitsu built his palace in its Muromachi district, which gives this shogunate and its period their other name.

Yoshimitsu was the high point of the line. He accepted the title “King of Japan” from the Ming emperor so that he could trade with China, and he built the retreat now known as the Golden Pavilion, Kinkaku-ji. His grandson Yoshimasa built the Silver Pavilion, Ginkaku-ji. Noh theatre, ink painting, the tea ceremony and garden design all flourished under their patronage.

The Ōnin War

The Ashikaga hold on the provinces was always weaker than Kamakura’s. It depended on great regional lords, and when those lords fell out over the succession the result was the Ōnin War of 1467 to 1477, fought largely in the streets of Kyoto, which left much of the city in ruins.

The shoguns kept the title for another century, fifteen of them in all, but outside the capital it meant little. The country had entered the Warring States.