Hōkōshū
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Hōkōshū
''Hōkōshū'' (奉公衆) were high-ranking samurai guard-officials and close retainers (''gokenin'') to the Ashikaga shogun in Muromachi period Japan. The ''hōkōshū'' were made up from five guard groups, and thus were also known as ''gobanshū'' (五番衆) or simply ''banshū'' (番衆). Their role was to restrict the power of powerful regional shugo daimyo and increase their dependence on the central government. Overview The ''hōkōshū'' served the shogun directly as close retainers (''gokenin''), as opposed to the retainers of daimyo, and ranked above the ''omemie'', a samurai retainer with the right to hold an audience with the shogun. The ''hōkōshū'' were organized into five guard groups called ''gobanshū'', and were headed by a head of guards (''bantō''). Their daily duties included various duties inside the shogunal palace and accompanying the shogun when he went out. During wartime, the ''hōkōshū'' departed to the front as close bodyguards to the shogun. ...
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Samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court downsized the national army and delegated the security of the countryside to these privately trained warriors. Eventually the samurai clans grew so powerful that they became the ''de facto'' rulers of the country. In the aftermath of the Gempei War (1180-1185), Japan formally passed into military rule with the founding of the first shogunate. The status of samurai became heredity by the mid-eleventh century. By the start of the Edo period, the shogun had disbanded the warrior-monk orders and peasant conscript system, leaving the samurai as the only men in the country permitted to carry weapons at all times. Because the Edo period was a time of peace, many samurai neglected their warrior training and focused on peacetime activities such as a ...
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Kinai
is a Japanese term denoting an ancient division of the country. ''Kinai'' is a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kinai''" in . The five provinces were called ''go-kinai'' after 1760.Nussbaum, "''Gokishichidō''" in . The name is still used to describe part of the Kansai region, but the area of the Kinai corresponds only generally to the land of the old provinces. The region was established as one of the ''Gokishichidō'' ("Five provinces and seven roads") during the Asuka period (538-710). It consisted of Yamashiro, Yamato, Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi provinces. See also * Comparison of past and present administrative divisions of Japan * References * Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric and Käthe Roth. (2005) ''Japan encyclopedia.''Cambridge: Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard Universi ...
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Kawachi Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the eastern part of modern Osaka Prefecture. It originally held the southwestern area that was split off into Izumi Province. It was also known as . Geography The area was radically different in the past, with Kawachi Bay and lake dominating the area over what is now land. That the became the plains in the west of the province was in part due to the sediment flowing from the Yodo River, Yodo and Yamato Rivers. ''Chiku'' Kawachi was divided into three : , , and . * The northern county comprised the modern Hirakata, Osaka, Hirakata, Neyagawa, Osaka, Neyagawa, Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Moriguchi, Osaka, Moriguchi, Shijōnawate, Osaka, Shijōnawate, Daitō, Osaka, Daitō, and Katano, Osaka, Katano, Osaka Prefecture, Osaka areas. * The central county comprised the modern Higashiōsaka, Osaka, Higashiōsaka, Yao, Osaka, Yao, and Kashiwara, Osaka, Kashiwara, Osaka areas. * The southern county comprised the modern Sakai, Osaka, Sakai's eastern ...
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Ashikaga Yoshitane
, also known as , was the 10th ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who headed the shogunate first from 1490 to 1493 and then again from 1508 to 1521 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshitane was the son of Ashikaga Yoshimi and grandson of the sixth ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshinori. In his early life, he was named Yoshiki (sometimes translated as Yoshimura), and then YoshitadaAckroyd, p. 331. — including the period of when he is first installed as ''shōgun''; however, he changed his name to Yoshitane in 1501 in a period when he was temporarily exiled, and it is by this name that he is generally known today. The 9th ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshihisa died in 1489 on a battlefield of southern Ōmi Province. Yoshihisa left no heir; and Yoshitane became '' Sei-i Taishōgun'' a year later. Events of Yoshitane's ''bakufu'' Yoshitane was appointed ''shōgun'' in 1490. Hōjō Sōun gains control of Izu the following year. In 1493, Hatakeyama Yoshitoyo forces Yoshitane to ...
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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 ended during the Bunmei era. A dispute between a high official, Hosokawa Katsumoto, and a regional lord, Yamana Sōzen, escalated into a nationwide civil war involving the Ashikaga shogunate and a number of in many regions of Japan. The war initiated the Sengoku period, "the Warring States period." This period was a long, drawn-out struggle for domination by individual ''daimyō'', resulting in a mass power-struggle between the various houses to dominate the whole of Japan. Origin The ''Ōnin'' conflict began as a controversy over who would succeed ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimasa. In 1464, Yoshimasa had no heir. He persuaded his younger brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, to abandon the life of a monk, and named him heir. In 1465, the unanticipated bi ...
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Kamakura Shogunate
The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no Yoritomo after victory in the Genpei War and appointing himself as ''shōgun''. Yoritomo governed Japan as military dictator from the eastern city of Kamakura with the emperor of Japan and his Imperial Court in the official capital city of Heian-kyō (Kyoto) as figureheads. The Kamakura ''shōguns'' were members of the Minamoto clan until 1226, the Fujiwara clan until 1252, and the last six were minor princes of the imperial family.Nussbaum"Minamoto"at pp. 632–633. The Hōjō clan were the '' de facto'' rulers of Japan as '' shikken'' (regent) of the ''shōgun'' from 1203.Nussbaum"Fujiwara"at pp. 200–201. The Kamakura shogunate saw the Jōkyū War in 1221 and the Mongol invasions of Japan under Kublai Khan in 1274 and 1281. The Kamaku ...
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Ashikaga Yoshihisa
was the 9th ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1473 to 1489 during the Muromachi period of Japan.Ackroyd, Joyce. (1982) ''Lessons from History: The Tokushi Yoron'', p. 331. Yoshihisa was the son of the eighth ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimasa with his wife Hino Tomiko. Since the almost 30-year-old ''shōgun'' Yoshimasa had no heir by 1464, he adopted his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimi to succeed him. However, Yoshihisa was born in the next year starting a struggle for succession between brothers that erupted into the Ōnin War starting in 1467, beginning the Sengoku period of Japanese history. In the middle of hostilities, Yoshimasa retired in 1473, relinquishing the position of ''Sei-i Taishōgun'' to Yoshihisa. Events of Yoshihisa's ''bakufu'' Yoshihisa's shogunal administration begins in 1479. The Kaga Rebellion occurs in 1488 in Kaga Province during his reign. The next year, Yoshihisa dies in camp during campaign against Sasaki Takayori; Yoshimasa res ...
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Ashikaga Yoshinori
was the sixth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1429 to 1441 during the Muromachi period of medieval Japan. Yoshinori was the son of the third ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). His childhood name was Harutora (). In 1433, he initiated the compilation of the last imperial ''waka'' anthology, '' Shinshoku Kokinwakashū'', but was not satisfied with its compilation agenda which undermined his authority. Shogunal succession and reign After the death of the fifth ''shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshikazu in 1425, the fourth ''Shōgun'' Ashikaga Yoshimochi resumed his role as head of the shogunate. Yoshimochi had no other sons, nor did he name a successor before he himself died in 1428. Yoshinori, who had been a Buddhist monk since the age of ten, became '' Sei-i Taishōgun'' on the day of Yoshimochi's death. From amongst the handful of possible Ashikaga candidates, his name was selected by the shogunal deputy ('' Kanrei''), Hatakeyama Mits ...
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Ōuchi Clan
was one of the most powerful and important families in Western Japan during the reign of the Ashikaga shogunate in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their domains, ruled from the castle town of Yamaguchi in the western tip of Honshu island, comprised six provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ... at their height, and the Ōuchi played a major role in supporting the Ashikaga in the Nanboku-cho Wars against the Southern Imperial Court. The Ōuchi remained powerful up until the 1550s, when they were eclipsed by their former vassals, the Mōri clan. History The genealogical record specifies that the Ōuchi clan were descended from a Prince Imseong, prince of the Rulers of Baekje, royal house of Baekje, who moved to Japan in the 7th century. The ''Ōuchi-shi Jitsrur ...
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Hatakeyama Clan
The was a Japanese samurai clan. Originally a branch of the Taira clan and descended from Taira no Takamochi, they fell victim to political intrigue in 1205, when Hatakeyama Shigeyasu, first, and his father Shigetada later were killed in battle by Hōjō forces in Kamakura. After 1205 the Hatakeyama came to be descendants of the Ashikaga clan, who were in turn descended from Emperor Seiwa (850–880) and the Seiwa Genji branch of the Minamoto clan. History The first family being extinct in 1205, Ashikaga Yoshizumi, son of Ashikaga Yoshikane, was chosen by Hōjō Tokimasa to revive the name of Hatakeyama. He married Tokimasa's daughter, the widow of Hatakeyama Shigeyasu (the last Hatakeyama of the first branch), and inherited the domains of the Hatakeyama (1205). Thus the new family descended from the Minamoto (Seiwa Genji). The clan was an ally of the Ashikaga shogunate against the (Imperial) Southern Court during the wars of the Nanboku-chō period, and was rewarded by ...
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Ashikaga Yoshimochi
was the fourth ''shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1394 to 1423 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimochi was the son of the third ''shōgun'', Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, and the elder brother of the sixth third ''shōgun'', Ashikaga Yoshinori.Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Succession and rule In 1394, Yoshimitsu gave up his shogunal title in favor of his young son, and Yoshimochi was formally confirmed in his office as '' Sei-i Taishōgun''. Despite any appearance of retirement, the old ''shōgun'' didn't abandon any of his powers, and Yoshimitsu continued to maintain authority over the shogunate until his death. Yoshimochi exercised unfettered power as ''shōgun'' only after his father died in 1408. In 1398, during the sixth year of the reign of King Taejo of Joseon, a diplomatic mission was sent to Japan. Pak Ton-ji and his retinue arrived in Kyoto in 1398 (''Ōei 5, 8th month''). Shogun Yoshimochi presented the envoy with a formal diplomatic letter; and ...
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Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
was the third '' shōgun'' of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling from 1368 to 1394 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimitsu was Ashikaga Yoshiakira's third son but the oldest son to survive, his childhood name being Haruō (). Yoshimitsu was appointed ''shōgun'', a hereditary title as head of the military estate, in 1368 at the age of ten; at twenty he was admitted to the imperial court as Acting Grand Counselor (''Gon Dainagon'' ). In 1379, Yoshimitsu reorganized the institutional framework of the Gozan Zen establishment before, two years later, becoming the first person of the warrior (samurai) class to host a reigning emperor at his private residence. In 1392, he negotiated the end of the Nanboku-chō imperial schism that had plagued politics for over half a century. Two years later he became Grand Chancellor of State ('' Daijō daijin'' ), the highest-ranking member of the imperial court. Retiring from that and all public offices in 1395, Yoshimitsu took the ton ...
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