Ashikaga Tadayoshi

Ashikaga Tadayoshi (足利直義) (1306-1352) was a general of the Northern and Southern Courts period (1337-92) of Japanese history and associate of his elder brother Ashikaga Takauji, the first Muromachi shogun. After helping Emperor Go-Daigo in the Kemmu Restoration of 1333, Tadayoshi was made governor (kami) of Sagami Province (now part of Kanagawa Prefecture). In 1335, during the Nakasendai Rebellion led by Hōjō Tokiyuki (d 1353), Tadayoshi killed Go-Daigo's son, Prince Morinaga. Turning against Go-Daigo, Tadayoshi and Takauji set up a rival emperor in 1336 and founded the Muromachi shogunate in 1338. Dividing power between them, Takauji took charge of military affairs and Tadayoshi of judicial and administrative matters. In 1350, however, because of conflict with Takauji's deputy Kō no Moronao, Tadayoshi rebelled; in 1351 he occupied Kyoto (see Kanno Disturbance). A reconciliation between the brothers proved to be brief. Tadayoshi fled to Kamakura, but Takauji pursued him there with an army. In March 1352, shortly after an ostensible second reconciliation, Tadayoshi died suddenly, most likely by poisoning.