Who Is Ashikaga Yoshiaki (Kakukei)?
The last shogun, Nobunaga's ally and then enemy
Ashikaga Yoshiaki was the 15th and last shogun of the Muromachi shogunate, Japan's military government of the time. He was the brother of the slain shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and had originally been a monk named Kakukei in Nara. After his brother's death he left the temple, wandered from place to place, and became shogun with Nobunaga's help.
In Episode 6, he comes to Mino, meets Nobunaga, enters Kyoto with Nobunaga's army, and becomes shogun (1568). There is also a story that he offered Nobunaga the post of deputy shogun and was refused. By Episode 10 the tables have turned: he raises troops against Nobunaga, surrenders at Makishima Castle, and leaves Kyoto with his life spared (1573).
This is generally regarded as the effective end of the Muromachi shogunate. Even so, Yoshiaki took refuge with the Mori clan, kept his position as shogun, and went on opposing Nobunaga. He later returned to Kyoto and died during the age of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Episodes featuring this character2
NEWEpisode 6
Keep the Title. Give Me the Ports.Nobunaga's March on Kyoto
Backing a nobleman who has lost everything, Oda Nobunaga takes a mountain castle in a single day and fills Kyoto with long vermilion spears. Then, drawing on the stories told about him, this episode shows the man who turned down the high rank a weeping shogun offered with the word "Father," and asked only for a few towns of ports and roads.
19 pages
NEWEpisode 10
The New Year's Feast Had One More CourseThe Golden Skulls
"The Golden Skulls." Oda Nobunaga drives out of Kyoto the shogun who once called him "Father," then wipes out a great house and his own sister's husband's family in under two months. On New Year's Day, after the guests have gone, he cheerfully announces: "There's one more dish."
19 pages