1336–1467
Nanboku-chō
The Northern and Southern Courts (1336-1467) — two rival imperial lines split Japan and the warrior class consolidated regional power.
-- 2 SUBJECTS ON FILE
SUBJECTS IN THIS ERA
REPORTS FROM THIS ERA
Two Emperors at Once: How Ashikaga Takauji Split Japan for Sixty Years
In 1336, in his attempt to legitimize his own shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji installed a rival emperor in Kyoto while the original emperor fled to Yoshino. Japan had two parallel imperial lines for the next fifty-six years. The political architecture of that split shaped the country into the Sengoku.
The Meitoku Reconciliation: How Yoshimitsu Ended a Fifty-Year Division
On the fifth of the leap tenth month of 1392, in Kyoto. Emperor Go-Kameyama of the Southern Court handed the Three Sacred Treasures to Emperor Go-Komatsu, and the division of the Northern and Southern Courts that had lasted more than fifty years ended. Tracing the diplomatic settlement by the thirty-five-year-old Yoshimitsu at the peak of his power.
The Golden Pavilion: The Peak of Warrior Power That Yoshimitsu Built at Kitayama
In 1397, Yoshimitsu began construction of a massive estate called the Kitayama estate in the Kitayama district of Kyoto. The core three-story pavilion (later the Golden Pavilion) was a building that stacked three layers — kuge, warrior, Zen — atop one another. The architecture speaks the political conception of Yoshimitsu.
'King of Japan Minamoto no Dōgi': Why Yoshimitsu Accepted Ming Investiture
In 1402, the Yongle Emperor of Ming conferred on Ashikaga Yoshimitsu the title 'King of Japan Minamoto no Dōgi.' Tracing the background and controversy of the unprecedented event in which a warrior shōgun in Japan — a country under an emperor — was recognized as king by the Chinese emperor.