Yoshimasa

Yoshimasa refers primarily to Ashikaga Yoshimasa (足利 義政, 1436 – 1490), the 8th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 during the Muromachi period of Japan. His reign was marked by political instability, economic hardship, and ultimately the outbreak of the Ōnin War (1467–1477), a devastating conflict that significantly weakened the shogunate and ushered in the Sengoku period (Warring States period).

Yoshimasa is often characterized as an ineffective ruler who was more interested in artistic pursuits than in governing. He heavily patronized the arts, and his name is associated with the Higashiyama culture, a flourishing of Japanese art and culture centered in Kyoto. He commissioned the Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion), a Zen temple intended as a retirement villa, which remains a significant example of Muromachi period architecture and landscape design.

The lack of a clear heir after Yoshimasa's brother, Ashikaga Yoshimi, was initially designated as his successor but then challenged by the birth of Yoshimasa's own son, Ashikaga Yoshihisa, contributed directly to the outbreak of the Ōnin War. The conflict involved powerful feudal lords backing different claimants to the shogunate, further destabilizing the country and weakening the Ashikaga's control. Yoshimasa's legacy is complex, embodying both a patron of great artistic achievement and a leader whose inaction and political miscalculations contributed to a period of prolonged warfare and societal upheaval in Japan.