Ashikaga Motouji
| Ashikaga Motouji | |
|---|---|
Ashikaga Motouji
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| Native name | 足利基氏 |
| Born | 1340 |
| Died | 1367 Kamakura |
| Buried at | Zuisen-ji |
| Allegiance | Ashikaga shogunate 足利幕府 |
| Commands held | (Deputy Shogun of the Kanto Region) |
Ashikaga Motouji (足利基氏?) (1340–1367) was a warrior of the Nanboku-chō period. The fourth son of shogun Ashikaga Takauji, he was the first of a dynasty of five Kantō kubō, Kamakura-based representatives in the vital Kamakura-fu of Kyoto's Ashikaga regime. Meant to stabilize a volatile situation in the Kantō, a region where many warrior clans wanted the return of the shogunate from Kyoto back to Kamakura, the dynasty he started almost immediately developed the ambition to usurp the shogunate, becoming a serious headache for the central government. Motouji was the only kubō who always remained loyal to the Kyoto government. During the Kannō Disturbance, a historical episode with serious repercussions on his life, he tried to reconcile his father with his uncle Ashikaga Tadayoshi and, after his father's demise, he collaborated with his elder brother, shogun Ashikaga Yoshiakira, to stabilize the shogunate. He died still young during an epidemic.
In the first weeks of 1336, two years after the fall of Kamakura, the first of the Ashikaga shoguns Ashikaga Takauji left the city for Kyoto in pursuit of Nitta Yoshisada. He left behind his 4-year-old son Yoshiakira as his representative in the trust of three guardians: Hosokawa Kiyouji, Uesugi Noriaki, and Shiba Ienaga. This action however formally divided the country in two, giving the east and the west two separate administrations with similar authority and powers.
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