SHIGAKU ZASSHI
Online ISSN : 2424-2616
Print ISSN : 0018-2478
ISSN-L : 0018-2478
The Spatial Aspects of the Muromachi Shogunate : The Residences, Temples and Shrines of the Ashikaga Family
Taketoshi HOSOKAWA
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1998 Volume 107 Issue 12 Pages 2083-2106,2198-

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Abstract

In order to better clarify medieval society, its warrior class and what the shogunate was, it is necessary to consider religion. The aim of the present paper is to shed light upon the character of the Muromachi shogunate by examining the residences, temples and shrines of the Ashikaga family. The first shogun, Ashikaga Takauji first lived in Rokuhara (an eastern suburb of Kyoto), then he and his younger brother Tadayoshi built residences in the center of Kyoto, and established a new shogunate there. Tojiji temple was attached to Tadayoshi's residence the Sanjobomon-tei. Aftr his death, Takauji and the second shogun Yoshiakira decided that Tojiji temple would be the patron temple of the Ashikaga family. Takauji and Yoshiakira lived near Tojiji temple, and Gosho-Hachimangu shrine was built at Tadayoshi's Sanjobomon-tei as the guardian of the shogun's residence. Therefore, the whole Sanjobomon area belonged to the Ashikaga family. The third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, built his residence, called the Muromachi-dono, in a northern suburb of Kyoto. He also built Shokokuji temple near Muromachi-dono, as the area became much larger than that at Sanjobomon. Yoshimitsu moved the functions of the Ashikaga family temple nearer to him, sponsoring, for example, the Hokkehakko memorial service for the former shogun, at Shokokuji temple instead of Tojiji temple. After building his residence in Kitayama to the north of Muromachi-dono, he sponsored the Hokkehakko in Kitayama. From the reign of the fourth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the two temples of the Ashikaga family coexisted. Regardless of where the shogun lived, Hokkehakko was performed at Tojiji temple, while smaller temples of each shogun were built on the grounds of Shokokuji temple. This indicates that the Muromachi shogunate at that time came to assume a double character, one attributable to Takauji's government, the other to Yoshimitsu's.

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© 1998 The Historical Society of Japan
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