The Kyushu Tandai was a post set up by the Muromachi Bakufu to govern the island of Kyushu. From the end of fourteenth century, the post was held by successive members of the Shibukawa family branch of the Ashikaga clan. The research to date has held that the power of the Tandai quickly declined after the defeat of Shibukawa Yoshitoshi at the hands of the Shoni family in 1425 and eventually became limited to the eastern portion of Hizen Province. This is why the Kyushu Tandai has not been seen as a significant political force in the region during the late medieval period. The present article reexamines the process of the Shibukawa family's decline and fall in order to relocate the place of the Kyushu Tandai within the historical context of late medieval Japan. The above-mentioned decline of the Shibukawa family, which supposedly began with the defeat of 1425, was in fact the result of policies implemented under the Muromachi Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, which aimed at a new way of governing Kyushu centered around the Ouchi family, and in the process reduced the authority of the Kyushu Tandai. Nevertheless, the Tandai still retained a high level of military leadership in the region. Then, during the sixteenth century, when civil strife shook northern Kyushu as the result of the weakening of shogunal power in the region, the Shibukawa family split into Ouchi and Otomo family factions. Even then, the Tandai remained influential and was considered an important element within the strategy of any feudal lord (daimyo) in the region. The author concludes that the Shibukawa Kyushu Tandai family did not decline and fall, but rather lost importance as a regional Bakufu administrative organ due to a change in shogunate politics. On the other hand, the Shibukawa family's high level of political influence remained an important, unwavering element within the regional political order throughout the period. The same phenomenon can be observed in the case of the Muromachi Bafuku's Oshu (Northern Honshu) Tandai. Placing the post of Tandai within its rightful place in regional politics alongside the Bakufu and daimyo now reveals a brand new aspect of the political structure characterizing fifteenth and sixteenth century Japan.
