Ashikaga Yoshiaki

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"The fool fights even when all is lost. The wise concedes victory and looks to the future."

―Ashikaga Yoshiaki, 1582.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki (足利 義昭, 1537 – 1597), also known by his Shinbakufu alias The Tatsu (龍, lit. "The Dragon") or, alternatively, The Horseman, was the 15th and final shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate, ruling Japan from 1568 to 1573.

After securing his position with the aid of Oda Nobunaga, Yoshiaki, realizing he had become little more than Nobunaga's puppet and held no real power, eventually turned on him, only to be defeated and overthrown. In retaliation, the former shōgun formed the secret cabal known as the Shinbakufu with the goal of regaining his title and exacting revenge on Nobunaga.

To sponsor the group's activities, Yoshiaki established an alliance with the Templars, who lent their support to the Shinbakufu in exchange for the three Imperial Regalia of Japan, which were safeguarded by the Kakushiba ikki. Leading a purge of the ikki, Yoshiaki succeeded in recovering two of the regalia, and later retrieved the third during Nobunaga's invasion of Iga in 1581.

However, the Shinbakufu's activities caught the attention of both the Iga kunoichi Fujibayashi Naoe and Nobunaga's samurai Yasuke, who formed an alliance to exact retribution on the group for their theft of the regalia and murder of Nobunaga. After eliminating the other Shinbakufu members, Naoe and Yasuke uncovered Yoshiaki's identity as the group's leader and confronted him. Conceding defeat, the former shōgun surrendered the regalia he had in his possession, along with information on the Kakushiba ikki and the Templars, and was allowed to live the rest of his days in exile as a monk.

Biography

Early life

The third son of Ashikaga Yoshiharu, the twelfth Ashikaga shōgun, Yoshiaki was born in 1537 and was not destined for a political career, becoming a monk at Kōfuku-ji in Nara. Following their father's passing, Yoshiaki's older brother Yoshiteru succeeded him as shōgun, but was assassinated in 1565 by Miyoshi Nagayoshi and Matsunaga Hisahide, who placed a puppet shōgun on the throne: Yoshiaki's cousin Yoshihide.

With Yoshihide unable to free himself from his "protectors", Yoshiaki traveled around Japan seeking a benefactor to back his own claim to the shogunate. In 1568, he visited the daimyō Oda Nobunaga, who had just established himself at Gifu Castle, and presented his case. Surprisingly, Nobunaga agreed to support him and the two marched on Kyoto, but Yoshiaki was unaware that Nobunaga was only using the shogunate's usurpation as a pretext for military action. That November, Nobunaga entered Kyoto with his army and installed Yoshiaki as shōgun; Yoshiaki offered him the position of deputy shōgun, but Nobunaga declined.

Deposition

"Warmongering fools like Oda Nobunaga betrayed our world. Sacrificed our people. Men like him have undermined the order of the Shogunate for more than a century with their thirst for power. They have plunged us into chaos. Am I not, after all, the legitimate ruler of our lands? I wanted only to take back my rightful place. To return us to order."

―Yoshiaki explaining his motives for betraying Nobunaga, 1582.

Though he attempted to rule, Yoshiaki noticed that his power relied on Nobunaga's aid. By 1572, there was tension between the two, with Nobunaga issuing several admonishments that caused Yoshiaki to take offense. Yoshiaki began plotting against him, trying to convince other daimyō like Takeda Shingen to turn against Nobunaga and "rescue" Yoshiaki in Kyoto.

In 1573, Yoshiaki rebelled, leading an alliance of several great lords, including the Mōri, the Takeda, and the Asakura, against Nobunaga's forces. However, Nobunaga's army soon marched on Kyoto and expelled Yoshiaki. He escaped with his life and took up residence with the Mōri clan in Western Japan, from where he continued attempting to undermine Nobunaga, even raising troops against him for the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War, but he never managed to overthrow his enemy nor to reinstall himself as shōgun.

Life in exile

Leading the Shinbakufu

"Foreigners are coming. The samurai is proof enough of that. But there are still fools here who refuse to recognize the sea change. We are a string of islands in a vast ocean of ever-shifting powers. We are not strong enough to turn its tide. But if we pivot and ride this tide... we emerge victorious."

―Yoshiaki to Naoe and Yasuke, 1582.

Following his deposition, Yoshiaki, resentful of Nobunaga, sought to eliminate him and also to claim the three Imperial Regalia, which were said to grant the divine right to rule over Japan. To this end, Yoshiaki formed a secret organization known as the Shinbakufu, which he led under the alias of "The Tatsu".

Taking advantage of the Templars' recent expansion to Japan, Yoshiaki and his fellow Shinbakufu members succeeded in recovering two of the regalia safeguarded by the Kakushiba ikki, decimating the Brotherhood in the process, and gave them to the Portuguese Templars, who had their own need of the artifacts. In exchange, the Templars would fund the Shinbakufu's operations and help Yoshiaki regain his title and power. However, the leader of the Kakushiba ikki, Tsuyu, escaped the Shinbakufu's purge; Yoshiaki was less concerned with her identity than the fact that she somehow evaded his spies.

On 30 September 1581, after discovering the third and final regalia's whereabouts in Iga, a masked Yoshiaki, accompanied by the rest of the Shinbakufu, used Nobunaga's invasion of the region as cover to infiltrate Iga and steal the artifact. Despite opposition from Fujibayashi Nagato and his daughter Naoe, who killed one the group's members—Ido Yoshihiro—the Shinbakufu succeeded in seizing the regalia's box after ambushing Nagato and Naoe outside Katano Castle.

As a masked Akechi Mitsuhide was about to execute the mortally wounded Nagato, Wada Koretake intervened and asked that their enemies be left to die in pain. Yoshiaki, having achieved his primary objective, granted Koretake's request and departed with the box, leaving Nagato and Naoe to succumb to their injuries.

Encounters with Naoe and Yasuke

Yasuke: "You were afraid of them."

Yoshiaki: "Terrified."

Yasuke: "Lord Nobunaga feared no such force. His name will live on forever. You will live in shame, and die forgotten."

—Yoshiaki and Yasuke discussing the Templars during their final meeting, 1582.

By 1582, Yoshiaki had made his way to Yamashiro, where he took a liking to spectating sumo matches held at the Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine. In late June of that year, he met Naoe—who had survived the events in Iga—and Yasuke, and though neither of them recognized him until after he had left, he imposed some philosophical life lessons onto them.

After founding their own incarnation of the Kakushiba ikki, Naoe and Yasuke, seeking revenge against the Shinbakufu for their own personal reasons, hunted the group's members until only Yoshiaki and Mitsuhide remained. Following the latter's defeat at the Battle of Yamazaki, he informed the pair of Yoshiaki's identity as the Shinbakufu's leader in his final moments, leading the pair to confront the former shōgun at Kuramadera Temple.

Humbly sitting on the ground with his mask and the box containing the regalia stolen from Iga before him, Yoshiaki offered information in exchange for his life. Suspecting that Naoe sought her mother Tsuyu, he instructed her to travel to Sakafune-ishi in Yamato. Naoe accepted his offer and reclaimed the box. However, Yasuke declared that he must answer for Nobunaga's death and his betrayal of Emperor Ōgimachi. Yoshiaki defended his actions and condemned Nobunaga's, then correctly deduced that Yasuke sought information on the Templars and advised him to head to Takahara Village to investigate their activities. With their business concluded, Naoe declared that Yoshiaki no longer posed a threat without the Shinbakufu, and Yasuke added that Nobunaga's name would live on while Yoshiaki's would be forgotten.

Later life

Despite Nobunaga's death during the Honnō-ji incident, Mitsuhide's failure to succeed him and his own death only two weeks later meant that Yoshiaki lost all hopes of ever restoring the Ashikaga shogunate. With the support of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who took over Nobunaga's mantle of attempting to unify Japan, he resumed his monastic life. Towards the end of his life, Yoshiaki made additional efforts to regain his power and began to oppose Hideyoshi, but these efforts did not amount to anything, and he died in exile in 1597.

Gallery

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  Ashikaga Yoshiaki meditating

Appearances

• Echoes of History – Shadows (first mentioned)
• Assassin's Creed: Shadows (first appearance)