PoliticsAugust 1573 (surrender at Makishima)

Fall of the Muromachi Shogunate

Also called: Siege of Makishima, End of the Ashikaga shogunate

The shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki took up arms against Oda Nobunaga, surrendered at Makishima Castle and was driven out of Kyoto. The Muromachi shogunate, after more than 230 years, effectively came to an end.

Wooden seated statue of Ashikaga Yoshiaki — Reikōden, Tōji-in, Kyoto (photograph from Kokushi Shōzō Shūsei, 1941)
Published by Meguro Shoten (目黒書店) · Public domain · Source

Having fallen out with Nobunaga, Yoshiaki tried to encircle him with Takeda Shingen, the Asakura and Azai, the Hongan-ji and others. When Shingen marched west in 1572 and beat the Tokugawa at Mikatagahara, Yoshiaki rose in 1573, but his plans collapsed when Shingen died of illness on campaign that spring.

In August 1573 Nobunaga attacked Makishima Castle at Uji, forced Yoshiaki to surrender and expelled him from Kyoto. The era name was changed to Tenshō, and Nobunaga soon destroyed the Asakura and Azai as well. Yoshiaki kept the title of shogun at Tomo in Bingo under the protection of the Mōri and gave it up only in 1588, so some date the end of the shogunate to 1588 rather than 1573.

People

Oda Nobunaga1534 – 1582

key figure · Sengoku-era daimyo who ended the Muromachi shogunate in 1573 and won at Nagashino with massed musketeers, opening the way to unification before his death in the Honnōji Incident

Ashikaga Yoshiaki1537 – 1597

monarch · Fifteenth and last shogun of the Muromachi shogunate (r. 1568–1588), installed with Oda Nobunaga’s help but driven from Kyoto in 1573 after turning against him

Takeda Shingen1521 – 1573

related figure · Sengoku daimyo of Kai (today Yamanashi), born Harunobu, who conquered Shinano, fought Uesugi Kenshin at Kawanakajima and in 1572 marched west and routed the Tokugawa, but died of illness on campaign

Fall of the Muromachi Shogunate

The map in 1573

People

Before and after

Themes that include this event