The Japanese warrior chieftain Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358) rose to a position of military hegemony during the civil wars of the 14th century and founded the second shogunate, or warrior government, of medieval Japan.

The Ashikaga shogunate (known also as the Muromachi shogunate because of the location of its central offices in the Muromachi section of Kyoto), although it underwent many vicissitudes, retained at least titular military overlordship of Japan from 1336 until 1573.

The first shogunate of the medieval age had been founded at Kamakura in the eastern provinces in 1185 by Minamoto Yoritomo. Yoritomo, as shogun or "generalissimo" appointed by the imperial court of Kyoto, had exercised strong personal rule over his vassal followers. When he died in 1199, his two young sons who succeeded him as the second and third shoguns were unable to maintain Minamoto control over the shogunate, and during the early 13th century, leaders of the Hojo...