Born into the upper ranks of an aristocratic tradition that extended back for at least half a millennium, Ichij Kaneyoshi (or Kanera) lived his life with an overpowering awareness of his place in that ancient hierarchy. Ironically, his story now reads as a record of the final decline of the ancient way of life to which he dedicated himself as statesman, patron, and scholar, leaving behind essays, commentaries, and philological works that are highly valued by literary and cultural historians to this day.

Kaneyoshi was born to the regent Ichij Tsunetsugu in 1402, just six years before the death of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the most powerful of the Ashikaga shoguns and a dedicated patron of traditional culture. As one of the younger sons of a noble family he was probably prepared for an ecclesiastical career as a child; but when his older brother was forced by illness to withdraw from...