History 150a
Muromachi to Warring States: Collapse of the Center
Collapse of the Center
Decline of the Ashikaga Shogunate
Contrasting Kamakura and Muromachi
Successional Disputes
The Onin War
New Orders in the Capital
Restructuring the City
Commoner Organization
New Orders Outside the Capital
The End of the Shôen Estate System
Medieval Cities
Kamakura v. Muromachi
Kamakura dual polity divided governance between warriors and nobles
Kamakura tried to keep its own matters centrally organized
Muromachi took over most of the court’s secular duties, administering the capital itself
Muromachi allowed much greater degree of regional semi-independence
Shugo: Military Governors
Kamakura shugo (Criminal & Military)
Performing investigation for shogunal courts
Dealing with murder, piracy, bandits
Dealing with treason
Gathering retainers for guard duty
Gathering retainers in times of war
Muromachi shugo (Criminal, Military & Judicial)
Earlier respon. plus
Right to use local agents to enforce land transfers
Right to requisition & allocate rice tax during war, then permanently
At times, and inc. over time, able to make such decisions independently
Supplanted provincial governors and turned provincial officials into private vassals
Jitô and Shôen
Kamakura
Jitô as a post of military reward
Originally small-scale, often but not always pegged to shôen estates
Late Kamakura: conflict between managers and jitô leading to division of estates
Muromachi
Jitô as shugo delegates
Jitô displace court-appointed estate managers and hôen officials become their vassals
Jitô subject to greater control by shugo
Changes in Land Administration
Prelude to Civil War: Layers & Pockets of Authority
Imperial Court retained legitimizing authority
Shogunate could exercise authority over shugo
Shugo had significant discretionary power
Shugo deputies often had important delegated power
Temples & shrines increased their own militaries
A number of Pure Land communities and Nichiren groups struggled for and won autonomy
Number of autonomous trading cities expanding
The Onin Civil War 1467-1477
1/67: Fighting broke out in Kyoto between large alliances of warriors across several succession disputes
Fighting spread to other families even after the initial families pulled out
Kyôto repeatedly burned down and depopulated
Successional Strife
Intertwining: shôgun had say in selection of shugo household successors AND major shugo influenced shogunal succession
Different power blocs saw their fortunes pinned to who would become head of shugo house
Prevented autocratic rule but always in contest
Destruction of the Capital
Battleground of Kyôto itself
New scale of mobilization
“Street Fights”
Fires set to mansions/fortifications of opponents, which spread quickly and outlasted the fighting
Gathering of soldiers of fortune in capital
Exodus of nobles, religious figures, & tradesmen
What Was the Point?
No clear ideological point of conflict or even clear end purpose in the Onin War
M.E. Berry: "Force of the self"
Limited & personal nature of conflicts tied to elite presumption of return to form of old order
Spreading Chaos
Fighting spreads beyond city through attempts to control access to the capital
Territories of Hosokawa and Yamana simultaneous sites of conflict
Opportunity for others in provinces to settle scores, gain territory => struggle eventually encompassed the whole archipelago
Even when in 1477 Hosokawa and Yamana called truce, too late for reestablishment of central authority
Ashikaga Shogunate in the Aftermath
"All of Japan is beyond the reach of the shôgun's commands"
Exodus of shugo
Desertion by guards
Shogunal palaces never fully rebuilt
Series of coups and puppet shôguns from 1493
Resumption of routine city governance
Special taxes to rebuild shogunate finances
Urban reconstruction
Attempt to discipline military governors for withholding taxes
Fortification and Contraction of the Capital
Northern and Southern sectors
Together comprise one-quarter of former city
Surround commercial centers, densely settled
Building of crude mini-castles, stockades, walls and moats
Other areas vacant or inhabited by hinin, shrine workers, landless cultivators
Neighborhoods and Blocks
Streets as focus for organization and identity formation from mid-15th century
From manorial to commercial view of urban space
Block associations for support, defense, and administration
Block representatives to negotiate matters with shogunate/whatever powers that were
Block federations
Threatening Commoners
Armed commoners for hire
Waves of arson and theft
Neighborhood defense and judgements
Periodic mass resistance of heavy demands for labor, taxes, billeting soldiers, cash
Debt cancellation riots
Sectarian disputes (Nichiren vs. Pure Land)
Rise of Medieval Cities
In contrast to ancient capitols and later castle towns, medieval cities had economic rather than political origins
No initial formal recognition from court or shogunate, no formal urban planning
Home of artisan and merchant guilds (za)
From Shôen to Village
Forcible acquisition of lands by local military powers erased distinctions between public and private lands
After Onin War, even if someone wanted to appeal an illegal seizure, no one to turn to for adjudication against lords
Commoners and smaller vassals pledged allegiance to local powers
Trend from "scattered villages"/settlements (2-3 houses in a valley) to concentrated villages in the 14-15th c.
Increasing importance of villages as organizational units of meaning
Ashikaga Crisis => Change
Politics and culture became open to new forms, ideas and principles:
Old vertically integrated structures were undermined
Appearance of new spheres of commoner autonomy
Laying groundwork for new sense of region
Laying groundwork for new sense of class
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Lecture 15: Collapse of the Center
