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The
Ashikaga Shogunate (Ashikaga-bakufu, 1336 - 1573) was a feudal military
dictatorship ruled by the shoguns of the Ashikaga family.
This period is also known as the Muromachi period and gets its name
from the Muromachi area of Kyoto where the third shogun Yoshimitsu
established his residence.
In part because the founder of the Ashikaga Shogunate, Ashikaga
Takauji, did so by siding with the Emperor against the previous Kamakura
Shogunate, the Ashikagas shared more of the governmental authority with the
Imperial government than the Kamakura had. Thus, it was the weakest
Shogunate among Kamakura Shogunate and Tokugawa Shogunate. However, most of
the regional power still remained with the provincial daimyo, and the
military power of the Shogunate depended largely on their loyalty to the
Ashikaga. As the daimyo increasingly feuded among themselves in the pursuit
of power, that loyalty grew increasingly strained, until it erupted into
open warfare in the late Muromachi period, also known as the Sengoku Period.
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