|
The Sengoku or "warring-states" period, is a period of long civil
war in the History of Japan that spans through the middle 15th to the early
17th centuries. It started in the late Muromachi period in 1467 with the
Onin War (Onin no Ran 1467-1478), lasting through the entire Azuchi-Momoyama
period, until final peace and order was achieved in 1615 of the Edo period.
In Japanese, the "warring-states" period is known as Sengoku jidai (戦国時代).
Starting with and continuing after the Onin War, the central ruling
authority of the Ashikaga or Muromachi Shogunate in the capital of Kyoto was
ruined, leading to a complete breakdown in social order and civil war
throughout Japan. Outside of the capital, the provincial daimyo and
magistrates that relied on the Shogunate for their own authority and power,
found themselves isolated and vulnerable to not only external, but internal
forces as well.
Gekokujyou - Many of the provincial daimyo, such as the
Shimazu, Takeda, and Imagawa, having ruled their lands under the authority
of not only the Ashikaga Shogunate, but also under the preceeding Kamakura
Shogunate, established their own independent domains. However, many others,
like the Hosokawa, Shiba, and Toki found their lands taken over by their own
subjects and retainers, like the Oda, later Hojo, and Saito Dosan, who had
seized the opportunity to establish their own name and become new Sengoku
daimyo in their own right. Also, peasants throughout Japan united with
religious leaders and monks of the Buddhist Pure Land sect to form ikko ikki
to rebel against and resist the rule of the daimyo. In some cases they
succeeded in forming their own independent domains, of which the most famous
ikko ikki in Kaga province lasted independently for almost 100 years.
This phenomenon of social upheaval where the retainers and subjects
came to reject traditions and values of the prior establishment and
forcefully overthrow their leaders to establish their own independence
became known as Gekokujyou (下克上). Literally, gekokujyou means the bottom
overcomes/conquers the top. Struggle for Unification and Final Peace
The absence of a de facto central authority in the capital lasted until Oda
Nobunaga's armies entered Kyoto in 1568, re-establishing the Muromachi
Shogunate under the puppet shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to begin the
Azuchi-Momoyama period. However, despite a renewed central authority in
Kyoto and Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country, the struggle for power
among warring states continued until unification and final peace was
achieved long after his assassination in 1582.
After Nobunaga's death, Toyotomi Hideyoshi rose above his rivals to
succeed his former lord. Hideyoshi first conquered Shikoku (Shikoku Heitei),
then Kyushu (Kyushu Heitei) to finally unite all of Japan in 1590 by
defeating the later Hojo clan of Sagami province in the conquest and siege
of Odawara (Odawara Seibatsu).
However, immediately after Hideyoshi's death in 1598, his retainer
Tokugawa Ieyasu sought to undermine the Toyotomi. After the Battle of
Sekigahara in 1600 over Ishida Mitsunari, Ieyasu became the undisputed ruler
and received the title of Seii Taishogun and established the Tokugawa or Edo
Shogunate in 1603. Eventually Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi in the Summer
Siege of Osaka in 1615 to finally bring peace to Japan.
|
