Ashikaga Yoshikazu

Who was Ashikaga Yoshikazu?

Ashikaga Yoshikazu was the 5th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1423 to 1425 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshikazu was the son of the fourth shogun Ashikaga Yoshimochi.

Yoshimochi ceded power to his son, and Yoshikazu became Seii Taishogun at age 18; but he would die within two years. According to Oguri Hangan ichidaiki, Yoshikazu's death was hastened by a life of drunken dissipation.

Significant events shape the period during which Yoshikazu was shogun:

1423 – Yoshikazu appointed shogun.

1424 – Go-Kameyama dies.

1425 – Yoshikazu dies; Yoshimochi resumes the responsibilities of office.

1428 – Yoshimochi dies; Shōkō dies; Go-Hanazono ascends throne in second repudiation of agreement.

Yoshimochi was succeeded by his brother, the sixth shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, in 1429.