fifty thousand men sat down
before Shirahata Castle. In October, 1441, the stronghold fell.
Mitsusuke perished, and the three provinces he had administered were
transferred to the Yamana--Harima to Mochitoyo, Mimasaka to Norikiyo,
and Bizen to Noriyuki.

*To be distinguished from Yoshikazu (shogun 1423-1425), son of
Yoshimochi.

We have seen how, in 1392, the Yamana family was shattered in a
revolt against the authority of the shogun, Yoshimitsu. We now see
the fortunes of the family thoroughly rehabilitated. The young
shogun, however, did not long survive the punishment of his father's
murderers. He died in 1443, at the age of ten, and was succeeded by
his brother Yoshimasa, then in his eighth year. During the latter's
minority, the administration fell into the hands of Hatakeyama
Mochikuni and Hosokawa Katsumoto, who held the office of Muromachi
kwanryo alternately. The country now began to experience the
consequences of Yoshinori's death before his plans to limit the power
of the great military septs had matured. Disorder became the normal
condition in the provinces. The island of Kyushu took the lead. There
the Shoni, the Kikuchi, the Otomo, and the Shiba had always defied a
central authority, and now Norishige, a younger brother of the
assassin, Akamatsu Mitsusuke; found among them supporters of a scheme
to restore the fortunes of his house. In the Kwanto partisans of the
late kwanryo, Mochiuji, raised their heads. In the home provinces the
warrior-priests of Nara sought to avenge the chastisement they had
suffered at Yoshinori's hands, and among the immediate entourage of
Muromachi, the Hosokawa, the Hatakeyama, the Shiba, and others
engaged in desperate struggles about questions of succession.

ENGRAVING: ASHIKAGA YOSHIMASA

THE TOKUSEI

Even when he reached man's estate, Yoshimasa proved wholly
incompetent to deal with these complications. He abandoned himself to
dissipation and left everything, great or small, to be managed by his
wife, Fujiwara Tomiko, and by his consort, Kasuga no Tsubone. Bribery
and corruption were the motive forces of the time. The innocent were
punished; the unworthy rewarded. The shogun remained indifferent
even when his mandates were neglected or contravened. The building
of splendid residences, the laying out of spacious parks, the
gratification of luxurious tastes, and the procuring of funds to
defray the cost of his vast extravagance--these things occupied his
entire attentio