ation, but they quickly
recovered from it, and from 1508 until 1518 a gleam of peace and
prosperity shone once more in Kyoto under the administration of Ouchi
Yoshioki, who governed with skill and impartiality, and whose
influence seemed likely to restore the best days of the Bakufu. But,
in 1518, he was recalled to his province by an attack from the shugo
of Izumo, and by financial embarrassment resulting from his own
generosity in supplying funds to the Crown and the shogun.

Hosokawa Takakuni now became kwanryo, exercising his authority with a
high hand. Then the Sumimoto branch of the Hosokawa, taking advantage
of Ouchi's absence, mustered a force in Shikoku and moved against
Kyoto. Takakuni found himself in a difficult position. In the capital
his overbearing conduct had alienated the shogun, Yoshitane, and from
the south a hostile army was approaching. He chose Hyogo for
battle-field, and, after a stout fight, was discomfited and fled to
Omi, the position of kwanryo being bestowed on his rival, Sumimoto,
by the shogun. In a few months, however, Takakuni, in alliance with
the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki family under Sadayori, marched into
Kyoto in overwhelming force. Miyoshi Nagateru retired to Chion-in,
where he committed suicide; Sumimoto fled to Awa, dying there a few
months later, and Yoshitane, after brief refuge in the island of
Awaji, died in Awa, in 1523. Thus, Hosokawa Takakuni found himself
supreme in Kyoto, and he proceeded to appoint a shogun, without
awaiting the demise of Yoshitane. Yoshizumi, the eleventh shogun,
who, as related above, fled from Kyoto in 1508, dying three years
later in exile, left two sons: Yoshiharu, whom he committed to the
charge of Akamatsu Yoshimura, and Yoshikore, whom he entrusted to
Hosokawa Sumimoto. In 1521, Takakuni invited Yoshiharu, then eleven
years old, to the capital and procured his nomination to the
shogunate.

ANARCHY

From this time forward the confusion grows worse confounded. The
Miyoshi of Awa are found in co-operation with Yanamoto Kataharu
espousing the cause of the shogun's younger brother, Yoshikore, and
of Harumoto, a son of Hosokawa Sumimoto. We see this combination
expelling Yoshiharu and Takakuni from Kyoto, and we see the fugitives
vainly essaying to reverse the situation. Thereafter, during several
years, there is practically no government in the capital. Riot and
insurrection are daily features, and brigandage prevails unchecked.
Kataharu, tho