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demise of the brutal Kamakura shogun leadership left a vacuum that was briefly filled by Emperor Go-Daigo. He was older, wiser, and more able to exert his leadership over the shogun than were emperors during the Kamakura era. He defeated all of the remaining Kamakura leaders except one, Shogun Ashikaga Takauji, who had established a rival dynasty with his own emperor in a capital near Kyoto. Thus, there were two competing imperial courts. In time, however, Ashikaga became ruler of all Japan.
Ashikaga ushered in the Muromachi period in Japan’s history, so named because he set up his capital in Muromachi, an area near Kyoto. He passed the title of shogun onto his son and thus the hereditary line of the family was established for the Muromachi era. This era was marked by less centralized power than under the Kamakura and by the rising power of the daimyo, which means “great names.” Most of the daimyo were military men who had accumulated power, samurai, land, and wealth.
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