ugh not holding the office of kwanryo, usurps its
functions so ostentatiously that the assassin's dagger is turned
against him. Again the two Hosokawa chiefs, Takakuni and Harumoto,
fight for power, and, in 1531, Takakuni is killed, Harumoto becoming
supreme. Soon the Miyoshi brothers, Motonaga and Masanaga, engage in
a fierce quarrel about their inheritance, and the former, with
Yoshikore as candidate for the shogunate and Hatakeyama as auxiliary,
raises the standard against Harumoto, who, aided by the
soldier-priests of Hongwan-ji, kills both Yoshitaka and Motonaga and
takes Yoshikore prisoner. Thereafter, Harumoto quarrels with the
Hongwan-ji bonzes, and being attacked by them, obtains the aid of
Rokkaku Sadayori and the Nichiren priests, with the result that the
splendid fane of Hongwan-ji is reduced to ashes. A reconciliation is
then effected between Harumoto and the shogun, Yoshiharu, while
Miyoshi Masanaga is appointed to high office. Yet once more the
untiring Takakuni, aided by Miyoshi Norinaga, Motonaga's son, called
also Chokei, drives Yoshiharu and Harumoto from the metropolis, and
presently a reconciliation is effected by the good offices of Rokkaku
Sadayori, the real power of the kwanryo being thenceforth exercised
by the Miyoshi family. Japanese historians have well called it an age
of anarchy.

YOSHITERU

In 1545, the shogun, Yoshiharu, resigned in favour of his son,
Yoshiteru. Two years of quiet ensued in Kyoto, and then the old feud
broke out once more. The Hosokawa, represented by Harumoto, and the
Miyoshi, by Chokei, fought for supremacy. Victory rested with the
Miyoshi. The Hosokawa's power was shattered, and Chokei ruled in
Kyoto through his vassal, Matsunaga Hisahide. The era is memorable
for the assassination of a shogun. Yoshiteru had become reconciled
with Chokei and was suffered to live quietly at Muromachi. But after
Chokei's death (he was poisoned by Hisahide), Yoshiteru's cousin,
Yoshihide, a son of Yoshikore, sought to be nominated successor to
the shogunate through the aid of Masanaga and Hisahide. In 1565, this
plot matured. Hisahide suddenly sent a force which attacked
Yoshiteru's palace and killed the shogun. Yoshihide replaced the
murdered potentate, and the Matsunaga family succeeded to the power
previously wielded by the Miyoshi. Yoshiteru's younger brother,
Yoshiaki, fled to Omi, but afterwards made his way to Owari, where
Oda Nobunaga took him by the hand and ultimately placed