Ashikaga shogunate The , also known as the , was a dynasty originating from one of the plethora of Japanese " daimyo " which governed Japan from 1338 to 1573 , the year in which Oda Nobunaga deposed Ashikaga Yoshiaki from office and unified Japan . The heads of government were the shogun s . Each was a member of the Ashikaga clan . This period is also known as the Muromachi period . It gets its name from the Muromachi district of Kyoto . The third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu established his residence on Muromachi Street . This residence is nicknamed " Hana no Gosho " ( 花の御所 ) or " Flower Palace " ( constructed in 1379 ) because of the abundance of flowers in its landscaping . Beginning . During the preceding Kamakura period ( 1185 – 1334 ) , the Hōjō clan enjoyed absolute power in the governing of Japan . This monopoly of power , as well as the lack of a reward of lands after the defeat of Mongol invasion , led to simmering resentment among Hōjō vassals . Finally , in 1333 , the Emperor Go - Daigo ordered local governing vassals to oppose Hōjō rule , in favor of Imperial restoration , in the Kenmu Restoration . To counter this revolt , the Kamakura bakufu ordered Ashikaga Takauji to quash the uprising . For reasons that are unclear , possibly because Ashikaga was the de facto leader of the powerless Minamoto clan , while the Hōjō clan were from the Taira clan the Minamoto had previously defeated , Ashikaga turned against the Kamakura bakufu , and fought on behalf of the Imperial court . After the successful overthrow of the Kamakura bakufu in 1336 , Ashikaga Takauji set up his own bakufu in Kyoto . North and South Court . After Ashikaga Takauji established himself as the Seii Taishogun , a dispute arose with the Emperor Go - Daigo on the subject of how to govern the country . That dispute led Takauji to cause Yutahito , the second son of Emperor Go - Fushimi , to be installed as Emperor Kōmyō . Go - Daigo fled , and the country was divided between a North Court ( in favor of Kōmyō and Ashikaga ) , and a South Court ( in favor of Go - Daigo ) . This period of North and South Courts ( Nanboku - chō ) continued for 56 years , until 1392 , when the South Court gave up during the reign of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu . Government structure . The Ashikaga Shogunate is the weakest of the three Japanese bakufu governments . Unlike its predecessor , the Kamakura Shogunate , or its successor , the Tokugawa Shogunate , when Ashikaga Takauji established his bakufu he had little personal territories with which to support his rule . The Ashikaga Shogunate was thus heavily reliant on the prestige and personal authority of its shoguns . The centralized master - vassal system used in the Kamakura system was replaced with the highly de - centralized daimyo ( local lord ) system , and because of the lack of direct territories , the military power of the shoguns depended heavily on the loyalty of the daimyo . On the other hand , the Imperial Government was no longer a credible threat to military rule . The failure of the Kenmu Restoration have rendered the court weakened and subservient , a situation the Ashikaga Takauji reinforced by establishing within close proximity of the emperor at Kyoto . The authority of the local daimyo greatly expanded from its Kamakura times . In addition to military and policing responsibilities , the bakufu appointed shugos now absorbed the justice , economical and taxation powers of the local Imperial governors , while the government holdings in each province were rapidly absorbed into the personal holdings of the daimyos or their vassals . The loss of both political clout and economic base deprived the Imperial court of much of its power , which were then assumed by the Ashikaga shoguns . This situation reached its peak under the rule of the third Shogun , Ashikaga Yoshimitsu . After Yoshimitsu however , the structural weakness of the Ashikaga bakufu were exposed by numerous succession troubles and early deaths . This became dramatically more acute after the Onin War , after which the bakufu itself became reduced to little more than a local political force in Kyoto . Foreign relations . The Ashikaga shogunate ' s foreign relations policy choices were played out in evolving contacts with the Joseon Dynasty on the Korean peninsula and with Imperial China . Fall of the shogunate . As the daimyo increasingly feuded among themselves in the pursuit of power in the Ōnin War , that loyalty grew increasingly strained , until it erupted into open warfare in the late Muromachi period , also known as the Sengoku Period . When the shogun Yoshiteru was assassinated in 1565 , an ambitious daimyo , Oda Nobunaga , seized the opportunity and installed Yoshiteru ' s brother Ashikaga Yoshiaki as the 15th Ashikaga shogun . However , Yoshiaki was only a puppet shogun . The Ashikaga shogunate was finally destroyed in 1573 when Nobunaga drove Ashikaga Yoshiaki out of Kyoto . Initially , Yoshiaki fled to Shikoku . Afterwards , Yoshiaki sought and received protection from the Mōri clan in western Japan . Later , Toyotomi Hideyoshi requested that Yoshiaki accept him as an adopted son and the 16th Ashikaga Shogun , but Yoshiaki refused . The Ashikaga family survived the 16th century , and a branch of it became the daimyo family of the Kitsuregawa domain . Palace remains . The residence of " Hana no Gosho " ( 花の御所 ) or " Flower Palace " was located on the block now bounded by Karasuma Street ( to the east ) , Imadegawa Street ( to the south ) , Muromachi Street ( to the west , giving the name ) , and Kamidachiuri Street ( to the north ) . The location is commemorated by a stone marker at the southwest corner , and the of Dōshisha University contains relics and excavations of the area .