Ashikaga Tadayoshi Biography . The Ashikaga were a samurai family from Kamakura having blood ties with the Seiwa Genji , Minamoto no Yoritomo ' s clan . Unlike his brother Takauji , Tadayoshi didn ' t take part in the Kamakura shogunate ' s political life until the Genkō War ( 1331 – 1333 ) , a civil war whose conclusion ( the Siege of Kamakura ( 1333 ) ) marks the end of the Kamakura period and the beginning of the most turbulent period in Japan ' s history , the Muromachi era . Like his brother , Tadayoshi resolutely abandoned the Kamakura shogunate to ally himself with Emperor Go - Daigo during the Kemmu Restoration of 1333 . When Go - Daigo had ascended to the throne in 1318 , he had immediately manifested his intention to rule without interference from the military in Kamakura . The samurai class as a whole however was not ready to give away power , so the alliance between him and the Ashikaga was bound to be only temporary . Go - Daigo wanted to re - establish his rule in Kamakura and the east of the country without sending there a shogun , as this was seen , just a year from the fall of its shogunate , as still too dangerous . As a compromise , he sent his six - year - old son Prince Norinaga to Mutsu province ( in today ' s Aomori region ) and nominated him Governor - General of the Mutsu and Dewa province s . In an obvious reply to this move , Tadayoshi , without an order from the Emperor escorted another of his sons , eleven - year - old Prince Nariyoshi ( a . k . a . Narinaga ) to Kamakura , where he installed him as Governor of the Kōzuke province with himself as a deputy and de facto ruler . The appointment of a warrior to such an important post was intended to show the Emperor that the samurai class was not ready for a purely civilian rule . Since he ruled without interference from Kyoto and the area in itself was in effect a miniature shogunate , this event can be considered the beginning of the Ashikaga shogunate . In 1335 , during the Nakasendai Rebellion led by Hōjō Tokiyuki Tadayoshi , being unable to defend the city , had to leave Kamakura in a rush . Not being in the position to take along another son of Go - Daigo ' s , Prince Morinaga , whom he had kept as a hostage for several months , rather than letting him go he decided to have him beheaded . Turning against Go - Daigo , Tadayoshi and Takauji set up a rival emperor in 1336 and founded the Muromachi shogunate in 1338 . Dividing power between them , Takauji took charge of military affairs and Tadayoshi of judicial and administrative matters . Both Tadayoshi and Takauji were disciples of famous Zen master , intellectual and garden designer Musō Soseki , under which guidance the first would later become a Buddhist monk . It was partly because of Soseki ' s influence that the pre - existing Five Mountain System network of Zen temples was expanded and strengthened , first with the establishment of the Jissetsu , and later with that of the Ankoku - ji temple sub - networks . The creation of both systems is generally attributed wholly to Tadayoshi . It was also Soseki which famously wrote about the two brothers , describing Takauji as more apt to military pursuits , and Tadayoshi to government . The Kannō disturbance and Tadayoshi ' s death . Takauji was nominally shogun but , having proved not to be up to the task of ruling the country , for more than ten years Tadayoshi had governed in his stead . The relationship between the two brothers was however destined to be destroyed by an extremely divisive incident called the Kannō disturbance , an event which takes its name from the Kannō era ( 1350 – 1351 ) during which it took place and which had very serious consequences for the entire country . Trouble between the two started when Takauji made Kō no Moronao his shitsuji , or deputy . According to the Taiheiki , Tadayoshi didn ' t like Moronao and , every other effort to get rid of him having failed , tried to have him assassinated . According to the same source , his plot was discovered and he was therefore removed from the government . In any event , Tadayoshi in 1350 was forced by Moronao to leave the government , shave his head and become a Buddhist monk under the name Keishin . In 1351 he rebelled and joined his brother ' s enemies , the supporters of the Southern court , whose Emperor Go - Murakami appointed him general of all his troops . In 1351 he defeated Takauji , occupied Kyoto , and entered Kamakura . During the same year his forces killed the Kō brothers at Mikage ( Settsu province ) . The following year his fortunes turned and he was defeated by Takauji at Sattayama . A reconciliation between the brothers proved to be brief . Tadayoshi fled to Kamakura , but Takauji pursued him there with an army . In March 1352 , shortly after an ostensible second reconciliation , Tadayoshi died suddenly , according to the Taiheiki by poisoning . He was buried at , a Buddhist temple which no longer exists , but whose ruins are now near Jōmyō - ji in Kamakura . The temple was founded on the grounds of Tadayoshi ' s former Kamakura residence , according to Jōmyō - ji ' s own records by Tadayoshi himself . According to the , the diary of priest Gidō Shūshin , in 1372 on the day of Tadayoshi ' s death Kamakura ' s Kubō Ashikaga Ujimitsu visited Daikyū - ji . The date of disappearance of the temple is unknown .