Born in Kyoto as a son of the third shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu; his mother is said to have been Yoshimitsu's consort Fujiwara no Keiko. His father was close to reuniting the Northern and Southern Courts and was greatly raising shogunal power from the Palace of Flowers, and Yoshimochi was raised as his heir.
His father Yoshimitsu stepped down and the young Yoshimochi became the fourth shogun. But Yoshimitsu then became Grand Minister and, even after taking holy orders, kept real power from his Kitayama residence, so for many years the young Yoshimochi remained a shogun in name only.
Yoshimitsu died suddenly. In his last years he had favored Yoshimochi's younger brother Yoshitsugu, so a succession dispute was feared, but with the backing of the senior retainer Shiba Yoshimasa and others, Yoshimochi took real power. When the court offered Yoshimitsu the posthumous title of retired emperor, Yoshimochi declined it.
Yoshimochi left the Kitayama residence where his father had lived and governed from his mansion at Sanjō-bōmon. Most of the Kitayama buildings were later dismantled, and the reliquary hall (the Golden Pavilion) and others survived as the temple Rokuon-ji. He moved away from his father's showy rule toward a calmer style of government based on consultation with senior vassals.
Yoshimochi disliked his father's diplomacy, in which Japan took the form of a vassal of the Ming emperor; he refused to receive the Ming envoy, sent him back, and suspended the Japan-Ming tally trade. It is thought that he cared less for the profits of trade than he disliked the appearance of Japan submitting to Ming.
Yoshimochi was a devout follower of Zen and painted himself. Around this time he had the painter-monk Josetsu paint "Catching a Catfish with a Gourd," a picture of the Zen riddle of pinning a catfish with a gourd, to which many Zen monks of the Kyoto Five Mountains added poems. It is counted among the early masterpieces of Japanese ink painting.
In the Kantō, the former Kantō deputy Uesugi Zenshū (Ujinori) rebelled against the Kamakura kubō Ashikaga Mochiuji, who was driven from Kamakura. Yoshimochi sent shogunal troops to help Mochiuji, and the revolt was put down the next year. His younger brother Yoshitsugu was suspected of being involved.
Yoshimochi did not pardon his brother Yoshitsugu, whom he had confined on suspicion of joining the rebellion, and Yoshitsugu lost his life that year. So ended the rivalry with the brother their father had loved, but the distrust within the shogun's family left a shadow over later times.
Yoshimochi passed the shogunate to his son Yoshikazu and took holy orders himself. But he did not let go of real power and kept governing through consultation with his senior vassals. His era had few great wars and is seen as a relatively stable time for the Muromachi shogunate.
The fifth shogun Yoshikazu died of illness while still in his teens. Yoshimochi had no other sons, so the post of shogun was left empty and Yoshimochi went on overseeing the government. Leaving the succession undecided would later lead to a serious problem.
Yoshimochi died of illness. It is said that when his senior vassals asked him to name an heir, he would not choose himself and told them to decide among themselves. As a result, Gien was chosen from among his younger brothers by drawing lots at Iwashimizu Hachiman Shrine, and became the sixth shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori.
Shiba YoshimasaAshikaga YoshimitsuUesugi NorizaneAshikaga YoshinoriAshikaga MochiujiMansaiAkamatsu Mitsusuke
ZeamiShō HashiMansaiAkamatsu MitsusukeAshikaga YoshinoriIkkyū SōjunAshikaga MochiujiIchijō Kaneyoshi
People of the Muromachi period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.