Born a son of Yamana Tokihiro, a military governor powerful in the San'in region; his name was Mochitoyo.
He succeeded his father as head of the Yamana and governor of Tajima, Bingo and other provinces. The Yamana had been weakened once in the Meitoku Rebellion.
He destroyed Akamatsu Mitsusuke, the killer of shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, and was rewarded with Harima and other lands. The Yamana regained great power.
He took vows as Sōzen. With his red face and fiery temper, he was nicknamed the "Red Monk," it is said.
Sheltering Akamatsu retainers and other acts angered shogun Yoshimasa, who ordered him to retire to Tajima. Within a few years, however, he was back in Kyoto politics.
His rift with Hosokawa Katsumoto deepened, and he fought in Kyoto as commander of the Western Army. The place where he camped was called Nishijin ("western camp"), the origin of the name of Nishijin weaving.
As the war dragged on, the aging Sōzen reportedly came to wish for peace; one record even says he tried to take his own life and was stopped.
With the war still unresolved, he died of illness in his Kyoto camp; Katsumoto died about two months later.
Akamatsu MitsusukeHosokawa KatsumotoAsakura Takakage (Toshikage)Ashikaga YoshimasaAshikaga YoshimiHino TomikoHatakeyama MasanagaHosokawa Masamoto
Ashikaga YoshinoriIkkyū SōjunAshikaga MochiujiIchijō KaneyoshiNisshinUesugi NorizaneRennyoSesshū
People of the Muromachi period ・ People by period
Based on facts found in textbooks and biographies. Uncertain points are marked as such.