The Pure Land depicts the decade-long Ōnin War in 15th century Japan, a civil war for control of the Muromachi Bakufu set against a backdrop of peasant unrest and religious militancy. This conflict precipitated the Sengoku (or Warring States) period that would continue into the 16th century, and was the beginning of the slow decline of the established order. In future articles I will go into more detail about the factions involved in the war and how I have chosen to depict them, but first I will set the scene with a short historical overview of this era.

From 1185-1867 Japan was primarily ruled by a series of military governors, or shoguns, whose administrations were called bakufu (or “tent governments”). The bakufu ruled alongside the imperial court in Kyoto, ostensibly governing the country on their behalf but in reality holding most of the power. This long period of bakufu rule can be split into three main eras, punctuated by occasional civil wars: first the Kamakura Bakufu ruled from 1185-1333, then the Muromachi Bakufu ruled from 1336 to 1573, and finally the Edo Bakufu ruled from 1603-1868. The Muromachi era, named after the Muromachi district in Kyoto that was the seat of the ruling Ashikaga dynasty, will be the topic of this first article.

The Ashikaga dynasty originally came to power in 1336, when Ashikaga Takauji ended a brief three-year period of direct imperial rule (the Kenmu Restoration), following the collapse of the previous Kamakura Bakufu. Takauji was originally a general sent by the Kamakura Bakufu to restore order in Kyoto, but he grew disillusioned and joined with the banished emperor Go-Daigo to seize the capital. After a further disagreement with the emperor, he proclaimed himself shogun and instituted a new dynasty of military rulers. Over the next few decades Takauji and his heirs consolidated their power, reaching a high point during the reign of the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), who  constructed both the Hana-no Gosho Palace and the private villa that later became the Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion Temple) in Kyoto.

The Muromachi Bakufu was never very powerful, directly ruling only a small amount of territory and relying on a loose network of alliances to govern the country. By the middle of the 15^th century it was already in terminal decline, and the whole of Japan was beginning to slide towards chaos. The Ashikaga shoguns ruled in name only, with real power lying in the hands of the kanrei, or shogun’s deputy, a position held on a rotational basis by the heads of the powerful Hatakeyama, Shiba, and Hosokawa clans. The northern half of the largest Japanese island (Honshu) was ruled separately by a subsidiary line of the Ashikaga clan, called the Kantō Kubō, who were themselves not especially loyal to the bakufu, and were also busy with managing the unruly warlords of the Kantō region. The southern island, Kyushu, was also largely outside Ashikaga control, being dominated by clans with no real loyalty to the Muromachi Bakufu. Only southern and central Honshu, northern Kyushu, and the small island of Shikoku were ruled directly from Kyoto (this is reflected in the game map, pictured below).

In 1441 the sixth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshinori, was assassinated by Akamatsu Mitsusuke, in protest at the shogun’s increasingly oppressive rule. A force led by the Hosokawa clan was sent from Kyoto to suppress the rebellious Akamatsu provinces, but proved unwilling to take any strong action, perhaps being sympathetic to the rebels. Eventually the Yamana clan, militarily powerful but out of favour since they themselves rebelled against the bakufu in 1391, marched in to suppress the rebels, and in reward were granted stewardship of the Akamatsu provinces. The rivalry between the Hosokawa clan and the Yamana clan was about to begin.

The next shogun, Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, was only eight years old when he was appointed to the position, and died eight months later under somewhat suspicious circumstances (there are several theories of how he died, including a horse-riding accident, complications due to dysentery, or assassination). His younger brother Yoshimasa, now eight himself, therefore became the eighth Ashikaga shogun in 1443 (although he would only begin to rule in his own right in 1449). Also in 1443, supporters of the rival imperial Southern Court stole the imperial regalia from Kyoto – several years later, exiled warriors of the Akamatsu clan would attempt to steal it back, hoping to regain political favour. Ashikaga Yoshimasa remained shogun until the final stages of the Ōnin War, and is an interesting and divisive figure who will be the subject of the next article.

The Ōnin War itself was fought between coalitions led by the Hosokawa and Yamana clans, over the succession of the Ashikaga clan, and therefore for control of the Muromachi Bakufu. These coalitions are two of the playable factions in the game, and their rivalry will be the topic of the third article in this series. However, the two decades before the war officially began in 1467 saw similar disputes arising in other major families, with the Hosokawa and Yamana always backing opposing sides in each dispute, not out of any matter of principle but rather to consolidate their own power bases.

First, in 1450 Hatakeyama Masanaga and his nephew Hatakeyama Yoshinari began to compete for the position of kanrei (shogun’s deputy). They each gathered their supporters and engaged in some small skirmishes, but were initially warned by both the Hosokawa and Yamana that whoever struck the first blow would be branded a rebel. Several years later it would be these same two men who struck the first blows of the Ōnin War, when Masanaga attacked Yoshinari near the Goryo shrine in Kyoto. Their conflict would continue throughout the Ōnin War, with the Hosokawa and Yamana alternately supporting one side or the other depending on the current political circumstances.

The Shiba clan was next to succumb to factional infighting, when a vassal family objected to the succession of an adopted son, and again the Hosokawa and Yamana chose different factions to support. Further quarrels arose within the Togashi clan of Kaga province and the Sasaki clan of Omi province, with the Hosokawa and Yamana once again backing opposing sides. Finally, in 1467 a dispute arose over the succession of the Ashikaga dynasty itself, and the Hosokawa and Yamana coalitions began to draw up battle lines in Kyoto.

The period from the assassination of Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1441 was therefore dominated by internecine fighting at all levels of society, from the smaller clans like the Sasaki and the Togashi, through the powerful Hatakeyama and Shiba clans, and right up to the Ashikaga dynasty itself. In each case the competing Hosokawa clan and Yamana clan would choose opposite sides to support, not due to any particular moral or legal merits of the disputing claimants, but rather just to further their own political interests. Eventually this rivalry would spiral out of control and plunge Japan into a 150 year period of civil war, after which none of the original participants would retain any significant power. The Hosokawa would eventually come to be controlled by their own vassals, while the main Yamana family became vassals of the Toyotomi and were eventually wiped out during the siege of Osaka (1614-1615).

Compared with the later period of civil war in the 16th century (the Sengoku Jidai), the 15th century Ōnin War was a comparatively simple affair, with two clear sides in the ‘main’ civil war. It also featured important themes of peasant unrest and religious militancy, which made it a clear choice for a COIN Series volume. The 16th century period is also already well covered by other games published by GMT, such as Sekigahara, Samurai and Ran (The Great Battles of History, volumes V & XII), and Commands & Colors: Samurai Battles. Choosing the Ōnin War as my topic therefore allowed me to explore a fascinating and comparatively unknown period of Japanese social and military history. In the next article we will zoom in on Kyoto and the court of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, to see how the Ōnin War began. We will also begin to examine some of the new mechanics that The Pure Land uses to model this unique conflict.  

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