Season  9, Episode 3: The Meio Coup

You may recall from the first episode in this season that some historians demarcate the Meio Coup as the beginning of Sengoku Jidai. I’ve already given my reasons for beginning at the end of the Onin War instead, but it is certainly worthwhile to explore why others might say that the real chaos of the Age of the Country at War began with this particular power grab.

Coups were certainly nothing new in Japan by the late 1400s and we’ve discussed several executive upheavals in this podcast so far. Rarely a sign of a stable, functioning government, the coup-d’etat relies on careful planning both before and after the big event itself. Unfortunately for the mastermind of the Meio Coup, forcibly seizing the reins of power of an already dysfunctional government did little to assist in its stability or functionality.

In previous eras, members of the Ashikaga clan might fight one another for the privilege of serving as Shogun, the office where the real power lay. Ashikaga Yoshihisa was probably the last Shogun with a real potential to manage his own administration, but even he needed to relocate his court to a battlefield in Omi before he had a chance to act in an executive capacity. When he died on that battlefield, chasing glory and attempting to subjugate an unruly daimyo, any lingering hopes for an independent, powerful Shogun died with him.

That being said, there were many high-ranking officials within the shogunate who were quite happy with a disempowered shogun. The office of Kanrei, which had already proven extremely contentious in recent years, now looked like a prize on par with the regency monopolized by the Hojo Clan of the previous shogunate. At least, it could be if a single samurai clan could manage to hold onto the office of Kanrei long-term and eliminate or subordinate the rival houses that had roughly equal claim.

Hopefully you recall from last season that the office of Kanrei, or Shogun’s deputy, more or less rotated between the Hosokawa, Hatakeyama, and Shiba clans. The chieftain of the Hatakeyama, Masanaga, held the office at the time that Yoshihisa died, though you’ll recall he was bogged down in a longstanding conflict with his cousin who also claimed to be the rightful chieftain. As for the Shiba clan, they had already fielded their final Kanrei. Just before Hosokawa Katsumoto took the office in 1468, the Kanrei was Shiba Yoshikado, but the clan fell into succession disputes exacerbated by the Onin War and never recovered the fortunes lost through their ambitions. They were still around, but not in any position to lobby for national office.

I hinted previously that the Hosokawa were in a better position compared to the Hatakeyama Clan because they had not suffered from the same large-scale succession disputes and largely remained loyal to their chieftain Masamoto. As for Masamoto himself, he was poised to become a very powerful Kanrei once the opportunity arose.

He enjoyed extremely good relations with Ashikaga Yoshimasa, and part of the name he adopted on his coming-of-age day was the “masa” character from Yoshimasa’s name, which he was allowed to use with the retired shogun’s permission. He was also close with Yoshihisa, and we discussed last time how he brokered a face-saving peace between the shogunate and the Ikko-Ikki of Kaga Province. Yoshihisa’s death was almost certainly a blow to his political ambitions, though the young shogun could have proven too headstrong for Masamoto to continue to manipulate in the long term.

Upon the death of his son Yoshihisa, Ashikaga Yoshimasa was put back into the office of shogun for the sake of finding a replacement. As it happened, Yoshimasa had already adopted the son of his brother Ashikaga Masatomo. You may remember Masatomo as the Kanto Kubo who was barred from entering Kamakura because of ongoing disputes in the region between the former Kanto Kubo and an intra-clan dispute within the powerful Uesugi Clan. We will catch up with that conflict in greater detail in the next episode, but for now just know that Masatomo has a son, and that Yoshimasa adopted him specifically so that he could inherit the office of shogun.

This candidate evidently pleased Masamoto greatly. However, Kanrei Hatakeyama Masanaga supported a different young man to sit upon the shogunal throne. He supported Ashikaga Yoshiki, the son of Ashikaga Yoshimi. Far from alone in his support, many flocked to Yoshiki’s cause, including Hino Tomiko, the wife of Yoshimasa and mother of the late Yoshihisa. Her influence in this matter was likely the linchpin that handed the shogunship to her favored candidate.

Seeing that his cause was unsupportable, at least for the moment, Hosokawa Masamoto stepped away from his governmental responsibilities, leaving the affairs in the hands of lieutenants while he went on pilgrimage. At least, that was his official story. It is believed that his journey to spiritually important places in the east was really a junket in which he was meeting with powerful daimyo of Kanto and Chubu to see if he could count on their military support for a... ahem… change in leadership.

The new shogun, Ashikaga Yoshitane, was installed in 1490. Shortly thereafter, Ashikaga Yoshimasa died, followed the next year by his brothers Yoshimi and Masatomo. Hosokawa Masamoto was made Kanrei, but Hatakeyama Masanaga continued to serve as the shogun’s chief advisor and the power behind his throne.

Before we move forward in the narrative, we should pause for a brief retrospective on Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the man, the myth, the shogun. Because we are already familiar with his vacillation and relative passivity in the face of the Onin War, we will focus on his cultural contributions, which are considerable.

Although his political impact as shogun was unfortunately somewhat lacking, his impact as an aesthetic tastemaker was phenomenal. He was a student and practitioner of Zen Buddhism, and many of the art styles he promoted and patronized were related to the Zen Buddhist worldview as it emerged in Medieval Japan.

The concept of wabi-sabi, for example, became mainstream thanks to Yoshimasa. There is an episode of King of the Hill (Season 7, Episode 6, “The Son Also Roses”) in which young Bobby Hill describes wabi-sabi as “celebrating the beauty in what’s flawed,” and that “sometimes it’s the imperfections that make you love something even more.” Frankly, that’s not a bad definition. Bringing the aesthetic back to its Zen roots, however, I would add that wabi-sabi revolves around accepting and even celebrating the transient imperfections in nature.

I mentioned last season that Ashikaga Yoshimasa arranged for the construction of a retirement villa in the mountains east of Kyoto. Like the luxurious residence of Yoshimitsu, the Golden Pavilion or Ginkaku-ji, this building was also meant to have an exterior covered by precious leaf foil, though Yoshimasa opted for silver instead of the rather ostentatious gold. Unfortunately for the aesthetically-minded shogun, silver leaf would prove extremely difficult to come by during the years of the Onin War and the tumultuous time that followed, so it would never be applied.

His duties as a Zen monk did not stop him from hosting some of the most fabulous parties of his time. The leading artists and poets of the day were frequent guests of the retired shogun and he was an active patron of Noh theatre as well. The arts and aesthetics that flourished during the later Muromachi Period are referred to as “Higashiyama Culture,” Higashiyama meaning “east mountain,” a reference to the location of Yoshimasa’s villa.

In the area of visual art, a technique called sumi-e became extremely popular. The best English translation would be “ink wash” and it is achieved by using India ink mixed with water to achieve gradient tones which give illustrations and paintings real depth and character.

In addition to ink painting and Noh theatre, Ashikaga Yoshimasa also influenced early forms of the tea ceremony as well as the art of ikebana, or flower arranging, both of which he helped elevate to fine arts.

Regardless of what you may think of his time as shogun, there can be little argument that Ashikaga Yoshimasa made significant, enduring contributions to Japanese culture. It’s fair, in fact, to say that much of modern Japanese aesthetic owes its existence to Yoshimasa himself and to the achievements of Higashiyama Culture.

Upon his death, it appeared that Hatakeyama Masanaga had succeeded in making himself the most powerful person in all of Japan. Ashikaga Yoshitane relied implicitly on his support, and he was able to secure an official expedition against his troublesome cousin Yoshitoyo, who was still firmly entrenched in Kawachi Province. After a few years of preparation, Hatakeyama Masanaga departed the capital along with Ashikaga Yoshitane to crush his cousin once and for all and finally secure the mantle of the Hatakeyama Clan. Hosokawa Masamoto flatly refused to participate in the invasion, preferring to keep his loyal warriors and retainers close at hand.

Whether Masanaga would have been successful in his endeavors to finally unite the Hatakeyama clan under his leadership will forever remain a mystery. While the shogun and Masanaga were busy staging an incursion into Kawachi Province, Hosokawa Masamoto gathered like-minded malcontents in the government who had remained behind in the capital and they seized control. Included in this bunch of dissatisfied courtiers was Hino Tomiko, now using her influence to oust the very shogun whom she had initially supported. Samurai loyal to Masamoto seized various infrastructure throughout the capital and were soon in complete control of city security. The ringleaders held a few meetings and officially declared that Shogun Yoshitane was retired and that Ashikaga Yoshizumi, the son of the late Ashikaga Masatomo, was the new shogun.

You can probably guess how this news was received by Hatakeyama Masanaga and Shogun Yoshitane, but the reaction among the warriors they had gathered were anything but uniform. Factions quickly formed within the Hokoshu generally along clan lines, with those hailing from vassal clans to the Hosokawa siding with the kanrei and those from vassals of Hatakeyama siding with him and the shogun. Skirmishes broke out across their army and when the dust had settled, Hatakeyama Masanaga was dead and Shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane was in the custody of Hosokawa partisans.

The now deposed shogun took Buddhist monk vows and shaved his head. Hosokawa Masamoto was now comfortably ensconced in the office of kanrei, he had a shogun who was firmly under his control, and the Bakufu appeared to be falling in line. Because it occurred during the era named Meio, the entire incident is referred to as the Meio Coup.

In terms of its thoroughness, the takeover was a massive success. Masamoto was objectively the most politically powerful man in all Japan and his primary rival was dead. However, the balance of power nationwide had, by this point, shifted considerably. The dysfunction of the shogunate on a national administrative level since before the Onin War had forced regional daimyo to seek alternative means of revenue, security, and political stability. Masamoto may have been the most powerful among all the daimyo, but he was no longer competing against just one or two regional strongmen. Other leaders in other places had also been successful at consolidating their own power and they were not eager to let the Bakufu once more shove their weight around and supersede their hard-fought authority.

In the ensuing decades, a series of similar incidents would become almost regular occurrences at the highest levels of the Bakufu. It would have taken a man of intense administrative talent and political acumen to rebuild the shogunate’s power and while Hosokawa Masamoto had ably led this hostile takeover, it soon became clear that he would not be the Bakufu’s savior in the long term. While he did seem to have a talent for recruiting very competent administrators to support his endeavors, he is largely considered by Japanese historians to have been of middling ability at best.

He tended to take frequent vacations, often going on pilgrimage or practicing Shugendo. We haven’t discussed it in a while, but Shugendo is a mountaintop ascetic religion in Japan full of esoteric rituals. Hosokawa Masamoto was extremely into it and even pondered retiring to become an ascetic monk full-time. Indeed, Masamoto’s conduct as the chieftain of a samurai clan is somewhat baffling insofar as he never married. His love of Shugendo is sometimes blamed as the culprit of his lifetime of bachelorhood, but there was also the possibility that he was homosexual.

To solve the issue of childlessness, he adopted Sumiyuki, the son of a noble from the Kujo clan, in 1502. Masamoto must have been displeased with this choice, however, because the next year he disinherited Sumiyuki and adopted a fellow clansmen who had been orphaned, Hosokawa Sumimoto. For reasons not entirely clear, he also adopted another member of the Hosokawa clan, albeit from a more distant branch, one Hosokawa Takakuni.

Avoiding the intrinsic pitfalls of a succession crisis had given the Hosokawa clan a massive advantage over its rival clans in the shogun’s court. Even before Masamoto’s death, it was becoming clear that his adopted sons would not come to a peaceable arrangement once he was gone.

We will cover Masamoto’s death and the fallout thereafter in a few episodes but next time we will, as promised, examine the concurrent events in Kanto from which emerged a powerful warlord whom some consider the first of a new kind of leader called a Sengoku-Daimyo.