Ashikaga Takauji founded Japan’s Ashikaga shogunate after defeating Emperor Go-Daigo’s supporters. In 1336, Takauji established his own imperial court in Kyoto and installed Emperor Kōmyō, beginning the Northern Court line. The rival Southern Court supported Go-Daigo and continued to challenge Ashikaga authority for decades.
Takauji first served the Kamakura shogunate, but he turned against it in 1333. His revolt helped destroy the Kamakura regime and briefly enabled Go-Daigo’s Kenmu Restoration, an attempt to return political power to the imperial court. Relations between the emperor and Takauji soon collapsed.
The Ashikaga shogunate is also called the Muromachi shogunate because its later headquarters were in Kyoto’s Muromachi district. Takauji’s government was less centralized than the Tokugawa shogunate that followed it. The Ashikaga period lasted until 1573, when Oda Nobunaga expelled the final Ashikaga shogun.