Ashikaga Yoshimasa in the context of "Higashiyama Culture"

The Higashiyama culture (東山文化 Higashiyama bunka) is a segment of Japanese culture that includes innovations in architecture, the visual arts and theatre during the late Muromachi period. It originated and was promoted in the 15th century by the shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, after he retired to his villa in the eastern hills (東山 Higashiyama) of capital city Kyoto.

Minister of the Right (右大臣, Udaijin) was a government position in Japan during the Asuka to Meiji era. The position was consolidated in the Taihō Code of 701. The Asuka Kiyomihara Code of 689 marks the initial appearance of the Udaijin in the context of a central administrative body called the Daijō-kan (Council of State). This early Daijō-kan was composed of the three ministers—the Daijō-daijin (Chancellor), the Sadaijin (Minister of the Left) and the Udaijin. The Udaijin was the Junior Minister of State, overseeing all branches of the Daijō-kan. He would be the deputy of the Sadaijin.

From the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when the warrior class came to power in Japan, this imperial court position became an honorary position with no real authority. Oda Nobunaga, who was a powerful daimyo in the Azuchi-Momoyama period, was a daimyo who held this imperial court position. This was the first time since Minamoto no Sanetomo in 1218 that a member of the warrior class had been appointed Udaijin. Previously, the only warrior class members appointed to higher positions than Udaijin were Taira no Kiyomori and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as Daijō-daijin, and Ashikaga Yoshinori and Ashikaga Yoshimasa as Sadaijin. The warrior class was able to use the high imperial court positions of Daijō-daijin, Sadaijin, and Udaijin, which had originally belonged to the nobility, as a means of establishing their own authority.

Ashikaga Shigeuji (足利成氏) (c. 1438 – 1497) was a Muromachi period warrior and the Kamakura-fu's fifth and last Kantō kubō (Shōgun Deputy). Fourth son of fourth Kubō Ashikaga Mochiuji, he succeeded his father only in 1449, a full decade after his death by seppuku. His childhood name was Eijuō-maru (永寿王丸). His rule was from its onset troubled by hostilities with the central government: he was finally deposed in 1455 by shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, after which he escaped to Koga in Shimōsa Province, where he became known as Koga kubō. There, he ruled until his death in 1497.

Hosokawa Katsumoto (細川 勝元; 1430 – June 6, 1473) was one of the Kanrei, the deputies to the Shōgun, during Japan's Muromachi period. He is famous for his involvement in the creation of Ryōan-ji, a temple famous for its rock garden, and for his involvement in the Ōnin War, which sparked the 130-year Sengoku period. His childhood name was Sumiakamaru (聡明丸).

His conflicts with his father-in-law, Yamana Sōzen, who resented the power Hosokawa had as Kanrei, were among those that ignited the Ōnin War in 1467. When the Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa had a son in 1464, Yamana took this as an opportunity to oppose Hosokawa further, supporting the child as heir to the Shogunate. Hosokawa had always worked closely with the Shōgun's brother Ashikaga Yoshimi and supported his claim to the shogunate.

Ashikaga Yoshizumi (足利 義澄; January 15, 1481 – September 6, 1511) was the 11th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1494 to 1508 during the Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of Ashikaga Masatomo and grandson of the sixth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshinori. His childhood name was Seikō (清晃), Yoshizumi was first called Yoshitō (sometimes translated as Yoshimichi), then Yoshitaka.

Yoshizumi was adopted by the 8th shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa. He was installed by Hosokawa Masamoto as Sei-i Taishōgun. He was stripped of the title in 1508 by the 10th shōgun Ashikaga Yoshitane, who became shōgun for a second period of time.

Ashikaga Yoshihisa (足利 義尚; December 11, 1465 – April 26, 1489) was the 9th shōgun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1473 to 1489 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshihisa was the son of the eighth shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa with his wife Hino Tomiko.

Since the almost 30-year-old shōgun Yoshimasa had no heir by 1464, he adopted his younger brother Ashikaga Yoshimi to succeed him. However, Yoshihisa was born in the next year starting a struggle for succession between brothers that erupted into the Ōnin War starting in 1467, beginning the Sengoku period of Japanese history. In the middle of hostilities, Yoshimasa retired in 1473, relinquishing the position of Sei-i Taishōgun to Yoshihisa.

Ashikaga Yoshimi (足利 義視) (March 3, 1439 – February 15, 1491) was the brother of Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, and a rival for the succession in a dispute that would lead to the Ōnin War.