Kantō kubō (関東公方) (also called Kantō gosho (関東御所), Kamakura kubō (鎌倉公方), or Kamakura gosho (鎌倉御所)) was a title equivalent to shōgun assumed by Ashikaga Motouji after his nomination to Kantō kanrei, or deputy shōgun for the Kamakura-fu, in 1349. Motouji transferred his original title to the Uesugi family, which had previously held the hereditary title of shitsuji, and would thereafter provide the Kantō kanrei. The Ashikaga had been forced to move to Kyoto, abandoning Kamakura and the Kantō region, because of the continuing difficulties they had keeping the Emperor and the loyalists under control (see the article Nanboku-chō period). Motouji had been sent by his father, shōgun Ashikaga Takauji, precisely because the latter understood the importance of controlling the Kantō region and wanted to have an Ashikaga ruler there, but the administration in Kamakura was from the beginning characterized by its rebelliousness. The shōgun's idea never really worked and actually backfired.
After Motouji, all the kubō wanted power over the entire country. The Kantō kubō era is therefore essentially a struggle for the shogunate between the Kamakura and the Kyoto branches of the Ashikaga clan. In the end, Kamakura had to be retaken by force by troops from Kyoto. The five kubō recorded by history, all of which were Motouji's bloodline, were (in order Motouji himself) Ujimitsu, Mitsukane, Mochiuji and Shigeuji.
