Muromachi period in the context of "Dengaku"

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asian mainland, it is bordered to the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands alongside 14,121 smaller islands. Japan is divided into 47 administrative prefectures and eight traditional regions, and around 75% of its terrain is mountainous and heavily forested, concentrating its agriculture and highly urbanized population along its eastern coastal plains. With a population of over 123 million as of 2025, it is the world's 11th most populous country. Tokyo is the country's capital and largest city.

The first known habitation of the archipelago dates to the Upper Paleolithic, with the beginning of the Japanese Paleolithic dating to c. 36,000 BC. Between the 4th and 6th centuries, its kingdoms were united under an emperor in Nara and later Heian-kyō. From the 12th century, actual power was held by military aristocrats known as shōgun and feudal lords called daimyō, enforced by warrior nobility named samurai. After rule by the Kamakura and Ashikaga shogunates and a century of warring states, Japan was unified in 1600 by the Tokugawa shogunate, which implemented an isolationist foreign policy. In 1853, an American fleet forced Japan to open trade to the West, which led to the end of the shogunate and the restoration of imperial power in 1868.

Daimyo (大名, daimyō; English: /ˈdaɪm.joʊ/, Japanese: [dai.mʲoꜜː] ) were powerful Japanese magnates, feudal lords who, from the 10th century to the early Meiji period in the middle 19th century, ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary land holdings. They were subordinate to the shogun and nominally to the emperor and the kuge (an aristocratic class). In the term, dai (大) means 'large', and myō stands for myōden (名田), meaning 'private land'.

From the shugo of the Muromachi period through the Sengoku period to the daimyo of the Edo period, the rank had a long and varied history. The backgrounds of daimyo also varied considerably; while some daimyo clans, notably the Mōri, Shimazu and Hosokawa, were cadet branches of the Imperial family or were descended from the kuge, other daimyo were promoted from the ranks of the samurai, notably during the Edo period.

The Sengoku period (戦国時代, Sengoku jidai; Japanese pronunciation: [seŋ.ɡo.kɯ (d)ʑiꜜ.dai, -ŋo.kɯ-] lit. 'Warring States period') was the period in Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or Meiō incident [ja] (1493) are generally chosen as the period's start date, but there are many competing historiographies for its end date, ranging from 1568, the date of Oda Nobunaga's march on Kyoto, to the suppression of the Shimabara Rebellion in 1638, deep into what was traditionally considered the Edo period. Regardless of the dates chosen, the Sengoku period overlaps substantially with the Muromachi period (1336–1573).

This period was characterized by the decline of the Ashikaga shogunate, the de facto central government, while the sengoku daimyo (戦国大名, feudal lords of the Sengoku period), local power-holders, acquired greater political influence. The people rebelled against the feudal lords in revolts known as Ikkō-ikki (Ikkō-shū uprising).

Provinces of Japan (令制国, Ryōseikoku) were first-level administrative divisions of Japan from the 600s to 1868.

Provinces were established in Japan in the late 7th century under the Ritsuryō law system that formed the first central government. Each province was divided into districts (郡, gun) and grouped into one of the geographic regions or circuits known as the Gokishichidō (Five Home Provinces and Seven Circuits). Provincial borders often changed until the end of the Nara period (710 to 794), but remained unchanged from the Heian period (794 to 1185) until the Edo period (1603 to 1868). The provinces coexisted with the han (domain) system, the personal estates of feudal lords and warriors, and became secondary to the domains in the late Muromachi period (1336 to 1573).

Kyoto (/ki.ˈoʊ.toʊ/ or /ˈkjoʊ.toʊ/; Japanese: 京都, Kyōto [kʲoꜜː.to] ), officially Kyoto City (京都市, Kyōto-shi; [kʲoː.toꜜ.ɕi] ), is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. As of 2020, the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it the ninth-most populous city in Japan. More than half (56.8%) of Kyoto Prefecture's population resides in the city. The city is the cultural anchor of the substantially larger Greater Kyoto, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to a census-estimated 3.8 million people. It is also part of the even larger Keihanshin metropolitan area, along with Osaka and Kobe.

Kyoto is one of the oldest municipalities in Japan, having been chosen in 794 as the new seat of Japan's imperial court by Emperor Kanmu. The original city, named Heian-kyō, was arranged in accordance with traditional Chinese feng shui following the model of the ancient Chinese capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang. The emperors of Japan ruled from Kyoto in the following eleven centuries until 1869. It was the scene of several key events of the Muromachi period, Sengoku period, and the Boshin War, such as the Ōnin War, the Honnō-ji Incident, the Kinmon incident, and the Battle of Toba–Fushimi. The capital was relocated from Kyoto to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration. The modern municipality of Kyoto was established in 1889. The city was spared from large-scale destruction during World War II and, as a result, its prewar cultural heritage has mostly been preserved.

The shikken (執権; Japanese pronunciation: [ɕi̥k.keɴ]) was a senior government post held by members of the Hōjō clan, officially a regent of the shogunate. From 1199 to 1333, during the Kamakura period, the shikken served as the head of the bakufu (shogun's government). This era was referred to as Regent Rule (執権政治, Shikken Seiji).

During roughly the first half of that period, the shikken was the de facto military dictator of Japan (excluding the independent Northern Fujiwara). In 1256 the title of shikken was relegated to the second in command of the Tokusō (a separate rank also monopolized by the Hojō clan). By the Muromachi period (1333–1573) the position, though not abolished, had lost much of its power and was no longer considered as one of the top ranks. The position was abolished after the Muromachi period.

Gangō-ji (元興寺) was one of the first Buddhist temples in Japan, and was ranked as one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, in Nara, Japan. It was mostly destroyed in the Muromachi period and the old town of Naramachi occupies most of what was once the temple's precincts. Three small portions of the temple have survived to the present day, and each is now a separate temple.

Jitō (地頭) were medieval territory stewards in Japan, especially in the Kamakura and Muromachi shogunates. Appointed by the shōgun, jitō managed manors, including national holdings governed by the kokushi or provincial governor. There were also deputy jitōs called jitōdai.