* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Shiba Yoshimasa
斯波義将
Kanrei (Shogunal Deputy)
Description
Overview
Shiba Yoshimasa was a warrior and senior shogunal official spanning the Nanboku-chō and early Muromachi periods. A son of Shiba Takatsune, he served four separate terms as kanrei — deputy to the shogun — supporting three shoguns from Yoshiakira through Yoshimochi. Alongside the Hosokawa, he established the Shiba (Buei house) as one of the two pillars of shogunal governance.
Early Appointment and the Jōji Incident
Born in 1350, Yoshimasa was appointed kanrei in 1362 at the age of thirteen. Real power rested with his father Takatsune, and the appointment is said to have owed something to the backing of Sasaki Dōyo — though Dōyo himself reportedly favoured Yoshimasa's elder brother Ujiyori, his son-in-law. In 1366 resentment at Takatsune's dominance produced the Jōji Incident, and Yoshimasa fell from power alongside his father, withdrawing to Echizen. After Takatsune's death he returned to the capital the following year and was formally pardoned.
The Kōryaku Coup
Restored to shogunal politics, Yoshimasa allied with provincial governors opposed to the sitting kanrei, Hosokawa Yoriyuki. In 1379 he joined Kyōgoku Takahide and Toki Yasuyasu in surrounding the shogunal palace, forcing Yoriyuki from office in what became known as the Kōryaku Coup. Yoriyuki burned his residence and withdrew to his domain in Shikoku, and Yoshimasa took the post in his place — a reversal against the faction that had unseated him in his youth.
Governance and Later Years
Yoshimasa held the office continuously until 1391, and was reappointed again in 1393–1398 and in 1409. In Etchū Province he defeated the brothers Momonoi Naotsune and Naonobu, winning the Battle of Nagasawa and pacifying the province. He took part in the campaign against Ōuchi Yoshihiro during the Ōei Rebellion. He retained influence even under the autocratic third shogun Yoshimitsu, and after Yoshimitsu's death led the government in support of the fourth shogun, Yoshimochi. He died in 1410 at the age of sixty-one.