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  Few figures in Japanese history are as controversial as Ashikaga Takauji, a man whose actions brought down the Hojo Shikken, made the dream of Imperial restoration a reality and then tore down that dream in a war that would leave the Court divided and the country in the hands of a new warrior government.

Few figures in Japanese history are as controversial as Ashikaga Takauji, a man whose actions brought down the Hojo Shikken, made the dream of Imperial restoration a reality and then tore down that dream in a war that would leave the Court divided and the country in the hands of a new warrior government.

In 1331, as Go-Daigo was preparing to throw off the yoke of Kamakura rule, Takauji was a powerful landholder in the Kanto region. His clan, the Ashikaga, was of Seiwa Genji stock, the same branch of the Minamoto family that had produced Yoritomo. Minamoto Yoriyasu (? -1157), grandson of Minamoto Yoshiie, had settled in Shimotsuke and taken the name of his holding: Ashikaga-no-sho. Yoshiyasu's son Ashikaga Yoshikane (? -1199) had joined Minamoto Yoritomo in 1180 and served him in the Gempei War. Yoshikane also happened to be married to a daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, and so the Ashikaga thrived in the years following Yoritomo's death in1199. In fact, five of the next seven generations of Ashikaga leaders would marry Hojo ladies, to include Takauji (Takauji, however, was not of Hojo blood-his mother had

In 1331, as Go-Daigo was preparing to throw off the yoke of Kamakura rule, Takauji was a powerful landholder in the Kanto region. His clan, the Ashikaga, was of Seiwa Genji stock, the same branch of the Minamoto family that had produced Yoritomo. Minamoto Yoriyasu (? -1157), grandson of Minamoto Yoshiie, had settled in Shimotsuke and taken the name of his holding: Ashikaga-no-sho. Yoshiyasu's son Ashikaga Yoshikane (? -1199) had joined Minamoto Yoritomo in 1180 and served him in the Gempei War. Yoshikane also happened to be married to a daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, and so the Ashikaga thrived in the years following Yoritomo's death in1199. In fact, five of the next seven generations of Ashikaga leaders would marry Hojo ladies, to include Takauji (Takauji, however, was not of Hojo blood-his mother had