Also known as: Muromachi shogunate (室町幕府)

A military dictatorship which ruled Japan from 1336 to 1573, following the three-year Kenmu Restoration during which the Emperor Go-Daigo attempted to restore the Imperial House to power after almost a century and a half of military rule under the Kamakura Shogunate. The Kamakura bakufu ordered Ashikaga Takauji to quash the emperor's revolt, but Ashikaga betrayed the bakufu and fought for the emperor, successfully overthrowing the Kamakura bakufu in 1336. Ashikaga Takauji then set up his own dynastic shogunate based in Kyoto, with 15 Ashikaga shoguns ruling the country until the last Ashikaga shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, was driven out of Kyoto by Oda Nobunaga in 1573.