Ashikaga Yoshiaki

Ashikaga Yoshiaki (足 利 义 昭Japanese, born December 5, 1537 Japan, † October 19, 1597 in Osaka ) was the 15th and last shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan. He reigned from 1568 to 1573. His father, Ashikaga Yoshiharu was the twelfth shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and his brother was the 13th shogun.

The absence of a de facto central authority in the capital, was stopped by the engagement of the armies of the warlords Oda Nobunaga in Kyoto in 1568. He put the Muromachi shogunate under the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki puppet again and began the Azuchi - Momoyama period. Ashikaga Yoshihide, the 14th shogun, was deposed, without ever having to enter the capital. Despite a renewed central power in Kyoto and Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country, the power struggle between the warring states to the union and eventually made ​​peace treaty to put long-continued after Nobunaga's assassination in 1582.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who should unite Japan later would be adopted by Ashikaga Yoshiaki as a son, but was rejected.

The Ashikaga shogunate was destroyed when Oda Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki 1573 from Kyoto.