Ashikaga Yoshiharu

Ashikaga Yoshiharu (足利 義晴^?, April 2, 1511 – May 20, 1550) was the twelfth shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who held the reins of supreme power from 1521 through 1546 during the late Muromachi period of Japan. He was the son of the eleventh shogun Ashikaga Yoshizumi.

Not having any political power and repeatedly being forced out of the capital of Kyoto, Yoshiharu eventually retired in 1546 over a political struggle between Miyoshi Nagayoshi and Hosokawa Harumoto making his son Ashikaga Yoshiteru the thirteenth shogun.

Supported by Oda Nobunaga, his son Ashikaga Yoshiaki became the fifteenth shogun.

From a western perspective, Yoshiharu is significant, as he was shogun in 1542, when the first contact of Japan with the European West took place. A Portuguese ship, blown off its course to China, landed in Japan.

Significant events shape the period during which Yoshiharu was shogun:

The years in which Yoshiharu was shogun are more specifically identified by more than one era name or nengō.

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