Ashikaga clan

Ashikaga clan 足利氏
Ashikaga Futatsubiki (足利二つ引き?), the Ashikaga family crest
Parent house	Seiwa Genji (Minamoto clan)
Titles	Various
Founder	Minamoto no Yoshiyasu (Ashikaga Yoshiyasu)
Final ruler	Ashikaga Yoshiaki
Ruled until	1573, Ashikaga shogunate deposed by Oda Nobunaga
Cadet branches	Hosokawa clan Imagawa clan Hatakeyama clan (restored line) Kira clan Shiba clan Hachisuka clan others

The Ashikaga clan (足利氏, Ashikaga-shi^?) was a prominent Japanese samurai clan which established the Muromachi shogunate and ruled Japan from roughly 1336 to 1573.

The Ashikaga were descended from a branch of the Minamoto clan, deriving originally from the town of in Shimotsuke province (modern-day ).

For about a century the clan was divided in two rival branches, the Kantō Ashikaga, who ruled from Kamakura, and the Kyōto Ashikaga, rulers of Japan. The rivalry ended with the defeat of the first in 1439. The clan had many notable branch clans, including the Hosokawa,Imagawa,Hatakeyama (after 1205), Kira, Shiba, and Hachisuka clans. After the head family of the Minamoto clan died out during the early Kamakura period, the Ashikaga came to style themselves as the head of the Minamoto, coopting the prestige which came with that name.

Another Ashikaga clan, not related by blood, and derived instead from the Fujiwara clan, also existed.

1. Ashikaga Yoshiyasu
2. Ashikaga Yoshikane
3. Ashikaga Yoshiuji
4. Ashikaga Yasuuji