Kaga ikki

Kaga ikki
Confederation of the Ikkō-ikki
1488–1582
Location of Kaga Province in Japan
Capital		Oyama Gobo (Kanazawa) (1546–1580)
Languages		Late Middle Japanese
Religion		Jōdo Shinshū • Shinto
Government		Feudal theocratic military confederation
Monshu
•	1457–1499	Rennyo
•	1499–1525	Jitsunyo
•	1525–1554	Shonyo
•	1560–1592	Kennyo
Shugo
•	1488–1504	Togashi Yasakuta
•	1504–1531	Togashi Taneyasu
Legislature		Kanazawa Midō
•	District commanders	Hatamoto
•	Group members	Kumi
Historical era		Sengoku
•	Togashi civil war	1473
•	Kaga Rebellion	1488
•	Kaga civil war	1531
•	Establishment of Kanazawa Midō	1546
•	Beginning of Ishiyama Hongan-ji War	1570
•	Oda Nobunaga defeats the major opposition in Kaga	1575
•	Oyama Gobo captured; End of Ishiyama Hongan-ji War	1580
•	Final resistance in Kaga defeated	1582
•	Maeda Toshiie conquers Kanazawa	1583
Currency		mon, ryō
Preceded by Succeeded by Togashi clan Oda clan Maeda clan Toyotomi clan
Today part of		Japan

The Kaga ikki, also known as The Peasants' Kingdom, was a theocratic feudal confederacy that emerged in Kaga Province (present-day southern Ishikawa Prefecture), Japan, during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. The Kaga ikki was a faction of the Ikkō-ikki, mobs of peasant farmers, monks, priests, and ji-samurai (lesser nobles) that espoused belief in Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism. Though nominally under the authority of the Hongan-ji head abbot, the Monshu, the Ikkō-ikki proved difficult to control. During the Ōnin War, the ikki in Kaga, with the approval of the Monshu Rennyo, helped restore Togashi Masachika to the position of shugo (military governor). However, by 1474 the ikki fell into conflict with Masachika, and in late 1487, they launched the Kaga Rebellion. Masachika was overthrown, and Togashi Yasatuka, his uncle, took his place as shugo. Under Yasatuka's son, Taneyasu, the Kaga ikki asserted more and more influence over the provincial government. In 1531 a civil war erupted as two factions within the Kaga ikki vied for control. Renjun, a son of Rennyo, won the war, abolished the position of shugo, exiled Taneyasu, and established a much tighter Hongan-ji hegemony over the province. In 1546, the Kanazawa Midō was established as a governing body in Oyama Gobo, which would eventually grow into the present-day city of Kanazawa. The Midō oversaw very loosely organized committees of select warlords and priests, who in turn ruled over the local lords and village leaders. The Kaga ikki controlled Kaga until they were overrun by the forces of Oda Nobunaga in a series of campaigns lasting from 1573 to 1582.

Throughout the 15th century in Japan, peasant revolts, known as ikki, increased in frequency. With the breakout of the Ōnin War in 1467 and resultant chaos, they became even more commonplace. Many of the rebels embraced a militant offshoot of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism known as Ikkō-shū. The religious leader Rennyo, eighth Monshu of the Hongan-ji school of Shinshū, tried to distance himself from Ikkō-shū, but attracted many converts from the sect, to the point where Ikkō-shū became synonymous with Jōdo Shinshū. Due to the violent tendencies of the Ikkō-shū adherents, they became known as Ikkō-ikki, literally "Ikkō-shū riots" or "Ikkō-shū league". In 1471, Rennyo relocated from Kyoto to Yoshizaki in Echizen Province. Rennyo had attracted his largest following in Echizen and the bordering Kaga Province, a following which included not only peasants but ji-samurai, or kokujin, the lesser nobility.