ABSTRACT
SHOGUN YOSHIHARU DIED OF INDIGNATION.-While the European civilization brought by Portuguese, called southern barbarians, stimulated the whole island of Kyushu, as described in the last chapter, and had a tremendous after-effect not only mentally but also physically upon the whole nation, a great revolution was forthcoming. Toward the end of the age of Ashikaga, the power of the Shogun only covered the central provinces, and the renewal of the Shogun became as trifling a matter as the flitting of a bird from tree to tree. The rise of the Ouchi and Otomo families was a matter of much more political importance. In 1521 Hosokawa Takakuni, Regent to the Shogun, built a castle in Amagasaki, Settsu, and his power exceeded that of the Shogun himself, who attempted to replace Takakuni as Regent with Hatakeyama Tanenaga. Takakuni forced him to fly to Awaji, and then called Yoshiharu, a son of ex-Shogun Yoshisumi, from Harima and installed him in the Shogunate. In Kyoto, Miyoshi, a retainer of the Hosokawa family, became gradually powerful, and dominated Kyoto, where he had seized the real power of the Shogunate. Tired of the quarrels with Hosokawa and Miyoshi, and seeing his family fortunes decaying day after day, Shogun Yoshiharu could bear it no longer, and in 1546 he left the Shogunate to his son Yoshiteru. The Shogunate courts were filled with many undecided suits and the people were in an uproar. No taxes were paid, and the Shogunate could not supply the Government officials with food; even the guards deserted without the Shogun being able to check it. Seeing this deplorable situation, Yoshiharu died in 1550 of sheer chagrin.
