¡°The daimyo do as they please,¡± wrote the ex-shogun to his son in 1482, ¡°and do not follow orders. That means there can be no government.¡±
There was no government. Donald Keene, the late eminent Japanologist, cites the letter, and surveys the wreckage, in ¡°Yoshimasa and the Silver Pavilion: The Creation of the Soul of Japan.¡±
It was chaos. It was hell. Kyoto, the ancient capital, was a smoldering ruin. From there, the conflagration spread, warlord fighting warlord, warrior slaughtering warrior. They fought for territory, for glory, for supremacy, for nothing, out of habit for over 130 years, a span known as Sengoku Jidai (Warring States c. 1467-1603), the age of the country at war. In its fires was forged the unified Japan that would at last become visible around 1590 ¡ª but that was a long way off when ex-shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa wrote to his son in 1482.
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