Daimyo THE WARLORDS OF JAPAN
Japan has a long history of feudal warfare. Such conflict reached its apogee during the Sengoku Jidai, ‘the Age of the Country at War’, that stretched from 1467 until 1615. The warlords of this fractured Japan, riven by civil wars, were known as daimyo, the ‘Great Names’, that ruled over large territories of the country.
The daimyo proper, as opposed to the traditional aristocrats of medieval Japan, traced their origin to the heyday of the Ashikaga shoguns. The 14th century witnessed the rise of a new samurai aristocracy known as the shugo. Originally, shugo were military governors serving the prior Kamakura bakufu (military government) and they were subsequently integral members of the following Ashikaga Shogunate. Like the daimyo of later years, the shugo were the lords of their own domains.
The power of the Ashikaga Shogunate declined precipitously in the late 15th century as the country had been shaken by a
