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Ashikaga Yoshiaki (足利 義昭 Ashikaga Yoshiaki, December 5, 1537–October 9, 1597) was the 15th, and last, shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate in Japan who reigned from 1568 to 1573. His father, Ashikaga Yoshiharu (April 2, 1510May 20, 1550) was the 12th shogun, and his brother, Ashikaga Yoshiteru (March 31, 1536June 17, 1565) was the 13th shogun.
The absence of a de facto central authority in the capital of Japan had lasted until the warlord Oda Nobunaga's armies entered Kyoto in 1568, re-establishing the Muromachi Shogunate under the puppet shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki to begin the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Ashikaga Yoshihide, the 14th shogun, was deposed without ever entering the capital. However, despite a renewed central authority in Kyoto and Nobunaga's attempt to unify the country, the struggle for power among warring states continued until unification and final peace was achieved long after his assassination in 1582.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the general who would later unite Japan, had wanted the Ashikaga Yoshiaki to accept him as an adopted son, but was refused.
The Ashikaga shogunate was destroyed in 1573 when Oda Nobunaga drove Yoshiaki out of Kyoto.
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