Asakura Takakage

Asakura Toshikage (朝倉敏景, 1428 – 1481) was a Japanese military commander during the Muromachi period. He headed the Asakura clan, and was the shugo-daimyō (feudal military lord) of Echizen Province. He is best known for writing the Asakura Toshikage ju-shichi-ka-jo, the Asakura family code. During the Ōnin War (1467–1477), he initially allied with the western army, and then fought for the eastern army from 1471 until the war's end.

Life Toshikage was born in 1428.

In the 1460s, a struggle for control of Echizen Province started between two deputy-governor houses, the Asakura and the Kai. The Ōnin War started in 1468, which the Asakura were driven into by their Echizen conflict. During the war, Toshikage was allied with the western army, but in February 1471, he switched allegiance to the eastern army, becoming a subordinate of Shiba Yoshitoshi. Yoshitoshi was a contender for the head of the Shiba house, which was a suzerain of the Asakura family, and in exchange for Toshikage's support, Yoshitoshi gave him the title of the shugo-daimyo of Echizen, a title which the Shiba clan had held. Control over the province was contested, but Toshikage controlled a "lion's share" of the province by May. Toshikage is best known for the Asakura Toshikage ju-shichi-ka-jo, his 17-article Asakura family code. The Kai allied with , a faction leader who supported the western army, and was currently fighting for control of Kaga against his older brother in the Togashi family, Masachika, who supported the eastern army. In July 1473, the Kai and Kochiyo's Togashi faction drove Masachika out of Kaga, and Masachika in turn fled to Toshikage.

Masachika spent a year in Echizen, recruiting for a campaign back into Kaga. During the year, he returned to Yoshizaki and recruited Hongan-ji adherents to join his army. He eventually returned to the area, and received Hongan-ji recruits from both provinces. He would successfully invade it over the next few months. In 1475, Toshikage and the Shiba won a battle against the Kai. The Ōnin War ended in 1477.

Masachika's authority fragmented in the late 1470s and early 1480s. The Kai renewed their war with Yoshikage, still in Echizen, in 1479. The Kai made "little headway" for several years, and Toshikage died in 1481.