Kikei Shinzui (季瓊真蘂)

Shinzui KIKEI (1401 - September 25, 1469) was a priest of the Rinzai Sect of Buddhism and also master of Inryoken Household in Rokuonin Temple in the Muromachi period. He was also called Shinzui INRYOKEN. He was of Uezuki clan lineage, which was a branch family of the Akamatsu clan in Harima Province, but his parents are uncertain.

He studied under Soban SHUKUEI of Unchoin Temple. He assumed the position of the master of Inryoken Household in Rokuonin of Shokoku-ji Temple, which was a liaison with shogun, being a close retainer serving the shogun. He once retired from the political world after the Kakitsu War in which Mitsusuke AKAMATSU and others murdered the sixth Shogun Yoshinori ASHIKAGA in 1441, nevertheless later becoming a political adviser along with Sadachika ISE and others in the period of the eighth Shogun Yoshimasa ASHIKAGA, he exerted influence on the shogunate government. After Tomiko HINO, the wife of Shogun Yoshimasa, had a son (Yoshihisa ASHIKAGA), he not only plotted to out Yoshimi ASHIKAGA, Yoshimasa's younger brother, to whom Yoshimasa had promised that he would hand over the shogunate, but also interfered in the succession dispute in the Shiba clan, one of the three Kanrei (family in the post of shogunal deputy to the Muromachi Shogunate), but he fell from power along with Sadachika and others in the Bunsho Coup caused by the opposition such as Katsumoto HOSOKAWA in 1466. He took sanctuary in Omi Province when the Onin War started in 1467.

He was appraised negatively in historical material such as "Oninki" (The Record of the Onin War). He wrote a part of "Inryoken Nichiroku" (Inryoken's Diary), an official diary.

[Original Japanese]