Toki Yasuyuki Rebellion (土岐康行の乱)
Toki Yasuyori Rebellion was an incident that occurred from 1389 to 1390, during the Muromachi period of Japan, in which Yasuyuki TOKI, a shugo daimyo (shugo is a governor of a province during the middle ages of Japan, and a shugo daimyo is a regional lord who has an official title of shugo from the government of the time) was defeated by the Muromachi bakufu. It was also called the rebellion of Mino Province.
The Toki clan
The Toki clan, which descended from Mino-Genji, had a huge power in Mino Province and became a senior vassal of the Kamakura bakufu. Yorisada TOKI took sides with the Northern Court during the period of the Northern and Southern Courts of Japan, and was appointed as Mino shugoshiki (military governor of Mino Province) by the Muromachi bakufu for helping Takauji ASHIKAGA; after that, he became one of the meritorious vassals for his great achievement when the bakufu was established. His grandchild, Yoriyasu TOKI, became the shugo of three provinces: Mino, Owari and Ise, and became one of the hyojoshu (members of the Council of State) to establish the golden age of the Toki clan.
During the period, under the third shogun Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA, Yoriyasu invoked the wrath of Yoshimitsu because he returned to his own province without permission due to a feud with Shogunal Deputy Yoriyuki HOSOKAWA, and Yoshimitsu even issued a punitive order (later, Yoriyasu apologized was forgiven). In the Koryaku Coup, occurred in 1379, Yoriyasu worked with Yoshimasa SHIBA to expel Yoriyuki HOSOKAWA. Yoriyasu sustained a certain power as one of the chief vassals from the beginning of the bakufu.
Development of the rebellion
In 1387, Yoriyasu died at 70 years old, an advanced age of the time. Yasuyuki, an adopted son of Yoriyasu, became the soryo (heir, or head of the chief branch of the family) of the Toki clan. Yasuyuki appointed his cousin Akinao TOKI to a guard of Owari, and sent his brother Mitsusada TOKI as a daikan (local governor) of Kyoto, where the bakufu existed, to attend Yoshimitsu in a short distance.
At that time, Yoshimitsu wanted to make the shogunate an autocratic power, and thus he aimed to weaken major shugo clans, whom he had trouble to control. In 1388, Yoshimitsu allowed Yasuyuki to succeed the entitlement of shugoshiki only for Mino Province and Ise Province, and he gave the one for Owari Provide to Mitsusada. Mitsusada was an ambitious person and wanted to have the shugoshiki of Owari Province, so he pandered to Yoshimitsu, making false accusations against Yasuyuki and Akinao. Yoshimitsu used the feud between them to split the Toki clan.
Akinao, a deputy shugo, got raged with anger over the treatment, and refused Mitsusada, who came down to Owari to assume the shugo position; it eventually caused a battle between them in Kuroda juku, Owari Province and Mitusada was put to rout. Mitsusada fled from the battlefield and came back to the capital, and appealed to Yoshimitsu about Yasuyuki and Akinao's rebellion. Yoshimitsu did not miss this opportunity and commanded to put down Yasuyuki as a rebel in May 1389, so Yoritada TOKI and Yorimasu TOKI, father and son, of the Toki clan tried to do it. In April 1390, Yasuyuki raised an army in Kojima-jo Castle, Ikeda District, Mino Province (Ibigawa-cho, Gifu Prefecture), but he was defeated and eventually lost his power.
After the war
Yasuyuki lost the status of shugoshiki of Mino and Ise Provinces, and the status for Mino was given to Yoriyo Yoritada) TOKI, who provided excellent services during the war against Yasuyuki, and the status for Ise was given to Mitsunaga NIKI. According to "Inryoken Nichiroku" (Inryoken's Diary), Yoshimitsu at first thought to end up the family line of the Toki clan, but held back the idea by the intervention of Unkei Shizan, a monk; in the end Yoriyo was ordered by Yoshimitsu to donate some places to the monk as a graditude, and Yoriyo donated Tamamura no ho of the province of Mino.
Yoshimitsu didn't stop his policy to weaken major shugo daimyo clans, and in 1391, the Yamana family, who had dominated eleven pronices and was even called "Rokubunno-Ichi dono (literally, the lord who has one sixth of the country) was conquered by the Meitoku War.
In 1399, Yoshihiro OUCHI, a shugo who held six provinces, allowed himself to be provoked into the battle only to be defeated by Yoshimitsu (Oei War).
Later, the title of shugoshiki of Mino was transferred to Yorimasu TOKI, and from the time onwards his family line became the soryo (chief branch of the family) of the Toki family to govern Mino Province.
Yasuyuki was forgiven in 1391, and by his distinguished war service in Meitoku War, he was appointed as shugo again, but of the northern half of Ise Province in 1400. Since then, Yasuyuki's family line continuously succeeded the position of shugoshiki of Ise Province and was called themselves as the Toki Yoyasu clan.
Mitsusada joined the Meitoku war, but he was blamed when he behaved in unfair way, and was dismissed from Owari Shugoshiki in 1392. The Toki clan then lost the position of shugoshiki of Owari Province, and was given to the Shiba clan from 1400 onwards.
Akinao, who began the first battle of the revolt, raised an army in Owari Province during the Oei War, in response to the movement of Yoshihiro OUCHI, and fought in Mino Province only to lose the battle to Yorimasu TOKI, the shugo of the province.