The Tragic Tale of the Asakura of Ichinodani

The Demise of an Advanced Society

The Asakura clan were an aristocratic samurai family, hailing originally from what is now Hyogo Prefecture. The founder of the Asakura clan was Asakura Takakage, who had at first fought for the Western cause during the Onin War, (1467-1468, a battle fought over the succession of the Ashikaga clan and the position of Shogun between supporters of the pretenders that led to the Sengoku, or warring States period), but later defected to the Eastern forces. Tadakage then constructed Ichijodani Castle in Echizen (Modern-day Fukui Prefecture), a huge castle complex, built in a narrow valley encircled by fortified mountains and blocked off with huge stone walls at either end. This city of well over 10,000 would become one of Japan’s most developed and cultured, leading to the first Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, awarding Tadakage the entire lands of Echizen, and making him a Sengoku daimyo in 1471. Five generations of the Asakura clan would control the Echizen region over the following 100 years.