Kakitsu

Overview

Kakitsu (嘉吉) was a Japanese era name (年号, nengō; "year name") that began in February 1441 and ended in February 1444. It followed the Eikyō era and preceded the Bun'an era. The era fell within the Muromachi period (1336–1573), a time when the Ashikaga shogunate governed from Kyoto while provincial warlords consolidated power across the country. The reigning emperor during Kakitsu was Go-Hanazono-tennō (後花園天皇).

Era names in pre-modern Japan were proclaimed by imperial decree, often to mark a new reign, a calendrical cycle, or an auspicious or inauspicious event. The Kakitsu era was no exception, and its four-year span saw both political upheaval and a notable shift in the shogunate's internal dynamics.

What Defined the Era

The Kakitsu era is most strongly associated with the assassination of the sixth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshinori, in 1441. Yoshinori had ruled with an iron hand, and his death triggered a brief succession crisis that reshaped the balance of power between the shogunate and its leading warlord families. The era's name itself was chosen in part to signal a fresh start after the turmoil of the preceding years.

The period also saw the continued decline of central authority relative to the provinces. While the shogunate remained the nominal head of the warrior class, powerful regional lords, or daimyō, increasingly acted on their own initiative. The Kakitsu era thus stands as a transitional moment between the relative stability of the early Muromachi period and the more fractured politics of the later fifteenth century.

Key Events

The defining event of the Kakitsu era occurred in the sixth month of 1441, when shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori was murdered. The assassin was Akamatsu Mitsusuke, a daimyō who had been summoned to the capital and who feared that Yoshinori intended to confiscate his domains. Mitsusuke invited the shogun to a banquet, then attacked him during the festivities. Yoshinori was killed, and Mitsusuke fled to his home province of Harima, where he was later hunted down and defeated by forces loyal to the shogunate.

The assassination left the shogunate without a clear successor. Yoshinori's eldest son, Ashikaga Yoshikatsu, was only eight years old at the time, and the regency of the shogunate's chief minister, Hosokawa Mochiyuki, was contested by rival factions. In 1442, Yoshikatsu was formally installed as the seventh shogun, but his youth meant that real power rested with the Hosokawa and other senior houses. This arrangement set a precedent for the rest of the century, in which shoguns were often figureheads dominated by powerful deputies.

The Kakitsu era also saw the formal redistribution of Akamatsu lands. After Mitsusuke's defeat, his provinces were awarded to loyal daimyō, most notably the Yamana family, which gained significant territory in western Japan. This transfer of land further entrenched the Yamana as one of the most powerful clans in the realm and contributed to the rivalries that would later erupt in the Ōnin War (1467–1477).

The Name in Japanese

The era name Kakitsu is written with two kanji: 嘉吉.

• 嘉 (ka) — reading in this word: か. The character means "auspicious," "praiseworthy," or "excellent." It carries a sense of celebration and good fortune, and appears in compounds such as 嘉例 (karei, "a good precedent") and 嘉納 (kanō, "gracious acceptance").

• 吉 (kitsu) — reading in this word: きつ. The character means "good luck," "fortune," or "blessing." It is one of the most common auspicious characters in Japanese, appearing in names like 吉田 (Yoshida) and in the phrase 大吉 (daikichi, "great fortune"), often seen on New Year's fortunes.

Together, 嘉吉 can be glossed as "auspicious fortune" or "celebrated good luck." The kana reading is かきつ, and the romaji is Kakitsu. The choice of such a positive name reflects the era's purpose: to mark a new beginning under imperial and shogunal authority, even though the events that followed would prove far less fortunate.

How the Era Name Works

The Japanese era name system, known as nengō (年号), dates back to 645 CE, when the Taika era was proclaimed. Each era name is a two-character phrase, almost always drawn from classical Chinese texts, and is intended to express a political or cosmological message. The name is chosen by court scholars and approved by the emperor, then promulgated throughout the realm.

An era name could be changed for many reasons: the accession of a new emperor, the start of a new sexagenary cycle, a natural disaster, or a major political event. In the case of Kakitsu, the era was proclaimed in February 1441, and it was replaced in February 1444. The change to Bun'an came after only three years, a relatively short span, and was likely prompted by the desire to reset the calendar after the upheaval of Yoshinori's assassination.

In practice, the nengō system served as the official calendar for all government documents, legal records, and historical chronicles. People referred to years by their era name and year number — for example, the first year of Kakitsu would be "Kakitsu 1" (嘉吉元年, Kakitsu gannen). The system remained in continuous use until 1868, when the Meiji government adopted a single era name per reign, a practice that continues today with the Reiwa era. For students of Japanese, understanding era names is essential for reading historical texts, since nearly all pre-modern dates are expressed in this format.