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The 1860s in Japan saw quite a number of political assassinations. Not satisfied with only killing actual people and displaying their heads on the banks of the Kamo River, though, Ronin and other extremists apparently did the same with the heads of some wooden statues of Shoguns.
1863/2/2: 是夜、浪士三輪田綱一郎・同師岡節斎・同仙石佐多雄・同長尾郁三郎・同高松平四郎・同建部建一郎等、洛西等持院に闖入して、足利尊氏・同義詮・同義満の木像の首を盗み、加茂川原に梟す。
Roughly: This evening, Ronin Miwada Tsunaichirō ... and others suddenly invade Tōjiin temple in the western outskirts of Kyoto ... , steal the heads of wooden statues of Ashikaga Takauji, Yoshiakira, and Yoshimitsu, and display them on the banks of the Kamo River.
This from the Ishin Shiryô Kôyô 維新史料綱要 Database, accessible via http://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ .
Tōji-in is the site of the graves of all the Ashikaga shoguns. I don't know if this is the same statue, if they recovered the head later or what, but here's an image of a statue of the first Ashikaga shogun, Takauji, from the temple's website.
https://toujiin.jp/about.html
https://toujiin.jp/about.html
Others can chime in and say better, but off the top of my head, I'm guessing these imperialist "loyalists" saw Takauji as betraying Emperor Go-Daigo and the imperial court by ending the Kenmu Restoration (1333-1336) and installing someone else as emperor.
This began the Nanbokuchō (Northern and Southern Courts) period, in which Go-Daigo and his successors continued to claim to be emperors (in exile to the south of Kyoto), but the Ashikaga supported a new line, the "Northern" emperors.
Go-Daigo's short-lived imperial "restoration" in the 1330s (which Takauji helped set up to begin with) was the last time the imperial court held preeminent political power until the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which these ronin were pushing towards.
Yoshiakira was Takauji's son and successor as shogun, and led forces supporting him against Emperor Go-Daigo. So it certainly makes sense these ronin would see him as a traitor to the imperial court as well.
Yoshimitsu was Yoshiakira's son and successor. His reign as shogun saw the end of Go-Daigo's Southern line, and the legitimation of the Ashikaga-supported Northern line as the one and only imperial line, which then continued straight through to today.
Yoshimitsu also tried to get himself named Dajō tennō 太上天皇 ("Retired Emperor"), though he had never served as emperor himself (nor was particularly directly related to the imperial lineage at all). Makes sense these imperial loyalist ronin wouldn't be big fans of him either.
In any case, I wonder if the Ashikaga tombs at Tōji-in are open to tourist visitors. I'll have to add it to my list of places to visit.
These Bakumatsu events are fascinating enough, but I love these periodic connections to earlier history!
These Bakumatsu events are fascinating enough, but I love these periodic connections to earlier history!
