Stories of the Japanese 01451 [Muromachi/Saigoku/Eve of the Great War] The Internal Conflict of the Togashi Brothers

【② The Conflict Between the Brothers Togashi Noriiye and Yasutaka in Kaga Province】
　Yoshinori once forced the Kaga Shugo, Togashi Noriiye, to retire and installed his younger brother Yasutaka as his successor (see episode 01383). It was one of Yoshinori's signature whimsical personnel decisions, and Noriiye was removed from his position as Shugo despite having committed no fault.
　However, when Yoshinori died suddenly, Hatakeyama Mochikuni reversed this decision. Nevertheless, perhaps because Noriiye was elderly, the successor became Noriiye's son, Togashi Shigeharu (?-1462).
　Togashi Yasutaka, who had been stripped of the Shugo position, was naturally unhappy with this decision. He did not leave Kaga Province, but instead rallied local forces and stubbornly resisted the father-son pair of Noriiye and Shigeharu. Thus, Kaga Province fell into a state of civil war.
　The internal conflict in Kaga took a new turn in the following year, Kakitsu 3 (1443). Yamakawa Hachiro (?-1443), the Kaga Shugo-dai of the Yasutaka faction, was dissatisfied with the Shogunate's exclusive support for the Noriiye-Shigeharu faction, and he engaged in armed conflict with Togashi Yasunari, who belonged to the Noriiye-Shigeharu faction. Yasunari was a younger brother to both Noriiye and Yasutaka, but it seems he was colluding with Noriiye.
　Yamakawa Hachiro was defeated and fled to Kyoto, but he did not give up and instead planned an attack on Hatakeyama Mochikuni. It was a plan that severely lacked composure. If one were to attack the incumbent Kanrei, the destruction of one's house would be inevitable.
　It was the Yasutaka faction, his own allies, who stopped the radicalized Yamakawa Hachiro. In other words, Hosokawa Mochikata, who was hostile to Hatakeyama Mochikuni, and Hino Shigeko, Yoshinori's widow, persuaded Yamakawa, leading him to abandon the plan and commit suicide on the condition that Yasutaka's life be spared.
　Although Yamakawa died, the struggle between the Noriiye-Shigeharu faction and the Yasutaka faction did not end.
　In Bun'an 2 (1445), Hosokawa Katsumoto, who had taken office as Kanrei succeeding Hatakeyama Mochikuni, supported Yasutaka, contrary to Mochikuni, and exiled Noriiye to Etchu. When Shogun Yoshimasa put a stop to this and expressed his support for Noriiye, Katsumoto became angry and declared he would "resign as Kanrei," leading to a scene where a panicked Yoshimasa had to retract his stance.
　In May of Bun'an 4 (1447), realizing that the Yasutaka faction's defeat was imminent, Katsumoto proposed a compromise:
　"How about having Togashi Shigeharu serve as Shugo for the north and Yasutaka for the south, each governing half the province?"
　Indeed, the system of "half-province Shugo" was becoming established in several provinces, such as Omi.
　Hatakeyama Mochikuni of the Noriiye-Shigeharu faction opposed this proposal. Mochikuni believed that Shigeharu should govern all of Kaga. However, when criticism of Mochikuni erupted in society, both Mochikuni and the Noriiye-Shigeharu side were forced to accept the proposal.
　On May 17, Togashi Shigeharu and Yasutaka were each appointed as half-province Shugo of Kaga, and the Kaga disturbance was somehow settled. In the end, they decided to amicably split the province in half.