Ashikaga Yoshimasa
1436 – 1490 · 54 years · Kyoto · Asia
Reign: 1449 – 1473 (Japan: shoguns & emperors)
Shogun 1449–1473. The quarrel over whether his brother or his son would succeed him became the Ōnin War (1467–1477), which ruined Kyoto and opened the Sengoku era, while he withdrew into the arts: the tea ceremony and Higashiyama culture flourished and he built Ginkaku-ji.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 15th century
Portrait: Attributed to Tosa Mitsunobu · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci — painter, scientist and inventor, 16 years younger
- Johannes Gutenberg — inventor of the printing press, 36 years older
- Nicolaus Copernicus — astronomer, 37 years younger
- Michelangelo — sculptor, painter and architect, 39 years younger
- Louis XI — the "universal spider" who pieced France together, 13 years older
- Isabella I of Castile — Queen of Castile, 15 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Ivan III — Grand Prince of Moscow, 4 years younger
- Vasily III — grand prince who completed the unification of the Russian lands, 43 years younger
- Sophia Palaiologina — Grand Princess of Moscow, 19 years younger
- Vasily II the Blind — grand prince blinded in a dynastic civil war, 21 years older
Middle East
- Mehmed II — Ottoman sultan, 4 years older
- Selim I the Grim — sultan who took Cairo and Mecca, 34 years younger
- Murad II — sultan who crushed the crusaders at Varna, 32 years older
- Bayezid II — sultan who took in the Jews expelled from Spain, 11 years younger
Africa
- Askia Muhammad I — Emperor of Songhai, 7 years younger
Asia
- Guru Nanak — founder of Sikhism, 33 years younger
- Vasco da Gama — navigator, 33 years younger
- Sejong the Great — King of Joseon Korea, 39 years older
- Ashikaga Yoshihisa — shogun whose birth set off the Ōnin War, 29 years younger
- Ashikaga Yoshitane — shogun who held office twice and was driven out twice, 30 years younger
- Ulugh Beg — ruler and astronomer, 42 years older
Americas
- Christopher Columbus — navigator, 15 years younger
- Pachacuti — Sapa Inca, 18 years older
- Moctezuma II — Aztec emperor, 30 years younger
- Ferdinand Magellan — navigator, 44 years younger
- Nezahualcoyotl — ruler of Texcoco, poet, 34 years older
- Huayna Capac — Sapa Inca, 28 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- c. 1438 Pachacuti founds the Inca Empire — aged 2, Americas
- c. 1445 Extinction of the moa — aged 9, Oceania
- 1446 King Sejong promulgates Hangul — aged 10, Asia
- c. 1450 Gutenberg's printing press — aged 14, Europe
- c. 1450 Building of Machu Picchu — aged 14, Americas
- c. 1450 Founding of the Iroquois Confederacy — aged 14, Americas
- 1453 Fall of Constantinople — aged 17, Middle East
- 1478 Annexation of Novgorod by Moscow — aged 42, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1480 Great Stand on the Ugra River — aged 44, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1488 Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope — aged 52, Africa