Ashikaga Yoshimasa (January 20, 1435 January 27, 1490) was the 8th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 during the Muromachi period of Japan. Yoshimasa was the son of the sixth shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori. On the August 16, 1443 (Kakitsu 3, 21st day of the 7th month), 10-year-old shogun Yoshikatsu died of injuries sustained in a fall from a horse. He had been shogun for only three years. Immediately, the bakufu elevated Yoshinari, the young shogun's even younger brother, to be the new shogun. Several years after becoming shogun, Yoshinari changed his name to Yoshimasa, by which name he is better known.