Regarding the research to date on the Safavid Dynasty, little has been done on its later years (i.e. after the reformation of Shah Abbas I). In this article, much attention is paid to the activities of the Gholams who came to participate in every area of the Dynasty's ruling organization in an attempt to clarify the power structure at that time. In his efforts to reform the nomadic state system whic existed from early days of the dynasty, Abbas I organized people from the Caucasus who had already served the Imperial Court and created a new elite layer by name of "Gholam". These people occupied every political high administrative post imaginable, not only military but also fiscal owing to their relationship to the Shah and imperial court. Under this new ruling system, the Imperial Court became the core of the administrative mechanism and took on a more official color in contrast to the Shah's private executive organ. As a result of these refoms, the Dynasty was thought to be moving towards a more unified system, replacing the so-called Turk-Tajik (nomadic state). Under this new system, Shah did not, contrary to all suppositions, exercised absolute authority as a dictatorial monarch, nor did any particular group…for example Gholams…monopolize power within the Dynasty. On the contrary, state officials use their connections, including kinship relations and occupational careers, more flexibly, and above them powerful officials occupied high social status that almost became hereditary. A man of Qizilbash origin would work as a mostoufi or nazer under a local government headed by a Gholam. Under such circumstances, the Shah assured their posts as the only stable authority. The Safavid Dynasty created a new state order based on unified and centralized authority, introducing the new elite group, the Gholam. This reform brought about stability that lasted for almost a century.

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In order to better clarify medieval society, its warrior class and what the shogunate was, it is necessary to consider religion. The aim of the present paper is to shed light upon the character of the Muromachi shogunate by examining the residences, temples and shrines of the Ashikaga family. The first shogun, Ashikaga Takauji first lived in Rokuhara (an eastern suburb of Kyoto), then he and his younger brother Tadayoshi built residences in the center of Kyoto, and established a new shogunate there. Tojiji temple was attached to Tadayoshi's residence the Sanjobomon-tei. Aftr his death, Takauji and the second shogun Yoshiakira decided that Tojiji temple would be the patron temple of the Ashikaga family. Takauji and Yoshiakira lived near Tojiji temple, and Gosho-Hachimangu shrine was built at Tadayoshi's Sanjobomon-tei as the guardian of the shogun's residence. Therefore, the whole Sanjobomon area belonged to the Ashikaga family. The third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, built his residence, called the Muromachi-dono, in a northern suburb of Kyoto. He also built Shokokuji temple near Muromachi-dono, as the area became much larger than that at Sanjobomon. Yoshimitsu moved the functions of the Ashikaga family temple nearer to him, sponsoring, for example, the Hokkehakko memorial service for the former shogun, at Shokokuji temple instead of Tojiji temple. After building his residence in Kitayama to the north of Muromachi-dono, he sponsored the Hokkehakko in Kitayama. From the reign of the fourth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimochi, the two temples of the Ashikaga family coexisted. Regardless of where the shogun lived, Hokkehakko was performed at Tojiji temple, while smaller temples of each shogun were built on the grounds of Shokokuji temple. This indicates that the Muromachi shogunate at that time came to assume a double character, one attributable to Takauji's government, the other to Yoshimitsu's.

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