Fighting in the Kantō region (east of Kyōto) broke out over control of regional authority and continued for decades. The prolonged disorder showed how hard it had become for the Ashikaga (Muromachi) shogunate to enforce decisions far from the capital. This set the stage for later nationwide fragmentation when crises hit Kyōto itself.
In 1467, a shogunal succession dispute and rival clan ambitions sparked armed conflict in Kyōto, the seat of government. What began as factional violence escalated into a wider civil war centered on the capital. The shogunate’s inability to stop the fighting made its weakness visible to the whole country.
After the Ōnin War, Japan entered the Sengoku (“Warring States”) period, marked by frequent conflict and political upheaval. The Ashikaga shogunate’s weakening allowed many daimyō to rule more independently and fight neighbors for land and influence. The result was a patchwork of rival territories rather than a stable central state.
As the Ōnin War continued, large parts of Kyōto were burned and ruined, and many residents fled. With the capital damaged and politics paralyzed, provincial warlords gained more freedom to act on their own. This accelerated the shift from a centralized order to regional power struggles.
In 1473, the main commanders of the two rival camps—Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen—died. With top leaders gone and the original succession issue fading, the reasons to keep fighting became less clear. Even so, violence continued because local forces were entrenched and distrustful.
In 1473, Shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa formally stepped down and passed the title to his son, Ashikaga Yoshihisa. The handover did not restore effective control, because armed factions still dominated Kyōto and provincial leaders increasingly ignored shogunal orders. The shogunate’s authority became more symbolic than practical.
By 1477, the exhausted participants largely abandoned Kyōto and returned to their home provinces, and major fighting in the capital ended. The shogunate survived in name, but it had lost the ability to reliably command the great warrior families. Power increasingly shifted to regional daimyō (military lords) and local coalitions.
In 1487–1488, an Ikkō-ikki uprising (a league of monks, peasants, and local warriors linked to Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism) overthrew the provincial ruler in Kaga. The revolt showed that armed political movements were no longer limited to elite samurai clans. It also demonstrated how weak central authority had become in managing provincial unrest.
In 1493, the Meiō incident (a coup in the Kansai region) removed one shōgun and installed another under the influence of powerful Hosokawa leaders. This event made clear that the shogun could be replaced by force and factional maneuvering. The office remained important as a symbol, but real power continued shifting to military coalitions.
On June 12, 1560, Oda Nobunaga defeated the larger army of Imagawa Yoshimoto at Okehazama. The victory removed a major threat to Nobunaga’s home region and raised his status among rival daimyō. This turning point helped launch the later push to seize Kyōto and reshape national politics.
In 1568, Oda Nobunaga marched into Kyōto and backed Ashikaga Yoshiaki as shōgun. This briefly revived the shogunate’s visibility, but Yoshiaki depended heavily on Nobunaga’s military support. The arrangement highlighted a new reality: the strongest daimyō could now control the capital and use the shogun as a political tool.
In 1573, Nobunaga deposed and expelled Ashikaga Yoshiaki from Kyōto, ending the Ashikaga (Muromachi) shogunate in practice. This marked a clear outcome of the long fragmentation that began with the Ōnin War: central authority based on the shogun had collapsed. Political power now rested openly with competing warlords, setting the stage for later unification efforts.
Ōnin War and the fragmentation of central authority (1467–1573)