Provincial Wars and Foreign Contacts
The Ōnin War (1467–1477) led to serious political fragmentation and obliteration of domains: a great struggle for land and power ensued among bushi chieftains and lasted until the mid-sixteenth century. Peasants rose against their landlords and samurai against their overlords as central control virtually disappeared. The imperial house was left impoverished, and the bakufu was controlled by contending chieftains in Kyoto. The provincial domains that emerged after the Ōnin War were smaller and easier to control. Many new small daimyō arose from among the samurai who had overthrown their great overlords. Border defenses were improved, and well fortified castle towns were built to protect the newly opened domains, for which land surveys were made, roads built, and mines opened. New house laws provided practical means of administration, stressing duties and rules of behavior. Emphasis was put on success in war, estate management, and finance. Threatening alliances were guarded against through strict marriage rules. Aristocratic society was overwhelmingly military in character. The rest of society was controlled in a system of vassalage. The shōen (feudal manors) were obliterated, and court nobles and absentee landlords were dispossessed. The new daimyō directly controlled the land, keeping the peasantry in permanent serfdom in exchange for protection.
Read more about this topic: Muromachi Period
Famous quotes containing the words provincial, wars, foreign and/or contacts:
“The divinity in man is the true vestal fire of the temple which is never permitted to go out, but burns as steadily and with as pure a flame on the obscure provincial altar as in Numa’s temple at Rome.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery. Nothing else holds fashion.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Meanwhile I, deserted, was lamenting a little to myself your long delays in foreign loves, until sleep with its pleasing wings compelled me, fallen.”
—Propertius Sextus (c. 50–16 B.C.)
“In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)