Aftermath of the Ōnin War (1470s)

Timeline

1. 1471–1477Kyoto · KyotoIn the tenth year of the Ōnin War, the Hosokawa and Yamana factions and their rival shoguns repeatedly attacked and defended Kyoto. The imperial palace, temples, and machiya were repeatedly burned, much of the population displaced, court ceremonies and shogunal business nearly halted. Shogun Yoshimasa took refuge in Hanedono and could not restrain the daimyō's private wars; the Kinai provinces became a battlefield.
2. 1477–1478Kyoto · KyotoAfter Yamana Sōzen (March 1473) and Hosokawa Katsumoto (May 1473) died of illness in succession, their armies passed to successors; in November 1477 Ōuchi Masahiro, main force of the Western Army, withdrew to Yamaguchi and fighting subsided, the Eastern Army claiming a nominal victory, though Kyoto had long been devastated. The shogunate failed to regain effective control over shugo daimyō, and kokujin such as the Sasaki of Ōmi and the Hatakeyama of Tamba continued expanding. Truce was not peace; the hollowing out of central authority became the Ōnin War's most far-reaching consequence.
3. 1478–1480Japanese archipelago · JapanAfter 1478, shoguns retained only nominal status, while the Hosokawa, Yamana, and Ise families strengthened military and economic control over their domains. Kokujin in Ōmi, Tamba, Kawachi, and elsewhere refused annual taxes and set up private barriers, and the spirit of gekokujō spread. The Ōnin War's aftermath combined with shogunal decline as Japan's political order transitioned from the Muromachi system to the Warring States daimyō system.