Summary: The Ashikaga Shogunate stumbled and staggered through the 1400s. The Onin War (1466-1477)exemplifies so many of the changes, both positive and negative, that Japan went through. The provinces saw a rise in local military independence, the peasants' life improved dramatically and the seemingly apathetic Shogun Yoshimasa wrote poetry as the capital burnt to the ground in an orgy of drunken violence.
