The relation of _shugo_ and _djito_ in the time of the Ashikaga was quite of a different sort from that in the former Shogunate. The office of _shugo_ became now the hereditary possession of certain privileged families, which constituted a body of higher warriors, towering above the common _djito_. The _shugo_ stood in the position of protector to all the _djito_ of the province he governed, and those _djito_ who stood under a _shugo_ were designated his "hikwan" or proteges. The relation of vassalage arose thus between the _shugo_ and the _djito_ in the same province, a legal status which had not existed in the Kamakura period. The direct relation between the common _djito_ and the Shogun, which was the main spring of the political regime of the Kamakura era, was now cut off. No doubt the _shugo_ in the Ashikaga period had in their provinces, besides their suzerainty over the _djito_, the tenure of certain tracts of land, as in the days of Kamakura. The great difference between them, however, was that in the Kamakura era a retainer of the Shogun was first installed as a _djito_ of a manor, and then appointed _shugo_, while in the Ashikaga age the land which the _shugo_ held directly was his demesne as _shugo_ and not the land held as a retainer of the Shogun at Kyoto, independent of his office of _shugo_. To sum up, the _shugo_ of the Ashikaga period was not a mere office, as in the days of Kamakura, but a legal status of the warriors ranking next to the Shogun. As the result of such an organisation each province or group of provinces under a _shugo_ became a political entity, while it had been but a military entity in the Kamakura era. If the Shogun at Kyoto, therefore, had been strong enough to enforce his will over all the _shugo_ of the provinces, then the political unity of the country at large could safely continue in the hands of the Ashikaga. The Shogunate of the Ashikaga, however, had not been originally so formulated as to enable it to impose implicit obedience on all the higher military officials of the _shugo_ class. For this family, though a branch of the Minamoto, had nothing in its history that could attract, as Yoritomo did, a vast number of willing warriors to serve under its banner. That Takauji was promoted to the headship of the second military government was largely due to the assistance of the warriors from various parts of the empire who were not personally related to his family, but were disaffected at seeing the power of the courtiers restored, neither was it by any means to be attributed to his personal capacity, which was rather mediocre both as general and as statesman. This origin of the Ashikaga family, therefore, made it difficult from the first for the Shogun of the line to curb the arrogance of his influential generals. Insurrection against the Shogunate followed one after another, so that no year passed without some small disturbance somewhere.