He dreamed away his miserable existence and left the fields untilled. Bands of robbers followed the armies through the interior of the country, and increased the feeling of lawlessness and insecurity. The coast population, especially that of the island of Kiushiu, had given itself up in a great measure to piracy. Even on the shores of Korea and China these enterprising Japanese corsairs made their appearance." The shogun Yoshimitsu checked piracy, and there ensued between Japan and China a renewal of cordial intercourse which, upon the part of the shogun, developed phases plainly suggesting an admission of Chinese suzerainty. For a brief moment during the sway of Yoshimitsu the country had rest from internecine war, but immediately after his death (1394) the struggle began afresh. Many of the great territorial lords had now grown too puissant to concern themselves about either mikado or shogun. Each fought for his own hand, thinking only of extending his sway and his territories. By the middle of the 16th century Kioto was in ruins, and little vitality remained in any trade or industry except those that ministered to the wants of the warrior. Again in the case of the Ashikaga shoguns the political tendency to exercise power vicariously was shown, as it had been shown in the case of the mikados in Kioto and in the case of the Minamoto in Kamakura. What the regents had been to the emperors and the constables to the Minamoto shoguns, that the wardens (_kwanryo_) were to the Ashikaga shoguns. Therefore, for possession of this office of kwanryo vehement conflicts were waged, and at one time five rival shoguns were used as figure-heads by contending factions. Yoshimitsu had apportioned an ample allowance for the support of the Imperial court, but in the continuous warfare following his death the estates charged with the duty of paying this allowance ceased to return any revenue; the court nobles had to seek shelter and sustenance with one or other of the feudal chiefs in the provinces, and the court itself was reduced to such a state of indigence that when the emperor Go-Tsuchi died (1500), his corpse lay for forty days awaiting burial, no funds being available for purposes of sepulture.