Banquets were often given there on a sumptuous scale, the illustrious host amusing himself and his guests with displays of music and dancing--_Budō_, _Sarugaku_, and _Shirabyōshi_. The example thus set by the ex-shōgun was readily imitated by the military men of the time, and to support all this luxury, it became necessary to increase the burden of taxation. Yoshimitsu had strong faith in Buddhist doctrines, and devoted large sums to the building of temples. The doctrines of the Zen sect found special favor with him, and its priests were the recipients of much munificence at his hands. He levied contributions on all the provinces for the purpose of erecting for the sect in Kyōto a temple of unparalleled magnificence called Shōkoku-ji. Amid the exercise of all this pomp and while the power of the shōgunate was thus supreme from end to end of the country, the seeds of future misfortune were sown. Not long after the death of Yoshimitsu the country began to fall into disorder. The generals and military partisans of the Southern dynasty supposed that a return to the system of alternate succession between the two lines of Jimyō-in and Daikaku-ji had formed part of the arrangement under which peace was restored, in 1393, and Gokomatsu raised to the throne. Hence, after the demise of that sovereign, they looked to see a prince of the Southern line assume the scepter. But the shōgun's government crowned Shōkō, of the Northern line. Discontented with this act, Kitabatake Mitsumasa of Ise declared war against the shōgun, and a number of military men in or about Kyōto and in Mutsu raised the standard of revolt. Serious disturbance was averted on that occasion by the shōgun's promising that a prince of the Southern line should be the next sovereign. The partisans of the latter dynasty imagined, therefore, that at the death of Shōkō, Prince Ogura, a son of Gokameyama, would come to the throne, whereas the Ashikaga family, disregarding the engagement entered into by its chief, again secured the succession to a prince of the Northern dynasty.[1] This breach of faith led to a renewed demonstration by Kitabatake, who, in collusion with the military men at Kamakura, unsheathed the sword in behalf of the son of Prince Ogura. There rose also another revolt in Yamato. The supporters of the Southern line, however, never effected any material success. But before their energy withered away, combats and tumults of the most inveterate character devastated the land. The Ashikaga shōguns found themselves perpetually confronted by disturbance and disaffection. One, probably the principal, cause of the frequent insurrections, was that the Ashikaga made immense grants of land to their supporters without, at the same time, elaborating some efficient system for the control of the territorial magnates thus created. Many nobles developed such puissance under these circumstances, and acquired command of such vast local resources, that they gave themselves no