concern whatsoever about any government, whether that of Kyōto or that of Muromachi, and sided with whatever party they found most convenient. Personal ambition and individual aggrandizement were too often the ruling motives of the time. No bonds proved strong enough to secure men's union amid these scenes of tumult. Even brothers, as in the time of Takauji and Yoshinori, did not hesitate to belong to opposite camps, nor were other family ties considered more sacred. In the days of Yoshimitsu, a great territorial magnate, Yamana Ujikiyo, whose estates extended over ten provinces so that men spoke of him as _Rokubuichi-shi_ (lord of a sixth of Japan), took up arms against the Ashikaga. So, too, Ōuchi Yoshihiro rebelled because his success in subjugating Kiushū had given him confidence in his own powers. The regent at Kamakura, also, to whom was entrusted the government of the eastern provinces, became so puissant that his influence almost equaled that of the shōgun, who regarded the growth of his relative's power with no little uneasiness. So independent was the attitude of this Kamakura official and so openly did he affect autonomic state, that we find him adopting the precedent of the Muromachi ruler and nominating two of the Uyesugi family--Yamanouchi and Inugake--to the office of _kwanryō_ or regents. Immense estates were also held by the branch house of Ogigayatsu Mitsukane, grandson of the first Kamakura _kwanryō_. Motouji (son of Ashikaga Takauji), carried away apparently by his wealth and strength, supported the insurrection of Ōuchi Yoshihiro, mentioned above, but had no difficulty in making peace with the Muromachi shōgun on the defeat and downfall of Yoshihiro. Thus feud succeeded feud, and campaign, campaign, arising out of the universal creed that a prize scarcely inferior to the scepter itself lay within reach of any noble whose territorial influence and military puissance enabled him to grasp it. On the death of the fourth Ashikaga shōgun, Yoshimochi, in 1428, there was no heir in the direct line to succeed him, his son Yoshikazu having died in childhood. His younger brother, Prince Giyen, but later named Yoshinori, was supported to the shōgunate by the _kwanryō_. This chagrined the Kamakura administrator, Ashikaga Mochiuji, who had aspired to the office, and who now entered into an open warfare with the _Kwanryō_ Uyesugi Norizane and the new shōgun. Mochiuji was defeated, and the Uyesugi family intrusted with the sole administrative control in the eastern provinces.