The proximate causes of the Onin conflict are to be sought in personal ambition. Yoshimasa, weary of official duties, determined to intrust to his younger brother, Gijin, the task of administering affairs. Gijin had entered the priesthood. He was not averse, however, to falling in with Yoshimasa's plan on condition that in the event of a child being born to the latter, it should be devoted to a life of religion. This compact having been made, Gijin abandoned the priesthood, and taking the name of Yoshimi, assumed the direction of the affairs of the shōgunate, Hosokawa Kazumoto acting as controller of his household. By and by, however, Yoshimasa's wife bore a son, Yoshihisa, and being ambitious that her child should succeed to the shōgunate, instead of retiring to the cloister, she took into her confidence Yamana Sōzen, a nobleman possessing domains as ample and power as extensive as Hosokawa Kazumoto himself, the idea of the confederates being to contrive the abdication of Yoshimi. A parallel conjuncture occurred in the family of Hatakeyama Mochikuni, the _kwanryō_. Having no son, he nominated his nephew Masanaga to succeed him, but on the subsequent birth of his son Yoshinari, he resolved to deprive Masanaga of the distinction. Further, the vassals of the other _kwanryō_, Shiba, became split up into two parties, one espousing the cause of Yoshikado, the other that of Yoshitoki. Yoshikado and Yoshinari allied themselves with Yamana Sōzen, and Masanaga and Yoshitoshi were supported by Hosokawa Kazumoto.