When the second Shogun, Yoshiakira ASHIKAGA, died, the Kanrei (regent) Yoriyuki HOSOKAWA gave his support and advice to Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA, the third Shogun, and helped usher in a new administration, and engineered Masanori KUSUNOKI's defection and other anti-Southern Court efforts as well as dispatching Sadayo IMAGAWA to Kyushu as part of a push to eliminate the Southern Court's forces there, while in domestic, nonmilitary affairs, he crafted a response to the problematic conflict between Nanzen-ji Temple, which represented the new Zen sect, and Mt. Hiei, representing the old guard of influential Buddhist temples, and also implemented the hanzei (half-tax).
2代将軍足利義詮が死去すると、管領細川頼之は3代将軍足利義満を補佐して執政をはじめ、楠木正儀を寝返らせるなど対南朝工作や九州の南朝勢力排除のための今川貞世派遣、内政においては新興の禅宗である南禅寺と旧仏教勢力の比叡山との対立問題の対応や半済の実施などを行う。