At the beginning, Yoshimasa tried to revive the political agenda of his grandfather, Yoshimitsu, and his father, Yoshinori, and he actively intervened in the large-scale infighting (the Kyotoku War) between Kamakura-kubo (later Koga-kubo) Shigeuji ASHIKAGA and Kanto-kanrei Uesugi clan by ordering Horigoe-kubo Masatomo ASHIKAGA, his younger brother by a different mother, to subjugate Shigeuji.
当初の義政は祖父・義満や父・義教の政策を復活させようと試み、また鎌倉公方（後に古河公方）足利成氏と関東管領上杉氏との大規模な内紛（享徳の乱）に対しては成氏追討令を発して異母弟の堀越公方・足利政知を派遣するなどして積極的な介入をした。