Akuto were also active in the period of Northern and Southern Courts (Japan), but when the civil war ended in the late fourteenth century, the manor and public land system was weakened due to akuto activities, and when the countervailing power of honjo weakened as invasion of honjo-ichienchi (manor) by shugo and kokujin (local samurai) increased, the picture of akuto invading honjo's rule gradually disappeared.
悪党は南北朝時代(日本)にも活動しているが、内乱が終わった14世紀後半、悪党活動によって荘園公領の支配体系が弱体化し、守護や国人らによる本所一円地（荘園）への侵略が進むとともに、本所側の対抗力が衰えてしまうと、本所の支配を侵す悪党という実態は、次第に見られなくなった。