At first, the Eastern camp was dominant, favored by the circumstances that it called itself the "imperial army" winning the support of Yoshimasa, that it drove the Western camp away from the surroundings of the Imperial Palace and Hana no Gosho to secure the Imperial Family and Yoshimasa and that the territories of the Hosokawa family and its supporters were concentrated in the surrounding areas of the capital; but by June Yamana's 80,000-member troops having conquered Hosokawa's Tanba Province had come up to Kyoto and by August Masahiro OUCHI had entered Kyoto, leading not only the troops of Michiharu KONO's and others' seven provinces in Shikoku, but also suigun (navy) squadrons, resulting in recovered power of the Western camp.
当初、東軍が義政の支持を受けて「官軍」と号し、内裏や花の御所周辺から西軍を駆逐して皇室と義政を確保したこと、細川氏及びその支持者の領国が畿内周辺に集中していた事が幸いして戦いを有利に進めたが、6月には細川領丹波国を制圧した山名軍8万が上洛、8月には周防から大内政弘が四国の河野通春ら7カ国の軍勢をはじめ、水軍を率いて入京、西軍が勢力を回復する。