Cities like Sakai (part of the Osaka metropolitan area today) and Hakata (the modern-day Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture) were free cities self-governed largely by the egoshu, associations of merchants, and beginning with the Onin War, such cities armed themselves and bolstered their defensive capabilities, developing quite an autonomous, free spirit.
堺市（大阪府堺市）や博多（福岡県福岡市）などでは会合衆を中心に自治的な都市運営を行っており、応仁の乱以後は武装して防衛をしており自治的性格をもっていた。