Aside from the golden age of prosperity reached under the third seii taishogun (literally, "great general who subdues the barbarians") Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA, the Muromachi period was fraught with wars and disorder, but on the other hand, not since before the Kamakura period had there been such opportunity for common people of obscure origins, farmers and tradesmen, to advance socially, and among all the eras of Japanese history, the Muromachi period was the first to produce notable people whose faces and lives appear in clear focus to later eyes.
室町時代は、3代征夷大将軍足利義満の時代の全盛を除いて戦乱と無秩序の時代であったが、鎌倉時代以前には見られない、出自不明の農民・商人層の社会進出を可能とし、日本史上、初めて人間の顔が見える人物を登場させた時代でもある。