When we look back on historic situations where a lower-ranked group usurped the authority of their superiors, as when the aristocracy was overthrown by the samurai class, the Shogun by the Kanrei (shogunal deputy), and the Protectors (essentially provincial governors) by their deputy Protectors, we label it "gekokujo," but for people in fact in the Sengoku Period, such situations were more or less par for the course.
公家は武家に、将軍は管領に、守護は守護代にと下位の者に実権を奪われ、こうした状況を下剋上と理解するのが、当時のほぼ一般的な観念だった。