In the Muromachi bakufu, a system of Shukuro government (literally, "government by experienced senior officers") as a coalition of influential shugos (military governors) upholding the Shogun (reverentially addressed to as Muromachi-dono) had been established by generations of Yoshimitsu ASHIKAGA and Yoshimochi ASHIKAGA, by whose times the turmoil of the period of the Northern and Southern Courts (Japan) (period in which two - north and south) rivaling splits of the Imperial Family were fighting each other and revolts by influential shugo daimyos had been pacified.
室町幕府は、南北朝時代(日本)の混乱や有力守護大名による反乱が収束した将軍足利義満・足利義持の代に、将軍（室町殿）を推戴する有力守護の連合体として宿老政治が確立していた。