After the chaotic Ōnin War had weakened the Ashikaga shogunate's authority, feuding samurai armies fought for the control of provinces across Japan.

In Yamashiro Province, local samurai and peasants formed an ikki league and rose up in 1485, successfully demanding the withdrawal of two rival warlord armies.

This was facilitated by the samurai being allowed to collect taxes,[8][4] a task locally carried out by otona, the small number of wealthy individuals in each village.

This meant that whenever the demands of shugo might upset the locals and thus endanger the position of the regional samurai, the latter were inclined to ignore the governors' orders.

These wealthy farmers were called jizamurai and grew locally influential, while resenting the tax collection by their official samurai overlords.

[14] Meanwhile, the tax burden on the rural population grew, as both the central government as well as regional authorities tried to raise more money; many farmers consequently became indebted to moneylenders during times of bad harvests.

In this regard, they stood in marked contrast to vassalage relationships,[9] and could include members from different social classes who cooperated on equal footing.

These protests often turned into violent riots during which ikki members attacked moneylenders, destroyed debt ledgers, burnt public buildings, and looted.

Different factions consequently formed to back the candidates; these groups quickly extended beyond the court and grew to include powerful shugo and samurai clans.

[21][22] In 1467, the succession dispute finally escalated into full-scale conflict between the rival factions, at this point led by Hosokawa Katsumoto and Yamana Sōzen respectively.

[28] The breakdown of order and government power also encouraged peasants and jizamurai to increase their resistance against deprivations by the samurai armies and taxation.

[31] Both sides had enlisted large numbers of warriors from Yamashiro Province, but these fighters became dicontent as combat dragged on and their homeland was devastated.

Their livelihood affected by the blockade of roads due to the Hatakeyama civil war, local cart drivers protested for the removal of toll barriers between Kyoto and Nara as well as debt cancellations.

This event attracted the attention of peasants from across Yamashiro Province[1][35] who subsequently went en masse to the shrine to observe and attend the meeting.

[30] Historian Pierre François Souyri regarded the mass desertion of local warriors from both armies as the main reason for the Hatakeyama forces' retreat.

[34] Eventually, the samurai members of the ikki met again at Byōdō-in in February 1486,[34][30] occupying this traditionally aristocratic temple for ten days.

In May, the ikki magistrates seized full control in the province by declaring that half of the local taxes to external proprietors would be withheld, with the exception of three shrines.

[30] This development was closely monitored by the government in Kyoto: on one side, the uprising had driven away the destructive Hatakeyama armies, but the confiscation of taxes was a prerogative traditionally held by the shogunate.

[38] The province's ikki, sometimes joined by urban residents of Kyoto, also repeatedly invaded the capital from 1486, demanding debt reductions, sometimes occupying or burning districts of the city.

[2] As they were effectively caught between this invasion and the growing opposition of the local peasants, the confederacy's samurai mostly opted to yield to the shogunate and accepted Ise Sadaroku as the shugo.

It was not subject to military taxes raised in other parts of Japan, and remained "a breeding ground for uprisings against brokers and toll barriers".

[2] Several aristocrats and abbots based in Kyoto initially responded positively to this development, sending inspectors to survey their estates in the ikki-held area.

[44] In contrast, Ishida Yoshihito believed that the defeat of the ikki was the result of their alleged protector, Hosokawa Masamoto, being distracted at the time due to his involvement in a coup d'état.

[37] Based on the contemporary chronicles' reports on the ikki's now-lost constitution, Souyri instead argued that the Yamashiro uprising –though initially supported by the local peasants– was mainly an attempt by the regional low-ranking samurai to seize power for themselves.