Database: Local Communities and their Liege Lords

At the end of the Middle Ages, there were several type of samurai. Lower-status warriors, often referred to as jizamurai or dogō, were integrated into local communities, lived among the peasants, and led them. They formed federations (ikki) with other jizamurai from the same region, which allowed them to build forms of political autonomy and resist the influence of the great feudal lords. Sometimes they consolidated their influence by joining the Amidists of Hongan-ji, forming Ikkō leagues that grouped together the population of a region. But more often, they managed to rally the local population around the region's shrines without the need for intervention from an external sect. The question of political autonomy did not only affect the jizamurai and peasants. For example, It was also a concern for the urban bourgeoisie of Kyoto, who tended to organize into neighborhood communities, the machishu. In Sakai, the city was under the control of an autonomous merchant oligarchy in relation to feudal powers.

When the pressure from the daimyō was too strong, it was possible that the small warriors of a region chose to join the vassalage of these lords, especially in the peripheral regions of central Japan where the autonomy of local communities seemed less advanced. By doing so, they contributed to strengthening the vassalage and therefore the political and military hegemony of the lords in whose service they had entered.