The Muromachi age may well emerge in the eyes of historians as one of the most seminal periods in Japanese history. So concluded the participants in the 1973 Conference on Japan. The proceedings, as edited for this volume, reveal this new interpretation of the Muromachi age (1334-1573), which was among the most neglected and misunderstood chapters in Japanese history. Both Western and Japanese scholars looked upon the period chiefly as an interlude...