Lots of betraying, unlikely alliances, heroics and tragedies, and radical changing of tradition in the face of modern advancement.

Do you have a more specific question to ask? I'll try to help from my own understanding of the topic.

>>1134811
How did the various warlords maintain their legitimacy and authority? Also were the emperors doing all this time?

>>1134801
That map looks off to me, especially the Shimazu in Kyushu. There were definitely other clans there, such as the Sagara in (I think?) Higo. No way the Date controlled all that territory after the Onin War either. That looks way off. Everything around the capital, Noto and Owari/Mikawa look off too. Where did you find this map?

>>1134824
> Also were the emperors doing all this time
Drinking tea and wearing a funny hat.

>>1134824
>How did the various warlords maintain their legitimacy and authority?
Force

>Also were the emperors doing all this time?

See:

One Emperor

>In 1500, he became Emperor upon the death of his father, the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado. However, because of the aftereffects of the Ōnin War, the Imperial Family was left so impoverished that he was unable to perform the formal coronation ceremony. On the 3rd month, 22nd day of 1521, thanks to contributions from Honganji Jitsunyo (本願寺実如, Rennyo's son) and the Muromachi Bakufu, the Emperor was finally able to carry out this ceremony.

>Daiei 5, on the 1st day of the 1st month (1525): All ceremonies in the court were suspended because of the lack of funds to support them

and his son

>The Imperial Court was so impoverished, that a nationwide appeal for contributions went out. Contributions from the Hōjō clan, the Ōuchi clan, the Imagawa clan, and other great daimyō clans of the Sengoku period allowed the Emperor to carry out the formal coronation ceremonies ten years later. The Imperial Court's poverty was so extreme, that the Emperor was forced to sell his calligraphy.

>>1134824
The emperors were basically just figureheads and puppets, controlled by whoever held Kyoto and told them what to say. If an emperor fell out of line, they were removed and a cousin or a brother was put in their place.

Still even Nobunaga, who shit all over the outdated traditions of the country knew you had to strike a balance between respecting the emperor and knowing he's a tool.

Warlords legitimacy came from their ancestors and distinguishing yourself through battle and leadership.

To use Nobunaga again as an example, he was a relatively minor lord who was disliked by his own lords because he was an unruly child. When he came to power he had to quickly put down a rebellion to install his younger brother. Then instead of rolling over for the much more powerful Imagawa, he defeated him at Okehazama and established himself as a legitimate ruler and dangerous person to cross.

It was all about how you represented yourself and winning glory, with or without pedigree. You had to know strategy and politics as one bad battle or one bad alliance could fuck you over. As did one bad traitor for Nobunaga in the end.

>>1134824
The various warlords at the end of the Onin War maintained their legitimacy through force. That was really the end all. If a warlord lost a significant battle or acted like a pansy, they often lost the support of their retainers and were ultimately driven out of the game. The Sengoku-Jidai was the era of the underdog overthrowing the established order because a lot of well-established families were usurped, overthrown or defeated. There was a class, for instance, of officials known as shugo who were appointed as governors of an area under the now defunct Ashikaga Shogunate. Many shugo during this time period were overthrown by smaller samurai clans, including sometimes their own vassals.

On that subject, there were a lot of upstart vassals in general who started out small but then became big enough to challenge their nominal masters and overthrow them. For example, the Mouri were originally vassals of the Ouchi but due to disorder in the Ouchi domain they were able to liberate themselves and seize former Ouchi territories. Similar things happened with Saito Dosan overthrowing the Toki and Ukita Naoie rebelling against the Uragami.

How well equipped and armed were the armies of the time? I know that most were comprised of ashigaru but you still need to equip tens of thousands of men and Japan is already a tiny island without splitting its land and resources between dozens of feuding warlords.

>>1134876
Japan is not that small.

>>1134876
Japan was shitting gold during sengoku jidai so whoever had goldmines wouldn't have had too much trouble.

>>1134876
A large clan could field and equip tens of thousands of men, maybe between 5,000 to 30,000, sometimes more in certain cases. The manpower of the Otomo clan was extraordinary for example. They were regularly fielding several tens of thousands, sometimes over 50,000. More modest clans could field anywhere from several hundred to thousands of troops.

Equipment changed over the period. At first guns were very sparse for example. Even a few dozen would have been a lot at first. For example, at Uedahara there were only a few dozen guns used by the Murakami clan but they were effective. Then the numbers gradually increased to a few hundred or a few thousand. By the time of the Korean wars they were used en masse.

>>1134926
And also major Daimyo could pull armies from several clans to swell their numbers up to the tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands if the numbers of Sekigahara are to be believed.