The Ashikaga shoguns were avid patrons of the arts, known especially for their collections of Chinese paintings, ceramics and bronzes (karamono), which they often displayed both for their own enjoyment and for the visits of eminent guests to their palaces. The Ashikaga also commissioned detailed illustrated manuscripts that inventoried the collections, described arrangements featured in their palaces, and gave instructions for their proper displays. Information and laudatory descriptions of the shogunal collections and their arrangements can be found in the diaries of courtiers and priests, suggesting the special significance of these formal display for the Ashikaga shoguns. This paper examines the sociopolitical meanings of elaborate, formal, and regulated displays for the Ashikaga focusing on the special significance they held for the sixth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshinori (1394-1441; r. 1429-1441) during the visit of Emperor Go-Hanazono (1419-1471; r. 1428-1464). Through a comprehensive analysis of several primary written and visual sources from the Muromachi period with Muromachi dono gyokō okazariki, this paper explores the role played by Ashikaga shoguns’ formal displays that integrated Buddhist and/or court traditions in the development and consolidation of Ashikaga’s legitimacy/ascendancy in the fifteenth-century Kyoto.