Yoritomo recognized the important bearings of this project. He at once sent Hojo Tokimasa to guard Kyoto and to submit to the Court a statement that it would be far more effective and economical to prevent acts of insurrection than to deal with them after their full development, and that, to the former end, trustworthy local officials should be appointed, the necessary funds being obtained by levying from the twenty-six provinces of the Go-Kinai, Sanin, Sanyo, Nankai, and Saikai a tax of five sho of rice per tan (two bushels per acre).

Go-Shirakawa seems to have perceived the radical character of the proposed measure. He evinced much reluctance to sanction it. But Yoritomo was too strong to be defied. The Court agreed, and from that moment military feudalism may be said to have been established in j.a.pan.

It has been shown that the land system fixed by the Daiho-ryo had fallen into confusion. Private manors existed everywhere, yielding incomes to all cla.s.ses from princes to soldiers. In the days of the Fujiwara and the Taira more than one-half of the arable land throughout the empire was absorbed into such estates, which paid no taxes to anyone except their direct owners. The provincial governor appointed by the Court gradually ceased to exercise control over the shoen in his district, unless he happened to be a military man with a sufficient force of armed retainers (kenin) to a.s.sert his authority.

Hence it became customary for provincial governors not to proceed in person to the place of their function. They appointed deputies (mokudai), and these limited their duties to the collection of taxes from manors. Lands const.i.tuting the domains of great families were under the complete control of their holders, and there being no one responsible for the preservation of general peace and order, bandits and other lawbreakers abounded.

This state of affairs was remedied by the appointment of high constables and land-stewards. The high constable had to arrest insurgents, a.s.sa.s.sins, and robbers wherever he found them, and to muster the soldiers for service in the Kyoto guards. The land-steward was to collect taxes from all private manors. Soon, however, these functions were extended, so that the high constables exercised judicial and administrative powers, and the land-stewards not only collected taxes, and, after deducting their own salaries, handed the remainder to those ent.i.tled to receive it, but also were responsible for the maintenance of peace and order within the manors entrusted to their charge. High constables and land-stewards alike were responsible to Kamakura alone; they were beyond the jurisdiction of the Imperial Court. Thus, the sway of the Minamoto extended throughout the whole country. It may be stated at once here that the landsteward system did not work altogether satisfactorily. The acts of these officials created friction in several quarters, and they were soon withdrawn from all manors other than those owned or administered by Taira. The high constables remained, however, and were in full control of local military affairs, the Kamakura chief controlling the whole in his capacity of lord high constable.

EXEMPTION OF SHRINES AND TEMPLES FROM THE SHUGO SYSTEM

In pursuance of his policy of special benevolence towards religious inst.i.tutions, Yoritomo exempted the manors of temples and shrines from the jurisdiction of high constables. Thus military men were not permitted to make an arrest within the enclosure of a fane, or to trespa.s.s in any way on its domains, these being tax-free.

REFORM OF THE COURT

Yoritomo did not confine himself to re-casting the system of provincial administration. He extended his reforms to the Court, also. Thrice within the short s.p.a.ce of five years he had been proscribed as a rebel by Imperial decree once at the instance of the Taira; once at the instance of Yoshinaka, and once at the instance of Yos.h.i.tsune. In short, the Court, being entirely without military power of its own, was constrained to bow to any display of force from without. As a means of correcting this state of affairs, Hojo Tokimasa was despatched to the Imperial capital at the close of 1185, to officiate there as high constable and representative of the Bakufu. A strong force of troops was placed at his disposal, and efficient means of speedy communications between the east and the west were organized. Moreover, a new office, that of scrutator (nairari), was inst.i.tuted, and to him were transferred some of the powers. .h.i.therto wielded by the regent (kwampaku). Fujiwara Kanezane was the first occupant of this post. Further, a body of twelve councillors (giso), headed by Kanezane, were organized in the cloistered Emperor's Court (Inchu), and to this council was entrusted the duty of discussing and deciding all State affairs. These important steps were taken early in 1186.

Simultaneously, a number of Court officials, including all that had been connected with Yos.h.i.tsune and Yukiie, lost their posts, and, shortly afterwards, Kanezane, becoming regent (kwampaku) in place of Fujiwara Motomichi, co-operated with Oye no Hiromoto in effecting many important changes, the latter operating at Kamakura, the former at Kyoto. It may be noted here that Kanezane's descendants received the name of Kujo, those of Motomichi being called Konoe, and the custom of appointing the kwampaku alternately from these two families came into vogue from that time. All the above reforms having been effected during the year 1186, the Bakufu recalled Hojo Tokimasa and appointed Nakahara Chikayoshi to succeed him. But, as the latter was not a scion of a military family, the Court desired to have a Hojo appointed, and Yoritomo acceded by sending Hojo Tokisada.

PALACES AND FANES

Yoritomo maintained from first to last a reverential att.i.tude towards the Throne and towards religion. It has already been shown how generously he legislated in the matter of estates belonging to temples and shrines, and we may add that his munificence in that respect was stimulated by a terrible earthquake which visited Kyoto in the autumn of 1185. While the city trembled under repeated shocks, the citizens told each other that this was the work of vengeful spirits of the Taira who, having fallen in the great sea-fight, were still without full rites of sepulture. The Kamakura chief seems to have accepted that view, for he not only gave substantial encouragement to the burning of incense and intoning of memorial Sutras, but he also desisted largely from his pursuit of the Taira survivors. Two years later (1187), he sent Oye no Hiromoto to the Imperial capital with authority and ample competence to repair the palaces there. The city was then infested with bandits, a not unnatural product of the warlike era. Chiba Tsunetane, specially despatched from Kamakura, dealt drastically with this nuisance, and good order was finally restored.

YORITOMO VISITS KYOTO

During the early years of his signal triumphs Yoritomo was invited to Kyoto on several occasions. Various considerations deterred him. He wished, in the first place, to dispel the popular illusion that the Imperial capital was the centre of all dignity and power. People must be taught to recognize that, although Kyoto might be the ultimate source of authority, Kamakura was its place of practical exercise. He wished, in the second place, not to absent himself from Kamakura until he could be absolutely a.s.sured that his absence would not afford an opportunity to his enemies; which sense of security was not fully reached until the death of Yos.h.i.tsune and Fujiwara no Yasuhira, and the complete subjugation of the great northern fief of Oshti in the year 1189. Finally, he wished to appear in Kyoto, not merely as the representative of military power, but also as a benefactor who had rebuilt the fanes and restored the palaces.

On the 2nd of November, in the year 1190, he set out from Kamakura and reached Kyoto on December 5th. His armies had shown that, for the purpose of a campaign, the distance would be traversed in little more than half of that time. But Yoritomo's journey was a kind of Imperial progress. Attended by a retinue designed to surprise even the citizens of the Imperial metropolis, he travelled at a leisurely pace and made a pause of some duration in Owari to worship at his father's tomb. The Court received him with all consideration. He had already been honoured with the first grade of the second rank, so that he enjoyed the right of access to the Presence, and the cloistered Emperor held with him long conversations, sometimes lasting a whole day. But Yoritomo did not achieve his purpose. It is true that he received the appointments of gon-dainagon and general of the Right division of the guards. These posts, however, were more objectionable on account of their limitations than acceptable as marks of honour.

Their bestowal was a mere formality, and Yoritomo resigned them in a few days, preferring to be nominated so-tsuihoshi.

What he really desired, however, was the office of sei-i tai-shogun (barbarian-subduing great general). This high t.i.tle had been conferred more than once previously, but only for the purpose of some finite and clearly indicated purpose, on the attainment of which the office had to be surrendered. The Kamakura chief's plan was to remove these limitations, and to make the appointment not only for life but also general in the scope of its functions and hereditary in his own family, reserving to the sovereign the formal right of invest.i.ture alone. Go-Shirakawa, however, appreciated the far-reaching effects of such an arrangement and refused to sanction it. Thus, Yoritomo had to content himself with the post of lord high constable of the empire (so-tsuihoshi), an office of immense importance, but differing radically from that of sei-i tai-shogun in that, whereas the latter had competence to adopt every measure he pleased without reference to any superior authority, the former was required to consult the Imperial Court before taking any step of a serious nature. The Minamoto chief returned quietly to Kamakura, but he left many powerful friends to promote his interests in Kyoto, and when Go-Shirakawa died, in 1192, his grandson and successor, Go-Toba, a boy of thirteen, had not occupied the throne more than three months before the commission of sei-i tai-shogun was conveyed to Yoritomo by special envoys. Thereafter it became the unwritten law of the empire that the holder of this high post must be either the head of the princ.i.p.al Minamoto family or an Imperial prince.

Never before had there been such encroachment upon the prerogatives of the Crown. We have seen that, in the centuries antecedent to the Daika (A.D. 645) reforms, the sovereign's contact with his subjects had been solely through the medium of the o-omi or the o-muraji. By these, the Imperial commands were transmitted and enforced, with such modifications as circ.u.mstances might suggest, nor did the prerogative of nominating the o-omi or the o-muraji belong practically to the Throne. The Daika reforms, copying the Tang polity called into existence a cabinet and a body of officials appointable or removable by the sovereign at will, each entrusted with definite functions. But almost before that centralized system had time to take root, the Fujiwara grafted on it a modification which, in effect, subst.i.tuted their own family for the o-omi and the o-muraji of previous times.

And now, finally, came the Minamoto with their separate capital and their sei-i tai-shogun, who exercised the military and administrative powers of the empire with practically no reference to the Emperor.

Yoritomo himself was always willing and even careful to envelop his own personality in a shadow of profound reverence towards the occupant of the throne, but he was equally careful to preserve for Kamakura the substance of power.

DEATH OF YORITOMO

Yoritomo lived only seven years after he had reached the summit of his ambition. He received the commission of sei-i tai-shogun in the spring of 1192, and, early in 1199, he was thrown from his horse and killed, at the age of fifty-three. He had proceeded to the pageant of opening a new bridge over the Sagami River, and it was popularly rumoured that he had fallen from his horse in a swoon caused by the apparition of Yos.h.i.tsune and Yukiiye on the Yamato plain and that of the Emperor Antoku at Inamura promontory. Just twenty years had elapsed since he raised the Minamoto standard in Sagami. His career was short but meteoric, and he ranks among the three greatest statesmen j.a.pan has ever produced, his compeers being Hideyoshi and Ieyasu.

YORITOMO's CHARACTER

j.a.panese historians have written much about this ill.u.s.trious man.

Their views may be condensed into the following: Yoritomo was short in stature with a disproportionately large head. He had a ringing voice, gentle manners, an intrepid and magnanimous heart, profound insight, and extraordinary caution. The power of imposing his will upon others was one of his notable characteristics, as was also munificence to those that served him. Retainers of the Taira or of the Minamoto--he made no distinction. All that swore fealty to him were frankly regarded as go-kenin of the Bakufu. Estates were given to them, whether restored or newly bestowed, and they were treated much as were the hatamoto of the Yedo shogunate in later times. He spared no pains to preserve Kamakura against the taint of Kyoto's demoralizing influences. The bushi of the Kwanto were made the centre of society; were encouraged to observe the canons of their caste--frugality, loyalty, truth, valour, and generosity--canons daily becoming crystallized into inflexible laws. When Toshikane, lord of Chikugo, appeared at the Kamakura Court in a magnificent costume, Yoritomo evinced his displeasure by slashing the sleeves of the n.o.bleman's surcoat. Skill in archery or equestrianism was so much valued that it brought quick preferment and even secured pardon for a criminal.

On the other hand, neglect of these arts, or conduct unbecoming a samurai, was mercilessly punished. When Hayama Muneyori retired to his province without accompanying the army sent to attack O-U, he was severely censured and deprived of his estates. Cognate instances might be multiplied. In the year 1193, the first case of the vendetta occurred in j.a.pan. Yoritomo organized a grand hunting party on the moors at the southern base of Fuji-yama. Among those that accompanied him was Kudo Suketsune, who had done to death Soga no Sukeyasu. The latter's sons, Sukenari (commonly called Juro) and Tokimune (Goro), having sworn to avenge their father, broke into Yoritomo's camp and took the head of their enemy. The elder was killed in the enterprise; the younger, captured and beheaded. Yoritomo would fain have saved Goro's life, though the youth declared his resolve not to survive his brother. But the Kamakura chief was constrained to yield to the demands of Suketsune's son. He, however, marked his appreciation of Juro and Goro's filial piety by carefully observing their last testament, and by exonerating the Soga estate from the duty of paying taxes in order that funds might be available for religious rites on account of the spirits of the brothers.

This encouragement of fidelity may well have been dictated by selfish policy rather than by moral conviction. Yet that Yoritomo took every conspicuous opportunity of a.s.serting the principle must be recorded.

Thus, he publicly declared Yasuhira a traitor for having done to death his guest, Yos.h.i.tsune, though in so doing Yasuhira obeyed the orders of Yoritomo himself; he executed the disloyal retainer who took Yasuhira's head, though the latter was then a fugitive from the pursuit of the Kamakura armies, and he pardoned Yuri Hachiro, one of Yasuhira's officers, because he defended Yasuhira's reputation in defiance of Yoritomo's anger.

Grat.i.tude Yoritomo never failed to practise within the limit of policy. Rumour said that he had fallen in his first battle at Ishibashi-yama. Thereupon, Miura Yoshiaki, a man of eighty-nine, sent out all his sons to search for Yoritomo's body, and closing his castle in the face of the Taira forces, fell fighting. Yoritomo repaid this loyal service by appointing Yoshiaki's son, Wada Yoshimori, to be betto of the Samurai-dokoro, one of the very highest posts in the gift of the Kamakura Government. Again, it will be remembered that when, as a boy of fourteen, Yoritomo had been condemned to death by Kiyomori, the lad's life was saved through the intercession of Kiyomori's step-mother, Ike, who had been prompted by Taira no Munekiyo. After the fall of the Taira, Yoritomo prayed the Court to release Ike's son, Yorimori, and to restore his rank and estates, while in Munekiyo's case he made similar offers but they were rejected.

Towards his own kith and kin, however, he showed himself implacable.

In Yos.h.i.tsune's case it has been indicated that there was much to awaken Yoritomo's suspicions. But his brother Noriyori had no qualities at all likely to be dangerously exercised. A commonplace, simple-hearted man, he was living quietly on his estate in Izu when false news came that Yoritomo had perished under the sword of the Soga brothers. Yoritomo's wife being prostrated by the intelligence, Noriyori bade her be rea.s.sured since he, Noriyori, survived. When this came to Yoritomo's ears, doubtless in a very exaggerated form, he sent a band of a.s.sa.s.sins who killed Noriyori. a.s.sa.s.sination was a device from which the Kamakura chief did not shrink at all. It has been shown how he sent Tosabo Shoshun to make away with Yos.h.i.tsune in Kyoto, and we now see him employing a similar instrument against Noriyori, as he did also against his half-brother, Zensei. It would seem to have been his deliberate policy to remove every potential obstacle to the accession of his own sons. Many historians agree in ascribing these cruelties to jealousy. But though Yoritomo might have been jealous of Yos.h.i.tsune, he could not possibly have experienced any access of such a sentiment with regard to Noriyori or Zensei.

Towards religion, it would seem that his att.i.tude was sincere. Not in Kyoto and Kamakura alone did he adopt drastic measures for the restoration or erection of temples and shrines, but also throughout the provinces he exerted his all-powerful influence in the same cause. He himself contributed large sums for the purpose, and at his instance the Courts of the Emperor and of the Bakufu granted special rights and privileges to bonzes who went about the country collecting subscriptions. Thus encouraged, the priests worked with conspicuous zeal, and by men like Mongaku, Jugen, Eisai, and their comrades not only were many imposing fanes erected and many images cast, but also roads were opened, harbours constructed, and bridges built. Yoritomo knew what an important part religion had contributed in past ages to the country's national development, and he did not neglect to utilize its services in the interests, first, of the nation's prosperity and, secondly, of the Bakufu's popularity. Incidentally all this building of fanes and restoration of palaces promoted in no small degree the development of art, pure and applied. Experts in every line made their appearance, and many masterpieces of architecture and sculpture enriched the era. These reflected the change which the spirit of the nation was undergoing in its pa.s.sage from the delicacy and weakness of the Fujiwara type to the strength, directness, and dignity of the bushi's code.

ENGRAVING: CANDLE-STICKS

ENGRAVING: SAMURAI'S RESIDENCE IN THE KAMAKURA PERIOD

CHAPTER XXVI

THE KAMAKURA BAKUFU

ABDICATION OF GO-TOBA

IN the year 1198, the Emperor Go-Toba abdicated the throne in favour of his son, who reigned during twelve years (1199-1210) under the name of Tsuchi-mikado, eighty-third sovereign. Of Go-Toba much will be said by and by. It will suffice to note here, however, that his abdication was altogether voluntary. Ascending the throne in 1184, at the age of four, he had pa.s.sed the next eight years as a mere puppet manipulated by his grandfather, Go-Shirakawa, the cloistered Emperor, and on the latter's death in 1192, Go-Toba fell into many of the faults of youth. But at eighteen he became ambitious of governing in fact as well as in name, and as he judged that this could be accomplished better from the Inchu (retired palace) than from the throne, he abdicated without consulting the Kamakura Bakufu. It is more than probable that Yoritomo would have made his influence felt on this occasion had any irregularity furnished a pretext. But the advisers of the Kyoto Court were careful that everything should be in order, and the Kamakura chief saw no reason to depart from his habitually reverent att.i.tude towards the Throne.

YORIIYE, THE LADY MASA, AND HOJO TOKIMASA

On the demise of Yoritomo (1199), his eldest son, Yoriiye, succeeded to the compound office of lord high constable and chief land-steward (so-shugo-jito), his invest.i.ture as shogun being deferred until Kyoto's sanction could be obtained. Yoriiye was then in his eighteenth year, and he had for chief adviser Hatakeyama Shigetada, appointed to the post by Yoritomo's will. He inherited nothing of his father's sagacity. On the contrary, he did not possess even average ability, and his thoughts were occupied almost uniquely with physical pleasures. His mother, Masa, astute, crafty, resourceful, and heroic, well understood the deficiency of his moral endowments, but as her second son, Sanetomo, was only seven years old, Yoriiye's accession presented itself in the light of a necessity. She therefore determined to give him every possible aid. Even during her husband's life she had wielded immense influence, and this was now greatly augmented by the situation. She shaved her head--after the manner of the cloistered Emperors--and taking the name of Ni-i-no-ama, virtually a.s.sumed charge of the Bakufu administration in a.s.sociation with her father, Hojo Tokimasa.

Exactly what part this remarkable man acted in the episodes of Yoritomo's career, can never be known. He exerted his influence so secretly that contemporary historians took little note of him; and while, in view of his final record, some see in him the spirit that prompted Yoritomo's merciless extirpation of his own relatives, others decline to credit him with such far-seeing cruelty, and hold that his ultimately attempted usurpations were inspired solely by fortuitous opportunity which owed nothing to his contrivance.

Wherever the truth may lie as between these views, it is certain that after Yoritomo's death, Hojo Tokimasa conspired to remove the Minamoto from the scene and to replace them with the Hojo.

THE DELIBERATIVE COUNCIL

The whole coterie of ill.u.s.trious men--legislators, administrators, and generals--whom Yoritomo had a.s.sembled at Kamakura, was formed into a council of thirteen members to discuss the affairs of the Bakufu after his death. This body of councillors included Tokimasa and his son, Yos.h.i.toki; Oye no Hiromoto, Miyoshi Yasun.o.bu; Nakahara Chikayoshi, Miura Yoshizumi, Wada Yoshimori, Hiki Yoshikazu, and five others. But though they deliberated, they did not decide. All final decision required the endors.e.m.e.nt of the lady Masa and her father, Hojo Tokimasa.

DEATH OF YORIIYE

Yoriiye had been at the head of the Bakufu for three years before his commission of shogun came from Kyoto, and in the following year (1203), he was attacked by a malady which threatened to end fatally.

The question of the succession thus acquired immediate importance.

Yoriiye's eldest son, Ichiman, the natural heir, was only three years old, and Yoritomo's second son, Sanetomo, was in his eleventh year.

In this balance of claims, Hojo Tokimasa saw his opportunity. He would divide the Minamoto power by way of preliminary to supplanting it. Marshalling arguments based chiefly on the advisability of averting an armed struggle, he persuaded the lady Masa to endorse a compromise, namely, that to Sanetomo should be given the office of land-steward in thirty-eight provinces of the Kwansai; while to Ichiman should be secured the t.i.tle of shogun and the offices of lord high constable and land-steward in twenty-eight provinces of the Kwanto.

Now the maternal grandfather of Ichiman was Hiki Yoshikazu, a captain who had won high renown in the days of Yoritomo. Learning of the projected part.i.tion and appreciating the grave effect it must produce on the fortunes of his grandson, Hiki commissioned his daughter to relate the whole story to Yoriiye, and applied himself to organize a plot for the destruction of the Hojo. But the facts came to the lady Masa's ears, and she lost no time in communicating them to Tokimasa, who, with characteristic prompt.i.tude, invited Hiki to a conference and had him a.s.sa.s.sinated. Thereupon, Hiki's son, Munetomo, a.s.sembled all his retainers and entrenched himself in Ichiman's mansion, where, being presently besieged by an overwhelming force of Tokimasa's partisans, he set fire to the house and perished with the child, Ichiman, and with many brave soldiers. The death of his son, of his father-in-law, and of his brother-in-law profoundly affected Yoriiye.

He attempted to take vengeance upon his grandfather, Tokimasa, but his emissaries suffered a signal defeat, and he himself, being now completely discredited, was constrained to follow his mother, Masa's, advice, namely, to take the tonsure and retire to the monastery Shuzen-ji in Izu. There he was followed and murdered by Tokimasa's agents. It is apparent that throughout these intrigues the lady Masa made no resolute attempt to support her first-born. She recognized in him a source of weakness rather than of strength to the Minamoto.

SANETOMO

After Yoriiye's retirement, in 1204, to the monastery in Izu, Masa, with the concurrence of her father, Tokimasa, decided on the accession of her second son, Sanetomo, then in his twelfth year, and application for his appointment to the office of shogun having been duly made, a favourable and speedy reply was received from Kyoto. The most important feature of the arrangement was that Hojo Tokimasa became shikken, or military regent, and thus wielded greater powers than ever--powers which he quickly proceeded to abuse for revolutionary purposes. His policy was to remove from his path, by any and every measure, all potential obstacles to the consummation of his ambition.

Among these obstacles were the lady Masa and the new shogun, Sanetomo. So long as these two lived, the Yoritomo family could count on the allegiance of the Kwanto, and so long as that allegiance remained intact, the elevation of the Hojo to the seats of supreme authority could not be compa.s.sed. Further, the subst.i.tution of Hojo for Minamoto must be gradual. Nothing abrupt would be tolerable. Now the Hojo chief's second wife, Maki, had borne to him a daughter who married Minamoto Tomomasa, governor of Musashi and lord constable of Kyoto, in which city he was serving when history first takes prominent notice of him. This lady Maki seems to have been of the same type as her step-daughter, Masa. Both possessed high courage and intellectual endowments of an extraordinary order, and both were profoundly ambitious. Maki saw no reason why her husband, Hojo Tokimasa, should lend all his great influence to support the degenerate scions of one of his family in preference to the able and distinguished representative of the other branch. Tomomasa was both able and distinguished. By a prompt and vigorous exercise of military talent he had crushed a Heike rising in Ise, which had threatened for a time to become perilously formidable. His mother may well have believed herself justified in representing to Hojo Tokimasa that such a man would make a much better Minamoto shogun than the half-witted libertine, Yoriiye, or the untried boy, Sanetomo. It has been inferred that her pleading was in Tokimasa's ears when he sent a band of a.s.sa.s.sins to murder Yoriiye in the Shuzen-ji monastery. However that may be, there can be little doubt that the Hojo chief, in the closing episodes of his career, favoured the progeny of his second wife, Maki, in preference to that of his daughter, Masa.

Having "removed" Yoriiye, he extended the same fate to Hatakeyama Shigetada, one of the most loyal and trusted servants of Yoritomo.

Shigetada would never have connived at any measure inimical to the interests of his deceased master. Therefore, he was put out of the way. Then the conspirators fixed their eyes upon Sanetomo. The twelve-year-old boy was to be invited to Minamoto Tomomasa's mansion and there destroyed. This was the lady Maki's plan. The lady Masa discovered it, and hastened to secure Sanetomo's safety by carrying him to the house of her brother, Yos.h.i.toki. The political career of Hojo Tokimasa ended here. He had to take the tonsure, surrender his post of regent and go into exile in Izu, where he died, in 1215, after a decade of obscurity. As for Minamoto Tomomasa, he was killed in Kyoto by troops despatched for the purpose. This conflict in 1205, though Hojo Tokimasa and Minamoto Tomomasa figured so largely in it, is by some historians regarded as simply a conflict between the ladies Maki and Masa. These two women certainly occupied a prominent place on the stage of events, but the figure behind the scenes was the white-haired intriguer, Tokimasa. Had the lady Maki's son-in-law succeeded Sanetomo, the former would have been the next victim of Tokimasa's ambition, whereafter the field would have been open for the grand climacteric, the supremacy of the Hojo.