HOJO YOs.h.i.tOKI

Crafty and astute as was Hojo Tokimasa, his son Yos.h.i.toki excelled him in both of those attributes as well as in prescience. It was to the mansion of Yos.h.i.toki that Sanetomo was carried for safety when his life was menaced by the wiles of Tokimasa. Yet in thus espousing the cause of his sister, Masa, and his nephew, Sanetomo, against his father, Tokimasa, and his brother-in-law, Tomomasa, it is not to be supposed that Yos.h.i.toki's motive was loyalty to the house of Yoritomo. On the contrary, everything goes to show that he would have a.s.sociated himself with his father's conspiracy had he not deemed the time premature and the method clumsy. He waited patiently, and when the occasion arrived, he "covered his tracks" with infinite skill while marching always towards the goal of Tokimasa's ambition.

The first to be "removed" was Wada Yoshimori, whom Yoritomo had gratefully appointed betto of the Samurai-dokoro. Yoritomo's eldest son, Yoriiye, had left two sons, Kugyo and Senju-maru. The former had taken the tonsure after his father's and elder brother's deaths, in 1204, but the cause of the latter was espoused with arms by a Shinano magnate, Izumi Chikahira, in 1213. On Wada Yoshimori, as betto of the Samurai-dokoro, devolved the duty of quelling this revolt. He did so effectually, but in the disposition of the insurgents' property, the shikken, Yos.h.i.toki, contrived to drive Wada to open rebellion. He attacked the mansion of the shogun and the shikken, captured and burned the former, chiefly through the prowess of his giant son, Asahina Saburo; but was defeated and ultimately killed, Senju-maru, though only thirteen years old, being condemned to death on the pretext that his name had been used to foment the insurrection! After this convenient episode, Yos.h.i.toki supplemented his office of shikken with that of betto of the Samurai-dokoro, thus becoming supreme in military and civil affairs alike.

DEATH OF SANETOMO

How far Sanetomo appreciated the situation thus created there is much difficulty in determining. The sentiment of pity evoked by his tragic fate has been projected too strongly upon the pages of his annals to leave them quite legible. He had seen his elder brother and two of the latter's three sons done to death. He had seen the "removal" of several of his father's most trusted lieutenants. He had seen the gradual upbuilding of the Hojo power on this hecatomb of victims.

That he perceived something of his own danger would seem to be a natural inference. Yet if he entertained such apprehensions, he never communicated them to his mother, Masa, who, from her place of high prestige and commanding intellect, could have reshaped the issue.

The fact would appear to be that Hojo Yos.h.i.toki's intrigues were too subtle for the perception of Sanetomo or even of the lady Masa.

Yos.h.i.toki had learned all the lessons of craft and cunning that his father could teach and had supplemented them from the resources of his own marvellously fertile mind. His uniformly successful practice was to sacrifice the agents of his crimes in order to hide his own connexion with them, and never to seize an opportunity until its possibilities were fully developed. Tokimasa had feigned ignorance of his daughter's liaison with Yoritomo, but had made it the occasion to raise an army which could be directed either against Yoritomo or in his support, as events ordered. There are strong reasons to think that the vendetta of the Soga brothers was instigated by Tokimasa and Yos.h.i.toki, and that Yoritomo was intended to be the ultimate victim.

This was the beginning of a long series of intrigues which led to the deaths of Yoriiye and two of his sons, of Hatakeyama Shigetada, of Minamoto Tomomasa, of Wada Yoshimori, and of many a minor partisan of the Yoritomo family. In the pursuit of his sinister design, there came a time when Yos.h.i.toki had to choose between his father and his sister. He sacrificed the former unhesitatingly, and it is very probable that such a choice helped materially to hide from the lady Masa the true purport of his doings. For that it did remain hidden from her till the end is proved by her failure to guard the life of Sanetomo, her own son, and by her subsequent co-operation with his slayer, Yos.h.i.toki, her brother. A mother's heart would never wittingly have prompted such a course.

There is a tradition that Sanetomo provoked the resentment of Masa and Yos.h.i.toki by accepting high offices conferred on him by Kyoto--chunagon, and general of the Left division of the guards--in defiance of Yoritomo's motto, "Wield power in fact but never in name," and contrary to remonstrances addressed to him through the agency of Oye no Hiromoto. There is also a tradition that, under pretense of visiting China in the company of a Chinese bonze, Chen Hosiang, he planned escape to the Kinai or Chugoku (central j.a.pan), there to organize armed resistance to the Hojo designs. But it is very doubtful whether these pages of history, especially the latter, should not be regarded in the main as fiction. Sanetomo was too much of a litterateur to be an astute politician, and what eluded the observation of his lynx-eyed mother might well escape his perception.

In 1217, Yos.h.i.toki invited Kugyo from Kyoto and appointed him to be betto of the shrine of Hachiman (the G.o.d of War) which stood on the hill of Tsurugaoka overlooking the town of Kamakura. Kugyo was the second and only remaining legitimate son of Yoriiye. He had seen his father and his two brothers done to death, and he himself had been obliged to enter religion, all of which misfortunes he had been taught by Yos.h.i.toki's agents to ascribe to the partisans of his uncle, Sanetomo. Longing for revenge, the young friar waited. His opportunity came early in 1219. Sanetomo, having been nominated minister of the Left by the Kyoto Court, had to repair to the Tsurugaoka shrine to render thanks to the patron deity of his family.

The time was fixed for ten o 'clock on the night of February 12th.

Oye no Hiromoto, who had cognizance of the plot, hid his guilty knowledge by offering counsels of caution. He advised that the function should be deferred until daylight, or, at any rate, that the shogun should wear armour. Minamoto Nakaakira combatted both proposals and they were rejected. Sanetomo had a vague presentiment of peril. He gave a lock of his hair to one of his squires and composed a couplet:

Though I am forth and gone, And tenantless my home; Forget not thou the Spring, Oh! plum tree by the eaves.

Then he set out, escorted by a thousand troopers, his sword of State borne by the regent, Yos.h.i.toki. But at the entrance to the shrine Yos.h.i.toki turned back, pretending to be sick and giving the sword to Nakaakira. Nothing untoward occurred until, the ceremony being concluded, Sanetomo had begun to descend a broad flight of stone steps that led from the summit of the hill. Then suddenly Kugyo sprang out, killed Sanetomo and Nakaakira, carrying off the head of the former, and, having announced himself as his father's avenger, succeeded in effecting his escape. But he had been the agent of Yos.h.i.toki's crime, and his survival would have been inconvenient.

Therefore, when he appealed to the Miura mansion for aid, emissaries were sent by the regent's order to welcome and to slay him. Sanetomo perished in his twenty-eighth year. All accounts agree that he was not a mere poet--though his skill in that line was remarkable--but that he also possessed administrative talent; that he strove earnestly to live up, and make his officers live up, to the ideals of his father, Yoritomo, and that he never wittingly committed an injustice.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOJO REGENCY

Thus, after three generations occupying a period of only forty years, the Minamoto family was ruined, and the reins of power were effectually transferred to Hojo hands. It would seem natural, in the sequence of events, that the office of shogun should now descend to the Hojo. But Yos.h.i.toki understood that such a measure would convict him of having contrived the downfall of Yoritomo's progeny in Hojo interests. Therefore a step was taken, worthy of the sagacity of the lady Masa and her brother, the regent. The Bakufu pet.i.tioned the Kyoto Court to appoint an Imperial prince to the post of shogun. That would have invested the Kamakura Government with new dignity in the eyes of the nation. But the ex-Emperor, Go-Toba, upon whom it devolved to decide the fate of this pet.i.tion, rejected it incontinently.

His Majesty, as will presently be seen, was seeking to contrive the downfall of the Bakufu, and the idea of a.s.sociating one of his own sons with its fortunes must have revolted him. In the face of this rebuff, nothing remained for the Bakufu except recourse to the descendants of the Minamoto in the female line. Yoritomo's elder sister had married into the Fujiwara family, and her greatgrandson, Yoritsune, a child of two, was carried to Kamakura and installed as the head of the Minamoto. Not until 1226, however, was he invested with the t.i.tle of shogun, and in that interval of seven years a momentous chapter was added to the history of j.a.pan.

THE SHOKYU STRUGGLE

The Shokyu era (1219-1222) gave its name to a memorable conflict between Kyoto and Kamakura. Affairs in the Imperial capital were ruled at that time by the ex-Emperor, Go-Toba. We have seen how, in 1198, he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Tsuchimikado. It is not impossible that the idea of rebelling, sooner or later, against the Bakufu had begun to germinate in the mind of Go-Toba at that date, but the probability is that, in laying aside the sceptre, his dominant aim was to enjoy the sweets of power without its responsibilities, and to obtain leisure for pursuing polite accomplishments in which he excelled. His procedure, however, const.i.tuted a slight to the Bakufu, for the change of sovereign was accomplished without any reference whatever to Kamakura. Tsuchimikado was a baby of three at the time of his accession. He had been chosen by lot from among three sons of Go-Toba, but the choice displeased the latter, and in 1210, Tsuchimikado, then in his fifteenth year, was compelled to abdicate in favour of his younger brother, Juntoku, aged thirteen, the eighty-fourth occupant of the throne. Again, Kamakura was not consulted; but the neglect evoked no remonstrance, for Sanetomo held the post of shogun at the time, and Sanetomo always maintained an att.i.tude of deference towards the Imperial Court which had nominated him to high office.

Juntoku held the sceptre eleven years, and then (1221) he, too, abdicated at his father's request. Very different considerations, however, were operative on this occasion. Go-Toba had now definitely resolved to try armed conclusions with the Bakufu, and he desired to have the a.s.sistance of his favourite son, Juntoku. Thus three cloistered Emperors had their palaces in Kyoto simultaneously. They were distinguished as Hon-in (Go-Toba), Chu-in (Tsuchimikado) and Shin-in* (Juntoku). As for the occupant of the throne, Chukyo (eighty-fifth sovereign) he was a boy of two, the son of Juntoku.

Much has been written about Go-Toba by romanticists and little by sober historians. The pathos of his fate tends to obscure his true character. That he was gifted with exceptional versatility is scarcely questionable; but that he lacked all the qualities making for greatness appears equally certain. That his instincts were so cruel as to make him derive pleasure from scenes of human suffering, such as the torture of a prisoner, may have been due to a neurotic condition induced by early excesses, but it must always stand to his discredit that he had neither judgment to estimate opportunities nor ability to create them.

*Shin-in signifies the "original recluse;" Chu-in, the "middle recluse;" and Shin-in "the new recluse."

Briefly summarized, the conditions which contributed mainly to the Shokyu struggle had their origin in the system of land supervision inst.i.tuted by Yoritomo at the instance of Oye no Hiromoto. The constables and the stewards despatched by the Bakufu to the provinces interfered irksomely with private rights of property, and thus there was gradually engendered a sentiment of discontent, especially among those who owed their estates to Imperial benevolence. A well-known record (Tai-hei-ki) says: "In early morn the stars that linger in the firmament gradually lose their brilliancy, even though the sun has not yet appeared above the horizon. The military families did not wantonly show contempt towards the Court. But in some districts the stewards were more powerful than the owners of the estates, and the constables were more respected than the provincial governors. Thus insensibly the influence of the Court waned day by day and that of the military waxed."

There were other causes also at work. They are thus summarized by the Kamakura Jidaishi: "The conditions of the time called two parties into existence: the Kyoto party and the military party. To the former belonged not only many officials of Shinto shrines, priests of Buddhist temples, and managers of private manors, but also a few nominal retainers of the Bakufu. These last included men who, having occupied posts in the Imperial capital for a long time, had learned to regard the Court with grat.i.tude; others who had special grievances against the Bakufu, and yet others who, having lost their estates, were ready to adopt any means of recovering them. The family system of the time paid no heed to primogeniture. Parents fixed the succession by favouritism, and made such divisions as seemed expedient in their eyes. During a parent's lifetime there could be no appeal nor any remonstrance. But no sooner was a father's tombstone about to be erected, than his children engaged in disputes or appealed to the courts. Therefore the Bakufu, seeking to correct this evil state of affairs, issued an order that the members of a family should be subservient to the directions of the eldest son; which order was followed, in 1202, by a law providing that disputes between brothers must be compromised, and by another, in 1214, ruling that applications for official posts must have the approval of the members of the applicants' family in conclave instead of being submitted direct, as theretofore. Under such a system of family autocracy it frequently happened that men were ousted from all share in their paternal estates, and these men, carrying their genealogical tables constantly in their pockets, were ready to join in any enterprise that might better their circ.u.mstances. Hence the Shokyu struggle may be said to have been, politically, a collision between the Imperial Court and the Bakufu, and, socially, a protest against family autocracy."

The murder of Sanetomo inspired the Court with strong hope that a suicidal feud had commenced at Kamakura, and when the Fujiwara baby, Yoritsune, was sent thither, peace-loving politicians entertained an idea that the civil and the military administration would soon be found co-operating. But neither event made any change in the situation. The lady Masa and her brother remained as powerful as ever and as careless of the Court's dignity.

Two events now occurred which materially hastened a rupture. One was connected with an estate, in the province of Settsu, conferred by Go-Toba on a favourite--a shirabyoshi, "white measure-marker," as a danseuse of those days was called. The land-steward of this estate treated its new owner, Kamegiku, with contumely, and Go-Toba was sufficiently infatuated to lodge a protest, which elicited from Kamakura an unceremonious negative. One of the flagrant abuses of the time was the sale of offices to Court ladies, and the Bakufu's att.i.tude in the affair of the Settsu estates amounted to an indirect condemnation of such evil practices. But Go-Toba, profoundly incensed, applied himself from that day to mustering soldiers and practising military tactics. The second incident which precipitated an appeal to arms was the confiscation of a manor owned by a bushi named Nishina Morito, who, though a retainer (keriin) of the Bakufu, had taken service at the Imperial Court. Go-Toba asked that the estate should be restored, but Yos.h.i.toki flatly refused. It was then (1221) that Go-Toba contrived the abdication of his son, Juntoku, a young man of twenty-four, possessing, apparently, all the qualities that make for success in war, and thereafter an Imperial decree deprived Yos.h.i.toki of his offices and declared him a rebel. The die was now cast. Troops were summoned from all parts of the Empire to attack Kamakura, and a motley crowd mustered in Kyoto.

STEPS TAKEN BY THE BAKUFU

It was on June 6, 1221, that the Imperial decree outlawing Hojo Yos.h.i.toki appeared, and three days later Kamakura was informed of the event. The lady Masa at once summoned the leading generals of the Bakufu to her presence and addressed them thus: "To-day the time of parting has come. You know well what kind of work the late shogun, my husband, accomplished. But slanderers have misled the sovereign and are seeking to destroy the Kwanto inst.i.tutions. If you have not forgotten the favours of the deceased shogun, you will join hearts and hands to punish the traducers and to preserve the old order. But if any of you wish to proceed to the west, you are free to do so."

This astute appeal is said to have moved the generals greatly. There was not one instance of disaffection; a sufficiently notable fact when we remember that the choice lay between the Throne and the Bakufu. A military council was at once convened by Yos.h.i.toki to discuss a plan of campaign, and the view held by the great majority was that a defensive att.i.tude should be adopted by guarding the Ashigara and Hakone pa.s.ses.

Alone, Oye no Hiromoto opposed that programme. Regarding the situation from a political, not a strategical, standpoint, he saw that every day they remained unmolested must bring an access of strength to the Imperial forces, and he strenuously urged that a dash should be made for Kyoto at once. Even the lady Masa did not rise to Hiromoto's height of discernment; she advocated a delay until the arrival of the Musashi contingent. Another council was convened, but Hiromoto remained inflexible. He went so far as to urge that the Musashi chief--Yos.h.i.toki's eldest son, Yasutoki--ought to advance alone, trusting his troops to follow. Then the lady Masa summoned Miyoshi Yasun.o.bu and asked his opinion. He said: "The fate of the Kwanto is at stake. Strike at once." Thereupon Hojo Yos.h.i.toki ordered Yasutoki, his son, to set out forthwith from Kamakura, though his following consisted of only eighteen troopers.

Thereafter, other forces mustered in rapid succession. They are said to have totalled 190,000. Tokifusa, younger brother of Yasutoki, was adjutant-general, and the army moved by three routes, the Tokai-do, the Tosan-do, and the Hokuriku-do, all converging upon the Imperial capital. On the night of his departure from Kamakura, Yasutoki galloped back all alone and, hastening to his father's presence, said: "I have my orders for the disposition of the forces and for their destination. But if the Emperor in person commands the western army, I have no orders to guide me." Hojo Yos.h.i.toki reflected for a time and then answered: "The sovereign cannot be opposed. If his Majesty be in personal command, then strip off your armour, cut your bow-strings, and a.s.sume the mien of low officials. But if the Emperor be not in command, then fight to the death. Should you be defeated I will never see your face again."

THE STRUGGLE

When they learned that a great army was advancing from the Kwanto, the courtiers in Kyoto lost heart at once. There was no talk of Go-Toba or of Juntoku taking the field. Defensive measures were alone thought of. The Imperialist forces moved out to Mino, Owari, and Etchu. Their plan was to shatter the Bakufu columns separately, or, if that might not be, to fall back and cover the capital. It was a most unequal contest. The Kyoto troops were a mere mob without intelligence or coherence. They broke everywhere under the onset of the Kwanto veterans. At the river Uji, where their last stand was made, they fought gallantly and obstinately. But their efforts only deferred the result by a few hours. On the twenty-fifth day (July 6, 1221) after he had marched out of Kamakura, Yasutoki entered Kyoto.

The Throne had no hesitation as to the course to be pursued in such circ.u.mstances. From the palace of the Shin-in a decree was issued restoring the official t.i.tles of the Hojo chief, and cancelling the edict for his destruction, while, through an envoy sent to meet him, he was informed that the campaign against the Bakufu had been the work of irresponsible subjects; that the sovereign did not sanction it, and that any request preferred by Kamakura would be favourably considered.

Yasutoki received these gracious overtures with a silent obeisance, and taking up his quarters at Rokuhara, proceeded to arrest the leaders of the anti-Bakufu enterprise; to execute or exile the courtiers that had partic.i.p.ated in it, and to confiscate all their estates. In thus acting, Yasutoki obeyed instructions from his implacable father in Kamakura. He himself evinced a disposition to be merciful, especially in the case of the Court n.o.bles. These he sent eastward to the Bakufu capital, which place, however, very few of them reached alive, their deaths being variously compa.s.sed on the way.

To the Imperial family no pity was shown. Even the baby Emperor* was dethroned, and his place given to Go-Horikawa (1221-1232), the eighty-sixth sovereign, then a boy of ten, son of Morisada, Go-Toba's elder brother. Go-Toba, himself was banished to the island of Oki, and Juntoku to Sado, while Tsuchimikado, who had essayed to check the movement against the Bakufu, might have remained in Kyoto had not the exile of his father and brother rendered the city intolerable. At his own request he was transferred, first, to Tosa, and then, to Awa. The three ex-Emperors died in exile. Go-Toba seems to have suffered specially from his reverse of fortunes. He lived in a thatched hut barely impervious to rain, and his lot is said to have been pitiful, even from the point of view of the lower orders.

*To this child, Kanenari, who lived a virtual prisoner in Kyoto for thirteen years subsequently, the Bakufu declined to give the t.i.tle of Emperor. Not until the Meiji Restoration (1870) was he enrolled in the list of sovereigns under the name of Chukyo.

YASUTOKI'S EXPLANATION

There had not been any previous instance of such treatment of the Imperial family by a subject, and public opinion was not unnaturally somewhat shocked. No little interest attaches, therefore, to an explanation given by Yasutoki himself and recorded in the Biography of Saint Myoe (Myoe Shonin-deri). Visiting the temple after his victory, Yasutoki was thus addressed by Myoe:

The ancients used to say, "When men are in mult.i.tude they may overcome heaven for a moment, but heaven in the end triumphs." Though a country be subdued by military force, calamities will soon overtake it unless it be virtuously governed. From time immemorial in both j.a.pan and China sway founded on force has never been permanent. In this country, since the Age of Deities down to the present reign, the Imperial line has been unbroken through ninety generations. No prince of alien blood has ascended the throne. Everything in the realm is the property of the Crown. Whatever the Throne may appropriate, the subject must acquiesce. Even life must be sacrificed if the cause of good government demands it. But you have broken an Imperial army; destroyed Imperial palaces; seized the persons of sovereigns; banished them to remote regions, and exiled Empresses and princes of the Blood. Such acts are contrary to propriety. Heaven will inflict punishment.

These words are said to have profoundly moved Yasutoki. He replied: I desire to express my sincere views. The late shogun (Yoritomo) broke the power of the Heike; restored peace of mind to the Court; removed the sufferings of the people, and rendered loyal service to the sovereign. Among those that served the shogun there was none that did not reverence the Emperor. It seems that his Majesty recognized these meritorious deeds, for he bestowed ranks and t.i.tles. Yoritomo was not only appointed dainagon and taisho, but also given the post of so-tsuihoshi with powers extending to all parts of the empire.

Whenever such honours were offered, he firmly declined to be their recipient, his contention being that not for personal reward but for the sake of the Throne he had striven to subdue the insurgents and to govern the people mercifully. Pressed again and again, however, he had been constrained finally to accede, and thus his relatives also had benefitted, as my grandfather, Tokimasa, and my father, Yos.h.i.toki, who owed their prosperity to the beneficence of the cloistered Emperor.

But after the demise of his Majesty and of the shogun, the Court's administration degenerated. The loyal and the faithful were not recognized and often the innocent were punished. When it was reported that an Imperial army numbering tens of thousands was advancing against the Kwanto, my father, Yos.h.i.toki, asked my views as to dealing with it. I replied: "The Kwanto has been loyal and has erred in nothing. Yet we are now to be punished. Surely the Court is in error? Still the whole country belongs to the sovereign. What is now threatened must take its course. There is nothing for us but to bow our heads, fold our hands, and supplicate for mercy. If, nevertheless, death be our portion, it will be lighter than to live disloyal. If we be pardoned, we can end our lives in mountain forests." My father, after reflecting for a s.p.a.ce, answered: "What you say may be right, but it applies only when the sovereign has properly administered the country. During the present reign, however, the provinces under Imperial sway are in confusion; the peace is disturbed, and the people are in misery; whereas those under the Bakufu are peaceful and prosperous. If the administration of the Court be extended to all the land, misrule and unhappiness will be universal. I do not resist the mandate for selfish reasons. I resist it in the cause of the people. For them I sacrifice my life if heaven be not propitious. There are precedents. Wu of Chou and Kao-tsu of Han acted similarly, but, when victorious, they themselves ascended the throne, whereas if we succeed, we shall merely set up another prince of the same dynasty. Amaterasu and Hachiman will not reproach us. We will punish only the evil councillors who have led the Throne astray. You will set out with all expedition."

Thus instructed, I took the road to Kyoto. But before departing, I went to worship at the shrine of Hachiman. There I prayed that if my taking the field was improper, I might be struck dead forthwith; but that if my enterprise could in any wise aid the country, bring peace to the people, and contribute to the prosperity of the shrines and temples, then might I receive the pity and sympathy of heaven. I took oath before the shrine of Mishima Myojin, also, that my purpose was free from all selfish ambition. Thus, having placed my life in the hand of heaven, I awaited my fate. If to this day I have survived all peril, may I not regard it as an answer to my prayer?

A difference will be detected between the views here attributed to Yos.h.i.toki and his previously narrated instructions to his son, Yasutoki. There can be little doubt that the record in the Myoe Shonin-den is the correct version. Yos.h.i.toki obeyed the Chinese political ethics; he held that a sovereign had to answer for his deeds at the bar of public opinion. Yasutoki's loyalty was of a much more whole-hearted type: he recognized the occupant of the throne as altogether sacrosanct. If he obeyed his father's instructions in dealing with the Court, he condemned himself to the constant companionship of regret, which was reflected in the excellence of his subsequent administration.

ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES

By the Shokyu war the camera system of administration (Insei) at the Court was destroyed, and a great change took place in the relations of the Throne to the Bakufu. For, whereas the latter's authority in Kyoto had hitherto been largely nominal, it now became a supreme reality. Kamakura had been represented in the Imperial capital by a high constable only, whereas two special officials, called "inquisitors" (tandai) were now appointed, and the importance attaching to the office becomes apparent when we observe that the first tandai were Yasutoki himself and his uncle, Tokifusa. They presided over administrative machinery at the two Rokuhara--in the northern and southern suburbs of the city--organized exactly on the lines of the Kamakura polity; namely, a Samurai-dokoro, a Man-dokoro, and a Monju-dokoro. Further, in spite of imposing arrangements in Kyoto, no question was finally decided without previous reference to Kamakura, which thus became, in very truth, the administrative metropolis of the empire.

THE SHIMPO-JITO

When Yoritomo appointed retainers of his own to be land-stewards in the various manors, these officials did not own the estates where they were stationed; they merely collected the taxes and exercised general supervision. After the Shokyu struggle, however, some three thousand manors, hitherto owned by courtiers hostile to the Bakufu, were confiscated by the latter and distributed among the Minamoto, the Hojo, and their partisans. The recipients of these estates were appointed also to be their land-stewards, and thus there came into existence a new cla.s.s of manor-holders, who were at once owners and jito, and who were designated shimpo-jito, or "newly appointed land-stewards," to distinguish them from the hompo-jito, or "originally appointed."

These shimpo-jito, in whom were vested at once the rights of ownership and of management, were the first genuine feudal chiefs in j.a.pan--prototypes of the future daimyo and shomyo. It should be here noted that, in the distribution of these confiscated estates, the Kamakura regent, Yos.h.i.toki, did not benefit to the smallest extent; and that the grants made to the two tandai in Kyoto barely sufficed to defray the charges of their administrative posts. Yos.h.i.toki is, in truth, one of the rare figures to whom history can a.s.sign the credit of coveting neither wealth nor station. Out of the three thousand manors that came into his hands as spolia opima of the Shokyu war, he might have transferred as many as he pleased to his own name; and wielding absolute authority in Kyoto, he could have obtained any t.i.tle he desired. Yet he did not take a rood of land, and his official status at the time of his death was no higher than the fourth rank.

THE BUILDERS OF THE BAKUFU

The great statesmen, legislators, and judges who contributed so much to the creation of the Bakufu did not long survive the Shokyu struggle. Miyoshi Yasun.o.bu, who presided over the Department of Justice (Monju-dokoro) from the time of its establishment, had been attacked by mortal sickness before the Imperial army commenced its march eastward. His last advice was given to the lady Masa when he counselled an immediate advance against Kyoto. Soon afterwards he died at the age of eighty-two. The great Oye no Hiromoto, who contributed more than any other man to the conception and organization of the Kamakura system, and of whom history says that without him the Minamoto had never risen to fame, survived his colleague by only four years, dying, in 1225, at the age of seventy-eight. The lady Masa, one of the world's heroines, expired in the same year, and 1224 had seen the sudden demise of the regent, Hojo Yos.h.i.toki. Fortunately for the Bakufu, the regent's son, Yasutoki, proved himself a ruler of the highest ability, and his immediate successors were not less worthy of the exalted office they filled.