The Mikado's Empire/Buku 1/Bab 15

XV.

THE GLORY AND THE FALL OF THE HOJŌ FAMILY

Though there may be some slight justification for Yoritomo’s setting up a dual system of government to control and check the intrigues of courtiers at Kyoto, it was at best a usurpation of the power belonging only to the Mikado. The creation of a duarchy was the swift and sure result of Japan having no foreign enemies.

As long as the peace or existence of the empire was threatened by savages on the frontier, or by invading fleets on the seacoast, there was an impelling cause to bind together the throne and people. But when the barbarians were pacified, China and Korea gave no signs of war, and especially when the nobility were divided into civil and military classes, and the Mikado was no longer a man of physical and mental vigor, a division of governing power naturally arose.

From the opening of the thirteenth century, the course of Japanese history flowed in two streams. There were now two capitals, Kyoto and Kamakura, and two centers of authority: one, the lawful but overawed emperor and the imperial court; the other, the military vassal, and a government based on the power of arms. It must never be forgotten, however, that the fountain of authority was in Kyoto, the ultimate seat of power in the ancient constitution. Throughout the centuries, the prestige of the Mikado’s person never declined. The only condition under which it was possible for this division of political power to exist was the absence of foreigners from the soil of Japan. As soon as Japan entered into political relations with outside nations, which would naturally seek the real source of power, the duarchy was doomed.

When Yoritomo died, all wondered whether power would remain in Kamakura, the country would remain peaceful, and his successors would reign with ability. The Japanese have a proverb conveying a bitter truth learned from oft-repeated experience: “Taisho ni tane ga nashi” (The general has no child, or, There is no seed to a great man).

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The spectacle of a great house decaying through the inanity or supineness of sons is constantly repeated in their history. This theme also forms the basis of their standard novels. Yoritomo’s sons, not inheriting their father’s ability, failed to wield his personal power of administration. From the day of his death, it may be said that the glory of the Minamoto family declined, while that of the Hōjō began.
 Yet it seemed strange that the proverb should be verified in this case. Yoritomo had married no ordinary woman. His wife, Masako, was a woman of uncommon intellectual ability, who had borne him a son, Yoriiye. This young man, who was eighteen years old at his father’s death, was immediately appointed chief of all the military officers in the empire, and it was expected he would equal his father in military prowess and administrative skill. His mother, Masako, though a shorn nun who had professed retirement from the world, continued to take a very active part in the government.

Parental authority and influence in Japan, as in China, are often far greater than any other. Not even death or marriage weakens, to any great extent, the hold of a parent on a child. With affection on one hand and cunning on the other, an unscrupulous parent may do what they will. We have seen how the Fujiwara and Taira families controlled the court, throne, and emperor by marrying their daughters to infant or boy Mikados. Now, we shall find the Hōjō dispensing power at Kamakura through a crafty woman willing to minister to her father’s, rather than her son’s, aggrandizement.

Hōjō Tokimasa was the father of Masako, wife of Yoritomo. The latter always had great confidence in and respect for the abilities of his father-in-law. Upon his death, Tokimasa became chief of the council of state. Instead of assisting and training Yoriiye in government affairs, giving him the benefit of his experience, and thus enabling the son to tread in his father’s footsteps, he would not allow Yoriiye to hear cases in person or take an active share in public business. When the youth plunged into dissipation and idleness, which terminated in a vicious course of life, his mother often reproved him, while Tokimasa, doubtless rejoicing over the fact, pretended to know nothing of the matter. Meanwhile, he was filling government offices not with Minamoto adherents but with his own kindred and partisans. Nepotism in Japan is a science, but cursed as the Japanese have been, probably none exceeded in this subtle craft the master, Tokimasa. Though Yoriiye, receiving his fa-

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ther’s office, had been appointed Sei-i Taishōgun with the rank of junii (second division of the second rank), his grandfather still kept the real power. When Yoriiye was twenty-two years old, while suffering from sickness — probably the result of his manner of life — his mother and Tokimasa, who instigated her, attempted to compel him to resign his office, giving the superintendency of the provincial governors to his infant son, and setting over the Kuansei, or Western Japan, his younger brother, aged twelve years. This was the old trick of setting up boys and babies on the nominal seat of power so that crafty subordinates could rule.

Yoriiye heard of this plan and resolved to avert its execution. He failed and, as is usual in such cases, was compelled to shave off his hair as a sign that his interest in political affairs had ceased. He was exiled to a temple in Izu. There, he was strangled while in his bath by assassins hired by Tokimasa.

Sanetomo, brother of Yoriiye, succeeded in office. The boy was only twelve years old and very unlike his father. He cared nothing for hunting or military exercises. His chief occupation was playing football — a very mild game compared to that played in this country — and composing poetry. His time was spent with fair girls and women, of whom he had as many as he wished. All this was in accordance with the desires and plans of the Hōjō family, who meanwhile wielded all the power. Sanetomo lived his luxurious life in the harem, the bath, and the garden until he was twenty-eight years old. Meanwhile, Kugyō, the son of Yoriiye, who had been made a priest, grew up and had always regarded Sanetomo, rather than Tokimasa, as his father’s murderer. One night, as Sanetomo was returning from worship at the famous shrine of Tsurugaoka — the unusual hour of nine having been chosen by diviners — Kugyō leaped out from behind a staircase, cut off Sanetomo’s head, and made off with it, but was himself beheaded by a soldier sent after him. The main line of the Minamoto family was now extinct. Thus, in the very origin and foundation of the line of shoguns, the same fate befell them as in the case of the emperors. The power wielded by an illustrious ancestor, when transferred to descendants, was lost. A nominal ruler sat on the throne, while a puppet-master behind directed every movement. This is the history of every line of shoguns that ruled from the first in 1196 until the last in 1868.

The usurpation of the Hojo was a double usurpation. Properly, they were vassals of the shogun, who was himself a vassal of the mikado.

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It must not be supposed that the emperor at Kyoto calmly looked on, caring for none of these things at Kamakura. The meshes of the Minamoto had been woven completely around the imperial authority. Now, the Hojo, like a new spider, were spinning a more fatal thread, sucking from the emperor, like a helpless fly, the lifeblood of power.

The Hojo family traced their descent from the Mikado Kuammu (782-805) through Sadamori, a Taira noble, from whom Tokimasa was the seventh in descent. Their ancestors had settled in Hojo, in Izu, whence they took their name. While the Minamoto rose to power, the Hojo assisted them, and by intermarriage, the two clans became closely attached to each other.

The names of the twelve rulers, usually reckoned as seven generations, were: Tokimasa, Yoshitoki, Yasutoki, Tsunetoki, Tokiyori, Masatoki, Tokimune, Sadatoki, Morotoki, Hirotoki, Takatoki, and Moritoki. Of these, the third, fourth, and fifth were the ablest and most devoted to public business. It was on the strength of their merit and fame that their successors were able to hold power for so long. Yasutoki established two councils: one with legislative and executive powers, and the other with judicial powers. Both were representative of the people's wishes. He promulgated sixty regulations regarding the method of judicature. This judicial record is of great value to historians, and long afterward, in 1534, an edition of Yasutoki’s laws, in one volume with commentary, was published. Later, it was even used as a copybook for children. He also took an oath before the assembly to maintain fairness, swearing by the gods of Japan, saying, "We stand as judges of the whole country; if we are partial in our judgments, may the Heavenly Gods punish us." In his private life, he was self-abnegating and benevolent, a polite and accomplished scholar who loved the company of the learned. Tsunetoki faithfully executed the laws and continued the policies of his predecessor. Tokiyori, before becoming regent, traveled, often in disguise, throughout the empire to examine local administration and find able men to put in office when needed. In his choices, he made no distinction of rank. Among the upright men he appointed was Awodo, who, for conscientious reasons, never wore silk garments, carried a lacquered scabbard, or accepted bribes. He was the terror of venal officials, seemingly able to detect injustice and bribery as if by sorcery. Every culprit he caught was disgracefully cashiered.

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Hojo Akitoki established a library in Kanazawa, Sagami, consisting of Chinese, Confucian, Buddhist, and native literature. Scholars gathered there, and students flocked to hear lectures and study the classics or tenets of faith, as most learned men of the time were priests. While the author of the Guai Shi criticizes the Hojo for their usurpations, he praises them for their abilities and excellent administration.

The line of shoguns who nominally ruled from 1199 to 1333 were merely their puppets, and this period of 140 years, covering seven generations, can be called the period of the Hojo. The political history of these years was a monotonous repetition of elevating noble boys and babies, giving them the appearance of power, only to depose them once they were old enough to be troublesome. None of the Hojo seized the office of shogun, but in reality, they wielded all the power associated with it under the title of shikken. It was an august game of statecraft where children with colossal names were set up like pins and knocked down at the whims of subordinates who rejected titles but kept all the power. The figureheads were ignored, while the prize was won.

After the line of Yoritomo became extinct, Yoritomo's widow, Masago, requested that the imperial court at Kyoto appoint Yoritsune, a two-year-old Fujiwara baby, as shogun. The Fujiwara nobles were eager to have a child of their blood elevated to a position of future power. The baby came to Kamakura and cast the shadow of authority for twenty-five years before being forced to resign in 1244, in favor of his own baby boy, Yoshitsugu, then six years old. This boy-shogun, at fourteen, was deposed by Hojo Tokiyori in 1252 and sent back to Kyoto. Tired of the Fujiwara, Tokiyori appointed a more august figure: the boy Munetaka, son of Emperor Go-Saga. After fourteen years, Munetaka was forced to feign illness in 1266, and his infant son, then three years old, was made shogun. At twenty-three, in 1289, he too was deposed by Hojo Sadatoki and sent to Kyoto in disgrace. Sadatoki then appointed Hisaakira, the third son of Emperor Go-Fukakusa, as shogun in 1289. This puppet was dismissed in 1308 and replaced by Morikuni, his eldest son, marking the last shogun of imperial blood. The game was nearly over.

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The ex-emperor Gotoba made a desperate effort to drive the Hojo from power. A small and gallant army was raised, but the imperial troops were defeated by the overwhelming forces from Kamakura. This victory cemented the Hojo's dominance over the imperial family, adding cruelty to their arrogance.

Never before had such outrageous deeds been committed, or such insults heaped upon the sovereign as those inflicted by the Hojo. Drunk with blood and exultation, they wreaked vengeance on both sovereign and subject. Banishment and confiscation became routine. The ex-emperor was forced to shave his head and was exiled to the island of Oki. The reigning mikado was deposed and sent to Sado. Two princes of the blood were banished to Tajima and Bizen. The ex-emperor Tsuchimikado—now one of three living emperors—chose to share the fate of his brothers and was sent to Awa. To complete their victory, Hojo Yasutoki confiscated the estates of all who had fought for the emperor and distributed them among his followers. Over three thousand fiefs were thus taken. No camp followers ever stripped a hero’s body worse than these human vultures stripped the last vestiges of authority from the lawful sovereign. Across Japan, patriots groaned in despair at the slaughter of the loyal army and the pitiful fate of their emperors. The imperial exile in Sado died of a broken heart. A nominal mikado in Kyoto and a nominal shogun in Kamakura were installed, but both were controlled by the Hojo.

In their later days, the Hojo displayed tyranny and misgovernment that would disgrace even the worst Asian bureaucracy. The distinguished men who once brought honor to the family were no more. The last of the Hojo indulged in luxury and neglected public affairs. A horde of rapacious officials drained the life out of the people. To maintain their opulence, they increased taxes, crushing the spirit of the Asian peasant. Their oppression of the mikado, shogun, and people became unbearable. The handwriting was on the wall—their days were numbered.

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In 1327, Moriyoshi, son of Emperor Go-Daigo, began planning the recovery of imperial power. However, due to ubiquitous spies and treachery, his plans were revealed, and only his father’s intervention saved him from punishment. Ordered to retire to a Buddhist monastery to show his disinterest in worldly affairs, Moriyoshi secretly assisted his father in plotting the destruction of the Hojo. He lived at Oto and was called, by the people, Oto no miya. Emperor Go-Daigo, though himself placed on the throne by the king-makers at Kamakura, chafed under the galling dictatorship of those who were, by right, his vassals. He resolved to risk his life, and all that was dear to him, to overthrow the dual system and restore the original splendor and prestige of the mikadoate. He knew that the people's reverence for the throne would sustain him, provided he could raise sufficient military force to defeat the Hojo.

He secured the aid of the Buddhist priests and, in 1330, fortified Kasagi in Yamato. Around the same time, Kusunoki Masashige arose in Kawachi, making it the aim of his life to restore the mikadoate. The following year, the Hojo sent an army against Kasagi, which they attacked and burned. The emperor was taken prisoner and banished to Oki. Kusunoki, though twice besieged, escaped and lived to win immortal fame.

Connected with the emperor's sad fate is an incident of great dramatic interest, enshrined in Japanese art and recorded in history. While Go-Daigo was on his way to banishment, carried in a palanquin under the guard of Hojo soldiers, Kojima Takanori attempted to rescue his sovereign. This young nobleman was the third son of the lord of Bingo, who held hereditary lands in Bizen. Setting out with a band of retainers to intercept the convoy and release the imperial prisoner, Kojima waited at the hill of Funasaka, only to discover, too late, that he had occupied the wrong pass. Hastening to the rear range of hills, they learned that their targets had already passed by. Kojima's followers, disheartened, returned, leaving him alone. Cautiously, he followed the convoy and, for several days, attempted in vain to approach the palanquin and whisper a word of hope to the imperial exile. The vigilance of the Hojo vassals made all efforts hopeless, but Kojima devised a plan that baffled his enemies and rekindled hope in the captive's heart.

THE GLORY AND THE FALL OF THE HOJŌ FAMILY

153

Secretly entering the garden of the inn where the party was resting at night, Kojima scraped off the bark of a cherry tree and wrote, in ink, on the inner white membrane, this poetic stanza:

"Ten Kosen wo horobosu nakare,
Toki ni Hanrei naki ni shimo aradzu."
(O Heaven! Destroy not Kosen, While Hanrei still lives.)

The allusion, delicately phrased, refers to Kosen, an ancient king in China who was dethroned and made a prisoner but was later restored to honor and power by the faithfulness and valor of his retainer, Hanrei.

Kojima Writing on the Cherry-tree. (Vignette upon the greenback national-bank notes.)

The next morning, the soldiers noticed the fresh handwriting on the tree. Unable to read it themselves, they showed it to Emperor Go-Daigo, who instantly grasped its significance. Concealing his joy, he went into exile, keeping hope alive during his loneliness. He knew he had not been forgotten by his faithful vassals. Kojima later fought to restore the mikado and perished on the battlefield. The illustration above is borrowed from a picture by a native artist, which now adorns the national banknotes issued under the reign of the present mikado.

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This darkest hour of the mikado's fortune preceded the dawn. A hero was already emerging from obscurity who would become the destroyer of Kamakura and the Hojo. That man was Nitta Yoshisada.

The third son of Minamoto Yoshi-iyô, born in A.D. 1057, had two sons. The elder succeeded his father in the fief of Nitta, in the province of Kodzuke. The second inherited from his adopted father, Tawara, the fief of Ashikaga in Shimotsuke. Both sons founded families that took their names from their hereditary estates. Four hundred years later, their illustrious descendants became conspicuous. Nitta Yoshisada, a captain in the Hojo army, had been sent to besiege Kusunoki, one of the mikado’s faithful vassals, but, refusing to fight against the imperial forces, Nitta deserted with his command. He sent his retainer to Oto no miya, the emperor's son, who was hiding in the mountains. The son gave him a commission in the name of his exiled father. Nitta immediately returned to his native place, gathered his retainers, and, before the shrine of the village, raised the standard of revolt against Hojo. His banner was a long white pennant, crossed near the top by two black bars, beneath which was a circle bisected with a black zone. Adopting his brother’s plan of attack, Nitta marched down into Sagami, and in thirteen days, after raising his banner as the mikado’s vassal, appeared at Inamura Saki on the outskirts of Kamakura.

Here, where the road from Kamakura to Enoshima strikes the beach, a splendid panorama unfolds. The ocean lies before, with its rolling waves and refreshing salt breeze. To the south, in imposing proportions and clad in the blue of distance, stands the island of Oshima. Further on are the mountains of the Izu Peninsula. To the right, in perpetual green, lies the island of Enoshima. Inland rises the peak of Oyama with its satellites, but above all stands Fuji, the majestic mountain. Here, Nitta performed an act immortalized in song, poem, and art.

On the eve of the attack, Nitta assembled his host at the edge of the strand. Removing his helmet, he addressed his warriors: "Our heavenly son, the mikado, has been deposed by a traitorous subject and now languishes in distant exile. I, Yoshisada, being unable to stand idly by, have raised an army to punish the thieves yonder.

THE GLORY AND THE FALL OF THE HOJŌ FAMILY

I humbly pray, O God of the Sea, look into my loyal heart; command the tide to ebb and open a path." Thus saying, he bowed reverently and, as Rai recounts (though the artist overlooked this detail), cast his sword into the sea as a prayer offering to the gods for their favor. The golden hilt gleamed momentarily before sinking from sight. The next morning, the tide had ebbed, leaving the strand dry. Led by their now-divine chief, the army marched irresistibly forward.

Nitta Yoshisada casting the Sword into the Sea.

(Vignette from the national bank notes)

Kamakura was attacked from three sides. The fighting was fierce and bloody, but victory deserted the traitors' banners and blessed the loyal forces. After great feats of valor, Nitta set the city ablaze, and in a few hours, Kamakura was reduced to ashes.

Just before the city's final destruction, a noble named Ando, a vassal of the Hojo, saw the ruin around him—the soldiers slaughtered and the palaces burned. Declaring that for a hundred years no retainer had died for his lord, he resolved to commit hara-kiri. Nitta's wife was his niece. Just as he was about to plunge the dirk into his body, a servant handed him a letter from her, begging him to surrender.

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The old man indignantly exclaimed, "My niece is the daughter of a samurai house! How could she make such a shameless request? And Nitta, her husband, is a samurai. How could he allow her to do so?" He then wrapped the letter around his sword, plunged it into his body, and died. Many Hojo vassals followed suit.

While Nitta was fighting in Kamakura and toppling the Hojo power in the east, Ashikaga Takauji drew his sword in Kyoto and, with Kusunoki, re-established imperial rule in the west. The number of the doomed clan slain in battle or who committed hara-kiri, in accordance with their code of honor, is recorded as 6,800.

All over the empire, the people rose against their oppressors and massacred them. The Hojo domination, which had lasted for nearly 150 years, was utterly destroyed.

From A.D. 1219 until 1333, the mikados at Kioto were:

Jnntoku 1211-1231

Chiukio (reigned four months) 1222

Go-Horikawa. 1222-1232

Shijo 1233-1242

Go-Saga 1243-1246

Go-Fukakusa 1247-1259

Kam^yama 1260-1274

Go-Uda 1275-1287

Fushimi 1288-1298

Go-Fushimi 1299-1301

Go-Nijo 1302-1307

Hanazono 1308-1318

Go-Daigo 1319-1338

From the establishment of Kamakura as military capital, the sho- guns were :

MINAMOTO.

Toritomo 1185-1199

Yori-iy6 1201-1203

San6tomo 1203-1219

FUJIWARA.

Yoritsune" 1220-1243

Yoritsuga 1244-1251

EMPEKOR'S SONS.

Mune-taka 1252-1265

Kor^yasu 1266-1289

Hisaakira 1289-1307

Morikuni 1308-1333

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The Hojo have never been forgiven for their arbitrary treatment of the mikados. The author of the Nikon Guai Shi terms them "serpents, fiends, beasts," etc. To this day, historians, dramatists, novelists, and storytellers delight in loading them with the vilest obloquy. Even the peasants keep alive the memory of the past. One of the most voracious and destructive insects is still called the "Hojo bug." A great annual ceremony of extermination of these pests keeps alive the hated recollection of their human namesakes. The memory of the wrongs suffered by the imperial family goaded the soldiers in the revolution of 1868, who wreaked their vengeance on the Tokugawas as successors of the Hojo. In fighting to abolish forever the hated usurpation of six hundred years and to restore the mikado to his ancient, rightful, and supreme authority, they remembered well the deeds of the Hojo, as so eloquently told in the Nikon Guai Shi. In 1873, envoys sent out from the imperial court in Tokyo proceeded to the island of Sado. There, they solemnly removed the remains of the banished emperor, who had died of a broken heart, and buried them with due pomp in the sacred soil of Yamato, where so many of the dead mikados sleep.

I have given a picture of the Hojo rule and rulers, which reflects the Japanese popular sentiment and the opinion of native scholars. However, there is another side to the story. It must be conceded that the Hojo were able rulers and kept order and peace in the empire for over a century. They encouraged literature and the cultivation of the arts and sciences. During their period, the resources of the country were developed, and some branches of useful handicraft and fine arts were brought to a perfection never since surpassed. To this time belong the famous image-carver, sculptor, and architect Unkei, as well as lacquer artists, who are the "old masters" in this branch of art. The military spirit of the people was kept alive, tactics were improved, and methods of governmental administration were simplified. During this period of splendid temples, monasteries, pagodas, colossal images, and other monuments of holy zeal, Hojo Sadatoki erected a monument over the grave of Kiyomori at Hiogo. Hojo Tokimune raised and maintained a permanent war fund so that military expenses would not interfere with the revenue reserved for ordinary government expenses. To his invincible courage, patriotic pride, and indomitable energy are owed the vindication of the national honor and the repulse of the Tartar invasion.