Japan: From the Japanese Government History

by Unknown

THE KAMAKURA GOVERNMENT. 1186-1339

The Taira had fallen, and Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, one of the greatest statesmen Japan has produced, had established his headquarters at Kamakura, near the present Tōkyō. The influence of his clan had for generations been implanted in the eastern provinces, where the robust militarism stood in great contrast with the effeminate atmosphere of Kyōto.

The rule of Kamakura, so far as the feudal forces of the east were concerned, was now almost complete, but Yoritomo aspired to the supreme military power of the whole empire. Here in this connection must be related the tragic story of his half-brother Yoshitsune, perhaps the most gallant and most beloved hero in the memory of the children of Japan. He was a mere babe when after the Heiji insurrection, he was captured with his mother by the Taira soldiers. He would have been killed by order of Kiyomori, had it not been for the intercession of the latter's mother and for the beauty of the young mother of Yoshitsune. For the sake of the lives of her sons, the latter became the concubine of Kiyomori, whom she did not love. The pathetic story still excites feeling in the heart of Japanese womanhood. Yoshitsune was assigned to a priestly career, but he proved unruly and fond of the arts of the samurai. Tradition ascribes to the child many a superhuman act of valor and military skill. At length he ran away to the northern province of Mutsu, where he was kindly received by the great local chieftain Fujiwara-no-Hidehira. Yoshitsune grew to be a man of commanding genius, and his personal charm attracted to him many loyal samurai, the romantic careers of several of whom are still remembered. When Yoritomo rose in 1180 at the mandate of the late Prince Mochihito, Yoshitsune's opportunity came. After the former had routed the first large detachment of the Taira forces, a young man with a large head but of small stature was announced to him, and Yoritomo at once recognized his long forgotten brother Yoshitsune, whose coming, he said, was to him more reassuring than the addition of a million warriors.

Henceforth Yoritomo's brilliant victories were largely owing to the generalship of his brother. But no sooner had the latter destroyed the remnants of the Minamoto's enemy than his own safety was endangered by his very success, for Yoritomo grew jealous of his great renown and popularity. As Yoshitsune escorted the captive chief of the Taira clan, Munemori, to Kamakura, he not only received no recognition for his achievements, but also was refused admission to the presence of his brother. There were not lacking men around the latter to contrive the downfall of the great general. Shortly afterward Yoritomo sent to Kyōto a man of proved valor and strength, Tosabō Shōshun, with orders to destroy Yoshitsune, but Tosabō himself fell under Yoshitsune's sword in the attempt. Thereafter Yukiiye, Yoshitsune's uncle, induced the ex-emperor to authorize them to put down Yoritomo. But Yoritomo addressed himself to the ex-emperor with such persuasion that an imperial mandate was issued to all the provincial authorities ordering them to arrest Yoshitsune and Yukiiye. Yoritomo thereupon dispatched Hōjō Tokimasa to Kyōto to quell the partisans and restore order in the capital. Yukiiye was subsequently killed in the province of Izumi, but Yoshitsune escaped to his friend Fujiwara-no-Hidehira in Mutsu. The latter, however, died soon afterward, and was succeeded by his son Yasuhira, who received from Yoritomo orders to kill the fugitive. So great and far-reaching was the authority of the Minamoto chief at that time that Yasuhira had no choice but to comply with the mandate. He caused Yoshitsune to be put to death, and sent his head to Kamakura. Tradition has, however, been reluctant to admit so ignominious an end to the hero, who, it says, effected his escape to the island of Ezo (Hokkaido) and thence to the continent, where he became a great prince over nomadic tribes. Nor did Yasuhira's treachery bring fortune upon himself, for Yoritomo, already desirous to bring Mutsu under his direct rule, pretended to believe that Yasuhira had been unduly slow in destroying his rebellious brother, and, in 1189, led in person a large army, which succeeded in a brief time in killing Yasuhira and subduing the great provinces of Mutsu and Dewa.

In the next year, Yoritomo repaired to Kyōto and had his first audience of the emperor and the ex-emperor.[1] The latter treated him with great consideration, and after the lapse of a year conferred upon him the title of sei-i-tai-shōgun, or generalissimo, which has since been the customary title of the feudal overlord of Japan.

Let us here describe the feudal government organized by Yoritomo at Kamakura—the first attempt of like kind in the history of Japan—and observe how different it was from the elaborate system of the centralized government which was first organized in 645 and later transferred to Kyōto. One of the first steps taken by the Minamoto chief to consolidate his power was to establish the relation of lord and vassal between himself and the great local magnates of the eastern provinces who had espoused his cause, and to secure their allegiance by confirming them in the possession of their estates. For the better organization of his military forces he created an office called samurai-dokoro, a species of headquarter staff department, which was presided over by Wada Yoshimori in the capacity of bettō. Thus all the military men throughout the east were brought completely under his sway. Later he created a department of public archives (kumonjo), and made Ōye Hiromoto its minister, and Nakahara Chikayoshi its vice-minister, both of whom were originally civilians at Kyōto. It was owing to Yoritomo's sagacity that they had been induced to enter the service of the military government at Kamakura. By this department the administration of civil affairs was chiefly conducted, as was the administration of military affairs by the staff department (samurai-dokoro). A department of justice (monchū-jo) was also organized with Miyoshi Yasunobu, another civilian, at its head, its functions being the hearing of all civil suits, and the management of matters relating to civil law.

Thenceforward down to the days of the Ashikaga, the descendants of the three statesmen from Kyōto continued to direct the administration of affairs at Kamakura. By 1184, the organization of Yoritomo's central government (bakufu) was complete, but the local administration had still to be elaborated. Advantage was taken of the general disorder that still existed throughout the land, owing to the disturbance caused by the remnants of the Taira party and by the followers of Yukiiye and Yoshitsune. On the advice of Ōye Hiromoto, Yoritomo made such strong representations to the ex-emperor that the latter sanctioned the appointment of high constables (shugo) in the various provinces and superintendents (jitō) of the great estates, the whole being under the control of the shōgun himself. By the energy of these officials numbers of the insurgents were arrested in different localities, and order was everywhere restored. Furthermore, an edict was issued requiring that all cultivators of land throughout the empire should without distinction contribute to the military exchequer a tax at the rate of five shō (.256 bushels) of grain per tan (one-fourth of an acre). Thenceforth the power of the former provincial governors and headmen gradually declined, and the authority of the newly appointed high constables and superintendents increased proportionally. The shōgun, of course, took care that the occupants of the new offices should be chosen from among his own relatives and partisans, so that his sway was eventually consolidated everywhere, and the control of the empire virtually passed into his hands.

Yoritomo died in 1200 at the age of fifty-three, his eldest son, Yoriiye, succeeding to the title of generalissimo. But Yoriiye being only eighteen years of age, and having given no evidence of ability, his mother, Masako, commissioned her own father Hōjō Tokimasa, together with twelve councilors, to assume the direction of the government at Kamakura. From this time began the dark age of Kamakura, in which unbridled ambition ignored all restraints of propriety. When the young Yoriiye fell ill in 1203, his mother, acting in concert with Tokimasa, planned to relieve him of his office of generalissimo, and to appoint his son Ichihata to be lord and governor general of the twenty-eight eastern provinces forming Kwantō, and his young brother Chihata—afterward called Sanetomo—to be lord of the thirty-eight western provinces forming Kwansei. This plot so incensed Yoriiye that the latter, with his wife's father, Hiki Yoshikazu, planned means to exterminate the Hōjō family. Tokimasa frustrated the design by having Yoshikazu assassinated, and then attacking and slaying all his blood relations together with Ichihata. Yoriiye he afterward shut up in a temple, and ultimately caused him to be put to death. Sanetomo, Yoriiye's younger brother, succeeded him, but exercised no administrative authority, the Hōjō holding everything in their own grasp. The shōgun consequently devoted himself to literature rather than to military exercises. Moreover, foreseeing that fortune would not long continue to smile upon the Minamoto family, he thought to obtain a high position in the central government, and add luster to the family's renown while there was yet time. Hence he was promoted to the post of chief councilor of state (dainagon), in conjunction with that of commander in chief of the guards of the left, his official rank being raised to the first of the second class. Shortly afterward he became lord keeper of the privy seal and then minister of the right. But in 1219, on the occasion of worshiping at a shrine in Kamakura, he was stabbed to death by Kugyō, a son of Yoriiye. This event terminated the descendants of the Minamoto family in the direct line. A brief interval of thirty-five years, or three generations,[2] from the time when Yoritomo had risen to the head of the government, sufficed to complete the supremacy of the great clan, the first shōgun of which had so systematically pruned off the useful members of its own branch.

The Minamoto were followed by the Hōjō as feudal rulers. The Hōjō family was of Taira origin, its founder being Taira-no-Sadamori. The name Hōjō was derived from the fact that the family's headquarters were at Hōjō in Izu. During the period of Yoritomo's exile in Izu, he experienced generous and hospitable treatment at the hands of Hōjō Tokimasa, whose daughter he married. All during Yoritomo's campaigns and subsequent administration at Kamakura, Tokimasa, though of the Taira family, proved a loyal and indispensable counselor. Under Yoriije, being the grandfather on the mother's side, he naturally enjoyed the widest popularity and wielded the greatest power of all the military nobles of the time. As has been seen, the Hōjō did not even hesitate to assassinate the shōgun in order to further their personal interests. Tokimasa allowed himself to be controlled by the counsels of his wife. At her slanderous instance he brought about the overthrow of a great territorial noble, Hatakeyama, and by her advice he conceived the project of elevating to the shōgunate his younger daughter's husband, Hiraga Tomomasa. The third shōgun, Sanetomo, then a mere youth, was an inmate of Tokimasa's house at the time of this plot. His mother, Masako, learning what was on foot, caused him to be removed to the house of her brother Yoshitoki, with the assistance of the military vassals of the Minamoto, and succeeded not only in having Tokimasa and his intriguing wife sent back to Hōjō, but also in compassing the death of Tomomasa in Kyōto. These events transferred the territorial and military ascendancy among the Kamakura nobility to the Wada family, whom therefore Yoshitoki, the Hōjō chief in Kamakura, formed the design of destroying. In pursuance of that scheme, he prompted Kugyō to assassinate Sanetomo, the last of the Minamoto family. Then Fujiwara-no-Yoritsune, a relative of Yoritomo, was summoned from Kyōto to assume the nominal office of shōgun, Masako, the widow of Yoritomo, exercising the controlling power and Yoshitoki holding the office of regent (shikken, an office virtually corresponding with the sesshō of the central government); in which capacity he administered all the affairs of the bakufu in the name of the young shōgun. Yoshitoki was thus a shōgun with the name of a shikken.

It was about this time that the civil government of Kyōto rose under the leadership of the ex-Emperor Gotoba in an attempt to overthrow the feudal administration. Ever since the time of Yoritomo, Gotoba had cherished the hope of recovering the control of administrative affairs, and with that object had stationed military men of his own choosing in the west, in addition to those already stationed in the north, conferring on their leaders swords forged by his own hands, and otherwise sparing no pains to organize a strong military following. So long, however, as Yoritomo lived, Gotoba's designs could not be realized. But when Sanetomo, the third shōgun of Yoritomo's line, fell under the sword of Kugyō, the ex-emperor thought that he descried an opportunity to attain his purpose. But Hōjō Yoshitoki set up a Fujiwara as a nominal shōgun, and himself exercised the administrative authority in a markedly arrogant and arbitrary manner. Gotoba then selected a vassal of Kamakura, without consulting the Hōjō, as warden of the western marches, and allowed him to reside in Kyōto. Yoshitoki forthwith confiscated all the lands belonging to the warden. Thereupon an imperial mandate was issued, directing that the estates should be restored, to which Yoshitoki paid no attention. A further instance of contumacy occurred in connection with an estate which the ex-emperor had conferred on one of his favorite mistresses.

Stung by these insults, Gotoba finally resolved to overthrow the Kamakura government. In this design he was strongly supported by another ex-emperor, Juntoku, who had just abdicated in favor of his son, Chūkyō. The third of the three ex-emperors of the time, Tsuchimikado, opposed the project of the other two, urging that its execution was still premature. Gotoba could count upon the support of seventeen hundred warriors, so in 1221 an imperial mandate circulated through all the provinces of the empire ordering the destruction of the Hōjō family. It was specially addressed to the powerful lord, Miura Yoshimura. But, instead of obeying, he conveyed secret information of the fact to Yoshitoki, who in turn informed Masako, the widow of Yoritomo. She thereupon summoned all the military leaders of the surrounding provinces, and having reminded them of the possessions and ranks bestowed by the Minamoto chief on the samurai of Kwantō, said that an occasion had now arisen to repay her deceased husband's favors. The result was that none of these captains espoused the sovereign's cause in the struggle that ensued. Meanwhile, Yoshitoki took counsel of his generals as to a plan of campaign, and finally adopted the proposal of Ōye Hiromoto that the bulk of the forces at the disposal of the Hōjō should march against Kyōto, under the command of Hōjō Yasutoki and Hōjō Tokifusa, by the three trunk routes, the Tōkaidō, the Tōsandō, and the Hokurikudō. On receipt of this intelligence in Kyōto, the imperial troops were divided into two bodies under Hideyasu and Taneyoshi, and moved northward to meet the invaders in the Owari and Mino provinces.

But the defending forces suffered defeat, and were driven back, so that Yasutoki and Tokifusa were able to enter Kyōto at the head of a large army. They forced the reigning sovereign to abdicate in favor of Gohorikawa, and they banished the three ex-emperors, Gotoba to the province of Oki, Juntoku to Sado Island, and Tsuchimikado to Tosa. Gotoba's son was also sent into exile. A number of court nobles who had assisted and promoted the attack upon the Kamakura government were put to death. Three thousand estates belonging to these nobles and to the samurai who had espoused the imperial cause were confiscated and divided among the Hōjō followers. Yoshitoki then stationed Yasutoki and Tokifusa at Rokuhara to preserve peace in Kyōto. Even in the days of Yoritomo, affairs of state had been administered in consultation with the court nobles and the Fujiwara ministers, but the Hōjō recognized no such obligation. So the imperial uprising not only proved a failure, but also served to increase immensely the power of the feudal government.

The Hōjō were aware that, great as was their influence, it had been acquired by questionable means, and that their position could be maintained only by their good government. For this reason, the Hōjō administration before the days of its decline has come down to posterity as a model of feudal rule. Yasutoki, who succeeded Yoshitoki as regent, devoted himself zealously to political affairs, treated the agricultural classes with much consideration, and sought earnestly to win the love of the people. He treated his relatives with uniform kindness, and those under his sway with condescension, never abandoning himself to passionate impulses nor ever employing his power wantonly. He framed a law of fifty-one articles setting forth the principles of administration and supplying regulations to guide the discharge of official functions. Ruling wisely and living uprightly, he died lamented by people of all classes. He was succeeded by his grandson, Tsunetoki, and the latter by his younger brother, Tokiyori. This last, like his grandfather, practiced economy in his administration and showed much consideration for the farming classes.

No one of the Hōjō family,[3] however, did more service to the nation than the son of Tokiyori, Tokimune, who saved the country from the Mongol conquest. This deserves our special note.

In Mongolia, on the northeast of China, there appeared a conqueror of world-wide fame, Temujin, the great Genghis Khan. Against his armies the Tatar kings were unable to hold their ground, and ultimately the wave of Mongol conquest flowed into the dominions of the Sung sovereign in the south of China. Temujin's grandson, Kublai, possessed himself of a great part of Korea, and having concerted measures for overthrowing the Sung dynasty and bringing all China under Mongol rule, he conceived the project of subjugating Japan also. His first step toward consummating that design was to send envoys via Korea, who were instructed to remonstrate with the Japanese sovereign for his indifferent attitude toward the Mongol autocrat. But the Koreans dissuaded these envoys from prosecuting their voyage. Two years later, in 1268, Kublai dispatched another embassy to Dazaifu in Kiushū, with letters to the governor of Dazaifu as well as to the Emperor of Japan, the ostensible object of the communications being to establish amicable relations between the two countries. From Dazaifu intelligence of the coming of the embassy and the nature of its documents was forwarded to Kamakura, thence to be sent in turn to the court in Kyōto. Considerable anxiety was caused by the news, both in official and in civilian circles. The emperor laid before the shrine of Daijingū an autographic supplication for the heavenly protection of the empire, and caused prayers of a similar purport to be said at all the shrines and temples throughout the realm. Careful measures were also taken to guard the coasts, more particularly the points of strategical importance in Hizen and Chikuzen.

A draft reply to Kublai's dispatch was prepared at the court in Kyōto, and shown to Hōjō Tokimune, who, however, gave it as his opinion that inasmuch as the communication from China lacked the forms of prescribed courtesy, Japan's dignity precluded the sending of any answer. Orders were therefore conveyed to Dazaifu for the immediate expulsion of the Chinese envoys. In March of the following year Korean officials again arrived in the island of Tsushima escorting Mongolian envoys, who asked for a reply to the dispatch sent by their sovereign the preceding year. These envoys became involved in quarrels with the people of Tsushima, and finally took their departure, carrying away two of the latter as prisoners. Five months later, Kublai caused these two men to be restored to Japan, and made the act an occasion for addressing another dispatch to the Japanese emperor. Again Japan refrained from making reply. After an interval of two years, the khan sent in 1271 another ambassador, with a train of a hundred followers, who landed at Imatsu in Chikuzen. The ambassador's instructions were to present the dispatch of which he was bearer either to the imperial court or to the shōgun in Kamakura. He did not, however, intrust the original document to the Dazaifu officials, but gave them a copy only. This was at once forwarded to Kamakura, being from thence communicated to the court in Kyōto. On receiving it, the kwanryo took counsel of the other ministers of the crown and came to the decision that no reply should be given.

By this time the people of Japan had acquired full knowledge of the immense power wielded by Kublai Khan and of the vast conquests achieved by him in succession to his grandfather Genghis. Hence there was no little anxiety as to the outcome of these futile embassies. The emperor ordered prayers to be offered up as before at the shrines and temples throughout the empire. Kublai had now brought almost the whole of China into subjection and established his dynasty of Yuan. He continued to send embassy after embassy to Japan, and Japan on her side continued, with equal persistence, to make no reply to messages which she construed as national insults. Enraged by this indifference, the khan finally sent against Japan a fleet of a hundred and fifty war vessels under the command of Liu Fok-hêng, at the same time ordering Korea to reinforce this expedition. The invaders arrived at Tsushima toward the end of 1274, where they killed the governor. Thence they passed to the island of Iki and killed its acting high constable, and thereafter directed their forces against Imatsu in Chikuzen. The military nobles of Kiushū—Shōni, Ōtomo, Matsuura, Kikuchi and others—collected troops and made a stand at Hakozaki. The Yuan invaders, armed with guns, caused great havoc among the Japanese army, but the Chinese leader, Liu, received a wound that compelled him to retire, and a heavy gale arising destroyed numbers of the foreign war-vessels. The Korean general's ship was wrecked and he himself drowned. Finally, the remnant of the invading force escaped under cover of darkness. Once again after a few months the Yuan sovereign sent another envoy, but he was sent up to Kamakura and there put to death by Hōjō Tokimune.

Hōjō Sanemasa was now appointed to command at Dazaifu, and instructions were issued for the vigilant guarding of all the coast line in the south. Further, the imperial guards were temporarily withdrawn from Kyōto, and drafted into a large army recruited from the east of the empire and stationed at Dazaifu as well as at other important positions along the coast. Sanemasa was given the command of this army, and other members of the Hōjō family were dispatched to direct the military preparations in Harima and Nagato. Further, the territorial nobles of Kiushū received orders to construct fortifications along the coast, and this work, being vigorously carried on, was completed in 1279. That year the Chinese emperor again sent envoys, seeking to establish friendship and intercourse. They landed at Hakata, but were put to death by order of the shōgun's government. The Regent Tokimune, foreseeing the consequences of these complications, dispatched large bodies of troops from Kamakura to Kiushū, to repel the renewed attack inevitably pending from the west. By this time the feudal society of Japan seems to have been roused to its height of patriotism. It not only was determined to resist the invasion of the world-conqueror, but even plans were made to invade the continent and fight with the Khan on his own ground. The latter, on his part, had now completed his conquest of China, and, having attained the zenith of his power, resolved to gratify his long-cherished desire, supplemented as it was by indignation at the repeated slaughter of his ambassadors in Japan.

Accordingly in the middle of 1281, he assembled a force of 100,000 soldiers, whom, together with a contingent of 10,000 Koreans, he sent against Japan under the command of Hwan Bunko. The invading army touched at the island of Iki, and after a cruel massacre of its inhabitants, resumed their voyage toward Dazaifu. Thither the Japanese troops flocked from Kiushū, Chūgoku, and Shikoku to defend their country. Aided by the fortresses that had been erected along the coast, they fought stoutly. The Chinese, however, enjoyed the great advantage of possessing heavy ordnance, with which they bombarded the forts and slaughtered such multitudes of the Japanese soldiers that the latter were unable to meet them in open contest. Organized tactics as much characterized the invaders as personal valor and individual combat did the defending warriors. Nevertheless, the latter continued to resist so obstinately, that, although the contest waged for sixty days, the enemy could not effect a landing. Meanwhile, a rumor reached Kyōto that the Yuan invaders, having borne down all resistance in Kiushū, had pushed on to Nagato, and were on the point of advancing against Kyōto itself, thence to carry their arms into the Tōkai and Hokuriku districts.

The Emperor Gouda, deeply disquieted by these tidings, proceeded in person to the shrine of Iwashimizu Hachimangū, god of war, to pray for the safety of the country, and moreover dispatched an autographic supplication to the shrine of Daijingū in Ise, vowing that he would offer himself as a sacrifice to preserve the honor of his empire. But in Kiushū the contest continued fiercely when, on the last day of the seventh lunar month, a northwesterly storm swept down on the Chinese fleet and wrecked a number of the ships with immense loss of life. Those that survived the tempest, several thousands in number, took refuge in the island of Takashima off the coast of Hizen, and there, under the command of Chang Pak—Hwan having fled away in a vessel of exceptional strength—set themselves to cut timber and build new ships to carry them back to China. But Shōni Kagesuke, at the head of a body of the Kiushū troops, followed and attacked the fugitives, killing several hundreds and taking over a thousand prisoners, so that, in the end, only three out of the hundred thousand Yuan invaders succeeded in escaping alive to China. After this success the Kamakura government redoubled its efforts to place the defenses of the country on a strong footing. It was not till 1299 that the Chinese sovereign sent two Buddhist priests to Japan with a peaceful message. The country had been in a state of continuous defense, since the arrival of the first Mongol embassy thirty-one years previously. Never before had the Japanese nation encountered a more colossal struggle with a great conquering foe, nor had she since, till the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. It is noteworthy that in the former crisis it was the feudal forces which saved the land from foreign conquest.

If by this great service the Hōjō placed all Japan under obligation to them, it was also after this crisis that their power began to decline. Great sums of money had been devoted during the thirty years to maintaining constant religious services at the shrines and temples throughout the empire. The expense incurred on that account is said to have been greater even than the outlay in connection with military affairs, which in itself must have been immense. Moreover, after the invaders had been defeated and the danger averted, the rewards granted to Buddhist priests and Shintō officials far exceeded in monetary value the recompense given to the troops and their leaders. On the other hand, the wardens and territorial nobles, on whom the duty of defending the country had fallen, found the drain on their resources so heavy that they began to murmur. Thus the popularity of the shōgunate at Kamakura commenced to wane.

THE INVASION BY THE MONGOL TARTARS

Tokimune was succeeded by his son Sadatoki, and then followed Morotoki and Takatoki. During their regency the authority of the Hōjō rapidly declined. Takatoki, being a man of indolent disposition, entrusted the control of affairs wholly to one Nagasaki Takasuke, who was betrayed by avarice into such abuses of power that men's hearts were altogether estranged from the government. The fall of the Hōjō finally ensued in 1326, a century and a quarter after the first of those powerful rulers had risen from the position of a rear-vassal to the most puissant office in the land.

The circumstances of the downfall of the Kamakura government will be related in the next chapter. In the meantime, we shall observe the condition of society during the hundred and forty years of the rule of the Minamoto and the Hōjō. In regard to the customs of the upper classes, it is interesting to note that the elegance of the Kyōto nobles and the severe simplicity of the Kamakura soldiers, now the one, then the other, according to the varying circumstances, set the fashion of the day. When the warrior element was in the ascendant, its manners and customs were more or less taken as a model in Kyōto, while, on the other hand, Kyōto sometimes impressed its own fashions upon the military. An instance of the latter case is furnished by the story of the Taira family, whose fighting men gradually fell under the charm of the court life, and succumbed with comparative ease to the misfortunes that afterward overtook them. Minamoto-no-Yoritomo, however, fixed his headquarters at Kamakura and did not visit Kyōto except for very brief intervals. His habits of life were frugal and simple; he encouraged the samurai to adopt a severe military regimen, and he set his face resolutely against costly ostentation and enervating excesses.

But by the time of Sanetomo prolonged peace had produced its usual effects: the austerity of military customs underwent relaxation even at Kamakura, and refinement and luxury began to come into vogue. So, too, in Kyōto, when the city passed under military rule after the Shōkiu troubles and when the power of the civil nobles declined correspondingly, the customs of the soldier class prevailed over those of the courtiers. Speaking generally, however, it may be said that Kamakura was the nursery of military customs and Kyōto the center of courtly effeminacy. The warriors' ethics at Kamakura prescribed frugality and simplicity, inculcated love of soldierly pursuits and encouraged feelings of gratitude and loyalty in the relations between lord and vassal. To such a pitch were these latter sentiments carried that a vassal would choose rather to be estranged from his parents or find himself opposed to his own brothers and sisters, than to show want of fealty to his lord. Everything must be sacrificed in the cause of one's lord, death and life alike being shared with him. The rules of etiquette were strictly obeyed, and the provisions of the code of honor carefully observed. Even when a samurai went into battle, he did not set himself to slaughter indiscriminately, but having first recounted the achievements of his ancestors, crossed swords with his foe in a leisurely and dignified manner. Were he guilty of any fault, it was expected of him to die by his own hand before the disgrace of lawful punishment could overtake him. The obligations of honor were absolutely binding on him in all conjunctures.

After the Hōgen and Heiji insurrections, even Kyōto itself, the seat of refinement and splendor, became like a deserted battlefield, and when Minamoto-no-Yoritomo made Kamakura the headquarters of his military government, the science of war absorbed men's attention so completely that little or no heed was paid to literary pursuits. The Kyōto University and the provincial schools decayed, and the knowledge of Chinese classics became the monopoly of Buddhist priests, some of whom, particularly of the Zen sect, had spent years of diligent study in China. Anyone desirous of obtaining education had no recourse but to place himself under the tuition of these priests. It was in this way that the term tera-koya (temple annex) came to be generally employed all through the feudal ages to designate a private school. But despite the people's neglect of Chinese studies, Chinese words and expressions were largely in vogue among the higher classes, and Buddhist terms also passed appreciably into the language of the time owing to the prosperous and influential position occupied by that religion.

The written language being thus enriched by a multitude of phrases and expressions which had received the indorsement of scholars, the vocabulary and literature of the era exhibit marked evidences of change. Not only the manner of expression, but also the taste of the people, had undergone a decisive change since the close of the Hei-an epoch, and this difference naturally manifested itself in the kind of literature affected. Men no longer took pleasure in books treating of the lives and adventures of beautiful women or the mental feats of renowned scholars. Such studies seemed incongruous amid the clash of arms and under the shadow of the sword and spear. Striking vicissitudes in martial careers, the intrepid deaths or life-long separations of warriors, the rise and fall of principalities—these were the themes of which the Kamakura samurai loved to read. Of the prose compositions expressive of this sentiment, the most noted were the "Hōgen" and the "Heiji Monogatari," stories, respectively of the insurrections of those eras; and the "Heike Monogatari," the pathetic epic of the fate of the great Taira clan, and the "Gempei Seisuiki," the stirring tale of the rise and fall of the families of Taira and Minamoto. Other famous productions of the period were the "Hōjō-ki," and the "Shiki Monogatari." In these works one finds a skillful blending of graceful Japanese phrases, strong Chinese expressions, and lofty Buddhist terms. At times the style has all the ring of martial onset; at times, it is plaintive and moving; now it abounds in graces of diction, and then its transitions from passion to deliberation, from swift terseness to smooth tranquillity, are full of force and sentiment. Between the emotional effect of such writings and the gently flowing phraseology and uneventful paragraphs of works like the "Genji Monogatari" of the preceding period, there is a wide interval. Running through the pages of the "Hōjō-ki" the reader also detects a current of discontent and disgust for the transient world and its vanity that reflects the growing tendency of educated minds at that epoch. So deeply had the Buddhistic pessimism entered the heart of the people.

On the other hand, poetry in the Japanese style flourished uniformly in Kyōto, unaffected by the vicissitudes of the times or the decline of the imperial power. Collections of verses were made from time to time and published by imperial direction, among which the "Shin-Kokinshū" contains stanzas constructed with so great skill that it remained a model for the poets of all subsequent generations. In Kamakura, also, the Shōgun Sanetomo was an accomplished writer of Japanese poetry. The grace and polish of his songs in the old-time style, as well as the verve and spirit of their sentiments, reflecting truly the mood of his era, find no parallel in the poetry subsequent to the Nara epoch. Indeed, owing to the great popularity of Japanese poetry in those days, people began for the first time to study it under teachers. Thus there came into vogue men who made a business of giving instruction in the art of poetry, the profession being transmitted from generation to generation in the same family. The result was that canons of style and tricks of composition peculiar to special schools of teachers became more or less binding upon students of those schools, inevitable injury being done to originality and vigor. To these circumstances may be attributed a gradual decline of real poetic ability.

Hardly less instructive is the change that overtook the nation's greatest religion, Buddhism. It will be remembered that during the Hei-an epoch, two Buddhist sects, the Tendai, founded by Saichō, and the Shingon, by Kūkai, were incomparably the most influential, all others being more or less in a state of decline. But toward the close of the epoch, some priests, as already related, began to take more interest in military affairs than in religious functions. Yoritomo, when he came into power, interdicted the use of arms by priests, and encouraged them to devote their attention entirely to literature. The prestige of the Tendai and the Shingon suffered from these events, and as their doctrines, being far too recondite and lofty to be comprehended by the uninitiated, had never satisfied the bulk of the people, there began to appear, during the Kamakura epoch, priests who taught a form of the faith radically different from the others but eminently suited to the spiritual tone of the new age. This was the Zen sect, introduced in its various branches from China. It at once attracted men of simple and robust habits by its remarkably vigorous and effective method of enlightenment and the great practical value of the latter for the men of the world in those days of continual fluctuations of fortune. Hōjō Tokiyori and Tokimune, as well as many a great warrior, besides some emperors, became ardent patrons of the sect, which consequently attained prominent popularity among the military men at Kamakura, and developed widespread influence. Its temples, Kenchō-ji and Engaku-ji, at Kamakura, stood on an equal footing with the Kennin-ji and Tōfuku-ji of Kyōto.

While the Zen tenet so powerfully appealed to the military class, there was another set of new sects, entirely original to Japan, which by their brief formulæ and impressive ceremonies attracted large numbers of the common people. Of these sects, three, namely, the Jōdo, founded by Genkū (or Hōnen); Ikkō or Shin, founded by Shinran (or Hanyen), and Ji, founded by Ippen, all used the same litany, while the fourth sect, Hokke, or Nichiren, founded by Nichiren, used another. The founders all met opposition from the exponents of the older sects, but spread their teachings in the face of serious difficulties, until they won the hearts of simple-minded folks whose minds had been in a state of constant uncertainty under the violent changes of the time, and who were now delighted to find, at last, doctrines which taught that an unmixed faith in the saving power of a Buddha or a canon symbolized in a single word of formula would bring them to a blissful calm in this present world. Not less attractive were the beautiful harmony of the litanies and the impressiveness of the paraphernalia of the temple of every new sect. It appeared as if the spiritual needs of the age were at last answered, and the new tenets spread themselves among the people like a fire in a parched meadow.

In the domain of arts, the most remarkable industrial achievement of the era was the progress made in tempering sword-blades. Gotoba, after he had abdicated the scepter and become ex-emperor, freely indulged his keen love for sword-blades. He engaged sword-smiths, whom he kept perpetually tempering steel, and did not hesitate even to forge blades with his own hands. Naturally this and the extensive demand for swords at the time gave a great impulse to the industry. Much progress was also made in the art of forging armor, helmets, bridle-bits, and the like. Other arts were not, however, greatly encouraged by the military administrators of Kamakura, who set their faces against luxury and inculcated frugal fashions. Yet not a little progress was made in ceramics, lacquer, and the carving of Buddhist images and other temple furniture.

It is interesting to note that under the simple rule of the Kamakura government the commerce and trade of this period made a tolerable progress, in spite of frequent interruptions of the peace. At Kamakura, where merchants from various parts of the empire assembled and made it the commercial center of the country, there existed seven kinds of markets in which articles were sold at small stores specially designed and constructed. The custom of peddling merchandise also existed. For business transacted at a distance, bills of exchange had already come into vogue. While Sanetomo administered the shōgunate, an official limit was fixed for the number of merchants conducting business in Kamakura. This was the origin of hereditary privileges of trade. The prices for the various staples of commerce were determined, according to the custom of previous times. Thus in 1193 an imperial notification ordered that rice should be sold at one thousand cash (one kwammon), or the tenth of a ryō, that is to say nominally ten sen according to present denominations, but of course representing a much larger sum at that time. Again, in 1253, firewood, charcoal, and other necessaries having risen in price, Hōjō Tokiyori proclaimed the rate at which each must be sold. Gold was at that time constantly mined in Mutsu, but did not serve for coinage purposes, the common media of exchange being Chinese copper and the iron cash of the Sung dynasty and similar Japanese coins of earlier days. Grass-cloth was also sometimes used as a medium of exchange, and prices were quoted in terms of it. Trade with China, under the Sung dynasty, and with Korea—or Koma, as it was then called—was carried on largely at Hakata in Chikuzen and Bonotsu in Satsuma, both in Kiushū. Import duties upon foreign goods were levied at the various ports of entry. The principal imports from China were raw silk, indigo, Chinese ink, porcelain vessels, mats, and so forth, while the staple exports from Japan were rice, other cereals, and timber. In 1254 Hōjō Tokiyori limited the number of ships engaged in the China trade to five, and ordered all except the licensed vessels to be destroyed. But the trade continued as brisk as ever. Subsequently, however, during the interval that separated the decline of the Sung dynasty from the establishment of the Yuan, intercourse between Japan and the neighboring empire underwent some diminution, and was suspended altogether for a time after the Mongol invasion of Japan.