But the step, which was destined to produce the most far-reaching results, consisted in his obtaining from the emperor the appointment of five of his own family as governors of provinces, promising on his part to supervise their actions and to be responsible for the due performance of their duty. Up to this time the governors and vice-governors of provinces [pg 148] had always been appointed from civil life and were taken from the families surrounding the imperial court. He also was authorized to send into each province a military man, who was to reside there, to aid the governor in military affairs. Naturally, the military man, being the more active, gradually absorbed much of the power formerly exercised by the governor. These military men were under the authority of Yoritomo and formed the beginning of that feudal system which was destined to prevail so long in Japan. He also received from the court, shortly after his visit to Kyōto, the title of sei-i-tai-shōgun, which was the highest military title which had ever been bestowed on a subject. This is the title which, down to a.d. 1868, was borne by the real rulers of Japan. The possession of the power implied by this title enabled Yoritomo to introduce responsible government into the almost ungoverned districts of the empire, and to give to Japan for the first time in many centuries a semblance of peace.
There were also many minor matters of administration which Yoritomo, in the few remaining years of his life, put in order. He obtained from the emperor permission to levy a tax on the agricultural products of the country, from which he defrayed the expenses of the military government. He established tribunals for the hearing and determining of causes, and thus secured justice in the ordinary affairs of life. He forbade the priests and monks in the great Buddhist monasteries, who had become powerful and arrogant, to bear arms, or to harbor those bearing arms.
Yoritomo.
In all these administrative reforms Yoritomo was careful always to secure the assent and authority of the imperial court.[124] In no case did he assume or [pg 150] exercise independent authority. In this way was introduced at this time that system of dual government which continued until the resignation of the Tokugawa Shōgun in 1868. After his first visit to Kyōto, in a.d. 1190, Yoritomo devoted the remaining years of his life to the confirmation of his power and the encouragement of the arts of peace. In a.d. 1195 he made a second magnificent visit to Kyōto and remained four months. It is because of these peaceful results, which followed the long internecine struggles, that the Japanese regard Yoritomo as one of their most eminent and notable men. Under the influence of his court Kamakura grew to be a great city and far outranked even Kyōto in power and activity, though not in size.
In the autumn of the year a.d. 1198, when returning from the inspection of a new bridge over the Sagami river, he had a fall from his horse which seriously injured him. He died from the effects of this fall in the early part of the following year, in the fifty-third year of his age. He had wielded the unlimited military power for the last fifteen years. His death was almost as much of an epoch in the history of Japan as his life had been. We shall see in the chapters which follow the deplorable results of that system of effeminacy and nepotism, of abdication and regency, which Yoritomo had to resist, and which, had he lived twenty years more, his country might have escaped.
Chapter VII. Emperor And Shōgun.
The death of Yoritomo brought into prominence the very same system which had been the bane of the imperial house during many centuries. His son and the hereditary successor to his position and power was Yoriiye, then eighteen years of age. He was the son of Masago, and therefore the grandson of Hōjō Tokimasa, who had been Yoritomo's chief friend and adviser. He was an idle, vicious boy, and evinced no aptitude to carry on the work of his father. In this wayward career he was not checked by his grandfather, and is even said to have been encouraged to pursue a life of pleasure and gayety, while the earnest work of the government was transacted by others. Tokimasa assumed the duties of president of the Council as well as guardian of Yoriiye, and in these capacities conducted the administration entirely according to his own will. The appointments of position and rank which the father had received from the emperor were in like manner bestowed upon the son. He was made head of the military administrators stationed in the several provinces, and he also received the military title of [pg 152] sei-i-tai-shōgun, to which Yoritomo had been appointed. But these appointments were only honorary, and the duties pertaining to them were all performed by the guardian of the young man.