Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

1330. The Emperor still longed to destroy the influence of the Hojio party. He consulted with the Buddhist priests, then a very powerful body in the realm. He built the fortress of Kassangi in Yamato, to be seen to this day; but his design was discovered, and he was obliged to fly to this fort, whence he sent for Koosinoki massa Singhi, then a small officer in Kawadsi, but considered a very able soldier.

In 1331 the forces of Taka toki attacked and took the castle of Kassangi, and taking Godaigo prisoner, sent him to the island of Oki, and for some years there was no Emperor. Ko gen was called “Tenwo” by the Kamakura party, but he was called the False Emperor by his opponents.

In 1332, Otonomia, Nitta, and Koosinoki met at Chi wa ya, a castle near Miako. While the Kamakura army of Hojio overcame the other detachments, they were repulsed by that under Koosinoki. Nitta Yoshi assembled an army in the province of Kowotski. Troops were sent against him from Kamakura, but after several engagements he marched upon and sacked and burned that town. Among the officers of the Hojio party some were killed in battle, others were beheaded, and many killed themselves. Among the last was Taka toki. His son had his throat cut. In Kiusiu the Hojio party was defeated by Owotomo, who seized the governor, whose life was saved, but all the other members of the Hojio family, who had been so overbearing during their period of rule, were massacred by the people. Their authority, which had been paramount for years in Kamakura, and thence in the empire, was completely broken down.

Godaigo was restored to the throne. He had not improved by adversity, and was weak in his character. He removed all the officers in place, and, against the advice of his friends and ministers, conferred rank and power on Ashikanga Taka ooji, who had entered into a conspiracy against him, and who afterward became the most powerful man in the empire and founder of a long line of Shiogoons. The Emperor gave to those who had assisted him large landed possessions: to Ashikanga, the provinces of Hitatsi, Musasi, and Simosa; to Nitta Yoshi Sada, Kowotski and Harima; and to his son, Etsingo; to Koosinoki, Setsu and Kawadsi; and to others in proportion. Mori Yosi, the royal priest, had been appointed Shiogoon, but at the instance of Ashikanga was imprisoned and deposed. The Emperor had been warned against Ashikanga by Madenga koji chika foossa, his minister, in vain. This minister was the author, in 1341, of the “Shoku gen sho,” the red book of the court of Miako.

The war which was now commencing is known as the war between the Northern and Southern Emperors—the Hokko cho and the Nancho. Each party set up one Emperor after another, while the war raged under generals who were fighting for the office of commander-in-chief rather than for the empire. Ashikanga and Nitta, Koosinoki and Hossokawa, Kikootchi and Owotomo, were the prominent leaders; while Godaigo, as Emperor of the South, was succeeded by Go mura Kami, retaining possession of, during a series of misfortunes, the three insignia of imperial power. On the other hand, Ko gen, called False Emperor, was succeeded as Emperor of the North by his brother Komio, who abdicated in favor of Sh’ko, who was taken prisoner, and Ko ngong took his place; but he and both his predecessors fell into the hands of their opponent. After the destruction of Kamakura and the downfall of the Hojio family in 1332, the theater of war changed to the neighborhood of Miako. Yoshi mitz, afterward the great Ashikanga, was appointed Shiogoon in 1367, when he was ten years of age. On both sides treachery on the part of the generals seems to have been a trivial and common occurrence; and this is not surprising, inasmuch as there was no principle involved, and no party-cry to rally under. Each general was fighting for himself and for his own advancement, while the opposing Emperors looked on apparently without much feeling or interest in the question at issue. By this war in the island of Kiusiu the family of Satsuma largely increased its power and possessions at the expense of Kikootchi.

In the year 1392, by the mediation of O-ooji, lord of the provinces in the west part of Nippon, peace was brought about. He induced the Emperor of the South to bring to Miako the three emblems, and to give them up to his rival, accepting the title of Dai jio ten wo. Thenceforward both Emperors lived in Miako, Go ko matz reigning. During the first troublous times Ashikanga had been strengthening his position, enriching himself and rising in rank and favor to the highest position to which a subject could attain. He built a splendid house for himself in Muro Matchi Street, called the Palace of Flowers, and two others called respectively the Gold and Silver Houses, which were large enough to be taken away in pieces (after his death) and form parts of different temples, of which these parts are still looked upon as the chief ornaments. Such is the temple of Tchikuboo shima in the Great Lake. The titles given him were the head of the Gen family: Joone san goo—i.e., as the Emperor’s second son—and Dai Shiogoon. He was at length, before he was forty, raised to be Dai jo dai jin, and during the following year he gave up his titles and place, and, shaving his head, retired under the Buddhist name of Zensan, or Heavenly Mountain. He moved about with a style and equipage similar to that used by the Emperor. He sent an embassy to China, and received an answer, in which he was styled Nippon wo or King of Japan. The Emperor visited him, and conferred on him the title of Kubosama—Kubo being the title of the father or predecessor of the Emperor after abdication, sama implying that he is equal to or “the same as.” He was the first to whom the title was given, and it is still a title which is conferred by the Emperor, and is not inherent in any office. He died in 1408. The office of Shiogoon became hereditary in the family of Ashikanga, and henceforth the position of Kwanrei or Minister to the Shiogoon was aspired to as conveying the chief power in the empire. Kamakura was still the usual residence of this officer. Eight families were set apart, from among whom it was eligible to name the Kwanrei, chief among whom were Hossokawa, Hatake yama, and Ooyay soongi—the family of Hossokawa being at this time the most powerful. After the death of the great Ashikanga, his descendants were unable to wield the power which he had transmitted to them. He does not seem to have established any powerful government throughout the empire, but would appear to have held what he had seized rather from the country being tired of civil war than from any great administrative talent in himself. During the century which followed, civil war seems to have been the normal state of Japan—one man after another rising to seize the reins—at one time at Miako, at another at Kamakura. No one chief was able to reduce the whole empire to a settled state of tranquillity. If one rose a little above his compeers, they combined against him; while the monasteries and religious sects were so powerful as to be able to insure success to whatever side they gave their influence and assistance. This state of things continued till Nobu nanga gradually rose out of the crowd, and struck down the power of these Buddhist sects.

1410. While the appointment of a Dai or great Shiogoon was kept up at Miako, an inferior officer, with the title of Shiogoon only, was placed in Kamakura, with a minister under him. The men who filled both offices were still of the Ashikanga family. When so many high offices were held by powerful chiefs, jealousy was excited, and this kept up a state of constant civil war in some parts of the country. The three rich provinces of Bizen, Mimesaka, and Harima were taken from the owner, Akamatz, who to revenge himself invited the Dai Shiogoon to a banquet and assassinated him. He in turn committed suicide, and his territory was divided.

In 1414 the three emblems were stolen, but were afterward recovered. The family of Hossokawa was rising to power and wealth at Kamakura, while that of Ashikanga was on the wane.

In 1415, for the first time, an act was passed by the ruling powers known as a Tokusayay. This is a law suddenly passed, by which all mercantile engagements are at an end and all debts cancelled. This act of arbitrary, high-handed injustice has been carried out over and over again in Japan, and is generally the act of some high officer who has borrowed money largely. Whether it was carried to the full extent stated may be doubted, but it has been the cause of much trouble and anxiety.

In 1462 Ashikanga nari ooji, son of the former Shiogoon of Kamakura, was obliged to fly to Ko nga in the province of Simotsuki.