The object of this abdication was twofold. The sovereigns themselves often became restless and dissatisfied in the constrained attitude which they were compelled to maintain. If they were in the least ambitious to meet the requirements of their elevated position and realized in any degree the legitimate claims which their country had upon them, their natural efforts to take part in the administration were promptly checked, and they were reminded that it was unbecoming and unfitting for the descendants of the gods to mingle in ordinary earthly affairs. In this way it often fell out that the ablest of the emperors retired from the actual position of reigning emperor in order to free themselves from the restraints of etiquette and from the burden of ennui which held them captive. They assumed the dignity of retired emperors, and often from their retirement wielded a greater influence and exerted a far more active part in the administration of affairs than they ever had been able to do when upon the imperial throne.

Besides this motive which affected the occupants of the throne, there was a corresponding one which led the officers of the court to encourage and perhaps sometimes to compel the emperors to abdicate. These administrative officers, into whose hands the management of the government had fallen, were desirous to retain their authority, and therefore whenever an emperor exhibited signs of independence, or any disposition to think or act for himself, they contrived means to have him retire and leave in his place some inexperienced boy who could be more easily controlled.

In this kind of supervising statesmanship the Fujiwara family became, and for centuries remained, supreme experts. For a period of four hundred years, from A.D. 645 to 1050, they monopolized nearly all the important offices in the government. The wives and concubines of the feeble emperors were all taken from its inexhaustible repertoire. The men of the family, among whom were always some of administrative ability, found it a task of no great difficulty to rule the emperor who was supposed to be divinely inspired to rule the empire, especially when he was usually a boy whose mother, wife, and court favorites were all supplied from the Fujiwara family. This kind of life and environment could not fail to produce on the successive emperors a sadly demoralizing effect. They were brought up in an enervating atmosphere and their whole life was spent in arts and employments which, instead of developing in them a spirit of independence and a high ambition and ability to govern well the empire committed to them, led them to devote themselves to pleasures, and to leave to others less fortunate the duty of administering the affairs of government.

The same circumstances which demoralized the occupants of the imperial throne served in a certain though less degree to enervate and enfeeble the Fujiwara family. Although they sometimes appointed one of their number the commander of an expedition against the Emishi, or to put down fresh revolts in the island of Kyushu, yet his duties were purely honorary. He usually remained at home and sent one or more of the active military chieftains to lead the forces against the enemy in the field. If the expedition was successful, however, the honorary commander did not forget to have himself duly promoted, and rewarded with additional lands and income.

Other families besides the Fujiwara, rose in these long and weary centuries to prominence, and seemed on the point of disputing the security of their position. Thus the Tachibana in the eighth century attained high honors and distinction. It was an old family, and even as far back as the legend of Yamato-dake(108) we find that a princess of the Tachibana family was his wife, who sacrificed herself in the bay of Yedo to appease the turbulent waters. It was Maroye, a member of the Tachibana family and a favorite of the Emperor Shomu (A.D. 724-756), who compiled the collection of ancient Japanese poetry called Man-yoshu or collection of Myriad Leaves.

Another family which attained prominence was the Sugawara. It originated in the province of Kawachi. The most noted representative of this family was Sugawara Michizane, who was first conspicuous as the teacher of the young prince who afterward became the Emperor Uda (A.D. 888-898). He was a brilliant scholar in Chinese, which was then the learned language of the East. Even down to modern times his family has been devoted to learning. The Sugawara(109) and Oye families both had adopted literature as their hereditary profession, and the government made them an allowance for the expenses(110) of those who might be pursuing their studies in the national university. The influence of Michizane over the emperor was marked and salutary. Under his wise tutelage Uda showed so much independence that the Fujiwara Kwambaku found means to lead him to abdicate in favor of his son, who became the sixtieth emperor, and is known under the historic name of Daigo. Michizane became the counsellor and was created nai-daijin under the new emperor, who at the time of his accession was only fourteen years old. But the Kwambaku Tokihira determined to free himself from the adverse influence of this wise and honest counsellor. So he had him sent in a kind of honorable banishment to Dazaifu, the seat of the vice-royalty of the island of Kyushu. It is said that he died here in A.D. 903. There was a great re-action in regard to him after his death, and he was canonized under the name of Tenjin(111) (Heavenly god), and is held sacred as the patron saint of men of letters and of students. The twenty-fifth day of each month is kept as a holiday in schools, sacred to Tenjin-Sama, and the twenty-fifth of June as an annual matsuri.



Michizane.

But the families which finally displaced the Fujiwara from their position of supremacy were what were technically called the military families. The separation of officers into civil and military was made under the reforms introduced from China. The Fujiwara in the main restricted themselves to civil duties. Wherever it was necessary to send military expeditions against the barbarians of the north, or rebels in Kyushu, or into the disaffected districts of Korea, commanders were selected from families devoted to military service. The Taira family was of this class. Hei is the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese name Taira, and is more often used in the literature of the times. The Taira family sprang from the Emperor Kwammu (A.D. 782-806) through one of his concubines. The great-grandson of Kwammu, Takamochi, received permission to adopt the name of Taira, and thus became the founder of the family. They were the military vassals of the crown for many generations.

A little later than the Taira arose another family, the Minamoto, whose equivalent Chinese name was Gen. It sprang from the Emperor Seiwa (A.D. 859-880). His son Tadazumi became minister of war. Tadazumi had two sons, who were granted the family name of Minamoto; the descendants of one of them, Tsunemoto, being created military vassals.

The almost constant wars in which the empire was engaged led to the extension of the military class. From the time now under discussion the military class came to be looked upon as a distinct and separate part of the population. It was composed of those who in the time of war showed an aptitude for arms, and who were most serviceable in the campaigns which they undertook. Gradually they became distinct from the agricultural peasantry, and by education and training came to look upon arms as their legitimate profession. They naturally attached themselves to the military commanders who led them in their various expeditions, and thus were in time regarded as the standing troops of the empire. This growth of a military class, whose commanders were restless and ambitious, gradually undermined the authority which the Fujiwara up to the tenth century had almost unrestrictedly exercised. The employment of commanders from the military families raised in them an ambition to share in the powers of government. The struggles which ensued, first between the Fujiwara and Taira, and then between the Taira and Minamoto, continued to keep the country embroiled for more than a century. The suffering and desolation resulting from these weary internecine wars can only be paralleled by such conflicts as that between the White and Red Roses in England, or the Thirty Years' War in Germany. Of these struggles it will be possible to give only an outline.

It has already been mentioned that the Taira family sprang from the Emperor Kwammu,(112) whose great-grandson, Takamochi received permission to take Taira as his family name. The Emperor Shirakawa tired of the arrogance of the Fujiwara in A.D. 1087 retired into a cloister, and from this seclusion continued to exercise a controlling influence in the conduct of affairs. Tadamori a descendant of Taira-no-Takamochi was a favorite in his court, and even had a liaison with one of his concubines.

The ex-emperor complaisantly informed the courtier that if the child to be born proved to be a daughter he himself would adopt it, but if a son then it should belong to Tadamori. Accordingly the child being a son was a Taira, and rose to great eminence as Taira-no-Kiyomori. Tadamori acquired for himself great credit by his successful expedition against Korean pirates who had cruised along the eastern coasts of Japan. In the troubles which subsequently arose in reference to the succession the Taira took an important part. The Emperor Toba, who succeeded to the throne in A.D. 1108 at the age of six, abdicated in A.D. 1123 at the age of twenty-six. Both his father, the ex-Emperor Horikawa, and his grandfather, the ex-Emperor Shirakawa, were still living in retirement. He was succeeded by his son the Emperor Shutoku in A.D. 1124, then six years old, who after reigning seventeen years abdicated. He had a son but was succeeded A.D. 1142 by his brother Konoye who was four years of age. This mature youth reigned thirteen years and died without abdicating. On his death-bed he adopted as the crown prince his brother Go-Shirakawa, thus displacing the lineal heir. The succession was now bitterly disputed. The Minamoto chiefly espoused the cause of the displaced heir, while Kiyomori and the Taira together with Minamoto-no-Yoshitomo supported Go-Shirakawa. In a battle fought A.D. 1156 Kyomori won the victory. This victory raised him to a pinnacle of power. He began a career of nepotism and patronage which was not inferior to that of the Fujiwara. The ex-Emperor Shutoku and his son were banished to the province of Sanuki where it is said that Shutoku died of starvation. Tametomo a member of the Minamoto clan who was famed for his great strength and for his skill in archery was sent as an exile to the island of Hachijo, southeast of the promontory of Izu. From this island he escaped, and it is a tradition that he made his way to the Ryukyu islands where he rose to prominence and became the ancestor of the kings of these islands.

Yoshitomo of the Minamoto clan, who had sided with Kiyomori in the recent dynastic conflict was a brother of the Tametomo just mentioned. He was greatly offended by the violent use which Kiyomori made of the power which had come into his hands. With all the Minamoto and Fujiwara he conspired to overthrow the victorious and arrogant Taira. But Kiyomori suspecting the plans of his enemies took measures to counteract them and suddenly fell upon them in the city of Kyoto. Yoshitomo was obliged to save himself by fleeing to Owari, where he was assassinated by the agents of Kiyomori. The death of the head of the Minamoto only made the tyrant more determined to crush all opposition. Even the ex-Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who was a son-in-law of Kiyomori, but who showed some signs of disapproval, was sent into exile. Several of the sons of Yoshitomo were put to death; but Yoritomo then a boy of thirteen was saved by the interference of the mother-in-law of Kiyomori, and was sent into exile in the province of Izu, and put into the safe-keeping of two faithful Taira men, one of whom Hojo Tokimasa will be heard of hereafter.

Besides the four sons of Yoshitomo by his wife, he had also three sons by a concubine named Tokiwa. She was a woman of great beauty, and for that reason as well as because she was the mother of the romantic hero Yoshitsune, she has often been chosen by Japanese artists as the subject of their pictures. Tokiwa and her three children, of whom Yoshitsune was then an infant at the breast, fled at the breaking out of the storm upon Yoshitomo and the Minamoto clan. They are often represented as wandering through a storm of snow, Yoshitsune being carried as an infant on the back of his mother, and the other two little ones pattering along with unequal steps at her side. In this forlorn condition they were met by one of the Taira soldiers, who took pity on them and gave them shelter. From him they learned that Kiyomori had taken the mother of Tokiwa prisoner, and held her in confinement, knowing that this would surely bring back to him the fair fugitive and her children. In the Chinese teachings of that day, in which Tokiwa had been educated, the duty of a child to its mother was paramount to that of a mother to her child. So Tokiwa felt that it was unquestionably her duty to go back at once to the capital and surrender herself in order to procure the release of her mother. But her maternal heart rebelled when she remembered that her babes would surely be sacrificed by this devotion. Her woman's wit devised a scheme which might possibly furnish a way between these terrible alternatives. She determined to surrender herself and her children to Kiyomori, and depend upon her beauty to save them from the fate which had been pronounced upon all the Minamoto. So with her little flock she went back and gave herself up to the implacable tyrant. Softened by her beauty and urged by a number of his courtiers, he set her mother at liberty in exchange for her becoming his concubine, and distributed her children in separate monasteries. The chief interest follows the youngest boy, Yoshitsune, who was sent to the monastery at Kurama Yama(113) near Kyoto. Here he grew up a vigorous and active youth, more devoted to woodcraft, archery, and fencing than to the studies and devotions of the monastery. At sixteen years of age he was urged by the priests to become a monk and to spend the rest of his days in praying for the soul of his father. But he refused, and shortly after he escaped from the monastery in company with a merchant who was about to visit the northern provinces. Yoshitsune reached Mutsu, where he entered the service of Fujiwara-no-Hidehira, then governor of the province. Here he spent several years devoting himself to the military duties which chiefly pertained to the government of that rough and barbarous province. He developed into the gallant and accomplished soldier who played a principal part in the wars which followed, and became the national hero around whose name have clustered the choicest traditions of his country.

Meanwhile, as we have seen, Yoritomo,(114) the oldest son of Yoshitomo, and by inheritance the head of the Minamoto clan, had been banished to Izu and committed to the care of two faithful Taira adherents. Yoritomo married Masago, the daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, one of these, and found means to induce Tokimasa to join him in his plans to overthrow the tyrant Kiyomori, who now ruled the empire with relentless severity. Even the retired emperor joined in this conspiracy and wrote letters to Yoritomo urging him to lead in the attempt to put down the Taira. Yoritomo summoned the scattered members of the Minamoto clan and all the disaffected elements of every kind to his assistance. It does not seem that this summons was responded to with the alacrity which was hoped for. The inexperience of Yoritomo and the power and resources of him against whom they were called upon to array themselves, led the scattered enemies of Kiyomori to hesitate to join so hopeless a cause. The rendezvous of the Minamoto was at Ishibashi Yama, and it is said that only three hundred men gathered at the call. They were followed and attacked by a greatly superior force, and utterly routed. It is a tradition that Yoritomo and six friends, who had escaped from the slaughter of this battle, hid themselves in the hollow of an immense tree. Their pursuers, in searching for them, sent one of their number to examine this tree. He was secretly a friend of the Minamoto, and when he discovered the fugitives he told them to remain, and announced to those who sent him that the tree was empty. He even inserted his spear into the hollow and turned it about to show that there was nothing there. When he did this two doves(115) flew out, and the artful soldier reported that spiders' webs were in the mouth of the opening.

Yoritomo now fled to the promontory of Awa, east of what became known afterward as Yedo bay. He sent messages in every direction summoning the enemies of Kiyomori to join him. His brother Yoshitsune gathered what forces he could from the north and marched to the region which was to become famous as the site of Kamakura. He was joined by others of his clan and soon felt himself in such a position as to assume the aggressive. He fixed upon Kamakura as his headquarters about A.D. 1180, and as his power increased it grew to be a great city. It was difficult of access from Kyoto and by fortifying the pass of Hakone,(116) where the mountainous regions of Shinano come down to the eastern coast not far from Fujisan, it was rendered safe from attacks coming from the south.

While these notes of preparation were being sounded Kiyomori, who as daijo-daijin had ruled the empire for many years, died A.D. 1181, at the age of sixty-four. He was fully aware of the portentous clouds which were gathering around his family. On his death-bed he is said to have warned them of the danger arising from the plans of Yoritomo. According to the Nihon-Gwaishi, he said, "My regret is only that I am dying, and have not yet seen the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto. After my decease do not make offerings to Buddha on my behalf nor read sacred books. Only cut off the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto and hang it on my tomb."

The death of Kiyomori(117) hastened the triumph of Yoritomo. Munemori the son of Kiyomori became the head of the Taira clan, and continued the contest. But Yoritomo's combinations speedily reduced the country to his power. Yoshitsune with his army from the north was at Kamakura; Yoshinaka, a cousin of Yoritomo, was in command of an army gathered in the highlands of Shinano; while Yoritomo himself led the forces collected in Awa, Kazusa and Musashi. The point to which all the armies were directed was the capital where the Taira were still in full control. Yoshinaka was the first to come in collision with the forces of the capital. Munemori had sent out an army to oppose Yoshinaka who was swiftly approaching along the Nakasendo. The Taira army was completely defeated and Yoshinaka marched victoriously into the capital. Munemori with the reigning emperor Antoku, then only a child six years of age, and all the imperial court crossed the Inland sea to Sanuki, the northern province of the island of Shikoku. The two retired emperors Go-Shirakawa, and Takakura who sympathized with the revolutionary movements of Yoritomo, remained behind and welcomed Yoshinaka to the capital. The retirement of the emperor from the palace was taken as his abdication, and his younger brother, Go-Toba, then seven years old, was proclaimed emperor.

Yoshinaka, puffed up by his rapid success, and disregarding the paramount position of Yoritomo, assumed the superintendence of the government and had himself appointed sei-i-shogun,(118) which was the highest military title then bestowed upon a subject. He even went so far as to antagonize Yoritomo and undertook to pluck the fruits of the military movements which had brought about this revolution of the government.

Yoritomo at once despatched Yoshitsune at the head of his army to Kyoto to put down this most unexpected and unnatural defection. He met Yoshinaka's army near lake Biwa and inflicted upon it a severe defeat. Overwhelmed with shame and knowing that he deserved no consideration at the hands of his outraged relatives, Yoshinaka committed suicide. Yoshitsune then followed the fugitive court. He destroyed the Taira palace at Hyogo, and then crossed over to Sanuki, whither the court had fled. Alarmed by the swift vengeance which was pursuing them, Munemori together with the emperor and his mother and all the court hastily embarked for what they hoped might be an asylum in the island of Kyushu. They were pursued by the Minamoto army in the junks which had brought them to Sanuki. They were overtaken at Dan-no-ura not far from the village of Shimonoseki, in the narrow straits at the western extremity of the Inland sea. The naval battle which here took place is the most famous in the annals of the Japanese empire. According to the Nihon-Gwaishi the Taira fleet consisted of five hundred junks, and the Minamoto of seven hundred. The vessels of the Taira were encumbered by many women and children of the escaping families, which put them at a great disadvantage. The young emperor, with his mother and grandmother, were also the precious freight of this fugitive fleet. Of course, at this early date the vessels which contended were unlike the monstrous men-of-war which now make naval warfare so stupendous a game. They were not even to be compared with the vessels which made up the Spanish Armada in A.D. 1588, or the ships in which the gallant British sailors repulsed them. Cannon were no part of their armament. The men fought with bows and arrows, and with spears and swords. It was, however, a terrible hand-to-hand fight between men who felt that their all was at stake. Story-tellers draw from this battle some of their most lurid narratives, and artists have depicted it with realistic horrors. The grandmother of the emperor, the widow of Kiyomori, seeing that escape was impossible, took the boy emperor in her arms, and in spite of the remonstrances of her daughter, who was the boy's mother, she plunged into the sea, and both were drowned.

The great mass of the Taira perished in this battle, but a remnant escaped to the island of Kyushu and hid themselves in the inaccessible valleys of the province of Higo. Here they have been recognized in recent times, and it is claimed that they still show the surly aversion to strangers which is an inheritance derived from the necessity under which they long rested to hide themselves from the vengeance which pursued them.(119)

This battle was decisive in the question of supremacy between the Taira and Minamoto clans. The same policy of extermination which Kiyomori had pursued against the Minamoto was now remorselessly enforced by the Minamoto against the Taira. The prisoners who were taken in the battle were executed to the last man. Munemori was taken prisoner and decapitated. Whenever a Taira man, woman, or child was found, death was the inevitable penalty inflicted. Yoritomo stationed his father-in-law Hojo Tokimasa at Kyoto to search out and eradicate his enemies as well as to supervise the affairs of the government.

It will be remembered that Go-Toba, a mere child (A.D. 1186) only seven years of age, had been put on the throne, in the place of the fugitive Antoku. Now that the latter had perished at Dan-no-ura, there could be no question about the legitimacy and regularity of Go-Toba's accession. The retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who had been a friend and promoter of the schemes of Yoritomo, was still alive, and rendered important aid in the re-organization of the government.

The darkest blot upon the character of Yoritomo is his treatment of his youngest brother Yoshitsune. It was he who had by his generalship and gallantry brought these terrible wars to a triumphant conclusion. He had crushed in the decisive battle of Dan-no-ura the last of the enemies of Yoritomo. With his victorious troops he marched northward, and with prisoners and captured standards was on his way to lay them at the feet of his now triumphant brother at Kamakura. But the demon of jealousy had taken possession of Yoritomo. He resented the success and fame of his more winning and heroic brother. He sent orders to him not to enter Kamakura, and to give up his trophies of battle at Koshigoye near to Enoshima. Here at the monastery of Mampukuji is still kept the draft of the touching letter(120) which he sent to his brother, protesting his loyalty and denying the charges of ambition and self-seeking which had been made against him. But all this availed nothing. Yoshitsune returned to Kyoto and, in fear of bodily harm from the machinations of his brother, made his escape with his faithful servant Benkei,(121) into his old asylum with his friend Fujiwara Hidehira the governor of Mutsu. Shortly after his arrival, however, Hidehira died, and his son Yasuhira abjectly connived at his assassination(122) A.D. 1189, with a view to secure Yoritomo's favor. He was at the time of his death only thirty years of age. He has lived down to the present time in the admiring affection of a warlike and heroic people. Although Yoritomo is looked upon as perhaps their greatest hero, yet their admiration is always coupled with a proviso concerning his cruel treatment of his brother.

In order not to rest under the imputation of having encouraged this assassination, Yoritomo marched at the head of a strong force and inflicted punishment upon Yasuhira for having done what he himself desired but dared not directly authorize.

The way was now clear for Yoritomo to establish a system of government which should secure to him and his family the fruits of his long contest. In A.D. 1190, he went up to the capital to pay his respects to the Emperor Go-Toba as well as to the veteran retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa. The latter was now in his sixty-sixth year, and had held his place through five successive reigns, and was now the friend and patron of the new government. He died, however, only two years later. Yoritomo knew the effect produced by a magnificent display, and therefore made his progress to the capital with all the pomp and circumstance which he could command. The festivities were kept up for a month, and the court and its surroundings were deeply impressed with a sense of the power and irresistible authority of the head of the Minamoto clan.

Yoritomo did not, however, choose to establish himself at Kyoto amid the atmosphere of effeminacy which surrounded the court. After his official visit, during which every honor and rank which could be bestowed by the emperor were showered upon his head and all his family and friends, he returned to his own chosen seat at Kamakura. Here he busied himself in perfecting a system which, while it would perpetuate his own power, would also build up a firm national government.

His first step, A.D. 1184, was to establish a council at which affairs of state were discussed, and which furnished a medium through which the administration might be conducted. The president of this council was Oye-no-Hiromoto.(123) Its jurisdiction pertained at first to the Kwanto—that is, to the part of the country east of the Hakone barrier. This region was more completely under the control of the Minamoto, and therefore could be more easily and surely submitted to administrative methods. He also established a criminal tribunal to take cognizance of robberies and other crimes which, during the lawless and violent disturbances in the country, had largely prevailed.

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 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 Kyoto, the title of sei-i-tai-shogun, 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 exercise independent authority. In this way was introduced at this time that system of dual government which continued until the resignation of the Tokugawa Shogun in 1868. After his first visit to Kyoto, 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 Kyoto 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 Kyoto 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 SHOGUN.

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 Hojo 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 sei-i-tai-shogun, 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.

In the year A.D. 1203, that is in the fourth year succeeding Yoritomo's death, Yoriiye was taken sick, and was unable to fulfil his duties even in the feeble manner which was customary. His mother consulted with Tokimasa, and they agreed that Yoriiye should abdicate and surrender the headship of the military administration to his brother Semman, who was twelve years of age, and his son Ichiman. Yoriiye seems to have resisted these suggestions, and even resorted to force to free himself from the influence of the Hojo. But Tokimasa was too powerful to be so easily dispensed with. Yoriiye was compelled to yield, and he retired to a monastery and gave up his offices. Not content with this living retirement, Tokimasa contrived to have him assassinated. Semman, his brother, was appointed sei-i-tai-shogun, and his name changed to Sanetomo. But Sanetomo did not long enjoy his promotion, because his nephew, the son of his murdered predecessor, deemed him responsible for his father's murder, and took occasion to assassinate him. Then in turn the nephew was put to death for this crime, and thus by the year A.D. 1219 the last of the descendants of the great Yoritomo had perished. In the meantime Tokimasa had, A.D. 1205, retired to a Buddhist monastery in his sixty-eighth year, and in A.D. 1216, when he was seventy-eight, he died. The court at Kamakura was now prepared to go on in its career of effeminacy after the pattern of that at Kyoto.

Mesago, the widow of Yoritomo and daughter of Tokimasa, although she too had taken refuge in a Buddhist nunnery, continued to exercise a ruling control in the affairs of the government. She solicited from the court at Kyoto the appointment of Yoritsune, a boy of the Fujiwara family, only two years old, as sei-i-tai-shogun in the place of the murdered Sanetomo. The petition was granted, and this child was entrusted to the care of the Hojo, who, as regents(125) of the shogun, exercised with unlimited sway the authority of this great office. The situation of affairs in Japan at this time was deplorable. Go-Toba and Tsuchi-mikado were both living in retirement as ex-emperors. Juntoku was the reigning emperor, who was under the influence and tutelage of the ex-Emperor Go-Toba. Fretting under the arrogance of the Hojo, Go-Toba undertook to resist their claims. But Yoshitoku, the Hojo regent at this time, quickly brought the Kyoto court to terms by the use of his military power. The ex-Emperor Go-Toba was compelled to become a monk, and was exiled to the island of Oki. The Emperor Juntoku was forced to abdicate, and was banished to Sado, and a grandson of the former Emperor Takakura placed on the throne. Even the ex-Emperor Tsuchi-mikado, who had not taken any part in the conspiracy, was sent off to the island of Shikoku. The lands that had belonged to the implicated nobles were confiscated and distributed by Yoshitoku among his own adherents. The power of the Hojo family was thus raised to its supreme point. They ruled both at Kyoto and Kamakura with resistless authority. They exercised at both places this authority without demanding or receiving the appointment to any of the high positions which they might have claimed. They were only the regents of young and immature shoguns, who were the appointees of a court which had at its head an emperor without power or influence, and which was controlled by the creatures of their own designation. This lamentable state of things lasted for many years. The shoguns during all this time were children sent from Kyoto, sons of emperors or connections of the royal family. The Hojo ruled them as well as the country. Whenever it seemed best, they relentlessly deposed them, and set up others in their places. In A.D. 1289 the Regent Sadatoki, it is said, became irritated with one of these semi-royal shoguns, named Koreyasu, and in order to show his contempt for him, had him put in a nori-mono(126) with his heels upward, and sent him under guard to Kyoto. Some of the Hojo regents, however, were men of character and efficiency. Yasutoki, for instance, who became regent in A.D. 1225, was a man of notable executive ability, taking Yoritomo as his model. Besides being a soldier of tried capacity, he was a true friend of the farmer in his seasons of famine and trial, and a promoter of legal reforms and of the arts, which found a congenial home among the Japanese.

But this condition of affairs could not last always. The very same influences which put the real power into the hands of the regents were at work to render them unfit to continue to wield it. Abdication and effeminacy were gradually dragging down the Hojo family to the same level as that of the shoguns and emperors. In A.D. 1256 Tokiyori, then only thirty years old, resigned the regency in favor of his son Tokimune, who was only six years. He himself retired to a monastery, from which he travelled as a visiting monk throughout the country. In the meantime his son was under the care of a tutor, Nagatoki, who, of course, was one of the Hojo family. Thus it had come about that a tutor now controlled the regent; who was supposed to control the shogun; who was supposed to be the vassal of the emperor; who in turn was generally a child under the control of a corrupt and venal court. Truly government in Japan had sunk to its lowest point, and it was time for heroic remedies!

Occasionally, in the midst of this corruption and inefficiency, an event occurs which stirs up the national enthusiasm and makes us feel that there is still left an element of heroism which will ultimately redeem the nation from impending ruin. Such was the Mongolian invasion of Japan in A.D. 1281. According to accounts given by Marco Polo, who evidently narrates the exaggerated gossip of the Chinese court,(127) Kublai Khan had at this time conquered the Sung dynasty in China and reigned with unexampled magnificence. He had heard of the wealth of Japan and deemed it an easy matter to add this island empire to his immense dominions. His first step was to despatch an embassy to the Japanese court to demand the subjection of the country to his authority. This embassy was referred to Kamakura, whence it was indignantly dismissed. Finally he sent an invading force in a large number of Chinese and Korean vessels who took possession of Tsushima, an island belonging to Japan and lying midway between Korea and Japan. Trusting to the effects of this success a new embassy was sent, which was brought before the Hojo regent at Kamakura. The spot on the seashore is still pointed out where these imperious ambassadors were put to death, and thus a denial which could not be misunderstood was given to the demands of the Grand Khan. A great invading force, which the Japanese put at a hundred thousand men, was immediately sent in more than three hundred vessels, who landed upon the island of Kyushu. This army was met and defeated(128) by Tokimune, and, a timely typhoon coming to their aid, the fleet of vessels was completely destroyed. Thus the only serious attempt at the invasion of Japan which has ever been made was completely frustrated.

But notwithstanding this heroic episode the affairs of Japan remained in the same deplorable condition. As a rule children continued to occupy the imperial throne and to abdicate whenever their Hojo masters deemed it best. Children of the imperial house or of the family of Fujiwara were sent to Kamakura to become shoguns. And now at last the Hojo regency had by successive steps come down to the same level, and children were made regents, whose actions and conduct were controlled by their inferiors.

In the midst of this state of things, which continued till A.D. 1318, Go-Daigo became emperor. Contrary to the ordinary usage, he was a man thirty-one years old, in the full maturity of his powers. He was by no means free from the vices to which his surroundings inevitably tended. He was fond of the gayety and pomp which the court had always cultivated. But he realized the depth of the degradation to which the present condition of affairs had dragged his country. A famine brought great suffering upon the people, and the efforts which the emperor made to assist them added to his popularity, and revealed to him the reverence in which the imperial throne was held. His son Moriyoshi, as early as A.D. 1307, was implicated in plans against the Hojo, which they discovered, and in consequence compelled Go-Daigo to order his retirement into a monastery. Later Go-Daigo undertook to make a stand against the arrogance and intolerance of the Hojo and induced the Buddhist monks to join him in fortifying Kasagi in the province of Yamato. But this effort of the emperor was fruitless. Kasagi was attacked and destroyed and the emperor taken prisoner. As a punishment for his attempt he was sent as an exile to the island of Oki. The Hojo Regent Takatoki put Go-Kogen on the throne as emperor. But Go-Daigo from his exile continued his exertions against the Hojo, and assistance came to him from unexpected quarters. He effected his escape from the island and, having raised an army, marched upon Kyoto. Kusunoki Masashige, who had given his aid to the emperor on former occasions, now exerted himself to good purpose. He is held in admiring remembrance to this day by his grateful country as the model of patriotic devotion, to whom his emperor was dearer than his life. Another character who stands out prominently in this trying time was Nitta Yoshisada. He was a descendant of Yoshiiye, who, for his achievements against the Emishi, had received the popular title of Hachiman-taro. Nitta was a commander in the army of the Hojo, which had been sent against Kusunoki Masashige. But at the last moment he refused to fight against the army of the emperor and retired with his troops and went over to the side of Masashige. He returned to his own province of Kotsuke and raised an army to fight against the Hojo. With this force he marched at once against Kamakura through the province of Sagami. His route lay along the beach. But at Inamura-ga-saki the high ground, which is impassable for troops, juts out so far into the water that Nitta was unable to lead them past the promontory. Alone he clambered up the mountain path and looked out upon the sea that lay in his way. He was bitterly disappointed that he could not bring his force in time to share in the attack upon the hateful Hojo capital. He prayed to the Sea-god to withdraw the sea and allow him to pass with his troops. Then he flung his sword into the waves in token of his earnestness and of the dire necessity in which he found himself. Thereupon the tide retreated and left a space of a mile and a half, along which Nitta(129) marched upon Kamakura.

The attack was spirited and was made from three directions simultaneously. It was resisted with determined valor on the part of the Hojo. The city was finally set on fire by Nitta, and in a few hours was reduced to ashes. Thus the power and the arrogant tyranny of the Hojo family were sealed. It had lasted from the death of Yoritomo, A.D. 1199, to the destruction of Kamakura, A.D. 1333, in all one hundred and thirty-four years. It was a rough and tempestuous time and the Hojo have left a name in their country of unexampled cruelty and rapacity. The most unpardonable crime of which they were guilty was that of raising their sacrilegious hands against the emperor and making war against the imperial standard. For this they must rest under the charge of treason, and no merits however great or commanding can ever excuse them in the eyes of their patriotic countrymen.

The restoration of Go-Daigo to the imperial throne, under so popular an uprising, seemed to betoken a return to the old and simple system of Japanese government. The intervention of a shogun between the emperor and his people, which had lasted from the time of Yoritomo, was contrary to the precedents which had prevailed from the Emperor Jimmu down to that time. It was the hope and wish of the best friends of the government at this time to go back to the original precedents and govern the country directly from Kyoto with the power and authority derived from the emperor. But the emperor was not equal to so radical a change from the methods which had prevailed for more than a century. He gave great offence by the manner in which he distributed the forfeited fiefs among those who had aided his restoration. To Ashikaga Taka-uji he awarded by far the greatest prize, while to Kusunoki and Nitta, who had in the popular estimation done much more for him, he allotted comparatively small rewards. Among the soldiers, who in the long civil wars had lost the ability to devote themselves to peaceful industries, this disappointment was most conspicuous. They had expected to be rewarded with lands and subordinate places, which would enable them to live in that feudal comfort to which they deemed their exertions had entitled them.

At this time a feud broke out between Ashikaga Taka-uji and Nitta. The former had accused Nitta of unfaithfulness to his emperor and Nitta was able to disprove the charge. He received the imperial commission to punish Ashikaga and marched with his army upon him in the province of Totomi. In the battles (A.D. 1336) which ensued, the forces of Ashikaga were completely victorious. The emperor and his court were obliged to flee from Kyoto and took up their residence in a Buddhist temple at Yoshino in the mountainous district south of Kyoto. This was the same monastery where Yoshitsune and Benkei had taken refuge previous to their escape into Mutsu. Almost every tree and every rock in the picturesque grounds of this romantic spot(130) bear some evidence of the one or other of these memorable refugees. The southern dynasty lasted in all fifty-seven years, down to A.D. 1374, and although it was compelled to starve out a miserable existence in exile from the capital, it is yet looked upon by historians as the legitimate branch; while the northern dynasty, which enjoyed the luxury of a palace and of the capital, is condemned as illegitimate.

This period of exile witnessed many notable events in the bloody history of the country. Ashikaga Taka-uji was of course the ruling spirit while he lived. He proclaimed that Go-Daigo had forfeited the throne and put Komyo Tenno, a brother of Kogen Tenno upon it in his stead. The insignia of the imperial power were in the possession of Go-Daigo, but Komyo, being supported by the battalions of Ashikaga, cared little for these empty baubles. The bloody sequence of affairs brought with it the death of the heroic Kusunoki Masashige. He with Nitta and other patriots had undertaken to support Go-Daigo. It is said that contrary to his military judgment he attacked the forces of Ashikaga, which were vastly superior in number. The battle took place A.D. 1336, on the Minato-gawa, near the present site of Hyogo. The Ashikaga forces had cut off Kusunoki with a small band of devoted followers from the main army. Seeing that his situation was hopeless and that his brave troops must be destroyed, with one hundred and fifty men—all that were left of his little army—he retired to a farmer's house near by and there they all committed hara-kiri.(131) Kusunoki Masashige, when about to commit suicide, said to his son Masatsura: "For the sake of keeping yourself out of danger's way or of reaping some temporal advantage, on no account are you to submit to Taka-uji. By so doing you would bring reproach on our name. While there is a man left who belongs to us let our flag be hoisted over the battlements of Mount Konzo, as a sign that we are still ready to fight in the emperor's cause."

A little later than this, in A.D. 1338, the great companion and friend of Kusunoki, Nitta Yoshisada, came to his end. He had undertaken to promote the cause of the Emperor Go-Daigo in the northwestern provinces by co-operating with Fuji-wara-no-Yoritomo. Nitta with about fifty followers was unexpectedly attacked by Ashikaga Tadatsune, with three thousand men near Fukui in the province of Echizen. There was no way of escape with his little troop. In this condition he was urged to secure his personal safety. But he refused to survive his comrades. Then he rode with his brave company upon the enemy until his horse was disabled and he himself was pierced in the eye with an arrow. He drew out the arrow with his own hand, and then, in order that his body might not be identified, with his sword cut off his own head, at least so it is said! Each member of his troop followed this grewsome example, and it was only after examining the bodies of these headless corpses and the finding upon one a commission from the Emperor Go-Daigo, that the remains of the heroic Nitta were recognized. The head was sent to Kyoto and there exposed by the Ashikaga commander, and the body was buried near the place where the tragic death occurred.(132)

The Ashikaga family had now the uninterrupted control of affairs. They resided at Kyoto and inherited in succession the office of shogun. Taka-uji, the founder of the Ashikaga shogunate, and who had held the office from A.D. 1334, died in A.D. 1358, when about fifty-three years old. He was succeeded by his son Yoshinori who was shogun from A.D. 1359 to A.D. 1367. Having retired he was succeeded by his grandson Yoshimitsu who in turn retired in favor of his son Yoshimotsu. By this time the precedents of abdication and effeminacy began to tell upon the Ashikaga successors, and like all the preceding ruling families it gradually sank into the usual insignificance. Some of the Ashikaga shoguns, however, were men of uncommon ability and their services to their country deserve to be gratefully remembered. A number of them were men of culture and evinced their love of elegance and refinement by the palaces which they built in Kyoto. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was shogun from A.D. 1368 to 1393, and at the latter date retired in favor of his young son Yoshimotsu, but lived in official retirement in Kyoto till A.D. 1409. He built the palace now known as the Buddhist monastery Kinkakuji.(133) Its name is derived from kinkaku (golden pavilion) which Yoshimitsu erected. The whole palace was bequeathed by him to the Zen sect of Buddhists and is still one of the sights best worth seeing in Kyoto.

Yoshimitsu has been visited by much obloquy because he accepted from the Chinese government the title of King of Japan, and pledged himself to the payment of one thousand ounces of gold as a yearly tribute. It is said in explanation of this tribute that it was to compensate for damages done by Japanese pirates to Chinese shipping. But it was probably negotiated for the purpose of securing an ambitious title on the one hand and on the other making a troublesome neighbor a tributary kingdom.

Another building which takes its origin from the Ashikaga is the To-ji-in. It was founded by Ashikaga Taka-uji and contains carved and lacquered wooden figures of the Ashikaga shoguns which are believed in most cases to be contemporary portraits.(134)

Another of the notable Ashikaga shoguns was Yoshimasa, who held the office from A.D. 1443-1473. He retired at the latter date, and lived as retired shogun until A.D. 1490. In this interval of seclusion he cultivated the arts, and posed as the patron of literature and painting. That curious custom called cha-no-yu, or tea ceremonies,(135) is usually adjudged to him as its originator, but it is most probable that he only adopted and refined it until it became the fashionable craze which has come down to modern times. These ceremonies and his other modes of amusement were conducted in a palace which he had built called gin-kaku (silver pavilion). Yoshimasa left this palace to the monks of Sho-koku-ji, with directions that it should be converted into a monastery, and in that capacity it still serves at the present time.

The period of the two imperial dynasties lasted until A.D. 1392, when a proposition was made by the Shogun Yoshimitsu to the then reigning emperor of the south, that the rivalry should be healed. It was agreed that Go-Kameyama of the southern dynasty should come to Kyoto and surrender the insignia to Go-Komatsu, the ruling emperor of the northern dynasty. This was duly accomplished, and Go-Kameyama, having handed over the insignia to Go-Komatsu, took the position of retired emperor. Thus the long rivalry between the northern and southern dynasties was ended, and Go-Komatsu stands as the ninety-ninth in the official list of emperors. In that list, however, none of the other emperors(136) of the northern dynasty appear, they being regarded as pretenders, and in no case entitled to the dignity of divine rulers of Japan.

This settlement of dynastic difficulties and the unrestricted ascendancy of the Ashikaga shoguns gave the country a little interval of peace. The condition of the peasantry at this time was most deplorable. The continual wars between neighboring lords and with the shoguns had kept in the field armies of military men, who were forced to subsist on contributions exacted from the tillers of the soil. The farmers everywhere were kept in a state of uncertainty, and had little encouragement to cultivate crops which were almost sure to fall into the hands of others.

On the coasts of Kyushu and other islands facing towards the continent piracy also sprang up and flourished apace. It was indeed an era of piracy all over the world. The Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch traders of this period were almost always ready to turn an honest penny by seizing an unfortunate vessel under the pretence that it was a pirate. The whole coast of China, according to the accounts of Pinto, swarmed with both European and Asiatic craft, which were either traders or pirates, according to circumstances. Under this state of things, and with the pressure of lawlessness and want behind them, it was not surprising that the inhabitants of the western coasts of Japan should turn to a piratical life.

Knowing the Japanese only since centuries of enforced isolation had made them unaccustomed to creep beyond their own shores, we can scarcely conceive of their hardihood and venturesomeness during and subsequent to this active period. Mr. Satow(137) has gathered a most interesting series of facts pertaining to the intercourse between Japan and Siam, beginning at a period as early as that now under review. Not only did this intercourse consist in sending vessels laden with chattels for traffic, but a colony of Japanese and a contingent of Japanese troops formed part of the assistance which Japan furnished to her southern neighbor.

While these signs of activity were apparent on the coast, the provinces in the interior were alive with political unrest. Particularly the principal daimyos, who had never since the days of Yoritomo felt a master's power over them, took the present occasion to extend their dominions over their neighbors. For centuries the conflicts among them were almost unending. It is needless to undertake to disentangle the story of their wars. These daimyos were a far more distinct and pressing reality than the harmless emperor, or even than the far-removed shogun. While their ceaseless civil wars rendered the condition of the country so uncertain and so unsettled, yet the authority of the local rulers tended to preserve peace and dispense a rude kind of justice among their own subjects. Thus while in many parts of Japan poverty and desolation had eaten up everything, and lawlessness and robbery had put an end to industry, yet there were some favored parts of the islands where the strong hand of the daimyos preserved for their people the opportunities of life, and kept alive the chances of industry.(138)



CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS TO THE DEATH OF NOBUNAGA.

In almost the worst period of the Ashikaga anarchy, A.D. 1542, the Portuguese made their first appearance in Japan. Galvano, who had been governor of the Moluccas, gives an account of this first visit, when three fugitives from a Portuguese vessel in a Chinese junk were driven upon the islands of southern Japan. Concerning the doings(139) of these fugitives we have no account in any foreign narratives.

But Fernam Mendez Pinto,(140) in his travels, etc., gives a detailed narrative of the visit which he and his companions made a few years later in a ship with a Chinese captain and merchandise. The exact year cannot be ascertained from Pinto's narrative, but Hildreth(141) assumes that it could not have been earlier than A.D. 1545. Pinto landed on Tane-ga-shima, an island south of the extreme southern point of the island of Kyushu. They were received with great cordiality by the prince, who evinced the utmost curiosity concerning the Portuguese who were on this ship. Pinto naively confesses that "we rendered him answers as might rather fit his humor than agree with the truth, ... that so we might not derogate from the great opinion he had conceived of our country."(142)

As a return for some of the kindnesses which the prince showed them, the Portuguese gave him a harquebuse, and explained to him the method of making powder. The present seems to have been most acceptable, and Pinto declares the armorers commenced at once to make imitations of it, "so that before their departure (which was five months and a half after) there were six hundred of them made in the country." And a few years later he was assured that there were above thirty thousand in the city of Fucheo,(143) the capital of Bungo, and above three hundred thousand in the whole province. And so they have increased from this one harquebuse which they gave to the prince of Tane-ga-shima, until every hamlet and city in the empire in a short time were supplied with them.(144)

A short time after their reception at Tane-ga-shima the Prince of Bungo, who was a relative of the Prince of Tane-ga-shima, sent for one of the Portuguese, and Pinto, by his own consent, was selected as being of a "more lively humor." He was received with great consideration, and proved himself of vast service in curing the prince of gout, with which he was affected. His success in this cure gave him immense repute, and he was initiated into all the gayeties and sports of the prince's court. In particular he amused and interested them all by firing the matchlock which he had brought with him. A son of the prince of about sixteen or seventeen years of age was infatuated with this sport, and one day, unknown to Pinto, he undertook to load and fire the matchlock, as he had seen the foreigner do. An explosion occurred, by which the young prince was much injured, and owing to this Pinto came near being put to death for having wrought this disaster. But the young prince had more sense than the attendants, and at his request Pinto was given a chance to bind up the wounds and take care of him. The result was that the young prince quickly recovered, and the fame of this cure was spread everywhere. "So that," says Pinto, "after this sort I received in recompense of this my cure above fifteen hundred ducats that I carried with me from this place."

Pinto made a second visit to Japan in the interests of trade in 1547, which was attended by a circumstance which had far-reaching results. In critical circumstances they were called upon to take off two fugitives who appealed to them from the shore. A company of men on horseback demanded the return of the fugitives, but without answer they pulled off to the ship and took them aboard. The principal of these two fugitives(145) was Anjiro, whom the Jesuits usually name Anger, and his companion was his servant. They were taken in the Portuguese vessel to Malacca, where Pinto met Father Francis Xavier, who had just arrived upon his mission to the East. Xavier became intensely interested in these Japanese fugitives, and took them to Goa, then the principal seat of Jesuit learning and the seat of an archbishopric in the East Indies. Here both the Japanese became converts and were baptized, Anjiro receiving the name of Paulo de Santa Fe(146) (Paul of the Holy Faith), and his companion the name of John. They learned to speak and write the Portuguese language, and were instructed in the elements of the Christian religion. With these efficient helps Xavier was ready to enter Japan and commence the evangelization on which his heart had long been set.

At last arrangements were made with a Chinese vessel, which according to Pinto's account was a piratical craft, to convey Xavier and his companions to Japan. They arrived at Kagoshima, the capital of the province of Satsuma, August 15, A.D. 1549. Besides Xavier and his Japanese companions there were Cosme de Torres, a priest, and Jean Ferdinand, a brother of the Society of Jesus. They were cordially received by the Prince of Satsuma, and after a little, permission was given them to preach the Christian religion in the city of Kagoshima. The family and relatives of Anjiro, who lived in Kagoshima, were converted and became the first fruits of the mission. In the letters which Xavier wrote home about this time we have his early impressions concerning the Japanese. The princess took great interest in the subjects discussed by Anjiro, and was especially struck with a picture of the Madonna and child which he showed her. She asked to have the heads of the Christian faith put in writing in order that she might study them. For this reason a creed and a catechism were prepared and translated into the Japanese language, for the use of the princess and other enquirers. In one of his early letters he says: "I really think that among barbarous nations there can be none that has more natural goodness than Japan."(147) In the same letter he says: "They are wonderfully inclined to see all that is good and honest and have an eagerness to learn." Xavier, in letter 79, narrates his meeting with the Buddhist priest whom he calls Ningh-Sit, which name he says means Heart of Truth. This priest was eighty years old, and in the conversation expressed great surprise that Xavier should have come all the way from Portugal to preach to the Japanese.

The biographers of Xavier have given us the fullest details of his life and works. That he was a man of the most fervent piety as well as the most conspicuous ability, is apparent from the energy and success with which he conducted his short but brilliant mission. Both in their accounts of him, as well as in the papal bull announcing his canonization, the claim is distinctly set forth of his possession of miraculous power. He is represented as having raised a Japanese girl from the dead; as possessing the gift of tongues, that is, as being able to speak in fluent Japanese, although he had not learned the language; as having given an answer which when heard was a satisfactory reply to the most various and different questions,(148) such as, "the immortality of the soul, the motions of the heavens, the eclipses of the sun and moon, the colors of the rainbow, sin and grace, heaven and hell."



St. Francis Xavier.

Yet it must be stated that Xavier himself does not claim these miraculous powers. Indeed among the letters published by Father Horace Tursellini is one in which he thus speaks of himself: "God grant that as soon as possible we may learn the language of Japan in order to make known the divine mysteries; then we shall zealously prosecute our Christian work. For they speak and discourse much about us, but we are silent, ignorant of the language of the country. At present we are become a child again to learn the elements of the language."

The desire for trade with the Portuguese seems to have been a principal reason for the ready reception of the missionaries. And when the Portuguese merchant ships resorted to Hirado, an island off the west coast of Kyushu, instead of the less accessible Kagoshima, the Prince of Kagoshima turned against the missionaries and forbade them from preaching and proselyting. From Kagoshima Xavier went to Hirado, where he was received with a salvo of artillery from a Portuguese vessel then at anchor there. Here he made a short stay, preaching the gospel as usual and with the approval of the prince establishing a church. Leaving Kosme de Torres at Hirado and taking with him Fernandez and the two Japanese assistants he touched at Hakata, famous as the place where the Mongol invaders were repulsed. Then he crossed over to the Main island and travelling by land along the Sanyodo he entered Yamaguchi in the province of Nagato. His humble and forlorn appearance did not produce a favorable impression on the people of this city and he was driven out with obloquy. He set out for Kyoto with a party of Japanese merchants, and as it was winter and Xavier had to carry; on his back a box containing the vestments and vessels for the celebration of mass, the journey was trying and difficult. He arrived at Kyoto A.D. 1550 in the midst of great political troubles. A fire had destroyed a great part of what had been once a beautiful and luxurious city. Many of the principal citizens had abandoned it and taken up their residence with local princes in the provinces. Xavier could obtain a hearing neither from the emperor nor from the Ashikaga shoguns, who maintained a representative in the capital at this time. He preached in the street as he could obtain opportunity. But the atmosphere was everywhere unfavorable, and he resolved to abandon the field for the present. Accordingly he went back to Bungo, whence he sailed for China November 20, A.D. 1551, with the purpose of establishing a mission. He had spent two years and three months in Japan and left an impression which has never been effaced. He died on his way, at the little island of Sancian, December 2, A.D. 1552, aged forty-six. His body was carried to Malacca and afterward to Goa, where it was buried in the archiepiscopal cathedral.(149)

The departure and death of Xavier did not interrupt the work of the mission in Japan. Kosme de Torres was left in charge and additional helpers, both priests and lay brothers, were sent to prosecute what had been so conspicuously begun. The political disturbances in Yamaguchi for a time interfered with the labors of the missionaries there. Bungo was the principal province where their encouragement had made their success most conspicuous. The prince had not indeed been baptized but he had permitted the fathers to preach and he had allowed converts to adopt the new religion, so that the work had assumed a promising appearance. The Prince of Omura became a convert and by his zeal in the destruction of idols and other extreme measures aroused the hostility of the Buddhist priesthood. In Kyoto the progress of the work encountered many vicissitudes. The political troubles arising out of the contests between Mori of Choshu and the rival house interfered with the propagation of Christianity both in Yamaguchi and Kyoto. Mori himself, the most powerful prince of his time and who once held the control in ten provinces, was hostile to the Christians. By his influence the work in Kyoto was temporarily abandoned and the fathers resorted to Sakai, a seaport town not far from Osaka, where a branch mission was established.

It was in A.D. 1573 that Nagasaki became distinctively a Christian city. At that time the Portuguese were seeking various ports in which they could conduct a profitable trade, and they found that Nagasaki possessed a harbor in which their largest ships could ride at anchor. The merchants and Portuguese fathers therefore proposed to the Prince of Omura, in whose territory the port of Nagasaki was situated, to grant to them the town with jurisdiction over it. The prince at first refused, but finally by the intervention of the Prince of Arima the arrangement was made.(150) The transference to Nagasaki of the foreign trade at this early day made it a very prosperous place. The Prince of Omura had the town laid out in appropriate streets, and Christian churches were built often on the sites of Buddhist temples which were torn down to give place for them. It is said that in A.D. 1567 "there was hardly a person who was not a Christian."

We shall have occasion often in the subsequent narrative to refer to the progress of Christianity in the empire. In the meantime we must trace the career of Nobunaga, who exerted a powerful effect on the affairs of his country and particularly upon the condition of both Buddhism and Christianity. He must be regarded always as one of the great men of Japan who at an opportune moment intervened to rescue its affairs from anarchy. He prepared the way for Hideyoshi and he, in turn, made it possible for Ieyasu to establish a peace which lasted without serious interruption for two hundred and fifty years.

Ota Nobunaga was descended from the Taira family through Ota Chikazane, a great-grandson of Taira Kiyomori. The father of Chikazane had perished in the wars between the Taira and Minamoto families, and his mother had married as her second husband the chief man in the village of Tsuda in the province of Omi. The step-child was adopted by a Shinto priest of the village of Ota in the province of Echizen, and received the name of Ota Chikazane. When he grew up, he became a Shinto priest and married and became the father of a line of priests. One of this succession was Ota Nobuhide, who seems to have reverted from the priestly character back to the warlike habits of his ancestors. In the general scramble for land, which characterized that period, Nobuhide acquired by force of arms considerable possessions in the province of Owari, which at his death in A.D. 1549 he left to his son Ota Nobunaga. This son grew up to be a man of large stature, but slender and delicate in frame. He was brave beyond the usual reckless bravery of his countrymen. He was by character and training fitted for command, and in the multifarious career of his busy life, in expeditions, battles, and sieges, he showed himself the consummate general. Like many other men of genius he was not equally as skilful in civil as military affairs. He was ambitious to reduce the disorders of his country, and he was able to see in a great measure the success of his schemes. But he failed in leaving when he died any security for the preservation and continuance of that peace and unity which he had conquered.

At the time Nobunaga became prominent, the Emperor Go-Nara had died and Ogimachi in A.D. 1560 had just succeeded to the throne as the one hundred and fifth emperor. Ashikaga Yoshifusa had become shogun in A.D. 1547 as a boy eleven years old, and was at this time a young man, who as usual devoted himself to pleasure while the affairs of government were conducted by others. Both emperor and shogun were almost powerless in the empire, the real power being held by the local princes. In many cases they had largely increased their holdings by conquest, and were almost entirely independent of the central authority. For more than a century this independence had been growing, and at the time of Nobunaga there was little pretence of deferring to the shogun in any matter growing out of the relations of one prince to the other, and none at all in reference to the internal government of the territories within their jurisdiction. The principal local rulers at this time were the following: Imagaya Yoshimoto controlled the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa; Hojo Ujiyasu from the town of Odowara ruled the Kwanto, including the provinces of Sagami, Musashi, Awa, Kazusa, Shimosa, Hitachi, Kotsuke, and Shimotsuke; Takeda Shingen ruled the province of Kai and the greater part of the mountainous province of Shinano; Uesugi Kenshin held under his control the northwestern provinces of Echizen, Echigo, Etchu, and Noto; Mori Motonari after a severe contest had obtained control of almost all the sixteen provinces which composed the Chugoku or central country; the island of Kyushu had been the scene of frequent civil wars and was now divided between the houses of Shimazu of Satsuma, Otomo of Bungo, and Ryozoji of Hizen; and finally the island of Shikoku was under the control of Chosokabe Motochika.(151) Besides these principal rulers, there were many smaller holders who occupied fiefs subordinate to the great lords, and paid for their protection and their suzerainty in tribute and military service. In the letters of the Jesuit missionaries of this period the great lords are denominated kings, but neither according to the theory of the Japanese government, nor the actual condition of these rulers can the name be considered appropriate. The term daimyo(152) came into its full and modern use only when Ieyasu reorganized and consolidated the feudal system of the empire. But even at the period of Nobunaga the name was employed to indicate the owners of land. We prefer to continue down to the time of the Tokugawa shoguns the use of the terms prince and principality for the semi-independent rulers and their territories.

The holdings which Ota Nobunaga inherited from his father consisted only of four small properties in the province of Owari. Acting according to the fashion of the times he gradually extended his authority, until by A.D. 1559 we find him supreme in Owari with his chief castle at Kiyosu near to the city of Nagoya. His leading retainers and generals were Shibata Genroku and Sakuma Yemon, to whom must be added Hideyoshi,(153) who gradually and rapidly rose from obscurity to be the main reliance of his prince. Nobunaga was a skilful general, and whenever an interval occurred in his expeditions against his hostile neighbors he employed the time in carefully drilling his troops, and preparing them for their next movements. He found in Hideyoshi an incomparable strategist, whose plans, artifices, and intrigues were original and effective, and were worth more to his master than thousands of troops.

It was not difficult in those days to find excuses to invade neighboring domains, and hence we find Nobunaga, as soon as he had made himself master of Owari, on one pretext or another making himself also master of the provinces of Mino, Omi, and Ise. Before this was accomplished, however, we see plain indications both on the part of Nobunaga and his retainers that the ultimate aim in view was the subjugation of the whole country, and the establishment of a government like that of Yoritomo.

At this time (A.D. 1567) the affairs of the Ashikaga shoguns, who ruled in the name of the emperor, were in a state of great confusion. Yoshiteru, the shogun, had been assassinated by one of his retainers, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu. The younger brother of Yoshiteru was Yoshiaki, who desired to succeed, but this did not comport with the designs of the assassins. Accordingly after making several unsuccessful applications for military aid he finally applied to Nobunaga. This was exactly the kind of alliance that Nobunaga wanted to justify his schemes of national conquest. With his own candidate in the office of shogun, he could proceed without impediment to reduce all the princes of the empire to his supreme authority. He therefore undertook to see Yoshiaki established as shogun, and for this purpose marched a large army into Kyoto. Yoshiaki was installed as shogun in A.D. 1568, and at his suggestion the emperor conferred on Nobunaga the title of Fuku-shogun(154) or vice-shogun. This was Nobunaga's first dealings with the imperial capital, and the presence of his large army created a panic among the inactive and peaceful citizens.

He appointed Hideyoshi as commander-in-chief of the army at the capital, who with a sagacity and energy that belonged to his character set himself to inspire confidence and to overcome the prejudice which everywhere prevailed against the new order of things. Kyoto had suffered so much from fires and warlike attacks, and still more by poverty and neglect, that it was now in a lamentable condition. To have somebody, therefore, with the power and spirit to accomplish his ends, undertake to repair some of the wastes, and put in order what had long run to ruin, was an unexpected and agreeable surprise. The palaces of the emperor and the shogun were repaired and made suitable as habitations for the heads of the nation. Streets and bridges, temples and grounds were everywhere put in order. Kyoto for the first time in many centuries had the benefit of a good and strong government.

It was the custom to celebrate the establishment of a new year-period with popular rejoicings. The period called Genki was begun in December A.D. 1570 by the Emperor Ogimachi. Nobunaga brought to Kyoto on this occasion a very large army in order to impress on the minds of the nation his overwhelming military power. He intended, moreover, to march his forces, as soon as this celebration was over, against Prince Asakura Yoshikage of the province of Echizen, who had not yet submitted himself to Nobunaga's authority, and who had not given in his adhesion to the new shogun. Taking with him Hideyoshi and all the troops that could be spared from Kyoto, Nobunaga marched north into the domains of Yoshikage. He was aided in his resistance by Asai Nagamasa, the governor of the castle of Itami in the province of Omi. An attempt had been made by Nobunaga to conciliate Nagamasa by giving him his sister in marriage. But Nagamasa was still cool, and now at this critical time he turned to help Nobunaga's enemy. The unexpected combination came very near causing Nobunaga a disastrous defeat. At an important battle which was fought in this short campaign, we see together the three most noted men of their time, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. The last of the three was only a few years younger than Hideyoshi, and had already shown indications of the clear and steady character of which he afterward gave such indubitable proof. The result was the defeat of Nobunaga's enemies and his victorious return to the castle of Gifu in the province of Mino.

But his way was not yet quite free from obstacles. Asakura Yoshikage and Asai Nagamasa although defeated were not crushed, and made various efforts to regain the advantage over Nobunaga. The most noted of these was when Nobunaga was absent from Kyoto with troops quelling a disturbance in Osaka, Asakura and Asai took advantage of the opportunity and marched a strong force upon the city. They had proceeded as far as Hiei-zan on the borders of Lake Biwa. This mountain was then occupied by an immense Buddhist monastery called Enriaku-ji from the year-period when it was established. It was said, that at this time there were as many as three thousand buildings belonging to the monastery. The monks of this establishment were exceedingly independent, and were so numerous and powerful that they were able to exact whatever concessions they desired from the government at Kyoto, from which they were only a few miles distant. They disliked Nobunaga and his powerful government with which they dared not take their usual liberties. Accordingly they made common cause with Asakura and Asai and furnished them with shelter and supplies on their march to Kyoto. But Nobunaga met them before they reached Kyoto, and so hemmed them in that they were glad to sue for peace and get back to their own provinces as well as they could. But on the ill-fated monastery Nobunaga in A.D. 1571 visited a terrible revenge. He burned their buildings, and what monks survived the slaughter he drove into banishment. The monastery was partially restored subsequently by Ieyasu, but it was restricted to one hundred and twenty-five buildings and never afterwards was a political power in the country.

During these years of Nobunaga's supremacy, the Jesuit fathers had been pushing forward their work of proselyting and had met with marvellous success. The action of the Buddhist priests in siding with his enemies and the consequent aversion with which he regarded them, led Nobunaga to favor the establishment of Christian churches. In the letters of the fathers at this period frequent references are made to Nobunaga and of his favorable attitude toward Christianity and their hope that he would finally become a convert. But it is plain that the fathers did not comprehend fully the cause for the enmity of Nobunaga to the Buddhist monks, and his political reasons for showing favor to the Christian fathers. He remained as long as he lived friendly to the Christian church, but made no progress towards an avowal of his faith. Under his patronage a church was built in Kyoto, and another at Azuchi on Lake Biwa, where he built for himself a beautiful castle and residence. By this patronage and the zeal of the fathers the Christian church rose to its greatest prosperity(155) during the closing years of Nobunaga's life. In the year A.D. 1582 a mission was sent to the pope, consisting of representatives from the Christian princes of Bungo, Arima, and Omura. This mission consisted of two young Christian princes about sixteen years of age, accompanied by two counsellors who were of more mature years, and by Father Valignani, a Portuguese Jesuit, and by Father Diego de Mesquita as their preceptor and interpreter. They visited the capitals of Portugal and Spain, which at this time were combined under the crown of Philip II. of Spain, and were received at both with the most impressive magnificence. They afterward visited Rome and were met by the body-guard of the pope and escorted into the city by a long cavalcade of Roman nobles. They were lodged in the house of the Jesuits, whence they were conducted by an immense procession to the Vatican. The Japanese ambassadors rode in this procession on horseback dressed in their richest native costume. They each presented to the pope the letter(156) which they had brought from their prince, to which the reply of the pope was read. The presents which they had brought were also delivered, and after a series of most magnificent entertainments, and after they had been decorated as Knights of the Gilded Spears, they took their departure. In the meantime Pope Gregory XIII., who had received them, a few days later suddenly died A.D. 1585. His successor was Pope Sixtus V., who was equally attentive to the ambassadors, and who dismissed them with briefs addressed to their several princes.

Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, whom Nobunaga had been instrumental in installing, became restive in the subordinate part which he was permitted to play. He sought out the princes who still resisted Nobunaga's supremacy and communicated with them in reference to combining against him. He even went so far as to fortify some of the castles near Kyoto. Nobunaga took strenuous measures against Yoshiaki, and in A.D. 1573 deposed him. He was the last of the Ashikaga shoguns, and with him came to an end a dynasty which had continued from Taka-uji in A.D. 1335 for two hundred and thirty-eight years.

Nobunaga assumed the duties which had hitherto been performed by the shogun, that is he issued orders and made war and formed alliances in the name of the emperor. But he never took the name of shogun(157) or presumed to act in a capacity which from the time of Yoritomo had always been filled by a member of the Minamoto family, while he was a member of the Taira family. Whether this was the cause of his unwillingness to call himself by this title to which he might legitimately have aspired we can only conjecture. Of one thing we may be sure, that he was disinclined to arouse the enmity of the ambitious princes of the empire, whose co-operation he still needed to establish his power on an enduring basis, by assuming a position which centuries of usage had appropriated to another family. The emperor bestowed upon him the title of nai-daijin, which at this time however was a purely honorary designation and carried no power with it.

The Prince of Chosu was one of the most powerful of those who had not yet submitted to the supremacy of Nobunaga. The present prince was Mori Terumoto, the grandson of the Mori Motonari who by conquest had made himself master of a large part of the central provinces. Nobunaga despatched Hideyoshi with the best equipped army that at that time had ever been fitted out in Japan, to subdue the provinces lying to the west of Kyoto. He did not overrate the ability of the general to whom he entrusted this task. They set out in the early part of the year A.D. 1578. Their first movement was against the strongholds of the province of Harima, which he reduced. We for the first time find mention in this campaign of Kuroda(158) Yoshitaka, who in the invasion of Korea was a notable figure. His services to Hideyoshi at this time were most signal. The campaign lasted about five years and added five provinces to Nobunaga's dominions. Then after a visit to Kyoto he continued his conquests, never meeting with a defeat. The most remarkable achievement was the capture of the castle of Takamatsu, in the province of Sanuki. This castle was built with one side protected by the Kobe-gawa and two lakes lying on the other sides, so that it was impossible to approach it by land with a large force. Hideyoshi, with the genius for strategy which marked his character, saw that the only way to capture the fort was to drown it out with water. He then set his troops to dam up the river below the fortress. Gradually this was accomplished and as the water rose the occupants of the castle became more uncomfortable. Hideyoshi understanding his master's character feared to accomplish this important and critical exploit without Nobunaga's knowledge. He therefore wrote asking him to come without delay to his assistance. Nobunaga set out with a group of generals, among whom was Akechi Mitsuhide, with the troops under their command. They started from Azuchi on Lake Biwa, which was occupied as Nobunaga's headquarters. They were to proceed to the besieged fort by the shortest route. Nobunaga with a small escort went by way of Kyoto, expecting soon to follow them. He took up his temporary abode in the temple of Honnoji. It was observed that Akechi with his troops took a different route from the others and marched towards Kyoto. When spoken to about his purpose he exclaimed, "My enemy is in the Honnoji." He explained to his captains his purpose and promised them unlimited plunder if they assisted him. He led his troops to Kyoto and directly to the Honnoji. Nobunaga hearing the noise looked out and at once saw who were the traitors. He defended himself for a time, but soon saw that he was hopelessly surrounded and cut off from help. He retired to an inner room of the temple, set it on fire, and then calmly committed hara-kiri. His body was buried in the burning and falling ruins. His death occurred in A.D. 1582.

Thus ended the career of one of Japan's great men. He had shown the possibility of uniting the provinces of Japan under one strong government. He had given to Kyoto and the provinces lying east and north of it a period of peace and quiet under which great progress had been made in agriculture, the arts and in literature. He was a warrior and not a statesman, and for this reason less was done than might have been in confirming and solidifying the reforms which his conquest had made possible. Personally he was quick-tempered and overbearing, and often gave offence to those who were not able to see through his rough exterior to the true and generous heart which lay beneath. The cause of the plot against him was probably the consequence of a familiarity with which he sometimes treated his military subordinates. It is said that on one occasion in his palace when he had grown somewhat over-festive he took the head of his general Akechi(159) under his arm and with his fan played a tune upon it, using it like a drum. Akechi was mortally offended and never forgave the humiliating joke. His treason, which resulted in Nobunaga's death, was the final outcome of this bit of thoughtless horse-play.



CHAPTER IX. TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI.

The death of Nobunaga in the forty-ninth year of his age left the country in a critical condition. Sakuma and Shibata had been his active retainers and generals for many years, and they had the most bitter and envious hatred toward Hideyoshi, whom they had seen advance steadily up to and past them in the march of military preferment. It was to Hideyoshi that the country looked to take up the work which Nobunaga's death had interrupted. Akechi began to realize when too late that he must reckon with him for his terrible crime. He appointed two of his lieutenants to assassinate Hideyoshi on his way back to the capital. He sent word to Mori Terumoto, who was trying to raise the siege of the castle of Takamatsu, concerning Nobunaga's death, hoping that this tragedy would encourage Terumoto to complete his designs.

In the meantime the news had reached Hideyoshi. Terumoto had heard of the starting of Nobunaga with additional troops, and had determined to make peace with Hideyoshi. He had sent messengers with a proposition for peace. The measures for taking the castle had succeeded and it was surrendered. In this state of things Hideyoshi(160) pursued a course which was characteristic of him. He sent word to Terumoto that Nobunaga was now dead and that therefore his proposition for peace might, if he wished, be withdrawn. You must decide, he said, whether you will make peace or not; it is immaterial whether I fight or conclude a treaty of peace. To such a message there could be only one answer. Peace was at once concluded and Hideyoshi started for Kyoto to deal with the traitors.

The attempt to assassinate Hideyoshi on his journey came very near being successful. He was in such eagerness to reach his destination that he hurried on without regard to his army which accompanied him. A small body-guard kept up as well as they could with their impatient chief. At Nishinomiya in this journey Hideyoshi, when in advance of his body-guard, was attacked by a band of the assassins. His only way of escape was by a narrow road between rice fields, leading to a small temple. When he had traversed part of this lane he dismounted, turning his horse around along the way he had come, and stabbed him in the hind leg. Mad with pain, he galloped back with disastrous effect upon the band which was following him. Meanwhile Hideyoshi hurried to the temple. Here the priests were all in a big common bath-tub, taking their bath. Hastily telling them who he was, and begging their protection, he stripped off his clothes and plunged in among the naked priests. When the assassins arrived, they could find nothing but a bath-tub full of priests, whom they soon left in search of the fugitive. As they disappeared, the anxious body-guard arrived, and were astonished and amused to find their chief clad in the garb of a priest and refreshed after his hurried journey with a luxurious bath.(161)