CHAPTER XXIX

FALL OF THE HOJO AND RISE OF THE ASHIKAGA

THE DAYS OF SADATOKI

WITH the accession (1284) of the seventh Hojo regent, Sadatoki, the prosperous era of the Bakufu came to an end. Sadatoki himself seems to have been a man of much ability and fine impulses. He succeeded his father, Tokimune, at the age of fourteen, and during nine years he remained under the tutelage of the prime minister, Taira no Yoritsuna, thereafter taking the reins of government into his own hands. The annals are unfortunately defective at this, period. They fail to explain the reason for Sadatoki's retirement and adoption of religion, in 1301, after eight years of active rule. It may be that the troubles of the time disgusted him. For alike politically and financially an evil state of affairs prevailed. In 1286, the Adachi clan, falling under suspicion of aiming at the shogunate, was extirpated. A few years later, the same fate overtook Taira no Yoritsuna, who had been the chief accuser of the Adachi, and who, being now charged by his own first-born with coveting the regency (shikken), was put to death with his second son and all his retainers. Yet again, three years subsequently to this latter tragedy, Yoshimi, a scion of Yoritomo's brother, the unfortunate Yoshinori, fell a victim to accusations of treachery, and it needed no great insight to appreciate that the Bakufu was becoming a house divided against itself.

It was at this time, also, that the military families of the Kwanto in general and of Kamakura in particular began to find their incomes distressingly inadequate to meet the greatly increased and constantly increasing outlays that resulted from following the costly customs of Kyoto as reflected at the shogun's palace. Advantage was taken of this condition by professional money-lenders, by ambitious nobles, and even by wealthy farmers, who, supplying funds at exorbitant rates of interest, obtained possession of valuable estates. The Bakufu made several futile legislative essays to amend this state of affairs, and finally, in the year 1297, they resorted to a ruinous device called tokusei, or the "benevolent policy." This consisted in enacting a law which vetoed all suits for the recovery of interest, cancelled all mortgages, and interdicted the pledging of military men's property.

Of course, such legislation proved disastrous. Whatever temporary relief it afforded to indigent and improvident debtors, was far outweighed by the blow given to credit generally, and by the indignation excited among creditors. The Bakufu owed much of the stability of their influence to the frugality of their lives and to their unsullied administration of justice. But now the Kwanto bushi rivalled the Kyoto gallants in extravagance; the Kamakura tribunals forfeited the confidence of the people, and the needy samurai began to wish for the return of troublous times, when fortunes could be won with the sword. Amid such conditions Sadatoki took the tonsure in 1300, and was succeeded nominally by his cousin Morotoki, who, however, administered affairs in consultation with the retired regent. In 1303, a son was born to Sadatoki, and the latter, dying in 1311, bequeathed the office of regent to this boy when he should reach years of discretion, entrusting him, meanwhile, to the guardianship of two officials, the more active of whom was a lay priest, Nagasaki Enki.

An idea of the confusion existing at that time in Kamakura may be gathered from the fact that, during the five years between the death of Sadatoki and the accession of his son Takatoki (1316), no less than four members of the Hojo family held the regency in succession. Takatoki was destined to be the last of the Hojo regents. Coming into power at the age of thirteen, his natural giddiness of character is said to have been deliberately encouraged by his guardian, Nagasaki, but even had he been a stronger man it is doubtful whether he could have saved the situation. Corruption had eaten deeply into the heart of the Bakufu. In 1323, a question concerning right of succession to the Ando estate was carried to Kamakura for adjudication, and the chief judge, Nagasaki Takasuke, son of the old lay priest mentioned above, having taken bribes from both of the litigants, delivered an inscrutable opinion. Save for its sequel, this incident would merely have to be catalogued with many cognate injustices which disfigured the epoch. But the Ando family being one of the most powerful in northern Japan, its rival representatives appealed to arms in support of their respective claims, and the province of Oshu was thrown into such confusion that a force had to be sent from Kamakura to restore order. This expedition failed, and with its failure the prestige of the Hojo fell in a region where hitherto it had been untarnished--the arena of arms. The great Japanese historian, Rai Sanyo, compared the Bakufu of that time to a tree beautiful outwardly but worm-eaten at the core, and in the classical work, Taiheiki, the state of affairs is thus described:

The Dengaku mime was then in vogue among all classes in Kyoto. Takatoki, hearing of this, summoned two rival troupes of Dengaku players to Kamakura and witnessed their performances without regard to the passage of time. He distributed the members of the troupes among the noble families related to the Hojo, and made these nobles compete to furnish the performers with magnificent costumes. At a banquet when a Dengaku mime was acted, the regent and his guests vied with one another in pulling off their robes and throwing them into a heap, to be redeemed afterwards for heavy sums which were given to the actors. The custom thus inaugurated became perpetual. One day, a number of dogs gathered in the garden of Takatoki's mansion and had a fight. This so amused the regent that orders were despatched to collect dogs by way of taxes, the result being that many people in the provinces took steps to breed dogs and presented them by tens or scores to Kamakura, where they were fed on fish and fowl, kept in kennels having gold and silver ornaments, and carried in palanquins to take the air. When these distinguished animals were borne along the public thoroughfares, people hastening hither and thither on business had to dismount and kneel in obeisance, and farmers, instead of cultivating the fields, had to act as bearers of the dogs' sedan-chairs. Thus, the city of Kamakura presented the curious spectacle of a town filled with well-fed dogs, clothed in tinsel and brocades, and totalling from four to five thousand. Twelve days in every month used to be devoted to dog-fights, and on these occasions, the regent, the nobles, and the people inside and outside the mansion used to assemble as spectators, sitting on the verandas or the ground.

THE COURT IN KYOTO

All these things were watched with keen interest in Kyoto. It has been shown in