Chapter 33

THE EPOCH OF WARS (Sengoku Jidai)

LIST OF EMPERORS

Order of Succession Name Date

97th Sovereign Go-Murakami A.D. 1339-1368

98th Chokei 1368-1372

99th Go-Kameyama 1372-1392

100th Go-Komatsu 1392-1412

101st Shoko 1412-1428

102d Go-Hanazono 1428-1465

103d Go-Tsuchimikado 1465-1500

104th Go-Kashiwabara 1500-1526

105th Go-Nara 1526-1557

106th Okimachi 1557-1586

107th Go-Yozei 1586-1611

THE sovereigns of the Northern Court, not being recognized as legitimate by Japanese annalists, are excluded from the above list. Go-Komatsu, however, is made an exception. He reigned from 1382 to 1392 as representing the Northern Court, and thereafter, the two Courts having ceased their rivalry, he reigned undisputed until 1412. It has further to be noted that many histories make the number of sovereigns greater by two than the figures recorded in the lists of this volume. That is because the histories in question count as two the Empresses Kogyoku (642-645) and Saimei (655-661), although they represent the same sovereign under different names, and because they adopt a similar method of reckoning in the case of the Empresses Koken (749-758) and Shotoku (765-770), whereas in this volume the actual number of sovereigns is alone recorded.

THE COURT

The interval between the close of the fifteenth century and the end of the sixteenth is set apart by Japanese annalists as the most disturbed period of the country's history and is distinguished by the term Sengoku Jidai, or the Epoch of Wars. It would be more accurate to date the beginning of that evil time from the Onin year-period (1467-1469); for in the Onin era practical recognition was extended to the principle that the right of succession to a family estate justifies appeal to arms, and that such combats are beyond the purview of the central authority. There ensued disturbances constantly increasing in area and intensity, and not only involving finally the ruin of the Ashikaga shogunate but also subverting all law, order, and morality. Sons turned their hand against fathers, brothers against brothers, and vassals against chiefs. Nevertheless, amid this subversion of ethics and supremacy of the sword, there remained always some who reverenced the Throne and supported the institutions of the State; a noteworthy feature in the context of the fact that, except during brief intervals, the wielder of the sceptre in Japan never possessed competence to enforce his mandates but was always dependent in that respect on the voluntary co-operation of influential subjects.

In the Sengoku period the fortunes of the Imperial Court fell to their lowest ebb. The Crown lands lay in the provinces of Noto, Kaga, Echizen, Tamba, Mino, and so forth, and when the wave of warfare spread over the country, these estates passed into the hands of military magnates who absorbed the taxes into their own treasuries, and the collectors sent by the Court could not obtain more than a small percentage of the proper amount. The exchequer of the Muromachi Bakufu suffered from a similar cause, and was further depleted by extravagance, so that no aid could be obtained from that source. Even worse was the case with the provincial manors of the Court nobles, who were ultimately driven to leave the capital and establish direct connexion with their properties. Thus, the Ichijo family went to Tosa; the Ane-no-koji to Hida, and when Ouchi Yoshioki retired to Suwo on resigning his office (kwanryo), many Court magnates who had benefitted by his generosity in Kyoto followed him southward.

So impoverished was the Imperial exchequer that, in the year 1500, when the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado died, the corpse lay for forty days in a darkened room of the palace, funds to conduct the funeral rites not being available. Money was finally provided by Sasaki Takayori, and in recognition of his munificence he was authorized to use the Imperial crest (chrysanthemum and Paulownia); was granted the right of entree to the palace, and received an autographic volume from the pen of the Emperor Go-Kogon. If there was no money to bury Go-Tsuchimikado, neither were any funds available to perform the coronation of his successor, Go-Kashiwabara. Muromachi made a futile attempt to levy contributions from the daimyo, and the kwanryo, Hosokawa Masamoto, is recorded to have brusquely said, in effect, that the country could be administered without crowning any sovereign. Twenty years passed before the ceremony could be performed, and means were ultimately (1520) furnished by the Buddhist priest Koken--son of the celebrated Rennyo Shonin, prelate of the Shin sect--who, out of the abundant gifts of his disciples, placed at the disposal of the Court a sum of ten thousand gold ryo,* being moved to that munificence by the urging of Fujiwara Sanetaka, a former nai-daijin. In recognition of this service, Koken was raised to high ecclesiastical rank.

*£30,000--$145,000.

It will be remembered that, early in this sixteenth century, Yoshioki, deputy kwanryo and head of the great Ouchi house, had contributed large sums to the Muromachi treasury; had contrived the restoration of several of the Court nobles' domains to their impoverished owners, and had assisted with open hand to relieve the penury of the throne. The task exhausted his resources, and when recalled to his province by local troubles in 1518, the temporary alleviation his generosity had brought was succeeded by hopeless penury. From time immemorial it had been the universal rule to rebuild the two great shrines at Ise every twentieth year, but nothing of the kind had been possible in the case of the Naigu (inner shrine) since 1462, and in the case of the Gegu (outer shrine) since 1434. Such neglect insulted the sanctity of the Throne; yet appeals to the Bakufu produced no result. In 1526, the Emperor Go-Kashiwabara died. It is on record that his ashes were carried from the crematorium in a box slung from the neck of a general officer, and that the funeral train consisted of only twenty-six officials. For the purposes of the coronation ceremony of this sovereign's successor, subscriptions had to be solicited from the provincial magnates, and it was not until 1536 that the repairs of the palace could be undertaken, so that the Emperor Go-Nara was able to write in his diary, "All that I desired to have done has been accomplished, and I am much gratified." On this occasion the Ouchi family again showed its generosity and its loyalty to the Throne.

The extremity of distress was reached during the Kyoroku era (1528-1531), when the struggle between the two branches of the Hosokawa family converted Kyoto once more into a battle-field and reduced a large part of the city to ashes. The Court nobles, with their wives and children, had to seek shelter and refuge within the Imperial palace, the fences of which were broken down and the buildings sadly dilapidated.

A contemporary record tells with much detail the story of the decay of the capital and the pitiful plight of the Throne. The Emperor Go-Nara (1527-1557) was reduced to earning his own living. This he did by his skill as a calligrapher--at least one instance of something useful resulting from the penchant of the Court for the niceties of Chinese art and letters. Any one might leave at the palace a few coins for payment and order a fair copy of this or that excerpt from a famous classic. The palace was overrun, the chronicler says. Its garden became a resort for tea-drinking among the lower classes and children made it a play-ground. It was no longer walled in, but merely fenced with bamboo. The whole city was in a similar desolation, things having become worse and worse beginning with the Onin disturbance of 1467 and the general exodus of the samurai from the capital at that time. At this time the military nobles came to the city only to fight, and the city's population melted away. All was disorder. The city was flooded and the dike which was built to check the flooded rivers came to be thought a fine residence place in comparison with lower parts of the town.

It was at this time that men might be observed begging for rice in the streets of the capital. They carried bags to receive contributions which were designated kwampaku-ryo (regent's money). Some of the bags thus used are preserved by the noble family of Nijo to this day. Another record says that the stewardess of the Imperial household service during this reign (Go-Nara), on being asked how summer garments were to be supplied for the ladies-in-waiting, replied that winter robes with their wadded linings removed should be used. The annals go so far as to allege that deaths from cold and starvation occurred among the courtiers. An important fact is that one of the provincial magnates who contributed to the succour of the Court at this period was Oda Nobuhide of Owari, father of the celebrated Oda Nobunaga.

ENGRAVING: SHINRAN SHONIN

BUDDHIST VIOLENCE

The decline of the Muromachi Bakufu's authority encouraged the monks as well as the samurai to become a law to themselves. Incidental references have already been made to this subject, but the religious commotions of the Sengoku period invite special attention. The Buddhists of the Shin sect, founded by Shinran Shonin (1184-1268), which had for headquarters the great temple Hongwan-ji in Kyoto, were from the outset hostile to the monks of Enryaku-ji. Religious doctrine was not so much concerned in this feud as rivalry. Shinran had been educated in the Tendai tenets at Enryaku-ji. Therefore, from the latter's point of view he was a renegade, and while vehemently attacking the creed of his youth, he had acquired power and influence that placed the Hongwan-ji almost on a level with the great Hiei-zan. In the days of Kenju, popularly called Rennyo Shonin (1415-1479), seventh in descent from the founder, Shinran, the Ikko--by which name the Shin sect was known--developed conspicuous strength. Kenju possessed extraordinary eloquence. Extracts from his sermons were printed on an amulet and distributed among worshippers, who grew so numerous and so zealous that the wealth of the sect became enormous, and its leaders did not hesitate to provide themselves with an armed following. Finally the monks of Hiei-zan swept down on Hongwan-ji, applied the torch to the great temple, and compelled the abbot, Kenju, to fly for his life.

It is significant of the time that this outrage received no punishment. Kenju escaped through Omi to Echizen, where the high constable, an Asakura, combining with the high constable, a Togashi, of the neighbouring province of Kaga, erected a temple for the fugitive abbot, whose favour was well worth courting. The Ikko-shu, however, had its own internal dissensions. In the province of Kaga, a sub-sect, the Takata, endeavoured to oust the Hongwan disciples, and rising in their might, attacked (1488) the high constable; compelled him to flee; drove out their Takata rivals; invaded Etchu; raided Noto, routing the forces of the high constable, Hatakeyama Yoshizumi; seized the three provinces--Kaga, Noto, and Etchu--and attempted to take possession of Echizen. This wholesale campaign was spoken of as the Ikko-ikki (revolt of Ikko). A few years later, the Shin believers in Echizen joined these revolters, and marched through the province, looting and burning wherever they passed. No measure of secular warfare had been more ruthless than were the ways of these monks. The high constable, Asakura Norikage, now took the field, and after fierce fighting, drove back the fanatics, destroyed their temples, and expelled their priests.

This was only one of several similar commotions. So turbulent did the monks show themselves under the influence of Shin-shu teachers that the Uesugi of Echigo, the Hojo of Izu, and other great daimyo interdicted the propagandism of that form of Buddhism altogether. The most presumptuous insurrection of all stands to the credit of the Osaka priests. A great temple had been erected there to replace the Hongwan-ji of Kyoto, and in, 1529, its lord-abbot, Kokyo, entered Kaga, calling himself the "son of heaven" (Emperor) and assigning to his steward, Shimoma Yorihide, the title of shogun. This was called the "great revolt" (dai-ikki), and the movement of opposition provoked by it was termed the "small revolt" (sho-ikki). Again recourse was had to the most cruel methods. Men's houses were robbed and burned simply because their inmates stood aloof from the insurrection. Just at that time the septs of Hosokawa and Miyoshi were engaged in a fierce struggle for supremacy. Kokyo threw in his lot with Hosokawa Harumoto, and, at the head of fifty thousand troops, attacked and killed Miyoshi Motonaga. Very soon, however, the Hosokawa chief fell out with his cassocked allies. But he did not venture to take the field against them single handed. The priests of the twenty-one Nichiren temples in Kyoto, old enemies of the Ikko, were incited to attack the Hongwan-ji in Osaka. This is known in history as the Hokke-ikki, Hokke-shu being the name of the Nichiren sect. Hiei-zan was involved in the attack, but the warlike monks of Enryaku-ji replied by pouring down into the capital, burning the twenty-one temples of the Nichiren and butchering three thousand of their priests. Such were the ways of the Buddhists in the Sengoku period.

THE KWANTO

During the Sengoku period (1490-1600) the Japanese empire may be compared to a seething cauldron, the bubbles that unceasingly rose to the surface disappearing almost as soon as they emerged, or uniting into groups with more or less semblance of permanence. To follow in detail these superficial changes would be a task equally interminable and fruitless. They will therefore be traced here in the merest outline, except in cases where large results or national effects are concerned. The group of eight provinces called collectively Kwanto first claims attention as the region where all the great captains and statesmen of the age had their origin and found their chief sphere of action. It has been seen that the fifth Ashikaga kwanryo, Shigeuji, driven out of Kamakura, took refuge at Koga in Shimotsuke; that he was thenceforth known as Koga Kubo; that the Muromachi shogun, Yoshimasa, then sent his younger brother, Masatomo, to rule in the Kwanto; that he established his headquarters at Horigoe in Izu, and that he was officially termed Horigoe Gosho. His chief retainers were the two Uesugi families--distinguished as Ogigayatsu Uesugi and Yamanouchi Uesugi, after the names of the palaces where their mansions were situated--both of whom held the office of kwanryo hereditarily.

These Uesugi families soon engaged in hostile rivalry, and the Ogigayatsu branch, being allied with Ota Dokwan, the founder of Yedo Castle, gained the upper hand, until the assassination of Dokwan, when the Yamanouchi became powerful. It was at this time--close of the fifteenth century--that there occurred in the Horigoe house one of those succession quarrels so common since the Onin era. Ashikaga Masatomo, seeking to disinherit his eldest son, Chachamaru, in favour of his second son, Yoshimichi, was killed by the former, the latter taking refuge with the Imagawa family in Suruga, by whom he was escorted to the capital, where he became the Muromachi shogun under the name of Yoshizumi. Parricides and fratricides were too common in that disturbed age for Chachamaru's crime to cause any moral commotion. But it chanced that among the rear vassals of the Imagawa there was one, Nagauji, who, during many years, had harboured designs of large ambition. Seizing the occasion offered by Chachamaru's crime, he constituted himself Masatomo's avenger, and marching into Izu, destroyed the Horigoe mansion, and killed Chachamaru. Then (1491) Nagauji quietly took possession of the province of Izu, building for himself a castle at Hojo. He had no legal authority of any kind for the act, neither command from the Throne nor commission from the shogun.

ENGRAVING: HOJO SOUN

It was an act of unqualified usurpation. Yet its perpetrator showed that he had carefully studied all the essentials of stable government--careful selection of official instruments; strict administration of justice; benevolent treatment of the people, and the practice of frugality. Being descended from the Taira of Ise and having occupied the domains long held by the Hojo, he adopted the uji name of "Hojo," and having extended his conquests to Sagami province, built a strong castle at Odawara. He is often spoken of as Soun, the name he adopted in taking the tonsure, which step did not in any degree interfere with his secular activities. A profoundly skilled tactician, he never met with a military reverse, and his fame attracted adherents from many provinces. His instructions to his son Ujitsuna were characteristic. Side by side with an injunction to hold himself in perpetual readiness for establishing the Hojo sway over the whole of the Kwanto, as soon as the growing debility of the Uesugi family offered favourable opportunity, stood a series of rules elementary almost to affectation: to believe in the Kami; to rise early in the morning; to go to bed while the night is still young, and other counsels of cognate simplicity formed the ethical thesaurus of a philosopher wise enough to formulate the astute maxim that a ruler, in choosing his instruments, must remember that they, too, choose him.

Ujitsuna proved himself a worthy son of Soun, but much had still to be accomplished before the Kwanto was fully won. Among the eight provinces, two, Awa and Kazusa, which looked across the sea to Odawara, were under the firm sway of the Satomi family--one of the "eight generals" of the Kwanto--and not until 1538 could the Hojo chief find an opportunity to crush this strong sept. The fruits of his victory had hardly been gathered when death overtook him, in 1543. His sword descended, however, to a still greater leader, his son Ujiyasu, who pushed westward into Suruga; stood opposed to Kai in the north, and threatened the Uesugi in the east. The two branches of the Uesugi had joined hands in the presence of the Hojo menace, and a powerful league including the Imagawa and the Ashikaga of Koga, had been formed to attack the Hojo. So long did they hesitate in view of the might of Odawara, that the expression "Odawara-hyogi" passed into the language as a synonym for reluctance; and when at length they moved to the attack with eighty thousand men, Hojo Ujiyasu, at the head of a mere fraction of that number, inflicted a defeat which settled the supremacy of the Kwanto.

The name of Hojo Ujiyasu is enshrined in the hearts of Japanese bushi. He combined in an extraordinary degree gentleness and bravery, magnanimity and resolution, learning and martial spirit. It was commonly said that from the age of sixteen he had scarcely doffed his armour; had never once showed his back to a foe, and had received nine wounds all in front.* Before he died (1570) he had the satisfaction of establishing a double link between the Hojo and the house of the great warrior, Takeda Shingen, a son and a daughter from each family marrying a daughter and a son of the other.**

*Thus a frontal wound came to be designated by his name.

**The present Viscount Hojo is a descendant of Ujiyasu.

THE TAKEDA AND THE UESUGI

Descended (sixteenth generation) from Minamoto Yoshimitsu, Takeda Harunobu (1521-1573) took the field against his father, who had planned to disinherit him in favour of his younger brother. Gaining the victory, Harunobu came into control of the province of Kai, which had long been the seat of the Takeda family. This daimyo, commonly spoken of as Takeda Shingen, the latter being the name he took on receiving the tonsure, ranks among Japan's six great captains of the sixteenth century, the roll reading thus:

Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)

Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)

Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590)

Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)

Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)

Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)

The second of the above, Uesugi Kenshin, was not member of the great Uesugi family which took such an important part in the affairs of the Kwanto. He belonged to the Nagao, which originally stood in a relation of vassalage to the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi in Echigo, and his father attained an independent position. Kagetora, as Kenshin was called in his youth, found himself engaged in his twenty-first year in a contest with his elder brother, whom he killed, and, by way of penance for the fratricide, he took the tonsure under the name of Kenshin and would have retired from the world had not his generals insisted on his remaining in command. It was at this time that Kenshin became a member of the Uesugi sept. In 1505, the two branches of the Kwanto Uesugi joined hands against their common enemy, Hojo Soun, and from that time the contest was continued until 1551, when Ujiyasu, grandson of Soun, drove Uesugi Norimasa from his castle of Hirai in Kotsuke. The vanquished general fled to Echigo to seek succour from his family's old-time vassal, Nagao Kagetora, already renowned under the name of Kenshin. Norimasa bestowed the office of kwanryo as well as the uji of Uesugi on Kenshin, who thenceforth became known as Uesugi Kenshin, and who thus constituted himself the foe of the Hojo. At a somewhat earlier date, Kenshin had been similarly supplicated by Murakami Yoshikiyo, whose castle was at Kuzuo in Shinano, whence he had been driven by Takeda Shingen.

ENGRAVING: UESUGI KENSHIN

It thus fell out that Uesugi Kenshin had for enemies the two captains of highest renown in his era, Hojo Ujimasa and Takeda Shingen. This order of antagonism had far-reaching effects. For Kenshin's ambition was to become master of the whole Kwanto, under pretence of re-establishing the original Uesugi, but his expansion southward from Echigo was barred by Shingen in Shinano and Kai, and his expansion eastward by the Hojo in Sagami and Musashi. The place of the struggle between Shingen-and Kenshin was Kawanaka-jima, an arena often pictured by artists of later generations and viewed to-day by pilgrims to the venerable temple, Zenko-ji. There the two generals, recognized as the two greatest strategists of that epoch, met four times in fierce strife, and though a Japanese historian compares the struggle to the eruption of volcanoes or the blowing of gales of blood, victory never rested on either standard.

ENGRAVING: TAKEDA SHINGEN

Peace having been at length restored for a moment, in 1558, Kenshin visited Kyoto in the following year. There he was received with distinction. The Emperor--Okimachi--bestowed on him a sword, and the shogun, Yoshiteru, entitled him to incorporate the ideograph "teru" in his name, which was thus changed from Kagetora to Terutora. He was also granted the office of kwanryo. On his return to Echigo, Kenshin proceeded to assert his new title. Mustering an army said to have been 110,000 strong, he attacked the Hojo in Odawara. But Ujiyasu would not be tempted into the open. He remained always behind the ramparts, and, in the meanwhile incited Shingen to invade Echigo, so that Kenshin had to raise the siege of Odawara and hasten to the defence of his home province. There followed another indecisive battle at Kawanaka-jima, and thereafter renewed attacks upon the Hojo, whose expulsion from the Kwanto devolved on Kenshin as kwanryo. But the results were always vague: the Hojo refrained from final resistance, and Shingen created a diversion. The chief sufferers were the provinces of the Kwanto, a scene of perpetual battle. In the end, after Etchu and Kotsuke had been brought under Kenshin's sway, peace was concluded between him and the Hojo, and he turned his full strength against his perennial foe, Shingen. But at this stage the situation was entirely changed by the appearance of Oda Nobunaga on the scene, as will be presently narrated. It is recorded that, on the eve of his death, Shingen advised his son to place himself and his domains in Kenshin's keeping, for, said he, "Kenshin now stands unrivalled, and Kenshin will never break faith with you;" and it is recorded of Kenshin that when he heard of Shingen's death, he shed tears and exclaimed, "Would that the country had such another hero!"*

*The present Count Uesugi is descended from Kenshin.

THE IMAGAWA, THE KITABATAKE, THE SAITO, AND THE ODA FAMILIES

The Imagawa, a branch of the Ashikaga, served as the latter's bulwark in Suruga province during many generations. In the middle of the sixteenth century the head of the family was Yoshimoto. His sway extended over the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa, which formed the littoral between Owari Bay and the Izu promontory. On the opposite side of Owari Bay lay Ise province, the site of the principal Shinto shrine and the original domain of the Taira family, where, too, the remnants of the Southern Court had their home. Its hereditary governor was a Kitabatake, and even after the union of the two Courts that great family, descendants of the immortal historian and philosopher, Chikafusa, continued to exercise sway. But, in 1560, discord among the chief retainers of the sept furnished a pretext for the armed intervention of Oda Nobunaga, who invested his son, Nobukatsu, with the rights of government. On the northern littoral of Owari Bay, and therefore separating Ise and Mikawa, was situated the province of Owari, which, in turn, opened on the north into Mino. In this latter province the Doki family was destroyed by the Saito, and these in turn were crushed by the Oda, in 1561, who, from their headquarters in Owari, shattered the Imagawa of Mikawa and the Saito in Mino, thereafter sweeping over Ise.

THE ROKKAKU, THE ASAI, THE ASAKURA, AND THE HATAKEYAMA FAMILIES

The province of Omi had special importance as commanding the approaches to Kyoto from the east. Hence it became the scene of much disturbance, in which the Hosokawa, the Kyogoku, the Rokkaku, and the Asai families all took part. Finally, in the middle of the sixteenth century, the Asai gained the ascendancy by obtaining the assistance of the Asakura of Echizen. This latter province, conterminous with the north of Omi, was originally under the control of the Shiba family, but the Asakura subsequently obtained the office of high constable, and acquired a great access of power at the time of the Ikko revolt by driving the turbulent priests from the province. At that era, or a little later, the provinces of Kii, Kawachi, Izumi, and Yamato were all the scenes of fierce fighting, but the pages of history need not be burdened with details of the clash of purely private ambitions.

THE MORI AND THE AMAKO FAMILIES

The Ouchi family was very powerfully situated. Descended from a Korean Crown Prince who migrated to Japan early in the seventh century, its representative, Yoshioki (1477-1528), controlled the southern provinces of the main island--Iwami, Aki, Suwo, and Nagato--as well as the two northern provinces of Kyushu--Chikuzen and Buzen. This was the chieftain who, in 1508, marched to Kyoto at the head of a great army, and restored the Ashikaga shogun Yoshitane, himself receiving the office of kwanryo. Eleven years later, on his return to the south, he was followed by many nobles from Kyoto, and his chief provincial town, Yamaguchi, on the Shimonoseki Strait, prospered greatly. But his son Yoshitaka proved a weakling, and being defeated by his vassal, Suye Harukata--called also Zenkyo--he committed suicide, having conjured another vassal, Mori Motonari, to avenge him.

ENGRAVING: MORI MOTONARI

The Mori family* had for ancestor the great statesman and legislator of Yoritomo's time, Oye Hiromoto, and its representative, Motonari (1497-1571), had two sons scarcely inferior to himself in strategical ability, Kikkawa Motoharu and Kohayakawa Takakage. A commission having been obtained from Kyoto, Motonari took the field in 1555, and with only three thousand men succeeded, by a daring feat, in shattering Harukata with twenty thousand. Thus far, Mori Motonari had obeyed the behest of his late chief. But thereafter he made no attempt to restore the Ouchi family. On the contrary, he relentlessly prosecuted the campaign against Suye Harukata, with whom was associated Ouchi Yoshinaga, representing the Ouchi house by adoption, until ultimately Yoshinaga committed suicide and, the Ouchi family becoming extinct, Motonari succeeded to all its domains.

*Now represented by Prince Mori.

At that time the province of Izumo, which is conterminous with Iwami along its western frontier, was under the control of the high constable, Amako Tsunehisa (1458-1540), who, profiting by the fall of the great Yamana sept, had obtained possession of the provinces Bingo and Hoki as well as of the Oki Islands. This daimyo was a puissant rival of the Ouchi family, and on the downfall of the latter he soon came into collision with Mori Motonari. Tsunehisa's grandson, Yoshihisa (1545-1610), inherited this feud, which ended with the extinction of the Amako family and the absorption of its domains by the Mori, the latter thus becoming supreme in no less than thirteen provinces of the Sanyo-do and the Sanin-do.

THE MIYOSHI, THE ICHIJO, THE CHOSOKABE, AND THE KONO FAMILIES

With the island of Shikoku (four provinces) are connected the names of the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi, the Ichijo, the Chosokabe, and the Kono families. Early in the fourteenth century, the celebrated Hosokawa Yoriyuki was banished to Sanuki, and in the middle of the fifteenth century we find nearly the whole of the island under the sway of Hosokawa Katsumoto. Then, in the Daiei era (1521-1528), the Miyoshi, vassals of the Hosokawa, came upon the scene in Awa. From 1470 to 1573, the province of Tosa was governed by the Ichijo, but, in the latter year, Motochika, head of the Chosokabe, one of the seven vassal families of the Ichijo, usurped the province, and then received orders from Oda Nobunaga to conquer the other three provinces of the island in the interests of Nobunaga's son. Motochika obeyed, but on the death of Nobunaga and his son he constituted himself master of Shikoku until Hideyoshi deprived him of all save Tosa. From 1156 to 1581 the Kono family held the province of Iyo, but there is nothing of historical interest in their career.

THE DAIMYO IN KYUSHU

Connected with Kyushu are the families of Shoni, Otomo, Ryuzoji, Kikuchi and Shimazu. The term "shoni" originally signified vice-governor. Its first bearer was Muto Sukeyori (Fujiwara), who received the commission of Dazai no shoni from Minamoto Yoritomo. Subsequently it became a family name, and the Shoni are found fighting against the Mongol invaders; stoutly supporting the Southern Court; passing over to the side of the Ashikaga, and losing their places in history after the suicide of Tokihisa (1559), who had suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the Ryuzoji.

The Otomo family was a branch of the Fujiwara. One of its members, Nakahara Chikayoshi, received from Minamoto Yoritomo the office of high constable of the Dazai-fu, and to his son, Yoshinao, was given the uji of Otomo, which, as the reader knows, belonged originally to Michi no Omi, a general of the Emperor Jimmu. In Kyushu, the Otomo espoused the cause of the Northern Court, and made themselves masters of Buzen, Bungo, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, and Higo. In 1396, the head of the family--Chikayo--held the office of tandai of Kyushu. Yoshishige, commonly called Sorin (1530-1587), fought successfully with the Kikuchi and the Akizuki, and the closing years of his life were devoted to a futile struggle against the Shimazu, the Ryuzoji, and the Akizuki. He escaped disaster by obtaining succour from Hideyoshi, but the Otomo domain was reduced to the single province of Bungo.

The Ryuzoji first appear in history as vassals of the Shoni, under whose banner they fought against the Otomo, in 1506. Subsequently they became independent and established a stronghold in Hizen, which province was granted to them in fief by Hideyoshi.

The Kikuchi, a branch of the Fujiwara, held office in Kyushu from the tenth century. They are chiefly noteworthy for their gallant defence of the cause of the Southern Court. After many vicissitudes the family disappeared from history in the middle of the sixteenth century.

The ancestor of the Shimazu family was Tadahisa, an illegitimate son of Minamoto Yoritomo. His mother, to escape the resentment of Yoritomo's wife, Masa, fled to Kyushu, and Tadahisa, having been named governor of Satsuma, proceeded thither, in 1196, and by conquest added to it the two provinces, Hyuga and Osumi. The Shimazu family emerged victorious from all campaigns until Hideyoshi in person took the field against them, as will be presently related.*

*The family is now represented by Prince Shimazu.

THE O-U REGION

The 0-U region (Mutsu-Dewa) was the home of many septs which fought among themselves for supremacy. Of these the most influential were the Mogami of Yamagata, the Date of Yonezawa, and the Ashina of Aizu. In the extreme north were the Nambu who, however, lived too remote from the political centres to occupy historical attention. The Date maintained friendly relations with the Ashikaga, and Harumune was nominated tandai of Oshu by the shogun Yoshiharu, of whose name one ideograph (haru) was given to the Date chief. The family attained its greater distinction in the time of Masamune (1566-1636), and was fortunate in being able to stand aloof from some of the internecine strife of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, the region was sufficiently disturbed. Thus, the Tsugaru and the Nambu struggled in the north, while the Date, further north, shattered the power of the Nikaido, the Nihonmatsu, the Ashina, and the Tamura, or fought less decisively against the Satake (of Hitachi), and in Ushu (Dewa) the Mogami were confronted by the Uesugi of Echigo.

DATE MASAMUNE

The most renowned of the Date family was Masamune, who to great military skill added artistic instincts and considerable poetic ability. Tradition has handed down some incidents which illustrate the ethics of that time as well as the character of the man. It is stated that Masamune came into possession of a scroll on which were inscribed a hundred selected poems copied by the celebrated Fujiwara Ietaka. Of this anthology Masamune was much enamoured, for the sake alike of its contents and of its calligraphy. But learning accidentally that the scroll had been pawned to the merchant from whom he had obtained it, he instituted inquiries as to its owner, and ultimately restored the scroll to him with the addition of five gold ryo. The owner was a knight-errant (ronin) named Imagawa Motome, who thereafter entered Masamune's service and ultimately rose to be a general of infantry (ashigaru). The sympathy which taught Masamune to estimate the pain with which the owner of the scroll must have parted with it was a fine trait of character. Another incident in this remarkable man's career happened at an entertainment where he accidentally trod on the robe of one Kanematsu, a vassal of the Tokugawa. Enraged by an act of carelessness which amounted almost to a deliberate insult, Kanematsu struck Masamune, A commotion at once arose, the probable outcome being that Masamune would return the blow with his sword. But he remained pertly cool, making no remark except that he had been paid for his want of care, and that, at any rate, Kanematsu was not an adversary worthy of his resentment.

THE FIVE CENTRES

Among the welter of warring regions glanced at above, five sections detach themselves as centres of disturbance. The first is the Court in Kyoto and the Muromachi Bakufu, where the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi, and the Matsunaga deluged the streets with blood and reduced the city to ashes. The second is the Hojo of Odawara, who compassed the destruction of the kubo at Koga and of the two original Uesugi families. The third is Takeda of Kai, who struggled on one side with the Uesugi of Echigo and on the other with the Imagawa of Suruga. The fourth is Oda Nobunaga, who escorted the shogun to the capital. And the fifth is the great Mori family, who, after crushing the Ouchi and the Amako, finally came into collision with the armies of Oda under the leadership of Hideyoshi.

ENGRAVING: "EMA" (Pictures Painted on Wood, Especially of Horses, Hung up in the Temple as Motive Offerings)

ENGRAVING: ODA NOBUNAGA