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Updated: June 8, 2025
In this sore strait, Go-Daigo did not hesitate to make solemn avowal of the innocence of his purpose, and Kamakura refrained from any harsh action towards the Throne. But it fared ill with the sovereign's chief confidant, Fujiwara no Suketomo. He was exiled to Sado Island and there killed by Takatoki's instructions. This happened in 1325.
Equally foolhardy and marvellous was the deed of Fujiwara Michinaga, who alone of a band of courtiers in the palace dared one dark night to go unattended and without lights from one end of the palace to the other.
The Taira chief was now at the summit of power, and his foes in the depths of distress. The Fujiwara, who had no military power, were unable to contend with him, and his most dangerous rivals, the Minamoto, were slain or driven into exile.
To avert such an unnatural conflict, Tametomo, having proclaimed his identity, as was usual among bushi, drew his bow with such unerring aim that the arrow shore off an ornament from Yoshitomo's helmet without injuring him in any way. Yoshitomo withdrew, and the Taira took up the attack. Not less heartless was the treatment of the vanquished nobles. The Fujiwara alone escaped.
Founded by Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, minister of the Left, in the year 821, and endowed with a substantial part of his estate in order to afford educational advantages for the poorer members of the great family, this institution rivalled even the Imperial University, to be presently spoken of. Next in importance was the Shogaku-in of the Minamoto, established by Ariwara Yukihira in the year 881.
The dispositions of these two men did not agree with the suggestions of their lineage. Sukechika might have been expected to sympathize with his ward in consideration of the sufferings of the Fujiwara at Kiyomori's hands. Tokimasa, as a Taira, should have been wholly antipathetic. Yet had Tokimasa shared Sukechika's mood, the Minamoto's sun would never have risen over the Kwanto.
The Hojo adopted towards the shoguns the same policy as that previously pursued by the Fujiwara towards the sovereigns appointment during the years of childhood and removal on reaching full manhood.* But the shoguns were not unavenged.
Deputing their powers to the Hojo family, they were supplanted by the Hojo, just as the Fujiwara had been supplanted by the Taira. Three only of the Minamoto shogun really exercised rule.
Thus, the eight Bando provinces must have furnished a force of from four to sixteen thousand men, all belonging to the aristocratic class. These formed the nucleus of the army. The command in chief was conferred on Ki no Kosami, thirteenth in descent from the renowned Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who had been second in command of the Fujiwara Tsugunawa expedition nine years previously.
*It is on this occasion that we hear of Koze no Kanaoka, the first Japanese artist of great repute. The suffix in was now first used for the names of retired Emperors. His son, Daigo, who now ascended the throne, was thirteen years old, but no Fujiwara regent was appointed, Tokihira, the one person eligible in respect of lineage, being precluded by youth.
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