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Punishment followed quickly for the feudatories who had fought against the Tokugawa. Thus Mori Terumoto's domain, originally covering eight provinces and yielding a revenue of 1,205,000 koku, was reduced to the two provinces of Suwo and Nagato, yielding 300,000 koku. The three provinces of Ukita Hideiye were entirely forfeited, and he himself was banished to the island Hachijoshima.

This injunction was issued in 1280, and already steps had been taken to construct defensive works at all places where the Mongols might effect a landing at Hakozaki Bay in Kyushu; at Nagato, on the northern side of the Shimonoseki Strait; at Harima, on the southern shore of the Inland Sea; and at Tsuruga, on the northwest of the main island.

This Taguchi had been originally an influential magnate of Iyo in Shikoku, whence he had accompanied the Taira retreat to Nagato, leaving his son with three thousand men to defend the family manors in Iyo. The son was so generously treated by the Minamoto that he threw in his lot with them and sent letters urging his father to adopt the same cause.

These eminent services were recognized by Ouchi Yoshihiro's appointment to administer no less than six provinces Nagato, Suwo, Aki, Buzen, Kii, and Izumi. In fact he guarded the western and eastern entrances of the Inland Sea, and held the overlordship of western Japan.

In the zoological mythology and plant mythology of Japan there exist many legends offering a curious resemblance to the old Greek tales of metamorphoses. Some of the most remarkable bits of such folk- lore have originated, however, in comparatively modern time. The legend of the crab called heikegani, found at Nagato, is an example. The shell of the heikegani is certainly surprising.

Among these places, Hakozaki and Nagato were judged to be the most menaced, and special offices, after the nature of the Kyoto tandai, were established there. Seven years separated the first invasion from the second. It was not of deliberate choice that Kublai allowed so long an interval to elapse.

Thus, a peculiar situation existed at the beginning of April, 1185. Finally, the Strait of Shimonoseki between Chikuzen and Buzen was in Taira possession. Evidently the aim of the Taira must be to eliminate Noriyori from the battle now pending, and to that end they selected for arena Dan-no-ura, that is to say, the littoral of Nagato province immediately east of the Shimonoseki Strait.

It was supported by Kusunoki Masashige, in Yamato, with Chihaya for headquarters; Prince Morinaga, at Koya-san in Kishu; Akamatsu Norimura, in Harima and Settsu, whence his fortress of Maya menaced Rokuhara, and by Doi Michiharu and Tokuno Michikoto, in Iyo, whence, crossing to Nagato, they had attacked and defeated Hojo Tokinao, the tandai of the province.