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It will be remembered that after the murder of Minamoto Sanetomo by his nephew Kugyo, in 1219, some difficulty was experienced in persuading the Imperial Court to appoint a successor to the shogunate, and finally the choice fell upon Fujiwara Yoritsune, then a child of two, who was not actually nominated shogun until 1226.
After Yoriiye's retirement, in 1204, to the monastery in Izu, Masa, with the concurrence of her father, Tokimasa, decided on the accession of her second son, Sanetomo, then in his twelfth year, and application for his appointment to the office of shogun having been duly made, a favourable and speedy reply was received from Kyoto.
He had seen his father and his two brothers done to death, and he himself had been obliged to enter religion, all of which misfortunes he had been taught by Yoshitoki's agents to ascribe to the partisans of his uncle, Sanetomo. Longing for revenge, the young friar waited. His opportunity came early in 1219.
He advised that the function should be deferred until daylight, or, at any rate, that the shogun should wear armour. Minamoto Nakaakira combatted both proposals and they were rejected. Sanetomo had a vague presentiment of peril.
Marshalling arguments based chiefly on the advisability of averting an armed struggle, he persuaded the lady Masa to endorse a compromise, namely, that to Sanetomo should be given the office of land-steward in thirty-eight provinces of the Kwansai; while to Ichiman should be secured the title of shogun and the offices of lord high constable and land-steward in twenty-eight provinces of the Kwanto.
Teika's son, Tameiye, won such favour in the eyes of the Kamakura shogun, Sanetomo, that the latter conferred on him the manor of Hosokawa, in Harima. Dying, Tameiye bequeathed this property to his son, Tamesuke, but he, being robbed of it by his step-brother, fell into a state of miserable poverty which was shared by his mother, herself well known as an authoress under the name of Abutsu-ni.
The fact would appear to be that Hojo Yoshitoki's intrigues were too subtle for the perception of Sanetomo or even of the lady Masa. Yoshitoki had learned all the lessons of craft and cunning that his father could teach and had supplemented them from the resources of his own marvellously fertile mind.
Sanetomo, having been nominated minister of the Left by the Kyoto Court, had to repair to the Tsurugaoka shrine to render thanks to the patron deity of his family. The time was fixed for ten o 'clock on the night of February 12th. Oye no Hiromoto, who had cognizance of the plot, hid his guilty knowledge by offering counsels of caution.
Crafty and astute as was Hojo Tokimasa, his son Yoshitoki excelled him in both of those attributes as well as in prescience. It was to the mansion of Yoshitoki that Sanetomo was carried for safety when his life was menaced by the wiles of Tokimasa.
These two women certainly occupied a prominent place on the stage of events, but the figure behind the scenes was the white-haired intriguer, Tokimasa. Had the lady Maki's son-in-law succeeded Sanetomo, the former would have been the next victim of Tokimasa's ambition, whereafter the field would have been open for the grand climacteric, the supremacy of the Hojo.
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