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The regent, Takatoki, who, though a careless libertine in his habits, living in the society of his thirty concubines, his troops of dancing mimes, and his packs of fighting dogs, was capable of stern resolution on occasions, threatened to dethrone the Emperor.
Takau ji, therefore, had ambitions of his own, and his mood towards the Hojo had been embittered by two recent events; the first, that, though in mourning for the death of his father, he had been required to join the attack on Masashige's fortress at Kasagi; the second, that his own illness after returning from that campaign had not availed to save him from frequent summonses to conference with Takatoki.
Judges were appointed to examine their pleas, but that proved a tedious task, and in the meanwhile all the best lands had been given away by favour or affection. Go-Daigo himself appropriated the manors of Hojo Takatoki; those of Hojo Yasuie were assigned to Prince Morinaga; those of Osaragi Sadanao went to the Imperial consort, Renko.
It is said to have begun about 1333, when the last of the Hojo regents, Takatoki, performed suicide, and a number of his retainers took their own lives by harakiri, in order to follow their master. It may be doubted whether this incident really established the practice. But by the sixteenth century junshi had certainly become an honoured custom among the samurai.
Receiving Go-Daigo's order, Kusunoki Masashige quickly collected a troop of local bushi and constructed entrenchments at Akasaka, a naturally strong position in his native province of Kawachi. Takatoki now caused Prince Kazuhito to be proclaimed sovereign under the name of Kogon. But this monarch was not destined to find a place among the recognized occupants of the throne.
Fujifusa was instructed to claim that the usufruct of the Chokodo estate should alternate in the same manner as the succession, or that the latter should be perpetually vested in the junior branch. To this just demand the regent, Takatoki, refused to accede. Kazuhito was named Prince Imperial, and thus the seeds of a sanguinary struggle were sown.
Sadatoki 1284-1301 Retired in 1301, but ruled in camera till 1311 Morotoki 1301-1311 Takatoki 1311-1333 The first six of these were men of genius, but neither Tokimasa nor Yoshitoki can be called really great administrators, if in the science of administration its moral aspects be included.
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