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Indifferent
to her own fate, she quickly fell into the hands of Tokimasa's
emissaries and was by them subjected to a fruitless examination,
repeated with equally abortive results on her arrival at Kamakura.
There, in spite of her vehement resistance, she was constrained to
dance before Yoritomo and his wife, Masa, but instead of confining
herself to stereotyped formulae, she utilized the occasion to chant
to the accompaniment of her dance a stanza of sorrow for separation
from her lover. It is related that Yoritomo's wrath would have
involved serious consequences for Shizuka had not the lady Masa
intervened. The beautiful danseuse, being enceinte at the time, was
kept in prison until her confinement. She had the misfortune to give
birth to a son, and the child was killed by Yoritomo's order, the
mother being released. The slaughter of an innocent baby sounds very
shocking in modern ears, but it is just to remember that the Kamakura
chief and his three younger brothers would all have been executed by
Kiyomori had not their escape been contrived by special agencies. The
Confucian doctrine, which had passed into the bushi's code, forbade a
man to live under the same sky with his father's slayer. Deeds like
the killing of Yoshitsune's son were the natural consequence of that
doctrine.

Meanwhile, Yoshitsune had been passing from one place of concealment
to another in the three contiguous provinces of Izumi, Yamato, and
Kii. He escaped deadly peril in the Yoshino region through the
devotion of Sato Tadanobu, whose brother, Tsuginobu, had died to save
Yoshitsune's life in the battle of Yashima. Attacked by the monks of
Zo-o-do in overwhelming force, Yoshitsune had prepared to meet death
when Tadanobu offered to personify him and hold the position while
Yoshitsune escaped. With much difficulty Yoshitsune was induced to
consent. Tadanobu not only succeeded in covering the retreat of his
chief, but also managed himself to escape to Kyoto where, being
discovered, he died by his own hand. Finally, in the spring of 1187,
Yoshitsune and his followers, disguised as mendicant friars, made
their way up the west coast, and, after hairbreadth escapes, found
asylum in the domain of Fujiwara Hidehira, who had protected
Yoshitsune in his youth. Hidehira owned and administered the whole of
the two provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, which in those days covered some
thirty thousand square miles and could easily furnish an army of a
hundred thousand men.

The attitude of this great fief had always been an object of keen
solicitude to Yoritomo. At one time there were rumours that Hidehira
intended to throw in his lot with Yoshinaka; at another, that he was
about to join hands with the Taira. Yoritomo could never be certain
that if the Kwanto were denuded of troops for some westward
expedition, an overwhelming attack might not be delivered against
Kamakura from the north. Thus, when he learned that Yoshitsune had
escaped to Mutsu, all his apprehensions were roused. By that time
Hidehira had died, in his ninety-first year, but he had committed to
his son, Yasuhira, the duty of guarding Yoshitsune. Hence, when, in
the spring of 1188, Kamakura became aware of Yoshitsune's presence in
Mutsu, two consecutive messages were sent thither, one from Yoritomo,
the other from the Court, ordering Yoshitsune's execution. Yasuhira
paid no attention, and Go-Shirakawa commissioned Yoritomo to punish
the northern chief's contumacy. Yasuhira now became alarmed. He sent
a large force to attack Yoshitsune at Koromo-gawa. Benkei and the
little band of comrades who had followed Yoshitsune's fortunes
continuously during eight years, died to a man fighting for him, and
Yoshitsune, having killed his wife and children, committed suicide.
His head was sent to Kamakura.

But this did not satisfy Yoritomo. He wanted something more than
Yoshitsune's head; he wanted the great northern fief, and he had no
idea of losing his opportunity. Three armies soon marched northward.
They are said to have aggregated 284,000 of all arms. One moved up
the western littoral; another up the eastern, and the third, under
Yoritomo himself, marched by the inland route. The men of Mutsu
fought stoutly, but after a campaign of some two months, Yasuhira,
finding himself in a hopeless position, opened negotiations for
surrender. His overtures being incontinently rejected, he appreciated
the truth, namely, that Yoritomo was bent upon exterminating the
Fujiwara of the north and taking possession of their vast estates.
Then Yasuhira fled to Ezo, where, shortly afterwards, one of his own
soldiers assassinated him and carried his head to Yoritomo, who,
instead of rewarding the man, beheaded him for treachery. Thus, from
1189, Yoritomo's sway may be said to have extended throughout the
length and breadth of Japan. In the storehouses of the Fujiwara, who,
since the days of Kiyohira had ruled for a hundred years in the
north, there were found piles of gold, silver, and precious stuffs
with which Yoritomo recompensed his troops.

YORITOMO'S SYSTEM

The system of government established by Yeritomo towards the close of
the twelfth century and kept in continuous operation thereafter until
the middle of the nineteenth, was known as the Bakufu, a word
literally signifying "camp office," and intended to convey the fact
that the affairs of the empire were in the hands of the military.
None of the great Japanese captains prior to Yoritomo recognized that
if their authority was to be permanent, it must be exercised
independently of the Court and must be derived from some source
outside the Court. The Taira chief, in the zenith of his career, had
sufficient strength to do as Yoritomo did, and at one moment, that is
to say, when he established his headquarters at Fukuhara, he appears
to have had a partial inspiration. But he never recognized that
whatever share he obtained in the administration of State affairs was
derived solely from the nature of the office conferred on him by the
Court, and could never exceed the functions of that office or survive
its loss. The Fujiwara were astuter politicians. By their plan of
hereditary offices and by their device of supplying maidens of their
own blood to be Imperial consorts, they created a system having some
elements of permanency and some measure of independence.

ENGRAVING: HACHIMAN SHRINE AT KAMAKURA

But it was reserved for Yoritomo to appreciate the problem in all its
bearings and to solve it radically. The selection of Kamakura for
capital was the first step towards solution. Kamakura certainly has
topographical advantages. It is surrounded by mountains except on one
face, which is washed by the sea. But this feature does not seem to
have counted so much in Yoritomo's eyes as the fact that his father,
Yoshitomo, had chosen Kamakura as a place of residence when he
exercised military sway in the Kwanto, and Yoritomo wished to
preserve the tradition of Minamoto power. He wished, also, to select
a site so far from Kyoto that the debilitating and demoralizing
influence of the Imperial metropolitan society might be powerless to
reach the military capital. Kamakura was then only a fishing hamlet,
but at the zenith of its prosperity it had grown to be a city of at
least a quarter of a million of inhabitants. During a period of one
hundred and fifty years it remained the centre of military society
and the focus of a civilization radically different from that of
Kyoto. The Taira had invited their own ruin by assimilating the ways
of the Fujiwara and of the courtiers; the Minamoto aimed at
preserving and developing at Kamakura the special characteristics of
the buke.

POLICY TOWARDS RELIGION

Yoritomo seems to have believed that the Taira had owed their
downfall largely to divine wrath, in that they had warred against the
monasteries and confiscated manors belonging to shrines and temples.
He himself adopted the policy of extending the utmost consideration
to religion, whether Shinto or Buddhism, and to its devotees and
their possessions. At Kamakura, though it has well-nigh reverted to
its original rank as a fishing hamlet, there exist to-day eloquent
evidences of the Minamoto chief's reverent mood; among them being the
temple of Hachiman; a colossal bronze image of Buddha which, in
majesty of conception and execution, is not surpassed by any idol in
the world;* a temple of Kwannon, and several other religious
edifices, though the tomb of Yoritomo himself is "a modest little
monument covered with creepers."

*This image was not actually erected by Yoritomo, but the project is
attributed to him.

YORITOMO'S MEMORIAL

It has been stated above that, after the retreat of the Taira from
Fukuhara, in 1183, Go-Shirakawa sent an envoy to Kamakura inviting
Yoritomo's presence in Kyoto. Restrained, however, by a sense of
insecurity,* the Minamoto chief declined to leave Kamakura, and sent
in his stead a memorial to the Throne. This document commenced with a
statement that the ruin of the Taira had been due not to human
prowess but to divine anger against the plunderers of sacred lands.
Therefore, all manors thus improperly acquired should be at once
restored to their original owners. Passing on to the case of estates
taken by the Taira from princes, Court nobles, officials, and private
individuals, Yoritomo urged that only by full restitution of this
property could a sense of security be imparted to the people. "If any
of these manors be now granted to us, the indignation roused by the
Taira's doings will be transferred simultaneously with the estates.
To change men's misery to happiness is to remove their resentment and
repining. Finally," the memorial continued, "if there be any Taira
partisans who desire to submit, they should be liberally treated even
though their offences deserve capital punishment. I myself was
formerly an offender,** but having had the good fortune to be
pardoned, I have been enabled to subdue the insurgents. Thus, even
men who have been disloyal on the present occasion may serve a loyal
purpose at some future time."

*Kamakura was always exposed to pressure from the north.