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The northern and the southern
offices were presided over by the most prominent members of the Hojo
family, men destined to fill the post of regent (shikkeri)
subsequently in Kamakura. Thus, when Hojo Yoshitoki died suddenly, in
1224, his son, Yasutoki, returned at once to Kamakura to succeed to
the regency, transferring to his son, Tokiuji, the charge of northern
Rokuhara, and a short time afterwards the control of southern
Rokuhara was similarly transferred from Yoshitoki is brother,
Tokifusa, to the latter's son, Tokimori. Nominally, the jurisdiction
of the two Rokuhara was confined to military affairs, but in reality
their influence extended to every sphere within Kyoto and to the
Kinai and the Saikai-do without.

THE HYOJOSHU

So long as the lady Masa lived, the administrative machinery at
Kamakura suggested no sense of deficiency. That great woman accepted
all the responsibility herself. But in the year (1225) of her death,
Yasutoki, who had just succeeded to the regency, made an important
reform. He organized within the Man-dokoro a council of fifteen or
sixteen members, which was called the Hyojo-shu, and which virtually
constituted the Bakufu cabinet. The Samurai-dokoro and the
Monju-dokoro remained unchanged, but the political administration
passed from the Monju-dokoro to the Hyojoshu, and the betto of the
former became in effect the finance minister of the shogun.

THE GOOD ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOJO

Commencing with Yasutoki (1225), down to the close of the thirteenth
century, Japan was admirably ruled by a succession of Hojo regents.
Among them, Yasutoki deserves the highest credit, for he established
a standard with the aid of very few guiding precedents. When he came
into power he found the people suffering grievously from the
extortions of manorial chiefs. It was not an uncommon practice for
the owner of an estate to hold in custody the wives and daughters of
defaulting tenants until the latter paid their rents, however
exorbitant, and seldom indeed did the holder of a manor recognize any
duty of succouring the peasants in time of distress. The former cruel
practice was strictly forbidden by Yasutoki, and, to correct the
latter defect, he adopted the plan of setting a fine example himself.
It is recorded that in the Kwanki era (1229-1232), when certain
places were suffering from crop failure, the regent distributed nine
thousand koku of rice (45,000 bushels approximately) among the
inhabitants and remitted all taxes throughout more than one thousand
districts.

In the Azuma Kagami, a contemporaneous history generally trustworthy,
we find various anecdotes illustrative at once of the men and the
ethics of the time. Thus, it is related that the farmers of a village
called Hojo being in an embarrassed condition, seed-rice was lent to
them in the spring by the regent's order, they undertaking to repay
it in the autumn. But a storm having devastated their fields, they
were unable to keep their pledge. Nothing seemed to offer except
flight. When they were on the eve of decamping, however, they
received from Yasutoki an invitation to a feast at which their bonds
were burned in their presence and every debtor was given half a
bushel of rice. Elsewhere, we read that the regent himself lived in a
house so unpretentious that the interior was visible from the
highroad, owing to the rude nature of the surrounding fence. Urged to
make the fence solid, if only as a protection against fire, his reply
was: "However economically a new wall and fence be constructed, the
outlay would be at the cost of the people. As for me, if I do my duty
to the State, my life and my house will be safe. If I fail, the
strongest fence will not avail."

In estimating what his bountiful assistance to the farmers meant, it
is necessary to remember that he was very poor, The greater part of
the comparatively small estates bequeathed to him by his father he
divided among his half-brothers by a Fujiwara mother, reserving to
himself only a little, for, said he: "I am the regent. What more do I
desire?" One day, while attending a meeting of the Hyojoshu, he
received news that the house of his brother, Tomotoki, was attacked.
Immediately he hastened to the rescue with a small band of followers.
Subsequently, one of his principal retainers remonstrated with him
for risking his life in an affair so insignificant. Yasutoki
answered: "How can you call an incident insignificant when my
brother's safety was concerned? To me it seemed as important as the
Shokyu struggle. If I had lost my brother, what consolation would my
rank have furnished?"

Yasutoki never made his rank a pretext for avoiding military service;
he kept his watch in turn with the other guards, remaining up all
night and attending to all his duties. When he periodically visited
the temple of Yoritomo, he always worshipped without ascending to the
aisle, his reason being that, were the shogun, Yoritomo, alive, the
regent would not venture to sit on the dais by his side. Thrifty and
eminently practical, he ridiculed a priest who proposed to
tranquillize the nation by building fanes. "How can peace be brought
to the people," he asked, "by tormenting them to subscribe for such a
purpose?" He revered learning, regarded administration as a literary
art rather than a military, and set no store whatever by his own
ability or competence.

THE JOEI CODE

The most memorable achievement during Yasutoki's regency was the
compilation of a code of law called the Joei Shikimoku* after the
name of the era (Joei, 1232-1233) when it was promulgated. What
rendered this legislation essentially necessary was that the Daiho
code of the eighth century and all the laws founded on it were
inspired primarily by the purpose of centralizing the administrative
power and establishing the Throne's title of ownership in all the
land throughout the realm, a system diametrically opposed to the
spirit of feudalism. This incongruity had made itself felt in
Yoritomo's time, and had suggested the compilation of certain "Rules
for Decisions" (Hanketsu-rei), which became the basis of the Joei
code in Yasutoki's days. Another objection to the Daiho code and its
correlated enactments was that, being written with Chinese ideographs
solely, they were unintelligible to the bulk of those they concerned.
Confucius laid down as a fundamental maxim of government that men
should be taught to obey, not to understand, and that principle was
adopted by the Tokugawa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
But in the thirteenth, the aim of Yasutoki and his fellow legislators
was to render the laws intelligible to all, and with that object they
were indited mostly in the kana syllabary.

*Called also the Kwanto Goseibai Shikimoku.

The actual work of compilation was done by Hokkyo Enzen (a renowned
bonze), but the idea originated with Hojo Yasutoki and Miyoshi
Yasutsura, and every provision was carefully scanned and debated by
the Bakufu's State council (Hyojoshu). There was no intention of
suppressing the Daiho code. The latter was to remain operative in all
regions to which the sway of the Kyoto Court extended direct. But in
proportion as the influence of the Bakufu grew, the Joei laws
received new adherents and finally became universally effective. A
great modern authority, Dr. Ariga, has opined that the motive of the
Bakufu legislation was not solely right for right's sake. He thinks
that political expediency figured in the business, the Kamakura
rulers being shrewd enough to foresee that a reputation for
administering justice would prove a potent factor in extending their
influence. If so, the scheme was admirably worked out, for every
member of the council had to sign a pledge, inserted at the end of
the Shikimoku, invoking* the vengeance of heaven on his head if he
departed from the laws or violated their spirit in rendering
judgment. Nothing, indeed, stands more signally to the credit of the
Bakufu rulers from the days of Yoritomo and his wife, Masa,
downwards, than their constant endeavour to do justice between man
and man.

*"This oath indicates, among other things, the deep sense of the
importance of unanimity, of a united front, of the individual sharing
fully in the collective responsibility, that was cherished by the
Bakufu councillors. This was, indeed, one of the chief secrets of the
wonderful stability and efficiency of the machine." (Murdoch.)

NATURE OF THE CODE

The Joei Shikimoku is not a voluminous document: it contains only
fifty-one brief articles, which the poet Basho compares to the
luminosity of the full moon. It has been excellently translated and
annotated by Mr. Consul-General J. C. Hall in the "Transactions of
the Asiatic Society of Japan" (Vol. XXXIV, Part I), and Mr. J.
Murdoch, in his admirable History of Japan, summarizes its provisions
lucidly. We learn that slavery still existed in the thirteenth
century in Japan; but the farmer was guarded against cruel processes
of tax-collecting and enjoyed freedom of domicile when his dues were
paid. Fiefs might not be sold, but a peasant might dispose of his
holding. "Village headmen, while held to a strict discharge of their
duties and severely punished for various malpractices, were
safeguarded against all aggression or undue interference on the part
of the jito. The law of property was almost entirely synonymous with
that of fiefs. These, if originally conferred for public services
rendered by the grantee, could not be sold. On the death of the
holder it was not necessarily the eldest son--even though
legitimate--that succeeded. The only provision affecting the father's
complete liberty of bequest or gift to his widow--or concubine, in
one article--or children, was that a thoroughly deserving eldest son,
whether of wife or concubine, could claim one-fifth of the estate.

"Not only could women be dowered with, or inherit, fiefs, and
transmit a legal title to them to their own children, but a childless
woman was even fully empowered to adopt an heir. Yoritomo had been
the first to sanction this broadminded and liberal principle.