The war in which Sennoske now took part forms one of the most glorious
epochs in Japanese history. On one side was the imperial family, who
in an unbroken line had ruled the land for two thousand years; and
yet this period represented but a small part of the time during which
their authority had been recognized, for they were directly descended
from the gods who had been venerated and adored from time immemorial.
Opposed to the imperial cause was a horde of usurpers, whose only claim
to recognition was the power which they wielded temporarily, and, as
they themselves knew, unjustly. It was a struggle of the inherited and
invested majesty of right, religion, patriotism, and justice, against
usurpation, cunning, and intrigue; and the result could not be in doubt.
Yet it is a subject of just pride to the imperial family and to the
people whom they govern that victory was achieved in so short a time, a
few months being sufficient for the complete overthrow of the hitherto
all-powerful usurpers. The latter and their adherents fought bravely,
and their natural courage was doubtless stimulated to its utmost by the
knowledge that defeat with them meant utter annihilation, accompanied
with eternal shame and disgrace. Yet their desperate valor availed them
nothing. They fought like burglars caught in the act; but the cool,
steady, and determined loyalty of the imperial partisans mowed them down
as the sharp knife of the husbandman cuts down noxious weeds.
Although the Kuwana contingent was one of the first to join the forces of
the popular general, Nitta, they found him already greatly strengthened
by numerous volunteers and deserters. Several encounters which soon
took place with detachments of Hōjō forces sent against them resulted
in an easy victory, as large numbers of the vanquished troops deserted
their colors and enlisted for the righteous cause. In one of these
engagements, Nitta, who always fought in the van of his troops, noticed
near him a knight whose alertness and elasticity of movement, in spite
of his complete coat of mail, could belong only to a young man, while
the blows which he dealt were such as few even among veterans could
give,—his sword at every stroke cleaving a Hōjō armor and going deep into
the body beneath it. It was no other than Sennoske, whom, immediately
after the fray and on the field of battle, Nitta made one of his aids.
Others besides the general had noticed the prowess of the new-comer, and
admiration changed to wonder when he took off his helmet and showed his
fair, boyish face, as yet with scarcely a vestige of beard, and with a
complexion that a girl might have envied.
[Illustration: SENNOSKE IN BATTLE.]
Within a few weeks the army in and around the castle had, in the opinion
of its leader, become strong enough to try issues with the enemy in
the latter’s stronghold. Marching orders were therefore given, and the
troops were told openly that their destination was Kamakura, which
was to be taken by storm. Meeting no opposition worthy of the name,
they reached the sea-shore at Enoshima, only three miles from their
destination. Here an unexpected difficulty presented itself. Although
it was ebb-tide the sea ran extremely high, so that the road along the
shore was submerged beneath angry waves, which washed even the steep
mountain spurs from whose base they were generally separated by several
hundred feet of hard, sandy soil. The only way to reach Kamakura seemed
to be for them to retrace their steps by a long _détour_ round the other
side of the mountain. This course would entail loss of time and labor;
but the commander-in-chief was less disturbed on that account than by
the fear that this accident might be misconstrued into an evil omen,
and consequently dampen the enthusiasm of his followers. For at the
last moment the Hōjō had changed their tactics. They all at once showed
unbounded honor and veneration for the Emperor whom they had placed upon
the throne three years before, and took care to have their new-born
loyalty proclaimed far and wide. They knew, as they said, that the gods
from whom the Mikados sprang would never allow sacrilegious hands to be
laid on their descendants, and in the changes which had been made the
Hōjō had merely been instruments ordained to work out the divine will
by placing the sceptre in the hands of him who could wield it to the
best advantage of the country. Numbers of Hōjō spies had found their way
into Nitta’s camp, where only the evening before some of them had been
discovered and executed; and those undetected would certainly make the
most of this unexpected impediment, causing it to be regarded as a sign
of the displeasure of the gods and an augury of evil.
[Illustration: SEIZING A DISGUISED HŌJŌ SPY IN NITTA’S CAMP.]
Going down to where the waves washed his feet and frequently covered
him with their spray, Nitta looked out over the sea long and earnestly.
The white-crested billows came and went, but the last-comer showed no
sign of lagging behind those that had preceded it. Sennoske, seeing the
anxiety depicted on his chief’s face, ventured to step up to him and give
his opinion. He had been brought up in a seaport town, with a harbor
which was none of the best, where he had been out at all times, and had
learned to know the tides and the signs of the weather. Therefore he felt
that he could now take it upon himself to assert that in a few hours,
or a day at most, the flood must subside. Nitta, although he appeared
absorbed in thought, and scarcely to listen to his lieutenant, eagerly
drank in every word the latter said; and, placing confidence in it,
performed one of those acts which, trifling as they may appear, are yet
emanations of genius. Exerting a purely moral force, such actions are
often all-powerful in shaping the destinies of men and nations, by giving
decision to the vacillating, courage to the timid, a feeling of strength
which is equivalent to real force to the weak, and making heroes of those
who possess manly qualities in any degree.
Taking his sword, of matchless workmanship and ornamentation, glittering
in the sunlight which reflected itself in the burnished gold, Nitta cast
it out into the waters as far as a warrior’s arm could throw it, asking
the gods to accept it as a peace-offering, and calling upon them to give
their divine aid to the army which now marched to uphold the vested and
inherited rights of their descendants, the Emperors of the country. In
the name of the Mikado, driven from the throne into a lonely exile, he
prayed them to bid the angry waves subside and give free passage to
those who came to avenge his despoilers and punish the sacrilege. It was
a powerful invocation, and its effect was thorough and instantaneous,
creating general and unbounded enthusiasm. If any man there had
misgivings, it would have been dangerous for him to express them; and
when next morning the waters had subsided, leaving the road free and
open, all lingering doubts as well as the hopes of the Hōjō sympathizers
vanished as the dew of the night that disappeared in the morning sun.
As they approached Kamakura, they found a large portion of the enemy’s
army posted before the walls; so fierce, however, was the onslaught of
Nitta’s troops that the ranks of the besieged were at once broken, and
they fled for protection into the city. But the assailants were close
upon them, and followed in such numbers that the gates could not be shut
against them. From ward to ward, from street to street, from house to
house, the Hōjō were driven, in spite of their persistent and desperate
struggles, and before nightfall the city was taken.
This battle decided the war and the fate of the Hōjō. The honest portion
of their adherents consisted merely of those who had been dazzled and won
over by the spell of absolute power exercised for a considerable time;
and this spell once broken, they fully recognized their folly as well as
their guilt, and were ready to sue for and accept pardon on any terms. It
was expected that the principal men of the defeated clan, together with
such of their partisans and abetters as were too deeply implicated to
hope for forgiveness, would form into roving bands and flee to distant
inaccessible parts of the empire; but as they were now without physical
or moral support, a general engagement was no longer to be feared. In
view of this it was decided by Nitta to dismiss at once a part of the
army, so that divisions of the retiring troops might be employed in
protecting their several provinces from the marauders who should flee
thither, and in hunting them down and bringing them to punishment.
[Illustration: NITTA PRAYING TO THE GODS BEFORE THROWING HIS SWORD INTO
THE SEA.]
One of the provinces to which it was believed that the defeated would be
certain to resort in large numbers was Idzu, lying to the west of the
Tokaido, beyond the Hakone Mountain-range, on the road to Kuwana. Here
the great Yoritomo had in his youth found an asylum from his Taira foes.
It required coolness and courage, a steady eye and a firm foot to track
foes into these Idzu fastnesses, over these rugged, pathless mountains,
where Nature alone offered almost insurmountable obstacles. Nitta gave
a proof to the country of his confidence in Sennoske by intrusting to
him the military command of that region, as well as of the country along
the Tokaido from the Hakone Mountains to the province of Kuwana. The
contingent from the latter province, which was to return for the purpose,
was to be under his orders, together with such other troops as he might
think it advisable to raise in the districts assigned. Nominally, it
was necessary to have this appointment acknowledged by the daimios in
whose dominions the new commander was to act; but this was merely a
matter of form entailing a short delay. No one would have been willing
to displease the victorious Nitta, or to incur the suspicion of being a
Hōjō sympathizer, by in any way impeding the measures deemed necessary to
bring the insurgents to justice.
[Illustration: SCENE AT THE STORMING OF KAMAKURA.]
The delay which would ensue before he could take active command, Sennoske
determined to take advantage of by returning home; and leaving the Kuwana
soldiers to follow to the place which he was to make the base of his
operations, he started early in the morning on the day succeeding his
appointment, accompanied by Yamagawa, both mounted on good horses and
attended only by two running footmen. He was in good spirits. The honors
he had gained; the charm of the important command intrusted to him; the
thought of meeting his father and the Duke, with the great expectations
that they entertained of him more than fulfilled in so short a time; and
last, but not least, however he might try to disguise it to himself, the
joy of again seeing O Tetsu,—all these were certainly good and sufficient
reasons for his elation.
[Illustration: SENNOSKE ON HIS RETURN.]
Pushing on as fast as possible, on the evening of the same day he
reached Odawara, a strong castle town at the northern foot of the Hakone
Mountain-range. The fame of his exploits had preceded him, and the lord
of the castle received him in a way which could not but be flattering
to the young man, pressing him to remain at least a day or two longer.
No inducement, however, could detain Sennoske; and leaving their horses,
which would only have impeded their way over the mountain-passes, he
started on foot the next day at dawn with his faithful henchman.
[Illustration: PILGRIMS TO FUJIYAMA.]
The road, as it was at that time laid out, wound between the Hakone and
the Ashigara Mountain-ranges; and here the young man made perhaps less
haste than might have been expected. It was late in autumn, the weather
was fine, the air bracing; and in spite of his anxiety to reach his home
he could not but loiter a little to view the beautiful scenery that
presented itself. The mountains and hill-sides were clothed in their
rich autumnal garb of gold and red and purple and brown of every shade
and depth of coloring; while as if to supply the need of a stronger
contrast, clusters of evergreen trees here and there reared their crowns
of unchanging hue high into the air.
[Illustration: ROADSIDE TEA-HOUSE.]
[Illustration: FUJIYAMA, WITH ANGEL HOVERING OVER IT.]
The whole effect was greatly heightened by occasional glimpses of Fuji,
which presented itself under the most varying forms and expressions.
Sometimes just a glimpse of its top was visible over an intervening
mountain-range, while again a portion of the huge mass would reveal
itself through a narrow gorge; sometimes one of its bleak sides, within
range of the eye, but up to this moment obscured by clouds which now
suddenly parted, would astonish the traveller who had just gazed at what
he thought empty space, while the shifting curtain, hiding the view the
next moment, would make him doubt whether he had seen aright. Two or
three times the whole mountain with its perfect outline stood in majesty
like a giant sentry watching over the land. With the varying beauty of
scenery which each successive step thus unclosed, it was impossible
for a lover of Nature like Sennoske not to stop for a moment now and
then to admire it. Yet it was only for a moment, as the thought of the
welcome awaiting him prevented him from lingering as he otherwise would
have done. Many a good-looking young girl at the roadside tea-houses
followed with strained eyes the figure of the dashing young cavalier,
whose pleasant, gentle ways so well set off his unmistakably martial
air. Old Yamagawa also came in for his share of attention; and now that
they neared home, honored and successful, the old servitor indulged
occasionally in what was probably his only fault,—a love of wine,—to a
greater extent than was good for him; but his young master had not the
heart to chide or even to restrain him.
[Illustration: COURT LADY’S HEAD-DRESS AND STATE FAN.]