THE EPOCH OF WARS (Sengoku Jidai)
LIST OF EMPERORS
Order of Succession Name Date
97th Sovereign Go-Murakami A.D. 1339-1368
98th Chokei 1368-1372
99th Go-Kameyama 1372-1392
100th Go-Komatsu 1392-1412
101st Shoko 1412-1428
102d Go-Hanazono 1428-1465
103d Go-Tsuchimikado 1465-1500
104th Go-Kashiwabara 1500-1526
105th Go-Nara 1526-1557
106th Okimachi 1557-1586
107th Go-Yozei 1586-1611
THE sovereigns of the Northern Court, not being recognized as
legitimate by Japanese annalists, are excluded from the above list.
Go-Komatsu, however, is made an exception. He reigned from 1382 to
1392 as representing the Northern Court, and thereafter, the two
Courts having ceased their rivalry, he reigned undisputed until 1412.
It has further to be noted that many histories make the number of
sovereigns greater by two than the figures recorded in the lists of
this volume. That is because the histories in question count as two
the Empresses Kogyoku (642-645) and Saimei (655-661), although they
represent the same sovereign under different names, and because they
adopt a similar method of reckoning in the case of the Empresses
Koken (749-758) and Shotoku (765-770), whereas in this volume the
actual number of sovereigns is alone recorded.
THE COURT
The interval between the close of the fifteenth century and the end
of the sixteenth is set apart by Japanese annalists as the most
disturbed period of the country's history and is distinguished by the
term Sengoku Jidai, or the Epoch of Wars. It would be more accurate
to date the beginning of that evil time from the Onin year-period
(1467-1469); for in the Onin era practical recognition was extended
to the principle that the right of succession to a family estate
justifies appeal to arms, and that such combats are beyond the
purview of the central authority. There ensued disturbances
constantly increasing in area and intensity, and not only involving
finally the ruin of the Ashikaga shogunate but also subverting all
law, order, and morality. Sons turned their hand against fathers,
brothers against brothers, and vassals against chiefs. Nevertheless,
amid this subversion of ethics and supremacy of the sword, there
remained always some who reverenced the Throne and supported the
institutions of the State; a noteworthy feature in the context of the
fact that, except during brief intervals, the wielder of the sceptre
in Japan never possessed competence to enforce his mandates but was
always dependent in that respect on the voluntary co-operation of
influential subjects.
In the Sengoku period the fortunes of the Imperial Court fell to
their lowest ebb. The Crown lands lay in the provinces of Noto, Kaga,
Echizen, Tamba, Mino, and so forth, and when the wave of warfare
spread over the country, these estates passed into the hands of
military magnates who absorbed the taxes into their own treasuries,
and the collectors sent by the Court could not obtain more than a
small percentage of the proper amount. The exchequer of the Muromachi
Bakufu suffered from a similar cause, and was further depleted by
extravagance, so that no aid could be obtained from that source. Even
worse was the case with the provincial manors of the Court nobles,
who were ultimately driven to leave the capital and establish direct
connexion with their properties. Thus, the Ichijo family went to
Tosa; the Ane-no-koji to Hida, and when Ouchi Yoshioki retired to
Suwo on resigning his office (kwanryo), many Court magnates who had
benefitted by his generosity in Kyoto followed him southward.
So impoverished was the Imperial exchequer that, in the year 1500,
when the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado died, the corpse lay for forty days
in a darkened room of the palace, funds to conduct the funeral rites
not being available. Money was finally provided by Sasaki Takayori,
and in recognition of his munificence he was authorized to use the
Imperial crest (chrysanthemum and Paulownia); was granted the right
of entree to the palace, and received an autographic volume from the
pen of the Emperor Go-Kogon. If there was no money to bury
Go-Tsuchimikado, neither were any funds available to perform the
coronation of his successor, Go-Kashiwabara. Muromachi made a futile
attempt to levy contributions from the daimyo, and the kwanryo,
Hosokawa Masamoto, is recorded to have brusquely said, in effect,
that the country could be administered without crowning any
sovereign. Twenty years passed before the ceremony could be
performed, and means were ultimately (1520) furnished by the Buddhist
priest Koken--son of the celebrated Rennyo Shonin, prelate of the
Shin sect--who, out of the abundant gifts of his disciples, placed at
the disposal of the Court a sum of ten thousand gold ryo,* being
moved to that munificence by the urging of Fujiwara Sanetaka, a
former nai-daijin. In recognition of this service, Koken was raised
to high ecclesiastical rank.
*£30,000--$145,000.
It will be remembered that, early in this sixteenth century,
Yoshioki, deputy kwanryo and head of the great Ouchi house, had
contributed large sums to the Muromachi treasury; had contrived the
restoration of several of the Court nobles' domains to their
impoverished owners, and had assisted with open hand to relieve the
penury of the throne. The task exhausted his resources, and when
recalled to his province by local troubles in 1518, the temporary
alleviation his generosity had brought was succeeded by hopeless
penury. From time immemorial it had been the universal rule to
rebuild the two great shrines at Ise every twentieth year, but
nothing of the kind had been possible in the case of the Naigu (inner
shrine) since 1462, and in the case of the Gegu (outer shrine) since
1434. Such neglect insulted the sanctity of the Throne; yet appeals
to the Bakufu produced no result. In 1526, the Emperor Go-Kashiwabara
died. It is on record that his ashes were carried from the
crematorium in a box slung from the neck of a general officer, and
that the funeral train consisted of only twenty-six officials. For
the purposes of the coronation ceremony of this sovereign's
successor, subscriptions had to be solicited from the provincial
magnates, and it was not until 1536 that the repairs of the palace
could be undertaken, so that the Emperor Go-Nara was able to write in
his diary, "All that I desired to have done has been accomplished,
and I am much gratified." On this occasion the Ouchi family again
showed its generosity and its loyalty to the Throne.
The extremity of distress was reached during the Kyoroku era
(1528-1531), when the struggle between the two branches of the
Hosokawa family converted Kyoto once more into a battle-field and
reduced a large part of the city to ashes. The Court nobles, with
their wives and children, had to seek shelter and refuge within the
Imperial palace, the fences of which were broken down and the
buildings sadly dilapidated.
A contemporary record tells with much detail the story of the decay
of the capital and the pitiful plight of the Throne. The Emperor
Go-Nara (1527-1557) was reduced to earning his own living. This he
did by his skill as a calligrapher--at least one instance of
something useful resulting from the penchant of the Court for the
niceties of Chinese art and letters. Any one might leave at the
palace a few coins for payment and order a fair copy of this or that
excerpt from a famous classic. The palace was overrun, the chronicler
says. Its garden became a resort for tea-drinking among the lower
classes and children made it a play-ground. It was no longer walled
in, but merely fenced with bamboo. The whole city was in a similar
desolation, things having become worse and worse beginning with the
Onin disturbance of 1467 and the general exodus of the samurai from
the capital at that time. At this time the military nobles came to
the city only to fight, and the city's population melted away. All
was disorder. The city was flooded and the dike which was built to
check the flooded rivers came to be thought a fine residence place in
comparison with lower parts of the town.
It was at this time that men might be observed begging for rice in
the streets of the capital. They carried bags to receive
contributions which were designated kwampaku-ryo (regent's money).
Some of the bags thus used are preserved by the noble family of Nijo
to this day. Another record says that the stewardess of the Imperial
household service during this reign (Go-Nara), on being asked how
summer garments were to be supplied for the ladies-in-waiting,
replied that winter robes with their wadded linings removed should be
used. The annals go so far as to allege that deaths from cold and
starvation occurred among the courtiers. An important fact is that
one of the provincial magnates who contributed to the succour of the
Court at this period was Oda Nobuhide of Owari, father of the
celebrated Oda Nobunaga.
ENGRAVING: SHINRAN SHONIN
BUDDHIST VIOLENCE
The decline of the Muromachi Bakufu's authority encouraged the monks
as well as the samurai to become a law to themselves. Incidental
references have already been made to this subject, but the religious
commotions of the Sengoku period invite special attention. The
Buddhists of the Shin sect, founded by Shinran Shonin (1184-1268),
which had for headquarters the great temple Hongwan-ji in Kyoto, were
from the outset hostile to the monks of Enryaku-ji. Religious
doctrine was not so much concerned in this feud as rivalry. Shinran
had been educated in the Tendai tenets at Enryaku-ji. Therefore, from
the latter's point of view he was a renegade, and while vehemently
attacking the creed of his youth, he had acquired power and influence
that placed the Hongwan-ji almost on a level with the great Hiei-zan.
In the days of Kenju, popularly called Rennyo Shonin (1415-1479),
seventh in descent from the founder, Shinran, the Ikko--by which name
the Shin sect was known--developed conspicuous strength. Kenju
possessed extraordinary eloquence. Extracts from his sermons were
printed on an amulet and distributed among worshippers, who grew so
numerous and so zealous that the wealth of the sect became enormous,
and its leaders did not hesitate to provide themselves with an armed
following. Finally the monks of Hiei-zan swept down on Hongwan-ji,
applied the torch to the great temple, and compelled the abbot,
Kenju, to fly for his life.
It is significant of the time that this outrage received no
punishment. Kenju escaped through Omi to Echizen, where the high
constable, an Asakura, combining with the high constable, a Togashi,
of the neighbouring province of Kaga, erected a temple for the
fugitive abbot, whose favour was well worth courting. The Ikko-shu,
however, had its own internal dissensions. In the province of Kaga, a
sub-sect, the Takata, endeavoured to oust the Hongwan disciples, and
rising in their might, attacked (1488) the high constable; compelled
him to flee; drove out their Takata rivals; invaded Etchu; raided
Noto, routing the forces of the high constable, Hatakeyama Yoshizumi;
seized the three provinces--Kaga, Noto, and Etchu--and attempted to
take possession of Echizen. This wholesale campaign was spoken of as
the Ikko-ikki (revolt of Ikko). A few years later, the Shin believers
in Echizen joined these revolters, and marched through the province,
looting and burning wherever they passed. No measure of secular
warfare had been more ruthless than were the ways of these monks. The
high constable, Asakura Norikage, now took the field, and after
fierce fighting, drove back the fanatics, destroyed their temples,
and expelled their priests.
This was only one of several similar commotions. So turbulent did the
monks show themselves under the influence of Shin-shu teachers that
the Uesugi of Echigo, the Hojo of Izu, and other great daimyo
interdicted the propagandism of that form of Buddhism altogether. The
most presumptuous insurrection of all stands to the credit of the
Osaka priests. A great temple had been erected there to replace the
Hongwan-ji of Kyoto, and in, 1529, its lord-abbot, Kokyo, entered
Kaga, calling himself the "son of heaven" (Emperor) and assigning to
his steward, Shimoma Yorihide, the title of shogun. This was called
the "great revolt" (dai-ikki), and the movement of opposition
provoked by it was termed the "small revolt" (sho-ikki). Again
recourse was had to the most cruel methods. Men's houses were robbed
and burned simply because their inmates stood aloof from the
insurrection. Just at that time the septs of Hosokawa and Miyoshi
were engaged in a fierce struggle for supremacy. Kokyo threw in his
lot with Hosokawa Harumoto, and, at the head of fifty thousand
troops, attacked and killed Miyoshi Motonaga. Very soon, however, the
Hosokawa chief fell out with his cassocked allies. But he did not
venture to take the field against them single handed. The priests of
the twenty-one Nichiren temples in Kyoto, old enemies of the Ikko,
were incited to attack the Hongwan-ji in Osaka. This is known in
history as the Hokke-ikki, Hokke-shu being the name of the Nichiren
sect. Hiei-zan was involved in the attack, but the warlike monks of
Enryaku-ji replied by pouring down into the capital, burning the
twenty-one temples of the Nichiren and butchering three thousand of
their priests. Such were the ways of the Buddhists in the Sengoku
period.
THE KWANTO
During the Sengoku period (1490-1600) the Japanese empire may be
compared to a seething cauldron, the bubbles that unceasingly rose to
the surface disappearing almost as soon as they emerged, or uniting
into groups with more or less semblance of permanence. To follow in
detail these superficial changes would be a task equally interminable
and fruitless. They will therefore be traced here in the merest
outline, except in cases where large results or national effects are
concerned. The group of eight provinces called collectively Kwanto
first claims attention as the region where all the great captains and
statesmen of the age had their origin and found their chief sphere of
action. It has been seen that the fifth Ashikaga kwanryo, Shigeuji,
driven out of Kamakura, took refuge at Koga in Shimotsuke; that he
was thenceforth known as Koga Kubo; that the Muromachi shogun,
Yoshimasa, then sent his younger brother, Masatomo, to rule in the
Kwanto; that he established his headquarters at Horigoe in Izu, and
that he was officially termed Horigoe Gosho. His chief retainers were
the two Uesugi families--distinguished as Ogigayatsu Uesugi and
Yamanouchi Uesugi, after the names of the palaces where their
mansions were situated--both of whom held the office of kwanryo
hereditarily.
These Uesugi families soon engaged in hostile rivalry, and the
Ogigayatsu branch, being allied with Ota Dokwan, the founder of Yedo
Castle, gained the upper hand, until the assassination of Dokwan,
when the Yamanouchi became powerful. It was at this time--close of
the fifteenth century--that there occurred in the Horigoe house one
of those succession quarrels so common since the Onin era. Ashikaga
Masatomo, seeking to disinherit his eldest son, Chachamaru, in favour
of his second son, Yoshimichi, was killed by the former, the latter
taking refuge with the Imagawa family in Suruga, by whom he was
escorted to the capital, where he became the Muromachi shogun under
the name of Yoshizumi. Parricides and fratricides were too common in
that disturbed age for Chachamaru's crime to cause any moral
commotion. But it chanced that among the rear vassals of the Imagawa
there was one, Nagauji, who, during many years, had harboured designs
of large ambition. Seizing the occasion offered by Chachamaru's
crime, he constituted himself Masatomo's avenger, and marching into
Izu, destroyed the Horigoe mansion, and killed Chachamaru. Then
(1491) Nagauji quietly took possession of the province of Izu,
building for himself a castle at Hojo. He had no legal authority of
any kind for the act, neither command from the Throne nor commission
from the shogun.
ENGRAVING: HOJO SOUN
It was an act of unqualified usurpation. Yet its perpetrator showed
that he had carefully studied all the essentials of stable
government--careful selection of official instruments; strict
administration of justice; benevolent treatment of the people, and
the practice of frugality. Being descended from the Taira of Ise and
having occupied the domains long held by the Hojo, he adopted the uji
name of "Hojo," and having extended his conquests to Sagami province,
built a strong castle at Odawara. He is often spoken of as Soun, the
name he adopted in taking the tonsure, which step did not in any
degree interfere with his secular activities. A profoundly skilled
tactician, he never met with a military reverse, and his fame
attracted adherents from many provinces. His instructions to his son
Ujitsuna were characteristic. Side by side with an injunction to hold
himself in perpetual readiness for establishing the Hojo sway over
the whole of the Kwanto, as soon as the growing debility of the
Uesugi family offered favourable opportunity, stood a series of rules
elementary almost to affectation: to believe in the Kami; to rise
early in the morning; to go to bed while the night is still young,
and other counsels of cognate simplicity formed the ethical thesaurus
of a philosopher wise enough to formulate the astute maxim that a
ruler, in choosing his instruments, must remember that they, too,
choose him.
Ujitsuna proved himself a worthy son of Soun, but much had still to
be accomplished before the Kwanto was fully won. Among the eight
provinces, two, Awa and Kazusa, which looked across the sea to
Odawara, were under the firm sway of the Satomi family--one of the
"eight generals" of the Kwanto--and not until 1538 could the Hojo
chief find an opportunity to crush this strong sept. The fruits of
his victory had hardly been gathered when death overtook him, in
1543. His sword descended, however, to a still greater leader, his
son Ujiyasu, who pushed westward into Suruga; stood opposed to Kai in
the north, and threatened the Uesugi in the east. The two branches of
the Uesugi had joined hands in the presence of the Hojo menace, and a
powerful league including the Imagawa and the Ashikaga of Koga, had
been formed to attack the Hojo. So long did they hesitate in view of
the might of Odawara, that the expression "Odawara-hyogi" passed into
the language as a synonym for reluctance; and when at length they
moved to the attack with eighty thousand men, Hojo Ujiyasu, at the
head of a mere fraction of that number, inflicted a defeat which
settled the supremacy of the Kwanto.
The name of Hojo Ujiyasu is enshrined in the hearts of Japanese
bushi. He combined in an extraordinary degree gentleness and bravery,
magnanimity and resolution, learning and martial spirit. It was
commonly said that from the age of sixteen he had scarcely doffed his
armour; had never once showed his back to a foe, and had received
nine wounds all in front.* Before he died (1570) he had the
satisfaction of establishing a double link between the Hojo and the
house of the great warrior, Takeda Shingen, a son and a daughter from
each family marrying a daughter and a son of the other.**
*Thus a frontal wound came to be designated by his name.
**The present Viscount Hojo is a descendant of Ujiyasu.
THE TAKEDA AND THE UESUGI
Descended (sixteenth generation) from Minamoto Yoshimitsu, Takeda
Harunobu (1521-1573) took the field against his father, who had
planned to disinherit him in favour of his younger brother. Gaining
the victory, Harunobu came into control of the province of Kai, which
had long been the seat of the Takeda family. This daimyo, commonly
spoken of as Takeda Shingen, the latter being the name he took on
receiving the tonsure, ranks among Japan's six great captains of the
sixteenth century, the roll reading thus:
Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)
Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590)
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)
The second of the above, Uesugi Kenshin, was not member of the great
Uesugi family which took such an important part in the affairs of the
Kwanto. He belonged to the Nagao, which originally stood in a
relation of vassalage to the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi in
Echigo, and his father attained an independent position. Kagetora, as
Kenshin was called in his youth, found himself engaged in his
twenty-first year in a contest with his elder brother, whom he
killed, and, by way of penance for the fratricide, he took the
tonsure under the name of Kenshin and would have retired from the
world had not his generals insisted on his remaining in command. It
was at this time that Kenshin became a member of the Uesugi sept. In
1505, the two branches of the Kwanto Uesugi joined hands against
their common enemy, Hojo Soun, and from that time the contest was
continued until 1551, when Ujiyasu, grandson of Soun, drove Uesugi
Norimasa from his castle of Hirai in Kotsuke. The vanquished general
fled to Echigo to seek succour from his family's old-time vassal,
Nagao Kagetora, already renowned under the name of Kenshin. Norimasa
bestowed the office of kwanryo as well as the uji of Uesugi on
Kenshin, who thenceforth became known as Uesugi Kenshin, and who thus
constituted himself the foe of the Hojo. At a somewhat earlier date,
Kenshin had been similarly supplicated by Murakami Yoshikiyo, whose
castle was at Kuzuo in Shinano, whence he had been driven by Takeda
Shingen.
ENGRAVING: UESUGI KENSHIN
It thus fell out that Uesugi Kenshin had for enemies the two captains
of highest renown in his era, Hojo Ujimasa and Takeda Shingen. This
order of antagonism had far-reaching effects. For Kenshin's ambition
was to become master of the whole Kwanto, under pretence of
re-establishing the original Uesugi, but his expansion southward from
Echigo was barred by Shingen in Shinano and Kai, and his expansion
eastward by the Hojo in Sagami and Musashi. The place of the struggle
between Shingen-and Kenshin was Kawanaka-jima, an arena often
pictured by artists of later generations and viewed to-day by
pilgrims to the venerable temple, Zenko-ji. There the two generals,
recognized as the two greatest strategists of that epoch, met four
times in fierce strife, and though a Japanese historian compares the
struggle to the eruption of volcanoes or the blowing of gales of
blood, victory never rested on either standard.
ENGRAVING: TAKEDA SHINGEN
Peace having been at length restored for a moment, in 1558, Kenshin
visited Kyoto in the following year. There he was received with
distinction. The Emperor--Okimachi--bestowed on him a sword, and the
shogun, Yoshiteru, entitled him to incorporate the ideograph "teru"
in his name, which was thus changed from Kagetora to Terutora. He was
also granted the office of kwanryo. On his return to Echigo, Kenshin
proceeded to assert his new title. Mustering an army said to have
been 110,000 strong, he attacked the Hojo in Odawara. But Ujiyasu
would not be tempted into the open. He remained always behind the
ramparts, and, in the meanwhile incited Shingen to invade Echigo, so
that Kenshin had to raise the siege of Odawara and hasten to the
defence of his home province. There followed another indecisive
battle at Kawanaka-jima, and thereafter renewed attacks upon the
Hojo, whose expulsion from the Kwanto devolved on Kenshin as kwanryo.
But the results were always vague: the Hojo refrained from final
resistance, and Shingen created a diversion. The chief sufferers were
the provinces of the Kwanto, a scene of perpetual battle. In the end,
after Etchu and Kotsuke had been brought under Kenshin's sway, peace
was concluded between him and the Hojo, and he turned his full
strength against his perennial foe, Shingen. But at this stage the
situation was entirely changed by the appearance of Oda Nobunaga on
the scene, as will be presently narrated. It is recorded that, on the
eve of his death, Shingen advised his son to place himself and his
domains in Kenshin's keeping, for, said he, "Kenshin now stands
unrivalled, and Kenshin will never break faith with you;" and it is
recorded of Kenshin that when he heard of Shingen's death, he shed
tears and exclaimed, "Would that the country had such another hero!"*
*The present Count Uesugi is descended from Kenshin.
THE IMAGAWA, THE KITABATAKE, THE SAITO, AND THE ODA FAMILIES
The Imagawa, a branch of the Ashikaga, served as the latter's bulwark
in Suruga province during many generations. In the middle of the
sixteenth century the head of the family was Yoshimoto. His sway
extended over the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa,
which formed the littoral between Owari Bay and the Izu promontory.
On the opposite side of Owari Bay lay Ise province, the site of the
principal Shinto shrine and the original domain of the Taira family,
where, too, the remnants of the Southern Court had their home. Its
hereditary governor was a Kitabatake, and even after the union of the
two Courts that great family, descendants of the immortal historian
and philosopher, Chikafusa, continued to exercise sway. But, in 1560,
discord among the chief retainers of the sept furnished a pretext for
the armed intervention of Oda Nobunaga, who invested his son,
Nobukatsu, with the rights of government. On the northern littoral of
Owari Bay, and therefore separating Ise and Mikawa, was situated the
province of Owari, which, in turn, opened on the north into Mino. In
this latter province the Doki family was destroyed by the Saito, and
these in turn were crushed by the Oda, in 1561, who, from their
headquarters in Owari, shattered the Imagawa of Mikawa and the Saito
in Mino, thereafter sweeping over Ise.
THE ROKKAKU, THE ASAI, THE ASAKURA, AND THE HATAKEYAMA FAMILIES
The province of Omi had special importance as commanding the
approaches to Kyoto from the east. Hence it became the scene of much
disturbance, in which the Hosokawa, the Kyogoku, the Rokkaku, and the
Asai families all took part. Finally, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, the Asai gained the ascendancy by obtaining the assistance
of the Asakura of Echizen. This latter province, conterminous with
the north of Omi, was originally under the control of the Shiba
family, but the Asakura subsequently obtained the office of high
constable, and acquired a great access of power at the time of the
Ikko revolt by driving the turbulent priests from the province. At
that era, or a little later, the provinces of Kii, Kawachi, Izumi,
and Yamato were all the scenes of fierce fighting, but the pages of
history need not be burdened with details of the clash of purely
private ambitions.
THE MORI AND THE AMAKO FAMILIES
The Ouchi family was very powerfully situated. Descended from a
Korean Crown Prince who migrated to Japan early in the seventh
century, its representative, Yoshioki (1477-1528), controlled the
southern provinces of the main island--Iwami, Aki, Suwo, and
Nagato--as well as the two northern provinces of Kyushu--Chikuzen and
Buzen. This was the chieftain who, in 1508, marched to Kyoto at the
head of a great army, and restored the Ashikaga shogun Yoshitane,
himself receiving the office of kwanryo. Eleven years later, on his
return to the south, he was followed by many nobles from Kyoto, and
his chief provincial town, Yamaguchi, on the Shimonoseki Strait,
prospered greatly. But his son Yoshitaka proved a weakling, and being
defeated by his vassal, Suye Harukata--called also Zenkyo--he
committed suicide, having conjured another vassal, Mori Motonari, to
avenge him.
ENGRAVING: MORI MOTONARI
The Mori family* had for ancestor the great statesman and legislator
of Yoritomo's time, Oye Hiromoto, and its representative, Motonari
(1497-1571), had two sons scarcely inferior to himself in strategical
ability, Kikkawa Motoharu and Kohayakawa Takakage. A commission
having been obtained from Kyoto, Motonari took the field in 1555, and
with only three thousand men succeeded, by a daring feat, in
shattering Harukata with twenty thousand. Thus far, Mori Motonari had
obeyed the behest of his late chief. But thereafter he made no
attempt to restore the Ouchi family. On the contrary, he relentlessly
prosecuted the campaign against Suye Harukata, with whom was
associated Ouchi Yoshinaga, representing the Ouchi house by adoption,
until ultimately Yoshinaga committed suicide and, the Ouchi family
becoming extinct, Motonari succeeded to all its domains.
*Now represented by Prince Mori.
At that time the province of Izumo, which is conterminous with Iwami
along its western frontier, was under the control of the high
constable, Amako Tsunehisa (1458-1540), who, profiting by the fall of
the great Yamana sept, had obtained possession of the provinces Bingo
and Hoki as well as of the Oki Islands. This daimyo was a puissant
rival of the Ouchi family, and on the downfall of the latter he soon
came into collision with Mori Motonari. Tsunehisa's grandson,
Yoshihisa (1545-1610), inherited this feud, which ended with the
extinction of the Amako family and the absorption of its domains by
the Mori, the latter thus becoming supreme in no less than thirteen
provinces of the Sanyo-do and the Sanin-do.
THE MIYOSHI, THE ICHIJO, THE CHOSOKABE, AND THE KONO FAMILIES
With the island of Shikoku (four provinces) are connected the names
of the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi, the Ichijo, the Chosokabe, and the Kono
families. Early in the fourteenth century, the celebrated Hosokawa
Yoriyuki was banished to Sanuki, and in the middle of the fifteenth
century we find nearly the whole of the island under the sway of
Hosokawa Katsumoto. Then, in the Daiei era (1521-1528), the Miyoshi,
vassals of the Hosokawa, came upon the scene in Awa. From 1470 to
1573, the province of Tosa was governed by the Ichijo, but, in the
latter year, Motochika, head of the Chosokabe, one of the seven
vassal families of the Ichijo, usurped the province, and then
received orders from Oda Nobunaga to conquer the other three
provinces of the island in the interests of Nobunaga's son. Motochika
obeyed, but on the death of Nobunaga and his son he constituted
himself master of Shikoku until Hideyoshi deprived him of all save
Tosa. From 1156 to 1581 the Kono family held the province of Iyo, but
there is nothing of historical interest in their career.
THE DAIMYO IN KYUSHU
Connected with Kyushu are the families of Shoni, Otomo, Ryuzoji,
Kikuchi and Shimazu. The term "shoni" originally signified
vice-governor. Its first bearer was Muto Sukeyori (Fujiwara), who
received the commission of Dazai no shoni from Minamoto Yoritomo.
Subsequently it became a family name, and the Shoni are found
fighting against the Mongol invaders; stoutly supporting the Southern
Court; passing over to the side of the Ashikaga, and losing their
places in history after the suicide of Tokihisa (1559), who had
suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the Ryuzoji.
The Otomo family was a branch of the Fujiwara. One of its members,
Nakahara Chikayoshi, received from Minamoto Yoritomo the office of
high constable of the Dazai-fu, and to his son, Yoshinao, was given
the uji of Otomo, which, as the reader knows, belonged originally to
Michi no Omi, a general of the Emperor Jimmu. In Kyushu, the Otomo
espoused the cause of the Northern Court, and made themselves masters
of Buzen, Bungo, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, and Higo. In 1396, the
head of the family--Chikayo--held the office of tandai of Kyushu.
Yoshishige, commonly called Sorin (1530-1587), fought successfully
with the Kikuchi and the Akizuki, and the closing years of his life
were devoted to a futile struggle against the Shimazu, the Ryuzoji,
and the Akizuki. He escaped disaster by obtaining succour from
Hideyoshi, but the Otomo domain was reduced to the single province of
Bungo.
The Ryuzoji first appear in history as vassals of the Shoni, under
whose banner they fought against the Otomo, in 1506. Subsequently
they became independent and established a stronghold in Hizen, which
province was granted to them in fief by Hideyoshi.
The Kikuchi, a branch of the Fujiwara, held office in Kyushu from the
tenth century. They are chiefly noteworthy for their gallant defence
of the cause of the Southern Court. After many vicissitudes the
family disappeared from history in the middle of the sixteenth
century.
The ancestor of the Shimazu family was Tadahisa, an illegitimate son
of Minamoto Yoritomo. His mother, to escape the resentment of
Yoritomo's wife, Masa, fled to Kyushu, and Tadahisa, having been
named governor of Satsuma, proceeded thither, in 1196, and by
conquest added to it the two provinces, Hyuga and Osumi. The Shimazu
family emerged victorious from all campaigns until Hideyoshi in
person took the field against them, as will be presently related.*
*The family is now represented by Prince Shimazu.
THE O-U REGION
The 0-U region (Mutsu-Dewa) was the home of many septs which fought
among themselves for supremacy. Of these the most influential were
the Mogami of Yamagata, the Date of Yonezawa, and the Ashina of Aizu.
In the extreme north were the Nambu who, however, lived too remote
from the political centres to occupy historical attention. The Date
maintained friendly relations with the Ashikaga, and Harumune was
nominated tandai of Oshu by the shogun Yoshiharu, of whose name one
ideograph (haru) was given to the Date chief. The family attained its
greater distinction in the time of Masamune (1566-1636), and was
fortunate in being able to stand aloof from some of the internecine
strife of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, the region was
sufficiently disturbed. Thus, the Tsugaru and the Nambu struggled in
the north, while the Date, further north, shattered the power of the
Nikaido, the Nihonmatsu, the Ashina, and the Tamura, or fought less
decisively against the Satake (of Hitachi), and in Ushu (Dewa) the
Mogami were confronted by the Uesugi of Echigo.
DATE MASAMUNE
The most renowned of the Date family was Masamune, who to great
military skill added artistic instincts and considerable poetic
ability. Tradition has handed down some incidents which illustrate
the ethics of that time as well as the character of the man. It is
stated that Masamune came into possession of a scroll on which were
inscribed a hundred selected poems copied by the celebrated Fujiwara
Ietaka. Of this anthology Masamune was much enamoured, for the sake
alike of its contents and of its calligraphy. But learning
accidentally that the scroll had been pawned to the merchant from
whom he had obtained it, he instituted inquiries as to its owner, and
ultimately restored the scroll to him with the addition of five gold
ryo. The owner was a knight-errant (ronin) named Imagawa Motome, who
thereafter entered Masamune's service and ultimately rose to be a
general of infantry (ashigaru). The sympathy which taught Masamune to
estimate the pain with which the owner of the scroll must have parted
with it was a fine trait of character. Another incident in this
remarkable man's career happened at an entertainment where he
accidentally trod on the robe of one Kanematsu, a vassal of the
Tokugawa. Enraged by an act of carelessness which amounted almost to
a deliberate insult, Kanematsu struck Masamune, A commotion at once
arose, the probable outcome being that Masamune would return the blow
with his sword. But he remained pertly cool, making no remark except
that he had been paid for his want of care, and that, at any rate,
Kanematsu was not an adversary worthy of his resentment.
THE FIVE CENTRES
Among the welter of warring regions glanced at above, five sections
detach themselves as centres of disturbance. The first is the Court
in Kyoto and the Muromachi Bakufu, where the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi,
and the Matsunaga deluged the streets with blood and reduced the city
to ashes. The second is the Hojo of Odawara, who compassed the
destruction of the kubo at Koga and of the two original Uesugi
families. The third is Takeda of Kai, who struggled on one side with
the Uesugi of Echigo and on the other with the Imagawa of Suruga. The
fourth is Oda Nobunaga, who escorted the shogun to the capital. And
the fifth is the great Mori family, who, after crushing the Ouchi and
the Amako, finally came into collision with the armies of Oda under
the leadership of Hideyoshi.
ENGRAVING: "EMA" (Pictures Painted on Wood, Especially of Horses,
Hung up in the Temple as Motive Offerings)
ENGRAVING: ODA NOBUNAGA