ns 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 w