system, and of whom history says that
without him the Minamoto had never risen to fame, survived his
colleague by only four years, dying, in 1225, at the age of
seventy-eight. The lady Masa, one of the world's heroines, expired in
the same year, and 1224 had seen the sudden demise of the regent,
Hojo Yoshitoki. Fortunately for the Bakufu, the regent's son,
Yasutoki, proved himself a ruler of the highest ability, and his
immediate successors were not less worthy of the exalted office they
filled.

ENGRAVING: SILK TASSEL

ENGRAVING: ITSUKUSHIMA JINJA (SHRINE), AT MIYAJIMA

CHAPTER XXVII

THE HOJO

THE HOJO IN KYOTO

THERE was nothing perfunctory in the administration of the "Two
Rokuhara" (Ryo-Rokuhara) in Kyoto. 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