. This vengeful
mood might find practical expression at anytime, and Fushimi, warned
the Bakufu to be on their guard. "As for me," he concluded, "I leave
my descendants entirely in the hands of the Hojo. With Kamakura we
stand or fall."

How much of this was sincere, how much diplomatic, it is not possible
to determine. In Kamakura, however, it found credence. Sadatoki, then
regent (shikken), took prompt measures to have Fushimi's son
proclaimed Prince Imperial, and, in 1298, he was enthroned as
Go-Fushimi. This evoked an indignant protest from the then cloistered
Emperor, Go-Uda, and after some consideration the Kamakura regent,
Sadatoki, suggested--"directed" would perhaps be a more correct form
of speech--that thenceforth the succession to the throne should
alternate between the two families descended from Go-Fukakusa and
Kameyama, the length of a reign being limited to ten years.
Nominally, this arrangement was a mark of deference to the testament
of Go-Saga, but in reality it was an astute device to weaken the
authority of the Court by dividing it into rival factions. Kamakura's
fiat received peaceful acquiescence at first. Go-Uda's eldest son
took the sceptre in 1301, under the name of Go-Nijo, and, after seven
years, he was succeeded by Fushimi's son, Hanazono, who, in twelve
years, made way for Go-Uda's second son, Go-Daigo.

The descendants of Kameyama were called the "Daigaku-ji family," and
the descendants of Go-Fukakusa received the name of the "Jimyo-in
family." When a member of the latter occupied the throne, the Court
enjoyed opulence, owing to its possession of the extensive Chokodo
estates; but when the sovereign was of the Daigaku-ji line
comparative penury was experienced. There can be little doubt that,
throughout the complications antecedent to this dual system, the
Fushimi princes acted practically as spies for the Bakufu. After all,
the two Imperial families were descended from a common ancestor and
should have shrunk from the disgrace of publishing their rivalries.
It is true, as we shall presently see, that the resulting
complications involved the destruction of the Hojo; but it is also
true that they plunged the nation into a fifty years' war.

THE FIVE REGENT FAMILIES

It has already been related how, by Yoritomo's contrivance, the post
of family--descended from Fujiwara Kanezane--and scions of the Konoe
family--descended from Fujiwara Motomichi. This system was
subsequently extended at