y the people as ame-kingoku (the
incarceration of the rain).

TOBA

Horikawa died in 1107, after a reign of twenty years, and was
succeeded by his son Toba, a child of five. Affairs of State
continued to be directed by the cloistered sovereign, and he chose
for his grandson's consort Taiken-mon-in, who bore to him a son, the
future Emperor Sutoku. Toba abdicated, after a reign of fifteen
years, on the very day of Sutoku's nomination as heir apparent, and,
six years later, Shirakawa died (1128), having administered the
empire from the cloister during a space of forty-three years.

As a device to wrest the governing power from the grasp of the
Fujiwara, Go-Sanjo's plan was certainly successful, and had he lived
to put it into operation himself, the results must have been
different. But in the greatly inferior hands of Shirakawa this new
division of Imperial authority and the segregation of its source
undoubtedly conspired to prepare the path for military feudalism and
for curtained Emperors.

Toba, with the title of Ho-o, took the tonsure and administered from
the cloister after Shirakawa's death. One of his first acts after
abdication was to take another consort, a daughter of Fujiwara
Tadazane, whom he made Empress under the name of Kaya-no-in; but as
she bore him no offspring, he placed in the Toba palace a second
Fujiwara lady, Bifuku-mon-in, daughter of Nagazane. By her he had
(1139) a son whom he caused to be adopted by the Empress, preparatory
to placing him on the throne as Emperor Konoe, at the age of three.
Thus, the cloistered sovereigns followed faithfully in the footsteps
of the Fujiwara.

SOLDIER-PRIESTS

A phenomenon which became conspicuous during the reign of Shirakawa
was recourse to violence by Buddhist priests. This abuse had its
origin in the acquisition of large manors by temples and the
consequent employment of soldiers to act as guards. Ultimately, great
monasteries like Kofuku-ji, Onjo-ji, and Enryaku-ji came to possess
thousands of these armed men, and consequently wielded temporal
power. Shirakawa's absorbing belief in Buddhism created opportunities
for the exercise of this influence. Keenly anxious that a son should
be born of his union with Kenko, the daughter of Fujiwara Yorimichi,
his Majesty bespoke the prayers of Raigo, lord-abbot of Onjo-ji. It
happened that unsuccessful application had frequently been made by
the Onjo-ji monks for an important religious privilege. Raigo
informe