eds are glorified in art and song, and while a martial
thought survives in Japan the name of this Bayard of the island empire
will be revered.

_THE HOJO TYRANNY._

Under the rule of Yoritomo Japan had two capitals and two governments,
the mikado ruling at Kioto, the shogun at Kamakura, the magnificent city
which Yoritomo had founded. The great family of the Minamoto was now
supreme, all its rivals being destroyed. A special tax for the support
of the troops yielded a large revenue to the shoguns; courts were
established at Kamakura; the priests, who had made much trouble, were
disarmed; a powerful permanent army was established; a military chief
was placed in each province beside the civil governor, and that military
government was founded which for nearly seven centuries robbed the
mikado of all but the semblance of power. Thus it came that the shogun,
or the tycoon as he afterwards named himself, appeared to be the emperor
of Japan.

We have told how Yoritomo, once a poor exile, became the lord of the
empire. After conquering all his enemies he visited Kioto, where he
astonished the court of the mikado by the splendor of his retinue and
the magnificence of his military shows, athletic games, and ceremonial
banquets. The two rulers exchanged the costliest presents, the emperor
conferred all authority upon the general, and when Yoritomo returned to
his capital city he held in his control the ruling power of the realm.
All generals were called shoguns, but he was _the_ shogun, his title
being Sei-i Tai Shogun (Barbarian-subjugating Great General). Though
really a vassal of the emperor, he wielded the power of the emperor
himself, and from 1192 until 1868 the mikados were insignificant puppets
and the shoguns the real lords of the land. Such was the strange
progress of political evolution in Japan. The mikado was still emperor,
but the holders of this title lay buried in sloth or religious
fanaticism and let their subordinates rule.

And now we have another story to tell concerning this strange political
evolution. As the shoguns became paramount over the mikados, so did the
Hojo, the regents of the shoguns, become paramount over them, and for
nearly one hundred and fifty years these vassals of a vassal were the
virtual emperors of Japan. This condition of affairs gives a curious
complication to the history of that country.

In a previous tale it has been said that the father of Masago, the
beautiful wife o