JAPAN
tarily sought to encroach further on the prerogatives of the Court in Kyōtō.
But the Court itself provoked their enmity by an ill-judged attempt to break the power of the Shogunate. It issued a call to arms which was responded to by some thousands of cenobites and as many soldiers of Taira extraction. Kamakura, however, sent out an army which annihilated the Imperial partisans, and from that time all the great offices in Kyōtō were occupied by nominees of the Hōjō, even the succession to the Throne requiring their mandate.
It fared with the Hōjō as it had fared with all the great families that preceded them: their own misrule ultimately wrought their ruin. Their first eight representatives were talented and upright administrators. They took justice, simplicity, and truth for guiding principles; they despised luxury and pomp; they never aspired to a higher official rank than the fourth; they were content with two provinces for estates; they did not seek the office of Shōgun for themselves, but always allowed it to be held by a member of the Imperial family, and they sternly repelled the effeminate, depraved customs of Kyōtō. But in the days of the ninth representative, Takatoki, a new atmosphere permeated Kamakura. Instead of visiting the archery-ground, the fencing-school, and the manage, men began to waste day and night in the company of dancing-girls, professional musicians, and jesters.
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