THE MILITARY EPOCH
return to Kyōtō, he paid no attention to the mandate.
Japanese historians have been harsh in their judgment of Takauji. His attitude towards the Throne has been severely censured. But it does not appear that he contemplated more than others had previously compassed, namely, the establishment of a military dictatorship. The difference between his case and Yoritomo's was that the latter received Imperial recognition, the former dispensed with it. For the rest, each was a soldier before everything, and neither aimed at the Throne. Takauji is the central figure of the greatest political disturbance Japan ever knew, but the feature that chiefly differentiates him from the ambitious nobles who in earlier eras aspired to precisely the same authority, is that whereas they climbed to power by espousing the sovereign's cause, in appearance at all events, he established his sway independently of Imperial recognition. That, however, is a distinction rather than a difference. It is true that the Fujiwara when they overthrew the usurping Soga, the Taira when they displaced the despotic Fujiwara, and the Minamoto when they broke the strength of the arbitrary Taira, all seemed to come to the rescue of the Throne. But each in turn took as little subsequent account of the Throne's authority as though they had ignored it from the outset, and the Hōjō, whom Takauji now crushed, had established themselves at Kamakura in open
19
