Season 7, Episode 7: The Reign of Hojo Yasutoki

While the banishment of every Retired Emperor from the capital was the most visible consequence of the Jokyu War, it was arguably not the most significant development. The Bakufu’s primary interest in that moment was preventing another such rising from occurring, and it was clear that they needed to maintain a more significant presence in the capital and keep a much closer eye on the kuge and the Tenno. And it wouldn’t hurt if this presence helped them to extend practical control over the western provinces.

Thus, the Rokuhara Tandai was created. You may recognize “Rokuhara” from last season as it was the name of Taira Kiyomori’s mansion in the capital. The word “Tandai” was an honorific title for high-ranking members of the Shogunate. The Rokuhara Tandai were tasked with preserving peace in the capital as well as keeping tabs on the imperial court and reporting any suspicious activities to the Bakufu in Kamakura. They were essentially the Bakufu’s secret police.

Headquartered in the Rokuhara mansion from which they took their name, the Rokuhara Tandai were led by a Kitakata who was assisted by a lower-ranking Minamikata. The first Kitakata of the Rokuhara Tandai was Hojo Yasutoki, the son of Hojo Yoshitoki and recent victor in the Jokyu War. His uncle Hojo Tokifusa took up the subordinate post of Minamikata and the two oversaw the early years of the Bakufu secret police. Throughout the Kamakura Period, the two top offices in the Rokuhara Tandai would only ever be staffed by members of the Hojo family.

In addition to their new security-team-slash-secret-police force, the Bakufu seized estates previously owned or stewarded by the imperial partisan ringleaders. The Shogunate was actually quite lenient on the rank-and-file warriors who were caught up in the rebellion, but many of these samurai hailed from western provinces and the Bakufu saw an opportunity for a westward expansion of their practical reach.

New Jito appointments were made over these western estates to reward loyal vassals and bring the central and western provinces in line. While technically the Jito were merely stewards and not owners, significant legal changes had begun which made them the effective owner of their estate in everything but name. Many of these legal changes would later be officially codified but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Hojo Yoshitoki continued serving as regent and the leader of the Mandokoro until he grew very ill and died suddenly in 1224. His son Yasutoki, who was still serving as the chief of the Rokuhara Tandai in Heian-kyo, hurried to Kamakura, hoping to prevent the kind of instability which can arise with a power vacuum.

Yasutoki was not being paranoid, it turned out. One of Yoshitoki’s wives from the Iga clan plotted to put her own son, Yasutoki’s half-brother Hojo Masamura into the office of Shikken. Hojo Masako was wise to these developments, however, and quickly moved to expel Iga Kata and her co-conspirators from Kamakura. Iga Kata was sent to Izu Province in exile, but her son Hojo Masamura was spared. He claimed he had no knowledge of his mother’s undertakings on his behalf, and his half-brother Yasutoki believed him.

Hojo Yasutoki was installed as Shikken and his son Tokiuji would replace him as the Kitakata of the Rokuhara Tandai. Yasutoki had previously been placed in charge of the Samurai-Dokoro, the Bureau of Samurai Affairs, in 1218 and it was clear that Yoshitoki had been grooming this particular son to succeed him.

In mid-summer of 1225, the Bakufu lost another influential member as Oe Hiromoto passed away. He was well into his mid-70s and had served as a vital linchpin in the new government, helping the rough Kamakura warriors bridge the gap between themselves and the civilian population of Japan. He left a formidable legacy as a Bakufu founding father, and his descendants would continue serving the Shogunate both as scholars and as samurai. His fourth son, Suemitsu, had already adopted the samurai lifestyle and attained the position of gokenin. He would later become a jito, first of an estate in Sagami Province of Kanto, and soon after the Jokyu War he was reassigned to an estate in distant Aki Province far to the west. He adopted a new name for himself, following the convention of the day and taking the name of his shoen in Sagami. That name was Mori, and Suemitsu is considered the founder of the Mori Clan who would play a part in several dramatic moments of the Kamakura Period and far beyond.

A month after the loss of Oe Hiromoto, Hojo Masako died in 1225 at the age of 69. The nun-Shogun is remembered for her political prowess and her fierce anger. By this point, most of the Shogunate’s old guard had either died or retired. It was time for new blood, in more than one sense.

Although Kujo Yoritsune had been accepted as the successor to the office of Shogun, his official installation was delayed indefinitely while Hojo Masako still lived. He was also very young when he was first nominated, and in 1225 he would celebrate his coming-of-age ceremony. Yoritsune was made the official Shogun in 1226. Hojo Yasutoki would remain in the post of shikken, or regent. In addition to the impressive pedigree of his austere kuge family, Kujo Yoritsune was also related to Yoritomo, albeit somewhat distantly: his grandmother was one of Yoritomo’s nieces. Still, blood is blood, even if the relationship seems little better than father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate. The Bakufu decided that this was close enough.

With the purge of Go-Toba-In and his followers, relations between the Shogunate and the Imperial Court improved greatly. There was some irregularity to the Bakufu’s reorganization of its power structure, however. Elevating Emperor Go-Horikawa was not unusual, but elevating his father Prince Morisada to the position of Retired Emperor is somewhat confusing, considering that Morisada had never served as Emperor in the first place.

It may also seem confusing at first why the Bakufu would preserve cloistered rule, given its historical tendency toward disorder and independent-minded Emperors who flout both the Daijo-Daikan and potentially Kamakura as well. Tradition partly explains their decision to keep Insei around. The first cloistered Emperor, you may recall, was Emperor Shirakawa, who founded the first Insei government in 1087. The Jokyu war was fought in 1221, meaning that Cloistered Rule had existed for 134 years at this point. No doubt those in the Mandokoro who thought of eliminating it were cautioned that it was better to keep the tradition and control it than to harden potential enemies against them by abolishing Imperial custom outright.

While they likely feared a backlash that might come from eliminating Insei, the Shogunate had every intention of bringing it under their control. They reserved the right, granted to them by the current Retired, ahem, “Emperor,” to name which of the retired emperors would become the next official cloistered ruler in the future. The Bakufu also insisted on the right to appoint the imperial regent themselves and made it very clear that any potential candidates who had shown even a whiff of hostility toward Kamakura would be rejected out of hand.

It may surprise you to learn that the Shogunate did not insist on the right to directly select the Tenno’s successor. This was not an oversight; by obtaining control over which future retired Emperor would command the Insei, they also controlled the Tenno appointment by default. The precedent that the sitting Emperor was always the son of the retired Emperor had been established since the beginning of Insei.

The most pressing task on Hojo Yasutoki’s to-do list was to consolidate his power. While the conspirators in the Iga clan had been sent into exile easily enough, he understood the need for the Hojo clan to solidify its support among the powerful clans of Kanto. He accomplished this through a massive reorganization of the Bakufu’s organs of government.

Many of the older Shogunate members serving in leadership positions, most of whom were Hojo family members, were dismissed and replaced with chiefs from various influential Kanto clans. Yasutoki took many practical steps toward altering the nature of Bakufu leadership, opting for a cooperative approach in which he would consult these clan chiefs before making any big decisions. He formed a new administrative body called the Hyojoshu which would supplant the Mandokoro as the leading executive board.

There were eleven members of the original Hyojoshu, a term which can be translated as “Council of State.” Yasutoki carefully selected its leadership from among the most trustworthy of the powerful Kanto clan chiefs, in addition to some civilian scholars. Far from being a symbolic gesture, Yasutoki saw to it that the Hyojoshu was vested with some powers which had previously been the purview of the Shogun’s regent alone.

The Hyojoshu essentially superceded the Mandokoro and the Monchujo, that is, the legal body. These bureaus would continue to exist though in a reduced capacity and with more limited powers which were now ascribed to the Hyojoshu. Concentrating the authority in a new council of state while simultaneously redistributing some of his power as Shikken into that council was a brilliant maneuver which shored up Yasutoki’s position and ensured there would be no further attempts at usurping the Bakufu from within. At least, for the moment.

Another item on the new regent’s agenda was to continue the westward expansion of the Shogunate’s authority in Chugoku as well as ensuring that Kansai remained firmly under their control. In addition to the regular staffing of the Rokuhara Tandai and the appointments of loyal vassals to Jito over seized estates in those regions, the Bakufu created a new opportunity for western samurai to integrate themselves into its government. It had been a regular practice for various eastern samurai to serve as imperial guards in Heian-kyo, but now the Shogunate created a new special division of the Shogun’s bodyguards which would be staffed by samurai of Chugoku and Kansai.

In early 1226, Kujo Yoritsune was officially installed as the new Shogun. He was only 8 years old at the time and while power rested with his regents, he was still a member of the influential Kujo branch of the Fujiwara clan. As time went on, he received regular court rank promotions from the Insei government at the direction of the Shogunate. Yasutoki kept close watch over the new Shogun, fearful of what might happen if the Hojo Clan’s enemies ever tried to use the boy for their own ends.

In the years immediately following the Jokyu War, complaints against abusive Jito flooded the legal courts of Kamakura. Though it took some time, by the late 1220s most of these issues had been resolved. Once again it is surprising to note that the courts generally sided against the appointed stewards and in favor of the workers and lower managers of the shoens. Jito were dismissed and new stewards appointed in their place in cases which were found to have merit by the courts.

Much ink has been expended on the subject of samurai behavior, particularly the ideals of Bushido. The term Bushido did not appear until the 1600s, but the late Heian Period had already seen the birth of some of its forerunners. In the 900s and 1000s, there were references to Tsuwamon no michi, “The Way of the Armed Men,” as well as Kyûya no Michi, “The Way of the Bow and Arrows.” During the Gempei War, the concept became known as “The Way of the Bow and Horse” or Kyuba no Michi. These were largely rules of conduct in battle and there was not yet any moral component. They were also unwritten rules which had yet to be codified.

It seems clear from the sheer tidal wave of complaints against the Kamakura Jito, and from the fact that the Bakufu courts constantly sided against their own appointees that most samurai did not understand what the Shogunate required of them. As payment for their service, they were supposed to receive one acre-worth of rice for every eleven acres of their shoen. The fact that so many were grabbing more than their fair share on a regular basis spoke to a need for the Bakufu to clarify what behavior it expected from the warriors off the battlefield.

The volume of cases which the Monchujo had already overseen had created a mountain of conflicting precedents, complicated legal loopholes, and confusion. In an effort to both solve the problem of avaricious stewards and streamline the legal process, the Hyojoshu worked toward creating a formalized code of law. In 1232, the code was officially promulgated. Known as the Goseibai Shikimoku, or the Joei Shikimoku, these laws covered a vast swath of Kamakura society, from land possession to murder and other high crimes.

Regarding the Daijo-Daikan in the capital, the Jokyu War had left the anti-Bakufu faction utterly crushed and after a series of dismissals from those involved in the conspiracy that led to the disturbance, those Kuge who were friendly to the Shogunate found themselves appointed to most of the respectable posts. In particular, the court of Go-Horikawa-Tenno honored Saionji Kintsune, whom it named Chancellor, or Daijo-Daijin. The Saionji family were descended from Fujiwara stock and enjoyed increasing prestige throughout the 1220s and beyond, thanks to how useful they made themselves to the Bakufu. Chancellor Kintsune made it his personal mission to prevent the appointment of any Kuge with lingering anti-Bakufu sentiment and to promote those who favored Kamakura. He even managed to get himself appointed as the chief secretary of the Insei court, a powerful post which came with cash benefits since it placed him in charge of administering the retired Emperor’s many estates.

Kujo Michiie, meanwhile, managed to arrange a marriage between one of his daughters and the sitting Emperor. In 1231 she gave birth to Go-Horikawa-Tenno’s first son, Prince Mitsuhito, who was swiftly declared the Crown Prince. At the end of the following year, Emperor Go-Horikawa retired and his two-year old son succeeded him on the throne. He is remembered as Emperor Shijo. Emperor Go-Horikawa became Go-Horikawa-In, officially taking charge of the Insei. His father, who had been managing the Insei under the name Go-Takakura-In, had died in 1223.

Emperor Go-Horikawa referred to his failing health as the reason for his retirement, which he blamed on the strain caused by continuous calamities. The mid-1220s were an especially difficult time for the people of Japan. In 1225 there was a drought, which gave birth to a litany of aftershock disasters. Famine inevitably followed, and then an outbreak of smallpox which ravaged the weakened and malnourished. Unusually powerful typhoons ravaged the coastal provinces, earthquakes killed scores of people in toppled buildings, and unseasonable weather made the already drastic food shortage even worse for the foreseeable future.

Hojo Yasutoki took the opportunity to expand the Bakufu’s reach beyond the governance of the warrior class. Working with the Imperial Court to try and and prevent mass discontented uprising, he established a temporary moratorium on the repayment of debt in 1230. This was not a cancellation, but a much-needed pause. The court released a series of edicts which fixed the price of rice, restricted unnecessary expenditures, and ordered the distribution of government-owned rice to the poor in some provinces which had been especially hard hit. The Bakufu suspended tax collection and tried many other measures to relieve suffering, but they were outmatched by the wrath of nature.

In 1232, the worst of the disasters was behind them and conditions finally began to improve. The occasional food shortages and reappearances of small pox were inevitable but manageable. Part of the reason the Goseibai Shikimoku was made official that year was to reassure vassals that they would receive fair justice if they were taken to court. However, many of those vassals were now in debt and regularly receiving much smaller yields from the estates they managed.

The latter 1230s were a time of rebuilding and slowly regaining reliable food production and economic stability. However, in early 1242, a potentially large calamity struck when the young Emperor Shijo was suddenly killed in an accident. He was twelve years old at the time and, wily scamp that he was, he liked to play pranks on people in the imperial palace by sprinkling talc on the floor, which would cause them to slip when they walked upon it. The official records indicate that he accidentally slipped on some talc he had left behind and suffered a terrible injury from the fall, which led to his death.

Being that he was twelve, he had no surviving children to be his heir and this was a huge problem for the Bakufu, who had previously excluded Go-Toba-In’s line from succession. Kujo Michiie supported raising Prince Tadanari, a son of ex-Emperor Juntoku to the throne, and Saionji Kintsune threw his support behind the young prince as well. It is hard to conceive of a less suitable candidate, from the Bakufu’s perspective. Former Emperor Juntoku was an active plotter in the Jokyu War and although he was living out his days on distant Sado island, he was still alive at the time.

The Bakufu’s preferred candidate, who also had considerable support among Kuge who were not aligned with the Saionji or the Fujiwara, was Prince Kunihito, son of the late Emperor Tsuchimikado. While this 21-year-old prince was also a grandson of Emperor Go-Toba, his father had not taken part in the Jokyu War and was allowed to choose his own place of exile after the disturbance.

The Shogunate was potentially on sticky ground here because while they had the express right to name the cloistered Emperor, they did not technically have the same liberty to name the heir to the throne directly. While the Kujo and Saionji families far preferred Prince Tadanari, they were both utterly dependent upon the Bakufu and neither of their leaders were willing to attempt anything drastic. After being assured by Yasutoki’s confidants that Prince Tadanari would be swiftly deposed if they attempted to elevate him to Tenno, they acquiesced and allowed the elevation of Prince Kunihito instead. He is remembered as Emperor Go-Saga.

A litany of complaints followed this event, primarily from Kuge who claimed the Bakufu had overstepped its bounds. While the enthronement would stand, the entire incident caused Hojo Yasutoki a great deal of stress. He complained of constant fatigue afterward and fell ill with dysentery. Fearing what might happen if he were to suddenly pass while the nation was still in a state of lingering uncertainty, he stepped down as Shikken and took vows as a monk. Because his sons had both already died, he was succeeded as regent by his 18-year-old grandson Tsunetoki. About a month and a half after he retired, Hojo Yasutoki died at the age of 60.

Yasutoki’s legacy in Japanese history is that of a remarkable leader who was clever and competent. While his solutions to the crisis years of the 1220s did not always have their intended effect, the fact that the Bakufu responded to the needs of the common people at all earned them a lot of good will. He had a generally good relationship with the imperial court and encouraged a spirit of cooperation between Heian-kyo and Kamakura.

His grandson and successor Tsunetoki would not occupy the office of regent for very long. The kuge who had complained of Kamakura’s overreach in the imperial succession were emboldened by Yasutoki’s passing. Yasutoki’s descendents would have to emulate his flexibility, character, and cunning if the Bakufu was to survive, though they would be helped significantly by the lasting contributions he had already made.

Next time, we will continue following those who came after Hojo Yasutoki as they wrangle with unhappy Kuge, a disgruntled Shogun, and the interference of the Kujo family.