A History of the Japanese People Part 54

In 1412, the Emperor Go-Komatsu abdicated in favour of his son Shoko (101st sovereign), then twelve years old. This sovereign abandoned himself to the profligacy of the era. It is doubtful whether his reason was not unhinged. Some accounts say that he fell into a state of lunacy; others, that he practised magic arts. At all events he died childless in 1428, and was succeeded by a grandson of the Emperor Suko, Go-Hanazono, then in his tenth year. Thus, the claims of the Southern dynasty were ignored twice consecutively, and its partisans made armed protests in the provinces, as has been already noted. But these struggles proved abortive, and thereafter history is no more troubled with such episodes. The Daikagu-ji line disappears altogether from view, and the throne is occupied solely by representatives of the Jimyo-in. There can be very little doubt that the former was the legitimate branch; but fortune was against it.

YOs.h.i.+MOCHI, YOs.h.i.+KAZU, AND YOs.h.i.+NORI

Yos.h.i.+mochi, son of Yos.h.i.+mitsu, became shogun (1395) at the age of nine, and the administration was conducted by Hosokawa Mitsumoto, s.h.i.+ba Yos.h.i.+s.h.i.+ge, and Hatakeyama Mitsuiye. Twenty-eight years later, that is to say, in 1423, he abdicated in favour of his son, Yos.h.i.+kazu. The cause of that step deserves notice. Yos.h.i.+mitsu had intended to pa.s.s over Yos.h.i.+mochi, his first-born, in favour of his second son, Yos.h.i.+tsugu, but death prevented the consummation of that design. Yos.h.i.+mochi, however, knew that it had been entertained.

Therefore, after the death of their father, he seized Yos.h.i.+tsugu, threw him into prison, and ultimately caused him to be killed. With the blood of his younger brother on his hands he abdicated in favour of his own sixteen-year-old son, Yos.h.i.+kazu. But the latter died--some historians say that dissipation destroyed him--in two years, and having no second son to succeed, Yos.h.i.+mochi himself resumed the office of shogun, holding it until his death, in 1428.

During his thirty-three years' tenure of power this ruler seems to have aimed solely at enjoying the sweets of ease and tranquillity. He left the provinces severely alone and thought only of the peace of the metropolis. Turbulent displays on the part of self-appointed partisans of the Southern Court; intrigues in the Kwanto; revolts among his own immediate followers--all these things were treated by Yos.h.i.+mochi with gloved hands so long as the atmosphere of Kyoto was not troubled. In 1428, he fell sick, and, the end being in sight, he ordered his advisers to consult about his successor. Some advocated the appointment of his kinsman, Mochiuji, governor-general of the Kwanto, and Mochiuji himself prayed that it should be so. But the choice ultimately fell on Yos.h.i.+mochi's younger brother, Gien, who had embraced religion and was then serving as abbot of the temple Sh.o.r.en-in.

This man, then in his thirty-fourth year, hesitated to accept the nomination, but was induced to do so. He changed his name to Yos.h.i.+nori, and a.s.suming the office in 1428, showed high talents and great intrepidity. He was, in truth, a ruler as efficient as his predecessor had been perfunctory. One of the most important events of his time was the ruin of the As.h.i.+kaga Bakufu at Kamakura. Between Kamakura and Muromachi there had been friction from an early date. We have seen the second and third governors-general of the Kwanto, Ujimitsu and Mitsukane, plotting to supplant the elder branch of their family in Kyoto, and we have seen how the accession of the priest, Yos.h.i.+nori, had disappointed the ambition of the fourth governor-general, Mochiuji, who, if unable to become shogun himself, would fain have obtained that high office for his son, Yos.h.i.+hisa.

Several years previously, namely, in 1417, there had occurred a feud between the Yamanouchi and the Ogigayatsu branches of the Uesugi family in the Kwanto, the former represented by Norimoto, the latter by Ujinori. The Uesugi stood next to the As.h.i.+kaga at Kamakura, the important office of manager (s.h.i.+tsuji) being invariably held by the head of the former house. It would have been well-nigh impossible therefore for the governor-general to view such a feud with indifference. Mochiuji, then in his twentieth year, sympathized with Norimoto, and in the sequel, Ujinori, with whom was allied Mochiuji's younger brother, Mochinaka, took the field at the head of such a force that the governor-general must have succ.u.mbed had not the shogun, Yos.h.i.+mochi, rendered aid.

This should have placed Kamakura under a heavy debt of grat.i.tude to Muromachi. But Mochiuji was not subject to such emotions. He rebelled vehemently against the lenient treatment accorded to Ujinori's son after their father's death, and the shogun had difficulty in placating him. So long, however, as Yos.h.i.+mochi ruled in Kyoto, the Kamakura kwanrya abstained from further intrigues; but on the accession of the sometime bonze, Yos.h.i.+nori, to the shogunate, all sense of restraint was removed. The governor-general now made no attempt to conceal his hostility to the Muromachi shogun. Certain family rights imperatively demanding reference to the shogun were not so referred, and Mochiuji not only spurned the remonstrances of the manager (s.h.i.+tsuji), Uesugi Norimoto, but even attempted to kill the latter's son, Norizane. All efforts to reconcile the Kwanto and the s.h.i.+tsuji proved futile, and Norizane had to flee to Kotsuke. No sooner did these things come to the ears of the shogun, Yos.h.i.+nori, than he obtained an Imperial commission to quell the insurgents, and placing an army under the orders of Mochifusa, a son of Ujinori, directed him to march against Kamakura.

At first it seemed as if the Kamakura men would emerge victorious. At the easily defended pa.s.ses of Hakone they inflicted several successive though not signal defeats upon Mochifusa's army. But the appearance of Norizane in the field quickly changed the complexion of the campaign. Very soon the Kamakura force was shattered, and Mochiuji himself fled to the temple Shomyo-ji in Kanazawa, where he begged to be allowed to retire from the world. But the shogun declined to pardon him and remained obdurate in spite of earnest and repeated pet.i.tions from Norizane, praying that Mochiuji should be forgiven and allowed to retire in favour of his son, Yos.h.i.+hisa. In the end, Mochiuji, his son, his uncle, and many others all died by their own hands. These things happened in 1439. The redeeming feature of the sombre family feud was the fine loyalty of Norizane. Though it had been against him chiefly that Mochiuji raged, and though his death was certain had he fallen under the power of the Kamakura kwanryo, Mochiuji's fate caused him such remorse that he attempted to commit suicide and finally became a priest. Thenceforth, the t.i.tle of governor-general of the Kwanto pa.s.sed to the Uesugi, two of whom were appointed to act simultaneously. As for the Kamakura As.h.i.+kaga, the three remaining sons of Mochiuji fled to Koga in s.h.i.+mosa, where two of them were subsequently killed by a Kamakura army, and the third, s.h.i.+geuji, fared as has already been described.

a.s.sa.s.sINATION OF THE SHOGUN

It has been shown that Akamatsu Norimura was among the captains who contributed most to the triumph of the As.h.i.+kaga cause. In recognition of his distinguished services the offices of high constable in the five provinces of Settsu, Inaba, Harima, Mimasaka, and Bizen were given to his three sons. Mitsusuke, grandson of the eldest of these, administered three of the above provinces in the days of the fourth As.h.i.+kaga shogun, Yos.h.i.+mochi. A puny man of contemptible presence, Mitsusuke received little consideration at Muromachi, and the shogun was induced to promise his office of high constable to a handsome kinsman, Mochisada. Enraged at such partiality, Mitsusuke set fire to his mansion in Kyoto and withdrew to his castle at s.h.i.+rahata in Harima. When, however, the shogun would have sent an army against him, none was found to take command, Mochisada having given universal offence by his haughty arrogance. In the sequel, Mitsusuke had to be pardoned and Mochisada ordered to kill himself.

After the death of the shogun, Yos.h.i.+mochi, Mitsusuke fell into fresh trouble. The new shogun, Yos.h.i.+nori, belonged to a very different category of men from his immediate predecessors. He conquered the Kitabatake family in Ise; repressed the remnants of the Southern Court league; crushed the military monks by capturing Nara and Hiei-zan; put an end finally to Kamakura's intrigues; obtained control of the west, and quelled his enemies in all directions. It now became his task to bend to his will the overstrong and over-presumptuous among the concerted families of the As.h.i.+kaga.

Foremost of these were the Akamatsu, their chief, a man whose personality invited contumely. The shogun disliked Mitsusuke, and found it an agreeable occupation to slight him. Gradually the Akamatsu leader became bitterly estranged. Moreover, he saw his younger sister executed for disobedience though she was the shogun's mistress; he saw the nephew of his old enemy, Mochisada, treated with marked favour by the Muromachi potentate, and he learned, truly or untruly, that his own office of high constable was destined to be bestowed on this favourite.

It was now the time when Kamakura's mischievous potentialities had been finally destroyed, and to commemorate the event, entertainments in the shogun's honour were organized by the heads of the great military families. On the 6th of August, 1441, it fell to Akamatsu Mitsusuke to act as his host. So soon as the shogun and his personal attendants had pa.s.sed the portals of the Akamatsu mansion, the horses in the stables were set free as though by accident; the gates were closed to prevent the escape of the animals; Yos.h.i.+nori with his small retinue, being thus caught in a trap, were butchered; the mansion was fired, and Mitsusuke with seven hundred followers rode off in broad daylight to his castle in Harima, whence, a.s.sisted by the monk, Gison, he sent circulars in all directions inciting to revolt. Thus miserably perished a ruler whose strong hand, active brain, and fearless measures, had he been spared a few years longer, might have saved his country from some of the terrible suffering she was destined to undergo in the century and a half subsequent to his death. He did not live long enough to reach a high place in history.

But all his measures were designed to make for the eradication of immorality and corruption, and for the restoration of law and order throughout the country. His fault seems to have been precipitancy. So many suffered by his reforms, and in such quick succession, that the hatred he provoked could scarcely have been kept within control. In the matter of finance, too, he resorted, as will be presently seen, to devices quite irreconcilable with just administration.

YOs.h.i.+KATSU AND YOs.h.i.+MASA

The murder of Yos.h.i.+nori left the shogun's office without any designate occupant, but the heads of the great military families lost no time in electing Yos.h.i.+katsu*, the eight-year-old son of Yos.h.i.+nori, and at the latter's nominal instance the Emperor ordered him to attack his father's a.s.sa.s.sin. The three Yamana chiefs, Mochitoyo (called also Sozen, or the "Red Monk," one of the ablest captains of his country), Noriyuki, and Norikiyo; the Hosokawa chief, Mochitsune; and Sadamura, representing the Akamatsu family, all joined forces for the expedition, and presently an army of fifty thousand men sat down before s.h.i.+rahata Castle. In October, 1441, the stronghold fell.

Mitsusuke perished, and the three provinces he had administered were transferred to the Yamana--Harima to Mochitoyo, Mimasaka to Norikiyo, and Bizen to Noriyuki.

*To be distinguished from Yos.h.i.+kazu (shogun 1423-1425), son of Yos.h.i.+mochi.

We have seen how, in 1392, the Yamana family was shattered in a revolt against the authority of the shogun, Yos.h.i.+mitsu. We now see the fortunes of the family thoroughly rehabilitated. The young shogun, however, did not long survive the punishment of his father's murderers. He died in 1443, at the age of ten, and was succeeded by his brother Yos.h.i.+masa, then in his eighth year. During the latter's minority, the administration fell into the hands of Hatakeyama Mochikuni and Hosokawa Katsumoto, who held the office of Muromachi kwanryo alternately. The country now began to experience the consequences of Yos.h.i.+nori's death before his plans to limit the power of the great military septs had matured. Disorder became the normal condition in the provinces. The island of Kyushu took the lead. There the Shoni, the Kikuchi, the Otomo, and the s.h.i.+ba had always defied a central authority, and now Noris.h.i.+ge, a younger brother of the a.s.sa.s.sin, Akamatsu Mitsusuke; found among them supporters of a scheme to restore the fortunes of his house. In the Kwanto partisans of the late kwanryo, Mochiuji, raised their heads. In the home provinces the warrior-priests of Nara sought to avenge the chastis.e.m.e.nt they had suffered at Yos.h.i.+nori's hands, and among the immediate entourage of Muromachi, the Hosokawa, the Hatakeyama, the s.h.i.+ba, and others engaged in desperate struggles about questions of succession.

ENGRAVING: As.h.i.+KAGA YOs.h.i.+MASA

THE TOKUSEI

Even when he reached man's estate, Yos.h.i.+masa proved wholly incompetent to deal with these complications. He abandoned himself to dissipation and left everything, great or small, to be managed by his wife, Fujiwara Tomiko, and by his consort, Kasuga no Tsubone. Bribery and corruption were the motive forces of the time. The innocent were punished; the unworthy rewarded. The shogun remained indifferent even when his mandates were neglected or contravened. The building of splendid residences, the laying out of s.p.a.cious parks, the gratification of luxurious tastes, and the procuring of funds to defray the cost of his vast extravagance--these things occupied his entire attention.

a.s.sociated with the As.h.i.+kaga shogunate is a financial device known in history as tokusei, a term signifying "virtuous administration."

Originally imported from China, the tokusei meant nothing more than a temporary remission of taxes in times of distress. But during the financial straits to which the country was reduced after the Mongol invasion, the Hojo deemed it necessary to afford relief to landowners who had mortgaged their property, and thus, in 1297, a law--tokusei-rei--was enacted, providing that eviction for debt must not be enforced. Under the As.h.i.+kaga, the tokusei received a still wider import. It was interpreted as including all debts and pecuniary obligations of any kind. In other words, the promulgation of a tokusei ordinance meant that all debtors, then and there, obtained complete relief. The law was not construed exactly alike everywhere.

Thus, in Nara a debtor must discharge one-third of his obligation before claiming exemption, and elsewhere a nominal sum had to be paid for release. Naturally, legislation so opposed to the fundamental principles of integrity led to flagrant abuses. Forced by riotous mobs, or constrained by his own needs, the Muromachi shogun issued tokusei edicts again and again, incurring the hot indignation of the creditor cla.s.s and disturbing the whole economic basis of society.

Yos.h.i.+masa was conspicuously reckless; he put the tokusei system into force thirteen times.

EXTRAVAGANCE AND INCOMPETENCE OF YOs.h.i.+MASA

It is stated in the records of the Onin era (1467-1469) that Yos.h.i.+masa subordinated his duties altogether to his pleasures, and that his thoughts seemed to turn wholly on banquets and fetes. His favourites, especially females, had the control of affairs and were the final arbiters in all important matters. Thus, a domain which had been in the undisputed possession of a family for generations might be alienated in favour of any claimant sufficiently unscrupulous and sufficiently rich to "commend" his t.i.tle, and a judgment delivered by a court of law in the morning was liable to be reversed in the evening by the fiat of the ladies in the Muromachi "palace."

Stability of policy had no existence. In a period of twenty-four years (1444-1468), three sentences each of punishment and pardon were p.r.o.nounced in the case of the Hatakeyama family, and in twenty years, Yos.h.i.+kado and Yos.h.i.+tos.h.i.+ of the s.h.i.+ba sept were each punished and pardoned three times. In Kyoto it became a current saying that loyal acts, not evil deeds, were penalized, and the truth of the comment found confirmation in the case of an official, k.u.magaya, who was dismissed from his post and deprived of his property for venturing to memorialize the shogun in a critical manner.

These same records of the Onin year-period also make clear that one of the factors chiefly responsible for the disturbance was Yos.h.i.+masa's curious lack of sympathy with the burdens of the people.

Even one grand ceremony in the course of from five to six years sufficed to empty the citizens' pockets. But in Yos.h.i.+masa's time there Were nine of such fetes in five years, and four of them had no warrant whatever except pleasure seeking--as a performance of the Sarugaku mime on an immense scale; a flower-viewing party; an al-fresco entertainment, and a visit to the cherry blossoms. On each of these occasions the court officials and the military men had to p.a.w.n their estates and sell their heirlooms in order to supply themselves with sufficiently gorgeous robes, and the sequel was the imposition of house taxes and land taxes so heavy that the provincial farmers often found vagrancy more lucrative than agricultural industry. p.a.w.nshops were mercilessly mulcted. In the days of Yos.h.i.+mitsu, they were taxed at each of the four seasons; in Yos.h.i.+nori's time the same imposts were levied once a month, and under Yos.h.i.+masa's rule the p.a.w.nbrokers had to pay nine times in November, 1466, and eight times in December of the same year.

Even after full allowance has been made for exaggeration, natural in the presence of such extravagance, there remains enough to convict Yos.h.i.+masa of something like a mania for luxury. He built for himself a residence so splendid that it went by the name of the Palace of Flowers (Hana no Gosho) and of materials so costly that the outlay totalled six hundred thousand strings of cash;* and he built for his mother, s.h.i.+geko, a mansion concerning which it is recorded that two of the sliding doors for the interior cost twenty thousand strings.**

Yet at times this same Yos.h.i.+masa was reduced to such straits for money that we read of him borrowing five hundred "strings" on the security of his armour, to pay for a parturition chamber.

*4,500,000--$22,000,000.

**150,000--$7,300,000.

The Palace of Flowers came into existence in 1459, just on the eve of a period of natural calamities which culminated in famine and pestilence. In 1462, these conditions were at their worst. From various, provinces people flocked to the capital seeking food, and deaths from starvation became frequent in the city. A Buddhist priest, Gwana, constructed gra.s.s huts to which the famished sufferers were carried on bamboo stretchers to be fed with soft, boiled millet.

It is recorded that, during the first two months of 1462, the number of persons thus relieved totalled eighty-two thousand. Another Buddhist priest erected a monument to the dead found in the bed of the river below the bridge, Gojo. They aggregated twelve hundred.

Scores of corpses received no burial, and the atmosphere of the city was pervaded with a shocking effluvium.

But even the presence of these horrors does not seem to have sobered the Muromachi profligate. The costly edifices were pushed on and the people's resources continued to be squandered. Even the Emperor, Go-Hanazono, was sufficiently shocked to compose a couplet indirectly censuring Yos.h.i.+masa, and a momentary sense of shame visited the sybarite. But only momentary. We find him presently constructing in the mansion of his favourite retainer, Ise Sadachika, a bath-house which was the wonder of the time, a bath-house where the bathers were expected to come robed in the most magnificent costumes. One of the edifices that formed part of his palace after his retirement from active life, in 1474, was a "Silver Pavilion" intended to rival the "Golden Pavilion" of his ancestor, Yos.h.i.+mitsu. During the last sixteen years of his life--he died in 1490--he patronized art with a degree of liberality that atones for much of his previous profligacy.

In the halls of the Jisho-ji monastery, constructed on a grand scale as his retreat in old age, he collected chefs d'oeuvre of China and j.a.pan, so that the district Higas.h.i.+-yama where the building stood became to all ages a synonym for choice specimens, and there, too, he inst.i.tuted the tea ceremonial whose votaries were thenceforth recognized as the nation's arbitri elegantiarum. Landscape gardens also occupied his attention. Wherever, in province or in capital, in shrine, in temple, in private house, or in official residence, any quaintly shaped rock or picturesque tree was found, it was immediately requisitioned for the park of Higas.h.i.+-yama-dono, as men then called Yos.h.i.+masa, and under the direction of a trio of great artists, So-ami, Gei-ami, and No-ami, there grew up a plaisance of unprecedented beauty, concerning which a poet of the time wrote that "every breeze coming thence wafted the perfume of tea." The pastimes of "listening to incense," of floral arrangement, of the dramatic mime, and of the parlour farce were all practised with a zest which provoked the astonishment even of contemporary annalists.

ENGRAVING: A PICNIC DURING THE FLOWER SEASON IN THE As.h.i.+KAGA PERIOD

All this contributed materially to educate the nation's artistic faculties, but the cost was enormous and the burden of taxation correspondingly heavy. It was under this financial pressure that Yos.h.i.+masa approached the Ming emperor seeking pecuniary aid. Thrice the shogun's applications were successful, and the amounts thus obtained are said to have totalled three hundred thousand strings of cash (equivalent of 450,000, or $2,200,000). His requests are said to have a.s.sumed the guise of appeals in behalf of famine-stricken people, but there is no evidence that any of the presents were devoted to that purpose. Partial apologists for Yos.h.i.+masa's infatuation are not wanting. Thus, it is alleged that he was weary of failure to reform the administration; that the corruption and confusion of society induced him to seek consolation in art; that outside the precincts of his palace he was restrained by the provincial magnates, and inside he had to obey the dictation of his wife, Tomi, of her brother, Katsumitsu, and of his own favourite page, Ise Sadachika, so that only in his tea reunions and his private theatricals could a semblance of independence be obtained; that his orders were not obeyed or his injunctions respected by any save the artists he had gathered around him, and that in gratifying his luxurious tastes, he followed the example of his grandfather, Yos.h.i.+mitsu. But such exculpations amount to saying that he was an essentially weak man, the slave of his surroundings.

THE KWANTO TUMULT

The lawlessness of the time and the indifference with which the shogun's mandates were treated find ill.u.s.tration in the story of the Kwanto. When (1439) Mochiuji perished, the only member of his family that survived was his five-year-old son, s.h.i.+geuji. This child placed himself under the protection of Muromachi. It will be remembered that Uesugi Norizane, lamenting his unwilling share in Mochiuji's destruction, had entered religion. His son, Noritada, was then appointed to act as manager (s.h.i.+tsuji) to s.h.i.+geuji, his colleague being Uesugi Akifusa (Ogigayatsu Uesugi). But the Yuki family, who had given shelter to two sons of Mochiuji, objected to bow their heads to the Uesugi, and persuaded s.h.i.+geuji to have Noritada killed.

Therefore, the partisans of the murdered man placed themselves under the banner of his brother, Fusaaki, and having received a commission from Muromachi as well as a powerful contingent of troops under Imagawa Noritada, they marched in great force against Kamakura from Kotsuke, Kazusa, and Echigo.

Kamakurawas well-nigh reduced to ruins, but s.h.i.+geuji retired to the fortress of Koga in s.h.i.+mosa, and his cause against the Uesugi was espoused by the eight families of Chiba, Koyama, Satomi, Satake, Oda, Yuki, Utsunomiya, and Nasu, thenceforth known as the "eight generals"

of the Kwanto. Against such a league it was difficult to operate successfully. Masatomo, a younger brother of Yos.h.i.+masa, built for himself a fortress at Horigoe, in Izu, which was thereafter known as Horigoe Gosho (the Horigoe Palace), s.h.i.+geuji in his castle of Koga being designated Koga Kuba (the Koga shogun). Castle building acquired from this time greatly increased vogue. Uesugi Mochitomo fortified Kawagoe in Musas.h.i.+; Ota Sukenaga (called also Dokan), a va.s.sal of the Ogigayatsu Uesugi, built at Yedo a fort destined to have world-wide celebrity, and his father, Sukekiyo, entrenched Iwatsuki in the same province of Musas.h.i.+. Thus the Kwanto became the arena of warring factions.

PREFACE TO THE ONIN WAR

We now arrive at a chapter of j.a.panese history infinitely perplexing to the reader. It is generally called the Onin War because the struggle described commenced in the year-period of that name, but whereas the Onin period lasted only two years (1467-1469), the Onin War continued for eleven years and caused shocking destruction of life and property. When war is spoken of, the mind naturally conjectures a struggle between two or perhaps three powers for a cause that is respectable from some points of view. But in the Onin War a score of combatants were engaged, and the motive was invariably personal ambition. It has been described above that when the As.h.i.+kaga chief, Takauji, undertook to re-establish the Minamoto Bakufu, he essayed to overcome opposition by persuasion rather than by force.

Pursuing that policy, he bestowed immense estates upon those that yielded to him, so that in time there came into existence holders of lands more extensive than those belonging to the shogun himself.

Thus, while the landed estates of the Muromachi shogun measured only 15,798 cho* there were no less than eight daimyo more richly endowed.

They were:

*A cho at that time represented 3 acres. It is now 2.5 acres.

Daimyo Area of Estates in cho (3 acres)

(1) Yanada Takasuke 32,083

(2) Uesugi Akisada 27,239

(3) Ouchi Mochiyo 25,435

(4) Hosokawa Katsumoto 24,465

(5) s.h.i.+ba Mochitane 23,576