liberation
rather than a passing passion. For though Tokimasa simulated
ignorance of the liaison and publicly proceeded with his previous
engagement to wed Masa to Taira Kanetaka, lieutenant-governor of Izu,
he privately connived at her flight and subsequent concealment.

This incident is said to have determined Yoritomo. He disclosed all
his ambitions to Hojo Tokimasa, and found in him an able coadjutor.
Yoritomo now began to open secret communications with several of the
military families in Izu and the neighbouring provinces. In making
these selections and approaches, the Minamoto exile was guided and
assisted by Tokimasa. Confidences were not by any means confined to
men of Minamoto lineage. The kith and kin of the Fujiwara, and even
of the Taira themselves, were drawn into the conspiracy, and although
the struggle finally resolved itself into a duel a l'outrance between
the Taira and the Minamoto, it had no such exclusive character at the
outset.

In May, or June, 1180, the mandate of Prince Mochihito reached
Yoritomo, carried by his uncle, Minamoto Yukiiye, whose figure
thenceforth appears frequently upon the scene. Yoritomo showed the
mandate to Tokimasa, and the two men were taking measures to obey
when they received intelligence of the deaths of Mochihito and
Yorimasa and of the fatal battle on the banks of the Uji.

Yoritomo would probably have deferred conclusive action in such
circumstances had there not reached him from Miyoshi Yasunobu in
Kyoto a warning that the Taira were planning to exterminate the
remnant of the Minamoto and that Yoritomo's name stood first on the
black-list. Moreover, the advisability of taking the field at once
was strongly and incessantly urged by a priest, Mongaku, who, after a
brief acquaintance, had impressed Yoritomo favourably. This bonze had
been the leading figure in an extraordinary romance of real life.
Originally Endo Morito, an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he fell in
love with his cousin, Kesa,* the wife of a comrade called Minamoto
Wataru. His addresses being resolutely rejected, he swore that if
Kesa remained obdurate, he would kill her mother. From this dilemma
the brave woman determined that self-sacrifice offered the only
effective exit. She promised to marry Morito after he had killed her
husband, Wataru; to which end she engaged to ply Wataru with wine
until he fell asleep. She would then wet his head, so that Morito,
entering by an unfastened door and feeli