charge of the Bakufu administration in association
with her father, Hojo Tokimasa.

Exactly what part this remarkable man acted in the episodes of
Yoritomo's career, can never be known. He exerted his influence so
secretly that contemporary historians took little note of him; and
while, in view of his final record, some see in him the spirit that
prompted Yoritomo's merciless extirpation of his own relatives,
others decline to credit him with such far-seeing cruelty, and hold
that his ultimately attempted usurpations were inspired solely by
fortuitous opportunity which owed nothing to his contrivance.
Wherever the truth may lie as between these views, it is certain that
after Yoritomo's death, Hojo Tokimasa conspired to remove the
Minamoto from the scene and to replace them with the Hojo.

THE DELIBERATIVE COUNCIL

The whole coterie of illustrious men--legislators, administrators,
and generals--whom Yoritomo had assembled at Kamakura, was formed
into a council of thirteen members to discuss the affairs of the
Bakufu after his death. This body of councillors included Tokimasa
and his son, Yoshitoki; Oye no Hiromoto, Miyoshi Yasunobu; Nakahara
Chikayoshi, Miura Yoshizumi, Wada Yoshimori, Hiki Yoshikazu, and five
others. But though they deliberated, they did not decide. All final
decision required the endorsement of the lady Masa and her father,
Hojo Tokimasa.

DEATH OF YORIIYE

Yoriiye had been at the head of the Bakufu for three years before his
commission of shogun came from Kyoto, and in the following year
(1203), he was attacked by a malady which threatened to end fatally.
The question of the succession thus acquired immediate importance.
Yoriiye's eldest son, Ichiman, the natural heir, was only three years
old, and Yoritomo's second son, Sanetomo, was in his eleventh year.
In this balance of claims, Hojo Tokimasa saw his opportunity. He
would divide the Minamoto power by way of preliminary to supplanting
it. Marshalling arguments based chiefly on the advisability of
averting an armed struggle, he persuaded the lady Masa to endorse a
compromise, namely, that to Sanetomo should be given the office of
land-steward in thirty-eight provinces of the Kwansai; while to
Ichiman should be secured the title of shogun and the offices of lord
high constable and land-steward in twenty-eight provinces of the
Kwanto.

Now the maternal grandfather of Ichiman was Hiki Yoshikazu, a captain
who had won high renown in the days o