e." Hojo Yoshitoki reflected for a
time and then answered: "The sovereign cannot be opposed. If his
Majesty be in personal command, then strip off your armour, cut your
bow-strings, and assume the mien of low officials. But if the Emperor
be not in command, then fight to the death. Should you be defeated I
will never see your face again."

THE STRUGGLE

When they learned that a great army was advancing from the Kwanto,
the courtiers in Kyoto lost heart at once. There was no talk of
Go-Toba or of Juntoku taking the field. Defensive measures were alone
thought of. The Imperialist forces moved out to Mino, Owari, and
Etchu. Their plan was to shatter the Bakufu columns separately, or,
if that might not be, to fall back and cover the capital. It was a
most unequal contest. The Kyoto troops were a mere mob without
intelligence or coherence. They broke everywhere under the onset of
the Kwanto veterans. At the river Uji, where their last stand was
made, they fought gallantly and obstinately. But their efforts only
deferred the result by a few hours. On the twenty-fifth day (July 6,
1221) after he had marched out of Kamakura, Yasutoki entered Kyoto.
The Throne had no hesitation as to the course to be pursued in such
circumstances. From the palace of the Shin-in a decree was issued
restoring the official titles of the Hojo chief, and cancelling the
edict for his destruction, while, through an envoy sent to meet him,
he was informed that the campaign against the Bakufu had been the
work of irresponsible subjects; that the sovereign did not sanction
it, and that any request preferred by Kamakura would be favourably
considered.

Yasutoki received these gracious overtures with a silent obeisance,
and taking up his quarters at Rokuhara, proceeded to arrest the
leaders of the anti-Bakufu enterprise; to execute or exile the
courtiers that had participated in it, and to confiscate all their
estates. In thus acting, Yasutoki obeyed instructions from his
implacable father in Kamakura. He himself evinced a disposition to be
merciful, especially in the case of the Court nobles. These he sent
eastward to the Bakufu capital, which place, however, very few of
them reached alive, their deaths being variously compassed on the
way.

To the Imperial family no pity was shown. Even the baby Emperor* was
dethroned, and his place given to Go-Horikawa (1221-1232), the
eighty-sixth sovereign, then a boy of ten, son of Morisada, Go-Toba's
elder bro