d that the
fight had struck terror into the hearts of the islanders by
disclosing their faulty tactics and inferior weapons. He therefore
sent another embassy, which was charged to summon the King of Japan
to Peking, there to do obeisance to the Yuan Emperor. Kamakura's
answer was to decapitate the five leaders of the mission and to
pillory their heads outside the city. Nothing, indeed, is more
remarkable than the calm confidence shown at this crisis by the
Bakufu regent, Tokimune. His country's annalists ascribe that mood to
faith in the doctrines of the Zen sect of Buddhism; faith which he
shared with his father, Tokiyori, during the latter's life. The Zen
priests taught an introspective philosophy. They preached that life
springs from not-living, indestructibility from destruction, and that
existence and non-existence are one in reality. No creed could better
inspire a soldier.

It has been suggested that Tokimune was not guided in this matter
solely by religious instincts: he used the Zen-shu bonzes as a
channel for obtaining information about China. Some plausibility is
given to that theory by the fact that he sat, first, at the feet of
Doryu, originally a Chinese priest named Tao Lung, and that on
Doryu's death he invited (1278) from China a famous bonze, Chu Yuan
(Japanese, Sogen), for whose ministrations the afterwards celebrated
temple Yengaku-ji was erected. Sogen himself, when officiating at the
temple of Nengjen, in Wenchow, had barely escaped massacre at the
hands of the Mongols, and he may not have been averse to acting as a
medium of information between China and Kamakura.

Tokimune's religious fervour, however, did not interfere with his
secular preparations. In 1280, he issued an injunction exhorting
local officials and vassals (go-kenin) to compose all their
dissensions and work in unison. There could be no greater crime, the
document declared, then to sacrifice the country's interests on the
altar of personal enmities at a time of national crisis. Loyal
obedience on the part of vassals, and strict impartiality on the side
of high constables--these were the virtues which the safety of the
State demanded, and any neglect to practise them should be punished
with the utmost severity. This injunction was issued in 1280, and
already steps had been taken to construct defensive works at all
places where the Mongols might effect a landing--at Hakozaki Bay in
Kyushu; at Nagato, on the northern side of the Sh