, but they undoubtedly exercised much influence, so that the
samurai limited themselves to two meals a day and partook only of the
coarsest fare.

ENGRAVING: WRESTLERS

ENGRAVING: DAIMYO'S GATE

CHAPTER XXIX

FALL OF THE HOJO AND RISE OF THE ASHIKAGA

THE DAYS OF SADATOKI

WITH the accession (1284) of the seventh Hojo regent, Sadatoki, the
prosperous era of the Bakufu came to an end. Sadatoki himself seems
to have been a man of much ability and fine impulses. He succeeded
his father, Tokimune, at the age of fourteen, and during nine years
he remained under the tutelage of the prime minister, Taira no
Yoritsuna, thereafter taking the reins of government into his own
hands. The annals are unfortunately defective at this, period. They
fail to explain the reason for Sadatoki's retirement and adoption of
religion, in 1301, after eight years of active rule. It may be that
the troubles of the time disgusted him. For alike politically and
financially an evil state of affairs prevailed. In 1286, the Adachi
clan, falling under suspicion of aiming at the shogunate, was
extirpated. A few years later, the same fate overtook Taira no
Yoritsuna, who had been the chief accuser of the Adachi, and who,
being now charged by his own first-born with coveting the regency
(shikken), was put to death with his second son and all his
retainers. Yet again, three years subsequently to this latter
tragedy, Yoshimi, a scion of Yoritomo's brother, the unfortunate
Yoshinori, fell a victim to accusations of treachery, and it needed
no great insight to appreciate that the Bakufu was becoming a house
divided against itself.

It was at this time, also, that the military families of the Kwanto
in general and of Kamakura in particular began to find their incomes
distressingly inadequate to meet the greatly increased and constantly
increasing outlays that resulted from following the costly customs of
Kyoto as reflected at the shogun's palace. Advantage was taken of
this condition by professional money-lenders, by ambitious nobles,
and even by wealthy farmers, who, supplying funds at exorbitant rates
of interest, obtained possession of valuable estates. The Bakufu made
several futile legislative essays to amend this state of affairs, and
finally, in the year 1297, they resorted to a ruinous device called
tokusei, or the "benevolent policy." This consisted in enacting a law
which vetoed all suits for the recovery of interest, cancelled all
mortg