added to the long list of noble
men who fell victims to slander in Japan. A Japanese annalist*
contends that Morinaga owed his fate as much to his own tactlessness
as to the wiles of his enemies, and claims that in accusing Takauji
to the throne, the prince forgot the Emperor's helplessness against
such a military magnate as the Ashikaga chief. However that may have
been, subsequent events clearly justified the prince's suspicions of
Takauji's disloyalty. It must also be concluded that Go-Daigo
deliberately contemplated his son's death when he placed him in
charge of Takauji's brother.

*Raj Sanyo.

ASHIKAGA TAKAUJI OCCUPIES KAMAKURA

The course of events has been somewhat anticipated above in order to
relate the end of Prince Morinaga's career. It is necessary, now, to
revert to the incident which precipitated his fate, namely, the
capture of Kamakura by Hojo Tokiyuki. This Tokiyuki was a son of
Takatoki. He escaped to Shinano province at the time of the Hojo
downfall, and being joined there by many of his family's vassals, he
found himself strong enough to take the field openly in July, 1335,
and sweeping away all opposition, he entered Kamakura in August.
Ashikaga Takauji's brother was then in command at Kamakura. It
seemed, indeed, as though the Emperor deliberately contemplated the
restoration of the old administrative machinery in the Kwanto,
changing only the personnel; for his Majesty appointed his tenth son,
Prince Narinaga, a boy of ten, to be shogun at Kamakura, and placed
Ashikaga Tadayoshi in a position amounting, in fact though not in
name, to that of regent (shikken). Probably these measures were
merely intended to placate the Kwanto. Before there had been time to
test their efficacy, the Hojo swept down on Kamakura, and Tadayoshi
and the young shogun found themselves fugitives. Meanwhile, Ashikaga
Takauji in Kyoto had been secretly fanning the discontent of the
unrecompensed bushi, and had assured himself that a reversion to the
military system would be widely welcomed. He now applied for a
commission to quell the Hojo insurrection, and on the eve of setting
out for that purpose, he asked to be nominated shogun, which request
being rejected, he left the capital without paying final respects to
the Throne, an omission astutely calculated to attract partisans.

The Hojo's resistance was feeble, and in a few weeks the Ashikaga
banners were waving again over Kamakura. The question of returning to
Kyot