f the Ashikaga into the Muromachi
magnates and the Kamakura chiefs brought two sets of rulers upon the
same stage, and naturally intrigue and distrust were born, so that,
in the end, Muromachi was shaken by Hosokawa, and Kamakura was
overthrown by Uesugi. An animal with too ponderous a tail cannot wag
it, and a stick too heavy at one end is apt to break. The Ashikaga
angled with such valuable bait that they ultimately lost both fish
and bait. During the thirteen generations of their sway there was no
respite from struggle between family and family or between chief and
vassal." Takauji's record plainly shows that deception was one of his
weapons. He was absolutely unscrupulous. He knew also how to entice
men with gain, but he forgot that those who came for gain will go
also for gain. It would seem, too, that he sacrificed justice to the
fear of alienating his supporters. Not otherwise can we account for
his leniency towards the Ko brothers, who were guilty of such
violations of propriety.

THE SECOND ASHIKAGA SHOGUN

Takauji was succeeded in the shogunate by his eldest son, Yoshiakira,
of whom so much has already been heard. The fortunes of the Southern
Court were now at low ebb. During the year (1359) after Takauji's
death, Kamakura contributed materially to the support of the Ashikaga
cause. The Kwanto was then under the sway of Takauji's fourth son,
Motouji, one of the ablest men of his time. He had just succeeded in
quelling the defection of the Nitta family, and his military power
was so great that his captains conceived the ambition of marching to
Kyoto and supplanting Yoshiakira by Motouji. But the latter, instead
of adopting this disloyal counsel, despatched a large army under
Hatakeyama Kunikiyo to attack the Southern Court. Marching by the two
highways of Settsu and Kawachi, this army attacked Yoshino and gained
some important successes. But the fruits of these victories were not
gathered. The Hatakeyama chief developed ambitions of his own, and,
on returning to the Kwanto, was crushed by Motouji and deprived of
his office of shitsuji, that post being given again to Uesugi
Noriaki, "who had been in exile since the death of Tadayoshi in 1352.
At, or shortly after, this time, Kai and Izu and, later on, Mutsu,
were put under Kamakura jurisdiction, and their peaceful and orderly
condition formed a marked contrast to the general state of the rest
of the empire."*

*Murdoch's History of Japan.

The next event o