ssible
therefore for the governor-general to view such a feud with
indifference. Mochiuji, then in his twentieth year, sympathized with
Norimoto, and in the sequel, Ujinori, with whom was allied Mochiuji's
younger brother, Mochinaka, took the field at the head of such a
force that the governor-general must have succumbed had not the
shogun, Yoshimochi, rendered aid.

This should have placed Kamakura under a heavy debt of gratitude to
Muromachi. But Mochiuji was not subject to such emotions. He rebelled
vehemently against the lenient treatment accorded to Ujinori's son
after their father's death, and the shogun had difficulty in
placating him. So long, however, as Yoshimochi ruled in Kyoto, the
Kamakura kwanrya abstained from further intrigues; but on the
accession of the sometime bonze, Yoshinori, to the shogunate, all
sense of restraint was removed. The governor-general now made no
attempt to conceal his hostility to the Muromachi shogun. Certain
family rights imperatively demanding reference to the shogun were not
so referred, and Mochiuji not only spurned the remonstrances of the
manager (shitsuji), Uesugi Norimoto, but even attempted to kill the
latter's son, Norizane. All efforts to reconcile the Kwanto and the
shitsuji proved futile, and Norizane had to flee to Kotsuke. No
sooner did these things come to the ears of the shogun, Yoshinori,
than he obtained an Imperial commission to quell the insurgents, and
placing an army under the orders of Mochifusa, a son of Ujinori,
directed him to march against Kamakura.

At first it seemed as if the Kamakura men would emerge victorious. At
the easily defended passes of Hakone they inflicted several
successive though not signal defeats upon Mochifusa's army. But the
appearance of Norizane in the field quickly changed the complexion of
the campaign. Very soon the Kamakura force was shattered, and
Mochiuji himself fled to the temple Shomyo-ji in Kanazawa, where he
begged to be allowed to retire from the world. But the shogun
declined to pardon him and remained obdurate in spite of earnest and
repeated petitions from Norizane, praying that Mochiuji should be
forgiven and allowed to retire in favour of his son, Yoshihisa. In
the end, Mochiuji, his son, his uncle, and many others all died by
their own hands. These things happened in 1439. The redeeming feature
of the sombre family feud was the fine loyalty of Norizane. Though it
had been against him chiefly that Mochiuji raged,