he shogun's
mistress; he saw the nephew of his old enemy, Mochisada, treated with
marked favour by the Muromachi potentate, and he learned, truly or
untruly, that his own office of high constable was destined to be
bestowed on this favourite.

It was now the time when Kamakura's mischievous potentialities had
been finally destroyed, and to commemorate the event, entertainments
in the shogun's honour were organized by the heads of the great
military families. On the 6th of August, 1441, it fell to Akamatsu
Mitsusuke to act as his host. So soon as the shogun and his personal
attendants had passed the portals of the Akamatsu mansion, the horses
in the stables were set free as though by accident; the gates were
closed to prevent the escape of the animals; Yoshinori with his small
retinue, being thus caught in a trap, were butchered; the mansion was
fired, and Mitsusuke with seven hundred followers rode off in broad
daylight to his castle in Harima, whence, assisted by the monk,
Gison, he sent circulars in all directions inciting to revolt. Thus
miserably perished a ruler whose strong hand, active brain, and
fearless measures, had he been spared a few years longer, might have
saved his country from some of the terrible suffering she was
destined to undergo in the century and a half subsequent to his
death. He did not live long enough to reach a high place in history.
But all his measures were designed to make for the eradication of
immorality and corruption, and for the restoration of law and order
throughout the country. His fault seems to have been precipitancy. So
many suffered by his reforms, and in such quick succession, that the
hatred he provoked could scarcely have been kept within control. In
the matter of finance, too, he resorted, as will be presently seen,
to devices quite irreconcilable with just administration.

YOSHIKATSU AND YOSHIMASA

The murder of Yoshinori left the shogun's office without any
designate occupant, but the heads of the great military families lost
no time in electing Yoshikatsu*, the eight-year-old son of Yoshinori,
and at the latter's nominal instance the Emperor ordered him to
attack his father's assassin. The three Yamana chiefs, Mochitoyo
(called also Sozen, or the "Red Monk," one of the ablest captains of
his country), Noriyuki, and Norikiyo; the Hosokawa chief, Mochitsune;
and Sadamura, representing the Akamatsu family, all joined forces for
the expedition, and presently an army of