less heartless was the treatment of the vanquished nobles. The
Fujiwara alone escaped. Yorinaga had the good fortune to fall on the
field of battle, and his father, Tadazane, was saved by the
intercession of his elder son, Tadamichi, of whose dislike he had
long been a victim. But this was the sole spot of light on the sombre
page. By the Emperor's orders, the Taira chief, Kiyomori, executed
his uncle, Tadamasa; by the Emperor's orders, though not without
protest, the Minamoto chief, Yoshitomo, put to death his father,
Tameyoshi; by the Emperor's orders all the relatives of Yorinaga were
sent into exile; by the Emperor's orders his nephew, Prince
Shigehito, was compelled to take the tonsure, and by the Emperor's
orders the sinews of Tametomo's bow-arm were cut and he was banished
to the Izu island.* In justice it has to be noted that Go-Shirakawa
did not himself conceive these merciless measures. He was prompted
thereto by Fujiwara Michinori, commonly known as Shinzei, whose
counsels were all-powerful at the Court in those days.

*The celebrated litterateur, Bakin, adduced many proofs that Tametomo
ultimately made his way to Ryukyu and that his descendants ruled the
island. The great soldier himself died ultimately by his own hand in
the sequel of an unsuccessful engagement with the forces of the
vice-governor of Izu.

GO-SHIRAKAWA

Go-Shirakawa, the seventy-seventh sovereign, occupied the throne
during two years only (1156-1158), but he made his influence felt
from the cloister throughout the long period of thirty-four years
(1158 to 1192), directing the administration from his "camera palace"
(Inchu) during the reigns of five Emperors. Ambition impelled him to
tread in the footsteps of Go-Sanjo. He re-opened the Office of
Records (Kiroku-jo), which that great sovereign had established for
the purpose of centralizing the powers of the State, and he sought to
recover for the Throne its administrative functions. But his
independence was purely nominal, for in everything he took counsel of
Fujiwara Michinori (Shinzei) and obeyed that statesman's guidance.
Michinori's character is not to be implicitly inferred from the cruel
courses suggested by him after the Hogen tumult. He was a man of keen
intelligence and profound learning, as learning went in those days:
that is to say, he knew the classics by heart, had an intimate
acquaintance with Buddhism and astrology, and was able to act as
interpreter of the Chinese langu