which stirs up the national enthusiasm and makes us feel that there
is still left an element of heroism which will ultimately redeem the
nation from impending ruin. Such was the Mongolian invasion of Japan in
A.D. 1281. According to accounts given by Marco Polo, who evidently
narrates the exaggerated gossip of the Chinese court,(127) Kublai Khan had
at this time conquered the Sung dynasty in China and reigned with
unexampled magnificence. He had heard of the wealth of Japan and deemed it
an easy matter to add this island empire to his immense dominions. His
first step was to despatch an embassy to the Japanese court to demand the
subjection of the country to his authority. This embassy was referred to
Kamakura, whence it was indignantly dismissed. Finally he sent an invading
force in a large number of Chinese and Korean vessels who took possession
of Tsushima, an island belonging to Japan and lying midway between Korea
and Japan. Trusting to the effects of this success a new embassy was sent,
which was brought before the Hojo regent at Kamakura. The spot on the
seashore is still pointed out where these imperious ambassadors were put
to death, and thus a denial which could not be misunderstood was given to
the demands of the Grand Khan. A great invading force, which the Japanese
put at a hundred thousand men, was immediately sent in more than three
hundred vessels, who landed upon the island of Kyushu. This army was met
and defeated(128) by Tokimune, and, a timely typhoon coming to their aid,
the fleet of vessels was completely destroyed. Thus the only serious
attempt at the invasion of Japan which has ever been made was completely
frustrated.

But notwithstanding this heroic episode the affairs of Japan remained in
the same deplorable condition. As a rule children continued to occupy the
imperial throne and to abdicate whenever their Hojo masters deemed it
best. Children of the imperial house or of the family of Fujiwara were
sent to Kamakura to become shoguns. And now at last the Hojo regency had
by successive steps come down to the same level, and children were made
regents, whose actions and conduct were controlled by their inferiors.

In the midst of this state of things, which continued till A.D. 1318,
Go-Daigo became emperor. Contrary to the ordinary usage, he was a man
thirty-one years old, in the full maturity of his powers. He was by no
means free from the vices to which his surroundings inevitably tended. He
w