JAPAN
in obedience to their Imperial benefactor, were ready to take up their halberds once more against Kamakura.
The sceptre was held at that moment by Godaigo (1319–1339). An accomplished scholar, he had acquired intimate knowledge of politics during many years of life as Prince Imperial, and it is beyond question that, long before his accession, he had conceived plans for restoring the reality of administrative power to the Throne. A woman, however,—that constant factor of disturbance in mediæval Japan—was the proximate cause of his rupture with Kamakura. His concubine, Renshi, bore a son for whom he sought to obtain nomination as Prince Imperial, in defiance of an arrangement made by the Hōjō, some years previously, according to which the succession was secured alternately to the senior and junior branches of the Imperial family. The Kamakura government refused to entertain Go-daigo's project, and from that hour Renshi never ceased to urge upon her sovereign and lover the necessity of overthrowing the Hōjō.
As for the entourage of the Throne at the time, it was a counterpart of former eras. The Fujiwara, indeed, wielded nothing of their ancient influence. They had been divided by the Hōjō into five branches, each endowed with an equal right to the office of Regent, and their strength was thus entirely dissipated in struggling among themselves for the possession of the prize. But
14
