Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/27

 That the administrative power should be wrested from the Throne, was nothing strange, being in truth a normal incident of Japanese politics. But hitherto the administrators had officiated in the shadow of the Throne. It is true that Kiyōmori, the Taira chief, established his head-quarters at the modern Hyōgo, and thus, in a measure, removed the seat of authority from Kyōtō. He did not attempt, however, to organise any new system, being content to fill the old offices with members of his own family. Yoritomo, on the contrary, inaugurated an entire change of polity. He established a military government at Kamakura, hundreds of miles distant from Kyōtō, and there exercised the administrative functions, leaving to the Imperial Court nothing except the power of investing officials and conducting ceremonials.

Yoritomo is the most remarkable figure during the first eighteen centuries of Japanese history. Profound craft and singular luminosity of political judgment were the prominent features of his character. A cold, calculating man, ready to sacrifice everything to ambition, he shocks at one time by inhumanity, and dazzles at another by unerring interpretations of the object lessons of history. Detecting clearly the errors that his predecessors had committed, he spared no pains to conciliate the Buddhist priests; won the nobility by restoring to them their offices and estates, and propitiated the Court by leaving its