Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/42

 despite of the Court's denunciation. It cannot be said, therefore, that Takauji violated precedent when he refused to come to Kyōtō for a commission and organised a military government at Kamakura on his own authority.

The empire immediately became divided into two camps. The adherents of the Court flocked to Kyōtō; those of the Ashikaga to Kamakura. The Emperor appointed Nitta Yoshisada to command the Imperial army. It moved in two bodies towards Kamakura,—one by the sea-coast, the other by the inland route. A third force marched to the attack of the place from the north. In this supreme struggle the two foremost figures are those of Yoshisada and Takauji. They were not well matched. Takauji was in all respects one of the greatest men Japan had ever produced. Yoshisada, though a splendid soldier so far as bravery and daring were concerned, stood on a much lower plane than Takauji as a strategist and politician. Besides, public opinion inclined to the Ashikaga leader. The partiality of the Court had produced an evil impression on the nation. Men remembered with regret the wise and beneficent rule of the Hōjō's best days, and hoped that Takauji might prove the founder of a similar race of good governors. Takauji's reputation already justified these hopes. He had shown himself not only sagacious and daring, but also free from the narrow jealousies and cold reserve that disfigured Yoritomo's