Page:Tales from old Japanese dramas (1915).djvu/403

 The Miracle at the Ferry of Yaguchi

I

HE Emperor Go-Daigo reigned between the years 1319 and 1339. During his latter days the traitor Ashikaga Taka-uji set up another Emperor in the person of Prince Toyohito, who was a kinsman of Go-Daigo. Thus it came to pass that the old Japanese saying, "Just as there is one sun in Heaven, so there is one emperor on Earth," was contradicted by the fact that two emperors reigned at one and the same time, and they and their sons contended with each other for the sovereignty for more than half a century. During this time, Go-Daigo's line was known as the Southern Dynasty, and the other as the Northern Dynasty. 325