When Yoritomo died, in 1199, his widow, Masako, who knew the impetuous stormy character of the Minamoto family, took precautions to preserve from destruction the system which her father at Kamakura had elaborated with so much care and forethought. Yoritomo's son, Yoriie, was indeed put in his father's place, and in 1202 invested with the title of Sei-i-tai-shogun; but he was restricted in his liberty by a Council of State, appointed to assist him in his functions, and the chairman of that Council was Hojo Tokimasa, who now received the title of Shikken, or Regent. The Shogunate soon passed out

of the feeble hands of Yoritomo's descendants; but the Hojo Regents still continued to exercise their power in the name of the puppet-Shoguns, whom they themselves nominated. Japan thus beheld the spectacle of an Emperor the whole of whose administrative powers had devolved upon a Shogun, who, again, was but a puppet, with all his functions usurped by a Regent who ruled in the Shogun's name. Theoretically, nothing could be conceived more hopeless than this extremely anomalous arrangement of the government. Practically, the system worked with fair smoothness for over a century, from A.D. 1200 to 1333. The Hojo Regents were on the whole men of ability, power, and uprightness (as uprightness was reckoned in those difficult days), and brought the ship of State to a safe haven through some most dangerous storms. But they had nothing to recommend them except their own personal qualities. Takatoki, the ninth and last of the Regents, was weak and dissolute, and his enemies promptly seized the opportunity to overthrow the Hojo house. The Emperor Godaigo was a strong man, and powerfully supported by the Tendai monks from Hieizan. For a brief space the Imperial House became the ruling power; the Regency was abolished, the puppet-Shoguns disappeared, and a new succession of actual Shoguns (of the Ashikaga House) was inaugurated in 1338, residing once more in Kyoto. The day of Kamakura was over.

The Hojo Regents were by no means indifferent to the claims of religion. But theirs was a military organization, supported by all that was best and most practical among the military classes of Japan, and neither Tendai, Shingon, nor Jodo was robust enough to attract the spirit of a true soldier (for the term "soldier" could scarcely be applied to the fighting men who fattened on the revenues of the Hieizan and similar temples, and fought the battles

of the worldly priests). The Hojo found in the Zen sects the particular form of Buddhism that suited them best.

The Zen sects (there are three in Japan) derive their separate existence from a celebrated Indian priest, Bodhidharma, who arrived in China in the year 526 A.D., just two years before the foundation of the Benedictine Order in Europe.