Kamakura Shogunate Yoritomo, making him Yoriie’s brother by adoption, as well as being his father-in-law Unfortunately the plot between Yoriie and Yoshikazu was discovered, the Hojos attacked, and Yoshikazu was assassinated Yoriie’s son, Ichiman, was murdered and Yoriie was replaced by his more compliant brother, who acquiesced in the domination of the political scene by the Hojo Yoriie was confined at Shuzenji on the Izu Peninsula and was murdered in the following year by his grandfather Minamoto Sanetomo (1192–1219) became the third shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate He was aged 11 and because of the nature of his coming to power, he would never wield any real power Instead he devoted himself to cultural matters He had started writing poetry from the age of 14, and when he was 17 he sent 30 of these poems to Fujiwara no Teika, one of the well-known court poets of the period Teika disliked them as they were too close to the Japanese poems of the seventh and eighth centuries, but some were included in an anthology, now held in the Imperial Collection in Tokyo Sanetomo was also involved in promoting kemari (kickball), a game involving eight players who kick a deerskin ball around a court, ensuring that it never touches the ground In 1219 Kugyo, the son of Yoriie and nephew of Sanetomo, assassinated the shogun HOJO CLAN AND THE SHIKKENS In spite of the political problems that ensued from the death of Minamoto Yoritomo, the Kamakura Shogunate resulted in a shift of political power away from Kyoto to Kamakura In spite of the Hojo regency, by the middle of the shogunate, the importance of Kyoto had waned, although it retained its reputation as a place of sophisticated culture and the location of the residences of most of the nobles In contrast, Kamakura, farther north, was a center that revolved around the Minamoto clan, even if not the actual nominal head of it The fishing port, which had existed when Yoritomo was young, had become an important city where some 2,000 gokenin (housemen) swore fealty to the clan As a result many of the emerging Buddhist sects of the period started erecting temples in the town For the rest of the Kamakura Shogunate, the Hojo clan curiously chose not to take up the shogunate but operated the regency with the head of the Hojo clan being the shikken In 1221 Emperor Go-Toba decided to use the demise of the Minamoto family as an opportunity to try to restore direct imperial rule In 1221 he issued a message to ask warriors loyal to him to rally and attack the Hojo clan However few were willing to take on the Hojos and very few supporters made an 229 appearance in what became known as the Jokyu disturbance On those who did, the wrath of the Hojo clan descended with a large Hojo-financed army taking over Kyoto and arresting Go-Toba He was exiled to the island of Oki, and the Hojo, in the name of the shogunate, moved their headquarters to Kyoto, which became the legal and administrative center until the end of the shogunate in 1333 The lands of the nobles who answered the call of Go-Toba were seized and redistributed to supporters of the Hojos, who emerged as the unchallenged rulers of the whole of Japan With all of the killings in 1219, the line of Minamoto Yoritomo was extinct and therefore the Hojos decided to appoint Kujo Yoritsune in 1226, a scion of the Fujiwara clan, and a distant relative of Yoritomo, as the next shogun, with Hojo Yoshitoki actually controlling the government Kujo Yoritsune (1218–56) was eight years old at the time of his appointment and was deposed when he was 26 Kujo Yoritsugu (1239–56), who was only five years old, replaced him, and was deposed seven years later For the next shoguns the Hojo clan chose members of the Japanese imperial family with Prince Munetaka (1242–74) as shogun from 1252 until 1266, Prince Koreyasu (1264–1326) as shogun from 1266 until 1289, Prince Hisaki (1276–1328) as shogun from 1289 until 1308, and Prince Morikuni (1301–33) as shogun from 1308 until his death All were appointed shoguns when they were children, and most were deposed as young men They were all puppets of the Hojos and were chosen only out of regard for their lineage In 1232 the shikken, Hojo Yasutoki, drew up the Joei Shikimoku (Joei Formulary), which laid down 51 articles defining, for the first time, the legal powers of the shogunate that ruled through the Hyojo-shu (Council of State) Some 17 years later a judicial court was established to allow legal decisions to be made more quickly and with greater fairness With the Kamakura Shogunate effectively controlled by the Hojos, and with the very easy quelling of the Jokyu disturbance, the greatest challenge to the whole system of government in Japan was not any internal force but the emerging threat of a Mongol invasion, which took place in 1274 MONGOL INVASIONS AND SOCIETY DURING THE KAMAKURA SHOGUNATE The Japanese managed to prevent the Mongols from encroaching too far inland and were saved when a storm destroyed many of the Mongol ships, forcing them to retreat The invasion in 1281 was more serious, with the Mongols sending two fleets to Japan However these