Lanterna Rally

Author: Herbert George Ponting

Publisher: Theclassics.Us

Published: 2013-09

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 9781230230467

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI KAMAKURA AND ENOSHIMA The nearest provincial point of interest to the port of Yokohama is the ancient city of Kamakura, which owes its historical fame to Yoritomo, the founder of the Shogunate, who chose it for his capital in 1192. For generations prior to that time the high-spirited aristocracy of Japan, tired of the effeminacy of the Mikado's court, had seethed with impatient desire for more manly dominion. Eventually this unrest broke out into open warfare between the two greatest families in the land--the Taira and Minamoto clans--and during the latter half of the eleventh and the whole of the twelfth century the heads of these clans alternately rose to almost Imperial power, as the fortunes of war favoured the one or the other. Yoritomo, a scion of the illustrious house of Minamoto, was born in 1147, and thirty-eight years later the vendetta of his clan with the Taira, which had filled a hundred and fifty years with bloodshed, culminated in the battle of Danno-ura, which was fought on the Inland Sea near Shimonoseki. This conflict, in which some accounts state Yoritomo completely exterminated his rivals and their whole army, putting even women and children to the sword, is the most famous in mediaeval history, and an epic of Japan. The name of Yoritomo, great as it is, is yet one of the most hated in Japanese history. But his crushing victory over his enemies, even though he pursued it to such extremes, is not responsible for this feeling. The odium in which he is held is due to his inhuman treatment of the popular hero Yoshitsune. For his terrible vengeance he had a personal cause; but for his inhumanity to Yoshitsune he had none. Yoshitsune was his half-brother by the famous court beauty Tokiwa Gozen, the...