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IMPERIAL RESTORATION
IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN
 S T U D I E S OF T H E
EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
 H. PAUL VARLEY

IMPERIAL
RESTORATION
IN
MEDIEVAL
JAPAN

1971
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK & LONDON
 H. Paul Varley, author of
The Onin War: History of Its Origins and Background,
with a Selective Translation of The Chronicle of Onin,
and A Syllabus ofJapanese Civilization,
is Associate Professor of Japanese History
at Columbia University.

Copyright © 1971 Columbia University Press

ISBN: 0 - 2 3 1 - 0 3 5 0 2 - 0
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 73—124573
Printed in the United States of America
T O IVAN MORRIS
 The East Asian Institute of Columbia University

The East Asian Institute of Columbia University was established in

1949 to prepare graduate students for careers dealing with East Asia,
and to aid research and publication on East Asia during the modem
period. The faculty of the Institute are grateful to the Ford Founda-
tion and the Rockefeller Foundation for their financial assistance.
The Studies of the East Asian Institute were inaugurated in 1962 to
bring to a wider public the results of significant new research on
modem and contemporary East Asia.
 Acknowledgments

I must first acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Kuroda

Toshio of Osaka University, whom I have never met but whose
ideas have strongly influenced me in my analysis of political history
in early Japan in terms of competition for power among family or
family-like entities. T w o of the studies in which Professor Kuroda
discusses such competition are "Chusci no Kokka to Tenno," in
Iwanami Shoten, Iwanami Koza Nihon Rekishi, VI (Tokyo, 1963)
and Shdeti-sei Shakai (Tokyo, 1967).
Those who have read and commented on the manuscript before
publication include Professors Donald Keene, Ivan Morris, Herschel
Webb, and Burton Watson. Herschel Webb in particular spent many
hours discussing with me the problems of interpretation I en-
countered during the course of writing.
I would like to thank Professor John Lindbeck of the East Asian
Institute of Columbia University for providing a grant that enabled
me to go to Japan during the summer of 1968 to complete research
on the chapter "History Revised."
Finally, may I express my personal appreciation for the assistance
. of my editor, Miss Elisabeth L. Shoemaker, who has now worked
with me on each of the three manuscripts that I have had published
by Columbia University Press.

H. PAUL VARLEY
Columbia University, 1970

M
 Table of Contents

Introduction i
I Court and Military in the Early Kamakura Period 4
II Decline of the Kamakura Shogunate
and Dispute Over Imperial Succession 39
III The Kemmu Restoration, 1333-1336
The Court in Power 66
Failure of the Restoration 85
IV Kitabatake Chikafusa
and the Cause of the Southern Court 95
V Changing Views of the Past 124
VI History Revised 156
Concluding Remarks 184
Appendix 1 Imperial Chronology to 1392 189
Appendix 2 Chikafusa s Imperial Chronology 191
Appendix 3 The Japanese Imperial Regalia 194
Appendix 4 Imperial Restoration 196
Glossary 199
Bibliography 205
Index 211

H
IMPERIAL RESTORATION
IN MEDIEVAL JAPAN
 Introduction

IN SEPTEMBER, 1945, shortly after the Japanese surrender in

World W a r II, a shopkeeper from the city of Nagoya sent an
extraordinary letter to General Douglas MacArthur, newly desig-
nated supreme commander of the Allied occupational forces in
Japan. The shopkeeper, whose name was Kumazawa Kando,
claimed no less than that he, and not the reigning sovereign, was the
rightful emperor of Japan. Kumazawa based his extravagant claim
on the grounds that he was a direct descendant of the "southern"
line o f emperors who, during the only major dynastic schism of
Japan's imperial family some six centuries earlier, had been deprived
of its rulership b y an illegitimate "northern" line, which was
supported by the dominant Ashikaga warrior family of that age.
Kumazawa Kando (or Emperor Kumazawa, as he called himself)
received a great deal o f publicity; yet in fact he was only one of at
least seventeen pretenders w h o about this time asserted their descent
from the fourteenth-century line of southern emperors. 1
It is highly unlikely that General MacArthur and his aides noted
with more than passing curiosity any of these royal claims. Never-
theless their assertion was acutely embarrassing to many people in
Japanese ruling quarters at a time when the continuance of the
imperial institution itself—which had been made the focal point of
militaristic ultranationalism in the prewar and wartime periods—
was in question and when a freshly liberated Japanese press was eager
to exploit sensational news.
The dynastic division to which Kumazawa Kando and the others
referred had its origins in a succession dispute that began in the
thirteenth century after most of the central ruling powers, which had
previously been the sole prerogative of Japan's ancient imperial court
at Kyoto, had been assumed by the country's first military govern-
1 A good discussion o f the Emperor Kumazawa incident may be found in

Murata Masashi, Namboku-cho Ron, pp. 256-63.

 INTRODUCTION

mcnt or shogunatc (bakufu) at K a m a k u r a in the eastern provinces.

W h e n in 1 3 3 3 the then tottering K a m a k u r a S h o g u n a t e w a s o v e r -
t h r o w n b y a coalition o f w a r r i o r s and courtiers, an e m p e r o r o f one
branch o f the imperial f a m i l y , G o d a i g o ( 1 2 8 8 - 1 3 3 9 ) , attempted to
restore the lost authority and prestige o f the throne. B u t his " r e s -
t o r a t i o n , " k n o w n after the calendrical era as the K e m r n u R e s t o r a -
tion, was an unequivocal failure. As it became increasingly clear that
G o d a i g o w a s unalterably bent upon r e v i v i n g o u t m o d e d and i m p r a c -
tical w a y s o f g o v e r n a n c e , m a n y f o r m e r allies a b a n d o n e d his cause.
In 1 3 3 6 the leading w a r r i o r chieftain o f the d a y , A s h i k a g a T a k a u j i
( 1 3 0 5 - 5 8 ) , f o r c e d G o d a i g o to flee f r o m the capital, placed a m e m b e r
o f the other branch o f the imperial f a m i l y o n the throne and estab-
lished a n e w shogunate in K y o t o . G o d a i g o , h o w e v e r , still regarded
himself as the legitimate e m p e r o r and set up a rival c o u r t at Y o s h i n o
in the p r o v i n c e o f Y a m a t o to the south. F o r the n e x t half c e n t u r y ,
f r o m 1 3 3 6 until 1 3 9 2 , there w e r e t w o courts in J a p a n : the n o r t h e r n
court, supported and dominated b y the A s h i k a g a , and the southern
court o f G o d a i g o and his successors. In 1 3 9 2 the A s h i k a g a succeeded
in u n i f y i n g the courts w i t h the p r o m i s e o f a return t o the practice
that had been f o l l o w e d b e f o r e the K e m m u R e s t o r a t i o n . B u t the
Ashikaga n e v e r h o n o r e d this promise and the southern branch w a s
f r o m this time denied all claims to the imperial succession.
T h e K e m m u R e s t o r a t i o n was n o t e w o r t h y as the last time d u r i n g
the p r e m o d e m period w h e n the court took an active part in national
affairs. Its collapse m a r k e d the c o m p l e t i o n o f a process, b e g u n w i t h
the establishment o f the K a m a k u r a S h o g u n a t e in the 1 1 8 0 s , of
political displacement b y w a r r i o r leaders o f the c o u r t nobles o f
K y o t o , w h o had f o r m e r l y constituted the g o v e r n i n g class o f the
land.
A l t h o u g h the restoration failed utterly, the a t t e m p t itself had a
tremendous impact o n the minds o f c o n t e m p o r a r y o b s e r v e r s and
later historians. It b r o u g h t into focus certain attitudes and conflicts
o f attitude concerning the theory o f rule in J a p a n that w e r e f u n d a -
mental to affairs o f the medieval a g e . 2 T o J a p a n e s e b e f o r e W o r l d

2
The medieval age of Japanese history is generally taken to mean the
period from the founding of the Kamakura Shogunate in 1185 until the end of
the Muromachi or Ashikaga Shogunate in 1573.

M
 INTRODUCTION

W a r II the K e m m u Restoration and the war between the courts

created a difficult problem o f interpretation: which o f the courts
during this period should in fact be regarded as legitimate or right-
ful ? W h a t criteria should be used to j u d g e the legitimacy o f one or
the o t h e r ? As recently as 1911 these questions were raised at the
highest levels o f the Japanese government and an orthodox line o f
interpretation was laid d o w n for presentation to Japanese youth
through primary school history textbooks.
This study will deal both with the K e m m u Restoration, within
the context o f transition f r o m rule by courtiers to rule by warriors
in the early medieval age, and with the fourteenth-century dynastic
schism as a topic o f Japanese historiography.

[3]
 I
Court and Military
in the Early Kamakura Period

THE EARLIEST WRITTEN ACCOUNTS o f J a p a n , w h i c h arc to be

found in the Chinese Dynastic Histories that deal with the
period from the first through the third century A.D., describe the
country as a land of numerous "communities" or tribal groupings,
probably concentrated in the northern part of Kyushu. We know,
chiefly from archaeological remains, that sometime between the
mid-third and the fifth century a process of amalgamation and a
shift in the political center of gravity took place which resulted in a
hegemony of extended families (uji) centered in the Kansai region
of the main island of Honshu. B y the early sixth century this
hegemony was presided over by one kinship group that became the
Japanese imperial family of historic times.
The relatively small group of families (perhaps 120 or so, if we
are to believe the Chinese accounts) that comprised the emergent
ruling aristocracy of the sixth century controlled territorial domains
in which they were the possessors of superior proprietary rights over
the agricultural lands that overwhelmingly constituted the economic
wealth of Japan. Each family, including the imperial family, claimed
mythical descent from a different tutelary deity or Shinto kami and
one of the principal functions of each family head was to lead his
family in rites to its kami. Leaders of the more important families,
especially those located geographically near the imperial seat in the
central provinces of the Kansai Plain, held hereditary ranks and
positions at court. B y the middle of the sixth century several of these
leaders appear to have acquired a degree of political power com-
parable, if not superior, to that of the emperor.
Sometime shortly after the mid-century a dispute arose at court
over whether or not to "accept" Buddhism, which according to
tradition was officially introduced into Japan from Korea in 552. The

W
 COURT AND MILITARY

real issue at this time was over the desirability o f investigating the
systems and institutions o f Chinese civilization, including C o n -
fucianism as well as Buddhism, for the purpose o f using them to
centralize and strengthen the Japanese state. T h e family that emerged
as the foremost proponent o f Buddhism, and therefore the leading
advocate o f reform and progress, was the Soga. Its chief adversaries
w e r e the M o n o n o b e and the N a k a t o m i , families that served res-
pectively as elite guards and Shinto ritualists at court and w e r e
opposed to any radical change in the status quo. In 587 the Soga
defeated the Nakatomi and M o n o n o b e in battle and established
themselves as indisputably the most p o w e r f u l family in the land.
E v e n before this date the Soga had strengthened their position b y
marrying into the imperial family and in 592 they placed their niece,
Empress Suiko (r. 592-628), on the throne.
Suiko, the first reigning empress o f Japan, appears to have been
essentially a figurehead for the Soga. Certainly she was n o t as
politically prominent as some o f her recent predecessors on the
throne. Y e t quite likely it was during Suiko's reign that an i m p o r -
tant step was taken, as part o f a prelude to r e f o r m , to increase the
prestige o f the imperial institution. This was the adoption o f the
Chinese-style designation o f tennd for the Japanese sovereign.
Previously the latter had been k n o w n as okimi, a title that m a y origin-
ally have meant simply that its holder was primus inter pares in rela-
tion to the other clan leaders o f early Japanese society. A number o f
scholars have hypothesized that it was during the sixth century that
the tutelary deity o f the imperial family, the Sun Goddess ( A m a -
terasu O m i k a m i ) , was consciously elevated to the highest position
in the Shinto pantheon and was made the ancestress o f the nation.
The tennd, whose symbols o f office w e r e the three regalia (a mirror,
sword, and j e w e l , w h i c h were gifts f r o m the Sun Goddess), 1 was
alone qualified to conduct the rites to his ancestress that w e r e
deemed essential to the proper conduct o f central g o v e r n m e n t .
A l t h o u g h Suiko remained mostly in the background during her
reign, the imperial family was in n o sense deprived o f all its political
powers b y the Soga. O n e o f the leading figures in national affairs o f
this age was Prince Shotoku (574-622), an intellectual and statesman
1 See Appendix 3 for a discussion of the imperial regalia.

[5]
 COURT AND MILITARY

w h o has been highly idealized in later history. ShStoku's name is

associated with several significant measures—including the adoption
of a system of ministerial ranks and the writing o f a "constitution"
—that were aimed at fostering ethical government in Japan and at
paving the way for creation of a new centralized bureaucracy.
Shotoku was also the first to dispatch students to the continent to
acquire firsthand knowledge of Chinese civilization. Several of the
more prominent of these students became, after their return to
Japan, the main theoreticians of the great Taika Reform of 645.
B y the mid-seventh century the Soga, w h o had been the pro-
gressives of the sixth century, became the most formidable obstacle
to further reform. B y constructing pretentious homes and mausolea
for themselves and by assuming certain of the tennd's ritual func-
tions, 2 they even gave signs that their aim was to usurp the throne.
Such behavior threatened to destroy the balance of power among
the great clans which earlier Soga leaders had carefully maintained;
and in 645 a clandestine faction at court, headed by Prince Naka
(626-71) and Nakatomi Kamatari (614-69), overthrew the Soga in
a brief but bloody coup.
The Taika Reform, which the new leaders of the court inaugura-
ted, was in its early stages primarily a land reform. Princc Naka and
his advisers emulated the "equal-field" system o f T'ang China by
declaring all land of the realm to be public domain and by setting
up a scheme for the allotment of agricultural holdings by the throne
to its subjects. Unfortunately the records do not tell us h o w widely
the Taika land system was enforced; but the aim was to give each
peasant an equal plot and to grant special allotments to members of
the ruling aristocracy for offices and ranks held and for meritorious
service and the like.
During the second half of the seventh century the court sought to
construct the kind of centralized bureaucracy envisioned by Prince
Shotoku in which ministerial appointments would be made more
on the basis of rational than on that of status criteria and the func-
tions of government would be differentiated, regularized, and clearly

z E . g . , praying for rain and personally undertaking the entertainment o f

envoys from Emishi tribes in the north. Sec N a o k i Kojiro, Kodai Kokka no
Sciritsu, in C h u 5 K o r o n Sha, Nihon no Rekishi, II, 159.

M
 COURT AND MILITARY

defined b y law. T h e final stages in completion o f this half ccntury o f

r e f o r m w e r e the issuance in 701 o f the T a i h o C o d e , a comprehen-
sive f o r m u l a r y designating the offices and the rules for the conduct
o f imperial government, and the establishment in 710 o f a n e w
capital at Nara in Y a m a t o Province.
T h e inclination a m o n g scholars today is to regard the Taika
R e f o r m as less a revolution than the continuation or acceleration o f
certain processes, leading toward greater public control over land
and t o w a r d bureaucratic rationalization, that had begun in the
previous ccntury. In addition to the steps they took to establish a
centralized bureaucracy during this period, the reformists made
deliberate efforts to strengthen the authority and real p o w e r o f the
throne at its apex. Prince Naka, w h o guided the R e f o r m as c r o w n
princc and regent from 645 until 667 and then as E m p e r o r Tenji (r.
667-71), and his brother, Emperor T e m m u (r. 672-86), were a m o n g
the most p o w e r f u l sovereigns in Japanese history. T h e records des-
cribe Tenji's assumption o f imperial authority in strongly Confucian
terms, citing various portents and omens as p r o o f that he enjoyed
Heaven's blessing or mandate. 3 Y e t , significantly, they make n o
mention o f the concomitant Chinese idea that Heaven could w i t h -
draw as well as grant such a mandate to rule. T h e Japanese stopped
short o f acceptance o f this rationale for dynastic change and tacitly
affirmed that kingship was the exclusive domain o f the imperial
family, whose members were descended f r o m the Sun Goddess and
w h o w e r e themselves regarded as living kami.
T e m m u , w h o ascended the throne in 672 after an armed struggle
w i t h his nephew and w h o was looked upon b y some as a usurper,
sought to enlist Buddhism in support o f his acquisition o f imperial
prerogatives. He asserted that he had become sovereign because o f
personal merit acquired in previous existences and bccause o f his
devotion to Buddhism, a devotion that had earned him the protec-
tion o f the D e v a , or guardian, kings. 4 T e m m u completely domina-
ted affairs at court. He placed members o f his immediate family in

3 Aston, W . G . , Nihongi, Chronicles of Japan From the Earliest Times to A.D.

697. See B o o k X X I V , pp. 171-94.
4 Tsunoda, R y u s a k u , W m . T . de Bary, and Donald Keene, eds.. Sources of

Japanese Tradition, pp. 99-101.

[7]
 COURT AND MILITARY

all the key ministerial position* and maintained careful control over
the leading courtier families.
Temmu's reign was, for other reasons as well, one of the most
important in Japanese history. In the view of present-day scholars
it was Temmu who eliminated the remaining opposition to the
policies of the Taika Reform. 5 He also appears to have elevated the
imperial family to a level of sanctity which virtually precluded
the possibility that any other family in the future might seek, as
perhaps the Soga did, to dispossess it of the throne.
During the Nara period (710-84) the country was, by and large,
governed by the sovereign with the assistance of his chief ministers
in the department of state (dajokan), the principal administrative body
below the throne. The new central government was of substantial
size, employing some 10,000 ministers and functionaries in Nara
alone.6 Yet, despite many outward similarities, Japan had not really
become a small-scale bureaucratic state on the model of China. The
principle of ministerial selection on the basis of rational criteria—
e.g., by means of an examination system—never fully took hold in
Japan. Family status remained the most important prerequisite for
official appointment. Moreover, the aristocratic families of the
central provinces, which had been most active in the R e f o r m period,
held a distinct advantage over those in the outlying regions. One
family in particular, the Fujiwara, gradually emerged as a powerful
new force at court. The Fujiwara name had been created by Emperor
Tenji, who bestowed it on Nakatomi Kamatari, his chief ally in the
overthrow of the Soga in 645, in appreciation for distinguished
service to the throne. From the early Nara period Kamatari's des-
cendants became ever more prominent in governing circles.
In 794 the capital was moved some twenty-six miles northward
to the city of Heian or Kyoto in Yamashiro Province. The age from
794 until the founding of the Kamakura Shogunate in 1185 is
commonly designated the Heian period, although the imperial seat
remained at Kyoto until the mid-nineteenth century. It was during
the early centuries of the Heian period that the Fujiwara firmly con-
5
Naoki, Kodai Kokka, pp. 333-35.
6
Aoki Kazuo, Nara no Miyako, in Chuo Koron Sha, Nikon no Rekishi, III,
22.

[8]
 COURT AND MILITARY

solidated their position at court. T h e y married into the imperial

f a m i l y , as had the Soga earlier, and established an imperial rcgency
b y means o f w h i c h they assumed the actual controls o f government.
T h e Fujiwara reached their highest point o f p o w e r and prestige under
Michinaga (966-1027) about the year 1000. A t the time they held
nearly all the ranking ministerial posts at court and kept the throne
impotent b y making sure that it was usually occupied by little boys,
w h o were invariably the sons o f Fujiwara w o m e n .
D u r i n g the early Heian period, then, political p o w e r was largely
transferred f r o m the throne and the department o f state to the
Fujiwara regents. Undergirding the Fujiwara position economically
were vast holdings in private estates (shoett). As early as the eighth
century the " e q u a l - f i e l d " system o f the Taika R e f o r m had begun
to break d o w n . T h e court found it increasingly difficult to make the
periodic inspections and reallotments o f land necessary to keep the
system in w o r k i n g order and inequality in landholding became more
and m o r e pronounced. N o t only did many small holders, heavily
burdened with taxes, abandon their fields; larger holders absorbed
these fields and further increased their wealth by opening new lands
in the less fully developed areas o f the country. B y the end o f the
tenth century m u c h o f the public domain had been converted into
private estates b y aristocratic families, such as the Fujiwara, and also
by great Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. T h r o u g h the acquisi-
tion o f documents f r o m the court granting tax exemptions and
immunity f r o m interference b y central officials, these aristocratic
families and religious institutions even secured legal recognition o f
their estate holdings.
T h e estate system was expanded further, especially during the
tenth century, through the widespread practice o f commendation.
In order to avoid the various taxes o f the central government, the
most onerous o f w h i c h were the labor levies, and to secure greater
local protection, peasant families throughout the country c o m -
mended or transferred their titles to land to estate holders. T h e
peasant family that thus commended its fields continued to w o r k
them as before; but n o w it was part o f an estate unit and was obliged
to pay only a single harvest rent in kind to the estate holder.
Probably the most fundamental reason for the rise o f a military

[9]
 COURT AND MILITARY

class in the provinces during the middle and late Heian period was
the failure of the court to provide effective provincial administra-
tion. The growth of private estates was accompanied by a marked
decline in the exercise of government at the provincial level. In some
regions, such as the central provinces, the estates themselves provided
the necessary order. Elsewhere, especially in the Kanto, local families
were obliged to take up arms to prevent a lapse into anarchy.
Leadership for the new warrior class of the provinces was pro-
vided mainly by descendants of the court aristocracy. The Taira and
Minamoto, the most prominent of the warrior clans, were both
originally of imperial blood. The leading branch of the Taira (the
Ise Taira) became most influential in the region of the Inland Sea,
whereas the Minamoto asserted their power chiefly in the Kanto. A
third important warrior house emerged from a branch of the Fuji-
wara family which established its base in the provinces to the north
of the Kant5.
The transition to warrior rule in the late Heian and Kamakura
periods, therefore, was not so much a matter of revolutionary social
upheaval as the first stage in the transfer of power within an aristo-
cratic group of families that had become clearly differentiated by
function into civil and military. The civil nobility retained its
attachment to the imperial court at Kyoto, while the military, w h o
came to be linked by feudal, lord-vassal relations, increasingly gave
allegiance to the warrior regime at Kamakura. The tie between the
t w o was the throne, which remained the unchallenged source of
legitimacy for both.
Before turning to court-military relations in the early Kamakura
epoch, some final remarks must be made about the decline of the
Fujiwara and the rise first of the cloistered emperors (in) and then of
the Taira clan in the late Heian period. In 1069 Gosanjo (1043-73),
w h o did not have a Fujiwara mother, ascended the throne and
became the first emperor in a century or more to challenge the
supremacy of the Fujiwara in court politics. Gosanjo died a brief
three years later; but his son Shirakawa (1053-1129), w h o abdicated
in 1086 after a reign of fourteen years, assumed leadership in the
capital as cloistered emperor. A more detailed discussion of the
institution of cloistered emperorship, whereby abdicated emperors
[10]
 COURT AND MILITARY

r e v i v e d the political and e c o n o m i c fortunes o f the imperial f a m i l y ,

will be taken up later. H e r e let us note simply that the rise o f the
cloistered emperors c a m e about in part because o f the decline in
Fujiwara leadership and f a m i l y cohesiveness and in part because o f
the support that the cloistered emperors c a m e t o receive f r o m other
houses, such as the M u r a k a m i G c n j i 7 and the Taira.
In the m i d - t w e l f t h c e n t u r y t w o sanguinary struggles, k n o w n as
the H o g e n (1156) and Heiji (1159) incidents, erupted in the capital.
T h e animosities that b r o u g h t on the H o g e n incident w e r e c o m p l e x
and causcd division w i t h i n all the great families i n v o l v e d : the i m -
perial f a m i l y (with the e m p e r o r G o s h i r a k a w a , r. 1 1 5 5 - 5 8 , o p p o s i n g
the e x - e m p e r o r S u t o k u , r. 1123-41), the F u j i w a r a , the Taira, and the
M i n a m o t o . Perhaps the m o s t significant feature o f this b r i e f c o n -
flict was the participation in w h a t w a s essentially a c o u r t dispute o f
armed m e n for the first time in m o r e than three and a half ccnturies.
T h e most p o w e r f u l f i g u r e to e m e r g e f r o m the H 5 g e n incident
was Taira Kiyomori (1118-81). In 1 1 5 9 he and his clansmen
dccisivcly defeated the M i n a m o t o in the H e i j i struggle and i n -
augurated a period o f Taira h e g e m o n y in the capital that lasted f o r
t w e n t y or m o r e years. T h e Taira, h o w e v e r , did n o t undertake t o
develop n e w institutions o f military rule, b u t w e r e content t o
exercise p o w e r t h r o u g h the regular channels o f administration at
court. K i y o m o r i married Taira w o m e n into the imperial f a m i l y and
in 1180 has his o w n grandson c r o w n e d as the E m p e r o r Antoku
(1178-85).^
A n t o k u ' s reign w a s n o t a peaceful one. In the v e r y year o f his
accession several M i n a m o t o chieftains rose in the eastern provinces
and began the general struggle that led t o the total destruction o f the
Taira o f K i y o m o r i in 1185 and to the establishment o f the first
shogunate b y M i n a m o t o Y o r i t o m o at K a m a k u r a .

Y o r i t o m o , in constructing his n e w military g o v e r n m e n t , w a s

careful to d o it o n the basis o f a delegation o f a u t h o r i t y f r o m the

7 This was a courtier family that traced its descent from Emperor Murakami

(r. 926-66). It should be clearly distinguished from the warrior family of Seiwa
Genji, who are referred to in this study simply as " the Genji," or as the Mina-
moto (an alternate reading for gen in Genji).

["]
 COURT A N D MILITARY

throne. In 1 1 9 2 he obtained the title sen taishogun, or "great general

for pacification of the eastern barbarians." The charge to pacify the
eastern barbarians was anachronistic, since the barbarian problem in
that region had been settled nearly four centuries earlier. Y e t Y o r i -
tomo apparently hoped that this title, which had been held by great
warriors in the past, would lend proper dignity to his commanding
position among the military.
Yoritomo's realization of the need to relate his power position to
a higher level of legitimacy can be seen not only in his desire to
obtain the court-delegated title of shogun and to secure other forms
of approval for his assumption of de facto power, but also in the
manner in which he constructed his military government. B y its
very nature and location this government was clearly beyond direct
control of the court in K y o t o . It was, in fact, a private and distinctly
separate power center, controlling land and people no longer within
the range of imperial authority. Y o r i t o m o was nevertheless able,
even under these conditions, to proceed within certain traditional
bounds; for there already existed in the estate system ample theo-
retical precedent for the type of administration he sought to estab-
lish. The Hcian courtier families, for example, while discharging
public duties as minister of the emperor, had long exercised simul-
taneous private control over their estate holdings. Their administra-
tion of these estates was typically patterned on house lines, through
the organization of offices such as mandokoro (administrative boards)
and samurai dokoro (boards of retainers). Yoritomo, in clear imitation
of this practice of house administration by the courtier families,
selected offices with precisely such designations for the conduct of
his military rule in Kamakura. 8 Thus he assumed the roles of both
imperial official (shogun) and independent territorial lord.
In K y o t o the final victory of Minamoto armies in 1 1 8 5 and firm
establishment of the Kamakura Shogunatc, through the appoint-
ment of stewards (jito) and constables or protectors (shugo) to various
estates and provinces, left the Heian courtiers politically adrift. From
an economic standpoint, these members of the old regime were still

8
Y o r i t o m o also opened an office called motichujo (board of inquiry), which
was not used by the courtier families.

[12]
 COURT AND MILITARY

l a r g e l y intact; indeed it was n o t until some thirty years later 9 that

m i l i t a r y administration came t o penetrate d e e p l y into the central and
w e s t e r n provinces, w h e r e the c o u r t aristocracy had l o n g had its
largest and most secure estate holdings. Nevertheless the traditional
state as they c o n c e i v e d it had already been p e r m a n e n t l y altered. A t
the central, regional, and local levels warriors w e r e arrogating
responsibilities f o r m e r l y assumed to be the rightful d o m a i n o f the
court.
T h e next t w o centuries w e r e to transform the court's role f r o m
an active to a passive one in Japanese history. A l t h o u g h this trans-
f o r m a t i o n seems understandable in the light o f trends in landholding,
social relations and the exercise o f p o w e r , the court nobility that w a s
in the process o f being politically and e c o n o m i c a l l y displaced c o u l d
scarcely l o o k u p o n its fate w i t h detachment and resignation. A f e w
o f the m o r e articulate courtiers felt impelled to take up their w r i t i n g
brushes to f o r m u l a t e specific proposals f o r the revitalization o f the
court. T h e attitudes o f other leading nobles c o n c e r n i n g the course
the court o u g h t to take can be discerned f r o m the general records
and accounts o f the early medieval age.
T h e leaders o f the old r e g i m e , as w e shall see, tended to advocate
policies o f either r e f o r m or reaction. S o m e believed the c o u r t should
seek a m e r g e r o r union w i t h the military (bumbu ketikd), w h i c h w o u l d
p r o b a b l y require the courtiers to take o n certain military functions ;
others insisted that the court resolutely oppose the military and strive
to bring about an " i m p e r i a l r e s t o r a t i o n " ( d s e i f u k k o ) .
B y and large, those w h o proposed a union o f civil and military
u r g e d adoption o f a pragmatic approach to the p r o b l e m o f re-
adjusting the court to a n e w role w i t h i n the national p o w e r struc-
ture. T h e extent to w h i c h the courtiers w o u l d h a v e t o be " m i l i -
t a r i z e d " in the process w o u l d depend o n circumstances. A belief w a s
implicit that f o r m e r techniques o f civil bureaucracy and reliance o n
the p o w e r o f m o r a l suasion w e r e n o l o n g e r sufficient; that some f o r m
o f compulsion, as practiced b y the military, had b e c o m e m a n d a t o r y
for the administration o f Japanese society.
T h e advocates o f a "restoration o f imperial r u l e , " o n the other
hand, espoused reactionary p r o g r a m s that called f o r a return to the

' After theJokyu incident of 1221, which will be discussed below.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

institutional practices o f some earlier period in Japanese history

before the rise o f the military. 1 0 T h e y sought to deny or reject
militarism and to reassert a m o r e traditional f o r m o f civil, imperial
rule. W h e r e these restorationists differed a m o n g themselves was in
their interpretation o f the historical meaning o f imperial rule in
Japan. Emperor G o d a i g o at the time o f the K e m m u Restoration,
for example, believed that true imperial rule meant direct or per-
sonal rule b y the emperor. G o d a i g o appears to have envisioned
himself as a kind o f sage king capable o f dealing w i t h all matters o f
government by reliance solely upon his o w n virtue as legitimate
sovereign o f the land.
T o members o f the ministerial families at court imperial rule was
likely to mean something quite different. L o w - r a n k i n g courtiers
probably looked back for their model to the Nara period, w h e n the
country was governed b y a broadly based bureaucracy in the service
o f the throne, w h e n the ideal o f ministerial advancement through
merit was at least set forth in the legal codes. High-ranking nobles
such as the Fujiwara, on the other hand, w e r e apt to stress as the most
important element o f imperial rule the "assisting" function o f one
or more k e y officials next to the throne in support o f an emperor
w h o did not act himself but, rather, sanctified the acts o f others.
T h e idea o f an assisting function meant in practice the assumption
o f political powers b y someone or some g r o u p other than the
emperor. Prince Shotoku (as c r o w n prince-regent) and the Soga
leader U m a k o (d. 626) had handled political affairs o f the late sixth
and early seventh centuries for Empress S u i k o ; and the Soga had
retained the actual controls o f g o v e r n m e n t until the Taika R e f o r m .
Even after the R e f o r m , Prince N a k a (as c r o w n prince) had been the
real ruler at court for more than a decade and a half while his uncle
and mother occupied the throne in succession. T h e establishment
some t w o centuries later o f the Fujiwara regency was accompanied
by the gradual decline o f the Taika-Taiho (ritsu-ryo) bureaucracy
10 This point w i l l be more fully discussed in later sections. Different indivi-

duals tended to select different " g o l d e n a g e s " w h i c h they wished to hold as

models. Godaigo, for example, cherished especially the early tenth century, a
time not only before the rise o f the military but before the consolidation o f
power by the Fujiwara regents and the establishment o f the office o f cloistered
emperor as well.

iH]
 COURT AND MILITARY

and the transfer of political powers to the family councils of the

Fujiwara regents. Thus by the Kamakura era the Japanese had
already experienced long periods during which sovereigns, while
reigning and continuing to legitimatize the conduct of court govern-
ment, had not ruled.
For all w h o would propose revitalization of the court, either
through reform or reaction, there were several facts to face. The
military had displayed such vigor in spreading their control over
the land that they could scarcely be dismissed as simply ephemeral
or unworthy. N o r could the more thoughtful among the old
regime deny that the military had in fact brought about some
positive good, including the establishment of peace and stability in
the land. Clearly it would be necessary to view the rise of the mili-
tary in terms of fundamental values before final judgment could be
passed. The two most famous works of the early medieval period
devoted to analysis and evaluation of the momentous social and
political changes taking place during this age are the Gukatisho of
Jien (i 1 5 5 - 1 2 2 5 ) , a Buddhist priest and member of the K u j o branch
of the Fujiwara family, and the Jinno Shotdki of the fourteenth-
century courtier-general Kitabatake Chikafusa (1293-1354). The
Jinno Shotoki will be treated in detail in a later chapter. A t this point
it is necessary to discuss the views contained in the Gukansho and
other works of the thirteenth century for an understanding of their
influence on early medieval attitudes toward the court, the military,
and restoration.
The waning of an aesthetically brilliant court society, accom-
panied by warfare, natural disaster, and disruption, gave to the
twelfth century a pervading mood of pessimism. This pessimism
was accentuated by widespread belief that the age was one of tttappo,
or " t h e end of the Buddhist l a w . " According to Buddhist tradition,
history would progress through three stages following the death of
the historical Buddha, Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.). First, there would
be a stage of shoho, or " t h e flourishing of the l a w , " when the teach-
ings of the Buddha would be thoroughly understood and practiced
everywhere. This would be followed by a time of zoho, or " t h e
reflected l a w , " when the Buddhist teachings would still be known,
but would not be accepted or practiced with the same vigor as

[i5]
 COURT AND MILITARY

before. Finally, there would come an age of mappd, when the

Buddhist law would disappear and darkness and ignorance would
descend upon the world. Some Buddhists believed that shoho and
zoho would last five hundred years each; others that each would
endure a thousand years. The Japanese seem to have accepted a
curious method of calculation whereby they measured shoho and
zoho by thousand-year units beginning some five hundred years
before the time when Gautama is usually thought to have lived. 1 1
Thus they believed that the age of the flourishing of the law began
about IOOOB.C.; that the age of the reflected law was half over when
Buddhism was officially introduced to Japan in the mid-sixth century
A.D.; and that the age of ntappo commenced shortly after A.D. IOOO.
Despite the mappd pessimism of the times, it was in fact largely in
Buddhist terms that the first positive attempts were made to explain
the reasons for the rise of the military and their new role in state
affairs. The author or authors of the famous war tale, Heike Mono-
gatari (Tale of the Heike), express a pessimistic attitude of resignation
and an acceptance of military struggle as a reflection of the impcr-
manence of all things; but in other works, such as Azuma Kagami
(Mirror of the East), we can find a more positive view of the military
as emergent protectors of the state (kokka shugo).'1
This view of the military as national protectors was clearly an
extension of a much earlier belief in Buddhism as the " guardian of
the state" (gokoku). Jien had this aspect of Buddhism in mind when
he sought to explain the introduction of Buddhist law (buppo) to
Japan in the sixth century in terms of the imposition of a higher order
for the protection of the imperial law (oho). In discussing the early
years of Buddhist influence, for example, Jien claimed justification
for the assassination of Emperor Sushun (r. 587-92) in 592 by Soga
U m a k o (d. 626) on the grounds that U m a k o was the chief propo-
nent of Buddhism at the time and that the emperor, a man of little
merit, was himself plotting the murder of Umako. T o Jien the

" Another method of calculation held shoho to be 500 years and zoho 1,000
years.
12
For a discussion of this see Maki Kenji, " B u k e - h o ni M i y u r u Rekishi-
kan," in Fuzanbo, Hompo Shigaku Shi Ronso, I, 646-48. Minoru Shinoda
has translated part of Azuma Kagami (entries from 1 1 8 0 to 1 1 8 $ ) into English in
The Founding of the Kamakura Shogunate, 1180-1185.
[16]
 COURT A N D MILITARY

continued propagation of Buddhism as protcctor of the imperial

state was of far greater importance than the life of a single emperor. 1 3
Although the Soga had been the first to champion Buddhism,
members of the imperial family had gradually become its chief
patrons during the late sixth and seventh centuries. Emperor
Tcmmu, as w e have seen, claimed that he enjoyed the special pro-
tection of the guardian kings of Buddhism. He also actively en-
couraged the spread of Buddhism in Japan by directing in 685 that
Buddhist images and sutras be kept in every house in the country.
Although it is unlikely that this directive was carried out to the
letter, its issuance marked the beginning of a movement that lasted
for nearly a century to make Buddhism the new state religion. The
high point of this movement came during the reign of Emperor
Shomu (r. 724-48), possibly the most devoutly Buddhist of all
Japan's sovereigns. In 741 ShSmu ordered the construction of pro-
vincial temples (kokubunji); and during the years 743-52 he had the
massive Todaiji (Eastern great temple) built in Nara to serve as its
central headquarters.
During the Heian period the priest Saicho (767-822), founder of
the Tendai sect of Buddhism, asserted that his temple on Mt. Hiei
was the new " C e n t e r for Protection of the Nation." Such an asser-
tion was fully in keeping with the comprehensive doctrines of
Tendai Buddhism, whose practitioners formulated vast syntheses of
religious truth and whose monastic complex on Mt. Hiei, the
Enryakuji, became the spawning ground for most of the major
Buddhist sects that were established in Japan during later centuries.
That the military leaders at Kamakura consciously sought to
justify their assumption of national police powers in Buddhist terms
can be surmised from their use of the Buddhist word shugo as a
designation for the constables, or "protectors," w h o m Yoritomo
appointed to the provinces in 1 1 8 5 . B y reestablishing order the
military had set themselves clearly apart from the Heian courtiers,
w h o had allowed national administration to become greatly
weakened over the centuries. The leaders of Kamakura might indeed
be regarded as the new "protectors" of the country.
13
Jien, Cukansho, in Okami Masao and Akamatsu Toshihide, eds., Gukmt-
sho, pp. 136-40.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

Jicn's views on court-military relations during the early Kamakura

period are especially important because of his personal background
and political commitments. Jien was born in 1155, the son of the
imperial regent Fujiwara Tadamichi (1097-1164). At the age of
eleven he entered Buddhist orders at the Enryakuji on Mt. Hiei and
remained a member of the priesthood there for the remainder of his
life. On four separate occasions he served as the head abbot of the
Enryakuji.
Jien's elder brother was Kanezane (1149-1207), the first of the
Kuj5 branch of the Fujiwara family and, from 1186 to 1196, holder of
the office of imperial regent. Kujo Kanezane's name will reappear
later in this narrative, for he played a significant role in affairs of the
late twelfth century. In addition to serving as imperial regent, he
was also the most prominent Kyoto minister to cooperate with
Yoritomo and the Kamakura regime. Upon the death of Goshira-
kawa in 1192 Kanezane was instrumental in securing for Yoritomo
the title of shogun, which the cloistered emperor had long refused
to grant him. But Kanezane's tics with Kamakura were ultimately to
cause him grief. During the 1190s a strong antishogunate faction,
centered around the cloistered emperor Gotoba (1180-1239),
emerged at court and forced Kanezane to spend his final years in
eclipse. Jien's own fortunes tended to wax and wane with those of
his brother. When, for example, Kanezane was relieved of his
regency in 1196, Jien was also obliged to step down from the head-
ship of the Enryakuji.
Kanezane and Jien, so far as we can discern from the records, were
political opportunists. Both were deeply committed to the revival of
the Fujiwara house and were willing to make compromises with the
military to achieve this. Jien wrote the Gukanshd about 1220 at a
time when Gotoba and his clique were plotting to overthrow the
Kamakura Shogunate. To Jien, Gotoba's plan was sheer folly and
he appears to have written the Gukanshd chiefly to dissuade the
cloistered emperor from pursuing it. In discussing the Gukanshd,
then, we must keep in mind that Jien wrote it with a strong political
purpose.
Jien was the first of Japan's historians to view history as a proccss
of constant change and to seek to analyze the course of change in
[18]
 COURT A N D MILITARY

terms of cause and effect. His whole outlook was profoundly in-
fluenced by mappd pessimism and in fact he interpreted Japanese
history in the broadest sense as a long, downward movement
terminating in his own age, which he regarded as degenerate and
debased. He divided Japanese history from the time of Emperor
Jimmu into seven periods 14 and traced first the decline of the
imperial family and then that of the Fujiwara regents, who had
provided invaluable assistance to the throne during what Jien termed
the "middle ages"; the rise of the cloistered emperors, whose period
of supremacy he viewed as a kind of perversion of imperial rule;
and, finally, the ascendancy of the provincial warrior families.
Jicn's acute consciousness of change is understandable. The authors
of earlier historical records may have looked upon Japanese history
as an unvarying continuum from the age of the gods. 15 But by Jien's
time it could hardly be held that the state, in its manifest form at
least, was unchanged or unchanging. Military society was already
in a stage of rapid expansion and was challenging the very founda-
tions of court rule. Desire for the restoration of earlier values and
practices became a natural sentiment among those of the aristocracy
and entrenched priesthood who, like Jien, stood to lose most by the
unchecked expansion of warrior control over the land.
Jien attempted to explain historical change chiefly through use of
the term dori (literally, principle), a term which he employed with
such frequency and with such imprecision that he badly obscured
much of what he apparendy wished to say. 16 Scholars either have
despaired of fully comprehending Jien's dori or have constructed
elaborate explanations to suggest a complexity of meanings that
surely never occurred to him. More often than not dori appears in
the Gukansho to be equatablc with the Buddhist law. Jien believed
that the fate of the Buddhist law in Japan was inseparable from that

14
Ibid., pp. 325-26.
,s
See comments on Kojiki and Nihott Shoki in Bito Masahide, " N i h o n ni
okcru Rekishi Ishiki no Hatten," in Iwanami Shoten, Iwanami Koza Nihon
Rekishi, X X I I , 17.
" • T s u k a m o t o Yasuhiko calls Jien's dori a " d e v i c e " or " t e c h n i q u e " for
dealing with history, its variations and changes, and especially the rise o f the
military. " Gukansho to Jinno Shotdki," in Kokugo to Kokubungaku (September,
1962), p. 16.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

o f the imperial law. He saw as inevitable the decline o f court rule

during the age o f mappo and a c k n o w l e d g e d that only fierce warriors
could be expected to impose order again. Jien particularly admired
the achievements o f M i n a m o t o Y o r i t o m o , w h o m he regarded as the
last o f the great " n o b l e w a r r i o r s " (Taira and M i n a m o t o ) . 1 7 H e was
less enthusiastic about the l o w - r a n k i n g H 5 j o w h o succeeded to
p o w e r in Kamakura shortly after Y o r i t o m o ' s death.
A l t h o u g h Jien presented an over-all Buddhist v i e w o f history,
many o f his specific observations and interpretations were based on
purely Shinto m y t h o l o g y and beliefs. He recounted that the Sun
Goddess had dispatched her grandson, Ninigi, f r o m the plain o f high
heaven w i t h the chargc that he establish a line o f rulers on earth. O n
the basis o f this chargc alone the imperial family had occupied the
throne o f Japan sincc the founding o f the country. Y e t it was
inevitable, if a single dynastic line was to be maintained, that
excessively y o u n g or otherwise incompetent rulers should event-
ually ascend the throne. T o provide for this, the Sun Goddess had at
the time o f Ninigi's departure also directed A m a - n o - k o y a n e , the
kami forebear o f the Fujiwara family, to assist the imperial house in
a close ministerial capacity. In this w a y Amaterasu asserted the
centrality o f the imperial house and, at the same time, made pro-
vision for the support o f emperors b y qualified officials, a function
that w o u l d become especially important to the proper conduct o f
affairs during the middle and later (by Jicn's calculations) stages o f
Japanese history. 1 8
Thus the Fujiwara, i n j i e n ' s mind, had as much right to "assist"
the throne as the imperial family had to occupy it. Jien felt that the
kind o f g o v e r n m e n t perfected b y Michinaga (966-1027), the greatest
o f the Fujiwara regents, was an excellent polity for Japan. H e bitterly
lamented, on the other hand, the rise toward the end o f the eleventh
century o f the cloistered emperors, w h o employed w h a t Jien con-
sidered to be upstart and unqualified (as well as non-Fujiwara)
ministers. 19 It was little w o n d e r that the affairs o f the c o u n t r y had

17Gukansho, pp. 332-33.

18ibid., pp. 331-32.
"> Ibid.

[20]
 COURT A N D MILITARY

fallen into such sad disorder and that only the military could
straighten them out again.
Despite his belief that the over-all trend of history was inevitably
downward, Jien acknowledged that there could occasionally be a
partial restoration of things. He saw an opportunity for the restora-
tion of the political fortunes of the Fujiwara in 1 2 1 9 when his grcat-
grandncphcw, Yoritsunc (1218-56), was invited by the Hojo to be
shogun at Kamakura. T o Jien the appointment of the youthful
Yoritsunc, w h o m the Hoj5 in fact wanted simply to serve as a
figurehead, portended a true union of court and shogunate with a
Fujiwara minister serving the emperor in the additional capacity of
chief of the military families. 20 Y e t it was precisely at this time that
the cloistered emperor Gotoba was plotting to overthrow the
shogunate. Jien urged Gotoba to place his faith instead in the future
of the Kamakura regime under Yoritsune.

The death of Yoritomo in 1 1 9 9 had removed the central prop of

fifteen years of military rule and had exposed his young sons, the
shoguns Yoriic ( 1 1 8 2 - 1 2 0 4 ) and Sanetomo ( 1 1 9 2 - 1 2 1 9 ) , to political
disorder and finally to destruction. The struggle for power that
ensued among the eastern chieftains brought to the fore the family
of Hoj5 Tokimasa ( 1 1 3 8 - 1 2 1 5 ) . Tokimasa had acted as Yoritomo's
guardian in Izu 2 1 and had remained a close personal adviser of the
Minamoto chieftain during his ascent to military leadership. In 1205,
however, Tokimasa fell abruptly from ruling circles as the result of
a bizarre attempt to elevate a member of his second wife's family to
the office of shogun. This placed Tokimasa's son, Yoshitoki (1163—
1224.), in a position to seize real control in Kamakura. Yoshitoki
inherited from his father the headship o f the administrative board,
and in 1 2 1 3 he also assumed leadership of the board of retainers. 22
The first office placed him in a key executive position, while the
second gave him authority over the shogun's retainers as well as
20
Ibid., p. 336.
21
A f t e r defeat o f the Minamoto by the Taira in 1 1 5 9 the young Y o r i t o m o
(then only twelve) had been banished to the eastern province o f Izu.
22
The first head o f the board o f retainers was W a d a Yoshimori, an eastern
chieftain w h o was one o f Y o r i t o m o ' s staunchest supporters. In 1 2 1 3 Yoshitoki
drove the Wada into revolt and seized this office f o r himself.

[21]
 COURT AND MILITARY

policc control over the city of Kamakura. With this combination of

powers Hoj5 Yoshitoki assumed the office of shogunal regent
(shikken), from which he and his succcssors thenceforth conducted
government at Kamakura under figurehead shoguns, the first of
which was Fujiwara Yoritsunc.
One of the most striking characteristics of the H5jo family of
Kamakura times was their rise from relatively modest warrior
origins to the height of military society. The Hojo were an eastern
branch of the Taira house; yet, like many other provincial Taira,
they bccame disenchanted with the rule of Taira Kiyomori in Kyoto
during the period 1160 to 1181. Hojo Tokimasa came, on the con-
trary, to support the cause of Yoritomo during the Minamoto
chieftain's exile in Izu. The tic between the two men was further
strengthened by the marriage of Yoritomo to Tokimasa's daughter
Masako (i 157-1225). It appears, however, that this was Tokimasa's
sole basis for political advancement. Unlike Kiyomori and Yori-
tomo, who were immediate descendants of leading Taira and
Minamoto chieftains, Tokimasa had little family backing. As a
Taira clansman, Tokimasa was qualified to hold administrative
office in his native Izu; but he was by no means a power on the
provincial level.
The scarcity of information concerning Tokimasa's background
suggests that he and his kinsmen had gained little prominence before
the Taira-Minamoto war. All members of the Hojo house who
became distinguished during the Kamakura period were descended
directly from Tokimasa. 23 Even the vassal families that came to
serve the Hojo regents—the Bito, the Nagasaki, the Suwa—did not
form ties with the Hojo until after the founding of the shogunate. 24
From these facts we can conclude that the victory of the Hojo
following Yoritomo's death marked the climax of a remarkable
rise to political eminence of an obscure eastern warrior and his
offspring. Even more remarkable is the fact that the Hoj5 were able
to perpetuate this eminence for more than a century. In this sense
they were unique in rank-conscious Japan of the medieval period.
Z3
Sato Shin'ichi, "Kamakura Bakufu Seiji no Sensei-ka ni tsuitc," in
Takeuchi Rizo, ed., Nihon Hoken-sei Seiritsu no Kenkyu (2d ed.), p. 98.
Ibid.

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The assassination of the shogun Sanctomo in 1219 brought to an

end the line of Yoritomo and made secure the position of the
shogunal regent, Hojo Yoshitoki. Shortly thereafter Yoshitoki
requested that the Kyoto court supply a princc of the blood to act as
shogun in Kamakura. But the cloistered emperor Gotoba was in no
mood to provide the Hoj5 with an imperial figurehead to sanctify
their usurpation of shogunal power and Yoshitoki had to settle for
the young Fujiwara clansman who was Jien's great-grandnephew.
During the time of Yoritomo, relations between Kyoto and
Kamakura had been handled smoothly through the good offices of
Jien's brother, Kujo Kanezane. But Yoritomo's death in 1199 and
the subsequent decline of Kanezane's influence at court caused a dis-
ruption in official communication between the two governments
that was to continue for more than twenty years. During this
period Gotoba and his supporters received irregular and not always
accurate reports on the nature of the power struggle in Kamakura.
They tended to interpret this struggle in terms of real deterioration
of the shogunate as a ruling institution. Later events were to
prove that this interpretation was quite incorrect. The struggle
in Kamakura concerned not the existence of the shogunate
itself, but who would exercise the highest power within its
framework.
It was under these conditions that arrangements were made to
install Yoritsune as shogun, andjicn attempted to dissuade Gotoba
from acting precipitately against the shogunate. But the cloistered
emperor rejected Jien's idealistic theorizations and in 1221 threw
down the gauntlet before the Hojo. 2S His challenge was founded
partly on a grave miscalculation of the capacity of the Hoj5 to rally
support among the eastern families and partly on an exaggerated
assessment of the military support he could muster in the central
provinces. Within a month after Gotoba issued an edict branding
Yoshitoki a rebel, a great army marched from Kamakura and

25
Tsuda Sokichi, who believes that the Gukansho was written after the
Jokyu incident, suggests that Jien leveled praise and blame after the fact when
it was clear who had succeeded and who had failed. " Gukansho oyobi Jinno
Shotoki ni okeru Shina no Shigaku Shiso," in Fuzanbo, Hompo Shigaku Ronso,
I. 499-

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 COURT AND MILITARY

occupied Kyoto. Yoshitoki seems to have flouted an openly an-

nounced and widely publicized imperial order. Y e t most shogunate
vassals (or housemen, goke'nin) apparently regarded their loyalty to
Kamakura as taking precedence over the higher, but more vaguely
defined, allegiance they owed by tradition to the imperial family.
Moreover, so restricted was the backing which Gotoba himself
actually received during this struggle, known after the year period
as the J 5 k y u incident, that his rising cannot be regarded as a true
counterrevolutionary threat to warrior rule in Kamakura. 2 6 T h e
military campaign was brief, but the settlement o f the Jokyu
incident was extremely important to the shogunate both economic-
ally and politically.
As a result o f victory over Gotoba's imperial forces, the shogunate
was able to confiscate more than three thousand estate lands belong-
ing to courtiers and others who had joined the cloistered emperor.
T h e appointment o f stewards to these estates brought a vast increase
in the geographical scope and practical power o f the Kamakura
government. It also created a new network o f officials beholden to
the Hojo regents.
T h e early Kamakura Shogunate had had no effective control over
the city o f K y o t o , 2 7 a fact that contributed to estrangement o f the
governmental centers and that helped precipitate the J o k y u in-
cident. T o prevent a recurrence o f military action against the sho-
gunate and to secure greater control over court affairs, Yoshitoki
n o w founded a system o f Kyoto deputies (tandai). These deputies
(two in number) established their offices in the Rokuhara section o f
K y o t o and hence became known also as the Rokuhara deputies.
T h e y came to hold broad powers and in fact were the real adminis-
trators o f affairs in those provinces westward from Owari (later,
from Mikawa) during the remainder o f the Kamakura age.
Yoshitoki set the precedent o f assigning only high-ranking m e m -
bers o f the H o j o family as Rokuhara deputies. His first t w o appoin-
tees were his son Yasutoki (1183-1242) and his brother Tokifusa

26
Uwayokote Masataka, "Jokyu no Ran," in Iwanami Shoten, lwanami
Koza Nihon Rekishi, V, 171.
27
There was a constable posted to Kyoto, but he exercised no real authority
and was quickly destroyed by Gotoba's supporters.

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 C O U R T AND MILITARY

(i 175-1240), cocommanders o f the shogunate army during the

J ó k y u incident. Here we see the beginning o f a process that was to
characterize shogunate rule from mid-Kamakura times : the appoint-
ment o f an increasing number o f Hojo and their direct family
vassals to key posts both in Kamakura and the provinces. W h i l e the
H 5 j 5 may have lacked family prestige and solidarity before T o k i -
masa, they paid carcful attention to the cultivation o f these qualities
during the years following their ascendancy. N o t only did the H o j 5
build a powerful clan structure within their own bloodline, they
also acquired a number o f sturdy vassal families. T h e result, by the
mid-Kamakura period, was an imposing dynastic system.
T h e principal factor in the success o f this system was the concentra-
tion o f authority in the hands o f the Hojo family head, k n o w n also
as the Tokuso (from an alternate name o f Yoshitoki). During the
height o f H 5 j o power it became axiomatic that the Tokuso also
occupy the office o f shogunal regent. There was to be no division
o f interests between the H 5 j 5 as a private family and as holders o f
real power within the shogunate. On two occasions in the early
years regents were appointed who were not heads o f the f a m i l y : 2 8
but they were clearly caretakers for the Tokuso, H o j o T o k i m u n e
(1251-84), until he reached his majority and assumed the regency in
1268. T h e private policies o f the Hojo gave an emphasis to family
solidarity that Minamoto Y o r i t o m o had neglected.
In 1224 Yoshitoki died and was succeeded as Tokuso and sho-
gunal regent by his son, Yasutoki. T h e following year Y o r i t o m o ' s
wife Masako and the distinguished statesman Ò e H i r o m o t o ( 1 1 4 8 -
1225) also died within a month o f each other. T h e y were the last o f
the great personalities who had supported Y o r i t o m o during his
rise to power. Their disappearance from shogunate councils placed
Yasutoki, at forty-three, in a unique position o f leadership ; and
indeed Yasutoki's regency from 1224 until 1242 proved in many
ways a coming-of-age for military government in medieval Japan.
The years from Minamoto Y o r i t o m o to H o j o Yasutoki must be
regarded as transitional, in both legal and institutional terms, f r o m
courtier to dominantly military government. This is not to suggest

28
Nagatoki (regent 1256-63) and Masamura (regent 1264-68).

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that warrior rule at any time during the Kamakura period extended
to all corners of the country. Even through much of the succeeding
Muromachi epoch there remained three distinct spheres of juris-
diction in Japan: 2 9 (i) the court sphere, centered in Kyoto and based
on the Chinese-style codes and their supplements; (2) the sphere of
autonomous estates; (3) the military sphere of the Kamakura and,
later, the Muromachi shogunates. Little is known of precise legal
and administrative practice in the estates; but from Kamakura times
the military encroached ever more openly on both estate lands and
jurisdiction. Disputes that arose between vassals of the shogun and
estate holders were commonly decided under military codes. Hence
the tendency was for warrior rule gradually to displace the estates.
Formal jurisdictional and legal procedure for the military was
first set forth during the time of Yasutoki. It is in this sense that he
represents the end of transition from the Heian to the Kamakura
periods. From a more theoretical standpoint, it is also possible to
contrast, as do many Japanese scholars, the political authoritarianism
of Yoritomo with Yasutoki's rule by assembly government. 30 These
scholars note that the early Hojo succeeded in broadening the base
of military government to meet the demands of eastern warrior
families for a greater voice in affairs at Kamakura. They see com-
pletion of this broadening in the establishment of a council of state
{hyojoshu) by Yasutoki in 1225. Yasutoki also created the office of
cosigner (rensho) to stand in an advisory capacity with the shogunal
regent at the council's head. While appointment as cosigner always
went to a high-ranking Hojo (e.g., Tokifusa was the first appointee),
no member of the family sat on the first council of state. By the time
of Yasutoki's death in 1242, however, the Hojo held five of nine-
teen scats.
Yasutoki, who sought to codify warrior rule and ethics in the Jdei
Code of 1232, was a man whose views differed markedly from those
of Jien. Rather than speculate on matters such as a merger of court
and shogunate, Yasutoki attempted to define warrior government

29
This division is followed by U e k i Shin'ichird in Goseibai Shikimoku
Kenkyu, p. 6.
30
This contrast is, in fact, almost universally made in modern Japanese
historical texts.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

within the limits of shogunatc administration that actually prevailed

during his time. One of the most distinctive principles which he
incorporated in the Joei Code was that of auto-limitation or the
self-restriction of jurisdiction. 31 The aim of Yasutoki and his
advisers was not to deny or to threaten the existence of authority
spheres outside their control. On the contrary, they were acutely
conscious of the delicate relationships which the shogunatc main-
tained with other groups in the country. They specifically acknow-
ledged court and estate, as well as military, jurisdiction and sought
to restrain their warrior followers from exceeding the bounds of
their designated authorities.32
Like Jien, Yasutoki made frequent use of the term dori, not in the
sense of a mystical force or religious law but as a designation for the
spirit and practice of warrior society. On the basis of his interpreta-
tion of dori, Yasutoki attempted both to articulate the personal
ethics of the warrior and to standardize the traditional rules of the
society to which he belonged. Personal ethics of the warrior in early
Kamakura times seem to have derived mainly from two sources:
from the roots of provincial society itself in response to the long-
standing need to maintain order by force of arms even at the lowest
levels of social organization; and from Buddhism, especially its
doctrine of negation, which to the warrior implied merger or
negation of self in the service of one's lord. 33
Yasutoki's interpretation of dori as a principle or guide for stand-
ardization of the rules of warrior society reflected the highly
conservative, and at the same time pragmatic, attitude which he
held toward law and its enforcement. In the provisions of the Joei
Code we find him stressing points such as: (i) the sanctity of
precedents, especially those laid down during the time of Yoritomo;
(2) the strict imposition of penalties for contravention of the law;
and (3) the need to exercise "reasonableness" or "common sense"
injudicial cases not governable by precedent. The first two points
comprised a legalistic affirmation of the generally accepted rules and

31
Ishii Susumu, Kamakura Bakufu, in Chuo Koron Sha, Nihon no Rekishi,
VII, 40j. Also Watsuji Tetsuro, Nihon Rinri Shiso Shi, II, 4.
32
Ueki, Goseibai Shikimoku Kenkyu.
33
Watsuji, Nihon Rinri Shiso Shi, I, 3 1 1 .

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procedures of warrior society and the third called for a rational and
flexible approach to be taken in the subsequent expansion of those
rules and procedures.
H5jo Yasutoki can be seen to have instituted a code of personal
conduct for the warrior as well as a practical legal system for his
governance. In contrast to those of the courtier-priest Jien, Yasu-
toki's views seem eminently realistic. At the same time it must be
remembered that Yasutoki directed his attention exclusively to
warrior society, which was still largely confined geographically
to the east and numerically to those who had been granted status
as shogunate housemen. The ideal of national rule, so important to
Jien, was not a matter of particular concern to Yasutoki. A member
of the Fujiwara or of the imperial family to serve as shogun was
deemed necessary for H5jo claims to legitimacy; beyond that
Yasutoki and his advisers saw no need to appeal for integration of a
society that they believed to be divided clearly into several juris-
dictions. Only with the passage of time and the further militariza-
tion of the land would it become necessary for prospective warrior
hegemons to consider the need for a more comprehensive attitude
toward the state and the manner in which it should be ruled. Mean-
while the events of the next century—especially the Mongol
invasions and the attempted restoration of imperial rule in the midst
of a dynastic schism—while reducing further the influence of the
court in political affairs, served to stimulate a reinterpretation of the
imperial institution itself in both religious and ethical terms and
thus in a sense to strengthen its theoretical foundations.

W e have seen that Buddhism entered Japan as part of a great pro-

cess of reform and centralization. Political as well as religious leaders
from at least the seventh century repeatedly stressed the importance
of Buddhism as the guardian and protector of the new state that was
emerging under Chinese influence. They designated as centers of
national protection the Todaiji during the Nara period and the
Enryakuji during the Heian period. The Tendai Buddhism of the
Enryakuji, with its comprehensive and syncretic outlook, was
especially well-suited to serve as the religious safekeeper of central-
ized imperial rule. It is significant that one of the most outspoken
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 COURT AND MILITARY

proponents during the early Kamakura age of a return to the central-

ized polity of Nara-Heian times in which the Buddhist and imperial
laws had flourished together was Jien, several times head of the
Enryakuji.
Tcndai Buddhism was the source f r o m which all the new sects
of the Kamakura period sprang. The great religious figures of the
age—H5nen ( 1 1 3 3 - 1 2 1 2 ) , Shinran ( 1 1 7 3 - 1 2 6 2 ) , Eisai ( 1 1 4 1 - 1 2 1 5 ) ,
Dogen (1200-53), Nichiren (1222-82)—without exception received
their original training either at the Enryakuji or at one of the other
Tcndai monastic centers. Each of these men came to espouse as the
central doctrine of his sect some aspect of Buddhism or Buddhist
practice that was already part of the Tendai synthesis—e.g., the
tiembutsu (invocation of the name of Amida Buddha), meditation,
or the original tenets of the Lotus Sutra. Eisai, w h o later was
acknowledged as the founder of the Rinzai or "sudden enlighten-
m e n t " school of Zen Buddhism in Japan, may appear to have been
the most conservative of this group insofar as he curried favor with
the ruling classes at both Kamakura and K y o t o and refused to regard
himself as a separatist f r o m the Tendai church. Yet, in fact, it was
Nichiren w h o seems to have had the strongest attachment to the
old order.
Nichiren, w h o alone among these religious leaders rose f r o m
truly humble origins as the son of a fisherman in the eastern prov-
inces of Japan, was a religious fundamentalist. He, like so many of
his contemporaries, believed that the age in which he lived was one
of decline and degeneracy. Yet, unlike the other Salvationists, w h o
held that the times permitted no alternative but utter reliance on the
saving grace of Amida Buddha, Nichiren called for a return to the
fundamental doctrines of the Lotus Sutra which Saich5 had made
the basis of Tendai Buddhism. He wanted the restoration of an
imperially centered state with a revitalized Tendai church as its
protector. This state had declined because of the spread of false
Buddhist doctrines, such as the nembutsu and Zen, even within the
teachings of Tendai. Nichiren insisted that internal rebellion and
foreign aggression would bring disaster to Japan unless these false
teachings were stamped out. Only after the military leaders at
Kamakura refused to accept his demands did he increasingly come to

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see himself as the savior who, with the aid of the Lotus Sutra, would
establish a new and spiritually purer order when the final cataclysm
arrived.
Another important development during the early medieval age
was the restatement of the idea of state protection in Shinto, rather
than Buddhist, terms. The concept of shinkoku, which first appeared
in the Nihoti Shoki,34 held Japan to be the "land of the gods" or the
"divine l a n d " and, by extension, implied that the gods w h o creatcd
Japan would continue to act as its guardians. This was precisely the
interpretation that evolved in the Kamakura period.
It may seem surprising that primitive Shinto had even been able
to survive the inflow of vastly more sophisticated Buddhist doctrines
some six to seven centuries earlier. Yet Shinto embraced some of the
most basic sentiments and beliefs of the Japanese, and by the Nara
period distinct efforts were being made to reconcile or synthesize it
with Buddhism. This was done essentially through the process of
identifying the divine beings of Buddhism with the more important
of the native kami. Amatcrasu, for example, was equated with the
cosmic Buddha of Shingon Buddhism, Dainichi. In its completed
f o r m this reconciliation was succincdy expressed as hottji suijaku, or
" t h e essences (buddhas and bodhisattvas) have left traces (karni)"—
i.e., the kami are secondary manifestations in Japan of the primary
figures of Buddhism. Clearly Shinto was here regarded as little more
than a derivative of Buddhism, a fact that contributed to the former's
general lack of appeal in intellectual circles during succeeding
centuries.
This is not to suggest that the vitality of Shinto declined every-
where. The esoteric Buddhist sects of the Heian period enjoyed
popularity among the leisured aristocrats of the capital. T o most
provincial families and to the c o m m o n e r class in general, worship of
clan, agricultural, and local deities of Shinto remained a central
part of everyday life. So widespread was kami worship (jitigi suhai)
that, with the formation of private estates during Heian times, estate

34
Kuroda Toshio, "Chusei Kokka to Shinkoku Shiso" in Kawasaki, ct ai,
eds., Nihon Shiikyo Shi Koza, I, 68. In the annals for Jingu in the Nihon Shoki,
the king of the Korean state of Silla says: " I have heard that there is a land of
the gods (shinkoku) in the east and that it is called N i h o n . "

[30]
 COURT AND MILITARY

holders came to see the advantage of supporting local Shinto shrines

as focal points for the administration and control of the peasantry. 35
In this w a y Shinto assumed an increasingly important role in
provincial affairs, a role further enhanced by the rise of the military.
In ruling circles as well Shinto began to take on new importance
toward the end of the Heian and the beginning of the Kamakura
periods. Although the Gukansho is generally regarded as a study of
history in Buddhist terms, w e have seen that the thinking of its
author Jien was steeped also in the myth and lore of Shinto. One of
the most significant of Jicn's interpretations was the clear distinction
he drew between the age of the gods (kamiyo) and the historical
period, commencing with Emperor J i m m u , which he made the
starting point of his book. Authors of earlier works had tended to
merge the affairs of gods and men. Jien, by placing the former
beyond the purview of history, gave to the age of the gods an aura
of sanctity and awe. 3 6
As a further indication of the revival of interest in Shinto, study
of the Nihon Shoki, with emphasis on the sections dealing with the
age of the gods, was especially popular at court during the Kama-
kura period. A fundamental problem which faced Shinto scholars
of this era was the need to overcome the widely held feelings of
Buddhistic pessimism and impermanency that pervaded men's
minds. 37 Ideas such as the end of the Buddhist law and " a hundred
k i n g s " 3 8 could not, in the final analysis, be reconciled with opti-
mistic Shinto belief in the mandate of the imperial family to rule
eternally. Jien had attempted, with questionable success, to blend
Buddhist and Shinto concepts concerning the continuity of the
imperial family during the final stages of historical decline. Other
35
Ibid., p. 75.
36
Watsuji, Nihon Rinri Shiso Shi, I, 353.
37
Nagahara Keiji, "Kitabatake Chikafusa," in Sato Shin'ichi, ed., Nihon
Jimbutsu Shi Taikei, II, 124.
38
" A hundred kings," like mappo, thinking was based on a terminal attitude
toward history—that is, that all societies must ultimately and predictably
decline and succumb. Since Juntoku, who was on the throne at the time Jien
wrote the Gukansho, was the 84th emperor of Japan, this meant that sixteen
successors remained. B y the time of Godaigo (the 96th emperor), there were
only four. Hence Chikafusa found it necessary to attack with especial vigor
belief in the legend that only a hundred kings would rule.

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scholars made direct attack upon Buddhist doctrine. In the Shaku

Nihotigi, compiled about 1272, there is recorded a conversation
between the Shinto teachcr Urabe Kanebumi and a group of
courtiers, including the imperial regent. 3 ® The topic of discussion
was the apparent contradiction between the promise of Amaterasu
that the imperial family would occupy the throne of Japan forever
and the prevailing belief that the reigning dynasty would come to an
end after a hundred kings. Kanebumi informed his listeners that " a
hundred k i n g s " should not be taken literally, but in a figurative
sense to mean " a myriad kings." Far f r o m portending the extinction
of the imperial family, the concept of a hundred kings was a strong
reaffirmation of the permanent nature of the imperial institution in
Japan.
A distinctive characteristic ofkarni worship in early Japan was the
great variety of deities that were revered throughout the land. This
diversity made it difficult to organize worship above the local level,
and increasingly Shinto thinkers of the Kamakura and early M u r o -
machi periods sought to give more coherent national direction to
kami worship. Without attempting to do away with belief in lesser
kami, these thinkers for the most part stressed the preeminence in the
Shinto pantheon of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, and encouragcd a
higher worship of her special shrine at Ise. According to the Azuma
Kagami, Y o r i t o m o himself acknowledged that, since all the land of
the realm belonged ultimately to the Ise Shrine, effective rule could
be instituted upon approval of the gods as revealed through the Ise
Shrine. 40 W e have noted the importance which Jien attached to the
" w i l l of the g o d s " (shin'i) in the molding of Japanese history. Even
more significant, perhaps, was this reverence paid b y a military leader
such as Y o r i t o m o to the same authority.
In addition to exalting the centrality of the Ise Shrine and its role
in sactifying national rule, Y o r i t o m o also sought to strengthen his
personal control over the eastern warriors by directing their rever-
ence toward Hachiman, the tutelary deity of the Minamoto clan.
T o Yoritomo, Hachiman wasgokoku no kami, or the kami w h o pro-
39
Recounted in Sakamoto Taro, Nihon no Shüshi to Shigaku, pp. 1 2 3 - 2 5 .
40
Nagahara Keiji, "Chüsei no Sekai-kan," in K a w a d e Shobo, Nihon
Rekishi Koza, I, 136.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

tects the state. B y elevating the Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine to a

leading position in shogunate ceremonies at Kamakura, the Mina-
moto chieftain underscored the importance he attached to kami
worship as a tool of military government. 41
Although it would be difficult, and quite beyond the scope of this
study, to trace in detail the interplay of Buddhism and Shinto during
the Kamakura period, some remarks must be made concerning the
response of devout Buddhists to the revival of Shinto about this
time. In the great popularization of Buddhism during this age the
rapid growth of the Amidist sects of Pure Land and True Pure Land
Buddhism was particularly striking. Among the first to react to the
new competition of the Amidists were the Heian sects of Shingon
and Tendai, which had been instrumental in the earlier movement
to merge Buddhism and Shinto—Shingon by founding Ryobu
(Dual) Shinto and Tendai through its Sanno Shinto. One of the
principal arguments that followers of the older sects used to counter
Amidist popularity was that Amidism was simply a phenomenon of
a period of the end of the Buddhist law and that its practices, which
called upon men to place absolute faith in the saving grace of Amida
during a time when all other so-called methods for betterment or
salvation had failed, could not be reconciled with Shinto. 42
Although the great founders of Amidism in Japan, Honen and
Shinran, showed little inclination to compromise with Shinto, later
leaders of the new sects, such as Ippen (1239-89), not only accepted
kami worship but even affirmed the tradition of identifying buddhas
and bodhisattvas with the Shinto gods. Thus, despite the enormous
success of the Amidist sects in propagating their simple formula for
salvation, Amidist preachers were forced to recognize the practical
need to accommodate or to reconcile their beliefs with the deep-
rooted devotion of the Japanese people to kami worship. 43
The most important phase in the reorganization of Shinto during
the early medieval period was the formulation of so-called Ise
Shinto. Ise Shinto was closely associated with the movement about
this time to assert the primacy of Shinto over Buddhism, as reflected
41
Ibid.
42
Yomiuri Shimbun Sha, Nihon no Rekishi, V , 2 5 1 .
43
Ibid., p. 252.

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 COURT AND MILITARY

in the slogan shintpon butsujaku: the Shinto kami are the "essences"
and the Buddhist divinities are the " traces." 4 4 It also came to exert
a strong influence on the writings of men like Kitabatakc Chikafusa
and thus to bear directly on the larger questions of dynastic succes-
sion and imperial rule, which were central to the Kemmu Restora-
tion and to the events that surrounded it. In its origins, however, Ise
Shinto was less the product of purely doctrinal inspiration than of
economic and factional pressures within the organization of the Ise
Shrine.
The Shinto establishment at Ise consisted of t w o main parts: an
inner shrine (naiku) and an outer shrine (gekii). The inner shrine was
constructed to house the spirit of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu, while
the outer shrine was dedicated to a god of the harvest, Toyouke-no-
kami. Both these component shrines were served on a hereditary
basis by special priestly families, the Arakida in the inner shrine and
the Watarai in the outer. Since the inner shrine was older and un-
questionably enjoyed greater prestige than the outer shrine, it became
customary for successive generations of the Watarai family to seek to
improve their position either by calling for a closer merger of the
shrines or by claiming the superiority of the outer over the inner
shrine. Special circumstances gave the Watarai their best opportunity
after the establishment of military government at Kamakura.
In earlier centuries the imperial court had maintained responsibility
for the upkeep of the Ise Shrine. W i t h the decline of the court's
financial structure about mid-Heian times, however, government
funds paid to Ise began to dwindle. Officials of the shrine were forced
to seek additional income and soon entered into competition with
the other major institutional and familial entities of the age for the
acquisition of landed estates. The holdings they gathered for the Ise
Shrine came to be k n o w n by the special term mikuriya, and revenue
derived therefrom provided amply for the upkeep and activities of
the shrine until the Kamakura period, when stewards and other
representatives of the military began to appropriate or to withhold
increasing portions of the rice income normally payable to Ise.
Again shrine officials were forced to seek new sources of revenue.
This time they directed their efforts into intensive campaigns to
44
See discussion in Nakamura Naokatsu, Yoshino-cho Shi, pp. 24-28.

[34]
 COURT AND MILITARY

cncouragc people to journey as pilgrims to Ise and to make votive

offerings to the shrine. Because tradition decreed that only the
imperial family could have dircct access to the precincts of the Ise
Shrine, it was necessary to appoint intermediaries, k n o w n as oshi, to
deal with the pilgrims and to receive their offerings. It was as a result
of competition between oshi of the inner and outer shrines that the
earliest form of Ise Shinto developed.
Ise Shinto ultimately became a strong reaffirmation both of the
supreme holiness of Amaterasu and, by extension, of the primacy of
the imperial family as her direct descendants on earth. Through Ise
Shinto, worship of many kanti was channeled upward to become a
higher worship of Amaterasu. It is ironic, therefore, that the first
statements of Ise Shinto should be made not in exaltation of Ama-
terasu, but as a challenge to her position.
The Watarai family and their oshi were very aggressive in their
campaigns to promote "Ise visiting (Ise-mairi)." Yet they found
themselves constantly at a disadvantage in seeking to obtain offerings
for their patron deity when people had the alternative of donating
their money to Amaterasu and the inner shrine. Accordingly, the
Watarai sought to demonstrate, by whatever means possible, that the
outer shrine was either equal to or the superior of the inner shrine.
Their most important claim was that the harvest god of the outer
shrine was in reality Kunitoko-tachi-no-mikoto, the first deity to
appear in Shinto mythology and therefore a personage quite senior
to the later-bom Amaterasu. 4S They cited as their source of au-
thority the Shinto Gohusho, a collection of texts supposedly of great
antiquity but proven by later scholars to be a product of the Kama-
kura period, possibly compiled under the auspices of the Watarai
themselves. 46
The texts of the Shinto Gobusho were not carefully written or
logically constructed, but were collections of random borrowing
from a number of systems: Confucianism, Taoism, yin-yang, five
elements, etc. 47 It can scarcely be imagined that they attracted many

45
Yomiuri Shimbun Sha, Nihon no Rekishi, p. 254.
44
Kuroda Toshio, Moko Shurai, in Chuo Koron Sha, Nihon no Rekishi,
VIII, 154.
47
Ibid., p. 155.

[35]
 COURT AND MILITARY

readers during the Kamakura period. Yet the Shinto Gobusho, as a

scriptural basis for Ise Shinto, did underscore two important ten-
dencies of the day: Shinto thinkers were turning more and more
away from Buddhism; and Shinto itself was being invested with
ethical qualities, however rudimentary they might be at this early
stage.
When Kitabatake Chikafusa returned to Ise in 1336 to prepare for
the removal of Godaigo's court to that region, he was met by both
Watarai Ieyuki, then eighty-one years of age, and Arakida Okitoki.
The Kitabatake were a great family of Ise Province and Chikafusa's
interest in the scholars of the Ise Shrine is well known. Later genera-
tions were to consider the Jitmo Shotoki a classic of Ise Shinto thought.
This is probably an exaggeration, since Chikafusa's interests ex-
tended to matters far beyond the purview of Shinto. Nevertheless,
we can see even in his opening lines the strong influence of the Ise
school: "Great Japan is the divine land. Its foundations were first
laid by Kunitokotachi-no-mikoto and it has been ruled since time
immemorial by the descendants of Amaterasu Omikami. This is true
only of our country; there are no examples among foreign lands.
It is for this reason that we call our land the divine land."

The next important stage in the development of Shinto thought

during the Kamakura era was the period of the Mongol invasions of
1274 and 1281. I shall discuss in the next chapter the effects of the
invasions on H5jo rule. Suffice it to note here that the Kamakura
regime had become overextended. The continuing deterioration of
the estate system of landholding, upon which shogunate leaders
relied for the maintenance of control in distant provinces, and the
appearance of warrior groups not beholden to Kamakura were
simply two factors that contributed to the decentralizing tendencies
of the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The need to deal with
the threat of foreign attack at coastal points distant from Kamakura
further increased the problems of provincial administration already
besetting the H5jo.
Never before in recorded history had a foreign country attempted
to invade the Japanese isles. Because of the uniqueness of these
occurrcnces during the early medieval period, later Japanese tended

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being held in the hand. Besides this, thin coins give a good business-
like clink; whilst a large coin is always more effective than a small
one. Pennies plated over make very fair substitutes, and do not
entail much loss of capital if kept aside ready for use, as they always
should be, which can hardly be said to be the case with florins or
half-crowns.
 CHAPTER III.

TRICKS WITH COMMON OBJECTS.

ON RAPIDITY AND DECEPTION—MISDIRECTION—A JAPANESE
SUGAR TRICK—"FLY AWAY, JACK; FLY AWAY, JOHN: COME AGAIN,
JACK; COME AGAIN, JOHN"—A "RISING BLADE"—TO RESTORE A
PIECE OF COTTON THAT HAS BEEN CUT UP IN SMALL PIECES—TO
PASS A RING FROM A HANDKERCHIEF ON TO A WAND HELD AT
EACH END—A SECOND METHOD—A THIRD METHOD.
I commence this, the second portion of drawing-room conjuring,
with the decided hope that, before my readers attempt to follow me,
they will have attained some proficiency in the art of palming and
other little matters alluded to in my remarks concerning the
treatment of coins. If such skill has been acquired, although in a
small degree only, it will be of use in rendering the manipulation of
other objects much easier. The prevailing idea with the public is that
a conjuror moves things about from place to place before one's very
eyes, but with such extreme rapidity as to avoid detection. This, I
say, is the prevailing idea, and long may it continue to be so, since it
is the very thing an audience is supposed to imagine. The learner,
however, must, from the outset, dismiss such an impression from his
mind as untenable, even for an instant. If he has a lurking opinion
that a hand can be moved without the motion being detected, let
him practise at moving, say, a cork or a piece of sugar, a distance of
only one short inch. Let him practise for a twelvemonth to begin
with, and I will guarantee that at the end of that period he is no
nearer the consummation of the feat than he was at the
commencement. If time hangs heavily on his hands, let him go on
practising, say, for five or ten years: the result will be precisely
similar. No; conjuring is based upon more deceptive principles than
mere rapidity of movement, although that, of course, enters largely
into its composition. Articles are, indeed, transmitted from one place
to another before the eyes of the audience, but it is always, as it
were, sub rosa. This is the reason why conjurors say so much about
the hand being quicker than the eye, &c. The audience is continually
trying to detect movements which are never even attempted, the
result being that other movements are conducted with impunity. The
conjuror must start with the one principle firmly fixed in his mind
that he is to deceive his audience in every way possible. At no time
is he actually to do that which he says he is doing. Every look and
gesture, besides every word, should tend to lead the mind into the
wrong groove. Misdirection is the grand basis of the conjuror's
actions; and the more natural the performer's movements in this
particular, the more complete will be his success. With each trick
that requires it, I shall give hints for misdirecting the spectator's
attention, although I am of opinion that every conjuror can best suit
himself if he is only firmly impressed with the necessity for
misdirection. The drawing-room conjuror must hold himself prepared
to perform offhand with any article that may happen to present itself
to view; although it is, of course, perfectly allowable for him to send
for anything he may require. An article which one is tolerably certain
to find in most houses is
Sugar.—Take four well-shaped pieces, of a medium size, and place
them before you on a table, at which you will sit at your ease, in the
form of a square, and about a foot from each other. Hatch up a long
rigmarole about one piece being the Emperor of Japan, another his
wife, another his daughter, and another his prime minister, or any
other rubbish you please, so long as you bring it about that it is
necessary that all four should assemble together in one place. In the
country of which you are speaking, you will explain, it is the custom
of Royalty to travel by telegraph, and invisible to the gaze of the
"common herd." To illustrate how it is done, you will cover two of
the four pieces, each with a separate hand, and, at the word "pass,"
make a slight movement as if throwing a piece from one hand to the
other. On raising the hands, two pieces will be found under one, and
none under the other. Repeat this operation (the minority always
going over to the majority) until all four pieces are collected under
one hand. The explanation of this really pretty, and, to the
uninitiated, inexplicable trick, is, that you have a fifth piece of sugar
palmed. If this piece be released, and that under the other hand
palmed, the effect is the same as if an invisible journey had really
been made. Supposing the five pieces of sugar to be represented by
numerals, the various changes may be thus tabulated:

Left Hand. Right Hand.

1.—Raise 1 and Drop 5 with 2.
2.—Drop 1 with 5 and 2 and Raise 3.
3.—Raise 4 and Drop 3 with 1, 5, and 2.
4.—Raise both hands and pocket 4.

The rough and adhesive nature of sugar renders it very easy to

palm. In palming, avoid all contraction of the muscles of the back of
the hand, which is visible to the audience, or a clue to the solution
of the trick will be given. If going out to a place where you are likely
to be asked to exhibit your skill, be provided with a piece of sugar,
and then ask for the requisite four pieces. If you are unprovided,
then you must secure possession of the sugar basin, and secrete the
extra piece as best you can. The extreme simplicity of this trick is
only equalled by the astonishment of the audience, who are
straining their eyes to catch a glimpse of the piece of sugar as it
passes. I need hardly remark that they never succeed.
Fig. 19.

Fig. 20.
Knives, I think I may say, are also tolerably common articles, and
some good tricks are performed with them. Take a cheese knife and
four tiny squares of paper. Stand facing your audience, however
small it may be, and, wetting the papers separately, stick two on
each side of the blade, taking care that the positions on both sides
correspond as nearly as possible. Hold the knife before you in the
fingers of the right hand (Fig. 19), and in such a position that only
one side of the blade is visible. With the thumb and finger of the left
hand remove the piece of paper nearest the handle, and, putting
your hand behind your back, make a feint of throwing it away,
without actually doing so. Now, with a rapid movement, cause the
knife to describe a half circle in the air still with the same side
uppermost; but the position of the hand will be slightly altered (Fig.
20), which will lead the audience to think that the knife has been
actually turned over. Barely before the movement is completed a
finger of the left hand must be upon the spot recently occupied by
the piece of paper, as if taking off a second piece from the opposite
side. The first piece, which has all the time been in the left hand, is
thus made to do duty twice. The second time, it is dropped on the
floor in full view of the audience, accompanied by the remark, "that
makes the second piece." Now remove the other piece of paper, and
repeat the manœuvre executed with the first piece, taking the
greatest care that only one side of the blade is visible, and that the
finger of the left hand, with the concealed paper, is down upon the
vacant spot before the spectators' eyes can rest there. Having
ostensibly removed the fourth and last piece of paper, the knife is
supposed to be empty, which you boldly declare to be the case,
making a rapid backward and forward movement with the blank side
to prove it. You then say you will cause the papers to re-appear
upon the knife instantaneously. All you have to do is to put your
hand behind your back and reverse the position of the knife so that
the side of the blade with the two pieces of paper still remaining
upon it is uppermost. Bringing the knife again to the front, make
another quick backward and forward movement, saying, "Here are
the papers back again on both sides as before," and then, without
any further preliminaries, draw the blade through the fingers and
cause the two papers to fall upon the floor. If this final movement is
not executed, the audience will, when they have recovered their
senses, point to the two papers which you dropped on the floor
during the performance of the trick, and want to know why they are
there and not on the knife. Continued rapidity of motion is what is
required for the success of this trick. There must be no halting in the
middle or hesitation of any kind, to avoid which practice in private
will be essential, as, indeed, it will be with every trick worth doing at
all.
Borrow a light penknife, and take care that it is not too sharp, and
has a good deep notch at the haft. You are previously prepared with
about two feet of very fine black silk, one end of which is attached
to a button of your vest, the other end being furnished with a loop
large enough to pass over a finger. This can either be wound round
the button, or can hang loosely, with the free end looped up. I prefer
the latter method, and have never found it lead to any
inconvenience, which at first sight it appears extremely likely to do.
Also borrow a hock or champagne bottle; pint size preferred. First
send round the knife to be examined, and, whilst the examination is
going on, get the loop of the silk over the end of one of the fingers
of the left hand. When the knife is returned to you, and not before,
give the bottle to be examined, and distract the attention of the
audience by allusions to the "departed spirits" of the bottle, and
admonitions to be sure and see that the bottom does not take out.
By the time the bottle comes back you have slipped the loop over
the blade of the knife and allowed it to catch in the notch, where
cause it to remain. If the knife is a sharp one, extra caution must be
observed, or the silk will be severed. This actually happened to me
on one occasion, so I speak from direful experience. By sending the
bottle away to be cleaned, I gained sufficient time to tie another
loop in the silk, and went on as usual; but the incident was not a
particularly cheerful one taken altogether—there was too much
"glorious uncertainty" about it. Take the knife upside down, i.e., with
the sharp edge of the blade uppermost, between the finger and
thumb, hold the silk sufficiently taut to keep the loop in position by
means of the other fingers, and drop the whole into the bottle. This
must not be done with the bottle in a perpendicular position (in
which case the loop will probably either break or slip off the knife),
but with it inclined at an angle of about 45 deg. (Fig. 21). This will
allow the knife to slide down at a safe speed and yet reach the
bottom with a good "thud." Having satisfied yourself that everything
is in order, hold the bottle perpendicularly in the left hand between
the audience and yourself, and about breast high. Make use of any
cabalistic nonsense you please, and then cause the knife to rise from
the bottle by the action of moving it from you and towards the
audience. The action of raising the bottle must be but sparsely
indulged in, if at all, as it is easily noticed; not so the horizontal
motion. When brought to the mouth of the bottle the knife quietly
topples over on to the floor, whence allow it to be picked up by a
spectator, who will not require much admonition to examine it. Also
send the bottle round again; and get rid of the silk as soon as you
can after the trick is done. It will be noticed that I have directed the
performer to use a hock or champagne bottle. The reason for this
will be obvious after once trying the experiment with a bottle having
an abrupt shoulder, such as an ale bottle. The knife catches in it, and
a vigorous jerk, which is as likely to cause a breakage as anything
else, has to be resorted to to free it. The sides of hock and
champagne bottles presenting an even surface the whole way up,
that class of bottle is therefore to be preferred. By means of the
foregoing three tricks I have seen a room full of intelligent people
utterly bewildered.
 Fig. 21

The following trick I have never known to be discovered if only

properly performed. For it you will require another exceedingly
common object, viz.:
Cotton.—Take a piece of any colour, 12in. to 15in. long, and see that
one of the audience is provided with a very sharp penknife. Double
the cotton once, and have the bend cut quite through. Double again
and have it cut, and repeat the operation until it is nothing but
pieces, each barely a third of an inch long. Rub the pieces together
in the fingers, and, after a short time, quietly draw out the cotton
again as it was in the first instance. That is what you must ostensibly
do: now for how to do it. First of all, have concealed between your
finger and thumb a piece of cotton about the length above
mentioned. This you must roll up small, and deliberately hold
between your finger and thumb, or, better still, if the fingers be
sufficiently large, between the tips of any two fingers, as they are
more naturally kept together. Nobody will notice it if the hand is
engaged in negligently holding the lappel of your coat, the wand,
&c. I need hardly mention that the concealed piece must be of the
same colour as that operated upon, as the production of a white in
place of a black piece would scarcely be satisfactory. To ensure the
success of this preliminary, some considerable manœuvring has
often to be gone through, and no small amount of tact exhibited.
Where you are showing the trick for the first time, you can of course
ask for any coloured cotton you please (always choose black when
you have a choice), but it is such a fascinating trick that you will be
called upon to perform it over and over again in the same house, or
before the same people—which is quite as bad—and you will find
that all kinds of ingenious devices will be brought to bear upon you.
As a commencement, always carry in the corners of your waistcoat
pockets two black and two white pieces, ready for emergencies.
Each pocket will contain two pieces of the same colour, but differing
in thickness, one in each corner. It is useless to carry other colours
on the mere chance, as you are sure to be unprovided with the
exact one required at the moment. When coloured cotton is
produced, you must, by some means or other, get at the reel from
which the cotton is taken. If driven right into a corner, you must go
so far as to ask someone (always let it be the master or mistress of
the house) to secretly obtain a piece for you; but this you will have
to resort to on rare occasions only. Make all sorts of excuses so as to
cause a delay, even going so far as to postpone the performance of
the trick, but not before you have seen what colour you are likely to
be favoured with. Your wits must do the rest. The reader must
remember that I have taken extreme cases, and such as but rarely
occur; but still they do occur, and if I did not warn the beginner of
pitfalls ahead, he would not think much of my teaching. In the
ordinary way, he will be able to ask for any colour he pleases, which
will of course be similar to that with which he is provided. We will
suppose that everything has progressed favourably. Take the cotton
to be cut between the thumb and forefinger of each hand, by the
extreme ends, and, doubling it, let one hand hold the loop to be cut,
the fingers of the other hand holding the ends. As soon as the knife
has passed through the cotton, give it a "twitch," and bring the
ends, of which there will now be four, quickly together, as if you had
performed some very intricate manœuvre. Of course, you have really
done nothing at all, the movement being only a deceptive one to
lead the spectators to believe that the secret of the trick consists in
the way in which you twist or double the cotton. Have this in mind
all through the trick, and keep up the deception. Continue to double
the cotton, taking the greatest care that the ends all come neatly
together, and that all the loops are cut through. Do everything with
the greatest deliberation (except the delusive "twitch"), for there is
no occasion for any hurry. When the cotton is cut so small that it will
not double any more, commence to knead in the fingers, and
gradually work the fragments behind the concealed piece, which
must be brought to the front. This you will do without once
removing the hands from the full view of the audience—in fact,
under their very eyes. When you feel quite sure that everything is
snug and secure, commence to unravel the whole piece, which will
pass for the resuscitated original.
People who have seen the trick performed before will sometimes
suggest that the piece of cotton should be measured before being
cut up. Allow this to be done with all the grace in the world (when
you find that you cannot do otherwise), but, before operating upon
it, roll it up in the fingers, either absently, whilst engaging the
audience in conversation, or for the purpose of seeing if it is of the
proper dimensions, and exchange it, unperceived, for the concealed
piece, which will be cut up instead. Although it is not advisable to
have the cotton measured first, yet, when it is done, it invariably
adds lustre to the feat. The pieces must never be carelessly thrown
away, but secreted in a pocket on the first opportunity that presents
itself, and afterwards burnt.
 Fig. 22.

Rings can be made use of in many tricks, both in the drawing-room

and on the stage. The following will be found very neat and
effective: Procure a metal imitation of a wedding-ring, and have it
cut neatly through. Pass this ring under a single thread of your
handkerchief near one of the corners. Borrow a lady's ring, which
palm, under pretence of putting it in the handkerchief. (The best
method for palming a ring is to hold it between two fingers at the
roots.) This you will appear to have done if you give the false ring
(under cover of the handkerchief) to be held by someone who is not
the owner of the borrowed article. It is immaterial whether the
genuine ring has a fancy head or not, as the back of it will usually be
about the width of a wedding-ring. Take the wand in the hand, and,
unperceived, slip the ring in your palm over it until it reaches the
middle, still covered by the hand. Now ask two persons to hold the
wand, one at either end, and lay the handkerchief containing the
false ring (still held from the outside by the original holder) over it. If
you now remove your hand, you will leave the ring on the wand still
concealed by the handkerchief (Fig. 22). Take hold of the end of the
handkerchief which hangs down below the wand, and instruct the
person holding the false ring to leave go when you count "three." As
soon as you are obeyed, draw the handkerchief smartly across the
wand. This will cause the ring to spin round, and assist materially in
inducing the audience to believe that it was actually conjured from
the handkerchief on to the wand whilst the latter article was being
held at either end by two people. A slight jerk will detach the false
ring from the handkerchief, which you can send round to be
examined. A hint I can give the learner is, never to ask a lady to
lend you her wedding-ring or keeper. Many ladies are exceedingly
superstitious, and feel embarrassed when asked, from not liking to
refuse, and yet being unwilling to take their rings from their fingers.
Always borrow a ring the back of which nearly, if not quite, matches
your false article in substance.
Procure a metal ring, similar to the one used in the last trick, of very
soft brass, and, when you have cut it through, sharpen up the two
ends to points with a file, or any other way you please. Borrow a
lady's ring, and exchange it, as in last trick, putting the false one in a
handkerchief, which have tied with tape or string in such a manner
that the ring is contained in a bag. If the borrowed ring is narrow all
round, you may make use of your nest of boxes (described in trick g,
Chapter II.), if it has not been previously utilised in some other trick;
it being a golden rule among conjurors never to use the same
apparatus twice during the same evening. An apple (a potato, small
loaf, &c., will do as well) can be used instead with effect, if a goodly
slit be made in it, and the ring pushed in while you are taking it from
your bag or from behind the screen. Show the apple round, boldly
saying that everyone can see that there is no preparation about it, at
the same time taking care that no one has time to decide either one
way or the other from the rapidity with which you pass it about.
Place it in a prominent position, and then take the handkerchief
containing the false ring by the bag, allowing the ends to fall over
and conceal your hands. Quickly unbend the ring, and, working one
of the pointed ends through the handkerchief, draw it out, and rub
the place of exit between your fingers, so as to obliterate all traces
of it. All this you must do very quickly, and, dropping the
handkerchief on the floor, say, "Without untying the string, I have
abstracted the ring, which I now pass into that apple." Here make a
pass. Take a knife in the hand holding the false ring (unless you
have been clever enough to get rid of that article), and, showing the
audience that the other hand is quite empty, proceed to cut open
the apple slowly. When the knife touches the ring, allow it to "clink"
upon it as much as possible, and call attention to the fact, as it is a
great feature in the trick. Do not cut the apple completely through,
but, taking it forward (on a plate is the best way), allow the owner
of the ring to take it out with her own hand. Of course, the audience
must not be allowed to handle the apple, and so discover the old
slit. This trick should not be performed with the preceding one, but
on another evening. The principal effect of the trick is the apparent
abstraction of the borrowed ring from its confinement in the
handkerchief in an incomprehensible manner, and you must,
therefore, allow the audience to see that the ring undoubtedly is tied
up securely in the first instance.
Another trick with a ring is performed by aid of the wand only.
Borrow a good stout ring, a signet for example, and, holding it near
the roots of the fingers of the right hand, pretend to pass it over the
wand, but, in reality, let it slide along on the outside of it, and still
keep it in the hand. The deception is assisted if the ring be first
carelessly placed upon the wand, and taken off again, two or three
times. Say to one of the audience, "Will you be so kind as to hold
one end of the wand with either hand?" and, in stretching the wand
out towards him, allow the left hand momentarily to pass close
under the right, and let the ring fall into it—of course, unperceived.
If you look at your hands whilst doing this, you are a lost man. You
must look the addressee boldly in the face, and thereby divert
attention to him—not that there is the slightest excuse for exposing
the ring during its passage from one hand to the other. When the
wand is firmly held at both ends, say something about the futility of
strength in certain cases, and eventually show the ring in the left
hand, and remove the right from the wand to show that it is empty.
If relinquished at this stage, the trick is very incomplete, as the
audience usually divine, or affect to divine, that the ring never was
put upon the wand at all. It is a peculiarity of this trick that this
remark is almost invariably made, so the conjuror must be prepared
with something still more "staggering." Return the ring to its owner,
and call attention to the fact that you have not cut it in any way (not
that anyone will ever think that you would do so, but you must
assume that this idea is prevailing in the minds of the audience), and
secretly take from your pocket, or wherever it may be concealed, a
thick metal (or gold) ring, which keep in the left hand. Borrow the
ring again, and slide it over the wand with precisely the same
movement which you used in the first instance, when you did not
put the ring on. This time you must appear to be very clumsy, and
let the two hands come together so that everyone can see the action
clearly, and snatch the left hand away sharply as if it contained the
ring. You will doubtless see a number of heads lean towards each
other, and hear a good deal of loud whispering, in which the words
"left hand" will be conspicuous. Take no notice of this beyond
looking as confused as possible, and the audience will think they
have bowled you out at last. The strange part of it is that, in a trick
of this kind, a spectator who fancies, rightly or wrongly, that he has
discovered something, never attributes the fact to your want of skill,
but to his own remarkable powers of perception. The effect of the
ruse will be heightened if you allow a tiny portion of the false ring to
catch the eye of one or more of the audience; or resort to any other
artifice to induce them to believe that you really have the borrowed
ring in the left hand, and have allowed the fact to transpire through
carelessness. Now say that, the ring being securely on the wand,
you mean to take it off as before, and give the two ends of the wand
to be held. You will then appear to notice the incredulous looks and
remarks of the audience for the first time, and stoutly deny that the
ring is in the left hand, which, however, you decline to open. Allow
the audience to argue the point with you, and, when one has said
that he saw you take the ring in the left hand, and others have
made a similar statement, pretend to give in, and say that you must
admit that you are discovered; but, at the same time, you feel it
incumbent on you to do something to retrieve your character. You
will, therefore, pass the ring, now in the left hand, invisibly on to the
wand. Make a pass with the left hand, and draw the right smartly
away from the wand, causing the ring on it to spin round. The effect
may be imagined. At the instant the right hand leaves the wand, the
left should place the false ring (supposing one is used) in the pocket,
as all manner of questions will be asked afterwards. The trick can be
varied in many ways, by confusing the spectators. Peripatetic
conjurors make a good deal of money by means of this trick, by
betting that the ring is either on or off the wand. Manner has a great
deal to do with the success of it.
 CHAPTER IV.

TRICKS WITH CUPS AND BALLS.

THE CUPS—THE BALLS—HOW TO CONCEAL A BALL—HOW TO SLIP
A BALL UNDER A CUP UNPERCEIVED—HOW TO VANISH A BALL:
PHASE ONE, PHASE TWO, PHASE THREE—THE MANUFACTORY—
HOW TO INTRODUCE LARGE OBJECTS BENEATH THE CUPS—BAG
FOR HOLDING ARTICLES—HINTS—TALK FOR THE TRICK.

Fig. 23.

The variety of tricks performed with the aid of cups and balls take a
prominent position in the repertory of every conjuror laying claim to
any proficiency in pure sleight of hand. Three tin cups (or, rather, as
they are always used in an inverted position, covers), rather more
than 4in. in height, and some 3in. across the mouth, with the
bottom concave, and two or three little rings near the mouth (Fig.
23) will be required. Also make, to commence with, four cork balls,
blackened, either by burning or by colouration, each about the size
of an ordinary bullet. The audience know of the existence of three
balls only, the fourth being concealed by the conjuror between the
roots of the third and middle fingers. The very first thing the learner
must acquire is the knack of slipping the ball rapidly from the
exposed (Fig. 24) to the concealed position (Fig. 25) in a secure
manner. The ball is partly slid, partly rolled, partly dropped into the
position, the thumb, with a slight motion, which, in time, will
become quite an unconscious one, pressing it finally home.

Fig. 24.

Fig. 25.

The action, which must be accompanied by the backward and

forward swing used when palming coins, must be practised with
both hands, the more awkward hand of the two being taught first.
When tolerably perfect in this, practise getting the ball down to the
tips of the fingers at the roots of which it is held, care being of
course taken that no portion of it protrudes. The object of getting
the ball into this position is, that it may be placed under any cup,
raised ostensibly for some other purpose, without detection. As the
cup is placed on the table, the ball held in the fingers is slid quietly
under it. All conjurors do not use this method, some grasping the
cup as low down as possible, and jerking it up and down, thus
getting the ball inside direct from the concealed position (Fig. 25).
This latter method is exceedingly neat, but is the more difficult one
to accomplish. However, the learner may try for himself, and adopt
the method which comes the easier to him. The ball is not taken in
the tips of the fingers until the hand is about to grasp the cup, the
major motion shielding the minor one. With the two movements
described under his control, the learner should proceed thus: Place
the three cups in a row, with a ball in front (i.e., towards the
audience) of each, and explain that the cups are solid tin and are
not provided with permeable bottoms. There is no objection to
allowing an examination to be made, but it had better take place at
the end of the trick, or much time will be wasted. Say that the tin
cups are for the purpose of covering the balls, and place one cup
over each to illustrate it. Now take up cup No. 1, and, whilst placing
it down a few inches off, slip the concealed ball under it. Pick up ball
No. 1, and vanish it by concealing it in the prescribed method (Fig.
25). You can pretend to throw it into the air, or affect to put it into
the other hand (see Coins, Fig. 7), from which it will be "passed" by
a rap from the wand, which article you will find a true friend when
performing with the cups and balls, and which should be held in
readiness under the arm. Repeat the operation with cups No. 2 and
No. 3, each having a ball placed under it when shifted. Tell the
audience that so well trained are the little balls, that, at your word of
command, they will return from their invisible wanderings to their
imprisonment beneath the cups, which you will then raise, and show
the balls beneath. This is the first and simple phase.
In the next, cup No. 1 is placed over a ball, and the concealed one
slipped in with it. Take up another ball, and pretend to "pass" it
through the cup, which raise, showing two balls together, and then
replace, slipping concealed ball under along with the other two; and
then "pass" the third ball through, which will bring all three balls
under one cup. On putting cup No. 1 down, after exhibiting the
three balls together, slip concealed ball under it, and pick up one of
the three, which vanish. Then say it is as easy for you to abstract a
ball from beneath a cup as it is for you to pass it to the inside. Put
cup No. 2 over the two balls, and pretend to take one out by means
of the wand, the concealed ball being exhibited as the one thus
abstracted. "Pass" this through cup No. 1, which raise, showing the
ball already there, and, on replacing it, slip under concealed ball.
Recall the ball you vanished previously, and show it under cup No. 1,
and then "pass" it back to cup No. 2, where the two balls still are;
slip concealed ball under, and then "pass" ball from cup No. 1 to cup
No. 2. The ball "passed" must in each instance be picked up and
vanished, and not merely told to pass from one cup to another. The
changes can be kept up for a long time if a ball be slipped under a
cup whenever it is raised; but the performer must keep his head
clear, or he will find himself getting into trouble by showing four balls
at the same time.
Phase 3 consists of piling the three cups one over the other, and
passing the balls into what I may term the storeys thus formed. It is
for this phase that the bottoms of the cups are made concave to
receive the ball. If the bottom were flat, the ball would roll off at an
awkward moment. Place cup No. 1, with concealed ball underneath,
on the table, and, taking up a ball, "pass" it through. Put cup No. 2
over cup No. 1, concealed ball being sandwiched between the
bottoms of the two. The slipping of a ball beneath a cup which is
placed on the table is a very simple matter, but it requires
considerable adroitness to slip one cleanly between two cups. It is
only to be done with a sharp jerk, the ball being thus sent to the top
of the cup, which is then rapidly placed over the other. Considerable
practice will be required to attain this knack, but the pretty effect
well repays any trouble. Even when taking the greatest care, the ball
is very liable to become jammed between the sides of the cups
instead of their bottoms. The noise made by the rattling of the ball
in the cup is covered by that occasioned by one cup being placed
over the other. Repeat the operation with the third cup, and then
show the balls in their respective positions. Should a cup cant over
to one side, it will be because the ball beneath, it is not in its place,
but is jammed in between the two sides of the cups. In this case,
care must be taken in removing the uppermost cup. If adroitly
managed, the errant ball can be brought back to its proper position
on the top of the lower cup by the action of withdrawing the upper
one. This should be practised in private, so that the emergency may
be met without difficulty when it occurs.
The fourth phase consists in apparently manufacturing an
inexhaustible quantity of balls beneath the cups. This is very easily
managed by first covering each of the three balls with a cup openly.
Take up cup No. 1, and put it down again a few inches off, with the
concealed ball under it. Pick up ball No. 1, and pretend to put it in
your pocket, but conceal it in the fingers; take up cup No. 2, and
replace it, with concealed ball beneath it, and affect to put ball No. 2
into the pocket, but conceal as before. Repeat operation with cup
and ball No. 3, and then recommence with cup No. 1. This phase
can be prolonged at will. A number of balls can be carried in the
pocket, and afterwards exhibited as the ones you have
manufactured; but this is by no means necessary to the success of
the trick.
A most startling and amusing conclusion to a display with the cups
and balls is the introduction of large balls, potatoes, oranges,
lemons, apples, &c., beneath the cups. Care must be taken that
these larger articles will go into the cups easily, or a fiasco may
result. The best balls are those made of fancy paper, as they are
nice and light. A convenient place for keeping them ready for use is
a shallow, oblong, open bag, made out of black silk or alpaca, and
furnished with a bent pin at each end, and one in the middle. This
bag you can affix to the tablecloth behind the table. In the absence
of such a receptacle, the tablecloth can be pinned up, and so form
an impromptu one; but this can hardly be arranged unperceived in
front of an audience. In the absence of both cloth and bag, the
articles to be conveyed inside the cups must be kept under the
waistcoat, or in the pockets, but, in this case, the pockets must be
side ones, and easily got at. The moment for introducing the large
ball, orange, &c., into a cup is when the eyes of the audience are
attracted towards any object just revealed to them. The orange, &c.,
must be taken by the left hand from its place of concealment whilst
the right is engaged with the cup; and the instant the latter is
raised, for the purpose of showing whatever may be under, it must
be passed briskly—at the same time, in a manner not too marked—
to the left hand, and the article slipped inside. The hands must
remain together only sufficiently long to permit the completion of the
manœuvre, when the cup must be again held by the right hand
only; the article inside being prevented from falling by having the
little finger placed beneath it. Sometimes, I press the paper balls
lightly into the cup, and am so enabled to hold the cup by the top,
and to raise it from the table, to show that there is nothing under it.
By bringing the cup down hard on the table, the ball will become
disengaged. This method should only be used as a change.
Supposing that you have an orange inside cup No. 1, place it gently
and unconcernedly on the table whilst drawing attention, by means
of your tongue, to cup No. 2. By the time cup No. 2 is raised, the left
hand will contain, say, an apple, which will go inside the cup, and
public attention drawn to cup No. 3, which, in its turn, will be raised,
and tenanted with a potato. You can now either knock over all three
cups, and reveal their contents, which has a very good effect, or
continue the manufactory as with the cork balls, pretending to put
the potatoes, oranges, &c., into the pocket. It will be only necessary
to have one of each kind of article, although the audience will be led
to believe that your pockets are crammed with them by the time you
have finished. It is best to have four kinds, as by that means each
cup has something different under it every time it is raised. It is not
advisable, however, to fill the cups more than twice by this method.
The performer must not have his head filled with the idea that his
movements are noticed, for the eyes of the spectators are sure to be
riveted on the article last revealed. Any hesitation will be attended
with disastrous results, so the thing must be done with dash, or not
at all. Every conjuror should endeavour to become perfect with the
cups and balls, as they not only amuse and astonish audiences, but
afford great practice to the learner.
One very important thing in connection with this trick is the talk with
which it is accompanied. The performer should be talking the whole
time, explaining everything as he goes on; at the same time, he
must not talk a lot of nonsense, which will only cause the audience
to form a low estimate of his prestidigitatorial powers, but infuse his
harangue with a little very mild humour. Something like the
following, varied to suit the circumstances, will be to the point: "I
have here three little tin cups, solid, and free from any trickery or
deception, as you may see for yourselves." (Hand cups round.)
"Kindly see that the bottoms do not take out. I have also three little
cork balls, equally guileless with the cups. Madam, will you be so
good as to squeeze one, and see that it is solid?" (Give a ball to a
lady.) "Thank you. These little balls, ladies and gentlemen, are, you
will be interested to hear, trained to a high degree of perfection, and
are perfectly obedient to my will, as I will shortly show you. This
cup, which you will perceive is perfectly empty, I place here on the
table, and, taking up one of the balls, I simply say to it, 'Hey, presto!
begone!' and it has vanished. The second little ball I take from
beneath this cup, and command it to keep company with its
predecessor. 'Fly!' and it has gone. The remaining ball I treat in the
same manner. By the aid of my magic wand, I recall my little
servants. See, here comes one, and, following my wand, it passes
through into this cup" (tap a cup with the wand), &c., &c. It will be
as well for the conjuror to study what he intends saying beforehand,
in the early stages of his career, for he will find his wits sufficiently
troubled to execute his tricks properly without requiring to think
about his language.
A little sleight, which may be introduced with effect, is the apparent
throwing of one cup through the other. This illusion is effected by
holding a cup, mouth upwards, lightly between the thumb and
forefinger. The other hand then throws a second cup sharply into it.
The lower cup is allowed to fall, and the second cup caught by the
thumb and forefinger, the appearance being that one cup has passed
completely through the other.
 CHAPTER V.

TRICKS WITH HANDKERCHIEFS.

BURNING A HANDKERCHIEF IN A SMALL WAY—HINTS ABOUT
APPARATUS—HOW TO PULL A HANDKERCHIEF THROUGH THE LEG
—THE KNOT UNTIED BY MAGIC—THE CONFECTIONER
HANDKERCHIEF—FEATS WITH HANDKERCHIEFS.
What conjurors would do without pocket handkerchiefs, I will not
venture to suggest. Almost every trick has a handkerchief of some
kind as a component part. Handkerchiefs are torn up, burnt up, tied
into knots, made receptacles for money, and used in a variety of
other ways; in fact, they are the conjuror's most faithful allies.
Burning a Handkerchief is usually made a stage trick, and belongs
properly to Grand Magic; but there is a method which may be
successfully tried in the confined limits of the drawing-room. I do not
allude to the use of the "burning globe," which article entirely
dispenses with the necessity for the display of anything approaching
sleight of hand, with which I, in this book, have only to deal. By
using mechanical tricks, many feats of sleight of hand are imitated;
but then the apparatus cannot be shown round, and the audience
goes away from the performance impressed with the idea that
conjuring means exhibiting a certain number of cunningly-devised
boxes, canisters, &c. I remember being present at an amateur
conjuring entertainment, where tricks were exhibited that must have
cost two hundred pounds, at least. The eye was perfectly bewildered
with the array of electric clocks, drums, &c.; but every third trick
failed at some point, which was not to be wondered at, seeing that
the thing was got through as though against time. This sort of thing
is not conjuring; although it would be bad for conjuring-trick
manufacturers if everyone thought the same. Some apparatus one
must have; but only what is absolutely necessary. The difference
between an apparatus conjuror and an adept at sleight of hand is as
great as that between an organ-grinder and a skilled musician.
To burn a handkerchief in what I may term a small way, be provided
with a piece of cambric, or other material resembling a handkerchief,
about four inches square. The best way is to cut up a cheap
handkerchief that has been hemmed. Have this piece rolled up in the
hand, and concealed by the act of holding the wand. Borrow a
handkerchief, which carelessly roll up in the hands, as if judging as
to its size, and get the piece mingled in its folds. Ask the owner if he
or she has any objection to your burning the end of it. Say "Thank
you," whether the answer be "Yes" or "No" (conjurors are often
afflicted with a convenient hardness of hearing), and proceed at
once to burn what is, in reality, your interpolated piece, but which
will appear to the audience to be the handkerchief, at a candle.
When you have burnt a tolerably large hole, put out the flame, and
walk towards the owner of the handkerchief, as if about to return it
to him, thanking him, at the same time, for the loan of it. If you had
not permission to burn the handkerchief, the owner of it will
probably now tell you so; and if he is at all testy on the point, so
much the better for the success of your trick. Say that you really
thought he said "Yes," are sorry for the mistake, which, however,
cannot now be helped, &c. If, on the other hand, you had
permission to do as you pleased, which a flattering, implicit faith in
your abilities will frequently accord to you, you must affect to see in
the person's looks an objection to take the handkerchief in a burnt
state, and so, in either case, eventually set yourself the task of
having to restore the injured article. This you can very simply do by
rubbing it in your hands, and concealing the fictitious piece rolled up
in the palm; or you can prolong the operation by folding the
handkerchief in a piece of paper, omitting the burnt piece, and then
pronouncing some cabalistic words over it, whilst it is held by
someone in the audience. This is, perhaps, the better way of the
two. If the beginner is afraid to trust to his own skill, and prefers
using apparatus, he can procure many kinds of canisters, &c., for
changing handkerchiefs, the working of which will be explained by
the vendor, so there is no necessity to do so here.
To Pull a Handkerchief through the Leg.—This is a trick which will
bear exhibition in any company. It recommends itself especially for
drawing-room purposes. Take a very long handkerchief, and, seating
yourself, pass the handkerchief (apparently) twice round the leg, just
above the knee, and tie the two ends securely together, or have
them tied for you. Take hold of a single thickness of the
handkerchief, and jerk it sharply upwards, when it will appear to
pass through the leg. The secret of the trick is thus explained: When
you pass the ends below the leg, for the purpose of ostensibly
crossing them, so as to bring them up on opposite sides, you rapidly
make a bend in one, and pass the other firmly round it. By this
means, a temporary junction is formed strong enough to bear a
slight strain. By distending the sinews of the leg, the folds are
compressed, and additional security is thus obtained. The ends are
of course brought up again on the sides on which they descended,
and the knot tied above the thigh—not beneath it. The formation of
the bend and loop round it must be practised assiduously, for I do
not know of any trick of the same magnitude requiring more skill in
execution than this one. The hands should not remain an instant
longer under the leg than one would require to merely cross the
ends, and there must be no fidgeting observable. For performing this
trick, Döbler (the original one) received a diamond ring from the
Emperor of Russia.
To Untie a Knot by Word of Command.—Tie a knot with two ends of
a handkerchief, but in such a manner that one end is always quite
straight; in fact, one end should be tied round the other, and not the
two ends tied together. If you take the extreme end of the straight
portion, anyone may pull as hard as he likes at it from the other side
of the knot without making it any tighter, although you must lead
him to believe that he is doing so. When he has pulled to his heart's
content, take the knot in one hand and cover it with the rest of the
handkerchief. Whilst doing so, work, with the concealed hand, the
straight end through the folds of the other, but do not destroy the
folds, which give to be held, of course under cover of the
handkerchief. Command the knot to come undone, and then shake
the handkerchief out. This is the groundwork of a trick on a much
larger scale, which will be treated of in Grand Magic. It is a very
effective little trick, and should never be despised.
To Find Sweetmeats in a Handkerchief.—For this pretty trick the
performer will require a conical bag, made of fine calico, cambric, or
any other substance resembling a handkerchief. The length of the
bag should be about 5in.; and it must be furnished at the apex with
a bent pin—a black one. The mouth must be fitted with two pieces
of flat watch or crinoline spring, sewn in the stuff in such a manner
as to keep the opening closed. This bag must be filled with sweets,
and suspended, by means of the bent pin, on the edge of the table
—out of view of the audience, as a matter of course. Borrow a
handkerchief, and say that you will now find something that will
please the juvenile portion of the audience. Wave the handkerchief
mysteriously about, and then spread it out upon the table. Wave
your hands over it, take it up delicately by the centre with one hand,
and squeeze it with the other over a plate with which you will be
provided. Naturally, nothing will come of it, so you repeat the
operation, this time at a different part of the table. At the third or
fourth attempt, the handkerchief should hang over that portion of
the table where the bag is suspended, and when it is raised the bent
pin should be included in the grasp. On squeezing the handkerchief
this time, the hand should compress the ends of the springs, which
will open, and allow the sweets to escape and fall upon the plate
with a great clatter. Do not empty the bag at once, but give it two or
three squeezes, allowing a little to fall out each time, which will
greatly heighten the effect. When the bag is empty, the next thing to
do is to remove it from the handkerchief. If a chair is handy, the bag
can be dropped on it; but the best way is to boldly introduce the
hand beneath the handkerchief, and, whilst calling attention to the
sweets, hang it again on the edge of the table, which can easily be
managed behind the handkerchief. The sweets used should be small
round or oval ones, they being best suited for the purpose.
There are many little feats performed with handkerchiefs hardly
deserving the title of tricks, in the way of tying bows and knots, &c.,
by entirely unorthodox methods. They are too insignificant for
performance alone; but they look very well when worked in with
more important tricks. Besides (and it cannot be too often stated),
conjurors should endeavour to know everything connected with
sleight of hand. In drawing-room circles, one is continually asked if
one can do this, that, or the other; and it is quite as well to be able
to reply in the affirmative, for it always tells detrimentally to fail in a
little matter. The following feats will be found effective:
To Lengthen a Handkerchief.—Having borrowed a handkerchief,
great amusement is caused when the performer observes that the
article is not long enough, and expresses his intention of stretching
it. This is done by taking the handkerchief by one corner in each
hand, and, whilst twisting it up, gathering an inch or two in each
palm. Stretch the arms wide apart, so that the handkerchief lies
across the chest, without allowing any of the gathered-up portions
of it to escape. Now give the handkerchief a turn or two in the air,
and again stretch it across the chest, this time allowing about half an
inch to escape out of the hands. Twist again and stretch, allowing a
little more to escape, and repeat the operation until the extreme
ends are reached. Imply by manner, as much as possible, that a deal
of stretching is taking place, and the audience will be led to believe
that the handkerchief has been extended at least six inches beyond
its original length.
To Appear to Tie a Knob that will not Draw Tight.—This feat is also
exceedingly diverting. The performer, apparently, goes through all
the necessary formulæ for forming a knot; but, lo! when the ends
are pulled out, no knot is seen. There are three ways of doing this.
One is to pass one end behind the other, instead of through the
loop, as usual, which must apparently be done. To do this neatly,
one end must be held in each hand, the handkerchief twisted
sharply up, and the hands then brought quickly together, which will
cause a coil of about two turns to be formed. Pass the right end
quickly round the back of the left, and then draw out both, as if
tightening the knot. As you pull, the coil will bunch in the middle, as
if a knot were really there, and increased tension will pull it out quite
straight. The second method is thus performed: Lay one end of the
handkerchief across the right hand, the major portion of it being on
the outside, and the short end held down by the little finger only.
With the left hand, take the hanging end, and, bringing it round on
the inside, lay it over the other. Pass the left hand through the loop
thus formed, take with it the uppermost end, and draw it through;
but, just as you pull the two ends out straight, slip the thumb of the
right hand under the inside bend of the lower end, and hold it
between the finger and thumb. In the third method, commence by
taking one end of the handkerchief in either hand. Pass the right
hand over to the left side, in front of the left arm, which is kept
perfectly still in front of the body, so that the handkerchief hangs on
the left forearm in the shape of a loop. The second end must now be
placed in the left hand, which thus detains both for the time being.
Pass the right hand, now free, through the loop from the inside, and,
reaching up with it, let it grasp its original end just placed in the left
hand, and pull it through. This must be done with great deliberation,
as the beauty of the sleight rests in the extreme slowness with
which it can be executed, the secret lying, not in any quickness of
fingers, but in the fact that the handkerchief ends are never looped
one over the other, as would be the case if the right hand were
passed through the loop from the outside, which the learner may at
once discover by experiment. In pulling the end out, as though tying
the knot, if it be retarded by the left thumb, a more natural
appearance is given. This method is to be preferred to the foregoing,
which, however, are useful as changes.
To Tie a Knot Instantaneously.—Take an end of the handkerchief in
either hand between the thumb and forefinger, the end in the left
hand pointing inwards, and that in the right hand outwards, the
hands being held so that their backs are towards the company, the
thumbs on top and the little fingers below. Open the fingers of each
hand at the first and middle fingers, and then bring the hands
together until they overlap a couple of inches, the right hand on the
outside. This will bring the end of the handkerchief in either hand
between the opened fingers of the opposite one. The fingers close
on the ends, and the hands are at once separated, when the knot
will be found to be tied. This may be first practised with a piece of
stout string, and the learner must not be satisfied until he can tie
the knot by merely bringing the fingers together for an instant, the
knot being tied apparently by means of the mere collision of the two
hands. It is astonishing what perfection can be attained by means of
practice, the knot at last seeming to appear on the handkerchief,
instead of being tied.
To Tie a Knot on the Wrist whilst Holding an End of the Handkerchief
in either Hand.—Jerk the right hand towards the left one, so as to
throw a loop in the handkerchief, through which dart the left hand,
still holding its end, and the feat will be accomplished. It should be
done in a nonchalant manner, and without any ostentation. Practise
first with a piece of string.
The performance of the foregoing feats will be facilitated by the use
of a silk handkerchief that is not too new, and it should always be
first twisted, rope-fashion.
 CHAPTER VI.

CHINESE TRICKS.
A NEW MARBLE TRICK—FIRE-EATING—FINAL EFFECT—THE
BUTTERFLY TRICK—THE FAN—HOW TO MAKE THE BUTTERFLIES—
HOW TO KEEP THEM IN THE AIR.
Chinese Marble Trick.—Some years ago, there came over to England
a few Chinese conjurors, who were seen by the public but very little,
but who favoured me on several occasions with private views. Their
skill lay chiefly in the performance of such delectable feats as
swallowing sword-blades, tiny china cups, glass balls, and large
leaden plummets. Although appreciating such tricks, I respectfully
declined attempting to astonish my audiences by their means. There
was, however, one little trick performed with four small marbles,
which struck me as being something quite novel and quaint. Of the
four marbles (little ivory balls are what I invariably use), one is
concealed in the fingers, as in the cup and ball trick, unknown, of
course, to the audience, who are supposed to know of the existence
of three only. These three the performer puts into his mouth—one at
a time, slowly, is the best way—to show that there is "no deception."
He now forms his left hand into a fist, and holds it steadily in front of
him, thumb upwards, as though holding a sword at rest. With the
right hand he pretends to take a marble from the mouth, the
concealed one being exhibited. The action of taking a marble from
the mouth must be imitated exactly; and this is best done by rolling
it along the lips until it travels from the roots of the fingers to their
tips. The sleight must be quickly done, for the eyes of the audience
are full upon the hand. Place the marble on the top of the left hand,
i.e., on the doubled-up first finger, which, after a few seconds, open
slightly, so as to allow the marble to disappear in the hand. With the
right hand actually take a marble from the mouth, which will now
contain two. Pretend to place this marble on the left hand, as you
did the first one, but in reality conceal it. When the left hand is
momentarily covered with the right, as it feigns to place a marble
upon it, open the first finger, and, with the least possible jerk, bring
the first marble again to the top. The audience will think that marble
No. 1 is in the hand and marble No. 2 atop. After another short
pause, allow the marble to again sink in the hand, thereby causing
the idea that two marbles are concealed in it, and, with the right
hand, affect to take another marble from the mouth, the concealed
one being, of course, shown. Ostensibly, place this one on the left
hand (deception as before), and allow it to disappear like its two
supposed predecessors. At this stage, the state of affairs will be
thus:—The right hand, presumably empty, contains one marble; the
left hand contains presumably three, but in reality only one marble;
the mouth, presumably empty, contains two marbles. The performer
then proceeds as follows: Allow the marble in the left hand to sink
until it is in the position for concealing at the roots of the fingers. If
with the tips of the second or third fingers it can be pressed firmly
home, so much the better, for the command to vanish can at once
be given, and the hand opened—palm downwards, of course. If the
marble cannot be secured in this way, the thumb must be brought
into use in the usual way; but the hand must be waved about a little
so as to cover the movement. The three marbles are now supposed
to be non est. The performer can proceed to find the first of them in
whatever manner he pleases. He may pretend to pick it from the
table cloth, break it from the end of his wand, or find it in the
possession of one of the audience; how, is quite immaterial. As each
hand conceals a marble, it is also immaterial which one is used. This
first marble is placed on the table, and another one found. This
second one, instead of placing on the table, the performer affects to
pass into his ear, concealing it as before, and after a few seconds, it
appears at his lips, the one thence protruding being, of course, one
of the two concealed in the mouth. Allow it to fall from the mouth,
and then proceed to find the third marble, which pass, say, through
the top of the head. The remaining marble in the mouth is then
exhibited, and the three wanderers are recovered. If the marbles or
ivory balls are not small, their presence in the mouth, when they are
not supposed to be there, will be discovered. I always conceal one
on each side of the mouth, between the lower gums and the cheek.
Ivory balls are in every way preferable, as they do not strike cold to
the teeth, and do not rattle much, both of which disagreeable
properties are possessed by marbles. Any ivory-turner will supply the
little balls very cheaply. The performer must study to execute this
trick with the greatest possible delicacy, or—especially before ladies
—it will become repulsive. The method of finding the balls after
vanishing them should be varied, each one being found in a different
way. The portion of the trick requiring the most practice is that in
which the left hand is opened. The knack of concealing the ball held
in it unobserved requires some little address.
Fire-eating.—This was another trick performed remarkably well by
my Chinese. It is, I should think, one of the best-known in England,
for every country fair has its fire-eater; but it is not everyone who
knows how it is performed. In the first place, prepare some thick,
soft string, by either boiling or soaking it in a solution of nitre
(saltpetre). Take a piece, from 1in. to 2in. in length, and, after
lighting it, wrap it in a piece of tow as large as an ordinary walnut.
Conceal this piece under a heap of loose tow, the whole of which is
put on a plate, and so exhibited to the audience. The string will burn
very slowly indeed, and the very little smoke issuing from it will be
quite smothered by the tow. Show the mouth empty, and then put a
little tow into it. Commence chewing this, and, after a little time, put
in some more. Repeat this three or four times, taking the chewed
portion secretly away each time you put any fresh tow into the
mouth, and in one of the bunches include the piece containing the
burning string. Do not chew this about at all, in reality, although you
will make great gestures as if so doing. Take a fan, and fan the ears,
and presently take in a good breath at the nostrils, blowing it out at
the mouth. This will cause some smoke to be ejected, the volume of
which will increase as the breathings are kept up. Always be careful
to draw in at the nostrils, and eject at the mouth; otherwise you will
be choked. Renew the fannings (merely for effect), and, by
continued breathings, the tow in the mouth will be brought into a
glow, and one or two sparks will issue from the mouth. When this
has continued sufficiently long, take in more tow, and so smother
the burning string again, extracting the piece containing it under
cover of a loose bunch. There need be no fear of burning the mouth,
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