Note 44 — Chapter IX

The following passage, from Titsingh’s “Memoirs of the Shōguns,” may serve to shed some light upon the civil war raging in Japan when first visited by the Portuguese, and which continued down to the time of Nobunaga: “Takauji was of the family of Yoshiiye, who was descended from Seiwa-tennō, the fifty-sixth Dairi. He divided the supreme power between his two sons, Yoshi-nori and Motouji, giving to each the government of thirty-three provinces. The latter, who ruled over the eastern part, was styled Kamakura-no-Shōgun, and kept his court at Kamakura, in the province of Sagami. Yoshi-nori, to whom were allotted the western provinces, resided at Miyako, with the title of Fuku-Shōgun.

“Takauji, in dividing the empire between his two sons, was influenced by the expectation that, in case either of them should be attacked, his brother would afford him assistance. This partition, on the contrary, only served to arm them one against the other; the country was involved in continual war, and the princes, though brothers, were engaged in frequent hostilities, which terminated only with the destruction of the branch of Miyako.”