ABSTRACT
AFTER T akauji and his vassal barons had returned and settled in Kyoto, the city presented an appearance very different from that of its old days during the Fujiwara ascendency. While the Kama~
kura regime lasted, life had gone on in the capital much as always. The nobles still held civilian court office and maintained much of their accus~ tamed state. Most of them, it is true, had been getting poorer and poorer as time went on and their estates slipped into hardier hands, but, on the whole, things were not too bad. Elegance, though it had to be practiced with frugality, was still the dominant keynote of the court. Always these nobles had been the chief sight on the streets of the town, riding in their high, two-wheeled, lacquered carts drawn by slow-stepping oxen, attended by a group of outriders and retainers. The business of the other inhabitants had been to cater to their needs and fall in with their customs.
