ABSTRACT
In the year 1590—about four centuries after the date with which the people are now dealing—Hideyoshi, the greatest genius in the sphere of statesmanship and of practical action that Japan has ever produced, was pressing the leaguer of the doomed Hojo cooped up in their keep of Odawara. Hideyoshi’s assertion that Yoritomo “took all the power under Heaven“ is substantially correct. The Kwanto and its administration, as has been repeatedly said, always had constituted a serious problem to the Kyoto authorities. As a matter of fact, however, neither Yukiiye nor Yoshitsune was in a position to make any head against Yoritomo. The strategy of the Bakufu commanders was at once simple and sound, and the immense masses of men they had at their disposal were handled with no mean amount of tactical ability and skill. Yoritomo made another visit to Kyoto in the spring of 1195; but during the four months he stayed there, there were no specially startling developments.
