disturbed this state of very tender equilibrium before the plan of the Hojo's enemies had fully matured, and the emperor presently found himself an exile on the island of Oki. But there now appeared upon the scene three men of great prowess: Kusunoki Masashige, Nitta Yoshisada and Ashikaga Takauji. The first espoused from the outset the cause of the Throne and, though commanding only a small force, held the Hojo troops in check. The last two were both of Minamoto descent. Their common ancestor was Minamoto Yoshiiye, whose exploits against the northern Yemishi in the second half of the 11th century had so impressed his countrymen that they gave him the title of Hachiman Taro (first-born of the god of war). Both men took the field originally in the cause of the Hojo, but at heart they desired to be avenged upon the latter for disloyalty to the Minamoto. Nitta Yoshisada marched suddenly against Kamakura, carried it by storm and committed the city to the flames. Ashikaga Takauji occupied Kioto, and with the suicide of Takatoki the Hojo fell finally from rule after 115 years of supremacy (1219-1334). The emperor now returned from exile, and his son, Prince Moriyoshi, having been appointed to the office of shogun at Kamakura, the restoration of the administrative power to the Throne seemed an accomplished fact. The Ashikaga Shoguns. Go-Daigo, however, was not in any sense a wise sovereign. The extermination of the Hojo placed wide estates at his disposal, but instead of rewarding those who had deserved well of him, he used a great part of them to enrich his favourites, the companions of his dissipation. Ashikaga Takauji sought just such an opportunity. The following year (1335) saw him proclaiming himself shogun at Kamakura, and after a complicated pageant of incidents, the emperor Go-Daigo was obliged once more to fly from Kioto. He carried the regalia with him, refused to submit to Takauji, and declined to recognize his usurped title of shogun. The Ashikaga chief solved the situation by deposing Go-Daigo and placing upon the throne another scion of the imperial family who is known in history as Komyo (1336-1348), and who, of course, confirmed Takauji in the office of shogun. Thus commenced the Ashikaga line of shoguns, and thus commenced also a fifty-six-year period of divided sovereignty, the emperor Go-Daigo and his descendants reigning in Yoshino as the southern court (_nancho_), and the emperor Komyo and his descendants reigning in Kioto as the northern court (_hokucho_). It was by the efforts of the shogun Yoshimitsu, one of the greatest of the Ashikaga potentates, that this quarrel was finally composed, but during its progress the country had fallen into a deplorable condition. "The constitutional powers had become completely disorganized, especially in regions at a distance from the chief towns. The peasant was impoverished, his spirit broken, his hope of better things completely gone.