Mesago, the widow of Yoritomo and daughter of Tokimasa, although she too had taken refuge in a Buddhist nunnery, continued to exercise a ruling control in the affairs of the government. She solicited from the court at Kyōto the appointment of Yoritsuné, a boy of the Fujiwara family, only two years old, as _sei-i-tai-shōgun_ in the place of the murdered Sanetomo. The petition was granted, and this child was entrusted to the care of the Hōjō, who, as regents(125) of the shōgun, exercised with unlimited sway the authority of this great office. The situation of affairs in Japan at this time was deplorable. Go-Toba and Tsuchi-mikado were both living in retirement as ex-emperors. Juntoku was the reigning emperor, who was under the influence and tutelage of the ex-Emperor Go-Toba. Fretting under the arrogance of the Hōjō, Go-Toba undertook to resist their claims. But Yoshitoku, the Hōjō regent at this time, quickly brought the Kyōto court to terms by the use of his military power. The ex-Emperor Go-Toba was compelled to become a monk, and was exiled to the island of Oki. The Emperor Juntoku was forced to abdicate, and was banished to Sado, and a grandson of the former Emperor Takakura placed on the throne. Even the ex-Emperor Tsuchi-mikado, who had not taken any part in the conspiracy, was sent off to the island of Shikoku. The lands that had belonged to the implicated nobles were confiscated and distributed by Yoshitoku among his own adherents. The power of the Hōjō family was thus raised to its supreme point. They ruled both at Kyōto and Kamakura with resistless authority. They exercised at both places this authority without demanding or receiving the appointment to any of the high positions which they might have claimed. They were only the regents of young and immature shōguns, who were the appointees of a court which had at its head an emperor without power or influence, and which was controlled by the creatures of their own designation. This lamentable state of things lasted for many years. The shōguns during all this time were children sent from Kyōto, sons of emperors or connections of the royal family. The Hōjō ruled them as well as the country. Whenever it seemed best, they relentlessly deposed them, and set up others in their places. In A.D. 1289 the Regent Sadatoki, it is said, became irritated with one of these semi-royal shōguns, named Koreyasu, and in order to show his contempt for him, had him put in a _nori-mono_(126) with his heels upward, and sent him under guard to Kyōto. Some of the Hōjō regents, however, were men of character and efficiency. Yasutoki, for instance, who became regent in A.D. 1225, was a man of notable executive ability, taking Yoritomo as his model. Besides being a soldier of tried capacity, he was a true friend of the farmer in his seasons of famine and trial, and a promoter of legal reforms and of the arts, which found a congenial home among the Japanese.