province of Dewa, and was residing in that province with Hide hira, Mootz no kami. Yoritomo had married the daughter of Hojio Toki massa, in whose charge he was during his banishment. Through her father she was descended from Kwan mu, Emperor, and was afterward known as Ama Shiogoon, or female Shiogoon, her name being Taira no Massa go. When the letters were given to him from the Emperor and his son, calling upon him to raise troops to rid the country of Kio mori, and release them from the durance in which they were kept, he immediately wrote to his brother Yoshitzune, calling upon him to assist him. Under such surveillance were these royal parties kept that it was only under the guise of paying a visit to the great temple of Miajima, on the beautiful island Itsuku jima, in the inland sea, in the province of Aki, then belonging to Kio mori, that the conspirators were able to get the letters dispatched. Yoritomo, with Hojio, collected what men he could, and raised the flag at Ishi bashi yama. When he first started only seven men joined him, and he fought his first battle with only three hundred under him, against ten times their number. He was defeated, and with his seven friends ran away, and the story goes that they all hid in the hollow trunk of a large tree near Ishi bashi hatto. While remaining concealed there, the soldiers, having examined every other place, came to the conclusion they must be there. A Kashiwara man (secretly a partisan of the Gen party) volunteered to go and look, and, though suspected, he was allowed to do so. He went up, looked in, and saw the party hiding, and told them to lie still, and taking his spear showed his commander that he could turn it all round the hollow. When he did so, two bats or birds flew out, and he told his commander that the mouth of the hollow was covered over with spiders’ webs. The party of soldiers went away. Yoritomo and his friends left immediately, and went to a temple, where they were secreted in the wardrobe for storing the dresses of the priests. Meantime the soldiers returned, looked into the tree, and found that they had been there. They then went to the temple, demanded of the priest where they were secreted, and, on his refusing to tell, they killed him. Meanwhile Yoshitzune collected what forces he could, and with them went down to Kamakura, at the head of the Odawara division of the Bay of Yedo.