A month later the exiled emperor reëntered Kyōto in state and resumed the reins of government. The eastern provinces, some of which were still loyal to the memory of the Hōjō, were also greatly reduced. No sooner was, however, the imperial prestige assured, than difficulties arose which might long have been expected. The restoration had been effected by warriors of feudal tenure, whose merits had to be rewarded, and whose ambitions were hardly compatible with a centralized civil administration such as would naturally follow the return of the imperial government. At this juncture the emperor's conduct was not calculated to perpetuate his success. The estates of the late Hōjō which he had confiscated were rather indiscriminately parceled among his personal favorites, so that when the case of the warriors who had rendered real service to his cause had to be considered, there was little left with which to reward their merits. Also, private soldiers and landlords of the provinces flocked to Kyōto to obtain confirmed possession of their holdings or additional grants for the service they claimed to have done to the sovereign. Under these circumstances it was inevitable that discontent and disappointment should be keenly felt in many quarters, and men's minds should once more turn from an artificial reign of peace to a period of unrest and plunder. Nor was a leader of exceptional ability lacking to take advantage of this state of affairs. Of the two great soldiers of noble descent, Nitta Yoshisada was comparatively little known, owing to the fact that his ancestor, being on bad terms with Yoritomo, had lived in retirement at Nitta in Kōzuke. The other, Ashikaga Takauji, who was, like Yoshisada, of the historic clan of Minamoto, was well known otherwise for the marriage relations of his ancestors with the Hōjō. By nature winning and brilliant, he enjoyed both influence and popularity. The emperor himself was highly pleased by Takauji's achievements, for which he conferred on him rewards such as no one else received, and authorized him, among other things, to use for the first part of his name one of the ideograms in the name of the sovereign himself, which was likewise pronounced "Taka." Nothing, however, arouses the indignation of the nation of the present day more than the story of the way in which Takauji attracted the emperor and warriors to his side for selfish interests, and wrought the ruin of one after another of all the truly upright and loyal persons of the day. The first victim of Takauji's growing ambition was Prince Morinaga, who had already doubted the sincerity of his motives. Takauji so prevailed upon the emperor as to cause the prince to be arrested and confined in Kamakura, where he was later assassinated. When the remaining partisans of the Hōjō assembled in Shinano and marched against Kamakura, and Tadayoshi, Takauji's brother, finding himself unable to defend it,