Japan was then, for more than a century (A.D. 1205–1333), governed really in the name of the descendants of Yoritomo, who proved unworthy of their great ancestor “by the so-called ‘Regents’ of the Hōjō family, while their liege lords, the Shōguns, though keeping a nominal court at Kamakura, were for all that period little better than empty names. So completely were the Hōjōs masters of the whole country, that they actually had their deputy governors at Kyōtō and in Kyūshū in the south-west, and thought nothing of banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was made memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kúblái Khan with the purpose of adding Japan to his gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the 13th century, since which time Japan has never been attacked from without.” (_B. H. Chamberlain_, _Things Japanese_, 3rd ed., 1898, pp. 208–209.) The sovereigns (_Mikado_, _Tennō_) of Japan during this period were: _Kameyama_-Tennō (1260; abdicated 1274; repulse of the Mongols); _Go-Uda_-Tennō (1275; abdicated 1287); _Fushimi_-Tennō (1288; abdicated 1298); and _Go-Fushimi_ Tennō. The _shikken_ (prime ministers) were Hōjō _Tokiyori_ (1246); Hōjō _Tokimune_ (1261); Hōjō _Sadatoki_ (1284). In 1266 Prince _Kore-yasu_ and in 1289 _Hisa-akira_, were appointed _shōgun_.—H. C.] NOTE 2.—_Ram._ says he was sent to a certain island called Zorza (_Chorcha?_), where men who have failed in duty are put to death in this manner: They wrap the arms of the victim in the hide of a newly flayed buffalo, and sew it tight. As this dries it compresses him so terribly that he cannot move, and so, finding no help, his life ends in misery. The same kind of torture is reported of different countries in the East: _e.g._ see _Makrizi_, Pt. III. p. 108, and Pottinger, as quoted by Marsden _in loco_. It also appears among the tortures of a Buddhist hell as represented in a temple at Canton. (_Oliphant’s Narrative_, I. 168.)