n stature, but to the shogunate. Hojo Masako gathered Yoritomo's vassals and demanded a show of allegiance. She sent the full force of the shogunate's samurai armies against Heian-kyo in what became known as the Jokyu War and succeeded in defeating the Imperial army. The Ama Shogun (widow shogun), as she was popularly called, had triumphed. In their victory, the Hojo regents of the Kamakura bakufu succeeded in achieving complete control over Japan. By redistributing the estates and land taken during the Jokyu War, they secured loyalty among all the powerful clans throughout the country. For the next four years until her death in 1225 at the age of 65, Hojo Masako was the guiding hand behind the Kamakura bakufu. More than that however, she was the Ama Shogun, the wife of Minamoto Yoritomo, leader of the Minamoto and the great Lord of Kamakura, and defender of her own family, the Hojo. Following the Jokyu War, the emperor and the few remaining governmental offices in Heian-kyo lost practically all effective power. Go-Toba was forced into retirement for the second time and exiled for the remainder of his life to the remote Oki Island north of Honshu. In his remaining years, he spent long hours trying to forge a sword worthy of replacing the sword of the Imperial Regalia that went to the bottom of the Kanmon Straits with the child emperor Antoku in the Battle of Dan-no-ura. He also planned to use the sword to kill all the Hojos. Neither happened. The end of the Minamoto line left the Kamakura bakufu under the secure leadership of the Hojo family, which acted as regents to the shogun. Hojo Masako's brother, Yo*censored*oki, was a dominant figure at Kamakura at the time, but neither he nor any of successors ever made a move to usurp the position of shogun. Instead, they chose to exert their power through a series of puppet shoguns just as the Fujiwara clan had in Heian-kyo. Hojo Tokimasa took the post of Chief of the Administrative Office and...
