* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Hōjō Tokiyori
北条時頼
Fifth shikken of the Kamakura shogunate — founder of the hikitsuke and the patron whose summons to Kamakura seeded the Sōshū tradition
Description
Life
Hōjō Tokiyori (1227-1263) was the fifth shikken (regent) of the Kamakura shogunate. A son of Hōjō Tokiuji, he was the younger brother of the fourth shikken, Hōjō Tsunetoki. In 1246, when Tsunetoki fell ill, Tokiyori succeeded to the regency at the age of twenty. That same year, in the Miya Disturbance, he drove out the former shogun Fujiwara no Yoritsune, and in the Hōji Conflict of 1247 he destroyed the powerful Miura house, sweeping away opposition to the Hōjō main line and making its dominance decisive.
Reform of the Judicial System
In 1249 Tokiyori established the hikitsuke, a body under the council of state (hyōjōshū) charged specifically with hearing the land suits of shogunal retainers, in order to make judgements fairer and swifter. In an age when disputes over landholding went to the heart of the shogunate's authority, this reform won broad support among the retainers and is regarded as the signal good governance of his rule.
Toward Tokusō Autocracy
In 1256, in ill health, Tokiyori passed the regency to Hōjō Nagatoki and took holy orders, yet he continued to hold real power as head of the Hōjō main line, the tokusō. From this point the tokusō, rather than the formal offices of shikken and rensho, came to hold effective decision-making power — the beginning of what is known as tokusō autocracy. The designation "tokusō" itself is held to derive from the second shikken, Hōjō Yoshitoki.
Connection with Swords
During the Kenchō era (1249-1256) Tokiyori is said to have summoned master smiths from across the provinces to Kamakura in order to enhance the shogunate's prestige. Among them are named Awataguchi Kunitsuna of the Awataguchi school in Yamashiro Province and Bizen Saburō Kunimune of Bizen; the shogunate is said to have treated them generously, providing residences and regular stipends. From Kunitsuna's line came Shintōgo Kunimitsu, and from that lineage in turn Masamune is said to have emerged, so that the origins of the Sōshū tradition established at Kamakura are traced back to Tokiyori's summoning of the smiths. (Much in these lineages and in the circumstances of the summons is traditional, and accounts vary.) It is for this reason that Tokiyori's name carries weight in any account of how Sōshū-den, one of the Five Traditions of the Japanese sword, came into being.
Anecdote and Legacy
A body of legend holds that after taking orders Tokiyori travelled the provinces in disguise to observe the condition of the people; the Noh play Hachi no Ki is its best-known expression. On a night of heavy snow the impoverished Sano Genzaemon Tsuneyo burns his cherished potted trees to warm a travelling monk, who later proves to have been Tokiyori and rewards him with land — a tale that presents Tokiyori as a ruler intimate with his people's circumstances. (It is a literary legend, to be distinguished from historical fact.) As a statesman he is discussed both for the authoritarian turn that opened the way to tokusō rule and for the good government embodied in his judicial reforms.