The Story of the Japanese 00702 [Mid-Kamakura Period] Summary of the Mid-Kamakura Period

I would like to conclude this draft on the mid-Kamakura period here, having depicted events up to the death of Hojo Tokimune immediately following the Mongol invasions.
The mid-Kamakura period was an era of regency politics, where the era of the Minamoto shoguns—which lasted for only three generations—had ended, and the Hojo regents had seized full authority. The third regent Yasutoki, the fifth regent Tokiyori, and the eighth regent Tokimune were the primary figures, while the fourth regent Tokiuji, the sixth regent Nagatoki, and the seventh regent Masamura served in the interim.
The direct line of the Hojo family was short-lived for generations. Although Yasutoki lived to be 59, his son Tokiuji died at 27, his grandson Tokiuji at 22, his other grandson Tokiyori at 36, and his great-grandson Tokimune at 32. The reason such a short-lived lineage was able to successfully pass down the position of supreme authority was due to the cooperation of the branch families of the Hojo clan. The sixth regent Nagatoki and the seventh regent Masamura, who were from branch lines, raised Tokimune well—who was only 12 when Tokiyori died—and ensured a smooth transition to the Tokimune administration.
The fact that Nagatoki and Masamura acted as placeholders until the Tokimune administration means, in a sense,
“It was already common knowledge that the direct line of the Hojo clan should inherit the regency generation after generation.”
This implies that such a norm had already taken root.
At the time of the Kamakura Shogunate's founding, powerful gokenin (vassals) such as the Miura, Wada, and Hiki clans were jostling for power alongside the Hojo. However, due to the effects of the great purges by Yoshitoki, there were likely no forces left capable of opposing the Hojo. Although the Kamakura Shogunate was originally formed by vassals gathering under the leader of the Minamoto clan, by this time it had transformed into a “warrior band gathered around the Hojo.”
In this era, even looking at documents sent from the Imperial Court to the Shogunate, they were all addressed to the regent, “Hojo So-and-So.” The Court itself acknowledged that the shoguns, who were drawn from the Kujo family or the Imperial family, were kept at arm's length and were merely symbolic figures holding no real power.
When we look at how the regents of this era governed the Shogunate compared to the first regent Tokimasa and the second regent Yoshitoki of the Minamoto shogun era, we can say that there were fewer bellicose rulers and that governance was conducted through moderate methods. The third regent Yasutoki overcame the political strife known as the Iga Incident without killing anyone, and although the fifth regent Tokiyori destroyed the Miura clan in the Hoji Battle, he had strived to avoid war until the very end. While the eighth regent Tokimune did bury the Nagoe brothers and his older brother Tokisuke during the February Incident, it cannot be compared to the era of Yoshitoki, who executed powerful vassals at a pace of once every two years.
It can be summarized that Yasutoki, Tokiyori, and Tokimune were rulers who operated the Kamakura Shogunate stably while inheriting the dictatorial system established by Yoshitoki.
Although the Hojo regents managed to overcome the greatest crisis of the Mongol invasions, the society that followed became extremely chaotic, and the Shogunate headed toward its downfall. From the next installment, we will look at the path toward the collapse of the Shogunate.