236 A PAGE OF HISTORY. Chap. XIV. 
therefore returned to our inn, paid our bill, mounted 
our horses, and took the lower road for Kanasawa, 
the place where we had lodged the night before. 
As we were leaving Kamakura I rode up to the 
foot of a hill on our left to see the tomb of Yuri- 
tomo, a celebrated general, the founder of the race 
of Japanese Temporal Emperors, and a man who is 
remembered among the people as William Wallace 
or Robert Bruce is in Scotland. 
The name of Yuritomo is to be found in every 
book which professes to give a history of Japan. 
Before his day the country had only one sovereign, 
the Mikado, or Spiritual Emperor, who was be- 
lieved to be descended from the gods. A per- 
sonage named Zin-mu-ten-woo is said to have been 
the first Mikado. Having conquered the island of 
Nipon, he built a dairi or temple-palace, and dedi- 
cated it to the Sun-goddess. Historians inform us 
that this -event took place about the year 660 B.C., 
and it is not unlikely that Kamakura was the 
place chosen for the site of this temple. For many 
centuries, the Mikados , claiming to rule by divine 
right and inheritance, were indeed despotic sove- 
reigns; and even after they had ceased to head 
their own armies, and had intrusted the dangerous 
military command to sons and kinsmen, their 
power long remained undisputed and uncontrolled. 
It was perhaps first and gradually weakened by a 
habit into which the Mikados fell, of abdicating at 
so early an age that they transferred the sove- 
reignty to their sons while yet children. The 
