Shogun (The Asian Saga Chronology) by James Clavell

said.
    "Yes, Lady, if Ishido could he would, but I don't think he can—yet—nor can Toranaga.  The Taikō picked the five Regents too cleverly.  They despise each other so much it's almost impossible for them to agree on anything."  Before taking power, the five great daimyos had publicly sworn eternal allegiance to the dying Taikō and to his son and his line forever.  And they had taken public, sacred oaths agreeing to unanimous rule in the Council, and vowed to pass over the realm intact to Yaemon when he came of age on his fifteenth birthday.  "Unanimous rule means nothing really can be changed until Yaemon inherits."
    "But some day, Sire, four Regents will join against one—through jealousy, fear or ambition— neh?   The four will bend the Taikō's orders just enough for war, neh? "
    "Yes.  But it will be a small war, Lady, and the one will always be smashed and his lands divided up by the victors, who will then have to appoint a fifth Regent and, in time, it will be four against one and again the one will be smashed and his lands forfeit—all as the Taikō planned.  My only problem is to decide who will be the one this time—Ishido or Toranaga."
    "Toranaga will be the one isolated."
    "Why?"
    "The others fear him too much because they all know he secretly wants to be Shōgun, however much he protests he doesn't."
    Shōgun was the ultimate rank a mortal could achieve in Japan.  Shōgun meant Supreme Military Dictator.  Only one daimyo at a time could possess the title.  And only His Imperial Highness, the reigning Emperor, the Divine Son of Heaven, who lived in seclusion with the Imperial Families at Kyoto, could grant the title.
    With the appointment of Shōgun went absolute power: the Emperor's seal and mandate.  The Shōgun ruled in the Emperor's name.  All power was derived from the Emperor because he was directly descended from the gods.  Therefore any daimyo who opposed the Shōgun was automatically in rebellion against the throne, and at once outcast and all his lands forfeit.
    The reigning Emperor was worshiped as a divinity because he was descended in an unbroken line from the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu Omikami, one of the children of the gods Izanagi and Izanami, who had formed the islands of Japan from the firmament.  By divine right the ruling Emperor owned all the land and ruled and was obeyed without question.  But in practice, for more than six centuries real power had rested behind the throne.
    Six centuries ago there had been a schism when two of the three great rival, semiregal samurai families, the Minowara, Fujimoto and Takashima, backed rival claimants to the throne and plunged the realm into civil war.  After sixty years the Minowara prevailed over the Takashima, and the Fujimoto, the family that had stayed neutral, bided its time.
    From then on, jealously guarding their rule, the Minowara Shōguns dominated the realm, decreed their Shōgunate hereditary and began to intermarry some of their daughters with the Imperial line.  The Emperor and the entire Imperial Court were kept completely isolated in walled palaces and gardens in the small enclave at Kyoto, most times in penury, and their activities perpetually confined to observing the rituals of Shinto, the ancient animistic religion of Japan, and to intellectual pursuits such as calligraphy, painting, philosophy, and poetry.
    The Court of the Son of Heaven was easy to dominate because, though it possessed all the land, it had no revenue.  Only daimyos , samurai, possessed revenue and the right to tax.  And so it was that although all members of the Imperial Court were above all samurai in rank, they still existed on a stipend granted the Court at the whim of the Shōgun, the Kwampaku—the civil Chief Adviser—or the ruling military junta of the day.  Few were generous.  Some Emperors had even had to barter their signatures for food.  Many times there was not enough money for a coronation.
    At length the Minowara Shōguns