Toki-yori attained to Enlightenment by the instruction of Do-gen and Do-ryu, and breathed his last calmly sitting cross-legged, and expressing his feelings in the following lines: 

“Thirty-seven of years,
Karma mirror stood high;
Now I break it to pieces,
Path of Great is then nigh.”

His successor, Toki-mune (1264-1283), a bold statesman and soldier, was no less of a devoted believer in Zen.  Twice he beheaded the envoys sent by the great Chinese conqueror, Kublai, who demanded Japan should either surrender or be trodden under his foot.  And when the alarming news of the Chinese Armada’s approaching the land reached him, be is said to have called on his tutor, Tsu Yuen, to receive the last instruction.  “Now, reverend sir,” said. he, “an imminent peril threatens the land.”  “How art thou going to encounter it?” asked the master.  Then Toki-mune burst into a thundering Ka with all his might to show his undaunted spirit in encountering the approaching enemy.  “O, the lion’s roar!” said Tsu Yuen.

“Thou art a genuine lion.  Go, and never turn back.”  Thus encouraged by the teacher, the Regent General sent out the defending army, and successfully rescued the state from the mouth of destruction, gaining a splendid victory over the invaders, almost all of whom perished in the western seas.

10.  Zen after the Downfall of the Ho-Jo Regency.

Towards the end of the Ho-Jo period,[FN#90] and after the downfall of the Regency in 1333, sanguinary battles were fought between the Imperialists and the rebels.  The former, brave and faithful as they were, being outnumbered by the latter, perished in the field one after another for the sake of the ill-starred Emperor Go-dai-go (1319-1338), whose eventful life ended in anxiety and despair.

[FN#90] Although Zen was first favoured by the Ho-jo Regency and chiefly prospered at Kama-kura, yet it rapidly began to exercise its influence on nobles and Emperors at Kyo-to.  This is mainly due to the activity of En-ni, known as Sho-Ichi-Koku-Shi (1202-1280), who first earned Zen under Gyo-yu, a disciple of Ei-sai, and afterwards went to China, where he was Enlightened under the instruction of Wu Chun, of the monastery of King Shan.  After his return, Michi-iye (Fuji-wara), a powerful nobleman, erected for him To-fuku-ji in 1243, and he became the founder of a sub-sect of the Rin Zai, named after that monastery.  The Emperor Go-saga (1243-1246), an admirer of his, received the Moral Precepts from him.  One of his disciples, To-zan, became the spiritual adviser of the Emperor Fushi-mi (1288-1298), and another disciple, Mu kwan, was created the abbot of the monastery of Nan-zen-ji by the Emperor Kame-yama (1260-1274), as the founder of a sub-sect of the Rin Zai under the same name.