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and was thus appointed Shogun or military Governor, so the occupant of the Shogunate could not be confined to the different generations of the same family. Moreover, the development of the military government produced many powerful ‘Daimyos,’ who possessed great numbers of retainers and large extents of land. At the end of the Ashikaga Shogunate, these ‘Daimyos’ from 1467 to 1590 fought amongst themselves for supremacy, until Toyotomi Hideyoshi, commonly known as Taiko, subdued the rest and restored peace and order in 1590. However, the struggle for supremacy soon flamed up again after his death, and his retainers on one hand, and the followers of Tokugawa Iyeyasu on the other, fought the Battle of Sekigahara (1600), which decided the final victory of the latter. The one hundred and seventh Emperor, Go-Yoze, applauded the great merit of Iyeyasu for having put an end to the long-prevalent state of warfare in the empire, and was pleased to appoint him the ‘Sei-i Taishogun’ in 1603 (8th year of Kecho): Thus, the Tokugawa Shogunate was established and its bases consolidated by the third Shogun, Iyemitsu, who summoned to the Castle of Yedo, now Tokyo, the so-called ‘Tozama Daimyos’—i.e., those Daimyos who were not his own retainers, but who had stood upon an equal footing with the Tokugawa from the time of Taiko, and made them all swear before him that they should thereafter render him homage in the same manner as his own retainers.

With the purpose of maintaining the perpetual peace and unity of the whole country, Iyeyasu and his successors eagerly aimed at the improvement of social life, and promoted as one of the means the art and learning which had long since been abandoned for military development on account of the successive wars. Besides this, the strict exclusion throughout the entire country from missionary influence was adopted as the best policy of avoiding complications occasioned by any political ambitions they would have undoubtedly developed: But the commerce with foreigners was never impeded on this account, but, rather, encouraged to as great an extent as possible, without allowing the missionaries to gain a footing in connection with it. The Dutch traders, who had no intention of propagating a religion, but were only intent upon developing the country, as the Chinese, were permitted for this reason to transact their mercantile affairs at the port of Nagasaki. Everything being thus put in order, peace prevailed throughout the country; people enjoyed a quiet and undisturbed life; learning developed, the arts flourished; cities and towns grew and prospered, and the current of progress and civilization ran with a new speed.

The Tokugawa’s policy for the pacification and unification