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These new tokens
were called kenji-kin, as they bore on the reverse the ideograph ken,
signifying "great original." The issue of the new coins took place
in the year 1710, and at the same time the daimyo were strictly
forbidden to issue paper currency, which veto also was imposed at the
suggestion of Arai Hakuseki.
THE SEVENTH SHOGUN, IETSUGU
The seventh Tokugawa shogun, Ietsugu, son of his predecessor, Ienobu,
was born in 1709, succeeded to the shogunate in April, 1713, and died
in 1716. His father, Ienobu, died on the 13th of November, 1712, so
that there was an interval of five months between the demise of the
sixth shogun and the accession of the seventh. Of course, a child of
four years who held the office of shogun for the brief period of
three years could not take any part in the administration or have any
voice in the appointment or dismissal of officials. Thus, Arai
Hakuseki's tenure of office depended upon his relations with the
other ministers, and as all of these did not approve his drastic
reforms, he was obliged to retire, but Manabe Norifusa remained in
office.
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE
THE EIGHTH SHOGUN, YOSHIMUNE
By the death of Ietsugu, in 1716, the Hidetada line of the Tokugawa
family became extinct, and a successor to the shogunate had to be
sought from the Tokugawa of Kii province in the person of Yoshimune,
grandson of Yorinobu and great-grandson of Ieyasu. Born in 1677,
Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun, succeeded to office in 1716,
at the age of thirty-nine. The son of a concubine, he had been
obliged to subsist on the proceeds of a very small estate, and he
therefore well understood the uses of economy and the condition of
the people. His habits were simple and plain, and he attached as much
importance as Ieyasu himself had done to military arts and literary
pursuits. It had become a custom on the occasion of each shogun's
succession to issue a decree confirming, expanding, or altering the
systems of the previous potentate. Yoshimune's first decree placed
special emphasis on the necessity of diligence in the discharge of
administrative functions and the eschewing of extravagance. Always he
made it his unflagging aim to restore the martial spirit which had
begun to fade from the samurai's bosom, and in the forefront of
important reforms he placed frugality. The Bakufu had fallen into the
habit of modelling their systems and their procedure after Kyoto
examples. In fact, they aimed at converting Yedo into a replica of
the Imperial capital. This, Yoshimune recognized as disadvantageous
to the Bakufu themselves and an obstacle to the resuscitation of
bushido. Therefore, he set himself to restore all the manners and
customs of former days, and it became his habit to preface decrees
and ordinances with the phrase "In pursuance of the methods, fixed
by Gongen" (Ieyasu). His idea was that only the decadence of bushido
could result from imitating the habits of the Imperial Court, and as
Manabe Norifusa did not endorse that view with sufficient zeal, the
shogun relieved him of his office of minister of the Treasury.
One of Yoshimune's measures was to remodel the female department of
the palace on the lines of simplicity and economy. All the
ladies-in-waiting were required to furnish a written oath against
extravagance and irregular conduct of every kind, and in the sixth
year after his accession the shogun ordered that a list should be
furnished setting forth the names and ages of such of these ladies as
were, conspicuously beautiful. Fifty were deemed worthy of
inscription, and quite a tremor of joyful excitement was caused, the
measure being regarded as prefacing the shogun's choice of consorts.
But Yoshimune's purpose was very different. He discharged all these
fair-faced ladies and kept only the ill-favoured ones, his assigned
reason being that as ugly females find a difficulty in getting
husbands, it would be only charitable to retain their services.
He revived the sport of hawking, after the manner of Ieyasu, for he
counted it particularly suitable to soldiers; and he pursued the
pastime so ardently that men gave him the name of the Taka-shogun
(Falcon shogun). He also inaugurated a new game called uma-gari
(horse-hunting); and it is on record that he required the samurai to
practise swimming in the sea. By way of giving point to his
ordinances inculcating frugality, he himself made a habit of wearing
cotton garments in winter and hempen in summer--a custom habitually
practised by the lower orders only. The very detailed nature of his
economical measures is illustrated by an incident which has
independent interest. Observing that the fences erected on the scarp
of Yedo Castle were virtually useless for purposes of defence and
very costly to keep in repair, he caused them all to be pulled down
and replaced by pine trees. This happened in 1721, and the result was
that the battlements of this great castle were soon overhung by noble
trees, which softened and beautified the military aspect of the
colossal fortress. To the same shogun Yedo owes the cherry and plum
groves of Asuka-yama, of the Sumida-gawa, and of Koganei. The
saplings of these trees were taken from the Fukiage park, which
remains to-day one of the most attractive landscape gardens in the
world.
ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO ERA
OTHER MEASURES
For the purpose of acquiring accurate information about the condition
of the people, Yoshimune appointed officials who went by the name of
niwa-ban (garden watchmen). They moved about among the lower orders
and reported everything constituting knowledge useful for
administrative purposes. Moreover, to facilitate the ends of justice,
the shogun revived the ancient device of petition-boxes
(meyasu-bako), which were suspended in front of the courthouse in
order that men might lodge there a written statement of all
complaints. It was by Yoshimune, also, that the celebrated Ooka
Tadasuke, the "Solomon of Japan," was invited from Yamada and
appointed chief justice in Yedo. The judgments delivered by him in
that capacity will be famous as long as Japan exists. It has to be
noted, however, that the progressive spirit awakened by Yoshimune's
administration was not without untoward results. Extremists fell into
the error of believing that everything pertaining to the canons of
the immediate past must be abandoned, and they carried this
conception into the realm of foreign trade, so that the restrictions
imposed in the Shotoku era (1711-1715) were neglected. It became
necessary to issue a special decree ordering the enforcement of these
regulations, although, as will presently be seen, Yoshimune's
disposition towards the civilization of the Occident was essentially
liberal.
CODES OF LAW
By this time the miscarriages of justice liable to occur when the law
is administered with regard to precedent only or mainly, began to be
plainly observable, and the shogun, appreciating the necessity for
written codes, appointed a commission to collect and collate the laws
in operation from ancient times; to embody them in codes, and to
illustrate them by precedents. Matsudaira Norimura, one of the
ministers of State, was appointed chief commissioner, and there
resulted, after four years of labour, the first genuine Japanese code
(Oshioki Ojomoku). This body of laws was subsequently revised by
Matsudaira Sadanobu, and under the name of Osadame Hyakkajo ("Hundred
Articles of Law"), it remained long in practice.
LITERATURE
Yoshimune was not behind any of his ancestors in appreciation of
learning. In 1721, when his administrative reforms were still in
their infancy, he invited to Yedo Kinoshita Torasuke (son of the
celebrated Kinoshita Junan), Muro Nawokiyo, and other eminent men of
letters, and appointed them to give periodical lectures. Nawokiyo was
named "adviser to the shogun," who consulted him about administrative
affairs, just as Arai Hakuseki had been consulted by Ienobu. In fact,
it was by the advice of Arai Hakuseki that Nawokiyo (whose literary
name was Kyuso), entered the service of Yoshimune. Contemporaneous
with these littérateurs was the renowned Ogyu Sorai, whose profound
knowledge of finance and of administrative affairs in general made
him of great value to the Bakufu. He compiled a book called Seidan
(Talks on Government) which, immediately became a classic. Special
favour was shown to the renowned Confucianist, Hayashi Nobuatsu. He
and his son were asked to deliver regular lectures at the Shohei
College, and these lectures were the occasion of a most important
innovation, namely, the admission of all classes of people, whereas
previously the audience at such discourses had been strictly limited
to military men.
It is to be observed that in the days of Yoshimune's shogunate the
philosophy of Chutsz (Shu-shi) was preferred to all others. It
received the official imprimatur, the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming (O
Yo-mei) being set aside. One consequence of this selection was that
the Hayashi family came to be regarded as the sole depositories of
true Confucianism. Yoshimune himself, however, was not disposed to
set any dogmatic limits to the usefulness of men of learning. He
assumed an absolutely impartial attitude towards all schools;
adopting the good wherever it was found, and employing talent to
whatever school it belonged. Thus when Kwanno Chqkuyo established a
place of education in Yedo, and Nakai Seishi did the same in Osaka,
liberal grants of land were made by the Bakufu to both men. Another
step taken by the shogun was to institute a search for old books
throughout the country, and to collect manuscripts which had been
kept in various families for generations. By causing these to be
copied or printed, many works which would otherwise have been
destroyed or forgotten were preserved.
It is notable that all this admirable industry had one untoward
result: Japanese literature came into vogue in the Imperial capital,
and was accompanied by the development of a theory that loyalty to
the sovereign was inconsistent with the administration of the Bakufu.
The far-reaching consequences of this conception will be dealt with
in a later chapter.
were called kenji-kin, as they bore on the reverse the ideograph ken,
signifying "great original." The issue of the new coins took place
in the year 1710, and at the same time the daimyo were strictly
forbidden to issue paper currency, which veto also was imposed at the
suggestion of Arai Hakuseki.
THE SEVENTH SHOGUN, IETSUGU
The seventh Tokugawa shogun, Ietsugu, son of his predecessor, Ienobu,
was born in 1709, succeeded to the shogunate in April, 1713, and died
in 1716. His father, Ienobu, died on the 13th of November, 1712, so
that there was an interval of five months between the demise of the
sixth shogun and the accession of the seventh. Of course, a child of
four years who held the office of shogun for the brief period of
three years could not take any part in the administration or have any
voice in the appointment or dismissal of officials. Thus, Arai
Hakuseki's tenure of office depended upon his relations with the
other ministers, and as all of these did not approve his drastic
reforms, he was obliged to retire, but Manabe Norifusa remained in
office.
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE
THE EIGHTH SHOGUN, YOSHIMUNE
By the death of Ietsugu, in 1716, the Hidetada line of the Tokugawa
family became extinct, and a successor to the shogunate had to be
sought from the Tokugawa of Kii province in the person of Yoshimune,
grandson of Yorinobu and great-grandson of Ieyasu. Born in 1677,
Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun, succeeded to office in 1716,
at the age of thirty-nine. The son of a concubine, he had been
obliged to subsist on the proceeds of a very small estate, and he
therefore well understood the uses of economy and the condition of
the people. His habits were simple and plain, and he attached as much
importance as Ieyasu himself had done to military arts and literary
pursuits. It had become a custom on the occasion of each shogun's
succession to issue a decree confirming, expanding, or altering the
systems of the previous potentate. Yoshimune's first decree placed
special emphasis on the necessity of diligence in the discharge of
administrative functions and the eschewing of extravagance. Always he
made it his unflagging aim to restore the martial spirit which had
begun to fade from the samurai's bosom, and in the forefront of
important reforms he placed frugality. The Bakufu had fallen into the
habit of modelling their systems and their procedure after Kyoto
examples. In fact, they aimed at converting Yedo into a replica of
the Imperial capital. This, Yoshimune recognized as disadvantageous
to the Bakufu themselves and an obstacle to the resuscitation of
bushido. Therefore, he set himself to restore all the manners and
customs of former days, and it became his habit to preface decrees
and ordinances with the phrase "In pursuance of the methods, fixed
by Gongen" (Ieyasu). His idea was that only the decadence of bushido
could result from imitating the habits of the Imperial Court, and as
Manabe Norifusa did not endorse that view with sufficient zeal, the
shogun relieved him of his office of minister of the Treasury.
One of Yoshimune's measures was to remodel the female department of
the palace on the lines of simplicity and economy. All the
ladies-in-waiting were required to furnish a written oath against
extravagance and irregular conduct of every kind, and in the sixth
year after his accession the shogun ordered that a list should be
furnished setting forth the names and ages of such of these ladies as
were, conspicuously beautiful. Fifty were deemed worthy of
inscription, and quite a tremor of joyful excitement was caused, the
measure being regarded as prefacing the shogun's choice of consorts.
But Yoshimune's purpose was very different. He discharged all these
fair-faced ladies and kept only the ill-favoured ones, his assigned
reason being that as ugly females find a difficulty in getting
husbands, it would be only charitable to retain their services.
He revived the sport of hawking, after the manner of Ieyasu, for he
counted it particularly suitable to soldiers; and he pursued the
pastime so ardently that men gave him the name of the Taka-shogun
(Falcon shogun). He also inaugurated a new game called uma-gari
(horse-hunting); and it is on record that he required the samurai to
practise swimming in the sea. By way of giving point to his
ordinances inculcating frugality, he himself made a habit of wearing
cotton garments in winter and hempen in summer--a custom habitually
practised by the lower orders only. The very detailed nature of his
economical measures is illustrated by an incident which has
independent interest. Observing that the fences erected on the scarp
of Yedo Castle were virtually useless for purposes of defence and
very costly to keep in repair, he caused them all to be pulled down
and replaced by pine trees. This happened in 1721, and the result was
that the battlements of this great castle were soon overhung by noble
trees, which softened and beautified the military aspect of the
colossal fortress. To the same shogun Yedo owes the cherry and plum
groves of Asuka-yama, of the Sumida-gawa, and of Koganei. The
saplings of these trees were taken from the Fukiage park, which
remains to-day one of the most attractive landscape gardens in the
world.
ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO ERA
OTHER MEASURES
For the purpose of acquiring accurate information about the condition
of the people, Yoshimune appointed officials who went by the name of
niwa-ban (garden watchmen). They moved about among the lower orders
and reported everything constituting knowledge useful for
administrative purposes. Moreover, to facilitate the ends of justice,
the shogun revived the ancient device of petition-boxes
(meyasu-bako), which were suspended in front of the courthouse in
order that men might lodge there a written statement of all
complaints. It was by Yoshimune, also, that the celebrated Ooka
Tadasuke, the "Solomon of Japan," was invited from Yamada and
appointed chief justice in Yedo. The judgments delivered by him in
that capacity will be famous as long as Japan exists. It has to be
noted, however, that the progressive spirit awakened by Yoshimune's
administration was not without untoward results. Extremists fell into
the error of believing that everything pertaining to the canons of
the immediate past must be abandoned, and they carried this
conception into the realm of foreign trade, so that the restrictions
imposed in the Shotoku era (1711-1715) were neglected. It became
necessary to issue a special decree ordering the enforcement of these
regulations, although, as will presently be seen, Yoshimune's
disposition towards the civilization of the Occident was essentially
liberal.
CODES OF LAW
By this time the miscarriages of justice liable to occur when the law
is administered with regard to precedent only or mainly, began to be
plainly observable, and the shogun, appreciating the necessity for
written codes, appointed a commission to collect and collate the laws
in operation from ancient times; to embody them in codes, and to
illustrate them by precedents. Matsudaira Norimura, one of the
ministers of State, was appointed chief commissioner, and there
resulted, after four years of labour, the first genuine Japanese code
(Oshioki Ojomoku). This body of laws was subsequently revised by
Matsudaira Sadanobu, and under the name of Osadame Hyakkajo ("Hundred
Articles of Law"), it remained long in practice.
LITERATURE
Yoshimune was not behind any of his ancestors in appreciation of
learning. In 1721, when his administrative reforms were still in
their infancy, he invited to Yedo Kinoshita Torasuke (son of the
celebrated Kinoshita Junan), Muro Nawokiyo, and other eminent men of
letters, and appointed them to give periodical lectures. Nawokiyo was
named "adviser to the shogun," who consulted him about administrative
affairs, just as Arai Hakuseki had been consulted by Ienobu. In fact,
it was by the advice of Arai Hakuseki that Nawokiyo (whose literary
name was Kyuso), entered the service of Yoshimune. Contemporaneous
with these littérateurs was the renowned Ogyu Sorai, whose profound
knowledge of finance and of administrative affairs in general made
him of great value to the Bakufu. He compiled a book called Seidan
(Talks on Government) which, immediately became a classic. Special
favour was shown to the renowned Confucianist, Hayashi Nobuatsu. He
and his son were asked to deliver regular lectures at the Shohei
College, and these lectures were the occasion of a most important
innovation, namely, the admission of all classes of people, whereas
previously the audience at such discourses had been strictly limited
to military men.
It is to be observed that in the days of Yoshimune's shogunate the
philosophy of Chutsz (Shu-shi) was preferred to all others. It
received the official imprimatur, the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming (O
Yo-mei) being set aside. One consequence of this selection was that
the Hayashi family came to be regarded as the sole depositories of
true Confucianism. Yoshimune himself, however, was not disposed to
set any dogmatic limits to the usefulness of men of learning. He
assumed an absolutely impartial attitude towards all schools;
adopting the good wherever it was found, and employing talent to
whatever school it belonged. Thus when Kwanno Chqkuyo established a
place of education in Yedo, and Nakai Seishi did the same in Osaka,
liberal grants of land were made by the Bakufu to both men. Another
step taken by the shogun was to institute a search for old books
throughout the country, and to collect manuscripts which had been
kept in various families for generations. By causing these to be
copied or printed, many works which would otherwise have been
destroyed or forgotten were preserved.
It is notable that all this admirable industry had one untoward
result: Japanese literature came into vogue in the Imperial capital,
and was accompanied by the development of a theory that loyalty to
the sovereign was inconsistent with the administration of the Bakufu.
The far-reaching consequences of this conception will be dealt with
in a later chapter.
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