THE FOUNDING OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE

Among all the friends and retainers of Hideyoshi the most prominent and able was Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was six years younger than Hideyoshi, and therefore in A.D. 1598, when the Taiko died, he was fifty-six years old. He was born at the village of Matsudaira in the province of Mikawa A.D. 1542. His family counted its descent from Minamoto Yoshi-ie, who in the eleventh century had by his military prowess in the wars against the Ainos earned the heroic name of Hachiman-Taro. Therefore he was, as custom and tradition now for a long time had required for those holding the office of shogun, a descendant from the Minamoto family.(190) The name Tokugawa, which Ieyasu rendered famous, was derived from a village in the province of Shimotsuke, where his ancestors had lived. His first experiences in war were under Nobunaga, side by side with Hideyoshi. He proved himself not only a capable soldier, prudent and painstaking, but also a good administrator in times of peace. Hideyoshi had such confidence in him, and so much doubt about the wisdom of requiring the guardians to wait until his son, a mere child five years old, had grown up to years of responsibility, that he is represented as having said to Ieyasu: “I foresee that there will be great wars after my decease; I know too that there is no one but you who can keep the country quiet. I therefore bequeath the whole country to you, and trust you will expend all your strength in governing it. My son Hideyori is still young. I beg you will look after him. When he is grown up, I leave it to you to decide whether he will be my successor or not."(191)

As soon as the Taiko was dead, and the attempt was made to set in motion the machinery he had designed for governing the country, troubles began to manifest themselves. The princes whom he had appointed as members of his governing boards, began immediately to quarrel among themselves. On Ieyasu devolved the duty of regulating the affairs of the government. For this purpose he resided at Fushimi, which is a suburb of Kyoto. His most active opponent was Ishida Mitsunari, who had been appointed one of the five bugyo, or governors, under the Taiko’s arrangement. They grew jealous of Ieyasu, because, under the existing order of things, the governors were of very minor importance. Mitsunari had acquired his influence with the Taiko, not through military achievements, but by intrigue and flattery. He was cordially detested by such disinterested friends as Kato Kiyomasa and others.

The ground on which the opposition to Ieyasu was based was that he was not faithfully performing his duty, as he had promised to the dying Taiko, towards his child and heir. It is not improbable that even at this early day it was seen that Ieyasu proposed to disregard the pretensions of the youthful son of Hideyoshi, in the same way that he in his day had disregarded the claims of the heir of Nobunaga. The rough and warlike times, and the restless and ambitious manners of the feudal lords of these times, made it impossible to entrust the country to the hands of a child.

Under this strained relation, the members of the regency divided into two parties. Speaking broadly, it was again a contest between the north and the south of Japan. Ieyasu’s association had been from the beginning with the Kwanto, and now more than ever his power was centred about Yedo. Mitsunari on the contrary had leagued himself with the princes of Chosu and Satsuma, and with others of minor importance, all more or less representative of the southern half of the empire. The Christians chiefly sided with Hideyori and his adherents. Mitsunari himself was a Christian convert, and the Jesuit fathers explain that his position and that of the other Christian leaders were due to their conscientious desire to fulfil their oath of fidelity to Hideyori. That Ieyasu should have been derelict in such a solemn duty was a sufficient cause for their opposition to him.

Events now rushed rapidly to a culmination. One of the most powerful of the princes allied against Ieyasu was Uesugi Kagekatsu, the lord of Echigo and Aizu. He had retired to Aizu after having solemnly made a covenant(192) with the others engaged in the plot to take measures against Ieyasu. He was summoned to Kyoto to pay his respects to the emperor, but on some trivial excuse he declined to come. Ieyasu now saw that nothing but war would settle the disputes which had arisen. He repaired to Yedo and to Shimotsuke, and made preparations for the conflict which he saw impending.

In the meantime the members of the league were busy. Mitsunari sent an urgent circular to all the feudal princes, charging Ieyasu with certain misdeeds and crimes, the chief of which was that instead of guarding the inheritance of the Taiko for his son, he was with the blackest guilt endeavoring to seize it for himself. A formidable army was gathered at Osaka consisting of 128,000 men.(193) Made up as it was from different provinces and officered by its provincial leaders, it lacked that element of unity and accord which is so essential to an army. The first movement was against the castle of Fushimi, which was the centre from which Ieyasu governed the country. After a short siege it fell and then, it is said, was accidentally burned to the ground.

The news of the attack upon Fushimi was brought to Ieyasu in Shimotsuke, and a council of his friends and retainers was held to determine what steps must be taken to meet the emergency. It was urged that the time had come when Ieyasu should meet his enemies, and settle by battle the questions which had risen between them. It was determined that all the scattered troops should be gathered together, and that they should march to Fushimi prepared to encounter the enemy in battle at whatever point they should meet them. The eldest son of Ieyasu, Hideyasu, was put in charge of Yedo and entrusted with the care of the surrounding provinces. This was an important trust, because the powerful prince Uesugi lay to the north of him and would seize the first opportunity to attack him. To Fukushima was given the command of the vanguard. The principal army was divided into two parts, one of which was to march along the Tokaido under the command of Ieyasu himself, the other was placed under the charge of Ieyasu’s second son Hidetada, and was to take the route along the Nakasendo. The whole army consisted of 75,000 men, a number much smaller than the army of the league, but which had the advantage of being controlled by one mastering and experienced commander.

The armies met at Sekigahara,(194) a little village on the Nakasendo, October, A.D. 1600. One place on the neighboring hill is still pointed out whence Ieyasu witnessed the battle and issued his orders. Both sides fought with determined bravery, and the battle lasted the whole day. Cannon and other firearms were to some extent made use of, but the old-fashioned weapons, the sword and the spear, were the terrible means by which the victory was decided. For a long time the battle raged without either party obtaining a decisive advantage. Notwithstanding his inferiority in numbers Ieyasu was completely victorious. The carnage was dreadful. The number of the confederate army said to have been killed was 40,000.(195) This seems like an impossible exaggeration, and the Japanese annalists are, like those of other nations, given to heightened statements. But that the loss of life on both sides was very great there can be no doubt.

Two ghastly mounds called Kubi-zuka, or head piles, are still shown where the heads of the decapitated confederates were buried. This battle must always stand with that at Dan-no-ura between the Minamoto and Taira families, as one of the decisive battles in the history of Japan. By it was settled the fate of the country for two hundred and fifty years.

It was fortunate that the victor in this battle was a man who knew how to secure the advantages to be derived from a victory. It is said that at the close of this battle when he saw success perching on his banners, he repeated to those around him the old Japanese proverb: “After victory tighten the strings of your helmet."(196) The division of Hidetada joined him after the battle, and he promptly followed up his victory by seizing the castles on his way and taking possession of Kyoto and Osaka. The feudal princes who had stood aloof or opposed him nearly all came forward and submitted themselves to his authority. Uesugi and Satake in the north, who had been among his most active opponents, at once presented themselves to Hideyasu at Yedo and made their submission. Mori, the powerful lord of the western provinces, who had been most active in the confederation against him, sent congratulations on his victory, but they were coldly received. Finally he was pardoned, being however deprived of six out of his eight provinces. He was suffered to retain of all his rich inheritance only Suo and Nagato. Several of the leaders were captured, among whom were Mitsunari, Konishi, and Otani, who being Christians deemed it unworthy their faith to commit hara-kiri. They were carried to Kyoto where they were beheaded and their heads exposed in the dry bed of the Kamo-gawa.

The work of reducing to order the island of Kyushu was entrusted to the veteran generals Kato Kiyomasa and Kuroda Yoshitaka. The former undertook the reduction of Hizen, and the latter that of Bungo, Buzen, and Chikuzen. The house of Shimazu, although it had taken sides against Ieyasu in the great contest, duly made its submission and was treated with great consideration. The whole of the territory assigned to it by Hideyoshi after the war of A.D. 1586 was restored to it, namely, the whole of the provinces of Satsuma and Osumi, and one half of the province of Hyuga. To Kato Kiyomasa(197) was given the province of Higo, which had, after the Korean war, been assigned to Konishi in recognition of his services, but which was now taken from his family because he had been one of Ieyasu’s active opponents. The Kuroda family received as its inheritance a portion of the province of Chikuzen with its capital at Fukuoka, which it held until the abolition of feudal tenures in 1871.

Ieyasu was a peaceful and moderate character, and in the settlement of the disturbances which had marked his advent to power, he is notable for having pursued a course of great kindness and consideration. With the exception of the cases already mentioned there were no executions for political offences. It was his desire and ambition to establish a system of government which should be continuous and not liable, like those of Nobunaga and Taiko Sama, to be overturned at the death of him who had founded it. By the gift of Taiko Sama he had already in his possession a large part of the Kwanto. And by the result of the war which had ended at Sekigahara, he had come into possession of a great number of other fiefs, with which he could reward those who had been faithful to him. It was the difficult and delicate part of his work to distribute judiciously among his supporters and retainers the confiscated estates. To realize how completely the feudal system as reformed by Ieyasu was bound to him and constituted to support and perpetuate his family, it is only necessary to examine such a list of the daimyos(198) as is given in Appert’s Ancien Japon.(199) Out of the two hundred and sixty-three daimyos there enumerated, one hundred and fifty-eight are either vassals or branches of the Tokugawa family. But while he thus carefully provided the supports for his own family, he spared many of the old and well-rooted houses, which had incorporated themselves into the history of the country. He built his structure on the old and tried foundation stones. With far-sighted statesmanship he recognized that every new form of government, to be permanent, must be a development from that which precedes it, and must include within itself whatever is lasting in the nature of its forerunner.

The dual form of government had for many centuries existed in Japan, and the customs and habits of thinking, and the modes of administering justice and of controlling the conduct of men had become adapted to this system. It was therefore natural that Ieyasu should turn his attention to reforming and perfecting such a form of government. A scheme of this kind seemed best adapted to a country in which there existed on the one hand an emperor of divine origin, honored of all men, but who by long neglect had become unfit to govern, and in whom was lodged only the source of honor; and on the other hand an executive department on which devolved the practical duty of governing, organizing, maintaining, and defending. Though he was compelled to look back through centuries of misrule, and through long periods of war and usurpation, he could see straight to Yoritomo, the first of the shoguns, and could trace from him a clear descent in the Minamoto family. To this task, therefore, he set himself: to maintain the empire in all its heaven-descended purity and to create a line of hereditary shoguns who should constitute its executive department.

In pursuance of this plan, he sent his son Hidetada to the emperor to make a full report of everything that had been done in the settlement of the affairs of the country. The emperor was graciously pleased to approve his acts and to bestow upon him, A.D. 1603, the hereditary title of Sei-i-tai-shogun. This was the title borne by Yoritomo when he was the real ruler of the country. Since that time there had been a long line of shoguns, the last of whom was Ashikaga Yoshiaki, whom Nobunaga deposed in 1573, and who had died 1597. With this new appointment began a line of Tokugawa shoguns that ended only with the restoration in 1868.

Ieyasu’s most radical change in the system of government consisted in the establishment of the seat of his executive department at Yedo. Since A.D. 794 Kyoto had been the capital where successive emperors had reigned, and where Nobunaga and Hideyoshi exercised executive control. Kamakura had been the seat of Yoritomo and his successors. But Ieyasu saw advantages in establishing himself in a new field, to which the traditions of idleness and effeminacy had not attached themselves, and where the associations of his own warlike career would act as a stimulus to his contemporaries and successors. He remained at Fushimi until necessary repairs could be made to the Castle of Yedo(200) and the roads between it and the capital put in order. The place which henceforth was to be the principal capital of the country first comes into notice, as we have before mentioned, as a castle built by Ota Dokwan in A.D. 1456. He had been placed here by the authorities of Kamakura to watch the movements of the restless princes of the north. Recognizing the strength and convenience of the high grounds on the border of Yedo bay, he built a castle which, through many transformations and enlargements, finally developed into the great feudal capital of the Tokugawa shoguns. It was here that Ieyasu, after the fall of Odawara, by the advice of Hideyoshi,(201) established himself for the government of the provinces of the Kwanto which had been given to him.

And it was without doubt this earlier experience which led him to select Yedo as the centre of his feudal government. The reputation which this eastern region bore for roughness and want of culture, as compared with the capital of the emperor at Kyoto, seemed to him an advantage rather than an objection. He could here build up a system of government free from the faults and weaknesses which had become inseparable from the old seats of power. After the repairs and enlargements had been completed he took up his residence there. Besides this castle, Ieyasu had for his private residence, especially after his retirement from the shogunate, an establishment at Sumpu, now called Shizuoka. Here he was visited by English and Dutch envoys in reference to the terms of allowing trade, and here, after the manner of his country, he maintained his hold upon the administration of affairs, notwithstanding his formal retirement.

A continued source of disquietude and danger to the empire, or at least to the plans of Ieyasu for a dynasty of Tokugawa shoguns, lay in Hideyori, the son and heir of Taiko Sama. He was born in 1592, and was therefore at this time, 1614, in his twenty-third year. As long as he lived he would be naturally and inevitably the centre to which all the disaffected elements of the country would gravitate. The failure of Ieyasu to support the cause of his old master’s son would always prove a source of weakness to him, especially in a country where fidelity to parents and superiors was held in such high esteem. He determined, therefore, to bring to a conclusion these threatening troubles which had so long been hanging over him. Accordingly, on the ground that Hideyori was plotting with his enemies against the peace of the state, he set out from Sumpu, where he was then residing as retired shogun, with an army of seventy thousand men. Hideyori and his mother had for a long time resided at the castle of Osaka, and against this Ieyasu directed his large army. It was bravely and skilfully defended, and without the help of artillery, which at this early day was rarely used in sieges, a long time elapsed before any decided advantage was gained. At last the defenders were tempted beyond the protection of their fortifications, and a battle was fought June 3, 1615. It is described by the Jesuit fathers, two of whom witnessed it, as being sanguinary beyond the example of the bloody battles of the Japanese civil wars. It resulted in the complete overthrow of Hideyori’s adherents, and the destruction of the castle by fire. Both Hideyori and his mother were said to have perished in the conflagration. Reports were current that they had, however, escaped and taken refuge in some friendly locality. But no trace of them was ever found, and it was taken for granted that this was the end of Hideyori and his party.

Before ending this chapter, which is designed to record the establishment of the Tokugawa shoguns, reference should be made to the settlement of the questions left in dispute by Taiko Sama respecting Korea. There remained after the war, with all its attendant atrocities and sufferings, a feeling of intense bitterness towards the Japanese on the part both of the Koreans and Chinese. The absence of any sufficient cause for the invasion, and the avowed purpose of Taiko Sama to extend his conquests to China had awakened against him and his armies a hatred which generations could not wipe out. Soon after the recall of the Japanese troops which followed the death of Taiko Sama, Ieyasu opened negotiations with Korea through the daimyo of Tsushima. He caused the government to be informed that any friendly overtures on its part would be received in a like spirit. The king of Korea accordingly despatched an embassy with an autograph letter, addressed to the “King of Japan.” A translation of this letter will be found in Mr. Aston’s last paper(202) on Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea. Among other things it says: “The sovereign and subjects of this country were profoundly grieved, and felt that they could not live under the same heaven with your country.... However your country has now reformed the errors of the past dynasty and practises the former friendly relations. If this be so, is it not a blessing to the people of both countries? We have therefore sent you the present embassy in token of friendship. The enclosed paper contains a list of some poor productions of our country. Be pleased to understand this.” This letter was dated in the year 1607. A friendly answer was returned to it, and from this time it may be understood that the relations between the two countries were placed on a satisfactory basis. These steps were taken on the part of Korea with the knowledge and approval of China, which now claimed to hold a protectorate over the peninsula of Korea. The same negotiations therefore which resulted in peaceful relations with Korea brought about a condition of amity with China which was not disturbed until very recent times.

The ruinous effects of this invasion, however, were never overcome in Korea itself. Her cities had been destroyed, her industries blotted out, and her fertile fields rendered desolate. Once she had been the fruitful tree from which Japan was glad to gather her arts and civilization, but now she was only a branchless trunk which the fires of war had charred and left standing.