Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/232

 thus became responsible for the spectacle of a sovereign fleeing from his palace disguised in female garments. This oligarchical tendency did not undergo any change with the fall of the Hōjō. Kono Moronao, the commander of the first Ashikaga Chief's soldiers, instructed his followers thus: "If you want estates, take those of the Emperor. A living Emperor is a mere waster of the world's substance, and an obstacle to the people. He is not a necessity, but if we must have him, a wooden effigy will do equally well." Probably such an extreme view had few adherents, but its expression did not provoke any remonstrance. Hideyoshi, the Taikō, adopted a more respectful attitude towards the Throne, though in some respects he was essentially democratic. Thus he showed absolute indifference to aristocratic claims in choosing his assistants, being guided solely by his judgment of a man's capacity. Among his great captains, Fukushima Masanori was originally a carpenter; Katō Kiyomasa, a nameless nobody like the Taikō himself; Konishi Yukinaga, the son of a druggist; Ishida Katsushige, a page in a temple. But recognising the necessity of hiding his own lowly birth under the shadow of a great office—that of regent—he was careful to exalt the giver of the office. Hence the Imperial Court fared well at his hands. Yet one of Hideyoshi's deliberate acts was strikingly inconsistent with any genuine sense of the dignity of the sovereign. At a