Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/315

 reconciled with any theory of invariably reverential loyalty to the person of the Emperor.  —The names of such great captains as, (the Taikō), , , etc., are connected with liaisons of this description.  —The Taikō resembled Napoleon I. in his determined manner of overriding obstacles and his ruthless indifference to the feelings of others. Writing to his wife from Odawara, where he was besieging the Hōjō stronghold, he said: "Send Yodo to me here. I like her. You shall have me at your side when I return."  —It is curious to observe the difficulty that attended the abolition of the custom of junshi. When, the fourth son of , died in 1601, not only did three of his most trusted vassals commit suicide, but a fourth, who had been banished to Oshiu in consequence of some offence, hastened to Yedo and killed himself within the precincts of the Temple Zōjō-ji. In the same year, second son of Iyeyasu, died. Two of his attendants immediately committed suicide, and his chief factor was about to follow their example when peremptory vetoes arrived from, the reigning Viceregent, and from Iyeyasu himself. In his letter forbidding the act, Iyeyasu declared that should the practice be resorted to by any feudatory's vassals thereafter, the fief would be confiscated, his view being that true loyalty required, not sacrifice of life, but transfer of services to the deceased lord's successor. Nevertheless, when, the eight-year-old son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, was put to death in 1615, his tutor, Tanaka Rokuyemon, committed suicide; and when the second Tokugawa Shōgun, , died in 1632, although, as has been said, he had himself interdicted the junshi, his squire, Morikawa Shigetoshi, followed him to the other world. So, on the demise of in 1636, several of his vassals committed suicide; and on the death of the third Tokugawa Shōgun,, in 1651, five men and one woman killed themselves, and four other men, attendants of the suicides, took the same step. At length, in 1663, the fourth Shōgun,, decreed that if the junshi were practised in any fief, the latter's revenues should be confiscated; 