Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/52

 recovered some semblance of prosperity. But shortly after his departure from the city, noblemen of Imperial lineage might be seen endeavouring to earn a few cash by delivering lectures in the streets, or begging for "Regent's pence" to support the Court, and the Emperor himself was driven by dire necessity to sell his autographs for daily bread.

Meanwhile, despite the promiscuous character of the fighting throughout the country, the south and the north were still the nuclei of the contest, and as each succeeding phase of the struggle brought with it the ruin of some of the great clans that had constituted the strength of Kamakura or of Kyōtō, the provinces that stood comparatively aloof from this devastating warfare, or lay beyond the range of the tide of bloodshed, developed eminent strength. Such were the provinces included in the district called "Tōkaidō," or the "Eastern-sea circuit," a naturally rich and densely populated part of the Empire.

Among the Tōkaidō chieftains who now began to act leading roles upon the stage, were Takeda Shingen of Kai, Uyesugi Kenshin of Yechigo, Oda Nobunaga of Owari, Hashiba Hideyoshi, afterwards known as the Taikō, a follower of Nobunaga, and Tokugawa Iyeyasu of Mikawa. This quintette saved Japan. Without them she must have become divided into a number of principalities, as her neighbour, Korea, had been,