Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/159



OTHING is more remarkable in the history of the Tokugawa epoch than the absence of anything like organised rebellion for many generations. Nevertheless at an early period of the epoch there appeared upon the stage a turbulent figure which remained more or less in evidence until modern days. This was the rōnin, or "wave-man," an epithet applied to samurai who, believing themselves charged with a mission to mend the times, refrained from joining the service of any fief, and wandered about, ready to take a part in all adventures that showed a colouring of sentiment. Some of them, originally vassals of feudal houses upon whose ruins the Tokugawa had risen to power, were only obeying the dictates of loyalty when they refused to bow to the Yedo rule. Some had no grievance except their own inability to conquer fortune; and many, swayed by the pure spirit of knight-errantry, passed from place to place for the sole purpose of measuring swords