Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/181

 It was at this time also that the Yedo Court began to be divided against itself. There was a party of the Shōgun (Iyeharu, 1760–1786), a party of his favourite mistress, a party of the chief minister, a party of the heir apparent, and a party of the Mito family. To trace the lines of this division would be wearisome and useless. Sufficient to say that it was chiefly caused by a departure from the fixed order of succession in choosing an heir, the title of the "Three Families " being set aside in favour of Iyenari, a scion of the Hitotsubashi house.

The ethics of the nation were at their worst in the days (1760–1786) of the Shōgun Iyeharu. Bribery was practised openly and shamelessly. Pauperism prevailed extensively in the chief cities, with its usual accompaniments of theft and incendiarism. Conflagrations became so common in Yedo that the citizens learned to regard them as one of the inevitable ills of daily life. In 1760 one-half of the city was reduced to ashes, and eleven years later a fire, burning for ten days, swept over five districts, killed four hundred persons, and laid waste a space ten miles long and two and a half in width. Several of the great nobles began to assume a defiant mien towards the Shōgun. Men of learning were regarded as interesting curiosities rather than as public benefactors. Society abandoned itself to excesses of all kinds. The queen of the day was the professional danseuse, and even among men