Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/27

 jected it to the control of the Yedo administration, certain methods of drawing money being prescribed, and every item being entered in accounts which had to be submitted annually for approval to the Shōgun's representative (the Shoshidai) in Kyōtō. The sovereign lived, for the most part, in the presence of females. Even such duties as the sweeping and cleaning of the inner garden (naka-niwa) upon which the Imperial apartments opened, had to be entrusted to women. A standing order forbade the admission of any visitor to the Imperial presence, and in order to segregate His Majesty still further from the outer world, the ladies in waiting, though permitted to visit their native places thrice a year, were not allowed to go abroad on other occasions without a written permit from one of the two chief chamberlains. The sharp distinction drawn by the military government between itself and the Court in Kyōtō is illustrated by an enactment of the third Shōgun, Iyemitsu, which his successor confirmed, directing that all affairs relating to the Court nobles should be managed by the principal lady in waiting (Nagahashi no Tsubone) in consultation with the two chief chamberlains. Some of the Tokugawa Shōguns were destined at a later epoch to be themselves segregated from politics and active administration by a similar entourage of ladies, but the masterful Iyemitsu and his immediate successor did not foresee such an application of their system. They