Page:Illustrations of Japan.djvu/32

8, Taïko relinquished the government to Yeye-yasou and five of his principal favourites, and expired on the 18th of the eighth month, of the third year Kei-djo (1598), at the age of sixty-three.

After the death of Taïko, discord soon sprung up among the governors, and led to intestine broils and civil wars. Yeye-yasou, who had long aspired to the supreme power, took care to foment these disturbances, but disguised his intentions, till, finding his authority sufficiently established, he threw off the mask, attacked Fide-yori upon plausible pretexts, and besieged him in his castle of Osaka. Peace was indeed concluded, through the mediation of the Daïri, but it was of short duration. Hostilities recommenced with greater violence than ever, and the issue of them may be seen in the above-mentioned work of Father Crasset. The particulars respecting them contained in the letters of the Dutch Company's agents in Japan, though curious, with reference to the commerce of that time, are not of sufficient interest for further notice here.

Gongin, having become master of the empire, by the defeat of Fide-yori and his partisans, thought of nothing but the means of securing to himself the supreme power for ever. As there were many persons at the court of the Daïri who espoused the cause of Fide-yori, and as it was of the utmost consequence to the usurper to keep that court in absolute dependence, he persuaded the Daïri to appoint two of his sons high-priests, one in the temple of Niko, and the other in that of Ouyeno at Yedo. He thus relieved himself from all apprehension of the Daïri, whom he could have immediately displaced, to make room for one of his sons, had he ventured to attempt any thing against his usurped authority.

Being now easy upon this head, Gongin adopted such wise regulations, that the country, too long torn by civil broils, was restored to the blessings of profound peace; and opportunity was afforded for laying the foundations of that prosperity which it still enjoys.

At this period terminate the Nipon-o-daï-tche-lan, or Annals of the Daïris. Since the accession of Gongin, the printing of any work relative to the government has been prohibited. The curious, however, possess manuscript accounts of all the remarkable events that have occurred under the different princes of the