Page:The Awakening of Japan, by Okakura Kakuzō; 1905.djvu/60

 ministers from among the smaller daimios of their own creation. The powerful members of their own aristocracy were watched as strictly as were the Tozama lords, a fact which explains why all the daimios were so lukewarm in their sympathy toward the Tokugawa government during the struggles of the Restoration.

Below the daimios came the samurai, or sworded gentry, four hundred thousand strong. They served either immediately under the shogun himself, or else under the banners of the various daimios. Their appointments were hereditary, and their blood was kept pure by the prohibition of all marriage with the lower classes, except in case of the foot-soldiers, who constituted the lowest rank of samurai. They had the right and obligation of wearing two