12 INTRODUCTION, 



imperceptibly increasing ; until, at last, that happened which it requires hut little sagacity to 

 perceive could not but be, in the end, the unavoidable result. Men invested with power are 

 more apt to encourage its growth than to keep it stationary or diminish it ; more especially when 

 those whose interest it is to check their ambition are known to be imbecile. 



It was about the middle of the sixteenth century that two brothers, descendants from Yori- 

 tomo, became rivals for the office of Ziogoon. The princes of the Empire took part with the one or 

 the other, domestic strife raged, and the end of the contest was the death of both the rival brothers. 

 The mightiest prince of that day was the prince of Owari, who, on the death of the brothers, 

 immediately set up for himself as Ziogoon. One of the most sagacious as well as bravest of his 

 adherents was an obscure man named Hide-yosi or Fide-yosi. His station was so lowly that, 

 even in his own times, his parentage was matter of doubt ; but his zeal and talents commended 

 him to the notice of his master, and he became the trusted friend and confidential adviser of the 

 prince of Owari, who, by his aid, succeeded in being appointed Ziogoon. Men's minds had been 

 wrought to such excitement by the civil strife, that when the prince triumphed over his oppo- 

 nents, the reigning Mil:ado did not dare to breast popular opinion, and therefore conferred on 

 him the office. The new Ziogoon, of course, rewarded his faithful ally, and conferred on Fidc- 

 yosi a high military appointment. Presently, the j)rince of Owari was murdered by one who 

 usurped his office ; he, in his turn, shared a like fate ; and now the hour had come for Fide-yosi. 

 When all was in confusion, he seized upon the office for himself; and so well known were his 

 talents and power, that the frightened Mikado, at once, without hesitation, approved and con- 

 firmed him in the office, and he took the name of Tayko-sama, (the Lord Tayko.) With his 

 title thus legitimated, in the confidence of his abilities, he trusted to himself for the rest, and 

 has left behind him a name among the most celebrated in the history of Japan. 



He was a statesman and a soldier, and displayed on the throne all the energy and ability 

 which had contributed to place him there. He put an end at once to the civil commotions, by 

 giving to the opposing princes of the Empire work to do in the invasion and conquest of Corea. 

 He was about marching to subdue China, when death arrested him, in the year 1598, at the age 

 of sixty-three. The Japanese, to this day, consider him as one of the ablest men their country has 

 X>roduced. During his reign he made large progress in the work of reducing the sovereignty of 

 the 3Iikado almost to a shadow ; and inthralling him by more and more burdensome ceremonials, 

 and a most rigorous seclusion, all under the seemingly loyal pretext of profound deference and 

 respect for his heaven-born authority, he quietly left him to " wield a barren sceptre." 



Tayko-sama left an only son, six years old. To secure him in the succession, his father, on 

 his death bed, caused him to njarry the granddaughter of one of his own most particular friends 

 and counsellors, lyeyas, prince of Micava, from whom he obtained a most solemn promise that 

 when the boy should have attained his fifteenth year he would have him recognized as Ziogoon. 



lyeyas proved unfaithful, became Ziogoon himself, and his descendants to this day hold the 

 office, while a veil of mystery covers ujj the fate of the wronged son of Tayko. As to the Mikado, 

 lyeyas jmrsued the policy of his predecessor, and depriving him even of the little power which 

 Tayko had left to him in temporals, he reduced the once absolute autocrasy which he represented 

 to a mere ecclesiastical supremacy, and brought him down to the utter heljdessness and depend- 

 ence which at this day mark liis condition. And tliis is, in brief, the liistory of events by which 

 Japan has come to present that singular and unique feature in government of one empire simul- 

 taneously under tivo sovereigns. 



