The class of officers next below the Hattamoto is the Gokennin. The highest income they receive from government is less than 500 koku per annum.

Beneath the Gokennin, officers come under the general classification of Yakunins or officials—literally, “business men.” This name is applied to the lower officers employed by the Shiogoon—such as Kumi gashira, Shirabbe yaku, Jo yaku, and Shtabang. There are no Yakunins in Miako; there the Emperor’s sub-officials are called Kwannin.

Every Yakunin is supposed to swear that he will do whatever, right or wrong, he is ordered to do by his government.

It is not permitted to Gokennin, or to officials of lower rank, to ride in Yedo or upon the highroads; they must walk.

Such being the details of the officers under the Shiogoon, the government is so well regulated as to have worked with comparative smoothness for 250 years. The safeguards and checks which were devised by Iyeyas have been in operation up to recent times. The setting apart of three families from the members of which the Shiogoon might be chosen, gives a powerful support to the reigning family. The designation of four families, from out of which a regent might be appointed, and the further naming of thirteen families from out of which the Cabinet was advised to be formed, out of the broader basis of 135 Fudai or working Daimios, who were generally comparatively poor, gave to all the higher classes a consistency of interest in the existing state of things. Power over the person of the individual, and over his personal power of mischief, in regard to the more powerful princes, was sought to be obtained by the detention of the wives and families in Yedo, and by visiting the sins of an intriguing prince, not upon his family or retainers, but upon himself alone. It would appear that when the Shiogoon is of age, and of sufficient capacity, he will appoint his own ministers out of the different families named by Iyeyas to this end. It is to the interest of the State as well as of the Kokushiu that they should continue unmolested in the possession of their extensive territories and jurisdiction; and intrigues are prevented as far as possible by no one being allowed to visit another within his territories. While the power which the government held over the persons and property of these powerful princes, by having the wives and families as hostages at Yedo, was promoted by the wish for their welfare on the part of the husbands or parents, it was kept in force by the strange custom of these powerful lords coming up to the court at Yedo every alternate year, or, in some cases, every six months. Perhaps this was aided by the dullness of their country quarters compared with the gayety of the capital. If the Shiogoon be a minor, or incapable of holding the reins of power, the ablest or the least scrupulous of those who have any claim to the situation becomes regent, and he rules the empire for the time being. A regency, however, has not been frequently necessary during the rule of the present family, but the appointment has never been held by one man for more than three years, and the tenure, it is said, has generally been terminated by assassination. The regent removes his political foes, and appoints in their place men holding his own views. He carries himself as a ruler over men who are his superiors in wealth and rank—the Ko kushiu. These men are still obliged to repair to Yedo, where they find, in place of an acknowledged superior, a haughty inferior, to whom they must pay court. This is one weak point of the system, and that upon which it threatened to break up. This forms the last chapter of the history of the empire.

The above is a sketch of the court of the Shiogoon, with which one must be acquainted before the past history or the current events in the empire can be thoroughly understood.

CHAPTER XI
THE HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE CONTINUED

The history of Japan, during the two and a half centuries after the death of Iyeyas, presents a continuous narrative of tranquillity and peace when contrasted with the stormy times which preceded that era. The laws which Iyeyas made, and the steps which he took, seem to have brought about the end which he had in view; namely, establishing his own family as de facto rulers of the empire, and placing them upon a seat which should be too strong for any rival to overthrow.

The peace which was so happily granted to the empire was so perfect and of such duration that in the year 1806 a great national festival was held, when the nobles and people congratulated the Emperor upon what was an unprecedented fact in the history of Japan, and indeed it may be said of any nation, an unbroken peace of nearly two hundred years.

The only subject of discord left behind him by Iyeyas at his death was the question of the treatment of the foreigner in his twofold capacity of trader and missionary. The foreigner, as a trader, Iyeyas wished to retain at his ports, in order that he himself might enjoy the benefits of trade, and keep himself acquainted with what was going on in the world around him. The foreigners, as proselytizing missionaries, bringing professions of peace and goodwill, but who seemed to be in reality preachers of sedition and organizers of rebellion, were not to be tolerated; and he came to the conclusion, that if any real peace was to be obtained for the country, it must be at the expense of the former. “Perish trade,” he said, “that my country may have the greater blessing of peace.” With the view of carrying out his plans, another edict was, in the year 1616, promulgated against the Roman Catholic religion, about which time the evidence of these fathers would lead to the belief that, “from Taikosama’s death, 1598, to the year 1614, the fathers of the Society baptized upward of 104,000; and what is more, in the first three years of the persecution, when the very pillars themselves began to shake, they converted 15,000 more. By this time the Jesuits had traversed the whole empire, and claimed converts, not only in Yedo, but in Oshiu (or Mootz) and Dewa to the extreme north. The province of Oshiu is separated from Dewa by a long chain of high mountains all covered with snow, and here it was that the poor exiled Christians lived, destitute of all human assistance. One of the Jesuits, moved with compassion at their misfortune, took a journey into that country, climbing up the hills over hideous precipices in deep snow. He visited privately the Christians that wrought in the mines, and confessed and communicated them. The same he did at the hospital of lepers, which happened to be at that time full of Christians.” This was, as we are told, done quietly, and by the assistance of converts; but, as heretofore, while some of the different orders of the Roman Church were disposed to keep quiet till better times should dawn, and carry on their ministrations in secret, as it were, others were still inclined to show a zeal without knowledge, and thus kept up the ardor of their enemies about the court. During the year 1626 Midzu no and Take naka were sent down to Nagasaki to examine into and report upon the state of the Christian religion; and the government, knowing that the Cross was the symbol of the faith, and an object of the highest reverence among the Christians, resolved to make the question of such reverence the shibboleth or test of the individual strength of faith. In 1636 orders were issued by government that every one in Nagasaki was to assemble each month for the purpose of standing upon, with the object of desecrating, a copper “ita,” or plate, with an engraven representation of the Christian criminal God—i.e., of our Saviour. This order was strictly carried out at Nagasaki, while another such plate was (and is) kept at Osaka for the purpose of testing suspected persons. This act of desecration is known as “Yayboomi,” and was carried out till the recent conclusion of treaties with Christian nations.