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There is some nicety of feudal custom here that escapes my comprehension. In Yeddo, with this nondescript political status, and cut off from any means of livelihood, he was joyfully supported by those who sympathised with his design. One was Sakuma- Shozan, hereditary retainer of one of the Shogun's councillors, and from him he got more than money or than money's worth.
Mitsukuri. "The ancestral policy of self-contentment must be done away with. If it was adopted by your forefathers, because it was wise in their time, why not adopt a new policy if it in sure to prove wise in your time." Sakuma Shozan, wrote in 1841, assassinated 1864. "And slowly floating onward go Those Black Ships, wave-tossed to and fro." Japanese Ballad of the Black Ship, 1845.
Some of their disciples became men of will and action: Sakuma Shozan, Yoshida Toraziro, Gesho, Yokoi Heishiro, and later Saigo, Okubo, Kido, and hosts of others, who ultimately realized the dreams of their masters. Out of the literary seed which scholars like Rai Sanyo spread broadcast over the country thus grew hands of iron and hearts of steel.
Now, he had scarce returned from Nangasaki, when he was sought out by a new inquirer, the most promising of all. This was a common soldier, of the Hemming class, a dyer by birth, who had heard vaguely of Yoshida's movements, and had become filled with wonder as to their design. This was a far different inquirer from Sakuma- Shozan, or the councillors of the Daimio of Choshu.
Ten years later, Yoshiaki returned to the capital, took the tonsure and changed his name to Shozan. At the suggestion of Hideyoshi a title and a yearly income of ten thousand koku were conferred on him. He died in Osaka and thus ended the Ashikaga shogunate. One of the incidents connected with Hideyoshi's administration in Kyoto illustrates the customs of his time.
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