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At this school youths of ability, selected from among the sons of the Bakufu officials and of the daimyo, were educated, the doctrines of Confucius being thus rendered more and more popular. Under Tsunayoshi's auspices, also, many books were published which remain to this day standard works of their kind.
This tale, however, has been shown to be an invention with no stronger foundation than the fact that Tsunayoshi's death took place very suddenly at a highly critical time. It is not to be doubted that many of the excesses and administrative blunders committed by the fifth Tokugawa shogun were due to the pernicious influence of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu.
There had been born to Iemitsu five sons, of whom the eldest, Ietsuna, had succeeded to the shogunate, and three others had died, the only one remaining alive being Tsunayoshi, who, having been born in 1646, was now in his thirty-fourth year. On Tsunayoshi's accession the prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, was released from office, and Hotta Masatoshi became his successor.
In short, every branch of study passed out of the exclusive control of one or two masters and became common property, to the great advantage of original developments. What has thus far been written depicts the bright side of Tsunayoshi's administration. It is necessary now to look at the reverse of the picture. There we are first confronted by an important change of procedure.
Tsunayoshi died of small-pox in 1709, after a brief illness. Having been born in 1662, Ienobu was in his forty-seventh year when he succeeded to the office of shogun. His first act was to abolish Tsunayoshi's legislation for the protection of animals.
One of Tsunayoshi's first orders was that this huge vessel should be broken up, and when his ministers remonstrated on the ground that she would be invaluable in case of emergency, he replied that if an insurrection could not be suppressed without such extraordinary instruments, the Bakufu might step down at once from the seats of power.
These littérateurs were the predecessors of the celebrated Kamo and Motoori, of whom there will be occasion to speak by and by. Tsunayoshi's patronage extended also to the field of the fine arts. The Tokugawa Bakufu had hitherto encouraged the Kano School only whereas the Tosa Academy was patronized by the Court at Kyoto.
Thereafter, ten of Hayashi's disciples were nominated among the shogun's retainers, and were required to deliver lectures periodically at the court of the Bakufu. In short, in whatever related to learning, Tsunayoshi stands easily at the head of all the Tokugawa shoguns. A noteworthy incident of Tsunayoshi's administration was a change of calendar, effected in the year 1683.
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