t in possession of the provinces of Satsuma, Osumi, and
Hyuga, the only further stipulation being that the then head of the
house, Yoshihisa, should abdicate in favour of his younger brother,
Yoshihiro. As for the Buddhist priests who had sacrificed their
honour to their interests, those that had acted as guides to the
invading army were subsequently crucified by order of the Satsuma
baron, and the Shin sect, to which they belonged, was interdicted
throughout the whole of the Shimazu fief. Yoshihiro was summoned to
Kyoto by Hideyoshi to answer for this action, but he pleaded that
such treachery amply deserved such punishment, and that he was
prepared to bow to Hideyoshi's judgment in the matter. The defence
was admitted by Hideyoshi, but the abbot Kennyo received such large
rewards that he was able to erect the great temple Nishi Hongwan-ji,
"which became the wonder of after-generations of men and which has
often been erroneously referred to by foreign writers as a proof of
the deep religious feelings of Buddhist converts three hundred years
ago."*

*A New Life of Hideyoshi, by W. Dening.

THE HOJO

From end to end of Japan there were now only two powerful barons
whose allegiance had not been formally rendered to Hideyoshi and to
the Emperor under the new regime. These were Date Masamune and Hojo
Ujimasa. The origin and eminence of the Hojo family from the days of
its founder, Nagauji, have already been described in these pages, and
it need only be added here that Ujimasa enjoyed a reputation second
to none of his predecessors. That he should stand aloof from all his
brother barons seemed to the latter an intolerable evidence of pride,
and they urged Hideyoshi to resort at once to extreme measures. There
can be no doubt that this was the intention of Hideyoshi himself, but
with characteristic prudence he had recourse at the outset to pacific
devices. He therefore sent an envoy to the Hojo's stronghold at
Odawara, urging Ujimasa to lose no time in paying his respects to the
Court at Kyoto. The Hojo chief's reply was that Sanada Masayuki had
encroached upon the Hojo estates in Numata, and that if this
encroachment were rectified, the desired obeisance to the Throne
would be made.

Thereupon, Hideyoshi caused the restoration of Numata, but the Hojo
baron, instead of carrying out his part of the agreement, made this
restoration the pretext for an unwarrantable act of aggression.
Whatever sympathy might have been felt