iye, to whom the Taiko had entrusted
the guardianship of Hideyori and of the Osaka Castle. This design was
barely thwarted by the intervention of Hosokawa Tadaoki (ancestor of
the present Marquis Hosokawa). Ieyasu was well informed as to
Ishida's schemes on two other occasions; the first immediately
before, the second just after, the death of the Taiko. In each case
rumours of an armed outbreak were suddenly circulated in Fushimi for
the purpose of creating confusion such as might furnish an
opportunity to strike suddenly at Ieyasu. These essays failed in both
instances, and the Tokugawa chief, instead of retaliating by direct
impeachment of Ishida, applied himself to cementing close relations
with certain great daimyo by matrimonial alliances. Such unions had
been implicitly interdicted by the Taiko, and the procedure of Ieyasu
elicited a written protest from the boards of the Five Senior
Ministers and the Five Administrators. They threatened Ieyasu with
dismissal from the former board unless he furnished a satisfactory
explanation. This he declined to do and for some time a very strained
situation existed in Kyoto, an armed struggle being ultimately
averted by the good offices of the Three Middle Ministers.

It was evident, however, that the circumstances had become critical,
and it was further evident that, as long as Ishida Katsushige's
intrigues continued, a catastrophe might at any moment be
precipitated. Sensible of these things, a party of loyal men, spoken
of in history as the "seven generals"--Ikeda Terumasa (ancestor of
the present Marquis Ikeda); Kato Kiyomasa; Kuroda Nagamasa (son of
Kuroda Yoshitaka, and ancestor of the present Marquis Kuroda);
Fukushima Masanori, Asano Yukinaga (son of Asano Nagamasa and
ancestor of the present Marquis Asano); Hosokawa Tadaoki, and Kato
Yoshiaki (ancestor of the present Viscount Kato)--vowed to take
Ishida's life, while he was still in Osaka Castle, whither he had
gone (1599) to attend the death-bed of his friend, Maeda Toshiiye.
Ishida, finding himself powerless to resist such a combination after
the death of Maeda, took an extraordinary step; he appealed to the
protection of Ieyasu--that is to say, to the protection of the very
man against whom all his plots had been directed. And Ieyasu
protected him.

We are here confronted by a riddle which has never been clearly
interpreted. Why did Ishida seek asylum from Ieyasu whom he had
persistently intrigued to overthrow, a