parish of the sect; every unit of the
nation was required to register his name in the archives of a temple,
and the Government ordered that the priests should keep accurate
lists of births and deaths. Anyone whose name did not appear on these
lists was assumed to belong to the alien faith. This organization was
completed in the time of Iemitsu.

THE FOURTH SHOGUN, IETSUNA

Ietsuna, the fourth Tokugawa shogun, eldest son of Iemitsu, was born
in 1642 and succeeded to the office in 1651, holding it until his
death in 1680. In bequeathing the administrative power to a youth in
his tenth year, Iemitsu clearly foresaw that trouble was likely to
arise. He therefore instructed his younger brother, Hoshina Masayuki,
baron of Aizu, to render every assistance to his nephew, and he
appointed Ii Naotaka to be prime minister, associating with him Sakai
Tadakatsu, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Abe Tadaaki, and other statesmen of
proved ability. These precautions were soon seen to be necessary, for
the partisans of the Toyotomi seized the occasion to attempt a coup.
The country at that time swarmed with ronin (wave-men); that is to
say, samurai who were, for various reasons, roving free-lances. There
seems to have been a large admixture of something very like European
chivalry in the make up of these ronin, for some of them seem to have
wandered about merely to right wrongs and defend the helpless. Others
sought adventure for adventure's sake and for glory's, challenging
the best swordsman in each place to which they came. Many seem to
have taken up the lives of wanderers out of a notion of loyalty; the
feudal lords to whom they had owed allegiance had been crushed by the
Tokugawa and they refused to enter the service of the shogun.

The last-named reason seems to have been what prompted the revolt of
1651, when Ietsuna, aged ten, had just succeeded in the shogunate his
father Iemitsu who had exalted the power of the Tokugawa at the
expense of their military houses. The ronin headed by Yui Shosetsu
and Marubashi Chuya plotted to set fire to the city of Yedo and take
the shogun's castle. The plot was discovered. Shosetsu committed
suicide, and Chuya was crucified. In the following year (1652)
another intrigue was formed under the leadership of Bekki Shoetnon,
also a ronin. On this occasion the plan was to murder Ii Naotaka, the
first minister of State, as well as his colleagues, and then to set
fire to the temple Zojo-ji on the occasion of a