ho Was the
father of the haikai and the hokku, and his mantle descended upon
Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyoriku, and other celebrities. They travelled
round the country popularizing their art and immensely expanding the
field of literature. The craft of penmanship flourished equally, and
was graced by such masters as Hosoi Kotaku and Kitamura Sessan. Yedo,
the metropolis of wealth and fashion, became also the capital of
literature and the fine arts, and a characteristic of the era was the
disappearance of charlatans, whether laymen or bonzes, who professed
to teach the arcana of special accomplishments. 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.

REMOVAL OF THE ROJU

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. It had been the custom ever since the days of
Ieyasu to conduct the debates of the council of ministers (Roju) in a
chamber adjoining the shogun's sitting-room, so that he could hear
every word of the discussion, and thus keep himself au courant of
political issues. After the assassination of Hotta Masatoshi this
arrangement was changed. The council chamber was removed to a
distance, and guards were placed in the room where it had originally
assembled, special officials being appointed for the purpose of
maintaining communications between the shogun and the Roju. This
innovation was nominally prompted by solicitude for the shogun's
safety, but as its obvious result was to narrow his sources of
information and to bring him under the direct influence of the newly
appointed officials, there is strong reason to believe that the
measure was a reversion to the evil schemes of Sakai Tadakiyo, who
plotted to usurp the shogun's authority.

YANAGISAWA YASUAKI

Tsunayoshi had at that time a favourite attendant on whom he
conferred the rank of Dewa no Kami with an estate at Kawagoe which
yielded 100,000 koku annually. The friendship of the shogun for this
most corrupt official had its origin in community of literary taste.
Tsunayoshi lectured upon the "Doctrine of the Mean," and Yasuaki on
the Confucian "Analects," and after these learned discourses a
Sarugaku play, or some other form of light entertainment, was
organized. The shogun was a