saffection destined to prove fatal
to his own family.

ADOPTION OF WESTERN LEARNING

Yoshimune was fond of astronomy. He erected a telescope in the
observatory at Kanda, a sun-dial in the palace park, and a rain-gauge
at the same place. By his orders a mathematician named Nakane Genkei
translated the Gregorian calendar into Japanese, and Yoshimune,
convinced of the superior accuracy of the foreign system, would have
substituted it for the Chinese then used in Japan, had not his
purpose excited such opposition that he judged it prudent to desist.
It was at this time that the well-informed Nishikawa Masayasu and
Shibukawa Noriyasu were appointed Government astronomers.

Previously the only sources of information about foreign affairs had
been the masters of the Dutch ships, the Dutch merchants, and the
Japanese interpreters at Nagasaki. The importation of books from the
Occident having been strictly forbidden by the third shogun, Iemitsu,
Yoshimune appreciated the disadvantage of such a restriction, and
being convinced of the benefits to be derived from the study of
foreign science and art, he rescinded the veto except in the case of
books relating to Christianity. Thus, for the first time, Japanese
students were brought into direct contact with the products of
Western intelligence. In 1744, Aoki Konyo received official orders to
proceed to Nagasaki for the purpose of seeking instruction in Dutch
from Dutch teachers. Shibukawa and Aoki are regarded as the pioneers
of Occidental learning in Japan, and, in the year 1907, posthumous
honours were conferred on them by the reigning Emperor of their
country.

THE SANKIN KOTAI

It has already been stated that the financial embarrassment of the
Bakufu in Yoshimune's time was as serious as it had been in his
predecessor's days. Moreover, in 1718, the country was swept by a
terrible tornado, and in 1720 and 1721, conflagrations reduced large
sections of Yedo to ashes. Funds to succour the distressed people
being imperatively needed, the shogun called upon all the feudatories
to subscribe one hundred koku of rice for every ten thousand koku of
their estates. By way of compensation for this levy he reduced to
half a year the time that each feudal chief had to reside in Yedo.
This meant, of course, a substantial lessening of the great expenses
entailed upon the feudatories by the sankin kotai system, and the
relief thus afforded proved most welcome to the daimyo and the shomyo