ld become Buddhist nuns (bikuni-gosho). It has
already been shown that this custom found many followers in the days
of Ashikaga administration, and it was observed with almost equal
strictness under the Tokugawa, who certainly aimed at the gradual
weakening of the Imperial household's influence. Arai Hakuseki
remonstrated with the shogun, Ienobu, on the subject. He contended
that however humble a man's lot may be, his natural desire is to see
his children prosper, whereas in the case of Imperial princes, they
were condemned to the ascetic career of Buddhist priests. He
denounced such a system as opposed to the instincts of humanity, and
he advised not only that certain princes should be allowed to form
families of their own, but also that Imperial princesses should marry
into branches of the Tokugawa. Ienobu is said to have acknowledged
the wisdom of this advice, and its immediate result was the
establishment of the princely house of Kanin, which, with the houses
of Fushimi, Kyogoku (afterwards Katsura), and Arisugawa, became the
four Shinnoke. Among other privileges these were designated to
furnish an heir to the throne in the event of the failure of direct
issue. When Yoshimune succeeded to the headship of the Bakufu, and
after Arai Hakuseki was no longer in office, this far-seeing policy
was gradually abandoned, and all the relations between the Imperial
Court and the Bakufu became somewhat strained.

THE 115TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SAKURAMACHI (A. D, 1732-1735), AND
THE 116TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR MOMOZONO (A.D. 1735-1762)

After the death of the ex-Emperor Reigen (1732), the Emperor
Nakanomikado administered affairs himself during three years, and
then abdicated in 1735 in favour of Sakuramachi, who was sixteen
years of age, and who reigned until 1747, when he abdicated in favour
of Momozono, then seven years of age. It was in this reign that there
appeared an eminent scholar, Yamazaki Ansai, who, with his scarcely
less famous pupil, Takenouchi Shikibu, expounded the Chinese classics
according to the interpretation of Chutsz. They sought to combine the
cults of Confucianism and Shinto, and to demonstrate that the Mikados
were descendants of gods; that everything possessed by a subject
belonged primarily to the sovereign, and that anyone opposing his
Majesty's will must be killed, though his brothers or his parents
were his slayers. The obvious effect of such doctrines was to
discredit the Bakufu shoguns, and in