for
this rashness with an illness of days. Meanwhile Aoyama Shu[u]zen had
learned one important fact. Endo[u] Saburo[u]zaemon in application for
the _bakemono yashiki_ had met with flat refusal. The field was open to
himself. Moreover he had said nothing of the fact that, in the exercise
of his new office as magistrate for the apprehension of thieves and
fire-bugs, he was in fair way to suppress forever and in great torments
the Mujina-bake and his fellows, residuary legatees of the prowess and
field of action of the late So[u]ja Mushuku.

END OF PART I

PART II

THE BANCHO[U] SARAYASHIKI

OR

THE LADY OF THE PLATES

WHAT AOYAMA SHU[U]ZEN BECAME.

CHAPTER XI

THE YOSHIDA GOTEN

When Prince Iyeyasu consolidated his power at Edo, more particularly on
his becoming Sei-i-tai-Sho[u]gun, some provision had to be made for the
great _daimyo[u]_ brought by the necessities of occasion to personal
interview with their chief and suzerain. In the suburbs rose beautiful
structures devoted to the entertainment of these _kyakubun_--or
guests--as the greater _daimyo[u]_ were then termed. The Yatsuyama
Goten, the Hakuzan Goten, the Kosuge Goten, the Yoshida Goten, other and
elegant, if minor, palaces arose. Their first use disappeared with the
compulsory residence of the _daimyo[u]_ under Iyemitsu Ko[u], but some
were still maintained as places of resort and entertainment for the
Sho[u]gun in his more relaxed moments. Others were devoted to the
residences of favoured members of his family. Others were maintained for
the entertainment of State or Church dignitaries, on occasion of
particular mission from the court in Kyo[u]to to that of Edo. Others
were destroyed, or put to temporal uses, or their use granted to
favoured retainers or church purposes.

One of the most beautiful of these was the Yoshida Goten in the
Bancho[u]. The site originally had been covered by the _yashiki_ of
Yoshida Daizen no Suke. One of those nobles favouring the Tokugawa
against Ishida Mitsunari, as their designs became clearer with the years
following Sekigahara, at the attack on Osaka castle he was found within
its walls. Thus the "Overseer of the kitchen" fell under the wrath of
his suzerain. Hidetada Ko[u] was a man of much kind temperament, but he
was a strict disciplinarian and a rough soldier. Whether or not the
dishes furnished for his consumption and digestion had anything to do
with the matter, there was serious cause eno