the Edo days it was a favourite site for
the homes of _do[u]shin_, _yakunin_, and a whole herd of the minor
officials who had the actual working of the great Tokugawa machine of
government in their hands. In the maps of Ansei 4th year (1857) the
shrine of the O'Iwa Inari figures in Samoncho[u], in its Teramachi; a
small part of the great mass of red, indicating temples and shrines and
their lands, which then covered a large part of Yotsuya. How then did it
come to pass that the shrine was removed to this far off site in
Echizenbori, with such incongruous surroundings? The explanation must be
found in our story.

When the Tenwa year period (1681-83) opened, long resident at Yotsuya
Samoncho[u] had been Tamiya Matazaemon. By status he was a minor
official or _do[u]shin_ under the Tokugawa administration. These
_do[u]shin_ held highest rank of the permanent staff under the
bureaucratic establishment; and on these men lay the main dependence for
smoothness of working of the machinery of the Government. Matazaemon was
the perfect type of the under-official of the day; smooth, civilly
impertinent to his equals, harsh to his inferiors, and all unction and
abjectness to his superiors. Indeed, he laid more stress on those
immediately above him than on the more removed. To serve the greater
lord he served his immediate officer, being careful to allow to the
latter all the credit. No small part of his function was to see that
ceremonial form and precedent were carried out to the letter. It was the
accurate and ready knowledge of these which was of greatest import to
his chief, indeed might save the latter from disaster. Matazaemon's
readiness and conduct rendered him deservedly valued. Hence he enjoyed
the double salary of thirty _tawara_ of rice, largely supplemented by
gifts coming to him as teacher in _hanaike_ (the art of flower
arrangement) and of the _cha-no-yu_ (tea ceremony). He had a more than
good house, for one of his class, facing on the wide Samoncho[u] road,
and with a garden on the famous Teramachi or long street lined with
temples and which runs eastward from that thoroughfare. The garden of
Tamiya almost faced the entrance to the Gwansho[u]ji, which is one of
the few relics of the time still extant. It was large enough to contain
some fifteen or twenty fruit trees, mainly the _kaki_ or persimmon, for
Matazaemon was of practical mind. Several cherry trees, however,
periodically displayed their bloom against the ri