JAPAN: AND THE LAST SHALL BE FIRST 357immobilism was typically justified in Confucian terms: "It seems that
in state affairs, if the laws and practices of those who founded the state
are followed exactiy and are not changed, the state will endure forever.
If the descendants turn against the laws of their ancestors and devise
new ones, the state will fall into chaos and will surely perish."^7
It was one thing to enunciate principles; another to make them
work. After decades of civil war, Japan's new dynasty was determined
to stifle the merest whiff of rebellion. When Nobunaga ordered Ieyasu
to kill his wife and son, he complied; and once Ieyasu triumphed in the
Batde of Sekigahara (1600) and was appointed shogun (1603), he
purged his enemies with equal ruthlessness. The Toyotomi family were
killed to the last of kin, saving only two small children. Thousands of
their allies were hunted down and executed, and their heads capped on
pikes as a lesson to others.
This was get-even time. Enemy clans lost domain and income. The
lucky ones were deported to distant places and given petty fiefs too
meager to support their retainers. As a result, the land swarmed with
masterless samurai (ronin), angry men of thirsty swords, trained only
to fight and looking for trouble. Many of them did vex the Tokugawa,
but so doing, declared themselves and died in the purge.* Others came
into being when a daimyd died without heir. For a time the shogunate,
seeking to consolidate its power, happily profited from such opportu
nities by escheating these estates and awarding them to allies and fa
vorites. But the ronin problem so worsened that in 1651 the Bakufu
decided to recognize the legitimacy of deathbed adoptions and leave
these domains in the family.^1
In order to ensure order in the empire, the Tokugawa conceived an
extraordinary hostage arrangement. Under a system of alternate at
tendance (sankin kotai) instituted in 1634-35, all daimyd were re
quired to set up residence in Edo as well as on their domain (han), and
to leave wife and children there under the eye and hand of the shogu-
* The more prudent ones became teachers of swordsmanship and martial arts or of
Confucianism. Others became warrior-farmers (goshi). Still others joined their masters
in death—so many that the practice was forbidden in 1663.
f Oishi, "The Bakuhan System," p. 23. These ronin, always ready to avenge wrongs
done their masters, were like a time bomb, threatening revenge from beyond the
grave. The most famous such case is that of the "Forty-seven Ronin," whose cunning
and bloody revenge (1702) is still remembered. They were ordered by the government
to commit mass hara-kiri for having disturbed the peace and broken the law; but they
remain heroes. Their grave in Tokyo is a much-visited shrine, and the Japanese have
made literally hundreds of films singing their deeds.