He was brought up by Tofuku-mon-in as though he were her real
child, until he succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven,
occupying it for eleven years. Form his earliest youth he showed
sagacity, magnanimity, and benevolence. His love of literature was
absorbing, and he studied earnestly, taking the priests of the Five
Temples as his teachers. He is said to have arrived at the conclusion
that a sovereign should never study any useless branch of learning,
and as he failed to see the utility of Buddhism, he turned to
Confucianism in preference. Moreover, dissatisfied with the old
commentaries of the Han and Tang dynasties, he chose in their stead
the new classics composed by Chengtsz and Chutsz; and as for Japanese
literature, he condemned as grossly misleading works like the Genji
Monogatari and the Ise Monogatari.

There can be no doubt that this sovereign conceived the ambition of
recovering the administrative authority. His reign extended from the
twenty-second year of Iemitsu's sway to the fifth of Ietsuna's, and
in the troubles of that period he thought that he saw his
opportunity. It is related that he devoted much attention to sword
exercise, and the shoshidai Itakura Shigemune warned him that the
study of military matters did not become the Imperial Court and would
probably provoke a remonstrance from Yedo should the fact become
known there. The Emperor taking no notice of this suggestion,
Shigemune went so far as to declare his intention of committing
suicide unless the fencing lessons were discontinued. Thereupon the
young Emperor calmly observed: "I have never seen a military man kill
himself, and the spectacle will be interesting. You had better have a
platform erected in the palace grounds so that your exploit may be
clearly witnessed." When this incident was reported by the shoshidai
to Yedo, the Bakufu concluded that some decisive measure must be
taken, but before their resolve had materialized and before the
sovereign's plans had matured, he died of small-pox, in 1654, at the
age of twenty-two, having accomplished nothing except the restoration
and improvement of certain Court ceremonials, the enactment of a few
sumptuary laws, and the abandonment of cremation in the case of
Imperial personages.

THE 111TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-SAIEN (A.D. 1654-1663) AND
THE 112TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR REIGEN (A.D. 1663-1686)

Go-Saien was the sixth son of the Emperor Go-Mizu-no-o. His reign is
remarkable in