connexion with the attitude of the Yedo Bakufu towards
the Throne. In 1657, as already related, Yedo was visited by a
terrible conflagration, and another of scarcely less destructive
violence occurred in the same city the following year, while, in
1661, the Imperial palace itself was burned to the ground, the same
fate overtaking the principal Shinto shrine in Ise, and nearly every
province suffering more or less from a similar cause. Moreover, in
1662, a series of earthquakes disturbed the country throughout a
whole month, and the nation became almost demoralized in the face of
these numerous calamities. Then the Bakufu took an extraordinary
step. They declared that such visitations must be referred to the
sovereign's want of virtue and that the only remedy lay in his
abdication. The shogun, Ietsuna, was now ruling in Yedo. He sent
envoys to Kyoto conveying an order for the dethronement of the
Emperor, and although his Majesty was ostensibly allowed to abdicate
of his own will, there could be no doubt as to the real circumstances
of the case. His brother, Reigen, succeeded him, and after holding
the sceptre for twenty-four years, continued to administer affairs
from his place of retirement until his death, in 1732.

SANKE AND SANKYO

When Ieyasu, after the battle of Sekigahara, distributed the fiefs
throughout the Empire, he gave four important estates to his own
sons, namely, Echizen to Hideyasu; Owari to Tadayoshi; Mito to
Nobuyoshi, and Echigo to Tadateru. Subsequently, after the deaths of
Tadayoshi and Nobuyoshi, he assigned Owari to his sixth son,
Yoshinao, and appointed his seventh son, Yorinobu, to the Kii fief,
while to his eighth son, Yorifusa, Mito was given. These last three
were called the Sanke (the Three Families). From them the successor
to the shogunate was chosen in the event of failure of issue in the
direct line. Afterwards this system was extended by the addition of
three branch-families (Sankyo), namely those of Tayasu and
Hitotsubashi by Munetake and Munetada, respectively, sons of the
shogun Yoshimune, and that of Shimizu by Shigeyoshi, son of the
shogun Ieshige. It was enacted that if no suitable heir to the
shogunate was furnished by the Sanke, the privilege of supplying one
should devolve on the Sankyo, always, however, in default of an heir
in the direct line. The representatives of the Sanke had their
estates and castles, but no fiefs were assigned to the Sankyo; they
resided in Yedo clos