e to the shogun's palace, and received each an
annual allowance from the Bakufu treasury.

THE FEUDAL SYSTEM OF THE TOKUGAWA

It has been shown that in distributing the fiefs Ieyasu aimed at
paralyzing the power of the tozama daimyo and vitalizing that of the
fudai barons. This he effected, as far as concerned the tozama
feudatories, by isolating them from each other, or by placing those
of equal strength in juxtaposition, so that they might become rivals;
while in the case of fudai barons, he established an effective system
of communications between them, so that co-operation and
concentration of forces were facilitated. Broadly speaking, this
method had for result the planting of the tozama daimyo in the west
and of the fudai barons in the east, as well as along the main roads
between the two capitals. The plan worked admirably during 270 years,
but at the Restoration, in 1867, the western daimyo combined to
overthrow the shogunate.

Very noticeable were the steps taken to provide facilities for
communication between Yedo and Kyoto. No less than fifty-three
posting stations were established along the road from the Bakufu
capital to the Imperial city, and at several places barriers were set
up. Among these latter, Hakone was considered specially important.
The duty of guarding the barrier there was assigned to the Okubo
family, who enjoyed the full confidence of the Tokugawa and who had
their castle in Odawara. No one could pass this barrier without a
permit. Women were examined with signal strictness, they being
regarded as part of the system which required that the wives of the
daimyo should live in Yedo as hostages. Thus, whereas a man was
granted ingress or egress if he carried a passport signed by his own
feudal chief and addressed to the guards at the barrier, a woman
might not pass unless she was provided with an order signed by a
Bakufu official. Moreover, female searchers were constantly on duty
whose business it was to subject women travellers to a scrutiny of
the strictest character, involving, even, the loosening of the
coiffure. All these precautions formed part of the sankin kotai
system, which proved one of the strongest buttresses of Tokugawa
power. But, from the days of Ietsuna, the wives and children of the
daimyo were allowed to return to their provinces, and under the
eighth shogun, Yoshimune, the system of sankin kotai ceased to be
binding. This was because the Tokugawa found themselves suffici