oted showing how little mercy the Tokugawa
shoguns extended to wrongdoers among their own relatives. It need
hardly be said that outside clans fared no better. Anyone who gave
trouble was promptly punished. Thus, in 1614, Okubo Tadachika, who
had rendered good service to the Bakufu in early days, and who
enjoyed the full confidence of the shogun, was deprived of his castle
at Odawara and sentenced to confinement for the comparatively
trifling offence of contracting a private marriage. Again, in 1622,
the prime minister, Honda Masazumi, lord of Utsunomiya, lost his fief
of 150,000 koku and was exiled to Dawe for the sin of rebuilding his
castle without due permission, and killing a soldier of the Bakufu.
To persons criticising this latter sentence as too severe, Doi
Toshikatsu is recorded to have replied that any weakness shown at
this early stage of the Tokugawa rule must ultimately prove fatal to
the permanence of the Bakufu, and he expressed the conviction that
none would approve the punishment more readily than Masazumi's dead
father, Masanobu, were he still living to pass judgment.

Doubtless political expediency, not the dictates of justice, largely
inspired the conduct of the Bakufu in these matters, for in
proportion as the material influence of the Tokugawa increased, that
of the Toyotomi diminished. In 1632, when the second shogun,
Hidetada, died, it is related that the feudal barons observed the
conduct of his successor, Iemitsu, with close attention, and that a
feeling of some uneasiness prevailed. Iemitsu, whether obeying his
own instinct or in deference to the advice of his ministers, Sakai
Tadakatsu and Matsudaira Nobutsuna, summoned the feudal chiefs to his
castle in Yedo and addressed them as follows: "My father and my
grandfather, with your assistance and after much hardship, achieved
their great enterprise to which I, who have followed the profession
of arms since my childhood, now succeed. It is my purpose to treat
you all without distinction as my hereditary vassals. If any of you
object to be so treated, let him return to his province and take the
consequences."

Date Masamune assumed the duty of replying to that very explicit
statement. "There is none here," he said, "that is not grateful for
the benevolence he has received at the hands of the Tokugawa. If
there be such a thankless and disloyal person, and if he conceive
treacherous designs, I, Masamune, will be the first to attack him and
strik