se titles corresponding
to those of Buddhist priests. In these circumstances neither
Confucianists nor physicians could be treated as samurai, and they
were thus excluded from all State honours. The distinction conferred
upon Hayashi Nobuatsu by the Imperial Court effectually changed these
conditions. The Confucianists ceased to shave their heads and became
eligible for official posts. Thereafter, ten of Hayashi's disciples
were nominated among the shogun's retainers, and were required to
deliver lectures periodically at the court of the Bakufu. In short,
in whatever related to learning, Tsunayoshi stands easily at the head
of all the Tokugawa shoguns.

CHANGE OF CALENDAR

A noteworthy incident of Tsunayoshi's administration was a change of
calendar, effected in the year 1683. The credit of this achievement
belongs to a mathematician called Shibukawa Shunkai. A profound
student, his researches had convinced him that the Hsuan-ming
calendar, borrowed originally from China and used in Japan ever since
the year A.D. 861, was defective. He pointed out some of its errors
in a memorial addressed to the Bakufu under the sway of the fourth
shogun, but the then prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, paid no
attention to the document. Shunkai, however, did not desist. In 1683,
an eclipse of the moon took place, and he demonstrated that it was
erroneously calculated in the Chinese calendar. The fifth shogun,
Tsunayoshi, was then in power, and the era of his reforming spirit
had not yet passed away. He adopted Shunkai's suggestion and obtained
the Imperial sanction for a change of calendar so that the Husan-ming
system went out of force after 822 years of use in Japan.

JAPANESE LITERATURE

Tsunayoshi did not confine his patronage to Chinese literature; he
devoted much energy to the encouragement of Japanese classical
studies, also. Thus, in 1689, he invited to Yedo Kitamura Kigin and
his son Shuncho and bestowed upon the former the title of Hoin
together with a revenue of five hundred koku. This marked the
commencement of a vigorous revival of Japanese literature in the
Bakufu capital. Moreover, in Osaka a scholar named Keichu Ajari
published striking annotations of the celebrated anthologies, the
Manyo-shu and the Kokin-shu, which attracted the admiration of
Tokugawa Mitsukuni, baron of Mito. He invited Keichu to his castle
and treated him with marked consideration. These litterateurs were
the predecessors of the celebrated Kamo a