em a suspicion
of the fidelity of Ieyasu, for the Taiko is represented as saying to two
of his friends: "You need not be anxious about Ieyasu. He will not rebel
against my house.(188) Cultivate friendship with him." Thus in his
sixty-second year died (September, 1598) the greatest soldier, if not the
greatest man, whom Japan has produced. That he rose from obscurity solely
by his own talents, is a more conspicuous merit in Japan than in most
other countries. Family and heredity have always counted for so much in
this land of the gods, that few instances have occurred in which men of
humble birth have risen to eminence. That one such in spite of his low
birth, in spite of personal infirmities, in spite of the opposition and
envy of contemporaries, had risen to so high a position in the empire, has
been a source of pride and encouragement to thousands of his countrymen.

The Taiko was buried close to the Daibutsu temple, which he himself had
built to shelter the colossal figure of Buddha, constructed in imitation
of the Daibutsu which Yoritomo had built at Kamakura. The figure was to be
one hundred and sixty feet in height, and the workmen had it nearly
finished when a terrible earthquake in A.D. 1596 shook down the building.
In the following year the temple was rebuilt, and the image was completed
up to the neck. The workmen were preparing to cast the head, when a fire
broke out in the scaffolding and again destroyed the temple, and also the
image. It was one of the schemes of Ieyasu, so it is said, to induce the
young Hideyori to exhaust his resources upon such expensive projects, and
thus render him incapable of resisting any serious movement against
himself. He therefore suggested to the boy and his mother that this temple
and image, which Hideyoshi had begun, should not fail of erection. They
therefore resumed the construction, and carried it on with great
lavishness. It took until A.D. 1614 to complete the work, and when it was
about to be consecrated with imposing ceremonies, Ieyasu, who by this time
was supreme in the empire, suddenly forbade the progress of the ceremony.
He affected to be offended by the inscription which had been put on the
bell,(189) but the real reason was probably his desire to find some
pretext by which he could put a quarrel upon the adherents of Hideyori.

CHAPTER X. THE FOUNDING OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE.

Among all the friends and retainers of Hideyoshi the most prominent and