g the strength and convenience of the high grounds on
the border of Yedo bay, he built a castle which, through many
transformations and enlargements, finally developed into the great feudal
capital of the Tokugawa shoguns. It was here that Ieyasu, after the fall
of Odawara, by the advice of Hideyoshi,(201) established himself for the
government of the provinces of the Kwanto which had been given to him.

And it was without doubt this earlier experience which led him to select
Yedo as the centre of his feudal government. The reputation which this
eastern region bore for roughness and want of culture, as compared with
the capital of the emperor at Kyoto, seemed to him an advantage rather
than an objection. He could here build up a system of government free from
the faults and weaknesses which had become inseparable from the old seats
of power. After the repairs and enlargements had been completed he took up
his residence there. Besides this castle, Ieyasu had for his private
residence, especially after his retirement from the shogunate, an
establishment at Sumpu, now called Shizuoka. Here he was visited by
English and Dutch envoys in reference to the terms of allowing trade, and
here, after the manner of his country, he maintained his hold upon the
administration of affairs, notwithstanding his formal retirement.

A continued source of disquietude and danger to the empire, or at least to
the plans of Ieyasu for a dynasty of Tokugawa shoguns, lay in Hideyori,
the son and heir of Taiko Sama. He was born in 1592, and was therefore at
this time, 1614, in his twenty-third year. As long as he lived he would be
naturally and inevitably the centre to which all the disaffected elements
of the country would gravitate. The failure of Ieyasu to support the cause
of his old master's son would always prove a source of weakness to him,
especially in a country where fidelity to parents and superiors was held
in such high esteem. He determined, therefore, to bring to a conclusion
these threatening troubles which had so long been hanging over him.
Accordingly, on the ground that Hideyori was plotting with his enemies
against the peace of the state, he set out from Sumpu, where he was then
residing as retired shogun, with an army of seventy thousand men. Hideyori
and his mother had for a long time resided at the castle of Osaka, and
against this Ieyasu directed his large army. It was bravely and skilfully
defended, and without the help of ar