nagement of great campaigns,
but he was a statesman who knew how to secure the advantage to be obtained
from victories and conquests. After the decisive battle of Sekigahara,
when the control of the empire became fixed in his hands, we hear little
more of him as a general, excepting in the battle at Osaka, when the
fortunes of Hideyori were finally and definitely settled. The common
conception of Ieyasu is not that of a great commander like Hideyoshi, but
rather of an organizer and law-maker, who out of confused and dismembered
provinces and principalities of the empire constructed a firm and abiding
state.(226) After his settlement of the dissensions at home, and his
admirable adjustment of the outstanding difficulties with Korea and China,
which we have already traced, we shall find Ieyasu principally engaged in
framing a government which should be suited to the peculiar wants and
founded on the historical antecedents of the country.

[Illustration]

Ieyasu.

There was one characteristic of Ieyasu which has not received sufficient
attention. Although not a great scholar in any sense, even in the age in
which he lived, he was more familiar than most men of affairs of his day
with the Chinese classical writings, and was in the more leisurely periods
of his life a noted patron of learned men. The Chinese classics were said
to have been brought to Japan at an early period, even before the first
introduction of Buddhism. But the period was too early and the condition
of the country too rude to make the reading and study of the philosophical
and political writings of Confucius and Mencius an essential part of the
education of the people. The culture which Buddhism brought with it,
accompanied with a knowledge of the writing and reading of the Chinese
letters, was all that obtained any currency during the disturbed and
warlike ages of Japanese history. But when peace was at last established
by the supremacy of Ieyasu, and the active Japanese intellect had some
other employment than fighting, then learning took a great start. And as
the only idea which the Japanese possessed of learning was that which
prevailed in China and was imbedded in the Chinese writings, they
naturally turned to them for thought and systematic training.

Fortunately Ieyasu was a man who appreciated at its full value the effect
of learning on the character of his people. He caused the Co