He was
taught to ride a horse, to shoot with the bow, to handle the spear, and
especially to be skilled in the etiquette and use of the sword.(238) They
went through again and again the tragic details of the commission of
_hara-kiri_, and had it impressed on their youthful imaginations with such
force and vividness, that when the time for its actual enactment came they
were able to meet the bloody reality without a tremor and with perfect
composure.(239)

The foundation of the relations between the feudal chiefs and their
retainers lay in the doctrine of Confucius. The principles which he lays
down fitted in admirably to the ideas which the historical system of
Japanese feudalism had made familiar. They inculcated absolute submission
of the son to the father, of the wife to her husband, and of the servant
to his master, and in these respects Japanese feudalism was a willing and
zealous disciple. On these lines Ieyasu constructed his plans of
government, and his successors enthusiastically followed in his footsteps.

[Illustration]

Daibutsu At Kamakura.

In religious belief the nation by the time of Ieyasu was largely
Buddhistic. Through ten centuries and a half the active propagation of
this faith had been going on, until now by far the greater number of the
population were Buddhists. In his _Legacy_ Ieyasu expresses a desire to
tolerate all religious sects except the Christian. He says: "High and low
alike may follow their own inclinations with respect to religious tenets
which have obtained down to the present time, except as regards the false
and corrupt school (Christianity). Religious disputes have ever proved the
bane and misfortune of the empire, and should determinedly be put a stop
to."(240)

While he was therefore tolerant towards all the different sects of
Buddhism and towards the old Shinto faith of the country, he particularly
patronized the Jodo sect to which his ancestors had been attached, and to
which he charges his posterity to remain faithful.(241) In the archives of
the Buddhist temple Zojoji at Shiba in Tokyo was preserved an account
written by the head priest of the time, how Ieyasu, in 1590, visited the
temple and took it under his patronage, saying,(242) "For a general to be
without an ancestral temple of his own is as though he were forgetful of
the fact that he must die.... I have now come to beg of you to let me make
this my ances