y to follow in detail the line of Tokugawa shoguns. Few
of them impressed themselves in any marked manner on the history of their
country. Iemitsu, the third shogun, who was a grandson of Ieyasu, was a
man of great ability, and left many marks of his talents upon the empire.
Under his administration the capital made great advances. He bound the
daimyos to his house by requiring them to maintain residences in Yedo
under the surveillance of the government. His mausoleum is placed with
that of his grandfather amid the august glories of Nikko. Tsunayoshi
(1681-1709) during his incumbency was more than usually interested in the
peaceful prosperity of his country, and is gratefully remembered for his
patronage of education and letters. But on the whole they were content to
fill the office of shogun in a perfunctory manner, and to leave to
subordinates the duty of governing.

Japan reached the acme of her ancient greatness during the Tokugawa
dynasty. The arts which have given her such a deservedly high rank
attained their greatest perfection. Keramics and lacquer, which are her
most exquisite arts, achieved a degree of excellence to which we can now
only look back with hopeless admiration. Metal-work, as shown in the
manufacture of bronze and in the forging and mounting of swords, was
scarcely less notable. The still higher art of painting, which came to
Japan from China, rose during the Tokugawa period to the rank which it
still holds in the estimation of the artistic world.

The best evidence, however, of the civilization of a people is found in
their social condition. To learn the true culture of a nation it is
necessary to study their education and literature, their laws and system
of government, and their morals and religion. In some of these particulars
it is still difficult to obtain an adequate knowledge of Japan. But
gradually they are being revealed to us. The laws and legal
precedents(259) which prevailed during the Tokugawa period have been
unearthed from the archives of the Department of Justice and are being
published in the _Transactions of the Asiatic Society_.

The medical and scientific advancement of Japan in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries was not co-ordinate with her progress in the arts.
They were hampered with the old Chinese notions about a male principle and
a female principle which were conceived to prevail in nature, and with the
five elements to which the human organs were supposed to cor