iushiu and the Corean coast. Hideyoshi was at this time sixty years of
age and had grown infirm of body, so that he felt unable to command the
expedition himself, which was therefore intrusted to two of his ablest
leaders, Kato, of noble birth, and Konishi, the son of a druggist, who
disgusted his proud associate by representing on his banner a paper
medicine-bag, the sign of his father's shop.

Notwithstanding the ill feeling between the leaders, the armies were
everywhere victorious, Corea was overrun and the king driven from his
capital, and the victors had entered into serious conflict with the
armies of China, when word came from Japan (in 1598) that Hideyoshi was
dead. A truce was at once concluded and the army ordered home.

Thus ended the second invasion of Corea, the second of the events which
gave rise to the claim in Japan that Corea is a vassal state of the
island empire and were used as warrants to the nineteenth century
invasion.

_THE FOUNDER OF YEDO AND OF MODERN FEUDALISM._

The death of the peasant premier left Iyeyasu, the second in ability of
Nobunaga's great generals, as the rising power in Japan. Hideyoshi, in
the hope of preserving the rule in his own family, had married his son,
a child of six, to Iyeyasu's granddaughter, and appointed six ministers
to act as his guardians. He did not count, in cherishing this illusory
hope, on the strength of human ambition. Nor did he give thought to the
bitter disgust with which the haughty lords and nobles had yielded to
the authority of one whom they regarded as an upstart. The chances of
the child's coming to power were immeasurably small.

In truth, the death of the strong-willed premier had thrown Japan open
to anarchy. The leaders who had returned from the Corean war, flushed
with victory, were ambitious for power, and the thousands of soldiers
under their command were eager for war and spoils. Hidenobu, a nephew of
Nobunaga, claimed the succession to his uncle's position. The five
military governors who had been appointed by the late premier were
suspicious of Iyeyasu, and took steps to prevent him from seizing the
vacated place. The elements of anarchy indeed were everywhere abroad,
there was more than one aspirant to the ruling power, and armies began
to be raised.

Iyeyasu keenly watched the movements of his enemies. When he saw that
troops were being recruited, he did the same. Crimination and
recrimination went on, skirmishes took pla