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During the long period amounting to nearly three hundred years which elapsed between the downfall of the Hôjô family in 1334, and the final establishment of the Tokugawa family as de facto rulers of Japan after the death of Hideyoshi (Taicosama) in the end of the 16th century, Japan had been the scene of constant civil wars and rebellions. The Ashikaga family, which established itself at Kiôto with a branch in the Kuantô, was utterly unable to control its unruly vassals, and the capital of the Mikado was frequently delivered up to fire and sword. In 1467 and during the six following years, it became the battle-field of the rival retainers of the Ashikaga family, and the greater part of the city was twice burnt to the ground. The loss to Japanese literature by the destruction of books is said to have been immense. Apart from the immediate effects of civil war, learning must necessarily have decayed during a period when the profession of the soldier was the only honourable calling, and every man was obliged to be constantly under arms for defence or attack. Nobunaga, it is true, restored peace at the capital and in the surrounding provinces, but civil wars still went on in the more remote parts of the country, and he had to be perpetually in the field against rival chiefs. Hideyoshi, who succeeded him as the chief military leader, did much to facilitate the pacification of the Empire. He broke the power of the Môri family, conquered the turbulent daimiôs of Kiushiu, annihilated the Odawara Hôjô who ruled over the Kuantô, and then despatched his warriors to fight and die in Corea.
The fruits of these efforts were reaped by Iyeyasu, whose power was virtually rendered absolute by the victory of Sekigahara, and who became Shôgun in 1603. During the remainder of his life, with the exception of the two short campaigns against Hideyori’s partizans in 1614 and 1615, he lived tranquilly at Sumpu in Suruga, the modern Shidzuoka. His chief pursuit seems to have been the collection of old manuscripts, and it is chiefly owing to his exertions that what remains of the ancient literature has been preserved. The Sumpuki, quoted by
