THE VOICE FROM WITHIN
Yamaga-Soko, to whom we owe the development of the Samurai Code on a Confucian basis, found in Japanese institutions the expression of the moral law of the Chinese sage. Yet however they differed individually in their conclusions, they united in being heretical toward the orthodox Tokugawa notions, and all were objects of disapprobation to the authorities,— Yamaga-Soko, who commanded a considerable following, being banished from Yedo to the distant and insignificant daimiate of Akho. Yet even during his confinement there his personality inspired the well-known Forty-seven Ronins to achieve their memorable feat of loyalty, remarkable not only as revealing a new ideal of samurai-hood, but eloquent in its silent protest against the Tokugawa régime.
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