ABSTRACT
If Ieyasu did not hesitate to deal drastically with members of his own family when they failed to live up to their responsibilities or did anything that might jeopardize the Tokugawa interests, it was not likely that he would be less severe with his old retainers. Though he was an autocrat who decided everything of any importance himself, and could not be said to have any ministers, he depended on these veteran councillors for advice and information, and they were very much in his confidence. Moreover, it was to their families that he looked to support his house after his death, so the elimination of any doubtful one would be very necessary. These fudai retainers did not get very large fiefs, and this seems to have caused some discontent among them at first if some of the current stories are to be believed. One is to the effect that Ii, Sakakibara, and Honda Tadakatsu had their estates surveyed after they received them, and were informed by the surveyors that they were actually worth in each case about 80.000 koku less than their face value. As they were all about 200.000 koku, this was a considerable loss, and they were not pleased. The contrast between the large revenues of the Tozama daimyos like Shimazu and Maeda and others and their own modest stipends was rather glaring, but Ieyasu could hardly interfere with these just then, though as time went on means were found to harass them financially. It is significant that when Ii, Honda, and Sakakibara, and Sakai were first given daimyos’ fiefs Hideyoshi had asked Ieyasu how much he was going to give them, and he, remembering Hideyoshi’s trick of trying to put other people under obligations to him, told him just half the amount he had decided on. As he expected Hideyoshi at once recommended that they be given double and Ieyasu agreed, thus gaining an increased reputation for docility with Hideyoshi without paying anything for it, for had he said what he originally intended to give Hideyoshi would certainly have doubled that. Nothing further happened in the case of these fudai lords, however, but though Okubo Tadachika was an equally trusted councillor and his house had been retainers of the Tokugawa family from the earliest days, this did not save him when their suspicions were really aroused.
