ABSTRACT
The grand structure of the Tokugawa Government was firm and strong in external appearance but there was decay within, and a violent storm was brewing that was to overthrow it. Both internal conditions and external circumstances were making for a radical change, a change which finally compelled the Shogun to resign and made possible the restoration of the Imperial régime—the fall of feudalism and the achievement of a complete national unity. The authors have seen one of these manifestations in the revolt of instinctive impulse against convention, even as early as the seventeenth century. Their propositions remained mere ideals, while the actualities of the feudal regime were tolerated. A Confucianist, Rai Sanyo, giving up ethical theorizing, worked for the royal cause by propagating his historical writings hinting, more or less under disguise, at the illegitimacy of the Tokugawa's hegemony.
