ABSTRACT

RONINS NUMBERED ABOUT 100,000 AT THE TIME OF IYETSUNA.-The problem of the ronins worried the Tokugawa Shogunate terribly, and for this reason they sacrificed the profits of the foreign trade, entirely closed the country, prohibited Christianity, established the five-men group systems, and set up barriers. All this, with the result of the Shimabara Insurrection, apparently eradicated Christianity and solved the ronin problem; yet it was, in fact, impossible to destroy all the ronins, who like dead leaves in autumn never cease to fall one after another. It is only human nature that the samurai, who retained their posts and were full fed, with nothing to occupy them in the piping times of peace, should become corrupt and enervated, while those thrown upon the world, with nothing but their own wits between them and starvation, seized every opportunity to put them into practice. Some put their economic knowledge at the service of feudal lords; others established schools of military tactics, fencing, the Chinese and Japanese classics and so forth, and attracted many disciples and pupils. The number of these men was very large, and when Tokugawa Yorinobu of Kii offered to gather 100,000 ronin and lead them to China to set up again the overthrown Ming Dynasty we may presume he knew what he was talking about.