416 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

sion, imitating the imperialistic ardour and methods of the
West, and threatening both the ascendancy of the white
race and the peace of the world/1 We need refer here
principally to the second of these periods. The greatest
figure belonging to the earlier age was Hideyoshi (d. 1598).

Japan had long remained independent and aloof. Neither
Kublai Khan nor Marco Polo could reach her. Hideyoshi,
whose adventure in Korea in 1592 has been alluded to be-
fore, was the Clive of medieval Japan. Given up by his
family as an intractable child, he grew up to be the most
portentous of the samurai or swordsmen. Though his adven-
ture in Korea proved abortive, Hideyoshi had the fore-
sight of a Sir Josiah Child (who in 1685 dreamed of 'the
foundation of a large, well-grounded, sure English domi-
nion in India for all time to come') : " With Korean troops,"
he assured his Emperor, "aided by your illustrious in-
fluence, I intend to bring the whole of China under my
sway. When that is effected, the three countries (Korea,
China, and Japan) will be one. I shall do it as easily as
a man rolls up a piece of matting and carries it away under
his arm."

The next important man to influence the destiny of Japan,
after Hideyoshi, was lyeyasu (1603-16). He was a.Skogun
or military General, and exercised more power than the
Mikado or Emperor himself. The-Shoguns for a long time
were almost invariably members of the Minamato family;
From the clan to which they belonged, their regime was
called the Tokugawa Shogwiate. According to Lafcadio
Hearn, " the Tokugawa period was the happiest in the long
life of the nation." Professor Will Durant writes: " lye-
yasu organised peace as ably and ruthlessly as he had or-

1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, II, p. 829.