Fortunately Ieyasu was a man who appreciated at its full value the effect of learning on the character of his people. He caused the Confucian classics(227) to be printed at a press which he patronized in Fushimi, and this was said to be the first time these works had ever been printed in Japan. He gathered scholars about him at Fushimi, at Yedo, and after his retirement at Shizuoka (Sumpu). He favored education and encouraged the daimyōs to establish schools where the children of their retainers could be taught not only military accomplishments but the elements of a good education. The Chinese classics were made the essentials of such an education, and the chief duty of a school was to teach the pupils to read and write and understand the works which their venerable and learned neighbor had furnished them. [Illustration] Mixing Ink For Writing. Unfortunately this movement in behalf of learning was hampered by the impracticable nature of the Chinese written language. Instead of a few characters representing sounds, like European alphabets, it consists of thousands of symbols, each representing an idea. The pupil must therefore spend years in learning to make, and know and read the mere signs of language. And in the modern necessities of printing,(228) the compositor must handle not less than 4,000 or 5,000 Chinese characters, besides the Japanese _kana_ and other needful marks. The _kana_ here mentioned were the result of a promising effort which was made to simplify the Chinese written language by expressing it in symbols representing sounds. Forty-seven _kana_ letters—by repetition extended to fifty—each representing a syllable, are used to express Japanese words. [Illustration] Styles Of Letters: (Chinese Proverb: Hiroku koriwo aisuruwo jintoyu. To love universally is true humility.) 1. Kaisho (book letters). 2. Ditto. 3. Gyosho (script letters). 4. Ditto. 5. Hirasaua (Japanese script). [Illustration] Japanese Syllabary.