Yoshimitsu has been visited by much obloquy because he accepted from the Chinese government the title of King of Japan, and pledged himself to the payment of one thousand ounces of gold as a yearly tribute. It is said in explanation of this tribute that it was to compensate for damages done by Japanese pirates to Chinese shipping. But it was probably negotiated for the purpose of securing an ambitious title on the one hand and on the other making a troublesome neighbor a tributary kingdom. Another building which takes its origin from the Ashikaga is the Tō-ji-in. It was founded by Ashikaga Taka-uji and contains carved and lacquered wooden figures of the Ashikaga shōguns which are believed in most cases to be contemporary portraits.(134) Another of the notable Ashikaga shōguns was Yoshimasa, who held the office from A.D. 1443-1473. He retired at the latter date, and lived as retired shōgun until A.D. 1490. In this interval of seclusion he cultivated the arts, and posed as the patron of literature and painting. That curious custom called _cha-no-yu_, or tea ceremonies,(135) is usually adjudged to him as its originator, but it is most probable that he only adopted and refined it until it became the fashionable craze which has come down to modern times. These ceremonies and his other modes of amusement were conducted in a palace which he had built called _gin-kaku_ (silver pavilion). Yoshimasa left this palace to the monks of Shō-koku-ji, with directions that it should be converted into a monastery, and in that capacity it still serves at the present time. The period of the two imperial dynasties lasted until A.D. 1392, when a proposition was made by the Shōgun Yoshimitsu to the then reigning emperor of the south, that the rivalry should be healed. It was agreed that Go-Kameyama of the southern dynasty should come to Kyōto and surrender the insignia to Go-Komatsu, the ruling emperor of the northern dynasty. This was duly accomplished, and Go-Kameyama, having handed over the insignia to Go-Komatsu, took the position of retired emperor. Thus the long rivalry between the northern and southern dynasties was ended, and Go-Komatsu stands as the ninety-ninth in the official list of emperors. In that list, however, none of the other emperors(136) of the northern dynasty appear, they being regarded as pretenders, and in no case entitled to the dignity of divine rulers of Japan. This settlement of dynastic difficulties and the unrestricted ascendancy of the Ashikaga shōguns gave the country a little interval of peace. The condition of the peasantry at this time was most deplorable. The continual wars between neighboring lords and with the shōguns had kept in the field armies of military men, who were forced to subsist on contributions exacted from the tillers of the soil. The farmers everywhere were kept in a state of uncertainty, and had little encouragement to cultivate crops which were almost sure to fall into the hands of others.