nominated _sei-i-tai-shōgun_, and thenceforth, through many generations, his family ruled in Edo. [Illustration: THE PROCESSION OF FEUDAL LORDS] But although the administrative supremacy had been acquired by the Tokugawa, the _taikō's_ son and successor, Toyotomi Hideyori, still resided at Ōsaka. Possessing a princely income of 650,000 _koku_ of rice, ruler of three provinces, Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi, old enough now to direct his own affairs, and enjoying the prestige of his renowned father, he wielded a degree of influence which even Iyeyasu could not afford to despise. Among Hideyori's adherents there were some who hoped to see him restored to the position his father had occupied, and these, plotting secretly to effect their purpose, found supporters among the feudal chieftains, who, though they had made act of submission to the Tokugawa, still remembered the benefits they had received from the late Hideyoshi and were fain to succor his son. Thus Ōsaka remained a constant menace to the Tokugawa, who, on their side, watched keenly for some act on the part of the Toyotomi that might furnish a pretext for their overthrow, whereas the adherents of the Toyotomi, bitterly jealous of the Tokugawa supremacy and resenting every evidence of it, naturally committed acts of tactlessness and contumacy. Just at this time the Toyotomi family caused to be rebuilt a great image of Buddha which stood in the temple of Hōkōji, in Kyōto. The work was completed in 1614. A bell was cast to commemorate the event, and in its superscription there appeared a phrase praying for the tranquillity of the state. Two of the four characters forming this phrase happened to be the ideograms spelling the name of Iyeyasu. The latter pretended to be much offended at this. He declared that the obvious intention of the affair was to invoke the curse of heaven on his head, and being strongly supported in this view by the nobles who espoused his cause, he directed that an inquiry of the strictest nature should be at once instituted in Ōsaka. The Toyotomi family refusing to submit tamely to this indignity, determined to appeal to the sword, and there flocked to Ōsaka from the provinces some 60,000 _rōnin_ (unenrolled military men), who formed themselves into a garrison for the defense of the castle. But the power of Iyeyasu was too great for such a movement to develop large proportions. Intelligence of the designs of the Toyotomi, so far from enlisting the sympathy of the feudal chieftains, led them rather to renew their professions of loyalty to Iyeyasu, and the latter, who had anticipated this, ordered them to march to the conquest of Ōsaka. After the castle had undergone a long siege, peace was temporarily restored, only to be broken again in the following year, when rivalry led the Ōsaka folks to once more declare war. On this occasion the number of Toyotomi partisans who assembled at Ōsaka was twice as great as it had been in the preceding year.