principal officers, were selected by the shōgun from among the _fudai_ barons and bannerets. In the city of Edo there were _machidoshiyori_, or wardmasters, _nanushi_, or mayors, and so forth, while in provincial towns there were five _nanushi_ who managed municipal affairs. Turning to the foreign relations of Japan during this period, we find that, after the invasion of Hideyoshi's army, which, like the Hundred Years' War in France, devastated Korea from one end to the other, the people of the peninsula regarded the Japanese with such aversion that the relations between the two countries were virtually severed. It was with great difficulty that Iyeyasu at last succeeded in convincing the Koreans that the Japan of the Tokugawa differed essentially from the Japan under Hideyoshi, and that the former's intentions were entirely pacific. Finally the Koreans, having obtained tacit consent of China, sent to Japan a letter from their king together with some presents, and thenceforth, on each occasion of a change of shōgun, Korean envoys came to offer their country's congratulations, the Tokugawa, on their side, treating these delegates with all courtesy and consideration. In the days of the Ashikaga family, it had been customary for the shōgun to assume the title of king of Japan in his communications with other sovereigns. The Tokugawa discontinued this, on the ground that it was an infraction of the imperial dignity, and adopted instead the title _taikun_, or great prince. The Sō family of Tsushima acted from generation to generation as intermediaries between Japan and Korea. They had a monopoly of the trade with the latter country, whither they dispatched twenty vessels annually, the total value of the trade being limited, however, to 18,000 _ryō_. But though Korea thus accepted Japan's amicable overtures, China would not do so. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of her southeastern parts came to Nagasaki in great numbers for purposes of commerce, and many Japanese ships crossed to the neighboring empire with the same object. These ships, called _shuin-bune_, because of the vermilion-seal permits of the shōgun, were owned by wealthy merchants residing in or near Kyōto, Sakai, and Nagasaki.