In order to maintain the demarcation between classes and to preserve social order, strict attention was paid by the government to etiquette and conventional observances, and the study of literature by men of position was encouraged. Nevertheless, instances of rude and disorderly conduct on the part of the people were not infrequent. During the early years of the Tokugawa period, the memory of the nation being still freshly imbued with incidents of battle and bloodshed, both the government and the people regarded the military spirit with the utmost reverence and considered its development essential to the well-being of the state. _Samurai_ of the lowest rank wore two swords whenever they walked abroad, and, one and all, these men of war were disciples of a cult which placed honor and justice at the head of a soldier's characteristics and relegated selfishness to the lowest place. It was a common practice with the _samurai_ of the time to take their own lives for the purpose of expiating some event which they considered injurious to the prestige of their feudal lord. A remarkable example of the vendetta occurred in 1702, when forty-seven _rōnin_ killed the enemy of their late lord. The affair had its origin in an act of violence perpetrated by Asano Naganori, feudal chief of Akō, who, being insulted by a rear-vassal Yoshinaka, drew his sword within the precincts of the palace and wounded the offender, for which breach of etiquette he was condemned to take his own life, and his family estate was confiscated, an exceptionally severe sentence, due to the fact that the government of the shōgun was just then exercising every effort to check the rough-and-ready habits of time. Asano's vassals, forty-seven in number, under the leadership of Ōishi Kuranosuke, after a long period of patient watching and much hardship, succeeded in forcing their way into Yoshinaka's residence in Edo and decapitating him. Then they surrendered themselves to the authorities and were sentenced to die by suicide. But their achievement excited the nation's strong admiration, who bestowed upon them the name of _gishi_, loyal retainers. Their act was later dramatized into one of the greatest of Japanese plays called "_Chūshigura_," and through all succeeding generations theatrical representations of their loyal conduct never failed to attract deeply sympathetic audiences. Similar deeds were already on record. Early in the Kamakura period, the Soga brothers, Sukenari and Tokimune, killed their father's foe, Kudo Suketsune; and under the Tokugawa rule, Araki Matayemon, the renowned swordsman, together with Watanabe Kazuma, put to death Kawai, the hereditary enemy of his family, at Ueno in Iga. These and other achievements, some filial, some loyal, fired the imagination of the nation. It became a popular creed that orphans, faithful vassals, and even widows should devote their lives to vindicating the memory or avenging the death of