THE TOKUGAWA COURT
Shōgun, was among the Taikō's Tairo. The five "Magistrates," men who had served the Taikō intimately and who possessed his full confidence, formed a cabinet, one being minister of legislation; another, minister of public works; the third, minister of justice; the fourth, minister of finance, and the fifth, administrator of Kyōtō. Some of the laws issued in the Taikō's time had the signatures of the five "Seniors," some those of the five Magistrates. It is plain that the purpose of this system was to give to the leading feudatories a direct interest in the administration while entrusting the actual discharge of executive functions to men in close touch with the Taikō. No such principle is apparent in the Tokugawa polity. The highest offices of State fell hereditarily to representatives of families related by blood to the Tokugawa, and the junior posts were filled by nominees of these dignitaries or by men specially connected with the Shogunate. The Taikō's government was a representative oligarchy; that of the Tokugawa, a family bureaucracy.
The ladies of the Shōgun's Court were called O-oku no Jochiu (dames of the honourable interior), and were organised in accordance with a system somewhat similar to that followed in the polity of the State. An equal number—three hundred and five—constituted the establishment of the Shōgun himself and of his wife (Midaidokoro), so that the total was six hundred and ten, but the names actually borne on the roll generally exceeded
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