Mikikigusa (total 176 volumes) containing information and records written or filed by direct retainer Miyazaki Narichika during closing days of Edo period abounds with many interesting illustrations and beautiful color diagrams. Some of them are shown here.

These are portraits of three officials who acted as "hodo" counselors for the young Iemitsu, the third in the line of Tokugawa shogun: Sakai Uta-no-Kami Tadayo (1572 - 1636), Doi Oi-no-Kami Toshikatsu (1573 - 1644), and Aoyama Hoki-no-Kami Tadatoshi (1578 - 1643). Sakai was a central figure in the shogunate administration in the days of Hidetada, the second Tokugawa shogun. He became a lord with a fief of 120,000 "goku" (1 "goku" = about 5 bushels) in Joshu Umayabayashi (present-day Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture ). Doi became a lord with a fief of 160,000 goku in Sakura. In contrast, Aoyama fell out of favor with Iemitsu after lecturing him too harshly, and was demoted to a fief of only 20,000 goku in Otaki in the 9th year of Genna (1623).