Tsunayoshi who was excessively devoted to Confucianism was questioned as shogun and Tairo (chief minister) Tadakiyo SAKAI tried to invite a prince of Emperor Gosai, Imperial Prince Arisugawanomiya Yukihito, to Edo and put him up as shogun, following the example of miyashogun (shogun from the Imperial Court) in the Kamakura period (the wife of Imperial Prince Yoshihito TAKAMATSUNOMIYA, who was said to be an ancestor of Arisugawa no Miya, came from the Echizen Matsudaira family [a great-grandchild of Ieyasu TOKUGAWA], but there is another theory recently.).
が、過度に儒学に傾倒していた綱吉は将軍として不安視され、大老酒井忠清は鎌倉時代の宮将軍の例にならい、後西天皇の皇子・有栖川宮幸仁親王を江戸に迎えて将軍に据えようとしたとされる（有栖川宮の祖とされる高松宮好仁親王の室は越前松平家出身（徳川家康の曾孫）、ただし近年は異説もある）。