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Title: A History of the Japanese People
       From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era


Author: Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi



Release Date: December 23, 2008  [eBook #27604]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1


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A HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE

From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era

by

CAPT. F. BRINKLEY, R. A.

Editor of the "Japan Mail"

With the Collaboration of BARON KIKUCHI

Former President of the Imperial University at Kyoto

With 150 Illustrations Engraved on Wood by Japanese Artists;
Half-Tone Plates, and Maps







DEDICATED BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION TO HIS MAJESTY MEIJI TENNO, THE LATE
EMPEROR OF JAPAN




FOREWORD

It is trite to remark that if you wish to know really any people, it
is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of their history, including
their mythology, legends and folk-lore: customs, habits and traits of
character, which to a superficial observer of a different nationality
or race may seem odd and strange, sometimes even utterly subversive
of ordinary ideas of morality, but which can be explained and will
appear quite reasonable when they are traced back to their origin.
The sudden rise of the Japanese nation from an insignificant position
to a foremost rank in the comity of nations has startled the world.
Except in the case of very few who had studied us intimately, we were
a people but little raised above barbarism trying to imitate Western
civilisation without any capacity for really assimilating or adapting
it. At first, it was supposed that we had somehow undergone a sudden
transformation, but it was gradually perceived that such could not be
and was not the case; and a crop of books on Japan and the Japanese,
deep and superficial, serious and fantastic, interesting and
otherwise, has been put forth for the benefit of those who were
curious to know the reason of this strange phenomenon. But among so
many books, there has not yet been, so far as I know, a history of
Japan, although a study of its history was most essential for the
proper understanding of many of the problems relating to the Japanese
people, such as the relation of the Imperial dynasty to the people,
the family system, the position of Buddhism, the influence of the
Chinese philosophy, etc. A history of Japan of moderate size has
indeed long been a desideratum; that it was not forthcoming was no
doubt due to the want of a proper person to undertake such a work.
Now just the right man has been found in the author of the present
work, who, an Englishman by birth, is almost Japanese in his
understanding of, and sympathy with, the Japanese people. It would
indeed be difficult to find any one better fitted for the task--by no
means an easy one--of presenting the general features of Japanese
history to Western readers, in a compact and intelligible form, and
at the same time in general harmony with the Japanese feeling. The
Western public and Japan are alike to be congratulated on the
production of the present work. I may say this without any fear of
reproach for self-praise, for although my name is mentioned in the
title-page, my share is very slight, consisting merely in general
advice and in a few suggestions on some special points.

DAIROKU KIKUCHI.

KYOTO, 1912.




AUTHOR'S PREFACE

During the past three decades Japanese students have devoted much
intelligent labour to collecting and collating the somewhat
disjointed fragments of their country's history. The task would have
been practically impossible for foreign historiographers alone, but
now that the materials have been brought to light there is no
insuperable difficulty in making them available for purposes of joint
interpretation. That is all I have attempted to do in these pages,
and I beg to solicit pardon for any defect they may be found to
contain.

F. BRINKLEY.

TOKYO, 1912.




CONTENTS

   CHAPTER

   I.       The Historiographer's Art in Old Japan

   II.      Japanese Mythology

   III.     Japanese Mythology (Continued)

   IV.      Rationalization

   V.       Origin of the Japanese Nation: Historical Evidences

   VI.      Origin of the Nation: Geographical and Archaeological
            Relics

   VII.     Language and Physical Characteristics

   VIII.    Manners and Customs in Remote Antiquity

   IX.      The Prehistoric Sovereigns

   X.       The Prehistoric Sovereigns (Continued)

   XI.      The Prehistoric Sovereigns (Continued)

   XII.     The Protohistoric Sovereigns

   XIII.    The Protohistoric Sovereigns (Continued)

   XIV.     From the 29th to the 35th Sovereign

   XV.      The Daika Reforms

   XVI.     The Daiho Laws and the Yoro Laws

   XVII.    The Nara Epoch

   XVIII.   The Heian Epoch

   XIX.     The Heian Epoch (Continued)

   XX.      The Heian Epoch (Continued)

   XXI.     The Capital and the Provinces

   XXII.    Recovery of Administrative Authority by the Throne

   XXIII.   Manners and Customs of the Heian Epoch

   XXIV.    The Epoch of the Gen (Minamoto) and the Hei (Taira)

   XXV.     The Epoch of the Gen and the Hei (Continued)

   XXVI.    The Kamakura Bakufu

   XXVII.   The Hojo

   XXVIII.  Art, Religion, Literature, Customs, and Commerce in the
            Kamakura Period

   XXIX.    Fall of the Hojo and Rise of the Ashikaga

   XXX.     The War of the Dynasties

   XXXI.    The Fall of the Ashikaga

   XXXII.   Foreign Intercourse, Literature, Art, Religion, Manners,
            and Customs in the Muromachi Epoch

   XXXIII.  The Epoch of Wars (Sengoku Jidai)

   XXXIV.   Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu

   XXXV.    The Invasion of Korea

   XXXVI.   The Momo-Yama Epoch

   XXXVII.  Christianity in Japan

   XXXVIII. The Tokugawa Shogunate

   XXXIX.   First Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu; from the First
            Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, to the Fourth, Ietsuna
            (1603-1680)

   XL.      Middle Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu; from the Fifth
            Shogun, Tsunayoshi, to the Tenth Shogun, Ieharu
            (1680-1786)

   XLI.     The Late Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu. The Eleventh
            Shogun,Ienari (1786-1838)

   XLII.    Organization, Central and Local; Currency and the
            Laws of the Tokugawa Bakufu

   XLIII.   Revival of the Shinto Cult

   XLIV.    Foreign Relations and the Decline of the Tokugawa

   XLV.     Foreign Relations and the Decline of the Tokugawa (Continued)

   XLVI.    The Meiji Government

   XLVII.   Wars with China and Russia


   APPENDIX

      1. Constitution of Japan, 1889

      2. Anglo-Japanese Agreement, 1905

      3. Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905


   INDEX


   HISTORICAL MAPS

      Japan about 1337: Northern and Southern Courts

      Japan in Era of Wars, 1577: Distribution of Fiefs

      Japan in 1615: Feudatories

      Japan, Korea and the Mainland of Asia


   FULL PAGE HALF-TONES

      Capt. F. Brinkley, R. A.

      The Emperor Jimmu

      The Shrine of Ise

      Prehistoric Remains: Plate A

      Prehistoric Remains: Plate B

      Prince Shotoku

      Kaigen Ceremony of the Nara Daibutsu

      Thirty-six Versifiers (Painting by Korin)

      Cherry-Viewing Festival at Mukojima

      Kamakura Daibutsu

      Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)

      Court Costumes

      Tokugawa Shrine at Nikko

      The Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito)

      Sinking of the Russian Battleship Osliabya

      Admiral Togo


   WORKS CONSULTED



ENGRAVING: MT. FUJI SEEN FROM THE FUJI-GAWA




CHAPTER I

THE HISTORIOGRAPHER'S ART IN OLD JAPAN

MATERIALS FOR HISTORY

IN the earliest eras of historic Japan there existed a hereditary
corporation of raconteurs (Katari-be) who, from generation to
generation, performed the function of reciting the exploits of the
sovereigns and the deeds of heroes. They accompanied themselves on
musical instruments, and naturally, as time went by, each set of
raconteurs embellished the language of their predecessors, adding
supernatural elements, and introducing details which belonged to the
realm of romance rather than to that of ordinary history. These
Katari-be would seem to have been the sole repository of their
country's annals until the sixth century of the Christian era. Their
repertories of recitation included records of the great families as
well as of the sovereigns, and it is easy to conceive that the favour
and patronage of these high personages were earned by ornamenting the
traditions of their households and exalting their pedigrees. But when
the art of writing was introduced towards the close of the fourth
century, or at the beginning of the fifth, and it was seen that in
China, then the centre of learning and civilization, the art had been
applied to the compilation of a national history as well as of other
volumes possessing great ethical value, the Japanese conceived the
ambition of similarly utilizing their new attainment. For reasons
which will be understood by and by, the application of the
ideographic script to the language of Japan was a task of immense
difficulty, and long years must have passed before the attainment of
any degree of proficiency.

Thus it was not until the time of the Empress Suiko (593-628) that
the historical project took practical shape. Her Majesty, at the
instance, doubtless, of Prince Shotoku, one of the greatest names in
all Japan's annals, instructed the prince himself and her chief
minister, Soga no Umako, to undertake the task of compiling
historical documents, and there resulted a Record of the Emperors
(Tennoki), a Record of the Country (Koki), and Original Records
(Hongi) of the Free People (i.e., the Japanese proper as
distinguished from aliens, captives, and aborigines), of the great
families and of the 180 Hereditary Corporations (Be). This work was
commenced in the year 620, but nothing is known as to the date of its
completion. It represents the first Japanese history. A shortlived
compilation it proved, for in the year 645, the Soga chiefs,
custodians of the documents, threw them into the fire on the eve of
their own execution for treason. One only, the Record of the Country,
was plucked from the flames, and is believed to have been
subsequently incorporated in the Kojiki '(Records of Ancient
Things).' No immediate attempt seems to have been made to remedy the
loss of these invaluable writings. Thirty-seven years later the
Emperor Temmu took the matter in hand. One of his reasons for doing
so has been historically transmitted. Learning that "the chronicles
of the sovereigns and the original words in the possession of the
various families deviated from the truth and were largely amplified
with empty falsehoods," his Majesty conceived that unless speedy
steps were taken to correct the confusion and eliminate the errors,
an irremediable state of affairs would result.

Such a preface prepares us to learn that a body of experts was
appointed to distinguish the true and the false, and to set down the
former alone. The Emperor did, in fact, commission a number of
princes and officials to compile an authentic history, and we shall
presently see how their labours resulted. But in the first place a
special feature of the situation has to be noted. The Japanese
language was then undergoing a transition. In order to fit it to the
Chinese ideographs for literary purposes, it was being deprived of
its mellifluous polysyllabic character and reduced to monosyllabic
terseness. The older words were disappearing, and with them many of
the old traditions. Temmu saw that if the work of compilation was
abandoned solely to princely and official littérateurs, they would
probably sacrifice on the altar of the ideograph much that was
venerable and worthy to be preserved. He therefore himself undertook
the collateral task of having the antique traditions collected and
expurgated, and causing them to be memorized by a chamberlain, Hiyeda
no Are, a man then in his twenty-eighth year, who was gifted with
ability to repeat accurately everything heard once by him. Are's mind
was soon stored with a mass of ancient facts and obsolescent
phraseology, but before either the task of official compilation or
that of private restoration had been carried to completion the
Emperor died (686), and an interval of twenty-five years elapsed
before the Empress Gemmyo, on the 18th of September, 711, ordered a
scholar, Ono Yasumaro, to transcribe the records stored in Are's
memory. Four months sufficed for the work, and on the 28th of
January, 712, Yasumaro submitted to the Throne the Kojiki (Records of
Ancient Things) which ranked as the first history of Japan, and which
will be here referred to as the Records.

THE NIHONGI AND THE NIHON SHOKI

It is necessary to revert now to the unfinished work of the classical
compilers, as they may be called, whom the Emperor Temmu nominated in
682, but whose labours had not been concluded when his Majesty died
in 686. There is no evidence that their task was immediately
continued in an organized form, but it is related that during the
reign of Empress Jito (690-696) further steps were taken to collect
historical materials, and that the Empress Gemmyo (708-715)--whom we
have seen carrying out, in 712, her predecessor Temmu's plan with
regard to Hiyeda no Are--added, in 714, two skilled littérateurs to
Temmu's classical compilers, and thus enabled them to complete their
task, which took the shape of a book called the Nihongi (Chronicle of
Japan).

This work, however, did not prove altogether satisfactory. It was
written, for the most part, with a script called the Manyo syllabary;
that is to say, with Chinese ideographs employed phonetically, and it
did not at all attain the literary standard of its Chinese prototype.
Therefore, the Empress entrusted to Prince Toneri and Ono Yasumaro
the task of revising it, and their amended manuscript, concluded in
720, received the name of Nihon Shoki (Written Chronicles of Japan),
the original being distinguished as Kana Nihongi, or Syllabic
Chronicles. The Nihon Shoki consisted originally of thirty-one
volumes, but of these one, containing the genealogies of the
sovereigns, has been lost. It covers the whole of the prehistoric
period and that part of the historic which extends from the accession
of the Emperor Jimmu (660 B.C.) to the abdication of the Empress Jito
(A.D. 697). The Kojiki extends back equally far, but terminates at
the death of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 628).

THE FUDOKI

In the year 713, when the Empress Gemmyo was on the throne, all the
provinces of the empire received orders to submit to the Court
statements setting forth the natural features of the various
localities, together with traditions and remarkable occurrences.
These documents were called Fudoki (Records of Natural Features).
Many of them have been lost, but a few survive, as those of Izumo,
Harima, and Hitachi.

CHARACTER OF THE RECORDS AND THE CHRONICLES

The task of applying ideographic script to phonetic purposes is
exceedingly difficult. In the ideographic script each character has a
distinct sound and a complete meaning. Thus, in China shan signifies
"mountain," and ming "light." But in Japanese "mountain" becomes yama
and "light" akari. It is evident, then, that one of two things has to
be done. Either the sounds of the Japanese words must be changed to
those of the Chinese ideographs; or the sounds of the Chinese
ideographs must alone be taken (irrespective of their meaning), and
with them a phonetic syllabary must be formed. Both of these devices
were employed by a Japanese scholar of early times. Sometimes
disregarding the significance of the ideographs altogether, he used
them simply as representing sounds, and with them built up pure
Japanese words; at other times, he altered the sounds of Japanese
words to those of their Chinese equivalents and then wrote them
frankly with their ideographic symbols.

In this way each Japanese word came to have two pronunciations:
first, its own original sound for colloquial purposes; and second,
its borrowed sound for purposes of writing. At the outset the spoken
and the written languages were doubtless kept tolerably distinct. But
by degrees, as respect for Chinese literature developed, it became a
learned accomplishment to pronounce Japanese words after the Chinese
manner, and the habit ultimately acquired such a vogue that the
language of men--who wrote and spoke ideographically--grew to be
different from the language of women--who wrote and spoke
phonetically. When Hiyeda no Are was required to memorize the annals
and traditions collected and revised at the Imperial Court, the
language in which he committed them to heart was pure Japanese, and
in that language he dictated them, twenty-nine years later, to the
scribe Yasumaro. The latter, in setting down the products of Are's
memory, wrote for the most part phonetically; but sometimes, finding
that method too cumbersome, he had recourse to the ideographic
language, with which he was familiar. At all events, adding nothing
nor taking away anything, he produced a truthful record of the myths,
traditions, and salient historical incidents credited by the Japanese
of the seventh century.

It may well be supposed, nevertheless, that Are's memory, however
tenacious, failed in many respects, and that his historical details
were comparatively meagre. An altogether different spirit presided at
the work subsequently undertaken by this same Yasumaro, when, in
conjunction with other scholars, he was required to collate the
historical materials obtained abundantly from various sources since
the vandalism of the Soga nobles. The prime object of these
collaborators was to produce a Japanese history worthy to stand side
by side with the classic models of China. Therefore, they used the
Chinese language almost entirely, the chief exception being in the
case of the old poems, a great number of which appear in the Records
and the Chronicles alike. The actual words of these poems had to be
preserved as well as the metre, and therefore it was necessary to
indite them phonetically. For the rest, the Nihon Shoki, which
resulted from the labours of these annalists and literati, was so
Chinese that its authors did not hesitate to draw largely upon the
cosmogonic myths of the Middle Kingdom, and to put into the mouths of
Japanese monarchs, or into their decrees, quotations from Chinese
literature. "As a repertory of ancient Japanese myth and legend there
is little to choose between the Records and the Chronicles. The
former is, on the whole, the fuller of the two, and contains legends
which the latter passes over in silence; but the Chronicles, as we
now have them, are enriched by variants of the early myths, the value
of which, for purposes of comparison, is recognized by scientific
inquirers. But there can be no comparison between the two works when
viewed as history. Hiyeda no Are's memory cannot be expected to
compete in fullness and accuracy with the abundant documentary
literature accessible to the writers of the Chronicles, and an
examination of the two works shows that, in respect to the record of
actual events, the Chronicles are far the more useful authority".*

*Aston's Nihongi.

It will readily be supposed, too, that the authors of both works
confused the present with the past, and, in describing the manners
and customs of by-gone eras, unconsciously limned their pictures with
colours taken from the palette of their own times, "when the national
thought and institutions had become deeply modified by Chinese
influences." Valuable as the two books are, therefore, they cannot be
accepted without large limitations. The Nihon Shoki occupied a high
place in national esteem from the outset. In the year following its
compilation, the Empress Gensho summoned eminent scholars to the
Court and caused them to deliver lectures on the contents of the
book, a custom which was followed regularly by subsequent sovereigns
and still finds a place among the New Year ceremonials. This book
proved to be the precursor of five others with which it is commonly
associated by Japanese scholars. They are the Zoku Nihongi
(Supplementary Chronicles of Japan), in forty volumes, which covers
the period from 697 to 791 and was finished in 798; the Nihon Koki
(Later Chronicles of Japan), in forty volumes--ten only
survive--which covers the period from 792 to 833; the Zoku Nihon Koki
(Supplementary Later Chronicles), in twenty volumes, which covers the
single reign of the Emperor Nimmyo (834-850) and was compiled in 869;
the Montoku Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Montoku), in ten volumes,
covering the reign of Montoku (851-858), and compiled in 879, and the
Sandai Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Three Reigns) in fifty volumes,
covering the period from 859 to 887 and compiled in 901. These five
compilations together with the Nihon Shoki are honoured as the Six
National Histories. It is noticeable that the writers were men of the
highest rank, from prime ministers downwards. In such honour was the
historiographer's art held in Japan in the eighth and ninth
centuries.

CHRONOLOGY

Before beginning to read Japanese history it is necessary to know
something of the chronology followed in its pages. There have been in
Japan four systems for counting the passage of time. The first is by
the reigns of the Emperors. That is to say, the first year of a
sovereign's reign--reckoning from the New Year's day following his
accession--became the 1 of the series, and the years were thenceforth
numbered consecutively until his death or abdication. This method
might be sufficiently accurate if the exact duration of each reign
were known as well as the exact sequence of the reigns. But no such
precision could be expected in the case of unwritten history,
transmitted orally from generation to generation. Thus, while
Japanese annalists, by accepting the aggregate duration of all the
reigns known to them, arrive at the conclusion that the first
Emperor, Jimmu, ascended the throne in the year 660 B.C., it is found
on analysis that their figures assign to the first seventeen
sovereigns an average age of 109 years.

The second system was by means of periods deriving their name (nengo)
from some remarkable incident. Thus, the discovery of copper in Japan
was commemorated by calling the year Wado (Japanese copper), and the
era so called lasted seven years. Such a plan was even more liable to
error than the device of reckoning by reigns, and a specially
confusing feature was that the first year of the period dated
retrospectively from the previous New Year's day, so that events were
often recorded as having occurred in the final year of one period and
in the opening year of another. This system was originally imported
from China in the year A.D. 645, and is at present in use, the year
1910 being the forty-third of the Meiji (Enlightenment and Peace)
period.

The third system was that of the sexagenary cycle. This was operated
after the manner of a clock having two concentric dials, the
circumference of the larger dial being divided into ten equal parts,
each marked with one of the ten "celestial signs," and the
circumference of the smaller dial being divided into twelve equal
parts each marked with one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The
long hand of the clock, pointing to the larger dial, was supposed to
make one revolution in ten years, and the shorter hand, pointing to
the small dial, revolved once in twelve years. Thus, starting from
the point where the marks on the two dials coincide, the long hand
gained upon the short hand by one-sixtieth each year, and once in
every sixty years the two hands were found at the point of
conjunction. Years were indicated by naming the "celestial stem" and
the zodiacal sign to which the imaginary hands happen to be pointing,
just as clock-time is indicated by the minutes read from the long
hand and the hours from the short. The sexagenary cycle came into use
in China in 623 B.C. The exact date of its importation into Japan is
unknown, but it was probably about the end of the fourth century A.D.
It is a sufficiently accurate manner of counting so long as the tale
of cycles is carefully kept, but any neglect in that respect exposes
the calculator to an error of sixty years or some multiple of sixty.
Keen scrutiny and collation of the histories of China, Korea, and
Japan have exposed a mistake of at least 120 years connected with the
earliest employment of the sexagenary cycle in Japan.

The fourth method corresponds to that adopted in Europe where the
number of a year is referred to the birth of Christ. In Japan, the
accession of the Emperor Jimmu--660 B.C.--is taken for a basis, and
thus the Occidental year 1910 becomes the 2570th year of the Japanese
dynasty. With such methods of reckoning some collateral evidence is
needed before accepting any of the dates given in Japanese annals.
Kaempfer and even Rein were content to endorse the chronology of the
Chronicles--the Records avoid dates altogether--but other Occidental
scholars* have with justice been more sceptical, and their doubts
have been confirmed by several eminent Japanese historians in recent
times. Where, then, is collateral evidence to be found?

*Notably Bramsen, Aston, Satow, and Chamberlain.

In the pages of Chinese and Korean history. There is, of course, no
inherent reason for attributing to Korean history accuracy superior
to that of Japanese history. But in China the habit of continuously
compiling written annals had been practised for many centuries before
Japanese events began even to furnish materials for romantic
recitations, and no serious errors have been proved against Chinese
historiographers during the periods when comparison with Japanese
annals is feasible. In Korea's case, too, verification is partially
possible. Thus, during the first five centuries of the Christian era,
Chinese annals contain sixteen notices of events in Korea. If Korean
history be examined as to these events, it is found to agree in ten
instances, to disagree in two, and to be silent in four.* This record
tends strongly to confirm the accuracy of the Korean annals, and it
is further to be remembered that the Korean peninsula was divided
during many centuries into three principalities whose records serve
as mutual checks. Finally, Korean historians do not make any such
demand upon our credulity as the Japanese do in the matter of length
of sovereigns' reigns. For example, while the number of successions
to the throne of Japan during the first four centuries of the
Christian era is set down as seven only, making fifty-six years the
average duration of a reign, the corresponding numbers for the three
Korean principalities are sixteen, seventeen, and sixteen,
respectively, making the average length of a reign from twenty-four
to twenty-five years. It is, indeed, a very remarkable fact that
whereas the average age of the first seventeen Emperors of Japan, who
are supposed to have reigned from 660 B.C. down to A.D. 399, was 109
years, this incredible habit of longevity ceased abruptly from the
beginning of the fifth century, the average age of the next seventeen
having been only sixty-one and a half years; and it is a most
suggestive coincidence that the year A.D. 461 is the first date of
the accepted Japanese chronology which is confirmed by Korean
authorities.

*Aston's essay on Early Japanese History

In fact, the conclusion is almost compulsory that Japanese authentic
history, so far as dates are concerned, begins from the fifth
century. Chinese annals, it is true, furnish one noteworthy and much
earlier confirmation of Japanese records. They show that Japan was
ruled by a very renowned queen during the first half of the third
century of the Christian era, and it was precisely at that epoch that
the Empress Jingo is related by Japanese history to have made herself
celebrated at home and abroad. Chinese historiographers, however, put
Jingo's death in the year A.D. 247, whereas Japanese annalists give
the date as 269. Indeed there is reason to think that just at this
time--second half of the third century--some special causes operated
to disturb historical coherence in Japan, for not only does Chinese
history refer to several signal events in Japan which find no place
in the latter's records, but also Korean history indicates that the
Japanese dates of certain cardinal incidents err by exactly 120
years. Two cycles in the sexagenary system of reckoning constitute
120 years, and the explanation already given makes it easy to
conceive the dropping of that length of time by recorders having only
tradition to guide them.

On the whole, whatever may be said as to the events of early Japanese
history, its dates can not be considered trustworthy before the
beginning of the fifth century. There is evidently one other point to
be considered in this context; namely, the introduction of writing.
Should it appear that the time when the Japanese first began to
possess written records coincides with the time when, according to
independent research, the dates given in their annals begin to
synchronize with those of Chinese and Korean history, another very
important landmark will be furnished. There, is such synchronism, but
it is obtained at the cost of considerations which cannot be lightly
dismissed. For, although it is pretty clearly established that an
event which occured at the beginning of the fifth century preluded
the general study of the Chinese language in Japan and may not
unreasonably be supposed to have led to the use of the Chinese script
in compiling historical records, still it is even more clearly
established that from a much remoter era Japan had been on terms of
some intimacy with her neighbours, China and Korea, and had exchanged
written communications with them, so that the art of writing was
assuredly known to her long before the fifth century of the Christian
era, to whatever services she applied it. This subject will present
itself again for examination in more convenient circumstances.

ENGRAVING: YUKIMIDORO (Style of Stone Lantern used in Japanese
Gardens)

ENGRAVING: "YATSUHASHI" STYLE OF GARDEN BRIDGE



CHAPTER II

JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY

KAMI

THE mythological page of a country's history has an interest of its
own apart from legendary relations; it affords indications of the
people's creeds and furnishes traces of the nation's genesis. In
Japan's mythology there is a special difficulty for the
interpreter--a difficulty of nomenclature. It has been the constant
habit of foreign writers of Japan's story to speak of an "Age of
Gods" (Kami no yo). But the Japanese word Kami* does not necessarily
convey any such meaning. It has no divine import. We shall presently
find that of the hundreds of families into which Japanese society
came to be divided, each had its Kami, and that he was nothing more
than the head of the household. Fifty years ago, the Government was
commonly spoken of as O Kami (the Honourable Head), and a feudatory
frequently had the title of Kami of such and such a locality. Thus to
translate Kami by "deity" or "god" is misleading, and as the English
language furnishes no exact equivalent, the best plan is to adhere to
the original expression. That plan is adopted in the following brief
summary of Japanese mythology.

*Much stress is laid upon the point by that most accurate scholar,
Mr. B. H. Chamberlain.

COSMOGONY

Japanese mythology opens at the beginning of "the heaven and the
earth." But it makes no attempt to account for the origin of things.
It introduces us at once to a "plain of high heaven," the dwelling
place of these invisible* Kami, one of whom is the great central
being, and the other two derive their titles from their productive
attributes. But as to what they produced or how they produced it, no
special indication is given. Thereafter two more Kami are born from
an elementary reedlike substance that sprouts on an inchoate earth.
This is the first reference to organic matter. The two newly born
Kami are invisible like their predecessors, and like them are not
represented as taking any part in the creation. They are solitary,
unseeable, and functionless, but the evident idea is that they have a
more intimate connexion with cosmos than the Kami who came previously
into existence, for one of them is named after the reed-shoot from
which he emanated, and to the other is attributed the property of
standing eternally in the heavens.

*The expression here translated "invisible" has been interpreted in
the sense that the Kami "hid their persons," i.e., died, but the true
meaning seems to be that they were invisible.

Up to this point there has not been any suggestion of measuring time.
But now the record begins to speak of "generations." Two more
solitary and invisible beings are born, one called the Kami who
stands eternally on earth, the other the "abundant integrator." Each
of these represents a generation, and it will be observed that up to
this time no direct mention whatever is made of sex. Now, however,
five generations ensue, each consisting of two Kami, a male and a
female, and thus the epithet "solitary" as applied to the first seven
Kami becomes intelligible. All these generations are represented as
gradually approximating to the exercise of creative functions, for
the names* become more and more suggestive of earthly relations. The
last couple, forming the fifth generation, are Izanagi and Izanami,
appellations signifying the male Kami of desire and the female Kami
of desire. By all the other Kami these two are commissioned to "make,
consolidate, and give birth to the drifting land," a jewelled spear
being given to them as a token of authority, and a floating bridge
being provided to carry them to earth. Izanagi and Izanami thrust the
spear downwards and stir the "brine" beneath, with the result that it
coagulates, and, dropping from the spear's point, forms the first of
the Japanese islands, Onogoro. This island they take as the basis of
their future operations, and here they beget, by ordinary human
processes--which are described without any reservations--first, "a
great number of islands, and next, a great number of Kami." It is
related that the first effort of procreation was not successful, the
outcome being a leechlike abortion and an island of foam, the former
of which was sent adrift in a boat of reeds. The islands afterwards
created form a large part of Japan, but between these islands and the
Kami, begotten in succession to them, no connexion is traceable. In
several cases the names of the Kami seem to be personifications of
natural objects. Thus we have the Kami of the "wind's breath," of the
sea, of the rivers, of the "water-gates" (estuaries and ports), of
autumn, of "foam-calm," of "bubbling waves," of "water-divisions," of
trees, of mountains, of moors, of valleys, etc. But with very rare
exceptions, all these Kami have no subsequent share in the scheme of
things and cannot be regarded as evidence that the Japanese were
nature worshippers.

*The Kami of mud-earth; the Kami of germ-integration; the Kami of the
great place; the Kami of the perfect exterior, etc.

A change of method is now noticeable. Hitherto the process of
production has been creative; henceforth the method is transformation
preceded by destruction. Izanami dies in giving birth to the Kami of
fire, and her body is disintegrated into several beings, as the male
and female Kami of metal mountains, the male and female Kami of
viscid clay, the female Kami of abundant food, and the Kami of youth;
while from the tears of Izanagi as he laments her decease is born the
female Kami of lamentation. Izanagi then turns upon the child, the
Kami of fire, which has cost Izanami her life, and cuts off its head;
whereupon are born from the blood that stains his sword and spatters
the rocks eight Kami, whose names are all suggestive of the violence
that called them into existence. An equal number of Kami, all having
sway over mountains, are born from the head and body of the
slaughtered child.

At this point an interesting episode is recorded. Izanagi visits the
"land of night," with the hope of recovering his spouse.* He urges
her to return, as the work in which they were engaged is not yet
completed. She replies that, unhappily having already eaten within
the portals of the land of night, she may not emerge without the
permission of the Kami** of the underworld, and she conjures him,
while she is seeking that permission, not to attempt to look on her
face. He, however, weary of waiting, breaks off one of the large
teeth of the comb that holds his hair*** and, lighting it, uses it as
a torch. He finds Izanami's body in a state of putrefaction, and amid
the decaying remains eight Kami of thunder have been born and are
dwelling. Izanagi, horrified, turns and flees, but Izanami, enraged
that she has been "put to shame," sends the "hideous hag of hades" to
pursue him. He obtains respite twice; first by throwing down his
head-dress, which is converted into grapes, and then casting away his
comb, which is transformed into bamboo sprouts, and while the hag
stops to eat these delicacies, he flees. Then Izanami sends in his
pursuit the eight Kami of thunder with fifteen hundred warriors of
the underworld.**** He holds them off for a time by brandishing his
sword behind him, and finally, on reaching the pass from the nether
to the upper world, he finds three peaches growing there with which
he pelts his pursuers and drives them back. The peaches are rewarded
with the title of "divine fruit," and entrusted with the duty of
thereafter helping all living people***** in the central land of
"reed plains"****** as they have helped Izanagi.

*It is unnecessary to comment upon the identity of this incident with
the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

**It will be observed that we hear of these Kami now for the first
time.

***This is an obvious example of a charge often preferred against the
compilers of the Records that they inferred the manners and customs
of remote antiquity from those of their own time.

****Again we have here evidence that the story of creation, as told
in the Records, is not supposed to be complete. It says nothing as to
how the denizens of the underworld came into existence.

*****The first mention of human beings.

******This epithet is given to Japan.

This curious legend does not end here. Finding that the hag of hades,
the eight Kami of thunder, and the fifteen hundred warriors have all
been repulsed, Izanami herself goes in pursuit. But her way is
blocked by a huge rock which Izanagi places in the "even pass of
hades," and from the confines of the two worlds the angry pair
exchange messages of final separation, she threatening to kill a
thousand folk daily in his land if he repeats his acts of violence,
and he declaring that, in such event, he will retaliate by causing
fifteen hundred to be born.

In all this, no mention whatever is found of the manner in which
human beings come into existence: they make their appearance upon the
scene as though they were a primeval part of it. Izanagi, whose
return to the upper world takes place in southwestern Japan,* now
cleanses himself from the pollution he has incurred by contact with
the dead, and thus inaugurates the rite of purification practised to
this day in Japan. The Records describe minutely the process of his
unrobing before entering a river, and we learn incidentally that he
wore a girdle, a skirt, an upper garment, trousers, a hat, bracelets
on each arm, and a necklace, but no mention is made of footgear.
Twelve Kami are born from these various articles as he discards them,
but without exception these additions to Japanese mythology seem to
have nothing to do with the scheme of the universe: their titles
appear to be wholly capricious, and apart from figuring once upon the
pages of the Records they have no claim to notice. The same may be
said of eleven among fourteen Kami thereafter born from the pollution
which Izanagi washes off in a river.

*At Himuka in Kyushu, then called Tsukushi.

But the last three of these newly created beings act a prominent part
in the sequel of the story. They are the "heaven-shining Kami"
(Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami), commonly spoken of as the "goddess of the
Sun;" the Kami of the Moon, and the Kami of force.* Izanagi expresses
much satisfaction at the begetting of these three. He hands his
necklace to the Kami of the Sun and commissions her to rule the
"plain of heaven;" he confers upon the Kami of the Moon the dominion
of night, and he appoints the Kami of force (Susanoo) to rule the
sea-plain. The Kami of the Sun and the Kami of the Moon proceed at
once to their appointed task, but the Kami of force, though of mature
age and wearing a long beard, neglects his duty and falls to weeping,
wailing, and fuming. Izanagi inquires the cause of his discontent,
and the disobedient Kami replies that he prefers death to the office
assigned him; whereupon he is forbidden to dwell in the same land
with Izanagi and has to make his abode in Omi province. Then he forms
the idea of visiting the "plain of high heaven" to bid farewell to
his sister, the goddess of the Sun.

*Mr. Chamberlain translates the title of this Kami "brave, swift,
impetuous, male, augustness."

But his journey is attended with such a shaking of mountains and
seething of rivers that the goddess, informed of his recalcitrancy
and distrusting his purpose, makes preparations to receive him in
warlike guise, by dressing her hair in male fashion (i.e. binding it
into knots), by tying up her skirt into the shape of trousers, by
winding a string of five hundred curved jewels round her head and
wrists, by slinging on her back two quivers containing a thousand
arrows and five hundred arrows respectively, by drawing a guard on
her left forearm, and by providing herself with a bow and a sword.

The Records and the Chronicles agree in ascribing to her such an
exercise of resolute force that she stamps her feet into the ground
as though it had been soft snow and scatters the earth about.
Susanoo, however, disavows all evil intentions, and agrees to prove
his sincerity by taking an oath and engaging in a Kami-producing
competition, the condition being that if his offspring be female, the
fact shall bear condemnatory import, but if male, the verdict shall
be in his favour. For the purpose of this trial, they stand on
opposite sides of a river (the Milky Way). Susanoo hands his sword to
Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami, who breaks it into three pieces, chews the
fragments, and blowing them from her mouth, produces three female
Kami. She then lends her string of five hundred jewels to Susanoo
and, he, in turn, crunches them in his mouth and blows out the
fragments which are transformed into five male Kami. The beings thus
strangely produced have comparatively close connexions with the
mundane scheme, for the three female Kami--euphoniously designated
Kami of the torrent mist, Kami of the beautiful island, and Kami of
the cascade--become tutelary goddesses of the shrines in Chikuzen
province (or the sacred island Itsuku-shima), and two of the male
Kami become ancestors of seven and twelve families, respectively, of
hereditary nobles.

On the "high plain of heaven," however, trouble is not allayed. The
Sun goddess judges that since female Kami were produced from the
fragments of Susanoo's sword and male Kami from her own string of
jewels, the test which he himself proposed has resulted in his
conviction; but he, repudiating that verdict, proceeds to break down
the divisions of the rice-fields laid out by the goddess, to fill up
the ditches, and to defile the palace--details which suggest either
that, according to Japanese tradition, heaven has its agriculture and
architecture just as earth has, or that the "plain of high heaven"
was really the name of a place in the Far East. The Sun goddess makes
various excuses for her brother's lawless conduct, but he is not to
be placated. His next exploit is to flay a piebald horse and throw it
through a hole which he breaks in the roof of the hall where the
goddess is weaving garments for the Kami. In the alarm thus created,
the goddess* is wounded by her shuttle, whereupon she retires into a
cave and places a rock at the entrance, so that darkness falls upon
the "plain of high heaven" and upon the islands of Japan,** to the
consternation of the Kami of evil, whose voices are heard like the
buzzing of swarms of flies.

*According to the Records, it is the attendants of the goddess that
suffer injury.

**Referring to this episode, Aston writes in his Nihongi:
"Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami is throughout the greater part of this narrative
an anthropomorphic deity, with little that is specially
characteristic of her solar functions. Here, however, it is plainly
the sun itself which witholds its light and leaves the world to
darkness. This inconsistency, which has greatly exercised the native
theologians, is not peculiar to Japanese myth."

Then follows a scene perhaps the most celebrated in all the
mythological legends; a scene which was the origin of the sacred
dance in Japan and which furnished to artists in later ages a
frequent motive. The "eight hundred myriads" of Kami--so numerous
have the denizens of the "plain of high heaven" unaccountably
become--assemble in the bed of the "tranquil river"* to confer about
a means of enticing the goddess from her retirement. They entrust the
duty of forming a plan to the Kami of "thought combination," now
heard of for the first time as a son of one of the two producing
Kami, who, with the "great central" Kami, constituted the original
trinity of heavenly denizens. This deity gathers together a number of
barn-yard fowl to signal sunrise, places the Kami of the "strong arm"
at the entrance of the cave into which the goddess has retired,
obtains iron from the "mines of heaven" and causes it to be forged
into an "eight-foot" mirror, appoints two Kami to procure from Mount
Kagu a "five-hundred branched" sakaki tree (cleyera Japonica), from
whose branches the mirror together with a "five-hundred beaded"
string of curved jewels and blue and white streamers of hempen cloth
and paper-mulberry cloth are suspended, and causes divination to be
performed with the shoulder blade of a stag.

*The Milky Way.

Then, while a grand liturgy is recited, the "heaven-startling" Kami,
having girdled herself with moss, crowned her head with a wreath of
spindle-tree leaves and gathered a bouquet of bamboo grass, mounts
upon a hollow wooden vessel and dances, stamping so that the wood
resounds and reciting the ten numerals repeatedly. Then the
"eight-hundred myriad" Kami laugh in unison, so that the "plain of
high heaven" shakes with the sound, and the Sun goddess, surprised
that such gaiety should prevail in her absence, looks out from the
cave to ascertain the cause. She is taunted by the dancer, who tells
her that a greater than she is present, and the mirror being thrust
before her, she gradually comes forward, gazing into it with
astonishment; whereupon the Kami of the "strong arm" grasps her hand
and drags her out, while two other Kami* stretch behind her a rope
made of straw, pulled up by the roots,** to prevent her return, and
sunshine once more floods the "plain of high heaven."

*These two are the ancestors of the Kami of the Nakatomi and the
Imibe hereditary corporations, who may be described as the high
priests of the indigenous cult of Japan.

**This kind of rope called shime-nawa, an abbreviation of
shiri-kume-nawa may be seen festooning the portals of any Shinto
shrine.

The details of this curious legend deserve attention for the sake of
their close relation to the observances of the Shinto cult. Moreover,
the mythology now takes a new departure. At the time of Izanagi's
return from hades, vague reference is made to human beings, but after
Susanoo's departure from the "plain of high heaven," he is
represented as holding direct converse with them. There is an
interlude which deals with the foodstuffs of mortals. Punished with a
fine of a great number of tables* of votive offerings, his beard cut
off, and the nails of his fingers and toes pulled out, Susanoo is
sentenced to expulsion from heaven. He seeks sustenance from the Kami
of food, and she responds by taking from the orifices of her body
various kinds of viands which she offers to him. But he, deeming
himself insulted, kills her, whereupon from her corpse are born rice,
millet, small and large beans, and barley. These are taken by one of
the two Kami of production, and by him they are caused to be used as
seeds.

*The offerings of food in religious services were always placed upon
small, low tables.

Thereafter Susanoo descends to a place at the headwaters of the river
Hi (Izumo province). Seeing a chop-stick float down the stream, he
infers the existence of people higher up the river, and going in
search of them, finds an old man and an old woman lamenting over and
caressing a girl. The old man says that he is an earthly Kami, son of
the Kami of mountains, who was one of the thirty-five Kami borne by
Izanami before her departure for hades. He explains that he had
originally eight daughters, but that every year an eight-forked
serpent has come from the country of Koshi and devoured one of the
maidens, so that there remains only Lady Wonderful, whose time to
share her sisters' fate is now at hand. It is a huge monster,
extending over eight valleys and eight hills, its eyes red like
winter cherries, its belly bloody and inflamed, and its back
overgrown with moss and conifers. Susanoo, having announced himself
as the brother of the Sun goddess, receives Lady Wonderful and at
once transforms her into a comb which he places in his hair. He then
instructs the old man and his wife to build a fence with eight gates,
placing in every gate a vat of rice wine.

Presently the serpent arrives, drinks the wine, and laying down its
heads to sleep, is cut to pieces by Susanoo with his ten-span sabre.
In the body of the serpent the hero finds a sword, "great and sharp,"
which he sends to the Sun goddess, at whose shrine in Ise it is
subsequently found and given to the famous warrior, Yamato-dake, when
he is setting out on his expedition against the Kumaso of the north.
The sword is known as the "Herb-queller." Susanoo then builds for
himself and Lady Wonderful a palace at Suga in Izumo, and composes a
celebrated verse of Japanese poetry.* Sixth in descent from the
offspring of this union is the "Kami of the great land," called also
the "Great-Name Possessor," or the "Kami of the reed plains," or the
"Kami of the eight thousand spears," or the "Kami of the great land
of the living," the last name being antithetical to Susanoo's title
of "Ruler of Hades."

*"Many clouds arise,
On all sides a manifold fence,
To receive within it the spouse,
They form a manifold fence
Ah! that manifold fence."

Several legends are attached to the name of this multinominal
being--legends in part romantic, in part supernatural, and in part
fabulous. His eighty brethren compel him to act as their servant when
they go to seek the hand of Princess Yakami of Inaba. But on the way
he succours a hare which they have treated brutally and the little
animal promises that he, not they, shall win the princess, though he
is only their baggage-bearer. Enraged at the favour she shows him,
they seek in various ways to destroy him: first by rolling down on
him from a mountain a heated rock; then by wedging him into the cleft
of a tree, and finally by shooting him. But he is saved by his
mother, and takes refuge in the province of Kii (the Land of Trees)
at the palace of the "Kami of the great house."* Acting on the
latter's advice, he visits his ancestor, Susanoo, who is now in
hades, and seeks counsel as to some means of overcoming his eighty
enemies. But instead of helping him, that unruly Kami endeavours to
compass his death by thrusting him into a snake-house; by putting him
into a nest of centipedes and wasps, and finally by shooting an arrow
into a moor, sending him to seek it and then setting fire to the
grass. He is saved from the first two perils through the agency of
miraculous scarves given to him by Princess Forward, Susanoo's
daughter, who has fallen in love with him; and from the last dilemma
a mouse instructs him how to emerge.

*A son of Susanoo. Under the name of Iso-Takeru he is recorded to
have brought with him a quantity of seeds of trees and shrubs, which
he planted, not in Korea, but in Tsukushi (Kyushu) and the eight
islands of Japan. These words "not in Korea" are worthy of note, as
will presently be appreciated.

A curious episode concludes this recital: Susanoo requires that the
parasites shall be removed from his head by his visitor. These
parasites are centipedes, but the Great-Name Possessor, again acting
under the instruction of Princess Forward, pretends to be removing
the centipedes, whereas he is in reality spitting out a mixture of
berries and red earth. Susanoo falls asleep during the process, and
the Great-Name Possessor binds the sleeping Kami's hair to the
rafters of the house, places a huge rock at the entrance, seizes
Susanoo's life-preserving sword and life-preserving bow and arrows as
also his sacred lute,* and taking Princess Forward on his back,
flees. The lute brushes against a tree, and its sound rouses Susanoo.
But before he can disentangle his hair from the rafters, the
fugitives reach the confines of the underworld, and the enraged Kami,
while execrating this visitor who has outwitted him, is constrained
to direct him how to overcome his brethren and to establish his rule
firmly. In all this he succeeds, and having married Princess Yakami,
to whom he was previously engaged,** he resumes the work left
unfinished by Izanagi and Izanami, the work of "making the land."

*Sacred because divine revelations were supposed to be made through a
lute-player.

**In the story of this Kami, we find the first record of conjugal
jealousy in Japan. Princess Forward strongly objects to her husband's
excursions into novel fields.

The exact import of this process, "making the land," is not
discernible. In the hands of Izanagi and Izanami it resolves itself
into begetting, first, a number of islands and, then, a number of
Kami. At the outset it seems to have no more profound significance
for the Great-Name Possessor. Several generations of Kami are
begotten by him, but their names give no indication of the parts they
are supposed to have taken in the "making of the land." They are all
born in Japan, however, and it is perhaps significant that among them
the one child--the Kami of wells--brought forth by Princess Yakami,
is not included. Princess Forward has no children, a fact which
doubtless augments her jealousy of her husband's amours; jealousy
expressed in verses that show no mean poetic skill. Thus, the
Great-Name Possessor on the eve of a journey from Izumo to Yamato,
sings as he stands with one hand on his saddle and one foot in the
stirrup:--

   Though thou sayest thou willst not weep
   If like the flocking birds, I flock and depart,
   If like the led birds, I am led away and
   Depart; thou wilt hang down thine head like
   A single Eulalia upon the mountain and
   Thy weeping shall indeed rise as the mist of
   The morning shower.
   Then the Empress, taking a wine-cup, approaches and offers it to
      him, saying:
   Oh! Thine Augustness, the Deity-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears!
   Thou, my dear Master-of-the-Great-Land indeed,
   Being a man, probably hast on the various island headlands thou
      seest,
   And on every beach-headland that thou lookest on,
   A wife like the young herbs. But as for me, alas!
   Being a woman, I have no man except thee; I have no spouse except
      thee.
   Beneath the fluttering of the ornamented fence,
   Beneath the softness of the warm coverlet,
   Beneath the rustling of the cloth coverlet,
   Thine arms, white as rope of paper-mulberry bark softly patting
      my breast soft as the melting snow,
   And patting each other interlaced, stretching out and pillowing
      ourselves on each other's arms,
   True jewel arms, and with outstretched legs, will we sleep.*

   *B. H. Chamberlain.

"Having thus sung, they at once pledged each other by the cup with
their hands on each other's necks." It is, nevertheless, from among
the children born on the occasion of the contest between the Sun
goddess and Susanoo that the Great-Name Possessor first seeks a
spouse--the Princess of the Torrent Mist--to lay the foundation of
fifteen generations of Kami, whose birth seems to have been essential
to the "making of the land," though their names afford no clue to the
functions discharged by them. From over sea, seated in a gourd and
wearing a robe of wren's feathers, there comes a pigmy, Sukuna
Hikona, who proves to be one of fifteen hundred children begotten by
the Kami of the original trinity. Skilled in the arts of healing
sickness and averting calamities from men or animals, this pigmy
renders invaluable aid to the Great-Name Possessor. But the useful
little Kami does not wait to witness the conclusion of the work of
"making and consolidating the country." Before its completion he
takes his departure from Cape Kumano in Izumo to the "everlasting
land"--a region commonly spoken of in ancient Japanese annals but not
yet definitely located. He is replaced by a spirit whose coming is
thus described by the Chronicles:

After this (i.e. the departure of Sukuna), wherever there was in the
land a part which was imperfect, the Great-Name Possessor visited it
by himself and succeeded in repairing it. Coming at last to the
province of Izumo, he spake and said: "This central land of reed
plains had always been waste and wild. The very rocks, trees, and
huts were all given to violence... But I have now reduced it to
submission, and there is none that is not compliant." Therefore he
said finally: "It is I, and I alone, who now govern this land. Is
there, perchance, anyone who could join with me in governing the
world?" Upon this a divine radiance illuminated the sea, and of a
sudden there was something which floated towards him and said: "Were
I not here, how couldst thou subdue this land? It is because I am
here that thou hast been enabled to accomplish this mighty
undertaking." Then the Great-Name Possessor inquired, saying, "Then
who art thou?" It replied and said: "I am thy guardian spirit, the
wonderous spirit." Then said the Great-Name Possessor: "True, I know
therefore that thou art my guardian spirit, the wonderous spirit.
Where dost thou now wish to dwell?" The spirit answered and said, "I
wish to dwell on Mount Mimoro in the province of Yamato." Accordingly
he built a shrine in that place and made the spirit go and dwell
there. This is the Kami of Omiwa.*

*Aston's Translation of the Nihongi.

After the above incident, another begetting of Kami takes place on a
large scale, but only a very few of them--such as the guardian of the
kitchen, the protector of house-entrances, the Kami of agriculture,
and so forth--have any intelligible place in the scheme of things.

ENGRAVING: CRESTS



CHAPTER III

JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY (Continued)

THE SUBJUGATION OF JAPAN

THE dividing line between mythological tradition and historical
legend is now reached. It will have been observed that, after the
descent of Susanoo, the Kami on the "plain of high heaven" took no
further part in "making" or "ruling" the "ever fruitful land of
reed-covered moors, and luxuriant rice-fields," as Japan was called.
Everything was left in the hands of Susanoo, the insubordinate Kami,
who had been expelled from heaven for his destructive violence. His
descendant in the sixth generation, the Great-Name Possessor, now
held supreme sway over the islands, in conjunction with a number of
his own relations, his seat of power being in the province of Izumo.
At this juncture the goddess of the Sun decided that a sovereign
should be sent down to govern the land of many islands, and she chose
for this purpose the son of the eldest* of the five Kami born from
her necklace during the procreation competition with Susanoo.

In the first place, however, it was considered necessary to reduce
the country to order, observation having shown it to be in a state of
tumult. For that purpose the second of the five necklace
Kami--considered "the most heroic" of all the beings on the "plain of
high heaven"--was despatched. But he "curried favour" with the
Great-Name Possessor and took up his abode in Japan. At the end of
three years,** seeing that he had not returned, it was decided by the
Kami in council to send another envoy, the Heavenly Young Prince. But
he proved even more disloyal, for he married the daughter of the
Great-Name Possessor, famous for her beauty,*** and planning to
succeed his father-in-law as sovereign of the land, remained in Izumo
for eight years. A third conclave of the Kami was now convened by the
Sun goddess and her coadjutor, the Great-Producing Kami,* and they
decided to despatch a pheasant to make observations.

*This Kami married a daughter of one of the two Great-Producing Kami
who belonged to the original trinity, and who co-operates with the
Sun goddess throughout.

**This is the first mention of a measure of time in the Records.

***She was called Princess Undershining, because her beauty shone
through her raiment.

The bird flew down and lit on a cassia tree at the gate of the
Heavenly Young Prince's dwelling, whereupon the prince, at the
instigation of a female spy, taking a bow given to him originally by
the Great-Producing Kami, shot a shaft which pierced the bird's bosom,
and, reaching the Milky Way where sat the Sun goddess and the
Great-Producing Kami, was recognized by the latter, who threw it back
to earth, decreeing that it should strike the prince were he guilty
of treason, and leave him unharmed if the blood on the arrow was that
of the earthly Kami whom he had been sent to quell. The shaft struck
the prince and killed him.

At this point the course of the history is interrupted by an
unintelligible description of the resulting obsequies--held in heaven
according to the Chronicles, on earth according to the Records. Wild
geese, herons, kingfishers, sparrows, and pheasants were the
principal officiators; the mourning rites, which included singing,
and dancing,* continued for eight days and eight nights, and the
proceedings were rudely interrupted by the prince's brother-in-law,
who, coming to condole and being mistaken for the deceased, is so
enraged by the error that he draws his sword, cuts down the mortuary
house, and kicks away the pieces.

*It has been conjectured, with much probability, that this singing
and dancing was a ceremony in imitation of the rites performed to
entice the Sun goddess from her cave. The motive was to resuscitate
the dead.

These two failures did not deter the Great-Producing Kami and the Sun
goddess. They again took counsel with the other beings on the "plain
of high heaven," and it was decided to have recourse to the Kami born
from the blood that dropped from Izanagi's sword when he slew the
Kami of fire. To one of these--the Kami of courage--the mission of
subduing the land of many islands was entrusted, and associated with
him in the work was the Kami of boats, a son of Izanagi and Izanami.
The two descended to Izumo. They carried swords ten hand-breadths
long, and having planted these upside down, they seated themselves on
the points and delivered their message to the Great-Name Possessor,
requiring him to declare whether or not he would abdicate in favour
of the newly named sovereign.

The Great-Name Possessor replied that he must consult his son, who
was absent on a hunting expedition. Accordingly, the Kami of boats
went to seek him, and, on being conducted into his father's presence,
the latter declared his willingness to surrender, sealing the
declaration by suicide.* There remained, then, only the second son of
the Great-Name Possessor to be consulted. He did not submit so
easily. Relying on his great strength, he challenged the Kami of
courage to a trial of hand grasping. But when he touched the Kami's
hand it turned first into an icicle and then into a sword-blade,
whereas his own hand, when seized by the Kami, was crushed and thrown
aside like a young reed. He fled away in terror, and was pursued by
the Kami as far as the distant province of Shinano, when he saved his
life by making formal submission and promising not to contravene the
decision of his father and elder brother.

*He stepped on the side of his boat so as to upset it, and with hands
crossed behind his back sank into the sea.

Then the Great-Name Possessor, having "lost his sons, on whom he
relied," agreed to abdicate provided that a shrine were built in
memory of him, "having its pillars made stout on the nethermost
rock-bottom, and its cross-beams raised to the 'plain of high
heaven.'"* He handed over the broad-bladed spear which had assisted
him to pacify the land, and declaring that if he offered resistance,
all the earthly Kami, too, would certainly resist, he "hid in the
eighty road-windings."

*This hyperbolical language illustrates the tone of the Records and
the Chronicles. Applied to the comparatively humble buildings that
served for residences in ancient Japan, the description in the text
is curiously exaggerated. The phrase here quoted finds frequent
reproduction in the Shinto rituals.

Thus, already in the eighth century when the Records and the
Chronicles were compiled, suicide after defeat in battle had become a
recognized practice. The submission and self-inflicted death of the
Great-Name Possessor did not, however, save his followers. All the
rebellious Kami were put to the sword by the envoys from the "plain
of high heaven." This chapter of the annals ends with an account of
the shrine erected in memory of the Great-Name Possessor. It was
placed under the care of a grandson of the Kami born to Izanagi and
Izanami, who is represented as declaring that he "would continue
drilling fire for the Kami's kitchen until the soot hung down eight
hand-breadths from the roof of the shrine of the Great-Producing Kami
and until the earth below was baked to its nethermost rocks; and that
with the fire thus drilled he would cook for him the fish brought in
by the fishermen, and present them to him in baskets woven of split
bamboos which would bend beneath their weight."

THE DESCENT UPON TSUKUSHI

It had been originally intended that the dominion of Japan should be
given to the senior of the five Kami born of the five-hundred-jewel
string of the Sun goddess. But during the interval devoted to
bringing the land to a state of submission, this Kami's spouse, the
Princess of the Myriad Looms of the Luxuriant Dragon-fly Island,* had
borne a son, Hikoho no Ninigi, (Rice-Ears of Ruddy Plenty), and this
boy having now grown to man's estate, it was decided to send him as
ruler of Japan. A number of Kami were attached to him as guards and
assistants, among them being the Kami of "thought combination," who
conceived the plan for enticing the Sun goddess from her cave and who
occupied the position of chief councillor in the conclave of high
heaven; the female Kami who danced before the cave; the female Kami
who forged the mirror, and, in short, all the Kami who assisted in
restoring light to the world. There were also entrusted to the new
sovereign the curved-jewel chaplet of the Sun goddess, the mirror
that had helped to entice her, and the sword (herb-queller) which
Susanoo had taken from the body of the eight-headed serpent.

*"Dragon-fly Island" was a name anciently given to Japan on account
of the country's shape.

These three objects thenceforth became the three sacred things of
Japan. Strict injunction was given that the mirror was to be regarded
and reverenced exactly as though it was the spirit of the Sun
goddess, and it was ordered that the Kami of "thought combination"
should administer the affairs of the new kingdom. The fact is also to
be noted that among the Kami attached to Hikoho no Ninigi's person,
five--three male and two female--are designated by the Records as
ancestors and ancestresses of as many hereditary corporations, a
distinctive feature of the early Japan's polity. As to the manner of
Hikoho no Ninigi's journey to Japan, the Chronicles say that the
Great-Producing Kami threw the coverlet of his couch over him and
caused him to cleave his way downwards through the clouds; but the
Records allege that he descended "shut up in the floating bridge of
heaven."

The point has some interest as furnishing a traditional trace of the
nature of this so-called invasion of Japan, and as helping to confirm
the theory that the "floating bridge of heaven," from which Izanagi
thrust his spear downwards into the brine of chaos, was nothing more
than a boat. It will naturally be supposed that as Hikoho no Ninigi's
migration to Japan was in the sequel of a long campaign having its
main field in the province of Izumo, his immediate destination would
have been that province, where a throne was waiting to be occupied by
him, and where he knew that a rich region existed. But the Records
and the Chronicles agree in stating that he descended on
Kirishimayama* in Tsukushi, which is the ancient name of the island
of Kyushu. This is one of the first eight islands begotten by Izanagi
and Izanami. Hence the alternative name for Japan, "Land of the Eight
Great Islands."

*Takachiho-dake is often spoken of as the mountain thus celebrated,
but Takachiho is only the eastern, and lower, of the two peaks of
Kirishima-yama.

It was, moreover, to a river of Tsukushi that Izanagi repaired to
cleanse himself from the pollution of hades. But between Kyushu
(Tsukushi) and Izumo the interval is immense, and it is accentuated
by observing that the mountain Kirishima, specially mentioned in the
story, raises its twin peaks at the head of the Bay of Kagoshima in
the extreme south of Kyushu. There is very great difficulty in
conceiving that an army whose ultimate destination was Izumo should
have deliberately embarked on the shore of Kagoshima. The landing of
Ninigi--his full name need not be repeated--was made with all
precautions, the van of his army (kume) being commanded by the
ancestor of the men who thenceforth held the highest military rank
(otomo) through many centuries, and the arms carried being bows,
arrows, and swords.*

*The swords are said to have been "mallet-headed," but the term still
awaits explanation.

All the annals agree in suggesting that the newcomers had no
knowledge of the locality, but whereas one account makes Ninigi
consult and obtain permission from an inhabitant of the place,
another represents him as expressing satisfaction that the region lay
opposite to Kara (Korea) and received the beams of the rising and the
setting sun, qualifications which it is not easy to associate with
any part of southern Kyushu.

At all events he built for himself a palace in accordance with the
orthodox formula--its pillars made stout on the nethermost
rock-bottom and its cross-beams made high to the plain of heaven--and
apparently abandoned all idea of proceeding to Izumo. Presently he
encountered a beautiful girl. She gave her name as Brilliant Blossom,
and described herself as the daughter of the Kami of mountains one of
the thirty-five beings begotten by Izanagi and Izanami who would seem
to have been then living in Tsukushi, and who gladly consented to
give Brilliant Blossom. He sent with her a plentiful dower--many
"tables"* of merchandise--but he sent also her elder sister,
Enduring-as-Rock, a maiden so ill favoured that Ninigi dismissed her
with disgust, thus provoking the curse of the Kami of mountains, who
declared that had his elder daughter been welcomed, the lives of the
heavenly sovereigns** would have been as long as her name suggested,
but that since she had been treated with contumely, their span of
existence would be comparatively short. Presently Brilliant Blossom
became enceinte. Her lord, however, thinking that sufficient time had
not elapsed for such a result, suspected her of infidelity with one
of the earthly Kami,*** whereupon she challenged the ordeal of fire,
and building a parturition hut, passed in, plastered up the entrance,
and set fire to the building. She was delivered of three children
without mishap, and their names were Hosuseri (Fire-climax), Hohodemi
(Fire-shine), and Hoori (Fire-subside).

*This expression has reference to the fact that offerings at
religious ceremonials were always heaped on low tables for laying
before the shrine.

**The expression "heavenly sovereign" is here applied for the first
time to the Emperors of Japan.

***The term "earthly" was applied to Kami born on earth, "heavenly"
Kami being those born in heaven.

THE CASTLE OF THE SEA DRAGON

At this stage the annals digress to relate an episode which has only
collateral interest Hosuseri and Hohodemi made fishing and hunting,
respectively, their avocations. But Hohodemi conceived a fancy to
exchange pursuits, and importuned Hosuseri to agree. When, however,
the former tried his luck at angling, he not only failed to catch
anything but also lost the hook which his brother had lent him. This
became the cause of a quarrel. Hosuseri taunted Hohodemi on the
foolishness of the original exchange and demanded the restoration of
his hook, nor would he be placated though Hohodemi forged his sabre
into five hundred hooks and then into a thousand. Wandering
disconsolate,* by the seashore, Hohodemi met the Kami of salt, who,
advising him to consult the daughter of the ocean Kami,** sent him to
sea in a "stout little boat."

*"Weeping and lamenting" are the words in the Records.

**One of the Kami begotten by Izanagi and Izanami.

After drifting for a time, he found himself at a palace beside which
grew a many-branched cassia tree overhanging a well. He climbed into
the tree and waited. Presently the handmaidens of Princess Rich Gem,
daughter of the ocean Kami, came to draw water, and seeing a shadow
in the well, they detected Hohodemi in the cassia tree. At his
request they gave him water in a jewelled vessel, but instead of
drinking, he dropped into the vessel a gem from his own necklace, and
the handmaidens, unable to detach the gem, carried the vessel to
their mistress. Then the princess went to look and, seeing a
beautiful youth in the cassia tree, "exchanged glances" with him. The
ocean Kami quickly recognized Hohodemi; led him in; seated him on a
pile of many layers of sealskins* overlaid by many layers of silk
rugs; made a banquet for him, and gave him for wife Princess Rich
Gem.

*Chamberlain translates this "sea-asses' skins," and conjectures that
sea-lions or seals may be meant.

Three years passed tranquilly without the bridegroom offering any
explanation of his presence. At the end of that time, thoughts of the
past visited him and he "sighed." Princess Rich Gem took note of this
despondency and reported it to her father, who now, for the first
time, inquired the cause of Hohodemi's coming. Thereafter all the
fishes of the sea, great and small, were summoned, and being
questioned about the lost hook, declared that the tai* had recently
complained of something sticking in its throat and preventing it from
eating. So the lost hook was recovered, and the ocean Kami instructed
Hohodemi, when returning it to his brother, to warn the latter that
it was a useless hook which would not serve its purpose, but would
rather lead its possessor to ruin. He further instructed him to
follow a method of rice culture the converse of that adopted by his
brother, since he, the ocean Kami, would rule the waters so as to
favour Hohodemi's labours, and he gave him two jewels having the
property of making the tide ebb and flow, respectively. These jewels
were to be used against Hosuseri, if necessary.

*Pagrus major.

Finally the Kami of the ocean instructed a crocodile to carry
Hohodemi to his home. This was accomplished, and in token of his safe
arrival, Hohodemi placed his stiletto on the crocodile's neck for
conveyance to the ocean Kami.

The programme prescribed by the latter was now faithfully pursued, so
that Hosuseri grew constantly poorer, and finally organized a fierce
attack upon his younger brother, who, using the tide-flowing jewel,
overwhelmed his assailants until they begged for mercy, whereupon the
power of the tide-ebbing jewel was invoked to save them. The result
was that Hosuseri, on behalf of himself and his descendants for all
time, promised to guard and respectfully serve his brother by day and
by night. In this episode the hayabito had their origin. They were
palace guards, who to their military functions added the duty of
occasionally performing a dance which represented the struggles of
their ancestor, Hosuseri, when he was in danger of drowning.

BIRTH OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU

After the composition of the quarrel described above, Princess Rich
Gem arrived from the castle of the ocean Kami, and built a
parturition hut on the seashore, she being about to bring forth a
child. Before the thatch of cormorants' feathers could be completed,
the pains of labour overtook her, and she entered the hut, conjuring
her husband not to spy upon her privacy, since, in order to be safely
delivered, she must assume a shape appropriate to her native land.
He, however, suffered his curiosity to overcome him, and peeping in,
saw her in the form of an eight-fathom crocodile. It resulted that
having been thus put to shame, she left her child and returned to the
ocean Kami's palace, declaring that there should be no longer any
free passage between the dominions of the ocean Kami and the world of
men. "Nevertheless afterwards, although angry at her husband's having
wished to peep, she could not restrain her loving heart," and she
sent her younger sister, Good Jewel, to nurse the baby and to be the
bearer of a farewell song to Hohodemi.

The Records state that the latter lived to the age of 580 years and
that his mausoleum was built to the west of Mount Takachiho, on which
his palace stood. Thus for the first time the duration of a life is
stated in the antique annals of Japan. His son, called Fuki-ayezu
(Unfinished Thatch), in memory of the strange incident attending his
birth, married Princess Good Jewel, his own aunt, and by her had four
sons. The first was named Itsuse (Five Reaches) and the youngest,
Iware (a village in Yamato province). This latter ultimately became
Emperor of Japan, and is known in history as Jimmu (Divine Valour), a
posthumous name given to him many centuries after his death.* From
the time of this sovereign dates and events are recorded with full
semblance of accuracy in the Chronicles, but the compilers of the
Records do not attempt to give more than a bald statement of the
number of years each sovereign lived or reigned.

*Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign
of Kwammu (A.D. 782-805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of
the Records and the Chronicles. But they are in universal use by the
Japanese, though to speak of a living sovereign by his posthumous
name is a manifest anomaly.

THE EXPEDITION TO YAMATO

According to the Chronicles, the four sons of Fuki-ayezu engaged in a
celebrated expedition from Tsukushi (Kyushu) to Yamato, but one
alone, the youngest, survived. According to the Records, two only
took part in the expedition, the other two having died before it set
out. The former version seems more consistent with the facts, and
with the manner of the two princes' deaths, as described in the
Records. Looking from the east coast of the island of Kyushu, the
province of Yamato lies to the northeast, at a distance of about 350
miles, and forms the centre of the Kii promontory. From what has
preceded, a reader of Japanese history is prepared to find that the
objective of the expedition was Izumo, not Yamato, since it was to
prepare for the occupation of the former province that the Sun
goddess and her coadjutors expended so much energy. No explanation
whatever of this discrepancy is offered, but it cannot be supposed
that Yamato was regarded as a halfway house to Izumo, seeing that
they lie on opposite coasts of Japan and are two hundred miles
distant.

The Chronicles assign the genesis of the enterprise to Prince Iware,
whom they throughout call Hohodemi, and into whose mouth they put an
exhortation--obviously based on a Chinese model--speaking of a land
in the east encircled by blue mountains and well situated, as the
centre of administrative authority. To reach Yamato by sea from
Kyushu two routes offer; one, the more direct, is by the Pacific
Ocean straight to the south coast of the Kii promontory; the other is
by the Inland Sea to the northwestern coast of the same promontory.
The latter was chosen, doubtless because nautical knowledge and
seagoing vessels were alike wanting.

It is not possible, however, to speak with confidence as to the
nature of the ships possessed by the Japanese in early times. The
first mention of ships occurs in the story of Susanoo's arrival in
Japan. He is said to have carried with him quantities of tree seeds
which he planted in the Eight Island Country, the cryptomeria and the
camphor being intended to serve as "floating riches," namely ships.
This would suggest, as is indeed commonly believed, that the boats of
that era were simply hollow trunks of trees.

Five centuries later, however, without any intervening reference, we
find the Emperor Sujin urging the construction of ships as of
cardinal importance for purposes of coastwise transport--advice which
is hardly consistent with the idea of log boats. Again, in A.D. 274,
the people of Izu are recorded as having built and sent to the Court
a vessel one hundred feet long; and, twenty-six years later, this
ship having become old and unserviceable, was used as fuel for
manufacturing salt, five hundred bags of which were distributed among
the provinces with directions to construct as many ships.

There is no mention in either the Chronicles or the Records of any
marked change in the matter of marine architecture during all these
years. The nature of the Kyushu expeditionary ships must therefore
remain a matter of conjecture, but that they were propelled by oars,
not sails, seems pretty certain. Setting out from some point in
Kyushu probably the present Kagoshima Bay the expedition made its way
up the east coast of the island, and reaching the Bungo Channel,
where the tide is very rapid, obtained the services of a fisherman as
pilot. Thence the fleet pushed on to Usa in the province of Buzen, at
the north of Kyushu, when two local chieftains built for the
entertainment and residence of the princes and their followers a "one
pillared palace"--probably a tent. The next place of call was Oka (or
Okada) in Chikuzen, where they passed a year before turning eastward
into the Inland Sea, and pushing on to one of the many islands off
the coast of Aki, they spent seven years before proceeding to another
island (Takashima) in Kibi, as the present three provinces of Bingo,
Bitchu, and Bizen were then called. There they delayed for eight
years the Chronicles say three--in order to repair the oars of their
vessels and to procure provisions.

Up to this time there had been no fighting or any attempt to effect a
lodgment on the mainland. But the expedition was now approaching the
narrow westerly entrance to the present Osaka Bay, where an army
might be encountered at any moment. The boats therefore sailed in
line ahead, "the prow of each ship touching the stern of the other."
Off the mouth of the river, now known as the Yodo, they encountered
such a high sea that they called the place Nami-hana (Wave
Flowers), a name subsequently abbreviated to Naniwa. Pushing
on, the expeditionary force finally landed at a place--not now
identifiable--in the province of Kawachi, which bounds Yamato on the
west.

The whole voyage had occupied four years according to the Chronicles,
sixteen according to the Records. At Kusaka they fought their first
battle against the army of Prince Nagasune and were repulsed, Prince
Itsuse being wounded by an arrow which struck his elbow. It was
therefore decided to change the direction of advance, so that instead
of moving eastward in the face of the sun, a procedure unpleasing to
the goddess of that orb, they should move westward with the sun
behind them. This involved re-embarking and sailing southward round
the Kii promontory so as to land on its eastern coast, but the
dangerous operation of putting an army on board ship in the presence
of a victorious enemy was successfully achieved by the aid of
skilfully used shields.

On the voyage round Kii, where stormy seas are frequent, the fleet
encountered a heavy gale and the boats containing two of the princes
were lost.* Prince Itsuse had already died of his wound, so of the
four brothers there now remained only the youngest, Prince Iware. It
is recorded that, at the age of fifteen, he had been made heir to the
throne, the principle of primogeniture not being then recognized, and
thus the deaths of his brothers did not affect that question. Landing
ultimately at Kumano on the southeast of Kii, the expeditionary force
was stricken by a pestilence, the prince himself not escaping. But at
the behest of the Sun goddess, the Kami of thunder caused a sword of
special virtue to come miraculously into the possession of an
inhabitant of Kii, who carried it to the prince, and at once the
sickness was stayed. When, however, the army attempted to advance
into the interior, no roads were found and precipitous mountains
barred the progress. In this dilemma the Sun goddess sent down the
three-legged crow of the Sun** to act as guide.

*In the Chronicles the two princes are represented as having
deliberately entered the stormy sea, angered that such hardships
should overtake the descendants of the ocean Kami.

**The Yang-wu, or Sun-crow (Japanese Yata-garasu), is a creature of
purely Chinese myth. It is supposed to be red in colour, to have
three legs, and to inhabit the sun.

Thus indiscriminately are the miraculous and the commonplace
intermixed. Following this bird, the invading force pushed on into
Yamato, receiving the allegiance of a body of men who fished with
cormorants in the Yoshino River and who doubtless supplied the army
with food, and the allegiance of fabulous beings with tails, who came
out of wells or through cliffs. It is related that the invaders
forced the elder of two brothers into a gyn which he had prepared for
their destruction; and that on ascending a hill to reconnoitre,
Prince Iware observed an army of women and a force of eighty
"earth-hiders (Tsuchi-gumo) with tails," by which latter epithet is
to be understood bandits or raiders who inhabited caves.

How it fared with the amazons the annals do not say, but the eighty
bandits were invited to a banquet and slaughtered in their cups.
Still the expeditionary force encountered great opposition, the roads
and passes being occupied by numerous hostile bands. An appeal was
accordingly made for divine assistance by organizing a public
festival of worship, the vessels employed--eighty platters and as
many jars--being made by the hands of the prince himself with clay
obtained from Mount Kagu in Yamato.* Several minor arrangements
followed, and finally swords were crossed with the army of Nagasune,
who had inflicted a defeat on the invaders on the occasion of their
first landing at Kusaka, when Prince Itsuse received a mortal wound.
A fierce battle ensued. Prince Iware burned to avenge his brother's
death, but repeated attacks upon Nagasune's troops proved abortive
until suddenly a golden-plumaged kite perched on the end of Prince
Iware's bow, and its effulgence dazzled the enemy so that they could
not fight stoutly.**

*The Chronicles state that the prince made ame on the platters. Ame
is confectioned from malted millet and is virtually the same as the
malt extract of the Occident.

**This tradition of the golden kite is cherished in Japan. The "Order
of the Golden Kite" is the most coveted military distinction.

From this incident the place where the battle occurred was called
Tabi-no-mura, a name now corrupted into Tomi-no-mura. It does not
appear, however, that anything like a decisive victory was gained by
the aid of this miraculous intervention. Nagasune sought a conference
with Prince Iware, and declared that the ruler of Yamato, whom he
served, was a Kami who had formerly descended from heaven. He offered
in proof of this statement an arrow and a quiver belonging to the
Kami. But Prince Iware demonstrated their correspondence with those
he himself carried. Nagasune, however, declining to abstain from
resistance, was put to death by the Kami he served, who then made act
of submission to Prince Iware.

The interest of this last incident lies in the indication it seems to
afford that a race identical with the invaders had already settled in
Yamato. Prince Iware now caused a palace to be built on the plain of
Kashiwa-bara (called Kashihara by some historians), to the southwest
of Mount Unebi, and in it assumed the imperial dignity, on the first
day of the first month of the year 660 B.C. It is scarcely necessary
to say that this date must be received with all reserve, and that the
epithet "palace" is not to be interpreted in the European sense of
the term. The Chronicles, which alone attempt to fix the early dates
with accuracy, indicate 667 B.C. as the year of the expedition's
departure from Kyushu, and assign to Prince Iware an age of
forty-five at the time. He was therefore fifty-two when crowned at
Kashiwa-bara, and as the same authority makes him live to an age of
127, it might be supposed that much would be told of the last
seventy-five years of his life.

But whereas many pages are devoted to the story of his adventures
before ascending the throne, a few paragraphs suffice for all that is
subsequently related of him. While residing in Kyushu he married and
had two sons, the elder of whom, Tagishi-mimi, accompanied him on his
eastward expedition. In Yamato he married again and had three sons,
the youngest of whom succeeded to the throne. The bestowing of titles
and rewards naturally occupied much attention, and to religious
observances scarcely less importance seems to have been attached. All
references to these latter show that the offices of priest and king
were united in the sovereign of these days. Thus it was by the
Emperor that formulae of incantation to dissipate evil influences
were dictated; that sacrifices were performed to the heavenly Kami so
as to develop filial piety; and that shrines were consecrated for
worshiping the Imperial ancestors. Jimmu was buried in a tumulus
(misasagi) on the northeast of Mount Unebi. The site is officially
recognized to this day, and on the 3rd of April every year it is
visited by an Imperial envoy, who offers products of mountain, river,
and sea.

TRACES OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE

What traces of Chinese or foreign influence are to be found in the
legends and myths set down above? It is tolerably certain that
communication existed between China and Japan from a date shortly
prior to the Christian era, and we naturally expect to find that
since China was at that time the author of Asiatic civilization, she
contributed materially to the intellectual development of her island
neighbour. Examining the cosmogonies of the two countries, we find at
the outset a striking difference. The Chinese did not conceive any
creator, ineffable, formless, living in space; whereas the Japanese
imagined a great central Kami and two producing powers, invisible and
working by occult processes.

On the other hand, there is a marked similarity of thought. For, as
on the death of Panku, the giant toiler of Chinese myth on whom
devolved the task of chiselling out the universe, his left eye was
transmitted into the orb of day and his right into the moon, so when
the Japanese Kami returned from his visit to the underworld, the sun
emerged from the washing of his left eye and the moon from the
washing of his right. Japanese writers have sought to differentiate
the two myths by pointing out that the sun is masculine in China and
feminine in Japan, but such an objection is inadequate to impair the
close resemblance.

In truth "creation from fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being
is common to Chaldeans, Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, Tinnehs,
Mangaians, and Aryan Indians," and from that fact a connexion between
ancient Japan and West Asia might be deduced by reference to the
beings formed out of the parts: of the fire Kami's body when Izanagi
put him to the sword. On the other hand, the tale of which the birth
of the sun and the moon forms a part, namely, the visit of Izanagi to
hades in search of Izanami, is an obvious reproduction of the
Babylonian myth of Ishtar's journey to the underworld in search of
Du'uzu, which formed the basis of the Grecian legend of Orpheus and
Eurydice. Moreover, Izanami's objection to return, on the ground of
having already eaten of the food of the underworld, is a feature of
many ancient myths, among which may be mentioned the Indian story of
Nachiketas, where the name Yama, the Indian god of the lower world,
bears an obvious resemblance to the Japanese yomi (hades), as does,
indeed, the whole Indian myth of Yami and Yama to that of Izanagi and
Izanami.

Is it not also more than a mere coincidence that as all the Semitic
tribes worshipped the goddess Isis, so--the Japanese worshipped, for
supreme being, the goddess of the Sun? Thus, here again there would
seem to have been some path of communication other than that via
China between Japan and the west of Asia. Further, the "river of
heaven"--the Milky Way--which so often figures in Japanese mythology,
is prominent in Chinese also, and is there associated with the
Spinning Damsel, just as in the Japanese legend it serves the Kami
for council-place after the injury done by Susanoo's violence to the
Sun goddess and her spinning maidens. It has been remarked
[Chamberlain] that the chop-stick which Susanoo found floating down
a river in Izumo, and the sake (rice-wine) which he caused to be made
for the purpose of intoxicating the eight-headed serpent, are
obviously products of Chinese civilization, but as for the rescue of
the maiden from the serpent, it is a plain replica of the legend of
Perseus and Andromeda, which, if it came through China, left no mark
in transit.

Less palpable, but still sufficiently striking, is the resemblance
between the story of Atalanta's golden apples and the casting down of
Izanagi's head-dress and comb as grapes and bamboo sprouts to arrest
the pursuit of the "hag of hades." But indeed this throwing of his
comb behind him by Izanagi and its conversion into a thicket are
common incidents of ancient folk-lore, while in the context of this
Kami's ablutions on his return from hades, it may be noted that Ovid
makes Juno undergo lustration after a visit to the lower regions and
that Dante is washed in Lethe when he passes out of purgatory. Nor is
there any great stretch of imagination needed to detect a likeness
between the feathered messenger sent from the Ark and the three
envoys--the last a bird--despatched from the "plain of high heaven"
to report upon the condition of disturbed Japan. This comparison is
partially vitiated, however, by the fact that there is no tradition
of a deluge in Japanese annals, though such phenomena are like ly to
occur occasionally in all lands and to produce a great impression on
the national imagination. "Moreover, what is specially known to us as
the deluge has been claimed as an ancient Altaic myth. Yet here we
have the oldest of the undoubtedly Altaic nations without any legend
of the kind." [Chamberlain.]

It appears, further, from the account of the Great-Name Possessor's
visit to the underworld, that one Japanese conception of hades
corresponded exactly with that of the Chinese, namely, a place where
people live and act just as they do on earth. But the religion out of
which this belief grew in China had its origin at a date long
subsequent to the supposed age of the Gods in Japan. The peaches with
which Izanagi pelted and drove back the thunder Kami sent by Izanami
to pursue him on his return from the underworld were evidently
suggested by the fabulous female, Si Wang-mu, of Chinese legend, who
possessed a peach tree, the fruit of which conferred immortality and
repelled the demons of disease. So, too, the tale of the palace of
the ocean Kami at the bottom of the sea, with its castle gate and
cassia tree overhanging a well which serves as a mirror, forms a page
of Chinese legendary lore, and, in a slightly altered form, is found
in many ancient annals.

The sea monster mentioned in this myth is written with a Chinese
ideograph signifying "crocodile," but since the Japanese cannot have
had any knowledge of crocodiles, and since the monster is usually
represented pictorially as a dragon, there can be little doubt that
we are here confronted by the Dragon King of Chinese and Korean
folk-lore which had its palace in the depths of the ocean. In fact,
the Japanese, in all ages, have spoken of this legendary edifice as
Ryu no jo (the Dragon's castle).

The eminent sinologue, Aston, has shrewdly pointed out that the term
wani (crocodile) may be a corruption of the Korean word, wang-in
(king), which the Japanese pronounced "wani." As for the "curved
jewels," which appear on so many occasions, the mineral jade, or
jadelike stone, of which many of them were made, has never been met
with in Japan and must therefore have come from the continent of
Asia. The reed boat in which the leech, first offspring of Izanagi
and Izanami, was sent adrift, "recalls the Accadian legend of Sargon
and his ark of rushes, the biblical story of Moses as an infant and
many more," though it has no known counterpart in Chinese mythology.

It is noticeable that in spite of the honour paid to the stars in the
Chinese cosmogony, the only star specially alluded to in Japanese
myth is Kagase, who is represented as the last of the rebellious Kami
on the occasion of the subjugation of Izumo by order of the Sun
goddess and the Great-Producing Kami. So far as the Records and the
Chronicles are concerned, "the only stars mentioned are Venus, the
Pleiades, and the Weaver," the last being connected with a Chinese
legend, as shown above.

Two other points remain to be noticed. One is that divination by
cracks in a deer's roasted shoulder blade, a process referred to more
than once in the Records and the Chronicles, was a practice of the
Chinese, who seem to have borrowed it from the Mongolians; the other,
that the sounding arrow (nari-kabura) was an invention of the Huns,
and came to Japan through China. It had holes in the head, and the
air passing through these produced a humming sound. As for the
Chronicles, they are permeated by Chinese influence throughout. The
adoption of the Chinese sexagenary cycle is not unnatural, but again
and again speeches made by Chinese sovereigns and sages are put into
the mouths of Japanese monarchs as original utterances, so that
without the Records for purposes of reference and comparison, even
the small measure of solid ground that can be constructed would be
cut from under the student's feet.

ENGRAVING: BUNDAI SUZURI BAKO (A WRITING SET)

ENGRAVING: 'NO' MASKS



CHAPTER IV

RATIONALIZATION

GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES

THE southwestern extremity of the main island of Japan is embraced by
two large islands, Kyushu and Shikoku, the former lying on the west
of the latter and being, in effect, the southern link of the island
chain which constitutes the empire of Japan. Sweeping northward from
Formosa and the Philippines is a strong current known as the
Kuro-shio (Black Tide), a name derived from the deep indigo colour of
the water. This tide, on reaching the vicinity of Kyushu, is
deflected to the east, and passing along the southern coast of Kyushu
and the Kii promontory, takes its way into the Pacific. Evidently
boats carried on the bosom of the Kuro-shio would be likely to make
the shore of Japan at one of three points, namely, the south, or
southeast, of Kyushu, the south of Shikoku or the Kii promontory.

Now, according to the Records, the first place "begotten" by Izanagi
and Izanami was an island called Awa, supposed to be in the vicinity
of Awaji. The latter is a long, narrow island stretching from the
northeast of Shikoku towards the shore of the main island--which it
approaches very closely at the Strait of Yura--and forming what may
be called a gate, closing the eastern entrance to the Inland Sea.
After the island of Awa, the producing couple gave birth to Awaji and
subsequently to Shikoku, which is described as an island having four
faces, namely, the provinces of Awa, Iyo, Tosa, and Sanuki.

Rejecting the obviously allegorical phantasy of "procreation," we may
reasonably suppose ourselves to be here in the presence of an
emigration from the South Seas or from southern China, which debarks
on the coast of Awaji and thence crosses to Shikoku. Thereafter, the
immigrants touch at a triplet of small islands, described as "in the
offing," and thence cross to Kyushu, known at the time as Tsukushi.
This large island is described in the Records as having, like
Shikoku, one body and four faces, and part of it was inhabited by
Kumaso, of whom much is heard in Japanese history. From Kyushu the
invaders pass to the islands of Iki and Tsushima, which lie between
Kyushu and Korea, and thereafter they sail northward along the coast
of the main island of Japan until they reach the island of Sado.

All this--and the order of advance follows exactly the procreation
sequence given in the Records--lends itself easily to the supposition
of a party of immigrants coming originally from the south, voyaging
in a tentative manner round the country described by them, and
establishing themselves primarily on its outlying islands.

The next step, according to the Records, was to Yamato. About this
name, Yamato, there has been some dispute. Alike in ancient and in
modern times the term has been applied, on the one hand, to the whole
of the main island, and, on the other, to the single province of
Yamato. The best authorities, however, interpret it in the latter
sense for the purposes of the Izanagi-and-Izanami legend, and that
interpretation is plainly consistent with the probabilities, for the
immigrants would naturally have proceeded from Awaji to the Kii
promontory, where the province of Yamato lies. Thereafter--on their
"return," say the Records, and the expression is apposite--they
explored several small islands not identifiable by their names but
said to have been in Kibi, which was the term then applied to the
provinces of Bingo, Bitchu, and Bizen, lying along the south coast of
the Inland Sea and thus facing the sun, so that the descriptive
epithet "sun-direction" applied to the region was manifestly
appropriate.

In brief, the whole narrative concerts well with the idea of a band
of emigrants carried on the breast of the "Black Tide," who first
make the circuit of the outlying fringe of islands, then enter the
mainland at Yamato, and finally sail down the Inland Sea, using the
small islands off its northern shore as points d'appui for
expeditions inland.

JAPANESE OPINION

Japanese euhemerists, several of whom, in former times as well as in
the present, have devoted much learned research to the elucidation of
their country's mythology, insist that tradition never intended to
make such a demand upon human credulity as to ask it to believe in
the begetting of islands by normal process of procreation. They
maintain that such descriptions must be read as allegories. It then
becomes easy to interpret the doings of Izanagi and Izanami as simple
acts of warlike aggression, and to suppose that they each commanded
forces which were to have co-operated, but which, by failing at the
outset to synchronize their movements, were temporarily unsuccessful.
It will seem, as we follow the course of later history, that the
leading of armies by females was common enough to be called a feature
of early Japan, and thus the role assigned to Izanami need not cause
any astonishment. At their first miscarriage the two Kami, by better
organization, overran the island of Awaji and then pushed on to
Shikoku, which they brought completely under their sway.

But what meaning is to be assigned to the "plain of high heaven"
(Takama-ga-hara)? Where was the place thus designated? By a majority
of Japanese interpreters Takama-ga-hara is identified as the region
of Taka-ichi in Yamato province. The word did not refer to anything
supernatural but was used simply in an honorific sense. In later ages
Court officials were called "lords of the moon" (gekhei) or
"cloud-guests" (unkaku), while officials not permitted to attend the
Court were known as "groundlings" (jige); the residence of the
Emperor was designated "purple-clouds hall" (shishin-deri); to go
from the Imperial capital to any other part of the country was to
"descend," the converse proceeding being called to "ascend," and the
palace received the names of "blue sky" and "above the clouds."

To-day in Yamato province there is a hill called Takama-yama and a
plain named Takama-no. The Records say that when the Sun goddess
retired to a rock cave, a multitude of Kami met at Taka-ichi to
concert measures for enticing her out, and this Taka-ichi is
considered to be undoubtedly the place of the same name in Yamato.
But some learned men hold that Takama-ga-hara was in a foreign
country, and that the men who emigrated thence to Japan belonged to a
race very superior to that then inhabiting the islands. When,
however, the leader of the invaders had established his Court in
Yamato the designation Takama-ga-hara came to be applied to the
latter place.

Whichever theory be correct--and the latter certainly commends itself
as the more probable--it will be observed that both agree in
assigning to Takama-ga-hara a terrestrial location; both agree in
assigning the sense of "unsettled and turbulent" to the "floating,
drifting" condition predicated of the country when the Kami first
interested themselves in it, and both agree in interpreting as an
insignium of military authority the "jewelled spear" given to Izanagi
and Izanami--an interpretation borne out by the fact that, in
subsequent eras of Japanese history, it was customary for a ruler
to delegate authority in this manner. Applying the same process
of reasoning to the socalled "birth" of Kami, that process
resolves itself very simply into the creation of chieftains and
administrators.

RATIONALIZATION OF THE LEGEND OF THE VISIT TO HADES

It would seem that from Yamato the invaders prosecuted their campaign
into the interior, reaching Izumo on the west coast. The Records
say that after Izanami's death in giving birth to the Kami of fire,
she was buried at Mount Kagu on the confines of Izumo and Hoki.
Now the land of Yomi generally interpreted "underworld"--which
Izanagi visited in search of Izanami, was really identical with
Yomi-shima, located between the provinces of Hoki and Izumo, and
Ne-no-Kuni*--commonly taken to mean the "netherland"--subsequently
the place of Susanoo's banishment, was in fact a designation of
Izumo, or had the more extensive application of the modern Sanin-do
and Sanyo-do (districts in the shadow of the hill and districts on
the sunny side of the hill), that is to say, the western provinces
and the south coast of the Inland Sea.

*In the language of ancient Japan ne meant "mountain," and Ne-no-Kuni
signified simply "Land of Mountains."

What the allegory of the visit to hades would seem to signify,
therefore, was that Izanami was defeated in a struggle with the local
chieftains of Izumo or with a rebellious faction in that province;
was compelled to make act of submission before Izanagi arrived to
assist her--allegorically speaking she had eaten of the food of
hades--and therefore the conference between her and Izanagi proved
abortive. The hag who pursued Izanagi on his retreat from Yomi
represents a band of amazons--a common feature in old Japan--and his
assailant, the Kami of thunder, was a rebel leader.

As for the idea of blocking the "even pass of hades" with rocks, it
appears to mean nothing more than that a military force was posted at
Hirasaka--now called Ifuyo-saka in Izumo--to hold the defile against
the insurgent troops under Izanami, who finally took the field
against Izanagi. It may be inferred that the struggle ended
indecisively, although Izanagi killed the chieftain who had
instigated the rebellion (the so-called "Kami of fire"), and that
Izanami remained in Izumo, becoming ruler of that province, while
Izanagi withdrew to the eastern part of Tsukushi (Kyushu), where he
performed the ceremony of grand lustration.

THE STORY OF SUSANOO

The story of Susanoo lends itself with equal facility to
rationalization. His desire to go to his "mother's land" instead of
obeying his father and ruling the "sea-plain" (unabara)--an
appellation believed by some learned commentators to apply to
Korea--may easily be interpreted to mean that he threw in his lot
with the rebellious chiefs in Izumo. Leading a force into Yamato, he
laid waste the land so that the "green mountains were changed into
withered mountains," and the commotion throughout the country was
like the noise of "flies swarming in the fifth month." Finally he was
driven out of Yamato, and retiring to Izumo, found that the local
prefect was unable to resist the raids of a tribe from the
north under the command of a chief whose name--Yachimata no
Orochi--signified "eight-headed serpent."

This tribe had invaded the province and taken possession of the hills
and valleys in the upper reaches of the river Hi, whence tradition
came to speak of the tribe as a monster spreading over hills and
dales and having pine forests growing on its back. The tribute of
females, demanded yearly by the tribe, indicates an exaction not
uncommon in those days, and the sword said to have been found by
Susanoo in the serpent's tail was the weapon worn by the last and the
stoutest of Orochi's followers.

There is another theory equally accordant with the annals and in some
respects more satisfying. It is that Susanoo and his son, Iso-takeru,
when they were expelled from Yamato, dwelt in the land of
Shiragi--the eastern of the three kingdoms into which Korea was
formerly divided--and that they subsequently built boats and rowed
over to Izumo. This is distinctly stated in one version of the
Chronicles, and another variant says that when Iso-takeru descended
from Takama-ga-hara, he carried with him the seeds of trees in great
quantities but did not plant them in "the land of Han" (Korea).
Further, it is elsewhere stated that the sword found by Susanoo in
the serpent's tail was called by him Orochi no Kara-suki (Orochi's
Korean blade), an allusion which goes to strengthen the reading of
the legend.

THE DESCENT OF NINIGI

Omitting other comparatively trivial legends connected with the age
of Susanoo and his descendants, we come to what may be called the
second great event in the early annals of Japan, namely, the descent
of Ninigi on the southern coast of Tsukushi (Kyushu). The Records and
the Chronicles explicitly state that this expedition was planned in
the court at Takama-ga-hara (the "plain of high heaven"), and that,
after sending forces to subdue the disturbed country and to obtain
the submission of its ruler, the grandson (Ninigi) of the Sun goddess
was commissioned to take possession of the land. It is also clearly
shown that Izumo was the centre of disturbance and that virtually all
the preliminary fighting took place there. Yet when Ninigi descends
from Takama-ga-hara--a descent which is described in one account as
having taken place in a closed boat, and in another, as having been
effected by means of the coverlet of a couch--he is said to have
landed, not in Izumo or in Yamato, but at a place in the far south,
where he makes no recorded attempt to fulfil the purpose of his
mission, nor does that purpose receive any practical recognition
until the time of his grandson Iware. The latter pushes northward,
encountering the greatest resistance in the very province (Yamato)
where his grandfather's expedition was planned and where the Imperial
Court was held.

It is plain that these conditions cannot be reconciled except on one
of two suppositions: either that the Takama-ga-hara of this section
of the annals was in a foreign country, or that the descent of Ninigi
in the south of Japan was in the sequel of a complete defeat
involving the Court's flight from Yamato as well as from Izumo.

Let us first consider the theory of a foreign country. Was it Korea
or was it China? In favour of Korea there are only two arguments, one
vague and the other improbable. The former is that one of Ninigi's
alleged reasons for choosing Tsukushi as a landing-place was that it
faced Korea. The latter, that Tsukushi was selected because it
offered a convenient base for defending Japan against Korea. It will
be observed that the two hypotheses are mutually conflicting, and
that neither accounts for debarkation at a part of Tsukushi
conspicuously remote from Korea. It is not wholly impossible,
however, that Ninigi came from China, and that the Court which is
said to have commissioned him was a Chinese Court.

In the history of China a belief is recorded that the Japanese
sovereigns are descended from a Chinese prince, Tai Peh, whose father
wished to disinherit him in favour of a younger son. Tai Peh fled to
Wu in the present Chekiang, and thence passed to Japan about 800 B.C.
Another record alleges that the first sovereign of Japan was a son of
Shao-kang of the Hsia dynasty (about 850 B.C.), who tattooed his body
and cut off his hair for purposes of disguise and lived on the bank
of the Yangtsze, occupying himself with fishing until at length he
fled to Japan.

That Ninigi may have been identical with one of these persons is not
inconceivable, but such a hypothesis refuses to be reconciled with
the story of the fighting in Izumo which preceded the descent to
Tsukushi. The much more credible supposition is that the Yamato
Court, confronted by a formidable rebellion having its centre in
Izumo, retired to Tsukushi, and there, in the course of years,
mustered all its followers for an expedition ultimately led by the
grandson of the fugitive monarch to restore the sway of his house.
This interpretation of the legend consists with the fact that when
Jimmu reached Yamato, the original identity of his own race with that
of the then ruler of the province was proved by a comparison of
weapons.

THE CASTLE OF THE OCEAN KAMI

With regard to the legend of the ocean Kami, the rationalists
conceive that the tribe inhabiting Tsukushi at the time of Ninigi's
arrival there had originally immigrated from the south and had
gradually spread inland. Those inhabiting the littoral districts were
ultimately placed by Ninigi under the rule of Prince Hohodemi, and
those inhabiting the mountain regions under the sway of Prince
Hosuseri. The boats and hooks of the legend are symbolical of
military and naval power respectively. The brothers having quarrelled
about the limits of their jurisdictions, Hohodemi was worsted, and by
the advice of a local elder he went to Korea to seek assistance.
There he married the daughter of the Ocean King--so called because
Korea lay beyond the sea from Japan--and, after some years'
residence, was given a force of war-vessels (described in the legend
as "crocodiles") together with minute instructions (the tide-ebbing
and the tide-flowing jewels) as to their skilful management. These
ships ultimately enabled him to gain a complete victory over his
elder brother.

WHAT THE JAPANESE BELIEVE

These rationalizing processes will commend themselves in different
degrees to different minds. One learned author has compared such
analyses to estimating the historical residuum of the Cinderella
legend by subtracting the pumpkin coach and the godmother. But we are
constrained to acknowledge some background of truth in the annals of
old Japan, and anything that tends to disclose that background is
welcome. It has to be noted, however, that though many learned
Japanese commentators have sought to rationalize the events described
in the Records and the Chronicles, the great bulk of the nation
believes in the literal accuracy of these works as profoundly as the
great bulk of Anglo-Saxon people believes in the Bible, its
cosmogony, and its miracles.

The gist of the Japanese creed, as based on their ancient annals, may
be briefly summarized. They hold that when the Sun goddess handed the
three sacred objects to Ninigi--generally called Tenson, or "heavenly
grandchild"--she ordained that the Imperial Throne should be coeval
with heaven and earth. They hold that the instructions given with
regard to these sacred objects comprised the whole code of
administrative ethics. The mirror neither hides nor perverts; it
reflects evil qualities as faithfully as good; it is the emblem of
honesty and purity. The jewel illustrates the graces of gentleness,
softness, amiability, and obedience, and is therefore emblematic of
benevolence and virtue.* The sword indicates the virtues of strength,
sharpness, and practical decision, and is thus associated with
intelligence and knowledge. So long as all these qualities are
exercised in the discharge of administrative functions, there can be
no misrule.

*It must be remembered that the jewel referred to was a piece of
green or white jade.

They further hold that when the Sun goddess detailed five Kami to
form the suite of Ninigi, these Kami were entrusted with the
ministerial duties originally discharged by them, and becoming the
heads of five administrative departments, transmitted their offices
to generation after generation of their descendants. Thus Koyane was
the ancestor of the Nakatomi family who discharged the priestly
duties of worship at the Court and recited the Purification Rituals;
Futodama became the ancestor of the Imibe (or Imbe), a hereditary
corporation whose members performed all offices connected with
mourning and funerals; Usume became ancestress of the Sarume, whose
duties were to perform dances in honour of the deities and to act as
mediums of divine inspiration; Oshihi was the ancestor of the Otomo
chief who led the Imperial troops, and Kume became the ancestor of
the Kumebe, a hereditary corporation of palace guards. Further, they
hold that whereas Ninigi and his five adjunct Kami all traced their
lineage to the two producing Kami of the primal trinity, the special
title of sovereignty conferred originally on the Sun goddess was
transmitted by her to the Tenson (heavenly grandchild), Ninigi, the
distinction of ruler and ruled being thus clearly defined. Finally
they hold that Ninigi and these five adjunct Kami, though occupying
different places in the national polity, had a common ancestor whom
they jointly worshipped, thus forming an eternal union.

ENGRAVING: ANCIENT CIVIL AND MILITARY HEAD-GEAR



CHAPTER V

ORIGIN OF THE JAPANESE NATION: HISTORICAL EVIDENCES

IN considering the question of the origin of the Japanese nation four
guides are available; namely, written annals, archaeological relics,
physical features, and linguistic affinities.

WRITTEN ANNALS

The annals, that is to say, the Records and the Chronicles, speak of
six peoples; namely, first, Izanagi and his fellow Kami, who, as
shown above, may reasonably be identified with the original
immigrants represented in the story of the so-called "birth" of the
islands; secondly, Jimmu and his followers, who re-conquered the
islands; thirdly, the Yemishi, who are identical with the modern
Ainu; fourthly, the Kumaso; fifthly, the Sushen; and sixthly the
Tsuchi-gumo (earth-spiders). By naming these six separately it is not
intended to imply that they are necessarily different races: that
remains to be decided. It will be convenient to begin with the
Sushen.

THE SUSHEN

The Sushen were Tungusic ancestors of the Manchu. They are first
mentioned in Japanese annals in A.D. 549, when a number of them
arrived by boat on the north of Sado Island and settled there, living
on fish caught during spring and summer and salted or dried for
winter use. The people of Sado regarded them as demons and carefully
avoided them, a reception which implies total absence of previous
intercourse. Finally they withdrew, and nothing more is heard of
their race for over a hundred years, when, in A.D. 658, Hirafu, omi
of Abe and warden of Koshi (the northwestern provinces, Etchu,
Echizen, and Echigo), went on an expedition against them.

Nothing is recorded as to the origin or incidents of this campaign.
One account says that Hirafu, on his return, presented two white
bears to the Empress; that he fought with the Sushen and carried back
forty-nine captives. It may be assumed, however, that the enterprise
proved abortive, for, two years later (660), he was again sent
against the Sushen with two hundred ships. En route for his
destination he took on board his own vessel some of the inhabitants
of Yezo (Yemishi) to act as guides, and the flotilla arrived
presently in the vicinity of a long river, unnamed in the annals but
supposed to have been the Ishikari, which debouches on the west coast
of Yezo. There a body of over a thousand Yemishi in a camp facing the
river sent messengers to report that the Sushen fleet had arrived in
great force and that they were in imminent danger. The Sushen had
over twenty vessels and were lying in a concealed port whence Hirafu
in vain sent messengers to summon them.

What ensued in thus told in the Chronicles: "Hirafu heaped up on the
beach coloured silk stuffs, weapons, iron, etc.," to excite the
cupidity of the Sushen, who thereupon drew up their fleet in order,
approached "with equal oars, flying flags made of feathers tied to
poles, and halted in a shallow place. Then from one of their ships
they sent forth two old men who went round the coloured silk stuffs
and other articles which had been piled up, examined them closely,
whereafter they changed the single garments they had on, and each
taking up a piece of cloth went on board their ship and departed."
Meanwhile the Japanese had not made any attempt to molest them.
Presently the two old men returned, took off the exchanged garments
and, laying them down together with the cloth they had taken away,
re-embarked and departed.

Up to this Hirafu seems to have aimed at commercial intercourse. But
his overtures having been rejected, he sent to summon the Sushen.
They refused to come, and their prayer for peace having been
unsuccessful, they retired to "their own palisades." There the
Japanese attacked them, and the Sushen, seeing that defeat was
inevitable, put to death their own wives and children. How they
themselves fared is not recorded, nor do the Chronicles indicate
where "their own palisades" were situated, but in Japan it has always
been believed that the desperate engagement was fought in the Amur
River, and its issue may be inferred from the fact that although the
Japanese lost one general officer, Hirafu was able on his return to
present to the Empress more than fifty "barbarians," presumably
Sushen. Nevertheless, it is recorded that in the same year (A.D.
660), forty-seven men of Sushen were entertained at Court, and the
inference is either that these were among the above "savages"--in
which case Japan's treatment of her captured foes in ancient times
would merit applause--or that the Sushen had previously established
relations with Japan, and that Hirafu's campaign was merely to repel
trespass.

During the next sixteen years nothing more is heard of the Sushen,
but, in A.D. 676, seven of them arrived in the train of an envoy from
Sinra, the eastern of the three kingdoms into which Korea was then
divided. This incident evokes no remark whatever from the compilers
of the Chronicles, and they treat with equal indifference the
statement that during the reign of the Empress Jito, in the year A.D.
696, presents of coats and trousers made of brocade, together with
dark-red and deep-purple coarse silks, oxen, and other things were
given to two men of Sushen. Nothing in this brief record suggests
that any considerable intercourse existed in ancient times between
the Japanese and the Tungusic Manchu, or that the latter settled in
Japan in any appreciable numbers.

THE YEMISHI

The Yemishi are identified with the modern Ainu. It appears that the
continental immigrants into Japan applied to the semi-savage races
encountered by them the epithet "Yebisu" or "Yemishi," terms which
may have been interchangeable onomatopes for "barbarian." The
Yemishi are a moribund race. Only a remnant, numbering a few
thousands, survives, now in the northern island of Yezo. Nevertheless
it has been proved by Chamberlain's investigations into the origin of
place-names, that in early times the Yemishi extended from the north
down the eastern section of Japan as far as the region where the
present capital (Tokyo) stands, and on the west to the province now
called Echizen; and that, when the Nihongi was written, they still
occupied a large part of the main island.

We find the first mention of them in a poem attributed to the Emperor
Jimmu. Conducting his campaign for the re-conquest of Japan, Jimmu,
uncertain of the disposition of a band of inhabitants, ordered his
general, Michi, to construct a spacious hut (muro) and invite the
eighty doubtful characters to a banquet. An equal number of Jimmu's
soldiers acted as hosts, and, at a given signal, when the guests were
all drunk, they were slaughtered. Jimmu composed a couplet expressing
his troops' delight at having disposed of a formidable foe so easily,
and in this verselet he spoke of one Yemishi being reputed to be a
match for a hundred men.

Whether this couplet really belongs to its context, however, is
questionable; the eighty warriors killed in the muro may not have
been Yemishi at all. But the verse does certainly tend to show that
the Yemishi had a high fighting reputation in ancient times, though
it will presently be seen that such fame scarcely consists with the
facts revealed by history. It is true that when next we hear of the
Yemishi more than seven and a half centuries have passed, and during
that long interval they may have been engaged in a fierce struggle
for the right of existence. There is no evidence, however, that such
was the case.

On the contrary, it would seem that the Japanese invaders encountered
no great resistance from the Yemishi in the south, and were for a
long time content to leave them unmolested in the northern and
eastern regions. In A.D. 95, however, Takenouchi-no-Sukune was
commissioned by the Emperor Keiko to explore those regions. He
devoted two years to the task, and, on his return in 97, he submitted
to his sovereign this request: "In the eastern wilds there is a
country called Hi-taka-mi (Sun-height). The people of this country,
both men and women, tie up their hair in the form of a mallet and
tattoo their bodies. They are of fierce temper and their general name
is Yemishi. Moreover, the land is wide and fertile. We should attack
it and take it." [Aston's translation.] It is observable that the
principal motive of this advice is aggressive. The Yemishi had not
molested the Japanese or shown any turbulence. They ought to be
attacked because their conquest would be profitable: that was
sufficient.

Takenouchi's counsels could not be immediately followed. Other
business of a cognate nature in the south occupied the Court's
attention, and thirteen years elapsed before (A.D. 110) the
celebrated hero, Prince Yamato-dake, led an expedition against the
Yemishi of the east. In commanding him to undertake this task, the
Emperor, according to the Chronicles, made a speech which, owing to
its Chinese tone, has been called apocryphal, though some, at any
rate, of the statements it embodies are attested by modern
observation of Ainu manners and customs. He spoke of the Yemishi as
being the most powerful among the "eastern savages;" said that their
"men and women lived together promiscuously," that there was "no
distinction of father and child;" that in winter "they dwelt in holes
and in summer they lived in huts;" that their clothing consisted of
furs and that they drank blood; that when they received a favour they
forgot it, but if an injury was done them they never failed to avenge
it, and that they kept arrows in their top-knots and carried swords
within their clothing. How correct these attributes may have been at
the time they were uttered, there are no means of judging, but the
customs of the modern Ainu go far to attest the accuracy of the
Emperor Keiko's remarks about their ancestors.

Yamato-dake prefaced his campaign by worshipping at the shrine of
Ise, where he received the sword "Herb-queller," which Susanoo had
taken from the last chieftain of the Izumo tribesmen. Thence he
sailed along the coast to Suruga, where he landed, and was nearly
destroyed by the burning of a moor into which he had been persuaded
to penetrate in search of game. Escaping with difficulty, and having
taken a terrible vengeance upon the "brigands" who had sought to
compass his destruction, he pushed on into Sagami, crossed the bay to
Kazusa and, sailing north, reached the southern shore of Shimosa,
which was the frontier of the Yemishi. The vessels of the latter
assembled with the intention of offering resistance, but at the
aspect of the Japanese fleet and the incomparably superior arms and
arrows of the men it carried, they submitted unconditionally and
became personal attendants on Yamato-dake.

Three things are noticeable in this narrative. The first is that the
"brigands of Suruga" were not Yemishi; the second, that the Yemishi
offered no resistance, and the third, that the Yemishi chiefs are
called in the Chronicles "Kami of the islands" and "Kami of the
country"--titles which indicate that they were held in some respect
by the Japanese. It is not explicitly recorded that Yamato-dake had
any further encounter with the Yemishi, but figurative references
show that he had much fighting. The Chronicles quote him as saying,
after his return to Kii from an extended march through the
northeastern provinces and after penetrating as far as Hi-taka-mi
(modern Hitachi), the headquarters of the Yemishi, that the only
Yemishi who remained unsubmissive were those of Shinano and Koshi
(Echigo, Etchu, and Echizen). But although Yamato-dake subsequently
entered Shinano, where he suffered much from the arduous nature of
the ground, and though he sent a general to explore Koshi, he
ultimately retired to Owari, where he died from the effects of
fatigue and exposure according to some authorities, of a wound from a
poisoned arrow according to others. His last act was to present as
slaves to the shrine of Ise the Yemishi who had originally
surrendered and who had subsequently attached themselves to his
person. They proved so noisy, however, that the priestess of the
shrine sent them to the Yamato Court, which assigned for them a
settlement on Mount Mimoro. Here, too, their conduct was so turbulent
that they received orders to divide and take up their abode at any
place throughout the five provinces of Harima, Sanuki, Iyo, Aki, and
Awa, where, in after ages, they constituted a hereditary corporation
of Saeki (Saekibe).

These details deserve to be recorded, for their sequel shows
historically that there is an Yemishi element in the Japanese race.
Thus, in later times we find the high rank of muraji borne by a
member of the Saekibe. Fifteen years (A.D. 125) after the death of
Yamato-dake, Prince Sajima was appointed governor-general of the
fifteen provinces of Tosan-do (the Eastern Mountain circuit); that is
to say, the provinces along the east coast. He died en route and his
son, Prince Mimoro, succeeded to the office. During his tenure of
power the Yemishi raised a disturbance, but no sooner was force
employed against them than they made obeisance and threw themselves
on the mercy of the Japanese, who pardoned all that submitted.

This orderly condition remained uninterrupted until A.D. 367, when
the Yemishi in Kazusa made one of the very few successful revolts on
record. They killed Tamichi, a Japanese general sent against them,
and they drove back his forces, who do not appear to have taken very
effective measures of retaliation. In 482 we find the Yemishi
rendering homage to the Emperor Kenso, a ceremony which was repeated
on the accession of the Emperor Kimmei (540).

But, though meek in the presence of peril, the Yemishi appear to have
been of a brawling temperament. Thus, in 561, several thousands of
them showed hostility on the frontier, yet no sooner were their
chiefs threatened with death than they submitted. At that time all
the provinces in the northeast and northwest--then included in Mutsu
and Dewa--were in Yemishi possession. They rebelled again in 637, and
at first gained a signal success, driving the Japanese general,
Katana, into a fortress where he was deserted by his troops. His wife
saved the situation. She upbraided her husband as he was scaling the
palisades to escape by night, fortified him with wine, girded his
sword on herself, and caused her female attendants--of whom there
were "several tens"--to twang bowstrings. Katana, taking heart of
grace, advanced single handed; the Yemishi, thinking that his troops
had rallied, gave way, and the Japanese soldiers, returning to their
duty, killed or captured all the insurgents.

No other instance of equally determined resistance is recorded on the
part of the Yemishi. In 642, several thousands made submission in
Koshi. Four years later (646), we find Yemishi doing homage to the
Emperor Kotoku. Yet in 645 it was deemed necessary to establish a
barrier settlement against them in Echigo; and whereas, in 655, when
the Empress Saimei ascended the throne, her Court at Naniwa
entertained ninety-nine of the northern Yemishi and forty-five of the
eastern, conferring cups of honour on fifteen, while at the same time
another numerous body came to render homage and offer gifts, barely
three years had elapsed when, in 655, a Japanese squadron of 180
vessels, under the command of Hirafu, omi of Abe, was engaged
attacking the Yemishi at Akita on the northwest coast of the main
island.

All this shows plainly that many districts were still peopled by
Yemishi and that their docility varied in different localities. In
the Akita campaign the usual surrender was rehearsed. The Yemishi
declared that their bows and arrows were for hunting, not for
fighting, and the affair ended in a great feast given by Hirafu, the
sequel being that two hundred Yemishi proceeded to Court, carrying
presents, and were appointed to various offices in the localities
represented, receiving also gifts of arms, armour, drums, and flags.*

*It is related that these flags had tops shaped like cuttlefish.

An interesting episode is recorded of this visit. One of the Yemishi,
having been appointed to a high post, was instructed to investigate
the Yemishi population and the captive population. Who were these
captives? They seem to have been Sushen, for at the feast given by
Hirafu his Yemishi guests came accompanied by thirty-five captives,
and it is incredible that Japanese prisoners would have been thus
humiliated in the sight of their armed countrymen. There will be
occasion to recur to this point presently. Here we have to note that
in spite of frequent contact, friendly or hostile, and in spite of so
many years of intercourse, the Yemishi seem to have been still
regarded by the Japanese as objects of curiosity. For, in the year
654, envoys from Yamato to the Tang Emperor of China took with them a
Yemishi man and woman to show to his Majesty.

The Chinese sovereign was much struck by the unwonted appearance of
these people. He asked several questions, which are recorded verbatim
in the Chronicles; and the envoys informed him that there were three
tribes of Yemishi; namely, the Tsugaru* Yemishi, who were the most
distant; next, the Ara Yemishi (rough or only partially subdued), and
lastly, the Nigi Yemishi (quiet or docile); that they sustained life
by eating, not cereals, but flesh, and that they dispensed with
houses, preferring to live under trees and in the recesses of
mountains. The Chinese Emperor finally remarked, "When we look at the
unusual bodily appearance of these Yemishi, it is strange in the
extreme."

*The Story of Korea, by Longford.

Evidently whatever the original provenance of the Yemishi, they had
never been among the numerous peoples who observed the custom of
paying visits of ceremony to the Chinese capital. They were
apparently not included in the family of Far Eastern nations. From
the second half of the seventh century they are constantly found
carrying tribute to the Japanese Court and receiving presents or
being entertained in return. But these evidences of docility and
friendship were not indicative of the universal mood. The Yemishi
located in the northeastern section of the main island continued to
give trouble up to the beginning of the ninth century, and throughout
this region as well as along the west coast from the thirty-eighth
parallel of latitude northward the Japanese were obliged to build six
castles and ten barrier posts between A.D. 647 and 800.

These facts, however, have no concern with the immediate purpose of
this historical reference further than to show that from the earliest
times the Yamato immigrants found no opponents in the northern half
of the island except the Yemishi and the Sushen. One more episode,
however, is germane. In the time (682) of the Emperor Temmu, the
Yemishi of Koshi, who had by that time become quite docile, asked for
and received seven thousand families of captives to found a district.
A Japanese writing alleges that these captives were subjects of the
Crown who had been seized and enslaved by the savages. But that is
inconsistent with all probabilities. The Yamato might sentence these
people to serfdom among men of their own race, but they never would
have condemned Japanese to such a position among the Yemishi.
Evidently these "captives" were prisoners taken by the Yamato from
the Koreans, the Sushen, or some other hostile nation.

THE KUMASO

There has been some dispute about the appellation "Kumaso." One high
authority thinks that Kuma and So were the names of two tribes
inhabiting the extreme south of Japan; that is to say, the provinces
now called Hyuga, Osumi, and Satsuma. Others regard the term as
denoting one tribe only. The question is not very material. Among all
the theories formed about the Kumaso, the most plausible is that they
belonged to the Sow race of Borneo and that they found their way to
Japan on the breast of the "Black Tide." Many similarities of custom
have been traced between the two peoples. Both resorted freely to
ornamental tattooing; both used shields decorated with hair; both
were skilled in making articles of bamboo, especially hats; both were
fond of dancing with accompaniment of singing and hand-clapping; and
both dressed their hair alike. Japanese annals use the word "Kumaso"
for the first time in connexion with the annexation of Tsukushi
(Kyushu) by the Izanagi expedition, when one of the four faces of the
island is called the "land of Kumaso." Plainly if this nomenclature
may be taken as evidence, the Kumaso must have arrived in Japan at a
date prior to the advent of the immigrants represented by Izanagi and
Izanami; and it would further follow that they did not penetrate far
into the interior, but remained in the vicinity of the place of
landing, which may be supposed to have been some point on the
southern coast of Kyushu. Nor does there appear to have been any
collision between the two tides of immigrants, for the first
appearance of the Kumaso in a truculent role was in A.D. 81 when they
are said to have rebelled.

The incident, though remote from the capital, was sufficiently
formidable to induce the Emperor Keiko to lead a force against them
in person from Yamato. En route he had to deal with "brigands"
infesting Suwo and Buzen, provinces separated by the Inland Sea and
situated respectively on the south of the main island and the north
of Kyushu. These provinces were ruled by chieftainesses, who declared
themselves loyal to the Imperial cause, and gave information about
the haunts and habits of the "brigands," who in Suwo had no special
appellation but in Buzen were known as Tsuchi-gumo, a name to be
spoken of presently. They were disposed of partly by stratagem and
partly by open warfare. But when the Yamato troops arrived in Hyuga
within striking distance of the Kumaso, the Emperor hesitated. He
deemed it wise not to touch the spear-points of these puissant foes.
Ultimately he overcame them by enticing the two daughters of the
principal leaders and making a show of affection for one of them. She
conducted Japanese soldiers to her father's residence, and having
plied him with strong drink, cut his bow-string while he slept so
that the soldiers could kill him with impunity. It is recorded that
Keiko put the girl to death for her unfilial conduct, but the
assassination of her father helped the Japanese materially in their
campaign against the Kumaso, whom they succeeded in subduing and in
whose land the Emperor remained six years.

The Kumaso were not quelled, however. Scarcely eight years had
elapsed from the time of Keiko's return to Yamato when they rebelled
again, "making ceaseless raids upon the frontier districts;" and he
sent against them his son, Yamato-dake; with a band of skilled
archers. This youth, one of the most heroic figures in ancient
Japanese history, was only sixteen. He disguised himself as a girl
and thus gained access to a banquet given by the principal Kumaso
leader to celebrate the opening of a new residence. Attracted by the
beauty of the supposed girl, the Kumaso chieftain placed her beside
him, and when he had drunk heavily, Yamato-dake stabbed him to the
heart,* subsequently serving all his band in the same way. After
this, the Kumaso remained quiet for nearly a century, but in the year
193,** during the reign of the Emperor Chuai, they once more
rebelled, and the Emperor organized an expedition against them. He
failed in the struggle and was killed by the Kumaso's arrows.
Thenceforth history is silent about them.

*The Chronicles relate that when the Kumaso was struck down he asked
for a moment's respite to learn the name of his slayer, whose prowess
astounded him. On receiving an answer he sought the prince's
permission to give him a title, and declared that instead of being
called Yamato Oguna, the name hitherto borne by him, he should be
termed Yamato-dake (Champion of Japan) because he had conquered the
hitherto unconquerable. The prince accepted the name, and then gave
the Kumaso his coup de grace.

**It should be understood that these dates, being prehistoric, are
not wholly reliable.

Who, then, were they? It is related in the Chronicles that, after
breaking the power of the Kumaso, the Emperor Keiko made a tour of
inspection in Tsukushi (Kyushu), and arriving at the district of
Kuma, summoned two brothers, princes of Kuma, to pay homage. One
obeyed, but the other refused, and soldiers were therefore sent to
put him to death. Now Kuma was the name of the three kingdoms into
which the Korean peninsula was divided in ancient times, and it has
been suggested [Aston] that the land of Kuma in Korea was the parent
country of Kuma in Japan, Kom in the Korean language having the same
meaning (bear) as Kuma in the Japanese. This, of course, involves the
conclusion that the Kumaso were originally Korean emigrants; a theory
somewhat difficult to reconcile with their location in the extreme
south of Kyushu.

The apparent silence of the annals about the subsequent career of the
tribe is accounted for by supposing that the Kumaso were identical
with the Hayato (falcon men), who make their first appearance upon
the scene in prehistoric days as followers of Hosuseri in his contest
with his younger brother, Hohodemi, the hero of the legend about the
palace of the sea god. Hohodemi according to the rationalized version
of the legend having obtained assistance in the shape of ships and
mariners from an oversea monarch (supposed to have reigned in Korea),
returned to Tsukushi to fight his brother, and being victorious,
spared Hosuseri's life on condition that the descendants of the
vanquished through eighty generations should serve the victor's
descendants as mimes.

"On that account," says the Chronicles, "the various Hayato,
descended from Hosuseri to the present time, do not leave the
vicinity of the Imperial palace enclosure and render service instead
of watch-dogs." The first mention of the name Hayato after the
prehistoric battle in Kyushu, occurs in the year 399, when Sashihire,
one of the tribe, was induced to assassinate his master, an Imperial
prince. This incident goes to show that individual members of the
tribe were then employed at Court; an inference confirmed fifty-one
years later, when, on the death of Emperor Yuryaku, "the Hayato
lamented night and day beside the misasagi (tomb) and refused the
food offered to them, until at the end of seven days they died."

It can scarcely be doubted that we have here a reversion to the old
custom which compelled slaves to follow their lords to the grave. The
Hayato serving in the Court at that epoch held the status generally
assigned in ancient days to vanquished people, the status of serfs or
slaves. Six times during the next 214 years we find the Hayato
repairing to the Court to pay homage, in the performance of which
function they are usually bracketted with the Yemishi. Once (682) a
wrestling match took place in the Imperial presence between the
Hayato of Osumi and those of Satsuma, and once (694) the viceroy of
Tsukushi (Kyushu) presented 174 Hayato to the Court.

THE TSUCHI-GUMO

In ancient Japan there was a class of men to whom the epithet
"Tsuchi" (earth-spiders) was applied. Their identity has been a
subject of much controversy. The first mention made of them in
Japanese annals occurs in connexion with the slaughter of eighty
braves invited to a banquet by the Emperor Jimmu's general in a
pit-dwelling at Osaka.* The Records apply to these men the epithet
"Tsuchi-gumo," whereas the Chronicles represent the Emperor as
celebrating the incident in a couplet which speaks of them as
Yemishi. It will be seen presently that the apparent confusion of
epithet probably conveys a truth.

*This incident has been already referred to under the heading
"Yemishi." It is to be observed that the "Osaka" here mentioned is
not the modern city of Osaka.

The next allusion to Tsuchi-gumo occurs in the annals of the year
(662 B.C.) following the above event, according to the chronology of
the Chronicles. The Emperor, having commanded his generals to
exercise the troops, Tsuchi-gumo were found in three places, and as
they declined to submit, a detachment was sent against them.
Concerning a fourth band of these defiant folk, the Chronicles say:
"They had short bodies and long legs and arms. They were of the same
class as the pigmies. The Imperial troops wove nets of dolichos,
which they flung over them and then slew them."

There are four comments to be made on this. The first is that the
scene of the fighting was in Yamato. The second, that the chiefs of
the Tsuchi-gumo had Japanese names--names identical, in two cases,
with those of a kind of Shinto priest (hafuri), and therefore most
unlikely to have been borne by men not of Japanese origin. The third,
that the presence of Tsuchi-gumo in Yamato preceded the arrival of
Jimmu's expedition. And the fourth, that the Records are silent about
the whole episode. As for the things told in the Chronicles about
short bodies, long limbs, pigmies, and nets of dolichos, they may be
dismissed as mere fancies suggested by the name Tsuchi-gumo, which
was commonly supposed to mean "earth-spiders." If any inference may
be drawn from the Chronicles' story, it is that there were Japanese
in Yamato before Jimmu's time, and that Tsuchi-gumo were simply bands
of Japanese raiders.

ENGRAVING: AINUS (INHABITANTS OF HOKKAIDO, THE NORTHERN ISLAND)

They are heard of next in the province of Bungo (on the northeast of
Kyushu) where (A.D. 82) the Emperor Keiko led an army to attack the
Kumaso. Two bands of Tsuchi-gumo are mentioned as living there, and
the Imperial forces had no little difficulty in subduing them. Their
chiefs are described as "mighty of frame and having numerous
followers." In dealing with the first band, Keiko caused his bravest
soldiers to carry mallets made from camellia trees, though why such
weapons should have been preferred to the trenchant swords used by
the Japanese there is nothing to show. (Another account says
"mallet-headed swords," which is much more credible). In dealing with
the second, he was driven back once by their rain of arrows, and when
he attacked from another quarter, the Tsuchi-gumo, their submission
having been refused, flung themselves into a ravine and perished.

Here again certain points have to be noticed: that there were
Tsuchi-gumo in Kyushu as well as in Yamato; that if one account
describes them as pigmies, another depicts them as "mighty of frame,"
and that in Kyushu, as in Yamato, the Tsuchi-gumo had Japanese names.
Only once again do the annals refer to Tsuchi-gumo. They relate
curtly that on his return from quelling the Kumaso the Emperor Keiko
killed a Tsuchi-gumo in the province of Hizen. The truth seems to be
that factitious import has been attached to the Tsuchi-gumo. Mainly
because they were pit-dwellers, it was assumed for a tune that they
represented a race which had immigrated to Japan at some date prior
to the arrival of the Yemishi (modern Ainu). This theory was founded
on the supposed discovery of relics of pit-dwellers in the islands of
Yezo and Itorop, and their hasty identification as Kuro-pok-guru--the
Ainu term for underground dwellers--whose modern representatives are
seen among the Kurilsky or their neighbours in Kamchatka and
Saghalien. But closer examination of the Yezo and Itorop pits showed
that there was complete absence of any mark of antiquity--such as the
presence of large trees or even deep-rooted brushwood;--that they
were arranged in regular order, suggesting a military encampment
rather than the abode of savages; that they were of uniform size,
with few exceptions; that on excavation they yielded fragments of
hard wood, unglazed pottery, and a Japanese dirk, and, finally, that
their site corresponded with that of military encampments established
in Yezo and the Kuriles by the Japanese Government in the early part
of the nineteenth century as a defence against Russian aggression.

Evidently the men who constructed and used these pit-dwellings were
not prehistoric savages but modern Japanese soldiers. Further very
conclusive testimony has been collected by the Rev. John Batchelor,
who has devoted profound study to the Ainu. He found that the
inhabitants of Shikotan, who had long been supposed to be a remnant
of pre-Ainu immigrants, were brought thither from an island called
Shimushir in the Kurile group in 1885 by order of the Japanese
Government; that they declared themselves to be descended from men of
Saghalien; that they spoke nothing but the Ainu language, and that
they inhabited pits in winter, as do also the Ainu now living in
Saghalien. If any further proof were needed, it might be drawn from
the fact that no excavation has brought to light any relics whatever
of a race preceding and distinct from the Yemishi (Ainu), all the
pits and graves hitherto searched having yielded Yamato or Yemishi
skulls. Neither has there been found any trace of pigmies.

An Ainu myth is responsible for the belief in the existence of such
beings: "In very ancient times, a race of people who dwelt in pits
lived among us. They were so very tiny that ten of them could easily
take shelter beneath one burdock leaf. When they went to catch
herrings they used to make boats by sewing the leaves together, and
always fished with a hook. If a single herring was caught, it took
all the strength of the men of five boats, or ten sometimes, to hold
it and drag it ashore, while whole crowds were required to kill it
with their clubs and spears. Yet, strange to say, these divine little
men used even to kill great whales. Surely these pit-dwellers were
gods."*

*"The Ainu and their Folk-lore," by Batchelor.

Evidently if such legends are to be credited, the existence of
fairies must no longer be denied in Europe. Side by side with the
total absence of all tangible relics may be set the fact that,
whereas numerous place-names in the main island of Japan have been
identified as Ainu words, none has been traced to any alien tongue
such as might be associated with earlier inhabitants. Thus, the
theory of a special race of immigrants anterior to the Yemishi has to
be abandoned so far as the evidence of pit-dwelling is concerned.
The fact is that the use of partially underground residences
cannot be regarded as specially characteristic of any race or as
differentiating one section of the people of Japan from another. To
this day the poorer classes in Korea depend for shelter upon pits
covered with thatch or strong oil-paper. They call these dwellings um
or um-mak, a term corresponding to the Japanese muro. Pit-dwellers
are mentioned in old Chinese literature, and the references to the
muro in the Records and Chronicles show that the muro of those days
had a character similar to that of the modern Korean um-mak [Aston].
We read of a muro being dug; of steps down to it; and we read of a
muro big enough to hold 160 persons at one time. The muro was not
always simply a hole roofed over: it sometimes contained a house
having a wooden frame lashed together with vine-tendrils, the walls
lined with sedges and reeds and plastered with a mixture of grass and
clay. The roof was thatched with reeds; there was a door opening
inwards, and a raised platform served for sleeping purposes. A
dwelling closely resembling this description was actually unearthed
near Akita in O-U, in 1807. Muro were used in ancient times by the
highest as Well as the poorest classes. Susanoo is said by the Izumo
Fudoki to have made for himself a muro; Jimmu's sort is represented
as sleeping in a great muro, and the Emperor Keiko, when (A.D.82)
prosecuting his campaign in Kyushu, is said to have constructed a
muro for a temporary palace. "In fact, pit-dwelling in northern
climates affords no indication of race."

CONCLUSION FROM HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Thus the conclusion suggested by historical evidence is that the
Japanese nation is composed of four elements: the Yamato; the Yemishi
(modern Ainu); the Kumaso (or Hayato), and the Sushen. As to the last
of these, there is no conclusive indication that they ever immigrated
in appreciable numbers. It does not follow, of course, that the
historical evidence is exhaustive, especially Japanese historical
evidence; for the annalists of Japan do not appear to have paid any
special attention to racial questions.

ENGRAVING: ANCIENT HANGING BELLS

ENGRAVING: FUTAMI-GA-URA (The Husband and Wife Rocks)



CHAPTER VI

ORIGIN OF THE NATION: GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RELICS

JAPAN'S CONNEXION WITH THE ASIATIC CONTINENT

THE group of islands forming Japan may be said to have routes of
communication with the continent of Asia at six places: two in the
north; two in the southwest, and two in the south. The principal
connexion in the north is across the narrow strait of Soya from the
northwest point of Yezo to Saghalien and thence to the Amur region of
Manchuria. The secondary connexion is from the north-east point of
Yezo via the long chain of the Kuriles to Kamchatka. The first of the
southwestern routes is from the northwest of Kyushu via the islands
of Iki and Tsushima to the southeast of Korea; and the second is from
the south of the Izumo promontory in Japan, by the aid of the current
which sets up the two southern routes. One of these is from the
southwest of Kyushu via the Goto Islands to southeastern China; the
other is from the south of Kyushu via the Ryukyu Islands, Formosa,
and the Philippines to Malaysia and Polynesia. It has also been
proved geologically* that the islands now forming Japan must at one
time have been a part of the Asiatic continent. Evidently these
various avenues may have given access to immigrants from Siberia,
from China, from Malaysia, and from Polynesia.

*There have been found in the gravel Tertiary mammals including
elephas primigenius, elephas Namadicus, stegodon Clifti, and unnamed
varieties of bear, deer, bison, ox, horse, rhinoceros, and whale.
(Outlines of the Geology of Japan; Imperial Geological Survey).

CULTURE

Archaeological research indicates the existence of two distinct
cultures in Japan together with traces of a third. One of these
cultures has left its relics chiefly in shell-heaps or embedded in
the soil, while the remains of another are found mainly in sepulchral
chambers or in caves. The relics themselves are palpably distinct
except when they show transitional approach to each other.

The older culture is attested by more than four thousand residential
sites and shell-heaps. Its most distinctive features are the absence
of all metallic objects and the presence of pottery not turned on the
wheel. Polished, finely chipped, and roughly hewn implements and
weapons of stone are found, as are implements of bone and horn.

It was, in short, a neolithic culture. The vestiges of the other
culture do not include weapons of stone. There are imitations of
sheath-knives, swords, and arrow-heads, and there are some models of
stone articles. But the alien features are iron weapons and hard
pottery always moulded on the wheel. Copper is present mainly in
connexion with the work of the goldsmith and the silversmith, and
arrow-heads, jingle-bells, mirrors, etc., are also present. The
former culture is identified as that of the aboriginal inhabitants,
the Yemishi; the latter belongs to the Yamato race, or Japanese
proper. Finally, "there are indications that a bronze culture
intervened in the south between the stone and the iron phases."*

*Munro's Prehistoric Japan.

PRIMITIVE CULTURE

The neolithic sites occur much more frequently in the northern than
in the southern half of Japan. They are, indeed, six times as
numerous on the north as on the south of a line drawn across the main
island from the coast of Ise through Orai. The neighbourhood of the
sea, at heights of from thirty to three hundred feet, and the
alluvial plains are their favourite positions. So far as the
technical skill shown by the relics--especially the pottery--is
concerned, it grows higher with the latitude. The inference is that
the settlements of the aborigines in the south were made at an
earlier period than those in the north; which may be interpreted to
mean that whereas the stone-using inhabitants were driven back in the
south at an early date, they held their ground in the north to a
comparatively modern era.

That is precisely what Japanese history indicates. Jimmu's conquests,
which took place several centuries before the Christian era, carried
him as far as the Ise-Omi line, but Yamato-dake's expedition against
the Yemishi north of that line was not planned until the second
century after Christ. Apart from the rough evidence furnished by the
quality of the relics, calculations have been made of the age of an
important shell-heap by assuming that it originally stood at the
seaside, and by estimating the number of years required to separate
it by the present interval from the coast at a fixed annual rate of
silting. The result is from five thousand to ten thousand years. A
book (the Hitachi Fudoki), published in A.D. 715, speaks of these
kaizuka (shell-heaps) as existing already at that remote period, and
attributes their formation to a giant living on a hill who stretched
out his hand to pick up shell-fish. This myth remained current until
the eighteenth century, and stone axes exhumed from the heaps were
called thunder-axes (rai-fu) just as similar relics in Europe were
called elf-bolts or thunder-stones.

There is great diversity of size among the shell-heaps, some being of
insignificant dimensions and others extending to five hundred square
yards. They are most numerous in the eight provinces forming the
Kwanto. In fact, in these ancient times, the Yamato race and the
aborigines had their headquarters in the same localities,
respectively, as the Imperial and Feudal governments had in mediaeval
and modern times. But there are no distinct traces of palaeolithic
culture; the neolithic alone can be said to be represented. Its
relics are numerous--axes, knives, arrow-heads, arrow-necks,
bow-tips, spear-heads, batons, swords, maces, sling-stones, needles,
drill-bows, drill and spindle weights, mortars and pestles, paddles,
boats, sinkers, fishing-hooks, gaffs, harpoons, mallets, chisels,
scrapers, hoes, sickles, whetstones, hammers, and drills.

It must be premised that though so many kinds of implements are here
enumerated, the nomenclature cannot be accepted as universally
accurate. The so-called "hoe," for example, is an object of disputed
identity, especially as agriculture has not been proved to have been
practised among the primitive people of Japan, nor have any traces of
grain been found in the neolithic sites. On the other hand, the
modern Ainu, who are believed to represent the ancient population,
include in their religious observances the worship of the first cakes
made from the season's millet, and unless that rite be supposed to
have been borrowed from the Yamato, it goes to indicate agricultural
pursuits.

There is, indeed, one great obstacle to any confident differentiation
of the customs and creeds prevalent in Japan. That obstacle consists
in the great length of the period covered by the annals. It may
reasonably be assumed that the neolithic aborigines were in more or
less intimate contact with the invading Yamato for something like
twenty-five centuries, an interval quite sufficient to have produced
many interactions and to have given birth to many new traditions. An
illustration is furnished by the mental attitude of the uneducated
classes in Japan towards the neolithic implements. So completely has
all memory of the human uses of these implements faded, that they are
regarded as relics of supernatural beings and called by such names as
raifu (thunder-axe), raitsui (thunder-club), kitsune no kuwa
(fox-hoe), raiko (thunder-pestle), and tengu no meshigai (rice-spoon
of the goblins). Many of the neolithic relics show that the people
who used them had reached a tolerably high level of civilization.

This is specially seen in the matter of ceramics. It is true that the
wheel was not employed, and that the firing was imperfect, but the
variety of vessels was considerable,* and the shapes and decorations
were often very praiseworthy. Thus, among the braziers are found
shapes obviously the originals of the Japanese choji-buro
(clove-censer) and the graceful rice-bowl, while community of
conception with Chinese potters would seem to be suggested by some of
the forms of these ancient vases. Particularly interesting are
earthenware images obtained from these neolithic sites. Many of them
have been conventionalized into mere anthropomorphs and are rudely
moulded. But they afford valuable indications of the clothing and
personal adornments of the aborigines.

*Cooking-pots and pans, jars and vases, bowls and dishes, cups,
bottles, nipple pots, lamps, braziers, ewers, strainers, spindles or
drill weights, stamps, ornaments, images, and plaques (Munro's
Prehistoric Japan).

What end these effigies were intended to serve remains an unsettled
question. Some suggest that they were used as substitutes for human
sacrifices, and that they point to a time when wives and slaves were
required to follow their husbands and masters to the grave. They may
also have been suggested by the example of the Yamato, who, at a very
remote time, began to substitute clay images for human followers of
the dead; or they may have been designed to serve as mere mementoes.
This last theory derives some force from the fact that the images are
found, not in graves or tombs, but at residential sites. No data have
been obtained, however, for identifying burying-places: sepulture may
have been carried out in the house of the deceased. Whichever
explanation be correct, the fact confronts us that these clay
effigies have no place in the cult of the modern Ainu. History
teaches, however, that degeneration may become so complete as to
deprive a nation of all traces of its original civilization. Such
seems to have been the case with the Ainu.

INTERMEDIATE CULTURE

Traces of a culture occupying a place intermediate between the
primitive culture and that of the Yamato are not conclusive. They are
seen in pottery which, like the ware of the neolithic sites, is not
turned on the wheel, and, like the Yamato ware, is decorated in a
very subdued and sober fashion. It is found from end to end of the
main island and even in Yezo, and in pits, shell-heaps, and
independent sites as well as in tombs, burial caves, and cairns of
the Yamato. Thus, there does not seem to be sufficient warrant for
associating it with a special race. It was possibly supplied to order
of the Yamato by the aboriginal craftsmen, who naturally sought to
copy the salient features of the conquering immigrants' ware.

BRONZE VESTIGES

There are also some bronze vestiges to which considerable interest
attaches, for evidently people using bronze weapons could not have
stood against men carrying iron arms, and therefore the people to
whom the bronze implements belonged must have obtained a footing in
Japan prior to the Yamato, unless they came at the latter's
invitation or as their allies. Moreover, these bronze relics--with
the exception of arrow-heads--though found in the soil of western and
southern Japan, do not occur in the Yamato sepulchres, which feature
constitutes another means of differentiation. Daggers, swords,
halberds, and possibly spear-heads constitute the hand-weapons. The
daggers have a certain resemblance to the Malay kris, and the swords
and halberds are generally leaf-shaped. But some features, as
overshort tangs and unpierced loops, suggest that they were
manufactured, not for service in battle but for ceremonial purposes,
being thus mere survivals from an era when their originals were in
actual use, and possibly those originals may have been of iron. Some
straight-edged specimens have been classed as spear-heads, but they
closely resemble certain ancient bronze swords of China. As for
bronze arrow-heads, they occur alike in Yamato sepulchres and in the
soil, so that no special inference is warranted in their case. The
bronze hand-weapons have been found in twelve provinces of southern
and western Japan: namely, five provinces of northwest Kyushu; three
on the Inland Sea; one facing Korea and China, and the rest on the
islands of Iki and Tsushima.

These localities and the fact that similar swords have been met with
in Shantung, suggest that the bronze culture came from central and
eastern Asia, which hypothesis receives confirmation from the
complete absence of bronze vestiges in the southern provinces of
Kyushu, namely, Osumi and Satsuma. Bronze bells, of which there are
many, belong to a separate page of archaeology. Though they have been
found in no less than twenty-four provinces, there is no instance of
their presence in the same sites with hand-weapons of bronze. In
Kyushu, Higo is the only province where they have been seen, whereas
in the main island they extend as far east as Totomi, and are
conspicuously numerous in that province and its neighbour, Mikawa,
while in Omi they are most abundant of all. They vary in height from
about one foot four inches to four and a half feet, and are of highly
specialized shape, the only cognate type being bells used in China
during the Chou dynasty (1122-225 B.C.) for the purpose of giving
military signals. A Chinese origin is still more clearly indicated by
the decorative designs, which show a combination of the circle, the
triangle, and the spiral, obviously identical with the decorative
motive* on Chinese drums of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220). The
circle and the triangle occur also in the sepulchral pottery of the
Yamato sites, and considering the fact together with the abundance of
the bells in districts where the Yamato were most strongly
established, there seems to be warrant for attributing these curious
relics to the Yamato culture.

*This resemblance has been pointed out by a Japanese archaeologist,
Mr. Teraishi. Dr. Munro states that the same elements are combined in
an Egyptian decorative design.

To this inference it has been objected that no bells have been found
in the tombs of the Yamato. The same is true, however, of several
other objects known to have belonged to that people. If, then, the
bells be classed as adjuncts of the Yamato culture, shall we be
justified in assigning the bronze weapon to a different race? On the
whole, the most reasonable conclusion seems to be that all the bronze
relics, weapons, and bells alike, are "vestiges of the Yamato
procession at a time anterior to the formation of the great dolmens
and other tombs" [Munro]. A corollary would be that the Yamato
migrated from China in the days of the Chou dynasty (1122-225 B.C.),
and that, having landed in the province of Higo, they conquered the
greater part of Tsukushi (Kyushu), and subsequently passed up the
Inland Sea to Yamato; which hypothesis would invest with some
accuracy the date assigned by the Chronicles to Jimmu's expedition
and would constitute a general confirmation of the Japanese account
of his line of advance.

YAMATO CULTURE

The ancient Yamato are known chiefly through the medium of relics
found in their sepulchres. Residential sites exist in comparatively
small numbers, so far as research ha hitherto shown, and such sites
yield nothing except more or less scattered potsherds and low walls
enclosing spaces of considerable area. Occasionally Yamato pottery
and other relics are discovered in pits, and these evidences,
combined with historical references, go to show that the Yamato
themselves sometimes used pit-dwellings.

The tombs yield much more suggestive relics of metal, stone, and
pottery. Some four thousand of such sepulchres have been officially
catalogued, but it is believed that fully ten times that number
exist. The most characteristic is a tomb of larger dimensions
enclosing a dolmen which contains a coffin hollowed out from the
trunk of a tree, or a sarcophagus of stone,* the latter being much
more commonly found, as might be expected from its greater
durability. Burial-jars were occasionally used, as were also
sarcophagi of clay or terracotta,** the latter chiefly in the
provinces of Bizen and Mimasaka, probably because suitable materials
existed there in special abundance. Moreover, not a few tombs
belonged to the category of cists; that is to say, excavations in
rock, with a single-slabbed or many-slabbed cover; or receptacles
formed with stone clubs, cobbles, or boulders.

*The stone sarcophagus was of considerable size and various shapes,
forming an oblong box with a lid of a boatlike form.

**The terracotta sarcophagi were generally parallel, oblong or
elongated oval in shape, with an arched or angular covering and
several feet. One has been found with doors moving on hinges.

There is great difficulty in arriving at any confident estimate of
age amid such variety. Dolmens of a most primitive kind "exist side
by side with stone chambers of highly finished masonry in
circumstances which suggest contemporaneous construction" so that
"the type evidently furnishes little or no criterion of age," and,
moreover, local facilities must have largely influenced the method of
building. The dolmen is regarded by archaeologists as the most
characteristic feature of the Yamato tombs. It was a chamber formed
by setting up large slabs of stone, inclined slightly towards each
other, which served as supports for another slab forming the roof.
Seen in plan, the dolmens presented many shapes: a simple chamber or
gallery; a chamber with a gallery, or a series of chambers with a
gallery. Above the dolmen a mound was built, sometimes of huge
dimensions (as, for example, the misasagi* of the Emperor Tenchi--d.
A.D. 671--which with its embankments, measured 5040 feet square), and
within the dolmen were deposited many articles dedicated to the
service of the deceased. Further, around the covering-mound there are
generally found, embedded in the earth, terracotta cylinders
(haniwa), sometimes surmounted with figures or heads of persons or
animals.

*By this name all the Imperial tombs were called.

According to the Chronicles, incidents so shocking occurred in
connexion with the sacrifice of the personal attendants* of Prince
Yamato at his burial (A.D. 2) that the custom of making such
sacrifices was thenceforth abandoned, clay images being substituted
for human beings. The Records speak of a "hedge of men set up round a
tumulus," and it would therefore seem that these terracotta figures
usually found encircling the principal misasagi, represented that
hedge and served originally as pedestals for images. Within the
dolmen, also, clay effigies are often found, which appear to have
been substitutes for retainers of high rank. Had the ancient custom
been effectually abolished in the year A.D. 3, when the Emperor
Suinin is recorded to have issued orders in that sense, a simple and
conclusive means would be at hand for fixing the approximate date of
a dolmen, since all tombs containing clay effigies or encircled by
terracotta haniwa would necessarily be subsequent to that date, and
all tombs containing skeletons other than the occupants of the
sarcophagi would be referable to an earlier era. But although
compulsory sacrifices appear to have ceased from about the first
century of the Christian era, it is certain that voluntary sacrifices
continued through many subsequent ages. This clue is therefore
illusory. Neither does the custom itself serve to connect the Yamato
with any special race, for it is a wide-spread rite of animistic
religion, and it was practised from time immemorial by the Chinese,
the Manchu Tatars, and many other nations of northeastern Asia.

*They are said to have been buried upright in the precincts of the
misasagi. "For several days they died not, but wept and wailed day
and night. At last they died and rotted. Dogs and crows gathered and
ate them." (Chronicles. Aston's translation.)

The substitution of images for living beings, however, appears to
have been a direct outcome of contact with China, for the device was
known there as early as the seventh century before Christ. It would
seem, too, from the researches of a learned Japanese archaeologist
(Professor Miyake), that the resemblance between Japanese and Chinese
burial customs was not limited to this substitution. The dolmen also
existed in China in very early times, but had been replaced by a
chamber of finished masonry not later than the ninth century B.C. In
the Korean peninsula the dolmen with a megalithic roof is not
uncommon, and the sepulchral pottery bears a close resemblance to
that of the Yamato tombs. It was at one time supposed that the highly
specialized form of dolmen found in Japan had no counterpart anywhere
on the continent of Asia, but that supposition has proved erroneous.

The contents of the sepulchres, however, are more distinctive. They
consist of "noble weapons and armour, splendid horse-trappings,
vessels for food and drink, and various objects de luxe," though
articles of wood and textile fabrics have naturally perished. Iron
swords are the commonest relics. They are found in all tombs of all
ages, and they bear emphatic testimony to the warlike habits of the
Yamato, as well as to their belief that in the existence beyond the
grave weapons were not less essential than in life. Arrow-heads are
also frequently found and spear-heads sometimes.* The swords are all
of iron. There is no positive evidence showing that bronze swords
were in use, though grounds exist for supposing, as has been already
noted, that they were employed at a period not much anterior to the
commencement of dolmen building, which seems to have been about the
sixth or seventh century before Christ. The iron swords themselves
appear to attest this, for although the great majority are
single-edged and of a shape essentially suited to iron, about ten per
cent, are double-edged with a central ridge distinctly reminiscent of
casting in fact, a hammered-iron survival of a bronze leaf-shaped
weapon.** Occasionally these swords have, at the end of the tang, a
disc with a perforated design of two dragons holding a ball, a
decorative motive which already betrays Chinese origin. Other swords
have pommels surmounted by a bulb set at an angle to the tang,*** and
have been suspected to be Turanian origin.

*The most comprehensive list of these objects is that given in
Munro's Prehistoric Japan: "Objects of iron--(1), Swords and daggers;
(2), Hilt-guards and pommels; (3), Arrow-heads; (4), Spear-heads and
halberd-heads; (5) Armour and helmets; (6), Stirrups and bridle-bits;
(7), Ornamental trappings for horses; (8), Axes, hoes, or chisels;
(9), Hoes or spades; (10), Chains; (11), Rings; (12), Buckles; (13),
Smith's tongs or pincers; (14), Nails; (15), Caskets, handles,
hinges, and other fittings. Objects of copper and bronze--(1),
Arrow-heads; (2), Spear-heads; (3), Hilt-guards and pommels; (4),
Scabbard-covers and pieces of sheet-copper for ornamental uses; (5),
Helmets; (6), Arm-and-leg guards; (7), Shoes; (8), Horse-trappings;
(9), Belts; (10), Mirrors; (11), Bracelets and rings; (12), Various
fittings. Silver and gold were employed chiefly in plating, but fine
chains and pendants as well as rings of pure gold and silver have
been met with.

"The stone objects may be divided into two classes, viz:

"A. Articles of use or ornaments--(1), Head-rest; (2), Mortar and
pestle; (3), Caskets and vessels; (4), Cups and other vessels; (5),
Bracelets; (6), Magatama; (7), Other ornaments; (8), Plumb-line
pendant; (9), Spindle-weight; (10), Objects of unascertained
function.

"B. Sepulchral substitutes--(1), Swords and daggers; (2),
Sheath-knife; (3), Arrow-head; (4), Spear-head; (5), Shield; (6);
Armour; (7), Wooden dogs; (8), Mirror; (9), Comb; (10), Magatama;
(11), Cooking-knife; (12), Sickle or scythe-blade; (13), Hoe or
chisel; (14), Head of chisel or spear; (15), Bowl; (16), Table; (17),
Sword-pommel; (18), Nondescript objects." The above list does not
include pottery.

**The leaf-shaped bronze sword is found over all Europe from the
Mediterranean to Lapland, but generally without a central ridge.

***Mr. Takahashi, a Japanese archaeologist, suggests that these
weapons were the so called "mallet-headed swords" said to have been
used by Keiko's soldiers (A.D. 82) against the Tsuchi-gumo. The name,
kabutsuchi, supports this theory, kabu being the term for "turnip,"
which is also found in kabuya, a humming arrow having a turnip-shaped
head perforated with holes.

Yet another form--found mostly in the Kwanto provinces and to the
north of them, from which fact its comparatively recent use may be
inferred--was known in western Asia and especially in Persia, whence
it is supposed to have been exported to the Orient in connexion with
the flourishing trade carried on between China and Persia from the
seventh to the tenth century. That a similar type is not known to
exist in China proves nothing conclusive, for China's attitude
towards foreign innovations was always more conservative than
Japan's. Scabbards, having been mostly of wood, have not survived,
but occasionally one is found having a sheeting of copper thickly
plated with gold. Arrow-heads are very numerous. Those of bronze
have, for the most part, the leaf shape of the bronze sword, but
those of iron show many forms, the most remarkable being the
chisel-headed, a type used in Persia.

Spear-heads are not specially suggestive as to provenance, with the
exception of a kind having a cross-arm like the halberd commonly used
in China from the seventh century before Christ. Yamato armour
affords little assistance to the archaeologist: it bears no
particularly close resemblance to any type familiar elsewhere. There
was a corset made of sheet iron, well rivetted. It fastened in front
and was much higher behind than before, additioned protection for the
back being provided by a lattice-guard which depended from the helmet
and was made by fastening strips of sheet iron to leather or cloth.
The helmet was usually of rivetted iron, but occasionally of bronze,
with or without a peak in front. There were also guards of copper or
iron for the legs, and there were shoulder-curtains constructed in
the same manner as the back-curtain pendant from the helmet. Shoes of
copper complete the panoply.

The workmanship of these weapons and armour is excellent: it shows an
advanced stage of manufacturing skill. This characteristic is even
more remarkable in the case of horse-trappings. The saddle and
stirrups, the bridle and bit, are practically the same as those that
were used in modern times, even a protective toe-piece for the
stirrup being present. A close resemblance is observable between the
ring stirrups of old Japan and those of mediaeval Europe, and a much
closer affinity is shown by the bits, which had cheek-pieces and were
usually jointed in the centre precisely like a variety common in
Europe; metal pendants, garnished with silver and gold and carrying
globular jingle-bells in their embossed edges, served for horse
decoration. These facts are learned, not from independent relics
alone, but also from terracotta steeds found in the tumuli and
moulded so as to show all their trappings.

Other kinds of expert iron-work have also survived; as chains, rings
and, buckles, which differ little from corresponding objects in
Europe at the present day; and the same is true of nails, handles,
hinges, and other fittings. Tools used in working metal are rarely
found, a fact easily accounted for when we remember that such objects
would naturally be excluded from sepulchres.

There is another important relic which shows that the Yamato were
"indebted to China for the best specimens of their decorative art."
This is a round bronze mirror, of which much is heard in early
Japanese annals from the time of Izanagi downwards. In China the art
of working in bronze was known and practised during twenty centuries
prior to the Christian era; but although Japan seems to have
possessed the knowledge at the outset of the dolmen epoch, (circ. 600
B.C.), she had no copper mine of her own until thirteen centuries
later, and was obliged to rely on Korea for occasional supplies. This
must have injuriously affected her progress in the art of bronze
casting.

Nevertheless, in almost all the dolmens and later tombs mirrors of
bronze were placed. This custom came into vogue in China at an early
date, the mirror being regarded as an amulet against decay or a
symbol of virtue. That Japan borrowed the idea from her neighbour can
scarcely be doubted. She certainly procured many Chinese mirrors,
which are easily distinguished by finely executed and beautiful
decorative designs in low relief on their backs; whereas her own
mirrors--occasionally of iron--did not show equal skill of technique
or ornamentation. Comparative roughness distinguished them, and they
had often a garniture of jingle-bells (suzu) cast around the rim, a
feature not found in Chinese mirrors. They were, in fact, an inferior
copy of a Chinese prototype, the kinship of the two being further
attested by the common use of the dragon as a decorative motive.
Bronze vases and bowls, simple or covered, are occasionally found in
the Yamato sepulchres. Sometimes they are gilt, and in no case do
their shapes differentiate them from Chinese or modern Japanese
models.

It might be supposed that in the field of personal ornament some
special features peculiar to the Yamato civilization should present
themselves. There is none. Bronze or copper bracelets,* closed or
open and generally gilt, recall the Chinese bangle precisely, except
when they are cast with a garniture of suzu. In fact, the suzu
(jingle-bell) seems to be one of the few objects purely of Yamato
origin. It was usually globular, having its surface divided into
eight parts, and it served not only as part of a bangle and as a
pendant for horse-trappings but also as a post-bell (ekirei), which,
when carried by nobles and officials, indicated their right to
requisition horses for travelling purposes.

*Jasper also was employed for making bracelets, and there is some
evidence that shells were similarly used.

To another object interest attaches because of its wide use in
western Asia and among the Celtic peoples of Europe. This is the
penannular (or open) ring. In Europe, it was usually of solid gold or
silver, but in Japan, where these metals were very scarce in early
days, copper, plated with beaten gold or silver, was the material
generally employed. Sometimes these rings were hollow and sometimes,
but very rarely, flattened. The smaller ones seem to have served as
earrings, worn either plain or with pendants.

Prominent among personal ornaments were magatama (curved jewels) and
kudatama (cylindrical jewels). It is generally supposed that the
magatama represented a tiger's claw, which is known to have been
regarded by the Koreans as an amulet. But the ornament may also have
taken its comma-like shape from the Yo and the Yin, the positive and
the negative principles which by Chinese cosmographists were
accounted the great primordial factors, and which occupy a prominent
place in Japanese decorative art as the tomoye.* The cylindrical
jewels evidently owed their shape to facility for stringing into
necklaces or chaplets. The Chronicles and the Records alike show that
these jewels, especially the magatama, acted an important part in
some remarkable scenes in the mythological age.** Moreover, a sword,
a mirror, and a magatama, may be called the regalia of Japan. But
these jewels afford little aid in identifying the Yamato. Some of
them--those of jade, chrysoprase, and nephrite***--must have been
imported, these minerals never having been found in Japan. But the
latter fact, though it may be held to confirm the continental origin
of the Yamato, gives no indication as to the part of Asia whence they
emigrated.

*Professor Takashima has found magatama among the relics of the
primitive culture, but that is probably the result of imitation.

**The goddess of the Sun, when awaiting the encounter with Susanoo,
twisted a complete string, eight feet long, with five hundred
magatama. Lesser Kami were created by manipulating the jewels. When
Amaterasu retired into a cave, magatama were hung from the branches
of a sakaki tree to assist in enticing her out. Several other
reverential allusions are made to the jewels in later times.

***The jewels were of jasper, agate, chalcedony, serpentine,
nephrite, steatite, quartz, crystal, glass, jade (white and green),
and chrysoprase. Mention is also made of rakan, but the meaning of
the term is obscure. Probably it was a variety of jade.

YAMATO POTTERY

The pottery found in the Yamato tombs is somewhat more instructive
than the personal ornaments. It seems to have been specially
manufactured, or at any rate selected, for purposes of sepulture, and
it evidently retained its shape and character from very remote if not
from prehistoric times. Known in Japan as iwaibe (sacred utensils),
it resembles the pottery of Korea so closely that identity has been
affirmed by some archaeologists and imitation by others. It has
comparatively fine paste--taking the primitive pottery as
standard--is hard, uniformly baked, has a metallic ring, varies in
colour from dark brown to light gray, is always turned on the wheel,
has only accidental glaze, and is decorated in a simple, restrained
manner with conventionalized designs. The shapes of the various
vessels present no marked deviation from Chinese or Korean models,
except that, the tazzas and occasionally other utensils are sometimes
pierced in triangular, quadrilateral, and circular patterns, to which
various meanings more or less fanciful have been assigned.

There is, however, one curious form of iwaibe which does not appear
to have any counterpart in China or Korea. It is a large jar, or
tazza, having several small jars moulded around its shoulder,* these
small jars being sometimes interspersed with, and sometimes wholly
replaced by, figures of animals.** It is necessary to go to the
Etruscan "black ware" to find a parallel to this most inartistic kind
of ornamentation.

*This style of ornamentation was called komochi (child-bearing), the
small jars being regarded as children of the large.

**Mr. Wakabayashi, a Japanese archaeologist, has enumerated seven
varieties of figures thus formed on vases: horses, deer, wild boars,
dogs, birds, tortoises; and human beings.

With regard to the general decorative methods of the iwaibe potters,
it is noticeable, first, that apparent impressions of textiles are
found (they are seldom actual imprints, being usually imitations of
such), and, secondly, that simple line decoration replaces the rude
pictorial representations of a primitive culture and suggests
propagation from a centre of more ancient and stable civilization
than that of the Yamato hordes: from China, perhaps from Korea--who
knows? As for the terracotta figures of human beings and sometimes of
animals found in connexion with Yamato sepulchres, they convey little
information about the racial problem.* The idea of substituting such
figures for the human beings originally obliged to follow the dead to
the grave seems to have come from China, and thus constitutes another
evidence of intercourse, at least, between the two countries from
very ancient times.

*Chinese archaic wine-pots of bronze sometimes have on the lid
figures of human beings and animals, but these served a useful
purpose.

It has been remarked that "the faces seen on these images by no means
present a typical Mongolian type; on the contrary, they might easily
pass for European faces, and they prompt the query whether the Yamato
were not allied to the Caucasian race." Further, "the national
vestiges of the Yamato convey an impression of kinship to the
civilization which we are accustomed to regard as our own, for their
intimate familiarity with the uses of swords, armour, horse-gear, and
so forth brings us into sympathetic relation to their civilization."
[Munro.]

SUMMARY

It will be seen from the above that archaeology, while it discloses
to us the manners and customs of the ancient inhabitants of Japan,
does not afford material for clearly differentiating more than three
cultures: namely, the neolithic culture of the Yemishi; the iron
culture of the Yamato, and the intermediate bronze culture of a race
not yet identified. There are no archaeological traces of the
existence of the Kumaso or the Tsuchi-gumo, and however probable it
may seem, in view of the accessibility of Japan from the mainland,
not only while she formed part of the latter but even after the two
had become separate, that several races co-existed with the Yemishi
and that a very mixed population carried on the neolithic culture,
there is no tangible evidence that such was the case. Further, the
indications furnished by mythology that the Yamato were
intellectually in touch with central, if not with western Asia, are
re-enforced by archaeological suggestions of a civilization and even
of physical traits cognate with the Caucasian.

ENGRAVING: DRUM AND MASK

ENGRAVING: "NO" MASKS



CHAPTER VII

LANGUAGE AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

LANGUAGE

HOWEVER numerous may have been the races that contributed originally
to people Japan, the languages now spoken there are two only, Ainu
and Japanese. They are altogether independent tongues. The former
undoubtedly was the language of the Yemishi; the latter, that of the
Yamato. From north to south all sections of the Japanese nation--the
Ainu of course excepted--use practically the same speech. Varieties
of local dialects exist, but they show no traits of survival from
different languages. On the contrary, in few countries of Japan's
magnitude does corresponding uniformity of speech prevail from end to
end of the realm. It cannot reasonably be assumed that, during a
period of some twenty-five centuries and in the face of steady
extermination, the Yemishi preserved their language quite distinct
from that of their conquerors, whereas the various languages spoken
by the other races peopling the island were fused into a whole so
homogeneous as to defy all attempts at differentiation. The more
credible alternative is that from time immemorial the main elements
of the Japanese nation belonged to the same race, and whatever they
received from abroad by way of immigration became completely absorbed
and assimilated in the course of centuries.

No diligent attempt has yet been made to trace the connexion--if any
exist--between the Ainu tongue and the languages of northeastern
Asia, but geology, history, and archaeology suffice to indicate that
the Yemishi reached Japan at the outset from Siberia. The testimony
of these three sources is by no means so explicit in the case of the
Yamato, and we have to consider whether the language itself does not
furnish some better guide. "Excepting the twin sister tongue spoken
in the Ryukyu Islands," writes Professor Chamberlain, "the Japanese
language has no kindred, and its classification under any of the
recognized linguistic families remains doubtful. In structure, though
not to any appreciable extent in vocabulary, it closely resembles
Korean, and both it and Korean may possibly be related to Mongol and
to Manchu, and might therefore lay claim to be included in the
so-called 'Altaic group' In any case, Japanese is what philologists
call an agglutinative tongue; that is to say, it builds up its words
and grammatical forms by means of suffixes loosely soldered to the
root or stem, which is invariable."

This, written in 1905, has been supplemented by the ampler researches
of Professor S. Kanazawa, who adduces such striking evidences of
similarity between the languages of Japan and Korea that one is
almost compelled to admit the original identity of the two. There are
no such affinities between Japanese and Chinese. Japan has borrowed
largely, very largely, from China. It could scarcely have been
otherwise. For whereas the Japanese language in its original form--a
form which differs almost as much from its modern offspring as does
Italian from Latin--has little capacity for expansion, Chinese has
the most potential of all known tongues in that respect. Chinese may
be said to consist of a vast number of monosyllables, each expressed
by a different ideograph, each having a distinct significance, and
each capable of combination and permutation with one or more of the
others, by which combinations and permutations disyllabic and
trisyllabic words are obtained representing every conceivable shade
of meaning.

It is owing to this wonderful elasticity that Japan, when suddenly
confronted by foreign arts and sciences, soon succeeded in building
up for herself a vocabulary containing all the new terms, and
containing them in self-explaining forms. Thus "railway" is expressed
by tetsu-do, which consists of the two monosyllables tetsu (iron) and
do (way); "chemistry" by kagaku, or the learning (gaku) of changes
(ka); "torpedo" by suirai, or water (sui) thunder (rai); and each of
the component monosylables being written with an ideograph which
conveys its own meaning, the student has a term not only appropriate
but also instructive. Hundreds of such words have been manufactured
in Japan during the past half-century to equip men for the study of
Western learning, and the same process, though on a very much smaller
scale, had been going on continuously for many centuries, so that the
Japanese language has come to embody a very large number of Chinese
words, though they are not pronounced as the Chinese pronounce the
corresponding ideographs.

Yet in spite of this intimate relation, re-enforced as it is by a
common script, the two languages remain radically distinct; whereas
between Japanese and Korean the resemblance of structure and
accidence amounts almost to identity. Japanese philologists allege
that no affinity can be traced between their language and the tongues
of the Malay, the South Sea islanders, the natives of America and
Africa, or the Eskimo, whereas they do find that their language bears
a distinct resemblance to Manchu, Persian, and Turkish. Some go so
far as to assert that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit are nearer to
Japanese than they are to any European language. These questions
await fuller investigation.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES

The Japanese are of distinctly small stature. The average height of
the man is 160 centimetres (5 feet 3.5 inches) and that of the woman
147 centimetres (4 feet 10 inches). They are thus smaller than any
European race, the only Occidentals over whom they possess an
advantage in this respect being the inhabitants of two Italian
provinces. [Baelz.] Their neighbours, the Chinese and the Koreans,
are taller, the average height of the northern Chinese being 168
centimetres (5 feet 7 inches), and that of the Koreans 164
centimetres (5 feet 5.5 inches). Nevertheless, Professor Dr. Baelz,
the most eminent authority on this subject, avers that "the three
great nations of eastern Asia are essentially of the same race," and
that observers who consider them to be distinct "have been misled by
external appearances." He adds: "Having made a special study of the
race question in eastern Asia, I can assert that comity of race in
general is clearly proved by the anatomical qualities of the body. In
any case the difference between them is much smaller than that
between the inhabitants of northern and southern Europe."

The marked differences in height, noted above, do not invalidate this
dictum: they show merely that the Asiatic yellow race has several
subdivisions. Among these subdivisions the more important are the
Manchu-Korean type, the Mongol proper, the Malay, and the Ainu. To
the first, namely the Manchu-Korean, which predominates in north
China and in Korea, Baelz assigns the higher classes in Japan; that
is to say, the men regarded as descendants of the Yamato. They have
"slender, elegant and often tall figures, elongated faces with not
very prominent cheek-bones, more or less slanting eyes, aquiline
noses, large upper teeth, receding chins, long slender necks, narrow
chests, long trunks, thin limbs, and often long fingers, while the
hair on the face and body is scarce." Dr. Munro, however, another
eminent authority, holds that, "judging from the Caucasian and often
Semitic physiognomy seen in the aristocratic type of Japanese, the
Yamato were mainly of Caucasic, perhaps Iranian, origin. These were
the warriors, the conquerors of Japan, and afterwards the
aristocracy, modified to some extent by mingling with a Mongoloid
rank and file, and by a considerable addition of Ainu." He remarks
that a white skin was the ideal of the Yamato, as is proved by their
ancient poetry.

As for the Mongol-proper type, which is seen in the lower classes and
even then not very frequently, its representative is squarely built,
and has prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, a more or less flat nose
with a large mouth. The Malay type is much commoner. Its
characteristics are small stature, good and sometimes square build, a
face round or angular, prominent cheek-bones, large horizontal eyes,
a weak chin, a short neck, broad well-developed chest, short legs,
and small delicate hands. As for the Ainu type, Dr. Baelz finds it
astonishing that they have left so little trace in the Japanese
nation. "Yet those who have studied the pure Ainu closely will
observe, particularly in the northern provinces, a not insignificant
number of individuals bearing the marks of Ainu blood. The most
important marks are: a short, thickly set body; prominent bones with
bushy hair, round deep-set eyes with long divergent lashes, a
straight nose, and a large quantity of hair on the face and body all
qualities which bring the Ainu much nearer to the European than to
the Japanese proper."

GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

In addition to physical characteristics which indicate distinctions
of race among the inhabitants of Japan, there are peculiarities
common to a majority of the nation at large. One of these is an
abnormally large head. In the typical European the height of the head
is less than one-seventh of the stature and in Englishmen it is often
one-eighth. In the Japanese is it appreciably more than one-seventh.
Something of this may be attributed to smallness of stature, but such
an explanation is only partial.

Shortness of legs in relation to the trunk is another marked feature.
"Long or short legs are mainly racial in origin. Thus, in Europe, the
northern, or Teutonic race--namely Anglo-Saxons, North Germans,
Swedes, and Danes--are tail; long-legged, and small-headed, while the
Alpine, or central European race are short of stature, have short
legs and large heads with short necks, thus resembling the Mongolian
race in general, with which it was probably originally connected."
[Baelz.]

In the Japanese face, too, there are some striking points. The first
is in the osseous cavity of the eyeball and in the skin round the
eye. "The socket of the Japanese eye is comparatively small and
shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the
eye is less deeply set than in the European. Seen in profile,
forehead and upper lid often form one unbroken line." Then "the shape
of the eye proper, as modelled by the lids, shows a most striking
difference between the European and the Mongolian races; the open eye
being almost invariably horizontal in the former but very often
oblique in the latter on account of the higher level of the outer
corner. But even apart from obliqueness the shape of the corner is
peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely
covered by a fold of the upper lid continuing more or less into the
lower lid. This fold, which has been called the Mongolian fold, often
also covers the whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the
insertion of the eyelashes is hidden. When the fold takes an upward
direction towards the outer corner, the latter is a good deal higher
than the inner corner, and the result is the obliqueness mentioned
above. The eyelashes are shorter and sparser than in the European,
and whereas in the European the lashes of the upper and the lower lid
diverge, so that their free ends are farther distant than their
roots, in the Japanese eye they converge, the free ends being nearer
together than the insertions. Then again in the lower class the
cheek-bones are large and prominent, making the face look flat and
broad, while in the higher classes narrow and elongated faces are
quite common. Finally, the Japanese is less hairy than the European,
and the hair of the beard is usually straight." [Baelz.]

VIEWS OF JAPANESE ETHNOLOGISTS

It may well be supposed that the problem of their nation's origin has
occupied much attention among the Japanese, and that their
ethnologists have arrived at more or less definite conclusions. The
outlines of their ideas are that one of the great waves of emigration
which, in a remote age, emerged from the cradle of the human race in
central Asia, made its way eastward with a constantly expanding
front, and, sweeping up the Tarim basin, emerged in the region of the
Yellow River and in Manchuria. These wanderers, being an
agricultural, not a maritime, race, did not contribute much to the
peopling of the oversea islands of Japan. But in a later--or an
earlier--era, another exodus took place from the interior of Asia. It
turned in a southerly direction through India, and coasting along the
southern seaboard, reached the southeastern region of China; whence,
using as stepping-stones the chain of islands that festoon eastern
Asia, it made its way ultimately to Korea and Japan.

Anterior to both of these movements another race, the neolithic
Yemishi of the shell-heaps, had pushed down from the northeastern
regions of Korea or from the Amur valley, and peopled the northern
half of Japan. The Korean peninsula, known in Chinese records as Han,
appears in the form of three kingdoms at the earliest date of its
historical mention: they were Sin-Han and Pyon-Han on the east and
Ma-Han on the West. The northeastern portion, from the present
Won-san to Vladivostok, bore the name of Yoso, which is supposed to
have been the original of Yezo, the Yoso region thus constituting the
cradle of the Yemishi race.

Japanese ethnologists interpret the ancient annals as pointing to
very close intercourse between Japan and Korea in early days,* and
regard this as confirming the theory stated above as to the
provenance of the Yamato race. Connexion with the colonists of
northern China was soon established via Manchuria, and this fact may
account for some of the similarities between the civilization as well
as the legends of the Yamato and those of Europe, since there is
evidence that the Greeks and Romans had some hazy knowledge of China,
and that the Chinese had a similarly vague knowledge of the Roman
Empire,** possibly through commercial relations in the second century
B.C.

*The annals state of Princes Mikeno and Inahi, elder brothers of
Prince Iware (afterwards Jimmu Tenno). that the former "crossed over
to the Eternal Land" (Tokoyo-no-kuni) and the latter went down to the
sea plain, it being his deceased mother's land. Japanese
archaeologists identify "mother's land" as Shiragi in Korea, and
Tokoyo-no-kuni as the western country where the sun sets, namely
China. They further point out that Susanoo with his son, Itakeru,
went to Shiragi and lived at Soshi-mori, for which reason Susanoo's
posthumous title was Gozu Tenno, gozu being the Japanese equivalent
for the Korean soshi-mori (ox head). Susanoo is also quoted as
saying, "there are gold and silver in Koma and it were well that
there should be a floating treasury;"* so he built a vessel of pine
and camphor-wood to export these treasures to Japan. The "Korea" here
spoken of is the present Kimhai in Kyongsan-do. It is further
recorded that Susanoo lived for a time at Kumanari-mine, which is the
present Kongju. Again, a Japanese book, compiled in the tenth century
A.D., enumerates six shrines in the province of Izumo which were
called Kara-kuni Itate Jinja, or shrine of Itakeru of Korea. A much
abler work, Izuma Fudoki, speaks of Cape Kitsuki in Izumo as a place
where cotton-stuffs were imported from Shiragi by Omitsu, son of
Susanoo. There are other evidences to the same effect, and taken in
conjunction with the remarkable similarity of the Korean and Japanese
languages, these facts are held to warrant the conclusion that the
most important element of the Japanese nation came via Korea, its Far
Eastern colony being the ultima thule of its long wanderings from
central Asia.

**See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. 6, p. 189 b.

The first mention of Japan in Chinese records is contained in a book
called Shan-hai-ching, which states that "the northern and southern
Wo* were subject to the kingdom of Yen." Yen was in the modern
province of Pechili. It existed as an independent kingdom from 1 122
to 265 B.C. That the inhabitants of Japan were at any time subject to
Yen is highly improbable, but that they were tributaries is not
unlikely. In other words, intercourse between Japan and northern
China was established in remote times via the Korean peninsula, and
people from Japan, travelling by this route, carried presents to the
Court of Yen, a procedure which, in Chinese eyes constituted an
acknowledgement of suzerainty. The "northern and southern Wo" were
probably the kingdom of Yamato and that set up in Kyushu by Ninigi, a
supposition which lends approximate confirmation to the date assigned
by Japanese historians for the expedition of Jimmu Tenno. It is also
recorded in the Chronicles of the Eastern Barbarians, a work of the
Han dynasty (A.D. 25-221), that Sin-Han, one of the three Korean
kingdoms, produced iron, and that Wo and Ma-Han, the western of these
Korean kingdoms, traded in it and used it as currency. It is very
possible that this was the iron used for manufacturing the ancient
double-edged swords (tsurugi) and halberds of the Yamato, a
hypothesis strengthened by the fact that the sword of Susanoo was
called Orochi no Kara-suki, Kara being a Japanese name for Korea.

*This word was originally pronounced Wa, and is written with the
ideograph signifying "dwarf." It was applied to the Japanese by
Chinese writers in earliest times, but on what ground such an epithet
was chosen there is no evidence.

ENGRAVING: JAPANESE SADDLE, BRIDLE, AND STIRRUPS



CHAPTER VIII

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN REMOTE ANTIQUITY

If it be insisted that no credence attaches to traditions unsupported
by written annals, then what the Records and the Chronicles, compiled
in the eighth century, tell of the manners and customs of Japan
twelve or thirteen hundred years previously, must be dismissed as
romance. A view so extreme is scarcely justified. There must be a
foundation of truth in works which, for the most part, have received
the imprimatur of all subsequent generations of Japanese. Especially
does that hold as to indications of manners, customs, and
institutions. These, at least, are likely to be mirrored with a
certain measure of accuracy, though they may often reflect an age
later than that to which they are referred, and may even have been
partially moulded to suit the ideas of their narrators. In briefly
epitomizing this page of history, the plan here pursued is to adhere
as far as possible to Japanese interpretations, since these must of
necessity be most intelligent.

THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE

At the basis of the social structure stand the trinity of Kami,
mythologically called the Central Master (Naka-Nushi) and the two
Constructive Chiefs (Musubi no Kami). The Central Master was the
progenitor of the Imperial family; the Constructive Chiefs were the
nobility, the official class. What was originally involved in the
conception of official functions, we learn from incidents prefatory
to the expedition conducted by Ninigi for the subjugation of Japan.
Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) attached to the person of her grandson
four chiefs and one chieftainess. To two of the former (Koyane and
Futodama) she entrusted all matters relating to religious rites, and
they became respectively the ancestors of the Nakatomi and the Imibe
families. To the female Kami (Usume) was entrusted the making of
sacred music and she founded the Sarume family. Finally, all military
functions were committed to the chiefs, Oshihi and Kume, whose
descendants constituted the Otomo and Kume families.

In every case these offices were hereditary for all time, and the
families of their holders constitute the aristocracy of the nation,
marrying among themselves and filling the highest offices from
generation to generation. Their members bore the title of hiko (son
of the Sun) and hime (daughter of the Sun), and those that governed
towns and villages were called tomo no miyatsuko, while those that
held provincial domains were entitled kuni no miyatsuko.

This was the origin of the Japanese polity. The descendants of
Amaterasu, herself a descendant of the Central Master, occupied the
throne in unbroken succession, and the descendants of the two
Constructive Chiefs served as councillors, ministers, and generals.
But the lineage of all being traceable to three chiefs who originally
occupied places of almost equal elevation, they were united by a bond
of the most durable nature. At the same time it appears that this
equality had its disadvantage; it disposed the members of the
aristocratic families to usurp the administrative power while
recognizing its source, the Throne, and it encouraged factional
dissensions, which sometimes resulted disastrously. As to the middle
and lower classes, no evidence bearing on their exact composition is
forthcoming. It is plain, however, that they accepted a subordinate
position without active protest, for nothing like a revolt on their
part is alluded to, directly or indirectly, in the Records or the
Chronicles. The term for all subjects was tomobe.

DWELLING-HOUSES

The palace of the sovereign--called miya or odono--corresponded in
appearance and construction with the shrines of the deities. It was
built by erecting central pillars--originally merely sunk in the
ground but in later times having a stone foundation--from which
rafters sloped to corner posts, similarly erected, the sides being
clapboarded. Nails were used, but the heavy timbers were tied
together with ropes made by twisting the fibrous stems of climbing
plants. A conspicuous feature was that the upper ends of the rafters
projected across each other, and in the V-shaped receptacle thus
formed, a ridge-pole was laid with a number of short logs crossing it
at right angles. This disposition of timbers was evidently devised to
facilitate tying and to impart stability to the thatch, which was
laid to a considerable thickness.

It is not certain whether in the earliest times floors were fully
boarded, or whether boarding was confined to a dais running round the
sides, the rest of the interior being of beaten mud. Subsequently,
however, the whole floor was boarded. Chimneys were not provided;
charcoal being the principal fuel, its smoke did not incommode, and
when firewood was employed, the fumes escaped through openings in the
gable. For windows there were holes closed by shutters which, like
the doors, swung upon hooks and staples. Rugs of skin or of rush
matting served to spread on the boarded floor, and in rare cases silk
cushions were employed.

The areas on which buildings stood were generally surrounded by
palisades, and for a long time no other kind of defence save these
palings seems to have been devised. Indeed, no mention of castles
occurs until the first century B.C., when the strange term
"rice-castle" (ina-ki) is found; the reference being apparently to a
palisade fortified with rice-bags, or to a rice-granary used as a
fortress. The palace of the sovereign towered so high by comparison
that it was termed Asahi-no-tada-sasu-miya (miya on which the morning
sun shines direct), or Yuhi-no-hiteru-miya (miya illumined by the
evening sun), or some other figurative epithet, and to the Emperor
himself was applied the title 0-mikado (great august Gate). The
dwellings occupied by the nobility were similarly built, though on a
less pretentious scale, and those of the inferior classes appear to
have been little better than huts, not a few of them being partially
sunk in the ground, as is attested by the fact that the term "enter"
took the form of "creep in" (hairu).

ADMINISTRATION AND WORSHIP

In the instruction said to have been given by Amaterasu to her
grandson Ninigi, on the eve of his expedition to Japan, the words are
recorded: "My child, regard this mirror as you regard me. Keep it in
the same house with yourself, and make it the mirror of purity."
Accordingly the insignia--the mirror, the jewel, and the sword--were
always kept in the main hall of the palace under the care of the
Nakatomi and the Imibe families. An ancient volume (Kogo-shui)
records that when the palace of Kashihara was reached by Jimmu's
army, the grandson of the founder of the Imibe family--cutting timber
with a consecrated axe (imi-ono) and digging foundations with a
consecrated spade (imi-suki)--constructed a palace in which he placed
the mirror, the jewel, and the sword, setting out offerings and
reciting prayers to celebrate the completion of the building and the
installation of the insignia.

"At that time the sovereign was still very close to the Kami, and the
articles and utensils for the latter were little distinguished from
those for the former. Within the palace there stood a store house
(imi-kura), the Imibe family discharging daily and nightly the duties
relating to it." Thus it is seen that in remote antiquity religious
rites and administrative functions were not distinguished. The
sovereign's residence was the shrine of the Kami, and the term for
"worship" (matsuri) was synonymous with that for "government."

RELIGIOUS RITES

The ceremony spoken of above--the Odono matsuri, or consecration of
the palace--is the earliest religious rite mentioned. Next in
importance was the "harvest festival." In the records of the
mythological age it is related that Amaterasu obtained seeds of the
"five cereals," and, recognizing their value as food, caused them to
be cultivated, offering a part to the Kami when they were ripe and
eating some herself. This became a yearly custom, and when Ninigi set
out to conquer Japan, his grandmother gave rice seed to the ancestors
of the Nakatomi and the Imibe families, who thenceforth conducted the
harvest festival (nii-name, literally "tasting the new rice") every
autumn, the sovereign himself taking part, and the head of the
Nakatomi reciting a prayer for the eternity of the Imperial line and
the longevity of the Emperor. Other important rites were the "great
purification" (Oharai) performed twice a year, on the last day of the
sixth month and the last day of the twelfth month; the "fire-subduing
fete," the "spirit-tranquillizing fete," etc.

Of all these rites the principal features were the recitation of
rituals and the offering of various objects, edible or otherwise
useful. The rituals (norito) being, in several cases, set formulas,
lent themselves with special facility to oral transmission from
generation to generation. It is certain that they were familiar to
the compilers of the Records and the Chronicles, and they contain
expressions dating from such a remote era as to have become
incomprehensible before history began to be written in Japan. In the
year A.D. 927, seventy-five of the norito were transcribed into a
book (Yengi-shiki, or Ceremonial Law) which contains, in addition to
these rituals, particulars as to the practice of the Shinto religion;
as to the organization of the priesthood--which included ten virgin
princesses of the Imperial family, one each for the two great temples
of Watarai in Ise and Kamo in Yamashiro--and as to the Shinto shrines
qualified to receive State support. These shrines totalled 3132,
among which number 737 were maintained at the Emperor's charges.
Considering that the nation at that time (tenth century) did not
comprise more than a very few millions, the familiar criticism that
the Japanese are indifferent to religion is certainly not proved by
any lack of places of worship. The language of the rituals is
occasionally poetic, often figurative and generally solemn,* but they
are largely devoted to enumeration of Kami, to formulae of praise for
past favours, to petitions for renewed assistance, and to
recapitulations of the offerings made in support of these requests.
As for the offerings, they comprise woven stuffs, and their raw
materials, models of swords, arrows, shields, stags' antlers, hoes,
fish (dried and fresh), salt, sake, and, in some cases, a horse, a
cock, and a pig. In short, the things offered were essentially
objects serviceable to living beings.

*The Norito of the Great Purification Service has been translated by
Mr. W. G. Aston in his Japanese Literature.

THE KAMI

The Kami may be broadly divided into two groups, namely, those
originally regarded as superior beings and those elevated to that
rank in consideration of illustrious deeds performed during life. Of
the former group the multitudinous and somewhat heterogenous
components have been supposed to suggest the amalgamation of two or
more religious systems in consequence of a blending of races alien to
one another. But such features may be due to survivals incidental to
the highest form of nature religion, namely, anthropomorphic
polytheism.

There were the numerous Kami, more or less abstract beings without
any distinguishing functions, who preceded the progenitors of the
Yamato race, and there was the goddess of the Sun, pre-eminent and
supreme, together with deities of the Moon, of the stars, of the
winds, of the rain, of fire, of water, of mountains, of mines, of
fields, of the sea, of the trees, and of the grass--the last a female
divinity (Kaya-no-hime). The second group those deified for
illustrious services during life--furnished the tutelary divinities
(uji-gami or ubusuna-Kami) of the localities where their families
lived and where their labours had been performed. Their protection
was specially solicited by the inhabitants of the regions where their
shrines stood, while the nation at large worshipped the Kami of the
first group. Out of this apotheosis of distinguished mortals there
grew, in logical sequence, the practice of ancestor worship. It was
merely a question of degrees of tutelary power. If the blessings of
prosperity and deliverance could be bestowed on the denizens of a
region by the deity enshrined there, the same benefits in a smaller
and more circumscribed measure might be conferred by the deceased
head of a family. As for the sovereign, standing to the whole nation
in the relation of priest and intercessor with the deities, he was
himself regarded as a sacred being, the direct descendant of the
heavenly ancestor (Tenson).

THERIANTHROPIC ELEMENTS

That the religion of ancient Japan--known as Shinto, or "the way of
the gods"--had not fully emerged from therianthropic polytheism is
proved by the fact that, though the deities were generally
represented in human shape, they were frequently conceived as
spiritual beings, embodying themselves in all kinds of things,
especially in animals, reptiles, or insects. Thus, tradition relates
that the Kami of Mimoro Mountain appeared to the Emperor Yuryaku
(A.D. 457-459) in the form of a snake; that during the reign of the
Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), a local deity in the guise of a
serpent interfered with agricultural operations and could not be
placated until a shrine was built in its honour; that in the time of
the Emperor Kogyoku, the people of the eastern provinces devoted
themselves to the worship of an insect resembling a silkworm, which
they regarded as a manifestation of the Kami of the Moon; that the
Emperor Keiko (A.D. 71-130) declared a huge tree to be sacred; that
in the days of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), religious rites were
performed before cutting down a tree supposed to be an incarnation of
the thunder Kami; that on the mountain Kannabi, in Izumo, there stood
a rock embodying the spirit of the Kami whose expulsion from Yamato
constituted the objective of Ninigi's expedition, and that prayer to
it was efficacious in terminating drought, that the deity
Koto-shiro-nushi became transformed into a crocodile, and that "the
hero Yamato-dake emerged from his tomb in the shape of a white swan."

Many other cognate instances might be quoted. A belief in amulets and
charms, in revelations by dreams and in the efficacy of ordeal,
belongs to this category of superstitions. The usual form of ordeal
was by thrusting the hand into boiling water. It has been alleged
that the Shinto religion took no account of a soul or made any
scrutiny into a life beyond the grave. Certainly no ideas as to
places of future reward or punishment seem to have engrossed
attention, but there is evidence that not only was the spirit (tama)
recognized as surviving the body, but also that the spirit itself was
believed to consist of a rough element (am) and a gentle element
(nigi), either of which predominated according to the nature of the
functions to be performed; as when a nigi-tama was believed to have
attached itself to the person of the Empress Jingo at the time of her
expedition to Korea, while an ara-tama formed the vanguard of her
forces.

Some Japanese philosophers, however--notably the renowned
Motoori--have maintained that this alleged duality had reference
solely to the nature of the influence exercised by a spirit on
particular occasions. Shinto has no sacred canon like the Bible, the
Koran, or the Sutras. Neither has it any code of morals or body of
dogma. Cleanliness may be called its most prominent feature.
Izanagi's lustrations to remove the pollution contracted during his
visit to the nether world became the prototype of a rite of
purification (misogi) which always prefaced acts of worship. A
cognate ceremony was the harai (atonement). By the misogi the body
was cleansed; by the harai all offences were expiated; the origin of
the latter rite having been the exaction of certain penalties from
Susanoo for his violent conduct towards the Sun goddess.* The two
ceremonies, physical cleansing and moral cleansing, prepared a
worshipper to approach the shrine of the Kami. In later times both
rites were compounded into one, the misogi-harai, or simply the
harai. When a calamity threatened the country or befell it, a grand
harai (o-harai) was performed in atonement for the sins supposed to
have invited the catastrophe. This principle of cleanliness found
expression in the architecture of Shinto shrines; plain white wood
was everywhere employed and ornamentation of every kind eschewed. In
view of the paramount importance thus attached to purity, a
celebrated couplet of ancient times is often quoted as the unique and
complete canon of Shinto morality,

*His nails were extracted and his beard was plucked out.

   "Unsought in prayer,
   "The gods will guard
   "The pure of heart."*

   *Kokoro dani
    Makoto no michi ni
    Kanai naba
    Inorazu tote mo
    Kami ya mamoran.

It is plain, however, that Shinto cannot be included in the category
of ethical religions; it belongs essentially to the family of nature
religions.

CRIMES

The acts which constituted crimes in ancient Japan were divided into
two classes: namely, sins against heaven and sins against the State.
At the head of the former list stood injuries to agricultural
pursuits, as breaking down the ridges of rice-fields, filling up
drains, destroying aqueducts, sowing seeds twice in the same place,
putting spits in rice-fields, flaying an animal alive or against the
grain, etc. The crimes against the State were cutting and wounding
(whether the living or the dead), defilement on account of leprosy or
cognate diseases, unnatural offences, evil acts on the part of
children towards parents or of parents towards children, etc. Methods
of expiating crime were recognized, but, as was the universal custom
in remote times, very cruel punishments were employed against
evil-doers and enemies. Death was inflicted for comparatively trivial
offences, and such tortures were resorted to as cutting the sinews,
extracting the nails and the hair, burying alive, roasting, etc.
Branding or tattooing seems to have been occasionally practised, but
essentially as a penalty or a mark of ignominy.

DIVINATION

As is usually the case in a nation where a nature religion is
followed, divination and augury were practised largely in ancient
Japan. The earliest method of divination was by roasting the
shoulder-blade of a stag and comparing the cracks with a set of
diagrams. The Records and the Chronicles alike represent Izanagi and
Izanami as resorting to this method of presaging the future, and the
practice derives interest from the fact that a precisely similar
custom has prevailed in Mongolia from time immemorial. Subsequently
this device was abandoned in favour of the Chinese method, heating a
tortoise-shell; and ultimately the latter, in turn, gave way to the
Eight Trigrams of Fuhi. The use of auguries seems to have come at a
later date. They were obtained by playing a stringed instrument
called koto, by standing at a cross-street and watching the passers,
by manipulating stones, and by counting footsteps.

MILITARY FORCES

It has been related that when the "heavenly grandson" undertook his
expedition to Japan, the military duties were entrusted to two
mikoto* who became the ancestors of the Otomo and the Kume families.
There is some confusion about the subsequent differentiation of these
families, but it is sufficient to know that, together with the
Mononobe family, they, were the hereditary repositories of military
authority. They wore armour, carried swords, spears and bows, and not
only mounted guard at the palace but also asserted the Imperial
authority throughout the provinces. No exact particulars of the
organization of these forces are on record, but it would seem that
the unit was a battalion divided into twenty-five companies, each
company consisting of five sections of five men per section, a
company being under the command of an officer whose rank was
miyatsuko.

*"August being," a term of respect applied to the descendants of the
Kami.

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

No mention is made of such a thing as currency in prehistoric Japan.
Commerce appears to have been conducted by barter only. In order to
procure funds for administrative and religious purposes, officers in
command of forces were despatched to various regions, and the
inhabitants were required to contribute certain quantities of local
produce. Steps were also taken to cultivate useful plants and cereals
and to promote manufactures. The Kogo-shui states that a certain
mikoto inaugurated the fashioning of gems in Izumo, and that his
descendants continued the work from generation to generation, sending
annual tribute of articles to the Court every year. Another mikoto
was sent to plant paper-mulberry and hemp in the province of Awa (awa
signifies "hemp"), and a similar record is found in the same book
with regard to the provinces of Kazusa and Shimosa, which were then
comprised in a region named Fusa-kuni. Other places owed their names
to similar causes.

It is plain that, whatever may have been the case at the outset, this
assignment of whole regions to the control of officials whose
responsibility was limited to the collection of taxes for the uses of
the Court, could not but tend to create a provincial nobility and
thus lay the foundations of a feudal system. The mythological
accounts of meetings of the Kami for purposes of consultation suggest
a kind of commonwealth, and recall "the village assemblies of
primitive times in many parts of the world, where the cleverness of
one and the general willingness to follow his suggestions fill the
place of the more definite organization of later times."* But though
that may be true of the Yamato race in the region of its origin, the
conditions found by it in Japan were not consistent with such a
system, for Chinese history shows that at about the beginning of the
Christian era the Island Empire was in a very uncentralized state and
that the sway of the Yamato was still far from receiving general
recognition. A great Japanese scholar** has contended that the
centralization which prevailed in later ages was wholly an imitation
of Chinese bureaucracy, and that organized feudalism was the original
form of government in Japan. The annals appear to support that view
to a limited extent, but the subject will presently be discussed at
greater length.

*B. H. Chamberlain.

**Hirata Atsutane.

RAIMENT

In the use of clothing and the specialization of garments the early
Japanese had reached a high level. We read in the ancient legends of
upper garments, skirts, trousers, anklets, and head-ornaments of
stones considered precious.* The principal material of wearing
apparel was cloth woven from threads of hemp and mulberry bark.
According to the annals, the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing
were known and practised from the earliest age. The Sun goddess
herself is depicted as seated in the hall of the sacred loom, reeling
silk from cocoons held in her mouth, and at the ceremony of enticing
her from her retirement, the weaving of blue-and-white stuffs
constituted an important adjunct. Terms are used (akarurtae and
teru-tae) which show that colour and lustre were esteemed as much as
quality. Ara-tae and nigi-tae were the names used to designate coarse
and fine cloth respectively; striped stuff was called shidori, and
the name of a princess, Taku-hata-chiji, goes to show that corrugated
cloth was woven from the bark of the taku. Silken fabrics were
manufactured, but the device of boiling the cocoons had not yet been
invented. They were held in the mouth for spinning purposes, and the
threads thus obtained being coarse and uneven, the loom could not
produce good results. Silk stuffs therefore did not find much favour:
they were employed chiefly for making cushions, cloth woven from
cotton, hemp, or mulberry bark being preferred for raiment. Pure
white was the favourite colour; red, blue, and black being placed in
a lower rank in that order. It has been conjectured that furs and
skins were worn, but there is no explicit mention of anything of the
kind. It would seem that their use was limited to making rugs and
covering utensils.** Sewing is not explicitly referred to, but the
needle is; and in spite of an assertion to the contrary made by the
Chinese author of the Shan-hai-ching (written in the fourth century
A.D.) there is no valid reason to doubt that the process of sewing
was familiar.

*B. H. Chamberlain.

**In China the case was different. There, garments made of skins or
covered with feathers were worn in remote antiquity before the art of
weaving had become known. The Records recount that in the age of the
Kami "there came" (to Japan) "riding on the crest of the waves, a
kami dressed in skins of geese," and this passage has been quoted as
showing that skins were used for garments in Japan. But it is pointed
out by Japanese commentators that this Kami Sukuna-bikona is
explicitly stated to have come from a foreign country, and that if
the passage warrants any inference, it is that the visitor's place of
departure had been China.

As to the form of the garments worn, the principal were the hakama
and the koromo. The hakama was a species of divided skirt, used by
men and women alike. It has preserved its shape from age to age, and
is to-day worn by school-girls throughout Japan. The koromo was a
tunic having tight sleeves reaching nearly to the knees. It was
folded across the breast from right to left and secured by a belt of
cloth or silk tied round the loins. Veils also were used by both
sexes, one kind (the katsugi) having been voluminous enough to cover
the whole body. "Combs are mentioned, and it is evident that much
attention was devoted to the dressing of the hair."* Men divided
theirs in the middle and bound it up in two bunches, one over each
ear. Youths tied theirs into a top-knot; girls wore their locks
hanging down the back but bound together at the neck, and married
ladies "dressed theirs after a fashion which apparently combined the
last two methods." Decoration of the head was carried far on
ceremonial occasions, gems, veils, and even coronets being used for
the purpose. "There is no mention in any of the old books of cutting
the hair or beard except in token of disgrace; neither do we gather
that the sexes, but for this matter of head-dress, were distinguished
by a diversity of apparel or ornamentation."*

*B. H. Chamberlain.

FOOD AND DRINK

Rice was the great staple of diet in ancient, as it is in modern,
times. The importance attaching to it is shown by the fact that the
Sun goddess herself is represented as engaging in its cultivation and
that injuring a rice-field was among the greatest offences. Barley,
millet, wheat, and beans are mentioned, but the evidence that they
were grown largely in remote antiquity is not conclusive. The flesh
of animals and birds was eaten, venison and wild boar being
particularly esteemed. Indeed, so extensively was the hunting of deer
practised that bows and arrows were often called kago-yumi and
kago-ya (kago signifies "deer"). Fish, however, constituted a much
more important staple of diet than flesh, and fishing in the
abundantly stocked seas that surround the Japanese islands was
largely engaged in. Horses and cattle were not killed for food. It is
recorded in the Kogo-shui that the butchering of oxen to furnish meat
for workers in a rice-field roused the resentment of a Kami called
Mitoshi. There does not appear to have been any religious or
superstitious scruple connected with this abstention: the animals
were spared simply because of their usefulness. Vegetables occupied a
large space in the list of articles of food. There were the radish,
the cabbage, the lotus, the melon, and the wild garlic, as well as as
several kinds of seaweed. Salt was used for seasoning, the process of
its manufacture having been familiar from the earliest times. Only
one kind of intoxicating liquor was ever known in Japan until the
opening of intercourse with the Occident. It was a kind of beer
brewed* from rice and called sake. The process is said to have been
taught by Sukuna, who, as shown above, came to Japan from a foreign
country--probably China--when the Kami, Okuni-nushi, was establishing
order in the Japanese islands.

*The term for "brew" being kamu or kamosu, the former of which is
homonymous with the equivalent for "to chew," some commentators have
supposed that sake was manufactured in early times by grinding rice
with the teeth. This is at once disproved by the term for "yeast,"
namely, kabi-tachi (fermenting).

COOKING AND TABLE EQUIPAGE

From time immemorial there were among the officials at the Imperial
Court men called kashiwa-de, or oak-leaf hands. They had charge of
the food and drink, and their appellation was derived from the fact
that rice and other edibles were usually served on oak leaves.
Earthenware utensils were used, but their surface, not being glazed,
was not allowed to come into direct contact with the viands placed on
them. In this practice another example is seen of the love of
cleanliness that has always characterized and distinguished the
Japanese nation. Edibles having been thus served, the vessels
containing them were ranged on a table, one for each person, and
chop-sticks were used. Everything was cooked, with the exception of
certain vegetables and a few varieties of fish. Friction of wood upon
wood provided fire, a fact attested by the name of the tree chiefly
used for the purpose, hi-no-ki, or fire-tree. To this day the same
method of obtaining a spark is practised at the principal religious
ceremonials. Striking metal upon stone was another device for the
same purpose, and there is no record in Japan, as there is in China,
of any age when food was not cooked. Various vessels of unglazed
pottery are mentioned in the Records, as bowls, plates, jars,
and wine-holders, the last being often made of metal. These
were all included in the term suemono, which may be translated
"table-utensils."

ARMS, ARMOUR, AND GEMS

It has already been stated that archaeological research shows the
Yamato race to have been in possession of iron swords and spears, as
well as metal armour and shields, from a very early period, probably
the date of these colonists' first coming to Japan. They also used
saddles, stirrups, bridles, and bits for horses, so that a Yamato
warrior in full mail and with complete equipment was perhaps as
formidable a fighting man as any contemporary nation could produce.
Bows and arrows were also in use. The latter, tipped with iron or
stone and feathered, were carried in a quiver. The swords employed by
men were originally double-edged. Their names* show that they were
used alike for cutting and thrusting, and that they varied in length
from ten "hands" to five. There was also a small single-edged sword**
carried by women and fastened inside the robe. The value attached to
the sword is attested by numerous appellations given to blades of
special quality. In later times the two-edged sword virtually fell
out of use, being replaced by the single-edged.

*Tsurugi (to pierce) and tachi (to cut).

**This was originally called himo-kala-ha, which literally means
"cord single edge." subsequently kala-ha became katana, by which term
all Japanese swords are now known.

Sometimes a spear was decorated with gems. It is curious that gems
should have been profusely used for personal adornment in ancient
times by people who subsequently eschewed the custom well-nigh
altogether, as the Japanese did. The subject has already been
referred to in the archaeological section, but it may be added here
that there were guilds of gem-makers (Tama-tsukuri-be) in several
provinces, and that, apart from imported minerals, the materials with
which they worked were coral, quartz, amber, gold, silver, and
certain pebbles found in Izumo.

AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY

It appears that when the Yamato immigrants reached Japan, the coast
lands were overgrown with reeds and the greater part of the island
was covered with primeval forests. Fabulous accounts are given of
monster trees. Thus, in the Tsukushi Fudoki we read of an oak in
Chikugo which towered to a height of 9700 feet, its branches shading
the peaks of Hizen in the morning and the mountains of Higo in the
evening. The Konjaku Monogatari tells of another oak with a stem
measuring 3000 feet in circumference and casting its shadow over
Tamba at dawn and on Ise at sunset. In the Fudoki of other provinces
reference is made to forest giants in Harima, Bungo, Hitachi, etc.,
and when full allowance has been made for the exaggerations of
tradition, there remains enough to indicate that the aboriginal
inhabitants did not attempt any work of reclamation.

Over regions measuring scores of miles perpetual darkness reigned,
and large districts were often submerged by the overflow of rivers.
There is no mention, however, of a deluge, and Professor Chamberlain
has called attention to the remarkable fact that a so-called "Altaic
myth" finds no place in the traditions of "the oldest of the
undoubtedly Altaic nations."

The annals are eloquent in their accounts of the peopling of the
forests by wild and fierce animals and the infesting of the vallies
by noxious reptiles. The Nihongi, several of the Fudoki, the Konjaku
Monogatari, etc., speak of an eight-headed snake in Izumo, of a
horned serpent in Hitachi, and of big snakes in Yamato, Mimasaka,
Bungo, and other provinces; while the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku tells of
wolves, bears, monkeys, monster centipedes, whales, etc., in Harima,
Hida, Izumo, Oki, Tajima, and Kaga. In some cases these gigantic
serpents were probably bandit chiefs transfigured into reptiles by
tradition, but of the broad fact that the country was, for the most
part, in a state of natural wilderness there can be little doubt.

Under the sway of the Yamato, however, a great change was gradually
effected. Frequent allusions are made to the encouragement of
agriculture and even its direct pursuit by the Kami. The Sun goddess
is represented as having obtained seeds of the five cereals from the
female Kami, Ukemochi,* and as having appointed a village chief to
superintend their culture. She had three regions of her own specially
devoted to rice growing, and her unruly brother, Susanoo, had a
similar number, but the latter proved barren. The same goddess
inaugurated sericulture, and entrusted the care of it to a princess,
who caused mulberry trees to be planted and was able to present silk
fabrics to Amaterasu. In the reign of Jimmu, hemp is said to have
been cultivated, and Susanoo, after his reformation, became the
guardian of forests, one of his functions being to fix the uses of
the various trees, as pine and hinoki (ground-cypress) for house
building, maki (podocarpus Chinensis) for coffin making, and
camphor-wood for constructing boats. He also planted various kinds of
fruit-trees. Thenceforth successive sovereigns encouraged
agriculture, so that the face of the country was materially changed.

*The Sun goddess, Amaterasu, and the goddess of Food (Ukemochi no
Kami) are the two deities now worshipped at the great shrine of Ise.

In the matter of farming implements, however, neither archaeology nor
history indicates anything more than iron spades, wooden hoes shod
with bronze or iron, hand-ploughs, and axes. As to manufacturing
industries, there were spinners and weavers of cotton and silk,
makers of kitchen utensils, polishers of gems, workers in gold,
silver, copper, and iron, forgers of arms and armour, potters of
ornamental vessels, and dressers of leather. In later eras the
persons skilled in these various enterprises formed themselves into
guilds (be), each of which carried on its own industry from
generation to generation.

The fact that there must have been an exchange of goods between these
various groups is almost the only indication furnished by the annals
as to trade or commerce. In the name of a daughter of Susa (Princess
Kamu-o-ichi) we find a suggestion that markets (ichi) existed, and
according to the Wei Records (A.D. 211-265) there were, at that time,
"in each province of Japan markets where the people exchanged their
superfluous produce for articles of which they were in need." But
Japanese history is silent on this subject.

About the be, however, a great deal is heard. It may be described as
a corporated association having for purpose the securing of
efficiency by specialization. Its members seem to have been at the
outset men who independently pursued some branch of industry. These
being ultimately formed into a guild, carried on the same pursuit
from generation to generation under a chief officially appointed.
"Potters, makers of stone coffins, of shields, of arrows, of swords,
of mirrors, saddlers, painters, weavers, seamstresses, local
recorders, scribes, farmers, fleshers, horse-keepers, bird-feeders,
the mibu who provided wet-nurses for Imperial princes, palace
attendants, and reciters (katari) were organized into be under
special chiefs who were probably responsible for their efficient
services. It would appear, however, that 'chief of be' was sometimes
a title bestowed for exceptional service and that it was occasionally
posthumous."*

*Munro.

Be were also organized for the purpose of commemorating a name quite
irrespective of industrial pursuits. "The religious be were for
general or special purposes. For instance, there was a be of
sun-worshippers, while the Imibe, a body of abstainers, were obliged
to avoid ritual contamination or impurity. They carried out a
technique of spiritual aseptics, both in their persons and through
the utensils which they employed, much as a modern surgeon guards
against infection of his patient. Thus they were prepared to perform
sacred functions."*

*Munro.

NAVIGATION AND FISHING

No information is obtainable as to the nature of the boats used in
very early times, but it may reasonably be inferred that the Yamato
and other immigrant races possessed craft of some capacity. Several
names of boats are incidentally mentioned. They evidently refer to
the speed of the craft--as bird-boat (tori-fune), pigeon-boat
(hato-fune)--or to the material employed, as "rock-camphor boat"
(iwa-kusu-bune). "The presence of neolithic remains on the islands
around Japan proves that the boats of the primitive people were large
enough to traverse fifty miles, or more, of open sea."* Only one
distinct reference to sailing occurs, however, in the ancient annals.
On the occasion of the alleged expedition to Korea (A.D. 200) under
the Empress Jingo, the Chronicles say, "Sail was set from the harbour
of Wani." At a date nearly three centuries earlier, there appears to
have been a marked deficiency of coasting vessels, for the Chronicles
quote an Imperial decree issued B.C. 81, which says: "Ships are of
cardinal importance to the Empire. At present the people of the
coast, not having ships, suffer grievously by land transport.
Therefore let every province be caused to have ships built;"* and it
is related that, a few months later, the building of ships was begun.
Again, in A.D. 274, a vessel (the Karano) one hundred feet in length,
was constructed in the province of Izu, and twenty-six years later,
according to the Chronicles, the Emperor issued this order: "The
Government ship named Karano was sent as tribute by the Lord of Izu.
It is rotten and unfit for use. It has, however, been in the
Government use for a long time, and its services should not be
forgotten. Shall we not keep the name of that ship from being lost
and hand it down to after ages?" The Karano was then broken and her
timbers being employed as firewood for roasting salt, the latter was
given to the various provinces, which, in return, were caused to
build ships for the State, the result being a fleet of five hundred
vessels.

*Aston's Nihongi.

It would seem that there was always an abundance of fishing-boats,
for fishing by traps, hooks, and nets was industriously carried on. A
passage in the Records speaks of a thousand-fathom rope of
paper-mulberry which was used to draw the net in perch fishing.
Spearing was also practised by fishermen, and in the rivers
cormorants were used just as they are to-day.

MARRIAGE

It does not appear that the marriage tie possessed any grave
significance in ancient Japan, or that any wedding ceremony was
performed; unless, indeed, the three circuits made by Izanagi and
Izanami prior to cohabitation round a "heavenly august pillar" be
interpreted as the circumambulatory rite observed in certain
primitive societies. Pouring water over a bride seems, however, to
have been practised and is still customary in some provinces, though
as to its antiquity nothing can be said. An exchange of presents is
the only fact made clear by the annals. There did not exist in Japan,
as in China, a veto on marriages between people of the same tribe,
but this difference does not signify any reproach to Japan: the
interdict was purely political in China's case, and corresponding
conditions did not exist in Japan.

On the other hand, the Japanese system permitted a degree of licence
which in the Occident is called incest: brothers and sisters might
intermarry provided that they had not been brought up together. To
understand this condition it is necessary to observe that a bride
generally continued to live in her family dwelling where she received
her husband's visits, and since there was nothing to prevent a
husband from contracting many such alliances, it was possible for him
to have several groups of children, the members of each group being
altogether unknown to the members of all the rest. In a later, but
not definitely ascertained era, it became customary for a husband to
take his wife to his own home, and thereafter the veto upon such
unions soon became imperative, so that a Prince Imperial in the fifth
century who cohabited with his sister forfeited the succession and
had to commit suicide, his conduct being described in the Chronicles
as "a barbarous outrage."

In all eras sisters might marry the same man, and polygamy was
common. A Chinese book, compiled in the early years of the Christian
epoch, speaks of women being so numerous in Japan that nobles had
four or five wives and commoners two or three. Of course, the reason
assigned for this custom is incorrect: not plenitude of females but
desire of abundant progeny was primarily the cause. It is notable
that although the line between nobles and commoners was strictly
drawn and rigidly observed, it did not extend to marriage in one
sense: a nobleman could always take a wife or a concubine from the
family of an inferior. In fact, orders were commonly issued to this
or that province to furnish so many ladies-in-waiting (uneme)--a term
having deeper significance than it suggests--and several instances
are recorded of sovereigns summoning to court girls famed for beauty.
That no distinction was made between wives and concubines has been
alleged, but is not confirmed by the annals. Differentiation by rank
appears to have been always practised, and the offspring was
certainly thus distinguished.

BIRTH AND EDUCATION

A child in ancient Japan was born under considerable difficulties:
its mother had to segregate herself in a parturition hut (ubuya),
whence even light was excluded and where she was cut off from all
attendance. This strange custom was an outcome of the Shinto canon of
purity. Soon after birth, a child received from its mother a name
generally containing some appropriate personal reference. In the
most ancient times each person (so far as we can judge) bore one
name, or rather one string of words compounded together into a sort
of personal designation. But already at the dawn of the historical
epoch we are met by the mention of surnames and of "gentile names
bestowed by the sovereign as a recompense for some noteworthy deed."*
These names constantly occur. The principal of them are suzerain
(atae), departmental suzerain (agata-no-atae), departmental lord
(agata-no-nushi), Court noble (ason), territorial lord (inaki), lord
(iratsuko), lady (iratsume), duke (kimi), ruler (miyatsuko), chief
(muraji), grandee (omi), noble (sukune), and lord (wake). In the case
of the Emperors there are also canonical names, which were applied at
a comparatively late date in imitation of Chinese usages, and which
may be said to have completely replaced the names borne during life.
Thus, the Emperor known to posterity as Jimmu was called Iware in
life, the Emperor named Homuda while he sat on the throne is now
designated Ojin, and the Emperor who ruled as Osazaki is remembered
as Nintoku. In the Imperial family, and doubtless in the households
of the nobility, wet-nurses were employed, if necessary, as also were
bathing-women, washing-women, and rice-chewers.**

*B.H. Chamberlain.

**"Rice, which is mainly carbohydrate, is transformed into grape-sugar
by the action of the saliva. This practice is still common in China
and used to be so in Japan where it is now rarely met with. It was
employed only until dentition was complete." (Munro.)

"To what we should call education, whether mental or physical, there
is absolutely no reference made in the histories. All that can be
inferred is that, when old enough to do so; the boys began to follow
one of the callings of hunter or fisherman, while the girls stayed at
home weaving the garments of the family. There was a great deal of
fighting, generally of a treacherous kind, in the intervals of which
the warriors occupied themselves in cultivating patches of ground."*

*B.H. Chamberlain.

BURIAL OF THE DEAD

Burial rites were important ceremonials. The house hitherto tenanted
by the deceased was abandoned--a custom exemplified in the removal of
the capital to a new site at the commencement of each reign--and the
body was transferred to a specially erected mourning-hut draped
inside with fine, white cloth. The relatives and friends then
assembled, and for several days performed a ceremony which resembled
an Irish wake, food and sake being offered to the spirit of the dead,
prayers put up, and the intervals devoted to weird singing and solemn
dancing. Wooden coffins appear to have been used until the beginning
of the Christian era, when stone is said to have come into vogue.

At the obsequies of nobles there was considerable organization. Men
(mike-hito) were duly told off to take charge of the offerings of
food and liquor; others (kisari-mochi) were appointed to carry the
viands; others (hahaki-mochi) carried brooms to sweep the cemetery;
there were females (usu-me) who pounded rice, and females (naki-me)
who sung dirges interspersed with eulogies of the deceased. The
Records mention that at the burial of Prince Waka a number of birds
were used instead of these female threnodists. It appears, further,
that those following a funeral walked round the coffin waving
blue-and-red banners, carrying lighted torches, and playing music.

In the sepulchres the arms, utensils, and ornaments used daily by the
deceased were interred, and it was customary to bury alive around the
tombs of Imperial personages and great nobles a number of the
deceased's principal retainers. The latter inhuman habit was
nominally abandoned at the close of the last century before Christ,
images of baked clay being substituted for human sacrifices, but the
spirit which informed the habit survived, and even down to modern
times there were instances of men and women committing suicide for
the purpose of rejoining the deceased beyond the grave. As to the
nature of the tombs raised over the dead, the main facts have been
stated in Chapter VI.

TEETH BLACKENING AND FACE PAINTING

The habit of blackening the teeth has long prevailed among married
women in Japan, but the Yamato tombs have thus far furnished only one
example of the practice, and no mention occurs in the ancient annals.
Face painting, however, would seem to have been indulged in by both
sexes. Several of the pottery images (haniwa) taken from the tombs
indicate that red pigment was freely and invariably used for that
purpose. It was applied in broad streaks or large patches, the former
encircling the face or forming bands across it; the latter, covering
the eyes or triangulating the cheeks. It is probable that this
bizarre decoration was used only on ceremonial occasions and that it
appears in a greatly accentuated form on the haniwa.

AMUSEMENTS

As to amusements in prehistoric times little information is
furnished. Hunting the boar and the stag was the principal pastime,
and hawking is described as having been practised in the fourth
century of the Christian era. Music and dancing seem to have been in
vogue from time immemorial, but there is nothing to tell what kind of
musical instruments were in the hands of the early Yamato. The koto,
a kind of horizontal lute, and the flute are spoken of in the
Chronicles, but the date of their introduction is not indicated.
Wrestling, cockfighting (with metal spurs), picnics, a kind of
drafts, gambling with dice, and football are all referred to, and
were probably indulged in from a very early date.

SLAVERY

The institution of slavery existed among the Yamato. It will be
presently spoken of.

POSITION OF WOMEN

There is evidence to show that in the prehistoric age a high position
was accorded to women and that their rights received large
recognition. The facts that the first place in the Japanese pantheon
was assigned to a goddess; that the throne was frequently occupied by
Empresses; that females were chiefs of tribes and led armies on
campaign; that jealous wives turned their backs upon faithless
husbands; that mothers chose names for their children and often had
complete charge of their upbringing--all these things go to show that
the self-effacing rank taken by Japanese women in later ages was a
radical departure from the original canon of society. It is not to be
inferred, however, that fidelity to the nuptial tie imposed any check
on extra-marital relations in the case of men: it had no such effect.

ENGRAVING: "IKEBANA" FLOWER ARRANGEMENT

ENGRAVING: ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU IN UNEBI-YAMA



CHAPTER IX

THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS

JIMMU

IT is held by eminent Japanese historians that the Emperor Jimmu,
when he set out for Yamato, did not contemplate an armed campaign but
merely intended to change his capital from the extreme south to the
centre of the country. This theory is based on the words of the
address he made to his elder brothers and his sons when inviting them
to accompany him on the expedition "Why should we not proceed to
Yamato and make it the capital?"--and on the fact that, on arriving
in the Kibi district, namely, the region now divided into the three
provinces of Bizen, Bitchu, and Bingo, he made a stay of three years
for the purpose of amassing an army and provisioning it, the
perception that he would have to fight having been realized for the
first time. Subsequently he encountered strongest resistance at the
hands of Prince Nagasune, whose title of Hiko (Child of the Sun)
showed that he belonged to the Yamato race, and who exercised
military control under the authority of Nigihayahi, elder brother of
Jimmu's father. This Nigihayahi had been despatched from the
continental realm of the Yamato--wherever that may have been--at a
date prior to the despatch of his younger brother, Ninigi, for the
purpose of subjugating the "land of fair rice-ears and fertile reed
plains," but of the incidents of his expedition history takes no
notice: it merely shows him as ruling in Yamato at the time of
Jimmu's arrival there, and describes how Nigihayahi, having been
convinced by a comparison of weapons of war that Jimmu was of his own
lineage, surrendered the authority to him and caused, Prince Nagasune
to be put to death.

From a chronological point of view it is difficult to imagine the
co-existence of Jimmu and his great-granduncle, but the story may
perhaps be accepted in so far as it confirms the tradition that, in
prosecuting his Yamato campaign, Jimmu received the submission of
several chieftains (Kami) belonging to the same race as himself.
Reference to these facts is essential to an understanding of the
class distinctions found in the Japanese social system. All the
chieftains who led the expedition from Kyushu were subsequently
designated Tenshin--a term which may be conveniently rendered "Kami
of the descent"--and all those who, like Nigihayahi, had previously
been in occupation of the country, were styled kum-tsu-Kami,
or "territorial Kami." Another method of distinguishing was
to include the former in the Kwobetsu and the latter in the
Shimbetsu--distinctions which will be more fully explained
hereafter--and after apotheosis the members of these two classes
became respectively "deities of heaven" and "deities of earth," a
distinction possessing historical rather than qualificatory force.

As for subdivisions, the head of a Kwobetsu family had the title of
omi (grandee) and the head of a Shimbetsu family that of muraji
(chief). Thus, the organization of the State depended primarily on
the principle of ancestor worship. The sceptre descended by divine
right without any regard to its holder's competence, while the
administrative posts were filled by men of the same race with a
similar hereditary title. Aliens like the Yezo, the Tsuchi-gumo, and
the Kumaso were either exterminated or made slaves (nuhi).

THE TERM "YAMATO"

As to the term "Yamato," it appears that, in the earliest times, the
whole country now called Japan was known as Yamato, and that
subsequently the designation became restricted to the province which
became the seat of government. The Chinese, when they first took
cognizance of the islands lying on their east, seem to have applied
the name Wado--pronounced "Yamato" by the Japanese--to the tribes
inhabiting the western shores of Japan, namely, the Kumaso or the
Tsuchi-gumo, and in writing the word they used ideographs conveying a
sense of contempt. The Japanese, not unnaturally, changed these
ideographs to others having the same sounds but signifying "great
peace." At a later time the Chinese or the Koreans began to designate
these eastern islands, Jih-pen, or "Sunrise Island," a term which, in
the fifteenth century, was perverted by the Dutch into Japan.

THE FIRST NINE EMPERORS

In attempting to construct coherent annals out of the somewhat
fragmentary Japanese histories of remote ages, the student is
immediately confronted by chronological difficulties. Apart from the
broad fact that the average age of the first seventeen Emperors from
Jimmu downwards is 109 years, while the average age of the next
seventeen is only sixty-one and a half years, there are
irreconcilable discrepancies in some of the dates themselves. Thus,
according to the Records, the eighth Emperor, Kogen, died at
fifty-seven, but according to the Chronicles he ascended the throne
at fifty-nine and reigned fifty-six years. Again, whereas the ninth
sovereign, Kaikwa, is by the Records given a life of only sixty-three
years, the Chronicles make him assume the sceptre at fifty-one and
wield it for fifty-nine years. Such conflicts of evidence are fatal
to confidence. Nor do they disappear wholly until the beginning of
the fifth century, at which time, moreover, the incidents of Japanese
history receive their first confirmation from the history of China
and Korea.

It is therefore not extravagant to conclude that the first ten and a
half centuries covered by Japanese annals must be regarded as
prehistoric. On the other hand, the incidents attributed to this long
interval are not by any means of such a nature as to suggest
deliberate fabrication. An annalist who was also a courtier, applying
himself to construct the story of his sovereign's ancestors, would
naturally be disposed to embellish his pages with narratives of great
exploits and brilliant achievements. Neither the Records nor the
Chronicles can be said to display such a propensity in any marked
degree. The Chronicles do, indeed, draw upon the resources of Chinese
history to construct ethical codes and scholarly diction for their
Imperial figures, but the Records show no traces of adventitious
colour nor make an attempt to minimize the evil and magnify the good.

Thus, while it is evident that to consolidate Jimmu's conquest and to
establish order among the heterogeneous elements of his empire he
must have been followed by rulers of character and prowess, the
annals show nothing of the kind. On the contrary, the reigns of his
eight immediate successors are barren of all striking incident. The
closing chapter of Jimmu himself is devoted chiefly to his amours,
and the opening page in the life of his immediate successor, Suisei,
shows that the latter reached the throne by assassinating his elder
brother. For the rest, the annals of the eight sovereigns who reigned
during the interval between 561 and 98 B.C. recount mainly the
polygamous habits of these rulers and give long genealogies of the
noble families founded by their offspring--a dearth of romance which
bears strong witness to the self-restraint of the compilers. We learn
incidentally that on his accession each sovereign changed the site of
his palace, seldom passing, however, beyond the limits of the
province of Yamato, and we learn, also, that the principle of
primogeniture, though generally observed, was often violated.

HSU FUH

A Japanese tradition assigns to the seventy-second year of the reign
of Korei the advent of a Chinese Taoist, by name Hsu Fuh. Korei,
seventh in descent from Jimmu, held the sceptre from 290 to 215 B.C.,
and the seventy-second year of his reign fell, therefore, in 219 B.C.
Now, to the east of the town of Shingu in Kii province, at a place on
the seashore in the vicinity of the site of an ancient castle, there
stands a tomb bearing the inscription "Grave of Hsu Fuh from China,"
and near it are seven tumuli said to be the burial-places of Hsu's
companions. Chinese history states that Hsu Fuh was a learned man who
served the first Emperor of the Chin dynasty (255-206 B.C.), and that
he obtained his sovereign's permission to sail to the islands of the
east in search of the elixir of life. Setting out from Yentai (the
present Chefoo) in his native province of Shantung, Hsu landed at
Kumano in the Kii promontory, and failing to find the elixir,
preferred to pass his life in Japan rather than to return
unsuccessful to the Court of the tyranical Chin sovereign, burner of
the books and builder of the Great Wall. A poem composed in the Sung
dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) says that when Hsu Fuh set out, the books had
not been burned, and that a hundred volumes thus survived in his
keeping. Of course, the date assigned by Japanese tradition to the
coming of Hsu may have been adapted to Chinese history, and it
therefore furnishes no evidence as to the accuracy of the Chronicles'
chronology. But the existence of the tomb may be regarded as proving
that some communication took place between China and Japan at that
remote epoch.*

*The route taken by Hsu Fuh namely, from Chefoo down the China Sea
and round the south of Japan is difficult to understand.

THE TENTH EMPEROR, SUJIN

The reign of this sovereign (97-30 B.C.) is the first eventful period
since the death of Jimmu. It is memorable for the reorganization of
religious rites; for the extension of the effective sway of the
Throne, and for the encouragement of agriculture. When the first
Emperor installed the sacred insignia in the palace where he himself
dwelt, the instinct of filial piety and the principle of ancestor
worship were scarcely distinguishable. But as time passed and as the
age of the Kami became more remote, a feeling of awe began to pervade
the rites more strongly than a sense of family affection, and the
idea of residing and worshipping in the same place assumed a
character of sacrilege. This may have been directly suggested by a
pestilence which, decimating the nation, was interpreted as implying
the need of greater purity. A replica of the sacred mirror was
manufactured, and the grandson of the great worker in metal
Mahitotsu, the "One-eyed" was ordered to forge an imitation of the
sacred sword. These imitations, together with the sacred jewel, were
kept in the palace, but the originals were transferred to Kasanui in
Yamato, where a shrine for the worship of the Sun goddess had been
built. But though the pestilence was stayed, it brought an aftermath
of lawlessness and produced much unrest in the regions remote from
Yamato. Sujin therefore organized a great military movement, the
campaign of the Shido shogun, or "Generalissimo of the four
Circuits."*

*The term "do" indicates a group of provinces.

The leaders chosen for this task were all members of the Imperial
family--a great-uncle, an uncle, a younger brother, and a first
cousin of the Emperor--and the fields of operation assigned to them
were: first, to the west along the northern shore of the Inland Sea;
secondly, to the northwest into Tamba, Tango, and Tajima; thirdly, to
the north along the sea of Japan, and finally to the east along the
route now known as the Tokaido. No attempt is made by the writers of
either the Records or the Chronicles to describe the preparations for
this extensive campaign. Tradition seems to have preserved the bare
fact only.

One interesting interlude is described, however. Before the first
body of troops had passed beyond range of easy communication with
Mizugaki in Yamato, where the Court resided, the prince in command
heard a girl singing by the wayside, and the burden of her song
seemed to imply that, while foes at home menaced the capital, foes
abroad should not be attacked. The prince, halting his forces,
returned to Mizugaki to take counsel, and the Emperor's aunt
interpreted the song to signify that his Majesty's half-brother,
Haniyasu, who governed the adjacent province of Yamato, was plotting
treason. Then all the troops having been recalled, preparations to
guard the capital were made, and soon afterwards, news came that
Haniyasu, at the head of an army, was advancing from the direction of
Yamashiro, while his wife, Ata, was leading another force from Osaka,
the plan being to unite the two armies for the attack on Yamato. The
Emperor's generals at once assumed the offensive. They moved first
against Princess Ata, killed her and exterminated her forces; after
which they dealt similarly with Haniyasu. This chapter of history
illustrates the important part taken by women in affairs of State at
that epoch, and incidentally confirms the fact that armour was worn
by men in battle.

The four Imperial generals were now able to resume their temporarily
interrupted campaigns. According to the Chronicles they completed the
tasks assigned to them and returned to the capital within six months.
But such chronology cannot be reconciled with facts. For it is
related that the generals sent northward by the western seaboard and
the eastern seaboard, respectively, came together at Aizu,* one
reaching that place via Hitachi, the other via Echigo. Thus, it would
result that Yamato armies at that remote epoch marched hundreds of
miles through country in the face of an enemy within a few months.
Further, to bring the aboriginal tribes into subjugation, an isolated
campaign would have been quite inadequate. Some kind of permanent
control was essential, and there is collateral evidence that the
descendants of the four princely generals, during many generations,
occupied the position of provincial magnates and exercised virtually
despotic sway within the localities under their jurisdiction. Thus in
the provinces of Omi, of Suruga, of Mutsu, of Iwashiro, of Iwaki, of
Echigo, of Etchu, of Echizen, of Bizen, of Bitchu, of Bingo, of
Harima, of Tamba, and elsewhere, there are found in later ages noble
families all tracing their descent to one or another of the Shido
shoguns despatched on the task of pacifying the country in the days
of the Emperor Sujin. The genealogies which fill pages of the Records
from the days of Jimmu downwards point clearly to the growth of a
powerful feudal aristocracy, for the younger sons born to successive
sovereigns bear, for the most part, names indicative of territorial
lordship; but it seems justifiable to conclude that the first great
impetus to that kind of decentralization was given by Sujin's
despatch of the Shido shoguns.

*Hence the term "Aizu," form, signifies "to meet."

AGRICULTURE AND TAXATION

The digging of reservoirs and tunnels for irrigating rice-fields
received unprecedented attention in the reign of this Emperor, and
mention is for the first time made of taxes--tributes of "bow-notches
and of finger-tips," in other words, the produce of the chase and the
products of the loom. A census was taken for taxation purposes, but
unhappily the results are nowhere recorded. The Court gave itself
some concern about maritime transport also. A rescript ordered that
ships should be built by every province, but nothing is stated as to
their dimensions or nature. In this rescript it is mentioned that
"the people of the coast not having ships, suffer grievously by land
transport." What they suffered may be inferred from a description in
the Chronicles where we read that at the building of the tomb of a
princess, "the people, standing close to each other, passed the
stones from hand to hand, and thus transported them from Osaka to
Yamato."

FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

Korea, when Japanese history is first explicitly concerned with it,
was peopled by a number of semi-independent tribes, and the part of
the peninsula lying southward of the Han River--that is to say,
southward of the present Seoul--comprised three kingdoms. Of these
Ma-Han occupied the whole of the western half of the peninsula along
the coast of the Yellow Sea; while Sin-Han and Pyong-Han formed the
eastern half, lying along the shore of the Sea of Japan. The three
were collectively spoken of as Sam-Han (the three Han). But Japan's
relations with the peninsula did not always involve these major
divisions. Her annals speak of Shiragi (or Sinra), Kara, Kudara, and
Koma. Shiragi and Kara were principalities carved respectively out of
the southeast and south of Pyong-Han. Thus, they lay nearest to
Japan, the Korea Strait alone intervening, and the Korea Strait was
almost bridged by islands. Kudara constituted the modern Seoul and
its vicinity; Koma, (called also Korai and in Korea, Kokuli), the
modern Pyong-yang and its district. These two places were rendered
specially accessible by the rivers Han and Tadong which flowed
through them to the Yellow Sea; but of course in this respect they
could not compare with Shiragi (Sinra) and Kara, of which latter
place the Japanese usually spoke as Mimana.

There can scarcely be any doubt that the Korean peninsula was largely
permeated with Chinese influences from a very early date, but the
processes which produced that result need not be detailed here. It
has been also shown above that, in the era prior to Jimmu,
indications are found of intercourse between Japan and Korea, and
even that Susanoo and his son held sway in Shiragi. But the first
direct reference made by Japanese annals to Korea occurs in the reign
of Sujin, 33 B.C. when an envoy from Kara arrived at the Mizugaki
Court, praying that a Japanese general might be sent to compose a
quarrel which had long raged between Kara and Shiragi, and to take
the former under Japan's protection. It appears that this envoy had
travelled by a very circuitous route. He originally made the port of
Anato (modern Nagato), but Prince Itsutsu, who ruled there, claimed
to be the sole monarch of Japan and refused to allow the envoy to
proceed, so that the latter had to travel north and enter Japan via
Kehi-no-ura (now Tsuruga.)

Incidentally this narrative corroborates a statement made in Chinese
history (compiled in the Later Han era, A.D. 25-220) to the effect
that many Japanese provinces claimed to be under hereditary rulers
who exercised sovereign rights. Such, doubtless, was the attitude
assumed by several of the Imperial descendants who had obtained
provincial estates. The Emperor Sujin received the envoy courteously
and seemed disposed to grant his request, but his Majesty's death (30
B.C.) intervened, and not until two years later was the envoy able to
return. His mission had proved abortive, but the Emperor Suinin,
Sujin's successor, gave him some red-silk fabrics to carry home and
conferred on his country the name Mimana, in memory of Sujin, whose
appellation during life had been Mimaki.

These details furnish an index to the relations that existed in that
era between the neighbouring states of the Far East. The special
interest of the incident lies, however, in the fact that it furnishes
the first opportunity of comparing Japanese history with Korean. The
latter has two claims to credence. The first is that it assigns no
incredible ages to the sovereigns whose reigns it records. According
to Japanese annals there were only seven accessions to the throne of
Yamato during the first four centuries of the Christian era.
According to Korean annals, the three peninsular principalities had
sixteen, seventeen, and sixteen accessions, respectively, in the same
interval. The second claim is that, during the same four centuries,
the histories of China and Korea agree in ten dates and differ in two
only.* On the whole, therefore, Korean annals deserve to be credited.
But whereas Japanese history represents warfare as existing between
Kara and Shiragi in 33 B.C., Korean history represents the conflict
as having broken out in A.D. 77. There is a difference of just 110
years, and the strong probability of accuracy is on the Korean side.

*For a masterly analysis of this subject see a paper on Early
Japanese History by Mr. W. G. Aston in Vol. XVI of the "Translations
of the Asiatic Society of Japan."

THE ELEVENTH SOVEREIGN, SUININ (29 B.C.--A.D. 70)

Suinin, second son of his predecessor, obtained the throne by a
process which frankly ignored the principle of primogeniture. For
Sujin, having an equal affection for his two sons, confessed himself
unable to choose which of them should be his successor and was
therefore guided by a comparison of their dreams, the result being
that the younger was declared Prince Imperial, and the elder became
duke of the provinces of Kamitsuke (now Kotsuke) and Shimotsuke.
Suinin, like all the monarchs of that age, had many consorts: nine
are catalogued in the Records and their offspring numbered sixteen,
many of whom received local titles and had estates conferred in the
provinces. In fact, this process of ramifying the Imperial family
went on continuously from reign to reign.

There are in the story of this sovereign some very pathetic elements.
Prince Saho, elder brother of the Empress, plotted to usurp the
throne. Having cajoled his sister into an admission that her brother
was dearer than her husband, he bade her prove it by killing the
Emperor in his sleep. But when an opportunity offered to perpetrate
the deed as the sovereign lay sleeping with her knees as pillow, her
heart melted, and her tears, falling on the Emperor's face, disturbed
his slumber. He sought the cause of her distress, and learning it,
sent a force to seize the rebel. Remorse drove the Empress to die
with Prince Saho. Carrying her little son, she entered the fort where
her brother with his followers had taken refuge. The Imperial troops
set fire to the fort--which is described as having been built with
rice-bags piled up--and the Empress emerged with the child in her
arms; but having thus provided for its safety, she fled again to the
fort and perished with her brother. This terrible scene appears to
have given the child such a shock that he lost the use of speech, and
the Records devote large space to describing the means employed for
the amusement of the child, the long chase and final capture of a
swan whose cry, as it flew overhead, had first moved the youth to
speech, and the cure ultimately effected by building a shrine for the
worship of the deity of Izumo, who, in a previous age, had been
compelled to abdicate the sovereignty of the country in favour of a
later descendant of the Sun goddess, and whose resentment was
thereafter often responsible for calamities overtaking the Court or
the people of Japan.

THE ISE SHRINE AND THE PRACTICE OF JUNSHI

Two events specially memorable in this reign were the transfer of the
shrine of the Sun goddess to Ise, where it has remained ever since,
and the abolition of the custom of junshi, or following in death. The
latter shocking usage, a common rite of animistic religion, was in
part voluntary, in part compulsory. In its latter aspect it came
vividly under the notice of the Emperor Suinin when the tomb of his
younger brother, Yamato, having been built within earshot of the
palace, the cries of his personal attendants, buried alive around his
grave, were heard, day and night, until death brought silence. In the
following year (A.D. 3), the Empress having died, a courtier,
Nomi-no-Sukune, advised the substitution of clay figures for the
victims hitherto sacrificed. Nominally, the practice of compulsory
junshi ceased from that date,* but voluntary junshi continued to find
occasional observance until modern times.

*Of course it is to be remembered that the dates given by Japanese
historians prior to the fifth century A.D. are very apocryphal.

WRESTLING

The name of Nomi-no-Sukune is associated with the first mention of
wrestling in Japanese history. By the Chronicles a brief account is
given of a match between Nomi and Taema-no-Kuehaya. The latter was
represented to be so strong that he could break horns and straighten
hooks. His frequently expressed desire was to find a worthy
competitor. Nomi-no-Sukune, summoned from Izumo by the Emperor, met
Kuehaya in the lists of the palace of Tamaki and kicked him to death.
Wrestling thereafter became a national pastime, but its methods
underwent radical change, kicking being abolished altogether.

FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

It is believed by Japanese historians that during the reign of Suinin
a local government station (chinju-fu) was established in Anra
province of Mimana, and that this station, subsequently known as
Nippon-fu, was transferred to Tsukushi (Kyushu) and named Dazai-fu
when Japan's influence in Mimana waned. The first general (shoguri)
of the chinju-fu was Prince Shihotari, and the term kishi--which in
Korea signified headman--was thenceforth incorporated into his family
name. To the members of that family in later generations was
entrusted the conduct of the Empire's foreign affairs. But it does
not appear that the Imperial Court in Yamato paid much attention to
oversea countries in early eras. Intercourse with these was
conducted, for the most part, by the local magnates who held sway in
the western regions of Japan.

It was during the reign of Suinin, if Japanese chronology be
accepted, that notices of Japan began to appear in Chinese history--a
history which justly claims to be reliable from 145 B.C. Under the
Later Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220), great progress was made in
literature and art by the people of the Middle Kingdom, and this
progress naturally extended, not only to Korea, which had been
conquered by the Chinese sovereign, Wu-Ti, in the second century
before Christ and was still partly under the rule of Chinese
governors, but also to the maritime regions of Japan, whence the
shores of Korea were almost within sight. China in those ages was
incomparably the greatest and most enlightened country in the Orient,
and it had become the custom with adjacent States to send emissaries
to her Court, bearing gifts which she handsomely requited; so that
while, from one point of view, the envoys might be regarded as
tribute-carriers, from another, the ceremony presented the character
of a mere interchange of neighbourly civilities. In Japan, again,
administrative centralization was still imperfect. Some of the local
magnates had not yet been brought fully under the sway of the Yamato
invaders, and some, as scions of the Imperial family, arrogated a
considerable measure of independence. Thus it resulted that several
of these provincial dukes--or "kings," as not a few of them were
called--maintained relations with Korea, and through her despatched
tribute missions to the Chinese Court from time to time.

In these circumstances it is not surprising to find the Chinese
historians of the first century A.D. writing: "The Wa (Japanese)
dwell southeast of Han* (Korea) on a mountainous island in midocean.
Their country is divided into more than one hundred provinces. Since
the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew Korea, they (the
Japanese) have communicated with the Han (Korean) authorities by
means of a postal service. There are thirty-two provinces which do
so, all of which style their rulers 'kings' who are hereditary. The
sovereign of Great Wa resides in Yamato, distant 12,000 li (4000
miles) from the frontier of the province of Yolang (the modern
Pyong-yang in Korea). In the second year of Chung-yuan (A.D. 57), in
the reign of Kwang-wu, the Ito** country sent an envoy with tribute,
who styled himself Ta-fu. He came from the most western part of the
Wa country. Kwang-wu presented him with a seal and ribbon." [Aston's
translation.]

*It is necessary to distinguish carefully between the Han dynasty of
China and the term "Han" as a designation of Korea.

**The ideographs composing this word were pronounced "I-to" at the
time when they were written by the Hou-Han historians, but they
subsequently received the sound of "Wo-nu" or "wa-do."

These passages have provoked much discussion, but Japanese annalists
are for the most part agreed that "Ito" should be read "I-no-na,"
which corresponds with the ancient Na-no-Agata, the present Naka-gori
in Chikuzen, an identification consistent with etymology and
supported by the fact that, in 1764, a gold seal supposed to be the
original of the one mentioned above, was dug out of the ground in
that region. In short, Na-no-Agata is identical with the ancient
Watazumi-no-Kuni, which was one of the countries of Japan's
intercourse. Further, the Yamato of the Hou-Han historians is not to
be regarded as the province of that name in central Japan, but as one
of the western districts, whether Yamato in Higo, or Yamato in
Chikugo. It has been shrewdly suggested* that the example of Korea
had much influence in inducing the local rulers in the western and
southern provinces to obtain the Chinese Court's recognition of their
administrative status, but, whatever may have been the dominant
motive, it seems certain that frequent intercourse took place between
Japan and China via Korea immediately before and after the beginning
of the Christian era. Again, that Koreans came freely to Japan and
settled there is attested by the case of a son of the King of Shiragi
who, coming to the Tajima region, took a Japanese wife and
established himself there, founding a distinguished family. The
closing episode of the Emperor Suinin's life was the despatch of
Tajima Mori, this immigrant's descendant, to the country of Tokoyo,
nominally for the purpose of obtaining orange-seeds, but probably
with the ulterior motive of exploration.

*By Dr. Ariga, an eminent Japanese authority.

The reader is already familiar with this Tokoyo-no-Kuni (Eternal
Land). We hear of it first as the home of "long-singing birds"
summoned to take part in enticing the Sun goddess from her cave. Then
it figures as the final retreat of Sukuna-hikona, the Aescalapius of
the mythological age. Then we find one of Jimmu's elder brothers
treading on the waves to reach it. Then we hear of it as the
birthplace of the billows that make Ise their bourne, and now it is
described by Tajima Mori in his death-song as the "mysterious realm
of gods and genii," so distant that ten years were needed to reach it
and return. It appears in fact to have been an epithet for China in
general, and the destination of Tajima Mori is believed to have been
Shantung, to reach which place by sea from Japan was a great feat of
navigation in those primitive days. Tajima Mori returned to find the
Emperor dead, and in despair he committed suicide.

AGRICULTURE AND ADMINISTRATION

The reclamation of land for purposes of rice cultivation went on
vigorously during Suinin's reign. More than eight hundred ponds and
aqueducts are said to have been constructed by order of the sovereign
for irrigation uses throughout the provinces. It would seem, too,
that the practice of formally consulting Court officials about
administrative problems had its origin at this time. No definite
organization for the purpose was yet created, but it became customary
to convene distinguished scions of the Imperial line and heads of
great subject-families to discuss and report upon affairs of State.
Another innovation referred to in this era was the offering of
weapons of war at the shrines. We read of as many as a thousand
swords being forged to form part of the sacred treasures at the
shrine of Ise-no-Kami, and the occasion was seized to organize a
number of hereditary corporations (be) of arm-makers and armourers.
These were placed under the control of Prince Inishiki, another of
the captains of the Imperial life-guards (mononobe-no-Obito). It is
thus evident that something more than a religious rite was involved
in these measures.

THE TWELFTH EMPEROR, KEIKO (A.D. 71--130)

According to the Records, Keiko was ten feet two inches high, and his
shank measured four feet one inch. His nomination as Prince Imperial
was an even more arbitrary violation of the right of primogeniture
than the case of his predecessor had been, for he was chosen in
preference to his elder brother merely because, when the two youths
were casually questioned as to what they wished for, the elder said,
"a bow and arrows," and the younger, "the empire." The delusive
nature of the Nihongi's chronology in these prehistoric epochs is
exemplified in the annals of this sovereign, for he is represented as
having been in his eighty-third year when he ascended the throne,
yet, in the third year of his reign, he took a consort who bore him
thirteen children, and altogether his progeny numbered eighty sons
and daughters by seven wives. His plan of providing for these
numerous scions constituted the first systematization of a custom
which had been observed in a fitful manner by several of his
predecessors. They had given to their sons local titles and estates
but had not required them to leave the capital. Keiko, however,
appointed his sons, with three exceptions, to the position of
provincial or district viceroy, preserving their Imperial connexion
by calling them wake, or branch families. This subject will present
itself for further notice during the reign of Keiko's successor.

One of the most memorable events in this epoch was the Emperor's
military expedition in person to quell the rebellious Kumaso (q.v.)
in Kyushu. There had not been any instance of the sovereign taking
the field in person since Jimmu's time, and the importance attaching
to the insurrection is thus shown. Allowance has to be made, however,
for the fact that the territory held by these Kumaso in the south of
Kyushu was protected by a natural rampart of stupendous mountain
ranges which rendered military access arduous, and which, in after
ages, enabled a great feudatory to defy the Central Government for
centuries. In connexion with this expedition a noteworthy fact is
that female chieftains were found ruling in the provinces of Suwo and
Bingo. They were not aliens, but belonged to the Yamato race, and
their existence goes far to account for the appellation, "Queens'
Country," applied by Chinese historians to the only part of Japan
with which the people of the Middle Kingdom were familiar, namely,
Kyushu and the west-coast provinces. Keiko's reign is remarkable
chiefly for this expedition to the south, which involved a residence
of six years in Hyuga, and for the campaigns of one of the greatest
of Japan's heroes, Prince Yamato-dake. The military prowess of the
sovereign, the fighting genius of Yamato-dake, and the administrative
ability of Takenouchi-no-Sukune, the first "prime minister" mentioned
in Japanese history, combined to give signal eclat to the reign of
Keiko.

Arriving at this stage of the annals, we are able to perceive what an
influence was exercised on the fortunes of the country by its
topographical features. The southwestern sections of the islands are
comparatively accessible from the centre (Chogoku or Kinai), whether
by sea or by land, but the northeastern are guarded by mountain
chains which can be crossed only by arduous and easily defended
passes. It was, therefore, in these northeastern provinces that the
Yemishi maintained their independence until their strength was broken
by the splendid campaign of Yamato-dake; it was in these northeastern
provinces that the bushi, noblest product of Japanese civilization,
was nurtured; it was in the same provinces that the Taira family made
its brilliant debut, and it was by abandoning these provinces for the
sweets of Kyoto that the Taira fell; it was in the north-eastern
provinces that Minamoto Yoritomo, the father of military feudalism,
established himself, to be followed in succession by the Hojo, the
Ashikaga, and the Tokugawa, and it is in the northeastern provinces
that the Meiji Government has its seat of power.

We can not wonder, therefore, that modern historiographers have
devoted much labour to tracing the route followed by Yamato-dake's
troops and rationalizing the figurative or miraculous features of the
narratives told in the Kojiki and the Nihongi. It is enough to know,
however, that he overran the whole region stretching from the
provinces along the Eastern Sea as far as Iwaki; crossed westward
through Iwashiro to Echigo on the west coast, and turning southward,
made his way through Shinano and Mino to Owari, whence, suffering
from a wound caused by a poisoned arrow, he struggled on to Ise and
died there. This campaign seems to have occupied ten years, and
Yamato-dake was only thirty at the time of his death. He had marched
against the Kumaso in the south at the age of sixteen. The Chronicles
relate that when crossing the Usui Pass and looking down on the sea
where his loved consort had cast herself into the waves to quell
their fury, the great warrior sighed thrice and exclaimed, "My wife,
my wife, my wife!" (Ago, tsuma haya), whereafter the provinces east
of the mountain were designated Azuma.

It was imagined until quite recent times that the pass referred to
was the well-known Usui Toge on the Nakasendo road; but Dr. Kume has
shown that such a supposition is inconsistent with any rational
itinerary of Yamato-dake's march, and that the sea in question cannot
be seen from that defile. The pass mentioned in the Chronicles is
another of the same name not far from the Hakone region, and the term
"Azuma" "had always been used to designate the Eastern Provinces."
Throughout the Records and the Chronicles frequent instances occur of
attempts to derive place-names from appropriate legends, but probably
in many cases the legend was suggested by the name. In connexion with
Yamato-dake's career, a circumstance is recorded which indirectly
points to the absence of history at that period. In order to
immortalize the memory of the hero, hereditary corporations (be)
called after him were created. These Take-be gave their names to the
districts where they lived, in Ise, Izumo, Mimasaka, and Bizen.

FEMALE HOSTAGES

Another custom inaugurated by this sovereign was to require that the
rulers of provinces should send to the Yamato Court female hostages.
The first example of this practice took place on the occasion of an
Imperial visit to the regions overrun by Yamato-dake's forces. Each
of twelve kuni-yatsuko (provincial rulers) was required to send one
damsel for the purpose of serving in the culinary department of the
palace. They were called makura-ko (pillow-child) and they seem to
have been ultimately drafted into the ranks of the uneme
(ladies-in-waiting). Japanese historians hold that the makura-ko were
daughters of the local magnates by whom they were sent, though the
fact of that relationship is not clearly stated in either the Records
or the Chronicles.

TABE AND MIYAKE

In the annals of Suinin's reign brief reference is made to granaries
(miyake) erected by order of the Court. The number of these was
increased in Keiko's time, and it is further mentioned that a
hereditary corporation of rice-field cultivators (tabe) were
organized for service on the Imperial estates. The miyake were at
once storehouse and offices for administering agricultural affairs.

THE THIRTEENTH EMPEROR, SEIMU (A.D. 131--190)

The thirteenth Emperor, Seimu, occupied the throne for fifty-nine
years, according to the Chronicles, but the only noteworthy feature
of his reign was the organization of local government, and the
details of his system are so vaguely stated as to be incomprehensible
without much reference and some hypotheses. Speaking broadly, the
facts are these: Imperial princes who had distinguished themselves by
evidences of ability or courage were despatched to places of special
importance in the provinces, under the name of wake, a term conveying
the signification of "branch of the Imperial family." There is reason
to think that these appointments were designed to extend the prestige
of the Court rather than to facilitate the administration of
provincial affairs. The latter duty was entrusted to officials called
kuni-no-miyatsuko and agata-nushi, which may be translated
"provincial governor" and "district headman." The word miyatsuko
literally signifies "honourable (mi) servant (yatsuko or yakko)."

In the most ancient times all subjects were yakko, but subsequently
those holding office at Court were distinguished as omi (grandee).
Persons eligible for the post of provincial governor seem to have
been chosen from among men of merit, or Imperial princes, or chiefs
of aboriginal tribes. There was little exclusiveness in this respect.
The rate of expansion of the area under Imperial sway may be inferred
from the fact that whereas there were nine provinces (kuni) in
Jimmu's time, one was added by Kaikwa, eleven by Sujin, seven by
Keiko, and sixty-three by Seimu, making a total of ninety-one. Yet,
though by the time of the last named sovereign almost the whole of
the southern and central regions were included in the administrative
circle, the northern provinces, some of the western, and certain
regions in the south (Kyushu) were not yet fully wrested from the
Yemishi and the Kumaso. In subsequent reigns the rate of growth was
as follows: Chuai (A.D. 192-200), two provinces; Ojin (270-310),
twenty-one; Nintoku (313-399), seven; Hansho (406-411) and Inkyo
(412-453), one each; Yuryaku (457-459), three; Keitai (507-531), one;
and eight others at untraceable periods, the total being one hundred
thirty-five.

The agata was a division smaller than a province (kuni). It
corresponded to the modern kori or gun, and its nearest English
equivalent is "district." A distinction must be made, however,
between agata and mi-agata. The latter were Imperial domains whence
the Court derived its resources, and their dimensions varied greatly.
A smaller administrative district than the agata was the inagi.* This
we learn from a Chinese book--the Japanese annals being silent on the
subject--consisted of eighty houses, and ten inagi constituted a
kuni. The terra inagi was also applied to the chief local official of
the region, who may be designated "Mayor."

*Supposed to be derived from ine (rice) and oki (store).

THE FOURTEENTH EMPEROR, CHUAI (A.D. 192--200) AND THE EMPRESS JINGO
(A.D. 201--269)

Were the Records our sole guide, the early incidents of Chuai's reign
would be wrapped in obscurity. For when we first meet him in the
pages of the Kojiki, he is in a palace on the northern shores of the
Shimonoseki Strait, whence he soon crosses to the Kashii palace in
Kyushu. His predecessors, while invariably changing their residences
on mounting the throne, had always chosen a site for the new palace
in Yamato or a neighbouring province, but the Records, without any
explanation, carry Chuai to the far south after his accession. The
Chronicles are more explicit. From them we gather that Chuai--who was
the second son of Yamato-dake and is described as having been ten
feet high with "a countenance of perfect beauty"--was a remarkably
active sovereign. He commenced his reign by a progress to Tsuruga
(then called Tsunuga) on the west coast of the mainland, and, a month
later, he made an expedition to Kii on the opposite shore. While in
the latter province he received news of a revolt of the Kumaso, and
at once taking ship, he went by sea to Shimonoseki, whither he
summoned the Empress from Tsuruga. An expedition against the Kumaso
was then organized and partially carried out, but the Emperor's force
was beaten and he himself received a fatal arrow-wound. Both the
Records and the Chronicles relate that, on the eve of this disastrous
move against the Kumaso, the Empress had a revelation urging the
Emperor to turn his arms against Korea as the Kumaso were not worthy
of his steel. But Chuai rejected the advice with scorn, and the
Kojiki alleges that the outraged deities punished him with death,
though doubtless a Kumaso arrow was the instrument. His demise was
carefully concealed, and the Empress, mustering the troops, took
vengeance upon the Kumaso.

Thereafter her Majesty became the central figure in a page of
history--or romance--which has provoked more controversy than any
incident in Japanese annals. A descendant of the Korean prince,
Ama-no-Hihoko, who settled in the province of Tajima during the reign
of the Emperor Suinin, she must have possessed traditional knowledge
of Shiragi, whence her ancestor had emigrated. She was the third
consort of Chuai. His first had borne him two sons who were of adult
age when, in the second year of his reign, he married Jingo,* a lady
"intelligent, shrewd, and with a countenance of such blooming
loveliness that her father wondered at it." To this appreciation of
her character must be added the attributes of boundless ambition and
brave resourcefulness. The annals represent her as bent from the
outset on the conquest of Korea and as receiving the support and
encouragement of Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who had served her husband and
his predecessor as prime minister. A military expedition oversea led
by a sovereign in person had not been heard of since the days of
Jimmu, and to reconcile officials and troops to such an undertaking
the element of divine revelation had to be introduced. At every stage
signs and portents were vouchsafed by the guardian deities. By their
intervention the Empress was shown to be possessed of miraculous
prowess, and at their instance troops and ships assembled
spontaneously. The armada sailed under divine guidance, a gentle
spirit protecting the Empress, and a warlike spirit leading the van
of her forces. The god of the wind sent a strong breeze; the god of
the sea ruled the waves favourably; all the great fishes accompanied
the squadron, and an unprecendented tide bore the ships far inland.
Fighting became unnecessary. The King of Shiragi did homage at once
and promised tribute and allegiance forever, and the other monarchs
of the peninsula followed his example. In short, Korea was conquered
and incorporated with the dominions of Japan.

*It should be clearly understood that the names by which the
sovereigns are called in these pages, are the posthumous appellations
given to them in later times when Chinese ideographs came into use
and Chinese customs began to be followed in such matters. The
posthumous was compiled with reference to the character or
achievements of the sovereign, Thus Jingo signifies "divine merit,"
on account of her conquests; "Chuai" means "lamentable second son,"
with reference to his evil fate, and "Keiko" implies "great deeds."
These three sovereigns were called during life, Okinaga-Tarashi,
Tarashi-Nakatsu, and 0-Tarashi, respectively.

CRITICISM OF THE ALLEGED CONQUEST OF KOREA

By some learned historiographers the whole of the above account is
pronounced a fiction. There was no such invasion of Korea, they say,
nor does the narrative deserve more credit than the legend of the
Argonauts or the tale of Troy. But that is probably too drastic a
view. There can indeed be little doubt that the compilers of the
Nihongi embellished the bald tradition with imaginary details; used
names which did not exist until centuries after the epoch referred
to; drew upon the resources of Chinese history for the utterances
they ascribe to the Empress and for the weapons they assign to her
soldiers, and were guilty of at least two serious anachronisms.

But none of these faults disfigures the story as told in the pages of
the Kojiki, which was written before the Nihongi. It has always to be
remembered that the compilers of the latter essayed the impossible
task of adjusting a new chronology to events extending over many
centuries, and that the resulting discrepancies of dates does not
necessarily discredit the events themselves. It has also to be
remembered that the same compilers were required to robe their facts
in Chinese costume and that the consequent ill-fits and
artificialities do not of necessity vitiate the facts. In the
particular case under consideration did the Kojiki stand alone,
little doubt would ever have been entertained about the reality of an
armed expedition to Korea, under the Empress Jingo. The sober and
unexaggerated narrative of that history would have been accepted,
less only the miraculous portents which accompany it.

As to the date of the invasion, however, it must have remained
obscure: the Kojiki's narrative furnishes one clue. According to
Korean history, an apparently unimportant descent upon Sinra
(Shiragi) took place in A.D. 219; a more serious one in 233, when the
Japanese ships were burned and their crews massacred, and a still
more formidable one in 249, when a Sinra statesman who had brought on
the invasion by using insulting language towards the sovereign of
Japan in presence of a Japanese ambassador, gave himself up to the
Japanese in the hope of appeasing their anger. They burnt him, and
proceeded to besiege Keumsyong, the Sinra capital, but were
ultimately beaten off. "No less than twenty-five descents by Japanese
on the Sinra coast are mentioned in Korean history in the first five
centuries of the Christian era, but it is impossible to identify any
one of them with Jingo's expedition." [Aston.] Nevertheless, modern
Japanese historians are disposed to assign the Jingo invasion to the
year 364, when Nai-mul ruled Shiragi, from which monarch's era
tribute seems to have been regularly sent to Yamato. Indeed the pages
of the Nihongi which deal with the last sixty years of Jingo's reign
are devoted almost entirely to descriptions of incidents connected
with the receipt of tribute and the advent or despatch of envoys. The
chronology is certainly erroneous. In no less than four several cases
events obviously the same are attributed by the Korean annals to
dates differing from those of the Nihongi by exactly two cycles; and
in one important instance the Japanese work assigns to A.D. 205 an
occurrence which the Tongkan* puts in the year 418.

*Korean history. Its full title is Tong-kuk-lhong-kan.

Whichever annals be correct--and the balance sways in favour of the
Korean so far as those protohistoric eras are concerned--"there can
be no doubt that Japan, at an early period, formed an alliance with
Paikche" (spoken of in Japan as "Kudara," namely, the regions
surrounding the modern Seoul), "and laid the foundation of a
controlling power over the territory known as Imna (or Mimana), which
lasted for several centuries." [Aston.] One evidence of this control
is furnished in the establishment of an office called uchi-tsu-miyake
in addition to the chinju-fu already spoken of. From early times it
had been customary in Japan that whenever any lands were acquired, a
portion of them was included in the Imperial domain, the produce
being thenceforth stored and the affairs of the estate managed at a
miyake presided over by a mikoto-mochi. Thus, on the inclusion of
certain Korean districts in Japan's dominions, this usage was
observed, and the new miyake had the syllables uchi-tsu ("of the
interior") prefixed to distinguish it as a part of Japan. It is on
record that a mikoto-mochi was stationed in Shiragi, and in the days
of Jingo's son (Ojin) the great statesman, Takenouchi-no-Sukune, took
up his residence for a time in Tsukushi to assist this mikoto-mochi
and the chinju-fu, should occasion arise. Modern Japanese historians
describe this era as the first period of Japanese national
development, for an almost immediate result of the oversea relations
thus established was that silk and cotton fabrics of greatly improved
quality, gold, silver, iron, implements, arts, and literature were
imported in increasing quantities to the great benefit of
civilization.

SHIFTING OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE

An important change dates from the reign of Jingo. It has been shown
above that, from a period prior to the death of Suinin, the power and
influence of the Imperial princes and nobles was a constantly growing
quantity. But the political situation developed a new phase when the
Sukune family appeared upon the scene. The first evidence of this was
manifested in a striking incident. When the Emperor Chuai died, his
consort, Jingo, was enceinte* But the Emperor left two sons by a
previous marriage, and clearly one of them should have succeeded to
the throne. Nevertheless, the prime minister, Takenouchi-no-Sukune,
contrived to have the unborn child recognized as Prince Imperial.**
Naturally the deceased Emperor's two elder sons refused to be
arbitrarily set aside in favour of a baby step-brother. The principle
of primogeniture did not possess binding force in those days, but it
had never previously been violated except by the deliberate and
ostensibly reasonable choice of an Emperor. The two princes,
therefore, called their partisans to arms and prepared to resist the
return of Jingo to Yamato. Here again Takenouchi-no-Sukune acted a
great part. He carried the child by the outer sea to a place of
safety in Kii, while the forces of the Empress sailed up the Inland
Sea to meet the brothers at Naniwa (modern Osaka). Moreover, when the
final combat took place, this same Takenouchi devised a strategy
which won the day, and in every great event during the reign of the
Empress his figure stands prominent. Finally, his granddaughter
became the consort of the Emperor Nintoku (313-399), an alliance
which opened a channel for exercising direct influence upon the
Throne and also furnished a precedent adopted freely in subsequent
times by other noble families harbouring similarly ambitious aims. In
short, from the accession of the Empress Jingo a large part of the
sovereign power began to pass into the hands of the prime minister.

*As illustrating the confused chronology of the Nihongi, it may be
noted that, calculated by the incident of Chuai's career, he must
have been fully one hundred years old when he begot this child. That
is marvellous enough, but to add to the perplexity the Nihongi says
that Chuai died at fifty-two.

**The legend says of this child that its birth was artificially
delayed until the return of the empress from the Korean expedition,
but the fact seems to be that the Emperor died at the end of June and
the Empress' accouchement took place in the following April.

ENGRAVING: DEVIL WITH DRAGON HEAD (Sculptured Wood Figure in the
Museum at Kyoto)

ENGRAVING: HORSE RACE IN OLD JAPAN



CHAPTER X

THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

AT the beginning of the previous chapter brief reference was made to
the three great divisions of the inhabitants of Japan; namely, the
Shimbetsu (Kami class) the Kwobetsu (Imperial class) and the Bambetsu
(aboriginal class). The Shimbetsu comprised three sub-classes;
namely, first, the Tenjin, a term used to designate the descendants
of the great primeval trinity and of the other Kami prior to the Sun
goddess; secondly, the Tenson, or descendants of the Sun goddess to
Jimmu's father (Ugaya-fukiaezu), and thirdly, the Chigi, an
appellation applied to the chiefs found in Izumo by the envoys of the
Sun goddess and in Yamato by Jimmu--chiefs who, though deprived of
power, were recognized to be of the same lineage as their conquerors.
It is plain that few genealogical trees could be actually traced
further back than the Chigi. Hence, for all practical purposes, the
Shimbetsu consisted of the descendants of vanquished chiefs, and the
fact was tacitly acknowledged by assigning to this class the second
place in the social scale, though the inclusion of the Tenjin and the
Tenson should have assured its precedence. The Kwobetsu comprised all
Emperors and Imperial princes from Jimmu downwards. This was the
premier class. The heads of all its families possessed as a
birthright the title of omi (grandee), while the head of a Shimbetsu
family was a muraji (group-chief). The Bambetsu ranked incomparably
below either the Kwobetsu or the Shimbetsu. It consisted of
foreigners who had immigrated from China or Korea and of aboriginal
tribes alien to the Yamato race. Members of the Ban class were
designated yakko (or yatsuko), a term signifying "subject" or
"servant."

THE UJI

In addition to the above three-class distribution, the whole Yamato
nation was divided into uji, or families. An uji founded by one of
the Tenson took precedence of all others, the next in rank being one
with an Imperial prince for ancestor, and after the latter came the
families of the Tenjin and Chigi. All that could not thus trace their
genealogy were attached to the various uji in a subordinate capacity.
It is not to be supposed that one of these families consisted simply
of a husband and wife, children, and servants. There were great uji
and small uji, the former comprising many of the latter, and the
small uji including several households. In fact, the small uji
(ko-uji) may be described as a congeries of from fifty to ninety
blood relations.

In the uji the principle of primogeniture was paramount. A successor
to the headship of an uji must be the eldest son of an eldest son.
Thus qualified, he became the master of the household, ruled the
whole family, and controlled its entire property. The chief of an
ordinary uji (uji no Kami) governed all the households constituting
it, and the chief of a great uji (o-uji no Kami) controlled all the
small uji of which it was composed. In addition to the members of a
family, each uji, small and great alike, had a number of dependants
(kakibe or tomobe). In colloquial language, an o-uji was the original
family; a ko-uji, a branch family. For example, if the Abe family be
considered, Abe-uji is a great uji (o-uji), while such names as Abe
no Shii, Abe no Osada, Abe no Mutsu, etc., designate small uji
(ko-uji). If a great uji was threatened with extinction through lack
of heir, the proper Kami of a small uji succeeded to the vacant
place. As for the kakibe or tomobe, they were spoken of as "so and so
of such and such an uji:" they had no uji of their own.

All complications of minor importance were dealt with by the Kami* of
the uji in which they occurred, consultation being held with the Kami
of the appropriate o-uji in great cases. Reference was not made to
the Imperial Court except in serious matters. On the other hand,
commands from the sovereign were conveyed through the head of an
o-uji, so that the chain of responsibility was well defined. An
interesting feature of this ancient organization was that nearly
every uji had a fixed occupation which was hereditary, the name of
the occupation being prefixed to that of the uji. Thus, the uji of
gem-polishers was designated Tamatsukuri-uji, and that of boat
builders, Fune-uji.

*An uji no Kami was called uji no choja in later ages.

There were also uji whose members, from generation to generation,
acted as governors of provinces (kuni no miyatsuko) or headmen of
districts (agata-nushi). In these cases the name of the region was
prefixed to the uji; as Munakata-uji, Izumo-uji, etc. Finally, there
were uji that carried designations given by the sovereign in
recognition of meritorious deeds. These designations took the form of
titles. Thus the captor of a crane, at sight of which a dumb prince
recovered his speech, was called Totori no Miyatsuko (the
bird-catching governor), and Nomi-no-Sukune, who devised the
substitution of clay figures (haniwa) for human sacrifices at
Imperial obsequies, was designated as Hashi no Omi (the Pottery
Grandee).

THE TOMOBE

The tomobe (attendants)--called also mure (the herd) or kakibe
(domestics)--constituted an important element of the people. They
were, in fact, serfs. We find them first spoken of in an active role
as being sent to the provinces to provide foodstuffs for the Imperial
household, and in that capacity they went by the name of provincial
Imibe. Perhaps the most intelligible description of them is that they
constituted the peasant and artisan class, and that they were
attached to the uji in subordinate positions for purposes of manual
labour. By degrees, when various kinds of productive operations came
to be engaged in as hereditary pursuits, the tomobe were grouped
according to the specialty of the uji to which they wore attached,
and we hear of Kanuchibe, or the corporation of blacksmiths; Yumibe,
or the corporation of bow-makers; Oribe, or the corporation of
weavers, and so on.

It is not to be supposed, however, that all the tomobe were thus
organized as special classes. Such was the case only when the
uji to which they belonged pursued some definite branch of
productive work. Moreover, there were corporations instituted
for purposes quite independent of industry; namely, to perpetuate
the memory of an Imperial or princely personage who had died without
issue or without attaining ancestral rank. Such tomobe were
collectively known as nashiro (namesakes) or koshiro (child
substitutes). For example, when Prince Itoshi, son of the Emperor
Suinin, died without leaving a son to perpetuate his name, the
Itoshibe was established for that purpose; and when Prince
Yamato-dake perished without ascending the throne, the Takebe was
formed to preserve the memory of his achievements. A be thus
organized on behalf of an Emperor had the title of toneri
(chamberlain) suffixed. Thus, for the Emperor Ohatsuse (known in
history as Yuryaku) the Hatsuse-be-no-toneri was formed; and for
the Emperor Shiraga (Seinei), the Shiraga-be-no-toneri. There can be
little doubt that underlying the creation of these nashiro was the
aim of extending the Imperial estates, as well as the number of
subjects over whom the control of the Throne could be exercised
without the intervention of an uji no Kami. For it is to be observed
that the sovereign himself was an o-uji no Kami, and all tomobe
created for nashiro purposes or to discharge some other functions
in connexion with the Court were attached to the Imperial uji.

TAMIBE

Another kind of be consisted of aliens who had been naturalized in
Japan or presented to the Japanese Throne by foreign potentates.
These were formed into tamibe (corporations of people). They became
directly dependent upon the Court, and they devoted themselves to
manufacturing articles for the use of the Imperial household. These
naturalized persons were distinguished, in many cases, by technical
skill or literary attainments. Hence they received treatment
different from that given to ordinary tomobe, some of them being
allowed to assume the title and enjoy the privilege of uji,
distinguished, however, as uji of the Bambetsu. Thus, the descendants
of the seamstresses, E-hime and Oto-hime, and of the weavers,
Kure-hatori and Ana-hatori, who were presented to the Yamato Court by
an Emperor of the Wu dynasty in China, were allowed to organize
themselves into Kinu-nui-uji (uji of Silk-robe makers); and that a
Hata-uji (Weavers' uji) was similarly organized is proved by a
passage in the records of the Emperor Ojin (A.D. 284) which relates
that the members of the Hata-uji had become scattered about the
country and were carrying on their manufacturing work in various
jurisdictions. This fact having been related to the Throne, steps
were taken to bring together all these weavers into the Hata-uji, and
to make them settle at villages to which the name of Kachibe was
given in commemoration of the weavers' ancestor, Kachi. The records
show that during the first four centuries of the Christian era the
people presented to the Yamato Court by the sovereigns of the Wu
dynasty and of Korea must have been very numerous, for no less than
710 uji were formed by them in consideration of their skill in the
arts and crafts.

SLAVES

The institution of slavery (nuhi) existed in ancient Japan as in so
many other countries. The slaves consisted of prisoners taken in war
and of persons who, having committed some serious offence, were
handed over to be the property of those that they had injured. The
first recorded instance of the former practice was when Yamato-dake
presented to the Ise shrine the Yemishi chiefs who had surrendered to
him in the sequel of his invasion of the eastern provinces. The same
fate seems to have befallen numerous captives made in the campaign
against the Kumaso, and doubtless wholesale acts of self-destruction
committed by Tsuchi-gumo and Kumaso when overtaken by defeat were
prompted by preference of death to slavery. The story of Japan's
relations with Korea includes many references to Korean prisoners who
became the property of their captors, and that a victorious general's
spoils should comprise some slaves may be described as a recognized
custom. Of slavery as a consequence of crime there is also frequent
mention, and it would appear that even men of rank might be overtaken
by that fate, for when (A.D. 278) Takenouchi-no-Sukune's younger
brother was convicted of slandering him, the culprit's punishment
took the form of degradation and assignment to a life of slavery. The
whole family of such an offender shared his fate. There is no
evidence, however, that the treatment of the nuhi was inhuman or even
harsh: they appear to have fared much as did the tomobe in general.

THE LAND

There are two kinds of territorial rights, and these, though now
clearly differentiated, were more or less confounded in ancient
Japan. One is the ruler's right--that is to say, competence to impose
taxes; to enact rules governing possession; to appropriate private
lands for public purposes, and to treat as crown estates land not
privately owned. The second is the right of possession; namely, the
right to occupy definite areas of land and to apply them to one's own
ends. At present those two rights are distinct. A landowner has no
competence to issue public orders with regard to it, and a lessee of
land has to discharge certain responsibilities towards the lessor. It
was not so in old Japan. As the Emperor's right to rule the people
was not exercised over an individual direct but through the uji no
Kami who controlled that individual, so the sovereign's right over
the land was exercised through the territorial owner, who was usually
the uji no Kami. The latter, being the owner of the land, leased a
part of it to the members of the uji, collected a percentage of the
produce, and presented a portion to the Court when occasion demanded.
Hence, so long as the sovereign's influence was powerful, the uji no
Kami and other territorial magnates, respecting his orders, refrained
from levying taxes and duly paid their appointed contributions to the
Court.

But in later times, when the Throne's means of enforcing its orders
ceased to bear any sensible ratio to the puissance of the uji no Kami
and other local lords, the Imperial authority received scanty
recognition, and the tillers of the soil were required to pay heavy
taxes to their landlords. It is a fallacy to suppose that the Emperor
in ancient times not only ruled the land but also owned it. The only
land held in direct possession by the Throne was that constituting
the Imperial household's estates and that belonging to members of the
Imperial family. The private lands of the Imperial family were called
mi-agata.* The province of Yamato contained six of these estates, and
their produce was wholly devoted to the support of the Court. Lands
cultivated for purposes of State revenue were called miyake.** They
existed in several provinces, the custom being that when land was
newly acquired, a miyake was at once established and the remainder
was assigned to princes or Court nobles (asomi or asori). The
cultivators of miyake were designated ta-be (rustic corporation); the
overseers were termed ta-zukasa (or mi-ta no tsukasa), and the
officials in charge of the stores were mi-agata no obito.

*The prefix mi (honourable) was and is still used for purposes of
courtesy.

**In ancient Japan, officials and their offices were often designated
alike. Thus, miyake signified a public estate or the store for
keeping the produce, just as tsukasa was applied alike to an overseer
and to his place of transacting business.

As far back as 3 B.C., according to Japanese chronology, we read of
the establishment of a miyake, and doubtless that was not the first.
Thenceforth there are numerous examples of a similar measure.
Confiscated lands also formed a not unimportant part of the Court's
estates. Comparatively trifling offences were sometimes thus
expiated. Thus, in A.D. 350, Aganoko, suzerain of the Saegi, being
convicted of purloining jewels from the person of a princess whom he
had been ordered to execute, escaped capital punishment only by
surrendering all his lands; and, in A.D. 534, a provincial ruler who,
being in mortal terror, had intruded into the ladies' apartments in
the palace, had to present his landed property for the use of the
Empress. These facts show incidentally that the land of the country,
though governed by the sovereign, was not owned by him. Lands in a
conquered country were naturally regarded as State property, but
sufficient allusion has already been made to that custom.

THE SPHERE OF THE SOVEREIGN'S RULE

It is related in the Records that, in prehistoric days, the last of
the chieftains sent by Amaterasu to wrest Japan from its then holders
addressed the leaders of the latter in these terms, "The central land
of reed plains owned (ushi-haku) by you is the country to be governed
(shirasu) by my son." Japanese historiographers attach importance to
the different words here used. Ushi-haku signifies "to hold in
intimate lordship"--as one wears a garment--whereas shirasu means "to
exercise public rights as head of a State." A Japanese Emperor
occupied both positions towards mi-nashiro (q.v.), toward naturalized
or conquered folks, towards mi-agata, miyake, and confiscated
estates, but his functions with regard to the people and the land in
general were limited to governing (shirasu).

If the ancient prerogatives of the sovereign be tabulated, they stand
thus:

(1) to conduct the worship of the national deities as general head of
all the uji;

(2) to declare war against foreign countries and to make peace with
them, as representative of the uji, and (3) to establish or abolish
uji, to nominate uji no Kami, and to adjudicate disputes between
them. The first of these prerogatives remains unaltered to the
present day. The second was partly delegated in medieval times to the
military class, but has now been restored to the Throne. As for the
third, its exercise is to-day limited to the office of the hereditary
nobility, the Constitution having replaced the Crown in other
respects.

Two thousand years have seen no change in the Emperor's function of
officiating as the high priest of the nation. It was the sovereign
who made offerings to the deities of heaven and earth at the great
religious festivals. It was the sovereign who prayed for the aid of
the gods when the country was confronted by any emergency or when the
people suffered from pestilence. In short, though the powers of the
Emperor over the land and the people were limited by the intervention
of the uji, the whole nation was directly subservient to the Throne
in matters relating to religion. From the earliest eras, too, war
might not be declared without an Imperial rescript, and to the
Emperor was reserved the duty of giving audience to foreign envoys
and receiving tribute. By foreign countries, China and Korea were
generally understood, but the Kumaso, the Yemishi, and the Sushen
were also included in the category of aliens. It would seem that the
obligation of serving the country in arms was universal, for in the
reign of Sujin, when an oversea expedition was contemplated, the
people were numbered according to their ages, and the routine of
service was laid down. Contributions, too, had to be made, as is
proved by the fact that a command of the same sovereign required the
various districts to manufacture arms and store them in the shrines.

THE THRONE AND THE UJI

The sovereign's competence to adjudicate questions relating to the
uji is illustrated by a notable incident referred to the year A.D.
415, during the reign of Inkyo. Centuries had then passed since the
inauguration of the uji, and families originally small with clearly
defined genealogies had multiplied to the dimensions of large clans,
so that much confusion of lineage existed, and there was a
wide-spread disposition to assert claims to spurious rank. It was
therefore commanded by the Emperor that, on a fixed day, all the uji
no Kami should assemble, and having performed the rite of
purification, should submit to the ordeal of boiling water
(kuga-dachi). Numerous cauldrons were erected for the purpose, and it
was solemnly proclaimed that only the guilty would be scalded by the
test. At the last moment, those whose claims were willingly false
absconded, and the genealogies were finally rectified.

Instances of uji created by the sovereign to reward merit, or
abolished to punish offences, are numerously recorded. Thus, when
(A.D. 413) the future consort of the Emperor Inkyo was walking in the
garden with her mother, a provincial ruler (miyatsuko), riding by,
peremptorily called to her for a branch of orchid. She asked what he
needed the orchid for and he answered, "To beat away mosquitoes when
I travel mountain roads." "Oh, honourable sir, I shall not forget,"
said the lady. When she became Empress, she caused the nobleman to be
sought for, and had him deprived of his rank in lieu of execution.
There is also an instance of the killing of all the members of an uji
to expiate the offence of the uji no Kami. This happened in A.D. 463,
when Yuryaku sat on the throne. It was reported to the Court that
Sakitsuya, Kami of the Shimotsumichi-uji, indulged in pastimes
deliberately contrived to insult the occupant of the throne. Thus he
would match a little girl to combat against a grown woman, calling
the girl the Emperor and killing her if she won; or would set a
little cock with clipped wings and plucked feathers to represent the
sovereign in a fight with a big, lusty cock, which he likened to
himself, and if the small bird won, he would slaughter it with his
own sword. The Emperor sent a company of soldiers, and Sakitsuya with
all the seventy members of his uji were put to death.

ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION

The administrative organization in ancient Japan was simply a
combination of the uji. It was purely Japanese. Not until the seventh
century of the Christian era were any foreign elements introduced.
From ministers and generals of the highest class down to petty
functionaries, all offices were discharged by uji no Kami, and as the
latter had the general name of kabane root of the uji the system was
similarly termed. In effect, the kabane was an order of nobility.
Offices were hereditary and equal. The first distribution of posts
took place when five chiefs, attached to the person of the Tenson at
the time of his descent upon Japan, were ordered to discharge at his
Court the same duties as those which had devolved on them in the
country of their origin. The uji they formed were those of the
Shimbetsu,* the official title of the Kami being muraji (group chief)
in the case of an ordinary uji, and o-muraji (great muraji) in the
case of an o-uji, as already stated. These were the men who rendered
most assistance originally in the organization of the State, but as
they were merely adherents of the Tenson, the latter's direct
descendants counted themselves superior and sought always to assert
that superiority.

*The distinction of Shimbetsu and Kwobetsu was not nominally
recognized until the fourth century, but it undoubtedly existed in
practice at an early date.

Thus, the title omi (grandee) held by the Kami of a Kwobetsu-uji was
deemed higher than that of muraji (chief) held by the Kami of a
Shimbetsu-uji. The blood relations of sovereigns either assisted at
Court in the administration of State affairs or went to the provinces
in the capacity of governors. They received various titles in
addition to that of omi, for example sukune (noble), ason or asomi
(Court noble), kimi (duke), wake (lord), etc.

History gives no evidence of a fixed official organization in ancient
times. The method pursued by the sovereign was to summon such omi and
muraji as were notably influential or competent, and to entrust to
them the duty of discharging functions or dealing with a special
situation. Those so summoned were termed mae-isu-gimi (dukes of the
Presence). The highest honour bestowed on a subject in those days
fell to the noble, Takenouchi, who, in consideration of his services,
was named O-mae-tsu-gimi (great duke of the Presence) by the Emperor
Seimu (A.D. 133). Among the omi and muraji, those conspicuously
powerful were charged with the superintendence of several uji, and
were distinguished as o-omi and o-muraji. It became customary to
appoint an o-omi and an o-muraji at the Court, just as in later days
there was a sa-daijin (minister of the Left) and an u-daijin
(minister of the Right). The o-omi supervised all members of the
Kwobetsu-uji occupying administrative posts at Court, and the
o-muraji discharged a similar function in the case of members of
Shimbetsu-uji. Outside the capital local affairs were administered by
kuni-no-miyatsuko or tomo-no-miyatsuko* Among the former, the heads
of Kwobetsu-uji predominated among the latter, those of
Shimbetsu-uji.

*Tomo is an abbreviation of tomo-be.

VALUE OF LINEAGE

It will be seen from the above that in old Japan lineage counted
above everything, alike officially and socially. The offices, the
honours and the lands were all in the hands of the lineal descendants
of the original Yamato chiefs. Nevertheless the omi and the muraji
stood higher in national esteem than the kuni-no-miyatsuko or the
tomo-no-miyatsuko; the o-omi and the o-muraji, still higher; and the
sovereign, at the apex of all. That much deference was paid to
functions. Things remained unaltered in this respect until the sixth
century when the force of foreign example began to make itself felt.

ENGRAVING: FISHERMAN'S BOAT AND NET



CHAPTER XI

THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)

THE FIFTEENTH SOVEREIGN, OJIN (A.D. 270-310)

The fifteenth Sovereign, Ojin, came to the throne at the age of
seventy, according to the Chronicles, and occupied it for forty
years. Like a majority of the sovereigns in that epoch he had many
consorts and many children--three of the former (including two
younger sisters of the Emperor) and twenty of the latter. Comparison
with Korean history goes to indicate that the reign is antedated by
just 120 years, or two of the sexagenary cycles, but of course such a
correction cannot be applied to every incident of the era.

MARITIME AFFAIRS

One of the interesting features of Ojin's reign is that maritime
affairs receive notice for the first time. It is stated that the
fishermen of various places raised a commotion, refused to obey the
Imperial commands, and were not quieted until a noble, Ohama, was
sent to deal with them. Nothing is stated as to the cause of this
complication, but it is doubtless connected with requisitions of fish
for the Court, and probably the fishing folk of Japan had already
developed the fine physique and stalwart disposition that distinguish
their modern representatives. Two years later, instructions were
issued that hereditary corporations (be) of fishermen should be
established in the provinces, and, shortly afterwards, the duty of
constructing a boat one hundred feet in length was imposed upon the
people of Izu, a peninsular province so remote from Yamato that its
choice for such a purpose is difficult to explain. There was no
question of recompensing the builders of this boat: the product of
their labour was regarded as "tribute."

Twenty-six years later the Karano, as this vessel was called, having
become unserviceable, the Emperor ordered a new Karano to be built,
so as to perpetuate her name. A curious procedure is then recorded,
illustrating the arbitrary methods of government in those days. The
timbers of the superannuated ship were used as fuel for roasting
salt, five hundred baskets of which were sent throughout the maritime
provinces, with orders that by each body of recipients a ship should
be constructed. Five hundred Karanos thus came into existence, and
there was assembled at Hyogo such a fleet as had never previously
been seen in Japanese waters. A number of these new vessels were
destroyed almost immediately by a conflagration which broke out in
the lodgings of Korean envoys from Sinra (Shiragi), and the envoys
being held responsible, their sovereign hastened to send a body of
skilled shipmakers by way of atonement, who were thereafter organized
into a hereditary guild of marine architects, and we thus learn
incidentally that the Koreans had already developed the shipbuilding
skill destined to save their country in later ages.

IDEALISM OF THE THIRD CENTURY

In connexion with the Karano incident, Japanese historians record a
tale which materially helps our appreciation of the men of that
remote age. A portion of the Karano's timber having emerged unscathed
from the salt-pans, its indestructibility seemed curious enough to
warrant special treatment. It was accordingly made into a lute
(koto),* and it justified that use by developing "a ringing note that
could be heard from afar off." The Emperor composed a song on the
subject:

   "The ship Karano
   "Was burned for salt:
   "Of the remainder
   "A koto was made.
   "When it is placed on
   "One hears the saya-saya
   "Of the summer trees,
   "Brushing against, as they stand,
   "The rocks of the mid-harbour,
   "The harbour of Yura." [Aston.]

*The Japanese lute, otherwise called the Azuma koto, was an
instrument five or six feet long and having six strings. History
first alludes to it in the reign of Jingo, and such as it was then,
such it has remained until to-day.

LAW, INDUSTRY, LOYALTY

Five facts are already deducible from the annals of this epoch: the
first, that there was no written law, unless the prohibitions in the
Rituals may be so regarded; the second, that there was no form of
judicial trial, unless ordeal or torture may be so regarded; the
third, that the death penalty might be inflicted on purely ex-parte
evidence; the fourth, that a man's whole family had to suffer the
penalty of his crimes, and the fifth, that already in those remote
times the code of splendid loyalty which has distinguished the
Japanese race through all ages had begun to find disciples.

An incident of Ojin's reign illustrates all these things. Takenouchi,
the sukune (noble) who had served Ojin's mother so ably, and who had
saved Ojin's life in the latter's childhood, was despatched to
Tsukushi (Kyushu) on State business. During his absence his younger
brother accused him of designs upon the Emperor. At once, without
further inquiry, Ojin sent men to kill the illustrious minister. But
Maneko, suzerain (atae) of Iki, who bore a strong resemblance to
Takenouchi, personified him, and committing suicide, deceived the
soldiers who would have taken the sukune's life, so that the latter
was enabled to return to Yamato. Arriving at Court, he protested his
innocence and the ordeal of boiling water was employed. It took place
on the bank of the Shiki River. Takenouchi proving victorious; his
brother with all his family were condemned to become tomo-be of the
suzerain of Kii.

THE GRACE OF LIFE

Side by side with these primitive conditions stands a romantic story
of Ojin's self-denial in ceding to his son, Osazaki, a beautiful girl
whom the sovereign has destined to be his own consort. Discovering
that the prince loved her, Ojin invited him to a banquet in the
palace, and, summoning the girl, made known by the aid of poetry his
intention of surrendering her to his son, who, in turn, expressed his
gratitude in verse. It is true that the character of this act of
renunciation is marred when we observe that Ojin was eighty years old
at the time; nevertheless the graces of life were evidently not
wanting in old-time Japan, nor did her historians deem them unworthy
of prominent place in their pages. If at one moment they tell us of
slanders and cruelty, at another they describe how a favourite
consort of Ojin, gazing with him at a fair landscape from a high
tower, was moved to tears by the memory of her parents whom she had
not seen for years, and how the Emperor, sympathizing with her filial
affection, made provision for her return home and took leave of her
in verse:

   "Thou Island of Awaji
   "With thy double ranges;
   "Thou Island of Azuki
   "With thy double ranges
   "Ye good islands,
   "Ye have seen face to face
   "My spouse of Kibi."

FOREIGN INTERCOURSE

The most important feature of the Ojin era was the intercourse then
inaugurated with China. It may be that after the establishment of the
Yamato race in Japan, emigrants from the neighbouring continent
settled, from early times, in islands so favoured by nature. If so,
they probably belonged to the lowest orders, for it was not until the
third and fourth centuries that men of erudition and skilled artisans
began to arrive. Modern Japanese historians seem disposed to
attribute this movement to the benign administration of the Emperor
Ojin and to the repute thus earned by Japan abroad. Without
altogether questioning that theory, it may be pointed out that much
probably depended on the conditions existing in China herself. Liu
Fang, founder of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.), inaugurated the system
of competitive examinations for civil appointments, and his
successors, Wen-Ti, Wu-Ti, and Kwang-wu, "developed literature,
commerce, arts, and good government to a degree unknown before
anywhere in Asia." It was Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) who conquered Korea,
and unquestionably the Koreans then received many object lessons in
civilization. The Han dynasty fell in A.D. 190, and there ensued one
of the most troubled periods of Chinese history. Many fugitives from
the evils of that epoch probably made their way to Korea and even to
Japan. Then followed the after-Han dynasty (A.D. 211-265) when China
was divided into three principalities; one of which, since it ruled
the littoral regions directly opposite to Japan, represented China in
Japanese eyes, and its name, Wu, came to be synonymous with China in
Japanese years.

It was, however, in the days of the Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-317) and
in those of the Eastern Tsin (A.D. 317-420) that under the pressure
of the Hun inroads and of domestic commotions, numbers of emigrants
found their way from China to Korea and thence to Japan. The Eastern
Tsin occupied virtually the same regions as those held by the Wu
dynasty: they, too, had their capital at Nanking, having moved
thither from Loh-yang, and thus the name Wu was perpetuated for the
Japanese. In the year A.D. 283, according to Japanese chronology,
Koreans and Chinese skilled in useful arts began to immigrate to
Japan. The first to come was a girl called Maketsu. She is said to
have been sent by the monarch of Kudara, the region corresponding to
the metropolitan province of modern Korea. It may be inferred that
she was Chinese, but as to her nationality history is silent. She
settled permanently in Japan, and her descendants were known as the
kinu-nui (silk-clothiers) of Kume in Yamato. In the same year (A.D.
283), Yuzu (called Yutsuki by some authorities), a Chinese Imperial
prince, came from Korea and memorialized the Yamato Throne in the
sense that he was a descendant of the first Tsin sovereign and that,
having migrated to Korea at the head of the inhabitants of 120
districts, he had desired to conduct them to Japan, but was unable to
accomplish his purpose owing to obstruction offered by the people of
Sinra (Shiragi). Ojin sent two embassies--the second accompanied by
troops--to procure the release of these people, and in A.D. 285 they
reached Japan, where they received a hearty welcome, and for the sake
of their skill in sericulture and silk weaving, they were honoured by
organization into an uji--Hata-uji (hata in modern Japanese signifies
"loom," but in ancient days it designated silk fabrics of all kinds).

An idea of the dimensions of this Chinese addition to the population
of Japan is furnished by the fact that, 175 years later, the Hata-uji
having been dispersed and reduced to ninety-two groups, steps were
taken to reassemble and reorganize them, with the result that 18,670
persons were brought together. Again, in A.D. 289, a sometime subject
of the after-Han dynasty, accompanied by his son, emigrated to Japan.
The names of these Chinese are given as Achi and Tsuka, and the
former is described as a great-grandson of the Emperor Ling of the
after-Han dynasty, who reigned from A.D. 168 to 190. Like Yuzu he had
escaped to Korea during the troublous time at the close of the Han
sway, and, like Yuzu, he had been followed to the peninsula by a
large body of Chinese, who, at his request, were subsequently
escorted by Japanese envoys to Japan. These immigrants also were
allowed to assume the status of an uji, and in the fifth century the
title of Aya no atae (suzerain of Aya) was given to Achi's
descendants in consideration of the skill of their followers in
designing and manufacturing figured fabrics (for which the general
term was aya).

When Achi had resided seventeen years in Japan, he and his son were
sent to Wu (China) for the purpose of engaging women versed in making
dress materials. The title of omi (chief ambassador) seems to have
been then conferred on the two men, as envoys sent abroad were
habitually so designated. They did not attempt to go by sea. The
state of navigation was still such that ocean-going voyages were not
seriously thought of. Achi and his son proceeded in the first
instance to Koma (the modern Pyong-yang) and there obtained guides
for the overland journey round the shore of the Gulf of Pechili. They
are said to have made their way to Loh-yang where the Tsin sovereigns
then had their capital (A.D. 306). Four women were given to them,
whom they carried back to Japan, there to become the ancestresses of
an uji known as Kure no kinu-nui and Kaya no kinu-nui (clothiers of
Kure and of Kaya), appellations which imply Korean origin, but were
probably suggested by the fact that Korea had been the last
continental station on their route. The journey to and from Loh-yang
occupied four years. This page of history shows not only the
beginning of Japan's useful intercourse with foreign countries, but
also her readiness to learn what they had to teach and her liberal
treatment of alien settlers.

THE ART OF WRITING

It is not infrequently stated that a knowledge of Chinese ideographs
was acquired by the Japanese for the first time during the reign of
Ojin. The basis of this belief are that, in A.D. 284, according to
the Japanese chronology--a date to which must be added two sexagenary
cycles, bringing it to A.D. 404--the King of Kudara sent two fine
horses to the Yamato sovereign, and the man who accompanied them,
Atogi by name, showed himself a competent reader of the Chinese
classics and was appointed tutor to the Prince Imperial. By Atogi's
advice a still abler scholar, Wani (Wang-in), was subsequently
invited from Kudara to take Atogi's place, and it is added that the
latter received the title of fumi-bito (scribe), which he transmitted
to his descendants in Japan. But close scrutiny does not support the
inference that Chinese script had remained unknown to Japan until the
above incidents. What is proved is merely that the Chinese classics
then for the first time became an open book in Japan.

As for the ideographs themselves, they must have been long familiar,
though doubtless to a very limited circle. Chinese history affords
conclusive evidence. Thus, in the records of the later Han (A.D.
25-220) we read that from the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew
Korea, the Japanese of thirty-two provinces communicated with the
Chinese authorities in the peninsula by means of a postal service.
The Wei annals (A.D. 220-265) state that in A.D. 238, the Chinese
sovereign sent a written reply to a communication from the "Queen of
Japan"--Jingo was then on the throne. In the same year, the Japanese
Court addressed a written answer to a Chinese rescript forwarded to
Yamato by the governor of Thepang--the modern Namwon in Chollado--and
in A.D. 247, a despatch was sent by the Chinese authorities
admonishing the Japanese to desist from internecine quarrels. These
references indicate that the use of the ideographs was known in Japan
long before the reign of Ojin, whether we take the Japanese or the
corrected date for the latter. It will probably be just to assume,
however, that the study of the ideographs had scarcely any vogue in
Japan until the coming of Atogi and Wani, nor does it appear to have
attracted much attention outside Court circles even subsequently to
that date, for the records show that, in the reign of the Emperor
Bidatsu (A.D. 572-585), a memorial sent by Korea to the Yamato Court
was illegible to all the officials except one man, by name
Wang-sin-i, who seems to have been a descendant of the Paikche
emigrant, Wan-i.

Buddhism, introduced into Japan in A.D. 552, doubtless supplied the
chief incentive to the acquisition of knowledge. But had the Japanese
a script of their own at any period of their history? The two oldest
manuscripts which contain a reference to this subject are the
Kogo-shui, compiled by Hironari in A.D. 808, and a memorial (kammori)
presented to the Throne in A.D. 901 by Miyoshi Kiyotsura. Both
explicitly state that in remote antiquity there were no letters, and
that all events or discourses had to be transmitted orally. Not until
the thirteenth century does the theory of a purely Japanese script
seem to have been conceived, and its author* had no basis for the
hypothesis other than the idea that, as divination was practised in
the age of the Kami, letters of some kind must have been in use.
Since then the matter has been much discussed. Caves used in ancient
times as habitations or sepulchres and old shrines occasionally offer
evidence in the form of symbols which, since they bear some
resemblance to the letters of the Korean alphabet (onmuri), have been
imagined to be at once the origin of the latter and the script of the
Kami-no-yo (Age of the Kami). But such fancies are no longer
seriously entertained. It is agreed that the so-called "letters" are
nothing more than copies of marks produced by the action of fire upon
bones used in divination. The Japanese cleverly adapted the Chinese
ideographs to syllabic purposes, but they never devised a script of
their own.

*Kanekata, who wrote the Shaku Nihongi in the era 1264--1274.

ETHICAL EFFECTS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE LITERATURE

A generally accepted belief is that the study of the Chinese classics
exercised a marked ethical influence upon the Japanese nation. That
is a conclusion which may be profitably contrasted with the views of
Japan's most distinguished historians. Mr. Abe Kozo says:
"Acquaintance with the Chinese classics may be supposed to have
produced a considerable moral effect on the people of Japan. Nothing
of the kind seems to have been the case. The practical civilization
of China was accepted, but not her ethical code. For any palpable
moral influence the arrival of Buddhism had to be awaited. Already
the principles of loyalty and obedience, propriety, and righteousness
were recognized in Japan though not embodied in any written code."
Dr. Ariga writes: "Our countrymen did not acquire anything specially
new in the way of moral tenets. They must have been surprised to find
that in China men did not respect the occupants of the throne. A
subject might murder his sovereign and succeed him without incurring
the odium of the people." Rai Sanyo says: "Moral principles are like
the sun and the moon; they cannot be monopolized by any one country.
In every land there are parents and children, rulers and ruled,
husbands and wives. Where these relations exist, there also filial
piety and affection, loyalty and righteousness may naturally be
found. In our country we lack the precise terminology of the
classics, but it does not follow that we lack the principles
expressed. What the Japanese acquired from the classics was the
method of formulating the thought, not the thought itself."

THE SIXTEENTH SOVEREIGN, NINTOKU (A.D. 313-399)

This sovereign is represented by the Chronicles as having reigned
eighty-six years, and by the Records as having died at the age of
eighty-three. The same Chronicles make him the lover of a girl whom
his father, also her lover, generously ceded to him. This event
happened in A.D. 282. Assuming that Nintoku was then sixteen, he
cannot have been less than 133 at the time of his death. It is thus
seen that the chronology of this period, also, is untrustworthy.
Nintoku's reign is remembered chiefly on account of the strange
circumstances in which he came to the throne, his benevolent charity,
and the slights he suffered at the hands of a jealous consort. His
father, Ojin, by an exercise of caprice not uncommon on the part of
Japan's ancient sovereigns, had nominated a younger son,
Waka-iratsuko, to be his heir. But this prince showed invincible
reluctance to assume the sceptre after Ojin's death. He asserted
himself stoutly by killing one of his elder brothers who conspired
against him, though he resolutely declined to take precedence of the
other brother, and the latter, proving equally diffident, the throne
remained unoccupied for three years when Waka-iratsuko solved the
problem by committing suicide.

Such are the simplest outlines of the story. But its details, when
filled in by critical Japanese historians of later ages, suggest a
different impression. When Ojin died his eldest two sons were living
respectively in Naniwa (Osaka) and Yamato, and the Crown Prince,
Waka-iratsuko, was at Uji. They were thus excellently situated for
setting up independent claims. From the time of Nintoku's birth, the
prime minister, head of the great Takenouchi family, had taken a
special interest in the child, and when the lad grew up he married
this Takenouchi's granddaughter, who became the mother of three
Emperors. Presently the representatives of all branches of the
Takenouchi family came into possession of influential positions at
Court, among others that of o-omi, so that in this reign were laid
the foundations of the controlling power subsequently vested in the
hands of the Heguri, Katsuragi, and Soga houses. In short, this epoch
saw the beginning of a state of affairs destined to leave its mark
permanently on Japanese history, the relegation of the sovereign to
the place of a fainéant and the usurpation of the administrative
authority by a group of great nobles.

Nintoku had the active support of the Takenouchi magnates, and
although the Crown Prince may have desired to assert the title
conferred on him by his father, he found himself helpless in the face
of obstructions offered by the prime minister and his numerous
partisans. These suffered him to deal effectively with that one of
his elder brothers who did not find a place in their ambitious
designs, but they created for Waka-iratsuko a situation so
intolerable that suicide became his only resource. Nintoku's first
act on ascending the throne explains the ideographs chosen for his
posthumous name by the authors of the Chronicles, since nin signifies
"benevolence" and toku, "virtue." He made Naniwa (Osaka) his capital,
but instead of levying taxes and requisitioning forced labour to
build his palace of Takatsu, he remitted all such burdens for three
years on observing from a tower that no smoke ascended from the roofs
of the houses and construing this to indicate a state of poverty.
During those three years the palace fell into a condition of
practical ruin, and tradition describes its inmates as being
compelled to move from room to room to avoid the leaking rain.*

*Doubts have been thrown on the reality of this incident because a
poem, attributed to Nintoku on the occasion, is couched in obviously
anachronistic language. But the poem does not appear in either the
Records or the Chronicles: it was evidently an invention of later
ages.

Under Nintoku's sway riparian works and irrigation improvements took
place on a large scale, and thus the eminent historian, Rai Sanyo,
may not be without warrant for attributing to this ruler the
sentiment quoted in the Chronicles: "A sovereign lives for his
people. Their prosperity is his enrichment; their poverty, his loss."
Yet it is in connexion with Nintoku's repairs of the Manda river-bank
that we find the first mention of a heinous custom occasionally
practised in subsequent ages--the custom of sacrificing human life to
expedite the progress or secure the success of some public work.

At the same time, that habits indicating a higher civilization had
already begun to gain ground is proved by an incident which occurred
to one of the Imperial princes during a hunting expedition. Looking
down over a moor from a mountain, he observed a pit, and, on inquiry,
was informed by the local headman that it was an "ice-pit." The
prince, asking how the ice was stored and for what it was used,
received this answer: "The ground is excavated to a depth of over ten
feet. The top is then covered with a roof of thatch. A thick layer of
reed-grass is then spread, upon which the ice is laid. The months of
summer have passed and yet it is not melted. As to its use--when the
hot months come it is placed in water or sake and thus used."
[Aston's Nihongi.] Thenceforth the custom of storing ice was adopted
at the Court. It was in Nintoku's era that the pastime of hawking,
afterward widely practised, became known for the first time in Japan.
Korea was the place of origin, and it is recorded that the falcon had
a soft leather strap fastened to one leg and a small bell to the
tail. Pheasants were the quarry of the first hawk flown on the moor
of Mozu.

Light is also thrown in Nintoku's annals on the method of
boatbuilding practised by the Japanese in the fourth century. They
used dug-outs. The provincial governor* of Totomi is represented as
reporting that a huge tree had floated down the river Oi and had
stopped at a bend. It was a single stem forked at one end, and the
suzerain of Yamato was ordered to make a boat of it. The craft was
then brought round by sea to Naniwa, "where it was enrolled among the
Imperial vessels." Evidently from the days of Ojin and the Karano a
fleet formed part of the Imperial possessions. This two-forked boat
figures in the reign of Nintoku's successor, Richu, when the latter
and his concubine went on board and feasted separately, each in one
fork.

*This term, "provincial governor," appears now for the first time
written with the ideographs "kokushi." Hitherto it has been written
"kuni-no-miyatsuko." Much is heard of the koushi in later times. They
are the embryo of the daimyo, the central figures of military
feudalism.

THE FAMILY OF TAKENOUCHI-NO-SUKUNE

For the better understanding of Japanese history at this stage, a
word must be said about a family of nobles (sukune) who, from the
days of Nintoku, exercised potent sway in the councils of State.
It will have been observed that, in the annals of the Emperor
Keiko's reign, prominence is given to an official designated
Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who thereafter seems to have served sovereign
after sovereign until his death in the year 368, when he must have
been from two hundred to three hundred years old. This chronological
difficulty has provoked much scepticism. Dr. Kume, an eminent
Japanese historian, explains, however, that Takenouchi was the name
not of a person but of a family, and that it was borne by different
scions in succeeding reigns. The first was a grandson of the Emperor
Kogen (B.C. 214-158), and the representatives of the family in
Nintoku's era had seven sons, all possessing the title sukune. They
were Hata no Yashiro, Koze no Ogara, Soga no Ishikawa, Heguri no
Tsuku, Ki no Tsunu, Katsuragi no Sotsu, and Wakugo.

From these were descended the five uji of Koze, Soga, Heguri, Ki, and
Katsuragi. Although its founder was an Emperor's grandson and
therefore entitled to be called "Imperial Prince" (O), the family
connexion with the Throne naturally became more remote as time
passed, and from the reign of Ojin we find its members classed among
subjects. Nevertheless, the Empress Iwa, whose jealousy harrassed
Nintoku so greatly, was a daughter of Katsuragi no Sotsu, and, as
with the sole exception of the Emperor Shomu, every occupant of the
throne had taken for his Empress a lady of Imperial blood, it may be
assumed that the relationship between the Imperial and the Takenouchi
families was recognized at that time. The roles which the five uji
mentioned above acted in subsequent history deserve to be studied,
and will therefore be briefly set down here.

THE KOZE-UJI

This uji had for founder Koze no Ogara. The representative of the
fourth generation, Koze no Ohito, held the post of o-omi during the
reign of the Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), and his great-grandson
was minister of the Left under Kotoku (A.D. 545-654). Thereafter, the
heads of the uji occupied prominent positions under successive
sovereigns.

THE SOGA-UJI

Soga no Ishikawa founded this uji. His son, Machi, shared the
administrative power with Heguri no Tsuku in the reign of Richu (A.D.
400-405), and Machi's great-grandson, Iname, immortalized himself by
promoting the introduction of Buddhism in the reign of Kimmei (A.D.
540-571). Iname's son, Umako, and the latter's son, Yemishi, will be
much heard of hereafter. No family, indeed, affected the course of
Japanese history in early days more than did the Soga-uji.

THE HEGURI-UJI

During the reign of the Emperor Richu (A.D. 400-405), Heguri no
Tsuku, founder of this uji, shared in the administration with Soga no
Machi. His son, Heguri no Matori, was minister under Yuryaku (A.D.
457-459), and the fate which he and his son, Shibi, brought upon
their family is one of the salient incidents of Japanese history.

THE KI-UJI

The representatives of this uji, from the days of its founder, Ki
no Tsunu, took a prominent share in the empire's foreign affairs,
but served also in the capacity of provincial governor and
commander-in-chief.

THE KATSURAGI-UJI

Nintoku's Empress, Iwa, was a daughter of the ancestor of this uji,
Katsuragi no Sotsu, and the latter's great-granddaughter, Hae, was
the mother of two sovereigns, Kenso (A.D. 485-487) and Ninken (A.D.
488-498).

ENGRAVING: TOBACCO PIPE AND POUCH

ENGRAVING: HINOMI YAGURA (FIRE WATCH TOWER)



CHAPTER XII

THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS

The 17th Sovereign, Richu    A.D. 400-405

"   18th    "       Hansho    "   406-411

"   19th    "       Inkyo     "   412-453

"   20th    "       Anko      "   454-456

"   21st    "       Yuryaku   "   457-479

RICHU'S REIGN

THE prehistoric era may be said to terminate with the accession of
Richu. Thenceforth the lives and reigns of successive sovereigns
cease to extend to incredible lengths, and though the chronology
adopted by the writers of the Nihongi may not yet be implicitly
accepted, its general accuracy is not open to dispute. The era of the
five sovereigns standing at the head of this chapter--an era of
fifty-nine years--inherited as legacies from the immediate past: a
well-furnished treasury, a nation in the enjoyment of peace, a firmly
established throne, and a satisfactory state of foreign relations.
These comfortable conditions seem to have exercised demoralizing
influence. The bonds of discipline grew slack; fierce quarrels on
account of women involved fratricide among the princes of the blood,
and finally the life of an Emperor was sacrificed--the only instance
of such a catastrophe in Japanese history.

Immediately after Nintoku's death this evil state of affairs was
inaugurated by Prince Nakatsu, younger brother of the heir to the
throne, who had not yet assumed the sceptre. Sent by the Crown Prince
(Richu) to make arrangements for the latter's nuptials with the lady
Kuro, a daughter of the Takenouchi family, Nakatsu personified Richu,
debauched the girl, and to avoid the consequences of the act, sought
to take the life of the man he had betrayed. It does not redound to
the credit of the era that the debaucher found support and was
enabled to hold his own for a time, though his treachery ultimately
met with its merited fate. At this crisis of his life, Richu received
loyal assistance from a younger brother, and his gratitude induced
him to confer on the latter the title of Crown Prince. In thus
acting, Richu may have been influenced by the fact that the
alternative was to bequeath the throne to a baby, but none the less
he stands responsible for an innovation which greatly impaired the
stability of the succession. It should be noted, as illustrating the
influence of the Takenouchi family that, in spite of the shame she
had suffered, the lady Kuro became the Emperor's concubine. In fact,
among the four nobles who administered the affairs of the empire
during Richu's reign, not the least powerful were Heguri no Tsuku and
Soga no Machi. Moreover, Richu, as has been stated already, was a son
of Iwa, a lady of the same great family, and his two successors,
Hansho and Inkyo, were his brothers by the same mother.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

The annals of Richu's reign confirm a principle which received its
first illustration when the Emperor Keiko put to death for parricide
the daughter of a Kumaso chief, though she had betrayed her father in
the interest of Keiko himself. Similar deference to the spirit of
loyalty led to the execution of Sashihire in the time of Richu. A
retainer of the rebellious Prince Nakatsu, Sashihire, assassinated
that prince at the instance of Prince Mizuha, who promised large
reward. But after the deed had been accomplished, Heguri no Tsuku
advised his nephew, Mizuha, saying, "Sashihire has killed his own
lord for the sake of another, and although for us he has done a great
service, yet towards his own lord his conduct has been heartless in
the extreme." Sashihire was therefore put to death. That this
principle was always observed in Japan cannot be asserted, but that
it was always respected is certain.

In Richu's reign there is found the first clear proof that tattooing
was not practised in Japan for ornamental purposes. Tattooing is
first mentioned as a custom of the Yemishi when their country was
inspected by Takenouchi at Keiko's orders. But in Richu's time it was
employed to punish the muraji of Atsumi, who had joined the rebellion
of Prince Nakatsu. He was "inked" on the face. It appears also that
the same practice had hitherto been employed to distinguish
horse-keepers, but the custom was finally abandoned in deference to
an alleged revelation from Izanagi, the deity of Awaji, on the
occasion of a visit by Richu to that island. In the context of this
revelation it is noticeable that belief in the malign influence of
offended deities was gaining ground. Thus, on the occasion of the
sudden death of Princess Kuro, the voice of the wind was heard to
utter mysterious words in the "great void" immediately before the
coming of a messenger to announce the event, and the Emperor
attributed the calamity to the misconduct of an official who had
removed certain persons from serving at a shrine.

The annals of this reign are noteworthy as containing the earliest
reference to the compilation of books. It is stated that in the year
A.D. 403 "local recorders were appointed for the first time in the
various provinces, who noted down statements and communicated the
writings of the four quarters." An eminent critic--Mr. W. G.
Aston--regards this as an anachronism, since the coming of the Korean
scholar, Wani (vide sup.), did not take place until the year 405,
which date probably preceded by many years the appointment of
recorders. But it has been shown above that the innovation due to
Wani was, not the art of writing, but, in all probability, a
knowledge of the Chinese classics.

Another institution established during this era was a treasury (A.D.
405), and the two learned Koreans who had come from Paikche (Kudara)
were appointed to keep the accounts. A work of later date than the
Chronicles or Records--the Shokuin-rei--says that in this treasury
were stored "gold and silver, jewels, precious utensils, brocade and
satin, saicenet, rugs and mattresses, and the rare objects sent as
tribute by the various barbarians."

HANSHO

The Emperor Hansho's short reign of five years is not remarkable for
anything except an indirect evidence that Chinese customs were
beginning to be adopted at the Japanese Court. In the earliest eras,
the ladies who enjoyed the sovereign's favour were classed simply as
"Empress" or "consort." But from the days of Hansho we find three
ranks of concubines.

INKYO

Inkyo was a younger brother of his predecessor, Hansho, as the latter
had been of Richu. No formal nomination of Inkyo as Prince Imperial
had taken place, and thus for the first time the sceptre was found
without any legalized heir or any son of the deceased sovereign to
take it. In these circumstances, the ministers held a council and
agreed to offer the throne to Inkyo, the elder of two surviving sons
of Nintoku. Inkyo was suffering from a disease supposed to be
incurable, and, distrusting his own competence, he persistently
refused to accept the responsibility. The incident responsible for
his ultimate consent was the intervention of a concubine, Onakatsu,
afterwards Empress. Under pretext of carrying water for the prince
she entered his chamber, and when he turned his back on her entreaty
that he would comply with the ministers' desire, she remained
standing in the bitter cold of a stormy day of January, until the
water, which she had spilled over her arm, became frozen and she fell
in a faint. Then the prince yielded. A year later envoys were sent to
seek medical assistance in Korea, which was evidently regarded as the
home of the healing science as well as of many other arts borrowed
from China. A physician arrived from Sinra, and Inkyo's malady was
cured.

In this reign took place a celebrated incident, already referred to,
when the lineage of the nobles was corrected by recourse to the
ordeal of boiling water. But a much larger space in the annals is
occupied with the story of an affair, important only as illustrating
the manners and customs of the time. From an early period it had been
usual that Japanese ladies on festive occasions should go through the
graceful performance of "woven paces and waving hands," which
constituted dancing, and, in the era now occupying our attention,
there prevailed in the highest circles a custom that the danseuse
should offer a maiden to the most honoured among the guests. One
winter's day, at the opening of a new palace, the Empress Onakatsu
danced to the music of the Emperor's lute. Onakatsu had a younger
sister, Oto, of extraordinary beauty, and the Emperor, fain to
possess the girl but fearful of offending the Empress, had planned
this dance so that Onakatsu, in compliance with the recognized usage,
might be constrained to place her sister at his disposal. It fell out
as Inkyo wished, but there then ensued a chapter of incidents in
which the dignity of the Crown fared ill. Again and again the
beautiful Oto refused to obey her sovereign's summons, and when at
length, by an unworthy ruse, she was induced to repair to the palace,
it was found impossible to make her an inmate of it in defiance of
the Empress' jealousy. She had to be housed elsewhere, and still the
Imperial lover was baffled, for he dared not brave the elder sister's
resentment by visiting the younger. Finally he took advantage of the
Empress' confinement to pay the long-deferred visit, but, on learning
of the event, the outraged wife set fire to the parturition house and
attempted to commit suicide. "Many years have passed," she is
recorded to have said to the Emperor, "since I first bound up my hair
and became thy companion in the inner palace. It is too cruel of
thee, O Emperor! Wherefore just on this night when I am in childbirth
and hanging between life and death, must thou go to Fujiwara?" Inkyo
had the grace to be "greatly shocked" and to "soothe the mind of the
Empress with explanations," but he did not mend his infidelity. At
Oto's request he built a residence for her at Chinu in the
neighbouring province of Kawachi, and thereafter the compilers of the
Chronicles, with fine irony, confine their record of three
consecutive years' events to a repetition of the single phrase, "the
Emperor made a progress to Chinu."

It is not, perhaps, extravagant to surmise that the publicity
attending this sovereign's amours and the atmosphere of loose
morality thus created were in part responsible for a crime committed
by his elder son, the Crown Prince Karu. Marriage between children of
the same father had always been permitted in Japan provided the
mother was different, but marriage between children of the same
mother was incest. Prince Karu was guilty of this offence with his
sister, Oiratsume, and so severely did the nation judge him that he
was driven into exile and finally obliged to commit suicide. With
such records is the reign of Inkyo associated. It is perplexing that
the posthumous name chosen for him by historians should signify
"sincerely courteous." Incidentally, four facts present
themselves--that men wore wristbands and garters to which grelots
were attached; that a high value was set on pearls; that metal was
used for the construction of great men's gates, and that the first
earthquake is said to have been experienced in A.D. 416.

ANKO

The records of this sovereign's reign make a discreditable page of
Japanese history. Anko, having ascended the throne after an armed
contest with his elder brother, which ended in the latter's suicide,
desired to arrange a marriage between his younger brother, Ohatsuse,
and a sister of his uncle, Okusaka. He despatched Ne no Omi, a
trusted envoy, to confer with the latter, who gladly consented, and,
in token of approval, handed to Ne no Omi a richly jewelled coronet
for conveyance to the Emperor. But Ne no Omi, covetous of the gems,
secreted the coronet, and told the Emperor that Okusaka had rejected
the proposal with scorn. Anko took no steps to investigate the truth
of this statement. It has been already seen that such investigations
were not customary in those days. Soldiers were at once sent to
slaughter Okusaka; his wife, Nakashi, was taken to be the Emperor's
consort, and his sister, Hatahi, was married to Prince Ohatsuse.

Now, at the time of his death, Okusaka had a son, Mayuwa, seven years
old. One day, the Emperor, having drunk heavily, confessed to the
Empress, Nakashi, that he entertained some apprehension lest this boy
might one day seek to avenge his father's execution. The child
overheard this remark, and creeping to the side of his step-father,
who lay asleep with his head in Nakashi's lap, killed him with his
own sword. Such is the tale narrated in the Chronicles and the
Records. But its incredible features are salient. A deed of the kind
would never have been conceived or committed by a child, and the
Empress must have been a conniving party.

To what quarter, then, is the instigation to be traced? An answer
seems to be furnished by the conduct of Prince Ohatsuse. Between this
prince and the throne five lives intervened; those of the Emperor
Anko, of the latter's two brothers, Yatsuri no Shiro and Sakai no
Kuro, both older than Ohatsuse, and of two sons of the late Emperor
Richu, Ichinobe no Oshiwa and Mima. Every one of these was removed
from the scene in the space of a few days. Immediately after Anko's
assassination, Ohatsuse, simulating suspicion of his two elder
brothers, killed the o-omi, who refused to give them up. Ohatsuse
then turned his attention to his grand-uncles, the two sons of Richu.
He sent a military force to destroy one of them without any pretence
of cause; the other he invited to a hunting expedition and
treacherously shot. If Ohatsuse did not contrive the murder of Anko,
as he contrived the deaths of all others standing between himself and
the throne, a great injustice has been done to his memory.

LOYALTY

These shocking incidents are not without a relieving feature. They
furnished opportunities for the display of fine devotion. When Prince
Okusaka died for a crime of which he was wholly innocent, two of his
retainers, Naniwa no Hikaga, father and son, committed suicide in
vindication of his memory. When Prince Sakai no Kuro and Mayuwa took
refuge in the house of the o-omi Tsubura, the latter deliberately
chose death rather than surrender the fugitives. When Prince Kuro
perished, Nie-no-Sukune took the corpse in his arms and was burned
with it. When Prince Ichinobe no Oshiwa fell under the treacherous
arrow of Prince Ohatsuse, one of the former's servants embraced the
dead body and fell into such a paroxysm of grief that Ohatsuse
ordered him to be despatched. And during this reign of Yuryaku, when
Lord Otomo was killed in a fatal engagement with the Sinra troops, his
henchman, Tsumaro, crying, "My master has fallen; what avails that I
alone should remain unhurt?" threw himself into the ranks of the
enemy and perished. Loyalty to the death characterized the Japanese
in every age.

YURYAKU

This sovereign was the Ohatsuse of whose unscrupulous ambition so
much has just been heard. Some historians have described him as an
austere man, but few readers of his annals will be disposed to
endorse such a lenient verdict. He ordered that a girl, whose only
fault was misplaced affection, should have her four limbs stretched
on a tree and be roasted to death; he slew one of his stewards at a
hunt, because the man did not understand how to cut up the meat of an
animal; he removed a high official--Tasa, omi of Kibi--to a distant
post in order to possess himself of the man's wife (Waka), and he
arbitrarily and capriciously killed so many men and women that the
people called him the "Emperor of great wickedness." One act of
justice stands to his credit. The slanderer, Ne no Omi, who for the
sake of a jewelled coronet had caused the death of Prince Okusaka, as
related above, had the temerity to wear the coronet, sixteen years
subsequently, when he presided at a banquet given in honour of envoys
from China; and the beauty of the bauble having thus been noised
abroad, Ne no Omi was required to show it at the palace. It was
immediately recognized by the Empress, sister of the ill-starred
prince, and Ne no Omi, having confessed his crime, was put to death,
all the members of his uji being reduced to the rank of serfs. One
moiety of them was formed into a hereditary corporation which was
organized under the name of Okusakabe, in memory of Prince Okusaka.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

The reign of Yuryaku is partially saved from the reproach of selfish
despotism by the encouragement given to the arts and crafts. It has
already been related that the members of the Hata-uji, which had been
constituted originally with artisans from China, gradually became
dispersed throughout the provinces and were suffering some hardships
when Yuryaku issued orders for their reassembly and reorganization.
Subsequently the sovereign gave much encouragement to sericulture,
and, inspired doubtless by the legend of the Sun goddess, inaugurated
a custom which thereafter prevailed in Japan through all ages, the
cultivation of silkworms by the Empress herself. At a later date,
learning from a Korean handicraftsman (tebito)--whose name has been
handed down as Kwan-in Chiri--that Korea abounded in experts of
superior skill, Yuryaku commissioned this man to carry to the King of
Kudara (Paikche) an autograph letter asking for the services of
several of these experts. This request was complied with, and the
newcomers were assigned dwellings at the village of Tsuno in Yamato;*
but as the place proved unhealthy, they were afterwards distributed
among several localities.

*There were potters, saddlers, brocade-weavers, and interpreters.

It is also recorded that, about this time, there came from China a
man called An Kiko, a descendant of one of the Wu sovereigns. He
settled in Japan, and his son, Ryu afterwards--named Shinki--is
reputed to have been the first exponent of Chinese pictorial art in
Japan. In the year A.D. 470, there was another arrival of artisans,
this time from Wu (China), including weavers and clothiers. They
landed in the province of Settsu, and to commemorate their coming a
road called the "Kure-saka" (Wu acclivity) was constructed from that
port to the Shihatsu highway. The descendants of these immigrants
were organized into two hereditary corporations (be) of
silk-clothiers, the Asuka no Kinu-nui-be and the Ise no Kinu-nui-be.
Two years later (472), orders were issued for the cultivation of
mulberry trees in all suitable provinces, and at the same time the
previously reassembled members of the Hata-uji were once more
distributed to various localities with the object of widening their
sphere of instruction.

In the year 473 a very interesting event is recorded. The muraji of
the Hanishi was ordered to furnish craftsmen to manufacture "pure
utensils" for serving viands daily in the palace. These Hanishi are
first spoken of as having been employed at the suggestion of
Nomi-no-Sukune, in the days of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 3), to make
clay substitutes for the human beings thitherto inhumed at the
sepulchres of notables. In response to this order the muraji summoned
his own tami-be (private hereditary corporation) then located at
seven villages in the provinces of Settsu, Yamashiro, Ise, Tamba,
Tajima, and Inaba. They were organized into the Nie no Hanishibe, or
hereditary corporation of potters of table-utensils. Ceramists had
previously come from Kudara (Paikche), and there can be no doubt that
some progress was made in the art from the fifth century onwards. But
there does not appear to be sufficient ground for a conclusion formed
by some historians that the "pure utensils" mentioned above were of
glazed pottery. The art of applying glaze to ceramic manufactures was
not discovered until a much later period.

RELATIONS WITH KOREA

When Yuryaku ascended the throne, Japan still enjoyed her original
friendship with Paikche (Kudara), whence ladies-in-waiting were sent
periodically to the Yamato Court. She also retained her military post
at Mimana (Imna) and kept a governor there, but her relations with
Shiragi (Sinra) were somewhat strained, owing to harsh treatment of
the latter's special envoys who had come to convey their sovereign's
condolences on the death of the Emperor Inkyo (453). From the time of
Yuryaku's accession, Shiragi ceased altogether to send the usual
gifts to the Emperor of Japan. In the year 463, Yuryaku, desiring to
possess himself of the wife of a high official, Tasa, sent him to be
governor of Mimana, and in his absence debauched the lady. Tasa,
learning how he had been dishonoured, raised the standard of revolt
and sought aid of the Shiragi people. Then Yuryaku, with
characteristic refinement of cruelty, ordered Tasa's son, Oto, to
lead a force against his father. Oto seemingly complied, but, on
reaching the peninsula, opened communication with his father, and it
was agreed that while Tasa should hold Imna, breaking off all
relations with Japan, Oto should adopt a similar course with regard
to Paikche. This plot was frustrated by Oto's wife, Kusu, a woman too
patriotic to connive at treason in any circumstances. She killed her
husband, and the Court of Yamato was informed of these events.

From that time, however, Japan's hold upon the peninsula was shaken.
Yuryaku sent four expeditions thither, but they accomplished nothing
permanent. The power of Koma in the north increased steadily, and it
had the support of China. Yuryaku's attempts to establish close
relations with the latter--the Sung were then on the throne--seem to
have been inspired by a desire to isolate Korea. He failed, and
ultimately Kudara was overrun by Koma, as will be seen by and by. It
is scarcely too much to say that Japan lost her paramount status in
Korea because of Yuryaku's illicit passion for the wife of one of his
subjects.

CHRONOLOGY

The first absolute agreement between the dates given in Japanese
history and those given in Korean occurs in this reign, namely, the
year A.D. 475. The severest critics therefore consent to admit the
trustworthiness of the Japanese annals from the third quarter of the
fifth century.

TREASURIES

In the record of Richu's reign, brief mention has been made of the
establishment of a Government treasury. In early days, when religious
rites and administrative functions were not differentiated, articles
needed for both purposes were kept in the same store, under the
charge of the Imibe-uji. But as the Court grew richer, owing to
receipt of domestic taxes and foreign "tribute," the necessity of
establishing separate treasuries, was felt and a "domestic store"
(Uchi-kura) was formed during Richu's reign, the Koreans, Achi and
Wani, being appointed to keep the accounts. In Yuryaku's time a third
treasury had to be added, owing to greatly increased production of
textile fabrics and other manufactures. This was called the Okura, a
term still applied to the Imperial treasury, and there were thus
three stores, Okura, Uchi-kura, and Imi-kura. Soga no Machi was
placed in supreme charge of all three, and the power of the Soga
family grew proportionately.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

It is observable that at this epoch the sovereigns of Japan had not
yet begun to affect the sacred seclusion which, in later ages, became
characteristic of them. It is true that, after ascending the throne,
they no longer led their troops in war, though they did so as
Imperial princes. But in other respects they lived the lives of
ordinary men--joining in the chase, taking part in banquets, and
mixing freely with the people. As illustrating this last fact a
strange incident may be cited. One day the Emperor Yuryaku visited
the place where some carpenters were at work and observed that one of
them, Mane, in shaping timber with an axe, used a stone for ruler but
never touched it with the axe. "Dost thou never make a mistake and
strike the stone?" asked the monarch. "I never make a mistake,"
replied the carpenter. Then, to disturb the man's sang-froid, Yuryaku
caused the ladies-in-waiting (uneme) to dance, wearing only
waist-cloths. Mane watched the spectacle for a while, and on resuming
his work, his accuracy of aim was momentarily at fault. The Emperor
rebuked him for having made an unwarranted boast and handed him over
to the monono-be for execution. After the unfortunate man had been
led away, one of his comrades chanted an impromptu couplet lamenting
his fate, whereat the Emperor, relenting, bade a messenger gallop off
on "a black horse of Kai" to stay the execution. The mandate of mercy
arrived just in time, and when Mane's bonds were loosed, he, too,
improvised a verse:

   "Black as the night
   "Was the horse of Kai.
   "Had they waited to
   "Saddle him, my life were lost
   "O, horse of Kai!"

The whole incident is full of instruction. A sovereign concerning
himself about trivialities as petty as this pretext on which he sends
a man to death; the shameful indignity put upon the ladies-in-waiting
to minister to a momentary whim; the composition of poetry by common
carpenters, and the ride for life on a horse which there is not time
to saddle. It is an instructive picture of the ways of Yuryaku's
Court.

In truth, this couplet-composing proclivity is one of the strangest
features of the Yamato race as portrayed in the pages of the Records
and the Chronicles. From the time when the fierce Kami, Susanoo, put
his thoughts into verse as he sought for a place to celebrate his
marriage, great crises and little crises in the careers of men and
women respectively inspire couplets. We find an Emperor addressing an
ode to a dragon-fly which avenges him on a gad-fly; we find a prince
reciting impromptu stanzas while he lays siege to the place whither
his brother has fled for refuge; we find a heartbroken lady singing a
verselet as for the last time she ties the garters of her lord going
to his death, and we find a sovereign corresponding in verse with his
consort whose consent to his own dishonour he seeks to win.

Yet in the lives of all these men and women of old, there are not
many other traces of corresponding refinement or romance. We are
constrained to conjecture that many of the verses quoted in the
Records and the Chronicles were fitted in after ages to the events
they commemorate. Another striking feature in the lives of these
early sovereigns is that while on the one hand their residences are
spoken of as muro, a term generally applied to dwellings partially
underground, on the other, we find more than one reference to high
towers. Thus Yuryaku is shown as "ordering commissioners to erect a
lofty pavilion in which he assumes the Imperial dignity," and the
Emperor Nintoku is represented as "ascending a lofty tower and
looking far and wide" on the occasion of his celebrated sympathy with
the people's poverty.

ENGRAVING: ANCIENT ACROBATIC PERFORMANCE

ENGRAVING: DAIRISAMA (KINO) AND OKUSAMA (QUEEN) OF THE FEAST OF THE
DOLLS



CHAPTER XIII

THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)

The 22nd Sovereign, Seinei  A.D. 480-484

 "  23rd    "       Kenso    "   485-487

 "  24th    "       Ninken   "   488-498

 "  25th    "       Muretsu  "   499-506

 "  26th    "       Keitai   "   507-531

 "  27th    "       Ankan    "   534-535

 "  28th    "       Senkwa   "   536-539

DISPUTE ABOUT THE SUCCESSION

THE Emperor Yuryaku's evil act in robbing Tasa of his wife, Waka,
entailed serious consequences. He selected to succeed to the throne
his son Seinei, by Princess Kara, who belonged to the Katsuragi
branch of the great Takenouchi family. But Princess Waka conspired to
secure the dignity for the younger of her own two sons, Iwaki and
Hoshikawa, who were both older than Seinei. She urged Hoshikawa to
assert his claim by seizing the Imperial treasury, and she herself
with Prince Iwaki and others accompanied him thither. They
underestimated the power of the Katsuragi family. Siege was laid to
the treasury and all its inmates were burned, with the exception of
one minor official to whom mercy was extended and who, in token of
gratitude, presented twenty-five acres of rice-land to the o-muraji,
Lord Otomo, commander of the investing force.

THE FUGITIVE PRINCES

The Emperor Seinei had no offspring, and for a time it seemed that
the succession in the direct line would be interrupted. For this lack
of heirs the responsibility ultimately rested with Yuryaku. In his
fierce ambition to sweep away every obstacle, actual or potential,
that barred his ascent to the throne, he inveigled Prince Oshiwa,
eldest son of the Emperor Richu, to accompany him on a hunting
expedition, and slew him mercilessly on the moor of Kaya. Oshiwa had
two sons, Oke and Woke, mere children at the time of their father's
murder. They fled, under the care of Omi, a muraji, who, with his
son, Adahiko, secreted them in the remote province of Inaba. Omi
ultimately committed suicide in order to avoid the risk of capture
and interrogation under torture, and the two little princes, still
accompanied by Adahiko, calling themselves "the urchins of Tamba,"
became menials in the service of the obito of the Shijimi granaries
in the province of Harima.

Twenty-four years had been passed in that seclusion when it chanced
that Odate, governor of the province, visited the obito on an
occasion when the latter was holding a revel to celebrate the
building of a new house, it fell to the lot of the two princes to act
as torch-bearers, the lowest role that could be assigned to them, and
the younger counselled his brother that the time had come to declare
themselves, for death was preferable to such a life. Tradition says
that, being invited to dance "when the night had become profound,
when the revel was at its height and when every one else had danced
in turn," the Prince Woke, accompanying his movements with verses
extemporized for the occasion, danced so gracefully that the governor
twice asked him to continue, and at length he announced the rank and
lineage of his brother and himself. The governor, astonished, "made
repeated obeisance to the youths, built a palace for their temporary
accommodation, and going up to the capital, disclosed the whole
affair to the Emperor, who expressed profound satisfaction."

Oke, the elder of the two, was made Prince Imperial, and should have
ascended the throne on the death of Seinei, a few months later.
Arguing, however, that to his younger brother, Woke it was entirely
due that they had emerged from a state of abject misery, Oke
announced his determination to cede the honour to Woke, who, in turn,
declined to take precedence of his elder brother. This dispute of
mutual deference continued for a whole year, during a part of which
time the administration was carried on by Princess Awo, elder sister
of Woke. At length the latter yielded and assumed the sceptre. His
first care was to collect the bones of his father, Prince Oshiwa,
who had been murdered and buried unceremoniously on the moor of Kaya
in Omi province. It was long before the place of interment could be
discovered, but at length an old woman served as guide, and the bones
of the prince were found mingled in inextricable confusion with those
of his loyal vassal, Nakachiko, who had shared his fate.

The ethics of that remote age are illustrated vividly in this page of
the record. A double sepulchre was erected in memory of the murdered
prince and his faithful follower and the old woman who had pointed
out the place of their unhonoured grave was given a house in the
vicinity of the palace, a rope with a bell attached being stretched
between the two residences to serve as a support for her infirm feet
and as a means of announcing her coming when she visited the palace.
But the same benevolent sovereign who directed these gracious doings
was with difficulty dissuaded from demolishing the tomb and
scattering to the winds of heaven the bones of the Emperor Yuryaku,
under whose hand Prince Oshiwa had fallen.

THE VENDETTA

In connexion with this, the introduction of the principle of the
vendetta has to be noted. Its first practical application is
generally referred to the act of the boy-prince, Mayuwa, who stabbed
his father's slayer, the Emperor Anko (A.D. 456). But the details of
Anko's fate are involved in some mystery, and it is not until the
time (A.D. 486) of Kenso that we find a definite enunciation of the
Confucian doctrine, afterwards rigidly obeyed in Japan, "A man should
not live under the same heaven with his father's enemy." History
alleges that, by his brother's counsels, the Emperor Kenso was
induced to abandon his intention of desecrating Yuryaku's tomb, but
the condition of the tomb to-day suggests that these counsels were
not entirely effective.

BANQUETS

The annals of this epoch refer more than once to banquets at the
palace. Towards the close of Seinei's reign we read of "a national
drinking-festival which lasted five days," and when Kenso ascended
the throne he "went to the park, where he held revel by the winding
streams," the high officials in great numbers being his guests. On
this latter occasion the ministers are said to have "uttered
reiterated cries of 'banzai'"*, which has come into vogue once more in
modern times as the equivalent of "hurrah."

*Banzai means literally "ten thousand years," and thus corresponds to
viva.

THE EMPEROR NINKEN

The twenty-fourth sovereign, Ninken, was the elder of the two
brothers, Oke and Woke, whose escape from the murderous ambition of
the Emperor Yuryaku and their ultimate restoration to princely rank
have been already described. He succeeded to the throne after the
death of his younger brother, and occupied it for ten years of a most
uneventful reign. Apart from the fact that tanners were invited from
Korea to improve the process followed in Japan, the records contain
nothing worthy of attention. One incident, however, deserves to be
noted as showing the paramount importance attached in those early
days to all the formalities of etiquette. The Empress dowager
committed suicide, dreading lest she should be put to death for a
breach of politeness committed towards Ninken during the life of his
predecessor, Kenso. At a banquet in the palace she had twice
neglected to kneel when presenting, first, a knife and, secondly, a
cup of wine to Ninken, then Prince Imperial. It has already been
related that the Empress Onakatsu, consort of Inkyo, was disposed to
inflict the death penalty on a high official who had slighted her
unwittingly prior to her husband's accession. There can be no doubt
that differences of rank received most rigid recognition in early
Japan.

THE EMPEROR MURETSU

This sovereign was the eldest son of his predecessor, Ninken.
According to the Chronicles, his reign opened with a rebellion by the
great Heguri family, whose representative, Matori, attempted to usurp
the Imperial dignity while his son, Shibi, defiantly wooed and won
for himself the object of the Emperor's affections. Matori had been
Yuryaku's minister, and his power as well as his family influence
were very great, but the military nobles adhered to the sovereign's
cause and the Heguri were annihilated. In the Records this event is
attributed to the reign of Seinei in a much abbreviated form, but the
account given in the Chronicles commands the greater credence. The
Chronicles, however, represent Muretsu as a monster of cruelty, the
Nero of Japanese history, who plucked out men's nails and made them
dig up yams with their mutilated fingers; who pulled out people's
hair; who made them ascend trees which were then cut down, and who
perpetrated other hideous excesses. Here again the Records, as
well as other ancient authorities are absolutely silent, and the
story in the Chronicles has attracted keen analyses by modern
historiographers. Their almost unanimous conclusion is that the
annals of King Multa of Kudara have been confused with those of the
Emperor Muretsu. This Korean sovereign, contemporary with Muretsu,
committed all kinds of atrocities and was finally deposed by his
people. There are evidences that the compilers of the Chronicles drew
largely on the pages of Korean writers, and it is not difficult to
imagine accidental intermixing such as that suggested by the critics
in this case.

KEITAI

The death of the Emperor Muretsu left the throne without any
successor in the direct line of descent, and for the first time since
the foundation of the Empire, it became necessary for the great
officials to make a selection among the scions of the remote Imperial
families. Their choice fell primarily on the representative of the
fifth generation of the Emperor Chuai's descendants. But as their
method of announcing their decision was to despatch a strong force of
armed troops to the provincial residence of the chosen man, he
naturally misinterpreted the demonstration and sought safety in
flight. Then the o-omi and the o-muraji turned to Prince Odo, fifth
in descent from the Emperor Ojin on his father's side and eighth in
descent from the Emperor Suinin on his mother's. Arako, head of the
horse-keepers, had secretly informed the prince of the ministers'
intentions, and thus the sudden apparition of a military force
inspired no alarm in Odo's bosom. He did, indeed, show seemly
hesitation, but finally he accepted the insignia and ascended the
throne, confirming all the high dignitaries of State in their
previous offices. From the point of view of domestic affairs his
reign was uneventful, but the empire's relations with Korea continued
to be much disturbed, as will be presently explained.

ANKAN

The Emperor Keitai had a large family, but only one son was by the
Empress, and as he was too young to ascend the throne immediately
after his father's death, he was preceded by his two brothers, Ankan
and Senkwa, sons of the senior concubine. This complication seems to
have caused some difficulty, for whereas Keitai died in 531, Ankan's
reign did not commence until 534. The most noteworthy feature of his
era was the establishment of State granaries in great numbers, a
proof that the Imperial power found large extension throughout the
provinces. In connexion with this, the o-muraji, Kanamura, is quoted
as having laid down, by command of the Emperor, the following
important doctrine, "Of the entire surface of the soil, there is no
part which is not a royal grant in fee; under the wide heavens there
is no place which is not royal territory." The annals show, also,
that the custom of accepting tracts of land or other property in
expiation of offences was obtaining increased vogue.

SENKWA

Senkwa was the younger brother of Ankan. He reigned only three years
and the period of his sway was uneventful, if we except the growth of
complications with Korea, and the storing of large quantities of
grain in Tsukushi, as a "provision against extraordinary occasions,"
and "for the cordial entertainment of our good guests" from "the
countries beyond the sea."

RELATIONS WITH KOREA

With whatever scepticism the details of the Empress Jingo's
expedition be regarded, it appears to be certain that at a very early
date, Japan effected lodgement on the south coast of Korea at Mimana,
and established there a permanent station (chinju-fu) which was
governed by one of her own officials. It is also apparent that,
during several centuries, the eminent military strength of Yamato
received practical recognition from the principalities into which the
peninsula was divided; that they sent to the Court of Japan annual
presents which partook of the nature of tribute, and that they
treated her suggestions, for the most part, with deferential
attention. This state of affairs received a rude shock in the days of
Yuryaku, when that sovereign, in order to possess himself of the wife
of a high official named Tasa, sent the latter to distant Mimana as
governor, and seized the lady in his absence. Tasa revolted, and from
that time Japan's position in the peninsula was compromised. The
Koreans perceived that her strength might be paralyzed by the sins of
her sovereigns and the disaffection of her soldiers. Shiragi (Sinra),
whose frontier was conterminous with that of the Japanese settlement
on the north, had always been restive in the proximity of a foreign
aggressor. From the time of Yuryaku's accession she ceased to convey
the usual tokens of respect to the Yamato Court, and, on the other
hand, she cultivated the friendship of Koma as an ally in the day of
retribution.

It may be broadly stated that Korea was then divided into three
principalities: Shiragi in the south and east; Kudara in the centre
and west, with its capital at the modern Seoul, and Koma in the
north, having Pyong-yang for chief city. This last had recently
pushed its frontier into Manchuria as far as the Liao River, and was
already beginning to project its shadow over the southern regions of
the peninsula, destined ultimately to fall altogether under its sway.
In response to Shiragi's overtures, the King of Koma sent a body of
troops to assist in protecting that principality against any
retaliatory essay on the part of the Japanese in Mimana. But the men
of Shiragi, betrayed into imagining that these soldiers were destined
to be the van of an invading army, massacred them, and besought
Japanese succour against Koma's vengeance. The Japanese acceded, and
Shiragi was saved for a time, but at the cost of incurring, for
herself and for Japan alike, the lasting enmity of Koma. Shiragi
appears to have concluded, however, that she had more to fear from
Koma than from Japan, for she still withheld her tribute to the
latter, and invaded the territory of Kudara, which had always
maintained most friendly relations with Yamato. The Emperor Yuryaku
sent two expeditions to punish this contumacy, but the result being
inconclusive, he resolved to take the exceptional step of personally
leading an army to the peninsula.

This design, which, had it matured, might have radically changed the
history of the Far East, was checked by an oracle, and Yuryaku
appointed three of his powerful nobles to go in his stead. The
Shiragi men fought with desperate tenacity. One wing of their army
was broken, but the other held its ground, and two of the Japanese
generals fell in essaying to dislodge it. Neither side could claim a
decisive victory, but both were too much exhausted to renew the
combat. This was not the limit of Japan's misfortunes. A feud broke
out among the leaders of the expedition, and one of them, Oiwa, shot
his comrade as they were en route for the Court of the Kudara
monarch, who had invited them in the hope of composing their
dissensions, since the existence of his own kingdom depended on
Japan's intervention between Koma and Shiragi.

Owing to this feud among her generals, Japan's hold on Mimana became
more precarious than ever while her prestige in the peninsula
declined perceptibly. Nevertheless her great military name still
retained much of its potency. Thus, ten years later (A.D. 477), when
the King of Koma invaded Kudara and held the land at his mercy, he
declined to follow his generals' counsels of extermination in
deference to Kudara's long friendship with Yamato. It is related
that, after this disaster, the Japanese Emperor gave the town of
Ung-chhon (Japanese, Kumanari) to the remnant of the Kudara people,
and the latter's capital was then transferred from its old site in
the centre of the peninsula--a place no longer tenable--to the
neighbourhood of Mimana. Thenceforth Yuryaku aided Kudara zealously.
He not only despatched a force of five hundred men to guard the
palace of the King, but also sent (480) a flotilla of war-vessels to
attack Koma from the west coast. The issue of this attempt is not
recorded, and the silence of the annals may be construed as
indicating failure. Koma maintained at that epoch relations of
intimate friendship with the powerful Chinese dynasty of the Eastern
Wei, and Yuryaku's essays against such a combination were futile,
though he prosecuted them with considerable vigour.

After his death the efficiency of Japan's operations in Korea was
greatly impaired by factors hitherto happily unknown in her foreign
affairs--treason and corruption. Lord Oiwa, whose shooting of his
fellow general, Karako, has already been noted, retained his post as
governor of Mimana for twenty-one years, and then (487), ambitious of
wider sway, opened relations with Koma for the joint invasion of
Kudara, in order that he himself might ascend the throne of the
latter. A desperate struggle ensued. Several battles were fought, in
all of which the victory is historically assigned to Oiwa, but if he
really did achieve any success, it was purely ephemeral, for he
ultimately abandoned the campaign and returned to Japan, giving
another shock to his country's waning reputation in the peninsula. If
the Yamato Court took any steps to punish this act of lawless
ambition, there is no record in that sense. The event occurred in the
last year of Kenso's reign, and neither that monarch nor his
successor, Ninken, seems to have devoted any special attention to
Korean affairs.

Nothing notable took place until 509, when Keitai was on the throne.
In that year, a section of the Kudara people, who, in 477, had been
driven from their country by the Koma invaders and had taken refuge
within the Japanese dominion of Mimana, were restored to their homes
with Japanese co-operation and with renewal of the friendly relations
which had long existed between the Courts of Yamato and Kudara. Three
years later (512), Kudara preferred a singular request. She asked
that four regions, forming an integral part of the Yamato domain of
Mimana, should be handed over to her, apparently as an act of pure
benevolence. Japan consented. There is no explanation of her
complaisance except that she deemed it wise policy to strengthen
Kudara against the growing might of Shiragi, Yamato's perennial foe.
The two officials by whose advice the throne made this sacrifice were
the o-muraji, Kanamura, and the governor of Mimana, an omi called
Oshiyama. They went down in the pages of history as corrupt statesmen
who, in consideration of bribes from the Kudara Court, surrendered
territory which Japan had won by force of arms and held for five
centuries.

In the following year (513) the Kudara Court again utilized the
services of Oshiyama to procure possession of another district, Imun
(Japanese, Komom), which lay on the northeast frontier of Mimana.
Kudara falsely represented that this region had been wrested from her
by Habe, one of the petty principalities in the peninsula, and the
Yamato Court, acting at the counsels of the same o-muraji (Kanamura)
who had previously espoused Kudara's cause, credited Kudara's story.
This proved an ill-judged policy. It is true that Japan's prestige in
the peninsula received signal recognition on the occasion of
promulgating the Imperial decree which sanctioned the transfer of the
disputed territory. All the parties to the dispute, Kudara, Shiragi,
and Habe, were required to send envoys to the Yamato Court for the
purpose of hearing the rescript read, and thus Japan's pre-eminence
was constructively acknowledged. But her order provoked keen
resentment in Shiragi and Habe. The general whom she sent with five
hundred warships to escort the Kudara envoys was ignominiously
defeated by the men of Habe, while Shiragi seized the opportunity to
invade Mimana and to occupy a large area of its territory.

For several years the Yamato Court made no attempt to re-assert
itself, but in 527 an expedition of unprecedented magnitude was
organized. It consisted of sixty thousand soldiers under the command
of Keno no Omi, and its object was to chastise Shiragi and to
re-establish Mimana in its original integrity. But here an
unforeseeable obstacle presented itself. For all communication with
the Korean peninsula, Tsukushi (Kyushu) was an indispensable basis,
and it happened that, just at this time, Kyushu had for ruler
(miyatsuko) a nobleman called Iwai, who is said to have long
entertained treasonable designs. A knowledge of his mood was conveyed
to Shiragi, and tempting proposals were made to him from that place
conditionally on his frustrating the expedition under Keno no Omi.
Iwai thereupon occupied the four provinces of Higo, Hizen, Bungo, and
Buzen, thus effectually placing his hand on the neck of the
communications with Korea and preventing the embarkation of Keno no
Omi's army. He established a pseudo-Court in Tsukushi and there gave
audience to tribute-bearing envoys from Koma, Kudara and Shiragi.

For the space of a twelvemonth this rebel remained master of the
situation, but, in A.D. 528, the o-muraji, Arakahi, crushed him after
a desperate conflict in the province of Chikugo.* Iwai effected his
escape to Buzen and died by his own hand in a secluded valley.
Although, however, this formidable rebellion was thus successfully
quelled, the great expedition did not mature. Keno, its intended
leader, did indeed proceed to Mimana and assume there the duties of
governor, but he proved at once arrogant and incompetent, employing
to an extravagant degree the ordeal of boiling water, so that many
innocent people suffered fatally, and putting to death children of
mixed Korean and Japanese parentage instead of encouraging unions
which would have tended to bring the two countries closer together.

*In the Chikugo Fudoki a minute description is given of Iwai's
sepulchre, built during his lifetime but presumably never occupied by
his body. The remarkable feature of the tomb was a number of stone
images, several representing grave-guards, and one group being
apparently designed to represent the judicial trial of a poacher.

In all her relations with Korea at this epoch, Japan showed more
loyalty than sagacity. She was invariably ready to accede to
proposals from her old friend, Kudara, and the latter, taking astute
advantage of this mood, secured her endorsement of territorial
transfers which brought to the Yamato Court nothing but the enmity of
Kudara's rivals. By these errors of statesmanship and by the
misgovernment of officials like Keno, conditions were created which,
as will be seen hereafter, proved ultimately fatal to Japan's sway in
the peninsula. Meanwhile, every student of Japanese ancient annals
cannot but be struck by the large space devoted to recording her
relations with Korea. As the eminent historian, Rai Sanyo, said in
later times, her soldiers were wearied by constant campaigns oversea,
and her agriculturists were exhausted by frequent requisitions for
supplies. During the epoch of Jingo and Ojin, Japan was palpably
inferior to her peninsular neighbour in civilization, in wealth, and
in population. But in one respect the superiority was largely on her
side; namely, in the quality of her soldiers. Therefore, she utilized
her military strength for campaigns which cost comparatively little
and produced much. The peninsula, at that time, verified the term
commonly applied to it, Uchi-tsurmiyake, or the "Granary of the
Home-land." But as the material development of Japan and her
civilization progressed, she stood constantly to lose more and gain
less by despatching expeditions to a land which squandered much of
its resources on internecine quarrels and was deteriorating by
comparison. The task of maintaining Mimana and succouring Kudara then
became an obligation of prestige which gradually ceased to interest
the nation.

FINANCE

In the period now under consideration no system of land taxation had
yet come into existence. The requirements of the Court were met by
the produce of the mi-agata (Imperial domains), and rice for public
use was grown in the miyake districts, being there stored and devoted
to the administrative needs of the region. Occasionally the contents
of several miyake were collected into one district, as, for example,
when (A.D. 536) the Emperor Senkwa ordered a concentration of
foodstuffs in Tsukushi. The miyake were the property of the Crown, as
were also a number of hereditary corporations (be), whose members
discharged duties, from building and repairing palaces--no light
task, seeing that the site of the palace was changed with each change
of occupant--to sericulture, weaving, tailoring, cooking, and arts
and handicrafts of all descriptions, each be exercising its own
function from generation to generation, and being superintended by
its own head-man (obito or atae).

Any insufficiency in the supplies furnished by the sovereign's own
people was made good by levying on the tomo-no-miyatsuko. It will be
seen that there was no annual tax regularly imposed on the people in
general, though universal requisitions were occasionally made to meet
the requirements of public works, festivals or military operations.
Hence when it is said that the Emperor Nintoku remitted all taxes for
the space of three years until the people's burdens were lightened,
reference is made only to the be and tomobe belonging to the Throne
itself. Doubtless this special feature of Yamato finance was due in
part to the fact that all the land and all the people, except those
appertaining to the Crown, were in the possession of the uji, without
whose co-operation no general fiscal measure could be adopted. When
recourse to the nation at large was necessitated to meet some
exceptional purpose, orders had to be given, first, to the o-omi and
o-muraji; next, by these to the Kami of the several o-uji; then, by
the latter to the Kami of the various ko-uji, and, finally, by these
last to every household.

The machinery was thorough, but to set it in motion required an
effort which constituted an automatic obstacle to extortion. The
lands and people of the uji were governed by the Emperor but were not
directly controlled by him. On the other hand, to refuse a
requisition made by the Throne was counted contumelious and liable to
punishment. Thus when (A.D. 534) the Emperor Ankan desired to include
a certain area of arable land in a miyake established for the purpose
of commemorating the name of the Empress, and when Ajihari, suzerain
(atae) of the region, sought to evade the requisition by
misrepresenting the quality of the land, he was reprimanded and had
to make atonement by surrendering a portion of his private property.
There can be no doubt, however, that as the population increased and
as uncultivated areas grew less frequent, the arbitrary establishment
of koshiro or of nashiro became more and more irksome, and the pages
of history indicate that from the time of Keitai (A.D. 507-531) this
practice was gradually abandoned.

CRIMINAL LAW

Although the use of the ideographic script became well known from the
fifth century, everything goes to show that no written law existed at
that time, or, indeed, for many years afterwards. Neither are there
any traces of Korean or Chinese influence in this realm. Custom
prescribed punishments, and the solemnity of a judicial trial found
no better representative than the boiling-water ordeal. If a man took
oath to the deities of his innocence and was prepared to thrust his
arm into boiling mud or water, or to lay a red-hot axe on the palm of
his hand, he was held to have complied with all the requirements. The
familiar Occidental doctrine, "the King can do no wrong," received
imperative recognition in Japan, and seems to have been extended to
the Crown Prince also. There were no other exemptions. If a man
committed a crime, punishment extended to every member of his family.
On the other hand, offences might generally be expiated by presenting
lands or other valuables to the Throne. As for the duty of executing
sentences, it devolved on the mononobe, who may be described as the
military corporation. Death or exile were common forms of punishment,
but degradation was still more frequent. It often meant that a
family, noble and opulent to-day, saw all its members handed over
to-morrow to be the serfs or slaves of some uji in whose be they were
enrolled to serve thenceforth, themselves and their children, through
all generations in some menial position,--it might be as
sepulchre-guards, it might be as scullions.


Tattooing on the face was another form of penalty. The first mention
of it occurs in A.D. 400 when Richu condemned the muraji, Hamako, to
be thus branded, but whether the practice originated then or dated
from an earlier period, the annals do not show. It was variously
called hitae-kizamu (slicing the brow), me-saku (splitting the eyes),
and so on, but these terms signified nothing worse than tattooing on
the forehead or round the eyes. The Emperor Richu deemed that such
notoriety was sufficient penalty for high treason, but Yuryaku
inflicted tattooing on a man whose dog had killed one of his
Majesty's fowls.

Death at the stake appears to have been very uncommon. This terrible
form of punishment seems to have been revived by Yuryaku. He caused
it to be inflicted on one of the ladies-in-waiting and her paramour,
who had forestalled him in the girl's affections. The first instance
is mentioned in the annals of the Empress Jingo, but the victim was a
Korean and the incident happened in war. To Yuryaku was reserved the
infamy of employing such a penalty in the case of a woman. Highly
placed personages were often allowed to expiate an offence by
performing the religious rite of harai (purification), the offender
defraying all expenses.

ARCHITECTURE

As Chinese literature became familiar and as the arts of the Middle
Kingdom and Korea were imported into Japan, the latter's customs
naturally underwent some changes. This was noticeable in the case of
architecture. Lofty buildings, as has been already stated, began to
take the place of the partially subterranean muro. The annals make no
special reference to the authors of this innovation, but it is
mentioned that among the descendants of the Chinese, Achi, and the
Korean, Tsuka, there were men who practised carpentry. Apparently the
fashion of high buildings was established in the reign of Anko when
(A.D. 456) the term ro or takadono (lofty edifice) is, for the first
time, applied to the palace of Anko in Yamato. A few years later
(468), we find mention of two carpenters,* Tsuguno and Mita, who,
especially the latter, were famous experts in Korean architecture,
and who received orders from Yuryaku to erect high buildings. It
appears further that silk curtains (tsumugi-kaki) came into use in
this age for partitioning rooms, and that a species of straw mat
(tatsu-gomo) served for carpet when people were hunting, travelling,
or campaigning.

*It should be remembered that as all Japanese edifices were made of
timber, the carpenter and the architect were one and the same.

SHIPS

Occasional references have been made already to the art of
shipbuilding in Japan, and the facts elicited may be summed up very
briefly. They are that the first instance of naming a ship is
recorded in the year A.D. 274, when the Karano (one hundred feet
long) was built to order of the Emperor Ojin by the carpenters of Izu
promontory, which place was famed for skill in this respect; that the
general method of building was to hollow out tree-trunks,* and that
the arrival of naval architects from Shiragi (A.D. 300) inaugurated a
superior method of construction, differing little from that employed
in later ages.

*Such dug-outs were named maruki-bune, a distinguishing term which
proves that some other method of building was also employed.

VEHICLES

A palanquin (koshi) used by the Emperor Ojin (A.D. 270-310) was
preserved in the Kyoto palace until the year 1219, when a
conflagration consumed it. The records give no description of it, but
they say that Yuryaku and his Empress returned from a hunting
expedition on a cart (kuruma), and tradition relates that a man named
Isa, a descendant in the eighth generation of the Emperor Sujin,
built a covered cart which was the very one used by Yuryaku. It is,
indeed, more than probable that a vehicle which had been in use in
China for a long time must have become familiar to the Japanese at an
early epoch.

MEDICAL ART

For relief in sickness supplication to the gods and the performance
of religious rites were chiefly relied on. But it is alleged* that
medicines for internal and external use were in existence and that
recourse to thermal springs was commonly practised from remote times.

*By the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku.

PICTORIAL ART

While Yuryaku was on the throne, Korea and China sent pictorial
experts to Japan. The Korean was named Isuraka, and the Chinese,
Shinki. The latter is said to have been a descendant of the Emperor
Wen of the Wei dynasty. His work attracted much attention in the
reign of Muretsu, who bestowed on him the uji title of Ooka no Obito.
His descendants practised their art with success in Japan, and from
the time of the Emperor Tenchi (668-671) they were distinguished as
Yamato no eshi (painters of Yamato).

POETRY

If we credit the annals, the composition of poetry commenced in the
earliest ages and was developed independently of foreign influences.
From the sovereign down to the lowest subject, everyone composed
verses. These were not rhymed; the structure of the Japanese language
does not lend itself to rhyme. Their differentiation from prose
consisted solely in the numerical regularity of the syllables in
consecutive lines; the alternation of phrases of five and seven
syllables each. A tanka (short song) consisted of thirty-one
syllables arranged thus, 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7; and a naga-uta (long
song) consisted of an unlimited number of lines, all fulfilling the
same conditions as to number of syllables and alternation of phrases.
No parallel to this kind of versification has been found yet in the
literature of any other nation. The Chronicles and the Records abound
with tanka and naga-uta, many of which have been ascribed by skeptics
to an age not very remote from the time when those books were
compiled. But the Japanese themselves think differently. They connect
the poems directly with the events that inspired them. Further
reference to the subject will be made hereafter. Here it will suffice
to note that the composing of such verselets was a feature of every
age in Japan.

UTA-GAKI

A favourite pastime during the early historic period was known as
uta-gaki or uta-kai. In cities, in the country, in fields, and on
hills, youths and maidens assembled in springtime or in autumn and
enjoyed themselves by singing and dancing. Promises of marriage were
exchanged, the man sending some gifts as a token, and the woman, if
her father or elder brother approved, despatching her head-ornament
(oshiki no tamakatsura) to her lover. On the wedding day it was
customary for the bride to present "table-articles" (tsukue-shiro) to
the bridegroom in the form of food and drink. There were places
specially associated in the public mind with uta-gaki--Tsukuba
Mountain in Hitachi, Kijima-yama in Hizen, and Utagaki-yama in
Settsu. Sometimes men of noble birth took part in this pastime, but
it was usually confined to the lower middle classes. The great
festival of bon-odori, which will be spoken of by and by, is said to
be an outgrowth of the uta-gaki.

SUPERSTITIONS

No influences of alien character affected the religious beliefs of
the Japanese during the period we are now considering (fourth, fifth,
and sixth centuries). The most characteristic feature of the time was
a belief in the supernatural power of reptiles and animals. This
credulity was not limited to the uneducated masses. The Throne itself
shared it. Yuryaku, having expressed a desire to see the incarnated
form of the Kami of Mimoro Mountain, was shown a serpent seventy feet
long. In the same year a group of snakes harrassed a man who was
reclaiming a marsh, so that he had to take arms against them and
enter into a compact of limitations and of shrine building. Other
records of maleficent deities in serpent shape were current, and
monkeys and dragons inspired similar terror. Of this superstition
there was born an evil custom, the sacrifice of human beings to
appease the hostile spirits. The Kami of Chusan in Mimasaka province
was believed to be a giant ape, and the Kami of Koya, a big reptile.
The people of these two districts took it in turn to offer a girl at
the shrines of those Kami, and in the province of Hida another
colossal monkey was similarly appeased. There were further cases of
extravagant superstition.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

Of the development of sericulture and of the arts of weaving and
ceramics in this era enough has already been written; but, as showing
the growth of refinement, it may be noted that among the articles
ordered by the Emperor Yuryaku were a silk hat and a sashiha, or
round fan with a long handle. The colour of the fan was purple, and
it is said to have been hung up as an ornament in the palace.

FORM OF GOVERNMENT

The original form of government under the Yamato seems to have been
feudal. The heads of uji were practically feudal chiefs. Even orders
from the Throne had to pass through the uji no Kami in order to reach
the people. But from the time of Nintoku (313-349) to that of Yuryaku
(457-479), the Court wielded much power, and the greatest among the
uji chiefs found no opportunity to interfere with the exercise of the
sovereign's rights. Gradually, however, and mainly owing to the
intrusion of love affairs or of lust, the Imperial household fell
into disorder, which prompted the revolt of Heguri, the o-omi of the
Kwobetsu (Imperial families); a revolt subdued by the loyalty of the
o-muraji of the Shimbetsu (Kami families).

From the days of the Emperor Muretsu (499-506), direct heirs to
succeed to the sceptre were wanting in more than one instance, and a
unique opportunity thus offered for traitrous essays. There was none.
Men's minds were still deeply imbued with the conviction that by the
Tenjin alone might the Throne be occupied. But with the introduction
of Buddhism (A.D. 552), that conviction received a shock. That the
Buddha directed and controlled man's destiny was a doctrine
inconsistent with the traditional faith in the divine authority of
the "son of heaven." Hence from the sixth century the prestige of the
Crown began to decline, and the puissance of the great uji grew to
exceed that of the sovereign. During a short period (645-670) the
authority of the Throne was reasserted, owing to the adoption of the
Tang systems of China; but thereafter the great Fujiwara-uji became
paramount and practically administered the empire.

For the sake, therefore, of an intelligent sequence of conception,
there is evidently much importance in determining whether, in remote
antiquity, the prevailing system was feudal, or prefectural, or a
mixture of both. Unfortunately the materials for accurate
differentiation are wanting. Much depends on a knowledge of the
functions discharged by the kuni-no-miyatsuko, who were hereditary
officials, and the kuni-no-tsukasa (or kokushi) who were appointed by
the Throne. The closest research fails to elucidate these things with
absolute clearness. It is not known even at what date the office of
kokushi was established. The first mention of these officials is made
in the year A.D. 374, during the reign of Nintoku, but there can be
little doubt that they had existed from an earlier date. They were,
however, few in number, whereas the miyatsuko were numerous, and this
comparison probably furnishes a tolerably just basis for estimating
the respective prevalence of the prefectural and the feudal systems.
In short, the method of government inaugurated at the foundation of
the empire appears to have been essentially feudal in practice,
though theoretically no such term was recognized; and at a later
period--apparently about the time of Nintoku--when the power of the
hereditary miyatsuko threatened to grow inconveniently formidable,
the device of reasserting the Throne's authority by appointing
temporary provincial governors was resorted to, so that the
prefectural organization came into existence side by side with the
feudal, and the administration preserved this dual form until the
middle of the seventh century. There will be occasion to refer to the
matter again at a later date.

ANNALS OF THE UJI

It is essential to an intelligent appreciation of Japanese history
that some knowledge should be acquired of the annals of the great
uji.

From the time of Nintoku (A.D. 313-399) until the introduction of
Buddhism (A.D. 552), there were four uji whose chiefs participated
conspicuously in the government of the country. The first was that of
Heguri. It belonged to the Imperial class (Kwobetsu) and was
descended from the celebrated Takenouchi-no-Sukune. In the days of
the Emperor Muretsu (499-506), the chief of this uji attempted to
usurp the throne and was crushed. The second was the Otomo. This uji
belonged to the Kami class (Shimbetsu) and had for ancestor Michi no
Omi, the most distinguished general in the service of the first
Emperor Jimmu. The chiefs of the Otomo-uji filled the post of general
from age to age, and its members guarded the palace gates. During the
reign of Yuryaku the office of o-muraji was bestowed upon Moroya,
then chief of this uji, and the influence he wielded may be inferred
from the language of an Imperial rescript where it is said that "the
tami-be of the o-muraji fill the country." His son, Kanamura,
succeeded him. By his sword the rebellion of Heguri no Matori was
quelled, and by his advice Keitai was called to the Throne. He served
also under Ankan, Senkwa, and Kimmei, but the miscarriage of Japan's
relations with Korea was attributed to him, and the title of o-muraji
was not conferred on any of his descendants.

The uji of Mononobe next calls for notice. "Monono-be" literally
signifies, when expanded, a group (be) of soldiers (tsuwamono). In
later times a warrior in Japan was called mono-no-fu (or bushi),
which is written with the ideographs mono-be. This uji also belonged
to the Kami class, and its progenitor was Umashimade, who surrendered
Yamato to Jimmu on the ground of consanguinity. Thenceforth the
members of the uji formed the Imperial guards (uchi-tsu-mononobe) and
its chiefs commanded them. Among all the uji of the Kami class the
Mononobe and the Otomo ranked first, and after the latter's failure
in connexion with Korea, the Mononobe stood alone. During the reign
of Yuryaku, the uji's chief became o-muraji, as did his grandson,
Okoshi, and the latter's son, Moriya, was destroyed by the o-omi,
Soga no Umako, in the tumult on the accession of Sushun (A.D. 588).

The fourth of the great uji was the Soga, descended from
Takenouchi-no-Sukune. After the ruin of the Heguri, this uji stood at
the head of all the Imperial class. In the reign of Senkwa (536-539),
Iname, chief of the Soga, was appointed o-omi, and his son, Umako,
who held the same rank, occupies an important place in connexion with
the introduction of Buddhism. It will be observed that among these
four uji, Heguri and Soga served as civil officials and Otomo and
Mononobe as military.

There are also three other uji which figure prominently on the stage
of Japanese history. They are the Nakotomi, the Imibe, and the Kume.
The Nakatomi discharged the functions of religious supplication and
divination, standing, for those purposes, between (Naka) the Throne
and the deities. The Imibe had charge of everything relating to
religious festivals; an office which required that they should
abstain (imi suru) from all things unclean. The Kume were descended
from Amatsu Kume no Mikoto, and their duties were to act as
chamberlains and as guards of the Court.

Finally, there was the Oga-uji, descended from Okuninushi, which
makes the eighth of the great uji. From the time of the Emperor Jimmu
to that of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), the nobles who served in
ministerial capacities numbered forty and of that total the Mononobe
furnished sixteen; the Otomo, six; the o-omi houses (i.e. the
Kwobetsu), nine; the Imibe, one; the Nakatomi, six; and the Oga, two.
Thus, the military uji of Mononobe and Otomo gave to the State
twenty-two ministers out of forty during a space of some twelve
centuries.

ENGRAVING: PROFESSIONAL STORY-TELLER

ENGRAVING: SHIGURETEI AND KASA-NO-CHAYA IN THE KODAIJI (Examples of
Ancient Tea Houses)



CHAPTER XIV

FROM THE 29TH TO THE 35TH SOVEREIGN

The 29th Sovereign, Kimmei  A.D. 540-571

 "  30th    "       Bidatsu  "   572-585

 "  31st    "       Yomei    "   586-587

 "  32nd    "       Sushun   "   588-592

 "  33rd    "       Suiko    "   593-628

 "  34th    "       Jomei    "   629-641

 "  35th    "       Kogyoku  "   642-645

THE seven reigns five Emperors and two Empresses commencing with the
Emperor Kimmei and ending with the Empress Kogyoku, covered a period
of 105 years, from 540 to 645, and are memorable on three accounts:
the introduction of Buddhism; the usurpation of the great uji, and
the loss of Japan's possessions in Korea.

THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM

During the reign of the Emperor Ming of the Hou-Han dynasty, in the
year AD. 65, a mission was sent from China to procure the Buddhist
Sutras as well as some teachers of the Indian faith. More than three
centuries elapsed before, in the year 372, the creed obtained a
footing in Korea; and not for another century and a half did it find
its way (522) to Japan. It encountered no obstacles in Korea. The
animistic belief of the early Koreans has never been clearly studied,
but whatever its exact nature may have been, it certainly evinced no
bigotry in the presence of the foreign faith, for within three years
of the arrival of the first image of Sakiya Muni in Koma, two large
monasteries had been built, and the King and his Court were all
converts.

No such reception awaited Buddhism in Japan when, in 522, a Chinese
bonze, Shiba Tachito, arrived, erected a temple on the Sakata plain
in Yamato, enshrined an image, of Buddha there, and endeavoured to
propagate the faith. At that time, Wu, the first Emperor of the Liang
dynasty in China, was employing all his influence to popularize the
Indian creed. Tradition says that Shiba Tachito came from Liang, and
in all probability he took the overland route via the Korean
peninsula, but the facts are obscure. No sensible impression seems to
have been produced in Japan by this essay. Buddhism was made known to
a few, but the Japanese showed no disposition to worship a foreign
god. Twenty-three years later (545), the subject attracted attention
again. Song Wang Myong, King of Kudara, menaced by a crushing attack
on the part of Koma and Shiragi in co-operation, made an image of the
Buddha, sixteen feet high, and petitioned the Court of Yamato in the
sense that as all good things were promised in the sequel of such an
effort, protection should be extended to him by Japan. Tradition says
that although Buddhism had not yet secured a footing in Yamato, this
image must be regarded as the pioneer of many similar objects
subsequently set up in Japanese temples.

Nevertheless, A.D. 552 is usually spoken of as the date of Buddhism's
introduction into Japan. In that year the same King of Kudara
presented direct to the Yamato Court a copper image of Buddha plated
with gold; several canopies (tengai), and some volumes of the sacred
books, by the hands of Tori Shichi (Korean pronunciation, Nori
Sachhi) and others. The envoys carried also a memorial which said:
"This doctrine is, among all, most excellent. But it is difficult to
explain and difficult to understand. Even the Duke Chou and Confucius
did not attain to comprehension. It can produce fortune and
retribution, immeasurable, illimitable. It can transform a man into a
Bodhi. Imagine a treasure capable of satisfying all desires in
proportion as it is used. Such a treasure is this wonderful doctrine.
Every earnest supplication is fulfilled and nothing is wanting.
Moreover, from farthest India to the three Han, all have embraced the
doctrine, and there is none that does not receive it with reverence
wherever it is preached. Therefore thy servant, Myong, in all
sincerity, sends his retainer, Nori Sachhi, to transmit it to the
Imperial country, that it may be diffused abroad throughout the home
provinces,* so as to fulfil the recorded saying of the Buddha, 'My
law shall spread to the East.'"** It is highly probable that in the
effort to win the Yamato Court to Buddhism, King Myong was influenced
as much by political as by moral motives. He sought to use the
foreign faith as a link to bind Japan to his country, so that he
might count on his oversea neighbour's powerful aid against the
attacks of Koma and Shiragi.

*That is to say, the Kinai, or five provinces, of which Yamato is the
centre.

**The memorial is held by some critics to be of doubtful
authenticity, though the compilers of the Chronicles may have
inserted it in good faith.

A more interesting question, however, is the aspect under which the
new faith presented itself to the Japanese when it first arrived
among them as a rival of Shinto and Confucianism. There can be no
doubt that the form in which it became known at the outset was the
Hinayana, or Exoteric, as distinguished from the Mahayana, or
Esoteric. But how did the Japanese converts reconcile its acceptance
with their allegiance to the traditional faith, Shinto? The clearest
available answer to this question is contained in a book called
Taishiden Hochu, where, in reply to a query from his father, Yomei,
who professed inability to believe foreign doctrines at variance with
those handed down from the age of the Kami, Prince Shotoku is
recorded to have replied:

"Your Majesty has considered only one aspect of the matter. I am
young and ignorant, but I have carefully studied the teachings of
Confucius and the doctrine of the Kami. I find that there is a plain
distinction. Shinto, since its roots spring from the Kami, came into
existence simultaneously with the heaven and the earth, and thus
expounds the origin of human beings. Confucianism, being a system of
moral principles, is coeval with the people and deals with the middle
stage of humanity. Buddhism, the fruit of principles, arose when the
human intellect matured. It explains the last stage of man. To like
or dislike Buddhism without any reason is simply an individual
prejudice. Heaven commands us to obey reason. The individual cannot
contend against heaven. Recognizing that impossibility, nevertheless
to rely on the individual is not the act of a wise man or an
intelligent. Whether the Emperor desire to encourage this creed is a
matter within his own will. Should he desire to reject it, let him do
so; it will arise one generation later. Should he desire to adopt it,
let him do so; it will arise one generation earlier. A generation is
as one moment in heaven's eyes. Heaven is eternal. The Emperor's
reign is limited to a generation; heaven is boundless and
illimitable. How can the Emperor struggle against heaven? How can
heaven be concerned about a loss of time?"

The eminent modern Japanese historiographer, Dr. Ariga, is disposed
to regard the above as the composition of some one of later date than
the illustrious Shotoku, but he considers that it rightly represents
the relation assigned to the three doctrines by the Japanese of the
sixth and seventh centuries. "Shinto teaches about the origin of the
country but does not deal with the present or the future.
Confucianism discusses the present and has no concern with the past
or the future. Buddhism, alone, preaches about the future. That life
ends with the present cannot be believed by all. Many men think of
the future, and it was therefore inevitable that many should embrace
Buddhism."

But at the moment when the memorial of King Myong was presented to
the Emperor Kimmei, the latter was unprepared to make a definite
reply. The image, indeed, he found to be full of dignity, but he left
his ministers to decide whether it should be worshipped or not. A
division of opinion resulted. The o-omi, Iname, of the Soga family,
advised that, as Buddhism had won worship from all the nations on the
West, Japan should not be singular. But the o-muraji, Okoshi, of the
Mononobe-uji, and Kamako, muraji of the Nakatomi-uji, counselled that
to bow down to foreign deities would be to incur the anger of the
national gods. In a word, the civil officials advocated the adoption
of the Indian creed; the military and ecclesiastical officials
opposed it. That the head of the Mononobe-uji should have adopted
this attitude was natural: it is always the disposition of soldiers
to be conservative, and that is notably true of the Japanese soldier
(bushi). In the case of the Nakatomi, also, we have to remember that
they were, in a sense, the guardians of the Shinto ceremonials: thus,
their aversion to the acceptance of a strange faith is explained.

What is to be said, however, of the apparently radical policy of the
Soga chief? Why should he have advocated so readily the introduction
of a foreign creed? There are two apparent reasons. One is that the
Hata and Aya groups of Korean and Chinese artisans were under the
control of the Soga-uji, and that the latter were therefore disposed
to welcome all innovations coming from the Asiatic continent. The
other is that between the o-muraji of the Kami class (Shimbetsu) and
the o-omi of the Imperial class (Kwobetsu) there had existed for some
time a political rivalry which began to be acute at about the period
of the coming of Buddhism, and which was destined to culminate, forty
years later, in a great catastrophe. The Emperor himself steered a
middle course. He neither opposed nor approved but entrusted the
image to the keeping of the Soga noble. Probably his Majesty was not
unwilling to submit the experiment to a practical test vicariously,
for it is to be noted that, in those days, the influence of the Kami
for good or for evil was believed to be freely exercised in human
affairs.

This last consideration does not seem to have influenced Soga no
Iname at all. He must have been singularly free from the
superstitions of his age, for he not only received the image with
pleasure but also enshrined it with all solemnity in his Mukuhara
residence, which he converted wholly into a temple.

Very shortly afterwards, however, the country was visited by a
pestilence, and the calamity being regarded as an expression of the
Kami's resentment, the o-muraji of the Mononobe and the muraji of the
Nakatomi urged the Emperor to cast out the emblems of a foreign
faith. Accordingly, the statue of the Buddha was thrown into the
Naniwa canal and the temple was burned to the ground. Necessarily
these events sharply accentuated the enmity between the Soga and the
Mononobe. Twenty-five years passed, however, without any attempt to
restore the worship of the Buddha. Iname, the o-omi of the Soga,
died; Okoshi, the o-muraji of the Mononobe, died, and they were
succeeded in these high offices by their sons, Umako and Moriya,
respectively.

When the Emperor Bidatsu ascended the throne in A.D. 572, the
political stage was practically occupied by these two ministers only;
they had no competitors of equal rank. In 577, the King of Kudara
made a second attempt to introduce Buddhism into Japan. He sent to
the Yamato Court two hundred volumes of sacred books; an ascetic; a
yogi (meditative monk); a nun; a reciter of mantras (magic spells); a
maker of images, and a temple architect. If any excitement was caused
by this event, the annals say nothing of the fact. It is briefly
related that ultimately a temple was built for the new-comers in
Naniwa (modern Osaka). Two years later, Shiragi also sent a Buddhist
eidolon, and in 584--just sixty-two years after the coming of Shiba
Tachito from Liang and thirty-two years after Soga no Iname's attempt
to popularize the Indian faith--two Japanese high officials returned
from Korea, carrying with them a bronze image of Buddha and a stone
image of Miroku.* These two images were handed over, at his request,
to the o-omi, Umako, who had inherited his father's ideas about
Buddhism. He invited Shiba Tachito, then a village mayor, to
accompany one Hida on a search throughout the provinces for Buddhist
devotees. They found a man called Eben, a Korean who had originally
been a priest, and he, having resumed the stole, consecrated the
twelve-year-old daughter of Shiba Tachito, together with two other
girls, as nuns. The o-omi now built a temple, where the image of
Miroku was enshrined, and a pagoda on the top of whose central pillar
was deposited a Buddhist relic which had shown miraculous powers.

*The Sanskrit Maitreya, the expected Messiah of the Buddhist.

Thus, once more the creed of Sakiya Muni seemed to have found a
footing in Japan. But again the old superstitions prevailed. The
plague of small-pox broke out once more. This fell disease had been
carried from Cochin China by the troops of General Ma Yuan during the
Han dynasty, and it reached Japan almost simultaneously with the
importation of Buddhism. The physicians of the East had no skill in
treating it, and its ravages were terrible, those that escaped with
their lives having generally to lament the loss of their eyes. So
soon as the malady made its second appearance in the immediate sequel
of the new honours paid to Buddhism, men began to cry out that the
Kami were punishing the nation's apostacy, and the o-muraji, Moriya,
urged the Emperor (Bidatsu) to authorize the suppression of the alien
religion. Bidatsu, who at heart had always been hostile to the
innovation, consented readily, and the o-muraji, taking upon himself
the duty of directing the work of iconoclasm, caused the pagoda and
the temple to be razed and burned, threw the image into the canal,
and flogged the nuns. But the pestilence was not stayed. Its ravages
grew more unsparing. The Emperor himself, as well as the o-omi,
Umako, were attacked, and now the popular outcry took another tone:
men ascribed the plague to the wrath of Buddha. Umako, in turn,
pleaded with the Emperor, and was permitted to rebuild the temple and
reinstate the nuns, on condition that no efforts were made to
proselytize.

Thus Buddhism recovered its footing, but the enmity between the
o-muraji and the o-omi grew more implacable than ever. They insulted
each other, even at the obsequies of the sovereign, and an occasion
alone was needed to convert their anger into an appeal to arms.

DISPUTES ABOUT THE ACCESSION

When the Emperor Bidatsu died (A.D. 585) no nomination of a Prince
Imperial had taken place, and the feud known to exist between the
o-omi and the o-muraji increased the danger of the situation. The
following genealogical table will serve to elucidate the relation in
which the Soga-uji stood to the Imperial Family, as well as the
relation between the members of the latter:

                                                   \
                                                   |  Prince Shotoku******
                           / Emperor Yomei**        > (married to a daughter
          /             \  | (originally Prince Oe)|  of Soga no Umako)
       |Princess Kitashi|  |                       /
       |(consort of      ><  Empress Suiko*****
       |Emperor Kimmei* |  | (originally consort
       |                /  | of Emperor Bidatsu***
Soga   |                   \
 no   <
Iname  |                \  /
       |Oane-kimi       |  | Prince Anahobe*******
       |(consort of      ><
       |Emperor Kimmei) |  | Emperor Sushun****
       |                /  \
       |
       |Omako-Emishi-Iruka
       \

*The Emperor Kimmei was the elder brother-in-law of Soga no Umako.
**The Emperor Yomei was the nephew of Soga no Umako.
***The Emperor Bidatsu was a nephew of Umako.
****The Emperor Sushun was a nephew of Umako.
*****The Empress Suiko was a niece of Umako.
******Prince Shotoku was son-in-law of Umako.
*******Prince Anahobe was a nephew of Umako.

It is thus seen that the great uji of Soga was closely related to all
the Imperial personages who figured prominently on the stage at this
period of Japanese history.

THE EMPEROR YOMEI

The Emperor Yomei was the fourth son of the Emperor Kimmei and a
nephew of the o-omi, Umako. The Chronicles say that he "believed in
the law of Buddha and reverenced Shinto" which term now makes its
first appearance on the page of Japanese history, the Kami alone
having been spoken of hitherto. Yomei's accession was opposed by his
younger brother, Prince Anahobe (vide above genealogical table), who
had the support of the o-muraji, Moriya; but the Soga influence was
exerted in Yomei's behalf. Anahobe did not suffer his discomfiture
patiently. He attempted to procure admission to the mourning chamber
of the deceased Emperor for some unexplained purpose, and being
resisted by Miwa Sako, who commanded the palace guards, he laid a
formal complaint before the o-omi and the o-muraji. In the sequel
Sako was killed by the troops of the o-muraji, though he merited
rather the latter's protection as a brave soldier who had merely done
his duty, who opposed Buddhism, and who enjoyed the confidence of the
Empress Dowager. To Umako, predicting that this deed of undeserved
violence would prove the beginning of serious trouble, Moriya
insultingly retorted that small-minded men did not understand such
matters. Moriya's mind was of the rough military type. He did not
fathom the subtle unscrupulous intellect of an adversary like Umako,
and was destined to learn the truth by a bitter process.

SHOTOKU TAISHI

Umayado, eldest son of the Emperor Yomei, is one of the most
distinguished figures in the annals of Japan. He has been well called
"the Constantine of Buddhism." In proof of his extraordinary
sagacity, the Chronicles relate that in a lawsuit he could hear the
evidence of ten men without confusing them. From his earliest youth
he evinced a remarkable disposition for study. A learned man was
invited from China to teach him the classics, and priests were
brought from Koma to expound the doctrine of Buddhism, in which faith
he ultimately became a profound believer. In fact, to his influence,
more than to any other single factor, may be ascribed the final
adoption of the Indian creed by Japan. He never actually ascended the
throne, but as regent under the Empress Suiko he wielded Imperial
authority. In history he is known as Shotoku Taishi (Prince Shotoku).

FINAL STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE MONONOBE AND THE SOGA

In the second year of his reign, the Emperor Yomei was seized with
the malady which had killed his father. In his extremity he desired
to be received into the Buddhist faith to which he had always
inclined, and he ordered the leading officials to consider the
matter. A council was held. Moriya, o-muraji of the Mononobe, and
Katsumi, muraji of the Nakatomi, objected resolutely. They asked why
the Kami of the country should be abandoned in a moment of crisis.
But Umako, o-omi of the Soga, said: "It is our duty to obey the
Imperial commands and to give relief to his Majesty. Who will dare to
suggest contumely?" Buddhist priests were then summoned to the
palace. It was a moment of extreme tension. Prince Umayado (Shotoku)
grasped the hands of the o-omi and exclaimed, "If the minister had
not believed in Buddhism, who would have ventured to give such
counsel?" Umako's answer is said to have been: "Your Imperial
Highness will work for the propagation of the faith. I, a humble
subject, will maintain it to the death." Moriya, the o-muraji, made
no attempt to hide his resentment, but recognizing that his adherents
in the palace were comparatively few, he withdrew to a safe place and
there concentrated his forces, endeavouring, at the same time, to
enlist by magic rites the assistance of the Kami against the
disciples of the foreign faith. Meanwhile the Emperor's malady ended
fatally. His reign had lasted only one year. At the point of death he
was comforted by an assurance that the son of Shiba Tachito would
renounce the world to revere his Majesty's memory and would make an
image of the Buddha sixteen feet high.

Buddhism had now gained a firm footing at the Yamato Court, but its
opponents were still active. Their leader, the o-muraji, thought that
his best chance of success was to contrive the accession of Prince
Anahobe, whose attempt to take precedence of his elder brother, the
Emperor Yomei, has been already noted. The conspiracy was discovered,
and the Soga forces, acting under the nominal authority of the
deceased Emperor's consort, Umako's niece, moved against Anahobe and
Moriya, who had not been able to combine their strength. The
destruction of Prince Anahobe was easily effected, but the work of
dealing with the o-muraji taxed the resources of the Soga to the
utmost. Moriya himself ascended a tree and by skill of archery held
his assailants long at bay. Archery had been practised assiduously by
the Yamato warrior from time immemorial, and arrows possessing
remarkable power of penetration had been devised. During the reign of
Nintoku, when envoys from Koma presented to the Court iron shields
and iron targets, a Japanese archer, Tatebito, was able to pierce
them; and in the time of Yuryaku, a rebel named Iratsuko shot a shaft
which, passing through his adversary's shield and twofold armour,
entered the flesh of his body to the depth of an inch. There was an
archery hall within the enclosure of the palace; whenever envoys or
functionaries from foreign countries visited Yamato they were invited
to shoot there; frequent trials of skill took place, and when oversea
sovereigns applied for military aid, it was not unusual to send some
bundles of arrows in lieu of soldiers.

Thus, the general of the Mononobe, perched among the branches of a
tree, with an unlimited supply of shafts and with highly trained
skill as a bowman, was a formidable adversary. Moriya and his large
following of born soldiers drove back the Soga forces three times.
Success seemed to be in sight for the champion of the Kami. At this
desperate stage Prince Shotoku--then a lad of sixteen--fastened to
his helmet images of the "Four Guardian Kings of Heaven"* and vowed
to build a temple in their honour if victory was vouchsafed to his
arms. At the same time, the o-omi, Umako, took oath to dedicate
temples and propagate Buddhism. The combat had now assumed a
distinctly religious character. Shotoku and Umako advanced again to
the attack; Moriya was shot down; his family and followers fled, were
put to the sword or sent into slavery, and all his property was
confiscated.

*The "Four Guardian Kings" (Shi-Tenno) are the warriors who guard the
world against the attacks of demons.

An incident of this campaign illustrates the character of the
Japanese soldier as revealed in the pages of subsequent history: a
character whose prominent traits were dauntless courage and romantic
sympathy. Yorozu, a dependent of the o-muraji, was reduced to the
last straits after a desperate fight. The Chronicles say: "Then he
took the sword which he wore, cut his bow into three pieces, and
bending his sword, flung it into the river. With a dagger which he
had besides, he stabbed himself in the throat and died. The governor
of Kawachi having reported the circumstances of Yorozu's death to the
Court, the latter gave an order by a stamp* that his body should be
cut into eight pieces and distributed among the eight provinces."**
In accordance with this order the governor was about to dismember the
corpse when thunder pealed and a great rain fell. "Now there was a
white dog which had been kept by Yorozu. Looking up and looking down,
it went round, howling beside the body, and at last, taking up the
head in its mouth, it placed it on an ancient mound, lay down close
by, and starved to death. When this was reported to the Court, the
latter, moved by profound pity, issued an order that the dog's
conduct should be handed down to after ages, and that the kindred of
Yorozu should be allowed to construct a tomb and bury his remains."

*A stamp in red or black on the palm of the hand.

**This custom of dismembering and distributing the remains was
practised in Korea until the time, at the close of the nineteenth
century, when the peninsula came under Japanese protection. It was
never customary in Japan.

BUILDING OF TEMPLES

After order had been restored, Prince Shotoku fulfilled his vow by
building in the province of Settsu a temple dedicated to the Four
Guardian Kings of Heaven (Shitenno-ji), and by way of endowment there
were handed over to it one-half of the servants of the o-muraji,
together with his house and a quantity of other property. The o-omi,
Umako, also erected a temple called Hoko-ji in Asuka near Kara. It
has been shown above that Soga no Iname converted one of his houses
into a temple to receive the Buddhist image sent by Myong in 552, and
that his son, Umako, erected a temple on the east of his residence to
enshrine a stone image of Miroku, in 584. But these two edifices
partook largely of the nature of private worship. The first public
temples for the service of Buddhism were Shotoku's Shitenno-ji and
Umako's Hoko-ji erected in 587.

AMOUNT OF THE O-MURAJI'S PROPERTY

In the Annals of Prince Shotoku (Taishi-deri) it is recorded that the
parts of the o-muraji's estate with which the temple of the Four
Kings was endowed were 273 members of his family and household; his
three houses and movable property, together with his domain measuring
186,890 shiro, and consisting of two areas of 128,640 shiro and
58,250 shiro in Kawachi and Settsu, respectively. The shiro is
variously reckoned at from 5% to 7.12 tsubo (1 tsubo = 36 square
feet). Taking the shiro as 6 tsubo, the above three areas total 1000
acres approximately. That this represented a part only of the
o-muraji's property is held by historians, who point to the fact that
the o-omi's wife, a younger sister of the o-muraji, incited her
husband to destroy Moriya for the sake of getting possession of his
wealth.

THE EMPEROR SUSHUN

The deaths of Prince Anahobe and Moriya left the Government
completely in the hands of Soga no Umako. There was no o-muraji; the
o-omi was supreme. At his instance the crown was placed upon the head
of his youngest nephew, Sushun. But Sushun entertained no friendship
for Umako nor any feeling of gratitude for the latter's action in
contriving his succession to the throne. Active, daring, and astute,
he judged the o-omi to be swayed solely by personal ambition, and he
placed no faith in the sincerity of the great official's Buddhist
propaganda. Meanwhile, the fortunes of the new faith prospered. When
the dying Emperor, Yomei, asked to be qualified for Nirvana, priests
were summoned from Kudara. They came in 588, the first year of
Sushun's reign, carrying relics (sarira), and they were accompanied
by ascetics, temple-architects, metal-founders, potters, and a
pictorial artist.

The Indian creed now began to present itself to the Japanese people,
not merely as a vehicle for securing insensibility to suffering in
this life and happiness in the next, but also as a great protagonist
of refined progress, gorgeous in paraphernalia, impressive in rites,
eminently practical in teachings, and substituting a vivid rainbow of
positive hope for the negative pallor of Shinto. Men began to adopt
the stole; women to take the veil, and people to visit the hills in
search of timbers suited for the frames of massive temples. Soga no
Umako, the ostensible leader of this great movement, grew more and
more arrogant and arbitrary. The youthful Emperor unbosomed himself
to Prince Shotoku, avowing his aversion to the o-omi and his
uncontrollable desire to be freed from the incubus of such a
minister. Shotoku counselled patience, but Sushun's impetuosity could
not brook delay, nor did he reflect that he was surrounded by
partisans of the Soga.

A Court lady betrayed his designs to the o-omi, and the latter
decided that the Emperor must be destroyed. An assassin was found in
the person of Koma, a naturalized Chinese, suzerain of the Aya uji,
and, being introduced into the palace by the o-omi under pretence of
offering textile fabrics from the eastern provinces, he killed the
Emperor. So omnipotent was the Soga chief that his murderous envoy
was not even questioned. He received open thanks from his employer
and might have risen to high office had he not debauched a daughter
of the o-omi. Then Umako caused him to be hung from a tree and made a
target of his body, charging him with having taken the Emperor's
life. "I knew only that there was an o-omi," retorted the man. "I did
not know there was an Emperor." Many others shared Koma's comparative
ignorance when the Soga were in power. At the Emperor Yomei's death,
only one person honoured his memory by entering the Buddhist
priesthood. When Soga no Umako died, a thousand men received the
tonsure. The unfortunate Sushun was interred on the day of his
murder, an extreme indignity, yet no one ventured to protest; and
even Prince Shotoku, while predicting that the assassin would
ultimately suffer retribution, justified the assassination on the
ground that previous misdeeds had deserved it.

Shotoku's conduct on this occasion has inspired much censure and
surprise when contrasted with his conspicuous respect for virtue in
all other cases. But the history of the time requires intelligent
expansion. Cursory reading suggests that Umako's resolve to kill
Sushun was taken suddenly in consequence of discovering the latter's
angry mood. The truth seems to be that Sushun was doomed from the
moment of his accession. His elder brother had perished at the hands
of Umako's troops, and if he himself did not meet the same fate,
absence of plausible pretext alone saved him. To suffer him to reign,
harbouring, as he must have harboured, bitter resentment against his
brother's slayer, would have been a weakness inconsistent with
Umako's character. Sushun was placed on the throne as a concession to
appearance, but, at the same time, he was surrounded with creatures
of the o-omi, so that the latter had constant cognizance of the
sovereign's every word and act.

When the o-omi judged the time fitting, he proposed to the Emperor
that an expedition should be despatched to recover Mimana, which had
been lost to Japan some time previously. An army of twenty thousand
men, commanded by a majority of the omi and muraji, was sent to
Tsukushi, and all potential opponents of the Soga chief having been
thus removed, he proceeded to carry out his design against the
Emperor's life. The very indignity done to Sushun's remains testifies
the thoroughness of the Soga plot. It has been shown that in early
days the erection of a tomb for an Imperial personage was a heavy
task, involving much time and labour. Pending the completion of the
work, the corpse was put into a coffin and guarded day and night, for
which purpose a separate palace was* erected. When the sepulchre had
been fully prepared, the remains were transferred thither with
elaborate ceremonials,** and the tomb was thenceforth under the care
of guardians (rioko).

*Called Araki-no-miya, or the "rough palace." The interval during
which time the coffin remained there was termed kari-mo-gari, or
"temporary mourning."

**Known as kakushi-matsuri, or the "rite of hiding." It would seem
that the term of one year's mourning prescribed in the case of a
parent had its origin in the above arrangement.

All these observances were dispensed with in the case of the Emperor
Sushun. His remains did not receive even the measure of respect that
would have been paid to the corpse of the commonest among his
subjects. Nothing could indicate more vividly the omnipotence of the
o-omi; everything had been prepared so that his partisans could bury
the body almost before it was cold. Had Prince Shotoku protested, he
would have been guilty of the futility described by a Chinese proverb
as "spitting at the sky." Besides, Shotoku and Umako were allies
otherwise. The Soga minister, in his struggle with the military
party, had needed the assistance of Shotoku, and had secured it by
community of allegiance to Buddhism. The prince, in his projected
struggle against the uji system, needed the assistance of Buddhist
disciples in general, and in his effort to reach the throne, needed
the assistance of Umako in particular. In short, he was building the
edifice of a great reform, and to have pitted himself, at the age of
nineteen, against the mature strength of the o-omi would have been to
perish on the threshold of his purpose.

THE EMPRESS SUIKO

By the contrivance of Umako, the consort of the Emperor Bidatsu was
now placed on the throne, Prince Shotoku being nominated Prince
Imperial and regent. The Soga-uji held absolute power in every
department of State affairs.

THE CONSTITUTION OF SHOTOKU

One of the most remarkable documents in Japanese annals is the
Jushichi Kempo, or Seventeen-Article Constitution, compiled by
Shotoku Taishi in A.D. 604. It is commonly spoken of as the first
written law of Japan. But it is not a body of laws in the proper
sense of the term. There are no penal provisions, nor is there any
evidence of promulgation with Imperial sanction. The seventeen
articles are simply moral maxims, based on the teachings of Buddhism
and Confucianism, and appealing to the sanctions of conscience.
Prince Shotoku, in his capacity of regent, compiled them and issued
them to officials in the guise of "instructions."

I. Harmony is to be valued, and the avoidance of wanton opposition
honoured. All men are swayed by class feeling and few are
intelligent. Hence some disobey their lords and fathers or maintain
feuds with neighbouring villages. But when the high are harmonious
and the low friendly, and when there is concord in the discussion of
affairs, right views spontaneously find acceptance. What is there
that cannot be then accomplished?

II. Reverence sincerely the Three Treasures--Buddha, the Law, and the
Priesthood--for these are the final refuge of the Four Generated
Beings* and the supreme objects of faith in all countries. What man
in what age can fail to revere this law? Few are utterly bad: they
may be taught to follow it. But if they turn not to the Three
Treasures, wherewithal shall their crookedness be made straight?

*Beings produced in transmigration by the four processes of being
born from eggs, from a womb, from fermentation, or from
metamorphosis.

III. When you receive the Imperial Commands fail not to obey
scrupulously. The lord is Heaven; the vassal, Earth. Heaven
overspreads; Earth upbears. When this is so, the four seasons follow
their due course, and the powers of Nature develop their efficiency.
If the Earth attempt to overspread, Heaven falls in ruin. Hence when
the lord speaks, the vassal hearkens; when the superior acts, the
inferior yields compliance. When, therefore, you receive an Imperial
Command, fail not to carry it out scrupulously. If there be want or
care in this respect, a catastrophe naturally ensues.

IV. Ministers and functionaries should make decorous behavior their
guiding principle, for decorous behavior is the main factor in
governing the people. If superiors do not behave with decorum,
inferiors are disorderly; if inferiors are wanting in proper
behaviour, offences are inevitable. Thus it is that when lord and
vassal behave with propriety, the distinctions of rank are not
confused; and when the people behave with propriety, the government
of the State proceeds of itself.

V. Refraining from gluttony and abandoning covetous desires, deal
impartially with the suits brought before you. Of complaints
preferred by the people there are a thousand in one day: how many,
then, will there be in a series of years? Should he that decides
suits at law make gain his ordinary motive and hear causes with a
view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of the rich man be like
a stone flung into water,* while the plaints of the poor will
resemble water cast on a stone. In such circumstances, the poor man
will not know whither to betake himself, and the duty of a minister
will not be discharged.

*That is to say, they will encounter no opposition.

VI. Chastise that which is evil and encourage that which is good.
This was the excellent rule of antiquity. Conceal not, therefore, the
good qualities of others, and fail not to correct that which is wrong
when you see it. Flatterers and deceivers are a sharp weapon for the
overthrow of the State, and a pointed sword for the destruction of
the people. Sycophants are also fond, when they meet, of dilating to
their superiors on the errors of their inferiors; to their inferiors,
they censure the faults of their superiors. Men of this kind are all
wanting in fidelity to their lord, and in benevolence towards the
people. From such an origin great civil disturbances arise.

VII. Let every man have his own charge, and let not the spheres of
duty be confused. When wise men are entrusted with office, the sound
of praise arises. If unprincipled men hold office, disasters and
tumults are multiplied. In this world, few are born with knowledge:
wisdom is the product of earnest meditation. In all things, whether
great or small, find the right man, and they will surely be well
managed: on all occasions, be they urgent or the reverse, meet with
but a wise man and they will of themselves be amenable. In this way
will the State be eternal and the Temples of the Earth and of Grain*
will be free from danger. Therefore did the wise sovereigns of
antiquity seek the man to fill the office, and not the office for the
sake of the man.

*A Chinese expression for the Imperial house.

VIII. Let the ministers and functionaries attend the Court early in
the morning, and retire late. The business of the State does not
admit of remissness, and the whole day is hardly enough for its
accomplishment. If, therefore, the attendance at Court is late,
emergencies cannot be met: if officials retire soon, the work cannot
be completed.

IX. Good faith is the foundation of right. In everything let there be
good faith, for in it there surely consists the good and the bad,
success and failure. If the lord and the vassal observe good faith
one with another, what is there which cannot be accomplished? If the
lord and the vassal do not observe good faith towards one another,
everything without exception ends in failure.

X. Let us cease from wrath, and refrain from angry looks. Nor let us
be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and
each heart has its own leanings. Their right is our wrong, and our
right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages nor are they
unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can
anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For
we are all, one with another, wise and foolish like a ring which has
no end. Therefore, although others give way to anger, let us, on the
contrary, dread our own faults, and though we alone may be in the
right, let us follow the multitude and act like them.

XI. Give clear appreciation to merit and demerit, and deal out to
each its sure reward or punishment. In these days, reward does not
attend upon merit, nor punishment upon crime. Ye high functionaries
who have charge of public affairs, let it be your task to make clear
rewards and punishments.

XII. Let not the provincial authorities or the kuni no miyatsuko levy
exactions on the people. In a country there are not two lords; the
people have not two masters. The sovereign is the master of the
people of the whole country. The officials to whom he gives charge
are all his vassals. How can they, as well as the Government, presume
to levy taxes on the people?

XIII. Let all persons entrusted with office attend equally to their
functions. Owing to illness or despatch on missions their work may
sometimes be neglected. But whenever they are able to attend to
business, let them be as accommodating as though they had cognizance
of it from before, and let them not hinder public affairs on the
score of not having had to do with them.

XIV. Ministers and functionaries, be not envious. If we envy others,
they, in turn, will envy us. The evils of envy know no limit. If
others excel us in intelligence, it gives us no pleasure; if they
surpass us in ability, we are envious. Therefore it is not until
after the lapse of five hundred years that we at last meet with a
wise man, and even in a thousand years we hardly obtain one sage. But
if wise men and sages be not found, how shall the country be
governed?

XV. To turn away from that which is private and to set one's face
towards that which is public this is the path of a minister. If a man
is influenced by private motives, he will assuredly feel resentment;
if he is influenced by resentment, he will assuredly fail to act
harmoniously with others; if he fails to act harmoniously with
others, he will assuredly sacrifice the public interest to his
private feelings. When resentment arises, it interferes with order
and is subversive of law. Therefore, in the first clause it was said
that superiors and inferiors should agree together. The purport is
the same as this.

XVI. Let the employment of the people in forced labour be at
seasonable times. This is an ancient and excellent rule. Let them be
employed, therefore, in the winter months when they have leisure. But
from spring to autumn, when they are engaged in agriculture or with
the mulberry trees, the people should not be employed. For if they do
not attend to agriculture, what will they have to eat? If they do not
attend to the mulberry trees, what will they do for clothing?

XVII. Decisions on important matters should not be rendered by one
person alone: they should be discussed by many. But small matters
being of less consequence, need not be consulted about by a number of
people. It is only in the discussion of weighty affairs, when there
is an apprehension of miscarriage, that matters should be arranged in
concert with others so as to arrive at the right conclusion.*

*The above is taken almost verbatim from Aston's translation of the
Nihongi.

For a document compiled at the beginning of the seventh century these
seventeen ethical precepts merit much approbation. With the exception
of the doctrine of expediency, enunciated at the close of the tenth
article, the code of Shotoku might be taken for guide by any
community in any age. But the prince as a moral reformer* cannot be
credited with originality; his merit consists in having studied
Confucianism and Buddhism intelligently. The political purport of his
code is more remarkable. In the whole seventeen articles there is
nothing to inculcate worship of the Kami or observance of Shinto
rites. Again, whereas, according to the Japanese creed, the sovereign
power is derived from the Imperial ancestor, the latter is nowhere
alluded to. The seventh article makes the eternity of the State and
the security of the Imperial house depend upon wise administration by
well-selected officials, but says nothing of hereditary rights. How
is such a vital omission to be interpreted, except on the supposition
that Shotoku, who had witnessed the worst abuses incidental to the
hereditary system of the uji, intended by this code to enter a solemn
protest against that system?

*It is a curious fact that tradition represents this prince as having
been born at the door of a stable. Hence his original name, Umayado
(Stable-door).

Further, the importance attached to the people* is a very prominent
feature of the code. Thus, in Article IV, it is stated that "when the
people behave with propriety the government of the State proceeds of
itself;" Article V speaks of "complaints preferred by the people;"
Article VI refers to "the overthrow of the State" and "the
destruction of the people;" Article VII emphasises "the eternity of
the State;" that "the sovereign is the master of the people of the
whole country;" that "the officials to whom he gives charge are all
his vassals," and that these officials, whether miyatsuko or
provincial authorities, must not "presume, as well as the Government,
to levy taxes on the people." All those expressions amount to a
distinct condemnation of the uji system, under which the only people
directly subject to the sovereign were those of the minashiro, and
those who had been naturalized or otherwise specially assigned, all
the rest being practically the property of the uji, and the only
lands paying direct taxes to the Throne were the domains of the
miyake.

*The word used is hyakusho, which ultimately came to be applied to
farmers only.

Forty-two years later (A.D. 646), the abolition of private property
in persons and lands was destined to become the policy of the State,
but its foundations seem to have been laid in Shotoku's time. It
would be an error to suppose that the neglect of Shinto suggested by
the above code was by any means a distinct feature of the era, or
even a practice of the prince himself. Thus, an Imperial edict,
published in the year 607, enjoined that there must be no remissness
in the worship of the Kami, and that they should be sincerely
reverenced by all officials, In the sequel of this edict Prince
Shotoku himself, the o-omi, and a number of functionaries worshipped
the Kami of heaven and of earth. In fact, Shotoku, for all his
enthusiasm in the cause of Buddhism, seems to have shrunk from
anything like bigoted exclusiveness. He is quoted* as saying: "The
management of State affairs cannot be achieved unless it is based on
knowledge, and the sources of knowledge are Confucianism, Buddhism,
and Shinto."** He who inclines to one of these three, must study the
other two also; for what one knows seems reasonable, but that of
which one is ignorant appears unreasonable. Therefore an
administrator of public affairs should make himself acquainted with
all three and should not affect one only, for such partiality
signifies maladministration.

*In the Sankyo-ron.

**The order of this enumeration is significant.

DEATH OF SHOTOKU TAISHI

Prince Shotoku died in the year 621. The Records do not relate
anything of his illness: they say merely that he foresaw the day and
hour of his own death, and they say also that when the Buddhist
priest, Hyecha of Koma, who had instructed the prince in the "inner
doctrine," learned of his decease, he also announced his
determination to die on the same day of the same month in the
following year so as "to meet the prince in the Pure Land and,
together with him, pass through the metempsychosis of all living
creatures."

The last months of Shotoku's life were devoted to compiling, in
concert with the o-omi Umako, "a history of the Emperors; a history
of the country, and the original record of the omi, the muraji, the
tomo no miyatsuko, the kuni no miyatsuko, the 180 be, and the free
subjects." This, the first Japanese historical work, was completed in
the year 620. It was known afterwards as the Kujihongi, and
twenty-five years later (645) when--as will presently be seen--the
execution of the Soga chief took place, the book was partially
consumed by fire. Yet that it had not suffered beyond the possibility
of reconstruction, and that it survived in the Ko-jiki was never
doubted until the days (1730-1801) of "the prince of Japanese
literati," Motoori Norinaga. The question of authenticity is still
unsettled.

Shotoku's name is further connected with calendar making, though no
particulars of his work in that line are on record. Japanese
historians speak of him as the father of his country's civilization.
They say that he breathed life into the nation; that he raised the
status of the Empire; that he laid the foundations of Japanese
learning; that he fixed the laws of decorum; that he imparted a new
character to foreign relations, and that he was an incarnation of the
Buddha, specially sent to convert Japan. The Chronicles say that at
his death nobles and commoners alike, "the old, as if they had lost a
dear child, the young, as if they had lost a beloved parent, filled
the ways with the sound of their lamenting."

THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM AND THE CONTROL OF ITS PRIESTS

The roots of Japanese Buddhism were watered with blood, as have been
the roots of so many religions in so many countries. From the day of
the destruction of the military party under the o-muraji Moriya, the
foreign faith flourished. Then--as has been shown--were built the
first two great temples, and then, for the first time, a Buddhist
place of worship was endowed* with rich estates and an ample number
of serfs to till them. Thenceforth the annals abound with references
to the advent of Buddhist priests from Korea, bearing relics or
images. The omi and the muraji vied with each other in erecting
shrines, and in 605, we find the Empress Suiko commanding all high
dignitaries of State to make 16-foot images of copper** and of
embroidery. Buddhist festivals were instituted in 606, and their
magnificence, as compared with the extreme simplicity of the Shinto
rites, must have deeply impressed the people. In a few decades
Buddhism became a great social power, and since its priests and nuns
were outside the sphere of ordinary administration, the question of
their control soon presented itself. It became pressing in 623 when a
priest killed his grandfather with an axe. The Empress Suiko, who was
then on the throne, would have subjected the whole body of priests
and nuns to judicial examination, a terrible ordeal in those days of
torture; but at the instance of a Korean priest, officials
corresponding to bishops (sojo), high priests (sozu) and abbots
(hotto) were appointed from the ranks of Buddhism, and the duty of
prescribing law and order was entrusted to them. This involved
registration of all the priesthood, and it was thus found (623) that
the temples numbered 46; the priests 816, and the nuns 569.

*The endowment of religious edifices was not new in Japan. A
conspicuous instance was in A.D. 487, when rice-fields were dedicated
to the Moon god and to the ancestor of the Sun goddess.

**The metal employed was of gold and copper; in the proportion of one
part of the former to 430 of the latter. It is related that when
these images were completed, the temple door proved too low to admit
them, and the artisan--Tori the Saddle-maker--whose ingenuity
overcame the difficulty without pulling down the door, received large
honour and reward.

INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA

That not a few Chinese migrated to Japan in remote times is clear.
The Records show that in the year A.D. 540, during the reign of
Kimmei, immigrants from Tsin and Han were assembled and registered,
when their number was found to be 7053 households. The terms "Tsin"
and "Han" refer to Chinese dynasties of those names, whose sway
covered the period between 255 B.C. and A.D. 419. Hence the
expression is too vague to suggest any definite idea of the advent of
those settlers; but the story of some, who came through Korea, has
already been traced. It was in A.D. 552, during the reign of this
same Kimmei, that Buddhism may be said to have found a home in Japan.
China was then under the sceptre of the Liang dynasty, whose first
sovereign, Wu, had been such an enthusiastic Buddhist that he
abandoned the throne for a monastery.. Yet China took no direct part
in introducing the Indian faith to Japan, nor does it appear that
from the fourth century A.D. down to the days of Shotoku Taishi,
Japan thought seriously of having recourse to China as the
fountain-head of the arts, the crafts, the literature, and the moral
codes which she borrowed during the period from Korea.

Something of this want of enterprise may have been attributable to
the unsettled state of China's domestic politics; something to the
well-nigh perpetual troubles between Japan and Korea--troubles which
not only taxed Japan's resources but also blocked the sole route by
which China was then accessible, namely, the route through Korea. But
when the Sui dynasty (A.D. 589-619) came to the Chinese throne, its
founder, the Emperor Wen, on the one hand, devoted himself to
encouraging literature and commerce; and on the other, threw Korea
and Japan into a ferment by invading the former country at the head
of a huge army.* This happened when Shotoku Taishi was in his
sixteenth year, and though the great expedition proved abortive for
aggressive purposes, it brought China into vivid prominence, and when
news reached Japan of extensions of the Middle Kingdom's territories
under Wen's successor, the Japanese Crown Prince determined to open
direct intercourse with the Sui Court; not only for literary and
religious purposes, but also to study the form of civilization which
the whole Orient then revered. This resolve found practical
expression in the year 607, when the omi Imoko was sent as envoy to
the Sui Court, a Chinese of the Saddlers' Corporation, by name
Fukuri, being attached to him in the capacity of interpreter. China
received these men hospitably and sent an envoy of her own, with a
suite of twelve persons, to the Yamato sovereign in the following
year.

*Reputed to have mustered 300,000 strong.

The annals contain an instructive description of the ceremony
connected with the reception of this envoy in Japan. He was met in
Tsukushi (Kyushu) by commissioners of welcome, and was conducted
thence by sea to Naniwa (now Osaka), where, at the mouth of the
river, thirty "gaily-decked" boats awaited him, and he and his suite
were conducted to a residence newly built for the occasion. Six weeks
later they entered the capital, after a message of welcome had been
delivered to them by a muraji. Seventy-five fully caparisoned horses
were placed at their disposal, and after a further rest of nine days,
the envoy's official audience took place. He did not see the Empress'
face. Her Majesty was secluded in the hall of audience to which only
the principal ministers were admitted. Hence the ceremony may be said
to have taken place in the court-yard. There the gifts brought by the
envoy were ranged, and the envoy himself, introduced by two high
officials, advanced to the front of the court, made obeisance twice,
and, kneeling, declared the purport of his mission. The despatch
carried by him ran as follows:

The Emperor greets the sovereign of Wa.* Your envoy and his suite
have arrived and have given us full information. We, by the grace of
heaven, rule over the universe. It is Our desire to diffuse abroad
our civilizing influence so as to cover all living things, and Our
sentiment of loving nurture knows no distinction of distance. Now We
learn that Your Majesty, dwelling separately beyond the sea, bestows
the blessings of peace on Your subjects; that there is tranquillity
within Your borders, and that the customs and manners are mild. With
the most profound loyalty You have sent Us tribute from afar, and We
are delighted at this admirable token of Your sincerity. Our health
is as usual, notwithstanding the increasing heat of the weather.
Therefore We have sent Pei Shieh-ching, Official Entertainer of the
Department charged with the Ceremonial for the Reception of Foreign
Ambassadors, and his suite, to notify to you the preceding. We also
transmit to you the products of which a list is given separately.**

*It has already been stated that Japan was generally known in China
and Korea by the term "Wa," which, being written with an ideograph
signifying "dwarf" or "subservient," was disliked by the Japanese.
The envoy sent from Yamato in 607 was instructed to ask for the
substitution of Nippon (Place of Sunrise), but the Sui sovereign
declined to make the change and Japan did not receive the designation
"Nippon" in China until the period Wu Teh (A.D. 618-626) of the Tang
dynasty. It is not certain at what time exactly the Japanese
themselves adopted this nomenclature, but it certainly was before the
seventh century.

**Translated by Aston in the Nihongi.

When the reading of the document was concluded, a high noble stepped
forward, took it from the envoy's hands and advanced with it towards
the audience-hall, from which another noble came out to meet him,
received the letter, deposited it on a table before the chief
entrance, and then reported the facts to the Empress. This ended the
ceremony. The haughty condescension of the Chinese despatch does not
appear to have offended the Japanese, nor did they cavil at the
omission of one important ideograph from the title applied to their
Empress. China's greatness seems to have been fully recognized. When,
a month later, the envoy took his departure, the same Imoko was
deputed to accompany him, bearing a despatch* in which, to China's
simple "greeting," Japan returned a "respectful address;" to China's
expression of ineffable superiority Japan replied that the coming of
the embassy had "dissolved her long-harboured cares;" and to China's
grandiloquent prolixity Japan made answer with half a dozen brief
lines. Imoko was now accompanied by eight students four of literature
and four of religion. Thus was established, and for long afterwards
maintained, a bridge over which the literature, arts, ethics, and
philosophies of China were copiously imported into Japan.

*In this despatch Japan called herself "the place where the sun comes
forth," and designated China as "the place where the sun sets." The
idea, doubtless, was merely to distinguish between east and west, but
the Sui sovereign resented the diction of this "barbarian letter."

RANKS

It will be recognized by considering the uji system that while many
titles existed in Japan, there was practically no promotion. A man
might be raised to uji rank. Several instances of that kind have been
noted, especially in the case of foreign artists or artisans
migrating to the island from Korea or China. But nothing higher was
within reach, and for the hereditary Kami of an uji no reward offered
except a gift of land, whatever services he might render to the
State. Such a system could not but tend to perfunctoriness in the
discharge of duty. Perception of this defect induced the regent,
Shotoku, to import from China (A.D. 603) the method of official
promotion in vogue under the Sui dynasty and to employ caps as
insignia of rank.* Twelve of such grades were instituted, and the
terminology applied to them was based on the names of six moral
qualities--virtue, benevolence, propriety, faith, justice, and
knowledge--each comprising two degrees, "greater" and "lesser." The
caps were made of sarcenet, a distinctive colour for each grade, the
cap being gathered upon the crown in the shape of a bag with a border
attached. The three highest ranks of all were not included in this
category.

*In China to-day the distinguishing mark is a button of varying
material fastened on the top of the cap.

THE EMPEROR JOMEI AND THE EMPRESS KOGYOKU

In the year 626, the omnipotent Soga chief, the o-omi Umako, died.
His brief eulogy in the Chronicles is that he had "a talent for
military tactics," was "gifted with eloquence," and deeply reverenced
"the Three Precious Things" (Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha). In the
court-yard of his residence a pond was dug with a miniature island in
the centre, and so much attention did this innovation attract that
the great minister was popularly called Shima (island) no o-omi. His
office of o-omi was conferred on his son, Emishi, who behaved with
even greater arrogance and arbitrariness than his father had shown.
The Empress Suiko died in 628, and the question of the accession at
once became acute. Two princes were eligible; Tamura, grandson of the
Emperor Bidatsu, and Yamashiro, son of Shotoku Taishi. Prince
Yamashiro was a calm, virtuous, and faithful man. He stated
explicitly that the Empress, on the eve of her demise, had nominated
him to be her successor. But Prince Tamura had the support of the
o-omi, Emishi, whose daughter he admired. No one ventured to oppose
the will of the Soga chieftain except Sakaibe no Marise, and he with
his son were ruthlessly slain by the orders of the o-omi.

Prince Tamura then (629) ascended the throne--he is known in history
as Jomei--but Soga no Emishi virtually ruled the empire. Jomei died
in 641, after a reign of twelve years, and by the contrivance of
Emishi the sceptre was placed in the hands of an Empress, Kogyoku, a
great-granddaughter of the Emperor Bidatsu, the claims of the son of
Shotoku Taishi being again ignored. One of the first acts of the new
sovereign was to raise Emishi to the rank held by his father, the
rank of o-omi, and there then came into prominence Emishi's son,
Iruka, who soon wielded power greater than even that possessed by his
father. Iruka's administration, however, does not appear to have been
altogether unwholesome. The Chronicles say that "thieves and robbers
were in dread of him, and that things dropped on the highway were not
picked up." But Emishi rendered himself conspicuous chiefly by aping
Imperial state. He erected an ancestral temple; organized
performances of a Chinese dance (yatsura) which was essentially an
Imperial pageant; levied imposts on the people at large for the
construction of tombs--one for himself, another for his son,
Iruka--which were openly designated misasagi (Imperial sepulchres);
called his private residence mikado (sacred gate); conferred on his
children the title of miko (august child), and exacted forced labour
from all the people of the Kamutsumiya estate, which belonged to the
Shotoku family.

This last outrage provoked a remonstrance from Shotoku Taishi's
daughter, and she was thenceforth reckoned among the enemies of the
Soga. One year later (643), this feud ended in bloodshed. Emishi's
usurpation of Imperial authority was carried so far that he did not
hesitate to confer the rank of o-omi on his son, Iruka, and upon the
latter's younger brother also. Iruka now conceived the design of
placing upon the throne Prince Furubito, a son of the Emperor Jomei.
It will be remembered that the Soga chief, Emishi, had lent his
omnipotent influence to secure the sceptre for Jomei, because of the
latter's affection for Emishi's daughter. This lady, having become
one of Jomei's consorts, had borne to him Prince Furubito, who was
consequently Iruka's uncle. Iruka determined that the prince should
succeed the Empress Kogyoku. To that end it was necessary to remove
the Shotoku family, against which, as shown above, the Soga had also
a special grudge. Not even the form of devising a protest was
observed. Orders were simply issued to a military force that the
Shotoku house should be extirpated. Its representative was Prince
Yamashiro, the same who had effaced himself so magnanimously at the
time of Jomei's accession. He behaved with ever greater nobility on
this occasion. Having by a ruse escaped from the Soga troops, he was
urged by his followers to flee to the eastern provinces, and there
raising an army, to march back to the attack of the Soga.

There is reason to think that this policy would have succeeded. But
the prince replied: "I do not wish it to be said by after generations
that, for my sake, anyone has mourned the loss of a father or a
mother. Is it only when one has conquered in battle that one is to be
called a hero? Is he not also a hero who has made firm his country at
the expense of his own life?" He then returned to the temple at
Ikaruga, which his father had built, and being presently besieged
there by the Soga forces, he and the members of his family,
twenty-three in all, committed suicide. This tragedy shocked even
Emishi. He warned Iruka against the peril of such extreme measures.

ENGRAVING: FUJIWARA KAMATAKI

There now appears a statesman destined to leave his name indelibly
written on the pages of Japanese history, Kamatari, muraji of the
Nakatomi-uji. The Nakatomi's functions were specially connected with
Shinto rites, and Kamatari must be supposed to have entertained
little good-will towards the Soga, who were the leaders of the
Buddhist faction, and whose feud with the military party sixty-seven
years previously had involved the violent death of Katsumi, then
(587) muraji of the Nakatomi. Moreover, Kamatari makes his first
appearance in the annals as chief Shinto official. Nevertheless, it
is not apparent that religious zeal or personal resentment was
primarily responsible for Kamatari's determination to compass the
ruin of the Soga. Essentially an upright man and a loyal subject, he
seems to have been inspired by a frank resolve to protect the Throne
against schemes of lawless ambitions, unconscious that his own
family, the Fujiwara, were destined to repeat on a still larger scale
the same abuses.

The succession may be said to have had three aspirants at that time:
first, Prince Karu, younger brother of the Empress Kogyoku; secondly,
Prince Naka, her son, and thirdly, Prince Furubito, uncle of Soga no
Iruka. The last was, of course, excluded from Kamatari's
calculations, and as between the first two he judged it wiser that
Prince Karu should have precedence in the succession, Prince Naka not
being old enough. The conspiracy that ensued presents no specially
remarkable feature. Kamatari and Prince Naka became acquainted
through an incident at the game of football, when the prince, having
accidently kicked off his shoe, Kamatari picked it up and restored it
to him on bended knee. The two men, in order to find secret
opportunities for maturing their plans, became fellow students of the
doctrines of Chow and Confucius under the priest Shoan, who had been
among the eight students that accompanied the Sui envoy on his return
to China in the year 608.

Intimate relations were cemented with a section of the Soga through
Kurayamada, whose daughter Prince Naka married, and trustworthy
followers having been attached to the prince, the conspirators
watched for an occasion. It was not easy to find one. The Soga
mansion, on the eastern slope of Mount Unebi, was a species of
fortress, surrounded by a moat and provided with an armoury having
ample supply of bows and arrows. Emishi, the o-omi, always had a
guard of fifty soldiers when he went abroad, and Iruka, his son, wore
a sword "day and night." Nothing offered except to convert the palace
itself into a place of execution. On the twelfth day of the sixth
month, 645, the Empress held a Court in the great hall of audience to
receive memorials and tribute from the three kingdoms of Korea. All
present, except her Majesty and Iruka, were privy to the plot. Iruka
having been beguiled into laying aside his sword, the reading of the
memorials was commenced by Kurayamada, and Prince Naka ordered the
twelve gates to be closed simultaneously. At that signal, two
swordsmen should have advanced and fallen upon Iruka; but they showed
themselves so timorous that Prince Naka himself had to lead them to
the attack. Iruka, severely wounded, struggled to the throne and
implored for succour and justice; but when her Majesty in terror
asked what was meant, Prince Naka charged Iruka with attempting to
usurp the sovereignty. The Empress, seeing that her own son led the
assassins, withdrew at once, and the work of slaughtering Iruka was
completed, his corpse being thrown into the court-yard, where it lay
covered with straw matting.

Prince Naka and Karaatari had not been so incautious as to take a
wide circle of persons into their confidence. But they were
immediately joined by practically all the nobility and high
officials, and the o-omi's troops having dispersed without striking a
blow, Emishi and his people were all executed. The Empress Kogyoku at
once abdicated in favour of her brother, Prince Kara, her son, Prince
Naka, being nominated Prince Imperial. Her Majesty had worn the
purple for only three years. All this was in accord with Kamatari's
carefully devised plans. They were epoch making.

RELATIONS WITH KOREA DURING THE SEVEN REIGNS FROM KIMMEI TO KOGYOKU
(A.D. 540-645)

The story of Japan's relations with Korea throughout the period of
over a century, from the accession of Kimmei (540) to the abdication
of Kogyoku (645), is a series of monotonously similar chapters, the
result for Japan being that she finally lost her position at Mimana.
There was almost perpetual fighting between the petty kingdoms which
struggled for mastery in the peninsula, and Kudara, always nominally
friendly to Japan, never hesitated to seek the latter's assistance
against Shiragi and Koma. To these appeals the Yamato Court lent a
not-unready ear, partly because they pleased the nation's vanity, but
mainly because Kudara craftily suggested danger to Mimana unless
Japan asserted herself with arms. But when it came to actually
rendering material aid, Japan did nothing commensurate with her
gracious demeanour. She seems to have been getting weary of expensive
interference, and possibly it may also have occurred to her that no
very profound sympathy was merited by a sovereign who, like the King
of Kudara, preferred to rely on armed aid from abroad rather than
risk the loss of his principality to his own countrymen.

At all events, in answer to often iterated entreaties from Kudara,
the Yamato Court did not make any practical response until the year
551, when it sent five thousand koku of barley-seed (?), followed,
two years later, by two horses, two ships, fifty bows with arrows,
and--a promise. Kudara was then ruled by a very enterprising prince
(Yo-chang). Resolving to strike separately at his enemies, Koma and
Shiragi, he threw himself with all his forces against Koma and gained
a signal victory (553). Then, at length, Japan was induced to assist.
An omi was despatched (554) to the peninsula with a thousand
soldiers, as many horses and forty ships. Shiragi became at once the
objective of the united forces of Kudara and Japan. A disastrous
defeat resulted for the assailants. The Kudara army suffered almost
complete extermination, losing nearly thirty thousand men, and
history is silent as to the fate of the omi's contingent.
Nevertheless the fear of Japanese vengeance induced Shiragi to hold
its hand, and, in the year 561, an attempt was made twice to renew
friendly relations with the Yamato Court by means of tribute-bearing
envoys. Japan did not repel these overtures, but she treated the
envoy of the victorious Shiragi with less respect than that extended
to the envoy of the vanquished Kudara.

In the spring of the following year (562), Shiragi invaded Mimana,
destroyed the Japanese station there and overran the whole region
(ten provinces). No warning had reached Japan. She was taken entirely
unawares, and she regarded it as an act of treachery on Shiragi's
part to have transformed itself suddenly from a tribute-bearing
friend into an active enemy. Strangely enough, the King of Shiragi
does not appear to have considered that his act precluded a
continuance of friendly relations with the Yamato Court. Six months
after his invasion of Mimana he renewed the despatch of envoys to
Japan, and it was not until their arrival in Yamato that they learned
Japan's mood. Much to the credit of the Yamato Court, it did not
wreak vengeance on these untimely envoys, but immediately afterwards
an armed expedition was despatched to call Shiragi to account. The
forces were divided into two corps, one being ordered to march under
Ki no Omaro northwest from Mimana and effect a junction with Kudara;
the other, under Kawabe no Nie, was to move eastward against Shiragi.
This scheme became known to the Shiragi generals owing to the seizure
of a despatch intended for Kudara. They attempted to intercept
Omaro's corps, but were signally defeated.

The movement under Kawabe no Nie fared differently. Japanese annals
attempt to palliate his discomfiture by a story about the abuse of a
flag of truce, but the fact seems to have been that Kawabe no Nie was
an incompetent and pusillanimous captain. He and his men were all
killed or taken prisoners, the only redeeming feature being the
intrepidity of a Japanese officer, Tsugi no Ikina, who, with his wife
and son, endured to be tortured and killed rather than utter an
insult against their country.

It is difficult to interpret the sequence of events after this
catastrophe. Japan immediately despatched a strong army--from thirty
to forty thousand men--but instead of directing it against Shiragi,
sent it to the attack of Koma, under advice of the King of Kudara.
Possibly the idea may have been to crush Koma, and having thus
isolated Shiragi, to deal with the latter subsequently. If so, the
plan never matured. Koma, indeed, suffered a signal defeat at the
hands of the Japanese, Satehiko, muraji of the Otomo, but Shiragi
remained unmolested, and nothing accrued to Japan except some
attractive spoils--curtains of seven-fold woof, an iron house, two
suits of armour, two gold-mounted swords, three copper belts with
chasings, two variously coloured flags, and two beautiful women. Even
as to the ultimate movements of Satehiko and his army the annals are
silent.

Things remained thus for nine years. Tribute-bearing envoys arrived
at intervals from Koma, but with Shiragi there was no communication.
At last, in 571, an official was sent to demand from Shiragi an
explanation of the reasons for the destruction of Mimana. The
intention may have been to follow up this formality with the
despatch of an effective force, but within a month the Emperor
Kimmei died. On his death-bed he is said to have taken the Prince
Imperial--Bidatsu--by the hand and said: "That which comes after
devolves on thee. Thou must make war on Shiragi and establish Mimana
as a feudal dependency, renewing a relationship like that of husband
and wife, just as it was in former days. If this be done, in my grave
I shall rest content."

Twelve years passed before Bidatsu took any step to comply with this
dying injunction. During that long interval there were repeated
envoys from Koma, now a comparatively feeble principality, and
Shiragi made three unsuccessful overtures to renew amicable
relations. At length, in 583, the Emperor announced his intention of
carrying out the last testament of his predecessor. To that end his
Majesty desired to consult with a Japanese, Nichira, who had served
for many years at the Kudara Court and was thoroughly familiar with
the conditions existing in Korea. Nichira came to Japan, but the
annals indicate that his counsels were directed wholly against
Kudara, which was ostensibly on the friendliest terms with Japan, and
not at all against Shiragi, whose punishment was alone in question.
Besides, instead of advising an appeal to arms, he urged the
necessity of developing Japan's material resources, so that her
neighbours might learn to count her formidable and her people might
acquire ardour in her cause. Whether the wisdom of this advice
appealed to Bidatsu, or whether the disputes consequent upon the
introduction of Buddhism paralyzed his capacity for oversea
enterprise, he made no further attempt to resolve the Korean problem.

In the year 591, the ill-fated Emperor Sushun conceived the idea of
sending a large army to re-establish his country's prestige in the
peninsula, but his own assassination intervened, and for the space of
nine years the subject was not publicly revived. Then, in 600, the
Empress Suiko being on the throne, a unique opportunity presented
itself. War broke out between Shiragi and Mimana. The Yamato Court at
once despatched a force of ten thousand men to Mimana's aid, and
Shiragi, having suffered a signal defeat, made act of abject
submission, restoring to Mimana six of its original provinces and
promising solemnly to abstain from future hostilities. The Jap