HISTORY (OLD JAPAN)
OUTLINE OF TOPICS: Outline of mythology and history; sources of
material; earlier periods; Japanese and Græco-Roman mythology;
prehistoric period; continental influences; capitals; Imperialism;
Fujiwara Epoch; Taira and Minamoto; Hōjō tyranny; Ashikaga Period;
Nobunaga and Hideyoshi; Iyeyasu; Tokugawa Dynasty.—Bibliography.
The mythology and history of Japan may be outlined in the following
manner:—
A. Sources of material.
1. Oral tradition.
2. Kojiki [711 A. D.].
3. Nihongi [720 A. D.].
B. Chronology.
I. Old Japan.
1. “Divine Ages.” Creation of world; Izanagi and Izanami; Sun-goddess
and brother; Ninigi; Princes Fire-Shine and Fire-Fade; Jimmu.
2. Prehistoric Period [660 B.C.-400 (?) A. D.]. Jimmu Tennō; “Sūjin,
the Civilizer”; Yamato-Dake; Empress Jingu; Invasion of Korea; Ōjin,
deified as Hachiman, the Japanese Mars; Take-no-uchi. Native elements
of civilization. Chinese literature.
3. Imperialistic Period [400 (?)-888 A. D.]. Continental influences
(on language and literature, learning, government, manners and
customs, and religion); Buddhism; Shōtoku Taishi; practice of
abdication; Nara Epoch; capital settled at Kyōto; Sugawara; Fujiwara
family established in regency (888 A. D.).
4. Civil Strife [888-1603 A. D.]. Fujiwara bureaucracy; Taira
supremacy (1156-1185); wars of red and white flags; Yoritomo and
Yoshitsune; Minamoto supremacy (1185-1199); first Shōgunate; Hōjō
tyranny (1199-1333); Tartar armada; Kusunoki and Nitta; Ashikaga
supremacy (1333-1573); “War of the Chrysanthemums”; tribute to
China; fine arts and architecture; _cha-no-yu_; Portuguese; Francis
Xavier; spread of Christianity; Nobunaga, persecutor of Buddhists
(1573-1582); Hideyoshi, “Napoleon of Japan” (1585-1598); persecution
of Christianity; invasion of Korea; Iyeyasu; battle of Sekigahara
(1600 A. D.).
5. Tokugawa Feudalism [1603-1868 A. D.]. Iyeyasu Shōgun (1603);
capital Yedo, girdled by friendly fiefs; perfection of feudalism;
Dutch; Will Adams; English; extermination of Christianity; seclusion
and crystallization (1638-1853); Confucian influences.
II. New Japan.
5 (continued). Perry’s Expedition; treaties with foreign nations;
internal strife; Richardson affair; Shimonoseki affair; resignation
of Shōgun; abolition of Shōgunate; Revolutionary War; New
Imperialism; Imperial capital Yedo, renamed Tōkyō; Meiji Era.
6. New Empire [1868- ]. Opening of ports and cities; “Charter
Oath”; telegraphs, light-houses, postal system, mint, dockyard,
etc.; outcasts acknowledged as human beings; abolition of feudalism;
first railway, newspaper, and church; Imperial University; Yokohama
Missionary Conference; Gregorian calendar; anti-Christian edicts
removed; Saga rebellion; Formosan Expedition; assembly of governors;
Senate; treaty with Korea; Satsuma rebellion; bi-metallism; Loo Choo
annexed; new codes; prefectural assemblies; Bank of Japan; Ōsaka
Missionary Conference; new nobility; Japan Mail Steamship Company;
Privy Council; Prince Haru made Crown Prince; anti-foreign reaction;
promulgation of Constitution; first Diet; Gifu earthquake; war with
China; Formosa; tariff revision; gold standard; freedom of press and
public meetings; opening of Japan by new treaties; war with China;
Tōkyō Missionary Conference; Anglo-Japanese Alliance.
The student of Japanese history is confronted, at the outset, with
a serious difficulty. In ancient times the Japanese had no literary
script, so that all events had to be handed down from generation to
generation by oral tradition. The art of writing was introduced into
Japan, from China probably, in the latter part of the third century
A. D.; but it was not used for recording events until the beginning
of the fifth century. All these early records, moreover, were
destroyed by fire; so that the only “reliance for information about
... antiquity” has to be placed in the _Kojiki_,[74] or “Records of
Ancient Matters,” and the _Nihongi_,[75] or “Chronicles of Japan.”
The former, completed in 712 A. D., is written in a purer Japanese
style; the latter, finished in 720 A. D., is “much more tinctured
with Chinese philosophy”; though differing in some details, they are
practically concordant, and supply the data upon which the Japanese
have constructed their “history.” It is thus evident that the accounts
of the period before Christ must be largely mythological, and the
records of the first four centuries of the Christian era must be a
thorough mixture of fact and fiction, which it is difficult carefully
to separate.
[Illustration: ŌSAKA CASTLE]
According to Japanese chronology, the Empire of Japan was founded by
Jimmu Tennō in 660 B. C. This was when Assyria, under Sardanapalus, was
at the height of its power; not long after the ten tribes of Israel
had been carried into captivity, and soon after the reign of the good
Hezekiah in Judah; before Media had risen into prominence; a century
later than Lycurgus, and a few decades before Draco; and during the
period of the Roman kingdom. But according to a foreign scholar who
has sifted the material at hand, the first absolutely authentic date
in Japanese history is 461 A. D.,[76]—just the time when the Saxons
were settling in England. If, therefore, the Japanese are given the
benefit of more than a century, there yet remains a millennium which
falls under the sacrificial knife of the historical critic. But while
we cannot accept unchallenged the details of about a thousand years,
and cannot withhold surprise that even the Constitution of New Japan
maintains the “exploded religious fiction” of the foundation of the
empire, we must acknowledge that the Imperial family of Japan has
formed the oldest continuous dynasty in the world, and can probably
boast an “unbroken line” of eighteen or twenty centuries.
1. “_Divine Ages._”
2. _Prehistoric Period_ [660 B. C.—400 (?) A. D.].
Dr. Murray, in “The Story of Japan,” following the illustrious example
of Arnold in Roman history, treats these more or less mythological
periods in a reasonable way. He says: “Yet the events of the earlier
period[s] ... are capable, with due care and inspection, of furnishing
important lessons and disclosing many facts in regard to the lives and
characteristics of the primitive Japanese.” These facts concerning the
native elements of civilization pertain to the mode of government,
which was feudal; to food, clothing, houses, arms, and implements; to
plants and domestic and wild animals; to modes of travel; to reading
and writing, as being unknown; to various manners and customs; to
superstitions; and to “religious notions,” which found expression in
Shintō, itself not strictly a “religion,” but only a cult without a
moral code. “Morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an
immoral people; but in Japan there was no necessity for any system
of morals, as every Japanese acted rightly if he only consulted his
own heart”! So asserts a Shintō apologist. And from the fact that so
many myths cluster around Izumo, it is a natural inference that one
migration of the ancestors of the Japanese from Korea landed in that
province, while the legends relating to Izanagi and Izanami, the first
male and female deities, since they find local habitation in Kyūshiu,
seem to indicate another migration (Korean or Malay?) to that locality.
These different migrations are also supposed to account for the two
distinct types of Japanese.
The story of the creation of the world bears considerable resemblance
to that related in Ovid’s Metamorphoses; and this is only one of many
points of remarkable similarity between the mythology of Japan and the
Græco-Roman mythology.[77] And one famous incident in the career of the
Sun-Goddess is evidently a myth of a solar eclipse.
Although the Emperor Jimmu cannot be accepted as a truly historical
personage, neither can he be entirely ignored, for he is still an
important “character” in Japanese “history” and continues to claim in
his honor two national holidays (February 11 and April 3). And, just as
Jimmu may be considered the Cyrus, or founder, of the Japanese Empire,
so Sūjin, “the Civilizer,” may be called its Darius, or organizer. The
Prince Yamato-Dake is a popular hero, whose wonderful exploits are
still sung in prose and poetry. As for the Empress Jingu, or Jingō,
although she is not included in the official list[78] of the rulers of
the empire, she is considered a great heroine, and is especially famous
for her successful invasion of Korea, assigned to about 200 A. d. And
it is her son, Ōjin, who, deified as Hachiman, is still “worshipped” as
god of war; while Take-no-uchi is renowned for having served as Prime
Minister to five Emperors and one Empress (Jingu). It was during this
period that the Chinese language and literature, together with the art
of writing, were introduced into Japan through Korea.
3. _Imperialistic Period_ [400(?)-888 A. D.].
The continental influences form an important factor in the equation of
Japanese civilization. The Japanese “have been from the beginning of
their history a receptive people,” and are indebted to Korea and China
for the beginnings of language, literature, education, art, mental and
moral philosophy (Confucianism), religion (Buddhism), and many social
ideas. The conversion of the nation to Buddhism took place in the sixth
and seventh centuries, and was largely due to the powerful influence
of the Prime Minister of the Empress Suiko. He is best known by his
posthumous title of Shōtoku Taishi, and is also famous for having
compiled “the first written law[s] in Japan.”
For a long period, on account of superstitions, the capital was
frequently removed, so that Japan is said to have had “no less than
sixty capitals.” But during most of the eighth century the court was
located at Nara, which gave its name to that epoch; and in 794 A. D.
the capital was permanently established at Kyōto.
At first the government of Japan was an absolute monarchy, not only in
name, but also in fact; for the authority of the Emperor was recognized
and maintained, comparatively unimpaired, throughout the realm. But
the decay of the Imperial power began quite early in “the Middle Ages
of Japan,” as Dr. Murray calls the period from about 700 to 1184 A. D.
The Emperors themselves, wearied with the restrained and dignified life
which, as “descendants of the gods,” they were obliged by etiquette
to endure, preferred to abdicate; and in retirement “often wielded a
greater influence and exerted a more active part in the administration
of affairs.” This practice of abdication frequently brought a youth, or
even an infant, to the throne, and naturally transferred the real power
to the subordinate administrative officers. This was the way in which
gradatim the “duarchy,” as it is sometimes called, was developed, and
in which _seriatim_ families and even individuals became prominent.
4. _Civil Strife_ [888-1603 A. D.].
Although actual warfare did not begin for a long period, the date of
the appointment of a Fujiwara as Regent practically ended Imperialism
and was the beginning of jealousy and strife. And yet the Fujiwara
Epoch was the “Elizabethan Age” of classical literature. But after that
family had for about 400 years “monopolized nearly all the important
offices in the government,” and from 888 had held the regency in
hereditary tenure, it was finally deposed by the so-called “military
families.”
The first of these was the Taira, who, after only a short period of
power (1156-1185) through Kiyomori, were utterly overthrown in the
“wars of the red and white flags,” and practically annihilated in the
great naval battle of Dan-no-ura. Next came the Minamoto, represented
by Yoritomo,[79] whose authority was further enhanced when the Emperor
bestowed on him the highest military title, _Sei-i-Tai-Shōgun_.
And from this time (1192) till 1868 the emperors were practical
nonentities, and subordinates actually governed the empire. The
Japanese Merovingians, however, were never deprived of their titular
honor by their “Mayors of the Palace.”
But the successors of Yoritomo in the office of Shōgun were young
and sensual, and gladly relinquished the executive duties to their
guardians of the Hōjō family, who, as regents, ruled “with resistless
authority” and “unexampled cruelty and rapacity,” but yet deserve
credit for defeating (in 1281) an invading force of Tartars sent by
Kublai Khan. The great patriots, Kusunoki and Nitta, with the aid
of Ashikaga, finally overthrew the Hōjō domination in 1333; but the
Ashikaga rule succeeded and continued till 1573.
During the fourteenth century occurred the Japanese “War of the Roses,”
or the “War of the Chrysanthemums,” which was a conflict between two
rival branches of the Imperial family. It resulted in the defeat of
the “Southern Court” by the “Northern Court,” and the reunion of the
Imperial authority in the person of the Emperor Komatsu II. It was
an Ashikaga Shōgun who encouraged the quaint tea-ceremonial, called
_cha-no-yu_; it was the same family who fostered fine arts, especially
painting and architecture; it was an Ashikaga who paid tribute to
China; it was “in almost the worst period of the Ashikaga anarchy”
that, in 1542, “the Portuguese made their first appearance in Japan”;
and it was only seven years later when Francis Xavier arrived there to
begin his missionary labors, from which Christianity spread rapidly,
until the converts were numbered by the millions.[80]
The next few decades of Japanese history are crowded with civil
strife, and include the three great men, Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and
Iyeyasu, each of whom in turn seized the supreme power. The first-named
persecuted Buddhism and was favorable to Christianity; the other two
interdicted the latter. Hideyoshi, who “rose from obscurity solely
by his own talents,” has been called “the Napoleon of Japan.” He is
generally known by his title of Taikō; and he extended his name abroad
by an invasion of Korea, which was not, however, a complete success.
He is regarded by many as “the greatest soldier, if not the greatest
man, whom Japan has produced.” If this statement can be successfully
challenged, the palm will certainly be awarded to Iyeyasu, who, by the
victory of Sekigahara in 1600, became the virtual ruler of the empire.
5. _Tokugawa Feudalism_ [1603-1868 A. D.].
Iyeyasu founded a dynasty (Tokugawa) of Shōguns, who, for more than
260 years, ruled at Yedo, surrounded by faithful vassals, and who at
least gave the empire a long period of peace. He brought Japanese
feudalism to its perfection of organization. His successors destroyed
Christianity by means of a fearful persecution; prohibited commercial
intercourse, except with the Chinese and the Dutch,[81] and allowed it
with these only to a limited extent, and thus crystallized Japanese
civilization and institutions. It may be true that “Japan reached the
acme of her ancient greatness during the Tokugawa Dynasty”; but it is
also true that by this policy of insulation and seclusion she was put
back two and a half centuries in the matter of progress in civilization.
The long years of peace under the Tokugawas were also years of
literary development. Chinese history, literature, and philosophy were
ardently studied; Confucianism wielded a mighty influence; but Japanese
history and literature were not neglected. The Mito clan especially
was the centre of intellectual industry, and produced, among a large
number of works, the _Dai Nihon Shi_ (History of Great Japan), which
is even to-day the standard. The study of Japanese history revealed
the fact that the governmental authority had been originally centred
in the Emperor, and not divided with any subordinate; and the study
of Confucian political science led to the same idea of an absolute
monarchy. Thus the spirit of Imperialism grew, encouraged, perhaps, by
clan jealousies and fostered by anti-foreign opinions, until “the last
of the Shōguns” resigned his position, and the Emperor was restored
to his original sole authority. Then the leaders of the Restoration
abandoned their anti-foreign slogan, which had been only a pretext, and
by a complete but wise _volte-face_, began to turn their country into
the path of modern civilization, to make up for the lost centuries. But
the story of this wonderful transformation belongs to the next chapter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Griffis, in his “Japan in History, Folk-lore, and Art,” gives
interesting glimpses of Japanese history; and many other works on
Japan present a brief treatment of this subject. Clement’s Hildreth’s
“Japan as it Was and Is” is especially valuable for the period of
seclusion. Knapp’s “Feudal and Modern Japan” is instructive in its
contrasts. The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan abound
in valuable material. For a single volume on this subject, Murray’s
“Japan” in the series of “The Stories of the Nations” or Longford’s
“Story of Old Japan” is the best. Murdoch’s “History of Japan”
in three volumes, of which two have been published, is the most
authoritative.