IX.--DOMESTIC HISTORY

_Cosmography._--Japanese annals represent the first inhabitant of earth

as a direct descendant of the gods. Two books describe the events of the

"Divine age." One, compiled in 712, is called the _Kojiki (Records of

Ancient Matters)_; the other, compiled in 720, is called the _Nihongi

(Chronicles of Japan)_. Both describe the processes of creation, but the

author of the _Chronicles_ drew largely upon Chinese traditions, whereas

the compilers of the _Records_ appear to have limited themselves to

materials which they believed to be native. The _Records_, therefore,

have always been regarded as the more trustworthy guide to pure Japanese

conceptions. They deal with the creation of Japan only, other countries

having been apparently judged unworthy of attention. At the beginning of

all things a primordial trinity is represented as existing on the "plain

of high heaven." Thereafter, during an indefinite time and by an

indefinite process, other deities come into existence, their titles

indicating a vague connexion with constructive and fertilizing forces.

They are not immortal: it is explicitly stated that they ultimately pass

away, and the idea of the cosmographers seems to be that each deity

marks a gradual approach to human methods of procreation. Meanwhile the

earth is "young and, like floating oil, drifts about after the manner of

a jelly-fish." At last there are born two deities, the creator and the

creatress, and these receive the mandate of all the heavenly beings to

"make, consolidate and give birth to the drifting land." For use in that

work a jewelled spear is given to them, and, standing upon the bridge

that connects heaven and earth, they thrust downwards with the weapon,

stir the brine below and draw up the spear, when from its point fall

drops which, accumulating, form the first dry land. Upon this land the

two deities descend, and, by ordinary processes, beget the islands of

Japan as well as numerous gods representing the forces of nature. But in

giving birth to the god of fire the creatress (Izanami) perishes, and

the creator (Izanagi) makes his way to the under-world in search of

her--an obvious parallel to the tales of Ishtar and Orpheus. With

difficulty he returns to earth, and, as he washes himself from the

pollution of Hades, there are born from the turbid water a number of

evil deities succeeded by a number of good, just as in the Babylonian

cosmogony the primordial ocean, Tiamat, brings forth simultaneously gods

and imps. Finally, as Izanagi washes his left eye the Goddess of the Sun

comes into existence; as he washes his right, the God of the Moon; and

as he washes his nose, the God of Force. To these three he assigns,

respectively, the dominion of the sun, the dominion of the moon, and the

dominion of the ocean. But the god of force (Sosanoo), like Lucifer,

rebels against this decree, creates a commotion in heaven, and after

having been the cause of the temporary seclusion of the sun goddess and

the consequent wrapping of the world in darkness, kills the goddess of

food and is permanently banished from heaven by the host of deities. He

descends to Izumo on the west of the main island of Japan, and there

saves a maiden from an eight-headed serpent. Sosanoo himself passes to

the under-world and becomes the deity of Hades, but he invests one of

his descendants with the sovereignty of Japan, and the title is

established after many curious adventures. To the sun goddess also,

whose feud with her fierce brother survives the latter's banishment from

heaven, the idea of making her grandson ruler of Japan presents itself.

She despatches three embassies to impose her will upon the descendants

of Sosanoo, and finally her grandson descends, not, however, in Izumo,

where the demi-gods of Sosanoo's race hold sway, but in Hiuga in the

southern island of Kiushiu. This grandson of Amaterasu (the goddess of

the sun) is called Ninigi, whose great-grandson figures in Japanese

history as the first human sovereign of the country, known during life

as Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko, and given the name of Jimmu tenno (Jimmu, son

of heaven) fourteen centuries after his death. Japanese annalists

attribute the accession of Jimmu to the year 660 B.C. Why that date was

chosen must remain a matter of conjecture. The _Records of Ancient

Matters_ has no chronology, but the more pretentious writers of the

_Chronicles of Japan_, doubtless in imitation of their Chinese models,

considered it necessary to assign a year, a month, and even a day for

each event of importance. There is abundant reason, however, to question

the accuracy of all Japanese chronology prior to the 5th century. The

first date corroborated by external evidence is 461, and Aston, who has

made a special study of the subject, concludes that the year 500 may be

taken as the time when the chronology of the _Chronicles_ begins to be

trustworthy. Many Japanese, however, are firm believers in the

_Chronicles_, and when assigning the year of the empire they invariably

take 660 B.C. for starting-point, so that 1909 of the Gregorian calendar

becomes for them 2569.

_Prehistoric Period._--Thus, if the most rigid estimate be accepted, the

space of 1160 years, from 660 B.C. to A.D. 500, may be called the

prehistoric period. During that long interval the annals include 24

sovereigns, the first 17 of whom lived for over a hundred years on the

average. It seems reasonable to conclude that the so-called assignment

of the sovereignty of Japan to Sosanoo's descendants and the

establishment of their kingdom in Izumo represent an invasion of

Mongolian immigrants coming from the direction of the Korean

peninsula--indeed one of the _Nihongi's_ versions of the event actually

indicates Korea as the point of departure--and that the subsequent

descent of Ninigi on Mount Takachiho in Hiuga indicates the advent of a

body of Malayan settlers from the south sea. Jimmu, according to the

_Chronicles_, set out from Hiuga in 667 B.C. and was not crowned at his

new palace in Yamato until 660. This campaign of seven years is

described in some detail, but no satisfactory information is given as to

the nature of the craft in which the invader and his troops voyaged, or

as to the number of men under his command. The weapons said to have been

carried were bows, spears and swords. A supernatural element is imported

into the narrative in the form of the three-legged crow of the sun,

which Amaterasu sends down to act as guide and messenger for her

descendants. Jimmu died at his palace of Kashiwa-bara in 585 B.C., his

age being 127 according to the _Chronicles_, and 137 according to the

_Records_. He was buried in a kind of tomb called _misasagi_, which

seems to have been in use in Japan for some centuries before the

Christian era--"a highly specialized form of tumulus, consisting of two

mounds, one having a circular, the other a triangular base, which merged

into each other, the whole being surrounded by a moat, or sometimes by

two concentric moats with a narrow strip of land between. In some,

perhaps in most, cases the misasagi contains a large vault of great

unhewn stones without mortar. The walls of this vault converge gradually

towards the top, which is roofed in by enormous slabs of stone weighing

many tons each. The entrance is by means of a gallery roofed with

similar stones." Several of these ancient sepulchral mounds have been

examined during recent years, and their contents have furnished

information of much antiquarian interest, though there is a complete

absence of inscriptions. The reigns of the eight sovereigns who

succeeded Jimmu were absolutely uneventful. Nothing is set down except

the genealogy of each ruler, the place of his residence and his burial,

his age and the date of his death. It was then the custom--and it

remained so until the 8th century of the Christian era--to change the

capital on the accession of each emperor; a habit which effectually

prevented the growth of any great metropolis. The reign of the 10th

emperor, Sujin, lasted from 98 to 30 B.C. During his era the land was

troubled by pestilence and the people broke out in rebellion; calamities

which were supposed to be caused by the spirit of the ancient ruler of

Izumo to avenge a want of consideration shown to his descendants by

their supplanters. Divination--by a Chinese process--and visions

revealed the source of trouble; rites of worship were performed in

honour of the ancient ruler, his descendant being entrusted with the

duty, and the pestilence ceased. We now hear for the first time of

vigorous measures to quell the aboriginal savages, doubtless the Ainu.

Four generals are sent out against them in different directions. But the

expedition is interrupted by an armed attempt on the part of the

emperor's half-brother, who, utilizing the opportunity of the troops'

absence from Yamato, marches from Yamashiro at the head of a powerful

army to win the crown for himself. In connexion with these incidents,

curious evidence is furnished of the place then assigned to woman by the

writers of the _Chronicles_. It is a girl who warns one of the emperor's

generals of the plot; it is the sovereign's aunt who interprets the

warning; and it is Ata, the wife of the rebellious prince, who leads the

left wing of his army. Four other noteworthy facts are recorded of this

reign: the taking of a census; the imposition of a tax on animals' skins

and game to be paid by men, and on textile fabrics by women; the

building of boats for coastwise transport, and the digging of dikes and

reservoirs for agricultural purposes. All these things rest solely on

the testimony of annalists writing eight centuries later than the era

they discuss and compiling their narrative mostly from tradition.

Careful investigations have been made to ascertain whether the histories

of China and Korea corroborate or contradict those of Japan. Without

entering into detailed evidence, the inference may be at once stated

that the dates given in Japanese early history are just 120 years too

remote; an error very likely to occur when using the sexagenary cycle,

which constituted the first method of reckoning time in Japan. But

although this correction suffices to reconcile some contradictory

features of Far-Eastern history, it does not constitute any explanation

of the incredible longevity assigned by the _Chronicles_ to several

Japanese sovereigns, and the conclusion is that when a consecutive

record of reigns came to be compiled in the 8th century, many lacunae

were found which had to be filled up from the imagination of the

compilers. With this parenthesis we may pass rapidly over the events of

the next two centuries (29 B.C. to A.D. 200). They are remarkable for

vigorous measures to subdue the aboriginal Ainu, who in the southern

island of Kiushiu are called Kuma-so (the names of two tribes) and

sometimes earth-spiders (i.e. cave-dwellers), while in the north-eastern

regions of the main island they are designated Yemishi. Expeditions are

led against them in both regions by Prince Yamato-dake, a hero revered

by all succeeding generations of Japanese as the type of valour and

loyalty. Dying from the effects of hardship and exposure, but declaring

with his last breath that loss of life was as nothing compared with the

sorrow of seeing his father's face no more, his spirit ascends to heaven

as a white bird, and when his son, Chuai, comes to the throne, he causes

cranes to be placed in the moat surrounding his palace in memory of his

illustrious sire.

The sovereign had partly ceased to follow the example of Jimmu, who led

his armies in person. The emperors did not, however, pass a sedentary

life. They frequently made progresses throughout their dominions, and

on these occasions a not uncommon incident was the addition of some

local beauty to the Imperial harem. This licence had a far-reaching

effect, since to provide for the sovereign's numerous offspring--the

emperor Keiko (71-130) had 80 children--no better way offered than to

make grants of land, and thus were laid the foundations of a territorial

nobility destined profoundly to influence the course of Japanese

history. Woman continues to figure conspicuously in the story. The image

of the sun goddess, enshrined in Ise (5 B.C.), is entrusted to the

keeping of a princess, as are the mirror, sword and jewel inherited from

the sun goddess; a woman (Tachibana) accompanies Prince Yamato-dake in

his campaign against the Yemishi, and sacrifices her life to quell a

tempest at sea; Saho, consort of Suinin, is the heroine of a most tragic

tale in which the conflict between filial piety and conjugal loyalty

leads to her self-destruction; and a woman is found ruling over a large

district in Kiushu when the Emperor Keiko is engaged in his campaign

against the aborigines. The reign of Suinin saw the beginning of an art

destined to assume extraordinary importance in Japan--the art of

wrestling--and the first champion, Nomi no Sukune, is honoured for

having suggested that clay figures should take the place of the human

sacrifices hitherto offered at the sepulture of Imperial personages. The

irrigation works commenced in the time of Sujin were zealously continued

under his two immediate successors, Suinin and Keiko. More than 800

ponds and channels are described as having been constructed under the

former's rule. We find evidence also that the sway of the throne had

been by this time widely extended, for in 125 a governor-general of 15

provinces is nominated, and two years later, governors (_miyakko_) are

appointed in every province and mayors (_inaki_) in every village. The

number or names of these local divisions are not given, but it is

explained that mountains and rivers were taken as boundaries of

provinces, the limits of towns and villages being marked by roads

running respectively east and west, north and south.

Invasion of Korea.

An incident is now reached which the Japanese count a landmark in their

history, though foreign critics are disposed to regard it as apocryphal.

It is the invasion of Korea by a Japanese army under the command of the

empress Jingo, in 200. The emperor Chuai, having proceeded to Kiushiu

for the purpose of conducting a campaign against the Kuma-so, is there

joined by the empress, who, at the inspiration of a deity, seeks to

divert the Imperial arms against Korea. But the emperor refuses to

believe in the existence of any such country, and heaven punishes his

incredulity with death at the hands of the Kuma-so, according to one

account; from the effects of disease, according to another. The calamity

is concealed; the Kuma-so are subdued, and the empress, having collected

a fleet and raised an army, crosses to the state of Silla (in Korea),

where, at the spectacle of her overwhelming strength, the Korean monarch

submits without fighting, and swears that until the sun rises in the

west, until rivers run towards their sources, and until pebbles ascend

to the sky and become stars, he will do homage and send tribute to

Japan. His example is followed by the kings of the two other states

constituting the Korean peninsula, and the warlike empress returns

triumphant. Many supernatural elements embellish the tale, but the

features which chiefly discredit it are that it abounds in anachronisms,

and that the event, despite its signal importance, is not mentioned in

either Chinese or Korean history. It is certain that China then

possessed in Korea territory administered by Chinese governors. She must

therefore have had cognisance of such an invasion, had it occurred.

Moreover, Korean history mentions twenty-five raids made by the Japanese

against Silla during the first five centuries of the Christian era, but

not one of them can be identified with Jingo's alleged expedition. There

can be no doubt that the early Japanese were an aggressive, enterprising

people, and that their nearest over-sea neighbour suffered much from

their activity. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that the Jingo

tale contains a large germ of truth, and is at least an echo of the

relations that existed between Japan and Korea in the 3rd and 4th

centuries. The records of the 69 years comprising Jingo's reign are in

the main an account of intercourse, sometimes peaceful, sometimes

stormy, between the neighbouring countries. Only one other episode

occupies a prominent place: it is an attempt on the part of Jingo's

step-brothers to oppose her return to Yamato and to prevent the

accession of her son to the throne. It should be noted here that all

such names as Jimmu, Sujin, Chuai, &c., are posthumous, and were

invented in the reign of Kwammu (782-806), the fashion being taken from

China and the names themselves being purely Chinese translations of the

qualities assigned to the respective monarchs. Thus Jimmu signifies

"divine valour"; Sujin, "deity-honouring"; and Chuai, "sad middle son."

The names of these rulers during life were wholly different from their

posthumous appellations.

Earliest Notices in Chinese History.

Chinese history, which is incomparably older and more precise than

Korean, is by no means silent about Japan. Long notices occur in the

later Han and Wei records (25 to 265). The Japanese are spoken of as

dwarfs (_Wa_), and their islands, frequently called the queen country,

are said to be mountainous, with soil suitable for growing grain, hemp,

and the silkworm mulberry. The climate is so mild that vegetables can be

grown in winter and summer; there are neither oxen, horses, tigers, nor

leopards; the people understand the art of weaving; the men tattoo their

faces and bodies in patterns indicating differences of rank; male attire

consists of a single piece of cloth; females wear a gown passed over the

head, and tie their hair in a bow; soldiers are armed with spears and

shields, and also with bows, from which they discharge arrows tipped

with bone or iron; the sovereign resides in Yamato; there are stockaded

forts and houses; food is taken with the fingers but is served on bamboo

trays and wooden trenchers; foot-gear is not worn; when men of the lower

classes meet a man of rank, they leave the road and retire to the grass,

squatting or kneeling with both hands on the ground when they address

him; intoxicating liquor is much used; the people are long-lived, many

reaching the age of 100; women are more numerous than men; there is no

theft, and litigation is infrequent; the women are faithful and not

jealous; all men of high rank have four or five wives, others two or

three; wives and children of law-breakers are confiscated, and for grave

crimes the offender's family is extirpated; divination is practised by

burning bones; mourning lasts for some ten days and the rites are

performed by a "mourning-keeper"; after a funeral the whole family

perform ablutions; fishing is much practised, and the fishermen are

skilled divers; there are distinctions of rank and some are vassals to

others; each province has a market where goods are exchanged; the

country is divided into more than 100 provinces, and among its products

are white pearls, green jade and cinnabar. These annals go on to say

that between 147 and 190 civil war prevailed for several years, and

order was finally restored by a female sovereign, who is described as

having been old and unmarried; much addicted to magic arts; attended by

a thousand females; dwelling in a palace with lofty pavilions surrounded

by a stockade and guarded by soldiers; but leading such a secluded life

that few saw her face except one man who served her meals and acted as a

medium of communication. There can be little question that this queen

was the empress Jingo who, according to Japanese annals, came to the

throne in the year A.D. 200, and whose every public act had its

inception or promotion in some alleged divine interposition. In one

point, however, the Chinese historians are certainly incorrect. They

represent tattooing as universal in ancient Japan, whereas it was

confined to criminals, in whose case it played the part that branding

does elsewhere. Centuries later, in feudal days, the habit came to be

practised by men of the lower orders whose avocations involved baring

the body, but it never acquired vogue among educated people. In other

respects these ancient Chinese annals must be credited with remarkable

accuracy in their description of Japan and the Japanese. Their account

may be advantageously compared with Professor Chamberlain's analysis of

the manners and customs of the early Japanese, in the preface to his

translation of the _Kojiki_.

"The Japanese of the mythical period, as pictured in the legends

preserved by the compiler of the _Records of Ancient Matters_, were a

race who had long emerged from the savage stage and had attained to a

high level of barbaric skill. The Stone Age was forgotten by them--or

nearly so--and the evidence points to their never having passed

through a genuine Bronze Age, though the knowledge of bronze was at a

later period introduced from the neighbouring continent. They used

iron for manufacturing spears, swords and knives of various shapes,

and likewise for the more peaceful purpose of making hooks wherewith

to angle or to fasten the doors of their huts. Their other warlike and

hunting implements (besides traps and gins, which appear to have been

used equally for catching beasts and birds and for destroying human

enemies) were bows and arrows, spears and elbow-pads--the latter

seemingly of skin, while special allusion is made to the fact that the

arrows were feathered. Perhaps clubs should be added to the list. Of

the bows and arrows, swords and knives, there is perpetual mention,

but nowhere do we hear of the tools with which they were manufactured,

and there is the same remarkable silence regarding such widely spread

domestic implements as the saw and the axe. We hear, however, of the

pestle and mortar, of the fire-drill, of the wedge, of the sickle, and

of the shuttle used in weaving. Navigation seems to have been in a

very elementary state. Indeed the art of sailing was but little

practised in Japan even so late as the middle of the 10th century of

our era, subsequent to the general diffusion of Chinese civilization,

though rowing and punting are often mentioned by the early poets. To

what we should call towns or villages very little reference is made

anywhere in the _Records_ or in that part of the _Chronicles_ which

contain the account of the so-called Divine Age. But from what we

learn incidentally it would seem that the scanty population was

chiefly distributed in small hamlets and isolated dwellings along the

coast and up the course of the larger streams. Of house-building there

is frequent mention. Fences were in use. Rugs of skins and

rush-matting were occasionally brought in to sit on, and we even hear

once or twice of silk rugs being used for the same purpose by the

noble and wealthy. The habits of personal cleanliness which so

pleasantly distinguish the modern Japanese from their neighbours, in

continental Asia, though less fully developed than at present would

seem to have existed in the germ in early times, as we read more than

once of bathing in rivers, and are told of bathing women being

specially attached to the person of a certain Imperial infant.

Lustrations, too, formed part of the religious practices of the race.

Latrines are mentioned several times. They would appear to have been

situated away from the houses and to have been generally placed over a

running stream, whence doubtless the name for latrine in the archaic

dialect--_kawaya_ (river-house). A peculiar sort of dwelling-place

which the two old histories bring prominently under our notice is the

so-called parturition house--a one-roomed hut without windows, which a

woman was expected to build and retire into for the purpose Of being

delivered unseen. Castles are not distinctly spoken of until a time

which coincides, according to the received chronology, with the first

century B.C. We then first meet with the curious term rice-castle,

whose precise signification is a matter of dispute among the native

commentators, but which, on comparison with Chinese descriptions of

the early Japanese, should probably be understood to mean a kind of

palisade serving the purpose of a redoubt, behind which the warriors

could ensconce themselves. The food of the early Japanese consisted of

fish and of the flesh of the wild creatures which fell by the hunter's

arrow or were taken in the trapper's snare. Rice is the only cereal of

which there is such mention made as to place it beyond a doubt that

its cultivation dates back to time immemorial. Beans, millet and

barley are indeed named once, together with silkworms, in the account

of the Divine Age. But the passage has every aspect of an

interpolation in the legend, perhaps not dating back long before the

time of the eighth-century compiler. A few unimportant vegetables and

fruits, of most of which there is but a single mention, are found. The

intoxicating liquor called _sake_ was known in Japan during the

mythical period, and so were chopsticks for eating food with. Cooking

pots and cups and dishes--the latter both of earthenware and of leaves

of trees--are also mentioned; but of the use of fire for warming

purposes we hear nothing. Tables are named several times, but never in

connexion with food: they would seem to have been used exclusively for

the purpose of presenting offerings on, and were probably quite small

and low--in fact, rather trays than tables, according to European

ideas. In the use of clothing and the specialization of garments the

early Japanese had reached a high level. We read in the most ancient

legends of upper garments, skirts, trowsers, girdles, veils and hats,

while both sexes adorned themselves with necklaces, bracelets and head

ornaments of stones considered precious--in this respect offering a

striking contrast to their descendants in modern times, of whose

attire jewelry forms no part. The material of their clothes was hempen

cloth and paper--mulberry bark, coloured by being rubbed with madder,

and probably with woad and other tinctorial plants. All the garments,

so far as we may judge, were woven, sewing being nowhere mentioned.

From the great place which the chase occupied in daily life, we are

led to suppose that skins also were used to make garments of. There is

in the _Records_ at least one passage which favours this supposition,

and the _Chronicles_ in one place mention the straw rain-coat and

broad-brimmed hat, which still form the Japanese peasant's effectual

protection against the inclemencies of the weather. The tendrils of

creeping plants served the purposes of strings, and bound the

warrior's sword round his waist. Combs are mentioned, and it is

evident that much attention was devoted to the dressing of the hair.

The men seem to have bound up their hair in two bunches, one on each

side of the head, while the young boys tied theirs in a top-knot, the

unmarried girls let their locks hang down over their necks, and the

married women dressed theirs after a fashion which apparently combined

the two last-named methods. 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 the matter of the

head-dress, were distinguished by a diversity of apparel and

ornamentation. With regard to the precious stones mentioned above as

having been used as ornaments for the head, neck and arms, we know

from the specimens which have rewarded the labours of archaeological

research in Japan that agate, crystal, glass, jade, serpentine and

steatite were the most used materials, and carved and pierced

cylindrical shapes the commonest forms. The horse--which was ridden,

but not driven--the barn-door fowl and the cormorant used for fishing,

are the only domesticated creatures mentioned in the earlier

traditions, with the doubtful exception of the silkworm. In the later

portions of the _Records_ and _Chronicles_ dogs and cattle are alluded

to, but sheep, swine and even cats were apparently not yet

introduced."

As the prehistoric era draws to its end the above analyses of Japanese

civilization have to be modified. Thus, towards the close of the 3rd

century, ship-building made great progress, and instead of the small

boats hitherto in use, a vessel 100 ft. long was constructed. Notable

above all is the fact that Japan's turbulent relations with Korea were

replaced by friendly intercourse, so that she began to receive from her

neighbour instruction in the art of writing. The date assigned by the

_Chronicles_ for this important event is A.D. 285, but it has been

proved almost conclusively that Japanese annals relating to this period

are in error to the extent of 120 years. Hence the introduction of

calligraphy must be placed in 405. Chinese history shows that between 57

and 247 Japan sent four embassies to the courts of the Han and the Wei,

and this intercourse cannot have failed to disclose the ideograph. But

the knowledge appears to have been confined to a few interpreters, and

not until the year 405 were steps taken to extend it, with the aid of a

learned Korean, Wang-in. Korea herself began to study Chinese learning

only a few years before she undertook to impart it to Japan. We now find

a numerous colony of Koreans passing to Japan and settling there; a

large number are also carried over as prisoners of war, and the Japanese

obtain seamstresses from both of their continental neighbours. One fact,

related with much precision, shows that the refinements of life were in

an advanced condition: an ice-house is described, and we read that from

374 (? 494) it became the fashion to store ice in this manner for use in

the hot months by placing it in water or _sake_. The emperor, Nintoku,

to whose time this innovation is attributed, is one of the romantic

figures of Japanese history. He commenced his career by refusing to

accept the sovereignty from his younger brother, who pressed him

earnestly to do so on the ground that the proper order of succession had

been disturbed by their father's partiality--though the rights attaching

to primogeniture did not receive imperative recognition in early Japan.

After three years of this mutual self-effacement, during which the

throne remained vacant, the younger brother committed suicide, and

Nintoku reluctantly became sovereign. He chose Naniwa (the modern Osaka)

for his capital, but he would not take the farmers from their work to

finish the building of a palace, and subsequently, inferring from the

absence of smoke over the houses of the people that the country was

impoverished, he remitted all taxes and suspended forced labour for a

term of three years, during which his palace fell into a state of ruin

and he himself fared in the coarsest manner. Digging canals, damming

rivers, constructing roads and bridges, and establishing granaries

occupied his attention when love did not distract it. But in affairs of

the heart he was most unhappy. He figures as the sole wearer of the

Japanese crown who was defied by his consort; for when he took a

concubine in despite of the empress, her jealousy was so bitter that,

refusing to be placated by any of his majesty's verses or other

overtures, she left the palace altogether; and when he sought to

introduce another beauty into the inner chamber, his own half-brother,

who carried his proposals, won the girl for himself. One other fact

deserves to be remembered in connexion with Nintoku's reign:

Ki-no-tsuno, representative of a great family which had filled the

highest administrative and military posts under several sovereigns, is

mentioned as "the first to commit to writing in detail the productions

of the soil in each locality." This was in 353 (probably 473). We shall

err little if we date the commencement of Japanese written annals from

this time, though no compilation earlier than the _Kojiki_ has survived.

_Early Historical Period._--With the emperor Richu, who came to the

throne A.D. 400, the historical period may be said to commence; for

though the chronology of the records is still questionable, the facts

are generally accepted as credible. Conspicuous loyalty towards the

sovereign was not an attribute of the Japanese Imperial family in early

times. Attempts to usurp the throne were not uncommon, though there are

very few instances of such essays on the part of a subject. Love or lust

played no insignificant part in the drama, and a common method of

placating an irate sovereign was to present a beautiful damsel for his

delectation. The veto of consanguinity did not receive very strict

respect in these matters. Children of the same father might intermarry,

but not those of the same mother; a canon which becomes explicable on

observing that as wives usually lived apart from their husbands and had

the sole custody of their offspring, two or more families often remained

to the end unconscious of the fact that they had a common sire. There

was a remarkable tendency to organize the nation into groups of persons

following the same pursuit or charged with the same functions. A group

thus composed was called _be_. The heads of the great families had

titles--as _omi_, _muraji_, _miakko_, _wake_, &c.--and affairs of state

were administered by the most renowned of these nobles, wholly subject

to the sovereign's ultimate will. The provincial districts were ruled by

scions of the Imperial family, who appear to have been, on the whole,

entirely subservient to the Throne. There were no tribunals of justice:

the ordeal of boiling water or heated metal was the sole test of guilt

or innocence, apart, of course, from confession, which was often exacted

under menace of torture. A celebrated instance of the ordeal of boiling

water is recorded in 415, when this device was employed to correct the

genealogies of families suspected of falsely claiming descent from

emperors or divine beings. The test proved efficacious, for men

conscious of forgery refused to undergo the ordeal. Deprivation of rank

was the lightest form of punishment; death the commonest, and

occasionally the whole family of an offender became serfs of the house

against which the offence had been committed or which had been

instrumental in disclosing a crime. There are, however, frequent

examples of wrong-doing expiated by the voluntary surrender of lands or

other property. We find several instances of that extreme type of

loyalty which became habitual in later ages--suicide in preference to

surviving a deceased lord. On the whole the successive sovereigns of

these early times appear to have ruled with clemency and consideration

for the people's welfare. But there were two notable exceptions--Yuriaku

(457-479) and Muretsu (499-506). The former slew men ruthlessly in fits

of passion or resentment, and the latter was the Nero of Japanese

history, a man who loved to witness the agony of his fellows and knew no

sentiment of mercy or remorse. Yet even Yuriaku did not fail to promote

industrial pursuits. Skilled artisans were obtained from Korea, and it

is related that, in 462, this monarch induced the empress and the ladies

of the palace to plant mulberry trees with their own hands in order to

encourage sericulture. Throughout the 5th and 6th centuries many

instances are recorded of the acquisition of landed estates by the

Throne, and their occasional bestowal upon princes or Imperial consorts,

such gifts being frequently accompanied by the assignment of bodies of

agriculturists who seem to have accepted the position of serfs.

Meanwhile Chinese civilization was gradually becoming known, either by

direct contact or through Korea. Several immigrations of Chinese or

Korean settlers are on record. No less than 7053 householders of Chinese

subjects came, through Korea, in 540, and one of their number received

high rank together with the post of director of the Imperial treasury.

From these facts, and from a national register showing the derivation of

all the principal families in Japan, it is clearly established that a

considerable strain of Chinese and Korean blood runs in the veins of

many Japanese subjects.

Introduction of Buddhism.

The most signal and far-reaching event of this epoch was the importation

of the Buddhist creed, which took place in 552. A Korean monarch acted

as propagandist, sending a special envoy with a bronze image of the

Buddha and with several volumes of the Sutras. Unfortunately the coming

of the foreign faith happened to synchronize with an epidemic of plague,

and conservatives at the Imperial court were easily able to attribute

this visitation to resentment on the part of the ancestral deities

against the invasion of Japan by an alien creed. Thus the spread of

Buddhism was checked; but only for a time. Thirty-five years after the

coming of the Sutras, the first temple was erected to enshrine a wooden

image of the Buddha 16 ft. high. It has often been alleged that the

question between the imported and the indigenous cults had to be decided

by the sword. The statement is misleading. That the final adoption of

Buddhism resulted from a war is true, but its adoption or rejection did

not constitute the motive of the combat. A contest for the succession to

the throne at the opening of Sujun's reign (588-592) found the partisans

of the Indian faith ranged on one side, its opponents on the other, and

in a moment of stress the leaders of the former, Soma and Prince

Umayado, vowed to erect Buddhist temples should victory rest on their

arms. From that time the future of Buddhism was assured. In 588 Korea

sent Buddhist relics, Buddhist priests, Buddhist ascetics, architects of

Buddhist temples, and casters of Buddhist images. She had already sent

men learned in divination, in medicine, and in the calendar. The

building of temples began to be fashionable in the closing years of the

6th century, as did also abdication of the world by people of both

sexes; and a census taken in 623, during the reign of the empress Suiko

(583-628), showed that there were then 46 temples, 816 priests and 569

nuns in the empire. This rapid growth of the alien faith was due mainly

to two causes: first, that the empress Suiko, being of the Soga family,

naturally favoured a creed which had found its earliest Japanese patron

in the great statesman and general, Soga no Umako; secondly, that one of

the most illustrious scholars and philosophers ever possessed by Japan,

Prince Shotoku, devoted all his energies to fostering Buddhism.

The adoption of Buddhism meant to the Japanese much more than the

acquisition of a practical religion with a code of clearly defined

morality in place of the amorphous and jejune cult of Shinto. It meant

the introduction of Chinese civilization. Priests and scholars crossed

in numbers from China, and men passed over from Japan to study the

Sutras at what was then regarded as the fountain-head of Buddhism. There

was also a constant stream of immigrants from China and Korea, and the

result may be gathered from the fact that a census taken of the Japanese

nobility in 814 indicated 382 Korean and Chinese families against only

796 of pure Japanese origin. The records show that in costume and

customs a signal advance was made towards refinement. Hair-ornaments of

gold or silver chiselled in the form of flowers; caps of sarcenet in

twelve special tints, each indicating a different grade; garments of

brocade and embroidery with figured thin silks of various colours--all

these were worn on ceremonial occasions; the art of painting was

introduced; a recorder's office was established; perfumes were largely

employed; court picnics to gather medicinal herbs were instituted,

princes and princesses attending in brilliant raiment; Chinese music and

dancing were introduced; cross bows and catapults were added to the

weapons of war; domestic architecture made signal strides in obedience

to the examples of Buddhist sacred edifices, which, from the first,

showed magnificence of dimension and decoration hitherto unconceived in

Japan; the arts of metal-casting and sculpture underwent great

improvement; Prince Shotoku compiled a code, commonly spoken of as the

first written laws of Japan, but in reality a collection of maxims

evincing a moral spirit of the highest type. In some respects, however,

there was no improvement. The succession to the throne still tended to

provoke disputes among the Imperial princes; the sword constituted the

principal weapon of punishment, and torture the chief judicial device.

Now, too, for the first time, a noble family is found seeking to usurp

the Imperial authority. The head of the Soga house, Umako, having

compassed the murder of the emperor Sujun and placed on the throne his

own niece (Suiko), swept away all opposition to the latter's successor,

Jomei, and controlled the administration of state affairs throughout two

reigns. In all this he was strongly seconded by his son, Iruka, who even

surpassed him in contumelious assumption of power and parade of dignity.

Iruka was slain in the presence of the empress Kogyoku by Prince Naka

with the assistance of the minister of the interior, Kamako, and it is

not surprising to find the empress (Kogyoku) abdicating immediately

afterwards in favour of Kamako's protégé, Prince Karu, who is known in

history as Kotoku. This Kamako, planner and leader of the conspiracy

which overthrew the Soga, is remembered by posterity under the name of

Kamatari and as the founder of the most illustrious of Japan's noble

houses, the Fujiwara. At this time (645), a habit which afterwards

contributed materially to the effacement of the Throne's practical

authority was inaugurated. Prince Furubito, pressed by his brother,

Prince Karu, to assume the sceptre in accordance with his right of

primogeniture, made his refusal peremptory by abandoning the world and

taking the tonsure. This retirement to a monastery was afterwards

dictated to several sovereigns by ministers who found that an active

occupant of the throne impeded their own exercise of administrative

autocracy. Furubito's recourse to the tonsure proved, however, to be

merely a cloak for ambitious designs. Before a year had passed he

conspired to usurp the throne and was put to death with his children,

his consorts strangling themselves. Suicide to escape the disgrace of

defeat had now become a common practice. Another prominent feature of

this epoch was the prevalence of superstition. The smallest

incidents--the growing of two lotus flowers on one stem; a popular

ballad; the reputed song of a sleeping monkey; the condition of the

water in a pond; rain without clouds--all these and cognate trifles were

regarded as omens; wizards and witches deluded the common people; a

strange form of caterpillar was worshipped as the god of the everlasting

world, and the peasants impoverished themselves by making sacrifices to

it.

First Legislative Epoch.

An interesting epoch is now reached, the first legislative era of early

Japanese history. It commenced with the reign of the emperor Kotoku

(645), of whom the _Chronicles_ say that he "honoured the religion of

Buddha and despised Shinto"; that "he was of gentle disposition; loved

men of learning; made no distinction of noble and mean, and continually

dispensed beneficent edicts." The customs calling most loudly for reform

in his time were abuse of the system of forced labour; corrupt

administration of justice; spoliation of the peasant class; assumption

of spurious titles to justify oppression; indiscriminate distribution of

the families of slaves and serfs; diversion of taxes to the pockets of

collectors; formation of great estates, and a general lack of

administrative centralization. The first step of reform consisted in

ordering the governors of provinces to prepare registers showing the

numbers of freemen and serfs within their jurisdiction as well as the

area of cultivated land. It was further ordained that the advantages of

irrigation should be shared equally with the common people; that no

local governor might try and decide criminal cases while in his

province; that any one convicted of accepting bribes should be liable to

a fine of double the amount as well as to other punishment; that in the

Imperial court a box should be placed for receiving petitions and a bell

hung to be sounded in the event of delay in answering them or unfairness

in dealing with them; that all absorption of land into great estates

should cease; that barriers, outposts, guards and post-horses should be

provided; that high officials should be dowered with hereditary estates

by way of emolument, the largest of such grants being 3000 homesteads;

that men of unblemished character and proved capacity should be

appointed aldermen for adjudicating criminal matters; that there should

be chosen as clerks for governors and vice-governors of provinces men of

solid competence "skilled in writing and arithmetic"; that the land

should be parcelled out in fixed proportions to every adult unit of the

population with right of tenure for a term of six years; that forced

labour should be commuted for taxes of silk and cloth; and that for

fiscal and administrative purposes households should be organized in

groups of five, each group under an elder, and ten groups forming a

township, which, again, should be governed by an elder. Incidentally to

these reforms many of the evil customs of the time are exposed. Thus

provincial governors when they visited the capital were accustomed to

travel with great retinues who appear to have constituted a charge on

the regions through which they passed. The law now limited the number of

a chief governor's attendants to nine, and forbade him to use official

houses or to fare at public cost unless journeying on public business.

Again, men who had acquired some local distinction, though they did not

belong to noble families, took advantage of the absence of historical

records or official registers, and, representing themselves as

descendants of magnates to whom the charge of public granaries had been

entrusted, succeeded in usurping valuable privileges. The office of

provincial governor had in many cases become hereditary, and not only

were governors largely independent of Imperial control, but also, since

every free man carried arms, there had grown up about these officials a

population relying largely on the law of force. Kotoku's reforms sought

to institute a system of temporary governors, and directed that all arms

and armour should be stored in arsenals built in waste places, except in

the case of provinces adjoining lands where unsubdued aborigines

(Yemishi) dwelt. Punishments were drastic, and in the case of a man

convicted of treason, all his children were executed with him, his wives

and consorts committing suicide. From a much earlier age suicide had

been freely resorted to as the most honourable exit from pending

disgrace, but as yet the samurai's method of disembowelment was not

employed, strangulation or cutting the throat being the regular

practice. Torture was freely employed and men often died under it.

Signal abuses prevailed in regions beyond the immediate range of the

central government's observation. It has been shown that from early days

the numerous scions of the Imperial family had generally been provided

for by grants of provincial estates. Gradually the descendants of these

men, and the representatives of great families who held hereditary rank,

extended their domains unscrupulously, employing forced labour to

reclaim lands, which they let to the peasants, not hesitating to

appropriate large slices of public property, and remitting to the

central treasury only such fractions of the taxes as they found

convenient. So prevalent had the exaction of forced labour become that

country-folk, repairing to the capital to seek redress of grievances,

were often compelled to remain there for the purpose of carrying out

some work in which dignitaries of state were interested. The removal of

the capital to a new site on each change of sovereign involved a vast

quantity of unproductive toil. It is recorded that in 656, when the

empress Saimei occupied the throne, a canal was dug which required the

work of 30,000 men and a wall was built which had employed 70,000 men

before its completion. The construction of tombs for grandees was

another heavy drain on the people's labour. Some of these sepulchres

attained enormous dimensions--that of the emperor Ojin (270-310)

measures 2312 yds. round the outer moat and is some 60 ft. high; the

emperor Nintoku's (313-399) is still larger, and there is a tumulus in

Kawachi on the flank of which a good-sized village has been built.

Kotoku's laws provided that the tomb of a prince should not be so large

as to require the work of more than 1000 men for seven days, and that

the grave of a petty official must be completed by 50 men in one day.

Moreover, it was forbidden to bury with the body gold, silver, copper,

iron, jewelled shirts, jade armour or silk brocade. It appears that the

custom of suicide or sacrifice at the tomb of grandees still survived,

and that people sometimes cut off their hair or stabbed their thighs

preparatory to declaiming a threnody. All these practices were vetoed.

Abuses had grown up even in connexion with the Shinto rite of purgation.

This rite required not only the reading of rituals but also the offering

of food and fruits. For the sake of these edibles the rite was often

harshly enforced, especially in connexion with pollution from contact

with corpses; and thus it fell out that when of two brothers, returning

from a scene of forced labour, one lay down upon the road and died, the

other, dreading the cost of compulsory purgation, refused to take up the

body. Many other evil customs came into existence in connexion with this

rite, and all were dealt with in the new laws. Not the least important

of the reforms then introduced was the organization of the ministry

after the model of the Tang dynasty of China. Eight departments of state

were created, and several of them received names which are similarly

used to this day. Not only the institutions of China were borrowed but

also her official costumes. During Kotoku's reign 19 grades of head-gear

were instituted, and in the time of Tenchi (668-671) the number was

increased to 26, with corresponding robes. Throughout this era

intercourse was frequent with China, and the spread of Buddhism

continued steadily. The empress Saimei (655-661), who succeeded Kotoku,

was an earnest patron of the faith. By her command several public

expositions of the Sutras were given, and the building of temples went

on in many districts, estates being liberally granted for the

maintenance of these places of worship.

_The Fujiwara Era._--In the _Chronicles of Japan_ the year 672 is

treated as a kind of interregnum. It was in truth a year of something

like anarchy, a great part of it being occupied by a conflict of

unparalleled magnitude between Prince Otomo (called in history Emperor

Kobun) and Prince Oama, who emerged victorious and is historically

entitled Temmu (673-686). The four centuries that followed are

conveniently designated the Fujiwara era, because throughout that long

interval affairs of state were controlled by the Fujiwara family, whose

daughters were given as consorts to successive sovereigns and whose sons

filled all the high administrative posts. It has been related above that

Kamako, chief of the Shinto officials, inspired the assassination of the

Soga chief, Iruka, and thus defeated the latter's designs upon the

throne in the days of the empress Kogyoku. Kamako, better known to

subsequent generations as Kamatari, was thenceforth regarded with

unlimited favour by successive sovereigns, and just before his death in

670, the family name of Fujiwara was bestowed on him by the emperor

Tenchi. Kamatari himself deserved all the honour he received, but his

descendants abused the high trust reposed in them, reduced the sovereign

to a mere puppet, and exercised Imperial authority without openly

usurping it. Much of this was due to the adoption of Chinese

administrative systems, a process which may be said to have commenced

during the reign of Kotoku (645-654) and to have continued almost

uninterruptedly until the 11th century. Under these systems the emperor

ceased directly to exercise supreme civil or military power: he became

merely the source of authority, not its wielder, the civil functions

being delegated to a bureaucracy and the military to a soldier class.

Possibly had the custom held of transferring the capital to a new site

on each change of sovereign, and had the growth of luxurious habits been

thus checked, the comparatively simple life of early times might have

held the throne and the people in closer contact. But from the beginning

of the 8th century a strong tendency to avoid these costly migrations

developed itself. In 709 the court took up its residence at Nara,

remaining there until 784; ten years after the latter date Kioto became

the permanent metropolis. The capital at Nara--established during the

reign of the empress Gemmyo (708-715)--was built on the plan of the

Chinese metropolis. It had nine gates and nine avenues, the palace being

situated in the northern section and approached by a broad, straight

avenue, which divided the city into two perfectly equal halves, all the

other streets running parallel to this main avenue or at right angles

to it. Seven sovereigns reigned at Heijo (castle of peace), as Nara is

historically called, and, during this period of 75 years, seven of the

grandest temples ever seen in Japan were erected; a multitude of idols

were cast, among them a colossal bronze Daibutsu 53½ ft. high; large

temple-bells were founded, and all the best artists and artisans of the

era devoted their services to these works. This religious mania reached

its acme in the reign of the emperor Shomu (724-748), a man equally

superstitious and addicted to display. In Temmu's time the custom had

been introduced of compelling large numbers of persons to enter the

Buddhist priesthood with the object of propitiating heaven's aid to heal

the illness of an illustrious personage. In Shomu's day every natural

calamity or abnormal phenomenon was regarded as calling for religious

services on a large scale, and the great expense involved in all these

buildings and ceremonials, supplemented by lavish outlays on court

pageants, was severely felt by the nation. The condition of the

agricultural class, who were the chief tax-payers, was further

aggravated by the operation of the emperor Kotoku's land system, which

rendered tenure so uncertain as to deter improvements. Therefore, in the

Nara epoch, the principle of private ownership of land began to be

recognized. Attention was also paid to road-making, bridge-building,

river control and house construction, a special feature of this last

being the use of tiles for roofing purposes in place of the shingles or

thatch hitherto employed. In all these steps of progress Buddhist

priests took an active part. Costumes were now governed by purely

Chinese fashions. This change had been gradually introduced from the

time of Kotoku's legislative measures--generally called the Taikwa

reforms after the name of the era (645-650) of their adoption--and was

rendered more thorough by supplementary enactments in the period 701-703

while Mommu occupied the throne. Ladies seem by this time to have

abandoned the strings of beads worn in early eras round the neck, wrists

and ankles. They used ornaments of gold, silver or jade in their hair,

but in other respects their habiliments closely resembled those of men,

and to make the difference still less conspicuous they straddled their

horses when riding. Attempts were made to facilitate travel by

establishing stores of grain along the principal highways, but as yet

there were no hostelries, and if a wayfarer did not find shelter in the

house of a friend, he had to bivouac as best he could. Such a state of

affairs in the provinces offered a marked contrast to the luxurious

indulgence which had now begun to prevail in the capital. There

festivals of various kinds, dancing, verse-composing, flower picnics,

archery, polo, football--of a very refined nature--hawking, hunting and

gambling absorbed the attention of the aristocracy. Nothing disturbed

the serenity of the epoch except a revolt of the northern Yemishi, which

was temporarily subdued by a Fujiwara general, for the Fujiwara had not

yet laid aside the martial habits of their ancestors. In 794 the

Imperial capital was transferred from Nara to Kioto by order of the

emperor Kwammu, one of the greatest of Japanese sovereigns. Education,

the organization of the civil service, riparian works, irrigation

improvements, the separation of religion from politics, the abolition of

sinecure offices, devices for encouraging and assisting agriculture, all

received attention from him. But a twenty-two years' campaign against

the northern Yemishi; the building of numerous temples; the indulgence

of such a passionate love of the chase that he organized 140 hunting

excursions during his reign of 25 years; profuse extravagance on the

part of the aristocracy in Kioto and the exactions of provincial nobles,

conspired to sink the working classes into greater depths of hardship

than ever. Farmers had to borrow money and seed-rice from local

officials or Buddhist temples, hypothecating their land as security;

thus the temples and the nobles extended their already great estates,

whilst the agricultural population gradually fell into a position of

practical serfdom.

Rise of the Fujiwara.

Meanwhile the Fujiwara family were steadily developing their influence

in Kioto. Their methods were simple but thoroughly effective. "By

progressive exercises of arbitrariness they gradually contrived that the

choice of a consort for the sovereign should be legally limited to a

daughter of their family, five branches of which were specially

designated to that honour through all ages. When a son was born to an

emperor, the Fujiwara took the child into one of their palaces, and on

his accession to the throne, the particular Fujiwara noble that happened

to be his maternal grandfather became regent of the empire. This office

of regent, created towards the close of the 9th century, was part of the

scheme; for the Fujiwara did not allow the purple to be worn by a

sovereign after he had attained his majority, or, if they suffered him

to wield the sceptre during a few years of manhood, they compelled him

to abdicate so soon as any independent aspirations began to impair his

docility; and since for the purposes of administration in these

constantly recurring minorities an office more powerful than that of

prime minister (dajo daijin) was needed, they created that of regent

(kwambaku), making it hereditary in their own family. In fact the

history of Japan from the 9th to the 19th century may be described as

the history of four families, the Fujiwara, the Taira, the Minamoto and

the Tokugawa. The Fujiwara governed through the emperor; the Taira, the

Minamoto and the Tokugawa governed in spite of the emperor. The Fujiwara

based their power on matrimonial alliances with the Throne; the Taira,

the Minamoto and the Tokugawa based theirs on the possession of armed

strength which the throne had no competence to control. There another

broad line of cleavage is seen. Throughout the Fujiwara era the centre

of political gravity remained always in the court. Throughout the era of

the Taira, the Minamoto and the Tokugawa the centre of political gravity

was transferred to a point outside the court, the headquarters of a

military feudalism." The process of transfer was of course gradual. It

commenced with the granting of large tracts of tax-free lands to

noblemen who had wrested them from the aborigines (Yemishi) or had

reclaimed them by means of serf-labour. These tracts lay for the most

part in the northern and eastern parts of the main island, at such a

distance from the Capital that the writ of the central government did

not run there; and since such lands could be rented at rates

considerably less than the tax levied on farms belonging to the state,

the peasants by degrees abandoned the latter and settled on the former,

with the result that the revenues of the Throne steadily diminished,

while those of the provincial magnates correspondingly increased.

Moreover, in the 7th century, at the time of the adoption of Chinese

models of administration and organization, the court began to rely for

military protection on the services of guards temporarily drafted from

the provincial troops, and, during the protracted struggle against the

Yemishi in the north and east in the 8th century, the fact that the

power of the sword lay with the provinces began to be noted.

The Taira and the Minamoto.

Kioto remained the source of authority. But with the growth of luxury

and effeminacy in the capital the Fujiwara became more and more averse

from the hardships of campaigning, and in the 9th and 10th centuries,

respectively, the Taira and the Minamoto[1] families came into

prominence as military leaders, the field of the Taira operations being

the south and west, that of the Minamoto the north and east. Had the

court reserved to itself and munificently exercised the privilege of

rewarding these services, it might still have retained power and wealth.

But by a niggardly and contemptuous policy on the part of Kioto not only

were the Minamoto leaders estranged but also they assumed the right of

recompensing their followers with tax-free estates, an example which the

Taira leaders quickly followed. By the early years of the 12th century

these estates had attracted the great majority of the farming class,

whereas the public land was left wild and uncultivated. In a word, the

court and the Fujiwara found themselves without revenue, while the

coffers of the Taira and the Minamoto were full: the power of the purse

and the power of the sword had passed effectually to the two military

families. Prominent features of the moral condition of the capital at

this era (12th century) were superstition, refinement and effeminacy. A

belief was widely held that calamity could not be averted or success

insured without recourse to Buddhist priests. Thus, during a reign of

only 13 years at the close of the 11th century, the emperor Shirakawa

caused 5420 religious pictures to be painted, ordered the casting of 127

statues of Buddha, each 11 ft. high, of 3150 life-sized images and of

2930 smaller idols, and constructed 21 large temples as well as 446,630

religious edifices of various kinds. Side by side with this faith in the

supernatural, sexual immorality prevailed widely, never accompanied,

however, by immodesty. Literary proficiency ranked as the be-all and

end-all of existence. "A man estimated the conjugal qualities of a young

lady by her skill in finding scholarly similes and by her perception of

the cadence of words. If a woman was so fortunate as to acquire a

reputation for learning, she possessed a certificate of universal virtue

and amiability." All the pastimes of the Nara epoch were pursued with

increased fervour and elaboration in the Heian (Kioto) era. The building

of fine dwelling-houses and the laying out of landscape gardens took

place on a considerable scale, though in these respects the ideals of

later ages were not yet reached. As to costume, the close-fitting,

business-like and comparatively simple dress of the 8th century was

exchanged for a much more elaborate style. During the Nara epoch the

many-hued hats of China had been abandoned for a sober head-gear of silk

gauze covered with black lacquer, but in the Heian era this was replaced

by an imposing structure glistening with jewels: the sleeves of the

tunic grew so long that they hung to the knees when a man's arms were

crossed, and the trowsers were made so full and baggy that they

resembled a divided skirt. From this era may be said to have commenced

the manufacture of the tasteful and gorgeous textile fabrics for which

Japan afterwards became famous. "A fop's ideal was to wear several

suits, one above the other, disposing them so that their various colours

showed in harmoniously contrasting lines at the folds on the bosom and

at the edges of the long sleeves. A successful costume created a

sensation in court circles. Its wearer became the hero of the hour, and

under the pernicious influence of such ambition men began even to powder

their faces and rouge their cheeks like women. As for the fair sex,

their costume reached the acme of unpracticality and extravagance in

this epoch. Long flowing hair was essential, and what with developing

the volume and multiplying the number of her robes, and wearing above

her trowsers a many-plied train, a grand lady of the time always seemed

to be struggling to emerge from a cataract of habiliments." It was

fortunate for Japan that circumstances favoured the growth of a military

class in this age of her career, for had the conditions existing in

Kioto during the Heian epoch spread throughout the whole country, the

penalty never escaped by a demoralized nation must have overtaken her.

But by the middle of the 12th century the pernicious influence of the

Fujiwara had paled before that of the Taira and the Minamoto, and a

question of succession to the throne marshalled the latter two families

in opposite camps, thus inaugurating an era of civil war which held the

country in the throes of almost continuous battle for 450 years, placed

it under the administration of a military feudalism, and educated a

nation of warriors. At first the Minamoto were vanquished and driven

from the capital, Kiyomori, the Taira chief, being left complete master

of the situation. He established his headquarters at Rokuharu, in Kioto,

appropriated the revenues of 30 out of the 66 provinces forming the

empire, and filled all the high offices of state with his own relatives

or connexions. But he made no radical change in the administrative

system, preferring to follow the example of the Fujiwara by keeping the

throne in the hands of minors. And he committed the blunder of sparing

the lives of two youthful sons of his defeated rival, the Minamoto

chief. They were Yoritomo and Yoshitsune; the latter the greatest

strategist Japan ever produced, with perhaps one exception; the former,

one of her three greatest statesmen, the founder of military feudalism.

By these two men the Taira were so completely overthrown that they never

raised their heads again, a sea-fight at Dan-no-ura (1155) giving them

the _coup de grâce_. Their supremacy had lasted 22 years.

_The Feudal Era._--Yoritomo, acting largely under the advice of an

astute counsellor, Oye no Hiromoto, established his seat of power at

Kamakura, 300 m. from Kioto. He saw that, effectively to utilize the

strength of the military class, propinquity to the military centres in

the provinces was essential. At Kamakura he organized an administrative

body similar in mechanism to that of the metropolitan government but

studiously differentiated in the matter of nomenclature. As to the

country at large, he brought it effectually under the sway of Kamakura

by placing the provinces under the direct control of military governors,

chosen and appointed by himself. No attempt was made, however, to

interfere in any way with the polity in Kioto: it was left intact, and

the nobles about the Throne--_kuge_ (courtly houses), as they came to be

called in contradistinction to the _buke_ (military houses)--were

placated by renewal of their property titles. The Buddhist priests,

also, who had been treated most harshly during the Taira tenure of

power, found their fortunes restored under Kamakura's sway. Subsequently

Yoritomo obtained for himself the title of _sei-itai-shogun_

(barbarian-subduing generalissimo), and just as the office of regent

(kwambaku) had long been hereditary in the Fujiwara family, so the

office of shogun became thenceforth hereditary in that of the Minamoto.

These changes were radical. They signified a complete shifting of the

centre of power. During eighteen centuries from the time of Jimmu's

invasion--as Japanese historians reckon--the country had been ruled from

the south; now the north became supreme, and for a civilian

administration a purely military was substituted. But there was no

contumely towards the court in Kioto. Kamakura made a show of seeking

Imperial sanction for every one of its acts, and the whole of the

military administration was carried on in the name of the emperor by a

shogun who called himself the Imperial deputy. In this respect things

changed materially after the death of Yoritomo (1198). Kamakura then

became the scene of a drama analogous to that acted in Kioto from the

10th century.

Rule of the Hojo.

The Hojo family, to which belonged Masa, Yoritomo's consort, assumed

towards the Kamakura shogun an attitude similar to that previously

assumed by the Fujiwara family towards the emperor in Kioto. A child,

who on state occasions was carried to the council chamber in Masa's

arms, served as the nominal repository of the shogun's power, the

functions of administration being discharged in reality by the Hojo

family, whose successive heads took the name of _shikken_ (constable).

At first care was taken to have the shogun's office filled by a near

relative of Yoritomo; but after the death of that great statesman's two

sons and his nephew, the puppet shoguns were taken from the ranks of the

Fujiwara or of the Imperial princes, and were deposed so soon as they

attempted to assert themselves. What this meant becomes apparent when we

note that in the interval of 83 years between 1220 and 1308, there were

six shoguns whose ages at the time of appointment ranged from 3 to 16.

Whether, if events had not forced their hands, the Hojo constables would

have maintained towards the Throne the reverent demeanour adopted by

Yoritomo must remain a matter of conjecture. What actually happened was

that the ex-emperor, Go-Toba, made an ill-judged attempt (1221) to break

the power of Kamakura. He issued a call to arms which was responded to

by some thousands of cenobites and as many soldiers of Taira extraction.

In the brief struggle that ensued the Imperial partisans were wholly

shattered, and the direct consequences were the dethronement and exile

of the reigning emperor, the banishment of his predecessor together with

two princes of the blood, and the compulsory adoption of the tonsure by

Go-Toba; while the indirect consequence was that the succession to the

throne and the tenure of Imperial power fell under the dictation of the

Hojo as they had formerly fallen under the direction of the Fujiwara.

Yoshitoki, then head of the Hojo family, installed his brother,

Tokifusa, as military governor of Kioto, and confiscating about 3000

estates, the property of those who had espoused the Imperial cause,

distributed these lands among the adherents of his own family, thus

greatly strengthening the basis of the feudal system. "It fared with

the Hojo as it had fared with all the great families that preceded them:

their own misrule ultimately wrought their ruin. Their first eight

representatives were talented and upright administrators. They took

justice, simplicity and truth for guiding principles; they despised

luxury and pomp; they never aspired to high official rank; they were

content with two provinces for estates, and they sternly repelled the

effeminate, depraved customs of Kioto." Thus the greater part of the

13th century was, on the whole, a golden era for Japan, and the lower

orders learned to welcome feudalism. Nevertheless no century furnished

more conspicuous illustrations of the peculiarly Japanese system of

vicarious government. Children occupied the position of shogun in

Kamakura under authority emanating from children on the throne in Kioto;

and members of the Hojo family as shikken administered affairs at the

mandate of the child shoguns. Through all three stages in the dignities

of mikado, shogun and shikken, the strictly regulated principle of

heredity was maintained, according to which no Hojo shikken could ever

become shogun; no Minamoto or Fujiwara could occupy the throne. At the

beginning of the 14th century, however, several causes combined to shake

the supremacy of the Hojo. Under the sway of the ninth shikken

(Takatoki), the austere simplicity of life and earnest discharge of

executive duties which had distinguished the early chiefs of the family

were exchanged for luxury, debauchery and perfunctory government. Thus

the management of fiscal affairs fell into the hands of Takasuke, a man

of usurious instincts. It had been the wise custom of the Hojo

constables to store grain in seasons of plenty, and distribute it at low

prices in times of dearth. There occurred at this epoch a succession of

bad harvests, but instead of opening the state granaries with benevolent

liberality, Takasuke sold their contents at the highest obtainable

rates; and, by way of contrast to the prevailing indigence, the people

saw the constable in Kamakura affecting the pomp and extravagance of a

sovereign waited upon by 37 mistresses, supporting a band of 2000

dancers, and keeping a pack of 5000 fighting dogs. The throne happened

to be then occupied (1310-1338) by an emperor, Go-Daigo, who had reached

full maturity before his accession, and was correspondingly averse from

acting the puppet part assigned to the sovereigns of his time. Female

influence contributed to his impatience. One of his concubines bore a

son for whom he sought to obtain nomination as prince imperial, in

defiance of an arrangement made by the Hojo that the succession should

pass alternately to the senior and junior branches of the Imperial

family. Kamakura refused to entertain Go-Daigo's project, and

thenceforth the child's mother importuned her sovereign and lover to

overthrow the Hojo. The _entourage_ of the throne in Kioto at this time

was a counterpart of former eras. The Fujiwara, indeed, wielded nothing

of their ancient influence. They had been divided by the Hojo into five

branches, each endowed with an equal right to the office of regent, and

their strength was thus dissipated in struggling among themselves for

the possession of the prize. But what the Fujiwara had done in their

days of greatness, what the Taira had done during their brief tenure of

power, the Saionji were now doing, namely, aspiring to furnish prime

ministers and empresses from their own family solely. They had already

given consorts to five emperors in succession, and jealous rivals were

watching keenly to attack this clan which threatened to usurp the place

long held by the most illustrious family in the land. A petty incident

disturbed this state of very tender equilibrium before the plan of the

Hojo's enemies had fully matured, and the emperor presently found

himself an exile on the island of Oki. But there now appeared upon the

scene three men of great prowess: Kusunoki Masashige, Nitta Yoshisada

and Ashikaga Takauji. The first espoused from the outset the cause of

the Throne and, though commanding only a small force, held the Hojo

troops in check. The last two were both of Minamoto descent. Their

common ancestor was Minamoto Yoshiiye, whose exploits against the

northern Yemishi in the second half of the 11th century had so impressed

his countrymen that they gave him the title of Hachiman Taro

(first-born of the god of war). Both men took the field originally in

the cause of the Hojo, but at heart they desired to be avenged upon the

latter for disloyalty to the Minamoto. Nitta Yoshisada marched suddenly

against Kamakura, carried it by storm and committed the city to the

flames. Ashikaga Takauji occupied Kioto, and with the suicide of

Takatoki the Hojo fell finally from rule after 115 years of supremacy

(1219-1334). The emperor now returned from exile, and his son, Prince

Moriyoshi, having been appointed to the office of shogun at Kamakura,

the restoration of the administrative power to the Throne seemed an

accomplished fact.

The Ashikaga Shoguns.

Go-Daigo, however, was not in any sense a wise sovereign. The

extermination of the Hojo placed wide estates at his disposal, but

instead of rewarding those who had deserved well of him, he used a great

part of them to enrich his favourites, the companions of his

dissipation. Ashikaga Takauji sought just such an opportunity. The

following year (1335) saw him proclaiming himself shogun at Kamakura,

and after a complicated pageant of incidents, the emperor Go-Daigo was

obliged once more to fly from Kioto. He carried the regalia with him,

refused to submit to Takauji, and declined to recognize his usurped

title of shogun. The Ashikaga chief solved the situation by deposing

Go-Daigo and placing upon the throne another scion of the imperial

family who is known in history as Komyo (1336-1348), and who, of course,

confirmed Takauji in the office of shogun. Thus commenced the Ashikaga

line of shoguns, and thus commenced also a fifty-six-year period of

divided sovereignty, the emperor Go-Daigo and his descendants reigning

in Yoshino as the southern court (_nancho_), and the emperor Komyo and

his descendants reigning in Kioto as the northern court (_hokucho_). It

was by the efforts of the shogun Yoshimitsu, one of the greatest of the

Ashikaga potentates, that this quarrel was finally composed, but during

its progress the country had fallen into a deplorable condition. "The

constitutional powers had become completely disorganized, especially in

regions at a distance from the chief towns. The peasant was

impoverished, his spirit broken, his hope of better things completely

gone. He dreamed away his miserable existence and left the fields

untilled. Bands of robbers followed the armies through the interior of

the country, and increased the feeling of lawlessness and insecurity.

The coast population, especially that of the island of Kiushiu, had

given itself up in a great measure to piracy. Even on the shores of

Korea and China these enterprising Japanese corsairs made their

appearance." The shogun Yoshimitsu checked piracy, and there ensued

between Japan and China a renewal of cordial intercourse which, upon the

part of the shogun, developed phases plainly suggesting an admission of

Chinese suzerainty.

For a brief moment during the sway of Yoshimitsu the country had rest

from internecine war, but immediately after his death (1394) the

struggle began afresh. Many of the great territorial lords had now grown

too puissant to concern themselves about either mikado or shogun. Each

fought for his own hand, thinking only of extending his sway and his

territories. By the middle of the 16th century Kioto was in ruins, and

little vitality remained in any trade or industry except those that

ministered to the wants of the warrior. Again in the case of the

Ashikaga shoguns the political tendency to exercise power vicariously

was shown, as it had been shown in the case of the mikados in Kioto and

in the case of the Minamoto in Kamakura. What the regents had been to

the emperors and the constables to the Minamoto shoguns, that the

wardens (_kwanryo_) were to the Ashikaga shoguns. Therefore, for

possession of this office of kwanryo vehement conflicts were waged, and

at one time five rival shoguns were used as figure-heads by contending

factions. Yoshimitsu had apportioned an ample allowance for the support

of the Imperial court, but in the continuous warfare following his death

the estates charged with the duty of paying this allowance ceased to

return any revenue; the court nobles had to seek shelter and sustenance

with one or other of the feudal chiefs in the provinces, and the court

itself was reduced to such a state of indigence that when the emperor

Go-Tsuchi died (1500), his corpse lay for forty days awaiting burial,

no funds being available for purposes of sepulture.

Alone among the vicissitudes of these troublous times the strength and

influence of Buddhism grew steadily. The great monasteries were military

strongholds as well as places of worship. When the emperor Kwammu chose

Kioto for his capital, he established on the hill of Hiyei-zan, which

lay north-east of the city, a magnificent temple to ward off the evil

influences supposed to emanate from that quarter. Twenty years later,

Kobo, the most famous of all Japanese Buddhist saints, founded on

Koyasan in Yamato a monastery not less important than that of Hiyei-zan.

These and many other temples had large tax-free estates, and for the

protection of their property they found it expedient to train and arm

the cenobites as soldiers. From that to taking active part in the

political struggles of the time was but a short step, especially as the

great temples often became refuges of sovereigns and princes who, though

nominally forsaking the world, retained all their interest, and even

continued to take an active part, in its vicissitudes. It is recorded of

the emperor Shirakawa (1073-1086) that the three things which he

declared his total inability to control were the waters of the river

Kamo, the fall of the dice, and the monks of Buddha. His successors

might have confessed equal inability. Kiyomori, the puissant chief of

the Taira family, had fruitlessly essayed to defy the Buddhists;

Yoritomo, in the hour of his most signal triumph, thought it wise to

placate them. Where these representatives of centralized power found

themselves impotent, it may well be supposed that the comparatively

petty chieftains who fought each for his own hand in the 15th and 16th

centuries were incapable of accomplishing anything. In fact, the task of

centralizing the administrative power, and thus restoring peace and

order to the distracted empire, seemed, at the middle of the 16th

century, a task beyond achievement by human capacity.

Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu.

But if ever events create the men to deal with them, such was the case

in the second half of that century. Three of the greatest captains and

statesmen in Japanese history appeared upon the stage simultaneously,

and moreover worked in union, an event altogether inconsistent with the

nature of the age. They were Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi (the _taiko_) and

Tokugawa Iyeyasu. Nobunaga belonged to the Taira family and was

originally ruler of a small fief in the province of Owari. Iyeyasu, a

sub-feudatory of Nobunaga's enemy, the powerful daimyo[2] of Mikawa and

two other provinces, was a scion of the Minamoto and therefore eligible

for the shogunate. Hideyoshi was a peasant's son, equally lacking in

patrons and in personal attractions. No chance seemed more remote than

that such men, above all Hideyoshi, could possibly rise to supreme

power. On the other hand, one outcome of the commotion with which the

country had seethed for more than four centuries was to give special

effect to the principle of natural selection. The fittest alone

surviving, the qualities that made for fitness came to take precedence

of rank or station, and those qualities were prowess in the battlefield

and wisdom in the statesman's closet. "Any plebeian that would prove

himself a first-class fighting man was willingly received into the armed

_comitatus_ which every feudal potentate was eager to attach to himself

and his flag." It was thus that Hideyoshi was originally enrolled in the

ranks of Nobunaga's retainers.

Nobunaga, succeeding to his small fief in Owari in 1542, added to it six

whole provinces within 25 years of continuous endeavour. Being finally

invited by the emperor to undertake the pacification of the country, and

appealed to by Yoshiaki, the last of the Ashikaga chiefs, to secure for

him the shogunate, he marched into Kioto at the head of a powerful army

(1568), and, having accomplished the latter purpose, was preparing to

complete the former when he fell under the sword of a traitor.

Throughout his brilliant career he had the invaluable assistance of

Hideyoshi, who would have attained immortal fame on any stage in any

era. Hideyoshi entered Nobunaga's service as a groom and ended by

administering the whole empire. When he accompanied Nobunaga to Kioto

in obedience to the invitation of the mikado, Okimachi, order and

tranquillity were quickly restored in the capital and its vicinity. But

to extend this blessing to the whole country, four powerful daimyos as

well as the militant monks had still to be dealt with. The monks had

from the outset sheltered and succoured Nobunaga's enemies, and one

great prelate, Kenryo, hierarch of the Monto sect, whose headquarters

were at Osaka, was believed to aspire to the throne itself. In 1571

Nobunaga attacked and gave to the flames the celebrated monastery of

Hiyei-zan, established nearly eight centuries previously; and in 1580 he

would have similarly served the splendid temple Hongwan-ji in Osaka, had

not the mikado sought and obtained grace for it. The task then remained

of subduing four powerful daimyos, three in the south and one in the

north-east, who continued to follow the bent of their own warlike

ambitions without paying the least attention to either sovereign or

shogun. The task was commenced by sending an army under Hideyoshi

against Mori of Choshu, whose fief lay on the northern shore of the

Shimonoseki strait. This proved to be the last enterprise planned by

Nobunaga. On a morning in June 1582 one of the corps intended to

reinforce Hideyoshi's army marched out of Kameyama under the command of

Akechi Mitsuhide, who either harboured a personal grudge against

Nobunaga or was swayed by blind ambition. Mitsuhide suddenly changed the

route of his troops, led them to Kioto, and attacked the temple Honno-ji

where Nobunaga was sojourning all unsuspicious of treachery. Rescue and

resistance being alike hopeless, the great soldier committed suicide.

Thirteen days later, Hideyoshi, having concluded peace with Mori of

Choshu, fell upon Mitsuhide's forces and shattered them, Mitsuhide

himself being killed by a peasant as he fled from the field.

Hideyoshi.

Nobunaga's removal at once made Hideyoshi the most conspicuous figure in

the empire, the only man with any claim to dispute that title being

Tokugawa Iyeyasu. These two had hitherto worked in concert. But the

question of the succession to Nobunaga's estates threw the country once

more into tumult. He left two grown-up sons and a baby grandson, whose

father, Nobunaga's first-born, had perished in the holocaust at

Honno-ji. Hideyoshi, not unmindful, it may be assumed, of the privileges

of a guardian, espoused the cause of the infant, and wrested from

Nobunaga's three other great captains a reluctant endorsement of his

choice. Nobutaka, third son of Nobunaga, at once drew the sword, which

he presently had to turn against his own person; two years later (1584),

his elder brother, Nobuo, took the field under the aegis of Tokugawa

Iyeyasu. Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu, now pitted against each other for the

first time, were found to be of equal prowess, and being too wise to

prolong a useless war, they reverted to their old alliance, subsequently

confirming it by a family union, the son of Iyeyasu being adopted by

Hideyoshi and the latter's daughter being given in marriage to Iyeyasu.

Hideyoshi had now been invested by the mikado with the post of regent,

and his position in the capital was omnipotent. He organized in Kioto a

magnificent pageant, in which the principal figures were himself,

Iyeyasu, Nobuo and twenty-seven daimyos. The emperor was present.

Hideyoshi sat on the right of the throne, and all the nobles did

obeisance to the sovereign. Prior to this event Hideyoshi had conducted

against the still defiant daimyos of Kiushiu, especially Shimazu of

Satsuma, the greatest army ever massed by any Japanese general, and had

reduced the island of the nine provinces, not by weight of armament

only, but also by a signal exercise of the wise clemency which

distinguished him from all the statesmen of his era.

The whole of Japan was now under Hideyoshi's sway except the fiefs in

the extreme north and those in the region known as the Kwanto, namely,

the eight provinces forming the eastern elbow of the main island. Seven

of these provinces were virtually under the sway of Hojo Ujimasa, fourth

representative of a family established in 1476 by a brilliant adventurer

of Ise, not related in any way to the great but then extinct house of

Kamakura Hojos. The daimyos in the north were comparatively powerless to

resist Hideyoshi, but to reach them the Kwanto had to be reduced, and

not only was its chief, Ujimasa, a formidable foe, but also the

topographical features of the district represented fortifications of

immense strength. After various unsuccessful overtures, having for their

purpose to induce Ujimasa to visit the capital and pay homage to the

emperor, Hideyoshi marched from Kioto in the spring of 1590 at the head

of 170,000 men, his colleagues Nobuo and Iyeyasu having under their

orders 80,000 more. The campaign ended as did all Hideyoshi's

enterprises, except that he treated his vanquished enemies with unusual

severity. During the three months spent investing Odawara, the northern

daimyos surrendered, and thus the autumn of 1590 saw Hideyoshi master of

Japan from end to end, and saw Tokugawa Iyeyasu established at Yedo as

recognized ruler of the eight provinces of the Kwanto. These two facts

should be bracketed together, because Japan's emergence from the deep

gloom of long-continued civil strife was due not more to the brilliant

qualities of Hideyoshi and Iyeyasu individually than to the fortunate

synchronism of their careers, so that the one was able to carry the

other's work to completion and permanence. The last eight years of

Hideyoshi's life--he died in 1598--were chiefly remarkable for his

attempt to invade China through Korea, and for his attitude towards

Christianity (see § VIII.: FOREIGN INTERCOURSE).

_The Tokugawa Era._--When Hideyoshi died he left a son, Hideyori, then

only six years of age, and the problem of this child's future had

naturally caused supreme solicitude to the peasant statesman. He finally

entrusted the care of the boy and the management of state affairs to

five regents, five ministers, and three intermediary councillors. But he

placed chief reliance upon Iyeyasu, whom he appointed president of the

board of regents. Among the latter was one, Ishida Mitsunari, who to

insatiable ambition added an extraordinary faculty for intrigue and

great personal magnetism. These qualities he utilized with such success

that the dissensions among the daimyos, which had been temporarily

composed by Hideyoshi, broke out again, and the year 1600 saw Japan

divided into two camps, one composed of Tokugawa Iyeyasu and his allies,

the other of Ishida Mitsunari and his partisans.

Iyeyasu.

The situation of Iyeyasu was eminently perilous. From his position in

the east of the country, he found himself menaced by two powerful

enemies on the north and on the south, respectively, the former barely

contained by a greatly weaker force of his friends, and the latter

moving up in seemingly overwhelming strength from Kioto. He decided to

hurl himself upon the southern army without awaiting the result of the

conflict in the north. The encounter took place at Sekigahara in the

province of Mino on the 21st of October 1600. The army of Iyeyasu had to

move to the attack in such a manner that its left flank and its left

rear were threatened by divisions of the enemy posted on commanding

eminences. But with the leaders of these divisions Iyeyasu had come to

an understanding by which they could be trusted to abide so long as

victory did not declare against him. Such incidents were naturally

common in an era when every man fought for his own hand. The southerners

suffered a crushing defeat. The survivors fled pell-mell to Osaka, where

in a colossal fortress, built by Hideyoshi, his son, Hideyori, and the

latter's mother, Yodo, were sheltered behind ramparts held by 80,000

men. Hideyori's cause had been openly put forward by Ishida Mitsunari

and his partisans, but Iyeyasu made no immediate attempt to visit the

sin upon the head of his deceased benefactor's child. On the contrary,

he sent word to the lady Yodo and her little boy that he absolved them

of all complicity. The battle of Sekigahara is commonly spoken of as

having terminated the civil war which had devastated Japan, with brief

intervals, from the latter half of the 12th century to the beginning of

the 17th. That is incorrect in view of the fact that Sekigahara was

followed by other fighting, especially by the terrible conflict at Osaka

in 1615 when Yodo and her son perished. But Sekigahara's importance

cannot be over-rated. For had Iyeyasu been finally crushed there, the

wave of internecine strife must have rolled again over the empire until

providence provided another Hideyoshi and another Iyeyasu to stem it.

Sekigahara, therefore, may be truly described as a turning-point in

Japan's career and as one of the decisive battles of the world. As for

the fact that the Tokugawa leader did not at once proceed to extremities

in the case of the boy Hideyori, though the events of the Sekigahara

campaign had made it quite plain that such a course would ultimately be

inevitable, we have to remember that only two years had elapsed since

Hideyoshi was laid in his grave. His memory was still green and the

glory of his achievements still enveloped his family. Iyeyasu foresaw

that to carry the tragedy to its bitter end at once must have forced

into Hideyori's camp many puissant daimyos whose sense of allegiance

would grow less cogent with the lapse of time. When he did lay siege to

the Osaka castle in 1615, the power of the Tokugawa was well-nigh

shattered against its ramparts; had not the onset been aided by

treachery, the stronghold would probably have proved impregnable.

But signal as were the triumphs of the Tokugawa chieftain in the field,

what distinguishes him from all his predecessors is the ability he

displayed in consolidating his conquests. The immense estates that fell

into his hands he parcelled out in such a manner that all important

strategical positions were held by daimyos whose fidelity could be

confidently trusted, and every feudatory of doubtful loyalty found his

fief within touch of a Tokugawa partisan. This arrangement, supplemented

by a system which required all the great daimyos to have mansions in the

shogun's capital. Yedo, to keep their families there always and to

reside there themselves in alternate years, proved so potent a check to

disaffection that from 1615, when the castle of Osaka fell, until 1864,

when the Choshu ronin attacked Kioto, Japan remained entirely free from

civil war.