THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)
THE FIFTEENTH SOVEREIGN, OJIN (A.D. 270-310)
The fifteenth Sovereign, Ojin, came to the throne at the age of
seventy, according to the Chronicles, and occupied it for forty
years. Like a majority of the sovereigns in that epoch he had many
consorts and many children--three of the former (including two
younger sisters of the Emperor) and twenty of the latter. Comparison
with Korean history goes to indicate that the reign is antedated by
just 120 years, or two of the sexagenary cycles, but of course such a
correction cannot be applied to every incident of the era.
MARITIME AFFAIRS
One of the interesting features of Ojin's reign is that maritime
affairs receive notice for the first time. It is stated that the
fishermen of various places raised a commotion, refused to obey the
Imperial commands, and were not quieted until a noble, Ohama, was
sent to deal with them. Nothing is stated as to the cause of this
complication, but it is doubtless connected with requisitions of fish
for the Court, and probably the fishing folk of Japan had already
developed the fine physique and stalwart disposition that distinguish
their modern representatives. Two years later, instructions were
issued that hereditary corporations (be) of fishermen should be
established in the provinces, and, shortly afterwards, the duty of
constructing a boat one hundred feet in length was imposed upon the
people of Izu, a peninsular province so remote from Yamato that its
choice for such a purpose is difficult to explain. There was no
question of recompensing the builders of this boat: the product of
their labour was regarded as "tribute."
Twenty-six years later the Karano, as this vessel was called, having
become unserviceable, the Emperor ordered a new Karano to be built,
so as to perpetuate her name. A curious procedure is then recorded,
illustrating the arbitrary methods of government in those days. The
timbers of the superannuated ship were used as fuel for roasting
salt, five hundred baskets of which were sent throughout the maritime
provinces, with orders that by each body of recipients a ship should
be constructed. Five hundred Karanos thus came into existence, and
there was assembled at Hyogo such a fleet as had never previously
been seen in Japanese waters. A number of these new vessels were
destroyed almost immediately by a conflagration which broke out in
the lodgings of Korean envoys from Sinra (Shiragi), and the envoys
being held responsible, their sovereign hastened to send a body of
skilled shipmakers by way of atonement, who were thereafter organized
into a hereditary guild of marine architects, and we thus learn
incidentally that the Koreans had already developed the shipbuilding
skill destined to save their country in later ages.
IDEALISM OF THE THIRD CENTURY
In connexion with the Karano incident, Japanese historians record a
tale which materially helps our appreciation of the men of that
remote age. A portion of the Karano's timber having emerged unscathed
from the salt-pans, its indestructibility seemed curious enough to
warrant special treatment. It was accordingly made into a lute
(koto),* and it justified that use by developing "a ringing note that
could be heard from afar off." The Emperor composed a song on the
subject:
"The ship Karano
"Was burned for salt:
"Of the remainder
"A koto was made.
"When it is placed on
"One hears the saya-saya
"Of the summer trees,
"Brushing against, as they stand,
"The rocks of the mid-harbour,
"The harbour of Yura." [Aston.]
*The Japanese lute, otherwise called the Azuma koto, was an
instrument five or six feet long and having six strings. History
first alludes to it in the reign of Jingo, and such as it was then,
such it has remained until to-day.
LAW, INDUSTRY, LOYALTY
Five facts are already deducible from the annals of this epoch: the
first, that there was no written law, unless the prohibitions in the
Rituals may be so regarded; the second, that there was no form of
judicial trial, unless ordeal or torture may be so regarded; the
third, that the death penalty might be inflicted on purely ex-parte
evidence; the fourth, that a man's whole family had to suffer the
penalty of his crimes, and the fifth, that already in those remote
times the code of splendid loyalty which has distinguished the
Japanese race through all ages had begun to find disciples.
An incident of Ojin's reign illustrates all these things. Takenouchi,
the sukune (noble) who had served Ojin's mother so ably, and who had
saved Ojin's life in the latter's childhood, was despatched to
Tsukushi (Kyushu) on State business. During his absence his younger
brother accused him of designs upon the Emperor. At once, without
further inquiry, Ojin sent men to kill the illustrious minister. But
Maneko, suzerain (atae) of Iki, who bore a strong resemblance to
Takenouchi, personified him, and committing suicide, deceived the
soldiers who would have taken the sukune's life, so that the latter
was enabled to return to Yamato. Arriving at Court, he protested his
innocence and the ordeal of boiling water was employed. It took place
on the bank of the Shiki River. Takenouchi proving victorious; his
brother with all his family were condemned to become tomo-be of the
suzerain of Kii.
THE GRACE OF LIFE
Side by side with these primitive conditions stands a romantic story
of Ojin's self-denial in ceding to his son, Osazaki, a beautiful girl
whom the sovereign has destined to be his own consort. Discovering
that the prince loved her, Ojin invited him to a banquet in the
palace, and, summoning the girl, made known by the aid of poetry his
intention of surrendering her to his son, who, in turn, expressed his
gratitude in verse. It is true that the character of this act of
renunciation is marred when we observe that Ojin was eighty years old
at the time; nevertheless the graces of life were evidently not
wanting in old-time Japan, nor did her historians deem them unworthy
of prominent place in their pages. If at one moment they tell us of
slanders and cruelty, at another they describe how a favourite
consort of Ojin, gazing with him at a fair landscape from a high
tower, was moved to tears by the memory of her parents whom she had
not seen for years, and how the Emperor, sympathizing with her filial
affection, made provision for her return home and took leave of her
in verse:
"Thou Island of Awaji
"With thy double ranges;
"Thou Island of Azuki
"With thy double ranges
"Ye good islands,
"Ye have seen face to face
"My spouse of Kibi."
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
The most important feature of the Ojin era was the intercourse then
inaugurated with China. It may be that after the establishment of the
Yamato race in Japan, emigrants from the neighbouring continent
settled, from early times, in islands so favoured by nature. If so,
they probably belonged to the lowest orders, for it was not until the
third and fourth centuries that men of erudition and skilled artisans
began to arrive. Modern Japanese historians seem disposed to
attribute this movement to the benign administration of the Emperor
Ojin and to the repute thus earned by Japan abroad. Without
altogether questioning that theory, it may be pointed out that much
probably depended on the conditions existing in China herself. Liu
Fang, founder of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.), inaugurated the system
of competitive examinations for civil appointments, and his
successors, Wen-Ti, Wu-Ti, and Kwang-wu, "developed literature,
commerce, arts, and good government to a degree unknown before
anywhere in Asia." It was Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) who conquered Korea,
and unquestionably the Koreans then received many object lessons in
civilization. The Han dynasty fell in A.D. 190, and there ensued one
of the most troubled periods of Chinese history. Many fugitives from
the evils of that epoch probably made their way to Korea and even to
Japan. Then followed the after-Han dynasty (A.D. 211-265) when China
was divided into three principalities; one of which, since it ruled
the littoral regions directly opposite to Japan, represented China in
Japanese eyes, and its name, Wu, came to be synonymous with China in
Japanese years.
It was, however, in the days of the Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-317) and
in those of the Eastern Tsin (A.D. 317-420) that under the pressure
of the Hun inroads and of domestic commotions, numbers of emigrants
found their way from China to Korea and thence to Japan. The Eastern
Tsin occupied virtually the same regions as those held by the Wu
dynasty: they, too, had their capital at Nanking, having moved
thither from Loh-yang, and thus the name Wu was perpetuated for the
Japanese. In the year A.D. 283, according to Japanese chronology,
Koreans and Chinese skilled in useful arts began to immigrate to
Japan. The first to come was a girl called Maketsu. She is said to
have been sent by the monarch of Kudara, the region corresponding to
the metropolitan province of modern Korea. It may be inferred that
she was Chinese, but as to her nationality history is silent. She
settled permanently in Japan, and her descendants were known as the
kinu-nui (silk-clothiers) of Kume in Yamato. In the same year (A.D.
283), Yuzu (called Yutsuki by some authorities), a Chinese Imperial
prince, came from Korea and memorialized the Yamato Throne in the
sense that he was a descendant of the first Tsin sovereign and that,
having migrated to Korea at the head of the inhabitants of 120
districts, he had desired to conduct them to Japan, but was unable to
accomplish his purpose owing to obstruction offered by the people of
Sinra (Shiragi). Ojin sent two embassies--the second accompanied by
troops--to procure the release of these people, and in A.D. 285 they
reached Japan, where they received a hearty welcome, and for the sake
of their skill in sericulture and silk weaving, they were honoured by
organization into an uji--Hata-uji (hata in modern Japanese signifies
"loom," but in ancient days it designated silk fabrics of all kinds).
An idea of the dimensions of this Chinese addition to the population
of Japan is furnished by the fact that, 175 years later, the Hata-uji
having been dispersed and reduced to ninety-two groups, steps were
taken to reassemble and reorganize them, with the result that 18,670
persons were brought together. Again, in A.D. 289, a sometime subject
of the after-Han dynasty, accompanied by his son, emigrated to Japan.
The names of these Chinese are given as Achi and Tsuka, and the
former is described as a great-grandson of the Emperor Ling of the
after-Han dynasty, who reigned from A.D. 168 to 190. Like Yuzu he had
escaped to Korea during the troublous time at the close of the Han
sway, and, like Yuzu, he had been followed to the peninsula by a
large body of Chinese, who, at his request, were subsequently
escorted by Japanese envoys to Japan. These immigrants also were
allowed to assume the status of an uji, and in the fifth century the
title of Aya no atae (suzerain of Aya) was given to Achi's
descendants in consideration of the skill of their followers in
designing and manufacturing figured fabrics (for which the general
term was aya).
When Achi had resided seventeen years in Japan, he and his son were
sent to Wu (China) for the purpose of engaging women versed in making
dress materials. The title of omi (chief ambassador) seems to have
been then conferred on the two men, as envoys sent abroad were
habitually so designated. They did not attempt to go by sea. The
state of navigation was still such that ocean-going voyages were not
seriously thought of. Achi and his son proceeded in the first
instance to Koma (the modern Pyong-yang) and there obtained guides
for the overland journey round the shore of the Gulf of Pechili. They
are said to have made their way to Loh-yang where the Tsin sovereigns
then had their capital (A.D. 306). Four women were given to them,
whom they carried back to Japan, there to become the ancestresses of
an uji known as Kure no kinu-nui and Kaya no kinu-nui (clothiers of
Kure and of Kaya), appellations which imply Korean origin, but were
probably suggested by the fact that Korea had been the last
continental station on their route. The journey to and from Loh-yang
occupied four years. This page of history shows not only the
beginning of Japan's useful intercourse with foreign countries, but
also her readiness to learn what they had to teach and her liberal
treatment of alien settlers.
THE ART OF WRITING
It is not infrequently stated that a knowledge of Chinese ideographs
was acquired by the Japanese for the first time during the reign of
Ojin. The basis of this belief are that, in A.D. 284, according to
the Japanese chronology--a date to which must be added two sexagenary
cycles, bringing it to A.D. 404--the King of Kudara sent two fine
horses to the Yamato sovereign, and the man who accompanied them,
Atogi by name, showed himself a competent reader of the Chinese
classics and was appointed tutor to the Prince Imperial. By Atogi's
advice a still abler scholar, Wani (Wang-in), was subsequently
invited from Kudara to take Atogi's place, and it is added that the
latter received the title of fumi-bito (scribe), which he transmitted
to his descendants in Japan. But close scrutiny does not support the
inference that Chinese script had remained unknown to Japan until the
above incidents. What is proved is merely that the Chinese classics
then for the first time became an open book in Japan.
As for the ideographs themselves, they must have been long familiar,
though doubtless to a very limited circle. Chinese history affords
conclusive evidence. Thus, in the records of the later Han (A.D.
25-220) we read that from the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew
Korea, the Japanese of thirty-two provinces communicated with the
Chinese authorities in the peninsula by means of a postal service.
The Wei annals (A.D. 220-265) state that in A.D. 238, the Chinese
sovereign sent a written reply to a communication from the "Queen of
Japan"--Jingo was then on the throne. In the same year, the Japanese
Court addressed a written answer to a Chinese rescript forwarded to
Yamato by the governor of Thepang--the modern Namwon in Chollado--and
in A.D. 247, a despatch was sent by the Chinese authorities
admonishing the Japanese to desist from internecine quarrels. These
references indicate that the use of the ideographs was known in Japan
long before the reign of Ojin, whether we take the Japanese or the
corrected date for the latter. It will probably be just to assume,
however, that the study of the ideographs had scarcely any vogue in
Japan until the coming of Atogi and Wani, nor does it appear to have
attracted much attention outside Court circles even subsequently to
that date, for the records show that, in the reign of the Emperor
Bidatsu (A.D. 572-585), a memorial sent by Korea to the Yamato Court
was illegible to all the officials except one man, by name
Wang-sin-i, who seems to have been a descendant of the Paikche
emigrant, Wan-i.
Buddhism, introduced into Japan in A.D. 552, doubtless supplied the
chief incentive to the acquisition of knowledge. But had the Japanese
a script of their own at any period of their history? The two oldest
manuscripts which contain a reference to this subject are the
Kogo-shui, compiled by Hironari in A.D. 808, and a memorial (kammori)
presented to the Throne in A.D. 901 by Miyoshi Kiyotsura. Both
explicitly state that in remote antiquity there were no letters, and
that all events or discourses had to be transmitted orally. Not until
the thirteenth century does the theory of a purely Japanese script
seem to have been conceived, and its author* had no basis for the
hypothesis other than the idea that, as divination was practised in
the age of the Kami, letters of some kind must have been in use.
Since then the matter has been much discussed. Caves used in ancient
times as habitations or sepulchres and old shrines occasionally offer
evidence in the form of symbols which, since they bear some
resemblance to the letters of the Korean alphabet (onmuri), have been
imagined to be at once the origin of the latter and the script of the
Kami-no-yo (Age of the Kami). But such fancies are no longer
seriously entertained. It is agreed that the so-called "letters" are
nothing more than copies of marks produced by the action of fire upon
bones used in divination. The Japanese cleverly adapted the Chinese
ideographs to syllabic purposes, but they never devised a script of
their own.
*Kanekata, who wrote the Shaku Nihongi in the era 1264--1274.
ETHICAL EFFECTS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE LITERATURE
A generally accepted belief is that the study of the Chinese classics
exercised a marked ethical influence upon the Japanese nation. That
is a conclusion which may be profitably contrasted with the views of
Japan's most distinguished historians. Mr. Abe Kozo says:
"Acquaintance with the Chinese classics may be supposed to have
produced a considerable moral effect on the people of Japan. Nothing
of the kind seems to have been the case. The practical civilization
of China was accepted, but not her ethical code. For any palpable
moral influence the arrival of Buddhism had to be awaited. Already
the principles of loyalty and obedience, propriety, and righteousness
were recognized in Japan though not embodied in any written code."
Dr. Ariga writes: "Our countrymen did not acquire anything specially
new in the way of moral tenets. They must have been surprised to find
that in China men did not respect the occupants of the throne. A
subject might murder his sovereign and succeed him without incurring
the odium of the people." Rai Sanyo says: "Moral principles are like
the sun and the moon; they cannot be monopolized by any one country.
In every land there are parents and children, rulers and ruled,
husbands and wives. Where these relations exist, there also filial
piety and affection, loyalty and righteousness may naturally be
found. In our country we lack the precise terminology of the
classics, but it does not follow that we lack the principles
expressed. What the Japanese acquired from the classics was the
method of formulating the thought, not the thought itself."
THE SIXTEENTH SOVEREIGN, NINTOKU (A.D. 313-399)
This sovereign is represented by the Chronicles as having reigned
eighty-six years, and by the Records as having died at the age of
eighty-three. The same Chronicles make him the lover of a girl whom
his father, also her lover, generously ceded to him. This event
happened in A.D. 282. Assuming that Nintoku was then sixteen, he
cannot have been less than 133 at the time of his death. It is thus
seen that the chronology of this period, also, is untrustworthy.
Nintoku's reign is remembered chiefly on account of the strange
circumstances in which he came to the throne, his benevolent charity,
and the slights he suffered at the hands of a jealous consort. His
father, Ojin, by an exercise of caprice not uncommon on the part of
Japan's ancient sovereigns, had nominated a younger son,
Waka-iratsuko, to be his heir. But this prince showed invincible
reluctance to assume the sceptre after Ojin's death. He asserted
himself stoutly by killing one of his elder brothers who conspired
against him, though he resolutely declined to take precedence of the
other brother, and the latter, proving equally diffident, the throne
remained unoccupied for three years when Waka-iratsuko solved the
problem by committing suicide.
Such are the simplest outlines of the story. But its details, when
filled in by critical Japanese historians of later ages, suggest a
different impression. When Ojin died his eldest two sons were living
respectively in Naniwa (Osaka) and Yamato, and the Crown Prince,
Waka-iratsuko, was at Uji. They were thus excellently situated for
setting up independent claims. From the time of Nintoku's birth, the
prime minister, head of the great Takenouchi family, had taken a
special interest in the child, and when the lad grew up he married
this Takenouchi's granddaughter, who became the mother of three
Emperors. Presently the representatives of all branches of the
Takenouchi family came into possession of influential positions at
Court, among others that of o-omi, so that in this reign were laid
the foundations of the controlling power subsequently vested in the
hands of the Heguri, Katsuragi, and Soga houses. In short, this epoch
saw the beginning of a state of affairs destined to leave its mark
permanently on Japanese history, the relegation of the sovereign to
the place of a fainéant and the usurpation of the administrative
authority by a group of great nobles.
Nintoku had the active support of the Takenouchi magnates, and
although the Crown Prince may have desired to assert the title
conferred on him by his father, he found himself helpless in the face
of obstructions offered by the prime minister and his numerous
partisans. These suffered him to deal effectively with that one of
his elder brothers who did not find a place in their ambitious
designs, but they created for Waka-iratsuko a situation so
intolerable that suicide became his only resource. Nintoku's first
act on ascending the throne explains the ideographs chosen for his
posthumous name by the authors of the Chronicles, since nin signifies
"benevolence" and toku, "virtue." He made Naniwa (Osaka) his capital,
but instead of levying taxes and requisitioning forced labour to
build his palace of Takatsu, he remitted all such burdens for three
years on observing from a tower that no smoke ascended from the roofs
of the houses and construing this to indicate a state of poverty.
During those three years the palace fell into a condition of
practical ruin, and tradition describes its inmates as being
compelled to move from room to room to avoid the leaking rain.*
*Doubts have been thrown on the reality of this incident because a
poem, attributed to Nintoku on the occasion, is couched in obviously
anachronistic language. But the poem does not appear in either the
Records or the Chronicles: it was evidently an invention of later
ages.
Under Nintoku's sway riparian works and irrigation improvements took
place on a large scale, and thus the eminent historian, Rai Sanyo,
may not be without warrant for attributing to this ruler the
sentiment quoted in the Chronicles: "A sovereign lives for his
people. Their prosperity is his enrichment; their poverty, his loss."
Yet it is in connexion with Nintoku's repairs of the Manda river-bank
that we find the first mention of a heinous custom occasionally
practised in subsequent ages--the custom of sacrificing human life to
expedite the progress or secure the success of some public work.
At the same time, that habits indicating a higher civilization had
already begun to gain ground is proved by an incident which occurred
to one of the Imperial princes during a hunting expedition. Looking
down over a moor from a mountain, he observed a pit, and, on inquiry,
was informed by the local headman that it was an "ice-pit." The
prince, asking how the ice was stored and for what it was used,
received this answer: "The ground is excavated to a depth of over ten
feet. The top is then covered with a roof of thatch. A thick layer of
reed-grass is then spread, upon which the ice is laid. The months of
summer have passed and yet it is not melted. As to its use--when the
hot months come it is placed in water or sake and thus used."
[Aston's Nihongi.] Thenceforth the custom of storing ice was adopted
at the Court. It was in Nintoku's era that the pastime of hawking,
afterward widely practised, became known for the first time in Japan.
Korea was the place of origin, and it is recorded that the falcon had
a soft leather strap fastened to one leg and a small bell to the
tail. Pheasants were the quarry of the first hawk flown on the moor
of Mozu.
Light is also thrown in Nintoku's annals on the method of
boatbuilding practised by the Japanese in the fourth century. They
used dug-outs. The provincial governor* of Totomi is represented as
reporting that a huge tree had floated down the river Oi and had
stopped at a bend. It was a single stem forked at one end, and the
suzerain of Yamato was ordered to make a boat of it. The craft was
then brought round by sea to Naniwa, "where it was enrolled among the
Imperial vessels." Evidently from the days of Ojin and the Karano a
fleet formed part of the Imperial possessions. This two-forked boat
figures in the reign of Nintoku's successor, Richu, when the latter
and his concubine went on board and feasted separately, each in one
fork.
*This term, "provincial governor," appears now for the first time
written with the ideographs "kokushi." Hitherto it has been written
"kuni-no-miyatsuko." Much is heard of the koushi in later times. They
are the embryo of the daimyo, the central figures of military
feudalism.
THE FAMILY OF TAKENOUCHI-NO-SUKUNE
For the better understanding of Japanese history at this stage, a
word must be said about a family of nobles (sukune) who, from the
days of Nintoku, exercised potent sway in the councils of State.
It will have been observed that, in the annals of the Emperor
Keiko's reign, prominence is given to an official designated
Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who thereafter seems to have served sovereign
after sovereign until his death in the year 368, when he must have
been from two hundred to three hundred years old. This chronological
difficulty has provoked much scepticism. Dr. Kume, an eminent
Japanese historian, explains, however, that Takenouchi was the name
not of a person but of a family, and that it was borne by different
scions in succeeding reigns. The first was a grandson of the Emperor
Kogen (B.C. 214-158), and the representatives of the family in
Nintoku's era had seven sons, all possessing the title sukune. They
were Hata no Yashiro, Koze no Ogara, Soga no Ishikawa, Heguri no
Tsuku, Ki no Tsunu, Katsuragi no Sotsu, and Wakugo.
From these were descended the five uji of Koze, Soga, Heguri, Ki, and
Katsuragi. Although its founder was an Emperor's grandson and
therefore entitled to be called "Imperial Prince" (O), the family
connexion with the Throne naturally became more remote as time
passed, and from the reign of Ojin we find its members classed among
subjects. Nevertheless, the Empress Iwa, whose jealousy harrassed
Nintoku so greatly, was a daughter of Katsuragi no Sotsu, and, as
with the sole exception of the Emperor Shomu, every occupant of the
throne had taken for his Empress a lady of Imperial blood, it may be
assumed that the relationship between the Imperial and the Takenouchi
families was recognized at that time. The roles which the five uji
mentioned above acted in subsequent history deserve to be studied,
and will therefore be briefly set down here.
THE KOZE-UJI
This uji had for founder Koze no Ogara. The representative of the
fourth generation, Koze no Ohito, held the post of o-omi during the
reign of the Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), and his great-grandson
was minister of the Left under Kotoku (A.D. 545-654). Thereafter, the
heads of the uji occupied prominent positions under successive
sovereigns.
THE SOGA-UJI
Soga no Ishikawa founded this uji. His son, Machi, shared the
administrative power with Heguri no Tsuku in the reign of Richu (A.D.
400-405), and Machi's great-grandson, Iname, immortalized himself by
promoting the introduction of Buddhism in the reign of Kimmei (A.D.
540-571). Iname's son, Umako, and the latter's son, Yemishi, will be
much heard of hereafter. No family, indeed, affected the course of
Japanese history in early days more than did the Soga-uji.
THE HEGURI-UJI
During the reign of the Emperor Richu (A.D. 400-405), Heguri no
Tsuku, founder of this uji, shared in the administration with Soga no
Machi. His son, Heguri no Matori, was minister under Yuryaku (A.D.
457-459), and the fate which he and his son, Shibi, brought upon
their family is one of the salient incidents of Japanese history.
THE KI-UJI
The representatives of this uji, from the days of its founder, Ki
no Tsunu, took a prominent share in the empire's foreign affairs,
but served also in the capacity of provincial governor and
commander-in-chief.
THE KATSURAGI-UJI
Nintoku's Empress, Iwa, was a daughter of the ancestor of this uji,
Katsuragi no Sotsu, and the latter's great-granddaughter, Hae, was
the mother of two sovereigns, Kenso (A.D. 485-487) and Ninken (A.D.
488-498).
ENGRAVING: TOBACCO PIPE AND POUCH
ENGRAVING: HINOMI YAGURA (FIRE WATCH TOWER)