THE HEIAN EPOCH
THE FIFTIETH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KWAMMU (A.D. 782-805)
JAPANESE history divides itself readily into epochs, and among them
not the least sharply defined is the period of 398 years separating
the transfer of the Imperial palace from Nara to Kyoto (794) and the
establishment of an administrative capital at Kamakura (1192). It is
called the Heian epoch, the term "Heian-jo" (Castle of Peace) having
been given to Kyoto soon after that city became the residence of the
Mikado. The first ruler in the epoch was Kwammu. This monarch, as
already shown, was specially selected by his father, Konin, at the
instance of Fujiwara Momokawa, who observed in the young prince
qualities essential to a ruler of men. Whether Kwammu's career as
Emperor reached the full standard of his promise as prince,
historians are not agreed.
Konin receives a larger meed of praise. His reforms of local abuses
showed at once courage and zeal But he did not reach the root of the
evil, nor did his son Kwammu, though in the matter of intention and
ardour there was nothing to choose between the two. The basic trouble
was arbitrary and unjust oppression of the lower classes by the
upper. These latter, probably educated in part by the be system,
which tended to reduce the worker with his hands to a position of
marked subservience, had learned to regard their own hereditary
privileges as practically unlimited, and to conclude that well nigh
any measure of forced labour was due to them from their inferiors.
Konin could not correct this conception, and neither could Kwammu.
Indeed, in the latter's case, the Throne was specially disqualified
as a source of remonstrance, for the sovereign himself had to make
extravagant demands upon the working classes on account of the
transfer of the capital from Nara to Kyoto. Thus, although Kwammu's
warnings and exhortations were earnest, and his dismissals and
degradations of provincial officials frequent, he failed to achieve
anything radical.
TRANSFER OF THE CAPITAL TO KYOTO
The reign of Kwammu is remarkable for two things: the conquest of the
eastern Yemishi by Tamuramaro and the transfer of the capital from
Nara to Kyoto. Nara is in the province of Yamato; Kyoto, in the
neighbouring province of Yamashiro,* and the two places lie twenty
miles apart as the crow flies. It has been stated that to change the
site of the capital on the accession of a sovereign was a common
custom in Japan prior to the eighth century. In those early days the
term "miyako," though used in the sense of "metropolis," bore chiefly
the meaning "Imperial residence," and to alter its locality did not
originally suggest a national effort. But when Kwammu ascended the
throne, Nara had been the capital during eight reigns, covering a
period of seventy-five years, and had grown into a great city, a
centre alike of religion and of trade. To transfer it involved a
correspondingly signal sacrifice. What was Kwammu's motive? Some have
conjectured a desire to shake off the priestly influences which
permeated the atmosphere of Nara; others, that he found the Yamato
city too small to satisfy his ambitious views or to suit the quickly
developing dimensions and prosperity of the nation. Probably both
explanations are correct. Looking back only a few years, a ruler of
Kwammu's sagacity must have appreciated that religious fanaticism, as
practised at Nara, threatened to overshadow even the Imperial Court,
and that the influence of the foreign creed tended to undermine the
Shinto cult, which constituted the main bulwark of the Throne.
*Previously to becoming the metropolitan province, Yamashiro was
written with ideographs signifying "behind the mountain" (yama no
ushiro), but these were afterwards changed to "mountain castle"
(yamashiro).
We shall presently see how this latter danger was averted at Kyoto,
and it certainly does not appear extravagant to credit Kwammu with
having promoted that result. At all events, he was not tempted by the
superior advantages of any other site in particular. In 784, when he
adopted the resolve to found a new capital, it was necessary to
determine the place by sending out a search party under his most
trusted minister, Fujiwara Tanetsugu. The choice of Tanetsugu fell,
not upon Kyoto, but upon Nagaoka in the same province. There was no
hesitation. The Emperor trusted Tanetsugu implicitly and appointed
him chief commissioner of the building, which was commenced at once,
a decree being issued that all taxes for the year should be paid at
Nagaoka where also forced labourers were required to assemble and
materials were collected. The Records state that the area of the site
for the new palace measured 152 acres, for which the owners received
compensation amounting to the equivalent of £2580 ($12,550); or an
average of £17 ($82) per acre. The number of people employed is put
at 314,000,* and the fund appropriated, at 680,000 sheaves of rice,
having a value of about £40,800 ($200,000) according to modern
prices.
*This does not mean that 314,000 persons were employed
simultaneously, but only that the number of workmen multiplied by the
number of days of work equalled 314,000.
The palace was never finished. While it was still uncompleted, the
Emperor took up his abode there, in the fall of 784, and efforts to
hasten the work were redoubled. But a shocking incident occurred. The
Crown Prince, Sagara, procured the elevation of a member of the Saeki
family to the high post of State councillor (sangi), and having been
impeached for this unprecedented act by Fujiwara Tanetsugu, was
deprived of his title to the throne. Shortly afterwards, the Emperor
repaired to Nara, and during the absence of the Court from Nagaoka,
Prince Sagara compassed the assassination of Tanetsugu. Kwammu
exacted stern vengeance for his favourite minister. He disgraced the
prince and sent him into exile in the island of Awaji, which place he
did not reach alive, as was perhaps designed.
ENGRAVING: COURTYARD OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE, AT KYOTO
These occurrences moved the Emperor so profoundly that Nagaoka became
intolerable to him. Gradually the work of building was abandoned,
and, in 792, a new site was selected by Wake no Kiyomaro at Uda in
the same province. So many attractions were claimed for this village
that failure to choose it originally becomes difficult to understand.
Imperial decrees eulogized its mountains and rivers, and people
recalled a prediction uttered 170 years previously by Prince Shotoku
that the place would ultimately be selected for the perpetual capital
of the empire. The Tang metropolis, Changan, was taken for model.
Commenced in April, 794, the new metropolis was finished in December,
805.
The city was laid out with mathematical exactness in the form of a
rectangle, nearly three and one-half miles long, from north to south,
and about three miles wide, from east to west. In each direction were
nine principal thoroughfares, those running east and west crossing
the north and south streets at right angles. The east and west
streets were numbered from 1 to 9, and, although the regularity of
structure and plan of the city has been altered by fire and other
causes in eleven hundred years, traces of this early system of
nomenclature are still found in the streets of Kyoto.* Running north
from the centre of the south side was a great avenue, two hundred and
eighty feet wide, which divided the city into two parts, the eastern,
called "the left metropolis" (later Tokyo, "eastern capital"), and
"the right metropolis" (or Saikyo, "western capital"),--the left, as
always in Japan, having precedence over the right, and the direction
being taken not from the southern entrance gate but from the Imperial
palace, to which this great avenue led and which was on the northern
limits of the city and, as the reader will see, at the very centre of
the north wall. Grouped around the palace were government buildings
of the different administrative departments and assembly and audience
halls.
*The Kyoto of today is only a remnant of the ancient city; it was
almost wholly destroyed by fire in the Onin war of 1467.
The main streets, which have already been mentioned as connecting the
gates in opposite walls, varied in width from 80 feet to 170 feet.
They divided the city into nine districts, all of the same area
except the ones immediately east of the palace. The subdivisions were
as formal and precise. Each of the nine districts contained four
divisions. Each division was made up of four streets. A street was
made up of four rows, each row containing eight "house-units." The
house-unit was 50 by 100 feet. The main streets in either direction
were crossed at regular intervals by lanes or minor streets, all
meeting at right angles.
The Imperial citadel in the north central part of the city was 4600
feet long (from north to south) and 3840 feet wide, and was
surrounded by a fence roofed with tiles and pierced with three gates
on either side. The palace was roofed with green tiles of Chinese
manufacture and a few private dwellings had roofs made of
slate-coloured tiles, but most of them were shingled. In the earlier
period, it is to be remembered, tiles were used almost exclusively
for temple roofs. The architecture of the new city was in general
very simple and unpretentious. The old canons of Shinto temple
architecture had some influence even in this city built on a Chinese
model. Whatever display or ornament there was, appeared not on the
exterior but in inner rooms, especially those giving on inner court
yards. That these resources were severely taxed, however, cannot be
doubted, especially when we remember that the campaign against the
Yemishi was simultaneously conducted. History relates that
three-fifths of the national revenues were appropriated for the
building.
INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA AND BUDDHIST PROPAGANDISM
The fact that the metropolis at Changan was taken for model in
building Kyoto prepares us to find that intercourse with the Middle
Kingdom was frequent and intimate. But although China under the Tang
dynasty in the ninth century presented many industrial, artistic, and
social features of an inspiring and attractive nature, her
administrative methods had begun to fall into disorder, which
discredited them in Japanese eyes. We find, therefore, that although
renowned religionists went from Japan during the reign of Kwammu and
familiarized themselves thoroughly with the Tang civilization, they
did not, on their return, attempt to popularize the political system
of China, but praised only her art, her literature, and certain forms
and conceptions of Buddhism which they found at Changan.
ENGRAVING: PRIEST SAICHO, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS DENGYO DAISHI
The most celebrated of these religionists were Saicho and
Kukai--immortalized under their posthumous names of Dengyo Daishi and
Kobo Daishi, respectively. The former went to Changan in the train of
the ambassador, Sugawara Kiyokimi, in 802, and the latter accompanied
Fujiwara Kuzunomaro, two years later. Saicho was specially sent to
China by his sovereign to study Buddhism, in order that, on his
return, he might become lord-abbot of a monastery which his Majesty
had caused to be built on Hie-no-yama--subsequently known as
Hiei-zan--a hill on the northeast of the new palace in Kyoto. A
Japanese superstition regarded the northeast as the "Demon's Gate,"
where a barrier must be erected against the ingress of evil
influences. Saicho also brought from China many religious books.
Down to that time the Buddhist doctrine preached in Japan had been of
a very dispiriting nature. It taught that salvation could not be
reached except by efforts continued through three immeasurable
periods of time. But Saicho acquired a new doctrine in China. From
the monastery of Tientai (Japanese, Tendai) he carried back to
Hiei-zan a creed founded on the "Lotus of the Good Law"--a creed that
salvation is at once attainable by a knowledge of the Buddha nature,
and that such knowledge may be acquired by meditation and wisdom.
That was the basic conception, but it underwent some modification at
Japanese hands. It became "a system of Japanese eclecticism, fitting
the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese sage to the
pre-existing foundations of earlier sects."* This is not the place to
discuss details of religious doctrine, but the introduction of the
Tendai belief has historical importance. In the first place, it
illustrates a fact which may be read between the lines of all
Japanese annals, namely, that the Japanese are never blind borrowers
from foreign systems: their habit is "to adapt what they borrow so as
to fit it to what they possess." In the second place, the Tendai
system became the parent of nearly all the great sects subsequently
born in Japan. In the third place, the Buddhas of Contemplation, by
whose aid the meditation of absolute truth is rendered possible,
suggested the idea that they had frequently been incarnated for the
welfare of mankind, and from that theory it was but a short step to
the conviction that "the ancient gods whom the Japanese worshipped
are but manifestations of these same mystical beings, and that the
Buddhist faith had come, not to destroy the native Shinto, but to
embody It into a higher and more universal system. From that moment
the triumph of Buddhism was secured."** It is thus seen that the
visit of Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) to China at the beginning of the
ninth century and the introduction of the Tendai creed into Japan
constitute landmarks in Japanese history.
*Developments of Japanese Buddhism, by the Rev. A. Lloyd. M. A.
**The doctrines that the Shinto deities were incarnations of the
Buddhas of Contemplation (Dhyani) had already been enunciated by
Gyogi but its general acceptance dates from the days of Dengyo
Daishi. The doctrine was called honchi-suishaku.
ENGRAVING: PRIEST KOKAI, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS KOBO DAISHI
KOBO DAISHI
Contemporary with and even greater in the eyes of his countrymen than
Dengyo Daishi, was Kobo Daishi (known as Kukai during his lifetime).
He, too, visited China as a student of Buddhism, especially to learn
the interpretation of a Sutra which had fallen into his hands in
Japan, and on his return he founded the system of the True Word
(Shingori), which has been practically identified with the Gnosticism
of early Christian days. Kobo Daishi is the most famous of all
Japanese Buddhist teachers; famous alike as a saint, as an artist,
and as a calligraphist. His influence on the intellectual history of
his country was marked, for he not only founded a religious system
which to this day has a multitude of disciples, but he is also said
to have invented, or at any rate to have materially improved, the
Japanese syllabary (hira-gana).
THE SUBSERVIENCE OF SHINTO
That the disciples of the Shinto cult so readily endorsed a doctrine
which relegated their creed to a subordinate place has suggested
various explanations, but the simplest is the most convincing,
namely, that Shinto possessed no intrinsic power to assert itself in
the presence of a religion like Buddhism. At no period has Shinto
produced a great propagandist. No Japanese sovereign ever thought of
exchanging the tumultuous life of the Throne for the quiet of a
Shinto shrine, nor did Shinto ever become a vehicle for the
transmission of useful knowledge.
ENGRAVING: OKUNO-IN (Kobo Daishi's shrine) AT MT. KOYASAN
With Buddhism, the record is very different. Many of its followers
were inspired by the prospect of using it as a stepping-stone to
preferment rather than as a route to Nirvana. Official posts being
practically monopolized by the aristocratic classes, those born in
lowlier families found little opportunity to win honour and
emoluments. But by embracing a religious career, a man might aspire
to become an abbot or even a tutor to a prince or sovereign. Thus,
learned and clever youths flocked to the portals of the priesthood,
and the Emperor Saga is said to have lamented that the Court nobility
possessed few great and able men, whereas the cloisters abounded in
them. On the other hand, it has been observed with much reason that
as troublers of the people the Buddhist priests were not far behind
the provincial governors. In fact, it fared with Buddhism as it
commonly fares with all human institutions--success begot abuses. The
example of Dokyo exercised a demoralizing influence. The tonsure
became a means of escaping official exactions in the shape of taxes
or forced labour, and the building of temples a device to acquire
property and wealth as well as to evade fiscal burdens. Sometimes the
Buddhist priests lent themselves to the deception of becoming nominal
owners of large estates in order to enable the real owners to escape
taxation. Buddhism in Japan ultimately became a great militant power,
ready at all times to appeal to force.
THE FIFTY-FIRST SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR HEIJO (A.D. 806-809)
Heijo, the fifty-first sovereign, was the eldest son of Kwammu. The
latter, warned by the distress that his own great expenditures on
account of the new capital had produced, and fully sensible of the
abuses practised by the provincial officials, urged upon the Crown
Prince the imperative necessity of retrenchment, and Heijo, on
ascending the throne, showed much resolution in discharging
superfluous officials, curtailing all unneeded outlays, and
simplifying administrative procedure. But physical weakness--he was a
confirmed invalid--and the influence of an ambitious woman wrecked
his career. While still Crown Prince, he fixed his affections on
Kusu, daughter of Fujiwara Tanetsugu, who had been assassinated by
Prince Sagara during Kwammu's reign, and when Heijo ascended the
throne, this lady's influence made itself felt within and without the
palace, while her brother, Nakanari, a haughty, headstrong man,
trading on his relationship to her, usurped almost Imperial
authority.
Heijo's ill-health, however, compelled him to abdicate after a reign
of only three years. He retired to the old palace at Nara, entrusting
the sceptre to his brother, Saga. This step was profoundly
disappointing to Kusu and her brother. The former aimed at becoming
Empress--she possessed only the title of consort--and Fujiwara
Nakanari looked for the post of prime minister. They persuaded the
ex-Emperor to intimate a desire of reascending the throne. Saga
acquiesced and would have handed over the sceptre, but at the
eleventh hour, Heijo's conscientious scruples, or his prudence,
caused a delay, whereupon Kusu and her brother, becoming desperate,
publicly proclaimed that Heijo wished to transfer the capital to
Nara. Before they could consummate this programme, however, Saga
secured the assistance of Tamuramaro, famous as the conqueror of the
Yemishi, and by his aid Fujiwara Nakanari was seized and thrown into
prison, the lady Kusu being deprived of her rank as consort and
condemned to be banished from Court. Heijo might have bowed to
Nakanari's fate, but Kusu's sentence of degradation and exile
overtaxed his patience. He raised an army and attempted to move to
the eastern provinces. In Mino, his route was intercepted by a force
under Tamuramaro, and the ex-Emperor's troops being shattered, no
recourse offered except to retreat to Nara. Then the Jo-o (Heijo)
took the tonsure, and his consort Kusu committed suicide. Those who
had rallied to the ex-Emperor's standard were banished.
THE FIRST JAPANESE THAT ENTERED INDIA
When Heijo ceded the throne to Saga, the former's son, Takaoka, was
nominated Crown Prince, though Saga had sons of his own. Evidently
that step was taken for the purpose of averting precisely such
incidents as those subsequently precipitated by the conspiracy to
restore Heijo. Therefore on the day following Heijo's adoption of the
tonsure, Takaoka was deprived of his rank.* Entering the priesthood,
he called himself Shinnyo, retired to Higashi-dera and studied the
doctrine of the True Word (Shingori). In 836, he proceeded to China
to prosecute his religious researches, and ultimately made his way to
India (in his eighty-first year), where he was killed by a tiger in
the district now known as the Laos States of Siam. This prince is
believed to have been the first Japanese that travelled to India. His
father, the ex-Emperor Heijo, was a student of the same Buddhist
doctrine (Shingon) and received instruction in it from Kukai. Heijo
died in 824, at the age of fifty-one.
*His family was struck off the roll of princes and given the uji of
Ariwara Asomi.
THE FIFTY-SECOND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SAGA (A.D. 810-823)
It is memorable in the history of the ninth century that three
brothers occupied the throne in succession, Heijo, Saga, and Junna.
Heijo's abdication was certainly due in part to weak health, but his
subsequent career proves that this reason was not imperative. Saga,
after a most useful reign of thirteen years, stepped down frankly in
favour of his younger brother. There is no valid reason to endorse
the view of some historians that these acts of self-effacement were
inspired by an indolent distaste for the cares of kingship. Neither
Heijo nor Saga shrank from duty in any form. During his brief tenure
of power the former unflinchingly effected reforms of the most
distasteful kind, as the dismissal of superfluous officials and the
curtailing of expenses; and the latter's reign was distinguished by
much useful legislation and organization. Heijo's abdication seems to
have been due to genuine solicitude for the good of the State, and
Saga's to a sense of reluctance to be outdone in magnanimity.
Reciprocity of moral obligation (giri) has been a canon of Japanese
conduct in all ages.
SANGI AND KURANDO
One of the earliest acts of Saga's reign was to establish the office
of Court councillor (sangi) definitely and to determine the number of
these officials at eight. The post of sangi had been instituted more
than a century previously, but its occupants had neither fixed
function, rank, nor number: they merely gave fortuitous advice about
political affairs. Another office, dating from the same time (810),
was that of kurando (called also kurodo). This seems to have been
mainly a product of the political situation. At the palace of the
retired Emperor in Nara--the Inchu, as it was called--the ambitious
Fujiwara Nakanari and the Imperial consort, Kusu, were arrogating a
large share of administrative and judicial business, and were
flagrantly abusing their usurped authority. Saga did not know whom to
trust. He feared that the council of State (Dajo-kwan) might include
some traitors to his cause, and he therefore instituted a special
office to be the depository of all secret documents, to adjudicate
suits at law, to promulgate Imperial rescripts and decrees, to act as
a kind of palace cabinet, and to have charge of all supplies for the
Court. Ultimately this last function became the most important of the
kurando's duties.
KEBIISHI AND TSUIHOSHI
It has already been explained that the Daiho legislators, at the
beginning of the eighth century, having enacted a code (ryo) and a
penal law (ritsu), supplemented these with a body of official rules
(kyaku) and operative regulations (shiki). The necessity of revising
these rules and regulations was appreciated by the Emperor Kwammu,
but he did not live to witness the completion of the work, which he
had entrusted to the sa-daijin, Fujiwara Uchimaro, and others. The
task was therefore re-approached by a committee of which the
dainagon, Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, was president, under orders from the
Emperor Saga. Ten volumes of the rules and forty of the regulations
were issued in 819, the former being a collection of all rescripts
and decrees issued since the first year of Daiho (701), and the
latter a synopsis of instructions given by various high officials and
proved by practice since the same date. Here, then, was a
sufficiently precise and comprehensive body of administrative guides.
But men competent to utilize them were not readily forthcoming. The
provincial governors and even the metropolitan officials, chosen from
among men whose qualifications were generally limited to literary
ability or aristocratic influence, showed themselves incapable of
dealing with the lawless conditions existing in their districts.
This state of affairs had been noticeable ever since the reign of
Shomu (724-749), but not until the time of Saga was a remedy devised.
It took the form of organizing a body of men called kebiishi, upon
whom devolved the duty of pursuing and arresting lawbreakers. At
first this measure was on a small scale and of a tentative character.
But its results proved so satisfactory that the system was extended
from the capital to the provinces, and, in 830, a Kebiishi-cho (Board
of Kebiishi) was duly formed, the number and duties of its staff
being definitely fixed four years later. The importance attaching to
the post of chief of this board is attested by the fact that only the
emon no Kami or the hyoye no Kami* was eligible originally, the bushi
(military men) in the hereditary service of these high dignitaries
being entrusted--under the name of tsuiho-shi--with the duty of
enforcing the law against all violators. Ultimately the judicial
functions hitherto discharged by the Efu (Guard Office), the
Danjo-dai (Police Board) and the Gyobu-sho (Department of Justice)
were all transferred to the Kebiishi-cho, and the latter's orders
ranked next to Imperial decrees.
*Three corps of military guards formed part of the organization. The
senior corps were the Imperial guards (konoe): then came the military
guards (hyoye) and then the gate-guards (yemon). Each was divided
into two battalions; a battalion of the Left and a battalion of the
Right. Then there were the sa-konye and the u-konye, the sa-hyoye and
the u-hyoye, the sa-yemon and the u-yemon. These six offices were
known as roku-yefu, and the officer in chief command of each corps
was a kami.
These kebiishi and tsuiho-shi have historical importance. They
represent the unequivocal beginning of the military class which was
destined ultimately to impose its sway over the whole of Japan. Their
institution was also a distinct step towards transferring the conduct
of affairs, both military and civil, from the direct control of the
sovereign to the hands of officialdom. The Emperor's power now began
to cease to be initiative and to be limited to sanction or veto. The
Kurando-dokoro was the precursor of the kwampaku; the Kebiishi-cho,
of the so-tsuihoshi.
FUJIWARA FUYUTSUGU
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, who, as mentioned above, took such an important
part in the legislation of his era, may be adduced as illustrating
the error of the too common assertion that because the Fujiwara
nobles abused their opportunities in the later centuries of the Heian
epoch, the great family's services to its country were small.
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu was at once a statesman, a legislator, an
historian, and a soldier. Serving the State loyally and assiduously,
he reached the rank of first minister (sa-daijiri) though he died at
the early age of fifty-two, and it is beyond question that to his
ability must be attributed a large measure of the success achieved by
his Imperial master, Saga. The story of his private life may be
gathered from the fact that he established and richly endowed an
asylum for the relief of his indigent relatives; a college (the
Kwangaku-iri) for the education of Fujiwara youths, and an uji-tera
(Nanyen-do) at Nara for soliciting heaven's blessing on all that bore
his name.
THE JAPANESE PEERAGE
An interesting episode of Saga's reign was the compilation of a
record of all the uji (family names). Originally the right to use a
family name had been guarded as carefully as is a title of nobility
in Europe. The uji was, in truth, a hereditary title. But, as has
been occasionally noted in these pages, an uji was from time to time
bestowed on families of aliens, and thus, in the course of ages,
confusion gradually arose. From the middle of the eighth century,
efforts to compile a trustworthy record were made, and in Kwammu's
reign a genealogical bureau (kankei-jo) was actually organized, its
labours resulting in a catalogue of titles (seishi mokuroku). This
proved defective, however, as did a subsequent effort in Heijo's
time. Finally, the Emperor Saga entrusted the task to Prince Mamta,
who, with a large staff of assistants, laboured for ten years, and,
in 814, produced the Seishi-roku (Record of Uji) in thirty volumes.
Though not absolutely exhaustive, this great work remained a classic
down to modern times. It divided into three classes the whole body of
uji--1182--enrolled in its pages: namely, Kwobetsu, or those of
Imperial lineage; Shimbetsu, or those descended from the Kami, and
Bambetsu, or those of alien origin (Chinese or Korean). A few who
could not be clearly traced were placed in a "miscellaneous list."
This paragraph of history suggests the quality of Japanese
civilization in the ninth century.
ENGRAVING: HYO-NO-MA ROOM IN THE KOHOAN OF DAITOKU-JI, AT KYOTO
THE FIFTY-THIRD SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR JUNNA (A.D. 824-833)
Junna was Kwammu's third son. He ascended the throne on the
abdication of his elder brother, Saga, and he himself abdicated in
favour of the latter's son, Nimmyo, nine years later. Junna's reign
is not remarkable for any achievement. No special legislation was
inaugurated nor any campaign against abuses undertaken. The three
brothers, Heijo, Saga, and Junna, may be said to have devoted
paramount attention to the study of Chinese literature. History
refuses, however, to connect this industry with a desire for ethical
instruction. Their efforts are said to have been limited to the
tracing of ideographs and the composition of verselets. A perfectly
formed ideograph possesses in Japanese eyes many of the qualities
that commend a pictorial masterpiece to Western appreciation. Saga
achieved the distinction of being reckoned among the "Three Penmen"
of his era,* and he carried his enthusiasm so far as to require that
all the scions of the aristocracy should be instructed in the Chinese
classics. Junna had less ability, but his admiration was not less
profound for a fine specimen of script or a deftly turned couplet. It
is, nevertheless, difficult to believe that these enthusiasts
confined themselves to the superficialities of Chinese learning. The
illustrations of altruism which they furnished by abdicating in one
another's favour may well have been inspired by perusing the writings
of Confucius.** However that may be, the reign of Junna, though not
subjectively distinguished, forms a landmark in Japanese history as
the period which closed the independent exercise of sovereign
authority. When Junna laid down the sceptre, it may be said, as we
shall presently see, to have been taken up by the Fujiwara.
*The other two were Kobo Daishi, and Tachibana Hayanari.
**Vide the remarks of the Chinese sage on Tai-pei, Chou-kung,
Wen-wang, and Wu-wang.
ENGRAVING: "SHAKUHACHI," FLUTES MADE OF BAMBOO
ENGRAVING: "KARAMON" GATE OF NISHI HONGWAN-JI TEMPLE, AT KYOTO