We have now come to the time when the movements which resulted in the
establishment of the empire of Japan took place. The events are still
overlaid with myth and legend, which could only have been transmitted by
oral tradition. But they have to do with characters and places which are
tied to the present by stronger cords than those of the divine age. What
the events really were which are involved in the myths of the preceding
chapter it is impossible to predicate. That the celestial invasion of the
island of Kyūshū means the coming thither of a chief and his followers
from the continent by way of Korea seems most reasonable. The
inter-mixture of Izumo with these legends may mean that another migration
of a kindred race took place to that part of the Main island. The easy
access to both Izumo and Kyūshū from Korea makes these migrations the
natural explanation of the landing of the Japanese upon these fertile and
tempting islands.
Without settling the difficult ethnographical questions which are involved
in this problem, we propose to follow the Kyūshū invaders into the Main
island. We will note the slow and laborious steps by which they proceeded
to establish a government, which through many changes and emergencies
continues to this day.
The Prince, whom we will continue to call Jimmu,(47) had an elder brother,
Prince Itsu-se, who seems, however, to have been less active and energetic
than the younger. At least, even from the first it is Prince Jimmu who is
represented as taking the initiative in the movements which were now
begun. The two brothers consulted together and resolved to conduct an
expedition towards the east. It will be remembered that their grandfather
had established his palace on Mount Takachiho, which is one of the two
highest peaks in Kyūshū, situated in the province of Hyūga, nearly in the
middle of the southern extension of the island of Kyūshū. It was from this
place that the two brothers started on their expedition. It was no doubt
such an expedition as the Norse Vikings of a later day often led into the
islands of their neighbors. They had with them a force composed of the
descendants of the invaders who had come with their grandfather from the
continent. They marched first through the country called Toyo, which was a
luxuriant and fertile region on the northeast part of the island. Thence
they marched to the palace of Wokada, situated in a district of the island
of Tsukushi, lying on the northwest coast facing Tsushima and the
peninsula of Korea, and bordering on the straits of the Inland sea. Here
they remained a year and probably built the boats by which they crossed
the Inland sea.
From Tsukushi they crossed to the province of Aki in the Main island on
the coast of the Inland sea, where it is said they remained seven years.
The progress seems like that of the hordes of the Goths in the early ages
of European history. It was not merely a military expedition, but a
migration of a tribe with all its belongings, women and children, old men
and old women, and household and agricultural effects. The military band
under Prince Jimmu and his brother formed the vanguard and protection of
the tribe. During their seven years’ sojourn in Aki they were compelled to
resort to agriculture as well as fishing for their support.
Then they skirted along the north coast of the Inland sea to Takashima in
the province of Kibi. Thence they crept with their awkward boats eastward
among the luxuriant islands. They met a native of the coast out in his
boat fishing and engaged his services as a guide. He conducted them to
Naniwa, which now bears the name of Ōsaka, where they encountered the
swift tides and rough sea which navigators still meet in this place.
Finally they landed at a point which we cannot recognize, but which must
have been in the neighborhood of Ōsaka at the mouth of the Yodo river.
Here their conflicts with the natives began. The whole region seems to
have been occupied by tribes not unlike their own, who had probably come
thither from the settlements in Izumo. The first to dispute their progress
was Prince Nagasuné (Long Legs), of Tomi, who raised an army and resisted
the landing of the invaders. It was in the battle that ensued at this
place that Prince Itsu-se, the elder brother, received a wound in his hand
from an arrow shot by Prince Nagasuné. The reason given reveals a curious
superstition which seems to have prevailed from this early time. The
Japanese prince on receiving the wound exclaims, “It is not right for me,
an august child of the Sun Goddess, to fight facing the sun. It is for
this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain’s hurtful hand.”
Prince Itsu-se, after a few days, died from the effects of the wound. He
is buried on mount Kama in the province of Kii.
It is needless to recount all the legends which cluster around this
invasion of the central provinces of Japan; about the wild boar which came
out of the mountains near Kumano, before which Prince Jimmu and all his
warriors fell down in a faint; about the miraculous sword which was sent
down from the heavenly plains to aid him in subduing the
Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains; about a crow eight feet long which was sent
to guide him in his expedition, and about the deities with tails who in
several places were encountered. To our conception they seem meaningless,
and do not in any measure contribute to the progress of the story. They
bear evidence of a later invention, and do not belong legitimately to the
narrative.
At Uda, on the east coast of the Yamato peninsula, there lived two
brothers named Ukashi. The elder brother undertook to deceive Prince
Jimmu, and set a trap in which to capture and slay him. But the younger
brother revealed the plot, whereupon the followers of Prince Jimmu
compelled the traitor to retreat into his own trap, where they killed him.
The younger brother was honored and rewarded by Jimmu, and appears
afterward among the hereditary princes of the country.
Again, as he was making his progress through the country Prince Jimmu came
upon a company of the savages known as pit-dwellers,(48) whom the _Kojiki_
calls earth-spiders, and describes them as having tails. There appear to
have existed at this period remnants of these tribes as far south as the
35th parallel. At a later period they were driven out by the Ainos, and
nothing but some of their relics now exists, even in Yezo. The peculiarity
by which they were known was, that they lived in a sort of pit dug out of
the earth in the sides of the mountains, over which they built a roof of
limbs and grass. In the present case there were eighty of the warriors of
this tribe. Prince Jimmu made a banquet for them in one of their pits and
assigned an equal number of his own men to act as attendants. Each of
these attendants was girded with a sword. Then from a post outside he sang
a song,(49) and at a given signal in this song the eighty attendants fell
upon the eighty earth-spiders and slew them all.
Thus having subdued all opposing forces and brought the country into
subjection, Prince Jimmu established himself in a palace built for him at
Kashiwara in the province of Yamato. This is usually regarded by Japanese
historians as the beginning of the empire, and the present era(50) is
reckoned from this establishment of a capital in Yamato. From the record
of the length of the reigns of the several emperors contained in the
_Kojiki_, and the _Nihongi_, and later books, the date of the accession of
the Emperor Jimmu is fixed at 660 B.C. We have given elsewhere(51) our
reason for believing the record of the early reigns of doubtful
authenticity. Nevertheless, as it is impossible to propose a definite
change, it is better to use the accepted scheme with its admitted defects.
The Emperor Jimmu after his accession continued to reign seventy-five
years and, according to the _Kojiki_, died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven. The _Nihongi_, however, gives his age at death as one
hundred and twenty-seven, and this has been adopted by the government in
its published chronology.(52) His burial place is said to be on the
northern side of mount Unebi in the province of Yamato. It is just to
assign to the Emperor Jimmu the exalted place which the Japanese claim for
him in their history. That he was a prince of high enterprise is evident
from his adventurous expedition from the home of his family into the
barbarous and unknown regions of the Main island. He accomplished its
conquest with less slaughter and cruelty than the customs of the times
seemed to justify. He made it his policy to effect terms with the native
princes and seek their co-operation in his government. He extended his
sway so that it covered Anato, now known as Nagato, and Izumo on the west,
and reached probably to Owari on the east. All this time he had held a
firm hand on the island from which he had come, so that few if any
outbreaks occurred among its restless Turanian or native inhabitants.
The Emperor Jimmu was succeeded by his third son, known by his canonical
name as the Emperor Suizei. The reigning emperor, it seems, exercised the
right to select the son who should succeed him. This was not always the
oldest son, but from the time he was chosen he was known as _taishi_,
which is nearly equivalent to the English term crown prince. The Emperor
Suizei, it is said, occupied a palace at Takaoka, in Kazuraki, in the
province of Yamato. This palace was not far from that occupied by his
father, yet it was not the same. And in the reigns of the successive
sovereigns down to A.D. 709, when the capital was for a time established
at Nara, we observe it as a most singular circumstance that each new
emperor resided in a new palace. In the first place, the palace spoken of
in these early times was probably a very simple structure. Mr. Satow, in
his paper(53) on the temples at Isé, gives an account of the form and
construction of the prehistoric Japanese house. The Shintō temple in its
pure form is probably a survival of the original palace. Before the
introduction of edge-tools of iron and boring implements or nails, the
building must have been constructed in a very primitive fashion. It will
be understood that stone or brick were never used. Wood was the only
material for the frame. The roof was thatched with rushes or rice straw.
The pure Shintō temples of modern times are built with the utmost
simplicity and plainness. Although the occasion for adhering to primitive
methods has long since passed away, yet the buildings are conformed to the
styles of structure necessary before the introduction of modern tools and
appliances. To build a new palace therefore for a new emperor involved by
no means such an outlay of time and work as might be imagined.
It is not improbable that when a young man was chosen crown prince he had
an establishment of his own assigned to him, and this became his palace
which he occupied when he became emperor. When a man died, and especially
when an emperor died, it was an ancient custom to abandon his abode. It
became unclean by the presence in it of a dead body, and therefore was no
longer used.
[Illustration]
Shinto Temple
Nothing is narrated of the immediate successors of the Emperor Jimmu of
importance to this story. The accounts contained in either of the oldest
histories relate merely to the genealogies of the several sovereigns.
The Emperor Suizei was, as we have seen, the third son of Jimmu and
reigned thirty-two years, dying at the age of eighty-four.(54)
The third emperor was Annei, the only son of the Emperor Suizei. He
reigned thirty-seven years and died at the age of fifty-seven.
The fourth emperor was Itoku, the oldest son of the Emperor Annei. He
reigned thirty-three years and died at the age of seventy-seven.
The fifth emperor was Kōshō, the oldest son of the Emperor Itoku. He
reigned eighty-two years and died at the age of one hundred and fourteen
years.
The sixth emperor was Kōan, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōshō. He
reigned one hundred and one years and died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven.
The seventh emperor was Kōrei, the second son of the Emperor Kōan. He
reigned seventy-five years and died at the age of one hundred and
twenty-eight.
The eighth emperor was Kōgen, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōrei. He
reigned fifty-six years and died at the age of one hundred and sixteen.
The ninth emperor was Kaikwa, a younger son of the Emperor Kōgen. He
reigned fifty-nine years and died at the age of one hundred and eleven.
The tenth emperor was Sūjin, a younger son of the Emperor Kaikwa. He
reigned sixty-seven years and died at the age of one hundred and nineteen.
It is narrated that during his reign a pestilence broke out which was so
severe that the country was almost depopulated. The emperor was greatly
disturbed by this calamity, and there appeared to him in the night a
divine vision. The Great Deity, the Great Master of Things, appeared and
revealed to him, that if he would cause him to be appropriately worshipped
the pestilence would cease. The worship was accordingly ordained and
executed, and the pestilence forthwith abated.
In this reign expeditions were also sent into the northwestern and
northeastern districts of the Main island to repress the disturbances
which had arisen. The reports from these expeditions were in each case
favorable, and the whole empire was in a condition of quiet and
prosperity, such as had not before existed. Taxes were for the first time
levied on the proceeds of the chase and on the handiwork of the women.
Reservoirs for the collection of water, used in the irrigation of the rice
crops, were constructed in the imperial provinces, and encouragement was
everywhere given to the growing industries of the country.
The Emperor Sūjin was succeeded by his younger son who is known as the
eleventh emperor under the name of Suinin. He is said to have reigned
ninety-nine years, and to have died at the age of one hundred and
forty-one.
A conspiracy came near ending the life of this emperor. A brother of the
empress was ambitious to attain supreme authority. He approached his
sister with the subtle question, Which is dearer to thee, thine elder
brother or thy husband? She replied, My elder brother is dearer. Then he
said, If I be truly the dearer to thee, let me and thee rule the empire.
And he gave her a finely tempered dagger and said to her, Slay the emperor
with this in his sleep. So the emperor, unconscious of danger, was
sleeping one day with his head on the lap of the empress. And she,
thinking the time had come, was about to strike him with the dagger. But
her courage failed her, and tears fell from her eyes on the face of the
sleeping emperor. He started up, awakened by the falling tears, and said
to her, I have had a strange dream. A violent shower came up from the
direction of Saho and suddenly wet my face. And a small damask-colored
snake coiled itself around my neck. What can such a dream betoken? Then
the empress, conscience-stricken, confessed the conspiracy with her
brother.
The emperor, knowing that no time was to be lost, immediately collected a
force of troops and marched against his brother-in-law. He had entrenched
himself behind palisades of timber and awaited the emperor’s attack. The
empress, hesitating between her brother and her husband, had made her
escape to her brother’s palace. At this terrible juncture she was
delivered of a child. She brought the child to the palisades in sight of
the emperor, and cried out to him to take it under his care. He was deeply
moved by her appeal to him and forthwith planned to rescue both the child
and its mother. He chose from among his warriors a band of the bravest and
most cunning, and commanded them, saying, When ye go to take the child, be
sure that ye seize also the mother.
But she, fearing that the soldiers would try to snatch her when they came
for the child, shaved off her hair and covered her head with the loose
hair as if it were still adhering. And she made the jewel-strings around
her neck and arms rotten, and she rendered her garments, by which they
might catch hold of her, tender by soaking them in _saké_. When the
soldiers came to her she gave them the child and fled. Then they seized
her by the hair and it came away in their hands; and they clutched at the
jewel-strings and they broke; and then they grasped her garments, but they
had been rendered tender and gave way in their hands. So she escaped from
them and fled. Then they went back to the emperor and reported that they
had been unable to capture the mother, but they had brought the babe. The
emperor was angry at what the soldiers told him. He was angry at the
jewellers who had made the rotten jewel-strings and deprived them of their
lands. He called to the empress through the burning palisades around the
palace—for the soldiers had set fire to the palace—saying, A child’s name
must be given by its mother; what shall be the name of this child? And she
answered, Let it be called Prince Homu-chiwake. And again he called: How
shall he be reared? She replied, Take for him a foster-mother and bathing
woman who shall care for him. Then he asked again, saying: Who shall
loosen the small, fresh pendant which you have tied upon him? And she gave
directions concerning this also. Then the emperor paused no longer, but
slew the rebellious prince in his burning palace, and the empress perished
with her wicked brother.
Following this is a long legend concerning this child which was dumb from
its birth, and how he was sent to worship at the temple of the deities of
Izumo, and how he miraculously attained the power of speech and was
brought back to his father.
It was during the reign of this emperor also that Tajima-mori was sent to
China to fetch specimens of the orange-tree for introduction into Japan.
He returned with them, but when he reached the capital the emperor was
dead. The messenger was shocked and brought the specimens of the
orange-tree to the burial place of the emperor, where he died from grief.
Up to this time it seems to have been the cruel custom to bury with the
deceased members of the imperial family, and perhaps with others of high
rank, the living retainers and horses who had been in their service. It is
said that when the emperor’s younger brother died (B.C. 2) they buried
along with him his living retainers, placing them upright in a circle
around him and leaving their heads uncovered. Night and day were heard the
agonizing cries of these thus left to die of starvation. The emperor was
greatly moved and resolved that this terrible custom should be abolished.
Four years later the empress herself died, and the emperor called together
his counsellors to propose some plan by which this practice of living
sacrifices could be avoided. Thereupon one of his counsellors,
Nomi-no-Sukuné, advanced and begged the emperor to listen to a scheme
which he had to present. He suggested that, instead of burying the living
retainers with their master or mistress, clay images of men and women and
horses be set up in a circle around the burial place. The plan pleased the
emperor vastly, and images were at once made and buried around the dead
empress. As a mark of his high appreciation Nomi-no-Sukuné was appointed
chief of the clay-workers guild.
It appears probable that this cruel usage of burying living retainers with
their dead master was not entirely ended by this substitution of clay
images. As late as A.D. 646 the emperor found it necessary to prescribe
regulations for funerals and to forbid the burial of living retainers. Mr.
Satow(55) has given a most interesting account of this edict which
pertains not only to the practice of burial of retainers, but also to the
size of vaults and mounds and the number of laborers who might be employed
in preparing the structure.
The images used as a substitute for living retainers were called _Tsuchio
Ningio_ (clay images). They have been found in many parts of the country,
especially in the home provinces where the burial of the imperial families
and the connected nobility took place. This burying of images seems to
have died out about A.D. 700. Its discontinuance probably was owing to the
growing prevalence of Buddhism which discountenanced a custom founded on a
religion anterior to it.
[Illustration]
Buried Images
The Emperor Suinin was succeeded by his younger son Keikō who became the
twelfth emperor. He reigned fifty-nine years, and died at the age of one
hundred and forty-three. His son, Prince O-usu, who afterward was known as
Yamato-dake, is represented as pursuing a most daring and romantic career.
The myths concerning him are among the most picturesque in Japanese
history.
The first adventure narrated of him was regarding his elder brother. His
father asked him, Why does not thy elder brother make his appearance at
the imperial banquets? Do thou see after this and teach him his duty.
A few days after his father said again to him, Why dost not thy brother
attend to his duty? Hast thou not warned him as I bade thee?
The young prince replied that he had taken that trouble. Then his father
said, How didst thou take the trouble to warn him? And the prince coolly
told him that he had slain him and thrown his carcass away.
The emperor was alarmed at the coolness and ferocity of his son, and
bethought how he might employ him advantageously. Now there were at Kumaso
in Kyūshū two brothers, fierce and rebellious bandits, who paid small
respect to the imperial wishes. The emperor conceived that it would be a
fitting achievement for his fearless son to put an end to these reckless
outlaws. So Yamato-dake borrowed from his aunt her female apparel, and
hiding a sword in the bosom of his dress, he sought out the two outlaws in
their hiding-place. They were about to celebrate the occupancy of a new
cave which they had fitted up for themselves. They had invited a goodly
number of their neighbors, and especially of the female sex. Prince
Yamato-dake, who was young and fresh-looking, put on his female disguise
and let down his hair which was still long. He sauntered about the cave
and went in where the two outlaws were amusing themselves with their
female visitors. They were surprised and delighted to see this new and
beautiful face. They seated her between them and did their best to
entertain her.
Suddenly, when the outlaws were off their guard, he drew his sword from
his bosom and slew the elder brother. The younger rushed out of the door
of the cave, the prince close at his heels. With one hand he clutched him
by the back and with the other thrust him through with his sword. As he
fell he begged the prince to pause a moment and not to withdraw his sword
from his fatal wound.
Then the outlaw said, Who art thou? And he told him and for what purpose
he had come.
The outlaw said, There were in the west none so brave as we two brothers.
From this time forward it shall be right to praise thee as the August
Child Yamato-dake (the bravest in Yamato).
As soon as he had said this, the prince “ripped him up like a ripe
melon.”(56)
Then after he had subdued and pacified the rebellious princes of the
districts about the straits of Shimonoseki he returned to the emperor and
made his report.
Following this account of Yamato-dake’s adventures in the West, there are
given the interesting traditions concerning his expedition to the East,
and his encounters with the Ainos, who inhabited the northern part of the
island. That there was a basis of fact to these traditions there cannot be
a doubt. Yet the events have such an air of fable and poetry that it is
impossible to separate the fact from the legend. As we have done in
previous instances, we give the stories in their essential entirety,
leaving to scholars hereafter the task of winnowing the grains of fact out
of the chaff which the imagination of the race has left for us.
Prince Yamato-dake took on his expedition to the East the Prince
Mi-suki-tomo-mimi-take. The emperor gave him these instructions: “Subdue
and pacify the savage deities, and likewise the unsubmissive people of the
twelve roads(57) of the East.”
Prince Yamato-dake first visited the temple of the Sun Goddess in Isé,
where he worshipped at the shrine of his great ancestress. He must have
had a presentiment that he never would return alive from this expedition.
His aunt Yamato-hime,(58) who was the priestess of this temple, gave him
on his departure the sword(59) which the Impetuous-Male-Deity discovered
in the tail of the snake which he slew in Izumo. She also gave him a bag
which he was not to open until he found himself in pressing difficulty.
He came to the land of Owari, and appears there to have been smitten by
the charms of the Princess Miyazu. And, planning to wed her on his way
back, he plighted to her his troth and went on. Then he came to the
province of Sagami, where he met the chief of the land. But he deceived
him and said that in the midst of a vast moor there is a lagoon where
lives a deity. Yamato-dake went over the moor to find the deity. Whereupon
the chief set fire to the grass, expecting to see him consumed. But
Yamato-dake seeing his danger, and being assured that the time of pressing
difficulty had come, opened the bag which his aunt, Yamato-hime, had given
him. There he found a fire drill,(60) with which a fire could be struck.
He cut away the grass around him with the sword which had been given him,
and then set fire to the moor. When he was safe from the fire he sought
out and slew the traitorous chief and all the chiefs who were associated
with him.
From Sagami he undertook to cross in a boat the waters of Yedo bay to
Kazusa opposite. But the sea was rough and they were on the point of being
overwhelmed and drowned. Then his wife, the Princess Oto-Tachibana, who
accompanied him on this expedition, threw out mats from the boat, and
saying, “I will enter the sea instead of the prince; you must finish the
task on which you are sent,” she sprang from the boat and sat down on the
mats(61) she had thrown out. Immediately the waves were quiet and the boat
sailed on in safety. And the comb of the princess was washed ashore, and
the people built for it a sacred mausoleum in which it was kept.
Then Prince Yamato-dake penetrated the regions occupied by the Ainos(62)
and subdued them. Having accomplished this principal object of his
undertaking, he returned by way of the Usui pass opposite to mount Fuji.
As he stood in this lofty position and looked out on the sea where his
wife had sacrificed herself for his safety, he cried out: “Azuma ha ya!”
(O my wife!) Azuma is a name often used in poetry for the part of Japan
north of this pass. But whether this myth was invented to explain the
name, or the name was derived from the incident, it is impossible to
determine.
Then Prince Yomato-dake went into the high lands of Shinano and after he
had settled the disturbances which existed there, he came back to Owari
where he had left the Princess Miyazu. In one of his excursions into the
rebellious regions he was stricken with a fatal illness. In his enfeebled
condition he struggled on, almost unable to walk. He made his way towards
Isé. At Ōtsu, a village on the coast of Owari bay, he recovered the sword
which he had left on his way to the East. In his painful journey he sat
down under a pine tree. The spirit of poesy even in his pain came upon him
and he sang this little poem(63) in praise of the pine tree:
O mine elder brother, the single pine tree
That art on cape Ōtsu, which directly faces Owari!
If thou single pine tree! wert a person,
I would gird my sword upon thee,
I would clothe thee with my garments,—
O mine elder brother, the single pine tree!
He went on a little farther to Nobono and his sickness became more
serious. And there in the open fields he felt that his end had come. He
sent the spoils of his expedition to the temple of his great ancestress,
the Sun Goddess. He sent his faithful companion Prince Kibi-no-Takehito to
the emperor to carry his last message. It was: “I have chastised the
eastern barbarians according to your imperial order with the help of the
gods and with your imperial influence. I hoped to return in triumph with
my weapons wrapped in white. But I have been seized with a mortal disease,
and I cannot recover. I am lying in the sweet open fields. I do not care
for my life. I only regret that I cannot live to appear before thee and
make my report of my expedition.”
And he died in the thirty-second year of his age. And they buried him
there and built a mausoleum over his remains. The emperor lamented the
death of his gallant and immortal son, and made an imperial progress into
the regions which he had conquered and pacified.
The successor to the Emperor Keikō was known by the canonical name of
Seimu. He was the thirteenth emperor, and was the grandson of his
predecessor, having been a son of the hero Yamato-dake who was the crown
prince until his death. The Emperor Seimu reigned fifty-nine years and
died at the age of one hundred and eight. Nothing noteworthy is narrated
of his reign.
His successor, the fourteenth emperor, was Chūai, his eldest son. He
reigned only eight years and died at the age of fifty-two. It is
remarkable that his capital was in the island of Kyūshū and not in the
Main island, like his predecessors from the time of the Emperor Jimmu.
This removal was probably due to the preparations which had already begun
for the invasion of Korea. The island of Kyūshū is most favorably situated
for the preparation and sailing of such an expedition. The wife of this
emperor was Jingō-Kōgō, who was a much more forcible and energetic
character than her husband.
She is one of the heroines around whom much tradition has gathered, and
her successful invasion of Korea is an event which the Japanese writers
and artists are never tired of representing. The legend—for undoubtedly
much of the story is legendary—is essentially as follows:
The emperor was busy in Kyūshū in reducing to subjection the tribes of the
Kumaso who inhabited the southern portion of the island. Up to this time
these restless tribes had given much trouble to the empire and expeditions
were constantly needed to keep them in order. They were unquestionably of
a kindred race with the Japanese who accompanied the Emperor Jimmu into
the Main island. The empress, afterward known as Jingō-Kōgō and the
faithful prime-minister Take-no-uchi(64) were at their temporary palace at
Kashihi. The empress in an interview on the campaign became divinely
possessed. And she spoke to the emperor in the name of the deity that
possessed her saying, “There is a land at the westward, and in that land
there is abundance of various treasures dazzling to the eye, from gold and
silver downwards. I will now bestow this land upon thee.”
Then the emperor replied, “If you ascend to a high place and look
westward, no country is to be seen; there is only the great sea.” And he
pushed away the lute upon which he was playing and said, “They are lying
deities which have spoken to you.” Then the deity was very angry and spoke
again through the empress. “This empire is not a land over which thou art
fit to rule. Go thou the one road.”
The prime-minister Take-no-uchi then said to the emperor, “I am filled
with awe, my heavenly sovereign, at this fearful message. I pray thee
continue playing thy august lute.” Then he played softly; and gradually
the sound died away and all was still. And they took a light and looking
in his face, behold he was dead.
The empress and the prime-minister Take-no-uchi concealed for the time the
death of the emperor, and she herself proceeded to carry out the plan for
the invasion of Korea. With indefatigable energy she gathered her forces
and equipped a fleet for the descent upon Korea. She set out from Wani in
Kyūshū in the tenth month of the year A.D. 202. Even the fish of the sea
were her allies, for with one accord they bore the ship in which she
sailed across the intervening straits on their backs.
The coming of the Japanese was a complete surprise to the people of Korea.
At this time the peninsula now known to us as Korea and to the Japanese as
Chōsen, was divided into three kingdoms, Kōrai, Shiraki, and Kudara. The
fleet of Jingō-Kōgō landed in the kingdom of Shiraki. The king was so
completely unprepared for this incursion that he at once offered his
subjection and proposed to become a tributary kingdom. The proposition was
accepted. The kings of Kōrai and Kudara made similar proposals which also
were accepted. Each was to make an immediate contribution to the empress,
and annually thereafter to send tribute to the capital of Japan. Thus they
became the three tributary countries (_sankan_) dependent on Japan.
Although this invasion of a foreign country without cause or provocation
must be pronounced indefensible, yet it is not unlikely that the subject
kingdoms were quite as safe and free under the distant and little
intermeddlesome dominion of the Japanese empire, as they had been in the
past or were likely to be in the future from their troublesome neighbors,
China and the restless Mongolian tribes. To Japan the connection with the
continent was of momentous value. It opened up a natural and easy way for
the influx of those continental influences which were to be of so great
service in their future history.
The empress, having within three years completely accomplished the object
of her expedition, returned with her fleet to Kyūshū. She brought back
with her hostages from the conquered kingdoms, to ensure their fulfilment
of the promises they had made. She had learned many lessons of government
which she was not slow to introduce into her administration at home. Soon
after reaching Kyūshū she was delivered of the son of whom she was
pregnant at the time of the death of the emperor, and who afterwards
became the Emperor Ōjin.
The object which she and her faithful prime-minister had in concealing the
death of the emperor was accomplished. They now made the fact public, and
proclaimed her own son as her successor. Two older sons of Chūai by
another empress were unwilling to submit to the rule of a younger brother.
But the Empress Jingō, who had now become a national idol by her Korean
expedition, soon put down the conspiracy of these princes and reigned till
the end of her life and left a quiet succession to her son.
She is said to have reigned as empress-regent(65) sixty-eight years, and
to have died at the age of one hundred.
Her son became the fifteenth emperor and is known by the canonical name of
Ōjin. He commenced his reign in the year A.D. 270, and reigned forty years
and died at the age of one hundred and ten. But the beginning of his reign
is reckoned in the government list from the death of his father. The
Emperor Ōjin is widely worshipped as Hachiman the god of war, although he
is by no means noted as a warrior. The explanation of this curious
circumstance is found in the fact that his mother was pregnant with him
during her famous invasion of Korea, and her heroism and success are
attributed to the martial character of her unborn son.
The good fruits of the Korean conquest particularly showed themselves in
A.D. 284, when the king of Kudara sent his usual tribute to the emperor of
Japan. The ambassador for that year was Ajiki, a learned man who was
familiar with Chinese literature. At the request of the emperor he gave
the young prince, who afterwards became the Emperor Nintoku, lessons in
the Chinese language and literature. The year following the king of Kudara
seeing how much his efforts to furnish Chinese learning were appreciated,
sent an eminent Chinese scholar, Wani, who took with him the _Confucian
Analects_ and the _Thousand Character Essay_, two noted Chinese classics
and presented them to the emperor. The prince continued his studies under
Wani and became a very learned man.
The emperor had three sons between whom he wished to divide his authority,
wishing however to establish his youngest son as the crown prince and his
successor. He summoned them before him and put this question to the elder,
“Which should be preferred, a younger son or an older?” Then the elder son
replied that he thought the older son should be preferred. But the emperor
turned to the second son and asked him the same question. He replied that
as the older son was more grown and less of a care, he thought the younger
son would be more of a favorite. The emperor was pleased with this reply
because it coincided with his own sentiment. He created his youngest son,
Prince Waka-iratsu, the crown prince and ordered his second son, Prince
Osasagi, to assist him. He gave the charge of the mountains, rivers,
forests, fields, etc. to his eldest son.
So when the Emperor Ōjin died A.D. 310, the younger son urged his brother
to accept the imperial power; but he declined, saying: “How can I disobey
the commands of my father?” The oldest of the three brothers, learning of
the controversy, undertook to secure the authority for himself by a plot.
The conspiracy was, however, soon put down and the elder brother slain.
The friendly dispute between the two other brothers lasted three years and
was finally ended by the younger committing suicide, and thus devolving
the imperial office on his remaining brother. This brother was the noted
Emperor Nintoku. He began his reign in the year A.D. 313, and died A.D.
399 in the one hundred and tenth year of his age. He was a most careful
and considerate ruler. By observing his subjects he was convinced that
they were overburdened and impoverished with the taxes which the
government collected from them. So he announced by an imperial decree that
for three years all taxes should be remitted. Even the sums which were
necessary to keep the palace in repair and to provide his court with
suitable clothing were not collected. And the palace grew shabby, and its
roof leaked, and he himself went about in coarse and cheap garments. And
the farmers came to him and begged that they might contribute to his
wants. But he refused, and suffered three years to pass. In the meantime
the country revived, and the farmers being relieved from the burdens which
they had so long borne entered on a long period of encouraging prosperity.
He surveyed the land from a high outlook, and saw the curling smoke and
the fertile fields and rejoiced. Then he gave commands, and the taxes were
renewed, and the people paid them willingly, and they in their gratitude
called Nintoku the Sage Emperor.
It was in the reign of the Emperor Nintoku that the noted prime-minister
Prince Take-no-uchi is said to have died. He had served six emperors,
viz.: Keikō, Seimu, Chūai, Jingō-Kōgō, Ōjin, and Nintoku. His age(66) is
given variously from two hundred and eighty-two to three hundred and
eighty, in different books, one of which is a Chinese work and one a
Korean. It will be remembered that he was the chief adviser of the warlike
Empress Jingō in her invasion of Korea, and took an active part in the
events which followed that expedition. That there was such a figure in
Japanese history there can be little doubt, but that much of his life and
the great age to which he lived are like many of the stories of the
characters in the midst of which he lived, legendary and mythical, no one
can question.
It was in this reign also that we have it stated that historiographers
were sent out to the provinces and directed to make record of all
important events and forward them to the court.
We have now reached a point in Japanese history where the accounts
compiled by the historians of the times have written records on which to
rely. The legendary and marvellous stories which have been the bulk of the
preceding history may now be replaced by the soberer narrations which
writing has preserved for us. It will be seen that the lives(67) of the
emperors now drop from the astonishing age which in previous years they
attained to a very moderate and reasonable length. In the subsequent
chapters will be found the sober and chastened story to which Japanese
history is henceforth reduced.