Before going on to the meagre story which is supplied to us by the early
years of Japanese history, it will be well to glean from the myths and
legends which tradition has preserved the lessons which they contain.
Although we may be unable to concede the truth of these traditions in
their entirety, and believe in the celestial origin of the race and the
wonders of the divine age, we may be able to obtain from them many
important facts regarding the habits and manner of life of the early
Japanese.
We have often referred to the admirable work Mr. Chamberlain has done in
his translation of the _Kojiki_, and in the scholarly notes he has added.
But in our present enquiries we must give him still greater credit for the
important lessons which he has drawn from the myths and legends of the
_Kojiki_ in his learned introduction. No writer at the present day can
afford to dispense with the deductions which he has been able to draw from
the oldest writings of the Japanese, and from the traditions of an older
date which these writings have preserved. Relying therefore chiefly on
this learned introduction,(68) we propose to enumerate in a summary manner
the particulars concerning the early Japanese life.
In the first place the government of the early Japanese was of the tribal
order. The emperor was the chieftain of an expedition which came from the
island of Kyūshū and established a government by conquest. The chiefs of
the various localities were reduced to subjection and became tributary to
the emperor, or were replaced by new chiefs appointed by the emperor. The
government was therefore essentially feudal in its characteristics. The
emperor depended for the consideration of his plans and for their
execution upon officers who were attached to his court. There were guilds
composed of those who manufactured various articles, or who were employed
to execute special plans. Thus we have guilds of clay image makers, guilds
of ladies attendant on the emperor, guilds of butlers, guilds of cooks,
guilds of guards, etc. To each of these there was a captain who became by
appointment hereditary chief. We have no mention of money for the payment
of services rendered. The taxes were probably paid in kind. And all
transactions as far as they are mentioned at all seem to have been of the
nature of barter.
The religious notions of the prehistoric Japanese were founded on the
myths relating to their ancestor. Notwithstanding the vast number of
deities who came into existence according to tradition, most of them
vanish as soon as they are named and are no more heard of. Even deities
like Izanagi and Izanami, who are represented as taking so important a
part in events, are not perpetuated as objects of worship in Japanese
history, and have no temples erected to their memory and no service
prescribed or maintained in their honor. The most important deity in the
Pantheon of the Japanese was Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami, who is also called in
Chinese characters Tensho Daijin or the Sun Goddess. She appears not only
in the myths concerning the origin of the Japanese race, but as the
grandmother of the divine prince Hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi, who first came down
to rule the Japanese empire. In the Shintō temples at Isé the principal
deity worshipped at Gekū is Uké-moche-no-Kami, and the secondary deities
Ninigi-no-Mikoto, who came down to found the Japanese empire and was the
grandmother of the Emperor Jimmu, and two others. At the Naikū the
principal deity is Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami (from heaven shining great deity),
also called the Sun Goddess, and two secondary deities. The temples at
Isé, especially those that are dedicated to the Sun Goddess, are the most
highly regarded of any in Japan. Other temples of considerable popularity
are situated in other parts of the empire. Thus there are Shintō temples
in Kyūshū and in Izumo, which are old parts of Japan settled long before
Buddhism was introduced.
The Shintō religion must be regarded as the primitive religion of the
Japanese people. It prevailed among them long before Buddhism was
propagated by priests from Korea. It differs from all known systems of
religion, in having no body of dogma by which its adherents are held
together. The greatest advocate of Shintoism, Moto-ori, a writer of the
18th century, admits that it has no moral code. He asserts that
“morals(69) were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral
people, but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as
every Japanese acted rightly if he only consulted his own heart.”
Reference is frequently made in the early stories to divination, or the
process of obtaining the will of the gods by indirection. The oldest
method of divination was by using the shoulder-blade of a deer. It was
scraped entirely free from flesh, and then placed over a fire made from
cherry wood. The divine will was determined by the cracks caused by the
fire in the bone. A later method of divination was by using the shell of a
tortoise in the same way as the shoulder-blade of the deer was used. They
had superstitions about fighting with the back to the sun; about using
only one light in the house at once; about breaking off the teeth of a
comb in the night-time; about the destination of the first arrow shot in
battle, etc.
The superstition of impurity being attached to the mother at the birth of
a child, and to the house and those associated with it in which a death
occurred, is often mentioned. A mother, when about to be delivered, was
required to retire alone into a separate dwelling or hut without windows.
This cruel custom has prevailed in the island of Hachijō(70) down almost
to the present time. A custom prevailed, also, of abandoning the dwelling
in which a death had occurred. The dead body was removed to a mourning
hut, where amid sobs and weeping the mourners continued to hold a
carousal, feasting upon the food provided for the dead. This abandonment
of the house occupied by the living may explain the custom, so often
referred to, of each new emperor occupying a different palace from that of
his predecessor. We have already referred to the dreadful custom which
prevailed until the reign of the Emperor Suinin, of burying living
retainers around the sepulchre of their dead master. The custom was
replaced by burying clay images of servants and animals around the tomb,
and this continued till about A.D. 700.
There is no evidence that children received any kind of education other
than a training in the use of arms and implements. The art of writing was
brought over from Korea in A.D. 284. Up to this time there is nothing to
show that the Japanese possessed any means of recording the events which
occurred. No books existed, and reading and writing were unknown. The
language spoken by the people was an ancient form of that which now
prevails. The earliest examples of this language are found in the songs
preserved in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. As in every language, the
earliest preserved specimens are poetry, so in Japanese the fragments
which have been remembered and brought down to us, are scraps of songs.
The origin of this language is, like the origin of the race, impossible at
present to verify. It seems plain that the race came from the continent by
way of Korea. If this is to be taken as the origin of the race, then the
language which developed into the Japanese came from the northern tribes
of China and of Siberia.
There is no indication of the method by which the early Japanese reckoned
time. The sun in the daytime and the cocks by night, must have given them
their division of hours. The year made itself apparent by the changes of
temperature. It was not, however, till the introduction of calendars from
China that anything like an accurate system of estimating and recording
time was introduced.
The food of the primitive Japanese was much more largely animal than it
became in later times. To the early Japanese there was no restriction in
the use of animal food, such as the Buddhists introduced. Fish and
shell-fish have always been, and doubtless from the first were, principal
articles of food. The five grains, so called, are often referred to, and
are specially mentioned in the Shintō rituals, whose origin goes back to
prehistoric times. These grains(71) are rice, millet, barley, and two
kinds of beans. Silkworms and their food plant, the mulberry, are likewise
spoken of. The only kind of drink referred to is _saké_. It will be
remembered that in the myth concerning the Impetuous Male Deity in Izumo,
the old man and old woman were directed to prepare eight tubs of _saké_,
by drinking which the eight-headed serpent was intoxicated. In the
traditional history of the emperors, they are represented as drinking
_saké_, sometimes even to intoxication. And in the rituals recited when
offerings are made to their deities, the jars of _saké_ are enumerated
among the things offered. The Japanese writers claim that _saké_ was a
native discovery, but there is a well supported belief that in very early
times they borrowed the art of manufacturing it from the Chinese. There is
at least a difficulty in believing that this liquor should have been
invented independently in the two countries. Chopsticks are mentioned in
early Japanese times, and clay vessels for food, and cups for drinking
made of oak leaves. On the whole, the conclusions to be drawn from the
earliest traditions concerning the Japanese lead us to regard them as
having attained a material degree of civilization in all matters
pertaining to food and drink. Yet it cannot be regarded as other than
strange that milk, cheese and butter are nowhere mentioned, and had never
been used.
In the matter of clothing we have little except hints to guide us in
forming inferences. The rituals enumerate(72) “bright cloth, soft cloth,
and coarse cloth.” Mr. Satow remarks(73) on this enumeration that “in the
earliest ages the materials used were the bark of the paper-mulberry
(_broussonetia papyrifera_), wistaria tendrils and hemp, but when the
silkworm was introduced the finer fabric naturally took the place of the
humbler in the offerings to the gods.” The paper-mulberry which is now
used for making paper, was in early times twisted into a thread and woven
into a very serviceable cloth. Cotton(74) which now furnishes so large a
part of the clothing of the people is nowhere mentioned. The skins of
animals were doubtless used as clothing before the introduction of
Buddhism made the killing of animals uncommon. In the legend of the
purification of Izanagi(75) we read of a girdle, of a skirt, of an upper
garment, of trousers, and of a hat. What the shapes of these garments were
we cannot tell, but the number of different garments indicates a
considerable development in the ideas of clothing. In the same myth, and
in many other places, mention is made of the bracelets which Izanagi wore
on the left and right arm. And when he wished to show his pleasure in the
daughter who had been produced in washing his left eye, he invested her
with his necklace taken from his own neck. Jewelry seems in these
prehistoric times to have been more commonly worn than in modern
historical times. The jewels(76) used were the _magatama_ and _kudatama_
which have been found in the ancient burial places.
[Illustration]
Magatama and Kudatama.
Rings have also been found which are believed to date back to prehistoric
times. From the clay images which have come down to us it is now
ascertained that the rings were worn as ornaments to the ears and never as
rings to the fingers. These rings are of copper or bronze, plated with
gold or silver. Combs and mirrors are spoken of, but how the metal mirrors
are made we do not know.
The only indications of the character of the houses(77) used by the early
Japanese are found in the traditions respecting the primitive Shintō
temples. The early methods of building were perpetuated in these temples,
and in the eighteenth century a very persistent effort was made for the
revival of pure Shintō. Under the influence of this movement the temples
at Isé and elsewhere were purified from the contaminations which had been
introduced by Buddhism. After the close of the war which resulted in the
restoration of the emperor to his proper authority in 1868 a small temple
in the most severe Shintō style was built at Kudan, one of the picturesque
heights of Yedo, in memory of the soldiers who perished in the conflict.
From a careful examination of all that can illustrate the houses of the
early Japanese, we infer that they were of extreme simplicity. Stone was
never used. The structures were entirely of wood. Even the palaces of the
emperors were what we would call merely huts. Four upright posts sunk in
the ground formed the corners. At the half-way intervals between these
posts, were planted four other posts; those at the gable ends were high
enough to sustain the ridge pole. On the other sides on the top of the
posts were laid two plates. Abutting on these plates and crossing each
other at the ridge pole stood the rafters, which sustained the thatched
roof. In the absence of nails and pins, the timbers were fastened together
by the tough tendrils of climbing plants. A hole in the gable end
permitted the escape of the smoke from the fire built on the ground floor.
Around the sides of the interior stood a raised couch on which the
occupants sat by day and slept at night. The other parts of the floor were
uncovered and consisted only of earth. They used mats made from the skins
of animals or from rushes, on which they sat and slept. The doors of their
dwellings were fastened by means of iron hooks, and swung on hinges unlike
the modern Japanese door which always is made to slide.
The agricultural plants spoken of are numerous but leave unmentioned many
of the plants of first importance. Tea, now so extensively cultivated, is
nowhere spoken of. Tobacco was a late importation and came in with the
Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Cotton was not introduced, as we have
already said, until the beginning of the ninth century. Potatoes,
including both the sweet potato and the white potato, are unmentioned. The
orange came to Japan according to the received tradition at the close of
the reign of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 29-70).
Very little is said of the implements used by the primitive Japanese.
Metal of any kind was almost unknown. We read of swords and fish-hooks,
but these are the only implements referred to which seem to have been made
of metal. Pots and cups of earthenware were used. The axes which they must
have used to cut down the trees for building and for fuel must have been
of stone, or sometimes of deer’s horn. Archæologists both native and
foreign have brought to light many ancient implements of the Stone age. An
interesting and detailed account of these discoveries will be found in the
work on _Japanese Archæology_ by Henry Von Siebold, Yokohoma, 1879.
The arms used by the warriors were spears, bows and arrows, and swords.
Numerous arrow heads have been found which bear a striking likeness to
those found in Europe and America. Spear heads of flint have also been
found. That the people were emerging from the Stone age is shown by the
swords made of metal which they are represented as habitually using. They
also seem to have had a small sword or dagger, as in the myth of the
traitorous plot entered into by the empress and her brother against the
Emperor Suinin. Castles in the modern sense are not referred to, although
the same word _shiro_ is used to represent the stockades with which they
protected themselves. The castles of modern times, such as those at
Kumamoto, Owari, and Yedo, are without doubt the outgrowth of the
primitive stockade, and the same name has continued to be applied in all
the successive changes.
Few domestic animals are mentioned. The horse is spoken of as an animal
for riding, but not for driving. The same thing may be said of the use of
horses in Japan even until modern times. The domestic fowl is referred to
in the myth of the disappearance of the Sun Goddess. Dogs are mentioned in
the later parts of the traditional period, but not cats. The cow and the
products of the cow are not referred to. To these domestic animals may be
added the cormorant,(78) which was used for fishing, in the same way that
it is used in the eastern parts of China and to a small extent in the
waters of Owari and Mino at the present time. The wild animals of that day
were the deer, the bear, the boar, the hare, etc. These animals were
hunted for their flesh and for their skins.
The islands of Japan being largely interspersed with water much of the
travel even from the earliest time was performed in boats. The expedition
of Jimmu from the island of Kyūshū was in part conducted in the boats
which the colony had constructed for the purpose. Whether these boats were
of the form now used in Japan it is impossible to determine. It is
probable however that the present form of boat is an evolution of the
primitive boat, which was used by the prehistoric Japanese and which was a
part of the equipment with which their ancestors came over from Korea to
the islands of Japan. Travel on land was principally on foot, although as
we have said the horse was used at this early day for riding. No wheeled
vehicle is mentioned. The bullock cart used in later times was restricted
to the use of the imperial household, and probably was introduced by the
Buddhists. There were government roads constructed from the home provinces
in different directions to those more distant. It is said that this scheme
was more fully carried out after the return of the Empress Jingō from her
conquest of Korea.
Let us now turn from these evidences of native culture to the events of
Japanese history which have to do with the introduction of the
civilization from the continent. For three thousand years before the
Christian era China has been looked upon as one of the cultured nations of
the earth. No written language has ever been or is now understood by so
many people as the Chinese. The Chinese were a civilized people centuries
before the Japanese had, even according to their own uncertain legends,
emerged into the light as an empire. If we accept the opinion which seems
most reasonable, that the Japanese came over to the Japanese islands from
the continent by way of Korea, and belong to the Mongol tribes of central
Asia, then we must assume that the Japanese were closely related to a
large section of the Chinese. They have been from the beginning of their
history a receptive people. They have stood ready to welcome the good
things which were offered to them, coming from whatever direction. They
accepted eagerly the Chinese written language and the philosophy with
which it came charged. They accepted Buddhism with its priesthood and
dogma and ritual, and permitted it to crowd their native religion until it
became a pitiful minority. They have in recent times accepted with a
hearty impetuosity the civilization of western nations, and are absorbing
it as rapidly as the habits and thoughts of a people can take in so
important a change.
We have already referred to the first introduction(79) of Chinese
literature into Japan. It took place in the reign of the Emperor Ōjin A.D.
284. The ambassador who brought the tribute from Korea that year was Ajiki
who was familiar with the Chinese literature. He gave lessons in Chinese
to the crown prince. The next year the king of Korea sent out an eminent
scholar named Wani,(80) who continued to give instruction to the crown
prince. From this time a knowledge of Chinese gradually spread and
scholars were attached to the government to make a written record of the
events which took place. Historiographers were sent out during the reign
of the Emperor Hanzei, A.D. 404, who were directed to make a record of all
important events and forward them to the court. These steps soon began to
show themselves in the absence of the wonderful and legendary from the
narrative of events. Beginning with the reign of the Emperor Richū the
ages of the emperors which before his time had been of such a marvellous
length now drop to a reasonable and moderate period.
The nineteenth emperor was Inkyō, the fourth son of the Emperor Nintoku.
He was of an amiable and philanthropic temperament, and accepted the
position of emperor with great reluctance. His health was delicate, and he
feared to take upon himself such a responsibility. In the meantime there
was an interregnum, and the court officials were anxious to have him enter
upon the duties of emperor. At last he consented and became emperor A.D.
412. It was during his reign that confusion arose concerning the family
names, or rather, that the confusion which had been long growing now had
its settlement. Family names had been a matter of growth, and many persons
claimed the right to use a certain name who were in no wise entitled to
it. The emperor took a singular and effectual method to settle the
troublesome and personal questions that arose. He summoned all those who
claimed to belong to any family whose claim was disputed to appear at
Amakashi and show that they were entitled to the names they claimed. He
placed jars of boiling water and required each one to plunge his hand in
the water. He who was injured by the hot water was pronounced a deceiver,
and he who came off unhurt was pronounced as entitled to the name. The
emperor took occasion to settle the questions concerning names, and put
the matter on a more stable basis. And as the art of writing now began to
be more common among the people mistakes in regard to names did not again
seriously recur.
The emperor’s ill-health was the occasion for the introduction of another
of the civilizing arts of the continent. When the annual tribute from
Korea was sent it so chanced that the ambassador who came with it was a
person versed in the medical art. If we estimate this man’s science or
skill by that of the Chinese practitioner of a later day, we should
certainly not place a very high value on it. It is narrated, however, that
he cured the imperial invalid, and by this means gained great credit for
his profession, and added another to the obligations which Japan owed to
the continent.
After the death of the Emperor Inkyō there was a quarrel about the
succession between his two sons, Prince Kinashi-no-Karu and Prince
Anaho-no-Ōji. The courtiers all favored the latter, who was the younger
brother, and he surrounded his elder brother in the house of
Monobe-no-Ōmai. Seeing no way of escape he committed suicide.(81) The
younger brother then became the twentieth emperor, who is known under the
canonical name of Ankō. He had another difficulty growing out of social
complications. He wanted to make the younger sister of Okusaka-no-Ōji, who
was the brother of the preceding Emperor Inkyō, the wife of
Ōhatsuse-no-Ōji, his own younger brother, who afterwards became the
Emperor Yuriyaku. He sent as a messenger the court official, Ne-no-Ōmi, to
ask the consent of her elder brother, who gladly gave it, and as a token
of his gratitude for this high honor he sent a rich necklace. Ne-no-Ōmi,
overcome with covetousness, kept the necklace for himself, and reported to
the emperor that Okusaka-no-Ōji refused his consent. The emperor was very
angry, and sent a detachment of troops against the supposed offender. They
surrounded the house and put him to death. His chief attendants, knowing
his innocence, committed suicide by the side of their dead master. The
emperor then completed his design of taking the sister of Okusaka-no-Ōji
as the wife of the Prince Ōhatsuse-no-Ōji, and he also took his widow and
promoted her to be his empress.
Out of these circumstances arose serious troubles. His new empress had a
young son by her first husband named Mayuwa-no-Ō, said to have been only
seven years old. With his mother he was an inmate of the palace, and was
probably a spoiled and wayward boy. The emperor was afraid lest this boy,
when he came to understand who had been the cause of the death of his
father, would undertake to revenge himself. He talked with the empress
about his fears and explained his apprehensions. The boy accidentally
heard the conversation, and was probably stimulated thereby to do the very
thing which the emperor feared. Creeping stealthily into the room where
the emperor lay asleep he stabbed him and then fled, taking refuge in the
house of the Grandee Tsubura. The emperor was fifty-six years of age at
the time of his death. This tragical event produced a great excitement.
The younger brother of the emperor, Ōhatsuse, amazed and angry because his
two older brothers were not, as he thought, sufficiently enraged by the
murder of the emperor, killed them both. Then he attacked the Grandee
Tsubura and the boy Mayuwa in their refuge. Seeing no way of escape
Tsubura, at the request of the boy, first slew him and then killed
himself.
Subsequently Ōhatsuse, who seemed to have been of a violent disposition,
murdered Ichinobe-no-Oshiha, son of the seventeenth emperor, Richū. His
two sons, then merely boys, Ōke and Woke (literally big basket and little
basket), hearing of this catastrophe escaped into the province of Harima
where they worked as cow-herds. Ōhatsuse was crowned as the twenty-first
emperor and is known by the canonical name of Yūriyaku Tennō.
In the year A.D. 470 an ambassador came from Go in China and by order of
the emperor was entertained by the Grandee Ne-no-Ōmi. A court official,
Toneri, was directed to see that this duty was suitably performed. Now
Ne-no-Ōmi, it will be remembered, was the grandee who, on a former
occasion, was sent by the Emperor Ankō to solicit the hand of the Princess
Hatahi-no-Ōji for the present emperor, who was then the crown prince. In
order to entertain the Chinese ambassador with becoming magnificence,
Ne-no-Ōmi robed himself in a gorgeous manner and among other things put on
the rich necklace which he had stolen. Toneri reported to the emperor the
superb entertainment which Ne-no-Ōmi had accorded to the Chinese
ambassador, and especially the necklace which he wore. The emperor
innocently asked that Ne-no-Ōmi should appear before him in order that he
might see his superb dress. The empress, who was with her husband when
Ne-no-Ōmi came in, recognized the necklace which had been sent by her
brother to the late emperor. The theft was charged and Ne-no-Ōmi compelled
to confess. The emperor proclaimed the innocence of Okusaka-no-Ōji and his
great regret at the mistaken punishments.
There are many traditions current in Japanese early history concerning
this emperor. In one he is represented in his imperial journeys to have
seen a house belonging to Lord Shiki built with a raised roof like that of
the imperial palace. He was greatly enraged that any subject should dare
to take such a liberty, and sent his attendants to burn the house down.
The poor frightened lord hastened to the emperor and humbly apologized for
his stupidity. And he presented to the emperor in token of his humble
submission a white dog clothed with cloth and led by a string. So he was
forgiven and his house was spared.
In another legend he is said to have come upon a beautiful girl by the
river side washing clothes. He stopped and conferred with her, and said to
her, “Do not thou marry a husband, I will send for thee.” With this he
returned to the palace and forgot about his promise. But the poor girl did
not forget. Year after year passed, till at last after eighty years of
waiting she was a very old woman. Then she thought, “My face and form are
lean and withered, there is no longer any hope. Nevertheless, if I do not
show the Heavenly Sovereign how truly I have waited, my disappointment
will be unbearable.” And so with such gifts as she could afford she
presented herself before the emperor. He wondering at her and her gifts
asked her, “What old woman art thou, and why art thou come hither?” She
replied, “Having in such and such a month and such and such a year
received the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands, I have been reverently
awaiting the great command until this day, and eighty years have passed
by. Now, my appearance is decrepit and there is no longer any hope.
Nevertheless, I have come forth in order to show and declare my
faithfulness.” Thereupon the Heavenly Sovereign, greatly agitated,
exclaimed, “I had quite forgotten my command; and thou meanwhile, ever
faithfully awaiting my commands, hast vainly let pass by the years of thy
prime. It is too pitiful.” He sent her back to her home with such
consolation as rich gifts could impart.
We give one more of the legends which cling to the name of this emperor.
He was making an imperial progress to the moor of Akizu for the purpose of
hunting. And as he sat down to rest a horse-fly bit his august arm. But
immediately a dragon-fly came and seized the horse-fly and flew away.
Thereupon he composed an august song as follows:
Who is it tells in the great presence that game is lying on the
peak of Womuro, at Mi-Yeshinu? Our Great Lord who tranquilly
carries on the government, being seated on the throne to await the
game, a horse-fly alights on and stings the fleshy part of his arm
fully clad in a sleeve of white stuff, and a dragon-fly quickly
eats up the horse-fly. That it might properly bear its name, the
land of Yamato was called the Island of the Dragon-Fly.(82)
After a long reign Yūriyaku is said in _Kojiki_ to have died at the age of
one hundred and twenty-four.
The son of the Emperor Yūriyaku, Prince Shiraka, succeeded him. He is
known in history as the Emperor Seinei. He lived only five years after his
accession and left no descendant to fill the throne. Search was
accordingly made for some one of imperial blood who might become emperor.
It will be remembered that the Emperor Yūriyaku, before his accession, had
murdered Prince Ichinobe-no-Oshiwa, son of the eighteenth emperor, and
that his two sons, then young boys, Princes Ōke and Woke, made their
escape into the province of Harima. A new governor of this province had
just arrived and was in attendance at the festivities in honor of the
opening of a new cave(83) by a citizen of the place. As usual there was
feasting, and drinking, and dancing. The two young men Ōke and Woke, who
occupied menial positions in this household, were called upon to dance.
After some hesitation they each in succession danced and sang some of the
songs which they had learned in their boyhood.(84) The new governor
recognized these songs to be such as were taught at the court, and on
enquiring found the young men to be grandsons of the Emperor Richū. He
brought them to the palace and presented them to their aunt Queen Ii-Toyo.
After a friendly contest between the two brothers, the younger one, Prince
Woke, became the twenty-third emperor under the canonical name of Kenzō.
His reign was a very short one, only eight years according to the _Kojiki_
and three years according to the _Nihongi_. The only incident of
consequence recorded of him is that he sought out the burial place of his
father, who had been murdered by the Emperor Yūriyaku, and transferred his
remains to a fitting mausoleum. He also contemplated the desecration of
the mausoleum of the murderer as a mark of his vengeance, but was
dissuaded by his brother from the undertaking.
He died without children and was succeeded by his elder brother Prince Ōke
who became A.D. 488 the twenty-fourth emperor under the canonical name of
Ninken.
Concerning the emperor and several of his successors there is little of
interest to record. The twenty-fifth emperor, Muretsu (A.D. 499), who was
a son of the emperor Ninken, was chiefly notable for his cruelty. Some of
the acts recorded of him can only be equalled by those of the degenerate
occupants of the imperial throne of Rome in its worst days. He reigned
eleven years and died without children. The twenty-sixth emperor was
Keitai Tennō, who was the fifth descendant from Ōjin Tennō. The only
noticeable events in his reign were an expedition to Korea to settle
difficulties which had then intervened, and an expedition to Chikushi, the
northern part of Kyūshū, to repress tumults which had arisen. The next
emperors were Ankan Tennō and Senkuwa Tennō, whose reigns were uneventful.
The twenty-ninth emperor was Kimmei Tennō, (A.D. 540-571), who was the son
of Keitai Tennō. He reigned thirty-two years and died at the age of
sixty-three. It was during his reign, in A.D. 552, that an ambassador from
Kudara, one of the three provinces of Korea, presented to the emperor an
image of Shaka, and also Buddhist books explaining the doctrine. He
commended highly the new religion, and the emperor was deeply impressed
with its novelties. This seems the more probable because up to this time
Japan looked upon China and Korea as leaders in civilization, and
therefore was disposed to regard what had obtained a footing there as
worthy of acceptance.
The prime-minister Soga-no-Iname favored the new religion, and urged that
the image of Shaka which had been brought over should be duly set up and
worshipped. But the ministers Monobe-no-Okoshi and Kumako opposed the
proposition, saying, “Our country has its own gods; and they perhaps will
be angry with us if we pay our devotions to a foreign god.”
But the emperor settled the matter by saying, “Let Iname try it.” He gave
the idol to Iname with the directions that he should set it up and pray to
it. Accordingly Iname took the image of Shaka and established it in a
house of his own, which he created a temple, and worshipped it.
But shortly after this an epidemic broke out in the country, and Okoshi
and Kumako declared that it was due to the strange god which had been
received from the western barbarians, and besought the emperor to have it
thrown away. The image therefore by the emperor’s command was thrown into
the sea near Naniwa,(85) and the temple in which it had been erected was
destroyed. This was the first movement towards the introduction of
Buddhism.
In the reign of the thirtieth emperor, Bitatsu Tennō, A.D. 572, who was
the son of Kimmei Tennō, Kudara again made a contribution of Buddhist
emblems, viz.: books of Buddhist doctrine; a priest of Ritsu sect; a
priest; a nun; a diviner; an image maker; and a Buddhist temple carpenter.
These were all housed in the temple of Owake-no-O at Naniwa. Seven years
after this two Japanese ambassadors who had been sent to Kudara brought
back with them several Buddhist images of stone, which the Daijin Umako
obtained as his possession. He built several Buddhist temples in which he
placed the images and other precious relics which he had secured. He also
built a pagoda and houses in which the priests and nuns resided. When
Umako was sick he asked from the emperor that he might avail himself of
the Buddhist ritual. The emperor gave him this privilege, but commanded
him to restrict it to himself.
The Emperor Bitatsu died A.D. 585 at the age of forty-eight. His successor
was Emperor Yōmei the thirty-first in order from the Emperor Jimmu. He was
by his mother a descendant of the Soga family and his first wife was also
a daughter of the prime-minister, the Noble Iname who was also of the Soga
family. The bitter hostility between the members of the court who favored
Buddhism and those who opposed it continued. The leader of the former
party was Umako now the prime-minister, while the opponents of Buddhism
were led by Moriya. One of the occasions when their hostility broke out
was when the emperor was taken sick and he wished to try the effect of the
Buddhist Sampō, that is, the three precious elements of Buddhism, Buddha,
the rites of Buddhism, and the Buddhist priests. Moriya and his party
advised against this conformity to Buddhism, but Umako supported him in
his wishes and introduced a Buddhist priest into the palace to attend upon
the emperor. In spite of all this effort, however, the emperor died,
having reigned only three years.
The death of the emperor was the signal for the breaking out of serious
disturbances. Moriya the champion of the old religion was killed and his
party overpowered. From this time Buddhism may be said to have triumphed
in Japan. The thirty-second emperor, Sujun, was crowned A.D. 588. He was
the son of the Emperor Kimmei, and at the time of his accession was
sixty-nine years of age. The communication with Korea continued, and more
and more of the Buddhist culture was introduced. Umako, who now had
undisputed sway in the government, sent out to Korea persons to study the
Buddhist faith, and consecrated many priests and nuns and erected temples
for the new worship.
But everything did not move smoothly. Umako, with all his zeal and
enthusiasm for Buddhism, was suspected of personal ambition, and was
looked upon with distrust. A plot to assassinate the emperor was planned
by Umako, which terminated his life, after a reign of only four years, in
the seventy-third year of his age.
The thirty-third sovereign was the Empress Suiko, who was the sister of
the Emperor Yōmei. Her coronation took place A.D. 593. Her reign was
chiefly remarkable for the active influence of Umaydo-no-Ōji (A.D.
572-622), who was the second son of the Emperor Yōmei, and who was made
crown prince under the empress, and aided her in the administration of the
political affairs of the government. This prince is better known by his
posthumous title of Shōtoku Taishi (great teacher of the divine virtue),
and is held in great reverence as the principal founder and promoter of
Buddhism in Japan. His name has been linked with many legends, which are
still current after the lapse of fourteen hundred years. It is said that
as soon as he was born he was able to speak, and was in all respects a
very clever boy. His memory was wonderfully acute. He had Napoleon the
Great’s talent of attending to several things at the same time. He could
hear the appeals of eight persons at once, and give to each a proper
answer. From this circumstance he sometimes went by the name of
Yatsumimi-no-Ōji, that is, Prince of Eight Ears.
The prince threw the whole influence of the government in favor of
Buddhism. Many temples were built in different central districts for the
convenience of the new religion. Under his influence the officers of the
government rivalled each other in founding temples and maintaining them at
their own expense. He took as his teacher a priest who had recently come
from Korea, and from him for the first time learned the five Buddhist
commandments:
1. Against stealing.
2. Against lying.
3. Against intemperance.
4. Against murder.
5. Against adultery.
He gave command to an artificer in copper to make large images of Buddha
for each of the officers in the government. The king of Koma in Korea
hearing of this great undertaking sent a contribution of three hundred
_ryō_ of gold. The images were finished in due time and an imposing
religious ceremonial was held in honor of the event. Many of the principal
temples of Buddhism in different parts of Japan take their origin from the
time of Shōtoku Taishi, and no single character in history is so
intimately connected with the development of Buddhism.
It was not only as a religious reformer, however, that he deserves to be
remembered. He was a a most painstaking and enlightened ruler. He
studiously gathered from the Chinese the elements and methods of
government and adapted them to his own country.(86) From his time the
study of Chinese literature became the essential culture of the active
minds of Japan.
Shōtoku Taishi died A.D. 622, having been the principal officer of the
government for twenty-nine years.
The impulse which Shōtoku had given to Buddhism did not subside. In the
year following his death officers were appointed to govern the growing
religious communities, called Sosho and Sozu, which in dignity and power
corresponded to archbishops and bishops in Christian nomenclature. The
first archbishop was Kwankin, a priest from Kudara, and the first bishop
was Tokuseki of Kurabe. These officials examined every priest and nun and
made a register of them. A census of Buddhism is also given which belongs
to this same period. According to this there were forty-six Buddhist
temples and 1385 priests and nuns.
In the year A.D. 626, Soga-no-Umako the _daijin_ and a life-long friend
and promoter of Buddhism died, and two years later the Empress Suiko died.
So nearly all the prominent participants in the events which had taken
place since the first entrance of Buddhism into Japan, had disappeared. In
the meantime a religion had taken possession of a field in which it was
destined to exert a wide influence and undergo a national development.
Along with this religion had come a literature and a culture, which when
absorbed into the life of this people gave them the permanent
characteristics which we now recognize as the Japanese civilization. The
freer and more frequent intercourse with China and Korea brought with it
not only a knowledge of books and writing, but many improvements in arts
and many new arts and agricultural industries. When the forces of the
Empress Jingō returned from Korea they brought with them persons skilled
in many industrial occupations. It is a tradition that a descendant of the
Kan dynasty in China had fled to Korea on the fall of that dynasty, and in
the twentieth year of the Emperor Ōjin (A.D. 290) had migrated to Japan
with a colony who were familiar with weaving and sewing. In the
thirty-seventh year of the same emperor an officer was sent to China to
obtain more weavers and sewers. The cultivation of the mulberry tree and
the breeding of silk-worms(87) was introduced from China in A.D. 457, and
in order to encourage this industry the empress herself engaged in it. At
this early period this important industry was begun, or at least received
an impulse which has been continued down to the present time.
With these industrial arts came in rapid succession the elements of a
higher civilization. Books on almanac-making, astronomy, geography and
divination were brought to Japan from Korea and China. The Chinese
calendar(88) was first used in the reign of the Empress Suiko under the
regency of Shōtoku Taishi. This almanac was based on the lunar periods and
the civil year began with the new moon occurring about the beginning of
February. But as the length of the civil year is not an exact multiple of
the number of days contained in a lunation, the twelve lunar months used
by the Chinese and Japanese will be about eleven days shorter than the
solar year. Hence to prevent the discrepancy from increasing and throwing
the seasons entirely out of their place in the calendar, an intercalary
month was inserted nearly every third year. It was inserted not at the end
of the year but whenever the discrepancy had reached the number of days in
a lunation. The month thus inserted was called by the same name as the
preceding with an explanatory prefix. From this period therefore the dates
of Japanese events may be relied upon with some degree of certainty. For
events occurring before this period, a knowledge of which must have been
transmitted by oral tradition, the dates assigned to them in the _Nihongi_
must have been computed by counting back to the supposed time according to
the calendar in use at the time of the writing.
The astronomy and geography introduced into Japan along with
almanac-making in the fifth century were without question very primitive
sciences. At this time even in Europe the knowledge of these sciences was
not advanced beyond the imperfect notions of the Greeks. It was not until
the sixteenth century, when the discoveries of the Portuguese and the
Spaniards and the English had revealed the shape and the divisions of the
earth, and the Jesuits had carried this knowledge to China and Japan, that
anything like a correct astronomy or geography was possible. By
divination, which is mentioned as one of the sciences brought over from
Korea, was meant the determination of future events or of lucky or unlucky
conditions.
The most important civilizing force introduced from China at this period
was the formal institutions of education. Although the first establishment
of a school dates from the reign of the Emperor Tenji (A.D. 668-671), yet
it was not till the reign of the Emperor Mommu (A.D. 697-707) that the
university was regularly organized. Branch schools were also established
in the several provinces. In the university there were departments for
Chinese literature, for medicine, for astronomy and almanac-making, and
for astrology. Under the first head were included the art of writing the
Chinese characters, the practice of composition, the study of the Chinese
classics, and the reading of books of Chinese history. In like manner the
training of the students in medicine chiefly consisted in making them
familiar with the methods which prevailed in China. The properties of
medicinal plants, the variations of the pulse in health and disease and in
the changing seasons, and the anatomy of the human body were the chief
subjects of study. The human cadaver was never dissected, but a knowledge
of anatomy was obtained from diagrams which were wholly hypothetical. In
early times medical officers were appointed to experiment with medicines
upon monkeys, and also to dissect the bodies of monkeys. From these
dissections, as well as from the printed diagrams of Chinese books the
imperfect knowledge which they had reached was derived. It was not till
1771 that Sugita Genpaku(89) and several other Japanese scholars had an
opportunity to dissect the body of a criminal, and by personal observation
found the utter falsity of the Chinese diagrams on which they had hitherto
relied, and the correctness of the Dutch books, which they had, contrary
to the laws of the country, learned to read.
The great reverence felt for Chinese culture led to the introduction at an
early date of the Chinese system of official rank. The system remained in
force down to the restoration in 1868. The officers were _Daijō-daijin_
(Prime-Minister), _Sa-daijin_ (Minister of the Left), _U-daijin_ (Minister
of the Right), together with eight boards,(90) charged with the various
duties of administration. These boards were divided into sections, and the
various departments of the government were respectively performed by them.
In this way the administration became thoroughly bureaucratic, in
imitation of the Chinese empire, to which the Japanese at this time looked
up with the most complete reverence.
In addition to these official boards, six official ranks were also
introduced from China. These ranks were designated, first, virtue; second,
humanity; third, propriety; fourth, truth; fifth, righteousness, and
sixth, wisdom. Each of these ranks(91) was divided into two orders termed
respectively the Greater and the Lesser. Thus there were twelve
distinctions in this system. It was introduced in the reign of the Empress
Suiko, A.D. 604, and is generally attributed to the Regent Shōtoku, who
was a great admirer of the continental civilization. It existed in this
form until the time of the Emperor Kōtoku, when, A.D. 649, it was extended
to nineteen distinctions. These were not given to the individual in
recognition of talent, but to families to be by them transmitted to their
posterity as hereditary rank.
For many years during this period of active intercourse with China and
Korea, Dazaifu, situated on the west coast of Kyūshū, north of the present
situation of Nagasaki, was the recognized port where strangers were
received. This city was the seat of a vice-royalty, having control over
the nine provinces of Kyūshū. The office of vice-governor was considered a
place of honorable banishment to which distinguished men who were
distasteful at court could be sent.
These continental influences continued for many years and indeed have
never ceased. There has always existed a class of scholars who looked upon
Chinese learning as the supreme pinnacle to which the human mind could
attain. This was especially true of the admirers of Confucius and
Confucianism. Although it was not until a much later period that the
culture of a Chinese philosophy attained its highest mark, yet even in the
early arrangement of the studies in the university we see the wide
influence which the writings of the Chinese classics exerted.
We close this chapter with an event which evinced the advance which
Japanese civilization had made, and aided greatly in promoting this
advance in the subsequent centuries. This event was the publication of the
_Kojiki_ (Record of Ancient Things) and the _Nihongi_ (Chronicles of
Japan). A book still older than these is said to have been composed in
A.D. 620, but it perished in a fire in A.D. 645, although a fragment is
said to have been rescued. The circumstances attending the preparation of
the _Kojiki_ are given by Mr. Satow in his paper(92) on the “Revival of
Pure Shintō,” and also by Mr. Chamberlain(93) in his introduction to the
translation. The Emperor Temmu had resolved to take measures to preserve
the true traditions from oblivion. He had the records carefully examined
and compiled. Then these collated traditions were one by one committed to
one of the household officers, Hiyeda-no-Are, who had a marvellously
retentive memory. Before the work of compilation was finished the emperor
died; but the Empress Gemmyō, who after an interval succeeded him, carried
it on to its completion in A.D. 712. By her direction the traditions were
taken down from Are’s dictation in the form in which we now have them. It
is by no means a pleasing or attractive work, even in the opinion of the
Japanese. It is bald and archaic in its form and composition. It is,
however, notable as being freer from the admixture of Chinese learning,
and therefore a better index of the native culture of the race than the
works which followed it.(94) Much of it consists of mere genealogies of
the emperors and naked statements of leading events, but there are besides
this many legends and poems which bear evidence of having been handed down
in essentially their present form. As an authority for the chronology of
the early events it is, of course, of small value. It is evident that
where a narrative of events has been carried through many centuries by
tradition alone, without written records to check or assist it, no
dependence can be placed on the chronology of the events, further than,
perhaps, on the order of sequence.
Only eight years after the publication of the _Kojiki_, a second work
termed _Nihongi_ or Chronicles of Japan was issued. It was prepared by
imperial command and appeared in A.D. 720 in the reign of the Empress
Genshō. It differs from the older book in being composed in the Chinese
idiom, and in being much more tinctured with the ideas of Chinese
philosophy. These two works, so nearly contemporaneous, both of them
composed in so great a degree of the legendary elements of Japanese
history, must be looked upon as marking a distinct epoch in the story of
Japan.