JAPAN BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM
AND CHINESE CIVILISATION
Before entering into a description of the early history of Japan, it may
be of some service to the foreign reader to learn when the authentic
history of Japan begins. Generally it is not an easy matter to draw a
distinct line of demarcation between the historic and the prehistoric
age in the history of any country, and in order to get rid of this
difficulty, an intermediate age called the proto-historic was invented
by modern scholars, and has been in vogue up to now. It is true that, by
making use of this term, one aim was surely attained, but two
difficulties were thereby created in lieu of one dismissed. We were
freed, indeed from the hard task of making a delicate discrimination
between the historic and the prehistoric age, but at the same time we
took up the burden of distinguishing the proto-historic age from both
the historic and the prehistoric! And these new difficulties cannot be
said to be easier to meet than the old, so that it may be doubted
whether it was wise to intercalate the proto-historic age between the
two, if the promotion of scientific exactitude was the main purpose of
such an intercalation. A polygon, however the number of its sides be
augmented, can never make a circle in the exact sense. I shall not,
therefore, try to adhere scrupulously to the above-mentioned threefold
division in discharging the task which I have undertaken.
Let me turn then to the line of demarcation between the historic and the
prehistoric age without troubling myself about the proto-historic. This
line must be drawn by first making clear the signification of the
historic age, and not by defining the term "prehistoric." What, then is
the historic age? It may be defined as an age, the authentic history of
which can, in a large measure, be ascertained, or as an age which has an
historical record, contemporary and fairly reliable. It is to be
regretted that we cannot dispense with such precautionary expressions as
'to a large measure' and 'fairly', but we cannot avoid retaining them,
and therein lies the true difficulty of making an exact demarcation.
Moreover, an age, the history of which was regarded at one time as
impossible of being ascertained, often may become ascertainable as the
result of ever-increasing discoveries of new materials as well as of the
new methods of their deciphering. In other words, the demarcation,
however conscientiously made at one time, is liable to be shifting, and
the reason for the demarcation gradually changes _pari passu_. As the
word prehistoric has now begun to be used independently of 'historic',
the historic age may be better defined as an age which has a
civilisation advanced enough to have a record of its own. So far a
country may be said to be in an historic age, even at an epoch the
historical sources of which are considered not to be extant anywhere,
only if the standard of civilisation be high enough for that. Unless we
adopt this definition, the line of demarcation may shift more and more
into antiquity, as the result of ever-increasing discoveries of new
materials as well as of the methods of their interpretation, and the
demarcation itself will become of very little value. So far a country
may be said to be in an historic age, even at an epoch the historical
sources of which are considered not to be extant anywhere. But how can
we know whether a country has reached a stage of civilisation advanced
enough to have its own record? It is almost impossible to discover this
point without resorting to authentic historical sources. And in order
that we may so resort, those sources must be extant. In this way if we
want to make the demarcation full of significance, we have to beg the
question _ad infinitum_.
In the history of Japan, too, what is said above holds true, and the
demarcation, however dexterously made, will not assist much in the study
of it. Among foreigners, however, the question how far can we go back
with certainty in the history of Japan, is a very popular topic, and has
been discussed with very keen interest. For the sake of elucidation,
therefore, I will give a short account of the early chronicles
concerning the history of our country.
Among the old chronicles of Japan there are two which are especially
conspicuous. The one is the _Kojiki_, the other the _Nihongi_. It is
generally admitted that these two chronicles are the oldest extant and
the most substantial of all the historical sources of ancient Japan. The
compilation of the former was concluded in 712 A.D. by a savant called
Oh-no-Yasumaro, while that of the latter was undertaken by several royal
historiographers, and finished in 720 A.D. under the auspices of Prince
Toneri. That the compilation of the two great chronicles took place
successively in the beginning of the eighth century is one of the
symptoms showing the dawning of the national consciousness of the
Japanese, to which I shall refer in the following chapters. In their
characteristics, these two chronicles differ somewhat from each other.
The materials of the _Kojiki_ were first made legible and compiled by
Hieta-no-Are, an intelligent courtier in the reign of the Emperor Temmu,
and afterwards revised by the aforesaid Oh-no-Yasumaro. Considering that
there was only a very short time left at the disposal of Yasumaro to
spend in revising the work before dedicating it to the Empress Gemmyo,
it can be safely concluded that Yasumaro did not try to make any great
alteration, and the _Kojiki_ remained for the most part as it had been
compiled by Hieta-no-Are. The other chronicle, the _Nihongi_, was
finished eight years after the _Kojiki_, and submitted to the Empress by
Prince Toneri, the president of the historiographical commission. If we
suppose this commission to be a continuation of what was inaugurated by
the royal order of the Emperor Temmu in the tenth year of his reign,
then the commission may be said to have taken about forty years in
compiling the chronicle. In some respects the _Kojiki_ may be regarded
as one of the byproducts of the compilation, Hieta-no-Are being probably
one of the assistants of the commission. The essential difference
between the two chronicles is that the _Kojiki_ was exclusively compiled
from Japanese sources, written by Japanese as well as by naturalized
Koreans, and retained much of the colloquial form of ancient Japanese
narrated stories, while in the case of the _Nihongi_ many Chinese
historical works were consulted, and historical events were so arranged
as to conform to what was stated in those Chinese records. Many _bon
mots_, it is true, were often borrowed from ancient Chinese classics,
and this ornamented and exaggerated style was often pursued at the
expense of historical truth, and on that account most of the later
historians of our country give less credit to the _Nihongi_ than to the
_Kojiki_, though this scepticism about the former is somewhat
undeserved.
It is beyond question that the two chronicles mentioned above are the
oldest historical works written in Japan, now extant. They are not,
however, the earliest attempts at historical compilation in our country.
Just a hundred years before the compilation of the _Nihongi_ was
finished, the Empress Suiko, in the twenty-eighth year of her reign,
that is, in 620 A.D. ordered the Crown Prince, known as Shotoku, and
Soga-no-Umako, the most influential minister in her court, to compile
the chronicles of the imperial house, of various noted families and
groups of people, and a history of the country with its provinces. If
these chronicles had been completed and preserved to this day, they
would have been the oldest we have. Unfortunately, however, by the
premature death of the Crown Prince, the compilation was abruptly
terminated, and what was partly accomplished seems to have been kept at
the house of Soga-no-Umako, until it was burnt down by his son Yemishi,
when he was about to be executed by imperial order in 645 A.D. Fragments
of the archives, it is said, were picked up out of the blazing fire, but
nothing more was ever heard of them. There is a version now called the
_Kujiki_, and this has been misrepresented to be that very chronicle,
which, it was feigned, was not really lost, but offered in an unfinished
state to the Empress the next year after the death of prince Shotoku. If
this be true, the record which was burnt must have been one of several
copies of the incomplete chronicle, which, as Euclid would say, is
absurd! It is now generally agreed that the chronicle is spurious,
though it may contain some citations from sources originally authentic.
Whatever be the criticism on the chronicle _Kujiki_, there is no
doubting the fact that the work of compiling a history was initiated in
the reign of the Empress Suiko, and partly put into execution. Not only
that. There might have been many other chronicles and historical
manuscripts in existence anterior to the compilation of the _Nihongi_,
and afterwards lost. In the _Nihongi_ are mentioned the names of the
books which were consulted in the course of compilation. Among them may
be found the names of several sets of the annals of a peninsular state
called Kutara, various Chinese historical works, and a history of Japan
written by a Korean priest. Some of the books are not named explicitly,
and passages from them are cited as "from a book" merely, but we can
easily perceive that they were mostly from Japanese records.
So far I have spoken about chronicles which were compiled of set purpose
as a record of the times and worthy to be called historical works. As to
other kinds of manuscripts, for instance, various family records and
fragmentary documents of various sorts, there might have been a
considerable number of these, and it is probable that they were utilized
by the compilers of the _Kojiki_ and of the _Nihongi_, though the latter
mentions very few of such materials, and the former is entirely silent
concerning its sources. The question then arises how this presumably
large number of manuscripts came to be formed. We have no written
character which may be called truly our own. All forms of the ideographs
in use in our country were borrowed from China, intact or modified. And
in ancient Japan an utter lack of knowledge of the Chinese characters
prevailed for a long time throughout most classes of the people. If this
were so, by whom were those documents transcribed? In the reign of the
Emperor Richu, _circa_ 430 A.D., scribes were posted in each province to
prepare archives, a fact which implies that the emperor and magistrates
had their own scribes already. Who then were appointed as the scribes?
To explain this I must turn for a while to the history of the Korean
peninsula and its relations with China.
Wu-ti, the most enterprising emperor of the Han dynasty, was the first
to push his military exploration into the Korean peninsula, and from 107
B.C. onward the northern parts of the peninsula were successively turned
into Chinese provinces. This was the beginning of the infiltration of
Chinese civilisation into those regions. Afterwards on account of the
internal disturbances of the Chinese empire, her grip on the conquered
provinces became a little loosened, but at the beginning of the third
century A.D. a strong independent Chinese state constituted itself on
the east of the river Lyao, and Chinese influence thereby once more
extended itself vigorously over the northern half of the peninsula: a
new province was added to the south. In the districts which had thus
become Chinese provinces, not only were governors sent from China, but a
number of colonists must also have settled there, so that through them
Chinese civilisation continued to infiltrate more and more, though very
slowly, into the peninsula. This infiltration lasted till the middle of
the fourth century, when the Chinese provinces in the peninsula were
overrun and occupied by the Kokuri or the Koreans properly so called,
who came from the northeast, and by this invasion of the barbarians the
progress of civilisation in the peninsula was for a time obstructed.
Still there might have remained a certain number of the descendants of
the older Chinese colonists, and it is possible that they still retained
some vestige of the civilisation introduced by their ancestors. The
history of the peninsula at this period may be well pictured by
comparing it to the history of Britain with its lingering Roman
civilisation at the time of the Saxon conquest. It is just at the end of
this period that Japan came into close contact with the peninsular
peoples.
It is almost impossible to ascertain from reliable sources how far back
we can trace our connection with the peninsula. According to a chronicle
of Shiragi, a state which once existed in the southeast of the
peninsula, one of the Japanese invasions of that state is dated as early
as 49 B.C. Since the value of the chronicle as historical material is
very dubious, it is dangerous to put much faith in this statement at
present. We may, however, venture to assume that in the first half of
the third century A.D. the intercourse between Japan and Korea became
suddenly very intimate. Japan invaded the peninsula more frequently than
before, and our emissaries were despatched to the Chinese province
established to the north of it. Nay, not only that, some of them
penetrated into the interior of China proper, as far as the capital of
Wei, and on the way back seem to have been escorted by a Chinese
official stationed in the peninsular province. Memoirs by those Chinese
who had thus opportunities of peeping into a corner of our country, were
incorporated by Chen-Shou, a Chinese historian at the end of the third
century, in his general description of Japan, a chapter in the
_San-kuo-chih_, which has remained to this day one of the most valuable
sources concerning the early history of our country. This intercourse
between the peninsula and Japan, sometimes friendly and sometimes
hostile, happened to be accentuated by the expedition of the Empress
Jingu to Shiragi in the middle of the fourth century. Soon after this
expedition, Chinese civilisation, which had achieved a considerable
progress during the long Han dynasty, began to flow into Japan, and
effected a remarkable change in both the social and the political life
of our country. For just at this time the two northern states of the
peninsula, Korea or Kokhuri and Kutara, advanced rapidly in their
civilisation, so that a school to teach Chinese literature was founded
in the former, while in the latter a post was instituted in the royal
service for a man of letters. And Shiragi, another state in the
south-eastern part of the peninsula, ceased to be a barrier to
communication between those two peninsular states and Japan, as it had
been before the expedition of the Empress.
Among the boons conferred by the introduction of Chinese civilisation
through the intermediation of the peninsular states, that which had had
the most beneficial and enduring effect was the use of the written
character. It cannot be said with certainty that the Chinese characters
were totally unknown to the Japanese before the aforesaid expedition of
the Empress. On the contrary, there are several indications from which
we can surmise that they had chances to catch glimpses of the Chinese
ideographs. It is beyond the scope of probability, however, to suppose
that these ideographic characters were used by the Japanese themselves
at so early a period, in order to commit to writing whatever might have
pleased them to do so. At the utmost we cannot go further than to assume
that certain immigrants from the peninsula, some of whom probably came
over to this country before the expedition, as well as their
descendants, might have used the Chinese ideographs. Among the
immigrants some may have been of Chinese origin while others were of
peninsular origin, but imbued with Chinese culture. But even in these
cases the use of the characters must have been limited to recording
their own family chronicles or simple business transactions. It can be
believed, too, that the number of those who were acquainted with the
written characters at that time was very small even among the immigrants
themselves. It is needless to say that public affairs were not yet
committed to writing. That up to the time of the expedition the standard
of civilisation in the peninsular states stood not much higher than that
of Japan may also account for the illiteracy which had continued so
long.
Shortly after the Empress Jingu's incursion into Korea the literary
culture of the peninsular states rose suddenly to a higher standard than
that of our country, and enabled them to send into Japan men versed in
writing and reading Chinese characters. At the same time their
immigration was encouraged by the Japanese emperors, and some of the
literati were enlisted into the imperial service. As Japan had at that
time a quasi-caste system, everybody pursuing the profession which he
had inherited from his forefathers, and people belonging to the same
profession forming a group by themselves, several groups were thus
formed, which made reading and writing their exclusive profession.
Almost all the scribes appointed in the reign of the Emperor Richu must
have belonged to one of the families in those groups. As a matter of
course members of the imperial family and those belonging to the
aristocracy began in process of time to be initiated in the elements of
Chinese literature; but still, writing, as a business, continued to be
entrusted to the members of the groups of the penman's craft, and they,
too, rejoiced in monopolising posts and professions which could not
dispense with writing, as secretaries, councillors, notaries, and
ambassadors to foreign countries, and the like. Naturally chroniclers
and historians were to be found solely among them, and there remains
little doubt that far the greater part of the historical manuscripts
consulted by the compilers of the _Nihongi_ were written by those
professional scribes.
It is not much to be wondered at that the art of writing was entrusted
to certain groups of people, while the dominant class in general
remained illiterate. What is most strange is that such a condition could
continue for a very long time in our country, the learned groups, who
had, in their hands, the key of public and private business, being
subjected to the rule of the illiterate. Could it not be explained by
supposing that the ruling class of ancient Japan, though destitute of
book education, yet was endowed with natural abilities, which were more
than enough to cope with the literary culture of that time? If
otherwise, then their prestige should have been easily shaken by the
class of literati within a short interval. It is to be regretted that we
have very few sources to prove positively the ability and attainments
peculiar to the Japanese of that time, but this long continuance of the
illiteracy of the ruling class may serve as a negative proof, that at
least the ruling class was a gifted people, more gifted than was to be
surmised from their illiteracy.
Here the reader would perhaps ask, must the condition of ancient Japan
remain shrouded in mystery forever? Will it be utterly impossible to
know something positive about it? On the contrary, however vague,
uncertain, and incredible legends and sources concerning them may be,
still we may extract some positive knowledge from our scanty and often
questionable materials, so as to obviate the necessity of groping
hopelessly in the dark. That the ancient Japanese were averse from any
kind of pollution, physical as well as mental, can be unmistakably
perceived, evidence being too prevalent in numerous legends, and it can
also be attested by many manners and customs preserved until the later
ages. This is the real essence of future Shintoism. About the rite of
the _misogi_, or bathing, I have already spoken in the foregoing
chapter. Wanting literary education, they did not know what hypocrisy
was, and were quite ignorant of the art of sophistication. Being utterly
naive, it was not uncommon that they erred in judgment. But once aware
of their fault, they could not help going to lustrate themselves and
make atonement, in order to get rid of sin. Warlike and superbly
valiant, they were very far from being vindictive. Traits of cruelty are
hardly to be found in the mythological and legendary narratives. The
ancient Japanese were, we have good reason to believe, more humorous
than the modern Japanese.
The description of Japan in the _San-kuo-chih_ furnishes many
interesting data besides what I have stated above. We learn from it that
our ancestors were not in the least litigious, and thieves were rare.
Transgressors of the law were punished with confiscation of wives and
children. In case of the more serious crimes, not only the criminal but
his dependents also were subjected to severe penalties. Women were noted
for their chastity. Elders were respected, and instances of longevity
sometimes reckoning a hundred years of age were not rare. Augury was
implicitly believed in, and when people were at a loss how to decide in
public affairs as well as in private, they used to set fire to the
shoulder bone of a deer, and by the cleavage thereby produced, divined
the will of the deities. When they had to set out for a long voyage,
they accompanied a man, who took upon himself the whole responsibility
for the safety of the voyage and the health of all on board, by
subjecting himself to a hard discipline, and leading a very ascetic
life. If any of the crew fell ill, or the tranquillity of the voyage
was disturbed, he was called on to put his life at stake. Periodical
markets used to be opened in several provinces, where commodities were
exchanged. Tribute was paid by the people in kind. Cattle and horses
were rarely to be seen. Though iron was known in making weapons, yet
arms made of other materials such as bone, bamboo, flint, and so forth
were still to be found in use here and there.
Such was the state of our country as witnessed by Chinese visitors in
the first half of the third century A.D. Their observations might not
have been very accurate, but they strangely coincide in general with
conclusions which could be drawn from Japanese sources. The author of
the _San-kuo-chih_, moreover, says that there was a great resemblance in
manners and customs between Japan and the island of Hai-nan on the
southern coast of China. This assertion may be highly suggestive as to
the ethnological study of Japan. An ancient custom of Japan called
_kugatachi_, a kind of ordeal to prove one's innocence by dipping a hand
into boiling water and taking out some article therefrom unhurt, is said
to have been practised by the people of Hai-nan too. To believe hastily,
however, in a racial connection between the Japanese and the inhabitants
of Hai-nan is a very dangerous matter. Another fact that cannot be
overlooked in the Chinese narratives is a passage concerning the
continual warfare in Japan, though only a short description of it is
given in them.
In the preceding chapter I have spoken about the heterogeneity of the
Japanese as a race. Among the various racial factors, however, none was
able to keep for a long time its racial independence and separateness
from the bulk of the Japanese except the Ainu. Other minor factors were
lost in the chaotic concourse of races or swallowed up in the midst of
the most powerful element. Even the Kumaso, who were once the strongest
element in the island of Kyushu, succumbed to the arms of the Japanese
not long after the peninsular expedition of the Empress Jingu. The Ainu,
too, intermingled with the dominant race wherever circumstances were
favourable to such a union. Having been the predecessors of the
Japanese, however, in the order of settling in this country, and having
moreover been the next most powerful race to it, the Ainu only have been
able to retain their racial entity, though continuously decreasing in
numbers, up to the present time.
In the long history of the antagonism between the Japanese and the Ainu,
which covers more than a thousand years, the Ainu were on the whole the
losing party, retreating before the Japanese. Surely, however, they must
have made a stubborn resistance now and then. That they formerly
occupied the island of Kyushu, we know from the archaeological remains.
But, from reliable historical records, we cannot know anything certain
about the race, until the time when they are to be found fighting
against the Japanese in the northern part of Hon-to. Still it is beyond
doubt, that there must have been not a few intervening phases, and one
of the phases, which is important, coincides with the period when the
visit of the Chinese officials took place.
Most of the countries of the world may be divided into two or more
parts, the people of each of which differ from those of the others in
mental and physical traits. Boundary lines in this case generally
conform to the geographical features of the land, but not necessarily so
always. If we have to draw lines dividing the island of Hon-to in
accordance with linguistic considerations, it is more natural to divide
it first into two rather than into three or more parts, and the dividing
line here is not the most conspicuous geographical boundary. The line
begins on the north at a spot near Nutari, on the Sea of Japan, a little
eastward of the city of Niigata in the province of Yechigo, and after
running vertically southward, on the whole keeping to the meridian of
139 deg. 1/3 E. till it reaches the southern boundary of the province, it
turns abruptly to the west along the boundary between Yechigo and
Shinano, which lies nearly on the latitude 36 deg. 5/6 N.; and then it runs
again toward the south along the western boundary of the provinces
Shinano and Totomi, which is almost identical with the meridian 137 deg.
1/2 E. This is of course an average line drawn from several linguistic
considerations, such as accentuation, dialectic peculiarities and the
like, but at the same time, besides the linguistic differences there are
other kinds noticeable on both sides of the line. It would not therefore
be very wide of the mark, if we adopt this line as a boundary dividing
Hon-to with regard to the difference in the standard of the civilisation
in general. No other line drawn on the map of Japan can divide it in
such a way as to make one part so distinctly different from the other.
If the reader will glance at the map, he can easily see that the line
does not well agree with the geographical features, especially in those
parts running vertically southward. No insurmountable natural barrier
can be found, particularly on the Pacific coast. Consequently the best
interpretation of the boundary line must come not from geography, but
from history.
Not only in the case of Japan, but in Western countries too, broad
rivers or big mountain chains do not necessarily form the lines of
internal and external division. The great Balkan range could not hinder
the Bulgarians of East Roumelia from uniting with their brethren to the
north of the mountain. The Rhine, the most historic river in the world,
has never in reality been made a boundary between France and Germany
which could last for long, and the antagonism of the two countries,
which has continued for many centuries, is the result of the earnest
but hardly realisable desire on both sides to make the river a perpetual
boundary. More than that, even inside Germany the Rhine joins rather
than divides the regions on both sides of it.
Take again for example the boundary between England and Scotland. If we
follow merely the geographical conditions, we may shift the boundary
line a little northward, or perhaps southward too, with better or at
least equal reason. In order to account for the present boundary, we
cannot but look back into the history of the district, from the age of
the Picts and Britons downward. If it had been a dividing line of
shorter duration dating only from the Middle Ages, it would not have
been able to maintain itself so long, and the differences of not only
dialects but of temperament and various mental characteristics would not
have been so decisive.
We have no Picts-wall, no limes in our country, but the boundary line
delineated above divides Japan into two parts, the one different from
the other in various ways, more remarkably than could be effected by
drawing any other boundary line elsewhere. Then where lies the reason
which makes the Ainu line so significant? It must be attributed to the
fact that the line stood for many centuries as a frontier of the
Japanese against the Ainu. In other words, the Ainu must have made the
most stubborn resistance on this line against the advancing Japanese.
Japan had to become organised and consolidated in a great measure, so
as to be called a well-defined entity, before the Japanese could
penetrate beyond the line to the east and north. The exploration of
Northern Japan is the result of this penetration and of the infiltration
of the civilisation which had come into being in the already compact
south. Thus the difference between the two parts grew to be a clearly
perceptible one. In some respects it can be well compared to the
difference between Cape Colony and the two states, the Transvaal and the
Orange Free State, which were formed by the emigrants from the former.
The fortress of Nutari had been for a long time the outpost of the
Japanese against the Ainu on the side of the Sea of Japan. With this
fortress as a pivot the boundary line gradually turned toward the north,
pushed forward by the arms of the Japanese. The movement must have been
made at a very unequal pace in different ages, and where the progress
was very slow or stopped short and could not go on for a long time,
there we may draw another boundary line, thus marking several successive
stages. Politically to efface the significance of these lines was
thought to be necessary for the unification of the Empire by the
Emperors and their ministers in successive ages, and in that respect
more than enough has been achieved by them. Apart from political
considerations, however, those lines, which mark the boundaries in
successive phases, are almost perceptible to this day. And none of
those lines is so full of meaning as the one which I have emphasised
above. At first sight it would seem strange that while the fortress of
Nutari remained stationary as an outpost for a very long time, there
cannot be found any corresponding spot on the Pacific side east of the
line. But the difficulty may be cleared away easily, if one thinks of
the fact that the line was moved on more swiftly to the right than to
the left where the fort Nutari was situated.
In the first half of the third century after Christ the Japanese were
still fighting on the line against the Ainu. And the time when the
Chinese officials came over to this country falls in the same period. In
the description given in the _San-kuo-chih_ the names of about thirty
provinces under the suzerainty of the court of Yamato are mentioned, to
identify all of which with modern names is a very difficult and
practically a hopeless task. But this much is certain, that none of them
could have denoted a province east of the line. Moreover, we can tell
from a passage in the same work that the war with the Ainu at that time
had been a very serious one for our ancestors, for it is stated that the
course of the war was reported to the Chinese official stationed in the
peninsular province by the Japanese ambassador despatched there.
Turning to the southwestern part of Japan, it cannot be said that the
whole island of Kyushu was already at the disposal of the Emperor of
that time. In the region which roughly corresponds with the province of
Higo, a tribe called the Kumaso defied the imperial power, and continued
to do so to an age later than the period of which I have just spoken. It
was perhaps not earlier than the middle of the fourth century that their
resistance was finally broken. South of the Kumaso, there lived another
tribe called the Haito in the district afterwards known as the province
of Satsuma. Some of the tribesmen were wont to serve as warriors in the
army of the Emperor from very early times, especially in the imperial
bodyguard. Still the imperial sway could not easily be extended to their
home. The last insurrection of the Haito tribe is recorded to have
happened at the end of the seventh century. That these southern tribes
were subdued more easily than the Ainu on the north, may be attributed
to the fact that their numbers were comparatively small, and that they
might have been more akin in blood to the important element of the
Japanese race than the Ainu were.