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Title: A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era
Author: Brinkley, F. (Frank), 1841-1912, Kikuchi, Dairoku, 1855-1917
Language: English
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A HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era
by
CAPT. F. BRINKLEY, R. A.
Editor of the "Japan Mail"
With the Collaboration of BARON KIKUCHI
Former President of the Imperial University at Kyoto
With 150 Illustrations Engraved on Wood by Japanese Artists;
Half-Tone Plates, and Maps
DEDICATED BY GRACIOUS PERMISSION TO HIS MAJESTY MEIJI TENNO, THE LATE
EMPEROR OF JAPAN
FOREWORD
It is trite to remark that if you wish to know really any people, it
is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of their history, including
their mythology, legends and folk-lore: customs, habits and traits of
character, which to a superficial observer of a different nationality
or race may seem odd and strange, sometimes even utterly subversive
of ordinary ideas of morality, but which can be explained and will
appear quite reasonable when they are traced back to their origin.
The sudden rise of the Japanese nation from an insignificant position
to a foremost rank in the comity of nations has startled the world.
Except in the case of very few who had studied us intimately, we were
a people but little raised above barbarism trying to imitate Western
civilisation without any capacity for really assimilating or adapting
it. At first, it was supposed that we had somehow undergone a sudden
transformation, but it was gradually perceived that such could not be
and was not the case; and a crop of books on Japan and the Japanese,
deep and superficial, serious and fantastic, interesting and
otherwise, has been put forth for the benefit of those who were
curious to know the reason of this strange phenomenon. But among so
many books, there has not yet been, so far as I know, a history of
Japan, although a study of its history was most essential for the
proper understanding of many of the problems relating to the Japanese
people, such as the relation of the Imperial dynasty to the people,
the family system, the position of Buddhism, the influence of the
Chinese philosophy, etc. A history of Japan of moderate size has
indeed long been a desideratum; that it was not forthcoming was no
doubt due to the want of a proper person to undertake such a work.
Now just the right man has been found in the author of the present
work, who, an Englishman by birth, is almost Japanese in his
understanding of, and sympathy with, the Japanese people. It would
indeed be difficult to find any one better fitted for the task--by no
means an easy one--of presenting the general features of Japanese
history to Western readers, in a compact and intelligible form, and
at the same time in general harmony with the Japanese feeling. The
Western public and Japan are alike to be congratulated on the
production of the present work. I may say this without any fear of
reproach for self-praise, for although my name is mentioned in the
title-page, my share is very slight, consisting merely in general
advice and in a few suggestions on some special points.
DAIROKU KIKUCHI.
KYOTO, 1912.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
During the past three decades Japanese students have devoted much
intelligent labour to collecting and collating the somewhat
disjointed fragments of their country's history. The task would have
been practically impossible for foreign historiographers alone, but
now that the materials have been brought to light there is no
insuperable difficulty in making them available for purposes of joint
interpretation. That is all I have attempted to do in these pages,
and I beg to solicit pardon for any defect they may be found to
contain.
F. BRINKLEY.
TOKYO, 1912.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. The Historiographer's Art in Old Japan
II. Japanese Mythology
III. Japanese Mythology (Continued)
IV. Rationalization
V. Origin of the Japanese Nation: Historical Evidences
VI. Origin of the Nation: Geographical and Archaeological
Relics
VII. Language and Physical Characteristics
VIII. Manners and Customs in Remote Antiquity
IX. The Prehistoric Sovereigns
X. The Prehistoric Sovereigns (Continued)
XI. The Prehistoric Sovereigns (Continued)
XII. The Protohistoric Sovereigns
XIII. The Protohistoric Sovereigns (Continued)
XIV. From the 29th to the 35th Sovereign
XV. The Daika Reforms
XVI. The Daiho Laws and the Yoro Laws
XVII. The Nara Epoch
XVIII. The Heian Epoch
XIX. The Heian Epoch (Continued)
XX. The Heian Epoch (Continued)
XXI. The Capital and the Provinces
XXII. Recovery of Administrative Authority by the Throne
XXIII. Manners and Customs of the Heian Epoch
XXIV. The Epoch of the Gen (Minamoto) and the Hei (Taira)
XXV. The Epoch of the Gen and the Hei (Continued)
XXVI. The Kamakura Bakufu
XXVII. The Hojo
XXVIII. Art, Religion, Literature, Customs, and Commerce in the
Kamakura Period
XXIX. Fall of the Hojo and Rise of the Ashikaga
XXX. The War of the Dynasties
XXXI. The Fall of the Ashikaga
XXXII. Foreign Intercourse, Literature, Art, Religion, Manners,
and Customs in the Muromachi Epoch
XXXIII. The Epoch of Wars (Sengoku Jidai)
XXXIV. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu
XXXV. The Invasion of Korea
XXXVI. The Momo-Yama Epoch
XXXVII. Christianity in Japan
XXXVIII. The Tokugawa Shogunate
XXXIX. First Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu; from the First
Tokugawa Shogun, Ieyasu, to the Fourth, Ietsuna
(1603-1680)
XL. Middle Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu; from the Fifth
Shogun, Tsunayoshi, to the Tenth Shogun, Ieharu
(1680-1786)
XLI. The Late Period of the Tokugawa Bakufu. The Eleventh
Shogun,Ienari (1786-1838)
XLII. Organization, Central and Local; Currency and the
Laws of the Tokugawa Bakufu
XLIII. Revival of the Shinto Cult
XLIV. Foreign Relations and the Decline of the Tokugawa
XLV. Foreign Relations and the Decline of the Tokugawa (Continued)
XLVI. The Meiji Government
XLVII. Wars with China and Russia
APPENDIX
1. Constitution of Japan, 1889
2. Anglo-Japanese Agreement, 1905
3. Treaty of Portsmouth, 1905
INDEX
HISTORICAL MAPS
Japan about 1337: Northern and Southern Courts
Japan in Era of Wars, 1577: Distribution of Fiefs
Japan in 1615: Feudatories
Japan, Korea and the Mainland of Asia
FULL PAGE HALF-TONES
Capt. F. Brinkley, R. A.
The Emperor Jimmu
The Shrine of Ise
Prehistoric Remains: Plate A
Prehistoric Remains: Plate B
Prince Shotoku
Kaigen Ceremony of the Nara Daibutsu
Thirty-six Versifiers (Painting by Korin)
Cherry-Viewing Festival at Mukojima
Kamakura Daibutsu
Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)
Court Costumes
Tokugawa Shrine at Nikko
The Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito)
Sinking of the Russian Battleship Osliabya
Admiral Togo
WORKS CONSULTED
ENGRAVING: MT. FUJI SEEN FROM THE FUJI-GAWA
CHAPTER I
THE HISTORIOGRAPHER'S ART IN OLD JAPAN
MATERIALS FOR HISTORY
IN the earliest eras of historic Japan there existed a hereditary
corporation of raconteurs (Katari-be) who, from generation to
generation, performed the function of reciting the exploits of the
sovereigns and the deeds of heroes. They accompanied themselves on
musical instruments, and naturally, as time went by, each set of
raconteurs embellished the language of their predecessors, adding
supernatural elements, and introducing details which belonged to the
realm of romance rather than to that of ordinary history. These
Katari-be would seem to have been the sole repository of their
country's annals until the sixth century of the Christian era. Their
repertories of recitation included records of the great families as
well as of the sovereigns, and it is easy to conceive that the favour
and patronage of these high personages were earned by ornamenting the
traditions of their households and exalting their pedigrees. But when
the art of writing was introduced towards the close of the fourth
century, or at the beginning of the fifth, and it was seen that in
China, then the centre of learning and civilization, the art had been
applied to the compilation of a national history as well as of other
volumes possessing great ethical value, the Japanese conceived the
ambition of similarly utilizing their new attainment. For reasons
which will be understood by and by, the application of the
ideographic script to the language of Japan was a task of immense
difficulty, and long years must have passed before the attainment of
any degree of proficiency.
Thus it was not until the time of the Empress Suiko (593-628) that
the historical project took practical shape. Her Majesty, at the
instance, doubtless, of Prince Shotoku, one of the greatest names in
all Japan's annals, instructed the prince himself and her chief
minister, Soga no Umako, to undertake the task of compiling
historical documents, and there resulted a Record of the Emperors
(Tennoki), a Record of the Country (Koki), and Original Records
(Hongi) of the Free People (i.e., the Japanese proper as
distinguished from aliens, captives, and aborigines), of the great
families and of the 180 Hereditary Corporations (Be). This work was
commenced in the year 620, but nothing is known as to the date of its
completion. It represents the first Japanese history. A shortlived
compilation it proved, for in the year 645, the Soga chiefs,
custodians of the documents, threw them into the fire on the eve of
their own execution for treason. One only, the Record of the Country,
was plucked from the flames, and is believed to have been
subsequently incorporated in the Kojiki '(Records of Ancient
Things).' No immediate attempt seems to have been made to remedy the
loss of these invaluable writings. Thirty-seven years later the
Emperor Temmu took the matter in hand. One of his reasons for doing
so has been historically transmitted. Learning that "the chronicles
of the sovereigns and the original words in the possession of the
various families deviated from the truth and were largely amplified
with empty falsehoods," his Majesty conceived that unless speedy
steps were taken to correct the confusion and eliminate the errors,
an irremediable state of affairs would result.
Such a preface prepares us to learn that a body of experts was
appointed to distinguish the true and the false, and to set down the
former alone. The Emperor did, in fact, commission a number of
princes and officials to compile an authentic history, and we shall
presently see how their labours resulted. But in the first place a
special feature of the situation has to be noted. The Japanese
language was then undergoing a transition. In order to fit it to the
Chinese ideographs for literary purposes, it was being deprived of
its mellifluous polysyllabic character and reduced to monosyllabic
terseness. The older words were disappearing, and with them many of
the old traditions. Temmu saw that if the work of compilation was
abandoned solely to princely and official littérateurs, they would
probably sacrifice on the altar of the ideograph much that was
venerable and worthy to be preserved. He therefore himself undertook
the collateral task of having the antique traditions collected and
expurgated, and causing them to be memorized by a chamberlain, Hiyeda
no Are, a man then in his twenty-eighth year, who was gifted with
ability to repeat accurately everything heard once by him. Are's mind
was soon stored with a mass of ancient facts and obsolescent
phraseology, but before either the task of official compilation or
that of private restoration had been carried to completion the
Emperor died (686), and an interval of twenty-five years elapsed
before the Empress Gemmyo, on the 18th of September, 711, ordered a
scholar, Ono Yasumaro, to transcribe the records stored in Are's
memory. Four months sufficed for the work, and on the 28th of
January, 712, Yasumaro submitted to the Throne the Kojiki (Records of
Ancient Things) which ranked as the first history of Japan, and which
will be here referred to as the Records.
THE NIHONGI AND THE NIHON SHOKI
It is necessary to revert now to the unfinished work of the classical
compilers, as they may be called, whom the Emperor Temmu nominated in
682, but whose labours had not been concluded when his Majesty died
in 686. There is no evidence that their task was immediately
continued in an organized form, but it is related that during the
reign of Empress Jito (690-696) further steps were taken to collect
historical materials, and that the Empress Gemmyo (708-715)--whom we
have seen carrying out, in 712, her predecessor Temmu's plan with
regard to Hiyeda no Are--added, in 714, two skilled littérateurs to
Temmu's classical compilers, and thus enabled them to complete their
task, which took the shape of a book called the Nihongi (Chronicle of
Japan).
This work, however, did not prove altogether satisfactory. It was
written, for the most part, with a script called the Manyo syllabary;
that is to say, with Chinese ideographs employed phonetically, and it
did not at all attain the literary standard of its Chinese prototype.
Therefore, the Empress entrusted to Prince Toneri and Ono Yasumaro
the task of revising it, and their amended manuscript, concluded in
720, received the name of Nihon Shoki (Written Chronicles of Japan),
the original being distinguished as Kana Nihongi, or Syllabic
Chronicles. The Nihon Shoki consisted originally of thirty-one
volumes, but of these one, containing the genealogies of the
sovereigns, has been lost. It covers the whole of the prehistoric
period and that part of the historic which extends from the accession
of the Emperor Jimmu (660 B.C.) to the abdication of the Empress Jito
(A.D. 697). The Kojiki extends back equally far, but terminates at
the death of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 628).
THE FUDOKI
In the year 713, when the Empress Gemmyo was on the throne, all the
provinces of the empire received orders to submit to the Court
statements setting forth the natural features of the various
localities, together with traditions and remarkable occurrences.
These documents were called Fudoki (Records of Natural Features).
Many of them have been lost, but a few survive, as those of Izumo,
Harima, and Hitachi.
CHARACTER OF THE RECORDS AND THE CHRONICLES
The task of applying ideographic script to phonetic purposes is
exceedingly difficult. In the ideographic script each character has a
distinct sound and a complete meaning. Thus, in China shan signifies
"mountain," and ming "light." But in Japanese "mountain" becomes yama
and "light" akari. It is evident, then, that one of two things has to
be done. Either the sounds of the Japanese words must be changed to
those of the Chinese ideographs; or the sounds of the Chinese
ideographs must alone be taken (irrespective of their meaning), and
with them a phonetic syllabary must be formed. Both of these devices
were employed by a Japanese scholar of early times. Sometimes
disregarding the significance of the ideographs altogether, he used
them simply as representing sounds, and with them built up pure
Japanese words; at other times, he altered the sounds of Japanese
words to those of their Chinese equivalents and then wrote them
frankly with their ideographic symbols.
In this way each Japanese word came to have two pronunciations:
first, its own original sound for colloquial purposes; and second,
its borrowed sound for purposes of writing. At the outset the spoken
and the written languages were doubtless kept tolerably distinct. But
by degrees, as respect for Chinese literature developed, it became a
learned accomplishment to pronounce Japanese words after the Chinese
manner, and the habit ultimately acquired such a vogue that the
language of men--who wrote and spoke ideographically--grew to be
different from the language of women--who wrote and spoke
phonetically. When Hiyeda no Are was required to memorize the annals
and traditions collected and revised at the Imperial Court, the
language in which he committed them to heart was pure Japanese, and
in that language he dictated them, twenty-nine years later, to the
scribe Yasumaro. The latter, in setting down the products of Are's
memory, wrote for the most part phonetically; but sometimes, finding
that method too cumbersome, he had recourse to the ideographic
language, with which he was familiar. At all events, adding nothing
nor taking away anything, he produced a truthful record of the myths,
traditions, and salient historical incidents credited by the Japanese
of the seventh century.
It may well be supposed, nevertheless, that Are's memory, however
tenacious, failed in many respects, and that his historical details
were comparatively meagre. An altogether different spirit presided at
the work subsequently undertaken by this same Yasumaro, when, in
conjunction with other scholars, he was required to collate the
historical materials obtained abundantly from various sources since
the vandalism of the Soga nobles. The prime object of these
collaborators was to produce a Japanese history worthy to stand side
by side with the classic models of China. Therefore, they used the
Chinese language almost entirely, the chief exception being in the
case of the old poems, a great number of which appear in the Records
and the Chronicles alike. The actual words of these poems had to be
preserved as well as the metre, and therefore it was necessary to
indite them phonetically. For the rest, the Nihon Shoki, which
resulted from the labours of these annalists and literati, was so
Chinese that its authors did not hesitate to draw largely upon the
cosmogonic myths of the Middle Kingdom, and to put into the mouths of
Japanese monarchs, or into their decrees, quotations from Chinese
literature. "As a repertory of ancient Japanese myth and legend there
is little to choose between the Records and the Chronicles. The
former is, on the whole, the fuller of the two, and contains legends
which the latter passes over in silence; but the Chronicles, as we
now have them, are enriched by variants of the early myths, the value
of which, for purposes of comparison, is recognized by scientific
inquirers. But there can be no comparison between the two works when
viewed as history. Hiyeda no Are's memory cannot be expected to
compete in fullness and accuracy with the abundant documentary
literature accessible to the writers of the Chronicles, and an
examination of the two works shows that, in respect to the record of
actual events, the Chronicles are far the more useful authority".*
*Aston's Nihongi.
It will readily be supposed, too, that the authors of both works
confused the present with the past, and, in describing the manners
and customs of by-gone eras, unconsciously limned their pictures with
colours taken from the palette of their own times, "when the national
thought and institutions had become deeply modified by Chinese
influences." Valuable as the two books are, therefore, they cannot be
accepted without large limitations. The Nihon Shoki occupied a high
place in national esteem from the outset. In the year following its
compilation, the Empress Gensho summoned eminent scholars to the
Court and caused them to deliver lectures on the contents of the
book, a custom which was followed regularly by subsequent sovereigns
and still finds a place among the New Year ceremonials. This book
proved to be the precursor of five others with which it is commonly
associated by Japanese scholars. They are the Zoku Nihongi
(Supplementary Chronicles of Japan), in forty volumes, which covers
the period from 697 to 791 and was finished in 798; the Nihon Koki
(Later Chronicles of Japan), in forty volumes--ten only
survive--which covers the period from 792 to 833; the Zoku Nihon Koki
(Supplementary Later Chronicles), in twenty volumes, which covers the
single reign of the Emperor Nimmyo (834-850) and was compiled in 869;
the Montoku Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Montoku), in ten volumes,
covering the reign of Montoku (851-858), and compiled in 879, and the
Sandai Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Three Reigns) in fifty volumes,
covering the period from 859 to 887 and compiled in 901. These five
compilations together with the Nihon Shoki are honoured as the Six
National Histories. It is noticeable that the writers were men of the
highest rank, from prime ministers downwards. In such honour was the
historiographer's art held in Japan in the eighth and ninth
centuries.
CHRONOLOGY
Before beginning to read Japanese history it is necessary to know
something of the chronology followed in its pages. There have been in
Japan four systems for counting the passage of time. The first is by
the reigns of the Emperors. That is to say, the first year of a
sovereign's reign--reckoning from the New Year's day following his
accession--became the 1 of the series, and the years were thenceforth
numbered consecutively until his death or abdication. This method
might be sufficiently accurate if the exact duration of each reign
were known as well as the exact sequence of the reigns. But no such
precision could be expected in the case of unwritten history,
transmitted orally from generation to generation. Thus, while
Japanese annalists, by accepting the aggregate duration of all the
reigns known to them, arrive at the conclusion that the first
Emperor, Jimmu, ascended the throne in the year 660 B.C., it is found
on analysis that their figures assign to the first seventeen
sovereigns an average age of 109 years.
The second system was by means of periods deriving their name (nengo)
from some remarkable incident. Thus, the discovery of copper in Japan
was commemorated by calling the year Wado (Japanese copper), and the
era so called lasted seven years. Such a plan was even more liable to
error than the device of reckoning by reigns, and a specially
confusing feature was that the first year of the period dated
retrospectively from the previous New Year's day, so that events were
often recorded as having occurred in the final year of one period and
in the opening year of another. This system was originally imported
from China in the year A.D. 645, and is at present in use, the year
1910 being the forty-third of the Meiji (Enlightenment and Peace)
period.
The third system was that of the sexagenary cycle. This was operated
after the manner of a clock having two concentric dials, the
circumference of the larger dial being divided into ten equal parts,
each marked with one of the ten "celestial signs," and the
circumference of the smaller dial being divided into twelve equal
parts each marked with one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The
long hand of the clock, pointing to the larger dial, was supposed to
make one revolution in ten years, and the shorter hand, pointing to
the small dial, revolved once in twelve years. Thus, starting from
the point where the marks on the two dials coincide, the long hand
gained upon the short hand by one-sixtieth each year, and once in
every sixty years the two hands were found at the point of
conjunction. Years were indicated by naming the "celestial stem" and
the zodiacal sign to which the imaginary hands happen to be pointing,
just as clock-time is indicated by the minutes read from the long
hand and the hours from the short. The sexagenary cycle came into use
in China in 623 B.C. The exact date of its importation into Japan is
unknown, but it was probably about the end of the fourth century A.D.
It is a sufficiently accurate manner of counting so long as the tale
of cycles is carefully kept, but any neglect in that respect exposes
the calculator to an error of sixty years or some multiple of sixty.
Keen scrutiny and collation of the histories of China, Korea, and
Japan have exposed a mistake of at least 120 years connected with the
earliest employment of the sexagenary cycle in Japan.
The fourth method corresponds to that adopted in Europe where the
number of a year is referred to the birth of Christ. In Japan, the
accession of the Emperor Jimmu--660 B.C.--is taken for a basis, and
thus the Occidental year 1910 becomes the 2570th year of the Japanese
dynasty. With such methods of reckoning some collateral evidence is
needed before accepting any of the dates given in Japanese annals.
Kaempfer and even Rein were content to endorse the chronology of the
Chronicles--the Records avoid dates altogether--but other Occidental
scholars* have with justice been more sceptical, and their doubts
have been confirmed by several eminent Japanese historians in recent
times. Where, then, is collateral evidence to be found?
*Notably Bramsen, Aston, Satow, and Chamberlain.
In the pages of Chinese and Korean history. There is, of course, no
inherent reason for attributing to Korean history accuracy superior
to that of Japanese history. But in China the habit of continuously
compiling written annals had been practised for many centuries before
Japanese events began even to furnish materials for romantic
recitations, and no serious errors have been proved against Chinese
historiographers during the periods when comparison with Japanese
annals is feasible. In Korea's case, too, verification is partially
possible. Thus, during the first five centuries of the Christian era,
Chinese annals contain sixteen notices of events in Korea. If Korean
history be examined as to these events, it is found to agree in ten
instances, to disagree in two, and to be silent in four.* This record
tends strongly to confirm the accuracy of the Korean annals, and it
is further to be remembered that the Korean peninsula was divided
during many centuries into three principalities whose records serve
as mutual checks. Finally, Korean historians do not make any such
demand upon our credulity as the Japanese do in the matter of length
of sovereigns' reigns. For example, while the number of successions
to the throne of Japan during the first four centuries of the
Christian era is set down as seven only, making fifty-six years the
average duration of a reign, the corresponding numbers for the three
Korean principalities are sixteen, seventeen, and sixteen,
respectively, making the average length of a reign from twenty-four
to twenty-five years. It is, indeed, a very remarkable fact that
whereas the average age of the first seventeen Emperors of Japan, who
are supposed to have reigned from 660 B.C. down to A.D. 399, was 109
years, this incredible habit of longevity ceased abruptly from the
beginning of the fifth century, the average age of the next seventeen
having been only sixty-one and a half years; and it is a most
suggestive coincidence that the year A.D. 461 is the first date of
the accepted Japanese chronology which is confirmed by Korean
authorities.
*Aston's essay on Early Japanese History
In fact, the conclusion is almost compulsory that Japanese authentic
history, so far as dates are concerned, begins from the fifth
century. Chinese annals, it is true, furnish one noteworthy and much
earlier confirmation of Japanese records. They show that Japan was
ruled by a very renowned queen during the first half of the third
century of the Christian era, and it was precisely at that epoch that
the Empress Jingo is related by Japanese history to have made herself
celebrated at home and abroad. Chinese historiographers, however, put
Jingo's death in the year A.D. 247, whereas Japanese annalists give
the date as 269. Indeed there is reason to think that just at this
time--second half of the third century--some special causes operated
to disturb historical coherence in Japan, for not only does Chinese
history refer to several signal events in Japan which find no place
in the latter's records, but also Korean history indicates that the
Japanese dates of certain cardinal incidents err by exactly 120
years. Two cycles in the sexagenary system of reckoning constitute
120 years, and the explanation already given makes it easy to
conceive the dropping of that length of time by recorders having only
tradition to guide them.
On the whole, whatever may be said as to the events of early Japanese
history, its dates can not be considered trustworthy before the
beginning of the fifth century. There is evidently one other point to
be considered in this context; namely, the introduction of writing.
Should it appear that the time when the Japanese first began to
possess written records coincides with the time when, according to
independent research, the dates given in their annals begin to
synchronize with those of Chinese and Korean history, another very
important landmark will be furnished. There, is such synchronism, but
it is obtained at the cost of considerations which cannot be lightly
dismissed. For, although it is pretty clearly established that an
event which occured at the beginning of the fifth century preluded
the general study of the Chinese language in Japan and may not
unreasonably be supposed to have led to the use of the Chinese script
in compiling historical records, still it is even more clearly
established that from a much remoter era Japan had been on terms of
some intimacy with her neighbours, China and Korea, and had exchanged
written communications with them, so that the art of writing was
assuredly known to her long before the fifth century of the Christian
era, to whatever services she applied it. This subject will present
itself again for examination in more convenient circumstances.
ENGRAVING: YUKIMIDORO (Style of Stone Lantern used in Japanese
Gardens)
ENGRAVING: "YATSUHASHI" STYLE OF GARDEN BRIDGE
CHAPTER II
JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY
KAMI
THE mythological page of a country's history has an interest of its
own apart from legendary relations; it affords indications of the
people's creeds and furnishes traces of the nation's genesis. In
Japan's mythology there is a special difficulty for the
interpreter--a difficulty of nomenclature. It has been the constant
habit of foreign writers of Japan's story to speak of an "Age of
Gods" (Kami no yo). But the Japanese word Kami* does not necessarily
convey any such meaning. It has no divine import. We shall presently
find that of the hundreds of families into which Japanese society
came to be divided, each had its Kami, and that he was nothing more
than the head of the household. Fifty years ago, the Government was
commonly spoken of as O Kami (the Honourable Head), and a feudatory
frequently had the title of Kami of such and such a locality. Thus to
translate Kami by "deity" or "god" is misleading, and as the English
language furnishes no exact equivalent, the best plan is to adhere to
the original expression. That plan is adopted in the following brief
summary of Japanese mythology.
*Much stress is laid upon the point by that most accurate scholar,
Mr. B. H. Chamberlain.
COSMOGONY
Japanese mythology opens at the beginning of "the heaven and the
earth." But it makes no attempt to account for the origin of things.
It introduces us at once to a "plain of high heaven," the dwelling
place of these invisible* Kami, one of whom is the great central
being, and the other two derive their titles from their productive
attributes. But as to what they produced or how they produced it, no
special indication is given. Thereafter two more Kami are born from
an elementary reedlike substance that sprouts on an inchoate earth.
This is the first reference to organic matter. The two newly born
Kami are invisible like their predecessors, and like them are not
represented as taking any part in the creation. They are solitary,
unseeable, and functionless, but the evident idea is that they have a
more intimate connexion with cosmos than the Kami who came previously
into existence, for one of them is named after the reed-shoot from
which he emanated, and to the other is attributed the property of
standing eternally in the heavens.
*The expression here translated "invisible" has been interpreted in
the sense that the Kami "hid their persons," i.e., died, but the true
meaning seems to be that they were invisible.
Up to this point there has not been any suggestion of measuring time.
But now the record begins to speak of "generations." Two more
solitary and invisible beings are born, one called the Kami who
stands eternally on earth, the other the "abundant integrator." Each
of these represents a generation, and it will be observed that up to
this time no direct mention whatever is made of sex. Now, however,
five generations ensue, each consisting of two Kami, a male and a
female, and thus the epithet "solitary" as applied to the first seven
Kami becomes intelligible. All these generations are represented as
gradually approximating to the exercise of creative functions, for
the names* become more and more suggestive of earthly relations. The
last couple, forming the fifth generation, are Izanagi and Izanami,
appellations signifying the male Kami of desire and the female Kami
of desire. By all the other Kami these two are commissioned to "make,
consolidate, and give birth to the drifting land," a jewelled spear
being given to them as a token of authority, and a floating bridge
being provided to carry them to earth. Izanagi and Izanami thrust the
spear downwards and stir the "brine" beneath, with the result that it
coagulates, and, dropping from the spear's point, forms the first of
the Japanese islands, Onogoro. This island they take as the basis of
their future operations, and here they beget, by ordinary human
processes--which are described without any reservations--first, "a
great number of islands, and next, a great number of Kami." It is
related that the first effort of procreation was not successful, the
outcome being a leechlike abortion and an island of foam, the former
of which was sent adrift in a boat of reeds. The islands afterwards
created form a large part of Japan, but between these islands and the
Kami, begotten in succession to them, no connexion is traceable. In
several cases the names of the Kami seem to be personifications of
natural objects. Thus we have the Kami of the "wind's breath," of the
sea, of the rivers, of the "water-gates" (estuaries and ports), of
autumn, of "foam-calm," of "bubbling waves," of "water-divisions," of
trees, of mountains, of moors, of valleys, etc. But with very rare
exceptions, all these Kami have no subsequent share in the scheme of
things and cannot be regarded as evidence that the Japanese were
nature worshippers.
*The Kami of mud-earth; the Kami of germ-integration; the Kami of the
great place; the Kami of the perfect exterior, etc.
A change of method is now noticeable. Hitherto the process of
production has been creative; henceforth the method is transformation
preceded by destruction. Izanami dies in giving birth to the Kami of
fire, and her body is disintegrated into several beings, as the male
and female Kami of metal mountains, the male and female Kami of
viscid clay, the female Kami of abundant food, and the Kami of youth;
while from the tears of Izanagi as he laments her decease is born the
female Kami of lamentation. Izanagi then turns upon the child, the
Kami of fire, which has cost Izanami her life, and cuts off its head;
whereupon are born from the blood that stains his sword and spatters
the rocks eight Kami, whose names are all suggestive of the violence
that called them into existence. An equal number of Kami, all having
sway over mountains, are born from the head and body of the
slaughtered child.
At this point an interesting episode is recorded. Izanagi visits the
"land of night," with the hope of recovering his spouse.* He urges
her to return, as the work in which they were engaged is not yet
completed. She replies that, unhappily having already eaten within
the portals of the land of night, she may not emerge without the
permission of the Kami** of the underworld, and she conjures him,
while she is seeking that permission, not to attempt to look on her
face. He, however, weary of waiting, breaks off one of the large
teeth of the comb that holds his hair*** and, lighting it, uses it as
a torch. He finds Izanami's body in a state of putrefaction, and amid
the decaying remains eight Kami of thunder have been born and are
dwelling. Izanagi, horrified, turns and flees, but Izanami, enraged
that she has been "put to shame," sends the "hideous hag of hades" to
pursue him. He obtains respite twice; first by throwing down his
head-dress, which is converted into grapes, and then casting away his
comb, which is transformed into bamboo sprouts, and while the hag
stops to eat these delicacies, he flees. Then Izanami sends in his
pursuit the eight Kami of thunder with fifteen hundred warriors of
the underworld.**** He holds them off for a time by brandishing his
sword behind him, and finally, on reaching the pass from the nether
to the upper world, he finds three peaches growing there with which
he pelts his pursuers and drives them back. The peaches are rewarded
with the title of "divine fruit," and entrusted with the duty of
thereafter helping all living people***** in the central land of
"reed plains"****** as they have helped Izanagi.
*It is unnecessary to comment upon the identity of this incident with
the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.
**It will be observed that we hear of these Kami now for the first
time.
***This is an obvious example of a charge often preferred against the
compilers of the Records that they inferred the manners and customs
of remote antiquity from those of their own time.
****Again we have here evidence that the story of creation, as told
in the Records, is not supposed to be complete. It says nothing as to
how the denizens of the underworld came into existence.
*****The first mention of human beings.
******This epithet is given to Japan.
This curious legend does not end here. Finding that the hag of hades,
the eight Kami of thunder, and the fifteen hundred warriors have all
been repulsed, Izanami herself goes in pursuit. But her way is
blocked by a huge rock which Izanagi places in the "even pass of
hades," and from the confines of the two worlds the angry pair
exchange messages of final separation, she threatening to kill a
thousand folk daily in his land if he repeats his acts of violence,
and he declaring that, in such event, he will retaliate by causing
fifteen hundred to be born.
In all this, no mention whatever is found of the manner in which
human beings come into existence: they make their appearance upon the
scene as though they were a primeval part of it. Izanagi, whose
return to the upper world takes place in southwestern Japan,* now
cleanses himself from the pollution he has incurred by contact with
the dead, and thus inaugurates the rite of purification practised to
this day in Japan. The Records describe minutely the process of his
unrobing before entering a river, and we learn incidentally that he
wore a girdle, a skirt, an upper garment, trousers, a hat, bracelets
on each arm, and a necklace, but no mention is made of footgear.
Twelve Kami are born from these various articles as he discards them,
but without exception these additions to Japanese mythology seem to
have nothing to do with the scheme of the universe: their titles
appear to be wholly capricious, and apart from figuring once upon the
pages of the Records they have no claim to notice. The same may be
said of eleven among fourteen Kami thereafter born from the pollution
which Izanagi washes off in a river.
*At Himuka in Kyushu, then called Tsukushi.
But the last three of these newly created beings act a prominent part
in the sequel of the story. They are the "heaven-shining Kami"
(Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami), commonly spoken of as the "goddess of the
Sun;" the Kami of the Moon, and the Kami of force.* Izanagi expresses
much satisfaction at the begetting of these three. He hands his
necklace to the Kami of the Sun and commissions her to rule the
"plain of heaven;" he confers upon the Kami of the Moon the dominion
of night, and he appoints the Kami of force (Susanoo) to rule the
sea-plain. The Kami of the Sun and the Kami of the Moon proceed at
once to their appointed task, but the Kami of force, though of mature
age and wearing a long beard, neglects his duty and falls to weeping,
wailing, and fuming. Izanagi inquires the cause of his discontent,
and the disobedient Kami replies that he prefers death to the office
assigned him; whereupon he is forbidden to dwell in the same land
with Izanagi and has to make his abode in Omi province. Then he forms
the idea of visiting the "plain of high heaven" to bid farewell to
his sister, the goddess of the Sun.
*Mr. Chamberlain translates the title of this Kami "brave, swift,
impetuous, male, augustness."
But his journey is attended with such a shaking of mountains and
seething of rivers that the goddess, informed of his recalcitrancy
and distrusting his purpose, makes preparations to receive him in
warlike guise, by dressing her hair in male fashion (i.e. binding it
into knots), by tying up her skirt into the shape of trousers, by
winding a string of five hundred curved jewels round her head and
wrists, by slinging on her back two quivers containing a thousand
arrows and five hundred arrows respectively, by drawing a guard on
her left forearm, and by providing herself with a bow and a sword.
The Records and the Chronicles agree in ascribing to her such an
exercise of resolute force that she stamps her feet into the ground
as though it had been soft snow and scatters the earth about.
Susanoo, however, disavows all evil intentions, and agrees to prove
his sincerity by taking an oath and engaging in a Kami-producing
competition, the condition being that if his offspring be female, the
fact shall bear condemnatory import, but if male, the verdict shall
be in his favour. For the purpose of this trial, they stand on
opposite sides of a river (the Milky Way). Susanoo hands his sword to
Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami, who breaks it into three pieces, chews the
fragments, and blowing them from her mouth, produces three female
Kami. She then lends her string of five hundred jewels to Susanoo
and, he, in turn, crunches them in his mouth and blows out the
fragments which are transformed into five male Kami. The beings thus
strangely produced have comparatively close connexions with the
mundane scheme, for the three female Kami--euphoniously designated
Kami of the torrent mist, Kami of the beautiful island, and Kami of
the cascade--become tutelary goddesses of the shrines in Chikuzen
province (or the sacred island Itsuku-shima), and two of the male
Kami become ancestors of seven and twelve families, respectively, of
hereditary nobles.
On the "high plain of heaven," however, trouble is not allayed. The
Sun goddess judges that since female Kami were produced from the
fragments of Susanoo's sword and male Kami from her own string of
jewels, the test which he himself proposed has resulted in his
conviction; but he, repudiating that verdict, proceeds to break down
the divisions of the rice-fields laid out by the goddess, to fill up
the ditches, and to defile the palace--details which suggest either
that, according to Japanese tradition, heaven has its agriculture and
architecture just as earth has, or that the "plain of high heaven"
was really the name of a place in the Far East. The Sun goddess makes
various excuses for her brother's lawless conduct, but he is not to
be placated. His next exploit is to flay a piebald horse and throw it
through a hole which he breaks in the roof of the hall where the
goddess is weaving garments for the Kami. In the alarm thus created,
the goddess* is wounded by her shuttle, whereupon she retires into a
cave and places a rock at the entrance, so that darkness falls upon
the "plain of high heaven" and upon the islands of Japan,** to the
consternation of the Kami of evil, whose voices are heard like the
buzzing of swarms of flies.
*According to the Records, it is the attendants of the goddess that
suffer injury.
**Referring to this episode, Aston writes in his Nihongi:
"Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami is throughout the greater part of this narrative
an anthropomorphic deity, with little that is specially
characteristic of her solar functions. Here, however, it is plainly
the sun itself which witholds its light and leaves the world to
darkness. This inconsistency, which has greatly exercised the native
theologians, is not peculiar to Japanese myth."
Then follows a scene perhaps the most celebrated in all the
mythological legends; a scene which was the origin of the sacred
dance in Japan and which furnished to artists in later ages a
frequent motive. The "eight hundred myriads" of Kami--so numerous
have the denizens of the "plain of high heaven" unaccountably
become--assemble in the bed of the "tranquil river"* to confer about
a means of enticing the goddess from her retirement. They entrust the
duty of forming a plan to the Kami of "thought combination," now
heard of for the first time as a son of one of the two producing
Kami, who, with the "great central" Kami, constituted the original
trinity of heavenly denizens. This deity gathers together a number of
barn-yard fowl to signal sunrise, places the Kami of the "strong arm"
at the entrance of the cave into which the goddess has retired,
obtains iron from the "mines of heaven" and causes it to be forged
into an "eight-foot" mirror, appoints two Kami to procure from Mount
Kagu a "five-hundred branched" sakaki tree (cleyera Japonica), from
whose branches the mirror together with a "five-hundred beaded"
string of curved jewels and blue and white streamers of hempen cloth
and paper-mulberry cloth are suspended, and causes divination to be
performed with the shoulder blade of a stag.
*The Milky Way.
Then, while a grand liturgy is recited, the "heaven-startling" Kami,
having girdled herself with moss, crowned her head with a wreath of
spindle-tree leaves and gathered a bouquet of bamboo grass, mounts
upon a hollow wooden vessel and dances, stamping so that the wood
resounds and reciting the ten numerals repeatedly. Then the
"eight-hundred myriad" Kami laugh in unison, so that the "plain of
high heaven" shakes with the sound, and the Sun goddess, surprised
that such gaiety should prevail in her absence, looks out from the
cave to ascertain the cause. She is taunted by the dancer, who tells
her that a greater than she is present, and the mirror being thrust
before her, she gradually comes forward, gazing into it with
astonishment; whereupon the Kami of the "strong arm" grasps her hand
and drags her out, while two other Kami* stretch behind her a rope
made of straw, pulled up by the roots,** to prevent her return, and
sunshine once more floods the "plain of high heaven."
*These two are the ancestors of the Kami of the Nakatomi and the
Imibe hereditary corporations, who may be described as the high
priests of the indigenous cult of Japan.
**This kind of rope called shime-nawa, an abbreviation of
shiri-kume-nawa may be seen festooning the portals of any Shinto
shrine.
The details of this curious legend deserve attention for the sake of
their close relation to the observances of the Shinto cult. Moreover,
the mythology now takes a new departure. At the time of Izanagi's
return from hades, vague reference is made to human beings, but after
Susanoo's departure from the "plain of high heaven," he is
represented as holding direct converse with them. There is an
interlude which deals with the foodstuffs of mortals. Punished with a
fine of a great number of tables* of votive offerings, his beard cut
off, and the nails of his fingers and toes pulled out, Susanoo is
sentenced to expulsion from heaven. He seeks sustenance from the Kami
of food, and she responds by taking from the orifices of her body
various kinds of viands which she offers to him. But he, deeming
himself insulted, kills her, whereupon from her corpse are born rice,
millet, small and large beans, and barley. These are taken by one of
the two Kami of production, and by him they are caused to be used as
seeds.
*The offerings of food in religious services were always placed upon
small, low tables.
Thereafter Susanoo descends to a place at the headwaters of the river
Hi (Izumo province). Seeing a chop-stick float down the stream, he
infers the existence of people higher up the river, and going in
search of them, finds an old man and an old woman lamenting over and
caressing a girl. The old man says that he is an earthly Kami, son of
the Kami of mountains, who was one of the thirty-five Kami borne by
Izanami before her departure for hades. He explains that he had
originally eight daughters, but that every year an eight-forked
serpent has come from the country of Koshi and devoured one of the
maidens, so that there remains only Lady Wonderful, whose time to
share her sisters' fate is now at hand. It is a huge monster,
extending over eight valleys and eight hills, its eyes red like
winter cherries, its belly bloody and inflamed, and its back
overgrown with moss and conifers. Susanoo, having announced himself
as the brother of the Sun goddess, receives Lady Wonderful and at
once transforms her into a comb which he places in his hair. He then
instructs the old man and his wife to build a fence with eight gates,
placing in every gate a vat of rice wine.
Presently the serpent arrives, drinks the wine, and laying down its
heads to sleep, is cut to pieces by Susanoo with his ten-span sabre.
In the body of the serpent the hero finds a sword, "great and sharp,"
which he sends to the Sun goddess, at whose shrine in Ise it is
subsequently found and given to the famous warrior, Yamato-dake, when
he is setting out on his expedition against the Kumaso of the north.
The sword is known as the "Herb-queller." Susanoo then builds for
himself and Lady Wonderful a palace at Suga in Izumo, and composes a
celebrated verse of Japanese poetry.* Sixth in descent from the
offspring of this union is the "Kami of the great land," called also
the "Great-Name Possessor," or the "Kami of the reed plains," or the
"Kami of the eight thousand spears," or the "Kami of the great land
of the living," the last name being antithetical to Susanoo's title
of "Ruler of Hades."
*"Many clouds arise,
On all sides a manifold fence,
To receive within it the spouse,
They form a manifold fence
Ah! that manifold fence."
Several legends are attached to the name of this multinominal
being--legends in part romantic, in part supernatural, and in part
fabulous. His eighty brethren compel him to act as their servant when
they go to seek the hand of Princess Yakami of Inaba. But on the way
he succours a hare which they have treated brutally and the little
animal promises that he, not they, shall win the princess, though he
is only their baggage-bearer. Enraged at the favour she shows him,
they seek in various ways to destroy him: first by rolling down on
him from a mountain a heated rock; then by wedging him into the cleft
of a tree, and finally by shooting him. But he is saved by his
mother, and takes refuge in the province of Kii (the Land of Trees)
at the palace of the "Kami of the great house."* Acting on the
latter's advice, he visits his ancestor, Susanoo, who is now in
hades, and seeks counsel as to some means of overcoming his eighty
enemies. But instead of helping him, that unruly Kami endeavours to
compass his death by thrusting him into a snake-house; by putting him
into a nest of centipedes and wasps, and finally by shooting an arrow
into a moor, sending him to seek it and then setting fire to the
grass. He is saved from the first two perils through the agency of
miraculous scarves given to him by Princess Forward, Susanoo's
daughter, who has fallen in love with him; and from the last dilemma
a mouse instructs him how to emerge.
*A son of Susanoo. Under the name of Iso-Takeru he is recorded to
have brought with him a quantity of seeds of trees and shrubs, which
he planted, not in Korea, but in Tsukushi (Kyushu) and the eight
islands of Japan. These words "not in Korea" are worthy of note, as
will presently be appreciated.
A curious episode concludes this recital: Susanoo requires that the
parasites shall be removed from his head by his visitor. These
parasites are centipedes, but the Great-Name Possessor, again acting
under the instruction of Princess Forward, pretends to be removing
the centipedes, whereas he is in reality spitting out a mixture of
berries and red earth. Susanoo falls asleep during the process, and
the Great-Name Possessor binds the sleeping Kami's hair to the
rafters of the house, places a huge rock at the entrance, seizes
Susanoo's life-preserving sword and life-preserving bow and arrows as
also his sacred lute,* and taking Princess Forward on his back,
flees. The lute brushes against a tree, and its sound rouses Susanoo.
But before he can disentangle his hair from the rafters, the
fugitives reach the confines of the underworld, and the enraged Kami,
while execrating this visitor who has outwitted him, is constrained
to direct him how to overcome his brethren and to establish his rule
firmly. In all this he succeeds, and having married Princess Yakami,
to whom he was previously engaged,** he resumes the work left
unfinished by Izanagi and Izanami, the work of "making the land."
*Sacred because divine revelations were supposed to be made through a
lute-player.
**In the story of this Kami, we find the first record of conjugal
jealousy in Japan. Princess Forward strongly objects to her husband's
excursions into novel fields.
The exact import of this process, "making the land," is not
discernible. In the hands of Izanagi and Izanami it resolves itself
into begetting, first, a number of islands and, then, a number of
Kami. At the outset it seems to have no more profound significance
for the Great-Name Possessor. Several generations of Kami are
begotten by him, but their names give no indication of the parts they
are supposed to have taken in the "making of the land." They are all
born in Japan, however, and it is perhaps significant that among them
the one child--the Kami of wells--brought forth by Princess Yakami,
is not included. Princess Forward has no children, a fact which
doubtless augments her jealousy of her husband's amours; jealousy
expressed in verses that show no mean poetic skill. Thus, the
Great-Name Possessor on the eve of a journey from Izumo to Yamato,
sings as he stands with one hand on his saddle and one foot in the
stirrup:--
Though thou sayest thou willst not weep
If like the flocking birds, I flock and depart,
If like the led birds, I am led away and
Depart; thou wilt hang down thine head like
A single Eulalia upon the mountain and
Thy weeping shall indeed rise as the mist of
The morning shower.
Then the Empress, taking a wine-cup, approaches and offers it to
him, saying:
Oh! Thine Augustness, the Deity-of-Eight-Thousand-Spears!
Thou, my dear Master-of-the-Great-Land indeed,
Being a man, probably hast on the various island headlands thou
seest,
And on every beach-headland that thou lookest on,
A wife like the young herbs. But as for me, alas!
Being a woman, I have no man except thee; I have no spouse except
thee.
Beneath the fluttering of the ornamented fence,
Beneath the softness of the warm coverlet,
Beneath the rustling of the cloth coverlet,
Thine arms, white as rope of paper-mulberry bark softly patting
my breast soft as the melting snow,
And patting each other interlaced, stretching out and pillowing
ourselves on each other's arms,
True jewel arms, and with outstretched legs, will we sleep.*
*B. H. Chamberlain.
"Having thus sung, they at once pledged each other by the cup with
their hands on each other's necks." It is, nevertheless, from among
the children born on the occasion of the contest between the Sun
goddess and Susanoo that the Great-Name Possessor first seeks a
spouse--the Princess of the Torrent Mist--to lay the foundation of
fifteen generations of Kami, whose birth seems to have been essential
to the "making of the land," though their names afford no clue to the
functions discharged by them. From over sea, seated in a gourd and
wearing a robe of wren's feathers, there comes a pigmy, Sukuna
Hikona, who proves to be one of fifteen hundred children begotten by
the Kami of the original trinity. Skilled in the arts of healing
sickness and averting calamities from men or animals, this pigmy
renders invaluable aid to the Great-Name Possessor. But the useful
little Kami does not wait to witness the conclusion of the work of
"making and consolidating the country." Before its completion he
takes his departure from Cape Kumano in Izumo to the "everlasting
land"--a region commonly spoken of in ancient Japanese annals but not
yet definitely located. He is replaced by a spirit whose coming is
thus described by the Chronicles:
After this (i.e. the departure of Sukuna), wherever there was in the
land a part which was imperfect, the Great-Name Possessor visited it
by himself and succeeded in repairing it. Coming at last to the
province of Izumo, he spake and said: "This central land of reed
plains had always been waste and wild. The very rocks, trees, and
huts were all given to violence... But I have now reduced it to
submission, and there is none that is not compliant." Therefore he
said finally: "It is I, and I alone, who now govern this land. Is
there, perchance, anyone who could join with me in governing the
world?" Upon this a divine radiance illuminated the sea, and of a
sudden there was something which floated towards him and said: "Were
I not here, how couldst thou subdue this land? It is because I am
here that thou hast been enabled to accomplish this mighty
undertaking." Then the Great-Name Possessor inquired, saying, "Then
who art thou?" It replied and said: "I am thy guardian spirit, the
wonderous spirit." Then said the Great-Name Possessor: "True, I know
therefore that thou art my guardian spirit, the wonderous spirit.
Where dost thou now wish to dwell?" The spirit answered and said, "I
wish to dwell on Mount Mimoro in the province of Yamato." Accordingly
he built a shrine in that place and made the spirit go and dwell
there. This is the Kami of Omiwa.*
*Aston's Translation of the Nihongi.
After the above incident, another begetting of Kami takes place on a
large scale, but only a very few of them--such as the guardian of the
kitchen, the protector of house-entrances, the Kami of agriculture,
and so forth--have any intelligible place in the scheme of things.
ENGRAVING: CRESTS
CHAPTER III
JAPANESE MYTHOLOGY (Continued)
THE SUBJUGATION OF JAPAN
THE dividing line between mythological tradition and historical
legend is now reached. It will have been observed that, after the
descent of Susanoo, the Kami on the "plain of high heaven" took no
further part in "making" or "ruling" the "ever fruitful land of
reed-covered moors, and luxuriant rice-fields," as Japan was called.
Everything was left in the hands of Susanoo, the insubordinate Kami,
who had been expelled from heaven for his destructive violence. His
descendant in the sixth generation, the Great-Name Possessor, now
held supreme sway over the islands, in conjunction with a number of
his own relations, his seat of power being in the province of Izumo.
At this juncture the goddess of the Sun decided that a sovereign
should be sent down to govern the land of many islands, and she chose
for this purpose the son of the eldest* of the five Kami born from
her necklace during the procreation competition with Susanoo.
In the first place, however, it was considered necessary to reduce
the country to order, observation having shown it to be in a state of
tumult. For that purpose the second of the five necklace
Kami--considered "the most heroic" of all the beings on the "plain of
high heaven"--was despatched. But he "curried favour" with the
Great-Name Possessor and took up his abode in Japan. At the end of
three years,** seeing that he had not returned, it was decided by the
Kami in council to send another envoy, the Heavenly Young Prince. But
he proved even more disloyal, for he married the daughter of the
Great-Name Possessor, famous for her beauty,*** and planning to
succeed his father-in-law as sovereign of the land, remained in Izumo
for eight years. A third conclave of the Kami was now convened by the
Sun goddess and her coadjutor, the Great-Producing Kami,* and they
decided to despatch a pheasant to make observations.
*This Kami married a daughter of one of the two Great-Producing Kami
who belonged to the original trinity, and who co-operates with the
Sun goddess throughout.
**This is the first mention of a measure of time in the Records.
***She was called Princess Undershining, because her beauty shone
through her raiment.
The bird flew down and lit on a cassia tree at the gate of the
Heavenly Young Prince's dwelling, whereupon the prince, at the
instigation of a female spy, taking a bow given to him originally by
the Great-Producing Kami, shot a shaft which pierced the bird's bosom,
and, reaching the Milky Way where sat the Sun goddess and the
Great-Producing Kami, was recognized by the latter, who threw it back
to earth, decreeing that it should strike the prince were he guilty
of treason, and leave him unharmed if the blood on the arrow was that
of the earthly Kami whom he had been sent to quell. The shaft struck
the prince and killed him.
At this point the course of the history is interrupted by an
unintelligible description of the resulting obsequies--held in heaven
according to the Chronicles, on earth according to the Records. Wild
geese, herons, kingfishers, sparrows, and pheasants were the
principal officiators; the mourning rites, which included singing,
and dancing,* continued for eight days and eight nights, and the
proceedings were rudely interrupted by the prince's brother-in-law,
who, coming to condole and being mistaken for the deceased, is so
enraged by the error that he draws his sword, cuts down the mortuary
house, and kicks away the pieces.
*It has been conjectured, with much probability, that this singing
and dancing was a ceremony in imitation of the rites performed to
entice the Sun goddess from her cave. The motive was to resuscitate
the dead.
These two failures did not deter the Great-Producing Kami and the Sun
goddess. They again took counsel with the other beings on the "plain
of high heaven," and it was decided to have recourse to the Kami born
from the blood that dropped from Izanagi's sword when he slew the
Kami of fire. To one of these--the Kami of courage--the mission of
subduing the land of many islands was entrusted, and associated with
him in the work was the Kami of boats, a son of Izanagi and Izanami.
The two descended to Izumo. They carried swords ten hand-breadths
long, and having planted these upside down, they seated themselves on
the points and delivered their message to the Great-Name Possessor,
requiring him to declare whether or not he would abdicate in favour
of the newly named sovereign.
The Great-Name Possessor replied that he must consult his son, who
was absent on a hunting expedition. Accordingly, the Kami of boats
went to seek him, and, on being conducted into his father's presence,
the latter declared his willingness to surrender, sealing the
declaration by suicide.* There remained, then, only the second son of
the Great-Name Possessor to be consulted. He did not submit so
easily. Relying on his great strength, he challenged the Kami of
courage to a trial of hand grasping. But when he touched the Kami's
hand it turned first into an icicle and then into a sword-blade,
whereas his own hand, when seized by the Kami, was crushed and thrown
aside like a young reed. He fled away in terror, and was pursued by
the Kami as far as the distant province of Shinano, when he saved his
life by making formal submission and promising not to contravene the
decision of his father and elder brother.
*He stepped on the side of his boat so as to upset it, and with hands
crossed behind his back sank into the sea.
Then the Great-Name Possessor, having "lost his sons, on whom he
relied," agreed to abdicate provided that a shrine were built in
memory of him, "having its pillars made stout on the nethermost
rock-bottom, and its cross-beams raised to the 'plain of high
heaven.'"* He handed over the broad-bladed spear which had assisted
him to pacify the land, and declaring that if he offered resistance,
all the earthly Kami, too, would certainly resist, he "hid in the
eighty road-windings."
*This hyperbolical language illustrates the tone of the Records and
the Chronicles. Applied to the comparatively humble buildings that
served for residences in ancient Japan, the description in the text
is curiously exaggerated. The phrase here quoted finds frequent
reproduction in the Shinto rituals.
Thus, already in the eighth century when the Records and the
Chronicles were compiled, suicide after defeat in battle had become a
recognized practice. The submission and self-inflicted death of the
Great-Name Possessor did not, however, save his followers. All the
rebellious Kami were put to the sword by the envoys from the "plain
of high heaven." This chapter of the annals ends with an account of
the shrine erected in memory of the Great-Name Possessor. It was
placed under the care of a grandson of the Kami born to Izanagi and
Izanami, who is represented as declaring that he "would continue
drilling fire for the Kami's kitchen until the soot hung down eight
hand-breadths from the roof of the shrine of the Great-Producing Kami
and until the earth below was baked to its nethermost rocks; and that
with the fire thus drilled he would cook for him the fish brought in
by the fishermen, and present them to him in baskets woven of split
bamboos which would bend beneath their weight."
THE DESCENT UPON TSUKUSHI
It had been originally intended that the dominion of Japan should be
given to the senior of the five Kami born of the five-hundred-jewel
string of the Sun goddess. But during the interval devoted to
bringing the land to a state of submission, this Kami's spouse, the
Princess of the Myriad Looms of the Luxuriant Dragon-fly Island,* had
borne a son, Hikoho no Ninigi, (Rice-Ears of Ruddy Plenty), and this
boy having now grown to man's estate, it was decided to send him as
ruler of Japan. A number of Kami were attached to him as guards and
assistants, among them being the Kami of "thought combination," who
conceived the plan for enticing the Sun goddess from her cave and who
occupied the position of chief councillor in the conclave of high
heaven; the female Kami who danced before the cave; the female Kami
who forged the mirror, and, in short, all the Kami who assisted in
restoring light to the world. There were also entrusted to the new
sovereign the curved-jewel chaplet of the Sun goddess, the mirror
that had helped to entice her, and the sword (herb-queller) which
Susanoo had taken from the body of the eight-headed serpent.
*"Dragon-fly Island" was a name anciently given to Japan on account
of the country's shape.
These three objects thenceforth became the three sacred things of
Japan. Strict injunction was given that the mirror was to be regarded
and reverenced exactly as though it was the spirit of the Sun
goddess, and it was ordered that the Kami of "thought combination"
should administer the affairs of the new kingdom. The fact is also to
be noted that among the Kami attached to Hikoho no Ninigi's person,
five--three male and two female--are designated by the Records as
ancestors and ancestresses of as many hereditary corporations, a
distinctive feature of the early Japan's polity. As to the manner of
Hikoho no Ninigi's journey to Japan, the Chronicles say that the
Great-Producing Kami threw the coverlet of his couch over him and
caused him to cleave his way downwards through the clouds; but the
Records allege that he descended "shut up in the floating bridge of
heaven."
The point has some interest as furnishing a traditional trace of the
nature of this so-called invasion of Japan, and as helping to confirm
the theory that the "floating bridge of heaven," from which Izanagi
thrust his spear downwards into the brine of chaos, was nothing more
than a boat. It will naturally be supposed that as Hikoho no Ninigi's
migration to Japan was in the sequel of a long campaign having its
main field in the province of Izumo, his immediate destination would
have been that province, where a throne was waiting to be occupied by
him, and where he knew that a rich region existed. But the Records
and the Chronicles agree in stating that he descended on
Kirishimayama* in Tsukushi, which is the ancient name of the island
of Kyushu. This is one of the first eight islands begotten by Izanagi
and Izanami. Hence the alternative name for Japan, "Land of the Eight
Great Islands."
*Takachiho-dake is often spoken of as the mountain thus celebrated,
but Takachiho is only the eastern, and lower, of the two peaks of
Kirishima-yama.
It was, moreover, to a river of Tsukushi that Izanagi repaired to
cleanse himself from the pollution of hades. But between Kyushu
(Tsukushi) and Izumo the interval is immense, and it is accentuated
by observing that the mountain Kirishima, specially mentioned in the
story, raises its twin peaks at the head of the Bay of Kagoshima in
the extreme south of Kyushu. There is very great difficulty in
conceiving that an army whose ultimate destination was Izumo should
have deliberately embarked on the shore of Kagoshima. The landing of
Ninigi--his full name need not be repeated--was made with all
precautions, the van of his army (kume) being commanded by the
ancestor of the men who thenceforth held the highest military rank
(otomo) through many centuries, and the arms carried being bows,
arrows, and swords.*
*The swords are said to have been "mallet-headed," but the term still
awaits explanation.
All the annals agree in suggesting that the newcomers had no
knowledge of the locality, but whereas one account makes Ninigi
consult and obtain permission from an inhabitant of the place,
another represents him as expressing satisfaction that the region lay
opposite to Kara (Korea) and received the beams of the rising and the
setting sun, qualifications which it is not easy to associate with
any part of southern Kyushu.
At all events he built for himself a palace in accordance with the
orthodox formula--its pillars made stout on the nethermost
rock-bottom and its cross-beams made high to the plain of heaven--and
apparently abandoned all idea of proceeding to Izumo. Presently he
encountered a beautiful girl. She gave her name as Brilliant Blossom,
and described herself as the daughter of the Kami of mountains one of
the thirty-five beings begotten by Izanagi and Izanami who would seem
to have been then living in Tsukushi, and who gladly consented to
give Brilliant Blossom. He sent with her a plentiful dower--many
"tables"* of merchandise--but he sent also her elder sister,
Enduring-as-Rock, a maiden so ill favoured that Ninigi dismissed her
with disgust, thus provoking the curse of the Kami of mountains, who
declared that had his elder daughter been welcomed, the lives of the
heavenly sovereigns** would have been as long as her name suggested,
but that since she had been treated with contumely, their span of
existence would be comparatively short. Presently Brilliant Blossom
became enceinte. Her lord, however, thinking that sufficient time had
not elapsed for such a result, suspected her of infidelity with one
of the earthly Kami,*** whereupon she challenged the ordeal of fire,
and building a parturition hut, passed in, plastered up the entrance,
and set fire to the building. She was delivered of three children
without mishap, and their names were Hosuseri (Fire-climax), Hohodemi
(Fire-shine), and Hoori (Fire-subside).
*This expression has reference to the fact that offerings at
religious ceremonials were always heaped on low tables for laying
before the shrine.
**The expression "heavenly sovereign" is here applied for the first
time to the Emperors of Japan.
***The term "earthly" was applied to Kami born on earth, "heavenly"
Kami being those born in heaven.
THE CASTLE OF THE SEA DRAGON
At this stage the annals digress to relate an episode which has only
collateral interest Hosuseri and Hohodemi made fishing and hunting,
respectively, their avocations. But Hohodemi conceived a fancy to
exchange pursuits, and importuned Hosuseri to agree. When, however,
the former tried his luck at angling, he not only failed to catch
anything but also lost the hook which his brother had lent him. This
became the cause of a quarrel. Hosuseri taunted Hohodemi on the
foolishness of the original exchange and demanded the restoration of
his hook, nor would he be placated though Hohodemi forged his sabre
into five hundred hooks and then into a thousand. Wandering
disconsolate,* by the seashore, Hohodemi met the Kami of salt, who,
advising him to consult the daughter of the ocean Kami,** sent him to
sea in a "stout little boat."
*"Weeping and lamenting" are the words in the Records.
**One of the Kami begotten by Izanagi and Izanami.
After drifting for a time, he found himself at a palace beside which
grew a many-branched cassia tree overhanging a well. He climbed into
the tree and waited. Presently the handmaidens of Princess Rich Gem,
daughter of the ocean Kami, came to draw water, and seeing a shadow
in the well, they detected Hohodemi in the cassia tree. At his
request they gave him water in a jewelled vessel, but instead of
drinking, he dropped into the vessel a gem from his own necklace, and
the handmaidens, unable to detach the gem, carried the vessel to
their mistress. Then the princess went to look and, seeing a
beautiful youth in the cassia tree, "exchanged glances" with him. The
ocean Kami quickly recognized Hohodemi; led him in; seated him on a
pile of many layers of sealskins* overlaid by many layers of silk
rugs; made a banquet for him, and gave him for wife Princess Rich
Gem.
*Chamberlain translates this "sea-asses' skins," and conjectures that
sea-lions or seals may be meant.
Three years passed tranquilly without the bridegroom offering any
explanation of his presence. At the end of that time, thoughts of the
past visited him and he "sighed." Princess Rich Gem took note of this
despondency and reported it to her father, who now, for the first
time, inquired the cause of Hohodemi's coming. Thereafter all the
fishes of the sea, great and small, were summoned, and being
questioned about the lost hook, declared that the tai* had recently
complained of something sticking in its throat and preventing it from
eating. So the lost hook was recovered, and the ocean Kami instructed
Hohodemi, when returning it to his brother, to warn the latter that
it was a useless hook which would not serve its purpose, but would
rather lead its possessor to ruin. He further instructed him to
follow a method of rice culture the converse of that adopted by his
brother, since he, the ocean Kami, would rule the waters so as to
favour Hohodemi's labours, and he gave him two jewels having the
property of making the tide ebb and flow, respectively. These jewels
were to be used against Hosuseri, if necessary.
*Pagrus major.
Finally the Kami of the ocean instructed a crocodile to carry
Hohodemi to his home. This was accomplished, and in token of his safe
arrival, Hohodemi placed his stiletto on the crocodile's neck for
conveyance to the ocean Kami.
The programme prescribed by the latter was now faithfully pursued, so
that Hosuseri grew constantly poorer, and finally organized a fierce
attack upon his younger brother, who, using the tide-flowing jewel,
overwhelmed his assailants until they begged for mercy, whereupon the
power of the tide-ebbing jewel was invoked to save them. The result
was that Hosuseri, on behalf of himself and his descendants for all
time, promised to guard and respectfully serve his brother by day and
by night. In this episode the hayabito had their origin. They were
palace guards, who to their military functions added the duty of
occasionally performing a dance which represented the struggles of
their ancestor, Hosuseri, when he was in danger of drowning.
BIRTH OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU
After the composition of the quarrel described above, Princess Rich
Gem arrived from the castle of the ocean Kami, and built a
parturition hut on the seashore, she being about to bring forth a
child. Before the thatch of cormorants' feathers could be completed,
the pains of labour overtook her, and she entered the hut, conjuring
her husband not to spy upon her privacy, since, in order to be safely
delivered, she must assume a shape appropriate to her native land.
He, however, suffered his curiosity to overcome him, and peeping in,
saw her in the form of an eight-fathom crocodile. It resulted that
having been thus put to shame, she left her child and returned to the
ocean Kami's palace, declaring that there should be no longer any
free passage between the dominions of the ocean Kami and the world of
men. "Nevertheless afterwards, although angry at her husband's having
wished to peep, she could not restrain her loving heart," and she
sent her younger sister, Good Jewel, to nurse the baby and to be the
bearer of a farewell song to Hohodemi.
The Records state that the latter lived to the age of 580 years and
that his mausoleum was built to the west of Mount Takachiho, on which
his palace stood. Thus for the first time the duration of a life is
stated in the antique annals of Japan. His son, called Fuki-ayezu
(Unfinished Thatch), in memory of the strange incident attending his
birth, married Princess Good Jewel, his own aunt, and by her had four
sons. The first was named Itsuse (Five Reaches) and the youngest,
Iware (a village in Yamato province). This latter ultimately became
Emperor of Japan, and is known in history as Jimmu (Divine Valour), a
posthumous name given to him many centuries after his death.* From
the time of this sovereign dates and events are recorded with full
semblance of accuracy in the Chronicles, but the compilers of the
Records do not attempt to give more than a bald statement of the
number of years each sovereign lived or reigned.
*Posthumous names for the earthly Mikados were invented in the reign
of Kwammu (A.D. 782-805), i.e., after the date of the compilation of
the Records and the Chronicles. But they are in universal use by the
Japanese, though to speak of a living sovereign by his posthumous
name is a manifest anomaly.
THE EXPEDITION TO YAMATO
According to the Chronicles, the four sons of Fuki-ayezu engaged in a
celebrated expedition from Tsukushi (Kyushu) to Yamato, but one
alone, the youngest, survived. According to the Records, two only
took part in the expedition, the other two having died before it set
out. The former version seems more consistent with the facts, and
with the manner of the two princes' deaths, as described in the
Records. Looking from the east coast of the island of Kyushu, the
province of Yamato lies to the northeast, at a distance of about 350
miles, and forms the centre of the Kii promontory. From what has
preceded, a reader of Japanese history is prepared to find that the
objective of the expedition was Izumo, not Yamato, since it was to
prepare for the occupation of the former province that the Sun
goddess and her coadjutors expended so much energy. No explanation
whatever of this discrepancy is offered, but it cannot be supposed
that Yamato was regarded as a halfway house to Izumo, seeing that
they lie on opposite coasts of Japan and are two hundred miles
distant.
The Chronicles assign the genesis of the enterprise to Prince Iware,
whom they throughout call Hohodemi, and into whose mouth they put an
exhortation--obviously based on a Chinese model--speaking of a land
in the east encircled by blue mountains and well situated, as the
centre of administrative authority. To reach Yamato by sea from
Kyushu two routes offer; one, the more direct, is by the Pacific
Ocean straight to the south coast of the Kii promontory; the other is
by the Inland Sea to the northwestern coast of the same promontory.
The latter was chosen, doubtless because nautical knowledge and
seagoing vessels were alike wanting.
It is not possible, however, to speak with confidence as to the
nature of the ships possessed by the Japanese in early times. The
first mention of ships occurs in the story of Susanoo's arrival in
Japan. He is said to have carried with him quantities of tree seeds
which he planted in the Eight Island Country, the cryptomeria and the
camphor being intended to serve as "floating riches," namely ships.
This would suggest, as is indeed commonly believed, that the boats of
that era were simply hollow trunks of trees.
Five centuries later, however, without any intervening reference, we
find the Emperor Sujin urging the construction of ships as of
cardinal importance for purposes of coastwise transport--advice which
is hardly consistent with the idea of log boats. Again, in A.D. 274,
the people of Izu are recorded as having built and sent to the Court
a vessel one hundred feet long; and, twenty-six years later, this
ship having become old and unserviceable, was used as fuel for
manufacturing salt, five hundred bags of which were distributed among
the provinces with directions to construct as many ships.
There is no mention in either the Chronicles or the Records of any
marked change in the matter of marine architecture during all these
years. The nature of the Kyushu expeditionary ships must therefore
remain a matter of conjecture, but that they were propelled by oars,
not sails, seems pretty certain. Setting out from some point in
Kyushu probably the present Kagoshima Bay the expedition made its way
up the east coast of the island, and reaching the Bungo Channel,
where the tide is very rapid, obtained the services of a fisherman as
pilot. Thence the fleet pushed on to Usa in the province of Buzen, at
the north of Kyushu, when two local chieftains built for the
entertainment and residence of the princes and their followers a "one
pillared palace"--probably a tent. The next place of call was Oka (or
Okada) in Chikuzen, where they passed a year before turning eastward
into the Inland Sea, and pushing on to one of the many islands off
the coast of Aki, they spent seven years before proceeding to another
island (Takashima) in Kibi, as the present three provinces of Bingo,
Bitchu, and Bizen were then called. There they delayed for eight
years the Chronicles say three--in order to repair the oars of their
vessels and to procure provisions.
Up to this time there had been no fighting or any attempt to effect a
lodgment on the mainland. But the expedition was now approaching the
narrow westerly entrance to the present Osaka Bay, where an army
might be encountered at any moment. The boats therefore sailed in
line ahead, "the prow of each ship touching the stern of the other."
Off the mouth of the river, now known as the Yodo, they encountered
such a high sea that they called the place Nami-hana (Wave
Flowers), a name subsequently abbreviated to Naniwa. Pushing
on, the expeditionary force finally landed at a place--not now
identifiable--in the province of Kawachi, which bounds Yamato on the
west.
The whole voyage had occupied four years according to the Chronicles,
sixteen according to the Records. At Kusaka they fought their first
battle against the army of Prince Nagasune and were repulsed, Prince
Itsuse being wounded by an arrow which struck his elbow. It was
therefore decided to change the direction of advance, so that instead
of moving eastward in the face of the sun, a procedure unpleasing to
the goddess of that orb, they should move westward with the sun
behind them. This involved re-embarking and sailing southward round
the Kii promontory so as to land on its eastern coast, but the
dangerous operation of putting an army on board ship in the presence
of a victorious enemy was successfully achieved by the aid of
skilfully used shields.
On the voyage round Kii, where stormy seas are frequent, the fleet
encountered a heavy gale and the boats containing two of the princes
were lost.* Prince Itsuse had already died of his wound, so of the
four brothers there now remained only the youngest, Prince Iware. It
is recorded that, at the age of fifteen, he had been made heir to the
throne, the principle of primogeniture not being then recognized, and
thus the deaths of his brothers did not affect that question. Landing
ultimately at Kumano on the southeast of Kii, the expeditionary force
was stricken by a pestilence, the prince himself not escaping. But at
the behest of the Sun goddess, the Kami of thunder caused a sword of
special virtue to come miraculously into the possession of an
inhabitant of Kii, who carried it to the prince, and at once the
sickness was stayed. When, however, the army attempted to advance
into the interior, no roads were found and precipitous mountains
barred the progress. In this dilemma the Sun goddess sent down the
three-legged crow of the Sun** to act as guide.
*In the Chronicles the two princes are represented as having
deliberately entered the stormy sea, angered that such hardships
should overtake the descendants of the ocean Kami.
**The Yang-wu, or Sun-crow (Japanese Yata-garasu), is a creature of
purely Chinese myth. It is supposed to be red in colour, to have
three legs, and to inhabit the sun.
Thus indiscriminately are the miraculous and the commonplace
intermixed. Following this bird, the invading force pushed on into
Yamato, receiving the allegiance of a body of men who fished with
cormorants in the Yoshino River and who doubtless supplied the army
with food, and the allegiance of fabulous beings with tails, who came
out of wells or through cliffs. It is related that the invaders
forced the elder of two brothers into a gyn which he had prepared for
their destruction; and that on ascending a hill to reconnoitre,
Prince Iware observed an army of women and a force of eighty
"earth-hiders (Tsuchi-gumo) with tails," by which latter epithet is
to be understood bandits or raiders who inhabited caves.
How it fared with the amazons the annals do not say, but the eighty
bandits were invited to a banquet and slaughtered in their cups.
Still the expeditionary force encountered great opposition, the roads
and passes being occupied by numerous hostile bands. An appeal was
accordingly made for divine assistance by organizing a public
festival of worship, the vessels employed--eighty platters and as
many jars--being made by the hands of the prince himself with clay
obtained from Mount Kagu in Yamato.* Several minor arrangements
followed, and finally swords were crossed with the army of Nagasune,
who had inflicted a defeat on the invaders on the occasion of their
first landing at Kusaka, when Prince Itsuse received a mortal wound.
A fierce battle ensued. Prince Iware burned to avenge his brother's
death, but repeated attacks upon Nagasune's troops proved abortive
until suddenly a golden-plumaged kite perched on the end of Prince
Iware's bow, and its effulgence dazzled the enemy so that they could
not fight stoutly.**
*The Chronicles state that the prince made ame on the platters. Ame
is confectioned from malted millet and is virtually the same as the
malt extract of the Occident.
**This tradition of the golden kite is cherished in Japan. The "Order
of the Golden Kite" is the most coveted military distinction.
From this incident the place where the battle occurred was called
Tabi-no-mura, a name now corrupted into Tomi-no-mura. It does not
appear, however, that anything like a decisive victory was gained by
the aid of this miraculous intervention. Nagasune sought a conference
with Prince Iware, and declared that the ruler of Yamato, whom he
served, was a Kami who had formerly descended from heaven. He offered
in proof of this statement an arrow and a quiver belonging to the
Kami. But Prince Iware demonstrated their correspondence with those
he himself carried. Nagasune, however, declining to abstain from
resistance, was put to death by the Kami he served, who then made act
of submission to Prince Iware.
The interest of this last incident lies in the indication it seems to
afford that a race identical with the invaders had already settled in
Yamato. Prince Iware now caused a palace to be built on the plain of
Kashiwa-bara (called Kashihara by some historians), to the southwest
of Mount Unebi, and in it assumed the imperial dignity, on the first
day of the first month of the year 660 B.C. It is scarcely necessary
to say that this date must be received with all reserve, and that the
epithet "palace" is not to be interpreted in the European sense of
the term. The Chronicles, which alone attempt to fix the early dates
with accuracy, indicate 667 B.C. as the year of the expedition's
departure from Kyushu, and assign to Prince Iware an age of
forty-five at the time. He was therefore fifty-two when crowned at
Kashiwa-bara, and as the same authority makes him live to an age of
127, it might be supposed that much would be told of the last
seventy-five years of his life.
But whereas many pages are devoted to the story of his adventures
before ascending the throne, a few paragraphs suffice for all that is
subsequently related of him. While residing in Kyushu he married and
had two sons, the elder of whom, Tagishi-mimi, accompanied him on his
eastward expedition. In Yamato he married again and had three sons,
the youngest of whom succeeded to the throne. The bestowing of titles
and rewards naturally occupied much attention, and to religious
observances scarcely less importance seems to have been attached. All
references to these latter show that the offices of priest and king
were united in the sovereign of these days. Thus it was by the
Emperor that formulae of incantation to dissipate evil influences
were dictated; that sacrifices were performed to the heavenly Kami so
as to develop filial piety; and that shrines were consecrated for
worshiping the Imperial ancestors. Jimmu was buried in a tumulus
(misasagi) on the northeast of Mount Unebi. The site is officially
recognized to this day, and on the 3rd of April every year it is
visited by an Imperial envoy, who offers products of mountain, river,
and sea.
TRACES OF FOREIGN INFLUENCE
What traces of Chinese or foreign influence are to be found in the
legends and myths set down above? It is tolerably certain that
communication existed between China and Japan from a date shortly
prior to the Christian era, and we naturally expect to find that
since China was at that time the author of Asiatic civilization, she
contributed materially to the intellectual development of her island
neighbour. Examining the cosmogonies of the two countries, we find at
the outset a striking difference. The Chinese did not conceive any
creator, ineffable, formless, living in space; whereas the Japanese
imagined a great central Kami and two producing powers, invisible and
working by occult processes.
On the other hand, there is a marked similarity of thought. For, as
on the death of Panku, the giant toiler of Chinese myth on whom
devolved the task of chiselling out the universe, his left eye was
transmitted into the orb of day and his right into the moon, so when
the Japanese Kami returned from his visit to the underworld, the sun
emerged from the washing of his left eye and the moon from the
washing of his right. Japanese writers have sought to differentiate
the two myths by pointing out that the sun is masculine in China and
feminine in Japan, but such an objection is inadequate to impair the
close resemblance.
In truth "creation from fragments of a fabulous anthropomorphic being
is common to Chaldeans, Iroquois, Egyptians, Greeks, Tinnehs,
Mangaians, and Aryan Indians," and from that fact a connexion between
ancient Japan and West Asia might be deduced by reference to the
beings formed out of the parts: of the fire Kami's body when Izanagi
put him to the sword. On the other hand, the tale of which the birth
of the sun and the moon forms a part, namely, the visit of Izanagi to
hades in search of Izanami, is an obvious reproduction of the
Babylonian myth of Ishtar's journey to the underworld in search of
Du'uzu, which formed the basis of the Grecian legend of Orpheus and
Eurydice. Moreover, Izanami's objection to return, on the ground of
having already eaten of the food of the underworld, is a feature of
many ancient myths, among which may be mentioned the Indian story of
Nachiketas, where the name Yama, the Indian god of the lower world,
bears an obvious resemblance to the Japanese yomi (hades), as does,
indeed, the whole Indian myth of Yami and Yama to that of Izanagi and
Izanami.
Is it not also more than a mere coincidence that as all the Semitic
tribes worshipped the goddess Isis, so--the Japanese worshipped, for
supreme being, the goddess of the Sun? Thus, here again there would
seem to have been some path of communication other than that via
China between Japan and the west of Asia. Further, the "river of
heaven"--the Milky Way--which so often figures in Japanese mythology,
is prominent in Chinese also, and is there associated with the
Spinning Damsel, just as in the Japanese legend it serves the Kami
for council-place after the injury done by Susanoo's violence to the
Sun goddess and her spinning maidens. It has been remarked
[Chamberlain] that the chop-stick which Susanoo found floating down
a river in Izumo, and the sake (rice-wine) which he caused to be made
for the purpose of intoxicating the eight-headed serpent, are
obviously products of Chinese civilization, but as for the rescue of
the maiden from the serpent, it is a plain replica of the legend of
Perseus and Andromeda, which, if it came through China, left no mark
in transit.
Less palpable, but still sufficiently striking, is the resemblance
between the story of Atalanta's golden apples and the casting down of
Izanagi's head-dress and comb as grapes and bamboo sprouts to arrest
the pursuit of the "hag of hades." But indeed this throwing of his
comb behind him by Izanagi and its conversion into a thicket are
common incidents of ancient folk-lore, while in the context of this
Kami's ablutions on his return from hades, it may be noted that Ovid
makes Juno undergo lustration after a visit to the lower regions and
that Dante is washed in Lethe when he passes out of purgatory. Nor is
there any great stretch of imagination needed to detect a likeness
between the feathered messenger sent from the Ark and the three
envoys--the last a bird--despatched from the "plain of high heaven"
to report upon the condition of disturbed Japan. This comparison is
partially vitiated, however, by the fact that there is no tradition
of a deluge in Japanese annals, though such phenomena are like ly to
occur occasionally in all lands and to produce a great impression on
the national imagination. "Moreover, what is specially known to us as
the deluge has been claimed as an ancient Altaic myth. Yet here we
have the oldest of the undoubtedly Altaic nations without any legend
of the kind." [Chamberlain.]
It appears, further, from the account of the Great-Name Possessor's
visit to the underworld, that one Japanese conception of hades
corresponded exactly with that of the Chinese, namely, a place where
people live and act just as they do on earth. But the religion out of
which this belief grew in China had its origin at a date long
subsequent to the supposed age of the Gods in Japan. The peaches with
which Izanagi pelted and drove back the thunder Kami sent by Izanami
to pursue him on his return from the underworld were evidently
suggested by the fabulous female, Si Wang-mu, of Chinese legend, who
possessed a peach tree, the fruit of which conferred immortality and
repelled the demons of disease. So, too, the tale of the palace of
the ocean Kami at the bottom of the sea, with its castle gate and
cassia tree overhanging a well which serves as a mirror, forms a page
of Chinese legendary lore, and, in a slightly altered form, is found
in many ancient annals.
The sea monster mentioned in this myth is written with a Chinese
ideograph signifying "crocodile," but since the Japanese cannot have
had any knowledge of crocodiles, and since the monster is usually
represented pictorially as a dragon, there can be little doubt that
we are here confronted by the Dragon King of Chinese and Korean
folk-lore which had its palace in the depths of the ocean. In fact,
the Japanese, in all ages, have spoken of this legendary edifice as
Ryu no jo (the Dragon's castle).
The eminent sinologue, Aston, has shrewdly pointed out that the term
wani (crocodile) may be a corruption of the Korean word, wang-in
(king), which the Japanese pronounced "wani." As for the "curved
jewels," which appear on so many occasions, the mineral jade, or
jadelike stone, of which many of them were made, has never been met
with in Japan and must therefore have come from the continent of
Asia. The reed boat in which the leech, first offspring of Izanagi
and Izanami, was sent adrift, "recalls the Accadian legend of Sargon
and his ark of rushes, the biblical story of Moses as an infant and
many more," though it has no known counterpart in Chinese mythology.
It is noticeable that in spite of the honour paid to the stars in the
Chinese cosmogony, the only star specially alluded to in Japanese
myth is Kagase, who is represented as the last of the rebellious Kami
on the occasion of the subjugation of Izumo by order of the Sun
goddess and the Great-Producing Kami. So far as the Records and the
Chronicles are concerned, "the only stars mentioned are Venus, the
Pleiades, and the Weaver," the last being connected with a Chinese
legend, as shown above.
Two other points remain to be noticed. One is that divination by
cracks in a deer's roasted shoulder blade, a process referred to more
than once in the Records and the Chronicles, was a practice of the
Chinese, who seem to have borrowed it from the Mongolians; the other,
that the sounding arrow (nari-kabura) was an invention of the Huns,
and came to Japan through China. It had holes in the head, and the
air passing through these produced a humming sound. As for the
Chronicles, they are permeated by Chinese influence throughout. The
adoption of the Chinese sexagenary cycle is not unnatural, but again
and again speeches made by Chinese sovereigns and sages are put into
the mouths of Japanese monarchs as original utterances, so that
without the Records for purposes of reference and comparison, even
the small measure of solid ground that can be constructed would be
cut from under the student's feet.
ENGRAVING: BUNDAI SUZURI BAKO (A WRITING SET)
ENGRAVING: 'NO' MASKS
CHAPTER IV
RATIONALIZATION
GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES
THE southwestern extremity of the main island of Japan is embraced by
two large islands, Kyushu and Shikoku, the former lying on the west
of the latter and being, in effect, the southern link of the island
chain which constitutes the empire of Japan. Sweeping northward from
Formosa and the Philippines is a strong current known as the
Kuro-shio (Black Tide), a name derived from the deep indigo colour of
the water. This tide, on reaching the vicinity of Kyushu, is
deflected to the east, and passing along the southern coast of Kyushu
and the Kii promontory, takes its way into the Pacific. Evidently
boats carried on the bosom of the Kuro-shio would be likely to make
the shore of Japan at one of three points, namely, the south, or
southeast, of Kyushu, the south of Shikoku or the Kii promontory.
Now, according to the Records, the first place "begotten" by Izanagi
and Izanami was an island called Awa, supposed to be in the vicinity
of Awaji. The latter is a long, narrow island stretching from the
northeast of Shikoku towards the shore of the main island--which it
approaches very closely at the Strait of Yura--and forming what may
be called a gate, closing the eastern entrance to the Inland Sea.
After the island of Awa, the producing couple gave birth to Awaji and
subsequently to Shikoku, which is described as an island having four
faces, namely, the provinces of Awa, Iyo, Tosa, and Sanuki.
Rejecting the obviously allegorical phantasy of "procreation," we may
reasonably suppose ourselves to be here in the presence of an
emigration from the South Seas or from southern China, which debarks
on the coast of Awaji and thence crosses to Shikoku. Thereafter, the
immigrants touch at a triplet of small islands, described as "in the
offing," and thence cross to Kyushu, known at the time as Tsukushi.
This large island is described in the Records as having, like
Shikoku, one body and four faces, and part of it was inhabited by
Kumaso, of whom much is heard in Japanese history. From Kyushu the
invaders pass to the islands of Iki and Tsushima, which lie between
Kyushu and Korea, and thereafter they sail northward along the coast
of the main island of Japan until they reach the island of Sado.
All this--and the order of advance follows exactly the procreation
sequence given in the Records--lends itself easily to the supposition
of a party of immigrants coming originally from the south, voyaging
in a tentative manner round the country described by them, and
establishing themselves primarily on its outlying islands.
The next step, according to the Records, was to Yamato. About this
name, Yamato, there has been some dispute. Alike in ancient and in
modern times the term has been applied, on the one hand, to the whole
of the main island, and, on the other, to the single province of
Yamato. The best authorities, however, interpret it in the latter
sense for the purposes of the Izanagi-and-Izanami legend, and that
interpretation is plainly consistent with the probabilities, for the
immigrants would naturally have proceeded from Awaji to the Kii
promontory, where the province of Yamato lies. Thereafter--on their
"return," say the Records, and the expression is apposite--they
explored several small islands not identifiable by their names but
said to have been in Kibi, which was the term then applied to the
provinces of Bingo, Bitchu, and Bizen, lying along the south coast of
the Inland Sea and thus facing the sun, so that the descriptive
epithet "sun-direction" applied to the region was manifestly
appropriate.
In brief, the whole narrative concerts well with the idea of a band
of emigrants carried on the breast of the "Black Tide," who first
make the circuit of the outlying fringe of islands, then enter the
mainland at Yamato, and finally sail down the Inland Sea, using the
small islands off its northern shore as points d'appui for
expeditions inland.
JAPANESE OPINION
Japanese euhemerists, several of whom, in former times as well as in
the present, have devoted much learned research to the elucidation of
their country's mythology, insist that tradition never intended to
make such a demand upon human credulity as to ask it to believe in
the begetting of islands by normal process of procreation. They
maintain that such descriptions must be read as allegories. It then
becomes easy to interpret the doings of Izanagi and Izanami as simple
acts of warlike aggression, and to suppose that they each commanded
forces which were to have co-operated, but which, by failing at the
outset to synchronize their movements, were temporarily unsuccessful.
It will seem, as we follow the course of later history, that the
leading of armies by females was common enough to be called a feature
of early Japan, and thus the role assigned to Izanami need not cause
any astonishment. At their first miscarriage the two Kami, by better
organization, overran the island of Awaji and then pushed on to
Shikoku, which they brought completely under their sway.
But what meaning is to be assigned to the "plain of high heaven"
(Takama-ga-hara)? Where was the place thus designated? By a majority
of Japanese interpreters Takama-ga-hara is identified as the region
of Taka-ichi in Yamato province. The word did not refer to anything
supernatural but was used simply in an honorific sense. In later ages
Court officials were called "lords of the moon" (gekhei) or
"cloud-guests" (unkaku), while officials not permitted to attend the
Court were known as "groundlings" (jige); the residence of the
Emperor was designated "purple-clouds hall" (shishin-deri); to go
from the Imperial capital to any other part of the country was to
"descend," the converse proceeding being called to "ascend," and the
palace received the names of "blue sky" and "above the clouds."
To-day in Yamato province there is a hill called Takama-yama and a
plain named Takama-no. The Records say that when the Sun goddess
retired to a rock cave, a multitude of Kami met at Taka-ichi to
concert measures for enticing her out, and this Taka-ichi is
considered to be undoubtedly the place of the same name in Yamato.
But some learned men hold that Takama-ga-hara was in a foreign
country, and that the men who emigrated thence to Japan belonged to a
race very superior to that then inhabiting the islands. When,
however, the leader of the invaders had established his Court in
Yamato the designation Takama-ga-hara came to be applied to the
latter place.
Whichever theory be correct--and the latter certainly commends itself
as the more probable--it will be observed that both agree in
assigning to Takama-ga-hara a terrestrial location; both agree in
assigning the sense of "unsettled and turbulent" to the "floating,
drifting" condition predicated of the country when the Kami first
interested themselves in it, and both agree in interpreting as an
insignium of military authority the "jewelled spear" given to Izanagi
and Izanami--an interpretation borne out by the fact that, in
subsequent eras of Japanese history, it was customary for a ruler
to delegate authority in this manner. Applying the same process
of reasoning to the socalled "birth" of Kami, that process
resolves itself very simply into the creation of chieftains and
administrators.
RATIONALIZATION OF THE LEGEND OF THE VISIT TO HADES
It would seem that from Yamato the invaders prosecuted their campaign
into the interior, reaching Izumo on the west coast. The Records
say that after Izanami's death in giving birth to the Kami of fire,
she was buried at Mount Kagu on the confines of Izumo and Hoki.
Now the land of Yomi generally interpreted "underworld"--which
Izanagi visited in search of Izanami, was really identical with
Yomi-shima, located between the provinces of Hoki and Izumo, and
Ne-no-Kuni*--commonly taken to mean the "netherland"--subsequently
the place of Susanoo's banishment, was in fact a designation of
Izumo, or had the more extensive application of the modern Sanin-do
and Sanyo-do (districts in the shadow of the hill and districts on
the sunny side of the hill), that is to say, the western provinces
and the south coast of the Inland Sea.
*In the language of ancient Japan ne meant "mountain," and Ne-no-Kuni
signified simply "Land of Mountains."
What the allegory of the visit to hades would seem to signify,
therefore, was that Izanami was defeated in a struggle with the local
chieftains of Izumo or with a rebellious faction in that province;
was compelled to make act of submission before Izanagi arrived to
assist her--allegorically speaking she had eaten of the food of
hades--and therefore the conference between her and Izanagi proved
abortive. The hag who pursued Izanagi on his retreat from Yomi
represents a band of amazons--a common feature in old Japan--and his
assailant, the Kami of thunder, was a rebel leader.
As for the idea of blocking the "even pass of hades" with rocks, it
appears to mean nothing more than that a military force was posted at
Hirasaka--now called Ifuyo-saka in Izumo--to hold the defile against
the insurgent troops under Izanami, who finally took the field
against Izanagi. It may be inferred that the struggle ended
indecisively, although Izanagi killed the chieftain who had
instigated the rebellion (the so-called "Kami of fire"), and that
Izanami remained in Izumo, becoming ruler of that province, while
Izanagi withdrew to the eastern part of Tsukushi (Kyushu), where he
performed the ceremony of grand lustration.
THE STORY OF SUSANOO
The story of Susanoo lends itself with equal facility to
rationalization. His desire to go to his "mother's land" instead of
obeying his father and ruling the "sea-plain" (unabara)--an
appellation believed by some learned commentators to apply to
Korea--may easily be interpreted to mean that he threw in his lot
with the rebellious chiefs in Izumo. Leading a force into Yamato, he
laid waste the land so that the "green mountains were changed into
withered mountains," and the commotion throughout the country was
like the noise of "flies swarming in the fifth month." Finally he was
driven out of Yamato, and retiring to Izumo, found that the local
prefect was unable to resist the raids of a tribe from the
north under the command of a chief whose name--Yachimata no
Orochi--signified "eight-headed serpent."
This tribe had invaded the province and taken possession of the hills
and valleys in the upper reaches of the river Hi, whence tradition
came to speak of the tribe as a monster spreading over hills and
dales and having pine forests growing on its back. The tribute of
females, demanded yearly by the tribe, indicates an exaction not
uncommon in those days, and the sword said to have been found by
Susanoo in the serpent's tail was the weapon worn by the last and the
stoutest of Orochi's followers.
There is another theory equally accordant with the annals and in some
respects more satisfying. It is that Susanoo and his son, Iso-takeru,
when they were expelled from Yamato, dwelt in the land of
Shiragi--the eastern of the three kingdoms into which Korea was
formerly divided--and that they subsequently built boats and rowed
over to Izumo. This is distinctly stated in one version of the
Chronicles, and another variant says that when Iso-takeru descended
from Takama-ga-hara, he carried with him the seeds of trees in great
quantities but did not plant them in "the land of Han" (Korea).
Further, it is elsewhere stated that the sword found by Susanoo in
the serpent's tail was called by him Orochi no Kara-suki (Orochi's
Korean blade), an allusion which goes to strengthen the reading of
the legend.
THE DESCENT OF NINIGI
Omitting other comparatively trivial legends connected with the age
of Susanoo and his descendants, we come to what may be called the
second great event in the early annals of Japan, namely, the descent
of Ninigi on the southern coast of Tsukushi (Kyushu). The Records and
the Chronicles explicitly state that this expedition was planned in
the court at Takama-ga-hara (the "plain of high heaven"), and that,
after sending forces to subdue the disturbed country and to obtain
the submission of its ruler, the grandson (Ninigi) of the Sun goddess
was commissioned to take possession of the land. It is also clearly
shown that Izumo was the centre of disturbance and that virtually all
the preliminary fighting took place there. Yet when Ninigi descends
from Takama-ga-hara--a descent which is described in one account as
having taken place in a closed boat, and in another, as having been
effected by means of the coverlet of a couch--he is said to have
landed, not in Izumo or in Yamato, but at a place in the far south,
where he makes no recorded attempt to fulfil the purpose of his
mission, nor does that purpose receive any practical recognition
until the time of his grandson Iware. The latter pushes northward,
encountering the greatest resistance in the very province (Yamato)
where his grandfather's expedition was planned and where the Imperial
Court was held.
It is plain that these conditions cannot be reconciled except on one
of two suppositions: either that the Takama-ga-hara of this section
of the annals was in a foreign country, or that the descent of Ninigi
in the south of Japan was in the sequel of a complete defeat
involving the Court's flight from Yamato as well as from Izumo.
Let us first consider the theory of a foreign country. Was it Korea
or was it China? In favour of Korea there are only two arguments, one
vague and the other improbable. The former is that one of Ninigi's
alleged reasons for choosing Tsukushi as a landing-place was that it
faced Korea. The latter, that Tsukushi was selected because it
offered a convenient base for defending Japan against Korea. It will
be observed that the two hypotheses are mutually conflicting, and
that neither accounts for debarkation at a part of Tsukushi
conspicuously remote from Korea. It is not wholly impossible,
however, that Ninigi came from China, and that the Court which is
said to have commissioned him was a Chinese Court.
In the history of China a belief is recorded that the Japanese
sovereigns are descended from a Chinese prince, Tai Peh, whose father
wished to disinherit him in favour of a younger son. Tai Peh fled to
Wu in the present Chekiang, and thence passed to Japan about 800 B.C.
Another record alleges that the first sovereign of Japan was a son of
Shao-kang of the Hsia dynasty (about 850 B.C.), who tattooed his body
and cut off his hair for purposes of disguise and lived on the bank
of the Yangtsze, occupying himself with fishing until at length he
fled to Japan.
That Ninigi may have been identical with one of these persons is not
inconceivable, but such a hypothesis refuses to be reconciled with
the story of the fighting in Izumo which preceded the descent to
Tsukushi. The much more credible supposition is that the Yamato
Court, confronted by a formidable rebellion having its centre in
Izumo, retired to Tsukushi, and there, in the course of years,
mustered all its followers for an expedition ultimately led by the
grandson of the fugitive monarch to restore the sway of his house.
This interpretation of the legend consists with the fact that when
Jimmu reached Yamato, the original identity of his own race with that
of the then ruler of the province was proved by a comparison of
weapons.
THE CASTLE OF THE OCEAN KAMI
With regard to the legend of the ocean Kami, the rationalists
conceive that the tribe inhabiting Tsukushi at the time of Ninigi's
arrival there had originally immigrated from the south and had
gradually spread inland. Those inhabiting the littoral districts were
ultimately placed by Ninigi under the rule of Prince Hohodemi, and
those inhabiting the mountain regions under the sway of Prince
Hosuseri. The boats and hooks of the legend are symbolical of
military and naval power respectively. The brothers having quarrelled
about the limits of their jurisdictions, Hohodemi was worsted, and by
the advice of a local elder he went to Korea to seek assistance.
There he married the daughter of the Ocean King--so called because
Korea lay beyond the sea from Japan--and, after some years'
residence, was given a force of war-vessels (described in the legend
as "crocodiles") together with minute instructions (the tide-ebbing
and the tide-flowing jewels) as to their skilful management. These
ships ultimately enabled him to gain a complete victory over his
elder brother.
WHAT THE JAPANESE BELIEVE
These rationalizing processes will commend themselves in different
degrees to different minds. One learned author has compared such
analyses to estimating the historical residuum of the Cinderella
legend by subtracting the pumpkin coach and the godmother. But we are
constrained to acknowledge some background of truth in the annals of
old Japan, and anything that tends to disclose that background is
welcome. It has to be noted, however, that though many learned
Japanese commentators have sought to rationalize the events described
in the Records and the Chronicles, the great bulk of the nation
believes in the literal accuracy of these works as profoundly as the
great bulk of Anglo-Saxon people believes in the Bible, its
cosmogony, and its miracles.
The gist of the Japanese creed, as based on their ancient annals, may
be briefly summarized. They hold that when the Sun goddess handed the
three sacred objects to Ninigi--generally called Tenson, or "heavenly
grandchild"--she ordained that the Imperial Throne should be coeval
with heaven and earth. They hold that the instructions given with
regard to these sacred objects comprised the whole code of
administrative ethics. The mirror neither hides nor perverts; it
reflects evil qualities as faithfully as good; it is the emblem of
honesty and purity. The jewel illustrates the graces of gentleness,
softness, amiability, and obedience, and is therefore emblematic of
benevolence and virtue.* The sword indicates the virtues of strength,
sharpness, and practical decision, and is thus associated with
intelligence and knowledge. So long as all these qualities are
exercised in the discharge of administrative functions, there can be
no misrule.
*It must be remembered that the jewel referred to was a piece of
green or white jade.
They further hold that when the Sun goddess detailed five Kami to
form the suite of Ninigi, these Kami were entrusted with the
ministerial duties originally discharged by them, and becoming the
heads of five administrative departments, transmitted their offices
to generation after generation of their descendants. Thus Koyane was
the ancestor of the Nakatomi family who discharged the priestly
duties of worship at the Court and recited the Purification Rituals;
Futodama became the ancestor of the Imibe (or Imbe), a hereditary
corporation whose members performed all offices connected with
mourning and funerals; Usume became ancestress of the Sarume, whose
duties were to perform dances in honour of the deities and to act as
mediums of divine inspiration; Oshihi was the ancestor of the Otomo
chief who led the Imperial troops, and Kume became the ancestor of
the Kumebe, a hereditary corporation of palace guards. Further, they
hold that whereas Ninigi and his five adjunct Kami all traced their
lineage to the two producing Kami of the primal trinity, the special
title of sovereignty conferred originally on the Sun goddess was
transmitted by her to the Tenson (heavenly grandchild), Ninigi, the
distinction of ruler and ruled being thus clearly defined. Finally
they hold that Ninigi and these five adjunct Kami, though occupying
different places in the national polity, had a common ancestor whom
they jointly worshipped, thus forming an eternal union.
ENGRAVING: ANCIENT CIVIL AND MILITARY HEAD-GEAR
CHAPTER V
ORIGIN OF THE JAPANESE NATION: HISTORICAL EVIDENCES
IN considering the question of the origin of the Japanese nation four
guides are available; namely, written annals, archaeological relics,
physical features, and linguistic affinities.
WRITTEN ANNALS
The annals, that is to say, the Records and the Chronicles, speak of
six peoples; namely, first, Izanagi and his fellow Kami, who, as
shown above, may reasonably be identified with the original
immigrants represented in the story of the so-called "birth" of the
islands; secondly, Jimmu and his followers, who re-conquered the
islands; thirdly, the Yemishi, who are identical with the modern
Ainu; fourthly, the Kumaso; fifthly, the Sushen; and sixthly the
Tsuchi-gumo (earth-spiders). By naming these six separately it is not
intended to imply that they are necessarily different races: that
remains to be decided. It will be convenient to begin with the
Sushen.
THE SUSHEN
The Sushen were Tungusic ancestors of the Manchu. They are first
mentioned in Japanese annals in A.D. 549, when a number of them
arrived by boat on the north of Sado Island and settled there, living
on fish caught during spring and summer and salted or dried for
winter use. The people of Sado regarded them as demons and carefully
avoided them, a reception which implies total absence of previous
intercourse. Finally they withdrew, and nothing more is heard of
their race for over a hundred years, when, in A.D. 658, Hirafu, omi
of Abe and warden of Koshi (the northwestern provinces, Etchu,
Echizen, and Echigo), went on an expedition against them.
Nothing is recorded as to the origin or incidents of this campaign.
One account says that Hirafu, on his return, presented two white
bears to the Empress; that he fought with the Sushen and carried back
forty-nine captives. It may be assumed, however, that the enterprise
proved abortive, for, two years later (660), he was again sent
against the Sushen with two hundred ships. En route for his
destination he took on board his own vessel some of the inhabitants
of Yezo (Yemishi) to act as guides, and the flotilla arrived
presently in the vicinity of a long river, unnamed in the annals but
supposed to have been the Ishikari, which debouches on the west coast
of Yezo. There a body of over a thousand Yemishi in a camp facing the
river sent messengers to report that the Sushen fleet had arrived in
great force and that they were in imminent danger. The Sushen had
over twenty vessels and were lying in a concealed port whence Hirafu
in vain sent messengers to summon them.
What ensued in thus told in the Chronicles: "Hirafu heaped up on the
beach coloured silk stuffs, weapons, iron, etc.," to excite the
cupidity of the Sushen, who thereupon drew up their fleet in order,
approached "with equal oars, flying flags made of feathers tied to
poles, and halted in a shallow place. Then from one of their ships
they sent forth two old men who went round the coloured silk stuffs
and other articles which had been piled up, examined them closely,
whereafter they changed the single garments they had on, and each
taking up a piece of cloth went on board their ship and departed."
Meanwhile the Japanese had not made any attempt to molest them.
Presently the two old men returned, took off the exchanged garments
and, laying them down together with the cloth they had taken away,
re-embarked and departed.
Up to this Hirafu seems to have aimed at commercial intercourse. But
his overtures having been rejected, he sent to summon the Sushen.
They refused to come, and their prayer for peace having been
unsuccessful, they retired to "their own palisades." There the
Japanese attacked them, and the Sushen, seeing that defeat was
inevitable, put to death their own wives and children. How they
themselves fared is not recorded, nor do the Chronicles indicate
where "their own palisades" were situated, but in Japan it has always
been believed that the desperate engagement was fought in the Amur
River, and its issue may be inferred from the fact that although the
Japanese lost one general officer, Hirafu was able on his return to
present to the Empress more than fifty "barbarians," presumably
Sushen. Nevertheless, it is recorded that in the same year (A.D.
660), forty-seven men of Sushen were entertained at Court, and the
inference is either that these were among the above "savages"--in
which case Japan's treatment of her captured foes in ancient times
would merit applause--or that the Sushen had previously established
relations with Japan, and that Hirafu's campaign was merely to repel
trespass.
During the next sixteen years nothing more is heard of the Sushen,
but, in A.D. 676, seven of them arrived in the train of an envoy from
Sinra, the eastern of the three kingdoms into which Korea was then
divided. This incident evokes no remark whatever from the compilers
of the Chronicles, and they treat with equal indifference the
statement that during the reign of the Empress Jito, in the year A.D.
696, presents of coats and trousers made of brocade, together with
dark-red and deep-purple coarse silks, oxen, and other things were
given to two men of Sushen. Nothing in this brief record suggests
that any considerable intercourse existed in ancient times between
the Japanese and the Tungusic Manchu, or that the latter settled in
Japan in any appreciable numbers.
THE YEMISHI
The Yemishi are identified with the modern Ainu. It appears that the
continental immigrants into Japan applied to the semi-savage races
encountered by them the epithet "Yebisu" or "Yemishi," terms which
may have been interchangeable onomatopes for "barbarian." The
Yemishi are a moribund race. Only a remnant, numbering a few
thousands, survives, now in the northern island of Yezo. Nevertheless
it has been proved by Chamberlain's investigations into the origin of
place-names, that in early times the Yemishi extended from the north
down the eastern section of Japan as far as the region where the
present capital (Tokyo) stands, and on the west to the province now
called Echizen; and that, when the Nihongi was written, they still
occupied a large part of the main island.
We find the first mention of them in a poem attributed to the Emperor
Jimmu. Conducting his campaign for the re-conquest of Japan, Jimmu,
uncertain of the disposition of a band of inhabitants, ordered his
general, Michi, to construct a spacious hut (muro) and invite the
eighty doubtful characters to a banquet. An equal number of Jimmu's
soldiers acted as hosts, and, at a given signal, when the guests were
all drunk, they were slaughtered. Jimmu composed a couplet expressing
his troops' delight at having disposed of a formidable foe so easily,
and in this verselet he spoke of one Yemishi being reputed to be a
match for a hundred men.
Whether this couplet really belongs to its context, however, is
questionable; the eighty warriors killed in the muro may not have
been Yemishi at all. But the verse does certainly tend to show that
the Yemishi had a high fighting reputation in ancient times, though
it will presently be seen that such fame scarcely consists with the
facts revealed by history. It is true that when next we hear of the
Yemishi more than seven and a half centuries have passed, and during
that long interval they may have been engaged in a fierce struggle
for the right of existence. There is no evidence, however, that such
was the case.
On the contrary, it would seem that the Japanese invaders encountered
no great resistance from the Yemishi in the south, and were for a
long time content to leave them unmolested in the northern and
eastern regions. In A.D. 95, however, Takenouchi-no-Sukune was
commissioned by the Emperor Keiko to explore those regions. He
devoted two years to the task, and, on his return in 97, he submitted
to his sovereign this request: "In the eastern wilds there is a
country called Hi-taka-mi (Sun-height). The people of this country,
both men and women, tie up their hair in the form of a mallet and
tattoo their bodies. They are of fierce temper and their general name
is Yemishi. Moreover, the land is wide and fertile. We should attack
it and take it." [Aston's translation.] It is observable that the
principal motive of this advice is aggressive. The Yemishi had not
molested the Japanese or shown any turbulence. They ought to be
attacked because their conquest would be profitable: that was
sufficient.
Takenouchi's counsels could not be immediately followed. Other
business of a cognate nature in the south occupied the Court's
attention, and thirteen years elapsed before (A.D. 110) the
celebrated hero, Prince Yamato-dake, led an expedition against the
Yemishi of the east. In commanding him to undertake this task, the
Emperor, according to the Chronicles, made a speech which, owing to
its Chinese tone, has been called apocryphal, though some, at any
rate, of the statements it embodies are attested by modern
observation of Ainu manners and customs. He spoke of the Yemishi as
being the most powerful among the "eastern savages;" said that their
"men and women lived together promiscuously," that there was "no
distinction of father and child;" that in winter "they dwelt in holes
and in summer they lived in huts;" that their clothing consisted of
furs and that they drank blood; that when they received a favour they
forgot it, but if an injury was done them they never failed to avenge
it, and that they kept arrows in their top-knots and carried swords
within their clothing. How correct these attributes may have been at
the time they were uttered, there are no means of judging, but the
customs of the modern Ainu go far to attest the accuracy of the
Emperor Keiko's remarks about their ancestors.
Yamato-dake prefaced his campaign by worshipping at the shrine of
Ise, where he received the sword "Herb-queller," which Susanoo had
taken from the last chieftain of the Izumo tribesmen. Thence he
sailed along the coast to Suruga, where he landed, and was nearly
destroyed by the burning of a moor into which he had been persuaded
to penetrate in search of game. Escaping with difficulty, and having
taken a terrible vengeance upon the "brigands" who had sought to
compass his destruction, he pushed on into Sagami, crossed the bay to
Kazusa and, sailing north, reached the southern shore of Shimosa,
which was the frontier of the Yemishi. The vessels of the latter
assembled with the intention of offering resistance, but at the
aspect of the Japanese fleet and the incomparably superior arms and
arrows of the men it carried, they submitted unconditionally and
became personal attendants on Yamato-dake.
Three things are noticeable in this narrative. The first is that the
"brigands of Suruga" were not Yemishi; the second, that the Yemishi
offered no resistance, and the third, that the Yemishi chiefs are
called in the Chronicles "Kami of the islands" and "Kami of the
country"--titles which indicate that they were held in some respect
by the Japanese. It is not explicitly recorded that Yamato-dake had
any further encounter with the Yemishi, but figurative references
show that he had much fighting. The Chronicles quote him as saying,
after his return to Kii from an extended march through the
northeastern provinces and after penetrating as far as Hi-taka-mi
(modern Hitachi), the headquarters of the Yemishi, that the only
Yemishi who remained unsubmissive were those of Shinano and Koshi
(Echigo, Etchu, and Echizen). But although Yamato-dake subsequently
entered Shinano, where he suffered much from the arduous nature of
the ground, and though he sent a general to explore Koshi, he
ultimately retired to Owari, where he died from the effects of
fatigue and exposure according to some authorities, of a wound from a
poisoned arrow according to others. His last act was to present as
slaves to the shrine of Ise the Yemishi who had originally
surrendered and who had subsequently attached themselves to his
person. They proved so noisy, however, that the priestess of the
shrine sent them to the Yamato Court, which assigned for them a
settlement on Mount Mimoro. Here, too, their conduct was so turbulent
that they received orders to divide and take up their abode at any
place throughout the five provinces of Harima, Sanuki, Iyo, Aki, and
Awa, where, in after ages, they constituted a hereditary corporation
of Saeki (Saekibe).
These details deserve to be recorded, for their sequel shows
historically that there is an Yemishi element in the Japanese race.
Thus, in later times we find the high rank of muraji borne by a
member of the Saekibe. Fifteen years (A.D. 125) after the death of
Yamato-dake, Prince Sajima was appointed governor-general of the
fifteen provinces of Tosan-do (the Eastern Mountain circuit); that is
to say, the provinces along the east coast. He died en route and his
son, Prince Mimoro, succeeded to the office. During his tenure of
power the Yemishi raised a disturbance, but no sooner was force
employed against them than they made obeisance and threw themselves
on the mercy of the Japanese, who pardoned all that submitted.
This orderly condition remained uninterrupted until A.D. 367, when
the Yemishi in Kazusa made one of the very few successful revolts on
record. They killed Tamichi, a Japanese general sent against them,
and they drove back his forces, who do not appear to have taken very
effective measures of retaliation. In 482 we find the Yemishi
rendering homage to the Emperor Kenso, a ceremony which was repeated
on the accession of the Emperor Kimmei (540).
But, though meek in the presence of peril, the Yemishi appear to have
been of a brawling temperament. Thus, in 561, several thousands of
them showed hostility on the frontier, yet no sooner were their
chiefs threatened with death than they submitted. At that time all
the provinces in the northeast and northwest--then included in Mutsu
and Dewa--were in Yemishi possession. They rebelled again in 637, and
at first gained a signal success, driving the Japanese general,
Katana, into a fortress where he was deserted by his troops. His wife
saved the situation. She upbraided her husband as he was scaling the
palisades to escape by night, fortified him with wine, girded his
sword on herself, and caused her female attendants--of whom there
were "several tens"--to twang bowstrings. Katana, taking heart of
grace, advanced single handed; the Yemishi, thinking that his troops
had rallied, gave way, and the Japanese soldiers, returning to their
duty, killed or captured all the insurgents.
No other instance of equally determined resistance is recorded on the
part of the Yemishi. In 642, several thousands made submission in
Koshi. Four years later (646), we find Yemishi doing homage to the
Emperor Kotoku. Yet in 645 it was deemed necessary to establish a
barrier settlement against them in Echigo; and whereas, in 655, when
the Empress Saimei ascended the throne, her Court at Naniwa
entertained ninety-nine of the northern Yemishi and forty-five of the
eastern, conferring cups of honour on fifteen, while at the same time
another numerous body came to render homage and offer gifts, barely
three years had elapsed when, in 655, a Japanese squadron of 180
vessels, under the command of Hirafu, omi of Abe, was engaged
attacking the Yemishi at Akita on the northwest coast of the main
island.
All this shows plainly that many districts were still peopled by
Yemishi and that their docility varied in different localities. In
the Akita campaign the usual surrender was rehearsed. The Yemishi
declared that their bows and arrows were for hunting, not for
fighting, and the affair ended in a great feast given by Hirafu, the
sequel being that two hundred Yemishi proceeded to Court, carrying
presents, and were appointed to various offices in the localities
represented, receiving also gifts of arms, armour, drums, and flags.*
*It is related that these flags had tops shaped like cuttlefish.
An interesting episode is recorded of this visit. One of the Yemishi,
having been appointed to a high post, was instructed to investigate
the Yemishi population and the captive population. Who were these
captives? They seem to have been Sushen, for at the feast given by
Hirafu his Yemishi guests came accompanied by thirty-five captives,
and it is incredible that Japanese prisoners would have been thus
humiliated in the sight of their armed countrymen. There will be
occasion to recur to this point presently. Here we have to note that
in spite of frequent contact, friendly or hostile, and in spite of so
many years of intercourse, the Yemishi seem to have been still
regarded by the Japanese as objects of curiosity. For, in the year
654, envoys from Yamato to the Tang Emperor of China took with them a
Yemishi man and woman to show to his Majesty.
The Chinese sovereign was much struck by the unwonted appearance of
these people. He asked several questions, which are recorded verbatim
in the Chronicles; and the envoys informed him that there were three
tribes of Yemishi; namely, the Tsugaru* Yemishi, who were the most
distant; next, the Ara Yemishi (rough or only partially subdued), and
lastly, the Nigi Yemishi (quiet or docile); that they sustained life
by eating, not cereals, but flesh, and that they dispensed with
houses, preferring to live under trees and in the recesses of
mountains. The Chinese Emperor finally remarked, "When we look at the
unusual bodily appearance of these Yemishi, it is strange in the
extreme."
*The Story of Korea, by Longford.
Evidently whatever the original provenance of the Yemishi, they had
never been among the numerous peoples who observed the custom of
paying visits of ceremony to the Chinese capital. They were
apparently not included in the family of Far Eastern nations. From
the second half of the seventh century they are constantly found
carrying tribute to the Japanese Court and receiving presents or
being entertained in return. But these evidences of docility and
friendship were not indicative of the universal mood. The Yemishi
located in the northeastern section of the main island continued to
give trouble up to the beginning of the ninth century, and throughout
this region as well as along the west coast from the thirty-eighth
parallel of latitude northward the Japanese were obliged to build six
castles and ten barrier posts between A.D. 647 and 800.
These facts, however, have no concern with the immediate purpose of
this historical reference further than to show that from the earliest
times the Yamato immigrants found no opponents in the northern half
of the island except the Yemishi and the Sushen. One more episode,
however, is germane. In the time (682) of the Emperor Temmu, the
Yemishi of Koshi, who had by that time become quite docile, asked for
and received seven thousand families of captives to found a district.
A Japanese writing alleges that these captives were subjects of the
Crown who had been seized and enslaved by the savages. But that is
inconsistent with all probabilities. The Yamato might sentence these
people to serfdom among men of their own race, but they never would
have condemned Japanese to such a position among the Yemishi.
Evidently these "captives" were prisoners taken by the Yamato from
the Koreans, the Sushen, or some other hostile nation.
THE KUMASO
There has been some dispute about the appellation "Kumaso." One high
authority thinks that Kuma and So were the names of two tribes
inhabiting the extreme south of Japan; that is to say, the provinces
now called Hyuga, Osumi, and Satsuma. Others regard the term as
denoting one tribe only. The question is not very material. Among all
the theories formed about the Kumaso, the most plausible is that they
belonged to the Sow race of Borneo and that they found their way to
Japan on the breast of the "Black Tide." Many similarities of custom
have been traced between the two peoples. Both resorted freely to
ornamental tattooing; both used shields decorated with hair; both
were skilled in making articles of bamboo, especially hats; both were
fond of dancing with accompaniment of singing and hand-clapping; and
both dressed their hair alike. Japanese annals use the word "Kumaso"
for the first time in connexion with the annexation of Tsukushi
(Kyushu) by the Izanagi expedition, when one of the four faces of the
island is called the "land of Kumaso." Plainly if this nomenclature
may be taken as evidence, the Kumaso must have arrived in Japan at a
date prior to the advent of the immigrants represented by Izanagi and
Izanami; and it would further follow that they did not penetrate far
into the interior, but remained in the vicinity of the place of
landing, which may be supposed to have been some point on the
southern coast of Kyushu. Nor does there appear to have been any
collision between the two tides of immigrants, for the first
appearance of the Kumaso in a truculent role was in A.D. 81 when they
are said to have rebelled.
The incident, though remote from the capital, was sufficiently
formidable to induce the Emperor Keiko to lead a force against them
in person from Yamato. En route he had to deal with "brigands"
infesting Suwo and Buzen, provinces separated by the Inland Sea and
situated respectively on the south of the main island and the north
of Kyushu. These provinces were ruled by chieftainesses, who declared
themselves loyal to the Imperial cause, and gave information about
the haunts and habits of the "brigands," who in Suwo had no special
appellation but in Buzen were known as Tsuchi-gumo, a name to be
spoken of presently. They were disposed of partly by stratagem and
partly by open warfare. But when the Yamato troops arrived in Hyuga
within striking distance of the Kumaso, the Emperor hesitated. He
deemed it wise not to touch the spear-points of these puissant foes.
Ultimately he overcame them by enticing the two daughters of the
principal leaders and making a show of affection for one of them. She
conducted Japanese soldiers to her father's residence, and having
plied him with strong drink, cut his bow-string while he slept so
that the soldiers could kill him with impunity. It is recorded that
Keiko put the girl to death for her unfilial conduct, but the
assassination of her father helped the Japanese materially in their
campaign against the Kumaso, whom they succeeded in subduing and in
whose land the Emperor remained six years.
The Kumaso were not quelled, however. Scarcely eight years had
elapsed from the time of Keiko's return to Yamato when they rebelled
again, "making ceaseless raids upon the frontier districts;" and he
sent against them his son, Yamato-dake; with a band of skilled
archers. This youth, one of the most heroic figures in ancient
Japanese history, was only sixteen. He disguised himself as a girl
and thus gained access to a banquet given by the principal Kumaso
leader to celebrate the opening of a new residence. Attracted by the
beauty of the supposed girl, the Kumaso chieftain placed her beside
him, and when he had drunk heavily, Yamato-dake stabbed him to the
heart,* subsequently serving all his band in the same way. After
this, the Kumaso remained quiet for nearly a century, but in the year
193,** during the reign of the Emperor Chuai, they once more
rebelled, and the Emperor organized an expedition against them. He
failed in the struggle and was killed by the Kumaso's arrows.
Thenceforth history is silent about them.
*The Chronicles relate that when the Kumaso was struck down he asked
for a moment's respite to learn the name of his slayer, whose prowess
astounded him. On receiving an answer he sought the prince's
permission to give him a title, and declared that instead of being
called Yamato Oguna, the name hitherto borne by him, he should be
termed Yamato-dake (Champion of Japan) because he had conquered the
hitherto unconquerable. The prince accepted the name, and then gave
the Kumaso his coup de grace.
**It should be understood that these dates, being prehistoric, are
not wholly reliable.
Who, then, were they? It is related in the Chronicles that, after
breaking the power of the Kumaso, the Emperor Keiko made a tour of
inspection in Tsukushi (Kyushu), and arriving at the district of
Kuma, summoned two brothers, princes of Kuma, to pay homage. One
obeyed, but the other refused, and soldiers were therefore sent to
put him to death. Now Kuma was the name of the three kingdoms into
which the Korean peninsula was divided in ancient times, and it has
been suggested [Aston] that the land of Kuma in Korea was the parent
country of Kuma in Japan, Kom in the Korean language having the same
meaning (bear) as Kuma in the Japanese. This, of course, involves the
conclusion that the Kumaso were originally Korean emigrants; a theory
somewhat difficult to reconcile with their location in the extreme
south of Kyushu.
The apparent silence of the annals about the subsequent career of the
tribe is accounted for by supposing that the Kumaso were identical
with the Hayato (falcon men), who make their first appearance upon
the scene in prehistoric days as followers of Hosuseri in his contest
with his younger brother, Hohodemi, the hero of the legend about the
palace of the sea god. Hohodemi according to the rationalized version
of the legend having obtained assistance in the shape of ships and
mariners from an oversea monarch (supposed to have reigned in Korea),
returned to Tsukushi to fight his brother, and being victorious,
spared Hosuseri's life on condition that the descendants of the
vanquished through eighty generations should serve the victor's
descendants as mimes.
"On that account," says the Chronicles, "the various Hayato,
descended from Hosuseri to the present time, do not leave the
vicinity of the Imperial palace enclosure and render service instead
of watch-dogs." The first mention of the name Hayato after the
prehistoric battle in Kyushu, occurs in the year 399, when Sashihire,
one of the tribe, was induced to assassinate his master, an Imperial
prince. This incident goes to show that individual members of the
tribe were then employed at Court; an inference confirmed fifty-one
years later, when, on the death of Emperor Yuryaku, "the Hayato
lamented night and day beside the misasagi (tomb) and refused the
food offered to them, until at the end of seven days they died."
It can scarcely be doubted that we have here a reversion to the old
custom which compelled slaves to follow their lords to the grave. The
Hayato serving in the Court at that epoch held the status generally
assigned in ancient days to vanquished people, the status of serfs or
slaves. Six times during the next 214 years we find the Hayato
repairing to the Court to pay homage, in the performance of which
function they are usually bracketted with the Yemishi. Once (682) a
wrestling match took place in the Imperial presence between the
Hayato of Osumi and those of Satsuma, and once (694) the viceroy of
Tsukushi (Kyushu) presented 174 Hayato to the Court.
THE TSUCHI-GUMO
In ancient Japan there was a class of men to whom the epithet
"Tsuchi" (earth-spiders) was applied. Their identity has been a
subject of much controversy. The first mention made of them in
Japanese annals occurs in connexion with the slaughter of eighty
braves invited to a banquet by the Emperor Jimmu's general in a
pit-dwelling at Osaka.* The Records apply to these men the epithet
"Tsuchi-gumo," whereas the Chronicles represent the Emperor as
celebrating the incident in a couplet which speaks of them as
Yemishi. It will be seen presently that the apparent confusion of
epithet probably conveys a truth.
*This incident has been already referred to under the heading
"Yemishi." It is to be observed that the "Osaka" here mentioned is
not the modern city of Osaka.
The next allusion to Tsuchi-gumo occurs in the annals of the year
(662 B.C.) following the above event, according to the chronology of
the Chronicles. The Emperor, having commanded his generals to
exercise the troops, Tsuchi-gumo were found in three places, and as
they declined to submit, a detachment was sent against them.
Concerning a fourth band of these defiant folk, the Chronicles say:
"They had short bodies and long legs and arms. They were of the same
class as the pigmies. The Imperial troops wove nets of dolichos,
which they flung over them and then slew them."
There are four comments to be made on this. The first is that the
scene of the fighting was in Yamato. The second, that the chiefs of
the Tsuchi-gumo had Japanese names--names identical, in two cases,
with those of a kind of Shinto priest (hafuri), and therefore most
unlikely to have been borne by men not of Japanese origin. The third,
that the presence of Tsuchi-gumo in Yamato preceded the arrival of
Jimmu's expedition. And the fourth, that the Records are silent about
the whole episode. As for the things told in the Chronicles about
short bodies, long limbs, pigmies, and nets of dolichos, they may be
dismissed as mere fancies suggested by the name Tsuchi-gumo, which
was commonly supposed to mean "earth-spiders." If any inference may
be drawn from the Chronicles' story, it is that there were Japanese
in Yamato before Jimmu's time, and that Tsuchi-gumo were simply bands
of Japanese raiders.
ENGRAVING: AINUS (INHABITANTS OF HOKKAIDO, THE NORTHERN ISLAND)
They are heard of next in the province of Bungo (on the northeast of
Kyushu) where (A.D. 82) the Emperor Keiko led an army to attack the
Kumaso. Two bands of Tsuchi-gumo are mentioned as living there, and
the Imperial forces had no little difficulty in subduing them. Their
chiefs are described as "mighty of frame and having numerous
followers." In dealing with the first band, Keiko caused his bravest
soldiers to carry mallets made from camellia trees, though why such
weapons should have been preferred to the trenchant swords used by
the Japanese there is nothing to show. (Another account says
"mallet-headed swords," which is much more credible). In dealing with
the second, he was driven back once by their rain of arrows, and when
he attacked from another quarter, the Tsuchi-gumo, their submission
having been refused, flung themselves into a ravine and perished.
Here again certain points have to be noticed: that there were
Tsuchi-gumo in Kyushu as well as in Yamato; that if one account
describes them as pigmies, another depicts them as "mighty of frame,"
and that in Kyushu, as in Yamato, the Tsuchi-gumo had Japanese names.
Only once again do the annals refer to Tsuchi-gumo. They relate
curtly that on his return from quelling the Kumaso the Emperor Keiko
killed a Tsuchi-gumo in the province of Hizen. The truth seems to be
that factitious import has been attached to the Tsuchi-gumo. Mainly
because they were pit-dwellers, it was assumed for a tune that they
represented a race which had immigrated to Japan at some date prior
to the arrival of the Yemishi (modern Ainu). This theory was founded
on the supposed discovery of relics of pit-dwellers in the islands of
Yezo and Itorop, and their hasty identification as Kuro-pok-guru--the
Ainu term for underground dwellers--whose modern representatives are
seen among the Kurilsky or their neighbours in Kamchatka and
Saghalien. But closer examination of the Yezo and Itorop pits showed
that there was complete absence of any mark of antiquity--such as the
presence of large trees or even deep-rooted brushwood;--that they
were arranged in regular order, suggesting a military encampment
rather than the abode of savages; that they were of uniform size,
with few exceptions; that on excavation they yielded fragments of
hard wood, unglazed pottery, and a Japanese dirk, and, finally, that
their site corresponded with that of military encampments established
in Yezo and the Kuriles by the Japanese Government in the early part
of the nineteenth century as a defence against Russian aggression.
Evidently the men who constructed and used these pit-dwellings were
not prehistoric savages but modern Japanese soldiers. Further very
conclusive testimony has been collected by the Rev. John Batchelor,
who has devoted profound study to the Ainu. He found that the
inhabitants of Shikotan, who had long been supposed to be a remnant
of pre-Ainu immigrants, were brought thither from an island called
Shimushir in the Kurile group in 1885 by order of the Japanese
Government; that they declared themselves to be descended from men of
Saghalien; that they spoke nothing but the Ainu language, and that
they inhabited pits in winter, as do also the Ainu now living in
Saghalien. If any further proof were needed, it might be drawn from
the fact that no excavation has brought to light any relics whatever
of a race preceding and distinct from the Yemishi (Ainu), all the
pits and graves hitherto searched having yielded Yamato or Yemishi
skulls. Neither has there been found any trace of pigmies.
An Ainu myth is responsible for the belief in the existence of such
beings: "In very ancient times, a race of people who dwelt in pits
lived among us. They were so very tiny that ten of them could easily
take shelter beneath one burdock leaf. When they went to catch
herrings they used to make boats by sewing the leaves together, and
always fished with a hook. If a single herring was caught, it took
all the strength of the men of five boats, or ten sometimes, to hold
it and drag it ashore, while whole crowds were required to kill it
with their clubs and spears. Yet, strange to say, these divine little
men used even to kill great whales. Surely these pit-dwellers were
gods."*
*"The Ainu and their Folk-lore," by Batchelor.
Evidently if such legends are to be credited, the existence of
fairies must no longer be denied in Europe. Side by side with the
total absence of all tangible relics may be set the fact that,
whereas numerous place-names in the main island of Japan have been
identified as Ainu words, none has been traced to any alien tongue
such as might be associated with earlier inhabitants. Thus, the
theory of a special race of immigrants anterior to the Yemishi has to
be abandoned so far as the evidence of pit-dwelling is concerned.
The fact is that the use of partially underground residences
cannot be regarded as specially characteristic of any race or as
differentiating one section of the people of Japan from another. To
this day the poorer classes in Korea depend for shelter upon pits
covered with thatch or strong oil-paper. They call these dwellings um
or um-mak, a term corresponding to the Japanese muro. Pit-dwellers
are mentioned in old Chinese literature, and the references to the
muro in the Records and Chronicles show that the muro of those days
had a character similar to that of the modern Korean um-mak [Aston].
We read of a muro being dug; of steps down to it; and we read of a
muro big enough to hold 160 persons at one time. The muro was not
always simply a hole roofed over: it sometimes contained a house
having a wooden frame lashed together with vine-tendrils, the walls
lined with sedges and reeds and plastered with a mixture of grass and
clay. The roof was thatched with reeds; there was a door opening
inwards, and a raised platform served for sleeping purposes. A
dwelling closely resembling this description was actually unearthed
near Akita in O-U, in 1807. Muro were used in ancient times by the
highest as Well as the poorest classes. Susanoo is said by the Izumo
Fudoki to have made for himself a muro; Jimmu's sort is represented
as sleeping in a great muro, and the Emperor Keiko, when (A.D.82)
prosecuting his campaign in Kyushu, is said to have constructed a
muro for a temporary palace. "In fact, pit-dwelling in northern
climates affords no indication of race."
CONCLUSION FROM HISTORICAL EVIDENCE
Thus the conclusion suggested by historical evidence is that the
Japanese nation is composed of four elements: the Yamato; the Yemishi
(modern Ainu); the Kumaso (or Hayato), and the Sushen. As to the last
of these, there is no conclusive indication that they ever immigrated
in appreciable numbers. It does not follow, of course, that the
historical evidence is exhaustive, especially Japanese historical
evidence; for the annalists of Japan do not appear to have paid any
special attention to racial questions.
ENGRAVING: ANCIENT HANGING BELLS
ENGRAVING: FUTAMI-GA-URA (The Husband and Wife Rocks)
CHAPTER VI
ORIGIN OF THE NATION: GEOGRAPHICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RELICS
JAPAN'S CONNEXION WITH THE ASIATIC CONTINENT
THE group of islands forming Japan may be said to have routes of
communication with the continent of Asia at six places: two in the
north; two in the southwest, and two in the south. The principal
connexion in the north is across the narrow strait of Soya from the
northwest point of Yezo to Saghalien and thence to the Amur region of
Manchuria. The secondary connexion is from the north-east point of
Yezo via the long chain of the Kuriles to Kamchatka. The first of the
southwestern routes is from the northwest of Kyushu via the islands
of Iki and Tsushima to the southeast of Korea; and the second is from
the south of the Izumo promontory in Japan, by the aid of the current
which sets up the two southern routes. One of these is from the
southwest of Kyushu via the Goto Islands to southeastern China; the
other is from the south of Kyushu via the Ryukyu Islands, Formosa,
and the Philippines to Malaysia and Polynesia. It has also been
proved geologically* that the islands now forming Japan must at one
time have been a part of the Asiatic continent. Evidently these
various avenues may have given access to immigrants from Siberia,
from China, from Malaysia, and from Polynesia.
*There have been found in the gravel Tertiary mammals including
elephas primigenius, elephas Namadicus, stegodon Clifti, and unnamed
varieties of bear, deer, bison, ox, horse, rhinoceros, and whale.
(Outlines of the Geology of Japan; Imperial Geological Survey).
CULTURE
Archaeological research indicates the existence of two distinct
cultures in Japan together with traces of a third. One of these
cultures has left its relics chiefly in shell-heaps or embedded in
the soil, while the remains of another are found mainly in sepulchral
chambers or in caves. The relics themselves are palpably distinct
except when they show transitional approach to each other.
The older culture is attested by more than four thousand residential
sites and shell-heaps. Its most distinctive features are the absence
of all metallic objects and the presence of pottery not turned on the
wheel. Polished, finely chipped, and roughly hewn implements and
weapons of stone are found, as are implements of bone and horn.
It was, in short, a neolithic culture. The vestiges of the other
culture do not include weapons of stone. There are imitations of
sheath-knives, swords, and arrow-heads, and there are some models of
stone articles. But the alien features are iron weapons and hard
pottery always moulded on the wheel. Copper is present mainly in
connexion with the work of the goldsmith and the silversmith, and
arrow-heads, jingle-bells, mirrors, etc., are also present. The
former culture is identified as that of the aboriginal inhabitants,
the Yemishi; the latter belongs to the Yamato race, or Japanese
proper. Finally, "there are indications that a bronze culture
intervened in the south between the stone and the iron phases."*
*Munro's Prehistoric Japan.
PRIMITIVE CULTURE
The neolithic sites occur much more frequently in the northern than
in the southern half of Japan. They are, indeed, six times as
numerous on the north as on the south of a line drawn across the main
island from the coast of Ise through Orai. The neighbourhood of the
sea, at heights of from thirty to three hundred feet, and the
alluvial plains are their favourite positions. So far as the
technical skill shown by the relics--especially the pottery--is
concerned, it grows higher with the latitude. The inference is that
the settlements of the aborigines in the south were made at an
earlier period than those in the north; which may be interpreted to
mean that whereas the stone-using inhabitants were driven back in the
south at an early date, they held their ground in the north to a
comparatively modern era.
That is precisely what Japanese history indicates. Jimmu's conquests,
which took place several centuries before the Christian era, carried
him as far as the Ise-Omi line, but Yamato-dake's expedition against
the Yemishi north of that line was not planned until the second
century after Christ. Apart from the rough evidence furnished by the
quality of the relics, calculations have been made of the age of an
important shell-heap by assuming that it originally stood at the
seaside, and by estimating the number of years required to separate
it by the present interval from the coast at a fixed annual rate of
silting. The result is from five thousand to ten thousand years. A
book (the Hitachi Fudoki), published in A.D. 715, speaks of these
kaizuka (shell-heaps) as existing already at that remote period, and
attributes their formation to a giant living on a hill who stretched
out his hand to pick up shell-fish. This myth remained current until
the eighteenth century, and stone axes exhumed from the heaps were
called thunder-axes (rai-fu) just as similar relics in Europe were
called elf-bolts or thunder-stones.
There is great diversity of size among the shell-heaps, some being of
insignificant dimensions and others extending to five hundred square
yards. They are most numerous in the eight provinces forming the
Kwanto. In fact, in these ancient times, the Yamato race and the
aborigines had their headquarters in the same localities,
respectively, as the Imperial and Feudal governments had in mediaeval
and modern times. But there are no distinct traces of palaeolithic
culture; the neolithic alone can be said to be represented. Its
relics are numerous--axes, knives, arrow-heads, arrow-necks,
bow-tips, spear-heads, batons, swords, maces, sling-stones, needles,
drill-bows, drill and spindle weights, mortars and pestles, paddles,
boats, sinkers, fishing-hooks, gaffs, harpoons, mallets, chisels,
scrapers, hoes, sickles, whetstones, hammers, and drills.
It must be premised that though so many kinds of implements are here
enumerated, the nomenclature cannot be accepted as universally
accurate. The so-called "hoe," for example, is an object of disputed
identity, especially as agriculture has not been proved to have been
practised among the primitive people of Japan, nor have any traces of
grain been found in the neolithic sites. On the other hand, the
modern Ainu, who are believed to represent the ancient population,
include in their religious observances the worship of the first cakes
made from the season's millet, and unless that rite be supposed to
have been borrowed from the Yamato, it goes to indicate agricultural
pursuits.
There is, indeed, one great obstacle to any confident differentiation
of the customs and creeds prevalent in Japan. That obstacle consists
in the great length of the period covered by the annals. It may
reasonably be assumed that the neolithic aborigines were in more or
less intimate contact with the invading Yamato for something like
twenty-five centuries, an interval quite sufficient to have produced
many interactions and to have given birth to many new traditions. An
illustration is furnished by the mental attitude of the uneducated
classes in Japan towards the neolithic implements. So completely has
all memory of the human uses of these implements faded, that they are
regarded as relics of supernatural beings and called by such names as
raifu (thunder-axe), raitsui (thunder-club), kitsune no kuwa
(fox-hoe), raiko (thunder-pestle), and tengu no meshigai (rice-spoon
of the goblins). Many of the neolithic relics show that the people
who used them had reached a tolerably high level of civilization.
This is specially seen in the matter of ceramics. It is true that the
wheel was not employed, and that the firing was imperfect, but the
variety of vessels was considerable,* and the shapes and decorations
were often very praiseworthy. Thus, among the braziers are found
shapes obviously the originals of the Japanese choji-buro
(clove-censer) and the graceful rice-bowl, while community of
conception with Chinese potters would seem to be suggested by some of
the forms of these ancient vases. Particularly interesting are
earthenware images obtained from these neolithic sites. Many of them
have been conventionalized into mere anthropomorphs and are rudely
moulded. But they afford valuable indications of the clothing and
personal adornments of the aborigines.
*Cooking-pots and pans, jars and vases, bowls and dishes, cups,
bottles, nipple pots, lamps, braziers, ewers, strainers, spindles or
drill weights, stamps, ornaments, images, and plaques (Munro's
Prehistoric Japan).
What end these effigies were intended to serve remains an unsettled
question. Some suggest that they were used as substitutes for human
sacrifices, and that they point to a time when wives and slaves were
required to follow their husbands and masters to the grave. They may
also have been suggested by the example of the Yamato, who, at a very
remote time, began to substitute clay images for human followers of
the dead; or they may have been designed to serve as mere mementoes.
This last theory derives some force from the fact that the images are
found, not in graves or tombs, but at residential sites. No data have
been obtained, however, for identifying burying-places: sepulture may
have been carried out in the house of the deceased. Whichever
explanation be correct, the fact confronts us that these clay
effigies have no place in the cult of the modern Ainu. History
teaches, however, that degeneration may become so complete as to
deprive a nation of all traces of its original civilization. Such
seems to have been the case with the Ainu.
INTERMEDIATE CULTURE
Traces of a culture occupying a place intermediate between the
primitive culture and that of the Yamato are not conclusive. They are
seen in pottery which, like the ware of the neolithic sites, is not
turned on the wheel, and, like the Yamato ware, is decorated in a
very subdued and sober fashion. It is found from end to end of the
main island and even in Yezo, and in pits, shell-heaps, and
independent sites as well as in tombs, burial caves, and cairns of
the Yamato. Thus, there does not seem to be sufficient warrant for
associating it with a special race. It was possibly supplied to order
of the Yamato by the aboriginal craftsmen, who naturally sought to
copy the salient features of the conquering immigrants' ware.
BRONZE VESTIGES
There are also some bronze vestiges to which considerable interest
attaches, for evidently people using bronze weapons could not have
stood against men carrying iron arms, and therefore the people to
whom the bronze implements belonged must have obtained a footing in
Japan prior to the Yamato, unless they came at the latter's
invitation or as their allies. Moreover, these bronze relics--with
the exception of arrow-heads--though found in the soil of western and
southern Japan, do not occur in the Yamato sepulchres, which feature
constitutes another means of differentiation. Daggers, swords,
halberds, and possibly spear-heads constitute the hand-weapons. The
daggers have a certain resemblance to the Malay kris, and the swords
and halberds are generally leaf-shaped. But some features, as
overshort tangs and unpierced loops, suggest that they were
manufactured, not for service in battle but for ceremonial purposes,
being thus mere survivals from an era when their originals were in
actual use, and possibly those originals may have been of iron. Some
straight-edged specimens have been classed as spear-heads, but they
closely resemble certain ancient bronze swords of China. As for
bronze arrow-heads, they occur alike in Yamato sepulchres and in the
soil, so that no special inference is warranted in their case. The
bronze hand-weapons have been found in twelve provinces of southern
and western Japan: namely, five provinces of northwest Kyushu; three
on the Inland Sea; one facing Korea and China, and the rest on the
islands of Iki and Tsushima.
These localities and the fact that similar swords have been met with
in Shantung, suggest that the bronze culture came from central and
eastern Asia, which hypothesis receives confirmation from the
complete absence of bronze vestiges in the southern provinces of
Kyushu, namely, Osumi and Satsuma. Bronze bells, of which there are
many, belong to a separate page of archaeology. Though they have been
found in no less than twenty-four provinces, there is no instance of
their presence in the same sites with hand-weapons of bronze. In
Kyushu, Higo is the only province where they have been seen, whereas
in the main island they extend as far east as Totomi, and are
conspicuously numerous in that province and its neighbour, Mikawa,
while in Omi they are most abundant of all. They vary in height from
about one foot four inches to four and a half feet, and are of highly
specialized shape, the only cognate type being bells used in China
during the Chou dynasty (1122-225 B.C.) for the purpose of giving
military signals. A Chinese origin is still more clearly indicated by
the decorative designs, which show a combination of the circle, the
triangle, and the spiral, obviously identical with the decorative
motive* on Chinese drums of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220). The
circle and the triangle occur also in the sepulchral pottery of the
Yamato sites, and considering the fact together with the abundance of
the bells in districts where the Yamato were most strongly
established, there seems to be warrant for attributing these curious
relics to the Yamato culture.
*This resemblance has been pointed out by a Japanese archaeologist,
Mr. Teraishi. Dr. Munro states that the same elements are combined in
an Egyptian decorative design.
To this inference it has been objected that no bells have been found
in the tombs of the Yamato. The same is true, however, of several
other objects known to have belonged to that people. If, then, the
bells be classed as adjuncts of the Yamato culture, shall we be
justified in assigning the bronze weapon to a different race? On the
whole, the most reasonable conclusion seems to be that all the bronze
relics, weapons, and bells alike, are "vestiges of the Yamato
procession at a time anterior to the formation of the great dolmens
and other tombs" [Munro]. A corollary would be that the Yamato
migrated from China in the days of the Chou dynasty (1122-225 B.C.),
and that, having landed in the province of Higo, they conquered the
greater part of Tsukushi (Kyushu), and subsequently passed up the
Inland Sea to Yamato; which hypothesis would invest with some
accuracy the date assigned by the Chronicles to Jimmu's expedition
and would constitute a general confirmation of the Japanese account
of his line of advance.
YAMATO CULTURE
The ancient Yamato are known chiefly through the medium of relics
found in their sepulchres. Residential sites exist in comparatively
small numbers, so far as research ha hitherto shown, and such sites
yield nothing except more or less scattered potsherds and low walls
enclosing spaces of considerable area. Occasionally Yamato pottery
and other relics are discovered in pits, and these evidences,
combined with historical references, go to show that the Yamato
themselves sometimes used pit-dwellings.
The tombs yield much more suggestive relics of metal, stone, and
pottery. Some four thousand of such sepulchres have been officially
catalogued, but it is believed that fully ten times that number
exist. The most characteristic is a tomb of larger dimensions
enclosing a dolmen which contains a coffin hollowed out from the
trunk of a tree, or a sarcophagus of stone,* the latter being much
more commonly found, as might be expected from its greater
durability. Burial-jars were occasionally used, as were also
sarcophagi of clay or terracotta,** the latter chiefly in the
provinces of Bizen and Mimasaka, probably because suitable materials
existed there in special abundance. Moreover, not a few tombs
belonged to the category of cists; that is to say, excavations in
rock, with a single-slabbed or many-slabbed cover; or receptacles
formed with stone clubs, cobbles, or boulders.
*The stone sarcophagus was of considerable size and various shapes,
forming an oblong box with a lid of a boatlike form.
**The terracotta sarcophagi were generally parallel, oblong or
elongated oval in shape, with an arched or angular covering and
several feet. One has been found with doors moving on hinges.
There is great difficulty in arriving at any confident estimate of
age amid such variety. Dolmens of a most primitive kind "exist side
by side with stone chambers of highly finished masonry in
circumstances which suggest contemporaneous construction" so that
"the type evidently furnishes little or no criterion of age," and,
moreover, local facilities must have largely influenced the method of
building. The dolmen is regarded by archaeologists as the most
characteristic feature of the Yamato tombs. It was a chamber formed
by setting up large slabs of stone, inclined slightly towards each
other, which served as supports for another slab forming the roof.
Seen in plan, the dolmens presented many shapes: a simple chamber or
gallery; a chamber with a gallery, or a series of chambers with a
gallery. Above the dolmen a mound was built, sometimes of huge
dimensions (as, for example, the misasagi* of the Emperor Tenchi--d.
A.D. 671--which with its embankments, measured 5040 feet square), and
within the dolmen were deposited many articles dedicated to the
service of the deceased. Further, around the covering-mound there are
generally found, embedded in the earth, terracotta cylinders
(haniwa), sometimes surmounted with figures or heads of persons or
animals.
*By this name all the Imperial tombs were called.
According to the Chronicles, incidents so shocking occurred in
connexion with the sacrifice of the personal attendants* of Prince
Yamato at his burial (A.D. 2) that the custom of making such
sacrifices was thenceforth abandoned, clay images being substituted
for human beings. The Records speak of a "hedge of men set up round a
tumulus," and it would therefore seem that these terracotta figures
usually found encircling the principal misasagi, represented that
hedge and served originally as pedestals for images. Within the
dolmen, also, clay effigies are often found, which appear to have
been substitutes for retainers of high rank. Had the ancient custom
been effectually abolished in the year A.D. 3, when the Emperor
Suinin is recorded to have issued orders in that sense, a simple and
conclusive means would be at hand for fixing the approximate date of
a dolmen, since all tombs containing clay effigies or encircled by
terracotta haniwa would necessarily be subsequent to that date, and
all tombs containing skeletons other than the occupants of the
sarcophagi would be referable to an earlier era. But although
compulsory sacrifices appear to have ceased from about the first
century of the Christian era, it is certain that voluntary sacrifices
continued through many subsequent ages. This clue is therefore
illusory. Neither does the custom itself serve to connect the Yamato
with any special race, for it is a wide-spread rite of animistic
religion, and it was practised from time immemorial by the Chinese,
the Manchu Tatars, and many other nations of northeastern Asia.
*They are said to have been buried upright in the precincts of the
misasagi. "For several days they died not, but wept and wailed day
and night. At last they died and rotted. Dogs and crows gathered and
ate them." (Chronicles. Aston's translation.)
The substitution of images for living beings, however, appears to
have been a direct outcome of contact with China, for the device was
known there as early as the seventh century before Christ. It would
seem, too, from the researches of a learned Japanese archaeologist
(Professor Miyake), that the resemblance between Japanese and Chinese
burial customs was not limited to this substitution. The dolmen also
existed in China in very early times, but had been replaced by a
chamber of finished masonry not later than the ninth century B.C. In
the Korean peninsula the dolmen with a megalithic roof is not
uncommon, and the sepulchral pottery bears a close resemblance to
that of the Yamato tombs. It was at one time supposed that the highly
specialized form of dolmen found in Japan had no counterpart anywhere
on the continent of Asia, but that supposition has proved erroneous.
The contents of the sepulchres, however, are more distinctive. They
consist of "noble weapons and armour, splendid horse-trappings,
vessels for food and drink, and various objects de luxe," though
articles of wood and textile fabrics have naturally perished. Iron
swords are the commonest relics. They are found in all tombs of all
ages, and they bear emphatic testimony to the warlike habits of the
Yamato, as well as to their belief that in the existence beyond the
grave weapons were not less essential than in life. Arrow-heads are
also frequently found and spear-heads sometimes.* The swords are all
of iron. There is no positive evidence showing that bronze swords
were in use, though grounds exist for supposing, as has been already
noted, that they were employed at a period not much anterior to the
commencement of dolmen building, which seems to have been about the
sixth or seventh century before Christ. The iron swords themselves
appear to attest this, for although the great majority are
single-edged and of a shape essentially suited to iron, about ten per
cent, are double-edged with a central ridge distinctly reminiscent of
casting in fact, a hammered-iron survival of a bronze leaf-shaped
weapon.** Occasionally these swords have, at the end of the tang, a
disc with a perforated design of two dragons holding a ball, a
decorative motive which already betrays Chinese origin. Other swords
have pommels surmounted by a bulb set at an angle to the tang,*** and
have been suspected to be Turanian origin.
*The most comprehensive list of these objects is that given in
Munro's Prehistoric Japan: "Objects of iron--(1), Swords and daggers;
(2), Hilt-guards and pommels; (3), Arrow-heads; (4), Spear-heads and
halberd-heads; (5) Armour and helmets; (6), Stirrups and bridle-bits;
(7), Ornamental trappings for horses; (8), Axes, hoes, or chisels;
(9), Hoes or spades; (10), Chains; (11), Rings; (12), Buckles; (13),
Smith's tongs or pincers; (14), Nails; (15), Caskets, handles,
hinges, and other fittings. Objects of copper and bronze--(1),
Arrow-heads; (2), Spear-heads; (3), Hilt-guards and pommels; (4),
Scabbard-covers and pieces of sheet-copper for ornamental uses; (5),
Helmets; (6), Arm-and-leg guards; (7), Shoes; (8), Horse-trappings;
(9), Belts; (10), Mirrors; (11), Bracelets and rings; (12), Various
fittings. Silver and gold were employed chiefly in plating, but fine
chains and pendants as well as rings of pure gold and silver have
been met with.
"The stone objects may be divided into two classes, viz:
"A. Articles of use or ornaments--(1), Head-rest; (2), Mortar and
pestle; (3), Caskets and vessels; (4), Cups and other vessels; (5),
Bracelets; (6), Magatama; (7), Other ornaments; (8), Plumb-line
pendant; (9), Spindle-weight; (10), Objects of unascertained
function.
"B. Sepulchral substitutes--(1), Swords and daggers; (2),
Sheath-knife; (3), Arrow-head; (4), Spear-head; (5), Shield; (6);
Armour; (7), Wooden dogs; (8), Mirror; (9), Comb; (10), Magatama;
(11), Cooking-knife; (12), Sickle or scythe-blade; (13), Hoe or
chisel; (14), Head of chisel or spear; (15), Bowl; (16), Table; (17),
Sword-pommel; (18), Nondescript objects." The above list does not
include pottery.
**The leaf-shaped bronze sword is found over all Europe from the
Mediterranean to Lapland, but generally without a central ridge.
***Mr. Takahashi, a Japanese archaeologist, suggests that these
weapons were the so called "mallet-headed swords" said to have been
used by Keiko's soldiers (A.D. 82) against the Tsuchi-gumo. The name,
kabutsuchi, supports this theory, kabu being the term for "turnip,"
which is also found in kabuya, a humming arrow having a turnip-shaped
head perforated with holes.
Yet another form--found mostly in the Kwanto provinces and to the
north of them, from which fact its comparatively recent use may be
inferred--was known in western Asia and especially in Persia, whence
it is supposed to have been exported to the Orient in connexion with
the flourishing trade carried on between China and Persia from the
seventh to the tenth century. That a similar type is not known to
exist in China proves nothing conclusive, for China's attitude
towards foreign innovations was always more conservative than
Japan's. Scabbards, having been mostly of wood, have not survived,
but occasionally one is found having a sheeting of copper thickly
plated with gold. Arrow-heads are very numerous. Those of bronze
have, for the most part, the leaf shape of the bronze sword, but
those of iron show many forms, the most remarkable being the
chisel-headed, a type used in Persia.
Spear-heads are not specially suggestive as to provenance, with the
exception of a kind having a cross-arm like the halberd commonly used
in China from the seventh century before Christ. Yamato armour
affords little assistance to the archaeologist: it bears no
particularly close resemblance to any type familiar elsewhere. There
was a corset made of sheet iron, well rivetted. It fastened in front
and was much higher behind than before, additioned protection for the
back being provided by a lattice-guard which depended from the helmet
and was made by fastening strips of sheet iron to leather or cloth.
The helmet was usually of rivetted iron, but occasionally of bronze,
with or without a peak in front. There were also guards of copper or
iron for the legs, and there were shoulder-curtains constructed in
the same manner as the back-curtain pendant from the helmet. Shoes of
copper complete the panoply.
The workmanship of these weapons and armour is excellent: it shows an
advanced stage of manufacturing skill. This characteristic is even
more remarkable in the case of horse-trappings. The saddle and
stirrups, the bridle and bit, are practically the same as those that
were used in modern times, even a protective toe-piece for the
stirrup being present. A close resemblance is observable between the
ring stirrups of old Japan and those of mediaeval Europe, and a much
closer affinity is shown by the bits, which had cheek-pieces and were
usually jointed in the centre precisely like a variety common in
Europe; metal pendants, garnished with silver and gold and carrying
globular jingle-bells in their embossed edges, served for horse
decoration. These facts are learned, not from independent relics
alone, but also from terracotta steeds found in the tumuli and
moulded so as to show all their trappings.
Other kinds of expert iron-work have also survived; as chains, rings
and, buckles, which differ little from corresponding objects in
Europe at the present day; and the same is true of nails, handles,
hinges, and other fittings. Tools used in working metal are rarely
found, a fact easily accounted for when we remember that such objects
would naturally be excluded from sepulchres.
There is another important relic which shows that the Yamato were
"indebted to China for the best specimens of their decorative art."
This is a round bronze mirror, of which much is heard in early
Japanese annals from the time of Izanagi downwards. In China the art
of working in bronze was known and practised during twenty centuries
prior to the Christian era; but although Japan seems to have
possessed the knowledge at the outset of the dolmen epoch, (circ. 600
B.C.), she had no copper mine of her own until thirteen centuries
later, and was obliged to rely on Korea for occasional supplies. This
must have injuriously affected her progress in the art of bronze
casting.
Nevertheless, in almost all the dolmens and later tombs mirrors of
bronze were placed. This custom came into vogue in China at an early
date, the mirror being regarded as an amulet against decay or a
symbol of virtue. That Japan borrowed the idea from her neighbour can
scarcely be doubted. She certainly procured many Chinese mirrors,
which are easily distinguished by finely executed and beautiful
decorative designs in low relief on their backs; whereas her own
mirrors--occasionally of iron--did not show equal skill of technique
or ornamentation. Comparative roughness distinguished them, and they
had often a garniture of jingle-bells (suzu) cast around the rim, a
feature not found in Chinese mirrors. They were, in fact, an inferior
copy of a Chinese prototype, the kinship of the two being further
attested by the common use of the dragon as a decorative motive.
Bronze vases and bowls, simple or covered, are occasionally found in
the Yamato sepulchres. Sometimes they are gilt, and in no case do
their shapes differentiate them from Chinese or modern Japanese
models.
It might be supposed that in the field of personal ornament some
special features peculiar to the Yamato civilization should present
themselves. There is none. Bronze or copper bracelets,* closed or
open and generally gilt, recall the Chinese bangle precisely, except
when they are cast with a garniture of suzu. In fact, the suzu
(jingle-bell) seems to be one of the few objects purely of Yamato
origin. It was usually globular, having its surface divided into
eight parts, and it served not only as part of a bangle and as a
pendant for horse-trappings but also as a post-bell (ekirei), which,
when carried by nobles and officials, indicated their right to
requisition horses for travelling purposes.
*Jasper also was employed for making bracelets, and there is some
evidence that shells were similarly used.
To another object interest attaches because of its wide use in
western Asia and among the Celtic peoples of Europe. This is the
penannular (or open) ring. In Europe, it was usually of solid gold or
silver, but in Japan, where these metals were very scarce in early
days, copper, plated with beaten gold or silver, was the material
generally employed. Sometimes these rings were hollow and sometimes,
but very rarely, flattened. The smaller ones seem to have served as
earrings, worn either plain or with pendants.
Prominent among personal ornaments were magatama (curved jewels) and
kudatama (cylindrical jewels). It is generally supposed that the
magatama represented a tiger's claw, which is known to have been
regarded by the Koreans as an amulet. But the ornament may also have
taken its comma-like shape from the Yo and the Yin, the positive and
the negative principles which by Chinese cosmographists were
accounted the great primordial factors, and which occupy a prominent
place in Japanese decorative art as the tomoye.* The cylindrical
jewels evidently owed their shape to facility for stringing into
necklaces or chaplets. The Chronicles and the Records alike show that
these jewels, especially the magatama, acted an important part in
some remarkable scenes in the mythological age.** Moreover, a sword,
a mirror, and a magatama, may be called the regalia of Japan. But
these jewels afford little aid in identifying the Yamato. Some of
them--those of jade, chrysoprase, and nephrite***--must have been
imported, these minerals never having been found in Japan. But the
latter fact, though it may be held to confirm the continental origin
of the Yamato, gives no indication as to the part of Asia whence they
emigrated.
*Professor Takashima has found magatama among the relics of the
primitive culture, but that is probably the result of imitation.
**The goddess of the Sun, when awaiting the encounter with Susanoo,
twisted a complete string, eight feet long, with five hundred
magatama. Lesser Kami were created by manipulating the jewels. When
Amaterasu retired into a cave, magatama were hung from the branches
of a sakaki tree to assist in enticing her out. Several other
reverential allusions are made to the jewels in later times.
***The jewels were of jasper, agate, chalcedony, serpentine,
nephrite, steatite, quartz, crystal, glass, jade (white and green),
and chrysoprase. Mention is also made of rakan, but the meaning of
the term is obscure. Probably it was a variety of jade.
YAMATO POTTERY
The pottery found in the Yamato tombs is somewhat more instructive
than the personal ornaments. It seems to have been specially
manufactured, or at any rate selected, for purposes of sepulture, and
it evidently retained its shape and character from very remote if not
from prehistoric times. Known in Japan as iwaibe (sacred utensils),
it resembles the pottery of Korea so closely that identity has been
affirmed by some archaeologists and imitation by others. It has
comparatively fine paste--taking the primitive pottery as
standard--is hard, uniformly baked, has a metallic ring, varies in
colour from dark brown to light gray, is always turned on the wheel,
has only accidental glaze, and is decorated in a simple, restrained
manner with conventionalized designs. The shapes of the various
vessels present no marked deviation from Chinese or Korean models,
except that, the tazzas and occasionally other utensils are sometimes
pierced in triangular, quadrilateral, and circular patterns, to which
various meanings more or less fanciful have been assigned.
There is, however, one curious form of iwaibe which does not appear
to have any counterpart in China or Korea. It is a large jar, or
tazza, having several small jars moulded around its shoulder,* these
small jars being sometimes interspersed with, and sometimes wholly
replaced by, figures of animals.** It is necessary to go to the
Etruscan "black ware" to find a parallel to this most inartistic kind
of ornamentation.
*This style of ornamentation was called komochi (child-bearing), the
small jars being regarded as children of the large.
**Mr. Wakabayashi, a Japanese archaeologist, has enumerated seven
varieties of figures thus formed on vases: horses, deer, wild boars,
dogs, birds, tortoises; and human beings.
With regard to the general decorative methods of the iwaibe potters,
it is noticeable, first, that apparent impressions of textiles are
found (they are seldom actual imprints, being usually imitations of
such), and, secondly, that simple line decoration replaces the rude
pictorial representations of a primitive culture and suggests
propagation from a centre of more ancient and stable civilization
than that of the Yamato hordes: from China, perhaps from Korea--who
knows? As for the terracotta figures of human beings and sometimes of
animals found in connexion with Yamato sepulchres, they convey little
information about the racial problem.* The idea of substituting such
figures for the human beings originally obliged to follow the dead to
the grave seems to have come from China, and thus constitutes another
evidence of intercourse, at least, between the two countries from
very ancient times.
*Chinese archaic wine-pots of bronze sometimes have on the lid
figures of human beings and animals, but these served a useful
purpose.
It has been remarked that "the faces seen on these images by no means
present a typical Mongolian type; on the contrary, they might easily
pass for European faces, and they prompt the query whether the Yamato
were not allied to the Caucasian race." Further, "the national
vestiges of the Yamato convey an impression of kinship to the
civilization which we are accustomed to regard as our own, for their
intimate familiarity with the uses of swords, armour, horse-gear, and
so forth brings us into sympathetic relation to their civilization."
[Munro.]
SUMMARY
It will be seen from the above that archaeology, while it discloses
to us the manners and customs of the ancient inhabitants of Japan,
does not afford material for clearly differentiating more than three
cultures: namely, the neolithic culture of the Yemishi; the iron
culture of the Yamato, and the intermediate bronze culture of a race
not yet identified. There are no archaeological traces of the
existence of the Kumaso or the Tsuchi-gumo, and however probable it
may seem, in view of the accessibility of Japan from the mainland,
not only while she formed part of the latter but even after the two
had become separate, that several races co-existed with the Yemishi
and that a very mixed population carried on the neolithic culture,
there is no tangible evidence that such was the case. Further, the
indications furnished by mythology that the Yamato were
intellectually in touch with central, if not with western Asia, are
re-enforced by archaeological suggestions of a civilization and even
of physical traits cognate with the Caucasian.
ENGRAVING: DRUM AND MASK
ENGRAVING: "NO" MASKS
CHAPTER VII
LANGUAGE AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
LANGUAGE
HOWEVER numerous may have been the races that contributed originally
to people Japan, the languages now spoken there are two only, Ainu
and Japanese. They are altogether independent tongues. The former
undoubtedly was the language of the Yemishi; the latter, that of the
Yamato. From north to south all sections of the Japanese nation--the
Ainu of course excepted--use practically the same speech. Varieties
of local dialects exist, but they show no traits of survival from
different languages. On the contrary, in few countries of Japan's
magnitude does corresponding uniformity of speech prevail from end to
end of the realm. It cannot reasonably be assumed that, during a
period of some twenty-five centuries and in the face of steady
extermination, the Yemishi preserved their language quite distinct
from that of their conquerors, whereas the various languages spoken
by the other races peopling the island were fused into a whole so
homogeneous as to defy all attempts at differentiation. The more
credible alternative is that from time immemorial the main elements
of the Japanese nation belonged to the same race, and whatever they
received from abroad by way of immigration became completely absorbed
and assimilated in the course of centuries.
No diligent attempt has yet been made to trace the connexion--if any
exist--between the Ainu tongue and the languages of northeastern
Asia, but geology, history, and archaeology suffice to indicate that
the Yemishi reached Japan at the outset from Siberia. The testimony
of these three sources is by no means so explicit in the case of the
Yamato, and we have to consider whether the language itself does not
furnish some better guide. "Excepting the twin sister tongue spoken
in the Ryukyu Islands," writes Professor Chamberlain, "the Japanese
language has no kindred, and its classification under any of the
recognized linguistic families remains doubtful. In structure, though
not to any appreciable extent in vocabulary, it closely resembles
Korean, and both it and Korean may possibly be related to Mongol and
to Manchu, and might therefore lay claim to be included in the
so-called 'Altaic group' In any case, Japanese is what philologists
call an agglutinative tongue; that is to say, it builds up its words
and grammatical forms by means of suffixes loosely soldered to the
root or stem, which is invariable."
This, written in 1905, has been supplemented by the ampler researches
of Professor S. Kanazawa, who adduces such striking evidences of
similarity between the languages of Japan and Korea that one is
almost compelled to admit the original identity of the two. There are
no such affinities between Japanese and Chinese. Japan has borrowed
largely, very largely, from China. It could scarcely have been
otherwise. For whereas the Japanese language in its original form--a
form which differs almost as much from its modern offspring as does
Italian from Latin--has little capacity for expansion, Chinese has
the most potential of all known tongues in that respect. Chinese may
be said to consist of a vast number of monosyllables, each expressed
by a different ideograph, each having a distinct significance, and
each capable of combination and permutation with one or more of the
others, by which combinations and permutations disyllabic and
trisyllabic words are obtained representing every conceivable shade
of meaning.
It is owing to this wonderful elasticity that Japan, when suddenly
confronted by foreign arts and sciences, soon succeeded in building
up for herself a vocabulary containing all the new terms, and
containing them in self-explaining forms. Thus "railway" is expressed
by tetsu-do, which consists of the two monosyllables tetsu (iron) and
do (way); "chemistry" by kagaku, or the learning (gaku) of changes
(ka); "torpedo" by suirai, or water (sui) thunder (rai); and each of
the component monosylables being written with an ideograph which
conveys its own meaning, the student has a term not only appropriate
but also instructive. Hundreds of such words have been manufactured
in Japan during the past half-century to equip men for the study of
Western learning, and the same process, though on a very much smaller
scale, had been going on continuously for many centuries, so that the
Japanese language has come to embody a very large number of Chinese
words, though they are not pronounced as the Chinese pronounce the
corresponding ideographs.
Yet in spite of this intimate relation, re-enforced as it is by a
common script, the two languages remain radically distinct; whereas
between Japanese and Korean the resemblance of structure and
accidence amounts almost to identity. Japanese philologists allege
that no affinity can be traced between their language and the tongues
of the Malay, the South Sea islanders, the natives of America and
Africa, or the Eskimo, whereas they do find that their language bears
a distinct resemblance to Manchu, Persian, and Turkish. Some go so
far as to assert that Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit are nearer to
Japanese than they are to any European language. These questions
await fuller investigation.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RACES
The Japanese are of distinctly small stature. The average height of
the man is 160 centimetres (5 feet 3.5 inches) and that of the woman
147 centimetres (4 feet 10 inches). They are thus smaller than any
European race, the only Occidentals over whom they possess an
advantage in this respect being the inhabitants of two Italian
provinces. [Baelz.] Their neighbours, the Chinese and the Koreans,
are taller, the average height of the northern Chinese being 168
centimetres (5 feet 7 inches), and that of the Koreans 164
centimetres (5 feet 5.5 inches). Nevertheless, Professor Dr. Baelz,
the most eminent authority on this subject, avers that "the three
great nations of eastern Asia are essentially of the same race," and
that observers who consider them to be distinct "have been misled by
external appearances." He adds: "Having made a special study of the
race question in eastern Asia, I can assert that comity of race in
general is clearly proved by the anatomical qualities of the body. In
any case the difference between them is much smaller than that
between the inhabitants of northern and southern Europe."
The marked differences in height, noted above, do not invalidate this
dictum: they show merely that the Asiatic yellow race has several
subdivisions. Among these subdivisions the more important are the
Manchu-Korean type, the Mongol proper, the Malay, and the Ainu. To
the first, namely the Manchu-Korean, which predominates in north
China and in Korea, Baelz assigns the higher classes in Japan; that
is to say, the men regarded as descendants of the Yamato. They have
"slender, elegant and often tall figures, elongated faces with not
very prominent cheek-bones, more or less slanting eyes, aquiline
noses, large upper teeth, receding chins, long slender necks, narrow
chests, long trunks, thin limbs, and often long fingers, while the
hair on the face and body is scarce." Dr. Munro, however, another
eminent authority, holds that, "judging from the Caucasian and often
Semitic physiognomy seen in the aristocratic type of Japanese, the
Yamato were mainly of Caucasic, perhaps Iranian, origin. These were
the warriors, the conquerors of Japan, and afterwards the
aristocracy, modified to some extent by mingling with a Mongoloid
rank and file, and by a considerable addition of Ainu." He remarks
that a white skin was the ideal of the Yamato, as is proved by their
ancient poetry.
As for the Mongol-proper type, which is seen in the lower classes and
even then not very frequently, its representative is squarely built,
and has prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, a more or less flat nose
with a large mouth. The Malay type is much commoner. Its
characteristics are small stature, good and sometimes square build, a
face round or angular, prominent cheek-bones, large horizontal eyes,
a weak chin, a short neck, broad well-developed chest, short legs,
and small delicate hands. As for the Ainu type, Dr. Baelz finds it
astonishing that they have left so little trace in the Japanese
nation. "Yet those who have studied the pure Ainu closely will
observe, particularly in the northern provinces, a not insignificant
number of individuals bearing the marks of Ainu blood. The most
important marks are: a short, thickly set body; prominent bones with
bushy hair, round deep-set eyes with long divergent lashes, a
straight nose, and a large quantity of hair on the face and body all
qualities which bring the Ainu much nearer to the European than to
the Japanese proper."
GENERAL PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
In addition to physical characteristics which indicate distinctions
of race among the inhabitants of Japan, there are peculiarities
common to a majority of the nation at large. One of these is an
abnormally large head. In the typical European the height of the head
is less than one-seventh of the stature and in Englishmen it is often
one-eighth. In the Japanese is it appreciably more than one-seventh.
Something of this may be attributed to smallness of stature, but such
an explanation is only partial.
Shortness of legs in relation to the trunk is another marked feature.
"Long or short legs are mainly racial in origin. Thus, in Europe, the
northern, or Teutonic race--namely Anglo-Saxons, North Germans,
Swedes, and Danes--are tail; long-legged, and small-headed, while the
Alpine, or central European race are short of stature, have short
legs and large heads with short necks, thus resembling the Mongolian
race in general, with which it was probably originally connected."
[Baelz.]
In the Japanese face, too, there are some striking points. The first
is in the osseous cavity of the eyeball and in the skin round the
eye. "The socket of the Japanese eye is comparatively small and
shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the
eye is less deeply set than in the European. Seen in profile,
forehead and upper lid often form one unbroken line." Then "the shape
of the eye proper, as modelled by the lids, shows a most striking
difference between the European and the Mongolian races; the open eye
being almost invariably horizontal in the former but very often
oblique in the latter on account of the higher level of the outer
corner. But even apart from obliqueness the shape of the corner is
peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely
covered by a fold of the upper lid continuing more or less into the
lower lid. This fold, which has been called the Mongolian fold, often
also covers the whole free rim of the upper lid, so that the
insertion of the eyelashes is hidden. When the fold takes an upward
direction towards the outer corner, the latter is a good deal higher
than the inner corner, and the result is the obliqueness mentioned
above. The eyelashes are shorter and sparser than in the European,
and whereas in the European the lashes of the upper and the lower lid
diverge, so that their free ends are farther distant than their
roots, in the Japanese eye they converge, the free ends being nearer
together than the insertions. Then again in the lower class the
cheek-bones are large and prominent, making the face look flat and
broad, while in the higher classes narrow and elongated faces are
quite common. Finally, the Japanese is less hairy than the European,
and the hair of the beard is usually straight." [Baelz.]
VIEWS OF JAPANESE ETHNOLOGISTS
It may well be supposed that the problem of their nation's origin has
occupied much attention among the Japanese, and that their
ethnologists have arrived at more or less definite conclusions. The
outlines of their ideas are that one of the great waves of emigration
which, in a remote age, emerged from the cradle of the human race in
central Asia, made its way eastward with a constantly expanding
front, and, sweeping up the Tarim basin, emerged in the region of the
Yellow River and in Manchuria. These wanderers, being an
agricultural, not a maritime, race, did not contribute much to the
peopling of the oversea islands of Japan. But in a later--or an
earlier--era, another exodus took place from the interior of Asia. It
turned in a southerly direction through India, and coasting along the
southern seaboard, reached the southeastern region of China; whence,
using as stepping-stones the chain of islands that festoon eastern
Asia, it made its way ultimately to Korea and Japan.
Anterior to both of these movements another race, the neolithic
Yemishi of the shell-heaps, had pushed down from the northeastern
regions of Korea or from the Amur valley, and peopled the northern
half of Japan. The Korean peninsula, known in Chinese records as Han,
appears in the form of three kingdoms at the earliest date of its
historical mention: they were Sin-Han and Pyon-Han on the east and
Ma-Han on the West. The northeastern portion, from the present
Won-san to Vladivostok, bore the name of Yoso, which is supposed to
have been the original of Yezo, the Yoso region thus constituting the
cradle of the Yemishi race.
Japanese ethnologists interpret the ancient annals as pointing to
very close intercourse between Japan and Korea in early days,* and
regard this as confirming the theory stated above as to the
provenance of the Yamato race. Connexion with the colonists of
northern China was soon established via Manchuria, and this fact may
account for some of the similarities between the civilization as well
as the legends of the Yamato and those of Europe, since there is
evidence that the Greeks and Romans had some hazy knowledge of China,
and that the Chinese had a similarly vague knowledge of the Roman
Empire,** possibly through commercial relations in the second century
B.C.
*The annals state of Princes Mikeno and Inahi, elder brothers of
Prince Iware (afterwards Jimmu Tenno). that the former "crossed over
to the Eternal Land" (Tokoyo-no-kuni) and the latter went down to the
sea plain, it being his deceased mother's land. Japanese
archaeologists identify "mother's land" as Shiragi in Korea, and
Tokoyo-no-kuni as the western country where the sun sets, namely
China. They further point out that Susanoo with his son, Itakeru,
went to Shiragi and lived at Soshi-mori, for which reason Susanoo's
posthumous title was Gozu Tenno, gozu being the Japanese equivalent
for the Korean soshi-mori (ox head). Susanoo is also quoted as
saying, "there are gold and silver in Koma and it were well that
there should be a floating treasury;"* so he built a vessel of pine
and camphor-wood to export these treasures to Japan. The "Korea" here
spoken of is the present Kimhai in Kyongsan-do. It is further
recorded that Susanoo lived for a time at Kumanari-mine, which is the
present Kongju. Again, a Japanese book, compiled in the tenth century
A.D., enumerates six shrines in the province of Izumo which were
called Kara-kuni Itate Jinja, or shrine of Itakeru of Korea. A much
abler work, Izuma Fudoki, speaks of Cape Kitsuki in Izumo as a place
where cotton-stuffs were imported from Shiragi by Omitsu, son of
Susanoo. There are other evidences to the same effect, and taken in
conjunction with the remarkable similarity of the Korean and Japanese
languages, these facts are held to warrant the conclusion that the
most important element of the Japanese nation came via Korea, its Far
Eastern colony being the ultima thule of its long wanderings from
central Asia.
**See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Vol. 6, p. 189 b.
The first mention of Japan in Chinese records is contained in a book
called Shan-hai-ching, which states that "the northern and southern
Wo* were subject to the kingdom of Yen." Yen was in the modern
province of Pechili. It existed as an independent kingdom from 1 122
to 265 B.C. That the inhabitants of Japan were at any time subject to
Yen is highly improbable, but that they were tributaries is not
unlikely. In other words, intercourse between Japan and northern
China was established in remote times via the Korean peninsula, and
people from Japan, travelling by this route, carried presents to the
Court of Yen, a procedure which, in Chinese eyes constituted an
acknowledgement of suzerainty. The "northern and southern Wo" were
probably the kingdom of Yamato and that set up in Kyushu by Ninigi, a
supposition which lends approximate confirmation to the date assigned
by Japanese historians for the expedition of Jimmu Tenno. It is also
recorded in the Chronicles of the Eastern Barbarians, a work of the
Han dynasty (A.D. 25-221), that Sin-Han, one of the three Korean
kingdoms, produced iron, and that Wo and Ma-Han, the western of these
Korean kingdoms, traded in it and used it as currency. It is very
possible that this was the iron used for manufacturing the ancient
double-edged swords (tsurugi) and halberds of the Yamato, a
hypothesis strengthened by the fact that the sword of Susanoo was
called Orochi no Kara-suki, Kara being a Japanese name for Korea.
*This word was originally pronounced Wa, and is written with the
ideograph signifying "dwarf." It was applied to the Japanese by
Chinese writers in earliest times, but on what ground such an epithet
was chosen there is no evidence.
ENGRAVING: JAPANESE SADDLE, BRIDLE, AND STIRRUPS
CHAPTER VIII
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN REMOTE ANTIQUITY
If it be insisted that no credence attaches to traditions unsupported
by written annals, then what the Records and the Chronicles, compiled
in the eighth century, tell of the manners and customs of Japan
twelve or thirteen hundred years previously, must be dismissed as
romance. A view so extreme is scarcely justified. There must be a
foundation of truth in works which, for the most part, have received
the imprimatur of all subsequent generations of Japanese. Especially
does that hold as to indications of manners, customs, and
institutions. These, at least, are likely to be mirrored with a
certain measure of accuracy, though they may often reflect an age
later than that to which they are referred, and may even have been
partially moulded to suit the ideas of their narrators. In briefly
epitomizing this page of history, the plan here pursued is to adhere
as far as possible to Japanese interpretations, since these must of
necessity be most intelligent.
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE
At the basis of the social structure stand the trinity of Kami,
mythologically called the Central Master (Naka-Nushi) and the two
Constructive Chiefs (Musubi no Kami). The Central Master was the
progenitor of the Imperial family; the Constructive Chiefs were the
nobility, the official class. What was originally involved in the
conception of official functions, we learn from incidents prefatory
to the expedition conducted by Ninigi for the subjugation of Japan.
Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) attached to the person of her grandson
four chiefs and one chieftainess. To two of the former (Koyane and
Futodama) she entrusted all matters relating to religious rites, and
they became respectively the ancestors of the Nakatomi and the Imibe
families. To the female Kami (Usume) was entrusted the making of
sacred music and she founded the Sarume family. Finally, all military
functions were committed to the chiefs, Oshihi and Kume, whose
descendants constituted the Otomo and Kume families.
In every case these offices were hereditary for all time, and the
families of their holders constitute the aristocracy of the nation,
marrying among themselves and filling the highest offices from
generation to generation. Their members bore the title of hiko (son
of the Sun) and hime (daughter of the Sun), and those that governed
towns and villages were called tomo no miyatsuko, while those that
held provincial domains were entitled kuni no miyatsuko.
This was the origin of the Japanese polity. The descendants of
Amaterasu, herself a descendant of the Central Master, occupied the
throne in unbroken succession, and the descendants of the two
Constructive Chiefs served as councillors, ministers, and generals.
But the lineage of all being traceable to three chiefs who originally
occupied places of almost equal elevation, they were united by a bond
of the most durable nature. At the same time it appears that this
equality had its disadvantage; it disposed the members of the
aristocratic families to usurp the administrative power while
recognizing its source, the Throne, and it encouraged factional
dissensions, which sometimes resulted disastrously. As to the middle
and lower classes, no evidence bearing on their exact composition is
forthcoming. It is plain, however, that they accepted a subordinate
position without active protest, for nothing like a revolt on their
part is alluded to, directly or indirectly, in the Records or the
Chronicles. The term for all subjects was tomobe.
DWELLING-HOUSES
The palace of the sovereign--called miya or odono--corresponded in
appearance and construction with the shrines of the deities. It was
built by erecting central pillars--originally merely sunk in the
ground but in later times having a stone foundation--from which
rafters sloped to corner posts, similarly erected, the sides being
clapboarded. Nails were used, but the heavy timbers were tied
together with ropes made by twisting the fibrous stems of climbing
plants. A conspicuous feature was that the upper ends of the rafters
projected across each other, and in the V-shaped receptacle thus
formed, a ridge-pole was laid with a number of short logs crossing it
at right angles. This disposition of timbers was evidently devised to
facilitate tying and to impart stability to the thatch, which was
laid to a considerable thickness.
It is not certain whether in the earliest times floors were fully
boarded, or whether boarding was confined to a dais running round the
sides, the rest of the interior being of beaten mud. Subsequently,
however, the whole floor was boarded. Chimneys were not provided;
charcoal being the principal fuel, its smoke did not incommode, and
when firewood was employed, the fumes escaped through openings in the
gable. For windows there were holes closed by shutters which, like
the doors, swung upon hooks and staples. Rugs of skin or of rush
matting served to spread on the boarded floor, and in rare cases silk
cushions were employed.
The areas on which buildings stood were generally surrounded by
palisades, and for a long time no other kind of defence save these
palings seems to have been devised. Indeed, no mention of castles
occurs until the first century B.C., when the strange term
"rice-castle" (ina-ki) is found; the reference being apparently to a
palisade fortified with rice-bags, or to a rice-granary used as a
fortress. The palace of the sovereign towered so high by comparison
that it was termed Asahi-no-tada-sasu-miya (miya on which the morning
sun shines direct), or Yuhi-no-hiteru-miya (miya illumined by the
evening sun), or some other figurative epithet, and to the Emperor
himself was applied the title 0-mikado (great august Gate). The
dwellings occupied by the nobility were similarly built, though on a
less pretentious scale, and those of the inferior classes appear to
have been little better than huts, not a few of them being partially
sunk in the ground, as is attested by the fact that the term "enter"
took the form of "creep in" (hairu).
ADMINISTRATION AND WORSHIP
In the instruction said to have been given by Amaterasu to her
grandson Ninigi, on the eve of his expedition to Japan, the words are
recorded: "My child, regard this mirror as you regard me. Keep it in
the same house with yourself, and make it the mirror of purity."
Accordingly the insignia--the mirror, the jewel, and the sword--were
always kept in the main hall of the palace under the care of the
Nakatomi and the Imibe families. An ancient volume (Kogo-shui)
records that when the palace of Kashihara was reached by Jimmu's
army, the grandson of the founder of the Imibe family--cutting timber
with a consecrated axe (imi-ono) and digging foundations with a
consecrated spade (imi-suki)--constructed a palace in which he placed
the mirror, the jewel, and the sword, setting out offerings and
reciting prayers to celebrate the completion of the building and the
installation of the insignia.
"At that time the sovereign was still very close to the Kami, and the
articles and utensils for the latter were little distinguished from
those for the former. Within the palace there stood a store house
(imi-kura), the Imibe family discharging daily and nightly the duties
relating to it." Thus it is seen that in remote antiquity religious
rites and administrative functions were not distinguished. The
sovereign's residence was the shrine of the Kami, and the term for
"worship" (matsuri) was synonymous with that for "government."
RELIGIOUS RITES
The ceremony spoken of above--the Odono matsuri, or consecration of
the palace--is the earliest religious rite mentioned. Next in
importance was the "harvest festival." In the records of the
mythological age it is related that Amaterasu obtained seeds of the
"five cereals," and, recognizing their value as food, caused them to
be cultivated, offering a part to the Kami when they were ripe and
eating some herself. This became a yearly custom, and when Ninigi set
out to conquer Japan, his grandmother gave rice seed to the ancestors
of the Nakatomi and the Imibe families, who thenceforth conducted the
harvest festival (nii-name, literally "tasting the new rice") every
autumn, the sovereign himself taking part, and the head of the
Nakatomi reciting a prayer for the eternity of the Imperial line and
the longevity of the Emperor. Other important rites were the "great
purification" (Oharai) performed twice a year, on the last day of the
sixth month and the last day of the twelfth month; the "fire-subduing
fete," the "spirit-tranquillizing fete," etc.
Of all these rites the principal features were the recitation of
rituals and the offering of various objects, edible or otherwise
useful. The rituals (norito) being, in several cases, set formulas,
lent themselves with special facility to oral transmission from
generation to generation. It is certain that they were familiar to
the compilers of the Records and the Chronicles, and they contain
expressions dating from such a remote era as to have become
incomprehensible before history began to be written in Japan. In the
year A.D. 927, seventy-five of the norito were transcribed into a
book (Yengi-shiki, or Ceremonial Law) which contains, in addition to
these rituals, particulars as to the practice of the Shinto religion;
as to the organization of the priesthood--which included ten virgin
princesses of the Imperial family, one each for the two great temples
of Watarai in Ise and Kamo in Yamashiro--and as to the Shinto shrines
qualified to receive State support. These shrines totalled 3132,
among which number 737 were maintained at the Emperor's charges.
Considering that the nation at that time (tenth century) did not
comprise more than a very few millions, the familiar criticism that
the Japanese are indifferent to religion is certainly not proved by
any lack of places of worship. The language of the rituals is
occasionally poetic, often figurative and generally solemn,* but they
are largely devoted to enumeration of Kami, to formulae of praise for
past favours, to petitions for renewed assistance, and to
recapitulations of the offerings made in support of these requests.
As for the offerings, they comprise woven stuffs, and their raw
materials, models of swords, arrows, shields, stags' antlers, hoes,
fish (dried and fresh), salt, sake, and, in some cases, a horse, a
cock, and a pig. In short, the things offered were essentially
objects serviceable to living beings.
*The Norito of the Great Purification Service has been translated by
Mr. W. G. Aston in his Japanese Literature.
THE KAMI
The Kami may be broadly divided into two groups, namely, those
originally regarded as superior beings and those elevated to that
rank in consideration of illustrious deeds performed during life. Of
the former group the multitudinous and somewhat heterogenous
components have been supposed to suggest the amalgamation of two or
more religious systems in consequence of a blending of races alien to
one another. But such features may be due to survivals incidental to
the highest form of nature religion, namely, anthropomorphic
polytheism.
There were the numerous Kami, more or less abstract beings without
any distinguishing functions, who preceded the progenitors of the
Yamato race, and there was the goddess of the Sun, pre-eminent and
supreme, together with deities of the Moon, of the stars, of the
winds, of the rain, of fire, of water, of mountains, of mines, of
fields, of the sea, of the trees, and of the grass--the last a female
divinity (Kaya-no-hime). The second group those deified for
illustrious services during life--furnished the tutelary divinities
(uji-gami or ubusuna-Kami) of the localities where their families
lived and where their labours had been performed. Their protection
was specially solicited by the inhabitants of the regions where their
shrines stood, while the nation at large worshipped the Kami of the
first group. Out of this apotheosis of distinguished mortals there
grew, in logical sequence, the practice of ancestor worship. It was
merely a question of degrees of tutelary power. If the blessings of
prosperity and deliverance could be bestowed on the denizens of a
region by the deity enshrined there, the same benefits in a smaller
and more circumscribed measure might be conferred by the deceased
head of a family. As for the sovereign, standing to the whole nation
in the relation of priest and intercessor with the deities, he was
himself regarded as a sacred being, the direct descendant of the
heavenly ancestor (Tenson).
THERIANTHROPIC ELEMENTS
That the religion of ancient Japan--known as Shinto, or "the way of
the gods"--had not fully emerged from therianthropic polytheism is
proved by the fact that, though the deities were generally
represented in human shape, they were frequently conceived as
spiritual beings, embodying themselves in all kinds of things,
especially in animals, reptiles, or insects. Thus, tradition relates
that the Kami of Mimoro Mountain appeared to the Emperor Yuryaku
(A.D. 457-459) in the form of a snake; that during the reign of the
Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), a local deity in the guise of a
serpent interfered with agricultural operations and could not be
placated until a shrine was built in its honour; that in the time of
the Emperor Kogyoku, the people of the eastern provinces devoted
themselves to the worship of an insect resembling a silkworm, which
they regarded as a manifestation of the Kami of the Moon; that the
Emperor Keiko (A.D. 71-130) declared a huge tree to be sacred; that
in the days of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), religious rites were
performed before cutting down a tree supposed to be an incarnation of
the thunder Kami; that on the mountain Kannabi, in Izumo, there stood
a rock embodying the spirit of the Kami whose expulsion from Yamato
constituted the objective of Ninigi's expedition, and that prayer to
it was efficacious in terminating drought, that the deity
Koto-shiro-nushi became transformed into a crocodile, and that "the
hero Yamato-dake emerged from his tomb in the shape of a white swan."
Many other cognate instances might be quoted. A belief in amulets and
charms, in revelations by dreams and in the efficacy of ordeal,
belongs to this category of superstitions. The usual form of ordeal
was by thrusting the hand into boiling water. It has been alleged
that the Shinto religion took no account of a soul or made any
scrutiny into a life beyond the grave. Certainly no ideas as to
places of future reward or punishment seem to have engrossed
attention, but there is evidence that not only was the spirit (tama)
recognized as surviving the body, but also that the spirit itself was
believed to consist of a rough element (am) and a gentle element
(nigi), either of which predominated according to the nature of the
functions to be performed; as when a nigi-tama was believed to have
attached itself to the person of the Empress Jingo at the time of her
expedition to Korea, while an ara-tama formed the vanguard of her
forces.
Some Japanese philosophers, however--notably the renowned
Motoori--have maintained that this alleged duality had reference
solely to the nature of the influence exercised by a spirit on
particular occasions. Shinto has no sacred canon like the Bible, the
Koran, or the Sutras. Neither has it any code of morals or body of
dogma. Cleanliness may be called its most prominent feature.
Izanagi's lustrations to remove the pollution contracted during his
visit to the nether world became the prototype of a rite of
purification (misogi) which always prefaced acts of worship. A
cognate ceremony was the harai (atonement). By the misogi the body
was cleansed; by the harai all offences were expiated; the origin of
the latter rite having been the exaction of certain penalties from
Susanoo for his violent conduct towards the Sun goddess.* The two
ceremonies, physical cleansing and moral cleansing, prepared a
worshipper to approach the shrine of the Kami. In later times both
rites were compounded into one, the misogi-harai, or simply the
harai. When a calamity threatened the country or befell it, a grand
harai (o-harai) was performed in atonement for the sins supposed to
have invited the catastrophe. This principle of cleanliness found
expression in the architecture of Shinto shrines; plain white wood
was everywhere employed and ornamentation of every kind eschewed. In
view of the paramount importance thus attached to purity, a
celebrated couplet of ancient times is often quoted as the unique and
complete canon of Shinto morality,
*His nails were extracted and his beard was plucked out.
"Unsought in prayer,
"The gods will guard
"The pure of heart."*
*Kokoro dani
Makoto no michi ni
Kanai naba
Inorazu tote mo
Kami ya mamoran.
It is plain, however, that Shinto cannot be included in the category
of ethical religions; it belongs essentially to the family of nature
religions.
CRIMES
The acts which constituted crimes in ancient Japan were divided into
two classes: namely, sins against heaven and sins against the State.
At the head of the former list stood injuries to agricultural
pursuits, as breaking down the ridges of rice-fields, filling up
drains, destroying aqueducts, sowing seeds twice in the same place,
putting spits in rice-fields, flaying an animal alive or against the
grain, etc. The crimes against the State were cutting and wounding
(whether the living or the dead), defilement on account of leprosy or
cognate diseases, unnatural offences, evil acts on the part of
children towards parents or of parents towards children, etc. Methods
of expiating crime were recognized, but, as was the universal custom
in remote times, very cruel punishments were employed against
evil-doers and enemies. Death was inflicted for comparatively trivial
offences, and such tortures were resorted to as cutting the sinews,
extracting the nails and the hair, burying alive, roasting, etc.
Branding or tattooing seems to have been occasionally practised, but
essentially as a penalty or a mark of ignominy.
DIVINATION
As is usually the case in a nation where a nature religion is
followed, divination and augury were practised largely in ancient
Japan. The earliest method of divination was by roasting the
shoulder-blade of a stag and comparing the cracks with a set of
diagrams. The Records and the Chronicles alike represent Izanagi and
Izanami as resorting to this method of presaging the future, and the
practice derives interest from the fact that a precisely similar
custom has prevailed in Mongolia from time immemorial. Subsequently
this device was abandoned in favour of the Chinese method, heating a
tortoise-shell; and ultimately the latter, in turn, gave way to the
Eight Trigrams of Fuhi. The use of auguries seems to have come at a
later date. They were obtained by playing a stringed instrument
called koto, by standing at a cross-street and watching the passers,
by manipulating stones, and by counting footsteps.
MILITARY FORCES
It has been related that when the "heavenly grandson" undertook his
expedition to Japan, the military duties were entrusted to two
mikoto* who became the ancestors of the Otomo and the Kume families.
There is some confusion about the subsequent differentiation of these
families, but it is sufficient to know that, together with the
Mononobe family, they, were the hereditary repositories of military
authority. They wore armour, carried swords, spears and bows, and not
only mounted guard at the palace but also asserted the Imperial
authority throughout the provinces. No exact particulars of the
organization of these forces are on record, but it would seem that
the unit was a battalion divided into twenty-five companies, each
company consisting of five sections of five men per section, a
company being under the command of an officer whose rank was
miyatsuko.
*"August being," a term of respect applied to the descendants of the
Kami.
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
No mention is made of such a thing as currency in prehistoric Japan.
Commerce appears to have been conducted by barter only. In order to
procure funds for administrative and religious purposes, officers in
command of forces were despatched to various regions, and the
inhabitants were required to contribute certain quantities of local
produce. Steps were also taken to cultivate useful plants and cereals
and to promote manufactures. The Kogo-shui states that a certain
mikoto inaugurated the fashioning of gems in Izumo, and that his
descendants continued the work from generation to generation, sending
annual tribute of articles to the Court every year. Another mikoto
was sent to plant paper-mulberry and hemp in the province of Awa (awa
signifies "hemp"), and a similar record is found in the same book
with regard to the provinces of Kazusa and Shimosa, which were then
comprised in a region named Fusa-kuni. Other places owed their names
to similar causes.
It is plain that, whatever may have been the case at the outset, this
assignment of whole regions to the control of officials whose
responsibility was limited to the collection of taxes for the uses of
the Court, could not but tend to create a provincial nobility and
thus lay the foundations of a feudal system. The mythological
accounts of meetings of the Kami for purposes of consultation suggest
a kind of commonwealth, and recall "the village assemblies of
primitive times in many parts of the world, where the cleverness of
one and the general willingness to follow his suggestions fill the
place of the more definite organization of later times."* But though
that may be true of the Yamato race in the region of its origin, the
conditions found by it in Japan were not consistent with such a
system, for Chinese history shows that at about the beginning of the
Christian era the Island Empire was in a very uncentralized state and
that the sway of the Yamato was still far from receiving general
recognition. A great Japanese scholar** has contended that the
centralization which prevailed in later ages was wholly an imitation
of Chinese bureaucracy, and that organized feudalism was the original
form of government in Japan. The annals appear to support that view
to a limited extent, but the subject will presently be discussed at
greater length.
*B. H. Chamberlain.
**Hirata Atsutane.
RAIMENT
In the use of clothing and the specialization of garments the early
Japanese had reached a high level. We read in the ancient legends of
upper garments, skirts, trousers, anklets, and head-ornaments of
stones considered precious.* The principal material of wearing
apparel was cloth woven from threads of hemp and mulberry bark.
According to the annals, the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing
were known and practised from the earliest age. The Sun goddess
herself is depicted as seated in the hall of the sacred loom, reeling
silk from cocoons held in her mouth, and at the ceremony of enticing
her from her retirement, the weaving of blue-and-white stuffs
constituted an important adjunct. Terms are used (akarurtae and
teru-tae) which show that colour and lustre were esteemed as much as
quality. Ara-tae and nigi-tae were the names used to designate coarse
and fine cloth respectively; striped stuff was called shidori, and
the name of a princess, Taku-hata-chiji, goes to show that corrugated
cloth was woven from the bark of the taku. Silken fabrics were
manufactured, but the device of boiling the cocoons had not yet been
invented. They were held in the mouth for spinning purposes, and the
threads thus obtained being coarse and uneven, the loom could not
produce good results. Silk stuffs therefore did not find much favour:
they were employed chiefly for making cushions, cloth woven from
cotton, hemp, or mulberry bark being preferred for raiment. Pure
white was the favourite colour; red, blue, and black being placed in
a lower rank in that order. It has been conjectured that furs and
skins were worn, but there is no explicit mention of anything of the
kind. It would seem that their use was limited to making rugs and
covering utensils.** Sewing is not explicitly referred to, but the
needle is; and in spite of an assertion to the contrary made by the
Chinese author of the Shan-hai-ching (written in the fourth century
A.D.) there is no valid reason to doubt that the process of sewing
was familiar.
*B. H. Chamberlain.
**In China the case was different. There, garments made of skins or
covered with feathers were worn in remote antiquity before the art of
weaving had become known. The Records recount that in the age of the
Kami "there came" (to Japan) "riding on the crest of the waves, a
kami dressed in skins of geese," and this passage has been quoted as
showing that skins were used for garments in Japan. But it is pointed
out by Japanese commentators that this Kami Sukuna-bikona is
explicitly stated to have come from a foreign country, and that if
the passage warrants any inference, it is that the visitor's place of
departure had been China.
As to the form of the garments worn, the principal were the hakama
and the koromo. The hakama was a species of divided skirt, used by
men and women alike. It has preserved its shape from age to age, and
is to-day worn by school-girls throughout Japan. The koromo was a
tunic having tight sleeves reaching nearly to the knees. It was
folded across the breast from right to left and secured by a belt of
cloth or silk tied round the loins. Veils also were used by both
sexes, one kind (the katsugi) having been voluminous enough to cover
the whole body. "Combs are mentioned, and it is evident that much
attention was devoted to the dressing of the hair."* Men divided
theirs in the middle and bound it up in two bunches, one over each
ear. Youths tied theirs into a top-knot; girls wore their locks
hanging down the back but bound together at the neck, and married
ladies "dressed theirs after a fashion which apparently combined the
last two methods." Decoration of the head was carried far on
ceremonial occasions, gems, veils, and even coronets being used for
the purpose. "There is no mention in any of the old books of cutting
the hair or beard except in token of disgrace; neither do we gather
that the sexes, but for this matter of head-dress, were distinguished
by a diversity of apparel or ornamentation."*
*B. H. Chamberlain.
FOOD AND DRINK
Rice was the great staple of diet in ancient, as it is in modern,
times. The importance attaching to it is shown by the fact that the
Sun goddess herself is represented as engaging in its cultivation and
that injuring a rice-field was among the greatest offences. Barley,
millet, wheat, and beans are mentioned, but the evidence that they
were grown largely in remote antiquity is not conclusive. The flesh
of animals and birds was eaten, venison and wild boar being
particularly esteemed. Indeed, so extensively was the hunting of deer
practised that bows and arrows were often called kago-yumi and
kago-ya (kago signifies "deer"). Fish, however, constituted a much
more important staple of diet than flesh, and fishing in the
abundantly stocked seas that surround the Japanese islands was
largely engaged in. Horses and cattle were not killed for food. It is
recorded in the Kogo-shui that the butchering of oxen to furnish meat
for workers in a rice-field roused the resentment of a Kami called
Mitoshi. There does not appear to have been any religious or
superstitious scruple connected with this abstention: the animals
were spared simply because of their usefulness. Vegetables occupied a
large space in the list of articles of food. There were the radish,
the cabbage, the lotus, the melon, and the wild garlic, as well as as
several kinds of seaweed. Salt was used for seasoning, the process of
its manufacture having been familiar from the earliest times. Only
one kind of intoxicating liquor was ever known in Japan until the
opening of intercourse with the Occident. It was a kind of beer
brewed* from rice and called sake. The process is said to have been
taught by Sukuna, who, as shown above, came to Japan from a foreign
country--probably China--when the Kami, Okuni-nushi, was establishing
order in the Japanese islands.
*The term for "brew" being kamu or kamosu, the former of which is
homonymous with the equivalent for "to chew," some commentators have
supposed that sake was manufactured in early times by grinding rice
with the teeth. This is at once disproved by the term for "yeast,"
namely, kabi-tachi (fermenting).
COOKING AND TABLE EQUIPAGE
From time immemorial there were among the officials at the Imperial
Court men called kashiwa-de, or oak-leaf hands. They had charge of
the food and drink, and their appellation was derived from the fact
that rice and other edibles were usually served on oak leaves.
Earthenware utensils were used, but their surface, not being glazed,
was not allowed to come into direct contact with the viands placed on
them. In this practice another example is seen of the love of
cleanliness that has always characterized and distinguished the
Japanese nation. Edibles having been thus served, the vessels
containing them were ranged on a table, one for each person, and
chop-sticks were used. Everything was cooked, with the exception of
certain vegetables and a few varieties of fish. Friction of wood upon
wood provided fire, a fact attested by the name of the tree chiefly
used for the purpose, hi-no-ki, or fire-tree. To this day the same
method of obtaining a spark is practised at the principal religious
ceremonials. Striking metal upon stone was another device for the
same purpose, and there is no record in Japan, as there is in China,
of any age when food was not cooked. Various vessels of unglazed
pottery are mentioned in the Records, as bowls, plates, jars,
and wine-holders, the last being often made of metal. These
were all included in the term suemono, which may be translated
"table-utensils."
ARMS, ARMOUR, AND GEMS
It has already been stated that archaeological research shows the
Yamato race to have been in possession of iron swords and spears, as
well as metal armour and shields, from a very early period, probably
the date of these colonists' first coming to Japan. They also used
saddles, stirrups, bridles, and bits for horses, so that a Yamato
warrior in full mail and with complete equipment was perhaps as
formidable a fighting man as any contemporary nation could produce.
Bows and arrows were also in use. The latter, tipped with iron or
stone and feathered, were carried in a quiver. The swords employed by
men were originally double-edged. Their names* show that they were
used alike for cutting and thrusting, and that they varied in length
from ten "hands" to five. There was also a small single-edged sword**
carried by women and fastened inside the robe. The value attached to
the sword is attested by numerous appellations given to blades of
special quality. In later times the two-edged sword virtually fell
out of use, being replaced by the single-edged.
*Tsurugi (to pierce) and tachi (to cut).
**This was originally called himo-kala-ha, which literally means
"cord single edge." subsequently kala-ha became katana, by which term
all Japanese swords are now known.
Sometimes a spear was decorated with gems. It is curious that gems
should have been profusely used for personal adornment in ancient
times by people who subsequently eschewed the custom well-nigh
altogether, as the Japanese did. The subject has already been
referred to in the archaeological section, but it may be added here
that there were guilds of gem-makers (Tama-tsukuri-be) in several
provinces, and that, apart from imported minerals, the materials with
which they worked were coral, quartz, amber, gold, silver, and
certain pebbles found in Izumo.
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
It appears that when the Yamato immigrants reached Japan, the coast
lands were overgrown with reeds and the greater part of the island
was covered with primeval forests. Fabulous accounts are given of
monster trees. Thus, in the Tsukushi Fudoki we read of an oak in
Chikugo which towered to a height of 9700 feet, its branches shading
the peaks of Hizen in the morning and the mountains of Higo in the
evening. The Konjaku Monogatari tells of another oak with a stem
measuring 3000 feet in circumference and casting its shadow over
Tamba at dawn and on Ise at sunset. In the Fudoki of other provinces
reference is made to forest giants in Harima, Bungo, Hitachi, etc.,
and when full allowance has been made for the exaggerations of
tradition, there remains enough to indicate that the aboriginal
inhabitants did not attempt any work of reclamation.
Over regions measuring scores of miles perpetual darkness reigned,
and large districts were often submerged by the overflow of rivers.
There is no mention, however, of a deluge, and Professor Chamberlain
has called attention to the remarkable fact that a so-called "Altaic
myth" finds no place in the traditions of "the oldest of the
undoubtedly Altaic nations."
The annals are eloquent in their accounts of the peopling of the
forests by wild and fierce animals and the infesting of the vallies
by noxious reptiles. The Nihongi, several of the Fudoki, the Konjaku
Monogatari, etc., speak of an eight-headed snake in Izumo, of a
horned serpent in Hitachi, and of big snakes in Yamato, Mimasaka,
Bungo, and other provinces; while the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku tells of
wolves, bears, monkeys, monster centipedes, whales, etc., in Harima,
Hida, Izumo, Oki, Tajima, and Kaga. In some cases these gigantic
serpents were probably bandit chiefs transfigured into reptiles by
tradition, but of the broad fact that the country was, for the most
part, in a state of natural wilderness there can be little doubt.
Under the sway of the Yamato, however, a great change was gradually
effected. Frequent allusions are made to the encouragement of
agriculture and even its direct pursuit by the Kami. The Sun goddess
is represented as having obtained seeds of the five cereals from the
female Kami, Ukemochi,* and as having appointed a village chief to
superintend their culture. She had three regions of her own specially
devoted to rice growing, and her unruly brother, Susanoo, had a
similar number, but the latter proved barren. The same goddess
inaugurated sericulture, and entrusted the care of it to a princess,
who caused mulberry trees to be planted and was able to present silk
fabrics to Amaterasu. In the reign of Jimmu, hemp is said to have
been cultivated, and Susanoo, after his reformation, became the
guardian of forests, one of his functions being to fix the uses of
the various trees, as pine and hinoki (ground-cypress) for house
building, maki (podocarpus Chinensis) for coffin making, and
camphor-wood for constructing boats. He also planted various kinds of
fruit-trees. Thenceforth successive sovereigns encouraged
agriculture, so that the face of the country was materially changed.
*The Sun goddess, Amaterasu, and the goddess of Food (Ukemochi no
Kami) are the two deities now worshipped at the great shrine of Ise.
In the matter of farming implements, however, neither archaeology nor
history indicates anything more than iron spades, wooden hoes shod
with bronze or iron, hand-ploughs, and axes. As to manufacturing
industries, there were spinners and weavers of cotton and silk,
makers of kitchen utensils, polishers of gems, workers in gold,
silver, copper, and iron, forgers of arms and armour, potters of
ornamental vessels, and dressers of leather. In later eras the
persons skilled in these various enterprises formed themselves into
guilds (be), each of which carried on its own industry from
generation to generation.
The fact that there must have been an exchange of goods between these
various groups is almost the only indication furnished by the annals
as to trade or commerce. In the name of a daughter of Susa (Princess
Kamu-o-ichi) we find a suggestion that markets (ichi) existed, and
according to the Wei Records (A.D. 211-265) there were, at that time,
"in each province of Japan markets where the people exchanged their
superfluous produce for articles of which they were in need." But
Japanese history is silent on this subject.
About the be, however, a great deal is heard. It may be described as
a corporated association having for purpose the securing of
efficiency by specialization. Its members seem to have been at the
outset men who independently pursued some branch of industry. These
being ultimately formed into a guild, carried on the same pursuit
from generation to generation under a chief officially appointed.
"Potters, makers of stone coffins, of shields, of arrows, of swords,
of mirrors, saddlers, painters, weavers, seamstresses, local
recorders, scribes, farmers, fleshers, horse-keepers, bird-feeders,
the mibu who provided wet-nurses for Imperial princes, palace
attendants, and reciters (katari) were organized into be under
special chiefs who were probably responsible for their efficient
services. It would appear, however, that 'chief of be' was sometimes
a title bestowed for exceptional service and that it was occasionally
posthumous."*
*Munro.
Be were also organized for the purpose of commemorating a name quite
irrespective of industrial pursuits. "The religious be were for
general or special purposes. For instance, there was a be of
sun-worshippers, while the Imibe, a body of abstainers, were obliged
to avoid ritual contamination or impurity. They carried out a
technique of spiritual aseptics, both in their persons and through
the utensils which they employed, much as a modern surgeon guards
against infection of his patient. Thus they were prepared to perform
sacred functions."*
*Munro.
NAVIGATION AND FISHING
No information is obtainable as to the nature of the boats used in
very early times, but it may reasonably be inferred that the Yamato
and other immigrant races possessed craft of some capacity. Several
names of boats are incidentally mentioned. They evidently refer to
the speed of the craft--as bird-boat (tori-fune), pigeon-boat
(hato-fune)--or to the material employed, as "rock-camphor boat"
(iwa-kusu-bune). "The presence of neolithic remains on the islands
around Japan proves that the boats of the primitive people were large
enough to traverse fifty miles, or more, of open sea."* Only one
distinct reference to sailing occurs, however, in the ancient annals.
On the occasion of the alleged expedition to Korea (A.D. 200) under
the Empress Jingo, the Chronicles say, "Sail was set from the harbour
of Wani." At a date nearly three centuries earlier, there appears to
have been a marked deficiency of coasting vessels, for the Chronicles
quote an Imperial decree issued B.C. 81, which says: "Ships are of
cardinal importance to the Empire. At present the people of the
coast, not having ships, suffer grievously by land transport.
Therefore let every province be caused to have ships built;"* and it
is related that, a few months later, the building of ships was begun.
Again, in A.D. 274, a vessel (the Karano) one hundred feet in length,
was constructed in the province of Izu, and twenty-six years later,
according to the Chronicles, the Emperor issued this order: "The
Government ship named Karano was sent as tribute by the Lord of Izu.
It is rotten and unfit for use. It has, however, been in the
Government use for a long time, and its services should not be
forgotten. Shall we not keep the name of that ship from being lost
and hand it down to after ages?" The Karano was then broken and her
timbers being employed as firewood for roasting salt, the latter was
given to the various provinces, which, in return, were caused to
build ships for the State, the result being a fleet of five hundred
vessels.
*Aston's Nihongi.
It would seem that there was always an abundance of fishing-boats,
for fishing by traps, hooks, and nets was industriously carried on. A
passage in the Records speaks of a thousand-fathom rope of
paper-mulberry which was used to draw the net in perch fishing.
Spearing was also practised by fishermen, and in the rivers
cormorants were used just as they are to-day.
MARRIAGE
It does not appear that the marriage tie possessed any grave
significance in ancient Japan, or that any wedding ceremony was
performed; unless, indeed, the three circuits made by Izanagi and
Izanami prior to cohabitation round a "heavenly august pillar" be
interpreted as the circumambulatory rite observed in certain
primitive societies. Pouring water over a bride seems, however, to
have been practised and is still customary in some provinces, though
as to its antiquity nothing can be said. An exchange of presents is
the only fact made clear by the annals. There did not exist in Japan,
as in China, a veto on marriages between people of the same tribe,
but this difference does not signify any reproach to Japan: the
interdict was purely political in China's case, and corresponding
conditions did not exist in Japan.
On the other hand, the Japanese system permitted a degree of licence
which in the Occident is called incest: brothers and sisters might
intermarry provided that they had not been brought up together. To
understand this condition it is necessary to observe that a bride
generally continued to live in her family dwelling where she received
her husband's visits, and since there was nothing to prevent a
husband from contracting many such alliances, it was possible for him
to have several groups of children, the members of each group being
altogether unknown to the members of all the rest. In a later, but
not definitely ascertained era, it became customary for a husband to
take his wife to his own home, and thereafter the veto upon such
unions soon became imperative, so that a Prince Imperial in the fifth
century who cohabited with his sister forfeited the succession and
had to commit suicide, his conduct being described in the Chronicles
as "a barbarous outrage."
In all eras sisters might marry the same man, and polygamy was
common. A Chinese book, compiled in the early years of the Christian
epoch, speaks of women being so numerous in Japan that nobles had
four or five wives and commoners two or three. Of course, the reason
assigned for this custom is incorrect: not plenitude of females but
desire of abundant progeny was primarily the cause. It is notable
that although the line between nobles and commoners was strictly
drawn and rigidly observed, it did not extend to marriage in one
sense: a nobleman could always take a wife or a concubine from the
family of an inferior. In fact, orders were commonly issued to this
or that province to furnish so many ladies-in-waiting (uneme)--a term
having deeper significance than it suggests--and several instances
are recorded of sovereigns summoning to court girls famed for beauty.
That no distinction was made between wives and concubines has been
alleged, but is not confirmed by the annals. Differentiation by rank
appears to have been always practised, and the offspring was
certainly thus distinguished.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION
A child in ancient Japan was born under considerable difficulties:
its mother had to segregate herself in a parturition hut (ubuya),
whence even light was excluded and where she was cut off from all
attendance. This strange custom was an outcome of the Shinto canon of
purity. Soon after birth, a child received from its mother a name
generally containing some appropriate personal reference. In the
most ancient times each person (so far as we can judge) bore one
name, or rather one string of words compounded together into a sort
of personal designation. But already at the dawn of the historical
epoch we are met by the mention of surnames and of "gentile names
bestowed by the sovereign as a recompense for some noteworthy deed."*
These names constantly occur. The principal of them are suzerain
(atae), departmental suzerain (agata-no-atae), departmental lord
(agata-no-nushi), Court noble (ason), territorial lord (inaki), lord
(iratsuko), lady (iratsume), duke (kimi), ruler (miyatsuko), chief
(muraji), grandee (omi), noble (sukune), and lord (wake). In the case
of the Emperors there are also canonical names, which were applied at
a comparatively late date in imitation of Chinese usages, and which
may be said to have completely replaced the names borne during life.
Thus, the Emperor known to posterity as Jimmu was called Iware in
life, the Emperor named Homuda while he sat on the throne is now
designated Ojin, and the Emperor who ruled as Osazaki is remembered
as Nintoku. In the Imperial family, and doubtless in the households
of the nobility, wet-nurses were employed, if necessary, as also were
bathing-women, washing-women, and rice-chewers.**
*B.H. Chamberlain.
**"Rice, which is mainly carbohydrate, is transformed into grape-sugar
by the action of the saliva. This practice is still common in China
and used to be so in Japan where it is now rarely met with. It was
employed only until dentition was complete." (Munro.)
"To what we should call education, whether mental or physical, there
is absolutely no reference made in the histories. All that can be
inferred is that, when old enough to do so; the boys began to follow
one of the callings of hunter or fisherman, while the girls stayed at
home weaving the garments of the family. There was a great deal of
fighting, generally of a treacherous kind, in the intervals of which
the warriors occupied themselves in cultivating patches of ground."*
*B.H. Chamberlain.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Burial rites were important ceremonials. The house hitherto tenanted
by the deceased was abandoned--a custom exemplified in the removal of
the capital to a new site at the commencement of each reign--and the
body was transferred to a specially erected mourning-hut draped
inside with fine, white cloth. The relatives and friends then
assembled, and for several days performed a ceremony which resembled
an Irish wake, food and sake being offered to the spirit of the dead,
prayers put up, and the intervals devoted to weird singing and solemn
dancing. Wooden coffins appear to have been used until the beginning
of the Christian era, when stone is said to have come into vogue.
At the obsequies of nobles there was considerable organization. Men
(mike-hito) were duly told off to take charge of the offerings of
food and liquor; others (kisari-mochi) were appointed to carry the
viands; others (hahaki-mochi) carried brooms to sweep the cemetery;
there were females (usu-me) who pounded rice, and females (naki-me)
who sung dirges interspersed with eulogies of the deceased. The
Records mention that at the burial of Prince Waka a number of birds
were used instead of these female threnodists. It appears, further,
that those following a funeral walked round the coffin waving
blue-and-red banners, carrying lighted torches, and playing music.
In the sepulchres the arms, utensils, and ornaments used daily by the
deceased were interred, and it was customary to bury alive around the
tombs of Imperial personages and great nobles a number of the
deceased's principal retainers. The latter inhuman habit was
nominally abandoned at the close of the last century before Christ,
images of baked clay being substituted for human sacrifices, but the
spirit which informed the habit survived, and even down to modern
times there were instances of men and women committing suicide for
the purpose of rejoining the deceased beyond the grave. As to the
nature of the tombs raised over the dead, the main facts have been
stated in Chapter VI.
TEETH BLACKENING AND FACE PAINTING
The habit of blackening the teeth has long prevailed among married
women in Japan, but the Yamato tombs have thus far furnished only one
example of the practice, and no mention occurs in the ancient annals.
Face painting, however, would seem to have been indulged in by both
sexes. Several of the pottery images (haniwa) taken from the tombs
indicate that red pigment was freely and invariably used for that
purpose. It was applied in broad streaks or large patches, the former
encircling the face or forming bands across it; the latter, covering
the eyes or triangulating the cheeks. It is probable that this
bizarre decoration was used only on ceremonial occasions and that it
appears in a greatly accentuated form on the haniwa.
AMUSEMENTS
As to amusements in prehistoric times little information is
furnished. Hunting the boar and the stag was the principal pastime,
and hawking is described as having been practised in the fourth
century of the Christian era. Music and dancing seem to have been in
vogue from time immemorial, but there is nothing to tell what kind of
musical instruments were in the hands of the early Yamato. The koto,
a kind of horizontal lute, and the flute are spoken of in the
Chronicles, but the date of their introduction is not indicated.
Wrestling, cockfighting (with metal spurs), picnics, a kind of
drafts, gambling with dice, and football are all referred to, and
were probably indulged in from a very early date.
SLAVERY
The institution of slavery existed among the Yamato. It will be
presently spoken of.
POSITION OF WOMEN
There is evidence to show that in the prehistoric age a high position
was accorded to women and that their rights received large
recognition. The facts that the first place in the Japanese pantheon
was assigned to a goddess; that the throne was frequently occupied by
Empresses; that females were chiefs of tribes and led armies on
campaign; that jealous wives turned their backs upon faithless
husbands; that mothers chose names for their children and often had
complete charge of their upbringing--all these things go to show that
the self-effacing rank taken by Japanese women in later ages was a
radical departure from the original canon of society. It is not to be
inferred, however, that fidelity to the nuptial tie imposed any check
on extra-marital relations in the case of men: it had no such effect.
ENGRAVING: "IKEBANA" FLOWER ARRANGEMENT
ENGRAVING: ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU IN UNEBI-YAMA
CHAPTER IX
THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS
JIMMU
IT is held by eminent Japanese historians that the Emperor Jimmu,
when he set out for Yamato, did not contemplate an armed campaign but
merely intended to change his capital from the extreme south to the
centre of the country. This theory is based on the words of the
address he made to his elder brothers and his sons when inviting them
to accompany him on the expedition "Why should we not proceed to
Yamato and make it the capital?"--and on the fact that, on arriving
in the Kibi district, namely, the region now divided into the three
provinces of Bizen, Bitchu, and Bingo, he made a stay of three years
for the purpose of amassing an army and provisioning it, the
perception that he would have to fight having been realized for the
first time. Subsequently he encountered strongest resistance at the
hands of Prince Nagasune, whose title of Hiko (Child of the Sun)
showed that he belonged to the Yamato race, and who exercised
military control under the authority of Nigihayahi, elder brother of
Jimmu's father. This Nigihayahi had been despatched from the
continental realm of the Yamato--wherever that may have been--at a
date prior to the despatch of his younger brother, Ninigi, for the
purpose of subjugating the "land of fair rice-ears and fertile reed
plains," but of the incidents of his expedition history takes no
notice: it merely shows him as ruling in Yamato at the time of
Jimmu's arrival there, and describes how Nigihayahi, having been
convinced by a comparison of weapons of war that Jimmu was of his own
lineage, surrendered the authority to him and caused, Prince Nagasune
to be put to death.
From a chronological point of view it is difficult to imagine the
co-existence of Jimmu and his great-granduncle, but the story may
perhaps be accepted in so far as it confirms the tradition that, in
prosecuting his Yamato campaign, Jimmu received the submission of
several chieftains (Kami) belonging to the same race as himself.
Reference to these facts is essential to an understanding of the
class distinctions found in the Japanese social system. All the
chieftains who led the expedition from Kyushu were subsequently
designated Tenshin--a term which may be conveniently rendered "Kami
of the descent"--and all those who, like Nigihayahi, had previously
been in occupation of the country, were styled kum-tsu-Kami,
or "territorial Kami." Another method of distinguishing was
to include the former in the Kwobetsu and the latter in the
Shimbetsu--distinctions which will be more fully explained
hereafter--and after apotheosis the members of these two classes
became respectively "deities of heaven" and "deities of earth," a
distinction possessing historical rather than qualificatory force.
As for subdivisions, the head of a Kwobetsu family had the title of
omi (grandee) and the head of a Shimbetsu family that of muraji
(chief). Thus, the organization of the State depended primarily on
the principle of ancestor worship. The sceptre descended by divine
right without any regard to its holder's competence, while the
administrative posts were filled by men of the same race with a
similar hereditary title. Aliens like the Yezo, the Tsuchi-gumo, and
the Kumaso were either exterminated or made slaves (nuhi).
THE TERM "YAMATO"
As to the term "Yamato," it appears that, in the earliest times, the
whole country now called Japan was known as Yamato, and that
subsequently the designation became restricted to the province which
became the seat of government. The Chinese, when they first took
cognizance of the islands lying on their east, seem to have applied
the name Wado--pronounced "Yamato" by the Japanese--to the tribes
inhabiting the western shores of Japan, namely, the Kumaso or the
Tsuchi-gumo, and in writing the word they used ideographs conveying a
sense of contempt. The Japanese, not unnaturally, changed these
ideographs to others having the same sounds but signifying "great
peace." At a later time the Chinese or the Koreans began to designate
these eastern islands, Jih-pen, or "Sunrise Island," a term which, in
the fifteenth century, was perverted by the Dutch into Japan.
THE FIRST NINE EMPERORS
In attempting to construct coherent annals out of the somewhat
fragmentary Japanese histories of remote ages, the student is
immediately confronted by chronological difficulties. Apart from the
broad fact that the average age of the first seventeen Emperors from
Jimmu downwards is 109 years, while the average age of the next
seventeen is only sixty-one and a half years, there are
irreconcilable discrepancies in some of the dates themselves. Thus,
according to the Records, the eighth Emperor, Kogen, died at
fifty-seven, but according to the Chronicles he ascended the throne
at fifty-nine and reigned fifty-six years. Again, whereas the ninth
sovereign, Kaikwa, is by the Records given a life of only sixty-three
years, the Chronicles make him assume the sceptre at fifty-one and
wield it for fifty-nine years. Such conflicts of evidence are fatal
to confidence. Nor do they disappear wholly until the beginning of
the fifth century, at which time, moreover, the incidents of Japanese
history receive their first confirmation from the history of China
and Korea.
It is therefore not extravagant to conclude that the first ten and a
half centuries covered by Japanese annals must be regarded as
prehistoric. On the other hand, the incidents attributed to this long
interval are not by any means of such a nature as to suggest
deliberate fabrication. An annalist who was also a courtier, applying
himself to construct the story of his sovereign's ancestors, would
naturally be disposed to embellish his pages with narratives of great
exploits and brilliant achievements. Neither the Records nor the
Chronicles can be said to display such a propensity in any marked
degree. The Chronicles do, indeed, draw upon the resources of Chinese
history to construct ethical codes and scholarly diction for their
Imperial figures, but the Records show no traces of adventitious
colour nor make an attempt to minimize the evil and magnify the good.
Thus, while it is evident that to consolidate Jimmu's conquest and to
establish order among the heterogeneous elements of his empire he
must have been followed by rulers of character and prowess, the
annals show nothing of the kind. On the contrary, the reigns of his
eight immediate successors are barren of all striking incident. The
closing chapter of Jimmu himself is devoted chiefly to his amours,
and the opening page in the life of his immediate successor, Suisei,
shows that the latter reached the throne by assassinating his elder
brother. For the rest, the annals of the eight sovereigns who reigned
during the interval between 561 and 98 B.C. recount mainly the
polygamous habits of these rulers and give long genealogies of the
noble families founded by their offspring--a dearth of romance which
bears strong witness to the self-restraint of the compilers. We learn
incidentally that on his accession each sovereign changed the site of
his palace, seldom passing, however, beyond the limits of the
province of Yamato, and we learn, also, that the principle of
primogeniture, though generally observed, was often violated.
HSU FUH
A Japanese tradition assigns to the seventy-second year of the reign
of Korei the advent of a Chinese Taoist, by name Hsu Fuh. Korei,
seventh in descent from Jimmu, held the sceptre from 290 to 215 B.C.,
and the seventy-second year of his reign fell, therefore, in 219 B.C.
Now, to the east of the town of Shingu in Kii province, at a place on
the seashore in the vicinity of the site of an ancient castle, there
stands a tomb bearing the inscription "Grave of Hsu Fuh from China,"
and near it are seven tumuli said to be the burial-places of Hsu's
companions. Chinese history states that Hsu Fuh was a learned man who
served the first Emperor of the Chin dynasty (255-206 B.C.), and that
he obtained his sovereign's permission to sail to the islands of the
east in search of the elixir of life. Setting out from Yentai (the
present Chefoo) in his native province of Shantung, Hsu landed at
Kumano in the Kii promontory, and failing to find the elixir,
preferred to pass his life in Japan rather than to return
unsuccessful to the Court of the tyranical Chin sovereign, burner of
the books and builder of the Great Wall. A poem composed in the Sung
dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) says that when Hsu Fuh set out, the books had
not been burned, and that a hundred volumes thus survived in his
keeping. Of course, the date assigned by Japanese tradition to the
coming of Hsu may have been adapted to Chinese history, and it
therefore furnishes no evidence as to the accuracy of the Chronicles'
chronology. But the existence of the tomb may be regarded as proving
that some communication took place between China and Japan at that
remote epoch.*
*The route taken by Hsu Fuh namely, from Chefoo down the China Sea
and round the south of Japan is difficult to understand.
THE TENTH EMPEROR, SUJIN
The reign of this sovereign (97-30 B.C.) is the first eventful period
since the death of Jimmu. It is memorable for the reorganization of
religious rites; for the extension of the effective sway of the
Throne, and for the encouragement of agriculture. When the first
Emperor installed the sacred insignia in the palace where he himself
dwelt, the instinct of filial piety and the principle of ancestor
worship were scarcely distinguishable. But as time passed and as the
age of the Kami became more remote, a feeling of awe began to pervade
the rites more strongly than a sense of family affection, and the
idea of residing and worshipping in the same place assumed a
character of sacrilege. This may have been directly suggested by a
pestilence which, decimating the nation, was interpreted as implying
the need of greater purity. A replica of the sacred mirror was
manufactured, and the grandson of the great worker in metal
Mahitotsu, the "One-eyed" was ordered to forge an imitation of the
sacred sword. These imitations, together with the sacred jewel, were
kept in the palace, but the originals were transferred to Kasanui in
Yamato, where a shrine for the worship of the Sun goddess had been
built. But though the pestilence was stayed, it brought an aftermath
of lawlessness and produced much unrest in the regions remote from
Yamato. Sujin therefore organized a great military movement, the
campaign of the Shido shogun, or "Generalissimo of the four
Circuits."*
*The term "do" indicates a group of provinces.
The leaders chosen for this task were all members of the Imperial
family--a great-uncle, an uncle, a younger brother, and a first
cousin of the Emperor--and the fields of operation assigned to them
were: first, to the west along the northern shore of the Inland Sea;
secondly, to the northwest into Tamba, Tango, and Tajima; thirdly, to
the north along the sea of Japan, and finally to the east along the
route now known as the Tokaido. No attempt is made by the writers of
either the Records or the Chronicles to describe the preparations for
this extensive campaign. Tradition seems to have preserved the bare
fact only.
One interesting interlude is described, however. Before the first
body of troops had passed beyond range of easy communication with
Mizugaki in Yamato, where the Court resided, the prince in command
heard a girl singing by the wayside, and the burden of her song
seemed to imply that, while foes at home menaced the capital, foes
abroad should not be attacked. The prince, halting his forces,
returned to Mizugaki to take counsel, and the Emperor's aunt
interpreted the song to signify that his Majesty's half-brother,
Haniyasu, who governed the adjacent province of Yamato, was plotting
treason. Then all the troops having been recalled, preparations to
guard the capital were made, and soon afterwards, news came that
Haniyasu, at the head of an army, was advancing from the direction of
Yamashiro, while his wife, Ata, was leading another force from Osaka,
the plan being to unite the two armies for the attack on Yamato. The
Emperor's generals at once assumed the offensive. They moved first
against Princess Ata, killed her and exterminated her forces; after
which they dealt similarly with Haniyasu. This chapter of history
illustrates the important part taken by women in affairs of State at
that epoch, and incidentally confirms the fact that armour was worn
by men in battle.
The four Imperial generals were now able to resume their temporarily
interrupted campaigns. According to the Chronicles they completed the
tasks assigned to them and returned to the capital within six months.
But such chronology cannot be reconciled with facts. For it is
related that the generals sent northward by the western seaboard and
the eastern seaboard, respectively, came together at Aizu,* one
reaching that place via Hitachi, the other via Echigo. Thus, it would
result that Yamato armies at that remote epoch marched hundreds of
miles through country in the face of an enemy within a few months.
Further, to bring the aboriginal tribes into subjugation, an isolated
campaign would have been quite inadequate. Some kind of permanent
control was essential, and there is collateral evidence that the
descendants of the four princely generals, during many generations,
occupied the position of provincial magnates and exercised virtually
despotic sway within the localities under their jurisdiction. Thus in
the provinces of Omi, of Suruga, of Mutsu, of Iwashiro, of Iwaki, of
Echigo, of Etchu, of Echizen, of Bizen, of Bitchu, of Bingo, of
Harima, of Tamba, and elsewhere, there are found in later ages noble
families all tracing their descent to one or another of the Shido
shoguns despatched on the task of pacifying the country in the days
of the Emperor Sujin. The genealogies which fill pages of the Records
from the days of Jimmu downwards point clearly to the growth of a
powerful feudal aristocracy, for the younger sons born to successive
sovereigns bear, for the most part, names indicative of territorial
lordship; but it seems justifiable to conclude that the first great
impetus to that kind of decentralization was given by Sujin's
despatch of the Shido shoguns.
*Hence the term "Aizu," form, signifies "to meet."
AGRICULTURE AND TAXATION
The digging of reservoirs and tunnels for irrigating rice-fields
received unprecedented attention in the reign of this Emperor, and
mention is for the first time made of taxes--tributes of "bow-notches
and of finger-tips," in other words, the produce of the chase and the
products of the loom. A census was taken for taxation purposes, but
unhappily the results are nowhere recorded. The Court gave itself
some concern about maritime transport also. A rescript ordered that
ships should be built by every province, but nothing is stated as to
their dimensions or nature. In this rescript it is mentioned that
"the people of the coast not having ships, suffer grievously by land
transport." What they suffered may be inferred from a description in
the Chronicles where we read that at the building of the tomb of a
princess, "the people, standing close to each other, passed the
stones from hand to hand, and thus transported them from Osaka to
Yamato."
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
Korea, when Japanese history is first explicitly concerned with it,
was peopled by a number of semi-independent tribes, and the part of
the peninsula lying southward of the Han River--that is to say,
southward of the present Seoul--comprised three kingdoms. Of these
Ma-Han occupied the whole of the western half of the peninsula along
the coast of the Yellow Sea; while Sin-Han and Pyong-Han formed the
eastern half, lying along the shore of the Sea of Japan. The three
were collectively spoken of as Sam-Han (the three Han). But Japan's
relations with the peninsula did not always involve these major
divisions. Her annals speak of Shiragi (or Sinra), Kara, Kudara, and
Koma. Shiragi and Kara were principalities carved respectively out of
the southeast and south of Pyong-Han. Thus, they lay nearest to
Japan, the Korea Strait alone intervening, and the Korea Strait was
almost bridged by islands. Kudara constituted the modern Seoul and
its vicinity; Koma, (called also Korai and in Korea, Kokuli), the
modern Pyong-yang and its district. These two places were rendered
specially accessible by the rivers Han and Tadong which flowed
through them to the Yellow Sea; but of course in this respect they
could not compare with Shiragi (Sinra) and Kara, of which latter
place the Japanese usually spoke as Mimana.
There can scarcely be any doubt that the Korean peninsula was largely
permeated with Chinese influences from a very early date, but the
processes which produced that result need not be detailed here. It
has been also shown above that, in the era prior to Jimmu,
indications are found of intercourse between Japan and Korea, and
even that Susanoo and his son held sway in Shiragi. But the first
direct reference made by Japanese annals to Korea occurs in the reign
of Sujin, 33 B.C. when an envoy from Kara arrived at the Mizugaki
Court, praying that a Japanese general might be sent to compose a
quarrel which had long raged between Kara and Shiragi, and to take
the former under Japan's protection. It appears that this envoy had
travelled by a very circuitous route. He originally made the port of
Anato (modern Nagato), but Prince Itsutsu, who ruled there, claimed
to be the sole monarch of Japan and refused to allow the envoy to
proceed, so that the latter had to travel north and enter Japan via
Kehi-no-ura (now Tsuruga.)
Incidentally this narrative corroborates a statement made in Chinese
history (compiled in the Later Han era, A.D. 25-220) to the effect
that many Japanese provinces claimed to be under hereditary rulers
who exercised sovereign rights. Such, doubtless, was the attitude
assumed by several of the Imperial descendants who had obtained
provincial estates. The Emperor Sujin received the envoy courteously
and seemed disposed to grant his request, but his Majesty's death (30
B.C.) intervened, and not until two years later was the envoy able to
return. His mission had proved abortive, but the Emperor Suinin,
Sujin's successor, gave him some red-silk fabrics to carry home and
conferred on his country the name Mimana, in memory of Sujin, whose
appellation during life had been Mimaki.
These details furnish an index to the relations that existed in that
era between the neighbouring states of the Far East. The special
interest of the incident lies, however, in the fact that it furnishes
the first opportunity of comparing Japanese history with Korean. The
latter has two claims to credence. The first is that it assigns no
incredible ages to the sovereigns whose reigns it records. According
to Japanese annals there were only seven accessions to the throne of
Yamato during the first four centuries of the Christian era.
According to Korean annals, the three peninsular principalities had
sixteen, seventeen, and sixteen accessions, respectively, in the same
interval. The second claim is that, during the same four centuries,
the histories of China and Korea agree in ten dates and differ in two
only.* On the whole, therefore, Korean annals deserve to be credited.
But whereas Japanese history represents warfare as existing between
Kara and Shiragi in 33 B.C., Korean history represents the conflict
as having broken out in A.D. 77. There is a difference of just 110
years, and the strong probability of accuracy is on the Korean side.
*For a masterly analysis of this subject see a paper on Early
Japanese History by Mr. W. G. Aston in Vol. XVI of the "Translations
of the Asiatic Society of Japan."
THE ELEVENTH SOVEREIGN, SUININ (29 B.C.--A.D. 70)
Suinin, second son of his predecessor, obtained the throne by a
process which frankly ignored the principle of primogeniture. For
Sujin, having an equal affection for his two sons, confessed himself
unable to choose which of them should be his successor and was
therefore guided by a comparison of their dreams, the result being
that the younger was declared Prince Imperial, and the elder became
duke of the provinces of Kamitsuke (now Kotsuke) and Shimotsuke.
Suinin, like all the monarchs of that age, had many consorts: nine
are catalogued in the Records and their offspring numbered sixteen,
many of whom received local titles and had estates conferred in the
provinces. In fact, this process of ramifying the Imperial family
went on continuously from reign to reign.
There are in the story of this sovereign some very pathetic elements.
Prince Saho, elder brother of the Empress, plotted to usurp the
throne. Having cajoled his sister into an admission that her brother
was dearer than her husband, he bade her prove it by killing the
Emperor in his sleep. But when an opportunity offered to perpetrate
the deed as the sovereign lay sleeping with her knees as pillow, her
heart melted, and her tears, falling on the Emperor's face, disturbed
his slumber. He sought the cause of her distress, and learning it,
sent a force to seize the rebel. Remorse drove the Empress to die
with Prince Saho. Carrying her little son, she entered the fort where
her brother with his followers had taken refuge. The Imperial troops
set fire to the fort--which is described as having been built with
rice-bags piled up--and the Empress emerged with the child in her
arms; but having thus provided for its safety, she fled again to the
fort and perished with her brother. This terrible scene appears to
have given the child such a shock that he lost the use of speech, and
the Records devote large space to describing the means employed for
the amusement of the child, the long chase and final capture of a
swan whose cry, as it flew overhead, had first moved the youth to
speech, and the cure ultimately effected by building a shrine for the
worship of the deity of Izumo, who, in a previous age, had been
compelled to abdicate the sovereignty of the country in favour of a
later descendant of the Sun goddess, and whose resentment was
thereafter often responsible for calamities overtaking the Court or
the people of Japan.
THE ISE SHRINE AND THE PRACTICE OF JUNSHI
Two events specially memorable in this reign were the transfer of the
shrine of the Sun goddess to Ise, where it has remained ever since,
and the abolition of the custom of junshi, or following in death. The
latter shocking usage, a common rite of animistic religion, was in
part voluntary, in part compulsory. In its latter aspect it came
vividly under the notice of the Emperor Suinin when the tomb of his
younger brother, Yamato, having been built within earshot of the
palace, the cries of his personal attendants, buried alive around his
grave, were heard, day and night, until death brought silence. In the
following year (A.D. 3), the Empress having died, a courtier,
Nomi-no-Sukune, advised the substitution of clay figures for the
victims hitherto sacrificed. Nominally, the practice of compulsory
junshi ceased from that date,* but voluntary junshi continued to find
occasional observance until modern times.
*Of course it is to be remembered that the dates given by Japanese
historians prior to the fifth century A.D. are very apocryphal.
WRESTLING
The name of Nomi-no-Sukune is associated with the first mention of
wrestling in Japanese history. By the Chronicles a brief account is
given of a match between Nomi and Taema-no-Kuehaya. The latter was
represented to be so strong that he could break horns and straighten
hooks. His frequently expressed desire was to find a worthy
competitor. Nomi-no-Sukune, summoned from Izumo by the Emperor, met
Kuehaya in the lists of the palace of Tamaki and kicked him to death.
Wrestling thereafter became a national pastime, but its methods
underwent radical change, kicking being abolished altogether.
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
It is believed by Japanese historians that during the reign of Suinin
a local government station (chinju-fu) was established in Anra
province of Mimana, and that this station, subsequently known as
Nippon-fu, was transferred to Tsukushi (Kyushu) and named Dazai-fu
when Japan's influence in Mimana waned. The first general (shoguri)
of the chinju-fu was Prince Shihotari, and the term kishi--which in
Korea signified headman--was thenceforth incorporated into his family
name. To the members of that family in later generations was
entrusted the conduct of the Empire's foreign affairs. But it does
not appear that the Imperial Court in Yamato paid much attention to
oversea countries in early eras. Intercourse with these was
conducted, for the most part, by the local magnates who held sway in
the western regions of Japan.
It was during the reign of Suinin, if Japanese chronology be
accepted, that notices of Japan began to appear in Chinese history--a
history which justly claims to be reliable from 145 B.C. Under the
Later Han dynasty (A.D. 25-220), great progress was made in
literature and art by the people of the Middle Kingdom, and this
progress naturally extended, not only to Korea, which had been
conquered by the Chinese sovereign, Wu-Ti, in the second century
before Christ and was still partly under the rule of Chinese
governors, but also to the maritime regions of Japan, whence the
shores of Korea were almost within sight. China in those ages was
incomparably the greatest and most enlightened country in the Orient,
and it had become the custom with adjacent States to send emissaries
to her Court, bearing gifts which she handsomely requited; so that
while, from one point of view, the envoys might be regarded as
tribute-carriers, from another, the ceremony presented the character
of a mere interchange of neighbourly civilities. In Japan, again,
administrative centralization was still imperfect. Some of the local
magnates had not yet been brought fully under the sway of the Yamato
invaders, and some, as scions of the Imperial family, arrogated a
considerable measure of independence. Thus it resulted that several
of these provincial dukes--or "kings," as not a few of them were
called--maintained relations with Korea, and through her despatched
tribute missions to the Chinese Court from time to time.
In these circumstances it is not surprising to find the Chinese
historians of the first century A.D. writing: "The Wa (Japanese)
dwell southeast of Han* (Korea) on a mountainous island in midocean.
Their country is divided into more than one hundred provinces. Since
the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew Korea, they (the
Japanese) have communicated with the Han (Korean) authorities by
means of a postal service. There are thirty-two provinces which do
so, all of which style their rulers 'kings' who are hereditary. The
sovereign of Great Wa resides in Yamato, distant 12,000 li (4000
miles) from the frontier of the province of Yolang (the modern
Pyong-yang in Korea). In the second year of Chung-yuan (A.D. 57), in
the reign of Kwang-wu, the Ito** country sent an envoy with tribute,
who styled himself Ta-fu. He came from the most western part of the
Wa country. Kwang-wu presented him with a seal and ribbon." [Aston's
translation.]
*It is necessary to distinguish carefully between the Han dynasty of
China and the term "Han" as a designation of Korea.
**The ideographs composing this word were pronounced "I-to" at the
time when they were written by the Hou-Han historians, but they
subsequently received the sound of "Wo-nu" or "wa-do."
These passages have provoked much discussion, but Japanese annalists
are for the most part agreed that "Ito" should be read "I-no-na,"
which corresponds with the ancient Na-no-Agata, the present Naka-gori
in Chikuzen, an identification consistent with etymology and
supported by the fact that, in 1764, a gold seal supposed to be the
original of the one mentioned above, was dug out of the ground in
that region. In short, Na-no-Agata is identical with the ancient
Watazumi-no-Kuni, which was one of the countries of Japan's
intercourse. Further, the Yamato of the Hou-Han historians is not to
be regarded as the province of that name in central Japan, but as one
of the western districts, whether Yamato in Higo, or Yamato in
Chikugo. It has been shrewdly suggested* that the example of Korea
had much influence in inducing the local rulers in the western and
southern provinces to obtain the Chinese Court's recognition of their
administrative status, but, whatever may have been the dominant
motive, it seems certain that frequent intercourse took place between
Japan and China via Korea immediately before and after the beginning
of the Christian era. Again, that Koreans came freely to Japan and
settled there is attested by the case of a son of the King of Shiragi
who, coming to the Tajima region, took a Japanese wife and
established himself there, founding a distinguished family. The
closing episode of the Emperor Suinin's life was the despatch of
Tajima Mori, this immigrant's descendant, to the country of Tokoyo,
nominally for the purpose of obtaining orange-seeds, but probably
with the ulterior motive of exploration.
*By Dr. Ariga, an eminent Japanese authority.
The reader is already familiar with this Tokoyo-no-Kuni (Eternal
Land). We hear of it first as the home of "long-singing birds"
summoned to take part in enticing the Sun goddess from her cave. Then
it figures as the final retreat of Sukuna-hikona, the Aescalapius of
the mythological age. Then we find one of Jimmu's elder brothers
treading on the waves to reach it. Then we hear of it as the
birthplace of the billows that make Ise their bourne, and now it is
described by Tajima Mori in his death-song as the "mysterious realm
of gods and genii," so distant that ten years were needed to reach it
and return. It appears in fact to have been an epithet for China in
general, and the destination of Tajima Mori is believed to have been
Shantung, to reach which place by sea from Japan was a great feat of
navigation in those primitive days. Tajima Mori returned to find the
Emperor dead, and in despair he committed suicide.
AGRICULTURE AND ADMINISTRATION
The reclamation of land for purposes of rice cultivation went on
vigorously during Suinin's reign. More than eight hundred ponds and
aqueducts are said to have been constructed by order of the sovereign
for irrigation uses throughout the provinces. It would seem, too,
that the practice of formally consulting Court officials about
administrative problems had its origin at this time. No definite
organization for the purpose was yet created, but it became customary
to convene distinguished scions of the Imperial line and heads of
great subject-families to discuss and report upon affairs of State.
Another innovation referred to in this era was the offering of
weapons of war at the shrines. We read of as many as a thousand
swords being forged to form part of the sacred treasures at the
shrine of Ise-no-Kami, and the occasion was seized to organize a
number of hereditary corporations (be) of arm-makers and armourers.
These were placed under the control of Prince Inishiki, another of
the captains of the Imperial life-guards (mononobe-no-Obito). It is
thus evident that something more than a religious rite was involved
in these measures.
THE TWELFTH EMPEROR, KEIKO (A.D. 71--130)
According to the Records, Keiko was ten feet two inches high, and his
shank measured four feet one inch. His nomination as Prince Imperial
was an even more arbitrary violation of the right of primogeniture
than the case of his predecessor had been, for he was chosen in
preference to his elder brother merely because, when the two youths
were casually questioned as to what they wished for, the elder said,
"a bow and arrows," and the younger, "the empire." The delusive
nature of the Nihongi's chronology in these prehistoric epochs is
exemplified in the annals of this sovereign, for he is represented as
having been in his eighty-third year when he ascended the throne,
yet, in the third year of his reign, he took a consort who bore him
thirteen children, and altogether his progeny numbered eighty sons
and daughters by seven wives. His plan of providing for these
numerous scions constituted the first systematization of a custom
which had been observed in a fitful manner by several of his
predecessors. They had given to their sons local titles and estates
but had not required them to leave the capital. Keiko, however,
appointed his sons, with three exceptions, to the position of
provincial or district viceroy, preserving their Imperial connexion
by calling them wake, or branch families. This subject will present
itself for further notice during the reign of Keiko's successor.
One of the most memorable events in this epoch was the Emperor's
military expedition in person to quell the rebellious Kumaso (q.v.)
in Kyushu. There had not been any instance of the sovereign taking
the field in person since Jimmu's time, and the importance attaching
to the insurrection is thus shown. Allowance has to be made, however,
for the fact that the territory held by these Kumaso in the south of
Kyushu was protected by a natural rampart of stupendous mountain
ranges which rendered military access arduous, and which, in after
ages, enabled a great feudatory to defy the Central Government for
centuries. In connexion with this expedition a noteworthy fact is
that female chieftains were found ruling in the provinces of Suwo and
Bingo. They were not aliens, but belonged to the Yamato race, and
their existence goes far to account for the appellation, "Queens'
Country," applied by Chinese historians to the only part of Japan
with which the people of the Middle Kingdom were familiar, namely,
Kyushu and the west-coast provinces. Keiko's reign is remarkable
chiefly for this expedition to the south, which involved a residence
of six years in Hyuga, and for the campaigns of one of the greatest
of Japan's heroes, Prince Yamato-dake. The military prowess of the
sovereign, the fighting genius of Yamato-dake, and the administrative
ability of Takenouchi-no-Sukune, the first "prime minister" mentioned
in Japanese history, combined to give signal eclat to the reign of
Keiko.
Arriving at this stage of the annals, we are able to perceive what an
influence was exercised on the fortunes of the country by its
topographical features. The southwestern sections of the islands are
comparatively accessible from the centre (Chogoku or Kinai), whether
by sea or by land, but the northeastern are guarded by mountain
chains which can be crossed only by arduous and easily defended
passes. It was, therefore, in these northeastern provinces that the
Yemishi maintained their independence until their strength was broken
by the splendid campaign of Yamato-dake; it was in these northeastern
provinces that the bushi, noblest product of Japanese civilization,
was nurtured; it was in the same provinces that the Taira family made
its brilliant debut, and it was by abandoning these provinces for the
sweets of Kyoto that the Taira fell; it was in the north-eastern
provinces that Minamoto Yoritomo, the father of military feudalism,
established himself, to be followed in succession by the Hojo, the
Ashikaga, and the Tokugawa, and it is in the northeastern provinces
that the Meiji Government has its seat of power.
We can not wonder, therefore, that modern historiographers have
devoted much labour to tracing the route followed by Yamato-dake's
troops and rationalizing the figurative or miraculous features of the
narratives told in the Kojiki and the Nihongi. It is enough to know,
however, that he overran the whole region stretching from the
provinces along the Eastern Sea as far as Iwaki; crossed westward
through Iwashiro to Echigo on the west coast, and turning southward,
made his way through Shinano and Mino to Owari, whence, suffering
from a wound caused by a poisoned arrow, he struggled on to Ise and
died there. This campaign seems to have occupied ten years, and
Yamato-dake was only thirty at the time of his death. He had marched
against the Kumaso in the south at the age of sixteen. The Chronicles
relate that when crossing the Usui Pass and looking down on the sea
where his loved consort had cast herself into the waves to quell
their fury, the great warrior sighed thrice and exclaimed, "My wife,
my wife, my wife!" (Ago, tsuma haya), whereafter the provinces east
of the mountain were designated Azuma.
It was imagined until quite recent times that the pass referred to
was the well-known Usui Toge on the Nakasendo road; but Dr. Kume has
shown that such a supposition is inconsistent with any rational
itinerary of Yamato-dake's march, and that the sea in question cannot
be seen from that defile. The pass mentioned in the Chronicles is
another of the same name not far from the Hakone region, and the term
"Azuma" "had always been used to designate the Eastern Provinces."
Throughout the Records and the Chronicles frequent instances occur of
attempts to derive place-names from appropriate legends, but probably
in many cases the legend was suggested by the name. In connexion with
Yamato-dake's career, a circumstance is recorded which indirectly
points to the absence of history at that period. In order to
immortalize the memory of the hero, hereditary corporations (be)
called after him were created. These Take-be gave their names to the
districts where they lived, in Ise, Izumo, Mimasaka, and Bizen.
FEMALE HOSTAGES
Another custom inaugurated by this sovereign was to require that the
rulers of provinces should send to the Yamato Court female hostages.
The first example of this practice took place on the occasion of an
Imperial visit to the regions overrun by Yamato-dake's forces. Each
of twelve kuni-yatsuko (provincial rulers) was required to send one
damsel for the purpose of serving in the culinary department of the
palace. They were called makura-ko (pillow-child) and they seem to
have been ultimately drafted into the ranks of the uneme
(ladies-in-waiting). Japanese historians hold that the makura-ko were
daughters of the local magnates by whom they were sent, though the
fact of that relationship is not clearly stated in either the Records
or the Chronicles.
TABE AND MIYAKE
In the annals of Suinin's reign brief reference is made to granaries
(miyake) erected by order of the Court. The number of these was
increased in Keiko's time, and it is further mentioned that a
hereditary corporation of rice-field cultivators (tabe) were
organized for service on the Imperial estates. The miyake were at
once storehouse and offices for administering agricultural affairs.
THE THIRTEENTH EMPEROR, SEIMU (A.D. 131--190)
The thirteenth Emperor, Seimu, occupied the throne for fifty-nine
years, according to the Chronicles, but the only noteworthy feature
of his reign was the organization of local government, and the
details of his system are so vaguely stated as to be incomprehensible
without much reference and some hypotheses. Speaking broadly, the
facts are these: Imperial princes who had distinguished themselves by
evidences of ability or courage were despatched to places of special
importance in the provinces, under the name of wake, a term conveying
the signification of "branch of the Imperial family." There is reason
to think that these appointments were designed to extend the prestige
of the Court rather than to facilitate the administration of
provincial affairs. The latter duty was entrusted to officials called
kuni-no-miyatsuko and agata-nushi, which may be translated
"provincial governor" and "district headman." The word miyatsuko
literally signifies "honourable (mi) servant (yatsuko or yakko)."
In the most ancient times all subjects were yakko, but subsequently
those holding office at Court were distinguished as omi (grandee).
Persons eligible for the post of provincial governor seem to have
been chosen from among men of merit, or Imperial princes, or chiefs
of aboriginal tribes. There was little exclusiveness in this respect.
The rate of expansion of the area under Imperial sway may be inferred
from the fact that whereas there were nine provinces (kuni) in
Jimmu's time, one was added by Kaikwa, eleven by Sujin, seven by
Keiko, and sixty-three by Seimu, making a total of ninety-one. Yet,
though by the time of the last named sovereign almost the whole of
the southern and central regions were included in the administrative
circle, the northern provinces, some of the western, and certain
regions in the south (Kyushu) were not yet fully wrested from the
Yemishi and the Kumaso. In subsequent reigns the rate of growth was
as follows: Chuai (A.D. 192-200), two provinces; Ojin (270-310),
twenty-one; Nintoku (313-399), seven; Hansho (406-411) and Inkyo
(412-453), one each; Yuryaku (457-459), three; Keitai (507-531), one;
and eight others at untraceable periods, the total being one hundred
thirty-five.
The agata was a division smaller than a province (kuni). It
corresponded to the modern kori or gun, and its nearest English
equivalent is "district." A distinction must be made, however,
between agata and mi-agata. The latter were Imperial domains whence
the Court derived its resources, and their dimensions varied greatly.
A smaller administrative district than the agata was the inagi.* This
we learn from a Chinese book--the Japanese annals being silent on the
subject--consisted of eighty houses, and ten inagi constituted a
kuni. The terra inagi was also applied to the chief local official of
the region, who may be designated "Mayor."
*Supposed to be derived from ine (rice) and oki (store).
THE FOURTEENTH EMPEROR, CHUAI (A.D. 192--200) AND THE EMPRESS JINGO
(A.D. 201--269)
Were the Records our sole guide, the early incidents of Chuai's reign
would be wrapped in obscurity. For when we first meet him in the
pages of the Kojiki, he is in a palace on the northern shores of the
Shimonoseki Strait, whence he soon crosses to the Kashii palace in
Kyushu. His predecessors, while invariably changing their residences
on mounting the throne, had always chosen a site for the new palace
in Yamato or a neighbouring province, but the Records, without any
explanation, carry Chuai to the far south after his accession. The
Chronicles are more explicit. From them we gather that Chuai--who was
the second son of Yamato-dake and is described as having been ten
feet high with "a countenance of perfect beauty"--was a remarkably
active sovereign. He commenced his reign by a progress to Tsuruga
(then called Tsunuga) on the west coast of the mainland, and, a month
later, he made an expedition to Kii on the opposite shore. While in
the latter province he received news of a revolt of the Kumaso, and
at once taking ship, he went by sea to Shimonoseki, whither he
summoned the Empress from Tsuruga. An expedition against the Kumaso
was then organized and partially carried out, but the Emperor's force
was beaten and he himself received a fatal arrow-wound. Both the
Records and the Chronicles relate that, on the eve of this disastrous
move against the Kumaso, the Empress had a revelation urging the
Emperor to turn his arms against Korea as the Kumaso were not worthy
of his steel. But Chuai rejected the advice with scorn, and the
Kojiki alleges that the outraged deities punished him with death,
though doubtless a Kumaso arrow was the instrument. His demise was
carefully concealed, and the Empress, mustering the troops, took
vengeance upon the Kumaso.
Thereafter her Majesty became the central figure in a page of
history--or romance--which has provoked more controversy than any
incident in Japanese annals. A descendant of the Korean prince,
Ama-no-Hihoko, who settled in the province of Tajima during the reign
of the Emperor Suinin, she must have possessed traditional knowledge
of Shiragi, whence her ancestor had emigrated. She was the third
consort of Chuai. His first had borne him two sons who were of adult
age when, in the second year of his reign, he married Jingo,* a lady
"intelligent, shrewd, and with a countenance of such blooming
loveliness that her father wondered at it." To this appreciation of
her character must be added the attributes of boundless ambition and
brave resourcefulness. The annals represent her as bent from the
outset on the conquest of Korea and as receiving the support and
encouragement of Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who had served her husband and
his predecessor as prime minister. A military expedition oversea led
by a sovereign in person had not been heard of since the days of
Jimmu, and to reconcile officials and troops to such an undertaking
the element of divine revelation had to be introduced. At every stage
signs and portents were vouchsafed by the guardian deities. By their
intervention the Empress was shown to be possessed of miraculous
prowess, and at their instance troops and ships assembled
spontaneously. The armada sailed under divine guidance, a gentle
spirit protecting the Empress, and a warlike spirit leading the van
of her forces. The god of the wind sent a strong breeze; the god of
the sea ruled the waves favourably; all the great fishes accompanied
the squadron, and an unprecendented tide bore the ships far inland.
Fighting became unnecessary. The King of Shiragi did homage at once
and promised tribute and allegiance forever, and the other monarchs
of the peninsula followed his example. In short, Korea was conquered
and incorporated with the dominions of Japan.
*It should be clearly understood that the names by which the
sovereigns are called in these pages, are the posthumous appellations
given to them in later times when Chinese ideographs came into use
and Chinese customs began to be followed in such matters. The
posthumous was compiled with reference to the character or
achievements of the sovereign, Thus Jingo signifies "divine merit,"
on account of her conquests; "Chuai" means "lamentable second son,"
with reference to his evil fate, and "Keiko" implies "great deeds."
These three sovereigns were called during life, Okinaga-Tarashi,
Tarashi-Nakatsu, and 0-Tarashi, respectively.
CRITICISM OF THE ALLEGED CONQUEST OF KOREA
By some learned historiographers the whole of the above account is
pronounced a fiction. There was no such invasion of Korea, they say,
nor does the narrative deserve more credit than the legend of the
Argonauts or the tale of Troy. But that is probably too drastic a
view. There can indeed be little doubt that the compilers of the
Nihongi embellished the bald tradition with imaginary details; used
names which did not exist until centuries after the epoch referred
to; drew upon the resources of Chinese history for the utterances
they ascribe to the Empress and for the weapons they assign to her
soldiers, and were guilty of at least two serious anachronisms.
But none of these faults disfigures the story as told in the pages of
the Kojiki, which was written before the Nihongi. It has always to be
remembered that the compilers of the latter essayed the impossible
task of adjusting a new chronology to events extending over many
centuries, and that the resulting discrepancies of dates does not
necessarily discredit the events themselves. It has also to be
remembered that the same compilers were required to robe their facts
in Chinese costume and that the consequent ill-fits and
artificialities do not of necessity vitiate the facts. In the
particular case under consideration did the Kojiki stand alone,
little doubt would ever have been entertained about the reality of an
armed expedition to Korea, under the Empress Jingo. The sober and
unexaggerated narrative of that history would have been accepted,
less only the miraculous portents which accompany it.
As to the date of the invasion, however, it must have remained
obscure: the Kojiki's narrative furnishes one clue. According to
Korean history, an apparently unimportant descent upon Sinra
(Shiragi) took place in A.D. 219; a more serious one in 233, when the
Japanese ships were burned and their crews massacred, and a still
more formidable one in 249, when a Sinra statesman who had brought on
the invasion by using insulting language towards the sovereign of
Japan in presence of a Japanese ambassador, gave himself up to the
Japanese in the hope of appeasing their anger. They burnt him, and
proceeded to besiege Keumsyong, the Sinra capital, but were
ultimately beaten off. "No less than twenty-five descents by Japanese
on the Sinra coast are mentioned in Korean history in the first five
centuries of the Christian era, but it is impossible to identify any
one of them with Jingo's expedition." [Aston.] Nevertheless, modern
Japanese historians are disposed to assign the Jingo invasion to the
year 364, when Nai-mul ruled Shiragi, from which monarch's era
tribute seems to have been regularly sent to Yamato. Indeed the pages
of the Nihongi which deal with the last sixty years of Jingo's reign
are devoted almost entirely to descriptions of incidents connected
with the receipt of tribute and the advent or despatch of envoys. The
chronology is certainly erroneous. In no less than four several cases
events obviously the same are attributed by the Korean annals to
dates differing from those of the Nihongi by exactly two cycles; and
in one important instance the Japanese work assigns to A.D. 205 an
occurrence which the Tongkan* puts in the year 418.
*Korean history. Its full title is Tong-kuk-lhong-kan.
Whichever annals be correct--and the balance sways in favour of the
Korean so far as those protohistoric eras are concerned--"there can
be no doubt that Japan, at an early period, formed an alliance with
Paikche" (spoken of in Japan as "Kudara," namely, the regions
surrounding the modern Seoul), "and laid the foundation of a
controlling power over the territory known as Imna (or Mimana), which
lasted for several centuries." [Aston.] One evidence of this control
is furnished in the establishment of an office called uchi-tsu-miyake
in addition to the chinju-fu already spoken of. From early times it
had been customary in Japan that whenever any lands were acquired, a
portion of them was included in the Imperial domain, the produce
being thenceforth stored and the affairs of the estate managed at a
miyake presided over by a mikoto-mochi. Thus, on the inclusion of
certain Korean districts in Japan's dominions, this usage was
observed, and the new miyake had the syllables uchi-tsu ("of the
interior") prefixed to distinguish it as a part of Japan. It is on
record that a mikoto-mochi was stationed in Shiragi, and in the days
of Jingo's son (Ojin) the great statesman, Takenouchi-no-Sukune, took
up his residence for a time in Tsukushi to assist this mikoto-mochi
and the chinju-fu, should occasion arise. Modern Japanese historians
describe this era as the first period of Japanese national
development, for an almost immediate result of the oversea relations
thus established was that silk and cotton fabrics of greatly improved
quality, gold, silver, iron, implements, arts, and literature were
imported in increasing quantities to the great benefit of
civilization.
SHIFTING OF POLITICAL INFLUENCE
An important change dates from the reign of Jingo. It has been shown
above that, from a period prior to the death of Suinin, the power and
influence of the Imperial princes and nobles was a constantly growing
quantity. But the political situation developed a new phase when the
Sukune family appeared upon the scene. The first evidence of this was
manifested in a striking incident. When the Emperor Chuai died, his
consort, Jingo, was enceinte* But the Emperor left two sons by a
previous marriage, and clearly one of them should have succeeded to
the throne. Nevertheless, the prime minister, Takenouchi-no-Sukune,
contrived to have the unborn child recognized as Prince Imperial.**
Naturally the deceased Emperor's two elder sons refused to be
arbitrarily set aside in favour of a baby step-brother. The principle
of primogeniture did not possess binding force in those days, but it
had never previously been violated except by the deliberate and
ostensibly reasonable choice of an Emperor. The two princes,
therefore, called their partisans to arms and prepared to resist the
return of Jingo to Yamato. Here again Takenouchi-no-Sukune acted a
great part. He carried the child by the outer sea to a place of
safety in Kii, while the forces of the Empress sailed up the Inland
Sea to meet the brothers at Naniwa (modern Osaka). Moreover, when the
final combat took place, this same Takenouchi devised a strategy
which won the day, and in every great event during the reign of the
Empress his figure stands prominent. Finally, his granddaughter
became the consort of the Emperor Nintoku (313-399), an alliance
which opened a channel for exercising direct influence upon the
Throne and also furnished a precedent adopted freely in subsequent
times by other noble families harbouring similarly ambitious aims. In
short, from the accession of the Empress Jingo a large part of the
sovereign power began to pass into the hands of the prime minister.
*As illustrating the confused chronology of the Nihongi, it may be
noted that, calculated by the incident of Chuai's career, he must
have been fully one hundred years old when he begot this child. That
is marvellous enough, but to add to the perplexity the Nihongi says
that Chuai died at fifty-two.
**The legend says of this child that its birth was artificially
delayed until the return of the empress from the Korean expedition,
but the fact seems to be that the Emperor died at the end of June and
the Empress' accouchement took place in the following April.
ENGRAVING: DEVIL WITH DRAGON HEAD (Sculptured Wood Figure in the
Museum at Kyoto)
ENGRAVING: HORSE RACE IN OLD JAPAN
CHAPTER X
THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)
THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
AT the beginning of the previous chapter brief reference was made to
the three great divisions of the inhabitants of Japan; namely, the
Shimbetsu (Kami class) the Kwobetsu (Imperial class) and the Bambetsu
(aboriginal class). The Shimbetsu comprised three sub-classes;
namely, first, the Tenjin, a term used to designate the descendants
of the great primeval trinity and of the other Kami prior to the Sun
goddess; secondly, the Tenson, or descendants of the Sun goddess to
Jimmu's father (Ugaya-fukiaezu), and thirdly, the Chigi, an
appellation applied to the chiefs found in Izumo by the envoys of the
Sun goddess and in Yamato by Jimmu--chiefs who, though deprived of
power, were recognized to be of the same lineage as their conquerors.
It is plain that few genealogical trees could be actually traced
further back than the Chigi. Hence, for all practical purposes, the
Shimbetsu consisted of the descendants of vanquished chiefs, and the
fact was tacitly acknowledged by assigning to this class the second
place in the social scale, though the inclusion of the Tenjin and the
Tenson should have assured its precedence. The Kwobetsu comprised all
Emperors and Imperial princes from Jimmu downwards. This was the
premier class. The heads of all its families possessed as a
birthright the title of omi (grandee), while the head of a Shimbetsu
family was a muraji (group-chief). The Bambetsu ranked incomparably
below either the Kwobetsu or the Shimbetsu. It consisted of
foreigners who had immigrated from China or Korea and of aboriginal
tribes alien to the Yamato race. Members of the Ban class were
designated yakko (or yatsuko), a term signifying "subject" or
"servant."
THE UJI
In addition to the above three-class distribution, the whole Yamato
nation was divided into uji, or families. An uji founded by one of
the Tenson took precedence of all others, the next in rank being one
with an Imperial prince for ancestor, and after the latter came the
families of the Tenjin and Chigi. All that could not thus trace their
genealogy were attached to the various uji in a subordinate capacity.
It is not to be supposed that one of these families consisted simply
of a husband and wife, children, and servants. There were great uji
and small uji, the former comprising many of the latter, and the
small uji including several households. In fact, the small uji
(ko-uji) may be described as a congeries of from fifty to ninety
blood relations.
In the uji the principle of primogeniture was paramount. A successor
to the headship of an uji must be the eldest son of an eldest son.
Thus qualified, he became the master of the household, ruled the
whole family, and controlled its entire property. The chief of an
ordinary uji (uji no Kami) governed all the households constituting
it, and the chief of a great uji (o-uji no Kami) controlled all the
small uji of which it was composed. In addition to the members of a
family, each uji, small and great alike, had a number of dependants
(kakibe or tomobe). In colloquial language, an o-uji was the original
family; a ko-uji, a branch family. For example, if the Abe family be
considered, Abe-uji is a great uji (o-uji), while such names as Abe
no Shii, Abe no Osada, Abe no Mutsu, etc., designate small uji
(ko-uji). If a great uji was threatened with extinction through lack
of heir, the proper Kami of a small uji succeeded to the vacant
place. As for the kakibe or tomobe, they were spoken of as "so and so
of such and such an uji:" they had no uji of their own.
All complications of minor importance were dealt with by the Kami* of
the uji in which they occurred, consultation being held with the Kami
of the appropriate o-uji in great cases. Reference was not made to
the Imperial Court except in serious matters. On the other hand,
commands from the sovereign were conveyed through the head of an
o-uji, so that the chain of responsibility was well defined. An
interesting feature of this ancient organization was that nearly
every uji had a fixed occupation which was hereditary, the name of
the occupation being prefixed to that of the uji. Thus, the uji of
gem-polishers was designated Tamatsukuri-uji, and that of boat
builders, Fune-uji.
*An uji no Kami was called uji no choja in later ages.
There were also uji whose members, from generation to generation,
acted as governors of provinces (kuni no miyatsuko) or headmen of
districts (agata-nushi). In these cases the name of the region was
prefixed to the uji; as Munakata-uji, Izumo-uji, etc. Finally, there
were uji that carried designations given by the sovereign in
recognition of meritorious deeds. These designations took the form of
titles. Thus the captor of a crane, at sight of which a dumb prince
recovered his speech, was called Totori no Miyatsuko (the
bird-catching governor), and Nomi-no-Sukune, who devised the
substitution of clay figures (haniwa) for human sacrifices at
Imperial obsequies, was designated as Hashi no Omi (the Pottery
Grandee).
THE TOMOBE
The tomobe (attendants)--called also mure (the herd) or kakibe
(domestics)--constituted an important element of the people. They
were, in fact, serfs. We find them first spoken of in an active role
as being sent to the provinces to provide foodstuffs for the Imperial
household, and in that capacity they went by the name of provincial
Imibe. Perhaps the most intelligible description of them is that they
constituted the peasant and artisan class, and that they were
attached to the uji in subordinate positions for purposes of manual
labour. By degrees, when various kinds of productive operations came
to be engaged in as hereditary pursuits, the tomobe were grouped
according to the specialty of the uji to which they wore attached,
and we hear of Kanuchibe, or the corporation of blacksmiths; Yumibe,
or the corporation of bow-makers; Oribe, or the corporation of
weavers, and so on.
It is not to be supposed, however, that all the tomobe were thus
organized as special classes. Such was the case only when the
uji to which they belonged pursued some definite branch of
productive work. Moreover, there were corporations instituted
for purposes quite independent of industry; namely, to perpetuate
the memory of an Imperial or princely personage who had died without
issue or without attaining ancestral rank. Such tomobe were
collectively known as nashiro (namesakes) or koshiro (child
substitutes). For example, when Prince Itoshi, son of the Emperor
Suinin, died without leaving a son to perpetuate his name, the
Itoshibe was established for that purpose; and when Prince
Yamato-dake perished without ascending the throne, the Takebe was
formed to preserve the memory of his achievements. A be thus
organized on behalf of an Emperor had the title of toneri
(chamberlain) suffixed. Thus, for the Emperor Ohatsuse (known in
history as Yuryaku) the Hatsuse-be-no-toneri was formed; and for
the Emperor Shiraga (Seinei), the Shiraga-be-no-toneri. There can be
little doubt that underlying the creation of these nashiro was the
aim of extending the Imperial estates, as well as the number of
subjects over whom the control of the Throne could be exercised
without the intervention of an uji no Kami. For it is to be observed
that the sovereign himself was an o-uji no Kami, and all tomobe
created for nashiro purposes or to discharge some other functions
in connexion with the Court were attached to the Imperial uji.
TAMIBE
Another kind of be consisted of aliens who had been naturalized in
Japan or presented to the Japanese Throne by foreign potentates.
These were formed into tamibe (corporations of people). They became
directly dependent upon the Court, and they devoted themselves to
manufacturing articles for the use of the Imperial household. These
naturalized persons were distinguished, in many cases, by technical
skill or literary attainments. Hence they received treatment
different from that given to ordinary tomobe, some of them being
allowed to assume the title and enjoy the privilege of uji,
distinguished, however, as uji of the Bambetsu. Thus, the descendants
of the seamstresses, E-hime and Oto-hime, and of the weavers,
Kure-hatori and Ana-hatori, who were presented to the Yamato Court by
an Emperor of the Wu dynasty in China, were allowed to organize
themselves into Kinu-nui-uji (uji of Silk-robe makers); and that a
Hata-uji (Weavers' uji) was similarly organized is proved by a
passage in the records of the Emperor Ojin (A.D. 284) which relates
that the members of the Hata-uji had become scattered about the
country and were carrying on their manufacturing work in various
jurisdictions. This fact having been related to the Throne, steps
were taken to bring together all these weavers into the Hata-uji, and
to make them settle at villages to which the name of Kachibe was
given in commemoration of the weavers' ancestor, Kachi. The records
show that during the first four centuries of the Christian era the
people presented to the Yamato Court by the sovereigns of the Wu
dynasty and of Korea must have been very numerous, for no less than
710 uji were formed by them in consideration of their skill in the
arts and crafts.
SLAVES
The institution of slavery (nuhi) existed in ancient Japan as in so
many other countries. The slaves consisted of prisoners taken in war
and of persons who, having committed some serious offence, were
handed over to be the property of those that they had injured. The
first recorded instance of the former practice was when Yamato-dake
presented to the Ise shrine the Yemishi chiefs who had surrendered to
him in the sequel of his invasion of the eastern provinces. The same
fate seems to have befallen numerous captives made in the campaign
against the Kumaso, and doubtless wholesale acts of self-destruction
committed by Tsuchi-gumo and Kumaso when overtaken by defeat were
prompted by preference of death to slavery. The story of Japan's
relations with Korea includes many references to Korean prisoners who
became the property of their captors, and that a victorious general's
spoils should comprise some slaves may be described as a recognized
custom. Of slavery as a consequence of crime there is also frequent
mention, and it would appear that even men of rank might be overtaken
by that fate, for when (A.D. 278) Takenouchi-no-Sukune's younger
brother was convicted of slandering him, the culprit's punishment
took the form of degradation and assignment to a life of slavery. The
whole family of such an offender shared his fate. There is no
evidence, however, that the treatment of the nuhi was inhuman or even
harsh: they appear to have fared much as did the tomobe in general.
THE LAND
There are two kinds of territorial rights, and these, though now
clearly differentiated, were more or less confounded in ancient
Japan. One is the ruler's right--that is to say, competence to impose
taxes; to enact rules governing possession; to appropriate private
lands for public purposes, and to treat as crown estates land not
privately owned. The second is the right of possession; namely, the
right to occupy definite areas of land and to apply them to one's own
ends. At present those two rights are distinct. A landowner has no
competence to issue public orders with regard to it, and a lessee of
land has to discharge certain responsibilities towards the lessor. It
was not so in old Japan. As the Emperor's right to rule the people
was not exercised over an individual direct but through the uji no
Kami who controlled that individual, so the sovereign's right over
the land was exercised through the territorial owner, who was usually
the uji no Kami. The latter, being the owner of the land, leased a
part of it to the members of the uji, collected a percentage of the
produce, and presented a portion to the Court when occasion demanded.
Hence, so long as the sovereign's influence was powerful, the uji no
Kami and other territorial magnates, respecting his orders, refrained
from levying taxes and duly paid their appointed contributions to the
Court.
But in later times, when the Throne's means of enforcing its orders
ceased to bear any sensible ratio to the puissance of the uji no Kami
and other local lords, the Imperial authority received scanty
recognition, and the tillers of the soil were required to pay heavy
taxes to their landlords. It is a fallacy to suppose that the Emperor
in ancient times not only ruled the land but also owned it. The only
land held in direct possession by the Throne was that constituting
the Imperial household's estates and that belonging to members of the
Imperial family. The private lands of the Imperial family were called
mi-agata.* The province of Yamato contained six of these estates, and
their produce was wholly devoted to the support of the Court. Lands
cultivated for purposes of State revenue were called miyake.** They
existed in several provinces, the custom being that when land was
newly acquired, a miyake was at once established and the remainder
was assigned to princes or Court nobles (asomi or asori). The
cultivators of miyake were designated ta-be (rustic corporation); the
overseers were termed ta-zukasa (or mi-ta no tsukasa), and the
officials in charge of the stores were mi-agata no obito.
*The prefix mi (honourable) was and is still used for purposes of
courtesy.
**In ancient Japan, officials and their offices were often designated
alike. Thus, miyake signified a public estate or the store for
keeping the produce, just as tsukasa was applied alike to an overseer
and to his place of transacting business.
As far back as 3 B.C., according to Japanese chronology, we read of
the establishment of a miyake, and doubtless that was not the first.
Thenceforth there are numerous examples of a similar measure.
Confiscated lands also formed a not unimportant part of the Court's
estates. Comparatively trifling offences were sometimes thus
expiated. Thus, in A.D. 350, Aganoko, suzerain of the Saegi, being
convicted of purloining jewels from the person of a princess whom he
had been ordered to execute, escaped capital punishment only by
surrendering all his lands; and, in A.D. 534, a provincial ruler who,
being in mortal terror, had intruded into the ladies' apartments in
the palace, had to present his landed property for the use of the
Empress. These facts show incidentally that the land of the country,
though governed by the sovereign, was not owned by him. Lands in a
conquered country were naturally regarded as State property, but
sufficient allusion has already been made to that custom.
THE SPHERE OF THE SOVEREIGN'S RULE
It is related in the Records that, in prehistoric days, the last of
the chieftains sent by Amaterasu to wrest Japan from its then holders
addressed the leaders of the latter in these terms, "The central land
of reed plains owned (ushi-haku) by you is the country to be governed
(shirasu) by my son." Japanese historiographers attach importance to
the different words here used. Ushi-haku signifies "to hold in
intimate lordship"--as one wears a garment--whereas shirasu means "to
exercise public rights as head of a State." A Japanese Emperor
occupied both positions towards mi-nashiro (q.v.), toward naturalized
or conquered folks, towards mi-agata, miyake, and confiscated
estates, but his functions with regard to the people and the land in
general were limited to governing (shirasu).
If the ancient prerogatives of the sovereign be tabulated, they stand
thus:
(1) to conduct the worship of the national deities as general head of
all the uji;
(2) to declare war against foreign countries and to make peace with
them, as representative of the uji, and (3) to establish or abolish
uji, to nominate uji no Kami, and to adjudicate disputes between
them. The first of these prerogatives remains unaltered to the
present day. The second was partly delegated in medieval times to the
military class, but has now been restored to the Throne. As for the
third, its exercise is to-day limited to the office of the hereditary
nobility, the Constitution having replaced the Crown in other
respects.
Two thousand years have seen no change in the Emperor's function of
officiating as the high priest of the nation. It was the sovereign
who made offerings to the deities of heaven and earth at the great
religious festivals. It was the sovereign who prayed for the aid of
the gods when the country was confronted by any emergency or when the
people suffered from pestilence. In short, though the powers of the
Emperor over the land and the people were limited by the intervention
of the uji, the whole nation was directly subservient to the Throne
in matters relating to religion. From the earliest eras, too, war
might not be declared without an Imperial rescript, and to the
Emperor was reserved the duty of giving audience to foreign envoys
and receiving tribute. By foreign countries, China and Korea were
generally understood, but the Kumaso, the Yemishi, and the Sushen
were also included in the category of aliens. It would seem that the
obligation of serving the country in arms was universal, for in the
reign of Sujin, when an oversea expedition was contemplated, the
people were numbered according to their ages, and the routine of
service was laid down. Contributions, too, had to be made, as is
proved by the fact that a command of the same sovereign required the
various districts to manufacture arms and store them in the shrines.
THE THRONE AND THE UJI
The sovereign's competence to adjudicate questions relating to the
uji is illustrated by a notable incident referred to the year A.D.
415, during the reign of Inkyo. Centuries had then passed since the
inauguration of the uji, and families originally small with clearly
defined genealogies had multiplied to the dimensions of large clans,
so that much confusion of lineage existed, and there was a
wide-spread disposition to assert claims to spurious rank. It was
therefore commanded by the Emperor that, on a fixed day, all the uji
no Kami should assemble, and having performed the rite of
purification, should submit to the ordeal of boiling water
(kuga-dachi). Numerous cauldrons were erected for the purpose, and it
was solemnly proclaimed that only the guilty would be scalded by the
test. At the last moment, those whose claims were willingly false
absconded, and the genealogies were finally rectified.
Instances of uji created by the sovereign to reward merit, or
abolished to punish offences, are numerously recorded. Thus, when
(A.D. 413) the future consort of the Emperor Inkyo was walking in the
garden with her mother, a provincial ruler (miyatsuko), riding by,
peremptorily called to her for a branch of orchid. She asked what he
needed the orchid for and he answered, "To beat away mosquitoes when
I travel mountain roads." "Oh, honourable sir, I shall not forget,"
said the lady. When she became Empress, she caused the nobleman to be
sought for, and had him deprived of his rank in lieu of execution.
There is also an instance of the killing of all the members of an uji
to expiate the offence of the uji no Kami. This happened in A.D. 463,
when Yuryaku sat on the throne. It was reported to the Court that
Sakitsuya, Kami of the Shimotsumichi-uji, indulged in pastimes
deliberately contrived to insult the occupant of the throne. Thus he
would match a little girl to combat against a grown woman, calling
the girl the Emperor and killing her if she won; or would set a
little cock with clipped wings and plucked feathers to represent the
sovereign in a fight with a big, lusty cock, which he likened to
himself, and if the small bird won, he would slaughter it with his
own sword. The Emperor sent a company of soldiers, and Sakitsuya with
all the seventy members of his uji were put to death.
ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION
The administrative organization in ancient Japan was simply a
combination of the uji. It was purely Japanese. Not until the seventh
century of the Christian era were any foreign elements introduced.
From ministers and generals of the highest class down to petty
functionaries, all offices were discharged by uji no Kami, and as the
latter had the general name of kabane root of the uji the system was
similarly termed. In effect, the kabane was an order of nobility.
Offices were hereditary and equal. The first distribution of posts
took place when five chiefs, attached to the person of the Tenson at
the time of his descent upon Japan, were ordered to discharge at his
Court the same duties as those which had devolved on them in the
country of their origin. The uji they formed were those of the
Shimbetsu,* the official title of the Kami being muraji (group chief)
in the case of an ordinary uji, and o-muraji (great muraji) in the
case of an o-uji, as already stated. These were the men who rendered
most assistance originally in the organization of the State, but as
they were merely adherents of the Tenson, the latter's direct
descendants counted themselves superior and sought always to assert
that superiority.
*The distinction of Shimbetsu and Kwobetsu was not nominally
recognized until the fourth century, but it undoubtedly existed in
practice at an early date.
Thus, the title omi (grandee) held by the Kami of a Kwobetsu-uji was
deemed higher than that of muraji (chief) held by the Kami of a
Shimbetsu-uji. The blood relations of sovereigns either assisted at
Court in the administration of State affairs or went to the provinces
in the capacity of governors. They received various titles in
addition to that of omi, for example sukune (noble), ason or asomi
(Court noble), kimi (duke), wake (lord), etc.
History gives no evidence of a fixed official organization in ancient
times. The method pursued by the sovereign was to summon such omi and
muraji as were notably influential or competent, and to entrust to
them the duty of discharging functions or dealing with a special
situation. Those so summoned were termed mae-isu-gimi (dukes of the
Presence). The highest honour bestowed on a subject in those days
fell to the noble, Takenouchi, who, in consideration of his services,
was named O-mae-tsu-gimi (great duke of the Presence) by the Emperor
Seimu (A.D. 133). Among the omi and muraji, those conspicuously
powerful were charged with the superintendence of several uji, and
were distinguished as o-omi and o-muraji. It became customary to
appoint an o-omi and an o-muraji at the Court, just as in later days
there was a sa-daijin (minister of the Left) and an u-daijin
(minister of the Right). The o-omi supervised all members of the
Kwobetsu-uji occupying administrative posts at Court, and the
o-muraji discharged a similar function in the case of members of
Shimbetsu-uji. Outside the capital local affairs were administered by
kuni-no-miyatsuko or tomo-no-miyatsuko* Among the former, the heads
of Kwobetsu-uji predominated among the latter, those of
Shimbetsu-uji.
*Tomo is an abbreviation of tomo-be.
VALUE OF LINEAGE
It will be seen from the above that in old Japan lineage counted
above everything, alike officially and socially. The offices, the
honours and the lands were all in the hands of the lineal descendants
of the original Yamato chiefs. Nevertheless the omi and the muraji
stood higher in national esteem than the kuni-no-miyatsuko or the
tomo-no-miyatsuko; the o-omi and the o-muraji, still higher; and the
sovereign, at the apex of all. That much deference was paid to
functions. Things remained unaltered in this respect until the sixth
century when the force of foreign example began to make itself felt.
ENGRAVING: FISHERMAN'S BOAT AND NET
CHAPTER XI
THE PREHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)
THE FIFTEENTH SOVEREIGN, OJIN (A.D. 270-310)
The fifteenth Sovereign, Ojin, came to the throne at the age of
seventy, according to the Chronicles, and occupied it for forty
years. Like a majority of the sovereigns in that epoch he had many
consorts and many children--three of the former (including two
younger sisters of the Emperor) and twenty of the latter. Comparison
with Korean history goes to indicate that the reign is antedated by
just 120 years, or two of the sexagenary cycles, but of course such a
correction cannot be applied to every incident of the era.
MARITIME AFFAIRS
One of the interesting features of Ojin's reign is that maritime
affairs receive notice for the first time. It is stated that the
fishermen of various places raised a commotion, refused to obey the
Imperial commands, and were not quieted until a noble, Ohama, was
sent to deal with them. Nothing is stated as to the cause of this
complication, but it is doubtless connected with requisitions of fish
for the Court, and probably the fishing folk of Japan had already
developed the fine physique and stalwart disposition that distinguish
their modern representatives. Two years later, instructions were
issued that hereditary corporations (be) of fishermen should be
established in the provinces, and, shortly afterwards, the duty of
constructing a boat one hundred feet in length was imposed upon the
people of Izu, a peninsular province so remote from Yamato that its
choice for such a purpose is difficult to explain. There was no
question of recompensing the builders of this boat: the product of
their labour was regarded as "tribute."
Twenty-six years later the Karano, as this vessel was called, having
become unserviceable, the Emperor ordered a new Karano to be built,
so as to perpetuate her name. A curious procedure is then recorded,
illustrating the arbitrary methods of government in those days. The
timbers of the superannuated ship were used as fuel for roasting
salt, five hundred baskets of which were sent throughout the maritime
provinces, with orders that by each body of recipients a ship should
be constructed. Five hundred Karanos thus came into existence, and
there was assembled at Hyogo such a fleet as had never previously
been seen in Japanese waters. A number of these new vessels were
destroyed almost immediately by a conflagration which broke out in
the lodgings of Korean envoys from Sinra (Shiragi), and the envoys
being held responsible, their sovereign hastened to send a body of
skilled shipmakers by way of atonement, who were thereafter organized
into a hereditary guild of marine architects, and we thus learn
incidentally that the Koreans had already developed the shipbuilding
skill destined to save their country in later ages.
IDEALISM OF THE THIRD CENTURY
In connexion with the Karano incident, Japanese historians record a
tale which materially helps our appreciation of the men of that
remote age. A portion of the Karano's timber having emerged unscathed
from the salt-pans, its indestructibility seemed curious enough to
warrant special treatment. It was accordingly made into a lute
(koto),* and it justified that use by developing "a ringing note that
could be heard from afar off." The Emperor composed a song on the
subject:
"The ship Karano
"Was burned for salt:
"Of the remainder
"A koto was made.
"When it is placed on
"One hears the saya-saya
"Of the summer trees,
"Brushing against, as they stand,
"The rocks of the mid-harbour,
"The harbour of Yura." [Aston.]
*The Japanese lute, otherwise called the Azuma koto, was an
instrument five or six feet long and having six strings. History
first alludes to it in the reign of Jingo, and such as it was then,
such it has remained until to-day.
LAW, INDUSTRY, LOYALTY
Five facts are already deducible from the annals of this epoch: the
first, that there was no written law, unless the prohibitions in the
Rituals may be so regarded; the second, that there was no form of
judicial trial, unless ordeal or torture may be so regarded; the
third, that the death penalty might be inflicted on purely ex-parte
evidence; the fourth, that a man's whole family had to suffer the
penalty of his crimes, and the fifth, that already in those remote
times the code of splendid loyalty which has distinguished the
Japanese race through all ages had begun to find disciples.
An incident of Ojin's reign illustrates all these things. Takenouchi,
the sukune (noble) who had served Ojin's mother so ably, and who had
saved Ojin's life in the latter's childhood, was despatched to
Tsukushi (Kyushu) on State business. During his absence his younger
brother accused him of designs upon the Emperor. At once, without
further inquiry, Ojin sent men to kill the illustrious minister. But
Maneko, suzerain (atae) of Iki, who bore a strong resemblance to
Takenouchi, personified him, and committing suicide, deceived the
soldiers who would have taken the sukune's life, so that the latter
was enabled to return to Yamato. Arriving at Court, he protested his
innocence and the ordeal of boiling water was employed. It took place
on the bank of the Shiki River. Takenouchi proving victorious; his
brother with all his family were condemned to become tomo-be of the
suzerain of Kii.
THE GRACE OF LIFE
Side by side with these primitive conditions stands a romantic story
of Ojin's self-denial in ceding to his son, Osazaki, a beautiful girl
whom the sovereign has destined to be his own consort. Discovering
that the prince loved her, Ojin invited him to a banquet in the
palace, and, summoning the girl, made known by the aid of poetry his
intention of surrendering her to his son, who, in turn, expressed his
gratitude in verse. It is true that the character of this act of
renunciation is marred when we observe that Ojin was eighty years old
at the time; nevertheless the graces of life were evidently not
wanting in old-time Japan, nor did her historians deem them unworthy
of prominent place in their pages. If at one moment they tell us of
slanders and cruelty, at another they describe how a favourite
consort of Ojin, gazing with him at a fair landscape from a high
tower, was moved to tears by the memory of her parents whom she had
not seen for years, and how the Emperor, sympathizing with her filial
affection, made provision for her return home and took leave of her
in verse:
"Thou Island of Awaji
"With thy double ranges;
"Thou Island of Azuki
"With thy double ranges
"Ye good islands,
"Ye have seen face to face
"My spouse of Kibi."
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
The most important feature of the Ojin era was the intercourse then
inaugurated with China. It may be that after the establishment of the
Yamato race in Japan, emigrants from the neighbouring continent
settled, from early times, in islands so favoured by nature. If so,
they probably belonged to the lowest orders, for it was not until the
third and fourth centuries that men of erudition and skilled artisans
began to arrive. Modern Japanese historians seem disposed to
attribute this movement to the benign administration of the Emperor
Ojin and to the repute thus earned by Japan abroad. Without
altogether questioning that theory, it may be pointed out that much
probably depended on the conditions existing in China herself. Liu
Fang, founder of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.), inaugurated the system
of competitive examinations for civil appointments, and his
successors, Wen-Ti, Wu-Ti, and Kwang-wu, "developed literature,
commerce, arts, and good government to a degree unknown before
anywhere in Asia." It was Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) who conquered Korea,
and unquestionably the Koreans then received many object lessons in
civilization. The Han dynasty fell in A.D. 190, and there ensued one
of the most troubled periods of Chinese history. Many fugitives from
the evils of that epoch probably made their way to Korea and even to
Japan. Then followed the after-Han dynasty (A.D. 211-265) when China
was divided into three principalities; one of which, since it ruled
the littoral regions directly opposite to Japan, represented China in
Japanese eyes, and its name, Wu, came to be synonymous with China in
Japanese years.
It was, however, in the days of the Tsin dynasty (A.D. 265-317) and
in those of the Eastern Tsin (A.D. 317-420) that under the pressure
of the Hun inroads and of domestic commotions, numbers of emigrants
found their way from China to Korea and thence to Japan. The Eastern
Tsin occupied virtually the same regions as those held by the Wu
dynasty: they, too, had their capital at Nanking, having moved
thither from Loh-yang, and thus the name Wu was perpetuated for the
Japanese. In the year A.D. 283, according to Japanese chronology,
Koreans and Chinese skilled in useful arts began to immigrate to
Japan. The first to come was a girl called Maketsu. She is said to
have been sent by the monarch of Kudara, the region corresponding to
the metropolitan province of modern Korea. It may be inferred that
she was Chinese, but as to her nationality history is silent. She
settled permanently in Japan, and her descendants were known as the
kinu-nui (silk-clothiers) of Kume in Yamato. In the same year (A.D.
283), Yuzu (called Yutsuki by some authorities), a Chinese Imperial
prince, came from Korea and memorialized the Yamato Throne in the
sense that he was a descendant of the first Tsin sovereign and that,
having migrated to Korea at the head of the inhabitants of 120
districts, he had desired to conduct them to Japan, but was unable to
accomplish his purpose owing to obstruction offered by the people of
Sinra (Shiragi). Ojin sent two embassies--the second accompanied by
troops--to procure the release of these people, and in A.D. 285 they
reached Japan, where they received a hearty welcome, and for the sake
of their skill in sericulture and silk weaving, they were honoured by
organization into an uji--Hata-uji (hata in modern Japanese signifies
"loom," but in ancient days it designated silk fabrics of all kinds).
An idea of the dimensions of this Chinese addition to the population
of Japan is furnished by the fact that, 175 years later, the Hata-uji
having been dispersed and reduced to ninety-two groups, steps were
taken to reassemble and reorganize them, with the result that 18,670
persons were brought together. Again, in A.D. 289, a sometime subject
of the after-Han dynasty, accompanied by his son, emigrated to Japan.
The names of these Chinese are given as Achi and Tsuka, and the
former is described as a great-grandson of the Emperor Ling of the
after-Han dynasty, who reigned from A.D. 168 to 190. Like Yuzu he had
escaped to Korea during the troublous time at the close of the Han
sway, and, like Yuzu, he had been followed to the peninsula by a
large body of Chinese, who, at his request, were subsequently
escorted by Japanese envoys to Japan. These immigrants also were
allowed to assume the status of an uji, and in the fifth century the
title of Aya no atae (suzerain of Aya) was given to Achi's
descendants in consideration of the skill of their followers in
designing and manufacturing figured fabrics (for which the general
term was aya).
When Achi had resided seventeen years in Japan, he and his son were
sent to Wu (China) for the purpose of engaging women versed in making
dress materials. The title of omi (chief ambassador) seems to have
been then conferred on the two men, as envoys sent abroad were
habitually so designated. They did not attempt to go by sea. The
state of navigation was still such that ocean-going voyages were not
seriously thought of. Achi and his son proceeded in the first
instance to Koma (the modern Pyong-yang) and there obtained guides
for the overland journey round the shore of the Gulf of Pechili. They
are said to have made their way to Loh-yang where the Tsin sovereigns
then had their capital (A.D. 306). Four women were given to them,
whom they carried back to Japan, there to become the ancestresses of
an uji known as Kure no kinu-nui and Kaya no kinu-nui (clothiers of
Kure and of Kaya), appellations which imply Korean origin, but were
probably suggested by the fact that Korea had been the last
continental station on their route. The journey to and from Loh-yang
occupied four years. This page of history shows not only the
beginning of Japan's useful intercourse with foreign countries, but
also her readiness to learn what they had to teach and her liberal
treatment of alien settlers.
THE ART OF WRITING
It is not infrequently stated that a knowledge of Chinese ideographs
was acquired by the Japanese for the first time during the reign of
Ojin. The basis of this belief are that, in A.D. 284, according to
the Japanese chronology--a date to which must be added two sexagenary
cycles, bringing it to A.D. 404--the King of Kudara sent two fine
horses to the Yamato sovereign, and the man who accompanied them,
Atogi by name, showed himself a competent reader of the Chinese
classics and was appointed tutor to the Prince Imperial. By Atogi's
advice a still abler scholar, Wani (Wang-in), was subsequently
invited from Kudara to take Atogi's place, and it is added that the
latter received the title of fumi-bito (scribe), which he transmitted
to his descendants in Japan. But close scrutiny does not support the
inference that Chinese script had remained unknown to Japan until the
above incidents. What is proved is merely that the Chinese classics
then for the first time became an open book in Japan.
As for the ideographs themselves, they must have been long familiar,
though doubtless to a very limited circle. Chinese history affords
conclusive evidence. Thus, in the records of the later Han (A.D.
25-220) we read that from the time when Wu-Ti (140-86 B.C.) overthrew
Korea, the Japanese of thirty-two provinces communicated with the
Chinese authorities in the peninsula by means of a postal service.
The Wei annals (A.D. 220-265) state that in A.D. 238, the Chinese
sovereign sent a written reply to a communication from the "Queen of
Japan"--Jingo was then on the throne. In the same year, the Japanese
Court addressed a written answer to a Chinese rescript forwarded to
Yamato by the governor of Thepang--the modern Namwon in Chollado--and
in A.D. 247, a despatch was sent by the Chinese authorities
admonishing the Japanese to desist from internecine quarrels. These
references indicate that the use of the ideographs was known in Japan
long before the reign of Ojin, whether we take the Japanese or the
corrected date for the latter. It will probably be just to assume,
however, that the study of the ideographs had scarcely any vogue in
Japan until the coming of Atogi and Wani, nor does it appear to have
attracted much attention outside Court circles even subsequently to
that date, for the records show that, in the reign of the Emperor
Bidatsu (A.D. 572-585), a memorial sent by Korea to the Yamato Court
was illegible to all the officials except one man, by name
Wang-sin-i, who seems to have been a descendant of the Paikche
emigrant, Wan-i.
Buddhism, introduced into Japan in A.D. 552, doubtless supplied the
chief incentive to the acquisition of knowledge. But had the Japanese
a script of their own at any period of their history? The two oldest
manuscripts which contain a reference to this subject are the
Kogo-shui, compiled by Hironari in A.D. 808, and a memorial (kammori)
presented to the Throne in A.D. 901 by Miyoshi Kiyotsura. Both
explicitly state that in remote antiquity there were no letters, and
that all events or discourses had to be transmitted orally. Not until
the thirteenth century does the theory of a purely Japanese script
seem to have been conceived, and its author* had no basis for the
hypothesis other than the idea that, as divination was practised in
the age of the Kami, letters of some kind must have been in use.
Since then the matter has been much discussed. Caves used in ancient
times as habitations or sepulchres and old shrines occasionally offer
evidence in the form of symbols which, since they bear some
resemblance to the letters of the Korean alphabet (onmuri), have been
imagined to be at once the origin of the latter and the script of the
Kami-no-yo (Age of the Kami). But such fancies are no longer
seriously entertained. It is agreed that the so-called "letters" are
nothing more than copies of marks produced by the action of fire upon
bones used in divination. The Japanese cleverly adapted the Chinese
ideographs to syllabic purposes, but they never devised a script of
their own.
*Kanekata, who wrote the Shaku Nihongi in the era 1264--1274.
ETHICAL EFFECTS OF THE INTRODUCTION OF CHINESE LITERATURE
A generally accepted belief is that the study of the Chinese classics
exercised a marked ethical influence upon the Japanese nation. That
is a conclusion which may be profitably contrasted with the views of
Japan's most distinguished historians. Mr. Abe Kozo says:
"Acquaintance with the Chinese classics may be supposed to have
produced a considerable moral effect on the people of Japan. Nothing
of the kind seems to have been the case. The practical civilization
of China was accepted, but not her ethical code. For any palpable
moral influence the arrival of Buddhism had to be awaited. Already
the principles of loyalty and obedience, propriety, and righteousness
were recognized in Japan though not embodied in any written code."
Dr. Ariga writes: "Our countrymen did not acquire anything specially
new in the way of moral tenets. They must have been surprised to find
that in China men did not respect the occupants of the throne. A
subject might murder his sovereign and succeed him without incurring
the odium of the people." Rai Sanyo says: "Moral principles are like
the sun and the moon; they cannot be monopolized by any one country.
In every land there are parents and children, rulers and ruled,
husbands and wives. Where these relations exist, there also filial
piety and affection, loyalty and righteousness may naturally be
found. In our country we lack the precise terminology of the
classics, but it does not follow that we lack the principles
expressed. What the Japanese acquired from the classics was the
method of formulating the thought, not the thought itself."
THE SIXTEENTH SOVEREIGN, NINTOKU (A.D. 313-399)
This sovereign is represented by the Chronicles as having reigned
eighty-six years, and by the Records as having died at the age of
eighty-three. The same Chronicles make him the lover of a girl whom
his father, also her lover, generously ceded to him. This event
happened in A.D. 282. Assuming that Nintoku was then sixteen, he
cannot have been less than 133 at the time of his death. It is thus
seen that the chronology of this period, also, is untrustworthy.
Nintoku's reign is remembered chiefly on account of the strange
circumstances in which he came to the throne, his benevolent charity,
and the slights he suffered at the hands of a jealous consort. His
father, Ojin, by an exercise of caprice not uncommon on the part of
Japan's ancient sovereigns, had nominated a younger son,
Waka-iratsuko, to be his heir. But this prince showed invincible
reluctance to assume the sceptre after Ojin's death. He asserted
himself stoutly by killing one of his elder brothers who conspired
against him, though he resolutely declined to take precedence of the
other brother, and the latter, proving equally diffident, the throne
remained unoccupied for three years when Waka-iratsuko solved the
problem by committing suicide.
Such are the simplest outlines of the story. But its details, when
filled in by critical Japanese historians of later ages, suggest a
different impression. When Ojin died his eldest two sons were living
respectively in Naniwa (Osaka) and Yamato, and the Crown Prince,
Waka-iratsuko, was at Uji. They were thus excellently situated for
setting up independent claims. From the time of Nintoku's birth, the
prime minister, head of the great Takenouchi family, had taken a
special interest in the child, and when the lad grew up he married
this Takenouchi's granddaughter, who became the mother of three
Emperors. Presently the representatives of all branches of the
Takenouchi family came into possession of influential positions at
Court, among others that of o-omi, so that in this reign were laid
the foundations of the controlling power subsequently vested in the
hands of the Heguri, Katsuragi, and Soga houses. In short, this epoch
saw the beginning of a state of affairs destined to leave its mark
permanently on Japanese history, the relegation of the sovereign to
the place of a fainéant and the usurpation of the administrative
authority by a group of great nobles.
Nintoku had the active support of the Takenouchi magnates, and
although the Crown Prince may have desired to assert the title
conferred on him by his father, he found himself helpless in the face
of obstructions offered by the prime minister and his numerous
partisans. These suffered him to deal effectively with that one of
his elder brothers who did not find a place in their ambitious
designs, but they created for Waka-iratsuko a situation so
intolerable that suicide became his only resource. Nintoku's first
act on ascending the throne explains the ideographs chosen for his
posthumous name by the authors of the Chronicles, since nin signifies
"benevolence" and toku, "virtue." He made Naniwa (Osaka) his capital,
but instead of levying taxes and requisitioning forced labour to
build his palace of Takatsu, he remitted all such burdens for three
years on observing from a tower that no smoke ascended from the roofs
of the houses and construing this to indicate a state of poverty.
During those three years the palace fell into a condition of
practical ruin, and tradition describes its inmates as being
compelled to move from room to room to avoid the leaking rain.*
*Doubts have been thrown on the reality of this incident because a
poem, attributed to Nintoku on the occasion, is couched in obviously
anachronistic language. But the poem does not appear in either the
Records or the Chronicles: it was evidently an invention of later
ages.
Under Nintoku's sway riparian works and irrigation improvements took
place on a large scale, and thus the eminent historian, Rai Sanyo,
may not be without warrant for attributing to this ruler the
sentiment quoted in the Chronicles: "A sovereign lives for his
people. Their prosperity is his enrichment; their poverty, his loss."
Yet it is in connexion with Nintoku's repairs of the Manda river-bank
that we find the first mention of a heinous custom occasionally
practised in subsequent ages--the custom of sacrificing human life to
expedite the progress or secure the success of some public work.
At the same time, that habits indicating a higher civilization had
already begun to gain ground is proved by an incident which occurred
to one of the Imperial princes during a hunting expedition. Looking
down over a moor from a mountain, he observed a pit, and, on inquiry,
was informed by the local headman that it was an "ice-pit." The
prince, asking how the ice was stored and for what it was used,
received this answer: "The ground is excavated to a depth of over ten
feet. The top is then covered with a roof of thatch. A thick layer of
reed-grass is then spread, upon which the ice is laid. The months of
summer have passed and yet it is not melted. As to its use--when the
hot months come it is placed in water or sake and thus used."
[Aston's Nihongi.] Thenceforth the custom of storing ice was adopted
at the Court. It was in Nintoku's era that the pastime of hawking,
afterward widely practised, became known for the first time in Japan.
Korea was the place of origin, and it is recorded that the falcon had
a soft leather strap fastened to one leg and a small bell to the
tail. Pheasants were the quarry of the first hawk flown on the moor
of Mozu.
Light is also thrown in Nintoku's annals on the method of
boatbuilding practised by the Japanese in the fourth century. They
used dug-outs. The provincial governor* of Totomi is represented as
reporting that a huge tree had floated down the river Oi and had
stopped at a bend. It was a single stem forked at one end, and the
suzerain of Yamato was ordered to make a boat of it. The craft was
then brought round by sea to Naniwa, "where it was enrolled among the
Imperial vessels." Evidently from the days of Ojin and the Karano a
fleet formed part of the Imperial possessions. This two-forked boat
figures in the reign of Nintoku's successor, Richu, when the latter
and his concubine went on board and feasted separately, each in one
fork.
*This term, "provincial governor," appears now for the first time
written with the ideographs "kokushi." Hitherto it has been written
"kuni-no-miyatsuko." Much is heard of the koushi in later times. They
are the embryo of the daimyo, the central figures of military
feudalism.
THE FAMILY OF TAKENOUCHI-NO-SUKUNE
For the better understanding of Japanese history at this stage, a
word must be said about a family of nobles (sukune) who, from the
days of Nintoku, exercised potent sway in the councils of State.
It will have been observed that, in the annals of the Emperor
Keiko's reign, prominence is given to an official designated
Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who thereafter seems to have served sovereign
after sovereign until his death in the year 368, when he must have
been from two hundred to three hundred years old. This chronological
difficulty has provoked much scepticism. Dr. Kume, an eminent
Japanese historian, explains, however, that Takenouchi was the name
not of a person but of a family, and that it was borne by different
scions in succeeding reigns. The first was a grandson of the Emperor
Kogen (B.C. 214-158), and the representatives of the family in
Nintoku's era had seven sons, all possessing the title sukune. They
were Hata no Yashiro, Koze no Ogara, Soga no Ishikawa, Heguri no
Tsuku, Ki no Tsunu, Katsuragi no Sotsu, and Wakugo.
From these were descended the five uji of Koze, Soga, Heguri, Ki, and
Katsuragi. Although its founder was an Emperor's grandson and
therefore entitled to be called "Imperial Prince" (O), the family
connexion with the Throne naturally became more remote as time
passed, and from the reign of Ojin we find its members classed among
subjects. Nevertheless, the Empress Iwa, whose jealousy harrassed
Nintoku so greatly, was a daughter of Katsuragi no Sotsu, and, as
with the sole exception of the Emperor Shomu, every occupant of the
throne had taken for his Empress a lady of Imperial blood, it may be
assumed that the relationship between the Imperial and the Takenouchi
families was recognized at that time. The roles which the five uji
mentioned above acted in subsequent history deserve to be studied,
and will therefore be briefly set down here.
THE KOZE-UJI
This uji had for founder Koze no Ogara. The representative of the
fourth generation, Koze no Ohito, held the post of o-omi during the
reign of the Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), and his great-grandson
was minister of the Left under Kotoku (A.D. 545-654). Thereafter, the
heads of the uji occupied prominent positions under successive
sovereigns.
THE SOGA-UJI
Soga no Ishikawa founded this uji. His son, Machi, shared the
administrative power with Heguri no Tsuku in the reign of Richu (A.D.
400-405), and Machi's great-grandson, Iname, immortalized himself by
promoting the introduction of Buddhism in the reign of Kimmei (A.D.
540-571). Iname's son, Umako, and the latter's son, Yemishi, will be
much heard of hereafter. No family, indeed, affected the course of
Japanese history in early days more than did the Soga-uji.
THE HEGURI-UJI
During the reign of the Emperor Richu (A.D. 400-405), Heguri no
Tsuku, founder of this uji, shared in the administration with Soga no
Machi. His son, Heguri no Matori, was minister under Yuryaku (A.D.
457-459), and the fate which he and his son, Shibi, brought upon
their family is one of the salient incidents of Japanese history.
THE KI-UJI
The representatives of this uji, from the days of its founder, Ki
no Tsunu, took a prominent share in the empire's foreign affairs,
but served also in the capacity of provincial governor and
commander-in-chief.
THE KATSURAGI-UJI
Nintoku's Empress, Iwa, was a daughter of the ancestor of this uji,
Katsuragi no Sotsu, and the latter's great-granddaughter, Hae, was
the mother of two sovereigns, Kenso (A.D. 485-487) and Ninken (A.D.
488-498).
ENGRAVING: TOBACCO PIPE AND POUCH
ENGRAVING: HINOMI YAGURA (FIRE WATCH TOWER)
CHAPTER XII
THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS
The 17th Sovereign, Richu A.D. 400-405
" 18th " Hansho " 406-411
" 19th " Inkyo " 412-453
" 20th " Anko " 454-456
" 21st " Yuryaku " 457-479
RICHU'S REIGN
THE prehistoric era may be said to terminate with the accession of
Richu. Thenceforth the lives and reigns of successive sovereigns
cease to extend to incredible lengths, and though the chronology
adopted by the writers of the Nihongi may not yet be implicitly
accepted, its general accuracy is not open to dispute. The era of the
five sovereigns standing at the head of this chapter--an era of
fifty-nine years--inherited as legacies from the immediate past: a
well-furnished treasury, a nation in the enjoyment of peace, a firmly
established throne, and a satisfactory state of foreign relations.
These comfortable conditions seem to have exercised demoralizing
influence. The bonds of discipline grew slack; fierce quarrels on
account of women involved fratricide among the princes of the blood,
and finally the life of an Emperor was sacrificed--the only instance
of such a catastrophe in Japanese history.
Immediately after Nintoku's death this evil state of affairs was
inaugurated by Prince Nakatsu, younger brother of the heir to the
throne, who had not yet assumed the sceptre. Sent by the Crown Prince
(Richu) to make arrangements for the latter's nuptials with the lady
Kuro, a daughter of the Takenouchi family, Nakatsu personified Richu,
debauched the girl, and to avoid the consequences of the act, sought
to take the life of the man he had betrayed. It does not redound to
the credit of the era that the debaucher found support and was
enabled to hold his own for a time, though his treachery ultimately
met with its merited fate. At this crisis of his life, Richu received
loyal assistance from a younger brother, and his gratitude induced
him to confer on the latter the title of Crown Prince. In thus
acting, Richu may have been influenced by the fact that the
alternative was to bequeath the throne to a baby, but none the less
he stands responsible for an innovation which greatly impaired the
stability of the succession. It should be noted, as illustrating the
influence of the Takenouchi family that, in spite of the shame she
had suffered, the lady Kuro became the Emperor's concubine. In fact,
among the four nobles who administered the affairs of the empire
during Richu's reign, not the least powerful were Heguri no Tsuku and
Soga no Machi. Moreover, Richu, as has been stated already, was a son
of Iwa, a lady of the same great family, and his two successors,
Hansho and Inkyo, were his brothers by the same mother.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
The annals of Richu's reign confirm a principle which received its
first illustration when the Emperor Keiko put to death for parricide
the daughter of a Kumaso chief, though she had betrayed her father in
the interest of Keiko himself. Similar deference to the spirit of
loyalty led to the execution of Sashihire in the time of Richu. A
retainer of the rebellious Prince Nakatsu, Sashihire, assassinated
that prince at the instance of Prince Mizuha, who promised large
reward. But after the deed had been accomplished, Heguri no Tsuku
advised his nephew, Mizuha, saying, "Sashihire has killed his own
lord for the sake of another, and although for us he has done a great
service, yet towards his own lord his conduct has been heartless in
the extreme." Sashihire was therefore put to death. That this
principle was always observed in Japan cannot be asserted, but that
it was always respected is certain.
In Richu's reign there is found the first clear proof that tattooing
was not practised in Japan for ornamental purposes. Tattooing is
first mentioned as a custom of the Yemishi when their country was
inspected by Takenouchi at Keiko's orders. But in Richu's time it was
employed to punish the muraji of Atsumi, who had joined the rebellion
of Prince Nakatsu. He was "inked" on the face. It appears also that
the same practice had hitherto been employed to distinguish
horse-keepers, but the custom was finally abandoned in deference to
an alleged revelation from Izanagi, the deity of Awaji, on the
occasion of a visit by Richu to that island. In the context of this
revelation it is noticeable that belief in the malign influence of
offended deities was gaining ground. Thus, on the occasion of the
sudden death of Princess Kuro, the voice of the wind was heard to
utter mysterious words in the "great void" immediately before the
coming of a messenger to announce the event, and the Emperor
attributed the calamity to the misconduct of an official who had
removed certain persons from serving at a shrine.
The annals of this reign are noteworthy as containing the earliest
reference to the compilation of books. It is stated that in the year
A.D. 403 "local recorders were appointed for the first time in the
various provinces, who noted down statements and communicated the
writings of the four quarters." An eminent critic--Mr. W. G.
Aston--regards this as an anachronism, since the coming of the Korean
scholar, Wani (vide sup.), did not take place until the year 405,
which date probably preceded by many years the appointment of
recorders. But it has been shown above that the innovation due to
Wani was, not the art of writing, but, in all probability, a
knowledge of the Chinese classics.
Another institution established during this era was a treasury (A.D.
405), and the two learned Koreans who had come from Paikche (Kudara)
were appointed to keep the accounts. A work of later date than the
Chronicles or Records--the Shokuin-rei--says that in this treasury
were stored "gold and silver, jewels, precious utensils, brocade and
satin, saicenet, rugs and mattresses, and the rare objects sent as
tribute by the various barbarians."
HANSHO
The Emperor Hansho's short reign of five years is not remarkable for
anything except an indirect evidence that Chinese customs were
beginning to be adopted at the Japanese Court. In the earliest eras,
the ladies who enjoyed the sovereign's favour were classed simply as
"Empress" or "consort." But from the days of Hansho we find three
ranks of concubines.
INKYO
Inkyo was a younger brother of his predecessor, Hansho, as the latter
had been of Richu. No formal nomination of Inkyo as Prince Imperial
had taken place, and thus for the first time the sceptre was found
without any legalized heir or any son of the deceased sovereign to
take it. In these circumstances, the ministers held a council and
agreed to offer the throne to Inkyo, the elder of two surviving sons
of Nintoku. Inkyo was suffering from a disease supposed to be
incurable, and, distrusting his own competence, he persistently
refused to accept the responsibility. The incident responsible for
his ultimate consent was the intervention of a concubine, Onakatsu,
afterwards Empress. Under pretext of carrying water for the prince
she entered his chamber, and when he turned his back on her entreaty
that he would comply with the ministers' desire, she remained
standing in the bitter cold of a stormy day of January, until the
water, which she had spilled over her arm, became frozen and she fell
in a faint. Then the prince yielded. A year later envoys were sent to
seek medical assistance in Korea, which was evidently regarded as the
home of the healing science as well as of many other arts borrowed
from China. A physician arrived from Sinra, and Inkyo's malady was
cured.
In this reign took place a celebrated incident, already referred to,
when the lineage of the nobles was corrected by recourse to the
ordeal of boiling water. But a much larger space in the annals is
occupied with the story of an affair, important only as illustrating
the manners and customs of the time. From an early period it had been
usual that Japanese ladies on festive occasions should go through the
graceful performance of "woven paces and waving hands," which
constituted dancing, and, in the era now occupying our attention,
there prevailed in the highest circles a custom that the danseuse
should offer a maiden to the most honoured among the guests. One
winter's day, at the opening of a new palace, the Empress Onakatsu
danced to the music of the Emperor's lute. Onakatsu had a younger
sister, Oto, of extraordinary beauty, and the Emperor, fain to
possess the girl but fearful of offending the Empress, had planned
this dance so that Onakatsu, in compliance with the recognized usage,
might be constrained to place her sister at his disposal. It fell out
as Inkyo wished, but there then ensued a chapter of incidents in
which the dignity of the Crown fared ill. Again and again the
beautiful Oto refused to obey her sovereign's summons, and when at
length, by an unworthy ruse, she was induced to repair to the palace,
it was found impossible to make her an inmate of it in defiance of
the Empress' jealousy. She had to be housed elsewhere, and still the
Imperial lover was baffled, for he dared not brave the elder sister's
resentment by visiting the younger. Finally he took advantage of the
Empress' confinement to pay the long-deferred visit, but, on learning
of the event, the outraged wife set fire to the parturition house and
attempted to commit suicide. "Many years have passed," she is
recorded to have said to the Emperor, "since I first bound up my hair
and became thy companion in the inner palace. It is too cruel of
thee, O Emperor! Wherefore just on this night when I am in childbirth
and hanging between life and death, must thou go to Fujiwara?" Inkyo
had the grace to be "greatly shocked" and to "soothe the mind of the
Empress with explanations," but he did not mend his infidelity. At
Oto's request he built a residence for her at Chinu in the
neighbouring province of Kawachi, and thereafter the compilers of the
Chronicles, with fine irony, confine their record of three
consecutive years' events to a repetition of the single phrase, "the
Emperor made a progress to Chinu."
It is not, perhaps, extravagant to surmise that the publicity
attending this sovereign's amours and the atmosphere of loose
morality thus created were in part responsible for a crime committed
by his elder son, the Crown Prince Karu. Marriage between children of
the same father had always been permitted in Japan provided the
mother was different, but marriage between children of the same
mother was incest. Prince Karu was guilty of this offence with his
sister, Oiratsume, and so severely did the nation judge him that he
was driven into exile and finally obliged to commit suicide. With
such records is the reign of Inkyo associated. It is perplexing that
the posthumous name chosen for him by historians should signify
"sincerely courteous." Incidentally, four facts present
themselves--that men wore wristbands and garters to which grelots
were attached; that a high value was set on pearls; that metal was
used for the construction of great men's gates, and that the first
earthquake is said to have been experienced in A.D. 416.
ANKO
The records of this sovereign's reign make a discreditable page of
Japanese history. Anko, having ascended the throne after an armed
contest with his elder brother, which ended in the latter's suicide,
desired to arrange a marriage between his younger brother, Ohatsuse,
and a sister of his uncle, Okusaka. He despatched Ne no Omi, a
trusted envoy, to confer with the latter, who gladly consented, and,
in token of approval, handed to Ne no Omi a richly jewelled coronet
for conveyance to the Emperor. But Ne no Omi, covetous of the gems,
secreted the coronet, and told the Emperor that Okusaka had rejected
the proposal with scorn. Anko took no steps to investigate the truth
of this statement. It has been already seen that such investigations
were not customary in those days. Soldiers were at once sent to
slaughter Okusaka; his wife, Nakashi, was taken to be the Emperor's
consort, and his sister, Hatahi, was married to Prince Ohatsuse.
Now, at the time of his death, Okusaka had a son, Mayuwa, seven years
old. One day, the Emperor, having drunk heavily, confessed to the
Empress, Nakashi, that he entertained some apprehension lest this boy
might one day seek to avenge his father's execution. The child
overheard this remark, and creeping to the side of his step-father,
who lay asleep with his head in Nakashi's lap, killed him with his
own sword. Such is the tale narrated in the Chronicles and the
Records. But its incredible features are salient. A deed of the kind
would never have been conceived or committed by a child, and the
Empress must have been a conniving party.
To what quarter, then, is the instigation to be traced? An answer
seems to be furnished by the conduct of Prince Ohatsuse. Between this
prince and the throne five lives intervened; those of the Emperor
Anko, of the latter's two brothers, Yatsuri no Shiro and Sakai no
Kuro, both older than Ohatsuse, and of two sons of the late Emperor
Richu, Ichinobe no Oshiwa and Mima. Every one of these was removed
from the scene in the space of a few days. Immediately after Anko's
assassination, Ohatsuse, simulating suspicion of his two elder
brothers, killed the o-omi, who refused to give them up. Ohatsuse
then turned his attention to his grand-uncles, the two sons of Richu.
He sent a military force to destroy one of them without any pretence
of cause; the other he invited to a hunting expedition and
treacherously shot. If Ohatsuse did not contrive the murder of Anko,
as he contrived the deaths of all others standing between himself and
the throne, a great injustice has been done to his memory.
LOYALTY
These shocking incidents are not without a relieving feature. They
furnished opportunities for the display of fine devotion. When Prince
Okusaka died for a crime of which he was wholly innocent, two of his
retainers, Naniwa no Hikaga, father and son, committed suicide in
vindication of his memory. When Prince Sakai no Kuro and Mayuwa took
refuge in the house of the o-omi Tsubura, the latter deliberately
chose death rather than surrender the fugitives. When Prince Kuro
perished, Nie-no-Sukune took the corpse in his arms and was burned
with it. When Prince Ichinobe no Oshiwa fell under the treacherous
arrow of Prince Ohatsuse, one of the former's servants embraced the
dead body and fell into such a paroxysm of grief that Ohatsuse
ordered him to be despatched. And during this reign of Yuryaku, when
Lord Otomo was killed in a fatal engagement with the Sinra troops, his
henchman, Tsumaro, crying, "My master has fallen; what avails that I
alone should remain unhurt?" threw himself into the ranks of the
enemy and perished. Loyalty to the death characterized the Japanese
in every age.
YURYAKU
This sovereign was the Ohatsuse of whose unscrupulous ambition so
much has just been heard. Some historians have described him as an
austere man, but few readers of his annals will be disposed to
endorse such a lenient verdict. He ordered that a girl, whose only
fault was misplaced affection, should have her four limbs stretched
on a tree and be roasted to death; he slew one of his stewards at a
hunt, because the man did not understand how to cut up the meat of an
animal; he removed a high official--Tasa, omi of Kibi--to a distant
post in order to possess himself of the man's wife (Waka), and he
arbitrarily and capriciously killed so many men and women that the
people called him the "Emperor of great wickedness." One act of
justice stands to his credit. The slanderer, Ne no Omi, who for the
sake of a jewelled coronet had caused the death of Prince Okusaka, as
related above, had the temerity to wear the coronet, sixteen years
subsequently, when he presided at a banquet given in honour of envoys
from China; and the beauty of the bauble having thus been noised
abroad, Ne no Omi was required to show it at the palace. It was
immediately recognized by the Empress, sister of the ill-starred
prince, and Ne no Omi, having confessed his crime, was put to death,
all the members of his uji being reduced to the rank of serfs. One
moiety of them was formed into a hereditary corporation which was
organized under the name of Okusakabe, in memory of Prince Okusaka.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
The reign of Yuryaku is partially saved from the reproach of selfish
despotism by the encouragement given to the arts and crafts. It has
already been related that the members of the Hata-uji, which had been
constituted originally with artisans from China, gradually became
dispersed throughout the provinces and were suffering some hardships
when Yuryaku issued orders for their reassembly and reorganization.
Subsequently the sovereign gave much encouragement to sericulture,
and, inspired doubtless by the legend of the Sun goddess, inaugurated
a custom which thereafter prevailed in Japan through all ages, the
cultivation of silkworms by the Empress herself. At a later date,
learning from a Korean handicraftsman (tebito)--whose name has been
handed down as Kwan-in Chiri--that Korea abounded in experts of
superior skill, Yuryaku commissioned this man to carry to the King of
Kudara (Paikche) an autograph letter asking for the services of
several of these experts. This request was complied with, and the
newcomers were assigned dwellings at the village of Tsuno in Yamato;*
but as the place proved unhealthy, they were afterwards distributed
among several localities.
*There were potters, saddlers, brocade-weavers, and interpreters.
It is also recorded that, about this time, there came from China a
man called An Kiko, a descendant of one of the Wu sovereigns. He
settled in Japan, and his son, Ryu afterwards--named Shinki--is
reputed to have been the first exponent of Chinese pictorial art in
Japan. In the year A.D. 470, there was another arrival of artisans,
this time from Wu (China), including weavers and clothiers. They
landed in the province of Settsu, and to commemorate their coming a
road called the "Kure-saka" (Wu acclivity) was constructed from that
port to the Shihatsu highway. The descendants of these immigrants
were organized into two hereditary corporations (be) of
silk-clothiers, the Asuka no Kinu-nui-be and the Ise no Kinu-nui-be.
Two years later (472), orders were issued for the cultivation of
mulberry trees in all suitable provinces, and at the same time the
previously reassembled members of the Hata-uji were once more
distributed to various localities with the object of widening their
sphere of instruction.
In the year 473 a very interesting event is recorded. The muraji of
the Hanishi was ordered to furnish craftsmen to manufacture "pure
utensils" for serving viands daily in the palace. These Hanishi are
first spoken of as having been employed at the suggestion of
Nomi-no-Sukune, in the days of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 3), to make
clay substitutes for the human beings thitherto inhumed at the
sepulchres of notables. In response to this order the muraji summoned
his own tami-be (private hereditary corporation) then located at
seven villages in the provinces of Settsu, Yamashiro, Ise, Tamba,
Tajima, and Inaba. They were organized into the Nie no Hanishibe, or
hereditary corporation of potters of table-utensils. Ceramists had
previously come from Kudara (Paikche), and there can be no doubt that
some progress was made in the art from the fifth century onwards. But
there does not appear to be sufficient ground for a conclusion formed
by some historians that the "pure utensils" mentioned above were of
glazed pottery. The art of applying glaze to ceramic manufactures was
not discovered until a much later period.
RELATIONS WITH KOREA
When Yuryaku ascended the throne, Japan still enjoyed her original
friendship with Paikche (Kudara), whence ladies-in-waiting were sent
periodically to the Yamato Court. She also retained her military post
at Mimana (Imna) and kept a governor there, but her relations with
Shiragi (Sinra) were somewhat strained, owing to harsh treatment of
the latter's special envoys who had come to convey their sovereign's
condolences on the death of the Emperor Inkyo (453). From the time of
Yuryaku's accession, Shiragi ceased altogether to send the usual
gifts to the Emperor of Japan. In the year 463, Yuryaku, desiring to
possess himself of the wife of a high official, Tasa, sent him to be
governor of Mimana, and in his absence debauched the lady. Tasa,
learning how he had been dishonoured, raised the standard of revolt
and sought aid of the Shiragi people. Then Yuryaku, with
characteristic refinement of cruelty, ordered Tasa's son, Oto, to
lead a force against his father. Oto seemingly complied, but, on
reaching the peninsula, opened communication with his father, and it
was agreed that while Tasa should hold Imna, breaking off all
relations with Japan, Oto should adopt a similar course with regard
to Paikche. This plot was frustrated by Oto's wife, Kusu, a woman too
patriotic to connive at treason in any circumstances. She killed her
husband, and the Court of Yamato was informed of these events.
From that time, however, Japan's hold upon the peninsula was shaken.
Yuryaku sent four expeditions thither, but they accomplished nothing
permanent. The power of Koma in the north increased steadily, and it
had the support of China. Yuryaku's attempts to establish close
relations with the latter--the Sung were then on the throne--seem to
have been inspired by a desire to isolate Korea. He failed, and
ultimately Kudara was overrun by Koma, as will be seen by and by. It
is scarcely too much to say that Japan lost her paramount status in
Korea because of Yuryaku's illicit passion for the wife of one of his
subjects.
CHRONOLOGY
The first absolute agreement between the dates given in Japanese
history and those given in Korean occurs in this reign, namely, the
year A.D. 475. The severest critics therefore consent to admit the
trustworthiness of the Japanese annals from the third quarter of the
fifth century.
TREASURIES
In the record of Richu's reign, brief mention has been made of the
establishment of a Government treasury. In early days, when religious
rites and administrative functions were not differentiated, articles
needed for both purposes were kept in the same store, under the
charge of the Imibe-uji. But as the Court grew richer, owing to
receipt of domestic taxes and foreign "tribute," the necessity of
establishing separate treasuries, was felt and a "domestic store"
(Uchi-kura) was formed during Richu's reign, the Koreans, Achi and
Wani, being appointed to keep the accounts. In Yuryaku's time a third
treasury had to be added, owing to greatly increased production of
textile fabrics and other manufactures. This was called the Okura, a
term still applied to the Imperial treasury, and there were thus
three stores, Okura, Uchi-kura, and Imi-kura. Soga no Machi was
placed in supreme charge of all three, and the power of the Soga
family grew proportionately.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
It is observable that at this epoch the sovereigns of Japan had not
yet begun to affect the sacred seclusion which, in later ages, became
characteristic of them. It is true that, after ascending the throne,
they no longer led their troops in war, though they did so as
Imperial princes. But in other respects they lived the lives of
ordinary men--joining in the chase, taking part in banquets, and
mixing freely with the people. As illustrating this last fact a
strange incident may be cited. One day the Emperor Yuryaku visited
the place where some carpenters were at work and observed that one of
them, Mane, in shaping timber with an axe, used a stone for ruler but
never touched it with the axe. "Dost thou never make a mistake and
strike the stone?" asked the monarch. "I never make a mistake,"
replied the carpenter. Then, to disturb the man's sang-froid, Yuryaku
caused the ladies-in-waiting (uneme) to dance, wearing only
waist-cloths. Mane watched the spectacle for a while, and on resuming
his work, his accuracy of aim was momentarily at fault. The Emperor
rebuked him for having made an unwarranted boast and handed him over
to the monono-be for execution. After the unfortunate man had been
led away, one of his comrades chanted an impromptu couplet lamenting
his fate, whereat the Emperor, relenting, bade a messenger gallop off
on "a black horse of Kai" to stay the execution. The mandate of mercy
arrived just in time, and when Mane's bonds were loosed, he, too,
improvised a verse:
"Black as the night
"Was the horse of Kai.
"Had they waited to
"Saddle him, my life were lost
"O, horse of Kai!"
The whole incident is full of instruction. A sovereign concerning
himself about trivialities as petty as this pretext on which he sends
a man to death; the shameful indignity put upon the ladies-in-waiting
to minister to a momentary whim; the composition of poetry by common
carpenters, and the ride for life on a horse which there is not time
to saddle. It is an instructive picture of the ways of Yuryaku's
Court.
In truth, this couplet-composing proclivity is one of the strangest
features of the Yamato race as portrayed in the pages of the Records
and the Chronicles. From the time when the fierce Kami, Susanoo, put
his thoughts into verse as he sought for a place to celebrate his
marriage, great crises and little crises in the careers of men and
women respectively inspire couplets. We find an Emperor addressing an
ode to a dragon-fly which avenges him on a gad-fly; we find a prince
reciting impromptu stanzas while he lays siege to the place whither
his brother has fled for refuge; we find a heartbroken lady singing a
verselet as for the last time she ties the garters of her lord going
to his death, and we find a sovereign corresponding in verse with his
consort whose consent to his own dishonour he seeks to win.
Yet in the lives of all these men and women of old, there are not
many other traces of corresponding refinement or romance. We are
constrained to conjecture that many of the verses quoted in the
Records and the Chronicles were fitted in after ages to the events
they commemorate. Another striking feature in the lives of these
early sovereigns is that while on the one hand their residences are
spoken of as muro, a term generally applied to dwellings partially
underground, on the other, we find more than one reference to high
towers. Thus Yuryaku is shown as "ordering commissioners to erect a
lofty pavilion in which he assumes the Imperial dignity," and the
Emperor Nintoku is represented as "ascending a lofty tower and
looking far and wide" on the occasion of his celebrated sympathy with
the people's poverty.
ENGRAVING: ANCIENT ACROBATIC PERFORMANCE
ENGRAVING: DAIRISAMA (KINO) AND OKUSAMA (QUEEN) OF THE FEAST OF THE
DOLLS
CHAPTER XIII
THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)
The 22nd Sovereign, Seinei A.D. 480-484
" 23rd " Kenso " 485-487
" 24th " Ninken " 488-498
" 25th " Muretsu " 499-506
" 26th " Keitai " 507-531
" 27th " Ankan " 534-535
" 28th " Senkwa " 536-539
DISPUTE ABOUT THE SUCCESSION
THE Emperor Yuryaku's evil act in robbing Tasa of his wife, Waka,
entailed serious consequences. He selected to succeed to the throne
his son Seinei, by Princess Kara, who belonged to the Katsuragi
branch of the great Takenouchi family. But Princess Waka conspired to
secure the dignity for the younger of her own two sons, Iwaki and
Hoshikawa, who were both older than Seinei. She urged Hoshikawa to
assert his claim by seizing the Imperial treasury, and she herself
with Prince Iwaki and others accompanied him thither. They
underestimated the power of the Katsuragi family. Siege was laid to
the treasury and all its inmates were burned, with the exception of
one minor official to whom mercy was extended and who, in token of
gratitude, presented twenty-five acres of rice-land to the o-muraji,
Lord Otomo, commander of the investing force.
THE FUGITIVE PRINCES
The Emperor Seinei had no offspring, and for a time it seemed that
the succession in the direct line would be interrupted. For this lack
of heirs the responsibility ultimately rested with Yuryaku. In his
fierce ambition to sweep away every obstacle, actual or potential,
that barred his ascent to the throne, he inveigled Prince Oshiwa,
eldest son of the Emperor Richu, to accompany him on a hunting
expedition, and slew him mercilessly on the moor of Kaya. Oshiwa had
two sons, Oke and Woke, mere children at the time of their father's
murder. They fled, under the care of Omi, a muraji, who, with his
son, Adahiko, secreted them in the remote province of Inaba. Omi
ultimately committed suicide in order to avoid the risk of capture
and interrogation under torture, and the two little princes, still
accompanied by Adahiko, calling themselves "the urchins of Tamba,"
became menials in the service of the obito of the Shijimi granaries
in the province of Harima.
Twenty-four years had been passed in that seclusion when it chanced
that Odate, governor of the province, visited the obito on an
occasion when the latter was holding a revel to celebrate the
building of a new house, it fell to the lot of the two princes to act
as torch-bearers, the lowest role that could be assigned to them, and
the younger counselled his brother that the time had come to declare
themselves, for death was preferable to such a life. Tradition says
that, being invited to dance "when the night had become profound,
when the revel was at its height and when every one else had danced
in turn," the Prince Woke, accompanying his movements with verses
extemporized for the occasion, danced so gracefully that the governor
twice asked him to continue, and at length he announced the rank and
lineage of his brother and himself. The governor, astonished, "made
repeated obeisance to the youths, built a palace for their temporary
accommodation, and going up to the capital, disclosed the whole
affair to the Emperor, who expressed profound satisfaction."
Oke, the elder of the two, was made Prince Imperial, and should have
ascended the throne on the death of Seinei, a few months later.
Arguing, however, that to his younger brother, Woke it was entirely
due that they had emerged from a state of abject misery, Oke
announced his determination to cede the honour to Woke, who, in turn,
declined to take precedence of his elder brother. This dispute of
mutual deference continued for a whole year, during a part of which
time the administration was carried on by Princess Awo, elder sister
of Woke. At length the latter yielded and assumed the sceptre. His
first care was to collect the bones of his father, Prince Oshiwa,
who had been murdered and buried unceremoniously on the moor of Kaya
in Omi province. It was long before the place of interment could be
discovered, but at length an old woman served as guide, and the bones
of the prince were found mingled in inextricable confusion with those
of his loyal vassal, Nakachiko, who had shared his fate.
The ethics of that remote age are illustrated vividly in this page of
the record. A double sepulchre was erected in memory of the murdered
prince and his faithful follower and the old woman who had pointed
out the place of their unhonoured grave was given a house in the
vicinity of the palace, a rope with a bell attached being stretched
between the two residences to serve as a support for her infirm feet
and as a means of announcing her coming when she visited the palace.
But the same benevolent sovereign who directed these gracious doings
was with difficulty dissuaded from demolishing the tomb and
scattering to the winds of heaven the bones of the Emperor Yuryaku,
under whose hand Prince Oshiwa had fallen.
THE VENDETTA
In connexion with this, the introduction of the principle of the
vendetta has to be noted. Its first practical application is
generally referred to the act of the boy-prince, Mayuwa, who stabbed
his father's slayer, the Emperor Anko (A.D. 456). But the details of
Anko's fate are involved in some mystery, and it is not until the
time (A.D. 486) of Kenso that we find a definite enunciation of the
Confucian doctrine, afterwards rigidly obeyed in Japan, "A man should
not live under the same heaven with his father's enemy." History
alleges that, by his brother's counsels, the Emperor Kenso was
induced to abandon his intention of desecrating Yuryaku's tomb, but
the condition of the tomb to-day suggests that these counsels were
not entirely effective.
BANQUETS
The annals of this epoch refer more than once to banquets at the
palace. Towards the close of Seinei's reign we read of "a national
drinking-festival which lasted five days," and when Kenso ascended
the throne he "went to the park, where he held revel by the winding
streams," the high officials in great numbers being his guests. On
this latter occasion the ministers are said to have "uttered
reiterated cries of 'banzai'"*, which has come into vogue once more in
modern times as the equivalent of "hurrah."
*Banzai means literally "ten thousand years," and thus corresponds to
viva.
THE EMPEROR NINKEN
The twenty-fourth sovereign, Ninken, was the elder of the two
brothers, Oke and Woke, whose escape from the murderous ambition of
the Emperor Yuryaku and their ultimate restoration to princely rank
have been already described. He succeeded to the throne after the
death of his younger brother, and occupied it for ten years of a most
uneventful reign. Apart from the fact that tanners were invited from
Korea to improve the process followed in Japan, the records contain
nothing worthy of attention. One incident, however, deserves to be
noted as showing the paramount importance attached in those early
days to all the formalities of etiquette. The Empress dowager
committed suicide, dreading lest she should be put to death for a
breach of politeness committed towards Ninken during the life of his
predecessor, Kenso. At a banquet in the palace she had twice
neglected to kneel when presenting, first, a knife and, secondly, a
cup of wine to Ninken, then Prince Imperial. It has already been
related that the Empress Onakatsu, consort of Inkyo, was disposed to
inflict the death penalty on a high official who had slighted her
unwittingly prior to her husband's accession. There can be no doubt
that differences of rank received most rigid recognition in early
Japan.
THE EMPEROR MURETSU
This sovereign was the eldest son of his predecessor, Ninken.
According to the Chronicles, his reign opened with a rebellion by the
great Heguri family, whose representative, Matori, attempted to usurp
the Imperial dignity while his son, Shibi, defiantly wooed and won
for himself the object of the Emperor's affections. Matori had been
Yuryaku's minister, and his power as well as his family influence
were very great, but the military nobles adhered to the sovereign's
cause and the Heguri were annihilated. In the Records this event is
attributed to the reign of Seinei in a much abbreviated form, but the
account given in the Chronicles commands the greater credence. The
Chronicles, however, represent Muretsu as a monster of cruelty, the
Nero of Japanese history, who plucked out men's nails and made them
dig up yams with their mutilated fingers; who pulled out people's
hair; who made them ascend trees which were then cut down, and who
perpetrated other hideous excesses. Here again the Records, as
well as other ancient authorities are absolutely silent, and the
story in the Chronicles has attracted keen analyses by modern
historiographers. Their almost unanimous conclusion is that the
annals of King Multa of Kudara have been confused with those of the
Emperor Muretsu. This Korean sovereign, contemporary with Muretsu,
committed all kinds of atrocities and was finally deposed by his
people. There are evidences that the compilers of the Chronicles drew
largely on the pages of Korean writers, and it is not difficult to
imagine accidental intermixing such as that suggested by the critics
in this case.
KEITAI
The death of the Emperor Muretsu left the throne without any
successor in the direct line of descent, and for the first time since
the foundation of the Empire, it became necessary for the great
officials to make a selection among the scions of the remote Imperial
families. Their choice fell primarily on the representative of the
fifth generation of the Emperor Chuai's descendants. But as their
method of announcing their decision was to despatch a strong force of
armed troops to the provincial residence of the chosen man, he
naturally misinterpreted the demonstration and sought safety in
flight. Then the o-omi and the o-muraji turned to Prince Odo, fifth
in descent from the Emperor Ojin on his father's side and eighth in
descent from the Emperor Suinin on his mother's. Arako, head of the
horse-keepers, had secretly informed the prince of the ministers'
intentions, and thus the sudden apparition of a military force
inspired no alarm in Odo's bosom. He did, indeed, show seemly
hesitation, but finally he accepted the insignia and ascended the
throne, confirming all the high dignitaries of State in their
previous offices. From the point of view of domestic affairs his
reign was uneventful, but the empire's relations with Korea continued
to be much disturbed, as will be presently explained.
ANKAN
The Emperor Keitai had a large family, but only one son was by the
Empress, and as he was too young to ascend the throne immediately
after his father's death, he was preceded by his two brothers, Ankan
and Senkwa, sons of the senior concubine. This complication seems to
have caused some difficulty, for whereas Keitai died in 531, Ankan's
reign did not commence until 534. The most noteworthy feature of his
era was the establishment of State granaries in great numbers, a
proof that the Imperial power found large extension throughout the
provinces. In connexion with this, the o-muraji, Kanamura, is quoted
as having laid down, by command of the Emperor, the following
important doctrine, "Of the entire surface of the soil, there is no
part which is not a royal grant in fee; under the wide heavens there
is no place which is not royal territory." The annals show, also,
that the custom of accepting tracts of land or other property in
expiation of offences was obtaining increased vogue.
SENKWA
Senkwa was the younger brother of Ankan. He reigned only three years
and the period of his sway was uneventful, if we except the growth of
complications with Korea, and the storing of large quantities of
grain in Tsukushi, as a "provision against extraordinary occasions,"
and "for the cordial entertainment of our good guests" from "the
countries beyond the sea."
RELATIONS WITH KOREA
With whatever scepticism the details of the Empress Jingo's
expedition be regarded, it appears to be certain that at a very early
date, Japan effected lodgement on the south coast of Korea at Mimana,
and established there a permanent station (chinju-fu) which was
governed by one of her own officials. It is also apparent that,
during several centuries, the eminent military strength of Yamato
received practical recognition from the principalities into which the
peninsula was divided; that they sent to the Court of Japan annual
presents which partook of the nature of tribute, and that they
treated her suggestions, for the most part, with deferential
attention. This state of affairs received a rude shock in the days of
Yuryaku, when that sovereign, in order to possess himself of the wife
of a high official named Tasa, sent the latter to distant Mimana as
governor, and seized the lady in his absence. Tasa revolted, and from
that time Japan's position in the peninsula was compromised. The
Koreans perceived that her strength might be paralyzed by the sins of
her sovereigns and the disaffection of her soldiers. Shiragi (Sinra),
whose frontier was conterminous with that of the Japanese settlement
on the north, had always been restive in the proximity of a foreign
aggressor. From the time of Yuryaku's accession she ceased to convey
the usual tokens of respect to the Yamato Court, and, on the other
hand, she cultivated the friendship of Koma as an ally in the day of
retribution.
It may be broadly stated that Korea was then divided into three
principalities: Shiragi in the south and east; Kudara in the centre
and west, with its capital at the modern Seoul, and Koma in the
north, having Pyong-yang for chief city. This last had recently
pushed its frontier into Manchuria as far as the Liao River, and was
already beginning to project its shadow over the southern regions of
the peninsula, destined ultimately to fall altogether under its sway.
In response to Shiragi's overtures, the King of Koma sent a body of
troops to assist in protecting that principality against any
retaliatory essay on the part of the Japanese in Mimana. But the men
of Shiragi, betrayed into imagining that these soldiers were destined
to be the van of an invading army, massacred them, and besought
Japanese succour against Koma's vengeance. The Japanese acceded, and
Shiragi was saved for a time, but at the cost of incurring, for
herself and for Japan alike, the lasting enmity of Koma. Shiragi
appears to have concluded, however, that she had more to fear from
Koma than from Japan, for she still withheld her tribute to the
latter, and invaded the territory of Kudara, which had always
maintained most friendly relations with Yamato. The Emperor Yuryaku
sent two expeditions to punish this contumacy, but the result being
inconclusive, he resolved to take the exceptional step of personally
leading an army to the peninsula.
This design, which, had it matured, might have radically changed the
history of the Far East, was checked by an oracle, and Yuryaku
appointed three of his powerful nobles to go in his stead. The
Shiragi men fought with desperate tenacity. One wing of their army
was broken, but the other held its ground, and two of the Japanese
generals fell in essaying to dislodge it. Neither side could claim a
decisive victory, but both were too much exhausted to renew the
combat. This was not the limit of Japan's misfortunes. A feud broke
out among the leaders of the expedition, and one of them, Oiwa, shot
his comrade as they were en route for the Court of the Kudara
monarch, who had invited them in the hope of composing their
dissensions, since the existence of his own kingdom depended on
Japan's intervention between Koma and Shiragi.
Owing to this feud among her generals, Japan's hold on Mimana became
more precarious than ever while her prestige in the peninsula
declined perceptibly. Nevertheless her great military name still
retained much of its potency. Thus, ten years later (A.D. 477), when
the King of Koma invaded Kudara and held the land at his mercy, he
declined to follow his generals' counsels of extermination in
deference to Kudara's long friendship with Yamato. It is related
that, after this disaster, the Japanese Emperor gave the town of
Ung-chhon (Japanese, Kumanari) to the remnant of the Kudara people,
and the latter's capital was then transferred from its old site in
the centre of the peninsula--a place no longer tenable--to the
neighbourhood of Mimana. Thenceforth Yuryaku aided Kudara zealously.
He not only despatched a force of five hundred men to guard the
palace of the King, but also sent (480) a flotilla of war-vessels to
attack Koma from the west coast. The issue of this attempt is not
recorded, and the silence of the annals may be construed as
indicating failure. Koma maintained at that epoch relations of
intimate friendship with the powerful Chinese dynasty of the Eastern
Wei, and Yuryaku's essays against such a combination were futile,
though he prosecuted them with considerable vigour.
After his death the efficiency of Japan's operations in Korea was
greatly impaired by factors hitherto happily unknown in her foreign
affairs--treason and corruption. Lord Oiwa, whose shooting of his
fellow general, Karako, has already been noted, retained his post as
governor of Mimana for twenty-one years, and then (487), ambitious of
wider sway, opened relations with Koma for the joint invasion of
Kudara, in order that he himself might ascend the throne of the
latter. A desperate struggle ensued. Several battles were fought, in
all of which the victory is historically assigned to Oiwa, but if he
really did achieve any success, it was purely ephemeral, for he
ultimately abandoned the campaign and returned to Japan, giving
another shock to his country's waning reputation in the peninsula. If
the Yamato Court took any steps to punish this act of lawless
ambition, there is no record in that sense. The event occurred in the
last year of Kenso's reign, and neither that monarch nor his
successor, Ninken, seems to have devoted any special attention to
Korean affairs.
Nothing notable took place until 509, when Keitai was on the throne.
In that year, a section of the Kudara people, who, in 477, had been
driven from their country by the Koma invaders and had taken refuge
within the Japanese dominion of Mimana, were restored to their homes
with Japanese co-operation and with renewal of the friendly relations
which had long existed between the Courts of Yamato and Kudara. Three
years later (512), Kudara preferred a singular request. She asked
that four regions, forming an integral part of the Yamato domain of
Mimana, should be handed over to her, apparently as an act of pure
benevolence. Japan consented. There is no explanation of her
complaisance except that she deemed it wise policy to strengthen
Kudara against the growing might of Shiragi, Yamato's perennial foe.
The two officials by whose advice the throne made this sacrifice were
the o-muraji, Kanamura, and the governor of Mimana, an omi called
Oshiyama. They went down in the pages of history as corrupt statesmen
who, in consideration of bribes from the Kudara Court, surrendered
territory which Japan had won by force of arms and held for five
centuries.
In the following year (513) the Kudara Court again utilized the
services of Oshiyama to procure possession of another district, Imun
(Japanese, Komom), which lay on the northeast frontier of Mimana.
Kudara falsely represented that this region had been wrested from her
by Habe, one of the petty principalities in the peninsula, and the
Yamato Court, acting at the counsels of the same o-muraji (Kanamura)
who had previously espoused Kudara's cause, credited Kudara's story.
This proved an ill-judged policy. It is true that Japan's prestige in
the peninsula received signal recognition on the occasion of
promulgating the Imperial decree which sanctioned the transfer of the
disputed territory. All the parties to the dispute, Kudara, Shiragi,
and Habe, were required to send envoys to the Yamato Court for the
purpose of hearing the rescript read, and thus Japan's pre-eminence
was constructively acknowledged. But her order provoked keen
resentment in Shiragi and Habe. The general whom she sent with five
hundred warships to escort the Kudara envoys was ignominiously
defeated by the men of Habe, while Shiragi seized the opportunity to
invade Mimana and to occupy a large area of its territory.
For several years the Yamato Court made no attempt to re-assert
itself, but in 527 an expedition of unprecedented magnitude was
organized. It consisted of sixty thousand soldiers under the command
of Keno no Omi, and its object was to chastise Shiragi and to
re-establish Mimana in its original integrity. But here an
unforeseeable obstacle presented itself. For all communication with
the Korean peninsula, Tsukushi (Kyushu) was an indispensable basis,
and it happened that, just at this time, Kyushu had for ruler
(miyatsuko) a nobleman called Iwai, who is said to have long
entertained treasonable designs. A knowledge of his mood was conveyed
to Shiragi, and tempting proposals were made to him from that place
conditionally on his frustrating the expedition under Keno no Omi.
Iwai thereupon occupied the four provinces of Higo, Hizen, Bungo, and
Buzen, thus effectually placing his hand on the neck of the
communications with Korea and preventing the embarkation of Keno no
Omi's army. He established a pseudo-Court in Tsukushi and there gave
audience to tribute-bearing envoys from Koma, Kudara and Shiragi.
For the space of a twelvemonth this rebel remained master of the
situation, but, in A.D. 528, the o-muraji, Arakahi, crushed him after
a desperate conflict in the province of Chikugo.* Iwai effected his
escape to Buzen and died by his own hand in a secluded valley.
Although, however, this formidable rebellion was thus successfully
quelled, the great expedition did not mature. Keno, its intended
leader, did indeed proceed to Mimana and assume there the duties of
governor, but he proved at once arrogant and incompetent, employing
to an extravagant degree the ordeal of boiling water, so that many
innocent people suffered fatally, and putting to death children of
mixed Korean and Japanese parentage instead of encouraging unions
which would have tended to bring the two countries closer together.
*In the Chikugo Fudoki a minute description is given of Iwai's
sepulchre, built during his lifetime but presumably never occupied by
his body. The remarkable feature of the tomb was a number of stone
images, several representing grave-guards, and one group being
apparently designed to represent the judicial trial of a poacher.
In all her relations with Korea at this epoch, Japan showed more
loyalty than sagacity. She was invariably ready to accede to
proposals from her old friend, Kudara, and the latter, taking astute
advantage of this mood, secured her endorsement of territorial
transfers which brought to the Yamato Court nothing but the enmity of
Kudara's rivals. By these errors of statesmanship and by the
misgovernment of officials like Keno, conditions were created which,
as will be seen hereafter, proved ultimately fatal to Japan's sway in
the peninsula. Meanwhile, every student of Japanese ancient annals
cannot but be struck by the large space devoted to recording her
relations with Korea. As the eminent historian, Rai Sanyo, said in
later times, her soldiers were wearied by constant campaigns oversea,
and her agriculturists were exhausted by frequent requisitions for
supplies. During the epoch of Jingo and Ojin, Japan was palpably
inferior to her peninsular neighbour in civilization, in wealth, and
in population. But in one respect the superiority was largely on her
side; namely, in the quality of her soldiers. Therefore, she utilized
her military strength for campaigns which cost comparatively little
and produced much. The peninsula, at that time, verified the term
commonly applied to it, Uchi-tsurmiyake, or the "Granary of the
Home-land." But as the material development of Japan and her
civilization progressed, she stood constantly to lose more and gain
less by despatching expeditions to a land which squandered much of
its resources on internecine quarrels and was deteriorating by
comparison. The task of maintaining Mimana and succouring Kudara then
became an obligation of prestige which gradually ceased to interest
the nation.
FINANCE
In the period now under consideration no system of land taxation had
yet come into existence. The requirements of the Court were met by
the produce of the mi-agata (Imperial domains), and rice for public
use was grown in the miyake districts, being there stored and devoted
to the administrative needs of the region. Occasionally the contents
of several miyake were collected into one district, as, for example,
when (A.D. 536) the Emperor Senkwa ordered a concentration of
foodstuffs in Tsukushi. The miyake were the property of the Crown, as
were also a number of hereditary corporations (be), whose members
discharged duties, from building and repairing palaces--no light
task, seeing that the site of the palace was changed with each change
of occupant--to sericulture, weaving, tailoring, cooking, and arts
and handicrafts of all descriptions, each be exercising its own
function from generation to generation, and being superintended by
its own head-man (obito or atae).
Any insufficiency in the supplies furnished by the sovereign's own
people was made good by levying on the tomo-no-miyatsuko. It will be
seen that there was no annual tax regularly imposed on the people in
general, though universal requisitions were occasionally made to meet
the requirements of public works, festivals or military operations.
Hence when it is said that the Emperor Nintoku remitted all taxes for
the space of three years until the people's burdens were lightened,
reference is made only to the be and tomobe belonging to the Throne
itself. Doubtless this special feature of Yamato finance was due in
part to the fact that all the land and all the people, except those
appertaining to the Crown, were in the possession of the uji, without
whose co-operation no general fiscal measure could be adopted. When
recourse to the nation at large was necessitated to meet some
exceptional purpose, orders had to be given, first, to the o-omi and
o-muraji; next, by these to the Kami of the several o-uji; then, by
the latter to the Kami of the various ko-uji, and, finally, by these
last to every household.
The machinery was thorough, but to set it in motion required an
effort which constituted an automatic obstacle to extortion. The
lands and people of the uji were governed by the Emperor but were not
directly controlled by him. On the other hand, to refuse a
requisition made by the Throne was counted contumelious and liable to
punishment. Thus when (A.D. 534) the Emperor Ankan desired to include
a certain area of arable land in a miyake established for the purpose
of commemorating the name of the Empress, and when Ajihari, suzerain
(atae) of the region, sought to evade the requisition by
misrepresenting the quality of the land, he was reprimanded and had
to make atonement by surrendering a portion of his private property.
There can be no doubt, however, that as the population increased and
as uncultivated areas grew less frequent, the arbitrary establishment
of koshiro or of nashiro became more and more irksome, and the pages
of history indicate that from the time of Keitai (A.D. 507-531) this
practice was gradually abandoned.
CRIMINAL LAW
Although the use of the ideographic script became well known from the
fifth century, everything goes to show that no written law existed at
that time, or, indeed, for many years afterwards. Neither are there
any traces of Korean or Chinese influence in this realm. Custom
prescribed punishments, and the solemnity of a judicial trial found
no better representative than the boiling-water ordeal. If a man took
oath to the deities of his innocence and was prepared to thrust his
arm into boiling mud or water, or to lay a red-hot axe on the palm of
his hand, he was held to have complied with all the requirements. The
familiar Occidental doctrine, "the King can do no wrong," received
imperative recognition in Japan, and seems to have been extended to
the Crown Prince also. There were no other exemptions. If a man
committed a crime, punishment extended to every member of his family.
On the other hand, offences might generally be expiated by presenting
lands or other valuables to the Throne. As for the duty of executing
sentences, it devolved on the mononobe, who may be described as the
military corporation. Death or exile were common forms of punishment,
but degradation was still more frequent. It often meant that a
family, noble and opulent to-day, saw all its members handed over
to-morrow to be the serfs or slaves of some uji in whose be they were
enrolled to serve thenceforth, themselves and their children, through
all generations in some menial position,--it might be as
sepulchre-guards, it might be as scullions.
Tattooing on the face was another form of penalty. The first mention
of it occurs in A.D. 400 when Richu condemned the muraji, Hamako, to
be thus branded, but whether the practice originated then or dated
from an earlier period, the annals do not show. It was variously
called hitae-kizamu (slicing the brow), me-saku (splitting the eyes),
and so on, but these terms signified nothing worse than tattooing on
the forehead or round the eyes. The Emperor Richu deemed that such
notoriety was sufficient penalty for high treason, but Yuryaku
inflicted tattooing on a man whose dog had killed one of his
Majesty's fowls.
Death at the stake appears to have been very uncommon. This terrible
form of punishment seems to have been revived by Yuryaku. He caused
it to be inflicted on one of the ladies-in-waiting and her paramour,
who had forestalled him in the girl's affections. The first instance
is mentioned in the annals of the Empress Jingo, but the victim was a
Korean and the incident happened in war. To Yuryaku was reserved the
infamy of employing such a penalty in the case of a woman. Highly
placed personages were often allowed to expiate an offence by
performing the religious rite of harai (purification), the offender
defraying all expenses.
ARCHITECTURE
As Chinese literature became familiar and as the arts of the Middle
Kingdom and Korea were imported into Japan, the latter's customs
naturally underwent some changes. This was noticeable in the case of
architecture. Lofty buildings, as has been already stated, began to
take the place of the partially subterranean muro. The annals make no
special reference to the authors of this innovation, but it is
mentioned that among the descendants of the Chinese, Achi, and the
Korean, Tsuka, there were men who practised carpentry. Apparently the
fashion of high buildings was established in the reign of Anko when
(A.D. 456) the term ro or takadono (lofty edifice) is, for the first
time, applied to the palace of Anko in Yamato. A few years later
(468), we find mention of two carpenters,* Tsuguno and Mita, who,
especially the latter, were famous experts in Korean architecture,
and who received orders from Yuryaku to erect high buildings. It
appears further that silk curtains (tsumugi-kaki) came into use in
this age for partitioning rooms, and that a species of straw mat
(tatsu-gomo) served for carpet when people were hunting, travelling,
or campaigning.
*It should be remembered that as all Japanese edifices were made of
timber, the carpenter and the architect were one and the same.
SHIPS
Occasional references have been made already to the art of
shipbuilding in Japan, and the facts elicited may be summed up very
briefly. They are that the first instance of naming a ship is
recorded in the year A.D. 274, when the Karano (one hundred feet
long) was built to order of the Emperor Ojin by the carpenters of Izu
promontory, which place was famed for skill in this respect; that the
general method of building was to hollow out tree-trunks,* and that
the arrival of naval architects from Shiragi (A.D. 300) inaugurated a
superior method of construction, differing little from that employed
in later ages.
*Such dug-outs were named maruki-bune, a distinguishing term which
proves that some other method of building was also employed.
VEHICLES
A palanquin (koshi) used by the Emperor Ojin (A.D. 270-310) was
preserved in the Kyoto palace until the year 1219, when a
conflagration consumed it. The records give no description of it, but
they say that Yuryaku and his Empress returned from a hunting
expedition on a cart (kuruma), and tradition relates that a man named
Isa, a descendant in the eighth generation of the Emperor Sujin,
built a covered cart which was the very one used by Yuryaku. It is,
indeed, more than probable that a vehicle which had been in use in
China for a long time must have become familiar to the Japanese at an
early epoch.
MEDICAL ART
For relief in sickness supplication to the gods and the performance
of religious rites were chiefly relied on. But it is alleged* that
medicines for internal and external use were in existence and that
recourse to thermal springs was commonly practised from remote times.
*By the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku.
PICTORIAL ART
While Yuryaku was on the throne, Korea and China sent pictorial
experts to Japan. The Korean was named Isuraka, and the Chinese,
Shinki. The latter is said to have been a descendant of the Emperor
Wen of the Wei dynasty. His work attracted much attention in the
reign of Muretsu, who bestowed on him the uji title of Ooka no Obito.
His descendants practised their art with success in Japan, and from
the time of the Emperor Tenchi (668-671) they were distinguished as
Yamato no eshi (painters of Yamato).
POETRY
If we credit the annals, the composition of poetry commenced in the
earliest ages and was developed independently of foreign influences.
From the sovereign down to the lowest subject, everyone composed
verses. These were not rhymed; the structure of the Japanese language
does not lend itself to rhyme. Their differentiation from prose
consisted solely in the numerical regularity of the syllables in
consecutive lines; the alternation of phrases of five and seven
syllables each. A tanka (short song) consisted of thirty-one
syllables arranged thus, 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7; and a naga-uta (long
song) consisted of an unlimited number of lines, all fulfilling the
same conditions as to number of syllables and alternation of phrases.
No parallel to this kind of versification has been found yet in the
literature of any other nation. The Chronicles and the Records abound
with tanka and naga-uta, many of which have been ascribed by skeptics
to an age not very remote from the time when those books were
compiled. But the Japanese themselves think differently. They connect
the poems directly with the events that inspired them. Further
reference to the subject will be made hereafter. Here it will suffice
to note that the composing of such verselets was a feature of every
age in Japan.
UTA-GAKI
A favourite pastime during the early historic period was known as
uta-gaki or uta-kai. In cities, in the country, in fields, and on
hills, youths and maidens assembled in springtime or in autumn and
enjoyed themselves by singing and dancing. Promises of marriage were
exchanged, the man sending some gifts as a token, and the woman, if
her father or elder brother approved, despatching her head-ornament
(oshiki no tamakatsura) to her lover. On the wedding day it was
customary for the bride to present "table-articles" (tsukue-shiro) to
the bridegroom in the form of food and drink. There were places
specially associated in the public mind with uta-gaki--Tsukuba
Mountain in Hitachi, Kijima-yama in Hizen, and Utagaki-yama in
Settsu. Sometimes men of noble birth took part in this pastime, but
it was usually confined to the lower middle classes. The great
festival of bon-odori, which will be spoken of by and by, is said to
be an outgrowth of the uta-gaki.
SUPERSTITIONS
No influences of alien character affected the religious beliefs of
the Japanese during the period we are now considering (fourth, fifth,
and sixth centuries). The most characteristic feature of the time was
a belief in the supernatural power of reptiles and animals. This
credulity was not limited to the uneducated masses. The Throne itself
shared it. Yuryaku, having expressed a desire to see the incarnated
form of the Kami of Mimoro Mountain, was shown a serpent seventy feet
long. In the same year a group of snakes harrassed a man who was
reclaiming a marsh, so that he had to take arms against them and
enter into a compact of limitations and of shrine building. Other
records of maleficent deities in serpent shape were current, and
monkeys and dragons inspired similar terror. Of this superstition
there was born an evil custom, the sacrifice of human beings to
appease the hostile spirits. The Kami of Chusan in Mimasaka province
was believed to be a giant ape, and the Kami of Koya, a big reptile.
The people of these two districts took it in turn to offer a girl at
the shrines of those Kami, and in the province of Hida another
colossal monkey was similarly appeased. There were further cases of
extravagant superstition.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
Of the development of sericulture and of the arts of weaving and
ceramics in this era enough has already been written; but, as showing
the growth of refinement, it may be noted that among the articles
ordered by the Emperor Yuryaku were a silk hat and a sashiha, or
round fan with a long handle. The colour of the fan was purple, and
it is said to have been hung up as an ornament in the palace.
FORM OF GOVERNMENT
The original form of government under the Yamato seems to have been
feudal. The heads of uji were practically feudal chiefs. Even orders
from the Throne had to pass through the uji no Kami in order to reach
the people. But from the time of Nintoku (313-349) to that of Yuryaku
(457-479), the Court wielded much power, and the greatest among the
uji chiefs found no opportunity to interfere with the exercise of the
sovereign's rights. Gradually, however, and mainly owing to the
intrusion of love affairs or of lust, the Imperial household fell
into disorder, which prompted the revolt of Heguri, the o-omi of the
Kwobetsu (Imperial families); a revolt subdued by the loyalty of the
o-muraji of the Shimbetsu (Kami families).
From the days of the Emperor Muretsu (499-506), direct heirs to
succeed to the sceptre were wanting in more than one instance, and a
unique opportunity thus offered for traitrous essays. There was none.
Men's minds were still deeply imbued with the conviction that by the
Tenjin alone might the Throne be occupied. But with the introduction
of Buddhism (A.D. 552), that conviction received a shock. That the
Buddha directed and controlled man's destiny was a doctrine
inconsistent with the traditional faith in the divine authority of
the "son of heaven." Hence from the sixth century the prestige of the
Crown began to decline, and the puissance of the great uji grew to
exceed that of the sovereign. During a short period (645-670) the
authority of the Throne was reasserted, owing to the adoption of the
Tang systems of China; but thereafter the great Fujiwara-uji became
paramount and practically administered the empire.
For the sake, therefore, of an intelligent sequence of conception,
there is evidently much importance in determining whether, in remote
antiquity, the prevailing system was feudal, or prefectural, or a
mixture of both. Unfortunately the materials for accurate
differentiation are wanting. Much depends on a knowledge of the
functions discharged by the kuni-no-miyatsuko, who were hereditary
officials, and the kuni-no-tsukasa (or kokushi) who were appointed by
the Throne. The closest research fails to elucidate these things with
absolute clearness. It is not known even at what date the office of
kokushi was established. The first mention of these officials is made
in the year A.D. 374, during the reign of Nintoku, but there can be
little doubt that they had existed from an earlier date. They were,
however, few in number, whereas the miyatsuko were numerous, and this
comparison probably furnishes a tolerably just basis for estimating
the respective prevalence of the prefectural and the feudal systems.
In short, the method of government inaugurated at the foundation of
the empire appears to have been essentially feudal in practice,
though theoretically no such term was recognized; and at a later
period--apparently about the time of Nintoku--when the power of the
hereditary miyatsuko threatened to grow inconveniently formidable,
the device of reasserting the Throne's authority by appointing
temporary provincial governors was resorted to, so that the
prefectural organization came into existence side by side with the
feudal, and the administration preserved this dual form until the
middle of the seventh century. There will be occasion to refer to the
matter again at a later date.
ANNALS OF THE UJI
It is essential to an intelligent appreciation of Japanese history
that some knowledge should be acquired of the annals of the great
uji.
From the time of Nintoku (A.D. 313-399) until the introduction of
Buddhism (A.D. 552), there were four uji whose chiefs participated
conspicuously in the government of the country. The first was that of
Heguri. It belonged to the Imperial class (Kwobetsu) and was
descended from the celebrated Takenouchi-no-Sukune. In the days of
the Emperor Muretsu (499-506), the chief of this uji attempted to
usurp the throne and was crushed. The second was the Otomo. This uji
belonged to the Kami class (Shimbetsu) and had for ancestor Michi no
Omi, the most distinguished general in the service of the first
Emperor Jimmu. The chiefs of the Otomo-uji filled the post of general
from age to age, and its members guarded the palace gates. During the
reign of Yuryaku the office of o-muraji was bestowed upon Moroya,
then chief of this uji, and the influence he wielded may be inferred
from the language of an Imperial rescript where it is said that "the
tami-be of the o-muraji fill the country." His son, Kanamura,
succeeded him. By his sword the rebellion of Heguri no Matori was
quelled, and by his advice Keitai was called to the Throne. He served
also under Ankan, Senkwa, and Kimmei, but the miscarriage of Japan's
relations with Korea was attributed to him, and the title of o-muraji
was not conferred on any of his descendants.
The uji of Mononobe next calls for notice. "Monono-be" literally
signifies, when expanded, a group (be) of soldiers (tsuwamono). In
later times a warrior in Japan was called mono-no-fu (or bushi),
which is written with the ideographs mono-be. This uji also belonged
to the Kami class, and its progenitor was Umashimade, who surrendered
Yamato to Jimmu on the ground of consanguinity. Thenceforth the
members of the uji formed the Imperial guards (uchi-tsu-mononobe) and
its chiefs commanded them. Among all the uji of the Kami class the
Mononobe and the Otomo ranked first, and after the latter's failure
in connexion with Korea, the Mononobe stood alone. During the reign
of Yuryaku, the uji's chief became o-muraji, as did his grandson,
Okoshi, and the latter's son, Moriya, was destroyed by the o-omi,
Soga no Umako, in the tumult on the accession of Sushun (A.D. 588).
The fourth of the great uji was the Soga, descended from
Takenouchi-no-Sukune. After the ruin of the Heguri, this uji stood at
the head of all the Imperial class. In the reign of Senkwa (536-539),
Iname, chief of the Soga, was appointed o-omi, and his son, Umako,
who held the same rank, occupies an important place in connexion with
the introduction of Buddhism. It will be observed that among these
four uji, Heguri and Soga served as civil officials and Otomo and
Mononobe as military.
There are also three other uji which figure prominently on the stage
of Japanese history. They are the Nakotomi, the Imibe, and the Kume.
The Nakatomi discharged the functions of religious supplication and
divination, standing, for those purposes, between (Naka) the Throne
and the deities. The Imibe had charge of everything relating to
religious festivals; an office which required that they should
abstain (imi suru) from all things unclean. The Kume were descended
from Amatsu Kume no Mikoto, and their duties were to act as
chamberlains and as guards of the Court.
Finally, there was the Oga-uji, descended from Okuninushi, which
makes the eighth of the great uji. From the time of the Emperor Jimmu
to that of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), the nobles who served in
ministerial capacities numbered forty and of that total the Mononobe
furnished sixteen; the Otomo, six; the o-omi houses (i.e. the
Kwobetsu), nine; the Imibe, one; the Nakatomi, six; and the Oga, two.
Thus, the military uji of Mononobe and Otomo gave to the State
twenty-two ministers out of forty during a space of some twelve
centuries.
ENGRAVING: PROFESSIONAL STORY-TELLER
ENGRAVING: SHIGURETEI AND KASA-NO-CHAYA IN THE KODAIJI (Examples of
Ancient Tea Houses)
CHAPTER XIV
FROM THE 29TH TO THE 35TH SOVEREIGN
The 29th Sovereign, Kimmei A.D. 540-571
" 30th " Bidatsu " 572-585
" 31st " Yomei " 586-587
" 32nd " Sushun " 588-592
" 33rd " Suiko " 593-628
" 34th " Jomei " 629-641
" 35th " Kogyoku " 642-645
THE seven reigns five Emperors and two Empresses commencing with the
Emperor Kimmei and ending with the Empress Kogyoku, covered a period
of 105 years, from 540 to 645, and are memorable on three accounts:
the introduction of Buddhism; the usurpation of the great uji, and
the loss of Japan's possessions in Korea.
THE INTRODUCTION OF BUDDHISM
During the reign of the Emperor Ming of the Hou-Han dynasty, in the
year AD. 65, a mission was sent from China to procure the Buddhist
Sutras as well as some teachers of the Indian faith. More than three
centuries elapsed before, in the year 372, the creed obtained a
footing in Korea; and not for another century and a half did it find
its way (522) to Japan. It encountered no obstacles in Korea. The
animistic belief of the early Koreans has never been clearly studied,
but whatever its exact nature may have been, it certainly evinced no
bigotry in the presence of the foreign faith, for within three years
of the arrival of the first image of Sakiya Muni in Koma, two large
monasteries had been built, and the King and his Court were all
converts.
No such reception awaited Buddhism in Japan when, in 522, a Chinese
bonze, Shiba Tachito, arrived, erected a temple on the Sakata plain
in Yamato, enshrined an image, of Buddha there, and endeavoured to
propagate the faith. At that time, Wu, the first Emperor of the Liang
dynasty in China, was employing all his influence to popularize the
Indian creed. Tradition says that Shiba Tachito came from Liang, and
in all probability he took the overland route via the Korean
peninsula, but the facts are obscure. No sensible impression seems to
have been produced in Japan by this essay. Buddhism was made known to
a few, but the Japanese showed no disposition to worship a foreign
god. Twenty-three years later (545), the subject attracted attention
again. Song Wang Myong, King of Kudara, menaced by a crushing attack
on the part of Koma and Shiragi in co-operation, made an image of the
Buddha, sixteen feet high, and petitioned the Court of Yamato in the
sense that as all good things were promised in the sequel of such an
effort, protection should be extended to him by Japan. Tradition says
that although Buddhism had not yet secured a footing in Yamato, this
image must be regarded as the pioneer of many similar objects
subsequently set up in Japanese temples.
Nevertheless, A.D. 552 is usually spoken of as the date of Buddhism's
introduction into Japan. In that year the same King of Kudara
presented direct to the Yamato Court a copper image of Buddha plated
with gold; several canopies (tengai), and some volumes of the sacred
books, by the hands of Tori Shichi (Korean pronunciation, Nori
Sachhi) and others. The envoys carried also a memorial which said:
"This doctrine is, among all, most excellent. But it is difficult to
explain and difficult to understand. Even the Duke Chou and Confucius
did not attain to comprehension. It can produce fortune and
retribution, immeasurable, illimitable. It can transform a man into a
Bodhi. Imagine a treasure capable of satisfying all desires in
proportion as it is used. Such a treasure is this wonderful doctrine.
Every earnest supplication is fulfilled and nothing is wanting.
Moreover, from farthest India to the three Han, all have embraced the
doctrine, and there is none that does not receive it with reverence
wherever it is preached. Therefore thy servant, Myong, in all
sincerity, sends his retainer, Nori Sachhi, to transmit it to the
Imperial country, that it may be diffused abroad throughout the home
provinces,* so as to fulfil the recorded saying of the Buddha, 'My
law shall spread to the East.'"** It is highly probable that in the
effort to win the Yamato Court to Buddhism, King Myong was influenced
as much by political as by moral motives. He sought to use the
foreign faith as a link to bind Japan to his country, so that he
might count on his oversea neighbour's powerful aid against the
attacks of Koma and Shiragi.
*That is to say, the Kinai, or five provinces, of which Yamato is the
centre.
**The memorial is held by some critics to be of doubtful
authenticity, though the compilers of the Chronicles may have
inserted it in good faith.
A more interesting question, however, is the aspect under which the
new faith presented itself to the Japanese when it first arrived
among them as a rival of Shinto and Confucianism. There can be no
doubt that the form in which it became known at the outset was the
Hinayana, or Exoteric, as distinguished from the Mahayana, or
Esoteric. But how did the Japanese converts reconcile its acceptance
with their allegiance to the traditional faith, Shinto? The clearest
available answer to this question is contained in a book called
Taishiden Hochu, where, in reply to a query from his father, Yomei,
who professed inability to believe foreign doctrines at variance with
those handed down from the age of the Kami, Prince Shotoku is
recorded to have replied:
"Your Majesty has considered only one aspect of the matter. I am
young and ignorant, but I have carefully studied the teachings of
Confucius and the doctrine of the Kami. I find that there is a plain
distinction. Shinto, since its roots spring from the Kami, came into
existence simultaneously with the heaven and the earth, and thus
expounds the origin of human beings. Confucianism, being a system of
moral principles, is coeval with the people and deals with the middle
stage of humanity. Buddhism, the fruit of principles, arose when the
human intellect matured. It explains the last stage of man. To like
or dislike Buddhism without any reason is simply an individual
prejudice. Heaven commands us to obey reason. The individual cannot
contend against heaven. Recognizing that impossibility, nevertheless
to rely on the individual is not the act of a wise man or an
intelligent. Whether the Emperor desire to encourage this creed is a
matter within his own will. Should he desire to reject it, let him do
so; it will arise one generation later. Should he desire to adopt it,
let him do so; it will arise one generation earlier. A generation is
as one moment in heaven's eyes. Heaven is eternal. The Emperor's
reign is limited to a generation; heaven is boundless and
illimitable. How can the Emperor struggle against heaven? How can
heaven be concerned about a loss of time?"
The eminent modern Japanese historiographer, Dr. Ariga, is disposed
to regard the above as the composition of some one of later date than
the illustrious Shotoku, but he considers that it rightly represents
the relation assigned to the three doctrines by the Japanese of the
sixth and seventh centuries. "Shinto teaches about the origin of the
country but does not deal with the present or the future.
Confucianism discusses the present and has no concern with the past
or the future. Buddhism, alone, preaches about the future. That life
ends with the present cannot be believed by all. Many men think of
the future, and it was therefore inevitable that many should embrace
Buddhism."
But at the moment when the memorial of King Myong was presented to
the Emperor Kimmei, the latter was unprepared to make a definite
reply. The image, indeed, he found to be full of dignity, but he left
his ministers to decide whether it should be worshipped or not. A
division of opinion resulted. The o-omi, Iname, of the Soga family,
advised that, as Buddhism had won worship from all the nations on the
West, Japan should not be singular. But the o-muraji, Okoshi, of the
Mononobe-uji, and Kamako, muraji of the Nakatomi-uji, counselled that
to bow down to foreign deities would be to incur the anger of the
national gods. In a word, the civil officials advocated the adoption
of the Indian creed; the military and ecclesiastical officials
opposed it. That the head of the Mononobe-uji should have adopted
this attitude was natural: it is always the disposition of soldiers
to be conservative, and that is notably true of the Japanese soldier
(bushi). In the case of the Nakatomi, also, we have to remember that
they were, in a sense, the guardians of the Shinto ceremonials: thus,
their aversion to the acceptance of a strange faith is explained.
What is to be said, however, of the apparently radical policy of the
Soga chief? Why should he have advocated so readily the introduction
of a foreign creed? There are two apparent reasons. One is that the
Hata and Aya groups of Korean and Chinese artisans were under the
control of the Soga-uji, and that the latter were therefore disposed
to welcome all innovations coming from the Asiatic continent. The
other is that between the o-muraji of the Kami class (Shimbetsu) and
the o-omi of the Imperial class (Kwobetsu) there had existed for some
time a political rivalry which began to be acute at about the period
of the coming of Buddhism, and which was destined to culminate, forty
years later, in a great catastrophe. The Emperor himself steered a
middle course. He neither opposed nor approved but entrusted the
image to the keeping of the Soga noble. Probably his Majesty was not
unwilling to submit the experiment to a practical test vicariously,
for it is to be noted that, in those days, the influence of the Kami
for good or for evil was believed to be freely exercised in human
affairs.
This last consideration does not seem to have influenced Soga no
Iname at all. He must have been singularly free from the
superstitions of his age, for he not only received the image with
pleasure but also enshrined it with all solemnity in his Mukuhara
residence, which he converted wholly into a temple.
Very shortly afterwards, however, the country was visited by a
pestilence, and the calamity being regarded as an expression of the
Kami's resentment, the o-muraji of the Mononobe and the muraji of the
Nakatomi urged the Emperor to cast out the emblems of a foreign
faith. Accordingly, the statue of the Buddha was thrown into the
Naniwa canal and the temple was burned to the ground. Necessarily
these events sharply accentuated the enmity between the Soga and the
Mononobe. Twenty-five years passed, however, without any attempt to
restore the worship of the Buddha. Iname, the o-omi of the Soga,
died; Okoshi, the o-muraji of the Mononobe, died, and they were
succeeded in these high offices by their sons, Umako and Moriya,
respectively.
When the Emperor Bidatsu ascended the throne in A.D. 572, the
political stage was practically occupied by these two ministers only;
they had no competitors of equal rank. In 577, the King of Kudara
made a second attempt to introduce Buddhism into Japan. He sent to
the Yamato Court two hundred volumes of sacred books; an ascetic; a
yogi (meditative monk); a nun; a reciter of mantras (magic spells); a
maker of images, and a temple architect. If any excitement was caused
by this event, the annals say nothing of the fact. It is briefly
related that ultimately a temple was built for the new-comers in
Naniwa (modern Osaka). Two years later, Shiragi also sent a Buddhist
eidolon, and in 584--just sixty-two years after the coming of Shiba
Tachito from Liang and thirty-two years after Soga no Iname's attempt
to popularize the Indian faith--two Japanese high officials returned
from Korea, carrying with them a bronze image of Buddha and a stone
image of Miroku.* These two images were handed over, at his request,
to the o-omi, Umako, who had inherited his father's ideas about
Buddhism. He invited Shiba Tachito, then a village mayor, to
accompany one Hida on a search throughout the provinces for Buddhist
devotees. They found a man called Eben, a Korean who had originally
been a priest, and he, having resumed the stole, consecrated the
twelve-year-old daughter of Shiba Tachito, together with two other
girls, as nuns. The o-omi now built a temple, where the image of
Miroku was enshrined, and a pagoda on the top of whose central pillar
was deposited a Buddhist relic which had shown miraculous powers.
*The Sanskrit Maitreya, the expected Messiah of the Buddhist.
Thus, once more the creed of Sakiya Muni seemed to have found a
footing in Japan. But again the old superstitions prevailed. The
plague of small-pox broke out once more. This fell disease had been
carried from Cochin China by the troops of General Ma Yuan during the
Han dynasty, and it reached Japan almost simultaneously with the
importation of Buddhism. The physicians of the East had no skill in
treating it, and its ravages were terrible, those that escaped with
their lives having generally to lament the loss of their eyes. So
soon as the malady made its second appearance in the immediate sequel
of the new honours paid to Buddhism, men began to cry out that the
Kami were punishing the nation's apostacy, and the o-muraji, Moriya,
urged the Emperor (Bidatsu) to authorize the suppression of the alien
religion. Bidatsu, who at heart had always been hostile to the
innovation, consented readily, and the o-muraji, taking upon himself
the duty of directing the work of iconoclasm, caused the pagoda and
the temple to be razed and burned, threw the image into the canal,
and flogged the nuns. But the pestilence was not stayed. Its ravages
grew more unsparing. The Emperor himself, as well as the o-omi,
Umako, were attacked, and now the popular outcry took another tone:
men ascribed the plague to the wrath of Buddha. Umako, in turn,
pleaded with the Emperor, and was permitted to rebuild the temple and
reinstate the nuns, on condition that no efforts were made to
proselytize.
Thus Buddhism recovered its footing, but the enmity between the
o-muraji and the o-omi grew more implacable than ever. They insulted
each other, even at the obsequies of the sovereign, and an occasion
alone was needed to convert their anger into an appeal to arms.
DISPUTES ABOUT THE ACCESSION
When the Emperor Bidatsu died (A.D. 585) no nomination of a Prince
Imperial had taken place, and the feud known to exist between the
o-omi and the o-muraji increased the danger of the situation. The
following genealogical table will serve to elucidate the relation in
which the Soga-uji stood to the Imperial Family, as well as the
relation between the members of the latter:
\
| Prince Shotoku******
/ Emperor Yomei** > (married to a daughter
/ \ | (originally Prince Oe)| of Soga no Umako)
|Princess Kitashi| | /
|(consort of >< Empress Suiko*****
|Emperor Kimmei* | | (originally consort
| / | of Emperor Bidatsu***
Soga | \
no <
Iname | \ /
|Oane-kimi | | Prince Anahobe*******
|(consort of ><
|Emperor Kimmei) | | Emperor Sushun****
| / \
|
|Omako-Emishi-Iruka
\
*The Emperor Kimmei was the elder brother-in-law of Soga no Umako.
**The Emperor Yomei was the nephew of Soga no Umako.
***The Emperor Bidatsu was a nephew of Umako.
****The Emperor Sushun was a nephew of Umako.
*****The Empress Suiko was a niece of Umako.
******Prince Shotoku was son-in-law of Umako.
*******Prince Anahobe was a nephew of Umako.
It is thus seen that the great uji of Soga was closely related to all
the Imperial personages who figured prominently on the stage at this
period of Japanese history.
THE EMPEROR YOMEI
The Emperor Yomei was the fourth son of the Emperor Kimmei and a
nephew of the o-omi, Umako. The Chronicles say that he "believed in
the law of Buddha and reverenced Shinto" which term now makes its
first appearance on the page of Japanese history, the Kami alone
having been spoken of hitherto. Yomei's accession was opposed by his
younger brother, Prince Anahobe (vide above genealogical table), who
had the support of the o-muraji, Moriya; but the Soga influence was
exerted in Yomei's behalf. Anahobe did not suffer his discomfiture
patiently. He attempted to procure admission to the mourning chamber
of the deceased Emperor for some unexplained purpose, and being
resisted by Miwa Sako, who commanded the palace guards, he laid a
formal complaint before the o-omi and the o-muraji. In the sequel
Sako was killed by the troops of the o-muraji, though he merited
rather the latter's protection as a brave soldier who had merely done
his duty, who opposed Buddhism, and who enjoyed the confidence of the
Empress Dowager. To Umako, predicting that this deed of undeserved
violence would prove the beginning of serious trouble, Moriya
insultingly retorted that small-minded men did not understand such
matters. Moriya's mind was of the rough military type. He did not
fathom the subtle unscrupulous intellect of an adversary like Umako,
and was destined to learn the truth by a bitter process.
SHOTOKU TAISHI
Umayado, eldest son of the Emperor Yomei, is one of the most
distinguished figures in the annals of Japan. He has been well called
"the Constantine of Buddhism." In proof of his extraordinary
sagacity, the Chronicles relate that in a lawsuit he could hear the
evidence of ten men without confusing them. From his earliest youth
he evinced a remarkable disposition for study. A learned man was
invited from China to teach him the classics, and priests were
brought from Koma to expound the doctrine of Buddhism, in which faith
he ultimately became a profound believer. In fact, to his influence,
more than to any other single factor, may be ascribed the final
adoption of the Indian creed by Japan. He never actually ascended the
throne, but as regent under the Empress Suiko he wielded Imperial
authority. In history he is known as Shotoku Taishi (Prince Shotoku).
FINAL STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE MONONOBE AND THE SOGA
In the second year of his reign, the Emperor Yomei was seized with
the malady which had killed his father. In his extremity he desired
to be received into the Buddhist faith to which he had always
inclined, and he ordered the leading officials to consider the
matter. A council was held. Moriya, o-muraji of the Mononobe, and
Katsumi, muraji of the Nakatomi, objected resolutely. They asked why
the Kami of the country should be abandoned in a moment of crisis.
But Umako, o-omi of the Soga, said: "It is our duty to obey the
Imperial commands and to give relief to his Majesty. Who will dare to
suggest contumely?" Buddhist priests were then summoned to the
palace. It was a moment of extreme tension. Prince Umayado (Shotoku)
grasped the hands of the o-omi and exclaimed, "If the minister had
not believed in Buddhism, who would have ventured to give such
counsel?" Umako's answer is said to have been: "Your Imperial
Highness will work for the propagation of the faith. I, a humble
subject, will maintain it to the death." Moriya, the o-muraji, made
no attempt to hide his resentment, but recognizing that his adherents
in the palace were comparatively few, he withdrew to a safe place and
there concentrated his forces, endeavouring, at the same time, to
enlist by magic rites the assistance of the Kami against the
disciples of the foreign faith. Meanwhile the Emperor's malady ended
fatally. His reign had lasted only one year. At the point of death he
was comforted by an assurance that the son of Shiba Tachito would
renounce the world to revere his Majesty's memory and would make an
image of the Buddha sixteen feet high.
Buddhism had now gained a firm footing at the Yamato Court, but its
opponents were still active. Their leader, the o-muraji, thought that
his best chance of success was to contrive the accession of Prince
Anahobe, whose attempt to take precedence of his elder brother, the
Emperor Yomei, has been already noted. The conspiracy was discovered,
and the Soga forces, acting under the nominal authority of the
deceased Emperor's consort, Umako's niece, moved against Anahobe and
Moriya, who had not been able to combine their strength. The
destruction of Prince Anahobe was easily effected, but the work of
dealing with the o-muraji taxed the resources of the Soga to the
utmost. Moriya himself ascended a tree and by skill of archery held
his assailants long at bay. Archery had been practised assiduously by
the Yamato warrior from time immemorial, and arrows possessing
remarkable power of penetration had been devised. During the reign of
Nintoku, when envoys from Koma presented to the Court iron shields
and iron targets, a Japanese archer, Tatebito, was able to pierce
them; and in the time of Yuryaku, a rebel named Iratsuko shot a shaft
which, passing through his adversary's shield and twofold armour,
entered the flesh of his body to the depth of an inch. There was an
archery hall within the enclosure of the palace; whenever envoys or
functionaries from foreign countries visited Yamato they were invited
to shoot there; frequent trials of skill took place, and when oversea
sovereigns applied for military aid, it was not unusual to send some
bundles of arrows in lieu of soldiers.
Thus, the general of the Mononobe, perched among the branches of a
tree, with an unlimited supply of shafts and with highly trained
skill as a bowman, was a formidable adversary. Moriya and his large
following of born soldiers drove back the Soga forces three times.
Success seemed to be in sight for the champion of the Kami. At this
desperate stage Prince Shotoku--then a lad of sixteen--fastened to
his helmet images of the "Four Guardian Kings of Heaven"* and vowed
to build a temple in their honour if victory was vouchsafed to his
arms. At the same time, the o-omi, Umako, took oath to dedicate
temples and propagate Buddhism. The combat had now assumed a
distinctly religious character. Shotoku and Umako advanced again to
the attack; Moriya was shot down; his family and followers fled, were
put to the sword or sent into slavery, and all his property was
confiscated.
*The "Four Guardian Kings" (Shi-Tenno) are the warriors who guard the
world against the attacks of demons.
An incident of this campaign illustrates the character of the
Japanese soldier as revealed in the pages of subsequent history: a
character whose prominent traits were dauntless courage and romantic
sympathy. Yorozu, a dependent of the o-muraji, was reduced to the
last straits after a desperate fight. The Chronicles say: "Then he
took the sword which he wore, cut his bow into three pieces, and
bending his sword, flung it into the river. With a dagger which he
had besides, he stabbed himself in the throat and died. The governor
of Kawachi having reported the circumstances of Yorozu's death to the
Court, the latter gave an order by a stamp* that his body should be
cut into eight pieces and distributed among the eight provinces."**
In accordance with this order the governor was about to dismember the
corpse when thunder pealed and a great rain fell. "Now there was a
white dog which had been kept by Yorozu. Looking up and looking down,
it went round, howling beside the body, and at last, taking up the
head in its mouth, it placed it on an ancient mound, lay down close
by, and starved to death. When this was reported to the Court, the
latter, moved by profound pity, issued an order that the dog's
conduct should be handed down to after ages, and that the kindred of
Yorozu should be allowed to construct a tomb and bury his remains."
*A stamp in red or black on the palm of the hand.
**This custom of dismembering and distributing the remains was
practised in Korea until the time, at the close of the nineteenth
century, when the peninsula came under Japanese protection. It was
never customary in Japan.
BUILDING OF TEMPLES
After order had been restored, Prince Shotoku fulfilled his vow by
building in the province of Settsu a temple dedicated to the Four
Guardian Kings of Heaven (Shitenno-ji), and by way of endowment there
were handed over to it one-half of the servants of the o-muraji,
together with his house and a quantity of other property. The o-omi,
Umako, also erected a temple called Hoko-ji in Asuka near Kara. It
has been shown above that Soga no Iname converted one of his houses
into a temple to receive the Buddhist image sent by Myong in 552, and
that his son, Umako, erected a temple on the east of his residence to
enshrine a stone image of Miroku, in 584. But these two edifices
partook largely of the nature of private worship. The first public
temples for the service of Buddhism were Shotoku's Shitenno-ji and
Umako's Hoko-ji erected in 587.
AMOUNT OF THE O-MURAJI'S PROPERTY
In the Annals of Prince Shotoku (Taishi-deri) it is recorded that the
parts of the o-muraji's estate with which the temple of the Four
Kings was endowed were 273 members of his family and household; his
three houses and movable property, together with his domain measuring
186,890 shiro, and consisting of two areas of 128,640 shiro and
58,250 shiro in Kawachi and Settsu, respectively. The shiro is
variously reckoned at from 5% to 7.12 tsubo (1 tsubo = 36 square
feet). Taking the shiro as 6 tsubo, the above three areas total 1000
acres approximately. That this represented a part only of the
o-muraji's property is held by historians, who point to the fact that
the o-omi's wife, a younger sister of the o-muraji, incited her
husband to destroy Moriya for the sake of getting possession of his
wealth.
THE EMPEROR SUSHUN
The deaths of Prince Anahobe and Moriya left the Government
completely in the hands of Soga no Umako. There was no o-muraji; the
o-omi was supreme. At his instance the crown was placed upon the head
of his youngest nephew, Sushun. But Sushun entertained no friendship
for Umako nor any feeling of gratitude for the latter's action in
contriving his succession to the throne. Active, daring, and astute,
he judged the o-omi to be swayed solely by personal ambition, and he
placed no faith in the sincerity of the great official's Buddhist
propaganda. Meanwhile, the fortunes of the new faith prospered. When
the dying Emperor, Yomei, asked to be qualified for Nirvana, priests
were summoned from Kudara. They came in 588, the first year of
Sushun's reign, carrying relics (sarira), and they were accompanied
by ascetics, temple-architects, metal-founders, potters, and a
pictorial artist.
The Indian creed now began to present itself to the Japanese people,
not merely as a vehicle for securing insensibility to suffering in
this life and happiness in the next, but also as a great protagonist
of refined progress, gorgeous in paraphernalia, impressive in rites,
eminently practical in teachings, and substituting a vivid rainbow of
positive hope for the negative pallor of Shinto. Men began to adopt
the stole; women to take the veil, and people to visit the hills in
search of timbers suited for the frames of massive temples. Soga no
Umako, the ostensible leader of this great movement, grew more and
more arrogant and arbitrary. The youthful Emperor unbosomed himself
to Prince Shotoku, avowing his aversion to the o-omi and his
uncontrollable desire to be freed from the incubus of such a
minister. Shotoku counselled patience, but Sushun's impetuosity could
not brook delay, nor did he reflect that he was surrounded by
partisans of the Soga.
A Court lady betrayed his designs to the o-omi, and the latter
decided that the Emperor must be destroyed. An assassin was found in
the person of Koma, a naturalized Chinese, suzerain of the Aya uji,
and, being introduced into the palace by the o-omi under pretence of
offering textile fabrics from the eastern provinces, he killed the
Emperor. So omnipotent was the Soga chief that his murderous envoy
was not even questioned. He received open thanks from his employer
and might have risen to high office had he not debauched a daughter
of the o-omi. Then Umako caused him to be hung from a tree and made a
target of his body, charging him with having taken the Emperor's
life. "I knew only that there was an o-omi," retorted the man. "I did
not know there was an Emperor." Many others shared Koma's comparative
ignorance when the Soga were in power. At the Emperor Yomei's death,
only one person honoured his memory by entering the Buddhist
priesthood. When Soga no Umako died, a thousand men received the
tonsure. The unfortunate Sushun was interred on the day of his
murder, an extreme indignity, yet no one ventured to protest; and
even Prince Shotoku, while predicting that the assassin would
ultimately suffer retribution, justified the assassination on the
ground that previous misdeeds had deserved it.
Shotoku's conduct on this occasion has inspired much censure and
surprise when contrasted with his conspicuous respect for virtue in
all other cases. But the history of the time requires intelligent
expansion. Cursory reading suggests that Umako's resolve to kill
Sushun was taken suddenly in consequence of discovering the latter's
angry mood. The truth seems to be that Sushun was doomed from the
moment of his accession. His elder brother had perished at the hands
of Umako's troops, and if he himself did not meet the same fate,
absence of plausible pretext alone saved him. To suffer him to reign,
harbouring, as he must have harboured, bitter resentment against his
brother's slayer, would have been a weakness inconsistent with
Umako's character. Sushun was placed on the throne as a concession to
appearance, but, at the same time, he was surrounded with creatures
of the o-omi, so that the latter had constant cognizance of the
sovereign's every word and act.
When the o-omi judged the time fitting, he proposed to the Emperor
that an expedition should be despatched to recover Mimana, which had
been lost to Japan some time previously. An army of twenty thousand
men, commanded by a majority of the omi and muraji, was sent to
Tsukushi, and all potential opponents of the Soga chief having been
thus removed, he proceeded to carry out his design against the
Emperor's life. The very indignity done to Sushun's remains testifies
the thoroughness of the Soga plot. It has been shown that in early
days the erection of a tomb for an Imperial personage was a heavy
task, involving much time and labour. Pending the completion of the
work, the corpse was put into a coffin and guarded day and night, for
which purpose a separate palace was* erected. When the sepulchre had
been fully prepared, the remains were transferred thither with
elaborate ceremonials,** and the tomb was thenceforth under the care
of guardians (rioko).
*Called Araki-no-miya, or the "rough palace." The interval during
which time the coffin remained there was termed kari-mo-gari, or
"temporary mourning."
**Known as kakushi-matsuri, or the "rite of hiding." It would seem
that the term of one year's mourning prescribed in the case of a
parent had its origin in the above arrangement.
All these observances were dispensed with in the case of the Emperor
Sushun. His remains did not receive even the measure of respect that
would have been paid to the corpse of the commonest among his
subjects. Nothing could indicate more vividly the omnipotence of the
o-omi; everything had been prepared so that his partisans could bury
the body almost before it was cold. Had Prince Shotoku protested, he
would have been guilty of the futility described by a Chinese proverb
as "spitting at the sky." Besides, Shotoku and Umako were allies
otherwise. The Soga minister, in his struggle with the military
party, had needed the assistance of Shotoku, and had secured it by
community of allegiance to Buddhism. The prince, in his projected
struggle against the uji system, needed the assistance of Buddhist
disciples in general, and in his effort to reach the throne, needed
the assistance of Umako in particular. In short, he was building the
edifice of a great reform, and to have pitted himself, at the age of
nineteen, against the mature strength of the o-omi would have been to
perish on the threshold of his purpose.
THE EMPRESS SUIKO
By the contrivance of Umako, the consort of the Emperor Bidatsu was
now placed on the throne, Prince Shotoku being nominated Prince
Imperial and regent. The Soga-uji held absolute power in every
department of State affairs.
THE CONSTITUTION OF SHOTOKU
One of the most remarkable documents in Japanese annals is the
Jushichi Kempo, or Seventeen-Article Constitution, compiled by
Shotoku Taishi in A.D. 604. It is commonly spoken of as the first
written law of Japan. But it is not a body of laws in the proper
sense of the term. There are no penal provisions, nor is there any
evidence of promulgation with Imperial sanction. The seventeen
articles are simply moral maxims, based on the teachings of Buddhism
and Confucianism, and appealing to the sanctions of conscience.
Prince Shotoku, in his capacity of regent, compiled them and issued
them to officials in the guise of "instructions."
I. Harmony is to be valued, and the avoidance of wanton opposition
honoured. All men are swayed by class feeling and few are
intelligent. Hence some disobey their lords and fathers or maintain
feuds with neighbouring villages. But when the high are harmonious
and the low friendly, and when there is concord in the discussion of
affairs, right views spontaneously find acceptance. What is there
that cannot be then accomplished?
II. Reverence sincerely the Three Treasures--Buddha, the Law, and the
Priesthood--for these are the final refuge of the Four Generated
Beings* and the supreme objects of faith in all countries. What man
in what age can fail to revere this law? Few are utterly bad: they
may be taught to follow it. But if they turn not to the Three
Treasures, wherewithal shall their crookedness be made straight?
*Beings produced in transmigration by the four processes of being
born from eggs, from a womb, from fermentation, or from
metamorphosis.
III. When you receive the Imperial Commands fail not to obey
scrupulously. The lord is Heaven; the vassal, Earth. Heaven
overspreads; Earth upbears. When this is so, the four seasons follow
their due course, and the powers of Nature develop their efficiency.
If the Earth attempt to overspread, Heaven falls in ruin. Hence when
the lord speaks, the vassal hearkens; when the superior acts, the
inferior yields compliance. When, therefore, you receive an Imperial
Command, fail not to carry it out scrupulously. If there be want or
care in this respect, a catastrophe naturally ensues.
IV. Ministers and functionaries should make decorous behavior their
guiding principle, for decorous behavior is the main factor in
governing the people. If superiors do not behave with decorum,
inferiors are disorderly; if inferiors are wanting in proper
behaviour, offences are inevitable. Thus it is that when lord and
vassal behave with propriety, the distinctions of rank are not
confused; and when the people behave with propriety, the government
of the State proceeds of itself.
V. Refraining from gluttony and abandoning covetous desires, deal
impartially with the suits brought before you. Of complaints
preferred by the people there are a thousand in one day: how many,
then, will there be in a series of years? Should he that decides
suits at law make gain his ordinary motive and hear causes with a
view to receiving bribes, then will the suits of the rich man be like
a stone flung into water,* while the plaints of the poor will
resemble water cast on a stone. In such circumstances, the poor man
will not know whither to betake himself, and the duty of a minister
will not be discharged.
*That is to say, they will encounter no opposition.
VI. Chastise that which is evil and encourage that which is good.
This was the excellent rule of antiquity. Conceal not, therefore, the
good qualities of others, and fail not to correct that which is wrong
when you see it. Flatterers and deceivers are a sharp weapon for the
overthrow of the State, and a pointed sword for the destruction of
the people. Sycophants are also fond, when they meet, of dilating to
their superiors on the errors of their inferiors; to their inferiors,
they censure the faults of their superiors. Men of this kind are all
wanting in fidelity to their lord, and in benevolence towards the
people. From such an origin great civil disturbances arise.
VII. Let every man have his own charge, and let not the spheres of
duty be confused. When wise men are entrusted with office, the sound
of praise arises. If unprincipled men hold office, disasters and
tumults are multiplied. In this world, few are born with knowledge:
wisdom is the product of earnest meditation. In all things, whether
great or small, find the right man, and they will surely be well
managed: on all occasions, be they urgent or the reverse, meet with
but a wise man and they will of themselves be amenable. In this way
will the State be eternal and the Temples of the Earth and of Grain*
will be free from danger. Therefore did the wise sovereigns of
antiquity seek the man to fill the office, and not the office for the
sake of the man.
*A Chinese expression for the Imperial house.
VIII. Let the ministers and functionaries attend the Court early in
the morning, and retire late. The business of the State does not
admit of remissness, and the whole day is hardly enough for its
accomplishment. If, therefore, the attendance at Court is late,
emergencies cannot be met: if officials retire soon, the work cannot
be completed.
IX. Good faith is the foundation of right. In everything let there be
good faith, for in it there surely consists the good and the bad,
success and failure. If the lord and the vassal observe good faith
one with another, what is there which cannot be accomplished? If the
lord and the vassal do not observe good faith towards one another,
everything without exception ends in failure.
X. Let us cease from wrath, and refrain from angry looks. Nor let us
be resentful when others differ from us. For all men have hearts, and
each heart has its own leanings. Their right is our wrong, and our
right is their wrong. We are not unquestionably sages nor are they
unquestionably fools. Both of us are simply ordinary men. How can
anyone lay down a rule by which to distinguish right from wrong? For
we are all, one with another, wise and foolish like a ring which has
no end. Therefore, although others give way to anger, let us, on the
contrary, dread our own faults, and though we alone may be in the
right, let us follow the multitude and act like them.
XI. Give clear appreciation to merit and demerit, and deal out to
each its sure reward or punishment. In these days, reward does not
attend upon merit, nor punishment upon crime. Ye high functionaries
who have charge of public affairs, let it be your task to make clear
rewards and punishments.
XII. Let not the provincial authorities or the kuni no miyatsuko levy
exactions on the people. In a country there are not two lords; the
people have not two masters. The sovereign is the master of the
people of the whole country. The officials to whom he gives charge
are all his vassals. How can they, as well as the Government, presume
to levy taxes on the people?
XIII. Let all persons entrusted with office attend equally to their
functions. Owing to illness or despatch on missions their work may
sometimes be neglected. But whenever they are able to attend to
business, let them be as accommodating as though they had cognizance
of it from before, and let them not hinder public affairs on the
score of not having had to do with them.
XIV. Ministers and functionaries, be not envious. If we envy others,
they, in turn, will envy us. The evils of envy know no limit. If
others excel us in intelligence, it gives us no pleasure; if they
surpass us in ability, we are envious. Therefore it is not until
after the lapse of five hundred years that we at last meet with a
wise man, and even in a thousand years we hardly obtain one sage. But
if wise men and sages be not found, how shall the country be
governed?
XV. To turn away from that which is private and to set one's face
towards that which is public this is the path of a minister. If a man
is influenced by private motives, he will assuredly feel resentment;
if he is influenced by resentment, he will assuredly fail to act
harmoniously with others; if he fails to act harmoniously with
others, he will assuredly sacrifice the public interest to his
private feelings. When resentment arises, it interferes with order
and is subversive of law. Therefore, in the first clause it was said
that superiors and inferiors should agree together. The purport is
the same as this.
XVI. Let the employment of the people in forced labour be at
seasonable times. This is an ancient and excellent rule. Let them be
employed, therefore, in the winter months when they have leisure. But
from spring to autumn, when they are engaged in agriculture or with
the mulberry trees, the people should not be employed. For if they do
not attend to agriculture, what will they have to eat? If they do not
attend to the mulberry trees, what will they do for clothing?
XVII. Decisions on important matters should not be rendered by one
person alone: they should be discussed by many. But small matters
being of less consequence, need not be consulted about by a number of
people. It is only in the discussion of weighty affairs, when there
is an apprehension of miscarriage, that matters should be arranged in
concert with others so as to arrive at the right conclusion.*
*The above is taken almost verbatim from Aston's translation of the
Nihongi.
For a document compiled at the beginning of the seventh century these
seventeen ethical precepts merit much approbation. With the exception
of the doctrine of expediency, enunciated at the close of the tenth
article, the code of Shotoku might be taken for guide by any
community in any age. But the prince as a moral reformer* cannot be
credited with originality; his merit consists in having studied
Confucianism and Buddhism intelligently. The political purport of his
code is more remarkable. In the whole seventeen articles there is
nothing to inculcate worship of the Kami or observance of Shinto
rites. Again, whereas, according to the Japanese creed, the sovereign
power is derived from the Imperial ancestor, the latter is nowhere
alluded to. The seventh article makes the eternity of the State and
the security of the Imperial house depend upon wise administration by
well-selected officials, but says nothing of hereditary rights. How
is such a vital omission to be interpreted, except on the supposition
that Shotoku, who had witnessed the worst abuses incidental to the
hereditary system of the uji, intended by this code to enter a solemn
protest against that system?
*It is a curious fact that tradition represents this prince as having
been born at the door of a stable. Hence his original name, Umayado
(Stable-door).
Further, the importance attached to the people* is a very prominent
feature of the code. Thus, in Article IV, it is stated that "when the
people behave with propriety the government of the State proceeds of
itself;" Article V speaks of "complaints preferred by the people;"
Article VI refers to "the overthrow of the State" and "the
destruction of the people;" Article VII emphasises "the eternity of
the State;" that "the sovereign is the master of the people of the
whole country;" that "the officials to whom he gives charge are all
his vassals," and that these officials, whether miyatsuko or
provincial authorities, must not "presume, as well as the Government,
to levy taxes on the people." All those expressions amount to a
distinct condemnation of the uji system, under which the only people
directly subject to the sovereign were those of the minashiro, and
those who had been naturalized or otherwise specially assigned, all
the rest being practically the property of the uji, and the only
lands paying direct taxes to the Throne were the domains of the
miyake.
*The word used is hyakusho, which ultimately came to be applied to
farmers only.
Forty-two years later (A.D. 646), the abolition of private property
in persons and lands was destined to become the policy of the State,
but its foundations seem to have been laid in Shotoku's time. It
would be an error to suppose that the neglect of Shinto suggested by
the above code was by any means a distinct feature of the era, or
even a practice of the prince himself. Thus, an Imperial edict,
published in the year 607, enjoined that there must be no remissness
in the worship of the Kami, and that they should be sincerely
reverenced by all officials, In the sequel of this edict Prince
Shotoku himself, the o-omi, and a number of functionaries worshipped
the Kami of heaven and of earth. In fact, Shotoku, for all his
enthusiasm in the cause of Buddhism, seems to have shrunk from
anything like bigoted exclusiveness. He is quoted* as saying: "The
management of State affairs cannot be achieved unless it is based on
knowledge, and the sources of knowledge are Confucianism, Buddhism,
and Shinto."** He who inclines to one of these three, must study the
other two also; for what one knows seems reasonable, but that of
which one is ignorant appears unreasonable. Therefore an
administrator of public affairs should make himself acquainted with
all three and should not affect one only, for such partiality
signifies maladministration.
*In the Sankyo-ron.
**The order of this enumeration is significant.
DEATH OF SHOTOKU TAISHI
Prince Shotoku died in the year 621. The Records do not relate
anything of his illness: they say merely that he foresaw the day and
hour of his own death, and they say also that when the Buddhist
priest, Hyecha of Koma, who had instructed the prince in the "inner
doctrine," learned of his decease, he also announced his
determination to die on the same day of the same month in the
following year so as "to meet the prince in the Pure Land and,
together with him, pass through the metempsychosis of all living
creatures."
The last months of Shotoku's life were devoted to compiling, in
concert with the o-omi Umako, "a history of the Emperors; a history
of the country, and the original record of the omi, the muraji, the
tomo no miyatsuko, the kuni no miyatsuko, the 180 be, and the free
subjects." This, the first Japanese historical work, was completed in
the year 620. It was known afterwards as the Kujihongi, and
twenty-five years later (645) when--as will presently be seen--the
execution of the Soga chief took place, the book was partially
consumed by fire. Yet that it had not suffered beyond the possibility
of reconstruction, and that it survived in the Ko-jiki was never
doubted until the days (1730-1801) of "the prince of Japanese
literati," Motoori Norinaga. The question of authenticity is still
unsettled.
Shotoku's name is further connected with calendar making, though no
particulars of his work in that line are on record. Japanese
historians speak of him as the father of his country's civilization.
They say that he breathed life into the nation; that he raised the
status of the Empire; that he laid the foundations of Japanese
learning; that he fixed the laws of decorum; that he imparted a new
character to foreign relations, and that he was an incarnation of the
Buddha, specially sent to convert Japan. The Chronicles say that at
his death nobles and commoners alike, "the old, as if they had lost a
dear child, the young, as if they had lost a beloved parent, filled
the ways with the sound of their lamenting."
THE SPREAD OF BUDDHISM AND THE CONTROL OF ITS PRIESTS
The roots of Japanese Buddhism were watered with blood, as have been
the roots of so many religions in so many countries. From the day of
the destruction of the military party under the o-muraji Moriya, the
foreign faith flourished. Then--as has been shown--were built the
first two great temples, and then, for the first time, a Buddhist
place of worship was endowed* with rich estates and an ample number
of serfs to till them. Thenceforth the annals abound with references
to the advent of Buddhist priests from Korea, bearing relics or
images. The omi and the muraji vied with each other in erecting
shrines, and in 605, we find the Empress Suiko commanding all high
dignitaries of State to make 16-foot images of copper** and of
embroidery. Buddhist festivals were instituted in 606, and their
magnificence, as compared with the extreme simplicity of the Shinto
rites, must have deeply impressed the people. In a few decades
Buddhism became a great social power, and since its priests and nuns
were outside the sphere of ordinary administration, the question of
their control soon presented itself. It became pressing in 623 when a
priest killed his grandfather with an axe. The Empress Suiko, who was
then on the throne, would have subjected the whole body of priests
and nuns to judicial examination, a terrible ordeal in those days of
torture; but at the instance of a Korean priest, officials
corresponding to bishops (sojo), high priests (sozu) and abbots
(hotto) were appointed from the ranks of Buddhism, and the duty of
prescribing law and order was entrusted to them. This involved
registration of all the priesthood, and it was thus found (623) that
the temples numbered 46; the priests 816, and the nuns 569.
*The endowment of religious edifices was not new in Japan. A
conspicuous instance was in A.D. 487, when rice-fields were dedicated
to the Moon god and to the ancestor of the Sun goddess.
**The metal employed was of gold and copper; in the proportion of one
part of the former to 430 of the latter. It is related that when
these images were completed, the temple door proved too low to admit
them, and the artisan--Tori the Saddle-maker--whose ingenuity
overcame the difficulty without pulling down the door, received large
honour and reward.
INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA
That not a few Chinese migrated to Japan in remote times is clear.
The Records show that in the year A.D. 540, during the reign of
Kimmei, immigrants from Tsin and Han were assembled and registered,
when their number was found to be 7053 households. The terms "Tsin"
and "Han" refer to Chinese dynasties of those names, whose sway
covered the period between 255 B.C. and A.D. 419. Hence the
expression is too vague to suggest any definite idea of the advent of
those settlers; but the story of some, who came through Korea, has
already been traced. It was in A.D. 552, during the reign of this
same Kimmei, that Buddhism may be said to have found a home in Japan.
China was then under the sceptre of the Liang dynasty, whose first
sovereign, Wu, had been such an enthusiastic Buddhist that he
abandoned the throne for a monastery.. Yet China took no direct part
in introducing the Indian faith to Japan, nor does it appear that
from the fourth century A.D. down to the days of Shotoku Taishi,
Japan thought seriously of having recourse to China as the
fountain-head of the arts, the crafts, the literature, and the moral
codes which she borrowed during the period from Korea.
Something of this want of enterprise may have been attributable to
the unsettled state of China's domestic politics; something to the
well-nigh perpetual troubles between Japan and Korea--troubles which
not only taxed Japan's resources but also blocked the sole route by
which China was then accessible, namely, the route through Korea. But
when the Sui dynasty (A.D. 589-619) came to the Chinese throne, its
founder, the Emperor Wen, on the one hand, devoted himself to
encouraging literature and commerce; and on the other, threw Korea
and Japan into a ferment by invading the former country at the head
of a huge army.* This happened when Shotoku Taishi was in his
sixteenth year, and though the great expedition proved abortive for
aggressive purposes, it brought China into vivid prominence, and when
news reached Japan of extensions of the Middle Kingdom's territories
under Wen's successor, the Japanese Crown Prince determined to open
direct intercourse with the Sui Court; not only for literary and
religious purposes, but also to study the form of civilization which
the whole Orient then revered. This resolve found practical
expression in the year 607, when the omi Imoko was sent as envoy to
the Sui Court, a Chinese of the Saddlers' Corporation, by name
Fukuri, being attached to him in the capacity of interpreter. China
received these men hospitably and sent an envoy of her own, with a
suite of twelve persons, to the Yamato sovereign in the following
year.
*Reputed to have mustered 300,000 strong.
The annals contain an instructive description of the ceremony
connected with the reception of this envoy in Japan. He was met in
Tsukushi (Kyushu) by commissioners of welcome, and was conducted
thence by sea to Naniwa (now Osaka), where, at the mouth of the
river, thirty "gaily-decked" boats awaited him, and he and his suite
were conducted to a residence newly built for the occasion. Six weeks
later they entered the capital, after a message of welcome had been
delivered to them by a muraji. Seventy-five fully caparisoned horses
were placed at their disposal, and after a further rest of nine days,
the envoy's official audience took place. He did not see the Empress'
face. Her Majesty was secluded in the hall of audience to which only
the principal ministers were admitted. Hence the ceremony may be said
to have taken place in the court-yard. There the gifts brought by the
envoy were ranged, and the envoy himself, introduced by two high
officials, advanced to the front of the court, made obeisance twice,
and, kneeling, declared the purport of his mission. The despatch
carried by him ran as follows:
The Emperor greets the sovereign of Wa.* Your envoy and his suite
have arrived and have given us full information. We, by the grace of
heaven, rule over the universe. It is Our desire to diffuse abroad
our civilizing influence so as to cover all living things, and Our
sentiment of loving nurture knows no distinction of distance. Now We
learn that Your Majesty, dwelling separately beyond the sea, bestows
the blessings of peace on Your subjects; that there is tranquillity
within Your borders, and that the customs and manners are mild. With
the most profound loyalty You have sent Us tribute from afar, and We
are delighted at this admirable token of Your sincerity. Our health
is as usual, notwithstanding the increasing heat of the weather.
Therefore We have sent Pei Shieh-ching, Official Entertainer of the
Department charged with the Ceremonial for the Reception of Foreign
Ambassadors, and his suite, to notify to you the preceding. We also
transmit to you the products of which a list is given separately.**
*It has already been stated that Japan was generally known in China
and Korea by the term "Wa," which, being written with an ideograph
signifying "dwarf" or "subservient," was disliked by the Japanese.
The envoy sent from Yamato in 607 was instructed to ask for the
substitution of Nippon (Place of Sunrise), but the Sui sovereign
declined to make the change and Japan did not receive the designation
"Nippon" in China until the period Wu Teh (A.D. 618-626) of the Tang
dynasty. It is not certain at what time exactly the Japanese
themselves adopted this nomenclature, but it certainly was before the
seventh century.
**Translated by Aston in the Nihongi.
When the reading of the document was concluded, a high noble stepped
forward, took it from the envoy's hands and advanced with it towards
the audience-hall, from which another noble came out to meet him,
received the letter, deposited it on a table before the chief
entrance, and then reported the facts to the Empress. This ended the
ceremony. The haughty condescension of the Chinese despatch does not
appear to have offended the Japanese, nor did they cavil at the
omission of one important ideograph from the title applied to their
Empress. China's greatness seems to have been fully recognized. When,
a month later, the envoy took his departure, the same Imoko was
deputed to accompany him, bearing a despatch* in which, to China's
simple "greeting," Japan returned a "respectful address;" to China's
expression of ineffable superiority Japan replied that the coming of
the embassy had "dissolved her long-harboured cares;" and to China's
grandiloquent prolixity Japan made answer with half a dozen brief
lines. Imoko was now accompanied by eight students four of literature
and four of religion. Thus was established, and for long afterwards
maintained, a bridge over which the literature, arts, ethics, and
philosophies of China were copiously imported into Japan.
*In this despatch Japan called herself "the place where the sun comes
forth," and designated China as "the place where the sun sets." The
idea, doubtless, was merely to distinguish between east and west, but
the Sui sovereign resented the diction of this "barbarian letter."
RANKS
It will be recognized by considering the uji system that while many
titles existed in Japan, there was practically no promotion. A man
might be raised to uji rank. Several instances of that kind have been
noted, especially in the case of foreign artists or artisans
migrating to the island from Korea or China. But nothing higher was
within reach, and for the hereditary Kami of an uji no reward offered
except a gift of land, whatever services he might render to the
State. Such a system could not but tend to perfunctoriness in the
discharge of duty. Perception of this defect induced the regent,
Shotoku, to import from China (A.D. 603) the method of official
promotion in vogue under the Sui dynasty and to employ caps as
insignia of rank.* Twelve of such grades were instituted, and the
terminology applied to them was based on the names of six moral
qualities--virtue, benevolence, propriety, faith, justice, and
knowledge--each comprising two degrees, "greater" and "lesser." The
caps were made of sarcenet, a distinctive colour for each grade, the
cap being gathered upon the crown in the shape of a bag with a border
attached. The three highest ranks of all were not included in this
category.
*In China to-day the distinguishing mark is a button of varying
material fastened on the top of the cap.
THE EMPEROR JOMEI AND THE EMPRESS KOGYOKU
In the year 626, the omnipotent Soga chief, the o-omi Umako, died.
His brief eulogy in the Chronicles is that he had "a talent for
military tactics," was "gifted with eloquence," and deeply reverenced
"the Three Precious Things" (Buddha, Dharma, and Samgha). In the
court-yard of his residence a pond was dug with a miniature island in
the centre, and so much attention did this innovation attract that
the great minister was popularly called Shima (island) no o-omi. His
office of o-omi was conferred on his son, Emishi, who behaved with
even greater arrogance and arbitrariness than his father had shown.
The Empress Suiko died in 628, and the question of the accession at
once became acute. Two princes were eligible; Tamura, grandson of the
Emperor Bidatsu, and Yamashiro, son of Shotoku Taishi. Prince
Yamashiro was a calm, virtuous, and faithful man. He stated
explicitly that the Empress, on the eve of her demise, had nominated
him to be her successor. But Prince Tamura had the support of the
o-omi, Emishi, whose daughter he admired. No one ventured to oppose
the will of the Soga chieftain except Sakaibe no Marise, and he with
his son were ruthlessly slain by the orders of the o-omi.
Prince Tamura then (629) ascended the throne--he is known in history
as Jomei--but Soga no Emishi virtually ruled the empire. Jomei died
in 641, after a reign of twelve years, and by the contrivance of
Emishi the sceptre was placed in the hands of an Empress, Kogyoku, a
great-granddaughter of the Emperor Bidatsu, the claims of the son of
Shotoku Taishi being again ignored. One of the first acts of the new
sovereign was to raise Emishi to the rank held by his father, the
rank of o-omi, and there then came into prominence Emishi's son,
Iruka, who soon wielded power greater than even that possessed by his
father. Iruka's administration, however, does not appear to have been
altogether unwholesome. The Chronicles say that "thieves and robbers
were in dread of him, and that things dropped on the highway were not
picked up." But Emishi rendered himself conspicuous chiefly by aping
Imperial state. He erected an ancestral temple; organized
performances of a Chinese dance (yatsura) which was essentially an
Imperial pageant; levied imposts on the people at large for the
construction of tombs--one for himself, another for his son,
Iruka--which were openly designated misasagi (Imperial sepulchres);
called his private residence mikado (sacred gate); conferred on his
children the title of miko (august child), and exacted forced labour
from all the people of the Kamutsumiya estate, which belonged to the
Shotoku family.
This last outrage provoked a remonstrance from Shotoku Taishi's
daughter, and she was thenceforth reckoned among the enemies of the
Soga. One year later (643), this feud ended in bloodshed. Emishi's
usurpation of Imperial authority was carried so far that he did not
hesitate to confer the rank of o-omi on his son, Iruka, and upon the
latter's younger brother also. Iruka now conceived the design of
placing upon the throne Prince Furubito, a son of the Emperor Jomei.
It will be remembered that the Soga chief, Emishi, had lent his
omnipotent influence to secure the sceptre for Jomei, because of the
latter's affection for Emishi's daughter. This lady, having become
one of Jomei's consorts, had borne to him Prince Furubito, who was
consequently Iruka's uncle. Iruka determined that the prince should
succeed the Empress Kogyoku. To that end it was necessary to remove
the Shotoku family, against which, as shown above, the Soga had also
a special grudge. Not even the form of devising a protest was
observed. Orders were simply issued to a military force that the
Shotoku house should be extirpated. Its representative was Prince
Yamashiro, the same who had effaced himself so magnanimously at the
time of Jomei's accession. He behaved with ever greater nobility on
this occasion. Having by a ruse escaped from the Soga troops, he was
urged by his followers to flee to the eastern provinces, and there
raising an army, to march back to the attack of the Soga.
There is reason to think that this policy would have succeeded. But
the prince replied: "I do not wish it to be said by after generations
that, for my sake, anyone has mourned the loss of a father or a
mother. Is it only when one has conquered in battle that one is to be
called a hero? Is he not also a hero who has made firm his country at
the expense of his own life?" He then returned to the temple at
Ikaruga, which his father had built, and being presently besieged
there by the Soga forces, he and the members of his family,
twenty-three in all, committed suicide. This tragedy shocked even
Emishi. He warned Iruka against the peril of such extreme measures.
ENGRAVING: FUJIWARA KAMATAKI
There now appears a statesman destined to leave his name indelibly
written on the pages of Japanese history, Kamatari, muraji of the
Nakatomi-uji. The Nakatomi's functions were specially connected with
Shinto rites, and Kamatari must be supposed to have entertained
little good-will towards the Soga, who were the leaders of the
Buddhist faction, and whose feud with the military party sixty-seven
years previously had involved the violent death of Katsumi, then
(587) muraji of the Nakatomi. Moreover, Kamatari makes his first
appearance in the annals as chief Shinto official. Nevertheless, it
is not apparent that religious zeal or personal resentment was
primarily responsible for Kamatari's determination to compass the
ruin of the Soga. Essentially an upright man and a loyal subject, he
seems to have been inspired by a frank resolve to protect the Throne
against schemes of lawless ambitions, unconscious that his own
family, the Fujiwara, were destined to repeat on a still larger scale
the same abuses.
The succession may be said to have had three aspirants at that time:
first, Prince Karu, younger brother of the Empress Kogyoku; secondly,
Prince Naka, her son, and thirdly, Prince Furubito, uncle of Soga no
Iruka. The last was, of course, excluded from Kamatari's
calculations, and as between the first two he judged it wiser that
Prince Karu should have precedence in the succession, Prince Naka not
being old enough. The conspiracy that ensued presents no specially
remarkable feature. Kamatari and Prince Naka became acquainted
through an incident at the game of football, when the prince, having
accidently kicked off his shoe, Kamatari picked it up and restored it
to him on bended knee. The two men, in order to find secret
opportunities for maturing their plans, became fellow students of the
doctrines of Chow and Confucius under the priest Shoan, who had been
among the eight students that accompanied the Sui envoy on his return
to China in the year 608.
Intimate relations were cemented with a section of the Soga through
Kurayamada, whose daughter Prince Naka married, and trustworthy
followers having been attached to the prince, the conspirators
watched for an occasion. It was not easy to find one. The Soga
mansion, on the eastern slope of Mount Unebi, was a species of
fortress, surrounded by a moat and provided with an armoury having
ample supply of bows and arrows. Emishi, the o-omi, always had a
guard of fifty soldiers when he went abroad, and Iruka, his son, wore
a sword "day and night." Nothing offered except to convert the palace
itself into a place of execution. On the twelfth day of the sixth
month, 645, the Empress held a Court in the great hall of audience to
receive memorials and tribute from the three kingdoms of Korea. All
present, except her Majesty and Iruka, were privy to the plot. Iruka
having been beguiled into laying aside his sword, the reading of the
memorials was commenced by Kurayamada, and Prince Naka ordered the
twelve gates to be closed simultaneously. At that signal, two
swordsmen should have advanced and fallen upon Iruka; but they showed
themselves so timorous that Prince Naka himself had to lead them to
the attack. Iruka, severely wounded, struggled to the throne and
implored for succour and justice; but when her Majesty in terror
asked what was meant, Prince Naka charged Iruka with attempting to
usurp the sovereignty. The Empress, seeing that her own son led the
assassins, withdrew at once, and the work of slaughtering Iruka was
completed, his corpse being thrown into the court-yard, where it lay
covered with straw matting.
Prince Naka and Karaatari had not been so incautious as to take a
wide circle of persons into their confidence. But they were
immediately joined by practically all the nobility and high
officials, and the o-omi's troops having dispersed without striking a
blow, Emishi and his people were all executed. The Empress Kogyoku at
once abdicated in favour of her brother, Prince Kara, her son, Prince
Naka, being nominated Prince Imperial. Her Majesty had worn the
purple for only three years. All this was in accord with Kamatari's
carefully devised plans. They were epoch making.
RELATIONS WITH KOREA DURING THE SEVEN REIGNS FROM KIMMEI TO KOGYOKU
(A.D. 540-645)
The story of Japan's relations with Korea throughout the period of
over a century, from the accession of Kimmei (540) to the abdication
of Kogyoku (645), is a series of monotonously similar chapters, the
result for Japan being that she finally lost her position at Mimana.
There was almost perpetual fighting between the petty kingdoms which
struggled for mastery in the peninsula, and Kudara, always nominally
friendly to Japan, never hesitated to seek the latter's assistance
against Shiragi and Koma. To these appeals the Yamato Court lent a
not-unready ear, partly because they pleased the nation's vanity, but
mainly because Kudara craftily suggested danger to Mimana unless
Japan asserted herself with arms. But when it came to actually
rendering material aid, Japan did nothing commensurate with her
gracious demeanour. She seems to have been getting weary of expensive
interference, and possibly it may also have occurred to her that no
very profound sympathy was merited by a sovereign who, like the King
of Kudara, preferred to rely on armed aid from abroad rather than
risk the loss of his principality to his own countrymen.
At all events, in answer to often iterated entreaties from Kudara,
the Yamato Court did not make any practical response until the year
551, when it sent five thousand koku of barley-seed (?), followed,
two years later, by two horses, two ships, fifty bows with arrows,
and--a promise. Kudara was then ruled by a very enterprising prince
(Yo-chang). Resolving to strike separately at his enemies, Koma and
Shiragi, he threw himself with all his forces against Koma and gained
a signal victory (553). Then, at length, Japan was induced to assist.
An omi was despatched (554) to the peninsula with a thousand
soldiers, as many horses and forty ships. Shiragi became at once the
objective of the united forces of Kudara and Japan. A disastrous
defeat resulted for the assailants. The Kudara army suffered almost
complete extermination, losing nearly thirty thousand men, and
history is silent as to the fate of the omi's contingent.
Nevertheless the fear of Japanese vengeance induced Shiragi to hold
its hand, and, in the year 561, an attempt was made twice to renew
friendly relations with the Yamato Court by means of tribute-bearing
envoys. Japan did not repel these overtures, but she treated the
envoy of the victorious Shiragi with less respect than that extended
to the envoy of the vanquished Kudara.
In the spring of the following year (562), Shiragi invaded Mimana,
destroyed the Japanese station there and overran the whole region
(ten provinces). No warning had reached Japan. She was taken entirely
unawares, and she regarded it as an act of treachery on Shiragi's
part to have transformed itself suddenly from a tribute-bearing
friend into an active enemy. Strangely enough, the King of Shiragi
does not appear to have considered that his act precluded a
continuance of friendly relations with the Yamato Court. Six months
after his invasion of Mimana he renewed the despatch of envoys to
Japan, and it was not until their arrival in Yamato that they learned
Japan's mood. Much to the credit of the Yamato Court, it did not
wreak vengeance on these untimely envoys, but immediately afterwards
an armed expedition was despatched to call Shiragi to account. The
forces were divided into two corps, one being ordered to march under
Ki no Omaro northwest from Mimana and effect a junction with Kudara;
the other, under Kawabe no Nie, was to move eastward against Shiragi.
This scheme became known to the Shiragi generals owing to the seizure
of a despatch intended for Kudara. They attempted to intercept
Omaro's corps, but were signally defeated.
The movement under Kawabe no Nie fared differently. Japanese annals
attempt to palliate his discomfiture by a story about the abuse of a
flag of truce, but the fact seems to have been that Kawabe no Nie was
an incompetent and pusillanimous captain. He and his men were all
killed or taken prisoners, the only redeeming feature being the
intrepidity of a Japanese officer, Tsugi no Ikina, who, with his wife
and son, endured to be tortured and killed rather than utter an
insult against their country.
It is difficult to interpret the sequence of events after this
catastrophe. Japan immediately despatched a strong army--from thirty
to forty thousand men--but instead of directing it against Shiragi,
sent it to the attack of Koma, under advice of the King of Kudara.
Possibly the idea may have been to crush Koma, and having thus
isolated Shiragi, to deal with the latter subsequently. If so, the
plan never matured. Koma, indeed, suffered a signal defeat at the
hands of the Japanese, Satehiko, muraji of the Otomo, but Shiragi
remained unmolested, and nothing accrued to Japan except some
attractive spoils--curtains of seven-fold woof, an iron house, two
suits of armour, two gold-mounted swords, three copper belts with
chasings, two variously coloured flags, and two beautiful women. Even
as to the ultimate movements of Satehiko and his army the annals are
silent.
Things remained thus for nine years. Tribute-bearing envoys arrived
at intervals from Koma, but with Shiragi there was no communication.
At last, in 571, an official was sent to demand from Shiragi an
explanation of the reasons for the destruction of Mimana. The
intention may have been to follow up this formality with the
despatch of an effective force, but within a month the Emperor
Kimmei died. On his death-bed he is said to have taken the Prince
Imperial--Bidatsu--by the hand and said: "That which comes after
devolves on thee. Thou must make war on Shiragi and establish Mimana
as a feudal dependency, renewing a relationship like that of husband
and wife, just as it was in former days. If this be done, in my grave
I shall rest content."
Twelve years passed before Bidatsu took any step to comply with this
dying injunction. During that long interval there were repeated
envoys from Koma, now a comparatively feeble principality, and
Shiragi made three unsuccessful overtures to renew amicable
relations. At length, in 583, the Emperor announced his intention of
carrying out the last testament of his predecessor. To that end his
Majesty desired to consult with a Japanese, Nichira, who had served
for many years at the Kudara Court and was thoroughly familiar with
the conditions existing in Korea. Nichira came to Japan, but the
annals indicate that his counsels were directed wholly against
Kudara, which was ostensibly on the friendliest terms with Japan, and
not at all against Shiragi, whose punishment was alone in question.
Besides, instead of advising an appeal to arms, he urged the
necessity of developing Japan's material resources, so that her
neighbours might learn to count her formidable and her people might
acquire ardour in her cause. Whether the wisdom of this advice
appealed to Bidatsu, or whether the disputes consequent upon the
introduction of Buddhism paralyzed his capacity for oversea
enterprise, he made no further attempt to resolve the Korean problem.
In the year 591, the ill-fated Emperor Sushun conceived the idea of
sending a large army to re-establish his country's prestige in the
peninsula, but his own assassination intervened, and for the space of
nine years the subject was not publicly revived. Then, in 600, the
Empress Suiko being on the throne, a unique opportunity presented
itself. War broke out between Shiragi and Mimana. The Yamato Court at
once despatched a force of ten thousand men to Mimana's aid, and
Shiragi, having suffered a signal defeat, made act of abject
submission, restoring to Mimana six of its original provinces and
promising solemnly to abstain from future hostilities. The Japanese
committed the error of crediting Shiragi's sincerity. They withdrew
their forces, but no sooner had their ships passed below the horizon
than Shiragi once more invaded Mimana. It seemed at this juncture as
though the stars in their courses fought against Japan. Something,
indeed, must be ascribed to her own methods of warfare which appear
to have been overmerciful for the age. Thus, with the bitter
experience of Shiragi's treachery fresh in her recollection, she did
not execute a Shiragi spy seized in Tsushima, but merely banished him
to the province of Kozuke. Still, she must be said to have been the
victim of special ill-fortune when an army of twenty-five thousand
men, assembled in Tsukushi for the invasion of Shiragi, was twice
prevented from sailing by unforseeable causes, one being the death of
Prince Kume, its commander-in-chief; the other, the death of the
consort of his successor, Prince Taema.*
*Early Japanese history furnishes several examples showing that wives
often accompanied their husbands on campaigns.
These things happened in the year 603, and for the next five years
all relations with Korea seem to have been severed. Then (608) a
brief paragraph in the Chronicles records that "many persons from
Shiragi came to settle in Japan." It is certainly eloquent of the
Yamato Court's magnanimity that it should have welcomed immigrants
from a country with which it was virtually at war. Two years later
(610), Shiragi and Mimana, acting in concert, sent envoys who were
received with all the pomp and ceremony prescribed by Shotoku
Taishi's code of decorum. Apparently this embassy was allowed to
serve as a renewal of friendly relations, but it is not on record
that the subject of former dispute was alluded to in any way, nor was
the old-time habit of annual tribute-bearing envoys revived. Visitors
from Korea were, indeed, few and far-between, as when, in 616,
Shiragi sent a golden image of Buddha, two feet high, whose
effulgence worked wonders; or in 618, when an envoy from Korea
conveyed the important tidings that the invasion of the peninsula by
the Sui sovereign, Yang, at the head of three hundred thousand men,
had been beaten back. This envoy carried to Yamato presents in the
form of two captive Chinese, a camel, and a number of flutes,
cross-bows, and catapults (of which instruments of war mention is
thus made for the first time in Japanese history).
The Yamato Court had evidently now abandoned all idea of punishing
Shiragi or restoring the station at Mimana; while Shiragi, on her
side, was inclined to maintain friendly relations though she did not
seek frequent intercourse. After an interval of five years'
aloofness, she presented (621) a memorial on an unrecorded subject,
and in the following year, she presented, once more, a gold image of
Buddha, a gold pagoda, and a number of baptismal flags.* But Shiragi
was nothing if not treacherous, and, even while making these valuable
presents to the Yamato Court, and while despatching envoys in company
with those from Mimana, she was planning another invasion of the
latter. It took place that very year (622). When the news reached
Japan, the Empress Suiko would have sent an envoy against Shiragi,
but it was deemed wiser to employ diplomacy in the first place, for
the principalities of Korea were now in close relations with the
great Tang dynasty of China and might even count on the latter's
protection in case of emergency.
*"The Buddhist baptism consists in washing the top of the head with
perfumed water. The baptismal flags were so called because they had
the same efficiency, raising those who passed under them, first, to
the rank of Tchakra Radja, and, ultimately, to that of a Buddha."
(Aston.)
Two plenipotentiaries were therefore sent from Japan. Their mission
proved very simple. Shiragi acquiesced in all their proposals and
pledged herself once for all to recognize Mimana as a dependency of
Japan. But after the despatch of these plenipotentiaries, the
war-party in Japan had gained the ascendancy, and just as the
plenipotentiaries, accompanied by tribute-bearing envoys from Shiragi
and Mimana, were about to embark for Japan, they were astounded by
the apparition of a great flotilla carrying thousands of armed men.
The exact dimensions of this force are not on record: it is merely
described as having consisted of "several tens of thousands of men,"
but as it was commanded by two generals of the first rank and seven
of the second, it must have been a very formidable army, and nothing
is more remarkable about it than that it was assembled and embarked
in the space of a few weeks. Shiragi did not attempt to resist. The
King tendered his submission and it was accepted without a blow
having been struck. But there were no tangible results. Japan did not
attempt to re-establish her miyake in Mimana, and Shiragi refrained
from sending envoys to Yamato except on special occasions. Friendly,
though not intimate, relations were still maintained with the three
kingdoms of Korea, mainly because the peninsula long continued to be
the avenue by which the literature, arts, and crafts of China under,
the Tang dynasty found their way to Japan. Since, however, the office
in Mimana no longer existed to transact business connected with this
intercourse, and since Yamato was too distant from the port of
departure and arrival--Anato, now Nagato--a new office was
established in Tsukushi (Kyushu) under the name of the Dazai-fu.
LESSONS TAUGHT BY THE INTERCOURSE BETWEEN JAPAN AND KOREA
The record of Japan's relations with Korea, so far as it has been
carried above--namely, to the close of the Empress Kogyoku's reign
(A.D. 645)--discloses in the Korean people a race prone to
self-seeking feuds, never reluctant to import foreign aid into
domestic quarrels, and careless of the obligations of good faith. In
the Japanese we see a nation magnanimous and trustful but of
aggressive tendencies.
IMPORTATION OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION
Although Japan's military influence on the neighbouring continent
waned perceptibly from the reign of Kimmei (540-571) onwards, a
stream of Chinese civilization flowed steadily into the Island Empire
from the west, partly coming direct from the fountain head; partly
filtering, in a more or less impure form, through Korean channels.
Many of the propagandists of this civilization remained permanently
in Japan, where they received a courteous welcome, being promoted to
positions of trust and admitted to the ranks of the nobility. Thus a
book (the Seishi-roku), published in 814, which has been aptly termed
the "peerage of Japan," shows that, at that time, nearly one-third of
the Japanese nobility traced their descent to Chinese or Korean
ancestors in something like equal proportions. The numbers are,
China, 162 families; Kudara, 104; Koma, 50; Mimana, 9; Shiragi, 9;
doubtful, 47. Total, 381 Chinese and Korean families out of a grand
aggregate of 1177. But many of the visitors returned home after
having sojourned for a time as teachers of literature, art, or
industrial science.
This system of brief residence for purposes of instruction seems to
have been inaugurated during the reign of Keitai, in the year 513,
when Tan Yang-i, a Chinese expounder of the five classics, was
brought to Yamato by envoys from Kudara as a gift valued enough to
purchase political intervention for the restoration of lost
territory; and when, three years later, a second embassy from the
same place, coming to render thanks for effective assistance in the
matter of the territory, asked that Tan might be allowed to return in
exchange for another Chinese pundit, Ko An-mu. The incident suggests
how great was the value attached to erudition even in those remote
days. Yet this promising precedent was not followed for nearly forty
years, partly owing to the unsettled nature of Japan's relations.
with Korea.
After the advent of Buddhism (552), however, Chinese culture found
new expansion eastward. In 554, there arrived from Kudara another
Chinese literatus, and, by desire of the Emperor, Kimmei, a party of
experts followed shortly afterwards, including a man learned in the
calendar, a professor of divination, a physician, two herbalists, and
four musicians. The record says that these men, who, with the
exception of the Chinese doctor of literature, were all Koreans, took
the place of an equal number of their countrymen who had resided in
Japan for some years. Thenceforth such incidents were frequent. Yet,
at first, a thorough knowledge of the ideographic script seems to
have spread very slowly in Japan, for in 572, when the Emperor
Bidatsu sought an interpretation of a memorial presented by the Koma
sovereign, only one man among all the scribes (fumi-bito), and he
(Wang Sin-i) of Chinese origin, was found capable of reading the
document.
But from the accession of the Empress Suiko (593), the influence of
Shotoku Taishi made itself felt in every branch of learning, and
thenceforth China and Japan may be said to have stood towards each
other in the relation of teacher and pupil. Literature, the
ideographic script,* calendar compiling, astronomy, geography,
divination, magic, painting, sculpture, architecture, tile-making,
ceramics, the casting of metal, and other crafts were all cultivated
assiduously under Chinese and Korean instruction. In architecture,
all substantial progress must be attributed to Buddhism, for
it was by building temples and pagodas that Japanese ideas of
dwelling-houses were finally raised above the semi-subterranean type,
and to the same influence must be attributed signal and rapid
progress in the art of interior decoration. The style of architecture
adopted in temples was a mixture of the Chinese and the Indian.
Indeed, it is characteristic of this early epoch that traces of the
architectural and glyptic fashions of the land where Buddhism was
born showed themselves much more conspicuously than they did in later
eras; a fact which illustrates Japan's constant tendency to break
away from originals by modifying them in accordance with her own
ideals.
*The oldest ideographic inscription extant in Japan is carved on a
stone in Iyo province dating from A.D. 596. Next in point of
antiquity is an inscription on the back of an image of Yakushi which
stands in the temple Horyu-ji. It is ascribed to the year A.D. 607.
ENGRAVING: THE KONDO, HALL or THE HORYU-JI TEMPLE (Ji means temple)
None of the religious edifices then constructed has survived in its
integrity to the present day. One, however,--the Horyu-ji, at
Nara--since all its restorations have been in strict accord with
their originals, is believed to be a true representative of the most
ancient type. It was founded by Shotoku Taishi and completed in 607.
At the time of its construction, this Horyu-ji was the chief academy
of Buddhist teaching, and it therefore received the name of
Gakumon-ji (Temple of Learning). Among its treasures is an image of
copper and gold which was cast by the Korean artist, Tori--commonly
called Tori Busshi, or Tori the image-maker--to order of Shotoku; and
there is mural decoration from the brush of a Korean priest, Doncho.
This building shows that already in the seventh century an imposing
type of wooden edifice had been elaborated--an edifice differing from
those of later epochs in only a few features; as, slight inequality
in the scantling of its massive pillars; comparatively gentle pitch
of roof; abnormally overhanging eaves, and shortness of distance
between each storey of the pagoda. These sacred buildings were roofed
with tiles, and were therefore called kawara-ya (tiled house) by way
of distinction, for all private dwellings, the Imperial palace not
excepted, continued to have thatched roofs in the period now under
consideration,* or at best roofs covered with boards. The annals show
that when the Empress Kogyoku built the Asuka palace, timber was
obtained from several provinces; labour was requisitioned throughout
a district extending from Omi in the east to Aki in the west; the
floor of the "great hall"** was paved with tiles; there were twelve
gates, three on each of the four sides, and the whole was in the
architectural style of the Tang dynasty. Yet for the roofs, boards
alone were used.
*Down to A.D. 645.1
**It was here that the assassination of Soga no Iruka took place.
PAINTING
Little is recorded about the progress of painting in this epoch. It
has been shown above that during Yuryaku's reign pictorial experts
crossed to Japan from Korea and from China. The Chronicles add that,
in A.D. 604, when the Empress Suiko occupied the throne, two schools
of painters were established, namely, the Kibumi and the Yamashiro.
It is elsewhere explained that the business of those artists was to
paint Buddhist pictures, the special task of the Kibumi men being to
illuminate scrolls of the Sutras. We read also that, in 603, on the
occasion of the dedication of the temple of Hachioka, Prince Shotoku
painted banners as offerings. These had probably the same designs as
those spoken of a century later (710) when, at a ceremony in the
great hall of the palace, there were set up flags emblazoned with a
crow,* the sun, an azure dragon, a red bird, and the moon, all which
designs were of Chinese origin. Shotoku Taishi himself is
traditionally reported to have been a skilled painter and sculptor,
and several of his alleged masterpieces are preserved to this day,
but their authenticity is disputed.
*The three-legged crow of the sun.
AGRICULTURE
In the field of agriculture this epoch offers nothing more remarkable
than the construction of nine reservoirs for irrigation purposes and
the digging of a large canal in Yamashiro province. It is also
thought worthy of historical notice that a Korean prince
unsuccessfully attempted to domesticate bees on a Japanese mountain.
COMMERCE
Considerable progress seems to have been made in tradal matters.
Markets were opened at several places in the interior, and coastwise
commerce developed so much that, in A.D. 553, it was found expedient
to appoint an official for the purpose of numbering and registering
the vessels thus employed. The Chinese settler, Wang Sin-i, who has
already been spoken of as the only person able to decipher a Korean
memorial, was given the office of fune no osa (chief of the shipping
bureau) and granted the title of fune no fubito (registrar of
vessels). Subsequently, during the reign of Jomei (629-641), an
akinai-osa (chief of trade) was appointed in the person of Munemaro,
whose father, Kuhi, had brought scales and weights from China during
the reign of Sushun (558-592), and this system was formally adopted
in the days of Jomei (629-641). There had not apparently been any
officially recognized weights and measures in remote antiquity. The
width of the hand (ta or tsuka) and the spread of the arms (hiro)
were the only dimensions employed. By and by the Korean shaku (foot),
which corresponds to 1.17 shaku of the present day, came into use. In
Kenso's time (485-487) there is mention of a measure of rice being
sold for a piece of silver, and the Emperor Kimmei (540-571) is
recorded to have given 1000 koku of seed-barley to the King of
Kudara. But it is supposed that the writer of the Chronicles, in
making these entries, projected the terminology of his own time into
the previous centuries. There were neither coins nor koku in those
eras.
COSTUME AND COIFFURE
Up to the time (A.D. 603) of the institution of caps as marks of
rank, men were in the habit of dividing their hair in the centre and
tying it above the ears in a style called mizura. But such a fashion
did not accord with the wearing of caps which were gathered up on the
crown in the shape of a bag. Hence men of rank took to binding the
hair in a queue on the top of the head. The old style was continued,
however, by men having no rank and by youths. A child's hair was
looped on the temples in imitation of the flower of a gourd--hence
called hisago-bana--and women wore their tresses hanging free. The
institution of caps interfered also with the use of hairpins, which
were often made of gold and very elaborate. These now came to be
thrust, not directly into the hair, but through the cord employed to
tie the cap above. It is recorded that, in the year 611, when the
Empress Suiko and her Court went on a picnic, the colour of the
ministers' garments agreed with that of their official caps, and that
each wore hair-ornaments which, in the case of the two highest
functionaries, were made of gold; in the case of the next two, of
leopards' tails; and in the case of lower ranks, of birds' tails.
On a more ceremonious occasion, namely, the reception of the Chinese
envoys from the Sui Court, the Chronicles state that Japanese princes
and ministers "all wore gold hair-ornaments,* and their garments were
of brocade, purple, and embroidery, with thin silk stuffs of various
colours and patterns." Costume had become thus gorgeous after the
institution of Buddhism and the establishment of intercourse direct
with the Sui, and, subsequently, the Tang dynasty. Even in the manner
of folding the garments over the breast--not from right to left but
from left to right--the imported fashion was followed. Wadded
garments are incidently mentioned in the year A.D. 643.
*These were called usu. They were, in fact, hairpins, generally
shaped like a flower.
MUSIC AND AMUSEMENTS
It has already been recorded that, in the middle of the sixth
century, musicians were sent from the Kudara Court to the Yamato, and
since these are said to have taken the place of others then
sojourning in Japan, the fact is established that such a visit was
not then without precedent. Music, indeed, may be said to have
benefitted largely by the advent of Buddhism, for the services of the
latter required a special kind of music. The first foreign teacher of
the art was a Korean, Mimashi, who went to Japan in A.D. 612, after
having studied both music and dancing for some years in China. A
dwelling was assigned to him at Sakurai (in Yamato) and he trained
pupils. At the instance of Prince Shotoku and for the better
performance of Buddhist services, various privileges were granted to
the professors of the art. They were exempted from the discharge of
official duties and their occupation became hereditary. Several
ancient Japanese books contain reference to music and dancing, and in
one work* illustrations are given of the wooden masks worn by dancers
and the instruments used by musicians of the Wu (Chinese) school.
These masks were introduced by Mimashi and are still preserved in the
temple Horyu-ji.
*The Horyu-ji Shizai-cho, composed in A.D. 747.
In the matter of pastimes, a favourite practice, first mentioned in
the reign of the Empress Suiko, was a species of picnic called
"medicine hunting" (kusuri-kari). It took place on the fifth day of
the fifth month. The Empress, her ladies, and the high functionaries,
all donned gala costumes and went to hunt stags, for the purpose of
procuring the young antlers, and to search for "deer-fungus"
(shika-take), the horns and the vegetables being supposed to have
medical properties. All the amusements mentioned in previous sections
continued to be followed in this era, and football is spoken of as
having inaugurated the afterwards epoch-making friendship between
Prince Naka and Kamatari. It was not played in the Occidental manner,
however. The game consisted in kicking a ball from player to player
without letting it fall. This was apparently a Chinese innovation.
Here, also, mention may be made of thermal springs. Their sanitary
properties were recognized, and visits were paid to them by invalids.
The most noted were those of Dogo, in Iyo, and Arima, in Settsu. The
Emperor Jomei spent several months at each of these, and Prince
Shotoku caused to be erected at Dogo a stone monument bearing an
inscription to attest the curative virtues of the water.
CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE
That Buddhism obtained a firm footing among the upper classes during
the first century after its introduction must be attributed in no
small measure to the fact that the throne was twice occupied by
Empresses in that interval. The highly decorative aspects of the
creed appealing to the emotional side of woman's nature, these
Imperial ladies encouraged Buddhist propagandism with earnest
munificence. But the mass of the people remained, for the most part,
outside the pale. They continued to believe in the Kami and to
worship them. Thus, when a terribly destructive earthquake* occured
in 599, it was to the Kami of earthquakes that prayers were offered
at his seven shrines in the seven home provinces (Kinai), and not to
the Merciful Buddha, though the saving grace of the latter had then
been preached for nearly a cycle. The first appeal to the foreign
deity in connexion with natural calamity was in the opening year
(642) of the Empress Kogyoku's reign when, in the presence of a
devastating drought, sacrifices of horses and cattle to the Shinto
Kami, changes of the market-places,** and prayers to the river gods
having all failed to bring relief, an imposing Buddhist service was
held in the south court of the Great Temple. "The images of Buddha,
of the bosatsu, and of the Four Heavenly Kings were magnificently
adorned; a multitude of priests read the Mahayana Sutra, and the
o-omi, Soga no Emishi, held a censer, burned incense, and prayed."
But there was no success; and not until the Empress herself had made
a progress to the source of a river and worshipped towards the four
quarters, did abundant rain fall.
*Only three earthquakes are recorded up to the year A.D. 645, and the
second alone (A.D. 599) is described as destructive.
**This was a Chinese custom, as was also the sacrificial rite
mentioned in the same context.
Such an incident cannot have contributed to popularize the Indian
creed. The people at large adhered to their traditional cult and were
easily swayed by superstitions. The first half of the seventh century
was marked by abnormal occurrences well calculated to disturb men's
minds. There were comets (twice); there was a meteor of large
dimensions; there were eclipses of the sun and moon; there were
occultations of Venus; there was snow in July and hail "as large as
peaches" in May, and there was a famine (621) when old people ate
roots of herbs and died by the wayside, when infants at the breast
perished with their mothers, and when thieves and robbers defied
authority. It is not, perhaps, surprising in such circumstances, and
when witches and wizards abounded, that people fell into strange
moods, and were persuaded to regard a caterpillar as the "insect of
the everlasting world," to worship it, and to throw away their
valuables in the belief that riches and perpetual youth would be thus
won. A miyatsuko, by name Kawakatsu, had the courage to kill the
designing preacher of this extravagance, and the moral epidemic was
thus stayed.
ENGRAVING: ONE OF THE STATUES OF "SHITENNO" IN THE KAIDAN-IN, TODAIJI
(Tembyo Sculpture, Eighth Century)
ENGRAVING: UTENSILS USED IN THE TEA CEREMONY (CHA-NO-YU)
CHAPTER XV
THE DAIKA REFORMS
THE THIRTY-SIXTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOTOKU (A.D. 645-654)
AFTER the fall of the Soga and the abdication of the Empress Kogyoku,
her son, Prince Naka, would have been the natural successor, and such
was her own expressed wish. But the prince's procedure was largely
regulated by Kamatari, who, alike in the prelude and in the sequel of
this crisis, proved himself one of the greatest statesmen Japan ever
produced. He saw that the Soga influence, though broken, was not
wholly shattered, and he understood that the great administrative
reform which he contemplated might be imperilled were the throne
immediately occupied by a prince on whose hands the blood of the Soga
chief was still warm. Therefore he advised Prince Naka to stand aside
in favour of his maternal uncle, Prince Karu, who could be trusted to
co-operate loyally in the work of reform and whose connexion with the
Soga overthrow had been less conspicuous. But to reach Prince Karu it
was necessary to pass over the head of another prince, Furubito,
Naka's half-brother, who had the full sympathy of the remnant of the
Soga clan, his mother having been a daughter of the great Umako. The
throne was therefore offered to him. But since the offer followed,
instead of preceding the Empress' approval of Prince Karu, Furubito
recognized the farce, and knowing that, though he might rule in
defiance of the Kamatari faction, he could not hope to rule with its
consent, he threw away his sword and declared his intention of
entering religion.
Very soon the Buddhist monastery at Yoshino, where he received the
tonsure, became a rallying point for the Soga partisans, and a war
for the succession seemed imminent. Naka, however, now Prince
Imperial, was not a man to dally with such obstacles. He promptly
sent to Yoshino a force of soldiers who killed Furubito with his
children and permitted his consorts to strangle themselves. Prince
Naka's name must go down to all generations as that of a great
reformer, but it is also associated with a terrible injustice. Too
readily crediting a slanderous charge brought against his
father-in-law, Kurayamada, who had stood at his right hand in the
great coup d'etat of 645, he despatched a force to seize the alleged
traitor. Kurayamada fled to a temple, and there, declaring that he
would "leave the world, still cherishing fidelity in his bosom," he
committed suicide, his wife and seven children sharing his fate.
Subsequent examination of his effects established his innocence, and
his daughter, consort of Prince Naka, died of grief.
THE DAIKA, OR "GREAT CHANGE"
Not for these things, however, but for sweeping reforms in the
administration of the empire is the reign of Kotoku memorable. Prince
Naka and Kamatari, during the long period of their intimate
intercourse prior to the deed of blood in the great hall of audience,
had fully matured their estimates of the Sui and Tang civilization as
revealed in documents and information carried to Japan by priests,
literati, and students, who, since the establishment of Buddhism, had
paid many visits to China. They appreciated that the system
prevailing in their own country from time immemorial had developed
abuses which were sapping the strength of the nation, and in sweeping
the Soga from the path to the throne, their ambition had been to gain
an eminence from which the new civilization might be authoritatively
proclaimed.
Speaking broadly, their main objects were to abolish the system of
hereditary office-holders; to differentiate aristocratic titles from
official ranks; to bring the whole mass of the people into direct
subjection to the Throne, and to establish the Imperial right of
ownership in all the land throughout the empire. What these changes
signified and with what tact and wisdom the reformers proceeded, will
be clearly understood as the story unfolds itself. Spectacular effect
was enlisted as the first ally. A coronation ceremony of
unprecedented magnificence took place. High officials, girt with
golden quivers, stood on either side of the dais forming the throne,
and all the great functionaries--omi, muraji, and miyatsuko--together
with representatives of the 180 hereditary corporations (be) filed
past, making obeisance. The title of "Empress Dowager" was conferred
for the first time on Kogyoku, who had abdicated; Prince Naka was
made Prince Imperial; the head of the great uji of Abe was nominated
minister of the Left (sa-daijiri); Kurayamada, of the Soga-uji, who
had shared the dangers of the conspiracy against Emishi and Iruka,
became minister of the Right (u-daijiri), and Kamatari himself
received the post of minister of the Interior (nai-daijin), being
invested with the right to be consulted on all matters whether of
statecraft or of official personnel.
These designations, "minister of the Left"*, "minister of the Right,"
and "minister of the Interior," were new in Japan.** Hitherto, there
had been o-omi and o-muraji, who stood between the Throne and the two
great classes of uji, the o-omi and the o-muraji receiving
instructions direct from the sovereign, and the two classes of uji
acknowledging no control except that of the o-omi and the o-muraji.
But whereas the personal status of Kurayamada was only omi (not
o-omi), and the personal status of Kamatari, only muraji (not
o-muraji), neither was required, in his new capacity, to take
instructions from any save the Emperor, nor did any one of the three
high dignitaries nominally represent this or that congeries of uji. A
simultaneous innovation was the appointment of a Buddhist priest,
Bin, and a literatus, Kuromaro, to be "national doctors." These men
had spent some years at the Tang Court and were well versed in
Chinese systems.
*The left takes precedence of the right in Japan.
**The offices were borrowed from the Tang system of China a remark
which applies to nearly all the innovations of the epoch.
The next step taken was to assemble the ministers under a patriarchal
tree, and, in the presence of the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and
the Prince Imperial, to pronounce, in the names of the Kami of heaven
and the Kami of earth--the Tenshin and the Chigi--a solemn
imprecation on rulers who attempted double-hearted methods of
government, and on vassals guilty of treachery in the service of
their sovereign. This amounted to a formal denunciation of the Soga
as well as a pledge on the part of the new Emperor. The Chinese
method of reckoning time by year-periods was then adopted, and the
year A.D. 645 became the first of the Daika era. But before
proceeding to really radical innovations, two further precautions
were taken. In order to display reverence for the foundations of the
State, the sovereign publicly declared that "the empire should be
ruled by following the footsteps of the Emperors of antiquity," and
in order to win the sympathy of the lower orders, his Majesty
directed that inquiry should be made as to the best method of
alleviating the hardships of forced labour. Further, a solemn
ceremony of Shinto worship was held by way of preface.
Then the reformers commenced their work in earnest. Governors
(kokushi) were appointed to all the eastern provinces. These
officials were not a wholly novel institution. It has been shown that
they existed previously to the Daika era, but in a fitful and
uncertain way, whereas, under the system now adopted, they became an
integral part of the administrative machinery. That meant that the
government of the provinces, instead of being administered by
hereditary officials, altogether irrespective of their competence,
was entrusted for a fixed term to men chosen on account of special
aptitude. The eastern provinces were selected for inaugurating this
experiment, because their distance from the capital rendered the
change less conspicuous. Moreover, the appointments were given, as
far as possible, to the former miyatsuko or mikotomochi. An ordinance
was now issued for placing a petition-box in the Court and hanging a
bell near it. The box was intended to serve as a receptacle for
complaints and representations. Anyone had a right to present such
documents. They were to be collected and conveyed to the Emperor
every morning, and if a reply was tardy, the bell was to be struck.
Side by side with these measures for bettering the people's lot,
precautions against any danger of disturbance were adopted by taking
all weapons of war out of the hands of private individuals and
storing them in arsenals specially constructed on waste lands. Then
followed a measure which seems to have been greatly needed. It has
been already explained that a not inconsiderable element of the
population was composed of slaves, and that these consisted of two
main classes, namely, aborigines or Koreans taken prisoners in war,
and members of an uji whose Kami had been implicated in crime. As
time passed, there resulted from intercourse between these slaves and
their owners a number of persons whose status was confused, parents
asserting the manumission of their children and masters insisting on
the permanence of the bond. To correct these complications the whole
nation was now divided into freemen (ryomin) and bondmen (senmin),
and a law was enacted that, since among slaves no marriage tie was
officially recognized, a child of mixed parentage must always be
regarded as a bondman. On that basis a census was ordered to be
taken, and in it were included not only the people of all classes,
but also the area of cultivated and throughout the empire.
At the same time stringent regulations were enacted for the control
and guidance of the provincial governors. They were to take counsel
with the people in dividing the profits of agriculture. They were not
to act as judges in criminal cases or to accept bribes from suitors
in civil ones; their staff, when visiting the capital, was strictly
limited, and the use of public-service horses* as well as the
consumption of State provisions was vetoed unless they were
travelling on public business. Finally, they were enjoined to
investigate carefully all claims to titles and all alleged rights of
land tenure. The next step was the most drastic and far-reaching of
all. Hereditary corporations were entirely abolished, alike those
established to commemorate the name of a sovereign or a prince and
those employed by the nobles to cultivate their estates. The estates
themselves were escheated. Thus, at one stroke, the lands and titles
of the hereditary aristocracy were annulled, just as was destined to
be the case in the Meiji era, twelve centuries later.
*Everyone having a right to use public-service horses was required to
carry a token of his right in the shape of a small bronze bell, or
group of bells, indicating by their shape and number how many horses
the bearer was entitled to.
This reform involved a radical change in the system and method of
taxation, but the consideration of that phase of the question is
deferred for a moment in order to explain the nature and the amount
of the new fiscal burdens. Two kinds of taxes were thenceforth
imposed, namely, ordinary taxes and commuted taxes. The ordinary
consisted of twenty sheaves of rice per cho* (equivalent to about
eight sheaves per acre), and the commuted tax--in lieu of forced
labour--was fixed at a piece of silk fabric forty feet in length by
two and a half feet in breadth per cho, being approximately a length
of sixteen feet per acre. The dimensions of the fabric were doubled
in the case of coarse silk, and quadrupled in the case of cloth woven
from hemp or from the fibre of the inner bark of the paper-mulberry.
A commuted tax was levied on houses also, namely, a twelve-foot
length of the above cloth per house. No currency existed in that age.
All payments were made in kind. There is, therefore, no method of
calculating accurately the monetary equivalent of a sheaf of rice.
But in the case of fabrics we have some guide. Thus, in addition to
the above imposts, every two townships--a township was a group of
fifty houses--had to contribute one horse of medium quality (or one
of superior quality per two hundred houses) for public service; and
since a horse was regarded as the equivalent of a total of twelve
feet of cloth per house, it would follow, estimating a horse of
medium quality at £5, ($25.), that the commuted tax in the case of
land was above 5s.4d., ($1.30) per acre. Finally, each homestead was
required to provide one labourer as well as rations for his support;
and every two homesteads had to furnish one palace waiting-woman
(uneme), who must be good-looking, the daughter or sister of a
district official of high rank, and must have one male and two female
servants to attend on her--these also being supported by the two
homesteads. In every homestead there was an alderman who kept the
register, directed agricultural operations, enforced taxes, and took
measures to prevent crime as well as to judge it.
*The cho was two and a half acres approximately.
Thus it is seen that a regular system of national taxation was
introduced and that the land throughout the whole empire was
considered to be the property of the Crown. As for the nobles who
were deprived of their estates, sustenance gifts were given to them,
but there is no record of the bases upon which these gifts were
assessed. With regard to the people's share in the land, the plan
pursued was that for every male or female over five years of age two
tan (about half an acre) should be given to the former and one-third
less to the latter, these grants being made for a period of six
years, at the end of which time a general restoration was to be
effected. A very striking evidence of the people's condition is that
every adult male had to contribute a sword, armour, a bow and arrows,
and a drum. This impost may well have outweighed all the others.
SEPULCHRES
Another important reform regulated the dimensions of burial mounds.
The construction of these on the grand scale adopted for many
sovereigns, princes, and nobles had long harrassed the people, who
were compelled to give their toil gratis for such a purpose. What
such exactions had entailed may be gathered from Kotoku's edict,
which said, "Of late the poverty of our people is absolutely due to
the construction of tombs." Nevertheless, he did not undertake to
limit the size of Imperial tombs. The rescript dealt only with those
from princes downwards. Of these, the greatest tumulus permitted was
a square mound with a side of forty-five feet at the base and a
height of twenty-five feet, measured along the slope, a further
restriction being that the work must not occupy more than one
thousand men for seven days. The maximum dimensions were similarly
prescribed in every case, down to a minor official, whose grave must
not give employment to more than fifty men for one day. When ordinary
people died, it was directed that they should be buried in the ground
without a day's delay, and, except in the case of an Emperor or an
Empress, the custom of temporary interment was strictly vetoed.
Cemeteries were ordered to be constructed for the first time, and
peremptory injunctions were issued against self-destruction to
accompany the dead; against strangling men or women by way of
sacrifice; against killing the deceased's horse, and against cutting
the hair or stabbing the thighs by way of showing grief. It must be
assumed that all these customs existed.
ABUSES
Other evil practices are incidentally referred to in the context of
the Daika reforms. Thus it appears that slaves occasionally left
their lawful owners owing to the latter's poverty and entered the
service of rich men, who thereafter refused to give them up; that
when a divorced wife or concubine married into another family, her
former husband, after the lapse of years, often preferred claims
against her new husband's property; that men, relying on their power,
demanded people's daughters in marriage, and in the event of the girl
entering another house, levied heavy toll on both families; that when
a widow, of ten or twenty years' standing, married again, or when a
girl entered into wedlock, the people of the vicinity insisted on the
newly wedded couple performing the Shinto rite of harai (purgation),
which was perverted into a device for compelling offerings of goods
and wine; that the compulsory performance of this ceremony had become
so onerous as to make poor men shrink from giving burial to even
their own brothers who had died at a distance from home, or hesitate
to extend aid to them in mortal peril, and that when a forced
labourer cooked his food by the roadside or borrowed a pot to boil
his rice, he was often obliged to perform expensive purgation.
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION
At the head of all officials were the sa-daijin (minister of the
Left), the u-daijin (minister of the Right) and the nai-daijin
(minister of the Interior), and after them came the heads of
departments, of which eight were established, after the model
of the Tang Court in China. They were the Central Department
(Nakatsukasa-sho); the Department of Ceremonies (Shikibu-sho); the
Department of Civil Government (Jibu-sho); the Department of Civil
Affairs (Mimbu-sho); the Department of War (Hyobu-sho); the
Department of Justice (Gyobu-sho); the Treasury (Okura-sho), and the
Household Department (Kunai-sho). These departments comprised a
number of bureaux. All officials of high rank had to assemble at the
south gate of the palace in time to enter at sunrise, and they
remained there until some time between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M.
In a province the senior official was the governor, and under him
were heads of districts, aldermen of homesteads (fifty houses),
elders of five households--all the houses being divided into groups
of five for purposes of protection--and market commissioners who
superintended the currency (in kind), commerce, the genuineness of
wares, the justness of weights and measures, the prices of
commodities, and the observance of prohibitions. Since to all
official posts men of merit were appointed without regard to lineage,
the cap-ranks inaugurated by Prince Shotoku were abolished, inasmuch
as they designated personal status by inherited right only, and they
were replaced by new cap-grades, nineteen in all, which were
distinguished partly by their borders, partly by their colours, and
partly by their materials and embroidery. Hair-ornaments were also a
mark of rank. They were cicada-shaped, of gold and silver for the
highest grades, of silver for the medium grades, and of copper for
the low grades. The caps indicated official status without any
reference to hereditary titles.
RATIONALE OF THE NEW SYSTEM
The radical changes outlined above were all effected in the short
space of eight years. If it be asked what motive inspired the
reformers, the obvious answer is that experience, culminating in the
usurpations of the Soga, had fully displayed the abuses incidental to
the old system. Nothing more memorable than this flood of reforms has
left its mark upon Japan's ancient history. During the first thirteen
centuries of the empire's existence--if we accept the traditional
chronology--the family was the basis of the State's organization.
Each unit of the population either was a member of an uji or belonged
to the tomobe of an uji, and each uji was governed by its own omi or
muraji, while all the uji of the Kwobetsu class were under the o-omi
and all those of the Shimbetsu class, under the o-muraji. Finally, it
was through the o-omi and the o-muraji alone that the Emperor
communicated his will. In other words, the Japanese at large were not
recognized as public people, the only section that bore that
character being the units of the hereditary corporations instituted
in memory of some Imperial personage and the folk that cultivated the
miyake (State domains).
All these facts, though already familiar to the reader, find a
fitting place in the context of the great political development of
the Daika era. For the main features of that development were that
the entire nation became the public people of the realm and the whole
of the land became the property of the Crown, the hereditary nobles
being relegated to the rank of State pensioners. This metamorphosis
entailed taking an accurate census of the population; making a survey
of the land; fixing the boundaries of provinces, districts, and
villages; appointing officials to administer the affairs of these
local divisions, and organizing the central government with boards
and bureaux. The system of taxation also had to be changed, and the
land had to be apportioned to the people. In former days, the only
charges levied by the State on the produce of the land were those
connected with religious observances and military operations, and
even in imposing these the intervention of the heads of uji had to be
employed. But by the Daika reforms the interest of the hereditary
nobility in the taxes Avas limited to realizing their sustenance
allowances; while as for the land, it was removed entirely beyond
their control and partitioned among the people, in the proportion
already noted, on leases terminable at the end of six years.
Of course, whatever political exigency may have dictated this
short-tenure system, it was economically unsound and could not remain
long in practice. The measures adopted to soften the aspect of these
wholesale changes in the eyes of the hereditary nobility whom they so
greatly affected, have been partly noted above. It may here be added,
however, that not only was the office of district governor--who
ranked next to the provincial governor (kokushi)--filled as far as
possible by former kuni no miyatsuko, but also these latter were
entrusted with the duty of observing and reporting upon the conduct
of the new officials as to assiduity and integrity, to which duty
there were also nominated special officials called choshu-shi. By the
aid of these and other tactful devices, the operation of the new
system was guaranteed against disturbance. Nothing was deemed too
trivial to assist in promoting that end. Even such a petty incident
as the appearance of a white pheasant was magnified into a special
indication of heaven's approval, and a grand Court ceremony having
been held in honour of the bird, the Emperor proclaimed a general
amnesty and ordered that the name of the period should be changed to
Haku-chi (White Pheasant). Something of this may be set down frankly
to the superstitious spirit of the time. But much is evidently
attributable to the statecraft of the Emperor's advisers, who sought
to persuade the nation that this breaking away from all its venerable
old traditions had supernatural approval.
There was, indeed, one defect in the theory of the new system. From
time immemorial the polity of the empire had been based on the family
relation. The sovereign reigned in virtue of his lineage, and the
hereditary nobles owed their high positions and administrative
competence equally to descent. To discredit the title of the nobles
was to disturb the foundation of the Throne itself, and to affirm
that want of virtue constituted a valid reason for depriving the
scions of the gods of their inherited functions, was to declare
constructively that the descendant of Amaterasu also held his title
by right of personal worthiness. That was the Chinese theory. Their
history shows plainly that they recognized the right of men like Tang
or Wu to overturn tyrants like Chieh of the Hsia dynasty, and Chou of
the Yen dynasty. The two Japanese Emperors, Kotoku and Tenchi
(668-671), seem to have partially endorsed a cognate principle. But
nothing could be at greater variance with the cardinal tenet of the
Japanese polity, which holds that "the King can do no wrong" and that
the Imperial line must remain unbroken to all eternity.
ENVOYS TO CHINA
The importance attached to intercourse with China during the reign of
Kotoku was illustrated by the dimensions of the embassies sent to the
Tang Court and by the quality of the envoys. Two embassies were sent
in 653, one consisting of 121 persons and the other of 120.* The
former included seventeen student-priests, and among them was the
eldest son of Kamatari himself. Another embassy was despatched in
654, and the records show incidently that the sea route was taken,
for after a voyage lasting some months and therefore presumably of a
coasting character, the envoys landed at Laichou in Shantung. They
finally reached Changan, the Tang capital, and were most hospitably
received by the Emperor Kao-sung. The hardships of the journey are
attested by the fact that three of the student-priests died at sea.
One remained in China for thirty-six years, and Joye, Kamatari's son,
did not return to Japan for twelve years.
*The ship carrying the embassy was wrecked off the south coast of
Japan, and out of 120 persons only five escaped.
In short, when these students left their country in search of
literary, religious, and political lore, they had no assurance of
ever thereafter finding an opportunity to see their homes again. The
overland journey was almost impossible without guides and guards, and
communication by sea seems to have been fitful and uncertain. The
last of the above three embassies was led by no less a person than
the renowned scholar, Kuromaro, who had been associated with the
priest, Bin, in modelling the new administrative system of Japan.
Kuromaro never returned from China; he died there. A few months
before the despatch of Kuromaro as envoy, his illustrious coadjutor,
Bin, expired in the temple of Azumi. The Emperor repaired in person
to the sick priest's chamber, and said, "If you die to-day, I will
follow you to-morrow." So great was the reverence showed towards
learning and piety in that era. Thus, hazardous and wearisome as was
the voyage to China over stormy waters in a rude sailing boat, its
successful accomplishment established a title to official preferment
and high honour. It will be seen by and by that similar treatment was
extended in the nineteenth century to men who visited Europe and
America in the pursuit of knowledge.
THE THIRTY-SEVENTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS SAIMEI (A.D. 655-661)
On the demise of Kotoku, in 654, his natural successor would have
been Prince Naka, who, ten years previously, had chosen to reform the
empire rather than to rule it. But the prince deemed that the course
of progress still claimed his undivided attention, and therefore the
Empress Kogyoku was again raised to the throne under the name of*
Saimei--the first instance of a second accession in Japanese history.
She reigned nearly seven years, and the era is remarkable chiefly for
expeditions against the Yemishi and for complications with Korea. To
the former chapter of history sufficient reference had already been
made, but the latter claims a moment's attention.
*It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that all
the names given in these pages to Japanese sovereigns are
posthumous. Thus Saimei, during her lifetime, was called
Ame-toyo-takara-ikashi-hi-tarashi-hime.
RELATIONS WITH KOREA
It has been shown how, in A.D. 562, the Japanese settlement in Mimana
was exterminated; how the Emperor Kimmei's dying behest to his
successor was that this disgrace must be removed; how subsequent
attempts to carry out his testament ended in failure, owing largely
to Japan's weak habit of trusting the promises of Shiragi, and how,
in 618, the Sui Emperor, Yang, at the head of a great army, failed to
make any impression on Korea.
Thereafter, intercourse between Japan and the peninsula was of a
fitful character unmarked by any noteworthy event until, in the
second year (651) of the "White Pheasant" era, the Yamato Court
essayed to assert itself in a futile fashion by refusing to give
audience to Shiragi envoys because they wore costumes after the Tang
fashion without offering any excuse for such a caprice. Kotoku was
then upon the Japanese throne, and Japan herself was busily occupied
importing and assimilating Tang institutions. That she should have
taken umbrage at similar imitation on Shiragi's part seems
capricious. Shiragi sent no more envoys, and presently (655), finding
herself seriously menaced by a coalition between Koma and Kudara, she
applied to the Tang Court for assistance. The application produced no
practical response, but Shiragi, who for some time had been able to
defy the other two principalities, now saw and seized an opportunity
offered by the debauchery and misrule of the King of Kudara. She
collected an army to attack her neighbour and once more supplicated
Tang's aid. This was in the year 660. The second appeal produced a
powerful response. Kao-sung, then the Tang Emperor, despatched a
general, Su Ting-fang, at the head of an army of two hundred thousand
men. There was now no long and tedious overland march round the
littoral of the Gulf of Pechili and across Liaotung. Su embarked his
forces at Chengshan, on the east of the Shantung promontory, and
crossed direct to Mishi-no-tsu--the modern Chemulpo--thus attacking
Kudara from the west while Shiragi moved against it from the east.
Kudara was crushed. It lost ten thousand men, and all its prominent
personages, from the debauched King downwards, were sent as prisoners
to Tang. But one great captain, Pok-sin, saved the situation.
Collecting the fugitive troops of Kudara he fell suddenly on Shiragi
and drove her back, thereafter appealing for Japanese aid.
At the Yamato Court Shiragi was now regarded as a traditional enemy.
It had played fast and loose again and again about Mimana, and in the
year 657 it had refused safe conduct for a Japanese embassy to the
Tang Court. The Empress Saimei decided that Kudara must be succoured.
Living in Japan at that time was Phung-chang,* a younger brother of
the deposed King of Kudara. It was resolved that he should be sent to
the peninsula accompanied by a sufficient force to place him on the
throne. But Saimei died before the necessary preparations were
completed, and the task of carrying out a design which had already
received his endorsement devolved upon Prince Naka, the great
reformer. A fleet of 170 ships carrying an army of thirty-seven
thousand men escorted Phung-chang from Tsukushi, and the kingdom of
Kudara was restored. But the conclusive battle had still to be
fought. It took place in September, 662, at Paik-chhon-ku (Ung-jin),
between the Chinese under Liu Jen-kuei, a Tang general, and the
Japanese under Atsumi no Hirafu. The forces were about equal on each
side, and it was the first signal trial of strength between Chinese
and Japanese. No particulars have been handed down by history.
Nothing is known except that the Japanese squadron drove straight
ahead, and that the Chinese attacked from both flanks. The result was
a crushing defeat for the Japanese. They were shattered beyond the
power of rallying, and only a remnant found its way back to Tsukushi.
Kudara and Koma fell, and Japan lost her last footing in a region
where her prestige had stood so high for centuries.
*He was a hostage. The constant residence of Korean hostages in Japan
speaks eloquently of the relations existing between the two
countries. There were no Japanese hostages in Korea.
Shiragi continued during more than a hundred years to maintain a
semblance of deferential intercourse, but her conduct became
ultimately so unruly that, in the reign of Nimmyo (834-850), her
people were prohibited from visiting Japan. From Kudara, however,
after its overthrow by China, there migrated almost continuously for
some time a number of inhabitants who became naturalized in Japan.
They were distributed chiefly in the provinces of Omi and Musashi,
Son-Kwang, a brother of the former King of Kudara, being required to
live in Naniwa (Osaka) for the purpose of controlling them. Koma,
also, when it fell into Chinese hands, sent many settlers to Japan,
and during the reign of the Empress Gemmyo (708-715), they were
transferred from the six provinces of Suruga, Kai, Sagami, Kazusa,
Shimosa, and Hitachi to Musashi, where the district inhabited by them
was thenceforth called Koma-gori. Thus, Japan extended her
hospitality to the men whose independence she had not been able to
assert. Her relations with her peninsular neighbour ended humanely
though not gloriously. They had cost her heavily in life and
treasure, but she had been repaid fully with the civilization which
Korea helped her to import.
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR TENCHI (A.D. 668-671)
It will be observed that although the thirty-seventh sovereign, the
Empress Saimei, died in the year 661, the reign of her successor,
Tenchi, did not commence historically until 668. There thus appears
to have been an interregnum of seven years. The explanation is that
the Crown Prince, Naka, while taking the sceptre, did not actually
wield it. He entrusted the administrative functions to his younger
brother, Oama, and continued to devote himself to the great work of
reform. He had stood aside in favour of Kotoku sixteen years
previously and in favour of the Empress Saimei six years previously,
and now, for seven years longer, he refrained from identifying
himself with the Throne until the fate of his innovations was known.
Having assumed the task of eradicating abuses which, for a thousand
years, had been growing unchecked, he shrank from associating the
Crown directly with risks of failure. But in the year 668, judging
that his reforms had been sufficiently assimilated to warrant
confidence, he formally ascended the throne and is known in history
as Tenchi (Heavenly Intelligence).
Only four years of life remained to him, and almost immediately after
his accession he lost his great coadjutor, Kamatari. Of the four men
who had worked out the "Daika restoration," Kuromaro, the student,
died in China a year (654) after the demise of the illustrious
priest, Bin; Kamatari barely survived until success came in sight,
and Prince Naka (Tenchi) was taken two years later (671). It is
related that in the days when the prince and Kamatari planned the
outlines of their great scheme, they were accustomed to meet for
purposes of conference in a remote valley on the east of the capital,
where an aged wistaria happened to be in bloom at the most critical
of their consultations. Kamatari therefore desired to change his uji
name from Nakatomi to Fujiwara (wistaria), and the prince, on
ascending the throne, gave effect to this request. There thus came
into existence a family, the most famous in Japanese history. The
secluded valley where the momentous meetings took place received the
name of Tamu* no Mine, and a shrine stands there now in memory of
Kamatari. The Emperor would fain have attended Kamatari's obsequies
in person, but his ministers dissuaded him on the ground that such a
course would be unprecedented. His Majesty confined himself therefore
to conferring on the deceased statesman posthumous official rank, the
first instance of a practice destined to became habitual in Japan.
*"Tamu" signifies to converse about military affairs.
THE OMI STATUES AND THE CENSUS REGISTER
During the reign of Tenchi no rescript embodying signal
administrative changes was issued, though the reforms previously
inaugurated seem to have made steady progress. But by a legislative
office specially organized for the purpose there was enacted a body
of twenty-two laws called the Omi Ritsu-ryo (the Omi Statutes), Omi,
on the shore of Lake Biwa, being then the seat of the Imperial Court.
Shotoku Taishi's Jushichi Kempo, though often spoken of as a
legislative ordinance, was really an ethical code, but the Omi
Ritsu-ryo had the character of genuine laws, the first of their kind
in Japan. Unfortunately this valuable document did not survive. Our
knowledge of it is confined to a statement in the Memoirs of Kamatari
that it was compiled in the year 667. Two years later--that is to
say, in the year after Tenchi's actual accession--the census
register, which had formed an important feature of the Daika reforms,
became an accomplished fact. Thenceforth there was no further
occasion to appeal to the barbarous ordeal of boiling water
(kuga-dachi) when questions of lineage had to be determined.
THE THIRTY-NINTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOBUN (A.D. 672-672)
Among four "palace ladies" (uneme) upon whom the Emperor Tenchi
looked with favour, one, Yaka of Iga province, bore him a son known
in his boyhood days as Prince Iga but afterwards called Prince Otomo.
For this lad his father conceived a strong affection, and would
doubtless have named him heir apparent had he not been deterred by
the consideration that during his own abstention from actually
occupying the throne, administrative duties would have to be
entrusted mainly to the hands of a Prince Imperial, and Otomo, being
only thirteen years of age, could not undertake such a task. Thus, on
Tenchi's younger brother, Oama, the dignity of Crown Prince was
conferred, and he became the Emperor's locum tenens, in which
position he won universal applause by sagacity and energy. But during
these seven years of nominal interregnum, the fame of Prince Otomo
also grew upon men's lips. An ancient book speaks of him as "wise and
intelligent; an able administrator alike of civil and of military
affairs; commanding respect and esteem; sage of speech, and rich in
learning." When the Emperor actually ascended the throne, Otomo had
reached his twentieth year, and four years later (671) the sovereign
appointed him prime minister (dajo daijin), an office then created
for the first time.
Thenceforth the question of Tenchi's successor began to be
disquieting. The technical right was on Oama's side, but the paternal
sympathy was with Otomo. Tradition has handed down a tale about a
certain Princess Nukata, who, having bestowed her affections
originally on Prince Oama, was afterwards constrained to yield to the
addresses of the Emperor Tenchi, and thus the two brothers became
enemies. But that story does not accord with facts. It is also
related that during a banquet at the palace on the occasion of
Tenchi's accession, Prince Oama thrust a spear through the floor from
below, and the Emperor would have punished the outrage with death had
not Kamatari interceded for the prince. These narratives are cited to
prove that the Emperor Tenchi's purpose was to leave the throne to
Otomo, not Oama. There is, however, no valid reason to infer any such
intention. What actually occurred was that when, within a few months
of Otomo's appointment as dajo daijin, the sovereign found himself
mortally sick, he summoned Oama and named him to succeed But Oama,
having been warned of a powerful conspiracy to place Otomo on the
throne, and not unsuspicious that it had the Emperor's sympathy,
declined the honour and announced his intention of entering religion,
which he did by retiring to the monastery at Yoshino. The
conspirators, at whose head were the minister of the Left, Soga no
Akae, and the minister of the Right, Nakatomi no Kane, aimed at
reverting to the times when, by placing on the throne a prince of
their own choice, one or two great uji had grasped the whole
political power. The prime mover was Kane, muraji of the Nakatomi.
Immediately after Tenchi's death, which took place at the close of
671, and after the accession of Prince Otomo--known in history as the
Emperor Kobun--the conspirators began to concert measures for the
destruction of Prince Oama, whom they regarded as a fatal obstacle to
the achievement of their purpose. But the Emperor Kobun's consort,
Toichi, was a daughter of Prince Oama, and two sons of the latter,
Takaichi and Otsu, were also in the Court at Omi. By these three
persons Yoshino was kept fully informed of everything happening at
Omi. Oama fled precipitately. He did not even wait for a palanquin or
a horse. His course was shaped eastward, for two reasons: the first,
that his domains as Prince Imperial had been in Ise and Mino; the
second, that since in the eastern provinces the Daika reforms had
been first put into operation, in the eastern provinces, also,
conservatism might be expected to rebel with least reluctance.
The struggle that ensued was the fiercest Japan had witnessed since
the foundation of the empire. For twenty days there was almost
continuous fighting. The prince's first measure was to block the
passes on the eastward high-roads, so that the Omi forces could not
reach him till he was fully ready to receive them. Thousands flocked
to his standard, and he was soon able to assume the offensive. On the
other hand, those whom the Omi Court summoned to arms declined for
the most part to respond. The nation evidently regarded Prince Oama
as the champion of the old against the new. The crowning contest took
place at the Long Bridge of Seta, which spans the waters of Lake Biwa
at the place where they narrow to form the Seta River. Deserted by
men who had sworn to support him, his army shattered, and he himself
a fugitive, the Emperor fled to Yamazaki and there committed suicide.
His principal instigator, muraji of the Nakatomi and minister of the
Right, with eight other high officials, suffered the extreme penalty;
Akae, omi of the Soga and minister of the Left, had to go into exile,
but the rest of Kobun's followers were pardoned. Not because of its
magnitude alone but because its sequel was the dethronement and
suicide of a legitimate Emperor, this struggle presents a shocking
aspect to Japanese eyes. It is known in history as the "Jinshin
disturbance," so called after the cyclical designation of the year
(672) when it occurred.
THE FORTIETH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR TEMMU (A.D. 673-686)
Prince Oama succeeded to the throne and is known in history as the
fortieth Sovereign, Temmu. During the fourteen years of his reign he
completed the administrative systems of the Daika era, and asserted
the dignity and authority of the Court to an unprecedented degree.
Among the men who espoused his cause in the Jinshin struggle there
are found many names of aristocrats who boasted high titles and owned
hereditary estates. Whatever hopes these conservatives entertained of
a reversion to the old-time-order of things, they were signally
disappointed. The Daika reformers had invariably contrived that
conciliation should march hand in hand with innovation. Temmu relied
on coercion. He himself administered State affairs with little
recourse to ministerial aid but always with military assistance in
the background. He was especially careful not to sow the seeds of the
abuses which his immediate predecessors had worked to eradicate.
Thus, while he did not fail to recognize the services of those that
had stood by him in the Jinshin tumult, he studiously refrained from
rewarding them with official posts, and confined himself to bestowing
titles of a purely personal character together with posthumous rank
in special cases.
It has been shown that in the so-called "code" of Shotoku Taishi
prominent attention was directed to the obligations of decorum. This
principle received much elaboration in Temmu's reign. A law,
comprising no less than ninety-two articles, was enacted for guidance
in Court ceremonials, the demeanour and salutation of each grade of
officials being explicitly set forth. It is worthy of note that a
veto was imposed on the former custom of kneeling to make obeisance
and advancing or retreating in the presence of a superior on the
knees and hands; all salutations were ordered to be made standing.
Further, the clear differentiation of official functions, which had
been commenced under the sway of Tenchi, was completed in this reign.
But, though relying on military force in the last resort, Temmu did
not neglect appeals to religion and devices to win popularity. On the
one hand, we find him establishing a War-Office (Heisei-kan) and
making it second in grade and importance to the Privy Council
(Dajo-kwan) alone; on the other, he is seen endowing shrines,
erecting temples, and organizing religious fetes on a sumptuous
scale. If, again, all persons in official position were required to
support armed men; if the provincials were ordered to practise
military exercises, and if arms were distributed to the people in the
home provinces (Kinai), at the same time taxes were freely remitted,
and amnesties were readily granted. Further, if much attention was
paid to archery, and if drastic measures were adopted to crush the
partisans of the Omi Court who still occasionally raised the standard
of revolt, the sovereign devoted not less care to the discharge of
the administrative functions, and his legislation extended even to
the realm of fishery, where stake-nets and other methods of an
injurious nature were strictly interdicted. The eating of flesh was
prohibited, but whether this veto was issued in deference to Buddhism
or from motives of economy, there is no evidence to show.
One very noteworthy feature of Temmu's administration was that he
never appointed to posts in the Government men who did not give
promise of competence. All those who possessed a claim on his
gratitude were nominated chamberlains (toneri), and having been thus
brought under observation, were subsequently entrusted with official
functions commensurate with their proved ability. The same plan was
pursued in the case of females. With regard to the titles conferred
by this sovereign in recognition of meritorious services, they were
designed to replace the old-time kabane (or sei), in that whereas the
kabane had always been hereditary, and was generally associated with
an office, the new sei was obtained by special grant, and, though it
thereafter became hereditary, it was never an indication of office
bearing. Eight of these new titles were instituted by Temmu, namely,
mahito, asomi, sukune, imiki, michi-no-shi, omi, muraji, and inagi,
and their nearest English equivalents are, perhaps, duke, marquis,
count, lord, viscount, baron, and baronet. It is unnecessary to give
any etymological analysis of these terms; their order alone is
important. But two points have to be noted. The first is that the
title imiki was generally that chosen for bestowal on naturalized
foreigners; the second, that a conspicuously low place in the list is
given to the revered old titles, ami and muraji. This latter feature
is significant. The new peerage was, in fact, designed not only to
supplant, but also to discredit, the old.
Thus, in the first place, the system was abolished under which all
uji having the title of omi were controlled by the o-omi, and all
having the title of muraji by the o-muraji; and in the second, though
the above eight sei were established, not every uji was necessarily
granted a title. Only the most important received that distinction,
and even these found themselves relegated to a comparatively low
place on the list. All the rest, however, were permitted to use their
old, but now depreciated kabane, and no change was made in the
traditional custom of entrusting the management of each uji's affairs
to its own Kami. But, in order to guard against the abuses of the
hereditary right, an uji no Kami ceased in certain cases to succeed
by birthright and became elective, the election requiring Imperial
endorsement.
The effect of these measures was almost revolutionary. They changed
the whole fabric of the Japanese polity. But in spite of all Temmu's
precautions to accomplish the centralization of power, success was
menaced by a factor which could scarcely have been controlled. The
arable lands in the home provinces at that time probably did not
exceed 130,000 acres, and the food stuffs produced cannot have
sufficed for more than a million persons. As for the forests, their
capacities were ill developed, and thus it fell out that the
sustenance fiefs granted to omi and muraji of the lower grades did
not exceed a few acres. Gradually, as families multiplied, the
conditions of life became too straightened in such circumstances, and
relief began to be sought in provincial appointments, which furnished
opportunities for getting possession of land. It was in this way that
local magnates had their origin and the seeds of genuine feudalism
were sown. Another direction in which success fell short of purpose
was in the matter of the hereditary guilds (be). The Daika reforms
had aimed at converting everyone in the empire into a veritable unit
of the nation, not a mere member of an uji or a tomobe. But it proved
impossible to carry out this system in the case of the tomobe (called
also kakibe), or labouring element of the uji, and the yakabe, or
domestic servants of a family. To these their old status had to be
left.
THE FORTY-FIRST SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS JITO (A.D. 690-697)
The Emperor Temmu died in 686, and the throne remained nominally
unoccupied until 690. A similar interregnum had separated the
accession of Tenchi from the death of his predecessor, the Empress
Saimei, and both events were due to a cognate cause. Tenchi did not
wish that his reforms should be directly associated with the Throne
until their success was assured; Temmu desired that the additions
made by him to the Daika system should be consolidated by the genius
of his wife before the sceptre passed finally into the hands of his
son. Jito had stood by her husband's side when, as Prince Oama, he
had barely escaped the menaces of the Omi Court, and there is reason
to think that she had subsequently shared his administrative
confidence as she had assisted at his military councils. The heir to
the throne, Prince Kusakabe, was then in his twenty-fifth year, but
he quietly endorsed the paternal behest that his mother should direct
State affairs. The arrangement was doubtless intended to be
temporary, but Kusakabe died three years later, and yielding to the
solicitations of her ministers, Jito then (690) finally ascended the
throne.
Her reign, however, was not entirely free from the family strife
which too often accompanied a change of sovereigns in Japan's early
days. In addition to his legitimate offspring, Kusakabe, the Emperor
Temmu left several sons by secondary consorts, and the eldest
survivor of these, Prince Otsu, listening to the counsels of the Omi
Court's partisans and prompted by his own well-deserved popularity
and military prowess, intrigued to seize the throne. He was executed
in his house, and his fate is memorable for two reasons: the first,
that his young wife, Princess Yamanobe, "hastened thither with her
hair dishevelled and her feet bare and joined him in death;" the
second, that all his followers, over thirty in number, were
pardoned--rare clemency in those days. Prince Otsu is said to have
inaugurated a pastime which afterwards became very popular--the
composition of Chinese verses.
SLAVES
The most important legislation of the Empress Jito's reign related to
slaves.* In the year of her accession (690), she issued an edict
ordering that interest on all debts contracted prior to, or during
the year (685) prior to Temmu's death should be cancelled. Temmu
himself had created the precedent for this. When stricken by mortal
illness, he had proclaimed remission of all obligations, "whether in
rice or in valuables," incurred on or before the last day of the
preceding year. But Jito's edict had a special feature. It provided
that anyone already in servitude on account of a debt should be
relieved from serving any longer on account of the interest. Thus it
is seen that the practice of pledging the service of one's body in
discharge of debt was in vogue at that epoch, and that it received
official recognition with the proviso that the obligation must not
extend to interest. Debts, therefore, had become instruments for
swelling the ranks of the slave class.
*The senmin, or slave class, was divided into two groups, namely,
public slaves (kwanko ryoko, and ko-nuhi), and private slaves (kenin
and shi-nuhi).
But while sanctioning this evil custom, the tendency of the law was
to minimize its results. In another edict of the same reign it was
laid down that, when a younger brother of the common people
(hyakusei) was sold by his elder brother, the former should still be
classed as a freeman (ryomin), but a child sold by its father became
a serf (senmin); that service rendered to one of the senmin class by
a freeman in payment of a debt must not affect the status of the
freeman, and that the children of freemen so serving, even though
born of a union with a slave, should be reckoned as freemen. It has
been shown already that degradation to slavery was a common
punishment or expiation of a crime, and the annals of the period
under consideration indicate that men and women of the slave class
were bought and sold like any other chattels. Documents certainly not
of more recent date than the ninth century, show particulars of some
of these transactions. One runs as follows:
Men (nu) 3
Women (hi) 3
--
Total 6
2 at 10000 bundles of rice each
2 at 800 bundles of rice each.
1 at 700 bundles of rice.
1 at 600 bundles of rice.
-----
Total 4900 bundles
1 man (nu) named Kokatsu; age 34; with a mole under the left eye
Price 1000 bundles of rice.
The above are slaves of Kannawo Oba of Okambe in Yamagata district.
Comparison of several similar vouchers indicates that the usual price
of an able-bodied slave was one thousand bundles of rice, and as one
bundle gave five sho of unhulled rice, one thousand bundles
represented fifty koku, which, in the modern market, would sell for
about six hundred yen. It is not to be inferred, however, that the
sale of freemen into slavery was sanctioned by law. During the reign
of the Emperor Temmu, a farmer of Shimotsuke province wished to sell
his child on account of a bad harvest, but his application for
permission was refused, though forwarded by the provincial governor.
In fact, sales or purchases of the junior members of a family by the
seniors were not publicly permitted, although such transactions
evidently took place. Even the manumission of a slave required
official sanction. Thus it is recorded that, in the reign of the
Empress Jito, Komaro, an asomi, asked and obtained the Court's
permission to grant their freedom to six hundred slaves in his
possession. Another rule enacted in Jito's time was that the slaves
of an uji, when once manumitted, could not be again placed on the
slaves' register at the request of a subsequent uji no Kami. Finally
this same sovereign enacted that yellow-coloured garments should be
worn by freemen and black by slaves. History shows that the sale and
purchase of human beings in Japan, subject to the above limitations,
was not finally forbidden until the year 1699.
THE MILITARY SYSTEM
It has been seen that the Emperors Kotoku and Temmu attached much
importance to the development of military efficiency and that they
issued orders with reference to the training of provincials, the
armed equipment of the people, the storage of weapons of war, and the
maintenance of men-at-arms by officials. Compulsory service, however,
does not appear to have been inaugurated until the reign of the
Empress Jito, when (689) her Majesty instructed the local governors
that one-fourth of the able-bodied men in each province should be
trained every year in warlike exercises. This was the beginning of
the conscription system in Japan.
THE ORDER OF SUCCESSION OF THE THRONE
That the throne should be occupied by members of the Imperial family
only had been a recognized principle of the Japanese polity from
remotest epochs. But there had been an early departure from the rule
of primogeniture, and since the time of Nintoku the eligibility of
brothers also had been acknowledged in practice. To this latitude of
choice many disturbances were attributable, notably the fell Jinshin
struggle, and the terrors of that year were still fresh in men's
minds when, during Jito's reign, the deaths of two Crown Princes in
succession brought up the dangerous problem again for solution. The
princes were Kusakabe and Takaichi. The former had been nominated by
his father, Temmu, but was instructed to leave the reins of power in
the hands of his mother, Jito, for a time. He died in the year 689,
while Jito was still regent, and Takaichi, another of Temmu's sons,
who had distinguished himself as commander of a division of troops in
the Jinshin campaign, was made Prince Imperial. But he too died in
696, and it thus fell out that the only surviving and legitimate
offspring of an Emperor who had actually reigned was Prince Kuzuno,
son of Kobun.
To his accession, however, there was this great objection that his
father, though wielding the sceptre for a few months, had borne arms
in the Jinshin disturbance against Temmu and Jito, and was held to
have forfeited his title by defeat and suicide. His assumption of the
sceptre would have created a most embarrassing situation, and his
enforced disqualification might have led to trouble. In this dilemma,
the Empress convened a State council, Prince Kuzuno also being
present, and submitted the question for their decision. But none
replied until Kuzuno himself, coming forward, declared that unless
the principle of primogeniture were strictly followed, endless
complications would be inevitable. This involved the sacrifice of his
own claim and the recognition of Karu, eldest son of the late
Kusakabe. The 14th of March, 696, when this patriotic declaration was
made, is memorable in Japanese history as the date when the principle
of primogeniture first received official approval. Six months
afterwards, the Empress abdicated in favour of Prince Karu, known in
history as forty-second sovereign, Mommu. She herself was honoured by
her successor with the title of Dajo-Tenno (Great Superior).
ENGRAVING: ONE OF THE ORNAMENTAL GATES USED IN JAPANESE GARDENS
ENGRAVING: SWORDS
CHAPTER XVI
THE DAIHO LAWS AND THE YORO LAWS
THE FORTY-SECOND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR MOMMU (A.D. 697-707)
THE Emperor Mommu took for consort a daughter of Fuhito,
representative of the Fujiwara family and son of the great Kamatari.
She did not receive the title of Empress, that distinction having
been hitherto strictly confined to spouses chosen from a Kwobetsu
family, whereas the Fujiwara belonged to the Shimbetsu. But this
union proved the first step towards a practice which soon became
habitual and which produced a marked effect on the history of Japan,
the practice of supplying Imperial consorts from the Fujiwara family.
THE DAIHO LEGISLATION
On Mommu's accession the year-period took his name, that being then
the custom unless some special reason suggested a different epithet.
Such a reason was the discovery of gold in Tsushima in 701, and in
consequence the year-name was altered to Daiho (Great Treasure). It
is a period memorable for legislative activity. The reader is aware
that, during the reign of Tenchi, a body of statutes in twenty-two
volumes was compiled under the name of Omi Ritsu-ryo, or the "Code
and Penal Law of Omi," so called because the Court then resided at
Shiga in Omi. History further relates that these statutes were
revised by the Emperor Mommu, who commenced the task in 681 and that,
eleven years later, when the Empress Jito occupied the throne, this
revised code was promulgated.
But neither in its original nor in its revised form has it survived,
and the inference is that in practice it was found in need of a
second revision, which took place in the years 700 and 701 under
instructions from the Emperor Mommu, the revisers being a committee
of ten, headed by Fuhito of the Fujiwara family, and by Mahito (Duke)
Awada. There resulted eleven volumes of the Code (ryo) and six of the
Penal Law (ritsu), and these were at once promulgated, expert jurists
being despatched, at the same time, to various quarters to expound
the new legislation. Yet again, seventeen years later (718), by order
of the Empress Gensho, revision was carried out by another committee
headed by the same Fujiwara Fuhito, now prime minister, and the
amended volumes, ten of the Code and ten of the Law, were known
thenceforth as the "New Statutes," or the "Code and Law of the Yoro
Period." They were supplemented by a body of official rules (kyaku)
and operative regulations (shiki), the whole forming a very elaborate
assemblage of laws.
The nature and scope of the code will be sufficiently understood from
the titles of its various sections: (1) Official Titles; (2) Duties
of Officials; (3) Duties of Officials of the Empress' Household; (4)
Duties of Officials in the Household of the Heir Apparent; (5) Duties
of Officials in the Households of Officers of High Rank; (6) Services
to the Gods; (7) Buddhist Priests; (8) the Family; (9) the Land; (10)
Taxation; (11) Learning; (12) Official Ranks and Titles; (13) The
Descent of the Crown and Dignities of Imperial Persons; (14)
Meritorious Discharge of Official Duties; (15) Salaries; (16) Court
Guards; (17) Army and Frontier Defences; (18) Ceremonies; (19)
Official Costumes; (20) Public Works; (21) Mode of addressing Persons
of Rank; (22) Stores of Rice and other Grain; (23) Stables and
Fodder; (24) Duties of Medical Officers attached to the Court; (25)
Official Vacations; (26) Funerals and Mourning; (27) Watch and Ward
and Markets; (28) Arrest of Criminals; (29) Jails, and (30)
Miscellaneous, including Bailment, Finding of Lost Goods, etc.*
This "Code and the Penal Law" accompanying it went into full
operation from the Daiho era and remained in force thereafter,
subject to the revisions above indicated. There is no reason to doubt
that the highly artificial organization of society which such
statutes indicate, existed, in outline at all events, from the reign
of Kotoku, but its plainly legalized reality dates, so far as history
is concerned, from the Daiho era. As for the rules (kyaku) and
regulations (shiki), they were re-drafted: first, in the Konin era
(810-824) by a commission under the direction of the grand
councillor,* Fujiwara Fuyutsugu; next, in the Jokwan era (859-877) by
Fujiwara Ujimune and others, and finally in the Engi era (901-923) by
a committee with Fujiwara Tadahira for president. These three sets of
provisions were spoken of in subsequent ages as the "Rules and
Regulations of the Three Generations" (Sandai-kyaku-shiki). It will
be observed that just as this remarkable body of enactments owed its
inception in Japan to Kamatari, the great founder of the Fujiwara
family, so every subsequent revision was presided over by one of his
descendants. The thirty sections of the code comprise 949 articles,
which are all extant, but of the penal laws in twelve sections there
remain only 322 articles.
*Tarring, in the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."
It may be broadly stated that the Daika reformation, which formed the
basis of this legislation, was a transition from the Japanese system
of heredity to the Chinese system of morality. The penal law (ritsu),
although its Chinese original has not survived for purposes of
comparison, was undoubtedly copied from the work of the Tang
legislators, the only modification being in degrees of punishment;
but the code, though it, too, was partially exotic in character,
evidently underwent sweeping alterations so as to bring it into
conformity with Japanese customs and traditions. Each of the
revisions recorded above must be assumed to have extended this
adaptation.
The basic principle of the Daiho code was that the people at large,
without regard to rank or pedigree, owed equal duty to the State;
that only those having special claims on public benevolence were
entitled to fixed exemptions, and that not noble birth but
intellectual capacity and attainments constituted a qualification for
office. Nevertheless Japanese legislators did not find it possible to
apply fully these excellent principles. Habits of a millennium's
growth could not be so lightly eradicated. Traces of the old obtrude
themselves plainly from between the lines of the new. Thus the "Law
of Descent" (Keishi-ryo), which formed the thirteenth section of the
code, was a special embodiment of Japanese social institutions,
having no parallel in the Tang statutes, and further, while declaring
erudition and intelligence to be the unique qualifications for
office, no adequate steps were taken to establish schools for
imparting the former or developing the latter. In short, the nobles
still retained a large part of their old power, and the senmin
(slave) class still continued to labour under various disabilities.
That several important provisions of the Land Code (Den-ryo) should
have fallen quickly into disuse will be easily comprehended when we
come presently to examine that system in detail, but for the neglect
of portions of the Military Code (Gumbo-ryo), of the Code of Official
Ranks and Titles, and of the Code relating to the Meritorious
Discharge of Official Duties, it is necessary to lay the
responsibility on the shoulders of the hereditary nobles, whose
influence out-weighed the force of laws. It may indeed be broadly
stated that the potency of the Daiho code varied in the direct ratio
of the centralization of administrative authority. Whenever feudalism
prevailed, the code lost its binding force. In the realm of criminal
law it is only consistent with the teaching of all experience to find
that mitigation of penalties was provided according to the rank of
the culprit. There were eight major crimes (hachi-gyaku), all in the
nature of offences against the State, the Court, and the family, and
the order of their gravity was: (1) high treason (against the State);
(2) high treason (against the Crown); (3) treason; (4) parricide,
fratricide, etc.; (5) offences against humanity; (6) lése majesté;
(7) unfilial conduct, and (8) crimes against society. But there were
also six mitigations (roku-gi), all enacted with the object of
lightening punishments according to the rank, official position, or
public services of an offender. As for slaves, being merely a part of
their proprietor's property like any other goods and chattels, the
law took no cognizance of them.
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION
Under the Daiho code a more elaborate system of administrative
organization was effected than that conceived by the Daika reformers.
In the Central Government there were two boards, eight departments,
and one office, namely: (1). The Jingi-kwan, or Board of Religion
(Shinto). This stood at the head of all, in recognition of the divine
origin of the Imperial family. A Japanese work (Nihon Kodaiho
Shakugi) explains the fundamental tenet of the nation's creed thus:
"If a State has its origin in military prowess, which is essentially
human, then by human agencies also a State may be overthrown. To be
secure against such vicissitudes a throne must be based upon
something superior to man's potentialities. Divine authority alone
fulfils that definition, and it is because the throne of Japan had a
superhuman foundation that its existence is perennial. Therefore the
Jingi-kwan stands above all others in the State." In another, book
(Jingi-ryo) we find it stated: "All the deities* of heaven and earth
are worshipped in the Jingi-kwan. On the day of the coronation the
Nakatomi performs service to the deities of heaven and the Imibe
makes offerings of three kinds of sacred articles."
*The eight Kami specially worshipped in the Jingi-kwan were
Taka-mi-musubi, Kammi-musubi, Tamatsume-musubi, Iku-musubi,
Taru-musubi, Omiya no me, Miketsu, and Koto-shiro-nushi.
Thus, though the models for the Daiho system were taken from China,
they were adapted to Japanese customs and traditions, as is proved by
the premier place given to the Jingi-kwan. Worship and religious
ceremonial have always taken precedence of secular business in the
Court of Japan. Not only at the central seat of government did the
year commence with worship, but in the provinces, also, the first
thing recorded by a newly appointed governor was his visit to the
Shinto shrines, and on the opening day of each month he repaired
thither to offer the gohei.* Religious rites, in short, were the
prime function of government, and therefore, whereas the office
charged with these duties ranked low in the Tang system, it was
placed at the head of all in Japan.
*Angular bunches of white paper stripes, representing the cloth
offerings originally tied to branches of the sacred cleyera tree at
festival time.
(2). The Daijo-kwan (called also Dajo-kwari), or Board of Privy
Council. This office ranked next to the Board of Religion and had the
duty of superintending the eight State departments. Its personnel
consisted of the prime minister (daijo-daijin or dajo-daijin), the
minister of the Left (sa-daijiri), and the minister of the Right
(u-daijiri).
(3). The Nakatsukasa-sho, or Central Department of State (literally,
"Intermediate Transacting Department"), which was not an executive
office, its chief duties being to transmit the sovereign's decrees to
the authorities concerned and the memorials of the latter to the
former, as well as to discharge consultative functions.
(4). The Shikibu-sho, or Department of Ceremonies. This office had to
consider and determine the promotion and degradation of officials
according to their competence and character.
(5). The Jibu-sho, or Department of Civil Government, which examined
and determined everything concerning the position of noblemen, and
administered affairs relating to priests, nuns, and members of the
Bambetsu,* that is to say, men of foreign nationality residing in
Japan.
*The reader is already familiar with the terms "Kwobetsu" and
"Shimbetsu." All aliens were classed as Bambetsu.
(6). The Mimbu-sho, or Department of Civil Affairs. An office which
managed affairs relating to the land and the people, to taxes and to
forced services.
(7). The Gyobu-sho, or Department of Justice.
(8). The Okura-sho, or Department of Finance.
(9). The Kunai-sho, or Imperial Household Department.
(10). The Hyobu-sho, or Department of War.
(11). The Danjo-dai, or Office of Censorship, This office had the
duty of correcting civil customs and punishing and conduct on the
part of officials. In the year 799, Kwammu being then on the throne,
a law was enacted for the Danjo-dai. It consisted of eighty-three
articles, and it had the effect of greatly augmenting the powers of
the office. But in the period 810-829, it was found necessary to
organize a special bureau of kebiishi, or executive police, to which
the functions of the Danjo-dai subsequently passed, as did also those
of the Gyobu-sho in great part. These two boards, eight departments,
and one office all had their locations within the palace enclosure,
so that the Imperial Court and the Administration were not
differentiated.
LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY
For administrative purposes the capital was divided into two
sections, the Eastern and the Western, which were controlled by a
Left Metropolitan Office and a Right Metropolitan Office,
respectively. In Naniwa (Osaka) also, which ranked as a city of
special importance, there was an executive office called the
Settsu-shoku--Settsu being the name of the province in which the town
stood--and in Chikuzen province there was the Dazai-fu (Great
Administrative Office), which had charge of foreign relations in
addition to being the seat of the governor-generalship of the whole
island of Kyushu. In spite of its importance as an administrative
post, the Dazai-fu, owing to its distance from the capital, came to
be regarded as a place of exile for high officials who had fallen out
of Imperial favour.
The empire was divided into provinces (kuni) of four classes--great,
superior, medium, and inferior,--and each province was subdivided
into districts (kori) of five classes--great, superior, medium,
inferior, and small. The term "province" had existed from remote
antiquity, but it represented at the outset a comparatively small
area, for in the time of the Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), there
were 144 kuni. This number was largely reduced in the sequel of
surveys and re-adjustments of boundaries during the Daika era
(645-650), and after the Daiho reforms (701-704) it stood at
fifty-eight, but subsequently, at an uncertain date, it grew to
sixty-six and remained permanently thus. The kori (district) of the
Daika and Daiho reforms had originally been called agata (literally
"arable land"), and had been subdivided into inaki (granary) and mura
(village). A miyatsuko had administered the affairs of the kuni,
holding the office by hereditary right, and the agata of which there
were about 590, a frequently changing total as well as the inaki and
the mura had been under officials called nushi. But according to the
Daika and Daiho systems, each kuni was placed under a governor
(kokushi), chosen on account of competence and appointed for a term
of four years; each district (kori) was administered by a cho
(chief).
MILITARY INSTITUTIONS
In the capital there were three bodies of guards; namely, the emon-fu
(gate guards); the sa-eji-fu and the u-eji-fu (Left and Right
watches). There was also the sa-ma-ryo and the u-ma-ryo (cavalry of
the Left and of the Right), and the sa-hyogo-ryo and the u-hyogo-ryo
(Left and Right Departments of Supply). These divisions into "left"
and "right," and the precedence given to the left, were derived from
China, but it has to be observed in Japan's case that the metropolis
itself was similarly divided into left and right quarters. Outside
the capital each province had an army corps (gundan), and one-third
of all the able-bodied men (seitei), from the age of twenty to that
of sixty, were required to serve with the colours of an army corps
for a fixed period each year. From these provincial troops drafts
were taken every year for a twelve-month's duty as palace guards
(eji) in the metropolis, and others were detached for three-years'
service as frontier guards (saki-mori) in the provinces lying along
the western sea board.
The army corps differed numerically according to the extent of the
province where they had their headquarters, but for each thousand men
there were one colonel (taiki) and two lieutenant-colonels (shoki);
for every five hundred men, one major (gunki); for every two hundred,
one captain (koi); for every one hundred, a lieutenant (ryosui), and
for every fifty, a sergeant-major (taisei). As for the privates, they
were organized in groups of five (go); ten (kwa), and fifty (tai).
Those who could draw a bow and manage a horse were enrolled in the
cavalry, the rest being infantry. From each tai two specially robust
men were selected as archers, and for each kwa there were six
pack-horses. The equipment of a soldier on campaign included a large
sword (tachi) and a small sword (katana or sashi-zoe) together with a
quiver (yanagui or ebira); but in time of peace these were kept in
store, the daily exercises being confined to the use of the spear,
the catapult (ishi-yumi) and the bow, and to the practice of
horsemanship. When several army corps were massed to the number of
ten thousand or more, their staff consisted of a general (shogun),
two lieutenant-generals (fuku-shogun), two army-inspectors (gunkan),
four secretaries (rokuji), and four sergeants (gunso). If more than
one such force took the field, the whole was commanded by a
general-in-chief.
APPOINTMENT AND PROMOTION
The law provided that appointment to office and promotion should
depend, not upon rank, but upon knowledge and capacity. Youths who
had graduated at the university were divided into three categories:
namely, those of eminent talent (shusai); those having extensive
knowledge of the Chinese classics (meikei), and those advanced in
knowledge (shinshi). Official vacancies were filled from these three
classes in the order here set down, and promotion subsequently
depended on proficiency. But though thus apparently independent of
inherited rank, the law was not so liberal in reality. For admission
to the portals of the university was barred to all except nobles or
the sons and grandsons of literati. Scions of noble families down to
the fifth rank had the right of entry, and scions of nobles of the
sixth, seventh, and eighth ranks were admitted by nomination.
OFFICIAL EMOLUMENT
Remuneration to officials took the form of revenue derived from lands
and houses, but this subject can be treated more intelligently when
we come to speak of the land.
THE PEOPLE
According to the Daiho laws one family constituted a household. But
the number of a family was not limited: it included brothers and
their wives and children, as well as male and female servants, so
that it might comprise as many as one hundred persons. The eldest
legitimate son was the head of the household, and its representative
in the eyes of the law. A very minute census was kept. Children up to
three years of age were classed as "yellow" (kwo); those between
three and sixteen, as "little" (sho); those members of the household
between sixteen and twenty, as "middling" (chu); those between twenty
and sixty, as "able-bodied" (tei), and those above sixty as "old" or
"invalids," so as to secure their exemption from forced labour
(kayaku or buyaku). The census was revised every six years, two
copies of the revised document being sent to the privy council
(Daijo-kwan) and one kept in the district concerned. It was
customary, however, to preserve permanently the census of every
thirtieth year* for purposes of record, and moreover the census taken
in the ninth year of Tenchi's reign (670)** was also kept as a
reference for personal names. To facilitate the preservation of good
order and morality, each group of five households was formed into an
"association of five" (goho or gonin-gumi) with a recognized head
(hocho); and fifty households constituted a village (sato or mura),
which was the smallest administrative unit. The village had a mayor
(richo), whose functions were to keep a record of the number of
persons in each household; to encourage diligence in agriculture and
sericulture; to reprove, and, if necessary, to report all evil
conduct, and to stimulate the discharge of public service. Thus the
district chief (guncho or gunryo) had practically little to do beyond
superintending the richo.
*This was called gohi-seki; i.e., comparative record for a period of
five times six years.
**It was designated the Kogoanen-seki, from the cyclical name of the
year.
THE LAND
The land laws of the Daiho era, like those of the Daika, were based
on the hypothesis that all land throughout the country was the
property of the Crown, and that upon the latter devolved the
responsibility of equitable distribution among the people. Rice being
the chief staple of diet and also the standard of exchange,
rice-lands--that is to say, irrigated fields--were regarded as most
important. The law--already referred to in connexion with the Daika
era but here cited again for the sake of clearness--enacted that all
persons, on attaining the age of five, became entitled to two tan of
such land, females receiving two-thirds of that amount. Land thus
allotted was called kubun-den, or "sustenance land" (literally,
"mouth-share land"). The tan was taken for unit, because it
represented 360 bu (or ho), and as the rice produced on one bu
constituted one day's ration for an adult male, a tan yielded enough
for one year (the year being 360 days).*
*The bu in early times represented 5 shaku square, or 25 square shaku
(1 seki = 1 foot very nearly); but as the shaku (10 sun) then
measured 2 sun (1 sun = 1.2 inch) more than the shaku of later ages,
the modern bu (or tsubo) is a square of 6 shaku side, or 36 square
shaku, though in actual dimensions the ancient and the modern are
equal.
The theory of distribution was that the produce of one tan served for
food, while with the produce of the second tan the cost of clothes
and so forth was defrayed. The Daika and Daiho legislators alike laid
down the principle that rice-fields thus allotted should be held for
a period of six years only, after which they were to revert to the
Crown for redistribution, and various detailed regulations were
compiled to meet contingencies that might arise in carrying out the
system. But, of course, it proved quite unpracticable, and though
that lesson obviously remained unlearned during the cycle that
separated the Daika and the Daiho periods, there is good reason to
think that these particular provisions of the land law (Den-ryo) soon
became a dead letter.
A different method was pursued, however, in the case of uplands (as
distinguished from wet fields). These--called onchi*--were parcelled
out among the families residing in a district, without distinction
of age or sex, and were held in perpetuity, never reverting to the
Crown unless a family became extinct. Such land might be bought or
sold--except to a Buddhist temple--but its tenure was conditional
upon planting from one hundred to three hundred mulberry trees
(for purposes of sericulture) and from forty to one hundred
lacquer trees, according to the grade of the tenant family.
Ownership of building-land (takuchi) was equally in perpetuity,
though its transfer required official approval, but dwellings or
warehouses--which in Japan have always been regarded as distinct from
the land on which they stand--might be disposed of at pleasure. It
is not to be inferred from the above that all the land throughout
the Empire was divided among the people. Considerable tracts
were reserved for special purposes. Thus, in five home provinces
(Go-Kinai) two tracts of seventy-five acres each were kept for the
Court in Yamato and Settsu, and two tracts of thirty acres each in
Kawachi and Yamashiro, such land being known as kwanden (official
fields), and being under the direct control of the Imperial Household
Department.
*Called also yenchi--These uplands were regarded as of little value
compared with rice-fields.
There were also three other kinds of special estates, namely, iden,
or lands granted to mark official ranks; shokubunden, or lands given
as salary to office-holders; and koden, or lands bestowed in
recognition of merit. As to the iden, persons of the four Imperial
ranks received from one hundred to two hundred acres, and persons
belonging to any of the five official grades--in each of which there
were two classes--were given from twenty to two hundred, females
receiving two-thirds of a male's allotment. Coming to salary lands,
we find a distinction between officials serving in the capital
(zaikyo) and those serving in the provinces (zaige). Among the
former, the principal were the prime minister (one hundred acres),
the ministers of the Left and Right (seventy-five acres each) and the
great councillor (fifty acres). As for provincial officials, the
highest, namely, the governor of Kyushu (who had his seat at the
Dazai-fu), received twenty-five acres, and the lowest, one and a half
acres. Governors of provinces--which were divided into four classes
(great, superior, medium, and inferior)--received from four acres to
six and a half acres; an official (dai-hanji), corresponding to a
chief-justice, had five acres; a puisne justice (sho-hanji), four
acres; an officer in command of an army corps, four acres, and a
literary professor (hakushi), four acres. Grants of land as salaries
for official duties were made even to post-towns for the purpose of
defraying the expense of coolies and horses for official use.
Finally, there were koden, or lands bestowed in recognition of
distinguished public services. Of such services four grades were
differentiated: namely, "great merit" (taiko), for which the grant
was made in perpetuity; "superior merit" (joko), which was rewarded
with land held for three generations; "medium merit" (chuko), in
which case the land-title had validity to the second generation only,
and "inferior merit" (geko), where the land did not descend beyond a
son or a daughter. It is worthy of note that in determining the order
of eligibility for grants of sustenance land (kubunden), preference
was given to the poor above the rich, and that the officials in a
province were allowed to cultivate unoccupied land for their own
profit.
TAXATION
There were three kinds of imposts; namely, tax (so), forced service
(yo or kayaku) and tribute (cho). The tax was three per cent, of the
gross produce of the land--namely, three sheaves of rice out of every
hundred in the case of a male, and two out of sixty-six in the case
of a female. The tribute was much more important, for it meant that
every able-bodied male had to pay a fixed quantity of silk-fabric,
pongee, raw-silk, raw-cotton, indigo (675 grains troy), rouge (the
same quantity), copper (two and a quarter lbs.), and, if in an
Imperial domain, an additional piece of cotton cloth, thirteen feet
long. Finally, the forced service meant thirty days' labour annually
for each able-bodied male and fifteen days for a minor. Sometimes
this compulsory service might be commuted at the rate of two and a
half feet of cotton cloth for each day's work. Exemption from forced
labour was granted to persons of and above the grade of official rank
and to their families through three generations; to persons of and
above the fifth grade and to their families for two generations; to
men of the Imperial blood; to the sick, the infirm, the deformed,
females, and slaves. Forced labourers were allowed to rest from noon
to 4 P.M. in July and August. They were not required to work at
night. If they fell sick so as to be unable to labour out of doors,
they were allowed only half rations. If they were taken ill on their
way to their place of work, they were left to the care of the local
authorities and fed at public charge. If they died, a coffin was
furnished out of the public funds, and the corpse, unless claimed,
was cremated, the ashes being buried by the wayside and a mark set
up. Precise rules as to inheritance were laid down. A mother and a
step-mother ranked equally with the eldest son for that purpose, each
receiving two parts; younger sons received one part, and concubines
and female children received one-half of a part. There were also
strict rules as to the measure of relief from taxation granted in the
event of crop-failure.
IMPORTANCE OF DAIHO LAWS
What has been set down above constitutes only a petty fraction of the
Daiho legislation, but it will suffice to furnish an idea of Japanese
civilization in the eighth century of the Christian era a
civilization which shared with that of China the credit of being the
most advanced in the world at that time.
ENGRAVING: HATSUNE-NO-TANA (A Gold-lacquered Stand or Cabinet)
ENGRAVING: STATUES OF SHAKA AND TWO BOSATSUS IN THE KONDO OF THE
HORYU-JI
CHAPTER XVII
THE NARA EPOCH
THE FORTY-THIRD SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS GEMMYO (A.D. 708-715)
THE Empress Gemmyo, fourth daughter of the Emperor Tenchi and consort
of Prince Kusakabe, was the mother of the Emperor Mommu, whose
accession had been the occasion of the first formal declaration of
the right of primogeniture (vide Chapter XV). Mommu, dying, willed
that the throne should be occupied by his mother in trust for his
infant son--afterwards Emperor Shomu.
REMOVAL OF THE CAPITAL TO NARA
In ancient times it was customary to change the locality of the
Imperial capital with each change of sovereign. This custom, dictated
by the Shinto conception of impurity attaching to sickness and death,
exercised a baleful influence on architectural development, and
constituted a heavy burden upon the people, whose forced labour was
largely requisitioned for the building of the new palace. Kotoku,
when he promulgated his system of centralized administration,
conceived the idea of a fixed capital and selected Naniwa. But the
Emperor Tenchi moved to Omi, Temmu to Asuka (in Yamato) and the
Empress Jito to Fujiwara (in Yamato). Mommu remained at the latter
place until the closing year (707) of his reign, when, finding the
site inconvenient, he gave orders for the selection of another. But
his death interrupted the project, and it was not until the second
year of the Empress Gemmyo's reign that the Court finally removed to
Nara, where it remained for seventy-five years, throughout the reigns
of seven sovereigns. Nara, in the province of Yamato, lies nearly due
south of Kyoto at a distance of twenty-six miles from the latter.
History does not say why it was selected, nor have any details of its
plan been transmitted. To-day it is celebrated for scenic beauties--a
spacious park with noble trees and softly contoured hills, sloping
down to a fair expanse of lake, and enshrining in their dales ancient
temples, wherein are preserved many fine specimens of Japanese art,
glyptic and pictorial, of the seventh and eighth centuries. Nothing
remains of the palace where the Court resided throughout a cycle and
a half, nearly twelve hundred years ago, but one building, a
storehouse called Shoso-in, survives in its primitive form and
constitutes a landmark in the annals of Japanese civilization, for it
contains specimens of all the articles that were in daily use by the
sovereigns of the Nara epoch.
JAPANESE COINS
There is obscurity about the production of the precious metals in old
Japan. That gold, silver, and copper were known and used is certain,
for in the dolmens,--which ceased to be built from about the close of
the sixth century (A.D.)--copper ear-rings plated with gold are
found, and gold-copper images of Buddha were made in the reign of the
Empress Suiko (605), while history says that silver was discovered in
the island of Tsushima in the second year of the Emperor Temmu's
reign (674). From the same island, gold also is recorded to have come
in 701, but in the case of the yellow and the white metal alike, the
supply obtained was insignificant, and indeed modern historians are
disposed to doubt whether the alleged Tsushima gold was not in
reality brought from Korea via that island. On the whole, the
evidence tends to show that, during the first seven centuries of the
Christian era, Japan relied on Korea mainly, and on China partially,
for her supply of the precious metals. Yet neither gold, silver, nor
copper coins seem to have been in anything like general use until the
Wado era (708-715).
Coined money had already been a feature of Chinese civilization since
the fourth century before Christ, and when Japan began to take models
from her great neighbour during the Sui and Tang dynasties, she
cannot have failed to appreciate the advantages of artificial media
of exchange. The annals allege that in A.D. 677 the first mint was
established, and that in 683 an ordinance prescribed that the silver
coins struck there should be superseded by copper. But this rule did
not remain long in force, nor have there survived any coins, whether
of silver or of copper, certainly identifiable as antecedent to the
Wado era. It was in the year of the Empress Gemmyo's accession (708)
that deposits of copper were found in the Chichibu district of
Musashi province, and the event seemed sufficiently important to call
for a change of year-name to Wado (refined copper). Thenceforth,
coins of copper--or more correctly, bronze--were regularly minted and
gradually took the place of rice or cotton cloth as units of value.
It would seem that, from the close of the seventh century, a wave of
mining industry swept over Japan. Silver was procured from the
provinces of Iyo and Kii; copper from Inaba and Suo, and tin from
Ise, Tamba, and Iyo. All this happened between the years 690 and 708,
but the discovery of copper in the latter year in Chichibu was on
comparatively the largest scale, and may be said to have given the
first really substantial impetus to coining. For some unrecorded
reason silver pieces were struck first and were followed by copper a
few months later. Both were of precisely the same form--round with a
square hole in the middle to facilitate threading on a string--both
were of the same denomination (one won), and both bore the same
superscription (Wado Kaiho, or "opening treasure of refined copper"),
the shape, the denomination, and the legend being taken from a coin
of the Tang dynasty struck eighty-eight years previously. It was
ordered that in using these pieces silver should be paid in the case
of sums of or above four mon, and copper in the case of sums of or
below three won, the value of the silver coin being four times that
of the copper. But the silver tokens soon ceased to be current and
copper mainly occupied the field, a position which it held for 250
years, from 708 to 958. During that interval, twelve forms of sen*
were struck. They deteriorated steadily in quality, owing to growing
scarcity of the supply of copper; and, partly to compensate for the
increased cost of the metal, partly to minister to official greed,
the new issues were declared, on several occasions, to have a value
ten times as great as their immediate predecessors. Concerning that
value, the annals state that in 711 the purchasing power of the mon
(i.e., of the one-sen token) was sixty go of rice, and as the daily
ration for a full-grown man is five go, it follows that one sen
originally sufficed for twelve days' sustenance.**
*The ideograph sen signified originally a "fountain," and its
employment to designate a coin seems to have been suggested by an
idea analogous to that underlying the English word "currency."
**"At the present time the wages of a carpenter are almost a yen a
day. Now the yen is equal to 1000 mon of the smaller sen and to 500
mon of the larger ones, so that he could have provided himself with
rice, if we count only 500 mon to the yen, for sixteen years on the
wages which he receives for one day's labour in 1900." (Munro's Coins
of Japan.)
Much difficulty was experienced in weaning the people from their old
custom of barter and inducing them to use coins. The Government seems
to have recognized that there could not be any effective spirit of
economy so long as perishable goods represented the standard of
value, and in order to popularize the use of the new tokens as well
as to encourage thrift, it was decreed that grades of rank would be
bestowed upon men who had saved certain sums in coin. At that time
(711), official salaries had already been fixed in terms of the Wado
sen. The highest received thirty pieces of cloth, one hundred hanks
of silk and two thousand mon, while in the case of an eighth-class
official the corresponding figures were one piece of cloth and twenty
mon.* The edict for promoting economy embodied a schedule according
to which, broadly speaking, two steps of executive rank could be
gained by amassing twenty thousand mon and one step by saving five
thousand.
*These figures sound ludicrously small if translated into present-day
money, for 1000 mon go to the yen, and the latter being the
equivalent of two shillings, 20 mon represents less then a
half-penny. But of course the true calculation is that 20 mon
represented 240 days' rations of rice in the Wado schedule of values.
Observing that the fundamental principle of a sound token of exchange
was wholly disregarded in these Wado sen, since their intrinsic value
bore no appreciable ratio to their purchasing power, and considering
also the crudeness of their manufacture, it is not surprising to find
that within a few months of their appearance they were extensively
forged. What is much more notable is that the Wado sen remained in
circulation for fifty years. The extraordinary ratio, however, by
which copper and silver were linked together originally, namely, 4 to
1, did not survive; in 721 it was changed to 25 to 10, and in the
following year to 50 to 10. Altogether, as was not unnatural, the
early treatment of this coinage question by Japanese statesmen showed
no trace of scientific perception. The practice, pursued almost
invariably, of multiplying by ten the purchasing power of each new
issue of sen, proved, of course, enormously profitable to the
issuers, but could not fail to distress the people and to render
unpopular such arbitrarily varying tokens.
The Government spared no effort to correct the latter result, and
some of the devices employed were genuinely progressive. In that
epoch travellers had to carry their own provisions, and not
uncommonly the supply ran short before they reached their
destination, the result sometimes being death from starvation on the
roadside. It was therefore ordered that in every district (korf) a
certain portion of rice should be stored at a convenient place for
sale to wayfarers, and these were advised to provide themselves with
a few sen before setting out. It is evident that, since one of the
Wado coins sufficed to buy rice for twelve days' rations, a traveller
was not obliged to burden himself with many of these tokens. Wealthy
persons in the provinces were also admonished to set up roadside
shops for the sale of rice, and anyone who thus disposed of one
hundred koku in a year was to be reported to the Court for special
reward. Moreover, no district governor (gunryo), however competent,
was counted eligible for promotion unless he had saved six thousand
sen, and it was enacted that all taxes might be paid in copper coin.
In spite of all this, however, the use of metallic media was limited
for a long time to the upper classes and to the inhabitants of the
five home provinces. Elsewhere the old habit of barter continued.
THE FORTY-FOURTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS GENSHO (A.D. 715-723)
In the year 715, the Empress Gemmyo, after a reign of seven years,
abdicated in favour of her daughter, Gensho. This is the only
instance in Japanese history of an Empress succeeding an Empress.
HISTORICAL COMPILATION
The reigns of these two Empresses are memorable for the compilation
of the two oldest Japanese histories which have been handed down to
the present epoch, the Kojiki and the Nihongi; but as the
circumstances in which these works, as well as the Fudoki (Records of
Natural Features), were written have been sufficiently described
already (vide Chapter I), it remains only to refer to a custom
inaugurated by Gemmyo in the year (721) after the compilation of the
Nihongi, the custom of summoning to Court learned men (hakase) and
requiring them to deliver lectures on that work. Subsequent
generations of sovereigns followed this example, and to this day one
of the features of the New Year's observances is a historical
discourse in the palace. The writing of history became thenceforth an
imperially patronized occupation. Six works, covering the period from
697 to 887, appeared in succession and were known through all ages as
the Six National Histories. It is noticeable that in the compilation
of all these a leading part was taken by one or another of the great
Fujiwara ministers, and that the fifth numbered among its authors the
illustrious Sugawara Michizane.
THE FORTY-FIFTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SHOMU (A.D. 724-748)
When the Emperor Mommu died (707), his son, the Prince Imperial, was
too young to succeed. Therefore the sceptre came into the hands of
Mommu's mother, who, after a reign of seven years, abdicated in
favour of her daughter, the Empress Gensho, and, eight years later,
the latter in turn abdicated in favour of her nephew, Shomu, who had
now reached man's estate. Shomu's mother, Higami, was a daughter of
Fujiwara Fuhito, and as the Fujiwara family did not belong to the
Kwobetsu class, she had not attained the rank of Empress, but had
remained simply Mommu's consort (fujiri). Her son, the Emperor Shomu,
married another daughter of the same Fujiwara Fuhito by a different
mother; that is to say, he took for consort his own mother's
half-sister, Asuka. This lady, Asuka, laboured under the same
disadvantage of lineage and could not properly be recognized as
Empress. It is necessary to note these details for they constitute
the preface to a remarkable page of Japanese history. Of Fujiwara
Fuhito's two daughters, one, Higami, was the mother of the reigning
Emperor, Shomu, and the other, Asuka, was his consort. The blood
relationship of the Fujiwara family to the Court could scarcely have
been more marked, but its public recognition was impeded by the
defect in the family's lineage.
THE FUJIWARA CONSPIRACY
Immediately after Shomu's accession, his mother, Higami, received the
title of Kwo-taifujin (Imperial Great Lady). But the ambition of her
family was to have her named Kwo-taiko (Empress Dowager). The Emperor
also desired to raise his consort, Asuka, to the position of Empress.
Consulting his ministers on the subject, he encountered opposition
from Prince Nagaya, minister of the Left. This prince, a
great-grandson of the Emperor Temmu, enjoyed high reputation as a
scholar, was looked up to as a statesman of great wisdom, and
possessed much influence owing to his exalted official position. He
urged that neither precedent nor law sanctioned nomination of a lady
of the Shimbetsu class to the rank of Empress. The Daiho code was
indeed very explicit on the subject. In China, whither the drafters
of the code went for models, no restrictions were imposed on a
sovereign's choice of wife. But the Japanese legislators clearly
enacted that an Empress must be taken from among Imperial princesses.
Prince Nagaya, in his position as minister of the Left, opposed any
departure from that law and thus thwarted the designs of the
Fujiwara.
The lady Asuka bore a son to the Emperor three years after his
accession. His Majesty was profoundly pleased. He caused a general
amnesty to be proclaimed, presented gratuities to officials, and
granted gifts to all children born on the same day. When only two
months old, the child was created Prince Imperial, but in his
eleventh month he fell ill. Buddhist images were cast; Buddhist
Sutras were copied; offerings were made to the Kami, and an amnesty
was proclaimed. Nothing availed. The child died, and the Emperor was
distraught with grief. In this incident the partisans of the Fujiwara
saw their opportunity. They caused it to be laid to Prince Nagaya's
charge that he had compassed the death of the infant prince by charms
and incantations. Two of the Fujiwara nobles were appointed to
investigate the accusation, and they condemned the prince to die by
his own hand. He committed suicide, and his wife and children died
with him. The travesty of justice was carefully acted throughout. A
proclamation was issued promising capital punishment to any one, of
whatever rank or position, who compassed the death or injury of
another by spells or incantations, and, six months later, the lady
Asuka was formally proclaimed Empress.
In one respect the Fujiwara conspirators showed themselves clumsy.
The rescript justified Asuka's elevation by reference to the case of
Iwa, a daughter of the Takenouchi, whom the Emperor Nintoku had made
his Empress. But the Takenouchi family belonged to the Kwobetsu
class, and the publication of a special edict in justification could
be read as self-condemnation only. Nevertheless, the Fujiwara had
compassed their purpose. Thenceforth they wielded the power of the
State through the agency of their daughters. They furnished Empresses
and consorts to the reigning sovereigns, and took their own wives
from the Minamoto family, itself of Imperial lineage. To such an
extent was the former practice followed that on two occasions three
Fujiwara ladies served simultaneously in the palace. This happened
when Go-Reizei (1222-1232) had a Fujiwara Empress, Kwanko, and two
Fujiwara consorts, Fumi and Hiro. At one moment it had seemed as
though fate would interfere to thwart these astute plans. An epidemic
of small-pox, originating (735) in Kyushu, spread over the whole
country, and carried off the four sons of Fuhito--Muchimaro,
Fusazaki, Umakai, and Maro--leaving the family's fortunes in the
hands of juniors, who occupied only minor official positions. But the
Fujiwara genius rose superior to all vicissitudes. The elevation of
the lady Asuka to be Empress Komyo marks an epoch in Japanese
history.
COMMUNICATIONS WITH CHINA
In spite of the length and perils of a voyage from Japan to China in
the seventh and eighth centuries--one embassy which sailed from
Naniwa in the late summer of 659 did not reach China for 107
days--the journey was frequently made by Japanese students of
religion and literature, just as the Chinese, on their side,
travelled often to India in search of Buddhist enlightenment. This
access to the refinement and civilization of the Tang Court
contributed largely to Japan's progress, both material and moral, and
is frankly acknowledged by her historians as a main factor in her
advance. When Shomu reigned at Nara, the Court in Changan had entered
the phase of luxury and epicurism which usually preludes the ruin of
a State. Famous literati thronged its portals; great poets and
painters enjoyed its patronage, and annalists descanted on its
magnificence. Some of the works of these famous men were carried to
Japan and remained with her as models and treasures. She herself
showed that she had competence to win some laurels even amid such a
galaxy. In the year 716, Nakamaro, a member of the great Abe family,
accompanied the Japanese ambassador to Tang and remained in China
until his death in 770. He was known in China as Chao Heng, and the
great poet, Li Pai, composed a poem in his memory, while the Tang
sovereign conferred on him the posthumous title of "viceroy of
Luchou." Not less celebrated was Makibi,* who went to China at the
same time as Nakamaro, and after twenty years' close study of
Confucius, returned in 735, having earned such a reputation for
profound knowledge of history, the five classics, jurisprudence,
mathematics, philosophy, calendar making, and other sciences that the
Chinese parted with him reluctantly. In Japan he was raised to the
high rank of asomi, and ultimately became minister of the Right
during the reign of Shotoku.
*Generally spoken of as "Kibi no Mabi," and credited by tradition
with the invention of the katakana syllabary.
Such incidents speak eloquently of the respect paid in Japan to
mental attainments and of the enlightened hospitality of China. In
the realm of Buddhism perhaps even more than in that of secular
science, this close intercourse made its influence felt. Priests went
from Japan to study in China, and priests came from China to preach
in Japan. During the Nara era, three of these men attained to special
eminence. They were Doji, Gembo, and Kanshin. Doji was the great
propagandist of the Sanron sect, whose tenets he had studied in China
for sixteen years (701-717). From plans prepared by him and taken
from the monastery of Hsi-ming in China, the temple Daian-ji was
built under the auspices of the Emperor Shomu, and having been richly
endowed, was placed in Doji's charge as lord-abbot. Gembo, during a
sojourn of two years at the Tang Court, studied the tenets of the
Hosso sect, which, like the Sanron, constituted one of the five sects
originally introduced into Japan. Returning in 736, he presented to
the Emperor Shomu five thousand volumes of the Sutras, together with
a number of Buddhist images, and he was appointed abbot of the
celebrated temple, Kofuku-ji. The third of the above three religious
celebrities was a Chinese missionary named Kanshin. He went to Japan
accompanied by fourteen priests, three nuns, and twenty-four laymen,
and the mission carried with it many Buddhist relics, images, and
Sutras. Summoned to Nara in 754, he was treated with profound
reverence, and on a platform specially erected before the temple
Todai-ji, where stood the colossal image of Buddha--to be presently
spoken of--the sovereign and many illustrious personages performed
the most solemn rite of Buddhism under the ministration of Kanshin.
He established a further claim on the gratitude of the Empress by
curing her of an obstinate malady, and her Majesty would fain have
raised him to the highest rank (dai-sojo) of the Buddhist priesthood.
But he declined the honour. Subsequently, the former palace of Prince
Nittabe was given to him as a residence and he built there the temple
of Shodai-ji, which still exists.
RELIGION AND POLITICS
The great Confucianist, Makibi, and the Buddhist prelate, Gembo, met
with misfortune and became the victims of an unjust accusation
because they attempted to assert the Imperial authority as superior
to the growing influence of the Fujiwara. Makibi held the post of
chamberlain of the Empress' household, and Gembo officiated at the
"Interior monastery" (Nai-dojo) where the members of the Imperial
family worshipped Buddha. The Emperor's mother, Higami, who on her
son's accession had received the title of "Imperial Great Lady" (vide
sup.), fell into a state of melancholia and invited Gembo to
prescribe for her, which he did successfully. Thus, his influence in
the palace became very great, and was augmented by the piety of the
Empress, who frequently listened to discourses by the learned
prelate. Makibi naturally worked in union with Gembo in consideration
of their similar antecedents. Fujiwara Hirotsugu was then governor of
Yamato. Witnessing this state of affairs with uneasiness, he
impeached Gembo. But the Emperor credited the priest's assertions,
and removed Hirotsugu to the remote post of Dazai-fu in Chikuzen.
There he raised the standard of revolt and was with some difficulty
captured and executed. The Fujiwara did not tamely endure this check.
They exerted their influence to procure the removal of Makibi and
Gembo from the capital, both being sent to Tsukushi (Kyushu), Makibi
in the capacity of governor, and Gembo to build the temple
Kwannon-ji. Gembo died a year later, and it was commonly reported
that the spirit of Hirotsugu had compassed his destruction, while
more than one book, professing to be historical, alleged that his
prime offence was immoral relations with the "Imperial Great Lady,"
who was then some sixty years of age! There can be little doubt that
the two illustrious scholars suffered for their fame rather than for
their faults, and that their chief offences were overshadowing renown
and independence of Fujiwara patronage.
BUDDHISM IN THE NARA EPOCH
From what has been related above of the priests Kanshin and Gembo, it
will have been observed that the Emperor Shomu was an earnest
disciple of Buddhism. The heritage of administrative reforms
bequeathed to him by Tenchi and Temmu should have engrossed his
attention, but he subserved everything to religion, and thus the
great national work, begun in the Daika era and carried nearly to
completion in the Daiho, suffered its first check. Some annalists
have pleaded in Shomu's behalf that he trusted religious influence to
consolidate the system introduced by his predecessors. However that
may be, history records as the most memorable event of his reign his
abdication of the throne in order to enter religion, thus
inaugurating a practice which was followed by several subsequent
sovereigns and which materially helped the Fujiwara family to usurp
the reality of administrative power. Shomu, on receiving the tonsure,
changed his name to Shoman, and thenceforth took no part in secular
affairs.
In all this, however, his procedure marked a climax rather than a
departure. In fact, never did any foreign creed receive a warmer
welcome than that accorded to Buddhism by the Japanese after its
first struggle for tolerance. Emperor after Emperor worshipped the
Buddha. Even Tenchi, who profoundly admired the Confucian philosophy
and whose experience of the Soga nobles' treason might well have
prejudiced him against the faith they championed; and even Temmu,
whose ideals took the forms of frugality and militarism, were lavish
in their offerings at Buddhist ceremonials. The Emperor Mommu enacted
a law for the better control of priests and nuns, yet he erected the
temple Kwannon-ji. The great Fujiwara statesmen, as Kamatari, Fuhito,
and the rest, though they belonged to a family (the Nakatomi) closely
associated with Shinto worship, were reverent followers of the Indian
faith. Kamatari approved of his eldest son, Joye, entering the
priesthood, and sent him to China to study the Sutras. He also gave
up his residence at Yamashina for conversion into a monastery.
Fujiwara Fuhito built the Kofuku-ji, and his son, Muchimaro, when
governor of Omi, repaired temples in the provinces, protected their
domains, and erected the Jingu-ji.
That among the occupants of the throne during 165 years, from 593 to
758, no less than seven were females could not but contribute to the
spread of a religion which owed so much to spectacular effect. Every
one of these sovereigns lent earnest aid to the propagation of
Buddhism, and the tendency of the age culminated in the fanaticism of
Shomu, re-enforced as it was by the devotion of his consort, Komyo.
Tradition has woven into a beautiful legend the nation's impression
of this lady's piety. In an access of humility she vowed to wash the
bodies of a thousand beggars. Nine hundred and ninety-nine had been
completed when the last presented himself in the form of a loathsome
leper. Without a sign of repugnance the Empress continued her task,
and no sooner was the ablution concluded than the mendicant ascended
heavenwards, a glory of light radiating from his body. It is also
told of her that, having received in a dream a miniature golden image
of the goddess of Mercy (Kwannon) holding a baby in her arms, she
conceived a daughter who ultimately reigned as the Empress Koken.*
*The resemblance between the legend and the Buddhist account of the
Incarnation is plain. It has to be remembered that Nestorians had
carried Christianity to the Tang Court long before the days of Komyo.
In spite, however, of all this zeal for Buddhism, the nation did not
entirely abandon its traditional faith. The original cult had been
ancestor worship. Each great family had its uji no Kami, to whom it
made offerings and presented supplications. These deities were now
supplemented, not supplanted. They were grafted upon a Buddhist stem,
and shrines of the uji no Kami became uji-tera, or "uji temples."*
Thenceforth the temple (tera) took precedence of the shrine
(yashiro). When spoken of together they became ji-sha. This was the
beginning of Ryobu Shinto, or mixed Shinto, which found full
expression when Buddhist teachers, obedient to a spirit of toleration
born of their belief in the doctrines of metempsychosis and universal
perfectibility, asserted the creed that the Shinto Kami were avatars
(incarnations) of the numerous Buddhas.
*Thus, Kofukuji, built by Kamatari and Fuhito was called O-Nakatomi
no uji-tera; Onjo-ji, erected by Otomo Suguri, was known as Otomo no
uji-tera, and so forth.
The Nara epoch has not bequeathed to posterity many relics of the
great religious edifices that came into existence under Imperial
patronage during its seventy-five years. Built almost wholly of wood,
these temples were gradually destroyed by fire. One object, however,
defied the agent of destruction. It is a bronze Buddha of huge
proportions, known now to all the world as the "Nara Daibutsu." On
the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the fifteenth year of
Tembyo--7th of November, 743--the Emperor Shomu proclaimed his
intention of undertaking this work. The rescript making the
announcement is extant. It sets out by declaring that "through the
influence and authority of Buddha the country enjoys tranquillity,"
and while warning the provincial and district governors against in
any way constraining the people to take part in the project, it
promises that every contributor shall be welcome, even though he
bring no more than a twig to feed the furnace or a handful of clay
for the mould. The actual work of casting began in 747 and was
completed in three years, after seven failures. The image was not
cast in its entirety; it was built up with bronze plates soldered
together. A sitting presentment of the Buddha, it had a height of
fifty-three and a half feet and the face was sixteen feet long, while
on either side was an attendant bosatsu standing thirty feet high.
For the image, 986,030,000 lbs. of copper were needed, and on the
gilding of its surface 870 lbs. of refined gold were used.
These figures represented a vast fortune in the eighth century.
Indeed it seemed likely that a sufficiency of gold would not be
procurable, but fortunately in the year 749 the yellow metal was
found in the province of Mutsu, and people regarded the timely
discovery as a special dispensation of Buddha. The great hall in
which the image stood had a height of 120 feet and a width of 290
feet from east to west, and beside it two pagodas rose to a height of
230 feet each. Throughout the ten years occupied in the task of
collecting materials and casting this Daibutsu, the Emperor solemnly
worshipped Rushana Buddha three times daily, and on its completion he
took the tonsure. It was not until the year 752, however, that the
final ceremony of unveiling took place technically called "opening
the eyes" (kaigan). On that occasion the Empress Koken, attended by
all the great civil and military dignitaries, held a magnificent
fete, and in the following year the temple--Todai-ji--was endowed
with the taxes of five thousand households and the revenue from
twenty-five thousand acres of rice-fields.
PROVINCIAL TEMPLES
While all this religious fervour was finding costly expression among
the aristocrats in Nara, the propagandists and patrons of Buddhism
did not neglect the masses. In the year 741, provincial temples were
officially declared essential to the State's well-being. These
edifices had their origin at an earlier date. During the reign of
Temmu (673-686) an Imperial rescript ordered that throughout the
whole country every household should provide itself with a Buddhist
shrine and place therein a sacred image. When the pious Empress Jito
occupied the throne (690-696), the first proselytizing mission was
despatched to the Ezo, among whom many converts were won; and, later
in the same reign, another rescript directed that a certain
Sutra--the Konkwo myo-kyo, or Sutra of Golden Effulgence--should be
read during the first month of every year in each province, the fees
of the officiating priests and other expenses being defrayed out of
the local official exchequers.
ENGRAVING: PAGODA OF YAKUSHI-JI, NARA
During Mommu's time (697-707), Buddhist hierarchs (kokushi) were
appointed to the provinces. Their chief functions were to expound the
Sutra and to offer prayers. The devout Shomu not only distributed
numerous copies of the Sutras, but also carried his zeal to the
length of commanding that every province should erect a sixteen-foot
image of Shaka with attendant bosatsu (Bodhisattva), and, a few years
later, he issued another command that each province must provide
itself with a pagoda seven storeys high. By this last rescript the
provincial temples (kokubun-ji) were called into official existence,
and presently their number was increased to two in each province, one
for priests and one for nuns. The kokushi attached to these temples
laboured in the cause of propagandism and religious education side by
side with the provincial pundits (kunihakase), whose duty was to
instruct the people in law and literature; but it is on record that
the results of the former's labours were much more conspicuous than
those of the latter.
GYOGI
It is said to have been mainly at the instance of the Empress Komyo
that the great image of Todai-ji was constructed and the provincial
temples were established. But undoubtedly the original impulse came
from a priest, Gyogi. He was one of those men who seem to have been
specially designed by fate for the work they undertake. Gyogi, said
to have been of Korean extraction, had no learning like that which
won respect for Kanshin and Gembo. But he was amply gifted with the
personal magnetism which has always distinguished notably successful
propagandists of religion. Wherever he preached and prayed, thousands
of priests and laymen flocked to hear him, and so supreme was his
influence that under his direction the people gladly undertook
extensive works of bridge building and road making. Like Shotoku
Taishi, his name is associated by tradition with achievements not
properly assignable to him, as the invention of the potter's
wheel--though it had been in use for centuries before his time--and
the production of various works of art which can scarcely have
occupied the attention of a religious zealot. By order of the Empress
Gensho, Gyogi was thrown into prison for a time, such a disturbing
effect did his propagandism produce on men's pursuit of ordinary
bread winning; but he soon emerged from durance and was taken into
reverent favour by the Emperor Shomu, who attached four hundred
priests as his disciples and conferred on him the titles of Dai-Sojo
(Great Hierarch) and Dai-Bosatsu (Great Bodhisattva).
The enigma of the people's patience under the stupendous burdens
imposed on them by the fanatic piety of Shomu and his consort, Komyo,
finds a solution in the co-operation of Gyogi, whose speech and
presence exercised more influence than a hundred Imperial edicts. It
is recorded that, by way of corollary to the task of reconciling the
nation to the Nara Court's pious extravagance, Gyogi compassed the
erection of no less than forty-nine temples. But perhaps the most
memorable event in his career was the part he took in reconciling the
indigenous faith and the imported. However fervent Shomu's belief in
Buddhism, the country he ruled was the country of the Kami, and on
descent from the Kami his own title to the throne rested. Thus,
qualms of conscience may well have visited him when he remembered the
comparatively neglected shrine of the Sun goddess at Ise. Gyogi
undertook to consult the will of the goddess, and carried back a
revelation which he interpreted in the sense that Amaterasu should be
regarded as an incarnation of the Buddha. The Emperor then despatched
to Ise a minister of State who obtained an oracle capable of similar
interpretation, and, on the night after receipt of this utterance,
the goddess, appearing to his Majesty in a vision, told him that the
sun was Birushana (Vairotchana Tathagata); or Dainishi (Great Sun)
Nyorai.
Thus was originated a theory which enabled Buddhism and Shinto to
walk hand in hand for a thousand years, the theory that the Shinto
Kami are avatars of the Buddha. Some historians contend that this
idea must have been evolved and accepted before the maturity of the
project for casting the colossal image at Nara, and that the credit
probably belongs to Gembo; others attribute it to the immortal priest
Kukai (Kobo Daishi), who is said to have elaborated the doctrine in
the early years of the ninth century. Both seem wrong.
SUPERSTITIONS
Side by side with the vigorous Buddhism of the Nara epoch, strange
superstitions obtained currency and credence. Two may be mentioned as
illustrating the mood of the age. One related to an ascetic, En no
Ubasoku, who was worshipped by the people of Kinai under the name of
En no Gyoja (En the anchorite). He lived in a cave on Katsuragi Mount
for forty years, wore garments made of wistaria bark, and ate only
pine leaves steeped in spring water. During the night he compelled
demons to draw water and gather firewood, and during the day he rode
upon clouds of five colours. The Kami Hitokotonushi, having been
threatened by him for neglecting his orders, inspired a man to accuse
him of treasonable designs, and the Emperor Mommu sent soldiers to
arrest him. But as he was able to evade them by recourse to his art
of flying, they apprehended his mother in his stead, whereupon he at
once gave himself up. In consideration of his filial piety his
punishment was commuted to exile on an island off the Izu coast, and
in deference to the Imperial orders he remained there quietly
throughout the day, but devoted the night to flying to the summit of
Mount Fuji or gliding over the sea. This En no Gyoja was the founder
of a sect of priests calling themselves Yamabushi.
The second superstition relates to one of the genii named Kume. By
the practice of asceticism he obtained supernatural power, and while
riding one day upon a cloud, he passed above a beautiful girl washing
clothes in a river, and became so enamoured of her that he lost his
superhuman capacities and fell at her feet. She became his wife.
Years afterwards it chanced that he was called out for forced labour,
and, being taunted by the officials as a pseudo-genius, he fasted and
prayed for seven days and seven nights. On the eighth morning a
thunder-storm visited the scene, and after it, a quantity of heavy
timber was found to have been moved, without any human effort, from
the forest to the site of the projected building. The Emperor,
hearing of this, granted him forty-five acres, on which he built the
temple of Kume-dera.
Such tales found credence in the Nara epoch, and indeed all through
the annals of early Japan there runs a well-marked thread of
superstition which owed something of its obtrusiveness to intercourse
with Korea and China, whence came professors of the arts of
invisibility and magic. A thunder deity making his occasional abode
in lofty trees is gravely spoken of in the context of a campaign, and
if at one moment a river is inhabited by a semi-human monster, at
another a fish formed like a child is caught in the sea. There is, of
course, an herb of longevity--"a plant resembling coral in shape,
with clustering leaves and branches; some red, others purple, others
black, others golden coloured, and some changing their colours in the
four seasons." In the reign of the Empress Kogyoku, witches and
wizards betray the people into all sorts of extravagances; and a
Korean acolyte has for friend a tiger which teaches him all manner of
wonderful arts, among others that of healing any disease with a magic
needle. Later on, these and cognate creations of credulity take their
appropriate places in the realm of folk-lore, but they rank with
sober history in the ancient annals. In this respect Japan did not
differ from other early peoples.
THE FORTY-SIXTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS KOKEN (A.D. 749-758)
In July, 749, the Emperor Shomu abdicated in favour of his daughter,
Princess Abe, known in history as Koken. Her mother was the
celebrated Princess Asuka, who, in spite of the Shimbetsu lineage of
her Fujiwara family, had been made Shomu's Empress, and whose name
had been changed to Komyo (Refulgence) in token of her illustrious
piety. The daughter inherited all the mother's romance, but in her
case it often degenerated into a passion more elementary than
religious ecstasy. Shomu, having no son, made his daughter heir to
the throne. Japanese history furnished no precedent for such a step.
The custom had always been that a reign ceased on the death of a
sovereign unless the Crown Prince had not yet reached maturity, in
which event his mother, or some other nearly related princess,
occupied the throne until he came of age and then surrendered the
reigns of government to his hands. Such had been the practice in the
case of the Empresses Jito, Gemmyo, and Gensho. Shomu, however, not
only bequeathed the throne to a princess, but while himself still in
the prime of life, abdicated in her favour.
Thereafter, at the recognized instance of the all-powerful Fujiwara
family, Emperors often surrendered the sceptre to their heirs,
themselves retiring into religious life with the secular title of
Da-joko (Great ex-Emperor) and the ecclesiastical designation of Ho-o
(pontiff). Shomu was the originator of this practice, but the annals
are silent as to the motive that inspired him. It will be presently
seen that under the skilful manipulation of the Fujiwara nobles, this
device of abdication became a potent aid to their usurpation of
administrative power, and from that point of view the obvious
inference is that Shomu's unprecedented step was taken at their
suggestion. But the Buddhist propagandists, also, were profoundly
interested. That the sovereign himself should take the tonsure could
not fail to confer marked prestige on the Church. It is probable,
therefore, that Shomu was swayed by both influences--that of the
Buddhists, who worked frankly in the cause of their creed, and that
of the Fujiwara, who desired to see a lady of their own lineage upon
the throne.
KOKEN AND NAKAMARO
The fanaticism of the Emperor Shomu and his consort, Komyo, bore
fruit during the reign of Koken. In the third year after Shomu's
abdication, a decree was issued prohibiting the taking of life in any
form. This imposed upon the State the responsibility of making
donations of rice to support the fishermen, whose source of
livelihood was cut off by the decree. Further, at the ceremony of
opening the public worship of the great image of Buddha, the Empress
in person led the vast procession of military, civil, and religious
dignitaries to the temple Todai-ji. It was a fete of unparalleled
dimensions. All officials of the fifth grade and upwards wore full
uniform, and all of lesser grades wore robes of the colour
appropriate to their rank. Ten thousand Buddhist priests officiated,
and the Imperial musicians were re-enforced by those from all the
temples throughout the home provinces. Buddhism in Japan had never
previously received such splendid homage.
In the evening, the Empress visited the residence of the grand
councillor, Fujiwara no Nakamaro. Fourteen hundred years had elapsed,
according to Japanese history, since the first of the Yamato
sovereigns set up his Court, and never had the Imperial house
incurred such disgrace as now befell it. Fujiwara no Nakamaro was a
grandson of the great Kamatari. He held the rank of dainagon and was
at once a learned man and an able administrator. From the time of
that visit to the Tamura-no-tei (Tamura mansion), as his residence
was called, the Empress repaired thither frequently, and finally made
it a detached palace under the name of Tamura-no-miya. Those that
tried to put an end to the liaison were themselves driven from
office, and Nakamaro's influence became daily stronger.
THE FORTY-SEVENTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR JUNNIN (758-764 A.D.)
In August, 758, the Empress, after a reign of four years, nominally
abdicated in favour of the Crown Prince, Junnin, but continued to
discharge all the functions of government herself. Her infatuation
for Nakamaro seemed to increase daily. She bestowed on him titles of
admiration and endearment under the guise of homonymous ideographs,
and she also bestowed on him in perpetuity the revenue from 3000
households and 250 acres of land. But Koken's caprice took a new
turn. She became a nun and transferred her affection to a priest,
Yuge no Dokyo. Nakamaro did not tamely endure to be thus discarded.
He raised the standard of revolt and found that the nun could be as
relentless as the Empress had been gracious. The rebellion--known by
irony of fate as that of Oshikatsu (the Conqueror), which was one of
the names bestowed on him by Koken in the season of her
favour--proved a brief struggle. Nakamaro fell in battle and his
head, together with those of his wife, his children, and his devoted
followers to the number of thirty-four, was despatched to Nara. The
tumult had a more serious sequel. It was mainly through Nakamaro's
influence that Junnin had been crowned six years previously, and his
Majesty naturally made no secret of his aversion for the new
favourite. The Dowager Empress--so Koken had called herself--did not
hesitate a moment. In the very month following Nakamaro's
destruction, she charged that the Emperor was in collusion with the
rebel; despatched a force of troops to surround the palace; dethroned
Junnin; degraded him to the rank of a prince, and sent him and his
mother into exile, where the conditions of confinement were made so
intolerable that the ex-Emperor attempted to escape, was captured and
killed.
ENGRAVING: THE KASUGA JINJA SHRINE AT KARA
THE FORTY-EIGHTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS SHOTOKU (765-770 A.D.)
The nun Koken now abandoned the veil and re-ascended the throne under
the name of Shotoku. Her affection for Dokyo had been augmented by
his constant ministrations during her illness while on a visit to the
"detatched palace" at Omi, and she conferred on him a priestly title
which made him rank equally with the prime minister. All the civil
and military magnates had to pay homage to him at the festival of the
New Year in his exalted capacity. Yet her Majesty was not satisfied.
Another step of promotion was possible. In the year after her second
ascent of the throne she named him Ho-o (pontiff), a title never
previously borne by any save her father, the ex-Emperor Shomu. Dokyo
rose fully to the level of the occasion. He modelled his life in
every respect on that of a sovereign and assumed complete control of
the administration of the empire. He not only fared sumptuously but
also built many temples, and as the Empress was not less extravagant,
the burden of taxation became painfully heavy. But the priestly
favourite, who seems to have now conceived the ambition of ascending
the throne, abated nothing of his pomp. Whether at his instigation or
because his favour had become of paramount importance to all men of
ambition, Asomaro, governor of the Dazai-fu, informed the Empress
that, according to an oracle delivered by the god of War (Hachiman)
at Usa, the nation would enjoy tranquillity and prosperity if Dokyo
were its ruler.
The Empress had profound reverence for Hachiman, as, indeed, was well
known to Asomaro and to Dokyo. Yet she hesitated to take this extreme
step without fuller assurance. She ordered Wake no Kiyomaro to
proceed to Usa and consult the deity once more. Kiyomaro was a
fearless patriot. That Shotoku's choice fell on him at this juncture
might well have been regarded by his countrymen as an intervention of
heaven. Before setting out he had unequivocal evidence of what was to
be expected at Dokyo's hands by the bearer of a favourable revelation
from Hachiman. Yet the answer carried back by him from the Usa shrine
was explicitly fatal to Dokyo's hope. "Since the establishment of the
State the distinction of sovereign and subject has been observed.
There is no instance of a subject becoming sovereign. The successor
of the throne must be of the Imperial family and a usurper is to be
rejected." Dokyo's wrath was extreme. He ordered that Kiyomaro's name
should be changed to Kegaremaro, which was equivalent to substituting
"foul" for "fair;" he banished him to Osumi in the extreme south of
Kyushu, and he sent emissaries whose attempt to assassinate him was
balked by a thunder-storm. But before he could bring any fresh design
to maturity, the Empress died. Dokyo and Asomaro were banished, and
Kiyomaro was recalled from exile.
Historians have been much perplexed to account for the strangely
apathetic demeanour of the high dignitaries of State in the presence
of such disgraceful doings as those of the Empress and her favourite.
They specially blame Kibi no Makibi, the great scholar. He had
recovered from his temporary eclipse in connexion with the revolt of
Fujiwara Hirotsugu, and he held the office of minister of the Right
during a great part of Koken's reign. Yet it is not on record that he
offered any remonstrance. The same criticism, however, seems to apply
with not less justice to his immediate predecessors in the post of
ministers of the Right, Tachibana no Moroe and Fujiwara no Toyonari;
to the minister of the Left, Fujiwara no Nagate; to the second
councillor, Fujiwara no Matate, and to the privy councillors,
Fujiwara no Yoshitsugu, Fujiwara no Momokawa, and Fujiwara no Uwona.
It was with the Fujiwara families that the responsibility rested
chiefly, and the general conduct of the Fujiwara at that period of
history forbids us to construe their apparent indifference in a
wholly bad sense. Probably the simplest explanation is the true one:
Koken herself was a Fujiwara.
STATE OF THE PROVINCES
In the days of Shomu and Koken administrative abuses were not limited
to the capital, they extended to the provinces also. Among the Daika
and Daiho laws, the first that proved to be a failure was that
relating to provincial governors. At the outset men of ability were
chosen for these important posts, and their term of service was
limited to four years. Soon, however, they began to petition for
reappointment, and under the sway of the Empress Koken a via media
was found by extending the period of office to six years. Moreover,
whereas at first a newly appointed governor was supposed to live in
the official residence of his predecessor, it quickly became the
custom to build a new mansion for the incoming dignitary and leave
the outgoing undisturbed.
What that involved is plain when we observe that such edifices were
all constructed by forced labour. These governors usually possessed
large domains, acquired during their period of office. The Court
endeavoured to check them by despatching inspectors (ansatsu-shi) to
examine and report on current conditions; but that device availed
little. Moreover, the provincial governors exercised the power of
appointing and dismissing the district governors (gunshi) in their
provinces, although this evil system had been prohibited in the time
of Gemmyo. In connexion, too, with the rice collected for public
purposes, there were abuses. This rice, so long as it lay in the
official storehouses, represented so much idle capital. The
provincial governors utilized it by lending the grain to the farmers
in the spring, partly for seed purposes and partly for food, on
condition that it should be paid back in the autumn with fifty per
cent, increment. Subsequently this exorbitant figure was reduced to
thirty per cent. But the result was ruin for many farmers. They had
to hand over their fields and houses or sell themselves into bondage.
Thus, outlaws, living by plunder, became a common feature of the
time, and there arose a need for guards more capable than those
supplied by the system of partial conscription. Hence, in the reign
of Shomu, the sons and brothers of district governors (gunshi)
proficient in archery and equestrianism were summoned from Omi, Ise,
Mino, and Echizen, and to them was assigned the duty of guarding the
public storehouses in the provinces. At the same time many men of
prominence and influence began to organize guards for their private
protection. This was contrary to law, but the condition of the time
seemed to warrant it, and the authorities were powerless to prevent
it. The ultimate supremacy of the military class had its origin in
these circumstances. The Government itself was constrained to
organize special corps for dealing with the brigands and pirates who
infested the country and the coasts.
It has been well said by a Japanese historian that the fortunes of
the Yamato were at their zenith during the reigns of the three
Emperors Jimmu, Temmu, and Mommu. From the beginning of the eighth
century they began to decline. For that decline, Buddhism was largely
responsible. Buddhism gave to Japan a noble creed in the place of a
colourless cult; gave to her art and refinement, but gave to her also
something like financial ruin. The Indian faith spread with wonderful
rapidity among all classes and betrayed them into fanatical
extravagance. Anyone who did not erect or contribute largely to the
erection of a temple or a pagoda was not admitted to the ranks of
humanity. Men readily sacrificed their estates to form temple domains
or to purchase serfs (tera-yakko) to till them. The sublimity of
these edifices; the solemn grandeur of the images enshrined there;
the dazzling and exquisite art lavished on their decoration; the
strange splendour of the whole display might well suggest to the
Japanese the work of some supernatural agencies.
In the Nara epoch, the Government spent fully one-half of its total
income on works of piety. No country except in time of war ever
devoted so much to unproductive expenditures. The enormous quantities
of copper used for casting images not only exhausted the produce of
the mines but also made large inroads upon the currency, hundreds of
thousands of cash being thrown into the melting-pot. In 760 it was
found that the volume of privately coined cash exceeded one-half of
the State income, and under pretext that to suspend the circulation
of such a quantity would embarrass the people, the Government struck
a new coin--the mannen tsuho--which, while not differing appreciably
from the old cash in intrinsic value, was arbitrarily invested with
ten times the latter's purchasing power. The profit to the treasury
was enormous; the disturbance of values and the dislocation of trade
were proportionately great. Twelve years later (772), another
rescript ordered that the new coin should circulate at par with the
old. Such unstable legislation implies a very crude conception of
financial requirements.
RECLAIMED UPLANDS
It has been shown that the Daika reforms regarded all "wet fields" as
the property of the Crown, while imposing no restriction on the
ownership of uplands, these being counted as belonging to their
reclaimers. Thus, large estates began to fall into private
possession; conspicuously in the case of provincial and district
governors, who were in a position to employ forced labour, and who
frequently abused their powers in defiance of the Daika code and
decrees, where it was enacted that all profits from reclaimed lands
must be shared with the farmers.* So flagrant did these practices
become that, in 767, reclamation was declared to constitute
thereafter no title of ownership. Apparently, however, this veto
proved unpractical, for five years later (772), it was rescinded, the
only condition now attached being that the farmers must not be
distressed. Yet again, in 784, another change of policy has to be
recorded. A decree declared that governors must confine their
agricultural enterprise to public lands, on penalty of being punished
criminally. If the language of this decree be read literally, a very
evil state of affairs would seem to have existed, for the governors
are denounced as wholly indifferent to public rights or interests,
and as neglecting no means of exploiting the farmers. Finally, in
806, the pursuit of productive enterprise by governors in the
provinces was once more sanctioned.
*The term "farmers," as used in the times now under consideration,
must not be interpreted strictly in the modern sense of the word. It
meant, rather, the untitled and the unofficial classes in the
provinces.
Thus, between 650 and 806, no less than five radical changes of
policy are recorded. It resulted that this vascillating legislation
received very little practical attention. Great landed estates
(shoen) accumulated in private hands throughout the empire, some
owned by nobles, some by temples; and in order to protect their
titles against the interference of the Central Government, the
holders of these estates formed alliances with the great Court nobles
in the capital, so that, in the course of time, a large part of the
land throughout the provinces fell under the control of a few
dominant families.
In the capital (Nara), on the other hand, the enormous sums
squandered upon the building of temples, the casting or carving of
images, and the performance of costly religious ceremonials gradually
produced such a state of impecuniosity that, in 775, a decree was
issued ordering that twenty-five per cent, of the revenues of the
public lands (kugaideri) should be appropriated to increase the
emoluments of the metropolitan officials. This decree spoke of the
latter officials as not having sufficient to stave off cold or
hunger, whereas their provincial confreres were living in opulence,
and added that even men of high rank were not ashamed to apply for
removal to provincial posts. As illustrating the straits to which the
metropolitans were reduced and the price they had to pay for relief,
it is instructive to examine a note found among the contents of the
Shoso-in at Nara.
STATEMENT OF MON (COPPER CASH) LENT
Total, 1700 Mon. Monthly interest, 15 per hundred.
Debtors Sums lent Amounts to be returned
Tata no Mushimaro 500 mon 605 mon, on the 6th of the 11th month;
namely, original debt, 500 mon, and
interest for 1 month and 12 days, 105 mon
Ayabe no Samimaro 700 mon 840 mon, on the 6th of the 11th month;
namely, original debt, 700 mon, and
interest for 1 month and 10 days, 140 mon
Kiyono no Hitotari 500 mon 605 mon, on the 6th of the 11th month;
namely, original debt, 500 mon, and
interest for 1 month and 12 days, 105 mon
The above to be paid back when the debtors receive their salaries.
Dated the 22nd of the 9th month of the 4th year of the Hoki era.
(October 13, 773.)
Another note shows a loan of 1000 mon carrying interest at the rate
of 130 mon monthly. The price of accommodation being so onerous, it
is not difficult to infer the costliness of the necessaries of life.
When the Daika reforms were undertaken, the metropolitan magnates
looked down upon their provincial brethren as an inferior order of
beings, but in the closing days of the Nara epoch the situations were
reversed, and the ultimate transfer of administrative power from the
Court to the provincials began to be foreshadowed.
THE FUJIWARA FAMILY
The religious fanaticism of the Emperor Shomu and his consort, Komyo,
brought disorder into the affairs of the Imperial Court, and gave
rise to an abuse not previously recorded, namely, favouritism with
its natural outcome, treasonable ambition. It began to be doubtful
whether the personal administration of the sovereign might not be
productive of danger to the State. Thus, patriotic politicians
conceived a desire not to transfer the sceptre to outside hands but
to find among the scions of the Imperial family some one competent to
save the situation, even though the selection involved violation of
the principle of primogeniture. The death of the Empress Shotoku
without issue and the consequent extinction of the Emperor Temmu's
line furnished an opportunity to these loyal statesmen, and they
availed themselves of it to set Konin upon the throne, as will be
presently described.
In this crisis of the empire's fortunes, the Fujiwara family acted a
leading part. Fuhito, son of the illustrious Kamatari, having
assisted in the compilation of the Daika code and laws, and having
served throughout four reigns--Jito, Mommu, Gemmyo, and Gensho--died
at sixty-two in the post of minister of the Right, and left four
sons, Muchimaro, Fusazaki, Umakai, and Maro. These, establishing
themselves independently, founded the "four houses" of the Fujiwara.
Muchimaro's home, being in the south (nan) of the capital, was called
Nan-ke; Fusazaki's, being in the north (hoku), was termed Hoku-ke;
Umakai's was spoken of as Shiki-ke, since he presided over the
Department of Ceremonies (Shiki), and Maro's went by the name of
Kyo-ke, this term also having reference to his office. The
descendants of the four houses are shown in the following table:
/
/ | Toyonari--Tsugunawa
| Muchimaro < Nakamaro (Emi no Oshikatsu)
| (Nan-ke) | Otomaro--Korekimi
| \
|
| / /
| | Nagate | Nagayoshi (Mototsune)
| Fusazaki < Matate--Uchimaro--Fuyutsugu < adopted
| (Hoku-ke) | Kiyokawa | Yoshifusa--Mototsune-+
| \ \ |
| |
| / |
| | Hirotsugu |
| Umakai < Yoshitsugu--Tanetsugu-- / Nakanari |
| (Shiki-ke) | --Kiyonari \ Kusuko |
| | Momokawa--Otsugu |
Kamatari- | \ |
Fuhito < |
| +-----------------------------------------------------+
| Maro |
| (Kyo-ke) | Tokihira /
| Miyako | Nakahira / | Koretada
| (Consort | | Saneyori | Kanemichi
| of Mommu) | Tadahira < Morosuke-- < Kaneiye ----+
| | | Morotada | Tamemitsu |
| \ \ | Kinsuye |
| \ |
| Asuka |
| (Empress |
| of Shomu) |
\ |
|
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
| / Korechika
| Michitaka <
| \ Takaiye
| Michikane
| / Yorimichi--Morozane--Moromichi -------+
| Michinaga < |
\ \ Norimichi |
|
|
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
| / Tadamichi
| Tadazane <
| \ Yorinaga
\
It has already been related how the four heads of these families all
died in one year (736) during an epidemic of small-pox, but it may be
doubted whether this apparent calamity did not ultimately prove
fortunate, for had these men lived, they would have occupied
commanding positions during the scandalous reign of the Empress Koken
(afterwards Shotoku), and might have supported the ruinous disloyalty
of Nakamaro or the impetuous patriotism of Hirotsugu. However that
may be, the Fujiwara subsequently took the lead in contriving the
selection and enthronement of a monarch competent to stem the evil
tendency of the time, and when the story of the Fujiwara usurpations
comes to be written, we should always remember that it had a long
preface of loyal service, a preface extending to four generations.
THE FORTY-NINTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KONIN (A.D. 770-781)
When the Empress Shotoku died, no successor had been designated, and
it seemed not unlikely that the country would be thrown into a state
of civil war. The ablest among the princes of the blood was
Shirakabe, grandson of the Emperor Tenchi. He was in his sixty-second
year, had held the post of nagon, and unquestionably possessed
erudition and administrative competence. Fujiwara Momokawa warmly
espoused his cause, but for unrecorded reason Kibi no Makibi offered
opposition. Makibi being then minister of the Right and Momokawa only
a councillor, the former's views must have prevailed had not Momokawa
enlisted the aid of his brother, Yoshitsugu, and of his cousin,
Fujiwara Nagate, minister of the Left. By their united efforts Prince
Shirakabe was proclaimed and became the Emperor Konin, his youngest
son, Osabe, being appointed Prince Imperial.
Konin justified the zeal of his supporters, but his benevolent and
upright reign has been sullied by historical romanticists, who
represent him as party to an unnatural intrigue based on the alleged
licentiousness and shamelessness of his consort, Princess Inokami, a
lady then in her fifty-sixth year with a hitherto blameless record.
Much space has been given to this strange tale by certain annalists,
but its only apparent basis of fact would seem to be that Momokawa,
wishing to secure the succession to Prince Yamabe--afterwards Emperor
Kwammu--compassed the deaths of the Empress Inokami and her son,
Osabe, the heir apparent. They were probably poisoned on the same
day, and stories injurious to the lady's reputation--stories going so
far as to accuse her of attempting the life of the Emperor by
incantation--were circulated in justification of the murder. Certain
it is, however, that to Momokawa's exertions the Emperor Kwammu owed
his accession, as had his father, Konin. Kwammu, known in his days of
priesthood as Yamabe, was Konin's eldest son, and would have been
named Prince Imperial on his father's ascent of the throne had not
his mother, Takano, been deficient in qualifications of lineage. He
had held the posts of president of the University and minister of the
Central Department, and his career, alike in office and on the
throne, bore witness to the wisdom of his supporters.
As illustrating the religious faith of the age, it is noteworthy that
Momokawa, by way of promoting Prince Yamabe's interests, caused a
statue to be made in his likeness, and, enshrining it in the temple
Bonshaku-ji, ordered the priests to offer supplications in its
behalf. The chronicle further relates that after the deaths of the
Empress (Inokami) and her son (Osabe), Momokawa and Emperor Konin
were much troubled by the spirits of the deceased. That kind of
belief in the maleficent as well as in the beneficent powers of the
dead became very prevalent in later times. Momokawa died before the
accession of Kwammu, but to him was largely due the great influence
subsequently wielded by the Fujiwara at Court. It is on record that
Kwammu, speaking in after years to Momokawa's son, Otsugu, recalled
his father's memory with tears, and said that but for Momokawa he
would never have reigned over the empire.
The fact is that the Fujiwara were a natural outcome of the
situation. The Tang systems, which Kamatari, the great founder of the
family, had been chiefly instrumental in introducing, placed in the
hands of the sovereign powers much too extensive to be safely
entrusted to a monarch qualified only by heredity. Comprehending the
logic of their organization, the Chinese made their monarchs' tenure
of authority depend upon the verdict of the nation. But in Japan the
title to the crown being divinely bequeathed, there could be no
question of appeal to a popular tribunal. So long as men like Kotoku,
Tenchi, and Temmu occupied the throne, the Tang polity showed no
flagrant defects. But when the exercise of almost unlimited authority
fell into the hands of a religious fanatic like Shomu, or a
licentious lady like Koken, it became necessary either that the
principle of heredity should be set aside altogether, or that some
method of limited selection should be employed.
It was then that the Fujiwara became a species of electoral college,
not possessing, indeed, any recognized mandate from the nation, yet
acting in the nation's behalf to secure worthy occupants for the
throne. For a time this system worked satisfactorily, but ultimately
it inosculated itself with the views it was designed to nullify, and
the Fujiwara became flagrant abusers of the power handed down to
them. Momokawa's immediate followers were worthy to wear his mantle.
Tanetsugu, Korekimi, Tsugunawa--these are names that deserve to be
printed in letters of gold on the pages of Japan's annals. They
either prompted or presided over the reforms and retrenchments that
marked Kwammu's reign, and personal ambition was never allowed to
interfere with their duty to the State.
IMPERIAL PRINCES
Contemporaneously with the rise of the Fujiwara to the highest places
within reach of a subject, an important alteration took place in the
status of Imperial princes. There was no relation of cause and effect
between the two things, but in subsequent times events connected them
intimately. According to the Daika legislation, not only sons of
sovereigns but also their descendants to the fifth generation were
classed as members of the Imperial family and inherited the title of
"Prince" (0). Ranks (hon-i) were granted to them and they often
participated in the management of State affairs. But no salaries were
given to them; they had to support themselves with the proceeds of
sustenance fiefs. The Emperor Kwammu was the first to break away from
this time-honoured usage. He reduced two of his own sons, born of a
non-Imperial lady, from the Kwobetsu class to the Shimbetsu,
conferring on them the uji names of Nagaoka and Yoshimine, and he
followed the same course with several of the Imperial grandsons,
giving them the name of Taira.
Thenceforth, whenever a sovereign's offspring was numerous, it became
customary to group them with the subject class under a family name. A
prince thus reduced received the sixth official rank (roku-i), and
was appointed to a corresponding office in the capital or a province,
promotion following according to his ability and on successfully
passing the examination prescribed for Court officials. Nevertheless,
to be divested of the title of "Prince" did not mean less of princely
prestige. Such nobles were always primi inter pares. The principal
uji thus created were Nagaoka, Yoshimine, Ariwara, Taira, and
Minamoto.
THE TAIRA FAMILY
Prince Katsurabara was the fifth son of the Emperor Kwammu.
Intelligent, reserved, and a keen student, he is said to have
understood the warnings of history as clearly as its incentives. He
petitioned the Throne that the title of should be exchanged in his
children's case for that of Taira no Asomi (Marquis of Taira). This
request, though several times repeated, was not granted until the
time (889) of his grandson, Takamochi, who became the first Taira no
Asomi and governor of Kazusa province. He was the grandfather of
Masakado and great-grandfather of Tadamori, names celebrated in
Japanese history. For generations the Taira asomi were appointed
generals of the Imperial guards conjointly with the Minamoto, to be
presently spoken of. The name of Taira was conferred also on three
other sons of Kwammu, the Princes Mamta, Kaya, and Nakano, so that
there were four Tairahouses just as there were four Fujiwara.
THE MINAMOTO FAMILY
The Emperor Saga (810) had fifty children. From the sixth son
downwards they were grouped under the uji of Minamoto. All received
appointments to important offices. This precedent was even more
drastically followed in the days of the Emperor Seiwa (859-876). To
all his Majesty's sons, except the Crown Prince, the uji of Minamoto
was given. The best known among these early Minamoto was Tsunemoto,
commonly called Prince Rokuson. He was a grandson of the Emperor
Seiwa, celebrated for two very dissimilar attainments, which,
nevertheless, were often combined in Japan--the art of composing
couplets and the science of commanding troops. Appointed in the
Shohyo era (931-937) to be governor of Musashi, the metropolitan
province of modern Japan, his descendants constituted the principal
among fourteen Minamoto houses. They were called the Seiwa Genji, and
next in importance came the Saga Genji and the Murakami Genji.*
*That is to say, descended from the Emperor Murakami (947-967). Gen
is the Chinese sound of Minamoto and ji (jshi) represents uji. The
Minamoto are alluded to in history as either the Genji or the
Minamoto. Similarly, hei being the Chinese pronunciation of Taira,
the latter are indiscriminately spoken of Taira or Heike (ke =
house). Both names are often combined into Gen-pei.
UJI NO CHOJA AND GAKU-IN NO BETTO
The imperially descended uji spoken of above, each consisting of
several houses, were grouped according to their names, and each group
was under the supervision of a chief, called uji no choja or uji no
cho. Usually, as has been already stated, the corresponding position
in an ordinary uji was called uji no Kami and belonged to the
first-born of the principal house, irrespective of his official rank.
But in the case of the imperially descended uji, the chief was
selected and nominated by the sovereign with regard to his
administrative post. With the appointment was generally combined that
of Gaku-in no betto, or commissioner of the academies established for
the youths of the uji. The principal of these academies was the
Kwangaku-in of the Fujiwara. Founded by Fujiwara Fuyutsugu,
minister of the Left, in the year 821, and endowed with a substantial
part of his estate in order to afford educational advantages for the
poorer members of the great family, this institution rivalled even
the Imperial University, to be presently spoken of. It was under the
superintendence of a special commissioner (benkwari).
Next in importance was the Shogaku-in of the Minamoto, established by
Ariwara Yukihira in the year 881. Ariwara being a grandson of the
Emperor Saga, a member of the Saga Genji received the nomination of
chief commissioner; but in the year 1140, the minister of the Right,
Masasada, a member of the Murakami Genji, was appointed to the
office, and thenceforth it remained in the hands of that house. Two
other educational institutions were the Junna-in of the O-uji and the
Gakukwan-in of the Tachibana-iyt, the former dating from the year 834
and the latter from 820. It is not on record that there existed any
special school under Taira auspices.
AGRICULTURE
One of the principal duties of local governors from the time of the
Daika reforms was to encourage agriculture. A rescript issued by the
Empress Gensho in the year 715 declared that to enrich the people was
to make the country prosperous, and went on to condemn the practice
of devoting attention to rice culture only and neglecting upland
crops, so that, in the event of a failure of the former, the latter
did not constitute a substitute. It was therefore ordered that barley
and millet should be assiduously grown, and each farmer was required
to lay down two tan (2/3 acre) annually of these upland cereals.
Repeated proclamations during the eighth century bear witness to
official solicitude in this matter, and in 723 there is recorded a
distribution of two koku (nearly ten bushels) of seeds, ten feet of
cotton cloth, and a hoe (kuwa) to each agriculturist throughout the
empire. Such largesse suggests a colossal operation, but, in fact, it
meant little more than the remission of about a year's taxes.
Necessarily, as the population increased, corresponding extension of
the cultivated area became desirable, and already, in the year 722, a
work of reclamation on a grand scale was officially undertaken by
organizing a body of peasants and sending them to bring under culture
a million cho (two and a half million acres) of new land. This
interesting measure is recorded without any details whatever.
Private initiative was also liberally encouraged. An Imperial
rescript promised that any farmer harvesting three thousand koku
(fifteen thousand bushels) of cereals from land reclaimed by himself
should receive the sixth class order of merit (kun roku-to), while a
crop of over a thousand koku and less than three thousand would carry
lifelong exemption from forced labour. The Daika principle that the
land was wholly the property of the Crown had thus to yield partially
to the urgency of the situation, and during the third decade of the
eighth century it was enacted that, if a man reclaimed land by
utilizing aqueducts and reservoirs already in existence, the land
should belong to him for his lifetime, while if the reservoirs and
aqueducts were of his own construction, the right of property should
be valid for three generations.* From the operation of this law the
provincial governors were excepted; the usufruct of lands reclaimed
by them was limited to the term of their tenure of office, though, as
related already, legislation in their case varied greatly from time
to time.
*This system was called Sansei-isshin no ho. It is, perhaps,
advisable to note that the Daika system of dividing the land for
sustenance purposes applied only to land already under cultivation.
For a certain period the system of "three generations, or one life"
worked smoothly enough; but subsequently it was found that as the
limit of time approached, farmers neglected to till the land and
suffered it to lie waste. Therefore, in the year 743, the Government
enacted that all reclaimed land should be counted the perpetual
property of the reclaimer, with one proviso, namely, that three years
of neglect to cultivate should involve confiscation. The recognition
of private ownership was not unlimited. An area of five hundred cho
(1250 acres) was fixed as the superior limit, applicable only to the
case of a "First Class" prince, the quantities being thereafter on a
sliding scale down to ten cho (twenty-five acres). Any excess
resulting from previous accretions was to revert to the State.
Evidently the effective operation of such a system predicated
accurate surveys and strict supervision. Neither of these conditions
existed in Japan at that remote period. The prime purpose of the
legislators was achieved, since the people devoted themselves
assiduously to land reclamation; but by free recourse to their power
of commanding labour, the great families acquired estates largely in
excess of the legal limit. A feature of the Nara epoch was the
endowment of the Buddhist temples with land by men of all classes,
and the sho-en, or temple domain, thus came into existence.
STOCK FARMING
Information on the subject of stock farming is scanty and indirect,
but in the year 713 we find a rescript ordering the provincials of
Yamashiro to provide and maintain fifty milch-cows, and in 734,
permission was given that all the districts in the Tokai-do, the
Tosan-do, and the Sanin-do might trade freely in cattle and horses.
Seven years later (741), when Shomu occupied the throne, and when
Buddhism spread its protecting mantle over all forms of life, an
edict appeared condemning anyone who killed a horse or an ox to be
flogged with a hundred strokes and to be fined heavily. Only one
other reference to stock farming appears in the annals of the Nara
epoch: the abolition of the two pastures at Osumi and Himeshima in
the province of Settsu was decreed in 771, but no reason is recorded.
SERICULTURE
From the remotest times sericulture was assiduously practised in
Japan, the ladies of the Imperial Court, from the Empress downwards,
taking an active part in the pursuit. The wave of Buddhist zeal which
swept over Japan in the eighth century gave a marked impulse to this
branch of industry, for the rich robes of the priests constituted a
special market.
ORANGES
It is recorded in the Chronicles that Tajimamori, a Korean emigrant
of royal descent, was sent to the "Eternal Land" by the Emperor
Suinin, in the year A.D. 61, to obtain "the fragrant fruit that grows
out of season;" that, after a year's absence, he returned, and
finding the Emperor dead, committed suicide at his tomb. The
"fragrant fruit" is understood to have been the orange, then called
tachibana (Citrus nobilis). If the orange really reached Japan at
that remote date, it does not appear to have been cultivated there,
for the importation of orange trees from China is specially mentioned
as an incident of the early Nara epoch.
INDUSTRIES
One of the unequivocal benefits bestowed on Japan by Buddhism was a
strong industrial and artistic impulse. Architecture made notable
progress owing to the construction of numerous massive and
magnificent temples and pagodas. One of the latter, erected during
the reign of Temmu, had a height of thirteen storeys. The arts of
casting and of sculpture, both in metal and in wood, received great
development, as did also the lacquer industry. Vermilion lacquer was
invented in the time of Temmu, and soon five different colours could
be produced, while to the Nara artisans belongs the inception of
lacquer strewn with makie. Lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl was
another beautiful concept of the Nara epoch. A special tint of red
was obtained with powdered coral, and gold and silver were freely
used in leaf or in plates. As yet, history does not find any Japanese
painter worthy of record. Chinese and Korean masters remained supreme
in that branch of art.
TRADE
Commerce with China and Korea was specially active throughout the
eighth century, and domestic trade also nourished. In the capital
there were two markets where people assembled at noon and dispersed
at sunset. Men and women occupied different sections, and it would
seem that transactions were subject to strict surveillance. Thus, if
any articles of defective quality or adulterated were offered for
sale, they were liable to be confiscated officially, and if a buyer
found that short measure had been given, he was entitled to return
his purchase. Market-rates had to be conformed with, and purchasers
were required to pay promptly. It appears that trees were planted to
serve as shelter or ornament, for we read of "trees in the Market of
the East" and "orange trees in the market of Kaika."
HABITATIONS
The Buddhist temple, lofty, spacious, with towering tiled roof,
massive pillars and rich decoration of sculpture and painting, could
not fail to impart an impetus to Japanese domestic architecture,
especially as this impressive apparition was not evolved gradually
under the eyes of the nation but was presented to them suddenly in
its complete magnificence. Thus it is recorded that towards the close
of the seventh century, tiled roofs and greater solidity of structure
began to distinguish official buildings, as has been already noted.
But habitations in general remained insignificant and simple. A poem
composed by the Dowager Empress Gensho (724) with reference to the
dwelling of Prince Nagaya is instructive:
"Hata susuki" (Thatched with miscanthus)
"Obana sakafuki" (And eularia)
"Kuro-ki mochi" (Of ebon timbers built, a house)
"Tsukureru yado wa" (Will live a myriad years.)
"Yorozu yo made ni."
This picture of a nobleman's dwelling in the eighth century is not
imposing. In the very same year the Emperor Shomu, responding to an
appeal from the council of State, issued an edict that officials of
the fifth rank and upwards and wealthy commoners should build
residences with tiled roofs and walls plastered in red. This
injunction was only partly obeyed: tiles came into more general use,
but red walls offended the artistic instinct of the Japanese. Nearly
fifty years later, when (767-769) the shrine of Kasuga was erected at
Nara in memory of Kamatari, founder of the Fujiwara family, its
pillars were painted in vermilion, and the fashion inaugurated found
frequent imitation in later years.
Of furniture the houses had very little as compared with Western
customs. Neither chairs nor bedsteads existed; people sat and slept
on the floor, separated from it only by mats made of rice-straw, by
cushions or by woollen carpets, and in aristocratic houses there was
a kind of stool to support the arm of the sitter, a lectern, and a
dais for sitting on. Viands were served on tables a few inches high,
and people sat while eating. From the middle of the seventh century a
clepsydra of Chinese origin was used to mark the hours.
The first of these instruments is recorded to have been made in A.D.
660, and tradition does not tell what device had previously served
the purpose. When temple bells came into existence, the hours were
struck on them for public information, and there is collateral
evidence that some similar system of marking time had been resorted
to from early eras. But the whole story is vague. It seems, however,
that the method of counting the hours was influenced by the manner of
striking them. Whether bronze bell or wooden clapper was used, three
preliminary strokes were given by way of warning, and it therefore
became inexpedient to designate any of the hours "one," "two," or
"three." Accordingly the initial number was four, and the day being
divided into six hours, instead of twelve, the highest number became
nine, which corresponded to the Occidental twelve.*
*There were no subdivisions into minutes and seconds in old Japan.
The only fraction of an hour was one-half.
BELLS
Concerning the bells here mentioned, they are one of the unexplained
achievements of Japanese casters. In Europe the method of producing a
really fine-toned bell was evolved by "ages of empirical trials," but
in Japan bells of huge size and exquisite note were cast in apparent
defiance of all the rules elaborated with so much difficulty in the
West. One of the most remarkable hangs in the belfry of Todai-ji at
Nara. It was cast in the year 732 when Shomu occupied the throne; it
is 12 feet 9 inches high; 8 feet 10 inches in diameter; 10 inches
thick, and weighs 49 tons. There are great bells also in the temples
at Osaka and Kyoto, and it is to be noted that early Japanese bronze
work was largely tributary and subsidiary to temple worship. Temple
bells, vases, gongs, mirrors and lanterns are the principal items in
this class of metal-working, until a much later period with its
smaller ornaments.
Very few references to road making are found in the ancient annals,
but the reign of the Empress Gensho (715-723) is distinguished as the
time when the Nakasen-do, or Central Mountain road, was constructed.
It runs from Nara to Kyoto and thence to the modern Tokyo, traversing
six provinces en route. Neither history nor tradition tells whether
it was wholly made in the days of Gensho or whether, as seems more
probable, it was only commenced then and carried to completion in the
reign of Shomu (724-748), when a large force of troops had to be sent
northward against the rebellious Yemishi. Doubtless the custom of
changing the capital on the accession of each sovereign had the
effect of calling many roads into existence, but these were of
insignificant length compared with a great trunk highway like the
Nakasen-do.
Along these roads the lower classes travelled on foot; the higher on
horseback, and the highest in carts drawn by bullocks. For
equestrians who carried official permits, relays of horses could
always be obtained at posting stations. Among the ox-carts which
served for carriages, there was a curious type, distinguished by the
fact that between the shafts immediately in front of the dashboard
stood a figure whose outstretched arm perpetually pointed south. This
compass-cart, known as the "south-pointing chariot," was introduced
from China in the year 658. There was also a "cloud-chariot," but
this served for war purposes only, being a movable erection for
overlooking an enemy's defensive work, corresponding to the turris of
Roman warfare. Borrowed also from China was a battering engine which
moved on four wheels, and, like the cloud-chariot, dated from 661,
when a Tang army invaded Korea.
HABILIMENTS
A reader of the Chronicles is struck by the fact that from the close
of the seventh century much official attention seems to have been
bestowed on the subject of costume. Thus, during the last five years
of the Emperor Temmu's reign--namely, from 681--we find no less than
nine sumptuary regulations issued. The first was an edict, containing
ninety-two articles, of which the prologue alone survives, "The
costumes of all, from the princes of the Blood down to the common
people, and the wearing of gold and silver, pearls and jewels,
purple, brocade, embroidery, fine silks, together with woollen
carpets, head-dresses, and girdles, as well as all kinds of coloured
stuffs, are regulated according to a scale, the details of which are
given in the written edict." In the next year (682), another edict
forbids the wearing of caps of rank, aprons, broad girdles, and
leggings by princes or public functionaries, as well as the use of
shoulder-straps or mantillas by palace stewards or ladies-in-waiting.
The shoulder-strap was a mark of manual labour, and its use in the
presence of a superior has always been counted as rude in Japan.
A few days later, this meticulous monarch is found commanding men and
women to tie up their hair, eight months being granted to make the
change, and, at the same time, the practice of women riding astride
on horseback came into vogue, showing that female costume had much in
common with male. Caps of varnished gauze, after the Chinese type,
began to be worn by both sexes simultaneously with the tying-up of
the hair. Two years later, women of forty years or upwards were given
the option of tying up their hair or letting it hang loose, and of
riding astride or side-saddle as they pleased. At the same time, to
both sexes, except on State occasions, liberty of choice was accorded
in the matter of wearing sleeveless jackets fastened in front with
silk cords and tassels, though in the matter of trousers, men had to
gather theirs in at the bottom with a lace. By and by, the tying up
of the hair by women was forbidden in its turn; the wearing of
leggings was sanctioned, and the colours of Court costumes were
strictly determined according to the rank of the wearer red, deep
purple, light purple, dark green, light green, deep grape-colour and
light grape-colour being the order from above downwards.
All this attention to costume is suggestive of much refinement. From
the eighth century even greater care was devoted to the subject. We
find three kinds of habiliments prescribed--full dress (reifuku),
Court dress (chofuku) and uniform (seifuku)--with many minor
distinctions according to the rank of the wearer. Broadly speaking,
the principal garments were a paletot, trousers, and a narrow girdle
tied in front. The sleeves of the paletot were studiously regulated.
A nobleman wore them long enough to cover his hands, and their
width--which in after ages became remarkable--was limited in the Nara
epoch to one foot. The manner of folding the paletot over the breast
seems to have perplexed the legislators for a time. At first they
prescribed that the right should be folded over the left (hidarimae),
but subsequently (719) an Imperial decree ordered that the left
should be laid across the right (migimae), and since that day, nearly
twelve hundred years ago, there has not been any departure from the
latter rule. Court officials carried a baton (shaku), that, too,
being a habit borrowed from China.
FOOD
When the influence of Buddhism became supreme in Court circles, all
taking of life for purposes of food was interdicted. The first
prohibitory decree in that sense was issued by Temmu (673-686), and
the veto was renewed in more peremptory terms by Shomu (724-748),
while the Empress Shotoku (765-770) went so far as to forbid the
keeping of dogs, falcons, or cormorants for hunting or fishing at
Shinto ceremonials. But such vetoes were never effectually enforced.
The great staple of diet was rice, steamed or boiled, and next in
importance came millet, barley, fish of various kinds (fresh or
salted), seaweed, vegetables, fruit (pears, chestnuts, etc.), and the
flesh of fowl, deer, and wild boar. Salt, bean-sauce, and vinegar
were used for seasoning. There were many kinds of dishes; among the
commonest being soup (atsumono) and a preparation of raw fish in
vinegar (namasu). In the reign of Kotoku (645-654), a Korean named
Zena presented a milch cow to the Court, and from that time milk was
recognized as specially hygienic diet. Thus, when the Daiho laws were
published at the beginning of the eighth century, dairies were
attached to the medical department, and certain provinces received
orders to present butter (gyuraku) for the Court's use.
MARRIAGES AND FUNERALS
Very little is known of the marriage ceremony in old Japan. That
there was a nuptial hut is attested by very early annals, and from
the time of the Emperor Richu (400-405) wedding presents are
recorded. But for the rest, history is silent, and it is impossible
to fix the epoch when a set ceremonial began to be observed.
As to funerals, there is fuller but not complete information. That a
mortuary chamber was provided for the corpse pending the preparation
of the tomb is shown by the earliest annals, and from an account,
partly allegorical, contained in the records of the prehistoric age,
we learn that dirges were sung for eight days and eight nights, and
that in the burial procession were marshalled bearers of viands to be
offered at the grave, bearers of brooms to sweep the path, women who
prepared the viands, and a body of hired mourners. But the Kojiki,
describing the same ceremony, speaks of "making merry" with the
object of recalling the dead to life, as the Sun goddess had been
enticed from her cave. From the days of the Emperor Bidatsu
(572-585), we find the first mention of funeral orations, and
although the contents of tombs bear witness to the fact that articles
other than food were offered to the deceased, it is not until the
burial of the Emperor's consort, Katachi, (612) that explicit mention
is made of such a custom. On that occasion Tori, omi of the Abe-uji,
offered to the spirit of the dead "sacred utensils and sacred
garments, fifteen thousand kinds in all." Fifty years later, white is
mentioned as the mourning colour, but when next (683) we hear of
funerals, it is evident that their realm had been invaded by Chinese
customs, for it is recorded that "officials of the third rank were
allowed at their funerals one hearse, forty drums, twenty great
horns, forty little horns, two hundred flags, one metal gong, and one
hand-bell, with lamentation for one day." At Temmu's obsequies (687)
mention is made of an "ornamented chaplet," the first reference to
the use of flowers, which constitute such a prominent feature of
Buddhist obsequies.
But there is no evidence that Buddhist rites were employed at
funerals until the death of the retired Emperor Shomu (756).
Thereafter, the practice became common. It was also to a Buddhist
priest, Dosho, that Japan owed the inception of cremation. Dying in
the year 700, Dosho ordered his disciples to cremate his body at
Kurihara, and, two years later, the Dowager Empress Jito willed that
her corpse should be similarly disposed of. From the megalithic tombs
of old Japan to the little urn that holds the handful of ashes
representing a cremated body, the transition is immense. It has been
shown that one of the signal reforms of the Daika era was the setting
of limits to the size of sepulchres, a measure which afforded to the
lower classes much relief from forced labour. But an edict issued in
706 shows that the tendance of the resting place of the dead was
still regarded as a sacred duty, for the edict ordered that, alike at
the ancestral tombs of the uji and in the residential quarter of the
common people, trees should be planted.
Not yet, however, does the custom of erecting monuments with
inscriptions seem to have come into vogue. The Empress Gemmyo (d.
721) appears to have inaugurated that feature, for she willed not
only that evergreens should be planted at her grave but also that a
tablet should be set up there. Some historians hold that the donning
of special garments by way of mourning had its origin at that time,
and that it was borrowed from the Tang code of etiquette. But the
Chronicles state that in the year A.D. 312, when the Prince Imperial
committed suicide rather than occupy the throne, his brother,
Osasagi, "put on plain unbleached garments and began mourning for
him." White ultimately became the mourning colour, but in the eighth
century it was dark,* and mourning habiliments were called
fuji-koromo, because they were made from the bark of the wisteria
(fuji). Among the Daiho statutes was one providing that periods of
mourning should be of five grades, the longest being one year and the
shortest seven days.
*"On the death of the Emperor Inkyo (A.D. 453), the Korean Court sent
eighty musicians robed in black, who marched in procession to the
Yamato palace, playing and singing a dirge as they went."
PASTIMES
Foremost among the pastimes of the Japanese people in all epochs was
dancing. We hear of it in the prehistoric age when the "monkey
female" (Sarume) performed a pantominic dance before the rock cave of
the Sun goddess; we hear of it in protohistoric times when Inkyo's
consort was betrayed into an offer that wrecked her happiness, and we
hear of it in the historic epoch when the future Emperor Kenso danced
in the disguise of a horse-boy. But as the discussion of this subject
belongs more intelligently to the era following the Nara, we confine
ourselves here to noting that even the religious fanatic Shomu is
recorded as having repaired to the Shujaku gate of the palace to
witness a performance of song and dance (utagaki) in which 240
persons, men and women, took part; and that, in the same year (734),
230 members of six great uji performed similarly, all robed in blue
garments fastened in front with long red cords and tassels.
The tendency of the Japanese has always been to accompany their
feasting and merry-making with music, versifying, and dancing. At the
time now under consideration there was the "winding-water fete"
(kyoku-sui no en), when princes, high officials, courtiers, and noble
ladies seated themselves by the banks of a rivulet meandering gently
through some fair park, and launched tiny cups of mulled wine upon
the current, each composing a stanza as the little messenger reached
him, or drinking its contents by way of penalty for lack of poetic
inspiration. There were also the flower festivals--that for the plum
blossoms, that for the iris, and that for the lotus, all of which
were instituted in this same Nara epoch--when the composition of
couplets was quite as important as the viewing of the flowers. There
was, further, the grand New Year's banquet in the Hall of
Tranquillity at the Court, when all officials from the sixth grade
downwards sang a stanza of loyal gratitude, accompanying themselves
on the lute (koto). It was an era of refined effeminate amusements.
Wrestling had now become the pursuit of professionals. Aristocrats
engaged in no rougher pastime than equestrian archery, a species of
football, hawking, and hunting. Everybody gambled. It was in vain
that edicts were issued against dicing (chobo and sugoroku). The vice
defied official restraint.
LITERATURE AND POETRY
Having no books of her own, Japan naturally borrowed freely from the
rich mine of Chinese literature. By the tutors of the Imperial
family, at the colleges of the capital, and in the provincial schools
the classics constituted virtually the whole curriculum. The
advantages of education were, however, enjoyed by a comparatively
small element of the population. During the Nara epoch, it does not
appear that there were more than five thousand students attending the
schools and colleges at one time. The aim of instruction was to
prepare men for official posts rather than to impart general culture
or to encourage scientific research. Students were therefore selected
from the aristocrats or the official classes only. There were no
printed books; everything had to be laboriously copied by hand, and
thus the difficulties of learning were much enhanced. To be able to
adapt the Chinese ideographs skilfully to the purposes of written
Japanese was a feat achieved by comparatively few. What the task
involved has been roughly described in the opening chapter of this
volume, and with what measure of success it was achieved may be
estimated from the preface to the Records (Kojiki), written by Ono
Yasumaro, from the Chronicles (Nihon Shoki) and from the Daiho
Ritsu-ryo, which three works may be called the sole surviving prose
essays of the epoch.
Much richer, however, is the realm of poetry. It was during the Nara
epoch that the first Japanese anthology, the Manyo-shu (Collection of
a Myriad Leaves), was compiled. It remains to this day a revered
classic and "a whole mountain of commentary has been devoted to the
elucidation of its obscurities." [Chamberlain.] In the Myriad Leaves
are to be found poems dating nominally from the reigns of Yuryaku and
Nintoku, as well as from the days of Shotoku Taishi, but much more
numerous are those of Jomei's era (629-641) and especially those of
the Nara epoch. The compiler's name is not known certainly; he is
believed to have been either Tachibana no Moroe or Otomo no
Yakamochi. Old manuscripts and popular memory were the sources, and
the verselets total 4496, in twenty volumes. Some make love their
theme; some deal with sorrow; some are allegorical; some draw their
inspiration from nature's beauties, and some have miscellaneous
motives. Hitomaru, who flourished during the reign of the Empress
Jito (690-697), and several of whose verses are to be found in the
Myriad Leaves, has been counted by all generations the greatest of
Japanese poets. Not far below him in fame is Akahito, who wrote in
the days of Shomu (724-749). To the same century--the eighth--as the
Manyo-shu, belongs the Kiraifu-so, & volume containing 120 poems in
Chinese style, composed by sixty-four poets during the reigns of
Temmu, Jito, and Mommu, that is to say, between 673 and 707. Here
again the compiler's name is unknown, but the date of compilation is
clear, November, 751.
From the fact that, while bequeathing to posterity only two national
histories and a few provincial records (the Fudo-ki), the Nara epoch
has left two anthologies, it will be inferred readily that the
writing of poetry was a favourite pursuit in that age. Such, indeed,
was the case. The taste developed almost into a mania. Guests bidden
to a banquet were furnished with writing materials and invited to
spend hours composing versicles on themes set by their hosts. But
skill in writing verse was not merely a social gift; it came near to
being a test of fitness for office.
"In their poetry above everything the Japanese have remained
impervious to alien influences. It owes this conservation to its
prosody. Without rhyme, without variety of metre, without elasticity
of dimensions, it is also without known counterpart. To alter it in
any way would be to deprive it of all distinguishing characteristics.
At some remote date a Japanese maker of songs seems to have
discovered that a peculiar and very fascinating rhythm is produced by
lines containing 5 syllables and 7 syllables alternately. That is
Japanese poetry (uta or tanka). There are generally five lines: the
first and third consisting of 5 syllables, the second, fourth and
fifth of 7, making a total of 31 in all. The number of lines is not
compulsory: sometimes they may reach to thirty, forty or even more,
but the alternation of 5 and 7 syllables is compulsory. The most
attenuated form of all is the hokku (or haikai) which consists of
only three lines, namely, 17 syllables. Necessarily the ideas
embodied in such a narrow vehicle must be fragmentary. Thus it
results that Japanese poems are, for the most part, impressionist;
they suggest a great deal more than they actually express. Here is an
example:
Momiji-ha wo
Kaze ni makasete
Miru yori mo
Hakanaki mono wa
Inochi nari keri
This may be translated:
More fleeting than the glint of withered leaf wind-blown, the thing
called life."*
*See Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, article "Japan."
The sketchy nature of Japanese poetry, especially in this five-line
stanza, may be illustrated further by two poems quoted by Prof. B. H.
Chamberlain in his "Things Japanese" (pp. 375-376),
The first:
Hototogisu
Nakitsuru kata wo
Nagamureba--
Tada ari-ake no
Tsuki zo nokoreru
is literally translated by Professor Chamberlain as follows:
"When I gaze towards the place where the cuckoo has been singing,
nought remains but the moon in the early dawn."
And the conventional and pictorial character of the literary form is
illustrated again in the lines:
Shira-kumo ni
Hane uchi-kawashi
Tobu kari no
Kazu sae miyuru
Aki no yo no tsuki!
which the same eminent scholar translates: "The moon on an autumn
night making visible the very number of the wild-geese that fly past
with wings intercrossed in the white clouds." It is to be noted that
this last is, to Occidental notions, a mere poetic phrase and not a
unit.
Of course, the very exigencies of the case make the three-line stanza
(or hokku), containing only 17 syllables, even more sketchy--hardly
more indeed than a tour de force composed of a limited number of
brush strokes! The Western critic, with his totally different
literary conventions, has difficulty in bringing himself to regard
Japanese verse as a literary form or in thinking of it otherwise than
as an exercise in ingenuity, an Oriental puzzle; and this notion is
heightened by the prevalence of the couplet-composing contests, which
did much to heighten the artificiality of the genre.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE SEXES
There was probably no more shocking sexual vice or irregularity in
the Nara epoch than there had been before nor than there was
afterwards. The only evidence adduced to prove that there was
anything of the sort is the fact that laws were promulgated looking
to the restraint of illicit intercourse. These laws seem to have
accomplished little or nothing and the existence of the laws argues
rather a growing sense of the seriousness of the evil than any sudden
increase in the prevalence of the evil itself. There can be no
question, however, of the wide diffusion of concubinage in this
period. Not morals nor repute nor public opinion, but the wealth and
wishes of each man limited him in his amours of this sort. The
essential of a virtuous woman was that she be faithful to her husband
or lover; no such faithfulness was expected of him. And neither in
the case of man nor woman did the conventions of the period depend at
all on the nature of the relationship between the two. Wives no
longer lived in their fathers' homes after marriage, but the
newly-wedded husband built new rooms for his wife's especial use, so
that, by a fiction such as the Oriental delights in and Occidental
law is not entirely ignorant of, her home was still not his. Before
betrothal, girls were not allowed to call themselves by a family
name. At the betrothal her affianced first bound up in a fillet the
hair that she had formerly worn loose around her face. Even more
symbolical was the custom upon lovers' parting of tying to the
woman's undergarment a string from the man's; this knot was to be
unloosed only when they met again.
THE SHOSO-IN
At Nara, in Yamato province, near the temple of Todai-ji, a store
house built of wood and called the Shoso-in was constructed in the
Nara epoch, and it still stands housing a remarkable collection of
furniture and ornaments from the Imperial palace. There is some
question whether this collection is truly typical of the period, or
even of the palace of the period; but the presence of many utensils
from China, some from India (often with traces of Greek influence),
and a few from Persia certainly shows the degree of cosmopolitan
culture and elegance there was in the palace at Nara. At the present
day, strangers may visit the collection only by special permission
and only on two days each year; and the museum has always had a
mingled imperial and sacred character. When the power of the
shogunate was at its height, the Shoso-in was never opened except by
orders of the Emperor. Among the contents of this museum are:
polished mirrors with repousse backs, kept in cases lined with
brocaded silk; bronze vases; bronze censers; hicense-boxes made of
Paulownia wood or of Chinese ware; two-edged swords, which were tied
to the girdle, instead of being thrust through it; narrow leather
belts with silver or jade decoration; bamboo flutes; lacquer
writing-cases, etc.
ENGRAVING: OUTLINE SKETCH OF THE SHOSO-IN AT NARA
REFORM OF LOCAL ADMINISTRATIONS
To the Emperor Konin belongs the credit of correcting some flagrant
abuses in provincial administration. There was an inconvenient
outcome of the religious mania which pervaded the upper classes
during the reigns of Shomu and Koken. To meet the expense of building
temples and casting images, men of substance in the provinces were
urged to make contributions of money, cereals, or land, and in return
for this liberality they were granted official posts. It resulted
that no less than thirty-one supernumerary provincial governors were
borne on the roll at one time, and since all these regarded office as
a means of recouping the cost of nomination, taxpayers and persons
liable to the corvée fared ill. In 774, Koken issued an edict that
provincial governors who had held office for five years or upwards
should be dismissed at once, those of shorter terms being allowed to
complete five years and then removed.
Another evil, inaugurated during the reign of Shomu, when faith in
the potency of supernatural influences obsessed men's minds, was
severely dealt with by Konin. Office-seekers resorted to the device
of contriving conflagrations of official property, rewarding the
incendiaries with the plunder, and circulating rumours that these
calamities were visitations of heaven to punish the malpractices of
the provincial governors in whose jurisdictions they occurred. It is
on record that, in several cases, these stories led to the dismissal
of governors and their replacement by their traducers. Konin decreed
that such crimes should be punished by the death of all concerned.
These reforms, supplemented by the removal of many superfluous
officials, earned for Konin such popularity that for the first time
in Japan's history, the sovereign's birthday became a festival*,
thereafter celebrated through all ages.
*Called Tenchosetsu.
THE MILITARY SYSTEM
It has been shown that compulsory military service was introduced in
689, during the reign of the Empress Jito, one-fourth of all the
able-bodied men in each province being required to serve a fixed time
with the colours. It has also been noted that under the Daiho
legislation the number was increased to one-third. This meant that no
distinction existed between soldier and peasant. The plan worked ill.
No sufficient provision of officers being made, the troops remained
without training, and it frequently happened that, instead of
military exercises, they were required to labour for the enrichment
of a provincial governor.
The system, being thus discredited, fell into abeyance in the year
739, but that it was not abolished is shown by the fact that, in 780,
we find the privy council memorializing the Throne in a sense
unfavourable to the drafting of peasants into the ranks. The memorial
alleged that the men lacked training; that they were physically
unfit; that they busied themselves devising pretexts for evasion;
that their chief function was to perform fatigue-duty for local
governors, and that to send such men into the field of battle would
be to throw away their lives fruitlessly. The council recommended
that indiscriminate conscription of peasants should be replaced by a
system of selection, the choice being limited to men with some
previous training; that the number taken should be in proportion to
the size of the province, and that those not physically robust should
be left to till the land. These recommendations were approved. They
constituted the first step towards complete abolishment of compulsory
service and towards the glorifying of the profession of arms above
that of agriculture. Experience quickly proved, however, that some
more efficient management was necessary in the maritime provinces,
and in 792, Kwammu being then on the throne, an edict abolished the
provincial troops in all regions except those which, by their
proximity to the continent of Asia, were exposed to danger, namely,
Dazai-fu in Kyushu, and in Mutsu, Dewa, and Sado in the north. Some
specially organized force was needed also for extraordinary service
and for guarding official storehouses, offices, and places where
post-bells (suzu) were kept. To that end the system previously
practised during the reign of Shomu (724-749) was reverted to; that
is to say, the most robust among the sons and younger brothers of
provincial governors and local officials were enrolled in corps of
strength varying with the duties to be performed. These were called
kondei or kenji. We learn from the edict that the abuse of employing
soldiers as labourers was still practised, but of course this did not
apply to the kondei.
The tendency of the time was against imposing military service on the
lower classes. During the period 810-820, the forces under the
Dazai-fu jurisdiction, that is to say, in the six provinces of
Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, Higo, Buzen, and Bungo, were reduced from
17,100 to 9000. Dazai-fu and Mutsu being littoral regions, the
conscription system still existed there, but in Mutsu there were not
only heishi, that is to say, local militiamen of the ordinary type
and kenji or kondei, but also chimpei, or guards who were required to
serve at a distance from home. Small farmers, upon whom this duty
devolved, had no choice but to take their wives and children with
them, the family subsisting on the pittance given as rations eked out
by money realized from sales of chattels and garments. Thus, on the
expiration of their service they returned to their native place in a
wholly destitute condition, and sometimes perished of hunger on the
way. In consideration of the hardships of such a system, it was
abolished, and thus the distinction between the soldier and the
peasant received further accentuation.
There is no record as to the exact dimensions of Japan's standing
army in the ninth century, but if we observe that troops were raised
in the eight littoral provinces only--six in the south and two in the
north--and in the island of Sado, and that the total number in the
six southern provinces was only nine thousand, it would seem
reasonable to conclude that the aggregate did not exceed thirty
thousand. There were also the kondei (or kenji), but these, since
they served solely as guards or for special purposes, can scarcely be
counted a part of the standing army. The inference is that whatever
the Yamato race may have been when it set out upon its original
career of conquest, or when, in later eras, it sent great armies to
the Asiatic continent, the close of the fifth cycle after the coming
of Buddhism found the country reduced to a condition of comparative
military weakness. As to that, however, clearer judgment may be
formed in the context of the campaign--to be now spoken of--conducted
by the Yamato against the Yemishi tribes throughout a great part of
the eighth century and the early years of the ninth.
REVOLT OF THE YEMISHI
It has been shown that the close of the third decade of the eighth
century saw the capital established at Nara amid conditions of great
refinement, and saw the Court and the aristocracy absorbed in
religious observances, while the provincial governments were, in many
cases, corrupt and inefficient. In the year 724, Nara received news
of an event which illustrated the danger of such a state of affairs.
The Yemishi of the east had risen in arms and killed Koyamaro, warden
of Mutsu. At that time the term "Mutsu" represented a much wider area
than the modern region of the same name: it comprised the five
provinces now distinguished as Iwaki, Iwashiro, Rikuzen, Rikuchu, and
Mutsu--in other words, the whole of the northeastern and northern
littoral of the main island. Similarly, the provinces now called Ugo
and Uzen, which form the northwestern littoral, were comprised in the
single term "Dewa." Nature has separated these two regions, Mutsu and
Dewa, by a formidable chain of mountains, constituting the backbone
of northern Japan. Within Dewa, Mutsu, and the island of Yezo, the
aboriginal Yemishi had been held since Yamato-dake's signal campaign
in the second century A.D., and though not so effectually quelled as
to preclude all danger of insurrection, their potentialities caused
little uneasiness to the Central Government.
But there was no paltering with the situation which arose in 724.
Recourse was immediately had to the Fujiwara, whose position at the
Imperial Court was paramount, and Umakai, grandson of the renowned
Kamatari, set out at the head of thirty thousand men, levied from the
eight Bands provinces, by which term Sagami, Musashi, Awa, Kazusa,
Shimosa, Hitachi, Kotsuke, and Shimotsuke were designated. The
expanded system of conscription established under the Daiho code was
then in force, and thus a large body of troops could easily be
assembled. Umakai's army did not experience any serious resistance.
But neither did it achieve anything signal. Marching by two routes,
it converged on the castle of Taga, a fortress just constructed by
Ono Azumahito, the lord warden of the Eastern Marches. The plan
pursued by the Yamato commanders was to build castles and barriers
along the course of rivers giving access to the interior, as well as
along the coast line. Taga Castle was the first of such works, and,
by the year 767, the programme had been carried in Mutsu as far as
the upper reaches of the Kitakami River,* and in Dewa as far as
Akita.
*A monument still stands on the site of the old Taga Castle. It was
put up in A.D. 762, and it records that the castle stood fifty miles
from the island of Yezo.
History has nothing further to tell about the Yemishi until the year
774, when they again took up arms, captured one (Mono) of the
Japanese forts and drove out its garrison. Again the eight Bando
provinces were ordered to send levies, and at the head of the army
thus raised a Japanese general penetrated far into Mutsu and
destroyed the Yemishi's chief stronghold. This success was followed
by an aggressive policy on the part of the lord-warden, Ki no
Hirozumi. He extended the chain of forts to Kabe in Dewa, and to
Isawa in Mutsu. This was in 780. But there ensued a strong movement
of reprisal on the part of the Yemishi. Led by Iharu no Atamaro, they
overwhelmed Hirozumi's army, killed the lord-warden himself, and
pushed on to Taga Castle, which they burned, destroying vast stores
of arms and provisions. It was precisely at this time that the State
council, as related above, memorialized the Throne, denouncing the
incompetency of the provincial conscripts and complaining that the
provincial authorities, instead of training the soldiers, used them
for forced labour. The overthrow of the army in Mutsu and the
destruction of Taga Castle justified this memorial.
The Court appointed Fujiwara Tsugunawa to take command of a punitive
expedition, and once again Bando levies converged on the site of the
dismantled castle of Taga. But beyond that point no advance was
essayed, in spite of bitter reproaches from Nara. "In summer," wrote
the Emperor (Konin), "you plead that the grass is too dry; in winter
you allege that bran is too scant. You discourse adroitly but you get
no nearer to the foe." Konin's death followed shortly afterwards, but
his successor, Kwammu, zealously undertook the pursuit of the
campaign. Notice was sent (783) to the provincial authorities
directing them to make preparations and to instruct the people that
an armed expedition was inevitable. News had just been received of
fresh outrages in Dewa. The Yemishi had completely dispersed and
despoiled the inhabitants of two districts, so that it was found
necessary to allot lands to them elsewhere and to erect houses for
their shelter.
The Emperor said in his decree that the barbarian tribes, when
pursued, fled like birds; when unmolested, gathered like ants; that
the conscripts from the Bando provinces were reported to be weak and
unfit for campaigning, and that those skilled in archery and
physically robust stood aloof from military service, forgetting that
they all owed a common duty to their country and their sovereign.
Therefore, his Majesty directed that the sons and younger brothers of
all local officials or provincial magnates should be examined with a
view to the selection of those suited for military service, who
should be enrolled and drilled, to the number of not less than five
hundred and not more than two thousand per province according to its
size. Thus, the eight Bando provinces must have furnished a force of
from four to sixteen thousand men, all belonging to the aristocratic
class. These formed the nucleus of the army. They were supplemented
by 52,800 men, infantry and cavalry, collected from the provinces
along the Eastern Sea (Tokai) and the Eastern Mountains (Tosan). so
that the total force must have aggregated sixty thousand. The command
in chief was conferred on Ki no Kosami, thirteenth in descent from
the renowned Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who had been second in command of
the Fujiwara Tsugunawa expedition nine years previously. A sword was
conferred on him by the Emperor, and he received authority to act on
his own discretion without seeking instructions from the Throne.
Meanwhile, the province of Mutsu had been ordered to send 35,000 koku
(175,000 bushels) of hulled rice to Taga Castle, and the other
provinces adjacent were required to store 23,000 koku (115,000
bushels) of hoshi-i (rice boiled and dried) and salt at the same
place. The troops were to be massed at Taga, and all the provisions
and munitions were collected there by April, 789. These figures are
suggestive of the light in which the Government regarded the affair.
Kosami moved out of Taga at the appointed time and pushed northward.
But with every forward movement the difficulties multiplied. Snow in
those regions lies many feet deep until the end of May, and the thaw
ensuing brings down from the mountains heavy floods which convert the
rivers into raging torrents and the roads into quagmires. On reaching
the bank of the Koromo River, forty-five miles north of Taga, the
troops halted. Their delay provoked much censure in the capital where
the climatic conditions do not appear to have been fully understood
or the transport difficulties appreciated. Urged by the Court to push
on rapidly, Kosami resumed his march in June; failed to preserve
efficient connexion between the parts of his army; had his van
ambushed; fled precipitately himself, and suffered a heavy defeat,
though only 2500 of his big army had come into action. His casualties
were 25 killed, 245 wounded, and 1036 drowned. A truce was effected
and the forces withdrew to Taga, while, as for Kosami, though he
attempted to deceive the Court by a bombastic despatch, he was
recalled and degraded together with all the senior officers of his
army.
It would seem as though this disaster to one comparatively small
section of a force aggregating from fifty to sixty thousand men need
not have finally interrupted the campaign, especially when the enemy
consisted of semi-civilized aborigines. The Government thought
differently, however. There was no idea of abandoning the struggle,
but the programme for its renewal assumed large dimensions, and
events in the capital were not propitious for immediate action. The
training of picked soldiers commenced at once, and the provision of
arms and horses. Kosami's discomfiture took place in 789, and during
the next two years orders were issued for the manufacture of 2000
suits of leather armour and 3000 of iron armour; the making of 34,500
arms, and the preparation of 1 10,000 bushels of hoshi-i. To the
command-in-chief the Emperor (Kwammu) appointed Saka-no-ye no
Tamuramaro.
This selection illustrates a conclusion already proved by the annals,
namely, that racial prejudice had no weight in ancient Japan. For
Tamuramaro was a direct descendant of that Achi no Omi who, as
already related, crossed from China during the Han dynasty and became
naturalized in Japan. His father, Karitamaro, distinguished himself
by reporting the Dokyo intrigue, in the year 770, and received the
post of chief of the palace guards, in which corps his son,
Tamuramaro, thereafter served. Tradition has assigned supernatural
capacities to Tamuramaro, and certainly in respect of personal
prowess no less than strategical talent he was highly gifted. In
June, 794, he invaded Mutsu at the head of a great army and, by a
series of rapidly delivered blows, effectually crushed the
aborigines, taking 457 heads, 100 prisoners, and 85 horses, and
destroying the strongholds of 75 tribes. Thereafter, until the year
of his death (811), he effectually held in check the spirit of
revolt, crushing two other insurrections--in 801 and 804--and
virtually annihilating the insurgents. He transferred the garrison
headquarters from Taga to Isawa, where he erected a castle,
organizing a body of four thousand militia (tonden-hei) to guard it;
and in the following year (803), he built the castle of Shiba at a
point still further north.
NATIONALITY OF THE INSURGENTS
Annals of historical repute are confined to the above account. There
is, however, one unexplained feature, which reveals itself to even a
casual reader. In their early opposition to Yamato aggression, the
Yemishi--or Ainu, or Yezo, by whatever name they be called--displayed
no fighting qualities that could be called formidable. Yet now, in
the eighth century, they suddenly show themselves men of such prowess
that the task of subduing them taxes the resources of the Yamato to
the fullest. Some annalists are disposed to seek an explanation of
this discrepancy in climatic and topographical difficulties. Kosami,
in his despatch referring to the Koromo-gawa campaign, explains that
12,440 men had to be constantly employed in transporting provisions
and that the quantity carried by them in twenty-four days did not
exceed eleven days' rations for the troops. The hardship of
campaigning in a country where means of communication were so
defective is easily conjectured, and it has also to be noted that
during only a brief period in summer did the climate of Mutsu permit
taking the field. But these conditions existed equally in the eras of
Yamato-dake and Hirafu. Whatever obstacles they presented in the
eighth century must have been equally potent in the second and in the
seventh.
Two explanations are offered. They are more or less conjectural. One
is that the Yemishi of Mutsu were led by chieftains of Yamato origin,
men who had migrated to the northeast in search of fortune or
impelled by disaffection. It seems scarcely credible, however, that a
fact so special would have eluded historical reference, whereas only
one passing allusion is made to it and that, too, in a book not fully
credible. The other explanation is that the Yemishi were in league
with hordes of Tatars who had crossed from the mainland of Asia, or
travelled south by the islands of Saghalien and Yezo. The main
evidence in support of this theory is furnished by the names of the
insurgent leaders Akuro-o, Akagashira, and Akahige. Ideographists
point out that the character aku is frequently pronounced o, and with
that reading the name "Akuro-o" becomes "Oro-o," which was the term
used for "Russian." As for "Akagashira" and "Akahige," they frankly
signify "red head" and "red beard," common Japanese names for
foreigners. In a shrine at Suzuka-yama in Ise, to which point the
insurgents pushed southward before Tamuramaro took the field, there
used to be preserved a box, obviously of foreign construction, said
to have been left there by the "Eastern Barbarians;" and in the
Tsugaru district of the modern Mutsu province, relics exist of an
extensive fortress presenting features not Japanese, which is
conjectured to have been the basis of the Tatar invaders. But all
these inferences rest on little more than hypothesis.
RISE OF MILITARY HOUSES
What is certain, however, is that a collateral result of these
disturbances was to discredit the great Court nobles--the Otomo, the
Tachibana, the Ki, and the Fujiwara--as leaders of armies, and to lay
the foundation of the military houses (buke) which were destined to
become feudal rulers of Japan in after ages. Ki no Hirozumi, Ki no
Kosami, Otomo Yakamochi, Fujiwara Umakai, and Fujiwara Tsugunawa
having all failed, the Court was compelled to have recourse to the
representatives of a Chinese immigrant family, the Saka-no-ye. By
those who trace the ringer of fate in earthly happenings, it has been
called a dispensation that, at this particular juncture, a descendant
of Achi no Omi should have been a warrior with a height of six feet
nine inches,* eyes of a falcon, a beard like plaited gold-wire, a
frown that terrified wild animals, and a smile that attracted
children. For such is the traditional description of Tamuramaro.
Another incidental issue of the situation was that conspicuous credit
for fighting qualities attached to the troops specially organized in
the Bando (Kwanto) provinces with the sons and younger brothers of
local officials. These became the nucleus of a military class which
ultimately monopolized the profession of arms.
*The height recorded is five feet eight inches, but as that would be
a normal stature, there can be little doubt that "great" (dai)
measure is referred to and that the figures indicate six feet nine
inches.
RELATIONS WITH KOREA
During the eighth century relations of friendship were once more
established with Koma. A Manchurian tribe, migrating from the valley
of the Sungali River (then called the Sumo), settled on the east of
the modern province of Shengking, and was there joined by a remnant
of the Koma subjects after the fall of the latter kingdom. Ultimately
receiving investiture at the hands of the Tang Court, the sovereign
of the colony took the name of Tsuying, King of Pohai, and his son,
Wu-i, sent an envoy to Japan in 727, when Shomu was on the throne.
Where the embassy embarked there is no record, but, being blown out
of their course, the boats finally made the coast of Dewa, where
several of the envoy's suite were killed by the Yemishi. The envoy
himself reached Nara safely, and, representing his sovereign as the
successor of the Koma dynasty, was hospitably received, the usual
interchange of gifts taking place.
Twenty-five years later (752), another envoy arrived. The Empress
Koken then reigned at Nara, and her ministers insisted that, in the
document presented by the ambassador, Pohai must distinctly occupy
towards Japan the relation of vassal to suzerain, such having been
the invariable custom observed by Koma in former times. The
difficulty seems to have been met by substituting the name "Koma" for
"Pohai," thus, by implication, admitting that the new kingdom held
towards Japan the same status as that formerly held by Koma.
Throughout the whole of her subsequent intercourse with the Pohai
kingdom, intercourse which, though exceedingly fitful, lasted for
nearly a century and a half, Japan uniformly insisted upon the
maintenance of that attitude.
ENGRAVING: EMPEROR KWAMMU
CHAPTER XVIII
THE HEIAN EPOCH
THE FIFTIETH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KWAMMU (A.D. 782-805)
JAPANESE history divides itself readily into epochs, and among them
not the least sharply defined is the period of 398 years separating
the transfer of the Imperial palace from Nara to Kyoto (794) and the
establishment of an administrative capital at Kamakura (1192). It is
called the Heian epoch, the term "Heian-jo" (Castle of Peace) having
been given to Kyoto soon after that city became the residence of the
Mikado. The first ruler in the epoch was Kwammu. This monarch, as
already shown, was specially selected by his father, Konin, at the
instance of Fujiwara Momokawa, who observed in the young prince
qualities essential to a ruler of men. Whether Kwammu's career as
Emperor reached the full standard of his promise as prince,
historians are not agreed.
Konin receives a larger meed of praise. His reforms of local abuses
showed at once courage and zeal But he did not reach the root of the
evil, nor did his son Kwammu, though in the matter of intention and
ardour there was nothing to choose between the two. The basic trouble
was arbitrary and unjust oppression of the lower classes by the
upper. These latter, probably educated in part by the be system,
which tended to reduce the worker with his hands to a position of
marked subservience, had learned to regard their own hereditary
privileges as practically unlimited, and to conclude that well nigh
any measure of forced labour was due to them from their inferiors.
Konin could not correct this conception, and neither could Kwammu.
Indeed, in the latter's case, the Throne was specially disqualified
as a source of remonstrance, for the sovereign himself had to make
extravagant demands upon the working classes on account of the
transfer of the capital from Nara to Kyoto. Thus, although Kwammu's
warnings and exhortations were earnest, and his dismissals and
degradations of provincial officials frequent, he failed to achieve
anything radical.
TRANSFER OF THE CAPITAL TO KYOTO
The reign of Kwammu is remarkable for two things: the conquest of the
eastern Yemishi by Tamuramaro and the transfer of the capital from
Nara to Kyoto. Nara is in the province of Yamato; Kyoto, in the
neighbouring province of Yamashiro,* and the two places lie twenty
miles apart as the crow flies. It has been stated that to change the
site of the capital on the accession of a sovereign was a common
custom in Japan prior to the eighth century. In those early days the
term "miyako," though used in the sense of "metropolis," bore chiefly
the meaning "Imperial residence," and to alter its locality did not
originally suggest a national effort. But when Kwammu ascended the
throne, Nara had been the capital during eight reigns, covering a
period of seventy-five years, and had grown into a great city, a
centre alike of religion and of trade. To transfer it involved a
correspondingly signal sacrifice. What was Kwammu's motive? Some have
conjectured a desire to shake off the priestly influences which
permeated the atmosphere of Nara; others, that he found the Yamato
city too small to satisfy his ambitious views or to suit the quickly
developing dimensions and prosperity of the nation. Probably both
explanations are correct. Looking back only a few years, a ruler of
Kwammu's sagacity must have appreciated that religious fanaticism, as
practised at Nara, threatened to overshadow even the Imperial Court,
and that the influence of the foreign creed tended to undermine the
Shinto cult, which constituted the main bulwark of the Throne.
*Previously to becoming the metropolitan province, Yamashiro was
written with ideographs signifying "behind the mountain" (yama no
ushiro), but these were afterwards changed to "mountain castle"
(yamashiro).
We shall presently see how this latter danger was averted at Kyoto,
and it certainly does not appear extravagant to credit Kwammu with
having promoted that result. At all events, he was not tempted by the
superior advantages of any other site in particular. In 784, when he
adopted the resolve to found a new capital, it was necessary to
determine the place by sending out a search party under his most
trusted minister, Fujiwara Tanetsugu. The choice of Tanetsugu fell,
not upon Kyoto, but upon Nagaoka in the same province. There was no
hesitation. The Emperor trusted Tanetsugu implicitly and appointed
him chief commissioner of the building, which was commenced at once,
a decree being issued that all taxes for the year should be paid at
Nagaoka where also forced labourers were required to assemble and
materials were collected. The Records state that the area of the site
for the new palace measured 152 acres, for which the owners received
compensation amounting to the equivalent of £2580 ($12,550); or an
average of £17 ($82) per acre. The number of people employed is put
at 314,000,* and the fund appropriated, at 680,000 sheaves of rice,
having a value of about £40,800 ($200,000) according to modern
prices.
*This does not mean that 314,000 persons were employed
simultaneously, but only that the number of workmen multiplied by the
number of days of work equalled 314,000.
The palace was never finished. While it was still uncompleted, the
Emperor took up his abode there, in the fall of 784, and efforts to
hasten the work were redoubled. But a shocking incident occurred. The
Crown Prince, Sagara, procured the elevation of a member of the Saeki
family to the high post of State councillor (sangi), and having been
impeached for this unprecedented act by Fujiwara Tanetsugu, was
deprived of his title to the throne. Shortly afterwards, the Emperor
repaired to Nara, and during the absence of the Court from Nagaoka,
Prince Sagara compassed the assassination of Tanetsugu. Kwammu
exacted stern vengeance for his favourite minister. He disgraced the
prince and sent him into exile in the island of Awaji, which place he
did not reach alive, as was perhaps designed.
ENGRAVING: COURTYARD OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE, AT KYOTO
These occurrences moved the Emperor so profoundly that Nagaoka became
intolerable to him. Gradually the work of building was abandoned,
and, in 792, a new site was selected by Wake no Kiyomaro at Uda in
the same province. So many attractions were claimed for this village
that failure to choose it originally becomes difficult to understand.
Imperial decrees eulogized its mountains and rivers, and people
recalled a prediction uttered 170 years previously by Prince Shotoku
that the place would ultimately be selected for the perpetual capital
of the empire. The Tang metropolis, Changan, was taken for model.
Commenced in April, 794, the new metropolis was finished in December,
805.
The city was laid out with mathematical exactness in the form of a
rectangle, nearly three and one-half miles long, from north to south,
and about three miles wide, from east to west. In each direction were
nine principal thoroughfares, those running east and west crossing
the north and south streets at right angles. The east and west
streets were numbered from 1 to 9, and, although the regularity of
structure and plan of the city has been altered by fire and other
causes in eleven hundred years, traces of this early system of
nomenclature are still found in the streets of Kyoto.* Running north
from the centre of the south side was a great avenue, two hundred and
eighty feet wide, which divided the city into two parts, the eastern,
called "the left metropolis" (later Tokyo, "eastern capital"), and
"the right metropolis" (or Saikyo, "western capital"),--the left, as
always in Japan, having precedence over the right, and the direction
being taken not from the southern entrance gate but from the Imperial
palace, to which this great avenue led and which was on the northern
limits of the city and, as the reader will see, at the very centre of
the north wall. Grouped around the palace were government buildings
of the different administrative departments and assembly and audience
halls.
*The Kyoto of today is only a remnant of the ancient city; it was
almost wholly destroyed by fire in the Onin war of 1467.
The main streets, which have already been mentioned as connecting the
gates in opposite walls, varied in width from 80 feet to 170 feet.
They divided the city into nine districts, all of the same area
except the ones immediately east of the palace. The subdivisions were
as formal and precise. Each of the nine districts contained four
divisions. Each division was made up of four streets. A street was
made up of four rows, each row containing eight "house-units." The
house-unit was 50 by 100 feet. The main streets in either direction
were crossed at regular intervals by lanes or minor streets, all
meeting at right angles.
The Imperial citadel in the north central part of the city was 4600
feet long (from north to south) and 3840 feet wide, and was
surrounded by a fence roofed with tiles and pierced with three gates
on either side. The palace was roofed with green tiles of Chinese
manufacture and a few private dwellings had roofs made of
slate-coloured tiles, but most of them were shingled. In the earlier
period, it is to be remembered, tiles were used almost exclusively
for temple roofs. The architecture of the new city was in general
very simple and unpretentious. The old canons of Shinto temple
architecture had some influence even in this city built on a Chinese
model. Whatever display or ornament there was, appeared not on the
exterior but in inner rooms, especially those giving on inner court
yards. That these resources were severely taxed, however, cannot be
doubted, especially when we remember that the campaign against the
Yemishi was simultaneously conducted. History relates that
three-fifths of the national revenues were appropriated for the
building.
INTERCOURSE WITH CHINA AND BUDDHIST PROPAGANDISM
The fact that the metropolis at Changan was taken for model in
building Kyoto prepares us to find that intercourse with the Middle
Kingdom was frequent and intimate. But although China under the Tang
dynasty in the ninth century presented many industrial, artistic, and
social features of an inspiring and attractive nature, her
administrative methods had begun to fall into disorder, which
discredited them in Japanese eyes. We find, therefore, that although
renowned religionists went from Japan during the reign of Kwammu and
familiarized themselves thoroughly with the Tang civilization, they
did not, on their return, attempt to popularize the political system
of China, but praised only her art, her literature, and certain forms
and conceptions of Buddhism which they found at Changan.
ENGRAVING: PRIEST SAICHO, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS DENGYO DAISHI
The most celebrated of these religionists were Saicho and
Kukai--immortalized under their posthumous names of Dengyo Daishi and
Kobo Daishi, respectively. The former went to Changan in the train of
the ambassador, Sugawara Kiyokimi, in 802, and the latter accompanied
Fujiwara Kuzunomaro, two years later. Saicho was specially sent to
China by his sovereign to study Buddhism, in order that, on his
return, he might become lord-abbot of a monastery which his Majesty
had caused to be built on Hie-no-yama--subsequently known as
Hiei-zan--a hill on the northeast of the new palace in Kyoto. A
Japanese superstition regarded the northeast as the "Demon's Gate,"
where a barrier must be erected against the ingress of evil
influences. Saicho also brought from China many religious books.
Down to that time the Buddhist doctrine preached in Japan had been of
a very dispiriting nature. It taught that salvation could not be
reached except by efforts continued through three immeasurable
periods of time. But Saicho acquired a new doctrine in China. From
the monastery of Tientai (Japanese, Tendai) he carried back to
Hiei-zan a creed founded on the "Lotus of the Good Law"--a creed that
salvation is at once attainable by a knowledge of the Buddha nature,
and that such knowledge may be acquired by meditation and wisdom.
That was the basic conception, but it underwent some modification at
Japanese hands. It became "a system of Japanese eclecticism, fitting
the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese sage to the
pre-existing foundations of earlier sects."* This is not the place to
discuss details of religious doctrine, but the introduction of the
Tendai belief has historical importance. In the first place, it
illustrates a fact which may be read between the lines of all
Japanese annals, namely, that the Japanese are never blind borrowers
from foreign systems: their habit is "to adapt what they borrow so as
to fit it to what they possess." In the second place, the Tendai
system became the parent of nearly all the great sects subsequently
born in Japan. In the third place, the Buddhas of Contemplation, by
whose aid the meditation of absolute truth is rendered possible,
suggested the idea that they had frequently been incarnated for the
welfare of mankind, and from that theory it was but a short step to
the conviction that "the ancient gods whom the Japanese worshipped
are but manifestations of these same mystical beings, and that the
Buddhist faith had come, not to destroy the native Shinto, but to
embody It into a higher and more universal system. From that moment
the triumph of Buddhism was secured."** It is thus seen that the
visit of Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) to China at the beginning of the
ninth century and the introduction of the Tendai creed into Japan
constitute landmarks in Japanese history.
*Developments of Japanese Buddhism, by the Rev. A. Lloyd. M. A.
**The doctrines that the Shinto deities were incarnations of the
Buddhas of Contemplation (Dhyani) had already been enunciated by
Gyogi but its general acceptance dates from the days of Dengyo
Daishi. The doctrine was called honchi-suishaku.
ENGRAVING: PRIEST KOKAI, AFTERWARD KNOWN AS KOBO DAISHI
KOBO DAISHI
Contemporary with and even greater in the eyes of his countrymen than
Dengyo Daishi, was Kobo Daishi (known as Kukai during his lifetime).
He, too, visited China as a student of Buddhism, especially to learn
the interpretation of a Sutra which had fallen into his hands in
Japan, and on his return he founded the system of the True Word
(Shingori), which has been practically identified with the Gnosticism
of early Christian days. Kobo Daishi is the most famous of all
Japanese Buddhist teachers; famous alike as a saint, as an artist,
and as a calligraphist. His influence on the intellectual history of
his country was marked, for he not only founded a religious system
which to this day has a multitude of disciples, but he is also said
to have invented, or at any rate to have materially improved, the
Japanese syllabary (hira-gana).
THE SUBSERVIENCE OF SHINTO
That the disciples of the Shinto cult so readily endorsed a doctrine
which relegated their creed to a subordinate place has suggested
various explanations, but the simplest is the most convincing,
namely, that Shinto possessed no intrinsic power to assert itself in
the presence of a religion like Buddhism. At no period has Shinto
produced a great propagandist. No Japanese sovereign ever thought of
exchanging the tumultuous life of the Throne for the quiet of a
Shinto shrine, nor did Shinto ever become a vehicle for the
transmission of useful knowledge.
ENGRAVING: OKUNO-IN (Kobo Daishi's shrine) AT MT. KOYASAN
With Buddhism, the record is very different. Many of its followers
were inspired by the prospect of using it as a stepping-stone to
preferment rather than as a route to Nirvana. Official posts being
practically monopolized by the aristocratic classes, those born in
lowlier families found little opportunity to win honour and
emoluments. But by embracing a religious career, a man might aspire
to become an abbot or even a tutor to a prince or sovereign. Thus,
learned and clever youths flocked to the portals of the priesthood,
and the Emperor Saga is said to have lamented that the Court nobility
possessed few great and able men, whereas the cloisters abounded in
them. On the other hand, it has been observed with much reason that
as troublers of the people the Buddhist priests were not far behind
the provincial governors. In fact, it fared with Buddhism as it
commonly fares with all human institutions--success begot abuses. The
example of Dokyo exercised a demoralizing influence. The tonsure
became a means of escaping official exactions in the shape of taxes
or forced labour, and the building of temples a device to acquire
property and wealth as well as to evade fiscal burdens. Sometimes the
Buddhist priests lent themselves to the deception of becoming nominal
owners of large estates in order to enable the real owners to escape
taxation. Buddhism in Japan ultimately became a great militant power,
ready at all times to appeal to force.
THE FIFTY-FIRST SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR HEIJO (A.D. 806-809)
Heijo, the fifty-first sovereign, was the eldest son of Kwammu. The
latter, warned by the distress that his own great expenditures on
account of the new capital had produced, and fully sensible of the
abuses practised by the provincial officials, urged upon the Crown
Prince the imperative necessity of retrenchment, and Heijo, on
ascending the throne, showed much resolution in discharging
superfluous officials, curtailing all unneeded outlays, and
simplifying administrative procedure. But physical weakness--he was a
confirmed invalid--and the influence of an ambitious woman wrecked
his career. While still Crown Prince, he fixed his affections on
Kusu, daughter of Fujiwara Tanetsugu, who had been assassinated by
Prince Sagara during Kwammu's reign, and when Heijo ascended the
throne, this lady's influence made itself felt within and without the
palace, while her brother, Nakanari, a haughty, headstrong man,
trading on his relationship to her, usurped almost Imperial
authority.
Heijo's ill-health, however, compelled him to abdicate after a reign
of only three years. He retired to the old palace at Nara, entrusting
the sceptre to his brother, Saga. This step was profoundly
disappointing to Kusu and her brother. The former aimed at becoming
Empress--she possessed only the title of consort--and Fujiwara
Nakanari looked for the post of prime minister. They persuaded the
ex-Emperor to intimate a desire of reascending the throne. Saga
acquiesced and would have handed over the sceptre, but at the
eleventh hour, Heijo's conscientious scruples, or his prudence,
caused a delay, whereupon Kusu and her brother, becoming desperate,
publicly proclaimed that Heijo wished to transfer the capital to
Nara. Before they could consummate this programme, however, Saga
secured the assistance of Tamuramaro, famous as the conqueror of the
Yemishi, and by his aid Fujiwara Nakanari was seized and thrown into
prison, the lady Kusu being deprived of her rank as consort and
condemned to be banished from Court. Heijo might have bowed to
Nakanari's fate, but Kusu's sentence of degradation and exile
overtaxed his patience. He raised an army and attempted to move to
the eastern provinces. In Mino, his route was intercepted by a force
under Tamuramaro, and the ex-Emperor's troops being shattered, no
recourse offered except to retreat to Nara. Then the Jo-o (Heijo)
took the tonsure, and his consort Kusu committed suicide. Those who
had rallied to the ex-Emperor's standard were banished.
THE FIRST JAPANESE THAT ENTERED INDIA
When Heijo ceded the throne to Saga, the former's son, Takaoka, was
nominated Crown Prince, though Saga had sons of his own. Evidently
that step was taken for the purpose of averting precisely such
incidents as those subsequently precipitated by the conspiracy to
restore Heijo. Therefore on the day following Heijo's adoption of the
tonsure, Takaoka was deprived of his rank.* Entering the priesthood,
he called himself Shinnyo, retired to Higashi-dera and studied the
doctrine of the True Word (Shingori). In 836, he proceeded to China
to prosecute his religious researches, and ultimately made his way to
India (in his eighty-first year), where he was killed by a tiger in
the district now known as the Laos States of Siam. This prince is
believed to have been the first Japanese that travelled to India. His
father, the ex-Emperor Heijo, was a student of the same Buddhist
doctrine (Shingon) and received instruction in it from Kukai. Heijo
died in 824, at the age of fifty-one.
*His family was struck off the roll of princes and given the uji of
Ariwara Asomi.
THE FIFTY-SECOND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SAGA (A.D. 810-823)
It is memorable in the history of the ninth century that three
brothers occupied the throne in succession, Heijo, Saga, and Junna.
Heijo's abdication was certainly due in part to weak health, but his
subsequent career proves that this reason was not imperative. Saga,
after a most useful reign of thirteen years, stepped down frankly in
favour of his younger brother. There is no valid reason to endorse
the view of some historians that these acts of self-effacement were
inspired by an indolent distaste for the cares of kingship. Neither
Heijo nor Saga shrank from duty in any form. During his brief tenure
of power the former unflinchingly effected reforms of the most
distasteful kind, as the dismissal of superfluous officials and the
curtailing of expenses; and the latter's reign was distinguished by
much useful legislation and organization. Heijo's abdication seems to
have been due to genuine solicitude for the good of the State, and
Saga's to a sense of reluctance to be outdone in magnanimity.
Reciprocity of moral obligation (giri) has been a canon of Japanese
conduct in all ages.
SANGI AND KURANDO
One of the earliest acts of Saga's reign was to establish the office
of Court councillor (sangi) definitely and to determine the number of
these officials at eight. The post of sangi had been instituted more
than a century previously, but its occupants had neither fixed
function, rank, nor number: they merely gave fortuitous advice about
political affairs. Another office, dating from the same time (810),
was that of kurando (called also kurodo). This seems to have been
mainly a product of the political situation. At the palace of the
retired Emperor in Nara--the Inchu, as it was called--the ambitious
Fujiwara Nakanari and the Imperial consort, Kusu, were arrogating a
large share of administrative and judicial business, and were
flagrantly abusing their usurped authority. Saga did not know whom to
trust. He feared that the council of State (Dajo-kwan) might include
some traitors to his cause, and he therefore instituted a special
office to be the depository of all secret documents, to adjudicate
suits at law, to promulgate Imperial rescripts and decrees, to act as
a kind of palace cabinet, and to have charge of all supplies for the
Court. Ultimately this last function became the most important of the
kurando's duties.
KEBIISHI AND TSUIHOSHI
It has already been explained that the Daiho legislators, at the
beginning of the eighth century, having enacted a code (ryo) and a
penal law (ritsu), supplemented these with a body of official rules
(kyaku) and operative regulations (shiki). The necessity of revising
these rules and regulations was appreciated by the Emperor Kwammu,
but he did not live to witness the completion of the work, which he
had entrusted to the sa-daijin, Fujiwara Uchimaro, and others. The
task was therefore re-approached by a committee of which the
dainagon, Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, was president, under orders from the
Emperor Saga. Ten volumes of the rules and forty of the regulations
were issued in 819, the former being a collection of all rescripts
and decrees issued since the first year of Daiho (701), and the
latter a synopsis of instructions given by various high officials and
proved by practice since the same date. Here, then, was a
sufficiently precise and comprehensive body of administrative guides.
But men competent to utilize them were not readily forthcoming. The
provincial governors and even the metropolitan officials, chosen from
among men whose qualifications were generally limited to literary
ability or aristocratic influence, showed themselves incapable of
dealing with the lawless conditions existing in their districts.
This state of affairs had been noticeable ever since the reign of
Shomu (724-749), but not until the time of Saga was a remedy devised.
It took the form of organizing a body of men called kebiishi, upon
whom devolved the duty of pursuing and arresting lawbreakers. At
first this measure was on a small scale and of a tentative character.
But its results proved so satisfactory that the system was extended
from the capital to the provinces, and, in 830, a Kebiishi-cho (Board
of Kebiishi) was duly formed, the number and duties of its staff
being definitely fixed four years later. The importance attaching to
the post of chief of this board is attested by the fact that only the
emon no Kami or the hyoye no Kami* was eligible originally, the bushi
(military men) in the hereditary service of these high dignitaries
being entrusted--under the name of tsuiho-shi--with the duty of
enforcing the law against all violators. Ultimately the judicial
functions hitherto discharged by the Efu (Guard Office), the
Danjo-dai (Police Board) and the Gyobu-sho (Department of Justice)
were all transferred to the Kebiishi-cho, and the latter's orders
ranked next to Imperial decrees.
*Three corps of military guards formed part of the organization. The
senior corps were the Imperial guards (konoe): then came the military
guards (hyoye) and then the gate-guards (yemon). Each was divided
into two battalions; a battalion of the Left and a battalion of the
Right. Then there were the sa-konye and the u-konye, the sa-hyoye and
the u-hyoye, the sa-yemon and the u-yemon. These six offices were
known as roku-yefu, and the officer in chief command of each corps
was a kami.
These kebiishi and tsuiho-shi have historical importance. They
represent the unequivocal beginning of the military class which was
destined ultimately to impose its sway over the whole of Japan. Their
institution was also a distinct step towards transferring the conduct
of affairs, both military and civil, from the direct control of the
sovereign to the hands of officialdom. The Emperor's power now began
to cease to be initiative and to be limited to sanction or veto. The
Kurando-dokoro was the precursor of the kwampaku; the Kebiishi-cho,
of the so-tsuihoshi.
FUJIWARA FUYUTSUGU
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, who, as mentioned above, took such an important
part in the legislation of his era, may be adduced as illustrating
the error of the too common assertion that because the Fujiwara
nobles abused their opportunities in the later centuries of the Heian
epoch, the great family's services to its country were small.
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu was at once a statesman, a legislator, an
historian, and a soldier. Serving the State loyally and assiduously,
he reached the rank of first minister (sa-daijiri) though he died at
the early age of fifty-two, and it is beyond question that to his
ability must be attributed a large measure of the success achieved by
his Imperial master, Saga. The story of his private life may be
gathered from the fact that he established and richly endowed an
asylum for the relief of his indigent relatives; a college (the
Kwangaku-iri) for the education of Fujiwara youths, and an uji-tera
(Nanyen-do) at Nara for soliciting heaven's blessing on all that bore
his name.
THE JAPANESE PEERAGE
An interesting episode of Saga's reign was the compilation of a
record of all the uji (family names). Originally the right to use a
family name had been guarded as carefully as is a title of nobility
in Europe. The uji was, in truth, a hereditary title. But, as has
been occasionally noted in these pages, an uji was from time to time
bestowed on families of aliens, and thus, in the course of ages,
confusion gradually arose. From the middle of the eighth century,
efforts to compile a trustworthy record were made, and in Kwammu's
reign a genealogical bureau (kankei-jo) was actually organized, its
labours resulting in a catalogue of titles (seishi mokuroku). This
proved defective, however, as did a subsequent effort in Heijo's
time. Finally, the Emperor Saga entrusted the task to Prince Mamta,
who, with a large staff of assistants, laboured for ten years, and,
in 814, produced the Seishi-roku (Record of Uji) in thirty volumes.
Though not absolutely exhaustive, this great work remained a classic
down to modern times. It divided into three classes the whole body of
uji--1182--enrolled in its pages: namely, Kwobetsu, or those of
Imperial lineage; Shimbetsu, or those descended from the Kami, and
Bambetsu, or those of alien origin (Chinese or Korean). A few who
could not be clearly traced were placed in a "miscellaneous list."
This paragraph of history suggests the quality of Japanese
civilization in the ninth century.
ENGRAVING: HYO-NO-MA ROOM IN THE KOHOAN OF DAITOKU-JI, AT KYOTO
THE FIFTY-THIRD SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR JUNNA (A.D. 824-833)
Junna was Kwammu's third son. He ascended the throne on the
abdication of his elder brother, Saga, and he himself abdicated in
favour of the latter's son, Nimmyo, nine years later. Junna's reign
is not remarkable for any achievement. No special legislation was
inaugurated nor any campaign against abuses undertaken. The three
brothers, Heijo, Saga, and Junna, may be said to have devoted
paramount attention to the study of Chinese literature. History
refuses, however, to connect this industry with a desire for ethical
instruction. Their efforts are said to have been limited to the
tracing of ideographs and the composition of verselets. A perfectly
formed ideograph possesses in Japanese eyes many of the qualities
that commend a pictorial masterpiece to Western appreciation. Saga
achieved the distinction of being reckoned among the "Three Penmen"
of his era,* and he carried his enthusiasm so far as to require that
all the scions of the aristocracy should be instructed in the Chinese
classics. Junna had less ability, but his admiration was not less
profound for a fine specimen of script or a deftly turned couplet. It
is, nevertheless, difficult to believe that these enthusiasts
confined themselves to the superficialities of Chinese learning. The
illustrations of altruism which they furnished by abdicating in one
another's favour may well have been inspired by perusing the writings
of Confucius.** However that may be, the reign of Junna, though not
subjectively distinguished, forms a landmark in Japanese history as
the period which closed the independent exercise of sovereign
authority. When Junna laid down the sceptre, it may be said, as we
shall presently see, to have been taken up by the Fujiwara.
*The other two were Kobo Daishi, and Tachibana Hayanari.
**Vide the remarks of the Chinese sage on Tai-pei, Chou-kung,
Wen-wang, and Wu-wang.
ENGRAVING: "SHAKUHACHI," FLUTES MADE OF BAMBOO
ENGRAVING: "KARAMON" GATE OF NISHI HONGWAN-JI TEMPLE, AT KYOTO
CHAPTER XIX
THE HEIAN EPOCH (Continued)
54th Sovereign, Nimmyo A.D. 834-850
55th " Montoku 851-858
56th " Seiwa 859-876
57th " Yozei 877-884
58th " Koko 885-887
59th " Uda 888-897
60th " Daigo 898-930
BEGINNING OF FUJIWARA SUPREMACY
THE events that now occurred require to be prefaced by a table:
/
| Heijo
|
| Saga--Nimmyo (m. Jun, / Prince Michiyasu
| daughter of < (Emperor Montoku)
Kwammu < Fujiwara Fuyutsugu) \
|
| /
| Junna (m. Masa, < Prince Tsunesada
| daughter of Saga) \
\
In the year 834, Junna abdicated in favour of his elder brother
Saga's second son, who is known in history as Emperor Nimmyo. The
latter was married to Jun, daughter of Fujiwara Fuyutsugu, and had a
son, Prince Michiyasu. But, in consideration of the fact that Junna
had handed over the sceptre to Nimmyo, Nimmyo, in turn, set aside the
claim of his own son, Michiyasu, and conferred the dignity of Prince
Imperial on Prince Tsunesada, Junna's son. A double debt of gratitude
was thus paid, for Tsunesada was not only Junna's son but also Saga's
grandson, and thus the abdications of Saga and Junna were both
compensated. The new Prince Imperial, however, being a man of much
sagacity, foresaw trouble if he consented to supplant Nimmyo's son.
He struggled to avoid the nomination, but finally yielded to the
wishes of his father and his grandfather.
While these two ex-Emperors lived, things moved smoothly, to all
appearances. On their demise trouble arose immediately. The Fujiwara
family perceived its opportunity and decided to profit by it.
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu had died, and it chanced that his son Yoshifusa
was a man of boundless ambition. By him and his partisans a slander
was framed to the effect that the Crown Prince, Tsunesada, harboured
rebellious designs, and the Emperor, believing the story--having, it
is said, a disposition to believe it--pronounced sentence of exile
against Prince Tsunesada, as well as his friends, the celebrated
scholar, Tachibana no Hayanari, and the able statesman, Tomo no
Kowamine, together with a number of others. It is recorded that the
sympathy of the people was with the exiles.
These things happened in the year 843. The Fujiwara sought a
precedent in the action of their renowned ancestor, Momokawa, who, in
772, contrived the degradation and death of the Crown Prince Osabe on
a charge of sorcery But Momokawa acted from motives of pure
patriotism, whereas Yoshifusa worked in the Fujiwara interests only.
This, in fact, was the first step towards the transfer of
administrative power from the Throne to the Fujiwara.
FRESH COMPLICATIONS ABOUT THE SUCCESSION
Another table may be consulted with advantage:
\
Emperor Heijo--Prince Aho--Ariwara no Narihira |
>
/ |
| Aritsune--a daughter |
| /
Ki no Natora < \
| Shizu--a daughter |
\ |
> Prince Koretaka
Emperor Montoku |
/
\
Emperor Montoku |
|
\ > Prince Korehito
Fujiwara Yoshifusa | | (Emperor Seiwa)
Princess Kiyo > Aki (Empress Somedono) |
(daughter of Saga) | /
/
In the year 851, the Emperor Montoku ascended the throne, and
Fujiwara Yoshifusa was appointed minister of the Right. Yoshifusa
married Princess Kiyo, daughter of the Emperor Saga. She had been
given the uji of Minamoto in order to legalize this union, and she
bore to Yoshifusa a daughter who became Montoku's Empress under the
name of Somedono. By her, Montoku had a son, Prince Korehito, whose
chance of succeeding to the crown should have been very slender since
he had three half-brothers, the oldest of whom, Prince Koretaka, had
already attained his fourth year at the time of Korehito's birth, and
was his father's favourite. In fact, Montoku would certainly have
nominated Koretaka to be Prince Imperial had he not feared to offend
the Fujiwara. These let it be seen very plainly what they designed.
The baby, Korehito, was taken from the palace into Yoshifusa's
mansion, and when only nine months old was nominated Crown Prince.
The event enriched Japanese literature. For Montoku's first born,
Prince Koretaka, seeing himself deprived of his birthright, went into
seclusion in Ono at the foot of Mount Hiei, and there, in the shadow
of the great Tendai monastery, devoted his days to composing
verselets. In that pastime he was frequently joined by Ariwara no
Narihira, who, as a grandson of the Emperor Heijo, possessed a title
to the succession more valid than even that of the disappointed
Koretaka. In the celebrated Japanese anthology, the Kokin-shu,
compiled at the beginning of the tenth century, there are found
several couplets from the pens of Koretaka and Narihira.
THE FUJIWARA REGENCY
It was in the days of Fujiwara Yoshifusa that the descendants of
Kamatari first assumed the role of kingmakers. Yoshifusa obtained the
position of minister of the Right on the accession of Montoku (851),
and, six years later, he was appointed chancellor of the empire (dajo
daijin) in the sequel of the intrigues which had procured for his own
grandson (Korehito) the nomination of Prince Imperial. The latter,
known in history as the Emperor Seiwa, ascended the throne in the
year 859. He was then a child of nine, and naturally the whole duty
of administration devolved upon the chancellor. This situation fell
short of the Fujiwara leader's ideal in nomenclature only. There had
been many "chancellors" but few "regents" (sessho). In fact, the
office of regent had always been practically confined to princes of
the Blood, and the qualifications for holding it were prescribed in
very high terms by the Daiho statutes. Yoshifusa did not possess any
of the qualifications, but he wielded power sufficient to dispense
with them, and, in the year 866, he celebrated the Emperor's
attainment of his majority by having himself named sessho. The
appointment carried with it a sustenance fief of three thousand
houses; the privilege of being constantly attended by squadrons of
the Right and Left Imperial guards, and the honour of receiving the
allowances and the treatment of the Sangu, that is to say, of an
Empress, a Dowager Empress, or a Grand Dowager Empress. Husband of an
Empress, father of an Empress Dowager, grandfather of a reigning
Emperor, chancellor of the empire, and a regent--a subject could
climb no higher. Yoshifusa died in 872 at the age of sixty-eight.
Having no son of his own, he adopted his nephew, Mototsune, son of
Fujiwara Nagara.
SEIWA'S EMPRESS
Seiwa abdicated in 876, at the age of twenty-seven. Some historians
ascribe his abdication to a sentiment of remorse. He had ascended the
throne in despite of the superior claims of his elder brother,
Koretaka, and the usurpation weighed heavily on his conscience. It is
at least credible that since, in taking the sceptre he obeyed the
dictates of the Fujiwara, so in laying it down he followed the same
guidance. We cannot be sure as to the exact date when the great
family's policy of boy-sovereigns first took definite shape, but the
annals seem to show that Yoshifusa conceived the programme and that
his adopted son, Mototsune, carried it out. A halo rests on Seiwa's
head for the sake of his memorable descendants, the Minamoto chiefs,
Yoritomo, Takauji, and Ieyasu. Heaven is supposed to have compensated
the brevity of his own tenure of power by the overwhelming share that
his posterity enjoyed in the administration of the empire.
But Seiwa was undoubtedly a good man as well as a zealous sovereign.
One episode in his career deserves attention as illustrating the
customs of the era. Mention has already been made of Ariwara no
Narihira, a grandson of the Emperor Heijo and one of the most
renowned among Japanese poets. He was a man of singular beauty, and
his literary attainments, combined with the melancholy that marked
his life of ignored rights, made him a specially interesting figure.
He won the love of Taka, younger sister of Fujiwara Mototsune and
niece of Yoshifusa. Their liaison was not hidden. But Yoshifusa, in
default of a child of his own, was just then seeking some Fujiwara
maiden suitable to be the consort of the young Emperor, Seiwa, in
pursuance of the newly conceived policy of building the Fujiwara
power on the influence of the ladies' apartments in the palace. Taka
possessed all the necessary qualifications. In another age the
obstacle of her blemished purity must have proved fatal. Yoshifusa's
audacity, however, was as limitless as his authority. He ordered the
poet prince to cut his hair and go eastward in expiation of the crime
of seeking to win Taka's affections, and having thus officially
rehabilitated her reputation, he introduced her into the household of
the Empress Dowager, his own daughter, through whose connivance the
lady soon found her way to the young Emperor's chamber and became the
mother of his successor, Yozei.
Nor was this all. Though only a Fujiwara, and a soiled Fujiwara at
that, Taka was subsequently raised to the rank of Empress.
Ultimately, when Empress Dowager, her name was coupled with that of
the priest Zenyu of Toko-ji, as the Empress Koken's had been with
that of Dokyo, a hundred years previously, and she suffered
deprivation of Imperial rank. As for Narihira, after a few years he
was allowed to return from exile, but finding that all his hopes of
preferment were vain, he abandoned himself to a life of indolence and
debauchery. His name, however, will always stand next to those of
Hitomaro and Akahito on the roll of Japanese poets.
ENGRAVING: FUJIWARA SEIWA
YOZEI, UDA, AND THE KWAMPAKU
The fifty-seventh sovereign was Yozei, offspring of the Emperor
Seiwa's union with the lady Taka. He ascended the throne in the year
877, at the age of ten, and Fujiwara Mototsune--Yoshifusa had died
five years previously--became regent (sessho), holding also the post
of chancellor (dajo-daijin). When Yozei was approaching his
seventeenth year he was overtaken by an illness which left him a
lunatic. It is related that he behaved in an extraordinary manner. He
set dogs and monkeys to fight and then slaughtered them; he fed toads
to snakes, and finally compelling a man lo ascend a tree, he stabbed
him among the branches. The regent decided that he must be dethroned,
and a council of State was convened to consider the matter. There had
never been an example of an act so sacrilegious as the deposition of
an Emperor at the dictate of his subjects. The ministers hesitated.
Then one of the Fujiwara magnates (Morokuzu) loudly proclaimed
that anyone dissenting from the chancellor's proposal would have
to answer for his contumacy. Thereafter, no one hesitated--so
overshadowing was the power of the Fujiwara. When carried to a
special palace--thenceforth called Yozei-in--and informed that he
had been dethroned for killing a man, the young Emperor burst into a
flood of tears.
No hesitation was shown in appointing Yozei's successor. Prince
Tokiyasu, son of the Emperor Nimmyo, satisfied all the requirements.
His mother, a daughter of Fujiwara Tsugunawa, was Mototsune's
maternal aunt, and the Prince himself, already in his fifty-fifth
year, had a son, Sadami, who was married to the daughter of Fujiwara
Takafuji, a close relation to Mototsune. There can be no doubt that
the latter had the whole programme in view when he proposed the
dethronement of Yozei. Shortly after his accession, Prince
Tokiyasu--known in history as the Emperor Koko--fell ill, and at
Mototsune's instance the sovereign's third son (Sadami) was nominated
Prince Imperial. He succeeded to the throne as Emperor Uda on the
death of his father, which occurred (887) after a reign of two years.
This event saw fresh extension of the Fujiwara's power. Uda was
twenty-two years of age when he received the sceptre, but recognizing
that he owed his elevation to Mototsune's influence and that his
prospects of a peaceful reign depended upon retaining the Fujiwara's
favour, his first act was to decree that the administration should be
carried on wholly by the chancellor, the latter merely reporting to
the Throne. This involved the exercise of power hitherto
unprecedented. To meet the situation a new office had to be created,
namely, that of kwampaku. The actual duties of this post were those
of regent to a sovereign who had attained his majority, whereas
sessho signified regent to a minor. Hence the kwampaku was obviously
the more honourable office, since its incumbent officiated in lieu of
an Emperor of mature years. Accordingly, the kwampaku--or mayor of
the palace, as the term is usually translated--took precedence of all
other officials. A subject could rise no higher without ceasing to
yield allegiance. As Mototsune was the first kwampaku, he has been
called the most ambitious and the least scrupulous of the Fujiwara.
But Mototsune merely stood at the pinnacle of an edifice, to the
building of which many had contributed, and among those builders not
a few fully deserved all they achieved. The names of such members of
the Fujiwara family as Mimori, Otsugu, Yoshino, Sadanushi, Nagara,
Yoshisuke, and Yasunori, who wrought and ruled in the period from
Heijo and Saga to Montoku and Seiwa, might justly stand high in any
record.*
*The office of Kwampaku was continued from the time of its creation,
882, to 1868.
THE AKO INCIDENT
The Emperor Uda, as already stated, owed everything to the Fujiwara.
He himself did not possess even the claim of primogeniture, since he
was the third among several sons, and he had stepped out of the ranks
of the Imperial princes by accepting a family name. His decree
conferring administrative autocracy on Mototsune was thus a natural
expression of gratitude.
Yet this very document proved a source of serious trouble. It was
drafted by Tachibana Hiromi, a ripe scholar, whose family stood as
high on the aristocratic roll as did that of the Fujiwara themselves.
At that time literary attainments conferred immense prestige in
Kyoto. To be skilled in calligraphy; to be well versed in the
classics; to be capable of composing a sonorous decree or devising a
graceful couplet--such accomplishments constituted a passport not
only to high office but even to the love of women. Tachibana Hiromi
was one of the leading literati of his era. He rendered into most
academical terms the Emperor's intentions towards Mototsune. From
time immemorial it has always been a canon of Japanese etiquette not
to receive anything with avidity. Mototsune declined the rescript;
the Emperor directed Hiromi to re-write it. Thus far the procedure
had been normal. But Hiromi's second draft ran thus: "You have toiled
for the welfare of the country. You have aided me in accordance with
the late sovereign's will. You are the chief servant of the empire,
not my vassal. You will henceforth discharge the duties of ako." This
term "ako" occurs in Chinese history. It signifies "reliance on
equity," a name given by an early Emperor to the administration of
the sage, I Yin. Hiromi inserted it solely to impart a classical
flavour to the decree and in all good faith.
But Fujiwara Sukeyo, a rival literatus who possessed the confidence
of Mototsune, persuaded the latter that the epithet "ako" could not
apply to the discharge of active duties. What followed was
characteristic. Mototsune caused a number of horses to be let loose
in the city, his explanation being that, as he had no official
functions to discharge, neither had he any need of horses. Naturally
a number of horses running wild in the streets of the capital caused
confusion which soon came to the notice of the palace. The Emperor at
once convoked a meeting of literati to discuss the matter, but these
hesitated so long between their scholarly convictions and their
political apprehensions that, for several months, a state of
administrative anarchy prevailed, and the Emperor recorded in his
diary a lament over the corruption of the age. At last, by the advice
of the minister of the Left, Minamoto Toru, his Majesty sacrificed
Hiromi. A third decree was drafted, laying the blame on Hiromi's
shoulders, and Mototsune graciously consented to resume the duties of
the first subject in the empire. Just forty-five years previously,
Hayanari, another illustrious scholar of the Tachibana family, had
been among the victims of the false charge preferred against the
Crown Prince, Tsunesada, by the Fujiwara partisans. Mototsune may
well have been desirous of removing from the immediate neighbourhood
of the throne the representative of a family having such a cause of
umbrage against the Fujiwara.
At the same time, it is only just to note that he found ready
coadjutors among the jealous schoolmen of the time. Rival colleges,
rival academies, and rival literati quarrelled with all the rancour
of medieval Europe. The great luminaries of the era were Sugawara
Michizane, Ki no Haseo, Koze no Fumio, Miyoshi Kiyotsura, and
Tachibana Hiromi. There was little mutual recognition of talent.
Kiyotsura abused Haseo as a pundit inferior to any of his
predecessors. Michizane ridiculed Fumio's panegyric of Kiyotsura, The
pupils of these men endorsed their teachers' verdicts. Ajnong them
all, Tachibana Hiromi occupied the most important position until the
day of his downfall. He practically managed the affairs of the Court
under Yozei, Koko, and Uda. Fujiwara Sukeyo, a greatly inferior
scholar, served as his subordinate, and was the willing tool in
contriving his degradation. It did not cause the Fujiwara any serious
concern that in compassing the ruin of Hiromi, they effectually
alienated the sympathies of the sovereign.
CESSATION OF EMBASSIES TO CHINA
It may be supposed that in an era when Chinese literati attracted so
much attention, visits to the Middle Kingdom were frequent. But from
the closing years of the eighth century, the great Tang dynasty began
to fall into disorder, and the embassies sent from Japan reported a
discouraging state of affairs. The last of these embassies
(kento-shi) was in the year 838. It had long ceased to take the
overland route via Liaoyang; the envoys' vessels were obliged to go
by long sea, and the dangers were so great that to be named for this
duty was regarded with consternation. In Uda's reign a project was
formed to appoint Sugawara Michizane as kento-shi, and Ki no Haseo as
his lieutenant. There is reason to think that this suggestion came
from Michizane's enemies who wished to remove him from a scene where
his presence threatened to become embarrassing. The course Michizane
adopted at this crisis showed moral courage, whatever may be thought
of its expediency. He memorialized the Throne in the sense that the
dangers of the journey were not compensated by its results. The
memorial was approved. Since the days of the Empress Suiko, when the
first kento-shi was despatched by Prince Shotoku, 294 years had
elapsed, and by some critics the abandonment of the custom has been
condemned. But it is certain that China in the ninth century had
little to teach Japan in the matter of either material or moral
civilization.
THE AFFAIR OF THE ENGI ERA
The Emperor Uda not only possessed great literary knowledge but was
also deeply sensible of the abuse that had grown out of the virtual
usurpation of administrative authority by one family. As illustrating
his desire to extend the circle of the Throne's servants and to
enlist erudite men into the service of the State, it is recorded that
he caused the interior of the palace to be decorated* with portraits
of renowned statesmen and literati from the annals of China. Fate
seemed disposed to assist his design, for, in the year 891, the
all-powerful Fujiwara Mototsune died, leaving three sons, Tokihira,
Nakahira, and Tadahira, the eldest of whom was only twenty-one.
During the life of Mototsune, to whom the Emperor owed everything, it
would not have been politically or morally possible to contrive any
radical change of system, and even after his death, the Fujiwara
family's claim to the Throne's gratitude precluded any direct attempt
on Uda's part to supplant them. Therefore, he formed the plan of
abdicating in favour of his son, as soon as the latter should attain
a suitable age--a plan inspired in some degree by his own feeble
health and by a keen desire to pass the closing years of his life in
comparative retirement. He carried out this design in the year 897,
and was thenceforth known as Uda-in.**
*It is on this occasion that we hear of Koze no Kanaoka, the first
Japanese artist of great repute.
**The suffix in was now first used for the names of retired Emperors.
His son, Daigo, who now ascended the throne, was thirteen years old,
but no Fujiwara regent was appointed, Tokihira, the one person
eligible in respect of lineage, being precluded by youth. Therefore
the office of minister of the Left was conferred on Tokihira, and
Sugawara Michizane (called also Kwanko) became minister of the Right.
It was to this Michizane that the ex-Emperor looked for material
assistance in the prosecution of his design. The Sugawara family
traced its descent to Nomi no Sukune, the champion wrestler of the
last century before Christ and the originator of clay substitutes for
human sacrifices at burials, though the name "Sugawara" did not
belong to the family until eight hundred years later, when the
Emperor Konin bestowed it on the then representative in recognition
of his great scholarship. Thenceforth, the name was borne by a
succession of renowned literati, the most erudite and the most famous
of all being Michizane.
The ex-Emperor, on the accession of his thirteen-year-old son, Daigo,
handed to the latter an autograph document known in history as the
Counsels of the Kwampei Era. Its gist was: "Be just. Do not be swayed
by love or hate. Study to think impartially. Control your emotion and
never let it be externally visible. The sa-daijin, Fujiwara Tokihira,
is the descendant of meritorious servants of the Crown. Though still
young, he is already well versed in the administration of State
affairs. Some years ago, he sinned with a woman,* but I have no
longer any memory of the event. You will consult him and be guided by
his counsels. The u-daijin, Sugawara Michizane, is a man of profound
literary knowledge. He is also acquainted with politics. Frequently I
have profited by his admonitions. When I was elected Crown Prince I
had but Michizane to advise me. Not only has he been a loyal servant
to me, but he will be a loyal servant to my successor also." Plainly
the intention of the document was to place Michizane on a footing at
least equal to that of Tokihira. Michizane understood the perils of
such preferment. He knew that the scion of a comparatively obscure
family would not be tolerated as a rival by the Fujiwara. Three times
he declined the high post offered to him. In his second refusal he
compared himself to a man walking on thin ice, and in the third he
said: "If I myself am astounded at my promotion, how must others
regard it? The end will come like a flash of lightning." But the
Emperor and the ex-Emperor had laid their plans, and Michizane was an
indispensable factor.
*A liaison with his uncle's wife.
Events moved rapidly. Two years later (900), the Emperor, in concert
with the cloistered sovereign, proposed to raise Michizane to the
post of chancellor and to entrust the whole administration to him.
This was the signal for the Fujiwara to take action. One opportunity
for slandering Michizane offered; his daughter had been married to
Prince Tokiyo, the Emperor's younger brother. A rumour was busily
circulated that this meant a plot for the dethronement of Daigo in
favour of Tokiyo. Miyoshi Kiyotsura, an eminent scholar, acting
subtly at the instance of the Fujiwara, addressed a seemingly
friendly letter to Michizane, warning him that his career had become
dangerously rapid and explaining that the stars presaged a revolution
in the following year. At the same time, Minamoto Hikaru, son of the
Emperor Nimmyo; Fujiwara Sadakuni, father-in-law of Daigo, and
several others who were jealous of Michizane's preferment or of his
scholarship, separately or jointly memorialized the Throne,
impeaching Michizane as a traitor who plotted against his sovereign.
ENGRAVING: SUGAWARA MICHIZANE
Supplemented by Miyoshi's "friendly" notice of a star-predicated
cataclysm, this cumulative evidence convinced, and doubtless the
number and rank of the accusers alarmed the Emperor, then only in his
seventeenth year. Michizane was not invited to defend himself. In the
first year (901) of the Engi era, a decree went out stripping him of
all his high offices, and banishing him to Dazai-fu in Kyushu as
vice-governor. Many other officials were degraded as his partisans.
The ex-Emperor, to whose pity he pleaded in a plaintive couplet, made
a resolute attempt to aid him. His Majesty repaired to the palace for
the purpose of remonstrating with his son, Daigo. Had a meeting taken
place, Michizane's innocence would doubtless have been established.
But the Fujiwara had provided against such an obvious miscarriage of
their design. The palace guards refused to admit the ex-Emperor, and,
after waiting throughout a winter's day seated on a straw mat before
the gate, Uda went away in the evening, sorehearted and profoundly
humiliated. Michizane's twenty-three children were banished to five
places, and he himself, having only a nominal post, did not receive
emoluments sufficient to support him in comfort. Even oil for a
night-lamp was often unprocurable, and after spending twenty-five
months in voluntary confinement with only the society of his sorrows,
he expired (903) at the age of fifty-eight, and was buried in the
temple Anraku-ji in Chikuzen.
ENGRAVING: SHRINE OF SUGAWARA MICHIZANE AT KITANO, KYOTO
No figure in Japanese history has received such an abundant share of
national sympathy. His unjust fate and the idea that he suffered for
his sovereign appealed powerfully to popular imagination. Moreover,
lightning struck the palace in Kyoto, and the three principal
contrivers of Michizane's disgrace, Fujiwara Tokihira, Fujiwara
Sugane, and Minamoto Hikaru, all expired within a few years'
interval. At that epoch a wide-spread belief existed in the powers of
disembodied spirits for evil or for good. Such a creed grew logically
out of the cult of ancestor worship. It began to be whispered abroad
that Michizane's spirit was taking vengeance upon his enemies. The
Emperor was the first to act upon this superstition. He restored
Michizane's titles, raised him to the first grade of the second rank,
and caused all the documents relating to his exile to be burned.
Retribution did not stop there. Forty-five years after Michizane's
death, the people of Kyoto erected to his memory the shrine of Temman
Tenjin,* and in the year 1004, the Emperor Ichijo not only conferred
on him the posthumous office of chancellor with the unprecedented
honour of first grade of the first rank, but also repaired in person
to worship at the shrine. In later times, memorial shrines were built
in various places, and to this day he is fervently worshipped as the
deity of calligraphy, so high was he elevated by the Fujiwara's
attempt to drag him down.
*Michizane was apotheosized under the name of Tenjin. He is known
also as Kan Shojo, and Temmangu.
ENGRAVING: SAMISEN (A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT)
ENGRAVING: SANJU-SANGEN-DO TEMPLE AT KYOTO
CHAPTER XX
THE HEIAN EPOCH (Continued)
60th Sovereign, Daigo (Continued)
61st " Emperor Shujaku A.D. 931-946
THE ENGI ERA (A.D. 901-923)
In the year 909, Fujiwara Tokihira died and was followed to the
grave, in 913, by Minamoto Hikaru. For an interval of some years no
minister of State was nominated; the Emperor Daigo himself
administered affairs. For this interregnum in the sway of the
Fujiwara, the Engi era is memorable.
It is memorable for other things also; notably for the compilation of
documents which throw much light on the conditions then existing in
Japan. The Emperor, in 914, called upon the Court officials to submit
memorials which should supply materials for administrative reforms.
The great scholar, Miyoshi Kiyotsura, responded with ability so
conspicuous that posterity has been disposed to question the justice
of the charges against him in connexion with Michizane's fate. He set
out by stating that, in the early times, the national sentiment had
been kind and simple; the people loyal to the Throne and obedient to
parents; the taxes moderate. But, thereafter, customs had gradually
deteriorated. Laws and regulations were promulgated with bewildering
rapidity. Taxes and forced labour grew heavier day by day. Cultivated
lands were suffered to lie fallow. Buddhism established such a hold
upon men's minds that people of all classes impoverished themselves
to build places of worship and to cast images. Upon the erection of
the provincial temples (Kokubun-ji) five-tenths of the national taxes
were expended; and in connexion with the removal of the capital to
Kyoto and the building of new palaces, a further sum of three-tenths
was paid out. Again, the Emperor Nimmyo's (834-850) love of luxury
and display led to architectural extravagance entirely unprecedented,
and involved the squandering of yet another tenth of the remaining
income of the State. Thereafter, in the Jokwan era (859-876),
frequent conflagrations destroyed the Imperial edifice, and its
restoration cost a tenth of the remaining revenue, so that only
one-twentieth was ultimately available for general expenses.
As illustrating the state of the rural regions, the memorialist
instanced the case of Bitchu, a province on the Inland Sea, where he
held an official appointment in the year 893. The local records
(Fudoki) showed that a levy made there about the middle of the
seventh century had produced twenty thousand able-bodied soldiers,*
whereas a century later, there were found only nineteen hundred; yet
another century afterwards, only seventy; at the close of the ninth
century, nine, and in the year 911, not one. To such a state of
desolation had the district been reduced in the space of 250 years,
and its story might be taken as typical.
*The district was consequently named Nima, an abbreviation of ni
(two) man (ten thousand).
Passing to the question of religion, the memorialist declared that
the Shinto ceremonials to secure good harvests had lost all
sincerity. The officials behaved as though there were no such thing
as deities. They used the offerings for their own private purposes,
sold the sacred horses, and recited the rituals without the least
show of reverence. As for Buddhist priests, before asking them to
pray for the welfare of their parishioners, they must be asked to
purge themselves of their own sins. The priests who ministered at the
provincial temples had lost all sense of shame. They had wives, built
houses, cultivated lands, and engaged in trade. Was it to be supposed
that heaven would hearken to the intervention of such sinners?
Meanwhile, luxury and extravagance had reached an extreme degree. On
one suit of clothes a patrimony was expended, and sometimes a year's
income barely sufficed for a single banquet. At funeral services all
classes launched into flagrant excesses. Feasts were prepared on such
a scale that the trays of viands covered the entire floor of a
temple. Thousands of pieces of gold were paid to the officiating
priests, and a ceremony, begun in mourning, ended in revelry.
Corresponding disorder existed with regard to the land. The original
distribution into kubunden, as we saw, had been partly for purposes
of taxation. But now these allotments were illegally appropriated, so
that they neither paid imposts nor furnished labourers; and while
governors held worthless regions, wealthy magnates annexed great
tracts of fertile land. Another abuse, prevalent according to Miyoshi
Kiyotsura's testimony, was that accusations were falsely preferred by
officials against their seniors. Provincial governors were said to
have frequently indulged in this treacherous practice and to have
been themselves at times the victims of similar attacks. The Court,
on receipt of such charges, seldom scrutinized them closely, but at
once despatched officers to deal with the incriminated persons, and
in the sequel, men occupying exalted positions were obliged to plead
on an equal footing with officials of low grade or even common
people. Self-respecting persons chose to stand aside altogether from
official life rather than to encounter such risks.
This was an almost inevitable result of the exceptional facilities
given to petitioners under the Daika and Daiho systems. Miyoshi
Kiyotsura urged that all petitioning and all resulting inquiries by
specially appointed officials should be interdicted, except in
matters relating to political crime, and that all offenders should be
handed over to the duly constituted administrators of justice. As to
these latter, he spoke very plainly. The kebiishi, he wrote, who,
being appointed to the various provinces, have to preserve law and
order within their jurisdictions, should be men specially versed in
law, whereas a majority of those serving in that capacity are
ignorant and incompetent persons who have purchased their offices. To
illustrate further the want of discrimination shown in selecting
officials, he refers to the experts appointed in the maritime
provinces for manufacturing catapults, and declares that many of
these so-called "experts" had never seen a catapult.
ENGRAVING: FAMILY LIFE OF NOBLES, HEIAN EPOCH, A.D. 782-1192
It is against the Buddhist priests and the soldiers of the six guards
that he inveighs most vehemently, however. He calls them "vicious and
ferocious," Those who take the tonsure, he says, number from two to
three thousand yearly, and about one-half of that total are wicked
men--low fellows who, desiring to evade taxation and forced labour,
have shaved their heads and donned priests vestments, aggregate
two-thirds of the population. They marry, eat animal food, practise
robbery, and carry on coining operations without any fear of
punishment. If a provincial governor attempts to restrain them, they
flock together and have recourse to violence. It was by bandits under
the command of wicked priests that Fujiwara Tokiyoshi, governor of
Aki, and Tachibana Kinkado, governor of Kii, were waylaid and
plundered.
As for the soldiers of the guards, instead of taking their monthly
term of duty at the palace, they are scattered over the country, and
being strong and audacious, they treat the people violently and the
provincial governors with contumacy, sometimes even forming leagues
to rob the latter and escaping to the capital when they are hard
pressed. (These guardsmen had arms and horses of their own and called
themselves bushi, a term destined to have wide vogue in Japan.) It is
interesting to note that they make their historical debut thus
unfavourably introduced. Miyoshi Kiyotsura says that instead of being
"metropolitan tigers" to guard the palace, they were "rural wolves"
to despoil the provinces.
APPRECIATIONS OF THE MIYOSHI MEMORIAL
This celebrated document consisted of twelve articles and contained
five thousand ideographs, so that nothing was wanting in the matter
of voluminousness. The writer did not confine himself to enumerating
abuses: he also suggested remedies. Thus he urged that no man, having
become an equerry (toneri) of the six corps of guards, should be
allowed to return to his province during his term of service; that
the spurious priests should be all unfrocked and punished; that the
office of kebiishi should be restricted to men having legal
knowledge; that the upper classes should set an example of economy in
costumes and observances; that the ranks of the Buddhist priesthood
should be purged of open violators of the laws of their creed, and so
forth. Historians have justly eulogized the courage of a memorialist
who thus openly attacked wide-spread and powerful abuses. But they
have also noted that the document shows some reservations. For
generations the Fujiwara family had virtually usurped the governing
power; had dethroned Emperors and chosen Empresses; had consulted
their own will alone in the administrations of justice and in the
appointment and removal of officials. Yet of these things Miyoshi
Kiyotsura says nothing whatever. The sole hope of their redress lay
in Michizane; but instead of supporting that ill-starred statesman,
Miyoshi had contributed to his downfall. Could a reformer with such a
record be regarded as altogether sincere?
ADMINISTRATION OF THE EMPEROR DAIGO
The Emperor Daigo, who ruled thirty-two years--from 898 to 930--is
brought very close to us by the statement of a contemporary historian
that he was "wise, intelligent, and kind-hearted," and that he always
wore a smiling face, his own explanation of the latter habit being
that he found it much easier to converse with men familiarly than
solemnly. A celebrated incident of his career is that one winter's
night he took off his wadded silk garment to evince sympathy with the
poor who possessed no such protection against the cold. Partly
because of his debonair manner and charitable impulses he is
popularly remembered as "the wise Emperor of the Engi era." But close
readers of the annals do not fully endorse that tribute. They note
that Daigo's treatment of his father, Uda, on the celebrated occasion
of the latter's visit to the palace to intercede for Michizane, was
markedly unfilial; that his Majesty believed and acted upon slanders
which touched the honour of his father no less than that of his
well-proved servant, and that he made no resolute effort to correct
the abuses of his time, even when they had been clearly pointed out
by Miyoshi Kiyotsura. The usurpations of the Fujiwara; the
prostitution of Buddhism to evil ends; the growth of luxurious and
dissipated habits, and the subordination of practical ability to
pedantic scholarship--these four malignant growths upon the national
life found no healing treatment at Daigo's hands.
THE CLASSICAL AGE OF LITERATURE
The Engi era and the intervals of three or four decades before and
after it may be regarded as the classical age of literature in Japan.
Prose composition of a certain class was wholly in Chinese. All works
of a historical, scientific, legal, or theological nature were in
that language, and it cannot be said that they reached a very high
level. Yet their authors had much honour. During the reigns of Uda
and Daigo (888-930), Sugawara Michizane, Miyoshi Kiyotsura, Ki no
Haseo, and Koze no Fumio, formed a quartet of famous masters of
Chinese literature. From one point of view, Michizane's overthrow by
Fujiwara Tokihira may be regarded as a collision between the
Confucian doctrines which informed the polity of the Daika epoch and
the power of aristocratic heredity. Kibi no Makibi and Sugawara no
Michizane were the only two Japanese subjects that attained to be
ministers of State solely in recognition of their learning, but
several littérateurs reached high office, as chief chamberlain,
councillor of State, minister of Education, and so forth. Miyoshi
Kiyotsura ranks next to Michizane among the scholars of that age. He
was profoundly versed in jurisprudence, mathematics (such as they
were at the time), the Chinese classics, and history. But whereas
Michizane bequeathed to posterity ten volumes of poems and two
hundred volumes of a valuable historical work, no production of
Kiyotsura's pen has survived except his celebrated memorial referred
to above. He received the post of minister of the Household in 917
and died in the following year.
It must be understood that the work of these scholars appealed to
only a very limited number of their countrymen. The ako incident (pp.
239-240) illustrates this; the rescript penned by Tachibana no Hiromi
was not clearly comprehended outside a narrow circle of scholars.
Official notices and enactments were intelligible by few men of the
trading classes and by no women. But a different record is found in
the realm of high literature. Here there is much wealth. The Nara
epoch gave to Japan the famous Manyo-shu (Myriad Leaves), and the
Engi era gave her the scarcely less celebrated Kokin-shu, an
anthology of over eleven hundred poems, ancient and modern. As
between the two books, the advantage is with the former, though not
by any means in a marked degree, but in the abundance and excellence
of its prose writings--pure Japanese writings apart from the Chinese
works referred to above--"the Heian epoch leaves the Nara far behind.
The language had now attained to its full development. With its rich
system of terminations and particles it was a pliant instrument in
the writer's hands, and the vocabulary was varied and copious to a
degree which is astonishing when we remember that it was drawn almost
exclusively from native sources. The few words of Chinese origin
which it contains seem to have found their way in through the spoken
language and are not taken straight from Chinese books, as at a later
stage when Japanese authors loaded their periods with alien
vocables."
This Heian literature "reflects the pleasure-loving and effeminate,
but cultured and refined, character of the class of Japanese who
produced it. It has no serious masculine qualities and may be
described in one word as belles-lettres--poetry, fiction, diaries,
and essays of a desultory kind. The lower classes of the people had
no share in the literary activity of the time. Culture had not as yet
penetrated beyond a very narrow circle. Both writers and readers
belonged exclusively to the official caste. It is remarkable that a
very large and important part of the best literature which Japan has
produced was written by women. A good share of the Nara poetry is of
feminine authorship, and, in the Heian period, women took a still
more conspicuous part in maintaining the honour of the native
literature. The two greatest works which have come down from Heian
time are both by women.* This was no doubt partly due to the
absorption of the masculine intellect in Chinese studies. But there
was a still more effective cause. The position of women in ancient
Japan was very different from what it afterwards became when Chinese
ideals were in the ascendant. The Japanese of this early period did
not share the feeling common to most Eastern countries that women
should be kept in subjection and as far as possible in seclusion.
Though the morality which the Heian literature reveals is anything
but strait-laced, the language is uniformly refined and decent, in
this respect resembling the best literature of China."**
*The Genji Monogatari by Murasaki Shikibu, and the Makura Soshi by
Sei Shonagon.
**Japanese Literature, by W. G. Aston.
With the Heian epoch is connected the wide use of the phonetic script
known as kana, which may be described as a syllabary of forty-seven
symbols formed from abbreviated Chinese ideographs. There are two
varieties of the kana--the kata-kana and the hiragana* The former is
said to have been devised by Makibi, the latter by Kobo Daishi
(Kukai), but doubts have been cast on the accuracy of that record,
and nothing can be certainly affirmed except that both were known
before the close of the ninth century, though they do not seem to
have been largely used until the Heian epoch, and even then almost
entirely by women.
*Katakana means "side kana" because its symbols are fragments (sides)
of Chinese forms of whole ideographs.
ENGRAVING: MURASAKI SHIKIBU (COURT LADY AND POETESS)
"Much of the poetry of this time was the outcome of poetical
tournaments at which themes were proposed to the competitors by
judges who examined each phrase and word with the minutest critical
care before pronouncing their verdict. As might be expected, the
poetry produced in those circumstances is of a more or less
artificial type, and is wanting in the spontaneous vigour of the
earlier essays of the Japanese muse. Conceits, acrostics, and
untranslatable word-plays hold much too prominent a place, but for
perfection of form the poems of this time are unrivalled. It is no
doubt to this quality that the great popularity of the Kokin-shu is
due. Sei Shonagon, writing in the early years of the eleventh
century, sums up a young lady's education as consisting of writing,
music, and the twenty volumes of the Kokin-shu."*
*Japanese Literature, by W. G. Aston.
The first notable specimen of prose in Japanese style (wabun) was the
preface to the Kokin-shu, written by Ki no Tsurayuki, who contended,
and his own composition proved, that the introduction of Chinese
words might well be dispensed with in writing Japanese. But what may
be called the classical form of Japanese prose was fixed by the
Taketori Monogatari,* an anonymous work which appeared at the
beginning of the Engi era (901),** and was quickly followed by
others. Still, the honour in which the ideograph was held never
diminished. When Tsurayuki composed the Tosa Nikki (Tosa Diary), he
gave it out as the work of a woman, so reluctant was he to identify
himself with a book written in the kana syllabary; and the Emperor
Saga, Kobo Daishi, and Tachibana Hayanari will be remembered forever
in Japan as the "Three Calligraphists" (Sampitsu).
*The expression "monogatari" finds its nearest English equivalent in
"narrative."
**An excellent translation of this has been made by Mr. F. V. Dickins
in the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society," Jan., 1887.
In short, an extraordinary love of literature and of all that
pertained to it swayed the minds of Japan throughout the Nara and the
Heian epochs. The ninth and tenth centuries produced such poets as
Ariwara no Yukihira and his younger brother, Narihira; Otomo no
Kuronushi, Ochikochi no Mitsune, Sojo Henjo, and the poetess Ono no
Komachi; gave us three anthologies (Sandai-shu), the Kokin-shu, the
Gosen-shu, and the Shui-shu, as well as five of the Six National
Histories (Roku Kokushi), the Zoku Nihonki, the Nihon Koki, the Zoku
Nihon Koki, the Montoku Jitsuroku, and the Sandai Jitsuroku; and saw
a bureau of poetry (W aka-dokoro) established in Kyoto. Fine art also
was cultivated, and it is significant that calligraphy and painting
were coupled together in the current expression (shogwa) for products
of pictorial art. Kudara no Kawanari and Koze no Kanaoka, the first
Japanese painters to achieve great renown, flourished in the ninth
and tenth centuries, as did also a famous architect, Hida no Takumi.
INTERVAL BETWEEN THE CAPITAL AND THE PROVINCES
Thus, in the capital, Kyoto, where the Fujiwara family constituted
the power behind the Throne, refinements and luxury were constantly
developed, and men as well as women amused themselves composing
Chinese and Japanese poems, playing on musical instruments, dancing,
and making picnics to view the blossoms of the four seasons. But in
the provincial districts very different conditions existed. There,
men, being virtually without any knowledge of the ideographic script,
found the literature and the laws of the capital a sealed book to
them, and as for paying periodical visits to Kyoto, what that
involved may be gathered from the fact that the poet Tsurayuki's
return to the capital from the province of Tosa, where he had served
as acting governor, occupied one hundred days, as shown in his Tosa
Nikki (Diary of a Journey from Tosa), and that thirteen days were
needed to get from the mouth of the Yodo to the city. The pageant of
metropolitan civilization and magnificence never presented itself to
provincial eyes.
ORIGIN OF THE SHOEN
Much has already been said on the subject of land tenure; but as this
problem is responsible for some cardinal phases of Japanese history,
a brief resume will be useful here. There were four chief causes for
the existence of shoen, or manors. The first was reclamation. In the
year 723, it was decreed that persons who reclaimed land should
acquire a de facto title of tenure for three generations, and, twenty
years later, the tenure of title was made perpetual, limits of area
being fixed, however--1250 acres for princes and nobles of the first
rank, and thereafter by various gradations, to twenty-five acres for
a commoner. But these limits were not enforced, and in the year 767
it became necessary to issue a decree prohibiting further
reclamation, which was followed, seventeen years later, by a rescript
forbidding provincial governors to exact forced labour for tilling
their manors.
That this did not check the evil is proved by an official record,
compiled in 797, from which it appears that princes and influential
nobles possessed manors of great extent; that they appointed
intendants to manage them; that these intendants themselves engaged
in operations of reclamation; that they abused their power by
despoiling the peasants, and that dishonest farmers made a practice
of evading taxes and tribute by settling within the bounds of a
manor. These abuses reached their acme during the reigns of Uda and
Daigo (888-930), when people living in the vicinity of a manor were
ruthlessly robbed and plundered by the intendant and his servants,
and when it became habitual to elude the payment of taxes by making
spurious assignments of lands to influential officials in the
capital. In vain was the ownership of lands by powerful nobles
interdicted, and in vain its purchase by provincial governors: the
metropolis had no power to enforce its vetoes in the provinces, and
the provincials ignored them. Thus the shoen grew in number and
extent.
The second factor which contributed to the extension of manors was
the bestowal of estates in perpetuity on persons of conspicuous
ability, and afterwards on men who enjoyed Imperial favour. Land thus
granted was called shiden and enjoyed immunity from taxation. Then
there were tracts given in recognition of public merit. These koden
were originally of limited tenure, but that condition soon ceased to
be observed, and the koden fell into the same category with manors
(shoen).
Finally we have the jiden, or temple lands. These, too, were at the
outset granted for fixed terms, but when Buddhism became powerful the
limitation ceased to be operative, and moreover, in defiance of the
law, private persons presented tracts, large or small, to the temples
where the mortuary tablets of their families were preserved, and the
temples, oh their own account, acquired estates by purchase or by
reclamation. The jiden, like the other three kinds of land enumerated
above, were exempt from taxation. Owned by powerful nobles or
influential families, the shoen were largely cultivated by forced
labour, and as in many cases it paid the farmers better to rent such
land; and thus escape all fiscal obligations, than to till their own
fields, the latter were deserted pan passu with the development of
the manor system, and thus the State revenues suffered dual
reduction.
During the last quarter of the tenth century peremptory edicts were
issued to check this state of affairs, but the power of the Court to
exact obedience had then dwindled almost to cipher. History records
that during the Ho-en era (1135-1140), the regent Fujiwara
Tadamichi's manor of Shimazu comprised one-fourth of the province of
Osumi. On these great manors, alike of nobles and of temples, armed
forces soon began to be maintained for purposes nominally of police
protection but ultimately of military aggression. This was especially
the case on the shoen of the puissant families of Taira and Minamoto.
Thus, Minamoto Yoshitomo came to own fifteen of the eastern
provinces, and in the tumult of the Heiji era (1159-1160), he lost
all these to Taira no Kiyomori, who, supplementing them with his own
already large manors and with the shoen of many other nobles and
temples, became owner of five hundred districts comprising about
one-half of the empire. Subsequently, when the Minamoto crushed the
Taira (1185), the whole of the latter's estates were distributed by
the former among the nobles who had fought under the Minamoto
standard.
In that age the holders of manors were variously called ryoshu,
ryoke, shoya, or honjo, and the intendants were termed shocho, shoji,
kengyo, betto, or yoryudo, a diversity of nomenclature that is often
very perplexing. In many cases reclaimed lands went by the name of
the person who had reclaimed them. Such manors were spoken of as
myoden (name-land), and those owning large tracts were designated
daimyo (great name), while smaller holders were termed shomyo. Yet
another term for the intendants of these lands was nanushi-shoku.
It will be readily seen that in the presence of such a system the
lands paying taxes to the Central Government became steadily less and
less. Thus, in the reign of the Emperor Toba (1108-1123), the State
domains administered by the provincial governors are recorded to have
been only one per cent, of the area of the provinces. In these
circumstances, the governors deemed it unnecessary to proceed
themselves to their posts; they remained in Kyoto and despatched
deputies to the provinces, a course which conspired to reduce the
authority of the Crown.
For the sake of intelligent sequence of ideas, the above synopsis
makes some departure from the chronological order of these pages.
Returning to the early part of the tenth century, the historian may
affirm that the salient features of the era were virtual abrogation
of the Daiho laws imposing restrictions upon the area and period of
land-ownership; rapid growth of tax-free manors and consequent
impoverishment of the Court in Kyoto; the appearance of provincial
magnates who yielded scant obedience to the Crown, and the
organization of military classes which acknowledged the authority of
their own leaders only.
REVOLT OF TAIRA NO MASAKADO
The above state of affairs soon bore practical fruit. In the year
930, the Emperor Daigo died and was succeeded by his son Shujaku, a
child of eight, whose mother was a daughter of Fujiwara Mototsune. In
accordance with the system now fully established, Fujiwara Tadahira
became regent. History depicts this Tadahira as an effeminate
dilettante, one of whose foibles was to have a cuckoo painted on his
fan and to imitate the cry of the bird whenever he opened it. But as
representative of the chief aristocratic family in an age when to be
a Fujiwara was to possess a title superior to that conferred by
ability in any form and however conspicuous, his right to administer
the government in the capacity of regent obtained universal
recognition.
It had become the custom at that time for the provincial magnates to
send their sons to Kyoto, where they served in the corps of guards,
became acquainted with refined life, and established relations of
friendship with the Taira and the Minamoto, the former descended from
the Emperor Kwammu, the latter from the Emperor Seiwa. Thus, at the
time of Daigo's death, a scion of the Taira, by name Masakado, was
serving under Tadahira in the capital. Believing himself endowed with
high military capacity, Masakado aspired to be appointed kebiishi of
his native province, Shimosa. But his archery, his horsemanship, and
his fencing elicited no applause in Kyoto, whereas a relative,
Sadabumi, attracted admiration by a licentious life.
Masakado finally retired to Shimosa in an angry mood. At first,
however, the idea of revolt does not seem to have occurred to him. On
the contrary, the evidence is against such a hypothesis. For his
military career began with family feuds, and after he had killed one
of his uncles on account of a dispute about the boundaries of a
manor, and sacked the residence of another in consequence of a
trouble about a woman, he did not hesitate to obey a summons to Kyoto
to answer for his acts of violence. Such quarrels were indeed of not
uncommon occurrence in the provinces, as is shown by the memorial of
Miyoshi Kiyotsura, and the capital appears to have left them severely
alone, so far as practical interference was concerned, though the
pretence of jurisdiction might be preserved. Thus, Masakado was
acquitted after the formality of investigation had been satisfied.
Naturally this judgment did not prove a deterrent; on the contrary,
it amounted to a mandate.
On his return to Kwanto, Masakado was soon found once more in the
arena. The details of his campaign have little interest except as
indicating that the provincial officials followed the example of
Kyoto in suffering local disturbances to settle themselves, and that
the abuses catalogued in the Miyoshi memorial were true to fact. A
raid that Masakado made into Musashi province is memorable as the
occasion of the first collision between the Taira and the Minamoto,*
which great families were destined ultimately to convert all Japan
into a battlefield. Finally, Masakado carried his raids so far that
he allowed himself to be persuaded of the hopelessness of pardon. It
was then that he resolved to revolt. Overrunning the whole eight
provinces of the Kwanto, he appointed his own partisans to all posts
of importance and set up a court after the Kyoto model. A letter
written by him at this time to the regent Tadahira affords an
interesting guide to the ethics of the era:
"The genealogy of my house shows that I am the fifth in descent from
the Emperor Kwammu. Therefore, though I hold one-half of a province,
that cannot be attributed to mere good fortune. In the history of
ancient times there are occasions where a whole country was
appropriated by force of arms. Nature has endowed me with military
talent. None, I presume, excels me in that respect. You, however, had
no praise to bestow on me. Rather was I frequently reprimanded when I
served in the capital, so that my shame was unendurable, whereas your
sympathy would have delighted me. While Masakado was still a youth he
served Tadahira, the prime minister, for tens of years, and when
Tadahira became regent, Masakado never entertained his present
project. I have no words to express my regret. Though I have
conspired to revolt, I will not forget my old master, and I hope that
he will make allowances for the circumstances in which I am placed."
*The vice-governor of Musashi, Minamoto Tsunemoto, was at feud with
the governor, Prince Okiyo, and Masakado espoused the latter's cause.
Had it rested with Kyoto to subdue this revolt, Masakado might have
attained his goal. But chance and the curious spirit of the time
fought for the Court. A trifling breach of etiquette on the part of
Masakado--not pausing to bind up his hair before receiving a
visitor--forfeited the co-operation of a great soldier, Fujiwara
Hidesato, (afterwards known as Tawara Toda), and the latter, joining
forces with Taira Sadamori, whose father Masakado had killed,
attacked the rebels in a moment of elated carelessness, shattered
them completely, and sent Masakado's head to the capital. The whole
affair teaches that the Fujiwara aristocrats, ruling in Kyoto, had
neither power nor inclination to meddle with provincial
administration, and that the districts distant from the metropolis
wore practically under the sway of military magnates in whose eyes
might constituted right. This was especially notable in the case of
the Kwanto, that is to say the eight provinces surrounding the
present Tokyo Bay, extending north to the Nikko Mountains. Musashi,
indeed, was so infested with law-breakers that, from the days of the
Emperor Seiwa (859-876), it became customary to appoint one kebiishi
in each of its districts, whereas elsewhere the establishment was one
to each province. The kebiishi represented the really puissant arm of
the law, the provincial governors, originally so powerful, having now
degenerated into weaklings.
THE REVOLT OF FUJIWARA SUMITOMO
Another event, characteristic of the time, occurred in Nankai-do (the
four provinces of the island of Shikoku) contemporaneously with the
revolt of Masakado. During the Shohei era (931-937) the ravages of
pirates became so frequent in those waters that Fujiwara no Sumitomo
was specially despatched from Kyoto to restrain them. This he
effected without difficulty. But instead of returning to the capital,
he collected a number of armed men together with a squadron of
vessels, and conducted a campaign of spoliation and outrage in the
waters of the Inland Sea as well as the channels of Kii and Bungo.
Masakado's death, in 939, relieved the Court from the pressure in the
east, and an expedition was despatched against Sumitomo under the
command of Ono no Yoshifuru, general of the guards.
Yoshifuru mustered only two hundred ships whereas Sumitomo had
fifteen hundred. The issue might have been foretold had not the
pirate chief's lieutenant gone over to the Imperial forces. Sumitomo,
after an obstinate resistance and after one signal success, was
finally routed and killed. Some historians* have contended that
Masakado and Sumitomo, when they were together in Kyoto, conspired a
simultaneous revolt in the east and the south; but such a conclusion
is inconsistent with the established fact that Masakado's treason was
not premeditated.
*Notably the authors of the Okagami and the Nihon Gwaishi.
That the two events synchronized is attributable wholly to the
conditions of the time. We have seen what was the state of affairs in
Kwanto, and that of Kyushu and Shikoku is clearly set forth in a
memorial presented (946) by Ono Yoshifuru on his return from the
Sumitomo campaign. In that document he says: "My information is that
those who pursue irregular courses are not necessarily sons of
provincial governors alone. Many others make lawless use of power and
authority; form confederacies; engage daily in military exercises;
collect and maintain men and horses under pretext of hunting game;
menace the district governors; plunder the common people; violate
their wives and daughters, and steal their beasts of burden and
employ them for their own purposes, thus interrupting agricultural
operations. Yesterday, they were outcasts, with barely sufficient
clothes to cover their nakedness; to-day, they ride on horseback and
don rich raiment. Meanwhile the country falls into a state of decay,
and the homesteads are desolate. My appeal is that, with the
exception of provincial governors' envoys, any who enter a province
at the head of parties carrying bows and arrows, intimidate the
inhabitants, and rob them of their property, shall be recognized as
common bandits and thrown into prison on apprehension."
In a word, the aristocratic officialdom in Kyoto, headed by the
Fujiwara, though holding all the high administrative posts, wielded
no real power outside the capital, nor were they competent to
preserve order even within its precincts, for the palace itself was
not secure against incendiarism and depredation. When the heads of
the Minamoto and the Taira families were appointed provincial
governors in the Kwanto, they trained their servants in the use of
arms, calling them iye-no-ko (house-boys) or rodo (retainers), and
other local magnates purchased freedom from molestation by doing
homage and obeying their behests. Taira Masakado, Minamoto Tsunemoto,
Fujiwara Hidesato, and Taira Sadamori, who figure in the above
narrative, were all alike provincial chiefs, possessing private
estates and keeping armed retinues which they used for protection or
for plunder. The Imperial Court, when confronted with any crisis, was
constrained to borrow the aid of these magnates, and thus there came
into existence the buke, or military houses, as distinguished from
the kuge, or Court houses.
ENGRAVING: UMBRELLAS
ENGRAVING: KINKAKU-JI, AT KYOTO
CHAPTER XXI
THE CAPITAL AND THE PROVINCES
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE COURT AND THE FUJIWARA
We now arrive at a period of Japanese history in which the relations
of the Fujiwara family to the Throne are so complicated as greatly to
perplex even the most careful reader. But as it is not possible to
construct a genealogical table of a really helpful character, the
facts will be set down here in their simplest form.
THE SIXTY-SECOND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR MURAKAMI (A.D. 947-967)
Murakami, son of Daigo by the daughter of the regent, Fujiwara
Mototsune, ascended the throne in succession to Shujaku, and Fujiwara
Tadahira held the post of regent, as he had done in Shujaku's time,
his three sons, Saneyori, Morosuke, and Morotada, giving their
daughters; one, Morosuke's offspring, to be Empress, the other two to
be consorts of the sovereign. Moreover, Morosuke's second daughter
was married to the Emperor's younger brother, Prince Takaaki, who
afterwards descended from princely rank to take the family name of
Minamoto. Saneyori, Morosuke, and Takaaki took a prominent part in
the administration of State affairs, and thus indirectly by female
influence at Court, or by their own direct activity, the Fujiwara
held a supreme place. Murakami has a high position among Japan's
model sovereigns. He showed keen and intelligent interest in
politics; he sought to employ able officials; he endeavoured to check
luxury, and he solicited frank guidance from his elders. Thus later
generations learned to indicate Engi (901-923), when Daigo reigned,
and Tenryaku (947-957), when Murakami reigned, as essentially eras of
benevolent administration. But whatever may have been the personal
qualities of Murakami, however conspicuous his poetical ability and
however sincere his solicitude for the welfare of his subjects, he
failed signally to correct the effeminate tendency of Kyoto society
or to protect the lives and property of his people. Bandits raided
the capital, broke into the palace itself, set fire to it, and
committed frequent depredations unrestrained. An age when the
machinery for preserving law and order was practically paralyzed
scarcely deserves the eulogies of posterity.
THE SUCCESSION
The lady with whom Murakami first consorted was a daughter of
Fujiwara Motokata, who represented a comparatively obscure branch of
the great family, and had attained the office of chief councillor of
State (dainagori) only. She bore to his Majesty a son, Hirohira, and
the boy's grandfather confidently looked to see him named Prince
Imperial. But presently the daughter of Fujiwara Morosuke, minister
of the Right, entered the palace, and although her Court rank was not
at first superior to that of the dainagon's daughter, her child had
barely reached its third month when, through Morosuke's irresistible
influence, it was nominated heir to the throne. Motokata's
disappointment proved so keen that his health became impaired and he
finally died--of chagrin, the people said. In those days men believed
in the power of disembodied spirits for evil or for good. The spirit
of the ill-fated Sugawara Michizane was appeased by building shrines
to his memory, and a similar resource exorcised the angry ghost of
the rebel, Masakado; but no such prevention having been adopted in
the case of Motokata, his spirit was supposed to have compassed the
early deaths of his grandson's supplanter, Reizei, and of the
latter's successors, Kwazan and Sanjo, whose three united reigns
totalled only five years.
A more substantial calamity resulted, however, from the habit of
ignoring the right of primogeniture in favour of arbitrary selection.
Murakami, seeing that the Crown Prince (Reizei) had an exceedingly
feeble physique, deemed it expedient to transfer the succession to
his younger brother, Tamehira. But the latter, having married into
the Minamoto family, had thus become ineligible for the throne in
Fujiwara eyes. The Emperor hesitated, therefore, to give open
expression to his views, and while he waited, he himself fell
mortally ill. On his death-bed he issued the necessary instruction,
but the Fujiwara deliberately ignored it, being determined that a
consort of their own blood must be the leading lady in every Imperial
household. Then the indignation of the other great families, the
Minamoto and the Taira, blazed out. Mitsunaka, representing the
former, and Shigenobu the latter, entered into a conspiracy to
collect an army in the Kwanto and march against Kyoto with the sole
object of compelling obedience to Murakami's dying behest. The plot
was divulged by Minamoto Mitsunaka in the sequel of a quarrel with
Taira no Shigenobu; the plotters were all exiled, and Takaaki,
youngest son of the Emperor Daigo, though wholly ignorant of the
conspiracy, was falsely accused to the Throne by Fujiwara Morotada,
deprived of his post of minister of the Left, to which his accuser
was nominated, and sent to that retreat for disgraced officials, the
Dazai-fu. Another instance is here furnished of the readiness with
which political rivals slandered one another in old Japan, and
another instance, also, of the sway exercised over the sovereign by
his Fujiwara ministers.
THE SIXTY-THIRD SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR REIZEI (A.D. 968-969)
THE SIXTY-FOURTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR ENYU (A.D. 970-984)
The reigns of Reizei and Enyu are remarkable for quarrels among the
members of the Fujiwara family--quarrels which, to be followed
intelligently, require frequent reference to the genealogical table
(page 203). Fujiwara Morosuke had five sons, Koretada, Kanemichi,
Kaneiye, Tamemitsu, and Kinsuye. Two of these, Koretada and Kaneiye,
presented one each of their daughters to the Emperor Reizei, and
Koretada's daughter gave birth to Prince Morosada, who afterwards
reigned as Kwazan, while Kaneiye's daughter bore Okisada,
subsequently the Emperor Sanjo. After one year's reign, Reizei, who
suffered from brain disease, abdicated in favour of his younger
brother, Enyu, then only in his eleventh year. Fujiwara Saneyori
acted as regent, but, dying shortly afterwards, was succeeded in that
office by his nephew, Koretada, who also had to resign on account of
illness.
Between this latter's two brothers, Kanemichi and Kaneiye, keen
competition for the regency now sprang up. Kanemichi's eldest
daughter was the Empress of Enyu, but his Majesty favoured Kaneiye,
who thus attained much higher rank than his elder brother. Kanemichi,
however, had another source of influence. His sister was Murakami's
Empress and mother of the reigning sovereign, Enyu. This Imperial
lady, writing to his Majesty Enyu at Kanemichi's dictation, conjured
the Emperor to be guided by primogeniture in appointing a regent, and
Enyu, though he bitterly disliked Kanemichi, could not gainsay his
mother. Thus Kanemichi became chancellor and acting regent. The
struggle was not concluded, however. It ended in the palace itself,
whither the two brothers repaired almost simultaneously, Kanemichi
rising from his sick-bed for the purpose. In the presence of the boy
Emperor, Kanemichi arbitrarily transferred his own office of kwampaku
to Fujiwara Yoritada and degraded his brother, Kaneiye, to a
comparatively insignificant post. The sovereign acquiesced; he had no
choice. A few months later, this dictator died. It is related of him
that his residence was more gorgeous than the palace and his manner
of life more sumptuous than the sovereign's. The men of his time were
wont to say, "A tiger's mouth is less fatal than the frown of the
regent, Kanemichi."
THE SIXTY-FIFTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KWAZAN (A.D. 985-986)
THE SIXTY-SIXTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR ICHIJO (A.D. 987-1011)
Eldest son of the Emperor Reizei, Kwazan ascended the throne in 985.
His mother was a daughter of Fujiwara Koretada, and Yoritada, whose
appointment as regent has just been described, continued to act in
that capacity. Kaneiye's opportunity had now come. Kwazan having
succeeded Enyu, nominated the latter's son to be Crown Prince,
instead of conferring the position on his own brother, Prince Okisada
(afterwards Sanjo). Now the Crown Prince was the son of Kaneiye's
daughter, and that ambitious noble determined to compass the
sovereign's abdication without delay. Kwazan, originally a fickle
lover, had ultimately conceived an absorbing passion for the lady
Tsuneko. He could not be induced to part with her even at the time of
her pregnancy, and as there was no proper provision in the palace for
such an event, Tsuneko died in labour. Kwazan, distraught with grief,
was approached by Kaneiye's son, Michikane, who urged him to retire
from the world and seek in Buddhism the perfect peace thus alone
attainable. Michikane declared his own intention of entering the
"path," and on a moonlight night the two men, leaving the palace,
repaired to the temple Gwangyo-ji to take the tonsure. There,
Michikane, pretending he wished to bid final farewell to his family,
departed to return no more, and the Emperor understood that he had
been deceived.
Retreat was now impossible, however. He abdicated in favour of
Ichijo, a child of seven, and Kaneiye became regent and chancellor.
He emulated the magnificence of his deceased brother and rival,
Kanemichi, and his residence at Higashi-Sanjo in Kyoto was built
after the model of the "hall of freshness" in the palace. He had five
sons, the most remarkable of whom were Michitaka, Michikane, and
Michinaga. It will be presently seen that in the hands of the last
the power of the Fujiwara reached its zenith. On the death of Kaneiye
the office of kwampaku fell to his eldest son, Michitaka, and, in
993, the latter being seriously ill, his son, Korechika, looked to be
his successor. But the honour fell to Michitaka's brother, Michikane.
Seven days after his nomination, Michikane died, and, as a matter of
course, men said that he had been done to death by the incantations
of his ambitious nephew. Again, however, the latter was disappointed.
Kaneiye's third son, Michinaga, succeeded to the regency.
Almost immediately, the new regent seems to have determined that his
daughter should be Empress. But the daughter of his elder brother,
the late Michitaka, already held that position. This, however,
constituted no sort of obstacle in the eyes of the omnipotent
Michinaga. He induced--"required" would probably be a more accurate
expression--the Empress to abandon the world, shave her head, and
remove to a secluded palace, (the Kokideri); where-after he caused
his own daughter to become the Imperial consort under the title of
chugu,* her residence being fixed in the Fujitsubo, which was the
recognized palace of the Empress.
*A lady on introduction to the palace received the title of jokwan.
If the daughter of a minister of State, she was called nyogo. Chugu
was a still higher title devised specially for Michinaga's purpose,
and naturally it became a precedent.
It is not to be imagined that with such a despotic regent, the
Emperor himself exercised any real authority. The annals show that
Ichijo was of benevolent disposition; that he sympathized with his
people; that he excelled in prose composition and possessed much
skill in music. Further, during his reign of twenty-four years many
able men graced the era. But neither their capacity nor his own found
opportunity for exercise in the presence of Michinaga's proteges,
and, while profoundly disliking the Fujiwara autocrat, Ichijo was
constrained to suffer him.
THE SIXTY-SEVENTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SANJO (A.D. 1012-1017)
THE SIXTY-EIGHTH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-ICHIJO (A.D. 1017-1036)
Prince Okisada, younger brother of the Emperor Kwazan, ascended the
throne at the age of thirty-six, on the abdication of Ichijo, and is
known in history as Sanjo. Before his accession he had married the
daughter of Fujiwara Naritoki, to whom he was much attached, but with
the crown he had to accept the second daughter of Michinaga as chugu,
his former consort becoming Empress. His Majesty had to acquiesce in
another arbitrary arrangement also. It has been shown above that
Michinaga's eldest daughter had been given the title of chugu in the
palace of Ichijo, to whom she bore two sons, Atsunari and Atsunaga.
Neither of these had any right to be nominated Crown Prince in
preference to Sanjo's offspring. Michinaga, however, caused Atsunari
to be appointed Prince Imperial, ignoring Sanjo's son, since his
mother belonged to an inferior branch of the Fujiwara. Further, it
did not suit the regent's convenience that a ruler of mature age
should occupy the throne. An eye disease from which Sanjo suffered
became the pretext for pressing him to abdicate, and, in 1017,
Atsunari, then in his ninth year, took the sceptre as Emperor
Go-Ichijo, or Ichijo II. Michinaga continued to act as regent,
holding, at the same time, the office of minister of the Left, but he
subsequently handed over the regency to his son, Yorimichi, becoming
himself chancellor.
Go-Ichijo was constrained to endure at Michinaga's hands the same
despotic treatment as that previously meted out to Sanjo. The
legitimate claim of his offspring to the throne was ignored in favour
of his brother, Atsunaga, who received for consort the fourth
daughter of Michinaga. Thus, this imperious noble had controlled the
administration for thirty years; had given his daughters to three
Emperors; had appointed his son to be regent in his place, and had
the Crown Prince for grandson. Truly, as his historians say, he held
the empire in the hollow of his hand. His estates far exceeded those
of the Crown; the presents offered to him by all ranks reached an
enormous total; he built for himself a splendid mansion (Jotomon)
with forced labour requisitioned from the provinces, and for his wife
a scarcely less magnificent residence (Kyogoku) was erected at the
charges of the Emperor Go-Ichijo. At the approach of illness he took
refuge in Buddhism, but even here the gorgeous ostentation of his
life was not abated. He planned the building of a monastery which
should prove a worthy retreat for his declining years, and it is on
record that his order to the provincial governor was, "though you
neglect your official duties, do not neglect to furnish materials and
labour for the building of Hojo-ji." Even from the palace itself
stones were taken for this monastery, and the sums lavished upon it
were so enormous that they dwarfed Michinaga's previous
extravagances. Michinaga retired there to die, and on his death-bed
he received a visit from the Emperor, who ordered three months' Court
mourning on his decease. There is a celebrated work entitled Eigwa
Monogatari (Tales of Splendour), wherein is depicted the fortunes and
the foibles of the Fujiwara family from the days (889) of the Emperor
Uda to those (1092) of the Emperor Horikawa. Specially minute is the
chronicle when it treats of the Mido kwampaku, as Michinaga was
called after he set himself to build the monastery Hojo-ji.
Loyal Japanese historians shrink from describing this era, when the
occupants of the throne were virtually puppets in the hands of the
Fujiwara. There was, however, one redeeming feature: amid this luxury
and refinement literature flourished vigorously, so that the era of
Tenryaku (947-957) lives in the memory of the nation as vividly as
that of Engi (901-923). Oye Tomotsuna, Sugawara Fumitoki, Minamoto
Shitago--these were famous littérateurs, and Minamoto Hiromasa,
grandson of the Emperor Uda, attained celebrity as a musical genius.
Coming to the reigns of Kwazan, Enyu, and Ichijo (985-1011), we find
the immortal group of female writers, Murasaki Shikibu, Izumi
Shikibu, Sei Shonagon, and Akazome Emon; we find also in the Imperial
family, Princes Kaneakira and Tomohira; we find three famous scribes,
Fujiwara Yukinari, Fujiwara Sari, and Ono no Tofu, and, finally the
"Four Nagon" (Shi-nagori), Fujiwara Yukinari, Fujiwara Kinto.
Minamoto Narinobu, and Minamoto Toshikata.
It is observable that in this necessarily brief summary the name
"Minamoto" occurs several times, as does that of "Fujiwara" also. But
that the scions of either family confined themselves to the arts of
peace, is not to be inferred. There were Fujiwara among the military
magnates in the provinces, and we shall presently see the Minamoto
taking the lead in the science of war. Already, indeed, the Fujiwara
in the capital were beginning to recognize the power of the Minamoto.
It has been related above that one of the rebel Masakado's earliest
opponents was a Minamoto, vice-governor of Musashi. His son,
Mitsunaka, a redoubtable warrior, assisted the Fujiwara in Kyoto, and
Mitsunaka's sons, Yorimitsu and Yorinobu, contributed materially to
the autocracy of the regent Michinaga. Yorimitsu was appointed by the
regent to command the cavalry of the guard, and he is said to have
brought that corps to a state of great efficiency.
There was, indeed, much need of a strong hand. One had only to emerge
from the palace gates to find oneself among the haunts of bandits.
The names of such robber chiefs as Hakamadare no Yasusuke, Kidomaru,
Oeyama Shutendoji, and Ibaraki-doji have been handed down as the
heroes in many a strange adventure and the perpetrators of many
heinous crimes. Even the Fujiwara residences were not secure against
the torches of these plunderers, and during the reign of Ichijo the
palace itself was frequently fired by them. In Go-Ichijo's tune, an
edict was issued forbidding men to carry bows and arrows in the
streets, but had there been power to enforce such a veto, its
enactment would not have been necessary. Its immediate sequel was
that the bandits broke into Government offices and murdered officials
there.
THE INVASION OF JAPAN BY THE TOI
In the spring of 1019, when Go-Ichijo occupied the throne, a large
host of invaders suddenly poured into the island of Tsushima. There
had not been any warning. Tsushima lies half-way between the south of
Korea and the northeast of Kyushu, distant about sixty miles from
either coast. Since the earliest times, its fine harbours had served
as a military station for ships plying between Japan and Korea, but
such intercourse had long been interrupted when this invasion took
place.
The invaders were the Toi, originally called Sushen or Moho, under
the former of which names they make their appearance in Japanese
history in the middle of the sixth century. They inhabited that part
of the Asiatic continent which lies opposite to the island of Ezo,
but there is nothing to show what impulse they obeyed in making this
sudden descent upon Japan. Their fleet comprised some fifty vessels
only, each from forty to sixty feet long and propelled by thirty or
forty oars, but of how many fighting men the whole force consisted,
no record has been preserved. As to arms, they carried swords, bows,
spears, and shields, and in their tactical formation spearmen
occupied the front rank, then came swordsmen, and finally bowmen.
Every man had a shield. Their arrows were short, measuring little
over a foot, but their bows were powerful, and they seem to have
fought with fierce courage.
At first they carried everything before them. The governor of
Tsushima, being without any means of defence, fled to the Dazai-fu in
Kyushu, and the inhabitants were left to the mercy of the invaders,
who then pushed on to the island of Iki. There the governor, Fujiwara
Masatada, made a desperate resistance, losing his own life in the
battle. It is said that of all the inhabitants, one only, a Buddhist
priest, escaped to tell the story.
Ten days after their first appearance off Tsushima, the Toi effected
a landing in Chikuzen and marched towards Hakata, plundering,
burning, massacring old folks and children, making prisoners of
adults, and slaughtering cattle and horses for food. It happened,
fortunately, that Takaiye, younger brother of Fujiwara Korechika, was
in command at the Dazai-fu, whither he had repaired partly out of
pique, partly to undergo treatment for eye disease at the hands of a
Chinese doctor. He met the crisis with the utmost coolness, and made
such skilful dispositions for defence that, after three days'
fighting, in which the Japanese lost heavily, Hakata remained
uncaptured.
High winds and rough seas now held the invaders at bay, and in that
interval the coast defences were repaired and garrisoned, and a fleet
of thirty-eight boats having been assembled, the Japanese assumed the
offensive, ultimately driving the Toi to put to sea. A final attempt
was made to effect a landing at Matsuura in the neighbouring province
of Hizen, but, after fierce fighting, the invaders had to withdraw
altogether. The whole affair had lasted sixteen days, and the
Japanese losses were 382 killed and 1280 taken prisoners. Two hundred
and eighty of the latter--60 men and 220 women--were subsequently
returned. They were brought over from Koma six months later by a Koma
envoy, Chong Cha-ryang, to whom the Court presented three hundred
pieces of gold.
Kyoto's attitude towards this incident was most instructive. When the
first tidings of the invasion reached the capital, the protection of
heaven was at once invoked by services at Ise and ten other shrines.
But when, on receipt of news that the danger had been averted, the
question of rewarding the victors came up for discussion, a majority
of the leading statesmen contended that, as the affair had been
settled before the arrival of an Imperial mandate at the Dazai-fu, no
official cognizance could be taken of it. This view was ultimately
overruled since the peril had been national, but the rewards
subsequently given were insignificant, and the event clearly
illustrates the policy of the Central Government--a policy already
noted in connexion with the revolt of Masakado--namely, that any
emergency dealt with prior to the receipt of an Imperial rescript
must be regarded as private, whatever its nature, and therefore
beyond the purview of the law.
A more effective method of decentralization could not have been
devised. It was inevitable that, under such a system, the provincial
magnates should settle matters to their own liking without reference
to Kyoto, and that, the better to enforce their will, they should
equip themselves with armed retinues. In truth, it is not too much to
say that, from the tenth century, Japan outside the capital became an
arena of excursions and alarms, the preservation of peace being
wholly dependent on the ambitions of local magnates.
A history of all these happenings would be intolerably long and
tedious. Therefore only those that have a national bearing will be
here set down. Prominent among such is the struggle between the Taira
and the Minamoto in the Kwanto. The origin of these two families has
already been recounted. Some historians have sought to differentiate
the metropolitan section of the Minamoto from the provincial
section--that is to say, the men of luxury and literature who
frequented the capital, from the men of sword and bow who ruled in
the provinces. Such differentiation is of little practical value.
Similar lines of demarcation might be drawn in the case of the Taira
and Fujiwara themselves. If there were great captains in each of
these famous families, there were also great courtiers. To the former
category belonged Taira Tadatsune. For generations his family had
ruled in the province of Shimosa and had commanded the allegiance of
all the bushi of the region. Tadatsune held at one time the post of
vice-governor of the neighbouring province of Kazusa, where he
acquired large manors (shoen). In the year 1028, he seized the chief
town of the latter province, and pushing on into Awa, killed the
governor and obtained complete control of the province.* The Court,
on receiving news of these events, ordered Minamoto Yorinobu,
governor of Kai, and several other provincial governors to attack the
Taira chief.
*Murdoch, in his History of Japan, says that in three years
Tadatsune's aggressions "reduced the Kwanto to a tangled wilderness.
Thus, in the province of Shimosa, in 1027, there had been as much as
58,000 acres under cultivation; but in 1031 this had shrunk to
forty-five acres."
Yorinobu did not wait for his associates. Setting out with his son,
Yoriyoshi, in 1031, he moved at once against Tadatsune's castle,
which stood on the seashore of Shimosa, protected by moats and
palisades, and supposed to be unapproachable from the sea except by
boats, of which Tadatsune had taken care that there should not be any
supply available. But the Minamoto general learned that the shore
sloped very slowly on the castle front, and marching his men boldly
through the water, he delivered a crushing attack.
For this exploit, which won loud plaudits, he was appointed
commandant of the local government office, a post held by his
grandfather, Tsunemoto, whom we have seen as vice-governor of Musashi
in the days of Masakado; by his father, Mitsunaka, one of the pillars
of the Minamoto family, and by his elder brother, Yorimitsu, who
commanded the cavalry of the guards in Kyoto. The same post was
subsequently bestowed on Yorinobu's son, Yoriyoshi, and on the
latter's son, Yoshiiye, known by posterity as "Hachiman Taro,"
Japan's most renowned archer, to whom the pre-eminence of the
Minamoto family was mainly due. Tadatsune had another son, Tsunemasa,
who was appointed vice-governor of Shimosa and who is generally
spoken of as Chiba-no-suke. The chief importance of these events is
that they laid the foundation of the Minamoto family's supremacy in
the Kwanto, and thus permanently influenced the course of Japanese
history.
THE CAMPAIGN OF ZEN-KUNEN
It is advisable at this stage to make closer acquaintance with the
Japanese bushi (soldier), who has been cursorily alluded to more than
once in these pages, and who, from the tenth century, acts a
prominent role on the Japanese stage. History is silent as to the
exact date when the term "bushi" came into use, but from a very early
era its Japanese equivalent, "monono-fu," was applied to the guards
of the sovereign's palace, and when great provincial magnates began,
about the tenth century, to support a number of armed retainers,
these gradually came to be distinguished as bushi. In modern times
the ethics of the bushi have been analysed under the name "bushido"
(the way of the warrior), but of course no such term or any such
complete code existed in ancient days. The conduct most appropriate
to a bushi was never embodied in a written code. It derived its
sanctions from the practice of recognized models, and only by
observing those models can we reach a clear conception of the thing
itself.
ENGRAVING: HALL OF BYODOIN TEMPLE (1052), AT UJI
To that end, brief study may be given to the principal campaigns of
the eleventh century, namely, the century immediately preceding the
establishment of military feudalism. It must be premised, however,
that although the bushi figured mainly on the provincial stage, he
acted an important part in the capital also. There, the Throne and
its Fujiwara entourage were constrained to enlist the co-operation of
the military nobles for the purpose of controlling the lawless
elements of the population. The Minamoto family were conspicuous in
that respect. Minamoto Mitsunaka--called also Manchu--served at the
Court of four consecutive sovereigns from Murakami downwards, was
appointed governor of several provinces, and finally became
commandant of the local Government office. Yorimitsu, his son, a
still greater strategist, was a prominent figure at five Courts, from
the days of Enyu, and his brothers, Yorichika and Yorinobu, rendered
material assistance in securing the supremacy of the great Fujiwara
chief, Michinaga. Indeed, the Minamoto were commonly spoken of as the
"claws" of the Fujiwara. It was this Yorinobu who won such fame by
escalading the castle of Taira Tadatsune and who established his
family's footing in the Kwanto. His uncle, Yoshimitsu, had a large
estate at Tada in Settsu, and this branch of the family was known as
Tada Genji.*
Then there were:
The Yamato Genji descended from Yorichika
" Suruga " " " Mitsumasa
" Shinano " " " Mitsunaka
" Uda " of Omi, called also the Sasaki family
" Saga " of Settsu " " " Watanabe
" Hizen " of Hizen " " " Matsuura
The Taira family became famous from the time of Sadamori, who quelled
the insurrection of Masakado. Of this clan, there were these
branches:
The Daijo-uji of Hitachi, so called because for generations they held
the office of daijo in Hitachi.
The Ise-Heishi of Ise, descended from Korehira, son of Sadamori.
" Shiro-uji of Mutsu, Dewa, Shinano, and Echigo, descended from
Shigemori and Koremochi
" Nishina-uji " " " " " " " "
" Iwaki-uji " " " " " " " "
" Miura-no-suke of Musashi, Kazusa, and Shimosa, descendants of
Taira no Yoshibumi
" Chiba-no-suke " " " " "
" Chichibu-uji " " " " "
Soma family, who succeeded to the domains of Masakado.
*"Gen" is the alternative pronunciation of "Minamoto" as "Hei" is of
"Taira." The two great families who occupy such a large space in the
pages of Japanese history are spoken of together as "Gen-Pei," and
independently as "Genji" and "Heishi," or "Minamoto" and
The Fujiwara also had many provincial representatives, descended
mainly from Hidesato, (called also Tawara Toda), who distinguished
himself in the Masakado crisis. There were the Sano-uji of
Shimotsuke, Mutsu, and Dewa; and there were the Kondo, the Muto, the
Koyama, and the Yuki, all in different parts of the Kwanto. In fact,
the empire outside the capital was practically divided between the
Minamoto, the Taira, and the Fujiwara families, so that anything like
a feud could scarcely fail to have wide ramifications.
The eleventh century may be said to have been the beginning of such
tumults. Not long after the affair of Taira Tadatsune, there occurred
the much larger campaign known as Zen-kunen no Sodo, or the "Prior
Nine Years' Commotion." The scene of this struggle was the vast
province of Mutsu in the extreme north of the main island. For
several generations the Abe family had exercised sway there, and its
representative in the middle of the eleventh century extended his
rule over six districts and defied the authority of the provincial
governors. The Court deputed Minamoto Yoriyoshi to restore order. The
Abe magnate was killed by a stray arrow at an early stage of the
campaign, but his son, Sadato, made a splendid resistance.
In December, 1057, Yoriyoshi, at the head of eighteen hundred men,
led a desperate assault on the castle of Kawasaki, garrisoned by
Sadato with four thousand picked soldiers. The attack was delivered
during a heavy snow-storm, and in its sequel the Minamoto general
found his force reduced to six men. Among these six, however, was his
eldest son, Yoshiiye, one of the most skilful bowmen Japan ever
produced. Yoshiiye's mother was a Taira. When she became enceinte her
husband dreamed that the sacred sword of the war deity, Hachiman, had
been given to him, and the boy came to be called Hachiman Taro. This
name grew to be a terror to the enemy, and it was mainly through his
prowess that his father and their scanty remnant of troops escaped
over roads where the snow lay several feet deep.
On a subsequent occasion in the same campaign, Yoshiiye had Sadato at
his mercy and, while fixing an arrow to shoot him, composed the first
line of a couplet, "The surcoat's warp at last is torn." Sadato,
without a moment's hesitation, capped the line, "The threads at last
are frayed and worn,"* and Yoshiiye, charmed by such a display of
ready wit, lowered his bow. Nine years were needed to finish the
campaign, and, in its sequel, Yoriyoshi was appointed governor of
Iyo, and Yoshiiye, governor of Mutsu, while Kiyowara Takenori,
without whose timely aid Sadato could scarcely have been subdued,
received the high post of chinju-fu shogun (commandant of the local
Government office). Yoshiiye's magnanimity towards Sadato at the
fortress of Koromo-gawa has always been held worthy of a true bushi.
*The point of this couplet is altogether lost in English. It turns
upon the fact that the word tate used by Yoshiiye means either a
fortress or the vertical threads in woven stuff, and that koromo was
the name of the fortress where the encounter took place and had also
the significance of "surcoat."
Sadato was ultimately killed, but his younger brother Muneto had the
affection and full confidence of Yoshiiye. Muneto, however,
remembered his brother's fate and cherished a desire to take
vengeance on Yoshiiye, which mood also was recognized as becoming to
a model bushi. One night, the two men went out together, and Muneto
decided that the opportunity for vengeance had come. Drawing his
sword, he looked into the ox-carriage containing Yoshiiye and found
him sound asleep. The idea of behaving treacherously in the face of
such trust was unendurable, and thereafter Muneto served Yoshiiye
with faith and friendship. The confidence that the Minamoto hero
reposed in the brother of his old enemy and the way it was
requited--these, too, are claimed as traits of the bushi.
Yet another canon is furnished by Yoshiiye's career--the canon of
humility. Oye no Masafusa was overheard remarking that Yoshiiye had
some high qualities but was unfortunately ignorant of strategy. This
being repeated to Yoshiiye, he showed no resentment but begged to
become Masafusa's pupil. Yet he was already conqueror of the Abe and
governor of Dewa.
THE GO-SANNEN CAMPAIGN
Thereafter the provinces of Mutsu and Dewa were again the scene of
another fierce struggle which, since it began in the third year
(1089) of the Kwanji era and ended in the fifth year (1091), was
called the "After Three-years War." With regard to the nature of this
commotion, no enumeration of names is necessary. It was a family
quarrel between the scions of Kiyowara Takenori, a magnate of Mutsu
who had rendered conclusive assistance to Yoshiiye in the Nine-years'
War; and as a great landowner of Dewa, Kimiko Hidetake, took part,
the whole north of Japan may be said to have been involved. It fell
to Yoshiiye, as governor of Mutsu, to quell the disturbance, and very
difficult the task proved, so difficult that the issue might have
been different had not Fujiwara Kiyohira--who will be presently
spoken of--espoused the Minamoto cause.
When news of the struggle reached Kyoto, Yoshiiye's younger brother,
Yoshimitsu, who held the much coveted post of kebiishi, applied for
permission to proceed at once to his brother's assistance. The Court
refused his application, whereupon he resigned his office and, like a
true bushi, hastened to the war. Yoshimitsu was a skilled performer
upon a musical instrument called the sho. He had studied under a
celebrated master, Toyohara Tokimoto, now no more, and, on setting
out for the field of battle in the far north, he became apprehensive
lest the secrets imparted to him by his teacher should die with him.
He therefore invited Tokimoto's son, Tokiaki, to bear him company
during the first part of his journey, and to him he conveyed all the
knowledge he possessed. The spectacle of this renowned soldier giving
instruction in the art of music to the son of his deceased teacher on
moonlit nights as he travelled towards the battlefield, has always
appealed strongly to Japanese conception of a perfect samurai, and
has been the motive of many a picture.
This Go-sannen struggle furnished also another topic for frequent
pictorial representation. When about to attack the fortress of
Kanazawa, to which the approaches were very difficult, Yoshiiye
observed a flock of geese rising in confusion, and rightly inferred
an ambuscade of the enemy. His comment was, "Had not Oye Masafusa
taught me strategy, many brave men had been killed to-night." Yet one
more typical bushi may be mentioned in connexion with this war.
Kamakura Gongoro, a youth of sixteen, always fought in the van of
Yoshiiye's forces and did great execution. A general on the enemy's
side succeeded in discharging a shaft which entered the boy's eye.
Gongoro, breaking the arrow, rode straight at the archer and cut him
down. A shrine in Kamakura was erected to the memory of this intrepid
lad.
When Yoshiiye reported to the Throne the issue of this sanguinary
struggle, Kyoto replied that the war had been a private feud and that
no reward or distinctions would be conferred. Yoshiiye therefore
devoted the greater part of his own manors to recompensing those that
had followed his standard. He thus won universal respect throughout
the Kwanto. Men competed to place their sons and younger brothers as
kenin (retainers) in his service and the name of Hachiman-ko was on
all lips. But Yoshiiye died (1108) in a comparatively low rank. It is
easy to comprehend that in the Kwanto it became a common saying,
"Better serve the Minamoto than the sovereign."
THE FUJIWARA OF THE NORTH
Fujiwara Kiyohira, who is mentioned above as having espoused the
cause of the Minamoto in the Go-sannen, was descended from Hidesato,
the conqueror of Masakado. After the Go-sannen outbreak he succeeded
to the six districts of Mutsu which had been held by the insurgent
chiefs. This vast domain descended to his son Motohira, and to the
latter's son, Hidehira, whose name we shall presently find in large
letters on a page of Japanese history.
The Mutsu branch of the Fujiwara wielded paramount sway in the north
for several generations. Near Hiraizumi, in the province of Rikuchu,
may still be seen four buildings forming the monastery Chuson-ji. In
one of these edifices repose the remains of Kiyohira, Motohira, and
Hidehira. The ceiling, floor and four walls of this Konjiki-do
(golden hall) were originally covered with powdered gold, and its
interior pillars are inlaid with mother-of-pearl on which are traced
the outlines of twelve Arhats. In the days of Kiyohira the monastery
consisted of forty buildings and was inhabited by three hundred
priests.
ENGRAVING: A CONJUROR
ENGRAVING: SIDE VIEW OF THE "KOHO-AN" OF DAITOKU-JI, AT KYOTO
CHAPTER XXII
RECOVERY OF ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY BY THE THRONE
The 69th Sovereign, the Emperor Go-Shujaku A.D. 1037-1045
70th " " Go-Reizei 1046-1068
71st " " Go-Sanjo 1069-1072
72nd " " Shirakawa 1073-1086
73rd " " Horikawa 1087-1107
74th " " Toba 1108-1123
75th " " Sutoku 1124-1141
76th " " Konoe 1142-1155
77th " " Go-Shirakawa 1156-1158
DECADENCE OF FUJIWARA AUTOCRACY
During two centuries the administrative power remained in the hands
of the Fujiwara. They lost it by their own timidity rather than
through the machinations of their enemies. When the Emperor
Go-Shujaku was mortally ill, he appointed his eldest son, Go-Reizei,
to be his successor, and signified his desire that the latter's
half-brother, Takahito, should be nominated Crown Prince. Fujiwara
Yorimichi was then regent (kwampaku). To him, also, the dying
sovereign made known his wishes. Now Takahito had not been born of a
Fujiwara mother. The regent, therefore, while complying at once in
Go-Reizei's case, said that the matter of the Crown Prince might be
deferred, his purpose being to wait until a Fujiwara lady should bear
a son to Go-Reizei.
In thus acting, Yorimichi obeyed the policy from which his family had
never swerved through many generations, and which had now become an
unwritten law of the State. But his brother, Yoshinobu, read the
signs of the times in a sinister light. He argued that the real power
had passed to the military magnates, and that by attempting to stem
the current the Fujiwara might be swept away altogether. He therefore
repaired to the palace, and simulating ignorance of what had passed
between the late sovereign and the kwampaku, inquired whether it was
intended that Prince Takahito should enter a monastery. Go-Reizei
replied emphatically in the negative and related the facts, whereupon
Yoshinobu declared that the prince should be nominated forthwith. It
was done, and thus for the first time in a long series of years a
successor to the throne was proclaimed who had not the qualification
of a Fujiwara mother.
There remained to the kwampaku only one way of expressing his
dissent. During many years it had been customary that the Prince
Imperial, on his nomination, should receive from the Fujiwara regent
a famous sword called Tsubo-kiri (Jar-cutter). Yorimichi declined to
make the presentation in the case of Prince Takahito on the ground
that he was not of Fujiwara lineage. The prince--afterwards
Go-Sanjo--had the courage to deride this omission. "Of what service
is the sword to me?" he said. "I have no need of it."
Such an attitude was very significant of the changing times. During
more than twenty years of probation as Crown Prince, this sovereign,
Go-Sanjo, had ample opportunity of observing the arbitrary conduct of
the Fujiwara, and when he held the sceptre he neglected no means of
asserting the authority of the Crown, one conspicuous step being to
take a daughter of Go-Ichijo into the palace as chugu, a position
created for a Fujiwara and never previously occupied by any save a
Fujiwara.
Altogether, Go-Sanjo stands an imposing figure in the annals of his
country. Erudition he possessed in no small degree, and it was
supplemented by diligence, high moral courage and a sincere love of
justice. He also set to his people an example of frugality. It is
related that, observing as he passed through the streets one day, an
ox-carriage with gold mountings, he stopped his cortege and caused
the gold to be stripped off. Side by side with this record may be
placed his solicitude about the system of measures, which had fallen
into disorder. With his own hands he fashioned a standard which was
known to later generations as the senshi-masu of the Enkyu era
(1069-1074). The question of tax-free manors (shoen) also received
much attention. During the reign of Go-Shujaku, decrees were
frequently issued forbidding the creation of these estates. The
Fujiwara shoen were conspicuous. Michinaga possessed wide manors
everywhere, and Yorimichi, his son, was not less insatiable. Neither
Go-Shujaku nor Go-Reizei could check the abuse. But Go-Sanjo resorted
to a really practical measure. He established a legislative office
where all titles to shoen had to be examined and recorded, the Daiho
system of State ownership being restored, so that all rights of
private property required official sanction, the Court also becoming
the judge in all disputes as to validity of tenure.
These orders came like a clap of thunder in a blue sky. Many great
personages had acquired vast manorial tracts by processes that could
not endure the scrutiny of the Kiroku-jo (registrar's office).
Yorimichi, the kwampaku, was a conspicuous example. On receipt of the
order to register, he could only reply that he had succeeded to his
estates as they stood and that no documentary evidence was available.
Nevertheless, he frankly added that, if his titles were found
invalid, he was prepared to surrender his estates, since the position
he occupied required him to be an administrator of law, not an
obstacle to its administration. This was the same noble who had
refused to present the sword, Tsubo-kiri, to Go-Sanjo when the latter
was nominated Crown Prince. The Emperor might now have exacted heavy
reparation. But his Majesty shrank from anything like spoliation. A
special decree was issued exempting from proof of title all manors
held by chancellors, regents, or their descendants.
SALE OF OFFICES AND RANKS
Another abuse with which Go-Sanjo sought to deal drastically was the
sale of offices and ranks. This was an evil of old standing. Whenever
special funds were required for temple building or palace
construction, it had become customary to invite contributions from
local magnates, who, in return, received, or were renewed in their
tenure of, the post of provincial governor. Official ranks were
similarly disposed of. At what time this practice had its origin the
records do not show, but during the reign of Kwammu (782-805,) the
bestowal of rank in return for a money payment was interdicted, and
Miyoshi Kiyotsura, in his celebrated memorial to Daigo (898-930),
urged that the important office of kebiishi should never be conferred
in consideration of money. But in the days of Ichijo, the acquisition
of tax-free manors increased rapidly and the treasury's income
diminished correspondingly, so that it became inevitable, in times of
State need, that recourse should be had to private contributions, the
contributors being held to have shown "merit" entitling them to rank
or office or both.
Go-Sanjo strictly interdicted all such transactions. But this action
brought him into sharp collision with the then kwampaku, Fujiwara
Norimichi. The latter built within the enclosure of Kofuku-ji at Nara
an octagonal edifice containing two colossal images of Kwannon. On
this nanen-do the regent spent a large sum, part of which was
contributed by the governor of the province. Norimichi therefore
applied to the Emperor for an extension of the governor's term of
office. Go-Sanjo refused his assent. But Norimichi insisted. Finally
the Emperor, growing indignant, declared that the kwampaku's sole
title to respect being derived from his maternal relationship to the
sovereign, he deserved no consideration at the hands of an Emperor
whose mother was not a Fujiwara. It was a supreme moment in the
fortunes of the Fujiwara. Norimichi angrily swept out of the
presence, crying aloud: "The divine influence of Kasuga Daimyojin*
ceases from to-day. Let every Fujiwara official follow me." Thereat
all the Fujiwara courtiers flocked out of the palace, and the Emperor
had no choice but to yield. Victory rested with the Fujiwara, but it
was purchased at the loss of some prestige.
*Titulary deity of the Fujiwara-uji.
CAMERA SOVEREIGNTY
Their obviously selfish device of seating a minor on the throne and
replacing him as soon as he reached years of discretion, had been
gradually invested by the Fujiwara with an element of spurious
altruism. They had suggested the principle that the tenure of
sovereign power should not be exercised exclusively. Go-Sanjo held,
however, that such a system not only impaired the Imperial authority
but also was unnatural. No father, he argued, could be content to
divest himself of all practical interest in the affairs of his
family, and to condemn the occupant of the throne to sit with folded
hands was to reduce him to the rank of a puppet. Therefore, even
though a sovereign abdicated, he should continue to take an active
part in the administration of State affairs. This was, in short,
Go-Sanjo's plan for rendering the regent a superfluity. He proposed
to substitute camera government (Insei) for control by a kwampaku.
But fate willed that he should not carry his project into practice.
He abdicated, owing to ill health, in 1073, and died the following
year.
SHIRAKAWA
Go-Sanjo was succeeded by his eldest son, Shirakawa. He had taken for
consort the daughter of Fujiwara Yorimichi. This lady, Kenko, had
been adopted into the family of Fujiwara Morozane, and it is recorded
that Yorimichi and Morozane shed tears of delight when they heard of
her selection by the Crown Prince--so greatly had the influence of
the Fujiwara declined. Shirakawa modelled himself on his father. He
personally administered affairs of State, displaying assiduity and
ability but not justice. Unlike his father he allowed himself to be
swayed by favour and affection, arbitrarily ignored time-honoured
rules, and was guilty of great extravagance in matters of religion.
But he carried into full effect the camera (or cloistered) system of
government, thereafter known as Insei. For, in 1086, after thirteen
years' reign, he resigned the sceptre to an eight-year-old boy,
Horikawa, his son by the chugu, Kenko. The untimely death of the
latter, for whom he entertained a strong affection, was the proximate
cause of Shirakawa's abdication, but there can be little doubt that
he had always contemplated such a step. He took the tonsure and the
religious title of Ho-o (pontiff), but in the Toba palace, his new
residence, he organized an administrative machine on the exact lines
of that of the Court.
ENGRAVING: KO-NO-MA (ROOM) NISHI (WEST) HONGWAN-JI TEMPLE, AT KYOTO
(An example of "Shoinzukuri" building)
Thenceforth the functions of Imperialism were limited to matters of
etiquette and ceremony, all important State business being transacted
by the Ho-o and his camera entourage. If the decrees of the Court
clashed with those of the cloister, as was occasionally inevitable,
the former had to give way. Thus, it can scarcely be said that there
was any division of authority. But neither was there any progress.
The earnest efforts made by Go-Sanjo to check the abuse of sales of
rank and office as well as the alienation of State lands into private
manors, were rendered wholly abortive under the sway of Shirakawa.
The cloistered Emperor was a slave of superstition. He caused no less
than six temples* to be built of special grandeur, and to the
principal of these (Hosho-ji) he made frequent visits in state, on
which occasions gorgeous ceremonies were performed. He erected the
Temple of the 33,333 Images of Kwannon (the Sanjusangen-do) in Kyoto;
he made four progresses to the monastery at Koya and eight to that at
Kumano; he commissioned artists to paint 5470 Buddhist pictures,
sculptors to cast 127 statues each sixteen feet high; 3150 life-size,
and 2930 of three feet or less, and he raised twenty-one large
pagodas and 446,630 small ones.
*These were designated Roku-sho-ji, or "six excellent temples."
His respect for Buddhism was so extreme that he strictly interdicted
the taking of life in any form, a veto which involved the destruction
of eight thousand fishing nets and the loss of their means of
sustenance to innumerable fishermen, as well as the release of all
falcons kept for hawking. It has even been suggested that Shirakawa's
piety amounted to a species of insanity, for, on one occasion, when
rain prevented a contemplated progress to Hosho-ji, he sentenced the
rain to imprisonment and caused a quantity to be confined in a
vessel.* To the nation, however, all this meant something very much
more than a mere freak. It meant that the treasury was depleted and
that revenue had to be obtained by recourse to the abuses which
Go-Sanjo had struggled so earnestly to check, the sale of offices and
ranks, even in perpetuity, and the inclusion of great tracts of State
land in private manors.
*This silliness was spoken of by the people as ame-kingoku (the
incarceration of the rain).
TOBA
Horikawa died in 1107, after a reign of twenty years, and was
succeeded by his son Toba, a child of five. Affairs of State
continued to be directed by the cloistered sovereign, and he chose
for his grandson's consort Taiken-mon-in, who bore to him a son, the
future Emperor Sutoku. Toba abdicated, after a reign of fifteen
years, on the very day of Sutoku's nomination as heir apparent, and,
six years later, Shirakawa died (1128), having administered the
empire from the cloister during a space of forty-three years.
As a device to wrest the governing power from the grasp of the
Fujiwara, Go-Sanjo's plan was certainly successful, and had he lived
to put it into operation himself, the results must have been
different. But in the greatly inferior hands of Shirakawa this new
division of Imperial authority and the segregation of its source
undoubtedly conspired to prepare the path for military feudalism and
for curtained Emperors.
Toba, with the title of Ho-o, took the tonsure and administered from
the cloister after Shirakawa's death. One of his first acts after
abdication was to take another consort, a daughter of Fujiwara
Tadazane, whom he made Empress under the name of Kaya-no-in; but as
she bore him no offspring, he placed in the Toba palace a second
Fujiwara lady, Bifuku-mon-in, daughter of Nagazane. By her he had
(1139) a son whom he caused to be adopted by the Empress, preparatory
to placing him on the throne as Emperor Konoe, at the age of three.
Thus, the cloistered sovereigns followed faithfully in the footsteps
of the Fujiwara.
SOLDIER-PRIESTS
A phenomenon which became conspicuous during the reign of Shirakawa
was recourse to violence by Buddhist priests. This abuse had its
origin in the acquisition of large manors by temples and the
consequent employment of soldiers to act as guards. Ultimately, great
monasteries like Kofuku-ji, Onjo-ji, and Enryaku-ji came to possess
thousands of these armed men, and consequently wielded temporal
power. Shirakawa's absorbing belief in Buddhism created opportunities
for the exercise of this influence. Keenly anxious that a son should
be born of his union with Kenko, the daughter of Fujiwara Yorimichi,
his Majesty bespoke the prayers of Raigo, lord-abbot of Onjo-ji. It
happened that unsuccessful application had frequently been made by
the Onjo-ji monks for an important religious privilege. Raigo
informed the Emperor that, if this favour were promised, the prayer
for a prince would certainly be heard. Shirakawa made the promise,
and Kenko gave birth to Prince Atsubumi. But when the Emperor would
have fulfilled his pledge, the priests of Enryaku-ji (Hiei-zan),
jealous that a privilege which they alone possessed should be granted
to priests of another monastery, repaired to the Court en masse to
protest. Shirakuwu yielded to this representation and despatched Oye
no Masafusa to placate Raigo. But the abbot refused to listen. He
starved himself to death, passing day and night in devotion, and
shortly after his demise the little prince, born in answer to his
prayers, died of small-pox.
In an age when superstition prevailed widely the death of the child
was, of course, attributed to the incantations of the abbot. From
that time a fierce feud raged between Onjo-ji and Enryaku-ji. In the
year 1081, the priest-soldiers of the latter set the torch to the
former, and, flocking to Kyoto in thousands, threw the capital into
disorder. Order was with difficulty restored through the exertions of
the kebiishi and the two Minamoto magnates, Yoshiiye and Yoshitsuna,
but it was deemed expedient to guard the palace and the person of
the Emperor with bushi. Twelve years later (1093), thousands of
cenobites, carrying the sacred tree of the Kasuga shrine, marched
from Nara to Kyoto, clamouring for vengeance on the governor of
Omi, whom they charged with arresting and killing the officials
of the shrine. This became a precedent. Thereafter, whenever the
priests had a grievance, they flocked to the palace carrying the
sacred tree of some temple or shrine. The soldier cenobites of
Enryaku-ji--yama-hoshi, as they were called--showed themselves
notably turbulent. They inaugurated the device of replacing the
sacred tree with the "divine car," against which none dare raise a
hand or shoot an arrow. If their petition were rejected, they would
abandon the car in the streets of the capital, thus placing the city
under a curse.
A notable instance occurred, in 1095, when these yama-hoshi of
Hiyoshi preferred a charge of blood-guiltiness against Minamoto
Yoshitsuna, governor of Mino. They flocked to the palace in a
truculent mob, but the bushi on duty, being under the command of a
Minamoto, did not hesitate to use their bows. Thereupon the
yama-hoshi discarded the divine car, hastened back to the temple, and
assembling all the priests, held a solemn service invoking the wrath
of heaven on the State. In an age of profound superstition such
action threw the Court into consternation, and infinite pains were
taken to persuade Shinto officials of an independent shrine to carry
the divine car back to Hiei-zan.
Instances of such turbulence were not infrequent, and they account in
part for the reckless prodigality shown by Shirakawa in building and
furnishing temples. The cenobites did not confine themselves to
demonstrations at the palace; they had their own quarrels also.
Kofuku-ji's hand was against Kimbusen and Todai-ji, and not a few
priests doffed the stole and cassock to engage in temporary
brigandage. The great Taira leader, Tadamori, and his son,
Kiyomori--one of the most prominent figures on the stage of medieval
Japan--dealt strongly with the Shinto communities at Hiyoshi and
Gion, and drove the Kofuku-ji priests out of the streets of Kyoto,
the result being that this great military family became an object of
execration at Kofuku-ji and Enryaku-ji alike. With difficulty the
Court kept peace between them. It is related of Shirakawa Ho-o that
the three things which he declared to defy his control were the
waters of the Kamo River, the fall of the dice, and the yama-hoshi.
ENGRAVING: PLAYING BATTLEDORE AND SHUTTLECOCK (From a painting)
CHAPTER XXIII
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HEIAN EPOCH
GENERAL SUMMARY
THE period we are considering is a long one which owes its unity to
the sole fact that the capitol was at Kyoto. It is, therefore, unsafe
to generalize on its manners and customs. But we may say with a
degree of accuracy that the epoch was marked by an increasing luxury
and artificiality, due largely to the adoption of Chinese customs.
The capital city was built on a Chinese pattern and the salient
characteristics of the Court during the period named from the new
capital are on the Chinese pattern too. The Chinese idea of a civil
service in which worth was tested by examinations was carried to a
pedantic extreme both in administration and in society. In these
examinations the important paper was in Chinese prose composition,
which was much as if Latin prose were the main subject to prove the
fitness of a candidate for an English or American administrative
post! And the tests of social standing and the means of gaining fame
at Court were skill in verse-writing, in music and dancing, in
calligraphy and other forms of drawing, and in taste in landscape
gardening.
Ichijo was famed as a musician and a prose writer, and Saga as a
calligraphist. The Ako incident (see p. 240) illustrates the lengths
to which pedantry was carried in matters of administration. And the
story of the ill-success at the capital of the young soldier Taira
Masakado, contrasted with the popularity of his showily vicious
kinsman Sadabumi (see p. 253), illustrate what Murdoch means when he
says that the early emperors of the Heian epoch had an "unbalanced
craze for Chinese fashions, for Chinese manners, and above all for
Chinese literature." Remarkable though the power of the Japanese
people always seems to have been to assimilate foreign culture in
large doses and speedily, it is hardly to be expected that at this
period, any more than at a later one when there came in a sudden
flood of European civilization, the nation should not have suffered
somewhat--that it should not have had the defects of its qualities.
LUXURY OF THE COURT
Of Nimmyo's luxury and architectural extravagance we have already
spoken, and of the arraignment of prodigality in dress, banquets, and
funerals in the famous report of Miyoshi Kiyotsura (see p. 246).
Indeed, we might almost cite the madness of the Emperor Yozei as
being a typical, though extreme, case of the hysteria of the young
and affected court nobles. Two of the Fujiwara have been pilloried in
native records for ostentation: one for carrying inside his clothes
hot rice-dumplings to keep himself warm, and, more important, to
fling them away one after another as they got cold; and the other for
carrying a fan decorated with a painting of a cuckoo and for
imitating the cuckoo's cry whenever he opened the fan.
CONVENTION AND MORALITY
If the men of the period were effeminate and emotional, the women
seem to have sunk to a lower stage of morals than in any other era,
and sexual morality and wifely fidelity to have been abnormally bad
and lightly esteemed. The story of Ariwara Narihira, prince, poet,
painter and Don Juan, and of Taka and her rise to power (see p. 238)
has already been told; and it is to be noted that the Fujiwara
working for the control of the Throne through Imperial consorts
induced, even forced, the Emperors to set a bad example in such
matters. But over all this vice there was a veneer of elaborate
etiquette. Even in the field a breach of etiquette was a deadly
insult: as we have seen (p. 254) Taira Masakado lost the aid of a
great lieutenant in his revolt because he forgot to bind up his hair
properly before he received a visitor. At Court, etiquette and
ceremony became the only functions of the nominal monarch after the
camera government of the cloistered ex-Emperors had begun. And
aristocratic women, though they might be notoriously unfaithful, kept
up a show of modesty, covering their faces in public, refusing to
speak to a stranger, going abroad in closed carriages or heavily
veiled with hoods, and talking to men with their faces hid by a fan,
a screen, or a sliding door, these degrees of intimacy being nicely
adjusted to the rank and station of the person addressed. Love-making
and wooing were governed by strict and conventional etiquette, and an
interchange of letters of a very literary and artificial type and of
poems usually took the place of personal meetings. Indeed, literary
skill and appreciation of Chinese poetry and art were the main things
sought for in a wife.
ENGRAVING: ARIWARA NARIHARA (Poet and Painter)
AMUSEMENTS
The pastimes of Court society in these years differed not so much in
kind as in degree from those of the Nara epoch. In amusement, as in
all else, there was extravagance and elaboration. What has already
been said of the passion for literature would lead us to expect to
find in the period an extreme development of the couplet-tournament
(uta awase) which had had a certain vogue in the Nara epoch and was
now a furore at Court. The Emperor Koko and other Emperors in the
first half of the Heian epoch gave splendid verse-making parties,
when the palace was richly decorated, often with beautiful flowers.
In this earlier part of the period the gentlemen and ladies of the
Court were separated, sitting on opposite sides of the room in which
the party was held. Later in the Heian epoch the composition of love
letters was a favorite competitive amusement, and although canons of
elegant phraseology were implicitly followed, the actual contents of
these fictitious letters were frankly indecent.
Other literary pastimes were: "incense-comparing," a combination of
poetical dilletantism and skill in recognizing the fragrance of
different kinds of incense burned separately or in different
combinations; supplying famous stanzas of which only a word or so was
given; making riddles in verse; writing verse or drawing pictures on
fans,--testing literary and artistic skill; and making up lists of
related ideographs. The love of flowers was carried to extravagant
lengths. The camera Court in particular organized magnificent picnics
to see the cherry-trees of Hosho-ji and the snowy forest at Koya.
There were spring festivals of sunrise at Sagano and autumn moonlight
excursions to the Oi River. The taste of the time was typified in
such vagaries as covering trees with artificial flowers in winter and
in piling up snow so that some traces of snowy landscapes might still
be seen in spring or summer. Such excess reminds the student of
decadent Rome as portrayed by the great Latin satirists.
Other favorite amusements at Court were: gathering sweet-flag in
summer and comparing the length of its roots, hawking, fan-lotteries,
a kind of backgammon called sugoroku, and different forms of
gambling. Football was played, a Chinese game in which the winner was
he who kicked the ball highest and kept it longest from touching the
ground.
Another rage was keeping animals as pets, especially cats and dogs,
which received human names and official titles and, when they died,
elaborate funerals. Kittens born at the palace at the close of the
tenth century were treated with consideration comparable to that
bestowed on Imperial infants. To the cat-mother the courtiers sent
the ceremonial presents after childbirth, and one of the
ladies-in-waiting was honoured by an appointment as guardian to the
young kittens.
ENGRAVING: SKETCH OF "SHINDENZUKUBI" (Style of Dwelling House of
Nobles in the Heian Epoch)
MUSIC AND DANCING
With the growth of luxury in the Heian epoch and the increase of
extravagant entertainment and amusement, there was a remarkable
development of music and the dance. Besides the six-stringed harp or
wagon, much more complex harps or lutes of thirteen or twenty-five
strings were used, and in general there was a great increase in the
number and variety of instruments. Indeed, we may list as many as
twenty kinds of musical instruments and three or four times as many
varieties of dance in the Heian epoch. Most of the dances were
foreign in their origin, some being Hindu, more Korean, and still
more Chinese, according to the usual classification. But imported
dances, adaptations of foreign dances, and the older native styles
were all more or less pantomimic.
ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE GARDENING
Except in the new capital city with its formal plan there were no
great innovations in architecture. Parks around large houses and
willows and cherry-trees planted along the streets of Kyoto relieved
this stiffness of the great city. Landscape-gardening became an art.
Gardens were laid out in front of the row of buildings that made up
the home of each noble or Court official.
Convention was nearly as rigid here as it was in Court etiquette. In
the centre of this formal garden was a miniature lake with bridges
leading to an island; there was a waterfall feeding the lake, usually
at its southern end; and at the eastern and western limits of the
garden, respectively, a grotto for angling and a "hermitage of spring
water"--a sort of picnic ground frequented on summer evenings. The
great artist, Kanaoka, of the end of the ninth century worked at
laying out these rockeries and tiny parks. A native school of
architects, or more correctly carpenters, had arisen in the province
of Hida. There was less temple building than in the Nara epoch and
more attention was given to the construction of elegant palaces for
court officials and nobles. But these were built of wood and were far
from being massive or imposing. As in other periods of Japanese
architecture, the exterior was sacrificed to the interior where there
were choice woodworking and joinery in beautiful woods, and
occasionally screen-or wall-painting as decoration. There was still
little house-furnishing. Mats (tatami), fitted together so as to
cover the floor evenly, were not used until the very close of the
period; and then, too, sliding doors began to be used as partitions.
The coverings of these doors, silk or paper, were the "walls" for
Japanese mural paintings of the period. As the tatami came into more
general use, the bedstead of the earlier period, which was itself a
low dais covered with mats and with posts on which curtains and nets
might be hung, went out of use, being replaced by silken quilts
spread on the floor-mats. Cushions and arm-rests were the only other
important pieces of furniture.
COSTUME
In the Heian epoch, Court costume was marked by the two
characteristics that we have seen elsewhere in the
period--extravagance and convention. Indeed, it may be said that
Chinese dress and etiquette, introduced after the time of Kwammu were
the main source of the luxury of the period. Costume was extreme, not
alone in being rich and costly, but in amount of material used.
Princely and military head-dresses were costly, jewelled, and
enormously tall, and women wore their hair, if possible, so that it
trailed below their elaborate skirts. Men's sleeves and trousers were
cut absurdly large and full; and women's dress was not merely baggy
but voluminous. At a palace fete in 1117 the extreme of elegance was
reached by ladies each wearing a score or so of different coloured
robes. In this period the use of costly and gorgeous brocades and
silks with beautiful patterns and splendid embroideries began.
Women at Court, and the Court dandies who imitated them, painted
artificial eye-brows high on the forehead, shaving or plucking out
the real brows, powdered and rouged their faces and stained their
teeth black.
ART
Ceramics did not advance in the Heian epoch, but in all other
branches of art there were rapid strides forward. The development of
interior decoration in temples, monasteries, and palaces was due to
progress on the part of lacquerers and painters. Gold lacquer,
lacquer with a gold-dust surface (called nashi-ji), and lacquer
inlaid with mother-of-pearl were increasingly used. Thanks in part to
the painters' bureau (E-dokoro) in the palace, Japanese painters
began to be ranked with their Chinese teachers. Koze Kanaoka was the
first to be thus honored, and it is on record that he was engaged to
paint figures of arhats on the sliding doors of the palace. The epoch
also boasted Fujiwara Tameuji, founder of the Takuma family of
artists, and Fujiwara Motomitsu, founder of the Tosa academy. The
sculpture of the time showed greater skill, but less grandeur of
conception, than the work of the Nara masters. Sculpture in wood was
important, dating especially from the 11th century. Jocho, possibly
the greatest of the workers in this medium, followed Chinese models,
and carved a famous Buddha for Michinaga's temple of Hosho-ji (1022).
Jocho's descendant Unkei was the ancestor of many busshi or sculptors
of Buddhist statues; and Kwaikei, a pupil of Unkei's brother Jokaku,
is supposed to have collaborated with Unkei on the great
gate-guardians of the Todai-ji temple. It is important to note that,
especially in the latter half of the Heian epoch, painters and
sculptors were usually men of good family. Art had become
fashionable.
Two minor forms of sculpture call for special attention. The
decoration of armour reached a high pitch of elaboration; and the
beautiful armour of Minamoto Yoshitsune is still preserved at Kasuga,
Nara. And masks to be used in mimetic dances, such as the No,
received attention from many great glyptic artists.
ENGRAVING: RAKAN (BUDDHIST DISCIPLE) (Carving in Stone at Horiuji)
AGRICULTURE
In the year 799, cotton-seed, carried by an Indian junk which drifted
to the coast of Mikawa, was sown in the provinces of Nankai-do and
Saikai-do, and fifteen years later, when Saga reigned, tea plants
were brought from overseas and were set out in several provinces. The
Emperor Nimmyo (834-850) had buckwheat sown in the home provinces
(Kinai), and the same sovereign encouraged the cultivation of
sorghum, panic-grass, barley, wheat, large white beans, small red
beans, and sesame. It was at this time that the ina-hata (paddy-loom)
was devised for drying sheaves of rice before winnowing. Although it
was a very simple implement, it nevertheless proved of such great
value that an Imperial command was issued urging its wide use. In
short, in the early years of the Heian epoch, the Throne took an
active part in promoting agriculture, but this wholesome interest
gradually declined in proportion to the extension of tax-free manors
(shoen).
TRADE
The story of trade resembled that of agriculture prosperous
development at the beginning of the era, followed by stagnation and
decline. Under Kwummu (782-805) and his immediate successors, canals
and roads were opened, irrigation works were undertaken, and coins
were frequently cast. But coins were slow in finding their way into
circulation, and taxes were generally paid in kind. Nevertheless, for
purposes of trade, prices of staples were fixed in terms of coin.
Thus in the year 996, a koku (about 5 bushels) of rice was the
equivalent of 1000 cash (ik-kan-mon); a koku of barley was valued at
2500 cash, and a hiki (25 yards) of silk at 2000 cash. Yet in actual
practice, commodities were often assessed in terms of silk or rice.
Goods were packed in stores (kura) or disposed on shelves in shops
(machi-ya), and at ports where merchantmen assembled there were
houses called tsuya (afterwards toiya) where wholesale transactions
were conducted on the commission system.
The city of Kyoto was divided into two parts, an eastern capital
(Tokyo) and a western capital (Saikyo). During the first half of
every month all commercial transactions were conducted in the eastern
capital, where fifty-one kinds of commodities were sold in fifty-one
shops; and during the second half the western capital alone was
frequented, with its thirty-three shops and thirty-three classes of
goods. After the abolition of embassies to China, at the close of the
ninth century, oversea trade declined for a time. But the inhabitants
of Tsukushi and Naniwa, which were favourably located for voyages,
continued to visit China and Korea, whence they are reported to have
obtained articles of value. Other ports frequented by foreign-going
ships were Kanzaki, Eguchi, Kaya, Otsu, and Hakata.
SUPERSTITION
Turning to the inner life of the people in the Heian epoch, we may
say with little fear of exaggeration that the most notable thing was
the increase of superstition. This was due in part at least to the
growth in Japan of the power of Buddhism, and, be it understood, of
Buddhism of a degraded and debased form. The effort to combine
Buddhism and Shinto probably robbed the latter of any power it might
otherwise have had to withstand superstition. Although men of the
greatest ability went into the Buddhist monasteries, including many
Imperial princes, their eminence did not make them better leaders and
guides of the people, but rather aided them in misleading and
befooling the laity. Murdoch in speaking of the beginning of the 12th
century says: "At this date, Buddhism in Japan from a moral point of
view was in not a whit better case than was the Church of Rome
between the death of Sylvester II and the election of Leo IX." An
interesting parallel might be drawn between Japanese and European
superstition, as each was consequent on the low standards of the
clergy of the times. The famous report of Miyoshi Kiyotsura, to which
we have so often alluded, spoke in no measured terms of the greed and
vice of the Buddhist priests. And the character of these hireling
shepherds goes far to explain the gross superstition of the tune. We
have told (p. 274) the story of the abbot Raigo and how the Court was
forced to purchase from him intercessory prayers for the birth of an
heir,--and of the death of the heir in apparent consequence of
Raigo's displeasure. Near the end of the ninth century one Emperor
made a gift of 500,000 yen for prayers that seemed to have saved the
life of a favourite minister. Prayers for rain, for prolonged life,
for victory over an enemy, were implicitly believed to be efficient,
and priests received large bribes to make these prayers. Or they
received other rewards: the privilege of coming to Court in a
carriage was granted to one priest for bringing rain after a long
drought and to another for saving the life of a sick prince in 981.
As men got along in years they had masses said for the prolongation
of their lives,--with an increase in the premium each year for such
life insurance. Thus, at forty, a man had masses said in forty
shrines, but ten years later at fifty shrines in all.
In this matter, as in others, the influence of the Fujiwara was
great. They were in a close alliance with the priests, and they
controlled the Throne through consorts and kept the people in check
through priests and superstitions.
With the widespread belief in the power of priestly prayer there was
prevalent a fear of spirits and demons. Oda received a promise in a
dream that he would become Emperor. In the next generation the
Emperor Daigo exiled Sugawara Michizane to Kyusml, where the exile
died in two years. Soon afterwards the Emperor fell sick; and this,
the disaster of 930 when a thunderstorm killed many nobles in the
Imperial palace, and the sudden death of Michizane's accusers and of
the Crown Prince were explained as due to the ill-will of the injured
man's spirit. His titles were restored and everything possible was
done to placate the ghost (see p. 244). To an earlier period belongs
the similar story of Kwammu and his efforts to placate the spirit of
his younger brother whom he had exiled and killed. Kwammu, fearing
that death was coming upon him, built a temple to the shade of this
brother. A cloud over the palace of another Emperor was interpreted
as a portentous monster, half monkey and half snake, and one of the
Minamoto warriors won fame for his daring in shooting an arrow at the
cloud, which then vanished. Equally foolhardy and marvellous was the
deed of Fujiwara Michinaga, who alone of a band of courtiers in the
palace dared one dark night to go unattended and without lights from
one end of the palace to the other.
When the new city of Kyoto was built, a Buddhist temple was put near
the northeast gate to protect the capital from demons, since the
northeast quarter of the sky belonged to the demons; and on a hill a
clay statue was erected, eight feet high and armed with bow, arrows
and cuirass, to guard the city. So implicit was the belief in the
power of this colossal charm that it was said that it moved and
shouted to warn the city of danger.
ENGRAVING: EARTHEN-WARE HOUSE FOR ORNAMENT
EDUCATION
There was, of course, no organized system of schools in this period,
but education was not neglected. A university was established in the
newly built capital, and there were five family schools or academies
for the youth of the separate uji. A school and hospital, founded by
Fujiwara Fuyutsugu in 825, received an Imperial endowment. At almost
exactly the same time (823) the Bunsho-in was founded by Sugawara.
The Sogaku-in was founded in 831 by Arihara Yukihara. In 850 the
consort of the emperor Saga built the Gakkwan-in for the Tachibana
family; and in 841 the palace of Junna became a school. And there was
one quasi-public school, opened in 828, in the Toji monastery south
of the capital, which was not limited to any family and was open to
commoners.
ENGRAVING: NETSUKE (Hand-carvings in Ivory)
ENGRAVING: ARCHERY IN OLD JAPAN
CHAPTER XXIV
THE EPOCH OF THE GEN (MINAMOTO) AND THE HEI (TAIRA)
SUPREMACY OF THE MILITARY CLASS
DESCRIBED superficially, the salient distinction between the epochs
of the Fujiwara and the Gen-pei was that during the former the
administrative power lay in the hands of the Court nobles in Kyoto,
whereas, during the latter, it lay in the hands of the military
magnates in the provinces. The processes by which this change was
evolved have already been explained in part and will be further
elucidated as we advance. Here, however, it is advisable to note that
this transfer of authority was, in one sense, a substitution of
native civilization for foreign, and, in another, a reversion to the
conditions that had existed at the time of the Yamato conquest. It
was a substitution of native civilization for foreign, because the
exotic culture imported from China and Korea had found its chief
field of growth in the capital and had never extended largely to the
provinces; and it was a reversion to the conditions existing at the
time of the Yamato conquest, because at that time the sword and the
sceptre had been one.
The Mononobe and the Otomo families constituted the pillars of the
State under the early Emperors. Their respective ancestors were
Umashimade no Mikoto and Michi no Omi no Mikoto. The Japanese term
monobe (or mononofu) was expressed by Chinese ideographs having the
sound, bushi. Thus, though it is not possible to fix the exact date
when the expression, bushi, came into general use, it is possible to
be sure that the thing itself existed from time immemorial. When the
Yamato sovereign undertook his eastward expedition, Umashimade with
his monobe subdued the central districts, and Michi no Omi with his
otomo and Okume-be consolidated these conquests. Thereafter the
monobe were organized into the konoe-fu (palace guards) and the otomo
into the emon-fu (gate guards). Not military matters alone, but also
criminal jurisdiction, belonged to the functions of these two.
THE BUSHI
The earliest type of the Yamato race having thus been military, it
becomes important to inquire what tenets constituted the soldier's
code in old Japan. Our first guide is the celebrated anthology,
Manyo-shu, compiled in the ninth century and containing some poems
that date from the sixth. From this we learn that the Yamato
monono-fu believed himself to have inherited the duty of dying for
his sovereign if occasion required. In that cause he must be prepared
at all times to find a grave, whether upon the desolate moor or in
the stormy sea. The dictates of filial piety ranked next in the
ethical scale. The soldier was required to remember that his body had
been given to him by his parents, and that he must never bring
disgrace upon his family name or ever disregard the dictates of
honour. Loyalty to the Throne, however, took precedence among moral
obligations. Parent, wife, and child must all be abandoned at the
call of patriotism. Such, as revealed in the pages of the Myriad
Leaves, were the simple ethics of the early Japanese soldier. And it
was largely from the Mononobe and Otomo families that high officials
and responsible administrators were chosen at the outset.
When Buddhism arrived in the sixth century, we have seen that it
encountered resolute opposition at the hands of Moriya, the o-muraji
of the Mononobe family. That was natural. The elevation of an alien
deity to a pedestal above the head of the ancestral Kami seemed
specially shocking to the soldier class. But the tendency of the time
was against conservatism. The Mononobe and the Otomo forfeited their
position, and the Soga stepped into their place, only to be succeeded
in turn by the Fujiwara. These last, earnest disciples of Chinese
civilization, looked down on the soldier, and delegated to him alone
the use of brute force and control of the criminal classes, reserving
for themselves the management of civil government and the pursuit of
literature, and even leaving politics and law in the hands of the
schoolmen.
In these circumstances the military families of Minamoto (Gen) and
Taira (Hei), performing the duties of guards and of police, gradually
acquired influence; were trusted by the Court on all occasions
demanding an appeal to force, and spared no pains to develop the
qualities that distinguished them--the qualities of the bushi. Thus,
as we turn the pages of history, we find the ethics of the soldier
developing into a recognized code. His sword becomes an object of
profound veneration from the days of Minamoto Mitsunaka, who summons
a skilled swordsmith to the capital and entrusts to him the task of
forging two blades, which, after seven days of fasting and prayer and
sixty days of tempering, emerge so trenchant that they are thereafter
handed down from generation to generation of the Minamoto as
treasured heirlooms.*
*The swords were named "Knee-cutter" and "Beard-cutter," because when
tested for decapitating criminals, they severed not only the necks
but also the beard and the knees.
That the bushi's word must be sacred and irrevocable is established
by the conduct of Minamoto Yorinobu who, having promised to save the
life of a bandit if the latter restore a child taken as a hostage,
refuses subsequently to inflict any punishment whatever on the
robber. That a bushi must prefer death to surrender is a principle
observed in thousands of cases, and that his family name must be
carefully guarded against every shadow of reproach is proved by his
habit of prefacing a duel on the battle-field with a recitation of
the titles and deeds of his ancestors. To hold to his purpose in
spite of evil report; to rise superior to poverty and hardship; not
to rest until vengeance is exacted for wrong done to a benefactor or
a relation; never to draw his sword except in deadly earnest--these
are all familiar features of the bushi's practice, though the order
and times of their evolution cannot be precisely traced.
Even more characteristic is the quality called fudoshin, or
immobility of heart. That this existed in practice from an early era
cannot be doubted, but its cultivation by a recognized system of
training dates from the beginning of the thirteenth century, when the
introspective tenet (kwanshin-ho) of the Zen sect of Buddhism taught
believers to divest themselves wholly of passion and emotion and to
educate a mind unmoved by its environment, so that, in the storm and
stress of battle, the bushi remains as calm and as self-possessed as
in the quietude of the council chamber or the sacred stillness of the
cloister. The crown of all his qualities was self-respect. He rated
himself too high to descend to petty quarrels, or to make the
acquisition of rank his purpose, or to have any regard for money.
THE MILITARY ART
As for tactics, individual prowess was the beginning and the end of
all contests, and strategy consisted mainly of deceptions, surprises,
and ambushes. There were, indeed, certain recognized principles
derived from treatises compiled by Sung and 'Ng,* two Chinese
generals of the third century A.D. These laid down that troops for
offensive operations in the field must be twice as numerous as the
enemy; those for investing a fortress should be to the garrison as
ten to one, and those for escalade as five to one. Outflanking
methods were always to be pursued against an adversary holding high
ground, and the aim should be to sever the communications of an army
having a mountain or a river on its rear. When the enemy selected a
position involving victory or death, he was to be held, not attacked,
and when it was possible to surround a foe, one avenue of escape
should always be left to him, since desperate men fight fiercely. In
crossing a river, much space should separate the van from the rear of
the crossing army, and an enemy crossing was not to be attacked until
his forces had become well engaged in the operation. Birds soaring in
alarm should suggest an ambush, and beasts breaking cover, an
approaching attack. There was much spying. A soldier who could win
the trust of the enemy, sojourn in his midst, and create dissensions
in his camp, was called a hero.
*See Captain Calthrop's The Book of War.
Judged by this code of precepts, the old-time soldier of the East
has been denounced by some critics as representing the lowest
type of military ethics. But such a criticism is romantic. The
secret-intelligence department of a twentieth-century army employs
and creates opportunities just as zealously as did the disciples of
Sung and 'Ng. It is not here that the defects in the bushi's ethics
must be sought. The most prominent of those defects was indifference
to the rights of the individual. Bushido taught a vassal to sacrifice
his own interest and his own life on the altar of loyalty, but it did
not teach a ruler to recognize and respect the rights of the ruled.
It taught a wife to efface herself for her husband's sake, but it did
not teach a husband any corresponding obligation towards a wife. In a
word, it expounded the relation of the whole to its parts, but left
unexpounded the relation of the parts to one another.
A correlated fault was excessive reverence for rank and rigid
exclusiveness of class. There was practically no ladder for the
commoner,--the farmer, the artisan, and the merchant--to ascend into
the circle of the samurai. It resulted that, in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, gifted men of the despised grades sought in the
cloister an arena for the exercise of their talents, and thus, while
the bushi received no recruits, the commoners lost their better
elements, and Buddhism became a stage for secular ambition. It can
not be doubted that by closing the door of rank in the face of merit,
bushido checked the development of the nation. Another defect in the
bushido was indifference to intellectual investigation. The schoolmen
of Kyoto, who alone received honour for their moral attainments, were
not investigators but imitators, not scientists but classicists. Had
not Chinese conservatism been imported into Japan and had it not
received the homage of the bushi, independent development of original
Japanese thought and of intellectual investigation might have
distinguished the Yamato race. By a learned Japanese philosopher (Dr.
Inouye Tetsujiro) the ethics of the bushi are charged with
inculcating the principles of private morality only and ignoring
those of public morality.
MILITARY FAMILES AND THEIR RETAINERS
It has been noticed that the disposition of the Central Government
was to leave the provincial nobles severely alone, treating their
feuds and conflicts as wholly private affairs. Thus, these nobles
being cast upon their own resources for the protection of their lives
and properties, retained the services of bushi, arming them well and
drilling them assiduously, to serve as guards in time of peace and as
soldiers in war. One result of this demand for military material was
that the helots of former days were relieved from the badge of
slavery and became hereditary retainers of provincial nobles, nothing
of their old bondage remaining except that their lives were at the
mercy of their masters.
FIEFS AND TERRITORIAL NAMES
As the provincial families grew in numbers and influence they
naturally extended their estates, so that the landed property of a
great sept sometimes stretched over parts, or even the whole, of
several provinces. In these circumstances it became convenient to
distinguish branches of a sept by the names of their respective
localities and thus, in addition to the sept name (uji or sei), there
came into existence a territorial name (myoji or shi). For example,
when the descendants of Minamoto no Yoshiiye acquired great
properties at Nitta and Ashikaga in the provinces of Kotsuke and
Shimotsuke, they took the territorial names of Nitta and Ashikaga,
remaining always Minamoto; and when the descendants of Yoshimitsu,
younger brother of Yoshiiye, acquired estates in the province of Kai,
they began to call themselves Takeda.
It is unnecessary to pursue the subject further than to note that,
while the names of the great septs (uji) were few, the territorial
cognomens were very numerous; and that while the use of myoji (or
shi) was common in the case of the Fujiwara, the Taira, and the
Minamoto septs, the uji alone was employed by the Abe, the Ono, the
Takahashi, the Kusakabe, the Ban, the Hata, and certain others. It
will readily be conceived that although the territorial sections of
the same sept sometimes quarrelled among themselves, the general
practice was that all claiming common descent supported each other in
war. The Minamoto (Gen) bushi recognized as the principal family line
that of Tsunemoto from whom were descended the following illustrious
chiefs:
Minamoto (Gen) no Tsunemoto, commander-in-chief of local Governments
|
Mitsunaka
|
+---------+--------+
| |
Yorimitsu Yorinobu
|
Yoriyoshi
|
Yoshiiye
|
+----------+------------+-----+-----+-----------+-----------+
| | | | | |
Yoshimune Yoshichika Yoshikuni Yoshitada Yoshitoki Yoshitaka
|
Tameyoshi
|
+----------+------------+-----------+
| | | |
Yoshitomo Yoshikata Tametomo Twenty others
| |
| Yoshinaka
| (of Kiso)
|
+----------+---------+-----------+------------+
| | | |
Yoritomo Noriyori Yoshitsune Six others
A similar table for the Taira (Hei) runs thus:
Taira (Hei) no Sadamori (quelled the Masakado revolt).
|
Korehira (of Ise province)
|
-------
|
-------
|
Masamori (governed Ise, Inaba, Sanuki, etc.;
| quelled the rebellion of Minamoto
+----------+ Yoshichika).
| |
Tadamasa Tadamori (served the Emperors Shirakawa,
| Horikawa, and Toba;* subdued the
| pirates of Sanyo-do and Nankai-do)
|
Kiyomori (crushed the Minamoto and temporarily
| established the supremacy of the Taira).
|
Shigemori
In its attitude towards these two families the Court showed
short-sighted shrewdness. It pitted one against the other; If the
Taira showed turbulence, the aid of the Minamoto was enlisted; and
when a Minamoto rebelled, a Taira received a commission to deal with
him. Thus, the Throne purchased peace for a time at the cost of
sowing, between the two great military clans, seeds of discord
destined to shake even the Crown. In the capital the bushi served as
palace guards; in the provinces they were practically independent.
Such was the state of affairs on the eve of a fierce struggle known
in history as the tumult of the Hogen and Heiji eras (1150-1160).
*It is of this noble that history records an incident illustrative of
the superstitions of the eleventh century. The cloistered Emperor
Shirakawa kept Tadamori constantly by his side. One night, Shirakawa,
accompanied by Tadamori, went to visit a lady favourite in a detached
palace near the shrine of Gion. Suddenly the two men saw an
apparition of a demon covered with wirelike hair and having a
luminous body. The Emperor ordered Tadamori to use his bow. But
Tadamori advanced boldly and, seizing the demon, found that it was an
old man wearing straw headgear as a protection against the rain, and
carrying a lamp to kindle the light at the shrine. This valiant deed
on Tadamori's part elicited universal applause, as indeed it might in
an era of such faith in the supernatural.
THE HOGEN INSURRECTION
It has been related in Chapter XXII that Taiken-mon-in, consort of
the Emperor Toba, was chosen for the latter by his grandfather, the
cloistered Emperor Shirakawa, and that she bore to Toba a son who
ultimately ascended the throne as Sutoku. But, rightly or wrongly,
Toba learned to suspect that before she became his wife, the lady's
relations with Shirakawa had been over-intimate and that Sutoku was
illegitimate. Therefore, immediately after Shirakawa's demise, Toba
took to himself an Empress, Kaya-no-in, daughter of Fujiwara
Tadazane; and failing offspring by her, chose another Fujiwara lady,
Bifuku-mon-in, daughter of Nagazane. For this, his third consort, he
conceived a strong affection, and when she bore to him a prince, Toba
placed the latter on the throne at the age of three, compelling
Sutoku to resign. This happened in the year 1141, and there were
thenceforth two cloistered Emperors, Toba and Sutoku, standing to
each other in the relation of grandfather and grandson. The baby
sovereign was called Konoe, and Fujiwara Tadamichi, brother of
Bifu-ku-mon-in, became kwampaku.
Between this Tadamichi and his younger brother, Yorinaga, who held
the post of sa-daijin, there existed acute rivalry. The kwampaku had
the knack of composing a deft couplet and tracing a graceful
ideograph. The sa-daijin, a profound scholar and an able economist,
ridiculed penmanship and poetry as mere ornament. Their father's
sympathies were wholly with Yorinaga, and he ultimately went so far
as to depose Tadamichi from his hereditary position as o-uji of the
Fujiwara. Thus, the enmity between Tadamichi and Yorinaga needed only
an opportunity to burst into flame, and that opportunity was soon
furnished.
The Emperor Konoe died (1155) at the early age of seventeen, and the
cloistered sovereign, Sutoku, sought to secure the throne for his son
Shigehito, whom Toba's suspicions had disqualified. But
Bifuku-mon-in, believing, or pretending to believe, that the
premature death of her son had been caused by Sutoku's incantations,
persuaded the cloistered Emperor, Toba, in that sense, and having
secured the co-operation of the kwampaku, Tadamichi, she set upon the
throne Toba's fourth son, under the name of Go-Shirakawa (1156-1158),
the latter's son, Morihito, being nominated Crown Prince, to the
complete exclusion of Sutoku's offspring. So long as Toba lived the
arrangement remained undisturbed, but on his death in the following
year (1156), Sutoku, supported by the sa-daijin, Yorinaga, planned to
ascend the throne again, and there ensued a desperate struggle.
Stated thus briefly, the complication suggests merely a quarrel for
the succession, but, regarded more closely, it is seen to derive
rancour chiefly from the jealousies of the Fujiwara brothers,
Yorinaga and Tadamichi, and importance from the association of the
Minamoto and the Taira families. For when Sutoku appealed to arms
against the Go-Shirakawa faction, he was incited by Fujiwara Yorinaga
and his father Tadazane, and supported by Taira Tadamasa as well as
by jthe two Minamoto, Tameyoshi and Tametomo; while Go-Shirakawa's
cause was espoused by Fujiwara Tadamichi, by Taira no Kiyomori, and
by Minamoto Yoshitomo.
Among this group of notables the most memorable in a historical sense
are Minamoto Tametomo and Taira Kiyomori. Of the latter there will
presently be occasion to speak again. The former was one of those
born warriors illustrated by Yamato-dake, Saka-no-ye no Tamura-maro,
and Minamoto no Yoshiiye. Eighth son of Minamoto Tameyoshi, he showed
himself so masterful, physically and morally, that his father deemed
it wise to provide a distant field for the exercise of his energies
and to that end sent him to Bungo in the island of Kyushu. Tametomo
was then only thirteen. In two years he had established his sway over
nearly the whole island, and the ceaseless excursions and alarms
caused by his doings having attracted the attention of the Court,
orders for his chastisement were issued to the Dazai-fu, in
Chikuzen--futile orders illustrating only Kyoto's ignorance.
Tameyoshi, his father, was then removed from office as a punishment
for his son's contumacy, and thereupon Tametomo, esteeming filial
piety as one of the bushi's first obligations, hastened to the
capital, taking with him only twenty-five of his principal retainers.
His age was then seventeen; his height seven feet; his muscular
development enormous, and he could draw a bow eight feet nine inches
in length. His intention was to purchase his father's pardon by his
own surrender, but on reaching Kyoto he found the Hogen tumult just
breaking out, and, of course, he joined his father's party.
The relationship of the opposing nobles deserves to be studied, as
this was probably one of the most unnatural struggles on record.
CLOISTERED EMPEROR'S SIDE REIGNING EMPEROR'S SIDE
Sutoku (the Jo-o) Go-Shirakawa, younger brother of Sutoku.
Fujiwara Yorinaga Fujiwara Tadamichi, son of Tadazane
and brother of Yorinaga.
Fujiwara Tadazane
Minamoto Tameyoshi Minamoto Yoshitomo, son of Tameyoshi
and brother of Tametomo.
Minamoto Tametomo
Taira no Tadamasa Taira no Kiyomori, nephew of Tadamasa
Sutoku's party occupied the Shirakawa palace. Unfortunately for the
ex-Emperor the conduct of the struggle was entrusted to Fujiwara
Yorinaga, and he, in defiance of Tametomo's advice, decided to remain
on the defensive; an evil choice, since it entailed the tenure of
wooden buildings highly inflammable. Yoshitomo and Kiyomori took full
advantage of this strategical error. They forced the Shirakawa
palace, and after a desperate struggle,* the defenders took to
flight. Thus far, except for the important issues involved and the
unnatural division of the forces engaged, this Hogen tumult would not
have differed materially from many previous conflicts. But its sequel
acquired terrible notoriety from the cruel conduct of the victors.
Sutoku was exiled to Sanuki, and there, during three years, he
applied himself continuously to copying a Buddhist Sutra, using his
own blood for ink. The doctrine of the Zen sect had not yet prevailed
in Japan, and to obtain compensation in future happiness for the
pains he had suffered in life, it was essential that the exile's
laboriously traced Sutra should be solemnly offered to the Buddha. He
sent it to Kyoto, praying that the necessary step should be taken.
But by the orders of his own brother, the Emperor, the request was
refused, and the manuscript returned. Superstition ultimately
succeeded where natural affection had failed; for the ex-Emperor,
having inscribed maledictions on each of the five volumes of the
Sutra with blood obtained by biting his tongue, and having hastened
his demise by self-inflicted privations,--he died (1164) eight years
after being sent into exile--the evils of the time were attributed to
his unquiet spirit and a shrine was built to his memory.
*One incident of the fight has been admiringly handed down to
posterity. The duty of holding the west gate of the Shirakawa palace
fell to Tametomo and his handful of followers. The duty of attacking
it happened to devolve on his brother, Yoshitomo. To avert such an
unnatural conflict, Tametomo, having proclaimed his identity, as was
usual among bushi, drew his bow with such unerring aim that the arrow
shore off an ornament from Yoshitomo's helmet without injuring him in
any way. Yoshitomo withdrew, and the Taira took up the attack.
Not less heartless was the treatment of the vanquished nobles. The
Fujiwara alone escaped. Yorinaga had the good fortune to fall on the
field of battle, and his father, Tadazane, was saved by the
intercession of his elder son, Tadamichi, of whose dislike he had
long been a victim. But this was the sole spot of light on the sombre
page. By the Emperor's orders, the Taira chief, Kiyomori, executed
his uncle, Tadamasa; by the Emperor's orders, though not without
protest, the Minamoto chief, Yoshitomo, put to death his father,
Tameyoshi; by the Emperor's orders all the relatives of Yorinaga were
sent into exile; by the Emperor's orders his nephew, Prince
Shigehito, was compelled to take the tonsure, and by the Emperor's
orders the sinews of Tametomo's bow-arm were cut and he was banished
to the Izu island.* In justice it has to be noted that Go-Shirakawa
did not himself conceive these merciless measures. He was prompted
thereto by Fujiwara Michinori, commonly known as Shinzei, whose
counsels were all-powerful at the Court in those days.
*The celebrated littérateur, Bakin, adduced many proofs that Tametomo
ultimately made his way to Ryukyu and that his descendants ruled the
island. The great soldier himself died ultimately by his own hand in
the sequel of an unsuccessful engagement with the forces of the
vice-governor of Izu.
GO-SHIRAKAWA
Go-Shirakawa, the seventy-seventh sovereign, occupied the throne
during two years only (1156-1158), but he made his influence felt
from the cloister throughout the long period of thirty-four years
(1158 to 1192), directing the administration from his "camera palace"
(Inchu) during the reigns of five Emperors. Ambition impelled him to
tread in the footsteps of Go-Sanjo. He re-opened the Office of
Records (Kiroku-jo), which that great sovereign had established for
the purpose of centralizing the powers of the State, and he sought to
recover for the Throne its administrative functions. But his
independence was purely nominal, for in everything he took counsel of
Fujiwara Michinori (Shinzei) and obeyed that statesman's guidance.
Michinori's character is not to be implicitly inferred from the cruel
courses suggested by him after the Hogen tumult. He was a man of keen
intelligence and profound learning, as learning went in those days:
that is to say, he knew the classics by heart, had an intimate
acquaintance with Buddhism and astrology, and was able to act as
interpreter of the Chinese language. With his name is associated the
origin of the shirabyoshi, or "white measure-markers"--girls clad in
white, who, by posture and gesture, beat time to music, and, in after
ages, became the celebrated geisha of Japan. To the practice of such
arts and accomplishments Michinori devoted a great part of his life,
and when, in 1140, that is to say, sixteen years before the Hogen
disturbance, he received the tonsure, all prospect of an official
career seemed to be closed to him. But the accession of Go-Shirakawa
gave him an opportunity. The Emperor trusted him, and he abused the
trust to the further unhappiness of the nation.
THE HEIJI TUMULT
Go-Shirakawa's son, Morihito, ascended the throne in 1159 and is
known in history as Nijo, the seventy-eighth sovereign of Japan. From
the very outset he resented the ex-Emperor's attempt to interfere in
the administration of affairs, and the two Courts fell into a state
of discord, Fujiwara Shinzei inciting the cloistered Emperor to
assert himself, and two other Fujiwara nobles, Tsunemune and
Korekata, prompting Nijo to resist. These two, observing that another
noble of their clan, Fujiwara Nobuyori; was on bad terms with
Shinzei, approached Nobuyori and proposed a union against their
common enemy. Shinzei had committed one great error; he had alienated
the Minamoto family. In the Hogen struggle, Yoshitomo, the Minamoto
chief, an able captain and a brave soldier, had suggested the
strategy which secured victory for Go-Shirakawa's forces. But in the
subsequent distribution of rewards, Yoshitomo's claims received scant
consideration, his merits being underrated by Shinzei.
This had been followed by a still more painful slight. To Yoshitomo's
formal proposal of a marriage between his daughter and Shinzei's son,
not only had a refusal been given, but also the nuptials of the youth
with the daughter of the Taira chief, Kiyomori, had been subsequently
celebrated with much eclat. In short, Shinzei chose between the two
great military clans, and though such discrimination was neither
inconsistent with the previous practice of the Fujiwara nor
ill-judged so far as the relative strength of the Minamoto and the
Taira was concerned for the moment, it erred egregiously in failing
to recognize that the day had passed when the military clans could be
thus employed as Fujiwara tools. Approached by Nobuyori, Yoshitomo
joined hands with the plotters, and the Minamoto troops, forcing
their way into the Sanjo palace, set fire to the edifice and killed
Shinzei (1159). The Taira chief, Kiyomori, happened to be then absent
in Kumano, and Yoshitomo's plan was to attack him on his way back to
Kyoto before the Taira forces had mustered. But just as Fujiwara
Yorinaga had wrecked his cause in the Hogen tumult by ignoring
Minamoto Tametomo's advice, so in the Heiji disturbance, Fujiwara
Nobuyori courted defeat by rejecting Minamoto Yoshitomo's strategy.
The Taira, thus accorded leisure to assemble their troops, won such a
signal victory that during many years the Minamoto disappeared almost
completely from the political stage, and the Taira held the empire in
the hollow of their hands.
Japanese historians regard Fujiwara Shinzei as chiefly responsible
for these untoward events. Shinzei's record shows him to have been
cruel, jealous, and self-seeking, but it has to be admitted that the
conditions of the time were calculated to educate men of his type, as
is shown by the story of the Hogen insurrection. For when Sutoku's
partisans assembled at the palace of Shirakawa, Minamoto Tametomo
addressed them thus: "I fought twenty battles and two hundred minor
engagements to win Kyushu, and I say that when an enemy is
outnumbered, its best plan is a night attack. If we fire the
Takamatsu palace on three sides to-night and assault it from the
fourth, the foe will surely be broken. I see on the other side only
one man worthy to be called an enemy. It is my brother Yoshitomo, and
with a single arrow I can lay him low. As for Taira Kiyomori, he will
fall if I do but shake the sleeve of my armour. Before dawn we shall
be victors."
Fujiwara Yorinaga's reply to this counsel was: "Tametomo's method of
fighting is rustic. There are here two Emperors competing for the
throne, and the combat must be conducted in a fair and dignified
manner." To such silliness the Minamoto hero made apt answer. "War,"
he said, "is not an affair of official ceremony and decorum. Its
management were better left to the bushi whose business it is. My
brother Yoshitomo has eyes to see an opportunity. To-night, he will
attack us.". It is true that Tametomo afterwards refrained from
taking his brother's life, but the above proves that he would not
have exercised any such forbearance had victory been attainable by
ruthlessness. History does not often repeat itself so exactly as it
did in these Hogen and Heiji struggles. Fujiwara Yorinaga's refusal
to follow Tametomo's advice and Fujiwara Nobuyori's rejection of
Yoshitomo's counsels were wholly responsible for the disasters that
ensued, and were also illustrative of the contempt in which the
Fujiwara held the military magnates, who, in turn, were well aware of
the impotence of the Court nobles on the battle-field.
The manner of Yoshitomo's death, too, reveals something of the ethics
of the bushi in the twelfth century. Accompanied by Kamada Masaie and
a few others, the Minamoto chief escaped from the fight and took
refuge in the house of his concubine, Enju, at Awobaka in Owari.
There they were surrounded and attacked by the Taira partisans. The
end seemed inevitable. Respite was obtained, however, by one of those
heroic acts of self-sacrifice that stand so numerously to the credit
of the Japanese samurai. Minamoto Shigenari, proclaiming himself to
be Yoshitomo, fought with desperate valour, killing ten of the enemy.
Finally, hacking his own face so that it became unrecognizable, he
committed suicide. Meanwhile, Yoshitomo had ridden away to the house
of Osada Tadamune, father of his comrade Masaie's wife. There he
found a hospitable reception. But when he would have pushed on at
once to the east, where the Minamoto had many partisans, Tadamune,
pointing out that it was New Year's eve, persuaded him to remain
until the 3d of the first month.
Whether this was done of fell purpose or out of hospitality is not on
record, but it is certain that Tadamune and his son, Kagemune, soon
determined to kill Yoshitomo, thus avoiding a charge of complicity
and earning favour at Court. Their plan was to conceal three men in a
bathroom, whither Yoshitomo should be led after he had been plied
with sake at a banquet. The scheme succeeded in part, but as
Yoshitomo's squire, Konno, a noted swordsman, accompanied his chief
to the bath, the assassins dared not attack. Presently, however,
Konno went to seek a bath-robe, and thereupon the three men leaped
out. Yoshitomo hurled one assailant from the room, but was stabbed to
death by the other two, who, in their turn, were slaughtered by the
squire. Meanwhile, Masaie was sitting, unsuspicious, at the
wine-party in a distant chamber. Hearing the tumult he sprang to his
feet, but was immediately cut down by Tadamune and Kagemune. At this
juncture Masaie's wife ran in, and crying, "I am not faithless and
evil like my father and my brother; my death shall show my
sincerity," seized her husband's sword and committed suicide, at
which sight the dying man smiled contentedly. As for Konno, after a
futile attempt to lay hands on Tadamune and Kagemune, he cut his way
through their retainers and rode off safely. The heads of Yoshitomo
and Masaie were carried to Kyoto by Tadamune and Kagemune, but they
made so much of their exploit and clamoured for such high reward that
Kiyomori threatened to punish them for the murder of a close
connexion--Kiyomori, be it observed, on whose hands the blood of his
uncle was still wet.
Yoshitomo had many sons* but only four of them escaped from the Heiji
tumult. The eldest of these was Yoritomo, then only fourteen. After
killing two men who attempted to intercept his flight, he fell into
the hands of Taira Munekiyo, who, pitying his youth, induced
Kiyomori's step-mother to intercede for his life, and he was finally
banished to Izu, whence, a few years later, he emerged to the
destruction of the Taira. A still younger son, Yoshitsune, was
destined to prove the most renowned warrior Japan ever produced. His
mother, Tokiwa, one of Yoshitomo's mistresses, a woman of rare
beauty, fled from the Minamoto mansion during a snow-storm after the
Heiji disaster, and, with her three children, succeeded in reaching a
village in Yamato, where she might have lain concealed had not her
mother fallen into the hands of Kiyomori's agents. Tokiwa was then
required to choose between giving herself up and suffering her mother
to be executed. Her beauty saved the situation. Kiyomori had no
sooner seen her face than he offered to have mercy if she entered his
household and if she consented to have her three sons educated for
the priesthood. Thus, Yoshitsune survived, and in after ages people
were wont to say of Kiyomori's passion and its result that his
blissful dream of one night had brought ruin on his house.
*One of these sons, Tomonaga, fell by his father's hand. Accompanying
Yoshitomo's retreat, he had been severely wounded, and he asked his
father to kill him rather than leave him at Awobake to fall into the
hands of the Taira. Yoshitomo consented, though the lad was only
fifteen years of age.
THE TAIRA AND THE FUJIWARA
In human affairs many events ascribed by onlookers to design are
really the outcome of accident or unforseen opportunity. Historians,
tracing the career of Taira no Kiyomori, ascribe to him singular
astuteness in creating occasions and marked promptness in utilizing
them. But Kiyomori was not a man of original or brilliant
conceptions. He had not even the imperturbability essential to
military leadership. The most prominent features of his character
were unbridled ambition, intolerance of opposition, and unscrupulous
pursuit of visible ends. He did not initiate anything but was content
to follow in the footsteps of the Fujiwara. It has been recorded that
in 1158--after the Hogen tumult, but before that of Heiji--he married
his daughter to a son of Fujiwara Shinzoi. In that transaction,
however, Shinzei's will dominated. Two years later, the Minamoto's
power having been shattered, Kiyomori gave another of his daughters
to be the mistress of the kwampaku, Fujiwara Motozane. There was no
offspring of this union, and when, in 1166, Motozane died, he left a
five-year-old son, Motomichi, born of his wife, a Fujiwara lady. This
boy was too young to succeed to the office of regent, and therefore
had no title to any of the property accruing to the holder of that
post, who had always been recognized as de jure head of the Fujiwara
family. Nevertheless, Kiyomori, having contrived that the child
should be entrusted to his daughter's care, asserted its claims so
strenuously that many of the Fujiwara manors and all the heirlooms
were handed over to it, the result being a visible weakening of the
great family's influence.*
*See Murdoch's History of Japan.
RESULTS OF THE HOGEN AND HEIJI INSURRECTIONS
The most signal result of the Hogen and Heiji insurrections was to
transfer the administrative power from the Court nobles to the
military chiefs. In no country were class distinctions more
scrupulously observed than in Japan. All officials of the fifth rank
and upwards must belong to the families of the Court nobility, and no
office carrying with it rank higher than the sixth might be occupied
by a military man. In all the history of the empire down to the
twelfth century there had been only one departure from this rule, and
that was in the case of the illustrious General Saka-no-ye no
Tamura-maro, who had been raised to the third rank and made dainagon.
The social positions of the two groups were even more rigidly
differentiated; those of the fifth rank and upwards being termed
tenjo-bito, or men having the privilege of entree to the palace and
to the Imperial presence; while the lower group (from the sixth
downwards) had no such privilege and were consequently termed
chige-bito, or groundlings. The three highest offices (spoken of as
san-ko) could not be held by any save members of the Fujiwara or Kuga
families; and for offices carrying fifth rank upwards (designated
taifu) the range of eligible families extended to only four others,
the Ariwara, the Ki, the Oye, and the Kiyowara. All this was changed
after the Heiji commotion. The Fujiwara had used the military leaders
for their own ends; Kiyomori supplemented his military strength with
Fujiwara methods. He caused himself to be appointed sangi (councillor
of State) and to be raised to the first grade of the third rank, and
he procured for his friends and relations posts as provincial
governors, so that they were able to organize throughout the empire
military forces devoted to the Taira cause.
These steps were mere preludes to his ambitious programme. He married
his wife's elder sister to the ex-Emperor, Go-Shirakawa, and the
fruit of this union was a prince who subsequently ascended the throne
as Takakura. The Emperor Nijo had died in 1166, after five years of
effort, only partially successful, to restrain his father,
Go-Shirakawa's, interference in the administration. Nijo was
succeeded by his son, Rokujo, a baby of two years; and, a few months
later, Takakura, then in his seventh year, was proclaimed Prince
Imperial. Rokujo (the seventy-ninth sovereign) was not given time to
learn the meaning of the title "Emperor." In three years he was
deposed by Go-Shirakawa with Kiyomori's co-operation, and Takakura
(eightieth sovereign) ascended the throne in 1169, occupying it until
1180. Thus, Kiyomori found himself uncle of an Emperor only ten years
of age. Whatever may have been the Taira leader's defects, failure to
make the most of an opportunity was not among them. The influence he
exercised in the palace through his sister-in-law was far more
exacting and imperious than that exercised by Go-Shirakawa himself,
and the latter, while bitterly resenting this state of affairs, found
himself powerless to correct it. Finally, to evince his discontent,
he entered the priesthood, a demonstration which afforded Kiyomori
more pleasure than pain. On the nomination of Takakura to be Crown
Prince the Taira leader was appointed--appointed himself would be a
more accurate form of speech--to the office of nai-daijin, and within
a very brief period he ascended to the chancellorship, overleaping
the two intervening posts of u-daijin and sa-daijin. This was in the
fiftieth year of his life. At fifty-one, he fell seriously ill and
took the tonsure by way of soliciting heaven's aid. People spoke of
him as Dajo Nyudo, or the "lay-priest chancellor." Recovering, he
developed a mood of increased arrogance. His residence at Rokuhara
was a magnificent pile of building, as architecture then went,
standing in a park of great extent and beauty. There he administered
State affairs with all the pomp and circumstance of an Imperial
court. He introduced his daughter, Toku, into the Household and very
soon she was made Empress, under the name of Kenrei-mon-in.
Thus completely were the Fujiwara beaten at their own game and the
traditions of centuries set at naught. A majority of the highest
posts were filled by Kiyomori's kinsmen. Fifteen of his family were
of, or above, the third rank, and thirty were tenjo-bito.
"Akitsushima (Japan) was divided into sixty-six provinces. Of these
thirty were governed by Taira partisans. Their manors were to be
found in five hundred places, and their fields were innumerable.
Their mansions were full of splendid garments and rich robes like
flowers, and the spaces before their portals were so thronged with
ox-carriages and horses that markets were often held there. Not to be
a Taira was not to be a man."*
*Gen-pei Seisuiki (Records of the Vicissitudes of the Minamoto and
the Taira).
It is necessary to note, too, with regard to these manors, that many
of them were tax-free lands (koderi) granted in perpetuity. Such
grants, as has been already shown, were not infrequent. But they had
been made, for the most part, to civilian officials, by whose serfs
they were farmed, the proceeds being forwarded to Kyoto for the
support of their owners; whereas the koden bestowed on Taira officers
were, in effect, military fiefs. It is true that similar fiefs
existed in the north and in the south, but their number was so
greatly increased in the days of Taira ascendancy as almost to
constitute a new departure. Kiyomori was, in truth, one of the most
despotic rulers that ever held sway in Japan. He organized a band of
three hundred youths whose business was to go about Kyoto and listen
to the citizens' talk. If anyone was reported by these spies as
having spoken ill of the Taira, he was seized and punished. One day
Kiyomori's grandson, Sukemori, met the regent, Fujiwara Motofusa, and
failing to alight from his carriage, as etiquette required, was
compelled by the regent's retinue to do so. On learning of this
incident, Kiyomori ordered three hundred men to lie in wait for the
regent, drag him from his car and cut off his cue.
PLOTS AGAINST THE TAIRA: KIYOMORI'S LAST YEARS
All these arbitrary acts provoked indignation among every class of
the people. A conspiracy known in history as the "Shishi-ga-tani
plot," from the name of the place where the conspirators met to
consult, was organized in 1177, having for object a general uprising
against the Taira. At the Court of the cloistered Emperor the post of
gon-dainagon was filled by Fujiwara Narichika, who harboured
resentment against Kiyomori's two sons, Shigemori and Munemori,
inasmuch as they held positions for which he had striven in vain,
the Left and Right generals of the guards. There was also a bonze,
Saiko, who enjoyed the full confidence of Go-Shirakawa. In those days
any cause was legitimized if its advocates could show an Imperial
edict or point to the presence of the sovereign in their midst.
Thus, in the Heiji insurrection, the Minamoto received their severest
blow when Fujiwara Korekata contrived that, under cover of darkness,
the Emperor, disguised as a maid-of-honour in the household
of the Empress, should be transported in her Majesty's suite,
from the Kurodo palace to the Taira mansion at Rokuhara. The
Minamoto were thus transformed into rebels, and the Taira became
the representatives of Imperial authority. Therefore, in the
Shishi-ga-tani plot the part assigned to the priest Saiko was to
induce Go-Shirakawa to take active interest in the conspiracy and to
issue a mandate to the Minamoto bushi throughout the country. No such
mandate was issued, nor does it appear that the ex-Emperor attended
any of the meetings in Shishi-ga-tani, but there can be no doubt
that he had full cognizance of, and sympathized with, what was in
progress.
The conspiracy never matured. It was betrayed by Minamoto Yukitsuna.
Saiko and his two sons were beheaded; Narichika was exiled and
subsequently put to death, and all the rest were banished. The great
question was, how to deal with Go-Shirakawa. Kiyomori was for leading
troops to arrest his Majesty, and to escort him as a prisoner to the
Toba palace or the Taira mansion. None of the despot's kinsmen or
adherents ventured to gainsay this purpose until Kiyomori's eldest
son, Shigemori, appeared upon the scene. Shigemori had contributed
much to the signal success of the Taira. Dowered with all the
strategical skill and political sagacity which his father lacked, he
had won victories for the family arms, and again and again had
restrained the rash exercise of Kiyomori's impetuous arrogance. The
Taira chief had learned to stand in awe of his son's reproaches, and
when Shigemori declared that he would not survive any violence done
to Go-Shirakawa, Kiyomori left the council chamber, bidding Shigemori
to manage the matter as he thought fit.* Thus, Go-Shirakawa escaped
all the consequences of his association with the conspirators. But
Kiyomori took care that a copy of the bonze Saiko's confession,
extracted under torture and fully incriminating his Majesty, should
come into the Imperial hands.
*It is recorded that, on this occasion, Kiyomori, learning of his
son's approach, attempted unsuccessfully to conceal under priestly
robes the armour he had donned to go to the arrest of Go-Shirakawa.
A final rupture between the ex-Emperor and the Taira leader became
daily imminent. Two events contributed to precipitate it. One was
that in the year following the Shishi-ga-tani conspiracy, Kiyomori's
daughter, Toku, bore to Takakura a prince--the future Emperor Antoku
(eighty-first sovereign). The Taira chief thus found himself
grandfather of an heir to the throne, a fact which did not tend to
abate his arrogance. The second was the death of Shigemori, which
took place in 1179.
Shigemori's record shows him to have been at once a statesman and a
general. He never hesitated to check his father's extravagances, and
it has to be recorded in Kiyomori's favour that, however, intolerant
of advice or opposition he habitually showed himself, his eldest
son's remonstrances were seldom ignored. Yet, though many untoward
issues were thus averted, there was no sign that growing
responsibility brought to Kiyomori any access of circumspection. From
first to last he remained the same short-sighted, passion-driven,
impetuous despot and finally the evil possibilities of the situation
weighed so heavily on Shigemori's nerves that he publicly repaired to
a temple to pray for release from life. As though in answer to his
prayer he was attacked by a disease which carried him off at the age
of forty-two. There is a tradition that he installed forty-eight
images of Buddha in his mansion, and for their services employed many
beautiful women, so that sensual excesses contributed to the
semi-hysterical condition into which he eventually fell. That is not
impossible, but certainly a sense of impotence to save his father and
his family from the calamities he clearly saw approaching was the
proximate cause of his breakdown.
ENGRAVING: KIYOMIZU-DEKA TEMPLE, AT KYOTO
Results soon became apparent. The ex-Emperor, who had truly estimated
Shigemori's value as a pillar of Taira power, judged that an
opportunity for revolt had now arrived, and the Taira chief, deprived
of his son's restraining influence, became less competent than ever
to manage the great machine which fortune had entrusted to his
direction. The first challenge came from the ex-Emperor's side. It
has been related above that one of Kiyomori's politic acts after the
Heiji insurrection was to give his daughter to the regent; that, on
the latter's death, his child, Motomichi, by a Fujiwara, was
entrusted to the care of the Taira lady; that a large part of the
Fujiwara estates were diverted from the regent and settled upon
Motomichi, and that the latter was taken into a Taira mansion. The
regent who suffered by this arbitrary procedure was Fujiwara
Motofusa, the same noble whom, a few years later, Kiyomori caused to
be dragged from his car and docked of his queue because Motofusa had
insisted on due observance of etiquette by Kiyomori's grandson.
Naturally, Motofusa was ready to join hands with Go-Shirakawa in any
anti-Taira procedure.
Therefore, in 1179, on the death of Kiyomori's daughter, to whose
care Motomichi had been entrusted in his childhood, the ex-Emperor,
at the instance of Motofusa, appropriated all her manors and those of
Motomichi. Moreover, on the death of Shigemori shortly afterwards,
the same course was pursued with his landed property, and further,
Motomichi, though lawful head of the Fujiwara family, son-in-law of
Kiyomori, and of full age, had been refused the post of chunagon, the
claim of a twelve year-old son of Motofusa being preferred.* The
significance of these doings was unmistakable. Kiyomori saw that the
gauntlet had been thrown in his face. Hastening from his villa of
Fukuhara, in Settsu, at the head of a large force of troops, he
placed the ex-Emperor in strict confinement in the Toba palace,
segregating him completely from the official world and depriving him
of all administrative functions; he banished the kwampaku, Motofusa,
and the chancellor, Fujiwara Moronaga; he degraded and deprived of
their posts thirty-nine high officials who had formed the entourage
of Go-Shirakawa; he raised Motomichi to the office of kwampaku, and
he conferred on his son, Munemori, the function of guarding Kyoto,
strong bodies of soldiers being posted in the two Taira mansions of
Rokuhara on the north and south of the capital.
*See Murdoch's History of Japan.
THE YORIMASA CONSPIRACY
In 1180, at the instance of Kiyomori and partly, no doubt, because of
the difficult position in which he found himself placed with regard
to his imprisoned father, the Emperor Takakura, then in his twentieth
year, resigned the throne in favour of Kiyomori's grandson, Antoku
(eighty-first sovereign), a child of three. This was the culmination
of the Taira's fortunes. There was at that time among the Kyoto
officials a Minamoto named Yorimasa, sixth in descent from Minamoto
Mitsunaka, who flourished in the tenth century and by whose order the
heirloom swords, Hige-kiri and Hiza-kiri, were forged. This Yorimasa
was an expert bowman, a skilled soldier, and an adept versifier,
accomplishments not infrequently combined in one person during the
Heian epoch. Go-Shirakawa, appreciating Yorimasa's abilities,
nominated him director of the Imperial Estates Bureau (Kurando) and
afterwards made him governor of Hyogo.
But it was not until he had reached the age of seventy-five that, on
Kiyomori's recommendation, he received promotion, in 1178, to the
second grade of the third rank (ju-sammi), thus for the first time
obtaining the privilege of access to the Imperial presence. The
explanation of this tardy recognition is, perhaps, to be sought in
Yorimasa's preference of prudence to loyalty. In the year of Heiji,
he held his little band of bushi in the leash until the issue of the
battle could be clearly forseen, and then he threw in his lot with
the Taira. Such shallow fealty seldom wins its way to high place. Men
did not forget Yorimasa's record. His belated admission to the ranks
of the tenjo-bito provoked some derision and he was commonly spoken
of as Gen-sammi (the Minamoto third rank).
But even for one constitutionally so cautious, the pretensions of the
Taira became intolerable. Yorimasa determined to strike a blow for
the Minamoto cause, and looking round for a figure-head, he fixed
upon Prince Mochihito, elder brother of Takakura. This prince, being
the son of a concubine, had never reached Imperial rank, though he
was thirty years of age, but he possessed some capacity, and a noted
physiognomist had recognized in him a future Emperor. In 1170, at
Yorimasa's instance, Prince Mochihito secretly sent to all the
Minamoto families throughout the empire, especially to Yoritomo at
his place of exile in Izu, a document impeaching the conduct of the
Taira and exhorting the Minamoto to muster and attack them.
Yorimasa's story shows that he would not have embarked upon this
enterprise had he not seen solid hope of success. But one of the aids
he counted on proved unsound. That aid was the Buddhist priesthood.
Kiyomori had offended the great monasteries by bestowing special
favour on the insignificant shrine of Itsukushima-Myojin. A
revelation received in a dream having persuaded him that his fortunes
were intimately connected with this shrine, he not only rebuilt it on
a scale of much magnificence, but also persuaded Go-Shirakawa to
make three solemn progresses thither. This partiality reached its
acme at the time of Takakura's abdication (1180), for instead of
complying with the custom hitherto observed on such occasions--the
custom of worshipping at one or more shrines of the three
great monasteries--Enryaku (Hiei-zan), Kofuku (Nara), or Onjo
(Miidera)--Takakura, prompted by Kiyomori, proceeded to Itsukushima.*
*See Murdoch's History of Japan.
A monster demonstration on the part of the offended monasteries was
temporarily quieted, but deep umbrage rankled in the bosoms of the
priests, and Yorimasa counted on their co-operation with his
insurrection. He forgot, however, that no bond could be trusted to
hold them permanently together in the face of their habitual rivalry,
and it was here that his scheme ultimately broke down. At an early
stage, some vague news of the plot reached Kiyomori's ears and he
hastened from his Fukuhara villa to Kyoto. But it soon became evident
that his information was incomplete. He knew, indeed, that Prince
Mochihito was involved, but he suspected Go-Shirakawa also, and he
entertained no conception of Yorimasa's complicity. Thus, while
removing Go-Shirakawa to Rokuhara and despatching a force to seize
Mochihito, he entrusted the direction of the latter measure to
Yorimasa's son, Kanetsuna, who, it need scarcely be said, failed to
apprehend the prince or to elicit any information from his followers.
Presently Kiyomori learned that the prince had escaped to Onjo-ji
(Miidera). Thereupon secret negotiations were opened between Rokuhara
and Enryaku-ji (Hiei-zan), not that the Taira chief suspected the
latter, but because he appreciated that if Hiei-zan joined Miidera,
the situation would become formidable. Meanwhile, his trust in
Yorimasa remaining still unshaken, he sent him to attack Onjo-ji,
which mission the old Minamoto warrior fulfilled by entering the
monastery and joining forces with the prince. Yorimasa took this step
in the belief that immediate aid would be furnished from Hiei-zan.
But before his appeal reached the latter, Kiyomori's overtures had
been accepted. Nothing now remained for Yorimasa and Mochihito except
to make a desperate rush on Kyoto or to ride away south to Nara,
where temporary refuge offered. The latter course was chosen, in
spite of Yorimasa's advice. On the banks of the Uji River in a dense
fog they were overtaken by the Taira force, the latter numbering
twenty thousand, the fugitives three or four hundred. The Minamoto
made a gallant and skilful resistance, and finally Yorimasa rode off
with a handful of followers, hoping to carry Mochihito to a place of
safety. Before they passed out of range an arrow struck the old
warrior. Struggling back to Byodo-in, where the fight was still in
progress, he seated himself on his iron war-fan and, having calmly
composed his death-song, committed suicide.
CHANGE OF CAPITAL AND DEATH OF KIYOMORI
These things happened in May, 1180, and in the following month
Kiyomori carried out a design entertained by him for some time. He
transferred the capital from Kyoto to Fukuhara, in Settsu, where the
modern town of Kobe stands. Originally the Taira mansions were at the
two Fukuhara, one on the north of Kyoto, the other on the south, the
city being dominated from these positions. But Kiyomori seems to have
thought that as the centres of Taira strength lay in the south and
west of the empire, the province of Settsu would be a more convenient
citadel than Kyoto. Hence he built at Fukuhara a spacious villa and
took various steps to improve the harbour--then called Muko--as well
as to provide maritime facilities, among which may be mentioned the
opening of the strait, Ondo no Seto. But Fukuhara is fifty miles from
Kyoto, and to reach the latter quickly from the former in an
emergency was a serious task in the twelfth century. Moreover, Kyoto
was devastated in 1177 by a conflagration which reduced one-third of
the city to ashes, and in April of 1180 by a tornado of most
destructive force, so that superstitious folk, who abounded in that
age, began to speak ominously of the city's doom.
What weighed most with the Taira leader, however, was the propinquity
of the three great monasteries; Hiei-zan on the north, Miidera on the
east, and Nara on the south. In fact, the city lay at the mercy of
the soldier-priests. At any moment they might combine, descend upon
the capital, and burn it before adequate succour could be marshalled.
That such a peril should have been dreaded from such a source seems
strange; but the Buddhist priests had shown a very dangerous temper
more than once, and from Kiyomori's point of view the possibility of
their rising to restore the fortunes of the Fujiwara was never
remote.
Kiyomori carried with him to Fukuhara the boy-Emperor (Antoku), the
ex-Emperor (Takakura), the cloistered Emperor (Go-Shirakawa), the
kwampaku (Motomichi), and all the high Court officials with rare
exceptions. The work of construction at Fukuhara not being yet
complete, Go-Shirakawa had to be lodged in a building thirty feet
square, to which men gave the name of the "jail palace." Kyoto, of
course, was thrown into a state of consternation. Remonstrances,
petitions, and complaints poured into the Fukuhara mansion. Meanwhile
the Minamoto rose. In August of 1180, their white flag was hoisted,
and though it looked very insignificant on the wide horizon of Taira
power, Kiyomori did not underrate its meaning. At the close of the
year, he decided to abandon the Fukuhara scheme and carry the Court
back to Kyoto. On the eve of his return he found an opportunity of
dealing a heavy blow to the monasteries of Miidera and Nara. For, it
having been discovered that they were in collusion with the newly
risen Minamoto, Kiyomori sent his sons, Tomomori and Shigehira, at
the head of a force which sacked and burned Onjo-ji, Todai-ji, and
Kofuku-ji. Thereafter a terrible time ensued for Kyoto, for the home
provinces (Kinai), and for the west of the empire. During the greater
part of three years, from 1180 to 1182 inclusive, the people
suffered, first from famine and afterwards from pestilence. Pitiful
accounts are given by contemporary writers. Men were reduced to the
direst straits. Hundreds perished of starvation in the streets of
Kyoto, and as, in many cases, the corpses lay unburied, pestilence of
course ensued. It is stated that in Kyoto alone during two months
there were forty-two thousand deaths. The eastern and western
regions, however, enjoyed comparative immunity. By the priests and
the political enemies of the Taira these cruel calamities were
attributed to the evil deeds of Kiyomori and his fellow clansmen, so
that the once omnipotent family gradually became an object of popular
execration. Kiyomori, however, did not live to witness the ruin of
his house. He expired at the age of sixty in March, 1181, just three
months after the restoration of Kyoto to metropolitan rank. Since
August of the preceding year, the Minamoto had shown signs of
troublesome activity, but as yet it seemed hardly possible that their
puny onsets should shake, still less pull down, the imposing edifice
of power raised by the Taira during twenty years of unprecedented
success. Nevertheless, Kiyomori, impatient of all reverses, bitterly
upbraided his sons and his officers for incompetence, and when, after
seven days' sickness, he saw the end approaching, his last commission
was that neither tomb nor temple should be raised to his memory until
Yoritomo's head had been placed on his grave.
ENGRAVING: ARTIST'S SEAL
ENGRAVING: SWORD-GUARDS (Tsuba) HAND-CARVED IN BRONZE
CHAPTER XXV
THE EPOCH OF THE GEN AND THE HEI (Continued)
OPENING OF THE CONFLICT
WHEN, after the great struggle of 1160, Yoritomo, the eldest of
Yoshitomo's surviving sons, fell into the hands of Taira Munekiyo and
was carried by the latter to Kyoto, for execution, as all supposed,
and as would have been in strict accord with the canons of the time,
the lad, then in his fourteenth year, won the sympathy of Munekiyo by
his nobly calm demeanour in the presence of death, and still more by
answering, when asked whether he did not wish to live, "Yes, since I
alone remain to pray for the memories of my father and my elder
brothers." Munekiyo then determined to save the boy if possible, and
he succeeded through the co-operation of Kiyomori's step-mother, whom
he persuaded that her own son, lost in his infancy, would have grown
up to resemble closely Yoritomo.
It was much to the credit of Kiyomori's heart but little to that of
his head that he listened to such a plea, and historians have further
censured his want of sagacity in choosing Izu for Yoritomo's place of
exile, seeing that the eastern regions were infested by Minamoto
kinsmen and partisans. But Kiyomori did not act blindly. He placed
Yoritomo in the keeping of two trusted wardens whose manors were
practically conterminous in the valley of the Kano stream on the
immediate west of Hakone Pass. These wardens were a Fujiwara, Ito
Sukechika, and a Taira, who, taking the name Hojo from the locality
of his manor, called himself Hojo Tokimasa. The dispositions of these
two men did not agree with the suggestions of their lineage.
Sukechika might have been expected to sympathize with his ward in
consideration of the sufferings of the Fujiwara at Kiyomori's hands.
Tokimasa, as a Taira, should have been wholly antipathetic. Yet had
Tokimasa shared Sukechika's mood, the Minamoto's sun would never have
risen over the Kwanto.
The explanation is that Tokimasa belonged to a large group of
provincial Taira who were at once discontented because their claims
to promotion had been ignored, and deeply resentful of indignities
and ridicule to which their rustic manners and customs had exposed
them at the hands of their upstart kinsmen in Kyoto. Moreover, it is
not extravagant to suppose, in view of the extraordinary abilities
subsequently shown by Tokimasa, that he presaged the instability of
the Taira edifice long before any ominous symptoms became outwardly
visible. At any rate, while remaining Yoritomo's ostensible warden,
he became his confidant and abettor.
This did not happen immediately, however. Yoritomo was placed
originally under Sukechika's care, and during the latter's absence in
Kyoto a liaison was established between his daughter and the Minamoto
captive, with the result that a son was born. Sukechika, on his
return, caused the child to be thrown into a cataract, married its
mother to Ema Kotaro, and swore to have the life of his ward. But
Yoritomo, warned of what was pending, effected his escape to
Tokimasa's manor. It is recorded that on the way thither he prayed at
the shrine of Hachiman, the tutelary deity of his family: "Grant me
to become sei-i-shogun and to guard the Imperial Court. Or, if I may
not achieve so much, grant me to become governor of Izu, so that I
may be revenged on Sukechika. Or, if that may not be, grant me
death." With Tokimasa he found security. But here again, though now a
man over thirty, he established relations with Masa, his warden's
eldest daughter. In all Yoritomo's career there is not one instance
of a sacrifice of expediency or ambition on the altar of sentiment or
affection. He was a cold, calculating man. No cruelty shocked him nor
did he shrink from any severity dictated by policy. It is in the last
degree improbable that he risked his political hopes for the sake of
a trivial amour. At any rate the event suggests crafty deliberation
rather than a passing passion. For though Tokimasa simulated
ignorance of the liaison and publicly proceeded with his previous
engagement to wed Masa to Taira Kanetaka, lieutenant-governor of Izu,
he privately connived at her flight and subsequent concealment.
This incident is said to have determined Yoritomo. He disclosed all
his ambitions to Hojo Tokimasa, and found in him an able coadjutor.
Yoritomo now began to open secret communications with several of the
military families in Izu and the neighbouring provinces. In making
these selections and approaches, the Minamoto exile was guided and
assisted by Tokimasa. Confidences were not by any means confined to
men of Minamoto lineage. The kith and kin of the Fujiwara, and even
of the Taira themselves, were drawn into the conspiracy, and although
the struggle finally resolved itself into a duel à l'outrance between
the Taira and the Minamoto, it had no such exclusive character at the
outset.
In May, or June, 1180, the mandate of Prince Mochihito reached
Yoritomo, carried by his uncle, Minamoto Yukiiye, whose figure
thenceforth appears frequently upon the scene. Yoritomo showed the
mandate to Tokimasa, and the two men were taking measures to obey
when they received intelligence of the deaths of Mochihito and
Yorimasa and of the fatal battle on the banks of the Uji.
Yoritomo would probably have deferred conclusive action in such
circumstances had there not reached him from Miyoshi Yasunobu in
Kyoto a warning that the Taira were planning to exterminate the
remnant of the Minamoto and that Yoritomo's name stood first on the
black-list. Moreover, the advisability of taking the field at once
was strongly and incessantly urged by a priest, Mongaku, who, after a
brief acquaintance, had impressed Yoritomo favourably. This bonze had
been the leading figure in an extraordinary romance of real life.
Originally Endo Morito, an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he fell in
love with his cousin, Kesa,* the wife of a comrade called Minamoto
Wataru. His addresses being resolutely rejected, he swore that if
Kesa remained obdurate, he would kill her mother. From this dilemma
the brave woman determined that self-sacrifice offered the only
effective exit. She promised to marry Morito after he had killed her
husband, Wataru; to which end she engaged to ply Wataru with wine
until he fell asleep. She would then wet his head, so that Morito,
entering by an unfastened door and feeling for the damp hair, might
consummate his purpose surely. Morito readily agreed, but Kesa,
having dressed her own hair in male fashion and wet her head, lay
down in her husband's place.
*Generally spoken of as "Kesa Gozen," but the latter word signifies
"lady."
When Morito found that he had killed the object of his passionate
affection, he hastened to confess his crime and invited Wataru to
slay him. But Wataru, sympathizing with his remorse, proposed that
they should both enter religion and pray for the rest of Kesa's
spirit. It is related that one of the acts of penance performed by
Mongaku--the monastic name taken by Morito--was to stand for
twenty-one days under a waterfall in the depth of winter.
Subsequently he devoted himself to collecting funds for
reconstructing the temple of Takao, but his zeal having betrayed him
into a breach of etiquette at the palace of Go-Shirakawa, he was
banished to Izu, where he obtained access to Yoritomo and counselled
him to put his fortune to the test.*
*Tradition says that among the means employed by Mongaku to move
Yoritomo was the exhibition of Yoshitomo's bones.
THE FIRST STAGE OF THE STRUGGLE
The campaign was opened by Hojo Tokimasa on the 8th of September,
1180. He attacked the residence of the lieutenant-governor of Izu,
Taira Kanetaka, burned the mansion, and killed Kanetaka, whose
abortive nuptials with the lady Masa had been celebrated a few months
previously. Yoritomo himself at the head of a force of three hundred
men, crossed the Hakone Pass three days later en route for Sagami,
and encamped at Ishibashi-yama. This first essay of the Minamoto
showed no military caution whatever. It was a march into space.
Yoritomo left in his rear Ito Sukechika, who had slain his infant son
and sworn his own destruction, and he had in his front a Taira force
of three thousand under Oba Kagechika. It is true that many Taira
magnates of the Kwanto were pledged to draw the sword in the Minamoto
cause. They had found the selfish tyranny of Kiyomori not at all to
their taste or their profit. It is also true that the Oba brothers
had fought staunchly on the side of Yoritomo's father, Yoshitomo, in
the Heiji war. Yoritomo may possibly have entertained some hope that
the Oba army would not prove a serious menace.
Whatever the explanation may be, the little Minamoto band were
attacked in front and rear simultaneously during a stormy night. They
suffered a crushing defeat. It seemed as though the white flag* was
to be lowered permanently, ere it had been fully shaken out to the
wind. The remnants of the Minamoto sought shelter in a cryptomeria
grove, where Yoritomo proved himself a powerful bowman. But when he
had tune to take stock of his followers, he found them reduced to six
men. These, at the suggestion of Doi Sanehira, he ordered to scatter
and seek safety in flight, while he himself with Sanehira hid in a
hollow tree. Their hiding-place was discovered by Kajiwara Kagetoki,
a member of the Oba family, whose sympathies were with the Minamoto.
He placed himself before the tree and signalled that the fugitives
had taken another direction. Presently, Oba Kagechika, riding up,
thrust his bow into the hollow tree, and as two pigeons flew out, he
concluded that there was no human being within.
*The Taira flew a red ensign; the Minamoto, a white.
ENGRAVING: MINAMOTO YORITOMO
From the time of this hairbreadth escape, Yoritomo's fortunes rose
rapidly. After some days of concealment among the Hakone mountains,
he reached the shore of Yedo Bay, and crossing from Izu to Awa, was
joined by Tokimasa and others. Manifestoes were then despatched in
all directions, and sympathizers began to flock in. Entering Kazusa,
the Minamoto leader secured the cooperation of Taira Hirotsune and
Chiba Tsunetane, while Tokimasa went to canvass in Kai. In short,
eight provinces of the Kwanto responded like an echo to Yoritomo's
call, and, by the time he had made his circuit of Yedo Bay, some
twenty-five thousand men were marshalled under his standard.
Kamakura, on the seacoast a few miles south of the present Yokohama,
was chosen for headquarters, and one of the first steps taken was to
establish there, on the hill of Tsurugaoka, a grand shrine to
Hachiman, the god of War and tutelary deity of the Minamoto.
Meanwhile, Tokimasa had secured the allegiance of the Takeda family
of Kai, and was about to send a strong force to join Yoritomo's army.
But by this time the Taira were in motion. Kiyomori had despatched a
body of fifty thousand men under Koremori, and Yoritomo had decided
to meet this army on the banks of the Fuji river. It became
necessary, therefore, to remove all potential foes from the Minamoto
rear, and accordingly Hojo Tokimasa received orders to overrun Suruga
and then to direct his movements with a view to concentration on the
Fuji. Thither Yoritomo marched from Kamakura, and by the beginning of
November, 1180, fifty thousand Taira troops were encamped on the
south bank of the river and twenty-seven thousand Minamoto on the
north. A decisive battle must be fought in the space of a few days.
In fact, the 13th of November had been indicated as the probable
date. But the battle was never fought. The officer in command of the
Taira van, Fujiwara no Tadakiyo, laboured under the disadvantage of
being a coward, and the Taira generals, Koremori and Tadamori,
grandson and youngest brother, respectively, of Kiyomori, seem to
have been thrown into a state of nervous prostration by the
unexpected magnitude of the Minamoto's uprising. They were debating,
and had nearly recognized the propriety of falling back without
challenging a combat or venturing their heads further into the
tiger's mouth, when something--a flight of water-birds, a
reconnaissance in force, a rumour, or what not--produced a panic, and
before a blow had been struck, the Taira army was in full retreat for
Kyoto.
YOSHITSUNE
In the Minamoto camp there was some talk of pursuing the fugitive
Taira, and possibly the most rapid results would thus have been
attained. But it was ultimately decided that the allegiance of the
whole Kwanto must be definitely secured before denuding it of troops
for the purpose of a western campaign. This attitude of caution
pointed specially to the provinces of Hitachi and Shimotsuke, where
the powerful Minamoto families of Satake and Nitta, respectively,
looked coldly upon the cause of their kinsman, Yoritomo. Therefore
the army was withdrawn to a more convenient position on the Kiso
River, and steps, ultimately successful, were taken to win over the
Nitta and the Satake.
It was at this time that there arrived in Yoritomo's camp a youth of
twenty-one with about a score of followers. Of medium stature and of
frame more remarkable for grace than for thews, he attracted
attention chiefly by his piercing eyes and by the dignified
intelligence of his countenance. This was Yoshitsune, the youngest
son of Yoshitomo. His life, as already stated, had been saved in the
Heiji disturbance, first, by the intrepidity of his mother, Tokiwa,
and, afterwards, by the impression her dazzling beauty produced upon
the Taira leader. Placed in the monastery of Kurama, as stipulated by
Kiyomori, Yoshitsune had no sooner learned to think than he became
inspired with an absorbing desire to restore the fortunes of his
family. Tradition has surrounded the early days of this, the future
Bayard of Japan, with many romantic legends, among which it is
difficult to distinguish the true from the false. What is certain,
however, is that at the age of fifteen he managed to effect his
escape to the north of Japan. The agent of his flight was an
iron-merchant who habitually visited the monastery on matters of
business, and whose dealings took him occasionally to Mutsu.
At the time of Yoshitsune's novitiate in the Kurama temple, the
political power in Japan may be said to have been divided between the
Taira, the provincial Minamoto, the Buddhist priests, and the
Fujiwara, and of the last the only branch that had suffered no
eclipse during the storms of Hogen and Heiji had been the Fujiwara of
Mutsu. It has been shown in the story of the Three Years' War, and
specially in the paragraph entitled "The Fujiwara of the North," that
the troops of Fujiwara Kiyohira and Minamoto Yoshiiye had fought side
by side, and that, after the war, Kiyohira succeeded to the six
districts of Mutsu, which constituted the largest estate in the hands
of any one Japanese noble. That estate was in the possession of
Hidehira, grandson of Kiyohira, at the time when the Minamoto family
suffered its heavy reverses. Yoshitsune expected, therefore, that at
least an asylum would be assured, could he find his way to Mutsu. He
was not mistaken. Hidehira received him with all hospitality, and as
Mutsu was practically beyond the control of Kyoto, the Minamoto
fugitive could lead there the life of a bushi, and openly study
everything pertaining to military art. He made such excellent use of
these opportunities that, by the time the Minamoto standard was
raised anew in Izu, Yoshitsune had earned the reputation of being the
best swordsman in the whole of northern Japan.
This was the stripling who rode into Yoritomo's camp on a November
day in the year 1180. The brothers had never previously seen each
other's faces, and their meeting in such circumstances was a dramatic
event. Among Yoshitsune's score of followers there were several who
subsequently earned undying fame, but one deserves special mention
here. Benkei, the giant halberdier, had turned his back upon the
priesthood, and, becoming a free lance, conceived the ambition of
forcibly collecting a thousand swords from their wearers. He wielded
the halberd with extraordinary skill, and such a huge weapon in the
hand of a man with seven feet of stalwart stature constituted a
menace before which a solitary wayfarer did not hesitate to surrender
his sword. One evening, Benkei observed an armed acolyte approaching
the Gojo bridge in Kyoto. The acolyte was Yoshitsune, and the time,
the eve of his departure for Mutsu. Benkei made light of disarming a
lad of tender years and seemingly slender strength. But already in
his acolyte days Yoshitsune had studied swordsmanship, and he
supplemented his knowledge by activity almost supernatural. The giant
Benkei soon found himself praying for life and swearing allegiance to
his boy conqueror, an oath which he kept so faithfully as to become
the type of soldierly fidelity for all subsequent generations of his
countrymen.
KISO YOSHINAKA
Looking at the map of central Japan, it is seen that the seven
provinces of Suruga, Izu, Awa, Kai, Sagami, Musashi, and Kazusa are
grouped approximately in the shape of a Japanese fan (uchiwa), having
Izu for the handle. Along the Pacific coast, eastward of this fan,
lie the provinces of Shimosa and Hitachi, where the Nitta and the
Satake, respectively, gave employment for some time to the diplomatic
and military resources of the Minamoto. Running inland from the
circumference of the fan are Shinano and Kotsuke, in which two
provinces, also, a powerful Minamoto resurrection synchronized with,
but was independent of, the Yoritomo movement.
The hero of the Shinano-Kotsuke drama was Minamoto no Yoshinaka,
commonly called Kiso Yoshinaka, because his youth was passed among
the mountains where the Kiso River has its source. In the year 1155,
Yoshitomo's eldest son, Yoshihira,* was sent to Musashi to fight
against his uncle, Yoshikata. The latter fell, and his son,
Yoshinaka, a baby of two, was handed to Saito Sanemori to be
executed; but the latter sent the child to Shinano, where it was
brought up by Nakahara Kaneto, the husband of its nurse. Yoshinaka
attained an immense stature as well as signal skill in archery and
horsemanship. Like Yoritomo and Yoshitsune, he brooded much on the
evil fortunes of the Minamoto, and paid frequent visits to Kyoto to
observe the course of events. In the year 1180, the mandate of Prince
Mochihito reached him, and learning that Yoritomo had taken the
field, he gathered a force in Shinano. Between the two leaders there
could be no final forgetfulness of the fact that Yoritomo's brother
had killed Yoshinaka's father, and had ordered the slaying of
Yoshinaka himself. But this evil memory did not obtrude itself at the
outset. They worked independently. Yoshinaka gained a signal victory
over the Taira forces marshalled against him by the governor of
Shinano, and pushing thence eastward into Kotsuke, obtained the
allegiance of the Ashikaga of Shimotsuke and of the Takeda of Kai.
Thus, the year 1180 closed upon a disastrous state of affairs for the
Taira, no less than ten provinces in the east having fallen
practically under Minamoto sway.
*This Yoshihira was a giant in stature. He shares with Tametomo the
fame of having exhibited the greatest prowess in the Hogen and Heiji
struggles. It was he who offered to attack Kyoto from Kumano a
measure which, in all probability, would have reversed the result of
the Heiji war.
CONTINUATION OF THE CAMPAIGN
Kiyomori expired in March, 1181, as already related. His last behest,
that the head of Yoritomo should be laid on his grave, nerved his
successors to fresh efforts. But the stars in their courses seemed to
be fighting against the Taira. Kiyomori's son, Munemori, upon whom
devolved the direction of the great clan's affairs, was wholly
incompetent for such a trust. One gleam of sunshine, however,
illumined the fortunes of the Heike. Two months after Kiyomori's
death, a Taira army under Shigehira attacked Yukiiye, Yoritomo's
uncle, who had pushed westward as far as Owari. This Yukiiye never
showed any qualities of generalship. He was repeatedly defeated, the
only redeeming feature of his campaigns being that he himself always
escaped destruction. On this occasion he was driven out of Owari and
forced to retire within the confines of the Kwanto.
But now the home provinces and the west fell into the horrors of
famine and pestilence, as described above; and in such circumstances
to place armies in the field and to maintain them there became
impossible. The Taira had to desist from all warlike enterprises
until the summer of 1182, when a great effort was made to crush the
rapidly growing power of the Minamoto. Commissions of provincial
governor were sent to Jo no Nagashige, a puissant Taira magnate of
Echigo; to Taira no Chikafusa, of Etchu, and to Fujiwara Hidehira, of
Mutsu, who were all ordered to attack Yoritomo and Yoshinaka.
Hidehira made no response, but Nagashige set in motion against
Yoshinaka a strong force, swelled by a contingent from Kyoto under
Michimori. The results were signal defeat for the Taira and the
carrying of the white flag by Yoshinaka into Echigo, Etchu, Noto, and
Kaga.
DISSENSIONS AMONG THE MINAMOTO
Meanwhile discord had declared itself between Yoritomo and Yoshinaka.
It has been shown that the records of the two families afforded no
basis of mutual confidence, and it has also been shown that the
Takeda clan of Kai province were among the earliest adherents of the
Minamoto cause. In view of Yoshinaka's brilliant successes, Takeda
Nobumitsu proposed a marriage between his daughter and Yoshinaka's
son, Yoshitaka. This union was declined by Yoshinaka, whereupon
Nobumitsu suggested to Yoritomo that Yoshinaka's real purpose was to
ally his house with the Taira by marriage. Whether Nobumitsu believed
this, or whether his idea had its origin in pique, history does not
indicate. But there can be no hesitation in concluding that a rupture
between the two Minamoto chiefs was presaged by Yoritomo's entourage,
who judged that two Richmonds could not remain permanently in the
field.
Things gradually shaped themselves in accordance with that forecast.
The malcontents in Yoritomo's camp or his discomfited opponents began
to transfer their allegiance to Yoshinaka; a tendency which
culminated when Yoritomo's uncle, Yukiiye, taking umbrage because a
provincial governorship was not given to him, rode off at the head of
a thousand cavalry to join Yoshinaka. The reception given by
Yoshinaka to these deserters was in itself sufficient to suggest
doubts of his motives. Early in the year 1183, Yoritomo sent a force
into Shinano with orders to exterminate Yoshinaka. But the latter
declined the combat. Quoting a popular saying that the worst enemies
of the Minamoto were their own dissensions, he directed his troops to
withdraw into Echigo, leaving to Yoritomo a free hand in Shinano.
When this was reported to Yoritomo, he recalled his troops from
Shinano, and asked Yoshinaka to send a hostage. Yoshinaka replied by
sending his son Yoshitaka, the same youth to whom Takeda Nobumitsu
had proposed to marry his daughter. He was now wedded to Yoritomo's
daughter, and the two Minamoto chiefs seemed to have been effectually
reconciled.
ADVANCE OF YOSHINAKA ON KYOTO
Yoshinaka's desire to avoid conflict with Yoritomo had been partly
due to the fact that the Taira leaders were known to be just then
straining every nerve to beat back the westward-rolling tide of
Minamoto conquest. They had massed all their available forces in
Echizen, and at that supreme moment Yoritomo's active hostility would
have completely marred Yoshinaka's great opportunity. In May, 1183,
this decisive phase of the contest was opened; Koremori, Tamemori,
and Tomonori being in supreme command of the Taira troops, which are
said to have mustered one hundred thousand strong. At first, things
fared badly with the Minamoto. They lost an important fortress at
Hiuchi-yama, and Yukiiye was driven from Kaga into Noto. But when the
main army of the Minamoto came into action, the complexion of affairs
changed at once. In a great battle fought at Tonami-yama in Echizen,
Yoshinaka won a signal victory by the manoeuvre of launching at the
Taira a herd of oxen having torches fastened to their horns.
Thousands of the Taira perished, including many leaders.
Other victories at Kurikara and Shinowara opened the road to Kyoto.
Yoshinaka pushed on and, in August, reached Hiei-zan; while Yukiiye,
the pressure on whose front in Noto had been relieved, moved towards
Yamato; Minamoto no Yukitsuna occupied Settsu and Kawachi, and
Ashikaga Yoshikiyo advanced to Tamba. Thus, the capital lay at the
mercy of Yoshinaka's armies. The latter stages of the Minamoto march
had been unopposed. Munemori, after a vain attempt to secure the
alliance of the Hiei-zan monks, had recalled his generals and decided
to retire westward, abandoning Kyoto. He would have taken with him
the cloistered Emperor, but Go-Shirakawa secretly made his way to
Hiei-zan and placed himself under the protection of Yoshinaka,
rejoicing at the opportunity to shake off the Taira yoke.
RETREAT OF THE TAIRA
On August 14, 1183, the evacuation of Kyoto took place. Munemori,
refusing to listen to the counsels of the more resolute among his
officers, applied the torch to the Taira mansions at northern and
southern Rokuhara, and, taking with him the Emperor Antoku, then in
his sixth year, his Majesty's younger brother, and their mother,
together with the regalia--the mirror, the sword, and the
gem--retired westward, followed by the whole remnant of his clan.
Arrived at Fukuhara, they devoted a night to praying, making sacred
music, and reading Sutras at Kiyomori's tomb, whereafter they set
fire to all the Taira palaces, mansions, and official buildings, and
embarked for the Dazai-fu in Chikuzen. They reckoned on the
allegiance of the whole of Kyushu and of at least one-half of
Shikoku.
EIGHTY-SECOND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-TOBA (A.D. 1184-1198)
The Taira leaders having carried off the Emperor Antoku, there was no
actually reigning sovereign in Kyoto, whither the cloistered Emperor
now returned, an imposing guard of honour being furnished by
Yoshinaka. Go-Shirakawa therefore resumed the administration of State
affairs, Yoshinaka being given the privilege of access to the
Presence and entrusted with the duty of guarding the capital. The
distribution of rewards occupied attention in the first place. Out of
the five hundred manors of the Taira, one hundred and fifty were
given to Yoshinaka and Yukiiye, and over two hundred prominent Taira
officials were stripped of their posts and their Court ranks.
Yoritomo received more gracious treatment than Yoshinaka, although
the Kamakura chief could not yet venture to absent himself from the
Kwanto for the purpose of paying his respects at Court. For the rest,
in spite of Yoshinaka's brilliant success, he was granted only the
fifth official rank and the governorship of the province of Iyo.
These things could not fail to engender some discontent, and
presently a much graver cause for dissatisfaction presented itself.
Fujiwara Kanezane, minister of the Right, memorialized the Court in
the sense that, as Antoku had left the capital, another occupant to
the throne should be appointed, in spite of the absence of the
regalia. He pointed out that a precedent for dispensing with these
tokens of Imperialism had been furnished in the case of the Emperor
Keitai (507-531). No valid reason existed for such a precipitate
step. Antoku had not abdicated. His will had not been consulted at
all by the Taira when they carried him off; nor would the will of a
child of six have possessed any validity in such a matter. It is
plain that the proposal made by the minister of the Right had for
motive the convenience of the Minamoto, whose cause lacked legitimacy
so long as the sovereign and the regalia were in the camp of the
Taira.
But the minister's advice had a disastrous sequel. Yoshinaka was
resolutely bent on securing the succession for the son of Prince
Mochihito, who had been killed in the Yorimasa emeute. It was
practically to Mochihito that the Court owed its rescue from the
Taira tyranny, and his son--now a youth of seventeen, known as Prince
Hokuriku, because he had founded an asylum at a monastery in
Hokuriku-do after his father's death--had been conducted to Kyoto by
Yoshinaka, under a promise to secure the succession for him. But
Go-Shirakawa would not pay any attention to these representations. He
held that Prince Hokuriku was ineligible, since his father had been
born out of wedlock, and since the prince himself had taken the
tonsure; the truth being that the ex-Emperor had determined to obtain
the crown for one of his own grandsons, younger brothers of Antoku.
It is said that his Majesty's manner of choosing between the two lads
was most capricious. He had them brought into his presence, whereupon
the elder began to cry, the younger to laugh, and Go-Shirakawa at
once selected the latter, who thenceforth became the Emperor Go-Toba.
FALL OF YOSHINAKA
Yoshinaka's fortunes began to ebb from the time of his failure to
obtain the nomination of Prince Hokuriku. A force despatched to
Bitchu with the object of arresting the abduction of Antoku and
recovering possession of the regalia, had the misfortune to be
confronted by Taira no Noritsune, one of the stoutest warriors on the
side of the Heike. Ashikaga Yoshikiyo, who commanded the pursuers,
was killed, and his men were driven back pele-mele. This event
impaired the prestige of Yoshinaka's troops, while he himself and his
officers found that their rustic ways and illiterate education
exposed them constantly to the thinly veiled sneers of the dilettanti
and pundits who gave the tone to metropolitan society. The soldiers
resented these insults with increasing roughness and recourse to
violence, so that the coming of Yoritomo began to be much desired.
Go-Shirakawa sent two messages at a brief interval to invite the
Kamakura chief's presence in the capital. Yoritomo replied with a
memorial which won for him golden opinions, but he showed no sign of
visiting Kyoto. His absorbing purpose was to consolidate his base in
the east, and he had already begun to appreciate that the military
and the Imperial capitals should be distinct.
Naturally, when the fact of these pressing invitations to Yoritomo
reached Yoshinaka's ears, he felt some resentment, and this was
reflected in the demeanour of his soldiers, outrages against the
lives and properties of the citizens becoming more and more frequent.
Even the private domains of the cloistered Emperor himself, to say
nothing of the manors of the courtiers, were freely entered and
plundered, so that public indignation reached a high pitch. The
umbrage thus engendered was accentuated by treachery. Driven from
Kyushu, the Taira chiefs had obtained a footing in Shikoku and had
built fortifications at Yashima in Sanuki, which became thenceforth
their headquarters. They had also collected on the opposite coast of
the Inland Sea a following which seemed likely to grow in dimensions,
and, with the idea of checking that result, it was proposed to send
troops to the Sanyo-do under Minamoto Yukiiye, who had been named
governor of Bizen. Taught, however, by experience that disaster was
likely to be the outcome of Yukiiye's generalship, Yoshinaka
interfered to prevent his appointment, and Yukiiye, resenting this
slight, became thenceforth a secret foe of Yoshinaka.
In analyzing the factors that go to the making of this complicated
chapter of Japanese history, a place must be given to Yukiiye. He
seems to have been an unscrupulous schemer. Serving originally under
Yoritomo, who quickly took his measure, he concluded that nothing
substantial was to be gained in that quarter. Therefore, he passed
over to Yoshinaka, who welcomed him, not as an enemy of Yoritomo, but
as a Minamoto. Thenceforth Yukiiye's aim was to cause a collision
between the two cousins and to raise his own house on the ruins of
both. He contributed materially to the former result, but as to the
latter, the sixth year of his appearance upon the stage as Prince
Mochihito's mandate-bearer saw his own head pilloried in Kyoto.
Yoshinaka, however, had too frank a disposition to be suspicious. He
believed until the end that Yukiiye's heart was in the Minamoto
cause. Then, when it became necessary to choose, between taking
stupendous risks in the west or making a timely withdrawal to the
east, he took Yukiiye into his confidence. That was the traitor's
opportunity. He secretly informed the ex-Emperor that Yoshinaka had
planned a retreat to the east, carrying his Majesty with him, and
this information, at a time when the excesses committed by
Yoshinaka's troops had provoked much indignation, induced
Go-Shirakawa to obtain from Hiei-zan and Miidera armed monks to form
a palace-guard under the command of the kebiishi, Taira Tomoyasu, a
declared enemy of Yoshinaka. At once Yoshinaka took a decisive step.
He despatched a force to the palace; seized the persons of
Go-Shirakawa and Go-Toba; removed Motomichi from the regency,
appointing Moroie, a boy of twelve, in his place, and dismissed a
number of Court officials.
In this strait, Go-Shirakawa, whose record is one long series of
undignified manoeuvres to keep his own head above water, applied
himself to placate Yoshinaka while privately relying on Yoritomo. His
Majesty granted to the former the control of all the domains
previously held by the Taira; appointed him to the high office of
sei-i tai-shogun (barbarian-subduing generalissimo), and commissioned
him to attack Yoritomo while, at the same time, the latter was
secretly encouraged to destroy his cousin. At that moment (February,
1184), Yoritomo's two younger brothers, Yoshitsune and Noriyori, were
en route for Kyoto, where they had been ordered to convey the Kwanto
taxes. They had a force of five hundred men only, but these were
quickly transformed into the van of an army of fifty or sixty
thousand, which Yoritomo, with extraordinary expedition, sent from
Kamakura to attack Yoshinaka.
The "Morning Sun shogun" (Asahi-shogun), as Yoshinaka was commonly
called with reference to his brilliant career, now at last saw
himself confronted by the peril which had long disturbed his
thoughts. At a distance of three hundred miles from his own base,
with powerful foes on either flank and in a city whose population was
hostile to him, his situation seemed almost desperate. He took a step
dictated by dire necessity--made overtures to the Taira, asking that
a daughter of the house of Kiyomori be given him for wife. Munemori
refused. The fortunes of the Taira at that moment appeared to be
again in the ascendant. They were once more supreme in Kyushu; the
west of the main island from coast to coast was in their hands; they
had re-established themselves in Fukuhara, and at any moment they
might move against Kyoto. They could afford, therefore, to await the
issue of the conflict pending between the Minamoto cousins, sure that
it must end in disaster for one side and temporary weakness for the
other.
In fact, the situation was almost hopeless for Yoshinaka. There had
not been time to recall the main body of his troops which were
confronting the Taira. All that he could do was to arrest momentarily
the tide of onset by planting handfuls of men to guard the chief
avenues at Uji and Seta where, four years previously, Yorimasa had
died for the Minamoto cause, and Seta, where a long bridge spans the
waters of Lake Biwa as they narrow to form the Setagawa. To the Uji
bridge, Nenoi Yukichika was sent with three hundred men; to the Seta
bridge, Imai Kanehira with five hundred. The names of these men and
of their brothers, Higuchi Kanemitsu and Tate Chikatada, are immortal
in Japanese history. They were the four sons of Nakahara Kaneto, by
whom Yoshinaka had been reared, and their constant attendance on his
person, their splendid devotion to him, and their military prowess
caused people to speak of them as Yoshinaka's Shi-tenno--the four
guardian deities of Buddhist temples. Their sister, Tomoe, is even
more famous. Strong and brave as she was beautiful, she became the
consort of Yoshinaka, with whom she had been brought up, and she
accompanied him in all his campaigns, fighting by his side and
leading a body of troops in all his battles. She was with him when he
made his final retreat and she killed a gigantic warrior, Uchida
Ieyoshi, who attempted to seize her on that occasion. Yoshinaka
compelled her to leave him at the supreme moment, being unwilling
that she should fall into the enemy's hands; and after his death she
became a nun, devoting the rest of her days to prayers for his
spirit.
But it is not to be supposed that Yoshinaka repaid this noble
devotion with equal sincerity. On the contrary, the closing scene of
his career was disfigured by passion for another woman, daughter of
the kwampaku, Fujiwara Motofusa. Attracted by rumours of her beauty
after his arrival in Kyoto, he compelled her to enter his household,
and when news came that the armies of Yoshitsune and Noriyori were
approaching the capital, this great captain, for such he certainly
was, instead of marshalling his forces and making dispositions for
defence, went to bid farewell to the beautiful girl who resided in
his Gojo mansion. Hours of invaluable time passed, and still Asahi
shogun remained by the lady's side. Finally, two of his faithful
comrades, Echigo Chuta and Tsuwata Saburo, seated themselves in front
of the mansion and committed suicide to recall their leader to his
senses. Yoshinaka emerged, but it was too late. He could not muster
more than three hundred men, and in a short time Yoshitsune rode into
the city at the head of a large body of cavalry.
Yoshitsune had approached by way of Uji. He was not at all deterred
by the fact that the enemy had destroyed the bridge. His mounted
bowmen dashed into the river* and crossed it with little loss. A few
hours brought them to Kyoto, where they made small account of the
feeble resistance that Yoshinaka was able to offer. Wounded and with
little more than half a score of followers, Yoshinaka rode off, and
reaching the plain Of Awazu, met Imai Kanehira with the remnant of
his five hundred men who had gallantly resisted Noriyori's army of
thirty thousand. Imai counselled instant flight eastward. In Shinano,
Yoshinaka would find safety and a dominion, while to cover his
retreat, Imai would sacrifice his own life. Such noble deeds were the
normal duty of every true bushi. Yoshinaka galloped away, but, riding
into a marsh, disabled his horse and was shot down. Meanwhile Imai,
in whose quiver there remained only eight arrows, had killed as many
of the pursuing horsemen, and then placing the point of his sword in
his mouth, had thrown himself headlong from his horse. One incident,
shocking but not inconsistent with the canons of the time, remains to
be included in this chapter of Japanese history. It has been related
that Yoshinaka's son, Yoshitaka, was sent by his father to Kamakura
as a hostage, and was married to Yoritomo's daughter. After the
events above related Yoshitaka was put to death at Kamakura,
apparently without Yoritomo's orders, and his widow, when pressed by
her brother to marry again, committed suicide.
*Japanese tradition loves to tell of a contest between Sasaki
Takatsuna and Kajiwara Kagesue as to which should cross the river
first. Kagesue was the son of that Kajiwara who had saved. Yoritomo's
life in the episode of the hollow tree.
BATTLE OF ICHI-NO-TANI
The victory of the armies led by Noriyori and Yoshitsune brought
Kamakura and Fukuhara into direct conflict, and it was speedily
decided that these armies should at once move westward to attack the
Taira. A notable feature of the military operations of that era was
celerity. Less than a month sufficed to mobilize an army of fifty
thousand men and to march it from Kamakura to Kyoto, a distance of
three hundred miles, and within ten days of the death of Yoshinaka
this same army, augmented to seventy-six thousand, began to move
westward from Kyoto (March 19, 1184). The explanation of this
rapidity is furnished, in part, by simplicity of commisariat, and by
the fact that neither artillery nor heavy munitions of war had to be
transported. Every man carried with him a supply of cooked rice,
specially prepared so as to occupy little space while sufficing for
several days' food, and this supply was constantly replenished by
requisitions levied upon the districts traversed. Moreover, every man
carried his own implements of war--bow and arrows, sword, spear, or
halberd--and the footgear consisted of straw sandals which never hurt
the feet, and in which a man could easily march twenty miles a day
continuously.
These remarks apply to all the fighting men of whatever part of
Japan, but as to the Kwanto bushi, their special characteristics are
thus described by a writer of the twelfth century: "Their ponderous
bows require three men or five to bend them. Their quivers, which
match these bows, hold fourteen or fifteen bundles of arrows. They
are very quick in releasing their shafts, and each arrow kills or
wounds two or three foemen, the impact being powerful enough to
pierce two or three thicknesses of armour at a time, and they never
fail to hit the mark. Every daimyo (owner of a great estate) has at
least twenty or thirty of such mounted archers, and even the owner of
a small barren estate has two or three. Their horses are very
excellent, for they are carefully selected, while as yet in pasture,
and then trained after their own peculiar fashion. With five or ten
such excellent mounts each, they go out hunting deer or foxes and
gallop up and down mountains and forests. Trained in these wild
methods, they are all splendid horsemen who know how to ride but
never how to fall. It is the habit of the Kwanto bushi that if in the
field of battle a father be killed, the son will not retreat, or if a
son be slain the father will not yield, but stepping over the dead,
they will fight to the death."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
The Taira, as noted above, had by this time largely recovered from
the disasters suffered in their first encounters with Yoshinaka's
forces. In the western provinces of the main island, in Shikoku, and
in Kyushu, scions of the clan had served as governors in former
times, so that ties of close intimacy had been established with the
inhabitants. Since the first flight to Kyushu in August, 1183, their
generals, Shigehira, Michimori, Noritsune, and others had defeated
the forces of Yoshinaka at Mizushima and those of Yukiiye at
Muroyama, so that no less than fourteen provinces of the Sanyo-do and
the Nankai-do owned Taira sway, and by the beginning of 1184 they had
re-occupied the Fukuhara district, establishing themselves at a
position of great natural strength called Ichi-no-tani in the
province of Harima. Their lines extended several miles, over which
space one hundred thousand men were distributed. They lay within a
semi-circle of mountains supposed to be inaccessible from the north;
their camp was washed on the south by the sea where a thousand
war-vessels were assembled; the east flank rested on a forest, and
the west was strongly fortified.
On March 21, 1184, the Kamakura armies delivered their assault on
this position; Noriyori with fifty-six thousand men against the east
flank at Ikuta; Yoshitsune's lieutenants with twenty thousand men
against the west at Suma. Little progress was made. Defence and
attack were equally obstinate, and the advantage of position as well
as of numbers was with the former. But Yoshitsune himself had
foreseen this and had determined that the best, if not the only, hope
of victory lay in delivering an assault by descending the northern
rampart of mountains at Hiyodori Pass. Access from that side being
counted impracticable, no dispositions had been made by the Taira to
guard the defile. Yoshitsune selected for the venture seventy-five
men, among them being Benkei, Hatakeyama Shigetada, and others of his
most trusted comrades. They succeeded in riding down the steep
declivity, and they rushed at the Taira position, setting fire to
everything inflammable.
What ensued is soon told. Taken completely by surprise, the Taira
weakened, and the Minamoto, pouring in at either flank, completed the
rout which had already commenced. Munemori was among the first of the
fugitives. He embarked with the Emperor Antoku and the regalia, and
steered for Yashima, whither he was quickly followed by the remnants
of his force. Shigehira, Kiyomori's fifth son, was taken prisoner.
Michimori, Tadanori, and Atsumori were killed. Several illustrative
incidents marked this great fight. Michimori's wife threw herself
into the sea when she heard of her husband's death. Tomoakira, the
seventeen-year-old son of Tomomori, deliberately sacrificed himself
to save his father, and the latter, describing the incident
subsequently to his brother, Munemori, said with tears: "A son died
to save his father; a father fled, leaving his son to die. Were it
done by another man, I should spit in his face. But I have done it
myself. What will the world call me?" This same Tomomori afterwards
proved himself the greatest general on the Taira side. Okabe
Tadazumi, a Minamoto captain, took the head of Tadanori but could not
identify it. In the lining of the helmet, however, was found a roll
of poems and among them one signed "Tadanori:"
Twilight upon my path,
And for mine inn to-night
The shadow of a tree,
And for mine host, a flower.
This little gem of thought has gleamed on Tadanori's memory through
all the centuries and has brought vicarious fame even to his slayer,
Tadazumi. Still more profoundly is Japanese sympathy moved by the
episode of Taira no Atsumori and Kumagaye Naozane. Atsumori, a
stripling of fifteen, was seized by Naozane, a stalwart warrior on
the Minamoto side. When Naozane tore off the boy's helmet,
preparatory to beheading him, and saw a young face vividly recalling
his own son who had perished early in the fight, he was moved with
compassion and would fain have stayed his hand. To have done so,
however, would merely have been to reserve Atsumori for a crueller
death. He explained his scruples and his sorrows to the boy, who
submitted to his fate with calm courage. But Naozane vowed never to
wield weapon again. He sent Atsumori's head and a flute found on his
person to the youth's father, Tsunemori, and he himself entered the
priesthood, devoting the remaining years of his life to prayers for
the soul of the ill-fated lad. Such incidents do not find a usual
place in the pages of history, but they contribute to the
interpretation of a nation's character.
BATTLE OF YASHIMA
The battle of Ichi-no-tani was not by any means conclusive. It drove
the Taira out of Harima and the four provinces on the immediate west
of the latter, but it did not disturb them in Shikoku or Kyushu, nor
did it in any way cripple the great fleet which gave them a signal
advantage. In these newly won provinces Yoritomo placed military
governors and nominated to these posts Doi Sanehira and Kajiwara
Kagetoki, heroes, respectively, of the cryptomeria forest and the
hollow tree. But this contributed little to the solution of the vital
problem, how to get at the Taira in Shikoku and in Kyushu. Noriyori
returned to Kamakura to consult Yoritomo, but the latter and his
military advisers could not plan anything except the obvious course
of marching an army from Harima westward to the Strait of
Shimonoseki, and thereafter collecting boats to carry it across to
Kyushu. That, however, was plainly defective strategy. It left the
flank of the westward-marching troops constantly exposed to attack
from the coast where the Taira fleet had full command of the sea; it
invited enterprises against the rear of the troops from the enemy's
position at Yashima in Shikoku, and it assumed the possibility of
crossing the Strait of Shimonoseki in the presence of a greatly
superior naval force.
Yet no other plan of operations suggested itself to the Kamakura
strategists. Yoshitsune was not consulted. He remained in Kyoto
instead of repairing to Kamakura, and he thereby roused the suspicion
of Yoritomo, who began to see in him a second Yoshinaka. Hence, in
presenting a list of names for reward in connexion with the campaign
against the "Morning Sun shogun," Yoritomo made no mention of
Yoshitsune, and the brilliant soldier would have remained entirely
without recognition had not the cloistered Emperor specially
appointed him to the post of kebiishi. Thus, when the largely
augmented Minamoto force began to move westward from Harima in
October, 1184, under the command of Noriyori, no part was assigned to
Yoshitsune. He remained unemployed in Kyoto.
Noriyori pushed westward steadily, but not without difficulty. He
halted for a time in the province of Suwo, and finally, in March,
1185, five months after moving out of Harima, he contrived to
transfer the main part of his force across Shimonoseki Strait and to
marshall them in Bungo in the north of Kyushu. The position then was
this: first, a Taira army strongly posted at Yashima in Sanuki
(Shikoku), due east of Noriyori's van in Bungo, and threatening his
line of communications throughout its entire length from Harima to
the Strait of Shimonoseki; secondly, another Taira army strongly
posted on Hikoshima, an island west of Shimonoseki Strait, which army
menaced the communications between Noriyori's van across the water in
Bungo and his advanced base in Suwo, and thirdly, the command of the
whole Inland Sea in the hands of the Taira.
Evidently, in such conditions, no advance into Kyushu could be made
by Noriyori without inviting capital risks. The key of the situation
for the Minamoto was to wrest the command of the sea from the Taira
and to drive them from Shikoku preparatory to the final assault upon
Kyushu. This was recognized after a time, and Kajiwara Kagetoki
received orders to collect or construct a fleet with all possible
expedition, which orders he applied himself to carry out at Watanabe,
in Settsu, near the eastern entrance to the Inland Sea. In justice to
Yoritomo's strategy it must be noted that these orders were given
almost simultaneously with the departure of the Minamoto army
westward from Harima, so that by the time of Noriyori's arrival in
Bungo, the military governor, Kagetoki, had got together some four
hundred vessels at Watanabe.
Meanwhile, Yoshitsune had been chafing in Kyoto. To a man of his
temperament enforced passivity on the eve of such epoch-making events
must have been intolerable. He saw plainly that to drive the Taira
from Shikoku was an essential preliminary to their ultimate defeat,
and he saw, too, that for such an enterprise a larger measure of
resolution and daring was needed than Kajiwara Kagetoki seemed
disposed to employ. He therefore obtained from the cloistered Emperor
the commission of tai-shogun (great general) and hastened to Settsu
to take command. Complications ensued at once. Kagetoki objected to
be relegated to a secondary place, and Go-Shirakawa was induced to
recall Yoshitsune. But the latter refused to return to Kyoto, and, of
course, his relations with Kagetoki were not cordial. The situation
was complicated by an unpleasant incident. Kagetoki wished to equip
the war-junks with sakaro. Yoshitsune asked what that meant, and
being informed that sakaro signified oars at the bow of a boat for
use in the event of going astern, he said that such a provision could
tend only to suggest a movement fatal to success.
"Do you contemplate retiring?" he asked Kagetoki. "So far as I am
concerned, I desire only to be equipped for advancing." Kagetoki
indignantly replied: "A skilful general advances at the right moment
and retires at the right moment. You know only the tactics of a wild
boar." Yoshitsune angrily retorted, "I know not whether I am a boar
or whether I am a deer, but I do know that I take pleasure in
crushing a foe by attacking him." From that moment the relations
between the two generals were distinctly strained, and it will
presently be seen that the consequences of their estrangement became
historical.
The 21st of March, 1185, was a day of tempest. Yoshitsune saw his
opportunity. He proposed to run over to the opposite coast and attack
Yashima under cover of the storm. Kagetoki objected that no vessel
could live in such weather. Yoshitsune then called for volunteers.
About one hundred and fifty daring spirits responded. They embarked
in five war-junks, some of the sailors being ordered to choose
between manning the vessels or dying by the sword. Sweeping over the
Harima Nada with the storm astern, Yoshitsune and his little band of
heroic men landed safely on the Awa coast, and dashed at once to the
assault of the Taira, who were taken wholly by surprise, never
imagining that any forces could have essayed such an enterprise in
such a tempest. Some fought resolutely, but ultimately all that had
not perished under the swords of the Minamoto obeyed Munemori's
orders to embark, and the evening of the 23rd of March saw the Taira
fleet congregated in Shido Bay and crowded with fugitives. There they
were attacked at dawn on the 24th by Yoshitsune, to whom there had
arrived on the previous evening a re-enforcement of thirty war-junks,
sent, not by Kagetoki, but by a Minamoto supporter who had been
driven from the province of Iyo some time previously by the Taira.
As usual, the impetuosity of Yoshitsune's onset carried everything
before it. Soon the Taira fleet was flying down the Inland Sea, and
when Kajiwara Kagetoki, having at length completed his preparations,
arrived off Yashima on the 25th of March with some four hundred
war-vessels, he found only the ashes of the Taira palaces and
palisades. Munemori, with the boy Emperor and all the survivors of
the Taira, had fled by sea to join Tomomori at Hikoshima. This
enterprise was even more brilliant and much more conclusive than that
of Ichi-no-tani. During three consecutive days, with a mere handful
of one hundred and fifty followers, Yoshitsune had engaged a powerful
Taira army on shore, and on the fourth day he had attacked and routed
them at sea, where the disparity of force must have been evident and
where no adventitious natural aids were available.
When every allowance is made for the incompetence of the Taira
commander, Munemori, and for the crippling necessity of securing the
safety of the child-sovereign, Antoku, the battle of Yashima still
remains one of the most extraordinary military feats on record. Among
the incidents of the battle, it is recorded that Yoshitsune himself
was in imminent peril at one time, and the details illustrate the
manner of fighting in that era. He dropped his bow into the sea
during the naval engagement, and when he essayed to pick it up, some
Taira soldiers hooked his armour with a grapnel. Yoshitsune severed
the haft of the grapnel with his sword and deliberately picked up the
bow. Asked why he had imperilled his person for a mere bow, he
replied, "Had it been a bow such as my uncle Tametomo bent, its
falling into the enemy's possession would not matter; but a weak bow
like mine would give them something to laugh at." Observing this
incident, Noritsune, one of the best fighters and most skilled
archers among the Taira, made Yoshitsune the target of his shafts.
But Sato Tsuginobu, member of the band of trusted comrades who had
accompanied the Minamoto hero from Mutsu, interposed his body and
received the arrow destined for Yoshitsune. Kikuo, Noritsune's
squire, leaped from his boat to decapitate the wounded Tsuginobu, but
was shot down by the latter's younger brother. Yoshitsune pillowed
Tsuginobu's head on his knees and asked the dying man whether he had
any last message. The answer was: "To die for my lord is not death. I
have longed for such an end ever since we took the field. My only
regret is that I cannot live to see the annihilation of the Taira."
Yoshitsune, weeping, said, "To annihilate the Taira is a mere matter
of days, but all time would not suffice to repay your devotion."
BATTLE OF DAN-NO-URA
The fight at Yashima was followed by a month's interval of
comparatively minor operations, undertaken for the purpose of
bringing Shikoku completely under Minamoto sway. During that time the
two clans prepared for final action. The Taira would have withdrawn
altogether into Kyushu, but such a course must have been preceded by
the dislodging of Noriyori, with his army of thirty thousand men,
from Bungo province, which they had occupied since the beginning of
March. It is true that Noriyori himself was unable to make any
further incursion into Kyushu so long as his maritime communications
with his advanced base in Suwo remained at the mercy of the Taira
fleet. But it is equally true that the Taira generals dared not enter
Kyushu so long as a strong Minamoto force was planted on the left
flank of their route.
Thus, a peculiar situation existed at the beginning of April, 1185.
Of the two provinces at the extreme south of the main island, one,
the eastern (Suwo), was in Minamoto occupation; the other, the
western (Nagato), was mainly held by the Taira; and of the three
provinces forming the northern littoral of Kyushu, two, the western
(Chikuzen and Buzen), were in Taira hands, and the third, the eastern
(Bungo), was the camp of Noriyori with his thirty thousand men.
Finally, the Strait of Shimonoseki between Chikuzen and Buzen was in
Taira possession. Evidently the aim of the Taira must be to eliminate
Noriyori from the battle now pending, and to that end they selected
for arena Dan-no-ura, that is to say, the littoral of Nagato province
immediately east of the Shimonoseki Strait.
We have seen that ever since the Ichi-no-tani fight, the Minamoto
generals, especially Kajiwara Kagetoki, had been actively engaged in
building, or otherwise acquiring, war-junks. By April, 1185, they had
brought together a squadron of seven to eight hundred; whereas, in
the sequel of Yashima and minor engagements, the Taira fleet had been
reduced to some five hundred. The war-junk of those days was not a
complicated machine. Propelled by oars, it had no fighting capacities
of its own, its main purpose being to carry its occupants within
bow-range or sword-reach of their adversaries. Naval tactics
consisted solely in getting the wind-gage for archery purposes.
By the 22nd of April, 1185, the whole of the Minamoto fleet had
assembled at Oshima, an island lying off the southeast of Suwo, the
Taira vessels, with the exception of the Hikoshima contingent, being
anchored at Dan-no-ura. On that day, a strong squadron, sent out by
Yoshitsune for reconnoitring purposes, marshalled itself at a
distance of about two miles from the Taira array, and this fact
having been signalled to the Taira general, Tomomori, at Hikoshima,
he at once passed the strait and joined forces with the main fleet at
Dan-no-ura. Yoshitsune's design had been to deliver a general attack
immediately after the despatch of the reconnoitring squadron, but
this was prevented by a deluge of blinding rain which lasted until
the night of the 24th.
Thus, it was not until the 25th that the battle took place. It
commenced with an inconclusive archery duel at long range, whereafter
the two fleets closed up and a desperate hand-to-hand struggle
ensued. Neither side could claim any decisive advantage until Taguchi
Shigeyoshi deserted from the Taira and passed over with all his ships
to the Minamoto. This Taguchi had been originally an influential
magnate of Iyo in Shikoku, whence he had accompanied the Taira
retreat to Nagato, leaving his son with three thousand men to defend
the family manors in Iyo. The son was so generously treated by the
Minamoto that he threw in his lot with them and sent letters urging
his father to adopt the same cause. Taguchi not only followed his
son's advice but also chose the moment most disastrous for the Taira.
His defection was followed quickly by the complete rout of the Heike.
A resolute attempt was made to defend the ship containing the young
Emperor, his mother, his grandmother, and several other Taira ladies;
but the vessel finally passed into Minamoto possession. Not before
she had been the scene of a terrible tragedy, however. Kiyomori's
widow, the Ni-i-no-ama, grandmother of Antoku, took the six-year old
child in her arms and jumped into the sea, followed by Antoku's
mother, the Empress Dowager (Kenrei-mon-in), carrying the regalia,
and by other court ladies. The Empress Dowager was rescued, as were
also the sacred mirror and the gem, but the sword was irrevocably
lost.
The Taira leader, Munemori, and his son, Kiyomune, were taken
prisoner, but Tomomori, Noritsune, and seven other Taira generals
were drowned. Noritsune distinguished himself conspicuously. He
singled out Yoshitsune for the object of his attack, but being unable
to reach him, he seized two Minamoto bushi and sprang into the sea
with them. Tomomori, Munemori's brother, who had proved himself a
most able general, leaped overboard carrying an anchor. Yoshitsune
spoke in strongly laudatory terms of Noritsune and ascribed to him
much of the power hitherto wielded by the Taira. Munemori and his son
were executed finally at Omi. Shigehira, in response to a petition
from the Nara priests whose fanes he had destroyed by Kiyomori's
orders, was handed over to the monks and put to death by them at
Narasaka. But Kiyomori's brother, who had interceded for the life of
Yoritomo after the Heiji emeule, was pardoned, his rank and property
being restored to him; and Taira no Munekiyo, who also had acted an
important part in saving Yoritomo at that time, was invited to visit
Kamakura where he would have been received with honour; but he
declined the invitation, declaring that a change of allegiance at
such a moment would be unworthy of a bushi.
It may here be noted that, although several of the Taira leaders who
took the field against the Minamoto were killed in the campaign or
executed or exiled after it, the punitory measures adopted by
Yoritomo were not by any means wholesale. To be a Taira did not
necessarily involve Kamakura's enmity. On the contrary, not only was
clemency extended to several prominent members of Kiyomori's kith and
kin, but also many local magnates of Taira origin whose estates lay
in the Kwanto were from first to last staunch supporters and friends
of the Minamoto. After Dan-no-ura, the Heike's sun permanently ceased
to dominate the political firmament, but not a few Heike stars rose
subsequently from time to time above the horizon.
MUNEMORI AND ANTOKU
The record of Munemori, whose leadership proved fatal to the Taira
cause, stamps him as something very rare among Japanese bushi--a
coward. He was the first to fly from every battle-field, and at
Dan-no-ura he preferred surrender to death. Tradition alleges that in
this final fight Munemori's reputed mother, Ni-i-no-ama, before
throwing herself into the sea with the Emperor in her arms, confessed
that Munemori was not her son. After she had borne Shigemori she
became enceinte and her husband, Kiyomori, looked eagerly for the
birth of another boy. But a girl was born. Just at that time the wife
of a man who combined the occupations of bonze and umbrella-maker,
bore a son, and the two children were surreptitiously exchanged. This
story does not rest upon infallible testimony. Nor does another
narrative, with regard to the motives which induced Kiyomori's widow
to drown the young Emperor. Those motives are said to have been two.
One was to fix upon the Minamoto the heinous crime of having done a
sovereign to death, so that some avenger might rise in future years;
the other was to hide the fact that Antoku was in reality a girl
whose sex had been concealed in the interest of the child's maternal
grandfather, Kiyomori.
YOSHITSUNE'S FATE
Yoshitsune's signal victories were at Ichi-no-tani and at Yashima.
The fight at Dan-no-ura could not have made him famous, for its issue
was determined by defection in the enemy's ranks, not by any
strategical device or opportune coup on the side of the victors. Yet
Japan accords to Yoshitsune the first place among her great captains.
Undoubtedly this estimate is influenced by sympathy. Pursued by the
relentless anger of his own brother, whose cause he had so splendidly
championed, he was forced to fly for refuge to the north, and was
ultimately done to death. This most cruel return for glorious deeds
has invested his memory with a mist of tears tending to obscure the
true outlines of events, so that while Yoritomo is execrated as an
inhuman, selfish tyrant, Yoshitsune is worshipped as a faultless
hero. Yet, when examined closely, the situation undergoes some
modifications. Yoritomo's keen insight discerned in his
half-brother's attitude something more than mere rivalry. He
discovered the possible establishment of special relations between
the Imperial Court and a section of the Minamoto.
Yoshitsune's failure to repair to Kamakura after the battle of
Ichi-no-tani inspired Yoritomo's first doubts. Japanese annals offer
no explanation of Yoshitsune's procedure on that occasion. It would
have been in the reasonable sequence of events that the military
genius which planned and carried out the great coup at Ichi-no-tani
should have been available at the subsequent council of strategists
in Kamakura, and it would have been natural that the younger brother
should have repaired, as did his elder brother, Noriyori, to the
headquarters of the clan's chief. Yet Yoshitsune remained at Kyoto,
and that by so doing he should have suggested some suspicions to
Yoritomo was unavoidable. The secret of the Court nobles' ability to
exclude the military magnates from any share in State administration
was no secret in Yoritomo's eyes. He saw clearly that this
differentiation had been effected by playing off one military party
against the other, or by dividing the same party against itself; and
he saw clearly that opportunities for such measures had been
furnished by subjecting the military leaders to constant contact with
the Court nobility.
Therefore, he determined to keep two aims always in view. One was to
establish a military and executive capital entirely apart from, and
independent of, the Imperial and administrative metropolis; the
other, to preserve the unity of the Minamoto clan in all
circumstances. Both of these aims seemed to be threatened with
failure when Yoshitsune preferred the Court in Kyoto to the camp in
Kamakura; still more so when he accepted from Go-Shirakawa rank and
office for which Yoritomo had not recommended him, and yet further
when he obtained from the ex-Emperor a commission to lead the
Minamoto armies westward without any reference to, and in despite of,
the obvious intention of the Minamoto chief at Kamakura.
All these acts could scarcely fail to be interpreted by Yoritomo as
preluding the very results which he particularly desired to avert,
namely, a house of Minamoto divided against itself and the
re-establishment of Court influence over a strong military party in
Kyoto. His apprehensions received confirmation from reports furnished
by Kajiwara Kagetoki. Yoritomo trusted this man implicitly. Never
forgetting that Kajiwara had saved his life in the affair of the
hollow tree, he appointed him to the post of military governor and to
the command of the army destined to drive the Taira from Shikoku
after the battle of Ichi-no-tani. In that command Kajiwara had been
superseded by Yoshitsune, and had moreover been brought into ridicule
in connexion not only with the shipbuilding incident but also, and in
a far more flagrant manner, with the great fight at Yashima. He seems
from the first to have entertained doubts of Yoshitsune's loyalty to
Yoritomo, and his own bitter experiences may well have helped to
convert those doubts into certainties. He warned Kamakura in very
strong terms against the brilliant young general who was then the
idol of Kyoto, and thus, when Yoshitsune, in June, 1185, repaired to
Kamakura to hand over the prisoners taken in the battle of Dan-no-ura
and to pay his respects to Yoritomo, he was met at Koshigoe, a
village in the vicinity, by Hojo Tokimasa, who conveyed to him
Yoritomo's veto against his entry to Kamakura. A letter addressed by
Yoshitsune to his brother on that occasion ran, in part, as follows:
Here am I, weeping crimson tears in vain at thy displeasure. Well was
it said that good medicine tastes bitter in the mouth, and true words
ring harsh in the ear. This is why the slanders that men speak of me
remain unproved, why I am kept out of Kamakura unable to lay bare my
heart. These many days 1 have lain here and could not gaze upon my
brother's face. The bond of our blood-brotherhood is sundered.
But a short season after I was born, my honoured sire passed to
another world, and I was left fatherless. Clasped in my mother's
bosom, I was carried down to Yamato, and since that day I have not
known a moment free from care and danger. Though it was but to drag
out a useless life, we wandered round the capital suffering hardship,
hid in all manner of rustic spots, dwelt in remote and distant
provinces, whose rough inhabitants did treat us with contumely. But
at last I was summoned to assist in overthrowing the Taira house, and
in this conflict I first laid Kiso Yoshinaka low. Then, so that I
might demolish the Taira men, I spurred my steed on frowning
precipices. Careless of death in the face of the foe, I braved the
dangers of wind and wave, not recking that my body might sink to the
bottom of the sea, and be devoured by monsters of the deep. My pillow
was my harness, arms my trade. [Translated by W. G. Aston.]
This letter breathes the spirit of sincerity. But its perusal did not
soften Yoritomo, if it ever reached his eyes. He steadily refused to
cancel his veto, and after an abortive sojourn of twenty days at
Koshigoe, Yoshitsune returned to Kyoto where his conduct won for him
increasing popularity. Three months later, Yoritomo appointed him
governor of Iyo. It is possible that had not the situation been
complicated by a new factor, the feud between the brothers might have
ended there. But Minamoto Yukiiye, learning of these strained
relations, emerged from hiding and applied himself to win the
friendship of Yoshitsune, who received his advances graciously.
Yoritomo, much incensed at this development, sent the son of Kajiwara
Kagetoki to Yoshitsune with a mandate for Yukiiye's execution. Such a
choice of messenger was ill calculated to promote concord.
Yoshitsune, pleading illness, declined to receive the envoy, and it
was determined at Kamakura that extreme measures must be employed.
Volunteers were called for to make away with Yoshitsune, and, in
response, a Nara bonze, Tosabo Shoshun, whose physical endowments had
brought him into prominence at Kamakura, undertook the task on
condition that a substantial reward be given him beforehand.
Shoshun did not waste any time. On the eighth night after his
departure from Kamakura, he, with sixty followers, attacked
Yoshitsune's mansion at Horikawa in Kyoto. By wholesale oaths, sworn
in the most solemn manner, he had endeavoured to disarm the
suspicions of his intended victim, and he so far succeeded that, when
the attack was delivered, Yoshitsune had only seven men to hold the
mansion against sixty. But these seven were the trusty and stalwart
comrades who had accompanied Yoshitsune from Mutsu and had shared all
the vicissitudes of his career. They held their assailants at bay
until Yukiiye, roused by the tumult, came to the rescue, and the
issue of Shoshun's essay was that his own head appeared on the
pillory in Kyoto. Yoshitsune was awakened and hastily armed on this
occasion by his beautiful mistress, Shizuka, who, originally a
danseuse of Kyoto, followed him for love's sake in weal and in woe.
Tokiwa, Tomoe, Kesa, and Shizuka--these four heroines will always
occupy a prominent place in Japanese history of the twelfth century.
After this event there could be no concealments between the two
brothers. With difficulty and not without some menaces, Yoshitsune
obtained from Go-Shirakawa a formal commission to proceed against
Yoritomo by force of arms. Matters now moved with great rapidity.
Yoritomo, always prescient, had fully foreseen the course of events.
Shoshun's abortive attack on the Horikawa mansion took place on
November 10, 1185, and before the close of the month three strong
columns of Kamakura troops were converging on Kyoto. In that
interval, Yoshitsune, failing to muster any considerable force in the
capital or its environs, had decided to turn his back on Kyoto and
proceed westward; he himself to Kyushu, and Yukiiye to Shikoku. They
embarked on November 29th, but scarcely had they put to sea when they
encountered a gale which shattered their squadron. Yoshitsune and
Yukiiye both landed on the Izumi coast, each ignorant of the other's
fate. The latter was captured and beheaded a few months later, but
the former made his way to Yamato and found hiding-places among the
valleys and mountains of Yoshino. The hero of Ichi-no-tani and
Yashima was now a proscribed fugitive. Go-Shirakawa, whose fate was
always to obey circumstances rather than to control them, had issued
a new mandate on the arrival of Yoritomo's forces at Kyoto, and
Kamakura was now authorized to exterminate Yoshitsune with all his
partisans, wherever they could be found.
Almost simultaneously with the capture of Yukiiye, whose fate excites
no pity, the fair girl, Shizuka, was apprehended and brought before
Hojo Tokimasa, who governed Kyoto as Yoritomo's lieutenant. Little
more than a year had elapsed since she first met Yoshitsune after his
return from Dan-no-ura, and her separation from him now had been
insisted on by him as the only means of saving her life. Indifferent
to her own fate, she quickly fell into the hands of Tokimasa's
emissaries and was by them subjected to a fruitless examination,
repeated with equally abortive results on her arrival at Kamakura.
There, in spite of her vehement resistance, she was constrained to
dance before Yoritomo and his wife, Masa, but instead of confining
herself to stereotyped formulae, she utilized the occasion to chant
to the accompaniment of her dance a stanza of sorrow for separation
from her lover. It is related that Yoritomo's wrath would have
involved serious consequences for Shizuka had not the lady Masa
intervened. The beautiful danseuse, being enceinte at the time, was
kept in prison until her confinement. She had the misfortune to give
birth to a son, and the child was killed by Yoritomo's order, the
mother being released. The slaughter of an innocent baby sounds very
shocking in modern ears, but it is just to remember that the Kamakura
chief and his three younger brothers would all have been executed by
Kiyomori had not their escape been contrived by special agencies. The
Confucian doctrine, which had passed into the bushi's code, forbade a
man to live under the same sky with his father's slayer. Deeds like
the killing of Yoshitsune's son were the natural consequence of that
doctrine.
Meanwhile, Yoshitsune had been passing from one place of concealment
to another in the three contiguous provinces of Izumi, Yamato, and
Kii. He escaped deadly peril in the Yoshino region through the
devotion of Sato Tadanobu, whose brother, Tsuginobu, had died to save
Yoshitsune's life in the battle of Yashima. Attacked by the monks of
Zo-o-do in overwhelming force, Yoshitsune had prepared to meet death
when Tadanobu offered to personify him and hold the position while
Yoshitsune escaped. With much difficulty Yoshitsune was induced to
consent. Tadanobu not only succeeded in covering the retreat of his
chief, but also managed himself to escape to Kyoto where, being
discovered, he died by his own hand. Finally, in the spring of 1187,
Yoshitsune and his followers, disguised as mendicant friars, made
their way up the west coast, and, after hairbreadth escapes, found
asylum in the domain of Fujiwara Hidehira, who had protected
Yoshitsune in his youth. Hidehira owned and administered the whole of
the two provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, which in those days covered some
thirty thousand square miles and could easily furnish an army of a
hundred thousand men.
The attitude of this great fief had always been an object of keen
solicitude to Yoritomo. At one time there were rumours that Hidehira
intended to throw in his lot with Yoshinaka; at another, that he was
about to join hands with the Taira. Yoritomo could never be certain
that if the Kwanto were denuded of troops for some westward
expedition, an overwhelming attack might not be delivered against
Kamakura from the north. Thus, when he learned that Yoshitsune had
escaped to Mutsu, all his apprehensions were roused. By that time
Hidehira had died, in his ninety-first year, but he had committed to
his son, Yasuhira, the duty of guarding Yoshitsune. Hence, when, in
the spring of 1188, Kamakura became aware of Yoshitsune's presence in
Mutsu, two consecutive messages were sent thither, one from Yoritomo,
the other from the Court, ordering Yoshitsune's execution. Yasuhira
paid no attention, and Go-Shirakawa commissioned Yoritomo to punish
the northern chief's contumacy. Yasuhira now became alarmed. He sent
a large force to attack Yoshitsune at Koromo-gawa. Benkei and the
little band of comrades who had followed Yoshitsune's fortunes
continuously during eight years, died to a man fighting for him, and
Yoshitsune, having killed his wife and children, committed suicide.
His head was sent to Kamakura.
But this did not satisfy Yoritomo. He wanted something more than
Yoshitsune's head; he wanted the great northern fief, and he had no
idea of losing his opportunity. Three armies soon marched northward.
They are said to have aggregated 284,000 of all arms. One moved up
the western littoral; another up the eastern, and the third, under
Yoritomo himself, marched by the inland route. The men of Mutsu
fought stoutly, but after a campaign of some two months, Yasuhira,
finding himself in a hopeless position, opened negotiations for
surrender. His overtures being incontinently rejected, he appreciated
the truth, namely, that Yoritomo was bent upon exterminating the
Fujiwara of the north and taking possession of their vast estates.
Then Yasuhira fled to Ezo, where, shortly afterwards, one of his own
soldiers assassinated him and carried his head to Yoritomo, who,
instead of rewarding the man, beheaded him for treachery. Thus, from
1189, Yoritomo's sway may be said to have extended throughout the
length and breadth of Japan. In the storehouses of the Fujiwara, who,
since the days of Kiyohira had ruled for a hundred years in the
north, there were found piles of gold, silver, and precious stuffs
with which Yoritomo recompensed his troops.
YORITOMO'S SYSTEM
The system of government established by Yeritomo towards the close of
the twelfth century and kept in continuous operation thereafter until
the middle of the nineteenth, was known as the Bakufu, a word
literally signifying "camp office," and intended to convey the fact
that the affairs of the empire were in the hands of the military.
None of the great Japanese captains prior to Yoritomo recognized that
if their authority was to be permanent, it must be exercised
independently of the Court and must be derived from some source
outside the Court. The Taira chief, in the zenith of his career, had
sufficient strength to do as Yoritomo did, and at one moment, that is
to say, when he established his headquarters at Fukuhara, he appears
to have had a partial inspiration. But he never recognized that
whatever share he obtained in the administration of State affairs was
derived solely from the nature of the office conferred on him by the
Court, and could never exceed the functions of that office or survive
its loss. The Fujiwara were astuter politicians. By their plan of
hereditary offices and by their device of supplying maidens of their
own blood to be Imperial consorts, they created a system having some
elements of permanency and some measure of independence.
ENGRAVING: HACHIMAN SHRINE AT KAMAKURA
But it was reserved for Yoritomo to appreciate the problem in all its
bearings and to solve it radically. The selection of Kamakura for
capital was the first step towards solution. Kamakura certainly has
topographical advantages. It is surrounded by mountains except on one
face, which is washed by the sea. But this feature does not seem to
have counted so much in Yoritomo's eyes as the fact that his father,
Yoshitomo, had chosen Kamakura as a place of residence when he
exercised military sway in the Kwanto, and Yoritomo wished to
preserve the tradition of Minamoto power. He wished, also, to select
a site so far from Kyoto that the debilitating and demoralizing
influence of the Imperial metropolitan society might be powerless to
reach the military capital. Kamakura was then only a fishing hamlet,
but at the zenith of its prosperity it had grown to be a city of at
least a quarter of a million of inhabitants. During a period of one
hundred and fifty years it remained the centre of military society
and the focus of a civilization radically different from that of
Kyoto. The Taira had invited their own ruin by assimilating the ways
of the Fujiwara and of the courtiers; the Minamoto aimed at
preserving and developing at Kamakura the special characteristics of
the buke.
POLICY TOWARDS RELIGION
Yoritomo seems to have believed that the Taira had owed their
downfall largely to divine wrath, in that they had warred against the
monasteries and confiscated manors belonging to shrines and temples.
He himself adopted the policy of extending the utmost consideration
to religion, whether Shinto or Buddhism, and to its devotees and
their possessions. At Kamakura, though it has well-nigh reverted to
its original rank as a fishing hamlet, there exist to-day eloquent
evidences of the Minamoto chief's reverent mood; among them being the
temple of Hachiman; a colossal bronze image of Buddha which, in
majesty of conception and execution, is not surpassed by any idol in
the world;* a temple of Kwannon, and several other religious
edifices, though the tomb of Yoritomo himself is "a modest little
monument covered with creepers."
*This image was not actually erected by Yoritomo, but the project is
attributed to him.
YORITOMO'S MEMORIAL
It has been stated above that, after the retreat of the Taira from
Fukuhara, in 1183, Go-Shirakawa sent an envoy to Kamakura inviting
Yoritomo's presence in Kyoto. Restrained, however, by a sense of
insecurity,* the Minamoto chief declined to leave Kamakura, and sent
in his stead a memorial to the Throne. This document commenced with a
statement that the ruin of the Taira had been due not to human
prowess but to divine anger against the plunderers of sacred lands.
Therefore, all manors thus improperly acquired should be at once
restored to their original owners. Passing on to the case of estates
taken by the Taira from princes, Court nobles, officials, and private
individuals, Yoritomo urged that only by full restitution of this
property could a sense of security be imparted to the people. "If any
of these manors be now granted to us, the indignation roused by the
Taira's doings will be transferred simultaneously with the estates.
To change men's misery to happiness is to remove their resentment and
repining. Finally," the memorial continued, "if there be any Taira
partisans who desire to submit, they should be liberally treated even
though their offences deserve capital punishment. I myself was
formerly an offender,** but having had the good fortune to be
pardoned, I have been enabled to subdue the insurgents. Thus, even
men who have been disloyal on the present occasion may serve a loyal
purpose at some future time."
*Kamakura was always exposed to pressure from the north. It had long
been proverbial that white the eight provinces of the Kwanto could
defy the whole empire, 0-U (Oshu and Ushu-Mutsu and Dewa) could defy
the eight provinces.
**In allusion to the fact that owing to the Emperor's presence in the
camp of the Taira during the emeule, the Minamoto occupied the
position of rebels.
On receipt of this memorial, Go-Shirakawa ordered that the manors
held by the Taira in the Tokai-do and Tosan-do should all be restored
to their original owners, the duty of adjudicating in each case being
delegated to Yoritomo. How much of this admirably conceived document
was inspired by political acumen we may not venture to judge, but it
is proper to note that the principles enunciated in the memorial
found expression in the practice of Yoritomo himself. He always
extended clemency to a defeated enemy if he deemed the latter's
submission to be sincere, and throughout his whole career he showed a
strong respect for justice. The men of his time ultimately gave him
credit for sincerity, and his memorial won universal approval and
popularity.
POLITY OF THE KAMAKURA BAKUFU
Under the Dadka (A.D. 645) system, various administrative organs were
created in accordance with Tang models, and a polity at once imposing
and elaborate came into existence. But when the capital was overtaken
by an era of literary effeminacy and luxurious abandonment, the
Imperial exchequer fell into such a state of exhaustion that
administrative posts began to be treated as State assets and bought
and sold like commercial chattels, the discharge of the functions
connected with them becoming illusory, and the constant tendency
being in the direction of multiplication of offices with a
corresponding increase of red tape. Yoritomo and his councillors
appreciated the evils of such a system and were careful not to
imitate it at Kamakura. They took brevity and simplicity for guiding
principles, and constructed a polity in marked contrast with that of
Kyoto.
At the head of the whole stood the shogun, or commander-in-chief of
the entire body of bushi, and then followed three sections. They
were, first, the Samurai-dokoro, which term, according to its literal
rendering, signified "samurai place" and may be appropriately
designated "Central Staff Office." Established in 1180, its functions
were to promote or degrade military men; to form a council of war; to
direct police duties so far as they concerned bushi', to punish
crime, and to select men for guards and escorts. The president
(betto) obviously occupied a post of prime importance, as he
practically controlled all the retainers (keniri) of the Minamoto
clan and its allied houses. Its first occupant was Wada Yoshimori,
representative of a famous family in the Kwanto, who had greatly
distinguished himself in the Gen-Hei War. He held the post until the
year 1213, when, taking up arms against Hojo Yoshitoki, he was
defeated and killed. Thereafter, it being deemed inadvisable that the
functions of such an important office should be delegated
independently, they were made supplementary to those of the military
regent (shikken), to be presently spoken of.
MAN-DOKORO
The second of the three great sections of the Bakufu polity was the
Mandokoro (literally, "place of administration"), which, at the time
of its establishment in 1184, was designated Kumon-jo, the change of
name to Man-dokoro being made after Yoritomo's first visit to Kyoto
(1190), when he was nominated gon-dainagon as well as general of the
Right division of the guards (u-kon-e taisho). In fact, the office
Man-dokoro had long existed in the establishment of the civil regent
(kwampaku) at the Imperial capital, and a concession to Kyoto usages
in the matter of nomenclature appealed to Yoritomo's taste for
simplicity. The Man-dokoro had to discharge the duties and general
business of the Bakufu. Its president was called betto; its
vice-president, rei; there were secretaries, a manager (shitsuji),
whose functions were mainly financial, and certain minor officials.
Oye no Hiromoto was the first president, and the office of shitsuji
became hereditary in the Nikaido family.
It will be seen that the betto of the Man-dokoro corresponded to the
regent in the Kyoto polity, the only difference being that the former
officiated in military government, the latter in civil. The betto of
the Man-dokoro was, in fact, designated by the alternative name of
shikken (literally, "holder of authority") Thus there were two
regents, one in Kyoto, one in Kamakura. In succession to Oye no
Hiromoto, the military regency fell to Hojo Tokimasa, and
subsequently to his son Yoshitoki, who, as shown above, held the post
of betto of the Samurai-dokoro. In short, both offices became
hereditary in the Hojo family, who thus acquired virtually all the
power of the Bakufu. The shikken, standing at the head of the
Samurai-dokoro and the Man-dokoro simultaneously, came to wield such
authority that even the appointment of the shogun depended upon his
will, and though a subject of the Emperor, he administered functions
far exceeding those of the Imperial Court. In the year 1225, a
reorganization of the Man-dokoro was effected. An administrative
council was added (Hyojoshu), the councillors, fifteen or sixteen in
number, being composed, in about equal parts, of men of science and
members of the great clans. The regent (shikken) presided ex-officio.
MONJU-DOKORO
The third of the Bakufu offices was the Monju-dokoro, or "place for
recording judicial inquiries;" in other words, a high court of
justice and State legislature. Suits at law were heard there and were
either decided finally or transferred to other offices for approval.
This office was established in 1184. Its president was called
shitsuji (manager), indicating that he ranked equally with the
Man-dokoro official having the same appellation. The first occupant
of the post was Miyoshi Yasunobu. He not only presided over the
Monju-dokoro in a judicial capacity but also attended the meetings of
the Man-dokoro council (Hyojoshu) ex-officio.
This Miyoshi Yasunobu,* as well as the representative of the Nikaido
who occupied the post of shitsuji in the Man-dokoro; the Oye family,
who furnished the president of the latter, and the Nakahara, who
served as the secretaries, were all men of erudition whom Yoritomo
invited from Kyoto to fill posts in his administrative system at
Kamakura. In these unquiet and aristocratically exclusive times,
official promotion in the Imperial capital had largely ceased to be
within reach of scholastic attainments, and Yoritomo saw an
opportunity to attract to Kamakura men of learning and of competence.
He offered to them careers which were not open in Kyoto, and their
ready response to his invitations was a principal cause of the
success and efficacy that attended the operation of the Bakufu system
in the early days.
*Miyoshi Yasunobu held the office of chugu no sakan in Kyoto. He was
personally known to Yoritomo, and he was instrumental in securing the
services of the astute Oye no Hiromoto, whose younger brother,
Chikayoshi, was governor of Aki at the time of receiving Yoritomo's
invitation. His descendants received the uji of Nagai and Mori; those
of Yasunobu, the uji of Ota and Machine, and those of Chikayoshi, the
uji of Settsu and Otomo.
HIGH CONSTABLES AND LAND-STEWARDS
The most far-reaching change effected by Yoritomo was prompted by Oye
no Hiromoto, at the close of 1185, when, Yoshitsune and Yukiiye
having gone westward from Kyoto, the Kamakura chief entertained an
apprehension that they might succeed in raising a revolt in the
Sanyo-do, in Shikoku, and in Kyushu. He sought advice from the high
officials of the Bakufu as to the best preventive measures, and Oye
no Hiromoto presented a memorial urging that the Emperor's sanction
be obtained for appointing in each province a high constable (shugo)
and a land-steward (jito), these officials being nominated from
Kamakura, while Yoritomo himself became chief land-steward (so-jito)
and subsequently lord high constable (so-tsuihoshi) for the sixty-six
provinces. The object of these appointments was to insure that the
control of local affairs should be everywhere in the hands of the
Bakufu, whose nominees would thus be in a position to check all
hostile movements or preparations.
Yoritomo recognized the important bearings of this project. He at
once sent Hojo Tokimasa to guard Kyoto and to submit to the Court a
statement that it would be far more effective and economical to
prevent acts of insurrection than to deal with them after their full
development, and that, to the former end, trustworthy local officials
should be appointed, the necessary funds being obtained by levying
from the twenty-six provinces of the Go-Kinai, Sanin, Sanyo, Nankai,
and Saikai a tax of five sho of rice per tan (two bushels per acre).
Go-Shirakawa seems to have perceived the radical character of the
proposed measure. He evinced much reluctance to sanction it. But
Yoritomo was too strong to be defied. The Court agreed, and from that
moment military feudalism may be said to have been established in
Japan.
It has been shown that the land system fixed by the Daiho-ryo had
fallen into confusion. Private manors existed everywhere, yielding
incomes to all classes from princes to soldiers. In the days of the
Fujiwara and the Taira more than one-half of the arable land
throughout the empire was absorbed into such estates, which paid no
taxes to anyone except their direct owners. The provincial governor
appointed by the Court gradually ceased to exercise control over the
shoen in his district, unless he happened to be a military man with a
sufficient force of armed retainers (kenin) to assert his authority.
Hence it became customary for provincial governors not to proceed in
person to the place of their function. They appointed deputies
(mokudai), and these limited their duties to the collection of taxes
from manors. Lands constituting the domains of great families were
under the complete control of their holders, and there being no one
responsible for the preservation of general peace and order, bandits
and other lawbreakers abounded.
This state of affairs was remedied by the appointment of high
constables and land-stewards. The high constable had to arrest
insurgents, assassins, and robbers wherever he found them, and to
muster the soldiers for service in the Kyoto guards. The land-steward
was to collect taxes from all private manors. Soon, however, these
functions were extended, so that the high constables exercised
judicial and administrative powers, and the land-stewards not only
collected taxes, and, after deducting their own salaries, handed the
remainder to those entitled to receive it, but also were responsible
for the maintenance of peace and order within the manors entrusted to
their charge. High constables and land-stewards alike were
responsible to Kamakura alone; they were beyond the jurisdiction of
the Imperial Court. Thus, the sway of the Minamoto extended
throughout the whole country. It may be stated at once here that the
landsteward system did not work altogether satisfactorily. The acts
of these officials created friction in several quarters, and they
were soon withdrawn from all manors other than those owned or
administered by Taira. The high constables remained, however, and
were in full control of local military affairs, the Kamakura chief
controlling the whole in his capacity of lord high constable.
EXEMPTION OF SHRINES AND TEMPLES FROM THE SHUGO SYSTEM
In pursuance of his policy of special benevolence towards religious
institutions, Yoritomo exempted the manors of temples and shrines
from the jurisdiction of high constables. Thus military men were not
permitted to make an arrest within the enclosure of a fane, or to
trespass in any way on its domains, these being tax-free.
REFORM OF THE COURT
Yoritomo did not confine himself to re-casting the system of
provincial administration. He extended his reforms to the Court,
also. Thrice within the short space of five years he had been
proscribed as a rebel by Imperial decree once at the instance of the
Taira; once at the instance of Yoshinaka, and once at the instance of
Yoshitsune. In short, the Court, being entirely without military
power of its own, was constrained to bow to any display of force from
without. As a means of correcting this state of affairs, Hojo
Tokimasa was despatched to the Imperial capital at the close of 1185,
to officiate there as high constable and representative of the
Bakufu. A strong force of troops was placed at his disposal, and
efficient means of speedy communications between the east and the
west were organized. Moreover, a new office, that of scrutator
(nairari), was instituted, and to him were transferred some of the
powers hitherto wielded by the regent (kwampaku). Fujiwara Kanezane
was the first occupant of this post. Further, a body of twelve
councillors (giso), headed by Kanezane, were organized in the
cloistered Emperor's Court (Inchu), and to this council was entrusted
the duty of discussing and deciding all State affairs. These
important steps were taken early in 1186.
Simultaneously, a number of Court officials, including all that had
been connected with Yoshitsune and Yukiie, lost their posts, and,
shortly afterwards, Kanezane, becoming regent (kwampaku) in place of
Fujiwara Motomichi, co-operated with Oye no Hiromoto in effecting
many important changes, the latter operating at Kamakura, the former
at Kyoto. It may be noted here that Kanezane's descendants received
the name of Kujo, those of Motomichi being called Konoe, and the
custom of appointing the kwampaku alternately from these two families
came into vogue from that time. All the above reforms having been
effected during the year 1186, the Bakufu recalled Hojo Tokimasa and
appointed Nakahara Chikayoshi to succeed him. But, as the latter was
not a scion of a military family, the Court desired to have a Hojo
appointed, and Yoritomo acceded by sending Hojo Tokisada.
PALACES AND FANES
Yoritomo maintained from first to last a reverential attitude towards
the Throne and towards religion. It has already been shown how
generously he legislated in the matter of estates belonging to
temples and shrines, and we may add that his munificence in that
respect was stimulated by a terrible earthquake which visited Kyoto
in the autumn of 1185. While the city trembled under repeated shocks,
the citizens told each other that this was the work of vengeful
spirits of the Taira who, having fallen in the great sea-fight, were
still without full rites of sepulture. The Kamakura chief seems to
have accepted that view, for he not only gave substantial
encouragement to the burning of incense and intoning of memorial
Sutras, but he also desisted largely from his pursuit of the Taira
survivors. Two years later (1187), he sent Oye no Hiromoto to the
Imperial capital with authority and ample competence to repair the
palaces there. The city was then infested with bandits, a not
unnatural product of the warlike era. Chiba Tsunetane, specially
despatched from Kamakura, dealt drastically with this nuisance, and
good order was finally restored.
YORITOMO VISITS KYOTO
During the early years of his signal triumphs Yoritomo was invited to
Kyoto on several occasions. Various considerations deterred him. He
wished, in the first place, to dispel the popular illusion that the
Imperial capital was the centre of all dignity and power. People must
be taught to recognize that, although Kyoto might be the ultimate
source of authority, Kamakura was its place of practical exercise. He
wished, in the second place, not to absent himself from Kamakura
until he could be absolutely assured that his absence would not
afford an opportunity to his enemies; which sense of security was not
fully reached until the death of Yoshitsune and Fujiwara no Yasuhira,
and the complete subjugation of the great northern fief of Oshti in
the year 1189. Finally, he wished to appear in Kyoto, not merely as
the representative of military power, but also as a benefactor who
had rebuilt the fanes and restored the palaces.
On the 2nd of November, in the year 1190, he set out from Kamakura
and reached Kyoto on December 5th. His armies had shown that, for the
purpose of a campaign, the distance would be traversed in little more
than half of that time. But Yoritomo's journey was a kind of Imperial
progress. Attended by a retinue designed to surprise even the
citizens of the Imperial metropolis, he travelled at a leisurely pace
and made a pause of some duration in Owari to worship at his father's
tomb. The Court received him with all consideration. He had already
been honoured with the first grade of the second rank, so that he
enjoyed the right of access to the Presence, and the cloistered
Emperor held with him long conversations, sometimes lasting a whole
day. But Yoritomo did not achieve his purpose. It is true that he
received the appointments of gon-dainagon and general of the Right
division of the guards. These posts, however, were more objectionable
on account of their limitations than acceptable as marks of honour.
Their bestowal was a mere formality, and Yoritomo resigned them in a
few days, preferring to be nominated so-tsuihoshi.
What he really desired, however, was the office of sei-i tai-shogun
(barbarian-subduing great general). This high title had been
conferred more than once previously, but only for the purpose of some
finite and clearly indicated purpose, on the attainment of which the
office had to be surrendered. The Kamakura chief's plan was to remove
these limitations, and to make the appointment not only for life but
also general in the scope of its functions and hereditary in his own
family, reserving to the sovereign the formal right of investiture
alone. Go-Shirakawa, however, appreciated the far-reaching effects of
such an arrangement and refused to sanction it. Thus, Yoritomo had to
content himself with the post of lord high constable of the empire
(so-tsuihoshi), an office of immense importance, but differing
radically from that of sei-i tai-shogun in that, whereas the latter
had competence to adopt every measure he pleased without reference to
any superior authority, the former was required to consult the
Imperial Court before taking any step of a serious nature. The
Minamoto chief returned quietly to Kamakura, but he left many
powerful friends to promote his interests in Kyoto, and when
Go-Shirakawa died, in 1192, his grandson and successor, Go-Toba, a
boy of thirteen, had not occupied the throne more than three months
before the commission of sei-i tai-shogun was conveyed to Yoritomo by
special envoys. Thereafter it became the unwritten law of the empire
that the holder of this high post must be either the head of the
principal Minamoto family or an Imperial prince.
Never before had there been such encroachment upon the prerogatives
of the Crown. We have seen that, in the centuries antecedent to the
Daika (A.D. 645) reforms, the sovereign's contact with his subjects
had been solely through the medium of the o-omi or the o-muraji. By
these, the Imperial commands were transmitted and enforced, with such
modifications as circumstances might suggest, nor did the prerogative
of nominating the o-omi or the o-muraji belong practically to the
Throne. The Daika reforms, copying the Tang polity called into
existence a cabinet and a body of officials appointable or removable
by the sovereign at will, each entrusted with definite functions. But
almost before that centralized system had time to take root, the
Fujiwara grafted on it a modification which, in effect, substituted
their own family for the o-omi and the o-muraji of previous times.
And now, finally, came the Minamoto with their separate capital and
their sei-i tai-shogun, who exercised the military and administrative
powers of the empire with practically no reference to the Emperor.
Yoritomo himself was always willing and even careful to envelop his
own personality in a shadow of profound reverence towards the
occupant of the throne, but he was equally careful to preserve for
Kamakura the substance of power.
DEATH OF YORITOMO
Yoritomo lived only seven years after he had reached the summit of
his ambition. He received the commission of sei-i tai-shogun in the
spring of 1192, and, early in 1199, he was thrown from his horse and
killed, at the age of fifty-three. He had proceeded to the pageant of
opening a new bridge over the Sagami River, and it was popularly
rumoured that he had fallen from his horse in a swoon caused by the
apparition of Yoshitsune and Yukiiye on the Yamato plain and that of
the Emperor Antoku at Inamura promontory. Just twenty years had
elapsed since he raised the Minamoto standard in Sagami. His career
was short but meteoric, and he ranks among the three greatest
statesmen Japan has ever produced, his compeers being Hideyoshi and
Ieyasu.
YORITOMO's CHARACTER
Japanese historians have written much about this illustrious man.
Their views may be condensed into the following: Yoritomo was short
in stature with a disproportionately large head. He had a ringing
voice, gentle manners, an intrepid and magnanimous heart, profound
insight, and extraordinary caution. The power of imposing his will
upon others was one of his notable characteristics, as was also
munificence to those that served him. Retainers of the Taira or of
the Minamoto--he made no distinction. All that swore fealty to him
were frankly regarded as go-kenin of the Bakufu. Estates were given
to them, whether restored or newly bestowed, and they were treated
much as were the hatamoto of the Yedo shogunate in later times. He
spared no pains to preserve Kamakura against the taint of Kyoto's
demoralizing influences. The bushi of the Kwanto were made the centre
of society; were encouraged to observe the canons of their
caste--frugality, loyalty, truth, valour, and generosity--canons
daily becoming crystallized into inflexible laws. When Toshikane,
lord of Chikugo, appeared at the Kamakura Court in a magnificent
costume, Yoritomo evinced his displeasure by slashing the sleeves of
the nobleman's surcoat. Skill in archery or equestrianism was so much
valued that it brought quick preferment and even secured pardon for a
criminal.
On the other hand, neglect of these arts, or conduct unbecoming a
samurai, was mercilessly punished. When Hayama Muneyori retired to
his province without accompanying the army sent to attack O-U, he was
severely censured and deprived of his estates. Cognate instances
might be multiplied. In the year 1193, the first case of the vendetta
occurred in Japan. Yoritomo organized a grand hunting party on the
moors at the southern base of Fuji-yama. Among those that accompanied
him was Kudo Suketsune, who had done to death Soga no Sukeyasu. The
latter's sons, Sukenari (commonly called Juro) and Tokimune (Goro),
having sworn to avenge their father, broke into Yoritomo's camp and
took the head of their enemy. The elder was killed in the enterprise;
the younger, captured and beheaded. Yoritomo would fain have saved
Goro's life, though the youth declared his resolve not to survive his
brother. But the Kamakura chief was constrained to yield to the
demands of Suketsune's son. He, however, marked his appreciation of
Juro and Goro's filial piety by carefully observing their last
testament, and by exonerating the Soga estate from the duty of paying
taxes in order that funds might be available for religious rites on
account of the spirits of the brothers.
This encouragement of fidelity may well have been dictated by selfish
policy rather than by moral conviction. Yet that Yoritomo took every
conspicuous opportunity of asserting the principle must be recorded.
Thus, he publicly declared Yasuhira a traitor for having done to
death his guest, Yoshitsune, though in so doing Yasuhira obeyed the
orders of Yoritomo himself; he executed the disloyal retainer who
took Yasuhira's head, though the latter was then a fugitive from the
pursuit of the Kamakura armies, and he pardoned Yuri Hachiro, one of
Yasuhira's officers, because he defended Yasuhira's reputation in
defiance of Yoritomo's anger.
Gratitude Yoritomo never failed to practise within the limit of
policy. Rumour said that he had fallen in his first battle at
Ishibashi-yama. Thereupon, Miura Yoshiaki, a man of eighty-nine, sent
out all his sons to search for Yoritomo's body, and closing his
castle in the face of the Taira forces, fell fighting. Yoritomo
repaid this loyal service by appointing Yoshiaki's son, Wada
Yoshimori, to be betto of the Samurai-dokoro, one of the very highest
posts in the gift of the Kamakura Government. Again, it will be
remembered that when, as a boy of fourteen, Yoritomo had been
condemned to death by Kiyomori, the lad's life was saved through the
intercession of Kiyomori's step-mother, Ike, who had been prompted by
Taira no Munekiyo. After the fall of the Taira, Yoritomo prayed the
Court to release Ike's son, Yorimori, and to restore his rank and
estates, while in Munekiyo's case he made similar offers but they
were rejected.
Towards his own kith and kin, however, he showed himself implacable.
In Yoshitsune's case it has been indicated that there was much to
awaken Yoritomo's suspicions. But his brother Noriyori had no
qualities at all likely to be dangerously exercised. A commonplace,
simple-hearted man, he was living quietly on his estate in Izu when
false news came that Yoritomo had perished under the sword of the
Soga brothers. Yoritomo's wife being prostrated by the intelligence,
Noriyori bade her be reassured since he, Noriyori, survived. When
this came to Yoritomo's ears, doubtless in a very exaggerated form,
he sent a band of assassins who killed Noriyori. Assassination was a
device from which the Kamakura chief did not shrink at all. It has
been shown how he sent Tosabo Shoshun to make away with Yoshitsune in
Kyoto, and we now see him employing a similar instrument against
Noriyori, as he did also against his half-brother, Zensei. It would
seem to have been his deliberate policy to remove every potential
obstacle to the accession of his own sons. Many historians agree in
ascribing these cruelties to jealousy. But though Yoritomo might have
been jealous of Yoshitsune, he could not possibly have experienced
any access of such a sentiment with regard to Noriyori or Zensei.
Towards religion, it would seem that his attitude was sincere. Not in
Kyoto and Kamakura alone did he adopt drastic measures for the
restoration or erection of temples and shrines, but also throughout
the provinces he exerted his all-powerful influence in the same
cause. He himself contributed large sums for the purpose, and at his
instance the Courts of the Emperor and of the Bakufu granted special
rights and privileges to bonzes who went about the country collecting
subscriptions. Thus encouraged, the priests worked with conspicuous
zeal, and by men like Mongaku, Jugen, Eisai, and their comrades not
only were many imposing fanes erected and many images cast, but also
roads were opened, harbours constructed, and bridges built. Yoritomo
knew what an important part religion had contributed in past ages to
the country's national development, and he did not neglect to utilize
its services in the interests, first, of the nation's prosperity and,
secondly, of the Bakufu's popularity. Incidentally all this building
of fanes and restoration of palaces promoted in no small degree the
development of art, pure and applied. Experts in every line made
their appearance, and many masterpieces of architecture and sculpture
enriched the era. These reflected the change which the spirit of the
nation was undergoing in its passage from the delicacy and weakness
of the Fujiwara type to the strength, directness, and dignity of the
bushi's code.
ENGRAVING: CANDLE-STICKS
ENGRAVING: SAMURAI'S RESIDENCE IN THE KAMAKURA PERIOD
CHAPTER XXVI
THE KAMAKURA BAKUFU
ABDICATION OF GO-TOBA
IN the year 1198, the Emperor Go-Toba abdicated the throne in favour
of his son, who reigned during twelve years (1199-1210) under the
name of Tsuchi-mikado, eighty-third sovereign. Of Go-Toba much will
be said by and by. It will suffice to note here, however, that his
abdication was altogether voluntary. Ascending the throne in 1184, at
the age of four, he had passed the next eight years as a mere puppet
manipulated by his grandfather, Go-Shirakawa, the cloistered Emperor,
and on the latter's death in 1192, Go-Toba fell into many of the
faults of youth. But at eighteen he became ambitious of governing in
fact as well as in name, and as he judged that this could be
accomplished better from the Inchu (retired palace) than from the
throne, he abdicated without consulting the Kamakura Bakufu. It is
more than probable that Yoritomo would have made his influence felt
on this occasion had any irregularity furnished a pretext. But the
advisers of the Kyoto Court were careful that everything should be in
order, and the Kamakura chief saw no reason to depart from his
habitually reverent attitude towards the Throne.
YORIIYE, THE LADY MASA, AND HOJO TOKIMASA
On the demise of Yoritomo (1199), his eldest son, Yoriiye, succeeded
to the compound office of lord high constable and chief land-steward
(so-shugo-jito), his investiture as shogun being deferred until
Kyoto's sanction could be obtained. Yoriiye was then in his
eighteenth year, and he had for chief adviser Hatakeyama Shigetada,
appointed to the post by Yoritomo's will. He inherited nothing of his
father's sagacity. On the contrary, he did not possess even average
ability, and his thoughts were occupied almost uniquely with physical
pleasures. His mother, Masa, astute, crafty, resourceful, and heroic,
well understood the deficiency of his moral endowments, but as her
second son, Sanetomo, was only seven years old, Yoriiye's accession
presented itself in the light of a necessity. She therefore
determined to give him every possible aid. Even during her husband's
life she had wielded immense influence, and this was now greatly
augmented by the situation. She shaved her head--after the manner of
the cloistered Emperors--and taking the name of Ni-i-no-ama,
virtually assumed charge of the Bakufu administration in association
with her father, Hojo Tokimasa.
Exactly what part this remarkable man acted in the episodes of
Yoritomo's career, can never be known. He exerted his influence so
secretly that contemporary historians took little note of him; and
while, in view of his final record, some see in him the spirit that
prompted Yoritomo's merciless extirpation of his own relatives,
others decline to credit him with such far-seeing cruelty, and hold
that his ultimately attempted usurpations were inspired solely by
fortuitous opportunity which owed nothing to his contrivance.
Wherever the truth may lie as between these views, it is certain that
after Yoritomo's death, Hojo Tokimasa conspired to remove the
Minamoto from the scene and to replace them with the Hojo.
THE DELIBERATIVE COUNCIL
The whole coterie of illustrious men--legislators, administrators,
and generals--whom Yoritomo had assembled at Kamakura, was formed
into a council of thirteen members to discuss the affairs of the
Bakufu after his death. This body of councillors included Tokimasa
and his son, Yoshitoki; Oye no Hiromoto, Miyoshi Yasunobu; Nakahara
Chikayoshi, Miura Yoshizumi, Wada Yoshimori, Hiki Yoshikazu, and five
others. But though they deliberated, they did not decide. All final
decision required the endorsement of the lady Masa and her father,
Hojo Tokimasa.
DEATH OF YORIIYE
Yoriiye had been at the head of the Bakufu for three years before his
commission of shogun came from Kyoto, and in the following year
(1203), he was attacked by a malady which threatened to end fatally.
The question of the succession thus acquired immediate importance.
Yoriiye's eldest son, Ichiman, the natural heir, was only three years
old, and Yoritomo's second son, Sanetomo, was in his eleventh year.
In this balance of claims, Hojo Tokimasa saw his opportunity. He
would divide the Minamoto power by way of preliminary to supplanting
it. Marshalling arguments based chiefly on the advisability of
averting an armed struggle, he persuaded the lady Masa to endorse a
compromise, namely, that to Sanetomo should be given the office of
land-steward in thirty-eight provinces of the Kwansai; while to
Ichiman should be secured the title of shogun and the offices of lord
high constable and land-steward in twenty-eight provinces of the
Kwanto.
Now the maternal grandfather of Ichiman was Hiki Yoshikazu, a captain
who had won high renown in the days of Yoritomo. Learning of the
projected partition and appreciating the grave effect it must produce
on the fortunes of his grandson, Hiki commissioned his daughter to
relate the whole story to Yoriiye, and applied himself to organize a
plot for the destruction of the Hojo. But the facts came to the lady
Masa's ears, and she lost no time in communicating them to Tokimasa,
who, with characteristic promptitude, invited Hiki to a conference
and had him assassinated. Thereupon, Hiki's son, Munetomo, assembled
all his retainers and entrenched himself in Ichiman's mansion, where,
being presently besieged by an overwhelming force of Tokimasa's
partisans, he set fire to the house and perished with the child,
Ichiman, and with many brave soldiers. The death of his son, of his
father-in-law, and of his brother-in-law profoundly affected Yoriiye.
He attempted to take vengeance upon his grandfather, Tokimasa, but
his emissaries suffered a signal defeat, and he himself, being now
completely discredited, was constrained to follow his mother, Masa's,
advice, namely, to take the tonsure and retire to the monastery
Shuzen-ji in Izu. There he was followed and murdered by Tokimasa's
agents. It is apparent that throughout these intrigues the lady Masa
made no resolute attempt to support her first-born. She recognized in
him a source of weakness rather than of strength to the Minamoto.
SANETOMO
After Yoriiye's retirement, in 1204, to the monastery in Izu, Masa,
with the concurrence of her father, Tokimasa, decided on the
accession of her second son, Sanetomo, then in his twelfth year, and
application for his appointment to the office of shogun having been
duly made, a favourable and speedy reply was received from Kyoto. The
most important feature of the arrangement was that Hojo Tokimasa
became shikken, or military regent, and thus wielded greater powers
than ever--powers which he quickly proceeded to abuse for
revolutionary purposes. His policy was to remove from his path, by
any and every measure, all potential obstacles to the consummation of
his ambition.
Among these obstacles were the lady Masa and the new shogun,
Sanetomo. So long as these two lived, the Yoritomo family could count
on the allegiance of the Kwanto, and so long as that allegiance
remained intact, the elevation of the Hojo to the seats of supreme
authority could not be compassed. Further, the substitution of Hojo
for Minamoto must be gradual. Nothing abrupt would be tolerable. Now
the Hojo chief's second wife, Maki, had borne to him a daughter who
married Minamoto Tomomasa, governor of Musashi and lord constable of
Kyoto, in which city he was serving when history first takes
prominent notice of him. This lady Maki seems to have been of the
same type as her step-daughter, Masa. Both possessed high courage and
intellectual endowments of an extraordinary order, and both were
profoundly ambitious. Maki saw no reason why her husband, Hojo
Tokimasa, should lend all his great influence to support the
degenerate scions of one of his family in preference to the able and
distinguished representative of the other branch. Tomomasa was both
able and distinguished. By a prompt and vigorous exercise of military
talent he had crushed a Heike rising in Ise, which had threatened for
a time to become perilously formidable. His mother may well have
believed herself justified in representing to Hojo Tokimasa that such
a man would make a much better Minamoto shogun than the half-witted
libertine, Yoriiye, or the untried boy, Sanetomo. It has been
inferred that her pleading was in Tokimasa's ears when he sent a band
of assassins to murder Yoriiye in the Shuzen-ji monastery. However
that may be, there can be little doubt that the Hojo chief, in the
closing episodes of his career, favoured the progeny of his second
wife, Maki, in preference to that of his daughter, Masa.
Having "removed" Yoriiye, he extended the same fate to Hatakeyama
Shigetada, one of the most loyal and trusted servants of Yoritomo.
Shigetada would never have connived at any measure inimical to the
interests of his deceased master. Therefore, he was put out of the
way. Then the conspirators fixed their eyes upon Sanetomo. The
twelve-year-old boy was to be invited to Minamoto Tomomasa's mansion
and there destroyed. This was the lady Maki's plan. The lady Masa
discovered it, and hastened to secure Sanetomo's safety by carrying
him to the house of her brother, Yoshitoki. The political career of
Hojo Tokimasa ended here. He had to take the tonsure, surrender his
post of regent and go into exile in Izu, where he died, in 1215,
after a decade of obscurity. As for Minamoto Tomomasa, he was killed
in Kyoto by troops despatched for the purpose. This conflict in 1205,
though Hojo Tokimasa and Minamoto Tomomasa figured so largely in it,
is by some historians regarded as simply a conflict between the
ladies Maki and Masa. These two women certainly occupied a prominent
place on the stage of events, but the figure behind the scenes was
the white-haired intriguer, Tokimasa. Had the lady Maki's son-in-law
succeeded Sanetomo, the former would have been the next victim of
Tokimasa's ambition, whereafter the field would have been open for
the grand climacteric, the supremacy of the Hojo.
HOJO YOSHITOKI
Crafty and astute as was Hojo Tokimasa, his son Yoshitoki excelled
him in both of those attributes as well as in prescience. It was to
the mansion of Yoshitoki that Sanetomo was carried for safety when
his life was menaced by the wiles of Tokimasa. Yet in thus espousing
the cause of his sister, Masa, and his nephew, Sanetomo, against his
father, Tokimasa, and his brother-in-law, Tomomasa, it is not to be
supposed that Yoshitoki's motive was loyalty to the house of
Yoritomo. On the contrary, everything goes to show that he would have
associated himself with his father's conspiracy had he not deemed the
time premature and the method clumsy. He waited patiently, and when
the occasion arrived, he "covered his tracks" with infinite skill
while marching always towards the goal of Tokimasa's ambition.
The first to be "removed" was Wada Yoshimori, whom Yoritomo had
gratefully appointed betto of the Samurai-dokoro. Yoritomo's eldest
son, Yoriiye, had left two sons, Kugyo and Senju-maru. The former had
taken the tonsure after his father's and elder brother's deaths, in
1204, but the cause of the latter was espoused with arms by a Shinano
magnate, Izumi Chikahira, in 1213. On Wada Yoshimori, as betto of the
Samurai-dokoro, devolved the duty of quelling this revolt. He did so
effectually, but in the disposition of the insurgents' property, the
shikken, Yoshitoki, contrived to drive Wada to open rebellion. He
attacked the mansion of the shogun and the shikken, captured and
burned the former, chiefly through the prowess of his giant son,
Asahina Saburo; but was defeated and ultimately killed, Senju-maru,
though only thirteen years old, being condemned to death on the
pretext that his name had been used to foment the insurrection! After
this convenient episode, Yoshitoki supplemented his office of shikken
with that of betto of the Samurai-dokoro, thus becoming supreme in
military and civil affairs alike.
DEATH OF SANETOMO
How far Sanetomo appreciated the situation thus created there is much
difficulty in determining. The sentiment of pity evoked by his tragic
fate has been projected too strongly upon the pages of his annals to
leave them quite legible. He had seen his elder brother and two of
the latter's three sons done to death. He had seen the "removal" of
several of his father's most trusted lieutenants. He had seen the
gradual upbuilding of the Hojo power on this hecatomb of victims.
That he perceived something of his own danger would seem to be a
natural inference. Yet if he entertained such apprehensions, he never
communicated them to his mother, Masa, who, from her place of high
prestige and commanding intellect, could have reshaped the issue.
The fact would appear to be that Hojo Yoshitoki's intrigues were too
subtle for the perception of Sanetomo or even of the lady Masa.
Yoshitoki had learned all the lessons of craft and cunning that his
father could teach and had supplemented them from the resources of
his own marvellously fertile mind. His uniformly successful practice
was to sacrifice the agents of his crimes in order to hide his own
connexion with them, and never to seize an opportunity until its
possibilities were fully developed. Tokimasa had feigned ignorance of
his daughter's liaison with Yoritomo, but had made it the occasion to
raise an army which could be directed either against Yoritomo or in
his support, as events ordered. There are strong reasons to think
that the vendetta of the Soga brothers was instigated by Tokimasa and
Yoshitoki, and that Yoritomo was intended to be the ultimate victim.
This was the beginning of a long series of intrigues which led to the
deaths of Yoriiye and two of his sons, of Hatakeyama Shigetada, of
Minamoto Tomomasa, of Wada Yoshimori, and of many a minor partisan of
the Yoritomo family. In the pursuit of his sinister design, there
came a time when Yoshitoki had to choose between his father and his
sister. He sacrificed the former unhesitatingly, and it is very
probable that such a choice helped materially to hide from the lady
Masa the true purport of his doings. For that it did remain hidden
from her till the end is proved by her failure to guard the life of
Sanetomo, her own son, and by her subsequent co-operation with his
slayer, Yoshitoki, her brother. A mother's heart would never
wittingly have prompted such a course.
There is a tradition that Sanetomo provoked the resentment of Masa
and Yoshitoki by accepting high offices conferred on him by
Kyoto--chunagon, and general of the Left division of the guards--in
defiance of Yoritomo's motto, "Wield power in fact but never in
name," and contrary to remonstrances addressed to him through the
agency of Oye no Hiromoto. There is also a tradition that, under
pretense of visiting China in the company of a Chinese bonze, Chen
Hosiang, he planned escape to the Kinai or Chugoku (central Japan),
there to organize armed resistance to the Hojo designs. But it is
very doubtful whether these pages of history, especially the latter,
should not be regarded in the main as fiction. Sanetomo was too much
of a littérateur to be an astute politician, and what eluded the
observation of his lynx-eyed mother might well escape his perception.
In 1217, Yoshitoki invited Kugyo from Kyoto and appointed him to be
betto of the shrine of Hachiman (the god of War) which stood on the
hill of Tsurugaoka overlooking the town of Kamakura. Kugyo was the
second and only remaining legitimate son of Yoriiye. He had seen his
father and his two brothers done to death, and he himself had been
obliged to enter religion, all of which misfortunes he had been
taught by Yoshitoki's agents to ascribe to the partisans of his
uncle, Sanetomo. Longing for revenge, the young friar waited. His
opportunity came early in 1219. Sanetomo, having been nominated
minister of the Left by the Kyoto Court, had to repair to the
Tsurugaoka shrine to render thanks to the patron deity of his family.
The time was fixed for ten o 'clock on the night of February 12th.
Oye no Hiromoto, who had cognizance of the plot, hid his guilty
knowledge by offering counsels of caution. He advised that the
function should be deferred until daylight, or, at any rate, that the
shogun should wear armour. Minamoto Nakaakira combatted both
proposals and they were rejected. Sanetomo had a vague presentiment
of peril. He gave a lock of his hair to one of his squires and
composed a couplet:
Though I am forth and gone,
And tenantless my home;
Forget not thou the Spring,
Oh! plum tree by the eaves.
Then he set out, escorted by a thousand troopers, his sword of State
borne by the regent, Yoshitoki. But at the entrance to the shrine
Yoshitoki turned back, pretending to be sick and giving the sword to
Nakaakira. Nothing untoward occurred until, the ceremony being
concluded, Sanetomo had begun to descend a broad flight of stone
steps that led from the summit of the hill. Then suddenly Kugyo
sprang out, killed Sanetomo and Nakaakira, carrying off the head of
the former, and, having announced himself as his father's avenger,
succeeded in effecting his escape. But he had been the agent of
Yoshitoki's crime, and his survival would have been inconvenient.
Therefore, when he appealed to the Miura mansion for aid, emissaries
were sent by the regent's order to welcome and to slay him. Sanetomo
perished in his twenty-eighth year. All accounts agree that he was
not a mere poet--though his skill in that line was remarkable--but
that he also possessed administrative talent; that he strove
earnestly to live up, and make his officers live up, to the ideals of
his father, Yoritomo, and that he never wittingly committed an
injustice.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HOJO REGENCY
Thus, after three generations occupying a period of only forty years,
the Minamoto family was ruined, and the reins of power were
effectually transferred to Hojo hands. It would seem natural, in the
sequence of events, that the office of shogun should now descend to
the Hojo. But Yoshitoki understood that such a measure would convict
him of having contrived the downfall of Yoritomo's progeny in Hojo
interests. Therefore a step was taken, worthy of the sagacity of the
lady Masa and her brother, the regent. The Bakufu petitioned the
Kyoto Court to appoint an Imperial prince to the post of shogun. That
would have invested the Kamakura Government with new dignity in the
eyes of the nation. But the ex-Emperor, Go-Toba, upon whom it
devolved to decide the fate of this petition, rejected it
incontinently.
His Majesty, as will presently be seen, was seeking to contrive the
downfall of the Bakufu, and the idea of associating one of his own
sons with its fortunes must have revolted him. In the face of this
rebuff, nothing remained for the Bakufu except recourse to the
descendants of the Minamoto in the female line. Yoritomo's elder
sister had married into the Fujiwara family, and her greatgrandson,
Yoritsune, a child of two, was carried to Kamakura and installed as
the head of the Minamoto. Not until 1226, however, was he invested
with the title of shogun, and in that interval of seven years a
momentous chapter was added to the history of Japan.
THE SHOKYU STRUGGLE
The Shokyu era (1219-1222) gave its name to a memorable conflict
between Kyoto and Kamakura. Affairs in the Imperial capital were
ruled at that time by the ex-Emperor, Go-Toba. We have seen how, in
1198, he abdicated in favour of his eldest son, Tsuchimikado. It is
not impossible that the idea of rebelling, sooner or later, against
the Bakufu had begun to germinate in the mind of Go-Toba at that
date, but the probability is that, in laying aside the sceptre, his
dominant aim was to enjoy the sweets of power without its
responsibilities, and to obtain leisure for pursuing polite
accomplishments in which he excelled. His procedure, however,
constituted a slight to the Bakufu, for the change of sovereign was
accomplished without any reference whatever to Kamakura. Tsuchimikado
was a baby of three at the time of his accession. He had been chosen
by lot from among three sons of Go-Toba, but the choice displeased
the latter, and in 1210, Tsuchimikado, then in his fifteenth year,
was compelled to abdicate in favour of his younger brother, Juntoku,
aged thirteen, the eighty-fourth occupant of the throne. Again,
Kamakura was not consulted; but the neglect evoked no remonstrance,
for Sanetomo held the post of shogun at the time, and Sanetomo always
maintained an attitude of deference towards the Imperial Court which
had nominated him to high office.
Juntoku held the sceptre eleven years, and then (1221) he, too,
abdicated at his father's request. Very different considerations,
however, were operative on this occasion. Go-Toba had now definitely
resolved to try armed conclusions with the Bakufu, and he desired to
have the assistance of his favourite son, Juntoku. Thus three
cloistered Emperors had their palaces in Kyoto simultaneously. They
were distinguished as Hon-in (Go-Toba), Chu-in (Tsuchimikado) and
Shin-in* (Juntoku). As for the occupant of the throne, Chukyo
(eighty-fifth sovereign) he was a boy of two, the son of Juntoku.
Much has been written about Go-Toba by romanticists and little by
sober historians. The pathos of his fate tends to obscure his true
character. That he was gifted with exceptional versatility is
scarcely questionable; but that he lacked all the qualities making
for greatness appears equally certain. That his instincts were so
cruel as to make him derive pleasure from scenes of human suffering,
such as the torture of a prisoner, may have been due to a neurotic
condition induced by early excesses, but it must always stand to his
discredit that he had neither judgment to estimate opportunities nor
ability to create them.
*Shin-in signifies the "original recluse;" Chu-in, the "middle
recluse;" and Shin-in "the new recluse."
Briefly summarized, the conditions which contributed mainly to the
Shokyu struggle had their origin in the system of land supervision
instituted by Yoritomo at the instance of Oye no Hiromoto. The
constables and the stewards despatched by the Bakufu to the provinces
interfered irksomely with private rights of property, and thus there
was gradually engendered a sentiment of discontent, especially among
those who owed their estates to Imperial benevolence. A well-known
record (Tai-hei-ki) says: "In early morn the stars that linger in the
firmament gradually lose their brilliancy, even though the sun has
not yet appeared above the horizon. The military families did not
wantonly show contempt towards the Court. But in some districts the
stewards were more powerful than the owners of the estates, and the
constables were more respected than the provincial governors. Thus
insensibly the influence of the Court waned day by day and that of
the military waxed."
There were other causes also at work. They are thus summarized by the
Kamakura Jidaishi: "The conditions of the time called two parties
into existence: the Kyoto party and the military party. To the former
belonged not only many officials of Shinto shrines, priests of
Buddhist temples, and managers of private manors, but also a few
nominal retainers of the Bakufu. These last included men who, having
occupied posts in the Imperial capital for a long time, had learned
to regard the Court with gratitude; others who had special grievances
against the Bakufu, and yet others who, having lost their estates,
were ready to adopt any means of recovering them. The family system
of the time paid no heed to primogeniture. Parents fixed the
succession by favouritism, and made such divisions as seemed
expedient in their eyes. During a parent's lifetime there could be no
appeal nor any remonstrance. But no sooner was a father's tombstone
about to be erected, than his children engaged in disputes or
appealed to the courts. Therefore the Bakufu, seeking to correct this
evil state of affairs, issued an order that the members of a family
should be subservient to the directions of the eldest son; which
order was followed, in 1202, by a law providing that disputes between
brothers must be compromised, and by another, in 1214, ruling that
applications for official posts must have the approval of the members
of the applicants' family in conclave instead of being submitted
direct, as theretofore. Under such a system of family autocracy it
frequently happened that men were ousted from all share in their
paternal estates, and these men, carrying their genealogical tables
constantly in their pockets, were ready to join in any enterprise
that might better their circumstances. Hence the Shokyu struggle may
be said to have been, politically, a collision between the Imperial
Court and the Bakufu, and, socially, a protest against family
autocracy."
The murder of Sanetomo inspired the Court with strong hope that a
suicidal feud had commenced at Kamakura, and when the Fujiwara baby,
Yoritsune, was sent thither, peace-loving politicians entertained an
idea that the civil and the military administration would soon be
found co-operating. But neither event made any change in the
situation. The lady Masa and her brother remained as powerful as ever
and as careless of the Court's dignity.
Two events now occurred which materially hastened a rupture. One was
connected with an estate, in the province of Settsu, conferred by
Go-Toba on a favourite--a shirabyoshi, "white measure-marker," as a
danseuse of those days was called. The land-steward of this estate
treated its new owner, Kamegiku, with contumely, and Go-Toba was
sufficiently infatuated to lodge a protest, which elicited from
Kamakura an unceremonious negative. One of the flagrant abuses of the
time was the sale of offices to Court ladies, and the Bakufu's
attitude in the affair of the Settsu estates amounted to an indirect
condemnation of such evil practices. But Go-Toba, profoundly
incensed, applied himself from that day to mustering soldiers and
practising military tactics. The second incident which precipitated
an appeal to arms was the confiscation of a manor owned by a bushi
named Nishina Morito, who, though a retainer (keriin) of the Bakufu,
had taken service at the Imperial Court. Go-Toba asked that the
estate should be restored, but Yoshitoki flatly refused. It was then
(1221) that Go-Toba contrived the abdication of his son, Juntoku, a
young man of twenty-four, possessing, apparently, all the qualities
that make for success in war, and thereafter an Imperial decree
deprived Yoshitoki of his offices and declared him a rebel. The die
was now cast. Troops were summoned from all parts of the Empire to
attack Kamakura, and a motley crowd mustered in Kyoto.
STEPS TAKEN BY THE BAKUFU
It was on June 6, 1221, that the Imperial decree outlawing Hojo
Yoshitoki appeared, and three days later Kamakura was informed of the
event. The lady Masa at once summoned the leading generals of the
Bakufu to her presence and addressed them thus: "To-day the time of
parting has come. You know well what kind of work the late shogun, my
husband, accomplished. But slanderers have misled the sovereign and
are seeking to destroy the Kwanto institutions. If you have not
forgotten the favours of the deceased shogun, you will join hearts
and hands to punish the traducers and to preserve the old order. But
if any of you wish to proceed to the west, you are free to do so."
This astute appeal is said to have moved the generals greatly. There
was not one instance of disaffection; a sufficiently notable fact
when we remember that the choice lay between the Throne and the
Bakufu. A military council was at once convened by Yoshitoki to
discuss a plan of campaign, and the view held by the great majority
was that a defensive attitude should be adopted by guarding the
Ashigara and Hakone passes.
Alone, Oye no Hiromoto opposed that programme. Regarding the
situation from a political, not a strategical, standpoint, he saw
that every day they remained unmolested must bring an access of
strength to the Imperial forces, and he strenuously urged that a dash
should be made for Kyoto at once. Even the lady Masa did not rise to
Hiromoto's height of discernment; she advocated a delay until the
arrival of the Musashi contingent. Another council was convened, but
Hiromoto remained inflexible. He went so far as to urge that the
Musashi chief--Yoshitoki's eldest son, Yasutoki--ought to advance
alone, trusting his troops to follow. Then the lady Masa summoned
Miyoshi Yasunobu and asked his opinion. He said: "The fate of the
Kwanto is at stake. Strike at once." Thereupon Hojo Yoshitoki ordered
Yasutoki, his son, to set out forthwith from Kamakura, though his
following consisted of only eighteen troopers.
Thereafter, other forces mustered in rapid succession. They are said
to have totalled 190,000. Tokifusa, younger brother of Yasutoki, was
adjutant-general, and the army moved by three routes, the Tokai-do,
the Tosan-do, and the Hokuriku-do, all converging upon the Imperial
capital. On the night of his departure from Kamakura, Yasutoki
galloped back all alone and, hastening to his father's presence,
said: "I have my orders for the disposition of the forces and for
their destination. But if the Emperor in person commands the western
army, I have no orders to guide me." Hojo Yoshitoki reflected for a
time and then answered: "The sovereign cannot be opposed. If his
Majesty be in personal command, then strip off your armour, cut your
bow-strings, and assume the mien of low officials. But if the Emperor
be not in command, then fight to the death. Should you be defeated I
will never see your face again."
THE STRUGGLE
When they learned that a great army was advancing from the Kwanto,
the courtiers in Kyoto lost heart at once. There was no talk of
Go-Toba or of Juntoku taking the field. Defensive measures were alone
thought of. The Imperialist forces moved out to Mino, Owari, and
Etchu. Their plan was to shatter the Bakufu columns separately, or,
if that might not be, to fall back and cover the capital. It was a
most unequal contest. The Kyoto troops were a mere mob without
intelligence or coherence. They broke everywhere under the onset of
the Kwanto veterans. At the river Uji, where their last stand was
made, they fought gallantly and obstinately. But their efforts only
deferred the result by a few hours. On the twenty-fifth day (July 6,
1221) after he had marched out of Kamakura, Yasutoki entered Kyoto.
The Throne had no hesitation as to the course to be pursued in such
circumstances. From the palace of the Shin-in a decree was issued
restoring the official titles of the Hojo chief, and cancelling the
edict for his destruction, while, through an envoy sent to meet him,
he was informed that the campaign against the Bakufu had been the
work of irresponsible subjects; that the sovereign did not sanction
it, and that any request preferred by Kamakura would be favourably
considered.
Yasutoki received these gracious overtures with a silent obeisance,
and taking up his quarters at Rokuhara, proceeded to arrest the
leaders of the anti-Bakufu enterprise; to execute or exile the
courtiers that had participated in it, and to confiscate all their
estates. In thus acting, Yasutoki obeyed instructions from his
implacable father in Kamakura. He himself evinced a disposition to be
merciful, especially in the case of the Court nobles. These he sent
eastward to the Bakufu capital, which place, however, very few of
them reached alive, their deaths being variously compassed on the
way.
To the Imperial family no pity was shown. Even the baby Emperor* was
dethroned, and his place given to Go-Horikawa (1221-1232), the
eighty-sixth sovereign, then a boy of ten, son of Morisada, Go-Toba's
elder brother. Go-Toba, himself was banished to the island of Oki,
and Juntoku to Sado, while Tsuchimikado, who had essayed to check the
movement against the Bakufu, might have remained in Kyoto had not the
exile of his father and brother rendered the city intolerable. At his
own request he was transferred, first, to Tosa, and then, to Awa. The
three ex-Emperors died in exile. Go-Toba seems to have suffered
specially from his reverse of fortunes. He lived in a thatched hut
barely impervious to rain, and his lot is said to have been pitiful,
even from the point of view of the lower orders.
*To this child, Kanenari, who lived a virtual prisoner in Kyoto for
thirteen years subsequently, the Bakufu declined to give the title of
Emperor. Not until the Meiji Restoration (1870) was he enrolled in
the list of sovereigns under the name of Chukyo.
YASUTOKI'S EXPLANATION
There had not been any previous instance of such treatment of the
Imperial family by a subject, and public opinion was not unnaturally
somewhat shocked. No little interest attaches, therefore, to an
explanation given by Yasutoki himself and recorded in the Biography
of Saint Myoe (Myoe Shonin-deri). Visiting the temple after his
victory, Yasutoki was thus addressed by Myoe:
The ancients used to say, "When men are in multitude they may
overcome heaven for a moment, but heaven in the end triumphs." Though
a country be subdued by military force, calamities will soon overtake
it unless it be virtuously governed. From time immemorial in both
Japan and China sway founded on force has never been permanent. In
this country, since the Age of Deities down to the present reign, the
Imperial line has been unbroken through ninety generations. No prince
of alien blood has ascended the throne. Everything in the realm is
the property of the Crown. Whatever the Throne may appropriate, the
subject must acquiesce. Even life must be sacrificed if the cause of
good government demands it. But you have broken an Imperial army;
destroyed Imperial palaces; seized the persons of sovereigns;
banished them to remote regions, and exiled Empresses and princes of
the Blood. Such acts are contrary to propriety. Heaven will inflict
punishment.
These words are said to have profoundly moved Yasutoki. He replied: I
desire to express my sincere views. The late shogun (Yoritomo) broke
the power of the Heike; restored peace of mind to the Court; removed
the sufferings of the people, and rendered loyal service to the
sovereign. Among those that served the shogun there was none that did
not reverence the Emperor. It seems that his Majesty recognized these
meritorious deeds, for he bestowed ranks and titles. Yoritomo was not
only appointed dainagon and taisho, but also given the post of
so-tsuihoshi with powers extending to all parts of the empire.
Whenever such honours were offered, he firmly declined to be their
recipient, his contention being that not for personal reward but for
the sake of the Throne he had striven to subdue the insurgents and to
govern the people mercifully. Pressed again and again, however, he
had been constrained finally to accede, and thus his relatives also
had benefitted, as my grandfather, Tokimasa, and my father,
Yoshitoki, who owed their prosperity to the beneficence of the
cloistered Emperor.
But after the demise of his Majesty and of the shogun, the Court's
administration degenerated. The loyal and the faithful were not
recognized and often the innocent were punished. When it was reported
that an Imperial army numbering tens of thousands was advancing
against the Kwanto, my father, Yoshitoki, asked my views as to
dealing with it. I replied: "The Kwanto has been loyal and has erred
in nothing. Yet we are now to be punished. Surely the Court is in
error? Still the whole country belongs to the sovereign. What is now
threatened must take its course. There is nothing for us but to bow
our heads, fold our hands, and supplicate for mercy. If,
nevertheless, death be our portion, it will be lighter than to live
disloyal. If we be pardoned, we can end our lives in mountain
forests." My father, after reflecting for a space, answered: "What
you say may be right, but it applies only when the sovereign has
properly administered the country. During the present reign, however,
the provinces under Imperial sway are in confusion; the peace is
disturbed, and the people are in misery; whereas those under the
Bakufu are peaceful and prosperous. If the administration of the
Court be extended to all the land, misrule and unhappiness will be
universal. I do not resist the mandate for selfish reasons. I resist
it in the cause of the people. For them I sacrifice my life if heaven
be not propitious. There are precedents. Wu of Chou and Kao-tsu of
Han acted similarly, but, when victorious, they themselves ascended
the throne, whereas if we succeed, we shall merely set up another
prince of the same dynasty. Amaterasu and Hachiman will not reproach
us. We will punish only the evil councillors who have led the Throne
astray. You will set out with all expedition."
Thus instructed, I took the road to Kyoto. But before departing, I
went to worship at the shrine of Hachiman. There I prayed that if my
taking the field was improper, I might be struck dead forthwith; but
that if my enterprise could in any wise aid the country, bring peace
to the people, and contribute to the prosperity of the shrines and
temples, then might I receive the pity and sympathy of heaven. I took
oath before the shrine of Mishima Myojin, also, that my purpose was
free from all selfish ambition. Thus, having placed my life in the
hand of heaven, I awaited my fate. If to this day I have survived all
peril, may I not regard it as an answer to my prayer?
A difference will be detected between the views here attributed to
Yoshitoki and his previously narrated instructions to his son,
Yasutoki. There can be little doubt that the record in the Myoe
Shonin-den is the correct version. Yoshitoki obeyed the Chinese
political ethics; he held that a sovereign had to answer for his
deeds at the bar of public opinion. Yasutoki's loyalty was of a much
more whole-hearted type: he recognized the occupant of the throne as
altogether sacrosanct. If he obeyed his father's instructions in
dealing with the Court, he condemned himself to the constant
companionship of regret, which was reflected in the excellence of his
subsequent administration.
ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES
By the Shokyu war the camera system of administration (Insei) at the
Court was destroyed, and a great change took place in the relations
of the Throne to the Bakufu. For, whereas the latter's authority in
Kyoto had hitherto been largely nominal, it now became a supreme
reality. Kamakura had been represented in the Imperial capital by a
high constable only, whereas two special officials, called
"inquisitors" (tandai) were now appointed, and the importance
attaching to the office becomes apparent when we observe that the
first tandai were Yasutoki himself and his uncle, Tokifusa. They
presided over administrative machinery at the two Rokuhara--in the
northern and southern suburbs of the city--organized exactly on the
lines of the Kamakura polity; namely, a Samurai-dokoro, a Man-dokoro,
and a Monju-dokoro. Further, in spite of imposing arrangements in
Kyoto, no question was finally decided without previous reference to
Kamakura, which thus became, in very truth, the administrative
metropolis of the empire.
THE SHIMPO-JITO
When Yoritomo appointed retainers of his own to be land-stewards in
the various manors, these officials did not own the estates where
they were stationed; they merely collected the taxes and exercised
general supervision. After the Shokyu struggle, however, some three
thousand manors, hitherto owned by courtiers hostile to the Bakufu,
were confiscated by the latter and distributed among the Minamoto,
the Hojo, and their partisans. The recipients of these estates were
appointed also to be their land-stewards, and thus there came into
existence a new class of manor-holders, who were at once owners and
jito, and who were designated shimpo-jito, or "newly appointed
land-stewards," to distinguish them from the hompo-jito, or
"originally appointed."
These shimpo-jito, in whom were vested at once the rights of
ownership and of management, were the first genuine feudal chiefs in
Japan--prototypes of the future daimyo and shomyo. It should be here
noted that, in the distribution of these confiscated estates, the
Kamakura regent, Yoshitoki, did not benefit to the smallest extent;
and that the grants made to the two tandai in Kyoto barely sufficed
to defray the charges of their administrative posts. Yoshitoki is, in
truth, one of the rare figures to whom history can assign the credit
of coveting neither wealth nor station. Out of the three thousand
manors that came into his hands as spolia opima of the Shokyu war, he
might have transferred as many as he pleased to his own name; and
wielding absolute authority in Kyoto, he could have obtained any
title he desired. Yet he did not take a rood of land, and his
official status at the time of his death was no higher than the
fourth rank.
THE BUILDERS OF THE BAKUFU
The great statesmen, legislators, and judges who contributed so much
to the creation of the Bakufu did not long survive the Shokyu
struggle. Miyoshi Yasunobu, who presided over the Department of
Justice (Monju-dokoro) from the time of its establishment, had been
attacked by mortal sickness before the Imperial army commenced its
march eastward. His last advice was given to the lady Masa when he
counselled an immediate advance against Kyoto. Soon afterwards he
died at the age of eighty-two. The great Oye no Hiromoto, who
contributed more than any other man to the conception and
organization of the Kamakura system, and of whom history says that
without him the Minamoto had never risen to fame, survived his
colleague by only four years, dying, in 1225, at the age of
seventy-eight. The lady Masa, one of the world's heroines, expired in
the same year, and 1224 had seen the sudden demise of the regent,
Hojo Yoshitoki. Fortunately for the Bakufu, the regent's son,
Yasutoki, proved himself a ruler of the highest ability, and his
immediate successors were not less worthy of the exalted office they
filled.
ENGRAVING: SILK TASSEL
ENGRAVING: ITSUKUSHIMA JINJA (SHRINE), AT MIYAJIMA
CHAPTER XXVII
THE HOJO
THE HOJO IN KYOTO
THERE was nothing perfunctory in the administration of the "Two
Rokuhara" (Ryo-Rokuhara) in Kyoto. The northern and the southern
offices were presided over by the most prominent members of the Hojo
family, men destined to fill the post of regent (shikkeri)
subsequently in Kamakura. Thus, when Hojo Yoshitoki died suddenly, in
1224, his son, Yasutoki, returned at once to Kamakura to succeed to
the regency, transferring to his son, Tokiuji, the charge of northern
Rokuhara, and a short time afterwards the control of southern
Rokuhara was similarly transferred from Yoshitoki is brother,
Tokifusa, to the latter's son, Tokimori. Nominally, the jurisdiction
of the two Rokuhara was confined to military affairs, but in reality
their influence extended to every sphere within Kyoto and to the
Kinai and the Saikai-do without.
THE HYOJOSHU
So long as the lady Masa lived, the administrative machinery at
Kamakura suggested no sense of deficiency. That great woman accepted
all the responsibility herself. But in the year (1225) of her death,
Yasutoki, who had just succeeded to the regency, made an important
reform. He organized within the Man-dokoro a council of fifteen or
sixteen members, which was called the Hyojo-shu, and which virtually
constituted the Bakufu cabinet. The Samurai-dokoro and the
Monju-dokoro remained unchanged, but the political administration
passed from the Monju-dokoro to the Hyojoshu, and the betto of the
former became in effect the finance minister of the shogun.
THE GOOD ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOJO
Commencing with Yasutoki (1225), down to the close of the thirteenth
century, Japan was admirably ruled by a succession of Hojo regents.
Among them, Yasutoki deserves the highest credit, for he established
a standard with the aid of very few guiding precedents. When he came
into power he found the people suffering grievously from the
extortions of manorial chiefs. It was not an uncommon practice for
the owner of an estate to hold in custody the wives and daughters of
defaulting tenants until the latter paid their rents, however
exorbitant, and seldom indeed did the holder of a manor recognize any
duty of succouring the peasants in time of distress. The former cruel
practice was strictly forbidden by Yasutoki, and, to correct the
latter defect, he adopted the plan of setting a fine example himself.
It is recorded that in the Kwanki era (1229-1232), when certain
places were suffering from crop failure, the regent distributed nine
thousand koku of rice (45,000 bushels approximately) among the
inhabitants and remitted all taxes throughout more than one thousand
districts.
In the Azuma Kagami, a contemporaneous history generally trustworthy,
we find various anecdotes illustrative at once of the men and the
ethics of the time. Thus, it is related that the farmers of a village
called Hojo being in an embarrassed condition, seed-rice was lent to
them in the spring by the regent's order, they undertaking to repay
it in the autumn. But a storm having devastated their fields, they
were unable to keep their pledge. Nothing seemed to offer except
flight. When they were on the eve of decamping, however, they
received from Yasutoki an invitation to a feast at which their bonds
were burned in their presence and every debtor was given half a
bushel of rice. Elsewhere, we read that the regent himself lived in a
house so unpretentious that the interior was visible from the
highroad, owing to the rude nature of the surrounding fence. Urged to
make the fence solid, if only as a protection against fire, his reply
was: "However economically a new wall and fence be constructed, the
outlay would be at the cost of the people. As for me, if I do my duty
to the State, my life and my house will be safe. If I fail, the
strongest fence will not avail."
In estimating what his bountiful assistance to the farmers meant, it
is necessary to remember that he was very poor, The greater part of
the comparatively small estates bequeathed to him by his father he
divided among his half-brothers by a Fujiwara mother, reserving to
himself only a little, for, said he: "I am the regent. What more do I
desire?" One day, while attending a meeting of the Hyojoshu, he
received news that the house of his brother, Tomotoki, was attacked.
Immediately he hastened to the rescue with a small band of followers.
Subsequently, one of his principal retainers remonstrated with him
for risking his life in an affair so insignificant. Yasutoki
answered: "How can you call an incident insignificant when my
brother's safety was concerned? To me it seemed as important as the
Shokyu struggle. If I had lost my brother, what consolation would my
rank have furnished?"
Yasutoki never made his rank a pretext for avoiding military service;
he kept his watch in turn with the other guards, remaining up all
night and attending to all his duties. When he periodically visited
the temple of Yoritomo, he always worshipped without ascending to the
aisle, his reason being that, were the shogun, Yoritomo, alive, the
regent would not venture to sit on the dais by his side. Thrifty and
eminently practical, he ridiculed a priest who proposed to
tranquillize the nation by building fanes. "How can peace be brought
to the people," he asked, "by tormenting them to subscribe for such a
purpose?" He revered learning, regarded administration as a literary
art rather than a military, and set no store whatever by his own
ability or competence.
THE JOEI CODE
The most memorable achievement during Yasutoki's regency was the
compilation of a code of law called the Joei Shikimoku* after the
name of the era (Joei, 1232-1233) when it was promulgated. What
rendered this legislation essentially necessary was that the Daiho
code of the eighth century and all the laws founded on it were
inspired primarily by the purpose of centralizing the administrative
power and establishing the Throne's title of ownership in all the
land throughout the realm, a system diametrically opposed to the
spirit of feudalism. This incongruity had made itself felt in
Yoritomo's time, and had suggested the compilation of certain "Rules
for Decisions" (Hanketsu-rei), which became the basis of the Joei
code in Yasutoki's days. Another objection to the Daiho code and its
correlated enactments was that, being written with Chinese ideographs
solely, they were unintelligible to the bulk of those they concerned.
Confucius laid down as a fundamental maxim of government that men
should be taught to obey, not to understand, and that principle was
adopted by the Tokugawa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
But in the thirteenth, the aim of Yasutoki and his fellow legislators
was to render the laws intelligible to all, and with that object they
were indited mostly in the kana syllabary.
*Called also the Kwanto Goseibai Shikimoku.
The actual work of compilation was done by Hokkyo Enzen (a renowned
bonze), but the idea originated with Hojo Yasutoki and Miyoshi
Yasutsura, and every provision was carefully scanned and debated by
the Bakufu's State council (Hyojoshu). There was no intention of
suppressing the Daiho code. The latter was to remain operative in all
regions to which the sway of the Kyoto Court extended direct. But in
proportion as the influence of the Bakufu grew, the Joei laws
received new adherents and finally became universally effective. A
great modern authority, Dr. Ariga, has opined that the motive of the
Bakufu legislation was not solely right for right's sake. He thinks
that political expediency figured in the business, the Kamakura
rulers being shrewd enough to foresee that a reputation for
administering justice would prove a potent factor in extending their
influence. If so, the scheme was admirably worked out, for every
member of the council had to sign a pledge, inserted at the end of
the Shikimoku, invoking* the vengeance of heaven on his head if he
departed from the laws or violated their spirit in rendering
judgment. Nothing, indeed, stands more signally to the credit of the
Bakufu rulers from the days of Yoritomo and his wife, Masa,
downwards, than their constant endeavour to do justice between man
and man.
*"This oath indicates, among other things, the deep sense of the
importance of unanimity, of a united front, of the individual sharing
fully in the collective responsibility, that was cherished by the
Bakufu councillors. This was, indeed, one of the chief secrets of the
wonderful stability and efficiency of the machine." (Murdoch.)
NATURE OF THE CODE
The Joei Shikimoku is not a voluminous document: it contains only
fifty-one brief articles, which the poet Basho compares to the
luminosity of the full moon. It has been excellently translated and
annotated by Mr. Consul-General J. C. Hall in the "Transactions of
the Asiatic Society of Japan" (Vol. XXXIV, Part I), and Mr. J.
Murdoch, in his admirable History of Japan, summarizes its provisions
lucidly. We learn that slavery still existed in the thirteenth
century in Japan; but the farmer was guarded against cruel processes
of tax-collecting and enjoyed freedom of domicile when his dues were
paid. Fiefs might not be sold, but a peasant might dispose of his
holding. "Village headmen, while held to a strict discharge of their
duties and severely punished for various malpractices, were
safeguarded against all aggression or undue interference on the part
of the jito. The law of property was almost entirely synonymous with
that of fiefs. These, if originally conferred for public services
rendered by the grantee, could not be sold. On the death of the
holder it was not necessarily the eldest son--even though
legitimate--that succeeded. The only provision affecting the father's
complete liberty of bequest or gift to his widow--or concubine, in
one article--or children, was that a thoroughly deserving eldest son,
whether of wife or concubine, could claim one-fifth of the estate.
"Not only could women be dowered with, or inherit, fiefs, and
transmit a legal title to them to their own children, but a childless
woman was even fully empowered to adopt an heir. Yoritomo had been
the first to sanction this broadminded and liberal principle. In
Kamakura, an adulterer was stripped of half of his fief if he held
one; and if he had none, he was banished. For an adulteress the
punishment was no severer, except that if she possessed a fief, the
whole of it was confiscated. A good many sections of the code deal
with legal procedure and the conduct and duty of magistrates, the
great objects being to make the administration of justice simple,
prompt, and pure, while repressing everything in the shape of
pettifogging or factious litigation.
"The penalties were neither cruel nor ferocious. Death for the worst
offences--among which theft is specially mentioned--confiscation of
fief, and banishment, these exhaust the list. The only other
punishment mentioned is that of branding on the face, inflicted on a
commoner for the crime of forgery, a bushi's punishment in this case
being banishment, or simply confiscation of his fief, if possessed of
one.
"Bakufu vassals were strictly forbidden directly to solicit the
Imperial Court for rank or office; they must be provided with a
special recommendation from Kamakura. But once invested with Court
rank, they might be promoted in grade without any further
recommendation, while they were free to accept the position of
hebiishi. Analogous restrictions were placed on the Kwanto clergy,
who were to be summarily removed from their benefices if found
appealing to Kyoto for promotion, the only exception being in favour
of Zen-shu priests. In their case the erring brother guilty of such
an offence got off comparatively lightly--'an influential member of
the same sect will be directed to administer a gentle admonition.'
The clergy within the Bakufu domains were to be kept strictly in
hand; if they squandered the revenues of their incumbency and
neglected the fabric and the established services therein, they were
to be displaced. As regards the monasteries and priests outside the
Bakufu domain, the case was entirely different; they were virtually
independent, and Kamakura interfered there only when instructed to do
so by Imperial decree."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
FURTHER LEGISLATION
It is not to be supposed that the Joei Shikimoku represents the whole
outcome of Kamakura legislation. Many additions were made to the code
during the fourteenth century, but they were all in the nature of
amplifications or modifications. Kyoto also was busy with enactments
in those times--busier, indeed, than Kamakura, but with smaller
practical results.
FALL OF THE MIURA
Yasutoki died in 1242, having held the regency (shikken) for eighteen
years. His two sons had preceded him to the grave, and therefore his
grandson, Tsune-toki, became shikken. Tsunetoki resembled his
grandfather in many respects, but, as he died in 1246, he had little
opportunity of distinguishing himself. Nevertheless, during his brief
tenure of power, he took a step which had momentous consequences. It
will be remembered that after the murder of Minamoto Sanetomo by his
nephew Kugyo, in 1219, some difficulty was experienced in persuading
the Imperial Court to appoint a successor to the shogunate, and
finally the choice fell upon Fujiwara Yoritsune, then a child of two,
who was not actually nominated shogun until 1226. This noble, when
(1244) in the twenty-seventh year of his age and the eighteenth of
his shogunate, was induced by the regent, Tsunetoki, to resign, the
alleged reason being portents in the sky, and a successor was found
for him in his son, Yoritsugu.
Now, for many years past the Miura family had ranked next to the Hojo
in power and above it in wealth, but the two had always been loyal
friends. Some umbrage was given to the Miura at this time, however,
owing to the favours enjoyed at the regency by the Adachi family, one
of whose ladies was the mother of the two shikken, Tsunetoki and
Tokiyori. The situation thus created had its issue in a plot to kill
Tokiyori, and to replace him by an uncle unconnected with the Adachi.
Whether the Miura family were really involved in this plot, history
gives no definite indication; but certainly the ex-shogun, Yoritsune,
was involved, and his very marked friendship with Miura Mitsumura
could scarcely fail to bring the latter under suspicion. In the end,
the Miura mansion was suddenly invested by a Hojo force. Mitsumura
and his elder brother, Yasumura, escaped to a temple where, after a
stubborn resistance, they and 270 of their vassals committed suicide.
No mercy was shown. The Miura were hunted and slaughtered everywhere,
their wide, landed estates being confiscated and divided among the
Bakufu, the fanes, and the courtiers at Kyoto.
The terribly drastic sequel of this affair illustrates the vast power
wielded by the Hojo throughout the empire in the thirteenth century.
Yoritomo's system of high constables and land-stewards brought almost
every part of the country under the effective sway of Kamakura. It is
not to be supposed, however, that these high constables and
land-stewards were suffered to subject the people within their
jurisdiction to arbitrary or extortionate treatment. Not only could
complaints of any such abuses count on a fair hearing and prompt
redress at the hands of the Bakufu, but also inspectors were
despatched, periodically or at uncertain dates, to scrutinize with
the utmost vigilance the conduct of the shugo and jito, who, in their
turn, had a staff of specially trained men to examine the land survey
and adjust the assessment and incidence of taxation.
ENGRAVING: HOJO TOKIYORI
HOJO TOKIYORI
Tokiyori, younger brother of Tsunetoki, held the post of shikken at
the time of the Miura tragedy. He had succeeded to the position, in
1246, on the death of Tsunetoki, and he nominally abdicated in 1256,
when, in the sequel of a severe illness, he took the tonsure. A
zealous believer, from his youth upwards, in the doctrines of the Zen
sect of Buddhism, he built a temple called Saimyo-ji among the hills
of Kamakura, and retired thither to tend his health--entrusting the
office of shikken to a relative, Nagatoki, as his own son, Tokimune,
was still of tender age--but continuing himself to administer
military and judicial affairs, especially when any criminal or civil
case of a complicated or difficult nature occurred. Thus, there was a
cloistered regent at Kamakura, just as there had so often been a
cloistered Emperor in Kyoto. Tradition has busied itself much with
Tokiyori's life. He carried to extreme lengths the virtue of economy
so greatly extolled by his grandfather, Yasutoki. Such was the
frugality of his mode of life that we read of him searching for
fragments of food among the remnants of a meal, so that he might
serve them to a friend, and we read, also, of his mother repairing
with her own hands the paper covering of a shoji in expectation of a
visit from him. He is further said to have disguised himself as an
itinerent bonze and to have travelled about the provinces, observing
the state of the people and learning their complaints. His
experiences, on this pilgrimage read like a romance. Lodging at one
time with an aged widow, he learns that she has been robbed of her
estate and reduced to painful poverty, a wrong which Tokiyori hastens
to redress; at another time his host is an old samurai whose loyal
record comes thus to the knowledge of the shikken and is subsequently
recognized.
But it must be confessed that these tales rest on very slender
evidence. Better attested is the story of Aoto Fujitsuna, which
illustrates at once the character of Tokiyori and the customs of the
time. This Fujitsuna was a man of humble origin but considerable
learning. One year, the country being visited by drought, Tokiyori
gave rice and money to priests for religious services, and himself
worshipped at the shrine of Mishima. These measures were vehemently
criticized by Fujitsuna, who described them as enriching the wealthy
to help the impoverished. When informed of this, Tokiyori, instead of
resenting it, sent for Fujitsuna and nominated him a member of the
Court of Recorders,* where he earned the reputation of being one of
Japan's greatest judges.** It is related of him that he devoted his
whole fortune to objects of charity, and that when Tokiyori, claiming
a revelation from heaven, proposed to increase his endowments, his
answer was, "Supposing heaven revealed to you that you should put me
to death, would you obey?" ***
*The Hikitsuke-shii, a body of men who kept the archives of the
Man-dokoro and conducted preliminary judicial investigations. It was
organized in Tokiyori's, time and from its members the Hyojoshu was
recruited.
**The other was Ooka Tadasuke of the Tokugawa period.
***It is related of this Aoto Fujitsuna that, having dropped a few
cash into the Namera River at night, he expended many times the
amount in paying torch-bearers to recover the lost coins, his
argument being that the money thus expended was merely put into
circulation, whereas the dropped money would have been irrevocably
lost.
Tokiyori, as already related, though he nominally resigned and
entered religion in 1256, really held the reins of power until his
death, in 1263. Thus the Insei (camera administration) came into
being in Kamakura, as it had done previously in Kyoto. There were
altogether nine of the Hojo regents, as shown below:
(1) Tokimasa 1203-1205
(2) Yoshitoki 1205-1224
(3) Yasutoki 1224-1242
(4) Tsunetoki 1242-1246
(5) Tokiyori 1246-1256 Retired in 1256, but ruled in camera till
1263
(6) Tokimune 1256-1284
(7) Sadatoki 1284-1301 Retired in 1301, but ruled in camera till
1311
(8) Morotoki 1301-1311
(9) Takatoki 1311-1333
The first six of these were men of genius, but neither Tokimasa nor
Yoshitoki can be called really great administrators, if in the
science of administration its moral aspects be included. The next
four, however, from Yasutoki down to Tokimune, are distinctly
entitled to a high place in the pages of history. Throughout the
sixty years of their sway (1224-1284), the Japanese nation was
governed with justice* and clemency rarely found in the records of
any medieval State, and it is a strange fact that Japan's debt to
these Hojo rulers remained unrecognized until modern times.
*It is recorded that the first half of every month in Kamakura was
devoted to judicial proceedings, and that at the gate of the Record
Office there was hung a bell, by striking which a suitor or
petitioner could count on immediate attention.
THE SHOGUNS IN KAMAKURA
In the Minamoto's original scheme of government the office of shogun
was an administrative reality. Its purpose was to invest the Bakufu
chief with permanent authority to command all the military and naval
forces throughout the empire for the defence and tranquillization of
the country. In that light the shogunate was regarded while it
remained in the hands of Yoritomo and his two sons, Yoriie and
Sanetomo. But with the death of Sanetomo, in 1219, and the political
extinction of the Minamoto family, the shogunate assumed a different
character in the eyes of the Minamoto's successors, the Hojo. These
latter, not qualified to hold the office themselves, regarded it as a
link between Kamakura and Kyoto, and even as a source from which
might be derived lawful sanction for opposing the Throne should
occasion arise. Therefore they asked the Emperor Go-Toba to nominate
one of his younger sons, and on receiving a refusal, they were fain
to be content with a member of the Fujiwara family, who had long held
the Court in the hollow of their hands. This nomination was never
intended to carry with it any real authority. The shoguns were mere
puppets. During the interval of 114 years between the death of
Sanetomo (1219) and the fall of the Hojo (1333), there were six of
these fainéant officials:
Age at Age at
Appn't Depos'n
Fujiwara Yoritsune, 1219-1244 2 27
Yoritsugu 1244-1252 5 13
Prince Munetaka, 1252-1266 10 24
elder brother of Go-Fukakusa
Prince Koreyasu, son of Munetaka 1266-1289 3 26
Prince Hisaakira, son of Go-Fukakusa 1289-1308 13 32
Prince Morikuni, son of Hisaakira 1308-1333 7 32
The record shows that all these officials were appointed at an age
when independent thought had not yet become possible, and that they
were removed as soon as they began to think for themselves. It will
be observed that there is a palpable break in the uniformity of the
list. Yoritsugu alone was stripped of office while still in his
teens. That was because his father, the ex-shogun, engaged in a plot
to overthrow the Hojo. But the incident was also opportune. It
occurred just at the time when other circumstances combined to
promote the ambition of the Hojo in the matter of obtaining an
Imperial prince for shogun. The throne was then occupied by
Go-Fukakusa (the eighty-ninth sovereign), a son of Go-Saga (the
eighty-eighth sovereign), who, as we shall see, owed his elevation to
the influence exercised by Hojo Yasutoki after the Shokyu war. Now it
happened that, in 1252, a conspiracy against Go-Saga was found to
have been fomented by the head of that branch of the Fujiwara family
from which the Kamakura shoguns were taken. The conspiracy was a
thing of the past and so were its principal fomenters, but it served
as a conclusive reason for not creating another Fujiwara shogun.
Prince Munetaka, an elder brother of the reigning Emperor, was
chosen, and thus the last four Bakufu shoguns were all of Imperial
blood.
Their lineage, however, did not avail much as against Bakufu
arbitrariness. The Hojo adopted towards the shoguns the same
policy as that previously pursued by the Fujiwara towards the
sovereigns--appointment during the years of childhood and removal
on reaching full manhood.* But the shoguns were not unavenged.
*It is related that when the regent, Sadatoki, in 1289, removed
Prince Koreyasu from the office of shogun, he ordered that the bamboo
palanquin in which the prince journeyed to Kyoto should be carried
with the back in front. The people said that the prince was banished
to Kyoto.
It was owing to the social influence exercised by their entourage
that the frugal and industrious habits of the bushi at Kamakura were
gradually replaced by the effeminate pastimes and enervating
accomplishments of the Imperial capital. For the personnel and
equipage of a shogun's palace at Kamakura differed essentially from
those of Hojo regents (shikken) like Yasutoki and his three immediate
successors. In the former were seen a multitude of highly paid
officials whose duties did not extend to anything more serious than
the conservation of forms of etiquette; the custody of gates, doors,
and shutters; the care of pavilions and villas; the practice and
teaching of polite accomplishments, such as music and versification;
dancing, handball, and football; the cultivation of refined archery
and equestrianism, and the guarding of the shogun's person.*
*The officials of the shogun's court were collectively called banshu.
At the regency, on the other hand, functions of the most arduous
character were continuously discharged by a small staff of earnest,
unpretentious men, strangers to luxury or leisure and solicitous,
primarily, to promote the cause of justice and to satisfy the canons
of efficiency. The contrast could not but be demoralizing. Not
rapidly or without a struggle, but slowly and inevitably, the poison
of bad example permeated Kamakura society, and the sinecures in the
shogun's household came to be coveted by the veterans of the Bakufu,
who, throughout the peaceful times secured by Hojo rule, found no
means of gaining honours or riches in the field, and who saw
themselves obliged to mortgage their estates in order to meet the
cost of living, augmented by extravagant banquets, fine buildings,
and rich garments. Eight times between 1252 and 1330, edicts were
issued by the Bakufu fixing the prices of commodities, vetoing costly
residences, prohibiting expensive garments, censuring neglect of
military arts, and ordering resumption of the old-time sports and
exercises. These attempts to check the evil had only very partial
success. The vices spread, and "in the complex of factors that led to
the downfall of the Bakufu, the ultimate ascendancy of Kyoto's social
standards in Kamakura must probably be regarded as the most
important."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
THE TWO LINES OF EMPERORS
It is necessary now to turn for a moment to the story of the Imperial
city, which, since the appearance of the Bakufu upon the scene, has
occupied a very subordinate place in these pages, as it did in fact.
Not that there was any outward or visible sign of diminishing
importance. All the old administrative machinery remained operative,
the old codes of etiquette continued to claim strict observance, and
the old functions of government were discharged. But only the shadow
of authority existed at Kyoto; the substance had passed effectually
to Kamakura. As for the throne, its chiefly remarkable feature was
the brevity of its occupation by successive sovereigns:
Order of Succession Name Date
77th Sovereign Go-Shirakawa 1156-1158
78th " Nijo 1159-1166
79th " Rokuju 1166-1168
80th " Takakura 1169-1180
81st " Antoku 1181-1183
82nd " Go-Toba 1184-1198
83rd " Tsuchimikado 1199-1210
84th " Juntoku 1211-1221
85th " Chukyo 1221
86th " Go-Horikawa 1221-1232
87th " Shijo 1233-1242
88th " Go-Saga 1243-1246
Here are seen twelve consecutive Emperors whose united reigns covered
a period of ninety-one years, being an average of seven and one-half
years, approximately. It has been shown that Go-Horikawa received the
purple practically from the hands of the Hojo in the sequel of the
Shokyu disturbance, and the same is true of Go-Saga, he having been
nominated from Kamakura in preference to a son of Juntoku, whose
complicity in that disturbance had been notorious. Hence Go-Saga's
attitude towards Kamakura was always one of deference, increased by
the fact that his eldest son, Munetaka, went to Kamakura as shogun,
in 1252. Vacating the throne in 1246, he named his second son,
Go-Fukakusa, to succeed; and his third, Kameyama, to be Prince
Imperial. The former was only three years old when (1246) he became
nominal sovereign, and, after a reign of thirteen years, he was
compelled (1259) to make way for his father's favourite, Kameyama,
who reigned from 1259 to 1274.
To understand what followed, a short genealogical table will assist:
88th Sovereign, Go-Saga (1243-1246)
|
+--------------+-------------+
| |
89th, Go-Fukakusa (1246-1259) 90th, Kameyama (1259-1274)
| |
92nd, Fushimi (1287-1298) 91st, Go-Uda (1274-1287)
| |
+-----+----+ +-----+-----+
| | | |
93rd, 95th, 94th, 96th,
Go-Fushimi Hanazono Go-Nijo Go-Daigo
(1298-1301) (1307-1318) (1301-1307) (1318-1339)
| | | |
+-----+----+ +-----+-----+
| |
Jimyo-in family Daikagu-ji Family
(called afterwards Hoku-cho, (called afterwards Nan-cho,
or the Northern Court) or the Southern Court)
The cloistered Emperor, Go-Saga, abdicating after a reign of four
years, conducted the administration according to the camera system
during twenty-six years. It will be observed from the above table
that he essayed to hold the balance equally between the families of
his two sons, the occupant of the throne being chosen from each
alternately. But everything goes to show that he favoured the
Kameyama branch. Like Go-Toba, he cherished the hope of seeing the
Imperial Court released from the Bakufu shackles, and to that end the
alert, enterprising Kameyama seemed better suited than the dull,
resourceless Takakura, just as in Go-Toba's eyes Juntoku had appeared
preferable to Tsuchimikado.
Dying in 1272, Go-Saga left a will with injunctions that it should be
opened in fifty days. It contained provisions destined to have
disastrous consequences. One clause entrusted to the Bakufu the duty
of deciding whether the administrative power should be placed in the
hands of the cloistered Emperor, Go-Fukakusa, or in those of the
reigning sovereign, Kameyama. Another provided that a very large
property, known as the Chokodo estates, should be inherited by the
monarch thus deposed from authority; while a comparatively small
bequest went to the depository of power. In framing this curious
instrument, Go-Saga doubtless designed to gild the pill of permanent
exclusion from the seats of power, believing confidently that the
Imperial succession would be secured to Kameyama and his direct
descendants. This anticipation proved correct. The Bakufu had
recourse to a Court lady to determine the trend of the deceased
sovereign's wishes, and the result was that Kameyama triumphed.
In the normal order of things the cloistered Emperor Go-Fukakusa
would have succeeded to the administrative place occupied by Go-Saga,
and a large body of courtiers, whose chances of promotion and
emolument depended upon that arrangement, bitterly resented the
innovation. The palace became divided into two parties, the Naiho
(interior section) and the Inho (camera section), a division which
grew more accentuated when Kameyama's son ascended the throne as
Go-Uda, in 1274. Go-Fukakusa declared that he would leave his palace
and enter a monastery were such a wrong done to his children.
Thereupon Kameyama--now cloistered Emperor--submitted the matter to
the Bakufu, who, after grave deliberation, decided that Go-Fukakusa's
son should be named Crown Prince and should reign in succession to
Go-Uda. This ruler is known in history as Fushimi.
Shortly after his accession a sensational event occurred. A bandit
made his way during the night into the palace and seizing one of the
court ladies, ordered her to disclose the Emperor's whereabouts. The
sagacious woman misdirected him, and then hastened to inform the
sovereign, who disguised himself as a female and escaped. Arrested by
the guards, the bandit committed suicide with a sword which proved to
be a precious heirloom of the Sanjo family. Sanjo Sanemori, a former
councillor of State, was arrested on suspicion, but his examination
disclosed nothing. Then a grand councillor (dainagori) charged the
cloistered Emperor, Kameyama, with being privy to the attempt, and
Fushimi showed a disposition to credit the charge. Kameyama, however,
conveyed to the Bakufu a solemn oath of innocence, with which Fushimi
was fain to be ostensibly content. But his Majesty remained
unconvinced at heart. He sent to Kamakura a secret envoy with
instructions to attribute to Kameyama an abiding desire to avenge the
wrongs of Go-Toba and wipe out the Shokyu humiliation. This vengeful
mood might find practical expression at anytime, and Fushimi, warned
the Bakufu to be on their guard. "As for me," he concluded, "I leave
my descendants entirely in the hands of the Hojo. With Kamakura we
stand or fall."
How much of this was sincere, how much diplomatic, it is not possible
to determine. In Kamakura, however, it found credence. Sadatoki, then
regent (shikken), took prompt measures to have Fushimi's son
proclaimed Prince Imperial, and, in 1298, he was enthroned as
Go-Fushimi. This evoked an indignant protest from the then cloistered
Emperor, Go-Uda, and after some consideration the Kamakura regent,
Sadatoki, suggested--"directed" would perhaps be a more correct form
of speech--that thenceforth the succession to the throne should
alternate between the two families descended from Go-Fukakusa and
Kameyama, the length of a reign being limited to ten years.
Nominally, this arrangement was a mark of deference to the testament
of Go-Saga, but in reality it was an astute device to weaken the
authority of the Court by dividing it into rival factions. Kamakura's
fiat received peaceful acquiescence at first. Go-Uda's eldest son
took the sceptre in 1301, under the name of Go-Nijo, and, after seven
years, he was succeeded by Fushimi's son, Hanazono, who, in twelve
years, made way for Go-Uda's second son, Go-Daigo.
The descendants of Kameyama were called the "Daigaku-ji family," and
the descendants of Go-Fukakusa received the name of the "Jimyo-in
family." When a member of the latter occupied the throne, the Court
enjoyed opulence, owing to its possession of the extensive Chokodo
estates; but when the sovereign was of the Daigaku-ji line
comparative penury was experienced. There can be little doubt that,
throughout the complications antecedent to this dual system, the
Fushimi princes acted practically as spies for the Bakufu. After all,
the two Imperial families were descended from a common ancestor and
should have shrunk from the disgrace of publishing their rivalries.
It is true, as we shall presently see, that the resulting
complications involved the destruction of the Hojo; but it is also
true that they plunged the nation into a fifty years' war.
THE FIVE REGENT FAMILIES
It has already been related how, by Yoritomo's contrivance, the post
of family--descended from Fujiwara Kanezane--and scions of the Konoe
family--descended from Fujiwara Motomichi. This system was
subsequently extended at the instance of the Hojo. The second and
third sons of Michiiye, grandson of Kanezane, founded the houses of
Nijo and Ichijo, respectively; while Kanehira, the second of two
grandsons of Motomichi, established the house of Takatsukasa. These
five families--Konoe, Kujo, Nijo, Ichijo, and Takatsukasa--were
collectively called Go-sekke (the Five Regent Houses) in recognition
of the fact that the regent in Kyoto was supposed to be taken from
them in succession. The arrangement led to frequent strife with
resulting weakness, thus excellently achieving the purpose of its
contrivers, the Hojo.
THE FIRST MONGOL INVASION
The rule of the Hojo synchronized with two events of prime importance
the invasion of Japan by a Mongolian army, first in 1274, and
subsequently in 1281. Early in the twelfth century, the Emperor of
China, which was then under the sway of the Sung dynasty, invited the
Golden Tatars to deal with the Khitan Tatars, who held Manchuria, and
who, in spite of heavy tribute paid annually by the Sung Court,
continually raided northeastern China. The Golden Tatars responded to
the invitation by not only expelling the Khitans but also taking
their place in Manchuria and subsequently overrunning China, where
they established a dynasty of their own from 1115 to 1234.
These struggles and dynastic changes did not sensibly affect Japan.
Her intercourse with the Asiatic continent in those ages was confined
mainly to an interchange of visits by Buddhist priests, to industrial
enterprise, and to a fitful exchange of commodities. It does not
appear that any branch of the Tatars concerned themselves practically
about Japan or the Japanese. Ultimately, however, in the first part
of the thirteenth century, the Mongols began to sweep down on the
Middle Kingdom under the leadership of Jenghiz Khan. They crushed the
Golden Tatars, transferred (1264) the Mongol capital from central
Asia to Peking (Cambaluc), and, in 1279, under Kublai, completely
conquered China. Nearly thirty years before the transfer of the
capital to Peking, the Mongols invaded the Korean peninsula, and
brought it completely under their sway in 1263, receiving the final
submission of the kingdom of Koma, which alone had offered any
stubborn resistance.
It is probable that Kublai's ambition, whetted by extensive
conquests, would have turned in the direction of Japan sooner or
later, but tradition indicates that the idea of obtaining the homage
of the Island Empire was suggested to the great Khan by a Korean
traveller in 1265. Kublai immediately acted on the suggestion. He
sent an embassy by way of Korea, ordering the Koma sovereign to make
arrangements for the transport of the envoys and to re-enforce them
with a Korean colleague. A tempest interrupted this essay, and it was
not repeated until 1268, when the Khan's messengers, accompanied by a
Korean suite, crossed safely to Chikuzen and delivered to the
Dazai-fu a letter from Kublai with a covering despatch from the
Korean King. The Korean sovereign's despatch was plainly inspired by
a desire to avert responsibility from himself. He explained that in
transporting the embassy he acted unavoidably, but that, in sending
it, the Khan was not actuated by any hostile feeling, his sole
purpose being to include Japan in the circle of his friendly
tributaries.
In short, the Koma prince--he no longer could properly be called a
monarch--would have been only too pleased to see Japan pass under the
Mongol yoke as his own kingdom had already done. Kublai's letter,
however, though not deliberately arrogant, could not be construed in
any sense except as a summons to send tribute-bearing envoys to
Peking. He called himself "Emperor" and addressed the Japanese ruler
as "King;" instanced, for fitting example, the relation between China
and Korea, which he described at once as that of lord and vassal and
that of parent and child, and predicated that refusal of intercourse
would "lead to war."
The Japanese interpreted this to be an offer of suzerainty or
subjugation. Two courses were advocated; one by Kyoto, the other by
Kamakura. The former favoured a policy of conciliation and delay; the
latter, an attitude of contemptuous silence. Kamakura, of course,
triumphed. After six months' retention the envoys were sent away
without so much as a written acknowledgment. The records contain
nothing to show whether this bold course on the part of the Bakufu
had its origin in ignorance of the Mongol's might or in a conviction
of the bushi's fighting superiority. Probably both factors were
operative; for Japan's knowledge of Jenghiz and his resources reached
her chiefly through religious channels, and the fact that Koreans
were associated with Mongols in the mission must have tended to lower
the affair in her estimation. Further, the Japanese had been taught
by experience the immense difficulties of conducting oversea
campaigns, and if they understood anything about the Mongols, it
should have been the essentially non-maritime character of the
mid-Asian conquerors.
By Kublai himself that defect was well appreciated. He saw that to
carry a body of troops to Japan, the seagoing resources of the
Koreans must be requisitioned, and on the bootless return of his
first embassy, he immediately issued orders to the Koma King to build
one thousand ships and mobilize forty thousand troops. In vain the
recipient of these orders pleaded inability to execute them. The Khan
insisted, and supplemented his first command with instructions that
agricultural operations should be undertaken on a large scale in the
peninsula to supply food for the projected army of invasion.
Meanwhile he despatched embassy after embassy to Japan, evidently
being desirous of carrying his point by persuasion rather than by
force. The envoys invariably returned re infecta. On one occasion
(1269), a Korean vessel carried off two Japanese from Tsushima and
sent them to Peking. There, Kublai treated them kindly, showed them
his palace as well as a parade of his troops, and sent them home to
tell what they had seen. But the Japanese remained obdurate, and
finally the Khan sent an ultimatum, to which Tokimune, the Hojo
regent, replied by dismissing the envoys forthwith.
War was now inevitable. Kublai massed 25,000 Mongol braves in Korea,
supplemented them with 15,000 Korean troops, and embarking them in a
flotilla of 900 vessels manned by 8000 Koreans, launched this paltry
army against Japan in November, 1274. The armada began by attacking
Tsushima and Iki, islands lying in the strait that separates the
Korean peninsula from Japan. In Tsushima, the governor, So Sukekuni,*
could not muster more than two hundred bushi. But these two hundred
fought to the death, as did also the still smaller garrison of Iki.
Before the passage of the narrow strait was achieved, the invaders
must have lost something of their faith in the whole enterprise. On
November 20th, they landed at Hako-zaki Gulf in the province of
Chikuzen There they were immediately assailed by the troops of five
Kyushu chieftains. What force the latter represented there is no
record, but they were certainly less numerous than the enemy.
Moreover, the Yuan army possessed a greatly superior tactical system.
By a Japanese bushi the battle-field was regarded as an arena for the
display of individual prowess, not of combined force. The Mongols, on
the contrary, fought in solid co-operation, their movements directed
by sound of drum from some eminence where the commander-in-chief
watched the progress of the fight. If a Japanese approached to defy
one of them to single combat, they enveloped and slew him. Further,
at close quarters they used light arms dipped in poison, and for
long-range purposes they had powerful crossbows, which quite
outclassed the Japanese weapons. They were equipped also with
explosives which they fired from metal tubes, inflicting heavy loss
on the Japanese, who were demoralized by such an unwonted weapon.
Finally, they were incomparable horsemen, and in the early encounters
they put the Japanese cavalry out of action by raising with drums and
gongs a din that terrified the latter's horses. But, in spite of all
these disadvantages, the Japanese fought stubbornly. Whenever they
got within striking distance of the foe, they struck desperately, and
towards evening they were able to retire in good order into cover
"behind the primitive fortifications of Mizuki raised for Tenchi
Tenno by Korean engineers six centuries before."
*Grandson of Taira no Tomomori, admiral of the Hei fleet in the
battle of Dan-no-ura.
ENGRAVING: REPULSE OF THE MONGOL INVADERS (From a scroll painting in
possession of the Imperial Household)
That night the west coast of Kyushu was menaced by one of those
fierce gales that rage from time to time in sub-tropical zones. The
Korean pilots knew that their ships could find safety in the open sea
only. But what was to be done with the troops which had debarked? Had
their commanders seen any certain hope of victory, they would not
have hesitated to part temporarily from the ships. The day's
fighting, however, appears to have inspired a new estimate of the
bushi's combatant qualities. It was decided to embark the Yuan forces
and start out to sea. For the purpose of covering this movement, the
Hakozaki shrine and some adjacent hamlets were fired, and when
morning dawned the invaders' flotilla was seen beating out of the
bay. One of their vessels ran aground on Shiga spit at the north of
the haven and several others foundered at sea, so that when a tally
was finally called, 13,200 men did not answer to their names. As to
what the Japanese casualties were, there is no information.
THE SECOND MONGOL INVASION
Of course Kublai did not acknowledge this as a defeat at the hands of
the Japanese. On the contrary, he seems to have imagined that the
fight had struck terror into the hearts of the islanders by
disclosing their faulty tactics and inferior weapons. He therefore
sent another embassy, which was charged to summon the King of Japan
to Peking, there to do obeisance to the Yuan Emperor. Kamakura's
answer was to decapitate the five leaders of the mission and to
pillory their heads outside the city. Nothing, indeed, is more
remarkable than the calm confidence shown at this crisis by the
Bakufu regent, Tokimune. His country's annalists ascribe that mood to
faith in the doctrines of the Zen sect of Buddhism; faith which he
shared with his father, Tokiyori, during the latter's life. The Zen
priests taught an introspective philosophy. They preached that life
springs from not-living, indestructibility from destruction, and that
existence and non-existence are one in reality. No creed could better
inspire a soldier.
It has been suggested that Tokimune was not guided in this matter
solely by religious instincts: he used the Zen-shu bonzes as a
channel for obtaining information about China. Some plausibility is
given to that theory by the fact that he sat, first, at the feet of
Doryu, originally a Chinese priest named Tao Lung, and that on
Doryu's death he invited (1278) from China a famous bonze, Chu Yuan
(Japanese, Sogen), for whose ministrations the afterwards celebrated
temple Yengaku-ji was erected. Sogen himself, when officiating at the
temple of Nengjen, in Wenchow, had barely escaped massacre at the
hands of the Mongols, and he may not have been averse to acting as a
medium of information between China and Kamakura.
Tokimune's religious fervour, however, did not interfere with his
secular preparations. In 1280, he issued an injunction exhorting
local officials and vassals (go-kenin) to compose all their
dissensions and work in unison. There could be no greater crime, the
document declared, then to sacrifice the country's interests on the
altar of personal enmities at a time of national crisis. Loyal
obedience on the part of vassals, and strict impartiality on the side
of high constables--these were the virtues which the safety of the
State demanded, and any neglect to practise them should be punished
with the utmost severity. This injunction was issued in 1280, and
already steps had been taken to construct defensive works at all
places where the Mongols might effect a landing--at Hakozaki Bay in
Kyushu; at Nagato, on the northern side of the Shimonoseki Strait; at
Harima, on the southern shore of the Inland Sea; and at Tsuruga, on
the northwest of the main island. Among these places, Hakozaki and
Nagato were judged to be the most menaced, and special offices, after
the nature of the Kyoto tandai, were established there.
ENGRAVING: HOJO TOKIMUNE
Seven years separated the first invasion from the second. It was not
of deliberate choice that Kublai allowed so long an interval to
elapse. The subjugation of the last supporters of the Sung dynasty in
southern China had engrossed his attention, and with their fall he
acquired new competence to prosecute this expedition to Japan,
because while the Mongolian boats were fit only for plying on inland
waters, the ships of the southern Chinese were large, ocean-going
craft. It was arranged that an army of 100,000 Chinese and Mongols
should embark at a port in Fuhkien opposite the island of Formosa,
and should ultimately form a junction in Tsushima Strait with an
armada of 1000 Korean ships, carrying, in addition to their crews, a
force of 50,000 Mongols and 20,000 Koreans.
But before launching this formidable host, Kublai made a final effort
to compass his end without fighting. In 1280, he sent another embassy
to Japan, announcing the complete overthrow of the Sung dynasty, and
summoning the Island Empire to enter into friendly relations.
Kamakura's answer was to order the execution of the envoys at the
place where they had landed, Hakata in Chikuzen. Nothing now remained
except an appeal to force. A weak point in the Yuan strategy was that
the two armadas were not operated in unison. The Korean fleet sailed
nearly a month before that from China. It would seem that the
tardiness of the latter was not due wholly to its larger dimensions,
but must be attributed in part to its composition. A great portion of
the troops transported from China were not Mongols, but Chinese, who
had been recently fighting against the Yuan, and whose despatch on a
foreign campaign in the service of their victors suggested itself as
a politic measure. These men were probably not averse to delay and
certainly cannot have been very enthusiastic.
In May, 1281, the flotilla from Korea appeared off Tsushima.
Unfortunately, the annals of medieval Japan are singularly reticent
as to the details of battles. There are no materials for constructing
a story of the events that occurred on the Tsushima shores, more than
six centuries ago. We do not even know what force the defenders of
the island mustered. But that they were much more numerous than on
the previous occasion, seven years before, is certain. Already, in
1280, Tokimune had obtained from Buddhist sources information of the
Mongol preparations--preparations so extensive that the felling of
timber to make ships inspired a Chinese poem in which the green hills
were depicted as mourning for their trees--and he would not have
failed to garrison strongly a position so cardinal as the midchannel
island of Tsushima. It was not reduced. The enemy were able to effect
a lodgement, but could not overrun the island or put its defenders to
the sword, as had been done in 1274. The Korean ships remained at
Tsushima awaiting the arrival of the Chinese flotilla. They lost
three thousand men from sickness during this interval, and were
talking of retreat when the van of the southern armada hove in sight.
A junction was effected off the coast of Iki island, and the garrison
of this little place having been destroyed on June 10th, the combined
forces stood over towards Kyushu and landed at various places along
the coast of Chikuzen, making Hakozaki Bay their base.
Such a choice of locality was bad, for it was precisely along the
shores of this bay that the Japanese had erected fortifications. They
were not very formidable fortifications, it is true. The bushi of
these days knew nothing about bastions, curtains, glacis, or cognate
refinements of military engineering. They simply built a stone wall
to block the foe's advance, and did not even adopt the precaution of
protecting their flanks. But neither did they fall into the error of
acting entirely on the defensive. On the contrary, they attacked
alike on shore and at sea. Their boats were much smaller than those
of the invaders, but the advantage in dash and daring was all on the
side of the Japanese. So furious were their onsets, and so deadly was
the execution they wrought with their trenchant swords at close
quarters, that the enemy were fain to lash their ships together and
lay planks between them for purposes of speedy concentration. It is
most improbable that either the Korean or the Chinese elements of the
invading army had any heart for the work, whereas on the side of the
defenders there are records of whole families volunteering to serve
at the front. During fifty-three days the campaign continued; that is
to say, from June 23rd, when the first landing was effected, until
August 14th, when a tornado swept off the face of the sea the main
part of the Yuan armada.
No account has been preserved, either traditionally or historically,
of the incidents or phases of the long fight. We know that the
invaders occupied the island of Hirado and landed in Hizen a strong
force intended to turn the flank of the Hakozaki Bay parapet. We
know, inferentially, that they never succeeded in turning it. We know
that, after nearly two months of incessant combat, the Yuan armies
had made no sensible impression on the Japanese resistance or
established any footing upon Japanese soil. We know that, on August
the 14th and 15th, there burst on the shores of Kyushu a tempest
which shattered nearly the whole of the Chinese flotilla. And we know
that the brunt of the loss fell on the Chinese contingent, some
twelve thousand of whom were made slaves. But no such momentous
chapter of history has ever been traced in rougher outlines. The
annalist is compelled to confine himself to marshalling general
results. It was certainly a stupendous disaster for the Yuan arms.
Yet Kublai was not content; he would have essayed the task again had
not trouble nearer home diverted his attention from Japan. The Island
Empire had thus the honour of being practically the only state in the
Orient that did not present tribute to the all-conquering Mongols.
But, by a strangely wayward fate, these victories over a foreign
invader brought embarrassment to the Hojo rulers rather than renown.
In the first place, there could not be any relaxation of the
extraordinary preparations which such incidents dictated. Kublai's
successor, Timur, lost no time in countermanding all measures for a
renewed attack on Japan, and even adopted the plan of commissioning
Buddhist priests to persuade the Bakufu of China's pacific
intentions. One of these emissaries, Nei-issan (Chinese
pronunciation, Ning I-shan), settled permanently in Japan, and his
holy ministrations as a Zen-shu propagandist won universal respect.
But the Bakufu did not relax their precautions, and for more than a
score of years a heavy burden of expense had to be borne on this
account.
Further, when the wave of invasion broke on the shores of Kyushu, the
Court in Kyoto set the example of appealing to the assistance of
heaven. Prayers were offered, liturgies were chanted, and incense was
burned at many temples and shrines throughout the empire. Several of
the priests did not hesitate to assert that their supplications had
elicited signs and portents indicating supernatural aid. Rich rewards
were bestowed in recognition of these services, whereas, on the
contrary, the recompense given to the soldiers who had fought so
gallantly and doggedly to beat off a foreign foe was comparatively
petty. Means of recompensing them were scant. When Yoritomo overthrew
the Taira, the estates of the latter were divided among his followers
and co-operators. After the Shokyu disturbance, the property of the
Court nobles served a similar purpose. But the repulse of the Mongols
brought no access of wealth to the victors, and for the first time
military merit had to go unrequited while substantial grants were
made to the servants of religion. The Bakufu, fully conscious of this
dangerous discrepancy, saw no resource except to order that strict
surveys should be made of many of the great estates, with a view to
their delimitation and reduction, if possible. This, however, was a
slow progress, and the umbrage that it caused was more than
commensurate with the results that accrued. Thus, to the Bakufu the
consequences of a war which should have strengthened allegiance and
gratitude were, on the contrary, injurious and weakening.
ENGRAVING: FIVE STRING BIWA (JAPANESE MANDOLIN)
ENGRAVING: KOTO, 13-STRINGED HORIZONTAL HARP
CHAPTER XXVIII
ART, RELIGION, LITERATURE, CUSTOMS, AND COMMERCE IN THE KAMAKURA
PERIOD
ART
From the establishment of the Bakufu, Japanese art separated into two
schools, that of Kamakura and that of Kyoto. The latter centered in
the Imperial Court, the former in the Court of the Hojo. Taken
originally from Chinese masters of the Sui and Tang dynasties, the
Kyoto art ultimately developed into the Japanese national school,
whereas the Kamakura art, borrowed from the academies of Sung and
Yuan, became the favourite of the literary classes and preserved its
Chinese traditions. Speaking broadly, the art of Kyoto showed a
decorative tendency, whereas that of Kamakura took landscape and
seascape chiefly for motives, and, delighting in the melancholy
aspects of nature, appealed most to the student and the cenobite.
This distinction could be traced in calligraphy, painting,
architecture, and horticulture. Hitherto penmanship in Kyoto had
taken for models the style of Kobo Daishi and Ono no Tofu. This was
called o-ie-fu (domestic fashion), and had a graceful and cursive
character. But the Kamakura calligraphists followed the pure Chinese
mode (karayo), as exemplified by the Buddhist priests, Sogen (Chu
Yuan) and Ichinei (I Ning).
In Kyoto, painting was represented by the schools of Koze, Kasuga,
Sumiyoshi, and Tosa; in Kamakura, its masters were Ma Yuan, Hsia
Kwei, and Mu Hsi, who represented the pure Southern Academy of China,
and who were followed by Sesshu, Kao, and Shubun. So, too, the art of
horticulture, though there the change was a transition from the stiff
and comparatively artificial fashion of the no-niwa (moor garden) to
the pure landscape park, ultimately developed into a Japanese
specialty. Tradition ascribes to a Chinese bonze, who called himself
Nei-issan (or Ichinei), the planning of the first landscape garden,
properly so designated in Japan. He arrived in Kyushu, under the name
of I Ning, as a delegate from Kublai Khan in the days of Hojo
Sadatoki, and was banished, at first, to the province of Izu.
Subsequently, however, the Bakufu invited him to Kamakura and
assigned the temple Kencho-ji for his residence and place of
ministrations. It was there that he designed the first landscape
garden, furnishing suggestions which are still regarded as models.
LITERATURE
The conservatism of the Imperial city is conspicuously illustrated in
the realm of literature. Careful perusal of the well-known work,
Masukagami, shows that from year's end to year's end the same
pastimes were enjoyed, the same studies pursued The composition of
poetry took precedence of everything. Eminent among the poetasters of
the twelfth century was the Emperor Go-Toba. The littérateurs of his
era looked up to him as the arbiter elegantiarum, especially in the
domain of Japanese versification. Even more renown attached to
Fujiwara no Toshinari, whose nom de plume was Shunzei, and who earned
the title of the "Matchless Master." His son, Sadaiye, was well-nigh
equally famous under the name of Teika.
After the Shokyu disturbance (1221), the empire enjoyed a long spell
of peace under the able and upright sway of the Hojo, and during that
time it became the custom to compile anthologies. The first to essay
that task was Teika. Grieving that the poets of his time had begun to
prefer affectation and elegance to sincerity and simplicity, he
withdrew to a secluded villa on Mount Ogura, and there selected, a
hundred poems by as many of the ancient authors. These he gave to the
world, calling the collection Hyakunin-isshu, and succeeding
generations endorsed his choice so that the book remains a classic to
this day. Teika's son, Tameiye, won such favour in the eyes of the
Kamakura shogun, Sanetomo, that the latter conferred on him the manor
of Hosokawa, in Harima. Dying, Tameiye bequeathed this property to
his son, Tamesuke, but he, being robbed of it by his step-brother,
fell into a state of miserable poverty which was shared by his
mother, herself well known as an authoress under the name of
Abutsu-ni. This intrepid lady, leaving her five sons in Kyoto,
repaired to Kamakura to bring suit against the usurper, and the
journal she kept en route--the Izayoi-nikki--is still regarded as a
model of style and sentiment. It bears witness to the fact that
students of poetry in that era fell into two classes: one adhering to
the pure Japanese style of the Heian epoch; the others borrowing
freely from Chinese literature.
Meanwhile, at Kamakura, the Bakufu regents, Yasutoki, Tokiyori and
Tokimune, earnest disciples of Buddhism, were building temples and
assigning them to Chinese priests of the Sung and Yuan eras who
reached Japan as official envoys or as frank propagandists. Five
great temples thus came into existence in the Bakufu capital, and as
the Chinese bonzes planned and superintended their construction,
these buildings and their surroundings reflected the art-canons at
once of China, of Japan, and of the priests themselves. The same
foreign influence made itself felt in the region of literature. But
we should probably be wrong in assuming that either religion or art
or literature for their own sakes constituted the sole motive of the
Hojo regents in thus acting. It has already been shown that they
welcomed the foreign priests as channels for obtaining information
about the neighbouring empire's politics, and there is reason to
think that their astute programme included a desire to endow Kamakura
with an artistic and literary atmosphere of its own, wholly
independent of Kyoto and purged of the enervating elements that
permeated the latter.
This separation of the civilizations of the east (Kwanto) and the
west (Kyoto) resulted ultimately in producing asceticism and
religious reform. The former, because men of really noble instincts
were insensible to the ambition which alone absorbed a Kyoto
littérateur--the ambition of figuring prominently in an approved
anthology--and had, at the same time, no inclination to follow the
purely military creed of Kamakura. Such recluses as Kamo Chomei,
Saigyo Hoshi and Yoshida Kenko were an outcome of these conditions.
Chomei has been called the "Wordsworth of Japan." He is immortalized
by a little book of thirty pages, called Hojoki (Annals of a Cell.)
It is a volume of reflections suggested by life in a hut measuring
ten feet square and seven feet high, built in a valley remote from
the stir of life. The style is pellucid and absolutely unaffected;
the ideas are instinct with humanity and love of nature. Such a work,
so widely admired, reveals an author and an audience instinct with
graceful thoughts.
In the career of Saigyo--"the reverend," as his title "hoshi"
signifies--there were episodes vividly illustrating the manners and
customs of the tune. Originally an officer of the guards in Kyoto, he
attained considerable skill in military science and archery, but his
poetic heart rebelling against such pursuits, he resigned office,
took the tonsure, and turning his back upon his wife and children,
became a wandering bard. Yoritomo encountered him one day, and was so
struck by his venerable appearance that he invited him to his mansion
and would have had him remain there permanently. But Saigyo declined.
On parting, the Minamoto chief gave him as souvenir a cat chiselled
in silver, which the old ascetic held in such light esteem that he
bestowed it on the first child he met. Yoshida Kenko, who became a
recluse in 1324, is counted among the "four kings" of Japanese
poetry--Ton-a, Joben, Keiun, and Kenko. He has been called the
"Horace of Japan." In his celebrated prose work, Weeds of Tedium
(Tsure-zure-gusa), he seems to reveal a lurking love for the vices he
satirizes. These three authors were all pessimistic. They reflected
the tendency of the time.
RELIGION
The earliest Buddhist sect established in Japan was the Hosso. It
crossed from China in A.D. 653, and its principal place of worship
was the temple Kofuku-ji at Nara. Then (736) followed the Kegon sect,
having its headquarters in the Todai-ji, where stands the colossal
Daibutsu of Nara, Next in order was the Tendai, introduced from China
by Dengyo in 805, and established at Hiei-zan in the temple
Enryaku-ji; while fourth and last in the early group of important
sects came the Shingon, brought from China in 809 by Kukai, and
having its principal metropolitan place of worship at Gokoku-ji (or
To-ji) in Kyoto, and its principal provincial at Kongobo-ji on
Koya-san. These four sects and some smaller ones were all introduced
during a period of 156 years. Thereafter, for a space of 387 years,
there was no addition to the number: things remained stationary until
1196, when Honen began to preach the doctrines of the Jodo sect, and
in the space of fifty-six years, between 1196 and 1252, three other
sects were established, namely, the Zen, the Shin, and the Nichiren.
THE TWO GROUPS OF SECTS
In what did the teachings of the early groups of sects differ from
those of the later groups, and why did such a long interval separate
the two? Evidently the answers to these questions must have an
important bearing on Japanese moral culture. From the time of its
first introduction (A.D. 522) into Japan until the days of Shotoku
Taishi (572-621), Japanese Buddhism followed the lines indicated in
the land of its provenance, Korea. Prince Shotoku was the first to
appreciate China as the true source of religious learning, and by him
priests were sent across the sea to study. But the first sect of any
importance--the Hosso--that resulted from this movement does not seem
to have risen above the level of idolatry and polytheism. It was a
"system built up on the worship of certain perfected human beings
converted into personal gods; it affirmed the eternal permanence of
such beings in some state or other, and it gave them divine
attributes."* Some of these were companions and disciples of Shaka
(Sakiya Muni); others, pure creations of fancy, or borrowed from the
mythological systems of India. It is unnecessary here to enter into
any enumeration of these deities further than to say that, as helpers
of persons in trouble, as patrons of little children, as healers of
the sick, and as dispensers of mercy, they acted an important part in
the life of the people. But they did little or nothing to improve
men's moral and spiritual condition, and the same is true of a
multitude of arhats, devas, and other supernatural beings that go to
make up a numerous pantheon.
*Lloyd's Developments of Japanese Buddhism, "Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol. XXII; and Shinran and His Work, by
the same author.
It was not until the end of the eighth century that Japanese Buddhism
rose to a higher level, and the agent of its elevation was Dengyo
Daishi, whom the Emperor Kwammu sent to China to study the later
developments of the Indian faith. Dengyo and his companions in 802
found their way to the monastery of Tientai (Japanese, Tendai), and
acquired there a perception of the true road to Saving Knowledge, a
middle route "which includes all and rejects none, and in which alone
the soul can be satisfied." Meditation and wisdom were declared to be
the stepping-stones to this route, and to reach them various rules
had to be followed, namely, "the accomplishment of external
means"--such as observing the precepts, regulating raiment and food,
freedom from all worldly concerns and influences, promotion of all
virtuous desires, and so forth; "chiding of evil desires"--such as
the lust after beauty, the lust of sound, of perfumes, of taste, and
of touch; "casting away hindrances;" "harmonizing the faculties," and
"meditating upon absolute truth."
Now first we meet with the Buddhas of Contemplation, and with a creed
which seems to embody a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit. Such, in
briefest outline, was the doctrine taught at the close of the sixth
century by a Chinese bonze at the monastery of Tientai, and carried
thence to Japan two hundred years later by Dengyo, who established
the Tendai sect on Mount Hiei near Kyoto. Dengyo did not borrow
blindly; he adapted, and thus the Tendai creed, as taught at
Hiei-zan, became in reality "a system of Japanese education, fitting
the disciplinary and meditative methods of the Chinese propagandist
on the pre-existing foundations of earlier sects."
"The comprehensiveness of the Tendai system caused it to be the
parent of many schisms. Out of it came all the large sects, with the
exception of the Shingon," to be presently spoken of. "On the other
hand, this comprehensiveness ensured the success of the Tendai sect.
With the conception of the Buddhas of Contemplation came the idea
that these personages had frequently been incarnated for the welfare
of mankind; that the ancient gods whom the Japanese worshipped were
but manifestations of these same mystical beings, and that the
Buddhist faith had come, not to destroy the native Shinto, but to
embody it into a higher and more universal system."*
*"The Buddhists recognized that the Shinto gods were incarnations of
some of the many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas brought from India and
China, and then the two faiths amalgamated and for centuries
comfortably shared the same places of worship."--Every-Day Japan, by
Lloyd.
THE SHINGON SECT
It was not to Dengyo, however, that Japan owed her most mysterious
form of Buddhism, but to his contemporary, Kukai, remembered by
posterity as Kobo Daishi. The traditions that have been handed down
with reference to this great teacher's life and personality reveal
one of those saints whose preaching and ministration have bestowed a
perpetual blessing on humanity. Here, it must suffice to say that he
found no peace of mind until a visit to China brought comprehension
of a Sutra which he had vainly studied in Japan. On his return, in
806, he appeared before the emperor and many bonzes, and astonished
all by his eloquence and his knowledge.
There are three "vehicles" in Buddhism, but only two of them need be
mentioned here--the Hina-yana, or Small Vehicle, and the Maha-yana,
or Great Vehicle. The term "vehicle" signifies a body of doctrine on
which "a believer may ride to the perfect consummation of his
humanity." The difference between these two requires many words to
explain fully, whereas only a few can be devoted to the purpose here.
"The Hina-yana Sutra is intended for beginners; the Maha-yana for
those more advanced in the path of the law." The teaching in the
former is negative; in the latter, positive. In the Hina-yana the
perfect path is to abstain from four things--women, palaces,
beautiful objects, and riches. In the Maha-yana perfect virtue is the
presence of four things--the spirit of wisdom, the love of virtue,
patience and firmness, and the retired life. By the "spirit of
wisdom" is meant the constant desire for the truth; by the "love
of virtue" is signified the abhorrence of evil; by "patience and
firmness" are indicated perfect manliness as exhibited towards
the weak; by "the retired life" is designated humility and
self-effacement.
"There is nothing in the world like the Chinese scriptures of the
Maha-yana. The canon in China is seven hundred times the amount of
the New Testament," and, of course, this vast extent means that there
is a correspondingly wide field for eclecticism. "The Hina-yana did
not trouble itself with metaphysical speculation; that was reserved
for the Maha-yana, and Kukai was the greatest Japanese teacher of the
arcana of Buddhism. How much of his system he owed to studies
conducted in China, how much to his own inspiration, research has not
yet determined. An essentially esoteric system, it conceived a world
of ideas," grouped logically and systematically according to genera
and species, forming a planetary cosmos, the members of which, with
their satellites, revolved not only on their own axes but also round
a central sun.
This was the "world of golden effulgence"--a world permeated by the
light of truth. The sect was called the Shingon (True Word); and the
central body was Dainichi (Great Sun), the Spirit of Truth, anterior
to Shaka and greater than him. "To reach the realization of the Truth
that Dainichi is omnipresent and that everything exists only in him,
a disciple must ascend by a double ladder, each half of which has ten
steps, namely, the intellectual ladder and the moral ladder." These
ladders constitute, in fact, a series of precepts, warnings, and
exhortations; some easily comprehensible, others demanding profound
thought, and the whole calculated to educate an absorbing aspiration
for the "transcendental virtues," to possess which is to attain to
perfect Buddhahood. Unquestionably the offspring of a great mind,
this Shingon system, with its mysterious possibilities and its lofty
morality, appealed strongly to the educated and leisured classes in
Kyoto during the peaceful Heian epoch, while for the illiterate and
the lower orders the simpler canons of the Tendai had to suffice.
THE JODO SECT
It has been shown, however, that the preachers of these sects, one
and all, were readily prone to resort to violence and bloodshed in
pursuit of worldly interests, not even the exponents of the exalted
"True Word" creed being exempt from the reproach. Teachers of a
doctrine having for cardinal tenet the sacredness of life, the
inmates of the great monasteries nevertheless did not hesitate to
appeal to arms, at any time, in defence of their temporal privileges
or in pursuit of their ambitious designs. Yet the discredit attaching
to such a flagrant discrepancy between precept and practice might not
have produced very signal result had not the twelfth century brought
the Gen-Hei struggle, which plunged the empire into a state of
turbulence and reduced the lower orders to a condition of pitiable
misery.
For this distress neither the Tendai doctrines nor the Shingon
conceptions were sufficiently simple to supply a remedy. Something
more tangible and less recondite was needed, and it came (1196), in
the sequel of twenty-five years' meditation and study, to
Genku--posthumously called Honen Shonin--a priest of the Tendai sect.
The leading characteristics of the Jodo (pure land) system introduced
by him are easily stated. "Salvation is by faith, but it is a faith
ritually expressed. The virtue that saves comes, not from imitation
of, and conformity to, the person and character of the saviour,
Amida, but from blind trust in his efforts and from ceaseless
repetition of pious formulae. It does not necessitate any conversion
or change of heart. It is really a religion of despair rather than of
hope. It says to the believer: 'The world is so very evil that you
can not possibly reach to Buddha-ship here. Your best plan,
therefore, is to give up all such hope and simply set your mind upon
being born in Amida's paradise after death.'"*
*Lloyd's Development of Japanese Buddhism and Shinran and His Work.
THE SHIN SECT
An immediate offspring of the Jodo, though not directly following it
in the chronological sequence of sects, was the Shin, established
(1224) under the name of Jodo Shin-shu* (True Sect of Jodo), and
owing its inception to Shinran, a pupil of Genku. It was even simpler
and less exacting than its parent, the Jodo-shu, for it logically
argued that if faith alone was necessary to salvation, the believer
need not trouble himself about metaphysical subtleties and profound
speculations; nor need he perform acts of religion and devotion; nor
need he keep a multitude of commandments; nor need he leave his home,
renounce matrimony, or live by rule. Only he must not worship any
save Amida, or pray for anything that does not concern his salvation.
As for the time of attaining salvation, the Jodo sect taught that if
the mercy of Amida be called to remembrance, he would meet the
believer at the hour of death and conduct him to paradise; whereas
Shin-shu preaches that the coming of Amida was present and immediate;
in other words, that "Buddha dwelt in the heart now by faith."
*It is called also the Monto-shu.
THE ZEN SECT
In the Jodo and the Shin sects an ample spiritual rest was provided
for the weary in mind or body, for the illiterate, and for the
oppressed. But there was for a time no creed which appealed specially
to the military men; no body of doctrine which, while strengthening
him for the fight, could bring to him peace of mind. The Zen-shu
ultimately satisfied that want. Zen is the Japanese equivalent of the
Indian term dhyana, which signifies "meditation." In fact, the Zen is
a contemplative sect. Its disciples believe that, "knowledge can be
transmitted from heart to heart without the intervention of words."
But though purely a contemplative rite at the time of its
introduction into Japan, 1168, it was subsequently modified--from
1223--by two teachers, in whose hands it took the form known as the
Soto sect. This "joined scholarship and research to contemplation,"
and taught that, when the highest wisdom and most perfect
enlightenment are attained, all the elements of phenomenal existence
are seen to be empty, vain, and unreal. "Form does not differ from
space or space from form; all things surrounding us are stripped of
their qualities, so that in this highest state of enlightenment,
there can be no longer birth or death, defilement or purity, addition
or destruction. There is, therefore, no such thing as ignorance, and
therefore none of the miseries that result from it. If there is no
misery, decay, or death, there is no such thing as wisdom, and no
such thing as attaining to happiness or rest. Hence, to arrive at
perfect emancipation we must grasp the fact of utter and entire
void." Such a creed effectually fortified the heart of a soldier.
Death ceased to have any terrors for him or the grave any reality.
ENGRAVING: NICHIREN PREACHING IN THE STREET
THE NICHIREN SECT
This is the only one among Japanese sects of Buddhism that derives
its name from that of its founder. And justly so, for Nichiren's
personality pervades it. The son of a fisherman, from youth he
applied himself to the study of Buddhism, became a bonze of the
Shingon sect, and took the name of Nichiren (lotus of the sun). He,
too, studied originally at Hiei-zan under Tendai tutors, but he
ultimately followed an eclectic path of his own, which led him to the
"Scripture of the Lotus of Good Law," and he taught that salvation
could be attained merely by chaunting the formula, "namu myo ho renge
kyo" ("hail to the Scripture of the Lotus of Good Law") with
sufficient fervour and iteration. In fact, Nichiren's methods partook
of those of the modern Salvation Army. He was distinguished, also, by
the fanatical character of his propagandism. Up to his time, Japanese
Buddhism had been nothing if not tolerant. The friars were quick to
take up arms for temporal purposes, but sectarian aggressiveness was
virtually unknown until Nichiren undertook to denounce everyone
differing from his views.* His favourite formula for denouncing other
sects was, "nembutsu mugen, Zen temma, Shingon bokoku, Ritsu
kokuzoku" ("incantations are phantasms; the Zen is a demon; the
Shingon, national ruin; and the Ritsu, a rebel"). Nichiren gained
great credit for predicting, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, that
a heavy calamity was about to fall upon the country, but owing to an
accusation of political intrigues, he was first condemned to be
beheaded, and then was banished to the island of Sado. His sentence
was soon revoked, however, by the regent Tokimune, who granted him
written permission to propagate his doctrines. Thereafter the spread
of his sect was very rapid.
*Out of some 72,000 temples in Japan to-day, 20,000, approximately,
belong to the Shin sect; an equal number to the Zen; 13.000 to the
Shingon; 8000 to the Jodo; and smaller numbers to the rest.
THE PEOPLE
With the decentralization of the administrative power there was a
corresponding growth of the vassal class. Of course the Court nobles
had vassals in their households, but the power exercised over these
vassals had legal limits, whereas the vassals of the provincial
chiefs were liable to imprisonment or even death by order of their
chiefs. One result was that the provinces came gradually into
possession of a large body of men skilled in arms and in
administration. Moreover, among these provincial vassals, men
originally of humble origin, found themselves raised to the level of
honoured subjects, and a man's status came to be determined by his
occupation rather than by his lineage. The lines of this new
discrimination were fourfold, namely, shi, no, ko, sho--that is to
say, military, agricultural, industrial, and commercial. The
tradesman stood at the bottom of the scale, and the farmer, as the
principal taxpayer, ranked next to the military man. It will be
observed that this classification does not include any persons whose
occupation involved pollution. This was a result of religious
prejudice. Degradation attended every profession that required
contact with the sick, the dead, or offal of any kind. Persons
practising such callings were designated eta (men of many
impurities). All belonging to the class inferior to tradesmen were
originally regarded as outlaws, but subsequently, when society was
reorganized on a military basis, an official was specially entrusted
with absolute control over persons excluded from the quadruple
classification of soldier, farmer, mechanic, and merchant. Beggars
constituted an important section of the outcasts (hiniri). Next to
them were professional caterers for amusement, from dog-trainers,
snake-charmers, riddle-readers, acrobats, and trainers of animals, to
brothel-keepers and executioners.
DWELLING-HOUSES
During the two centuries from the middle of the twelfth, aristocratic
dwellings in the capital underwent little change. Military
residences, however, developed some special features, though, in
general, their architecture was of the simplest character. They had
two enclosures, each surrounded by a boarded fence, and the whole was
encircled by a fosse crossed by outer and inner gates. There were
ranges for archery and there were watch-towers, but the dwelling
itself was small and plain. It consisted mainly of a hall, having a
dais with a lacquered chair for important visitors; an apartment for
women; a servants' room, and a kitchen, heat being obtained from a
hearth sunk in the floor. Austere simplicity was everywhere aimed at,
and it is related that great provincial chiefs did not think the
veranda too lowly for a sleeping-place. The use of the tatami was
greatly extended after the twelfth century. No longer laid on the
dais only, these mats were used to cover the whole of the floors, and
presently they were supplemented by cushions made of silk crepe
stuffed with cotton-wool. In the great majority of cases, roofs were
covered with boards. Only in the houses of magnates was recourse had
to tiles imported from China or slates of copper-bronze. In the
better class of house, the roof-boards were held in place by girders,
but humble folks used logs of timber, or stones, to prevent
wind-stripping, and these weights imparted an untidy, rude appearance
to the structure.
COSTUME
A notable feature of costume in this era was that the skirt of an
official's outer garment had to be long in proportion to his rank.
But military men did not observe this rule. It was followed only by
the comparatively effeminate Court nobles and civil officials, who
shaved their eyebrows, painted their cheeks, and blackened their
teeth, as women did. While the soldiers of the Kamakura period wore
their hair short and shaved the top of the head,--possibly for
greater comfort when they were accoutred in heavy helmets,--the Court
noble and the exquisite of the day wore their hair long and gathered
in a queue which was bound with paper.
As for women, long hair was counted a beauty, and when a lady of rank
left the house, her tresses were gathered in a box carried by an
attendant who walked behind; and when she seated herself, this
attendant's duty was to spread the hair symmetrically on the ground
like a skirt. Girls in their teens had a pretty fashion of wearing
their hair in three clearly distinguished lengths--a short fringe
over the forehead, two cascades falling below the shoulders, and a
long lock behind. Women's hairdressing was simple in one respect:
they wore no ornaments in the hair. Aristocratic ladies continued to
wear loose trousers, but robes with skirts began to form a part of
the costume of the lower classes and of unmarried girls. The girdle,
so characteristic of Japanese habiliments in later days, had not yet
come into use. Its predecessor was a narrow belt of silk encircling
the waist and knotted in front, the outer garment being a long
flowing robe, reaching from the neck to the heels and having
voluminous sleeves. Female headgear was various. A woman walking
abroad wore a large hat like an inverted bowl, and when she rode on
horseback, she suspended from the rim of this hat a curtain from
three to four feet long.
There were other fashions, but only one of them need be mentioned,
namely, a hood to envelop the face so that the eyes alone remained
visible. In the city streets women of the town wore a distinctive
costume as courtesans did in certain parts of Europe in the Middle
Ages. The badge in Japan was a spirally twisted pyramidal cap of
linen, about a foot and a half high. The materials of which clothing
were made varied from rich Chinese brocade to coarse homespun, but,
in general, the use of brocade was forbidden except to persons who
had received it as a gift from the Court in Kyoto or Kamakura.
Historical mention is first made of badges during the war of the
Minamoto and the Taira. Their use was originally confined to purposes
of distinction, and ultimately they came to be employed as a family
crest by military men. A chrysanthemum flower with sixteen petals and
a bunch of Paulownia leaves and buds constituted the Imperial badges,
the use of which was interdicted to all subjects. It is not to be
supposed, however, that badges were necessarily a mark of
aristocracy: they might be woven or dyed on the garments of
tradespeople or manufacturers. Footgear, also, offered opportunities
for embellishment. Common people wore brown-leather socks, but those
of position used blue leather having decorative designs embroidered
in white thread.
BRAZIERS, ETC.
Braziers now came into general use, and quickly became objects of
ornament as well as of utility. Manufactured of brass or bronze, and
sometimes even of silver, they had decorative designs repousse or
chiselled, and sometimes they took the shape of a metal receptacle
inserted in a case of finely grained or richly lacquered wood.
Another important warming utensil was the kotatsu, a latticed wooden
frame enclosing a brazier and covered by a quilt. Lanterns were also
employed. They consisted of a candle fixed in a skeleton frame on
which an envelope of thin paper was stretched. Their introduction was
quickly followed by that of a kind of match which took the form of a
thin piece of wood tipped with sulphur.
DIET
The military class did not allow themselves to be influenced by any
religious scruples in their choice of viands. They ate everything
except the flesh of oxen or horses. In serving meals, tables of
Chinese form ceased altogether to be used, edibles being placed on a
tray which stood about four inches high. These trays and cups, and
the bowls and plates ranged on them, showed great refinement, rich
lacquer, silver, and gold being freely used in aristocratic
dwellings.
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
Agriculture was, of course, greatly interrupted by the long
continuance of military campaigns; but, on the other hand, it
received every encouragement from the Minamoto and the Hojo. The most
important incident of the era in this context was the introduction of
the tea-shrub from China in 1191. As for industrial pursuits, signal
progress took place in the art of tempering steel. The Japanese
swordsmith forged the most trenchant weapon ever produced by any
nation. The ceramic industry, also, underwent great development from
the thirteenth century onwards. It may be said to have owed its
artistic beginning to Kato Shirozaemon Kagemasa, who visited China at
that time, and "learned the art of applying glaze to pottery biscuit,
a feat not previously achieved in Japan." Another profession carried
to high excellence was the sculpturing of Buddhist images. This
reached its acme in a celebrated bronze Buddha which was set up at
Kamakura, in 1252, and which remains to this day "one of the most
majestic creations of art in any country."
SUMPTUARY EDICTS
The laws enacted by the Hojo regents bear ample testimony to their
desire of enforcing frugality. In the middle of the thirteenth
century, they went so far as to interdict the brewing of sake
throughout the empire, and another ordinance vetoed the serving of
cakes at meals. Such interdicts could not possibly be strictly
enforced, but they undoubtedly exercised much influence, so that the
samurai limited themselves to two meals a day and partook only of the
coarsest fare.
ENGRAVING: WRESTLERS
ENGRAVING: DAIMYO'S GATE
CHAPTER XXIX
FALL OF THE HOJO AND RISE OF THE ASHIKAGA
THE DAYS OF SADATOKI
WITH the accession (1284) of the seventh Hojo regent, Sadatoki, the
prosperous era of the Bakufu came to an end. Sadatoki himself seems
to have been a man of much ability and fine impulses. He succeeded
his father, Tokimune, at the age of fourteen, and during nine years
he remained under the tutelage of the prime minister, Taira no
Yoritsuna, thereafter taking the reins of government into his own
hands. The annals are unfortunately defective at this, period. They
fail to explain the reason for Sadatoki's retirement and adoption of
religion, in 1301, after eight years of active rule. It may be that
the troubles of the time disgusted him. For alike politically and
financially an evil state of affairs prevailed. In 1286, the Adachi
clan, falling under suspicion of aiming at the shogunate, was
extirpated. A few years later, the same fate overtook Taira no
Yoritsuna, who had been the chief accuser of the Adachi, and who,
being now charged by his own first-born with coveting the regency
(shikken), was put to death with his second son and all his
retainers. Yet again, three years subsequently to this latter
tragedy, Yoshimi, a scion of Yoritomo's brother, the unfortunate
Yoshinori, fell a victim to accusations of treachery, and it needed
no great insight to appreciate that the Bakufu was becoming a house
divided against itself.
It was at this time, also, that the military families of the Kwanto
in general and of Kamakura in particular began to find their incomes
distressingly inadequate to meet the greatly increased and constantly
increasing outlays that resulted from following the costly customs of
Kyoto as reflected at the shogun's palace. Advantage was taken of
this condition by professional money-lenders, by ambitious nobles,
and even by wealthy farmers, who, supplying funds at exorbitant rates
of interest, obtained possession of valuable estates. The Bakufu made
several futile legislative essays to amend this state of affairs, and
finally, in the year 1297, they resorted to a ruinous device called
tokusei, or the "benevolent policy." This consisted in enacting a law
which vetoed all suits for the recovery of interest, cancelled all
mortgages, and interdicted the pledging of military men's property.
Of course, such legislation proved disastrous. Whatever temporary
relief it afforded to indigent and improvident debtors, was far
outweighed by the blow given to credit generally, and by the
indignation excited among creditors. The Bakufu owed much of the
stability of their influence to the frugality of their lives and to
their unsullied administration of justice. But now the Kwanto bushi
rivalled the Kyoto gallants in extravagance; the Kamakura tribunals
forfeited the confidence of the people, and the needy samurai began
to wish for the return of troublous times, when fortunes could be won
with the sword. Amid such conditions Sadatoki took the tonsure in
1300, and was succeeded nominally by his cousin Morotoki, who,
however, administered affairs in consultation with the retired
regent. In 1303, a son was born to Sadatoki, and the latter, dying in
1311, bequeathed the office of regent to this boy when he should
reach years of discretion, entrusting him, meanwhile, to the
guardianship of two officials, the more active of whom was a lay
priest, Nagasaki Enki.
An idea of the confusion existing at that time in Kamakura may be
gathered from the fact that, during the five years between the death
of Sadatoki and the accession of his son Takatoki (1316), no less
than four members of the Hojo family held the regency in succession.
Takatoki was destined to be the last of the Hojo regents. Coming into
power at the age of thirteen, his natural giddiness of character is
said to have been deliberately encouraged by his guardian, Nagasaki,
but even had he been a stronger man it is doubtful whether he could
have saved the situation. Corruption had eaten deeply into the heart
of the Bakufu. In 1323, a question concerning right of succession to
the Ando estate was carried to Kamakura for adjudication, and the
chief judge, Nagasaki Takasuke, son of the old lay priest mentioned
above, having taken bribes from both of the litigants, delivered an
inscrutable opinion. Save for its sequel, this incident would merely
have to be catalogued with many cognate injustices which disfigured
the epoch. But the Ando family being one of the most powerful in
northern Japan, its rival representatives appealed to arms in support
of their respective claims, and the province of Oshu was thrown into
such confusion that a force had to be sent from Kamakura to restore
order. This expedition failed, and with its failure the prestige of
the Hojo fell in a region where hitherto it had been untarnished--the
arena of arms. The great Japanese historian, Rai Sanyo, compared the
Bakufu of that time to a tree beautiful outwardly but worm-eaten at
the core, and in the classical work, Taiheiki, the state of affairs
is thus described:
The Dengaku mime was then in vogue among all classes in Kyoto.
Takatoki, hearing of this, summoned two rival troupes of Dengaku
players to Kamakura and witnessed their performances without regard
to the passage of time. He distributed the members of the troupes
among the noble families related to the Hojo, and made these nobles
compete to furnish the performers with magnificent costumes. At a
banquet when a Dengaku mime was acted, the regent and his guests vied
with one another in pulling off their robes and throwing them into a
heap, to be redeemed afterwards for heavy sums which were given to
the actors. The custom thus inaugurated became perpetual. One day, a
number of dogs gathered in the garden of Takatoki's mansion and had a
fight. This so amused the regent that orders were despatched to
collect dogs by way of taxes, the result being that many people in
the provinces took steps to breed dogs and presented them by tens or
scores to Kamakura, where they were fed on fish and fowl, kept in
kennels having gold and silver ornaments, and carried in palanquins
to take the air. When these distinguished animals were borne along
the public thoroughfares, people hastening hither and thither on
business had to dismount and kneel in obeisance, and farmers, instead
of cultivating the fields, had to act as bearers of the dogs'
sedan-chairs. Thus, the city of Kamakura presented the curious
spectacle of a town filled with well-fed dogs, clothed in tinsel and
brocades, and totalling from four to five thousand. Twelve days in
every month used to be devoted to dog-fights, and on these occasions,
the regent, the nobles, and the people inside and outside the mansion
used to assemble as spectators, sitting on the verandas or the
ground.
THE COURT IN KYOTO
All these things were watched with keen interest in Kyoto. It has
been shown in Chapter XXVI that the Imperial family had been divided
into two branches ever since the days of Go-Saga (1242-1246), one
descended from his elder son, Go-Fukakusa, the other from his
younger, Kameyama. These two branches may be conveniently
distinguished as the senior and the junior, respectively. It has also
been shown that the princes of the senior branch uniformly relied on
Kamakura and kept the Bakufu informed of all intrigues devised in
Kyoto, whereas those of the junior branch constantly cherished the
hope of reasserting the independence of the throne. A representative
of the junior branch, Go-Daigo (1318-1339), happened to be on the
throne when Takatoki, holding the regency at Kamakura, scandalized
the nation by his excesses and discredited the Hojo by his
incompetence.
Go-Daigo was an able sovereign. He dispensed justice scrupulously and
made the good of the country his prime aim. It appeared to him that
the time had come for Kyoto to shake off the fetters of Kamakura.
With that object he took into his confidence two Fujiwara nobles,
Suketomo, a councillor of State, and Toshimoto, minister of Finance.
These he despatched on a secret tour of inspection through the
provinces, instructing them at the same time to canvass for adherents
among the local samurai. They met with considerable success. Among
the provincial families there were some of Taira origin who cherished
traditional hatred towards the Minamoto; there were some of Minamoto
blood who chafed at the supremacy of the Hojo, and there were some
who, independently of lineage, longed for a struggle and its
contingent possibilities. Leading representatives of these classes
began to hold conclaves in Kyoto. The meetings were marked by
complete absence of ceremony, their object being to promote free
interchange of ideas. Presently, suspicions were suggested to
Kamakura. The regent, Takatoki, who, though a careless libertine in
his habits, living in the society of his thirty concubines, his
troops of dancing mimes, and his packs of fighting dogs, was capable
of stern resolution on occasions, threatened to dethrone the Emperor.
In this sore strait, Go-Daigo did not hesitate to make solemn avowal
of the innocence of his purpose, and Kamakura refrained from any
harsh action towards the Throne. But it fared ill with the
sovereign's chief confidant, Fujiwara no Suketomo. He was exiled to
Sado Island and there killed by Takatoki's instructions. This
happened in 1325. Connected with it was an incident which illustrates
the temper of the bushi. In spite of his mother's tearful
remonstrances, Kunimitsu, the thirteen-year-old son of the exiled
noble, set out from Kyoto for Sado to bid his father farewell. The
governor of the island was much moved by the boy's affection, but,
fearful of Kamakura, he refused to sanction a meeting and
commissioned one Homma Saburo, a member of his family, to kill the
prisoner. Kunimitsu determined to avenge his father, even at the
expense of his own life. During a stormy night, he effected an entry
into the governor's mansion, and, penetrating to Saburo's chamber,
killed him. The child then turned his weapon against his own bosom.
But, reflecting that he had his mother to care for, his sovereign to
serve, and his father's will to carry out, he determined to escape if
possible. The mansion was surrounded by a deep moat which he could
not cross. But a bamboo grew on the margin, and climbing up this, he
found that it bent with his weight so as to form a bridge. He reached
Kyoto in safety and ultimately attained the high post (chunagon)
which his father had held.
THE SUCCESSION TO THE THRONE
The year 1326 witnessed the decease of the Crown Prince, Kuninaga,
who represented the senior branch of the Imperial family. Thereupon,
Go-Daigo conceived the project of appointing his own son, Morinaga,
to be Prince Imperial. That would have given the sceptre twice in
succession to the junior branch, and the Bakufu regent, insisting
that the rule of alternate succession must be followed, proposed to
nominate Prince Kazuhito, a son of the cloistered Emperor,
Go-Fushimi, who belonged to the senior branch. The question was
vehemently discussed at Kamakura, Go-Daigo being represented by
Fujiwara no Fujifusa, and Go-Fushimi by another noble. The former
contended that never since the days of Jimmu had any subject dared to
impose his will on the Imperial family. Go-Saga's testament had
clearly provided the order of succession to the throne, yet the
Bakufu had ventured to set that testament aside and had dictated the
system of alternate succession. Thus, the princes of the elder branch
not only became eligible for the throne, but also enjoyed great
revenues from the Ghokodo estate, though it had been bequeathed as a
solatium for exclusion from the succession; whereas the princes of
the junior branch, when not occupying the throne, were without a foot
of land or the smallest source of income. Fujifusa was instructed to
claim that the usufruct of the Chokodo estate should alternate in the
same manner as the succession, or that the latter should be
perpetually vested in the junior branch. To this just demand the
regent, Takatoki, refused to accede. Kazuhito was named Prince
Imperial, and thus the seeds of a sanguinary struggle were sown.
CONSPIRACY IN KYOTO
Go-Daigo now conspired actively for the overthrow of the Hojo. He
took Prince Morinaga into his confidence, and, under the name Oto no
Miya, made him lord-abbot of the great monastery of Hiei-zan, thus
securing at once a large force of soldier cenobites. To the same end
other religious establishments were successfully approached. During
the space of five years this plot escaped Kamakura's attention. But,
in 1331, the Bakufu, becoming suspicious, laid hands on several of
the plotters and, subjecting them to judicial examination after the
merciless fashion of the age, soon elicited a part, at any rate, of
the truth. Yet Kamakura does not appear to have appreciated the
situation until, Go-Daigo having summoned the Enryaku monks to his
assistance, the cloistered Emperor of the senior branch, Go-Fushimi,
despatched an urgent message to the Bakufu, declaring that unless
prompt action were taken the situation would elude control.
Hasty council was now held in Kamakura. Nagasaki Takasuke, the
corrupt kwanryo, advised that Go-Daigo should be dethroned and sent
into exile, together with Oto no Miya, and that all implicated in the
plot should be severely punished. This violent course was opposed by
Nikaido Sadafusa, who pleaded eloquently for the respect due to the
Throne, and contended that without the sovereign's favour the Bakufu
could not exist. But Takasuke's advice prevailed, re-enforced as it
was by reference to the Shokyu disturbance when vigorous daring had
won the day. With all possible expedition an army under the command
of Sadafusa marched from Kamakura for Kyoto. Advised of these doings,
Prince Morinaga persuaded the Emperor to change costumes with
Fujiwara Morokata; whereafter the latter, riding in the Imperial
palanquin, took ostensible refuge at Hiei-zan, and the sovereign,
travelling in a Court lady's ox-car, made his way, first, to Nara and
thence to Kasagi in Yamato, guarded by the troops of Fujiwara
Fujifusa. Rokuhara was then under the command of Hojo Nakatoki, and
upon him devolved the duty of seizing the Emperor's person. He
directed an army against Hiei-zan, where Go-Daigo was believed to
have found asylum. But Fujiwara Morokata, who personified the
sovereign, managed to escape, as did also Prince Morinaga (Oto no
Miya). Go-Daigo then sent to Kusunoki Masashige a mandate to raise
troops and move against the "rebels," for to that category the Hojo
now belonged in the absence of an Imperial commission.
This Kusunoki Masashige (called Nanko) is one of Japan's ideal types
of loyalty and courage. He and Nitta Yoshisada are the central
figures in the long campaign upon which Japan now entered. Masashige
belonged to the Tachibana family, which stood second among the four
great septs of Japan--the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, the Minamoto, and
the Taira--and Yoshisada claimed kinship with the Minamoto. Receiving
Go-Daigo's order, Kusunoki Masashige quickly collected a troop of
local bushi and constructed entrenchments at Akasaka, a naturally
strong position in his native province of Kawachi. Takatoki now
caused Prince Kazuhito to be proclaimed sovereign under the name of
Kogon. But this monarch was not destined to find a place among the
recognized occupants of the throne. For a time, indeed, fortune
smiled on the Hojo. Within a few days after Kogon's assumption of the
sceptre, Go-Daigo's retreat at Kasagi became untenable, and he fled,
still escorted by the faithful Fujiwara Fujifusa. It must be
recognized that, whatever the Fujiwara family's usurpations in the
past, their loyalty to the Throne throughout this era of cruel
vicissitudes redeems a multitude of sins.
During his flight from Kasagi, the Emperor was without food for three
days, and had to sleep with a rock for pillow. Overtaken by the
Rokuhara troops, his Majesty was placed in a bamboo palanquin and
carried to the temple Byodoin, where, after the battle of the Uji
Bridge, the aged statesman and general, Yorimasa, had fallen by his
own hand, a century and a half previously. Here Go-Daigo received a
peremptory order to surrender the Imperial insignia to the Hojo
nominee, Kogon. He refused. The mirror and gem, he alleged, had been
lost, and there remained only the sacred sword, which he kept to
defend himself against the traitors when they fell upon him. The high
courage of this answer would have been finer had Go-Daigo's statement
been true; but in reality the three insignia were intact. It was then
announced to his Majesty that he should be removed to Rokuhara where
he would be entirely in the power of the Hojo. Nevertheless, he
maintained his lofty bearing, and refused to make the journey unless
all appropriate forms of etiquette were observed. At Rokuhara the
demand for the insignia was repeated and the Emperor handed over
duplicates, secretly retaining the genuine articles himself. Takatoki
now issued orders for Go-Daigo to be removed to the island of Oki,
sent all the members of his family into exile elsewhere, and banished
or killed his principal supporters.
RAISING OF A LOYAL ARMY
Kusunoki Masashige had but five hundred men under his command when he
entrenched himself at Akasaka. There for twenty days he held out
against the attacks of the greatly superior Hojo forces, until
finally, no help arriving and his provisions being exhausted, he
would have committed suicide had he not realized that his life
belonged to the Imperial cause. He contrived to escape through the
enemy's lines, and thus the only organized loyal force that remained
in the field was that operating in Bingo under the command of
Sakurayama Koretoshi. Thither a false rumour of Masashige's death
having been carried, Koretoshi's troops dispersed and he himself
committed suicide. Kojima Takanori, too, commonly known as Bingo no
Saburo, was about to raise the banner of loyalty when the false news
of Masashige's death reached him. This Takanori is the hero of an
incident which appeals strongly to the Japanese love of the romantic.
Learning that the Emperor was being transported into exile in the
island of Oki, and having essayed to rescue him en route, he made his
way during the night into the enclosure of the inn where the Imperial
party had halted, and having scraped off part of the bark of a cherry
tree, he inscribed on the trunk the couplet:
Heaven destroy not Kou Chien,
He is not without a Fan Li.
This alluded to an old-time Chinese king (Kou Chien) who, after
twenty years of exile, was restored to power by the efforts of a
vassal (Fan Li). The Emperor's guards, being too illiterate to
comprehend the reference, showed the writing to Go-Daigo, who thus
learned that friends were at hand. But Takanori could not accomplish
anything more, and for a season the fortunes of the Throne were at a
very low ebb, while at Kamakura the regent resumed his life of
debauchery. Neither Prince Morinaga nor Masashige was idle, however.
By skilful co-operation they recovered the entrenchments at Akasaka
and overran the two provinces of Izumi and Kawachi, gaining many
adherents. The fall of 1332 saw Masashige strongly posted at the
Chihaya fortress on Kongo Mountain; his lieutenants holding Akasaka;
Prince Morinaga in possession of Yoshino Castle, and Akamatsu
Norimura of Harima blocking the two highways called the Sanindo and
the Sanyodo.
In other words, the Imperialists held the group of provinces forming
the northern littoral of the Inland Sea and commanded the approaches
from the south. But now again Kamakura put forth its strength. At the
close of February, 1333, a numerous force under the Hojo banners
attacked Yoshino and its fall became inevitable. Prince Morinaga,
wounded in several places, had resolved to make the castle his
"death-pillow," when he was saved by one of those acts of heroic
devotion so frequently recorded in the annals of the Japanese bushi.
Murakami Yoshiteru insisted on donning the prince's armour and
personating him so as to cover his retreat. At the supreme moment,
Yoshiteru ascended the tower of the entrenchments and loudly
proclaiming himself the prince, committed suicide. His son would fain
have shared his fate, but Yoshiteru bade him live for further
service. Subsequently, he fell fighting against Morinaga's pursuers,
but the prince escaped safely to the great monastery of Koya in
Kishu.* The victorious Hojo then turned their arms against Akasaka,
and having carried that position, attacked Chihaya where Masashige
commanded in person. But the great soldier held his foes successfully
at bay and inflicted heavy losses on them. Thus, the early months of
1333 witnessed a brighter state of affairs for the Imperial cause. It
was supported by Kusunoki Masashige, in Yamato, with Chihaya for
headquarters; Prince Morinaga, at Koya-san in Kishu; Akamatsu
Norimura, in Harima and Settsu, whence his fortress of Maya menaced
Rokuhara, and by Doi Michiharu and Tokuno Michikoto, in Iyo, whence,
crossing to Nagato, they had attacked and defeated Hojo Tokinao, the
tandai of the province.
*Yoshiteru's loyal sacrifice received official recognition, in 1908,
on the occasion of military manoeuvres in the neighbourhood of the
scene of the tragedy. The Emperor honoured his memory by bestowing on
him high posthumous rank.
ESCAPE OF THE EMPEROR FROM OKI
The Oki group of islands lie in the Sea of Japan forty miles from the
coast of the provinces Izumo and Hoki. Beppu, in Nishi-no-shima, one
of the smallest of the group, was Go-Daigo's place of exile. By
employing the services of a fishing-boat, Prince Morinaga succeeded
in conveying to his Majesty some intelligence of the efforts that
were being made in the Imperial cause. This was early in 1333, and
when the news spread among the guards at Beppu, they began to talk of
the duties of loyalty. Narita Kosaburo and the Nawa brothers,
Yasunaga and Nagataka--the name of the last was afterwards changed by
the Emperor to Nagatoshi--thus became associated in a scheme for
assisting the exile to recover his freedom. To remove him from
Nishi-no-Shima was not difficult to contrive, but to traverse the
provinces of Izumo or Hoki en route for a safe asylum seemed at first
impossible, for in Izumo not only the governor but also the chief
official of the great Shinto shrine were hostile, and in Hoki the
strictest watchfulness had been enjoined from Rokuhara.
Nevertheless, it became necessary to make the attempt at once or
refrain altogether. On the 8th of April, 1333, the guards at Beppu
were given a quantity of sake on the plea that the accouchement of a
Court lady was imminent. Custom prescribed that in such a case the
lady should be removed to a different house, and therefore when the
guards had well drunk, a palanquin was carried out, bearing
ostensibly this lady only, but in reality freighted with the
sovereign also. The night was passed in the village, and at daybreak
the little party, leaving the lady behind, set out on foot for the
nearest seaport, Chiba. The Emperor could scarcely walk, but happily
a man was encountered leading a pack-horse, and on this Go-Daigo
rode. The next three days were devoted to seeking a safe landing in
Izumo and endeavouring to procure provisions. On one occasion, being
pursued by servants of the great shrine, they had to re-embark and
put out to sea, the Emperor and his sole attendant, Tadaaki, lying
hid in the bottom of the boat beneath a quantity of seaweed and under
the feet of the sailors. Finally, on the 13th of April, they made
Katami port in the province of Hoki, and, being cordially welcomed by
Nawa Nagataka, Go-Daigo was ultimately taken to a mountain called
Funanoe, which offered excellent defensive facilities. It is recorded
that on the first stage of this journey from Nagataka's residence to
the mountain, the Emperor had to be carried on the back of Nagataka's
brother, Nagashige, no palanquin being available. Very soon many
bushi flocked to the Imperial standard and Funanoe was strongly
entrenched. It was on this occasion that Go-Daigo changed Nagataka's
name to Nagatoshi, and conferred on him the title of "captain of the
Left guards" (saemon-no-jo).
DOWNFALL OF THE HOJO
When the Emperor's escape from Oki became known, loyal samurai in
great numbers espoused the Imperial cause, and a heavy blow was given
to the prestige of the Hojo by Akamatsu Norimura who, after several
successful engagements with the Rokuhara army in Settsu, pushed
northward from the fortress of Maya, where his forces were almost
within sight of Kyoto. Takatoki, appreciating that a crisis had now
arisen in the fortunes of the Hojo, ordered Ashikaga Takauji to lead
a powerful army westward. Takauji represented a junior branch of the
Minamoto family. He was descended from the great Yoshiiye, and when
Yoritomo rose against the Taira, in 1180, he had been immediately
joined by the then Ashikaga chieftain, who was his brother-in-law.
Takau ji, therefore, had ambitions of his own, and his mood towards
the Hojo had been embittered by two recent events; the first, that,
though in mourning for the death of his father, he had been required
to join the attack on Masashige's fortress at Kasagi; the second,
that his own illness after returning from that campaign had not
availed to save him from frequent summonses to conference with
Takatoki.
ENGRAVING: ASHIKAGA TAKAUJI
Thus, this second order to take the field found him disposed to join
in the overthrow of the Hojo rather than in their support. Learning
something of this mood, Takatoki demanded that the Ashikaga chief,
before commencing his march, should hand in a written oath of
loyalty, and further, should leave his wife, his children, and his
brother-in-law as hostages in Kamakura. Takauji, who shrunk from no
sacrifice on the altar of his ambition, complied readily, and the
confidence of the Bakufu having thus been restored, a parting banquet
was given in his honour, at which the Hojo representative presented
him with a steed, a suit of armour, a gold-mounted sword, and a white
flag, this last being an heirloom from the time of Hachiman
(Yoshiiye), transmitted through the hands of Yoritomo's spouse, Masa.
All these things did not turn Takauji by a hair's-breadth from his
purpose. His army had not marched many miles westward before he
despatched a message to the entrenchments in Hoki offering his
services to the Emperor, who welcomed this signal accession of
strength and commissioned Takauji to attack the Bakufu forces.
Entirely ignorant of these things, Hojo Takaiye, who commanded at
Rokuhara, made dispositions to move against the Hoki fortress in
co-operation with Takauji. The plan of campaign was that Takaiye's
army should march southward through Settsu, and, having crushed
Akamatsu Norimura, who occupied that province, should advance through
Harima and Mimasaka into Hoki; while Takauji, moving northward at
first by the Tamba highway, should ultimately turn westward and reach
Hoki by the littoral road of the Japan Sea. In addition to these two
armies, the Hojo had a powerful force engaged in beleaguering the
fortress of Chihaya, in Yamato, where Kusunoki Masashige commanded in
person.
It will thus be seen that, at this time (May, 1333), the Imperialists
were everywhere standing on the defensive, and the Bakufu armies were
attacking on the southeast, south, and north of Kyoto. Nothing seemed
less probable than that the Imperial capital itself should become the
object of an assault by the partisans of Go-Daigo. But the unexpected
took place. Hojo Takaiye was killed and his force shattered in the
first collision with Norimura, who immediately set his troops in
motion towards Kyoto, intending to take advantage of Rokuhara's
denuded condition. Meanwhile, Takauji, whose march into Tamba had
been very deliberate, learned the course events had taken in Settsu,
and immediately proclaiming his allegiance to the Imperial cause,
countermarched for Kyoto, his army receiving constant accessions of
strength as it approached the city. Rokuhara, though taken by
surprise, fought stoutly. Attacked simultaneously from three
directions by the armies of Norimura, Takauji, and Minamoto Tadaaki,
and in spite of the death of their commandant, Hojo Tokimasu, they
held out until the evening, when Hojo Nakatoki escaped under cover of
darkness, escorting the titular sovereign, Kogon, and the two
ex-Emperors. Their idea was to flee to Kamakura, but taking an escort
too large for rapid movement, they were overtaken; the three leaders
together with four hundred men killed, and Kogon together with the
two ex-Emperors seized and carried back to Kyoto.
THE FALL OF KAMAKURA
These things happened at the close of June, 1333, and immediately
after the fall of Rokuhara, Nitta Yoshisada raised the Imperial
standard in the province of Kotsuke. Yoshisada represented the tenth
generation of the great Yoshiiye's family. Like Ashikaga Takauji he
was of pure Minamoto blood, though Takauji belonged to a junior
branch. The Nitta estates were in the district of that name in the
province of Kotsuke; that is to say, in the very heart of the Kwanto.
Hitherto, the whole of the eastern region had remained loyal to the
Hojo; but the people were growing weary of the heavy taxes and
requisitions entailed by this three-years' struggle, and when Nitta
Yoshisada declared against the Hojo, his ranks soon swelled to
formidable dimensions. It has been stated by some historians that
Yoshisada's resolve was first taken on receipt of news that Rokuhara
was lost to the Hojo. But there can be no doubt that, like others of
his sept, he had long resented the comparatively subordinate position
occupied by Yoritomo's descendants, and the most trustworthy annals
show that already while engaged in besieging Masashige in Chihaya
fortress, he conceived the idea of deserting the Hojo's cause.
Through one of his officers, Funada Yoshimasa, he obtained a mandate
from Prince Morinaga, and then, feigning sickness, he left the camp
in Yamato and returned to Kotsuke, where he lost no time in making
preparations for revolt.
This actual declaration did not come, however, until the arrival of
an officer from Kamakura, carrying a requisition for a great quantity
of provisions to victual an army which the Hojo were hastily
equipping to recover Rokuhara. The officer was put to death, and
Yoshisada with his brother, Yoshisuke, set their forces in motion for
Kamakura. Menaced thus closely, the Hojo made a supreme effort. They
put into the field an army said to have numbered one hundred thousand
of all arms. But their ranks were perpetually reduced by defections,
whereas those of the Imperialists received constant accessions. The
campaign lasted only a fortnight. For the final attack Yoshisada
divided his army into three corps and advanced against Kamakura from
the north, the east, and the west. The eastern column was repulsed
and its general slain, but the western onset, commanded by Yoshisada
himself, succeeded. Taking advantage of a low tide, he led his men
over the sands and round the base of a steep cliff,* and carried the
city by storm, setting fire to the buildings everywhere. The Hojo
troops were shattered and slaughtered relentlessly. Takatoki
retreated to his ancestral cemetery at the temple Tosho-ji, and there
committed suicide with all the members of his family and some eight
hundred officers and men of his army. Thus, Kamakura fell on the 5th
of July, 1333, a century and a half after the establishment of the
Bakufu by Yoritomo. Many heroic incidents marked the catastrophe and
showed the spirit animating the bushi of that epoch. A few of them
will find a fitting place here.
*This cliff--Inamura-ga-saki--may be seen at Kamakura to-day.
Tradition says that Yoshisada threw his sword into the waves,
supplicating the god of the Sea to roll back the water and open a
path for the loyal army. At dawn on the following day the tide was
found to have receded sufficiently.
HEROIC DEATHS
It has been related above that, when Ashikaga Takauji marched
westward from Kamakura, he left his family and his brother-in-law as
hostages in the hands of the Bakufu. Subsequently, on the occasion of
the assault by Nitta Yoshisada, this brother-in-law (Akabashi
Moritoki) resisted stoutly but was defeated at the pass of Kobukoro.
He committed suicide, remarking calmly, "It is better to die trusted
than to live doubted."
Osaragi Sadanao, one of the Hojo generals, was in danger of defeat by
Odate Muneuji at the defence of Kamakura, when Homma Saemon, a
retainer of the former, who was under arrest for an offence, broke
his arrest and galloping into the field, restored the situation by
killing the enemy's general, Odate Muneuji. Carrying the head of
Muneuji, Saemon presented it to his chief and then disembowelled
himself in expiation of his disobedience. Sadanao, crying that his
faithful follower should not go unaccompanied to the grave, dashed
into the enemy's ranks and fell, covered with wounds.
Ando Shoshu, returning from the successful defence of the eastern
approaches to Kamakura on the 5th of July, 1333, found the Government
buildings a mass of charred ruins, and being ignorant of the
multitude of suicides that had taken place in the cemetery at
Tosho-ji, cried out: "The end of a hundred years! How is it that none
was found to die the death of fidelity?" Dismounting he prepared to
take his own life when a messenger arrived carrying a letter from his
niece, the wife of Nitta Yoshisada. This letter counselled surrender.
Shoshu exclaimed furiously: "My niece is a samurai's daughter. How
could she venture to insult me with words so shameless? And how was
it that Yoshisada allowed her to do such a thing?" Then, wrapping the
letter round the hilt of his sword, he disembowelled himself.
THE LAST SCENE
The last act of the Hojo tragedy, which took place in the cemetery of
the temple Tosho-ji, showed the fidelity of the samurai character at
its best. Among the Kamakura warriors was one Takashige, son of that
Nagasaki Takasuke who had made himself notorious by corrupt
administration of justice. Takashige, a skilled soldier of enormous
physical power, returned from the battle when all hope of beating
back Nitta Yoshisada's army had disappeared, and having warned the
regent, Takatoki, that the bushi's last resource alone remained,
asked for a few moments' respite to strike a final stroke. Followed
by a hundred desperate men, he plunged into the thick of the fight
and had almost come within reach of Yoshisada when he was forced
back. Galloping to Tosho-ji, he found Takatoki and his comrades
drinking their farewell cup of sake. Takatoki handed the cup to
Takashige, and he, after draining it thrice, as was the samurai's
wont, passed it to Settsu Dojun, disembowelled himself, and tore out
his intestines. "That gives a fine relish to the wine," cried Dojun,
following Takashige's example. Takatoki, being of highest rank, was
the last to kill himself.
Eight hundred suicides bore witness to the strength of the creed held
by the Kamakura bushi. An eminent Japanese author* writes: "Yoritomo,
convinced by observation and experience that the beautiful and the
splendid appeal most to human nature, made it his aim to inculcate
frugality, to promote military exercises, to encourage loyalty, and
to dignify simplicity. Moral education he set before physical. The
precepts of bushido he engraved on the heart of the nation and gave
to them the honour of a precious heirloom. The Hojo, by exalting
bushido, followed the invaluable teaching of the Genji, and
supplemented it with the doctrines of Shinto, Confucianism, and
Buddhism. Thus every bushi came to believe that the country's fate
depended on the spirit of the samurai." Another and more renowned
annalist** wrote: "The Hojo, rising from a subordinate position,
flourished for nine generations. Their success was due to observing
frugality, treating the people with kindness, meting out strict
justice, and faithfully obeying the ancestral behest to abstain from
seeking high titles." They took the substance and discarded the
shadow. The bushido that they developed became a model in later ages,
especially in the sixteenth century.
*Yamada Tesshu (modern).
**Rai Sanyo (1780-1832).
LAST HOJO ARMY
When Kamakura fell the only Hojo force remaining in the field was
that which had been engaged for months in the siege of Chihaya, where
Kusunoki Masashige held his own stoutly. This army had retired to
Nara on receipt of the news of Rokuhara's capture, and when Kamakura
met with the same fate, the leaders of the last Hojo force
surrendered at the summons of Ashikaga Takauji's emissaries.
Subsequently, fifteen of these leaders were led out at midnight and
beheaded.
THE RESTORATION OF THE KEMMU ERA
The conditions that now resulted are spoken of in Japanese history as
"the Restoration of the Kemmu era" (1334-1336). It will be presently
seen that the term is partly misleading. After his escape from Oki,
Go-Daigo remained for some time in the fortress of Funanoe, in Hoki.
Kamakura fell on the 5th of July, and his Majesty entered Kyoto on
the 17th of that month. While in Hoki he issued various rescripts
having special significance. They may be summarized as follows:
From bushi down to priests, any man who performs meritorious deeds in
battle will be duly recompensed, in addition to being confirmed in
the possession of his previously held domain, and that possession
will be continued in perpetuity to his descendants. In the case of
persons killed in fight, suitable successors to their domains will be
selected from their kith and kin.
With regard to Court officials and bushi down to temple priests and
functionaries of Shinto shrines, any that come immediately to join
the Imperial forces will be rewarded, in addition to being confirmed
in the tenure of their original estates.
Similar consideration will be shown to all who, though unable to come
in person, supply provisions or military necessaries, submit
suggestions with loyal intent, or otherwise work in the interests of
the Imperial army. Men surrendering in battle will be pardoned for
their previous offences, and will be rewarded for services
subsequently rendered.
The fate of the eastern outlaws (i.e. the Hojo) being sealed, their
destruction is imminent. They have slain many innocent people;
plundered the property of all classes, despoiled temples, burned
houses, and conducted themselves with extreme wickedness. Unless they
be punished, public peace cannot be restored. Our army has to remove
those evils, and therefore all in its ranks, while uniting to attack
the rebels, will be careful not to inflict any suffering on the
people or to plunder them and will treat them with all benevolence.
If prisoners be common soldiers, they shall be released at once, and
if officers, they shall be held in custody pending Imperial
instructions. They shall not be punished without judgment. No
buildings except the enemy's fortresses and castles shall be burned,
unless the conditions of a battle dictate such a course, and it is
strictly forbidden to set fire to shrines and temples. When the
Imperial forces enter a city and have to be quartered in private
houses, the owners of the latter shall be duly recompensed. If these
injunctions be obeyed, the deities of heaven and earth and the
ancestral Kami will protect the virtuous army in its assault upon the
wicked traitors.
These edicts make it clear that in one most important respect,
namely, the terms of land tenure, there was no idea of reverting to
the old-time system which recognized the right of property to be
vested in the Throne and limited the period of occupation to the
sovereign's will.
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
When Go-Daigo entered Kyoto on the 17th of July, 1333, it was
suggested by some of his advisers that a ceremony of coronation
should be again held. But the sa-daijin, Nijo Michihira, opposed that
course. He argued that although his Majesty had not resided in the
capital for some time, the sacred insignia had been always in his
possession, and that his re-entering the capital should be treated as
returning from a journey. This counsel was adopted. It involved the
exclusion of Kogon from the roll of sovereigns, though the title of
"retired Emperor" was accorded to him.
There were thus three ex-Emperors at the same time. Go-Daigo assigned
the Chokodo estates for their support, retaining for himself only the
provincial taxes of Harima. The Bakufu no longer having any official
existence, the machinery of the Government in Kyoto was organized on
the hypothesis of genuine administrative efficiency. There was no
chancellor (dajo daijiri) or any regent (kwampaku). These were
dispensed with, in deference to the "Restoration" theory, namely,
that the Emperor himself should rule, as he had done in the eras of
Engi and Tenryaku (901-957). But for the rest, the old offices were
resuscitated and filled with men who had deserved well in the recent
crisis or who possessed hereditary claims. Prince Morinaga, the
sometime lord-abbot of Hiei-zan, was nominated commander-in-chief
(tai-shoguri), and for the sake of historical lucidity hereafter the
following appointments should be noted:
Prince Narinaga to be governor-general (kwanryo) of the Kwanto, with
his headquarters at Kamakura, and with Ashikaga Tadayoshi (brother of
Takauji) for second in command.
Prince Yoshinaga to be governor-general of O-U (Mutsu and Dewa),
assisted by Kitabatake Chikafusa (an able statesman and a historian),
and the latter's son, Akiiye, as well as by the renowned warrior,
Yuki Munehiro.
Nijo Michihira to be sa-daijin.
Kuga Nagamichi to be u-daijin.
Doin Kinkata to be nai-daijin.
It is observable that the occupants of all these great offices were
Court nobles. The creed of the Kemmu era was that the usurping buke
(military families) had been crushed and that the kuge (Court
nobility) had come to their own again. As for the provinces, the main
purpose kept in view by the new Government was to efface the traces
of the shugo system. Apparently the simplest method of achieving that
end would have been to appoint civilian governors (kokushi)
everywhere. But in many cases civilian governors would have been
powerless in the face of the conditions that had arisen under
military rule, and thus the newly nominated governors included
Ashikaga Takauji, governor of Musashi, Hitachi, and Shimosa.
Ashikaga Tadayoshi (brother of Takauji), governor of Totomi.
Kusunoki Masashige, governor of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi.
Nawa Nagatoshi, governor of Inaba and Hoki.
Nitta Yoshisada, governor of Kotsuke and Harima.
Nitta Yoshiaki (son of Yoshisada), governor of Echigo.
Wakiya Yoshisuke (brother of Yoshisada), governor of Suruga.
One name left out of this list was that of Akamatsu Norimura, who had
taken the leading part in driving the Hojo from Rokuhara, and who had
been faithful to the Imperial cause throughout. He now became as
implacable an enemy as he had previously been a loyal friend. The
fact is significant. Money as money was despised by the bushi of the
Kamakura epoch. He was educated to despise it, and his nature
prepared him to receive such education. But of power he was supremely
ambitious--power represented by a formidable army of fully equipped
followers, by fortified castles, and by widely recognized authority.
The prime essential of all these things was an ample landed estate To
command the allegiance of the great military families without placing
them under an obligation by the grant of extensive manors would have
been futile. On the other hand, to grant such manors in perpetuity
meant the creation of practically independent feudal chiefs.
The trouble with the restored Government of Go-Daigo was that it
halted between these two alternatives. Appreciating that its return
to power had been due to the efforts of certain military magnates, it
rewarded these in a measure; but imagining that its own
administrative authority had been replaced on the ancient basis, it
allowed itself to be guided, at the same time, by capricious
favouritism. Even in recognizing the services of the military
leaders, justice was not observed. The records clearly show that on
the roll of merit the first place, after Prince Morinaga, should have
been given to Kusunoki Masashige's name. When Kasagi fell and when
the Emperor was exiled, Masashige, alone among the feudatories of
sixty provinces, continued to fight stoutly at the head of a small
force, thus setting an example of steadfast loyalty which ultimately
produced many imitators. Nitta Yoshisada ought to have stood next in
order; then Akamatsu Norimura; then Nawa Nagatoshi, and finally
Ashikaga Takauji.* In the case of Takauji, there was comparatively
little merit. He had taken up arms against the Imperial cause at the
outset, and even in the assault on Rokuhara he had been of little
service. Yet to him the Crown allotted the greatest honour and the
richest rewards. Some excuse may be found in Takauji's lineage, but
in that respect he was inferior to Nitta Yoshisada.
*Arai Hakuseki (1656-1725).
Still more flagrant partiality was displayed in other directions.
Relying on the promises of the Funanoe edicts epitomized above,
thousands of military officers thronged the Court in Kyoto,
clamouring for recognition of their services. Judges were appointed
to examine their pleas, but that proved a tedious task, and in the
meanwhile all the best lands had been given away by favour or
affection. Go-Daigo himself appropriated the manors of Hojo Takatoki;
those of Hojo Yasuie were assigned to Prince Morinaga; those
of Osaragi Sadanao went to the Imperial consort, Renko. The
immediate attendants of the sovereign, priests, nuns, musicians,
littérateurs--all obtained broad acres by the Imperial fiat, and
when, in the tardy sequel of judicial procedure, awards were made to
military men, no spoil remained to be divided. Soon a cry went up,
and gained constantly in volume and vehemence, a cry for the
restoration of the military regime. As for Go-Daigo, whatever ability
he had shown in misfortune seemed to desert him in prosperity. He
neglected his administrative duties, became luxurious and arrogant,
and fell more and more under the influence of the lady Ren. Of
Fujiwara lineage, this lady had shared the Emperor's exile and
assisted his escape from Oki. It had long been her ambition to have
her son, Tsunenaga, nominated Crown Prince, but as Prince Morinaga
was older and had established a paramount title by his merits, his
removal must precede the accomplishment of her purpose. Fate
furnished a powerful ally. Prince Morinaga, detecting that Ashikaga
Takauji concealed a treacherous purpose under a smooth demeanour,
solicited the Emperor's mandate to deal with him. Go-Daigo refused,
and thereafter the lady Ren and the Ashikaga chief, whose influence
increased daily, entered into a league for the overthrow of Prince
Morinaga.
It was at this time, when symptoms of disorder were growing more and
more apparent, that Fujiwara Fujifusa, a high dignitary of the Court
and one of the great statesmen of his era, addressed a solemn warning
to Go-Daigo. The immediate occasion was curious. There had been
presented to the Court by the governor of Izumo a horse of
extraordinary endurance, capable of travelling from Tomita, in that
province, to Kyoto, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles,
between dawn and darkness. The courtiers welcomed the appearance of
this horse as an omen of peace and prosperity, but Fujiwara Fujifusa
interpreted it as indicating that occasion to solicit speedy aid from
remote provinces would soon arise. He plainly told the Emperor that
the officials were steeped in debauchery; that whereas, in the early
days of the restoration, the palace gates had been thronged with
warriors, to-day none could be seen, thousands upon thousands having
left the capital disgusted and indignant to see Court favourites
enriched with the rewards which should have fallen to the military;
that the already distressed people were subjected to further heavy
exactions for building or beautifying Imperial palaces; that grave
injustice had been done to Akamatsu Norimura, and that unless the
sovereign refrained from self-indulgence and sought to govern
benevolently, a catastrophe could not be averted. But Go-Daigo was
not moved, and finally, after repeating his admonition on several
occasions, Fujifusa left the Court and took the tonsure. It says much
for the nobility of the Emperor's disposition that he commissioned
Nobufusa, father of Fujifusa, to seek out the persistent critic and
offer him a greatly higher office if he would consent to return, and
it says much for Fujifusa's sincerity that, hoping to give weight to
his counsels, he embraced the life of a recluse and was never seen in
public again.
DEATH OF PRINCE MORINAGA
Things now went from bad to worse in Kyoto, while in the provinces
the remnants of the Hojo's partisans began to raise their heads. The
ever-loyal Kusunoki Masashige and Nawa Nagatoshi entered the capital
to secure it against surprise; Ashikaga Takauji, ostensibly for the
same purpose, summoned large forces from the provinces, and Prince
Morinaga occupied Nawa with a strong army. Takauji saw that the time
had come to remove the prince, in whom he recognized the great
obstacle to the consummation of his ambitious designs. Securing the
co-operation of the lady Ren by a promise that her son, Narinaga,
should be named Crown Prince and commander-in-chief (shoguri) in
succession to Morinaga, he informed the Emperor that Prince Morinaga
was plotting Go-Daigo's deposition and the elevation of his own son
to the throne. The Emperor credited the accusation, summoned the
usurping Morinaga to the palace, and caused him to be arrested. This
happened in November, 1334. Morinaga vehemently declared his
innocence. In a memorial to the Throne he recounted the loyal service
he had rendered to his sovereign and father, and concluded with these
words:
In spite of all this I have unwittingly offended. I would appeal to
heaven, but the sun and moon have no favour for an unfilial son. I
would bow my head and cry to the earth for help, but the mountains
and the rivers do not harbour a disloyal subject. The tie between
father and son is severed, and I am cast away. I have no longer
anything to hope in the world. If I may be pardoned, stripped of my
rank, and permitted to enter religion, there will be no cause for
regret. In my deep sorrow I cannot say more.
Had this piteous appeal reached Go-Daigo, he might have relented. But
just as the memorial addressed by Yoshitsune to his brother,
Yoritomo, was suppressed by Hiromoto, so the chamberlain to whom
Prince Morinaga entrusted his protest feared to carry it to the
sovereign. Before the close of the year, the prince was exiled to
Kamakura, and there placed in charge of Takauji's brother, Tadayoshi,
who confined him in a cave dug for the purpose. He never emerged
alive. Seven months later, Tadayoshi, on the eve of evacuating
Kamakura before the attack of Hojo Tokiyuki, sent an emissary to
assassinate Morinaga in the cave. The unfortunate prince was in his
twenty-eighth year. His name must be added to the long list of noble
men who fell victims to slander in Japan. A Japanese annalist*
contends that Morinaga owed his fate as much to his own tactlessness
as to the wiles of his enemies, and claims that in accusing Takauji
to the throne, the prince forgot the Emperor's helplessness against
such a military magnate as the Ashikaga chief. However that may have
been, subsequent events clearly justified the prince's suspicions of
Takauji's disloyalty. It must also be concluded that Go-Daigo
deliberately contemplated his son's death when he placed him in
charge of Takauji's brother.
*Raj Sanyo.
ASHIKAGA TAKAUJI OCCUPIES KAMAKURA
The course of events has been somewhat anticipated above in order to
relate the end of Prince Morinaga's career. It is necessary, now, to
revert to the incident which precipitated his fate, namely, the
capture of Kamakura by Hojo Tokiyuki. This Tokiyuki was a son of
Takatoki. He escaped to Shinano province at the time of the Hojo
downfall, and being joined there by many of his family's vassals, he
found himself strong enough to take the field openly in July, 1335,
and sweeping away all opposition, he entered Kamakura in August.
Ashikaga Takauji's brother was then in command at Kamakura. It
seemed, indeed, as though the Emperor deliberately contemplated the
restoration of the old administrative machinery in the Kwanto,
changing only the personnel; for his Majesty appointed his tenth son,
Prince Narinaga, a boy of ten, to be shogun at Kamakura, and placed
Ashikaga Tadayoshi in a position amounting, in fact though not in
name, to that of regent (shikken). Probably these measures were
merely intended to placate the Kwanto. Before there had been time to
test their efficacy, the Hojo swept down on Kamakura, and Tadayoshi
and the young shogun found themselves fugitives. Meanwhile, Ashikaga
Takauji in Kyoto had been secretly fanning the discontent of the
unrecompensed bushi, and had assured himself that a reversion to the
military system would be widely welcomed. He now applied for a
commission to quell the Hojo insurrection, and on the eve of setting
out for that purpose, he asked to be nominated shogun, which request
being rejected, he left the capital without paying final respects to
the Throne, an omission astutely calculated to attract partisans.
The Hojo's resistance was feeble, and in a few weeks the Ashikaga
banners were waving again over Kamakura. The question of returning to
Kyoto had now to be considered. Takauji's brother, Tadayoshi,
strongly opposed such a step. He compared it to putting one's head
into a tiger's mouth, and in fact information had already reached
Kamakura in the sense that the enemies of the Ashikaga were busily
slandering the victorious general. It may fairly be assumed, however,
that Takauji had never intended to return to Kyoto except as
dictator. He assumed the title of shogun; established his mansion on
the site of Yoritomo's old yashiki; undertook control of the whole
Kwanto; confiscated manors of his enemies; recompensed meritorious
deeds liberally, and granted pardons readily. In fact, he presented
to public gaze precisely the figure he desired to present, the strong
ruler who would unravel the perplexities of a distraught age. From
all quarters the malcontent bushi flocked to his flag.
TAKAUJI AND YOSHISADA
A serious obstacle to the achievement of the Ashikaga chief's purpose
was Nitta Yoshisada. Both men were of the Minamoto family, but
Yoshisada's kinship was the closer and his connexion with the Hojo
had always been less intimate. Further, he had never borne arms
against Go-Daigo's cause, as Takauji had done, and his unswerving
loyalty made him an inconvenient rival. Therefore, the Ashikaga
leader took an extreme step. He seized the domains of the Nitta
family in the Kwanto and distributed them among his own followers; he
caused his brother, Tadayoshi, to send letters inviting the adherence
of many bushi; he addressed to the Throne a memorial impeaching
Yoshisada on the ground that, whereas the latter's military successes
had been the outcome entirely of opportunities furnished by the
prowess of the Ashikaga, he did not hesitate to slander Takauji to
the sovereign, and he asked for an Imperial commission to destroy the
Nitta leader, whom he dubbed a "national thief."
Yoshisada, when he learned of the presentation of this memorial,
seized the Ashikaga manors within his jurisdiction and addressed to
the Throne a countermemorial in which he conclusively proved the
falsehood of Takauji's assertion with reference to military affairs;
charged him with usurping the titles of governor-general of the
Kwanto, and shogun; declared that Prince Morinaga, the mainstay of
the restoration, had become the victim of Takauji's slanders, and
asked for an Imperial mandate to punish Takauji and his brother,
Tadayoshi. It is significant that the leal and gallant Yoshisada did
not hesitate thus openly to assert the innocence and merits of Prince
Morinaga, though only a few months had elapsed since the Emperor
himself had credited his most unhappy son's guilt. While Go-Daigo
hesitated, news from various provinces disclosed the fact that
Takauji had been tampering with the bushi in his own interests. This
settled the question. Takauji and Tadayoshi were proclaimed rebels,
and to Nitta Yoshisada was entrusted the task of chastising them
under the nominal leadership of Prince Takanaga, the Emperor's second
son, to whom the title of shogun was granted.
TAKAUJI ENTERS KYOTO
In the beginning of November, 1335, the Imperial force moved
eastward. It was divided into two armies. One, under Yoshisada's
direct orders, marched by the Tokaido, or eastern littoral road; the
other, under Yoshisada's brother, Wakiya Yoshisuke, with Prince
Takanaga for titular general, advanced along the Nakasen-do, or
inland mountain-road. The littoral army, carrying everything before
it, pushed on to the capital of Izu, and had it forced its attack
home at once, might have captured Kamakura. But the Nitta chief
decided to await the arrival of the Nakasen-do army, and the respite
thus afforded enabled the Ashikaga forces to rally. Tadayoshi reached
the Hakone Pass and posted his troops on its western slopes in a
position of immense natural vantage, while Takauji himself occupied
the routes on the north, his van being at Takenoshita.
The Imperialists attacked both positions simultaneously. Takauji not
only held his ground, but also, being joined by a large contingent of
the Kyoto men who, under the leadership of Enya Takasada, had
deserted in the thick of the fight, he shattered his opponents, and
when this news reached Hakone on the following morning, a panic
seized Yoshisada's troops so that they either fled or surrendered.
The Nitta chieftain himself retired rapidly to Kyoto with a mere
remnant of his army, and effected a union with the forces of the
ever-loyal Kusunoki Masashige and Nawa Nagatoshi, who had given
asylum to Go-Daigo at the time of the escape from Oki. The cenobites
of Hiei-zan also took the field in the Imperial cause. Meanwhile,
Takauji and Tadayoshi, utilizing their victories, pushed rapidly
towards Kyoto. The heart of the samurai was with them, and they
constantly received large accessions of strength. Fierce fighting now
took place on the south and east of the capital. It lasted for
several days and, though the advantage was with the Ashikaga, their
victory was not decisive.
An unlooked-for event turned the scale. It has been related above
that, in the struggle which ended in the restoration of Go-Daigo,
Akamatsu Norimura was chiefly instrumental in driving the Hojo from
Rokuhara; and it has also been related that, in the subsequent
distribution of rewards, his name was omitted for the slight reason
that he had, at one period, entered religion. He now moved up from
Harima at the head of a strong force and, attacking from the south,
effected an entry into Kyoto, just as he had done three years
previously. Go-Daigo fled to Hiei, carrying the sacred insignia with
him, and on the 24th of February, 1336, the Ashikaga armies marched
into the Imperial capital.
TAKAUJI RETIRES TO KYUSHU
At this stage succour arrived for the Imperialists from the extreme
north. In the arrangement of the local administration after Go-Daigo
re-occupied the throne, the two northern provinces of Mutsu and Dewa
had been separated from the Kwanto and placed under the control of
Prince Yoshinaga, with Kitabatake Akiiye for lieutenant. The latter,
a son of the renowned Chikafusa, was in his nineteenth year when the
Ashikaga revolted. He quickly organized a powerful army with the
intention of joining Yoshisada's attack upon Kamakura, but not being
in time to carry out that programme, he changed the direction of his
march and hastened towards Kyoto. He arrived there when the Ashikaga
troops were laying siege to Hiei-zan, and effecting a union with the
Imperialists, he succeeded in raising the siege and recovering the
city.
It is unnecessary to follow in detail the vicissitudes that ensued.
Stratagems were frequent. At one time we find a number of Yoshisada's
men, officers and privates alike, disguising themselves, mingling
with the Ashikaga army, and turning their arms against the latter at
a critical moment. At another, Kusunoki Masashige spreads a rumour of
Yoshisada's death in battle, and having thus induced Takauji to
detach large forces in pursuit of the deceased's troops, falls on
him, and drives him to Hyogo, where, after a heavy defeat, he has to
flee to Bingo. Now, for a second time, the Ashikaga cause seemed
hopeless when Akamatsu Norimura again played a most important role.
He provided an asylum for Takauji and Tadayoshi; counselled them to
go to the west for the purpose of mustering and equipping their
numerous partisans; advised them to obtain secretly a mandate from
the senior branch of the Imperial family so that they too, as well as
their opponents, might be entitled to fly the brocade banner, and
having furnished them with means to effect their escape, returned to
Harima and occupied the fortress of Shirahata with the object of
checking pursuit. At this point there is a break in the unrelenting
continuity of the operations. It should obviously have been the aim
of the Imperialists to strike a conclusive blow before the Ashikaga
leaders had time to assemble and organize their multitudinous
supporters in Shikoku, Kyushu, and the provinces on the north of the
Inland Sea. This must have been fully apparent to Kusunoki Masashige,
an able strategist. Yet a delay of some weeks occurred.
A quasi-historical record, the Taiheiki, ascribes this to Yoshinaga's
infatuated reluctance to quit the company of a Court beauty whom the
Emperor had bestowed on him. Probably the truth is that the
Imperialists were seriously in want of rest and that Yoshisada fell
ill with fever. Something must also be attributed to a clever ruse on
the part of Akamatsu Norimura. He sent to Yoshisada's headquarters a
message promising to give his support to the Imperialists if he was
appointed high constable of Harima. Ten days were needed to obtain
the commission from Kyoto, and Norimura utilized the interval to
place the defenses of Shirahata fortress in a thoroughly secure
condition. Thus, when his patent of high constable arrived, he
rejected it with disdain, saying that he had already received a
patent from the shogun, Takauji, and was in no need of an Imperial
grant which "could be altered as easily as turning one's hand."
Yoshisada, enraged at having been duped, laid siege to Shirahata but
found it almost invulnerable. It was on March 11, 1336, that Takauji
went westward from Bingo; it was on the 2nd of April that Yoshisada
invested Shirahata, and it was on the 3rd of July that the siege was
raised. The Ashikaga brothers had enjoyed a respite of more than
three months, and had utilized it vigorously. They were at the
Dazai-fu in Chikuzen in June when a message reached them that
Shirahata could not hold out much longer. Immediately they set their
forces in motion, advancing by land and water with an army said to
have numbered twenty thousand and a fleet of transports and war-junks
totalling seven thousand. At the island, Itsukushima, they were met
by a Buddhist priest, Kenshun, bearer of a mandate signed by the
ex-Emperor Kogon of the senior branch, and thus, in his final
advance, the Ashikaga chief was able to fly the brocade banner. In
the face of this formidable force the Imperialists fell back to
Hyogo--the present Kobe--and it became necessary to determine a line
of strategy.
DEATH OF MASASHIGE
Go-Daigo, in Kyoto, summoned Kusunoki Masashige to a conference. That
able general spoke in definite tones. He declared it hopeless for the
Imperialists with their comparatively petty force of worn-out
warriors to make head against the great Ashikuga host of fresh
fighters. The only wise course was to suffer the enemy to enter
Kyoto, and then, while the sovereign took refuge at Hiei-zan, to
muster his Majesty's partisans in the home provinces for an unceasing
war upon the Ashikaga's long line of communications--a war
culminating in an attack from the front and the rear simultaneously.
Thus, out of temporary defeat, final victory would be wrested.
All present at the conference, with one exception, endorsed
Masashige's view as that of a proved strategist. The exception was a
councillor, Fujiwara Kiyotada. He showed himself a veritable example
of "those whom the gods wish to destroy." Declaring that all previous
successes had been achieved by divine aid, which took no count of
numerical disparity, he urged that if the sovereign quitted the
capital before his troops had struck a blow, officers and men alike
would be disheartened; and if refuge was again taken at Hiei-zan, the
Imperial prestige would suffer. To these light words the Emperor
hearkened. Masashige uttered no remonstrance. The time for
controversy had passed. He hastened to the camp and bid farewell to
his son, Masatsura: "I do not think that I shall see you again in
life. If I fall to-day, the country will pass under the sway of the
Ashikaga. It will be for you to judge in which direction your real
welfare lies. Do not sully your father's loyalty by forgetting the
right and remembering only the expedient. So long as a single member
of our family remains alive, or so much as one of our retainers, you
will defend the old castle of Kongo-zan and give your life for your
native land."
ENGRAVING: THE PARTING OF KUSONOKI MASASHIGE AND HIS SON MASATSURA
He then handed to his son a sword which he himself had received from
the Emperor. Passing thence to Hyogo, Masashige joined Nitta
Yoshisada, and the two leaders devoted the night to a farewell
banquet. The issue of the next day's combat was a foregone
conclusion. Masashige had but seven hundred men under his command. He
posted this little band at Minato-gawa, near the modern Kobe, and
with desperate courage attacked the van of the Ashikaga army.
Gradually he was enveloped, and being wounded in ten places he, with
his brother and sixty followers, entered the precincts of a temple
and died by their own hands.* Takauji and his captains, lamenting the
brave bushi's death, sent his head to his family; and history
recognizes that his example exercised an ennobling influence not only
on the men of his era but also on subsequent generations. After
Masashige's fall a similar fate must have overtaken Yoshisada, had
not one of those sacrifices familiar on a Japanese field of battle
been made for his sake. Oyamada Takaiye gave his horse to the Nitta
general and fell fighting in his stead, while Yoshisada rode away. At
first sight these sacrifices seem to debase the saved as much as they
exalt the saver. But, according to Japanese ethics, an institution
was always more precious than the person of its representative, and a
principle than the life of its exponent. Men sacrificed themselves in
battle not so much to save the life of a commanding officer, as to
avert the loss his cause would suffer by his death. Parity of
reasoning dictated acceptance of the sacrifice.
*Kusunoki Masashige is the Japanese type of a loyal and true soldier.
He was forty-three at the time of his death. Three hundred and
fifty-six years later (1692), Minamoto Mitsukuni, feudal chief of
Mito, caused a monument to be erected to his memory at the place of
his last fight. It bore the simple epitaph "The Tomb of Kusunoki, a
loyal subject."
ENGRAVING: OSONAE (New Year Offering to Family Tutelary Deity)
ENGRAVING: PALANQUINS (Used in Old Japan Only by the Nobility)
CHAPTER XXX
THE WAR OF THE DYNASTIES
OCCUPATION OF KYOTO BY ASHIKAGA
IN July, 1336, Takauji entered Kyoto and established his headquarters
at the temple Higashi-dera. Go-Daigo had previously taken refuge at
the Hiei-zan monastery, the ex-Emperors, Hanazono and Kogon,
remaining in the capital where they looked for the restoration of
their branch of the Imperial family. The Ashikaga leader lost no time
in despatching a force to attack Hiei-zan, but the Imperialists,
supported by the cenobites, resisted stoutly, and no impression was
made on the defences for a considerable time. In one of the
engagements, however, Nawa Nagatoshi, who had harboured Go-Daigo
after the flight from Oki, met his death, and the Imperialist forces
gradually dwindled. Towards the close of August, Takauji caused
Prince Yutahito (or Toyohito, according to gome authorities), younger
brother of Kogon, to be proclaimed Emperor, and he is known as Komyo.
Characteristic of the people's political ignorance at that time is
the fact that men spoke of the prince's good fortune since, without
any special merit of his own, he had been granted the rank of
sovereign by the shogun.
Meanwhile, the investment of the Hiei monastery made little progress,
and Takauji had recourse to treachery. At the close of October he
opened secret communications with Go-Daigo; assured him that the
Ashikaga did not entertain any disloyal purpose; declared that their
seemingly hostile attitude had been inspired by the enmity of the
Nitta brothers; begged Go-Daigo to return to Kyoto, and promised not
only that should all ideas of revenge be foregone, but also that the
administration should be handed over to the Court, and all their
ranks and estates restored to the Emperor's followers.
Go-Daigo ought surely to have distrusted these professions. He must
have learned from Takauji's original impeachment of Yoshisada how
unscrupulous the Ashikaga leader could be on occasion, and he should
have well understood the impossibility of peace between these two
men. Yet his Majesty relied on Takauji's assurances. It was in vain
that Horiguchi Sadamitsu recounted Yoshisada's services, detailed the
immense sacrifices he had made in the Imperial cause, and declared
that if the Emperor were determined to place himself in Takauji's
hands, he should prepare his departure from Hiei-zan by summoning to
his presence Yoshisada with the other Nitta leaders and sentencing
them to death. Go-Daigo was not to be moved from his purpose. He gave
Yoshisada fair words indeed: "I profoundly praise your loyal
services. My wish is to pacify the country by the assistance of your
family, but heaven has not yet vouchsafed its aid. Our troops are
worn out and the hour is unpropitious. Therefore, I make peace for
the moment and bide my time. Do you repair to Echizen and use your
best endeavours to promote the cause of the restoration. Lest you be
called a rebel after my return to Kyoto, I order the Crown Prince to
accompany you."
Thus Go-Daigo, truly faithful neither to the one side nor to the
other, set out for the capital. That night, Yoshisada prayed at the
shrine of Hiyoshi: "Look down on my loyalty and help me to perform my
journey safely so that I may raise an army to destroy the insurgents.
If that is not to be, let one of my descendants achieve my aim." Two
hundred and six years later, there was born in Mikawa of the stock of
Yoshisada one of the greatest generals and altogether the greatest
ruler that Japan has ever produced, Minamoto Ieyasu. Heaven answered
Yoshisada's prayer tardily but signally.
TAKAUJI'S FAITH
Not one of Takauji's promises did he respect. He imprisoned Go-Daigo;
he stripped all the courtiers of their ranks and titles; he placed in
confinement all the generals and officers of the Imperial forces, and
he ordered the transfer of the insignia to the sovereign of his own
nomination, Komyo. Tradition has it that Go-Daigo, victim of so many
treacheries, practised one successful deception himself: he reserved
the original of the sacred sword and seal and handed counterfeits to
Komyo. This took place on November 12, 1336. Some two months later,
January 23, 1337, Go-Daigo, disguised as a woman for the second time
in his career, fled from his place of detention through a broken
fence, and reached Yoshino in Yamato, where he was received by
Masatsura, son of Kusunoki Masashige, and by Kitabatake Chikafusa.
Yoshino now became the rendez-vous of Imperialists from the home
provinces, and Go-Daigo sent a rescript to Yoshisada in Echizen,
authorizing him to work for the restoration.
Thus commenced the War of the Dynasties, known in history as the
Conflict of the Northern and Southern Courts, terms borrowed from the
fact that Yoshino, where Go-Daigo had his headquarters, lay to the
south of Kyoto. Hereafter, then, the junior branch of the Imperial
Family will be designated the Southern Court and the senior branch
will be spoken of as the Northern Court.
The struggle lasted from 1337 to 1392, a period of fifty-five years.
Much has been written and said about the relative legitimacy of the
two Courts. It does not appear that there is any substantial material
for doubt. Go-Daigo never abdicated voluntarily, or ever surrendered
the regalia. Before his time many occupants of the throne had stepped
down at the suggestion of a Fujiwara or a Hojo. But always the
semblance of free-will had been preserved. Moreover, the transfer of
the true regalia constituted the very essence of legitimate
succession. But these remained always in Go-Daigo's possession.
Therefore, although in the matter of lineage no distinction could be
justly set up between the Northern and the Southern Courts, the
collaterals of legitimacy were all with the latter.
Of course each complied with all the forms of Imperialism. Thus,
whereas the Southern Court used the year-name Engen for 1336-1339,
the North kept the year-name Kemmu for two years, and as there were
different nengo names for half a century, a new element of confusion
was added to the already perplexing chronology of Japan. In
administrative methods there was a difference. The Northern Court
adhered to the camera system: that is to say, the actual occupant of
the throne was a mere figurehead, the practical functions of
Government being discharged by the cloistered sovereign. In the
Southern Court the Emperor himself, nominally at all events, directed
the business of administration. Further, the office of shogun in the
Southern Court was held generally by an Imperial Prince, whereas in
the Northern Court its holder was an Ashikaga. In brief, the
supporters of the Northern Court followed the military polity of the
Bakufu while the Southern adopted Imperialism.
NATURE OF THE WAR
As the question at issue lay solely between two claimants to the
succession, readers of history naturally expect to find the war
resolve itself into a campaign, or a succession of campaigns, between
two armies. Such was by no means the case. Virtually the whole empire
was drawn into the turmoil, and independent fighting went on at
several places simultaneously. The two Courts perpetually made Kyoto
their objective. Regardless of its strategical disadvantages, they
deemed its possession cardinal. Takauji had been more highly lauded
and more generously rewarded than Yoshisada, because the former had
recovered Kyoto whereas the latter had only destroyed Kamakura. Thus,
while Go-Daigo constantly struggled to capture Kyoto, Komyo's
absorbing aim was to retain it. This obsession in favour of the
Imperial metropolis left its mark upon many campaigns; as when, in
the spring operations of 1336, Yoshisada, instead of being allowed to
pursue and annihilate Takauji, was recalled to guard Kyoto, and when,
in July of the same year, Kusunoki Masashige was sent to his death
rather than temporarily vacate the capital. It must have been fully
apparent to the great captains of the fourteenth century that Kyoto
was easy to take and hard to hold. Lake Biwa and the river Yodo are
natural bulwarks of Yamato, not of Yamashiro. Hiei-zan looks down on
the lake, and Kyoto lies on the great plain at the foot of the hill.
If, during thirteen generations, the Ashikaga family struggled for
Kyoto, they maintained, the while, their ultimate base and
rallying-place at Kamakura, and thus, even when shattered in the
west, they could recuperate in the east. The Southern Court had no
such depot and recruiting-ground. They had, indeed, a tolerable place
of arms in the province of Kawachi, but in the end they succumbed to
topographical disadvantages.
DEATHS OF YOSHISADA AND AKIIYE
In the fact that he possessed a number of sons, Go-Daigo had an
advantage over his fourteen-year-old rival, Komyo, for these Imperial
princes were sent out to various districts to stimulate the loyal
efforts of local bushi. With Yoshisada to Echizen went the Crown
Prince and his brother Takanaga. They entrenched themselves at
Kana-ga-saki, on the seacoast, whence Yoshisada's eldest son,
Yoshiaki, was despatched to Echigo to collect troops, and a younger
brother, Yoshisuke, to Soma-yama on a similar errand. Almost
immediately, Ashikaga Takatsune with an army of twenty thousand men
laid siege to Kanaga-saki. But Yoshiaki and Yoshisuke turned in their
tracks and delivered a rear attack which scattered the besiegers.
This success, however, proved only temporary. The Ashikaga leader's
deep resentment against Yoshisada inspired a supreme effort to crush
him, and the Kana-ga-saki fortress was soon invested by an
overwhelming force on sea and on shore. Famine necessitated
surrender. Yoshiaki and Prince Takanaga committed suicide, the latter
following the former's example and using his blood-stained sword. The
Crown Prince was made prisoner and subsequently poisoned by Takauji's
orders. Yoshisada and his brother Yoshisuke escaped to Soma-yama and
rallied their partisans to the number of three thousand.
The fall of Kana-ga-saki occurred in April, 1338, and, two months
later, Go-Daigo took the very exceptional course of sending an
autograph letter to Yoshisada. The events which prompted his Majesty
were of prime moment to the cause of the Southern Court. Kitabatake
Akiiye, the youthful governor of Mutsu and son of the celebrated
Chikafusa, marched southward at the close of 1337, his daring project
being the capture, first, of Kamakura, and next, of Kyoto The nature
of this gallant enterprise may be appreciated by observing that Mutsu
lies at the extreme north of the main island, is distant some five
hundred miles from Kyoto, and is separated from the latter by several
regions hostile to the cause which Akiiye represented. Nevertheless,
the brilliant captain, then in his twenty-first year, seized Kamakura
in January, 1338, and marched thence in February for Yoshino. He
gained three victories on the way, and had nearly reached his
objective when, at Ishizu, he encountered a great army of Ashikaga
troops under an able leader, Ko no Moronao, and after a fierce
engagement the Southern forces were shattered, Akiiye himself falling
in the fight. This disaster occurred on June 11, 1338. A brave rally
was made by Akiiye's younger brother, Akinobu. He gathered the
remnants of the Mutsu army and occupied Otokoyama, which commands
Kyoto.
It was at this stage of the campaign that Go-Daigo resorted to the
exceptional measure of sending an autograph letter to Yoshisada, then
entrenched at Somayama, in Echizen. His Majesty conjured the Nitta
leader to march to the assistance of Akinobu at Otoko-yama. Yoshisada
responded at once. He despatched his brother, Yoshisuke, with twenty
thousand men, remaining himself to cover the rear of the expedition.
But Otoko-yama surrendered before this succour reached it, and the
Nitta brothers then combined their forces to operate against the
Ashikaga. Nothing decisive resulted, and in September, 1338,
Yoshisada fell in an insignificant combat near the fortress of
Fujishima in Echizen. He caused a comrade to behead him and carry off
the head, but the enemy identified him by means of the Imperial
letter found on his person.
Yoshisada was only thirty-eight at the time of his death (September,
1338). Rai Sanyo (1780-1832), the great Japanese historian, says: "I
saw a letter written by Yoshisada with his own hand for the purpose
of admonishing the members of his family. In it he wrote: 'An officer
in command of an army should respect the sovereign; treat his
subordinates with clemency but decision; leave his fate in heaven's
hands, and not blame others.' Yoshisada is open to criticism for not
pursuing the Ashikaga when they fled westward from Kyoto; yet it must
be remembered that he had no firm base, being hurried from one
quarter to another. The strategy he used was not his own free choice
nor were the battles he fought contrived by himself. But his devotion
to the Imperial cause, his unfailing loyalty, and his indifference to
self-interest have kept his memory fresh and will always keep it
fresh. If, two hundred years after his death, a chieftain was born of
his blood to carry the Minamoto name to the pinnacle of glory, who
shall say that heaven did not thus answer the prayer put up by
Yoshisada at the shrine of Hiyoshi?"
DEATH OF GO-DAIGO
During these events, Go-Daigo sojourned at Yoshino, which was
protected by Kusunoki Masatsura, Wada Masatomo, and others. At the
close of August, 1339, his Majesty falling ill, and feeling that his
end was near, resigned the throne to his twelve-year-old son, the
Crown Prince Yoshinaga, whose historical name is Go-Murakami.
Go-Daigo's will declared that his only regret in leaving the world
was his failure to effect the restoration, and that though his body
was buried at Yoshino, his spirit would always yearn for Kyoto.
Tradition says that he expired holding a sword in his right hand, the
Hokke-kyo-sutra in his left, and that Kitabatake Chikafusa spoke of
the event as a dream within a dream.
It is recorded to Ashikaga Takauji's credit that, when the news
reached Kyoto, he ordered five days' mourning; that he himself
undertook to transcribe a sacred volume by way of supplication for
the repose of Go-Daigo's spirit, and that he caused a temple to be
built for the same purpose. Of course, these events cast a cloud over
the fortunes of the Southern Court, but its adherents did not abate
their activities. Everywhere they mustered in greater or less force.
The clearest conception of their strength may be obtained by
tabulating the names of their families and of the latter's
localities:
FAMILIES PROVINCES
Kitabatake Mutsu and Ise
Nitta Musashi, Shimotsuke, Echizen
Kusunoki Kawachi
Kojima, Sakurayama, Arii, Yoshikawa Sanyo-do
Nawa and Misumi Sanin-do
Kikuchi, Matsura, Kusano Saikai-do
Doi, Tokuno, Yuasa, Yamamoto Nankai-do
Ii Totomi
Neo Mino
Shinto officials Atsuta
This table suggests that partisans of the Southern Court existed in
almost every part of the empire. So, in truth, they did. But friends
of the Northern Court existed also, and thus it resulted that at no
time throughout the fifty-five years of the struggle were the
provinces free from strife. It resulted also that frequent changes of
allegiance took place, for a family had often to choose between total
ruin, on the one hand, and comparative prosperity at the sacrifice of
constancy, on the other. Some historians have adduced the incidents
of this era as illustrating the shallowness of Japanese loyalty. But
it can scarcely be said that loyalty was ever seriously at stake. In
point of legitimacy there was nothing to choose between the rival
branches of the Imperial family. A samurai might-pass from the
service of the one to that of the other without doing any violence to
his reverence for the Throne.
What was certainly born of the troubled era, however, was a sentiment
of contempt for central authority and a disposition to rely on one's
own right arm. It could not have been otherwise. In several provinces
official nominees of both Courts administered simultaneously, and men
were requisitioned for aid, to-day, to the Northern cause, to-morrow,
to the Southern. To be strong enough to resist one or the other was
the only way to avoid ruinous exactions. From that to asserting one's
strength at the expense of a neighbour who followed a different flag
was a short step, if not a duty, and thus purely selfish
considerations dictated a fierce quarrel and inspired many an act of
unscrupulous spoliation. A few cases are on record of families which
resorted to the device of dividing themselves into two branches, each
declaring for a different cause and each warring nominally with the
other. Thus the sept as a whole preserved its possessions, in part at
any rate, whichever Court triumphed. But such double-faced schemes
were very rare. A much commoner outcome of the situation was the
growth of powerful families which regulated their affairs by means of
a council of leading members without reference to Kamakura, Kyoto, or
Yoshino. At the same time, minor septs in the neighbourhood saw the
advantage of subscribing to the decisions of these councils and
deferring to their judgments.
"This was an important step in the development of the feudal system.
Another was the abolition of feudal fiefs, as well as of the
succession of women to real estate, and a curtailment of the
inheritance, not so much of younger sons, as of all sons except the
one selected as lord of the clan."* The shugo (high constables) also
became a salient element of feudalism. Originally liable to frequent
transfers of locality, some of them subsequently came to hold their
office hereditarily, and these, together with the great majority of
their confreres who had been appointed by the Bakufu, espoused the
Ashikaga cause; a choice which impelled many of the military families
in their jurisdiction to declare for the Southern Court. The Ashikaga
shugo ultimately became leading magnates, for they wielded twofold
authority, namely, that derived from their power as owners of broad
estates, and that derived from their commission as shogun's delegates
entitled to levy taxes locally. The provincial governors, at the
outset purely civil officials, occasionally developed military
capacity and rivalled the hereditary shugo in armed influence, but
such instances were rare.
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
THE COURSE OF THE WAR
After the death of Kusunoki Masashige, of Nitta Yoshisada, and of
Kitabatake Akiiye, the strategical direction of the war devolved
mainly upon Kitabatake Chikafusa, so far as the Southern Court was
concerned. The greater part of the nation may be said to have been in
arms, but only a small section took actual part in the main campaign,
the troops in the distant provinces being occupied with local
struggles. Chikafusa's general plan was to menace Kyoto and Kamakura
simultaneously. Just as the eight provinces of the Kwanto formed the
base of the Ashikaga armies, so the eight provinces constituting the
Kii peninsula--Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, Ise, Iga, Shima, Kii (in
part), and Omi (in part)--served as bases for the partisans of the
South. To strike at Kyoto from this base required the previous
subjugation of Settsu, and, on the other hand, a strong army in
Settsu menaced Yoshino.
Chikafusa's plan, then, was to marshal in Kawachi force sufficient to
threaten, if not to overrun, Settsu, and then to push on into the
metropolitan province from Omi and Iga, the Ashikaga having been
previously induced to uncover Kyoto by the necessity of guarding
Kamakura. From the Kii peninsula the obvious route to the Kwanto is
by sea. Therefore, the Southerners established a naval base at
Shingu, on the east coast of the peninsula, and used it for the
purpose not only of despatching a force northward, but also of
maintaining communications with Shikoku and Kyushu, where they had
many partisans. Chikafusa himself led the oversea expedition to the
Kwanto, but the flotilla was wrecked by a storm, and he reached Yedo
Bay with only a small following. Nevertheless, he established himself
at Oda, in Hitachi, and being there joined by many of the Ashikaga's
enemies, he managed, not indeed to seriously menace Kamakura, but at
all events to give occupation to a large force of the Northerners.
Driven out at last (1343), after more than four years' operations, he
returned to Yoshino, where he found Kusunoki Masatsura, son of
Masashige, carrying on from Kawachi a vigorous campaign against the
Ashikaga in Settsu.
After many minor engagements, in all of which he was successful,
Masatsura inflicted such a severe defeat on his opponents at
Sumiyoshi that the Bakufu became alarmed, and mustering an army of
sixty thousand men, sent it under Ko Moronao and his brother,
Moroyasu, to attack Masatsura. This was in December, 1347. Then
Masatsura and his younger brother, Masatoki, together with Wada
Katahide and other bushi, to the number of 140, made oath to conquer
in fight or to die. They repaired to Yoshino, and having taken leave
of the Emperor, Go-Murakami, they worshipped at the shrine of the
late sovereign, Go-Daigo, inscribed their names upon the wall, and
wrote under them:
We that our bows here
Swear nevermore to slacken
Till in the land of life we
Cease to be counted,
Our names now record.
It was in February, 1348, that the battle took place at Shijo-nawate
in Kawachi. Moronao had sixty thousand men at his disposal; Masatsura
only three thousand. The combat raged during six hours, the Kusunoki
brothers leading thirty charges, until finally they were both covered
with wounds, and only fifty men remained out of the sworn band. Then
this remnant committed suicide. Moronao, following up his victory,
marched into Yamato, and set fire to the palace there. Go-Murakami
escaped to Kanao, and presently the Nitta family in the east and the
Kitabatake in the west showed such activity that the Southern cause
recovered its vitality, a turn of events largely promoted by
dissensions in the Northern camp and by the consequent return of
Moronao's forces to Kyoto. It is necessary, therefore, to direct our
eyes for a moment to the course of affairs on the side of the
Ashikaga.
THE ASHIKAGA POLITY
Ashikaga Takauji's original idea was to follow the system of Yoritomo
in everything. Kamakura was to be his capital and he assumed the
title of shogun. This was in 1335. Three years later he received the
shogunate in due form from the Northern sovereign, Komyo. But he now
discovered that Kyoto must be his headquarters so long as the War of
the Dynasties lasted, and he therefore established the Bakufu at
Muromachi in that city, modelling it on the lines of Yoritomo's
institution, but dispensing with a regent (shikkeri) and substituting
for him a second shitsuji. The first two shitsuji at Muromachi were
Ko Moronao, the great general, and Uesugi Tomosada, a connexion of
Takauji. Kamakura was not neglected, however. It became a secondary
basis, Takauji's eight-year-old son, Yoshiakira, being installed
there as governor-general (kwanryo) of the Kwanto under the
guardianship of Uesugi Noriaki as shitsuji, and the old
administrative machinery of the Hojo was revived in the main.
Takauji's brother, Tadayoshi, became chief of the general staff in
Kyoto, and "several Kamakura literati--descendants of Oye, Nakahara,
Miyoshi, and others--were brought up to fill positions on the various
boards, the services of some of the ablest priests of the time being
enlisted in the work of drafting laws and regulations."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
To these priests and literati was entrusted the task of compiling a
code based on the Joei Shikimoku of the Hojo regents, and there
resulted the Kemmu Shikimoku, promulgated in 1337.* This was not a
law, properly so called, but rather a body of precepts contained in
seventeen articles. They have much interest as embodying the ethics
of the time in political circles. "Economy must be universally
practised. Drinking parties and wanton frolics must be suppressed.
Crimes of violence and outrage must be quelled. The practice of
entering the private dwellings of the people and making inquisitions
into their affairs must be given up." Then follow two articles
dealing with the ownership of vacant plots and rebuilding of houses
and fireproof godowns in the devastated sections of the capital. The
subsequent paragraphs provide that men of special ability for
government work should be chosen for the office of shugo; that a stop
must be put to the practice of influential nobles and women of all
sorts and Buddhist ecclesiastics making interested recommendations
(to the sovereign); that persons holding public posts must be liable
to reprimand for negligence and idleness; that bribery must be firmly
put down; that presents made from all quarters to those attached to
the palace, whether of the inside or outside service, must be sent
back; that those who are to be in personal attendance on the rulers
must be selected for that duty; that ceremonial etiquette should be
the predominant principle; that men noted for probity and adherence
to high principle should be rewarded by more than ordinary
distinction; that the petitions and complaints of the poor and lowly
should be heard and redress granted; that the petitions of temples
and shrines should be dealt with on their merits, and that certain
fixed days should be appointed for the rendering of decisions and the
issue of government orders.**
*Kemmu was the Northern Court's name of the year-period 1334 to 1338:
see p. 398.
**The Kemmu Shikimoku by Mr. Consul-General Hall, in the
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan;" epitomized by
Murdoch.
THE JINNO SHOTOKI
Before proceeding with the history of this troubled era, it is
advisable to speak of a great political brochure which was compiled
by Kitabatake Chikafusa during the period (1340-1343) of his attempt
to harass the Ashikaga from the direction of Hitachi. This was a work
designed to establish the divine claim of the sovereign of the
Southern Court. Hence the title of the treatise, Correct Genealogy
(Shotoki) of the Divine Emperor (Jinno). The reader knows that when,
in the eighth century, Japan went to Chinese sources for
jurisprudential inspiration, she had to eliminate the Confucian and
Mencian doctrine that the sceptre may not be wielded by anyone whose
virtues do not qualify him for the task in the eyes of the nation.
This same doctrine permeated by construction the commentaries that
accompanied the articles of the Kemmu Shikimoku as quoted above, and
in that fact Chikafusa saw an opportunity of winning adherents for
the Southern Court by proclaiming its heaven-conferred rights.
"Great Yamato," Kitabatake wrote, "is a divine country. It is only
our land whose foundations were first laid by the divine ancestor. It
alone has been transmitted by the Sun goddess to a long line of her
descendants. There is nothing of this kind in foreign countries.
Therefore it is called the divine land. . . It is only our country
which from the time when the heaven and earth were first unfolded,
has preserved the succession to the throne intact in one single
family. Even when, as sometimes naturally happened, it descended to a
lateral branch, it was held according to just principles. This shows
that the oath of the gods (to preserve the succession) is ever
renewed in a way which distinguishes Japan from all other countries.
. . . It is the duty of every man born on the Imperial soil to yield
devoted loyalty to his sovereign, even to the sacrifice of his own
life. Let no one suppose for a moment that there is any credit due to
him for doing so. Nevertheless, in order to stimulate the zeal of
those who came after, and in loving memory of the dead, it is the
business of the ruler to grant rewards in such cases (to the
children). Those who are in an inferior position should not enter
into rivalry with them. Still more should those who have done no
specially meritorious service abstain from inordinate ambitions. I
have already touched on the principles of statesmanship. They are
based on justice and mercy, in the dispensing of which firm action is
requisite. Such is the clear instruction vouchsafed to us by the Sun
goddess."*
*Aston's Japanese Literature.
It is not to be supposed that these doctrines produced any
wide-spread influence on public opinion at the time of their
promulgation. In the first place they were not generally accessible;
for not until the year 1649 was Kitabatake's brochure printed. That
it remained in manuscript during three centuries after its
compilation is not attributable to technical difficulties. The art of
blockprinting came to Japan from China in very early times, and it is
on record that, in 770, the Empress Shotoku caused a million Buddhist
amulets to be printed. But the Jinno Shotoki did not fall on fruitful
soil. Either its teaching was superfluous or men were too much
engrossed with fighting to listen to academical disquisitions.
Chikafusa's work was destined to produce great and lasting effects in
future ages, but, for the moment, it accomplished little.
DISCORD IN THE CAMP OF THE ASHIKAGA
A prominent feature of the Ashikaga family's annals was continuity of
internecine strife. The Hojo's era had been conspicuously free from
any such blemish; the Ashikaga's was markedly disfigured by it, so
much so that by the debilitating effects of this discord the
supremacy of the sept was long deferred. The first outward
indications of the trouble were seen in 1348, when the able general,
Ko Moronao, instead of following up his victory over the Southern
Court after the death of Kusunoki Masatsura, turned suddenly
northward from Yamato and hastened back to Kyoto. His own safety
dictated that step. For during his absence from the capital on
campaign, a plot to effect his overthrow had matured under the
leadership of Ashikaga Tadayoshi and Uesugi Shigeyoshi.
The latter held the office of shitsuji, and was therefore Moronao's
comrade, while Tadayoshi, as already stated, had the title of
commander-in-chief of the general staff and virtually directed
administrative affairs, subject, of course, to Takauji's approval.
Moronao undoubtedly possessed high strategical ability, and being
assisted by his almost equally competent brother, Moroyasu, rendered
sterling military service to the Ashikaga cause. But the two brothers
were arrogant, dissipated, and passionate. It is recorded of Moronao
that he abducted the wife of Enya Takasada, and of Moroyasu that he
desecrated the grave of Sugawara in order to enclose its site within
his mansion, both outrages being condoned by the shogun, Takauji, In
truth, even in the days of Taira overlordship, Kyoto was never so
completely under the heel of the military as it was in early Ashikaga
times.
Rokuhara did not by any means arrogate such universal authority as
did Muromachi. The Court nobles in the middle of the fourteenth
century had no functions except those of a ceremonial nature and were
frankly despised by the haughty bushi. It is on record that Doki
Yorito, meeting the cortege of the retired Emperor Kogon, pretended
to mistake the escorts' cry of "In" (camera sovereign) for "inu"
(dog), and actually discharged an arrow at the Imperial vehicle.
Yorito suffered capital punishment, but the incident illustrates the
demeanour of the military class.
The two Ko brothers were conspicuously masterful and made many
enemies. But the proximate cause of the plot alluded to above was
jealousy on the part of Ashikaga Tadayoshi and Uesugi Shigeyoshi, who
resented the trust reposed by Takauji in Moronao and Moroyasu. The
conspirators underestimated Moronao's character. Reaching Kyoto by
forced marches from Yamato, he laid siege to Tadayoshi's mansion, and
presently Tadayoshi had to save himself by taking the tonsure, while
Shigeyoshi was exiled to Echizen, whither Moronao sent an assassin to
make away with him. The Ashikaga chief, whose trust in Moronao was
not at all shaken by these events, summoned from Kamakura his eldest
son, Yoshiakira, and entrusted to him the functions hitherto
discharged by his uncle, Tadayoshi, replacing him in Kamakura by a
younger son, Motouji.
Yoshiakira was not Takauji's eldest son; he was his eldest legitimate
son. An illegitimate son, four years older, had been left in Kamakura
as a priest, but was recognized as the possessor of such abilities
that, although his father refused to meet him, his uncle, Tadayoshi,
summoned him to Kyoto and procured for him the high office of tandai
of the west. This Tadafuyu was discharging his military duties in
Bingo when news reached him of Moronao's coup d'etat in Kyoto and of
his own patron, Tadayoshi's discomfiture. At once Tadafuyu crossed
the sea to Higo in Kyushu, where a large number of discontented
samurai rallied to his banner, and Shoni, the Ashikaga tandai of
Kyushu, soon found himself vigorously attacked. The struggle
presently assumed such importance that Kyoto's attention was
attracted. The normal course would have been for Moronao to take the
field against Tadafuyu. But Moronao was looking always for an
opportunity to compass the death of his enemy, Tadayoshi, and
thinking that his chance had now come, he persuaded Takauji to take
personal command of the expedition to Kyushu, the idea being to
finally dispose of Tadayoshi during the absence of the Ashikaga
shogun from Kyoto. Tadayoshi, however, obtained timely information of
this design and escaping to Yamato, offered to surrender to the
Southern Court. This was in January, 1350.
The advisers of the Emperor Go-Murakami differed radically in their
counsels, but it was finally decided that every effort should be made
to widen the rift in the Ashikaga lute, and the Court commissioned
Tadayoshi to attack Takauji and recover Kyoto. Thus was presented the
spectacle of a father (Takauji) fighting against his son (Tadafuyu),
and a brother (Tadayoshi) fighting against a brother (Takauji).
Tadayoshi was joined by many men of note and puissance whom the
arrogance of the two Ko, Moronao and Moroyasu, had offended. A
desperate struggle ensued, and the Ko generals had to retreat to
Harima, where they joined with Takauji, the latter having abandoned
his expedition to Kyushu. Meanwhile, Yoshiakira, Takauji's eldest
son, had escaped from Kyoto and entered his father's camp. After a
time negotiations for peace were concluded (1351), one of the
conditions being that Moronao and Moroyasu should lay down their
offices and enter the priesthood. But the blood of the shitsuji,
Uesugi Shigeyoshi, was still fresh on Moronao's hands. Shigeyoshi's
son, Akiyoshi, waylaid the two Ko on their route to Kyoto to take the
tonsure, and Moronao and Moroyasu were both killed.
YEAR-PERIODS AND COURTS
Three years before the death of Moronao, that is to say, in 1348, the
sovereign of the Northern Court, Komyo, abdicated in favour of Suko.
Ever since 1332 there had been a dual year-period, outcome of the
divided Imperialism, and history was thus not a little complicated.
It will be convenient here to tabulate, side by side, the lines of
the two dynasties:
SOUTHERN COURT NORTHERN COURT
96th Sovereign, Go-Daigo 1318-1339 Kogon 1332-1335
97th " Go-Murakami 1339-1368 Komyo 1335-1348
98th " Chokei 1368-1372 Suko 1348-1352
99th " Go-Kameyama 1372-1392 Go-Kogon 1352-1371
Go-Enyu 1371-1382
100th " Go-Komatsu 1392-1412 Go-Komatsu 1382-1412
It is observable that the average duration of a Southern sovereign's
reign was eighteen years, whereas that of a Northern sovereign was
only thirteen years.
DEATH OF TADAYOSHI
The peace concluded between the Ashikaga chief and his brother,
Tadayoshi, was of brief duration; their respective partisans
distrusted one another too much. The Nikki, the Hosokawa, the Doki,
and the Sasaki, all followed Takauji, but the Ishido, the Uesugi, and
the Momonoi adhered to Tadayoshi. At last the situation became so
strained that Tadayoshi withdrew to Echizen and from thence made his
way to Kamakura. In these circumstances, Takauji desired to take the
field himself, but since to do so would have exposed Kyoto to danger
from the south, he attempted to delude the Court at Yoshino into
crediting his loyalty and his willingness to dethrone Suko by way of
preliminary to welcoming the return of Go-Murakami to Kyoto.
Takauji's professions were now appraised at their true value,
however. The Court at Yoshino commissioned him to punish his
rebellious brother, but took steps, as will presently be seen, to
turn the resulting situation to its own advantage. Takauji now placed
himself at the head of a strong army, and moving eastward, marched to
Kamakura practically unopposed. Tadayoshi escaped to Izu, where he
took poison, or was given it. Takauji remained in the Kwanto during
the greater part of two years (1352-1353). The task of restoring
order and re-establishing the Ashikaga supremacy demanded all his
ability and resources. "In the Kwanto alone, during these two years,
more battles were fought--some of considerable magnitude--than during
the thirty years between 1455 and 1485 in England."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
THE SOUTHERN COURT IN KYOTO
In this state of affairs the Southern Court found its opportunity. In
accepting Takauji's overtures, Kitabatake Chikafusa, who directed the
politics and strategy of the Southern Court, had designed to dethrone
Suko, to adopt the year name, Shohei, solely, and to establish an
administrative council in Kyoto under his own presidency. He knew
well that Takauji's surrender had not been sincere, but he counted on
an access of strength from the partisans of Tadayoshi, and he looked
for some occasion capable of being turned to advantage. Yoshiakira,
who ruled Kyoto in the absence of his father, Takauji, made no
difficulty about dethroning Suko and requesting the return of the
Southern sovereign, Go-Murakami. Neither did he hesitate to hand over
the false insignia which had been given by Go-Daigo to the Northern
Court. In February, 1352, Go-Murakami paid a visit to Otoko-yama on
the southeast of Kyoto, and ordered a number of officials, under
Kitabatake Chikafusa and Kusunoki Masanori, to enter the capital and
conduct affairs. But his Majesty did not trust his own person into
the city. He waited until his plans were mature, and then a strong
force of Southern troops was launched against Kyoto, while a powerful
army of Kwanto bushi, led by the Nitta brothers, Yoshioki and
Yoshimune, as well as by Wakiya Yoshiharu, marched into Musashi and
defeated Takauji on the Kotesashi moor.
The invaders actually got possession of Kamakura, but the superior
strategy of the Ashikaga chief ultimately reversed the situation.
Yoshimune had to fly to Echigo with a petty remnant of followers, and
Yoshioki and Yoshiharu, evacuating Kamakura, took refuge in the
Kawamura fortress. Meanwhile, in Kyoto, things had fared in a
somewhat similar manner. The Southern generals carried everything
before them at the outset, and Yoshiakira had to fly to Omi. But,
after a brief period of quiet, the Northern troops rallied and
expelled the Southern. Yoshiakira found himself again supreme. A
strange dilemma presented itself, however. There was no sovereign.
The retired sovereigns, Kogon, Komyo, and Suko, had all been carried
to a place well within the Southern lines, and even the false regalia
were not available. Nevertheless, Yoshiakira, regardless of forms,
raised to the throne the younger brother of Suko, who is known in
history as Go-Kogon. Thenceforth, on the accession of a Northern
sovereign a merely nominal ceremony of transferring the sacred
regalia sufficed. As for the ex-Emperors Kogon and Komyo, they turned
their backs finally on the world and became priests of the Zen sect
of Buddhism.
CAPTURE AND RE-CAPTURE OF KYOTO
In 1353, the Southern court received a signal accession of strength
in the allegiance of the Yamana family and of Tadafuyu. The latter
has already been spoken of as an illegitimate son of Takauji, who,
through the influence of his uncle, Tadayoshi, was appointed tandai
of the western provinces. The death of his patron inclined this able
captain to join the Southern Court, and his inclination was
translated into action early in 1353, owing to need of support
against the partisans of the Ashikaga in the island of Kyushu and the
western provinces. As for the Yamana, they were of Minamoto lineage;
their influence was supreme in Hoki and Inaba, and they faithfully
espoused the Ashikaga cause until an unfulfilled promise of a manor
alienated their good-will. For to such considerations of
self-interest men not infrequently sacrificed their duty of
allegiance in the troublous times of the fourteenth century.
Thus re-enforced, the Southern troops, under the supreme command of
Tadafuyu, marched against Kyoto in July, 1353, and captured the city.
Yoshiakira, guarding the young sovereign, Go-Kogon, effected his
escape, and the Southern Emperor, Go-Murakami, issued a decree
depriving of their official ranks and possessions all Court nobles
who had assisted at the ceremony of the fugitive monarch's
coronation. But the supremacy of the South did not last long. In
August, Yoshiakira was strong enough to countermarch against the
capital and to drive out Tadafuyu. Moreover, Takauji himself now
found it safe to leave the Kwanto. Placing his son Motouji in charge
at Kamakura, he returned to Kyoto accompanying the Emperor Go-Kogon,
and thenceforth during nearly two years the supremacy of the North
was practically undisputed.
DEATH OF CHIKAFUSA
Fate willed that while his enemies were thus triumphant, death should
overtake the great statesman, strategist, and historian, Kitabatake
Chikafusa. He died in 1354, at the age of sixty-two. Japanese
annalists say of Chikafusa: "It was through his ability that the
Southern forces were co-ordinated and kept active in all parts of the
empire. It was due to his clever strategy that Kyoto lay under
constant menace from the south. If the first great protagonists in
the struggle between the Northern and the Southern Courts were Prince
Morinaga and Takauji, and those of the next were Nitta Yoshisada and
Takauji, the third couple was Kitabatake Chikafusa and Takauji."
Chikafusa was of wide erudition; he had a wonderful memory, and his
perpetual guides were justice and righteousness. After his death the
Southern Court fell into a state of division against itself; and its
spirit sensibly declined.
DEATH OF TAKAUJI
Takauji survived Chikafusa by only four years; he expired in 1358.
Undoubtedly his figure is projected in very imposing dimensions on
the pages of his country's history, and as the high mountain in the
Chinese proverb is gilded by the sunbeams and beaten by the storm, so
condemnation and eulogy have been poured upon his head by posterity.
An annalist of his time says: "Yoritomo was impartial in bestowing
rewards, but so severe in meting out punishments as to seem almost
inhuman. Takauji, however, in addition to being humane and just, is
strong-minded, for no peril ever summons terror to his eye or
banishes the smile from his lip; merciful, for he knows no hatred and
treats his foes as his sons; magnanimous, for he counts gold and
silver as stones or sand, and generous, for he never compares the
gift with the recipient, but gives away everything as it comes to
hand. It is the custom for people to carry many presents to the
shogun on the first day of the eighth month, but so freely are those
things given away that nothing remains by the evening, I am told."
A later historian, Rai Sanyo (1780-1832), wrote: "There were as brave
men and as clever in the days of the Minamoto as in the days of the
Ashikaga. Why, then, did the former never dare to take up arms
against the Bakufu, whereas the latter never ceased to assault the
Ashikaga? It was because the Minamoto and the Hojo understood the
expediency of not entrusting too much power to potential rivals,
whereas the Ashikaga gave away lands so rashly that some families--as
the Akamatsu, the Hosokawa, and the Hatakeyama--came into the
possession of three or four provinces, and in an extreme case one
family--that of Yamana--controlled ten provinces, or one-sixth of the
whole empire. These septs, finding themselves so powerful, became
unmanageable. Then the division of the Ashikaga into the Muromachi
magnates and the Kamakura chiefs brought two sets of rulers upon the
same stage, and naturally intrigue and distrust were born, so that,
in the end, Muromachi was shaken by Hosokawa, and Kamakura was
overthrown by Uesugi. An animal with too ponderous a tail cannot wag
it, and a stick too heavy at one end is apt to break. The Ashikaga
angled with such valuable bait that they ultimately lost both fish
and bait. During the thirteen generations of their sway there was no
respite from struggle between family and family or between chief and
vassal." Takauji's record plainly shows that deception was one of his
weapons. He was absolutely unscrupulous. He knew also how to entice
men with gain, but he forgot that those who came for gain will go
also for gain. It would seem, too, that he sacrificed justice to the
fear of alienating his supporters. Not otherwise can we account for
his leniency towards the Ko brothers, who were guilty of such
violations of propriety.
THE SECOND ASHIKAGA SHOGUN
Takauji was succeeded in the shogunate by his eldest son, Yoshiakira,
of whom so much has already been heard. The fortunes of the Southern
Court were now at low ebb. During the year (1359) after Takauji's
death, Kamakura contributed materially to the support of the Ashikaga
cause. The Kwanto was then under the sway of Takauji's fourth son,
Motouji, one of the ablest men of his time. He had just succeeded in
quelling the defection of the Nitta family, and his military power
was so great that his captains conceived the ambition of marching to
Kyoto and supplanting Yoshiakira by Motouji. But the latter, instead
of adopting this disloyal counsel, despatched a large army under
Hatakeyama Kunikiyo to attack the Southern Court. Marching by the two
highways of Settsu and Kawachi, this army attacked Yoshino and gained
some important successes. But the fruits of these victories were not
gathered. The Hatakeyama chief developed ambitions of his own, and,
on returning to the Kwanto, was crushed by Motouji and deprived of
his office of shitsuji, that post being given again to Uesugi
Noriaki, "who had been in exile since the death of Tadayoshi in 1352.
At, or shortly after, this time, Kai and Izu and, later on, Mutsu,
were put under Kamakura jurisdiction, and their peaceful and orderly
condition formed a marked contrast to the general state of the rest
of the empire."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
The next event of cardinal importance in this much disturbed period
was the defection of Hosokawa Kiyouji, one of the shitsuji in Kyoto.
This powerful chief, disappointed in his expectations of reward, went
over to the Southern Court in 1361, and the result was that the
Ashikaga shogun had to flee from Kyoto, escorting Go-Kogon. The
situation soon changed however. Hosokawa Kiyouji, returning to his
native province, Awa, essayed to bring the whole of Shikoku into
allegiance to the Southern Court, but was signally worsted by his
cousin, Hosokawa Yoriyuki--afterwards very famous,--and scarcely a
month had elapsed before Yoshiakira was back in the capital. In the
same year (1362), the Northerners received a marked increase of
strength by the accession of the Yamana family, which was at that
time supreme in the five central provinces of eastern Japan--namely,
Tamba, Inaba, Bizen, Bitchu, and Mimasaka. During ten years this
family had supported the Southern Court, but its chief, Tokiuji, now
yielded to the persuasion of Yoshiakira's emissaries, and espoused
the Ashikaga cause on condition that he, Tokiuji, should be named
high constable of the above five provinces.
Meanwhile, the partisans of the late Tadayoshi--the Kira, the Ishido,
the Momonoi, the Nikki, and others--constituted a source of perpetual
menace, and even among the Ashikaga themselves there was a rebel
(Takatsune). Yoshiakira became weary of the unceasing strife. He
addressed overtures to the Southern Court and they were accepted on
condition that he made formal act of surrender. This the shogun
refused to do, but he treated Go-Murakami's envoy with every mark of
respect, and though the pourparlers proved finally abortive, they had
continued for five months, an evidence that both sides were anxious
to find a path to peace. Yoshiakira died in the same year, 1367.
THE SOUTHERN COURT
Previously to this event, a new trouble had occurred in the Southern
Court. The Emperor Go-Murakami signified his desire to abdicate, and
thereupon the Court nobles who had followed the three ex-Emperors
into the Southern lines in 1352 fell into two cliques, each
advocating the nomination of a different successor. This discord
exercised a debilitating influence, and when Go-Murakami died (1368),
the Southerners found themselves in a parlous condition. For his son
and successor, Chokei, failing to appreciate the situation,
immediately planned an extensive campaign against Kyoto from the east
and the south simultaneously. Then Kusunoki Masanori passed into the
Northern camp. Few events have received wider historical comment in
Japan. The Kusunoki family stood for everything loyal and devoted in
the bushi's record, and Masanori was a worthy chief of the sept. So
conspicuous were his virtues and so attractive was his personality
that a samurai of the Akamatsu family, who had planned a vendetta
against him, committed suicide himself rather than raise his hand to
slay such a hero.
How, then, are we to account for Masanori's infidelity to the cause
he had embraced? The answer of his country's most credible annalists
is that his motive was to save the Southern Court. He saw that if the
young Emperor. Chokei, persisted in his design of a general campaign
against Kyoto, a crushing defeat must be the outcome, and since the
sovereign would not pay heed to his remonstrances, he concluded that
the only way to arrest the mad enterprise was his own defection,
which would weaken the South too much to permit offensive action.
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was then shogun at Muromachi. He had succeeded to
that office in 1367, at the age of nine, and his father, then within
a year of death, had entrusted him to the care of Hosokawa Yoriyuki,
one of the ablest men of his own or any generation. There are strong
reasons for thinking that between this statesman and Masanori an
understanding existed. So long as Yoriyuki remained in power there
was nothing worthy of the name of war between the two Courts, and
when, after his retirement in 1379, the struggle re-opened under the
direction of his successor (a Yamana chief), Masanori returned to his
old allegiance and took the field once more in the Southern cause.
His action in temporarily changing his allegiance had given ten
years' respite to the Southerners.
PEACE BETWEEN THE TWO COURTS
The Southern Emperor, Chokei, coming to the throne in 1368, abdicated
in 1372 in favour of his brother, known in history as Go-Kameyama.
During his brief tenure of power Chokei's extensive plans for the
capture of Kyoto did not mature, but he had the satisfaction of
seeing the whole island of Kyushu wrested from Ashikaga hands. It is
true that under the able administration of Imagawa Sadayo (Ryoshun),
a tandai appointed by the Ashikaga, this state of affairs was largely
remedied during the next ten years, but as the last substantial
triumph of the Yoshino arms the record of Chokei's reign is
memorable. It was, in truth, the final success. The decade of
comparative quiet that ensued on the main island proved to be the
calm before the storm.
The most prominent figures in the closing chapter of the great
dynastic struggle are Hosokawa Yoriyuki and Yamana Mitsuyuki. When
the second Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiakira, recognized that his days were
numbered, he summoned his trusted councillor, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, and
his son Yoshimitsu, and said to the latter, "I give you a father,"
and to the former, "I give you a son." Yoriyuki faithfully discharged
the trust thus reposed in him. He surrounded his youthful charge with
literary and military experts, and secured to him every advantage
that education could confer. Moreover, this astute statesman seems to
have apprehended that if the cause of the Southern Court were not
actually opposed, it would die of inanition, and he therefore
employed all his influence to preserve peace. He endeavoured also to
enforce strict obedience to the economical precepts of the Kemmu
code, and altogether the ethics he favoured were out of harmony with
the social conditions of Kyoto at the time and with the natural
proclivities of the young shogun himself. In fine, he had to leave
the capital, too full of his enemies, and to retire to his native
province, Awa.
During ten years he remained in seclusion. But, in 1389, a journey
made by the shogun to Miya-jima revealed so many evidences of
Yoriyuki's loyalty that he was invited to return to Kyoto, and with
his assistance the organization of the Ashikaga forces at Muromachi
was brought to a high state of efficiency, partly because the astute
Yoriyuki foresaw trouble with the Yamana family, which was then
supreme in no less than ten provinces, or nearly one-sixth of all
Japan. In 1391 Yamana Ujikiyo and his kinsman Mitsuyuki took the
field against Kyoto under the standard of the Southern Court. He
commanded a great army, and there resulted a desperate struggle known
in history as the Meitoku War, after the name of the year-period when
it occurred. The Yamana leader was killed and his army completely
routed. In the following year, the great Hosokawa Yoriyuki died. He
had lived to see the ten provinces recovered from Yamana rule and
partitioned among the Muromachi generals.
But he expired just before the final triumph to which his genius had
so materially contributed. For within a few months of his demise the
War of the Dynasties came at last to a close. The proximate cause was
the fall of the Kusunoki stronghold, which had been built by
Masashige, and during sixty years had remained unconquered. With its
reduction, preceded as it had been by the annihilation of the Yamana,
the fortunes of the Southern Court had become hopeless, and overtures
carried from Kyoto by one of the most distinguished of the Muromachi
generals, Ouchi Yoshihiro, were accepted. Go-Komatsu then occupied
the Northern throne. He had succeeded Go-Enyu, in 1382, and the
latter, had succeeded Go-Kogon, in 1371. Go-Komatsu, having been only
six years of age at the time of his accession, was in his sixteenth
year when the two Courts came to an agreement.
For a time the terms proved very difficult of adjustment, but
ultimately it was decided that the Southern sovereign, Go-Kameyama,
should abdicate in favour of the Northern, the former being
thenceforth treated as the latter's father. This compact having been
concluded, the sacred insignia were transported from Yoshino to Kyoto
with all solemnity. Six Court nobles accompanied them from the South;
twenty went out from the North to receive them, and a numerous body
of troops formed the escort. The retiring Emperor spent ten days at
the palace in Kyoto, throughout which time a magnificent banquet was
held to celebrate the conclusion of the fifty-five years' war.
Yoshino and other districts were assigned for the support of the
ex-Emperor, and pensions or domains were conferred on the Court
nobles of the South, some of whom, however, declining to compromise
their sense of honour by accepting favours from the North, withdrew
to the provinces; and their exile was shared by several of the
military leaders who had remained true to the South throughout. There
can be little doubt that among these apparent implacables were some
of a selfishly calculating disposition, who, anticipating a reversion
to the system of alternate succession, as instituted by the Hojo
interpreters of Go-Saga's testament, looked for greater personal
advantage when the Crown should come to the Southern branch than
anything that could be hoped for by submitting to the Northern. They
were mistaken. That testament, which had done so much mischief in its
time, was ignored from the close of the War of the Dynasties. It did
not fall into total abeyance, however, without some further
bloodshed, and the facts may be interpolated here so as to dispose
finally of the subject.
In 1412, the abdication of Go-Komatsu should have been followed by
the accession of a Southern prince had the principle of alternation
been pursued. It was not so followed. On the contrary, the sceptre
fell to Shoko--101st sovereign--son of Go-Komatsu. Hence, in 1413,
Date Yasumune, in Mutsu, and, in 1414, Kitabatake Mitsumasa, in Ise,
made armed protests, gallant but ineffective. Again, in 1428, on the
childless death of Shoko, the claims of the Southern line were
tacitly ignored in favour of Go-Hanazono, grandson of the third
Northern Emperor, Suko. The same Mitsumasa now took the field, aided
this time by Masahide, head of the ever loyal house of Kusunoki, but
signal failure ensued. The last struggle in behalf of the Southern
line took place in 1443, when "a band of determined men under
Kusunoki Jiro and the Court noble, Hino Arimitsu, suddenly assailed
the palace from two directions; all but succeeded in killing or
capturing the Emperor, and actually got possession of the regalia.
They were soon driven out, however, and in their flight to Hiei-zan,
where one body of them entrenched themselves, the mirror and the
sword were dropped and recovered by the pursuers. The other body made
good their escape to the wilds of Odai-ga-hara, carrying with them
the seal; and it was not till a year later that it found its way back
to Kyoto, when the rebels had been destroyed."*
*Murdoch's History of Japan.
ENGRAVING: KOZUKA AND MENUKI (SWORD FURNITURE)
CHAPTER XXXI
THE FALL OF THE ASHIKAGA
TWO BRANCHES OF THE ASHIKAGA
THE Ashikaga family was divided into two main branches, both
descended from Takauji. The representatives of one, the senior,
branch had their headquarters at Muromachi in Kyoto and held the
office of shogun as a hereditary right. There were fifteen
generations:
Name Born Succeeded Abdicated Died
(1) Takauji 1305 1338 .... 1358
(2) Yoshiakira 1330 1358 1367 1368
(3) Yoshimitsu 1358 1367 1395 1408
(4) Yoshimochi 1386 1395 1423 1428
(5) Yoshikazu 1407 1423 .... 1425
(6) Yoshinori 1394 1428 .... 1441
(7) Yoshikatsu 1433 1441 .... 1443
(8) Yoshimasa 1435 1443 1474 1490
(9) Yoshihisa 1465 1474 .... 1489
(10) Yoshitane (#1) 1465 1490 1493 ....
(11) Yoshizumi 1478 1493 1508 1511
Yoshitane (#2) .... 1508 1521 1522
(12) Yoshiharu 1510 1521 1545 1550
(13) Yoshiteru 1535 1545 .... 1565
(14) Yoshihide 1565 1565 .... 1568
(15) Yoshiaki 1537 1568 1573 1597
The apparent clashing of dates in the case of the fourth and fifth
shoguns, Yoshimochi and Yoshikazu, is due to the fact that on the
death of the latter, in 1425, the former resumed the office and held
it until his own death, in 1428.
THE KAMAKURA KWANRYO AND KUBO
Born Died
(1) Motouji 1340 1367
(2) Ujimitsu 1357 1398
(3) Mitsukane 1376 1409
(4) Mochiuji 1398 1439
(5) Shigeuji 1434 1497
(6) Masatomo .... 1491
(7) Takamoto .... ....
(8) Haruuji .... 1560
(9) Yoshiuji .... ....
The title "kwanryo," as already stated, signifies "governor-general,"
and the region governed was the eight provinces of the Kwanto,
together with Izu and Kai. The first of the Ashikaga kwanryo,
Motouji, was Takauji's youngest son, and the following eight names on
the above list were direct descendants. But not all had the title of
kwanryo or wielded the extensive power attached to that office. Only
the first four were thus fortunate. From the days of the fifth,
Shigeuji, evil times overtook the family. Driven out of Kamakura by
the Uesugi, who had hitherto served as manager (shitsuji), they were
obliged to change their domicile to Koga in Shimosa; their sphere of
jurisdiction was reduced to four provinces, namely, Shimosa,
Shimotsuke, Kazusa, and Awa; their official title was altered to
gosho or kubo, and their former title of kwanryo passed to the Uesugi
family who also replaced them at Kamakura. These things fell out in
1439, when Mochiuji died. To avoid confusion it is necessary to note
that the chief official in the shogun's court at Muromachi in Kyoto
was also called kwanryo. He had originally been termed "manager"
(shitsuji), but, in 1367, this was changed to "governor-general," and
the corresponding functions were practically those discharged by the
regent (shikken) in the polity of the old Bakufu. The first Muromachi
kwanryo was Shiba Yoshimasa, and it became the ultimate custom to
give the post to a member of one of three families, the Shiba, the
Hosokawa, and the Hatakeyama.
STATE OF THE PROVINCES
When swords were sheathed after the long and wasting War of the
Dynasties, the Ashikaga found themselves in a strong position. Having
full control of the Court, they could treat as a rebel anyone
opposing them by force of arms, and their partisans were so numerous
in Kyoto and its vicinity that they could impose their will upon all.
In the east, the Kwanto was effectually ruled by a branch of their
own family, and in the north as well as in the south they were
represented by tandai, who governed stoutly and loyally. But trouble
began very soon. In Kyushu the office of tandai was held by Imagawa
Ryoshun, a man ever memorable in Japanese history as the author of
the precept that military prowess without education is worse than
useless. Ryoshun had been selected for service in Kyushu by the great
shitsuji of Muromachi, Hosokawa Yoriyuki, who saw that only by the
strongest hands could the turbulent families of the southern island
be reduced to order--the Shimazu, the Otomo, the Shoni, and the
Kikuchi. Everything went to show that Imagawa would have succeeded
had not that familiar weapon, slander, been utilized for his
overthrow. The Otomo chief persuaded Ouchi Yoshihiro to traduce
Ryoshun, and since the Ouchi sept exercised great influence in the
central provinces and had taken a prominent part in composing the War
of the Dynasties, the shogun, Yoshimitsu, could not choose but listen
to charges coming from such a source. Imagawa Ryoshun was recalled
(1396), and thenceforth Kyushu became the scene of almost perpetual
warfare which the Muromachi authorities were powerless to check.
THE OUCHI FAMILY
It was to the same Ouchi family that the Muromachi shogun owed his
first serious trouble after the close of the War of the Dynasties.
The ancestor of the family had been a Korean prince who migrated to
Japan early in the seventh century, and whose descendants, five and a
half centuries later, were admitted to the ranks of the samurai. The
outbreak of the War of the Dynasties had found the Ouchi ranged on
the Southern side, but presently they espoused the Ashikaga cause,
and distinguished themselves conspicuously against the Kikuchi in
Kyushu and, above all, in promoting the conclusion of the dynastic
struggle.
These eminent services were recognized by Ouchi Yoshihiro's
appointment to administer no less than six provinces--Nagato, Suwo,
Aki, Buzen, Kii, and Izumi. In fact he guarded the western and
eastern entrances of the Inland Sea, and held the overlordship of
western Japan. At his castle in Sakai, near Osaka, he amassed wealth
by foreign trade, and there he received and harboured representatives
of the Kusunoki and Kikuchi families, while at the same time he
carried on friendly communications with the Doki, the Ikeda, and the
Yamana. In short, he grew too powerful to receive mandates from
Muromachi, especially when they came through a kwanryo of the
Hatakeyama family who had just risen to that distinction.
Suddenly, in November, 1399, the Ouchi chief appeared in Izumi at the
head of a force of twenty-three thousand men, a force which received
rapid and numerous accessions. His grounds of disaffection were that
he suspected the shogun of a design to deprive him of the two
provinces of Kii and Izumi, which were far remote from the other five
provinces in his jurisdiction and which placed him within arm's
length of Kyoto, and, further, that no sufficient reward had been
given to the family of his younger brother, who fell in battle. There
were minor grievances, but evidently all were pretexts: the real
object was to overthrow Muromachi. The shogun, Yoshimitsu, acted with
great promptitude. He placed Hatakeyama Mitsuiye at the head of a
powerful army, and on January 18, 1400, Sakai fell and Yoshihiro
committed suicide. Thereafter the province of Kii was placed under
the jurisdiction of the Hatakeyama family, and Izumi under that of
Hosokawa, while the Shiba ruled in Echizen, Owari, and Totomi. In
short, these three families became the bulwarks of the Ashikaga.
KAMAKURA AND MUROMACHI
An important episode of the Ouchi struggle was that Mitsukane, the
third Kamakura kwanryo of the Ashikaga line, moved an army into
Musashi to render indirect assistance to the Ouchi cause. In truth,
from an early period of Kamakura's tenure by an Ashikaga
governor-general of the Kwanto, there had been an ambition to
transfer the office of shogun from the Kyoto to the Kamakura branch
of the family. The matter was not mooted during Takauji's lifetime,
but when, on his demise, the comparatively incompetent Yoshiakira
came into power at Muromachi, certain military magnates of the
eastern provinces urged the Kamakura kwanryo, Motouji, to usurp his
brother's position. Motouji, essentially as loyal as he was astute,
spurned the proposition. But it was not so with his son and
successor, Ujimitsu. To him the ambition of winning the shogunate
presented itself strongly, and was only abandoned when Uesugi
Noriharu committed suicide to add weight to a protest against such an
essay. Japanese annals contain many records of lives thus sacrificed
on the altar of devotion and loyalty. From the outset the Uesugi
family were the pillars of the Ashikaga kwanryo in Kamakura. Uesugi
Noriaki served as shitsuji in the time of the first kwanryo, and the
same service was rendered by Noriaki's son, Yoshinori, and by the
latter's nephew, Tomomune, in the time of the second kwanryo,
Ujimitsu. Confusing as are the multitude of names that confront the
foreign student of Japanese history, it is necessary to note that
from the time of their appointment as shitsuji at Kamakura, Yoshinori
took the family name of Yamanouchi, and Tomomune that of Ogigayatsu.
Balked in his design against Kyoto, Ujimitsu turned his hand against
the Nitta, old enemies of his family, and crushing them, placed the
Ashikaga power on a very firm basis in the Kwanto. His son,
Mitsukane, had the gift of handling troops with great skill, and in
his time the prestige of the Kamakura kwanryo reached its highest
point.
In the eyes of the military men of the eastern provinces, the
shogun in distant Kyoto counted for little compared with the
governor-general in adjacent Kamakura. The latter's mansion was
called gosho (palace); its occupant was termed kubo, an epithet
hitherto applied to the shogun only, and the elder and younger
branches of the Uesugi family, in which the office of kwanryo of
Muromachi was hereditary, were designated Ryo Uesugi (the Two
Uesugi). Mitsukane, when he abetted the Ouchi's attempt to overthrow
the Kyoto shogun, persuaded himself that he was only carrying out his
father's unachieved purpose, and the shogun, Yoshimitsu, took no step
to punish him, preferring to accept his overtures--made through
Uesugi Tomomune.
THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF YOSHIMITSU
There is little question that whatever applause history can extend to
the administration of the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu, was won
for him by his profoundly sagacious guardian and chief minister,
Hosokawa Yoriyuki. After the latter's death, in 1392, many abuses and
few meritorious acts appear in the shogun's record. Alike, the wise
self-effacement and the admirable frugality which distinguished the
Hojo rule were wholly foreign to the mood of Yoshimitsu. He insisted
on being raised to the post of chancellor of the empire, and he
openly spoke of himself as "king," designating as Go-sekke (Five
Regent Houses) the families of Shiba, Hosokawa, Hatakeyama, Rokkaku,
and Yumana. At the ceremony of his investiture as chancellor (dajo
daijiri) he presented to the Throne a sword forged by Kunimitsu; one
hundred pieces of white silk; one thousand silver coins; ten tigers'
skins, and fifty pounds of dyed silk. To the ex-Emperor he gave a
thousand silver coins; fifty pieces of white silk, and a sword, and
among the Imperial princes and Court nobles he distributed ten
thousand pieces of silver. Such was his parade of opulence.
ENGRAVING: ASHIKAGA YOSHIMITSU
The chief obstacle to conferring on him the title of chancellor had
been that the records contained only one instance of a military man's
appointment to that exalted post. That instance was Taira no
Kiyomori, whose example should have been deterrent to a Minamoto.
Yoshimitsu overcame the difficulty by nominally transferring his
military functions to his son Yoshimochi (1423), and constituting
himself the patron of literature. It was now that his love of luxury
and splendour assumed its full dimensions. He had already beautified
his Muromachi mansion by constructing there a park so spacious and so
brilliant at all seasons that it went by the name of Hana no Gosho
(Palace of Flowers). This he now assigned as a residence for his son
and successor, Yoshimochi, transferring his own place of abode to the
site occupied by the Saionji family, to whom was given in exchange an
extensive manor in Kawachi. Here the Ashikaga chancellor built a
palace of such dimensions that sixteen superintendents and twenty
assistant superintendents were required to oversee the work. Most
conspicuous was the Kinkaku-ji, or golden pavilion shrine, so called
because its interior was gilt, the gold foil being thickly superposed
on lacquer varnish. On this edifice, on the adjacent palace, and on a
park where deer roamed and noble pine trees hung over their own
shadows in a picturesque lake, immense sums were expended. Works of
art were collected from all quarters to enhance the charm of a palace
concerning which the bonze Sekkei declared that it could not be
exchanged for paradise.
Yoshimitsu prayed the Emperor to visit this unprecedentedly beautiful
retreat and Go-Komatsu complied. During twenty days a perpetual round
of pastimes was devised for the entertainment of the sovereign and
the Court nobles--couplet composing, music, football, boating,
dancing, and feasting. All this was typical of the life Yoshimitsu
led after his resignation of the shogun's office. Pleasure trips
engrossed his attention--trips to Ise, to Yamato, to Hyogo, to
Wakasa, and so forth. He set the example of luxury, and it found
followers on the part of all who aimed at being counted fashionable,
with the inevitable result that the producing classes were taxed
beyond endurance. It has to be noted, too, that although Yoshimitsu
lived in nominal retirement at his Kita-yama palace, he really
continued to administer the affairs of the empire.
INTERNATIONAL HUMILIATION
It is not for arrogance, or yet for extravagance, that Japanese
historians chiefly reproach Yoshimitsu. His unpardonable sin in their
eyes is that he humiliated his country. From the accession of the
Ming dynasty (1368) China made friendly overtures to Japan,
especially desiring the latter to check the raids of her corsairs
who, as in the days of the Hojo after the repulse of the Mongol
armada, so also in the times of the Ashikaga, were a constant menace
to the coastwise population of the neighbouring continent. Upon the
attitude of the shogun towards these remonstrances and overtures
depended the prosecution of commerce with the Middle Kingdom, and the
profits accruing from that commerce were too considerable to be
neglected by a ruler like Yoshimitsu, whose extravagance required
constant accessions of revenue. Moreover, the Muromachi shogun was a
disciple and patron of the Zen sect of Buddhism, and the priests of
that sect always advocated peaceful intercourse with China, the
source of philosophic and literary learning.
All these considerations induced the Ashikaga chief not only to issue
orders for the restraint of the corsairs, but also to receive from
the Chinese Court despatches in which he was plainly designated the
king of a country tributary to China, and to make answer in language
unequivocally endorsing the propriety of such terminology. In one
despatch, dated February, 1403, Yoshimitsu described himself as a
"subject of Ming" and, "prostrate, begged to present twenty horses,
ten thousand catties of sulphur, thirty-two pieces of agate, three
gold-foil folding screens, one thousand lances, one hundred swords, a
suit of armour, and an ink-stone." It is recorded that he even
humbled himself so far as to ask for supplies of Chinese coins, and
certainly these comparatively pure copper tokens remained largely in
circulation in Japan down to Tokugawa times, under the name of
Eiraku-tsuho, Eiraku being the Japanese sound of the Chinese
year-period, Yunglo (1403-1422).
DEATH OF YOSHIMITSU
Yoshimitsu died in 1408. He was accorded by the Court the posthumous
rank of Dajo Tenno (ex-Emperor), a proof of the extraordinary
confusion of etiquette caused by his arrogant pretensions. The
Chinese sovereign, Yunglo, sent a message of sympathy to the Japanese
potentate's son, Yoshimochi, in which the deceased was designated
"Prince Kung-hsien," but Yoshimochi, though not distinguished for
ability, had sufficient wisdom ultimately to adopt the advice of the
kwanryo, Shiba Yoshimasa, and to decline the rank of Dajo Tenno, as
well as to break off relations with the Ming ruler. Yoshimochi also
handed over the magnificent edifice at Kita-yama to the Buddhist
priesthood.
THE EMPEROR SHOKO
In 1412, the Emperor Go-Komatsu abdicated in favour of his son Shoko
(101st sovereign), then twelve years old. This sovereign abandoned
himself to the profligacy of the era. It is doubtful whether his
reason was not unhinged. Some accounts say that he fell into a state
of lunacy; others, that he practised magic arts. At all events he
died childless in 1428, and was succeeded by a grandson of the
Emperor Suko, Go-Hanazono, then in his tenth year. Thus, the claims
of the Southern dynasty were ignored twice consecutively, and its
partisans made armed protests in the provinces, as has been already
noted. But these struggles proved abortive, and thereafter history is
no more troubled with such episodes. The Daikagu-ji line disappears
altogether from view, and the throne is occupied solely by
representatives of the Jimyo-in. There can be very little doubt that
the former was the legitimate branch; but fortune was against it.
YOSHIMOCHI, YOSHIKAZU, AND YOSHINORI
Yoshimochi, son of Yoshimitsu, became shogun (1395) at the age of
nine, and the administration was conducted by Hosokawa Mitsumoto,
Shiba Yoshishige, and Hatakeyama Mitsuiye. Twenty-eight years later,
that is to say, in 1423, he abdicated in favour of his son,
Yoshikazu. The cause of that step deserves notice. Yoshimitsu had
intended to pass over Yoshimochi, his first-born, in favour of his
second son, Yoshitsugu, but death prevented the consummation of that
design. Yoshimochi, however, knew that it had been entertained.
Therefore, after the death of their father, he seized Yoshitsugu,
threw him into prison, and ultimately caused him to be killed. With
the blood of his younger brother on his hands he abdicated in favour
of his own sixteen-year-old son, Yoshikazu. But the latter died--some
historians say that dissipation destroyed him--in two years, and
having no second son to succeed, Yoshimochi himself resumed the
office of shogun, holding it until his death, in 1428.
During his thirty-three years' tenure of power this ruler seems to
have aimed solely at enjoying the sweets of ease and tranquillity. He
left the provinces severely alone and thought only of the peace of
the metropolis. Turbulent displays on the part of self-appointed
partisans of the Southern Court; intrigues in the Kwanto; revolts
among his own immediate followers--all these things were treated by
Yoshimochi with gloved hands so long as the atmosphere of Kyoto was
not troubled. In 1428, he fell sick, and, the end being in sight, he
ordered his advisers to consult about his successor. Some advocated
the appointment of his kinsman, Mochiuji, governor-general of the
Kwanto, and Mochiuji himself prayed that it should be so. But the
choice ultimately fell on Yoshimochi's younger brother, Gien, who had
embraced religion and was then serving as abbot of the temple
Shoren-in.
This man, then in his thirty-fourth year, hesitated to accept the
nomination, but was induced to do so. He changed his name to
Yoshinori, and assuming the office in 1428, showed high talents and
great intrepidity. He was, in truth, a ruler as efficient as his
predecessor had been perfunctory. One of the most important events of
his time was the ruin of the Ashikaga Bakufu at Kamakura. Between
Kamakura and Muromachi there had been friction from an early date. We
have seen the second and third governors-general of the Kwanto,
Ujimitsu and Mitsukane, plotting to supplant the elder branch of
their family in Kyoto, and we have seen how the accession of the
priest, Yoshinori, had disappointed the ambition of the fourth
governor-general, Mochiuji, who, if unable to become shogun himself,
would fain have obtained that high office for his son, Yoshihisa.
Several years previously, namely, in 1417, there had occurred a feud
between the Yamanouchi and the Ogigayatsu branches of the Uesugi
family in the Kwanto, the former represented by Norimoto, the latter
by Ujinori. The Uesugi stood next to the Ashikaga at Kamakura, the
important office of manager (shitsuji) being invariably held by the
head of the former house. It would have been well-nigh impossible
therefore for the governor-general to view such a feud with
indifference. Mochiuji, then in his twentieth year, sympathized with
Norimoto, and in the sequel, Ujinori, with whom was allied Mochiuji's
younger brother, Mochinaka, took the field at the head of such a
force that the governor-general must have succumbed had not the
shogun, Yoshimochi, rendered aid.
This should have placed Kamakura under a heavy debt of gratitude to
Muromachi. But Mochiuji was not subject to such emotions. He rebelled
vehemently against the lenient treatment accorded to Ujinori's son
after their father's death, and the shogun had difficulty in
placating him. So long, however, as Yoshimochi ruled in Kyoto, the
Kamakura kwanrya abstained from further intrigues; but on the
accession of the sometime bonze, Yoshinori, to the shogunate, all
sense of restraint was removed. The governor-general now made no
attempt to conceal his hostility to the Muromachi shogun. Certain
family rights imperatively demanding reference to the shogun were not
so referred, and Mochiuji not only spurned the remonstrances of the
manager (shitsuji), Uesugi Norimoto, but even attempted to kill the
latter's son, Norizane. All efforts to reconcile the Kwanto and the
shitsuji proved futile, and Norizane had to flee to Kotsuke. No
sooner did these things come to the ears of the shogun, Yoshinori,
than he obtained an Imperial commission to quell the insurgents, and
placing an army under the orders of Mochifusa, a son of Ujinori,
directed him to march against Kamakura.
At first it seemed as if the Kamakura men would emerge victorious. At
the easily defended passes of Hakone they inflicted several
successive though not signal defeats upon Mochifusa's army. But the
appearance of Norizane in the field quickly changed the complexion of
the campaign. Very soon the Kamakura force was shattered, and
Mochiuji himself fled to the temple Shomyo-ji in Kanazawa, where he
begged to be allowed to retire from the world. But the shogun
declined to pardon him and remained obdurate in spite of earnest and
repeated petitions from Norizane, praying that Mochiuji should be
forgiven and allowed to retire in favour of his son, Yoshihisa. In
the end, Mochiuji, his son, his uncle, and many others all died by
their own hands. These things happened in 1439. The redeeming feature
of the sombre family feud was the fine loyalty of Norizane. Though it
had been against him chiefly that Mochiuji raged, and though his
death was certain had he fallen under the power of the Kamakura
kwanryo, Mochiuji's fate caused him such remorse that he attempted to
commit suicide and finally became a priest. Thenceforth, the title of
governor-general of the Kwanto passed to the Uesugi, two of whom were
appointed to act simultaneously. As for the Kamakura Ashikaga, the
three remaining sons of Mochiuji fled to Koga in Shimosa, where two
of them were subsequently killed by a Kamakura army, and the third,
Shigeuji, fared as has already been described.
ASSASSINATION OF THE SHOGUN
It has been shown that Akamatsu Norimura was among the captains who
contributed most to the triumph of the Ashikaga cause. In recognition
of his distinguished services the offices of high constable in the
five provinces of Settsu, Inaba, Harima, Mimasaka, and Bizen were
given to his three sons. Mitsusuke, grandson of the eldest of these,
administered three of the above provinces in the days of the fourth
Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimochi. A puny man of contemptible presence,
Mitsusuke received little consideration at Muromachi, and the shogun
was induced to promise his office of high constable to a handsome
kinsman, Mochisada. Enraged at such partiality, Mitsusuke set fire to
his mansion in Kyoto and withdrew to his castle at Shirahata in
Harima. When, however, the shogun would have sent an army against
him, none was found to take command, Mochisada having given universal
offence by his haughty arrogance. In the sequel, Mitsusuke had to be
pardoned and Mochisada ordered to kill himself.
After the death of the shogun, Yoshimochi, Mitsusuke fell into fresh
trouble. The new shogun, Yoshinori, belonged to a very different
category of men from his immediate predecessors. He conquered the
Kitabatake family in Ise; repressed the remnants of the Southern
Court league; crushed the military monks by capturing Nara and
Hiei-zan; put an end finally to Kamakura's intrigues; obtained
control of the west, and quelled his enemies in all directions. It
now became his task to bend to his will the overstrong and
over-presumptuous among the concerted families of the Ashikaga.
Foremost of these were the Akamatsu, their chief, a man whose
personality invited contumely. The shogun disliked Mitsusuke, and
found it an agreeable occupation to slight him. Gradually the
Akamatsu leader became bitterly estranged. Moreover, he saw his
younger sister executed for disobedience though she was the shogun's
mistress; he saw the nephew of his old enemy, Mochisada, treated with
marked favour by the Muromachi potentate, and he learned, truly or
untruly, that his own office of high constable was destined to be
bestowed on this favourite.
It was now the time when Kamakura's mischievous potentialities had
been finally destroyed, and to commemorate the event, entertainments
in the shogun's honour were organized by the heads of the great
military families. On the 6th of August, 1441, it fell to Akamatsu
Mitsusuke to act as his host. So soon as the shogun and his personal
attendants had passed the portals of the Akamatsu mansion, the horses
in the stables were set free as though by accident; the gates were
closed to prevent the escape of the animals; Yoshinori with his small
retinue, being thus caught in a trap, were butchered; the mansion was
fired, and Mitsusuke with seven hundred followers rode off in broad
daylight to his castle in Harima, whence, assisted by the monk,
Gison, he sent circulars in all directions inciting to revolt. Thus
miserably perished a ruler whose strong hand, active brain, and
fearless measures, had he been spared a few years longer, might have
saved his country from some of the terrible suffering she was
destined to undergo in the century and a half subsequent to his
death. He did not live long enough to reach a high place in history.
But all his measures were designed to make for the eradication of
immorality and corruption, and for the restoration of law and order
throughout the country. His fault seems to have been precipitancy. So
many suffered by his reforms, and in such quick succession, that the
hatred he provoked could scarcely have been kept within control. In
the matter of finance, too, he resorted, as will be presently seen,
to devices quite irreconcilable with just administration.
YOSHIKATSU AND YOSHIMASA
The murder of Yoshinori left the shogun's office without any
designate occupant, but the heads of the great military families lost
no time in electing Yoshikatsu*, the eight-year-old son of Yoshinori,
and at the latter's nominal instance the Emperor ordered him to
attack his father's assassin. The three Yamana chiefs, Mochitoyo
(called also Sozen, or the "Red Monk," one of the ablest captains of
his country), Noriyuki, and Norikiyo; the Hosokawa chief, Mochitsune;
and Sadamura, representing the Akamatsu family, all joined forces for
the expedition, and presently an army of fifty thousand men sat down
before Shirahata Castle. In October, 1441, the stronghold fell.
Mitsusuke perished, and the three provinces he had administered were
transferred to the Yamana--Harima to Mochitoyo, Mimasaka to Norikiyo,
and Bizen to Noriyuki.
*To be distinguished from Yoshikazu (shogun 1423-1425), son of
Yoshimochi.
We have seen how, in 1392, the Yamana family was shattered in a
revolt against the authority of the shogun, Yoshimitsu. We now see
the fortunes of the family thoroughly rehabilitated. The young
shogun, however, did not long survive the punishment of his father's
murderers. He died in 1443, at the age of ten, and was succeeded by
his brother Yoshimasa, then in his eighth year. During the latter's
minority, the administration fell into the hands of Hatakeyama
Mochikuni and Hosokawa Katsumoto, who held the office of Muromachi
kwanryo alternately. The country now began to experience the
consequences of Yoshinori's death before his plans to limit the power
of the great military septs had matured. Disorder became the normal
condition in the provinces. The island of Kyushu took the lead. There
the Shoni, the Kikuchi, the Otomo, and the Shiba had always defied a
central authority, and now Norishige, a younger brother of the
assassin, Akamatsu Mitsusuke; found among them supporters of a scheme
to restore the fortunes of his house. In the Kwanto partisans of the
late kwanryo, Mochiuji, raised their heads. In the home provinces the
warrior-priests of Nara sought to avenge the chastisement they had
suffered at Yoshinori's hands, and among the immediate entourage of
Muromachi, the Hosokawa, the Hatakeyama, the Shiba, and others
engaged in desperate struggles about questions of succession.
ENGRAVING: ASHIKAGA YOSHIMASA
THE TOKUSEI
Even when he reached man's estate, Yoshimasa proved wholly
incompetent to deal with these complications. He abandoned himself to
dissipation and left everything, great or small, to be managed by his
wife, Fujiwara Tomiko, and by his consort, Kasuga no Tsubone. Bribery
and corruption were the motive forces of the time. The innocent were
punished; the unworthy rewarded. The shogun remained indifferent
even when his mandates were neglected or contravened. The building
of splendid residences, the laying out of spacious parks, the
gratification of luxurious tastes, and the procuring of funds to
defray the cost of his vast extravagance--these things occupied his
entire attention.
Associated with the Ashikaga shogunate is a financial device known in
history as tokusei, a term signifying "virtuous administration."
Originally imported from China, the tokusei meant nothing more than
a temporary remission of taxes in times of distress. But during
the financial straits to which the country was reduced after the
Mongol invasion, the Hojo deemed it necessary to afford relief to
landowners who had mortgaged their property, and thus, in 1297, a
law--tokusei-rei--was enacted, providing that eviction for debt must
not be enforced. Under the Ashikaga, the tokusei received a still
wider import. It was interpreted as including all debts and pecuniary
obligations of any kind. In other words, the promulgation of a
tokusei ordinance meant that all debtors, then and there, obtained
complete relief. The law was not construed exactly alike everywhere.
Thus, in Nara a debtor must discharge one-third of his obligation
before claiming exemption, and elsewhere a nominal sum had to be paid
for release. Naturally, legislation so opposed to the fundamental
principles of integrity led to flagrant abuses. Forced by riotous
mobs, or constrained by his own needs, the Muromachi shogun issued
tokusei edicts again and again, incurring the hot indignation of the
creditor class and disturbing the whole economic basis of society.
Yoshimasa was conspicuously reckless; he put the tokusei system into
force thirteen times.
EXTRAVAGANCE AND INCOMPETENCE OF YOSHIMASA
It is stated in the records of the Onin era (1467-1469) that
Yoshimasa subordinated his duties altogether to his pleasures, and
that his thoughts seemed to turn wholly on banquets and fetes. His
favourites, especially females, had the control of affairs and were
the final arbiters in all important matters. Thus, a domain which had
been in the undisputed possession of a family for generations might
be alienated in favour of any claimant sufficiently unscrupulous and
sufficiently rich to "commend" his title, and a judgment delivered by
a court of law in the morning was liable to be reversed in the
evening by the fiat of the ladies in the Muromachi "palace."
Stability of policy had no existence. In a period of twenty-four
years (1444-1468), three sentences each of punishment and pardon were
pronounced in the case of the Hatakeyama family, and in twenty years,
Yoshikado and Yoshitoshi of the Shiba sept were each punished and
pardoned three times. In Kyoto it became a current saying that loyal
acts, not evil deeds, were penalized, and the truth of the comment
found confirmation in the case of an official, Kumagaya, who was
dismissed from his post and deprived of his property for venturing to
memorialize the shogun in a critical manner.
These same records of the Onin year-period also make clear that one
of the factors chiefly responsible for the disturbance was
Yoshimasa's curious lack of sympathy with the burdens of the people.
Even one grand ceremony in the course of from five to six years
sufficed to empty the citizens' pockets. But in Yoshimasa's time
there Were nine of such fetes in five years, and four of them had no
warrant whatever except pleasure seeking--as a performance of the
Sarugaku mime on an immense scale; a flower-viewing party; an
al-fresco entertainment, and a visit to the cherry blossoms. On each
of these occasions the court officials and the military men had to
pawn their estates and sell their heirlooms in order to supply
themselves with sufficiently gorgeous robes, and the sequel was the
imposition of house taxes and land taxes so heavy that the provincial
farmers often found vagrancy more lucrative than agricultural
industry. Pawnshops were mercilessly mulcted. In the days of
Yoshimitsu, they were taxed at each of the four seasons; in
Yoshinori's time the same imposts were levied once a month, and under
Yoshimasa's rule the pawnbrokers had to pay nine times in November,
1466, and eight times in December of the same year.
Even after full allowance has been made for exaggeration, natural in
the presence of such extravagance, there remains enough to convict
Yoshimasa of something like a mania for luxury. He built for himself
a residence so splendid that it went by the name of the Palace of
Flowers (Hana no Gosho) and of materials so costly that the outlay
totalled six hundred thousand strings of cash;* and he built for his
mother, Shigeko, a mansion concerning which it is recorded that two
of the sliding doors for the interior cost twenty thousand strings.**
Yet at times this same Yoshimasa was reduced to such straits for
money that we read of him borrowing five hundred "strings" on the
security of his armour, to pay for a parturition chamber.
*£4,500,000--$22,000,000.
**£150,000--$7,300,000.
The Palace of Flowers came into existence in 1459, just on the eve of
a period of natural calamities which culminated in famine and
pestilence. In 1462, these conditions were at their worst. From
various, provinces people flocked to the capital seeking food, and
deaths from starvation became frequent in the city. A Buddhist
priest, Gwana, constructed grass huts to which the famished sufferers
were carried on bamboo stretchers to be fed with soft, boiled millet.
It is recorded that, during the first two months of 1462, the number
of persons thus relieved totalled eighty-two thousand. Another
Buddhist priest erected a monument to the dead found in the bed of
the river below the bridge, Gojo. They aggregated twelve hundred.
Scores of corpses received no burial, and the atmosphere of the city
was pervaded with a shocking effluvium.
But even the presence of these horrors does not seem to have sobered
the Muromachi profligate. The costly edifices were pushed on and the
people's resources continued to be squandered. Even the Emperor,
Go-Hanazono, was sufficiently shocked to compose a couplet indirectly
censuring Yoshimasa, and a momentary sense of shame visited the
sybarite. But only momentary. We find him presently constructing in
the mansion of his favourite retainer, Ise Sadachika, a bath-house
which was the wonder of the time, a bath-house where the bathers were
expected to come robed in the most magnificent costumes. One of the
edifices that formed part of his palace after his retirement from
active life, in 1474, was a "Silver Pavilion" intended to rival the
"Golden Pavilion" of his ancestor, Yoshimitsu. During the last
sixteen years of his life--he died in 1490--he patronized art with a
degree of liberality that atones for much of his previous profligacy.
In the halls of the Jisho-ji monastery, constructed on a grand scale
as his retreat in old age, he collected chefs d'oeuvre of China and
Japan, so that the district Higashi-yama where the building stood
became to all ages a synonym for choice specimens, and there, too, he
instituted the tea ceremonial whose votaries were thenceforth
recognized as the nation's arbitri elegantiarum. Landscape gardens
also occupied his attention. Wherever, in province or in capital, in
shrine, in temple, in private house, or in official residence, any
quaintly shaped rock or picturesque tree was found, it was
immediately requisitioned for the park of Higashi-yama-dono, as men
then called Yoshimasa, and under the direction of a trio of great
artists, So-ami, Gei-ami, and No-ami, there grew up a plaisance of
unprecedented beauty, concerning which a poet of the time wrote that
"every breeze coming thence wafted the perfume of tea." The pastimes
of "listening to incense," of floral arrangement, of the dramatic
mime, and of the parlour farce were all practised with a zest which
provoked the astonishment even of contemporary annalists.
ENGRAVING: A PICNIC DURING THE FLOWER SEASON IN THE ASHIKAGA PERIOD
All this contributed materially to educate the nation's artistic
faculties, but the cost was enormous and the burden of taxation
correspondingly heavy. It was under this financial pressure that
Yoshimasa approached the Ming emperor seeking pecuniary aid. Thrice
the shogun's applications were successful, and the amounts thus
obtained are said to have totalled three hundred thousand strings of
cash (equivalent of £450,000, or $2,200,000). His requests are said
to have assumed the guise of appeals in behalf of famine-stricken
people, but there is no evidence that any of the presents were
devoted to that purpose. Partial apologists for Yoshimasa's
infatuation are not wanting. Thus, it is alleged that he was weary of
failure to reform the administration; that the corruption and
confusion of society induced him to seek consolation in art; that
outside the precincts of his palace he was restrained by the
provincial magnates, and inside he had to obey the dictation of his
wife, Tomi, of her brother, Katsumitsu, and of his own favourite
page, Ise Sadachika, so that only in his tea reunions and his private
theatricals could a semblance of independence be obtained; that his
orders were not obeyed or his injunctions respected by any save the
artists he had gathered around him, and that in gratifying his
luxurious tastes, he followed the example of his grandfather,
Yoshimitsu. But such exculpations amount to saying that he was an
essentially weak man, the slave of his surroundings.
THE KWANTO TUMULT
The lawlessness of the time and the indifference with which the
shogun's mandates were treated find illustration in the story of the
Kwanto. When (1439) Mochiuji perished, the only member of his family
that survived was his five-year-old son, Shigeuji. This child placed
himself under the protection of Muromachi. It will be remembered that
Uesugi Norizane, lamenting his unwilling share in Mochiuji's
destruction, had entered religion. His son, Noritada, was then
appointed to act as manager (shitsuji) to Shigeuji, his colleague
being Uesugi Akifusa (Ogigayatsu Uesugi). But the Yuki family, who
had given shelter to two sons of Mochiuji, objected to bow their
heads to the Uesugi, and persuaded Shigeuji to have Noritada killed.
Therefore, the partisans of the murdered man placed themselves under
the banner of his brother, Fusaaki, and having received a commission
from Muromachi as well as a powerful contingent of troops under
Imagawa Noritada, they marched in great force against Kamakura from
Kotsuke, Kazusa, and Echigo.
Kamakurawas well-nigh reduced to ruins, but Shigeuji retired to the
fortress of Koga in Shimosa, and his cause against the Uesugi was
espoused by the eight families of Chiba, Koyama, Satomi, Satake, Oda,
Yuki, Utsunomiya, and Nasu, thenceforth known as the "eight generals"
of the Kwanto. Against such a league it was difficult to operate
successfully. Masatomo, a younger brother of Yoshimasa, built for
himself a fortress at Horigoe, in Izu, which was thereafter known as
Horigoe Gosho (the Horigoe Palace), Shigeuji in his castle of Koga
being designated Koga Kuba (the Koga shogun). Castle building
acquired from this time greatly increased vogue. Uesugi Mochitomo
fortified Kawagoe in Musashi; Ota Sukenaga (called also Dokan), a
vassal of the Ogigayatsu Uesugi, built at Yedo a fort destined to
have world-wide celebrity, and his father, Sukekiyo, entrenched
Iwatsuki in the same province of Musashi. Thus the Kwanto became the
arena of warring factions.
PREFACE TO THE ONIN WAR
We now arrive at a chapter of Japanese history infinitely perplexing
to the reader. It is generally called the Onin War because the
struggle described commenced in the year-period of that name, but
whereas the Onin period lasted only two years (1467-1469), the Onin
War continued for eleven years and caused shocking destruction of
life and property. When war is spoken of, the mind naturally
conjectures a struggle between two or perhaps three powers for a
cause that is respectable from some points of view. But in the Onin
War a score of combatants were engaged, and the motive was invariably
personal ambition. It has been described above that when the Ashikaga
chief, Takauji, undertook to re-establish the Minamoto Bakufu, he
essayed to overcome opposition by persuasion rather than by force.
Pursuing that policy, he bestowed immense estates upon those that
yielded to him, so that in time there came into existence holders of
lands more extensive than those belonging to the shogun himself.
Thus, while the landed estates of the Muromachi shogun measured only
15,798 cho* there were no less than eight daimyo more richly endowed.
They were:
*A cho at that time represented 3 acres. It is now 2.5 acres.
Daimyo Area of Estates in cho (3 acres)
(1) Yanada Takasuke 32,083
(2) Uesugi Akisada 27,239
(3) Ouchi Mochiyo 25,435
(4) Hosokawa Katsumoto 24,465
(5) Shiba Mochitane 23,576
(6) Sasaki Takayori 16,872
(7) Hatakeyama Yoshmari 16,801
(8) Sasaki Mochikiyo 16,725
If we examine the list still more minutely, we find no less than
twenty-two families, each of whose estates was equal to, or larger
than, one-half of the Muromachi manors. Some families consisted of
several branches whose aggregate properties represented an immense
area. This was notably the case of the Yamana; their five branches
held lands totalling 45,788 cho. The owners of such estates must not
be confounded with the high constables (shugo). Thus Yamana Sozen, as
the high constable of Harima province, held administrative authority
in fourteen districts covering an area of 10,414 cho, and if to this
be added the expanse of his fief, namely, 8016 cho, we get a total
nearly equal to the manors of Hosokawa Katsumoto. Again, Shiba
Yoshitoshi, in addition to owning 10,816 cho, officiated as tandai of
Kyushu, which gave him jurisdiction over another extent of 106,553
cho, though it is true that his authority was defied in the provinces
of Satsuma and Osumi. The military owner of one of these great
estates levied a revenue on a scale which will be presently
discussed, but the high constable was nominally empowered to collect
and transmit only such taxes as were payable to the Bakufu, namely,
the "military dues" (buke-yaku) and the "farmers' dues"
(hyakusho-yaku), whereof the former were originally assessed at two
per cent., and subsequently raised to five per cent., of a family
income; and the latter varied from one to two per cent, of a
homestead's earnings. So long as a high constable or a tandai was
loyal to the Bakufu, the latter received the appointed quota of
imposts; but in times of insurrection, the shugo or tandai
appropriated to his own purposes the proceeds alike of the buke-yaku
and the hyakusho-yaku.
Not merely inequalities of wealth operated to produce political
unrest. It has also to be noted that each great military family
supported a body of armed retainers whose services were at all times
available; further, we must remember that the long War of the
Dynasties had educated a wide-spread spirit of fighting, which the
debility of the Ashikaga Bakufu encouraged to action. The Onin
disturbance had its origin in disputes about inheritance. It has been
recorded that the high post of kwanryo (governor-general) in the
Muromachi polity was filled by a member of one of three families, the
Hosokawa, the Hatakeyama, and the Shiba. The Hosokawa were the most
powerful, and had for representative in the middle of the fifteenth
century an administrator, Katsumoto, who to extensive erudition and a
profound knowledge of medicine added very exceptional gifts of
statecraft and organizing ability. The Hatakeyama had for head
Mochikuni, called also Tokuhon, a man of parts; and it happened that
the rival family of Yamana was led by Mochitoyo, or Sozen, who, on
account of his powerful physique, shaved head, and peculiar
complexion, sometimes received the name of the "Red Monk"
(Aka-nyudo).
Tokuhon being without a legitimate son, adopted his nephew, Masanaga,
but subsequently desired to secure the succession to Yoshinari, a son
borne to him by a concubine. This change was not viewed with
equanimity by all the vassals of Tokuhon, and to solve the problem
the latter appealed to the shogun, Yoshimasa, who authorized the
death of Masanaga. Tokuhon, in his capacity of kwanryo, naturally had
much weight with the shogun, but Yoshimasa's conduct on that occasion
must be attributed mainly to a laisser-aller mood which he had then
developed, and which impelled him to follow the example set by the
Imperial Court in earlier times by leaving the military families in
the provinces to fight their own battles. Masanaga sought succour
from Hosokawa Katsumoto, and that magnate, welcoming the opportunity
of avenging an old injury at the hands of the Hatakeyama, laid siege
to the mansion of Tokuhon, who barely escaped with his life, his son,
Yoshinari, fleeing to the fortress of Wakae, in Kawachi, whence he
was presently driven by the forces of Katsumoto and Sozen, then
acting in conjunction but destined afterwards to become bitter
enemies.
The shogun, true to his complacent policy, now recognized Masanaga as
head of the house of Hatakeyama, Tokuhon having just died (1455). But
Yoshinari did not acquiesce. In 1456, he marched with a Kawachi army
against Masanaga, and a deadly struggle was barely prevented by the
intervention of the shogun. Thenceforth, the Hatakeyama became
divided into two families, Masanaga's branch being the more powerful,
but Yoshinari obtaining favour at Muromachi and being nominated
kwanryo. Owing, however, to some petty causes, the shogun's good-will
was subsequently estranged, and Yoshinari had to flee from Kyoto,
pursued by Masanaga, who now held a commission from Muromachi to kill
him. A seven-years' fight (1460-1467) ensued in Kawachi and Yamato.
Yoshinari displayed greatly superior skill as a strategist, and
finally Yamana Sozen, who had always entertained a good opinion of
him even while opposing his succession at the outset, openly espoused
Yoshinari's cause. The immediate result was that Masanaga, who had
been named kwanryo in 1464, had to give way to SOzen's nominee, Shiba
Yoshikado, and found himself in deadly peril.
It is necessary here to recall the murder of the shogun Yoshinori, in
1441. That crime had resulted in the fall of the Akamatsu family, the
direct agent of its overthrow being the united forces of Hosokawa,
Takeda, and Yamana. There were no bonds of genuine friendship between
the Hosokawa chief, Katsumoto, and Yamana Sozen. Their union was
primarily due to Katsumoto's ambition. He desired to break the power
of Hatakeyama Tokuhon, and with that ultimate object he courted the
alliance of Sozen, giving his own daughter to the latter in marriage
and himself adopting Sozen's son, Koretoyo. Thus, the two chiefs were
subsequently found acting together against Tokuhon's attempt to
substitute his son, albeit illegitimate, for his nephew, as heir to
the Hatakeyama estates. Neither Katsumoto nor Sozen cared anything
about the succession itself. Their object was simply to crush the
Hatakeyama; and Sozen, who never relied on argument where force was
applicable, lost no time in attacking Tokuhon and driving him from
his burning mansion, as has been already stated. From the legal
consequences of that violence, Sozen was saved by Katsumoto's
intercession at Muromachi, and the alliance (1454) between the
Hosokawa and the Yamana seemed stronger than ever. But Sozen did not
greatly trust his crafty ally, with whose gifts of political strategy
he was well acquainted. He suspected Katsumoto of a design to restore
the fortunes of the once powerful Akamatsu family, and he began to
muster forces for the great struggle which he anticipated. Therefore
it was that, in 1467, as shown above, he not only espoused the cause
of Hatakeyama Yoshinari, in whom he recognized an able captain, but
also championed Shiba Yoshikado.
With regard to this latter, it is necessary to recognize that he also
figured in a succession dispute. The great family of Shiba being
without a direct heir, a relative was appointed to the headship in
1452. This successor, Yoshitoshi, attempting to enforce the
acquiescence of one of his vassals, was defeated and became a
fugitive, a successor, Yoshikado, being nominated by the Shiba
vassals. But a sister of the fugitive subsequently married the
shogun's favourite, Ise Sadachika, and through her influence the
shogun was induced (1466) to recall Yoshitoshi and to declare him
rightful head of the Shiba family. Yamana Sozen, who had given his
daughter in marriage to Yoshitoshi's rival, Yoshikado, immediately
set a powerful army in motion for Kyoto, and the alarmed shogun
(Yoshimasa) not only recognized Yoshikado and drove out Yoshitoshi,
but also nominated the former to be kwanryo.
From this grievously complicated story the facts which emerge
essentially and conspicuously are: first, that Yamana Sozen now
occupied the position of champion to representatives of the two great
families of Hatakeyama and Shiba; secondly, that the rival successors
of these families looked to Hosokawa Katsumoto for aid; thirdly, that
the relations between Sozen and Katsumoto had become very strained,
and fourthly, that the issue at stake in every case was never more
lofty than personal ambition.. The succession to the shogunate also
was in dispute. Yoshimasa, being childless, desired to adopt as his
heir his younger brother who had entered religion under the name of
Gijin. The latter declined the honour until Yoshimasa swore that were
a son subsequently born to him, it should be made a priest but never
a shogun. Gijin then took the name of Yoshimi, and was for a time
recognized as heir-apparent, Hosokawa Katsumoto being appointed
manager (shitsuji). Presently, however, the shogun's consort, Tomi,
gave birth to a boy, Yoshihisa, and the mother persuaded Yoshimasa to
contrive that her son should supplant the sometime priest. Of
necessity, the aid of Sozen was sought to accomplish this scheme,
Katsumoto being already officially attached to Yoshimi. The Yamana
chief readily assented, and thus the situation received its final
element, a claimant whose right rested on a deliberately violated
oath.
THE ONIN WAR
By the close of 1466, the two great protagonists, Katsumoto and
Sozen, had quietly collected in Kyoto armies estimated at 160,000 and
110,000 men, respectively. The shogun attempted to limit the area of
disturbance by ordering that the various rival inheritors should be
left to fight their own battles, and by announcing that whoever
struck the first blow in their behalf would be proclaimed a rebel.
Such injunctions were powerless, however, to restrain men like Sozen.
In February, 1467, his followers attacked the former kwanryo,
Hatakeyama Masanaga, and drove him from the capital. Katsumoto made
no move, however; he remained on the watch, confident that thus the
legitimacy of his cause would obtain recognition. In fact, the shogun
was actually under guard of the Hosokawa troops, who, being encamped
on the east and north of Muromachi, received the name of the Eastern
Army; the Yamana forces, which were massed on the west and south,
being distinguished as the Western Army.
It was evident that if either side retreated, the other would
perforce be acknowledged by the Bakufu, and both were reluctant to
put their fortunes to the final test. At length, early in July, 1467,
a petty skirmish precipitated a general engagement. It was
inconclusive, and the attitude of mutual observation was resumed. Two
months later re-enforcements reached the Western Army, and
thereafter, for nearly two years, victory rested with the Yamana. But
Katsumoto clung desperately to his position. Kyoto was reduced almost
completely to ruins, the Imperial palace, Buddhist temples, and other
mansions being laid in ashes, countless rare works of art being
destroyed, and the Court nobles and other civil officials being
compelled to flee to the provinces for shelter. A celebrated poet of
the time said that the evening lark soared over moors where formerly
there had been palaces, and in the Onin Records it is stated that the
metropolis became a den for foxes and wolves, and that Imperial
mandates and religious doctrines were alike unheeded.
At one time things looked as though the ultimate triumph must be with
Sozen. But what Katsumoto lacked in military ability he more than
compensated in statecraft. From the outset he took care to legalize
his cause by inducing the Emperor and the ex-Emperor to remove to
Muromachi, where they were guarded by the Hosokawa troops, and the
defections to which this must ultimately expose Sozen's ranks were
supplemented by fomenting in the domains of the Yamana and their
allies intrigues which necessitated a diversion of strength from the
Kyoto campaign. Curious and intricate was the attitude of the
Hosokawa towards the rival aspirants to the shogunate. Sozen's aid,
as related above, had originally been invoked and exercised in behalf
of Yoshimasa, the shogun's son by the lady Tomi.
Hence, it is not surprising to find the Yamana leader turning his
back upon the sometime bonze, Yoshimi, in October, 1469. But it is
surprising to see him openly espouse this same Yoshimi's cause two
months later. The fact was that Sozen might not choose. He had been
outmanoeuvered by his astute opponent, who now held complete control
of the shogun, and who not only obtained an Imperial decree depriving
Yoshimi of his offices, but also contrived that, early in 1469, the
lady Tomi's four-year-old son, Yoshihisa, should be officially
declared heir to the shogunate. In this matter, Katsumoto's
volte-face had been nearly as signal as Sozen's, for the former was
Yoshimi's champion at the beginning. Henceforth the war assumed the
character of a struggle for the succession to the shogunate. The
crude diplomacy of the Yamana leader was unable to devise any
effective reply to the spectacular pageant of two sovereigns, a
shogun, and a duly-elected heir to the shogunate all marshalled on
the Hosokawa side. Nothing better was conceived than a revival of the
Southern dynasty, which had ceased to be an active factor
seventy-eight years previously. But this farce did little service to
the cause of the Yamana. By degrees the hostile forces withdrew from
the capital, of which the western half (called Saikyo) alone remained
intact, and the strategy of the hostile leaders became concerned
chiefly about preserving their own commissariat or depriving the
enemy of his.
In 1472, a new feature was introduced: Hatakeyama joined the Eastern
Army by order of the shogun, Yoshimasa. This was not merely a great
accession of numerical strength, it also opened the road to the north
where the Hatakeyama estates lay, and thus the Eastern Army found a
solution of the problem which dominated the situation at Kyoto--the
problem of provisions. The scale of success now swung in the
direction of Hosokawa and his allies. But still no crushing victory
was won, and meanwhile the war had continued seven years, with
immense loss of life and treasure. There is evidence that alike
Katsumoto and Sozen were fain to sheathe the sword in 1472, but
during the long struggle conditions had developed which rendered
peace difficult. In May, 1473, Sozen died and was followed to the
grave in less than a month by Katsumoto. Still the struggle went on
in a desultory way until December, 1477, when the Yamana forces
burned their cantonments and withdrew, Yoshimi coming to terms with
Muromachi and retiring to Mino. Peace at length dawned for Kyoto. But
not yet for the provinces. There the sword was not immediately
sheathed. In Echizen, Owari, and Totomi the great Shiba family was
subjected to weakening onsets by the Asakura, the Oda, and the
Imagawa. In Kaga, the Togashi house was divided against itself. In
Kyushu there were bitter struggles between the Shimazu and the Ito,
the Sagara and the Nawa, and the Otomo, the Shoni, and the Ouchi.
Finally, Shinano, Suruga, and Mikawa were all more or less convulsed.
YOSHIHISA
In 1474, Yoshimasa retired from office and, at the close of the year,
his nine-year-old son, Yoshihisa, succeeded him as shogun, the
kwanryo being that Hatakeyama Yoshinari whose appearance in the field
practically terminated the Onin War. The shogun Yoshimasa was in his
thirty-ninth year at the time of this abdication, and he survived for
sixteen years, not the least dissipated of his life, in which he
instituted costly art reunions and carried self-indulgence to its
extreme. During these years Tomi and her younger brother, Ise
Sadachika, acquired such influence as to interfere in the
administration, and under the pretext of procuring funds to rebuild
the palace destroyed during the Onin War, they restored the
toll-gates which had previously stood at the seven chief entrances to
Kyoto, appropriating all the proceeds.
The young Yoshihisa could scarcely fail to be tainted by such an
environment. Much to his credit, however, he showed sagacity and
diligence, eschewing his father's luxurious habits, studying
literature and military art, and taking lessons in statecraft from
the ex-regent, Ichijo Kaneyoshi. Very early he became familiar with
scenes of violence, for, goaded to madness by the taxes exacted at
the seven toll-gates, a mob of the metropolitan citizens rose in
arms, beat off the troops sent to quell them and threatened to sack
the city, when, they were appeased by the issue of a tokusei
ordinance, which, as already explained, meant the remission of all
debts and the cancellation of all financial obligations. Socialism in
such a genial form appealed not only to the masses but also to bushi
who had pledged their property as security for loans to meet warlike
outlays or the demands of luxurious extravagance.
Alike in the home provinces and in distant Kaga, Noto, Etchu, and the
south, tokusei riots took place. Notably incompatible with any
efficient exercise of Muromachi authority was the independence which
the provincial magnates had now learned to display. They levied what
taxes they pleased; employed the proceeds as seemed good to them;
enacted and administered their own laws; made war or peace as they
wished, and granted estates or revenues to their vassals at will. In
short, the bushi had gradually constructed for themselves a full suit
of feudal garments, and to bring them once again under the effective
control of the sovereign or the shogun was almost a hopeless task.
Yoshihisa might perhaps have refrained from attempting it had the
empire been at peace. But, in truth, the empire was on the threshold
of a century-long struggle compared with which the Onin War proved a
bagatelle. The mutterings of the coming storm made themselves very
audible during the years of Yoshihisa's early manhood. The Uesugi
septs, and the Hojo and the Satomi, were fighting in the Kwanto; the
western provinces, the central provinces, and Kyushu were the scenes
of constant conflicts, and no prospect of tranquillity presented
itself. Yoshihisa determined to undertake the work of subjugating the
whole country as Yoritomo had done effectually and as Takauji had
done partially. But he died in his twenty-fifth year when engaged in
conducting a campaign against the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki
family, in Omi province; a campaign which but for his death would
certainly have been successful.
YOSHITANE
Yoshihisa, whose death took place in 1489, left no son, and his
father, the ex-shogun Yoshimasa, made tardy atonement to his brother,
Yoshimi, the sometime priest, by obtaining the high office of shogun
for the latter's son, Yoshitane, a youth of twenty-five. In the
following year Yoshimasa died, and, two years later (1492), Yoshitane
placed himself at the head of an army to resume the Omi campaign
which Yoshihisa's death had interrupted. His opponent was of Minamoto
lineage, head of the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki family, whose
representative in the days of the Kamakura Bakufu had been high
constable of four provinces, Omi, Izumo, Aki, and Iwami.
That the shogun, Yoshihisa, and his successor, Yoshitane, turned
their weapons so resolutely against this magnate was due to a cause
illustrative of the abuses of the era. From the outset the Ashikaga
sway over the provinces had been a vanishing quantity, and had
disappeared almost entirely during the Onin War. Not alone did the
writ of the sovereign or the shogun cease to run in regions outside
Kyoto and its immediate vicinity, but also the taxes, though duly
collected, did not find their way to the coffers of either Muromachi
or the Court. Shugo there still existed, and jito and kokushi; but
neither high constable nor land-steward nor civil governor acted as
practical representative of any Central Government: each functioned
for his own hand, swallowing up for his own use, or for inclusion in
some local fief, the manors which had once been the property of the
State or of the Court nobility.
It was evidently of prime necessity from the Muromachi point of view
that a state of affairs which crippled the shogun by impoverishing
him should be remedied. Sasaki Takayori, head of the Rokkaku house,
was a conspicuous product of his time. He had seized the manors of
nearly fifty landowners in the province of Omi, and to punish his
aggressions signally would furnish a useful object lesson. That was
done effectually by Yoshitane's generals, and Sasaki had to flee from
Omi. But the young shogun's triumph was short lived. He allowed
himself to be drawn by Hatakeyama Masanaga into a private feud. We
have already seen this Masanaga engaged with Yoshinari in a struggle
for the Hatakeyama succession on the eve of the Onin War. Yoshinari
was no longer alive, but he had bequeathed to his son, Yoshitoyo, a
heritage of resentment against Masanaga, and the latter, who now held
the post of kwanryo for the fourth time, induced the shogun to order
an attack upon Yoshitoyo in the provinces of Kii and Kawachi. But
Yoshitoyo managed to enlist the aid of the recently discomfited
Sasaki, of the soldier-monks of Kofuku-ji, and, above all, of
Hosokawa Masamoto, son of Hatakeyama Masanaga's old opponent,
Hosokawa Katsumoto. With these co-operated the Yamana, the Isshiki,
and other septs, so that Yoshitane found himself between two powerful
armies, one in Kyoto, the other in Kii. In the sequel, Masanaga
committed suicide, and the shogun, Yoshitane, escaped to Suwo.
YOSHIZUMI AND YOSHIHARU
Hosokawa Masamoto was now master of the situation in Kyoto. It was
for him to nominate a new shogun in lieu of the fugitive Yoshitane.
He went to the Kwanto for a candidate. In 1461, Masatomo, brother of
Yoshimasa, had been nominated governor-general (kwanryo) of the eight
eastern provinces. His son, Yoshizumi, was chosen by Hosokawa to rule
at Muromachi, and Hosokawa himself became kwanryo. The new shogun
held office in name only; all administrative power was usurped by the
kwanryo and his nominees. Now, as Hosokawa Masamoto practised
asceticism for the better pursuit of necromancy, in which he was a
believer, he had no offspring. Therefore he adopted three sons: the
first, Sumiyuki, being the child of the regent, Fujiwara Masamoto;
the second and third, Sumimoto and Takakuni, being kinsmen of his
own. The first of these three was entrusted to Kasai Motochika; the
last two were placed in the care of Miyoshi Nagateru. These guardians
were Hosokawa's principal vassals in Shikoku, where they presently
became deadly rivals. Motochika, believing that Hosokawa's ultimate
intention was to elevate Sumimoto to the shogunate, in which event
the latter's guardian, Nagateru, would obtain a large access of
power, compassed the murder of Hosokawa, the kwanryo, and proclaimed
Sumiyuki head of the Hosokawa house. Thereupon Miyoshi Nagateru moved
up from Shikoku at the head of a strong army, and, after a fierce
conflict, Motochika and Sumiyuki were killed, and Sumimoto, then in
his eleventh year, became chief of the Hosokawa family, receiving
also the office of kwanryo.
The Motochika faction, however, though defeated, were not destroyed.
They conceived the plan of reinstating the shogun, Yoshitane, then a
fugitive in the province of Suwo, and of securing the office of
kwanryo for Takakuni, third son (by adoption) of the late Hosokawa
Masamoto. The powerful Ouchi sept, which had its manors in Suwo,
espoused the conspiracy, and escorted Yoshitane to Kyoto with a great
army, the result being that the shogun, Yoshizumi, had to flee to
Omi; that Yoshitane took his place, and that Ouchi Yoshioki became
deputy kwanryo.
These things happened in 1508. Thenceforth, the great protagonists in
the Kyoto arena were the two factions of the Hosokawa house, led by
Sumimoto and Takakuni, respectively; the former championing the cause
of the shogun, Yoshizumi, and in alliance with the Miyoshi; the
latter supporting the shogun, Yoshitane, and aided by the Ouchi. One
reverse befell the Yoshitane-Ouchi combination, but they quickly
recovered from it, and from 1508 until 1518 a gleam of peace and
prosperity shone once more in Kyoto under the administration of Ouchi
Yoshioki, who governed with skill and impartiality, and whose
influence seemed likely to restore the best days of the Bakufu. But,
in 1518, he was recalled to his province by an attack from the shugo
of Izumo, and by financial embarrassment resulting from his own
generosity in supplying funds to the Crown and the shogun.
Hosokawa Takakuni now became kwanryo, exercising his authority with a
high hand. Then the Sumimoto branch of the Hosokawa, taking advantage
of Ouchi's absence, mustered a force in Shikoku and moved against
Kyoto. Takakuni found himself in a difficult position. In the capital
his overbearing conduct had alienated the shogun, Yoshitane, and from
the south a hostile army was approaching. He chose Hyogo for
battle-field, and, after a stout fight, was discomfited and fled to
Omi, the position of kwanryo being bestowed on his rival, Sumimoto,
by the shogun. In a few months, however, Takakuni, in alliance with
the Rokkaku branch of the Sasaki family under Sadayori, marched into
Kyoto in overwhelming force. Miyoshi Nagateru retired to Chion-in,
where he committed suicide; Sumimoto fled to Awa, dying there a few
months later, and Yoshitane, after brief refuge in the island of
Awaji, died in Awa, in 1523. Thus, Hosokawa Takakuni found himself
supreme in Kyoto, and he proceeded to appoint a shogun, without
awaiting the demise of Yoshitane. Yoshizumi, the eleventh shogun,
who, as related above, fled from Kyoto in 1508, dying three years
later in exile, left two sons: Yoshiharu, whom he committed to the
charge of Akamatsu Yoshimura, and Yoshikore, whom he entrusted to
Hosokawa Sumimoto. In 1521, Takakuni invited Yoshiharu, then eleven
years old, to the capital and procured his nomination to the
shogunate.
ANARCHY
From this time forward the confusion grows worse confounded. The
Miyoshi of Awa are found in co-operation with Yanamoto Kataharu
espousing the cause of the shogun's younger brother, Yoshikore, and
of Harumoto, a son of Hosokawa Sumimoto. We see this combination
expelling Yoshiharu and Takakuni from Kyoto, and we see the fugitives
vainly essaying to reverse the situation. Thereafter, during several
years, there is practically no government in the capital. Riot and
insurrection are daily features, and brigandage prevails unchecked.
Kataharu, though not holding the office of kwanryo, usurps its
functions so ostentatiously that the assassin's dagger is turned
against him. Again the two Hosokawa chiefs, Takakuni and Harumoto,
fight for power, and, in 1531, Takakuni is killed, Harumoto becoming
supreme. Soon the Miyoshi brothers, Motonaga and Masanaga, engage in
a fierce quarrel about their inheritance, and the former, with
Yoshikore as candidate for the shogunate and Hatakeyama as auxiliary,
raises the standard against Harumoto, who, aided by the
soldier-priests of Hongwan-ji, kills both Yoshitaka and Motonaga and
takes Yoshikore prisoner. Thereafter, Harumoto quarrels with the
Hongwan-ji bonzes, and being attacked by them, obtains the aid of
Rokkaku Sadayori and the Nichiren priests, with the result that the
splendid fane of Hongwan-ji is reduced to ashes. A reconciliation is
then effected between Harumoto and the shogun, Yoshiharu, while
Miyoshi Masanaga is appointed to high office. Yet once more the
untiring Takakuni, aided by Miyoshi Norinaga, Motonaga's son, called
also Chokei, drives Yoshiharu and Harumoto from the metropolis, and
presently a reconciliation is effected by the good offices of Rokkaku
Sadayori, the real power of the kwanryo being thenceforth exercised
by the Miyoshi family. Japanese historians have well called it an age
of anarchy.
YOSHITERU
In 1545, the shogun, Yoshiharu, resigned in favour of his son,
Yoshiteru. Two years of quiet ensued in Kyoto, and then the old feud
broke out once more. The Hosokawa, represented by Harumoto, and the
Miyoshi, by Chokei, fought for supremacy. Victory rested with the
Miyoshi. The Hosokawa's power was shattered, and Chokei ruled in
Kyoto through his vassal, Matsunaga Hisahide. The era is memorable
for the assassination of a shogun. Yoshiteru had become reconciled
with Chokei and was suffered to live quietly at Muromachi. But after
Chokei's death (he was poisoned by Hisahide), Yoshiteru's cousin,
Yoshihide, a son of Yoshikore, sought to be nominated successor to
the shogunate through the aid of Masanaga and Hisahide. In 1565, this
plot matured. Hisahide suddenly sent a force which attacked
Yoshiteru's palace and killed the shogun. Yoshihide replaced the
murdered potentate, and the Matsunaga family succeeded to the power
previously wielded by the Miyoshi. Yoshiteru's younger brother,
Yoshiaki, fled to Omi, but afterwards made his way to Owari, where
Oda Nobunaga took him by the hand and ultimately placed him in the
shogun's seat at Kyoto.
REVIEW OF THE ASHIKAGA
Among the fifteen representatives of the Ashikaga, two were slain by
their own vassals, five died in exile, and one had to commit suicide.
From the accession of Takauji, in 1338, to the death of Yoshiaki, in
1597, a period of 259 years, there was not so much as one decade of
signal success and efficient government. With justice the story of
the time has been summed up in the epithet "ge-koku-jo," or the
overthrow of the upper by the lower. The appreciation of the eminent
historian, Rai Sanyo, is most faithful. Every great conflict
throughout the era was marked by similar features. It is a weary
record of broken promises, violated allegiances, and family feuds. If
the Hatakeyama, the Hosokawa, and the Miyoshi set their own interests
above those of the shogun, the Ashikaga, in turn, sacrificed the
interests of the Throne on the altar of their own ambition. A river
cannot be purer than its source. If the Miyoshi vassals plotted
against their chiefs, so did the latter against the Hosokawa; so did
the Hosokawa against the Ashikaga; so did the Ashikaga against the
Imperial family, and so did one branch of the Imperial family against
another. Everywhere there was lack of loyalty.
The loyalty wanting among masters was equally deficient among
servants. There is no more treacherous episode in the Middle Ages
than Matsunaga Hisahide's poisoning of his liege lord to compass the
downfall of the Miyoshi family and slaying the shogun, Yoshiteru, to
overthrow the Ashikaga, though he enjoyed the confidence of both. The
Dai Nihon-rekishi (History of Great Japan) observes that the ethical
primers, with which a literary education had formerly familiarized
the nation, lost their influence in this military era. There was no
inordinate desire for landed property until the Gen-Hei epoch, when a
manor became the principal reward of a successful soldier.
Thereafter, greed for domains acquired strength every year. Again,
when Yoritomo became so-tsuihoshi (commander-in-chief) and so-jito
(general steward) of the whole country, and his meritorious vassals
were appointed shugo and jito in each province, local authority
passed from the Throne to the military families, and when, after the
Shokyu struggle, the shugo and the jito came into actual possession
of the estates they had previously administered, military feudalism
was practically established. The Hojo, by their just administration
and astute measures, brought this system into esteem, but under the
Ashikaga regime the reality of landed possession grew to be the
unique aim of existence, and, to achieve it, sons forgot their
paternal relation and vassals lost sight of fealty. The nation
engaged in an armed scramble; individualism became paramount, and
social obligations were ignored. This is the more noteworthy because
loyalty is so typical a Japanese virtue.
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE ASHIKAGA
The common saying that the Kamakura Bakufu brought the entire country
under one administrative control requires modification. It was not
until Tokugawa days in the seventeenth century that the whole sixty
provinces passed under one feudal ruler. Still as between the
Kamakura Bakufu and the Muromachi, the latter, though its military
supremacy was less complete, may be said to have extended its
influence theoretically over the whole of the lands throughout the
empire except the Chokodo estates.
In another respect, also, the advantage lay with the Muromachi
shogunate. During the Kamakura era, the Court magnates continued to
despise the Bakufu adherents, and the distance between the capital
and Kamakura imparted to the latter an element of rusticity. But with
the establishment of the Muromachi shogunate a change took place. The
Bakufu, the visible repository of power, stood side by side with the
Court, and opportunities for close relations existed constantly.
Moreover, the Court nobles, notably antagonistic to the military
regime, followed the fortunes of the Southern dynasty, those alone
remaining in the capital who were on more or less intimate terms with
the military. Such were the Nijo, the Saionji, the Hino, and so
forth. These observed the behests of the Bakufu, sought to acquire
the latter's confidence, and always paid respect to the Hana no
Gosho, as the shogun was called. So close were the relations that for
ceremonial purposes at the Bakufu, it was customary to employ Court
officials, and witty writers of the time discourse amusingly on the
often clumsy efforts made by the courtiers to ape the customs and
acquire the dialects of the provincial soldiers.
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CENTRAL BAKUFU
The administrative power having been transferred from the Court to
the Bakufu, it may be said that the sei-i tai-shogun exercised
supreme authority throughout the empire. But the shogun himself did
not actually discharge administrative duties. That was done by the
kwanryo with the shogun's consent. Originally this official was
called shitsuji (manager), and his functions were to look after the
affairs of a provincial magnate's establishment. During the Kamakura
era, the Ashikaga family occupied a high place. Of Minamoto origin,
it was connected with the Hojo by marriage, and for generations its
shitsuji had been a member of the Ko family. Ashikaga Takauji
made Ko no Moronao his shitsuji, and a highly competent captain
he proved himself. Subsequently, in 1362, Shiba Yoshimasa was
appointed shitsuji, but soon his title was changed to kwanryo
(governor-general), and it thenceforth became customary for the
latter position to be occupied by a member of one of the three
families, Shiba, Hosokawa, and Hatakeyama, in succession.
Speaking broadly, the kwanryo corresponded to the skikken (regent) of
Kamakura days. But whereas, the Kamakura shikken exercised virtually
autocratic authority, the shogun being a minor, the Muromachi
kwanryo, nominally, at all events, was under the control of an adult
shogun. In fact, the kwanryo in the Muromachi polity resembled the
betto of the Man-dokoro in Yoritomo's time. For the rest, the
Muromachi Bakufu was organized on practically the same lines as its
Kamakura prototype. There was a Man-dokoro, a Monju-dokoro, and a
Samurai-dokoro, and the staff of these offices was taken originally,
as far as possible, from the families of men who had distinguished
themselves as legislators and administrators at Kamakura. There were
also officials called bugyo (commissioners) who directed the
enforcement of laws and ordinances. These commissioners numbered
thirty-six, and each had his own sphere of duties: as the shonin
bugyo, who controlled judicial affairs; the tosen bugyo, who dealt
with affairs of foreign trade; the jisha bugyo, who superintended
temples and shrines; the onsho bugyo, who had to do with official
rewards, etc.
ORGANIZATION OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS
At Kamakura, also, there was a kwanryo to guard the eastern provinces
(Kwanto). In Takauji's time, his second son, Motouji, was appointed
to this office, and it was thenceforth inherited for some
generations, the Uesugi family furnishing a shitsuji. Ultimately the
Kamakura kwanryo became a powerful military satrap, hostile to the
Muromachi shogun. The holder of the office then received the title of
kubo, and the hitherto shitsuji became kwanryo. In other respects the
Kamakura polity retained the form it had under Yoritomo: a Hyojo-shu
(Council), a Hikitsuke-shu, a Monju-dokoro, a Samurai-dokoro, and
various bugyo. In Kyushu and Dewa, the principal officer was called
shugo, that post being of special importance; while in the other
provinces shugo and jito (high constables and land-stewards)
continued to officiate as before.
The jurisdiction of these high constables--great military magnates or
relatives of the shogun--extended to two or more provinces, and the
shugo were then called kuni-mochi-shu (province-holder). A daimyo
(great name, i.e. feudal lord), in communicating with Muromachi, had
to make a kuni-mochi his medium. For the Kwanto and Shikoku, the
Hosokawa house was the kunimochi; for Shinano, Etchu, Echigo, and
Kaga, the Hatakeyama; for Ise, Kai, and Suruga, the Yamana; and for
Kyushu, the tandai. After the power of the tandai had declined, the
Ouchi family took its place. In the days of Yoshinori's shogunate,
there were twenty-two shugo in the country, and seven of them
administered three provinces or more, each. The provincial governors
appointed by the Southern Court disappeared, for the most part,
during the War of the Dynasties, and on the restoration of peace the
only one of these high officials that remained was Kitabatake of Ise.
SHUGO AND JITO
Originally appointed for administrative and fiscal purposes only, the
shugo said jito acquired titles of land-ownership from the beginning
of the Ashikaga era. To plunder and annex a neighbouring province
became thenceforth a common feat on the part of these officials. In
1390, tracts of land measuring from one-half of a province to two or
three provinces are found to have been converted from the shugo's
jurisdictional areas into military domains. Such magnates as Yamana
Tokiuji held from five to eleven provinces. These puissant captains
had castles and armies of their own. At first, they respected the
requisitions of the Bakufu. Thus, in 1463, when an elaborate Buddhist
ceremony had to be performed on the decease of Yoshimasa's mother, a
tax in the form of cotton cloth was levied from the shugo, a ruler of
three provinces contributing ten thousand pieces; a ruler of two
provinces, five thousand, and so on.*
*A "piece" was 40 feet, approximately. When the castle of Edo was
built in Tokugawa days--seventeenth century--each daimyo had to
contribute "aid" (otetsudai), after the Ashikaga custom.
But after the Onin War (1467-1469), military magnates resided wholly
on their own domains and paid no attention to requisitions from the
Bakufu. Further, these magnates compelled all jito and go-kenin
within their jurisdiction to serve as their vassals. Previously to
the Onin era the shugo had resided, for the most part, in Kyoto,
delegating the discharge of their provincial functions to deputies
(shugo-dai), chosen by the shugo and approved by the Bakufu.
Presently, the process of selection was dispensed with, and the
office became hereditary. Thus, Yusa of the Hatakeyama, Oda of the
Shiba, Uragami of the Akamatsu, and so forth are examples of deputies
who resided permanently in the provinces concerned and acquired
influence there superior even to that of their principals. The
deputies, in turn, had their vice-deputies (ko-shugo-dai), to whom
the name daikwan (another term for "deputy") was often given. These
daikwan were selected from among the members or vassals of a shugo's
family to act provisionally as shugo-dai. As for the jito, from the
middle of the Kamakura epoch their posts became mere sinecures, the
emoluments going to support their families, or being paid over to a
temple or shrine. Occasionally the office was sold or pawned. The
comparatively small areas of land within which the jito officiated
soon came to be recognized as their private domains, but after the
Onin commotion this system underwent a change, the jito becoming
vassals of the shugo. Many, however, held their original position
until the middle of the sixteenth century. In the days of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi and Oda Nobunaga--namely, the second half of the sixteenth
century--the name jito was given to the headman of a village or
district, who served as the immediate representative of authority.
FINANCE
Cultivated land (koden) was the great source of official revenue. The
area under rice--the principal staple of production--in the middle of
the fifteenth century was about a million of cho,* or two and a half
million acres; and this was owned by the Court, the Court nobles, the
military magnates, the temples, and the shrines. From an uncertain
date, but probably the close of the Kamakura Bakufu, the area of a
domain ceased to be calculated in terms of cho and tan and was
expressed in kwan (one thousand cash, or mori). The use of the
kwanior this purpose had reference to the military service leviable
upon the land. Thus, when land of one hundred kwan-mon was mentioned,
an area capable of supporting military service valued at one hundred
kwan-mon was understood. The calculation was very simple: one tsubo
corresponded to one mon, so that one kwan-mon represented one
thousand tsubo for the purposes of this assessment.**
*The cho was equal to 10 tan, and the tan comprised 360 tsubo, the
tsubo being a square of 6 feet side. At present the area under
cultivation is some 3 millions of cho (7.5 millions of acres).
**In the Ashikaga era the unit of currency may be said to have been
the copper cash of China--called Eiraku-sen after the name (Chinese,
Yunglo) of the Chinese year period when it was issued. Gold and
silver coins were also in use; namely, the gold ryo, which was
equivalent to 10 silver ryo; but their circulation was comparatively
small. The gold ryo was equal to 2000 mon of copper coins, and as 100
mon purchased 1 to (one-tenth part of a koku) of rice, it follows
that the gold ryo represented 2 koku, or 30 yen of modern currency,
the silver ryo representing 3 yen (1 yen=2 shillings-50 cents). It
follows also that 10 strings of cash (one kwan) were worth a koku of
rice, or 15 yen. As for silk piece-goods, 1 roll (hiki = 48 yards) of
the best kind was worth 45 yen, and the second and third-class kinds
ranged from 33 to 22.5 yen. Finally, in the year 1498, the records
show that the daily wage of a labourer was some 16 sen of modern
money (about 4 pence or 8 cents).
From various documents it appears that the three grades of
land--best, medium, and inferior--were taxed at the rate of sixty,
forty, and thirty per cent., respectively, of the yield. In other
words, the average land-tax was forty per cent, of the yield--called
shi-ko roku-min--or four parts to the Government and six to the
farmer. If we consider the rates between the current price of land
and the tax, there is a record, dated 1418, which shows that the tax
levied by a temple--Myoko-ji--was twenty per cent, of the market
price of the land. But it would seem that the ratio in the case of
Government taxation was much smaller, being only one and a half per
cent, of the market value. There were, however, other imposts, which,
though not accurately stated, must have brought the land-tax to much
more than forty per cent, of the yield.
Turning to the Imperial Court, we find it supported by domains
hereditarily held; by contributions from the seizei (expediency
taxes, that is to say, taxes set aside for extraordinary State
requirements); by occasional presents, and by revenues from kugoden
(private Imperial land). The Court nobles had their own domains,
usually small. All these estates, those of the Crown, of princes, and
of Court nobles, were subject to a system called hansai. That is to
say, one-half of their revenues were leviable for military purposes.
Originally this impost was understood to be a loan to the Bakufu, but
ultimately it came to be regarded as a normal levy, though its
practical effect was to reduce the revenue from such domains by
one-half. Moreover, as the arrogance of the military magnates in the
provinces grew more insistent, and as the Bakufu's ability to oppose
them became less effective, the domain of the Court nobles suffered
frequent encroachments.
REVENUES OF THE BAKUFU
One source of revenue for the Bakufu was its domains in various
places; another was the buke-yaku, or military-house dues. These were
at first two per cent, of the land-tax of the house concerned, but
afterwards they increased to five per cent. Thus an estate paying one
hundred koku in the form of land-tax, had to pay a further five koku
as buke-yaku, the latter proceeds being sent to Kyoto for the use of
the shogun's household. Another important levy was the tansen, which,
as its name implies, was a land-rate levied at so much per tan
(one-quarter of an acre), the proceeds being devoted to special
purposes, as, for example, to defray the cost of grand ceremonials or
of new edifices. The records show one payment of tansen which works
out at fifty mon per tan. Another document indicates that the monthly
expenses of the Man-dokoro were some sixty kwanmon and that they were
defrayed by levying taxes upon pawnbrokers and sake-dealers in Kyoto
and in Omi province. The latter tax (shuko-zei) is shown to have
been, on one occasion, two kwan eight hundred mon per house. The
Bakufu collected dues on foreign commerce, also, and miscellaneous
imposts of an irregular character made no small addition to its
income.
REVENUE OF SHRINES AND TEMPLES
Temples and shrines derived part of their income from port-dues and
barrier-tolls. Thus, the Hachiman temple of Iwashimizu received tolls
from all traffic passing the Yamazaki barrier; Kofuku-ji levied
duties on vessels entering Hyogo port, and Engaku-ji of Kamakura
collected tolls at the Hakone barrier (sekisho). Such taxes proving
very prolific and easy to levy, the number of barriers increased
rapidly, to the no small obstruction of trade and travel. Further,
the priests were constantly enriched with donations of land and
money, in addition to the rents and taxes obtained from their own
domains, and thus it resulted that several of the great monasteries
possessed much wealth. To that fact is to be attributed the numerous
establishments of soldier-priests maintained at Enryaku-ji, on
Hiei-zan, and at Kofuku-ji, in Nara. To that also is to be ascribed
in part the signal development of literature among the friars, and
the influence wielded by the Shinto officials of Kitano and the betto
of Hachiman.
REVENUE OF JITO
A special tax levied by the jito was the hyakusho-yaku, or farmers'
dues. These were one per cent, of the land-tax originally, but the
rate was subsequently doubled. Other heavy imposts were frequently
and arbitrarily enacted, and there can be no doubt that financial
disorder contributed materially to bringing about the terrible
calamities of the Battle era (Sengoku Jidai), as the period of eleven
decades ending in 1600 is called. For, if the fiscal system was thus
defective during the comparatively prosperous age of the Ashikaga, it
fell into measureless confusion at a later date. It has been stated
above that the area under rice cultivation at the middle of the
fifteenth century was about one million did; at the close of that
century the figure was found to have decreased by more than fifty
thousands of cho. From such a result, opposed as it is to all records
of normal development, the unhappy plight of the agricultural classes
may be inferred.
TOKENS OF CURRENCY
Minting operations also were discontinued under the Ashikaga. Cotton
cloth and rice served as principal media of exchange. Fortunately,
commerce with China in the days of the Ming rulers, and Yoshimasa's
undignified though practical requests, brought a large supply of
Yunglo (Japanese, Eiraku) copper cash, which, with other Chinese
coins of the Tang and Sung dynasties, served the Japanese as media.
This fortuitous element was conspicuous in all the domain of finance,
especially after the Onin War, when the territorial magnates fixed
the taxes at their own convenience and without any thought of
uniformity. One of the only sincere and statesmanlike efforts of
reform was made, in 1491, by Hojo Soun. He reduced the rate then
ruling, namely, equal parts to the tax-collector and to the taxpayer,
and made it forty per cent, to the former and sixty to the latter,
and he ordained that any jito collecting so much as a mon in excess
of the official figure, should be severely punished. How the people
fared elsewhere it is not possible to say accurately, but the records
show that extraordinary imposts were levied frequently, and that the
tansen was exacted again and again, as also were taxes on trades. As
for the Imperial household, such was its condition that it barely
subsisted on presents made by certain military magnates, so complete
was the decentralization of the empire in this period.
ATTITUDE OF THE ASHIKAGA TOWARDS THE THRONE
The policy of the Ashikaga towards the Daikagu-ji line (the Southern
Court) of the Imperial house was evidently one of complete
elimination at the outset. But the impossibility of achieving such a
programme soon came to be recognized and reconciliation was
substituted. Thenceforth, in appearance at all events, the
representatives of the Daikagu-ji line received due consideration and
were sufficiently provided with incomes, as witness the treatment of
the ex-Emperor Go-Kameyama by Yoshimitsu. But subsequent and repeated
neglect of the claims of the Southern branch in regard to the vital
matter of the succession betrayed the insincerity of the Ashikaga,
and provoked frequent appeals to arms.
The situation may be said to have been saved by the habit inaugurated
at the close of the Heian epoch. From that time princes and nobles
who saw no prospect of secular distinction began to take the tonsure,
and this retirement to the cloister was assiduously encouraged by the
Muromachi shoguns. A similar policy commended itself in the case of
princes of the Jimyo-in branch (the Northern Court). It is true that,
from the first, the representatives of this line had relied on the
Bakufu, whether of Kamakura or of Muromachi. But in their hearts they
deeply resented the usurpation of the shogunate, and the latter,
fully cognisant of that sentiment, guarded against its effective
display by providing only meagre allowances for the support of the
Imperial household (Kinri) and the ex-Emperor's household (Sendo),
and by contriving that only young and delicate princes should succeed
to the throne. Thus, of seven sovereigns who reigned between 1336 and
1464, the oldest was only sixteen at the time of his succession and
the youngest was six. When an Emperor reached maturity, it was usual
that he should abdicate and administer thenceforth from the Inchu.
Thus the influence of the Court was divided between the Kinri and the
Sendo--the reigning sovereign and the retired. But the real
depository of power was the shikken (regent) of the Inchu, to which
office a member of the Hino family, maternal relatives of the Bakufu,
was habitually appointed. When Yoshinori was shogun, he himself acted
as shikken of the Inchu. As for the Court officials properly so
called, from the kwampaku downwards, they were mere figureheads.
Holding their posts, indeed, as of old, they constituted, not
administrative actors, but an audience.
YOSHIMITSU AND THE THRONE
The shogun Yoshimitsu instituted the custom of inviting the sovereign
to his mansion, and thenceforth such visits became a recognized
feature of the relations between the Imperial and the Muromachi
Courts. Yoshimitsu himself frequently repaired to the Kinri and the
Sendo, and frequently accompanied the Empresses and their ladies on
social visits or pleasure excursions. He is said to have gone in and
out at the Imperial palaces without the slightest reserve, and on
more than one occasion history accuses him of flagrantly
transgressing the limits of decency in his intercourse with
Suken-mon-in, mother of the Emperor Go-Enyu. As a subverter of public
morals, however, the palm belongs, not to Yoshimitsu, but to his
immediate successor, Yoshimochi. He is said to have visited the Kinri
and the Sendo six or seven times every month, and to have there
indulged in all kinds of licence. History says, indeed, that he was
often unable to appear at Court owing to illness resulting from
intoxication.
PRINCES AND PRIESTS
As to the fact that, from the close of the Heian epoch, the cloister
often proved a prison for Imperial princes whose ambition might have
been troublesome had they remained at large, the following figures
are eloquent:
Number
entering
religion
Of 8 sons born to Emperor Fushimi (1287-1298) 7
9 " " " Emperor Go-Fushimi (1298-1301) 9
4 " " " Emperor Hanazono (1307-1318) 4
2 " " " Emperor Suko (1348-1352) 2
9 " " " Prince Sadatsune, 8
grandson of the Emperor Suko
14 " " " Emperor Go-Kogon (1352-1371) 14
Absolute accuracy is not claimed for these figures, but they are
certainly close approximations. In fact, under the Muromachi Bakufu,
every son of a sovereign, except the Prince Imperial, was expected to
become a monk. The Ashikaga adopted a similar system and applied it
ruthlessly in their own families. In truth, the Ashikaga epoch was
notorious for neglect of the obligations of consanguinity. Father is
found pitted against son, uncle against nephew, and brother against
brother.
ENGRAVING: TILES OF THE DAIBUTSUDEN OF TODAI-JI
ENGRAVING: DECORATION OF TOKONOMA (AN ALCOVE IN A JAPANESE
PARLOUR)--Muromachi Period
CHAPTER XXXII
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE, LITERATURE, ART, RELIGION, MANNERS, AND CUSTOMS
IN THE MUROMACHI EPOCH
FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
AFTER the Mongol invasion of Kyushu, Japan held no intercourse with
the outer world for several decades, nor does her friendship seem to
have been sought by any oversea nation. In the closing year of the
thirteenth century, merchantmen flying the Yuan flag are reported to
have arrived, but the record is nebulous, and the same may be said of
a passing reference that, in 1341, Japanese vessels were sent to
China to procure articles manufactured there. We reach more solid
ground a year later (1342), when the Ashikaga chief, Takauji, being
engaged in building the temple Tenryu-ji, opened trade with China for
the purpose of obtaining apparatus, vestments, and works of art. The
number of vessels was limited to two annually, and the trade must not
exceed five hundred kwan-mon (£750, or $3700). Some of the objects
then carried to Japan survive to this day in the form of celadon
vases known in Japan as Tenryuji-seiji.* Meanwhile, not a few
Buddhist priests crossed the sea from China to preach their faith,
and it is certain that during the War of the Dynasties in Japan, when
the south of the country was in a state of anarchy, privateering in
Korean waters was freely resorted to by Japanese adventurers. A
Korean envoy arrived at Fukuhara, in Settsu, in 1367, bearer of a
strong protest against this marauding, and declaring that for a
decade past assassination and plunder had been freely practised by
Japanese subjects on the inhabitants of the Korean littoral. China
and Korea were then in a troubled condition.
*The merchantmen received the name of Tenryuji-bune (bune signifies
"ship")
In the year (1368) after the arrival of this envoy, the Yuan dynasty
went down in China before the Ming, and in Korea the kingdom of Koma
was overthrown, the Yi dynasty rising on its ruins and calling the
peninsula Chosen. The Ming sovereign immediately attempted to
establish tradal intercourse with Japan, but the negotiations failed,
and not until 1392 is there any record of oversea relations. Then, at
length, Korea's protest elicited a reply from Japan. The shogun,
Yoshimitsu, sent to Chosen a despatch, signifying that piracy had
been interdicted, that all captives would be returned, and that he
desired to establish friendly relations. It appears that at that time
China also suffered from the depredations of Japanese corsairs, for
the annals say that she repeatedly remonstrated, and that, in 1401,
Yoshimitsu despatched to China an envoy carrying presents and
escorting some Chinese subjects who had been cast away on the
Japanese coast or carried captive thither. Another record suggests
that the Chinese Emperor was perplexed between the two warring Courts
in Japan. At the time of his accession, a body of Mongol fugitives
established themselves in Shantung, where they received assistance
from some Japanese adventurers. The Ming sovereign opened
communications on the subject with Prince Kanenaga, who held Kyushu
in the interests of the Southern Court, but the tone of the Chinese
monarch was so arrogant that Prince Kanenaga made no reply. Then
Taitsu employed a Buddhist priest, but the character of this bonze
having been detected, he was thrown into prison.
These things happened in 1380. In the following year Taitsu
despatched a duly credited envoy who used menacing language and was
sent back with a defiance from Prince Kanenaga. The priest, however,
was set free in 1382, and having learned while in Japan that two
Courts were disputing the title to the Crown, he informed the Chinese
sovereign in that sense, and the latter subsequently addressed
himself to Kyoto, with the result noted above, namely, that
Yoshimitsu opened friendly relations (1401). It was to the Ouchi
family of Suwo that the management of intercourse with Chosen was
entrusted, the latter sending its envoys to Yamaguchi. Subsequently,
after Ouchi Yoshihiro's disaffection and disaster, a Buddhist priest
and well-known artist, Soami, acted as Muromachi's envoy to the Ming
Court, being accompanied by a merchant, Koetomi, who is described as
thoroughly conversant with Chinese conditions. By these two the first
commercial treaty was negotiated. It provided that an envoy should be
sent by each of the contracting parties in every period of ten years,
the suite of this envoy to be limited to two hundred, and any ship
carrying arms to be regarded as a pirate.
The first envoy from the Ming Court under this treaty was met by
Yoshimitsu himself at Hyogo, and being escorted to Kyoto, was
hospitably lodged in a hotel there. Instructions were also issued
from Muromachi to the officials in Kyushu, peremptorily interdicting
piracy and ordering the arrest of any that contravened the veto.
Further, the high constables in several provinces were enjoined to
encourage trade with China by sending the best products of their
localities. In fact, Yoshimitsu showed himself thoroughly earnest in
promoting oversea commerce, and a considerable measure of success
attended his efforts. Unfortunately, an interruption was caused in
1419, when some seventeen thousand Koreans, Mongolians, and "southern
barbarians"--a name given promiscuously to aliens--in 227 ships, bore
down on Tsushima one midsummer day and were not driven off until the
great families of Kyushu--the Otomo, the Shoni, the Kikuchi, and the
Shiba--had joined forces to attack the invaders. The origin of this
incident is wrapped in mystery, but probably the prohibition of
Japanese pirates was not enforced for the protection of Chosen, and
the assault on Tsushima was a desperate attempt at retaliation.
Yoshimochi, however, who was then shogun, seems to have associated
China with the invasion, for a Ming envoy, arriving just at the time
of the contest, was indignantly refused audience. Thereafter, the
tandai appointed from Muroinachi to administer the affairs of Kyushu
was driven out by the Shoni family, and the shogun's policy of
checking piracy ceased to be enforced, so that the coasts of China
and Chosen were much harried, all legitimate commerce being
suspended. When Yoshinori became shogun, however, this was one of the
directions in which he turned his reforming hand. A Buddhist priest,
Doen, proceeded to the Ming Court as Muromachi's delegate, and the
Chinese sovereign agreed to restore the old relations, transmitting
for that purpose a hundred tallies to be carried by the merchantmen.
These tallies were distributed to several high constables, to five
great temples, and to merchants in Hyogo and Sakai, the corresponding
tallies* being entrusted to the Ouchi family, which, having now
recovered its power, was charged with the duty of superintending the
trade with China. Meanwhile, So Sadamori of Tsushima had established
commercial relations with Chosen, and received from thence a yearly
consignment of two hundred koku of soy beans, the vessel that carried
the staple being guarded by boats known as Tsushima-bune.
*The tallies were cards on which a line of ideographs were inscribed.
The card was then cut along the line, and a moiety was given to the
trader, the corresponding moiety being kept by the superintendent.
Thus, it fell out that the right of supervising the trade with China
and Korea came into the exclusive possession of the Ouchi and the So,
respectively, and being liberally encouraged, brought great wealth to
them as well as to other territorial magnates of the central and
southern provinces. The records show that large profits were
realized. Four or five hundred per cent, is spoken of, and, further,
the Ming sovereign, in Yoshimasa's time, responded generously, as has
been already shown, to the shogun's appeal for supplies of copper
cash. One Japanese fan could be exchanged for a copy of a valuable
book, and a sword costing one kwan-mon in Japan fetched five kwan-mon
in China. Such prices were paid, however, for rare goods only,
notably for Japanese raw silk, fifty catties (sixty-seven lbs.) of
which sold for ten kwan-mon (£15, or $75, approximately). Gold, too,
was much more valuable in China than in Japan. Ten ryo of the yellow
metal could be obtained in Japan for from twenty to thirty kwan-mon
and sold in China for 130. Sealskins, swords, spears, pepper,
sulphur, fans, lacquer, raw silk, etc. were the chief staples of
exports; and velvet, musk, silk fabrics, porcelains, etc.,
constituted the bulk of the imports. The metropolis being Kyoto, with
its population of some 900,000, Hyogo was the most important harbour
for the trade, and after it came Hakata,* in Chikuzen; Bonotsu, in
Satsuma; Obi, in Hyuga, and Anotsu, in Ise. The customs duties at
Hyogo alone are said to have amounted to the equivalent of £15,000,
or $75,000, annually.
*Hakata's place was subsequently taken by Hirado.
In China, Ningpo was the chief port. It had a mercantile-marine
office and an inn for foreign guests. The tribute levied on the trade
was sent thence to Nanking. In size the vessels employed were from 50
to 130 tons, greater dimensions being eschewed through fear of loss.
An invoice shows that the goods carried by a ship in 1458 were:
sulphur (410,750 lbs.); copper (206,000 lbs.); spears (11); fans
(1250); swords (9500); lacquered wares (634 packages), and sapan-wood
(141,333 lbs.). During the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate such profits
were realized that overtrading took place, and there resulted a
temporary cessation. Fifty years later, when Yoshiharu ruled at
Muromachi (1529), a Buddhist priest, Zuisa, sent by the shogun to
China, and an envoy, Sosetsu, despatched by the Ouchi family, came
into collision at Ningpo. It was a mere question of precedence, but
in the sequel Zuisa was seized, Ningpo was sacked, and its governor
was murdered. The arm of the shogun at that time could not reach the
Ouchi family, and a demand for the surrender of Sosetsu was in vain
preferred at Muromachi through the medium of the King of Ryukyu.
Yoshiharu could only keep silence.
The Ming sovereign subsequently (1531) attempted to exact redress by
sending a squadron to Tsushima, but the deputy high constable of the
Ouchi compelled these ships to fly, defeated, and thereafter all
friendly intercourse between Japan and China was interrupted,
piratical raids by the Japanese taking its place. This estrangement
continued for seventeen years, until (1548) Ouchi Yoshitaka
re-established friendly relations with Chosen and, at the same time,
made overtures to China, which, being seconded by the despatch of an
envoy--a Buddhist priest--Shuryo from Muromachi, evoked a favourable
response. Once more tallies were issued, but the number of vessels
being limited to three and their crews to three hundred, the
resulting commerce was comparatively small. Just at this epoch, too,
Occidental merchantmen arrived in China, and the complexion of the
latter's oversea trade underwent alteration. Thereafter, the Ashikaga
fell, and their successor, Oda Nobunaga, made no attempt to re-open
commerce with China, while his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, planned
the invasion of the Middle Kingdom, so that the sword was more in
evidence than the soroban.
JAPANESE PIRACY
It is difficult to trace the beginnings of Japanese piracy in Far
Eastern waters, but certainly it dated from a remote past and reached
its extreme in the middle of the sixteenth century. The records show
that Murakami Yoshihiro, of Iyo province, obtained control of all the
corsairs in neighbouring seas and developed great puissance. Nor did
any measure of opprobrium attach to his acts, for on his death he was
succeeded by Morokiyo, a scion of the illustrious Kitabatake family.
Numbers flocked to his standard during the disordered era of the War
of the Dynasties, and from Korea in the north to Formosa and Amoy in
the south the whole littoral was raided by them.
For purposes of protection the Ming rulers divided the coast into
five sections, Pehchihli, Shantung, Chekiang, Fuhkien, and
Liangkwang, appointing a governor to each, building fortresses and
enrolling soldiers. All this proving inefficacious, the Emperor
Taitsu, as already stated, addressed to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu a
remonstrance which moved the shogun to issue a strict injunction
against the marauders. It was a mere formality. Chinese annals show
that under its provisions some twenty pirates were handed over by the
Japanese and were executed by boiling in kettles. No such
international refinement as extra-territorial jurisdiction existed in
those days, and the Japanese shogun felt no shame in delivering his
countrymen to be punished by an alien State. It is not wonderful that
when Yoshimitsu died, the Chinese Emperor bestowed on him the
posthumous title Kung-hsien-wang, or "the faithful and obedient
king." But boiling a score of the Wokou* in copper kettles did not at
all intimidate the corsairs. On nearly all the main islands of the
Inland Sea and in the Kyushu waters they had their quarters. In fact,
the governors of islands and a majority of the military magnates
having littoral estates, took part in the profitable pursuit. No less
than fourteen illustrious families were so engaged, and four of them
openly bore the title of kaizoku tai-shogun (commander-in-chief of
pirates). Moreover, they all obeyed the orders of the Ouchi family.
It is on record that Ouchi Masahiro led them in an incursion into
Chollado, the southern province of Korea, and exacted from the
sovereign of Chosen a promise of yearly tribute to the Ouchi. This
was only one of several profitable raids. The goods appropriated in
Korea were sometimes carried to China for sale, the pirates assuming,
now the character of peaceful traders, now that of ruthless
plunderers. The apparition of these Pahan** ships seems to have
inspired the Chinese with consternation. They do not appear to have
made any effective resistance. The decade between 1553 and 1563 was
evidently their time of greatest suffering; and their annals of that
era repay perusal, not only for their direct interest but also for
their collateral bearing on the story of the invasion of Korea at the
close of the century.
"On the 23d of the fifth month of 1553, twenty-seven Japanese vessels
arrived at Lungwangtang. They looked like so many hills and their
white sails were as clouds in the sky. On the fifth day of the fourth
month of 1554, there appeared on the horizon a large ship which
presently reached Lungwang-tang. Her crew numbered 562. They blew
conches after the manner of trumpets, marshalled themselves in battle
array, and surrounding the castle with flying banners, attacked it.
On the fourth day of the ninth month of 1555, a two-masted ship
carrying a crew of some hundreds came to Kinshan-hai, and on the next
day she was followed by eight five-masted vessels with crews
totalling some thousands. They all went on shore and looted in
succession. On the 23d of the second month of 1556, pirate ships
arrived at the entrance to Kinshan-hai. Their masts were like a dense
forest of bamboo."
*Yamato enemies.
**Chinese pronunciation of the ideographs read by the Japanese
"Hachiman" (god of War). The pirates inscribed on their sails the
legend Hachiman Dai-bosatsu.
Further records show that in 1556 the pirates entered Yang-chou,
looted and burned the city; that in 1559 they attacked Chekiang; that
in 1560, they made their way to Taitsang, and thence pushed on
towards Shanghai, Sungteh, etc., looting towns almost daily. There
was no effective resistance. We find also the following appreciation
of Japanese ships:
"The largest of the Japanese vessels can carry about three hundred
men; the medium-sized, from one to two hundred, and the smallest from
fifty to eighty. They are constructed low and narrow. Thus, when they
meet a big ship they have to look up to attack her. The sails are not
rigged like those of our ships which can be navigated in any wind.
But wicked people on the coast of Fuhkien sold their ships to the
foreigners; and the buyers, having fitted them with double bottoms
and keels shaped so as to cleave the waves, came to our shores in
them."
Evidently the Chinese were better skilled in the art of shipbuilding
than the Japanese. As for the defensive measures of the Chinese the
following is recorded:
"The Government troops on sea and on land made every effort to keep
off the pirates. They flew banners at morn and eve and fired guns
seaward, so that the enemy, understanding by the flash and the
detonation that we were prepared to resist, abstained from landing.
But when the pirates handled their swords skilfully, their attack was
fearful. Our countrymen when they saw these swordsmen, trembled and
fled. Their fear of the Japanese was fear of the swords. The pirates'
firearms were only guns such as men use in pursuit of game. They did
not range over one hundred paces. But their skill in using their guns
was such that they never missed. We could not defeat them. They rise
early in the morning and take their breakfast kneeling down.
Afterwards their chief ascends an eminence and they gather below to
hear his orders. He tells them off in detachments not exceeding
thirty men, and attaching them to officers, sends them to loot
places. The detachments operate at distances of from five hundred to
a thousand yards, but unite at the sound of a conch.
"To re-enforce a detachment in case of emergency, small sections of
three or four swordsmen move about. At the sight of them our men
flee. Towards dark the detachments return to headquarters and hand in
their loot, never making any concealment. It is then distributed.
They always abduct women, and at night they indulge in drinking and
debauchery. They always advance in single rank at a slow pace, and
thus their extension is miles long. For tens of days they can run
without showing fatigue. In camping, they divide into many companies,
and thus they can make a siege effective. Against our positions they
begin by sending a few men who by swift and deceptive movements cause
our troops to exhaust all their projectiles fruitlessly, and then the
assault is delivered. They are clever in using ambushes, and often
when they seem to be worsted, their hidden forces spring up in our
rear and throw our army into a panic."
There is no reason to doubt the truth of these records, naive as are
some of the descriptions. Unquestionably the Wokou were a terrible
scourge to the Chinese on the eastern littoral.
INTERCOURSE WITH RYUKYU
Japanese annals say that the royal family of Ryukyu was descended
from the hero Minamoto Tametomo who was banished to the island in
1156, and certainly the inhabitants of the archipelago are a race
closely allied to the Japanese. But in 1373, the then ruler, Chuzan,
sent an envoy to the Ming Court and became a tributary of the latter.
In 1416, however, an ambassador from the islands presented himself at
the Muromachi shogunate, and twenty-five years later (1441), the
shogun Yoshinori, just before his death, bestowed Ryukyu on Shimazu
Tadakuni, lord of Satsuma, in recognition of meritorious services.
Subsequently (1471) the shogun Yoshimasa, in compliance with a
request from the Shimazu family, forbade the sailing of any vessel to
Ryukyu without a Shimazu permit, and when, a few years later, Miyake
Kunihide attempted to invade Ryukyu, the Shimazu received Muromachi's
(Yoshitane's) commission to punish him. Historically, therefore,
Ryukyu formed part of Japan, but its rulers maintained a tributary
attitude towards China until recent times, as will presently be seen.
LITERATURE DURING THE MUROMACHI PERIOD
Throughout the Muromachi period of two and a half centuries a group
of military men held the administration and reaped all rewards and
emoluments of office so that literary pursuits ranked in
comparatively small esteem. Some education was necessary, indeed, for
men of position, but eminent scholars were exceptional. Noteworthy
among the latter were Nijo Yoshimoto, Ichijo Fuyuyoshi, Doin Kinsada,
Sanjonishi Sanetaka, and Kiyowara Naritada. Most renowned was Ichijo
Kaneyoshi. Equally versed in the classics of China and Japan, as well
as in Buddhism and Confucianism, he composed several works of high
merit. A feature of the period was the erudition of the priests.
Gen-e, a bonze of the temple Hiei-zan, adopted the commentaries of
the Sung savants, Chengtzu and Chutsu, rejecting those of the earlier
Han and Tang writers. In other words, he adopted the eclectic system
of Buddhism and Confucianism as compounded by the scholars of the
Sung and the Yuan epochs, in preference to the system of earlier
pundits. The Emperor Go-Daigo invited Gen-e to Court and directed him
to expound the Sutras. Thereafter, the Sung philosophy obtained wide
allegiance, being preached by the priests of the Five Great Temples
in Kyoto, and by all their provincial branches. On the other hand,
the hereditary schools of Oye and Sugawara, adhering to their old
dogmas, fell behind the times and declined in influence.
The feature of the age in point of learning was that scholarship
became a priestly specialty. From the Five Temples (Go-zari) students
constantly flocked to China, where they received instructions in the
exoterics and esoterics of Buddhism, as modified by the creed of
Confucius, laying the foundations of systems upon which philosophers
of later ages, as Kazan and Seiga, built fair edifices. These priests
of the Five Temples were more than religious propagandists: they were
ministers of State, as Tenkai and Soden were in after times under the
Tokugawa, and they practically commanded the shoguns. One reason
operating to produce this result was that, in an age when lineage or
military prowess was the sole secular step to fortune, men of civil
talent but humble birth had to choose between remaining in hopeless
insignificance or entering the priesthood where knowledge and virtue
were sure passports to distinction. It was thus that in nearly every
monastery there were found men of superior intellect and erudition.
The fact was recognized. When Ashikaga Takauji desired to take
counsel of Muso Kokushi, he repaired to that renowned priest's temple
and treated him as a respected parent; and Yoshimitsu, the third of
the Ashikaga shoguns, showed equal respect towards Gido, Zekkai and
Jorin, whose advice he constantly sought.
It was strange, indeed, that in an age when the sword was the
paramount tribunal, the highest dignitaries in the land revered the
exponents of ethics and literature. Takauji and his younger brother,
Tadayoshi, sat at the feet of Gen-e as their preceptor. Yoshimitsu
appointed Sugawara Hidenaga to be Court lecturer. Ujimitsu, the
Kamakura kwanryo, took Sugawara Toyonaga for preacher. Yoshimasa's
love of poetry impelled him to publish the Kinshudan.* Above all,
Yoshihisa was an earnest scholar. He had a thorough knowledge of
Chinese and Japanese classics; he was himself a poetaster of no mean
ability; he read canonical books even as he sat in his palanquin;
under his patronage Ichijo Kaneyoshi wrote the Shodan-chiyo and** the
Bummei Ittoki; Fujiwara Noritane compiled the Teio-keizu; Otsuki
Masabumi lectured on the analects and Urabe Kanetomo expounded the
standard literature of the East.
*The Embroidered Brocade Discourse.
**Rustic Ideals of Government.
Yet, side by side with these patrons of learning stood a general
public too ignorant to write its own name. Military men, who formed
the bulk of the nation, were engrossed with the art of war and the
science of intrigue to the exclusion of all erudition. The priests
were always available to supply any need, and the priests utilized
the occasion. Nevertheless, it stands to the credit of these bonzes
that they made no attempt to monopolize erudition. Their aim was to
popularize it. They opened temple-seminaries (tera-koya) and exercise
halls (dojo) where youths of all classes could obtain instruction and
where an excellent series of text-books was used, the Iroha-uta* the
Doji-kyo, the Teikin-orai** and the Goseibai-shikimoku.*** The
Doji-kyo has been translated by Professor Chamberlain (in Vol. VIII
of the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan"). A few
extracts will serve to show the nature of the ethical teaching given
to Japanese children in medieval days:
*A syllabary of moral precepts like the ethical copy-books of
Occidentals.
**A model letter-writer.
***The criminal laws of Hojo Yasutoki. All these text-books remained
in use until the Meiji era.
Let nothing lead thee into breaking faith with thy friend, and depart
not from thy word. It is the tongue that is the root of misfortunes;
if the mouth were made like unto the nose, a man would have no
trouble till his life's end. In the house where virtue is accumulated
there will surely be superabundant joy. No man is worthy of honour
from his birth; 'tis the garnering-up of virtue that bringeth him
wisdom and virtue; the rich man may not be worthy of honour. In thin
raiment on a winter's night, brave the cold and be reading the whole
night through; with scanty fare on a summer's day, repel hunger and
be learning the whole day long. . . . A father's loving kindness is
higher than the mountains; a mother's bounty is deeper than the sea.
. . . He that receiveth benefits and is not grateful is like unto the
birds that despoil the branches of the trees they perch on. . . .
Above all things, men must practise charity; it is by almsgiving that
wisdom is fed; less than all things, men must grudge money; it is by
riches that wisdom is hindered. . . . The merit of an alms given with
a compassionate heart to one poor man is like unto the ocean; the
recompense of alms given to a multitude for their own sake is like
unto a grain of poppy-seed.
This text-book, the Doji-kyo, was compiled by a priest, Annen, who
lived in the second half of the ninth century. Its origin belongs,
therefore, to a much more remote era than that of the Muromachi
shoguns, but, in common with the other text-books enumerated above,
its extensive use is first mentioned in the Ashikaga epoch. The Five
Temples of Kyoto--to be spoken of presently--were seats of learning;
and many names of the littérateurs that flourished there have been
handed down. Not the least celebrated were Gido and Zekkai, who paid
several visits to China, the fountain-head of ideographic lore. But
these conditions were not permanent. The Onin War created a serious
interruption. Kyoto was laid in ruins, and rare books lay on the
roadside, no one caring to pick them up.
PRIVATE SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES
Throughout the Ashikaga period the Kyoto university existed in name
only, and students of Japanese literature in the provinces
disappeared. A few courtiers, as Nakahara, Dye, Sugawara, Miyoshi,
etc., still kept up the form of lecturing but they did not receive
students at large. Nevertheless, a few military magnates, retaining
some appreciation of the value of erudition, established schools and
libraries. Among these, the Kanazawa-bunko and the Ashikaga-gakko
were the most famous. The former had its origin in the closing years
of the Kamakura Bakufu. It was founded during the reign of Kameyama
(1260-1274) by Sanetoki, grandson of Hojo Yoshitoki. A large
collection of Chinese and Japanese works filled its shelves, and all
desirous of studying had free access. Akitoki, son of Sanetoki,
adopted Kanazawa as his family name and added largely to the library.
He caused the ideographs Kanazawa-bunko to be stamped in black on all
Confucian works, and in red on Buddhist.
It is recorded in the Hojo Kudaiki that men of all classes, laymen
and priests alike, were shut up daily in this library where they
studied gratis, and that Akitoki's son, Sadaaki, was as ardent a
student as his father, so that men spoke of him as well fitted to be
regent (shikken), thus showing that literary skill was counted a
qualification for high office. Fire, the destroyer of so many fine
relics of Japanese civilization, visited this library more than once,
but during the reign of Go-Hanazono (1429-1464) it was restored and
extended by the Uesugi family, who also rebuilt and endowed schools
for the study of Japanese literature in the province of Kotsuke.
Among these schools was the Ashikaga-gakko, under the presidency of a
priest, Kaigen, in the day of whose ninth successor, Kyuka, the
pupils attending the schools totalled three thousand. A few great
families patronized literature without recourse to priests. This was
notably the case with the Ouchi, whose tradal connexions gave them
special access to Chinese books. Ouchi Yoshitaka, in particular,
distinguished himself as an author. He established a library which
remained for many generations; he sent officials to China to procure
rare volumes, and it is incidentally mentioned that he had several
manuscripts printed in the Middle Kingdom, although the art of
block-printing had been practised in Japan since the close of the
eighth century. A composition which had its origin at this epoch was
the yokyoku, a special kind of libretto for mimetic dances. Books on
art also were inspired by the Higashiyama craze for choice specimens
of painting, porcelain, and lacquer. Commentaries, too, made their
appearance, as did some histories, romances, and anthologies.
PICTORIAL ART
As Japan during the Ashikaga period sat at the feet of the Sung
masters in philosophy and literature, so it was in the realm of art.
There is, indeed, a much closer relation between literature and
pictorial art in China than in any Occidental country, for the two
pursuits have a common starting-point--calligraphy. The ideograph is
a picture, and to trace it in such a manner as to satisfy the highest
canons is a veritably artistic achievement. It has been shown above
that in the Muromachi era the priests of Buddha were the channels
through which the literature and the philosophy of Sung reached
Japan, and it will presently be seen that the particular priests who
imported and interpreted this culture were those of the Zen sect.
There is natural sequence, therefore, in the facts that these same
priests excelled in calligraphy and introduced Japan to the pictorial
art of the immortal Sung painters.
There were in China, at the time of the Ashikaga, two schools of
painters: a Northern and a Southern. The term is misleading, for the
distinction was really not one of geography but one of method. What
distinguished the Southern school was delicacy of conception,
directness of execution, and lightness of tone. To produce a maximum
of effect with a minimum of effort; to suggest as much as to depict,
and to avoid all recourse to heavy colours--these were the cardinal
tenets of the Southern school. They were revealed to Japan by a
priest named Kao, who, during the reign of Go-Daigo (1318-1339),
passed ten years in China, and returning to Kyoto, opened a studio in
the temple Kennin-ji, where he taught the methods of Li Lungmin of
the Sung dynasty and Yen Hui of the Yuan. He revolutionized Japanese
art. After him Mincho is eminent. Under the name of Cho Densu--the
Abbot Cho--he acquired perpetual fame by his paintings of Buddhist
saints.
But Mincho's religious pictures did not help to introduce the Sung
academy to Japan. That task was reserved for Josetsu--a priest of
Chinese or Japanese origin--who, during the second half of the
fourteenth century, became the teacher of many students at the temple
Shokoku-ji, in Kyoto. Among his pupils was Shubun, and the latter's
followers included such illustrious names as Sotan, Sesshu, Shinno;
Masanbbu, and Motonobu. It is to this day a question whether Japan
ever produced greater artists than Sesshu and Motonobu. To the same
galaxy belongs Tosa no Mitsunobu, the founder of the Tosa school as
Motonobu was of the Kano. That official patronage was extended to
these great men is proved by the fact that Mitsunobu was named
president of the E-dokoro, or Court Academy of Painting; and Motonobu
received the priestly rank of hogen.
APPLIED ART
Industries in general suffered from the continual wars of the
Ashikaga epoch, but the art of forging swords flourished beyond all
precedent. Already Awadaguchi, Bizen, Osafune, and others had
attained celebrity, but for Okazaki Masamune, of Kamakura, who worked
during the reign of Go-Daigo (1318-1339) was reserved the renown of
peerlessness. His long travels to investigate the methods of other
masters so as to assimilate their best features, are historically
recorded, and at the head of the great trinity of Japanese
swordsmiths his name is placed by universal acclaim, his companions
being Go no Yoshihiro and Fujiwara Yoshimitsu.* In Muromachi days so
much depended on the sword that military men thought it worthy of all
honour. A present of a fine blade was counted more munificent than a
gift of a choice steed, and on the decoration of the scabbard, the
guard, and the hilt extraordinary skill was expended. Towards the
close of the fifteenth century, a wonderful expert in metals, Goto
Yujo, devoted himself to the production of these ornaments, and his
descendants perpetuated his fame down to the middle of the nineteenth
century. The Gotos, however, constitute but a small section of the
host of masters who will always be remembered in this branch of art.
In the Muromachi period alone we have such names as Aoki Kaneiye,
Myochin Nobuiye, Umetada Akihisa and others.** Armour making also was
carried to a point of high achievement during the epoch, especially
by Nobuiye.***
*Chamberlain in Things Japanese says: "Japanese swords excel even the
vaunted products of Damascus and Toledo. To cut through a pile of
copper coins without nicking the blade is, or was, a common feat.
History, tradition, and romance alike re-echo with the exploits of
this wonderful weapon."
**For an exhaustive analysis see Brinkley's China and Japan.
***See Conder's History of Japanese Costume; Vol. IX. of the
"Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan."
LACQUER
It is generally conceded that the Japanese surpass all nations in the
art of making lacquer. They not only developed the processes to a
degree unknown to their original teacher, China, but they also
introduced artistic features of great beauty. Unfortunately, history
transmits the names of Jew masters in this line. We can only say that
in the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate, that is, during the second half
of the fifteenth century, several choice varieties began to be
manufactured, as the nashiji, the togidashi, the negoro-nuri, the
konrinji-nuri, the shunkei-nuri, the tsuishu, and the tsuikoku.
Choice specimens received from later generations the general epithet
Higashiyama-mono, in reference to the fact that they owed so much to
the patronage of Yoshimasa in his mansion at Higashi-yama.
PORCELAIN AND FAIENCE
To the Muromachi epoch belongs also the first manufacture of faience,
as distinguished from unglazed pottery, and of porcelain, as
distinguished from earthenware. The former innovation is ascribed--as
already noted--to Kato Shirozaemon, a native of Owari, who visited
China in 1223 and studied under the Sung ceramists; the latter, to
Shonzui, who also repaired to China in 1510, and, on his return, set
up a kiln at Arita, in Hizen, where he produced a small quantity of
porcelain, using materials obtained from China, as the existence of
Japanese supplies was not yet known. The faience industry found many
followers, but its products all bore the somewhat sombre impress of
the cha-no-yu (tea ceremonial) canons.
ARCHITECTURE
The architectural feature of the time was the erection of
tea-parlours according to the severe type of the cha-no-yu cult. Such
edifices were remarkable for simplicity and narrow dimensions. They
partook of the nature of toys rather than of practical residences,
being, in fact, nothing more than little chambers, entirely
undecorated, where a few devotees of the tea ceremonial could meet
and forget the world. As for grand structures like the "Silver
Pavilion" of Yoshimasa and the "Golden Pavilion" of Yoshimitsu, they
showed distinct traces of Ming influence, but with the exception of
elaborate interior decoration they do not call for special comment.
A large part of the work of the Japanese architect consisted in
selecting rare woods and uniquely grown timber, in exquisite joinery,
and in fine plastering. Display and ornament in dwelling-houses were
not exterior but interior; and beginning with the twelfth century,
interior decoration became an art which occupied the attention of the
great schools of Japanese painters. The peculiar nature of Japanese
interior division of the house with screens or light partitions
instead of walls lent itself to a style of decoration which was quite
as different in its exigencies and character from Occidental mural
decorations as was Japanese architecture from Gothic or Renaissance.
The first native school of decorative artists was the Yamato-ryu,
founded in the eleventh century by Fujiwara Motomitsu and reaching
the height of its powers in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth
century Fujiwara Tsunetaka, a great painter of this school, took the
title of Tosa. Under him the Tosa-ryu became the successor of the
Yamato-ryu and carried on its work with more richness and charm. The
Tosa school was to a degree replaced after the fifteenth century in
interior painting by the schools of Sesshu and Kano.
RELIGION
As one of Yoritomo's first acts when he organized the Kamakura Bakufu
had been to establish at Tsurugaoka a shrine to Hachiman (the god of
War), patron deity of the Minamotos' great ancestor, Yoshiiye, so
when Takauji, himself a Minamoto, organized the Muromachi Bakufu, he
worshipped at the Iwashimizu shrine of Hachiman, and all his
successors in the shogunate followed his example. Of this shrine
Tanaka Harukiyo was named superintendent (betto), and with the
Ashikaga leader's assistance, he rebuilt the shrine on a sumptuous
scale, departing conspicuously from the austere fashion of pure
Shinto.* It may, indeed, be affirmed that Shinto had never been
regarded as a religion in Japan until, in the days of the Nara Court,
it was amalgamated with Buddhism to form what was called
Ryobu-shinto. It derived a further character of religion from the
theory of Kitabatake Chikafusa, who contended that Shinto, Buddhism,
and Confucianism were all capable of being welded into one whole.
Moreover, in the Muromachi period, the eminent scholar, Ichijo
Kaneyoshi (1402-81), wrote a thesis which gave some support to the
views of Chikafusa.
*The shrine covered a space of 400 square yards and had a golden
gutter, 80 feet long, 13 feet wide, and over 1 inch thick.
But, during the reign of Go-Tsuchimikado (1465-1500), Urabe Kanetomo,
professing to interpret his ancestor, Kanenobu, enunciated the
doctrine of Yuiitsu-shinto (unique Shinto), namely, that as between
three creeds, Shinto was the root; Confucianism, the branches, and
Buddhism, the fruit. This was the first explicit differentiation of
Shinto. It found favour, and its propounder's son, Yoshida, asserted
the principles still more strenuously. The fact is notable in the
history of religion in Japan. Yoshida was the forerunner of Motoori,
Hirata, and other comparatively modern philosophers who contended for
the revival of "Pure Shinto." Many Japanese annalists allege that
Shinto owes its religious character solely to the suggestions of
Buddhism, and point to the fact that the Shinto cult has never been
able to inspire a great exponent.
ENGRAVING: BELL TOWER OF TODAI-JI
BUDDHISM
The attitude of the Ashikaga towards Buddhism was even more
reverential. They honoured the Zen sect almost exclusively. Takauji
built the temple Tenryu-ji, in Kyoto, and planned to establish a
group of provincial temples under the name of Ankoku-ji. There
can be little doubt that his animating purpose in thus acting
was to create a counterpoise to the overwhelming strength of the
monasteries of Nara and Hiei-zan. The latter comprised three thousand
buildings--temples and seminaries--and housed a host of soldier-monks
who held Kyoto at their mercy and who had often terrorized the city
and the palace. In the eighth century, when the great temple,
Todai-ji, was established at Nara, affiliated temples were built
throughout the provinces, under the name of Kokubun-ji.
It was in emulation of this system that Takauji erected the Tenryu-ji
and planned a provincial net-work of Ankoku-ji. His zeal in the
matter assumed striking dimensions. On the one hand, he levied heavy
imposts to procure funds; on the other, he sent to China ships--hence
called Tenryuji-bune--to obtain furniture and fittings. Thus, in the
space of five years, the great edifice was completed (1345), and
there remained a substantial sum in the Muromachi treasury. The monks
of Enryaku-ji (Hiei-zan) fathomed Takauji's purpose. They flocked
down to the capital, halberd in hand and sacred car on shoulder, and
truculently demanded of the Emperor that Soseki, high priest of the
new monastery, should be exiled and the edifice destroyed. But the
Ashikaga leader stood firm. He announced that if the soldier-monks
persisted, their lord-abbot should be banished and their property
confiscated; before which evidently earnest menaces the mob of friars
turned their faces homeward. Thereafter, Takauji, and his brother
Tadayoshi celebrated with great pomp the ceremony of opening the new
temple, and the Ashikaga leader addressed to the priest, Soseki, a
document pledging his own reverence and the reverence of all his
successors at Muromachi. But that part of his programme which related
to the provincial branch temples was left incomplete. At no time,
indeed, were the provinces sufficiently peaceful and sufficiently
subservient for the carrying out of such a plan by the Ashikaga.
GREAT PRIESTS
The priest Soseki--otherwise called "Muso Kokushi," or "Muso, the
national teacher"--was one of the great bonzes in an age when many
monasteries were repositories of literature and statesmanship. His
pupils, Myoo and Chushin, enjoyed almost equal renown in the days of
the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu, whose piety rivalled that of
Takauji. He assigned to them a residence in the Rokuon-ji, his own
family temple, and there he visited them to hear discourses on
Buddhist doctrine and to consult about administrative affairs. A
still more illustrious bonze was Ryoken, of Nanzen-ji. It is related
of him that he repaired, on one occasion, to the Kita-yama palace of
the shogun Yosh mitsu, wearing a ragged garment. Yoshimitsu at once
changed his own brocade surcoat for the abbot's torn vestment, and
subsequently, when conducting his visitor on a boating excursion, the
shogun carried the priest's footgear. It is not possible for a
Japanese to perform a lowlier act of obeisance towards another than
to be the bearer of the latter's sandals. Yoshimitsu was in a
position to dictate to the Emperor, yet he voluntarily performed a
menial office for a friar.
These four priests, Soseki, Myoo, Chushin, and Ryoken, all belonged
to the Zen sect. The doctrines of that sect were absolutely paramount
in Muromachi days, as they had been in the times of the Kamakura
Bakufu. A galaxy of distinguished names confronts us on the pages of
history--Myocho of Daitoku-ji; Gen-e of Myoshin-ji; Ikkyu Zenji of
Daitoku-ji, a descendant of the Emperor Go-Komatsu; Tokuso of
Nanzen-ji; Shiren of Tofuku-ji; Shushin of Nanzen-ji; Juo of
Myoshin-ji; Tetsuo of Daitoku-ji, and Gazan of Soji-ji. All these
were propagandists of Zen-shu doctrine. It has been well said that
the torch of religion burns brightest among dark surroundings. In
circumstances of tumultuous disorder and sanguinary ambition, these
great divines preached a creed which taught that all worldly things
are vain and valueless. Moreover, the priests themselves did not
practise the virtues they inculcated. They openly disregarded their
vow of chastity; bequeathed their temples and manors to their
children; employed hosts of stoled soldiers; engaged freely in the
fights of the era, and waxed rich on the spoils of their arms.
It is recorded of Kenju (called also Rennyo Shoniri), eighth
successor of Shinran, that his eloquence brought him not only a crowd
of disciples but also wealth comparable with that of a great
territorial magnate; that he employed a large force of armed men, and
that by dispensing with prohibitions he made his doctrine popular.
This was at the close of the fifteenth century when Yoshimasa
practised dilettanteism at Higashi-yama. It became in that age a
common habit that a man should shave his head and wear priest's
vestments while still taking part in worldly affairs. The distinction
between bonze and layman disappeared. Some administrative officials
became monks; some daimyo fought wearing sacerdotal vestments over
their armour, and some priests led troops into battle. If a bonze
earned a reputation for eloquence or piety, he often became the
target of jealous violence at the hands of rival sectarians and had
to fly for his life from the ruins of a burning temple. Not until the
advent of Christianity, in the middle of the sixteenth century, did
these outrages cease.
THE FIVE TEMPLES OF KYOTO
The Zen sect had been almost equally popular during the epoch of the
Hojo. They built for it five great temples in Kamakura, and that
example was followed by the Ashikaga in Kyoto. The five fanes in the
capital were called collectively, Go-zan. They were Kennin-ji,
Tofuku-ji, Nanzen-ji, Tenryu-ji, and Shokoku-ji. After the conclusion
of peace between the Northern and Southern Courts the temple
Shokoku-ji was destroyed by fire and it remained in ashes until the
time of Yoshimasa, when the priest, Chushin, persuaded the shogun to
undertake the work of reconstruction. A heavy imposition of land-tax
in the form of tansen, and extensive requisitions for timber and
stones brought funds and materials sufficient not only to restore the
edifice and to erect a pagoda 360 feet high, but also to replenish
the empty treasury of the shogun. Thus, temple-building enterprises
on the part of Japanese rulers were not prompted wholly by religious
motives.
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
The frugal austerity of life under the rule of the Hojo was changed
to lavish extravagance under the Ashikaga. Yet things should have
been otherwise, for in Takauji's time there was enacted and
promulgated the code of regulations already referred to as the Kemmu
Shikimoku, wherein were strictly forbidden basara, debauchery,
gambling, reunions for tea drinking and couplet composing, lotteries,
and other excesses. Basara is a Sanskrit term for costly luxuries of
every description, and the compilers of the code were doubtless
sincere in their desire to popularize frugality. But the Ashikaga
rulers themselves did not confirm their precepts by example. They
seemed, indeed, to live principally for sensuous indulgence.
A Japanese writer of the fifteenth century, in a rhapsodical account
of the Kyoto of his day, dwells on the wonderful majesty of the
"sky-piercing roofs" and "cloud-topping balconies" of the Imperial
palace. And he points with evident pride to the fact that this
splendor--a splendor only a little less--was to be found besides in
many other elegant residences which displayed their owners' taste and
wealth. The chronicler notes that even those who were not noble,
including some who had made their money by fortune-telling or by the
practice of medicine, were sometimes able to make such display, to
live in pretentious houses and have many servants. So could the
provincial nobles, who it seems did not in other periods make much of
a showing at the capital.
The dwellers in these mansions lived up to their environment. The
degree of their refinement may be inferred from the fact that cooking
became a science; they had two principal academies and numerous rules
to determine the sizes and shapes of every implement and utensil, as
well as the exact manner of manipulating them. The nomenclature was
not less elaborate. In short, to become a master of polite
accomplishments and the cuisine in the military era of Japan demanded
patient and industrious study.
MODE OF TRAVELLING
The fashions of the Heian epoch in the manner of travelling underwent
little change during the military age. The principal conveyance
continued to be an ox-carriage or a palanquin. The only notable
addition made was the kago, a kind of palanquin slung on a single
pole instead of on two shafts. The kago accommodated one person and
was carried by two. Great pomp and elaborate organization attended
the outgoing of a nobleman, and to interrupt a procession was counted
a deadly crime, while all persons of lowly degree were required to
kneel with their hands on the ground and their heads resting on them
as a nobleman and his retinue passed.
LANDSCAPE GARDENING
Great progress was made in the art of landscape gardening during the
Muromachi epoch, but this is a subject requiring a volume to itself.
Here it will suffice to note that, although still trammelled by its
Chinese origin, the art received signal extension, and was converted
into something like an exact science, the pervading aim being to
produce landscapes and water-scapes within the limits of a
comparatively small park without conveying any sense of undue
restriction. Buddhist monks developed signal skill in this branch of
esthetics, and nothing could exceed the delightful harmony which they
achieved between nature and art. It may be mentioned that the first
treatise on the art of landscape gardening appeared from the pen of
Gokyogoku Yoshitsune in the beginning of the thirteenth century. It
has been well said that the chief difference between the parks of
Japan and the parks of Europe is that, whereas the latter are planned
solely with reference to a geometrical scale of comeliness or in pure
and faithful obedience to nature's indications, the former are
intended to appeal to some particular mood or to evoke special
emotion, while, at the same time, preserving a likeness to the
landscapes and water-scapes of the world about us.
MINIATURE LANDSCAPE GARDENING
By observing the principles and practical rules of landscape
gardening while reducing the scale of construction so that a
landscape or a water-scape, complete in all details and perfectly
balanced as to its parts, is produced within an area of two or three
square feet, the Japanese obtained a charming development of the
gardener's art. Admirable, however, as are these miniature
reproductions of natural scenery and consummate as is the skill
displayed in bringing all their parts into exact proportion with the
scale of the design, they are usually marred by a suggestion of
triviality. In this respect, greater beauty is achieved on an even
smaller scale by dwarfing trees and shrubs so that, in every respect
except in dimensions, they shall be an accurate facsimile of what
they would have been had they grown for cycles unrestrained in the
forest. The Japanese gardener "dwarfs trees so that they remain
measurable only by inches after their age has reached scores, even
hundreds, of years, and the proportions of leaf, branch and stem are
preserved with fidelity. The pots in which these wonders of patient
skill are grown have to be themselves fine specimens of the
keramist's craft, and as much as £200 is sometimes paid for a notably
well-trained tree."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, article "Japan," Brinkley.
TEA CEREMONIAL
The tea ceremonial (cha-no-yu) is essentially Japanese in its
developments though its origin came from China. It has been well
described as "a mirror in which the extraordinary elaborations of
Japanese social etiquette may be seen vividly reflected." In fact,
the use of tea as a beverage had very little to do with the refined
amusement to which it was ultimately elevated. The term "tasting"
would apply more accurately to the pastime than "drinking." But even
the two combined convey no idea of the labyrinth of observances which
constituted the ceremonial. The development of the cha-no-yu is
mainly due to Shuko, a priest of the Zen sect of Buddhism, who seems
to have conceived that tea drinking might be utilized to promote the
moral conditions which he associated with its practice. Prof. H. B.
Chamberlain notes that "It is still considered proper for tea
enthusiasts to join the Zen sect of Buddhism, and it is from
the abbot of Daitokuji at Kyoto that diplomas of proficiency
are obtained." The bases of Shuko's system were the four
virtues--urbanity, purity, courtesy, and imperturbability--and little
as such a cult seemed adapted to the practices of military men, it
nevertheless received its full elaboration under the feudal system.
But although this general description is easy enough to formulate,
the etiquette and the canons of the cha-no-yu would require a whole
volume for an exhaustive description.
INCENSE COMPARING
The Muromachi epoch contributed to aristocratic pastimes the growth
of another amusement known as ko-awase, "comparing of incense," a
contest which tested both the player's ability to recognize from
their odour different varieties of incense and his knowledge of
ancient literature. As early as the seventh century the use of
incense had attained a wide vogue in Japan. But it was not until the
beginning of the sixteenth century that Shino Soshin converted the
pastime into something like a philosophy. From his days no less than
sixty-six distinct kinds of incense were recognized and distinguished
by names derived from literary allusions. This pastime is not so
elaborate as the cha-no-yu, nor does it furnish, like the latter, a
series of criteria of art-objects. But it shows abundant evidence of
the elaborate care bestowed upon it by generation after generation of
Japanese dilettanti.
IKE-BANA
The English language furnishes no accurate equivalent for what the
Japanese call ike-bana. The literal meaning of the term is "living
flower," and this name well explains the fundamental principle of the
art, namely, the arrangement of flowers so as to suggest natural
life. In fact, the blossoms must look as though they were actually
growing and not as though they were cut from the stems. It is here
that the fundamental difference between the Occidental and the
Japanese method of flower arrangement becomes apparent; the former
appeals solely to the sense of colour, whereas the latter holds that
the beauty of a plant is not derived from the colour of its blossoms
more than from the manner of their growth. In fact, harmony of colour
rather than symmetry of outline was the thing desired in a Japanese
floral composition. It might be said that Western art, in general,
and more particularly the decorative art of India, Persia and
Greece--the last coming to Japan through India and with certain Hindu
modifications--all aim at symmetry of poise; but that Japanese floral
arrangement and decorative art in general have for their fundamental
aim a symmetry by suggestion,--a balance, but a balance of
inequalities. The ike-bana as conceived and practised in Japan is a
science to which ladies, and gentlemen also, devote absorbing
attention.
OTHER PASTIMES
It will be understood that to the pastimes mentioned above as
originating in military times must be added others bequeathed from
previous eras. Principal among these was "flower viewing" at all
seasons; couplet composing; chess; draughts; football; mushroom
picking, and maple-gathering parties, as well as other minor
pursuits. Gambling, also, prevailed widely during the Muromachi epoch
and was carried sometimes to great excesses, so that samurai actually
staked their arms and armour on a cast of the dice. It is said that
this vice had the effect of encouraging robbery, for a gambler staked
things not in his possession, pledging himself to steal the articles
if the dice went against him.
SINGING AND DANCING
One of the chief contributions of the military era to the art of
singing was a musical recitative performed by blind men using the
four-stringed Chinese lute, the libretto being based on some episode
of military history. The performers were known as biwa-bozu, the name
"bozu" (Buddhist priest) being derived from the fact that they shaved
their heads after the manner of bonzes. These musicians developed
remarkable skill of elocution, and simulated passion so that in
succeeding ages they never lost their popularity. Sharing the vogue
of the biwa-bozu, but differing from it in the nature of the story
recited as well as in that of the instrument employed, was the
joruri, which derived its name from the fact that it was originally
founded on the tragedy of Yoshitsune's favourite mistress, Joruri. In
this the performer was generally a woman, and the instrument on which
she accompanied herself was the samisen. These two dances may be
called pre-eminently the martial music of Japan, both by reason of
the subject and the nature of the musical movement.
The most aristocratic performance of all, however, was the yokyoku,
which ultimately grew into the no. This was largely of dramatic
character and it owed its gravity and softness of tone to priestly
influence, for the monopoly of learning possessed in those ages by
the Buddhist friars necessarily made them pre-eminent in all literary
accomplishments. The no, which is held in just as high esteem to-day
as it was in medieval times, was performed on a stage in the open air
and its theme was largely historical. At the back of the stage was
seated a row of musicians who served as chorus, accompanying the
performance with various instruments, chiefly the flute and the drum,
and from time to time intoning the words of the drama. An adjunct of
the no was the kyogen. The no was solemn and stately; the kyogen
comic and sprightly. In fact, the latter was designed to relieve the
heaviness of the former, just as on modern stages the drama is often
relieved by the farce. It is a fact of sober history that the shogun
Yoshimasa officially invested the no dance with the character of a
ceremonious accomplishment of military men and that Hideyoshi himself
often joined the dancers on the stage.
ENGRAVING: FLOWER POTS AND DWARF TREE
ENGRAVING: SWORDS PRESERVED AT SHOSO-IN TEMPLE, AT NARA
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE EPOCH OF WARS (Sengoku Jidai)
LIST OF EMPERORS
Order of Succession Name Date
97th Sovereign Go-Murakami A.D. 1339-1368
98th Chokei 1368-1372
99th Go-Kameyama 1372-1392
100th Go-Komatsu 1392-1412
101st Shoko 1412-1428
102d Go-Hanazono 1428-1465
103d Go-Tsuchimikado 1465-1500
104th Go-Kashiwabara 1500-1526
105th Go-Nara 1526-1557
106th Okimachi 1557-1586
107th Go-Yozei 1586-1611
THE sovereigns of the Northern Court, not being recognized as
legitimate by Japanese annalists, are excluded from the above list.
Go-Komatsu, however, is made an exception. He reigned from 1382 to
1392 as representing the Northern Court, and thereafter, the two
Courts having ceased their rivalry, he reigned undisputed until 1412.
It has further to be noted that many histories make the number of
sovereigns greater by two than the figures recorded in the lists of
this volume. That is because the histories in question count as two
the Empresses Kogyoku (642-645) and Saimei (655-661), although they
represent the same sovereign under different names, and because they
adopt a similar method of reckoning in the case of the Empresses
Koken (749-758) and Shotoku (765-770), whereas in this volume the
actual number of sovereigns is alone recorded.
THE COURT
The interval between the close of the fifteenth century and the end
of the sixteenth is set apart by Japanese annalists as the most
disturbed period of the country's history and is distinguished by the
term Sengoku Jidai, or the Epoch of Wars. It would be more accurate
to date the beginning of that evil time from the Onin year-period
(1467-1469); for in the Onin era practical recognition was extended
to the principle that the right of succession to a family estate
justifies appeal to arms, and that such combats are beyond the
purview of the central authority. There ensued disturbances
constantly increasing in area and intensity, and not only involving
finally the ruin of the Ashikaga shogunate but also subverting all
law, order, and morality. Sons turned their hand against fathers,
brothers against brothers, and vassals against chiefs. Nevertheless,
amid this subversion of ethics and supremacy of the sword, there
remained always some who reverenced the Throne and supported the
institutions of the State; a noteworthy feature in the context of the
fact that, except during brief intervals, the wielder of the sceptre
in Japan never possessed competence to enforce his mandates but was
always dependent in that respect on the voluntary co-operation of
influential subjects.
In the Sengoku period the fortunes of the Imperial Court fell to
their lowest ebb. The Crown lands lay in the provinces of Noto, Kaga,
Echizen, Tamba, Mino, and so forth, and when the wave of warfare
spread over the country, these estates passed into the hands of
military magnates who absorbed the taxes into their own treasuries,
and the collectors sent by the Court could not obtain more than a
small percentage of the proper amount. The exchequer of the Muromachi
Bakufu suffered from a similar cause, and was further depleted by
extravagance, so that no aid could be obtained from that source. Even
worse was the case with the provincial manors of the Court nobles,
who were ultimately driven to leave the capital and establish direct
connexion with their properties. Thus, the Ichijo family went to
Tosa; the Ane-no-koji to Hida, and when Ouchi Yoshioki retired to
Suwo on resigning his office (kwanryo), many Court magnates who had
benefitted by his generosity in Kyoto followed him southward.
So impoverished was the Imperial exchequer that, in the year 1500,
when the Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado died, the corpse lay for forty days
in a darkened room of the palace, funds to conduct the funeral rites
not being available. Money was finally provided by Sasaki Takayori,
and in recognition of his munificence he was authorized to use the
Imperial crest (chrysanthemum and Paulownia); was granted the right
of entree to the palace, and received an autographic volume from the
pen of the Emperor Go-Kogon. If there was no money to bury
Go-Tsuchimikado, neither were any funds available to perform the
coronation of his successor, Go-Kashiwabara. Muromachi made a futile
attempt to levy contributions from the daimyo, and the kwanryo,
Hosokawa Masamoto, is recorded to have brusquely said, in effect,
that the country could be administered without crowning any
sovereign. Twenty years passed before the ceremony could be
performed, and means were ultimately (1520) furnished by the Buddhist
priest Koken--son of the celebrated Rennyo Shonin, prelate of the
Shin sect--who, out of the abundant gifts of his disciples, placed at
the disposal of the Court a sum of ten thousand gold ryo,* being
moved to that munificence by the urging of Fujiwara Sanetaka, a
former nai-daijin. In recognition of this service, Koken was raised
to high ecclesiastical rank.
*£30,000--$145,000.
It will be remembered that, early in this sixteenth century,
Yoshioki, deputy kwanryo and head of the great Ouchi house, had
contributed large sums to the Muromachi treasury; had contrived the
restoration of several of the Court nobles' domains to their
impoverished owners, and had assisted with open hand to relieve the
penury of the throne. The task exhausted his resources, and when
recalled to his province by local troubles in 1518, the temporary
alleviation his generosity had brought was succeeded by hopeless
penury. From time immemorial it had been the universal rule to
rebuild the two great shrines at Ise every twentieth year, but
nothing of the kind had been possible in the case of the Naigu (inner
shrine) since 1462, and in the case of the Gegu (outer shrine) since
1434. Such neglect insulted the sanctity of the Throne; yet appeals
to the Bakufu produced no result. In 1526, the Emperor Go-Kashiwabara
died. It is on record that his ashes were carried from the
crematorium in a box slung from the neck of a general officer, and
that the funeral train consisted of only twenty-six officials. For
the purposes of the coronation ceremony of this sovereign's
successor, subscriptions had to be solicited from the provincial
magnates, and it was not until 1536 that the repairs of the palace
could be undertaken, so that the Emperor Go-Nara was able to write in
his diary, "All that I desired to have done has been accomplished,
and I am much gratified." On this occasion the Ouchi family again
showed its generosity and its loyalty to the Throne.
The extremity of distress was reached during the Kyoroku era
(1528-1531), when the struggle between the two branches of the
Hosokawa family converted Kyoto once more into a battle-field and
reduced a large part of the city to ashes. The Court nobles, with
their wives and children, had to seek shelter and refuge within the
Imperial palace, the fences of which were broken down and the
buildings sadly dilapidated.
A contemporary record tells with much detail the story of the decay
of the capital and the pitiful plight of the Throne. The Emperor
Go-Nara (1527-1557) was reduced to earning his own living. This he
did by his skill as a calligrapher--at least one instance of
something useful resulting from the penchant of the Court for the
niceties of Chinese art and letters. Any one might leave at the
palace a few coins for payment and order a fair copy of this or that
excerpt from a famous classic. The palace was overrun, the chronicler
says. Its garden became a resort for tea-drinking among the lower
classes and children made it a play-ground. It was no longer walled
in, but merely fenced with bamboo. The whole city was in a similar
desolation, things having become worse and worse beginning with the
Onin disturbance of 1467 and the general exodus of the samurai from
the capital at that time. At this time the military nobles came to
the city only to fight, and the city's population melted away. All
was disorder. The city was flooded and the dike which was built to
check the flooded rivers came to be thought a fine residence place in
comparison with lower parts of the town.
It was at this time that men might be observed begging for rice in
the streets of the capital. They carried bags to receive
contributions which were designated kwampaku-ryo (regent's money).
Some of the bags thus used are preserved by the noble family of Nijo
to this day. Another record says that the stewardess of the Imperial
household service during this reign (Go-Nara), on being asked how
summer garments were to be supplied for the ladies-in-waiting,
replied that winter robes with their wadded linings removed should be
used. The annals go so far as to allege that deaths from cold and
starvation occurred among the courtiers. An important fact is that
one of the provincial magnates who contributed to the succour of the
Court at this period was Oda Nobuhide of Owari, father of the
celebrated Oda Nobunaga.
ENGRAVING: SHINRAN SHONIN
BUDDHIST VIOLENCE
The decline of the Muromachi Bakufu's authority encouraged the monks
as well as the samurai to become a law to themselves. Incidental
references have already been made to this subject, but the religious
commotions of the Sengoku period invite special attention. The
Buddhists of the Shin sect, founded by Shinran Shonin (1184-1268),
which had for headquarters the great temple Hongwan-ji in Kyoto, were
from the outset hostile to the monks of Enryaku-ji. Religious
doctrine was not so much concerned in this feud as rivalry. Shinran
had been educated in the Tendai tenets at Enryaku-ji. Therefore, from
the latter's point of view he was a renegade, and while vehemently
attacking the creed of his youth, he had acquired power and influence
that placed the Hongwan-ji almost on a level with the great Hiei-zan.
In the days of Kenju, popularly called Rennyo Shonin (1415-1479),
seventh in descent from the founder, Shinran, the Ikko--by which name
the Shin sect was known--developed conspicuous strength. Kenju
possessed extraordinary eloquence. Extracts from his sermons were
printed on an amulet and distributed among worshippers, who grew so
numerous and so zealous that the wealth of the sect became enormous,
and its leaders did not hesitate to provide themselves with an armed
following. Finally the monks of Hiei-zan swept down on Hongwan-ji,
applied the torch to the great temple, and compelled the abbot,
Kenju, to fly for his life.
It is significant of the time that this outrage received no
punishment. Kenju escaped through Omi to Echizen, where the high
constable, an Asakura, combining with the high constable, a Togashi,
of the neighbouring province of Kaga, erected a temple for the
fugitive abbot, whose favour was well worth courting. The Ikko-shu,
however, had its own internal dissensions. In the province of Kaga, a
sub-sect, the Takata, endeavoured to oust the Hongwan disciples, and
rising in their might, attacked (1488) the high constable; compelled
him to flee; drove out their Takata rivals; invaded Etchu; raided
Noto, routing the forces of the high constable, Hatakeyama Yoshizumi;
seized the three provinces--Kaga, Noto, and Etchu--and attempted to
take possession of Echizen. This wholesale campaign was spoken of as
the Ikko-ikki (revolt of Ikko). A few years later, the Shin believers
in Echizen joined these revolters, and marched through the province,
looting and burning wherever they passed. No measure of secular
warfare had been more ruthless than were the ways of these monks. The
high constable, Asakura Norikage, now took the field, and after
fierce fighting, drove back the fanatics, destroyed their temples,
and expelled their priests.
This was only one of several similar commotions. So turbulent did the
monks show themselves under the influence of Shin-shu teachers that
the Uesugi of Echigo, the Hojo of Izu, and other great daimyo
interdicted the propagandism of that form of Buddhism altogether. The
most presumptuous insurrection of all stands to the credit of the
Osaka priests. A great temple had been erected there to replace the
Hongwan-ji of Kyoto, and in, 1529, its lord-abbot, Kokyo, entered
Kaga, calling himself the "son of heaven" (Emperor) and assigning to
his steward, Shimoma Yorihide, the title of shogun. This was called
the "great revolt" (dai-ikki), and the movement of opposition
provoked by it was termed the "small revolt" (sho-ikki). Again
recourse was had to the most cruel methods. Men's houses were robbed
and burned simply because their inmates stood aloof from the
insurrection. Just at that time the septs of Hosokawa and Miyoshi
were engaged in a fierce struggle for supremacy. Kokyo threw in his
lot with Hosokawa Harumoto, and, at the head of fifty thousand
troops, attacked and killed Miyoshi Motonaga. Very soon, however, the
Hosokawa chief fell out with his cassocked allies. But he did not
venture to take the field against them single handed. The priests of
the twenty-one Nichiren temples in Kyoto, old enemies of the Ikko,
were incited to attack the Hongwan-ji in Osaka. This is known in
history as the Hokke-ikki, Hokke-shu being the name of the Nichiren
sect. Hiei-zan was involved in the attack, but the warlike monks of
Enryaku-ji replied by pouring down into the capital, burning the
twenty-one temples of the Nichiren and butchering three thousand of
their priests. Such were the ways of the Buddhists in the Sengoku
period.
THE KWANTO
During the Sengoku period (1490-1600) the Japanese empire may be
compared to a seething cauldron, the bubbles that unceasingly rose to
the surface disappearing almost as soon as they emerged, or uniting
into groups with more or less semblance of permanence. To follow in
detail these superficial changes would be a task equally interminable
and fruitless. They will therefore be traced here in the merest
outline, except in cases where large results or national effects are
concerned. The group of eight provinces called collectively Kwanto
first claims attention as the region where all the great captains and
statesmen of the age had their origin and found their chief sphere of
action. It has been seen that the fifth Ashikaga kwanryo, Shigeuji,
driven out of Kamakura, took refuge at Koga in Shimotsuke; that he
was thenceforth known as Koga Kubo; that the Muromachi shogun,
Yoshimasa, then sent his younger brother, Masatomo, to rule in the
Kwanto; that he established his headquarters at Horigoe in Izu, and
that he was officially termed Horigoe Gosho. His chief retainers were
the two Uesugi families--distinguished as Ogigayatsu Uesugi and
Yamanouchi Uesugi, after the names of the palaces where their
mansions were situated--both of whom held the office of kwanryo
hereditarily.
These Uesugi families soon engaged in hostile rivalry, and the
Ogigayatsu branch, being allied with Ota Dokwan, the founder of Yedo
Castle, gained the upper hand, until the assassination of Dokwan,
when the Yamanouchi became powerful. It was at this time--close of
the fifteenth century--that there occurred in the Horigoe house one
of those succession quarrels so common since the Onin era. Ashikaga
Masatomo, seeking to disinherit his eldest son, Chachamaru, in favour
of his second son, Yoshimichi, was killed by the former, the latter
taking refuge with the Imagawa family in Suruga, by whom he was
escorted to the capital, where he became the Muromachi shogun under
the name of Yoshizumi. Parricides and fratricides were too common in
that disturbed age for Chachamaru's crime to cause any moral
commotion. But it chanced that among the rear vassals of the Imagawa
there was one, Nagauji, who, during many years, had harboured designs
of large ambition. Seizing the occasion offered by Chachamaru's
crime, he constituted himself Masatomo's avenger, and marching into
Izu, destroyed the Horigoe mansion, and killed Chachamaru. Then
(1491) Nagauji quietly took possession of the province of Izu,
building for himself a castle at Hojo. He had no legal authority of
any kind for the act, neither command from the Throne nor commission
from the shogun.
ENGRAVING: HOJO SOUN
It was an act of unqualified usurpation. Yet its perpetrator showed
that he had carefully studied all the essentials of stable
government--careful selection of official instruments; strict
administration of justice; benevolent treatment of the people, and
the practice of frugality. Being descended from the Taira of Ise and
having occupied the domains long held by the Hojo, he adopted the uji
name of "Hojo," and having extended his conquests to Sagami province,
built a strong castle at Odawara. He is often spoken of as Soun, the
name he adopted in taking the tonsure, which step did not in any
degree interfere with his secular activities. A profoundly skilled
tactician, he never met with a military reverse, and his fame
attracted adherents from many provinces. His instructions to his son
Ujitsuna were characteristic. Side by side with an injunction to hold
himself in perpetual readiness for establishing the Hojo sway over
the whole of the Kwanto, as soon as the growing debility of the
Uesugi family offered favourable opportunity, stood a series of rules
elementary almost to affectation: to believe in the Kami; to rise
early in the morning; to go to bed while the night is still young,
and other counsels of cognate simplicity formed the ethical thesaurus
of a philosopher wise enough to formulate the astute maxim that a
ruler, in choosing his instruments, must remember that they, too,
choose him.
Ujitsuna proved himself a worthy son of Soun, but much had still to
be accomplished before the Kwanto was fully won. Among the eight
provinces, two, Awa and Kazusa, which looked across the sea to
Odawara, were under the firm sway of the Satomi family--one of the
"eight generals" of the Kwanto--and not until 1538 could the Hojo
chief find an opportunity to crush this strong sept. The fruits of
his victory had hardly been gathered when death overtook him, in
1543. His sword descended, however, to a still greater leader, his
son Ujiyasu, who pushed westward into Suruga; stood opposed to Kai in
the north, and threatened the Uesugi in the east. The two branches of
the Uesugi had joined hands in the presence of the Hojo menace, and a
powerful league including the Imagawa and the Ashikaga of Koga, had
been formed to attack the Hojo. So long did they hesitate in view of
the might of Odawara, that the expression "Odawara-hyogi" passed into
the language as a synonym for reluctance; and when at length they
moved to the attack with eighty thousand men, Hojo Ujiyasu, at the
head of a mere fraction of that number, inflicted a defeat which
settled the supremacy of the Kwanto.
The name of Hojo Ujiyasu is enshrined in the hearts of Japanese
bushi. He combined in an extraordinary degree gentleness and bravery,
magnanimity and resolution, learning and martial spirit. It was
commonly said that from the age of sixteen he had scarcely doffed his
armour; had never once showed his back to a foe, and had received
nine wounds all in front.* Before he died (1570) he had the
satisfaction of establishing a double link between the Hojo and the
house of the great warrior, Takeda Shingen, a son and a daughter from
each family marrying a daughter and a son of the other.**
*Thus a frontal wound came to be designated by his name.
**The present Viscount Hojo is a descendant of Ujiyasu.
THE TAKEDA AND THE UESUGI
Descended (sixteenth generation) from Minamoto Yoshimitsu, Takeda
Harunobu (1521-1573) took the field against his father, who had
planned to disinherit him in favour of his younger brother. Gaining
the victory, Harunobu came into control of the province of Kai, which
had long been the seat of the Takeda family. This daimyo, commonly
spoken of as Takeda Shingen, the latter being the name he took on
receiving the tonsure, ranks among Japan's six great captains of the
sixteenth century, the roll reading thus:
Takeda Shingen (1521-1573)
Uesugi Kenshin (1530-1578)
Hojo Ujimasa (1538-1590)
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582)
Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598)
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)
The second of the above, Uesugi Kenshin, was not member of the great
Uesugi family which took such an important part in the affairs of the
Kwanto. He belonged to the Nagao, which originally stood in a
relation of vassalage to the Yamanouchi branch of the Uesugi in
Echigo, and his father attained an independent position. Kagetora, as
Kenshin was called in his youth, found himself engaged in his
twenty-first year in a contest with his elder brother, whom he
killed, and, by way of penance for the fratricide, he took the
tonsure under the name of Kenshin and would have retired from the
world had not his generals insisted on his remaining in command. It
was at this time that Kenshin became a member of the Uesugi sept. In
1505, the two branches of the Kwanto Uesugi joined hands against
their common enemy, Hojo Soun, and from that time the contest was
continued until 1551, when Ujiyasu, grandson of Soun, drove Uesugi
Norimasa from his castle of Hirai in Kotsuke. The vanquished general
fled to Echigo to seek succour from his family's old-time vassal,
Nagao Kagetora, already renowned under the name of Kenshin. Norimasa
bestowed the office of kwanryo as well as the uji of Uesugi on
Kenshin, who thenceforth became known as Uesugi Kenshin, and who thus
constituted himself the foe of the Hojo. At a somewhat earlier date,
Kenshin had been similarly supplicated by Murakami Yoshikiyo, whose
castle was at Kuzuo in Shinano, whence he had been driven by Takeda
Shingen.
ENGRAVING: UESUGI KENSHIN
It thus fell out that Uesugi Kenshin had for enemies the two captains
of highest renown in his era, Hojo Ujimasa and Takeda Shingen. This
order of antagonism had far-reaching effects. For Kenshin's ambition
was to become master of the whole Kwanto, under pretence of
re-establishing the original Uesugi, but his expansion southward from
Echigo was barred by Shingen in Shinano and Kai, and his expansion
eastward by the Hojo in Sagami and Musashi. The place of the struggle
between Shingen-and Kenshin was Kawanaka-jima, an arena often
pictured by artists of later generations and viewed to-day by
pilgrims to the venerable temple, Zenko-ji. There the two generals,
recognized as the two greatest strategists of that epoch, met four
times in fierce strife, and though a Japanese historian compares the
struggle to the eruption of volcanoes or the blowing of gales of
blood, victory never rested on either standard.
ENGRAVING: TAKEDA SHINGEN
Peace having been at length restored for a moment, in 1558, Kenshin
visited Kyoto in the following year. There he was received with
distinction. The Emperor--Okimachi--bestowed on him a sword, and the
shogun, Yoshiteru, entitled him to incorporate the ideograph "teru"
in his name, which was thus changed from Kagetora to Terutora. He was
also granted the office of kwanryo. On his return to Echigo, Kenshin
proceeded to assert his new title. Mustering an army said to have
been 110,000 strong, he attacked the Hojo in Odawara. But Ujiyasu
would not be tempted into the open. He remained always behind the
ramparts, and, in the meanwhile incited Shingen to invade Echigo, so
that Kenshin had to raise the siege of Odawara and hasten to the
defence of his home province. There followed another indecisive
battle at Kawanaka-jima, and thereafter renewed attacks upon the
Hojo, whose expulsion from the Kwanto devolved on Kenshin as kwanryo.
But the results were always vague: the Hojo refrained from final
resistance, and Shingen created a diversion. The chief sufferers were
the provinces of the Kwanto, a scene of perpetual battle. In the end,
after Etchu and Kotsuke had been brought under Kenshin's sway, peace
was concluded between him and the Hojo, and he turned his full
strength against his perennial foe, Shingen. But at this stage the
situation was entirely changed by the appearance of Oda Nobunaga on
the scene, as will be presently narrated. It is recorded that, on the
eve of his death, Shingen advised his son to place himself and his
domains in Kenshin's keeping, for, said he, "Kenshin now stands
unrivalled, and Kenshin will never break faith with you;" and it is
recorded of Kenshin that when he heard of Shingen's death, he shed
tears and exclaimed, "Would that the country had such another hero!"*
*The present Count Uesugi is descended from Kenshin.
THE IMAGAWA, THE KITABATAKE, THE SAITO, AND THE ODA FAMILIES
The Imagawa, a branch of the Ashikaga, served as the latter's bulwark
in Suruga province during many generations. In the middle of the
sixteenth century the head of the family was Yoshimoto. His sway
extended over the three provinces of Suruga, Totomi, and Mikawa,
which formed the littoral between Owari Bay and the Izu promontory.
On the opposite side of Owari Bay lay Ise province, the site of the
principal Shinto shrine and the original domain of the Taira family,
where, too, the remnants of the Southern Court had their home. Its
hereditary governor was a Kitabatake, and even after the union of the
two Courts that great family, descendants of the immortal historian
and philosopher, Chikafusa, continued to exercise sway. But, in 1560,
discord among the chief retainers of the sept furnished a pretext for
the armed intervention of Oda Nobunaga, who invested his son,
Nobukatsu, with the rights of government. On the northern littoral of
Owari Bay, and therefore separating Ise and Mikawa, was situated the
province of Owari, which, in turn, opened on the north into Mino. In
this latter province the Doki family was destroyed by the Saito, and
these in turn were crushed by the Oda, in 1561, who, from their
headquarters in Owari, shattered the Imagawa of Mikawa and the Saito
in Mino, thereafter sweeping over Ise.
THE ROKKAKU, THE ASAI, THE ASAKURA, AND THE HATAKEYAMA FAMILIES
The province of Omi had special importance as commanding the
approaches to Kyoto from the east. Hence it became the scene of much
disturbance, in which the Hosokawa, the Kyogoku, the Rokkaku, and the
Asai families all took part. Finally, in the middle of the sixteenth
century, the Asai gained the ascendancy by obtaining the assistance
of the Asakura of Echizen. This latter province, conterminous with
the north of Omi, was originally under the control of the Shiba
family, but the Asakura subsequently obtained the office of high
constable, and acquired a great access of power at the time of the
Ikko revolt by driving the turbulent priests from the province. At
that era, or a little later, the provinces of Kii, Kawachi, Izumi,
and Yamato were all the scenes of fierce fighting, but the pages of
history need not be burdened with details of the clash of purely
private ambitions.
THE MORI AND THE AMAKO FAMILIES
The Ouchi family was very powerfully situated. Descended from a
Korean Crown Prince who migrated to Japan early in the seventh
century, its representative, Yoshioki (1477-1528), controlled the
southern provinces of the main island--Iwami, Aki, Suwo, and
Nagato--as well as the two northern provinces of Kyushu--Chikuzen and
Buzen. This was the chieftain who, in 1508, marched to Kyoto at the
head of a great army, and restored the Ashikaga shogun Yoshitane,
himself receiving the office of kwanryo. Eleven years later, on his
return to the south, he was followed by many nobles from Kyoto, and
his chief provincial town, Yamaguchi, on the Shimonoseki Strait,
prospered greatly. But his son Yoshitaka proved a weakling, and being
defeated by his vassal, Suye Harukata--called also Zenkyo--he
committed suicide, having conjured another vassal, Mori Motonari, to
avenge him.
ENGRAVING: MORI MOTONARI
The Mori family* had for ancestor the great statesman and legislator
of Yoritomo's time, Oye Hiromoto, and its representative, Motonari
(1497-1571), had two sons scarcely inferior to himself in strategical
ability, Kikkawa Motoharu and Kohayakawa Takakage. A commission
having been obtained from Kyoto, Motonari took the field in 1555, and
with only three thousand men succeeded, by a daring feat, in
shattering Harukata with twenty thousand. Thus far, Mori Motonari had
obeyed the behest of his late chief. But thereafter he made no
attempt to restore the Ouchi family. On the contrary, he relentlessly
prosecuted the campaign against Suye Harukata, with whom was
associated Ouchi Yoshinaga, representing the Ouchi house by adoption,
until ultimately Yoshinaga committed suicide and, the Ouchi family
becoming extinct, Motonari succeeded to all its domains.
*Now represented by Prince Mori.
At that time the province of Izumo, which is conterminous with Iwami
along its western frontier, was under the control of the high
constable, Amako Tsunehisa (1458-1540), who, profiting by the fall of
the great Yamana sept, had obtained possession of the provinces Bingo
and Hoki as well as of the Oki Islands. This daimyo was a puissant
rival of the Ouchi family, and on the downfall of the latter he soon
came into collision with Mori Motonari. Tsunehisa's grandson,
Yoshihisa (1545-1610), inherited this feud, which ended with the
extinction of the Amako family and the absorption of its domains by
the Mori, the latter thus becoming supreme in no less than thirteen
provinces of the Sanyo-do and the Sanin-do.
THE MIYOSHI, THE ICHIJO, THE CHOSOKABE, AND THE KONO FAMILIES
With the island of Shikoku (four provinces) are connected the names
of the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi, the Ichijo, the Chosokabe, and the Kono
families. Early in the fourteenth century, the celebrated Hosokawa
Yoriyuki was banished to Sanuki, and in the middle of the fifteenth
century we find nearly the whole of the island under the sway of
Hosokawa Katsumoto. Then, in the Daiei era (1521-1528), the Miyoshi,
vassals of the Hosokawa, came upon the scene in Awa. From 1470 to
1573, the province of Tosa was governed by the Ichijo, but, in the
latter year, Motochika, head of the Chosokabe, one of the seven
vassal families of the Ichijo, usurped the province, and then
received orders from Oda Nobunaga to conquer the other three
provinces of the island in the interests of Nobunaga's son. Motochika
obeyed, but on the death of Nobunaga and his son he constituted
himself master of Shikoku until Hideyoshi deprived him of all save
Tosa. From 1156 to 1581 the Kono family held the province of Iyo, but
there is nothing of historical interest in their career.
THE DAIMYO IN KYUSHU
Connected with Kyushu are the families of Shoni, Otomo, Ryuzoji,
Kikuchi and Shimazu. The term "shoni" originally signified
vice-governor. Its first bearer was Muto Sukeyori (Fujiwara), who
received the commission of Dazai no shoni from Minamoto Yoritomo.
Subsequently it became a family name, and the Shoni are found
fighting against the Mongol invaders; stoutly supporting the Southern
Court; passing over to the side of the Ashikaga, and losing their
places in history after the suicide of Tokihisa (1559), who had
suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the Ryuzoji.
The Otomo family was a branch of the Fujiwara. One of its members,
Nakahara Chikayoshi, received from Minamoto Yoritomo the office of
high constable of the Dazai-fu, and to his son, Yoshinao, was given
the uji of Otomo, which, as the reader knows, belonged originally to
Michi no Omi, a general of the Emperor Jimmu. In Kyushu, the Otomo
espoused the cause of the Northern Court, and made themselves masters
of Buzen, Bungo, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, and Higo. In 1396, the
head of the family--Chikayo--held the office of tandai of Kyushu.
Yoshishige, commonly called Sorin (1530-1587), fought successfully
with the Kikuchi and the Akizuki, and the closing years of his life
were devoted to a futile struggle against the Shimazu, the Ryuzoji,
and the Akizuki. He escaped disaster by obtaining succour from
Hideyoshi, but the Otomo domain was reduced to the single province of
Bungo.
The Ryuzoji first appear in history as vassals of the Shoni, under
whose banner they fought against the Otomo, in 1506. Subsequently
they became independent and established a stronghold in Hizen, which
province was granted to them in fief by Hideyoshi.
The Kikuchi, a branch of the Fujiwara, held office in Kyushu from the
tenth century. They are chiefly noteworthy for their gallant defence
of the cause of the Southern Court. After many vicissitudes the
family disappeared from history in the middle of the sixteenth
century.
The ancestor of the Shimazu family was Tadahisa, an illegitimate son
of Minamoto Yoritomo. His mother, to escape the resentment of
Yoritomo's wife, Masa, fled to Kyushu, and Tadahisa, having been
named governor of Satsuma, proceeded thither, in 1196, and by
conquest added to it the two provinces, Hyuga and Osumi. The Shimazu
family emerged victorious from all campaigns until Hideyoshi in
person took the field against them, as will be presently related.*
*The family is now represented by Prince Shimazu.
THE O-U REGION
The 0-U region (Mutsu-Dewa) was the home of many septs which fought
among themselves for supremacy. Of these the most influential were
the Mogami of Yamagata, the Date of Yonezawa, and the Ashina of Aizu.
In the extreme north were the Nambu who, however, lived too remote
from the political centres to occupy historical attention. The Date
maintained friendly relations with the Ashikaga, and Harumune was
nominated tandai of Oshu by the shogun Yoshiharu, of whose name one
ideograph (haru) was given to the Date chief. The family attained its
greater distinction in the time of Masamune (1566-1636), and was
fortunate in being able to stand aloof from some of the internecine
strife of the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, the region was
sufficiently disturbed. Thus, the Tsugaru and the Nambu struggled in
the north, while the Date, further north, shattered the power of the
Nikaido, the Nihonmatsu, the Ashina, and the Tamura, or fought less
decisively against the Satake (of Hitachi), and in Ushu (Dewa) the
Mogami were confronted by the Uesugi of Echigo.
DATE MASAMUNE
The most renowned of the Date family was Masamune, who to great
military skill added artistic instincts and considerable poetic
ability. Tradition has handed down some incidents which illustrate
the ethics of that time as well as the character of the man. It is
stated that Masamune came into possession of a scroll on which were
inscribed a hundred selected poems copied by the celebrated Fujiwara
Ietaka. Of this anthology Masamune was much enamoured, for the sake
alike of its contents and of its calligraphy. But learning
accidentally that the scroll had been pawned to the merchant from
whom he had obtained it, he instituted inquiries as to its owner, and
ultimately restored the scroll to him with the addition of five gold
ryo. The owner was a knight-errant (ronin) named Imagawa Motome, who
thereafter entered Masamune's service and ultimately rose to be a
general of infantry (ashigaru). The sympathy which taught Masamune to
estimate the pain with which the owner of the scroll must have parted
with it was a fine trait of character. Another incident in this
remarkable man's career happened at an entertainment where he
accidentally trod on the robe of one Kanematsu, a vassal of the
Tokugawa. Enraged by an act of carelessness which amounted almost to
a deliberate insult, Kanematsu struck Masamune, A commotion at once
arose, the probable outcome being that Masamune would return the blow
with his sword. But he remained pertly cool, making no remark except
that he had been paid for his want of care, and that, at any rate,
Kanematsu was not an adversary worthy of his resentment.
THE FIVE CENTRES
Among the welter of warring regions glanced at above, five sections
detach themselves as centres of disturbance. The first is the Court
in Kyoto and the Muromachi Bakufu, where the Hosokawa, the Miyoshi,
and the Matsunaga deluged the streets with blood and reduced the city
to ashes. The second is the Hojo of Odawara, who compassed the
destruction of the kubo at Koga and of the two original Uesugi
families. The third is Takeda of Kai, who struggled on one side with
the Uesugi of Echigo and on the other with the Imagawa of Suruga. The
fourth is Oda Nobunaga, who escorted the shogun to the capital. And
the fifth is the great Mori family, who, after crushing the Ouchi and
the Amako, finally came into collision with the armies of Oda under
the leadership of Hideyoshi.
ENGRAVING: "EMA" (Pictures Painted on Wood, Especially of Horses,
Hung up in the Temple as Motive Offerings)
ENGRAVING: ODA NOBUNAGA
CHAPTER XXXIV
NOBUNAGA, HIDEYOSHI, AND IEYASU
ODA NOBUNAGA
WHEN the Taira sept was shattered finally at Dan-no-ura, a baby
grandson of Kiyomori was carried by its mother to the hamlet of
Tsuda, in Omi province. Subsequently this child, Chikazane, was
adopted by a Shinto official of Oda, in Echizen, and thus acquired
the name of Oda. For generations the family served uneventfully at
the shrine in Omi, but in the disturbed days of the Ashikaga shoguns,
the representative of the eighth generation from Chikazane emerged
from the obscurity of Shinto services and was appointed steward
(karo) of the Shiba family, which appointment involved removal of his
residence to Owari. From that time the fortunes of the family became
brighter. Nobuhide, its representative at the beginning of the
sixteenth century, acquired sufficient power to dispute the Imagawa's
sway over the province of Mikawa, and sufficient wealth to contribute
funds to the exhausted coffers of the Court in Kyoto.
This man's son was Nobunaga. Born in 1534, and destined to bequeath
to his country a name that will never die, Nobunaga, as a boy, showed
much of the eccentricity of genius. He totally despised the canons of
the time as to costume and etiquette. One of his peculiarities was a
love of long swords, and it is related that on a visit to Kyoto in
his youth he carried in his girdle a sword which trailed on the
ground as he walked. Rough and careless, without any apparent
dignity, he caused so much solicitude to his tutor and guardian,
Hirate Masahide, and showed so much indifference to the latter's
remonstrances, that finally Masahide had recourse to the faithful
vassal's last expedient--he committed suicide, leaving a letter in
which the explanation of his act was accompanied by a stirring appeal
to the better instincts of his pupil and ward. This proved the
turning-point in Nobunaga's career. He became as circumspect as he
had previously been careless, and he subsequently erected to the
memory of his brave monitor a temple which may be seen to this day by
visitors to Nagoya.
It is frequently said of Nobunaga that his indifference to detail and
his lack of patience were glaring defects in his moral endowment. But
that accusation can scarcely be reconciled with facts. Thus, when
still a young man, it is related of him that he summoned one of his
vassals to his presence but, giving no order, allowed the man to
retire. This was repeated with two others, when the third, believing
that there must be something in need of care, looked about
attentively before retiring, and observing a piece of torn paper on
the mats, took it up and carried it away. Nobunaga recalled him,
eulogized his intelligence, and declared that men who waited
scrupulously for instructions would never accomplish much. The
faculties of observation and initiation were not more valued by
Nobunaga than those of honesty and modesty. It is recorded that on
one occasion he summoned all the officers of his staff, and showing
them a sword by a famous maker, promised to bestow it upon the man
who should guess most correctly the number of threads in the silk
frapping of the hilt. All the officers wrote down their guesses with
one exception, that of Mori Rammaru. Asked for the reason of his
abstention, Mori replied that he happened to know the exact number of
threads, having counted them on a previous occasion when admiring the
sword. Nubunaga at once placed the weapon in his hands, thus
recognizing his honesty. Again, after the construction of the famous
castle at Azuchi, to which reference will be made hereafter,
Nobunaga, desiring to have a record compiled in commemoration of the
event, asked a celebrated priest, Sakugen, to undertake the
composition and penning of the document. Sakugen declared the task to
be beyond his literary ability, and recommended that it should be
entrusted to his rival, Nankwa. Nobunaga had no recourse but to adopt
this counsel, and Nankwa performed the task admirably, as the
document, which is still in existence, shows. In recognition of this
success, Nobunaga gave the compiler one hundred pieces of silver, but
at the same time bestowed two hundred on Sakugen for his magnanimity
in recommending a rival.
Nobunaga unquestionably had the gift of endearing himself to his
retainers, though there are records which show that he was subject to
outbursts of fierce anger. Even his most trusted generals were not
exempt from bitter words or even blows, and we shall presently see
that to this fault in his character was approximately due his tragic
end. Nevertheless, he did not lack the faculty of pity. On the
occasion of a dispute between two of his vassals about the boundaries
of a manor, the defeated litigant bribed one of Nobunaga's principal
staff-officers to appeal for reversal of the judgment. This officer
adduced reasons of a sufficiently specious character, but Nobunaga
detected their fallacy, and appeared about to take some precipitate
action when he happened to observe the wrinkles which time had
written on the suppliant's face. He recovered his sang-froid and
contented himself with sending the officer from his presence and
subsequently causing to be handed to him a couplet setting forth the
evils of bribery and corruption. He forgave the guilty man in
consideration of his advanced age, and the incident is said to have
closed with the suicide of the old officer. Frugality was another
trait of Nobunaga's character. But he did not save money for money's
sake. He spent with lavish hand when the occasion called for
munificence; as when he contributed a great sum for the rebuilding of
the Ise shrines. Perhaps nothing constitutes a better clue to his
disposition than the verses he habitually quoted:
Life is short; the world is a mere dream to the idle.
Only the fool fears death, for what is there of life that does
Not die once, sooner or later?
Man has to die once and once only;
He should make his death glorious.
It is recorded that Nobunaga's demeanour in battle truly reflected
the spirit of these verses.
ENGRAVING: TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI
HIDEYOSHI
Nobunaga certainly deserved the success he achieved, but that he
achieved it must be attributed in part to accident. That accident was
his association with Hideyoshi.* It has been sometimes said that
circumstances beget the men to deal with them. Fallacious as such a
doctrine is, it almost compels belief when we observe that the second
half of the sixteenth century in Japan produced three of the greatest
men the world has ever seen, and that they joined hands to accomplish
the stupendous task of restoring peace and order to an empire which
had been almost continuously torn by war throughout five consecutive
centuries. These three men were born within an interval of eight
years: Nobunaga, in 1534; Hideyoshi, in 1536, and Ieyasu, in 1542.
*To avoid needless difficulty the name "Hideyoshi" is used solely
throughout this history. But, as a matter of fact, the great
statesman and general was called in his childhood Nakamura Hiyoshi;
his adult name was Tokichi; afterwards he changed this to Hashiba and
ultimately, he was known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
There are many stories about Hideyoshi's early days, but the details
are obscured by a record called the Taikoki, which undoubtedly makes
many excursions into the region of romance. The plain facts appear to
be that Hideyoshi was the son of a humble farmer named Kinoshita
Yaemon, who lived in the Aichi district of Owari province, and who
preferred the life of a foot-soldier (ashigaru) to the pursuit of
agriculture. Yaemon served the Oda family, and died when Hideyoshi
was still a youth. In Owari province, at a homestead called Icho-mura
from the name of the tree (maiden-hair tree) that flourishes there in
abundance, there stands a temple built in the year 1616 on the site
of the house where Hideyoshi was born. This temple is known as
Taiko-zan--"Taiko" having been the title of Hideyoshi in the latter
years of his life--and in the grounds of the temple may be seen the
well from which water was drawn to wash the newly born baby. The
child grew up to be a youth of dimunitive stature, monkey-like face,
extraordinary precocity, and boundless ambition. Everything was
against him--personal appearance, obscurity of lineage, and absence
of scholarship. Yet he never seems to have doubted that a great
future lay before him.
Many curious legends are grouped about his childhood. They are for
the most part clumsily constructed and unconvincing, though probably
we shall be justified in accepting the evidence they bear of a mind
singularly well ordered and resourceful. At the age of sixteen he was
employed by a Buddhist priest to assist in distributing amulets, and
by the agency of this priest he obtained an introduction to
Matsushita Yukitsuna, commandant of the castle of Kuno at Hamamatsu,
in Totomi province. This Matsushita was a vassal of Imagawa
Yoshimoto. He controlled the provinces of Mikawa, Totomi, and Suruga,
which lie along the coast eastward of Owari, and he represented one
of the most powerful families in the country. Hideyoshi served in the
castle of Kuno for a period variously reckoned at from one year to
five. Tradition says that he abused the trust placed in him by his
employer, and absconded with the sum of six ryo wherewith he had been
commissioned to purchase a new kind of armour which had recently come
into vogue in Owari province. But though this alleged theft becomes
in certain annals the basis of a picturesque story as to Hideyoshi
repaying Matsushita a thousandfold in later years, the unadorned
truth seems to be that Hideyoshi was obliged to leave Kuno on account
of the jealousy of his fellow retainers, who slandered him to
Yukitsuna and procured his dismissal.
Returning to Owari, he obtained admission to the ranks of Oda
Nobunaga in the humble capacity of sandal-bearer. He deliberately
chose Nobunaga through faith in the greatness of his destiny, and
again the reader of Japanese history is confronted by ingenious tales
as to Hideyoshi's devices for obtaining admission to Nobunaga's
house. But the most credible explanation is, at the same time, the
simplest, namely, that Hideyoshi's father, having been borne on the
military roll of Nobunaga's father, little difficulty offered in
obtaining a similar favour for Hideyoshi.
Nobunaga was then on the threshold of his brilliant career. In those
days of perpetual war and tumult, the supreme ambition of each great
territorial baron in Japan was to fight his way to the capital, there
to obtain from the sovereign and the Muromachi Bakufu a commission to
subdue the whole country and to administer it as their lieutenant.
Nobunaga seems to have cherished that hope from his early years,
though several much more powerful military magnates would surely
oppose anything like his pre-eminence. Moreover, in addition to
comparative weakness, he was hampered by local inconvenience. The
province of Owari was guarded on the south by sea, but on the east it
was menaced directly by the Imagawa family and indirectly by the
celebrated Takeda Shingen, while on the north it was threatened by
the Saito and on the west by the Asai, the Sasaki, and the
Kitabatake. Any one of these puissant feudatories would have been
more than a match for the Owari chieftain, and that Imagawa Yoshimoto
harboured designs against Owari was well known to Nobunaga, for in
those days spying, slander, forgery, and deceit of every kind had the
approval of the Chinese writers on military ethics whose books were
regarded as classics by the Japanese. Hideyoshi himself figures at
this very time as the instigator and director of a series of acts of
extreme treachery, by which the death of one of the principal Imagawa
vassals was compassed; and the same Hideyoshi was the means of
discovering a plot by Imagawa emissaries to delay the repair of the
castle of Kiyosu, Nobunaga's headquarters, where a heavy fall of rain
had caused a landslide. Nobunaga did not venture to assume the
offensive against the Imagawa chief. He chose as a matter of
necessity to stand on the defensive, and when it became certain that
Imagawa Yoshimoto had taken the field, a general impression prevailed
that the destruction of the Oda family was unavoidable.
BATTLE OF OKEHAZAMA
In the month of June, 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto crossed the border into
Owari at the head of a force stated by the annals to have been
forty-six thousand strong. Just two years had elapsed since
Hideyoshi's admission to the service of the Owari baron in the office
of sandal-bearer. Nevertheless, some generally credible records do
not hesitate to represent Hideyoshi as taking a prominent part in the
great battle against the Imagawa, and as openly advising Nobunaga
with regard to the strategy best adapted to the situation. It is
incredible that a private soldier, and a mere youth of twenty-two at
that, should have risen in such a short time to occupy a place of
equality with the great generals of Nobunaga's army. But that
Hideyoshi contributed more or less to the result of the fight may be
confidently asserted.
The battle itself, though the forces engaged were not large, must be
counted one of the great combats of the world, for had not Nobunaga
emerged victorious the whole course of Japanese history might have
been changed. At the outset, no definite programme seems to have been
conceived on Nobunaga's side. He had no allies, and the numerical
inferiority of his troops was overwhelming. The latter defect was
remedied in a very partial degree by the resourcefulness of
Hideyoshi. In his boyhood he had served for some time under a
celebrated chief of freebooters, by name Hachisuka Koroku,* and he
persuaded that chieftain with his fifteen hundred followers to march
to the aid of the Owari army, armour and weapons having been
furnished by Sasaki Shotei, of Omi province. Sasaki regarded
Nobunaga's plight as too hopeless to warrant direct aid, but he was
willing to equip Hachisuka's men for the purpose, although the
addition of fifteen hundred soldiers could make very little
difference in the face of such a disparity as existed between the
combatants.
*Ancestor of the present Marquis Hachisuka.
Shortly before these events, Owari had been invaded from the west by
the Kitabatake baron, whose domain lay in Ise, and the invaders had
been beaten back by a bold offensive movement on Nobunaga's part. The
ultimate result had not been conclusive, as Nobunaga advisedly
refrained from carrying the war into Ise and thus leaving his own
territory unguarded. But the affair had taught the superiority of
offensive tactics, and thus Nobunaga's impulse was to attack the army
of Imagawa, instead of waiting to be crushed by preponderate force.
His most trusted generals, Shibata Katsuiye, Sakuma Nobumori, and
Hayashi Mitsukatsu, strenuously opposed this plan. They saw no
prospect whatever of success in assuming the offensive against
strength so superior, and they urged the advisability of yielding
temporarily and awaiting an opportunity to recover independence.
Here, Hideyoshi is reputed to have shown conspicuous wisdom at the
council-table. He pointed out that there could be no such thing as
temporary surrender. The Imagawa would certainly insist on hostages
sufficiently valuable to insure permanent good faith, and he further
declared that it was a mistake to credit the Imagawa with possessing
the good-will of any of the other great feudatories, since they were
all equally jealous of one another.
Finally, it was resolved that seven forts should be built and
garrisoned, and that five of them should be allowed to fall into the
enemy's hands if resistance proved hopeless. In the remaining two
forts the garrisons were to be composed of the best troops in the
Owari army, and over these strongholds were to be flown the flags of
Nobunaga himself and of his chief general. It was hoped that by their
success in five of the forts the Imagawa army would be at once
physically wearied and morally encouraged to concentrate their entire
strength and attention on the capture of the last two fortresses.
Meanwhile, Nobunaga himself, with a select body of troops, was to
march by mountain roads to the rear of the invading forces and
deliver a furious attack when such a manoeuvre was least expected.
The brave men who engaged in this perilous enterprise were
strengthened by worshipping at the shrine of Hachiman in the village
of Atsuta, and their prayers evoked appearances which were
interpreted as manifestations of divine assistance. Most fortunately
for the Owari troops, their movements were shrouded by a heavy
rainfall, and they succeeded in inflicting serious loss on the
invading army, driving it pele-mele across the border and killing its
chief, Yoshimoto. No attempt was made to pursue the fugitives into
Mikawa. Nobunaga was prudently content with his signal victory. It
raised him at once to a level with the greatest provincial barons in
the empire, and placed him in the foremost rank of the aspirants for
an Imperial commission.
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA IEYASU
TOKUGAWA IEYASU
The battle of Okehazama led to another incident of prime importance
in Japanese history. It brought about an alliance between Oda
Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu. Among the small barons subject to the
Imagawa there was one called Matsudaira Motoyasu. He had taken the
name, Motoyasu, by adopting one of the ideographs of Yoshimoto's
appellation. His family, long in alliance with the Imagawa, were at a
variance with the Oda, and in the battle of Okehazama this Motoyasu
had captured one of the Owari forts. But on the defeat and death of
Yoshimoto, the Matsudaira chieftain retired at once to his own castle
of Okazaki, in the province of Mikawa. He had then to consider his
position, for by the death of Yoshimoto, the headship of the Imagawa
family had fallen to his eldest son, Ujizane, a man altogether
inferior in intellect to his gifted father. Nobunaga himself
appreciated the character of the new ruler, and saw that the wisest
plan would be to cement a union with Matsudaira Motoyasu. Accordingly
he despatched an envoy to Okazaki Castle to consult the wishes of
Motoyasu. The latter agreed to the Owari chief's proposals, and in
February, 1562, proceeded to the castle of Kiyosu, where he
contracted with Oda Nobunaga an alliance which endured throughout the
latter's lifetime. In the following year, Motoyasu changed his name
to Ieyasu, and subsequently he took the uji of Tokugawa. The alliance
was strengthened by intermarriage, Nobuyasu, the eldest son of
Ieyasu, being betrothed to a daughter of Nobunaga.
NOBUNAGA'S POSITION
It was at this time, according to Japanese annalists, that Nobunaga
seriously conceived the ambition of making Kyoto his goal. The
situation offered inducements. In the presence of a practically
acknowledged conviction that no territorial baron of that era might
venture to engage in an enterprise which denuded his territory of a
protecting army, it was necessary to look around carefully before
embarking upon the Kyoto project. Nobunaga had crushed the Imagawa,
for though his victory had not been conclusive from a military point
of view, it had placed the Imagawa under incompetent leadership and
had thus freed Owari from all menace from the littoral provinces on
the east. Again, in the direction of Echigo and Shinano, the great
captain, Uesugi Kenshin, dared not strike at Nobunaga's province
without exposing himself to attack from Takeda Shingen. But Shingen
was not reciprocally hampered. His potentialities were always an
unknown quality. He was universally recognized as the greatest
strategist of his time, and if Nobunaga ventured to move westward,
the Kai baron would probably seize the occasion to lay hands upon
Owari. It is true that the alliance with Tokugawa Ieyasu constituted
some protection. But Ieyasu was no match for Shingen in the field.
Some other check must be devised, and Nobunaga found it in the
marriage of his adopted daughter to Shingen's son, Katsuyori.
THE COURT APPEALS TO NOBUNAGA
In Kyoto, at this time, a state of great confusion existed. The
Emperor Okimachi had ascended the throne in 1557. But in the presence
of the violent usurpations of the Miyoshi and others, neither the
sovereign nor the shogun could exercise any authority, and, as has
been shown already, the Throne was constantly in pecuniarily
embarassed circumstances. Nobunaga's father, Nobuhide, had
distinguished himself by subscribing liberally to aid the Court
financially, and this fact being now recalled in the context of
Nobunaga's rapidly rising power, the Emperor, in the year 1562,
despatched Tachiri Munetsugu nominally to worship at the shrine of
Atsuta, but in reality to convey to Nobunaga an Imperial message
directing him to restore order in the capital. The Owari baron
received this envoy with marked respect. It is recorded that he
solemnly performed the ceremony of lustration and clothed himself in
hitherto unworn garments on the occasion of his interview with the
envoy. It was not in his power, however, to make any definite
arrangement as to time. He could only profess his humble
determination to obey the Imperial behest, and promise the utmost
expedition. But there can be no doubt that the arrival of this envoy
decided the question of a march to Kyoto, though some years were
destined to elapse before the project could be carried out.
Two things were necessary, however, namely, a feasible route and a
plausible pretext. Even in those times, when wars were often
undertaken merely for the purpose of deciding personal supremacy,
there remained sufficient public morality to condemn any baron who
suffered himself to be guided openly by ambition alone. Some
reasonably decent cause had to be found. Now the Emperor, though, as
above stated, communicating his will verbally to Nobunaga, had not
sent him any written commission. The necessary pretext was furnished,
however, by the relations between the members of the Saito family of
Mino province, which lay upon the immediate north of Owari, and
constituted the most convenient road to Kyoto. Hidetatsu, the head of
that family, had fought against Nobunaga's father, Nobuhide, and one
of the conditions of peace had been that the daughter of Hidetatsu
should become the wife of Nobunaga.
Subsequently, the Saito household was disturbed by one of the family
feuds so common during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in
Japan. Hidetatsu, desiring to disinherit his eldest son, Yoshitatsu,
had been attacked and killed by the latter, and Nobunaga announced
his intention of avenging the death of his father-in-law. But before
this intention could be carried out, Yoshitatsu died (1561), and his
son, Tatsuoki, a man of little resource or ability, had to bear the
onset from Owari. Nobunaga, at the head of a large force, crossed the
Kiso River into Mino. But he found that, even under the leadership of
Tatsuoki, the Mino men were too strong for him, and he was ultimately
compelled to adopt the device of erecting on the Mino side of the
river a fortress which should serve at once as a basis of military
operations and as a place for establishing relations with the minor
families in the province. The building of this fort proved a very
difficult task, but it was finally accomplished by a clever device on
the part of Hideyoshi, who, a master of intrigue as well as of
military strategy, subsequently won over to Nobunaga's cause many of
the principal vassals of the Saito family, among them being Takenaka
Shigeharu, who afterwards proved a most capable lieutenant to
Hideyoshi.
These preliminaries arranged, Nobunaga once more crossed the Kiso
(1564) at the head of a large army, and after many days of severe
fighting, captured the castle of Inaba-yama, which had been strongly
fortified by Yoshitatsu, and was deemed impregnable. Nobunaga
established his headquarters at this castle, changing its name to
Gifu, and thus extending his dominion over the province of Mino as
well as Owari. He had now to consider whether he would push on at
once into the province of Omi, which alone lay between him and Kyoto,
or whether he would first provide against the danger of a possible
attack on the western littoral of Owari from the direction of Ise. He
chose the latter course, and invaded Ise at the head of a
considerable force. But he here met with a repulse at the hands of
Kusunoki Masatomo, who to the courage and loyalty of his immortal
ancestor, Masashige, added no small measure of strategical ability.
He succeeded in defending his castle of Yada against Nobunaga's
attacks, and finally the Owari general, deceived by a rumour to the
effect that Takeda Shingen had reached the neighbourhood of Gifu with
a strong army, retired hurriedly from Ise.
It may here be mentioned that three years later, in 1568, Hideyoshi
succeeded in inducing all the territorial nobles of northern Ise,
except Kusunoki Masatomo, to place themselves peacefully under
Nobunaga's sway. Hideyoshi's history shows him to have been a
constant believer in the theory that a conquered foe generally
remains an enemy, whereas a conciliated enemy often becomes a friend.
Acting on this conviction and aided by an extraordinary gift of
persuasive eloquence, he often won great victories without any
bloodshed. Thus he succeeded in convincing the Ise barons that
Nobunaga was not swayed by personal ambition, but that his ruling
desire was to put an end to the wars which had devastated Japan
continuously for more than a century. It is right to record that the
failures made by Nobunaga himself in his Ise campaign were in the
sequel of measures taken in opposition to Hideyoshi's advice, and
indeed the annals show that this was true of nearly all the disasters
that overtook Nobunaga throughout his career, whereas his many and
brilliant successes were generally the outcome of Hideyoshi's
counsels.
ANOTHER SUMMONS FROM THE EMPEROR
In November, 1567, the Emperor again sent Tachiri Munetsugu to invite
Nobunaga's presence in Kyoto. His Majesty still refrained from the
dangerous step of giving a written commission to Nobunaga, but he
instructed Munetsugu to carry to the Owari chieftain a suit of armour
and a sword. Two years previously to this event, the tumult in Kyoto
had culminated in an attack on the palace of the shogun Yoshiteru,
the conflagration of the building, and the suicide of the shogun amid
the blazing ruins. Yoshiteru's younger brother, Yoshiaki, effected
his escape from the capital, and wandered about the country during
three years, supplicating one baron after another to take up his
cause. This was in 1568, just nine months after the Emperor's second
message to Nobunaga, and the latter, acting upon Hideyoshi's advice,
determined to become Yoshiaki's champion, since by so doing he would
represent not only the sovereign but also the shogun in the eyes of
the nation. Meanwhile--and this step also was undertaken under
Hideyoshi's advice--a friendly contract had been concluded with Asai
Nagamasa, the most powerful baron in Omi, and the agreement had been
cemented by the marriage of Nobunaga's sister to Nagamasa.
NOBUNAGA PROCEEDS TO KYOTO
In October, 1568, Nobunaga set out for Kyoto at the head of an army
said to have numbered thirty thousand. He did not encounter any
serious resistance on the way, but the coming of his troops threw the
city into consternation, the general apprehension being that the
advent of these provincial warriors would preface a series of
depredations such as the people were only too well accustomed to. But
Nobunaga lost no time in issuing reassuring proclamations, which, in
the sequel, his officers proved themselves thoroughly capable of
enforcing, and before the year closed peace and order were restored
in the capital, Yoshiaki being nominated shogun and all the
ceremonies of Court life being restored. Subsequently, the forces of
the Miyoshi sept made armed attempts to recover the control of the
city, and the shogun asked Nobunaga to appoint one of his most
trusted generals and ablest administrators to maintain peace. It was
fully expected that Nobunaga would respond to this appeal by
nominating Shibata, Sakuma, or Niwa, who had served under his banners
from the outset, and in whose eyes Hideyoshi was a mere upstart. But
Nobunaga selected Hideyoshi, and the result justified his choice, for
during Hideyoshi's sway Kyoto enjoyed such tranquillity as it had not
known for a century.
Nobunaga omitted nothing that could make for the dignity and comfort
of the new shogun. He caused a palace to be erected for him on the
site of the former Nijo Castle, contributions being levied for the
purpose on the five provinces of the Kinai as well as on six others;
and Nobunaga himself personally supervised the work, which was
completed in May, 1569. But it may fairly be doubted whether Nobunaga
acted in all this matter with sincerity. At the outset his attitude
towards the shogun was so respectful and so considerate that Yoshiaki
learned to regard and speak of him as a father. But presently
Nobunaga presented a memorial, charging the shogun with faults which
were set forth in seventeen articles. In this impeachment, Yoshiaki
was accused of neglecting his duties at Court; of failing to
propitiate the territorial nobles; of partiality in meting out
rewards and punishments; of arbitrarily confiscating private
property; of squandering money on needless enterprises; of listening
to flatterers; of going abroad in the disguise of a private person,
and so forth. It is claimed by some of Nobunaga's biographers that he
was perfectly honest in presenting this memorial, but others, whose
judgment appears to be more perspicacious, consider that his chief
object was to discredit Yoshiaki and thus make room for his own
subsequent succession to the shogunate.
At all events Yoshiaki interpreted the memorial in that sense. He
became openly hostile to Nobunaga, and ultimately took up arms.
Nobunaga made many attempts to conciliate him. He even sent Hideyoshi
to solicit Yoshiaki's return to Kyoto from Kawachi whither the shogun
had fled. But Yoshiaki, declining to be placated, placed himself
under the protection of the Mori family, and thus from the year 1573,
Nobunaga became actual wielder of the shogun's authority. Ten years
later, Yoshiaki returned to the capital, took the tonsure and changed
his name to Shozan. At the suggestion of Hideyoshi a title and a
yearly income of ten thousand koku were conferred on him. He died in
Osaka and thus ended the Ashikaga shogunate.
SAKAI
One of the incidents connected with Hideyoshi's administration in
Kyoto illustrates the customs of his time. Within eight miles of the
city of Osaka lies Sakai, a great manufacturing mart. This latter
town, though originally forming part of the Ashikaga domain,
nevertheless assisted the Miyoshi in their attack upon the shogunate.
Nobunaga, much enraged at such action, proposed to sack the town, but
Hideyoshi asked to have the matter left in his hands. This request
being granted, he sent messengers to Sakai, who informed the citizens
that Nobunaga contemplated the destruction of the town by fire.
Thereupon the citizens, preferring to die sword in hand rather than
to be cremated, built forts and made preparations for resistance.
This was just what Hideyoshi designed. Disguising himself, he
repaired to Sakai and asked to be informed as to the object of these
military preparations. Learning the apprehensions of the people, he
ridiculed their fears; declared that Nobunaga had for prime object
the safety and peace of the realm, and that by giving ear to such
wild rumours and assuming a defiant attitude, they had committed a
fault not to be lightly condoned. Delegates were then sent from Sakai
at Hideyoshi's suggestion to explain the facts to Nobunaga, who acted
his part in the drama by ordering the deputies to be thrown into
prison and promising to execute them as well as their fellow
townsmen. In this strait the people of Sakai appealed to a celebrated
Buddhist priest named Kennyo, and through his intercession Hideyoshi
agreed to ransom the town for a payment of twenty thousand ryo. The
funds thus obtained were devoted to the repair of the palaces of the
Emperor and the shogun, a measure which won for Nobunaga the applause
of the whole of Kyoto.
NOBUNAGA'S SITUATION
Oda Nobunaga was now in fact shogun. So far as concerned legalized
power he had no equal in the empire, but his military strength was by
no means proportionate. In the north, in the east, in the west, and
in the south, there were great territorial nobles who could put into
the field armies much larger than all the Owari chief's troops.
Takeda Shingen, in the Kwanto, was the most formidable of these
opponents. In the year 1570, when the events now to be related
occurred, the Hojo sept was under the rule of Ujimasa, and with him
Shingen had concluded an alliance which rendered the latter secure
against attack on the rear in the event of movement against Kyoto.
The better to ensure himself against Hojo designs, Shingen joined
hands with the Satomi family in Awa, and the Satake family in
Hitachi; while to provide against irruptions by the Uesugi family he
enlisted the co-operation of the priests in Kaga, Echizen, and Noto.
Shingen further established relations of friendship with Matsunaga
Hisahide in the far west. It was this baron that had attacked the
palace of Nijo when Yoshiteru, the shogun, had to commit suicide, and
Shingen's object in approaching him was to sow seeds of discord
between the shogunate and Nobunaga. Most imminent of all perils,
however, was the menace of the Asai family in Omi, and the Asakura
family in Echizen. A glance at the map shows that the Asai were in a
position to sever Nobunaga's communications with his base in Mino,
and that the Asakura were in a position to cut off his communications
with Kyoto. In this perilous situation Nobunaga's sole resource lay
in Tokugawa Ieyasu and in the latter's alliance with the Uesugi,
which compact the Owari chief spared no pains to solidify. But from a
military point of view Ieyasu was incomparably weaker than Shingen.
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE ASAKURA AND THE ASAI
In 1570, Nobunaga determined to put his fortunes to a final test.
Having concentrated a large body of troops in Kyoto, he declared war
against Asakura Yoshikage, who had refused to recognize the new
shogun. Success crowned the early efforts of the Owari forces in this
war, but the whole situation was changed by Asai Nagamasa, who
suddenly marched out of Omi and threatened to attack Nobunaga's rear.
It is true that before setting out for Kyoto originally, Nobunaga had
given his sister in marriage to Nagamasa, and had thus invited the
latter's friendship. But Nagamasa had always been on terms of close
amity with Yoshikage, and, indeed, had stipulated from the outset
that Nobunaga should not make war against the latter. It cannot be
said, therefore, that Nagamasa's move constituted a surprise.
Nobunaga should have been well prepared for such contingencies. He
was not prepared, however, and the result was that he found himself
menaced by Yoshikage's army in front and by Nagamasa's in rear.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had associated himself by invitation with this
expedition into Echizen, advised Nobunaga to countermarch with all
rapidity for Kyoto, and it was so determined. Hideyoshi was left with
three thousand men to hold Yoshikage's forces in some degree of
check.
The situation at that moment was well-nigh desperate. There seemed to
be no hope for either Nobunaga or Hideyoshi. But Nobunaga was saved
by the slowness of Nagamasa, who, had he moved with any rapidity,
must have reached Kyoto in advance of Nobunaga's forces; and
Hideyoshi was saved by an exercise of the wonderful resourcefulness
which peril always awoke in this great man. Calculating that
Yoshikage's army would reach Kanagasaki Castle at nightfall,
Hideyoshi, by means of thousands of lanterns and banners gave to a
few scores of men a semblance of a numerous army. Yoshikage, who
believed that Nobunaga had retired, was visited by doubts at the
aspect of this great array, and instead of advancing to attack at
once, he decided to await the morning. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi with his
little band of troops, moved round Yoshikage's flank, and delivering
a fierce attack at midnight, completely defeated the Echizen forces.*
*See A New Life of Toyolomi Hideyoshi, by W. Dening.
This episode was, of course, not conclusive. It merely showed that so
long as Nagamasa and Yoshikage worked in combination, Nobunaga's
position in Kyoto and his communications with his base in Mino must
remain insecure. He himself would have directed his forces at once
against Nagamasa, but Hideyoshi contended that the wiser plan would
be to endeavour to win over some of the minor barons whose
strongholds lay on the confines of Omi and Mino. This was gradually
accomplished, and after an unsuccessful attempt upon the part of
Sasaki Shotei of Omi to capture a castle (Choko-ji) which was under
the command of Nobunaga's chief general, Katsuiye, the Owari forces
were put in motion against Nagamasa's principal strongholds, Otani
and Yoko-yama. The former was attacked first, Nobunaga being assisted
by a contingent of five thousand men under the command of Ieyasu.
Three days of repeated assaults failed to reduce the castle, and
during that interval Nagamasa and Yoshikage were able to enter the
field at the head of a force which greatly outnumbered the Owari
army.
In midsummer, 1570, there was fought, on the banks of the Ane-gawa,
one of the great battles of Japanese history. It resulted in the
complete discomfiture of the Echizen chieftains. The records say that
three thousand of their followers were killed and that among them
were ten general officers. The castle of Otani, however, remained in
Nagamasa's hands. Nobunaga now retired to his headquarters in Gifu to
rest his forces.
But he was quickly summoned again to the field by a revolt on the
part of the Buddhist priests in the province of Settsu, under the
banner of Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Saito Tatsuoki. Nobunaga's attempt
to quell this insurrection was unsuccessful, and immediately Nagamasa
and Yoshikage seized the occasion to march upon Kyoto. The priests of
Hiei-zan received them with open arms, and they occupied on the
monastery's commanding site, a position well-nigh impregnable, from
which they constantly menaced the capital. It was now the
commencement of winter. For the invading troops to hold their own
upon Hiei-zan throughout the winter would have been even more
difficult than for Nobunaga's army to cut off their avenues of
retreat and supply.
In these circumstances peace presented itself to both sides as the
most feasible plan, and the forces of Nagamasa and Yoshikage were
allowed to march away unmolested to Omi and Echizen, respectively.
This result was intensely mortifying to Hideyoshi, who had devoted
his whole energies to the destruction of these dangerous enemies. But
the final issue was only postponed. By contrivances, which need not
be related in detail, Nagamasa was again induced to take the field,
and, in 1573, the Owari forces found themselves once more confronted
by the allied armies of Echizen and Omi. By clever strategy the
Echizen baron was induced to take the fatal step of separating
himself from his Omi colleague, and at Tone-yama he sustained a
crushing defeat, leaving two thousand of his men and twenty-three of
his captains dead upon the field. He himself fled and for a time
remained concealed, but ultimately, being closely menaced with
capture, he committed suicide. Meanwhile, Nagamasa had withdrawn to
his stronghold of Otani, where he was besieged by Nobunaga. The
castle ultimately fell, Nagamasa and his son dying by their own
hands.
This year witnessed also the death of Takeda Shingen, and thus
Nobunaga not only established his sway over the whole of the
provinces of Omi and Echizen but also was relieved from the constant
menace of a formidable attack by a captain to whom public opinion
justly attributed the leading place among Japanese strategists. The
whole of Nagamasa's estates, yielding an annual return of 180,000
koku, was given to Hideyoshi, and he was ordered to assume the
command of Otani Castle, whence, however, he moved shortly afterwards
to Nagahama.
HIEI-ZAN
It was now possible for Nobunaga to devote his entire attention to
the soldier-priests who had allied themselves with his enemies. It
has been shown that the monastery of Hiei-zan had afforded shelter
and sustenance to the forces of Echizen and Omi during the winter of
1570-1571, and it has been shown also that Nobunaga, underrating the
strength of the priests in the province of Settsu, sustained defeat
at their hands. He now (1574) sent an army to hold the soldier-monks
of Settsu in check while he himself dealt with Hiei-zan. This great
monastery, as already shown, was erected in the ninth century in
obedience to the Buddhist superstition that the northeastern quarter
of the heavens is the "Demon's Gate," and that a temple must be
erected there to afford security against evil influences. The temple
on Hiei-zan had received the munificent patronage of monarch after
monarch, and had grown to be a huge monastery, containing some three
thousand priests. This miniature city completely commanded Kyoto, and
was guarded in front by a great lake. But, above all, it was
sanctified by the superstition of the people, and when Nobunaga
invested it, he found the greatest reluctance on the part of his
generals to proceed to extremities. Nevertheless, he overcame these
scruples, and drawing a cordon of troops round the great monastery,
he applied the torch to the buildings, burnt to death nearly all its
inmates, including women, confiscated its estates, and built, for
purposes of future prevention, a castle at Sakamoto, which was placed
under the command of Akechi Mitsuhide. When, in after years, this
same Mitsuhide treacherously compassed Nobunaga's death, men said
that the opening of the Demon's Gate had entailed its due penalty.
OTHER PRIESTLY DISTURBANCES
It was not in Settsu and at Hiei-zan only that the Buddhist soldiers
turned their weapons against Nobunaga. The Asai sept received
assistance from no less than ten temples in Omi; the Asakura family
had the ranks of its soldiers recruited from monasteries in Echizen
and Kaga; the Saito clan received aid from the bonzes in Izumi and
Iga, and the priests of the great temple Hongwan-ji in Osaka were in
friendly communication with the Mori sept in the west, with the
Takeda in Kai, and with the Hojo in Sagami. In fact, the difficulties
encountered by Nobunaga in his attempts to bring the whole empire
under the affective sway of the Throne were incalculably accentuated
by the hostility of the great Shin sect of Buddhism. He dealt
effectually with all except the monastery at Ishi-yama in Osaka. The
immense natural strength of the position and the strategical ability
of its lord-abbot, Kosa, enabled it to defy all the assaults of the
Owari chief, and it was not until 1588--six years after Nobunaga's
death--that, through the intervention of the Emperor, peace was
finally restored. After eleven years of almost incessant struggle,
his Majesty's envoy, Konoe Sakihisa, succeeded in inducing the Ikko
priests to lay down their arms. It will be presently seen that the
inveterate hostility shown by the Buddhists to Nobunaga was largely
responsible for his favourable attitude towards Christianity.
THE CASTLE OF AZUCHI
The lightness and flimsiness of construction in Japanese houses has
been noted already several times. Even though there was continual
warfare in the provinces of family against family, the character of
the fighting and of the weapons used was such that there was little
need for the building of elaborate defenses, and there was
practically nothing worthy the name of a castle. Watch-towers had
been built and roofs and walls were sometimes protected by putting
nails in the building points outward,--a sort of chevaux de frise.
But a system of outlying defenses, ditch, earthen wall and wooden
palisade, was all that was used so long as fighting was either
hand-to-hand or with missiles no more penetrating than arrows. But
when fire-arms were introduced in 1542, massively constructed castles
began to be built. These were in general patterned after Western
models, but with many minor modifications.
The first of these fortresses was built at Azuchi, in Omi, under the
auspices of Oda Nobunaga. Commenced in 1576, the work was completed
in 1579. In the centre of the castle rose a tower ninety feet high,
standing on a massive stone basement seventy-two feet in height, the
whole forming a structure absolutely without precedent in Japan. The
tower was of wood, and had, therefore, no capacity for resisting
cannon. But, as a matter of fact, artillery can scarcely be said to
have been used in Japan until modern days. Nobunaga's castle is
stated by some historians to have been partially attributable to
Christianity, but this theory seems to rest solely upon the fact that
the central tower was known as Tenshu-kaku, or the "tower of the lord
of Heaven." There were more numerous indications that the spirit of
Buddhism influenced the architect, for in one of the highest storeys
of the tower, the four "guardian kings" were placed, and in the lower
chamber stood an effigy of Tamon (Ananda). The cost of constructing
this colossal edifice was very heavy, and funds had to be collected
from the whole of the eleven provinces then under Nobunaga's sway.
NOBUNAGA AND IEYASU
It has already been noted that Ieyasu was Nobunaga's sole ally in the
east of Japan at the time of the fall of the Imagawa clan. It has
also been noted that Ujizane, the son of Imagawa Yoshimoto, was a
negligible quantity. During many years, however, Ieyasu had to stand
constantly on the defensive against Takeda Shingen. But, in 1572,
Shingen and Ieyasu made a compact against the Imagawa, and this was
followed by a successful campaign on the part of the Tokugawa leader
against Ujizane. The agreement between Shingen and Ieyasu lasted only
a short time. In November, 1572, Shingen led a large force and seized
two of the Tokugawa castles, menacing the third and most important at
Hamamatsu, where Ieyasu himself was in command. Nobunaga thereupon
despatched an army to succour his ally, and in January, 1573, a
series of bloody engagements took place outside Hamamatsu. One
of Nobunaga's generals fled; another died in battle, and Ieyasu
barely escaped into the castle, which he saved by a desperate
device--leaving the gates open and thus suggesting to the enemy that
they would be ambushed if they entered. This battle, known in history
as the War of Mikata-ga-hara, was the greatest calamity that ever
befell Ieyasu, and that he would have suffered worse things at the
hands of Takeda Shingen cannot be doubted, had not Shingen's death
taken place in May, 1573.
Various traditions have been handed down about the demise of this
celebrated captain, undoubtedly one of the greatest strategists Japan
ever possessed. Some say that he was shot by a soldier of Ieyasu;
others that he was hit by a stray bullet, but the best authorities
agree that he died of illness. His son, Katsuyori, inherited none of
his father's great qualities except his bravery. Immediately on
coming into power, he moved a large army against the castle of
Nagashino in the province of Mikawa, one of Ieyasu's strongholds.
This was in June, 1575, and on the news reaching Nobunaga, the latter
lost no time in setting out to succour his ally. On the way a samurai
named Torii Suneemon arrived from the garrison of Nagashino with news
that unless succour were speedily given the fortress could not hold
out. This message reached Ieyasu, who was awaiting the arrival of
Nobunaga before marching to the relief of the beleagured fortress.
Ieyasu assured the messenger that help would come on the morrow, and
urged Suneemon not to essay to re-enter the fortress. But the man
declared that he must carry the tidings to his hard-set comrades. He
was taken prisoner by the enemy and led into the presence of
Katsuyori, who assured him that his life would be spared if he
informed the inmates of the castle that no aid could be hoped for.
Suneemon simulated consent. Despatched under escort to the
neighbourhood of the fort, he was permitted to address the garrison,
and in a loud voice he shouted to his comrades that within a short
time they might look for succour. He was immediately killed by his
escort.
This dramatic episode became a household tradition in Japan. Side by
side with it may be set the fact that Hideyoshi, who accompanied
Nobunaga in this campaign, employed successfully against the enemy
one of the devices recommended by the Chinese strategists, whose
books on the method of conducting warfare were closely studied in
those days by the Japanese. Sakuma Nobumori, one of Nobunaga's
captains, was openly, and of set purpose, insulted and beaten by
orders of his general, and thereafter he escaped to the camp of the
Takeda army, pretending that the evil treatment he had undergone was
too much for his loyalty. Katsuyori, the Takeda commander, received
the fugitive with open arms, and acting in accordance with his
advice, disposed his troops in such a manner as to forfeit all the
advantages of the position. The battle that ensued is memorable as
the first historical instance of the use of firearms on any
considerable scale in a Japanese campaign. Nobunaga's men took
shelter themselves behind palisades and fusilladed the enemy so hotly
that the old-fashioned hand-to-hand fighting became almost
impossible. The losses of the Takeda men were enormous, and it may be
said that the tactics of the era underwent radical alteration from
that time, so that the fight at Takinosawa is memorable in Japanese
history. Hideyoshi urged the advisability of pushing on at once to
Katsuyori's capital, but Nobunaga hesitated to make such a call upon
the energies of his troops, and the final overthrow of the Takeda
chief was postponed.
MILITARY TACTICS
The Mongol invasion should have taught to the Japanese the great
advantages of co-operating military units, but individual prowess
continued to be the guiding factor of field tactics in Japan down to
the second half of the sixteenth century, when the introduction of
firearms inspired new methods. Japanese historians have not much to
say upon this subject. Indeed Rai Sanyo, in the Nihon-gwaishi, may
almost be said to be the sole authority. He writes as follows: "The
generalship of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin was something quite
new in the country at their time. Prior to their day the art of
manoeuvring troops had been little studied. Armies met, but each
individual that composed them relied on his personal prowess and
strength for victory. These two barons, however, made a special study
of strategy and military tactics, with the result that they became
authorities on the various methods of handling troops. In reference
to the employment of cavalry, the Genji warriors and the first of the
Ashikaga shoguns made use of horses largely, but in later days the
Ashikaga did not move away from Kyoto and had no use for horses.
Nobunaga, being near Kyoto, and most of the wars in which he engaged
involving no very long marches, relied almost solely on infantry.
Both Takeda and Uesugi were well supplied with mounted troops, but
owing to the hilly nature of their territories, they made no special
study of cavalry exercises and, almost invariably, the soldiers
employed their horses solely for rapid movement from one place to
another; when a battle commenced they alighted and fought on foot. It
is therefore correct to say that at this time cavalry had gone out of
use. Bows and arrows were, of course, superseded when firearms came
into use.
"Thenceforth, the gun and the long spear were the chief weapons
relied on. Peasants did not rank as soldiers, but their services were
variously utilized in time of war. They were trained in the use of
muskets, and of bows and arrows on hunting expeditions, and thus,
when hostilities broke out, they were able to render considerable
assistance in the defense of their houses. Highwaymen were frequently
employed as spies and scouts. Both Takeda and Uesugi sanctioned this
practice. These two generals also agreed in approving the following
tactical arrangement: the van-guard, consisting of musketeers,
artillerymen, and archers, was followed by companies of infantry
armed with long spears. Then came the cavalry, and after them the
main body, attached to which were drummers and conch-blowers. The
whole army was divided into right and left wings, and a body of men
was kept in reserve. At the opening of the battle, the horsemen
dismounted and advanced on foot. This order was occasionally modified
to suit altered circumstances, but as a rule, it was strictly
followed."*
*Quoted by W. Dening in A New Life of Hideyoshi.
The artillery mentioned in the above quotation must be taken in a
strictly limited sense. Indeed, it would be more correct to speak of
heavy muskets, for cannon, properly so called, may scarcely be said
to have formed any part of the equipment of a Japanese army until
modern times. When the Portuguese discovered Japan, in 1542, they
introduced the musket to the Japanese, and the weapon was long known
as Tanegashima, that being the name of the island where the
Portuguese ship first touched. Thenceforth, the manufacture of
firearms was carried on with more or less success at various places,
especially Sakai in Izumi and Negoro in Kii. "Small guns" (kozutsu)
and "large guns" (ozutsu) are mentioned in the annals of the time,
but by ozutsuwe must understand muskets of large calibre rather than
cannon.
INVASION OF CHUGOKU.
At this time nearly the whole of central Japan (Chugoku) was under
the sway of Mori Terumoto, who succeeded his grandfather, Motonari,
head of the great Mori family and ancestor of the present Prince
Mori. One of these central provinces, namely, Harima, had just been
the scene of a revolt which Hideyoshi crushed by his wonted
combination of cajolery and conquest. The ease with which this feat
was accomplished and the expediency of maintaining the sequence of
successes induced Hideyoshi to propose that the subjugation of the
whole of central Japan should be entrusted to him and that he should
be allowed to adopt Nobunaga's second son, Hidekatsu, to whom the
rule of Chugoku should be entrusted, Hideyoshi keeping for himself
only the outlying portions. Nobunaga readily agreed, and, in 1577,
Hideyoshi set out on this important expedition, with a force of some
ten thousand men, all fully equipped and highly trained. It is
noteworthy that, before leaving Azuchi, Hideyoshi declared to
Nobunaga his intention of conquering Kyushu after the reduction of
Chugoku, and thereafter he announced his purpose of crossing to Korea
and making that country the basis of a campaign against China. "When
that is effected," Hideyoshi is quoted as saying, "the three
countries, China, Korea, and Japan, will be one. I shall do it all as
easily as a man rolls up a piece of matting and carries it under his
arm."
It is evident from these words that the project of invading Korea and
China was entertained by Hideyoshi nearly twenty years before--as
will presently be seen--he attempted to carry it into practice.
Hideyoshi marched in the first place to Harima, where his operations
were so vigorous and so successful that Ukita Naoiye, who held the
neighbouring provinces of Bizen and Mimasaka under the suzerainty of
Mori Terumoto, espoused Nobunaga's cause without fighting. It is
unnecessary to follow the details of the campaign that ensued. It
lasted for five years, and ended in the subjection of as many
provinces, namely, Harima, Tamba, Tango, Tajima, and Inaba. Hideyoshi
then returned to Azuchi and presented to Nobunaga an immense quantity
of spolia opima which are said to have exceeded five thousand in
number and to have covered all the ground around the castle.
DESTRUCTION OF THE TAKEDA
Shortly before Hideyoshi's triumphant return from his first brilliant
campaign in the central provinces, a memorable event occurred in Kai.
Nobunaga's eldest son, Nobutada, uniting his forces with those of
Ieyasu, completely destroyed the army of Takeda Katsuyori at
Temmoku-zan, in the province of Kai. So thorough was the victory that
Katsuyori and his son both committed suicide. Nobunaga then gave the
province of Suruga to Ieyasu, and divided Shinano and Kotsuke into
manors, which were distributed among the Owari generals as rewards.
Takigawa Kazumasu was nominated kwanryo of the Kwanto, chiefly in
order to watch and restrain the movements of the Hojo family, now the
only formidable enemy of Nobunaga in the east.
RESUMPTION OF THE CHUGOKU CAMPAIGN
After a brief rest, Hideyoshi again left Kyoto for the central
provinces. He commenced operations on this second occasion by
invading the island of Awaji, and having reduced it, he passed on to
Bitchu, where he invested the important castle of Takamatsu, then
under the command of Shimizu Muneharu. This stronghold was so well
planned and had such great natural advantages that Hideyoshi
abstained from any attempt to carry it by assault, and had recourse
to the device of damming and banking a river so as to flood the
fortress. About two miles and a half of embankment had to be made,
and during the progress of the work, Mori Terumoto, who had been
conducting a campaign elsewhere, found time to march a strong army to
the relief of Takamatsu. But Terumoto, acting on the advice of his
best generals, refrained from attacking Hideyoshi's army. He sought
rather to invite an onset from Hideyoshi, so that, during the
progress of the combat, the garrison might find an opportunity to
destroy the embankment. Hideyoshi, however, was much too astute to be
tempted by such tactics. He saw that the fate of the castle must be
sealed in a few days, and he refrained from any offensive movement.
But, in order to gratify Nobunaga by simulating need of his
assistance, a despatch was sent to Azuchi begging him to come and
personally direct the capture of the fort and the shattering of
Terumoto's army.
ASSASSINATION OF NOBUNAGA
Among Nobunaga's vassal barons at that time was Akechi Mitsuhide. A
scion of the illustrious family of Seiwa Genji, Mitsuhide had served
under several suzerains prior to 1566, when he repaired to Gifu and
offered his sword to Nobunaga. Five years afterwards he received a
fief of one hundred thousand koku and the title of Hyuga no Kami.
This rapid promotion made him Nobunaga's debtor, but a shocking
event, which occurred in 1577, seems to have inspired him with the
deepest resentment against his patron. Mitsuhide, besieging the
castle of Yakami in Tamba province, promised quarter to the brothers
Hatano, who commanded its defence, and gave his own mother as
hostage. But Nobunaga, disregarding this promise, put the Hatano
brothers to the sword, and the latter's adherents avenged themselves
by slaughtering Mitsuhide's mother. The best informed belief is that
this incident converted Mitsuhide into Nobunaga's bitter enemy, and
that the spirit of revenge was fostered by insults to which Nobunaga,
always passionate and rough, publicly subjected Mitsuhide. At all
events, when, as stated above, Hideyoshi's message of invitation
reached Nobunaga at Azuchi, the latter gave orders for the despatch
of a strong force to Takamatsu, one body, consisting of some thirty
thousand men, being placed under the command of Mitsuhide. Nobunaga
himself repaired to Kyoto and took up his quarters at the temple
Honno-ji, whence he intended to follow his armies to the central
provinces.
Mitsuhide concluded that his opportunity had now come. He determined
to kill Nobunaga, and then to join hands with Mori Terumoto. He made
known his design to a few of his retainers, and these attempted
fruitlessly to dissuade him, but, seeing that his resolution was
irrevocable, they agreed to assist him. The troops were duly
assembled and put in motion, but instead of taking the road westward,
they received an unexpected intimation, "The enemy is in Honno-ji,"
and their route was altered accordingly. Nobunaga defended himself
valiantly. But being at last severely wounded and recognizing the
hopelessness of resistance, he set fire to the temple and committed
suicide, his fourteen-year-old son, Katsunaga, perishing with him.
His eldest son, Nobutada, who had just returned from the campaign in
the east, followed his father to Kyoto, and was sojourning in the
temple Myogaku-ji when news reached him of Mitsuhide's treachery. He
attempted to succour his father, but arrived too late. Then he
repaired to the Nijo palace and, having entrusted his infant son to
the care of Maeda Gen-i with instructions to carry him to Kiyosu, he
made preparation for defence against Mitsuhide. Finally, overwhelmed
by numbers, he killed himself, and his example was followed by ninety
of his retainers. Mitsuhide then proceeded to Azuchi and having
pillaged the castle, returned to Kyoto, where he was received in
audience by the Emperor, and he then took the title of shogun.
AFTER THE ASSASSINATION
Nobunaga was assassinated on the second day of the sixth month,
according to Japanese reckoning. News of the event reached the camp
of the besiegers of Takamatsu almost immediately, but a messenger
sent by Mitsuhide to convey the intelligence to Mori and to solicit
his alliance was intercepted by Hideyoshi's men. A great deal of
historical confusion envelops immediately subsequent events, but the
facts seem simple enough. Hideyoshi found himself in a position of
great difficulty. His presence in Kyoto was almost a necessity, yet
he could not withdraw from Takamatsu without sacrificing all the
fruits of the campaign in the west and exposing himself to a probably
disastrous attack by Mori's army. In this emergency he acted with his
usual talent. Summoning a famous priest, Ekei, of a temple in Aki,
who enjoyed the confidence of all parties, he despatched him to
Mori's camp with proposals for peace and for the delimitation of the
frontiers of Mori and Nobunaga, on condition that the castle of
Takamatsu should be surrendered and the head of its commander,
Shimizu Muneharu, presented to his conquerer.
Mori was acting entirely by the advice of his two uncles, Kikkawa and
Kohayakawa, both men of profound insight. They fully admitted the
desirability of peace, since Hideyoshi's army effectually commanded
the communications between the eastern and western parts of Chugoku,
but they resolutely rejected the notion of sacrificing the life of
Shimizu on the altar of any compact. When the priest carried this
answer to Hideyoshi, the latter suggested, as the only recourse, that
Shimizu himself should be consulted. Ekei accordingly repaired to the
castle and explained the situation to its commandant. Shimizu had not
a moment's hesitation. He declared himself more than willing to die
for the sake of his liege-lord and his comrades, and he asked only
that fish and wine, to give the garrison the rare treat of a good
meal, should be furnished. On the 5th of the sixth month this
agreement was carried into effect. Shimizu committed suicide, the
compact between Mori and Hideyoshi was signed, and the latter,
striking his camp, prepared to set out for Kyoto. It was then for the
first time that Mori and his generals learned of the death of
Nobunaga. Immediately there was an outcry in favour of disregarding
the compact and falling upon the enemy in his retreat; but Kikkawa
and Kohayakawa stubbornly opposed anything of the kind. They declared
that such a course would disgrace the house of Mori, whereas, by
keeping faith, the friendship of Hideyoshi and his fellow barons
would be secured. Accordingly the withdrawal was allowed to take
place unmolested.
IEYASU
The life of the Tokugawa chieftain was placed in great jeopardy by
the Mitsuhide incident. After being brilliantly received by Nobunaga
at Azuchi, Ieyasu, at his host's suggestion, had made a sightseeing
excursion to Kyoto, whence he prolonged his journey to Osaka and
finally to Sakai. The news of the catastrophe reached him at the
last-named place, and his immediate impulse was to be avenged upon
the assassin. But it was pointed out to him that his following was
much too small for such an enterprise, and he therefore decided to
set out for the east immediately. Mitsuhide, well aware of the
Tokugawa baron's unfriendliness, made strenuous efforts to waylay
Ieyasu on the way, and with great difficulty the journey eastward was
accomplished by avoiding all the highroads.
NOBUNAGA
Nobunaga perished at the age of forty-nine. The great faults of his
character seem to have been want of discrimination in the treatment
of his allies and his retainers, and want of patience in the conduct
of affairs. In his eyes, a baron of high rank deserved no more
consideration than a humble retainer, and he often gave offence which
disturbed the achievement of his plans. As for his impetuousness, his
character has been well depicted side by side with that of Hideyoshi
and Ieyasu in three couplets familiar to all Japanese. These couplets
represent Nobunaga as saying:
Nakaneba korosu
Hototogisu.
(I'll kill the cuckoo
If if it won't sing)
By Hideyoshi the same idea is conveyed thus:--
Nakashite miyo
Hototogisu.
(I'll try to make the cuckoo sing.)
Whereas, Ieyasu puts the matter thus:--
Nakumade mato
Hototogisu.
(I'll wait till the cuckoo does sing.)
Nevertheless, whatever Nobunaga may have lost by these defects, the
fact remains that in the three decades of his military career he
brought under his sway thirty-three provinces, or one-half of the
whole country, and at the time of his death he contemplated the
further conquest of Shikoku, Chugoku, and Kyushu. To that end he had
appointed Hideyoshi to be Chikuzen no Kami; Kawajiri Shigeyoshi to be
Hizen no Kami, while his own son, Nobutaka, with Niwa Nagahide for
chief of staff, had been sent to subdue Shikoku. Even admitting that
his ambition was self-aggrandizement in the first place, it is
undeniable that he made the peace of the realm, the welfare of the
people, and the stability of the throne his second purposes, and that
he pursued them with ardour. Thus, one of his earliest acts when he
obtained the control in Kyoto was to appoint officials for
impartially administering justice, to reduce the citizens' taxes; to
succour widows and orphans, and to extend to all the blessings of
security and tranquillity. In 1572, we find him sending messengers to
the provinces with instructions to put in hand the making of roads
having a width of from twenty-one to twelve feet; to set up
milestones and plant trees along these roads; to build bridges; to
remove barriers, and generally to facilitate communications.
Towards the Throne he adopted a demeanour emphatically loyal. In this
respect, he followed the example of his father, Nobuhide, and
departed radically from that of his predecessors, whether Fujiwara,
Taira, or Ashikaga. As concrete examples may be cited the facts that
he restored the shrines of Ise, and reinstituted the custom of
renovating them every twenty years; that, in the year following his
entry into the capital, he undertook extensive repairs of the palace;
that he granted considerable estates for the support of the Imperial
household, and that he organized a commission to repurchase all the
properties which had been alienated from the Court. Finally, it is on
record that when, in recognition of all this, the sovereign proposed
to confer on him the rank of minister of the Left, he declined the
honour, and suggested that titles of lower grade should be given to
those of his subordinates who had shown conspicuous merit.
DEATH OF MITSUHIDE
It was plainly in Hideyoshi's interests that he should figure
publicly as the avenger of Nobunaga's murder, and to this end his
speedy arrival in Kyoto was essential. He therefore set out at once,
after the fall of Takamatsu, with only a small number of immediate
followers. Mitsuhide attempted to destroy him on the way, and the
details of this attempt have been magnified by tradition to
incredible dimensions. All that can be said with certainty is that
Hideyoshi was, for a moment, in extreme danger but that he escaped
scathless. Immediately on arriving in Kyoto, he issued an appeal to
all Nobunaga's vassal-barons, inviting them to join in exterminating
Mitsuhide, whose heinous crime "provoked both heaven and earth."
But it was no part of Hideyoshi's policy to await the arrival of
these barons. He had already at his command an army of some thirty
thousand men, and with this he moved out, challenging Mitsuhide to
fight on the plains of Yamazaki. Mitsuhide did not hesitate to put
his fortunes to the supreme test. He accepted Hideyoshi's challenge,
and, on the 12th of June, a great battle was fought, the issue of
which was decided by two things; first, the defection of Tsutsui
Junkei, who refrained from striking until the superior strength of
Hideyoshi had been manifested, and secondly, the able strategy of
Hideyoshi, who anticipated Mitsuhide's attempt to occupy the position
of Tenno-zan, which commanded the field. From the carnage that ensued
Mitsuhide himself escaped, but while passing through a wood he
received from a bamboo spear in the hands of a peasant a thrust which
disabled him, and he presently committed suicide. Thus, on the
thirteenth day after Nobunaga's death, the head of his assassin was
exposed in Kyoto in front of the temple of Honno-ji where the murder
had taken place, and Mitsuhide's name went down in history as the
"Three days' shogun" (Mikkakubo).
CONFERENCE AT KIYOSU
By this time the principal of Nobunaga's vassal-barons were on their
way at the head of contingents to attack Mitsuhide. On learning of
the assassin's death, these barons all directed their march to
Kiyosu, and in the castle from which Nobunaga had moved to his early
conquests thirty years previously, a momentous council was held for
the purpose of determining his successor. The choice would have
fallen naturally on Samboshi, eldest son of Nobunaga's first-born,
Nobutada, who, as already described, met his death in the Mitsuhide
affair. But Hideyoshi was well understood to favour Samboshi's
succession, and this sufficed to array in opposition several of the
barons habitually hostile to Hideyoshi. Thus, in spite of the fact
that both were illegitimate and had already been adopted into other
families, Nobunaga's two sons, Nobukatsu and Nobutaka, were put
forward as proper candidates, the former supported by Ikeda Nobuteru
and Gamo Katahide; the latter, by Shibata Katsuiye and Takigawa
Kazumasu.
At one moment it seemed as though this question would be solved by an
appeal to violence, but ultimately, at the suggestion of Tsutsui
Junkei, it was agreed that Samboshi should be nominated Nobunaga's
successor; that Nobukatsu and Nobutaka should be appointed his
guardians, and that the administrative duties should be entrusted to
a council consisting of Shibata Katsuiye, Niwa Nagahide, Ikeda
Nobuteru, and Hideyoshi, each taking it in turn to discharge these
functions and each residing for that purpose in Kyoto three months
during the year. An income of one hundred thousand koku in the
province of Omi was assigned to Samboshi pending the attainment of
his majority, when he should be placed in possession of much larger
estates, which were to be entrusted in the meanwhile to the keeping
of one of the four barons mentioned above. Nobukatsu received the
province of Owari, and Nobutaka that of Mino, the remainder of
Nobunaga's dominions being apportioned to his generals, with the
exception of Hideyoshi, to whom were assigned the provinces recently
overrun by him in the midlands--Tajima, Harima, Inaba, and Tamba.
Such an arrangement had no elements of stability. The four
councillors could not possibly be expected to work in harmony, and it
was certain that Katsuiye, Sakuma Morimasa, and Takigawa Kazumasu
would lose no opportunity of quarrelling with Hideyoshi. Indeed, that
result was averted solely by Hideyoshi's tact and long suffering, for
when, a few days later, the barons again met at Kiyosu for the
purpose of discussing territorial questions, every possible effort
was made to find a pretext for killing him. But Hideyoshi's
astuteness and patience led him successfully through this maze of
intrigues and complications. He even went so far as to hand over his
castle of Nagahama to Katsuiye, and to endure insults which in
ordinary circumstances must have been resented with the sword.
Tradition describes a grand memorial ceremony organized in Kyoto by
Hideyoshi in honour of Nobunaga, and, on that occasion, incidents are
said to have occurred which bear the impress of romance. It is, at
all events, certain that the immediate issue of this dangerous time
was a large increase of Hideyoshi's authority, and his nomination by
the Court to the second grade of the fourth rank as well as to the
position of major-general. Moreover, the three barons who had been
appointed with Hideyoshi to administer affairs in Kyoto in turn, saw
that Hideyoshi's power was too great to permit the peaceful working
of such a programme. They therefore abandoned their functions, and
Hideyoshi remained in sole charge of the Imperial Court and of the
administration in the capital.
DEATH OF SHIBATA KATSUIYE
It has been already stated that Nobunaga's sons, Nobutaka and
Nobukatsu, were bitter enemies and that Nobutaka had the support of
Takigawa Kazumasu as well as of Shibata Katsuiye. Thus, Hideyoshi was
virtually compelled to espouse the cause of Nobukatsu. In January,
1583, he took the field at the head of seventy-five thousand men, and
marched into Ise to attack Kazumasu, whom he besieged in his castle
at Kuwana. The castle fell, but Kazumasu managed to effect his
escape, and in the mean while Katsuiye entered Omi in command of a
great body of troops, said to number sixty-five thousand. At the last
moment, however, he had failed to secure the co-operation of Maeda
Toshiiye, an important ally, and his campaign therefore assumed a
defensive character. Hideyoshi himself, on reconnoitring the
position, concluded that he had neither numerical preponderance nor
strategical superiority sufficient to warrant immediate assumption of
the offensive along the whole front. He therefore distributed his
army on a line of thirteen redoubts, keeping a reserve of fifteen
thousand men under his own direct command, his object being to hold
the enemy's forces in check while he attacked Gifu, which place he
assaulted with such vigour that the garrison made urgent appeals to
Katsuiye for succour.
In this situation it was imperative that some attempt should be made
to break the line of redoubts, but it was equally imperative that
this attempt should not furnish to the enemy a point of
concentration. Accordingly, having ascertained that the weakest point
in the line was at Shizugatake, where only fifteen hundred men were
posted, Katsuiye instructed his principal general, Sakuma Morimasa,
to lead the reserve force of fifteen thousand men against that
position, but instructed him at the same time to be content with any
success, however partial, and not to be betrayed into pushing an
advantage, since by so doing he would certainly furnish a fatal
opportunity to the enemy. Morimasa neglected this caution. Having
successfully surprised the detachment at Shizugatake, and having
inflicted heavy carnage on the defenders of the redoubt, who lost
virtually all their officers, he not only sat down to besiege the
redoubt, whose decimated garrison held out bravely, but he also
allowed his movements to be hampered by a small body of only two
score men under Niwa Nagahide, who took up a position in the
immediate neighbourhood, and displaying their leader's flag, deceived
Morimasa into imagining that they had a powerful backing. These
things happened during the night of April 19, 1583. Katsuiye, on
receipt of the intelligence, sent repeated orders to Morimasa
requiring him to withdraw forthwith; but Morimasa, elated by his
partial victory, neglected these orders.
On the following day, the facts were communicated to Hideyoshi, at
Ogaki, distant about thirty miles from Shizugatake, who immediately
appreciated the opportunity thus furnished. He set out at the head of
his reserves, and in less than twenty-four hours his men crossed
swords with Morimasa's force. The result was the practical
extermination of the latter, including three thousand men under
Katsuiye's adopted son, Gonroku. The latter had been sent to insist
strenuously on Morimasa's retreat, but learning that Morimasa had
determined to die fighting, Gonroku announced a similar intention on
his own part. This incident was characteristic of samurai canons.
Hideyoshi's victory cost the enemy five thousand men, and demoralized
Katsuiye's army so completely that he subsequently found himself able
to muster a total force of three thousand only. Nothing remained but
flight, and in order to withdraw from the field, Katsuiye was obliged
to allow his chief retainer, Menju Shosuke, to impersonate him, a
feat which, of course, cost Shosuke's life.
Katsuiye's end is one of the most dramatic incidents in Japanese
history. He decided to retire to his castle of Kitano-sho, and, on
the way thither, he visited his old friend, Maeda Toshiiye, at the
latter's castle of Fuchu, in Echizen. Thanking Toshiiye for all the
assistance he had rendered, and urging him to cultivate friendship
with Hideyoshi, he obtained a remount from Toshiiye's stable, and,
followed by about a hundred samurai, pushed on to Kitano-sho. Arrived
there, he sent away all who might be suspected of sympathizing with
Hideyoshi, and would also have sent away his wife and her three
daughters. This lady was a sister of Nobunaga. She had been given, as
already stated, to Asai Nagamasa, and to him she bore three children.
But after Nagamasa's destruction she was married to Katsuiye, and was
living at the latter's castle of Kitano-sho when the above incidents
occurred. She declined to entertain the idea of leaving the castle,
declaring that, as a samurai's daughter, she should have shared her
first husband's fate, and that nothing would induce her to repeat
that error. Her three daughters were accordingly sent away, and she
herself joined in the night-long feast which Katsuiye and his
principal retainers held while Hideyoshi's forces were marching to
the attack. When the sun rose, the whole party, including the ladies,
committed suicide, having first set fire to the castle.
YODOGOMI
One of the three daughters of Asai Nagamasa afterwards became the
concubine of Hideyoshi and bore to him a son, Hideyori, who, by her
advice, subsequently acted in defiance of Ieyasu, thus involving the
fall of the house of Hideyoshi and unconsciously avenging the fate of
Nobunaga.
NOBUTAKA
Nobunaga's son, Nobutaka, who had been allied with Katsuiye, escaped,
at first, to Owari on the latter's downfall, but ultimately followed
Katsuiye's example by committing suicide. As for Samboshi, Nobunaga's
grandson and nominal heir, he attained his majority at this time, but
proving to be a man of marked incompetence, the eminent position for
which he had been destined was withheld. He took the name of Oda
Hidenobu, and with an income of three hundred thousand koku settled
down contentedly as Hideyoshi's vassal.
OSAKA CASTLE
Hideyoshi left behind him a striking monument of his greatness of
thought and power of execution. At Osaka where in 1532 the priests of
the Hongwan-ji temple had built a castle which Nobunaga captured in
1580 only after a long and severe siege, Hideyoshi built what is
called The Castle of Osaka. It is a colossal fortress, which is still
used as military headquarters for garrison and arsenal, and the
dimensions of which are still a wonder, though only a portion of the
building survives. Materials for the work were requisitioned from
thirty provinces, their principal components being immense granite
rocks, many of which measured fourteen feet in length and breadth,
and some were forty feet long and ten feet wide. These huge stones
had to be carried by water from a distance of several miles. The
outlying protection of this great castle consisted of triple moats
and escarpments. The moats were twenty feet deep, with six to ten
feet of water. The total enclosed space was about one hundred acres,
but only one-eighth of this was the hominaru, or keep, inside the
third moat.
It will be seen that the plan of the castle was to have it divided
into spaces separately defensible, so that an enemy had to establish
his footing by a series of repeated efforts.
And the second respect in which it was a novelty in Japanese
defensive warfare was that the castle donjon was heavily built and
armoured after a fashion. The three-storey donjon was framed in huge
timbers, quite unlike the flimsy structure of most Japanese
buildings, and the timbers were protected against fire by a heavy
coat of plaster. Roof and gates were covered with a sort of
armor-plate, for there was a copper covering to the roof and the
gates were faced with iron sheets and studs. In earlier "castles"
there had been a thin covering of plaster which a musket ball could
easily penetrate; and stone had been used only in building
foundations.
THE KOMAKI WAR
After the suicide of his brother, Nobutaka, and when he saw that his
nephew, Samboshi (Hidenobu), was relegated to the place of a vassal
of Hideyoshi, Nobukatsu seems to have concluded that the time had
come to strike a final blow in assertion of the administrative
supremacy of the Oda family. He began, therefore, to plot with that
object. Hideyoshi, who was well served by spies, soon learned of
these plots, and thinking to persuade Nobukatsu of their
hopelessness, he established close relations with the latter's three
most trusted retainers. No sooner did this come to the cognizance of
Nobukatsu than he caused these three retainers to be assassinated,
and applied to Ieyasu for assistance, Ieyasu consented. This action
on the part of the Tokugawa baron has been much commented on and
variously interpreted by historians, but it has always to be
remembered that Ieyasu had been Oda Nobunaga's ally; that the two had
fought more than once side by side, and that had the Tokugawa leader
rejected Nobukatsu's appeal, he would not only have suffered in
public estimation, but would also have virtually accepted a position
inferior to that evidently claimed by Hideyoshi.
The course of subsequent events seems to prove that Ieyasu, in taking
the field on this occasion, aimed simply at asserting his own
potentiality and had no thought of plunging the empire into a new
civil war. In March, 1584, he set out from Hamamatsu and joined
Nobukatsu at Kiyosu, in Owari. The scheme of campaign was extensive.
Ieyasu placed himself in communication with Sasa Narimasa, in
Echizen; with Chosokabe Motochika, in Shikoku, and with the military
monks in the province of Kii. The programme was that Narimasa should
raise his standard in Echizen and Kaga, and that Motochika, with the
monks of Kii, should move to the attack of Osaka, so that Hideyoshi
would be compelled to carry on three wars at the same time. Hideyoshi
met this combination with his usual astuteness. He commissioned
Uesugi Kagekatsu to attack the Sasa troops in rear while Maeda
Toshiiye menaced them from the front; he told off Hachisuka to oppose
the soldier-monks of Kii; he posted Sengoku Hidehisa in Awaji to hold
in check the forces of Chosokabe Motochika, and he stationed Ukita
Hideiye at Okayama to provide against the contingency of hostility on
the part of the Mori family. Fighting commenced in the province of
Ise, and success at the outset crowned the arms of Hideyoshi's
generals. They captured two castles, and Ieyasu thereupon pushed his
van to an isolated hill called Komaki-yama, nearly equidistant from
the castles of Inu-yama and Kiyosu, in Owari, which he entrenched
strongly, and there awaited the onset of the Osaka army. The war thus
came to be known as that of Komaki.
Hideyoshi himself would have set out for the field on the 19th of
March, but he was obliged to postpone his departure for some days,
until Kuroda and Hachisuka had broken the offensive strength of the
monks of Kii. It thus fell out that he did not reach the province of
Owari until the 27th of March. His army is said to have numbered one
hundred and twenty thousand men. It is commonly alleged that this was
the only war between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi, and that the latter
suffered defeat at the hands of the former. But the fact is that two
of Hideyoshi's generals, Ikeda Nobuteru and Mori Nagayoshi, acted in
direct contravention of his orders, and thus precipitated a
catastrophe for which Hideyoshi cannot justly be held responsible.
These two captains argued that as Ieyasu had massed a large force at
Komaki and at the Obata entrenchments in the same district, he had
probably left his base in Mikawa comparatively undefended. They
proposed, therefore, to lead a force against Mikawa. Hideyoshi showed
great reluctance to sanction this movement, but he allowed himself to
be at last persuaded, with the explicit reservation that no success
obtained in Mikawa province should be followed up, and that whatever
the achievement of Nobukatsu's troops, they should at once rejoin the
main army in Owari.
Unquestionably Hideyoshi had in vivid recollection the disaster which
had overtaken Katsuiye at Shizugatake. Ieyasu, fully cognizant of the
situation through the medium of a spy, knew the limitations set by
Hideyoshi. On April the 7th, Nobuteru attacked the fortress of
Iwasaki, in Mikawa, killed its commandant, and captured the castle.
But elated by this victory, he neglected Hideyoshi's caution, and the
generals of Ieyasu, closing in on him, inflicted a crushing defeat at
a place called Nagakude. It is thus evident that Hideyoshi's share in
the disaster was of a most indirect character. He immediately
hastened to Nagakude, but only to find that Ieyasu had retired to
Obata, and subsequently, when Hideyoshi returned to his headquarters,
Ieyasu placed a still longer interval between the two armies by
marching back to Komaki.
The war thenceforth may be said to have consisted of a series of
menaces and evasions. Each general sought to entice his opponent out
of an entrenched position, and each general showed an equal
determination not to be so enticed. At last, Hideyoshi pushed a force
into Mino and captured several castles in that province. But even
this failed to change Ieyasu's attitude. The Tokugawa leader entered
the fortress of Kiyosu, and Nobukatsu repaired to that of Nagashima,
in Ise. After eight months of this comparatively fruitless
manoeuvring, a treaty was concluded, on December the 11th, between
Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu, and subsequently between Hideyoshi and
Ieyasu, the latter giving his son Ogimaru to be adopted by Hideyoshi.
The boy was eleven years of age at the time. His name was changed to
Hashiba Hideyasu, and he received the appointment of governor of
Mikawa province.
The circumstances in which this treaty was concluded have provoked
much historical discussion. Did the overtures come originally from
Hideyoshi, or did they emanate from Ieyasu and Nobukatsu? Some
annalists have endeavoured to prove that Hideyoshi assumed the
attitude of a suppliant, while others have attributed that demeanour
to the Tokugawa chieftain. The situation, however, presents one
feature which is very significant. It was not until the month of
November, 1584, that Chosokabe Motochika effectually brought the
island of Shikoku under his sway, and thus became free to lead a
strong army, including the monks of Kii province, against Osaka. This
formidable danger could not but influence Hideyoshi in the direction
of clasping hands with his eastern foes, and it is therefore more
than probable that a statesman who had never previously allowed
considerations of personal dignity to interfere with the prosecution
of a vital policy, did not hesitate to bow his head to Nobukatsu, in
order to recover the free use of the great army assembled in Owari,
Mino, and Ise. Most fortunate was it for Japan that events took this
turn, for, had Ieyasu and Hideyoshi remained mutually hostile, the
country would probably have been plunged into a repetition of the
terrible struggle from which nothing enabled it to emerge except the
combined labours of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. It was not,
however, until the early summer of 1586 that Hideyoshi and Ieyasu
established genuinely friendly relations. During a year and a half
subsequent to the conclusion of the treaty which ended the Komaki
War, Ieyasu held severely aloof and refrained from visiting Kyoto.
Finally, Hideyoshi despatched Asano Nagamasa to propose that Ieyasu
should take into his household Hideyoshi's younger sister, and that
Hideyoshi should send his mother as a hostage to Okazaki, to remain
there during a visit by Ieyasu to Kyoto. Four months were needed by
Ieyasu to consider this proposal, and in September, 1586, he repaired
to Osaka and thence accompanied Hideyoshi to Kyoto.
HIDEYOSHI BECOMES REGENT
In May, 1583, after the downfall of Katsuiye, the Emperor appointed
Hideyoshi to be a councillor of State, and conferred on him the
fourth order of rank. In November of the following year, he received
another step of rank and was nominated gon-dainagon. The Emperor
Okimachi at that time contemplated abdication, but the palace which
he would have occupied as ex-Emperor had fallen into such a state of
disrepair as to be virtually uninhabitable. Hideyoshi signalized his
loyalty on this occasion by spending a large sum on the renovation of
the palace, and in recognition of his services the Emperor raised him
to the high post of nai-daijin. It was confidently expected that he
would then become sa-daijin, but, owing to complications which need
not be related here, the outcome of the matter was that he received
the still higher post of kwampaku (regent). There can be no doubt
that he himself had contemplated becoming shogun. In fact, it is on
record that he made proposals in that sense to Yoshiaki, the last of
the Ashikaga shoguns. But it had come by that time to be recognized
that only a scion of the Minamoto family could be eligible for the
post of shogun, and thus Yoshiaki declined Hideyoshi's overtures,
though to accept them would have materially altered the fallen
fortunes of the Ashikaga sept. Hideyoshi ultimately became prime
minister of State (dajo daijiri) and took the family name of
Toyotomi. It is stated, but the evidence is not conclusive, that in
order to reach these high posts, he had to be adopted into the house
of a Fujiwara noble. He had been a Taira when he served under
Nobunaga, and to become a Fujiwara for courtly purposes was not
likely to cause him much compunction.
THE MONKS, SHIKOKU, AND ETCHU
Immediately on the termination of the Komaki War, Hideyoshi took
steps to deal effectually with the three enemies by whom his
movements had been so much hampered, namely, the Buddhist priests of
Kii, the Chosokabe clan in Shikoku, and the Sasa in Etchu. It has
already been stated that the priests of Kii had their headquarters at
Negoro, where there stood the great monastery of Dai-Dembo-In,
belonging to the Shingon sect and enjoying almost the repute of
Koya-san. Scarcely less important was the monastery of Sawaga in the
same province. These two centres of religion had long been in
possession of large bodies of trained soldiers whose ranks were from
time to time swelled by the accession of wandering samurai (ronin).
The army despatched from Osaka in the spring of 1585 to deal with
these warlike monks speedily captured the two monasteries, and, for
purposes of intimidation, crucified a number of the leaders. For a
time, Koya-san itself was in danger, several of the fugitive monks
having taken refuge there. But finally Koya-san was spared in
consideration of surrendering estates yielding twenty-one thousand
koku of rice, which properties had been violently seized by the
monasteries in former years.
Three months later, Hideyoshi turned his arms against the Chosokabe
sept in Shikoku. This being an enterprise of large dimensions, he
entrusted its conduct to five of his most competent generals, namely,
Ukita Hideiye, Hachisuka Iemasa, Kuroda Nagamasa, Kikkawa Motoharu,
and Kohayakawa Takakage. Hideyoshi himself would have assumed the
direct command, and had actually set out for that purpose from Osaka,
when couriers met him with intelligence that less than one month's
fighting had brought the whole of the Island of the Four Provinces
into subjection. He therefore turned eastward, and entering Etchu,
directed the operations, in progress there under the command of Maeda
Toshiiye against Sasa Narimasa. This campaign lasted seven days, and
ended in the surrender of Narimasa, to whom Hideyoshi showed
remarkable clemency, inasmuch as he suffered him to remain in
possession of considerable estates in Etchu.
THE UESUGI
At this time Hideyoshi cemented relations of friendship with the
Uesugi family of Echigo, whose potentialities had always been a
subject of apprehension to Nobunaga. The powerful sept was then ruled
by Kagekatsu, nephew of the celebrated Kenshin. This daimyo had given
evidence of good-will towards Hideyoshi during the Komaki War, but it
was naturally a matter of great importance to establish really
cordial relations with so powerful a baron. History relates that, on
this occasion, Hideyoshi adopted a course which might well have
involved him in serious peril. He entered Echigo with a mere handful
of followers, and placed himself practically at the mercy of
Kagekatsu, judging justly that such trustful fearlessness would win
the heart of the gallant Kagekatsu. Hideyoshi's insight was justified
by the sequel. Several of the principal retainers of Kagekatsu
advised that advantage should be taken of Hideyoshi's rashness, and
that his victorious career should be finally terminated in Echigo.
But this vindictive counsel was rejected by the Uesugi baron, and
relations of a warmly friendly character were established between the
two great captains.
INVASION OF KYUSHU
There now remained only three really formidable enemies of Hideyoshi.
These were Hojo Ujimasa, in the Kwanto; Date Masamime, in Dewa and
Mutsu, and Shimazu Yoshihisa, in Kyushu. Of these, the Shimazu sept
was probably the most powerful, and Hideyoshi determined that Kyushu
should be the scene of his next warlike enterprise. The Island of the
Nine Provinces was then under the rule of three great clans; the
Shimazu, in the south; the Otomo, in Bungo, and the Ryuzoji, in
Hizen. The most puissant of these had at one time been Ryuzoji
Takanobu, but his cruel methods had alienated the sympathy of many of
his vassals, among them being Arima Yoshizumi, who threw off his
allegiance to Takanobu and joined hands with Shimazu Yoshihisa.
Takanobu sent an army against Yoshizumi, but the Satsuma baron
despatched Shimazu Masahisa to Yoshizumi's aid, and a sanguinary
engagement at Shimabara in 1585 resulted in the rout of Takanobu's
forces and his own death.
Takanobu's son and successor, who was named Masaiye, being still a
boy, advantage was taken of the fact by Otomo Yoshishige, who invaded
Hizen, so that Masaiye had to apply to the Shimazu family for
succour. The Satsuma chieftain suggested that the matter might be
settled by mutual withdrawal of forces, but Yoshishige declined this
overture, and the result was a battle in which the Otomo troops were
completely defeated. Otomo Yoshishige then (1586) had recourse to
Hideyoshi for assistance, thus furnishing the opportunity of which
Osaka was in search. Orders were immediately issued to Mori, Kikkawa,
Kohayakawa, and Chosokabe Motochika to assemble their forces for an
oversea expedition, and in the mean while, Sengoku Hidehisa was
despatched to Kyushu bearing a letter in which Hideyoshi, writing
over his title of kwampaku, censured the Shimazu baron for having
failed to pay his respects to the Imperial Court in Kyoto, and called
upon him to do so without delay. This mandate was treated with
contempt. Shimazu Yoshihisa threw the document on the ground,
declaring that his family had ruled in Satsuma for fourteen
generations; that only one man in Japan, namely Prince Konoe, had
competence to issue such an injunction, and that the head of the
house of Shimazu would never kneel to a monkey-faced upstart.
Hideyoshi had foreseen something of this kind, and had warned Sengoku
Hidehisa in the sense that whatever might be the action of the
Satsuma baron, no warlike measures were to be precipitately
commenced. Hidehisa neglected this warning. Yielding to the anger of
the moment, he directed the Otomo troops to attack the Satsuma
forces, and the result was disastrous. When the fighting ended, the
Satsuma baron had pushed into Bungo and taken sixteen forts there, so
that fully one-half of Kyushu was now under the sway of the Shimazu.
Hideyoshi, on receiving news of these disasters, confiscated the
estates of Sengoku Hidehisa, and issued orders to thirty-seven
provinces to provide commissariat for three hundred thousand men and
twenty thousand horses for a period of one year. Soon an army of one
hundred and fifty thousand men assembled at Osaka, and the van,
numbering sixty thousand, embarked there on the 7th of January, 1587,
and landed at Yunoshima in Bungo on the 19th of the same month--dates
which convey some idea of the very defective system of maritime
transport then existing. In Bungo, the invading army was swelled by
thirty thousand men under the leadership of Kohayakawa and Kikkawa,
and the whole force, under the command-in-chief of Hidenaga,
Hideyoshi's brother, moved to invest the castle of Takashiro.
It is unnecessary to follow the fighting in all its details. The
salient facts are that Hideyoshi left Osaka with the main army of one
hundred and thirty thousand men on the 22d of January, 1587, and,
travelling by land, reached the Strait of Akamagasaki--now called
Shimonoseki--on the 17th of February. He marched through Chikuzen,
making friends of the local chieftains by forbearance and diplomacy,
and fighting the first great battle of the campaign at Oguchi on the
Sendai-gawa. The Satsuma baron's younger brother, Iehisa, after a
gallant resistance, surrendered to Hideyoshi, and was employed by the
latter to communicate direct with his chief, Yoshihisa. It was
generally supposed that Iehisa would never return from this mission,
but would remain in the camp of Shimazu. He did return, however, his
word of honour being of more importance in his estimation than the
opportunity of recovering his liberty.
History states that Hideyoshi thereafter treated this noble man with
the greatest consideration, but it is difficult to reconcile that
account with the fact that Hideyoshi subsequently pressed Iehisa to
guide the Osaka army through the mountains and rivers which
constituted natural defences for the fief of Satsuma. Iehisa, of
course, refused, and to Hideyoshi's credit it stands on record that
he did not press the matter with any violence. This difficulty of
invading an unknown country without any maps or any guides, a country
celebrated for its topographical perplexities, was ultimately
overcome by sending Buddhist priests to act as spies in the dominions
of Shimazu. These spies were led by the abbot, Kennyo, with whose
name the reader is already familiar, and as the Shimazu family were
sincere believers in Buddhism, no obstacles were placed in the way of
the treacherous monks. They were able ultimately to guide the Osaka
army through the forests and mountains on the north of Kagoshima, and
Hideyoshi adopted the same strategy as that pursued in a similar case
three hundred years later, namely, sending a force of fifty thousand
men by sea with orders to advance against Kagoshima from the south.
The Satsuma troops were completely defeated, and only the castle of
Kagoshima remained in their hands.
At this stage of the campaign Hideyoshi behaved with remarkable
magnanimity and foresight. Contrary to the advice of some of his
principal retainers, he refused to proceed to extremities against the
Shimazu clan, and agreed to make peace, on the basis that the clan
should be left in possession of the provinces of Satsuma, Osumi, and
Hyuga, the only further stipulation being that the then head of the
house, Yoshihisa, should abdicate in favour of his younger brother,
Yoshihiro. As for the Buddhist priests who had sacrificed their
honour to their interests, those that had acted as guides to the
invading army were subsequently crucified by order of the Satsuma
baron, and the Shin sect, to which they belonged, was interdicted
throughout the whole of the Shimazu fief. Yoshihiro was summoned to
Kyoto by Hideyoshi to answer for this action, but he pleaded that
such treachery amply deserved such punishment, and that he was
prepared to bow to Hideyoshi's judgment in the matter. The defence
was admitted by Hideyoshi, but the abbot Kennyo received such large
rewards that he was able to erect the great temple Nishi Hongwan-ji,
"which became the wonder of after-generations of men and which has
often been erroneously referred to by foreign writers as a proof of
the deep religious feelings of Buddhist converts three hundred years
ago."*
*A New Life of Hideyoshi, by W. Dening.
THE HOJO
From end to end of Japan there were now only two powerful barons
whose allegiance had not been formally rendered to Hideyoshi and to
the Emperor under the new regime. These were Date Masamune and Hojo
Ujimasa. The origin and eminence of the Hojo family from the days of
its founder, Nagauji, have already been described in these pages, and
it need only be added here that Ujimasa enjoyed a reputation second
to none of his predecessors. That he should stand aloof from all his
brother barons seemed to the latter an intolerable evidence of pride,
and they urged Hideyoshi to resort at once to extreme measures. There
can be no doubt that this was the intention of Hideyoshi himself, but
with characteristic prudence he had recourse at the outset to pacific
devices. He therefore sent an envoy to the Hojo's stronghold at
Odawara, urging Ujimasa to lose no time in paying his respects to the
Court at Kyoto. The Hojo chief's reply was that Sanada Masayuki had
encroached upon the Hojo estates in Numata, and that if this
encroachment were rectified, the desired obeisance to the Throne
would be made.
Thereupon, Hideyoshi caused the restoration of Numata, but the Hojo
baron, instead of carrying out his part of the agreement, made this
restoration the pretext for an unwarrantable act of aggression.
Whatever sympathy might have been felt in Kyoto with the Hojo family
was forfeited by this procedure, and in March, 1590, an army of over
two hundred thousand men was set in motion for the Kwanto.
Hideyoshi's troops moved in three columns. One, commanded by Ieyasu,
marched by the seacoast road, the Tokaido; another, under Uesugi
Kagekatsu and Maeda Toshiiye, marched by the mountain road, the
Tosando, and the third attacked from the sea. None of these armies
encountered any very serious resistance. The first approached Odawara
by the Hakone range and the second by way of the Usui pass. The
castle at Odawara, however, was so strongly built and so stoutly held
that its capture by storm seemed impossible, and Hideyoshi's forces
were obliged to have recourse to a regular siege which lasted nearly
four months. During the latter part of that time, Hideyoshi
encouraged his soldiers to indulge in all sorts of amusements, and
thus the camp of the besiegers constantly echoed the notes of musical
performances and the shouts of dancers and sake drinkers. Finally, in
July, 1590, the great fortress surrendered, and the Hojo baron,
Ujimasa, was put to death, his head being sent to Kyoto for exposure,
but the life of his son, Ujinao, was spared on condition that he
enter a monastery.
HOJO UJINORI
One incident of this struggle is very characteristic of the ethics of
the era. During the interchange of messages that preceded recourse to
arms, the Hojo baron sent his brother, Ujinori, to Kyoto as an envoy
to discuss the situation with Hideyoshi. The latter received Ujinori
with all courtesy and endeavoured to impress upon him the imperative
necessity of his chief's acquiescence. Ujinori promised to contribute
to that end as far as lay in his power, but history describes him as
adding: "Should my brother fail to comply with your commands, and
should it be necessary for you to send an army against the Kwanto, it
must be clearly understood that this visit of mine to your Excellency
shall not in any way prejudice my loyalty to my brother. On the
contrary, if the peace be broken, I shall probably have to command
the van of my brother's forces, and in that event I may have to offer
to your Excellency a flight of my rusty arrows."
Hideyoshi is narrated to have laughingly replied that the peace was
in no danger of being broken and that he trusted Ujinori to use his
best endeavours to avert war. On his return to the Kwanto, Ujinori
was ordered to defend the castle of Nira-yama with seven thousand
men, and he soon found himself attacked by fifty thousand under seven
of Hideyoshi's generals. Ujinori reminded his comrades that Nira-yama
had been the birthplace of the founder of the Hojo family, and
therefore it would be an eternal shame if even one of the
entrenchments were lost. Not one was lost. Again and again assaults
were delivered, but they were unsuccessful, and throughout the whole
of the Kwanto, Nira-yama alone remained flying the Hojo flag to the
end. Ujinori surrendered in obedience to Ujimasa's instructions after
the fall of Odawara, but Hideyoshi, instead of punishing him for the
heavy losses he had inflicted on the Osaka army, lauded his fidelity
and bravery, and presented him with an estate of ten thousand koku.
DATE MASAMUNE
When news reached Date Masamune of the fall of all the Hojo's
outlying forts and of the final investment of Odawara, he recognized,
from his place in Mutsu and Dewa, that an attitude of aloofness could
no longer be maintained with safety. Accordingly, braving
considerable danger, he made his way with a small retinue to Odawara
and signified his willingness to comply with any terms imposed by
Hideyoshi. Thus, for the first time since the middle of the fifteenth
century, the whole of the empire was pacified.
YEDO
It is historically related that, during the siege of Odawara,
Hideyoshi invited Ieyasu to the former's headquarters on Ishigaki
Hill, whence an uninterrupted view of the interior of the castle
could be had. The Tokugawa baron was then asked whether, if the eight
provinces of the Kwanto were handed over to him, he would choose
Odawara for central stronghold. He replied in the affirmative.
Hideyoshi pointed out the superior advantages of Yedo from a
strategical and commercial point of view, and ultimately when he
conferred the Kwanto on Ieyasu, he chose Yedo for the latter's
capital, the accompanying revenue being about two and a half million
koku. Hideyoshi further proposed to appoint Oda Nobukatsu to the
lordship of the five provinces which had hitherto constituted the
domain of Ieyasu, namely, Suruga, Totomi, Mikawa, Kai, and Shinano.
Nobukatsu, however, alleging that he did not desire any large domain,
asked to be allowed to retain his old estates in Owari and Ise.
This attitude angered Hideyoshi for reasons which will presently be
apparent. He assigned to Nobukatsu a comparatively insignificant fief
at Akita, in the remote province of Dewa, and gave the estates in
Owari and Ise to Hidetsugu, the nephew and adopted successor of
Hideyoshi, while the five provinces hitherto under the sway of Ieyasu
were divided among Hideyoshi's generals and retainers. In September,
1590, Ieyasu entered Yedo, and subdivided his extensive domain among
his followers in order of merit, thus establishing the Tokugawa
system of hereditary daimyo and founding a new Bakufu. All this was
very significant. In such matters, Hideyoshi had repeatedly shown
himself to be a man of great magnanimity, and had allowed even his
enemies to retain possession of lands which would certainly have been
taken from them by other conquerors. Thus, in the case of the Mori
sept, fully half of the midland counties was left in their
occupation, and, in the case of the Shimazu family, they were
suffered to retain two and a half provinces.
With regard to Ieyasu, however, Hideyoshi behaved with marked
caution. By granting to the Tokugawa chieftain the whole of the
Kwanto, Hideyoshi made it appear as though he were conferring a
signal favour; but in reality his object was to remove Ieyasu out of
the zone of potential danger to Kyoto. Ieyasu fully recognized this
manoeuvre, but bowed to it as the less of two evils. As a further
measure of precaution, Hideyoshi interposed one of his own family,
Hidetsugu, between the Kwanto and Kyoto, and with the object of
menacing the rear of Ieyasu and restraining the movements of the
Date, he placed Gamo Ujisato at Aizu in Oshu. He further posted
Ishida Katsushige at Sawa-yama (now called Hikone) in the province of
Omi, to cover the principal route to Kyoto, and for similar reasons
with regard to the Yamato and Tamba roads he assigned to his brother,
Hidenaga, the castle of Kori-yama, which commanded Izumi and Kii, and
to his adopted son, Hidekatsu, the castle at Fukuchi-yama in Tamba.
This plan of distributing their domains, so that the daimyo should be
mutually repressive, was followed with still greater care by Ieyasu
when he, in turn, became supreme.
HIDEYOSHI AND BUDDHISM
There are evidences that, from his childhood, Hideyoshi had little
reverence for the Buddhist faith. When only twelve years of age he is
said to have beaten and smashed an image of Amida because it remained
always insensible to the offerings of food placed daily before it.
Again, when on his way to Kyoto to avenge the assassination of
Nobunaga, he saw an idol floating on a stream, and seizing the effigy
he cut it into two pieces, saying that the deity Daikoku, having
competence to succour one thousand persons only, could be of little
use to him at such a crisis as he was now required to meet. Finally,
on the occasion of his expedition against the Hojo of Odawara, when
the sailors of Mishima, in Sagami, objected to carrying war-horses in
their boats on the plea that the god of the sea, Ryujin, hated
everything equine, Hideyoshi did not hesitate to remove these
scruples by addressing a despatch to the deity with orders to watch
over the safety of the steeds.
Yet this same Hideyoshi evidently recognized that the Buddhist faith
had great potentialities in Japan, and that its encouragement made
for the peace and progress of the country. Buddhism suffered terribly
at the hands of Nobunaga. The great monastery of Enryaku-ji was a
mass of blackened ruins at the time of the Oda baron's death, and it
has been shown that the monasteries of Kii and Osaka fared almost
equally badly at the hands of Hideyoshi. Nevertheless the latter had
no sooner grasped the supreme administrative power than he showed
himself a protector and promotor of Buddhism. Scattered throughout
the empire and apparently crippled for all time, the monks of
Hiei-zan very soon gave evidence of the vitality of their faith by
commencing a vigorous propaganda for the restoration of the great
monastery. Many renowned priests, as Zenso, Gosei, and others, headed
this movement; Prince Takatomo, adopted son of the Emperor Okimachi,
agreed to become lord-abbot of the sect (Tendai), and the Imperial
Court issued a proclamation exhorting the people to subscribe for the
pious purpose. Hideyoshi, Ieyasu, and other great barons addressed
their vassals in a similar sense, and in Hideyoshi's proclamation the
imperative necessity of Enryaku-ji as a barrier at the "Demon's Gate"
was distinctly stated. Under such auspices the monastery quickly rose
from its ashes, though in point of size and magnificence it was
inferior to its predecessor. At the same time Hideyoshi steadily
pursued the policy of checking the military tendencies of the monks,
and it may be said that, from his era, the soldier-priest ceased to
be a factor in the political situation.
THE KYOTO DAIBUTSU
The erection of a colossal image of the Buddha at Nara, in the eighth
century, and at Kamakura, in the thirteenth century, marked the
consummation of great political programmes in which religious
influence acted a strong part. Hideyoshi determined to set up a still
more imposing effigy in Kyoto, and, in 1586, the work was commenced
under the superintendence of Maeda Gen-i. All the principal
idol-makers were summoned to the capital, and among them were said to
have been some Chinese experts. Hideyoshi declared that whereas the
Nara Daibutsu had taken twenty-seven years to build, the Kyoto image
should be finished in five. He kept his word. No less than twenty-one
provinces were placed under requisition for labour and materials. The
enclosure of the temple containing the image measured 260 yards by
274, and the great hall had dimensions of 110 yards by 74.
The original intention had been to make the idol of copper; but as
the statue was to have a height of 160 feet, the quantity of metal
required could not have been obtained within the time fixed, and
lacquered wood was therefore substituted for copper. It is related
that timbers of sufficient scantling could not be found anywhere
except in the forests at the base of Fuji-yama, and Ieyasu employed
fifty thousand labourers at a cost of a one thousand ryo in gold, for
the purpose of felling the trees and transporting them to Kyoto. The
operations furnished evidence of the curiously arbitrary methods
practised officially in that age. Thus, when the building was
interrupted owing to a lack of large stones for constructing the
pedestal, messengers were sent to appropriate rocks standing in
private gardens, without consulting the convenience of the owners,
and many beautiful parks were thus deprived of their most picturesque
elements. Moreover, on the plea of obtaining iron to make nails,
clamps, and so forth, a proclamation was issued calling upon the
civilian section of the population at large to throw their swords,
their spears, their muskets, and their armour into the melting-pot.
This proclamation, though couched in terms of simulated benevolence,
amounted in reality to a peremptory order. The people were told that
they only wasted their substance and were impeded in the payment of
their taxes by spending money upon weapons of war, whereas by giving
these for a religious purpose, they would invoke the blessings of
heaven and promote their own prosperity. But, at the foot of these
specious arguments, there was placed a brief command that the weapons
must be surrendered and that those concerned should take due note of
their duty in the matter. The import of such an injunction was not
lost on the people, and general disarming of the agricultural and the
artisan classes marked the success of Hideyoshi's policy. It is on
record that he himself actually joined in the manual labour of
dragging stones and timbers into position, and that, clad in hempen
garments, he led the labourers' chorus of "Kiyari."
THE JURAKU-TEI
In the year 1586, the Emperor Okimachi resigned the throne to his
grandson, Go-Yozei. Like Nobunaga, Hideyoshi was essentially loyal to
the Imperial Court. He not only provided for the renovation of the
shrines of Ise, but also built a palace for the retiring Emperor's
use. On the 11th of the seventh month of 1585, he was appointed
regant (kwampaku), and on the 13th of the same month he proceeded to
the Court to render thanks. He himself, however, was without a
residence in the capital, and to remedy that deficiency he built a
palace called Juraku-tei (Mansion of Pleasure) which, according to
the accounts transmitted by historians, was an edifice of exceptional
magnificence. Thus, the Taikoki (Annals of the Taiko) speak of "gates
guarded by iron pillars and copper doors; of high towers which shone
like stars in the sky; of roof-tiles which roared in the wind, and of
golden dragons which sang songs among the clouds." Nothing now
remains of all this grandeur except some of the gates and other
decorative parts of the structure, which were given to the builders
of the temples of Hongwan-ji after the destruction of the Juraku-tei
when Hidetsugu and his whole family died under the sword as traitors.
There can be no doubt, however, that the edifice represented every
possible feature of magnificence and refinement characteristic of the
era.
Hideyoshi took up his abode there in 1587, and at the ensuing New
Year's festival he prayed to be honoured by a visit from the Emperor.
This request was complied with during the month of May in the same
year. All the details of the ceremony were ordered in conformity with
precedents set in the times of the Ashikaga shoguns, Yoshimitsu and
Yoshimasa, but the greatly superior resources of Hideyoshi were
enlisted to give eclat to the fete. The ceremonies were spread over
five days. They included singing, dancing, couplet composing, and
present giving. The last was on a scale of unprecedented dimensions.
The presents to the Imperial household and to the Court Nobles Varied
from three hundred koku of rice to 5530 ryo of silver, and in the
case of the Court ladies, the lowest was fifty koku and the highest
three hundred.
The occasion was utilized by Hideyoshi for an important ceremony,
which amounted to a public recognition of his own supremacy. A
written oath was signed and sealed by six great barons, of whom the
first four represented the Toyotomi (Hideyoshi's) family and the last
two were Ieyasu and Nobukatsu. The signatories of this oath solemnly
bound themselves to respect eternally the estates and possessions of
the members of the Imperial house, of the Court nobles, and of the
Imperial princes, and further to obey faithfully all commands issued
by the regent. This obligation was guaranteed by invoking the curse
of all the guardian deities of the empire on the head of anyone
violating the engagement. A similar solemn pledge in writing was
signed by twenty-two of the great military barons.
THE KITANO FETE
The esoterics of the tea ceremonial and the vogue it obtained in the
days of the shogun Yoshimasa, have already been described. But note
must be taken here of the extraordinary zeal displayed by Hideyoshi
in this matter. Some claim that his motive was mainly political;
others that he was influenced by purely esthetic sentiments, and
others, again, that both feelings were responsible in an equal
degree. There is no material for an exact analysis. He doubtless
appreciated the point of view of the historian who wrote that
"between flogging a war-steed along the way to death and discussing
esthetic canons over a cup of tea in a little chamber nine feet
square, there was a radical difference." But it must also have
appealed keenly to his fancy that he, a veritable upstart, by birth a
plebeian and by habit a soldier, should ultimately set the lead in
artistic fashions to the greatest aristocrats in the empire in a cult
essentially pacific.
However these things may have been, the fact remains that on the 1st
of November, 1587, there was organized by his orders on the Pine
Plain (Matsubara) of Kitano a cha-no-yu fete of unprecedented
magnitude. The date of the fete was placarded in Kyoto, Nara, Osaka,
Sakai, and other towns of importance more than a month in advance;
all lovers of the tea cult were invited, whether plebeian or
patrician, whether rich or poor; frugality was enjoined, and the
proclamations promised that the choicest among the objects of art
collected by Hideyoshi during many decades should be exhibited. It is
recorded that over 360 persons attended the fete. Some erected simple
edifices under the pine trees; some set up a monster umbrella for a
roof, and some brought portable pavilions. These various edifices are
said to have occupied a space of six square miles. Three pavilions
were devoted to Hideyoshi's art-objects, and he himself served tea
and exhibited his esthetic treasures to Ieyasu, Nobukatsu, Toshiiye,
and other distinguished personages.
HIDEYOSHI'S LARGESSE
Hideyoshi's love of ostentation when political ends could be served
thereby was strikingly illustrated by a colossal distribution of gold
and silver. One morning in June, 1589, the space within the main gate
of the Juraku palace was seen to be occupied throughout a length of
nearly three hundred yards with gold and silver coins heaped up on
trays each containing one hundred and fifty pieces. Immediately
within the gate sat Hideyoshi, and beside him was the Emperor's
younger brother, Prince Roku. The mass of glittering treasure was
guarded by officials under the superintendence of Maeda Gen-i, and
presently the names of the personages who were to be recipients of
Hideyoshi's largesse were read aloud, whereupon each of those
indicated advanced and received a varying number of the precious
trays. The members of Hideyoshi's family were specially favoured in
this distribution. His mother received 3000 ryo of gold and 10,000
ryo of silver; his brother, Hidenaga, 3000 ryo of gold and 20,000 of
silver; and his nephew, Hidetsugu, 3000 of gold and 10,000 of silver.
To Nobukatsu, to Ieyasu, to Mori Terumoto, to Uesugi Kagekatsu, and
to Maeda Toshiiye, great sums were given, varying from 3000 ryo of
gold and 10,000 of silver to 1000 of gold and 10,000 of silver. It is
said that the total of the coins thus bestowed amounted to 365,000
ryo, a vast sum in that era. A history of the time observes that the
chief recipients of Hideyoshi's generosity were the members of his
own family, and that he would have shown better taste had he made
these donations privately. Perhaps the deepest impression produced by
this grand display was a sense of the vast treasure amassed by
Hideyoshi; and possibly he contemplated something of the kind.
ENGRAVING: SNOW IMAGE OF DHARMA
ENGRAVING: A FENCING OUTFIT
CHAPTER XXXV
THE INVASION OF KOREA
CAUSES
HAVING brought the whole of Japan under his control, Hideyoshi
conceived the project of conquering China. That appears to be the
simplest explanation of his action. His motive, however, has been
variously interpreted. Some historians maintain that his prime
purpose was to find occupation for the vast host of soldiers who had
been called into existence in Japan by four centuries of almost
continuous warfare. Others do not hesitate to allege that this
oversea campaign was designed for the purpose of assisting to
exterminate the Christian converts. Others, again, attempt to prove
that personal ambition was Hideyoshi's sole incentive. It does not
seem necessary to estimate the relative truth of these analyses,
especially as the evidence adduced by their several supporters is
more or less conjectural. As to the idea that Hideyoshi was
influenced by anti-Christian sentiment, it is sufficient to observe
that out of nearly a quarter of a million of Japanese soldiers who
landed in Korea during the course of the campaign, not so much as ten
per cent, were Christians, and with regard to the question of
personal ambition, it may be conceded at once that if Hideyoshi's
character lays him open to such a charge, his well-proven statecraft
exonerates him from any suspicion of having acted without thought for
his country's good.
One fact which does not seem to have been sufficiently considered by
annalists is that during the sixteenth century the taste for foreign
adventure had grown largely in Japan. Many persons had gone abroad in
quest of fortune and had found it. It is on record that emigrants
from the province of Hizen had established themselves in considerable
numbers in China, and that their success induced their feudal lord,
Nabeshima, to seek the Central Government's permission for returning
his province to the latter and taking, in lieu, the district near
Ningpo, where his vassals had settled. Hideyoshi doubtless shared the
general belief that in oversea countries Japanese enterprise could
find many profitable opportunities, and it is easy to believe that
the weakened condition of China towards the close of the Ming dynasty
led him to form a not very flattering estimate of that country's
power of resistance.
The conquest of Korea had not in itself any special temptation. He
regarded the peninsula simply as a basis for an attack upon China,
and he made it quite clear to the Korean sovereign that, if the
latter suffered his territories to be converted into a stepping-stone
for that purpose, friendship with Japan might be confidently
anticipated. Korea, at that time, was under the sway of a single
ruler, whose dynasty enjoyed the protection of the Chinese Court, and
between the two sovereigns embassies were regularly exchanged. It has
already been stated in these pages that towards the middle of the
fifteenth century Japanese settlers in Korea had been assigned three
places of residence, but owing to the exactions suffered at the hands
of the local authorities, these settlers had risen in revolt and had
finally been expelled from Korea until the year 1572, when a
concession was once more set apart for Japanese use at Fusan. No
longer, however, were envoys sent from Korea to Japan, and evidence
of the outrages committed from time to time by Japanese pirates is
furnished by a decree of the Korean Government that a Japanese
subject landing anywhere except at Fusan would be treated as a
corsair.
Such were the existing conditions when, in 1587, Hideyoshi called
upon the Korean monarch to explain the cessation of the old-time
custom of exchanging envoys. To this the King of Korea replied that
he would willingly renew the ancient relations provided that the
Japanese authorities seized and handed over a number of Korean
renegades, who had been acting as guides to Japanese pirates in
descents on the Korean coast. This stipulation having been complied
with, a Korean embassy was duly despatched by Kyoto, and after some
delay its members were received by Hideyoshi in the hall of audience.
What happened on this occasion is described in Korean annals,
translated as follows by Mr. Aston*:
*Hideyoshi's Invasion of Korea, by Aston. "Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan," Vol. VI.
The ambassadors were allowed to enter the palace gate borne in their
palanquins. They were preceded the whole way by a band of music. They
ascended into the hall, where they performed their obeisances.
Hideyoshi is a mean and ignoble-looking man; his complexion is dark,
and his features are wanting in distinction. But his eyeballs send
out fire in flashes--enough to pierce one through. He sat upon a
threefold cushion with his face to the south. He wore a gauze hat and
a dark-coloured robe of State. His officers were ranged round him,
each in his proper place. When the ambassadors were introduced and
had taken their seats, the refreshments offered them were of the most
frugal description. A tray was set before each, on which was one dish
containing steamed mochi (rice-cake), and sake of an inferior quality
was handed round a few times in earthenware cups and in a very
unceremonious way. The civility of drinking to one another was not
observed.
After a short interval, Hideyoshi retired behind a curtain, but all
his officers remained in their places. Soon after, a man came out
dressed in ordinary clothes, with a baby in his arms, and strolled
about the hall. This was no other than Hideyoshi himself, and
everyone present bowed down his head to the ground. Looking out
between the pillars of the hall, Hideyoshi espied the Korean
musicians. He commanded them to strike up all together as loud as
they could, and was listening to their music when he was reminded
that babies could despise ceremonies as much as princes, and
laughingly called one of his attendants to take the child and bring
him a change of clothing. He seemed to do exactly as he pleased, and
was as unconcerned as if nobody else were present. The ambassadors,
having made their obeisance, retired, and this audience was the only
occasion on which they were admitted to Hideyoshi's presence.
After long delay Hideyoshi replied to the letter carried by the above
envoys, and his language is important as clearly indicating the part
which he designed for Korea in the pending war. The document is thus
translated by Mr. Aston:
This empire has of late years been brought to ruin by internal
dissensions which allowed no opportunity for laying aside armour.
This state of things roused me to indignation, and in a few years I
restored peace to the country. I am the only remaining scion of a
humble stock, but my mother once had a dream in which she saw the sun
enter her bosom, after which she gave birth to me. There was then a
soothsayer who said: "Wherever the sun shines, there will be no place
which shall not be subject to him. It may not be doubted that one day
his power will overspread the empire." It has therefore been my boast
to lose no favourable opportunity, and taking wings like a dragon, I
have subdued the east, chastised the west, punished the south, and
smitten the north. Speedy and great success has attended my career,
which has been like the rising sun illuminating the whole earth.
When I reflect that the life of man is less than one hundred years,
why should I spend my days in sorrow for one thing only? I will
assemble a mighty host, and, invading the country of the great Ming,
I will fill with the hoar-frost from my sword the whole sky over the
four hundred provinces. Should I carry out this purpose, I hope that
Korea will be my vanguard. Let her not fail to do so, for my
friendship with your honourable country depends solely on your
conduct when I lead my army against China.
The Korean envoys entrusted with the delivery of the above despatch
were accompanied by one of the chief vassals of the Tsushima baron,
and a monk, named Genso, who acted in the capacity of interpreter. By
these two Japanese the Korean Government was clearly informed that
nothing was required of Korea beyond throwing open the roads to
China, and that she would not be asked to give any other assistance
whatever in the war against her northern neighbour. In the context of
this explanation, the Seoul Government was reminded that, three
centuries previously, Korea had permitted her territory to be made a
basis of Mongolian operations against Japan, and therefore the
peninsula might well allow itself to be now used as a basis of
Japanese operations against China. From Korean annals we learn that
the following despatch was ultimately sent by the Korean sovereign to
Hideyoshi*:
*Hulbert's History of Korea.
Two letters have already passed between us, and the matter has been
sufficiently discussed. What talk is this of our joining you against
China? From the earliest times we have followed law and right. From
within and from without all lands are subject to China. If you have
desired to send your envoys to China, how much more should we? When
we have been unfortunate she has helped us. The relations which
subsist between us are those of parent and child. This you know well.
Can we desert both Emperor and parent and join with you? You
doubtless will be angry at this, and it is because you have not been
admitted to the Court of China. Why is it that you are not willing to
admit the suzerainty of the Emperor, instead of harbouring such
hostile intents against him? This truly passes our comprehension.
The bitterness of this language was intensified by a comment made to
the Japanese envoys when handing them the above despatch. His Majesty
said that Japan's programme of conquering China resembled an attempt
to bail out the ocean with a cockle-shell. From Korea's point of view
her attitude was perfectly justifiable. The dynasty by which the
peninsula was then ruled owed its very existence to China's aid, and
during two centuries the peninsula had enjoyed peace and a certain
measure of prosperity under that dynasty. On the other hand, Korea
was not in a position to think of resisting Japan on the
battle-field. The only army which the former could boast of
possessing consisted of men who were too indigent to purchase
exemption from service with the colours, and thus she may be said to
have been practically without any efficient military organization.
Moreover, her troops were not equipped with either artillery or
match-locks. The only advantage which she possessed may be said to
have been exceedingly difficult topographical features, which were
practically unknown to the Japanese. Japan had not at that time even
the elements of the organization which she was ultimately destined to
carry to such a high point of perfection. She had no secret-service
agents or any cartographers to furnish her generals with information
essential to the success of an invasion, and from the moment that her
troops landed in Korea, their environment would be absolutely
strange.
JAPAN'S PREPARATIONS
These considerations did not, however, deter Hideyoshi. Immediately
on receipt of the above despatch from the Korean Court, preparations
were commenced for an oversea expedition on a colossal scale. Nagoya,
in the province of Hizen, was chosen for the home-basis of
operations. It has been observed by several critics that if
Hideyoshi, instead of moving by Korea, had struck at China direct
oversea, he would in all probability have seen his flag waving over
Peking in a few months, and the whole history of the Orient would
have been altered. That may possibly be true. But we have to remember
that the Korean peninsula lies almost within sight of the shores of
Japan, whereas to reach China direct by water involves a voyage of
several hundred miles over seas proverbially tempestuous and
dangerous. Even in modern times, when maritime transport has been so
greatly developed, a general might well hesitate between the choice
of the Korean and the ocean routes to China from Japan, were he
required to make a choice. In the face of the certainty of Korean
hostility, however, Hideyoshi's selection was certainly open to
criticism. Nevertheless, the event showed that he did not err in his
calculations so far as the operations on shore were concerned.
He himself remained in Japan throughout the whole war. He went to
Nagoya towards the close of 1592 and stayed there until the beginning
of 1594, and it was generally understood that he intended ultimately
to assume direct command of the oversea armies. In fact, at a council
held to consider this matter, he proposed to cross the water at the
head of one hundred and fifty thousand men, handing over the
administration of affairs in Japan to Ieyasu. On that occasion, one
of his most trusted followers, Asano Nagamasa, provoked a violent
outburst of temper on Hideyoshi's part by declaring that such a
scheme would be an act of lunacy, since Hideyoshi's presence alone
secured the empire against recurrence of domestic strife. The annals
are not very clear at this point, but everything seems to indicate
that Hideyoshi's purpose of leading the armies in person would have
been carried into practice had it not become certain that the
invasion of China would have to be abandoned. The time and the manner
in which this failure became clear will be seen as we proceed.
CONDITIONS FROM THE INVADER'S POINT OF VIEW
The sea which separates Japan from the Korean peninsula narrows on
the south to a strait divided by the island of Tsushima into two
channels of nearly equal width. Tsushima had, for centuries, been the
Japanese outpost in this part of the empire. To reach the island from
the Japanese side was always an easy and safe task, but in the
fifty-six-mile channel that separates Tsushima from the peninsula of
Korea an invading flotilla had to run the risk of an attack by Korean
warships.* The army assembled at Nagoya totalled over three hundred
thousand men, whereof some seventy thousand constituted the first
fighting line and eighty-seven thousand the second, the remainder
forming a reserve to meet contingencies. The question of maritime
transport presented some difficulty, but was solved by the expedient
of ordering each maritime feudatory to furnish two large ships for
every hundred thousand koku of the fief's assessment, and their crews
were obtained by compelling each fishing village to furnish ten
sailors for every hundred houses it contained. These were not
fighting vessels but mere transports. Fighting men to the number of
ninety-two hundred were, however, distributed among the ships, and
were armed with match-locks, bows, and swords. The problem of
commissariat was very formidable. This part of the enterprise was
entrusted solely to Asano Nagamasa, minister of Justice, one of the
five bugyo,--that is to say, five officials called administrators, in
whose intelligence and competence Hideyoshi placed signal reliance.
In the records of the Asano family it is stated that an immense
quantity of rice was shipped at the outset, but that on landing in
Korea the army found ample supplies of grain in every castle
throughout the peninsula. Nevertheless, the problem of provisions
ultimately became exceedingly difficult, as might well have been
predicted.
*See the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
As for the plan of campaign, it was precisely in accord with the
principles of modern strategy. The van, consisting of three army
corps, was to cross rapidly to Fusan on the south coast of the
peninsula, whence a movement northward, towards the capital, Seoul,
was to be immediately commenced, one corps marching by the eastern
coast-road, one by the central route, and one by the western.
"Thereafter the other four corps, which formed the first fighting
line, together with the corps under the direct orders of the
commander-in-chief, Ukita Hideiye, were to cross for the purpose of
effectually subduing the regions through which the van had passed;
and, finally, the two remaining corps of the second line were to be
transported by sea up the west coast of the peninsula, to form a
junction with the van which, by that time, should be preparing to
pass into China over the northern boundary of Korea, namely, the Yalu
River. For the landing-place of these re-enforcements the town of
Pyong-yang was adopted, being easily accessible by the Tadong River
from the coast. In later ages, Japanese armies were destined to move
twice over these same regions, once to the invasion of China [in
1894], once to the attack of Russia [in 1904], and they adopted
almost the same strategical plan as that mapped out by Hideyoshi in
the year 1592. The forecast was that the Koreans would offer their
chief resistance, first, at the capital, Seoul; next at Pyong-yang,
and finally at the Yalu, as the approaches to all these places
constituted positions capable of being utilized to great advantage
for defensive purposes."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
THE MARCH TO SEOUL
On the 24th of May, 1592, the first army corps (18,700 men), under
the command of Konishi Yukinaga, crossed unmolested to the peninsula.
So little did the Koreans anticipate an invasion that the earliest
intelligence they had of the advent of the invaders was furnished by
the commandant of Fusan, who happened that day to be hunting on Deer
Island at the entrance to the harbour, and who sighted the approach
of the hostile flotilla. On the 25th, Konishi's troops carried the
castle of Fusan by storm, after a brave resistance by the garrison,
and, on the 27th, the same fate befell another and stronger fortress
lying three miles inland and garrisoned by twenty thousand picked
soldiers. Four days after the landing of Konishi's army, the second
corps (20,800 strong), under Kato Kiyomasa, reached Fusan, and
immediately took the east-coast road, according to the programme of
campaign.
Thenceforth, however, it was really a race between the two armies as
to which should form the van. At the pass of Cho-ryung a reunion was
effected. This position offered exceptional facilities for defence,
but owing to some unexplained reason no attempt was made by the
Koreans to hold it. A few miles further north stood a castle reckoned
the strongest fortress in the peninsula. Konishi and Kato continued
the combination of their forces as they approached this position,
but, contrary to expectation, the Koreans fought in the open and the
castle fell without difficulty. Thereafter, the two corps separated,
Kato taking the westerly road and Konishi the direct route to Seoul.
In short, although the two generals have been accused of crippling
themselves by jealous competition, the facts indicate that they
co-operated effectively as far as the river Imjin, where a strenuous
effort to check them was expected to be made by the Koreans.
From the landing place at Fusan to the gates of Seoul the distance is
267 miles. Konishi's corps covered that interval in nineteen days,
storming two forts, carrying two positions, and fighting one pitched
battle on the way. Kato's corps, travelling by a circuitous and more
arduous road but not meeting with so much resistance, traversed the
distance between Fusan and the capital in four days less. At Seoul,
with its thirty thousand battlements and three times as many
embrasures, requiring a garrison ninety thousand strong, only seven
thousand were available, and nothing offered except flight, a course
which the Royal Court adopted without hesitation, leaving the city to
be looted and partially destroyed, not by the Japanese invaders but
by the Korean inhabitants themselves.
The King did not halt until he had placed the Imjin River between
himself and the enemy. Moreover, as soon as he there received news of
the sack of the city, he renewed his flight northward and took up his
quarters at Pyong-yang. It was on the 12th of June that the Korean
capital fell, and by the 16th four army corps had assembled there,
while four others had effected a landing at Fusan. After a rest of
fifteen days, the northern advance was resumed from Seoul, with the
expectation that a great struggle would take place on the banks of
the Imjin. The conditions were eminently favourable for defence,
inasmuch as the approach to the river from the south was only by one
narrow gulch, whereas, on the northern side, lay a long, sandy
stretch where troops could easily be deployed. Moreover the Japanese
had no boats wherewith to negotiate a broad and swiftly flowing
river. During ten days the invaders remained helpless on the southern
bank. Then the Koreans allowed themselves to be betrayed by the
common device of a simulated retreat. They crossed in exultant
pursuit, only to find that they had been trapped into an ambush.
Konishi and Kato now again separated, the former continuing the
direct advance northward, and the latter taking the northeastern
route, which he ultimately followed along the whole of the coast as
far as Kyong-sang, whence he turned inland and finally reached
Hai-ryong, a place destined to acquire much importance in modern
times as the point of junction of the Kilin-Korean railways.
The distance from Seoul to Pyong-yang on the Tadong is 130 miles, and
it was traversed by the Japanese in eighteen days, ten of which had
been occupied in forcing the passage of the Imjin. On the southern
bank of the Tadong, the invaders found themselves in a position even
more difficult than that which had confronted them at the Imjin. They
had to pass a wide rapid river with a walled city of great strength
on its northern bank and with all the boats in the possession of the
Korean garrison, which was believed to be very numerous. Some
parleying took place, and the issue of the situation seemed very
doubtful when the Koreans lost patience and crossed the river, hoping
to destroy the Japanese by a night attack. They miscalculated the
time required for this operation, and daylight compelled them to
abandon the enterprise when its only result had been to disclose to
the invaders the whereabouts of the fords. Then ensued a disorderly
retreat on the part of the Koreans, and there being no time for the
latter to fire the town, storehouses full of grain fell into the
hands of the invaders. The Korean Court resumed its flight as far as
Wi-ju, a few miles south of the Yalu River, whence messengers were
sent to China to solicit succour.
THE COMMAND OF THE SEA
Thus far, everything had marched in perfect accord with the Japanese
programme. A force of nearly two hundred thousand men had been
carried over the sea and had overrun practically the whole of Korea.
"At this point, however, the invasion suffered a check owing to a
cause which in modern times has received much attention, though in
Hideyoshi's days it had been little considered; the Japanese lost the
command of the sea. The Japanese idea of sea fighting in those times
was to use open boats propelled chiefly by oars. They closed as
quickly as possible with the enemy and then fell on with the
trenchant swords which they used so skilfully. Now, during the
fifteenth century and part of the sixteenth, the Chinese had been so
harassed by Japanese piratical raids that their inventive genius,
quickened by suffering, suggested a device for coping with these
formidable adversaries. Once allow the Japanese swordsman to come to
close quarters and he carried all before him. To keep him at a
distance, then, was the great desideratum, and the Chinese compassed
this in maritime warfare by completely covering their boats with
roofs of solid timber, so that those within were protected against
missiles or other weapons, while loop-holes and ports enabled them to
pour bullets and arrows on a foe.
"The Koreans learned this device from the Chinese and were the first
to employ it in actual warfare. Their own history alleges that they
improved upon the Chinese model by nailing sheet iron over the roofs
and sides of the 'turtle-shell' craft and studding the whole surface
with chevaux de frise, but Japanese annals indicate that in the great
majority of cases timber alone was used. It seems strange that the
Japanese should have been without any clear perception of the immense
fighting superiority possessed by such protected war-vessels over
small open boats. But certainly they were either ignorant or
indifferent. The fleet which they provided to hold the command of
Korean waters did not include one vessel of any magnitude; it
consisted simply of some hundreds of row-boats manned by seven
thousand men. Hideyoshi himself was perhaps not without misgivings.
Six years previously, he had endeavoured to obtain two war-galleons
from the Portuguese, and had he succeeded, the history of the Far
East might have been radically different. Evidently, however, he
committed a blunder which his countrymen in modern times have
conspicuously avoided; he drew the sword without having fully
investigated his adversary's resources.
"Just about the time when the van of the Japanese army was entering
Seoul, the Korean admiral, Yi Sun-sin, at the head of a fleet of
eighty vessels, attacked the Japanese squadron which lay at anchor
near the entrance to Fusan harbour, set twenty-six of the vessels on
fire, and dispersed the rest. Four other engagements ensued in rapid
succession. The last and most important took place shortly after the
Japanese troops had seized Pyong-yang. It resulted in the sinking of
over seventy Japanese vessels, transports and fighting ships
combined, which formed the main part of a flotilla carrying
reinforcements by sea to the van of the invading army. This despatch
of troops and supplies by water had been a leading feature of
Hideyoshi's plan of campaign, and the destruction of the flotilla to
which the duty was entrusted may be said to have sealed the fate of
the war by isolating the army in Korea from its home base.
"It is true that Konishi Yukinaga, who commanded the first division,
desired to continue his northward march from Pyong-yang without
delay. He argued that China was wholly unprepared, and that the best
hope of ultimate victory lay in not giving her time to collect her
forces. But the commander-in-chief, Ukita Hideiye, refused to endorse
this plan. He took the view that since the Korean provinces were
still offering desperate resistance, supplies could not be drawn from
them, neither could the troops engaged in subjugating them be freed
for service at the front. Therefore it was essential to await the
consummation of the second phase of Hideyoshi's plan, namely, the
despatch of re-enforcements and munitions by water to Pyong-yang. The
reader has seen how that second phase fared. The Japanese commander
at Pyong-yang never received any accession of strength. His force
suffered constant diminution from casualties, and the question of
commissariat became daily more difficult. . . . Japanese historians
themselves admit the fact that no wise effort was made to conciliate
the Korean people. They were treated so harshly that even the humble
peasant took up arms, and thus the peninsula, instead of serving as a
basis of supplies, had to be garrisoned perpetually by a strong
army."* Korean historians give long and minute accounts of the
development and exploits of guerilla bands, which, though they did
not obtain any signal victory over the invaders, harassed the latter
perpetually, and compelled them to devote a large part of their force
to guarding the lines of communication.
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
CHINESE INTERFERENCE
Having suffered for their loyalty to China, the Koreans naturally
looked to her for succour. Peking should have understood the
situation thoroughly. Even without any direct communication from
Japan, the Peking Court had cognizance of Hideyoshi's intentions. A
letter addressed by him in the year 1591 to the King of Ryukyu stated
clearly his intention of extending Japanese sovereignty throughout
the whole Orient, and the ruler of Ryukyu had lost no time in making
this fact known to Peking.* Yet it does not appear that the Chinese
had any just appreciation of the situation. Their first response to
Korea's appeal was to mobilize a force of five thousand men in the
Liaotung peninsula, which force crossed the Yalu and moved against
Pyong-yang, where the Japanese van had been lying idle for over two
months. This occurred early in October, 1592. The incident
illustrated China's confidence in her own superiority. "The whole of
the Korean forces had been driven northward throughout the entire
length of the peninsula by Japanese armies, yet Peking considered
that five thousand Chinese braves would suffice to roll back this
tide of invasion."
*There is still extant a letter addressed by Hideypshi in June, 1592,
to Hidetsugu, his nephew, and then nominal successor. In this
document it is distinctly stated that the attention of the Emperor of
Japan should be directed to the Chinese capital, inasmuch as the
Japanese Court would pay a visit to Peking in 1594, on which occasion
the ten provinces surrounding the Chinese capital would be presented
to his Majesty, and out of this territory the Court nobles would
receive estates.
The result was a foregone conclusion. Three thousand of the Chinese
were killed, and the rest fled pele-mele across the Yalu. China now
began to be seriously alarmed. She despatched to Pyong-yang an envoy
named Chen Weiching--known in Japanese history as Chin Ikei--who was
instructed not to conclude peace but only to make such overtures as
might induce the Japanese to agree to an armistice, thus enabling the
Chinese authorities to mobilize a sufficient force. Konishi Yukinaga
fell into this trap. He agreed to an armistice of fifty days, during
which the Japanese pledged themselves not to advance more than three
miles northward of Pyong-yang while Chen proceeded to Peking to
arrange terms of peace. It is very evident that had the Japanese seen
any certain prospect of proceeding to the invasion of China, they
would not have agreed to such an arrangement as this--an arrangement
which guaranteed nothing except leisure for the mobilization of a
strong Chinese army. It had, indeed, become plain to the Japanese
commanders, after six months of operations in the peninsula, that the
wisest course for them was to arrange a satisfactory peace.
The second force put in the field by China is estimated by the
Jesuits and the Japanese at 200,000 men and at 51,000 by Korean
history. Probably the truth lies midway between the two extremes.
This powerful army moved across Manchuria in the dead of winter and
hurled itself against Pyong-yang during the first week of February,
1593. The Japanese garrison at that place cannot have greatly
exceeded twenty thousand men, for nearly one-half of its original
number had been detached to hold a line of forts guarding the
communications with Seoul. Neither Chinese nor Japanese history
comments on the instructive fact that the arrival of this army under
the walls of Pyong-yang was China's answer to her envoy's promise of
a satisfactory peace, nor does it appear that any discredit attached
to Chen Weiching for the deception he had practised; his competence
as a negotiator was subsequently admitted without cavil. The Chinese,
though their swords were much inferior to the Japanese weapon,
possessed great superiority in field artillery and cavalry, as well
as in the fact that their troopers wore iron mail which defied the
keenest blade. Thus, after a severe fight which cost the Japanese
twenty-three hundred men, they had to evacuate Pyong-yang and retreat
towards Seoul, the army under Kato Kiyomasa retiring at the same time
from the northeast and fighting its way back to the central route.
Orders were then issued by the commander-in-chief, Ukita, for the
whole of the Japanese forces in the north of the peninsula to
concentrate in Seoul, but Kohayakawa, one of Hideyoshi's most trusted
generals, whose name has occurred more than once in these annals,
conducted a splendid covering movement at a place a few miles
northward of Seoul, the result of which was that the Chinese fled in
haste over the Injin, losing ten thousand men in their retreat.
But, though the Japanese had thus shaken off the pursuit, it was
impossible for them to continue in occupation of Seoul. The
conditions existing there were shocking. Widespread famine menaced,
with its usual concomitant, pestilence. According to Korean history,
the streets of the city and the roads in the suburbs were piled with
corpses to a height of ten feet above the wall. The Japanese,
therefore, made proposals of peace, and the Chinese agreed, on
condition that the Japanese gave up two Korean princes held captive
by them, and retired to the south coast of the peninsula. These terms
were accepted, and on May 9, 1593, that is to say, 360 days after the
landing of the invaders' van at Fusan, the evacuation of the Korean
capital took place. The Chinese commanders showed great lack of
enterprise. They failed to utilize the situation, and in October of
the same year they withdrew from the peninsula all their troops
except ten thousand men. Negotiations for permanent peace now
commenced between the Governments of Japan and China, but while the
pourparlers were in progress the most sanguinary incident of the
whole war took place. During the early part of the campaign a
Japanese attack had been beaten back from Chinju, which was reckoned
the strongest fortress in Korea. Hideyoshi now ordered that the
Japanese troops, before sailing for home, should rehabilitate their
reputation by capturing this place, where the Koreans had mustered a
strong army. The order was obeyed. Continuous assaults were delivered
against the fortress during the space of nine days, and when it
passed into Japanese possession the Koreans are said to have lost
between sixty and seventy thousand men and the casualties on the
Japanese side must have been almost as numerous.
THE NEGOTIATIONS
After the fall of Chinju, all the Japanese troops, with the exception
of Konishi's corps, were withdrawn from Korea, and the Japanese
confined their operations to holding a cordon of twelve fortified
camps along the southern coast of the peninsula. These camps were
nothing more than bluffs overlooking the sea on the south, and
protected on the land side by moats and earthworks. The action at
Chinju had created some suspicion as to the integrity of Japan's
designs, but mainly through the persistence and tact of the Chinese
envoy, Chen Weiching, terms were agreed upon, and on October 21,
1596, a Chinese mission reached Japan and proceeded to Osaka. The
island had just then been visited by a series of uniquely disastrous
earthquakes, which had either overthrown or rendered uninhabitable
all the great edifices in and around Kyoto. One corner of Osaka
Castle alone remained intact, and there the mission was received.
Hideyoshi refused to give audience to the Korean members of the
mission, and welcomed the Chinese members only, from whom he expected
to receive a document placing him on a royal pinnacle at least as
high as that occupied by the Emperor of China. The document actually
transmitted to him was of a very different significance as the
following extract shows:
The Emperor, who respects and obeys heaven and is favoured by
Providence, commands that he be honoured and loved wherever the
heavens overhang and the earth upbears. The Imperial command is
universal; even as far as the bounds of ocean where the sun rises,
there are none who do not obey it. In ancient times our Imperial
ancestors bestowed their favours on many lands: the Tortoise Knots
and the Dragon Writing were sent to the limits of far Japan; the pure
alabaster and the great-seal character were granted to the monarchs
of the submissive country. Thereafter came billowy times when
communications were interrupted, but an auspicious opportunity has
now arrived when it has pleased us again to address you. You,
Toyotomi Taira Hideyoshi, having established an Island kingdom and
knowing the reverence due to the Central Land, sent to the west an
envoy, and with gladness and affection offered your allegiance. On
the north you knocked at the barrier of ten thousand li, and
earnestly requested to be admitted within our dominions. Your mind is
already confirmed in reverent submissiveness. How can we grudge our
favour to so great meekness? We do, therefore, specially invest you
with the dignity of "King of Japan," and to that intent issue this
our commission. Treasure it carefully. As a mark of our special
favour towards you, we send you over the sea a robe and crown
contained in a costly case, so that you may follow our ancient custom
as respects dress. Faithfully defend the frontier of our empire; let
it be your study to act worthily of your position as our minister;
practice moderation and self-restraint; cherish gratitude for the
Imperial favour so bountifully bestowed upon you; change not your
fidelity; be humbly guided by our admonitions; continue always to
follow our instructions.*
*Quoted by W. Dening in A New Life of Hideyoshi.
Hideyoshi had already donned the robe and crown mentioned in the
above despatch, his belief being that they represented his
investiture as sovereign of Ming. On learning the truth, he tore off
the insignia and flung them on the ground in a fit of ungovernable
wrath at the arrogance of the Chinese Emperor's tone. It had never
been distinctly explained how this extraordinary misunderstanding
arose, but the most credible solution of the problem is that Naito,
baron of Tamba, who had proceeded to Peking for the purpose of
negotiating peace, was so overawed by the majesty and magnificence of
the Chinese Court that, instead of demanding Hideyoshi's investiture
as monarch of China, he stated that nothing was needed except China's
formal acknowledgement of the kwampaku's real rank. Hideyoshi, in his
natural anger, ordered the Chinese ambassadors to be dismissed
without any written answer and without any of the gifts usual on such
occasions according to the diplomatic custom of the Orient.
He was, however, induced not to prosecute his quarrel with the Middle
Kingdom, and he turned his anger entirely against Korea. Accordingly,
on March 19, 1597, nine fresh corps were mobilized for oversea
service, and these being thrown into Korea, brought the Japanese
forces in that country to a total of 141,000 men. But the campaign
was not at first resumed with activity proportionate to this great
army. The Japanese commanders seem to have waited for some practical
assurances that the command of the sea would not be again wrested
from them; a natural precaution seeing that, after five years' war,
Korea herself was no longer in a position to make any contributions
to the commissariat of the invaders. It is a very interesting fact
that, on this occasion, the Japanese victories at sea were as signal
as their defeats had been in 1592. The Korean navy comprised the same
vessels which were supposed to have proved so formidable five years
previously, but the Japanese naval architects had risen to the level
of the occasion, and the Korean fleet was well-nigh annihilated.
Meanwhile, the Chinese had sent a powerful army to southern Korea,
and against these fresh forces the Japanese attacks were directed.
Everywhere the invaders were victorious, and very soon the three
southern provinces of the peninsula had been captured. No actual
reverse was met with throughout, but an indecisive victory near
Chiksan, in the north of the metropolitan province, rendered it
impossible for the Japanese to establish themselves in Seoul before
the advent of winter, and they therefore judged it advisable to
retire to their seaboard chain of entrenched camps. Early in 1598, a
fresh army of forty thousand men reached Seoul from China, and for a
moment the situation seemed to threaten disaster for the Japanese.
Their strategy and desperate valour proved invincible, however, and
the Kagoshima samurai won, on October 30, 1598, a victory so signal
that the ears and noses of thirty-seven thousand Chinese heads were
sent to Japan and buried under a tumulus near the temple of Daibutsu
in Kyoto, where this terrible record, called Mimizuka (Mound of
Ears), may be seen to-day.
Just about this time, intelligence of the death of Hideyoshi reached
the Japanese commanders in Korea, and immediately an armistice was
arranged. The withdrawal of the invading forces followed, not without
some serious difficulties, and thus the six years' campaign
terminated without any direct results except an immense loss of life
and treasure and the reduction of the Korean peninsula to a state of
desolation. It has been repeatedly pleaded for the wholly
unprogressive state into which Korea thenceforth fell. But to
conclude that a nation could be reduced by a six-years' war to three
centuries of hopelessness and helplessness is to credit that nation
with a very small measure of resilient capacity.
INDIRECT RESULTS
The war was not altogether without indirect results of some value to
Japan. Among these may be cited the fact that, a few decades later,
when the Tsing dynasty destroyed the Ming in China, subjugated Korea,
and assumed a position analogous to that previously held by the Yuan,
no attempt was made to defy Japan. The memory of her soldiers'
achievements on the Korean battle-fields sufficed to protect her
against foreign aggression. Another material result was that, in
compliance with Hideyoshi's orders, the returning Japanese generals
brought back many Korean art-artisans who contributed largely to the
development of the ceramic industry. On no less than seven different
kinds of now well-known porcelain and pottery in Japan did these
experts exercise marked influence, and their efforts were specially
timely in view of the great vogue then enjoyed by all utensils used
in connexion with the tea ceremonial. It is not to be supposed,
however, that these Korean artisans showed any superiority to the
Japanese as artists. The improvements they introduced were almost
entirely of a technical character. Another benefit derived by Japan
from her contact with Korea at this time was the introduction of
movable type. Up to this time the art of printing had been in a very
primitive condition in Japan, and the first book printed with movable
type made its appearance in the Bunroku era (1592-1595).
ENGRAVING: SIGNATURE OF TAKEDA SHINGEN
ENGRAVING: NAGOYA CASTLE
CHAPTER XXXVI
THE MOMO-YAMA EPOCH
MOMO-YAMA
THE epochs of Japanese history from the eighth century until the fall
of the Ashikaga shogunate are generally divided into the Nara, the
Heian, the Kamakura, the Muromachi, and the Higashi-yama. To these
has now to be added the Momo-yama (Peach Hill), a term derived from
the name of a palatial residence built by Hideyoshi in the Fushimi
suburb of Kyoto. The project was conceived in 1593, that is to say,
during the course of the Korean campaign, and the business of
collecting materials was managed on such a colossal scale that the
foundations could be laid by September in the same year. Two months
sufficed not only to construct a mansion of extraordinary
magnificence and most elaborate interior decoration, but also to
surround it with a spacious park presenting all the choicest features
of Japanese landscape gardens. The annals state that fifty thousand
men were engaged on the work, and the assertion ceases to seem
extravagant when we consider the nature of the task and the
singularly brief period devoted to its completion. It was Hideyoshi's
foible to surpass all his predecessors and contemporaries alike in
the magnitude of his designs and in the celerity of their
achievement. Even his pastimes were conceived on the same stupendous
scale. Thus, in 1594, at the very time when his armies in Korea were
conducting an oversea campaign of unprecedented magnitude, he planned
a flower-viewing fete which will live in the pages of history as more
sumptuous and more magnificent than the hitherto unrivalled
festivities of Yoshimasa. The places visited were the cherry-clad
hills of Yoshino and the venerable monastery of Koya, and some idea
of the scale of the fete may be gathered from the fact that to a
shrine on Koya-san, dedicated to the memory of his mother, Hideyoshi
presented a sum equivalent to £14,000 or $68,000.
Still more lavish was a party organized four years later to visit the
cherry blossoms at Daigo in the suburbs of Kyoto. This involved the
rebuilding of a large Buddhist temple (Sambo-in) to accommodate
Hideyoshi and his party as a temporary resting-place, and involved
also the complete enclosing of the roads from Momo-yama to Daigo, as
well as of a wide space surrounding the slopes of the cherry-clad
hills, with fences festooned in silk curtains. Numerous tea pavilions
were erected, and Hideyoshi, having sent home all his male guests and
attendants, remained himself among a multitude of gorgeously
apparelled ladies, and passed from pavilion to pavilion, listening to
music, witnessing dancing, and viewing works of art.
HIDEYOSHI'S FAMILY
A conspicuous figure at the Daigo fete was Hideyori, the
five-year-old son of Hideyoshi. Fate treated Hideyoshi harshly in the
matter of a successor. His younger brother, Hidenaga, perished on the
threshold of a career that promised to be illustrious; his infant
son, Tsurumatsu, passed away in September, 1591, and Hideyoshi, being
then in his fifty-fourth year, saw little prospect of becoming again
a father. He therefore adopted his nephew, Hidetsugu, ceding to him
the office of regent (kwampaku), and thus himself taking the title of
Taiko, which by usage attached to an ex-regent.* Hidetsugu, then in
his twenty-fourth year, had literary gifts and polite accomplishments
much above the average. But traditions--of somewhat doubtful
veracity, it must be admitted--attributed to him an inhuman love of
taking life, and tell of the indulgence of that mood in shocking
ways. On the other hand, if credence be due to these tales, it seems
strange that they were not included in the accusations preferred
finally against Hidetsugu by the Taiko, when the former's overthrow
became advisable in the latter's eyes. For it did so become. Within
less than two years of Hidetsugu's elevation to the post of regent,
another son was born to Hideyoshi by the same lady, Yodo, the demise
of whose child, Tsurumatsu, had caused Hideyoshi to despair of being
succeeded by an heir of his own lineage. A niece of Oda Nobunaga,
this lady was the eldest of three daughters whose mother shared the
suicide of her husband, the great general, Shibata Katsuiye.
Hideyoshi placed her among his consorts, bestowing upon her the
castle of Yodo, hence her name, Yodogimi. Her rare beauty captivated
the veteran statesman and soldier, and won for her suggestions a
measure of deference which they did not intrinsically deserve. Soon
the court became divided into two cliques, distinguished as the
"civil" and the "military." At the head of the latter stood
Hideyoshi's wife, Yae, a lady gifted with large discernment, who had
shared all the vicissitudes of her husband's fortunes, and acted as
his shrewd and loyal adviser on many occasions. With her were Kato
Kiyomasa and other generals and nobles of distinction. The civil
party espoused the cause of the lady Yodo, and among its followers
was Ishida Katsushige, to whom chiefly the ultimate catastrophe is
attributed by history.
*It is by this title, "Taiko," that Hideyoshi is most frequently
spoken of in History.
The birth of Hideyori on August 29, 1593, immediately actuated the
dissensions among these two cliques. Ishida Katsushige, acting in
Hideyori's interests, set himself to convince the Taiko that
Hidetsugu harboured treacherous designs, and Hideyoshi, too readily
allowing himself to credit tales which promised to remove the one
obstacle to his son's succession, ordered Hidetsugu to commit
suicide, and at the same time (August 8, 1595), sentenced his
concubines to be executed in the dry bed of the river Sanjo. Their
heads, together with that of Hidetsugu himself, were buried in the
same grave, over which was set a tablet bearing the inscription,
"Tomb of the Traitor, Hidetsugu." To this day, historians remain
uncertain as to Hidetsugu's guilt. If the evidence sufficed to
convict him, it does not appear to have been transmitted to
posterity. The Taiko was not by nature a cruel man. Occasionally fits
of passion betrayed him to deeds of great violence. Thus, on one
occasion he ordered the crucifixion of twenty youths whose sole
offence consisted in scribbling on the gate-posts of the Juraku
palace. But in cold blood he always showed himself forebearing, and
letters written by his own hand to his mother, his wife, and others
disclose an affectionate and sympathetic disposition. It would be
unjust to assume that without full testimony such a man sentenced a
whole family of his own relatives to be executed.
ENGRAVING: MAEDA TOSHIIYE
HIDEYOSHI'S DEATH
A few months after the Daigo fete, Hideyoshi was overtaken by mortal
sickness. His last days were tormented by the thought that all his
skill as an organizer and all his power as a ruler were incompetent
to devise a system such as would secure the succession to his child.
In June, 1596, he had procured the investiture of Hideyori, then
three years old, with the title of regent, and when, just two years
later, his own sickness began to develop alarming features, he
resolved to place all his trust in Ieyasu. After much thought three
boards were ordered to be formed: one consisted of five senior
ministers (dairo), its personnel being Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mori
Terumoto, Ukita Hideiye, Maeda Toshiiye, and Uesugi Kagekatsu. By
these five statesmen the great affairs of the empire were to be
managed. The second board was formed with three nobles of lesser
note. They were designated the "middle ministers" (churo), whose duty
was to arbitrate between the board of senior ministers and the third
board, namely that of five "administrators" (bugyo). This third board
had been originally organized by Hideyoshi in 1585, but it had not,
of course, been associated with the other two boards which came into
existence after Hideyoshi's death, though its personnel and its
functions remained throughout the same as they had been originally.
Again and again, with almost pitiable iteration, the Taiko conjured
the thirteen nobles forming these boards to protect Hideyori and to
ensure to him the heirship of his father's great fortunes. Each was
required to subscribe a written oath of eight articles:
(1) That they would serve Hideyori with the same single-minded
loyalty they had shown to his father.
(2) That the rules of Hideyoshi's house were not to be altered; and
that if, in the administration of public affairs, the five bugyo were
unable to determine a course of action, they should consult Hideyori
through Ieyasu and Toshiie; or, if necessary before taking action,
the Emperor was to be consulted.
(3) That there were to be no factions among them, personal
considerations and partiality of every kind being excluded from their
councils.
(4) That they must endeavour to work together in the discharge of
their duties, suppressing all petty jealousies and differences.
(5) That, in settling matters, the opinion of the majority was
usually to be followed, but, at the same time, if the opinion of the
minority showed no sign of being dictated by personal interests, it
should be duly considered. That without permission from Hideyori no
administrator should dispose of any of his (the administrator's)
territory to another person.
(6) That all accounts were to be kept in a manner above suspicion;
that there were to be no irregularities and no pursuing of personal
interests; that no questions concerning landed estates should be
dealt with during the minority of Hideyori; that no petitions should
be presented to him, and that Ieyasu himself would neither ask for
changes to be made in the matter of land-ownership nor accept any
gift of land from Hideyori during the latter's minority.
(7) That whatever Hideyori desired to have kept secret, whether
connected with his private life or with the Government, must on no
account be allowed to leak out.
(8) That if any of the administrators or their subordinates found
that they had unwittingly acted contrary to orders, they should at
once report the fact to their superiors, who would then deal
leniently with them.
The above document was solemnly endorsed, the gods being called upon
to punish any one violating its provisions. It was further ordered
that Hidetada, son of Ieyasu, should give his daughter in marriage to
Hideyori; that Ieyasu, residing in the Fushimi palace, should act as
regent until Hideyori reached the age of fifteen, and that Maeda
Toshiiye, governing the castle of Osaka, should act as guardian of
Hideyori. It is recorded by some historians that the taiko conferred
on Ieyasu discretionary power in the matter of Hideyori's succession,
authorizing the Tokugawa baron to be guided by his own estimate of
Hideyori's character as to whether the latter might be safely trusted
to discharge the high duties that would devolve on him when he
reached his majority. But the truth of this allegation is open to
doubt. It may well have been invented, subsequently, by apologists
for the line adopted by Ieyasu. Hideyoshi died on September 18, 1598.
His last thoughts were directed to the troops in Korea. He is said to
have addressed to Asano Nagamasa and Ishida Katsushige orders to go
in person to the peninsula, and to provide that "the spirits of one
hundred thousand Japanese soldiers serving there should not become
disembodied in a foreign land." For a time the death of the great
statesman was kept secret, but within three months the newly created
boards found themselves strong enough to cope with the situation, and
the remains of Hideyoshi were publicly interred at the shrine of
Amida-ga-mine, near Kyoto.
HIDEYOSHI'S CHARACTER
In modern times many distinguished Japanese historians have
undertaken to analyze Hideyoshi's character and attainments. They are
divided in their estimate of his literary capacity. Some point to his
letters, which, while they display a not inconsiderable familiarity
with Chinese ideographs, show also some flagrant neglect of the uses
of that script. Others refer to his alleged fondness for composing
Japanese poems and adduce a verselet said to have been written by him
on his death-bed:
Ah! as the dew I fall,
As the dew I vanish.
Even Osaka fortress
Is a dream within a dream.
It is not certain, however, that Hideyoshi composed this couplet, and
probably the truth is that his labours as a soldier and a statesman
prevented him from paying more than transitory attention to
literature. But there can be no question that he possessed an almost
marvellous power of reading character, and that in devising the best
exit from serious dilemmas and the wisest means of utilizing great
occasions, he has had few equals in the history of the world. He knew
well, also, how to employ pomp and circumstance and when to dispense
with all formalities. Above all, in his choice of agents he never
allowed himself to be trammelled by questions of birth or lineage,
but chose his officers solely for the sake of their ability and
attainments, and neither tradition nor convention had any influence
on the appointments he made. He was passionate but not resentful, and
he possessed the noble quality of not shrinking from confession of
error. As for his military genius and his statecraft, it is only
necessary to consider his achievements. They entitle him to stand in
the very front of the world's greatest men. Turning to his
legislation, we find much that illustrates the ethics of the time. It
was in 1585 that he organized the board of five administrators, and
the gist of the regulations issued in the following year for their
guidance was as follows:
(1) No subordinate shall leave his liege lord without the latter's
permission, nor shall anyone give employment to a violator of this
rule.
(2) Farmers must remain on the land assigned to them and must never
leave it untilled. On the other hand, landowners should visit their
tenants and should investigate in company with the latter the actual
amount of the harvest reaped. One-third of this should be left to the
farmer and two-thirds should go to the owner of the land.
(3) If owing to natural calamity the harvest be less than two bushels
per acre, the whole of the yield shall go to the farmer. But if the
harvest exceed that figure, it shall be divided in the proportions
indicated in (2).
(4) No farmer shall move away from his holding to avoid the land-tax
or to escape forced labour. Anyone harbouring a violator of this rule
shall expose to punishment not only himself but also the inhabitants
of the entire village where he resides.
(5) The lord of a fief must issue such instructions as shall
guarantee his agricultural vassals against trouble or annoyance, and
shall himself investigate local affairs instead of entrusting that
duty to a substitute. Landowners who issue unreasonable orders to
farmers shall be punished.
(6) In calculating cubic contents, the regulated unit of measure
shall be used, and two per cent, shall be the maximum allowance for
shortage.
(7) Embankments injured by floods and other mischief wrought by
natural calamities must be repaired during the first month of the
year when agriculturists are at leisure. In the case, however, of
damage which exceeds the farmers' capacity to repair, the facts
should be reported to the taiko who will grant necessary assistance.
There follow various sumptuary regulations. We have next a series of
interesting instructions known as "wall-writings" of the castle of
Osaka:
(1) Intermarriages between daimyo's families require the previous
consent of the Taiko.
(2) Neither daimyo nor shomyo is permitted to enter into secret
engagements or to exchange written oaths, or to give or take
hostages.
(3) In a quarrel the one who forebears shall be recognized as having
reason.
(4) No man, whatever his income, should keep a large number of
concubines.
(5) The amount of sake imbibed should be limited to one's capacity.
(6) The use of sedan-chairs shall be confined to Ieyasu, Toshiie,
Kagekatsu, Terumoto, Takakage, the court nobles, and high priests.
Even a daimyo, when young, should ride on horseback. Those over fifty
years of age may use a sedan-chair when they have to travel a
distance of over one ri (two and a half miles). Priests are exempted
from this veto.
Very interesting, too, is the Taiko Shikimoku, consisting of
seventy-three articles, of which thirteen are translated as follows:
(1) Free yourself from the thraldom of passion.
(2) Avoid heavy drinking.
(3) Be on your guard against women.
(4) Be not contentious or disputatious.
(5) Rise early.
(6) Beware of practical jokes.
(7) Think of your own future.
(8) Do not tire of things.
(9) Beware of thoughtless people.
(10) Beware of fire.
(11) Stand in awe of the law.
(12) Set up fences in your hearts against wandering or extravagant
thoughts.
(13) Hold nobody in contempt.
The sumptuary rules referred to above were that, so far as a man's
means permitted, all garments except those worn in winter should be
lined with silk, and that this exception did not apply to the members
of the Toyotomi family a strange provision showing that Hideyoshi did
not expect his own kith and kin to set an example of economy, however
desirable that virtue might be in the case of society at large.
Further, it was provided that no wadded garment should be worn after
the 1st of April--corresponding to about the 1st of May in the
Gregorian calendar; that pantaloons and socks must not be lined; that
men of inferior position must not wear leather socks, and that
samurai must use only half-foot sandals, a specially inexpensive kind
of footgear. Finally, no one was permitted to employ a crest composed
with the chrysanthemum and the Paulownia imperialis unless specially
permitted by the Taiko, who used this design himself, though
originally it was limited to the members of the Imperial family. So
strict was this injunction that even in the case of renovating a
garment which carried the kiku-kiri crest by permission, the badge
might not be repeated on the restored garment. Supplementary
regulations enjoined members of the priesthood, whether Buddhist or
Shinto, to devote themselves to the study of literature and science,
and to practise what they preached. Moreover, men of small means were
urged not to keep more than one concubine, and to assign for even
this one a separate house. It was strictly forbidden that anyone
should go about with face concealed, a custom which had prevailed
largely in previous eras.
MOTIVES OF LEGISLATION
The 7th of August, 1595, was the day of the Hidetsugu tragedy, and
the above regulations and instructions were promulgated for the most
part early in September of the same year. It is not difficult to
trace a connexion. The provision against secret alliances and
unsanctioned marriages between great families; the veto against
passing from the service of one feudal chief to that of another
without special permission, and the injunction against keeping many
concubines were obviously inspired with the purpose of averting a
repetition of the Hidetsugu catastrophe. Indirectly, the spirit of
such legislation suggests that the signatories of these
laws--Takakage, Terumoto, Toshiiye, Hideiye, and Ieyasu--attached
some measure of credence to the indictment of treason preferred
against Hidetsugu.
AGRARIAN LAWS
The agrarian legislation of Hideyoshi is worthy of special attention.
It shows a marked departure from the days when the unit of rice
measurement was a "handful" and when thirty-six handfuls made a
"sheaf," the latter being the tenth part of the produce of a tan. In
Hideyoshi's system, all cubic measurements were made by means of a
box of accurately fixed capacity--10 go, which was the tenth part of
a koku (5.13 bushels)--the allowance for short measure was limited to
two per cent., and the rule of 360 tsubo to the tan (a quarter of an
acre) was changed to 300 tsubo.
At the same time (1583), land surveyors (kendenshi) were appointed to
compile a map of the entire country. A similar step had been taken by
the Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiteru, in 1553, but the processes adopted on
that occasion were not by any means so accurate or scientific as
those prescribed by the Taiko. The latter entrusted the work of
survey to Nazuka Masaiye, with whom was associated the best
mathematician of the era, Zejobo, and it is recorded that owing to
the minute measures pursued by these surveyors and to the system of
taking two-thirds of the produce for the landlord instead of one-half
or even less, and owing, finally, to estimating the tan at 300 tsubo
instead of at 360 without altering its taxable liability, the
official revenue derived from the land throughout the empire showed a
total increase of eight million koku, equivalent to about £11,000,000
or $54,000,000.
Hideyoshi has been charged with extortion on account of these
innovations. Certainly, there is a striking contrast between the
system of Tenchi and that of Toyotomi. The former, genuinely
socialistic, divided the whole of the land throughout the empire in
equal portions among the units of the nation, and imposed a land-tax
not in any case exceeding five per cent, of the gross produce. The
latter, frankly feudalistic, parcelled out the land into great
estates held by feudal chiefs, who allotted it in small areas to
farmers on condition that the latter paid sixty-six per cent, of the
crops to the lord of the soil. But in justice to Hideyoshi, it must
be owned that he did not devise this system. He was not even the
originator of its new methods, namely, the abbreviation of the tan
and the expansion of the rate. Both had already been put into
practice by other daimyo. It must further be noted that Hideyoshi's
era was essentially one of war. The outlays that he was obliged to
make were enormous and perpetual. He became accustomed, as did his
contemporary barons, to look lightly at vast expenditure. Not
otherwise can we account for the fact that, within the brief period
of eleven years, he undertook and completed five great works
involving enormous cost. These works were the Osaka Castle, in 1583;
a palace for the retiring Emperor Okimachi, in 1586; the palace of
Juraku, in 1587; the Kyoto Daibutsu, in 1586, and the Momo-yama
Palace, in 1594. What sum these outlays aggregated no attempt has
been made to calculate accurately, but the figure must have been
immense. In fact, when Hideyoshi's financial measures are considered,
it should always be in the context of his achievements and his
necessities.
COINS
Another important feature of Hideyoshi's era was the use of coins.
During the time of the Ashikaga shogunate, two kinds of gold coins
were minted, and both were called after the name of the era when they
first went into circulation; they were known as the Shocho koban
(1428-1429) and the Tembun koban (1532-1555). But these coins were so
rare that they can scarcely be said to have been current. As tokens
of exchange, copper coins were imported from China, and were known in
Japan as Eiraku-sen, Eiraku being the Japanese pronunciation of the
Chinese era, Yunglo. These were of pure metal, and side by side with
them were circulated an essentially inferior iron coin struck in
Japan and known as bita-sen. Oda Nobunaga, appreciating the
disastrous effects produced by such currency confusion, had planned
remedial measures when death overtook him, and the task thus devolved
upon Hideyoshi. Fortunately, the production of gold and silver in
Japan increased greatly at this epoch, owing to the introduction of
scientific metallurgical methods from Europe. The gold mines of Sado
and the silver mines of Ikuno quadrupled or quintupled their output,
and Hideyoshi caused an unprecedented quantity of gold and silver
coins to be struck; the former known as the Tensho koban and the
Tensho oban,* and the latter as the silver bu (ichibu-giri) and the
silver half-bu (nishu-gin.)
*The oban was an oval plate measuring 7 inches by 4, and weighing 53
ounces. It contained 63.84 per cent, of gold and 20 per cent, of
silver. The koban was one-tenth of the value of the oban.
Gold and silver thenceforth became the standards of value, and as the
mines at Sado and Ikuno belonged to the Government, that is to say,
to Hideyoshi, his wealth suddenly received a conspicuous increase.
That he did possess great riches is proved by the fact that when, in
September, 1596, a terrible earthquake overthrew Momo-yama Castle and
wrecked all the great structures referred to above, involving for
Hideyoshi a loss of "three million pieces of gold," he is described
as having treated the incident with the utmost indifference, merely
directing that works of reparation should be taken in hand forthwith.
The records say that Osaka Castle, which had suffered seriously and
been rendered quite uninhabitable, was put in order and sumptuously
fitted up within the short space of six weeks. Of course, much of the
resulting expense had to be borne by the great feudatories, but the
share of Hideyoshi himself cannot have been inconsiderable.
LITERATURE, ART, AND COMMERCE
It has already been shown that in spite of the disorder and unrest
which marked the military era, that era saw the birth of a great art
movement under the Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimasa. It has now to be noted
that this movement was rapidly developed under the Taiko. "The latter
it was whose practical genius did most to popularize art. Although
his early training and the occupations of his life until a late
period were not calculated to educate esthetic taste, he devoted to
the cause of art a considerable portion of the sovereign power that
his great gifts as a military leader and a politician had brought
him." His earnest patronage of the tea ceremonial involved the
cultivation of literature, and although he himself did not excel in
that line, he did much to promote the taste for it in others. In the
field of industrial art, however, his influence was much more marked.
Not only did he bestow munificent allowances on skilled artists and
art artisans, but also he conferred on them distinctions which proved
stronger incentives than any pecuniary remuneration, and when he
built the celebrated mansions of Juraku and Momo-yama, so vast were
the sums that he lavished on their decoration, and such a certain
passport to his favour did artistic merit confer, that the little
town of Fushimi quickly became the art capital of the empire, and
many of the most skilful painters, lacquerers, metal-workers, and
wood-carvers within the Four Seas congregated there.
Historians speak with profound regret of the dismantling and
destruction of these splendid edifices a few years after the Taiko's
death; but it is more than probable that the permanent possession of
even such monuments of applied art could not have benefited the
country nearly as much as did their destruction. For the immediate
result was an exodus of all the experts who, settling at Fushimi, had
become famous for the sake of their Momo-yama work. They scattered
among the fiefs of the most powerful provincial nobles, who received
them hospitably and granted them liberal revenues. From that time,
namely, the close of the sixteenth century, there sprang up an
inter-fief rivalry of artistic production which materially promoted
the development of every branch of art and encouraged refinement of
life and manners. Not less noteworthy in the history of this military
epoch is the improvement that took place in the social status of the
merchant during the sixteenth century. Much was due to the liberal
views of the Taiko. He encouraged commercial voyages by his
countrymen to Macao and to Cambodia, to Annam, and to other places.
Nine ships engaged in this trade every year. They carried licences
bearing the Taiko's vermilion stamp, and the ports of departure were
Nagasaki, Osaka, and Sakai.
ENGRAVING: SIGNATURE OF TOKUGAWA IEYASU
ENGRAVING: MOUNTAIN "KAGO"
CHAPTER XXXVII
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN
DISCOVERY OF JAPAN BY EUROPEANS
THE Portuguese discovered Japan in 1542 or 1543--the precise date is
not known. Three of them, travelling by junk from Spain to Macao,
were driven from their course and landed at Tanegashima, a small
island off the south of Kyushu. The strangers were hospitably
received by the Japanese, and great interest was excited by their
arquebuses, the first firearms ever seen in Japan. It was, of course,
out of the question to hold any oral direct conversation, but a
Chinese member of the junk's crew, by tracing ideographs upon the
sand, explained the circumstances of the case. Ultimately, the junk
was piloted to a convenient port, and very soon the armourers of the
local feudatory were busily engaged manufacturing arquebuses. News of
the discovery of Japan circulated quickly, and several expeditions
were fitted out by Portuguese settlements in the Orient to exploit
the new market. All steered for Kyushu, and thus the Island of the
Nine Provinces became the principal stage for European intercourse
during the second half of the sixteenth century.
THE JESUITS
There were, at that time, not a few Jesuits at Macao, Goa, and other
outposts of Western commerce in the Far East. But not until 1549 was
any attempt made to proselytize Japan. On August 15th of that year,
Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, landed at Kagoshima. Before his
coming, the Portuguese traders had penetrated as far as Kyoto, which
they reported to be a city of some ninety-six thousand houses, and
their experience of the people had been very favourable, especially
with regard to receptivity of instruction. Xavier was weary of
attempting to convert the Indians, whom he had found "barbarous,
vicious, and without inclination to virtue," and his mind had been
turned towards Japan by a message from a Japanese daimyo (whose
identity and reasons for inviting him have never been explained), and
by a personal appeal from a Japanese, whose name appears in
Portuguese annals as "Anjiro," and who, having committed a serious
crime in Japan, had taken refuge in a Portuguese vessel, whose master
advised him to repair to Malacca and confess his sins to Xavier.
This man, Anjiro, already possessed some knowledge of the Portuguese
language, and he soon became sufficiently proficient in it to act as
interpreter, thus constituting a valuable aid to the Portuguese
propagandists. Xavier, with two fellow countrymen and Anjiro,
repaired to Kagoshima, where the Satsuma baron gave them unqualified
permission to preach their doctrine. Not that he had any sympathy
with Christianity, about which he knew nothing, but solely because he
wished to secure a share in the oversea commerce which had brought so
much wealth to his fellow barons on the main island. He thought, in
short, that the Jesuits would be followed by merchant ships, and when
Portuguese trading vessels did actually appear in the Satsuma waters,
but, instead of making any stay there, passed on to the comparatively
petty principality of Hirado, Xavier and his comrades were quickly
ordered to leave Kagoshima. It seems, also, that Xavier's zeal had
outrun his discretion. The Buddhist priests in Kagoshima were ready
at first to listen respectfully to his doctrines, but were quickly
alienated by his aggressive intolerance. They urged upon the Satsuma
baron the dangers that attended such propagandism, and he, already
smarting from commercial disappointment, issued an edict, in 1550,
declaring it a capital offence to embrace Christianity. The edict was
not retrospective. About one hundred and fifty converts whom Xavier,
aided by Anjiro, had won during his two years' sojourn, were not
molested, but Xavier himself passed on to the island of Hirado, where
he was received by salvos of artillery from Portuguese vessels lying
in harbour. Matsuura, the Hirado baron, had already been captivated
by the commerce of the newcomers, and seeing the marked reverence
extended by them to Xavier, the baron issued orders that respectful
attention should be paid to the teaching of the foreign propagandist.
Doubtless owing in large part to these orders, one hundred converts
were made during the first ten days of Xavier's residence in Hirado.
It was, in fact, evident that the attitude of the official classes
towards the new-comers was mainly influenced by the prospect of
trade, and that the attitude of the non-official classes towards the
foreign religion depended largely on the mood of their superiors.
Xavier argued that "if the favour of such a small prince was so
potent for the conversion of his subjects, it would be quite another
thing if he (Xavier) could have the protection of the Emperor." He
therefore, resolved to visit Kyoto. His journey took him in the first
place to Yamaguchi, capital of the Choshu fief. This town lay on the
northern shore of Shimonoseki Strait, and had long been the principal
emporium of trade with China and Korea. But the ruler of the fief,
though courteous to the new-comers, evinced no disposition to show
any special cordiality towards humble missionaries unconnected with
commerce. Therefore, finding that their preaching produced little
effect, Xavier and his companion, Fernandez, continued their journey
to Kyoto, which they reached after travelling for nearly two months
on foot in the depth of winter. It happened, however, that the
capital was then suffering sharply from the effects of internecine
strife, and the two missionaries failed to obtain access to either
the sovereign or the shogun.
Nothing remained, therefore, but recourse to street preaching, and
for this they were ill equipped, for Xavier, constitutionally a bad
linguist, knew very little of the Japanese language, and his
companion, Fernandez, even less, while as for Anjiro, he had remained
in Kagoshima. After devoting a few days to this unproductive task,
Xavier returned to Yamaguchi. He had not made any converts in Kyoto,
but he had learned a useful lesson, namely, that religious
propagandism, to be successful in Japan, must be countenanced by the
ruling classes. He therefore caused his canonicals to be sent to him
from Hirado, together with his credentials from the viceroy of India,
the governor of Malacca, and the bishop of Goa. These documents he
submitted to the Choshu baron, accompanying them with certain rare
objects of European manufacture, including a clock and a harpsicord.
A permit to preach Christianity was now obtained without difficulty,
and the Yamaguchi officials went so far as to issue a proclamation
expressing approval of the Western religion and granting entire
liberty to embrace it. An empty Buddhist monastery was assigned as a
residence for Xavier and his companions, and the fact is certainly an
eloquent testimony to the magnanimity of the Buddhist priests.
Many converts were now made, and fresh proof was obtained that the
road to success lay in associating propagandism with commerce. It was
nearly a decade since the Portuguese had effected their first landing
on Tanegashima, and throughout that interval trade had flourished in
their hands. They had not sought any new markets on the main island;
first, because their ignorance of the coasts rendered navigation
risky; and, secondly, because internecine war raged throughout almost
the whole of the main island, whereas Kyushu enjoyed comparative
tranquillity. Xavier now took advantage of a Portuguese vessel which
called at Yamaguchi en route for Bungo, a province on the eastern
littoral of Kyushu. His intention was to return for a time to the
Indies, but on reaching Bungo he learned that its ruler, Otomo,
wielded exceptional power and showed a disposition to welcome the
Jesuit father.
This Otomo was destined ultimately to act a leading part on the stage
of Christianity in Japan. Xavier now had recourse to methods
suggested by his recent experiences. On a visit to Otomo he caused
himself to be escorted by a large number of the Portuguese crew, who
wore rich garments, carried arms, and flaunted banners. This
procedure seems to have weighed cogently with Otomo, who was keenly
desirous of attracting foreign traders and obtaining from them not
only wealth but also novel and effective weapons of war. Seeing that
Xavier was almost deified by the Portuguese, Otomo naturally applied
himself to win the good-will of the Jesuits, and for that purpose not
only accorded to them entire liberty to teach and to preach, but also
despatched a messenger to his younger brother (who had just succeeded
to the lordship of Yamaguchi), advising him to protect the two
Jesuits then residing there, namely, Torres and Fernandez. Xavier
remained four months in Bungo and then set sail for Goa in February,
1552. He died in December of the same year, and thus his intention of
returning to Japan was defeated. His stay in Japan had lasted
twenty-seven months, and in that interval he and his comrades had won
some 760 converts.
RESULTS OF PROPAGANDISM
It is worth while to recapitulate here the main events during this
first epoch of Christian propagandism in Japan. It has been shown
that in more than a year's labours in Kagoshima, Xavier, with the
assistance of Anjiro as an interpreter, obtained 150 believers. Now,
"no language lends itself with greater difficulty than Japanese to
the discussion of theological questions. The terms necessary for such
a purpose are not current among laymen, and only by special study,
which, it need scarcely be said, must be preluded by accurate
acquaintance with the tongue itself, can a man hope to become duly
equipped for the task of exposition and dissertation. It is open to
grave doubt whether any foreigner has ever attained the requisite
proficiency. Leaving Anjiro in Kagoshima, to care for the converts
made there, Xavier pushed on to Hirado, where he baptized a hundred
Japanese in a few days. Now, we have it on the authority of Xavier
himself that, in this Hirado campaign, 'none of us knew Japanese.'
How, then, did they proceed? 'By reciting a semi-japanese volume' (a
translation made by Anjiro of a treatise from Xavier's pen) 'and by
delivering sermons, we brought several over to the Christian cult.'
"Sermons preached in Portuguese or Latin to a Japanese audience on
the island of Hirado in the year 1550 can scarcely have attracted
intelligent interest. On his first visit to Yamaguchi, Xavier's means
of access to the understanding of his hearers was confined to the
rudimentary knowledge of Japanese which Fernandez had been able to
acquire in fourteen months, a period of study which, in modern times
with all the aids now procurable, would not suffice to carry a
student beyond the margin of the colloquial. No converts were won.
The people of Yamaguchi probably admired the splendid faith and
devotion of these over-sea philosophers, but as for their doctrine,
it was unintelligible. In Kyoto, the same experience was repeated
with an addition of much physical hardship. But, when the Jesuits
returned to Yamaguchi in the early autumn of 1551, they baptized five
hundred persons, including several members of the military class.
Still Fernandez with his broken Japanese was the only medium for
communicating the profound doctrines of Christianity. It must be
concluded that the teachings of the missionaries produced much less
effect than the attitude of the local chieftain."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
But the Jesuits have not left any misgivings on record. They relate
that during Xavier's sojourn in Bungo he had numerous public
debates--one continuing for five days--with Buddhist priests, but
even Fernandez not being available as an interpreter, these debates
must have been either farcical or imaginary, though brilliant results
are claimed for them by the Church historians. That Xavier himself
was not satisfied is proved by his determination to transfer his
ministrations to China, for he said, "if the Chinese adopt the
Christian religion, the Japanese also will abandon the religions they
have introduced from China."
SECOND PERIOD OF PROPAGANDISM
Torres and Fernandez remained in Japan after Xavier's departure and
were there joined soon afterwards by three others. The new-comers
landed at Kagoshima and found that the Satsuma baron was as keen as
ever in welcoming foreign trade, although his attitude towards the
alien religion continued antipathetic. Bungo now became the
headquarters of the Jesuits in Japan. Local disturbances had
compelled them to leave Yamaguchi, where their disputes with Buddhist
priests had become so violent that an official proscription of the
Western religion was pronounced. In Funai, the capital of the
province of Bungo, they built their first church in Japan and also a
hospital. From that place, too, they began to send yearly reports
known as the Annual Letters to their generals in Rome, and these
Letters give an interesting insight into the conditions then existing
in Japan. The writers "describe a state of abject poverty among the
lower orders--poverty so cruel that the destruction of children by
their famishing parents was an every-day occurrence." This terrible
state of affairs was due to the civil wars which had entered their
most violent phase in the Onin era (1467-1468), and had continued
without intermission ever since. The trade carried on by the
Portuguese did not, however, suffer any interruption. Their vessels
repaired to Hirado as well as to Funai, and the masters and seamen of
the ships appear to have treated the missionaries with such
scrupulous respect that the Japanese formed an almost exaggerated
conception of the civil influence wielded by the religionists. It
further appears that in those early days the Portuguese seamen
refrained from the riotous excesses which had already won for them a
most unenviable reputation in China.
In fact, their good conduct constituted an object lesson in the
interests of Christianity. We learn, incidentally that, in 1557, two
of the fathers, visiting Hirado at the instance of some Portuguese
sailors who felt in want of religious ministrations, organized a kind
of propagandism which anticipated the methods of the Salvation Army.
They "sent brothers to parade the streets, ringing bells, and
chaunting litanies; they organized bands of boys for the same
purpose; they caused the converts, and even children, to flagellate
themselves at a model of Mount Calvary, and they worked miracles,
healing the sick by contact with scourges or with a booklet in which
Xavier had written litanies and prayers. It may well be imagined that
such doings attracted surprised attention in Japan. They were
supplemented by even more striking practices. For a sub-feudatory of
the Hirado chief, having been converted, showed his zeal by
destroying Buddhist temples and throwing down the idols, thus
inaugurating a campaign of violence destined to mark the progress of
Christianity throughout the greater part of its history in Japan.
There followed the overthrowing of a cross in the Christian cemetery,
the burning of a temple in the town of Hirado, and a street riot, the
sequel being that the Jesuit fathers were compelled to return once
more to Bungo."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
All this conveys an idea of the guise under which Christianity was
presented originally to the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Portuguese
traders did not allow their commerce to be interrupted by any
misfortunes which overtook the Jesuits. Hirado continued to be
frequented by Portuguese merchantmen, and news of the value of their
trade induced Sumitada, feudatory of Omura, to invite the Jesuits in
Bungo to his fief, offering them a free port for ten years, an
extensive tract of land, a residence for the missionaries, and other
privileges. This induced the Hirado feudatory to revoke the edict
which he had issued against the Jesuits, and they were preparing to
take advantage of his renewed hospitality when a Portuguese
merchantman entered Hirado. Its appearance convinced the local
chieftain that trade could be had without the accompaniment of
religion, towards which he renewed his hostility. When, however, this
change of demeanour was communicated to Funai, the Jesuit leader,
Torres, hastened thence to Hirado, and induced the master of the
merchantman to leave the port on the ground that he could not remain
in a country where they maltreated those who professed the same
religion as himself. Thereafter, for some years, Hirado remained
outside the pale of foreign trade. But ultimately three merchant
vessels appeared in the offing and announced their willingness to put
in provided that the anti-Christian ban was removed. This
remonstrance proved effective. A parallel case occurred a few years
later in the island of Amakusa. There a petty baron, avowedly for the
purpose of attracting foreign trade, embraced Christianity and
required all his vassals to follow his example. But when no
Portuguese ship arrived, he apostatized; ordered his vassals to
return to their old faith, and expelled the missionaries.
"In fact, the competition for the patronage of Portuguese traders was
so keen that the Hirado feudatory attempted to burn several of their
vessels because they frequented the territorial waters of his
neighbour and rival, Sumitada. The latter became a most stalwart
Christian when his wish was gratified. He set himself to eradicate
idolatry throughout his fief with the strong arm, and his fierce
intolerance provoked revolts which ended in the destruction of the
Christian town at the newly opened free port. Sumitada, however,
quickly reasserted his authority, and five years later (1567), he
took a step which had far-reaching consequences, namely, the building
of a church at Nagasaki, in order that Portuguese commerce might have
a centre and the Christians an assured asylum. Nagasaki was then a
little fishing village. In five years it grew to be a town of thirty
thousand inhabitants, and Sumitada became one of the richest of the
Kyushu feudatories."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
This baron appears to have been sincere in his adoption of the
foreign religion. "When in 1573, successful conflicts with
neighbouring fiefs brought him an access of territory, he declared
that he owed these victories to the influence of the Christian God,
and shortly afterwards he proclaimed banishment for all who would not
accept the foreign faith. There were then no Jesuits by his side, but
immediately two hastened to join him, and 'these accompanied by a
strong guard, but yet not without danger of their lives, went round
causing the churches of the Gentiles, with their idols, to be thrown
down to the ground, while three Japanese Christians went preaching
the law of God everywhere.'" They further record that three fathers
who were in the neighbouring fief "all withdrew therefrom to work in
this abundant harvest, and in the space of seven months twenty
thousand persons were baptized, including the bonzes of about sixty
monasteries."* The Jesuit vice-provincial (Francis Cabral), relating
these events, speaks with marked satisfaction of the abasement of the
Buddhist priests, and adds, "That these should now come to such a
humility that they throw themselves on the ground before two ragged
members of the Company is one of the miracles worked by the Divine
Majesty."
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
In Funai things were by no means so satisfactory. The Jesuits, as
stated above, had a hospital there, which had been built at the
charges of a devout Portuguese. But Francis Cabral, writing from
Bungo, in 1576, said: "Down to this hour the Christians have been so
abject and vile that they have shown no desire to acknowledge
themselves, partly from being few in the midst of so many Gentiles,
partly because the said Christianity began in the hospital where we
cure the people of low condition and those suffering from contagious
diseases, like the French evil and such others. Whence the Gospel
came to be of such little reputation that no man of position would
dare to accept it (although it seemed good and true to him) merely
lest he should be confounded with this rabble (con quella plebe). And
although we gave much edification with such works, the thing
nevertheless was a great obstacle to the spread of the holy faith.
And thus, during the twenty years we have had a residence in Funai,
one gentleman became a Christian, and this after having been cured of
the said evil in his house; but as soon as he was cured he afterwards
thought it shame to acknowledge his Christianity in the presence of
others."
This most disheartening record underwent a complete change in 1576,
when the son of the Bungo feudatory, a youth of some sixteen years,
and, two years later, the feudatory himself, Otomo, embraced the
Christian faith. In the first Annual Letter sent to Rome after these
events a striking admission is made: "It is Otomo, next to God, whom
the Jesuits have to thank for their success in Japan." This
appreciation looks somewhat exaggerated when placed side by side with
the incidents that occurred in Sumitada's fief, as related above.
Nevertheless, Otomo certainly did render powerful aid, not within his
own fief alone but also through his influence elsewhere. Thus, he did
not hesitate to have recourse to arms in order to obtain for the
Jesuits access to the island of Amakusa, where one of the local
barons, tempted originally by tradal prospects and afterwards urged
by his wife, called upon his vassals to choose between conversion or
exile, and issued an order that any Buddhist priests refusing to
accept Christianity would have their property confiscated and their
persons banished.
Practically the whole population became converts under the pressure
of these edicts, and it is thus seen that Christianity owed much of
its success in Kyushu to methods which recall Islam and the
Inquisition. Another illustration of this is furnished by the Arima
fief, which adjoined that of Omura where Sumitada ruled. The heads of
these two fiefs were brothers, and thus when Sumitada embraced
Christianity the Jesuits received an invitation to visit Arima at the
ports of Kuchinotsu and Shimabara, where from that time Portuguese
ships repaired frequently. In 1576, the Arima baron, seeing the
prosperity and power which had followed the conversion of his brother
Sumitada, accepted baptism and became the "Prince Andrew" of
missionary records. In those records we read that "the first thing
Prince Andrew did after his baptism was to convert the chief temple
of his capital into a church, its revenues being assigned for the
maintenance of the building and the support of the missionaries. He
then took measures to have the same thing done in the other towns of
his fief, and he seconded the preachers of the Gospel so well in
everything else that he could flatter himself that he soon would not
have one single idolater in his states." This fanatical "Prince
Andrew" survived his baptism by two years only, but during that time
twenty thousand converts were made in Arima. His successor, however,
was a believer in Buddhism. He caused the Christian churches to be
destroyed and the crosses to be thrown down; he ordered the Jesuits
to quit his dominions, and he required the converts to return to
Buddhism. Under this pressure about one-half of the converts
apostatized, but the rest threatened to leave Kuchinotsu en masse.
However this would have meant the loss of foreign trade, and as a
result of this circumstance the anti-Christian edicts were radically
modified.
Just at that time, also, a fortunate incident occurred. It had become
the custom for a large vessel from Macao to visit Japan every year,
and the advent of this ship had great importance from a commercial
point of view. It chanced that she made the port of Kuchinotsu her
place of call in 1578, and her presence suggested such a pleasing
outcome that the feudatory embraced Christianity and allowed his
vassals to do the same. By this "great ship from Macao" the Jesuit
vice-general, Valegnani was a passenger. A statesman as well as a
preacher, this astute politician made such a clever use of the
opportunity that, in 1580, "all the city was made Christian, and the
people burned their idols and destroyed forty temples, reserving some
materials to build churches."
RESULTS OF THE FIRST THREE DECADES OF PROPAGANDISM
The record achieved by the Christian propagandists up to this time
was distinctly satisfactory. In the Annual Letter of 1582 we find it
stated that, at the close of 1581, that is to say, thirty-two years
after Xavier's landing in Japan there were about 150,000 converts. Of
these some 125,000 were in Kyushu; the remainder in Yamaguchi, Kyoto,
and the vicinity of the latter city. As for the Jesuits in Japan,
they then numbered seventy-five, but down to the year 1563 there had
never been more than nine. "The harvest was certainly great in
proportion to the number of sowers. But it was a harvest mainly of
artificial growth, forced by despotic insistence of feudal chiefs who
possessed the power of life and death over their vassals, and were
influenced by a desire to attract foreign trade."
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
"To the Buddhist priests this movement of Christian propagandism had
brought an experience hitherto almost unknown in Japan--persecution
solely on account of creed. They had suffered for interfering in
politics, but the cruel vehemence of the Christian fanatic may be
said to have now become known for the first time to men themselves
usually conspicuous for tolerance of heresy and for receptivity of
instruction. They had had little previous experience of humanity in
the garb of an Otomo of Bungo, who, in the words of Crasset, Svent to
the chase of the bonzes as to that of wild beasts, and made it his
singular pleasure to exterminate them from his states.'"*
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
JAPANESE EMBASSY TO EUROPE
Another important result of the coming of Valegnani to Japan was
that, in 1582, an embassy sailed from Nagasaki for Europe. It
consisted of four young men, representing the fiefs of Arima, Omura,
and Bungo, and it is related that at Lisbon, Madrid, and Rome they
were received with an elaborate show of dazzling magnificence, so
that they carried back to their island home a vivid impression of the
might and wealth of Western countries.
KYOTO AND CHRISTIANITY
It has already been shown that the visit to Kyoto by Xavier and
Fernandez was wholly unsuccessful. Such was not the case, however,
when another visit was made to the same city by Vilela, in the year
1559. This eminent missionary had been invited to Kyoto by the abbot
of the celebrated Buddhist monastery of Hiei-zan, who desired to
investigate the Christian doctrine. It is to be noted that, at this
time, Christian propagandism in Kyushu had not yet begun to be
disfigured by acts of violence. Vilela carried letters of
introduction from the Bungo feudatory, but before he reached the
capital the Buddhist abbot of Hiei-zan had died, and his successor
did not show the same liberal spirit of inquiry. Still, Vilela was
permitted to expound his doctrines in the presence of a gathering of
priests in the great monastery, and afterwards the good offices of
one of these bonzes, supplemented by the letter of the Bungo
feudatory, procured for the Jesuit father the honour of being
received by the shogun, Yoshiteru, who treated him with much
consideration and assigned a house for his residence.
Vilela does not seem to have allowed himself to be influenced in any
degree by the aid that he received on this occasion from his Buddhist
friend, who is described as "one of the most respected men in the
city." The Jesuit father seized the first opportunity to denounce
Buddhism and its followers in unmeasured terms, and soon the bonzes
began to intrigue with corresponding vehemence for the expulsion of
the foreign propagandists. But the shogun extended his protection to
Vilela, by issuing a decree which made it a capital punishment to
injure the missionaries or obstruct their work. The times, however,
were very troublous, so that Vilela and his fellow workers had to
encounter much difficulty and no little danger. Nothing, however,
damped their ardour, and five years after their arrival in Kyoto they
had not only obtained many converts but had organized churches in
five towns within a radius of fifty miles from the capital. Two
incidents may be specially mentioned illustrating the loyal spirit
with which the Japanese of that time approached controversy. Among
Vilela's converts were two Buddhist priests who had been nominated
officially to investigate and report upon the novel doctrines, and
who, in the sequel of their investigation, openly embraced
Christianity though they had originally been vehemently opposed to
it. The second incident was the conversion of a petty feudatory,
Takayama, whose fief lay at Takatsuki in the vicinity of the capital.
He challenged Vilela to a public discussion of the merits of the two
creeds, and being vanquished, he frankly acknowledged his defeat,
adopted Christianity, and invited his vassals as well as his family
to follow his example. His son, Yusho, became one of the most loyal
supporters of Christianity in all Japan. He is the "Don Justo
Ukondono" of the Jesuits' annals.
NOBUNAGA AND CHRISTIANITY
At the time of Vilela's visit to Kyoto civil war was raging. It led
to the death of the shogun, Yoshiteru, and to the issue of an
Imperial decree proscribing Christianity, Vilela and his two comrades
were obliged to take refuge in the town of Sakai, and they remained
there during three years, when they were invited to an interview with
Oda Nobunaga, who, at this time, had risen almost to the pinnacle of
his immense power. Had Nobunaga shown himself hostile to
Christianity, the latter's fate in Japan would have been quickly
sealed; but not only was he a man of wide and liberal views, but also
he harboured a strong antipathy against the Buddhists, whose armed
interference in politics had caused him much embarrassment. He
welcomed Christianity largely as an opponent of Buddhism, and when
Takayama conducted Froez from Sakai to Nobunaga's presence, the
Jesuit received a cordial welcome. Thenceforth, during the fourteen
remaining years of his life, Nobunaga steadily befriended the
missionaries in particular and foreign visitors to Japan in general.
He stood between the Jesuits and the Throne when, in reply to an
appeal from Buddhist priests, the Emperor Okimachi, for the second
time, issued an anti-Christian decree (1568); he granted a site for a
church and a residence at Azuchi on Lake Biwa, where his new castle
stood; he addressed to various powerful feudatories letters
signifying a desire for the spread of Christianity; he frequently
made handsome presents to the fathers, and whenever they visited him
he showed himself accessible and gracious. The Jesuits said of him:
"This man seems to have been chosen by God to open and prepare the
way for our faith. In proportion to the intensity of his enmity to
the bonzes and their sects is his good-will towards our fathers who
preach the law of God, whence he has shown them so many favours that
his subjects are amazed and unable to divine what he is aiming at in
this. I will only say that, humanly speaking, what has above all
given great credit and reputation to the fathers is the great favour
Nobunaga has shown for the Company." It is not to be supposed,
however, that Nobunaga's attitude towards the Jesuits signified any
belief in their doctrines. In 1579, he took a step which showed
plainly that policy as a statesman ranked much higher in his
estimation than duty towards religion. For, in order to ensure the
armed assistance of a certain feudatory, a professing Christian,
Nobunaga seized the Jesuits in Kyoto, and threatened to ban their
religion altogether unless they persuaded the feudatory to adopt
Nobunaga's side. Nevertheless, that Christianity benefited much by
his patronage there can be no dissentient opinion.
HIDEYOSHI AND CHRISTIANITY
After Nobunaga's death, in 1582, the supreme power fell into the
hands of Hideyoshi, and had he chosen to exercise it, he could have
easily undone the whole work hitherto achieved by the Jesuits at the
cost of much effort and devotion. But, at first, Hideyoshi followed
Nobunaga's example. He not only accorded a friendly audience to
Father Organtino, as representative of the fathers, but also he went
in person to assign to the Company a site for a church and a
residence in Osaka. At this time, "many Christian converts were
serving in high positions, and in 1584, the Jesuits placed it on
record that 'Hideyoshi was not only not opposed to the things of God,
but he even showed that he made much account of them (the fathers)
and preferred them to all the sects of the bonzes. . . He is
entrusting to Christians his treasures, his secrets, and his
fortresses of most importance, and he shows himself well pleased that
the sons of the great lords about him should adopt our customs and
our law.' Two years later in Osaka he received with every mark of
cordiality and favour a Jesuit mission which had come from Nagasaki
seeking audience, and on that occasion his visitors recorded that he
spoke of an intention of christianizing one half of Japan." Nor did
he confine himself to licensing the missionaries to preach throughout
all Japan: he exempted not only churches from the billeting of
soldiers but also the priests themselves from local burdens.
"This was in 1586, on the eve of his great military enterprise, the
invasion of Kyushu. . . He carried that difficult campaign to
completion by the middle of 1587, and throughout its course he
maintained a uniformly friendly demeanour toward the Jesuits. But
suddenly, when on the return journey he reached Hakata in the north
of the island, his policy underwent a radical metamorphosis. Five
questions were by his orders propounded to the vice-provincial of the
Jesuits: 'Why and by what authority he and his fellow propagandists
had constrained Japanese subjects to become Christians? Why they had
induced their disciples and their sectaries to overthrow temples? Why
they persecuted the bonzes? Why they and other Portuguese ate animals
useful to men, such as oxen and cows? Why the vice-provincial allowed
merchants of his nation to buy Japanese and make slaves of them in
the Indies?' To these queries Coelho, the vice-provincial, made
answer that the missionaries had never themselves resorted, or
incited, to violence in their propagandism, or persecuted bonzes;
that if their eating of beef was considered inadvisable, they would
give up the practice, and that they were powerless to prevent or
restrain the outrages perpetrated by their countrymen. Hideyoshi read
the vice-provincial's reply and, without comment, sent him word to
retire to Hirado, assemble all his followers there, and quit the
country within six months. On the next day (July 25, 1587) the
following edict was published:
'Having learned from our faithful councillors that foreign priests
have come into our estates, where they preach a law contrary to that
of Japan, and that they have even had the audacity to destroy temples
dedicated to our Kami and Hotoke; although the outrage merits the
most extreme punishment, wishing nevertheless to show them mercy, we
order them under pain of death to quit Japan within twenty days.
During that space no harm or hurt will be done, to them. But at the
expiration of that term, we order that if any of them be found in our
estates, they should be seized and punished as the greatest
criminals. As for the Portuguese merchants, we permit them to enter
our ports, there to continue their accustomed trade, and to remain in
our estates provided our affairs need this. But we forbid them to
bring any foreign priests into the country, under the penalty of the
confiscation of their ships and goods.'"*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
How are we to account for this seemingly rapid change of mood on
Hideyoshi's part? A comparison of dates furnishes some assistance in
replying to that question. The Kyushu campaign took place in 1587,
and it was in 1586 that Hideyoshi commenced the construction of the
colossal image of Buddha in Kyoto. The Taiko was by no means a
religious man. That is amply shown by the stories told in the
previous pages. But his political sagacity taught him that to
continue Nobunaga's crusade against Buddhism would not be wise
statesmanship, and that if the bonzes could be disarmed and diverted
from military pursuits, they would become useful agents of
intellectual and moral progress. His idea of setting up a gigantic
idol in the capital marked his final substitution of a conciliatory
programme for the fiercely destructive methods of Nobunaga. Of
necessity he had, then, to reconsider his demeanour towards
Christianity, and it is on record that before leaving Osaka for
Kyushu he publicly stated, "I fear much that all the virtue of the
European priests is merely a mask of hypocrisy and serves only to
conceal pernicious designs against the empire." Then, in Kyushu, two
things influenced him strongly. One was that he now saw with his own
eyes what militant Christianity really meant--ruined temples,
overthrown idols, and coerced converts. Such excesses had not
disgraced Christian propagandism in Kyoto or in the metropolitan
provinces, but in Kyushu the unsightly story was forced upon
Hideyoshi's attention. The second special feature of the situation in
Kyushu was that relations of an altogether exceptional character were
established between Hideyoshi and Kennyo, abbot of the Shin sect. By
the contrivance of that prelate, Hideyoshi's troops were enabled to
follow a secret road to the stronghold of the Satsuma baron, and in
return for such valuable services Hideyoshi may well have been
persuaded to proscribe Christianity.
Some importance, though probably of a less degree, attaches also to
the last of the five questions propounded by Hideyoshi to the
vice-provincial--why the priests allowed merchants of their nation to
buy Japanese subjects and carry them into slavery in the Indies. It
was in Kyushu only that these abuses were perpetrated. With respect
to this matter the following passage appears in the archives of the
Academy of History at Madrid: "Even the Lascars and scullions of the
Portuguese purchase and carry slaves away. Hence it happens that many
of them die on the voyage, because they are heaped up one upon the
other, and if their master fall sick (these masters are sometimes
Kaffirs and the negroes of the Portuguese), the slaves are not cared
for. It even often happens that the Kaffirs cannot procure the
necessary food for them. I here omit the excesses committed in the
lands of pagans where the Portuguese spread themselves to recruit
youth and girls, and where they live in such a fashion that the
pagans themselves are stupefied at it." Nevertheless, the fact that
the Taiko specially exempted the Portuguese merchants from his decree
of banishment indicates that he did not attach cardinal importance to
their evil doings in the matter of slaves. It seems rather to have
been against the Jesuits that his resentment was directed, for he did
not fail to perceive that, whereas they could and did exact the
utmost deference from their country's sailors and traders when the
ends of Christian propagandism were served thereby, they professed
themselves powerless to dissuade these same traders and sailors from
outrages which would have disgraced any religion. He cannot but have
concluded that if these Portuguese merchants and seamen were to be
regarded as specimens of the products of Christianity, then, indeed,
that creed had not much to recommend it. All these things seem amply
sufficient to account for the change that manifested itself in
Hideyoshi's attitude towards Christianity at the close of the Kyushu
campaign.
SEQUEL OF THE EDICT OF BANISHMENT
The Jesuits, of whom it must be said that they never consulted their
own safety when the cause of their faith could be advanced by
self-sacrifice, paid no attention to the Taiko's edict. They did
indeed assemble at Hirado to the number of 120, but when they
received orders to embark at once, they decided that only those
needed for service in China should leave Japan. The rest remained and
continued to perform their religious duties as usual, under the
protection of the converted feudatories. The latter also appear to
have concluded that it was not necessary to follow Hideyoshi's
injunctions strictly concerning the expulsion of the priests. It
seemed, at first, as though nothing short of extermination was
contemplated by the Taiko. He caused all the churches in Kyoto,
Osaka, and Sakai to be pulled down, and he sent troops to raze the
Christian places of worship in Kyushu. But the troops accepted gifts
offered to them by the feudatories and left the churches standing,
while Hideyoshi not only failed to enforce his edict, but also
allowed himself in the following year, 1588, to be convinced by a
Portuguese envoy that unless the missionaries were suffered to
remain, oversea trade could not possibly be carried on in a peaceful
and orderly manner. For the sake of that trade, Hideyoshi agreed to
tolerate the Christian propagandists, and, for a time, the foreign
faith continued to flourish in Kyushu and found a favourable field
even in Kyoto.
At this time, in response to a message from the Jesuits, the viceroy
of the Indies sent an ambassador to thank Hideyoshi for the favours
he had hitherto bestowed upon the missionaries, and in the train of
this nominally secular embassy came a number of fresh Jesuits to
labour in the Japanese field. The ambassador was Valegnani, a man of
profound tact. Acting upon the Taiko's unequivocal hints, Valegnani
caused the missionaries to divest their work of all ostentatious
features and to comport themselves with the utmost circumspection, so
that official attention should not be attracted by any salient
evidences of Christian propagandism. Indeed, at this very time, as
stated above, Hideyoshi took a step which plainly showed that he
valued the continuance of trade much more highly than the extirpation
of Christianity. "Being assured that Portuguese merchants could not
frequent Japan unless they found Christian priests there, he
consented to sanction the presence of a limited number of Jesuits,"
though he was far too shrewd to imagine that their services could be
limited to men of their own nationality, and too clever to forget
that these very Portuguese, who professed to attach so much
importance to religious ministrations, were the same men whose
flagrant outrages the fathers declared themselves powerless to check.
If any further evidence were needed of Hideyoshi's discrimination
between trade and religion, it is furnished by his despatches to the
viceroy of the Indies written in 1591:--
The fathers of the Company, as they are called, have come to these
islands to teach another religion here; but as that of the Kami is
too surely founded to be abolished, this new law can serve only to
introduce into Japan a diversity of cults prejudicial to the welfare
of the State. It is for this reason that, by Imperial edict, I have
forbidden these foreign doctors to continue to preach their doctrine.
I have even ordered them to quit Japan, and I am resolved no longer
to allow any one of them to come here to spread new opinions. I
nevertheless desire that trade between you and us should always be on
the same footing [as before]. I shall have every care that the ways
are free by sea and land: I have freed them from all pirates and
brigands. The Portuguese will be able to traffic with my subjects,
and I will in no wise suffer any one to do them the least wrong.
The statistics of 1595 showed that there were then in Japan 137
Jesuit fathers with 300,000 native converts, including seventeen
feudal chiefs and not a few bonzes.
HIDEYOSHI'S FINAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY
For ten years after the issue of his anti-Christian decree at Hakata,
Hideyoshi maintained a tolerant demeanour. But in 1597, his
forbearance was changed to a mood of uncompromising severity. Various
explanations have been given of this change, but the reasons are
obscure. "Up to 1593 the Portuguese had possessed a monopoly of
religious propagandism and oversea commerce in Japan. The privilege
was secured to them by agreement between Spain and Portugal and by a
papal bull. But the Spaniards in Manila had long looked with somewhat
jealous eyes on this Jesuit reservation, and when news of the
anti-Christian decree of 1587 reached the Philippines, the Dominicans
and Franciscans residing there were fired with zeal to enter an arena
where the crown of martyrdom seemed to be the least reward within
reach. The papal bull, however, demanded obedience, and to overcome
that difficulty a ruse was necessary: the governor of Manila agreed
to send a party of Franciscans as ambassadors to Hideyoshi. In that
guise, the friars, being neither traders nor propagandists,
considered that they did not violate either the treaty or the bull.
It was a technical subterfuge very unworthy of the object
contemplated, and the friars supplemented it by swearing to Hideyoshi
that the Philippines would submit to his sway. Thus they obtained
permission to visit Kyoto, Osaka, and Fushimi, but with the explicit
proviso that they must not preach."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
How far they observed the terms and the spirit of this arrangement
may be gathered from the facts that "very soon they had built a
church in Kyoto, consecrated it with the utmost pomp, and were
preaching sermons and chaunting litanies there in flagrant defiance
of Hideyoshi's veto. Presently, their number received an access of
three friars who came bearing gifts from the governor of Manila, and
now they not only established a convent in Osaka, but also seized a
Jesuit church in Nagasaki and converted the circumspect worship
hitherto conducted there by the fathers into services of the most
public character. Officially checked in Nagasaki, they charged the
Jesuits in Kyoto with having intrigued to impede them, and they
further vaunted the courageous openness of their own ministrations as
compared with the clandestine timidity of the methods which wise
prudence had induced the Jesuits to adopt. Retribution would have
followed quickly had not Hideyoshi's attention been engrossed by an
attempt to invade China through Korea. At this stage, however, a
memorable incident occurred. Driven out of her course by a storm, a
great and richly laden Spanish galleon, bound for Acapulco from
Manila, drifted to the coast of Tosa province, and running--or being
purposely run--on a sand-bank as she was towed into port by Japanese
boats, broke her back. She carried goods to the value of some six
hundred thousand crowns, and certain officials urged Hideyoshi to
confiscate her as derelict, conveying to him, at the same time, a
detailed account of the doings of the Franciscans and their open
flouting of his orders. Hideyoshi, much incensed, commanded the
arrest of the Franciscans and despatched officers to Tosa to
confiscate the San Felipe. The pilot of the galleon sought to
intimidate these officers by showing them, on a map of the world, the
vast extent of Spain's dominions, and being asked how one country had
acquired such wide sway, replied,* 'Our kings begin by sending into
the countries they wish to conquer missionaries who induce the people
to embrace our religion, and when they have made considerable
progress, troops are sent who combine with the new Christians, and
then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest.'"**
*Charlevoix, referring to this incident, says, "This unfortunate
statement inflicted a wound on religion which is bleeding still after
a century and a half."
**Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYRS IN JAPAN
The words of the San Felipe's master were immediately reported to
Hideyoshi. They roused him to hot anger. He is reported to have
cried: "What! my States are filled with traitors, and their numbers
increase every day. I have proscribed the foreign doctors, but out of
compassion for the age and infirmity of some among them, I have
allowed their remaining in Japan. I shut my eyes to the presence of
several others because I fancied them to be quiet and incapable of
forming bad designs, and they are serpents I have been cherishing in
my bosom. The traitors are entirely employed in making me enemies
among my own subjects and perhaps in my own family. But they will
learn what it is to play with me... I am not anxious for myself. So
long as the breath of life remains, I defy all the powers of the
earth to attack me. But I am perhaps to leave the empire to a child,
and how can he maintain himself against so many foes, domestic and
foreign, if I do not provide for everything incessantly?"
Then, finally, the Franciscans were arrested and condemned to have
their noses and ears cut off;* to be promenaded through Kyoto, Osaka,
and Sakai, and to be crucified at Nagasaki. "I have ordered these
foreigners to be treated thus," Hideyoshi is recorded to have stated,
"because they have come from the Philippines to Japan, calling
themselves ambassadors, although they were not so; because they have
remained here for long without my permission; because in defiance of
my prohibition they have built churches, preached their religion, and
caused disorders." These men were the first martyrs in Japan.
*The mutilation was confined to the lobe of one ear.
They numbered twenty-six, namely, six Franciscans, three Jesuits, and
seventeen native Christians who were chiefly domestic servants of the
Franciscans. They met their fate with noble fortitude. Hideyoshi did
not stop there. He took measures to have his edict of 1587 converted
into a stern reality. The governor of Nagasaki received orders to
send away all the Jesuits, permitting only two or three to remain for
the service of Portuguese merchants.
The Jesuits, however, were not to be deterred by personal peril.
There were 125 of them in Japan at that time, and of these only
eleven left Nagasaki by sea in October, 1597, though the same vessel
carried a number of pretended Jesuits who were, in reality, disguised
sailors. This deception was necessarily known to the local
authorities; but their sympathies being with the Jesuits, they kept
silence until early the following year, when, owing to a rumour that
Hideyoshi himself contemplated a visit to Kyushu, they took really
efficient measures to expel all the fathers. No less than 137
churches throughout Kyushu were thrown down, as well as several
seminaries and residences of the fathers, and, at Nagasaki, all the
Jesuits in Japan were assembled for deportation to Macao in the
following year when the "great ship" was expected to visit that port.
But before her arrival Hideyoshi died, and a respite was thus gained
for the Jesuits.
FOREIGN POLICY OF THE TOKUGAWA FAMILY
It has been confidently stated that Tokugawa Ieyasu regarded
Christian nations and Christian propagandists with distrust not less
profound than that harboured by Hideyoshi. But facts are opposed to
that view. Within less than three months of the Taiko's death, the
Tokugawa chief had his first interview with a Christian priest. The
man was a Franciscan, by name Jerome de Jesus. He had been a member
of the fictitious embassy from Manila, and his story illustrates the
zeal and courage that inspired the Christian fathers in those days.
"Barely escaping the doom of crucifixion which overtook his
companions, he had been deported from Japan to Manila at a time when
death seem to be the certain penalty of remaining. But no sooner had
he been landed in Manila than he took passage in a Chinese junk, and,
returning to Nagasaki, made his way secretly from the far south of
Japan to the province of Kii. There arrested, he was brought into the
presence of Ieyasu, and his own record of what ensued is given in a
letter subsequently sent to Manila:
"'When the Prince saw me he asked how I managed to escape the previous
persecution. I answered him that at that date God had delivered me in
order that I might go to Manila and bring back new colleagues from
there--preachers of the divine law--and that I had returned from
Manila to encourage the Christians, cherishing the desire to die on
the cross in order to go to enjoy eternal glory like my former
colleagues. On hearing these words the Emperor began to smile,
whether in his quality of a pagan of the sect of Shaka which teaches
that there is no future life, or whether from the thought that I was
frightened at having to be put to death. Then, looking at me kindly,
he said, "Be no longer afraid and no longer conceal yourself and no
longer change your habit, for I wish you well; and as for the
Christians who every year pass within sight of Kwanto where my
domains are, when they go to Mexico with their ships, I have a keen
desire for them to visit the harbours of this island, to refresh
themselves there, and to take what they wish, to trade with my
vassals, and to teach them how to develop silver mines; and that my
intentions may be accomplished before my death, I wish you to
indicate to me the means to take to realize them."
"'I answered that it was necessary that Spanish pilots should take the
soundings of his harbours, so that ships might not be lost in future
as the San Felipe had been, and that he should solicit this service
from the governor of the Philippines. The Prince approved of my
advice, and accordingly he has sent a Japanese gentleman, a native of
Sakai, the bearer of this message.... It is essential to oppose no
obstacle to the complete liberty offered by the Emperor to the
Spaniards and to our holy order, for the preaching of the holy
gospel. ... The same Prince (who is about to visit the Kwanto)
invites me to accompany him to make choice of a house, and to visit
the harbour which he promises to open to us; his desires in this
respect are keener than I can express.'"*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Subsequent events confirm the accuracy of the above story. Father
Jerome was allowed to build the first Christian church in Yedo and to
officiate there. Moreover, Ieyasu sent "three embassies in succession
to the Philippines, proposing reciprocal freedom of commerce,
offering to open ports in the Kwanto, and asking for competent naval
architects." These architects never came, and the trade that resulted
from the Tokugawa chief's overtures was paltry in comparison with the
number of friars that accompanied it to Japan. It has been suggested
that Ieyasu designed these Spanish monks to serve as a counterpoise
to the influence of the Jesuits. For he must have known that the
Franciscans opened their mission in Yedo by "declaiming with violence
against the fathers of the Company of Jesus," and he must have
understood that the Spanish monks assumed towards the Jesuits in
Japan the same intolerent and abusive tone that the Jesuits
themselves had previously assumed towards Buddhism.
ENGRAVING: ANJIN-ZUKA, NEAR YOKOSUKA, THE TOMB OF WILL ADAMS
WILL ADAMS
At about this time a Dutch merchant ship named the Liefde arrived in
Japan. In 1598, a squadron of five ships sailed from Holland to
exploit the sources of Portuguese commerce in the Orient, and of the
five vessels only one, the Liefde, was ever heard of again. She
reached Japan in the spring of 1600, with only four and twenty
survivors of her original crew, numbering 110. Towed into the harbour
of Funai, she was visited by Jesuits, who, on discovering her
nationality, denounced her to the local authorities as a pirate. On
board the Liefde, serving in the capacity of pilot major was an
Englishman, Will Adams, of Gillingham in Kent. Ieyasu summoned him to
Osaka, and between the rough English sailor and the Tokugawa chief
there commenced a curiously friendly intercourse which was not
interrupted until the death of Adams, twenty years later.
"The Englishman became master-shipbuilder to the Yedo Government; was
employed as diplomatic agent when other traders from his own country
and from Holland arrived in Japan, received in perpetual gift a
substantial estate, and from first to last possessed the implicit
confidence of the shogun. Ieyasu quickly discerned the man's honesty;
perceived that whatever benefits foreign commerce might confer would
be increased by encouraging competition among the foreigners, and
realized that English and Dutch trade presented the wholesome feature
of complete dissociation from religious propagandism. On the other
hand, he showed no intolerance to either Spaniards or Portuguese. He
issued (1601) two official patents sanctioning the residence of the
fathers in Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagasaki; he employed Father Rodriguez
as interpreter at the Court in Yedo, and, in 1603 he gave munificent
succour to the Jesuits who were reduced to dire straits owing to the
capture of the great ship from Macao by the Dutch and the consequent
loss of several years' supplies for the mission in Japan."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
ULTIMATE ATTITUDE OF IEYASU TOWARDS CHRISTIANITY AND FOREIGN
INTERCOURSE
From what has been written above it will have been evident that each
of Japan's great trio of sixteenth century statesmen--Nobunaga,
Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu--adopted originally a tolerant demeanour
towards Christianity, and an emphatically favourable attitude towards
foreign commerce. The causes of Hideyoshi's change of mood are
tolerably clear, but it is not possible to analyse the case of Ieyasu
with certainty. That the Tokugawa baron strongly patronized Buddhism
might be regarded as a sufficient explanation of his ultimate
hostility to the foreign faith, but cannot be reconciled with his
amicable attitude at the outset. The more credible explanation is
that he was guided by intelligence obtained direct from Europe. He
sent thither at the end of the sixteenth century an emissary whose
instructions were to observe closely the social and political
conditions in the home of Christianity. The better to accomplish his
purpose this envoy embraced the Christian faith, and was thus enabled
to carry on his observations from within as well as from without.
It may be easily conceived that the state of affairs in Europe at
that time, when recounted to Ieyasu, could scarcely fail to shock and
astonish the ruler of a country where freedom of conscience may be
said to have always existed. The Inquisition and the stake; wholesale
aggressions in the name of the Cross; a head of the Church whose
authority extended to confiscation of the realms of heretical
sovereigns; religious wars, and profound fanaticism--these were the
elements of the story told to Ieyasu by his returned envoy. The
details could not fail to produce an evil impression. Already his own
observation had disclosed to the Tokugawa chief abundant evidence of
the spirit of strife engendered by Christian dogma in those times. No
sooner had the Franciscans and the Dominicans arrived in Japan than a
fierce quarrel broke out between them and the Jesuits--a quarrel
which even community of suffering could not compose. "Not less
repellent was an attempt on the part of the Spaniards to dictate to
Ieyasu the expulsion of all Hollanders from Japan, and an attempt on
the part of the Jesuits to dictate the expulsion of the Spaniards.
The former proposal, couched almost in the form of a demand, was
twice formulated, and accompanied on the second occasion by a
scarcely less insulting offer, namely, that Spanish men-of-war would
be sent to Japan to burn all Dutch ships found in the ports of the
empire. If in the face of proposals so contumelious of his authority
Ieyasu preserved a calm and dignified mein, merely replying that his
country was open to all comers, and that, if other nations had
quarrels among themselves, they must not take Japan for
battle-ground, it is nevertheless unimaginable that he did not
strongly resent such interference with his own independent foreign
policy, and that he did not interpret it as foreshadowing a
disturbance of the realm's peace by sectarian quarrels among
Christians."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
The repellent aspects under which Christianity thus presented itself
to Ieyasu were supplemented by an act of fraud and forgery
perpetrated in the interest of a Christian feudatory by a trusted
official, himself a Christian. This experience persuaded the Tokugawa
ruler that it was unsafe to employ Christians at his Court. He not
only dismissed all those so employed, but also banished them from
Yedo and forbade any feudal chief to harbour them. Another incident,
not without influence, was connected with the survey of the Japanese
coast by a Spanish mariner and a Franciscan friar. An envoy from New
Spain (Mexico) had obtained permission for this survey, but "when the
mariner (Sebastian) and the friar (Sotelo) hastened to carry out the
project, Ieyasu asked Will Adams to explain this display of industry.
The Englishman replied that such a proceeding would be regarded in
Europe as an act of hostility, especially on the part of the
Spaniards or Portuguese, whose aggressions were notorious. He added,
in reply to further questions, that 'the Roman priesthood had been
expelled from many parts of Germany, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, and England, and that, although his own country preserved
the pure form of the Christian faith from which Spain and Portugal
had deviated, yet neither English nor Dutch considered that that fact
afforded them any reason to war with, or to annex, States which were
not Christian solely for the reason that they were non-Christian.'"*
Hearing these things from Will Adams, Ieyasu is said to have
remarked, "If the sovereigns of Europe do not tolerate these priests,
I do them no wrong if I refuse to tolerate them."
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Another incident, too complicated to describe in detail, may be
summed up by saying that some Japanese Christians were discovered to
have conspired for the overthrow of the Tokugawa Government by the
aid of foreign troops. It was not an extensive plot, but it helped to
demonstrate that the sympathy of the priests and their converts was
plainly with the enemies of Tokugawa's supremacy. Ieyasu, however,
abstained from extreme measures in the case of any of the foreign
priests, and he might have been equally tolerant towards native
Christians, also, had not the Tokugawa authority been openly defied
in Yedo itself by a Franciscan father--the Sotelo mentioned above.
"Then (1613) the first execution of Japanese converts took place,
though the monk himself was released after a short incarceration. At
that time... insignificant differences of custom sometimes induced
serious misconceptions. A Christian who had violated a secular law
was crucified in Nagasaki. Many of his fellow-believers kneeled
around his cross and prayed for the peace of his soul. A party of
converts were afterwards burnt to death in the same place for
refusing to apostatize, and their Christian friends crowded to carry
off portions of their bodies as holy relics. When these things were
reported to Ieyasu, he said, 'Without doubt that must be a diabolic
faith which persuades people not only to worship criminals condemned
to death for their crimes, but also to honour those who have been
burned or cut to pieces by the order of their lord.'"*
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
SUPPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY
The first prohibition of Christianity was issued by Ieyasu in
September, 1612, and was followed by another in April, 1613; but both
bore the character of warnings rather than of punitive regulations.
It was on the 27th of January, 1614--that is to say, fifty-four years
and five months after the landing of Xavier at Kagoshima--that an
edict appeared ordering that all the foreign priests should be
collected in Nagasaki preparatory to removal from Japan; that all
churches should be pulled down, and that all converts should be
compelled to abjure Christianity. There were then in Japan 156
ministers of Christianity, namely, 122 Jesuits, 14 Franciscans, 9
Dominicans, 4 Augustinians, and 7 secular priests. It is virtually
certain that if these men had obeyed the orders of the Japanese
Government by leaving the country finally, not so much as one
foreigner would have suffered for his faith in Japan, except the six
Franciscans executed on the "Martyrs' Mount" at Nagasaki by
Hideyoshi's order, in 1597. But the missionaries did not obey.
Suffering or even death counted for nothing with these men as against
the possibility of saving souls. "Forty-seven of them evaded the
edict, some by concealing themselves at the time of its issue, the
rest by leaving their ships when the latter had passed out of sight
of the shore of Japan, and returning by boats to the scene of their
former labours. Moreover, in a few months, those that had actually
crossed the sea re-crossed it in various disguises."* The Japanese
Government had then to consider whether it would suffer its authority
to be thus defied by foreign visitors or whether it would resort to
extreme measures.
*Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by Brinkley.
PERIOD SUBSEQUENT TO 1613
Throughout a period of two years immediately following the issue of
the anti-Christian edict of 1614, the attention of Ieyasu, and indeed
of the whole Japanese nation, was concentrated on the struggle which
took place between the adherents of the Tokugawa and the supporters
of Hideyori. That struggle culminated in an assault on the castle of
Osaka, and fresh fuel was added to the fire of anti-Christian
resentment inasmuch as many Christian converts espoused Hideyori's
cause, and in one part of the field the troops of Ieyasu had to fight
against a foe whose banners were emblazoned with a cross and with
images of Christ and of St. James, the patron saint of Spain.
Nevertheless, the Christian converts possessed the sympathy of so
many of the feudal chiefs that much reluctance was shown to inflict
the extreme penalty of the law on men and women whose only crime was
the adoption of an alien religion. Some of the feudal chiefs, even at
the risk of losing their estates, gave asylum to the converts; others
falsely reported a complete absence of Christians in their dominions,
and some endeavoured earnestly to protect the fanatics; while, as to
the people at large, their liberal spirit is shown in the fact that
five priests who were in Osaka Castle at the time of its capture were
able to make their way to distant refuges without any risk of
betrayal.
ENGRAVING: GREEN-ROOM OF A THEATRE (In the Middle of the Tokugawa
Period)
On the other hand, there were not wanting feudatories who, judging
that zeal in obeying the edict would prove a passport to official
reward, acted on that conviction. Notably was this true of Hasegawa,
who received the fief of Arima by way of recompense for barbarous
cruelty towards the Christians. Yet it is on record that when this
baron sent out a mixed force of Hizen and Satsuma troops to harry the
converts, these samurai warned the Christians to flee and then
reported that they were not to be found anywhere. During these events
the death of Ieyasu took place (June 1, 1616), and pending the
dedication of his mausoleum the anti-Christian crusade was virtually
suspended.
ENGLISH AND DUTCH INTRIGUES AGAINST SPANIARDS AND PORTUGUESE
It has been frequently alleged that if the Spaniards and the
Portuguese endeavoured to bring the Hollanders into bad odour, the
English and the Dutch intrigued equally against the Portuguese and
the Spaniards. The accusation cannot be rebutted. Cocks, the factor
of the English commercial mission to Japan, has himself left it on
record that, being at the Yedo Court in the fall of 1616, "I enformed
the two secretaries that yf they lookt out well about these two
Spanish shipps in Xaxama [Satsuma] full of men and treasure, they
would fynd that they were sent off purpose by the king of Spaine,
having knowledge of the death of the ould Emperour [Ieyasu], thinking
som papisticall tono [daimyo] might rise and rebell and so draw all
the papists to flock to them and take part, by which means they might
on a sudden seaz upon som strong place and keepe it till more succors
came, they not wanting money nor men for thackomplishing such a
strattgin." The two vessels in question were "greate shipps arrived
out of New Spaine, bound, as they said, for the Philippines, but
driven into that place per contrary wynd, both shipps being full of
souldiers, with great store of treasure, as it is said, above five
millions of pezos." It is true that a Spanish captain sent from these
vessels to pay respects to the Court in Yedo "gave it out that our
shipps and the Hollanders which were at Firando [Hirado] had taken
and robbed all the China junks, which was the occasion that very few
or non came into Japan this yeare," and therefore Cocks was somewhat
justified in saying "so in this sort I cried quittance with the
Spaniards." It appears, however, that the Spaniards were not
believed, whereas the Englishman could boast, "which speeches of myne
wrought so far that the Emperour sent to stay them, and had not the
greate shipp cut her cable in the hawse so as to escape, she had been
arrested." It was this same Cocks who told a Japanese "admirall" that
"My opinion was he might doe better to put it into the Emperour's
mynd to make a conquest of the Manillas, and drive those small crew
of Spaniards from thence."
In fact, none of the four Occidental nationalities then in Japan had
any monopoly of slandering its rivals. The accusation preferred by
Cocks, however, must have possessed special significance, confirming,
as it did, what the pilot of the San Felipe had said twenty years
previously as to the political uses to which the propagandists of
Christianity were put by the King of Spain, and what Will Adams had
said four years earlier as to the Imperial doctrine of Spain and
Portugal that the annexation of a non-Christian country was always
justifiable. The "greate shipps out of New Spaine," laden with
soldiers and treasure and under orders to combine with any Christian
converts willing to revolt against the Yedo Government, were concrete
evidence of the truth of the Spanish sailor's revelation and of the
English exile's charge. It has always to be remembered, too, that
Kyushu, the headquarters of Christianity in Japan, did not owe to the
Tokugawa shoguns the same degree of allegiance that it had been
forced to render to Hideyoshi. A colossal campaign such as the latter
had conducted against the southern island, in 1587, never commended
itself to the ambition of Ieyasu or to that of his comparatively
feeble successor, Hidetada. Hence, the presence of Spanish or
Portuguese ships in Satsuma suggested danger of an exceptional
degree.
In the very month (September, 1616) when Cocks "cried quittance with
the Spaniards," a new anti-Christian edict was promulgated by
Hidetada, son and successor of Ieyasu. It pronounced sentence of
exile against all Christian priests, not excluding even those whose
presence had been sanctioned for the purpose of ministering to the
Portuguese merchants; it forbade the Japanese, under penalty of being
burned alive and having all their property confiscated, to connect
themselves in any way with the Christian propagandists or with their
co-operators or servants, and above all, to show them any
hospitality. The same penalties were extended to women and children,
and to the five neighbours on both sides of a convert's abode, unless
these became informers. Every feudal chief was forbidden to keep
Christians in his service, and the edict was promulgated with more
than usual severity, although its enforcement was deferred until the
next year on account of the obsequies of Ieyasu. This edict of 1616
differed from that issued by Ieyasu in 1614, since the latter did not
explicitly prescribe the death-penalty for converts refusing to
apostatize. But both agreed in indicating expulsion as the sole
manner of dealing with the foreign priests. It, is also noteworthy
that, just as the edict of Ieyasu was immediately preceded by
statements from Will Adams about the claim of Spain and Portugal to
absorb all non-Christian countries, so the edict of Hidetada had for
preface Cock's attribution of aggressive designs to the Spanish ships
at Kagoshima in conjunction with Christian converts. Not without
justice, therefore, have the English been charged with some share of
responsibility for the terrible things that ultimately befell the
propagandists and the professors of Christianity in Japan. As for the
shogun, Hidetada, and his advisers, it is probable that they did not
foresee much occasion for actual recourse to violence. They knew that
a great majority of the converts had joined the Christian Church at
the instance, or by the command, of their local rulers, and nothing
can have seemed less likely than that a creed thus lightly embraced
would be adhered to in defiance of torture and death. The foreign
propagandists also might have escaped all peril by obeying the
official edict and leaving Japan. They suffered because they defied
the laws of the land.
Some fifty of them happened to be in Nagasaki at the time of
Hidetada's edict. Several of these were apprehended and deported, but
a number returned almost immediately. This happened under the
jurisdiction of Omura, who had been specially charged with the duty
of sending away the bateren (padres). He seems to have concluded that
a striking example must be furnished, and he therefore ordered the
seizure and decapitation of two fathers, De l'Assumpcion and Machado.
The result completely falsified his calculations, for so far from
proving a deterrent, the fate of the two fathers appealed widely to
the people's sense of heroism. Multitudes flocked to the grave in
which the two coffins were buried. The sick were carried thither to
be restored to health, and the Christian converts derived new courage
from the example of these martyrs. Numerous conversions and numerous
returns of apostates took place everywhere.
While this enthusiasm was at its height, Navarette, vice-provincial
of the Dominicans, and Ayala, vice-provincial of the Augustins,
emerged from hiding, and robed in their full canonicals, commenced an
open propaganda, heralding their approach by a letter addressed to
Omura and couched in the most defiant terms. Thus challenged, Omura
was obliged to act promptly, especially as Navarette declared that he
(Navarette) did not recognize the Emperor of Japan but only the
Emperor of Heaven. The two fanatics were seized, conveyed secretly to
the island of Takashima, and there decapitated; their coffins being
weighted with big stones and sunk in the sea, so as to prevent a
repetition of the scenes witnessed at the tomb of the fathers
mentioned above. Thereupon, the newly elected superior of the
Dominicans at once sent three of his priests to preach in Omura's
territories, and two of them, having been seized, were cast into
prison where they remained for five years. Even more directly defiant
was the attitude of the next martyred priest, an old Franciscan monk,
Juan de Santa Martha. He had for three years suffered all the horrors
of a medieval Japanese prison, yet when it was proposed to release
him and deport him to New Spain, his answer was that, if released, he
would stay in Japan and preach there. He laid his head on the block
in August, 1618.
Throughout the next four years, however, no other foreign missionary
was capitally punished in Japan, though many arrived and continued
their propagandism. During that interval, also, there occurred
another incident calculated to fix upon the Christians still deeper
suspicion of political designs. In a Portuguese ship, captured by the
Dutch, a letter was found instigating Japanese converts to revolt,
and promising that, when the number of disaffected became sufficient,
men-of-war would be sent from Portugal to aid them. Another factor
tending to invest the converts with political potentialities was the
writing of pamphlets by apostates, attributing the zeal of foreign
propagandists solely to traitorous motives. Further, the Spanish and
Portuguese propagandists were indicted in a despatch addressed to the
second Tokugawa shogun, in 1620, by the admiral in command of the
British and Dutch fleet of defence, then cruising in Oriental waters.
The admiral unreservedly charged the friars with treacherous
machinations, and warned the shogun against the aggressive designs of
Philip of Spain.
This cumulative evidence dispelled the last doubts of the Japanese,
and a time of sharp suffering ensued for the fathers and their
converts. There were many shocking episodes. Among them may be
mentioned the case of Zufliga, son of the marquis of Villamanrica. He
visited Japan as a Dominican in 1618, but the governor of Nagasaki
persuaded him to withdraw. Yielding for the moment, he returned two
years later, accompanied by Father Flores. They travelled in a vessel
commanded by a Japanese Christian, and off Formosa she was overhauled
by an English warship, which took off the two priests and handed them
over to the Dutch at Hirado. There they were tortured and held in
prison for sixteen months, when an armed attempt made by some
Japanese Christians to rescue them precipitated their fate. By order
from Yedo, Zuniga, Flores, and the Japanese master of the vessel
which had carried them, were roasted to death in Nagasaki on August
19, 1622. Thus the measures adopted against the missionaries are seen
to have gradually increased in severity. The first two fathers put to
death, De l'Assumpcion and Machado, were beheaded in 1617, not by the
common executioner but by one of the principal officers of the
daimyo. The next two, Navarette and Ayala, were decapitated by the
executioner. Then, in 1618, Juan de Santa Martha was executed like a
common criminal, his body being dismembered and his head exposed.
Finally, in 1622, Zuniga and Flores were burned alive.
The same year was marked by the "great martyrdom" at Nagasaki, when
nine foreign priests went to the stake together with nineteen
Japanese converts. Apprehension of a foreign invasion seems to have
greatly troubled the shogun at this time. He had sent an envoy to
Europe who, after seven years abroad, returned on the eve of the
"great martyrdom," and made a report thoroughly unfavourable to
Christianity. Hidetada therefore refused to give audience to the
Philippine embassy in 1624, and ordered that all Spaniards should be
deported from Japan. It was further decreed that no Japanese
Christians should thenceforth be allowed to go to sea in search of
commerce, and that although non-Christians or men who had apostatized
might travel freely, they must not visit the Philippines.
Thus ended all intercourse between Japan and Spain. The two countries
had been on friendly terms for thirty-two years, and during that time
a widespread conviction that Christianity was an instrument of
Spanish aggression had been engendered. Iemitsu, son of Hidetada, now
ruled in Yedo, though Hidetada himself remained "the power behind the
throne." The year (1623) of the former's accession to the shogunate
had seen the re-issue of anti-Christian decrees and the martyrdom of
some five hundred Christians within the Tokugawa domains, whither the
tide of persecution now flowed for the first time. From that period
onwards official attempts to eradicate Christianity in Japan were
unceasing. Conspicuously active in this cause were two governors of
Nagasaki, by name Mizuno and Takenaka, and the feudal chief of
Shimabara, by name Matsukura. To this last is to be credited the
terrible device of throwing converts into the solfataras at Unzen,
and under him, also, the punishment of the "fosse" was resorted to.
It consisted in suspension by the feet, head downwards in a pit until
death ensued. By many this latter torture was heroically endured to
the end, but in the case of a few the pains proved unendurable.
It is on record that the menace of a Spanish invasion seemed so
imminent to Matsukura and Takenaka that they proposed an attack on
the Philippines so as to deprive the Spaniards of their base in the
East. This bold measure failed to obtain approval in Yedo. In
proportion as the Christian converts proved invincible, the severity
of the repressive measures increased. There are no accurate
statistics showing the number of victims. Some annalists allege that
two hundred and eighty thousand perished up to the year 1635, but
that figure is probably exaggerated, for the converts do not seem to
have aggregated more than three hundred thousand at any time, and it
is probable that a majority of these, having embraced the alien creed
for light reasons, discarded it readily under menace of destruction.
"Every opportunity was given for apostatizing and for escaping death.
Immunity could be secured by pointing out a fellow convert, and when
it is observed that among the seven or eight feudatories who embraced
Christianity only two or three died in that faith, we must conclude
that not a few cases of recanting occurred among the vassals.
Remarkable fortitude, however, is said to have been displayed."
Caron, one of the Dutch traders of Hirado, writing in 1636, says:
At first the believers in Christ were only beheaded and afterwards
attached to a cross, which was considered as a sufficiently heavy
punishment. But when many of them were seen to die with emotions of
joy and pleasure, some even to go singing to the place of execution;
and when although thirty and sometimes one hundred were put to death
at a time, and it was found that their numbers did not appear to
diminish, it was then determined to use every exertion to change
their joy into grief and their songs into tears and groans of misery.
To effect this they were tied to stakes and burned alive; were
broiled on wooden gridirons, and thousands were thus wretchedly
destroyed. But as the number of Christians was not perceptibly
lessened by these cruel punishments, they became tired of putting
them to death, and attempts were then made to make the Christians
abandon their faith by the infliction of the most dreadful torments
which the most diabolical invention could suggest. The Japanese
Christians, however, endured these persecutions with a great deal of
steadiness and courage; very few, in comparison with those who
remained steadfast in the faith, were the number of those who fainted
under the trials and abjured their religion. It is true that these
people possess, on such occasions, a stoicism and an intrepidity of
which no examples are to be met with in the bulk of other nations.
Neither men nor women are afraid of death. Yet an uncommon
steadfastness in the faith must, at the same time, be requisite to
continue in these trying circumstances.
The intrepidity of the native converts was rivalled by the courage of
their foreign teachers. Again and again these latter defied the
Japanese authorities by visiting Japan--not for the first time but
occasionally even after having been deported. Contrary to the orders
of the governors of Macao and Manila, nay of the King of Spain
himself, the priests arrived, year after year, with the certainty of
being apprehended and sent to the stake after brief periods of
propagandism. In 1626, when the campaign of persecution was at its
height, more than three thousand converts were baptized by these
brave priests, of whom none is known to have escaped death except
those that apostatized under torture, and they were very few,
although not only could life be saved by abandoning the faith but
also ample allowances of money could be obtained from the
authorities. Anyone denouncing a propagandist received large reward,
and the people were required to prove their orthodoxy by trampling
upon a picture of Christ.
CONTINUATION OF THE FEUDS BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND THE PORTUGUESE
While the above events were in progress, the disputes between the
Dutch, the Portuguese, and the Spaniards went on without cessation.
In 1636, the Dutch discovered in a captured Portuguese vessel a
report written by the governor of Macao, describing a festival which
had just been held there in honour of Vieyra, who had been martyred
in Japan. The Dutch transmitted this document to the Japanese "in
order that his Majesty may see more clearly what great honour the
Portuguese pay to those he had forbidden his realm as traitors to the
State and to his crown." It does not appear that this accusation
added much to the resentment and distrust against the Portuguese. At
any rate, the Bakufu in Yedo took no step distinctly hostile to
Portuguese laymen until the following year (1637), when an edict was
issued forbidding "any foreigners to travel in the empire lest
Portuguese with passports bearing Dutch names might enter."
THE SHIMABARA REVOLT
At the close of 1637, there occurred a rebellion, historically known
as the "Christian Revolt of Shimabara," which put an end to Japan's
foreign intercourse for over two hundred years. The Gulf of Nagasaki
is bounded on the west by the island of Amakusa and by the promontory
of Shimabara. In the early years of Jesuit propagandism in Japan,
Shimabara and Amakusa had been the two most thoroughly Christianized
regions, and in later days they were naturally the scene of the
severest persecutions. Nevertheless, the people might have suffered
in silence, as did their fellow believers elsewhere, had they not
been taxed beyond endurance to supply funds for an extravagant
feudatory. Japanese annalists, however, relegate the taxation
grievance to an altogether secondary place, and attribute the revolt
solely to the instigation of five samurai who led a roving life to
avoid persecution for their adherence to Christianity. Whichever
version be correct, it is certain that the outbreak attracted all the
Christians from the surrounding regions, and was officially regarded
as a Christian rising. The Amakusa insurgents passed over from that
island to Shimabara, and on the 27th of January, 1638, the whole
body--numbering, according to some authorities, twenty thousand
fighting men with thirteen thousand women and children; according to
others, little more than one-half of these figures--took possession
of the dilapidated castle of Kara, which stood on a plateau with
three sides descending one hundred feet perpendicularly to the sea
and with a swamp on the fourth side.
The insurgents fought under flags inscribed with red crosses and
their battle cries were "Jesus," "Maria," and "St. Iago." They
defended the castle successfully against repeated assaults until the
12th of April, when, their provisions and their ammunition alike
being exhausted, they were overwhelmed and put to the sword, with the
exception of 105 prisoners. During this siege the Dutch gave
practical proof of their enmity to the Christianity of the Spaniards
and Portuguese. For, the guns in the possession of the besiegers
being too light to accomplish anything effective, application was
made to Koeckebacker, the Dutch factor at Hirado, to lend ships
carrying heavier metal. He complied by despatching the De Ryp, and
her twenty guns threw 426 shots into the castle in fifteen days.
There has been handed down a letter carried by an arrow from the
castle to the besiegers. It was not an appeal for mercy but a simple
enumeration of reasons:--
"For the sake of our people we have now resorted to this castle. You
will no doubt think that we have done this with the hope of taking
lands and houses. Such is by no means the case. It is simply because
Christianity is not tolerated as a distinct sect, which is well known
to you. Frequent prohibitions have been published by the shogun, to
our great distress. Some among us there are who consider the hope of
future life as of the highest importance. For these there is no
escape. Because they will not change their religion they incur
various kinds of severe punishments, being inhumanly subjected to
shame and extensive suffering, till at last for their devotion to the
Lord of Heaven, they are tortured to death. Others, even men of
resolution, solicitous for the sensitive body and dreading the
torture, have, while hiding their grief, obeyed the royal will and
recanted. Things continuing in this state, all the people have united
in an uprising in an unaccountable and miraculous manner. Should we
continue to live as heretofore and the above laws not be repealed, we
must incur all sorts of punishments hard to be endured; we must, our
bodies being weak and sensitive, sin against the infinite Lord of
Heaven and from solicitude for our brief lives incur the loss of what
we highly esteem. These things fill us with grief beyond endurance.
Hence we are in our present condition. It is not the result of a
corrupt doctrine."
It seems probable that of the remaining Japanese Christians the great
bulk perished at the massacre of Kara. Thenceforth there were few
martyrs, and though Christianity was not entirely extirpated in
Japan, it survived only in remote places and by stealth.
ENGRAVING: NANBAN BELL
ENGRAVING: THE "KAIYO KWAN," THE FIRST WARSHIP OF JAPAN (Built in
Holland for the Tokugawa Feudal Government)
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE
THE Tokugawa family traced its descent from Nitta Yoshishige of the
Minamoto sept (the Seiwa Genji) who flourished at the beginning of
the thirteenth century. His son's place of residence was at the
village of Tokugawa in Kotsuke province: hence the name, Tokugawa.
After a few generations, Chikauji, the then representative of the
family, had to fly to the village of Matsudaira in Mikawa province,
taking the name of Matsudaira. Gradually the family acquired
possession of about one-half of Mikawa province, and in the seventh
generation from Chikauji, the head of the house, Hirotada, crossing
swords with Oda Nobuhide, father of Nobunaga, sought succour from the
Imagawa family, to which he sent his son, Ieyasu, with fifty other
young samurai as hostages. This was in 1547, Ieyasu being then in his
fifth year.
On the way from Okazaki, which was the stronghold of Hirotada, the
party fell into the hands of Nobuhide's officers, and Ieyasu was
confined in a temple where he remained until 1559, when he obtained
permission to return to Okazaki, being then a vassal of the Imagawa
family. But when (1569) the Imagawa suffered defeat in the battle of
Okehazama, at the hands of Oda Nobunaga, Ieyasu allied himself with
the latter. In 1570, he removed to Hamamatsu, having subjugated the
provinces of Mikawa and Totomi. He was forty years old at the time of
Nobunaga's murder, and it has been shown above that he espoused the
cause of the Oda family in the campaign of Komak-yama. At forty-nine
he became master of the Kwanto and was in his fifty-sixth year when
Hideyoshi died. Ieyasu had nine sons: (1) Nobuyasu; (2) Hideyasu
(daimyo of Echizen); (3) Hidetada (second shoguri); (4) Tadayoshi
(daimyo of Kiyosu); (5) Nobuyoshi (daimyo of Mito); (6) Tadateru
(daimyo of Echigo); (7) Yoshinao (daimyo of Owari); (8) Yorinobu
(daimyo of Kii), and (9) Yorifusa (daimyo of Mito). He had also three
daughters; the first married to Okudaira Masanobu; the second to
Ikeda Terumasa, and the third to Asano Nagaakira.
EVENTS IMMEDIATELY PRIOR TO THE BATTLE OF SEKIGAHARA
The political complications that followed the death of the Taiko are
extremely difficult to unravel, and the result is not commensurate
with the trouble. Several annalists have sought to prove that Ieyasu
strenuously endeavoured to observe faithfully the oath of loyalty
made by him to Hideyoshi on the latter's death-bed. They claim for
him that until his hands were forced he steadfastly and faithfully
worked in the interests of Hideyoshi. But his acts do not lend
themselves to any such interpretation. The best that can be said of
him is that he believed himself to have been entrusted by the Taiko
with discretionary power to determine the expediency of Hideyori's
succession, and that he exercised that power in the interests of the
Tokugawa family, not of the Toyotomi.
Circumstances helped him as they do generally help great men. From
the time of the birth of the lady Yodo's second son, the official
world in Kyoto had been divided into two factions. The Hidetsugu
catastrophe accentuated the lines of division, and the Korean
campaign had a similar effect by affording a field for bitter rivalry
between the forces of Konishi Yukinaga, who belonged to the Yodo
faction, and Kato Kiyomasa, who was a protege of Hideyoshi's wife,
Yae. Further fuel was added to this fire of antagonism when the order
went forth that the army should leave Korea, for the Kato faction
protested against surrendering all the fruits of the campaign without
any tangible recompense, and the Konishi party insisted that the
Taiko's dying words must be obeyed implicitly. In this dispute,
Ishida Katsushige, the chief actor in the Hidetsugu tragedy, took a
prominent part. For, when in their capacity as belonging to the Board
of Five Administrators, Ishida and Asano Nagamasa were sent to Kyushu
to superintend the evacuation of the Korean peninsula, they, too,
fell into a controversy on the same subject. Ieyasu stood aloof from
both parties. His policy was to let the feud develop and to step in
himself at the supreme moment.
On the other hand, it was the aim of Ishida Katsushige to involve the
Tokugawa chief, thus compassing his downfall and opening an avenue
for the ascension of Ishida himself to the place of dictator. Allied
with Ishida in this plot was his colleague on the Board of Five
Administrators, Masuda Nagamori. Their method was to create enmity
between Ieyasu and Maeda Toshiiye, to whom the Taiko had entrusted
the guardianship of Hideyori and of the Osaka Castle. This design was
barely thwarted by the intervention of Hosokawa Tadaoki (ancestor of
the present Marquis Hosokawa). Ieyasu was well informed as to
Ishida's schemes on two other occasions; the first immediately
before, the second just after, the death of the Taiko. In each case
rumours of an armed outbreak were suddenly circulated in Fushimi for
the purpose of creating confusion such as might furnish an
opportunity to strike suddenly at Ieyasu. These essays failed in both
instances, and the Tokugawa chief, instead of retaliating by direct
impeachment of Ishida, applied himself to cementing close relations
with certain great daimyo by matrimonial alliances. Such unions had
been implicitly interdicted by the Taiko, and the procedure of Ieyasu
elicited a written protest from the boards of the Five Senior
Ministers and the Five Administrators. They threatened Ieyasu with
dismissal from the former board unless he furnished a satisfactory
explanation. This he declined to do and for some time a very strained
situation existed in Kyoto, an armed struggle being ultimately
averted by the good offices of the Three Middle Ministers.
It was evident, however, that the circumstances had become critical,
and it was further evident that, as long as Ishida Katsushige's
intrigues continued, a catastrophe might at any moment be
precipitated. Sensible of these things, a party of loyal men, spoken
of in history as the "seven generals"--Ikeda Terumasa (ancestor of
the present Marquis Ikeda); Kato Kiyomasa; Kuroda Nagamasa (son of
Kuroda Yoshitaka, and ancestor of the present Marquis Kuroda);
Fukushima Masanori, Asano Yukinaga (son of Asano Nagamasa and
ancestor of the present Marquis Asano); Hosokawa Tadaoki, and Kato
Yoshiaki (ancestor of the present Viscount Kato)--vowed to take
Ishida's life, while he was still in Osaka Castle, whither he had
gone (1599) to attend the death-bed of his friend, Maeda Toshiiye.
Ishida, finding himself powerless to resist such a combination after
the death of Maeda, took an extraordinary step; he appealed to the
protection of Ieyasu--that is to say, to the protection of the very
man against whom all his plots had been directed. And Ieyasu
protected him.
We are here confronted by a riddle which has never been clearly
interpreted. Why did Ishida seek asylum from Ieyasu whom he had
persistently intrigued to overthrow, and why did Ieyasu, having full
knowledge of these intrigues, grant asylum? Possibly an answer to the
former question can be furnished by the fact that Ishida was in sore
straits. Attending Maeda Toshiiye's death-bed, he had seen the
partisans of the deceased baron transfer their allegiance to Ieyasu
through the intervention of Hosokawa Tadaoki, and he had learned that
his own life was immediately threatened by the seven generals. Even
if he succeeded (which was very problematical) in escaping from Osaka
to his own castle of Sawa-yama, in Omi province, the respite could
have been but brief and such a step would have been equivalent to
abandoning the political arena. Only a very strong arm could save
him, and with consummate insight he may have appreciated the Tokugawa
chief's unreadiness to precipitate a crucial struggle by consenting
to his death.
But what is to be said of Ieyasu? Unwilling to admit that his
astuteness could ever have been at fault, some historians allege that
the Tokugawa chief saved Ishida's life with the deliberate purpose of
letting him discredit himself and his partisans by continued
intrigues. These annalists allege, in fact, that Ieyasu, acting on
the advice of Honda Masanobu, by whose profound shrewdness he was
largely guided, saved the life of Ishida in order that the latter's
subsequent intrigues might furnish a pretext for destroying Hideyori.
That, however, is scarcely conceivable, for Ishida had many powerful
confederates, and the direct outcome of the leniency shown by Ieyasu
on that occasion was an armed struggle from which he barely emerged
victorious. The truth seems to be that, for all his profound wisdom,
Ieyasu erred in this instance. Ishida Kotsushige outwitted him. For,
during the very days of his asylum in Fushimi, under the protection
of Ieyasu, Ishida opened secret communication with Uesugi Kagekatsu
and invited him to strike at the Tokugawa. Uesugi consented. It must
be observed that the character of Ishida has been portrayed for
posterity mainly by historians who were under Tokugawa influence.
Modern and impartial annalists are by no means so condemnatory in
their judgment of the man. In whatever arts of deception Ishida
excelled, Ieyasu was at least his equal; while in the matter of
loyalty to the Toyotomi family, Ishida's conduct compares favourably
with that of the Tokugawa leader; and if we look at the men who
attached themselves to Ishida's cause and fought by his side, we are
obliged to admit that he must have been highly esteemed by his
contemporaries, or, at any rate, that they recognized in him the
champion of Hideyori, at whose father's hands they had received such
benefits.
ORGANIZATION OF THE JAPANESE EMPIRE AT THE CLOSE OF THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY
The realm of Japan was then held by 214 feudatories, each having an
annual income of at least 10,000 koku (omitting minor landowners).
These 214 estates yielded to their holders a total income of nearly
nineteen million koku, and of that aggregate the domains of the five
noblemen forming the Board of Senior Statesmen constituted one-third.
Tokugawa Ieyasu was the wealthiest. His domains in the eight
provinces forming the Kwanto yielded an income of 2,557,000 koku.
Next on the list came Mori Terumoto with 2,205,000 koku, and Uesugi
Kagekatsu with 1,200,000 koku. The latter two were partisans of
Ishida. But direct communication between their forces was difficult,
for while the Mori domains covered the nine provinces on the extreme
west of the main island, Uesugi's lay on the north of the Kwanto,
whence they stretched to the shore of the Japan Sea. Fourth and fifth
on the Board of Senior Statesmen were Maeda Toshiiye, whose fief
(835,000 koku) occupied Kaga and Etchu; and Ukita Hideiye (574,000
koku), whose castle stood at Oka-yama, in Bizen. All these, except
Maeda embraced the anti-Tokugawa cause of Ishida Katsushige, and it
thus becomes easy to understand the desire of Ishida to win over
Maeda Toshinaga, son of Toshiiye, to his camp. On the side of
Ieyasu's foes were also marshalled Shimazu Yoshihisa, feudal chief of
Satsuma (700,000 koku); Satake Yoshinobu of Hitachi province (545,700
koku); Konishi Yukinaga in Higo (200,000 koku), who was counted one
of the greatest captains of the era, and, nominally, Kohayakawa
Hideaki in Chikuzen (522,500 koku). With Ieyasu were the powerful
daimyo: Date Masamune of Sendai (580,000 koku); Kato Kiyomasa of
Kumamoto (250,000 koku); Hosokawa Tadaoki of Tango (230,000 koku);
Ikeda Terumasa of Mikawa (152,000 koku), and Kuroda Nagamasa of
Chikuzen (250,000 koku). This analysis omits minor names.
BATTLE OF SEKIGAHARA
The plan of campaign formed by Ishida and his confederates was that
Uesugi and Satake should attack the Kwanto from the north and the
east simultaneously, while Mori and Ukita should move against Fushimi
and occupy Kyoto. In May, 1600, Ieyasu went through the form of
requiring Uesugi to repair to Kyoto and explain his obviously
disaffected preparations. The reply sent by Uesugi was defiant.
Therefore, the Tokugawa chief proceeded to mobilize his own and his
allies' forces. He seems to have clearly foreseen that if he himself
moved eastward to Yedo, Momo-yama would be assaulted in his absence.
But it being necessary to simulate trust in Mori and Ukita, then
nominally his supporters, he placed in Momo-yama Castle a garrison of
only two thousand men under his old and staunch friend, Torii
Mototada. Ieyasu planned that Uesugi should be attacked
simultaneously from five directions; namely from Sendai by Date; from
Kaga by Maeda; from Dewa by Mogami; from Echigo by Hori, and from
Hitachi by Satake. But among these five armies that of Satake
declared for Ishida, while those of Maeda and Hori were constrained
to adopt a defensive attitude by the menace of hostile barons in
their vicinity, and thus it fell out that Date and Mogami alone
operated effectively in the cause of Ieyasu.
The Tokugawa chief himself lost no time in putting his troops in
motion for Yedo, where, at the head of some sixty thousand men, he
arrived in August, 1600, his second in command being his third son,
Hidetada. Thence he pushed rapidly northward with the intention of
attacking Uesugi. But at Oyama in Shimotsuke news reached him that
Ishida and his partisans had drawn the sword in the west, and had
seized Osaka, together with the wives and families of several of the
captains who were with Ieyasu's army. A council was immediately held
and these captains were given the option of continuing to serve under
Ieyasu or retiring to join the western army and thus ensuring the
safety of their own families. They chose the former, and the council
further decided that, leaving Date and Mogami to deal with Uesugi and
Satake, and posting for the same purpose at Utsunomiya, Hideyasu,
second son of Ieyasu, the main army should countermarch to meet the
western forces at some point remote from Yedo.
The Tokugawa battalions, following two routes--the Tokaido and the
Nakasendo--made rapid progress westward, and on September 21st, the
van of the division under Fukushima and Ikeda reached Kiyosu. But the
Nakasendo column of thirty-eight thousand men under Hidetada
encountered such desperate resistance before the castle of Ueda, at
the hands of Sanada Masayuki, that it did not reach Sekigahara until
the great battle was over. Meanwhile, the western army had pushed
steadily eastward. Its first exploit was to capture and burn the
Momo-yama castle, which was splendidly defended by the veteran Torii
Mototada, then in his sixty-second year. With a garrison of only two
thousand men he held at bay during eleven days an investing force of
forty thousand. The torch was set to the castle on the 8th of
September by traitors in the garrison, and Mototada committed
suicide. Thereafter, the van of the western army advanced to Gifu
along the Nakasendo, and the main body, making a detour through Ise,
ultimately pushed forward into Mino.
With this army were no less than forty-three generals of renown, and
the number of feudal barons, great and small, who sent troops to
swell its ranks was thirty-one. Undoubtedly these barons were
partially influenced by the conception generally prevalent that the
fortunes of the two great families of Toyotomi and Tokugawa depended
on the issue of this struggle. But it must also be admitted that had
Ishida Katsushige been as black as the Tokugawa historians paint him,
he could never have served for the central figure of such an array.
He is seen inciting the besiegers of Momo-yama Castle to their
supreme and successful effort. He is seen winning over to the
Toyotomi cause baron after baron. He is seen leading the advance of
the western army's van. And he is seen fighting to the end in the
great battle which closed the campaign. Some heroic qualities must
have accompanied his gift of statesmanship. The nominal leader of the
western army, which mustered 128,000 strong, was Mori Terumoto, and
under him were ranged Ukita Hideiye, Mori Hidemoto, Shimazu
Yoshihiro, Konishi Yukinaga, and many other captains of repute. Under
the Tokugawa banners there marched 75,000 men, their van led by Ii
Naomasa and Honda Tadakatsu.
On October 21, 1600, the great battle of Sekigahara was fought. The
strategy on the side of the western forces was excellent. Their units
were disposed along a crescent-shaped line recessed from the enemy,
so that an attacking army, unless its numerical strength was greatly
superior, had to incur the risk of being enveloped from both
flanks--a risk much accentuated by the fact that these flanking
troops occupied high ground. But on the side of the western army
there was a feature of weakness which no strategy could remove: all
the battalions constituting the right wing were pledged to espouse
the cause of Ieyasu at the crisis of the struggle. There were six of
these battalions, large or small, and they were commanded by Akakura,
Ogawa, Kuchiki, Wakizaka, Kohayakawa, and Kikkawa. Thus, not only
were the eastern troops able to deliver their attack in full force
against the centre and left of their foes, but also the latter were
exposed to the most demoralizing of all eventualities, treachery.
After a fierce fight the western army was completely defeated. Some
accounts put its losses at 35,000 men; others, with greater
probability, estimating that only 100,000 men were actually engaged
on both sides--namely, 60,000 on the Tokugawa side, and 40,000 on the
Toyotomi--conclude that the losses were 6000 and 9000, respectively.
Shimazu of Satsuma, at the head of a handful of samurai, cut his way
through the lines of Ieyasu, and reaching Osaka, embarked hastily for
Kyushu. Ishida Katsushige lay concealed in a cave for a few days, but
was ultimately seized and beheaded, in company with Konishi Yukinaga
and Ankokuji Ekei, at the execution ground in Kyoto. This one battle
ended the struggle: there was no rally. Punishment followed quickly
for the feudatories who had fought against the Tokugawa. Thus Mori
Terumoto's domain, originally covering eight provinces and yielding a
revenue of 1,205,000 koku, was reduced to the two provinces of Suwo
and Nagato, yielding 300,000 koku. The three provinces of Ukita
Hideiye were entirely forfeited, and he himself was banished to the
island Hachijoshima. Oda Hidenobu, grandson of Nobunaga, Masuda
Nagamori, and Sanada Masayuki, with his son, were ordered to take the
tonsure and retire to the monastery of Koya-san. The fief of Uesugi
Kagekatsu was reduced from 1,200,000 koku in Aizu to 300,000 koku in
Yonezawa; and the 800,000 koku of the Satake family in Hitachi were
exchanged for 200,000 koku in Akita. Only the Shimazu family of
Satsuma remained without loss. Secured by inaccessibility, it
continued to hold the provinces of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga, with a
revenue of 700,000 koku.
REDISTRIBUTION OF THE FIEFS
These measures represented only a fraction of the readjustments then
effected. Ieyasu, following the example, set on a small scale by the
Taiko, parcelled out the country in such a manner as to provide
security against future trouble. Dividing the feudatories into
hereditary vassals (fudai no kerai) and exterior nobles (tozama), he
assigned to the former small but greatly increased estates situated
so as to command the main highways as well as the great cities of
central Japan, and he located the exterior nobles--many of them with
largely reduced domains--in districts remote not only from Yedo and
Kyoto but also from each other, wherever such method of distribution
was possible. Moreover, in the most important places--as Osaka,
Fushimi, Sakai, Nagasaki, Yamada (in Ise), and Sado (the gold mines),
there were appointed administrators (bugyo), direct nominees of the
Tokugawa; while Kyoto was put under the sway of a deputy of the
shogun (shoshidai). Again, although the tozama daimyo received
tolerably munificent treatment in the matter of estates, their
resources were seriously crippled by the imposition of costly public
works. These works consisted mainly of restoring dilapidated castles
or building new ones on a scale so colossal as to be exceeded by only
the stronghold at Osaka. It is recorded that when Fukushima Masanori,
lord of Kiyosu in Owari, complained of the crippling effects of these
severe requisitions, Kato Kiyomasa told him that there was no
alternative except to retire to his castle and defy Yedo. The most
costly of the edifices that came into existence in these
circumstances was the castle of Nagoya, which is still one of the
wonders of Japan. Twenty great barons took part in erecting it; the
leading artists of the time were engaged in its interior decoration,
and the roof of its donjon was crowned with, two gold dolphins,
measuring nearly nine feet in height.
IEYASU BECOMES SHOGUN
On the 28th of March, 1603, the Emperor nominated Ieyasu to be
minister of the Right and sei-i tai-shogun, presenting to him at the
same time the conventional ox-chariot and military baton. Nine days
later, the Tokugawa chief repaired to the palace to return thanks for
these honours. The Emperor with his own hands gave him the
drinking-cup and expressed profound gratification that through his
military skill the wars which had convulsed the nation were ended,
and the foundations of the empire's peace securely laid. Ieyasu was
then in his sixty-second year. In the following May, Hideyori was
made nai-daijin, and in the same month a marriage was contracted
between him, then in his eleventh year, and Tenju-in, the
seven-year-old daughter of Hidetada, son and successor of Ieyasu.
YEDO AND KYOTO
Ieyasu now took up his residence at Momo-yama Castle and Hidetada was
ordered to live in Yedo. But the former made it a custom to go
eastward every autumn on the pretext of enjoying the sport of
falconry, and to remain in Yedo until the next spring. In February,
1605, the Tokugawa chief's return to Kyoto from the Kwanto capital
was made the occasion of a great military display. Both Ieyasu and
Hidetada travelled at the same time with a following of 170,000
soldiers, who were encamped outside the city whence they marched in,
ten thousand daily, during seventeen consecutive days. This martial
parade is said to have produced a great effect upon the nobles of the
Kinai and the western provinces. But Ieyasu did not long retain the
office of shogun. In 1605, he conveyed to the Imperial Court his
desire to be relieved of military functions, in favour of his son
Hidetada, and the Emperor at once consented, so that Hidetada
succeeded to all the offices of his father, and Ieyasu retired to the
castle of Sumpu, the capital of Suruga. His income was thenceforth
reduced to 120,000 koku annually, derived from estates in the
provinces of Mino, Ise, and Omi. But this retirement was in form
rather than in fact. All administrative affairs, great or small, were
managed in Sumpu, the shogun in Yedo exercising merely the power of
sanction. Ieyasu made, frequent journeys to Yedo under the pretext of
hawking but in reality for government purposes.
THE YEDO BAKUFU
It was on the 30th of August, 1590, that Ieyasu made his first formal
entry into Yedo from Sumpu. Yedo Castle had previously been occupied
by an agent of the Hojo clan. It was very small, and its surroundings
consisted of barren plains and a few fishing villages. On the
northwest was the moor of Musashi, and on the southeast a forest of
reeds marked the littoral of Yedo Bay. The first task that devolved
upon Ieyasu was the reclamation of land for building purposes. Some
substantial work was done, yet the place did not suggest any fitness
for the purpose of an administrative centre, and not until the battle
of Sekigahara placed him in command of immense resources, did Ieyasu
decide to make Yedo his capital. He then had large recourse to labour
requisitioned from the feudatories. By these means hills were
levelled, swamps reclaimed, and embankments built, so that the whole
aspect of the region was changed, and sites were provided for the
residences of various barons and for the establishment of shops and
stores whose owners flocked to the new city from Osaka, Kyoto, and
other towns. Thereafter, a castle of colossal dimensions, exceeding
even the Osaka fortress in magnitude and magnificence, was rapidly
constructed, the feudatories being required to supply labour and
materials in a measure which almost overtaxed their resources.
Historians differ as to the exact date of the establishment of the
Yedo Bakufu, but the best authorities are agreed that the event should
be reckoned from the battle of Sekigahara, since then, for the first
time, the administrative power came into the hand of the Tokugawa
baron, he having previously been simply the head of a board
instituted by the Taiko. There can be no doubt, that in choosing Yedo
for his capital, Ieyasu was largely guided by the example of Yoritomo
and by the experience of the Ashikaga. Kamakura had been a success as
signal as Muromachi had been a failure. In the former, Ieyasu had
much to imitate; in the latter, much to avoid. We have seen that he
distributed the estates of the feudatories so as to create a system
automatically unfavourable to disturbance, in which contrivance he
borrowed and extended the ideas of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. It remains
to note that what Hojo Tokimasa and Oye Hiromoto were to Minamoto
Yoritomo as advisers and organizers, and what Ashikaga Tadayoshi and
Kono Moronao were to Ashikaga Takauji in the same roles, such, also,
were Honda Masanobu and Honda Masazumi to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
HIDEYORI AND IEYASU
In May, 1605, Hideyori was nominated u-daijin. At that time the
nation was divided pretty evenly into two factors; one obedient to
the Tokugawa, the other disposed to await Hideyori's coming of age,
which event was expected to restore the authority of the Toyotomi
family. Fukushima Masanori and Kato Kiyomasa were the most
enthusiastic believers in the latter forecast. Up to that time Ieyasu
had not given any definite indication of the attitude he intended to
assume towards the Taiko's heir. It was not till the year 1611 that
he found an opportunity of forming a first-hand estimate of
Hideyori's character. He then had a meeting with the latter at Nijo
Castle, and is said to have been much struck with the bearing and
intelligence of Hideyori. In fact, whereas common report had spoken
in very disparaging terms of the young man's capacities--Hideyori was
then seventeen years old--the Tokugawa chief found a dignified and
alert lad whose aspect suggested that if he was suffered to remain in
possession of Osaka a few years longer, Yedo would run the risk of
being relegated to a secondary place.
Ieyasu after that interview is said to have felt like "a man who,
having still a long distance to travel, finds himself enveloped in
darkness." He saw that the time for considering justice and humanity
had passed, and he summoned Honda Masanobu to whom he said: "I see
that Hideyori is grown up to be a son worthy of his father. By and by
it will be difficult for such a man to remain subservient to
another." Masanobu, whom history describes as the "Tokugawa's
storehouse of wisdom," is recorded to have replied: "So I, too,
think, but there is no cause for anxiety. I have an idea." What this
idea was events soon disclosed. Summoning one of the officials in the
service of Hideyori's wife--Hidetada's daughter--Masanobu spoke as
follows: "Hideyori is the only son of the late Taiko and it is the
desire of the O-gosho" (the title given to Ieyasu after his
retirement from the shogunate) "that he, Hideyori, should have a
numerous and thriving family. Therefore, if any woman takes his
fancy, she must be enrolled among his attendants to whatever class
she may belong. Moreover, if there be among these ladies any who show
jealousies or make disturbances, no complaint need be preferred to
the O-gosho. I will undertake to settle the matter."
From that time Hideyori lived among women. A word may here be said
about the marriage between Hideyori and the granddaughter of Ieyasu,
the bride and the bridegroom alike being mere children. According to
a recognized historical authority, writing in the Tokugawa Jidaishi,
such marriages were inspired by one or more of the following motives:
(1) that the bride or bridegroom should serve as a hostage; (2) that
the wedding should contribute to cement an alliance between the
families of the bride and the bridegroom; (3) that the wedding should
become a means of spying into the affairs of one of the families; (4)
that it should be an instrument for sowing seeds of enmity between
the two families. The objects of Ieyasu in wedding his granddaughter
at seven years of age to Hideyori at eleven were doubtless of the
nature indicated in the third and fourth of the above definitions. On
the one hand, he seemed to the Osaka party to be conforming to the
will of the Taiko; on the other, he was able to introduce into the
household of Hideyori an unlimited number of spies among the retinue
of his granddaughter.
KATAGIRI KATSUMOTO
Just before his death, Hideyoshi specially conjured Koide Hidemasa
and Katagiri Katsumoto to labour for the safety of the Toyotomi
family. Hidemasa soon followed his patron to the grave, and the duty
of managing the affairs of the family devolved entirely upon
Katsumoto in his capacity of administrator (bugyo). He devoted
himself to the task with the utmost sincerity and earnestness, and he
made it the basic principle of his policy to preserve harmony between
the Tokugawa and the Toyotomi. His belief was that Ieyasu had not
many years more to live, and that on his demise the administrative
power would revert wholly to Hideyori as a natural consequence. Hence
the wisest course was to avoid any collision in the meanwhile.
THE OATH OF FEALTY
On the 14th of May, 1601, that is to say, shortly after the battle of
Sekigahara, all the feudatories were invited to subscribe a written
oath of loyalty to the Tokugawa. This oath consisted of three
articles. The first was a promise to observe strictly all
instructions issued by the Bakufu in Yedo. The second was an
engagement not to harbour or protect any person who had either
violated or opposed the will of the shogun. The third was a pledge
not to give employment to any samurai reported to be a traitor or an
assassin. By these stipulations the signatories swore to abide
strictly, and declared that any violation of the provisions of the
oath would render the violator liable to severe punishment. Among the
signatories there were not found any members of the Osaka party.
These put forward the last will of the Taiko as a reason for refusing
to sign, and from that time it became evident that the situation must
terminate in an armed struggle.
ONO HARUNAGA
Among the Osaka partisans was one called Ono Harunaga, the son of the
lady Yodo's nurse. This youth led a life of great profligacy, and
although not wanting in any of the attributes of the samurai, he
altogether lacked political insight. Thus, his relations with
Katsumoto were strained, and Harunaga constantly essayed to undermine
Katsumoto's influence. Hideyori himself did not want for ability, but
acting by the advice of his mother, Yodo, and of his friend,
Harunaga, he adopted a false policy of opposition to Ieyasu.
STATE OF OSAKA
The fact that the feudatories who called themselves friends of the
Osaka party had refused to sign the oath of fealty, and the fact that
the lady Yodo and Harunaga threw their influence into the
anti-Tokugawa scale, had the effect of isolating Osaka so far as the
laws of the Bakufu were concerned. Men who had broken those laws or
otherwise offended against the shogun took refuge in Osaka. Such was
the case with the son of Hosokawa Tadaoki; with Goto Matabei, chief
vassal of Kuroda Nagamasa, and with Nambu Saemon, principal retainer
of Nambu Nobunao. These three and many others repaired to the castle
of Osaka, and being there secure against any unarmed attempt of the
Tokugawa to arrest them, they virtually defied Ieyasu's control. By
degrees a constant stream of ronin, or free-lances, flowed into that
city, and a conspicuous element among its inhabitants consisted of
Christian feudatories, who, regardless of the edicts of the Bakufu,
openly preached their faith and were in no wise checked by the
Toyotomi rulers. Even the Buddhist and Shinto priests in Osaka and
its territories were independent of the Bakufu authority, and there
were cases of boundary disputes in which the Tokugawa officials
declined to give judgment since they were not in a position to
enforce it. It may well be supposed that this state of affairs grew
steadily more obnoxious to the Tokugawa. Ieyasu only awaited a
pretext to assert the supremacy of his authority.
INSCRIPTION ON THE BELL
It has already been stated that, in the year 1586, a colossal image
of Buddha was erected by Hideyoshi at the Hoko-ji in Kyoto. This idol
was made of wood, and the great earthquake of 1596 destroyed it.
Subsequently, Ieyasu advised Hideyori to replace the wooden idol with
a bronze one. Ono Harunaga stood opposed to this idea, but Katagiri
Katsumoto, constant to his policy of placating Ieyasu, threw his
influence into the other scale. It is impossible to tell whether, in
making this proposal, Ieyasu had already conceived the extraordinary
scheme which he ultimately carried out. It would appear more
probable, however, that his original policy was merely to impoverish
the Toyotomi family by imposing upon it the heavy outlay necessary
for constructing a huge bronze Buddha. Many thousands of ryo had to
be spent, and the money was obtained by converting into coin a number
of gold ingots in the form of horses, which Hideyoshi had stored in
the treasury of the Osaka castle as a war fund. Five years later,
that is to say, in 1614, the great image was completed and an
imposing ceremony of dedication was organized. A thousand priests
were to take part, and all the people in the capital, as well as many
from the surrounding provinces, assembled to witness the magnificent
fete. Suddenly an order was issued in the name of Ieyasu,
interdicting the consummation of the ceremony on the ground that the
inscription carried by the bell for the idol's temple was designedly
treasonable to the Tokugawa. This inscription had been composed and
written by a high Buddhist prelate, Seikan, reputed to be one of the
greatest scholars and most skilful calligraphists of his time.
It was inconceivable that such a man should err flagrantly in the use
of the ideographic script. Ieyasu, however, despatched to Kyoto two
rival prelates, Soden and Tengai, with instructions to convoke a
meeting of the priests of the Five Temples and invite them to express
an opinion about the inscription. Soden held the post of
administrator of temples. This placed him officially at the head of
all the other priests, and thus the opinions he expressed at the
instance of Ieyasu possessed special weight. It was in vain that
Seikan repudiated all intention of disrespect and pointed out that
the inscription did not for a moment lend itself to the
interpretation read into it by the Tokugawa chief. Only one priest,
Kaizan of Myoshin-ji, had sufficient courage to oppose Soden's view,
and the cause of the Tokugawa chief triumphed.
Without a full knowledge of the Chinese ideographic script it is
impossible to clearly understand either the charges preferred by the
Tokugawa or the arguments employed in rebuttal. Western readers may,
however, confidently accept the unanimous verdict of all modern
scholars, that the interpretation assigned to the inscription in the
first place by the Tokugawa officials, and in the second by Hayashi
Doshun, representing the Confucianists, and Soden and Tengai,
representing the Buddhists, was grossly unreasonable. That many
experts should be found to range themselves on the side of a ruler so
powerful as Ieyasu was not wonderful, but it says little for the
moral independence of the men of the time that only one Buddhist
priest among many thousand had the courage to withhold his consent to
a judgment which outraged truth and justice.
Naturally the news of the decision threw Osaka into a state of great
excitement. Lady Yodo hastened to despatch to Sumpu her principal
lady-in-waiting, Okura-no-Tsubone, accompanied by another dame of the
chamber. These two were received by Acha-no-Tsubone at the court of
Ieyasu, and through her they conveyed fervent apologies to the
Tokugawa chief. Ieyasu treated the whole matter lightly. He granted
an interview to the two ladies from Osaka and sent them on to Yedo to
visit the wife of Hidetada, the lady Yodo's younger sister. The Osaka
deputies naturally drew favourable inferences from this courteous
mood, and taking an opportunity to refer to the affair of the
inscription on the bell, elicited from Ieyasu an assurance that the
matter need not be regarded with concern.
Not for a moment suspecting any deception, Okura-no-Tsubone and her
companion took their way to Osaka. On the other hand, Honda Masanobu
and the priest, Tengai, were instructed to inform Katsumoto that the
umbrage of Ieyasu was deeply roused, and that some very strong
measure would be necessary to restore the Bakufu's confidence in
Hideyori. Katsumoto vainly sought some definite statement as to the
nature of the reparation required. He was merely told to answer the
question himself. He accordingly proposed one of three courses,
namely, that the lady Yodo should be sent to Yedo as a hostage; that
Hideyori should leave Osaka and settle at some other castle; or,
finally, that he should acknowledge himself a vassal of the Tokugawa.
To these proposals the only reply that could be elicited from Ieyasu
was that Yodo and her son should choose whichever course they
pleased, and, bearing that answer, the disquieting import of which he
well understood, Katsumoto set out from Sumpu for Osaka. Travelling
rapidly, he soon overtook Okwra-no-Tsubone and explained to her the
events and their import. But the lady was incredulous. She was more
ready to suspect Katsumoto's sincerity than to believe that Ieyasu
had meant to deceive her.
Had Katsumoto been free to continue his journey to Osaka, reaching it
in advance of Okura-no-Tsubone's party, the result might have been
different. But Ieyasu did not contemplate any such sequence of
events. He instructed Itakura Katsushige to invite Katsumoto to call
at Kyoto on the way to Osaka with the object of discussing an
important affair. Katsumoto had no choice but to delay his journey,
and Katsushige took care that the delay should be long enough to
afford time for Okura-no-Tsubone's party to reach Osaka, and to
present their report, together with their suspicions of Katsumoto's
disloyalty.
Lady Yodo was incensed when she learned the terms that Katsumoto had
offered. "I am Hideyori's mother," she is reported to have cried. "I
will never bend my knee to the Kwanto. Rather will I and my son make
this castle our death-pillow." Then, with Ono Harunaga, she formed a
plot to kill Katsumoto and to draw the sword against the Tokugawa.
Subsequently, when Katsumoto returned to Osaka and reported the
result of his mission, he stated his conviction that the only exit
from the dilemma was one of the three courses indicated above.
Yodogimi, on being informed of this opinion, intimated her desire to
see Katsumoto. But when the day named for the meeting came and
Katsumoto was on the point of leaving his residence for the purpose
of repairing to the conference, he received information that the
intention was to kill him en route. He therefore fled to his domain
in the remote province of Ibaraki. It is recorded that Katsumoto's
plan was to offer to send Yodo as a hostage to Yedo. Then the
question would arise as to a place of residence for her in the
eastern capital, and the processes of preparing a site and building a
house were to be supplemented by accidental conflagrations, so that
the septuagenarian, Ieyasu, might easily pass away before the actual
transfer of the hostage took place. Such was Katsumoto's device, but
he had to flee from Osaka before he could carry it into effect.
THE SIEGE OF OSAKA CASTLE
In the year 1614, Ieyasu issued orders for the attack of Osaka
Castle, on the ground that Katsumoto's promise had not been
fulfilled. The Tokugawa chief set out from Sumpu and his son,
Hidetada, from Yedo. Their armies, combined with the forces of
several of the feudatories, are said to have aggregated one hundred
and fifty thousand men. In Osaka, also, a great host was assembled,
and among its leaders were several renowned warriors, including
Sanada Yukimura, Goto Matabei, Hanawa Naotsugu, and others, who,
although not originally vassals of the Toyotomi, supported Hideyori
loyally. As for the castle, its enormous strength rendered it
well-nigh impregnable, and after weeks of effort the Tokugawa forces
had nothing to show for their repeated attacks except a long list of
casualties.
Ieyasu now had recourse to intrigue. The mother of Kyogoku Takatsugu,
daimyo of Obama, in Wakasa, was the younger sister of the lady Yodo.
Ieyasu induced her to open communications with Yodo, and to represent
to the latter the advisability of concluding peace with the Tokugawa
instead of remaining perpetually beleaguered in a fortress, thus
merely postponing an end which could not be finally averted. A
council was convened in the castle to consider this advice. Opinions
were divided. Some held that Ieyasu could not be believed, and that
if the struggle were maintained for a few years, the face of affairs
might change radically. Others urged that the loyalty of the garrison
was not above suspicion, and that if the fight went on much longer,
treachery might be practised, to which risk a speedy peace, even at
some cost, would be preferable. Ono Harunaga was among the advocates
of surrender, but Hideyori himself showed that his character had not
been mistaken by Ieyasu. He indignantly reminded Harunaga and the
latter's fellow thinkers that arms had been taken up by their advice
and in opposition to the loyal efforts of Katsumoto in the cause of
peace.
Lady Yodo, however, threw her influence into the scale with Ono
Harunaga, and finally peace was concluded on terms highly favourable
to the Toyotomi. It was agreed that Hideyori should remain in the
possession of the castle and of all his domains, and that the
garrison, as well as the unattached samurai who formed part of it,
should not be punished but should be provided for subsequently. It
might have occurred to the leaders of the Osaka party that these
lenient conditions covered some occult designs; nothing was less
likely than that a statesman like Ieyasu would be content with so
signal a failure. But a short-sighted sentiment of confidence seems
to have obscured the judgment of the Osaka folks. They actually gave
heed to Ieyasu's complaint that he, the o-gosho, and his son, the
shogun, must not be allowed to have taken so much trouble for
nothing; that it was customary to give hostages to an army which
agreed to raise a siege, and that at least a portion of the castle's
defences should be destroyed. As to the last point, the Tokugawa
chief was kind enough to say that the work of demolition should not
cost the garrison anything, since labour would be supplied gratis by
the shoguni.
After considerable correspondence it was agreed that Harunaga's son
should go to Yedo as a hostage, and that a portion of the outer moat
of Osaka Castle should be filled up. Ieyasu did not lose a moment in
giving effect to this latter provision. He ordered some of the fudai
daimyo of the Kwanto to proceed to Osaka with several thousands of
men, who should go to work forthwith to tear down the parapets and
fill up the moats of the castle. These orders were implicitly obeyed,
and as Ieyasu had omitted to indicate any limit for the work of
destruction, it went on without check, and presently the second line
of parapets began to follow the first. The Osaka leaders protested
and essayed to stay the destruction. But the officers who were in
command of the operation said that without a direct message from
Honda Masazumi, who represented Ieyasu, they could not suspend their
task. Efforts were then made to approach Honda, but he was
conveniently absent "on account of his health," and the ensuing
correspondence occupied several days, during which the pulling-down
and filling-up went on by day and by night. More than one-half of the
second moat had disappeared before Masazumi could be found. His
answer was that he had been merely told to fill up the moat. Possibly
he had mistaken the scope of his instructions and he would refer the
matter to Ieyasu. This involved further delay and more filling,
until, finally, Masazumi acknowledged that he had made a mistake,
declared himself prepared to undergo punishment, and withdrew his men
to Fushimi.
Ieyasu supplied the sequel of the farce. When complaint was made
against Masazumi, the Tokugawa leader simulated astonishment,
expressed much regret, and said that he would condemn Masazumi to
commit suicide were it permissible to mar this happy occasion by any
capital sentence. "Peace," declared the astute old statesman, "has
now been fortunately concluded. Let us not talk any more about the
castle's moats or parapets." Against such an attitude the Osaka men
could not enter any protest, and the farce ended there. Had the Osaka
leaders possessed any measure of the wisdom that marked all the
doings of Ieyasu, they would not have suffered matters to rest at
such a stage. But they foolishly imagined that some retaliation might
be effected by calling upon the Tokugawa to supplement that part of
the peace provisions which related to allowances for the samurai who
had fought on the side of the garrison. A demand in that sense was
preferred to Ieyasu. But he had now laid aside his transient suavity.
The Osaka people were brusquely informed that they must look to the
Toyotomi family for recompense, and that as for rewarding unattached
samurai who had drawn the sword against the shogun, the Osaka people,
were they obedient to the dictates of loyalty, would of their own
account peremptorily reject such an unwarranted proposition, even
though Ieyasu himself were disposed to consent to it.
Of course this answer profoundly enraged the Osaka party. They
appreciated for the first time that they had been deceived
throughout, and that by a series of adroit manoeuvres they had been
removed from an almost impregnable position to a practically helpless
plight. Not a few turned their backs on the castle, but a great
majority determined to renew the conflict and to die at their posts.
The circumstances, however, had now undergone a radical change. The
castle had been converted from the strongest fortress in Japan into a
mere semblance of strength, and no garrison, however brave and
however resolute, could have defended it successfully against the
forces that the Tokugawa were able to marshal.
As for Ieyasu, he knew that his task had been immensely lightened. On
the 3rd of May, 1615, he started from Sumpu for Osaka at the head of
an army numbering scarcely one-third of the force previously led
against the castle. Nevertheless, one contingency presented itself in
a dangerous light. It was always possible that Hideyori himself
should make a sortie from the fortress, and, in that event, the
prestige attaching to the memory of his father, Hideyoshi, might have
demoralized a large section of the Tokugawa troops. To avert this
danger, Ieyasu had recourse to his wonted methods of deception. It
has been shown that he held Harunaga's son, as a hostage. This youth
was required to write a letter to his father stating that collusion
existed between parties within and without the fortress, and that the
traitors had plotted to induce Hideyori to make a sortie, whereupon
the castle would be given up and Hideyori would be delivered into the
hands of his enemies. Harunaga does not appear to have entertained
any doubt as to the trustworthiness of this letter. He carried it
hastily to Hideyori, who was in the act of preparing to sally out of
the castle and throw himself upon the beleaguering forces.
The receipt of the letter naturally led to a change of plan, and
although desperate fighting subsequently took place, the castle was
finally set on fire by traitors and its fate was seen to be hopeless.
Hideyori's wife, granddaughter of Ieyasu, repaired to the Tokugawa
headquarters to plead for the life of her husband and his mother. But
Ieyasu was inexorable. He granted asylum to his granddaughter, but
replied to her prayer by ordering a renewal of the attack upon the
castle. On June 4th, Hideyori committed suicide, and his mother,
Yodo, was killed by one of his retainers. Some thirty men and women
killed themselves at the same time.
Men spoke of the first fruitless assault upon the castle as the
"Winter Campaign," and of the second and successful assault as
the "Summer Campaign." But the two operations were radically
different in their character. For, whereas in the first assault the
garrison--numbering something like one hundred and eighty thousand
men--stood strictly on the defensive, wisely relying on the immense
strength of the fortress, on the second occasion most of the fighting
took place outside the walls, the garrison preferring to rely upon
strategy and courage rather than on ruined parapets and half-filled
moats. Thus, the details of the second campaign occupy a large space
in Japanese histories, but these tedious features of strategy and
tactics are abbreviated here. There can be no doubt that Ieyasu, so
far from seeking to save Hideyori's life, deliberately planned his
destruction. Moreover, when it became known that an illegitimate son
of Hideyori, called Kunimatsu, had been carried from the castle by
some common soldiers and secreted at a farmhouse in Fushimi, Ieyasu
caused this child of six to be seized and beheaded by a common
executioner at Sanjo-kawara in Kyoto. This episode reflects no credit
whatever on the Tokugawa leader. That he should extirpate every scion
of the Toyotomi family was not inconsistent with the canons of the
tune or with the interests of his own security. But death at the
hands of a common executioner ought never to have been decreed for
the son of the u-daijin, and the cruelty of the order finds no
excuse. No tenet of bushido can be reconciled with such inhumanity.
To this chapter of history belongs the attitude of Ieyasu towards the
memory of his old friend and benefactor, Hideyoshi. He caused to be
levelled with the ground the temple of Toyokuni Daimyo-jin, where the
spirit of Hideyoshi was worshipped, and he ordered the removal of the
tomb of the Taiko from Amidagamine to a remote corner of the Daibutsu
enclosure. Finally, he sought and obtained the Emperor's sanction to
revoke the sacred title conferred posthumously on Hideyoshi. One
looks in vain for any fragment of magnanimity among such acts. Ieyasu
is reported to have avowedly adopted for guidance the precept,
"Before taking any step propound to your heart the query, how about
justice?" He certainly did not put any such query to his own
conscience in connexion with the castle of Osaka or its inmates.
THE GENNA YEAR-PERIOD (1615-1623)
The battle of Sekigahara is often spoken of as the last great
internecine campaign in Japanese history, but this is hardly borne
out by the facts. Indeed, from what has been said above, it will be
seen that Sekigahara was merely a prelude to Osaka, and that the
former stood to the latter almost in the relation of a preliminary
skirmish. It is from August, 1615, that we must date the commencement
of the long period of peace with which Japan was blessed under
Tokugawa rule. The year-name was then changed to Genna.
DEATH OF IEYASU
In February, 1616, Ieyasu fell sick, and in April the Emperor sent an
envoy to confer on him the title of dajo daijin. He expired a few
days afterwards at the age of seventy-five and was apotheosized as
Tosho Dai-Gongen (Light of the East and Great Incarnation). He was
buried on the summit of Mount Kuno in Suruga, and ultimately his
ashes were carried to Nikko for interment. It is recorded, though not
on independent authority, that when his end was drawing near he spoke
to those at his side in the folio whig terms: "My death is now in
sight, but happily the country is at peace, and Hidetada has already
discharged the duties of shogun for several years. I have, therefore,
no cause for anxiety. If, after I am gone, Hidetada should make any
failure in his administration of public affairs, or if he should lose
control of the people, any one of you to whom the Imperial order may
be addressed, should assume the functions of shogun, for, as you well
know, that post is not the property of this or that person in
particular, nor will my rest in the grave be disturbed though such an
event occurs."
Another record, however, represents Ieyasu as following the example
of the Taiko and conjuring his most trusted retainers to devote their
strength to the support of the Tokugawa family. To Hidetada he is
said to have suggested the advisability of compelling the daimyo to
remain in Yedo for three full years after his (Ieyasu's) demise, in
order to test thoroughly their attitude. Hidetada replied that while
most unwilling to reject his father's advice, his intention was to
allow the feudatories to leave Yedo at once, and if any one of them
evinced hostile feeling by shutting himself up in his castle, he,
Hidetada, would follow him thither and level his parapets with the
ground. Such an object lesson was, in his opinion, the best
stepping-stone to supremacy. Ieyasu is reported to have received this
answer with profound satisfaction, and to have declared that he was
now assured of the permanence of peace. He then had all his sons
called to his side and enjoined upon them the duty of serving the
shogun faithfully. To his grandson, Iemitsu, he specially addressed
himself, saying: "It will fall to your lot, some day, to govern the
country. On that day remember that benevolence should be the first
principle of a ruler."
CHARACTER OF IEYASU
Frugality is one of the virtues which Ieyasu certainly possessed.
Striking example of its display is connected with Yedo Castle. This
fortress, as built originally by Ota Dokwan, was not of imposing
dimensions even as a military stronghold, and the dwelling-house in
the keep presented most homely features, having a thatched roof and a
porch of rough boat-planks. Yet Ieyasu was content to make this
edifice his palace, and while he devoted much care to strengthening
the fortifications, he bestowed none on the enlargement and adornment
of the dwelling. The system he adopted to populate the city may be
said to have been colonial. He encouraged his vassals to settle
there, giving them lands to cultivate and breeding-grounds for
horses, so that within a brief time the city obtained numerous
inhabitants and developed a prosperous condition. It was in planning
the details of all enterprises that he particularly excelled. To
everything he brought an almost infinite capacity of patient study
and minute examination; his principle being that to achieve success
the first desideratum is to avoid mistakes. Doubtless he owed this
faculty of profound painstaking to the vicissitudes of his early
life. The years that he passed under the control of the Imagawa and
afterwards under that of Oda taught him patience and self-restraint,
and made the study of literature obligatory for him, at the same time
begetting in his mind a feeling of reverence for the Buddhist faith.
Japanese historians generally credit him with the virtues of
humanity, magnanimity, justice, and affability. That he was always
pleased to receive advice from others and that he set an example of
courtesy and zeal, there can be no doubt. Neither will anyone deny
that his resourcefulness amounted to genius. On the other hand, his
record shows that he was unscrupulous in utilizing opportunities,
whether created by himself or made accessible by fortune, and from
the same record we are compelled to infer that he could be cruel and
implacable on occasion. His favourite sayings afford perhaps the best
index that we possess to his disposition:--
Man's life is like a long journey toiling under a heavy burden.
Never be in a hurry.
He that regards destitution as his habitual lot will never feel
the pressure of want.
When the spirit of ambition arises in your bosom, recall the
days of your distress.
To forbear is the source of harmlessness and the road to
success.
Regard anger as an enemy.
He that knows how to win only and does not know how to lose,
will achieve nothing useful.
Blame yourself and acquit others.
To fall short is better than to exceed.
ENGRAVING: SIGNATURE OF ASHIKAGA TAKAUJI
ENGRAVING: THEATRICAL PLAY OF OLD JAPAN
CHAPTER XXXIX
FIRST PERIOD OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU; FROM THE FIRST TOKUGAWA SHOGUN,
IEYASU, TO THE FOURTH, IETSUNA (1603-1680)
LEGISLATION
THE Tokugawa family having brought the whole empire under its sway,
Ieyasu applied himself to legislative work with a degree of
thoroughness and earnestness that far exceeded anything in the
history of his predecessors. The terms of the oath of allegiance that
he dictated to the feudatories after the battle of Sekigahara have
been already referred to. Ten years later, that is to say, in 1611,
he required all the provincial governors to subscribe this same oath,
and, in 1613, he enacted a law for the Court nobles (kugeshu-hatto),
to which the Imperial assent was obtained. This was the first
instance of a military man legislating for the nobles of the capital;
but it must be noted that the latter by their own misconduct
furnished an opportunity for such interference. A Court scandal
assumed such dimensions, in 1607, that the Emperor ordered the Bakufu
to investigate the matter and to inflict suitable punishment. Ieyasu
summoned a number of the offenders to Sumpu, where he subjected
fourteen of them to severe examination. Ultimately some were
sentenced to exile and others were deprived of their ranks, while the
principal malefactor, Inokuma, general of the Left, was condemned to
death. This affair demonstrated that the effective power was in the
hands of the military, and throughout the Tokugawa rule they never
failed to exercise it. In September of the year that witnessed the
fall of Osaka Castle, Ieyasu and Hidetada summoned all the provincial
governors to Momo-yama, and handed to them a body of rules entitled
the "Laws of the Military Houses." These laws ran as follows:-*
*The translation of these laws is taken from a paper read by Mr.
Consul-General J. C. Hall and recorded in the "Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan" for 1911.
"(1) Literature, arms, archery, and horsemanship are, systematically,
to be the favourite pursuits.
"Literature first, and arms next was the rule of the ancients. They
must both be cultivated concurrently. Archery and horsemanship are
the more essential for the military houses. Weapons of warfare are
ill-omened words to utter; the use of them, however, is an
unavoidable necessity. In times of peace and good order we must not
forget that disturbance may arise. Dare we omit to practise our
warlike exercise and drill?"
Although this provision ostensibly encouraged the pursuit of literary
and military arts, those who read the law too implicitly and devoted
themselves too earnestly to the pursuit of arms quickly found that
they were not in touch with the time or with the intention of the
legislators. In fact, the purpose of the latter was to bracket
literature and the art of war together, giving no preference to
either.
"(2) Drinking parties and gaming amusements must be kept within due
bounds.
"In our Instructions it is laid down that strict moderation in these
respects is to be observed. To be addicted to venery and to make a
pursuit of gambling is the first step towards the loss of one's
domain."
This rule may be said to define what is known in Europe as "conduct
unbecoming an officer." Not to know how to order one's tongue was as
grave an offence as debauchery, according to the canons of the
samurai.
"(3) Offenders against the law are not to be harboured in feudal
domains.
"Law is the very foundation of ceremonial decorum and of social order.
To infringe the law in the name of reason is as bad as to outrage
reason in the name of law. To disregard the law (laid down by us) is
an offence which will not be treated with leniency."
This provision was directly suggested by the Government's desire to
suppress Christianity.
"(4) Throughout the domains whether of the greater or lesser barons
(daimyo and shomyo) or of the holders of minor benefits, if any of
the gentry or soldiers (shi and sotsu) in their service be guilty of
rebellion or murder, such offenders must be at once expelled from
their domain.
"Fellows of savage disposition (being retainers) are an apt weapon for
overthrowing the domain or the family employing them, and a deadly
instrument for cutting off the common people. How can such be
tolerated?"
In the early days of the Yedo Bakufu it was not uncommon for a
feudatory to enrol among his vassals refugee samurai who had blood on
their hands. These would often be pursued into the fiefs where they
had taken refuge, and much disorder resulted. The above provision
removed these murderers from the protection of the feudatory in whose
service they had enlisted.
"(5) Henceforth no social intercourse is to be permitted outside of
one's own domain with the people (gentry and commoners) of another
domain.
"In general, the customs of the various domains are all different from
one another, each having its own peculiarities. To divulge the
secrets of one's own domain is a sure indication of an intent to
curry favour."
It has been shown that by the Chinese masters of strategy whose works
were studied in Japan the art of espionage was placed on a high
pinnacle. This teaching appears to have produced such evil results
that the Tokugawa legislated against it.
"(6) The residential castles in the domains may be repaired; but the
matter must invariably be reported. Still more imperative is it that
the planning of structural innovations of any kind must be absolutely
avoided.
"A castle with a parapet exceeding three thousand feet by ten is a
bane to a domain. Crenelated walls and deep moats (of castles) are
causes of anarchy."
This provision was important as a means of enfeebling the barons.
They were not at liberty to repair even a fence of the most
insignificant character or to dredge a moat, much more to erect a
parapet, without previous sanction from the Bakufu.
"(7) If, in a neighbouring domain, innovations are being hatched or
cliques being formed, the fact is to be reported without delay.
"Men are always forming groups; whilst, on the other hand, few ever
come to anything. On this account, they fail to follow their lords or
fathers, and soon come into collision with those of neighbouring
villages. If the ancient prohibitions are not maintained, somehow or
other innovating schemes will be formed."
Everything in the form of combination, whether nominally for good or
for evil, was regarded with suspicion by the Bakufu, and all unions
were therefore interdicted. Of course, the most important incident
which the law was intended to prevent took the form of alliances
between barons of adjacent provinces.
"(8) Marriages must not be contracted at private convenience.
"Now, the marriage union is a result of the harmonious blending of the
In and Yo (i.e. the Yin and Yang of Chinese metaphysics, the female
and male principles of nature). It is therefore not a matter to be
lightly undertaken. It is said in the 'Scowling' passage of the
(Chow) Book of Changes, 'Not being enemies they unite in marriage.'
Whilst (the elders are) thinking of making advances to the opponent
(family), the proper time (for the marriage of the young couple) is
allowed to slip by. In the 'Peach Young' poem of the Book of Odes it
is said, 'If the man and woman, duly observing what is correct, marry
at the proper time of life, there will be no widows in the land.' To
form cliques (political parties) by means of matrimonial connexions
is a source of pernicious stratagems."
This provision was, in fact, a codification of the veto pronounced by
Hideyoshi on his death-bed against marriages between the families of
different daimyo. Ieyasu himself had been the first to violate the
veto, and he was the first to place it subsequently on the statute
book. The third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, extended the restriction by
ordering that even families having estates of only three thousand
koku should not intermarry without Yedo's previous consent.
"(9) As to the rule that the daimyo shall come (to the shogun's court
at Yedo) to do service:--
"In the Shoku Nihongi (The Continuation of the Chronicles of Japan) it
is recorded amongst the enactments,
"'Except when entrusted with some official duty to assemble, no one
(dignitary) is allowed at his own pleasure to assemble his tribe
within the limits of the capital, no one is to go about attended by
more than twenty horsemen, etc.'
"Hence it is not permissible to lead about a large force of soldiers.
For daimyo whose revenues range from 1,000,000 koko down to 200,000
koku, the number of twenty horsemen is not to be exceeded. For those
whose revenues are 100,000 koku and under, the number is to be in the
same proportion.
"On occasions of official service, however (i.e. in time of warfare),
the number of followers is to be in proportion to the social standing
of each daimyo."
The above rule of repairing to the capital to pay respects
(go-sankin) was an old fashion, and barons were accustomed to go with
large retinues. Thus, it often happened that collisions occurred
between the corteges of hostile feudatories, and it was to prevent
these sanguinary encounters that the Tokugawa set strict limits to
the number of samurai accompanying a military chief.
"(10) There must be no confusion in respect of dress uniforms, as
regards the materials thereof.
"The distinction between lord and vassal, between superior and
inferior, must be clearly marked by the apparel. Retainers
may not, except in rare cases by special favour of their lords,
indiscriminately wear silk stuffs, such as shiro-aya (undyed silk
with woven patterns), shiro-kosode (white wadded silk coats),
murasaki-awase (purple silk coats, lined), murasaki-ura (silk coats
lined with purple); nori (white gloss silk), mumon (silk coat without
the wearer's badge dyed on it), kosode (a coloured silk-wadded coat).
In recent times, retainers and henchmen (soldiers) have taken to
wearing rich damasks and silk brocade. This elaborate display was not
allowed by the ancient laws and it must be severely kept within
bounds."
"(11) Miscellaneous persons are not at their pleasure to ride in
palanquins.
"There are families who for special reasons from of old have
(inherited) the privilege of riding in palanquins without permission
from the authorities: and there are others who by permission of the
authorities exercise that privilege. But, latterly, even sub-vassals
and henchmen of no rank have taken to so riding. This is a flagrant
impertinence. Henceforward the daimyo of the provinces, and such of
their kinsfolk as are men of distinction subordinate to them, may
ride without applying for Government permission. Besides those, the
following have permission, viz., vassals and retainers of high
position about their lords; doctors and astrologers; persons of over
sixty years of age, and sick persons and invalids. If ordinary
retainers, or inferior henchmen (sotsu) are allowed to ride in
palanquins, it will be considered to be the fault of their lords.
"This proviso, however, does not apply to Court nobles, abbots, or
ecclesiastics in general.
"(12) The samurai throughout the provinces are to practise frugality.
"Those who are rich like to make a display, whilst those who are poor
are ashamed of not being on a par with the others. There is no other
influence so pernicious to social observances as this; and it must be
strictly kept in check."
Frugality always occupied a prominent place in the Bakufu's list of
essentials. Frequent and strenuous efforts were made by successive
shoguns to encourage people in this virtue, but with the long peace
enjoyed by the country under Tokugawa rule, a tendency to increasing
luxury constantly prevailed, and the Government's aims in this
respect were not realized except for brief periods. During the
administration of the first three Tokugawa shoguns, and under the
eighth shogun (Yoshimune), some success attended official injunctions
of economy, but on the whole a steady growth of extravagance
characterized the era.
"(13) The lords of domain (kokushu, masters of provinces) must select
men of capacity for office.
"The way to govern is to get hold of the proper men. The merits and
demerits (of retainers) should be closely scanned, and reward or
reproof unflinchingly distributed accordingly. If there be capable
men in the administration, that domain is sure to flourish; if there
be not capable men, then the domain is sure to go to ruin. This is an
admonition which the wise ones of antiquity all agree in giving
forth."
"The tenor of the foregoing rules must be obeyed.
"Keicho, 20th year, 7th month (September 23, 1615)."
The above body of laws may be regarded as the Tokugawa Constitution.
They were re-enacted by each shogun in succession on assuming office.
The custom was to summon all the daimyo to Yedo, and to require their
attendance at the Tokugawa palace, where, in the presence of the
incoming shogun, they listened with faces bowed on the mats to the
reading of the laws. Modifications and additions were, of course,
made on each occasion, but the provisions quoted above remained
unaltered in their essentials. Up to the time of the third shogun
(Iemitsu), the duty of reading aloud the laws at the solemn
ceremonial of the new shogun's investiture devolved on a high
Buddhist priest, but it was thereafter transferred to the
representative of the Hayashi family (to be presently spoken
of). Any infraction of the laws was punished mercilessly, and
as their occasionally loose phraseology left room for arbitrary
interpretation, the provisions were sometimes utilized in the
interest of the shogun and at the expense of his enemies.
RULES FOR THE IMPERIAL COURT AND COURT NOBLES
In the same month of the same year there was promulgated a body of
laws called the "Rules of the Imperial Court, and the Court Nobles"
(Kinchu narabi ni Kugeshu Sho-hatto). This enactment bore the
signatures of the kwampaku and the shogun and had the Imperial
sanction. It consisted of seventeen articles, but only five of them
had any special importance:
"(1) Learning is the most essential of all accomplishments. Not to
study is to be ignorant of the doctrines of the ancient sages, and an
ignorant ruler has never governed a nation peacefully."
This specious precept was not intended to be literally obeyed. The
shoguns had no desire for an erudite Emperor. Their conception of
learning on the part of the sovereign was limited to the composition
of Japanese verselets. A close study of the doctrines of the ancient
Chinese sages might have exposed the illegitimacy of the Bakufu
administration. Therefore, Yedo would have been content that the
Mikado should think only of spring flowers and autumn moonlight, and
should not torment his mind by too close attention to the classics.
"(2) A man lacking in ability must not be appointed to the post of
regent or minister of State even though he belong to the Go-sekke
(Five Designated Families), and it is needless to say that none but a
member of those families may serve in such a position."
"(3) A man of ability, even though he be old, shall not be allowed to
resign the post of regent or minister of State in favour of another.
If he attempts to resign, his resignation should be refused again and
again."
The above two provisions practically conferred on the Bakufu the
power of not only appointing the regent and ministers of State but
also of keeping them in office. For, as the law had been framed in
Yedo, in Yedo also was vested competence to judge the ability or
disability of a candidate. Hence, when the Emperor proposed to
appoint a regent or a minister, the Bakufu had merely to intimate
want of confidence in the nominee's ability; and similarly, if the
sovereign desired to dismiss one of those high officials, the shogun
could interfere effectually by reference to the letter of the law.
Thus, the power of appointing and dismissing the great officials in
Kyoto, which is one of the important prerogatives of the crown, was
practically usurped by the shogun.
"(4) An adopted son shall always be chosen from the family of his
adopter; and a female shall never be adopted to be the head of a
family, no such custom having existed in Japan at any time."
This provision had two main objects. The first was to avert adoptions
having the effect of combinations; the second, to prevent adoption of
Imperial princes into other families. The Bakufu sought, as far as
possible, to bring about the taking of the tonsure by all princes of
the Blood who were not in the direct line of the succession, and to
keep these princes from attaining to the posts of regents or
ministers of State.
"(5) All reports shall be submitted to the Emperor by the regent, the
denso, or an administrator (bugyo). Any other person who, in
disregard of this rule, attempts to address the Throne direct, shall
be sent into exile, whatever his rank."
The denso mentioned in this provision was an official appointed by
the Bakufu for that special purpose. The whole arrangement as to
communication with the Throne constituted a powerful buttress of
Bakufu influence. Generally, the latter could contrive, as has been
shown above, to control the appointment and continuance in office of
a regent or a minister, while as for the administrators (bugyo), they
were nominees of Yedo. It thus resulted that the Throne was
approachable through the channel of the Bakufu only.
LAWS WITH REFERENCE TO BUDDHISM
The above laws remained unchanged throughout the Tokugawa era. A
special law was also enacted with reference to Buddhist sects and the
principal Buddhist temples. Ieyasu secured to these temples the
possession of their manors by granting title-deeds bearing what was
called the "go-shuinji," or "vermilion signature." The term was not
really applicable in the case of Ieyasu. It is true that Hideyoshi,
doubtless in imitation of Chinese custom, stamped a vermilion seal
upon documents of this character; but the Tokugawa shoguns employed a
black signature written with a pen. Nevertheless, the term
"go-shuinji" continued to be used from the time of the Taiko
downwards. It was an outcome of Ieyasu's astuteness that the great
Hongwan temple was divided into two branches, eastern and western, by
which process its influence was prevented from becoming excessive.
During the administration of the third shogun, every daimyo was
required to adhere to a definite sect of Buddhism, and to the
Buddhist and Shinto temples was entrusted the duty of keeping an
accurate census of their parishioners. The direct purpose of these
latter laws was to facilitate the extermination of Christianity.
Anyone whose name was not enrolled on one of the above lists fell
under suspicion of embracing the foreign faith.
A JAPANESE HISTORIAN'S OPINION
Referring to the above laws the Tokugawa Jidaishi says:
"The above laws and regulations were the Constitution of the Tokugawa
Bakufu. By the aid of their provisions the influence of Yedo was
extended to every part of the nation from the Imperial Court to the
world of religion. No such codes had ever previously existed in
Japan. Any unit of the nation, whether a Court noble, a great
feudatory, a priest, or a common samurai, had to yield implicit
obedience or to suffer condign punishment. Thus, it fell out that
everybody being anxious to conform with the rules, the universal
tendency was to share in preserving the peace. From the point of view
of this system, Ieyasu was eminently above all modern and ancient
heroes. Hideyoshi won brilliant victories in war, but he saw no
better method of maintaining peace at home than to send the country's
armies to fight abroad. He seems to have conceived a hope that his
generals would find goals for their ambition in Korea or China, and
would exhaust their strength in endeavouring to realize their dreams.
But his plan brought about the contrary result; for the generals
formed fresh enmities among themselves, and thus the harvest that was
subsequently reaped at Sekigahara found hands to sow it.
"Ieyasu, however, prized literature above militarism. He himself
became a pioneer of learning, and employed many scholars to assist in
constructing a solid framework of peace. The territorial nobles had
to follow his example. Even Kato Kiyomasa, Asano Yukinaga, and Kuroda
Nagamasa, each of whom during his lifetime was counted a divinely
inspired general, found themselves constrained to study the Chinese
classics under the guidance of Funabashi Hidekata and Fujiwara
Seigwa. How much more cogent, then, was the similar necessity under
which lesser men laboured. Thus, Ieyasu's love of literature may be
regarded as a cause of the peace that prevailed under the Tokugawa
for 260 years."
REVIVAL OF LEARNING
Ieyasu employed four instruments for educational purposes--the
establishment of schools, the engagement of professors, the
collection of ancient literary works, and the printing of books. In
accordance with his last will his son Yoshinao, daimyo of Owari,
built, in 1636, the Daiseiden College beside the temple of Kiyomizu
in Ueno Park, near the villa of Hayashi Kazan, the celebrated
Confucian scholar; but, in 1691, the college was moved to the slope
called Shohei-zaka, where a bridge--Shohei-bashi--was thrown across
the river. "Shohei" is the Japanese pronunciation of "Changping,"
Confucius's birthplace, and the school was known as the Shohei-ko. It
received uniform patronage at the hands of the Tokugawa, whose
kinsmen and vassals were required to study there, their proficiency,
as determined by its examinations, being counted a passport to
office. Yoshinao laid the foundation of a great library at the school
and the number of volumes was constantly increased.
During the lifetime of Ieyasu, one of the most noted scholars was
Fujiwara Seigwa. By the invitation of the Tokugawa chief he lectured
on the classics in Kyoto, and it is recorded that Ieyasu, who had
just (1600) arrived in that city, attended one of these lectures,
wearing his ordinary garments. Seigwa is related to have fixed his
eyes on Ieyasu and addressed him as follows: "The greatest work of
Confucius teaches that to order oneself is the most essential of
achievements. How shall a man who does not order himself be able to
order his country? I am lecturing on ethics to one who behaves in a
disorderly and discourteous manner. I believe that I preach in vain."
Ieyasu immediately changed his costume, and the event contributed
materially to the reputation alike of the intrepid teacher and of the
magnanimous student, as well as to the popularity of Seigwa's
doctrines.
Hayashi Kazan was a disciple of Seigwa whose reputation as a scholar
he rivalled. Ieyasu employed him extensively in drafting laws; and
many of his disciples subsequently served as teachers of the Chinese
classics. The scripture of Hayashi's school of ethics was Chu Hi's
commentary on the "Great Learning" of Confucius. In this system,
ethics become a branch of natural philosophy. "Corresponding to the
regular change of the seasons in nature is right action in man (who
is the crown of nature), in the relation of sovereign and subject,
parent and child, elder brother and younger brother, husband and
wife, friend and friend. To his sovereign, or lord, he is bound to be
faithful; to his parents, dutiful, and to his elder brother,
respectful. Affection should characterize the relations of husband
and wife and trust those of friend with friend."
A moment's consideration of this ethical system shows that it cannot
be reconciled with such a form of administration as that existing
under the Bakufu. Genuine loyalty to the sovereign found no place in
the practical code of Tokugawa. Whether Ieyasu appreciated that fact
or whether he ignored it in consideration of the civilizing and
tranquillizing influences of Confucianism, there is nothing to show.
Ultimately, however, it was to the ethics of the Chinese sage that
the Tokugawa downfall became indirectly attributable.
Ieyasu showed much earnestness in searching for and collecting
ancient books. Before and after the war of Osaka, he ordered
priests to copy old books and records preserved in Buddhist
temples and noblemen's houses. Subsequently, during the Kwanei
era--1621-1643--there was built within the castle of Yedo a library
called Momijiyama Bunko where the books were stored. He was also
instrumental in causing the compilation and publication of many
volumes whose contents contribute materially to our historical
knowledge. The writing of history in the Imperial Court had been
abandoned for many years, and the scholars employed by Ieyasu had
recourse to private diaries for materials. Hayashi Kazan (Doshuri)
was entrusted with the duty of distinguishing between the true and
the false in using these records, and there resulted two memorable
works. The second of these consisted in the main of genealogical
tables. It extended to 372 volumes and subsequently became the Kwanei
Shoke Keizu-den. The first, a national history, was originally called
the Honcho Hennen-roku. Before its compilation Kazan (Doshun) died,
and the book was concluded by his son, Harukatsu, in the year 1635.
It consisted of three hundred volumes in all, and covered the period
from the age of the Gods to the year 1610. It is now known as the
Honcho Tsugan. The two works having been published to the order and
under the patronage of the Bakufu, their contents were by no means
free from the stain of favour and affection, but they nevertheless
possess inestimable historical value.
THE SECOND TOKUGAWA SHOGUN, HIDETADA
Hidetada, third son of Ieyasu, was born in 1579; succeeded to the
shogunate in 1605; abdicated in 1622, and died in 1632. His
appearance on the historical stage was not very glorious, for, as
already shown, when marching to join his father's army before the
battle of Sekigahara, he allowed himself to be detained so long at
the siege of Ueda Castle that he failed to be present at the great
combat, and Ieyasu, as a mark of displeasure, refused to meet him
until Honda Masazumi pleaded Hidetada's cause. During the first
eleven years of his shogunate he exercised little real authority, the
administration being conducted by Ieyasu himself from his nominal
place of retirement in Sumpu. Thus, the period of Hidetada's
independent sway extended over six years only. But during the ten
subsequent years he continued to exercise much camera influence over
the Government, though his power was inferior to that which had been
wielded by Ieyasu in nominal retirement. Honda Masazumi, who had
befriended him at the critical time mentioned above, occupied the
highest post in the administration, the second place being assigned
to Sakai Tadayo, while in Kyoto the Tokugawa interests were guarded
by Itakura Katsushige and Matsudaira Masatsuna.
The era of Hidetada was essentially one of organization, and by the
exercise of sincerity and justice he contributed much to the
stability of the Tokugawa rule. Not the least memorable step taken by
him related to the fortress of Yedo. In the year following his
succession, he ordered the feudatories of the east to construct the
castle which remains to this day one of the marvels of the world.
"Around it stretched a triple line of moats, the outermost measuring
nine and a half miles in length, the innermost one and a half, their
scarps constructed with blocks of granite nearly as colossal as those
of the Osaka stronghold, though in the case of the Yedo fortification
every stone had to be carried hundreds of miles over the sea. The
gates were proportionately as huge as those at Osaka, well-nigh the
most stupendous works ever undertaken, not excepting even the
Pyramids of Egypt. There is not to be found elsewhere a more striking
monument of military power, nor can anyone considering such a work,
as well as its immediate predecessor, the Taiko's stronghold at
Osaka, and its numerous contemporaries of lesser but still striking
proportions in the principal fiefs, refuse to credit the Japanese
with capacity for large conceptions and competence to carry them into
practice."
CONJUGAL RELATIONS BETWEEN THE IMPERIAL FAMILY AND THE TOKUGAWA
It had been one of the most cherished wishes of Ieyasu to follow the
Fujiwara precedent by establishing conjugal relations between the
Imperial family and the Tokugawa. But the ex-Emperor, Go-Yozei,
turned a deaf ear to this proposal on the ground that a lady born in
a military house had never been chosen consort of a sovereign.
Ieyasu, however, did not abandon his purpose. He entrusted its
prosecution to Todo Takatora, and in 1616, the year of Ieyasu's
death, Todo induced Konoe Nobuhiro, minister of the Right, to promote
this undertaking. Nobuhiro, being the Emperor's younger brother, was
able to exert much influence, and finally the ex-Emperor gave his
consent. In June, 1620, Kazuko, daughter of Hidetada, became first
lady-in-waiting, and ultimately Empress under the name of
Tofuku-mon-in. It is recorded that 1180 chests were required to carry
her trousseau from Yedo, and that the costs of her outfit and of her
journey to Kyoto aggregated more than a million sterling. She gave
birth to two princes and five princesses, and the house of Konoe,
which had been instrumental in procuring her summons to the Court,
became the leader of the Go-sekke.
DEATH OF HIDETADA AND HIS CHARACTER
After resigning the shogunate in 1622, Hidetada retired to the inner
castle (Nishi Maru) in Yedo and there continued to direct affairs. He
died ten years later, at the age of fifty-eight, and was interred at
the temple Zojo-ji, in the Shiba district of the eastern capital.
Japanese historians agree that Hidetada's character was adapted for
the work of consolidation that fell to his lot. He resembled his
father, Ieyasu, in decision and perseverance; he never dealt lightly
with any affair, and while outwardly gentle and considerate, he was
at heart subtle and uncompromising. An interesting illustration of
the administrative canons of the time is afforded in the advice said
to have been given by Hosokawa Tadaoki when consulted by Hidetada.
"There is an old proverb," Tadaoki replied, "that if a round lid be
put on a square vessel, those within will have ease; but if a square
lid be used to cover a square vessel, there will result a feeling of
distress." Asked for a standard by which to judge qualifications for
success, the same nobleman answered that an oyster shell found on the
Akashi shore is the best type of a man qualified to succeed, for the
shell has been deprived of all its angles by the beating of the
waves. Of Hidetada himself there is told an anecdote which shows him
to have been remarkably free from superstition. A comet made its
appearance and was regarded with anxiety by the astrologists of
Kyoto, who associated its advent with certain misfortune. Hidetada
ridiculed these fears. "What can we tell," he said, "about the
situation of a solitary star in the wide universe, and how can we
know that it has anything to do with this little world?"
THE THIRD SHOGUN, IEMITSU
Iemitsu, son of Hidetada, was born in 1603; succeeded to the
shogunate in 1622, and held that post until his death, in 1651. His
principal ministers were Ii Naotaka (who had occupied the post of
premier since the days of Ieyasu), Matsudaira Nobutsuna, and Abe
Tadaaki, one of the ablest officers that served the Tokugawa. He
devoted himself to consolidating the system founded by his
grandfather, Ieyasu, and he achieved remarkable success by the
exercise of exceptional sagacity and determination. In 1626, he
proceeded to Kyoto at the head of a large army, simply for the
purpose of conveying to the feudal nobles a significant intimation
that he intended to enforce his authority without hesitation. Up to
that, time the feudal chiefs were not officially required to reside
in Yedo for any fixed time or at any fixed interval. But now it was
clearly enacted that the feudatories of the east and those of the
west should repair to the Bakufu capital, at different seasons in the
year; should remain there a twelvemonth,--in the case of feudal lords
from the Kwanto only six months--and should leave their wives and
families as hostages during the alternate period of their own absence
from the shogun's city, which they spent in the provinces.
This system was technically called sankin kotai, that is "alternate
residence in capital." From the point of view of the Tokugawa the
plan was eminently wise, for it bound the feudal chiefs closer to the
shogun, keeping them under his eye half the time and giving hostages
for their good behaviour the other half; and it helped the growth of
Yedo both in financial and political power, by bringing money into it
and by making it more than before an administrative headquarters. On
the other hand there was a corresponding drain on the provinces, all
the greater since the standard of living at Yedo was higher than in
rural districts and country nobles thus learned extravagance. To
prevent other families from growing too rich and powerful seems to
have been a part of Ieyasu's definite plan for holding in check
possible rivals of the Tokugawa, so that it is not impossible that he
foresaw this very result. At any rate it is known that in the
instructions for government which he handed down to his successors he
urged them to keep strict surveillance over their feudal lords and if
any one of them seemed to be growing rich to impose upon him such a
burden of public works as would cripple him.
In 1632, Iemitsu made another military demonstration at Kyoto, and on
this occasion the Emperor would have conferred on him the post of
prime minister (dajo daijiri). But he refused to accept it. This
refusal was subsequently explained as a hint to the feudal chiefs
that inordinate ambition should be banished from their bosoms; but in
reality Iemitsu was influenced by the traditional principle that the
Throne had no higher gift to bestow on a subject than the shogunate.
PROMINENT FEATURES OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF IEMITSU
The prominent feature of this able ruler's administration was that he
thoroughly consolidated the systems introduced by his grandfather and
confirmed by his father. From the time of Iemitsu downwards, cardinal
forms were never changed, alterations being confined to
non-essentials. On his death-bed he desired that his prime minister,
Hotta Masamori, and several other notables should accompany him to
the tomb, and on the night of the 10th of June, 1651, Hotta Masamori
(aged forty-six), Abe Shigetsugu (aged fifty-two), Uchida Masanobu
(aged thirty-three), Masamori's mother (aged sixty-three), Saegusa
Moriyoshi, and Okuyama Yasushige all committed suicide. Their tombs
stand to this day in Nikko.
THE NIKKO SHRINE AND THE KWANEI TEMPLE
It has been related how largely Ieysau was aided against the Osaka
party by Tengai, abbot of Enryaku-ji. This priest it was that devised
the singular accusation connected with the inscription on a bell at
Hoko-ji. He received from Ieyasu the diocese of Nikko in Shimotsuke
province, where he built a temple which ultimately served as the
shrine of Ieyasu. But the first Tokugawa shogun, faithful to his
frugal habits, willed that the shrine should be simple and
inexpensive, and when Hidetada died, his mausoleum (mitamaya) at the
temple Zojo-ji in Yedo presented by its magnificence such a contrast
to the unpretending tomb at Nikko, that Iemitsu ordered Akimoto
Yasutomo to rebuild the latter, and issued instructions to various
feudal chiefs to furnish labour and materials. The assistance of even
Korea, Ryukyu, and Holland was requisitioned, and the Bakufu treasury
presented 700,000 ryo of gold. The shrine was finished in 1636 on a
scale of grandeur and artistic beauty almost unsurpassed in any other
country. The same priest, Tengai, was instrumental in building the
temple known as Kwanei-ji, and at his suggestion, Hidetada asked the
Imperial Court to appoint a prince to the post of abbot (monsu).
This system already existed in the case of Enryaku-ji on Hiei-zan in
Kyoto, and it was Tengai's ambition that his sect, the Tendai, should
possess in Yedo a temple qualified to compete with the great
monastery of the Imperial capital. Thus, Ueno hill on which the Yedo
structure stood was designated "Toei-zan," as the site of the Kyoto
monastery was designated "Hiei-zan," and just as the temple on the
latter received the name of "Enryaku-ji," after the era of its
construction (Enryaku), so that in Yedo was named "Kwanei-ji," the
name of the year period of its foundation being Kwanei. Finally, the
Kwanei-ji was intended to guard the "Demon's Gate" of the Bakufu city
as the Enryaku-ji guarded the Imperial capital. Doubtless, in
furthering this plan, Iemitsu had for ultimate motive the association
of an Imperial prince with the Tokugawa family, so that in no
circumstances could the latter be stigmatized as "rebels." Not until
the day of the Tokugawa's downfall did this intention receive
practical application, when the priest-prince of Ueno (Prince
Kitashirakawa) was set up as their leader by the remnants of the
Bakufu army.
ISE AND NIKKO
Through many centuries it had been the custom of the Imperial Court
to worship at the great shrine of Ise and to offer suitable gifts.
This ceremony was long suspended, however, on account of continuous
wars as well as the impecunious condition of the Court. Under the
sway of the Oda and the Toyotomi, fitful efforts were made to renew
the custom, but it was left for the Tokugawa to re-establish it. The
third shogun, Iemitsu, petitioned the Court in that sense, and
assigned an estate in Yamashiro as a means of defraying the necessary
expenses, the Fujinami family being appointed to perform the ceremony
hereditarily. At the same time Iemitsu petitioned that the Court
should send an envoy to worship at Nikko every year on the
anniversary of the death of Ieyasu, and this request having been
granted, Nikko thenceforth became to the Tokugawa what Ise was to the
Imperial Court.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
It has been shown that the Shimabara revolt finally induced the
Bakufu Government to adopt the policy of international seclusion and
to extirpate Christianity. In carrying out the latter purpose,
extensive recourse was had to the aid of Buddhism. The chief temple
of each sect of that religion was officially fixed, as were also the
branch temples forming the parish of the sect; every unit of the
nation was required to register his name in the archives of a temple,
and the Government ordered that the priests should keep accurate
lists of births and deaths. Anyone whose name did not appear on these
lists was assumed to belong to the alien faith. This organization was
completed in the time of Iemitsu.
THE FOURTH SHOGUN, IETSUNA
Ietsuna, the fourth Tokugawa shogun, eldest son of Iemitsu, was born
in 1642 and succeeded to the office in 1651, holding it until his
death in 1680. In bequeathing the administrative power to a youth in
his tenth year, Iemitsu clearly foresaw that trouble was likely to
arise. He therefore instructed his younger brother, Hoshina Masayuki,
baron of Aizu, to render every assistance to his nephew, and he
appointed Ii Naotaka to be prime minister, associating with him Sakai
Tadakatsu, Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Abe Tadaaki, and other statesmen of
proved ability. These precautions were soon seen to be necessary, for
the partisans of the Toyotomi seized the occasion to attempt a coup.
The country at that time swarmed with ronin (wave-men); that is to
say, samurai who were, for various reasons, roving free-lances. There
seems to have been a large admixture of something very like European
chivalry in the make up of these ronin, for some of them seem to have
wandered about merely to right wrongs and defend the helpless. Others
sought adventure for adventure's sake and for glory's, challenging
the best swordsman in each place to which they came. Many seem to
have taken up the lives of wanderers out of a notion of loyalty; the
feudal lords to whom they had owed allegiance had been crushed by the
Tokugawa and they refused to enter the service of the shogun.
The last-named reason seems to have been what prompted the revolt of
1651, when Ietsuna, aged ten, had just succeeded in the shogunate his
father Iemitsu who had exalted the power of the Tokugawa at the
expense of their military houses. The ronin headed by Yui Shosetsu
and Marubashi Chuya plotted to set fire to the city of Yedo and take
the shogun's castle. The plot was discovered. Shosetsu committed
suicide, and Chuya was crucified. In the following year (1652)
another intrigue was formed under the leadership of Bekki Shoetnon,
also a ronin. On this occasion the plan was to murder Ii Naotaka, the
first minister of State, as well as his colleagues, and then to set
fire to the temple Zojo-ji on the occasion of a religious ceremony.
But this plot, also, was discovered before it matured, and it proved
to be the last attempt that was made to overthrow the Bakufu by force
until more than two hundred years had passed.
THE LEGISLATION OF IEMITSU AND IETSUNA
On the 5th of August, 1635, a body of laws was issued by Iemitsu
under the title of Buke Sho-hatto, and these laws were again
promulgated on June 28, 1665, by the fourth shogun, Ietsuna, with a
few alterations. The gist of the code of Iemitsu was as follows: That
literature and arms were to be the chief object of cultivation; that
the great and small barons were to do service by turns in Yedo,
strict limits being set to the number of their retainers; that all
work on new castles was strictly interdicted, and that all repairs of
existing castles must not be undertaken without sanction from the
Yedo administration; that in the event of any unwonted occurrence,
all barons present at the scene must remain and await the shogun's
orders; that no person other than the officials in charge might be
present at an execution; that there must be no scheming innovations,
forming of parties, or taking of oaths; that private quarrels were
strictly interdicted, and that all matters difficult of arrangement
must be reported to the Yedo administration; that barons having an
income of ten thousand koku or more, and their chief officials, must
not form matrimonial alliances without the shogun's permission; that
greater simplicity and economy must be obeyed in social observances,
such as visits of ceremony, giving and receiving presents,
celebrating marriages, entertaining at banquets, building residences,
and general striving after elegance; that there must be no
indiscriminate intermingling (of ranks); that, as regards the
materials of dress, undyed silk with woven patterns (shiro aya) must
be worn only by Court nobles (kuge) and others of the highest ranks;
that wadded coats of undyed silk might be worn by daimyo and others
of higher rank; that lined coats of purple silk, silk coats with the
lining of purple, white gloss silk, and coloured silk coats without
the badge were not to be worn at random; that coming down to
retainers, henchmen, and men-at-arms, the wearing by such persons of
ornamental dresses such as silks, damask, brocade, or embroideries
was quite unknown to the ancient laws, and a stop must be put to it;
that all the old restrictions as to riding in palanquins must be
observed; that retainers who had a disagreement with their original
lord were not to be taken into employment by other daimyo; that if
any such was reported as having been guilty of rebellion or homicide,
he was to be sent back (to his former lord); that any who manifests a
refractory disposition must either be sent back or expelled; that
where the hostages given by sub-vassals to their mesne lords had
committed an offence requiring punishment by banishment or death, a
report in writing of the circumstances must be made to the
administrators' office and their decision awaited; that in case the
circumstances were such as to necessitate or justify the instant
cutting-down of the offender, a personal account of the matter must
be given to the administrator; that lesser feudatories must honestly
discharge the duties of their position and refrain from giving
unlawful or arbitrary orders (to the people of their fiefs); that
they must take care not to impair the resources or well-being of the
province or district in which they are; that roads, relays of
post-horses, boats, ferries, and bridges must be carefully attended
to, so as to ensure that there should be no delays or impediments to
quick communication; that no private toll-bars might be erected or
any existing ferry discontinued; that no vessels of over five hundred
koku burden were to be built; that the glebe lands of shrines and
temples scattered throughout the provinces, having been attached to
them from ancient times to the present day, were not to be taken from
them; that the Christian sect was to be strictly prohibited in all
the provinces and in all places; that in case of any unfilial conduct
the offender should be dealt with under the penal law; that in all
matters the example set by the laws of Yedo was to be followed in all
the provinces and places.
As has been noted above, this same body of laws was re-enacted under
the authority of Ietsuna, with the following slight alterations,
namely, that the veto was removed from the wearing of costly
ornamented dresses by retainers, henchmen, and men-at-arms, and that
the restriction as to size should not apply to a cargo vessel. At the
same time a prohibition of junshi (following in death) was issued in
these terms:
"That the custom of following a master in death is wrong and
unprofitable is a caution which has been at times given from of old;
but owing to the fact that it has not actually been prohibited, the
number of those who cut their belly to follow their lord on his
decease has become very great. For the future, to those retainers who
may be animated by such an idea, their respective lords should
intimate, constantly and in very strong terms, their disapproval of
the custom. If, notwithstanding this warning, any instance of the
practice should occur, it will be deemed that the deceased lord was
to blame for unreadiness. Henceforward, moreover, his son and
successor will be held blameworthy for incompetence, as not having
prevented the suicides."*
*From a paper read by Mr. Consul-General J. C. Hall and recorded in
the "Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan" for 1911.
RELEASE OF HOSTAGES
Another memorable step was taken during the administrative period of
Ietsuna. It had been the custom to require that all the great nobles
should send a number of their chief retainers or the latter's
fathers, brothers, and sons to Yedo, where they were held as hostages
for the peaceful conduct of their feudal chiefs. But when the system
of sankin kotai had been in operation for some time, and when the
power of the Tokugawa Bakufu had been fully consolidated, this
practice of exacting hostages became superfluous and vexatious. It
was therefore abandoned in the year 1665 and the hostages were all
suffered to leave Yedo.
THE MING DYNASTY
The fall of the Ming dynasty in China took place in the thirteenth
year of Ietsuna's succession, and for a moment it seemed that Japan
might possibly take the field against the conquering Tatars. A
Chinese immigrant who had settled in the island of Hirado, in Hizen,
married the daughter of a Japanese farmer, and had a son by her. The
immigrant's name was Cheng Chi-lung, and when the partisans of the
Ming dynasty made their last stand at Foochaw, they chose Cheng for
general, through him soliciting aid from the Yedo Bakufu. Their
request was earnestly discussed in Yedo, and it is possible that had
the Ming officers held out a little longer, Japan might have sent an
expedition across the sea. Cheng Chi-lung's son, Cheng Cheng-kung,
resisted to the last, and when he fell fighting at Macao, his
Japanese mother committed suicide. Other fugitives from China,
notably an able scholar named Chu Chi-yu, settled in Japan at this
time, and contributed not a little to the promotion of art and
literature.
YEDO
The influence of the sankin kotai system upon the prosperity of Yedo,
as well as upon the efficiency of the Tokugawa administration, has
already been noticed. Indeed, Yedo in the middle of the seventeenth
century was one of the most populous and prosperous cities in the
world. But very little intelligence had been exercised in planning
it. The streets were narrow and there were no bridges across the main
river. Thus, in 1657, a fire broke out which, being fanned by a
violent wind, burned for two days, destroying the greater part of the
city together with the residences of nearly all the daimyo. The
calamity occurred in the month of February and was accompanied by a
violent snowstorm, which greatly increased the sufferings of the
citizens. Tradition says that 108,000 persons lost their lives, but
that number is probably an exaggeration. In the following year,
another similar catastrophe occurred on almost the same scale, and it
seemed as though Yedo could never rise from its ashes. Yet the result
of these calamities was salutary. The Bakufu selected suitable
situations for the residences of the daimyo, and issued a law
requiring that the main thoroughfares must have a width of sixty feet
and even the by-streets must not be narrower than from thirty to
thirty-six feet. Moreover, three bridges, namely, the Ryogoku, the
Eitai, and the Shin-o, were thrown across the Sumida. This river,
which formed the eastern boundary of the city, had hitherto been left
unbridged for military reasons, and the result was that on the
occasion of the great conflagration thousands of people, caught
between the flames and the river bank, had to choose death by burning
or by drowning. Nevertheless, some officials opposed the building of
bridges, and were only silenced by the astute remark of Sakai
Tadakatsu that if Yedo was ever to be a great city, the convenience
of its inhabitants must be first consulted, for, after all, the
people themselves constituted the best stronghold. This may be
regarded as an evidence of the deference that was beginning then to
be paid to the non-military classes by the samurai.
It was at this time (1658), also, that the city of Yedo obtained its
first supply of good water. There was already an aquaduct from
Inokashira Lake to the Kanda district of the city, but it carried
only a very small volume of water, and the idea of harnessing the
Tama-gawa to supply the town was due to two citizens, Shoemon and
Seiemon, who subsequently received the family name of Tamagawa. The
Bakufu granted a sum of 7500 ryo towards the expense, and on the
completion of the work within two years, gifts of 300 ryo were made
to the two projectors. The water had to be carried through a distance
of over thirty miles, and the enterprise did high credit to the
engineering skill of the men of the time.
DECADENCE OF THE BAKUFU ADMINISTRATION
The era of this fourth Tokugawa shogun, Ietsuna, was remarkable for
things other than the lawlessness of the "wave-men." From that time
the Tokugawa began to fare as nearly all great families of previous
ages had fared: the substance of the administrative power passed into
the hands of a minister, its shadow alone remaining to the shogun.
Sakai Tadakiyo was the chief author of this change. Secluded from
contact with the outer world, Ietsuna saw and heard mainly through
the eyes and ears of the ladies of his household. But Tadakiyo caused
an order to be issued forbidding all access to the Court ladies
except by ministerial permit, and thenceforth the shogun became
practically deaf and dumb so far as events outside the castle were
concerned. Some Japanese historians describe this event as an access
of "weariness" on the shogun's part towards the duties of
administration. This is a euphemism which can be interpreted by what
has been set down above. From 1666, when he became prime minister in
Yedo, Sakai Tadakiyo seems to have deliberately planned the
relegation of his master to the position of a fainéant and the
succession of the shogun's son to supreme power. Tadakiyo's lust of
authority was equalled only by his cupidity. Everything went to the
highest bidder. It had gradually become the fashion that the daimyo
should invite to their Yedo residences all the leading administrators
of the Bakufu. On these entertainments great sums were squandered and
valuable presents were a feature of the fetes. It also became
fashionable to pay constant visits at the mansions of the chief
officials and these visits were always accompanied with costly gifts.
It is recorded that the mansion of Tadakiyo was invariably so crowded
by persons waiting to pay their respects that a man repairing thither
at daybreak could scarcely count on obtaining access by evening-fall.
The depraved state of affairs brought the administration of the
Tokugawa into wide disrepute, and loyal vassals of the family sadly
contrasted the evil time with the days of Ieyasu, seventy years
previously.
THE COURTS OF KYOTO AND OF YEDO
The great financial straits to which the Imperial Court was reduced
during the time of the Muromachi shoguns have been already described.
Both Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi made some endeavours to
correct this evil state of affairs, and when Tokugawa Ieyasu came
into power he adopted still more liberal methods. In 1604, he
increased the revenue of the Court by 10,000 koku annually, and in
the course of the next few years he caused the palace to be rebuilt
on a scale of considerable grandeur. The same policy was pursued by
the second shogun, Hidetada, who assigned to the ex-Emperor an income
of 3000 koku and made various allowances to princes and other members
of the Imperial family. The recipients of these allowances totalled
140, and it is on record that, in the year 1706, the revenues of the
Imperial Court aggregated 29,000 koku; those of the ex-Emperor
15,000; those of the princes and Court nobles, 44,000; those of the
Monzeki* temples, 19,000; those of the Court ladies and Imperial
nuns, 7500, and those of the Court officials 2300, the whole making a
total of about 120,000 koku. The income of the retired shogun alone
equalled that amount, and it was enormously surpassed by the revenues
of many of the daimyo. It must be noted, however, that although the
rice provided for the above purposes was made a charge upon the Kinai
provinces as well as upon Tamba and Omi, neither to the Emperor nor
to the Imperial princes nor to the Court nobles were estates granted
directly. These incomes were collected and transmitted by officials
of the Bakufu, but not a tsubo of land was under the control of
either sovereign or prince.
*Temples governed by Imperial princes.
Military affairs, civil administration, financial management,
including the casting of coins, judicial and legislative affairs, the
superintendence of temples, and so forth, were all in the hands of
the Bakufu in Yedo or of provincial officials nominated by the
shogun. Nothing could have been more complete than the exclusion of
the Kyoto Court from the whole realm of practical government; nor
could any system have contrasted more flagrantly with the theory of
the Daika reforms, according to which every acre of land throughout
the length and breadth of the empire was the property of the
sovereign. It might have been expected that the Tokugawa shoguns
would at least have endeavoured to soften this administrative
effacement by pecuniary generosity; but so little of that quality did
they display that the Emperor and the ex-Emperor were perpetually in
a state of financial embarrassment. As for the Court nobles, their
incomes did not always suffice even for the needs of every-day life,
and they were obliged to have recourse to various devices, such as
marrying their daughters to provincial governors or selling
professional diplomas, the right of conferring which was vested in
their families.
THE SEKKE, DENSO, AND SHOSHIDAI
The sole functions left to the Imperial Court were those of
appointing the shogun--which of course was only formal--conferring
ranks, fixing the name of year-periods, ordering the calendar, taking
part in ceremonials, nominating priests and officials, and
sanctioning the building of temples. Thus, the regent (kwampaku) was
the sovereign's appointee. He had to be chosen in succession from one
of the five families--Konoe, Takatsukasa, Kujo, Nijo, and Ichijo, to
which the general name Go-sekke (the Five Regent Families) was given.
But the regent was practically without power of any kind. Very
different was the case of the denso, who had direct access to the
Throne. Appointed by the shogun from one of seventeen families
closely related to the Tokugawa, a denso, before entering upon the
duties of his office, was obliged to swear that he would minutely and
unreservedly report to the Bakufu everything coming to his knowledge.
His principal duty was to communicate direct with the Throne. There
was also another Bakufu nominee called the giso, who administered the
affairs of the Imperial Court, and who held, in addition, the post of
dai-nagon, chu-nagon, or sho-nagon, which offices were reserved for
members of the Tokugawa family. Yet another official representing the
Bakufu was the shoshidai, who managed all matters connected with the
guarding of the Imperial Court and the Court nobles, at the same time
transacting financial business. In the event of any disturbance
occurring in Court circles in Kyoto, it was reported, first, to the
shoshidai and, then, by him, to the senior officials in Yedo, while
any disturbance occurring in Yedo was equally reported, first to the
shoshidai and afterwards by the latter to the sovereign. The
shoshidai was in fact a governor-general, with powers far superior to
those of any Court noble, and his sway extended to the eight
provinces in the neighbourhood of Kyoto. By means of the shoshidai
all circumstances of the Imperial Court were fully conveyed to the
Bakufu in Yedo and complete control was exercised over the Imperial
capital and its environs. The Bakufu were careful to choose for this
post a man whose loyalty and ability stood beyond question. Finally,
reference may be made to the administrator of the reigning
sovereign's Court (Kinri-zuki bugyo) and the administrator of the
ex-Emperor's court (Sendo-zuki bugyo), both of whom were Bakufu
nominees.
THE 107TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-YOZEI (A.D. 1586-1611)
This Emperor held the sceptre throughout the memorable epoch from the
death of Nobunaga till that of Ieyasu, and he continued to exercise
power during six years after his abdication. It was he that conferred
the post of shogun on Ieyasu and gave him his posthumous title of
Tosho Gongen. His Majesty was the eldest son of the Emperor Okimachi.
He surrendered the throne to his third son in 1611, dying at the age
of forty-seven in 1617.
THE 108TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-MIZU-NO-O (A.D. 1611-1629)
This sovereign had for consort a daughter of the shogun Hidetada, as
already described. The wedding took place in the year 1620, and its
magnificence offered a theme for enthusiastic comment by contemporary
historians. The shogun was careful to surround the Imperial bride
with officials of his own choosing, and these, joining hands with the
shoshidai and the denso, constituted an entourage which ordered
everything at Kyoto in strict accordance with the interests of the
Tokugawa. The new Empress was dowered with an estate much larger than
that of the Emperor himself, although the latter's allowance was
increased by ten thousand koku. It is related that his Majesty's
impecuniosity compelled the curtailment of various ceremonies and
prevented the giving of presents in the ordinary routine of social
conventions, so that it became necessary to replenish the Imperial
purse by lending rice and money to the citizens at high rates of
interest.
A serious collision occurred during Go-Mizu-no-o's reign between the
Courts of Kyoto and Yedo. The Emperor, who inclined to literature and
religion, conceived a profound reverence for two Buddhist prelates of
great learning and conspicuously holy lives. To these priests, Takuan
and Gyokushitsu, his Majesty presented purple robes, a mark of the
highest distinction, in apparently unwitting violation of the
ecclesiastical laws promulgated by Ieyasu, which forbade the giving
of such robes to any bonzes except those of Kennin-ji. On learning of
the incident, the Bakufu summoned these prelates to Yedo, deprived
them of the robes, and sent them into banishment. The Emperor,
naturally much offended, declared that he would no longer occupy the
throne, and in 1629, the year of the two priests' transportation, he
carried out his threat, abdicating in favour of the Imperial
princess, Oki, his eldest daughter by the Tokugawa Empress.
THE 109TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS MYOSHO (A.D. 1629-1643)
The Princess Oki, eldest daughter of Tokufu-mon-in and the Emperor
Go-Mizu-no-o, was only seven years of age when thus called on to
occupy the throne. During eight hundred years no female had wielded
the sceptre of Japan, and the princess was not without a brother
older than herself, though born of a different mother. Thus, the
announcement of the Emperor's intention created profound astonishment
in the Imperial Court. The partisans of the Bakufu supported the
project, but the friends of the Imperial family denounced it
strenuously. Nothing moved the Emperor, however. His Majesty appears
to have thought that to bestow the princess' hand on a subject and to
elevate her elder brother to the throne would surely be productive of
serious mischief, since the husband of the princess, supported by the
Bakufu, would prove an invincible power in the State.
As for the Tokugawa statesmen, some accounts allege that they
objected to the Emperor's project, but others say that when the
matter was reported in Yedo, the shogun signified that his Majesty
might consult his own judgment. What is certain is that the Bakufu
sent to Kyoto the prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, with three other
representatives, and that shortly after their arrival in the Imperial
capital, arrangements were completed for the proposed change. The
Imperial consort, Tofuku-mon-in, was declared ex-Empress with a
revenue of 10,000 koku, and the little princess, who is known in
history as Myosho, received an income of 20,000 koku; while to the
ex-Emperor, Go-Mizu-no-o, only 3000 koku were allotted. Not until
1634, on the occasion of a visit made by Iemitsu, was this glaring
contrast corrected: the shogun then increased the ex-Emperor's
allowance to 7000 koku, and his Majesty continued to administer
public affairs from his place of retirement until 1680, when he died
hi his eighty-fifth year.
THE 110TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-KOMYO (A.D. 1643-1654)
This sovereign was a brother of the Empress Myosho but of a different
mother. He was brought up by Tofuku-mon-in as though he were her real
child, until he succeeded to the throne at the age of eleven,
occupying it for eleven years. Form his earliest youth he showed
sagacity, magnanimity, and benevolence. His love of literature was
absorbing, and he studied earnestly, taking the priests of the Five
Temples as his teachers. He is said to have arrived at the conclusion
that a sovereign should never study any useless branch of learning,
and as he failed to see the utility of Buddhism, he turned to
Confucianism in preference. Moreover, dissatisfied with the old
commentaries of the Han and Tang dynasties, he chose in their stead
the new classics composed by Chengtsz and Chutsz; and as for Japanese
literature, he condemned as grossly misleading works like the Genji
Monogatari and the Ise Monogatari.
There can be no doubt that this sovereign conceived the ambition of
recovering the administrative authority. His reign extended from the
twenty-second year of Iemitsu's sway to the fifth of Ietsuna's, and
in the troubles of that period he thought that he saw his
opportunity. It is related that he devoted much attention to sword
exercise, and the shoshidai Itakura Shigemune warned him that the
study of military matters did not become the Imperial Court and would
probably provoke a remonstrance from Yedo should the fact become
known there. The Emperor taking no notice of this suggestion,
Shigemune went so far as to declare his intention of committing
suicide unless the fencing lessons were discontinued. Thereupon the
young Emperor calmly observed: "I have never seen a military man kill
himself, and the spectacle will be interesting. You had better have a
platform erected in the palace grounds so that your exploit may be
clearly witnessed." When this incident was reported by the shoshidai
to Yedo, the Bakufu concluded that some decisive measure must be
taken, but before their resolve had materialized and before the
sovereign's plans had matured, he died of small-pox, in 1654, at the
age of twenty-two, having accomplished nothing except the restoration
and improvement of certain Court ceremonials, the enactment of a few
sumptuary laws, and the abandonment of cremation in the case of
Imperial personages.
THE 111TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-SAIEN (A.D. 1654-1663) AND
THE 112TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR REIGEN (A.D. 1663-1686)
Go-Saien was the sixth son of the Emperor Go-Mizu-no-o. His reign is
remarkable in connexion with the attitude of the Yedo Bakufu towards
the Throne. In 1657, as already related, Yedo was visited by a
terrible conflagration, and another of scarcely less destructive
violence occurred in the same city the following year, while, in
1661, the Imperial palace itself was burned to the ground, the same
fate overtaking the principal Shinto shrine in Ise, and nearly every
province suffering more or less from a similar cause. Moreover, in
1662, a series of earthquakes disturbed the country throughout a
whole month, and the nation became almost demoralized in the face of
these numerous calamities. Then the Bakufu took an extraordinary
step. They declared that such visitations must be referred to the
sovereign's want of virtue and that the only remedy lay in his
abdication. The shogun, Ietsuna, was now ruling in Yedo. He sent
envoys to Kyoto conveying an order for the dethronement of the
Emperor, and although his Majesty was ostensibly allowed to abdicate
of his own will, there could be no doubt as to the real circumstances
of the case. His brother, Reigen, succeeded him, and after holding
the sceptre for twenty-four years, continued to administer affairs
from his place of retirement until his death, in 1732.
SANKE AND SANKYO
When Ieyasu, after the battle of Sekigahara, distributed the fiefs
throughout the Empire, he gave four important estates to his own
sons, namely, Echizen to Hideyasu; Owari to Tadayoshi; Mito to
Nobuyoshi, and Echigo to Tadateru. Subsequently, after the deaths of
Tadayoshi and Nobuyoshi, he assigned Owari to his sixth son,
Yoshinao, and appointed his seventh son, Yorinobu, to the Kii fief,
while to his eighth son, Yorifusa, Mito was given. These last three
were called the Sanke (the Three Families). From them the successor
to the shogunate was chosen in the event of failure of issue in the
direct line. Afterwards this system was extended by the addition of
three branch-families (Sankyo), namely those of Tayasu and
Hitotsubashi by Munetake and Munetada, respectively, sons of the
shogun Yoshimune, and that of Shimizu by Shigeyoshi, son of the
shogun Ieshige. It was enacted that if no suitable heir to the
shogunate was furnished by the Sanke, the privilege of supplying one
should devolve on the Sankyo, always, however, in default of an heir
in the direct line. The representatives of the Sanke had their
estates and castles, but no fiefs were assigned to the Sankyo; they
resided in Yedo close to the shogun's palace, and received each an
annual allowance from the Bakufu treasury.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM OF THE TOKUGAWA
It has been shown that in distributing the fiefs Ieyasu aimed at
paralyzing the power of the tozama daimyo and vitalizing that of the
fudai barons. This he effected, as far as concerned the tozama
feudatories, by isolating them from each other, or by placing those
of equal strength in juxtaposition, so that they might become rivals;
while in the case of fudai barons, he established an effective system
of communications between them, so that co-operation and
concentration of forces were facilitated. Broadly speaking, this
method had for result the planting of the tozama daimyo in the west
and of the fudai barons in the east, as well as along the main roads
between the two capitals. The plan worked admirably during 270 years,
but at the Restoration, in 1867, the western daimyo combined to
overthrow the shogunate.
Very noticeable were the steps taken to provide facilities for
communication between Yedo and Kyoto. No less than fifty-three
posting stations were established along the road from the Bakufu
capital to the Imperial city, and at several places barriers were set
up. Among these latter, Hakone was considered specially important.
The duty of guarding the barrier there was assigned to the Okubo
family, who enjoyed the full confidence of the Tokugawa and who had
their castle in Odawara. No one could pass this barrier without a
permit. Women were examined with signal strictness, they being
regarded as part of the system which required that the wives of the
daimyo should live in Yedo as hostages. Thus, whereas a man was
granted ingress or egress if he carried a passport signed by his own
feudal chief and addressed to the guards at the barrier, a woman
might not pass unless she was provided with an order signed by a
Bakufu official. Moreover, female searchers were constantly on duty
whose business it was to subject women travellers to a scrutiny of
the strictest character, involving, even, the loosening of the
coiffure. All these precautions formed part of the sankin kotai
system, which proved one of the strongest buttresses of Tokugawa
power. But, from the days of Ietsuna, the wives and children of the
daimyo were allowed to return to their provinces, and under the
eighth shogun, Yoshimune, the system of sankin kotai ceased to be
binding. This was because the Tokugawa found themselves sufficiently
powerful to dispense with such artificial aids.
THE FIEFS
There were certain general divisions of the feudatories. Everyone
possessing a fief of 10,000 koku or upwards was called a daimyo. The
title included the Sanke, the Sankyo, the gokemon (governor of
Echizen), the fudai (hereditary vassals), and the tozama. These were
again subdivided into three classes according to the sizes of their
fiefs. In the first class stood the kokushu (called also kuni-mochi,
or provincial barons) who possessed revenues of at least 300,000
koku. The second class consisted of the joshu (called also
shiro-mochi, or castle-owning barons) whose incomes ranged between
100,000 and 300,000 koku. Finally, the third class was composed of
the ryoshu (sometimes known as shiro-nashi, or castleless barons),
whose revenues ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 koku. These feudatories
might be recommended by the shogun for Court rank in Kyoto, but the
highest office thus conferred was that of dainagon (great
councillor), from which fact the attitude of the feudatories towards
imperially conferred distinctions can be easily appreciated.
Nevertheless, the rules of etiquette were strictly observed by
provincial magnates attending Court functions. They had to conform
carefully to the order of their precedence and with the sumptuary
rules as to colour and quality of garments, and any departure from
these conventions was severely punished.
SUCCESSION
If a feudatory committed some crime or died childless, the law
required that he should be transferred to another province, or that
his successor should suffer a considerable reduction of revenue.
Experience showed, however, that as many of the feudatories died
childless, there were numerous losses of fiefs, and ultimately it was
enacted that a baron might adopt a successor by way of precaution,
unless he deferred that step until he lay dying or sought permission
to take it before he reached the age of seventeen. This meant that if
any feudal chief died before reaching his seventeenth year, his
estate was lost to his family. By way of correcting such a hardship,
the adoption of an heir was afterwards sanctioned without reference
to the age of the adopter, and it was further decided that a man of
fifty or upwards might adopt a son even on his death-bed. Finally, in
the year 1704, all these restrictions were virtually abolished, and
especially the rule that an adopted son must necessarily belong to
the family of his adopter.
SEVERITY OF THE TOKUGAWA TOWARDS THE FEUDATORIES
Although Ieyasu and his successors in the shogunate did not fail to
provide large estates for their own kith and kin, they never showed
any leniency in dealing with the latter's offences. Ieyasu professed
to believe in the potency of justice above all administrative
instruments, and certainly he himself as well as his successors
obeyed that doctrine unswervingly in so far as the treatment of their
own families was concerned. They did not hesitate to confiscate
fiefs, to pronounce sentence of exile, or even to condemn to death.
Thus, in the year of Ieyasu's decease, his sixth son, Matsudaira
Tadateru, was deprived of his fief--610,000 koku--and removed from
Echigo to Asama, in Ise. Tadateru's offence was that he had unjustly
done a vassal of the shogun to death, and had not moved to the
assistance of the Tokugawa in the Osaka War. Moreover, when his elder
brother, the shogun Hidetada, repaired to the Imperial palace,
Tadateru had pretended to be too ill to accompany him, though in
reality he was engaged in a hunting expedition. This was the first
instance of the Bakufu punishing one of their own relatives.
Another example was furnished in 1623 when Matsudaira Tadanao, lord
of Echizen, was sentenced to confinement in his own house and was
ordered to hand over his fief of 750,000 koku to his heir. This
Tadanao was a grandson of Ieyasu, and had shown himself a strong
soldier in the Osaka War. But subsequently he fell into habits of
violence and lawlessness, culminating in neglect of the sankin kotai
system. His uncle, the shogun Hidetada, sentenced him as above
described. Under the administration of Iemitsu this unflinching
attitude towards wrongdoers was maintained more relentlessly than
ever. The dai nagon, Tadanaga, lord of Suruga and younger brother of
Iemitsu by the same mother, received (1618) in Kai province a fief of
180,000 koku, and, seven years later, this was increased by Suruga
and Totomi, bringing the whole estate up to 500,000 koku. He resided
in the castle of Sumpu and led an evil life, paying no attention
whatever to the remonstrances of his vassals. In 1632, Iemitsu
confiscated his fief and exiled him to Takasaki in Kotsuke, where he
was compelled to undergo confinement in the Yashiki of Ando
Shigenaga. Fourteen months later, sentence of death was pronounced
against him at the early age of twenty-eight.
Other instances might be quoted showing how little mercy the Tokugawa
shoguns extended to wrongdoers among their own relatives. It need
hardly be said that outside clans fared no better. Anyone who gave
trouble was promptly punished. Thus, in 1614, Okubo Tadachika, who
had rendered good service to the Bakufu in early days, and who
enjoyed the full confidence of the shogun, was deprived of his castle
at Odawara and sentenced to confinement for the comparatively
trifling offence of contracting a private marriage. Again, in 1622,
the prime minister, Honda Masazumi, lord of Utsunomiya, lost his fief
of 150,000 koku and was exiled to Dawe for the sin of rebuilding his
castle without due permission, and killing a soldier of the Bakufu.
To persons criticising this latter sentence as too severe, Doi
Toshikatsu is recorded to have replied that any weakness shown at
this early stage of the Tokugawa rule must ultimately prove fatal to
the permanence of the Bakufu, and he expressed the conviction that
none would approve the punishment more readily than Masazumi's dead
father, Masanobu, were he still living to pass judgment.
Doubtless political expediency, not the dictates of justice, largely
inspired the conduct of the Bakufu in these matters, for in
proportion as the material influence of the Tokugawa increased, that
of the Toyotomi diminished. In 1632, when the second shogun,
Hidetada, died, it is related that the feudal barons observed the
conduct of his successor, Iemitsu, with close attention, and that a
feeling of some uneasiness prevailed. Iemitsu, whether obeying his
own instinct or in deference to the advice of his ministers, Sakai
Tadakatsu and Matsudaira Nobutsuna, summoned the feudal chiefs to his
castle in Yedo and addressed them as follows: "My father and my
grandfather, with your assistance and after much hardship, achieved
their great enterprise to which I, who have followed the profession
of arms since my childhood, now succeed. It is my purpose to treat
you all without distinction as my hereditary vassals. If any of you
object to be so treated, let him return to his province and take the
consequences."
Date Masamune assumed the duty of replying to that very explicit
statement. "There is none here," he said, "that is not grateful for
the benevolence he has received at the hands of the Tokugawa. If
there be such a thankless and disloyal person, and if he conceive
treacherous designs, I, Masamune, will be the first to attack him and
strike him down. The shogun need not move so much as one soldier."
With this spirited reply all the assembled daimyo expressed their
concurrence, and Iemitsu proceeded to distribute his father's
legacies to the various barons and their vassals. Very soon after his
accession he had to order the execution of his own brother, Tadanaga,
and the banishment of Kato Tadahiro, son of the celebrated Kato
Kiyomasa. The latter was punished on the ground that he sent away his
family from Yedo during the time of mourning for the late shogun,
Hidetada. He was deprived of his estate at Kumamoto in Higo and was
exiled to Dewa province.
The punishment of these two barons is said to have been in the sequel
of a device planned by Iemitsu and carried out by Doi Toshikatsu. The
latter, being accused of a simulated crime, was sentenced to
confinement in his mansion. Thence he addressed to all the daimyo a
secret circular, urging them to revolt and undertaking to make
Tadanaga shogun instead of Iemitsu. With two exceptions every baron
to whose hands this circular came forwarded it to the Bakufu in Yedo.
The exceptions were Tadanaga and Tadahiro, who consequently fell
under the shogun's suspicion. Thereafter, it is related that some of
the barons set themselves to deceive the Bakufu by various wiles.
Thus, Maeda Toshinaga had recourse to the manoeuvre of allowing the
hair in his nostrils to grow long, a practice which speedily earned
for him the reputation of insanity, and Date Masamune conceived the
device of carrying a sword with a wooden blade. The apprehensions of
which such acts were indicative cannot be considered surprising in
view of the severe discipline exercised by the Bakufu. Thus, during
the shogunate of Hidetada, no less than forty changes are recorded to
have been made among the feudatories, and in the time of Iemitsu
there were thirty-five of such incidents. History relates that to be
transferred from one fief to another, even without nominal loss of
revenue, was regarded as a calamity of ten years' duration. All this
was partly prompted by the Bakufu's policy of weakening the
feudatories. To the same motive must be assigned constant orders for
carrying out some costly public work.
ENGRAVING: FANS
ENGRAVING: "THE BUGAKU," ANCIENT DANCING AND MUSIC
CHAPTER XL
MIDDLE PERIOD OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU; FROM THE FIFTH SHOGUN,
TSUNAYOSHI, TO THE TENTH SHOGUN, IEHARU (1680-1786)
ACCESSION OF TSUNAYOSHI
IN 1680, the fourth shogun, Ietsuna, fell dangerously ill, and a
council of the chief Bakufu officials was held to decide upon his
successor. The Bakufu prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, proposed that
the example of Kamakura should be followed, and that an Imperial
prince should be invited to assume the office of shogun. Thereupon
Hotta Masatoshi, one of the junior ministers, vehemently
remonstrated. "Is the prime minister jesting?" he is reported to have
asked. "There is no question whatever as to the succession. That
dignity falls to Tsunayoshi and to Tsunayoshi alone. He is the
legitimate son of the late shogun, Iemitsu, and the only brother of
the present shogun, Ietsuna. If the minister is not jesting, his
proposition is inexplicable." This bold utterance was received with
profound silence, and after a few moments Sakai Tadakiyo retired from
the council chamber.
It has to be remembered in connexion with this incident, that
Tadakiyo exercised almost complete sway in the Bakufu Court at that
time, and the fact that he yielded quietly to Hotta Masatoshi's
remonstrance goes far to acquit him of any sinister design such as
securing the whole administrative power for himself by setting up an
Imperial prince as a mere figurehead. The more probable explanation
is that as one of the consorts of the shogun Ietsuna was enceinte at
that time, the Bakufu prime minister desired to postpone any family
decision until the birth of her child, since to dispense with an
Imperial prince would be as easy to procure one, whereas if one of
the shogun's lineage were nominated, he would be difficult to
displace. There had been born to Iemitsu five sons, of whom the
eldest, Ietsuna, had succeeded to the shogunate, and three others had
died, the only one remaining alive being Tsunayoshi, who, having been
born in 1646, was now (1680) in his thirty-fourth year.
HOTTA MASATOSHI
On Tsunayoshi's accession the prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, was
released from office, and Hotta Masatoshi became his successor.
Naturally, as Masatoshi had been instrumental in obtaining the
succession for Tsunayoshi, his influence with the latter was very
great. But there can be no question that he deserves to rank as one
of Japan's leading statesmen in any age, and that he devoted his
signal abilities to the cause of progress and administrative purity.
The result of his strenuous services was to check the corruption
which had come to pervade every department of State in the closing
years of the fourth shogun's sway, and to infuse the duties of
government with an atmosphere of diligence and uprightness.
THE ECHIGO COMPLICATION
For several years prior to the accession of Tsunayoshi, the province
of Echigo had been disturbed by an intrigue in the family of
Matsudaira Mitsunaga. It is unnecessary to enter into further
details. The incident was typical of the conditions existing in many
of the barons' households, and the history of Japan furnishes
numerous parallel cases. But connected with this particular example
is the remarkable fact that the shogun himself finally undertook in
the hall of justice to decide the issue, and that the rendering of
justice by the chief of the Bakufu became thenceforth a not
infrequently practised habit. Instructed by his prime minister, the
shogun swept aside all the obstacles placed in the path of justice by
corruption and prejudice; sentenced the principal intriguer to death;
confiscated the Mitsunaga family's estate of 250,000 koku on the
ground of its chief's incompetence, and severely punished all the
Bakufu officials who had been parties to the plot.
THE ATAKA MARU
Another act of Tsunayoshi stands to the credit of his acumen.
Although the third shogun, Iemitsu, had vetoed the building of any
vessels exceeding five hundred koku capacity, his object being to
prevent oversea enterprise, he caused to be constructed for the use
of the Bakufu a great ship called the Ataka Maru, which required a
crew several hundred strong and involved a yearly outlay figuring in
the official accounts at one hundred thousand koku. One of
Tsunayoshi's first orders was that this huge vessel should be broken
up, and when his ministers remonstrated on the ground that she would
be invaluable in case of emergency, he replied that if an
insurrection could not be suppressed without such extraordinary
instruments, the Bakufu might step down at once from the seats of
power. "As for me," he added, "I have no desire to preserve such an
evidence of constant apprehension and at such a charge on the coffers
of the State."
ENCOURAGEMENT OF VIRTUE
Tsunayoshi also instructed his officials to search throughout the
empire for persons of conspicuous filial piety and women of noted
chastity. To these he caused to be distributed presents of money or
pensions, and he directed the littérateurs of the Hayashi family to
write the biographies of the recipients of such rewards. In fact, the
early years of the shogun's administration constitute one of the
brightest periods in the history of the Tokugawa Bakufu.
ASSASSINATION OF HOTTA MASATOSHI
On the 8th of October, 1684, the Bakufu prime minister, Hotta
Masatoshi, was assassinated in the shogun's palace by one of the
junior ministers, Inaba Masayasu, who met his death immediately at
the hands of the bystanders. This extraordinary affair remains
shrouded in mystery until the present day. Hotta Masatoshi was the
third son of Masamori, who died by his own hand to follow his master,
Iemitsu, to the grave. Masatoshi, inheriting a part of his father's
domain, received the title of Bitchu no Kami, and resided in the
castle of Koga, ultimately (1680) becoming prime minister (dairo)
with an annual revenue of 130,000 koku. His high qualities are
recorded above, but everything goes to show that he had more than the
ordinary reformer's stubbornness, and that tolerance of a
subordinate's errors was wholly foreign to his disposition. Even to
the shogun himself he never yielded in the smallest degree, and by
the majority of those under him he was cordially detested. The
records say that on one occasion, when remonstrated with by his
friend, the daimyo of Hirado, who warned him that his hardness and
severity might involve him in trouble, Masatoshi replied, "I thank
you for your advice, but so long as I am endeavouring to reform the
country, I have no time to think of myself."
It is easy to understand that a man of such methods had enemies
sufficiently numerous and sufficiently resolute to compass his death.
On the other hand, Masayasu, his assassin, was related to him by
marriage, and possessed an estate of 25,000 koku, as well as holding
the position of junior minister of State. It is extremely unlikely
that a man in such a position would have resorted to such a desperate
act without great provocation or ample sanction. The question is, was
the shogun himself privy to the deed? It is recorded that there was
found on Masayasu's person a document expressing deep gratitude for
the favours he had received at the hands of the shogun, and declaring
that only by taking the life of Masatoshi could any adequate return
be made. It is further recorded that the steward of the Bakufu,
addressing the corpse of Masayasu, declared that the deceased had
shown unparallelled loyalty. Again, history says that Mitsukuni,
daimyo of Mito, repaired to the Inaba mansion after the incident, and
expressed to Masayasu's mother his condolences and his applause.
Finally, after Masatoshi's death, his son was degraded in rank and
removed to a greatly reduced estate. All these things are difficult
to explain except on the supposition that the shogun himself was
privy to the assassination.
ENCOURAGEMENT OF CONFUCIANISM
The third shogun, Iemitsu, addressing the mother of his son,
Tsimayoshi, is said to have expressed profound regret that his own
education had been confined to military science. "That is to me," he
is reported to have said, "a source of perpetual sorrow, and care
should be taken that Tsunayoshi, who seems to be a clever lad, should
receive full instruction in literature." In compliance with this
advice, steps were taken to interest Tsunayoshi in letters, and he
became so attached to this class of study that even when sick he
found solace in his books. The doctrines of Confucius attracted him
above all other systems of ethics. He fell into the habit of
delivering lectures on the classics, and to show his reverence for
the Chinese sages, he made it a rule to wear full dress on these
occasions, and to worship after the manner of all Confucianists. It
has already been related that a shrine of Confucius was built in Ueno
Park by the Tokugawa daimyo of Owari, and that the third shogun,
Iemitsu, visited this shrine in 1633 to offer prayer. Fifty years
later, the fifth shogun, Tsunayoshi, followed that example, and also
listened to lectures on the classics by Hayashi Nobuatsu.
Subsequently (1691), a new shrine was erected at Yushima in the Kongo
district of Yedo, and was endowed with an estate of one thousand koku
to meet the expenses of the spring and autumn festivals. Further, the
daimyo were required to contribute for the erection of a school in
the vicinity of the shrine. At this school youths of ability,
selected from among the sons of the Bakufu officials and of the
daimyo, were educated, the doctrines of Confucius being thus rendered
more and more popular.
Under Tsunayoshi's auspices, also, many books were published which
remain to this day standard works of their kind. Another step taken
by the shogun was to obtain from the Court in Kyoto the rank of
junior fifth class for Hayashi Nobuatsu, the great Confucian scholar,
who was also nominated minister of Education and chief instructor at
Kongo College. Up to that time it had been the habit of Confucianists
and of medical men to shave their heads and use titles corresponding
to those of Buddhist priests. In these circumstances neither
Confucianists nor physicians could be treated as samurai, and they
were thus excluded from all State honours. The distinction conferred
upon Hayashi Nobuatsu by the Imperial Court effectually changed these
conditions. The Confucianists ceased to shave their heads and became
eligible for official posts. Thereafter, ten of Hayashi's disciples
were nominated among the shogun's retainers, and were required to
deliver lectures periodically at the court of the Bakufu. In short,
in whatever related to learning, Tsunayoshi stands easily at the head
of all the Tokugawa shoguns.
CHANGE OF CALENDAR
A noteworthy incident of Tsunayoshi's administration was a change of
calendar, effected in the year 1683. The credit of this achievement
belongs to a mathematician called Shibukawa Shunkai. A profound
student, his researches had convinced him that the Hsuan-ming
calendar, borrowed originally from China and used in Japan ever since
the year A.D. 861, was defective. He pointed out some of its errors
in a memorial addressed to the Bakufu under the sway of the fourth
shogun, but the then prime minister, Sakai Tadakiyo, paid no
attention to the document. Shunkai, however, did not desist. In 1683,
an eclipse of the moon took place, and he demonstrated that it was
erroneously calculated in the Chinese calendar. The fifth shogun,
Tsunayoshi, was then in power, and the era of his reforming spirit
had not yet passed away. He adopted Shunkai's suggestion and obtained
the Imperial sanction for a change of calendar so that the Husan-ming
system went out of force after 822 years of use in Japan.
JAPANESE LITERATURE
Tsunayoshi did not confine his patronage to Chinese literature; he
devoted much energy to the encouragement of Japanese classical
studies, also. Thus, in 1689, he invited to Yedo Kitamura Kigin and
his son Shuncho and bestowed upon the former the title of Hoin
together with a revenue of five hundred koku. This marked the
commencement of a vigorous revival of Japanese literature in the
Bakufu capital. Moreover, in Osaka a scholar named Keichu Ajari
published striking annotations of the celebrated anthologies, the
Manyo-shu and the Kokin-shu, which attracted the admiration of
Tokugawa Mitsukuni, baron of Mito. He invited Keichu to his castle
and treated him with marked consideration. These littérateurs were
the predecessors of the celebrated Kamo and Motoori, of whom there
will be occasion to speak by and by.
FINE ARTS
Tsunayoshi's patronage extended also to the field of the fine arts.
The Tokugawa Bakufu had hitherto encouraged the Kano School only
whereas the Tosa Academy was patronized by the Court at Kyoto. This
partiality was corrected by Tsunayoshi., He invited Sumiyoshi
Gukei--also called Hirozumi--the most distinguished pupil of Tosa
Mitsuoki, bestowed on him a revenue of two hundred koku, and gave him
the official position of chief artist of the Tosa-ryu, placing him on
an equal footing with the chief of the Kano-ryu. It was at this time
also that the ukiyoe (genre picture) may be said to have won popular
favour. Contemporaneously there appeared some dramatic authors of
high ability, and as the ukiyoe and the drama appealed mainly to the
middle and lower classes, the domain of literature and the fine arts
received wide extension. Thus, Chikamatsu Monzaemon, of Osaka, the
greatest dramatist that his country ever possessed, composed plays
which have earned for him the title of the "Shakespeare of Japan;"
and as for the light literature of the era, though it was disfigured
by erotic features, it faithfully reflected in other respects the
social conditions and sentiments of the time.
THE MERCANTILE CLASS
From the commencement of Japanese history down to the second half of
the seventeenth century, the canons and customs were dictated solely
by the upper class, and neither merchants nor artisans were
recognized as possessing any social or literary influence whatever.
But in the middle period of the Tokugawa Bakufu--the Genroku period,
as it is commonly called--the tradesman became a comparatively
conspicuous figure. For example, in the realm of poetry, hitherto
strictly reserved for the upper classes, the classic verse called
renga (linked song) was considered to be sullied by the introduction
of any common or every-day word, and therefore could be composed only
by highly educated persons. This now found a substitute in the
haikai, which admitted language taken from purely Japanese sources
and could thus be produced without any exercise of special
scholarship. Afterwards, by the addition of the hokku, an
abbreviation of the already brief renga and haikai, which adapted
itself to the capacities of anyone possessing a nimble wit or a
sparkling thought, without any preparation of literary study, the
range of poetry was still further extended. Matsuo Basho Was the
father of the haikai and the hokku, and his mantle descended upon
Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyoriku, and other celebrities. They travelled
round the country popularizing their art and immensely expanding the
field of literature. The craft of penmanship flourished equally, and
was graced by such masters as Hosoi Kotaku and Kitamura Sessan. Yedo,
the metropolis of wealth and fashion, became also the capital of
literature and the fine arts, and a characteristic of the era was the
disappearance of charlatans, whether laymen or bonzes, who professed
to teach the arcana of special accomplishments. In short, every
branch of study passed out of the exclusive control of one or two
masters and became common property, to the great advantage of
original developments.
REMOVAL OF THE ROJU
What has thus far been written depicts the bright side of
Tsunayoshi's administration. It is necessary now to look at the
reverse of the picture. There we are first confronted by an important
change of procedure. It had been the custom ever since the days of
Ieyasu to conduct the debates of the council of ministers (Roju) in a
chamber adjoining the shogun's sitting-room, so that he could hear
every word of the discussion, and thus keep himself au courant of
political issues. After the assassination of Hotta Masatoshi this
arrangement was changed. The council chamber was removed to a
distance, and guards were placed in the room where it had originally
assembled, special officials being appointed for the purpose of
maintaining communications between the shogun and the Roju. This
innovation was nominally prompted by solicitude for the shogun's
safety, but as its obvious result was to narrow his sources of
information and to bring him under the direct influence of the newly
appointed officials, there is strong reason to believe that the
measure was a reversion to the evil schemes of Sakai Tadakiyo, who
plotted to usurp the shogun's authority.
YANAGISAWA YASUAKI
Tsunayoshi had at that time a favourite attendant on whom he
conferred the rank of Dewa no Kami with an estate at Kawagoe which
yielded 100,000 koku annually. The friendship of the shogun for this
most corrupt official had its origin in community of literary taste.
Tsunayoshi lectured upon the "Doctrine of the Mean," and Yasuaki on
the Confucian "Analects," and after these learned discourses a
Sarugaku play, or some other form of light entertainment, was
organized. The shogun was a misogynist, and Yasuaki understood well
that men who profess to hate women become the slave of the fair sex
when their alleged repugnance is overcome. He therefore set himself
to lead the shogun into licentious habits, and the lecture-meetings
ultimately changed their complexion. Tsunayoshi, giving an ideograph
from his name to Yasuaki, called him Yoshiyasu, and authorized him to
assume the family name of Matsudaira, conferring upon him at the same
time a new domain in the province of Kai yielding 150,000 koku.
Thenceforth, the administration fell entirely into the hands of this
schemer. No prime minister (dairo) was appointed after the
assassination of Hotta Masatoshi; the council of ministers became a
mere echo of Yoahiyasu's will and the affairs of the Bakufu were
managed by one man alone.
DOG MANIA
Tsunayoshi lost his only son in childhood and no other being born to
him, he invited a high Buddhist priest to pray for an heir to the
shogunate. This priest, Ryuko by name, informed Tsunayoshi that his
childless condition was a punishment for taking animal life in a
previous state of existence, and that if he wished to be relieved of
the curse, he must show mercy, particularly to dogs, as he had been
born in the year whose zodiacal sign was that of the "Dog." It seems
strange that such an earnest believer in the Confucian doctrine
should have had recourse to Buddhism in this matter. But here also
the influence of Yoshiyasu is discernible. At his suggestion the
shogun built in Yedo two large temples, Gokoku-ji and Goji-in, and
Ryuko was the prelate of the former. An order was accordingly issued
against slaughtering dogs or taking life in any form, the result
being that all wild animals multiplied enormously and wrought great
damage to crops. Thereupon the Bakufu issued a further notice to the
effect that in case wild animals committed ravages, they might be
driven away by noise, or even by firing blank cartridges, provided
that an oath were made not to kill them. Should these means prove
defective, instructions must be sought from the judicial department.
Moreover, if any animal's life was taken under proper sanction, the
carcass must be buried without removing any part of its flesh or
skin. Violations of this order were to be severely punished, and it
was enacted that an accurate register must be kept of all dogs owned
by the people, strict investigations being made in the event of the
disappearance of a registered dog, and the officials were specially
warned against permitting one animal to be substituted for another.
Strange dogs were to be well fed, and any person neglecting this
obligation was to be reported to the authorities.
At first these orders were not very seriously regarded, but by and
by, when many persons had been banished to Hachijo-jima for killing
dogs; when several others had been reproved publicly for not giving
food to homeless animals, and when officials of the supreme court
were condemned to confinement for having taken no steps to prevent
dog-fights, the citizens began to appreciate that the shogun was in
grim earnest. A huge kennel was then constructed in the Nakano suburb
of Yedo as a shelter for homeless dogs. It covered an area of about
138 acres, furnished accommodation for a thousand dogs, and was under
the management of duly appointed officials, while the citizens had to
contribute to a dog-fund, concerning which it was said that a dog's
ration for a day would suffice a man for a day and a half.
Tsunayoshi came to be spoken of as Inu-kubo (Dog-shogun), but all his
measures did not bring him a son; neither did their failure shake his
superstitious credulity. Solemn prayers were offered again and again
with stately pomp and profuse circumstance, and temple after temple
was built or endowed at enormous cost, while the laws against taking
animal life continued in force more vigorously than ever. Birds and
even shell-fish were included in the provisions, and thus not only
were the nation's foodstuffs diminished, but also its crops lay at
the mercy of destructive animals and birds. It is recorded that a
peasant was exiled for throwing a stone at a pigeon, and that one man
was put to death for catching fish with hook and line, while another
met the same fate for injuring a dog, the head of the criminal being
exposed on the public execution ground and a neighbour who had
reported the offence being rewarded with thirty ryo. We read, also,
of officials sentenced to transportation for clipping a horse or
furnishing bad provender. The annals relate a curious story connected
with these legislative excesses. The Tokugawa baron of Mito, known in
history as Komon Mitsukuni, on receiving evidence as to the
monstrous severity with which the law protecting animals was
administered, collected a large number of men and organized a hunting
expedition on a grand scale. Out of the animals killed, twenty dogs
of remarkable size were selected, and their skins having been
dressed, were packed in a case for transmission to Yanagisawa
Yoshiyasu, whom people regarded as chiefly responsible for the
shogun's delirium. The messengers to whom the box was entrusted were
ordered to travel with all speed, and, on arriving in Yedo, to repair
forthwith to the Yanagisawa mansion, there handing over the skins
with a written statement that the Mito baron, having found such
articles useful in the cold season, availed himself of this
opportunity to submit his experience together with a parcel of
dressed hides to the shogun through Yoshiyasu. It is said that the
recipient of this sarcastic gift conceived a suspicion of the Mito
baron's sanity and sent a special envoy to examine his condition.
FINANCE
In the sequel of this corrupt administration, this constant building
of temples, and this profusion of costly ceremonials, the shogun's
Government found itself seriously embarrassed for money. Ieyasu had
always made frugality and economy his leading principles. He had
escaped the heavy outlays to which his fellow barons were condemned
in connexion with the Korean campaign, since his share in the affair
did not extend beyond collecting a force in the province of Hizen.
Throughout his life he devoted much attention to amassing a reserve
fund, and it is said that when he resigned the shogunate to his son,
he left 150,000 gold oban (one and a half million ryo), and nearly
two million ounces (troy) of silver in the treasury. Further, during
his retirement at Sumpu, he saved a sum of one million ryo. The same
economy was practised by the second shogun, although he was compelled
to spend large sums in connexion with his daughter's promotion to be
the Emperor's consort, as well as on the repairs of Yedo Castle and
on his several progresses to Kyoto. On the occasion of these
progresses, Hidetada is said to have distributed a total of 4.217,400
ryo of gold and 182,000 ryo of silver among the barons throughout the
empire. The third shogun, Iemitsu, was open handed. We find him
making frequent donations of 5000 kwamme of silver to the citizens of
Kyoto and Yedo; constructing the inner castle at Yedo twice; building
a huge warship; entertaining the Korean ambassadors with much pomp;
disbursing 400,000 ryo on account of the Shimabara insurrection, and
devoting a million ryo to the construction and embellishment of the
mausolea at Nikko. Nevertheless, on the whole Iemitsu must be
regarded as an economical ruler.
As for his successor, Ietsuna, he had to deal with several calamitous
occurrences. After the great fire in Yedo, he contributed 160,000 ryo
for the relief of the sufferers; he rebuilt Yedo Castle, and he
reconstructed the Imperial palace of Kyoto twice. In the Empo era
(1673-1680), the country was visited by repeated famines, which had
the effect of reducing the yield of the taxes and calling for large
measures of relief. In these circumstances, a proposal was formally
submitted recommending the debasement of the gold coinage, but it
failed to obtain official consent. It may be mentioned that, in the
year 1659, the treasury was reduced to ashes, and a quantity of gold
coin contained therein was melted. With this bullion a number of gold
pieces not intended for ordinary circulation were cast, and stamped
upon them were the words, "To be used only in cases of national
emergency." The metal thus reserved is said to have amounted to
160,000 ryo. The register shows that when the fifth shogun succeeded
to power, there were 3,850,000 gold ryo in the treasury. But this
enormous sum did not long survive the extravagance of Tsunayoshi.
After the assassination of Hotta Masatoshi, the administrative power
fell entirely into the hands of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, and the example
set by him for those under his guidance, and by his master, the
shogun, soon found followers among all classes of the people. As an
instance of ludicrous luxury it may be mentioned that the timbers
intended for the repair of the castle in Yedo were wrapped in wadded
quilts when transported to the city from the forest. Finally, the
treasury became so empty that, when the shogun desired to repair to
the mausolea at Nikko, which would have involved a journey of ten
days at the most, he was compelled to abandon the idea, as the
officials of the treasury declared themselves unable to find the
necessary funds. That sum was calculated at 100,000 ryo, or about as
many pounds sterling, which fact is alone sufficient to convey an
idea of the extravagance practised in everything connected with the
Government.
The immediate outcome of this incident was the summoning of a council
to discuss the financial situation, and after much thought the
suggestion of Hagiwara Shigehide, chief of the Treasury, was
accepted, namely, wholesale debasement of the gold, silver, and
copper coins. The old pieces, distinguished as "Keicho coins," that
being the name of the year period (1596-1614) when they were minted,
were replaced by greatly inferior "Genroku coins" (1688-1703), with
the natural results--appreciation of commodities and much forging of
counterfeit coins. Presently the Government is found levying a tax
upon 27,200 sake brewers within the Kwanto, and, in 1703, fresh
expedients became necessary to meet outlays incurred owing to a great
earthquake and conflagration which destroyed a large part of Yedo
Castle and of the daimyo's mansions. Further debasement of the
currency was resorted to, the new coins being distinguished by the
term "Hoei," after the name of the year-period when they were
minted.
About this time several of the feudatories found themselves in such
straits that they began to issue paper currency within their
dominions, and this practice having been interdicted by the Bakufu,
the daimyo fell back upon the expedient of levying forced loans from
wealthy merchants in Osaka. Meanwhile, the crime of forgery became so
prevalent that, in the interval between 1688 and 1715, no less than
541 counterfeiters were crucified within the districts under the
direct control of the Bakufu., The feudatory of Satsuma is credited
with having justly remarked that the victims of this cruel fate
suffered for their social status rather than for their offence
against the law, the real counterfeiters being Yanagisawa and
Hagiwara, who were engaged continuously in uttering debased coins.
It must be admitted in behalf of the financiers of that era that
their difficulties were much accentuated by natural calamities. The
destructive earthquake of 1703 was followed, in 1707, by an eruption
of Fuji, with the result that in the three provinces of Musashi,
Sagami, and Suruga, considerable districts were buried in ashes to
the depth of ten feet, so that three years and a heavy expenditure
of, money were required to restore normal conditions. Thenceforth the
state of the Bakufu treasury went from bad to worse. Once again
Hagiwara Shigehide had recourse to adulteration of the coinage. This
time he tampered mainly with the copper tokens, but owing to the
unwieldy and impure character of these coins, very great difficulty
was experienced in putting them into circulation, and the Bakufu
financiers finally were obliged to fall back upon the reserve of gold
kept in the treasury for special contingencies. There can be no doubt
that Japan's foreign trade contributed materially to her financial
embarrassment, but this subject will be subsequently dealt with.
TSUNAYOSHI'S FAVOURITE
When Tsunayoshi became shogun, Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu occupied the
position of a low-class squire in the shogun's household and was in
receipt of a salary of three hundred koku yearly. Four years later,
he received the title of Dewa no Kami and his revenue was increased
to 100,000 koku. Finally, in 1703, he was appointed daimyo of Kai
province and came into the enjoyment of a total income of 150,000
koku. This was the more remarkable inasmuch as, owing to the
strategical importance of Kai, it had been reserved as a fief for one
of the Tokugawa family, and its bestowal on a complete outsider was
equivalent to the admission of the latter into the Tokugawa circle.
This remarkable promotion in rank and income shows how completely the
shogun had fallen under the influence of his favourite, Yoshiyasu,
who exhibited wonderful skill in appealing at once to the passions
and to the intellect of his master. Some historians of the time
relate that the shogun's infatuation betrayed him into promising to
raise Yoshiyasu's revenue to a million koku, and to nominate as
successor to the shogunate a son borne by Yoshiyasu's wife to
Tsunayoshi; but according to tradition, these crowning extravagances
were averted on the very night preceding the day of their intended
consummation, the shogun being stabbed to death by his wife, who
immediately committed suicide. This tale, however, has been shown to
be an invention with no stronger foundation than the fact that
Tsunayoshi's death took place very suddenly at a highly critical
time. It is not to be doubted that many of the excesses and
administrative blunders committed by the fifth Tokugawa shogun were
due to the pernicious influence of Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu.
DECLINE OF THE SAMURAI SPIRIT
The no dance was among the indulgences which Tsunayoshi affected and
among the accomplishments in which he himself excelled. He took into
his service a number of skilled dancers of the no, and treated them
as hereditary vassals, setting aside the chamber of the Paulownia for
their use. These performers, whatever their origin, received the
treatment of samurai, and their dainty posturing in the dance became
a model for the lords of the Bakufu Court, so that the simple
demeanour of military canons was replaced by a mincing and
meretricious mien. Another favourite dance in Yedo Castle was the
furyu. A book of the period describes the latter performance in these
terms: "Sixteen youths made their appearance; they all wore
wide-sleeved robes and purple figured silk with embroidery of oak
leaves in gold and silver threads. They carried two swords with gold
mountings and scarlet tassels, so that when they danced in harmony
with the flutes and drums the spectacle presented was one of dazzling
brilliancy." Thenceforth this "Genroku dance," as it came to be
called, obtained wide vogue. The same is true of the joruri, which is
one of the most emotional forms of chant. Hitherto the samisen had
been regarded as a vulgar instrument, and its use had never received
the sanction of aristocratic circles. But it now came into favour
with all classes of women from the highest to the lowest, and the
singing of the joruri was counted a far more important accomplishment
than any kind of domestic education.
Such an appeal to the emotional side of human nature could not fail
to undermine the stoicism of the samurai and the morality of society
in general. The practice of the military arts went out of fashion,
and it became an object with the bushi not only to have his sword
highly ornamented, but also to adapt its dimensions to the fashion of
the moment, thus sacrificing utility to elegance. In short, the
Genroku era (1688-1703) was essentially a time of luxury and
extravagance, its literature abounding in theatrical plays, songs,
verses, and joruri, and its ideals involving the sacrifice of the
noble to the elegant. Men were promoted in rank not merely because
they could dance gracefully, but also because they made themselves
conspicuous for kindness to dogs, in obedience to the shogun's
foible, and as many of these men had not learned to ride on horseback
they petitioned for permission to use palanquins. This marked a
signal departure from the severe rules of former days. Street
palanquins (machi-kago) ultimately came into use by all who could
afford the luxury. In short, the ancient order of educational
precedence was reversed, and polite accomplishments took the place of
military science.
ENGRAVING: FORTY-SEVEN RONIN
THE AKO VENDETTA
Nevertheless, this degenerate era produced one of the most remarkable
acts of self-sacrificing loyalty that stand to the credit of Japanese
samurai. On the 7th of February, 1703, forty-seven bushi, under the
leadership of Oishi Yoshio, forced their way into the mansion of Kira
Yoshihide; killed him in order to avenge the death of their feudal
chief, Asano Naganori, daimyo of Ako; and then surrendered themselves
to justice. Under the title of The Forty-seven Ronins, this story has
been told in history, on the stage, and in all forms of literature,
so that its details need not be repeated here. It will suffice to say
that, under great provocation, the Ako feudatory drew his sword in
the precincts of Yedo Castle and cut down Kira Yoshihide, for which
breach of court etiquette rather than for the deed of violence, the
Ako baron was condemned to commit suicide and his estates were
confiscated. Thereupon, forty-seven of his principal vassals pledged
themselves to wreak vengeance, and, after nearly two years of
planning and watching, they finally succeeded in achieving their
purpose. Degenerate as was the spirit of the time, this bold deed
aroused universal admiration. The vendetta was not illegal in Japan.
It had been practised from medieval times and often with direct
sanction of the authorities. But in no circumstances was it
officially permissible within the cities of Kyoto, Yedo, Osaka, and
Sumpu, or in the vicinity of the shogun's shrines. The forty-seven
ronins had therefore committed a capital crime. Yet they had only
obeyed the doctrine of Confucius, and the shogun therefore
endeavoured to save their lives. More than a year was spent
discussing the issue, and it is recorded that Tsunayoshi appealed to
the prince-abbot of Ueno in order to secure his intervention in the
cause of leniency. The day was ultimately carried by the advocates of
stern justice, and the forty-seven ronins were ordered to commit
suicide.
They obeyed without a murmur. One of them, Terasaka Kichiemon by
name, had been sent to carry the news to Ako immediately after the
perpetration of the deed of vengeance. He returned when his comrades
were condemned and gave himself up to the authorities, but they
declined to punish him on the ground that the case had already been
disposed of. The eminent Confucian scholar, Hayashi Nobuatsu,
petitioned for the pardon of the ronins, and the scarcely less
celebrated Muro Kyuso compiled a book describing the incident; but,
for some reason never fully explained, the noteworthy scholar, Ogyu
Sorai, took the opposite side. One act of the authorities is eloquent
as to the sentiment prevailing at the time. They condemned
Yoshihide's son, Yoshikata, to be deprived of his ancestral domain
for not having died in company with his father. As for the feeling of
the nation at large, it was abundantly manifested by many of the
great feudatories, who vied with one another in conferring offices
and revenues on the sons and grandsons of the "Forty-seven."
YAMAGA SOKO
The affair of the forty-seven ronins helped to bring into eminence
the name of Yamaga Soko, a firm believer in Confucianism and an
ardent follower of military science. Amid an environment of
unfavourable conditions Soko preached the cult of bushido, and was
the first to embody that philosophy in a written system. His
books--the Shi-do (Way of the Warrior) and Bukyo Shogaku (Military
Primer)--contain minute instructions as to the practice and the
morale of the samurai. Soko rejected the Chutsz interpretation, then
in vogue, of the Chinese classics, and insisted on the pure doctrine
of the ancient sages, so that he found himself out of touch with the
educational spirit of the time. Thus, falling under the displeasure
of the Bakufu, he was charged with propagating heterodox views and
was sent to Ako to be kept in custody by Asano Naganori, who treated
him throughout with courtesy and respect. In return, Soko devoted his
whole energy during nineteen years to the education of the Ako
vassals, and the most prominent of the Forty-seven Ronins was among
his pupils.
THE SIXTH SHOGUN, IENOBU
Tsunayoshi died of small-pox in 1709, after a brief illness. He had
no son, and: five years previously, his nephew Ienobu (third son of
his deceased elder brother, Tsunashige) had been declared heir to the
shogunate. Having been born in 1662, Ienobu was in his forty-seventh
year when he succeeded to the office of shogun. His first act was to
abolish Tsunayoshi's legislation for the protection of animals. He is
said to have offered the following explanation at the tomb of the
deceased shogun: "You desired to protect living animals and strictly
interdicted the slaughter of any such. You willed that even after
your death the prohibition should be observed. But hundreds of
thousands of human beings are suffering from the operation of your
law. To repeal it is the only way of bringing peace to the nation."
ARAI HAKUSEKI
Ienobu gave evidence of his sagacity by dismissing Yanagisawa
Yoshiyasu, the corrupt favourite of the late shogun; by appointing in
his stead Manabe Norifusa to the office of personal assistant (soba
yoniri), and by reposing full confidence in Arai Hakuseki. This last
is recognized by posterity as the most distinguished among Japanese
Confucianists. He studied the literature of both the Tang and the
Sung dynasties, and he laboured to apply the precepts of Chinese
philosophy to the practical needs of his own country. Moreover, he
devoted exceptional attention to the conditions existing in
Occidental States, and he embodied his thoughts and researches on the
latter subject in a book called Sairan Igen, the first treatise of
its kind published in Japan.
A practical illustration of his knowledge was furnished in connexion
with the reception of Korean envoys. It had been customary to convey
to these officials an imposing conception of Japanese magnificence by
treating them with lavish hospitality. Hakuseki was able to detect
that the conduct of the envoys violated in many respects the rules of
Chinese etiquette, and having obtained the shogun's nomination to
receive the envoy, Cho, he convinced the latter that there must be no
more neglect of due formalities. He then memorialized the shogun in
the sense that these Korean ambassadors were merely Chinese spies,
and that instead of receiving a lavish welcome, they should be
required to limit their journey to the island of Tsushima, where only
a very restricted ceremonial should be performed in their honour.
This shrewd, though somewhat conservative, suggestion elicited
general approval, but was not carried into effect until the time of
the eleventh shogun.
ENGRAVING: ARAI HAKUSEKI
ADJUSTMENT OF THE FINANCES
It has been shown above that the fifth shogun bequeathed to his
successor a much embarrassed treasury. In this realm, also, the
advice of Arai Hakuseki proved invaluable. In his volume of
reminiscences there is an interesting statement connected with
finance. It quotes Hagiwara Shigehide, commissioner of the Treasury,
as saying that the shogun's estate at that time yielded four million
koku annually, in addition to which there accrued from 760,000 ryo to
770,000 ryo in money, representing the proceeds of dues and taxes. In
this latter sum was included 40,000 ryo, customs duties collected at
Nagasaki, and 6000 ryo yielded by a tax on sake. The same report
mentions that a sum of 160,000 ryo had been expended in clearing away
the volcanic ashes which fell in the three provinces of Musashi,
Sagami, and Suruga after the great eruption of Fujisan. Arai Hakuseki
was able to prove the erroneous character of this report, but his
demonstration did not impugn any of the above figures. Incidentally
it is mentioned in Arai's comments that 700,000 ryo were allotted for
building an addition to Yedo Castle, and 200,000 ryo for the
construction of the deceased shogun's mausoleum, out of which total
Hakuseki explicitly charges the officials, high and low alike, with
diverting large sums to their own pockets in collusion with the
contractors and tradesmen employed on the works. Another interesting
investigation made by Arai Hakuseki is in connexion with the
country's foreign trade. He showed that the amount of coins exported
from Nagasaki alone, during one year, totalled 6,192,800 ryo of gold;
1,122,687 kwamme of silver and 228,000,000 kin of copper.* He alleged
that the greater part of this large outflow of specie produced
nothing except luxuries with which the nation could very well
dispense, and he therefore advised that the foreign trade of Nagasaki
should be limited to thirteen Chinese junks and two Dutch vessels
annually, while stringent measures should be adopted to prevent
smuggling.
*One kin equals 1.25 lbs.
The ordinance based upon this advice consisted of two hundred
articles, and is known in history as the "New Nagasaki Trade Rules of
the Shotoku Era" (1711-1715). One portion of the document ran as
follows: "During the Jokyo era (1684-1687), the trade with Chinese
merchants was limited to 6000 kwamme of silver, and that with Dutch
traders to 50,000 ryo of gold, while the number of Chinese vessels
was not allowed to exceed seventy per annum. After a few years,
however, copper coins came into use as media of exchange in addition
to silver, and moreover there was much smuggling of foreign goods.
Thus, it resulted that gold, silver, and copper flowed out of the
country in great quantities. Comparing the aggregate thus exported
during the 107 years since the Keicho era with the amount coined in
Japan during the same interval, it is found that one-quarter of the
gold coins and three-quarters of the silver left the country. If that
state of affairs continue, it is obvious that after a hundred years
from the present time one-half of the empire's gold will be carried
away and there will be no silver at all left. As for copper, the sum
remaining in the country is insufficient, not only for purposes of
trade but also for the needs of everyday life. It is most regrettable
that the nation's treasure should thus be squandered upon foreign
luxuries. The amount of currency needed at home and the amount
produced by the mines should be investigated so as to obtain a basis
for limiting the foreign trade at the open ports of Nagasaki,
Tsushima, and Satsuma, and for fixing the maximum number of foreign
vessels visiting those places."
IMPEACHMENT OF HAGIWARA SHIGEHIDE
In connexion with Arai Hakuseki's impeachment of the Treasury
commissioner, Hagiwara Shigehide, it was insisted that an auditor's
office must be re-established, and it was pointed out that the yield
of rice from the shogun's estates had fallen to 28.9 per cent, of the
total produce instead of being forty per cent., as fixed by law.
Nevertheless, the condition of the farmers was by no means improved,
and the inevitable inference was that the difference went into the
pockets of the local officials. Similarly, enormous expenses were
incurred for the repair of river banks without any corresponding
diminution of floods, and hundreds of thousands of bags of rice went
nominally to the bottom of the sea without ever having been shipped.
During the year that followed the reconstruction of the auditor's
office, the yield of the estates increased by 433,400 bags of rice,
and the cost of riparian works decreased by 38,000 ryo of gold,
while, at the same time, the item of shipwrecked cereals disappeared
almost completely from the ledgers. In consequence of these charges
the commissioner, Shigehide, was dismissed. History says that
although his regular salary was only 3000 koku annually, he embezzled
260,000 ryo of gold by his debasement of the currency, and that
ultimately he starved himself to death in token of repentance.
Ienobu and his able adviser, Hakuseki, desired to restore the
currency to the system pursued in the Keicho era (1596-1614), but
their purpose was thwarted by insufficiency of the precious metals.
They were obliged to be content with improving the quality of the
coins while decreasing their weight by one half. These new tokens
were called kenji-kin, as they bore on the reverse the ideograph ken,
signifying "great original." The issue of the new coins took place
in the year 1710, and at the same time the daimyo were strictly
forbidden to issue paper currency, which veto also was imposed at the
suggestion of Arai Hakuseki.
THE SEVENTH SHOGUN, IETSUGU
The seventh Tokugawa shogun, Ietsugu, son of his predecessor, Ienobu,
was born in 1709, succeeded to the shogunate in April, 1713, and died
in 1716. His father, Ienobu, died on the 13th of November, 1712, so
that there was an interval of five months between the demise of the
sixth shogun and the accession of the seventh. Of course, a child of
four years who held the office of shogun for the brief period of
three years could not take any part in the administration or have any
voice in the appointment or dismissal of officials. Thus, Arai
Hakuseki's tenure of office depended upon his relations with the
other ministers, and as all of these did not approve his drastic
reforms, he was obliged to retire, but Manabe Norifusa remained in
office.
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA YOSHIMUNE
THE EIGHTH SHOGUN, YOSHIMUNE
By the death of Ietsugu, in 1716, the Hidetada line of the Tokugawa
family became extinct, and a successor to the shogunate had to be
sought from the Tokugawa of Kii province in the person of Yoshimune,
grandson of Yorinobu and great-grandson of Ieyasu. Born in 1677,
Yoshimune, the eighth Tokugawa shogun, succeeded to office in 1716,
at the age of thirty-nine. The son of a concubine, he had been
obliged to subsist on the proceeds of a very small estate, and he
therefore well understood the uses of economy and the condition of
the people. His habits were simple and plain, and he attached as much
importance as Ieyasu himself had done to military arts and literary
pursuits. It had become a custom on the occasion of each shogun's
succession to issue a decree confirming, expanding, or altering the
systems of the previous potentate. Yoshimune's first decree placed
special emphasis on the necessity of diligence in the discharge of
administrative functions and the eschewing of extravagance. Always he
made it his unflagging aim to restore the martial spirit which had
begun to fade from the samurai's bosom, and in the forefront of
important reforms he placed frugality. The Bakufu had fallen into the
habit of modelling their systems and their procedure after Kyoto
examples. In fact, they aimed at converting Yedo into a replica of
the Imperial capital. This, Yoshimune recognized as disadvantageous
to the Bakufu themselves and an obstacle to the resuscitation of
bushido. Therefore, he set himself to restore all the manners and
customs of former days, and it became his habit to preface decrees
and ordinances with the phrase "In pursuance of the methods, fixed
by Gongen" (Ieyasu). His idea was that only the decadence of bushido
could result from imitating the habits of the Imperial Court, and as
Manabe Norifusa did not endorse that view with sufficient zeal, the
shogun relieved him of his office of minister of the Treasury.
One of Yoshimune's measures was to remodel the female department of
the palace on the lines of simplicity and economy. All the
ladies-in-waiting were required to furnish a written oath against
extravagance and irregular conduct of every kind, and in the sixth
year after his accession the shogun ordered that a list should be
furnished setting forth the names and ages of such of these ladies as
were, conspicuously beautiful. Fifty were deemed worthy of
inscription, and quite a tremor of joyful excitement was caused, the
measure being regarded as prefacing the shogun's choice of consorts.
But Yoshimune's purpose was very different. He discharged all these
fair-faced ladies and kept only the ill-favoured ones, his assigned
reason being that as ugly females find a difficulty in getting
husbands, it would be only charitable to retain their services.
He revived the sport of hawking, after the manner of Ieyasu, for he
counted it particularly suitable to soldiers; and he pursued the
pastime so ardently that men gave him the name of the Taka-shogun
(Falcon shogun). He also inaugurated a new game called uma-gari
(horse-hunting); and it is on record that he required the samurai to
practise swimming in the sea. By way of giving point to his
ordinances inculcating frugality, he himself made a habit of wearing
cotton garments in winter and hempen in summer--a custom habitually
practised by the lower orders only. The very detailed nature of his
economical measures is illustrated by an incident which has
independent interest. Observing that the fences erected on the scarp
of Yedo Castle were virtually useless for purposes of defence and
very costly to keep in repair, he caused them all to be pulled down
and replaced by pine trees. This happened in 1721, and the result was
that the battlements of this great castle were soon overhung by noble
trees, which softened and beautified the military aspect of the
colossal fortress. To the same shogun Yedo owes the cherry and plum
groves of Asuka-yama, of the Sumida-gawa, and of Koganei. The
saplings of these trees were taken from the Fukiage park, which
remains to-day one of the most attractive landscape gardens in the
world.
ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO ERA
OTHER MEASURES
For the purpose of acquiring accurate information about the condition
of the people, Yoshimune appointed officials who went by the name of
niwa-ban (garden watchmen). They moved about among the lower orders
and reported everything constituting knowledge useful for
administrative purposes. Moreover, to facilitate the ends of justice,
the shogun revived the ancient device of petition-boxes
(meyasu-bako), which were suspended in front of the courthouse in
order that men might lodge there a written statement of all
complaints. It was by Yoshimune, also, that the celebrated Ooka
Tadasuke, the "Solomon of Japan," was invited from Yamada and
appointed chief justice in Yedo. The judgments delivered by him in
that capacity will be famous as long as Japan exists. It has to be
noted, however, that the progressive spirit awakened by Yoshimune's
administration was not without untoward results. Extremists fell into
the error of believing that everything pertaining to the canons of
the immediate past must be abandoned, and they carried this
conception into the realm of foreign trade, so that the restrictions
imposed in the Shotoku era (1711-1715) were neglected. It became
necessary to issue a special decree ordering the enforcement of these
regulations, although, as will presently be seen, Yoshimune's
disposition towards the civilization of the Occident was essentially
liberal.
CODES OF LAW
By this time the miscarriages of justice liable to occur when the law
is administered with regard to precedent only or mainly, began to be
plainly observable, and the shogun, appreciating the necessity for
written codes, appointed a commission to collect and collate the laws
in operation from ancient times; to embody them in codes, and to
illustrate them by precedents. Matsudaira Norimura, one of the
ministers of State, was appointed chief commissioner, and there
resulted, after four years of labour, the first genuine Japanese code
(Oshioki Ojomoku). This body of laws was subsequently revised by
Matsudaira Sadanobu, and under the name of Osadame Hyakkajo ("Hundred
Articles of Law"), it remained long in practice.
LITERATURE
Yoshimune was not behind any of his ancestors in appreciation of
learning. In 1721, when his administrative reforms were still in
their infancy, he invited to Yedo Kinoshita Torasuke (son of the
celebrated Kinoshita Junan), Muro Nawokiyo, and other eminent men of
letters, and appointed them to give periodical lectures. Nawokiyo was
named "adviser to the shogun," who consulted him about administrative
affairs, just as Arai Hakuseki had been consulted by Ienobu. In fact,
it was by the advice of Arai Hakuseki that Nawokiyo (whose literary
name was Kyuso), entered the service of Yoshimune. Contemporaneous
with these littérateurs was the renowned Ogyu Sorai, whose profound
knowledge of finance and of administrative affairs in general made
him of great value to the Bakufu. He compiled a book called Seidan
(Talks on Government) which, immediately became a classic. Special
favour was shown to the renowned Confucianist, Hayashi Nobuatsu. He
and his son were asked to deliver regular lectures at the Shohei
College, and these lectures were the occasion of a most important
innovation, namely, the admission of all classes of people, whereas
previously the audience at such discourses had been strictly limited
to military men.
It is to be observed that in the days of Yoshimune's shogunate the
philosophy of Chutsz (Shu-shi) was preferred to all others. It
received the official imprimatur, the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming (O
Yo-mei) being set aside. One consequence of this selection was that
the Hayashi family came to be regarded as the sole depositories of
true Confucianism. Yoshimune himself, however, was not disposed to
set any dogmatic limits to the usefulness of men of learning. He
assumed an absolutely impartial attitude towards all schools;
adopting the good wherever it was found, and employing talent to
whatever school it belonged. Thus when Kwanno Chqkuyo established a
place of education in Yedo, and Nakai Seishi did the same in Osaka,
liberal grants of land were made by the Bakufu to both men. Another
step taken by the shogun was to institute a search for old books
throughout the country, and to collect manuscripts which had been
kept in various families for generations. By causing these to be
copied or printed, many works which would otherwise have been
destroyed or forgotten were preserved.
It is notable that all this admirable industry had one untoward
result: Japanese literature came into vogue in the Imperial capital,
and was accompanied by the development of a theory that loyalty to
the sovereign was inconsistent with the administration of the Bakufu.
The far-reaching consequences of this conception will be dealt with
in a later chapter. Here, it is sufficient to say that one of the
greatest and most truly patriotic of the Tokugawa shoguns himself
unwittingly sowed the seeds of disaffection destined to prove fatal
to his own family.
ADOPTION OF WESTERN LEARNING
Yoshimune was fond of astronomy. He erected a telescope in the
observatory at Kanda, a sun-dial in the palace park, and a rain-gauge
at the same place. By his orders a mathematician named Nakane Genkei
translated the Gregorian calendar into Japanese, and Yoshimune,
convinced of the superior accuracy of the foreign system, would have
substituted it for the Chinese then used in Japan, had not his
purpose excited such opposition that he judged it prudent to desist.
It was at this time that the well-informed Nishikawa Masayasu and
Shibukawa Noriyasu were appointed Government astronomers.
Previously the only sources of information about foreign affairs had
been the masters of the Dutch ships, the Dutch merchants, and the
Japanese interpreters at Nagasaki. The importation of books from the
Occident having been strictly forbidden by the third shogun, Iemitsu,
Yoshimune appreciated the disadvantage of such a restriction, and
being convinced of the benefits to be derived from the study of
foreign science and art, he rescinded the veto except in the case of
books relating to Christianity. Thus, for the first time, Japanese
students were brought into direct contact with the products of
Western intelligence. In 1744, Aoki Konyo received official orders to
proceed to Nagasaki for the purpose of seeking instruction in Dutch
from Dutch teachers. Shibukawa and Aoki are regarded as the pioneers
of Occidental learning in Japan, and, in the year 1907, posthumous
honours were conferred on them by the reigning Emperor of their
country.
THE SANKIN KOTAI
It has already been stated that the financial embarrassment of the
Bakufu in Yoshimune's time was as serious as it had been in his
predecessor's days. Moreover, in 1718, the country was swept by a
terrible tornado, and in 1720 and 1721, conflagrations reduced large
sections of Yedo to ashes. Funds to succour the distressed people
being imperatively needed, the shogun called upon all the feudatories
to subscribe one hundred koku of rice for every ten thousand koku of
their estates. By way of compensation for this levy he reduced to
half a year the time that each feudal chief had to reside in Yedo.
This meant, of course, a substantial lessening of the great expenses
entailed upon the feudatories by the sankin kotai system, and the
relief thus afforded proved most welcome to the daimyo and the shomyo
alike. Yoshimune intended to extend this indulgence ultimately by
releasing the barons from the necessity of coming to Yedo more than
once in from three to five years, and, in return, he contemplated a
corresponding increase of the special levy of rice. But his ministers
opposed the project on the ground that it would dangerously loosen
the ties between the feudatories and the Bakufu, and inasmuch as
events proved that this result threatened to accrue from even the
moderate indulgence granted by the shogun, not only was no extension
made but also, in 1731, the system of sankin kotai was restored to
its original form. The experiment, indeed proved far from
satisfactory. The feudatories did not confine themselves to
assertions of independence; they also followed the example of the
Bakufu by remitting some of the duties devolving on their retainers
and requiring the latter to show their gratitude for the remissions
by monetary payments. Nominally, these payments took the form of
loans, but in reality the amount was deducted from the salaries of
vassals. This pernicious habit remained in vogue among a section of
the feudatories, even after the sankin kotai had been restored to its
original form.
OFFICIAL SALARIES
From ancient times it had been the habit of the Bakufu to assign
important offices to men who were in enjoyment of large hereditary
incomes. This was mainly for financial reasons. Salaries were paid in
the form of additions to the hereditary estates in other words, the
emoluments of office became permanent, and the charge upon the Bakufu
being correspondingly increased, it was obviously expedient to fill
high administrative posts with men already in possession of ample
incomes. This system was radically changed by Yoshimune. He enacted
that a clear distinction should be made between temporary salary and
hereditary income. Thenceforth, salary was to be received only during
the tenure of office and was to cease on laying down official
functions. This reform had the effect not only of lightening the
burden upon the Bakufu income, but also of opening high offices to
able men without regard to their private fortunes.
ENGRAVING: VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN, KYOHO EHA
THE CURRENCY
From the first day of assuming administrative power, Yoshimune gave
earnest thought to reform of the currency. His ambition was to
restore the gold and silver coins to the quality and sizes existing
in the Keicho era. This he effected, though not on a sufficiently
large scale. Each of the new coins was equal in intrinsic value to
two of the corresponding kenji coins, and the circulation of the
latter was suspended, the new coins being called Kyoho-kin after the
year-name of the era (1716-1735) when they made their appearance. It
was a thoroughly wholesome measure, but the quality of the precious
metals available did not suffice. Thus, whereas the gold coins struck
during ten years of the Kyoho era totalled only 8,290,000 ryo, a
census taken in 1732 showed a total population of 26,921,816.
Therefore, the old coins could not be wholly withdrawn from
circulation, and people developed a tendency to hoard the new and
more valuable tokens.
Other untoward effects also were produced. The shogun paid much
attention to promoting agriculture and encouraging land reclamation,
so that the yield of rice increased appreciably. But this proved by
no means an unmixed blessing. Side by side with an increase in the
quantity of rice appearing in the market, the operation of the new
currency tended to depreciate prices, until a measure of grain which
could not have been bought at one time for less than two ryo became
purchasable for one. In fact, the records show that a producer
considered himself fortunate if he obtained half a ryo of gold for a
koku of rice. This meant an almost intolerable state of affairs for
the samurai who received his salary in grain and for the petty
farmer. Thus, a man whose income was three rations of rice annually,
and who consequently had to live on 5.4 koku for a whole year, found
that when he set aside from three to four koku for food, there
remained little more than one ryo of assets to pay for salt, fuel,
clothes, and all the other necessaries of life.
So acute was the suffering of the samurai that a rice-exchange was
established at Dojima, in Osaka, for the purpose of imparting some
measure of stability to the price of the cereal. Just at this time
(1732), the central and western provinces were visited by a famine
which caused seventeen thousand deaths and reduced multitudes to the
verge of starvation. The Bakufu rendered aid on a munificent scale,
but the price of rice naturally appreciated, and although this
brought relief to the military class, it was misconstrued by the
lower orders as a result of speculation on 'Change. Riots resulted,
and rice-merchants fearing to make purchases, the market price of the
cereal fell again, so that farmers and samurai alike were plunged
into their old difficulties.
Ultimately, in 1735, the Bakufu inaugurated a system of officially
fixed prices (osadame-soba), according to which 1.4 koku of rice had
to be exchanged for one ryo of gold in Yedo, the Osaka rate being
fixed at forty-two momme of silver for the same quantity of the
cereal. Anyone violating this rule was fined ten momme of silver for
each koku of rice purchased or sold by him. It is related that the
osadame-soba was operative in name only, and that the merchants
secretly dealt in the cereal at much lower prices than those
officially fixed. The Yedo financiers now concluded that the quantity
of currency in circulation was insufficient and its quality too good.
Accordingly, the gold and silver coins were once more reminted,
smaller and less pure tokens being issued under the name of bunji-kin
with reference to the Genbun era (1736-1740) of their issue. Thus,
the reform of the currency, achieved with so much difficulty in the
early years of Yoshimune's administration, had to be abandoned, and
things reverted to their old plight.
If this difficulty operated so acutely under a ruler of Yoshimune's
talent, the confusion and disorder experienced when he withdrew his
able hand from the helm of State may be imagined. The feudatories
were constantly distressed to find funds for supporting their Yedo
mansions, as well as for carrying out the public works imposed on
them from time to time, and for providing the costly presents which
had become a recognized feature of ordinary and extraordinary
intercourse. As an example of the luxury of the age, it may be
mentioned that when the fifth shogun visited the Kaga baron, the
latter had to find a sum of a million ryo to cover the expenses
incidental to receiving such a guest. In these circumstances, there
arose among the feudatories a habit of levying monetary contributions
from wealthy persons in their fiefs, the accommodation thus afforded
being repaid by permission to carry swords or by promotion in rank.
The poorer classes of samurai being increasingly distressed, they,
too, borrowed money at high rates of interest from merchants and
wealthy farmers, which loans they were generally unable to repay.
Ultimately, the Bakufu solved the situation partially by decreeing
that no lawsuit for the recovery of borrowed money should be
entertained--a reversion to the tokusei system of the Ashikaga
shoguns.
Of course, credit was completely undermined by the issue of this
decree. It is strange that such conditions should have existed under
such a ruler as Yoshimune. But even his strenuous influence did not
suffice to stem the current of the time. The mercantile instinct
pervaded all the transactions of every-day life. If a man desired to
adopt a son, he attached much less importance to the latter's social
status or personality than to the dimensions of his fortune, and thus
it came about that the family names of petty feudatories were freely
bought and sold. Yoshimune strictly interdicted this practice, but
his veto had no efficiency; wealthy farmers or merchants freely
purchased their way into titled families. From this abuse to
extortion of money by threats the interval was not long, and the
outcome, where farmers were victims, took the form of agrarian riots.
It was to the merchants, who stood between the farmers and the
samurai, that fortune offered conspicuously favourable opportunities
in these circumstances. The tradesmen of the era became the centre of
extravagance and luxury, so that in a certain sense the history of
the Yedo Bakufu may be said to be the history of mercantile
development.
INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS
Yoshimune devoted much attention to the encouragement of industrial
progress. Deeming that a large import of drugs and sugar caused a
ruinous drain of specie, he sent experts hither and thither through
the country to encourage the domestic production of these staples as
well as of vegetable wax. The feudatories, in compliance with his
suggestion, took similar steps, and from this time tobacco growing in
Sagami and Satsuma; the weaving industry in Kotsuke and Shimotsuke;
sericulture in Kotsuke, Shinano, Mutsu, and Dewa; indigo cultivation
in Awa; orange growing in Kii, and the curing of bonito in Tosa and
Satsuma--all these began to flourish. Another feature of the time was
the cultivation of the sweet potato at the suggestion of Aoki Konyo,
who saw in this vegetable a unique provision against famine.
Irrigation and drainage works also received official attention, as
did the reclamation of rice-growing areas and the storing of cereals.
THE NINTH SHOGUN, IESHIGE
In 1745, Yoshimune resigned his office to his son, Ieshige, who,
having been born in 1702, was now in his forty-third year. Yoshimune
had three sons, Ieshige, Munetake, and Munetada. Of these the most
promising was the second, Munetake, whose taste for literature and
military art almost equalled his father's. Matsudaira Norimura, prime
minister, recognizing that Ieshige, who was weak, passionate, and
self-willed, would not be able to fill worthily the high office of
shogun, suggested to Yoshimune the advisability of nominating
Munetake. But Yoshimune had his own programme. Ieshige's son, Ieharu,
was a very gifted youth, and Yoshimune reckoned on himself retaining
the direction of affairs for some years, so that Ieshige's functions
would be merely nominal until Ieharu became old enough to succeed to
the shogunate.
Meanwhile, to prevent complications and avert dangerous rivalry,
Yoshimune assigned to Munetake and Munetada residences within the
Tayasu and Hitotsubashi gates of the castle, respectively, gave the
names of these gates as family titles, and bestowed on each a revenue
of one hundred thousand koku, together with the privilege of
supplying an heir to the shogunate in the event of failure of issue
in the principal house of Tokugawa or in one of the "Three Families."
The shogun, Ieshige, followed the same plan with his son, Yoshishige,
and as the latter's residence was fixed within the Shimizu gate,
there came into existence "Three Branch Families" called the Sankyo,
in supplement of the already existing Sanke.*
*The present Princes Tokugawa are the representatives of the main
line of the shogun; the Marquises Tokugawa, representatives of the
Sanke, and the Counts Tokugawa, of the Sankyo.
Of course, the addition of the Shimizu family had the approval of
Yoshimune. In fact, the whole arrangement as to the Sankyo was an
illustration of his faithful imitation of the institutions of Ieyasu.
The latter had created the Sanke, and Yoshimune created the Sankyo;
Ieyasu had resigned in favour of his son and had continued to
administer affairs from Sumpu, calling himself 0-gosho; Yoshimune
followed his great ancestor's example in all these respects except
that he substituted the western part of Yedo Castle for Sumpu.
Ieshige's most salient characteristic was a passionate disposition.
Men called him the "short-tempered shogun" (kanshaku kubo). He gave
himself up to debauchery, and being of delicate physique, his
self-indulgence quickly undermined his constitution. So long as
Yoshimune lived, his strong hand held things straight, but after his
death, in 1751, the incompetence of his son became very marked. He
allowed himself to fall completely under the sway of his immediate
attendants, and, among these, Tanuma Okitsugu succeeded in
monopolizing the evil opportunity thus offered. During nearly ten
years the reforms effected by Yoshimune steadily ceased to be
operative, and when Ieshige resigned in 1760, the country had fallen
into many of the bad customs of the Genroku era.
THE TENTH SHOGUN, IEHARU
After his abdication in 1760, Ieshige survived only fourteen months,
dying, in 1761, at the age of fifty-one. He was succeeded, in 1760,
by his son, Ieharu, who, having been born in 1737, was twenty-three
years old when he began to administer the country's affairs. One of
his first acts was to appoint Tanuma Okitsugu to be prime minister,
bestowing on him a fief of fifty-seven thousand koku in the province
of Totomi, and ordering him to construct a fortress there. At the
same time Okitsugu's son, Okitomo, received the rank of Yamato no
Kami and the office of junior minister. These two men became
thenceforth the central figures in an era of maladministration and
corruption. So powerful and all-reaching was their influence that
people were wont to say, "Even a bird on the wing could not escape
the Tanuma." The shogun was not morally incapable, but his
intelligence was completely overshadowed by the devices of Okitsugu,
who took care that Ieharu should remain entirely ignorant of popular
sentiment. Anyone attempting to let light into this state of darkness
was immediately dismissed. It is related of a vassal of Okitsugu that
he was found one day with three high officials of the shogun's court
busily engaged in applying a moxa to his foot. The three officials
knew that their places depended on currying favour with this vassal;
how much more, then, with his master, Okitsugu! Everything went by
bribery. Justice and injustice were openly bought and sold. Tanuma
Okitsugu was wont to say that human life was not so precious as gold
and silver; that by the liberality of a man's gifts his sincerity
might truly be gauged, and that the best solace for the trouble of
conducting State affairs was for their administrator to find his
house always full of presents.
Ieharu, however, knew nothing of all this, or anything of the natural
calamities that befell the country under his sway--the eruption of
the Mihara volcano, in 1779, when twenty feet of ashes were piled
over the adjacent country through an area of several miles; the
volcanic disturbance at Sakura-jima, in Osumi, which took place about
the same time and ended in the creation of several new islands; the
outbreak of the Asama crater, in 1783, when half the provinces of the
Kwanto were covered with ashes; and the loss of forty thousand lives
by a flood in the Tone-gawa. Of all these visitations the shogun
remained uninformed, and, in spite of them, luxury and extravagance
marked the lives of the upper classes. Many, however, were
constrained to seek loans from wealthy merchants in Osaka, and these
tradesmen, admonished by past incidents, refused to lend anything. At
last the intolerable situation culminated in a deed of violence. In
April, 1784, Sano Masakoto, a hereditary vassal of the shogun, drew
his sword upon Okitsugu within the precincts of the castle in Yedo
and wounded him severely. Masakoto was seized and sentenced to commit
suicide, but the justice of his attempt being recognized, the
influence of Okitsugu and his son began to decline. Two years later
(1786), there appeared a decree in the name of the Bakufu, ordering
that the temples in all the provinces, the farmers, the artisans, and
the merchants should send their gold and silver every spring to the
Central Government, to the end that the latter might lend this
treasure to the feudatories, who would pledge themselves to pay it
back after five years.*
*The funds thus obtained were called yuzu-kin (accommodation money).
There is reason to believe that the shogun himself knew nothing of
this ordinance until a multitude of complaints and remonstrances
found their way, in part, to his ears. At all events, the
extraordinary decree proved to be the last act of Okitsugu's official
life. He was dismissed from office, though whether the credit of that
step belongs to the Sanke and the elder officials or to the shogun,
is not certain, for Ieharu is said to have died just before the final
disgrace of the corrupt statesman was consummated. The Yedo upon
which he closed his eyes in October, 1786, presented features of
demoralization unsurpassed in any previous era. In fact, during the
period of forty-one years between the accession of the ninth shogun,
Ieshige, in 1745, and the death of the tenth, Ieharu, in 1786, the
manners and customs of the citizens developed along very evil lines.
It was in this time that the city Phryne (machi-geisha) made her
appearance; it was in this time that the theatre, which had hitherto
been closed to the better classes, began to be frequented by them; it
was in this time that gambling became universal; it was in this time
that parents learned to think it an honour to see their daughters
winning favour as dancing girls, and it was in this time that the
samurai's noble contempt for money gave place to the omnipotence of
gold in military and civil circles alike.
THE IMPERIAL COURT. THE 113TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR HIGASHIYAMA
(A.D. 1687-1710)
In 1687, the Emperor Reigen abdicated in favour of Higashiyama, then
a boy of thirteen, Reigen continuing to administer affairs from
behind the curtain as was usual. Tsunayoshi was then the shogun in
Yedo. He showed great consideration for the interests of the Imperial
Court. Thus, he increased his Majesty's allowance by ten thousand
koku of rice annually, and he granted an income of three thousand
koku to the ex-Emperor. Moreover, all the Court ceremonies, which had
been interrupted for want of funds, were resumed, and steps were
taken to repair or rebuild the sepulchres of the sovereigns
throughout the empire.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE FEUDATORIES AND THE COURT NOBLES
According to a rule made in the beginning of the Tokugawa dynasty, a
lady of Tokugawa lineage was forbidden to marry a Court noble, but
the shogun himself was expected to take a consort from one of the
noble houses in the Imperial capital. From the days of Iemitsu this
latter custom was steadily maintained, and gradually the feudatories
came to follow the shogun's example, so that marriages between
military magnates and noble ladies of Kyoto Were frequent. To these
unions the Court nobles were impelled by financial reasons and the
military men by ambition. The result was the gradual formation of an
Imperial party and of a Bakufu party in Kyoto, and at times there
ensued sharp rivalry between the two cliques. In the days of the
seventh shogun, Ietsugu, the Emperor Reigen would have given his
daughter Yaso to be the shogun's consort for the purpose of restoring
real friendship between the two Courts, but the death of the shogun
in his boyhood interrupted the project.
THE 114TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR NAKANOMIKADO (A.D. 1710-1735)
Higashiyama abdicated (1710) in favour of Nakanomikado, who reigned
for twenty-five years. This reign is remarkable for a change in the
system hitherto uniformly pursued, namely, that all Imperial princes
with the exception of the direct heir should become Buddhist priests
(ho-shinnd), and all princesses except those chosen as consorts of
the shoguns, should become Buddhist nuns (bikuni-gosho). It has
already been shown that this custom found many followers in the days
of Ashikaga administration, and it was observed with almost equal
strictness under the Tokugawa, who certainly aimed at the gradual
weakening of the Imperial household's influence. Arai Hakuseki
remonstrated with the shogun, Ienobu, on the subject. He contended
that however humble a man's lot may be, his natural desire is to see
his children prosper, whereas in the case of Imperial princes, they
were condemned to the ascetic career of Buddhist priests. He
denounced such a system as opposed to the instincts of humanity, and
he advised not only that certain princes should be allowed to form
families of their own, but also that Imperial princesses should marry
into branches of the Tokugawa. Ienobu is said to have acknowledged
the wisdom of this advice, and its immediate result was the
establishment of the princely house of Kanin, which, with the houses
of Fushimi, Kyogoku (afterwards Katsura), and Arisugawa, became the
four Shinnoke. Among other privileges these were designated to
furnish an heir to the throne in the event of the failure of direct
issue. When Yoshimune succeeded to the headship of the Bakufu, and
after Arai Hakuseki was no longer in office, this far-seeing policy
was gradually abandoned, and all the relations between the Imperial
Court and the Bakufu became somewhat strained.
THE 115TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR SAKURAMACHI (A. D, 1732-1735), AND
THE 116TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR MOMOZONO (A.D. 1735-1762)
After the death of the ex-Emperor Reigen (1732), the Emperor
Nakanomikado administered affairs himself during three years, and
then abdicated in 1735 in favour of Sakuramachi, who was sixteen
years of age, and who reigned until 1747, when he abdicated in favour
of Momozono, then seven years of age. It was in this reign that there
appeared an eminent scholar, Yamazaki Ansai, who, with his scarcely
less famous pupil, Takenouchi Shikibu, expounded the Chinese classics
according to the interpretation of Chutsz. They sought to combine the
cults of Confucianism and Shinto, and to demonstrate that the Mikados
were descendants of gods; that everything possessed by a subject
belonged primarily to the sovereign, and that anyone opposing his
Majesty's will must be killed, though his brothers or his parents
were his slayers. The obvious effect of such doctrines was to
discredit the Bakufu shoguns, and information having ultimately been
lodged in Yedo through an enemy of Takenouchi, seventeen Court nobles
together with others were arrested and punished, some capitally and
some by exile. Among those executed the most remarkable was Yamagata
Daini, a master of military science, who, having endured the torture
without confession, was finally put to death on the ground that in
teaching the method of attacking a fortress he used drawings of Yedo
Castle. This incident is remarkable as indicating the first potent
appearance of a doctrine to the prevalence of which the fall of the
Tokugawa Bakufu was ultimately referable.
THE 117TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPRESS GO-SAKURAMACHI (A.D. 1762-1770), AND
THE 118TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR GO-MOMOZONO (A.D. 1770-1780)
The Emperor Momozono died in 1762 after having administered the
Government for sixteen years. His eldest son, Prince Hidehito, being
a mere baby, it was decided that Princess Tomo, Momozono's elder
sister, should occupy the throne, Prince Hidehito becoming the Crown
Prince. Her Majesty is known in history as Go-Sakuramachi. Her reign
lasted only eight years, and in 1770 she abdicated in favour of her
nephew, Hidehito, who ascended the throne as the Emperor Go-Momozono
and died after a reign of nine years. This exhausted the lineal
descendants of the Emperor Nakanomikado.
THE 119TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOKAKU (A.D. 1780-1816)
In default of a direct heir it became necessary to have recourse to
one of the "Four Princely Families," and the choice fell upon Prince
Tomohito, representing the Kanin house. He succeeded as Kokaku, and a
Japanese historian remarks with regard to the event and to the growth
of the spirit fostered by Yamazaki Ansai, Takenouchi Shikibu, and
Yamagata Daini, that "the first string of the Meiji Restoration lyre
vibrated at this time in Japan." Kokaku's reign will be referred to
again later on.
ENGRAVING: (Keyari) SPEAR CARRIER (One of a Daimyo's Procession)
ENGRAVING: PICKING TEA LEAVES IN UJI, A CELEBRATED TEA DISTRICT
CHAPTER XLI
THE LATE PERIOD OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU.
THE ELEVENTH SHOGUN, IENARI. (1786-1838)
NATURAL CALAMITIES
THE misgovernment of Tanuma and his son was not the only calamity
that befell the country during the closing years of the tenth shogun,
Ieharu's, administration. The land was also visited by famine and
pestilence of unparallelled dimensions. The evil period began in 1783
and lasted almost without intermission for four years. It is recorded
that when the famine was at its height, rice could not be obtained in
some parts of the country for less than forty ryo a koku. Sanguinary
riots took place in Yedo, Kyoto, Osaka, and elsewhere. The stores of
rice-merchants and the residences of wealthy folks were plundered
and, in many cases, destroyed. To such extremities were people driven
that cakes made from pine-tree bark served as almost the sole means
of subsistence in some districts, and the Government is found gravely
proclaiming that cakes made of straw were more nutritious. There are
records of men deserting their families, wandering into other
provinces in search of food and dying by thousands on the way. An
official who had been sent to Matsumae, in the province of Mutsu, to
observe the state of affairs, reported that the villages to the east
of Nambu had been practically depopulated and the once fertile fields
converted into barren plains. "Although farmhouses stood in the
hamlets, not a solitary person was to be seen on the road; not a
human voice was to be heard. Looking through a window, one saw dead
bodies lying without anyone to bury them, and sometimes skeletons
covered with quilts reposed on the mats, while among the weeds
countless corpses were scattered."
THE ELEVENTH SHOGUN, IENARI
Among these terrible conditions the tenth shogun, Ieharu died, in
1786, and was succeeded by Ienari, a son of Hitotsubashi Harunari and
a great-grandson of Yoshimune. Ienari was in his fifteenth year, and,
of course, at such a tender age he could not possibly deal with the
financial, economic, and administrative problems that presented
themselves at this, the darkest period of Tokugawa sway. Fortunately
a man of genius was found to grapple with the situation. Matsudaira
Sadanobu, son of Tayasu Munetake and grandson of Yoshimune, proved
himself one of the most capable administrators Japan had hitherto
produced. In 1788, he was appointed prime minister, assisted by a
council of State comprising the heads of the three Tokugawa families
of Mito, Kii, and Owari. Sadanobu was in his thirtieth year, a man of
boundless energy, great insight, and unflinching courage. His first
step was to exorcise the spectre of famine by which the nation was
obsessed. For that purpose he issued rules with regard to the storing
of grain, and as fairly good harvests were reaped during the next few
years, confidence was in a measure restored. The men who served the
Bakufu during its middle period in the capacity of ministers had been
taken almost entirely from the families of Ii, Sakai, and Hotta, but
none of them had shown any marked ability; they had allowed their
functions to be usurped by the personal attendants of the shogun.
This abuse was remedied by the appointment of the heads of the three
Tokugawa families to the post of ministers, and for a time Sadanobu
received loyal and efficient support from his colleagues.
CONFLAGRATION IN KYOTO
The series of calamities which commenced with the tempests, floods,
and famines of 1788 culminated in a fire such as never previously had
swept Kyoto. It reduced to ashes the Imperial palace, Nijo Castle,
220 Shinto shrines, 128 Buddhist temples, and 183,000 houses. The
loss of life (2600) was not by any means as severe as that in the
great fire of Yedo, but the Imperial city was practically destroyed.
Ishikawa Jinshiro, who commanded at Nijo Castle, immediately
distributed a thousand koku of rice from the Government's store to
relieve the distressed citizens. He acted in this matter without
waiting to seek sanction from the Bakufu, and his discretion was
rewarded by appointment to the high office of inspector-general of
police (o-metsuke).
The problem of restoring the palace presented much difficulty in the
impoverished state of the country, but the Bakufu did not hesitate to
take the task in hand, and to issue the necessary requisitions to the
feudatories of the home provinces. Sadanobu himself repaired to Kyoto
to superintend the work, and took the opportunity to travel
throughout a large part of the country. During his tour all that had
any grievances were invited to present petitions, and munificent
rewards were bestowed on persons who had distinguished themselves by
acts of filial piety or by lives of chastity. Such administrative
measures presented a vivid contrast with the corrupt oppression
practised by the Tanuma family, and it is recorded that men and women
kneeled on the road as Sadanobu passed and blessed him with tears.
ENGRAVING: SANNO FESTIVAL OF TOKYO IN EARLY DAYS
SUMPTUARY REGULATIONS
Convinced that the most important step towards economic improvement
was the practice of frugality, Sadanobu caused rules to be compiled
and issued which dealt with almost every form of expenditure. He
himself made a practice of attending at the castle wearing garments
of the coarsest possible materials, and the minute character of his
ordinances against extravagance almost taxes credulity.
Thus, he forbade the custom of exchanging presents between official
colleagues; ordered that everyone possessing an income of less than
ten thousand koku should refrain from purchasing anything new,
whether clothing, utensils, or furniture; interdicted the wearing of
white robes except on occasions of ceremony; ordained that wedding
presents should henceforth be reduced by one-half, advised that dried
lobsters should be substituted for fresh fish in making presents;
prohibited the wearing of brocade or embroidered silk by ladies not
of the highest class; enjoined simplicity in costumes for the no
dance, in children's toys, in women's pipes, or tobacco-pouches, and
in ladies' hairpins or hairdress; forbade gold lacquer in any form
except to delineate family crests; limited the size of dolls; vetoed
banquets, musical entertainments, and all idle pleasures except such
as were justified by social status, and actually went to the length
of ordering women to dress their own hair, dispensing entirely with
professional Hairdressers, who were bade to change their occupation
for tailoring or laundry work.
This remarkable statesman laboured for the ethical improvement of his
countrymen as well as for their frugality of life. In 1789, we find
him legislating against the multiplication of brothels, and, two
years later, he vetoed mixed bathing of men and women. One of the
fashions of the time was that vassals left in charge of their lords'
mansions in Yedo used to organize mutual entertainments by way of
promoting good-fellowship, but in reality for purposes of
dissipation. These gatherings were strictly interdicted.
Simultaneously with the issue of this mass of negative legislation,
Sadanobu took care to bestow rewards and publish eulogies. Whoever
distinguished himself by diligent service, by chastity, by filial
piety, or by loyalty, could count on honourable notice.
THE KWANSEI VAGABONDS
During the Kwansei era (1789-1800), Yedo was infested by vagabonds,
who, having been deprived of their livelihood by the famine during
the years immediately previous, made a habit of going about the town
in groups of from three to five men committing deeds of theft or
incendiarism. Sadanobu, acting on the advice of the judicial
officials, dealt with this evil by establishing a house of correction
on Ishikawa Island. There homeless vagrants were detained and
provided with work, those ignorant of any handicraft being employed
as labourers. The inmates were fed and clothed by the Government, and
set free after three years, their savings being handed to them to
serve as capital for some occupation. The institution was placed
under the care of Hasegawa Heizo, five hundred bags of rice and five
hundred ryo being granted annually by the Bakufu for its support.
ADOPTION
It has been stated above that one of the abuses which came into large
practice from the middle period of the Tokugawa Bakufu was the
adoption of children of ignoble birth into samurai families in
consideration of monetary payments by their parents. This mercenary
custom was strictly interdicted by the Matsudaira regent, who justly
saw in it a danger to the solidity of the military class. But it does
not appear that his veto received full observance.
EDUCATION
Since the shogun Tsunayoshi (1680-1709) appointed Hayashi Nobuatsu as
chief of Education in Yedo, and entrusted to him the conduct of the
college called Seido, Hayashi's descendants succeeded to that post by
hereditary right. They steadily followed the principles of
Confucianism as interpreted by Chutsz, a Chinese philosopher who died
in the year 1200, but in accordance with the inevitable fate of all
hereditary offices, the lapse of generations brought inferiority of
zeal and talent. During the first half of the seventeenth century,
there appeared in the field of Japanese philosophy Nakaye Toju, who
adopted the interpretation of Confucianism given by a later Chinese
philosopher, Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529). At a subsequent date Yamaga
Soko, Ito Jinsai, and Ogyu Sorai (called also Butsu Sorai) asserted
the superiority of the ancient Chinese teaching; and finally
Kinoshita Junan preached the rule of adopting whatever was good,
without distinction of Tang or Sung.
These four schools engaged in vehement controversy, and showed such
passion in their statements and such intolerance in their
contradictions, that they seemed to have altogether forgotten the
ethical principles underlying their own doctrines. In the last
quarter of the eighteenth century, other schools came into being, one
calling itself the "eclectic school," another the "inductive school,"
and so forth, so that in the end one and the same passage of the
Confucian Analects received some twenty different interpretations,
all advanced with more or less abuse and injury to the spirit of
politeness.
In these circumstances the educational chief in Yedo lost control of
the situation. Even among his own students there were some who
rejected the teachings of Chutsz, and Confucianism threatened to
become a stumbling-block rather than an aid to ethics. The prime
minister, Sadanobu, now appointed four philosophers of note to assist
the Hayashi family, and these famous teachers attended in turn at the
Seido to lecture, commoners as well as samurai being allowed to
attend. Sadanobu further directed that the heads of Government
departments should send in a list of those best educated among their
subordinates, and the men thus recommended were promoted after
examination. Moreover, the prime minister himself, attended by his
colleagues and the administrators, made a habit of inspecting
personally, from time to time, the manner of teaching at the college,
and finally, in 1795, the Seido was definitely invested with the
character of a Government college, a yearly grant of 1130 koku being
apportioned to meet the expenses, and an income of 1500 koku being
bestowed upon the Hayashi family.
In the same year, it was decreed that no one should be eligible for a
post in the civil service unless he was an avowed follower of the
Chutsz philosophy. This bigoted measure, spoken of as the
"prohibition of heterodoxy," did not produce the desired effect. It
tended rather to accentuate the differences between the various
schools, and a petition was presented to the Bakufu urging that the
invidious veto should be rescinded. The petitioners contended that
although the schools differed from each other, their differences were
not material, since all stood on common foundations, namely, the
doctrines of Confucius and Mencius, and all agreed in inculcating the
virtues of filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, humanity,
righteousness, politeness, and general tranquillity.
THE PHILOSOPHIES OF CHUTSZ AND WANG YANG-MING
It will be interesting to pause here a moment in order to inquire
briefly the nature of the philosophies which occupied Japanese
thought throughout the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. We
need not go beyond the schools of Chutsz and Wang Yang-ming, for the
third, or "ancient," school adopted the teachings of Confucius and
Mencius in their purity, rejecting all subsequent deductions from the
actual words used by these sages. These two schools have been well
distinguished as follows by a modern philosopher, Dr. Inouye
Tetsujiro:
"(1) Chutsz maintained that it is necessary to make an extensive
investigation of the world and its laws before determining what is
the moral law. Wang held that man's knowledge of moral law precedes
all study and that a man's knowledge of himself is the very highest
kind of learning. Chutsz's method may be said to be inductive;
Wang's, deductive.
"(2) The cosmogony of Chutsz was dualistic. All nature owed its
existence to the Ri and Ki, the determining principle and the vital
force of primordial aura that produces and modifies motion. Wang held
that these two were inseparable. His teaching was therefore monistic.
"(3) Chutsz taught that the primary principle, Ri, and the mind of
man were quite separate, and that the latter was attached to the Ki.
Wang held that the mind of man and the principle of the universe were
one and the same, and argued that no study of external nature was
required in order to find out nature's laws. To discover these, man
had only to look within his own heart. He that understands his own
heart understands nature, says Wang.
"(4) Chutsz's system makes experience necessary in order to
understand the laws of the universe, but Wang's idealism dispenses
with it altogether as a teacher.
"(5) Chutsz taught that knowledge must come first and right conduct
after. Wang contended that knowledge and conduct cannot be separated.
One is part of the other. Chutsz may be said to exalt learned
theories and principles, and Wang to extol practice.
"The moral results of the systems briefly stated were as follows:
Chutsz 'a teaching produced many learned men in this country, but not
infrequently these men were inferior, being narrow-minded,
prejudiced, and behind the age. Wang's doctrines, on the other hand,
while they cannot escape the charge of shallowness on all occasions,
serve the moral purpose for which they were propagated better than
those of the rival school. Though in the ranks of the Japanese
followers of Chutsz there were numbers of insignificant, bigoted
traditionalists, the same cannot be said of those who adopted Wang's
views. They were as a class fine specimens of humanity, abreast, if
not ahead, of the age in which they lived. No system of teaching has
produced anything approaching such a number of remarkable men. If a
tree is to be judged by its fruit, Wang's philosophy in Japan must be
pronounced one of the greatest benefits that she received from the
neighbouring continent, though not a little of its power in this
country is to be traced to the personality of the man who was the
first to make it thoroughly known to his fellow countrymen, Nakaye
Toju."*
*See Professor Walter Dening's brochure on Confucian Philosophy in
Japan.
Dr. Inouye adds: "By exclusive attention to the dictates of
conscience and by sheer force of will the Wang school of philosophers
succeeded in reaching a standard of attainment that served to make
them models for posterity. The integrity of heart preached by his
followers in Japan has become a national heritage of which all
Japanese are proud. In the West, ethics has become too exclusively a
subject of intellectual inquiry, a question as to which of rival
theories is the most logical. By the Japanese, practical virtue has
been exalted to the pedestal of the highest honour."
The same authority, discussing the merits of the Chutsz school, says:
"To the question which has so often been asked during the past few
years, whence comes the Japanese fine ethical standard, the answer is
that it undoubtedly originated with the teaching of Chutsz as
explained, modified, and carried into practice in Japan. The moral
philosophy of the Chutsz school in Japan compared with that of the
other two schools was moderate in tone, free from eccentricities, and
practical in a rare degree. In the enormous importance it attached to
self-culture and what is known in modern terminology as
self-realization, the teaching of the Chutsz school of Japanese
moralists differed in no material respects from the doctrines of the
New Kantians in England."
RETIREMENT OF SADANOBU
After six years of most enlightened service, Matsudaira Sadanobu
resigned office in 1793 to the surprise and consternation of all
truly patriotic Japanese. History is uncertain as to the exact cause
of his retirement, but the explanation seems to be, first, that his
uncompromising zeal of reform had earned him many enemies who watched
constantly for an opportunity to attack him, and found it during his
absence on a visit to inspect the coasts of the empire with a view to
enforcing the veto against foreign trade; and secondly, that a
question of prime importance having arisen between the Courts of
Kyoto and Yedo, Sadanobu's influence was exercised in a manner deeply
resented by the sovereign as well as by the loyalists throughout the
empire. This important incident will be presently referred to in
detail. Here it will suffice to state that Sadanobu did not retire in
disgrace. He was promoted to the rank of general of the Left, which
honour was supplemented by an invitation to attend at the castle on
State occasions. He chose, however, to live in retirement, devoting
himself to the administration of his own domain and to literary
pursuits. The author of several well-known books, he is remembered by
his pen-name, Rakuo, almost as constantly as by his historical,
Sadanobu. He died in 1829, at the age of seventy-two.
HITOTSUBASHI HARUNARI
After Sadanobu's resignation of the post of prime minister, the
shogun's father, Hitotsubashi Harunari, moved into the western
citadel of Yedo Castle, and thenceforth the great reforms which
Sadanobu had effected by the force of genius and unflagging
assiduity, were quickly replaced by an age of retrogression, so that
posterity learned to speak of the prodigality of the Bunka and Bunsei
eras (1804-1829), instead of the frugality of the Kwansei
(1789-1800). As for the shogun, Ienari, he received from the Throne
the highest rank attainable by a subject, together with the office of
daijo-daijin. Such honour was without precedent since the time of
Ieyasu. Ienari had more than fifty daughters, all born of different
mothers, from which fact the dimensions of his harem may be inferred.
THE 119TH SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOKAKU (A.D. 1780-1816)
The Emperor Kokaku ascended the throne in 1780 and abdicated in 1816.
He was undoubtedly a wise sovereign and as a classical scholar he won
considerable renown. After reigning for thirty-six years, he
administered State affairs from the Palace of Retirement during
twenty-four, and throughout that long interval of sixty years, the
country enjoyed profound peace. The period of Sadanobu's service as
prime minister of the Bakufu coincided with the middle of Kokaku's
reign, and in those days of happiness and prosperity men were wont to
say that with a wise sovereign in the west a wise subject had
appeared in the east. Up to that time the relations between Kyoto and
Yedo were excellent, but Sadanobu's resignation and the cause that
led to it produced between the two Courts a breach which contributed
materially, though indirectly, to the ultimate fall of the Tokugawa.
REBUILDING OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE
It has already been noted that after the great fire of 1788, the
Bakufu, acting, of course, at the instance of their prime minister,
ordered Sadanobu to supervise the work of reconstructing the Imperial
palace. Since the days of Oda and Toyotomi, the palace had been
rebuilt or extensively repaired on several occasions, but always the
plans had been too small for the requirements of the orthodox
ceremonials. Sadanobu determined to correct this fault. He called for
plans and elevations upon the bases of those of the tenth century,
and from the gates to the roofs he took care that everything should
be modelled on the old lines. The edifices are said to have been at
once chaste and magnificent, the internal decorations being from the
brushes of the best artists of the Tosa and Sumiyoshi Academies.
Sealed estimates had been required from several leading architects,
and Sadanobu surprised his colleagues by awarding the work to the
highest bidder, on the ground that cheapness could not consist with
true merit in such a case, and that any thought of cost would evince
a want of reverence towards the Imperial Court. The buildings were
finished in two years, and the two Emperors, the reigning and the
retired, took up their residence there. His Majesty Kokaku rewarded
the shogun with an autograph letter of thanks as well as a verse of
poetry composed by himself, and on Sadanobu he conferred a sword and
an album of poems. The shogun Ienari is said to have been profoundly
gratified by this mark of Imperial favour. He openly attributed it to
Sadanobu's exertions, and he presented to the latter a facsimile of
the autograph letter.
THE TITLE TROUBLE
In the very year (1791) following the Emperor's entry into the new
palace, a most untoward incident occurred. Up to that time the
relations between the Courts of Kyoto and Yedo had left nothing to be
desired, but now a permanent breach of amity took place. The
sovereign was the son of Prince Tsunehito, head of the Kanin family.
This prince, in spite of his high title, was required by Court
etiquette to sit below the ministers of State on ceremonial occasions
in the palace. Such an order of precedence offended the sovereign,
and his Majesty proposed that the rank of dajo tenno should be given
to his father, thus placing him in the position of a retired Emperor.
Of course it was within the prerogative of the Emperor to confer
titles. The normal procedure would have been to give the desired rank
to Prince Tsunehito, and then to inform the Bakufu of the
accomplished fact. But, in consideration of the very friendly
relations existing between the two Courts, the sovereign seems to
have been unwilling to act on his own initiative in a matter of such
importance.
Yedo was consulted, and to the surprise of Kyoto, the Bakufu prime
minister assumed an attitude hostile to the Court's desire. The
explanation of this singular act on Sadanobu's part was that a
precisely analogous problem perplexed Yedo simultaneously. When
Ienari was nominated shogun, his father, Hitotsubashi Harunari, fully
expected to be appointed guardian of the new potentate, and being
disappointed in that hope, he expressed his desire to receive the
title of o-gosho (retired shogun), so that he might enter the western
citadel of Yedo Castle and thence administer affairs as had been done
by ex-Emperors in Kyoto for hundreds of years, and by ex-shoguns on
several occasions under the Tokugawa. Disappointed in this
aspiration, Harunari, after some hesitation, invited the attention of
the shogun to the fact that filial piety is the basis of all moral
virtues, and that, whereas the shogun's duty required him to set a
good example to the people, he subjected his own father to unbecoming
humiliation, Ienari referred the matter to the State council, but the
councillors hesitated to establish the precedent of conferring the
rank of o-gosho on the head of one of the Sankyo families--Tayasu,
Shimizu, and Hitotsubashi--who had never discharged the duties of
shogun.
The prime minister, Sadanobu, however, had not a moment's hesitation
in opposing Harunari's project. He did, indeed, order a well-known
Confucian scholar to search the annals in order to find whether any
precedent existed for the proposed procedure, either in Japan or in
China, but he himself declared that if such an example were set in
the shogun's family, it might be the cause of grave inconvenience
among the people. In other words, a man whose son had been adopted
into another family might claim to be regarded as the head of that
family in the event of the death of the foster-father. It is certain,
however, that other and stronger reasons influenced the Bakufu prime
minister. Hitotsubashi Harunari was generally known as Wagamama
Irikyo (the Wayward Recluse*). His most intimate friends were the
shogun's father-in-law, Shimazu Ei-O, and Ikeda Isshinsai. The latter
two were also inkyo and shared the tastes and foibles of Harunari.
One of their greatest pleasures was to startle society. Thus, when
Sadanobu was legislating with infinite care against prodigality of
any kind, the above three old gentlemen loved to organize parties on
an ostentatiously extravagant scale, and Sadanobu naturally shrank
from seeing the title of o-gosho conferred on such a character, thus
investing him with competence to interfere arbitrarily in the conduct
of State affairs.
*It has always been a common custom in Japan for the head of a family
to retire nominally from active life after he attains his fiftieth
year. He is thenceforth known as inkyo (or recluse). The same is true
of women.
Just at this time, the Court in Kyoto preferred its application, and
Sadanobu at once appreciated that if the rank of dajo tenno were
conferred on Prince Tsunehito, it would be impossible to withhold
that of o-gosho from Harunari. Consequently the Bakufu prime minister
wrote privately to the Kyoto prime minister, Takatsukasa Sukehira,
pointing out the inadvisability of the proposed step. This letter,
though not actually an official communication, had the effect of
shelving the matter for a time, but, in 1791, the Emperor re-opened
the question, and summoned a council in the palace to discuss it. The
result was that sixty-five officials, headed by the prime minister
and the minister of the Right, supported the sovereign's views, but
the ex-premier, Takatsukasa Sukehira, and his son, the minister of
the Left, with a few others, opposed them.
The proceedings of this council with an autograph covering-letter
from the sovereign were sent to the Bakufu, in 1792, but for a long
time no answer was given. Meanwhile Prince Tsunehito, already an old
man, showed signs of declining health, and the Imperial Court pressed
Yedo to reply. Ultimately the Bakufu officially disapproved the
project. No statement of reasons accompanied the refusal, but it was
softened by a suggestion that an increase of revenue might be
conferred on the sovereign's father. This already sufficiently
contumelious act was supplemented by a request from the Bakufu that
the Imperial Court should send to Yedo the high secretary and the
chief of the Household. Unwillingly the Court complied, and after
hearing the arguments advanced by these two officials, Sadanobu
sentenced them to be placed in confinement for a hundred days, and
fifty days, respectively, which sentence was carried out at the
temple Seisho-ji in Yedo, and the two high officials were thereafter
sent back to Kyoto under police escort. Ultimately they were both
dismissed from office, and all the Court dignitaries who had
supported the sovereign's wishes were cautioned not to associate
themselves again with such "rash and unbecoming acts." It can
scarcely be denied that Sadanobu exercised his power in an extreme
and unwise manner on this occasion. A little recourse to tact might
have settled the matter with equal facility and without open
disrespect to the Throne. But the Bakufu prime minister behaved after
the manner of the deer-stalker of the Japanese proverb who does not
see the mountain, and he thus placed in the hands of the Imperialist
party a weapon which contributed materially to the overthrow of the
Bakufu seventy years later.
ENGRAVING: YO-MEI-MON GATE, AT NIKKO
CHAPTER XLII
ORGANIZATION, CENTRAL AND LOCAL; CURRENCY AND THE LAWS OF THE
TOKUGAWA BAKAFU
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE TOKUGAWA BAKUFU
THE organization of the Tokugawa Bakufu cannot be referred to any
earlier period than that of the third shogun, Iemitsu. The
foundations indeed were laid after the battle of Sekigahara, when the
administrative functions came into the hands of Ieyasu. By him a
shoshidai (governor) was established in Kyoto together with municipal
administrators (machi bugyo). But it was reserved for Iemitsu to
develop these initial creations into a competent and consistent
whole. There was, first, what may be regarded as a cabinet, though
the name of its members (roju, or seniors) does not suggest the
functions generally discharged by ministers of State. One of the roju
was appointed to the post of dairo (great senior). He corresponded to
the prime minister in a Western Cabinet, and the other roju may be
counted as ministers. Then there were junior ministers, and after
them came administrators of accounts, inspectors, administrators of
shrines and temples, and municipal administrators. The place where
State business was discharged went by the name of Go-Yo-beya. There,
the senior and junior ministers assembled to transact affairs, and
the chamber being situated in the immediate vicinity of the shogun's
sitting-room, he was able to keep himself au courant of important
administrative affairs. During the time of the fifth shogun, however,
as already related, this useful arrangement underwent radical
alteration. As for judicial business, there did not originally exist
any special place for its transaction. A chamber in the official
residence was temporarily assigned for the purpose, but at a later
date a court of justice (Hyojo-sho) was established at Tatsunokuchi
in Yedo. This organization, though carried within sight of completion
in the days of the third shogun, required to be supplemented by the
eighth, and was not actually perfected until the time of the
eleventh.
THE DAIRO
The duties of the dairo--sometimes called karo or o-doshiyori--were
to preside over the roju and to handle important administrative
affairs. In many respects his functions resembled those discharged by
the regent (shikken) of the Kamakura Bakufu. To the office of dairo a
specially distinguished member of the roju was appointed, and if no
one possessing the necessary qualifications was available, that post
had to be left vacant. Generally the Ii, the Hotta, or the Sakai
family supplied candidates for the office.
THE ROJU
The roju or senior ministers--called also toshiyori--discharged the
administration. They resembled the kwanryo of the Muromachi
Government. There were five of these ministers and they exercised
control over all matters relating to the Imperial palace, the palace
of the ex-Emperor (Sendo), the Imperial princes, the princely abbots
(monzeki) and all the daimyo. It was customary to choose the roju
from among officials who had previously served as governors of Osaka
or Kyoto or as soshaban, who will be presently spoken of at greater
length.
THE WAKA-DOSHIYORI
There were five junior ministers (waka-doshiyori) whose principal
functions were to exercise jurisdiction over the hatamoto and the
kenin. These latter names have already been alluded to, but for the
sake of clearness it may be well to explain that whereas the fudai
daimyo consisted of the one hundred and seventy-six barons who joined
the standard of Ieyasu before the battle of Sekigahara, the hatamoto
(bannerets), while equally direct vassals of the shogun, were lower
than the daimyo though higher than the go-kenin, who comprised the
bulk of the Tokugawa samurai. Members of the waka-doshiyori might at
any time be promoted to the post of roju. Their functions were wide
as well as numerous, and resembled those performed by the Hyojo-shu
and the hikitsuke-shu of the Kamakura and Muromachi Governments. A
junior minister must previously have occupied the post of
administrator of temples and shrines (jisha-bugyo) or that of
chamberlain (o-soba-shu) or that of chief guard (o-ban). The offices
of minister and junior minister were necessarily filled by daimyo who
were hereditary vassals of the shogun.
SECRETARIES
There were two secretariats, the oku-yuhitsu (domestic secretariat)
and the omote-yuhitsu (external secretariat). They discharged, on
account of the senior ministers, the duties of scribes, and were
presided over by a todori, who, in later days, wielded large
influence.
THE JISHA-BUGYO
The jisha-bugyo, as their name suggests, supervised all affairs
relating to shrines, temples, Shinto officials, bonzes, and nuns as
well as persons residing within the domains of shrines and temples.
They also discharged judicial functions in the case of these various
classes. The number of these administrators of shrines and temples
was originally three, but afterwards it was increased to four, who
transacted business for a month at a time in succession. The
soshaban, who were entitled to make direct reports to the shogun, had
to fill the office of jisha-bugyo in addition to their other
functions, which were connected with the management of matters
relating to ceremony and etiquette.
At first there were only two of these soshaban, but subsequently
their number was increased to twenty-four, and it became customary
for one of them to keep watch in the castle at night. They were
generally ex-governors of Osaka and Fushimi, and they were
necessarily daimyo who had the qualification of direct vassalage to
the shogun. The jisha-bugyo performed their judicial functions in
their own residences, each administrator employing his own vassals
for subordinate purposes, and these vassals, when so employed, were
distinguished as jisha-yaku or toritsugi. Further, officiating
in conjunction with the jisha-bugyo f were chief inspectors
(daikenshi), and assistant inspectors (shokenshi) whose duties
require no description. The classes of people to whom the
jisha-bugyo's jurisdiction extended were numerous: they embraced the
cemetery-keepers at Momiji-yama, the bonzes, the fire-watchmen, the
musicians, the Shinto officials, the poets, the players at go or
chess, and so forth.
THE MACHI-BUGYO
The municipal administrator (machi-bugyo) controlled affairs relating
to the citizens in general. This was among the oldest institutions of
the Tokugawa, and existed also in the Toyotomi organization. At first
there were three machi-bugyo, but when the Tokugawa moved to Yedo,
the number was decreased to one, and subsequently increased again to
two in the days of Iemitsu. Judicial business occupied the major part
of the machi-bugyo's time. His law-court was in his own residence,
and under his direction constables (yoriki or doshiri) patrolled the
city. He also transacted business relating to prisons and the
municipal elders of Yedo (machi-doshiyori) referred to him all
questions of a difficult or serious nature.
THE KANJO-BUGYO
The financial administrator (kanjo-bugyo) received also the
appellation of kitchen administrator (daidokoro-bugyo), and his
duties embraced everything relating to the finance of the Bakufu,
including, of course, their estates and the persons residing on those
estates. The eight provinces of the Kwanto were under the direct
control of this bugyo, but other districts were administered by a
daikwan (deputy). There were two kinds of kanjo-bugyo, namely, the
kuji-kata and the katte-kata (public and private), the latter of whom
had to adjudicate all financial questions directly affecting the
Bakufu, and the former had to perform a similar function in cases
where outsiders were concerned. Various officials served as
subordinates of these important bugyo, who were usually taken from
the roju or the waka-doshiyori, and, in the days of the sixth shogun,
it was found necessary to appoint an auditor of accounts
(kanjo-gimmiyaku), who, although nominally of the same rank as the
kanjo-bugyo, really acted in a supervisory capacity. The Bakufu court
of law was the Hyojo-sho. Suits involving issues that lay entirely
within the jurisdiction of one bugyo were tried by him in his own
residence, but where wider interests were concerned the three bugyo
had to conduct the case at the Hyojo-sho, where they formed a
collegiate court. On such occasions the presence of the censors was
compulsory. Sometimes, also, the three bugyo met at the Hyojo-sho
merely for purposes of consultation.
THE CENSORS
An important figure in the Tokugawa organization was the censor
(metsuke), especially the great censor (o-metsuke). The holder of the
latter office served as the eyes and ears of the roju and supervised
the feudal barons. There were four or five great censors. One of them
held the additional office of administrator of roads (dochu-bugyo),
and had to oversee matters relating to the villages, the towns, and
the postal stations along the five principal highways. Another had to
inspect matters relating to religious sects and firearms--a strange
combination. Under the great censors were placed administrators of
confiscated estates. The ordinary censors had to exercise
surveillance over the samurai of the hatamoto and were under the
jurisdiction of the waka-doshiyori. There were altogether sixty
metsuke, and they travelled constantly throughout the empire
obtaining materials for reports which were submitted to the
waka-doshiyori. Among them are found censors who performed the duties
of coroners.*
*The employment of censors by the Bakufu has been severely criticized
as indicating a system of espionage. It scarcely seems necessary to
observe that the same criticism applies to all highly organized
Occidental Governments with their secret services, their detectives
and their inquiry agencies.
THE CHAMBERLAINS
Even more important than the censors were the chamberlains (soba
yonin) who had to communicate to the shogun all reports submitted by
the roju, and to offer advice as to the manner of dealing with them.
They also noted the shogun's decisions and appended them to
documents. The exercise of these functions afforded opportunities for
interfering in administrative affairs, and such opportunities were
fully utilized, to the great detriment of public interest. There were
also pages (kosho); castle accountants (nando); literati to the
shogun (oku-jusha), and physicians (oku-isha).
MASTERS OF CEREMONIES
The duty of transmitting messages from the shogun to the Emperor and
of regulating all matters of ceremony connected with the castle was
discharged by fifteen masters of ceremonies (koke) presided over by
four chiefs (the office of chief being hereditary in such families as
the Osawa and the Kira) who, although their fiefs were comparatively
small, possessed influence not inferior to that of the daimyo. A koke
was usually on watch in the castle by day. These masters of
ceremonies are not to be confounded with the chamberlains (soshaban)
already spoken of. The latter numbered twenty-four. They regulated
affairs connected with ceremonies in which all Government officials
were concerned, and they kept watch at the castle by night.
Subordinate to the koke and the chamberlains were various officials
who conveyed presents from the feudal lords to the shogun; directed
matters of decoration and furniture; had charge of miscellaneous
works in the castle, and supervised all persons, male or female,
entering or leaving the shogun's harem. Officials of this last class
were under the command of a functionary called o-rusui who had
general charge of the business of the harem; directed the issue of
passports to men and women of the samurai class or to commoners, and
had the care of all military stores in the castle. The name rusui
signifies a person in charge during the absence of his master, and
was applied in this case since the o-rusui had to guard the castle
when the shogun was not present. The multifarious duties entrusted to
officials over whom the o-rusui presided required a large number and
a great variety of persons to discharge them, but these need not be
enumerated in detail here.
THE TAMARIZUME
Characteristic of the elaborate etiquette observed at the shogun's
castle was the existence of semi-officials called tamarizume, whose
chief duty in ordinary times was to repair to the castle once every
five days, and to inquire through the roju as to the state of the
shogun's health. On occasions of emergency they participated in the
administration, taking precedence of the roju and the other
feudatories. The Matsudaira of Aizu, Takamatsu, and Matsuyama; the Ii
of Hikone, and the Sakai of Himeji--these were the families which
performed the functions of tamarizume as a hereditary right. It is
unnecessary to describe the organization and duties of the military
guards to whom the safety of the castle was entrusted, but the fact
has to be noted that both men and officers were invariably taken from
the hatamoto class.
THE WOMEN'S APARTMENTS
In the o-oku, or innermost buildings of the shogun's castle,
the harem was situated. Its chief official was a woman called
the o-toshiyori (great elder), under whom were a number of
ladies-in-waiting, namely, the toshiyori, the rojo, the churo, the
kojoro, and others. There were also ladies who attended solely to
visitors; others who kept the keys; others who carried messages to
public officers, and others who acted as secretaries. All this part
of the organization would take pages to describe in detail,* and is
necessarily abbreviated here. We may add, however, that there were
official falconers, sailors, grooms, gardeners, and every kind of
artist or mechanician.
*For fuller particulars of the manner of daily life at the shogun's
court, see Chapter 1. Vol. IV, of Brinkley's "Oriental Series."
THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT SYSTEM
In organizing a system of local government the Tokugawa Bakufu began
by appointing a shoshidai in Kyoto to guard the Imperial palace, to
supervise Court officials, and to oversee financial measures as well
as to hear suits-at-law, and to have control over temples and
shrines. The shoshidai enjoyed a high measure of respect. He had to
visit Yedo once in every five or six years for the purpose of making
a report to the shogun in person. The municipal administrator of
Kyoto and the administrators of Nara and Fushimi, the Kyoto deputy
(daikwan), and all the officials of the Nijo palace were under the
jurisdiction of the shoshidai. To qualify for this high office a man
must have served as governor of Osaka. In the Imperial city the
municipal administrator heard suits-at-law presented by citizens,
managed the affairs of temples and shrines, and was responsible for
collecting the taxes in the home provinces. There were two of these
officials in Kyoto and, like their namesakes in Yedo, they had a
force of constables (yoriki) and policemen (doshin) under their
command.
THE JODAI
Regarded with scarcely less importance than that attaching to the
shoshidai was an official called the jodai of Osaka, on whom devolved
the responsibility of guarding the Kwansei. For this office a
hereditary daimyo of the Tokugawa family was selected, and he must
previously have occupied the offices of soshaban and jisha-bugyo. The
routine of promotion was from the jodai of Osaka to the shoshidai of
Kyoto and from thence to the roju. Originally there were six jodai
but their number was ultimately reduced to one. Sumpu also had a
jodai, who discharged duties similar to those devolving on his Osaka
namesake. In Nagasaki, Sado, Hakodate, Niigata, and other important
localities, bugyo were stationed, and in districts under the direct
control of the Bakufu the chief official was the daikwan.
ADMINISTRATION IN FIEFS
The governmental system in the fiefs closely resembled the system of
the Bakufu. The daimyo exercised almost unlimited power, and the
business of their fiefs was transacted by factors (karo). Twenty-one
provinces consisted entirely of fiefs, and in the remaining provinces
public and private estates were intermixed.
LOCAL AUTONOMY
Both the Bakufu and the feudatories were careful to allow a maximum
of autonomy to the lower classes. Thus the farmers elected a village
chief--called nanushi or shoya--who held his post for life or for one
year, and who exercised powers scarcely inferior to those of a
governor. There were also heads of guilds (kumi-gashira) and
representatives of farmers (hyakushodai) who participated in
administering the affairs of a village. Cities and towns had
municipal elders (machi-doshiyori), under whom also nanushi
officiated. The guilds constituted a most important feature of this
local autonomic system. They consisted of five householders each,
being therefore called gonin-gumi, and their main functions were to
render mutual aid in all times of distress, and to see that there
were no evasions of the taxes or violations of the law. In fact, the
Bakufu interfered as little as possible in the administrative systems
of the agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial classes, and the
feudatories followed the same rule.
FINANCE
The subject of finance in the Bakufu days is exceedingly complicated,
and a very bare outline will suffice. It has already been noted that
the unit of land-measurement varied from time to time and was never
uniform throughout the empire. That topic need not be further
discussed. Rice-fields were divided into five classes, in accordance
with which division the rates of taxation were fixed. Further, in
determining the amount of the land-tax, two methods were followed;
one by inspection, the other by average. In the case of the former,
the daikwan repaired in the fall of each year to the locality
concerned, and having ascertained the nature of the crop harvested,
proceeded to determine the rate of tax. This arrangement lent itself
so readily to abuse that the system of averages was substituted as
far as possible. That is to say, the average yield of crops for the
preceding ten or twenty years served as a standard.
The miscellaneous taxes were numerous. Thus, there were taxes on
business; taxes for post-horses and post-carriers; taxes in the form
of labour, which were generally fixed at the rate of fifty men per
hundred koku, the object in view being work on river banks, roads,
and other public institutions; taxes to meet the cost of collecting
taxes, and taxes to cover defalcations. Sometimes the above taxes
were levied in kind or in actual labour, and sometimes they were
collected in money. To facilitate collection in cities, merchants
were required to form guilds according to their respective
businesses, and the head of each guild had to collect the tax payable
by the members. Thus, upon a guild of sake-brewers a tax of a
thousand gold ryo was imposed, and a guild of wholesale dealers in
cotton had to pay five hundred ryo. There was a house-tax which was
assessed by measuring the area of the land on which a building stood,
and there was a tax on expert labour such as that of carpenters and
matmakers. In order to facilitate the levy of this last-named tax
the citizens were required to locate themselves according to the
nature of their employment, and thus such names were found as
"Carpenter's street," "Matmaker's street," and so forth. Originally
these imposts were defrayed by actual labour, but afterwards money
came to be substituted.
An important feature of the taxation system was the imposition of
buke-yaku, (military dues). For these the feudatories were liable,
and as the amount was arbitrarily fixed by the Bakufu, though always
with due regard to the value of the fief, such dues were often very
onerous. The same is true in an even more marked degree as to taxes
in labour, materials, or money, which were levied upon the
feudatories for the purposes of any great work projected by the
Bakufu. These imposts were called aids (otetsudai).
MANNER OF PAYING TAXES
The manner of paying taxes varied accordingly to localities. Thus, in
the Kwanto, payment was generally made in rice for wet fields and in
money for uplands, at the rate of one gold ryo per two and a half
koku of rice. In the Kinai and western provinces as well as in the
Nankai-do, on the other hand, the total tax on wet fields and uplands
was divided into three parts, two of which were paid with rice and
one with money, the value of a koku of rice being fixed at
forty-eight mon of silver (four-fifths of a gold ryo). As a general
rule, taxes imposed on estates under the direct control of the Bakufu
were levied in rice, which was handed over to the daikwan of each
province, and by him transported to Yedo, Kyoto, or Osaka, where it
was placed in stores under the control of store-administrators
(kura-bugyo).
In the case of cash payments the money was transported to the castle
of Yedo or Osaka, where it came under the care of the finance
administrator (kane-bugyo). Finally, the accounts connected with such
receipts of cash were compiled and rendered by the administrator of
accounts (kane-bugyo), and were subsequently audited by officials
named katte-kata, over which office a member of the roju or
waka-doshiyori presided. Statistics compiled in 1836 show that the
revenue annually collected from the Tokugawa estates in rice and
money amounted to 807,068 koku and 93,961 gold ryo respectively. As
for the rate of the land-tax, it varied in different parts of the
provinces, from seventy per cent, for the landlord and thirty for the
tenant to thirty for the landlord and seventy for the tenant.
CURRENCY
It has been shown above that, from the time of the fifth shogun,
debasement of the coins of the realm took place frequently. Indeed it
may be said that whenever the State fell into financial difficulty,
debasement of the current coins was regarded as a legitimate device.
Much confusion was caused among the people by repeated changes in the
quality of the coins. Thus, in the days of the eighth shogun, no less
than four varieties of a single silver token were in circulation.
When the country renewed its foreign intercourse in the middle of the
nineteenth century, there were no less than eight kinds of gold coin
in circulation, nine of silver, and four of copper or iron. The
limits within which the intrinsic value of gold coins varied will be
understood when we say that whereas the gold oban of the Keicho era
(1596-1614) contained, approximately, 29.5 parts of gold to 13 of
silver and was worth about seventy-five yen. The corresponding coin
of the Man-en era (1860) contained 10.33 parts of pure gold to 19.25
of silver, and was worth only twenty-eight yen.
PAPER CURRENCY
The earliest existing record of the use of paper currency dates from
1661, when the feudal chief of Echizen obtained permission from the
Bakufu to employ this medium of exchange, provided that its
circulation was limited to the fief where the issue took place. These
paper tokens were called hansatsu (fief notes), and one result of
their issue was that moneys accruing from the sale of cereals and
other products of a fief were preserved within that fief. The example
of Echizen in this matter found several followers, but the system
never became universal.
JUDICIAL PROCEDURE
The administration of justice in the Tokugawa days was based solely
on ethical principles. Laws were not promulgated for prospective
application. They were compiled whenever an occasion arose, and in
their drafting the prime aim was always to make their provisions
consonant with the dictates of humanity. Once, indeed, during the
time of the second shogun, Hidetada, a municipal administrator,
Shimada Yuya, having held the office for more than twenty years, and
having come to be regarded as conspicuously expert in rendering
justice, it was proposed to the shogun that the judgments delivered
by this administrator should be recorded for the guidance of future
judges. Hidetada, however, objected that human affairs change so
radically as to render it impossible to establish universally
recognizable precedents, and that if the judgments delivered in any
particular era were transmitted as guides for future generations, the
result would probably be slavish sacrifice of ethical principles on
the altar of stereotyped practice.
In 1631, when the third shogun, Iemitsu, ruled in Yedo, a public
courthouse (Hyojo-sho) was for the first time established. Up to that
time the shogun himself had served as a court of appeal in important
cases. These were first brought before a bugyo, and subsequently, if
specially vital issues were at stake, the shogun personally sat as
judge, the duty of executing his judgments being entrusted to the
bugyo and other officials.
Thenceforth, the custom came to be this: Where comparatively minor
interests were involved and where the matter lay wholly within the
jurisdiction of one administrator, that official sat as judge in a
chamber of his own mansion; but in graver cases and where the
interests concerned were not limited to one jurisdiction, the
Hyojo-sho became the judicial court, and the three administrators,
the roju, together with the censors, formed a collegiate tribunal.
There were fixed days each month for holding this collegiate court,
and there were also days when the three administrators alone met at
one of their residences for purposes of private conference. The
hearing by the shogun was the last recourse, and before submission to
him the facts had to be investigated by the chamberlains (sobashu),
who thus exercised great influence. A lawsuit instituted by a
plebeian had to be submitted to the feudatory of the region, or to
the administrator, or to the deputy (daikwari), but might never be
made the subject of a direct petition to the shogun. If the feudatory
or the deputy Were held to be acting contrary to the dictates of
integrity and reason, the suitor might change his domicile for the
purpose of submitting a petition to the authorities in Yedo; and the
law provided that no obstruction should be placed in the way of such
change.
LAW
As stated above, the original principle of the Bakufu was to avoid
compiling any written criminal code. But from the days of the sixth
and the seventh shoguns, Ienobu and Ietsugu, such provisions of
criminal law as related to ordinary offences came to be written in
the most intelligible style and placarded throughout the city of Yedo
and provincial towns or villages. On such a placard (kosatsu) posted
up, in the year 1711, at seven places in Yedo, it was enjoined on
parents, sons, daughters, brothers, husbands, wives, and other
relatives that they must maintain intimate and friendly relations
among themselves; and that, whereas servants must be faithful and
industrious, their masters should have compassion and should obey the
dictates of right in dealing with them; that everyone should be hard
working and painstaking; that people should not transgress the limits
of their social status; that all deceptions should be carefully
avoided; that everyone should make it a rule of life to avoid doing
injury or causing loss to others; that gambling should be eschewed;
that quarrels and disputes of every kind should be avoided; that
asylum should not be given to wounded persons; that firearms should
not be used without cause; that no one should conceal an offender;
that the sale or purchase of human being, should be strictly
prohibited except in cases where men or women offered their services
for a fixed term of years or as apprentices, or in cases of
hereditary servitude; finally, that, though hereditary servants went
to other places and changed their domicile, it should not be lawful
to compel their return.
In the days of the eighth shogun, Yoshimune, it being held that
crimes were often due to ignorance of law, the feudatories and
deputies were directed to make arrangements for conveying to the
people tinder their jurisdiction some knowledge of the nature of the
statutes; and the result was that the mayors (nanushi) of provincial
towns and villages had to read the laws once a month at a meeting of
citizens or villagers convened for the purpose. Previously to this
time, namely, in the days of the fourth shogun, Ietsugu, the office
of recorder (tome-yaku) was instituted in the Hyojo-sho for the
purpose of committing to writing all judgments given in lawsuits. But
in the days of Yoshimune, the rules and regulations issued by the
Bakufu from the time of Ieyasu downwards were found to have fallen
into such confusion that the difficulty of following them was
practically insuperable.
Therefore, in 1742, Matsudaira Norimura, one of the roju, together
with the three administrators, was commissioned to compile a body of
laws, and the result was a fifteen volume book called the Hatto-gaki
(Prohibitory Writings). The shogun himself evinced keen interest in
this undertaking. He frequently consulted with the veteran officials
of his court, and during a period of several years he revised "The
Rules for Judicial Procedure." Associated with him in this work were
Kada Arimaro, Ogyu Sorai, and the celebrated judge, Ooka Tadasuke,
and not only the Ming laws of China, but also the ancient Japanese
Daiho-ritsu were consulted.
This valuable legislation, which showed a great advance in the matter
of leniency, except in the case of disloyal or unfilial conduct, was
followed, in 1767, by reforms under the shoqun, Ieharu, when all the
laws and regulations placarded or otherwise promulgated since the
days of Ieyasu were collected and collated to form a prefatory
vol-ume to the above-mentioned "Rules for Judicial Procedure," the
two being thenceforth regarded as a single enactment under the title
of Kajo-ruiten. "The Rules for Judicial Procedure" originally
comprised 103 articles, but, in 1790, Matsudaira Sadanobu revised
this code, reducing the number of articles to one hundred, and
calling it Tokugawa Hyakkajd, or "One Hundred Laws and Regulations of
the Tokugawa." This completed the legislative work of the Yedo
Bakufu. But it must not be supposed that these laws were disclosed to
the general public. They served simply for purposes of official
reference. The Tokugawa in this respect strictly followed the
Confucian maxim, "Make the people obey but do not make them know.":
ENGRAVING: MATSUDAIRA SADANORU
CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
In Tokugawa days the principal punishments were; six: namely,
reprimand (shikari), confinement (oshikome), flogging (tataki),
banishment (tsuiho), exile to an island (ento), and death (shikei).
The last named was divided into five kinds, namely, deprivation of
life (shizai), exposing the head after decapitation (gokumon),
burning at the stake (hiaburi), crucifixion (haritsuke), and sawing
to death (nokogiri-biki). There were also subsidiary penalties, such
as public exposure (sarashi), tattooing (irezumi)--which was resorted
to not less for purposes of subsequent identification than as a
disgrace--confiscation of an estate (kessho), and degradation to a
status below the hinin (hininteshita).
The above penalties were applicable to common folk. In the case of
samurai the chief punishments were detention (hissoku), confinement
(heimon or chikkyo), deprivation of status (kaieki), placing in the
custody of a feudatory (azuke), suicide (seppuku), and decapitation
(zanzai). Among these, seppuku was counted the most honourable. As a
rule only samurai of the fifth official rank and upwards were
permitted thus to expiate a crime, and the procedure was spoken of as
"granting death" (shi wo tamau). The plebeian classes, that is to
say, the farmers, the artisans, and the tradesmen, were generally
punished by fines, by confinement, or by handcuffing (tegusari).
Priests were sentenced to exposure (sarashi), to expulsion from a
temple (tsui-iri), or to exile (kamai).
For women the worst punishment was to be handed over as servants
(yakko) or condemned to shave their heads (teihatsu). Criminals who
had no fixed domicile and who repeated their evil acts after
expiration of a first sentence, were carried to the island of
Tsukuda, in Yedo Bay, or to Sado, where they were employed in various
ways. Blind men or beggars who offended against the law were handed
over to the chiefs of their guilds, namely, the soroku in the case of
the blind, and the eta-gashira in the case of beggars.* Some of the
above punishments were subdivided, but these details are unimportant.
*For fuller information about these degraded classes see Brinkley's
"Oriental Series," Vol. II.
PRISONS
In Yedo, the buildings employed as prisons were erected at Demmacho
under the hereditary superintendence of the Ishide family. The
governor of prisons was known as the roya-bugyo. Each prison was
divided into five parts where people were confined according to their
social status. The part called the agari-zashiki was reserved for
samurai who had the privilege of admission to the shogun's presence;
and in the part called the agariya common, samurai and Buddhist
priests were incarcerated. The oro and the hyakusho-ro were reserved
for plebeians, and in the onna-ro women were confined. Each section
consisted of ten rooms and was capable of accommodating seven hundred
persons. Sick prisoners were carried to the tamari, which were
situated at Asakusa and Shinagawa, and were under the superintendence
of the hinin-gashira. All arrangements as to the food, clothing, and
medical treatment of prisoners were carefully thought out, but it is
not to be supposed that these Bakufu prisons presented many of the
features on which modern criminology insists. On the contrary, a
prisoner was exposed to serious suffering from heat and cold, while
the coarseness of the fare provided for him often caused disease and
sometimes death. Nevertheless, the Japanese prisons in Tokugawa days
were little, if anything, inferior to the corresponding institutions
in Anglo-Saxon countries at the same period.
LOYALTY AND FILIAL PIETY
In the eyes of the Tokugawa legislators the cardinal virtues were
loyalty and filial piety, and in the inculcation of these, even
justice was relegated to an inferior place. Thus, it was provided
that if a son preferred any public charge against his father, or if a
servant opened a lawsuit against his master, the guilt of the son or
of the servant must be assumed at the outset as an ethical principle.
To such a length was this ethical principle carried that in
regulations issued by Itakura Suo no Kami for the use of the Kyoto
citizens, we find the following provision: "In a suit-at-law between
parent and son judgment should be given for the parent without regard
to the pleading of the son. Even though a parent act with extreme
injustice, it is a gross breach of filial duty that a son should
institute a suit-at-law against a parent. There can be no greater
immorality, and penalty of death should be meted out to the son
unless the parent petitions for his life." In an action between uncle
and nephew a similar principle applied. Further, we find that in
nearly every body of law promulgated throughout the whole of the
Tokugawa period, loyalty and filial piety are placed at the head of
ethical virtues; the practice of etiquette, propriety, and military
and literary accomplishments standing next, while justice and
deference for tradition occupy lower places in the schedule.
A kosatsu (placard) set up in 1682, has the following inscription:
"Strive to be always loyal and filial. Preserve affection between
husbands and wives, brothers, and all relatives; extend sympathy and
compassion to servants." Further, in a street notice posted in Yedo
during the year 1656, we find it ordained that should any disobey a
parent's directions, or reject advice given by a municipal elder or
by the head of a five-households guild, such a person must be brought
before the administrator, who, in the first place, will imprison him;
whereafter, should the malefactor not amend his conduct, he shall be
banished forever; while for anyone showing malice against his father,
arrest and capital punishment should follow immediately.
In these various regulations very little allusion is made to the
subject of female rights. But there is one significant provision,
namely, that a divorced woman is entitled to have immediately
restored to her all her gold and silver ornaments as well as her
dresses; and at the same time husbands are warned that they must not
fail to make due provision for a former wife. The impression conveyed
by careful perusal of all Tokugawa edicts is that their compilers
obeyed, from first to last, a high code of ethical principles.
ENGRAVING: "INRO," LACQUERED MEDICINE CASE CARRIED CHIEFLY BY SAMURAI
ENGRAVING: TOKUGAWA MITSUKUNI
CHAPTER XLIII
REVIVAL OF THE SHINTO CULT
RYOBU SHINTO
THE reader is aware that early in the ninth century the celebrated
Buddhist priest, Kukai (Kobo Daishi), compounded out of Buddhism and
Shinto a system of doctrine called Ryobu Shinto. The salient feature
of this mixed creed was the theory that the Shinto deities were
transmigrations of Buddhist divinities. Thereafter, Buddhism became
the national religion, which position it held until the days of the
Tokugawa shoguns, when it was supplanted among educated Japanese by
the moral philosophy of Confucius, as interpreted by Chutsz, Wang
Yang-ming, and others.
REVIVAL OF PURE SHINTO
The enthusiasm and the intolerance showed by the disciples of Chinese
philosophy produced a reaction in Japan, and this culminated in the
revival of Shinto, during which process the anomalous position
occupied by the shogun towards the sovereign was clearly
demonstrated, and the fact contributed materially to the downfall of
the Tokugawa. It was by Ieyasu himself that national thought was
turned into the new channel, though it need scarcely be said that the
founder of the Tokugawa shogunate had no premonition of any results
injurious to the sway of his own house.
After the battle of Sekigahara had established his administrative
supremacy, and after he had retired from the shogunate in favour of
Hidetada, Ieyasu applied himself during his residence at Sumpu to
collecting old manuscripts, and shortly before his death he directed
that the Japanese section of the library thus formed should be handed
over to his eighth son, the baron of Owari, and the Chinese portion
to his ninth son, the baron of Kii. Another great library was
subsequently brought together by a grandson of Ieyasu, the celebrated
Mitsukuni (1628-1700), baron of Mito, who, from his youthful days,
devoted attention to Japanese learning, and, assembling a number of
eminent scholars, composed the Dai Nihon-shi (History of Great
Japan), which consisted of 240 volumes and became thenceforth
the standard history of the country. It is stated that the
expenditures involved in producing this history, together with a
five-hundred-volume work on the ceremonies of the Imperial Court,
amounted to one-third of the Mito revenues, a sum of about 700,000
ryo. There can be little doubt that Mitsukuni's proximate purpose in
undertaking the colossal work was to controvert a theory advanced by
Hayashi Razan that the Emperor of Japan was descended from the
Chinese prince, Tai Peh, of Wu, of the Yin dynasty.
Chiefly concerned in the compilation of the Dai Nihon-shi were Asaka
Kaku, Kuriyama Gen, and Miyake Atsuaki. They excluded the Empress
Jingo from the successive dynasties; they included the Emperor Kobun
in the history proper, and they declared the legitimacy of the
Southern Court as against the Northern. But in the volume devoted to
enumeration of the constituents of the empire, they omitted the
islands of Ezo and Ryukyu. This profound study of ancient history
could not fail to expose the fact that the shogunate usurped powers
which properly belonged to the sovereign and to the sovereign alone.
But Mitsukuni and his collaborators did not give prominence to this
feature. They confined themselves rather to historical details.
ENGRAVING: KAMO MABUCHI
ENGRAVING: MOTOORI NOBINAGA
It was reserved for four other men to lay bare the facts of the
Mikado's divine right and to rehabilitate the Shinto cult. These men
were Kada Azumamaro (1668-1736), Kamo Mabuchi (1697-1769), Motoori
Norinaga (1730-1801), and Hirata Atsutane (1776-1834). Associated
with them were other scholars of less note, but these are
overshadowed by the four great masters. Kada, indeed, did not achieve
much more than the restoration of pure Japanese literature to the
pedestal upon which it deserved to stand. That in itself was no
insignificant task, for during the five centuries that separated the
Gen-Hei struggle from the establishment of the Tokugawa family,
Japanese books had shared the destruction that overtook everything in
this period of wasting warfare, and the Japanese language itself had
undergone such change that to read and understand ancient books, like
the Kojiki and the Manyo-shu, demanded a special course of study. To
make that study and to prepare the path for others was Kada's task,
and he performed it so conscientiously that his successors were at
once able to obtain access to the treasures of ancient literature. It
was reserved for Mabuchi to take the lead in championing Japanese
ethical systems as against Chinese. By his writings we are taught the
nature of the struggle waged throughout the Tokugawa period between
Chinese philosophy and Japanese ethics, and we are enabled, also, to
reach a lucid understanding of the Shinto cult as understood by the
Japanese themselves. The simplest route to that understanding is to
let the four masters speak briefly, each for himself:
"Learning is a matter in which the highest interests of the empire
are involved, and no man ought to be vain enough to imagine that he
is able by himself to develop it thoroughly. Nor should the student
blindly adhere to the opinions of his teacher. Anyone who desires to
study Japanese literature should first acquire a good knowledge of
Chinese, and then pass over to the Manyo-shu, from which he may
discover the ancient principles of the divine age. If he resolve
bravely to love and admire antiquity, there is no reason why he
should fail to acquire the ancient style in poetry as well as in
other things. In ancient times, as the poet expressed only the
genuine sentiments of his heart, his style was naturally direct, but
since the practice of writing upon subjects chosen by lot came into
vogue, the language of poetry has become ornate and the ideas forced.
The expression of fictitious sentiment about the relations of the
sexes and miscellaneous subjects is not genuine poetry. [Kada
Azumamaro.]
"Wherein lies the value of a rule of conduct? In its conducing to the
good order of the State. The Chinese for ages past have had a
succession of different dynasties to rule over them, but Japan has
been faithful to one uninterrupted line of sovereigns. Every Chinese
dynasty was founded upon rebellion and parricide. Sometimes, a
powerful ruler was able to transmit his authority to his son and
grandson, but they, in their turn, were inevitably deposed and
murdered, and the country was in a perpetual state of civil war. A
philosophy which produces such effects must be founded on a false
system. When Confucianism was first introduced into Japan, the
simple-minded people, deceived by its plausible appearance, accepted
it with eagerness and allowed it to spread its influence everywhere.
The consequence was the civil war which broke out immediately after
the death of Tenji Tenno, in A.D. 671, between that Emperor's brother
and son, which only came to an end in 672 by the suicide of the
latter.
"In the eighth century, the Chinese costume and etiquette were adopted
by the Court. This foreign pomp and splendour covered the rapid
depravation of men's hearts, and created a wide gulf between the
Mikado and his people. So long as the sovereign maintains a simple
style of living, the subjects are contented with their own hard lot.
Their wants are few and they are easily ruled. But if a sovereign has
a magnificent palace, gorgeous clothing, and crowds of finely dressed
women to wait on him, the sight of these things must cause in others
a desire to possess themselves of the same luxuries; and if they are
not strong enough to take them by force, their envy is excited. Had
the Mikado continued to live in a house roofed with shingles and
having walls of mud, to carry his sword in a scabbard wound round
with the tendrils of some creeping plant, and to go to the chase
carrying his bow and arrows, as was the ancient custom, the present
state of things would never have come about. But since the
introduction of Chinese manners, the sovereign, while occupying a
highly dignified place, has been degraded to the intellectual level
of a woman. The power fell into the hands of servants, and although
they never actually assumed the title, they were sovereigns in fact,
while the Mikado became an utter nullity. . .
"In ancient times, when men's dispositions were straightforward, a
complicated system of morals was unnecessary. It would naturally
happen that bad acts might occasionally be committed, but the
integrity of men's dispositions would prevent the evil from being
concealed and growing in extent. In these days, therefore, it was
unnecessary to have a doctrine of right and wrong. But the Chinese,
being bad at heart, were only good externally, in spite of the
teaching they received, and their evil acts became of such magnitude
that society was thrown into disorder. The Japanese, being
straightforward, could do without teaching. It has been alleged that,
as the Japanese had no names for 'benevolence,' 'righteousness,'
'propriety,' 'sagacity,' and 'truth' they must have been without
these principles. But these things exist in every country, in the
same way as the four seasons which make their annual rounds. In the
spring, the weather does not become mild all at once, or in the
summer, hot. Nature proceeds by gradual steps. According to the view
of the Chinese, it is not summer or spring unless it becomes hot or
mild all of a sudden. Their principles sound very plausible but are
unpractical. [Kamo Mabuchi.]
"Japan is the country which gave birth to the goddess of the Sun,
which fact proves its superiority over all other countries that also
enjoy her favours. The goddess having endowed her grandson with the
Three Sacred Treasures, proclaimed him sovereign of Japan for ever
and ever. His descendants shall continue to rule it as long as the
heavens and earth endure. Being invested with this complete
authority, all the gods under heaven and all mankind submitted to
him, with the exception of a few wretches who were quickly subdued.
To the end of time each Mikado is the son of the goddess. His mind is
in perfect harmony of thought and feeling with hers. He does not seek
out new inventions but rules in accordance with precedents which date
from the Age of the Gods, and if he is ever in doubt, he has recourse
to divination, which reveals to him the mind of the great goddess. In
this way the Age of the Gods and the present age are not two ages,
but one, for not only the Mikado but also his ministers and people
act up to the tradition of the divine age. Hence, in ancient times,
the idea of michi, or way, (ethics) was applied to ordinary
thoroughfares only, and its application to systems of philosophy,
government, morals, religion, and so forth is a foreign notion.
"As foreign countries (China and India, particularly the former) are
not the special domain of the Sun goddess, they have no permanent
rulers, and evil spirits, finding a field of action there, have
corrupted mankind. In those countries, any bad man who could manage
to seize the power became a sovereign. Those who had the upper hand
were constantly scheming to maintain their positions, while their
inferiors were as constantly on the watch for opportunities to oust
them. The most powerful and cunning of these rulers succeeded in
taming their subjects, and having secured their position, became an
example for others to imitate. In China the name of 'holy men' has
been given to these persons. But it is an error to count these 'holy
men' as in themselves supernatural and good beings, superior to the
rest of the world as are the gods. The principles they established
are called michi (ethics), and may be reduced to two simple rules,
namely, to take other people's territory and to keep fast hold of it.
"The Chinese 'holy men' also invented the Book of Changes, by which
they pretended to discover the workings of the universe; a vain
attempt, since it is impossible for man with his limited intelligence
to discover the principles which govern the acts of the gods. In
imitation of them, the Chinese nation has since given itself up to
philosophizing, to which are to be attributed its constant internal
dissensions. When things go right of themselves, it is best to leave
them alone. In ancient times, although there was no prosy system in
Japan, there, were no popular disturbances, and the empire was
peacefully ruled. It is because the Japanese were truly moral in
their practice that they required no theory of morals, and the fuss
made by the Chinese about theoretical morals is owing to their laxity
in practice. It is not wonderful that students of Chinese literature
should despise their own country for being without a system of
morals, but that the Japanese, who were acquainted with their own
ancient literature, should pretend that Japan too had such a system,
simply out of a feeling of envy, is ridiculous.
"When Chinese literature was imported into Japan, the people adopted
many Chinese ideas, laws, customs, and practices, which they so mixed
up with their own that it became necessary to adopt a special name
for the ancient native customs, which were in consequence called Kami
no michi or Shinto, the word 'michi' being applied in the same sense
as the Chinese Tao, and Kami because of their divine origin. These
native customs survived only in ceremonies with which the native gods
are worshipped. Every event in the universe is the act of the gods.
They direct the changes of the seasons, the wind and the rain, the
good and bad fortune of States and individuals. Some of the gods are
good, others bad, and their acts partake of their own natures.
Buddhists attribute events to 'retribution' (Inga), while the Chinese
ascribe them to be the 'decree of heaven' (Tien ming). This latter is
a phrase invented by the so-called 'holy men' to justify murdering
sovereigns and seizing their dominions. As neither heaven nor earth
has a mind, they cannot issue decrees. If heaven really could issue
decrees, it would certainly protect the good rulers and take care to
prevent bad men from seizing the power, and, in general, while the
good would prosper, the bad would suffer misfortune. But in reality
we find many instances of the reverse. Whenever anything goes wrong
in the world, it is to be attributed to the action of the evil gods
called 'gods of crookedness,' whose power is so great that the Sun
goddess and the Creator-gods are sometimes unable to restrain them;
much less are human beings able to resist their influence. The
prosperity of the wicked and the misfortunes of the good, which seem
opposed to ordinary justice, are their doing. The Chinese, not
possessing the traditions of the Divine Age, were ignorant of this
truth, and were driven to invent the theory of heaven's decrees.
"The eternal endurance of the dynasty of the Mikado is a complete
proof that the 'way,' called Kami no michi or Shinto, infinitely
surpasses the systems of all other countries. The 'holy men' of
China were merely unsuccessful rebels. The Mikado is the sovereign
appointed by the pair of deities, Izanagi and Izanami, who created
this country. The Sun goddess never said, 'Disobey the Mikado if he
be bad,' and therefore, whether he be good or bad, no one attempts to
deprive him of his authority. He is the Immovable Ruler who must
endure to the end of time, as long as the sun and moon continue to
shine. In ancient language the Mikado was called a god, and that is
his real character. Duty, therefore, consists in obeying him
implicitly without questioning his acts. During the Middle Ages, such
men as Hojo Yoshitoki, Hojo Yasutoki, Ashikaga Takauji, and others,
violated this duty (michi) and look up arms against him. Their
disobedience to the Mikado is attributable to the influence of the
Chinese learning. This 'way' was established by Izanagi and Izanami
and delivered by them to the Sun goddess, who handed it down, and
this is why it is called the 'way of the gods.'
"The nature of this 'way' is to be learned by studying the Kojiki and
ancient writings, but mankind has been turned aside from it, by the
spirits of crookedness, to Buddhism and Chinese philosophy. The
various doctrines taught under the name of Shinto are without
authority, Human beings, having been produced by the spirit of the
two creative deities, are naturally endowed with the knowledge of
what they ought to do, and what they ought to refrain from doing. It
is unnecessary for them to trouble their heads with systems of
morality. If a system of morals were necessary, men would be inferior
to animals, all of whom are endowed with the knowledge of what they
ought to do, only in an inferior degree to man. If what the Chinese
call benevolence, modesty, filial piety, propriety, love, fidelity,
and truth really constituted the duty of man, they would be so
recognized and practised without any teaching; but since they were
invented by the so-called 'holy men' as instruments for ruling a
viciously inclined population, it became necessary to insist on more
than the actual duty of man. Consequently, although plenty of men
profess these doctrines, the number of those that practise them is
very small. Violations of this teaching were attributed to human
lusts. As human lusts are a part of man's nature, they must be a part
of the harmony of the universe, and cannot be wrong according to the
Chinese theory. It was the vicious nature of the Chinese that
necessitated such strict rules, as, for instance, that persons
descended from a common ancestor, no matter how distantly related,
should not intermarry. These rules, not being founded on the harmony
of the universe, were not in accordance with human feelings and were
therefore seldom obeyed.
"In ancient times, Japanese refrained from intermarriage among
children of the same mother, but the distance between the noble and
the mean was duly preserved. Thus, the country was spontaneously well
governed, in accordance with the 'way' established by the gods. Just
as the Mikado worshipped the gods in heaven and earth, so his people
pray to the good gods in order to obtain blessings, and perform rites
in honour of the bad gods in order to avert their displeasure. If
they committed crimes or denied themselves, they employed the usual
methods of purification taught them by their own hearts. Since there
are bad as well as good gods, it is necessary to propitiate them with
offerings of agreeable food, playing the lute, blowing the flute,
singing and dancing, and whatever else is likely to put them in good
humour.
"It has been asked whether the Kami no michi is not the same as the
Taoism of Laotzu. Laotzu hated the vain conceits of the Chinese
scholars, and honoured naturalness, from which a resemblance may be
argued; but as he was born in a dirty country not under special
protection of the Sun goddess, he had heard only the theories of the
succession of so-called 'holy men,' and what he believed to be
naturalness was simply what they called natural. He did not know that
the gods are the authors of every human action, and this ignorance
constituted a cause of radical difference. To have acquired the
knowledge that there is no michi (ethics) to be learned and practised
is really to have learned to practise the 'way of the gods.' . . .
Many miracles occurred in the Age of the Gods, the truth of which was
not disputed until men were taught by the Chinese philosophy to
analyse the acts of the gods by the aid of their own feeble
intelligence. The reason assigned for disbelieving in miracles is
that they cannot be explained; but in fact, although the Age of the
Gods has passed away, wondrous miracles surround us on all sides. For
instance, is the earth suspended in space or does it rest upon
something else? If it be said that the earth rests upon something
else, then what is it that supports that something else? According to
one Chinese theory, the earth is a globe suspended in space with the
heavens revolving round it. But even if we suppose the heavens to be
full of air, no ordinary principles will account for the land and sea
being suspended in space without moving. The explanation offered is
as miraculous as the supposition previously made. It seems plausible
enough to say that the heavens are merely air and are without any
definite form. If this be true, there is nothing but air outside the
earth, and this air must be infinite or finite in extent. If it is
infinite in extent, we cannot fix any point as its centre, so that it
is impossible to understand why the earth should be at rest; for if
it be not in the centre it cannot be at rest. If it be finite, what
causes the air to condense in one particular spot, and what position
shall we assign to it?
"In any case all these things are miraculous and strange. How absurd
to take these miracles for granted, and at the same time to
disbelieve in the wonders of the Divine Age! Think again of the human
body. Seeing with the eyes, hearing With the ears, speaking with the
mouth, walking on the feet, and performing all manner of acts with
the hands are strange things; so also the flight of birds and insects
through the air, the blossoming of plants and trees, the ripening of
their fruits and seeds are strange; and the strangest of all is the
transformation of the fox and the badger into human form. If rats,
weasels, and certain birds see in the dark, why should not the gods
have been endowed with a similar faculty?.... The facts that many of
the gods are invisible now and have never been visible furnish no
argument against their existence. Existence can be made known to us
by other senses than those of sight, such as odour or sound, while
the wind, which is neither seen, heard, nor smelt is recognized by
the impression which it makes upon our bodies. [Motoori Norinaga].
"Although numbers of Japanese cannot state with any certainty from
what gods they are descended, all of them have tribal names (kabane)
which were originally bestowed by the Mikado, and those who make it
their province to study genealogies can tell from a man's ordinary
surname who his remotest ancestor must have been. From the fact of
the divine descent of the Japanese people proceeds their immeasurable
superiority to the natives of other countries in courage and
intelligence.*
*Although Hirata claims the superiority for his own countrymen, he
frankly acknowledges the achievements of the Dutch in natural
science.
". . . The accounts given in other countries, whether by Buddhism or
by Chinese philosophy, of the form of the heavens and earth and the
manner in which they came into existence, are all inventions of men
who exercised all their ingenuity over the problem, and inferred that
such things must actually be the case. As for the Indian account, it
is nonsense fit only to deceive women and children, and I do not
think it worthy of reflection. The Chinese theories, on the other
hand, are based upon profound philosophical speculations and sound
extremely plausible, but what they call the absolute and the finite,
the positive and negative essences, the eight diagrams, and the five
elements, are not real existences, but are fictitious names invented
by the philosophers and freely applied in every direction. They say
that the whole universe was produced by agencies, and that nothing
exists which is independent of them. But all these statements are
nonsense. The principles which animate the universe are beyond the
power of analysis, nor can they be fathomed by human intelligence,
and all statements founded upon pretended explanations of them are to
be rejected. All that man can think and know is limited by the powers
of sight, feeling, and calculation, and what goes beyond these
powers, cannot be known by any amount of thinking. . . .
"The Chinese accounts sound as if based upon profound principles, and
one fancies that they must be right, while the Japanese accounts
sound shallow and utterly unfounded in reason. But the former are
lies while the latter are the truth, so that as time goes on and
thought attains greater accuracy, the erroneous nature of these
falsehoods becomes even more apparent whale the true tradition
remains intact. In modern times, men from countries lying far off in
the West have voyaged all round the seas as their inclinations
prompted them, and have ascertained the actual shape of the earth.
They have discovered that the earth is round and that the sun and the
moon revolve round it in a vertical direction, and it may thus be
conjectured how full of errors are all the ancient Chinese accounts,
and how impossible it is to believe anything that professes to be
determined a priori. But when we come to compare our ancient
traditions as to the origin of a thing in the midst of space and its
subsequent development, with what has been ascertained to be the
actual shape of the earth, we find that there is not the slightest
error, and this result confirms the truth of our ancient traditions.
But although accurate discoveries made by the men of the Far West as
to the actual shape of the earth and its position in space infinitely
surpass the theories of the Chinese, still that is only a matter of
calculation. There are many other things actually known to exist
which cannot be solved by that means; and still less is it possible
to solve the question of how the earth, sun, and moon came to assume
their form. Probably those countries possess theories of their own,
but whatever they may be, they can but be guesses after the event,
and probably resemble the Indian and the Chinese theories.
"The most fearful crimes which a man commits go unpunished by society
so long as they are undiscovered, but they draw down on him the
hatred of the invisible gods. The attainment of happiness by
performing good acts is regulated by the same law. Even if the gods
do not punish secret sins by the usual penalties of law, they inflict
diseases, misfortunes, short life, and extermination of the race.
Never mind the praise or blame of fellow men, but act so that you
need not be ashamed before the gods of the Unseen. If you desire to
practise true virtue, learn to stand in awe of the Unseen, and that
will prevent you from doing wrong. Make a vow to the god who rules
over the Unseen and cultivate the conscience implanted in you, and
then you will never wander from the way. You cannot hope to live more
than one hundred years in the most favourable circumstances, but as
you will go to the unseen realm of Okuninushi after death and be
subject to his rule, learn betimes to bow down before heaven. The
spirits of the dead continue to exist in the unseen world which is
everywhere about us, and they all become gods of varying character
and degrees of influence. Some reside in temples built in their
honour; others hover near their tombs, and they continue to render
service to their princes, parents, wives, and children as when in
their body. [Hirata Atsutane.]"*
*The above extracts are all taken from Sir Ernest Satow's Revival of
Pure Shinto in the appendix to Vol. III. of the "Transactions of the
Asiatic Society of Japan."
The great loyalist of the eleventh century, Kitabatake Chikafusa, had
fully demonstrated the divine title of the sovereigns of Japan, but
his work reached only a narrow circle of readers, and his arguments
were not re-enforced by the sentiment of the era. Very different was
the case in the days of the four literati quoted above. The arrogant
and intolerant demeanour of Japanese students of Chinese philosophy
who elevated the Middle Kingdom on a pedestal far above the head of
their own country, gradually provoked bitter resentment among
patriotic Japanese, thus lending collateral strength to the movement
which took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in
favour of reversion to the customs and canons of old times.
As soon as attention was intelligently concentrated on the history of
the past, it was clearly perceived that, in remote antiquity, the
empire had always been administered from the Throne, and, further,
that the functions arrogated to themselves by the Hojo, the Oda, the
Toyotomi, and the Tokugawa were pure usurpations, which deprived the
Imperial Court of the place properly belonging to it in the State
polity. Just when this reaction was developing strength, the dispute
about the title of the ex-Emperor occurred in Kyoto, and furnished an
object lesson more eloquent than any written thesis. The situation
was complicated by the question of foreign intercourse, but this will
be treated separately.
ENGRAVING: MITSUGUMI-NO-SAKAZUKI (Sake Cups used only on Happy
Occasions such as Weddings and New Year Days)
ENGRAVING: DIFFERENT STYLES OF COIFFURE
CHAPTER XLIV
FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE DECLINE OF THE TOKUGAWA
FOREIGN TRADE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
FROM what has been stated in previous chapters, it is clearly
understood that Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu were all well
disposed towards foreign intercourse and trade, and that the Tokugawa
chief made even more earnest endeavours than Hideyoshi to
differentiate between Christianity and commerce, so that the fate of
the former might not overtake the latter. Ieyasu, indeed, seems to
have kept three objects steadfastly in view, namely, the development
of oversea trade, the acquisition of a mercantile marine, and the
prosecution of mining enterprise. To the Spaniards, to the
Portuguese, to the English, and to the Dutch, he offered a site for a
settlement in a suburb of Yedo, and had the offer been accepted,
Japan might never have been closed to foreign intercourse. At that
time the policy of the empire was free trade. There were no customs
dues, though it was expected that the foreign merchants would make
liberal presents to the feudatory into whose port they carried their
wares. The Tokugawa baron gave plain evidence that he regarded
commerce with the outer world as a source of wealth, and that he
wished to attract it to his own domains. On more than one occasion he
sent an envoy to Manila to urge the opening of trade with the regions
in the vicinity of Yedo, and to ask the Spaniards for expert naval
architects. His attitude is well shown by a law enacted in 1602:
"If any foreign vessel by stress of weather is obliged to touch at
any principality or to put into any harbour of Japan, we order that,
whoever these foreigners may be, absolutely nothing whatever that
belongs to them, or that they may have brought in their ship, shall
be taken from them. Likewise, we rigorously prohibit the use of any
violence in the purchase or sale of any of the commodities brought by
their ship, and if it is not convenient for the merchants of the ship
to remain in the port they have entered, they may pass to any other
port that may suit them, and therein buy and sell in full freedom.
Likewise, we order, in a general manner, that foreigners may freely
reside in any part of Japan they choose, but we rigorously forbid
them to propagate their faith."
In the year 1605, the Tokugawa chief granted a permit to the Dutch
for trade in Japan, his expectation being that the ships which they
undertook to send every year would make Uraga, or some other place
near Yedo, their port of entry. In this he was disappointed. The
first Hollanders that set foot in Japan were eighteen survivors of
the crew of the wrecked Liefde. These men were at first placed in
confinement, and during their detention they were approached by
emissaries from the feudatory of Hirado, who engaged some of them to
instruct his vassals in the art of gun casting and the science of
artillery, and who also made such tempting promises with regard to
Hirado that the Dutch decided to choose that place for headquarters,
although it was then, and always subsequently remained, an
insignificant little fishing village. The Dutch possessed one great
advantage over their rivals from Manila and Macao: they were prepared
to carry on commerce while eschewing religious propagandism. It was
this element of the situation that the Hirado feudatory shrewdly
appreciated when he enticed the Dutchmen to make Hirado their port of
entry.
With regard to the desire of Ieyasu to exploit the mining resources
of his country, the fact is demonstrated by an incident which
occurred at the time. The governor--general of the Philippines
(Rodrigo Yivero y Velasco), whose ship had been cast away on the
coast of Japan while en route for Acapulco, had an interview with
Ieyasu, and in response to the latter's application for fifty mining
experts, the Spaniards made a proposal, to the terms of which,
onerous as they were, Ieyasu agreed; namely that one half of the
produce, of the mines should go to the miners; that the other half
should be divided equally between Ieyasu and the King of Spain; that
the latter might send officials to Japan to protect his mining
interests, and that these officials might be accompanied by priests,
who would have the right to erect public churches, and to hold
religious services there.* These things happened in 1609. Previous to
that time, the Tokugawa chief had repeatedly imposed a strict veto on
Christian propagandism; yet we now find him removing that veto
partially, for the sake of obtaining foreign expert assistance. Like
Hideyoshi, Ieyasu had full confidence in himself and in his
countrymen. He did not doubt his ability to deal with emergencies if
they arose, and he made no sacrifice to timidity. But his courageous
policy died with him, and the miners never came. Moreover, the
Spaniards seemed incapable of any successful effort to establish
trade with Japan. Fitful visits were paid by their vessels at Uraga,
but the Portuguese continued to monopolize the commerce.
*It is to be understood, of course, that these ministrations were
intended to be limited to Spaniards resident in Japan.
ENGRAVING: OLD SPANISH CLOCK PRESERVED IN KUNOZAN.
That commerce, however, was not without rude interruptions. One,
especially memorable, occurred at the very time when Rodrigo's vessel
was cast away. "In a quarrel at Macao some Japanese sailors lost
their lives, and their comrades were compelled by the commandant,
Pessoa, to sign a declaration exonerating the Portuguese. The
signatories, however, told a different tale when they returned to
Japan, and their feudal chief, the daimyo of Arima, was much
incensed, as also was Ieyasu In the following year (1609), this same
Pessoa arrived at Nagasaki in command of the Madre de Dios, carrying
twelve Jesuits and a cargo worth a million crowns. Ieyasu ordered the
Arima feudatory to seize her. Surrounded by an attacking force of
twelve hundred men in boats, Pessoa fought his ship for three days,
and then, exploding her magazine, sent her to the bottom with her
crew, her passenger-priests, and her cargo."
Fifty-eight years before the date of this occurrence, Xavier had
conveyed to Charles V a warning that if ships from New Spain
"attempted to conquer the Japanese by force of arms, they would have
to do with a people no less covetous than warlike, who seem likely to
capture any hostile fleet, however strong." It was a just
appreciation. The Portuguese naturally sought to obtain satisfaction
for the fate of Pessoa, but Ieyasu would not even reply to their
demands, though he made no attempt to prevent the resumption of trade
with Macao.
OPENING OF ENGLISH AND DUTCH TRADE
In the year 1609, Ieyasu had reason to expect that the Spaniards and
the Dutch would both open trade with Japan. His expectation was
disappointed in the case of the Spaniards, but, two years later, the
Dutch flag was seen in Japanese waters. It was flown by the Brack, a
merchantman which, sailing from Patani, reached Hirado with a cargo
of pepper, cloth, ivory, silk, and lead. Two envoys were on board the
vessel, and her arrival in Japan nearly synchronized with the coming
of the Spanish embassy from Manila, which had been despatched
expressly for the purpose of "settling the matter regarding the
Hollanders." Nevertheless, the Dutch obtained a liberal patent from
Ieyasu.
Twelve years previously, the merchants of London, stimulated by a
spirit of rivalry with the Dutch, had organized the East India
Company, which at once began to send ships eastward. As soon as news
came that the Dutch were about to establish a trading station in
Japan, the East India Company issued orders that the Clove, commanded
by Saris, should proceed to the Far Eastern islands. The Clove
reached Hirado on the 11th of June, 1613. Her master, Saris, soon
proved that he did not possess the capacity essential to success. He
was self-opinionated, suspicious, and of shallow judgment. Though
strongly urged by Will Adams to make Uraga the seat of the new trade;
though convinced of the excellence of the harbour there, and though
instructed as to the great advantage of proximity to the shogun's
capital, he appears to have harboured some distrust of Adams, for he
finally selected Hirado in preference to Uraga, "which was much as
though a German going to England to open trade should prefer to
establish himself at Dover or Folkestone rather than in the vicinity
of London." Nevertheless he received from Ieyasu a charter so liberal
that it plainly displayed the mood of the Tokugawa shogun towards
foreign trade:
"(1) The ship that has now come for the first time from England over
the sea to Japan may carry on trade of all kinds without hindrance.
With regard to future visits (of English ships), permission will be
given in regard to all matters.
"(2) With regard to the cargoes of ships, requisition will be made by
list according to the requirements of the shogunate.
"(3) English ships are free to visit any port in Japan. If disabled
by storms they may put into any harbour.
"(4) Ground in Yedo in the place which they may desire shall be given
to the English, and they may erect houses and reside and trade there.
They shall be at liberty to return to their country whenever they
wish to do so, and to dispose as they like of the houses they have
erected.
"(5) If an Englishman dies in Japan of disease or any other cause,
his effects shall be handed over without fail.
"(6) Forced sales of cargo and violence shall not take place.
"(7) If one of the English should commit an offence, he should be
sentenced by the English general according to the gravity of his
offence."*
*In this article, Ieyasu recognizes the principle of
extra-territorial jurisdiction.
The terms of the above show that Saris was expected to make Yedo his
headquarters. Had he done so he would have been practically free from
competition; would have had the eastern capital of the empire for
market, and would have avoided many expenses and inconveniences
connected with residence elsewhere. But he did not rise to the
occasion, and the result of his mistaken choice as well as of bad
management was that, ten years later (1623), the English factory at
Hirado had to be closed, the losses incurred there having aggregated
£2000--$10,000. It has to be noted that, a few months after the death
of Ieyasu, the above charter underwent a radical modification. The
original document threw open to the English every port in Japan; the
revised document limited them to Hirado. But this restriction may be
indirectly traced to the blunder of not accepting a settlement in
Yedo and a port at Uraga. For the foreign policy of the Tokugawa was
largely swayed by an apprehension that the Kyushu feudatories, many
of whom were not over-well disposed to the rule of the Bakufu, might
derive from the assistance of foreign trade such a fleet and such an
armament as would ultimately enable them to overthrow the Tokugawa.
Therefore, the precaution was adopted of confining the English and
the Dutch to Hirado, the domain of a feudatory too petty to become
formidable, and to Nagasaki, which was one of the four Imperial
cities, the other three being Yedo, Kyoto, and Osaka.
ENGRAVING: THE "ATAKA MARU" (Shogun's Barge)
It is easy to see that an English factory in Yedo and English ships
at Uraga would have strengthened the Tokugawa ruler's hand instead of
supplying engines of war to his political foes; and it must further
be noted that the question of locality had another injurious outcome.
For alike at Hirado and at Nagasaki, the foreign traders "were
exposed to a crippling competition at the hands of rich Osaka
monopolists, who, as representing an Imperial city and therefore
being pledged to the Tokugawa interests, enjoyed special indulgences
from the Bakufu. These shrewd traders who were then, as they are now,
the merchant-princes of Japan, not only drew a ring around Hirado,
but also sent vessels on their own account to Cochin China, Siam,
Tonkin, Cambodia, and other foreign lands with which the English and
the Dutch carried on trade." One can scarcely be surprised that
Cocks, the successor of Saris, wrote, in 1620, "which maketh me
altogether aweary of Japan."
It is, however, certain that the closure of the English factory at
Hirado was voluntary; from the beginning to the end no serious
friction had occurred between the English and the Japanese. When, the
former withdrew from the Japanese trade, their houses and stores at
Hirado were not sold, but were left in the safe-keeping of the local
feudatory, who promised to restore them to their original owners
should the English company desire to re-open business in Japan. The
company did think of doing so on more than one occasion, but the idea
did not mature until the year 1673, when a merchantman, the Return,
was sent to obtain permission. "The Japanese authorities, after
mature reflection, made answer that as the king of England was
married to a Portuguese princess, British subjects could not be
permitted to visit Japan. That this reply was suggested by the Dutch
is very probable; that it truly reflected the feeling of the Japanese
Government towards Roman Catholics is certain."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th Edition)'; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
END OF THE PORTUGUESE TRADE WITH JAPAN
In the year 1624, the expulsion of the Spaniards from Japan took
place, and in 1638 the Portuguese met the same fate. Two years prior
to the latter event, the Yedo Bakufu adopted a measure which
effectually terminated foreign intercourse. They ruled that to leave
the country, or to attempt to do so, should constitute a capital
crime; that any Japanese subject residing abroad should be executed
if he returned; that the entire kith and kin of the Spaniards in
Japan should be expelled, and that no ships of ocean-going dimensions
should be built in Japan. This meant not only the driving out of all
professing Christians, but also the imprisonment of the entire nation
within the limits of the Japanese islands, as well as an effectual
veto on the growth of the mercantile marine. It is worth noting that
no act of spoliation was practised against these tabooed people.
Thus, when those indicated by the edict--to the number of 287--left
the country for Macao, they were allowed to carry away with them
their whole fortunes.
The expulsion of the Spaniards did not leave the Portuguese in an
improved condition. Humiliating restrictions continued to be imposed
upon them. If a foreign priest were found upon any galleon bound for
Japan, such priest and the whole of the crew of the galleon were
liable to be executed, and many other irksome conditions were
instituted for the control of the trade. Nor had the aliens even the
satisfaction of an open market, for all the goods carried in their
galleons had to be sold at a fixed price to a ring of licensed
Japanese merchants from Osaka. In spite of all these deterrents,
however, the Portuguese continued to send galleons to Nagasaki until
the year 1637, when their alleged connexion with the Shimabara
rebellion induced the Japanese to issue the final edict that
henceforth any Portuguese ship coming to Japan should be burned,
together with her cargo, and everyone on board should be executed.
This law was not enforced with any undue haste; ample time was given
for compliance with its provisions. Possibly misled by this
procrastination, the Portuguese at Macao continued to strive for the
re-establishment of commercial relations until 1640, when a very sad
event put an end finally to all intercourse. Four aged men, selected
from among the most respected citizens of Macao, were sent to
Nagasaki as ambassadors. Their ships carried rich presents and an
earnest petition for the renewal of commercial intercourse. They were
at once imprisoned, and having declined to save their lives by
abjuring the Christian faith, the four old men and fifty-seven of
their companions were decapitated, thirteen only being left alive for
the purpose of conveying the facts to Macao. To these thirteen there
was handed at their departure a document setting forth that, "So long
as the sun warms the earth, any Christian bold enough to come to
Japan, even if he be King Philip himself or the God of the
Christians, shall pay for it with his head." One more effort to
restore the old intimacy was made by the Portuguese in 1647, but it
failed signally, and would certainly have entailed sanguinary results
had not the two Portuguese vessels beat a timely retreat.
THE DUTCH AT DESHIMA
In 1609, the Dutch made their appearance in Japan, and received an
excellent welcome. Ieyasu gave them a written promise that "no man
should do them any wrong and that they should be maintained and
defended as his own vassals." He also granted them a charter that
wherever their ships entered, they should be shown "all manner of
help, favour, and assistance." Left free to choose their own trading
port, they made the mistake of selecting Hirado, which was eminently
unsuited to be a permanent emporium of interstate commerce.
Nevertheless, owing partly to their shrewdness, partly to their
exclusive possession of the Spice Islands, and partly to their
belligerent co-operation with the English against the Spaniards, they
succeeded in faring prosperously for a time.
The day came, however, when, being deprived of freedom of trade and
limited to dealings with a guild of Nagasaki and Osaka merchants,
they found their gains seriously affected. Other vicissitudes
overtook them, and finally the Japanese concluded that the safest
course was to confine the Dutch to some position where, in a moment
of emergency, they could easily be brought under Japanese control.
Nagasaki was chosen as suitable, and there a Dutch factory was
established which, for a time, flourished satisfactorily. From seven
to ten Dutch vessels used to enter the port annually--their cargoes
valued at some eighty thousand pounds (avdp.) of silver, and the
chief staples of import being silk and piece-goods. Customs duties
amounting to five per cent, were levied; 495 pounds of silver had to
be paid annually as a rent for the little island of Deshima, and
every year a mission had to proceed to Yedo from the factory,
carrying presents for the chief Bakufu officials, which presents are
said to have aggregated some 550 pounds of silver on each occasion.
The Dutch traders, nevertheless, found their business profitable
owing to purchases of gold and copper, which metals could be procured
in Japan at much lower rates than they commanded in Europe. Thus, the
now familiar question of an outflow of specie was forced upon
Japanese attention at that early date, and, by way of remedy, the
Government adopted, in 1790, the policy of restricting to one vessel
annually the Dutch ships entering Nagasaki, and forbidding that
vessel to carry away more than 350 tons of copper.
EFFECTS PRODUCED UPON JAPAN BY THE POLICY OF EXCLUSION
Whatever losses Japan's policy of seclusion caused to the nations
which were its victims, there can be no doubt that she herself was
the chief sufferer. During two and a half centuries she remained
without breathing the atmosphere of international competition, or
deriving inspiration from an exchange of ideas with other countries.
While the world moved steadily forward, Japan stood practically
unchanging, and when ultimately she emerged into contact with the
Occident, she found herself separated by an immense interval from the
material civilization it had developed.
The contrast between the Japan of the middle of the sixteenth and
that of the middle of the seventeenth century has often been made by
the historian of foreign influence. In 1541 the country was open to
foreign trade, foreign civilization and foreign ideas and these were
welcomed eagerly and, in accordance with the remarkable natural
aptitude of the Japanese for adaptation, were readily assimilated.
Not only were foreign traders allowed to come to Japan, but Japanese
were allowed to go abroad. And all this was in the line of a
long-continued Japanese policy--the policy thanks to which Chinese
influence had made itself so strongly felt in Japan, and which had
brought in Buddhism and Confucianism, not to speak of arts and
letters of foreign provenance.
At the close of the hundred years, in 1641, all was changed. Japan
was absolutely isolated. Foreigners were forbidden to enter, except
the Dutch traders who were confined to the little island of Deshima.
And natives were forbidden to go out, or to accept at home the
religious teachings of foreigners. Only ships suited for the
coastwise trade might be built. The nation's intercourse with
Occidental civilization was shut off, and its natural power of change
and growth through foreign influences was thus held in check. The
wonder is that it was not destroyed by this inhibition. The whole
story of foreign intercourse as it has so far been told makes it
plain that the reason why it was prohibited was in the nature of
foreign propaganda and not in any unreadiness of the Japanese for
western civilization.
SECOND ERA OF FOREIGN TRADE
Japan's seclusion was maintained unflinchingly. But, though her goods
found a market in China, only during her period of self-effacement,
the reputation of her people for military prowess was such that no
outside nation thought of forcing her to open her ports. A British
seaman, Sir Edward Michelborne, in the sequel of a fight between his
two ships and a Japanese junk near Singapore, left a record that "The
Japanese are not allowed to land in any part of India with weapons,
being a people so desperate and daring that they are feared in all
places where they come." Nevertheless, Russian subjects, their shores
being contiguous with those of Japan, occasionally found their way as
sailors or colonists into the waters of Saghalien, the Kuriles, and
Yezo. The Japanese did not then exercise effective control over Yezo,
although the island was nominally under their jurisdiction. Its
government changed from one hand to another in the centuries that
separated the Kamakura epoch from the Tokugawa, and in the latter
epoch we find the Matsumae daimyo ruling all the islands northward of
the Tsugaru Straits. But the Matsumae administration contented itself
with imposing taxes and left the people severely alone. Thus, when in
1778, a small party of Russians appeared at Nemuro seeking trade, no
preparations existed to impose the local government's will on the
strangers. They were simply promised an answer in the following year,
and that answer proved to be that all Japan's oversea trade must by
law be confined to Nagasaki.
The Russians did not attempt to dispute this ruling. They retired
quietly. But their two visits had shown them that Yezo was capable of
much development, and they gradually began to flock thither as
colonists. Officials sent from Japan proper to make an investigation
reported that Kamchatka, hitherto a dependency of Japan, had been
taken possession of by Russians, who had established themselves in
the island of Urup and at other places. The report added that the
situation would be altogether lost unless resolute steps were taken
to restore it. Unfortunately, the death of the tenth shogun having
just then occurred, the Yedo Court found it inconvenient to take
action in remote Yezo. Thus, Russian immigration and Japanese
inaction continued for some time, and not until 1792 were commissions
again despatched from Yedo to inquire and report. They made an
exhaustive investigation, and just as it reached the hands of the
Bakufu, a large Russian vessel arrived off Nemuro, carrying some
ship-wrecked Japanese sailors whom her commander offered to restore
to their country, accompanying this offer with an application for the
opening of trade between Russia and Japan. Negotiations ensued, the
result being that Nagasaki was again referred to as the only port
where foreign trade might be lawfully conducted, and the Russians,
therefore, declared their intention of proceeding thither, a passport
being handed to them for the purpose. It does not appear, however,
that they availed themselves of this permit, and in the mean while
the Yedo commissioners pursued their journey northward, and pulled up
a number of boundary posts which had been erected by the Russians in
Urup.
The Bakufu now began to appreciate the situation more fully. They
took under their own immediate control the eastern half of Yezo,
entrusting the western half to Matsumae. The next incident of note
was a survey of the northern islands, made in 1800 by the famous
mathematician, Ino Tadayoshi, and the despatch of another party of
Bakufu investigators. Nothing practical was done, however, and, in
1804, a Russian ship arrived at Nagasaki carrying a number of
Japanese castaways and again applying for permission to trade. But it
soon appeared that the Bakufu were playing fast and loose with their
visitors and that they had no intention of sanctioning general
foreign commerce, even at Nagasaki. Incensed by such treatment, the
Russians, in 1806, invaded Saghalien, carried away several Japanese
soldiers, and partially raided Etorop and other places. They
threatened further violence in the following year unless
international trade was sanctioned.
The Bakufu had now a serious problem to solve, and their ideas of its
solution were almost comical. Thus, one statesman recommended the
organization of a special force recruited from the ranks of vagrants
and criminals and stationed permanently in the northern islands, A
more practical programme was the formation of a local militia. But
neither of these suggestions obtained approval, nor was anything done
beyond removing the Matsumae feudatory and placing the whole of the
islands under the direct sway of the Bakufu.
For a period of five years after these events the Russians made no
further attempt to establish relations with Japan, and their next
essay, namely, the despatch of a warship--the Diana--to survey the
Yezo coasts, was unceremoniously interrupted by the Japanese. Another
vessel flying the Russian flag visited Kunajiri, in 1814. On that
occasion the Japanese managed to seize some members of the Russian
crew, who were ultimately saved by the shrewdness of one of their
officers. These events imparted fresh vigour to Japan's prejudices
against foreign intercourse, but, as for the Russians, not a few of
them found their way to Saghalien and settled there without any
resolute attempt on the part of the Bakufu to expel them.
COAST DEFENCE
One effect of the events related above was to direct Japanese
attention to the necessity of coast defence, a subject which derived
much importance from information filtering through the Dutch door at
Nagasaki. Under the latter influence a remarkable book (Kai-koku
Hei-dan) was compiled by Hayashi Shibei, who had associated for some
time with the Dutch at Deshima. He urged frankly that Japan must
remain helpless for naval purposes if her people were forbidden to
build ocean-going vessels while foreigners sailed the high seas, and
he further urged that attention should be paid to coast defence, so
that the country might not be wholly at the mercy of foreign
adventurers. The brave author was thrown into prison and the
printing-blocks of his book were destroyed, but his enlightenment
bore some fruit, for immediately afterwards the Bakufu prime minister
made a journey along the coasts of the empire to select points for
the erection of fortifications, and to encourage the feudatories to
take steps for guarding these important positions.
FOREIGN LITERATURE
It has already been stated that in the days of the shogun Yoshimune
(1716-1745) the veto against studying foreign books was removed. But
for some time this liberal measure produced no practical effect,
since there did not exist even a Dutch-Japanese vocabulary to open
the pages of foreign literature for Japanese study. Indeed, very few
books were procurable from the Dutch at Deshima. The most accessible
were treatises on medicine and anatomy, and the illustrations in
these volumes served as a guide for interpreting their contents.
Earnestness well-nigh incredible was shown by Japanese students in
deciphering the strange terms, and presently the country was placed
in possession of The History of Russia, Notes on the Northern
Islands, Universal Geography, A Compendium of Dutch Literature,
Treatises on the Art of Translation, a Dutch-Japanese Dictionary and
so forth, the immediate result being a nascent public conviction of
the necessity of opening the country,--a conviction which, though not
widely held, contributed materially to the ultimate fall of the
Bakufu.
The Yedo Court, however, clung tenaciously to its hereditary
conservatism. Thus, in 1825, the Bakufu issued a general order that
any foreign vessel coming within range of the coast batteries should
at once be fired upon, and not until 1842 was this harsh command
modified in the sense that a ship driven into a Japanese port by
stress of weather might be given food, water, and provisions, but
should be warned to resume her voyage immediately. Meanwhile,
strenuous efforts were made to strengthen the littoral defences, and
a very active revival of the study of the military art took place
throughout the empire, though, at the same time, the number of
patriots sufficiently brave and clear-sighted to condemn the policy
of seclusion grew steadily.
ENGRAVING: "OHARAME" (A FEMALE LABOURER IN THE SUBURBS OF KYOTO)
ENGRAVING: TWO DRUMS AND TSUZUMI--A and D are Drums; B and C are
Tsuzumi.
CHAPTER XLV
FOREIGN RELATIONS AND THE DECLINE OF THE TOKUGAWA: (Continued)
THE TWELFTH SHOGUN, IEYOSHI (1838-1853)
FROM the period of this shogun the strength of the Bakufu began to
wane steadily, and the restoration of the administrative power to the
sovereign came to be discussed, with bated breath at first, but
gradually with increased freedom. It is undeniable, however, that the
decline of the Tokugawa was due as much to an empty treasury as to
the complications of foreign intercourse. The financial situation in
the first half of the nineteenth century may be briefly described as
one of expenditures constantly exceeding income, and of repeated
recourse by the Bakufu to the fatal expedient of debasing the
currency. Public respect was steadily undermined by these displays of
impecuniosity, and the feudatories in the west of the empire--that is
to say, the tozama daimyo, whose loyalty to the Bakufu was weak at
the best--found an opportunity to assert themselves against the Yedo
administration, while the appreciation of commodities rendered the
burden of living constantly more severe and thus helped to alienate
the people.
SUMPTUARY LAWS
While with one hand scattering abroad debased tokens of exchange, the
Bakufu legislators laboured strenuously with the other to check
luxury and extravagance. Conspicuous among the statesmen who sought
to restore the economical habit of former days was Mizuno Echizen no
Kami, who, in 1826 and the immediately subsequent years, promulgated
decree after decree vetoing everything in the nature of needless
expenditures. It fared with his attempt as it always does with such
legislation. People admired the vetoes in theory but paid little
attention to them in practice.
FAMINE IN THE TEMPO ERA (1830-1844)
From 1836 onward, through successive years, one bad harvest followed
another until the prices of rice and other cereals rose to
unprecedented figures. The Bakufu were not remiss in their measures
to relieve distress. Free grants of grain were made in the most
afflicted regions; houses of refuge were constructed where the
indigent might be fed and lodged during a maximum period of 210 days,
each inmate receiving in addition a daily allowance of money which
was handed to him on leaving the refuge, and this example of charity
was obeyed widely by the feudatories. It is on record that twenty
thousand persons availed themselves of these charitable institutions
in Yedo alone. One particularly sad episode marks the story. Driven
to desperation by the sight of the people's pain and by his own
failure to obtain from wealthy folks a sufficient measure of aid,
although he sold everything he himself possessed by way of example, a
police official, Oshio Heihachiro, raised the flag of revolt and
became the instrument of starting a tumult in which eighteen thousand
buildings were destroyed in Osaka. In a manifesto issued before
committing suicide in company with his son, Heihachiro charged the
whole body of officials with corrupt motives, and declared that the
sovereign was treated as a recluse without any practical authority;
that the people did not know where to make complaint; that the
displeasure of heaven was evinced by a succession of natural
calamities, and that the men in power paid no attention to these
warnings.
The eleventh shogun, Ienari, after fifty-one years of office,
resigned in favour of his son, Ieyoshi, who ruled from 1838 to 1853.
Ienari survived his resignation by four years, during which he
resided in the western castle, and, under the title of o-gosho,
continued to take part in the administration. As for Ieyoshi, his
tenure of power is chiefly notable for the strenuous efforts made by
his prime minister, Mizuno Echizen no Kami, to substitute economy for
the costly luxury that prevailed. Reference has already been made to
this eminent official's policy, and it will suffice here to add that
his aim was to restore the austere fashions of former times. The
schedule of reforms was practically endless. Expensive costumes were
seized and burned; theatres were relegated to a remote suburb of the
city; actors were ostracized; a censorship of publications checked
under severe penalties the compilation of all anti-foreign or immoral
literature, and even children's toys were legislated for.
At first these laws alarmed people, but it was soon found that
competence to enforce was not commensurate with ability to compile,
and the only result achieved was that splendour and extravagance were
more or less concealed. Yet the Bakufu officials did not hesitate to
resort to force. It is recorded that storehouses and residences were
sealed and their inmates banished; that no less than 570 restaurants
were removed from the most populous part of the city, and that the
maidservants employed in them were all degraded to the class of
"licensed prostitutes." This drastic effort went down in the pages of
history as the "Tempo Reformation." It ended in the resignation of
its author and the complete defeat of its purpose.
TOKUGAWA NARIAKI
Contemporaneous with the wholesale reformer, Mizuno, was Tokugawa
Nariaki (1800-1860), daimyo of Mito, who opposed the conciliatory
foreign policy, soon to be described, of Ii Naosuke (Kamon no Kami).
Nariaki inherited the literary tastes of his ancestor, Mitsukuni, and
at his court a number of earnest students and loyal soldiers
assembled. Among them were Fujita Toko (1806-1855) and Toda Tadanori,
who are not less remarkable as scholars and historians than as
administrators.
RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES
Japan now began to make the acquaintance of American citizens, who,
pursuing the whaling industry in the seas off Alaska and China,
passed frequently in their ships within easy sight of the island of
Yezo. Occasionally, one of these schooners was cast away on Japan's
shores, and as a rule, her people were treated with consideration and
sent to Deshima for shipment to Batavia. Japanese sailors, also, were
occasionally swept by hurricanes and currents to the Aleutian
Islands, to Oregon, or to California, and in several cases these
mariners were sent back to Japan by American vessels. It was on such
an errand of mercy that the sailing ship Morrison entered Yedo Bay,
in 1837, and being required to repair to Kagoshima, was driven from
the latter place by cannon shot. It was on such an errand, also, that
the Manhattan reached Uraga and lay there four days before she was
compelled to take her departure. It would seem that the experiences
collected by Cooper, master of the latter vessel, and published after
his return to the United States, induced the Washington Government to
essay the opening of Japan. A ninety-gun ship of the line and a
sloop, sent on this errand, anchored off Uraga in 1846, and their
commander, Commodore Biddle, applied for the sanction of trade. He
received a positive refusal, and in pursuance of his instructions to
abstain from any act calculated to excite hostility or distrust, he
weighed anchor and sailed away.
GREAT BRITAIN AND OTHER POWERS
In this same year, 1846, a French ship touched at the Ryukyu
archipelago, and attempted to persuade the islanders that if they
wished for security against British aggression, they must place
themselves under the protection of France. England, indeed, was now
much in evidence in the seas of southern China, and the Dutch at
Deshima, obeying the instincts of commercial rivalry, warned Japan
that she must be prepared for a visit from an English squadron at any
moment. The King of Holland now (1847) intervened. He sent to Yedo a
number of books together with a map of the world and a despatch
urging Japan to open her ports. This was not done for Japan's sake.
The apparent explanation is that the trade at Deshima having ceased
to be worth pursuing, the Dutch East India Company had surrendered
its monopoly to the Netherlands Government, so that the latter's
advice to Japan is explained. But his Majesty's efforts had no
immediate result, though they doubtless augmented Japan's feeling of
anxiety.
Twelve months later, the Preble, an American brig under Commander
Glynn, anchored off Nagasaki and threatened to bombard the town
unless immediate delivery was made of fifteen foreign seamen held by
the Japanese for shipment to Batavia. The castaways were surrendered,
and Commander Glynn found evidence to prove that Japan was by no
means ignorant of American doings in Mexico, and that she was
beginning to comprehend how close the world was approaching her
shores. Once again in the following year (1849), the King of Holland
wrote, telling the Japanese to expect an American fleet in their
waters twelve months later, and to look for war unless they agreed to
international commerce. This was no empty threat. The Washington
Government had actually addressed to European nations a memorandum
justifying an expedition to Japan on the ground that it would inure
to the advantage of all, and the King of Holland appended to his
letter a draft of the treaty which would be presented in Yedo. "All
these things render it obvious that in the matter of renewing their
relations with the outer world, the Japanese were not required to
make any sudden decision under stress of unexpected menace; they had
ample notice of the course events were taking."
THE 121ST SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR KOMEI (A.D. 1846-1867)
The Emperor Ninko died in 1846 and was succeeded by his son, Komei,
the 121st sovereign. The country's foreign relations soon became a
source of profound concern to the new ruler. Among the Court nobles
there had developed in Ninko's reign a strong desire to make their
influence felt in the administration of the empire, and thus to
emerge from the insignificant position to which the Bakufu system
condemned them. In obedience to their suggestions, the Emperor Ninko
established a special college for the education of Court nobles, from
the age of fifteen to that of forty. This step does not seem to have
caused any concern to the Bakufu officials. The college was duly
organized under the name of Gakushu-jo (afterwards changed to
Gakushu-iri). The Yedo treasury went so far as to contribute a
substantial sum to the support of the institution, and early in the
reign of Komei the nobles began to look at life with eyes changed by
the teaching thus afforded. Instructors at the college were chosen
among the descendants of the immortal scholars, Abe no Seimei,
Sugawara no Michizane, and others scarcely less renowned. The Emperor
Ninko had left instructions that four precepts should be inscribed
conspicuously in the halls of the college, namely:
Walk in the paths trodden by the feet of the great sages.
Revere the righteous canons of the empire.
He that has not learned the sacred doctrines, how can he govern
himself?
He that is ignorant of the classics, how can he regulate his own
conduct?
A manifest sign of the times, the portals of this college were soon
thronged by Court nobles, and the Imperial capital began to awake
from its sleep of centuries. The Emperor himself evinced his
solicitude about foreign relations by fasting and by praying at the
shrines of the national deities, his Majesty's constant formula of
worship being a supplication that his life might be accepted as a
substitute for the safety of his country. The fact was that the
overthrow of the Yedo Bakufu had begun to constitute an absorbing
object with many of the high officials in Kyoto. It had hitherto been
an invariable rule that any policy contemplated in Yedo became an
accomplished fact before a report was presented in the Imperial
capital. But very soon after his coronation, the Emperor Komei
departed from this time-honoured sequence of procedure and formally
instructed the Bakufu that the traditional policy of the empire in
foreign affairs must be strictly maintained. The early Tokugawa
shoguns would have strongly resented such interference, but times had
changed, and Ieyoshi bowed his head quietly to the new order.
Thenceforth the Bakufu submitted all questions of foreign policy to
the Imperial Court before final decision.
COMMODORE PERRY
In the year 1853, Commodore Perry of the United States Navy appeared
in Uraga Bay with a squadron of four warships and 560 men. The advent
of such a force created much perturbation in Yedo. Instead of dealing
with the affair on their own absolute authority, the Bakufu summoned
a council of the feudatories to discuss the necessary steps.
Meanwhile, the shogun, who had been ill for some time, died, and his
decease was pleaded as a pretext for postponing discussion with the
Americans. Perry being without authority to resort to force, did not
press his point. He transmitted the President's letter to the
sovereign of Japan, and steamed away on the 17th of July, declaring
his intention to return in the following year. This letter was
circulated among the feudatories, who were invited to express their
opinions on the document. Their replies are worthy of perusal as
presenting a clear idea of Japanese views at that time with regard to
foreign intercourse. The gist of the replies may be summarized as
follows:
-The ultimate purpose of foreigners in visiting Japan is to
reconnoitre the country. This is proved by the action of the Russians
in the north. What has been done by Western States in India and China
would doubtless be done in Japan also if opportunity offered. Even
the Dutch are not free from suspicion of acting the part of spies.
-Foreign trade, so far from benefitting the nation, cannot fail to
impoverish it, inasmuch as oversea commerce simply means that,
whereas Japan receives a number of unnecessary luxuries, she has to
give in exchange quantities of precious metals.
-To permit foreign intercourse would be to revoke the law of
exclusion which has been enforced for centuries, and which was the
outcome of practical experience.
These opinions were subscribed by a great majority of the
feudatories. A few, however, had sufficient foresight and courage to
advocate foreign intercourse. The leaders of this small minority
were, Ii Naosuke, baron of Hikone, historically remembered as Ii
Kamon no Kami; Toda Izu no Kami, bugyo of Uraga; Takashima Kihei
(called also Shirodayu, or Shuhan); Egawa Tarozaemon, bugyo of
Nirayama; and Otsuki Heiji, a vassal of the baron of Sendai. The
views of these statesmen may be briefly summarized as follows:
-It is not to be denied that many illustrious and patriotic men,
anticipating injury to the country's fortunes and perversion of the
nation's moral canons, are implacably opposed to foreign intercourse.
But the circumstances of the time render it impossible to maintain
the integrity of the empire side by side with the policy of
seclusion. The coasts are virtually unprotected. The country is
practically without a navy. Throughout a period of nearly two and a
half centuries the building of any ship having a capacity of over one
hundred koku has been forbidden, and in the absence of war-vessels
there is no means of defence except coast batteries, which are
practically non-existent.
-When inaugurating the policy of seclusion, the Bakufu Government
took care to leave China and Holland as a bridge between Japan and
the rest of the world. It will be wise to utilize that bridge for
dealing with foreign States, so as to gain time for preparations of
defence, instead of rushing blindly into battle without any supply of
effective weapons. If the Americans have need of coal, there is an
abundant supply in Kyushu. If they require provisions and water,
their needs can easily be satisfied. As for returning distressed
foreign seamen, that has hitherto been done voluntarily, and an
arrangement on this subject can be made through the medium of the
Dutch. As for foreign trade, the times have changed radically since a
veto was imposed on all commercial transactions, and it by no means
follows that what was wise then is expedient now. Japan must have
ocean-going vessels, and these cannot be procured in a moment. Her
best way is to avail herself of the services of the Dutch as
middlemen in trade, and to lose no time in furnishing herself with
powerful men-of-war and with sailors and gunners capable of
navigating and fighting these vessels.
-In short, the wisest plan is to make a show of commerce and
intercourse, and thus gain time to equip the country with a knowledge
of naval architecture and warfare. The two things most essential are
that Christianity should not be admitted in the train of foreign
trade, and that the strictest economy should be exercised by all
classes of the people so as to provide funds for the building of a
navy and the fortification of the coasts.
The question alluded to at the close of the above, namely, the
question of finance, was a paramount difficulty for the Bakufu. In
the very year of Perry's coming, a member of the Cabinet in Yedo
wrote as follows to Fujita Toko, chief adviser of the Mito feudatory:
"Unless I tell you frankly about the condition of the treasury you
cannot appreciate the situation. If you saw the accounts you would be
startled, and would learn at a glance the hopelessness of going to
war. The country could not hold out even for a twelvemonth, and there
is nothing for it except that everyone should join in saving money
for purposes of equipment. If we keep the peace now and toil
unremittingly for ten years, we may hope to restore the situation."
In truth, the Bakufu had practically no choice. "On one hand,
thousands of publicists, who believed themselves patriotic, clamoured
for the policy of seclusion, even at the cost of war; on the other,
the Yedo Government knew that to fight must be to incur crushing
defeat." The Bakufu then issued the following temporizing decree:
"With regard to the despatch from the United States Government, the
views of competent men have been taken and have been carefully
considered by the shogun. The views expressed are variously worded
but they advocate either peace or war. Everyone has pointed out that
we are without a navy and that our coasts are undefended. Meanwhile,
the Americans will be here again next year. Our policy shall be to
evade any definite answer to their request, while at the same time
maintaining a peaceful demeanour. It may be, however, that they will
have recourse to violence. For that contingency we must be prepared
lest the country suffer disgrace. Therefore every possible effort
will be made to prepare means of defence. Above all it is imperative
that everyone should practise patience, refrain from anger, and
carefully observe the conduct of the foreigners. Should they open
hostilities, all must at once take up arms and fight strenuously for
the country."
A less vertebrate policy could scarcely have been formulated, but the
conduct of the Bakufu statesmen was more stalwart than their
language. Under the guidance of Abe Masahiro, one of the ablest
statesmen that Yedo ever possessed, batteries were built at Shinagawa
to guard the approaches to Yedo; defensive preparations were made
along the coasts of Musashi, Sagami, Awa, and Kazusa; the veto
against the construction of ocean-going ships was rescinded, and the
feudatories were invited to build and arm large vessels; a commission
was given to the Dutch at Deshima to procure from Europe a library of
useful books; cannon were cast; troops were drilled, and everyone who
had acquired expert knowledge through the medium of the Dutch was
taken into official favour.
But all these efforts tended only to expose their own feebleness, and
on the 2nd of November, 1853, instructions were issued that if the
Americans returned, they were to be dealt with peacefully. "In short,
the sight of Perry's steam-propelled ships, their powerful armament,
and the specimens they carried of Western wonders had practically
broken down the barriers of Japan's isolation without any need of
treaties or conventions." Thus, when the American commodore returned
in the following February with ten ships and crews numbering two
thousand, he easily obtained a treaty by which Japan promised kind
treatment to shipwrecked sailors; permission to foreign vessels to
obtain stores and provisions within her territory, and an engagement
that American vessels might anchor in the ports of Shimoda and
Hakata. Much has been written about Perry's judicious display of
force and about his sagacious tact in dealing with the Japanese, but
it may be doubted whether the consequences of his exploit did not
invest its methods with extravagant lustre.
TREATIES OF COMMERCE
Russia, Holland, and England speedily obtained treaties similar to
that concluded by Commodore Perry in 1854. These, however, were not
commercial conventions. It was reserved for Mr. Townsend Harris,
American consul-general in Japan, to open the country to trade.
Arriving in August, 1856, he concluded in March, 1857, a treaty
securing to United States citizens the right of permanent residence
at Shimoda and Hakodate, as well as that of carrying on trade at
Nagasaki and establishing consular jurisdiction. Nevertheless,
nothing worthy to be called commercial intercourse was allowed by the
Bakufu, and it was not until Mr. Harris, with infinite patience and
tact, had gone to Yedo alter ten months' delay that he secured the
opening of ports other than Nagasaki to international commerce. In
this achievement he was assisted by Hotta Masamutsu, successor to the
great Masahiro, and, like most of his colleagues, a sincere advocate
of opening the country.
Japan has been much blamed for her reluctance in this matter, but
when we recall the danger to which the Yedo administration was
exposed by its own weakness, and when we observe that a strong
sentiment was growing up in favour of abolishing the dual form of
government, we can easily appreciate that to sanction commercial
relations might well have shaken the Bakufu to their foundations. It
was possible to construe the Perry convention and the first Harris
convention as mere acts of benevolence towards strangers, but a
commercial treaty would not have lent itself to any such
construction. We cannot wonder that the shogun's ministers hesitated
to take an apparently suicidal step. They again consulted the
feudatories and again received an almost unanimously unfavourable
answer.
In fact, history has preserved only one unequivocal expression of
consent. It was formulated by Matsudaira Yoshinaga, baron of Echizen.
He had been among the most ardent exclusionists in the first council
of feudatories; but his views had subsequently undergone a radical
change, owing to the arguments of one of his vassals, Hashimoto
Sanae--elder brother of Viscount Hashimoto Tsunatsune, president of
the Red Cross Hospital, who died in 1909. "Not only did this
remarkable man frankly advocate foreign trade for its own sake and as
a means of enriching the nation, thus developing its capacity for
independence, but he also recommended the fostering of industries,
the purchase of ships and firearms, the study of foreign arts and
sciences, and the despatch of students and publicists to Western
countries for purposes of instruction. Finally, he laid down the
principle that probity is essential to commercial success." Such
doctrines were then much in advance of the time. Nevertheless, Harris
achieved his purpose. He had audience of the shogun in November,
1857, and, on the 29th of the following July, a treaty was concluded
opening Yokohama, from the 1st of July, 1858, to commerce between the
United States and Japan.
This treaty was concluded in spite of the failure of two attempts to
obtain the sanction of the Throne. Plainly the Bakufu shrank from
openly adopting a policy which, while recognizing its necessity, they
distrusted their own ability to force upon the nation. They had,
however, promised Mr. Harris that the treaty should be signed, and
they kept their word at a risk, of whose magnitude the American
consul-general had no conception. Mr. Harris had brought to this
conference exceptional diplomatic skill and winning tact, but it
cannot be denied that he derived assistance from contemporaneous
events in China, where the Peiho forts had just been captured and the
Chinese forced to sign a treaty. He was thus able to warn the
Japanese that the British and the French fleets might be expected at
any moment to enter Yedo Bay, and that the best way to avert irksome
demands at the hands of the British was to establish a comparatively
moderate precedent by yielding to the American proposals.
THE THIRTEENTH SHOGUN, IESADA (1853-1858)
Between the conclusion of the Harris commercial treaty and its
signature, the Bakufu prime minister visited Kyoto, for the purpose
of persuading the Imperial Court to abandon its anti-foreign
attitude. His mission was quite unsuccessful, the utmost concession
obtained by him being that the problem of the treaty should be
submitted to the feudatories. Another question raised on this
occasion in Kyoto was the succession to the shogunate. The twelfth
shogun, Ieyoshi, had died in 1853, and was succeeded by Iesada, a
physically incompetent ruler. Iesada had been married to the daughter
of the Satsuma feudatory, as planned by the former Bakufu premier,
Abe, who hoped thus to cement friendly relations with the great
southern baron, a hereditary enemy of the Tokugawa. There was no
issue of the marriage, and it being certain that there could be no
issue, two candidates for the shogunate were proposed. They were
Keiki, son of Nariaki of Mito a man of matured intellect and high
capacities, and Iemochi, son of Nariyuki of Kii, a boy of thirteen.
Public opinion supported the former, and his connexion with the house
of Mito seemed to assure an anti-foreign bias. Chiefly for the latter
reason, the Court in Kyoto favoured his nomination.
But Keiki was not really an advocate of national seclusion. Had the
succession been given to him then, he would doubtless have adopted a
liberal policy. On the other hand, his appointment would have been
equivalent to the abdication of Iesada, and in order to avert that
catastrophe, the shogun's entourage contrived to obtain the
appointment of Ii Kamon no Kami to the post of prime minister in
Yedo. This baron was not less capable than courageous. He immediately
caused the young daimyo of Kii to be nominated successor to the
shogunate, and he signed the Harris treaty. A vehement outcry ensued.
It was claimed that the will of the Imperial Court had been set at
nought by signing the treaty without the sovereign's sanction, and
that unconditional yielding to foreign demands was intolerable. The
Mito baron headed this opposition. But it is observable that even he
did not insist upon the maintenance of absolute seclusion. All that
he and his followers demanded was that a delay should be imposed in
order to obtain time for definite preparation, whereas the premier,
Ii, was for the immediate opening of the country.
THE FOURTEENTH SHOGUN, IEMOCHI (1858-1866)
Iesada died in 1858, and the reluctance of the Imperial Court to
sanction the succession of Iemochi was evidenced by a long delay in
the transmission of the necessary Imperial document. During that
interval, the feudatories of Mito and Echizen had a memorable
interview with the premier, Ii, whose life seemed at that time to
hang by a thread, but who, nevertheless, advanced unflinchingly
towards his goal. The three feudatories offered to compromise; in
other words, they declared their willingness to subscribe the
commercial convention provided that Keiki was appointed shogun; the
important fact being thus established that domestic politics had
taken precedence of foreign. Ii not only declined this offer, but
also did not hesitate to punish the leaders of the opposition by
confinement and by temporary exclusion from the Court.
FOREIGN MILITARY SCIENCE
It was during the days of the thirteenth shogun that Japan may be
said to have commenced her practical study of foreign military
science. Instructors were imported from Holland, and a college was
established at Nagasaki. Among its graduates were several historical
characters, notably Katsu Rintaro, after-wards Count Katsu, minister
of Marine in the Meiji Government. A naval college (Gunkan Kyojujo)
also was organized at Tsukiji, in Yedo, while at Akunoura, in
Nagasaki, an iron-foundry was erected. There, the first attempt at
shipbuilding on foreign lines was made, and there, also, is now
situated the premier private dockyard in Japan, namely, that of the
Mitsubishi Company. Already, in 1854, the Dutch Government had
presented to Japan her first steamship, the Kanko Maru.
FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVES AND THE BAKUFU
An indirect consequence of these disputes between the Throne and the
Court nobles, on one side, and the Bakufu officials, on the other,
was to perplex the foreign representatives who were now residing in
Yedo. These representatives learned to believe that the shogun's
ministers were determined either to avoid making treaties or to evade
them when made. However natural this suspicion may have been, it
lacked solid foundation. That is proved by a memorial which the Yedo
statesmen addressed to the Throne after the negotiation of the Harris
treaty. They made it quite plain that they were acting in perfect
good faith, the only doubtful point in the memorial being that, after
the organization of a competent army and navy, the problem of peace
or war might be decided. "If peaceful relations be maintained by
ratifying the treaty," they wrote, "the avaricious aliens will
definitely see that there is not much wealth in the country, and
thus, abandoning the idea of gain, they will approach us with
friendly feelings only and ultimately will pass under our Emperor's
grace. They may then be induced to make grateful offerings to his
Majesty, and it will no longer be a question of trade but of
tribute." Something of sinister intention seems to present itself
between the lines of this document. But we have to remember that it
was addressed ultimately to the Kyoto nobles, whose resentment would
have been at once excited by the use of friendly or self-effacing
language.
There is also on record correspondence that passed between the Bakufu
premier, Ii, and certain friends of his in the Imperial capital. From
these letters it appears that Yedo was advised by the far-seeing
section of the Kyoto statesmen to simulate the policy of bringing
aliens under Japanese influence, and of using for purposes of
military and naval development the wealth that would accrue from
oversea trade. In a word, the Bakufu had to disguise their policy in
terms such as might placate the Kyoto conservatives, and this
deception was once carried so far that an envoy sent to Kyoto from
Yedo represented the shogun as hostile at heart to foreigners, though
tolerating them temporarily as a matter of prudence. It cannot be
wondered at that the foreign representatives found much to perplex
them in these conditions, or that at the legations in Yedo, as well
as among the peoples of Europe and America, an uneasy feeling grew up
that Japan waited only for an opportunity to repudiate her treaty
engagements.
INTRIGUES IN KYOTO
About this time there began to assemble in the Imperial capital a
number of men who, though without social or official status, were at
once talented; patriotic, and conservative. At their head stood Umeda
Genjiro, who practised as a physician and wrote political brochures
under the nom de plume of Umpin. He soon became the centre of
a circle of loyalists whose motto was Son-0 Jo-I (Revere the
sovereign, expel the barbarians), and associated with him were
Rai Miki, a son of Rai Sanyo; Yanagawa Seigan; Yoshida Shoin; Saigo
Kichinosuke--better known as Saigo Takamori, the leader of the
Satsuma rebellion of 1877,--Hashimoto Sanae, and others who have been
not unjustly described as the real motive force that brought about
the Restoration of 1867.
These men soon came to exercise great influence over the Court
nobles--especially Konoe, Takatsukasa, Ichijo, Nijo, and Sanjo--and
were consequently able to suggest subjects for the sovereign's
rescripts. Thus his Majesty was induced to issue an edict which
conveyed a reprimand to the shogun for concluding a treaty without
previously referring it to the feudatories, and which suggested that
the Mito and Owari feudatories should be released from the sentence
of confinement passed on them by Ii Kamon no Kami. This edict
startled the Bakufu. They at once sent from Yedo envoys to
remonstrate with the conservatives, and after a controversy lasting
four months, a compromise was effected by which the sovereign
postponed any action for the expulsion of foreigners and the shogun
declared that his tolerance of international commerce was only
temporary. This was regarded as a victory for the shogunate. But the
Yedo envoys, during their stay in Kyoto, discovered evidences of a
plot to overthrow the Bakufu. Great severity was shown in dealing
with this conspiracy. The leaders were beheaded, banished, or ordered
to commit suicide; the Mito feudatory being sentenced to perpetual
confinement in his fief; the daimyo of Owari, to permanent
retirement; and Keiki, former candidate for the succession to the
shogunate, being deprived of office and directed to live in
seclusion. Many other notable men were subjected to various
penalties, and this "Great Judgment of Ansei"--the name of the
era--caused a profound sensation throughout the empire. The nation
mourned for many sincere patriots who had been sentenced on the
flimsiest evidence, and the whole incident tended to accentuate the
unpopularity of foreign intercourse.
ENGRAVING: II NAOSUKE
THE SECRET EDICT
The compromise mentioned above as having been effected between Yedo
and Kyoto had the effect of stultifying the previously drafted edict
which condemned the shogun for concluding a treaty without consulting
the feudatories. The edict had not been publicly promulgated, but it
had come into the possession of the Mito feudatory, and by his orders
had been enclosed in the family tomb, where it was guarded night and
day by a strong troop of samurai. The Bakufu insisted that to convey
such a document direct from the Throne to a feudatory was a plain
trespass upon the shogun's authority. Mito, however, refused to
surrender it. The most uncompromising conservatives of the fief
issued a manifesto justifying their refusal, and, as evidence of
their sincerity, committed suicide.
ASSASSINATION OF II
Nariaki, the Mito baron, now instructed his vassals to surrender the
edict. He may have shared the views of his retainers, but he was not
prepared to assert them by taking up arms against his own family. In
the face of this instruction the conservative samurai had no choice
but to disperse or commit suicide. Some twenty of them, however, made
their way to Yedo bent upon killing Ii Kamon no Kami, whom they
regarded as the head and front of the evils of the time. The deed was
consummated on the morning of the 24th of March, 1860, as Ii was on
his way to the shogun's castle. All the assassins lost their lives or
committed suicide.
ATTITUDE OF THE JAPANESE SAMURAI
The slaying of Ii was followed by several similar acts, a few against
foreigners and several against Japanese leaders of progress. Many
evil things have been said of the men by whom these deeds of blood
were perpetrated. But we have always to remember, that in their own
eyes they obeyed the teachings of hereditary conviction and the
dictates of patriotism towards their country as well as loyalty
towards their sovereign. It has been abundantly shown in these pages
that the original attitude of the Japanese towards foreigners was
hospitable and liberal. It has also been shown how, in the presence
of unwelcome facts, this mood was changed for one of distrust and
dislike. Every Japanese patriot believed when he refused to admit
foreigners to his country in the nineteenth century that he was
obeying the injunctions handed down from the lips of his most
illustrious countrymen, Hideyoshi, Ieyasu, and Iemitsu--believed, in
short, that to re-admit aliens would be to expose the realm to
extreme peril and to connive at its loss of independence. He was
prepared to obey this conviction at the cost of his own life, and
that sacrifice seemed a sufficient guarantee of his sincerity.
THE FIRST FOREIGNERS
It must be conceded, too, that the nineteenth-century foreigner did
not present himself to Japan in a very lovable light. His demeanour
was marked by all the arrogance habitually shown by the Occidental
towards the Oriental, and though the general average of the oversea
comers reached a high standard, they approached the solution of all
Japanese problems with a degree of suspicion which could not fail to
be intensely irksome to a proud nation. Even the foreign
representatives made it their habit to seek for trickery or abuse in
all Japanese doings, official or private, and though they doubtless
had much warrant for this mood, its display did not tend to
conciliate the Japanese. Many instances might be cited from the pages
of official records and from the columns of local newspapers, but
they need not be detailed here.
Moreover, there were difficulties connected with trade. The framers
of the treaties had found it necessary to deal with the currency
question, and their manner of dealing with it was to stipulate that
foreign coins should be exchangeable with Japanese, weight for
weight. This stipulation did not take into any account the ratio
between the precious metals, and as that ratio was fifteen to one in
Europe and five to one in Japan, it is obvious that, by the mere
process of exchange, a foreign merchant could reap a rich harvest. Of
course this was never intended by the framers of the treaty, and when
the Japanese saw the yellow metal flowing away rapidly from the
realm, they adopted the obvious expedient of changing the relative
weights of the gold and silver coins.
It may be doubted whether any state would have hesitated to apply
that remedy. Yet by the foreigner it was censured as a "gross
violation of treaty right" and as "a deliberate attempt on the part
of the Japanese authorities to raise all the prices of the native
produce two hundred per cent, against the foreign purchaser." The
British representative, Sir Rutherford Alcock, in a despatch written
to his Government, at the close of 1859, penned some very caustic
comments on the conduct of his countrymen, and did not hesitate to
declare that "in estimating the difficulties to be overcome in any
attempt to improve the aspect of affairs, if the ill-disguised enmity
of the governing classes and the indisposition of the Executive
Government to give partial effect to the treaties be classed among
the first and principal of these, the unscrupulous character and
dealings of foreigners who frequent the ports for purposes of trade
are only second and scarcely inferior in importance, from the
sinister character of the influence they exercise."
It is only just, however, to note the other side of the picture, and
to observe that the foreign merchant had many causes of legitimate
dissatisfaction; that his business was constantly hampered and
interrupted by Japanese official interference; that the ready
recourse which Japanese samurai had to deeds of blood against
peaceful strangers seemed revoltingly cruel; that he appeared to be
surrounded by an atmosphere of perplexity and double dealing, and
that the large majority of the Anglo-Saxon tradesmen visiting Japan
in the early days of her renewed intercourse had nothing whatever in
common with the men described in the above despatch.
KYOTO
In order to follow the sequence of events, it is necessary to revert
to Kyoto, which, as the reader will have perceived, was the centre of
national politics in this troublous era. An incident apparently of
the greatest importance to the Bakufu occurred in 1861. The shogun
received the Emperor's sister in marriage. But the auspicious event
had to be heavily paid for, since the Bakufu officials were obliged
to pledge themselves to expel foreigners within ten years. This
inspired new efforts on the part of the conservatives. A number of
samurai visited Yokohama, and promised death to any Japanese merchant
entering into transactions with the aliens. These conservatives
further announced the doctrine that the shogun's title of sei-i
(barbarian-expelling) indicated explicitly that to expel foreigners
was his duty, and the shogun's principal officials were so craven
that they advised him to apologize for failing to discharge that duty
instead of wholly repudiating the extravagant interpretation of the
anti-foreign party.
Encouraged by these successes, the extremists in Kyoto induced the
sovereign to issue an edict in which, after speaking of the
"insufferable and contumelious behaviour of foreigners," of "the loss
of prestige and of honour constantly menacing the country," and of
the sovereign's "profound solicitude," his Majesty openly cited the
shogun's engagement to drive out the aliens within ten years, and
explicitly affirmed that the grant of an Imperial princess' hand to
the shogun had been intended to secure the unity required for that
achievement. Such an edict was in effect an exhortation to every
Japanese subject to organize an anti-foreign crusade, and it
"publicly committed the Bakufu Court to a policy which the latter had
neither the power to carry out nor any intention of attempting to
carry out."
But at this juncture something like a reaction took place in the
Imperial capital. A party of able men, led by Princes Konoe and
Iwakura, had the courage to denounce the unwisdom of the extremists,
at whose head stood Princes Arisugawa and Sanjo. At that time the
most powerful fiefs in Japan were Satsuma and Choshu. Both were
hereditarily hostile to the Tokugawa, but were mutually separated by
a difference of opinion in the matter of foreign policy, so that when
the above two cabals were organized in Kyoto, the Choshu men attached
themselves to the extremists, the Satsuma to the moderates. The
latter contrived to have an Imperial rescript sent to Yedo by the
hands of the Satsuma feudatory, Shimazu Hisamitsu. This rescript
indicated three courses, one of which the shogun was asked to choose:
namely, first, that he himself should proceed to Kyoto for the
purpose of there conferring with the principal feudatories as to the
best means of tranquillizing the nation; secondly, that the five
principal littoral fiefs should be ordered to prepare coast defences,
and, thirdly, that Keiki of Mito and the feudatory of Echizen should
be appointed to high office in the Bakufu administration.
To obey this rescript was to violate the fundamental law of the
Bakufu, namely, that all interference in administrative affairs was
forbidden to the Kyoto Court. The only dignified course for the
shogun to take was to refuse compliance or to resign, and probably
had he done so he would have recovered the power of which he had
gradually been deprived by the interference of Kyoto. But his
advisers lacked courage to recommend such a course. At their
suggestion the shogun signified his willingness to comply with the
first and the third of the conditions embodied in the edict. The
Satsuma feudatory strongly counselled that the shogun should decline
to proceed to Kyoto and should reject all proposals for the expulsion
of foreigners, but the Bakufu ignored his advice.
THE NAMAMUGI INCIDENT
At this time there occurred an incident which had the most
far-reaching consequences. A party of British subjects, three
gentlemen and a lady, met, at Namamugi on the Tokaido, the cortege of
the Satsuma feudatory as he was returning from Yedo. Unacquainted
with the strict etiquette enforced in Japan in such situations, the
foreigners attempted to ride through the procession, the result being
that one, Mr. Richardson, was killed, and two of the others were
wounded. The upshot of this affair was that the British Government,
having demanded the surrender of the samurai implicated in the
murder, and having been refused, sent a naval squadron to bombard
Kagoshima, the capital of the Satsuma baron. In this engagement, the
Satsuma men learned for the first time the utter helplessness of
their old weapons and old manner of fighting, and their conversion to
progressive ideas was thoroughly effected.
CONTINUED INTRIGUES IN KYOTO
The submissive attitude of the Bakufu towards the Imperial Court
encouraged the extremists in Kyoto to prefer fresh demands. Instead
of waiting for the shogun to repair to Kyoto, as he had pledged
himself to do in compliance with the edict mentioned above, they
contrived the issue of another rescript, requiring the Bakufu to
proclaim openly the adoption of the alien-expelling policy, and to
fix a date for its practical inception. Again the Bakufu yielded.
They did not, indeed, actually take the steps indicated in the
rescript, but they promised to consider its contents as soon as the
shogun arrived in Kyoto. The extremists, however, could not reconcile
themselves to even that delay. In the spring of 1863, they
constrained Keiki, who had been appointed guardian to the shogun and
who was then in Kyoto, to give an engagement that on the shogun's
return to Yedo decisive measures to put an end to foreign intercourse
should be begun. This engagement the shogun found awaiting him on his
arrival in the Imperial capital, and at the same time messages daily
reached him from Yedo, declaring that unless he returned at once to
Yedo to settle the Namamugi affair, war with Great Britain would be
inevitable. But the conservatives would not allow him to return. They
procured the issue of yet another Imperial decree directing that "if
the English barbarians wanted a conference, they should repair to
Osaka Harbour and receive a point-blank refusal; that the shogun
should remain in Kyoto to direct defensive operations, and that he
should accompany the Emperor to the shrine of the god of War where a
'barbarian-quelling sword' would be handed to him." Illness saved the
shogun from some of his perplexities and, in his absence, the Yedo
statesmen paid the indemnity required by Great Britain for the
Namamugi outrage and left her to exact whatever further redress she
desired. Accordingly, in July, 1863, a British squadron proceeded to
Kagoshima and bombarded it as already described.
THE SHIMONOSEKI COMPLICATION
If the Satsuma men thus received a conclusive lesson as to the
superiority of Western armaments, the Choshu fief was destined to be
similarly instructed not long afterwards. It will have been perceived
that at this epoch the Imperial Court was very prolific in
anti-foreign edicts. One of these actually appointed the 11th of May,
1863, as the date for commencing the barbarian-expelling campaign,
and copies of the edict were sent direct to the feudatories without
previous reference to the shogun. The Choshu daimyo found the edict
so congenial that, without waiting for the appointed day, he opened
fire on American, French, and Dutch merchantmen passing the Strait of
Shimonoseki, which his batteries commanded. The ships suffered no
injury, but, of course, such an act could not be condoned, and the
Bakufu Government being unwilling or unable to give full reparation,
the three powers whose vessels had been fired on joined hands with
England for the purpose of despatching a squadron to destroy the
Choshu forts, which result was attained with the greatest ease. This
"Shimonoseki Expedition," as it was called, enormously strengthened
the conviction which the bombardment of Kagoshima had established.
The nation thoroughly appreciated its own belligerent incapacity when
foreign powers entered the lists, and patriotic men began to say
unhesitatingly that their country was fatally weakened by the dual
system of government.
CHANGE OF OPINION IN KYOTO
The sway exercised by the extremists in Kyoto now received a check
owing to their excessive zeal. They procured the drafting of an
Imperial edict which declared the Emperor's resolve to drive out the
foreigners, and announced a visit by his Majesty to the great shrines
to pray for success. This edict never received the Imperial seal. The
extremists appear to have overrated their influence at Court. They
counted erroneously on his Majesty's post facto compliance, and they
thus created an opportunity of which the moderates took immediate
advantage. At the instance of the latter and in consideration of the
fictitious edict, Mori Motonori of Choshu, leader of the extremists,
was ordered to leave the capital with all the nobles who shared his
opinions. Doubtless the bombardment of Kagoshima contributed not a
little to this measure, but the ostensible cause was the irregularity
of the edict. There was no open disavowal of conservatism, but, on
the other hand, there was no attempt to enforce it. The situation for
the extremists was further impaired by an appeal to force on the part
of the Choshu samurai. They essayed to enter Kyoto under arms, for
the ostensible purpose of presenting a petition to the Throne but
really to make away with the moderate leaders. This political coup
failed signally, and from that time the ardent advocates of the
anti-foreign policy began to be regarded as rebels. Just at this time
the Shimonoseki expedition gave an object lesson to the nation, and
helped to deprive the barbarian-expelling agitation of any semblance
of Imperial sanction.
CHOSHU AND THE BAKUFU
When the Choshu feudatory attempted to close the Shimonoseki Strait
by means of cannon, the Bakufu sent a commissioner to remonstrate.
But the Choshu samurai insisted that they had merely obeyed the
sovereign's order, and the better to demonstrate their resolution,
they put the commissioner to death. Thus directly challenged, the
Bakufu mustered a powerful force and launched it against Choshu. But
by this time the two great southern clans, having learned the madness
of appealing to force for the purpose of keeping the country closed,
had agreed to work together in the interests of the State. Thus, when
the Bakufu army, comprising contingents from thirty-six feudatories,
reached Choshu, the latter appealed to the clemency of the invading
generals, among whom the Satsuma baron was the most powerful, and the
appeal resulted in the withdrawal of the punitory expedition without
the imposition of any conditions. The Bakufu were naturally much
incensed. Another formidable force was organized to attack Choshu,
but it halted at Osaka and sent envoys to announce the punishment of
the rebellious fief, to which announcements the fief paid not the
least attention.
THE HYOGO DEMONSTRATION
While things were at this stage, Sir Harry Parkes, representative of
Great Britain, arrived upon the scene in the Far East. A man of
remarkably luminous judgment and military methods, this distinguished
diplomatist appreciated almost immediately that the ratification of
the treaties by the sovereign was essential to their validity, and
that by investing the ratification with all possible formality, the
Emperor's recovery of administrative power might be accelerated. He
therefore conceived the idea of repairing to Hyogo with a powerful
naval squadron for the purpose of seeking, first, the ratification of
the treaty; secondly, the reduction of the import tariff from an
average of fifteen per cent, ad valorem (at which figure it had been
fixed by the original treaty) to five per cent., and, thirdly, the
opening of the ports of Hyogo and Osaka at once, instead of nearly
two years hence, as previously agreed.
Among the penalties imposed upon Choshu by the four powers which
combined to destroy the forts at Shimonoseki was a fine of three
million dollars, and the Bakufu, being unable to collect this money
from Choshu, had taken upon themselves the duty of paying it and had
already paid one million. Sir Harry Parkes's plan was to remit the
remaining two millions in consideration of the Government endorsing
the three demands formulated above. It need hardly be said that the
appearance of a powerful squadron of foreign warships at the very
portals of the Imperial palace threw the nation into a ferment. The
eight vessels cast anchor off Hyogo in November, 1866, and it seemed
to the nation that the problem of foreign intercourse had been
revived in an aggravated form.
Once again the anti-foreign agitators recovered their influence, and
inveighed against the Bakufu's incompetence to avert such trespasses
even from the sacred city. Under the pressure brought to bear by
these conservatives, the Emperor dismissed from office or otherwise
punished the ministers appointed by the shogun to negotiate with the
foreign representatives, and in the face of this humiliating
disavowal of Bakufu authority, the shogun had no alternative except
to resign. He did so. But the Imperial Court hesitated to accept the
responsibilities that would have resulted from sanctioning his
resignation. The Bakufu were informed that the Emperor sanctioned the
treaties and that the shogun was authorized to deal with them, but
that steps must be taken to revise them in consultation with the
feudatories, and that Hyogo and Osaka must not be opened, though the
proposed change of tariff-rate would be permitted. Nothing definite
was said about remitting the two million dollars remaining from the
Choshu fine, and Sir Harry Parkes was able to say triumphantly that
he had obtained two out of three concessions demanded by him without
having given any quid pro whatever.
THE LAST OF THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS
The measures against Choshu were now recommenced, but with complete
unsuccess, and thus a final blow was given to the prestige of the
Yedo Government. It was at this time (1866) that the fourteenth
shogun, Iemochi, passed away and was succeeded by Yoshinobu, better
known, as Keiki. Whatever the political views of this nobleman may
have been when he was put forward by the conservatives, in 1857, as a
candidate for succession to the shogunate, he no sooner attained that
dignity, in 1866, than he became an ardent advocate of progress.
French experts were engaged to remodel the army, and English officers
to organize the navy; the shogun's brother was sent to the Paris
Exposition, and Occidental fashions were introduced at the ceremonies
of the Bakufu Court.
SATSUMA AND CHOSHU
When Keiki assumed office he had to deal speedily with two problems;
that is to say, the complication with Choshu, and the opening of
Hyogo. The Emperor's reluctant consent to the latter was obtained for
the beginning of 1868, and an edict was also issued for the
punishment of Choshu. The result was two-fold: fresh life was
imparted to the anti-foreign agitation, and the Satsuma and Choshu
feudatories were induced to join hands against the Tokugawa. Alike in
Satsuma and in Choshu, there were a number of clever men who had long
laboured to combine the forces of the two fiefs in order to unite the
whole empire under the sway of the Kyoto Court. Saigo and Okubo on
the Satsuma side, Kido and Sanjo on the Choshu became leading figures
on the stage of their country's new career. Through their influence,
aided by that of Ito, afterwards prince, and Inouye, afterwards
marquis, the two great clans were brought into alliance, and when, in
1867, the shogun, Keiki, sought and obtained Imperial sanction for
the punishment of Choshu, Satsuma agreed to enter the lists on the
latter's side.
TOSA MEMORIAL
An incident of a most striking and unexpected nature now occurred.
Yodo, the Tosa feudatory, addressed to the shogun a memorial exposing
the helpless condition of the Bakufu and strongly urging that the
administration should be restored to the Emperor in order that the
nation might be united to face the dangers of its new career. It is
necessary to note here that, although the feudatories have been
frequently referred to in these pages as prominent figures in this or
that public drama, the feudal chiefs themselves exercised, in
Tokugawa days, very little influence on the current of events. A
modern historian speaks justly when he says:
"In this respect the descendants of the great Tokugawa statesman
found themselves reduced to a position precisely analogous to that of
the emperor in Kyoto. Sovereign and shogun were alike mere
abstractions so far as the practical work of the government was
concerned. With the great mass of the feudal chiefs things fared
similarly. These men who, in the days of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi and
Ieyasu, had directed the policies of their fiefs and led their armies
in the field, were gradually transformed, during the lone peace of
the Tokugawa era, into voluptuous fainéants or, at best, thoughtless
dilettanti, willing to abandon the direction of their affairs to
seneschals and mayors, who, while on the whole their administration
was able and loyal, found their account in contriving and
perpetuating the effacement of their chiefs. Thus, in effect, the
government of the country, taken out of the hands of the shogun and
the feudatories, fell into those of their vassals. There were
exceptions, of course, but so rare as to be mere accidental. . . The
revolution which involved the fall of the shogunate, and ultimately
of feudalism, may be called democratic with regard to the personnel
of those who planned and directed it. They were, for the most part,
men without either rank or social standing."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
Keiki himself, although the memorial was directed against him, may
fairly be reckoned among these longsighted patriots. The Tosa
memorial appealed so forcibly to the convictions he entertained that
he at once summoned a council of all feudatories and high officials
then in Kyoto; informed them of his resolve to adopt the advice of
the memorialist, and, on the following day, handed in his resignation
to the Emperor. This memorable event took place on the 14th of
October, 1867; and the answer of the Emperor before the assembly of
December 15th marked the end of the shogunate.
THE 122ND SOVEREIGN, THE EMPEROR MUTSUHITO (A.D. 1867-1912)
The throne was occupied at this time by Mutsuhito, who had succeeded
on the 13th of February, 1867, at the death of his father, Komei, and
who himself died on the 29th day of July 1912. At the time of his
accession, the new monarch was in his fifteenth year, having been
born on the 3rd of November, 1852.
IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCE OF THE RESIGNATION
Undoubtedly Keiki's resignation was presented in all good faith. It
deserves to rank among the most memorable incidents of the world's
history, for such a sacrifice has seldom been made by any ruler in
the interests of his nation. But by the Satsuma and Choshu
feudatories, the sincerity of the shogun was not recognized. Through
their influence the youthful Emperor was induced to issue an edict
calling Keiki a traitor, accusing him of arrogance and disloyalty,
declaring that he had not hesitated to violate the commands of the
late Emperor, and directing that he should be destroyed. In obedience
to this rescript the Tokugawa officials were treated with such
harshness that Keiki found it impossible to calm their indignation;
it culminated in an abortive attack upon Kyoto. Thereupon, Keiki
retired to Yedo, which city he subsequently surrendered
unconditionally. But all his former adherents did not show themselves
equally placable. An attempt was made to set up a rival candidate for
the throne in the person of the Imperial lord-abbot of the Ueno
monastery in Yedo; the Aizu clan made a gallant and unsuccessful
resistance in the northern provinces, and the shogun's admiral,
Yenomoto (afterwards viscount), essayed to establish a republic in
Yezo, whither he had retired with the Tokugawa warships. But these
petty incidents were altogether insignificant compared with the great
event of which they were a sequel.
THE MEIJI GOVERNMENT AND FOREIGN INTERCOURSE
The year-name was now changed to Meiji (Enlightened Government), from
January 1, 1868, a term fully justified by events. One of the
earliest acts of the new Government was to invite the foreign
representatives to the Imperial city, where the Emperor himself
received them in audience, an act of extreme condescension according
to Japanese canons of etiquette. Thereafter, an Imperial decree
announced the sovereign's determination to cement amicable relations
with foreign nations, and declared that any Japanese subject guilty
of violence to a foreigner would be acting in contravention of his
sovereign's commands, as well as injuriously to the dignity and good
faith of the country in the eyes of the powers with which his Majesty
had pledged himself to maintain friendship. So signal was the change
that had taken place in the demeanour of the nation's leaders towards
foreign intercourse! Only two years earlier, the advent of a squadron
of foreign war-vessels at Hyogo had created almost a panic and had
caused men to cry out that the precincts of the sacred city of Kyoto
were in danger of desecration by barbarian feet. But now the Emperor
invited the once hated aliens to his presence, treated them with the
utmost courtesy, and publicly greeted them as welcome guests. Such a
metamorphosis has greatly perplexed some students of Japanese
history. Yet the explanation is simple. The Kagoshima and Shimonoseki
expeditions had taught Japan that she was powerless in the face of
Western armaments; she had learned that national effacement must be
the sequel of seclusion, and, above all, she had come to an
understanding that her divided form of government paralyzed her for
purposes of resistance to aggression from abroad.
ENGRAVING: STONE AND WOODEN LANTERNS ERECTED IN FRONT OF SHRINES
CHAPTER XLVI
THE MEIJI GOVERNMENT
THE LEADERS OF REFORM
IN describing the events that culminated in the fall of the Tokugawa,
frequent references have been made to the feudatories. But it should
be clearly understood that the feudal chiefs themselves had very
little to do with the consummation of this great change. "The men
that conceived and achieved the Revolution of 1867, were chiefly
samurai of inferior grade." They numbered fifty-five in all, and of
these only thirteen were aristocrats, namely, five feudal barons and
eight court nobles. The average age of these fifty-five did not
exceed thirty years.
THE EMPEROR'S OATH
The great clans which took part in bringing about this restoration of
the administrative power to the Emperor did not altogether trust one
another. Hitherto, all political commotions had been planned for the
sake of some prominent family or eminent leader, and had resulted
merely in altering the personnel of those occupying the seats of
power. It was not unnatural that history should have been expected to
repeat itself in 1867, especially since the clan mainly responsible,
Satsuma, overshadowed all its associates with one exception.
Therefore, to many onlookers it seemed that the Tokugawa Government
had been overthrown to make room for the all-powerful southern
feudatory. In order to provide a safeguard against such a danger, the
young Emperor was asked to make oath that a broadly based
deliberative assembly should be convened for the purpose of
conducting State affairs in conformity with public opinion. This
"coronation oath," as it was subsequently called, came to occupy an
important place in political appreciation, and to be interpreted as a
promise of a national assembly. But most assuredly it was not
originally intended to carry any such meaning. Its framers never
contemplated a parliament in the Occidental sense of the term. Their
sole object was to place a barrier in the path of their own selfish
ambitions.
ABOLITION OF FEUDALISM
It is more than doubtful whether the abolition of the feudal system
found a place in the original plan of the leaders of progress.
Looking back to remote centuries, they may well have imagined that
the unification of the empire under one supreme ruler, administering
as well as governing, was not incompatible with the existence of the
fiefs. But when they examined the problem more closely, they
recognized that a universally operative system of laws, a central
treasury, and the supreme command of the nation's armaments were
essential to the end they had in view, namely, strength derived from
unity. Hitherto, each feudatory had assessed and collected taxes
within his fief according to his own free-will, had exercised the
right of legislation, and had held the command of all troops within
his territories.
The continuance of such conditions would have defeated the purpose of
the reformers. This they recognized. But how were these prescriptive
privileges to be abolished? An Imperial mandate might indeed have
been issued, but even an Imperial mandate without the means of
enforcing it would probably have proved futile. In fact, compulsion
in any form could not be employed: the only resource was persuasion.
The feudatories of Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa, and Hizen were the four
most puissant in the empire. They were persuaded to surrender their
fiefs to the Throne and to ask for reorganization under a uniform
system of law. This example found many imitators. Out of the whole
276 feudatories only seventeen failed to make a similar surrender. It
was a wonderful display of patriotic altruism in the case of some, at
any rate, of the daimyo. But, at the same time, many undoubtedly
obeyed the suggestions of their chief vassals without fully
appreciating the cost of obedience. It had long been their habit to
abandon the management of their affairs to seneschals (karo), and
they followed the custom on this occasion without profound
reflection.
With the samurai at large, however, the case was different. For them,
the preservation of the fief had always been the prime object of
interest and fealty. To uphold it concerned their honour; to preserve
it, their means of livelihood. Nothing could have been more
remarkable than that these men should have quietly acquiesced in the
surrender of legislative and financial autonomy by their chiefs. The
most credible explanation is that on this great occasion the samurai
obeyed their habitual custom of associating some form of
self-immolation with every signal deed.
THE NEW ORGANIZATION
The total abolition of feudalism may be said to have now come in
sight, but the leading progressists adopted all precautions to
consummate their programme without disturbance. They resolved to
preserve, at the outset, the semblance of the old system, and to that
end the ex-feudatories were nominated to the post of governor in the
districts where they had formerly exercised autonomic power. The
samurai, however, were left in possession of their incomes and
official positions. It was enacted that each governor should receive
yearly one-tenth of the revenue of his former fief; that the
emoluments of the samurai should be taken in full from the same
source, and that the surplus, if any, should go to the Central
Government.
The latter was organized with seven departments, namely, Religion,
Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Army and Navy, Finance, Justice, and
Law. This Cabinet was presided over by a premier--necessarily an
Imperial prince--and by a vice-premier. Moreover, it was assisted by
a body of eighteen councillors, who comprised the leaders of reform.
Evidently, however, all this was only partial. It is true that the
fiefs (hari) had been converted into prefectures (ken), and it is
also true that the daimyo had become mere governors. But, on the
other hand, the local revenues continued to pass through the hands of
the governors, and in the same hands remained the control of the
samurai and the right of appointing and dismissing prefectural
officials. A substantial beginning had been made, however, and
presently another appeal being addressed to the ex-daimyo, they were
induced to petition for the surrender of their local autonomy. The
same plan was pursued in the case of the samurai. It was essential
that these should cease to be hereditary soldiers and officials and
should be reabsorbed into the mass of the people from whom they had
sprung originally. Following the course which had proved so
successful with the feudatories, a number of samurai were induced to
memorialize for permission to lay aside their swords and revert to
agriculture. But neither in the case of the feudatories nor in that
of the samurai were these self-sacrificing petitions carried into
immediate practice. They merely served as models.
CLAN REPRESENTATION
It may well be supposed that the ambitions of the great clans by
which this revolution has been effected proved somewhat difficult
to reconcile. The Satsuma feudatory was the first to take umbrage.
He contended that, in selecting the high officials of the new
organization, sufficient account had not been taken of the services
of his fief. With considerable difficulty he was satisfied by his
own appointment to an office second only to that of prime minister.
This incident led, however, to an agreement under which each of
the great clans, Satsuma, Choshu, Hizen, and Tosa, should be
equally represented in the Government. Thus, the "principle
of clan-representation received practical recognition in the
organization of the Government. It continued to be recognized for
many years, and ultimately became the chief target of attack by
party-politicians." It was further arranged, at this time, that each
of the above four clans should furnish a contingent of troops to
guard the sovereign's person and to form the nucleus of a national
army.
ABOLITION OF LOCAL AUTONOMY
It being now considered safe to advance to the next stage of the
mediatization of the fiefs, the Emperor issued an edict abolishing
local autonomy; removing the sometime daimyo from their post of
prefectural governor; providing that the local revenues should
thereafter be sent into the central treasury; declaring the
appointment and dismissal of officials to be among the prerogatives
of the Imperial Government; directing that the ex-feudatories should
continue to receive one-tenth of their former incomes but that they
should make Tokyo* their place of permanent residence, and ordaining
that the samurai should be left in continued and undisturbed
possession of all their hereditary pensions and allowances.
*Yedo was now called Tokyo, or "Eastern Capital;" and Kyoto was named
Saikyo, or "Western Capital."
These changes were not so momentous as might be supposed at first
sight. It is true that the ex-feudatories were reduced to the
position of private gentlemen without even a patent of nobility. But,
as a matter of fact, the substance of administrative power had never
been possessed by them: it had been left in most cases to their
seneschals. Thus, the loss of what they had never fully enjoyed did
not greatly distress them. Moreover, they were left in possession of
the accumulated funds of their former fiefs, and, at the same time,
an income of one-tenth of their feudal revenues was guaranteed to
them--a sum which generally exceeded their former incomes when from
the latter had been deducted all charges on account of the
maintenance of the fiefs. Therefore, the sacrifice they were required
to make was not so bitter after all, but that it was a very
substantial sacrifice there can be no question.
THE SAMURAI'S POSITION
The above edict was promulgated on August 29, 1871; that is to say,
nearly four years after the fall of the Tokugawa. The samurai,
however, remained to be dealt with. Feudalism could not be said to
have been abolished so long as the samurai continued to be a class
apart. These men numbered four hundred thousand and with their
families represented a total of about two million souls. They were
the empire's soldiers, and in return for devoting their lives to
military service they held incomes, some for life, others hereditary,
and these emoluments aggregated two millions sterling annually. No
reformer, however radical, would have suggested the sudden
disestablishment of the samurai system or advocated the wholesale
deprivation of incomes won by their forefathers as a reward for loyal
service to the State or to the fiefs.
The Government dealt with this problem much as it had done with the
problem of the feudatories. In 1873, an Imperial decree announced
that the treasury was ready to commute the samurai's incomes on the
basis of six-years' purchase in the place of hereditary pensions and
four years for life-pensions, half of the money to be paid in cash
and the remainder in bonds carrying eight per cent, interest. This
measure was in no sense compulsory; the samurai were free to accept
or reject it. Not a few chose the former course, but a large majority
continued to wear their swords and draw their pensions as of old. The
Government, however, felt that there could be no paltering with the
situation. Shortly after the issue of the above edict a conscription
law was enacted, by which every adult male became liable for military
service, whatever his social status. Naturally, this law shocked the
samurai. The heavy diminution of their incomes hurt them less,
perhaps, than the necessity of laying aside their swords and of
giving up their traditional title to represent their country in arms.
They had imagined that service in the army and navy would be reserved
exclusively for them and their sons, whereas by the conscription law
the commonest unit of the people became equally eligible.
ENGRAVING: KIDO KOIN
FRICTION AMONG THE LEADERS OF REFORM
It could not have: been expected that this manner of treating the
samurai would obtain universal approval. Already, too, the strain of
constructive statesmanship had developed friction among the
progressist leaders who had easily marched abreast for destructive
purposes. They differed about the subject of a national assembly,
some being inclined to attach more practical importance than others
to the Emperor's coronation oath that a broadly based deliberative
assembly should be convened. A small number of zealous reformers
wished to regard this as a promise of a national assembly, but the
great majority of the progressist leaders interpreted it merely as a
guarantee against the undue preponderance of any one clan. In fact,
according to the view of the latter party the broadly based
deliberative assembly was regarded solely as an instrument for
eliciting the views of the samurai, and entirely without legislative
power. Such an assembly was actually convened in the early years of
the Meiji era, but its second session proved it to be nothing more
than a debating club and it was suffered to lapse out of existence.
A more perplexing problem now (1873) presented itself, however. The
Korean Court deliberately abandoned the custom followed by it since
the time of Hideyoshi's invasion--the custom of sending a
present-bearing embassy to felicitate the accession of each shogun.
Moreover, this step was accompanied by an offensive despatch
announcing a determination to cease all relations with a renegade
from the civilization of the Orient. It may well be imagined how
indignantly this attitude of the neighbouring kingdom was resented by
Japan. The prominent leaders of national reform at that time were
Sanjo and Iwakura, originally Court nobles;* Saigo and Okubo, samurai
of Satsuma, and Kido, a samurai of Choshu. In the second rank were
several men destined afterwards to attain great celebrity--the late
Prince Ito, Marquis Inouye, Count Okuma, Count Itagaki--often spoken
of as the "Rousseau of Japan"--and several others.
*The distinction between Court nobles and territorial nobles had been
abolished in 1871.
ENGRAVING: SANJO SANETOMI
The first five, however, were pre-eminent at the moment when Korea
sent her offensive message. They were not, however, absolutely united
as to policy. Saigo Takamori held some conservative opinions, the
chief of which was that he wished to preserve the military class in
their old position of the empire's only soldiers. He had, therefore,
greatly resented the conscription law, and while his discontent was
still fresh, the Korean problem presented itself for solution. In
Saigo's eyes an oversea war offered the only chance of saving the
samurai, since the conscription law had not yet produced any
trustworthy soldiers. He therefore voted to draw the sword at once,
and in this he obtained the support of several influential men who
burned to avenge the nation's disgrace. On the other hand, those in
favour of peace insisted that the country must not venture to engage
in a foreign war during the era of radical transition.
The discussion was carried to the Emperor's presence; the peace-party
prevailed, and Saigo with three other Cabinet ministers resigned. One
of the seceders, Eto Shimpei, had recourse to arms, but was speedily
crushed. Another, Itagaki Taisuke, from that moment stood forth as
the champion of representative institutions. The third, the most
prominent of all, Saigo Takamori, retired to Satsuma and devoted
himself to organizing and equipping a strong body of samurai. It is
not by any means clear that, in thus acting, Saigo had any
revolutionary intention. Posterity agrees in thinking that he sought
to exercise control rather than to inspire revolt. He had the support
of Shimazu Saburo (Hisamitsu), former feudatory of Satsuma, who,
although a reformer, resented a wholesale abandonment of Japanese
customs in favour of foreign. The province of Satsuma thus became a
seed-plot of conservative influences, where "Saigo and his constantly
augmenting band of samurai found a congenial environment." On the one
hand, the Central Government steadily proceeded with the organization
of a conscript army, teaching it foreign tactics and equipping it
with foreign arms. On the other, the southern clan cherished its band
of samurai, arming them with the rifle and drilling them in the
manner of Europe, but leaving them always in possession of the
samurai's sword.
ENGRAVING: IWAKURA TOMOYOSHI
THE FORMOSAN EXPEDITION
Before these curious conditions bore any practical fruit, Japan found
it necessary to send a military expedition to Formosa. That island
was claimed as part of China's domains, but it was not administered
by her effectively, and its inhabitants showed great barbarity in
their treatment of castaways from the Ryukyu, or Loochoo, Islands.
The Chinese Government's plain function was to punish these acts of
cruelty, but as the Peking statesmen showed no disposition to
discharge their duty in that respect, Japan took the law into her own
hands. A double purpose was thus served. For the expedition to
Formosa furnished employment for the Satsuma samurai, and, at the
same time, assured the Ryukyu islanders that Japan was prepared to
protect them.
The campaign in Formosa proved a very tame affair. It amounted to the
shooting-down of a few semi-savages. No attempt was made to penetrate
into the ulterior of the island, where, as modern experience shows,
many great difficulties would have had to be overcome. Peking took
serious umbrage on account of Japan's high-handed conduct--for such
it seemed to Chinese eyes. In the first place, the statesmen of the
Middle Kingdom contended that the Ryukyu Islands could not properly
be regarded as an integral part of the Japanese empire; and in the
second place, they claimed that, in attacking Formosa, Japan had
invaded Chinese territory. After a long interchange of despatches the
Tokyo Government sent an ambassador to Peking, and a peaceful
solution was found in the payment by China of a small indemnity, and
the recognition of Formosa as a part of the Middle Kingdom.*
*The indemnity amounted to 500,000 dollars (Mexican).
THE KOREAN QUESTION AGAIN
The Formosan expedition took place in 1874, and, in the fall of 1875,
a Korean fort opened fire on a Japanese warship which was engaged in
surveying the coast. Such an insult could not be tamely endured.
Japan marshalled an imposing number of warships and transports, but,
following the example set in her own case by Commodore Perry, she
employed this flotilla to intimidate Korea into signing a treaty of
amity and commerce and opening certain ports to foreign trade. Thus,
Korea was drawn from her hereditary isolation, and to Japan fell the
credit of having become an instrument for extending the principle of
universal intercourse which she had herself so stoutly opposed during
two and a half centuries. It was a clever coup, but it earned little
credit with the samurai. They regarded such a settlement as
derogatory to their country.
ABOLITION OF THE SAMURAI
It was at this stage that the Tokyo Government felt itself strong
enough to resort to conclusive measures in the cases of the samurai.
Three years had now passed since the wearing of swords had been
declared optional and since a scheme for the voluntary commutation of
the samurai's pensions had been elaborated. The leaders of progress
felt that the time had now come to make these measures compulsory,
and, accordingly, two edicts were issued in that sense. The edicts,
especially their financial provisions, imposed a heavy sacrifice. But
it is very noticeable that the momentary question evoked no protests.
It was to the loss of their swords that a number of samurai objected
strenuously. Some scores of them, wearing old-fashioned armour and
equipped with hereditary weapons, attacked a castle, killed or
wounded three hundred of the garrison, and then died by their own
hands. Here and there throughout the empire a few equally vain
protests were raised, and finally the Satsuma samurai took the field.
THE SATSUMA REBELLION
This insurrection in the south severely taxed the resources of the
Central Government. The Satsuma samurai were led by Saigo Takamori,
but it has always been claimed for him that he undertook the command,
not for the purpose of overthrowing the Meiji Government, but in the
hope of restraining his followers. Ultimately, however, he seems to
have been swept away by the tide of their enthusiasm. The insurgents
numbered some forty thousand; they all belonged to the samurai class,
were fully trained in Occidental tactics, and were equipped with
rifles and field-guns. Their avowed purpose was to restore the
military class to its old position, and to insure to it all the posts
in the army and the navy.
Fighting began on January 29, 1877, and ended on September 24th of
the same year. All the rebel leaders fell in battle or died by their
own hands. During these eight months of warfare, the Government put
sixty-six thousand men into the field, and the casualties on both
sides totalled thirty-five thousand, or thirty-three per cent, of the
whole. Apart from the great issue directly at stake, namely, whether
Japan should have a permanent military class, a secondary problem of
much interest found a solution in the result. It was the problem
whether an army of conscripts, supposed to be lacking in the fighting
instinct and believed to be incapable of standing up to do battle
with the samurai, could hold its own against the flower of the bushi,
as the Satsuma men undoubtedly were. There really never was any
substantial reason for doubt about such a subject. The samurai were
not racially distinct from the bulk of the nation. They had
originally been mere farmers, possessing no special military
aptitude. Nevertheless, among all the reforms introduced during the
Meiji era, none was counted so hazardous as the substitution of a
conscript army for the nation's traditional soldiers. The Satsuma
rebellion disposed finally of the question.
ENGRAVING: SAIGO TAKAMORI
EDUCATION OF THE NATION
Meanwhile the Government had been strenuously seeking to equip the
people with the products of Western civilization. It has been shown
that the men who sat in the seats of power during the first decade of
the Meiji era owed their exalted position to their own intellectual
superiority and far-seeing statesmanship. That such men should become
the nation's teachers would have been natural anywhere. But in Japan
there was a special reason for the people's need of official
guidance. It had become a traditional habit of the Japanese to look
to officialdom for example and direction in everything, and this
habit naturally asserted itself with special force when there was
question of assimilating a foreign civilization which for nearly
three centuries had been an object of national repugnance. The
Government, in short, had to inspire the reform movement and, at the
same time, to furnish models of its working.
The task was approached with wholesale energy by those in power. In
general the direction of the work was divided among foreigners of
different nations. Frenchmen were employed in revising the criminal
code and in teaching strategy and tactics to the Japanese army. The
building of railways, the installation of telegraphs and of
lighthouses, and the new navy were turned over to English engineers
and sailors. Americans were employed in the formation of a postal
service, in agricultural reforms, and in planning colonization and an
educational system. In an attempt to introduce Occidental ideas of
art Italian sculptors and painters were brought to Japan. And German
experts were asked to develop a system of local government, to train
Japanese physicians, and to educate army officers. Great misgivings
were expressed by foreign onlookers at this juncture. They found it
impossible to believe that such wholesale adoption of an alien
civilization could not be attended with due eclecticism, and they
constantly predicted a violent reaction. But all these pessimistic
views were contradicted by results. There was no reaction, and the
memory of the apprehensions then freely uttered finds nothing but
ridicule to-day.
FINANCE
One of the chief difficulties with which the Meiji statesmen had to
contend was finance. When they took over the treasury from the Bakufu
there were absolutely no funds in hand, and for some years, as has
been shown above, all the revenues of the former fiefs were locally
expended, no part of them, except a doubtful surplus, finding its way
to the Imperial treasury. The only resource was an issue of paper
money. Such tokens of exchange had been freely employed since the
middle of the seventeenth century, and at the time of the
mediatization of the fiefs, 1694 kinds of notes were in circulation.
The first business of the Government should have been to replace
these unsecured tokens with uniform and sound media of exchange. But
instead of performing that duty the Meiji statesmen saw themselves
compelled to follow the evil example set by the fiefs in past times.
Government notes were issued. They fell at the outset to a discount
of fifty per cent, and various devices, more or less despotic, were
employed to compel their circulation at par. By degrees, however, the
Government's credit improved, and thus, though the issues of
inconvertible notes aggregated sixty million yen at the close of the
first five years of the Meiji era, they passed freely from hand to
hand without discount. But, of course, the need for funds in
connexion with the wholesale reforms and numerous enterprises
inaugurated officially became more and more pressing, so that in the
fourteenth year (1881) after the Restoration, the face value of the
notes in circulation aggregated 180 million yen, and they stood at a
heavy discount.
The Government, after various tentative and futile efforts to correct
this state of depreciation, set themselves to deal radically with the
problem. Chiefly by buying exporters' bills and further by reducing
administrative expenditures as well as by taxing alcohol, a
substantial specie reserve was gradually accumulated, and, by 1885,
the volume of fiduciary notes having been reduced to 119 millions,
whereas the treasury vaults contained forty-five millions of precious
metals, the resumption of specie payments was announced. As for the
national debt, it had its origin in the commutation of the
feudatories' incomes and the samurai's pensions. A small fraction of
these outlays was defrayed with ready money, but the great part took
the form of public loan-bonds. These bonds constituted the bulk of
the State's liabilities during the first half-cycle of the Meiji era,
and when we add the debts of the fiefs, which the Central Government
took over; two small foreign loans; the cost of quelling the Satsuma
rebellion, and various debts incurred on account of public works,
naval construction, and minor purposes, we arrive at the broad fact
that the entire national debt of Japan did not exceed 305 million yen
at the close of the twenty-eighth year of her new era.
A war with China in 1894-1895--to be presently spoken of--and a war
with Russia in 1904-1905, together with the price paid for the
nationalization of railways and for various undertakings, brought the
whole debt of the nation to 2300 million yen in 1907, which is now
being paid off at the rate of fifty million yen annually. It remains
to be noted that, in 1897, Japan took the momentous step of adopting
gold monometallism. The indemnity which she obtained from China after
the war of 1894-1895 brought to her treasury a stock of gold
sufficient to form a substantial specie reserve. Moreover, gold had
appreciated so that its value in terms of silver had exactly doubled
during the first thirty years of the Meiji era. There was
consequently no arithmetical complication connected with the adoption
of the single gold standard. It was only necessary to double the
denomination, leaving the silver subsidiary coins unchanged.
EDUCATION
In the field of education the Meiji statesmen effected speedy
reforms. Comparatively little attention had been directed to this
subject by the rulers of medieval Japan, and the fact that the Meiji
leaders appreciated the necessity of studying the arts and sciences
of the new civilization simultaneously with the adoption of its
products, bears strong testimony to the insight of these remarkable
men. Very shortly after the abolition of feudalism, an extensive
system of public schools was organized and education was made
compulsory. There were schools, colleges, and universities, all
modelled on foreign lines with such alterations as the special
customs of the nation dictated. These institutions grew steadily in
public favour, and to-day over ninety per cent, of boys and girls who
have attained the school age receive education in the common
elementary schools, the average annual cost per child being about 8s.
6d. ($2.00), to which the parents contribute 1.75d. (3.5 cents) per
month. Youths receiving education enjoy certain exemption from
conscription, but as this is in strict accordance with the Western
system, it need not be dwelt upon here.
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION
For purposes of local administration the empire is divided into
prefectures (ken), counties (gun), towns (shi), and districts (cho or
son). The three metropolitan prefectures of Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto
are called fu, and their districts are distinguished as "urban" (cho)
and "rural" (son), according to the number of houses they contain.
The prefectures derive their names from their chief towns. The
principle of popular representation is strictly adhered to, every
prefecture, every county, every town, and every district having its
own local assembly, wherein the number of members is fixed in
proportion to the population. These bodies are all elected. The
enjoyment of the franchise depends upon a property qualification
which, in the case of prefectural and county assemblies, is an annual
payment of direct national taxes to the amount of three yen (6s.,
$1.50); in the case of town and district assemblies two yen; and in
the case of prefectural assemblies, ten yen. There are other
arrangements to secure the due representation of property, the
electors being divided into classes according to their aggregate
payment to the national treasury. Three such classes exist, and each
elects one-third of an assembly's members. There is no payment for
the members of an assembly, but all salaried officials, ministers of
religion, and contractors for public works, as well as persons unable
to write their own names and the names of the candidates for whom
they vote, are denied the franchise.
A prefectural assembly holds one session of thirty days annually; and
a county assembly, one session of not more than fourteen days; while
the town and district assemblies are summoned by the mayor or the
headman whenever recourse to their deliberation appears expedient.
Each prefecture has a prefect (governor) and each county assembly has
a headman. Both are appointed by the Central Administration, but an
assembly has competence to appeal to the minister of Home Affairs
from the prefect's decisions. In the districts, also, there are
headmen, but their post is always elective and generally
non-salaried. Other details of the local-government system are here
omitted. It suffices to say that the system has been in operation for
over thirty years and has been found satisfactory in practice.
Moreover, these assemblies constitute excellent schools for the
political education of the people.
THE CONSTITUTION
It has already been shown that the sovereign's so-called coronation
oath did not contemplate a national assembly in the Western sense of
the term. The first assembly convened in obedience to the oath
consisted of nobles and samurai only, and was found to be a virtually
useless body. Not till 1873, when Itagaki Taisuke, seceding from the
Cabinet on account of the Korean complication, became a warm advocate
of appealing national questions to an elective assembly, did the
people at large come to understand what was involved in such an
institution. Thenceforth Itagaki became the centre of a more or less
enthusiastic group of men advocating a parliamentary system, some
from sincere motives, and others from a conviction that their failure
to obtain posts was in a manner due to the oligarchical form of their
country's polity.
When the Satsuma rebellion broke out, four years later, this band of
Tosa agitators memorialized the Government, charging it with
administering affairs in despite of public opinion; with ignoring
popular rights, and with levelling down instead of up, since the
samurai had been reduced to the class of commoners, whereas the
latter should have been educated to the standard of the former. But
the statesmen in power insisted that the nation was not yet ready to
enjoy constitutional privileges. They did not, indeed, labour under
any delusion as to the ultimate direction in which their reforms
tended, but they were determined to move gradually, not
precipitately. They had already (1874) arranged for the convention of
an annual assembly of prefects who should act as channels of
communication between the central authorities and the people in the
provinces. This was designed to be the embryo of representative
institutions, though obviously it bore that character in a very
limited degree only.
In the following year (1875), the second step was taken by organizing
a Senate (Genro-in), which consisted of official nominees and was
charged with the duty of discussing and revising laws and ordinances
prior to their promulgation. But it had no power of initiative, and
its credit in the eyes of the nation was more or less injured by the
fact that its members consisted for the most part of men for whom no
posts could be found in the administration and who, without some
steadying influence, might have been drawn into the current of
discontent.
At this stage, an event occurred which probably moved the Government
to greater expedition. In the spring of 1878, the great statesman,
Okubo Toshimitsu, who had acted such a prominent part on the stage of
the reformation drama, was assassinated. His slayers were avowedly
sympathizers of Saigo, but in their statement of motives they
assigned as their principal incentive the Government's failure to
establish representative institutions. They belonged to a province
far removed from Satsuma, and their explanation of the murder showed
that they had little knowledge of Saigo's real sentiments. But the
nation saw in them champions of a constitutional form of government,
and the authorities appreciated the necessity of greater expedition.
Thus, two months after Okubo's death, the establishment of elective
assemblies in the prefectures and cities was proclaimed.
ENGRAVING: OKUBO TOSHIMITSU
Reference has already been made to these and it will suffice here to
note that their principal functions were to determine the amount and
object of local taxes; to audit the accounts for the previous year;
and to petition the Central Government, should that seem expedient.
These assemblies represented the foundations of genuinely
representative institutions, for although they lacked legislative
power, they discharged parliamentary functions in other respects. In
fact, they served as excellent training schools for the future Diet.
But this did not at all satisfy Itagaki and his followers. They had
now persuaded themselves that without a national assembly it would be
impossible to oust the clique of clansmen who monopolized the prizes
of power. Accordingly, Itagaki organized an association called
Jiyu-to (Liberals), the first political party in Japan. Between the
men in office and these visionary agitators a time of friction, more
or less severe, ensued. The Government withheld from the people the
privileges of free speech and public meeting, so that the press and
the platform found themselves in frequent collision with the police.
Thus, little by little, the Liberals came to be regarded as victims
of official tyranny, so that they constantly obtained fresh
adherents.
Three years subsequently (1881), another political crisis occurred.
Okuma Shigenobu resigned his portfolio, and was followed into private
life by many able politicians and administrators. These organized
themselves into a party ultimately called Progressists (Shimpo-to),
who, although they professed the same doctrine as the Liberals, were
careful to maintain an independent attitude; thus showing that
"Japan's first political parties were grouped, not about principles,
but about persons."*
*Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th edition); article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
It must not be supposed for a moment that the Progressists were
conservative. There was no such thing as real conservatism in Japan
at that time. The whole nation exhaled the breath of progress.
Okuma's secession was followed quickly by an edict promising the
convention of a national assembly in ten years. Confronted by this
engagement, the political parties might have been expected to lay
down their arms. But a great majority of them aimed at ousting the
clan-statesmen rather than at setting up a national assembly. Thus,
having obtained a promise of a parliament, they applied themselves to
exciting anti-official sentiments in the future electorates; and as
the Government made no attempt to controvert the prejudices thus
excited, it was evident that when the promised parliament came into
existence, it would become an arena for vehement attacks upon the
Cabinet.
Of course, as might have been expected, the ten years of agitated
waiting, between 1881 and 1891, were often disfigured by recourse to
violence. Plots to assassinate ministers; attempts to employ
dynamite; schemes to bring about an insurrection in Korea--such
things were not infrequent. There were also repeated dispersions of
political meetings by order of police inspectors, as well as
suspensions or suppressions of newspapers by the fiat of the Home
minister. Ultimately it became necessary to enact a law empowering
the police to banish persons of doubtful character from Tokyo without
legal trial, and even to arrest and detain such persons on suspicion.
In 1887, the Progressist leader, Okuma, rejoined the Cabinet for a
time as minister of Foreign Affairs, but after a few months of office
his leg was shattered by a bomb and he retired into private life and
founded the Waseda University in Tokyo.
It may indeed be asserted that during the decade immediately prior to
the opening of the national assembly, "an anti-Government propaganda
was incessantly preached from the platform and in the press." The
Tokyo statesmen, however, were not at all discouraged. They proceeded
with their reforms unflinchingly. In 1885, the ministry was recast,
Ito Hirobumi--the same Prince Ito who afterwards fell in Manchuria
under the pistol of an assassin--being appointed premier and the
departments of State being reorganized on European lines. Then a
nobility was created, with five orders, prince, marquis, count,
viscount, and baron. The civil and penal laws were codified. The
finances were placed on a sound footing. A national bank with a
network of subordinate institutions was established. Railway
construction was pushed on steadily. Postal and telegraph services
were extended. The foundations of a strong mercantile marine were
laid. A system of postal savings-banks was instituted. Extensive
schemes of harbour improvement, roads, and riparian works were
planned and put into operation. The portals of the civil service were
made accessible solely by competitive examination. A legion of
students was sent westward to complete their education, and the
country's foreign affairs were managed with comparative skill.
PROMULGATION OF THE CONSTITUTION
On the 11th of February, 1889, the Constitution was promulgated amid
signs of universal rejoicing. The day was signalized, however, by a
terrible deed. Viscount Mori, one of Japan's most enlightened
statesmen, was stabbed to death by Nishino Buntaro, a mere stripling,
the motive being to avenge what the murderer regarded as a
sacrilegious act, namely, that the viscount, when visiting the shrine
at Ise in the previous year, had partially raised one of the curtains
with his cane. The explanation given of this extraordinary act by a
modern historian is that "Japan was suffering at the time from an
attack of hysterical loyalty, and the shrine at Ise being dedicated
to the progenitrix of the country's sovereigns, it seemed to Nishino
Buntaro that when high officials began to touch the sacred
paraphernalia with walking-sticks, the foundations of Imperialism
were menaced." An interesting light is thrown upon the Japanese
character in the sequel of this crime. During many subsequent years
the tomb of Nishino received the homage of men and women who
"worshipped achievement without regard to the nature of the thing
achieved." There was a similar furore of enthusiasm over the would-be
assassin of Okuma.
PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION
The framers of the Constitution, chief among whom was Prince Ito,
naturally took care not to make its provisions too liberal. The
minimum age for electors and elected was fixed at twenty-five and the
property qualification at payment of direct taxes aggregating not
less than fifteen yen (30s. $7.20) annually.
A bicameral system was adopted. The House of Peers was in part
hereditary, in part elective (one representative of the highest
tax-payers in each prefecture), and in part nominated by the
sovereign (from among men of signal attainments), while the House of
Representatives consisted of three hundred elected members. In the
eyes of party politicians this property qualification was much too
high; it restricted the number of franchise-holders to 460,000 in a
nation of nearly fifty millions. A struggle for the extension of the
franchise commenced immediately, and, after nearly ten years, the
Government framed a bill lowering the qualification to ten yen for
electors; dispensing with it altogether in the case of candidates;
inaugurating secret ballots; extending the limits of the electorates
so as to include the whole of a prefecture, and increasing the
members of the lower house to 363. By this change of qualification
the number of franchise holders was nearly doubled.
ENGRAVING: THE LATE PRINCE ITO
As for the provisions of the Constitution, they differed in no
respect from those of the most advanced Western standard. One
exception to this statement must be noted, however. The wording of
the document lent itself to the interpretation that a ministry's
tenure of office depended solely on the sovereign's will. In other
words, a Cabinet received its mandate from the Throne, not from the
Diet. This reservation immediately became an object of attack by
party politicians. They did not venture to protest against the
arrangement as an Imperial prerogative. The people would not have
endured such a protest. The only course open for the party
politicians was to prove practically that a ministry not responsible
to the legislature is virtually impotent for legislation.
Success has not attended this essay. The Throne continues, nominally
at all events, to appoint and dismiss ministers. As for the
proceedings of the diet, the most salient feature was that, from the
very outset, the party politicians in the lower chamber engaged in
successive attacks upon the holders of power. This had been fully
anticipated; for during the whole period of probation antecedent to
the meeting of the first Diet, the party politicians had been
suffered to discredit the Cabinet by all possible means, whereas the
Cabinet had made no effort to win for themselves partisans in the
electorates. They relied wholly upon the sovereign's prerogative, and
stood aloof from alliances of any kind, apparently indifferent to
everything but their duty to their country. Fortunately, the House of
Peers ranged itself steadfastly on the side of the Cabinet throughout
this struggle, and thus the situation was often saved from apparently
pressing danger. The war with China (1894-1895) greatly enhanced the
Diet's reputation; for all the political parties, laying aside their
differences, without a dissenting voice voted funds for the
prosecution of the campaign.
POLITICAL PARTIES
During several years the House of Representatives continued to be
divided into two great parties with nearly equally balanced
power--the Liberals and the Progressists, together with a few minor
coteries. But, in 1898, the Liberals and Progressists joined hands,
thus coming to wield a large majority in the lower house. Forthwith,
the Emperor, on the advice of Prince Ito, invited Counts Okuma and
Itagaki to form a Cabinet. An opportunity was thus given to the
parties to prove the practical possibility of the system they had so
long lauded in theory. The united parties called themselves
Constitutionists (Kensei-to). Their union lasted barely six months,
and then "the new links snapped under the tension of the old
enmities."
A strange thing now happened. The Liberals invited Prince Ito to be
their leader, and he agreed on condition that his followers should
obey him implicitly. A new and powerful party was thus formed under
the designation of Friends of the Constitution (Rikken Seiyukai).
Thus, the Liberals not only enlisted under the statesmen whose
overthrow they had for nearly twenty years sought to effect, but also
they practically expunged from their platform an essential article of
faith--parliamentary cabinets. Another proof was here furnished that
political combinations in Japan were based rather on persons than on
principles.
As for the new party, even Prince Ito's wonderful talents and
unequalled prestige failed to hold successfully the reins of the
heterogeneous team which he had now undertaken to drive. The House of
Peers opposed him on account of his association with political
parties, and he at once resigned the premiership. The party he had
formed did not, however, dissolve. Prince Ito, indeed, stepped out of
its ranks, but he was succeeded by his intimate friend, Marquis
Saionji, one of Japan's blue-blooded aristocrats, and to him the
Constitutionists have yielded implicit obedience ever since. For the
rest, it is impossible to foresee what the outcome of the
parliamentary system will be in Japan. Up to the present the
principal lesson learned by politicians seems to have been the value
of patience. The Constitutionists have shown that they are quite
ready to support a Cabinet entirely independent of parties, where its
measures seem conducive to the nation's good. Such a Cabinet was that
of Prince Katsura, who, in turn, after three years' tenure of office,
stepped down quietly in August, 1911, to make way for the
Constitutionists, under Marquis Saionji. In a word, the nation seems
to have arrived at the conclusion that these parliamentary problems
cannot be safely solved except by long and deliberate experiment.*
*For minute information about party politics and parliamentary
procedure see the "Oriental Series," Vol. IV.
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
The growth of agricultural and industrial enterprise is one of the
most remarkable features of modern Japan. Up to the beginning of the
Meiji era, agriculture almost monopolized attention, manufacturing
industry being altogether of a domestic character. Speaking broadly,
the gross area of land in Japan, exclusive of Saghalien, Korea, and
Formosa is seventy-five million acres, and of this only some
seventeen millions are arable. It may well be supposed that as rice
is the principal staple of foodstuff, and as the area over which it
can be produced is so limited, the farmers have learned to apply very
intensive methods of cultivation. Thus it is estimated that they
spend annually twelve millions sterling--$60,000,000--on fertilizers.
By unflinching industry and skilled processes, the total yield of
rice has been raised to an annual average of about fifty million
koku; that is to say, two hundred and fifty million bushels. But the
day cannot be far distant when the growth of the population will
outstrip that of this essential staple, and unless the assistance of
Korea and Formosa can be successfully enlisted, a problem of extreme
difficulty may present itself. Meanwhile, manufacturing industry has
increased by leaps and bounds. Thus, whereas at the opening of the
Meiji era, every manufacture was of a domestic character, and such a
thing as a joint-stock company did not exist, there are now fully
11,000 factories giving employment to 700,000 operatives, and the
number of joint-stock companies aggregates 9000. Evidently, Japan
threatens to become a keen competitor of Europe and America in all
the markets of the Orient, for she possesses the advantage of
propinquity, and as well an abundance of easily trained labour. But
there are two important conditions that offset these advantages. In
the first place Japanese wages have increased so rapidly that in the
last fifteen years they have nearly doubled, and, secondly, it must
be remembered that Japanese labour is not so efficient as that of
Europe and America.
ENGRAVING: SEAL OF MUTSUHITO, THE LATE EMPEROR
RAILWAYS
The work of railway construction, which may be said to have commenced
with the Meiji era, has not advanced as rapidly as some other
undertakings. The country has now only 5770 miles of lines open to
traffic and 1079 miles under construction. All these railways may be
said to have been built with domestic capital. Nearly the whole was
nationalized in 1907, so that the State has paid out altogether
sixty-six million pounds sterling--$325,000,000--on account of
railways, an investment which yields a net return of about three and
a half millions sterling--$17,000,000--annually.
THE MERCANTILE MARINE
Another direction in which Japanese progress has been very marked is
in the development of a mercantile marine. At an early period of the
country's modern history, her statesmen recognized that transports
are as necessary to the safety of a State as are soldiers, and, in
fact, that the latter cannot be utilized without the former. The
Government, therefore, encouraged with liberal subsidies and
grants-in-aid the purchase or construction of ships, the result being
that whereas, in 1871, Japan's mercantile marine comprised only
forty-six ships with a total tonnage of 17,948, the corresponding
figures in 1910 were 6436 and 1,564,443 respectively. In the war with
China in 1894-1895, as well as in that with Russia in 1904-1905,
Japan was able to carry large armies to the Asiatic continent in her
own vessels, thus demonstrating the wisdom of the policy pursued by
the Government, although it had been habitually denounced by the
enemies of subsidies in any circumstances. Shipbuilding yards had
also been called into existence, and there are now four of them where
vessels aggregating 87,495 tons have been built.
THE ARMY
It has been seen that the Satsuma rebellion of 1877 severely taxed
the military resources of the empire. In fact, the organization of
special brigades to supplement the conscripts was found necessary.
Therefore, two years later, the conscription law was revised, the
total term of service being increased from seven years to ten, with
the result that the number of trained soldiers who could be called
out in case of war became larger by fully one-half. Further, in 1882,
another expansion of armaments was effected in obedience to an
Imperial decree, so that when war with China broke out in 1894, Japan
possessed an available force of seven divisions (including the
guards), and these, raised to a war-footing, represented about
150,000 men. She had already learned that, however civilized the
Occident might claim to be, all the great States of the West depended
mainly on military and naval force, and that only by a demonstration
of that force could international respect be won.
Of course, this creed was not publicly proclaimed. Firmly as Japanese
statesmen believed it, they could not confess their conviction openly
in the Diet, and therefore much difficulty was experienced in
inducing the two houses to endorse the Government's scheme of
increased armaments. Indeed, the subject came to be a frequent topic
of discussion between the Cabinet and the House of Representatives,
and in the end Japan was obliged to go into war against China without
a single line-of-battle ship, though her adversary possessed two.
Nevertheless, the Island Empire emerged signally victorious.
It might have been supposed that she would then rest content with the
assurance of safety her prowess had won. But, in the immediate sequel
of the war, three of the great European powers, Russia, Germany, and
France, joined hands to deprive Japan of the fruits of her victory by
calling upon her to vacate the southern littoral of Manchuria from
the mouth of the Yalu to the Liaotung peninsula. Japan thus acquired
the conviction that her successes against China were not estimated by
Western States as any great evidence of belligerent power, and that
it would be necessary for her to fight again if she hoped to win any
considerable measure of international respect. Prince Ito, then prime
minister, keenly appreciated this necessity. He invited the Diet to
vote for a substantial increment of land and sea forces, and after
much opposition in the House of Representatives, funds were obtained
for raising the army to thirteen divisions and for an increase of the
navy which will be by and by spoken of.
The wisdom of these measures found full justification, in 1904, when
swords had to be crossed with Russia. After that war, which raised
Japan to a leading place among the nations, the old problem came up
again for solution. Once more the Elder Statesmen--as the Meiji
leaders were called--asked the Diet to maintain the organization of
the army at the point to which it had been carried during the war,
and once more the lower house of the Diet proved very difficult to
persuade. Ultimately, however, the law of military service was
revised so that the fixed establishment became nineteen divisions,
together with various special corps. It is not possible to speak with
absolute accuracy of the force that Japan is now capable of
mobilizing, but when the new system is in full working order, she
will be able to put something like a million and a half of men into
the fighting line. Her military budget amounts to only seven millions
sterling--$35,000,000--a wonderfully small sum considering the
results obtained.
THE NAVY
It has been shown how, in the year 1636, the Bakufu Government
strictly interdicted the building of all vessels of ocean-going
capacity. The veto naturally precluded enterprise in the direction of
naval expansion, and when Commodore Perry, at the head of a powerful
squadron, arrived in Uraga Bay, two centuries afterwards, the
Japanese were suddenly and vividly instructed in the enormous power
of a nation wielding such weapons of war. This object lesson having
been most practically inculcated by the bombardments of Kagoshima and
Shimonoseki, Japan saw that she must not lose one moment in equipping
herself with a naval force. At first, she had to purchase all her
ships from foreign countries, and so difficult was it to obtain
parliamentary support for these acquisitions that, as already stated,
when war with the neighbouring empire broke out in 1894, she did not
possess a single ironclad, her strongest vessels being four
second-class cruisers, which, according to modern ideas, would not be
worthy of a place in the fighting line.
During the next ten years the teachings of experience took deeper
root, and when the great combat with Russia commenced, the Japanese
navy included four ironclads and six armoured cruisers. The signal
victories obtained by her in that war did not induce any sentiment of
self-complacency. She has gone on ever since increasing her navy, and
the present programme of her statesmen is that by the end of 1921,
she will possess twenty-five units of the first fighting line; that
figure being based on the principle that she should be competent to
encounter the greatest force which any foreign State, England
excluded, will be able to mass in Far Eastern waters ten years hence.
Her annual expenditure on account of the up-keep of her navy is at
present three and one-quarter million pounds sterling $17,000,000. No
feature is more remarkable than the fact that Japan can now build and
equip in her own yards and arsenals warships of the largest size. She
is no longer dependent on foreign countries for these essentials of
safety.
ENGRAVING: NIJU-BASHI (DOUBLE BRIDGE) (Entrance to the present
Imperial Palace, at Tokyo)
CHAPTER XLVII
WARS WITH CHINA AND RUSSIA
THE SAGHALIEN COMPLICATION
ONE of the problems which invited the attention of the new Government
early in the Meiji era had been handed down from the days of
feudalism. In those days, neither Yezo nor Saghalien nor the Kurile
Islands were under effective Japanese administration. The feudatory
of Matsumae had his castle at the extreme south of Yezo, but the
jurisdiction he exercised was only nominal. Yet the earliest
explorers of Saghalien were certainly Japanese. As far back as 1620,
some vassals of the Matsumae feudatory landed on the island and
remained there throughout a winter. The supposition then was that
Saghalien formed part of the Asiatic mainland. But, in 1806, Mamiya
Rinzo, a Japanese traveller, voyaged up and down the Amur, and,
crossing to Saghalien, discovered that a narrow strait separated it
from the continent. There still exists in Europe a theory that
Saghalien's insular character was discovered first by a Russian,
Captain Nevelskoy, in 1849, but in Japan the fact had already been
known.
Saghalien commands the estuary of the Amur, and Muravieff, the
distinguished Russian commander in East Asia, appreciated the
necessity of acquiring the island for his country. In 1858, he
visited Japan with a squadron and demanded that the Strait of La
Pérouse, which separates Saghalien from Yezo, should be regarded as
the Russo-Japanese frontier. Japan naturally refused a proposal which
would have given the whole of Saghalien to Russia, and Muravieff then
resorted to the policy of sending emigrants to settle on the island.
Two futile attempts to prevent this process of gradual absorption
were made by the Japanese Government; they first proposed a division
of the island, and afterwards they offered to purchase the Russian
portion for a sum of about £400,000--$2,000,000. St. Petersburg
seemed inclined to acquiesce, but the bargain provoked opposition in
Tokyo, and not until 1875 was a final settlement reached, the
conditions being that Japan should recognize Russia's title to the
whole of Saghalien and Russia should recognize Japan's title to the
Kuriles. These latter islands had always been regarded as Japanese
property, and therefore the arrangement now effected amounted to the
purchase of an area of Japanese territory by Russia, who paid for it
with a part of Japan's belongings. An interesting sequel to this
chapter of history is that, thirty years later, Saghalien became the
scene of a Japanese invasion and was ultimately divided between the
two nations along the fiftieth parallel, which was precisely what the
Bakufu statesmen had originally proposed.
THE FORMOSAN EXPEDITION
The expedition of Formosa in 1874 has already been spoken of.
Insignificant in itself, the incident derived vicarious interest from
its effect upon the relations between Japan and China in connexion
with the ownership of the Ryukyu Islands. Lying a little south of
Japan, these islands had for some centuries been regarded as an
appanage of the Satsuma fief, and the language spoken by their
inhabitants showed unmistakable traces of affinity with the Japanese
tongue. Therefore when, in 1873, the crew of a wrecked Ryukyuan junk
was barbarously treated by the Formosan aborigines, the Yedo
Government at once sought redress from Peking. But the Chinese paid
no attention to this demand until a force of Japanese troops had made
a punitory visit to Formosa, and China, recognizing that her
territory had been invaded, lodged a protest which would probably
have involved the two empires in a war had not the British minister
in Peking intervened. The arrangement made was that China should
indemnify Japan to the extent of the expenses incurred by the latter
in punishing the aborigines.
THE RYUKYU COMPLICATION
A fact collaterally established by the Formosan affair was that the
Ryukyu Islands belonged to Japan, and, in 1876, the system of local
government already inaugurated in Japan proper was extended to
Ryukyu, the ruler of the latter being pensioned. China now formulated
a protest. She claimed that Ryukyu had always been a tributary of her
empire. But China's interpretation of "tribute" was essentially
unpractical. "So long as her own advantage could be promoted, she
regarded as a token of vassalage the presents periodically carried to
her Court from neighbouring States, but so soon as there arose any
question of discharging a suzerain's duties, she classed these
offerings as an insignificant interchange of neighbourly courtesy."
Undoubtedly Ryukyu, from time to time, had followed the custom of
despatching gift-bearing envoys to Peking, just as Japan herself had
done. But it was on clear record that Ryukyu had been subdued by
Satsuma without any attempt whatever on China's part to save the
islands from that fate; that thereafter, during two centuries, they
had been included in the Satsuma fief, and that China, in the
settlement of the Formosan complication, had constructively
acknowledged Japan's title to the group. Each empire asserted its
claims with equal assurance, and things remained thus until 1880,
when General Grant, who visited Japan in the course of a tour round
the world, suggested a peaceful compromise. A conference met in
Peking, and it was agreed that the islands should be divided, Japan
taking the northern part and China the southern. But at the moment of
signing the convention, China drew back, and the discussion ended in
Japan retaining the islands, China's protests being pigeonholed.
KOREAN COMPLICATION
Sufficient reference has already been made in these pages to the
series of events that terminated in 1875, when Japan, by a display of
partly fictitious force, drew Korea out of international isolation
and signed with the Peninsular Kingdom a treaty acknowledging the
latter's independence.
WAR WITH CHINA
During the centuries when China occupied the undisputed position of
first in might and first in civilization on the Asiatic continent,
her habit was to use as buffer states the small countries lying
immediately beyond her borders. But she always took care to avoid any
responsibilities that might grow out of this arrangement. In a word,
the tide of foreign aggression was to be checked by an understanding
that these little countries shared the inviolability of great China,
but it was understood, at the same time, that the consequences of
their own acts must rest upon their own heads. Such a system, having
no bases except sentiment and prestige, soon proved futile in the
face of Occidental practicality. Burma, Siam, Annam, and Tonking, one
by one, ceased to be dependent on China and independent towards all
other nations.
In Korea's case, however, the fiction proved more tenacious, since
the peninsula furnished easy access to Manchuria, the cradle of the
Manchu dynasty. But while seeking to maintain the old-time relations
with Korea, Chinese statesmen clung uniformly to traditional methods.
They refrained from declaring Korea a dependency of China, yet they
sought to keep up "the romance of ultimate dependency and
intermediate sovereignty." It was thus that, in 1876, Korea was
allowed to conclude with Japan a treaty describing the former as "an
independent State enjoying the same rights as Japan," nor did the
Peking Government make any protest when the United States, Great
Britain, and other powers concluded similar treaties.
To exercise independence in practice, however, was not permitted to
Korea. A Chinese resident was stationed in Seoul, the Korean capital,
and he quickly became an imperium in imperio. Thenceforth Japan, in
all her dealings with the Peninsular Kingdom, found the latter
behaving as a Chinese dependency, obeying the Chinese resident in
everything. Again and again, Japanese patience was tried by these
anomalous conditions, and although nothing occurred of sufficient
magnitude to warrant official protest, the Tokyo Government became
sensible of perpetual rebuffs and humiliating interferences at
China's hands. Korea herself suffered seriously from this state of
national irresponsibility. There was no security of life and
property, or any effective desire to develop the country's resources.
If the victims of oppression appealed to force, China readily lent
military assistance to suppress them, and thus the royal family of
Korea learned to regard its tenure of power as dependent on ability
to conciliate China.
On Japan's side, also, the Korean question caused much anxiety. It
was impossible for the Tokyo statesmen to ignore the fact that their
country's safety depended largely on preserving Korea from the grasp
of a Western power. They saw plainly that such a result might at any
moment be expected if Korea was suffered to drift into a state of
administrative incompetence. Once, in 1882, and again, in 1884, when
Chinese soldiers were employed to suppress reform movements which
would have impaired the interests of the Korean monarch, the latter's
people, counting Japan to be the source of progressive tendencies in
the East, destroyed her legation in Seoul, driving its inmates out of
the city. Japan was not yet prepared to assert herself forcibly in
redress of such outrages, but in the ensuing negotiations she
acquired titles that "touched the core of China's alleged
Suzerainty." Thus, in 1882, Japan obtained recognition of her right
to protect her legation with troops; and, in 1885, a convention,
signed at Tientsin, pledged each of the contracting parties not to
send a military force to Korea without notifying the other.
In spite of these agreements China's arbitrary and unfriendly
interference in Korean affairs continued to be demonstrated to Japan.
Efforts to obtain redress proved futile, and even provoked threats of
Chinese armed intervention. Finally, in the spring of 1894, an
insurrection of some magnitude broke out in Korea, and in response to
an appeal from the Royal family, China sent twenty-five hundred
troops, who went into camp at Asan, on the southwest coast of the
peninsula. Notice was duly given to the Tokyo Government, which now
decided that Japan's vital interests as well as the cause of
civilization in the East required that an end must be put to Korea's
dangerous misrule and to China's arbitrary interference. Japan did
not claim for herself anything that she was not willing to accord to
China. But the Tokyo statesmen were sensible that to ask their
conservative neighbour to promote in the Peninsular Kingdom a
progressive programme which she had always steadily rejected and
despised in her own case, must prove a chimerical attempt, if
ordinary diplomatic methods alone were used. Accordingly, on receipt
of Peking's notice as to the sending of troops to the peninsula,
Japan gave corresponding notice on her own part, and thus July, 1894,
saw a Chinese force encamped at Asan and a Japanese force in the
vicinity of Seoul.
In having recourse to military aid, China's nominal purpose was to
quell the Tonghak insurrection, and Japan's motive was to obtain a
position such as would strengthen her demand for drastic treatment of
Korea's malady. In giving notice of the despatch of troops, China
described Korea as her "tributary State," thus emphasizing a
contention which at once created an impossible situation. During
nearly twenty years Japan had treated Korea as her own equal, in
accordance with the terms of the treaty of 1876, and she could not
now agree that the Peninsular Kingdom should be officially classed as
a tributary of China. Her protests, however, were contemptuously
ignored, and Chinese statesmen continued to apply the offensive
appellation to Korea, while at the same time they asserted the right
of limiting the number of troops sent by Japan to the peninsula as
well as the manner of their employment.
Still desirous of preserving the peace, Japan proposed a union
between herself and China for the purpose of restoring order in Korea
and amending that country's administration. China refused. She even
expressed supercilious surprise that Japan, while asserting Korea's
independence, should suggest the idea of peremptorily reforming its
administration. The Tokyo Cabinet now announced that the Japanese
troops should not be withdrawn without "some understanding that would
guarantee the future peace, order, and good government of Korea," and
as China still refused to come to such an understanding, Japan
undertook the work single-handed.
The Tonghak rebellion, which Chinese troops were originally sent to
quell, had died of inanition before they landed. The troops,
therefore, had been withdrawn. But China kept them in Korea, her
avowed reason being the presence of the Japanese military force near
Seoul. In these circumstances, Peking was notified that a despatch of
re-enforcements on China's side must be construed as an act of
hostility. Notwithstanding this notice, China not only sent a further
body of troops by sea to encamp at Asan, but also despatched an army
overland across the Yalu. These proceedings precipitated hostilities.
Three Chinese warships, convoying a transport with twelve hundred
soldiers on board, met and opened fire on two Japanese cruisers. The
result was signal. One of the Chinese warships was captured, another
was so riddled with shot that she had to be beached and abandoned;
the third escaped in a dilapidated condition, and the transport,
refusing to surrender, was sent to the bottom. These things happened
on the 25th of July, 1894, and war was declared by each empire six
days subsequently.
The Japanese took the initiative. They despatched from Seoul a column
of troops and routed the Chinese entrenched at Asan, many of whom
fled northward to Pyong-yang, a town on the Tadong River, memorable
as the scene of a battle between a Chinese and a Japanese army in
1592. Pyong-yang offered great facilities for defence. The Chinese
massed there a force of seventeen thousand men, and made preparations
for a decisive contest, building parapets, mounting guns, and
strengthening the position by every device of modern warfare. Their
infantry had the advantage of being armed with repeating rifles, and
the configuration of the ground offered little cover for an attacking
army. Against this strong position the Japanese moved in two columns;
one marching northward from Seoul, the other striking westward from
Yuensan. Forty days elapsed before the Japanese forces came into
action, and one day's fighting sufficed to carry all the Chinese
positions, the attacking armies having only seven hundred casualties
and the defenders, six thousand.
The next day, September 17th, Japan achieved an equally conspicuous
success at sea. Fourteen Chinese warships and six torpedo-boats,
steering homeward after convoying a fleet of transports to the mouth
of the Yalu River, fell in with eleven Japanese war-vessels cruising
in the Yellow Sea. The Chinese squadron was not seeking an encounter.
Their commanding officer did not appear to appreciate the value of
sea-power. His fleet included two armoured battle-ships of over seven
thousand tons' displacement, whereas the Japanese had nothing
stronger than belted cruisers of four thousand. Therefore a little
enterprise on China's part might have severed Japan's maritime
communications and compelled her to evacuate Korea. The Chinese,
however, used their war-vessels as convoys only, keeping them
carefully in port when no such duty was to be performed. It is
evident that, as a matter of choice, they would have avoided the
battle of the Yalu, though when compelled to fight they fought
stoutly. After a sharp engagement, four of their vessels were sunk,
and the remainder steamed into Weihaiwei, their retreat being covered
by torpedo-boats.
By this victory the maritime route to China lay open to Japan. She
could now attack Talien, Port Arthur, and Weihaiwei, naval stations
on the Liaotung and Shantung peninsulas, where strong permanent
fortifications had been built under the direction of European
experts. These forts fell one by one before the assaults of the
Japanese troops as easily as the castle of Pyong-yang had fallen.
Only by the remains of the Chinese fleet at Weihaiwei was a stubborn
resistance made, under the command of Admiral Ting. But, after the
entire squadron of torpedo craft had been captured, and after three
of the largest Chinese ships had been sent to the bottom by Japanese
torpedoes, and one had met the same fate by gunfire, the remainder
surrendered, and their gallant commander, Admiral Ting, rejecting all
overtures from the Japanese, committed suicide.
The fall of Weihaiwei ended the war. It had lasted seven and a half
months, and during that time the Japanese had operated with five
columns aggregating 120,000 men. "One of these columns marched
northward from Seoul, won the battle of Pyong-yang, advanced to the
Yalu, forced its way into Manchuria, and moved towards Mukden by
Feng-hwang, fighting several minor engagements, and conducting the
greater part of its operations amid deep snow in midwinter. The
second column diverged westward from the Yalu, and, marching through
southern Manchuria, reached Haicheng, whence it advanced to the
capture of Niuchwang. The third landed on the Liaotung peninsula,
and, turning southward, carried Talien and Port Arthur by assault.
The fourth moved up the Liaotung peninsula, and, having seized
Kaiping, advanced against Niuchwang, where it joined hands with the
second column. The fifth crossed from Port Arthur to Weihaiwei, which
it captured." In all these operations the Japanese casualties
totalled 1005 killed and 4922 wounded; the deaths from disease
aggregated 16,866, and the monetary expenditure amounted to twenty
millions sterling, about $100,000,000. It had been almost universally
believed that, although Japan might have some success at the outset,
she would ultimately be shattered by impact with the enormous mass
and the overwhelming resources of China. Never was forecast more
signally contradicted by events.
CONCLUSION OF PEACE
Li Hung-chang, viceroy of Pehchili, whose troops had been chiefly
engaged during the war, and who had been mainly responsible for the
diplomacy that had led up to it, was sent by China as plenipotentiary
to discuss terms of peace. The conference took place at Shimonoseki,
Japan being represented by Marquis (afterwards Prince) Ito, and on
the 17th of April, 1895, the treaty was signed. It recognized the
independence of Korea; ceded to Japan the littoral of Manchuria lying
south of a line drawn from the mouth of the river Anping to the
estuary of the Liao, together with the islands of Formosa and the
Pescadores; pledged China to pay an indemnity of two hundred million
taels; provided for the occupation of Weihaiwei by Japan pending
payment of that sum; secured the opening of four new places to
foreign trade and the right of foreigners to engage in manufacturing
enterprises in China, and provided for a treaty of commerce and amity
between the two empires, based on the lines of China's treaty with
Occidental powers.
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE
Scarcely was the ink dry upon this agreement when Russia, Germany,
and France presented a joint note to the Tokyo Government, urging
that the permanent occupation of the Manchurian littoral by Japan
would endanger peace. Japan had no choice but to bow to this mandate.
The Chinese campaign had exhausted her treasury as well as her
supplies of war material, and it would have been hopeless to oppose a
coalition of three great European powers. She showed no sign of
hesitation. On the very day of the ratified treaty's publication, the
Emperor of Japan issued a rescript, in which, after avowing his
devotion to the cause of peace, he "yielded to the dictates of
magnanimity, and accepted the advice of the three powers."
But although the Tokyo Government sought to soften the situation by
the grace of speedy acquiescence, the effect produced upon the nation
was profound. There was no difficulty in appreciating the motives of
Russia and France. It was natural that the former should object to
the propinquity of a warlike people like the Japanese, and it was
natural that France should remain true to her ally. But Germany's
case defied interpretation. She had no interest in the ownership of
Manchuria, and she professed herself a warm friend of Japan. It
seemed, therefore, that she had joined in snatching from the lips of
the Japanese the fruits of their victory simply for the sake of
establishing some shadowy title to Russia's good-will.
THE CHINESE CRISIS OF 1900
In the second half of the year 1900 an anti-foreign outbreak, known
as the "Boxer Rebellion," broke out in the province of Shantung, and,
spreading thence to Pehchili, produced a situation of imminent peril
for the foreign communities of Peking and Tientsin. No Western power
could intervene with sufficient promptness. Japan alone was within
easy reach of the commotion. But Japan held back. She had fully
fathomed the distrust with which the growth of her military strength
had inspired some European nations, and she appreciated the wisdom of
not seeming to grasp at an opportunity for armed display. In fact,
she awaited a clear mandate from Europe and America, and, on
receiving it, she rapidly sent a division (20,000 men) to Pehchili.
Tientsin was relieved first, and then a column of troops provided by
several powers, the Japanese in the van, marched to the succour of
Peking. In this campaign the Japanese greatly enhanced their
belligerent reputation as they fought under the eyes of competent
military critics. Moreover, after the relief of the legations in
Peking, they withdrew one-half of their forces, and they subsequently
cooperated heartily with Western powers in negotiating peace terms,
thus disarming the suspicions with which they had been regarded at
first.
WAR WITH RUSSIA
From the time (1895) when the three-power mandate dictated to Japan a
cardinal alteration of the Shimonoseki treaty, Japanese statesmen
concluded that their country must one day cross swords with Russia.
Not a few Occidental publicists shared that view, but the great
majority, arguing that the little Island Empire of the Far East would
never risk annihilation by such an encounter, believed that
forbearance sufficient to avert serious trouble would always be
forthcoming on Japan's side. Yet neither geographical nor historical
conditions warranted that confidence. The Sea of Japan, which, on the
east, washes the shores of the Japanese islands and on the west those
of Russia and Korea, has virtually only two routes communicating with
the Pacific Ocean. One is in the north, namely, the Tsugaru Strait;
the other is in the south, namely, the channel between the Korean
peninsula and the Japanese island of Kyushu. Tsugaru Strait is
practically under Japan's complete control; she can close it at any
moment with mines. But the channel between the Korean peninsula and
Kyushu has a width of 102 miles, and would therefore be a fine open
seaway were it free from islands. Midway in this channel, however,
lie the twin islands of Tsushima, and the space that separates them
from Japan is narrowed by another island, Iki. Tsushima and Iki have
belonged to Japan from time immemorial, and thus the avenues from the
Pacific Ocean to the Sea of Japan are controlled by the Japanese
empire. In other words, access to the Pacific from Korea's eastern
and southern coasts, and access to the Pacific from Russia's Maritime
Province depend upon Japan's good-will.
These geographical conditions had no great concern for Korea in
former days. But with Russia the case was different. Vladivostok, the
principal port in the Far East, lay at the southern extremity of the
Maritime Province. Freedom of passage by the Tsushima Strait was
therefore a matter of vital importance, and to secure it one of two
things was essential, namely, that she herself should possess a
fortified port on the Korean side, or that Japan should be restrained
from acquiring such a port. Here, then, was a strong inducement for
Russian aggression in Korea. When the eastward movement of the great
northern power brought it to the mouth of the Amur, the acquisition
of Nikolaievsk for a naval basis was the immediate reward. But
Nikolaievsk, lying in an inhospitable region, far away from all the
main routes of the world's commerce, offered itself only as a
stepping-stone to further acquisitions. To push southward from this
new port became an immediate object.
There lay an obstacle in the way. The long strip of seacoast from the
mouth of the Amur to the Korean frontier--an area then called the
Usuri region because that river forms part of its western
boundary--belonged to China, and she, having conceded much to Russia
in the way of the Amur, showed no inclination to make further
concessions in the matter of the Usuri. She was persuaded to agree,
however, that the region should be regarded as common property,
pending a convenient opportunity for clear delimitation. That
opportunity soon came. Seizing the moment (1860) when China had been
beaten to her knees by England and France, Russia secured the final
cession of the Usuri region, which then became the Maritime Province
of Siberia. Then Russia shifted her naval basis in the Pacific to a
point ten degrees south from Nikolaievsk, namely, Vladivostok.
Immediately after this transfer an attempt was made to obtain
possession of Tsushima. A Russian man-of-war proceeded thither, and
quietly began to establish a settlement which would soon have
constituted a title of ownership had not Great Britain interfered.
The same instinct that led Russia from the mouth of the Amur to
Vladivostok prompted the acquisition of Saghalien also, which, as
already related, was accomplished in 1875.
But all this effort did not procure for Russia an unobstructed avenue
from Vladivostok to the Pacific or an ice-free port in the Far East.
In Korea seemed to lie a facile hope of saving the maritime results
of Russia's great trans-Asian march from Lake Baikal to the Maritime
Province and to Saghalien. Korea seemed to offer every facility for
such an enterprise. Her people were unprogressive; her resources
undeveloped; her self-defensive capacities insignificant; her
government corrupt. On the other hand, it could not be expected that
Japan and China would acquiesce in any aggressions against their
neighbour, Korea, and it became necessary that Russia should seek
some other line of communication supplementing the Amur waterway and
the long ocean route. Therefore she set about the construction of a
railway across Asia. This railway had to be carried along the
northern bank of the Amur where engineering and economic difficulties
abound. Moreover, the river makes a huge semicircular sweep
northward, and a railway following its northern bank to Vladivostok
must make the same detour. If, on the contrary, the road could be
carried south of the river along the diameter of the semicircle, it
would be a straight, and therefore a shorter, line, technically
easier and economically better. To follow this diameter, however,
would involve passing through Chinese territory, namely, Manchuria,
and an excuse for soliciting China's permission was not in sight. In
1894, however, war broke out between Japan and China, and in its
sequel Japan passed into possession of the southern littoral of
Manchuria, which meant that Russia could never get nearer to the
Pacific than Vladivostok, unless she swept Japan from her path. It is
here, doubtless, that we must find Russia's true motive in inducing
Germany and France to unite with her for the purpose of ousting Japan
from Manchuria. The "notice to quit" gave for reasons that the tenure
of the Manchurian littoral by Japan would menace the security of the
Chinese capital, would render the independence of Korea illusory, and
would constitute an obstacle to the peace of the Orient. Only one
saving clause offered for Japan--to obtain from China a guarantee
that no portion of Manchuria should thereafter be leased or ceded to
a foreign State. But France warned the Tokyo Government that to press
for such a guarantee would offend Russia, and Russia declared that,
for her part, she entertained no design of trespassing in Manchuria.
Thus, Japan had no choice but to surrender quietly the main fruits of
her victory. She did so, and proceeded to double her army and treble
her navy.
RUSSIA'S AND GERMANY'S REWARDS
As a recompense for the assistance nominally rendered to China in the
above matter, Russia obtained permission in Peking to divert her
trans-Asian railway from the huge bend of the Amur to the straight
line through Manchuria. Neither Germany nor France received any
immediate compensation. But three years later, by way of indemnity
for the murder of two missionaries by a Chinese mob, Germany seized a
portion of the province of Shantung, and forthwith Russia obtained a
lease of the Liaotung peninsula, from which she had driven Japan in
1895. This act she followed by extorting from China permission to
construct a branch of the trans-Asian railway from north to south,
that is to say from Harbin through Mukden to Talien and Port Arthur.
Russia's maritime aspirations had now assumed a radically altered
phase. Hitherto her programme had been to push southward from
Vladivostok along the coast of Korea, but she had now suddenly leaped
Korea and found access to the Pacific by the Liaotung peninsula.
Nothing was wanting to establish her as practical mistress of
Manchuria except a plausible excuse for garrisoning the place. Such
an excuse was furnished by the Boxer rising, in 1900. The conclusion
of that complication found her in practical occupation of the whole
region. But here her diplomacy fell somewhat from its usually high
standard. Imagining that the Chinese could be persuaded, or
intimidated, to any concession, she proposed a convention virtually
recognizing her title to Manchuria.
JAPAN'S ATTITUDE
Japan watched all these things with profound anxiety. If there
were any reality in the dangers which Russia, Germany, and France
had declared to be incidental to Japanese occupation of a part
of Manchuria, the same dangers must be doubly incidental to
Russian occupation of the whole of Manchuria. There were other
considerations, also. The reasons already adduced show that the
independence of Korea was an object of supreme solicitude to Japan.
It was to establish that independence that she fought with China,
in 1894, and the same motive led her after the war to annex the
Manchurian littoral adjacent to Korea's northern frontier. If Russia
came into possession of all Manchuria, her subsequent absorption of
Korea would be almost inevitable. Manchuria is larger than France and
the United Kingdom put together. The addition of such an immense area
to Russia's East Asiatic dominions, together with its littoral on the
Gulf of Pehchili and the Yellow Sea, would necessitate a
corresponding expansion of her naval force in the Far East. With the
exception of Port Arthur and Talien, however, the Manchurian coast
does not offer any convenient naval base. It is only in the harbours
of southern Korea that such bases can be found. In short, without
Korea, Russia's East Asian extension would have been economically
incomplete and strategically defective.
If it be asked why, apart from history and national sentiment, Japan
should object to Russia in Korea, the answer is, first, because there
would thus be planted almost within cannon-shot of her shores a power
of enormous strength and traditional ambition; secondly, because
whatever voice in Manchuria's destiny Russia derived from her
railway, the same voice in Korea's destiny was possessed by Japan, as
the sole owner of the railways in the Korean peninsula; thirdly, that
whereas Russia had an altogether insignificant share in the foreign
commerce of Korea and scarcely ten bona fide settlers, Japan did the
greater part of the oversea trade and had tens of thousands of
settlers; fourthly, that if Russia's dominions stretched
uninterruptedly from the sea of Okhotsk to the Gulf of Pehchili, her
ultimate absorption of northern China would be inevitable, and
fifthly, that such domination and such absorption would involve the
practical closure of all that immense region to the commerce and
industry of every Western nation except Russia.
This last proposition did not rest solely on the fact that in
opposing artificial barriers to free competition lies Russia's sole
hope of utilizing, to her own benefit, any commercial opportunities
brought within her reach. It rested, also, on the fact that Russia
had objected to foreign settlement at the Manchurian marts recently
opened, by Japan's treaty with China, to American and Japanese
subjects. Without settlements, trade at those marts would be
impossible, and thus Russia had constructively announced that there
should be no trade but the Russian, if she could prevent it. Against
such dangers Japan would have been justified in adopting any measure
of self-protection. She had foreseen them for six years and had been
strengthening herself to avert them. But she wanted peace. She wanted
to develop her material resources and to accumulate some measure of
wealth without which she must remain insignificant among the nations.
Two pacific programmes offered and she adopted them both. Russia,
instead of trusting time to consolidate her tenure of Manchuria, had
made the mistake of pragmatically importuning China for a
conventional title. If, then, Peking could be strengthened to resist
this demand, some arrangement of a distinctly terminable nature might
be made. The United States, Great Britain, and Japan, joining hands
for that purpose, did succeed in so far stiffening China's backbone
that her show of resolution finally induced Russia to sign a treaty
pledging herself to withdraw her troops from Manchuria in three
installments, each step of evacuation to be accomplished by a fixed
date. That was one of the pacific programmes. The other suggested
itself in connexion with the new commercial treaties which China had
agreed to negotiate in the sequel of the Boxer troubles. These
documents contained clauses providing for the opening of three places
in Manchuria to foreign trade. It seemed a reasonable hope that the
powers, having secured commercial access to Manchuria by covenant
with its sovereign, would not allow Russia to restrict arbitrarily
their privileges. Both of these hopes were disappointed. When the
time came for evacuation, Russia behaved as though no promise had
been given. She proposed new conditions which would have strengthened
her grasp of Manchuria instead of loosening it.
NEGOTIATION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN
China being powerless to offer any practical protest, and Japan's
interest ranking next in order of importance, the Tokyo Government
approached Russia direct. They did not ask for anything that could
hurt her pride or impair her position. Appreciating fully the
economical status she had acquired in Manchuria by large outlays of
capital, they offered to recognize that status, provided that Russia
would extend similar recognition to Japan's status in Korea; would
promise, in common with Japan, to respect the sovereignty and the
territorial integrity of China and Korea, and would be a party to a
mutual engagement that all nations should have equal commercial and
industrial opportunities in Manchuria and in the Korean peninsula. In
a word, they invited Russia to subscribe the policy originally
enunciated by the United States and Great Britain, the policy of the
open door and of the integrity of the Chinese and Korean empires.
Thus commenced negotiations which lasted five and a half months.
Japan gradually reduced her demands to a minimum. Russia never made
any appreciable reduction of hers. She refused to listen to Japan for
one moment about Manchuria. Eight years previously, Japan had been in
military possession of the littoral of Manchuria when Russia, with
the assistance of Germany and France, had expelled her for reasons
which concerned Japan much more than they concerned any of these
three powers. Now, Russia had the assurance to declare that none of
these things concerned Japan at all. The utmost she would admit was
Japan's partial right to be heard about Korea. At the same time, she
herself commenced a series of aggressions in northern Korea. That was
not all. While she studiously deferred her answers to Japan's
proposals, and while she protracted the negotiations to an extent
visibly contemptuous, she hastened to make substantial additions to
her fleet and her army in far-eastern Asia. It was impossible to
mistake her purpose. She intended to yield nothing, but to prepare
such a parade of force that her obduracy would command submission.
The only alternatives for Japan were war or permanent effacement in
Asia. She chose war.
EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION
Before passing to the story of this war, it is necessary to refer to
two incidents of Japan's foreign relations, both of which preceded
her struggle with Russia. The first was the restoration of her
judicial autonomy. It has always been regarded as axiomatic that the
subjects or citizens of Western countries, when they travel or reside
in Oriental territories, should be exempted from the penalties and
processes of the latter's criminal laws. In other words, there is
reserved to a Christian the privilege, when within the territories of
a pagan State, of being tried for penal offences by Christian judges.
In civil cases the jurisdiction is divided, the question at issue
being adjudicated by a tribunal of the defendant's nationality;
but in criminal cases jurisdiction is wholly reserved. Therefore
powers making treaties with Oriental nations establish within
the latter's borders consular courts which exercise what is called
"extraterritorial jurisdiction." This system was, of course, pursued
in Japan's case. It involved the confinement of the foreign residents
to settlements grouped around the sites of their consular courts; for
it would plainly have been imprudent that such residents should have
free access to provincial districts remote from the only tribunals
competent to control them.
This provision, though inserted without difficulty in the early
treaties with Japan, provoked much indignation among the conservative
statesmen in Kyoto. Accordingly, no sooner had the Meiji Restoration
been effected than an embassy was despatched to the Occident to
negotiate for a revision of the treaties so as to remove the clause
about consular jurisdiction, and to restore the customs tariff to the
figure at which it had stood prior to Sir Harry Parkes' naval
demonstration at Hyogo. The Japanese Government was entitled to raise
this question in 1871, for the treaties were textually subject to
revision in that year. No time was lost in despatching the embassy.
But its failure was a foregone conclusion. The conditions originally
necessitating extraterritorial jurisdiction had not, by 1871
undergone any change justifying its abolition. It is not to be
denied, on the other hand, that the consular courts themselves
invited criticism. Some of the great Western powers had organized
competent tribunals with expert judicial officials, but others, whose
trade with Japan was comparatively insignificant, were content to
entrust consular duties to merchants, who not only lacked legal
training but were also themselves engaged in the commercial
transactions upon which they might, at any moment, be required to
adjudicate magisterially.
ENGRAVING: DANJURO, A FAMOUS ACTOR, AS BENKEI IN KANJINCHO (A PLAY)
It cannot be contended that this obviously imperfect system was
disfigured by many abuses. On the whole, it worked passably well, and
if its organic faults helped to discredit it, there is no denying
that it saved the Japanese from complications which would inevitably
have arisen had they been entrusted with jurisdiction which they were
not prepared to exercise satisfactorily. Moreover, the system had
vicarious usefulness; for the ardent desire of Japanese patriots to
recover the judicial autonomy, which is a fundamental attribute of
every sovereign State, impelled them to recast their laws and
reorganize their law courts with a degree of diligence which would
otherwise have probably been less conspicuous. Twelve years of this
work, carried on with the aid of thoroughly competent foreign
jurists, placed Japan in possession of codes of criminal and civil
law in which the best features of European jurisprudence were applied
to the conditions and usages of Japan. Then, in 1883, Japan renewed
her proposal for the abolition of consular jurisdiction, and by way
of compensation she promised to throw the country completely open and
to remove all restrictions hitherto imposed on foreign trade, travel,
and residence within her realm.
But this was a problem against whose liberal solution the
international prejudice of the West was strongly enlisted. No
Oriental State had ever previously sought such recognition, and the
Occident, without exception, was extremely reluctant to entrust the
lives and properties of its subjects and citizens to the keeping of a
"pagan" people. Not unnaturally the foreigners resident in Japan, who
would have been directly affected by the change, protested against it
with great vehemence. Many of them, though not averse to trusting
Japan, saw that her reforms had been consummated with celerity
amounting to haste, and a great majority fought simply for consular
jurisdiction as a privilege of inestimable value, not to be
surrendered without the utmost deliberation. The struggle that ensued
between foreign distrust and Japanese aspirations often developed
painful phases, and did much to intensify the feeling of antagonism
which had existed between the Japanese and the foreign residents at
the outset and which even to-day has not wholly disappeared. The
Government and citizens of the United States of America never failed
to show sympathy with Japanese aspirations in this matter, and, as a
general rule, "foreign tourists and publicists discussed the problem
liberally and fairly, perhaps because, unlike the foreign communities
resident in Japan, they had no direct interest in its solution."
The end was not reached until 1894. Then Great Britain agreed that
from July, 1899, jurisdiction over all British subjects within the
confines of Japan should be entrusted to Japanese tribunals, provided
that the new Japanese codes of law should have been in operation
during at least one year before the surrender of jurisdiction. Japan,
on her side, promised to throw the whole country open from the same
date, removing all limitations upon trade, travel, and residence of
foreigners.
Tariff autonomy had been an almost equal object of Japanese ambition,
and it was arranged that she should recover it after a period of
twelve years, an increased scale of import duties being applied in
the interval. It will be observed that Great Britain took the lead in
abandoning the old system. It was meet that she should do so; for, in
consequence of her preponderating commercial interests, she had stood
at the head of the combination of powers by which the irksome
conditions were originally imposed upon Japan. The other Occidental
States followed her example with more or less celerity, and the
foreign residents, now that nothing was to be gained by continuing
the struggle, showed clearly that they intended to bow gracefully to
the inevitable. The Japanese also took some conspicuous steps.
"An Imperial rescript declared in unequivocal terms that it was the
sovereign's policy and desire to abolish all distinctions between
natives and foreigners, and that, by fully carrying out the friendly
purpose of the treaties, his people would best consult his wishes,
maintain the character of the nation, and promote its prestige. The
premier and other ministers of State issued instructions to the
effect that the responsibility now devolved on the Government, and
the duty on the people, of enabling foreigners to reside confidently
and contentedly in every part of the country. Even the chief Buddhist
prelates addressed to the priests and parishioners of their dioceses
injunctions pointing out that freedom of conscience being now
guaranteed by the Constitution, men professing alien creeds must be
treated as courteously as the disciples of Buddhism and must enjoy
the same privileges."*
*Brinkley, article "Japan," Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
It may here be stated once for all that Japan's recovery of her
judicial autonomy has not been attended by any of the disastrous
results freely predicted at one time. Her laws are excellent, and her
judiciary is competent and just.
FIRST ANGLO-JAPANESE ALLIANCE
The second of the two incidents alluded to above was an alliance
between England and Japan, signed on January 30, 1902. The preamble
of this agreement--the first of its kind ever concluded between
England and an Oriental power--affirmed that the contracting parties
were solely actuated by a desire to preserve the status quo and the
general peace of the Far East; that they were both specially
interested in maintaining the independence and territorial integrity
of the empires of China and Korea, and in securing equal
opportunities in these countries for all nations; that they mutually
recognized it as admissible for either of the contracting parties to
take such measures as might be indispensable to safeguard these
interests against a threat of aggressive action by any other power,
or against disturbances in China or Korea, and that, if one of the
contracting parties became involved in war in defence of these
interests, the other should maintain strict neutrality and endeavour
to prevent any third power from joining in hostilities against its
ally. Finally, should a third power join in such hostilities, then
the other contracting party promised to come to the assistance of its
ally, to conduct the war in common, and to make peace by mutual
agreement only. The alliance was to hold good for five years from the
date of signature, but if either ally was engaged in war at such
time, the alliance was to continue until the conclusion of peace.
It is unnecessary to dwell upon the influence exerted by this compact
on the Russo-Japanese war. It kept the field clear for Japan and
guaranteed her against a repetition of such a combination as that
which must be regarded as the remote cause of the struggle.
THE EARLY PHASES OF THE WAR
Japan's great problem in crossing swords with Russia was to obtain a
safe avenue for her troops over the sea. Russia might at once have
gained an overwhelming advantage had she seized and controlled the
lines of communication between the Japanese islands and the continent
of Asia. Her strategists can scarcely have failed to appreciate that
fact, and would doubtless have acted accordingly had they obtained a
few months' leisure to mass an overwhelmingly strong fleet in the
seas of China and Japan. They had such a fleet actually in esse; for,
at the moment when war broke out, the Russian squadrons assembled in
the East, or en route thither, comprised no less than fifty-nine
fighting ships, mounting 1350 guns and manned by 18,000 men. But
these figures included the Mediterranean squadron which, surprised by
the outbreak of hostilities, abandoned its journey to the Pacific.
Obviously, Japan's wisest course was to anticipate the combination of
Russia's sea forces, and consciousness of that fact operated to
hasten the current of events.
Port Arthur, where the bulk of the Russian Pacific squadron lay, is
somewhat difficult of ingress and egress. On January 31, 1904, the
operation of extracting the ships and parading them outside was
commenced, being brought to a conclusion on February 3rd, whereafter
the squadron steamed out to sea, and, having made a short cruise off
the coast of the Shantung promontory, returned to its position on the
following day. The fleet taking part in this manoeuvre consisted of
twenty-six ships, and the whole Russian naval force then in eastern
Asia comprised seven battle-ships, four armoured cruisers, seven
protected cruisers, four gunboats, six sloops, twenty-five
destroyers, two mining transports, and fourteen first-class
torpedo-boats.
The Japanese, on their side, had six battle-ships, eight armoured
cruisers, thirteen protected cruisers, fourteen small cruisers,
nineteen destroyers, and eighty-five torpedo-boats. This enumeration
shows a numerical superiority on the Japanese side, but in fighting
capacity the two fleets were nearly equal. For, though the Russians
possessed seven battle-ships to six Japanese, the latter had better
gun-protection and greater weight of broadside fire than the former;
and though Japan could muster eight armoured cruisers against
Russia's four, the latter were supplemented by five protected
cruisers which ranked far above anything of the same class on the
Japanese side.
THE FIRST NAVAL OPERATION
When the Russian ships returned on the 4th of February from their
cruise off the Shantung promontory, they took up their stations
outside Port Arthur, all the harbour lights and beacons being left in
position, and no special precaution being taken except that a patrol
of three torpedo-boats was sent out. Yet the Russians should have
appreciated the presence of danger. For, on the 6th of February,
Japan had broken off the negotiations in St. Petersburg, and had
given official information of her intention to take measures for
protecting her menaced interests. That signified war and nothing but
war, and the "Official Messenger" of the same evening published the
intimation, which was immediately communicated to Admiral Alexieff at
Port Arthur.
The Russian fleet was then divided into three squadrons. The largest
body lay off Port Arthur, and two very much smaller squadrons were
posted, one at Chemulpo on the west coast of Korea, and another at
Vladivostok. It is obvious that such division of the fleet on the eve
of hostilities should have been carefully avoided. The ships should
all have been held together with an extensive network of scouts so as
to enable them swiftly and strongly to fall upon any Japanese
transports carrying troops to the mainland, or to meet effectually
and crush any attempt of the Japanese squadrons to obtain command of
the sea.
On the night of February 8th-9th, three Japanese squadrons of
destroyers, aggregating ten vessels, steamed across a calm, moonlit
sea and delivered a torpedo attack on the Russian squadron at Port
Arthur, the result being that the battle-ships Retvisan and
Tsarevitch together with the cruiser Pallada were holed. These
battle-ships were the most powerful vessels in the Russian squadron,
and the Pallada was a first-class protected cruiser of 6630 tons'
displacement. The Japanese destroyers had left Sasebo on the 6th of
February and they returned thither uninjured, having materially
weakened the Russian fleet. On the day following this surprise,
Admiral Togo, the Japanese commander-in-chief, engaged the remains of
the Russian squadron with the heavy guns of his battle-ships at a
range of eight thousand yards, and succeeded in inflicting some
injury on the battle-ship Poltava, the protected cruisers Diana and
Askold, and a second-class cruiser Novik. The Russians ultimately
retreated towards the harbour with the intention of drawing the
Japanese under closer fire of the land batteries, but the Japanese
fleet declined to follow after them, and, instead, steamed away.
Three days later (February 11th) another disaster overtook the
Russians. The Yenisei, one of the two mining-transports included in
their fleet, struck a mine and sank so rapidly in Talien Bay that
ninety-six of her crew perished. The Japanese had no part at all in
this catastrophe. It was purely accidental.
THE CHEMULPO AFFAIR
While these things were happening at Port Arthur, a squadron of the
Japanese navy, under Admiral Uryu, escorted a number of transports to
Chemulpo, the port of the Korean capital, Seoul. There the Russian
protected cruiser Variag (6500 tons) together with the gunboat
Korietz and the transport Sungari were lying. It does not appear that
Admiral Uryu's prime object was to engage these Russian ships. But
Chemulpo having been chosen as the principal landing-place of the
Japanese army corps which was to operate in Korea, it was, of course,
imperative that the harbour should be cleared of Russian war-vessels.
On February 8th, the Russians at Chemulpo were surprised by a summons
from Admiral Uryu to leave the port or undergo bombardment at their
anchorage. The vessels stood out bravely to sea, and after an
engagement lasting thirty-five minutes at ranges varying from five to
ten thousand yards, they were so badly injured that they returned to
the port and were sunk by their own crews, together with the
transport Sungari. The moral effect of the destruction of these
vessels was incalculable.
DECLARATION OF WAR
On the 10th of February, the Czar and the Mikado respectively issued
declarations of war. The former laid stress upon Russia's pacific
intentions in proposing revision of the agreements already existing
between the two empires with regard to Korean affairs, and accused
the Japanese of making a sudden attack on the Russian squadron at
Port Arthur "without previously notifying that the rupture of
diplomatic relations implied the beginning of warlike action." The
Japanese declaration insisted that the integrity of Korea was a
matter of the gravest concern to Japan, inasmuch as the separate
existence of the former was essential to the safety of the latter,
and charged that "Russia, in disrespect of her solemn treaty pledges
to China and of her repeated assurances to other powers, was still in
occupation of Manchuria, had consolidated and strengthened her hold
upon those provinces, and was bent upon their final annexation." With
regard to Russia's accusation against Japan of drawing the sword
without due notice, a distinguished British publicist made the
following comment in the columns of The Times (London):
"Far from thinking the Japanese attack on the night of February 8th,
two full days after the announcement of the intention to take action,
was an exception to, or a deviation from, tradition and precedent, we
should rather count ourselves fortunate if our enemy, in the next
naval war we have to wage, does not strike two days before blazoning
forth his intention, instead of two days after. The tremendous and
decisive results of success for the national cause are enough to
break down all the restraining influences of the code of
international law and Christian morality."
THE FIRST MILITARY OPERATIONS
From the moment when war became inevitable, the problem of absorbing
interest was to determine Russia's strategy, and it was ultimately
seen that the two main groups of her forces were to be posted at Port
Arthur and on the Yalu; the latter to resist an advance from Korea,
and the former to defend the Liaotung peninsula, which constituted
the key of the Russian position. Between the mouth of the Yalu and
the Liaotung peninsula, a distance of 120 miles, there were many
points where raiding parties might have been landed to cut the
Russian railway. Against this danger, flying squadrons of Cossacks
were employed. After the destruction of the three Russian vessels in
Chemulpo and the crippling of the Port Arthur squadron, Japanese
transports entered the former port and quietly landed some three
thousand troops, which advanced immediately upon Seoul and took
possession of it.
From that time there could be no doubt that the intention of the
Japanese was to make their first attack upon the enemy by marching up
the Korean peninsula, and that the capital of Korea was chosen for a
base of operations because of climatic considerations. Chemulpo,
however, was not the only landing-place. Fusan also served for that
purpose, as subsequently did also Chinnampo, an inlet on the west
coast of the peninsula. The distance from the port of Fusan to the
Yalu River is four hundred miles, in round numbers, and the roads are
very bad throughout the whole country. Hence the advance of the
Japanese, which was made in a leisurely manner with the utmost
circumspection and attention to detail, involved so much time that
April had drawn to its close before the troops deployed on the banks
of the Yalu. They consisted of three divisions constituting an army
corps, and each division had a ration-strength of 19,000 men with a
combatant strength of 14,000 sabres and rifles and thirty-six
field-guns. It may be assumed, therefore, that when the Japanese
First Army under General (afterwards Count) Kuroki reached the Yalu,
it had a fighting-strength of between forty and fifty thousand men.
There had practically been no collision during the interval of the
advance from the southern extremity of the peninsula to its northern
boundary. It is true that, on March 28th, a squadron of Cossacks
attempted to surprise the Japanese cavalry at Chong-ju, but the essay
proved a failure, and the Cossacks were driven back upon Wiju, which
they evacuated without any further struggle.
The Russian plan of operations did not originally contemplate a
serious stand at the Yalu. The idea was to retire gradually, drawing
the Japanese into Manchuria towards the railway, and engaging them in
the exceedingly difficult country crowned by the Motien Mountains.
But at the last moment General Kuropatkin, Russian commander-in-chief
in Manchuria, issued orders to General Sassulitch, commander of the
Second Siberian Army Corps, to hold the line of the Yalu with all his
strength. Sassulitch could muster for this purpose only five
regiments and one battalion of infantry; forty field-guns; eight
machine-guns, and some Cossacks--twenty thousand combatants,
approximately. Kuroki disposed his troops so that their front
extended some twenty miles along the Yalu, the centre being at
Kiuliencheng, a walled town standing about 180 feet above the river.
From this point southward, the right, or Manchurian, bank has a
considerable command over the left, and at Kiuliencheng a tributary
stream, called the Ai, joins the main river, "which thenceforth
widens from 4000 to 7000 yards and runs in three channels between the
islands and the mainland. The central channel is navigable by small
craft, and the other channels are fordable waist-deep. The Ai River
is also fordable in many places during the spring." On the right bank
of the Yalu, at the point of its junction with the Ai, the ground
rises so as to command the position taken by the Russians.
The plan of the Japanese commander was to threaten an attack on the
lower radius of the river; to throw two divisions against
Kiuliencheng, and to use the remaining division in a wide flanking
movement, crossing the river higher up. The battle took place on
Sunday, the 1st of May. During the preceding nights, the Japanese
placed a strong force of artillery in cleverly masked batteries, and
under cover of these guns, threw seven bridges across the river, the
highest upstream being thirteen miles above Kiuliencheng and the
lower two being directed to the centre of the Russian position.
General Kuroki then telegraphed to Tokyo that he proposed to attack
at dawn on Sunday, his plan being to march one division across the
fords of the Ai River, and to employ the other two, one in crumpling
up the Russian left, the other in attacking Antung, where a large
Russian force was in position. This programme was accurately carried
out. The Japanese infantry forded the Ai breast-deep, and, swarming
up the heights, drove the Russians from these strong positions.
Meanwhile, the Japanese guards' division had crossed on the left and
directed its march upon Antung, while the remaining division had
completely turned the Russian left flank. The fiercest struggle
occurred at Homutang, where a Russian regiment and a battery of
artillery made a splendid stand to save their comrades at Antung from
being cut off.
The casualties on the Japanese side were 318 killed, including five
officers, and 783 wounded, including thirty-three officers. The
Russian casualties numbered 1363 killed and 613 prisoners, but the
detail of wounded was not published. The Japanese captured twenty-one
quick-firing field-guns, eight machine-guns, 1021 rifles and a
quantity of ammunition, etc. The moral result of this battle can
hardly be overestimated. It had never been seriously believed in
Europe that a Russian army could be conquered by a Japanese in a fair
fight, and probably that incredulity influenced Kuropatkin when he
ordered Sassulitch to defy strategical principles by attempting to
hold a radically defective position against a greatly superior force.
In a moment, the Japanese were crowned with military laurels and
placed on a pedestal for the world to admire. But the Japanese
themselves were not deceived. They saw clearly that the contest had
been between six battalions of Russians and two divisions of
Japanese, a disparity of strength amply sufficient to account for the
result in any circumstances.
NAVAL OPERATIONS
During the period of eleven weeks immediately subsequent to the
battle of the Yalu, there were no military operations of a striking
character. Japan was preparing to despatch a second army to
Manchuria, and pending its shipment the chief duty to be discharged
devolved upon the fleet, namely, the further crippling of the Port
Arthur squadron in order to secure the transports against its
enterprises. The object was promoted on the 13th of April by the loss
of the Russian battle-ship Petropavlovsk. She struck one of the mines
laid by the Japanese and sank in a few minutes, carrying the Russian
admiral, Makaroff, together with about six hundred sailors, to the
bottom.
This event, although it materially weakened the Port Arthur squadron,
had nothing to do with the fixed programme of Admiral Togo, which
programme was to block the narrow channel forming the entrance of
Port Arthur by sinking merchant vessels in the fairway. Three
attempts to accomplish this were made. The first was on February
24th; the second, on March 2nd-3rd. In the first essay, five steamers
were employed, their crews consisting of seventy-seven volunteers.
They failed. On the second occasion four steamers of at least two
thousand tons each were sent in under the orders of Commander Hirose.
On this occasion, again, the steamers failed to reach vital points in
the channel, and their experience alone remained to compensate the
loss of many lives. These two attempts were watched by the public
with keen interest and high admiration. The courage and coolness
displayed by officers and men alike elicited universal applause. But
it was generally believed that the successful prosecution of such a
design was impossible and that no further essay would be made. The
Japanese, however, are not easily deterred. On the night of May 2nd,
eight steamers, aggregating some 17,000 tons, were driven into the
channel in the face of mines, batteries, and torpedoes, and five of
them reached their allotted positions, so that the blocking of the
harbour for the passage of large vessels was accomplished. The list
of casualties proved very heavy. Out of 159 persons only eight
officers and thirty-six men returned unhurt. The whole of the
remainder, including twenty officers, were killed, wounded, or
missing.
LANDING OF THE SECOND ARMY
On the very night after the accomplishment of this third blocking
operation, a second Japanese army commenced to land at Pitszewo,
eastward of the Liaotung peninsula. This was precisely the point
chosen for a similar purpose by the Japanese in the war with China,
ten years previously, and such close adherence to the former
programme was condemned by some critics, especially as transports
cannot get close to the shore at Pitszewo, but have to lie four miles
distant, the intervening space consisting, for the most part, of mud
flats. But the Japanese were perfectly familiar with every inch of
the coast from the mouth of the Yalu to Port Arthur, and had the
Russian commanders possessed equally accurate knowledge, they would
have recognized that Pitszewo was designated by natural features as
the best available landing-place, and knowing that, they might have
made effective dispositions to oppose the Japanese there, whereas ten
thousand men had been put on shore before any suspicion seems to have
been roused in the Russian camp.
BATTLE OF KINCHOU
After its landing at Pitszewo, on May 5th and the following days, the
Second Japanese Army, consisting of three divisions under General
(afterwards Count) Oku, pushed westward, driving away the Russian
detachments in the vicinity and securing the control of the Port
Arthur railway. Then, at Kinchou, on the 26th of May, a great battle
was fought. A little south of Kinchou lies a narrow neck of land
connecting the Kwangtung promontory with the mainland. It is a neck
only a mile and three-quarters broad, having Kinchou Bay on the
northwest and Hand Bay on the southeast. On each side the ground near
the sea is low, but along the centre of the neck a ridge rises, which
culminates in a point about 350 feet above the sea. This point is
known as Nanshan, and its commanding position is such that an army
holding it blocks all access to the Kwangtung peninsula.
The problem for the Japanese was to obtain possession of this neck as
the sole road of access to Port Arthur; while General Stossel, who
commanded the Russian troops, knew that if the neck fell into
Japanese hands, Port Arthur would become unapproachable by land. "The
Nanshan position offered unusual advantages for defence, and had been
diligently prepared for permanent occupation during many weeks. Ten
forts of semi-permanent character had been built, and their armament
showed that, on this occasion, the Russian artillery was vastly
superior, both in calibre and in range, to the Japanese guns. Forts,
trenches, and rifle-pits, covered by mines and wire entanglements,
were constructed on every point of vantage and in separate tiers.
Searchlights were also employed, and every advantage was taken of the
proximity of a great fortress and its ample plant."*
*The War in the Far East, by the Military Correspondent of "The
Times."
It will occur to the reader that war-vessels might have been
advantageously used for the attack and defence of such a position,
and, as a matter of fact, Russian gunboats manoeuvred in Hand Bay on
the southeastern shore of the neck. But, on the western side, the
shoal waters of Kinchou Bay prevented access by Japanese vessels in
the face of the heavy batteries erected by the Russians on dominating
sites. This splendid position was held by a Russian army mustering
ten thousand strong with fifty siege-guns and sixteen quick-firers. A
frontal attack seemed suicidal but was deliberately chosen. At
daybreak the battle commenced, and, after sixteen hours of incessant
fighting, a Japanese infantry force turned the left flank of the
Russian line and the day was won. Over seven hundred Russian dead
were buried by the Japanese, and into the latter's hands fell
sixty-eight cannon of all calibres with ten machine-guns. The
Japanese casualties totalled 4912.
This battle finally solved the problem as to whether Japanese
infantry could hold its own against Russian. "With almost everything
in its favour, a strong, fresh, and confident Russian army, solidly
entrenched behind almost inaccessible fortifications and supported by
a formidable and superior artillery, was, in a single day, fairly
swept out of its trenches."* The victorious Japanese pressed forward
rapidly, and on the 30th of May obtained possession of Dalny, a base
presenting incalculable advantages for the prosecution of an attack
upon Port Arthur, which fortress it was now evident that the Japanese
had determined to capture.
*The War in the Far East, by the Military Correspondent of "The
Times."
THE BATTLE OF TELISSU
To have left the Japanese in undisturbed possession of the neck of
the Liaotung peninsula would have been to abandon Port Arthur to its
fate. On the other hand, the Russians ought not to have entertained
any hope of their own ability to carry such a position by assault
after they had signally failed to hold it in the face of attack.
Nevertheless, finding it intolerable, alike to their prestige and to
their sense of camaraderie, to take no measure in behalf of the great
fortress and its thirty thousand defenders, they determined to march
at once to its assistance. To that end celerity was all important,
and on June 14th, that is to say, only eighteen days after the battle
of Kinchou, a Russian army of some thirty-five thousand combatants,
under the command of General Baron Stackelberg, moving down the
railway to recover Kinchou and Nanshan, came into collision with the
Japanese and fought the battle of Telissu. The Russian general,
clinging always to the railway, advanced with such a restricted front
that the Japanese, under General Oku, outflanked him, and he was
driven back with a loss of about ten thousand, killed and wounded,
fourteen guns, and four hundred prisoners.
NAVAL INCIDENTS
On June 15th, the very day after the Telissu victory, the Japanese
met their only naval catastrophe. While their fleet was watching the
enemy off Port Arthur, the battleships Hatsuse and Yashima struck
mines and sank immediately. Moreover, on the same day, the cruisers
Kasuga and Yoshino collided in a dense fog, and the latter vessel was
sent to the bottom. As the Japanese possessed only six battle-ships,
the loss of two was a serious blow, and might have emboldened the
Russians to despatch a squadron from the Baltic to take the earliest
possible advantage of this incident. Foreseeing this, the Japanese
took care to conceal the loss of the Hatsuse and Yashima, and the
fact did not become known until after the battle of Tsushima, a year
later, when the Russian fleet had been practically annihilated.
Meanwhile, the Russian squadron at Vladivostok had accomplished
little. This squadron consisted originally of three armoured
cruisers, Gromovoi, Rossia, and Rurik, with one protected cruiser,
Bogatyr. But the last-named ship ran on a rock near Vladivostok and
became a total wreck in the middle of May, a month marked by many
heavy losses. These cruisers made several excursions into the Sea of
Japan, sinking or capturing a few Japanese merchantmen, and cleverly
evading a Japanese squadron under Admiral Kamimura, detailed to watch
them. But their only achievement of practical importance was the
destruction of two large Japanese transports, the Hitachi Maru and
the Sado Maru. In achieving this feat the Russians appeared off
Tsushima in the Straits of Korea, on June 15th, and the transports
which they sunk or disabled carried heavy guns for the bombardment of
Port Arthur.
Of course, nothing was publicly known about the cargo of the Hitachi
and her consort, but there could be no question that, in timing their
attack with such remarkable accuracy, the Russians must have obtained
secret information as to the movements of the transports and the
nature of their cargo. Considerable criticism was uttered against
Admiral Kamimura for failure to get into touch with the Vladivostok
vessels during such a long interval. But much of the censure was
superficial. Kamimura redeemed his reputation on the 14th of August
when, in a running fight between Fusan and Vladivostok, the Rurik was
sunk and the Gromovoi and Rossia were so seriously damaged as to be
unable to take any further part in the war. On this occasion six
hundred Russians were rescued by the Japanese from the sinking Rurik,
and it was noted at the time that the Russians had made no attempt to
save Japanese life at the sinking of the Hitachi Maru.
THE JAPANESE FORCES
Immediately after the landing of the army corps under General Oku and
the capture of Dalny in the sequel of the battle of Kinchou, the
Japanese began to pour troops into Dalny, and soon they had there
three divisions under the command of General (afterwards Count) Nogi.
This force was henceforth known as the Third Army, that of General
Kuroki being the First, and that under General Oku, the Second. The
next operation was to land another army at Takushan, which lies on
the south coast of Manchuria, between Pitszewo and the estuary of the
Yalu. This army was under the command of General (afterwards Count)
Nozu, and its purpose was to fill the gap between the First Army and
the Second. Nozu's corps thus became the Fourth Army. In fact, the
Japanese repeated, in every respect, the plan of campaign pursued by
them ten years previously in the war with China.
There was one ultimate difference, however. In the latter war, the
force which captured Port Arthur was subsequently carried oversea to
the Shantung province, where it assaulted and took the great Chinese
naval port at Weihaiwei. But the army sent against Port Arthur, in
1904, was intended to march up the Liaotung peninsula after the
capture of the fortress, so, as to fall into line with the other
three armies and to manoeuvre on their left flank during the general
advance northward. Thus considered, the plan of campaign suggests
that General Nogi and his three divisions were expected to capture
Port Arthur without much delay, and indeed their early operations
against the fortress were conducted on that hypothesis. But, as a
matter of fact, in spite of heroic efforts and unlimited bravery on
the Japanese side, Port Arthur, with its garrison of thirty thousand
men, its splendid fortifications, and its powerful artillery, backed
by the indomitable resolution and stubborn resistance of Russian
soldiers, did not fall until the last day of 1904, and Nogi's army
was unable to take part in the great field-battles which marked the
advance of the three other Japanese armies from the seacoast to the
capital of Manchuria.
Step by step, however, though at heavy sacrifice of life, the
Japanese fought their way through the outer lines of the Russian
defences, and the end of July saw the besiegers in such a position
that they were able to mount guns partly commanding the anchorage
within the port. An intolerable situation being thus created for the
Russian squadron, it determined to put to sea, and on August 10th
this was attempted. Without entering into details of the fight that
ensued, it will suffice to state briefly that the result of the
sortie was to deprive the Russian squadron of the services of one
battle-ship, three cruisers, and five torpedo craft, leaving to
Rear-Admiral Prince Ukhtonsky, who commanded the vessels in Port
Arthur, only five battle-ships, two cruisers (of which one was
injured), and three destroyers. On August 18th, a gunboat; on August
23d, another battle-ship, and on August 24th another destroyer were
sunk or disabled by striking Japanese mines, and it may be said
briefly that the Russian squadron thenceforth ceased to be a menace
to the Japanese, and that only the land forces had to be counted
with.
FIELD OPERATIONS PRIOR TO BATTLE OF LIAOYANG
By the close of June the three Japanese armies under Generals Kuroki,
Nozu, and Oku were fully deployed and ready to advance in unison. The
task before them was to clear the Russians from the littoral of the
Korean Sea and force them through the mountains of Manchuria into the
valley of the Liao River. In these operations the Japanese acted
uniformly on the offensive, whereas the Russians occupied positions
carefully chosen and strictly fortified, where they stood always on
the defensive. Five heavy engagements, beginning with Fenshuiling on
the 26th of June and ending with Yangtzuling on July 31st, were
fought in these circumstances, and in every instance the Japanese
emerged victorious. From the commencement of the land campaign until
the end of July the invading army's casualties were 12,000, while the
Russian losses, exclusive of those at Port Arthur, aggregated 28,000
killed and wounded, and 113 light siege-and field-guns, together with
eighteen machine-guns, captured.
THE BATTLE OF LIAOYANG
The first great phase of the field-operations may be said to have
terminated with the battle of Liaoyang, which commenced on August
25th and continued almost without interruption for nine days,
terminating on the 3rd of September. In this historic contest the
Russians had 220,000 men engaged. They were deployed over a front of
about forty miles, every part of which had been entrenched and
fortified with the utmost care and ingenuity. In fact, the position
seemed impregnable, and as the Japanese could muster only some
200,000 men for the attack, their chances of success appeared very
small. Desperate fighting ensued, but no sensible impression could be
made on the Russian lines, and finally, as a last resource, a strong
force of Kuroki's army was sent across the Taitsz River to turn the
enemy's left flank. The Russian general, Kuropatkin, rightly
estimated that the troops detached by General Kuroki for this purpose
were not commensurate with the task assigned to them, whereas the
Russians could meet this flanking movement with overwhelming
strength. Therefore, Kuropatkin sent three army corps across the
river, and by September 1st, the Japanese flanking forces were
confronted by a powerful body.
Strategists are agreed that, had Kuropatkin's plans found competent
agents to execute them, the Japanese advance would have been at least
checked at Liaoyang. In fact, the Japanese, in drafting their
original programme, had always expected that Nogi's army would be in
a position on the left flank in the field long before there was any
question of fighting at Liaoyang. It was thus due to the splendid
defence made by the garrison of the great fortress that Kuropatkin
found himself in such a favourable position at the end of August. But
unfortunately for the Russians, one of their generals, Orloff, who
had thirteen battalions under his command, showed incompetence, and
falling into an ambuscade in the course of the counter-flanking
operation, suffered defeat with heavy losses. The Japanese took full
advantage of this error, and Kuropatkin, with perhaps excessive
caution, decided to abandon his counter-movement and withdraw from
Liaoyang. He effected his retreat in a manner that bore testimony to
the excellence of his generalship. The casualties in this great
battle were very heavy. From August 25th, when the preliminary
operations may be said to have commenced, to September 3rd, when the
field remained in the possession of the Japanese, their losses were
17,539, namely, 4866 in the First Army, 4992 in the Fourth, and 7681
in the Second, while the Russian casualties were estimated at 25,000.
BATTLES OF SHAHO AND OF HEIKAUTAI
On the 2nd of October, General Kuropatkin issued from his
headquarters in Mukden an order declaring that the "moment for the
attack, ardently desired by the army, had at last arrived, and that
the Japanese were now to be compelled to do Russia's will." Barely a
month had elapsed since the great battle at Liaoyang, and it still
remains uncertain what had happened in that interval to justify the
issue of such an order. But the most probable explanation is that
Kuropatkin had received re-enforcements, so that he could marshal
250,000 to 260,000 troops for the proposed offensive, and that his
news from Port Arthur suggested the necessity of immediate and
strenuous efforts to relieve the fortress. His plan was to throw
forward his right so as to outflank the Japanese, recover possession
of Liaoyang, and obtain command of the railway.
He set his troops in motion on the 9th of October, but he was driven
back after more than a week's fighting. No less than 13,333 Russian
dead were left on the field, and at the lowest calculation,
Kuropatkin's casualties must have exceeded 60,000 men exclusive of
prisoners. There can be no doubt whatever that the Russian army had
suffered one of the most overwhelming defeats in its history, and
that after a fortnight's hard marching and nine days' hard fighting,
with little food or sleep, it had been reduced by terrible losses and
depressing fatigues to a condition bordering on extermination. Such
was the result of Kuropatkin's first attempt to assume the offensive.
Thereafter, fully three months of complete inaction ensued, and the
onlooking world occupied itself with conjectures as to the
explanation of this apparent loss of time.
Yet the chief reason was very simple. The weather in central
Manchuria at the close of the year is such as to render military
manoeuvres almost impossible on a large scale, and this difficulty is
greatly accentuated by the almost complete absence of roads. In fact,
the reasons which induced Kuropatkin to defy these obstacles, and
renew his outflanking attempts after the beginning of the cold
weather, have never been fully explained. The most probable theory is
that held by Japanese strategists, namely, that he desired to find
some opening for the vigorous campaign which he intended to pursue in
the spring, and that his attention was naturally directed to the
region between the Hun and the Liao rivers, a region unoccupied by
either army and yet within striking distance of the bases of both.
Moreover, he had received nearly three whole divisions from Europe,
and he looked to these fresh troops with much confidence. He set his
forces in motion on the 25th of January, 1905. Seven Russian
divisions were engaged, and the brunt of the fighting was borne by
two Japanese divisions and a brigade of cavalry. Two other divisions
were engaged, but the part they acted in the fight was so subordinate
that it need scarcely be taken into account. The Russians were
finally driven back with a loss of some twenty thousand killed,
wounded, or prisoners. This battle of Heikautai was the last
engagement that took place before the final encounter.
PORT ARTHUR
The relief of Port Arthur had ceased to be an important objective of
Kuropatkin before he planned his Heikautai attack. The great fortress
fell on the last day of 1904. It was not until the middle of May that
the Kinchou isthmus and Dalny came into Japanese hands, nor was the
siege army under General Nogi marshalled until the close of June.
During that interval, General Stossel, who commanded, on the Russian
side, availed himself of all possible means of defence, and the
investing force had to fight for every inch of ground. The attack on
the outlying positions occupied fully a month, and not till the end
of July had the Japanese advanced close enough to attempt a coup de
main. There can be no doubt that they had contemplated success by
that method of procedure, but they met with such a severe repulse,
during August, that they recognized the necessity of recourse to the
comparatively slow arts of the engineer. Thereafter, the story of the
siege followed stereotyped lines except that the colossal nature of
the fortifications entailed unprecedented sacrifice of life on the
besiegers' part. The crucial point of the siege-operations was the
capture of a position called 203-Metre Hill. This took place on
November 30th after several days of the most terrible fighting ever
witnessed, fighting which cost the Japanese ten thousand casualties.
The importance of the hill was that it furnished a post of
observation whence indications could be given to guide the heavy
Japanese artillery in its cannonade of the remaining Russian ships in
the harbour.
Nothing then remained for the Russians except to sink the ships, and
this they did, so that Russia lost a squadron which, all told,
represented an outlay of over thirty millions sterling--$150,000,000.
In a telegram despatched to his own Government on January 1st,
General Stossel said: "Great Sovereign, forgive! We have done all
that was humanly possible. Judge us; but be merciful. Eleven months
have exhausted our strength. A quarter only of the defenders, and
one-half of them invalids, occupy twenty-seven versts of
fortifications without supports and without intervals for even the
briefest repose. The men are reduced to shadows!" On the previous day
Stossel had written to General Nogi, declaring that further
resistance would merely entail useless loss of life considering the
conditions within the fortress. The total number of prisoners who
surrendered at the fall of the fortress was 878 officers and 23,491
men, and the captured material included 546 guns; 35,252 rifles; 60
torpedoes; 30,000 kilograms of powder; 82,670 rounds of
gun-ammunition; two and a quarter million rounds of small-arm
ammunition; a number of wagons; 1,920 horses; four battle-ships; two
cruisers; fourteen gunboats and torpedo-craft; ten steamers;
thirty-three steam launches, and various other vessels. These figures
are worthy of study, as one of General Stossel's alleged reasons for
surrendering was scarcity of ammunition.
MISHCHENKO'S RAID
The capture of Port Arthur meant something more than the fall of a
fortress which had been counted impregnable and which had dominated
the strategical situation for fully seven months. It meant, also,
that General Nogi's army would now be free to join their comrades
beyond the Liao River, and that Kuropatkin would find his opponents'
strength increased by four divisions. It became, therefore, important
to ascertain how soon this transfer was likely to be effected, and,
if possible, to interrupt it by tearing up the railway. Accordingly,
on January 8th, General Mishchenko's division of Cossacks,
Caucasians, and Dragoons, mustering six thousand sabres, with six
batteries of light artillery, crossed the Hun River and marched south
on a five-mile front. Throughout the war the Cossacks, of whom a very
large force was with the Russian army, had hitherto failed to
demonstrate their usefulness, and this raid in force was regarded
with much curiosity. It accomplished very little. Its leading
squadrons penetrated as far south as Old Niuchwang, and five hundred
metres of the railway north of Haicheng were destroyed, a bridge also
being blown up. But this damage was speedily restored, and as for the
reconnoitring results of the raid, they seem to have been very
trifling.
THE BATTLE OF MUKDEN
After the battle of Heikautai, which cost the Russians twenty
thousand casualties and exposed the troops to terrible hardships,
Kuropatkin's army did not number more than 260,000 effectives. On the
other hand, he could rely upon a constant stream of re-enforcements
from Europe, as the efficiency of the railway service had been
enormously increased by the genius and energy of Prince Khilkoff,
Russian minister of Ways and Communications. In fact, when all the
forces under orders for Manchuria had reached their destination,
Kuropatkin would have under his command twelve army corps, six
rifle-brigades, and nine divisions of mounted troops, a total of
something like half a million men. Evidently the Japanese would not
have acted wisely in patiently awaiting the coming of these troops.
Moreover, since the break-up of winter would soon render temporarily
impossible all operations in the field, to have deferred any forward
movement beyond the month of March would have merely facilitated the
massing of Russian re-enforcements in the lines on the Shaho, where
the enemy had taken up his position after his defeat at Heikautai.
These considerations induced Marshal Oyama to deliver an attack with
his whole force during the second half of February, and there
resulted a conflict which, under the name of the "battle of Mukden,"
will go down in the pages of history as the greatest fight on record.
It has been claimed by the Russians that Kuropatkin was thinking of
assuming the offensive when the Japanese forced his hand; but however
that may be, the fact is that he fought on the defensive as he had
done throughout the whole war with two exceptions. Nevertheless, we
may confidently assert that at no previous period had the Russians
been so confident and so strong. According to the Japanese estimate,
the accuracy of which may be trusted, Kuropatkin had 376 battalions,
171 batteries, and 178 squadrons; representing 300,000 rifles, 26,000
sabres and 1368 guns, while the defences behind which these troops
were sheltered were of the most elaborate character, superior to
anything that the Japanese had encountered during the previous
battles of the field-campaign. On the other hand, the Japanese also
were in unprecedented strength. Up to the battle of Heikautai,
Kuropatkin had been confronted by only three armies, namely, the
First, Second, and Fourth, under Generals Kuroki, Oku, and Nozu,
respectively. In the middle of February, these numbered three, four,
and two divisions, respectively. But there had now been added a
considerable number of reserve brigades, bringing up the average
strength of most of the divisions to from 22,000 to 25,000 men.
Further, in addition to these armies, two others were in the field,
namely, the Third, under General Nogi, and the Fifth, under General
Kawamura. General Nogi's force had marched up from Port Arthur, but
General Kawamura's was a new army formed of special reservists and
now put in the field for the first time.
The Russians occupied a front forty-four miles in extent and from
five to six miles in depth. They did not know, apparently, that
General Kawamura's army had joined Oyama's forces, nor did they know
where Nogi's army was operating. The Japanese programme was to hold
the Russian centre; to attack their left flank with Kawamura's army,
and to sweep round their right flank with Nogi's forces. The latter
were therefore kept in the rear until Kawamura's attack had developed
fully on the east and until the two centres were hotly engaged. Then
"under cover of the smoke and heat generated by the conflict of the
other armies on an immense front, and specially screened by the
violent activity of the Second Army, Nogi marched in echelon of
columns from the west on a wide, circling movement; swept up the Liao
valley, and bending thence eastward, descended on Mukden from the
west and northwest, giving the finishing blow of this gigantic
encounter; severing the enemy's main line of retreat, and forcing him
to choose between surrender and flight. To launch, direct, and
support four hundred thousand men engaged at such a season over a
front one hundred miles in length was one of the most remarkable
tasks ever undertaken on the field of battle by a modern staff."
Of course, all these events did not move exactly as planned, but the
main feature of the great fight was that Kuropatkin, deceived by
Kawamura's movement, detached a large force to oppose him, and then
recalled these troops too late for the purpose of checking General
Nogi's flanking operation. The fighting was continuous for almost two
weeks, and on the morning of March 16th, the Russians had been driven
out of Mukden and forced northward beyond Tiehling. In fact, they did
not pause until March 20th, when Linievitch, who had succeeded
Kuropatkin in the chief command, was able to order a halt at
Supingchieh, seventy miles to the north of Mukden. "The Russian
losses in this most disastrous battle included, according to Marshal
Oyama's reports, 27,700 killed and 110,000 wounded," while an immense
quantity of war material fell into the hands of the victors. The
Japanese losses, up to the morning of March 12th, were estimated at
41,222.
THE BATTLE OF TSUSHIMA
From the outset, both sides had appreciated the enormous
preponderance that would be conferred by command of the sea. It was
in obedience to this conviction that the Russian authorities were in
the act of taking steps to increase largely their Pacific squadron
when the outbreak of war compelled them to suspend the despatch of
re-enforcements. They did not, however, relinquish their
preparations. Evidently, any vessels sent to the scene of combat
after fighting had begun must be competent to defend themselves
against attack, which condition entailed strength to form an
independent squadron. The preparations to acquire this competence
involved a long delay, and it was not until the 16th of October,
1904, that Admiral Rozhdestvensky left Libau with some forty ships.
The world watched this adventure with astonished eyes. Thitherto
Great Britain, equipped as she is with coaling-stations all round the
globe, had been the only power thought capable of sending a large
fleet on an ocean voyage. Rozhdestvensky's squadron consumed over
three thousand tons of coal daily when steaming at a reduced speed,
and how this supply was to be kept up in the absence of ports of
call, no one was able to conjecture. The difficulty was ultimately
overcome by the very benevolent character which the neutrality of
certain powers assumed, and in May, 1905, the Baltic squadron, as the
vessels under Rozhdestvensky were called, made its appearance in Far
Eastern waters.
It had been supposed that the Russians would seek to envelop their
movements in obscurity, but they seem to have appreciated, from the
outset, the absurdity of endeavouring to conceal the traces of a
fleet of forty vessels steaming along the routes of the world's
commerce. They therefore proceeded boldly on their way, slowly but
indomitably overcoming all obstacles. It will be observed that the
date of their departure from Libau was just two months after the
last attempt of the Port Arthur squadron to escape to Vladivostok.
Doubtless, this sortie, which ended so disastrously for the
Russians, was prompted in part by anticipation of the Baltic
fleet's approaching departure, and had the Port Arthur squadron,
or any considerable portion of it, reached Vladivostok before
Rozhdestvensky's coming, Admiral Togo might have been caught between
two fires. The result of the sortie, however, dispelled that hope.
Long before Rozhdestvensky reached the Far East, he fell into touch
with Japanese scouts, and every movement of his ships was flashed to
the enemy. That Vladivostok was his objective and that he would try
to reach that place if possible without fighting, were unquestionable
facts. But by what avenue would he enter the Sea of Japan? The query
occupied attention in all the capitals of the world during several
days, and conjectures were as numerous as they were conflicting. But
Admiral Togo had no moment of hesitation. He knew that only two
routes were possible, and that one of them, the Tsugaru Strait, could
be strewn with mines at very brief notice. The Russians dare not take
that risk. Therefore Togo waited quietly at his base in the Korean
Strait and on the 27th of May his scouts reported by wireless
telegraphy at 5 A.M., "Enemy's fleet sighted in 203 section. He seems
to be steering for the east channel."
In the historic action which ensued, Rozhdestvensky had under his
command eight battle-ships, nine cruisers, three coast-defence ships,
nine destroyers, an auxiliary cruiser, six special-service steamers,
and two hospital ships. Togo's fleet consisted of five battle-ships
(one of them practically valueless), one coast-defence vessel, eight
armoured cruisers, ten protected cruisers, twenty destroyers, and
sixty-seven torpedo-boats. Numerically, the advantage was on the
Japanese side, although in first-class fighting material the
disparity was not remarkable. As for the result, it can only be
called annihilation for the Russian squadron. Out of the thirty-eight
ships composing it, twenty were sunk; six captured; two went to the
bottom or were shattered while escaping; six were disarmed and
interned in neutral ports to which they had fled; one was released
after capture, and of one the fate is unknown. Only two escaped out
of the whole squadron. This wonderful result justifies the comment of
a competent authority:
"We can recognize that Togo is great--great in the patience he
exercised in the face of much provocation to enter upon the fight
under conditions less favourable to the success of his cause; great
in his determination to give decisive battle despite advice offered
to him to resort to methods of evasion, subterfuge, and finesse;
great in his use of not one but every means in his power to crush his
enemy, and great, greatest perhaps of all, in his moderation after
victory unparalleled in the annals of modern naval war.
"The attitude of the Japanese people in the presence of this
epoch-making triumph is a sight for men and gods. They have the grand
manner of the ancients, and their invariable attitude throughout the
war, whether in the hour of victory or in that of disappointment, has
been worthy of a great people. No noisy and vulgar clamour, no
self-laudation, no triumph over a fallen enemy, but deep
thankfulness, calm satisfaction, and reference of the cause of
victory to the illustrious virtue of their Emperor."*
*The War in the Far East, by the Military Correspondent of "The
Times."
The Japanese losses in the two-days' fighting were three
torpedo-boats, and they had 116 killed and 538 wounded.
PEACE RESTORED
After the battles of Mukden and Tsushima, which were great enough to
terminate the greatest war, the Russians and the Japanese alike found
themselves in a position which must either prelude another stupendous
effort on both sides or be utilized to negotiate peace. Here the
President of the United States of America intervened, and, on the 9th
of June, 1905, the American minister in Tokyo and the ambassador in
St. Petersburg, instructed from Washington, handed an identical note
to the Japanese and the Russian Governments respectively, urging the
two countries to approach each other direct. On the following day,
Japan intimated her frank acquiescence, and Russia lost no time in
taking a similar step. Two months nevertheless elapsed before the
plenipotentiaries of the two powers met, on August 10th, at
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Russia sent M. (afterwards Count) de Witte
and Baron Rosen; Japan, Baron (afterwards Marquis) Komura, who had
held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs throughout the war, and Mr.
(afterwards Baron) Takahira. The Japanese statesmen well understood
that much of the credit accruing to them for their successful conduct
of the war must be forfeited in the sequel of the negotiations. For
the people of Japan had accustomed themselves to expect that Russia
would recoup a great part, if not the whole, of the expenses incurred
by their country in the contest, whereas the ministry in Tokyo knew
that to look for payment of indemnity by a great State whose
territory has not been invaded effectively or its existence menaced
must be futile.
Nevertheless, diplomacy required that this conviction should be
concealed, and thus Russia carried to the conference a belief that
the financial phase of the discussion would be crucial. Baron
Komura's mandate was, however, that the only radically essential
terms were those formulated by Japan prior to the war. She must
insist on securing the ends for which she had fought, since she
believed them to be indispensable to the peace of the Far East, but
beyond that she would not go. The Japanese plenipotentiaries,
therefore, judged it wise to submit their terms in the order of the
real importance, leaving their Russian colleagues to imagine, as they
probably would, that the converse method had been adopted, and that
everything prefatory to questions of finance and territory was of
minor consequence.
The negotiations, commencing on the 10th of August, were not
concluded until the 5th of September, when a treaty of peace was
signed. There had been a moment when the onlooking world believed
that unless Russia agreed to ransom the island of Saghalien by paying
to Japan a sum of 120 millions sterling,--$580,000,000, the
conference would be broken off. Nor did such an exchange seem
unreasonable, for were Russia expelled from the northern part of
Saghalien, which commands the estuary of the Amur, her position in
Siberia would have been compromised. But Japan's statesmen were not
disposed to make any display of territorial aggression. The southern
half of Saghalien had originally belonged to Japan and had passed
into Russia's possession by an arrangement which the Japanese nation
strongly resented. To recover that portion of the island seemed,
therefore, a legitimate ambition. Japan did not contemplate any
larger demand, nor did she seriously insist on an indemnity. Thus,
the negotiations were never in real danger of failure.
The Treaty of Portsmouth recognized Japan's "paramount political,
military, and economic interests" in Korea; provided for the
simultaneous evacuation of Manchuria by the contracting parties;
transferred to Japan the lease of the Liaotung peninsula, held by
Russia from China, together with that of the Russian railways south
of Kwanchengtsz and all collateral mining or other privileges; ceded
to Japan the southern half of Saghalien, the fiftieth parallel of
latitude to be the boundary between the two parties; secured
fishing-rights for Japanese subjects along the coasts of the seas of
Japan, Okhotsk, and Bering; laid down that the expense incurred by
the Japanese for the maintenance of the Russian prisoners during the
war should be reimbursed by Russia, less the outlays made by the
latter on account of Japanese prisoners, by which arrangement Japan
obtained a payment of some four million sterling $20,000,000, and
provided that the contracting parties, while withdrawing their
military force from Manchuria, might maintain guards to protect their
respective railways, the number of such guards not to exceed fifteen
per kilometre of line. There were other important restrictions:
first, the contracting parties were to abstain from taking, on the
Russo-Korean frontier, any military measures which might menace the
security of Russian or Korean territory; secondly, the two powers
pledged themselves not to exploit the Manchurian railways for
strategic purposes, and thirdly, they promised not to build on
Saghalien or its adjacent islands any fortifications or other similar
works, or to take any military measures which might impede the free
navigation of the Strait of La Pérouse and the Gulf of Tatary.
The above provisions concerned the two contracting parties only. But
China's interests also were considered. Thus, it was agreed to
"restore entirely and completely to her exclusive administration" all
portions of Manchuria then in the occupation, or under the control,
of Japanese or Russian troops, except the leased territory; that her
consent must be obtained for the transfer to Japan of the leases and
concessions held by the Russians in Manchuria; that the Russian
Government should disavow the possession of "any territorial
advantages or preferential or exclusive concessions in impairment of
Chinese sovereignty or inconsistent with the principle of equal
opportunity in Manchuria," and that Japan and Russia "engaged
reciprocally not to obstruct any general measures common to all
countries which China might take for the development of the commerce
and industry of Manchuria."
This distinction between the special interests of the contracting
parties and the interests of China herself, as well as of foreign
nations generally, is essential to clear understanding of a situation
which subsequently attracted much attention. From the time of the
Opium War (1857) to the Boxer rising (1900), each of the great
Western powers struggled for its own hand in China, and each sought
to gain for itself exclusive concessions and privileges with
comparatively little regard for the interests of others and with no
regard whatsoever for China's sovereign rights. The fruits of this
period were permanently ceded territories (Hongkong and Macao);
leases temporarily establishing foreign sovereignty in various
districts (Kiao-chou, Weihaiwei, and Kwang-chow); railway and mining
concessions, and the establishment of settlements at open ports where
foreign jurisdiction was supreme. But when, in 1900, the Boxer rising
forced all the powers into a common camp, they awoke to full
appreciation of a principle which had been growing current for the
past two or three years, namely, that concerted action on the lines
of maintaining China's integrity and securing to all alike equality
of opportunity and a similarly open door, was the only feasible
method of preventing the partition of the Chinese empire and averting
a clash of rival interests which might have disastrous results. This,
of course, did not mean that there was to be any abandonment of
special privileges already acquired or any surrender of existing
concessions. The arrangement was not to be retrospective in any
sense. Vested interests were to be strictly guarded until the lapse
of the periods for which they had been granted, or until the maturity
of China's competence to be really autonomous.
A curious situation was thus created. International professions of
respect for China's sovereignty, for the integrity of her empire, and
for the enforcement of the open door and equal opportunity co-existed
with legacies from an entirely different past. Russia endorsed this
new policy, but not unnaturally declined to abate any of the
advantages previously enjoyed by her in Manchuria. Those advantages
were very substantial. They included a twenty-five-year lease--with
provision for renewal--of the Liaotung peninsula, within which area
of 1220 square miles Chinese troops might not penetrate, whereas
Russia would not only exercise full administrative authority, but
also take military and naval action of any kind; they included
the creation of a neutral territory on the immediate north of the
former and still more extensive, which remained under Chinese
administration, and where neither Chinese nor Russian troops might
enter, nor might China, without Russia's consent, cede land, open
trading marts, or grant concessions to any third nationality; and
they included the right to build some sixteen hundred miles of
railway (which China would have the opportunity of purchasing at cost
price in the year 1938, and would be entitled to receive gratis in
1982), as well as the right to hold extensive zones on either side of
the railway, to administer these zones in the fullest sense, and to
work all mines lying along the lines.
Under the Portsmouth treaty these advantages were transferred to
Japan by Russia, the railway, however, being divided so that only the
portion (521.5 miles) to the south of Kwanchengtsz fell to Japan's
share, while the portion (1077 miles) to the north of that place
remained in Russia's hands. China's consent to the above transfers
and assignments was obtained in a treaty signed at Peking on the 22nd
of December, 1905. Thus, Japan came to hold in Manchuria a position
somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, she figured as the champion
of the Chinese empire's integrity and as an exponent of the new
principle of equal opportunity and the open door. On the other, she
appeared as the legatee of many privileges more or less inconsistent
with that principle. But, at the same time, nearly all the great
powers of Europe were similarly circumstanced. In their cases, also,
the same incongruity was observed between the newly professed policy
and the aftermath of the old practice. It was scarcely to be expected
that Japan alone should make a large sacrifice on the altar of a
theory to which no other State thought of yielding any retrospective
obedience whatever. She did, indeed, furnish a clear proof of
deference to the open-door doctrine, for instead of reserving the
railway zones to her own exclusive use, as she was fully entitled to
do, she sought and obtained from China a pledge to open to foreign
trade sixteen places within these zones.
For the rest, however, the inconsistency between the past and the
present, though existing throughout the whole of China, was nowhere
so conspicuous as in the three eastern provinces (Manchuria); not
because there was any real difference of degree, but because
Manchuria had been the scene of the greatest war of modern times;
because that war had been fought by Japan in the cause of the new
policy, and because the principles of the equally open door and of
China's integrity had been the main bases of the Portsmouth treaty,
of the Anglo-Japanese alliance, and of the subsequently concluded
ententes with France and Russia. In short, the world's eyes were
fixed on Manchuria and diverted from China proper, so that every act
of Japan was subjected to an exceptionally rigorous scrutiny, and the
nations behaved as though they expected her to live up to a standard
of almost ideal altitude. China's mood, too, greatly complicated the
situation. She had the choice between two moderate and natural
courses; either to wait quietly until the various concessions granted
by her to foreign powers in the evil past should lapse by maturity,
or to qualify herself by earnest reforms and industrious developments
for their earlier recovery. Nominally she adopted the latter course,
but in reality she fell into a mood of much impatience. Under the
name of a "rights-recovery campaign" her people began to protest
vehemently against the continuance of any conditions which impaired
her sovereignty, and as this temper coloured her attitude towards the
various questions which inevitably grew out of the situation in
Manchuria, her relations with Japan became somewhat strained in the
early part of 1909.
JAPAN IN KOREA AFTER THE WAR WITH RUSSIA
Having waged two wars on account of Korea, Japan emerged from the
second conflict with the conviction that the policy of maintaining
the independence of that country must be modified, and that since the
identity of Korean and Japanese interests in the Far East and the
paramount character of Japanese interests in Korea would not permit
Japan to leave Korea to the care of any third power, she must assume
the charge herself. Europe and America also recognized that view of
the situation, and consented to withdraw their legations from Seoul,
thus leaving the control of Korean foreign affairs entirely in the
hands of Japan, who further undertook to assume military direction in
the event of aggression from without or disturbance from within. But
in the matter of internal administration, she continued to limit
herself to advisory supervision. Thus, though a Japanese
resident-general in Seoul, with subordinate residents throughout the
provinces, assumed the functions hitherto discharged by foreign
ministers and consuls, the Korean Government was merely asked to
employ Japanese experts in the position of counsellors, the right to
accept or reject their counsels being left to their employers.
Once again, however, the futility of looking for any real reforms
under this optional system was demonstrated. Japan sent her most
renowned statesman, Prince Ito, to discharge the duties of
resident-general; but even he, in spite of patience and tact, found
that some less optional methods must be resorted to. Hence, on the
24th of July, 1907, a new agreement was signed, by which the
resident-general acquired initiative as well as consultative
competence to enact and enforce laws and ordinances; to appoint and
remove Korean officials, and to place capable Japanese subjects in
the ranks of the administration. That this constituted a heavy blow
to Korea's independence could not be gainsaid. That it was inevitable
seemed to be equally obvious. For there existed in Korea nearly all
the worst abuses of medieval systems. The administration of justice
depended solely on favour or interest. The police contributed by
corruption and incompetence to the insecurity of life and property.
The troops were a body of useless mercenaries. Offices being allotted
by sale, thousands of incapables thronged the ranks of the executive.
The Emperor's Court was crowded by diviners and plotters of all
kinds, male and female. The finances of the Throne and those of the
State were hopelessly confused. There was nothing like an organized
judiciary. A witness was in many cases considered particeps criminis;
torture was commonly employed to obtain evidence, and defendants in
civil cases were placed under arrest. Imprisonment meant death or
permanent disablement for a man of means. Flogging so severe as to
cripple, if not to kill, was a common punishment; every major offence
from robbery upwards was capital, and female criminals were
frequently executed by administering shockingly painful poisons. The
currency was in a state of the utmost confusion. Extreme corruption
and extortion were practised in connexion with taxation. Finally,
while nothing showed that the average Korean lacked the elementary
virtue of patriotism, there had been repeated proofs that the safety
and independence of the empire counted for little with political
intriguers. Japan must step out of Korea altogether or effect drastic
reforms there.
She necessarily chose the latter alternative, and the things which
she accomplished between the beginning of 1906 and the close of 1908
may be briefly described as the elaboration of a proper system of
taxation; the organization of a staff to administer annual budgets;
the re-assessment of taxable property; the floating of public loans
for productive enterprises; the reform of the currency; the
establishment of banks of various kinds, including agricultural and
commercial; the creation of associations for putting bank-notes into
circulation; the introduction of a warehousing system to supply
capital to farmers; the lighting and buoying of the coasts; the
provision of posts, telegraphs, roads, and railways; the erection of
public buildings; the starting of various industrial enterprises
(such as printing, brick making, forestry and coal mining); the
laying out of model farms; the beginning of cotton cultivation; the
building and equipping of an industrial training school; the
inauguration of sanitary works; the opening of hospitals and medical
schools; the organization of an excellent educational system; the
construction of waterworks in several towns; the complete
remodelling of the Central Government; the differentiation of the
Court and the executive, as well as of the administrative and the
judiciary; the formation of an efficient body of police; the
organization of law-courts with a majority of Japanese jurists on the
bench; the enactment of a new penal code, and drastic reforms in the
taxation system.
In the summer of 1907, the resident-general advised the Throne to
disband the standing army as an unserviceable and expensive force.
The measure was, doubtless desirable, but the docility of the troops
had been overrated. Some of them resisted vehemently, and many became
the nucleus of an insurrection which lasted in a desultory manner for
nearly two years; cost the lives of 21,000 insurgents and 1300
Japanese, and entailed upon Japan an outlay of nearly a million
sterling. Altogether, what with building 642 miles of railway, making
loans to Korea, providing funds for useful purposes and quelling the
insurrection, Japan was fifteen millions sterling $72,000,000 out of
pocket on Korea's account by the end of 1909. She had also lost the
veteran statesman, Prince Ito, who was assassinated at Harbin by a
Korean fanatic on the 26th of October, 1909.*
*Encylopaedia Britannica, (11th Edition); article "Japan," by
Brinkley.
ANNEXATION OF KOREA
Japan finally resolved that nothing short of annexation would suit
the situation, and that step was taken on August 22, 1910. At what
precise moment this conviction forced itself upon Japan's judgment it
is impossible to say, She knows how to keep her counsel. But it was
certainly with great reluctance that she, hitherto the exponent and
champion of Korean independence, accepted the role of annexation. The
explanation given by her own Government is as follows:
-"In its solicitude to put an end to disturbing conditions, the
Japanese Government made an arrangement, in 1905, for establishing a
protectorate over Korea and they have ever since been assiduously
engaged in works of reform, looking forward to the consummation of
the desired end. But they have failed to find in the regime of a
protectorate sufficient hope for a realization of the object which
they had in view, and a condition of unrest and disquietude still
prevails throughout the whole peninsula. In these circumstances, the
necessity of introducing fundamental changes in the system of
government in Korea has become entirely manifest, and an earnest and
careful examination of the Korean problem has convinced the Japanese
Government that the regime of a protectorate cannot be made to adapt
itself to the actual condition of affairs in Korea, and that the
responsibilities devolving upon Japan for the due administration of
the country cannot be justly fulfilled without the complete
annexation of Korea to the Empire."
"Thus the dynasty of sovereigns, which had continued in an unbroken
line from 1392, came to an end with the independence of this country,
whose national traditions and history had extended over four thousand
years, whose foundation as a kingdom was coeval with that of the
Assyrian empire; and the two last living representatives of the
dynasty exchanged their positions as Imperial dignitaries for those
of princes and pensioners of Japan."* Since that drastic step was
taken, events seem to have fully justified it. Under the able
management of Count Terauchi, the evil conditions inimical to the
prosperity and happiness of the people are fast disappearing.
Comparative peace and order reign; and there appears to be no reason
why the fruits of progressive civilization should not ultimately be
gathered in Japan's new province as plentifully as they are in Japan
herself.
*The Story of Korea, by Longford.
SITUATION IN 1911
The unstable element of the East Asian situation to-day is the
position occupied by Japan and Russia in Manchuria. Both powers
possess privileges there which will not be easily surrendered, and
which are likely, sooner or later, to prove incompatible with China's
autonomy. It was apprehended at the outset that Russia would not long
consent to occupy the place assigned to her by the Treaty of
Portsmouth, and that she would quickly prepare for a war of revenge.
Her statesmen, however, showed as much magnanimity as wisdom. On July
30, 1906, they signed with Japan a convention pledging the
contracting parties to respect all the rights accruing to one or the
other under the Portsmouth Treaty. If international promises can be
trusted, continuous peace is assured between the two powers. Russia,
however, is not only doubling the track of her Siberian Railway, but
is also building a second line along the Amur; while Japan will soon
command access to central Manchuria by three lines; one from Dalny to
Kwanchengtsz; another from Fusan via Wiju to Mukden, and a third from
the northeastern coast of Korea via Hoiryong, on the Tumen, to Kilin.
These developments do not suggest that when the lease of Liaotung and
the charter of the railways mature--in twenty-five years and thirty
years, respectively, from the date of their signature--either Japan
or Russia will be found ready to surrender these properties.
Meanwhile, the United States of America is gradually constituting
itself the guardian of China's integrity in Manchuria, and the
citizens of the Pacific slope, under the influence of the labour
question, are writing and speaking as though war between the great
republic and the Far Eastern empire were an inevitable outcome of the
future. This chimera is unthinkable by anyone really familiar with
the trend of Japanese sentiment, but it may encourage in China a
dangerous mood, and it helps always to foster an unquiet feeling. On
the whole, when we add the chaotic condition into which China is
apparently falling, it has to be admitted that the second decade of
the twentieth century does not open a peaceful vista in the Far East.
STEADY-POINTS
There are, however, two steady-points upon the horizon. One is the
Anglo-Japanese treaty: not the treaty of 1902, spoken of already
above, but a treaty which replaced it and which was concluded on
August 12, 1905. The latter document goes much further than the
former. For, whereas the treaty of 1902 merely pledged each of the
contracting parties to observe neutrality in the event of the other
being engaged in defence of its interests, and to come to that
other's assistance in the event of any third power intervening
belligerently, the treaty of 1905 provides that:
"Whenever in the opinion of either Japan or Great Britain, any of the
rights and interests referred to in the preamble of this agreement
are in jeopardy, the two Governments will communicate with one
another fully and frankly, and will consider in common the measures
which should be taken to safeguard those menaced rights or
interests."
"If, by reason of unprovoked attack or aggressive action, wherever
arising, on the part of any other power or powers, either contracting
party should be involved in war in defence of its territorial rights
or special interests mentioned in the preamble of this agreement, the
other contracting party will at once come to the assistance of its
ally, and will conduct the war in common, and make peace in mutual
agreement with it."
The "rights and interests" here referred to are defined as follows
in the preamble:
"The consolidation and maintenance of the general peace in the
regions of eastern Asia and of India."
"The preservation of the common interests of all powers in China by
insuring the independence and integrity of the Chinese empire and the
principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of all
nations in China."
"The maintenance of the territorial rights of the high contracting
parties in the regions of eastern Asia and of India, and the defence
of their special interests in the said regions."
This remarkable agreement came into force from the date of its
signature, and its period of duration was fixed at ten years. During
its existence the two powers, England and Japan, are pledged to use
all endeavours for maintaining not only peace in the East, but also
the independence and integrity of China. The significance of such a
pledge is appreciated when we recall the dimensions of the British
navy supplemented by the Japanese, and when we further recall that
Japan, with her base of operations within easy reach of the Asiatic
continent, can place half a million of men in the field at any
moment. The second steady-point is China's financial condition. She
is the debtor of several Western nations, and they may be trusted to
avert from her any vicissitude that would impair her credit as a
borrower. Prominent among such vicissitudes is the dismemberment of
the country.
ENGRAVING: SEAL OF SESSHO, THE PAINTER
APPENDIX
1. CONSTITUTION OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN
TOKYO, FEBRUARY 11, 1889
CHAPTER I. THE EMPEROR
Article I. The Empire of Japan shall be ruled over by Emperors of the
dynasty, which has reigned in an unbroken line of descent for ages
past.
Article II. The succession to the throne shall devolve upon male
descendants of the Imperial House, according to the provisions of the
Imperial House Law.
Article III. The person of the Emperor is sacred and inviolable.
Article IV. The Emperor being the Head of the Empire the rights of
sovereignty are invested in him, and he exercises them in accordance
with the provisions of the present Constitution.
Article V. The Emperor exercises the legislative power with the
consent of the Imperial Diet.
Article VI. The Emperor gives sanction to laws, and orders them to be
promulgated and put into force.
Article VII. The Emperor convokes the Imperial Diet, opens, closes,
and prorogues it, and dissolves the House of Representatives.
Article VIII. In case of urgent necessity, when the Imperial Diet is
not sitting, the Emperor, in order to maintain the public safety or
to avert a public danger, has the power to issue Imperial Ordinances,
which shall take the place of laws. Such Imperial Ordinances shall,
however, be laid before the Imperial Diet at its next session, and
should the Diet disapprove of the said Ordinances, the Government
shall declare them to be henceforth invalid.
Article IX. The Emperor issues, or causes to be issued, the
ordinances necessary for the carrying out of the laws, or for the
maintenance of public peace and order, and for the promotion of the
welfare of his subjects. But no Ordinance shall in any way alter any
of the existing laws.
Article X. The Emperor determines the organisation of the different
branches of the Administration; he fixes the salaries of all civil
and military officers, and appoints and dismisses the same.
Exceptions specially provided for in the present Constitution or in
other laws shall be in accordance with the respective provisions
bearing thereon.
Article XI. The Emperor has the supreme command of the army and navy.
Article XII. The Emperor determines the organisation and peace
standing of the army and navy.
Article XIII. The Emperor declares war, makes peace, and concludes
treaties.
Article XIV. The Emperor proclaims the law of siege. The conditions
and operation of the law of siege shall be determined by law.
Article XV. The Emperor confers titles of nobility, rank, orders, and
other marks of honour.
Article XVI. The Emperor orders amnesty, pardon, commutation of
punishments, and rehabilitation.
Article XVII. The institution of a Regency shall take place in
conformity with the provisions of the Imperial House Law.*
The Regent shall exercise the supreme powers which belong to the
Emperor in his name.
*Law of succession, coronation, ascension, majority, style of
address, regency, imperial governor, imperial family, hereditary
estates, imperial expenditures, etc., of Feb. 11, 1889.
CHAPTER II. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF SUBJECTS
Article XVIII. The conditions necessary for being a Japanese subject
shall be determined by law.
Article XIX. Japanese subjects shall all equally be eligible for
civil and military appointments, and any other public offices,
subject only to the conditions prescribed and Laws and Ordinances.
Article XX. Japanese subjects are amenable to service in the army or
navy, according to the provisions of law.
Article XXI. Japanese subjects are amenable to the duty of paying
taxes, according to the provisions of law.
Article XXII. Subject to the limitations imposed by law, Japanese
subjects shall enjoy full liberty in regard to residence and change
of abode.
Article XXIII. No Japanese subject shall be arrested, detained, tried
or punished, except according to law.
Article XXIV. No Japanese subject shall be deprived of his right of
being tried by judges determined by law.
Article XXV. Except in the cases provided for in the law, the house
of no Japanese subject shall be entered or searched without his
permission.
Article XXVI. Except in cases provided for in the law, the secrecy of
the letters of Japanese subjects shall not be violated.
Article XXVII. The rights of property of Japanese subjects shall not
be violated. Such measures, however, as may be rendered necessary in
the interests of the public welfare shall be taken in accordance with
the provisions of the law.
Article XXVIII. Japanese subjects shall, within limits not
prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties
as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief.
Article XXIX. Japanese subjects shall, within the limits of the law,
enjoy liberty in regard to speech, writing, publication, public
meetings, and associations.
Article XXX. Japanese subjects may present petitions, provided that
they observe the proper form of respect, and comply with the rules
specially provided for such matters.
Article XXXI. The provisions contained in the present chapter shall
not interfere with the exercise, in times of war or in case of
national emergency, of the supreme powers which belong to the
Emperor.
Article XXXII. Each and every one of the provisions contained in the
preceding articles of the present chapter shall, in so far as they do
not conflict with the laws or the rules and discipline of the army
and navy, apply to the officers and men of the army and of the navy.
CHAPTER III. THE IMPERIAL DIET
Article XXXIII. The Imperial Diet shall consist of two Houses: the
House of Peers and the House of Representatives.
Article XXXIV. The House of Peers shall, in accordance with the
Ordinance concerning the House of Peers, be composed of members of
the Imperial Family, of Nobles, and of Deputies who have been
nominated by the Emperor.
Article XXXV. The House of Representatives shall be composed of
members elected by the people, according to the provisions of the Law
of Election.
Article XXXVI. No one can at one and the same time be a member of
both Houses.
Article XXXVII. Every law requires the consent of the Imperial Diet.
Article XXXVIII. Both Houses shall vote upon projects of law brought
forward by the Government, and may respectively bring forward
projects of law.
Article XXXIX. A bill which has been rejected by either of the Houses
shall not be again brought in during the same session.
Article XL. Both Houses can make recommendations to the Government in
regard to laws, or upon any other subject. When, however, such
recommendations are not adopted, they cannot be made a second time
during the same session.
Article XLI. The Imperial Diet shall be convoked every year.
Article XLII. A session of the Imperial Diet shall last during three
months. In case of necessity, a duration of a session may be
prolonged by Imperial order.
Article XLIII. When urgent necessity arises, an extraordinary session
may be convoked, in addition to the ordinary one. The duration of an
extraordinary session shall be determined by Imperial order.
Article XLIV. With regard to the opening, closing, and prorogation of
the Imperial Diet, and the prolongation of its sessions, these shall
take place simultaneously in both Houses. Should the House of
Representatives be ordered to dissolve, the House of Peers shall at
the same time be prorogued.
Article XLV. When the House of Representatives has been ordered to
dissolve, the election of new members shall be ordered by Imperial
decree, and the new House shall be convoked within five months from
the day of dissolution.
Article XLVI. No debate can be opened and no vote can be taken in
either House of the Imperial Diet unless not less than one-third of
the whole number of the members thereof is present.
Article XLVII. Votes shall be taken in both Houses by absolute
majority. In the case of a tie vote, the President shall have the
casting vote.
Article XLVIII. The deliberation of both Houses shall be held in
public. The deliberations may, however, upon demand of the Government
or by resolution of the House, be held in secret sitting.
Article XLIX. Both Houses of the Imperial Diet may respectively
present addresses to the Emperor.
Article L. Both Houses may receive petitions presented by subjects.
Article LI. Both Houses may enact, besides what is provided for in
the present constitution and in the law of the Houses, rules
necessary for the management of their internal affairs.
Article LII. No member of either House shall be held responsible
outside the respective Houses for any opinion uttered or for any vote
given by him in the House. When, however, a member himself has given
publicity to his opinions, by public speech, by documents in print,
or in writing, or by any other means, he shall, as regards such
actions, be amenable to the general law.
Article LIII. The members of both Houses shall, during the session,
be free from arrest, unless with the permission of the House, except
in cases of flagrant delicts, or of offences connected with civil war
or foreign troubles.
Article LIV. The Ministers of State, and persons deputed for that
purpose by the Government, may at any time take seats and speak in
either House.
CHAPTER IV. THE MINISTERS OF STATE AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL
Article LV. The respective Ministers of State shall give their advice
to the Emperor, and be responsible for it.
All laws, public ordinances, and imperial rescripts, of whatever
kind, that relate to the affairs of the state, require the
counter-signature of a Minister of State.
Article LVI. The Privy Council shall, in accordance with the
provisions for the organisation of the Privy Council, deliberate upon
the important matters of State, when they have been consulted by the
Emperor.
CHAPTER V. THE JUDICATURE
Article LVII. Judicial powers shall be exercised by the courts of
law, according to law, in the name of the Emperor. The organisation
of the courts of law shall be determined by law.
Article LVIII. The judges shall be appointed from among those who
possess the proper qualifications determined by law. No judge shall
be dismissed from his post except on the ground of sentence having
been passed upon him for a criminal act, or by reason of his having
been subjected to punishment for disciplinary offence. Rules for
disciplinary punishment shall be determined by law.
Article LIX. Trials shall be conducted and judgments rendered
publicly. When, however, there exists any fear that such publicity
may be prejudicial to peace and order, or to the maintenance of
public morality, the public trial may be suspended, either in
accordance with the law bearing on the subject or by the decision of
the court concerned.
Article LX. Matters which fall within the competency of the special
courts shall be specially determined by law.
Article LXI. The courts of law shall not take cognizance of any suits
which arise out of the allegations that rights have been infringed by
illegal action on the part of the executive authorities, and which
fall within the competency of the court of administrative litigation,
specially established by law.
CHAPTER VI. FINANCE
Article LXII. The imposition of a new tax or the modification of the
rates (of an existing one) shall be determined by law.
However, all such administrative fees or other revenue as are in the
nature of compensation for services rendered shall not fall within
the category of the above clause.
The raising of national loans and the contracting of other
liabilities to the charge of the National Treasury, except those that
are provided in the Budget, shall require the consent of the Imperial
Diet.
Article LXIII. Existing taxes shall, in so far as they are not
altered by new laws, continue to be collected as heretofore.
Article LXIV. The annual expenditure and revenue of the State shall,
in the form of an annual Budget, receive the consent of the Imperial
Diet. Any expenditure which exceeds the appropriations set forth
under the various heads of the Budget, or those not provided for in
the Budget, shall be referred subsequently to the Imperial Diet for
its approval.
Article LXV. The Budget shall be first laid before the House of
Representatives.
Article LXVI. The expenditure in respect of the Imperial House shall
be defrayed every year out of the National Treasury, according to the
present fixed amount for the same, and shall not hereafter require
the consent thereto of the Imperial Diet, except in case an increase
thereof is found necessary.
Article LXVII. The fixed expenditure based upon the supreme powers of
the Emperor and set forth in this Constitution, and such expenditure
as may have arisen by the effect of law, or as appertains to the
legal obligations of the Government, shall be neither rejected nor
reduced by the Imperial Diet, without the concurrence of the
Government.
Article LXVIII. In order to meet special requirements the Government
may ask the consent of the Imperial Diet to a certain amount as a
continuing expenditure fund, for a previously fixed number of years.
Article LXIX. In order to supply unavoidable deficits in the Budget,
and to meet requirements unprovided for in the same, a reserve fund
shall be established.
Article LXX. When there is urgent need for the adoption of measures
for the maintenance of the public safety, and when in consequence of
the state either of the domestic affairs or of the foreign relations,
the Imperial Diet cannot be convoked, the necessary financial
measures may be taken by means of an Imperial Ordinance. In such
cases as those mentioned in the preceding clause the matter shall be
submitted to the Imperial Diet at its next session for its approval.
Article LXXI. When the Imperial Diet has not voted on the Budget, or
when the Budget has not been brought into actual existence, the
Government shall carry out the Budget of the preceding year.
Article LXXII. The final account of the expenditure and revenue of
the State shall be verified and confirmed by the Board of Audit, and
it shall be submitted by the Government to the Imperial Diet,
together with the report of verification of the said Board.
The organisation and competency of the Board of Audit shall be
determined by law separately.
CHAPTER VII SUPPLEMENTARY RULES
Article LXXIII. Should, hereafter, the necessity arise for the
amendment of the provisions of the present Constitution, A project to
that effect shall be submitted for the deliberation of the Imperial
Diet by Imperial Order. In the above case, neither House can open a
debate, unless not less than two-thirds of the whole number of
members are present; and no amendment can be passed unless a majority
of not less than two-thirds of the members present is obtained.
Article LXXIV. No modification of the Imperial House Law shall be
required to be submitted for the deliberation of the Imperial Diet.
No provision of the present Constitution can be modified by the
Imperial House Law.
Article LXXV. No modification can be introduced into the
Constitution, or into the Imperial House Law, during the time of a
Regency.
Article LXXVI. Existing legal enactments, such as laws, regulations,
and ordinances, and all other such enactments, by whatever names they
may be called, which do not conflict with the present constitution,
shall continue in force. All existing contracts or orders which
entail obligations upon the Government, and which are connected with
the expenditure, shall come within the scope of Article LXVII.
2. AGREEMENT BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED KINGDOM, SIGNED AT LONDON,
AUGUST 12, 1905
Preamble. The Governments of Japan and Great Britain, being desirous
of replacing the agreement concluded between them on the 30th
January, 1902, by fresh stipulations, have agreed upon the following
articles, which have for their object:
(a) The consolidation and maintenance of the general peace in the
regions of Eastern Asia and of India;
(b) The preservation of the common interests of all Powers in China
by insuring the independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire and
the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry of
all nations in China;
(c) The maintenance of the territorial rights of the High Contracting
Parties in the regions of Eastern Asia and of India, and the defence
of their special interests in the said regions:
Article I. It is agreed that whenever, in the opinion of either Great
Britain or Japan, any of the rights and interests referred to in the
preamble of this Agreement are in jeopardy, the two Governments will
communicate with one another fully and frankly, and will consider in
common the measures which should be taken to safeguard those menaced
rights or interests. (671)
Article II. If by reason of unprovoked attack or aggressive action,
wherever arising, on the part of any other Power or Powers either
Contracting Party should be involved in war in defence of its
territorial rights or special interests mentioned in the preamble of
this Agreement, the other Contracting Party will at once come to the
assistance of its ally, and will conduct the war in common, and make
peace in mutual agreement with it. (672)
Article III. Japan possessing paramount political, military, and
economic interests in Corea, Great Britain recognizes the right of
Japan to take such measures of guidance, control, and protection in
Corea as she may deem proper and necessary to safeguard and advance
those interests, provided always that such measures are not contrary
to the principle of equal opportunities for the commerce and industry
of all nations. (672)
Article IV. Great Britain having a special interest in all that
concerns the security of the Indian frontier, Japan recognizes her
right to take such measures in the proximity of that frontier as she
may find necessary for safeguarding her Indian possessions. (672)
Article V. The High Contracting Parties agree that neither of them
will, without consulting the other, enter into separate arrangements
with another Power to the prejudice of the objects described in the
preamble of this Agreement. (672)
Article VI. As regards the present war between Japan and Russia,
Great Britain will continue to maintain strict neutrality unless some
other Power or Powers should join in hostilities against Japan, in
which case Great Britain will come to the assistance of Japan, and
will conduct the war in common, and make peace in mutual agreement
with Japan. (672)
Article VII. The conditions under which armed assistance shall be
afforded by either Power to the other in the circumstances mentioned
in the present Agreement, and the means by which such assistance is
to be made available, will be arranged by the Naval and Military
authorities of the Contracting Parties, who will from time to time
consult one another fully and freely upon all questions of mutual
interest. (673)
Article VIII. The present Agreement shall, subject to the provisions
of Article VI, come into effect immediately after the date of its
signature, and remain in force for ten years from that date.
In case neither of the High Contracting Parties should have notified
twelve months before the expiration of the said ten years the
intention of terminating it, it shall remain binding until the
expiration of one year from the day on which either of the High
Contracting Parties shall have denounced it. But, if when the date
fixed for its expiration arrives, either ally is actually engaged in
war, the alliance shall, ipso facto, continue until peace is
concluded. (673)
In faith whereof the Undersigned, duly authorized by their respective
Governments, have signed this Agreement and have affixed thereto
their Seals.
Done in duplicate at London, the 12th day of August, 1905.
(L.S.) TADASU HAYASHI
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the
Emperor of Japan at the Court of St. James.
(L.S.) LANSDOWNE
His Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs.
3. TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN JAPAN AND RUSSIA SIGNED AT PORTSMOUTH,
SEPTEMBER 5, 1905
Article I. There shall henceforth be peace and amity between Their
Majesties the Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias and
between Their respective States and subjects. (783)
Article II. The Imperial Russian Government, acknowledging that Japan
possesses in Corea paramount political, military and economical
interests, engage neither to obstruct nor interfere with the measures
of guidance, protection and control which the Imperial Government of
Japan may find it necessary to take in Corea.
It is understood that Russian subjects in Corea shall be treated
exactly in the same manner as the subjects or citizens of other
foreign Powers, that is to say, they shall be placed on the same
footing as the subjects or citizens of the most favoured nation.
It is also agreed that, in order to avoid all cause of
misunderstanding, the two High Contracting Parties will abstain, on
the Russo-Corean frontier, from taking any military measure which may
menace the security of Russian or Corean territory. (783)
Article III. Japan and Russia mutually engage:
1. To evacuate completely and simultaneously Manchuria except the
territory affected by the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula, in
conformity with the provisions of additional Article I, annexed to
this Treaty: and
2. To restore entirely and completely to the exclusive administration
of China all portions of Manchuria now in the occupation or under the
control of the Japanese or Russian troops, with the exception of the
territory above mentioned.
The Imperial Government of Russia declare that they have not in
Manchuria any territorial advantages or preferential or exclusive
concessions in impairment of Chinese sovereignty or inconsistent with
the principle of equal opportunity. (784)
Article IV. Japan and Russia reciprocally engage not to obstruct any
general measures common to all countries, which China may take for
the development of the commerce and industry of Manchuria. (784)
Article V. The Imperial Russian Government transfer and assign to the
Imperial Government of Japan, with the consent of the Government of
China, the lease of Port Arthur, Talien and adjacent territory, and
territorial waters and all rights, privileges and concessions
connected with or forming part of such lease and they also transfer
and assign to the Imperial Government of Japan all public works and
properties in the territory affected by the above mentioned lease.
The two High Contracting Parties mutually engage to obtain the
consent of the Chinese Government mentioned in the foregoing
stipulation.
The Imperial Government of Japan on their part undertake that the
proprietary rights of Russian subjects in the territory above
referred to shall be perfectly respected. (784)
Article VI. The Imperial Russian Government engage to transfer and
assign to the Imperial Government of Japan, without compensation and
with the consent of the Chinese Government, the railway between
Chang-chun (Kuan-cheng-tzu) and Port Arthur and all its branches,
together with all rights, privileges and properties appertaining
thereto in that region, as well as all coal mines in the said region
belonging to or worked for the benefit of the railway.
The two High Contracting Parties mutually engage to obtain the
consent of the Government of China mentioned in the foregoing
stipulation. (785)
Article VII. Japan and Russia engage to exploit their respective
railways in Manchuria exclusively for commercial and industrial
purposes and in no wise for strategic purposes.
It is understood that that restriction does not apply to the railway
in the territory affected by the lease of the Liao-tung Peninsula.
(785)
Article VIII. The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia, with a
view to promote and facilitate intercourse and traffic, will, as soon
as possible, conclude a separate convention for the regulation of
their connecting railway services in Manchuria. (785)
Article IX. The Imperial Russian Government cede to the Imperial
Government of Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty, the southern
portion of the Island of Saghalien and all islands adjacent thereto,
and all public works and properties thereon. The fiftieth degree of
north latitude is adopted as the northern boundary of the ceded
territory. The exact alignment of such territory shall be determined
in accordance with the provisions of additional Article II, annexed
to this Treaty.
Japan and Russia mutually agree not to construct in their respective
possessions on the Island of Saghalien or the adjacent islands, any
fortifications or other similar military works. They also
respectively engage not to take any military measures which may
impede the free navigation of the Straits of La Pérouse and Tartary.
(785)
Article X. It is reserved to the Russian subjects, inhabitants of the
territory ceded to Japan, to sell their real property and retire to
their country; but, if they prefer to remain in the ceded territory,
they will be maintained and protected in the full exercise of their
industries and rights of property, on condition of submitting to
Japanese laws and jurisdiction. Japan shall have full liberty to
withdraw the right of residence in, or to deport from, such
territory, any inhabitants who labour under political or
administrative disability. She engages, however, that the proprietary
rights of such individuals shall be fully respected. (786)
Article XL. Russia engages to arrange with Japan for granting to
Japanese subjects rights of fishery along the coasts of the Russian
possessions in the Japan, Okhotsk and Behring Seas.
It is agreed that the foregoing engagement shall not affect rights
already belonging to Russian or foreign subjects in those regions.
(786)
Article XII. The Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Japan and
Russia having been annulled by the war, the Imperial Governments of
Japan and Russia engage to adopt as the basis of their commercial
relations, pending the conclusion of a new treaty of commerce and
navigation on the basis of the Treaty which was in force previous to
the present war, the system of reciprocal treatment on the footing of
the most favoured nation, in which are included import and export
duties, customs formalities, transit and tonnage dues, and the
admission and treatment of the agents, subjects and vessels of one
country in the territories of the other. (786)
Article XIII. As soon as possible after the present Treaty comes into
force, all prisoners of war shall be reciprocally restored. The
Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia shall each appoint a special
Commissioner to take charge of prisoners. All prisoners in the hands
of the Government shall be delivered to and received by the
Commissioner of the other Government or by his duly authorized
representative, in such convenient numbers and at such convenient
ports of the delivering State as such delivering State shall notify
in advance to the Commissioner of the receiving State.
The Governments of Japan and Russia shall present to each other, as
soon as possible after the delivery of prisoners has been completed,
a statement of the direct expenditures respectively incurred by them
for the care and maintainance of prisoners from the date of capture
or surrender up to the time of death or delivery. Russia engages to
repay Japan, as soon as possible after the exchange of the statements
as above provided, the difference between the actual amount so
expended by Japan and the actual amount similarly disbursed by
Russia. (787)
Article XIV. The present Treaty shall be ratified by Their Majesties
the Emperor of Japan and the Emperor of all the Russias. Such
ratification shall, with as little delay as possible and in any case
not later than fifty days from the date of the signature of the
Treaty, be announced to the Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia
respectively through the French Minister in Tokio and the Ambassador
of the United States in Saint Petersburg and from the date of the
later of such announcements this Treaty shall in all its parts come
into full force.
The formal exchange of the ratification shall take place at
Washington as soon as possible. (787)
Article XV. The present Treaty shall be signed in duplicate in both
the English and French languages. The texts are in absolute
conformity, but in case of discrepancy in interpretation, the French
text shall prevail.
In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and
affixed their seals to the present Treaty of Peace. (788)
Done at Portsmouth (New Hampshire) this fifth day of the ninth month
of the thirty-eighth year of Meiji, corresponding to the twenty-third
day of August (fifth September), one thousand nine hundred and five.
(Signed) JUTARO KOMURA (L.S.)
(Signed) K. TAKAHIRA (L.S.)
(Signed) SERGE WITTE (L.S.)
(Signed) ROSEN (L.S.)
In conformity with the provisions of Articles III and IX of the
Treaty of Peace between Japan and Russia of this date, the
undersigned Plenipotentiaries have concluded the following additional
Articles:
I. To Article III. The Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia
mutually engage to commence the withdrawal of their military forces
from the territory of Manchuria simultaneously and immediately after
the Treaty of Peace comes into operation, and within a period of
eighteen months from that date, the Armies of the two countries shall
be completely withdrawn from Manchuria, except from the leased
territory of the Liaotung Peninsula.
The forces of the two countries occupying the front positions shall
be first withdrawn.
The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right to
maintain guards to protect their respective railway lines in
Manchuria. The number of such guards shall not exceed fifteen per
kilometre and within that maximum number, the commanders of the
Japanese and Russian Armies shall, by common accord, fix the number
of such guards to be employed, as small as possible having in view
the actual requirements.
The Commanders of the Japanese and Russian forces in Manchuria shall
agree upon the details of the evacuation in conformity with the above
principles and shall take by common accord the measures necessary to
carry out the evacuation as soon as possible and in any case not
later than the period of eighteen months. (789)
II. To Article IX. As soon as possible after the present Treaty comes
into force, a Commission of Delimitation, composed of an equal number
of members to be appointed respectively by the two High Contracting
Parties, shall on the spot mark in a permanent manner the exact
boundary between the Japanese and Russian possessions on the Island
of Saghalien. The Commissions shall be bound, so far as topographical
considerations permit, to follow the fiftieth parallel of north
latitude as the boundary line, and in case any deflections from that
line at any points are found to be necessary, compensation will be
made by correlative deflections at other points. It shall also be the
duty of the said Commission to prepare a list and description of the
adjacent islands included in the cession and finally the Commission
shall prepare and sign maps showing the boundaries of the ceded
territory. The work of the Commission shall be subject to the
approval of the High Contracting Parties.
The foregoing additional Articles are to be considered as ratified
with the ratification of the Treaty of Peace to which they are
annexed. (789)
Portsmouth the 5th day, 9th month, 38th year of Meiji corresponding
to the 23rd August, 5th September, 1905.
(Signed) JUTARO KOMURA (L.S.)
(Signed) K. TAKAHIRA (L.S.)
(Signed) SERGE WITTE (L.S.)
(Signed) ROSEN (L.S.)
INDEX
Abdication, Shomu; Fujiwara policy
Abe, Princess, becomes Empress Koken
Abe family and Nine Years' Commotion; Minister of the Left
--Kozo, on moral influence of Chinese classics
--Masahiro, policy in 1853; attempts to strengthen Tokugawa
--Muneto, brother of Sadato, war in Mutsu
--Nakamaro (701-70), studies in China
--Sadato (1019-1062), in Nine Years' Commotion
--Seimei, astronomer, his descendants in Gakashujo
--Shigetsugu (1600-51)
--Tadaaki (1583-1644), minister of Iemitsu
Abutsu-ni (d. 1283), author of Izayoi-nikki
Academies for youth of uji, Gaku-in; temple-schools, iera-koya;
established by Yoshinao; the Honga school; schools in Yedo and Osaka;
for court nobles
Acha-no-Tsubone
Achi, Chinese prince, migrates to Japan (289 A.D.) with weavers;
carpenters; and Saka-no-ye no Tamuramaro
Adachi family, connexion with Hojo, Miura plot against; crushed
(1286)
Adahiko, son of Omi, befriends Oke and Woke
Adams, Will (d. 1520), English pilot on Liefde, adviser of Ieyasu;
Saris distrusts; tomb (ill.)
Adoption, law of, in Court Laws; in Tokugawa fiefs; laws of
After-Han dynasty (211-65) of China
Aganoko, lands confiscated
Agglutinative language
Agriculture, early development of; and religion; encouraged by Sujin;
in reign of Suinin; on state revenue lands; in years 540-640; in Nara
epoch; in Heian; in Kamakura period; under Yoshimune; Americans in
remodelling methods of; growth in 19th century
Ai river, fighting on
Ainu, nature-worship of; language; subdivision of yellow race; ill.
Aizu, meeting-plan of armies in Shido shogun campaign; clan loyal to
shogun at Restoration
Akabashi Moritoki
Akagashira, "red head," Akahige, "red beard," Yemishi leader in 8th
century
Akahito see Yamabe Akahito
Akakura at Sekigahara
Akamatsu, large land-holdings of; Ashikaga Yoshinori plots against
--Mitsusuke (1381-1441), rebels against Yoshimochl; defeated
--Norimura (1277-1350), defender of Go-Daigo; turns against Crown;
captures Kyoto (1336); and Ashikaga
--Norishige, revolts in Kyushu
--Sadamura, among generals attacking Mitsusuke
--Yoshimura, guardian of Ashikaga Yoshiharu
Aka-Nyudo, "Red Monk,"; see Yamana Mochitoyo
Akasaka taken by Hojo
Akazome Emon, authoress of Eigwa Monogatari
Akechi Mitsuhide (1526-82), soldier under Nobunaga; goes over to the
Mori; shogun; tries to kill Ieyasu; death
Aki, province
Aki, daughter of Kiyo and Fujiwara Yoshifusa, Montoku's empress
Akimoto Yasutomo (1580-1642) rebuilds Ieyasu's shrine
Akitoki see Kanazawa Akitoki
Akizuki of Kyushu, defeated by Otomo
Ako, "reliance on equity," quibble over word
Ako, vendetta of
Akunoura, foundry
Akuro-o, Yemishi leader in 8th century wars, possibly Oro-o, i.e.
Russian
Alcock, Sir Rutherford (1809-97), on aliens in Japan
Alderman, over homestead of 50 houses
Alexieff, E. I. (b. 1843), Russian admiral, in command at Port Arthur
Aliens, in prehistoric ban or bambetsu; naturalized, skilled
artisans, the tamibe; see Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
Altaic myth; group of languages
Amako family crushed in Izumo by the Mori
--Tsunehisa (1458-1540), rivalry with Ouchi
--Yoshihisa (1545-1610), defeated by Mori
--Amakusa, Portuguese trade and Christianity in; Shimabara revolt
Ama-no-Hihoko, prince of Shiragi, Korea, settles in Tajima
Amaterasu-o-mi-Kami, Sungoddess
Amida, the Saviour; Amida-ga-mine, shrine, near Kyoto, tomb of
Hideyoshi
Amur river, battle on, (660 A.D.) with Sushen; Russia's position on
Amusements, prehistoric; in early historic times; in Heian epoch; at
Kamakura; in Muromachi epoch; (ills.)
Anahobe, Prince, rival of Yomei for throne; to succeed Yomei
Anato now Nagato
Ancestor-worship, apotheosis of distinguished mortals; grafted on
Buddhism
Ando family revolt
--Shoshu, suicide (1333)
Andrew, Prince, Arima Yoshisada
Ane-gawa, battle (1570)
Ane-no-koji family
Animals, killing, forbidden in reign (741) of Koken; earlier; in time
of Tsunayoshi; result in stock farming; worship of; mythical and
terrible beasts in early records; pets
Anjin-Zuka, tomb of Will Adams, (ill.)
"Anjiro," Japanese interpreter of Xavier
Ankan, 27th Emperor (534-535)
Anko, 20th Emperor (454-456), 111-12; palace
Ankokuji Ekei see Ekei
Annam, trade with
Annen, priest, compiles Doji-kyo
Annual Letter of Jesuits
Anotsu, Ise, China trade
Anra, province Mimana
Ansatsu-shi, inspectors of provincial government
Anthology, first Japanese, "Myriad Leaves,"; of poems in Chinese
style, Kwaifu-so; the Kokin-shu, 10th century; the three, of the
Ho-en epoch; the Hyakunin-isshu of Teika; in the Kyoto school
Antoku, 81st Emperor (1181-1183); drowned at Dan-no-ura; perhaps a
girl
Antung, on Yalu, Russians defeated
Aoki Kaneiye, metal-worker of Muromachi period
Konyo, scholar, studies Dutch (1744); introduces sweet potato
Aoto Fujitsuna criticizes Hojo Tokiyori
Ape, worship of
Apotheosis, one class of Kami formed by
Aqueducts in irrigation
Arai Hakuseki (1656-1726), Confucianist, author of Sotran I gen
(ill.); retired; opposes forcing Imperial princes into priesthood
Arakahi, defeats Iwai in Chikugo (528 A.D.)
Archaeological relics
Archery, early development of; in reign of Temmu; equestrian, in Nara
epoch; (ill.)
Architecture, in proto-historic times; influenced by Buddhism; in
Heian epoch; Kamakura period; Muromachi
Are see Hiyeda Are
Ariga, Dr., on Korean influence on early relations with China; on
supposed moral influence of Chinese classics; on false attribution to
Shotoku of estimate of Buddhism; on Joei code
Arii, adherents of Southern Court in Sanyo-do
Arima, in Settsu, thermal spring; Jesuits and Buddhists in;
represented in embassy to Europe
Arima Yostosada (d. 1577), brother of Omura Sumitada, baptized as
Andrew
--Yoshizumi rebels
Arisugawa, one of four princely houses
--Prince (1835-95), leader of anti-foreign party
Arita, porcelain manufacture
Ariwara, uji of princely descent; Takaoka's family in; academy;
eligible to high office
--Narihira (825-882), poet; (ill.)
--Yukihira (818-893), poet; founds academy, (881)
Armour, Yamato, in sepulchral remains; in Muromachi epoch; early arms
and armour; after Daiho; in Heian epoch
Army see Military Affairs
Army and Navy, Department in Meiji government
Army inspector
Arrow-heads
Artillery, early use
Artisans, in prehistoric tamibe; Korean and Chinese immigrants
Arts and Crafts, promoted by Yuryaku; Chinese and Korean influence;
in Kamakura period; in Heian epoch; patronized by Yoshimasa; first
books on; in Muromachi epoch; in time of Hideyoshi; patronized by
Tsunayoshi
Asahina Saburo (or Yoshihide) son of Wada Yoshimori
Asai family control Omi province; Nobunaga's struggle with; helped by
Buddhists
--Nagamasa (1545-73), won over to Nobunaga; joins Asakura, defeated
Asaka Kaku, contributor to Dai Nihon-shi
Asakura family in Echizen; struggle with Nobunaga; helped by
Buddhist priests
--Yoshikage (1533-73), defeated by Hideyoshi
Asama, eruption (1783)
Asan, Korea, occupied by Chinese (1894)
Asano Nagamasa (1546-1610); in charge of commissariat; sent to Korea
(1598)
--Naganori, daimyo of Ako, exile, suicide, avenged by "47 Ronins,"
--Yukinaga (1576-1613), against Ishida
Ashikaga family favour Yoritomo; revolt of; shogun of Northern court;
government; internal quarrels; estimate by Rai Sanyo; fall of;
government; scholarship; school; Buddhism; against Hojo; end of
shogunate of
--Chachamaru, kills his father Masatomo
--gakko, great school, under patronage of Uesugi
--Haruuji (d. 1560), kubo
--Masatomo (1436-91), kubo; builds fort at Horigoe; succession
--Mitsukane (1376-1409), kwanryo; assists the Ouchi
--Mochinaka, brother of Mochiuji, sides with Ogigayatsu
--Mochisada, intrigue to make him high constable
--Mochiuji (1398-1439), kwanryo; sides with Yamanouchi branch of
Uesugi; suicide
--Motouji (1340-67), son of Takauji; kwanryo; urged to become shogun
--Shigeuji (1434-97), kubo
Ashikaga Tadafuyu (1326-1400), son of Takauji, rebels in Kyushu;
joins Southern party in 1353; takes and loses Kyoto
--Tadayoshi (1307-52), assistant governor-general of Kwanto;
governor of Totomi; kills Morinaga; practically regent; in Ashikaga
revolt; chief of general staff; plots against the Ko brothers,
defeated, joins Southern party; suicide
--Takamoto, kubo
--Takauji (1305-58), joins Go-Daigo; provincial governor; plots
against Morinaga; declares himself shogun; captures Kyoto; changes
plans; crushes Tadayoshi; defeated; death, estimate; shogun
(1338-58); distributes estates; letters; shrine of Hachiman; Buddhist
temples; signature (ill.)
--Ujimitsu (1357-98), kwanryo; wishes to be shogun; strengthens family
in Kwanto; literature
--Yoshiaki (1537-97), shogun; turns to Mori, defeated; Hideyoshi
intrigues with
--Yoshiakira (1330-67), kwanryo of Kwanto; succeeds Tadayoshi;
de-thrones Suko; defeats Tadafuyu; shogun; surrender and death; plot
against
--Yoshiharu (1510-50), shogun (1521-45)
--Yoshihide (1565-8), shogun
--Yoshihisa (1465-89), shogun (1474-89); Onin war; declared heir;
administration; scholarship
--Yoshikatsu (1433-43), shogun
--Yoshikazu (1407-25) shogun (1423-5)
--Yoshikiyo, advances on Tamba; killed
--Yoshikore
--Yoshimasa (1435-90), shogun; succession; retires; fosters letters
--Yoshimi (1439-91), called Gijin, heir of Yoshimasa; deserted by
Yamana (1469); retires (1477)
--Yoshimichi see Ashikaga Yoshizumi
Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), shogun at Muromachi (1367-95);
extravagant administration; foreign policy; dies, receives rank of
ex-Emperor; treatment of Crown; and piracy; favours Zen priests
--Yoshimochi (1386-1428), shogun; succeeds his father Yoshimitsu in
military offices; rebellion against; excesses
--Yoshinori (1394-41), shogun (1428-41); abbot, called Gien; rule;
killed; relations with China; grants Ryukyu to Shimazu
--Yoshitane (1465-1523), shogun; rule; defeated by Hatakeyama
Yoshitoyo; death
--Yoshiteru (1535-65), shogun, (1545-65); suicide; receives Vilela
--Yoshitsugu, killed by his brother Yoshimochi
--Yoshiuji, last kubo
--Yoshizumi, originally Yoshimichi (1478-1511), shogun; nominal rule;
death
Ashina of Aizu
Asiatic yellow race
Askold, Russian protected cruiser at Port Arthur
Asbmaro, governor of Dazaifu, wins favor of Dokyo
Assumption, De l', martyrdom (1617)
Aston, W. G., on dates in "Chronicles,"; Korean origin of Kumaso;
purification service; neolithic boats; chronology; invasions of
Korea; Japanese authority in Korea; local records; 17-Article
Constitution; women in Heian epoch; Yoshitsune's letter; invasion of
Korea
Asuka, Empress Komyo
Asuka, capital moved to; palace built by Kogyoku
Asuka-yama, groves
Asukara Norikige, high constable, crushes revolt
Asylum established by Fujiwara Fuyutsugu
Ata rebels against Sujin
Ataka Maru, great ship of Bakufu, broken up by Tsunayoshi
Atalanta Izanagi
Atogi, Korean scribe
Atsumi Hirafu, defeated by Chinese in Korea (662)
Atsunaga, brother of Atsvnari; see Go-Shujaku
Atsunari, Prince, son of Ichijo; see Go-Ichijo
Atsuta, Hachiman's shrine
Auditor of accounts
Auguries
Augustins in Japan
Avatars of Buddha, Kami
Awa, mythical first island; culture of mulberry and hemp in; overrun
by Taira Tadatsune; invaded by Yoritomo; won from Satomi by Hojo
Ujitsuna; Miyoshi in; indigo growing
Awada, Mahito, on committee for Daiho laws (701)
Awadaguchi, swordsmith
Awaji, island, in early myth; Izanagi goddess of; Sagara exiled to;
reduced by Hideyoshi
Awo, Princess, sister of Woke, rules in interregnum
Axe, in fire ordeal
Ayala (d. 1617), Augustin vice-provincial, executed
Azuchi, in Omi, fort built by Nobunaga; church and residence for
priests
Azuke, placing in custody of feudatory
Azuma, eastern provinces, origin of name
--Kagami, 13th century history, on Hojo Yasutoki
Azumi, temple of
Babylonian myth
Backgammon or sugoroku
Badges; and crests
Baelz, Dr. E., on stature and race of Japanese; on shape of eye
Bakin, on last years of Minamoto Tametomo
Bakufu, camp government, military control, Yoritomo's system of
shogunate; three divisions; entrusted with choice of emperor (1272 &
1274); power weakened by Mongol invasion; and rapidly fails;
Go-Fushimi appeals to; re-created at Kyoto by Takauji; in Muromachi
period; at Yedo; oath of loyalty, to; Tokugawa B.; appointing power,
and other powers; exiles Yamaga Soko for heterodoxy; power lessened
by Chinese learning; B. party in Kyoto; relations with Court;
organization; decline of power; Court nobles and Emperor begin to
oppose; puts through Harris commercial treaty; and foreign
representatives; pledged (1861) to drive out foreigners in 10 years;
further interference of Crown and Court party; power ended
Baltic squadron, Russian, defeated by Togo
Bambelsu or Ban, aboriginal class
Bandits commanded by Buddhist priests in 10th century; their outrages
Bando or Kwanto provinces, army raised in, during 8th century; see
Kwanto
Banishment; edict of 1587, against Christians
Banzai, "10,000 years," viva
Baptismal flags
Barley, cultivation of, urged as substitute for rice
Basho see Matsuo Basho
Batchelor, Rev. John, on pit-dwellers
Battering-engine
Battle Era, Sengoku Jidai, 1490-1600
Be, guilds or corporations; hereditary, not changed by Daika;
property of Crown; of armourers; fishermen
Bekki Shoemon, in plot of 1652
Bell, of Hoko-ji, "treasonable" inscription on; on public-service
horses; bronze bells; Nanban (ill.); bell-tower (ill.); suzu
Benkei, halberdier
Betto superintendent of uji schools; president of samurai-dokoro;
regent, shikken, head of man-dokoro, office hereditary in Hojo
family; head of monju-dokoro, becomes finance minister of shogun
(1225)
Bidatsu, 30th Emperor (572-85)
Biddle, James. (1783-1848), Commodore, U.S.N., in Japan (1846)
Bifuku-mon-in, consort of Toba, mother of Konoe
Bin, Buddhist priest, "national doctor"; death
Bingo, woman ruler, in
Bingo, Saburo, see Kojima Takanori
Birth customs
Bison, fossil remains
Bita-sen, copper coins
Bitchu, province, Yoshinaka's force defeated in; invaded by Hideyoshi
Biwa, 4-stringed lute; biwabozu, players; (ill.)
Biwa, Lake
Bizen, swordsmith
Bizen transferred from Akamatsu to Yamana family
Black, early colour of mourning
Black Current see Kuro-shio
Boards of Religion and Privy Council under Daiho code
Bogatyr, Russian protected cruiser wrecked
Bondmen and Freemen, division by Daika; by Jito's edict
Bonita, curing, industry
Bonotsu, Satsuma
Borneo, possible source of Kumaso
Boxer Rebellion, Japanese troops in China during
Brack, Dutch ship
Bramsen, William, on early dates in "Chronicles"
Branding
Braziers
Brewing
Bribery and sale of office, attempts to abolish
Bridges, (ill.)
Brine in cosmogony
Brinkley, Capt. Frank (1841-1912), article in Encyclopaedia
Britannica quoted; Oriental Series referred to
Bronze culture in South; traces before the Yamato; bells; mirrors,
bowls, vases in Yamato tombs; great statue of Buddha
Buddha, early images of; copper images ordered in 605; golden image
of, from Shiragi (616 and 621); great bronze Nara image (750 A.D.);
Kami incarnations of, theory of Mixed Shinto; bronze image (1252) at
Karnakura; great image at Kyoto; replaced by bronze
Buddhism introduced 552 A.D.; use of writing; early politics; rapid
spread; priests above law; architecture; music; Empresses; disasters
and signs check spread; in Xara epoch; abdications; decline of
Yamato; industry; funeral of Shomu; time of Kwammu; official
advancement; vices of priests; superstition; in Heian epoch; in
Yorimasa uprising; Hojo regents: sects; Korean and Chinese; three
Vehicles; soldier priests; crushed by Yoshinori; amulets; Chinese
priests; combined with Confucianism and Shinto; Ashikaga; wars of
monks; revolt in Settsu; oppose Nobunaga; in Komaki war; spies in
Kyushu; Hideyoshi; priests of Kagoshima; in Choshu; in Yamaguchi;
persecuted in Hirado by Christians; priests converted by Vilela;
Ieyasu's laws; gains by suppression of Christianity
Bugyo, commissioners of Muromachi; 5 administrators under Hideyoshi;
special appointees to rich fiefs; under Babufu; in Emperor's and
ex-Emperor's court
Building-land, tenure
Buke, see Military houses.
Bukyo Shogaku, "Military Primer," by Yamaga Soko
Bummei Ittpki, work of Ichijo Kaneyoshi
Bungo, Tsuchi-gumo in; Xavier in; Jesuit headquarters; Christian
success among nobles; in embassy of 1582
Bunji-kin, debased coins of 1736-40
Bunka, period, 1804-17
Bunroku, period, 1592-5
Bunsei, period, 1818-29
Bureaux, under Daika
Burial, jars of Yamato; primitive methods; coffins; honour of tombs;
mounds, limited in size; funeral customs
Bushi; originated in N.E. Japan; name first used of guards; virtues
of, typified in leaders of Nine Years' Commotion; general
description; of Kwanto described; fighting against Mongols; outrages
in provinces
Bushido, way of the warrior; cult developed by Yamaga Soko; and by
Yoshimune
Butsu Sorai see Ogyu Sorai
Butter, tribute to Court
Buzen, Tsuehi-gumo in
Byodo-in, Tendai temple; prison of Go-Daigo
Cabinet under Restoration rule; crisis over Korea (1873); of 1885;
dependent on Crown
Cabral; Francis (1529-1609), Jesuit Vice-provincial, on early
missions, hospitals, Buddhists
Calendar, Prince Shotoku; revision of 1683; further revision planned
by Yoshimune
Calligraphy
Calthrop, Capt., on Oriental tactics
Cambodia, trade with
Camera government, insei, proposed by Go-Sanjo; under Shirakawa;
Go-Shirakawa; Yoritomo establishes giso at the Inchu; the three
recluses; system destroyed by Shokyu war; in Kamakura regency; camera
party at court; in Northern court
Canals
Canonical names of emperors
Capital changed at beginning of reign; Jimmu's change to Yamato;
Chuai's to far south; to Nara (709) and previous changes; changes
helped road building; change from Nara to Kyoto (792); from Kyoto to
Fukuhara
Capital Punishment
Caps, official, as insignia of rank; effect of, on hair dressing; cap
rank replaced by cap grade after Daika; varnished gauze
Car, of Enryaku-ji
Caron, Francis, Dutch trader, on Japanese martyrs
Cart, hunting, 126; "compass cart"; Heian epoch
Casting in Nara epoch
Castles
Catapult
Caterpillar, worship, of
Cats, pets in Heian epoch
Cattle, not used for food in early Japan, killing forbidden;
Christians accused of eating
Cavalry, in capital; in war
Censor; in Tokugawa organization; as judge
Census, reign of Sujin; time of Daika, (645 A.D.); classifications,
under Daiho; by Buddhist and Shinto priests
Central Department, under Daika; under Daiho
Centralization of government
Ceramics, primitive; Yamato; Korean; Gyogi; Heian; Kamakura;
Muromachi
Cereals, five; premiums for large crops
Ceremonies, Department of, under Daika; under Daiho; 15 masters of,
Koke; law (927)
Chamberlain, Basil Hall, on dates in early "Chronicles"; meaning of
Kami; classification of language; village communities; ancient dress;
Altaic myth; names; education; Doji-kyo; swords
Chamberlain; pass on cases referred to shogun
Chancellor, dajo daijin; abolished; Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Changan, Tang metropolis, Kyoto patterned after
Chao Heng, Chinese name for Abe Nakamaro
Charlevoix, quoted on Spanish galleon incident
Chekiang, attacked by pirates (1559)
Chemulpo, Russians in, attacked and defeated by Uryu; landing-place
for Japanese attack
Cheng Cheng-kung
Cheng Chi-lung, general of Ming dynasty
Chengtsz, Confucian commentaries of
Chen Hosiang, bonze
Chen Weiching (Chin Ikei), Chinese envoy to Japanese in Korea; and
negotiations for peace
Cherry-trees, groves; festivals
Chiba, branch of Taira; one of "8 Generals of Kwanto"
Chiba Tsunetane (1118-1201), favours Yoritomo; sent to Kyoto
Chichibu, copper in, (708)
Chichibu branch of Taira
Chihaya in Hojo war
Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), dramatist,
Chikauji see Tokugawa Chikauji
Chikayoshi see Nakahira Chikayoshi
Chiksan, battle, (1597), 519
Chikuzen province, Dazai-fu in; Toi attack; Mongol landing
China, "High Plain of Heaven"; "Eternal Land"; architecture; bronze
bells; bronze mirrors; Buddhism; calendar; ceramics; chronology; clay
effigies; coinage; Crown; divination; government; literature;
morality; myth; nobility; painting; promotion of officials; relations
and early intercourse; scholars in Japan; Hideyoshi's plan to
conquer; interference in Korea; Ming dynasty; trade; Formosa;
China-Japan war; Boxer rebellion; Russia; Treaty of Portsmouth; of
Peking; finances
Chin Ikei see Chen Weiching
Chinju, fort in Korea, taken by Japanese
Chinju-fu, local government station in Korea
Chinnampo, landing-place for Japanese (1904)
Cho, Korean envoy
Cho Densu see Mineho
Chokei, 98th Emperor (1368-72)
Chokei see Miyoshi Norinaga
Chokodo estates
Choko-ji, castle in Omi
Chollado, southern Korea, attacked by pirates
Chomei see Kamo Chomeii
Chong-ju, Korea, Cossacks defeated at
Cho-ryung, pass in Korea
Chosen, name of Korea, first use
Choshu, Xavier in; feudatory of, opposes Tokugawa and joins
extremists; Shimonoseki complication; revolt of samurai; joins
Satsuma against Tokugawa; fiefs surrender to Crown; clan
representation
Chosokabe family in Shikoku punished by Hideyoshi
--Motochika (1539-99), masters Tosa and all Shikoku; in Komaki war; in
invasion of Kyushu
Christianity, Nestorian in China; Azuchi castle; invasion of Korea;
in Japan; Imperial edict against; aid given by Nobunaga; Hideyoshi's
attitude towards; his edict of 1587; Ieyasu's treatment and his
edicts; Christians side with Hideyori; Hideteda's edict (1616),
(1624); teaching in Osaka after edicts; and Buddhist and Shinto
census; laws against (1635, 1665); Ieyasu distinguishes between
commerce and; Dutch not propagandists; opposition in 1853
"Chronicles," Early Japanese, Nihongi, general; character; superior
to Records; accuracy of chronology; contradicts Records; Chinese
colour in; conquest of Korea; stories from Korean history
Chronology; inaccuracy; invasion of Korea; reign of Nintoku
Chrysanthemum, Imperial badge
Chu Chi-yu, Chinese scholar
--Hi, Hayashi follows
Chuai, 14th Emperor (192-200)
Chugoku, central Japan, invaded by Hideyoshi
Chukyo, 85th Emperor (1221)
Chusan, Mimasaka, Kami of
Chushin, Zen priest, pupil of Soseki
Choson-ji, monastery, with graves of the Fujiwara of the North
Chutsz (Shu-shi), Confucian commentaries of; rejected by Yamaga Soko;
officially adopted; expounded by Japanese scholars; contrasted with
Wang Yang-ming
Chu Yuan see Sogen
Chozan, ruler of Ryukyu (1373)
Cicada-shaped hair ornaments
City administration; municipal rulers; administrators; elders
Civil affairs and Civil Government, departments
Clan representation under Meiji government
Clay Effigies, haniwa, from neolithic sites; substituted for human
sacrifice at tomb
Clepsyora, Chinese
Clocks
Cloistered monarchs; and set Camera
"Cloud chariot," war tower
Clove, English ship
Cock-fighting
Cocks, Richard, English factor, warns Yedo Court against Spain;
apparent cause of edict of 1616; successor of Saris
Code, ryo, of Daiho (701 A.D.) and Yoro (718 A.D.); of 1742; of 1790
Coelho, Gaspard (d. 1590), vice-provincial of Jesuits, ordered (1587)
from Japan
Coinage, Wado era (708-715); Nara epoch; of Heian epoch; Chinese;
Hideyoshi's time; plan to debase (1673-80); Genroku debased coin;
exports of metal from Nagasaki; attempt to restore (1710); again
debased; foreign trade
Colours of Court costume, grades; indicating social status
Combs, ancient
Commerce, early; after Daika; Nara epoch; Heian; Muromachi; under
Hideyoshi; Portuguese; motive for permission to preach; Dutch; trade
rules; commercial spirit in Yedo; in Tokugawa period; exclusion;
coinage and European trade
Commercial class
Conception, miraculous
Concubinage; classes at court
Conder, J., on armour
Confiscation of lands as punishment, or as expiation of offence;
escheat at Daika; punishment under Tokugawa
Confucianism, Shotoku on; modifying Buddhism; in Tokugawa period;
favoured by Ko-Komyo, and Tsunayoshi; Confucianists eligible for
civil posts; Yamaga Soko; combined with Shinto; Japanese schools of;
hold on educated class; vendetta
Conscription, first (689 A.D.) in Japan; partial abolition of (780,
792)
Constable, High, and lord high constable, in Yoritomo's land reform;
city constables
Constitution, of Shotoku (604 A.D.), text and comment; after
Restoration (1889)
Constitutionist party
Consular courts
Cooking in ancient Japan; in Muromachi epoch
Cooper, master, of Manhattan
Copper in Japan; use for images of Buddha, exhausts currency; Chinese
coins; in 15th century trade, debased Japanese coin; exports of
Nagasaki
Coronation Oath of 1867
Cosmogony
Cost of living
Costume, prehistoric; in Inkyo's reign; Chinese and Buddhist
influence; Nara epoch; Heian; Kamakura period; laws of Military
Houses; Sadanobu's laws
Cotton first planted in Japan (799); cloth, tax; cloth as currency
Council, Administrative, of Man-dokoro
--of Twelve, at camera Court
Councillor, Sangi, establishment of office
Couplet Composing, ula awase; court amusement; at "winding-water
fete" and other festivals; mania for; tournaments; in Heian epoch;
Kamakura; Tokugawa
Court, costume, colours and kinds; ceremonial; for Imperial power see
Crown
Court houses or families, kuge; come into power again at restoration;
in Muromachi period; driven to provinces; Ieyasu's laws for;
intermarriage with military; college for, established by Ninko;
influenced by anti-foreign party; in Restoration; distinction between
territorial and court nobles abolished (1871)
Court of justice, hyojo-sho; first, (1631)
Court, Northern and Southern; and see Dynasties
Crasset on Christian persecution of Buddhists
Creation, story of
Cremation, introduced
Crimes in ancient Japan; classified in Daiho code; see Penal Law
Crocodile myth
Crown, property of; shifts in power of; divine right; Ashikaga; in
Sengoku period; Nobunaga; Ieyasu's Court Laws; Tokugawa; Chinese
classics strengthen; Tsunayoshi; loyalty; American commercial treaty;
rescript to shogun; turns against extremists; Restoration of 1867;
growth of power; Cabinet dependent on
Crown Prince, in proto-historic period, above the law
Crucifixion, haritsuke
Currency in Ashikaga period; see Coinage
Customs tariff
Daian-ji temple
Dai-Dembo-In, monastery of Shingon sect in Kii
Daiei, year-period, 1521-8
Daigo, 60th Emperor (898-930)
Daigo, suburb of Kyoto
Daiho (Taiho), year-period, legislation of; revision
Daijo-uji of Hitachi, branch of Taira
Daika or Taikwa "Great Change," 645 A.D.; name of first nengo or
year-period; reforms
Daikagu-ji family, afterwards Nan-cho, the Southern Court,
descendants of Kameyama; passed over; treatment by Ashikaga
Daikwan, deputy or vice-deputy; tax assessor; judge
Daimyo, "great name," holder of large estate; holdings; Buddhism;
10,000 koku or more; powers
Dai Nihon-shi, "History of Great Japan,"; on military era
Dairies under Daiho laws
Dairo, 5 senior ministers; prime minister
Daiseiden College, or Shoheiko, founded by Tokugawa
Daitoku-ji, Zen temple in Kyoto
Dajo (Daijo) daijin, chancellor, prime minister, 671 A.D.; Privy
Council Board; office abolished
Dajo Kwan, Privy Council
Dalny occupied by Japanese
Dance masks
Dancing at funerals; court; music, Korean influence; pantomimic, of
monkey Sarume in myth; music and poetry; development in Heian epoch;
white posture dance, shirabyoshi; mimetic dance, libretto for,
develops into no; no and furyu
Dan-no-ura, defeat of Taira at
Date family of Yonezawa in 16th century wars
--Harumune
--Masamune (1566-1636); surrenders to Hideyoshi; favours Ieyasu;
against Uesugi; loyal to Iemitsu
--Yasumune rebels (1413) in Mutsu
Dazai-fu, government station in Mimana (Kara, Korea) transferred to
Kyushu
Debt, slavery for, cancellation of interest; legislation (tokusei) of
1297 in favour of military families, and under Ashikaga
Decoration, Interior
Defilement in Shinto code
Degradation in rank
Deluge myth
Demmacho, prison at
Demon's gate, N.E. entrance; guarded by Hieizan, and at Yedo by
Toei-zan; belief in demons; dragon-headed devil
Dengaku mime
Dengyo Daishi, posthumous name of Saicho (q.v.)
Dening, W. Life of Toyotomi Hideyoshi; on Confucian philosophy
Departments, under Daika; under Daiho
Deputy
De Ryp, Dutch ship, cannonades Kara castle
"Descent" upon Kyushu
Descent, Law of in Daiho legislation
Deshima, island, Dutch factory on
Dewa, Yemishi in; Go-Sannen campaign; (U-shu) part of O-U; 16th
century wars; silk growing
De Witte, Serge Julievitch, Count (b. 1849), Russian peace
commissioner at Portsmouth
Diana, Russian ship, sent to survey Yezo; Russian protected cruiser
at Port Arthur
Dickins, F. V., translation of Taketori Monogatari
Diet, Coronation oath promising; reform leaders differ about;
development of; Constitution promulgated; bi-cameral system
Dirges at funerals
District, gun or kori (originally agata), Daika subdivision, smaller
than province; classification under Daiho; chief of, guncho;
governors, gunshi; district governors and title to uplands; in Meiji
administration, cho, or son
Divination
Doctors, national
Doen, Buddhist priest, envoy to China
Dogo, Iyo, thermal spring
Dogs as pets; dog fights; Tsunayoshi's mania for
Doi support Southern Court in Nankai-do
Sanehira (d. 1220), Yoritomo's lieutenant; military governor
Michiharu (d. 1337), defender of Go-Daigo
Toshikatsu (1573-1644), enforces feudal laws
Doin Kinkata (1291-1360), minister of Go-Daigo
Kinsada (1340-99), scholar
Doji, Sanron Buddhist, abbot of Daian-ji
Dojima, in Osaka, rice-exchange
Dojo, exercise halls
Doki (Toki) family favour Takauji; beaten by Saito
Yorito (d. 1342), insults Kogon
Dokyo see Yuge Dokyo
Dolmen in Yamato sepulture; compared with Chinese and Korean;
precious metals in
Dominicans, Ayala and other marytrs
Doryo (Tao Lung) Chinese priest, teacher of Fujiwara Tokimune
Dosho, Buddhist priest, introduces cremation
Double entendre
Drafts, game, prehistoric
Dragon, early superstition
Dragon-Fly Island, old name of Japan
Drama; yokyoku, mimetic dance; no; kyogen; time of Tsunayoshi;
theatre in Yedo; illustrations
Drums
Dualism of Shinto
Dug-outs, maruki-bune
Duke, kimi; mahito
Dukes of the Presence, early official organization
Dutch, trade in Japan, beginning 1600, Spanish intrigues against;
Dutch and English intrigues against Portuguese and Spaniards; aid in
reduction of Christian revolt in Shimabara; trade at Nagasaki
restricted; Western learning; refuse grant in Yedo; choose Hirado as
headquarters; the Brack; at Deshima; literature; in 19th century;
teachers of military science; give steamship; at Shimonoseki
Dwarf trees and miniature gardens
Dwelling-Houses, primitive; abandoned on death of owner; general
character in Nara epoch; in Heian epoch; Kamakura; Muromachii
Dyeing
Dynasties, War of the (1337-92); table
Ears of enemy as spoil
Earthquake, 416 A.D.; 599 A.D. drives people to appeal to Earthquake
Kami; in Kyoto (1185), and (1596); of 1662 charged to Emperor's lack
of virtue; of 1703
Eastern Army, Hosokawa Onin War
Eastern Tsin dynasty (317-420) Chinese migration
East India Company
Eben, Buddhist priest
Ebisu, variant of Yemishi
Echigo, barrier settlement (645) against Yemishi; and Matsudaira
--Chuta, suicide
Echizen, paper money in
Education, in ancient Japan; in Nara epoch, in Heian; temple schools;
military foundations; at Yedo; in Meiji epoch; see Academies
Egawa Tarozaemon advocates foreign intercourse
Eight Generals of Kwanto
Eigwa Monogatari, "Tales of Splendour," story of the Fujiwara, by
Akazome Emon
Eiraku, or Yunglo, Chinese year-period, 1403-22, E. tsuho, Chinese
coins
Eisai (1141-1215), priest
Eitai, bridge in Yedo
Ekei (d. 1600), priest, of Aki
Elder Statesmen
Elder, official over five households, under Daika
Elephant, fossil
Elixir, Hsa Fuh's quest
Emishi see Soga Emishi
Emperors, long reigns of early; see also Crown Court, Posthumous
Names, Camera government
Empo, period, 1673-80
Empress, Koken first, to receive Crown except in trust
Empress Dowager, Kwo-taiko, title given only to Kwobetsu until
Shomu's reign
Encyclopedia Britannica, quoted
Endo Morito see Mongaku
Engaku-ji, temple
Engen, period, 1336-9
Engi, period; revision of Rules and Regulations; overthrow of
Sugawara Michizane
English intrigue against Spanish and Portuguese; refuse grant in
Yedo; go to Hirado rather than Uraga; early trade; end of trade; fleet
expected (1858); Namamugi incident and bombardment of Kagoshima; the
Hyogo demonstration; employed in railway, telegraph and navy; treaty
of 1894 abolishes consular jurisdiction after 1899; Anglo-Japanese
alliance, (text)
Enkyo, period, 1069-74
En no Ubasoku (Shokaku; Gyoja, the anchorite), founder of Yamabushi
priests
Enomoto see Yenomoto
Enryaku-ji, Tandai monastery on Hiei-zan; its armed men, yuma-hoshi;
jealous of Onjo-ji monks; in Yorimasa conspiracy; in Kyoto
conspiracy; quarrel with Takauji; feud with Hongwan-ji; destroyed by
Nobunaga; rebuilt; named from year-period
Envoys, Three, in early myth
Enya Takasada (d. 1338), Ko Moronao abducts wife of
Enyu, 64th Emperor (970-84)
Eshi, Yamato no, painters, descendants of Shinki
Esoteric and Exoteric Buddhism
Etchu, province
"Eternal Land"
Ethnologists, Japanese, on origins
Etorop raided by Russians (1806)
Eto Shimpei (1835-74), minister, revolts
Euhemerist interpretation of myths
Exoteric Buddhism
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction
Eye, obliquity, fold, etc.
Eyebrows shaved
Ezo, Buddhist mission to
Face-painting
Families, uji, rank in prehistoric times; basis of empire before
Daika; family qualification for highest Court offices before Heiji
tumult; names sold in Yoshimune's time
Famine of 621 A.D., turns people against Buddhism; of 1180-1; of
1462; of 1673-80; of 1783-6; of 1836
Fans; (ill.); lotteries; verses on; trade
Farmers; taxes; representatives
Fenshuiling, Russians defeated at
Fernandez, Joao (d. 1566), Portuguese Jesuit, companion of Xavier
Festivals, ancient; Buddhist; flower; Heian epoch; Ashikaga;
Hideyoshi; Sanno (ill.); dolls (ill.)
Feudal system, beginnings; Sujin; land-holding; proto-historic; land
grants; Daiho laws; 11th century wars; territorial names; Constables
and land-stewards; Joei code; war of dynasties; 15th century;
Hideyoshi's land system; fiefs (1600); hereditary vassals; laws of
1635 and 1651; under Tokugawa; sankin kotai; taxes; intermarriage
with court nobles; government; tozama oppose Yedo; in Restoration;
abolition, of
Filial piety
Finance and administration, ancient; in protohistoric tunes; in Nara
epoch; in Muromachi epoch; under early Tokugawa; policy of Arai
Hakuseki; "accommodation" system of 1786; under Tokugawa; in early
Meiji period
Finance or Treasury Department; in 19th century
Financial administrator
Firearms, first use; commissioners
Fish as food
Fishermen, revolt of
Fishing in early times; laws regulating nets in reign of Temmu;
keeping cormorants forbidden; equipment
Five Regent Houses, see Go-Sekke
Flesh-eating forbidden; defilement
Flores, Luis, Flemish Dominican, burned (1622)
Flowers, at funerals; festivals; in Heian pastimes; arrangement of;
pots
Flutes (ill.)
Fo, dogs of
Folding paletot
Food and drink, ancient; in Nara-epoch; in Kamakura period;
Sadanobu's sumptuary laws
Football, prehistoric; in proto-historic period; in Heian epoch
Forced labour
Foreign Affairs, Department of; earliest foreign intercourse;
Ashikaga; Muromachi epoch; foreign learning; Tokugawa; military
science; Meiji era, 678; foreigners in making new Japan, 686-7;
consular jurisdiction abolished; Anglo-Japanese alliance; and see
Christianity, and names of countries
Forests of early Japan
Formosa, expedition against (1874); ceded by China (1895)
Fortification, development; feudal castles built only by permission
of Tokugawa; coast defence
Fossil remains
Franchise, extension of
Franciscans, Spanish, enter Japan "-as ambassadors"; intrigue against
Portuguese Jesuits; punished by Hideyoshi; favoured to offset Jesuit
influence
Freemen and bondmen
French in Ryuku (1846); Harris plays off English and French to get
his commercial treaty; at Shimonoseki; in work on criminal law and
army training; in Manchuria note (1895)
Froez, Luis (d. 1597), Portuguese Jesuit
Fudoki, Local Records
Fuhi, Eight Trigrams of
Fuhito see Fujiwara Fuhito
Fuhkieri, Kublai at
Fuji river, battle on
Fuji, Mt., eruption of, (1707); (ill.)
Fujinami in Ise worship
Fujita Toko (1806-55), adviser of Nariaki
Fujitsuna see Aota Fujitsuna
Fujiwara, in Yamato, capital moved to, by Jito
Fujiwara, Shimbetsu family, influence after 670 A.D.; Imperial
consorts; legislation; historiography; Asuka made Empress; oppose
Makibi and Gembo; Buddhism; abdication; family tree; choose Emperors;
academy of; increase of power; policy of abdication; depose Yozei;
oppose Tachibana; plot against Michizane; interregnum; war of Taira
and Minamoto; influence on Court; oppose Tamehira; family quarrels;
literature; Minamoto, "claws" of; provincial branches; Mutsu; power
wanes; Imperial consorts; anti-military; power weakened by Kiyomon;
Yoritomo's followers get their estates; conspiracy of 1252; loyal to
Throne (1331); Hideyoshi adopted by
--Fuhito, son of Kamatari, Daiho and Yoro codes; builds Buddhist
temple; death
--Fujifusa, aids Go-Daigo (1326); retires
--Fusazaki (682-736), son of Fuhito, founds northern family
--Fuyutsugu (775-826); Konin revision of Rules and Regulations;
minister founds academy
--Hidehira (1096-1187), son of Motohira; aids Yoshitsune; provincial
governor (1182); death
--Hidesato (called Tawara Toda), sides with Taira; founder of
provincial branches of Fujiwara
--Hirotsugu (715-741), governor, impeaches Gembo
--Ietaka (1158-1237), poet
--Joye, Buddhist student in China (653-65)
--Kamatari, muraji of Nakatomi, chief Shinto official, plots against
Soga Iruka (645); Daika; in China; origin of uji name; Kasuga shrine;
(ill.)
--Kaneiye (929-99), rivalry with Kanemichi; plot against Kwazan;
regent for Ichijo
--Kanehira (1228-94), founds house of Takatsukasa
--Kanemichi (925-77), father of Enyu's Empress
--Kanezane (1147-1207), son of Tadamichi, minister of the Right;
nairan and kwampaku; descendants called Kujo
--Kinsuye (958-1029), son of Morosuke
--Kinto (966-1041) poet, one of Shinagon
--Kiyohira (d. 1126), founds Mutsu branch
--Kiyotada opposes advice of Masashige
--Korechika (974-1010), son of Michitaka
--Korekata induces Nobuyori to join Heiji plot
--Korekimi
--Koretada (942-72), son of Morosuke, regent
--Kunimutsu, avenges his father Suketomo
--Maro (695-736), founder of Kyo-ke branch
--Masatada, governor
--Matate (716-67), second councillor under Koken
--Michiiye (1192-1252), ancestor of Nijo and Ichijo families
--Michikane (955-95), gets Kwazan to become monk; regent
--Michinaga (966-1027), regent, his daughter Empress; power
--Michinori (d. 1159), called Shinzei, Go-Shirakawa's adviser; killed
--Michitaka (953-95), regent
--Momokawa (722-79), privy councillor; favours succession of Shirakabe
and Yamabe
--Morokata aids Go-Daigo (1331)
--Moronaga (1137-92), chancellor, banished by Taira Kiyomori
--Morosuke (908-60), minister of Right; sons
--Morotada, 257; accuses Takaaki of treason
--Morozane (1042-1101)
--Motofusa (1144-1230), regent; sides with Go-hirakawa, is banished;
his daughter
--Motohira (d. 1157), son and successor of Kiyohira
--Motokata, father of Murakami's consort
--Motomichi (1160-1233), advanced by Taira Kiyomori; kwampaku;
ancestor of Konoe
--Motomitsu, founder of Tosa academy of painters
--Mototsune (836-91); sessho under Yozei, first kwampaku (882) under
Uda
--Motozane (1143-66), regent
--Muchimaro (680-736), founds the southern (Nanke) family; Buddhist
temples
--Nagate (714-71), minister of the Left; favours accession of Konin
--Nagazane, father of one of Toba's consorts
--Nakamaro (710-64), grand councillor
--Nakanari (d. 810), in conspiracy of Kusu
--Narichika (1138-78), in Shishi-ga-tani plot
--Naritoki, father of Sanjo's Empress
--Nobuyori (1133-59), in Heiji tumult
--Norimichi (996-1075), quarrels with Go-Sanjo
--Noritane, compiler of Teiokeizu
--Otsuga (773-843)
--Sadaiye (1162-1241), or Teika, poet and anthologist
--Sadakuni, father-in-law of Daigo
--Sanetaka, minister
--Saneyori (900-70), father of Murakami's consort; regent
--Sari, scribe
--Seigwa, or Seikwa, (1561-1619), Confucianist
--Shinzei see Fujiwara Michinori
--Sukeyo, scholar
--Suketomo (d. 1325). Go-Daigo's minister, exile
--Sumitomo (d. 941) turns pirate
--Tadahira (880-949), regent; revision of Rules and Regulations
--Tadakiyo, commands against Yoritomo
--Tadamichi (1097-1164), regent for Konoe, in Hogen insurrection;
saves his father; estates
--Tadazane (1078-1162), father of Toba's consort; in Hogen tumult;
saved by his son
--Takaiye (979-1044), repels Toi invaders
--Tameiye (1197-1275)
--Tamemitsu
--Tamesuke
--Tameuji, artist
--Tanetsugu (737-85); Kwammu's minister, assassinated; father of
consort of Heijo
--Tokihira (871-909), minister plots against Sugawara Michizane; death
--Tomiko, wife of Ashikaga Yoshimasa
--Toshimoto (d. 1330)
--Toshinari (1114-1204), poet, called Shunzei
--Toyonari (704-65), minister of Koken
--Tsugunawa (727-96); sent against Yemishi
--Tsunemune
--Tsunetaka
--Ujimune, Jokwan revision of Rules and Regulations
--Umakai (694-736), founder of the Shiki-ki branch; against Yemishi
(724)
--Uwona (721-83), privy councillor of Koken
--Yasuhira, (d. 1189)
--Yorimichi (992-1074), son, of Michinaga, regent; in succession of
Takahito; estates; father of Shirakawa's consort
--Yorinaga (1120-56) in Hogen tumult
--Yoritada (924-89), son of Saneyori, kwampaku
--Yoritsugu (1239-56), shogun (1244)
--Yoritsune (1218-56), head of Minamoto (1219) shogun (1226); resigns
(1244); against Hojo and Adachi (1247)
--Yoshifusa (804-72), minister; marries Kiyo; regent for Seiwa, (866);
makes Taka Seiwa'a Empress
--Yoshinobu, in Takahito's succession
--Yoshitsugu (716-77), privy councillor under Koken; favours Konin
Fujiwara, wistaria, origin of uji name
Fuki-ayezu, Jimmu's father
Fukuchi-yama, castle
Fukuhara, now Kobe, villa of Taira Kiyomori in; capital (1180)
Fukuri, Chinese saddler
Fukushima Masanori (1561-1624), plot against Ishida
Funabashi Hidekata (1555-1614), scholar
Funada Yoshimasa, officer of Nitta Yoshisada
Funai, in Bungo, Jesuit church and hospital
Funanoe, mount in Hoki
Furniture, house
Furs
Furubito, Prince, son of Jomei, candidate to succeed Kogyoku; death
Furyu, dance
Fusa-Kum-Kazusa
Fusan, Korea, Japanese restricted to, (1572); captured (1592);
landing-place for Japanese attack (1904); Kamimura wins battle near
Fushimi, 92d Emperor (1287-98)
Fushimi, princely house
Fushimi, Hideyoshi's Momo-Yaina palace
Futodama and Imibe
Gaku-in, academies
Gambling
Gamo Katahide (1534-84) favours Nobukatsu
--Ujisato (1557-96), vassal of Hideyoshi
Garden bridge (ill.)
gate (ill.)
Gate guards, in capital; in kebiishi; origin
Gates, (ill.)
Gazan, priest
Gei-ami, artist
Geisha
Gembo, Buddhist of Hosso sect; opposes Fujiwara
Gemmyo, 43d Empress (708-15); historiography; monument
Gems
Genbun, year-period, 1736-40, coins of
Gen-e (1269-1352), priest, author
Genealogical bureau
Genji Monogatari "narrative of Minamoto," work of Murasaki Shikibu
Genji or Gen, Chinese pronunciation of Minamoto; divisions of family;
epoch of Gen and Hei
Genku see Honen
Genna, period
Genpei (Gempei) Minamoto and Taira; epoch; Genpei Seisuiki, Records
of Minamoto and Taira
Genre pictures, Ukiyoe, 600
Genroku, year period, 1688-1703
Gensho, (44th) Empress (715-23); inaugurates lectures (721) on Nihon
Shoki
Genso, priest, interpreter to Korean embassy
Gentile names
Geology and fossil remains
Germans employed by Government
Germany joins France and Russia in note on Manchuria (1895); seizes
part of Shantung
Gido, scholar, adviser of Yoshimitsu
Gien see Ashikaga Yoshinori
Gifu, Nobunaga's headquarters in Mino
Gijin see Ashikaga Yoshimi
Gion, temple in Kyoto
Glazed pottery
Glynn, J., Commander, U.S.N., in Nagasaki (1847)
Go, game
Go, prefix, "second," with Emperor's name
Goa, Jesuits at
Go-Daigo, 96th Emperor (1318-39); against Hojo; dethroned; escapes
from Oki; re-enters Kyoto; his rescripts; after restoration; tricked
by Ashikaga Takauji; death; scholarship
Go-Enyu, Northern Emperor (1371-82)
Go-Fukakusa, 89th Emperor (1246-59)
Go-Fushimi, 93d Emperor (1298-1301), son of Fushimi; opposes Go-Daigo
Go-Hanazono, 102nd Emperor (1428-65)
Gohei, paper strips
Go-Horikawa, 86th Emperor (1221-32)
Go-Ichijo, 68th Emperor (1017-36)
Goji-in, temple in Yedo
Go-Kameyama, 99th Emperor (1372-92); abdicates
Go-Kashiwabara, 104th Emperor, (1500-26)
Go-Kogon, Northern Emperor (1352-71)
Go-Komatsu, 100th Emperor (1392-1412), in Northern dynasty (1382-92)
Go-Komyo, 110th Emperor (1643-54)
Gokuki-ji or To-ji, Shingon temple in Kyoto; temple in Yedo
Gokyogoku Yoshitsune, work on landscape gardening
Gold in Japan; discovery in Mutsu, and used in great image of Buddha;
exported; coins
Gold lacquer
Golden Pavilion (1397)
Golden Tatars in China
Go-Mizu-no-o, 108th Emperor (1611-29)
Go-Momozono, 118th Emperor (1770-80)
Go-Murakami, 97th Emperor (1339-68); escapes to Kanao; asked to
return after Suko's removal; death
Go-Nara, 105th Emperor (1526-57)
Gongen see Tokugawa Ieyasu
Go-Nijo, 94th Emperor (1301-7), son of Go-Uda
Go-Reizei, 70th Emperor (1046-68)
Goro see Tokimune
Go-Saga, 88th Emperor (1243-46)
Go-Saien, 111th Emperor (1654-63)
Go-Sakuramachi, (117th) Empress (1762-70)
Go-Sanjo, 71st Emperor (1069-72), Prince Takahito
Go-Sannen, "After Three-Years War" (1089-91)
Goseibai-shikimoku, criminal laws of Yasutoki
Go-Sekke, "Five Regent Houses"
Gosen-shu, anthology
Go-Shirakawa, 77th Emperor (1156-8); camera government (1158-92);
life threatened; confined in palace; sent to Rokuhara; under
Yoshinaka's protection; opposes Yoshinaka; calls Yoritomo to Kyoto;
sends Yoshitsune to front; relations with Yoritomo; death
Go-Shu jaku, 69th Emperor (1037-45), Prince Atsunaga
Go-Toba, 82nd Emperor (1184-98), refuses to appoint Imperial prince
shogun; called "original recluse"; quarrels with Yoshitoki; exiled;
Japanese verse
Goto Matabei, defies Ieyasu; defends Osaka castle
--Yujo (1435-1512), metal-worker
Go-Tsuchimikado, 103d Emperor (1465-1500)
Go-Uda, 91st Emperor (1274-87), son of Kameyama
Government, primitive administration; connexion with worship; early
finance; reign of Suinin; two-fold classification; uji; feudal and
prefectural; under Daika; under Daiho; of Ashikaga; Hideyoshi's
scheme; early Tokugawa; Tokugawa Bakufu; centralized after
Restoration; local, in Meiji era
Governor-general of 10 provinces, kwanryo; of 4, kubo
Go Yoshihiro, swordsmith
Go-Yozei, 107th Emperor (1586-1611)
Gozu Tenno, "Emperor Ox-head," name of Susanoo
Granaries, Imperial, miyake; in Korea; in reign of Ankan; of Senkwa
Grant, U. S., suggests compromise over Ryukyu
"Great Name Possessor" myth
Great-Producing Kami
Gromovoi, Russian cruiser at Vladivostok
Guards, criticized by Miyoshi Kiyotsura; duties transferred to
kebiishi
Guilds, be, 71-2, 94; heads of kumi-gashira, in village rule
Gunkan Kyojujo, naval college at Tsukiji
Gwangyo-ji, temple where Kwazan took tonsure
Gyogi, Korean Buddhist priest, propaganda and reconciliation of
Buddhism and Shinto
Gyokushitsu, priest, Emperor gives purple robes to
Hachijoshima, island
Hachiman, War God, at Usa, oracle of; tutelary of Minamoto; shrine
of, in Kamakura on Tsurugaoka hill; revenue of temple; patron of
pirates; shrine of Iwashimizu; shrine at Atsuta
Hachiman Taro see Minamoto Yoshiiye
Hachioka, temple of
Hachisuka Iemasa (1558-1638)
Hades, myth of
Hae, mother of emperors Kenso and Ninken
Hagiwara Shigehide, chief of Treasury, debases coinage; his report;
impeached
Haicheng in fighting of 1894
Hair, racial mark
Hair-dressing and hair-cutting, ancient; dividing the hair (mizura)
goes out when official caps come in; tied up in time of Temmu; girl's
hair bound up by lover; in Heian epoch; in Kamakura period; in
Sadanobu's laws
Hair pins, as insignia; cicada-shaped, marks of grade after
Daika
Hai-ryong, Korea
Hakamadare Yasusake, bandit
Hakata, in Chikuzen, defended against Toi; port in Heian epoch;
Mongol envoys executed at; China trade; American vessels allowed in
port
Hakodate, Americans in
Hakone, tolls, at barrier; guarded by Okubo
Hakozaki Gulf, Chikuzen, Mongol landing at; bay fortified (1280);
base of second Mongol invasion
Haku-chi, "White Pheasant," second nengo or year-period (650-4 A.D.)
Hakuseki see Arai Hakuseki
Hall, Consul-General J. C., translation of Joei code; Kemmu code;
Laws of Military Houses
Han, Chinese dynasty, later (25-220 A.D.); disorder after fall of
Han, Land of, see Korea
Hanawa Naotsugu in defence of Osaka castle
Hanazono, 95th Emperor (1307-18)
Hand Bay near Kinchou; Russian gunboats in
Hanishi, potters
Haniwa, clay effigies, buried instead of human sacrifices
Haniyasu, half-brother of Sujin, rebels against him
Hansho, 18th Emperor (406-11); loyal brother of Richu
Hara, castle in Shimabara, occupied by Christians, captured
Haranobu see Takeda Shingen
Harbin, Russian railway
Hare in myth
Harem
Harima, province, fortifications in, (1280); transferred from
Akamatsu to Yamana (1441)
Harris, Townsend (1803-78), U.S. consul-general, concludes commercial
treaty (1857)
Harumoto see Hosokawa Harumoto
Harunari see Hitotsubashi Harunari
Harvest Festival
Hasegawa receive fief of Arima
--Heizo in charge of Ishikawa house of correction
Hashiba see Toyotomi Hideyoshi
--Hidekatsu (1567-93), son of Nobunaga, adopted by Hideyoshi
--Hidenaga (1540-91), brother of Hideyoshi
--Hideyasu, Ogimaru, son of Ieyasu
Hashimoto Sanae favours foreign trade; leader in Imperial movement
--Tsunatsune, Viscount (d. 1909)
Hatahi, sister of Okusaka, marries Ohatsuse
Hatakeyama family, estates; Muromachi kwanryo; one of Five Regent
Houses; in Onin disturbance; join Eastern Army (1472); "province
holders"
--Kunikiyo (d. 1364), general under Motouji, removed from office of
shitsuji
--Masanaga (d. 1493), succeeds Mochikuni; displaced, driven from
capital; death
--Mitsuiye (d. 1433) captures Sakai (1400); Yoshimochi's minister
--Mochikuni (1397-1455), called Tokuhon, minister for Ashikaga
Yoshimasa; succession
--Shigetada (1164-1205), at Ichi-no-tani; adviser of Yoriiye;
assassinated by Hojo Tokimasa
--Yoshinari (d. 1493), large estate, succession; kwanryo
--Yoshitoyo (d. 1499)
Hatano, brothers killed by Nobunaga
Hatsuse, Japanese battleship lost off Port Arthur
Hallo-gaki, Prohibitory Writings, code, (1742)
Hawking
Hayabito or Hayato ("Falcon Men"), palace guard; possibly Kumaso
Hayama Muneyori, punished for cowardice
Hayashi family, function of reading military laws; true
Confucianists; education at Yedo
Doshun or Kazan (1583-1657), Confucianist, on bell-inscription;
ethics and history; traces descent of Emperor from Chinese prince
Harukatsu, son of Razan, historiographer
Mitsukatsu, soldier of Nobunaga
Nobuatsu, Confucianist; petitions for pardon of "47 Ronins"; lectures
at Shohei College
Razan see Hayashi Doshun
Shibei (1754-93) urges coast defense
Head, racial marks
Heaven, Plain of High, myth
"Heavenly Grandchild," tenson
Heavenlv Young Prince
Heguri, beginning of power of; descendants of Takenouchi; founder of
family, Tsuku, in Richu's reign; revolt of suppressed
Hei and Heike, Chinese name for Taira; Gen and Hei
Heian epoch, capital at Kyoto, or Heian-jo (Castle of Peace),
794-1192 A.D.
Height as sign of race
Heihachiro see Oshio Heihachiro
Heiji, year period, 1159-60; the tumult of the year; results
Heijo, 51st Emperor (806-9), son of Kwammu
Heikautai, battle of (1905)
Hemp, cultivation of
Herb of longevity
Hereditary office and rank; in Shotoku's 17-Article Constitution; the
Daika tries to abolish hereditary office holding
Hi, river, in myth
Hida, messenger in search for Buddhist devotees
Hida
Hida Takumi, architect
Hidehito see Go-Momozono
Hidekatsu see Hashiba Hidekatsu
Hideiye see Ukita Hideiye
Hidenaga see Hashiba Hidenaga
Hidetada branch of Tokugawa, extinct with Ietsugu (1716)
Hidetada see Tokugawa Hidetada
Hidetsugu see Toyotomi Hidetsugu
Hideyasu see Matsudaira Hideyasu
Hideyori see Toyotomi Hideyori
Hideyoshi see Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Hie-no-yama, monastery later called Hiei-zan
Hiei-zan, mountain N.E. of Kyoto, between Yamashiro and Omi, on which
was Enryaku-ji monastery; power checked by Yoshinori; and Takauji; in
Hokke-ikki; aids Yoshikage against Nobunaga; punished by Nobunaga;
monastery rebuilt; abbot invites Vilela to Kyoto
Higami, mother of Shomu, consort of Mommu
Higashi-dera, temple in Kyoto, Takauji's headquarters
Higashiyama, 113th Emperor (1687-1710)
Higashi-yama, hill E. of Kyoto, site of Yoshimasa's palace; name used
of craze for objets d'art, and of lacquer
Higuchi Kanemitsu, Yoshinaka's body guard
Hiki Munetomo (d. 1203)
Yoshikazu, in Bakufu council, plots against Hojo and is assassinated
Hikoho no Ninigi, his descent upon Kyushu; rationalization of myth;
founder of empire
Hinayana, exoteric Buddhism; the Small Vehicle
Hino family, shikken in Camera palace
Hirado, island, occupied by Mongols (1281); Chinese trade; Xavier in;
Portuguese trade; rivalry with Omura; Dutch headquarters, and
English; English factory closed (1623)
Hirafu, warden of Koshi, campaigns against Sushen (658-660), and
Yemishi (655)
Hiragana, syllabary
Hirai, castle
Hirasaka, now Ifuyo-saka
Hirata Atsutane (1776-1843) on Japanese government; Shinto revival;
quoted
Hirate Masahide, tutor of Nobunaga, suicide
Hirohira, son of Murakami, set aside from succession
Hirose, commander, attempts to bottle-up Port Arthur
Hirotada see Tokugawa Hirotada
Hirotsugu see Fujiwara Hirotsugu
Hirozumi see Sumiyoshi Gukei
Hisaakira, Prince (1276-1328), shogun (1289-1308)
Historiography, early; the "Six National Histories" (697-887);
compilations of Tokugawa period
Hitachi; Taira in
Fudoki, ancient record (715 A.D.)
Maru, Japanese transport sunk by Russians
Hitomaru see Kakinomoto Hitomaru
Hitotsubashi, branch of Tokugawa eligible to shogunate, named from
gate of Yedo; Ienari's descent from
Harunari, father of fenari; reactionary policy; ambition opposed by
Sadanobu
Hiyeda Arc (647), chamberlain, historiography
Hiyoshi, Shinto temple
Hizen, Tsuchi-gumo in; Mongol invaders in (1281); natives of, settle
in China; fiefs surrendered; clan representation
--Genji, or Matsuura
"Hoe" among early implements; distributed to farmers (723)
Hoei, year-period (1704-10) debased coinage of
Ho-en, year-period (1135-40)
Hogen insurrection (1156; in year-period 1156-8); result
Hohodemi, myth of; name applied to Iware in "Chronicles"
Hojo, family holding office of shikken; power increased by Tokimasa;
Hojo regency established; excellent rule; the nine regents; control
of shogun; Oshu revolt; Go-Daigo overthrows; suicide of leaders;
Go-Daigo's rescript; part of estates seized; rising in 1334; system
imitated by the Ashikaga
--of Odawara, fight Satomi in Kwanto; alliance with Takeda; their
importance; last eastern enemy of Nobunaga; defeated by Hideyoshi
Hojoki, Annals of a Cell
Hojo Kudaiki, on Kanazawa-bunko library
--Morotoki, regent (1301-11)
--Nagatoki (1230-64), shikken (1256)
--Nakatoki, fails to arrest Go-Daigo (1331); escapes from Rokuhara
--Sadatoki (1270-1311), regent 1284-1301, and in camera to; succession
to Fushimi
--Sanetoki founds Kanazawa-bunko
--Soun, or Nagauji (1432-1519), reduces taxes; seizes Izu province
--Takaiye, commander against Go-Daigo
--Takatoki (1303-33), last of Hojo regents, 1311-33; Go-Daigo's
quarrel; suicide
--Tokifusa, leader against Kyoto in Shokyu struggle; one of first
tandai
--Tokimasa (1138-1215), guardian of Yoritomo; kills
lieutenant-governor of Izu; in Awa; in Suruga; messenger to
Yoshitsune; governs Kyoto; military regent; constables and stewards;
high constable at Court; gives power of Minamoto to Hojo; kills
Yoriiye, becomes shikken; exiled
--Tokimasu, death, (1333)
Hojo Tokimori, in southern Rokuhara
--Tokimune (1251-84), son of Tokiyori; regent (1256-84); Mongol
invasion; Buddhism, and Buddhist temples; Nichiren
--Tokisada succeeds Tokimasa as high constable at Kyoto (1186)
--Tokiuji (1203-30) in northern Rokuhara
--Tokiyori (1226-33), shikken (1246-66), Miura plot against;
cloistered regent; Buddhist temples
--Tokiyuki (d. 1353),captures Kamakura
--Tsunetoki (1224-46), shikken
--Ujimasa (1538-90), against Uesugi; ally of Shingen; defeated by
Hideyoshi
--Ujinao, son of Ujimasa
--Ujinori, brother of Ujimasa
--Ujitsuna (1487-1543), conquers Kwanto
--Ujiyasu(1515-70), conquers Kwanto
--Yasutoki (1183-1242) sent against Kyoto at outbreak of Shokyu war;
captures the capital; explains treatment of ex-Emperors; one of first
tandai; in regency; thrift and generosity; Joei code; death; Buddhist
temples
--Yoshitoki (1163-1224), military regent, defeats Wada Yoshimori; in
council of Bakufu; in plot against Sanetomo; Go-Toba quarrels with;
attitude toward Crown; restored; death
Hokke, Hokke-shu, see Nichiren; Hokke-kyo-sutra, book of Nichiren
doctrine; Hokke-ikki, war of the sect on Hongwan-ji
Hokkyo Enzen, bonze, compiles Joei code
Hoko-ji, Buddhist temple in Asuka (587 A.D.); image; inscription on
bell
Hoku-cho, Northern court
Hokuriku, Prince
Home Affairs, Department of, in Restoration government
Homestead, 50 houses, under Daika
Homma Saburo assassinates Hojo Suketomo
--Saemon, Hojo soldier
Homuda, life name of Emperor Ojin
Homutang, Russian stand at
Honcho Hennen-roku, or Honcho Tsugan, history
Honda Masanobu (1539-1617) adviser of Ieyasu
--Masazumi (1566-1637); Osaka castle; under Hidetada; punished for
secret marriage
--Tadakatsu (1548-1610), Ieyasu's general at Sekigahara
Honen Shonin, or Genku, (1133-1212), preaches Jodo doctrine
Hongi, Original Records of the Free People
Hongo, Yedo, college at
Hongwan-ji, Shin temple in Kyoto; monks in 16th century wars; feud
with Enryaku-ji; aid Mori, Takeda and Hojo; divided by Ieyasu
Honno-ji, temple
Hori, general of Ieyasu
Horigoe, Izu, fort
Horikawa, 73rd Emperor (1087-1107)
Horses, cavalry; "horse hunting"; wooden pictures, votive offerings;
racing
Horyu-ji, Buddhist temple at Nara (607); ideographic inscription in;
dancers' masks and records; statues
Hoshikawa, son of Kara, seizes treasury and plots for throne
Hoshina Masayuki (1609-72), guardian of Ietsuna
Hosho-ji, temple built by Shirakawa; cherry picnics; image
Hosoi Kotaku, calligraphist
Hosokawa, Harima, manor given to Fujiwara Tameiye; family favours
Takauji; large estates; Muromachi kwanryo; one of Five Regent Houses;
power in 15th century; Yamana family; Eastern army in Onin struggle;
crushed by Miyoshi; "province holders"; in Sanuki
--Harumoto (1519-63), son of Sunimoto, in civil war; joined by Kokyo
--Katsumoto(1430-73), kwanryo; estates; feud with the Hatakeyama;
quarrels with Yamana, shitsuji; death
--Kiyouji (d. 1362), goes over to Southern Court; defeated
--Masomoto (1466-1507)
--Mitsumoto (1378-1426), minister to Ashikaga Yoshimochi
--Sumimoto (1496-1520), kwanryo, (1507); exiled
--Sumiyuki (d. 1507)
--Tadaoki (1564-1645), discloses plot against Ieyasu; tries to kill
Ishida; helps Ieyasu
--Takakuni (d. 1531); driven out by Sumimoto's son; death
--Yoriyuki (1329-92), guardian of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu; administration
and death
Hospitals, Jesuit
Hosso, first Buddhist sect in Japan (653); Gembo studies tenets
Hostages, women, "Pillow children"; of feudatories at Yedo
Hosuseri, myth of
Hotta family, Bakufu ministers from
--Masamori (1606-51), minister of Iemitsu, suicide
--Masamutsu (1810-64) aids Townsend Harris
--Masatoshi (1631-84), on succession to shogunate; chief minister;
assassinated
Hotto, Buddhist abbots
Household, unit of administration under Daiho
Household Department, under Daika, and Daiho
Hsia Kwei, Kamakura painter
Hsuan-ming calendar revised (1683)
Hsu Fuh, Chinese Taoist, search for elixir of life
Hulbert, History of Korea quoted
Human sacrifice, at funerals, replaced by use of effigies, abolished;
in public works
Hun river, Manchuria
Hunting in prehistoric times; keeping dogs or falcons forbidden by
Shotoku
Hyakunin-isshu, "Poems of a Hundred Poets"
Hyecha, Buddhist priest, instructor of Prince Shotoku
Hyogo, now Kobe, in Ashikaga revolt; battle; trade with China;
English demonstration (1866) against
Hyuga, Kumaso in
Ibaraki-doji, bandit
Ice storage
Ichijo, 66th Emperor (987-1011)
--family, one of "Five Regent Houses"; leave Court for Tosa
--Fuyuyoshi, scholar
--Kaneyoshi (1402-81), regent, adviser of Ashikaga Yoshihisa; author;
on religions
Ichiman see Minamoto Ichiman
Ichinei (I Ning, or Nei-issan), Buddhist priest
Ichi-no-tani, near Hyogo, in Settsu, defeat of Taira at
Icho-mura, birthplace of Hideyoshi
Ideographs, Chinese, historical writing; and Japanese language; date
of introduction; adapted for syllabic purposes; in early laws
Ieharu see Tokugawa Ieharu
Iehisa see Shimazu Iehisa
Iemitsu see Tokugawa Iemitsu
Iemochi see Tokugawa Iemochi
Ienari see Tokugawa Ienari
Ienobu see Tokugawa Ienobu
Iesada see Tokugawa Iesada
Ieshige see Tokugawa Ieshige
Ietsugu see Tokugawa Ietsugu
Ietsuna see Tokugawa Ietsuna
Ieyasu see Tokugawa Ieyasu
Ieyoshi see Tokugawa Ieyoshi
Iga, Prince, see Otomo
Iharu Atamaro, leader of Yemishi (780)
Ii, adherents of Southern Court; Bakufu ministers from; tamarizume
--Naomasa (1561-1602), general at Sekigahara
--Naosuke, Kamon no Kami (1815-60), advocates foreign intercourse;
prime minister at Yedo; Tokugawa Nariaki's opposition to; foreign
policy; assassinated
--Naotaka (1590-1659), minister of Iemitsu, 581, and of Ietsuna
Ikeda Isshinsai, friend of Harunari
--Nobuteru (1536-84), councillor after Nobunaga's death; defeated
--Terumasa (1564-1613), in plot against Ishida; favours Ieyasu
Iki, island, in early myth; attacked by Toi, by Mongols; held by
Japan
Ikki, "revolt"
Ikko, Shin sect; Ikko-ikki, war of 1488
Ikkyu Zenji (1394-1481), priest of Daitoku-ji
Ikuno, silver mines
Imagawa, family, gives refuge to Ashikaga Yoshimichi; against Hojo;
in Suruga and Mikawa; Ieyasu's relations with
--Motome, general under Date Masamune
--Sadayo (Ryoshun), tandai of Kyushu; recalled
--Ujizane (1538-1614), son of Yoshimoto
--Yoshimoto (1519-60) rules Suruga, Totomi and Mikawa; threatens
Owari; defeated at Okehazama (1560)
Imai Kanehira, one of Yoshinaka's four body-guards; sacrifices
himself for his master
Imibe, corporation or guild of mourners, descent; guard Imperial
insignia; abstainers; commissary agents in provinces; in charge of
Treasury
Imjin River, Korea
Immigration, shadowed in myths; from Siberia, China, Malaysia and
Polynesia; Japanese ethnologists on; of Koreans and Chinese in 3rd &
4th centuries; and later; from Shiragi (608)
Imna see Mimana
Imoko (Ono Imoko), envoy to China (607 A.D.)
Imperial lands
Imprisonment
Imun, Korea, secured by Kudara with Japan's help
Inaba, Princess Yakami of
Masayasu, assassin of Hotta Masatoshi
Inaba-yama, castle of Saito
Inahi, brother of Jimmu
Iname see Soga Iname
Inamura-ga-saki, cliff near Kamakura
Incense fetes
Incest
India, first Japanese visitor to, Takaoka or Shinnyo
Indian architecture, influence of, through Buddhism
Indigo growing in Awa
Industrial class, in Kamakura period
Industry, early Japanese; impulse given by Buddhism in Nara epoch;
development in time of Yoshimune; modern manufactures
Infantry, use of
Inheritance, law of, in Daiho legislation; in feudal system of
Tokugawa
I Ning see Ichinei
Inishiki, Prince
Inkyo (Ingyo), 19th Emperor (412-53)
In-memoriam services, Shinto
Inokami, consort of Konin
Inokashira lake and Yedo water-supply
Inokuma, general of the Left, executed
Ino Tadayoshi, survey of Northern islands (1800)
Inouye Kaoru, Marquis (b. 1835)
--Tetsujiro, Dr., on Bushi ethics; on Chutsz and Wang Yang-ming
Inquisitors, Bakufu officials at Court after Shokyu war
Insei see Camera government
Insignia, sacred Imperial, mirror, sword, jewel
Inspectors of district officials, after Daika; of provincial
government; in temple service
Interest on loans
Interior decoration, Yamato school
"Interior," Granary of
--Ministry of, created by Daika (645)
"Invisible" Kami
Iratsuko, rebel against Yuryaku, famous archer
Iris festival
Iroha-uta, text book
Iron in Korea; foundry at Akunpura
Irrigation, under Sujin; under Nintoku, in 6th and 7th centuries;
rice land; in Nara epoch; in Heian epoch; under Yoshimune
Iruka see Soga Iruka
Isa, early carriage-builder
Isawa, headquarters moved from Taga to
Ise, shrine of Sun at; Yamatodake at shrine; swords offered; oracle
calls Amaterasu an avatar of Buddha; Watarai shrine; revolt of 1414
in; rebuilding shrines; Oda seize; Mori insults the shrine
Ise Heishi, branch of Taira
Ise Monogatori
--Sadachika (1417-73) page of Yoshimasa; marries Yoshitoshi's sister;
influence of
Ishida Katsushige, soldier of Hideyoshi; brings about Hidetsugu's
death; ordered to Korea; plot against Ieyasu; takes Osaka; death
Ishide family in charge of Yedo prison
Ishido family favours Tadayoshi
Ishikawa Island, house of correction on
Ishikawa Jinshiro relieves suffering in Kyoto
Ishi-yama, temple
Ishizu, battle, Akiiye defeated (1338) by Ko Moronao
Iso-takeru (Itakeru), son of Susanoo
Isuraka, Korean artist
Itagaki Taisuke, Count (b. 1837); resigns from cabinet and works for
parliament; organizes Liberal party; invited into Cabinet
Itakura Katsushige (1542-1624), in bell-inscription plot; in Kyoto
--Shigemune (1587-1656), protests against Go-Komyo's activities
Italians employed by Government in fine arts
Ito Hirobumi, Prince (1841-1909); premier (1885); framer of
constitution; head of Liberal party; treaty with China; assassinated
--Jinsai (1627-1705), Confucianist, 626
--Sukechika (d. 1181), guardian of Minamoto Yoritomo; crushes
Yoritomo's army
Ito, or Wado, Chinese name for Japanese
Itsukushima-Myojin, Buddhist shrine
Itsutse, brother of Jimmu
Iwa, consort of Nintoku, of Katsuragi family
Iwai (Ihawi) ruler of Kyushu, blocks invasion of Korea (527) but is
defeated by Arakaho (528)
Iwaki, son of Kara, contests throne with Seinei
Iwaki-uji, branch of Taira
Iwakura Tomoyoshi, Prince (1825-83), leader of moderate party
Iware, life-time name of Jimmu
Iwasaka, fort in Mikawa
Iwatsuki, in Musashi, fortified
Iyo, province; oldest ideographic inscription (596 A.D.); held by
Kono
Izanagi and Izanami, male and female Kami, creators of Japanese
islands
Izayoi-nikki, journal of Abutsu-ni
Izu, early ship-building in; Minamoto Tametomo exiled to; Yoritomo
in; peaceful under Kamakura rule; seized by Hojo Soun (1491)
Izumi province, rising of 1399 in
--Chikahira revolts against Hojo
--Shikibu, poetess of 11th century
Izumo in early myth; revolt in causes withdrawal of court from
Yamato; gems in; conquered by Mori
Jade, "curved-jewel"
Japan, name a Dutch (15th century) perversion of Jihpen; early names
Jenghiz Khan
Jerome, Father
Jesuits in Japan; banished, but stay; order to leave checked by
Hideyoshi's death; Ieyasu plays off Franciscans against; denounce
Dutch ship as pirate; treated well by Ieyasu
Jesus, Jerome de. (d. 1602), Franciscan, interview with Ieyasu
Jewel, curved, chaplet, one of Imperial insignia
Jih-pen, "Sunrise Island" name used by Chinese
Jimmu, Emperor (660-585 B.C.); chronology dating from accession;
ancestry; leader in expedition against Yamato; poem mentioning
Yemishi; strategem against Tsuchigumo; successors; tomb
Jimyo-in family, afterwards Hoku-cho or Northern Court, holding
Chokodo estates; gets throne
Jingirryo, quoted on Board of Religion
Jingo, Empress (201-69); Chinese and Japanese chronology of reign;
succession; excluded from dynasties by Dai Nihon-shi
Jingu-ji, temple built by Fujiwara Muchimaro, 192
Jinno Shotdki, "Emperor's Genealogy" work on divine right by
Kitabatake Chikafusa
Jinshin, cyclical name for 672 A.D., civil war
Jisho-ji, monastery in Higashiyama, art-gallery
Jito, (41st) Empress (690-6), wife of Temmu; historiography; Sushen
Jiyu-to, Liberal party organized by Itagaki
Joben, one of "four kings" of poetry
Jocho, wood-carver
Jodo, Buddhist sect introduced (1196) by Honen; creed
Joei, year-period, (1232-3); code of 1232; basis of Kemmu code
Jokaku, sculptor
Jokwan, year-period, revision of Rules and Regulations
Jokyo, year-period (1684-7) trade limitations
Jomei, 34th Emperor (629-41), Tamura
Jo Nagashige, provincial governor, defeated
Jorin, scholar, adviser of Yoshimitsu
Josetsu (end of 14th century), bonze of Shokoku-ji, painter
Joye see Fujiwara Joye
Juko see Shuko
Jun, mother of Michiyasu (Montoku)
Junna, 54th Emperor (824-33)
Junnin, 47th Emperor (758-64)
Juntoku, 84th Emperor (1211-21), son of Go-Toba, abdicates, called
Shin-in, "new recluse"; exiled
Juraku-tei, "Mansion of Pleasure"
Juro see Sukenari
Justice, Department of, Gyobu-sho, under Daiha; under Daiho; in Meiji
government
Justice, court of
Justices, land grants to
Justo Ukondono see Takayama
Kada Arimaro (1706-69) revises code
--Azumamaro (1668-1736), scholar, restores Japanese literature; quoted
Kaempfer, Engelbert (1651-1716), historian
Kagoshima, in Satsume, landing-place (1549) of St. Francis Xavier;
bombarded by English
Kagu, Mt., in sun myth
Kai, peaceful under Kamakura rule; won by Takeda Shingen; "black
horse of"
Kaigen, priest in charge of Ashikaga-gakko
Kai-koku Hei-dan, book by Hayashi Shibei, urging coast defense
Kaikwa, 9th Emperor (157-98 B.C.)
Kaizan, priest of Myoshin-ji
Kajiwara Kagetoki (d. 1200), fighting against Yoritomo, sympathizes
with him; military governor; in command of fleet quarrels with
Yoshitsune; warns Yoritomo against Yoshitsune
Kakinomoto Hitomaru, poet, end of 7th century
Kamada Masaie, companion of Yoshitomo, death
Kamako see Nakatomi Kamako
Kamakura, S. of present Yokohama, Yoritomo's headquarters; military
centre for 150 years; shrines built by Yoritomo; school of art;
growth of luxury; fall of city (1333); headquarters of Ashikaga
family; Takauji removes to Kyoto, keeping Kamakura as secondary
basis; Ashikaga driven out, Uesugi come in
--Gongoro, soldier of Three Years' War
--Jidaishi, quoted on parties in Shokyu struggle
Kamatari; see Fujiwara Kamatari
Kamegiku, dancer
Kameyama, 90th Emperor (1259-74)
Kami in Japanese mythology; "creation" of chiefs; used in
"Chronicles" of Yemishi chiefs; trinity of; two classes; the Kami
class or Shimbetsu; worship of, in early 7th century; uji no Kami
elective in Temmu's time; Shinto K., Buddha's avatars
Kamimura, Japanese admiral, crushes Vladivostok squadron
Kamitsuke (now Kotsuke), early dukedom
Kamo, Yamashiro, shrine in
Kamo Chomei, author of Hojoki
--Mabuchi (1697-1769), restores Japanese ethics; quoted
Kana, syllabary
Kana-ga-saki (Kanasaki), in Echizen, taken by Ashikaga
Kanamura, o-muraji, advises cession (512 A.D.) of part of Mimana to
Kudara; helps Kudara to get Imun (513 A.D.); puts down revolt of
Heguri Matori
Kanaoka see Koze Kanaoka
Kanazawa, fortress, in Three Years' War
Kanazawa, Prof. S., on Korean and Japanese languages
--Akitoki, son of Hojo Sanetoki
--bunko, school founded about 1270 by Hojo Sanetoki
--Sadaaki, son of Akitoki, scholar
Kane see Nakatomi Kane
Kaneakira, Prince (914-87), son of Daigo, poet
Kanenaga, Prince (1326-83), Mongol fugitives
Kanenari, Life-name of Emperor Chukyo
Kanin, princely house; Kokaku chosen from
Kanko-Maru, steamship presented by Dutch government
Kannabi, Mt., sacred rock
Kano school of painting; patronized by Tokugawa
--Masanobu see Masanobu
--Motonobu see Motonobu
Kanshin (687-763), Chinese Buddhist missionary, builds Shodai-ji
temple
Kanzaki, port in Heian epoch
Kao, painter of Kamakura school
Kara, Princess, wife of Yuryaku
Kara, Korea; war with Shiragi
Karako, Japanese general, killed in Korea by Oiwa
Karano, 100-ft, ship (274 A.D.)
Karu, Prince, son of Inkyo, suicide
--Prince, brother of Empress Kogyoku, in Kamatari's plot; see Kotoku
son of Kusakabe, succeeds to throne; see Mommu
Kasagi, refuge of Go-Daigo
Kasai Motochika (d. 1507)
Kasanui, Shrine of
Kashiwa-bara, palace at
Kasuga, cruiser, sinks Yoshino
--shrine at Nara (767-69) in honour of Fujiwara Kamatari; school of
painting
--Tsubone, mistress of Ashikaga Yoshimasa
Katagiri Katsumoto, bugyo of Toyotomi; bronze Buddha;
bell-inscription
Katakana, fragments of characters, syllabary
Katana, general, suppresses Yemishi revolt
Katari-be, raconteurs
Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611), commands second corps in invasion of
Korea; sides with Yae at court; in plot against Ishida; studies
Chinese classics
--Shirozaemon Kagemasa, potter
--Tadahiro, son of Kiyomasa, banished
--Yoshiaki (1563-1631), plots against Ishida
Katsu, Count (Rintaro), minister of Marine
Katsuiye see Shibata Katsuiye
Katsumi; see Nakatomi Katsumi
Katsumoto see Hosokawa Katsumoto and Katagiri Katsumoto
Katsura, princely house
--Taro, Prince (1849-1913), prime minister (1908-11)
Katsurabara, Prince (786-853), ancestor of Taira
Katsuragi, beginning of power of; descended from Takenouchi; Kara
Katsuragi Mount
Kawabe Nie, in Korea
Kawagoe, in Musashi, fortifications
Kawajiri Shigeyoshi, appointed to Hizen
Kawakatsu kills preacher of caterpillar worship
Kawamura at Mukden
Kawanaka-jima, battlefield
Kaya, moor of, Oshiwa murdered on; port
Kaya-no-in, consort of Toba
Kazuhito, Prince, son of Go-Fushimi; nominally Emperor (Kogon,
1332-35)
Kazuko, daughter of Hidetada, first Tokugawa consort
Kazumasu see Takigawa Kazumasu
Kazusa, revolt of Yemishi in; Yoritomo enters
Kebiishi, executive police (810-29)
Kegon, sect of Buddhists (736 A.D.)
Kehi-no-ura see Tsuruga
Keicho, year-period, 1596-1614, coinage of
Keicha Ajari (1640-1701), scholar
Keiki see Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Keiko, 12th Emperor (71-130); expeditions against Yemishi, against
Kumaso, and Tsuchi-gumo in Bungo; tree-worship
Keitai, Emperor (507-31); serpent worship; one province added;
nashiro
Keiun, poet
Kemmu era (1334-6), restoration of; crushes military houses and puts
court nobles in power; name applied by Northern court to years 1336-8
--Shikimoku, code of 1337
Kencho-ji, Zen temple in Kamakura
Kenju, or Rennyo Shonin, (1415-99), Shin priest
Kenko, daughter of Fujiwara Yorimichi, consort of Shirakawa, mother
of Horikawa
Kenko see Yoshida Kenko
Kennin-ji, temple in Kyoto, Kao's studio in; one of the "Five";
priests alone could wear purple
Kennyo (1543-92), priest, intervenes for Sakai; guides Hideyoshi in
Kyushu; helps turn Hideyoshi against Christians
Keno no Omi, in Korea
Kenrei-mon-in, Takakura's consort, daughter of Taira Kiyomori;
drowned at Dan-no-ura
Kenshin see Uesugi Kenshin
Kenso, 23rd Emperor (485-7), originally called Oke; Yemishi do homage
to
Kesa, mistress of Endo Morito (Mongaku)
Keumsyong, capital of Sinra, Korea
Khilkoff, Prince, Russian minister
Khitan Tatars, in China
Ki, family founded by Ki no Tsunu, descendant of Takenouchi; eligible
to high office
--Haseo (845-912), famous scholar; plot to send him with Michizane to
China; prose
--Hirozumi, leader against Yemishi, killed by them (780)
--Kosami (733-97), general against Yemishi (789), is defeated and
degraded; report of the campaign
--Omaro, Japanese general in Korea, 6th century
--Tsurayuki (883-946), prose preface to Kokin-shu; Tosa Nikki
Kibi, old name for Bingo, Bitchu and Bizen provinces; Jimmu's stay in
--no Mabi or Makibi (693-775), Japanese student in China, minister of
the Right, inventor of syllabary; opposition to Fujiwara; minister of
the Right under Koken; opposes succession of Shirakabe (Konin); as
littérateur
Kibumi, school of painters (604 A.D.)
Kidomaru, famous bandit
Kido Takamasa or Koin (1834-77), in alliance of Choshu and Satsuma
Kii, mythical land of trees; in Yamato expedition; promontory; armed
monks in Komaki war; punished by Hideyoshi (499-500); orange growing;
Tokugawa of
Kijima-yama, in Hizen, place for uta-gaki
Kikaku, verse-writer
Kikkawa in battle of Sekigahara
Motoharu (1530-86), son of Mori Motonari; adviser of Mori Terumoto;
general
Kikuchi, adherents of Southern Court, in Saikai-do; make trouble in
Kyushu; defeated by Otomo
Kimbusen, temple
Kimiko Hidetake in Three Years' War
Kimmei, 29th Emperor (540-71); Yemishi do homage to; intercourse with
China
Kinai, five home provinces; rice grants
Kinchou, 2d Army wins battle of (1904)
Kinoshita Junan (1621-98), Confucianist, father of Torasuke
--Torasuke, scholar, at Yedo
--Yaemon, father of Hideyoshi
Kinshudan, "Embroidered Brocade Discourse"
Kira family, masters of ceremonies
--Yoshihide killed by "47 Ronins" (1703)
--Yoshinaka, son of Yoshihide
Kiso river, boundary of Mino, crossed by Nobunaga (1561 and 1564)
Kiso Yoshinaka see Minamoto Yoshinaka
Kitabatake, adherents of Southern Court in Mutsu and Ise; put down by
Yoshinori; rule in Ise
--Akiiye (1317-38); raises siege of Kyoto; killed in battle
--Akinobu
--Chikafusa (1293-1354), historian and statesman, assistant governor
of O-U; faithful to Go-Daigo; Main leader of Southern army; author of
Jinno Shotoki; attempts to unite courts; death; combines Shinto,
Buddhism and Confucianism; Shinto revival
--Mitsumase, revolts of
--Morokiyo, piracy
Kitamura Kigin (1618-1705) author
--Sessan, calligraphist
--Shuncho, son of Kigin
Kitano, Shinto officials of; tea fete
Kitashirakawa, Prince, abbot of Kwanei-ji
Kita-yama, Ashika Yoshimitsu's palace at; given to Buddhist priests
Kite, Golden
Kiuliencheng, on Yalu, centre of Kuroki's line
Kiyo, Princess, daughter of Saga
Kiyomaro see Wake Kiyomaro
Kiyomizu, temple
Kiyomori see Taira Kiyomori
Kiyosu, castle in Owari, conference of Nobunaga's vassals
--Naritada, scholar, 447
--Takenori, leader in Nine Years' Commotion, helps crush Abe Sadato
(1062); family quarrel cause of Three Years' War
Kiyowara, family eligible to high office
Ko An-mu, Chinese scholar in Japan (516 A.D.)
Ko Moronao (d. 1351), defeats Kitabatake Akiiye at Ishizu; defeats
Masatsura; shitsuji in Muromachi; plot against; killed by Uesugi
--Moroyasu (d. 1351); plot against; death
Koban, coin
Kobe, formerly Fukuhara, made capital by Kiyomori (1180); Hyogo, in
Ashikaga revolt
Koben see Myoe
Kobo Daishi, posthumous name of Kukai (q.v.)
Kobun, 39th Emperor (672), Prince Otomo (q.v.) succeeds Tenchi;
included in Dai Nihon-shi
Koeckebacker, Nicholas, Dutch factor, helps conquer castle of Kara
Koetomi, merchant, envoy to China
Kofuku-ji, Nara temple of Hosso sect; armed men of the monastery;
their quarrels and their treatment by Taira; burnt by Taira (1180);
revenue of temple
Koga, in Shimosa, seat of Ashikaga after Kamakura; Shigeuji's castle
Kogen, 8th Emperor (214-158 B.C.)
Kogon, Northern Emperor (1332-5), Prince Kazuhito (q.v.), gives
commission (1336) to the Ashikaga, and expects restoration to throne;
becomes Zen priest
Kogo-shui, ancient record quoted
Kogyoku, (35th) Empress (642-5); abdicates, becomes Empress Dowager;
again Empress see Saimei; Asuka palace; worship of silk-worm
Kohayakawa Hideaki (1577-1602), nominally against Ieyasu, but goes
over in battle of Sekigahara
--Takakage (1532-96); adviser of Mori Terumoto; general of Hideyoshi;
in Korean invasion; signs Hideyoshi's laws of 1595
Koide Hidemasa (1539-1604), guardian of Hideyori
Ko-jiki, Records of Ancient Things; to 628 A.D.; on Chuai; contains
the Kuji-hongi; preface
Kojima, adherents of Southern Court
--Takanori, defender of Go-Daigo
Kokaku, 119th Emperor (1780-1816); his rank and his father's
Koken, (46th) Empress (749-58), daughter of Shomu, known in life as
Abe; abdicates but dethrones her successor; see Shotoku, son of Kenju
Koki, Record of the Country
Kokin-shu, 10th century anthology; Ki Tsurayuki's prose preface to;
comments by Keichu
Koko, 58th Emperor (885-7), Prince Tokiyasu; couplet tournaments
Koku, coin, 438-9; unit of measure
Kokubun-ji, official provincial temples; affiliated with Todai-ji;
heavy expense of
Kokuli, Korea
Kokushi, provincial governor; appointed by Throne, first mentioned in
374 A.D.; after Daika (645); over kuni; Buddhist hierarchy
Kokyo, Osaka abbot, leads great revolt (1529)
Koma, Korea, now Pyong-yang; increase of power; attacked by Kudara
and Japan; families in Japanese nobility; falls; migration; ruler of
Pohai recognized as successor of dynasty of; envoys; Mongol invasion
Koma, suzerain of Aya-uji, assassinates Sashun
Koma-gori, in Musashi, settlement in Japan from Koma
Komaki war (1583), named from Komaki-yama
Komei, 121st Emperor (1846-67)
Komon Mitsukuni
Komura Jutaro, Marquis (1853-1911), minister of foreign affairs,
peace commissioner at Portsmouth
Komyo, Imperial name of Asuka, wife of Shomu and mother of Koken;
story of miraculous conception
Komyo, Emperor (1336-48) of Northern dynasty, brother of Kogon;
abdicates and becomes Zen priest
Kondo, branch of Fujiwara in Kwanto
Kongobo-ji, Shingon temple on Koya-san
Konin, 49th Emperor (770-81), formerly Prince Shirakabe; reforms
local administration; festival of his birthday, Tenchosetsu
Konin, year-period (810-24) and revision of Rules and Regulations
Konishi Yukinaga (d. 1600), commands first division in Korean
invasion (1592); entrapped by Chinese diplomacy; with last troops in
Korea; opposes Kato; against Ieyasu; death
Konno, swordsman
Kono family in Iyo
Konoe, 76th Emperor (1142-55)
Konoe, Imperial guards; origin; name given to Fujiwara Motomichi's
descendants, kwampaku alternately with Kujo; one of "Five Regent
Houses"
--Prince, leader of moderate party
--Nobuhiro (1593-1643), minister of Right
--Sakihisa (1536-1612), envoy to Shin monks
Korai, or Koma, Korea
Korea, alphabet; architecture; artisans; Buddhism; China, relations
with; chronology; language; music; myth; pottery, sepulchral;
scholars; treasury, Japanese; early intercourse with Japan; Jingo's
conquest; granary; Japanese relations in 540-645; families in
Japanese nobility; war between Japan and China for; precious metals;
8th century relations; Mongol invasion; Japanese piracy; Hideyoshi's
invasion; Arai Hakusekai's policy toward envoys; break with (1873);
treaty (1875); Chinese activity in, 699-700; independence recognized
by 1895 treaty; Russian aggression; Japan's interests in, recognized
by Treaty of Portsmouth; Japanese occupation and annexation
Korehito, Prince, Emperor Seiwa
Korei, 7th Emperor (290-215 B.C.)
Korekimi see Fujiwara Korekimi
Koretaka, Prince (844-97), Buddhist monk and poet
Koreyasu, Prince, shogun, (1266-89)
Korietz, Russian gunboat at Chemulpo
Koriyama, in Yamato, castle commanding Izumi and Kii
Koromo, tunic, and name of a fort
Koromo-gawa, campaign on, against Yemishi
Kosa, abbot of Ishi-yama monastery
Koshi, Yemishi in
Kotesashi moor, Takauji defeated at
Koto, lute
Kotoku, 36th Emperor (645-54); Yemishi do homage to (646)
Kotsuke, early Kamitsuke, a dukedom; revolt of Yoshinaka in, (1180);
won by Kenshin; silk growing in
Koya, reptile Kami of; snow festival of
Koyama, branch of Fujiwara in Kwanto; one of "8 Generals" of Kwanto
Koyane (Ame-no-Koyane) ancestor of Nakatomi
Koya-san, mountain in Kii, temple of Kongobo-ji; threatened after
Komaki war; shrine; nobles enter
Koyomaro, warden of Mutsu, killed by Yemisi (724)
Koze (Kose); family descended from Takenouchi
Koze Fumio, scholar; Chinese prose
--Kanaoka (850-90), painter and landscape artist of Kyoto; school,
Kublai Khan and the Mongol invasion
Kubo, governor general of 4 provinces
Kuchiki Mototsuna (1549-1632) at battle of Sekigahara
Kuchinotsu, port, Jesuits invited to
Kudara, Korea, now Seoul; Japanese alliance; weaver from; scribe;
relations with Yuryaku; story of Multa; invaded by Koma; secures
Imun; gains through friendship of Japan; Buddhism; wars with Shiragi
and Koma; crushed by Shiragi and China; migration from
Kudara Kawanari, painter
Kudo Suketsune, killed in vendetta (1193)
Kuga family, eligible for office of highest rank
--Nagamichi, minister under Go-Daigo
Kugeshu-hatto, Ieyasu's law for Court nobles
Kugyo (1201-19), son of Yoriiye, assassinates Sanetomo
Kuhi brings scales and weights from China
Kujihongi, history
Kujo, descendants of Fujiwara Kanezane, chosen Kwampaku alternately
with Konoe; one of "Five Regent Houses"
Kukai (posthumously, Kobo Daishi), (774-835) Buddhist priest, called
by some inventor of mixed Shinto; founder (809) of Shingon (True
Word) system, calligrapher, and inventor of hira-gana syllabary;
portrait; shrine (ill.)
Kuma, Southern tribe
Kumagaye Naozane (d. 1208), kills Taira Atsumori
Kumaso, early inhabitants of Kyushu; possibly of Korean origin; may
be identical with Hayato; called Wado by Chinese; Keiko's expedition
against; Chuai's expedition
Kume, Dr., on Yamato-dake's route of march; on Takenouchi-no-Sukune
--Prince, dies on expedition to Shiragi
--Kami
Kumebe, palace guards
Kunajiri, Russians seized at (1814)
Kuno, castle of, in Totomi
Kurama, temple of, Yoshitsune escapes from
Kurando or Kurodo, Imperial estates bureau, office established;
K.-dokoro precursor of kwampaku; held by Minamoto Yorimasa
Kurayamada, conspirator against Soga; suicide
Kuriles, Russians in; Japanese title recognized
Kuriyama Gen, contributor to Dai Nihon-shi
Kuro, lady of Takenouchi family
Kuroda Nagamasa (1568-1623) soldier of Hideyoshi; against Ishida;
favours Ieyasu; studies Chinese classics
Kurodo see Kurando
Kuroki, Ibei, Count (b.1844), commands on Yalu; defeats Russians;
head of 1st Army; attempts to turn Russian flank; at Mukden
Kuromaro see Takamuku Kuromaro
Kuropatkin, Alexei Nikolaievitch (b.1848), Russian commander-in-chief
in Manchuria; plans before and after Liaoyang; succeeded by
Linievitch
Kusaka, defeat of Jimmu at
Kusakabe, Prince, (d. 690) son of Temmu and Jito
Kusano support Southern Court
Kusu (Kusuriko), daughter of Fujiwara Tanetsugu, consort of Heijo
Kusu, wife of Oto, kills him
Kusunoki, adherents of Southern Court
--Jiro, in attack on palace (1443)
--Masahide rebels in 1428
--Masanori (d. 1390) minister; joins Northern party, returns to
Southern
--Masashige (1294-1336), called Nanko, defender of Go-Daigo;
provincial governor; against Ashikaga; death, (ill.)
--Masatoki, death
--Masatomo defeats Nobunaga in Ise
--Masatsura (132648), son of Masashige; receives Go-Daigo in Yoshimo;
campaign in Settsu
Kuwana, castle of Takigawa Kazumasu, in Ise
Kuzuno, Prince, son of Kobun, sacrifices his claim to throne (696)
Kuzuo, in Shinano, castle
Kivaifu-so, anthology of poems (751)
Kwaikei, sculptor
Kwammu, 50th Emperor (782-805), formerly Yamabe; changes capital to
Kyoto (792); posthumous names first used; sends Saicho to study
Chinese Buddhism
Kwampaku, regent for grown Emperor, mayor of palace, office
established (882); decline of power under Go-Sanjo; foreshadowed by
Kurando-dokoro; chosen alternately from Kujo and Konoe; office
abolished after Kemmu restoration; unimportant after Tokugawa period
Kwampei era (889-97), Counsels of, Uda's letter to Daigo
Kwanei, year period, (1621-43); Kwanei Shake Keizu-den, genealogical
record; Kwanei-ji, temple
Kwangaku-in, uji academy, founded (821)
Kwangtung peninsula, in battle of Kinchou
Kwang-wu, Chinese emperor, Japanese envoy to
Kwanji, period, (1087-94)
Kwanki, period, (1229-32), crop failure and famine
Kwanko see Sugawara Michizane
Kwanno Chokuyo establishes school in Yedo
Kwannon, Mercy, Buddhist goddess; Shirakawa's temple; temple at
Kamakura
Kwanryo, governor general; list of Kamakura k.; title passes from
Ashikaga to Uesugi family; also given (1367) to shitsuji in shogun's
court, and held by Shiba, Hosokawa and Hatakeyama families; compared
with shikken and betto
Kwansei, year-period, 1789-1800, vagabonds in Yedo during
Kwanto, or Bando, many shell-heaps in; army raised in, against
Yemishi; Taira and Minamoto fight in; Minamoto supreme in; Ashikaya
supreme; Eight Generals of, combine against Uesugi; battle-ground;
war between branches of Uesugi and Hojo and Satomi; in Battle Period
Kwazan, 65th Emperor (985-6)
Kwobetsu, families of chieftains of the conquest, Imperial class;
pre-historic administration; classification in Seishwoku; revolt;
rank of Empress
Kyaku, "official rules" supplementing Yoro laws; revised; (819)
Kyogen, comic play
Kyogoku, one of four princely houses
--Takatsugu (1560-1609)
Kyoho, year-period, (1716-35); K.-kin, coins then minted
Kyong-sang, Korea
Kyoriku, verse-writer
Kyoroku, year-period, (1528-31)
Kyoto, capital 794 A.D.; two cities and two markets; capital
momentarily moved to Fukuhafa (1180); evacuated by Taira (1183);
school of art; culture; Go-Daigo's conspiracy; in war of dynasties;
Takauji removes to; ravaged; Nobunaga restores order; under
Hideyoshi; Portuguese; Xavier; Jesuits; Vilela; Franciscan church;
patent to missionaries; shogun's deputy in; Ieyasu; Iemitsu's
demonstration against; Court excluded from power; vendetta illegal
in; great fire (1788); rebuilding; government; loyalist intrigues in:
extremists driven from; foreign ministers invited to
Kyuka, priest
Kyushu, early myth; expedition against Yamato; situation; Kingdom
called Wo by Chinese; government station; Keiko's expedition against
Kumaso; granary; trade; Mongol invasion; revolt of 1349; taken from
Ashikaga; disorder; piracy; great families; Hideyoshi's invasion;
early European intercourse; Christians
Lacquer, trees, planting of, required for tenure of uplands;
development of art in Nara epoch; in Heian; ware exported;
manufacture in time of Yoshimasa; (ill.)
Ladies-in-waiting, uneme, at early court; dancers; Yoshimune's
reforms
Land and land-holding, pre-historic; royal fees; taxation; Daika
reform; all land Crown property; 6-year lease; sustenance grants lead
to feudalism; Daiho laws; reclaimed uplands; centralized holdings,
8th century; grants for reclamation; maximum holdings; abuses in
system; large estates; Go-Sanjo's reforms; territorial name;
constables and stewards; Shokyu tumult; new distribution; Joei laws;
Go-Daigo's grants; estates under Ashikaga; military holdings; tax;
Crown lands pass to military houses; Hideyoshi's laws; taxes
Landscape-gardening, in the Heian epoch; in Kamakura period;
patronized by Yoshimasa, in Muromachi epoch; at Momoyama
Land steward, jito, and chief steward, so-jito, in Yorikomo's reform
of land; shimpo-jito, land holders and stewards after the Shokyu war
Language; in Heian epoch; difficulties for preaching
Lanterns, (ill.)
La Pérouse, Strait of, claimed as Russian boundary
Law, in time of Ojin; criminal, protohistoric period; of Daiho; code
of 1232 A.D.; Kemmu code; Hideyoshi's legislation; Laws of Military
Houses; Laws for Court Nobles; of Iemitsu and Ietsuna; real code; in
Tokugawa period; codified after Restoration; Department, in Meiji
administration
Leech, first offspring of Izanagi and Izanami
Left Minister of, Sa-daijin, office created by Daika
Legs, length, as racial mark
Lése Majesté under Daiho code
Liao River, Russians forced into valley of
Liaotung peninsula, Chinese forces in, (1592), defeated by Japanese;
fighting in 1894 in; Russian lease of
Liaoyang, battle of
Liberal party, Jiyu-to organized (1878) by Itagaki; unites with
Progressists and forms Constitutionist party
Library of Kanazawa-biwko; of Shohei-ko; of Momijiyama Bunko; and
Shinto
Liefde, Dutch ship
Li Hung-chang (1823-1901), Chinese plenipotentiary for peace of 1895
Li Lungmin, artist
Linievitch, Nikolai Petrovitch (b.1834), Russian general, succeeds
Kuropatkin in command, defeated at Mukden
Literature, in Nara epoch; in Heian epoch; in Tenryaku era, 261; in
Kamakura epoch; in Muromachi period; under Hideyoshi; place of, in
Military Houses' Laws; in Court Laws; Ieyasu's attitude; Tsunayoshi
encourages Japanese and Chinese; favoured by Yoshimune; Japanese,
restoration of; foreign; Chinese
Liu-Jen-kuei, Chinese general, defeats Japanese in Korea (662 A.D.)
Lloyd, Rev. A., on Buddhism, Tendai, Hosso; and Shinto
Longevity, herb of
Longford's Korea cited
Loochoo see Ryukyu Islands
Lotteries
Lotus festival
Loyalty, in early times; in Heian epoch; in Tokugawa period
Lute, of Susanoo; the koto, made from the ship Karano; biya,
4-stringed Chinese lute
Mabuchi see Kamo Mabuchi
Macao, trade with; Jesuits there; annual vessel from; embassy of 1640
from
Machado, Joao Baptista de (1581-1617), Jesuit, executed
Machi-ya, shop
Madre de Dios, Pessoa's ship
Maeda Gen-i or Munehisa (1539-1602), guardian of Oda Nobutada's son
Samboshi; in charge of Kyoto Buddha
--Toshiiye (1538-99), fails to help Shibata Katsuiye; commands armies
in Komaki war, and against Hojo; one of 6 senior ministers; attempt
to make break between Ieyasu and; death
--Toshinaga (1562-1614), son of Toshiiye, favours Ieyasu; simulates
madness
Magic and incantations, of Buddhist abbot Raigo; general belief in
Mahayana, Great Vehicle, esoteric Buddhism
Mahitotsu, metal worker
Makaroff, Stephan Osipovitch (1848-1904), Russian admiral drowned
with Petropavlovsk
Maketsu, Chinese or Korean spinning woman, immigrant to Japan
Maki, wife of Hojo Tokimasa, favours her son-in-law, Minamoto
Tomomasa
Makibi see Kibi no Mabi
Makura Soshi, book by Sei Shonagon
Mallets and "mallet-headed" swords
Mamiya Rinzo (1781-1845) discovers (1826) that Saghalien is not part
of continent
Mamta, Prince, in charge of Record of Uji
Manabe Norifusa, minister under Ienobu, and Ietsugu; removed from
Treasury by Yoshimune
Manchu-Korean subdivision of Asiatic yellow race
Manchuria, in colonization from northern China; part ceded to Japan
by treaty of 1895, but not occupied after Russian, German and French
note; Russian designs upon; Russia's failure to evacuate, and
negotiations over "open door"; Russo-Japanese war; evacuation of,
provided for by treaty of Portsmouth; Japanese position in
Man-dokoro, administration bureau, one of three sections of Bakufu,
formerly called kumon-jo; in administration of Kyoto after Shokyu
war; in Muromachi administration
Maneko, atae of Iki, suicide
Man-en, year-period, 1860, coinage of
Manhattan, American ship, enters Uraga
Mannen tsuho, coin
Manners and customs, remote; in time of Yuryaku; in Muromachi period
Manors, large estates, shoen; attempts to regulate; koden, tax free,
granted to Taira after Heiji tumult; Yoritomo's memorial on; abuses
of, remedied by appointment of constables and land stewards;
distribution after restoration of Kemmu; gifts of Takauji
Manumission of slaves
Manyo-shu, "Myriad Leaves" first Japanese anthology; compared with
Kokinshu; on character of soldier; comments on, by Keichu
Map, official, begun under Hideyoshi
Market Commissioners, after Daika
Markets, ichi, in early Japan; in Nara epoch
Marquis, asomi, title established by Temmu
Marriage in early Japan; and the festival of utakai; none recognized
among slaves by Daika; in Nara and earlier epochs; in laws of
Military Houses; between military and court families; child marriage
Marubashi Chuya, leader in revolt of 1651
Masa, daughter of Hojo Tokimasa, mistress of Minamoto Yoritomo;
mother of Yoriiye and the power, with Tokimasa, in his
administration; saves Sanetomo; plea to generals of Bakufu; death
(1225)
Masakado see Taira Masakado
Masanobu (1453-90), painter
Masanori see Kusunoki Masanori
Masashige see Kusunoki Masashige
Masatomo see Ashikaga Masatomo
Masatoshi see Hotta Masatoshi
Masayasu see Inaba Masayasu
Masks for dances, sculptured; no masks
Masses, Buddhist
Masuda Nagamori (1545-1615), one of 5 administrators, plots with
Ishida against Ieyasu; enters monastery after Sekigahara
Masukagami, history of 1184-1333, on literature
Mats, tatami, floor-coverings; tatsu-gomo
Matsubara, Pine Plain
Matsudaira, origin of family; of Aizu, etc.
--Hideyasu (1574-1607), son of Ieyasu
--Masatsuna (1567-1648), Tokugawa agent in Kyoto
--Mitsunaga (1615-1717), punished by shogun
--Motoyasu see Tokugawa Ieyasu
--Nobutsuna (1596-1662), minister of Iemitsu, and of Ietsuna
--Norimura, minister of Yoshimune, drafts code (1742); succession to
Yoshimune
--Sadanobu (1758-1829), revises code; minister under Ienari; sumptuary
laws; educational reforms; retires; matter of rebuilding palace; rank
of Tsunehito and Hitotsubashi Harunari; revises rules of procedure
--Tadanao, punished by Tokugawa in 1623
--Tadatem (1593-1683), daimyo of Echigu; removed
--Yoshinaga, baron of Echizen, advocates foreign trade; importance in
new Japan
Matsukura Shigemasa (1574-1630), persecutes Christians, urges
conquest of Philippines
Matsumae, ruling Northern islands, clash with Russians
Matsuriaga Hisahide (1510-77), kills Norinaga and the shogun
Yoshiteru; ally of Shingen
Matsuo Basho (1644-94), verse writer
Matsushita Yukitsuna, soldier under whom Hideyoshi served
Matsuura, in Hizen, Toi attack unsuccessfully; branch of Minamoto;
support Southern Court; attitude toward Xavier
Mayor of the palace, kwampaku
Ma Yuan, painter
Mayuwa kills Anko
Measures, early; standard (senshi-mashu) of Go-Sanjo; in Hideyoshi's
laws
Medicine
Medicine-hunting, early court amusement
Meiji, "Enlightened Government" year-period 1868-1912; posthumous
name of Mutsuhito
Meitoku, year-period, 1390-3, and the rising of 1391
Men, ideographic Japanese used by
Menju Shosuke, impersonates Shibata Katsuiye and saves him
Mercy, goddess, Kwannon
Merit lands, Koden, granted for public services
Mexico, Spanish ships from
Michelborne, Sir Edward, on Japanese sailors (1604 or '5)
Michi no Omi, ancestor of Otomo
Michinaga see Fujiwara Michinaga
Michiyasu, Prince; Emperor Montoku (q.v.)
Michizane see Sugawara Michizane
Mikado, origin of title; name appropriated for residence of Soga
Emishi
Mikata-ga-hara, war of, (1572-3)
Mikawa, province, Oda defeat Imagawa in; fighting in Komaki war
Mikena, brother of Jimmu
Military Affairs, in ancient Japan; first conscription (689 A.D.);
organization under Daiho; during Nara epoch; improvement in
organization in 12th century; development of tactics; foreign
military science; conscription laws and samurai; new army justified
by Satsuma rebellion; modern army organization
Military Art of Bushi
--class, shi; in Kamakura period
--code, Gumbo-ryo, of Daiho laws
--dues, Buke-yaku
--ethics, and Primer of Yamaga Soko
Military houses, buke, rise in 8th century; 10th; 11th; power
increased by Hogen and Heiji insurrections; Minamoto ideals;
finances; crushed by Kemmu restoration; Northern Court follows system
of; in Ashikaga times; Onin disorder; Muromachi period; land
holdings; power in Tokugawa period; Laws of; intermarry with Court
nobles; weakness
Militia, kondei, in 8th century
Milk
Milky Way in myth
Millet as substitute for rice
Mimaki, life-time name of Emperor Sujin
Mimana (Imna), Japanese name for Kara, Korea; Japanese influence
there; Tasa leads revolt in; part ceded to Kudara; Keno in; pretended
expedition against; Shiragi overpowers; Japan intervenes in war
between Shiragi and; Shiragi invades (622); families from, in 9th
century nobility
Mimasaka, province, given to Yamana family (1441)
Mimashi, Korean teacher of music (612 A.D.)
Mime, Dengaku
Mimoro, Prince
Mimoro, Mt., in early myth; Kami of, a serpent
Minamoto, princely family; Fujiwara take wives from; generals of
Imperial guards; called Gen and Gen-ji; academy; manors and troops;
win Taira estates; quarrel with Taira; revolt against Fujiwara;
literature; military power in provinces, especially Kwanto; "claws"
of Fujiwara; provincial branches; war with Taira; power taken by Hojo
--Hikaru (845-913), son of Nimmyo, accuses Sugawara Michizane; death
--Hiromasa (918-80), musician
--Ichiman (1200-3), candidate for shogun, killed
--Kanetsuna, in Yorimasa conspiracy
--Kugyo see Kugyo
--Mitsukune, erects monument to Kusunoki Masashige
--Mitsumasa, founder of Suruga Genji
Minamoto Mitsunaka (912-97), reveals conspiracy against Fujiwara
(967); his influence; founder of Shinano Genji; the two swords
--Nakaakira, killed with Sanetomo by Sugyo
--Narinobu, poet
--Noriyori (1156-93), sent against Yoshinaka; at Ichino-tani; commands
force (1184-5); blocks Taira from withdrawing into Kyushu;
assassinated
--Sanetonio (1192-1219), rival of Ichiman; blocks Hojo designs;
attempt to assassinate him; death; patron of Fujiwara Tameiye
--Senju-maru (1201-14), revolt, execution
--Shigenari, pretends to be Yoshitomo
--Shitago (911-83), littérateur
--Tadaaki, in capture of Rokuhara
--Tametomo (1139-70), great warrior of Hogen tumult; exiled to Izu;
advice not followed
--Tameyoshi, in Hogen, tumult
--Tomomasa, Maki's candidate for shogun, killed
--Toru (822-95), minister of the Left under Uda
--Toshikata (959-1027), poet, one of Shi-nagon
--Tsunemoto (894-961), Prince Rokusoh, founder of Seiwa Genji; in
beginning of hostilities with Taira
--Wataru, husband of Kesa
--Yorichika (d. 1117), ancestor of Suruga Genji
--Yoriiye (1182-1204), succeeds (1199) as lord high constable and
chief landsteward; as shogun (1202); killed by Tokimasa
--Yorimasa (1106-80), sides with Taira, killed
--Yorimitsu (944-1021), soldier; aids Michinaga; at Court
--Yorinobu (968-1048); governor of Xai, drives back Taira Tadatsune;
helps Michinaga
--Yoritomo (1147-99), son of Yoshitomo; escapes after Heiji war; war
of 1180; army crushed; gains; quarrels with Yoshinaka; called to
Kyoto; sent against Yoshinaka; relations with Yoshitsune; Bakufu
independent of Court; memorial on manors; becomes sei-i tai-shogun;
death and character; patron of Saigyo Hoshi; system imitated by
Takauji
--Yoriyoshi (995-1048); in Nine Years' Commotion
--Yoshichika (d. 1117) rebellion put down by Taira Masamori
--Yoshihira, son of Yoshitomo
--Yoshiiye (1041-1108); great archer; called Hachiman Taro, in Nine
Year's Commotion and Three Year's war; helps put down disorder of
Enryaku-ji monks
--Yoshikata
--Yoshimitsu (10567-1127), founder of Tada Genji; in Three Years' War
--(Kiso) Yoshinaka (1154-84), revolts in Shinano-Kotsuke; quarrels
with Yoritomo; defeats Taira at Tonami-yama; Go-Shirakawa joins;
tries to get crown for Hokurika; death
--Yoshitaka marries Yoritomo's daughter; death
--Yoshitomo, supports Go-Shirakawa in Hogen tumult; joins in plot of
Heiji; advice overruled by Nobuyori, killed; his sons; loses great
land holdings
--Yoshitsuna (d.1134), brother of Yoshiiye
--Yoshitsune (1159-89), son of Yoshitomo, escapes after Heiji tumult;
joins Yoritomo; sent against Yoshinaka; at Ichi-no-tani; wins battle
of Yashima; relations to Yoritomo; attempted assassination; protected
by Fujiwara Hidehira, suicide
--Yukiiye (d. 1186); repeatedly defeated; joins Yoskinaka; Yoshinaka
disapproves his choice to be governor of Bizen; summary criticism of
him; turns to Yoshitsune, death
--Yukitsuna betrays Shishi-ga-tani plot (1177), 296; occupies Settsu
and Kawachi (1183)
Mincho, called Cho Densu, (1352-1431), painter
Ming, Chinese Emperor, mission for Buddhist Sutras; dynasty, its fall
Mining, Ieyasu's efforts (1609) to develop
Ministers, system of three, under Daika; members of Privy Council
Board under Daiho; Hideyoshi's system; council of, separated from
shogun; senior and junior ministers
Mino, province, Oda defeat Saito in
Miroku (Sanskrit Martreya), stone image of, brought to Japan (584
A.D.)
Mirror, in myth of Sun-Goddess; one of Imperial insignia; bronze, in
sepulchral remains
Mishchenko, Russian general, leads cavalry raid after fall of Port
Arthur
Misumi, adherents of Southern Court, in Sanin-do
Mita, Korean architect
Mitigations (roku-gi) of penalty of Daiho code for rank, position
and public service
Mito, Tokugawa of
Mitoshi, a Kami
Mitsubishi Company, first private dockyard
Mitsuhide see Akechi Mitsuhide
Mitsukuni see Tokugawa Mitsukuni
Mitsunobu (Tosa no M.), painter, founder of Tosa school of painting
Miura branch of Taira; plot against Hojo
Mitsuinura (d. 1247), suicide
--Yasumara (1204-47), in war with Hojo
--Yoshiaki
--Yoshizumi (1127-1200), in Bakufu
Miwa Sako, commander of palace guards
Miyake Atsuaki, contributor to Dai Nilon-shi
Miyoshi, scholars in Ashikaga administration; lecturers; in civil war
of 1520-50; crush Hoshokawa; in Awa; attempt to take Kyoto
--Kiyotsura (847-918); memorial (914), on writing; Chinese scholar
--Masanaga, inheritance
--Miyoshi Motonaga
--Nagateru (d. 1520), guardian of Hosokawa Sumimoto and Takakuni; death
--Norinaga, called Chokei (1523-64), in civil war
--Yasunobu (1140-1221), son of Yoritomo's nurse; ancestor of Ota and
Machino uji; in Bakufu council; advice at beginning of Shokyu
struggle; death
--Yasutsura, with Hojo Yasutoki plans Joei code
--Yoshitsugu (d.1573), revolts in Settsu
Mizugaki, Sujin's court at
Mizuha, life time name of Emperor Hansho
Mizuno, governor of Nagasaki, persecutes Christians
--Echizen no Kami, prime minister of Ieyoshi, sumptuary laws and
efforts at reform (1826)
Mochifusa see Uesugi Mochifusa
Mochihito, Prince, (1150-80), Yorimasa conspiracy
Mogami of Yamagata
--Yoshiakira (1546-1614), one of Ieyasu's generals
Moho, variant name of Sushen or Toi
Momijiyama Bunko, Tokugawa library at Yedo
Mommu, 42nd Emperor (697-707), Prince Karu, accession; succession and
plan to move capital
Momokawa see Fujiwara Momokawa
Momonoi family favours Tadayoshi
Momo-yama, "Peach Hill," in Fushimi, Hideyoshi's palace; last epoch
of Ashikaga shogunate; palace destroyed (1596); Ieyasu's castle taken
(1600)
Momozono, 116th Emperor (1735-62)
Mon, coin
Mongaku, priest, originally Endo Morito, aids Yoritomo
Mongol, subdivision of yellow race; fold of eye; invasion
Monju-dokoro, Bakufu department of justice; in administration of
Kyoto after Shokyu war; power passes to Hyojoshu; in Muromachi
administration
Monkey, worship of; female divinity
Mononobe, palace guard; uji of Kwami class, important especially in
Yuryaku's reign; oppose Buddhism
Moriya, o-muraji, killed by Soga; their rivalry; opposes Buddhism;
supports Anahobe; final contest with Soga; property
--Okoshi, o-muraji; opposes Buddhism
Montoku, Emperor (851-58), chronicle of reign
Montoku Jitsuroku, National History
Monto-shu, Shin sect
Moon, Kami of
Moonlight festivals
Mori Arinori, Viscount (1847-89), minister of public instruction,
assassinated
Mori family, rapid rise in power; Ashikaga Yoshiaki turns to
--Hidemoto (1579-1650), in Ishida's army
--Motonari (1497-1571), wins power of Ouchi
--Motonori (1839-96), of Choshu, leader of extremists, expelled from
Kyoto
--Nagayoshi (1558-84), general of Hideyoshi
--Rammaru, lieutenant of Nobunaga
--Terumoto (1553-1625) loses central Japan to Hideyoshi; Akechi
Mitsuhide joins; peace with Hideyoshi; senior minister; signs
Hideyoshi's laws; favours Ishida, leads his army; loses estates
Morihito, Emperor Nijo
Morikuni, Prince (1301-33), shogun, (1308-33)
Morimasa see Sakuma Morimasa
Morinaga, Prince, (1308-35), called Oto no Miya, son of Go-Daigo, and
his defender; commander-in-chief; death
Moriya see Mononobe Moriya
Morosada, Prince, see Kwazan
Moroya, chief of Otomo, o-muraji
Morrison, American ship in Yedo, 1837
Mother-of-pearl and lacquer
"Mother's Land," Shiragi, Korea
Motien Mountains, Russian campaign planned in
Motonobu (1476-1559), painter, Kano school
Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801), Shinto revival; quoted; on Shinto
dualism
Mourning colour, white, earlier, black; customs; periods of, varying
with rank
Moxa, medicinal herb, touch of, defilement
Mu Hsi, painter
Mukden, Russian railway through; battle of (1905)
Muko, Fukuhara harbour
Mukuhara, Buddhist temple at
Mulberry, early culture; used with hemp to make cloth; order for
cultivation (472 A.D.); planting of, condition of tenure of upland
Multa, King of Kudara, stories of his cruelty told of Emperor Muretsu
Munemara, chief of trade
Munetada see Tokugawa Munetada
Munetaka, Prince (1242-74), shogun in 1252-66
Munetake see Tokugawa Munetake
Munro, N. G., on Japanese archaeology; imibe; rice-chewers; coins
Muraji, "chief," title; applied to pre-conquest (Shimbetsu) rulers;
o-muraji, head of o-uji; inferior title in Temmu's peerage
Murakami, 62nd Emperor (947-67)
Murakami Genji, branch of Minamoto
--Yoshihiro, of Iyo province, pirate chief
--Yoshikiyo (1501-73), driven from Kuzuo by Takeda Shingen
--Yoshiteru impersonates Morinaga
Murasaki Shikibu (d. 992), writer of Genji Monogatari
Muravieff, Nikolai Nikolaievich (d. 1881), Russian commander in Far
East, claims (1858) Saghalien
Murdoch, J., quoted on Tadatsune's ravages of Kwanto; on Heian epoch;
weakening of Fujiwara power; Bushi of Kwanto; Joei code; downfall of
Bakufu; feudalism in war of dynasties; literati in Ashikaga
administration; Kamakura rule in Kai, Izu and Mutsu; revolt of 1443
Muretsu (Buretsu), 25th Emperor (499-506)
Muro Nawokiyo, or Kyuso, (1658-1734). Confucianist, historian of "47
Ronins"; adviser to shogun
Muromachi, part of Kyoto, administrative headquarters of Ashikaga;
Ashikaga shoguns at
Musashi, immigrants from Koma settle in; war of Taira and Minamoto
in; Hojo and Uesugi in
Mushroom picking
Music, Korean and Buddhist; and poetry; in Heian society; joruri
Muso Kokushi, "National Teacher," or Soseki (1271-1346), scholar;
head of Tenryuji
Muto, branch of Fujiwara in Kwanto
--Sukeyori, founder of Shoni family
Mutsu, 5 provinces, in Nara epoch, N. E. and N. littoral; the Nine
Years' Commotion (1056-64) in; Three Years' War (1089-1091) in;
(O-shu) part of 0-U, 388; peaceful under Kamakura rule; revolt of
1413 in; in 16th century wars; silk growing; famine of 1783-6 in
--branch of Fujiwara, descendants of Fujiwara Kiyohira; give
Yoshitsune asylum; crushed by Yoritomo (1189)
Mutsuhito, (posthumous name, Meiji), 122nd Emperor (1867-1912); seal
Myochin Nobuiye, metalworker and armourer
Myocho, Zen priest
Myoe (or Koben), bonze, quotation from his biography on Yasutoki
Myogaku-ji, temple
Myong see Song Wang Myong
Myoo, priest
Myoshin-ji, Zen temple, W. of Kyoto
Myosho, (109th) Empress (1629-43), Princess Oki, daughter of
Go-mizu-no-o and Tokugawa consort
Mythology; rationalistic explanation of, by Japanese
Nabeshima Naoshige (1537-1619), invasion of Korea
Nagahama, Omi, headquarters of Hideyoshi
Nagakude, battle of
Nagamasa see Asai Nagatnasa and Asano Nagamasa
Nagamori see Masuda Nagamori
Nagao Kagetora see Uesugi Kenshin
Nagaoka, Yamashiro, capital
--uji, of princely descent
Nagasaki, port; church, trade, growth; Jesuit church seized by
Francisans; missionaries receive patent; Martyrs' Mount; execution of
De l'Assumption and Machado; "Great Martyrdom"; trade; Pessoa at;
Dutch and English confined to; Dutch factory; Russians come to
(1804); Glynn and the Preble; Americans allowed to trade; military
college at
--Enki, guardian of Hojo Takatoki
--Takashige, suicide, 386
--Takasuke (d.1333), minister of Takatoki; dethrones Go-Daigo
Nagashino, castle
Nagasune, governor of Yamato
Nagato, fortifications at, (1280)
Nagatoshi, name given to Nawa Nagataka
Nagauji see Hojo Soun
Nagaya (684-729), minister of the Left
Nagoya, in Hizen, base of operations against Korea; castle of
Nai-mul, king of Shiragi (364), first sends tribute to Yamato
Naka, Prince, son of Kogyoku; passed over, in succession;
interregnum; Great Reform; expedition to Korea; Emperor Tenchi
Nakachiko, Oshiwa's servant
Nakahara family, scholars, secretaries in Bakufu; in Ashikaga
administration; lecturers
--Chikayoshi (1142-1207) in Yoritomo's Bakufu; nominated; high
constable at Court, but not appointed; in Bakufu council; ancestor of
Otomo family of Kyushu
--Kaneto, rears Yoshinaka; his four sons, Yoshinaka's guards
Nakai Seishi establishes school in Osaka
Xakamaro see Abe Nakamoro and Fujiwara Nakamaro
Nakamura Hiyoshi see Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Nakane Genkei, mathematician, translates Gregorian calendar into
Japanese
Nakanomikado, 114th Emperor (1710-35)
Nakano, suburb of Yedo, dog-kennel in
Naka-Nushi, "Central Master"
Nakasendo, Central Mountain road, completed early in 8th century
Nakashi, wife of Okusaka
Nakatomi family, court priests; descended from Koyane; guardians of 3
insignia, and of Shinto ceremonials; oppose Buddhism, and Soga
--Kamako, muraji, opposes Buddhism
--Kamatari see Fujiwara Kamatari
--Kane, muraji, minister, in conspiracy against Oama (Temmu)
--Katsumi, muraji, killed (587 A.D.)
Nakatsu, Prince
Nakaye Toju (1608-48), Confucianist, follower of Wang Yang-ming
Namamugi incident
Nambu family
--Saemon opposes Ieyasu
Names and naming, Japanese system; territorial
Naniwa, now Osaka, capital of Emperor Nintoku; Buddhist temple,
(579); immigrants from Kudara; administration, Settsu-shoku, under
Daiho; removal of capital to, by Kotoku; trade in Heian epoch
Nanko, see Kusunoki Masashige
Nankwa (16th Cent.), scholar
Na-no-Agata or Watazumi-no-Kuni, Japanese intercourse with
Naiishan, commanding Port Arthur
Nanzen-ji, Zen temple, 454; one of the "Five"
Nara, Yamato province, removal of capital to (709 A.D.); the Nara
epoch (709-84); the Nara image of Buddha; city officials, revenues
from public lands appropriated for, 775 A.D.; Kusu and Fujiwara
Nakanari attempt to make it capital again; power of armed monks
controlled by Yoshinori; rebel against Yoshimasa; Takauji tries to
check
Nariaki see Tokugawa Nariaki
Narimasa see Sasa Narimasa
Narinaga, Prince (1325-38), kwanryo of Kwanto; shogun at Kamakura
Narita Kosaburo assists Go-Daigo
Nariyuki see Tokugawa Nariyuki
Nasu family, one of "8 Generals of Kwanto"
"National Histories, Six" covering years 697-887 A.D.; five composed
in Heian epoch
Nature Worship
Navarrete, Alonso (1617), Spanish Dominican, executed by Omura
Navigation; see Ships
Navy, Japanese, in Mongol invasion; in invasion of Korea; naval
College, Gunkan Kyojujo, at Tsukiji; modern organization; in war with
China; in war with Russia
Nawa, adherents of Southern Court, in Sanin-do
Nagatoshi (d. 1336), helps Go-Daigo escape; provincial governor;
commands against the Ashikaga; death
Nazuka Masaiye, in charge of land-survey
Needle, magic, as cure
Negoro, in Kii, firearms made at; headquarters of priests of Kii
Nei-issan see Ichinei
Nemuro, Russian ship in (1792)
Nengo, era or period, in chronology; different names in Northern and
Southern courts
Nenoi Yukichika, one of Yoshinaka's four guards
Ne no Omi, messenger of Anko
Neo support Southern Court in Mino
Neolithic culture
Nestorian Christianity in China
Netsuke, (ill.)
New Spain, Mexico, ships from
New Year's celebration
Ng, Chinese writer on war (3d Cent, A.D.)
Nichira, Japanese at Kudara Court advises Bidatsu against Kudara
Nichiren, Buddhist sect dating from 13th century; its founder; war
with other monks
Nigihayahi, uncle of Jimmu, overlord of Nagasune
Nihon Bummei Shiryaku, on early medicine
Nihon Kodaiho Shakugi, on Board of Religion
Nihon Koki, Later Chronicles of Japan (792-833)
Nihongi, Chronicle of Japan (720); on Chuai and Jingo; after 400 A.D.
Nihonmatsu family
Nihon Shoki, Written Chronicles of Japan to 697 A.D. (720), revision
of; continuations
Nijo, family founded by son of Fujiwara Michiiye, one of "Five Regent
Houses"
Nijo, 78th Emperor (1159-66)
Castle, Kyoto, destroyed; officials of
Michihira (1287-1335), Go-Daigo's minister
Yoshimoto (1320-88), scholar and author
Nikaido in office of shitsuji; defeated by Date
Sadafusa opposes the regent (1331)
Nikki favour Takauji
Nikko, Shimotsuke province, shrine of Ieyasu and tombs in; annual
worship at
Nikolaievsk, strategic situation
Nimmyo, Emperor (834-50); chronicle of his reign; luxury
Nine Years' Commotion, Zenkunen (1056-64)
Ningpo, trade with Japan; sacked by Japanese
Ninigi see Hikoho Ninigi
Ninken, 24th Emperor (488-98), Prince Woke
Ninko, 120th Emperor (1817-46)
Nintoku, 16th Emperor (313-99); 7 provinces added by; consort,
Takenouchi's granddaughter; love story; remits taxes
Nippon, "Sunrise Place"
Nira-yama, Hojo castle
Nishi Hongwan-ji, temple
Nishikawa Masayasu, astronomer under Yoshimune
Nishina-uji, branch of Taira family
Nishina Morito (d. 1221), Bakufu retainer, in Shokyu war
Nishino Buntaro, assassin (1889) of Viscount Mori
Nisi-no-shima, islet in Oki group
Nitta family, Yoritomo's attempt to win; adherents of Southern Court;
crushed by Ashikaga Ujimitsu
--Yoshiaki (d. 1338), son of Yoshisada and provincial governor;
suicide
--Yoshimune (1332-68), in defeat of Takauji
--Yoshioki (d. 1358)
--Yoshisada (1301-38) in Kyoto revolt; declares against Hojo, takes
Kamakura; provincial governor; accuses Takauji of treason; commands
army against Takauji; besieges Shirahata; escapes; faithful to
Go-Daigo; death
--Yoshishige (d. 1202), ancestor of Tokugawa
Nittabe, Prince, residence of, site of Shodai-ji temple
Niuchwang taken by Japanese (1894)
Niwa Nagahide (1535-85), soldier of Nobunaga; councillor
No, dance and drama; Sadanobu regulates costume; masks
No-ami, artist, patronized by Yoshimasa
Nobility, primitive; administrative; growth of power at expense of
Emperor; Daika attempts to distinguish from official ranks; titles of
hereditary aristocracy annulled by Daika and estates escheated;
nobles state pensioners; new titles under Temmu; influence of
hereditary nobles against Daiho laws; court society in Heian epoch;
in Meiji era; see Court Houses, Military Houses
Nobukatsu see Oda Nobukatsu
Nobunaga see Oda Nobunaga
Nobuteru see Ikeda Nobuteru
Nobuyoshi see Tokugawa Nobuyoshi
Nogi, Kiten, Count (1849-1912), commanding 3d Army, at Dalny;
receives surrender of Port Arthur; at Mukden
Nomi-no-Sukune, suggests clay effigies instead of human funeral
sacrifices; wrestler; ancestor of Sugawara family
No-niwa, moor-garden
Norimura see Akamatsu Norimura
Nori Sachhi see Tori Shichi
Norito, ancient rituals
Northeastern Japan, political importance of
North-east gate, the Demon's gate
Northern and Southern Dynasties; table; Northern in control
Northern Japan, more primitive culture of
Novik, Russian 2d-class cruiser at Port Arthur
Nozu, Michitsura, Count (1840-1908), commanding 4th Army; at Mukden
Nuns, Buddhist, Imperial princesses become
Nurses, provided for the Court by Mibu
Oama, younger brother of Naka (Emperor Tenchi), administrator during
7-year interregnum (661-668); appointed Tenchi's successor, declines
in face of conspiracy; becomes Emperor Temmu
Oba Kagechika (d. 1182), hems in Yoritomo and crushes his army
Oban, coin
Obi, in Hyuga, Chinese trade
Occupations, hereditary among prehistoric uji or families
Oda family, one of "8 Generals of Kwanto"; origin of family
--Hidenobu (1581-1602), grandson of Nobunaga
--Katsunaga (1568-82), death
--Nobuhide (d. 1549) aids Crown
--Nobukatsu, son of Nobunaga, in Ise; succession; Komaki war; peace
with Hideyoshi; Hideyoshi's treatment; signs oath of loyalty
--Nobunaga (1534-82); seizes Ise; career; Hideyoshi serves under; wins
Okehazama; alliance with Ieyasu and Shingen; Court appeals to;
attitude toward Yoshiaki; practically shogun; makes peace; friendly
to Christians; aids Ieyasu; death; character; currency reform
--Nobutada (1557-82), with Ieyasu destroys army of Takeda Katsuyori;
death; succession
--Nobutaka (1558-83)
--Samboshi called Hidenobu (1581-1602), son of Nobutada, his successor
Odate, governor of Harima, and Oke and Woke
Odate Muneuji, killed in attack on Kamakura
Odawara, fortress of Hojo; Odawara-hyogi proverb of reluctance;
attacked by Kenshin; surrenders (1590)
Oeyama Shutendoji, bandit
Office and official called by same name; and rank, family
qualifications for, before Heiji commotion
Official or Court lands, kwanden, under Daiho laws
--rank and aristocratic titles distinguished by the Daika
--rules (kyaku) supplementing Yoro laws
Oga, eighth of the great uji, descended from Okuninushi
Ogawa, at Sekigahara
Ogigayatsu, family name taken by Uesugi Tomomune; feud with
Yamanouchi; against Hojo
Ogimaru see Hashiba Hidekatsu
Oguchi, battle of, Hideyoshi defeats Shimazu Iehisa
Ogura, Mount, home of Fujiwara Sadaiye
Ogyu (or Butsu) Sorai (1666-1728), Confucianist, writes on "47
Ronin", and on government; revises code
Ohama, nobleman, placates fishermen
Ohatsuse, brother of Anko; apparently instigates murder of all
between him and crown; succeeds as Yuryaku
Oiratsume, incestuous sister of Karu
Oishi Yoshiyo (1659-1703), leader of "47 Ronin" (1703)
Oiwa, general in Korea, tries to get throne of Kudara
Ojin, 15th Emperor (270-310); 21 provinces added in his reign; ship
building; palanquin
Okabe Tadazumi kills Taira Tadanori at Ichi-no-tani
Okagami, historical work
Oka-yama, castle in Bizen
Okazaki, in Mikawa, Ieyasu's castle in
Okazaki Masamune (1264-1344), swordsmith of Kamakura
Oke, Prince, see Kenso
Okehazama, battle (1560) victory of Nobunaga
Oki, Princess, see Myosho
Okimachi, 106th Emperor (1557-86); honours Kenshin, summons Nobunaga
to Kyoto; Hideyoshi; decrees against Christianity
Okisada, see Sanjo
Okitsugu, see Tanuma Okitsugu
Okiyo, Prince, governor of Musashi
Okoshi, see Mononobe Okoshi
Oku Hokyo, Count (b. 1844) commanding 2d Army wins battle of Kinchou;
and of Telissu; at Mukden
Okubo family, guards of Hakone barrier
--Tadachika (1553-1628) punished for disobedience to Military Law
--Toshimitsu (1832-78) of Satsuma, in alliance with Choshu; and Korean
question; assassinated
Okuma Shigenobu, Count (b. 1838); organizes Progressist party; attack
upon, retirement; invited into Cabinet
Okuni-nushi, Kami, "Great Name Possessor"; ancestor of Oga-uji
Okura-no-Tsubone, Yodo's lady-in-waiting
Okusaka, uncle of Anko, accused of treason; Okusakabe formed in his
honour
Okuyama Yasushige (d. 1651)
Omi, muraji, befriends Oke and Woke
Omi, "grandee", title, applied to chiefs of conquest, and to subjects
holding court office; higher than muraji; inferior title in Temmu's
peerage
Omi, immigrants from Kudara settle in; seat of court and place of
issue of Omi statutes; capital moved to; Asai control; Buddhists help
Asai in; rice grants
Omitsu, son of Susanoo, imports cotton from Korea
Omiwa, Kami of
Omura, fief in Hizen, represented in embassy to Europe of 1582
--Sumitada (1532-87) invites Jesuits to Omura in Hizen; a Christian,
persecutes
Omura Sumiyori (d. 1619), persecutes Christians
O-muraji, head of o-uji or preeminent grandee; office held by Otomo
and then Mononobe; political rivalry with o-omi; opposing Buddhism;
property of, unimportant after the Daika; not in Temmu's scheme of
titles
Onakatsu, consort of Inkyo
Onchi, or Yenchi, uplands, distinguished from irrigated rice land in
Daiho code
Ondo no Seto, strait near Kobe
Onin, period, 1467-9, its records; civil war of; beginning of Sengoku
Jidai
Onjo-ji, in Omi, temple of Jimon branch, of Tendai sect, built by
Otomo Suguri; its armed men; its abbot Raigo; part played by
monastery in Yorimasa conspiracy; burnt by Taira (1180)
Ono Tofu, scribe
Ono Azumahito (d. 742), lord of eastern marches, builds castle of
Taga
--Harunaga (d. 1615), son of Yodo's nurse, adviser of Hideyori; plots
against Katagiri and Tokugawa; advises surrender of Osaka
--Imoko, Japanese envoy to China (607 A.D.)
--Yasumaro (d. 723), scribe; preface to Ko-jiki
--Yoshifuru, general of guards, crushes revolt of Fujiwara Sumitomo
Onogoro, mythic island in story of cosmogony
Ooka Tadasuke (1677-1751), chief-justice in Yedo; revises code
O-oku, harem
O-omi, pre-eminent ami, head of Kwobetsu-uji; rivalry with o-muraji;
favour Buddhism; pre-eminent after death of Mononobe Moriya; title
given by Soga Emishi to his sons; no longer important after Daika
(645)
Operative regulations, Shiki, supplementing Yoro laws
Oracle, of Sun Goddess at Ise; War God at Usa
Orange (tachibana) seeds brought from China (61 A.D.); trees
introduced
Ordeal; of fire; of boiling water, kugadachi; used in Korea by Keno;
in questions of lineage
Organtino (1530-1609), Jesuit, Hideyoshi's treatment
Orloff, Russian general, ambuscaded at Liaoyang
Orpheus-Eurydice legend, Japanese parallel
Osabe, Prince Imperial, son of Konin, poisoned (772)
Osada Tadamune and his son Kagemune kill Minamoto Yoshitomo
Osadame Hyakkajo, Hundred Articles of Law
Osafune, swordsmith
Osaka, campaign from, against Sujin; Hideyoshi's castle; Chinese
envoys; Franciscan convent; missionaries' residence; castle attacked;
taken by Ishida; party of, refuse oath of loyalty to Tokugawa; castle
partly destroyed; taken; vendetta illegal in; Nakai Seishi's school;
rice exchange; jodai; traders crush English and Dutch competition;
opened by Hyogo demonstration (1866)
Osaragi Sadanao, Hojo general, suicide (1333)
Osawa family, masters of ceremonies
Osazaki, life name of Emperor Nintoku
Oshihi, ancestor of Otomo chiefs
Oshikatsu, Rebellion of
Oshioki Ojomoku, code
Oshio Heihachiro (1792-1837) leads revolt after famine of 1836-7
Oshiwa, son of Richu, killed by Yuryaku
Oshiyama, governor of Mimana, recommends cession of part of Mimana to
Kudara; territorial dispute of
Oshu, or Mutsu subjugated (1189); revolt of Ando
Ota Sukekiyo (1411-93), builds fort at Iwatsuki
Dokwan or Sukenaga (1432-86), builds fort at Yedo; aids Ogigayatsu
branch of Uesugi
Otani, Nagamasa's castle
Oto, sister of Onakatsu, concubine of Inkyo
Oto, son of Tasa
Oto Miya see Morinaga
Otoko-yama, surrendered
Otomo family, descent; gate-guards; in Kyushu; treatment of Xavier in
Bungo; feudatory and son Christians; persecute Buddhists
--general, defeats Iwaki and Hoshikawa
--Prince, prime-minister (671); conspiracy against Oama, succession as
Kobun
--Chikayo, tandai of Kyushu (1396)
--Satehiko, in Korea (562)
--Yakamochi (d. 785), anthology
--Yoshishige, called Sorin, (1530-87), in wars in Kyushu; defeated in
Hizen, appeals to Hideyoshi
Otsu, port
Otsu, Prince, son of Temmu; rebels against Jito and is killed
Otsuki Heiji advocates foreign intercourse
O-U, O-shu (Mutsu) and U-shu (Dewa); in 16th century wars
Ouchi family of Suwo, and the revolt of 1399; conspires in behalf of
Hosokawa Yoshitane; tandai; in charge of relations with Korea, and
China; quarrel with Shogun; superintend pirates; scholarship; gifts
to Throne; power in 16th century, taken over by Mori Motonari
--Masahiro, pirate leader
--Mochiyo (1395-1442)
--Yoshihiro (1355-1400), Muromachi general, negotiates with Southern
Court; slanders Imagawa Ryoshun; suicide
--Yoshinaga (d. 1557)
--Yoshioki (1477-1528), deputy kwanryo to Hosokawa Yoshitane; removes
to Suwo
--Yoshitaka (1507-51), re-establishes (1548) trade with China; Chinese
literature; defeated by Suye Harukata
Owari, province, Nobunaga in; fighting in Komaki war; Tokugawa of
Oyama, Iwao, Prince (b.1842), at Mukden
Oyamada Takaiye, sacrifice saves Nitta Yoshisada
Oye family could hold office above 5th rank; scholars; in Ashikaga
administration
--Hiramoto (1148-1225), first president of man-dokoro; reforms (1185);
sent to Kyoto after earthquake of 1185; in council of Bakufu;
remonstrates with Sanetomo; urges offensive at beginning of Shokyu
struggle; death
--Masafusa, general in Nine Years' Commotion; attempt to placate Raigo
--Tomotsuna, littérateur
O Yo-mei see Wang Yang-ming
Paddy-loom, introduction
Pagoda, 7-storey; 13-storey; many built by Shirakawa
Pahan-Hachiman, of pirate ships
Paikche, or Kudara, near Seoul, Japanese alliance with; artisans from
Paik-chhon-ku (Ung-jin), Japanese and Kudara army defeated by Chinese
A.D.
Painting, Chinese, in Japan; and Korean; in years 540-640; in Nara
epoch; in Heian epoch; in Kamakura period; in Muromachi period
Palace, ancient; consecration; in Nintoku's reign; Asuka; temporary,
in burial; Kyoto palace burned and rebuilt; guards; officials;
Yoshimitsu's; Yoshimasa's; Hideyoshi's
Palanquin, koshi, of 3rd century; one-pole, kago; legislation about;
luxurious use of, in Genroku period
Paletot
Palisades, early defence
Pattada, Russian cruiser at Port Arthur
Paper currency
Parkes, Sir Harry (1828-85), and Hyogo demonstration
Parks in Heian epoch in Kyoto; in Kamakura period; in Muromachi; see
Landscape gardening
Parties, political, personal character of; opposition to cabinet;
union of Liberals and Progressists
Partitions in houses
Parturition hut, ubuya
Paulownia, Imperial badge
Pavilion, Golden, of Yoshimitsu; Silver of Yoshimasa
Pawnshops, heavy taxes on
Peaches in myth of Izanagi and Izanami; Chinese origin of story
Peach Hill, Momoyama, Hideyoshi's palace
"Peerage," Japanese, Seishi-roku (814 A.D.)
Pehchili, in Boxer Rebellion
Peking, Japanese in march to, during Boxer Rebellion
Penal law and penalties, ancient; proto-historic; ritsu of Daiho and
Yoro; in Joei code; in Tokugawa period
Perry, Matthew C. (1794-1858), Commodore, U.S.N., and treaty with
Japan
Persecution of Buddhists, by Christians, influence Hideyoshi; of
Jesuits after edict of 1587; of Franciscans; of Dominicans (1622); of
Japanese Christians (1613); (1616), (1622), in Iemitsu's time
Perseus-Andromeda story, Japanese parallel
Pescadores, ceded by China (1895)
Pessoa, Andrea, blows up his ship at Nagasaki
Pestilence in reign of Sujin; in 1182; in 1783-6; displeasure of gods
at adoption of Buddhism
Petition-box (meyasu-bako) and right of petition (645 A.D.); abuse
of, pointed out in Miyoshi no Kiyotsura; petition bell in Kamakura;
boxes re-introduced
Petropavlovsk, Russian battle-ship, sunk
Pets, cats and dogs
Pheasant in myth of Heavenly Young Prince
--White, Hakurchi, nengo or year-period, 650-4 A.D.
Philippine Islands, promised to Hideyoshi by Franciscans; Ieyasu's
embassies to; conquest of, urged by Cocks, and by Matsukura and
Takenaka; Japanese forbidden to visit; governor-general of, in Japan
Phung-chang, prince of Kudara
Physical characteristics of Japanese
Piece, 40 ft., unit of cloth measure
Pine-bark for food
Pine trees in Yedo castle
Pirates in Shikoku, Fujiwara Sumitomo sent against; Japanese piracy
in Muromachi epoch; and invasion of Korea
Pit-dwellers see Tsuchi-gumo
Pitszewo, landing-place of 2d Japanese army (1904)
Plum tree groves, 612; blossom festival
Poetry; Nara epoch; Heian; Chinese style; in battle; in Genroku era;
bureau of; quoted; see Couplet Composing
Pohai, Korean kingdom of 8th century recognized by Japan as successor
of Koma
Pok-ein, Kudara general, defeats Shiragi troops (660)
Police, doshin
--Board, Danjo-dai, duties taken over by kebiishi
--executive, kebiishi, (810-29)
Poltava, Russian cruiser at Port Arthur
Polygamy in early Japan
Polytheism of early Buddhism
Pontiff, ho-o, title taken by abdicating Emperor
Porcelain
Port Arthur, taken from Chinese (1894); Russian railway; Russian
fleet at, crippled by Japanese; Japanese attack on, was it
warranted?; fleet further crippled; harbour entrance blocked;
movements toward; captured (end of 1904)
Portsmouth, Peace of, (text)
Portuguese in Japan; introduce fire-arms; Spanish jealousy of; Dutch
and English intrigue against; instigate Christian revolt; edict of
1637 against; refuse grant in Yedo; monopolize early trade; end of
trade
Post bells, suzu
Posthumous names; official rank first conferred
Posting stations
Potato, sweet, introduced
Powder, in costume
Prayer, magic, etc.
Preble, American brig, in Nagasaki (1847)
Prefectural government as opposed to feudal; prefecture or ken
Prices, official, (1735)
Priesthood, Buddhist, attempt to bring under law; armed priests;
princes enter, except Crown Prince; temporal power; scholarship
--Catholic, Ieyasu's attitude; and see Jesuits, Franciscans,
Dominicans, Augustins
--Shinto, early rules
Prime Minister, 85, development of political power; office first
established (671)
Primogeniture in early times, Imperial; in the family; Imperial,
established 696 A.D.
Princely Houses
Princes, Imperial, change of status in Nara epoch; many become
priests in Ashikaga epoch; abbots of Enryaku-ji and Kwanei-ji; all
but Crown Prince enter priesthood; prince abbots, or monzeki
Printing, Buddhist amulets (770); in China; from movable type, about
1592
Prisons
Privy council, Daijo (dajo) kwan; Board of
Progressist party, Shimpo-to, organized (1881) by Okuma; joins with
Liberals
Promotion, official, Chinese system introduced (603 A.D.); under
Daiho
Prose of Nara epoch; of Engi era wholly in Chinese; Ki no Tsurayuki's
preface to Kokin-shu
Prosody, Japanese; and see Poetry, Couplet
Prostitution in Yedo; Sadanobu's legislation
Provinces, kuni, in reign of Seimu; classification, and subdivision
into kori, under Daiho; difference between capital and provinces in
Heian epoch; lawlessness; power of provincial families; Bushi
employed by provincial nobles; shugo system, abolished by Kemmu
restoration; local autonomy abolished
Provincial rulers, in early times; administration by imperial
princes; early kuni-no-miyatsuko, later kokushi; kokushi under Daika;
abuses under Shomu and Koken; use forced labour to reclaim uplands;
term reduced to 5 years (774); administration criticized by Miyoshi
no Kiyotsura; administration after Onin war; in Muromachi period; and
Christianity
--temples, kokubun-ji; expense
--troops, abolished (792) except on frontiers
Public land, Kugaiden
Purchase value of money
Purification, Great, Oharai; regular, harai; bodily, misogi; as
punishment for persons of high rank
Purple court costume; ecclesiastical robes
Pyong-yang, Korea; in campaign of 1592; taken from Japanese by
Chinese (1593); Chinese defeated at, (1894)
Queen's Country, Chinese name for Kyushu and west-coast provinces
because of female rulers
Queue--wearing and official caps, (603)
Quiver
Race of Japanese
Raconteurs or reciters, guild of, Kataribe, (ill)
Raigo, abbot, influence
Rai Miki (1825-59), in Imperial restoration movement
Rai Sanyo (1780-1832) on ethical effects of Chinese classics; on
Mintoku; on Bakufu; on the Hojo; on Morinaga; on Yoshisada; on
development of tactics
Railways, Englishmen employed in planning; modern building
Rakuo, pen-name of Matsudaira Sadanobu
Rank, hon-i; changed by Taira Kiyomori after Heiji commotion; and
costume
Ransetsu, verse-writer
Ratio of copper and silver in coinage; of silver and gold
Reclamation, of upland, in 8th century; and perpetual title; in
Yoshimune's time
Recluse Emperors, Three; and see Camera Government
Recorder, of judgments
Recorders, Court of
Records, early Japanese; local
Red court costume, mark of highest rank; colour of Taira ensign
Red Monk, name given to Yamana Mochitoyo
Red walls
Reed, source of terrestrial life; boat in Japanese myth
Reform, Great (645)
Regent for grown Emperor, mayor of palace, kwampaku, office abolished
after Kemmu restoration, in Tokugawa period; to minor, sessho;
military, shikken
Regent Houses, Five, Go-Sekke
Registrar of Vessels
Registration of land
Reigen, 112th Emperor (1663-86); abdicates
Rein, J. J., on chronology
Reizei, 63rd Emperor (968-969), grandson of Fujiwara no Morosuke
Relief in crop-failure or sickness, under Daiho laws; for debtors;
for sufferers from fire and tornado; for famine
Religion, early rites; rites reorganized; Emperor at head of; in
protohistoric period; Board of; Miyoshi Kiyotsura's description;
Yoritomo's attitude; in Muromachi period; Department of; and see
Mythology, Shinto, Buddhism, Christianity
Ren, lady of Go-Daigo, conspires against Morinaga, for her son
Tsunenaga
Rennyo Shonin see Kenju
Restoration, of Kemmu era; of 1867
Return, English ship
Retvisan, Russian battleship at Port Arthur
Rhinoceros, fossil
Rice, castle; diet; culture; chewers, nurses; corporation of
cultivators; for public use; standard of exchange; store-houses, for
sale to travelers; loaned to farmers; substitute crops urged; boiled
and dried, ration; paddy-loom; area cultivated, 15th century,
beginning of 16th century; currency; relief tax on feudatories;
production increased; rice exchange; classification of fields; modern
crops
Richardson, English subject, killed in Namamugi
"Rich Gem," Princess, in myth of Hosuseri and Hohodemi
Richu, 17th Emperor (400-405 A.D.), first of "protohistoric"
sovereigns
Right, Minister of
Rikken Seiyukai, "Friends of the Constitution"
Riparian improvements under Nintoku
Rituals, Ancient
River of Heaven, Milky Way
Rock, Sacred, on Kannabi mountains
Rodriguez, Joao (1559-1633), Portuguese Jesuit, interpreter at Yedo
Roju, seniors, cabinet; council of ministers, removed from proximity
to shogun; and tax collecting; judges
Rokkaku, one of Five Regent Houses; Yoshihisa's campaign against
--Sadayori, see Sasaki Sadayori
--Takayori, see Sasaki Takayori
Rokuhara, n. and s. suburbs of Kyoto, offices of the Bakufu tandai;
in Kyoto revolt
Rokujo, 79th Emperor (1166-1168)
Roku Kokushi, Six National Histories
Rokuon-ji, family temple of Yoshimitsu
Roku-sho-ji, Six Temples built by Shirakawa
Roman Empire, early trade with China
Ronin, free lances; revolt of; "47"
Roofs
Rope, straw, in myth; paper-mulberry, used in fishing
Rosen, Roman Romanovitch, Baron, Russian peace commissioner at
Portsmouth
Rossia, Russian cruiser at Vladivostok
Rouge, in costume
Rozhdestvensky, Ziniry Petrovitch (b. 1848), commanding Baltic
squadron, defeated by Togo
Rules for Decisions; of Judicial Procedure
--and Regulations of Three Generations, Saridai-Kyaku-shiki; revised
(819)
Rurik, Russian cruiser
Russia, relations with, 18th and early 19th centuries; joins France
and Germany in note protesting against Japanese occupation of
Manchurian littoral; war with; peace, (text); situation in 1911
Russian, name Akuro-o may be read Oro-o and mean
Ryobu Shinto, mixed Shinto, Kami being avatars of Buddhas
Ryogoku, bridge in Yedo
Ryoken, priest of Nanzen-ji
Ryoshun see Imagawa Sadayo
Ryu, Shinki, artist
Ryuko, Buddhist priest, advises of Tsunayoshi
Ryokyu Islands, language cognate to Japanese; King of, intervenes;
Japanese intercourse with islands; king of, and Japanese invasion of
mainland; French in, (1846); Formosa and; Chinese claims to, given up
Ryuzoki, Kyushu family, defeat Shoni
--Takanobu (1530-85), death
Sacrifice, early; human; of weapons; at grave
Sadami, Prince, Emperor Uda (q.v.)
Sadanobu see Matsudaira Sadanobu
Sadato see Abe Sadato
Sadatoki see Hojo Sadatoki
Sadatsune, Prince, sons
Sadayori see Sasaki Sadayori
Sado, island, in early myth; settlement; silver mines; penal
establishment
Sado Maru, Japanese transport sunk by Vladivostok squadron
Saegusa Moriyoshi (d. 1651)
Saeki family, member of, made state councillor
Saga, 52nd Emperor (810-23); as calligrapher; his children and the
Minamoto
Genji, branch of Minamoto
Sagami province conquered by Hojo Soun; Hojo and Uesugi; tobacco in
Sagara (Sawara) Crown Prince under Kwammu
Saghalien, Russians in (18th century); Russian and Japanese claims
in; Russian title recognized (1875); Japan's claim to, after war with
Russia; not to be fortified
Saho plots against Suinin
Saicho, posthumously Dengyo Daishi, 805 A.D. introduces Buddhist
Tendai, (ill.)
Saigo Takamori or Kichinosuke (1827-77), leader in anti-foreign
movement; in alliance with Choshu; urges war with Korea and resigns
from cabinet (1873); in Satsuma rebellion, (ill.)
Saigyo Hoshi (1118-90), poet and ascetic
Saiko, bonze
Saikyo, western capital
Saimei, Empress (655-61), the Empress Kogyoku succeeds Kotoku;
Yemishi at coronation
Saimyo-ji, Zen temple
Saionji in Kawachi
--Kimmochi, Marquis (b. 1849), head of Constitutionist (Liberal) party
Sairan Igen, book by Arai Hakusekai
Saito family in Ise defeated by Oda; feud in Mino; helped by Buddhist
priests
--Hidetatsu
--Tatsuoki, defeated by Nobunaga; leads revolt in Settsu
--Yoshitatsu (1527-61), son of Hidetatsu, kills him
Sajima, Prince, (d. 125 A.D.)
Sakai, near Osaka, Ouchi Yoshihiro's castle at; China trade;
Nobunaga's quarrel with; firearms made at; port
--family, Bakufu ministers from; tamarizume
--Tadakatsu, minister of Tokugawa
--Tadakiyo (1626-81) takes over most of Shogun's power; succession to
Go-Mizu-no-o; succession to Ietsuna; displaced
--Tadayo, minister under Hidetada
Sakaibe Marise, uncle of Emishi
Sakamoto, castle at
Saka-no-ye Tamuramaro (758-811), against Yemishi; aids Saga
--Karitamuro (728-86), chief of palace guards
Sake, manufacture of, taught by Sukuna; dealers taxed
Sakitsuya, killed for lése-majesté (463 A.D.)
Sakugen, priest
Sakuma Morimasa (1554-83), defeated
--Nobumori (d. 1582), soldier of Nobunaga
Sakura-jima, eruption
Sakuramachi, 115th Emperor (1735-47)
Sakurayama, adherents of Southern Court
--Koretoshi, commands force loyal to Go-Daigo
Salaries, official
Salt, use of, in early Japan
Sanbo-in, temple
Samisen, 3-stringed guitar
Samurai, soldier class, freelances; attitude of, toward foreigners;
place of, in making New Japan; attitude of Crown to; abolition of;
Satsuma rebellion
Samurai-dokoro, Central Staff Office, (1180) in Yoritomo's Bakufu
system; in administration of Kyoto after Shokyu war; in Muromachi
administration
Sanada Masayuki (1544-1608), accused of encroachment; blocks Tokugawa
Hidetada's army
--Yukimura (1570-1615), in defence of Osaka castle
Sandai Jitsu-roku, True Annals of Three Reigns, (901)
Sandai-Kyaku-shiki, Rules and Regulations of Three Generations
Sanetomo see Minamoto Sanetomo
San Felipe, Spanish galleon, wrecked in Tosa
Sanjo, 67th Emperor (1012-16)
Sanetomi, Prince (1837-91), leader of extremist party; in alliance of
Choshu and Satsuma, (ill.)
Sanjonishi Sanetaka, scholar
Sankyo-ron, Shotoku quoted in, on management of state
Sano, branch of Fujiwara
Sano Masakoto attempts to assassinate Tanuma Okitsugu
Sanron, Buddhist sect
Santa-Martha, Juan de, Spanish Franciscan, executed (1618)
Sanuki, province
Sapan wood, trade
Sarcophagus, stone, clay, and terra cotta, of Yamato
Saris, John, agent of East India Company, settles at Hirado
Sarume, "monkey female" dances before cave of Sun goddess
Sasa Narimasa (1539-88), in Komaki war
Sasaki family, branch of the Minamoto; favour Takauji
--Mochikiyo, estates of
--(Rokkaku) Sadayori (d. 1552) captures Kyoto; reconciles hostile
parties; generosity to Crown
--Shotei general in forces against Nobunaga
--Takayori (d. 1520), great estates; campaign against
Sasebo, Japanese sally from, on Port Arthur
Sashihire, Hayato assassin (399) of Nakatsu; death
Sassulitch, Russian general, on Yalu
Satake family, Yoritomo's attempt to win; one of "8 Generals of
Kwanto"; of Hitachi, allies of Shingen
--Yoshinobu (1570-1633), opposes Ieyasu, taking army over to Ishida;
fief reduced (1600)
Satehiko see Otomo Satehiko
Sato Tadanobu, impersonates Yoshitsune
--Tsuginobu
Satomi family, one of "8 Generals of Kwanto"; fight Hojo; defeated;
allies of Shingen
Satow, Sir Ernest, sceptical of dates in "Chronicles"; on revival of
Shinto
Satsuma, Xavier in; later preaching; foreign ships in, menace
Tokugawa; trade; tobacco; bonita; moderate party; against Tokugawa;
predominant; fiefs surrendered; clan representation; rebellion of
1877
Sawaga, monastery
Sawing to death
Scholars, Chinese and Korean, in Japan; sophists; in Bakufu; in
Ashikaga system; literati at Court; Japanese sent to Europe and
America
Scholarship recommended in Court Laws; Ieyasu's attitude to; revival
of learning; Tsunayoshi favours Chinese scholarship; Western
"Scrutator," nairan, Bakufu official at court
Sculpture in Nara epoch; in Heian; Kamakura period
Sea-Dragon, Castle of, myth
Sea, Command of, in 1592 campaign
Seals; of Taiko; (ill.)
Seal skins in early myth
Seaweed as food
Sebastian, Spanish sailor, undertakes coast survey
Secretaries in Bakufu
Seed distribution by Crown (723)
Seidan, book on government by Ogyu Sorai
Seido, or Shohei college
Sei-i, "barbarian expelling," title of shogun; sei-i tai-shogun,
hereditary title
Seikan, priest
Seimu, 13th Emperor (131-190 A.D.)
Seinei, 22nd Emperor, (480-4)
Seishi-roku, record of nobles (814 A.D.)
Sei Shonagon, poetess
Seiwa, 56th Emperor (859-76); (ill.); sons become Minamoto
Seiwa Genji, branch of Minamoto
Sekigahara, battle of (1600)
Sen, Japanese coin
Senate, Genro-in, organized (1875)
Sengoku Hidehisa (1551-1614) soldier of Hideyoshi
Senkwa, 28th Emperor (536-9), succeeds his brother Ankan
Seoul, Korea; march upon (1592), Japanese forced to give up; Chinese
resident in, blocks Japanese control; foreign legations removed,
Japanese resident-general in
Sepulchres of Yamato; contents
Serpent, eight-forked killed by Susanoo; possibly the name of a local
chief; early shrine; worship
Sesshu (1420-1506), painter of Kamakura school; academy
Seta, Long Bridge of
Settsu Dojun, suicide
Settsu, Buddhist temple in; Kiyomori moves capital to Fukuhara in;
priests revolt
Seven Generals plot against Ishida
Sexagenary Cycle in Japanese chronology; accounts for error of 120
years; Chinese origin of
Shaho, battle of
Shaka, Sakiya Muni
Shan-hai-ching, Chinese record (4th cent. A.D.)
Shantung peninsula, fighting on, (1894); part of, seized by Germany
Shao-kang, mythical Chinese ancestor of Japanese kings
Shell-heaps
Shiba, district of Tokyo, Castle of, built (803); temple with tomb of
Hidetada
--family, in office of Muromachi kwanryo; one of Five Regent Houses;
make trouble in Kyushu; in Onin war; in Omi
--Mochitane, estates of
--Tachito, first Buddhist missionary
--Takatsune, revolts against Ashikaga
--Yoshihige, minister of Ashikaga Yoshimochi
--Yoshikada, rival of Masanaga
--Yoshimasa (d. 1410), shitsuji, first to be called kwanryo
--Yoshitoshi (1430-90), estates; Onin war
Shibata Gonroku
--Katsuiye (1530-83), general under Nobunaga; councillor; death
Shibukawa Noriyasu, government astronomer
--Shunkai, revises calendar (1683)
Shi-do, "Way of the Warrior" by Yamaga Soko
Shido Shogun, Campaign of
Shiga, in Omi
Shigehide see Hagiwara Shigehide
Shigehito, Prince
Shigeko, mother of Ashikaga Yoshimasa
Shigeyoshi see Tokugawa Shigeyoshi
Shihotari, Prince, commands government station in Anra
Shijo, 87th Emperor (1233-42)
Shijo-nawate, in Kawachi, battle (1348)
Shikken, military regent, in Yoritomo's system, head of the
man-dokoro, great power of office held by Hojo family; Ashikaga
substitute second shitsuji for; kwanryo later equivalent to; of
Inchu, office held by Hino family
Shikoku, early history; pirates in, (931-7); in 16th century wars
Shikotan, inhabitants of, not pre-Ainu
Shimabara, battle of, defeat of Ryozoki Takanobu (1585); Jesuits and
trade at; the S. revolt (1637-8), puts end to Portuguese trade
Shimada Yuya, judge
Shimazu in Kyushu; defeated by Hideyoshi
--Ei-O
-Hisamitsu or Saburo (1820-87), feudatory of Satsuma, in Namamugi
incident; in making of New Japan; with Saigo in Satsuma
--Iehisa (d. 1587), defeated by Hideyoshi
--Tadahisa (12th century) founder of family
--Tadakuni, in Ryuku
--Yoshihiro (1535-1619), successor of Yoshihisa
--Yoshihisa (1536-1611), defeats Ryuzoki Takanobu, and is ousted by
Hideyoshi; against Ieyasu; escapes after Sekigahara
Shimbetsu, families of pre-conquest chieftains or Kami class; three
sub-classes; early administration; help put down revolt of Heguri;
and rank of Empress; classification of Seishi-roku
Shimizu, branch of Tokugawa
--Muneharu, suicide
Shimoda, residence given to Americans
Shimonosekij French, Dutch and Americans fired upon, attack; peace
with China concluded at, (1895)
Shimosa, Taira Masakado's revolt in; Taira Tadatsune's
Shimpo-to, Progressist party, organized (1881)
Shin, Buddhist sect (1224); Hongwan-ji feud with Enryaku-ji; internal
quarrels; revolt of 1488, Ikko-ikki; oppose Nobunaga; interdicted in
Shimazu
Shinano, Yemishi in; revolt of Minamoto (Kiso) no Yoshinaka in;
Takeda and Uesugi in; silk growing
Genji, branch of Minamoto family
Shingen see Takeda Shingen
Shingon, "True Word," Buddhist sect founded by Kukai; Heijo and
Shinnyo devoted to; esoteric character
Shingu, Kii province, tomb of Hsu Fuh; naval base of Southern army
Shinki, Chinese painter
Shinno, painter
Shinnyo, name in religion of Takaoka
Shin-o, bridge in Yedo
Shino Soshin and incense-comparing
Shinran Shonin (1184-1268), founder of Shin sect, (ill.)
Shinto, sun-myth; rules in Yengi-shiki; therianthropy; shrines; Board
of Religion; first use of name (c. 586); relation to Buddhism; mixed,
with Buddhism; overshadowed by Buddhism, and subservient;
insincerity; in Heian epoch; priests support Southern Court;
relations with Confucianism and Buddhism; Pure Shinto; combined with
Confucianism; revival of
Shinzei see Fujiwara Michinori
Ships, early; building, as tribute; bureau of shipping; China trade;
size limited; limitation removed; middle of 19th century; modern
mercantile marine; illustrations; see Navy
Shiragi, Korea, myth; annals; war with Kara; king settles in Japan;
submits to Jingo; Japanese attacks on; Chinese immigration; revolt
against Yuryaku; weakened; dispute over Imun; ship-builders; Buddhist
image; defeats Kudara and Mimana; Japanese intervention; invasion;
families in Japanese nobility; travel to Japan forbidden
Shirahata, in Harima, fortress held by the Ashikaga; by the Akamatsu
Shirakabe, Prince; see Konin
Shirakawa, 72nd Emperor (1073-86)
Shiren, priest
Shiro-uji, branch of Taira family
Shishi-ga-tani plot (1177) against Taira
Shitenno-ji, temple to Four Guardian Kings of Heaven
Shitsuji, manager, of mandokoro, office hereditary in Nikaido family;
of monju-dokoro; second s. created in Takauji's system; and kwanryo
Shizuka, mistress of Yoshitsune
Shizugatake, battle of, (1583)
Shoan, Student of Chow and Confucius, teacher of Naka and Kamatari
Shocho koban, gold coins of 1428
Shodai-ji, temple
Shodan-chiyo, work of Ichijo Kaneyoshi
Shoen, great estates, manors; temple domains; attempts to check;
effect on agriculture
Shogun, "general"; head of Yoritomo's bakufu system; attempt to have
Imperial prince appointed; unimportant under Hojo; Fujiwara, then
Imperial princes, appointed; Ashikaga in Northern Court; powers
transferred to kwanryo; under Tokugawa; minister gets power;
separated from ministerial council; Chinese classics lessen power;
court of last appeal; Imperial rescript to; power resigned to Crown
Shohei, Japanese pronunciation of Changping, Confucius's birthplace;
Shohei-bashi, bridge, Shohei-ko, college, near temple to Confucius;
lectures there
Shohei, period, (1346-69)
Shohyo era
Shokagu-in, academy of Minamoto (881)
Shoko, 101st Emperor (1412-28), son of Go-Komatsu
Shokoku-ji, Zen temple in Kyoto, art school of Josetsu; one of the
"Five"
Shokyu, year period 1219-22, and the struggle between the Court and
the military
Shomu, 45th Emperor (724-48)
Shoni, independent family of Kyushu
--Tokihisa (d. 1559), last of family
Shonzui (16th century), manufacture of porcelain
Shoren-in, temple in Kyoto
Shoso-in, Nara (ill.)
Shotoku, Empress (765-70), Koken returns to throne; orders amulets
printed
--Prince, or Taishi (572-621); history; on religions; defeats Mononebe
Moriya; builds Buddhist temple; relations with Sushun; opposes uji
system; his "Constitution"; death; China; official promotion system;
a painter
--period, 1711-15, trade rules of
Shrines, yashiro, early Shinto; simple architecture of; in reign of
Suinin; less important than temple after mixed Shinto; shrine and
temple, ji-sha; immune from shugo
Shubun, painter
Shui-shu, anthology
Shujaku, 61st Emperor (931-46)
Shuko or Juko (1422-1502), Zen priest, code and tea-ceremonial
Shunkai see Shibukawa Shunkai
Shunzei, nom de plume of Fujiwara Toshinari
Shuryo, Buddhist priest, envoy of Muromachi to China
Shu-shi see Chutsz
Shushin, Zen priest
Silk in early times; culture, curtains for partition; mulberry trees
on uplands; in Nara epoch advanced by need of rich robes for priests;
exported; growing in Kotsuke, Shinano, etc.; "silk clothiers"
Silkworm, worship of
Silver and other precious metals
Si Wang-mu, owner of miraculous peachtree
"Six National Histories"
Slave, value of
Slaves and slavery, prehistoric; aliens become nuhi at conquest;
prisoners of war and criminals; Daika; laws on slavery for debt;
Daiho laws; provinces; Christians and slave-trade
Sleeves, legal regulation of
Small-pox interpreted as divine punishment
Snow and snow festivals; image of Dharma, (ill.)
So family and Korean trade
So-ami, artist, patronized by Yoshimasa; envoy to Ming court
--Sadamori (1385-1452) and Korean trade
--Sukekuni (d. 1274), governor of Tsushima, killed in battle with
Mongols
Soden, inscription on Hoko-ji bell
Soga, family, descendants of Takenouchi; power; favour Buddhism;
relation to Imperial family; crushed by Fujiwara; usurpation causes
Daika
--Akae, minister of the Left, in conspiracy against Oama
--Emishi, o-omi, successor of Umako; assumes Imperial titles; killed
--Iname, o-omi, 130; recommends adoption of Buddhism; and Buddhist
temple (552 A.D.)
--Iruka, powerful under Kogyoku; quarrels with Yamashiro
--Sukeyasu, death
--Umako (d. 626), historiography; o-omi, kills Mononobe Moriya; power
under Bidatsu; guardian of Buddhist images; relationship to Imperial
family; final success over Mononebe Moriya; builds temple of Hoko-ji
(587 A.D.); has Sushun assassinated; alliance with Shotoku against
military system; death
Sogen (Chu Yuan), Chinese priest; and Kamakura calligraphy
Soji-ji, temple
Soko see Yamaga Soko
Solfataras of Unzen volcano, torture of Christians in
Solitary Kami
Soma, branch of Taira
Somedono, Empress, wife of Montoku
Song Wang Myohg, King of Kudara, and Buddhism
Son-Kwang, Kudara prince, settles in Naniwa
Son-O Jo-I, "Revere the Sovereign, expel the barbarians" motto
Sorin see Otomo Yoshishige
Soseki see Muso Kokushi
Sosetsu, envoy to China of Ouchi family
Soshi-Mori, Korea, myth
Sotan, painter
Sotelo Luis (1574-1624), Spanish Franciscan, attempts to survey
Japanese coast
Soto, sect, modification of Zen
Soun see Hojo Soun (Nagauji)
Southern Court, Daikagur-ji; war of dynasties; adherents; rulers;
claims ignored in 1412 and 1428
Southwestern Japan, comparative accessibility of
Sow race, Borneo, probable source of Kumaso
Soya, strait of
Sozen see Yamana Mochitoyo
Spaniards, in Manila, jealous of Portuguese; in Tosa with "wrecked"
galleon; intrigue against Dutch; Dutch and English intrigue against;
Hidetada orders deported (1624); invasion by, feared, and conquest of
Philippines urged; Spanish authorities forbid priests going to Japan;
refuse grant in Yedo; trade unimportant; end of trade
Spear, jewelled, token of authority of Kami; sign of military
authority; heads of; export of; carrier (ill.)
Spinning in myth; in early times
Spirit, tama, survives body; belief in activity of
Spying in Bushi system; civil; in Tokugawa Laws of Military Houses
Stackelberg, Baron, Russian general defeated by Oku at Telissu
Stag's shoulder blade, use in divination
Stake, death at
Stars in cosmogony
State, Central Department of, Nakatsukasa-sho
Stature of Japanese
Steel for swords
Stirrups among sepulchral remains; bridle, harness and (ill.)
Store-house, imikura; kura, administrator of, kura-bugyo
Stossel, Anatol Mikhailovitch, Russian general, surrenders Port
Arthur
Straw, famine food
Straw mat, tatsu-gomo, for carpet
Straw rope in sun-myth
Sugar culture
Sugawara family descended from Nomi no Sukune; scholars
--Fumitoki, littérateur
--Hidenaga, lecturer
--Michizane (845-903), called Kwanko, schoolman; plot to send him on
embassy to China; Fujiwara plot against, (ill.); one of authors of
the fifth of "National Histories"; Chinese prose; shrine, (ill.);
descendants
--Toyonaga, patronized by Ujimitsu
Suicide in early myth; some examples; at grave; in protest against
policy; as punishment
Suiko, 33d Empress (593-628), consort of Bidatsu; historiography;
Chinese learning
Suinin, 11th Emperor (29 B.C.--70 A.D.); attempts to abolish human
sacrifice
Suisei, 2nd Emperor (581-549 B.C.)
Sujin, 10th Emperor (97-30 B.C.); and ship building
Sukenari (or Juro)
Suken-mon-in, mother of Go-Enyu, relations with Yoshimitsu
Suko, Northern Emperor (1348-52)
Sukuna Hikona, mythical pygmy healer; inventor of sake
Sukune family, growth of its power; see also Takenouchi-no-Sukune
Sulphur trade
Sumida, river bridged
Sumidu-gawa, groves
Sumitada see Omura Sumitada
Sumiyoshi, Kyoto school of painting; decorations for Imperial palace
--battle, defeat of Ashikaga
--Gukei, or Hirozumi (1634-1705)
Summer Campaign
Sumptuary laws in Nara epoch; in Kamakura period; of Hideyoshi; in
military laws; of Sadanobu; in early 19th century
Sumpu, in Suruga, Ieyasu retires to; vendetta illegal in; jodai of
Sun, and titles of nobles
Sun-crow, in Yamato expedition; on banners
Sun goddess, withholds light, an incarnation of Buddha
Sung, writer on war
--philosophy, Gen-e introduces; painting, Josetsu introduces
Sungari, Russian transport at Chemulpo
Sunrise Island, Jih-pen, Chinese or Korean name for eastern islands
Superstition, in 4th-6th centuries; in Nara epoch; in Heian
Supply, Departments of, in capital, under Daiho
Suruga, brigands of, crushed by Yamato-dake; province given to Ieyasu
--Genji, branch of Minamoto family
Survey for map under Hideyoshi; coastal begun by Spanish
Susanoo, Kami of Force, contest with Amaterasu; expelled from heaven,
kills great serpent; as tree-planter; rationalization of myth; its
bearings on relations with China and Korea; purification of; as
guardian of forests; ruler in Shiragi
Sushen, Tungusic settlers on Sado Island (549 A.D.); expeditions of
Hirafu against, (658 & 660); captives of Yemishi; later called Toi
Sushun, 32nd Emperor (588-92)
Su Ting-fang attacks Kudara (660 A.D.)
Sutoku, 75th Emperor (1124-41); Hogen tumult
Sutras, Buddhist; copying as atonement
Suwo, brigands; woman ruler in; Ouchi family of
Suye Harukata, called Zenkyo (d. 1555), crushed by Mori Motonari
Suzuka-yama, apparent Tatar remains in shrine at
Swan, Yamato-dake in form of; in cure of dumbness
Sword, myth, Imperial insignia; sepulchral remains; single-and
double-edged; offered at shrines; large and small; Minamoto
heirlooms; swordsmiths; exported; hilts (ill.); samurai and
sword-wearing; illustrations
Syllabary, phonetic, development in Japanese away from Chinese
ideograph; in Heian epoch, kata-kana and hiragana; used in Joei code
Ta-be, rice-cultivators or rustic corporation
Table and cookery in ancient Japan; in Kamakura period
Tachibana family
--Hayanari (d. 843), exiled with Tsunesada; calligrapher
--Hiromi, scholar
--Moroe (684-757), minister of the Right, acquiesces in rule of
Koken-Shotoku; may have compiled anthology of "Myriad Leaves"
Tachiri Munetsugu, Court envoy to summon Nobunaga to Kyoto
Tactics, of Bushi; gradual change in
Tada Genji, branch of Minamoto
Tadahiro see Kato Tadahiro
Tadakiyo see Sakai Tadakiyo
Tadamori see Taira Tadamori
Tadateru see Matsudaira Tadateru
Tadayoshi see Ashikaga Tadayoshi and Tokugawa Tadayoshi
Tadong River, Korea; in campaign of 1592
Taema, Prince, and expedition against Shiragi (603 A.D.)
Taema-no-Kuehaya, wrestler
Ta-fu, Japanese envoy to China (A.D. 57)
Taga, Castle of; built in 724 to check Yemishi; head-quarters
transferred to Isawa
Taguchi Shigeyoshi, deserts with fleet to Minamoto in battle of
Dan-no-ura
Tai-hei-ki, historical work of 14th century, quoted on causes of
Shokyu struggle; on Yoshinaga
Taiho see Daiho
Taiken-mon-in, consort of Toba; intimacy with Shirakawa
Taiko, "great merit"; ex-regent, title of Hideyoshi; Taiko-zan,
temple at his birthplace
Taikoki, "Annals of the Taiko" quoted on Hideyoshi's palace
Taikwa see Daika
Tai Peh, Chinese prince, exile to Japan (800 B.C.); Imperial descent
from
Taira, family, descended from Prince Katsurabara, generals of
Imperial guards; called Heike; manors and armed forces; lose estates;
quarrel with Minamoto; revolt against Fujiwara; provincial branches;
treatment of priests, the Gen-pei epoch, struggle with Minamoto;
genealology; in Heiji tumult crush Minamoto; hold most important
offices; Yorimasa conspiracy against; defeated by Minamoto
--Atsumori (1169-84), killed at Ichi-no-tani
--Chikafusa, provincial governor
--Hirotsune, favours Yoritomo
--Kanetaka, lieutenant governor of Izu; is killed by Tokimasa
--Kiyomori (1118-81), wins manors; treatment of priests; crushes
Minamoto; supports Go-Shirakawa; alliance with Shinzei; lessens power
of Fujiwara; supreme; arbitrary rule; crushes Yorimasa conspiracy;
death
--Korehira, founder of Ise-Heishi
--Koremochi, founder of branches of Taira
--Koremori, commands army sent against Yorimoto
Taira Masakado (d. 940), his revolt
--Masamori, crushes rebellion of Minamoto Yoshichika
--Michimori, killed in battle of Ichi-no-tani
--Munekiyo helps save life of Yoritomo; relations with Minamoto
--Munemori (1147-85), Shishi-ga-tani plot; abandons Kyoto; refuses
Yoshinaka's request for an alliance; escapes after Ichi-no-tani;
defeated at Yashima; executed; possibly a changeling
--Noritsune (1160-85), defeats Ashikaga Yoshikiyo in Bitchu; at
Yashima; drowned at Dan-no-ura-Sadamori defeats Taira Masakado
--Shigehira (1158-85), sacks and burns three monasteries; in 1181
attacks Minamoto Yukiiye; taken prisoner at Ichi-no-tani; death
--Shigemori (1138-79); Fujiwara Narichika's jealousy of; restrains
Kiyomori; death
--Shigenobu, in revolt against Fujiwara (967)
--Tadamasa, favours Sutoku in Hogen tumult, executed by Kiyomori
--Tadamori (1096-1153), body guard of Shirakawa; against Yoritomo;
descent; treatment of priests
--Tadanori (1144-84), killed at Ichi-no-tani
--Tadatsune, defeated by Minamoto Yorinobu (1031)
--Takamochi, first marquis (889) of Taira
--Tomoakira, saves his father
--Tomomori (1152-85) burns and sacks monasteries; saved by his son at
Ichi-no-tani; drowned at Dan-no-ura
--Tomoyasu, enemy of Yoshinaka, commands palace-guards
--Tsunemasa
--Yoritsuna, guardian of Sadatoki, crushes Adachi (1286), killed
(1293)
--Yoshibumi
Taishiden Hochu, Shotoku in, on Buddhism; on property of Mononobe
Moriya
Taitsang, taken by pirates, 1560
Taitsu, Chinese Emperor, protests against piracy
Tajima, king of Shiragi, settles in
--Mori, sent for orange seeds
Taka becomes empress
Takaaki, younger brother of Murakami, banished
Takachiho, Mt. in Hyuga (Saikaido)
Takahashi, Mr., on "Mallet-headed" swords
Takahira, Kogoro, Baron (b. 1864), peace commissioner at Portsmouth
Takahito, Prince, son of Go-Shu jaku, attempt to have him passed
over; see Go-Sanjo
Takaichi, Prince; dies (696)
Taka-ichi, Yamato province, possibly the "Plain of High Heaven" of
myth
Takakage see Kohayakawa Takakage
Takakuni see Hosokawa Takakuni
Takakura, 80th Emperor (1169-80)
Takamatsu, castle in Bitchu besieged by Hideyoshi
Takama-yama and Takama-no, Yamato
Takamochi, first of the Taira family
Takamuku Kuromaro, literatus, national doctor; leader of embassy to
China (654, A.D.); dies there
Takanaga, Prince (1311-38), commander against Ashikaga
Takauji; in war of dynasties; suicide
Takano, consort of Konin, mother of Kwammu
Takanori see Kojima Takanori
Takao, temple at
Takaoka, monk, travels in India
Takashima Kihei, called Shirodayu, or Shuhan, advocates foreign
intercourse (1853)
Takata, sect of Shin
Takatomo, Pruice, adopted son of Okimachi
Takatsukasa family founded by Fujiwara Kanehira, one of "Five Regent
Houses"
Takatsuki, fief of Takayama
Takatsune see Shiba Takatsune
Takauji see Ashikaga Takauji
Takayama (d, 1596) feudatory of Takatsuki, converted by Vilela; his
son Yusho, "Don Justo Ukondono"
Takeda family of Kai favour Yoritomo; help in overthrow of Yoshinori;
alliance with Hojo and war with Uesugi; his allies against Nobunaga
--Katsuyori (1546-82), marries Nobunaga's daughter, but makes war on
him; defeated
--Nobumitsu stirs up Yoritomo against Yoshinaka
--Shingen, or Haranobu (1521-73), war with Uesugi (ill.); alliance
with Nobunaga, and with Ieyasu; death; military art; signature (ill.)
Takenaka, of Nagasaki, persecutes Christians
--Shigeharu, soldier of Hideyoshi
Takenouchi-no-Sukune, several prominent officials 1st to 4th century;
against Yemishi; prime minister; great duke of the Presence; in
conquest of Korea; succession to Jingo; ordeal for treason;
grand-daughter, marries Nintoku; descendants; the Heguri
Takenouchi Shikibu(1716-71), teacher of Chinese classics; forerunner
of Restoration
Taketori Monogatari, "Bamboo gatherer's narrative" classic
Takigawa Kazumasu, soldier of Nobunaga, kwanryo of Kwanto; favours
Nobutaka; defeated by Hideyoshi
Takinosawa, battle of, victory over Takeda
Takuan (1573-1645), Emperor gives purple robe to
Takuma artists
Takuahan, Manchuria, 4th Army lands at
Takutsakasa Sukehira, prime minister in Kyoto, opposes Kokaku
Talien, taken from Chinese (1894); Russian railway
Tallies used in trade with China
Tamba, urchins of, the princes Oke and Woke; rice grants charged to
province
Tamehira, younger brother of Murakami
Tamibe, naturalized aliens in pro-historic time
Tamichi, general, killed by Yemishi, 367 A.D.
Tamon, i.e. Ananda, statue in castle of Azuchi
Tamu no Mine, valley, site of shrine to Kamatari
Tamura, Prince, Emperor Jomei (629)
Tamura family defeated by Date
Tamuramaro see Saka-no-ye Tamuramaro
Tan, land unit; tansen, area tax
Tanaka Harukiyo, rebuilds shrine of Hachiman
Tandai, inquisitors, two representing Bakufu at Court; the
Ryo-Rokuhara; similar offices at Hakozaki and Nagato; in Muromachi
period
Tanegashima island where Portugese first landed; name used for
muskets they introduced
Tanetsugu see Fujiwara Tanetsugu
Tang, Chinese systems, and power of Throne (645-70); most of features
of Daika taken from; respects in which not adaptable to Japan; Kyoto
modelled on Tang metropolis, Changan
Tanners from Korea
Tanuma Okitomo (Mototomo) (d. 1784), son of Okitsugu
--Okitsugu (Mototsugu) (1719-88), favourite of Ieshige, prime minister
of Ieharu
Tan Yang-i, Chinese scholar
Taoism and Shinto
Tao Lung see Doryu
Tasa, omi of Kibi, removed by Yuryaku; leads revolt in Mimana
Tatars, possibly prominent in Yemishi revolts of 8th century; Golden
and Khitan in China
Tate, fortress or warp
Tate Chikatada, one of Yoshinaka's four body guards
Tatebito, famous archer
Tatsunokuchi, in Yedo, site of court of justice
Tattooing as penalty; as decoration first in proto-historic period,
when penalty abandoned
Tawara Toda see Fujiwara Hidesato
Taxation, early; and land-holding; war tax; land not taxed;
requisitions; in Shotoku's constitution; Daika; Daiho; Ashikaga
period; toll-gates; tokusei riots; under Tokugawa
Tayasu branch of Tokugawa, eligible to Shogunate; named from gate of
Yedo Castle
Munetake, or Tokugawa Munetake
Tea, plants introduced (814); more generally (1191); picking, in Uji,
(ill.); festivals; ceremonial (ill.), influence on ceramics, and
architecture, tea-parlours (ill.); Hideyoshi's interest in
Technical vocabulary, Japanese
Teeth-blackening
Teika see Fujiwara Sadaiye
Teikin-orai, text book of letter-writing
Teio-keizu, Imperial genealogy
Telissu, battle of, Russians defeated by Oku
Tembun koban, gold coins minted in 1532-55
Tembyo, period (729-48)
Temman, Tenjin, shrine of Michizane
Temmangu see Michizane
Temmoku-zan, in Kai province, defeat of Takeda at
Temmu, 40th Emperor (673-86), Prince Oama; historiography; sumptuary
laws
Temples, early Buddhist; mixed Shinto; provincial; estates; the
"Six"; Nara epoch; at Kamakura; the "Five," schools and scholarship;
revenue; commissioners; Ieyasu's legislation; under Imperial princes
Tempo, period, 1830-44, famines; reformation of
Tenchi, 38th Emperor (668-71); burial mound; painters; Daika; see
Naka
Tendai, monastery and doctrine of Saicho; temple
Tengai, abbot of Enryaku-ji, in bell-inscription affair; temple at
Nikko; Kwanei-ji
Tenjin, descendants of primeval trinity, sub-class of Shimbetsu; name
under which Michizane was apotheosized
Tennoki, Record of the Emperors
Tenno-zan, position in battle of Yamazaki
Tenryaku, year-period (947-57)
Tenryu-ji, temple at Saga, built by Takauji; T.-bune, merchantmen,
sent to China for art objects; T.-seiji, celadon vases from China
Tenshin, "kami of the descent," chieftains of expedition from Kyushu
Tensho, year period, 1573-91, coins
Tenson, "Heavenly grand-child" epithet of Hikoho Ninigi; sub-class of
Shimbetsu, descendants of Sun goddess; superior position of
Teraishi, Dr., on decoration of bronze bells
Terasaka Kichiemon, one of "47 Ronin"
Terumoto see Mori Terumoto
Terutora see Uesugi Kenshin
Tetsuo, priest of Daitoku-ji
Text books
Thatch on houses
Thermal springs
Thirty-year census
Three Years' War, Go-Sannen (1089-91)
Thunder, Kami of, in tree; axes
Tientai, Japanese Tendai, Chinese monastery
Tientsin relieved by Japanese troops in Boxer Rebellion
Tiger, magic taught by
Tiles, peculiar to temples; roofs of official buildings tiled in Nara
epoch; slate-coloured and green in city of Kyoto; in Kamakura period;
ill
Timur gives up attack on Japan
Ting, Chinese admiral, defeated at Weihaiwei
Titles, or gentile names; new under Temmu
Toba, 74th Emperor (1108-23); state domains; palace
Tobacco growing; pipe and pouch, (ill.)
Toda Izu no Kami, advocates foreign intercourse (1853)
Tadanori, adviser of Nariaki
Todai-ji, Kegon temple at Nara, bronze Buddha; procession in Koken's
reign; great bell; bell-tower (ill.); statue (ill.); gate-guards;
burnt by Taira
Todo Takatora (1556-1630) helps Tokugawa
Toei-zan, Ueno hill, temple of Kwanei-ji
Tofuku-ji, Buddhist temple, S.E. of Kyoto
Tofuku-mon-in, Kazuko, first Tokugawa consort; wife of Go-Mizu-no-o
Togashi family splits in Onin war
Togo Heihachiro, Count (b. 1857), Japanese admiral, attacks Russian
fleet at Port Arthur; blocks entrance to harbour; defeats Russians at
Tsushima
Toi invade Japan (1019)
Toichi, wife of Kobun
Toin see Doin
To-ji, Shingon temple (Goku-ku-ji) in Kyoto
Tokaido, road from Kyoto to Tokyo
Toki see Doki
Tokichi see Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Tokimasa see Hojo Tokimasa
Tokimune (or Goro) avenges father's murder
Tokiuji see Yamano Tokiuji
Tokiwa, mistress of Yoshitomo
Tokiyasu, Prince, see Koko
Tokiyo, Prince, marries daughter of Sugawara Michizane
Toku, empress Kenrei-mon-in; mother of Emperor Antoku
Tokugawa, descent of family; hereditary system founded by Ieyasu;
shogunate of family; oath of loyalty to; the T. Bakufu;
"Constitution"; school, Shohei-ko; Imperial family, marries into;
strengthened; attitude to feudatories; Hidetada line succeeded by Kii
branch; families in ministry; decline of power; end of shogunate
Chikauji (d. 1407?), ancestor of Matsudaira
Hidetada (1579-1632), shogun (1605-22); anti-Christian edict (1616);
orders Spaniards deported; in war with Uesugi; daughter weds
Hideyori; attacks Osaka; Ieyasu's instructions to; rule, death,
character; and Crown
Tokugawa Hirotada (1526-49)
--Hyakkajo, One Hundred Rules of Tokugawa
--Ieharu (1737-86), shogun (1760-86)
--Iemitsu (1603-51), shogun (1622-51); treatment of Christians;
Ieyasu's instructions to; requires nobles to reside at Yedo; and
feudal lords
--Iemochi (1846-66), shogun (1858-66); marries Emperor's sister;
resigns
--Ienari (1773-1841), shogun (1786-1837); his father's rank;
abdication
--Ienobu (1662-1712), shogun (1709-12)
--Iesada (1824-58), shogun (1853-8)
--Ieshige (1702-61), shogun (1745-60); his son, Shigeyoshi, ancestor
of Shimizu branch
--Ietsugu (1709-16), shogun (1712-16)
--Ietsuna (1642-80), 4th shogun (1651-80); power passes to minister;
abdication of Go-Saien; death
--Ieyasu (1542-1616) (ill.); in war on Asakura and Asai; alliance with
Shingen; defeats Takeda; threatened; in Komaki war; peace with
Hideyoshi; against Hojo; receives Kwanto; takes oath; in Hideyoshi's
scheme; Christianity; Will Adams; death; family; succession to
Hideyoshi; wealth; Sekigahara; distribution of fiefs; shogun;
Hideyori; defied at Osaka; Hoko-ji bell; attacks Osaka castle;
character; legislation; literature; Hidetada; shrine; patterned upon
by Yoshimune; Shinto revival; foreign intercourse; signature (ill.)
--Ieyoshi (1792-1853), shogun (1838-53)
--Jidaishi, on Ieyasu's laws
--Mitsukuni (1628-1700), sympathizes with Masayasu; interest in
letters
--Munetada (1721-64), founder of Hitotsubashi branch
--Munetake (d. 1769) founder of Tayasii branch
--Nariaki (1800-60), daimyo of Mito, anti-foreign policy of; attempts
to make his son shogun; surrenders edict against shogun
--(or Matsudaira) Nariyuki, feudatory of Kir
--Nobuyasu (1559-79); marriage
--Nobuyoshi (1583-1603), daimyo of Mito
--Shigeyoshi (1745-95), founds Shimizu branch
--Tadanaga (1605-33), brother of Iemitsu
--Tadayoshi (1580-1607), daimyo of Kiyosu
--Tsunayoshi (1646-1709), shogun (1686-1709); considerate for Crown
--Yorifusa (1603-61), daimyo of Mito; one of Sanke
--Yorinobu (1602-71), daimyo of Kii
--Yoshimune (1677-1751), shogun (1716-45); camera rule; Tayasu and
Hitotsubashi branches
--Yoshinao (1600-50), daimyo of Owari; founds Shohei-ko school
--Yoshinobu or Keiki (1837-97), son of Nariaki and his candidate for
shogun; Crown urges his promotion; guardian of shogun; shogun
(1866-8); resigns; surrenders Yedo
Tokuhon see Hatakeyama Mochikuni
Tokuno support Southern Court
Tokuno Michlkoto, defender of Go-Daigo
Tokusei, "benevolent policy", laws of 1297; extension of policy under
Ashikaga; riots; for debtors
Tokuso, priest
Tokyo, formerly Yedo, eastern capital
Tomi see Fujiwara Tomiko
Tomoe, Yoshinaka's mistress
Tomohira, Prince (963-1009), poet
Tomohito, Prince, see Kokaku
Tomo, Princess, see Go-Sakuramichi
Tomo Kowamine, exiled (843) with Prince Tsunesada
Ton-a (1301-84), poet
Tonami-yami, Echizen, defeat of Taira at
Tonegawa, flood in
Tone-yama, battle (1573)
Tonghak rebellion in Korea (1894), Chinese troops sent to quell
Tongkan, Korean history, its chronology
Tori Shichi (Korean Nori Sachhi), Buddhist
Torii Mototada (1539-1600), dies in defense of Ieyasu's castle
--Suneemon
Tornado of 1718
Torres, Baltasar de (1563-1626), Jesuit, companion of Xavier
Tortoise shell, divination
Torture in ancient Japan
Tosa, province; Ichijo family move to; seized by Chosokabe; bonita
curing in; T memorial against Bakufu; surrender of fiefs; clan
representation
Tosa, Kyoto school of painting; patronized by Tsunayoshi; decorations
of palace
Mitsunobu see Mitsunobu
Mitsuoki, teacher of Hirozumi
Tosa Nikki, Tosa Diary
Tosabo Shoshun, bonze
Tosando, mountain road
Toshiiye see Maeda Toshiiye
Toshiyori-roju
Tosho-ji, temple, suicides in its cemetery after defeat of Hojo
Towers, royal; fire watch tower
Toyohara Tokimoto, musician
Toyohito see Kogon
Toyokuni Daimyo-jin, temple of, sacred to Hideyoshi, destroyed by
Ieyasu
Toyonari see Fujiwara no Toyonari
Toyotomi, family, revolt of ronin (1651); decline of influence
Hidetsugu (1568-95), adopted successor of Hideyoshi; Hideyoshi's
letter to; death
Hideyori (1593-1615), son of Hideyoshi; regent; Christians join him
against Ieyasu; Ishida favours; nai-daijin, marries Ieyasu's
granddaughter; Ieyasu's estimate; opposes Ieyasu; refuses to
surrender; suicide
Toyotomi Hideyoshi( 1536-98); battle of Okehazama; in Ise and Kyoto;
Sakai; war with Asakura and Asai; against Takeda Katsuyori; invades
Chugoku; plans war on China; peace with Mori; Nobunaga; defeats
Mitsuhide; councillor; crushes Takigawa Kazumasa and Shibuta
Katsuiye; Yodogimi; Osaka castle; in Komaki war; peace with Ieyasu;
regent; crushes remaining enemies; treatment of Ieyasu; Buddhism;
palace; tea-festivals, wealth; invasion of Korea; death; family;
kills Hidetsugu; character; legislation; Christianity; tomb
--Kunimatsu, son of Hideyori, killed by Ieyasu
"Trade, Chief of"
Transportation, early; roads in Nara epoch; in Heian; in Muromachi;
improved by Nobunaga; laws; Tokugawa improvements;
road-commissioners; railway building
Treason under Daiho code
Treasury established 405 A.D.; three in Yuryaku's reign; burnt in
1659; see Finance Department
Treaties with United States, Russia, Holland, England; commercial
treaty with United States; with Korea; with China; with Russia
(Portsmouth); with China (Peking)
Tree, sacred, of Buddhist temples; tree worship; myths of tree
planting; stories of huge trees
Trigrams, in divination
"True Word," Shingon
Tsarevitch, Russian battleship at Port Arthur
Tsin dynasty (265-317) and Chinese migration
Tsuchi-gumo, "Earth-spiders" or "Pit dwellers"; called Wado by
Chinese
Tsuchi Mikado, 83d Emperor (1199-1210); abdicates; exile
Tsugaru in 16th century wars; remains of Tatar fortress
--strait, controlled by Japan
Tsugunawa see Fujiwara Tsugunawa
Tsuguno, architect
Tsuka, Korean prince, migrates to Japan; carpenters
Tsukiji, in Yedo, naval college at
Tsukuda, island
Tsukushi see Kyushu
Tsunayoshi see Tokugawa Tsunayoshi
Tsunehito, Prince, father of Kokaku, rank
Tsuneko, consort of Kwazan
Tsunenaga, Prince (1324-38), conspiracy to make him heir; poisoned by
Takauji
Tsunesada, Prince (823-84), exiled (843)
Tsure-zure-gusa, "Weeds of Tedium"
Tsuruga, ancient Kehi-no-ura; fortifications (1280)
Tsurugaoka hill in Kamakura, shrine of Hachiman
Tsushima, islands, in early myth; silver discovered (674) and gold
(701); attacked by Toi (1019), by Mongols (1274), and (1281);
attacked by Koreans in 1419; Korean trade; Chinese squadron attacks;
outpost of Japan; Hakuseki wishes to limit Korean envoys to;
commerce; commanding strait; Russian attempts upon; battle of,
Russian fleet defeated by Togo
Tsutsui Junkei (1549-84), deserts Akechi Mitsuhide in battle of
Yamazaki; succession to Nobunaga
Tsuwata Saburo, suicide
Tsuying, king of Pohai, Korea
203-Metre Hill, Port Arthur, fighting at
Uchida Ieyoshi, warrior
Masanobu (1619-51), suicide
Uda, 59th Emperor (888-97), Prince Sadami
Uda Genji of Omi, branch of Minamoto
Ueda castle
Ueno park, Kiyomizu temple; hill called Toeizan; abbot of, candidate
for throne in 1867
Uesugi, family, favours Tadayoshi; overthrows Ashikaga; kwanryo; two
branches; quarrels; join against Hojo; shitsuji; governor-general of
Kwanto; patronize schools; against Mogami; Hideyoshi makes peace with
--Akifusa, shitsuji to Shigeuji
--Akisada, estates
--Akiyoshi, avenges his father
--Fusaaki (1432-66)
--Kagekatsu (1555-1623), lieutenant of Hideyoshi in Komaki war;
against Hojo; senior minister; with Ishida Katsushiga plots against
Ieyasu; open break with Ieyasu; fiefs reduced after Sekigahara
--Kenshin, originally Nagao Kagetora. (1530-78), kwanryo, war with
Hojo and Takeda, checked between Nobunaga and Shingen; military art
--Mochifusa, sent against Kamakura by Ashikaga Yoshinori (1439)
--Mochitomo (1416-67) fortifies Kawagoe
--Noriaki (1306-68), shitsuji; exile
--Noriharu (d. 1379), suicide
--Norimasa (1522-79), driven from Hirai by Ujiyasu
--Norimoto (1383-1418)
--Noritada (1433-54), shitsuji to Shigeuji, death
--Norizane (d. 1455), plot to kill; helps defeat Kamakura forces
(1439)
--Shigeyoshi (d. 1349), shitsuji, exiled
--Tomomune, shitsuji
--Tomosada, shitsuji
--Ujinori
--Yoshinori (d. 1378), shitsuji
Uji, families, rank; government, established and abolished by
Emperor; taxation; feudal chiefs; the Eight Great Uji; opposed by
Shotoku; rank; government; Jinshin; Kami elective; princely families;
academies; record; territorial names
Uji river, Yamashiro province, battle at
Uiyasu see Hojo Ujiyasu
Ukhtonsky, Rear-Admiral Prince, commanding Russian squadron at Port
Arthur
Ukita Hideiye (d. 1662), soldier of Hideyoshi, against Chosokabe;
commander-in-chief in Korea; one of 5 senior ministers; and
Hideyoshi's laws; against Ieyasu; estates forfeited
Naoiye (1530-82), turns from Mori to Nobunaga
Umako see Soga Umako
Umashimade, ancestor of Mononobe
Umeda Genjiro, pen-name "Umpin" (1816-59), promotes Imperial
restoration
Umetada Akihisa, metal-worker
Unclean, eta and hinin, in Kamakura classification
Unebi, Mt., tomb of Jimmu; Soga mansion
Ung-jin (Paik-chhon-ku), Japanese defeat at, (662)
United States, Japanese relations with, 1837 '46, and '48; Perry;
Townsend Harris; Shimonoseki affair; Americans in education,
post-office, agriculture, etc.; intervention in Russo-Japanese war;
threats of war
Unkei, sculptor
Unzen, volcano, Christians tortured in solfataras
Upland, onchi
Urabe Kanetomo (15th century), Shinto
Yoshida, Shinto doctrine of
Uraga, English refuse for headquarters; Manhattan enters; Perry in
Urup, island, Russians in, (1792)
Uryu Sotokichi (b. 1857), rear-admiral, destroys Russian cruisers at
Chemulpo
Usui Pass in Yamato-dake's march, identification of
Usume, female Kami
Usuri, won by Russia (1860)
Utsonomiya family, one of "8 Generals of Kwanto"
Valegnani, Alexander (1537-1606), Jesuit vice-general, visits
Kuchinotsu in 1578; embassy
Variag, Russian cruiser at Chemulpo
Vehicles, proto-historic; in Nara epoch
"Vehicles" of Buddhism
Veil in ancient costume
Vendetta, beginning of in Japan (486 A.D.); (1193); of Ako; illegal
in Kyoto, Yedo, Osaka and Sumpu
Vermilion pillars; stamp of Taiko
Vilela, Gaspard (d. 1570), Portuguese Jesuit, in Kyoto
Village, part of agata; assemblies; chief
Vivero y Velasco, Rodrigo, governor of Philippines, agreement with
Ieyasu (1609)
Vladivostok, strategic situation; Russian squadron at, crushed by
Kamimura; objective of Rozhdestvensky
Volcanic eruptions
Wa, "dwarf" or "subservient," early Chinese name for Japanese
Wada Yoshimori (1147-1213) son of Yoritomo's benefactor in Bakufu
council; betto defeated and killed by Hojo Yoshitoki
Wadded garments, first mentioned, in 643 A.D.; use prescribed
Wado, Chinese name of western tribe of Japan
Wado, copper era (708-15)
Wage, in 1498
Waka, wife of Tasa, taken from him by Yuryaku
Waka-irutsako, younger son of Ojin
Wake, funeral ceremony
Wake, Prince, burial of
Kiyomaro (733-99), banished; chooses site for new capital for Kwammu
Wakiya Yoshiharu, son of Yoshisuke, in defeat of Takauji
Yoshisuke (d. 1340), brother of Nitta Yoshisada and provincial
governor; in command of Imperial army against the Ashikaga
Wakizaka Yasuharu (1554-1626) at battle of Sekigahara
Wang Yang-ming (1472-1529) philosophy of, officially displaced by
Chutsz's; Nakaye Toju follows; summary of system
Wani, Korean scribe in Japan; his descendant, Wang-sin-i
War, Department of, Hyobusho
War God, Hachiman, Oracle of
War Office, Heisei-kan
Waseda University, Tokyo, founded by Okuma
Watanabe, fleet at, before battle of Yashima
Watanabe family, branch of Minamoto
Watarai, temple of, in Ise, princess priest of
Watazumi-no-Kuni, Japanese intercourse with
Watch, in capital
Water-supply of Yedo
Wave-men, ronin
Wax, vegetable, industry
Weaving in early times; early taxes paid by; development
Weights and measures
Weihaiwei, taken from Chinese (1894)
Wei Records, A.D. 211-265, on Japanese markets
Western Army, Yamana forces in Onin war
Whale, fossil remains
White, mourning colour; colour of Minamoto
Wi-ju, Korea; Russians at, (1904)
Winter Campaign
Wistaria, fujiwara; bark used for mourning garments
Witchcraft, in Nara epoch
Wo (Japan), tributary to Chinese Kingdom of Yen
Woke, see Ninken
Women, use phonetic language; warriors; tribute to serpents and
marauders; prehistoric status; rulers; hostages; morality;
literature; property rights; in Tokugawa period; punishment of;
shogun's harem; illustrations
Wrestling in prehistoric times; first recorded match (23 B.C.);
professional sport; (ill.)
Wu, Chinese Emperor, and Buddhist propaganda
Wu-Ti, Chinese emperor, conqueror of Korea
Xavier, St. Francis (1506-52), Jesuit missionary, lands in Kagoshima
(1549); in Hirado, Yamaguchi, Kyoto, and Bungo, death
Yada castle in Ise
Yae, wife of Hideyoshi, followed by military clique
Yaka, mistress of Tenchi
Yakami, Princess, of Inaba, marries Great-Name Possessor
Yakami, castle in Tamba
Yakushi, Buddhist god of wisdom, inscription on image of; y.-ji,
temple, (ill.)
Yalu River, Korea, in 1592 campaign; Chinese cross, (1894); Russians
and Japanese on, (1904); Russians defeated
Yama, Indian god
Yamabe, Prince; see Kwammu
-Akahito, poet
Yamabushi, priests
Yamada Tesshu, on Bushi
Yamaga Soko (1622-85), philosopher of bushido; Chinese teaching
Yamagata Daini (1725-67), executed; fore-runner of Restoration
Yamaguchi, Korean envoys come to; Xavier in; Jesuits leave;
Christians in
Yamamoto support Southern Court
Yamana, family, joins Southern party; controls ten provinces; turns
to Northern Court; crushed; rehabilitated; one of Five Regent Houses;
holdings; Hosokawa; forces in Onin war, Western Army; "province
holders"
--Mitsuyuki, in revolt against Northern Dynasty
--Mochitoyo, called Sozen, "Red Monk" (1404-73), gets Harima; great
estate; in war on Hatakeyama; forces choice of Shiba Yoshikado as
kwanryo; deserts Yoshimi; death
--Norikiyo receives province of Mimasaka
--Noriyuki, captures Shirahita
--Sozen see Yamana Mochitoyo
--Tokiuji (d. 1372), joins Ashikaga
--Ujikiyo rebels (1391) against the Ashikaga
Yamanobe, Princess
Yamanouchi, family name taken by Uesugi Yoshinori; feud with
Ogigayatsu; join them against Hojo
Yamashina, Kamatari's residence
Yamashiro, Prince, candidate for throne in 629 and 641; suicide
Yamashiro, early shrine; campaign from, against Sujin; canal; meaning
of name; school of painters (604 A.D.)
Yamato, expedition from Kyushu against; meaning of name, as used by
Chinese; kindred race at time of conquest; retirement to Tsukushi;
culture; physiognomy; relations with Caucasians; language; school of
painting
Yamato, Prince, human sacrifices at burial of (2 A.D.)
Yamato-dake and Susanoo's sword; campaign against Yemishi; against
Kumaso; a swan
Yamato Genji, branch of Minamoto
Oguna, earlier name of Yamato-dake
Yamazaki, battle of, (1282)
Ansai, follower of Chutsz; forerunner of Restoration
Yanaida Takasuke, estates
Yanagawa Seigan, Imperial restoration movement
Yanagisawa Yasuaki, or Yoshiyasu, (1658-1714), favourite of
Tsunayoshi; dismissed by Ienobu
Yanamoto Kataharu in civil war of 1520
Yang-chou, taken by pirates (1556)
Yangtzuling, Russian defeat at
Yashima, battle, (1185)
Yashima, Japanese battleship lost off Port Arthur
Yaso, daughter of Emperor Reigen
Yasumaro see Ono Yasumaro
Year-period (Nengo), adoption of Chinese 645 A.D.; under two
dynasties
Yedo, fort built (1456); capital of Kwanto; Franciscan mission;
Hidetada; Bakufu; castle; nobles must reside in; rebuilt after fire;
art centre; vendetta forbidden; tree planting in; Kwanno Chokuyo's
school; fires; degeneration, 18th century; vagabonds; prison; land
offered to foreign traders; called Tokyo
Yellow Sea, Japanese victory over Chinese (1894)
Yemishi, early name of Ainu; Hirafu's expedition; description;
Yamato-dake's expedition; captives called Saekibe; revolt in Kazusa;
language, Siberian origin; migration; revolts
Yen, Pechili
Yengi-shiki, book of ceremonial law (927 A.D.)
Yen Hui, Chinese painter
Yenisei, Russian mining-transport, sunk by mine at Port Arthur
Yenomoto Takeaki, Viscount (1839-1909), admiral to the shogun, tries
to set up republic in Yezo
Yezo, pit-dwellers' remains in; name related to Yoso; Yemishi in;
Russians and Japanese clash in; Yenomoto's republic in
Yi Sun-sin, Korean admiral, defeats Japanese fleet
Yo-chang, prince of Kudara, defeats Koma (553), beaten by Shiragi
Yodo (Yamanouchi Yodo) (1827-72), feudatory of Tosa, memorial to
shogun
Yodo, estate of
Yodo or Yodogimi, daughter of Asai Nagamasa and mother of Toyotomi
Hideyori; civil party sides with; against Ieyasu; Ieyasu promotes
quarrel between Katagiri Katsumoto and; intrigue through her sister;
death
Yokohama, opened to American trade (1858)
Yoko-yama, castle of Nagamasa
Yolang, or Pyong-yang, Korea
Yomei, 31st Emperor (586-7); Buddhism
Yomi, hades, compared to Indian Yama; identified with Yomi-shima,
between Hoki and Izumo
Yorifusa see Tokugawa Yorifusa
Yoriiye see Minamoto Yoriiye
Yorimasa conspiracy (1180)
Yorinobu see Tokugawa Yorinobu
Yoritomo see Minamoto Yoritomo
Yoritsune see Fujiwara Yoritsune
Yoro, year-period, and legislation of
Yorozu, story of
Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350), recluse and poet, one of "four kings"
Shoin (1831-60), leader of anti-foreign and Imperial movement
Yoshifusa see Fujiwara Yoshifusa
Yoshiiye see Minamoto Yoshiiye
Yoshikage see Asakura Yoshikage
Yoshikawa, adherents of Southern Court
Yoshimasa see Ashikaga Yoshimasa
Yoshimi see Ashikaga Yoshimi
--nephew of Yoritomo
Yoshimine, princely uji
Yoshimitsu see Ashikaga Yoshimitsu
Yoshimune see Tokugawa Yoshimune
Yoshinaga (Norinaga), Prince, governor-general of O-U; in the
Ashikaga revolt; see Go-Murakami
Yoshinaka see Minamoto Yoshinaka
Yoshinao see Tokugawa Yoshinao
Yoshino, in Yamato, Buddhist monastery at, rallying place for
Furubito's followers; Prince Oama takes refuge at; rendez-vous of
Go-Daigo's followers; in war of dynasties
Yoshino, cruiser lost off Port Arthur
Yoshinobu see Tokugawa Yoshinobu
Yoshisada see Nitta Yoshisada
Yoshisuke see Wakiya Yoshisuke
Yoshiteru see Murakami Yoshiteru
Yoshitsune see Miriamoto no Yoshitsune
Yoso, N. E. Korea, cradle of Yemishi
Yozei, 57th Emperor (877-84)
Yuasa support Southern Court
Yuge no Dokyo, priest, Koken's love for
Yui Shosetsu, leader in revolt of 1651
Yuki, branch of Fujiwara in Kwanto; persuade Shigenii to kill
Noritada
--Munehiro, administrator in O-U
Yunglo, Chinese Emperor and year-period, 1403-22, called Eiraku in
Japan
Yura, Strait of
Yuryaku, Emperor (457-79), cruelty of his reign; and Korea; death of
Hayato at his tomb; serpent worship; 3 provinces added in his time;
punishes Sakitsuya for lése-majesté, succession
Yushima, Yedo, shrine
Yusho see Takayama
Yutahito see Kogon
Yuzu or Yutsuki, Chinese imperial prince, and Chinese migration to
Japan
Zejobo, mathematician and surveyor
Zekkai, scholar, adviser of Yoshimitsu
Zen (dhyand, meditation), Buddhist sect of contemplation; and Hojo
Tokimune; the soldier's creed; and intercourse with China; priests
and literature and art; tea ceremonial; favoured by the Ashikaga;
great priests; five temples in Kyoto
Zenko-ji, temple in Nagano with battle paintings
Zenkyo see Suye Harukata
Zenyu, priest, liaison with Empress Taka
Zojo-ji, temple of Shiba, Tokyo, tomb of Hidetada
Zoku Nihongi (or Nihonki) Supplementary Chronicles of Japan (798)
Nihon Koki, Supplementary Later Chronicles (869)
Zuisa, Buddhist priest, envoy of shogun to China
Zuniga, Pedro de (d. 1622), Spanish Dominican and martyr
FULL PAGE HALF-TONES
WOODEN STATUE OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU
PREHISTORIC REMAINS PLATE A.
I. A "Stone plate" or mortar for hut flour (suburb of Tokyo); B and C
Stone sticks or batons, marks of rank (Rikuchu and Hitachi); D Stone
club, probably religious (suburb of Tokyo).
II. A Shell ring (Shimosa); B Bone nail (Rikuzen); C Bone spear-head
(Rikuzen); D Stone spoon (Mutsu); E Stone chisel (Iwashiro); F and G
Arrow heads (Uzen); H Magatama (Izumo); / Kazaridama, beads for
ornament (Mutsu).
III. A Vessel with handles, front rounded, back flat (Totomi); B
Grayish earthenware dish, possibly for rice, with lathe marks (Mino);
C Jar with spout on sides (Totomi); D Wine jar with hole in center to
draw off sake with bamboo (Bizen); E Cup (Mino).
IV. Brownish earthenware decorated by spatula and by fabric pressed
on the moist clay. A From Hitachi; B Incense-burner shaped vessel
(Ugo); C From Rikuzen; D Probably a drinking vessel (Mutsu).
V. Wooden doll (Mutsu),--probably a charm.
VI. Beads or gems (Rikuchu); the largest at the left, a marutama of
plaster; next, a kodanta of a substance like glass.
VII. A Spear-head with socket: B Sword; C Sword with ring.
VIII. Cut gem of rock crystal (Bitchu).
IX. Kudatama, jasper ornament (Bizen).
X. Gold ring, copper core, ear decoration (Musashi). XI. Magatama,
probably strung on necklace (Yamashiro).
PREHISTORIC REMAINS PLATE B.
Earthenware horse (MUSASHI); Haruwa or offering at the tomb
Arrowhead and lance head (SHINANO); and bronze mirror (TAMBA).
Haniwa, earthen ware images offered at the tomb. Female figure with
elaborate coiffure and dress lapping left over right. Man with steel
helmet and coat of mail.
Broken piece of earthenware showing a human face.
Stone axes and hatchets (MUTSUI OTARU, a polished Stone; Meguro, near
TOKYO; and SHIMOSA).
PRINCE SHOTOKU (572-621 A.D.)
(From a painting in the collection of The Imperial Household)
KAMAKURA DAIBUTSU, OR IMAGE OF BUDDHA
(Cast in bronze. 1252 A.D.; height 47 feet)
COSTUMES
Samurai in Hunting Robe
Imperial Court noble
Samurai in Court Robe
TOKUGAWA SHRINE AT NIKKO
ADMIRAL TOGO
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "A History of the Japanese People - From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era" ***
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