Japan
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Title: Japan
Author: David Murray
Release date: August 25, 2009 [eBook #29798]
Most recently updated: June 20, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPAN ***
Japan
By
David Murray, Ph.D., LL.D.
Late Advisor to the Japanese Minister of Education
Third Edition
London
T. Fisher Unwin
Paternoster Square
New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
1896
Copyright by T. Fisher Unwin, 1894
(For Great Britain)
Copyright by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894
(For the United States of America
CONTENTS
Preface.
Chapter I. The Japanese Archipelago.
Chapter II. The Original And Surviving Races.
Chapter III. Myths And Legends.
Chapter IV. Founding The Empire.
Chapter V. Native Culture And Continental Influences.
Chapter VI. The Middle Ages Of Japan.
Chapter VII. Emperor And Shōgun.
Chapter VIII. From The Ashikaga Shōguns To The Death Of Nobunaga.
Chapter IX. Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
Chapter X. The Founding Of The Tokugawa Shōgunate.
Chapter XI. Christianity In The Seventeenth Century.
Chapter XII. Feudalism In Japan.
Chapter XIII. Commodore Perry And What Followed.
Chapter XIV. Revolutionary Preludes.
Chapter XV. The Restored Empire.
Appendix I. List Of Emperors.
Appendix II. List Of Year Periods.
Appendix III. List Of Shōguns.
Appendix IV. Laws Of Shōtoku Taishi.
Footnotes
PREFACE.
It is the object of this book to trace the story of Japan from its
beginnings to the establishment of constitutional government. Concerned as
this story is with the period of vague and legendary antiquity as well as
with the disorders of mediæval time and with centuries of seclusion, it is
plain that it is not an easy task to present a trustworthy and connected
account of the momentous changes through which the empire has been called
to pass. It would be impossible to state in detail the sources from which
I have derived the material for this work. I place first and as most
important a residence of several years in Japan, during which I became
familiar with the character of the Japanese people and with the traditions
and events of their history. Most of the works treating of Japan during
and prior to the period of her seclusion, as well as the more recent
works, I have had occasion to consult. They will be found referred to in
the following pages. Beyond all others, however, I desire to acknowledge
my obligations to the _Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan_. A
list of the contributors to these transactions would include such names as
Satow, Aston, Chamberlain, McClatchie, Gubbins, Geerts, Milne, Whitney,
Wigmore and others, whose investigations have made possible a reasonably
complete knowledge of Japan. The _Transactions of the German Asiatic
Society_ are scarcely less noteworthy than those of her sister society. To
these invaluable sources of information are to be added Chamberlain’s
_Things Japanese_, Rein’s _Japan_ and the _Industries of Japan_, Griffis’
_Mikado’s Empire_, Mounsey’s _Satsuma Rebellion_, Dening’s _Life of
Hideyoshi_, the published papers of Professor E. S. Morse, and the two
handbooks prepared successively by Mr. Satow and Mr. Chamberlain.
To friends who have taken an interest in this publication I owe many
thanks for valuable and timely help: to Dr. J. C. Hepburn, who for so many
years was a resident in Yokohama; to Mr. Benjamin Smith Lyman of
Philadelphia who still retains his interest in and knowledge of things
Japanese; to Mr. Tateno, the Japanese Minister at Washington, and to the
departments of the Japanese government which have furnished me material
assistance.
In the spelling of Japanese words I have followed, with a few exceptions,
the system of the Roman Alphabet Association (Rōmaji Kai) as given in its
published statement. I have also had constantly at hand Hepburn’s
_Dictionary_, the _Dictionary of Towns and Roads_, by Dr. W. N. Whitney,
and _Murray’s Handbook of Japan_, by B. H. Chamberlain. In accordance with
these authorities, in the pronunciation of Japanese words the consonants
are to be taken at their usual English values and the vowels at their
values in Italian or German.
DAVID MURRAY.
[Illustration]
Bell At Kyoto
CHAPTER I. THE JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO.
The first knowledge of the Japanese empire was brought to Europe by Marco
Polo after his return from his travels in China in A.D. 1295. He had been
told in China of “Chipangu,(1) an island towards the east in the high
seas, 1500 miles from the continent; and a very great island it is. The
people are white, civilized, and well favored. They are idolaters, and are
dependent on nobody. And I can tell you the quantity of gold they have is
endless; for they find it in their own islands.” The name Chipangu is the
transliteration of the Chinese name which modern scholars write
Chi-pen-kue, by which Japan was then known in China. From it the Japanese
derived the name Nippon, and then prefixed the term Dai (great), making it
Dai Nippon, the name which is now used by them to designate their empire.
Europeans transformed the Chinese name into Japan, or Japon, by which the
country is known among them at present.
Marco Polo’s mention of this island produced a great impression on the
discoverers of the fifteenth century. In Toscanelli’s map, used by
Columbus as the basis of his voyages, “Cipango” occupies a prominent place
to the east of Asia, with no American continent between it and Europe. It
was the aim of Columbus, and of many subsequent explorers, to find a route
to this reputedly rich island and to the eastern shores of Asia.
The islands composing the empire of Japan are situated in the northwestern
part of the Pacific ocean. They are part of the long line of volcanic
islands stretching from the peninsula of Kamtschatka on the north to
Formosa on the south. The direction in which they lie is northeast and
southwest, and in a general way they are parallel to the continent.
The latitude of the most northern point of Yezo is 45° 35’, and the
latitude of the most southern point of Kyūshū is 31°. The longitude of the
most eastern point of Yezo is 146° 17’, and the longitude of the most
western point of Kyūshū is 130° 31’. The four principal islands therefore
extend through 14° 35’ of latitude and 15° 46’ of longitude.
The Kurile islands(2) extending from Yezo northeast to the straits
separating Kamtschatka from the island of Shumushu belong also to Japan.
This last island has a latitude of 51° 5’ and a longitude of 157° 10’. In
like manner the Ryūkyū islands, lying in a southwest direction from Kyūshū
belong to Japan. The most distant island has a latitude of 24° and a
longitude of 123° 45’. The whole Japanese possessions therefore extend
through a latitude of 27° 5’ and a longitude of 33° 25’.
The empire consists of four large islands and not less than three thousand
small ones. Some of these small islands are large enough to constitute
distinct provinces, but the greater part are too small to have a separate
political existence, and are attached for administrative purposes to the
parts of the large islands opposite to which they lie. The principal
island is situated between Yezo on the north and Kyūshū on the south.
From Omasaki, the northern extremity at the Tsugaru straits, to Tōkyō, the
capital, the island runs nearly north and south a distance of about 590
miles, and from Tōkyō to the Shimonoseki straits the greatest extension of
the island is nearly east and west, a distance of about 540 miles. That
is, measuring in the direction of the greatest extension, the island is
about 1130 miles long. The width of the island is nowhere greater than two
hundred miles and for much of its length not more than one hundred miles.
Among the Japanese this island has no separate name.(3) It is often called
by them Hondo(4) which may be translated Main island. By this translated
name the principal island will be designated in these pages. The term
Nippon or more frequently Dai Nippon (Great Nippon) is used by them to
designate the entire empire, and it is not to be understood as restricted
to the principal island.
The second largest island is Yezo, lying northeast from the Main island
and separated from it by the Tsugaru straits. Its longest line is from
Cape Shiretoko at its northeast extremity to Cape Shira-kami on Tsugaru
straits, about 350 miles; and from its northern point, Cape Soya on the La
Perouse straits to Yerimosaki, it measures about 270 miles. The centre of
the island is an elevated peak, from which rivers flow in all directions
to the ocean. Hakodate the principal port is situated on Tsugaru straits
and possesses one of the most commodious harbors of the empire.
The third in size of the great islands of Japan is Kyūshū, a name meaning
nine provinces, referring to the manner in which it was divided in early
times. It lies south from the western extremity of the Main island. Its
greatest extension is from north to south, being about 200 miles. Its
width from east to west varies from sixty to ninety miles. Its temperature
and products partake of a tropical character.
To the east of Kyūshū lies Shikoku (meaning four provinces) which is the
fourth of the great islands of Japan. It is about one half as large as
Kyūshū, which in climate and productions it much resembles. It is south of
the western extension of the Main island and is nearly parallel to it. Its
length is about 170 miles.
In the early history of Japan one of its names among the natives was
Ōyashima, meaning the Great Eight Islands. The islands included in this
name were: the Main island, Kyūshū, Shikoku, Awaji, Sado, Tsushima, Oki,
and Iki. The large island of Yezo had not then been conquered and added to
the empire.
Awaji is situated in the Inland sea between the Main island and Shikoku.
It is about fifty miles long and has an area of 218 square miles. Sado is
situated in the Japan sea, off the northwest coast of the Main island. It
is about forty-eight miles long and has an area of about 335 square miles.
Tsushima lies half-way between Japan and Korea, and has a length of about
forty-six miles, and an area of about 262 square miles. Oki lies off the
coast of Izumo and has an area of about 130 square miles. Finally Iki, the
smallest of the original great eight islands, lies west of the northern
extremity of Kyūshū and has an area of fifty square miles.
The Japanese islands are invested on the east by the Pacific ocean. They
are separated from the continent by the Okhotsk sea, the Japan sea, and
the Yellow sea. The Kuro Shiwo (black current) flows from the tropical
waters in a northeast direction, skirting the islands of Japan on their
east coasts, and deflecting its course to the eastward carries its
ameliorating influences to the west coast of America. It is divided by the
projecting southern extremity of the island of Kyūshū, and a perceptible
portion of it flows on the west coast of the Japanese islands through the
Japan sea and out again into the Pacific ocean through the Tsugaru and the
La Perouse straits. The effect of the Kuro Shiwo upon the climate and
productions of the lands along which it flows is not greatly different
from that of the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic ocean, which in situation,
direction, and volume it resembles.
The body of water known among foreigners as the Inland sea, but which the
Japanese call Seto-no-Uchi-Umi (the sea within the straits), is a
picturesque sheet of water situated between the Linschoten straits on the
east and the Shimonoseki straits on the west. The latter is seven miles
long and at its narrowest part not more than two thousand feet wide. It
separates Kyūshū on the south from the Main island on the north. The
Inland sea is occupied by an almost countless number of islands, which
bear evidence of volcanic origin, and are covered with luxuriant
vegetation. The lines of steamers from Shanghai and Nagasaki to the
various ports on the Main island, and numberless smaller craft in every
direction, run through the Inland sea.
The principal islands of Japan are interspersed with mountains, hills and
valleys. Yezo the most northern of these islands is traversed by two
ranges of mountains; the one being the extension of the island of
Saghalien, the other the extension of the Kurile islands. These two ranges
cross each other at the centre of the island, and here the greatest
elevation is to be found. The shape given to the island by these
intersecting ranges is that of a four-pointed star. The rivers in nearly
all cases flow from the centre outward to the sea. There are few large
rivers. The most important is the Ishikari which empties into Ishikari
bay. The valley of this river is the most rich and fertile part of the
island.
The mountain ranges on the Main island extend usually in the greatest
direction of the island. In the northern and central portions the ranges
chiefly run north and south. In the western extension of this island the
mountain ranges run in nearly an east and west direction. The ordinary
height attained by these ranges is not great, but there are many volcanic
peaks which rise out of the surrounding mass to a great elevation. The
highest mountain in Japan is Fuji-san (sometimes called Fuji-yama). It is
almost conical in shape; although one side has been deformed by a volcanic
eruption which occurred in 1707. It stands not far from the coast, and is
directly in view from the steamers entering the bay of Tōkyō on their way
to Yokohama. It is about sixty miles from Tōkyō in a direct line, and
there are many places in the city from which it can be seen. Its top is
covered with snow during ten months of the year, which the heat of August
and September melts away. The height of Fuji-san according to the
measurement of English naval officers is 12,365 feet.(5)
Next to Fuji-san the mountains most worthy of notice are Gas-san in Uzen,
Mitake in Shinano, the Nikkō mountains in Shimotsuke, Haku-san in Kaga,
Kirishima-yama in Hyūga, and Asama-yama in Shinano. Asama-yama is about
8,000 feet high, and is an active volcano.
From time immemorial the Japanese islands have been affected with
earthquakes. Occasionally they have been severe and destructive, but
usually slight and ineffective. It is said that not less than five hundred
shocks(6) occur in Japan each year. The last severe earthquake was in the
autumn of 1891, when the central part of the Main island, especially in
the neighborhood of Gifu, was destructively disturbed. During the long
history of the empire many notable cases(7) have occurred. Mr.
Hattori-Ichijo in a paper read before the Asiatic Society of Japan, March,
1878, has compiled a list of destructive earthquakes, and has deduced from
it some important generalizations.
Closely associated with earthquakes in Japan as elsewhere are the
phenomena of volcanoes. The whole archipelago bears evidence of volcanic
formation. The long line of islands stretching from Kamtschatka to Borneo
is plainly the product of continued volcanic action. Dr. Rein(8)
enumerates eighteen active volcanoes now in existence within the empire.
Fuji-san in all its beauty was no doubt thrown up as a volcano. The last
time it was in action was in 1707, when in connection with a series of
severe earthquake shocks, an eruption took place on the south side of the
mountain, and its symmetrical form was destroyed by the production of the
new crater, Hōye-san.
Among the mountainous districts many small lakes are found, a few of which
are large enough to be navigated. In Yezo there are six considerable
lakes. In the Main island the largest lake is Biwa, in the beautiful
mountain region north of Kyōto. It received its name from its fancied
resemblance to the shape of a musical instrument called a _biwa_. There is
a legend that this lake came into existence in a single night, when the
volcanic mountain Fuji-san 300 miles distant was raised to its present
height. It is about fifty miles long and about twenty miles broad at its
greatest width. It is said to be not less than 330 feet at its greatest
depth. It is navigated by steamboats and smaller craft. It is situated
about 350 feet above the ocean. Lake Suwa in Shinano is 2,635 feet above
the ocean. Lake Chūzenji in the Nikkō mountains is 4,400 feet; and Hakoné
lake near Yokohama is 2,400 feet.
Owing to the narrowness of the Main island, there are no rivers of a large
size. Most of them take their rise in the mountainous regions of the
middle of the islands, and by a more or less circuitous route find their
way to the ocean. The Tone-gawa (_gawa_ means river) is the longest and
broadest of the rivers of Japan. It rises in Kōtsuke and flows in an
eastern direction, receiving many tributaries, attains a breadth of more
than a mile, and with a current much narrowed, empties into the Pacific
ocean at Chōshi point. It is about 170 miles long and is navigated by
boats for a great distance. The Shinano-gawa, which may be named as second
in size, rises in the province of Shinano, flows in a northern direction,
and empties into the Japan sea at Ni-igata. The Kiso-gawa also rises in
the high lands of Shinano, and, flowing southward, empties into Owari bay.
The Fuji-kawa(9) takes its rise in the northern part of the province of
Kai, and in its course skirting the base of Fuji-san on the west, empties
into Suruga bay. It is chiefly notable for being one of the swiftest
streams in Japan and liable to sudden and great floods.
To these rivers may be added the Yodo-gawa, which is the outlet of Lake
Biwa, in the province of Ōmi, and which flows through Kyōto, and empties
into the Inland sea at Ōsaka. This river is navigable for flat-bottomed
steamboats as far as Kyōto. In the islands of Kyūshū and Shikoku there are
no large rivers; but there are many streams which give to these islands
their richness and fertility.
The climate of Japan, as might be expected from its great stretch from
north to south, and the varied circumstances of ocean currents, winds, and
mountains, is very different in the different parts. The latitude of Tōkyō
is 35°, which is not very different from that of Cyprus in the
Mediterranean, or the city of Raleigh in North Carolina. Besides the
latitude of the islands of Japan, the most noticeable cause of their
climatic condition is the Kuro Shiwo (black current). This current flows
from the tropical regions near the Philippine islands, impinges on the
southern islands, and is divided by them into two unequal parts. The
greater part skirts the Japanese islands on their east coast, imparting to
them that warm and moist atmosphere, which is one source of the fertility
of their soil and beauty of their vegetation. To this important cause must
be added another, which is closely related to it in its effects. The
Japanese islands are in the region of the north-east monsoon,(10) which
affects in a marked degree the climate of all parts over which the winds
extend. The same monsoon blows over the eastern countries of the
continent, but the insular character of Japan and the proximity of the
warm current on both sides of the islands give to the winds which prevail
a character which they do not possess on the continent. During the greater
part of September the northern wind blows, which brings a colder
temperature, condensing the moisture contained in the atmosphere. This
month is therefore generally a rainy month. Gradually the atmosphere
becomes more dry, and the beautiful autumn and early winter follow in
course.
The winter is very different in the different parts. On the east coast the
temperature is very moderate. Even as far north as Tōkyō the snow rarely
falls to a depth of more than a few inches, and then rapidly melts away.
Ice seldom forms to a thickness, even on protected waters, to permit
skating. In all this region, however, snow covers the high mountains.
On the west coast of the Main island the conditions are very different.
The winds of the continent take up the moisture of the Japan sea, and
carry it to the west coast, and then, coming in contact with high ranges
of mountains which run down the middle of the island, impart their
moisture in the form of rain in summer, and snow in winter. These
circumstances produce extraordinary falls of snow on the west coast. This
is particularly true of the provinces of Kaga, Noto, Etchū, Echigo, and
even farther north, especially in the mountainous regions. In the northern
part of these districts the snow is often as much as twenty feet deep
during the winter months. The inhabitants are obliged to live in the
second stories of their houses and often find it necessary to make steps
from their houses out to the top of the snow. One effect of these deep
snows is to cover up with a safe protection the shrubs and tender plants
which would otherwise be exposed to the chilling winds of winter. By this
means the tea-shrub and the camellia, which could not withstand the open
winter winds, are protected so as to grow luxuriantly.
The southern islands are materially warmer than the Main island. The
tropical current together with the warm sunshine due to their low
latitude, immerses them in a moist and warm atmosphere. Their productions
are of a sub-tropical character. Cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, sweet
potatoes, oranges, yams, and other plants of a warm latitude, flourish in
Kyūshū and Shikoku. The high mountains and the well watered valleys, the
abundance of forest trees, and wild and luxuriant vegetation,(11) give to
these islands an aspect of perennial verdure.
The productions of the Main island are, as might be expected, far more
various. In the southern part, especially that part bordering on the
Inland sea, the productions are to a large extent similar to those in the
southern islands. Rice and cotton are raised in great abundance. Tea
flourishes particularly in the provinces near Kyōto and also in the rich
valleys of the east coast. Silk-raising is a principal occupation. Nearly
one half in value of all the exports from Japan is raw and manufactured
silk, and a large part of the remainder is tea. The principal food raised
in nearly all the islands is rice. The streams of water which abound
everywhere make the irrigation which rice cultivation requires easy and
effective. Besides the rice which is raised in paddy land there is also a
variety called upland rice. This grows without irrigation but is inferior
to the principal variety in productiveness. In the early rituals of the
Shintō temples prayers were always offered for the five cereals. These
were understood to be rice, millet, barley, beans, and sorghum. All these
have been cultivated from early times, and can be successfully raised in
almost all parts of the islands. Rice cannot, however, be raised north of
the Main island. Millet, barley, and beans are cultivated everywhere, and
are the principal articles of food among the country population. Buckwheat
is also cultivated in all northern parts. It is believed to have been
introduced from Manchuria where it is found growing wild.
The domestic animals of Japan are by no means so abundant as in the
corresponding parts of the continent. The horse has existed here from
antiquity but was only used for riding or as a pack-horse, but never until
recently was used for driving. The cow, owing perhaps to the restrictive
influence of the Buddhist doctrines, was never used for food. Even milk,
butter, and cheese, which from time immemorial formed such important
articles of food throughout Europe and among the nomadic peoples of Asia,
were never used. Sheep are almost unknown even to this day, and where they
have been introduced it is only in very recent times and by foreign
enterprise. Goats are sometimes but not commonly found. On the island of
Ōshima,(12) off the province of Izu, they had multiplied to so great an
extent and were so destructive to vegetation that about 1850 the
inhabitants combined to extirpate them. Swine are found in the Ryūkyū
islands, where they had been brought from China and they are found only
incidentally in other places when introduced by foreigners. Dogs and cats
and barnyard fowl are found in all the islands.
Wild animals are only moderately abundant, as is natural in a country so
thickly inhabited. The black bear is found frequently in the well-wooded
mountains of Yezo and the northern part of the Main island. The great
bear, called also by the Japanese the red bear, and which is the same as
the grizzly bear of North America, is also common in the Kurile islands
and in Yezo. The wolf is sometimes found and the fox is common. The
superstitions concerning the fox are as remarkable as those in the north
of Europe, and have doubtless prevented its destruction. Deer are found in
abundance in almost all parts of the islands. They are, however, most
common in Yezo where immense herds feed upon the plentiful herbage.
The waters around Japan abound in fish. The coast is indented by bays and
inlets which give opportunity for fishing. The warm currents flowing past
the islands bring a great variety of fish which otherwise would not reach
these islands. By far the most common article of food, other than
vegetable, is the fish of various kinds and the shell-fish which are
caught on the coasts and carried inland to almost all parts.
The division of the empire into provinces (_kuni_) was an important step
in practical administration, and it is often referred to in these pages.
This division was first made by the Emperor Seimu A.D. 131-190, when
thirty-two provinces were constituted. The northern boundary of the empire
was indicated by a line across the Main island from Sendai bay to a place
on the west coast nearly corresponding to the present situation of
Ni-igata. North of this line was the acknowledged territory of the Ainos,
and even south of it were many tracts which were the disputed border.
The Empress Jingō, after her return from the expedition against Korea in
A.D. 303, introduced the Korean system of division, by constituting the
home provinces and circuits. After some changes and subdivisions in
subsequent times the apportionment was settled as follows: _Gokinai_ or
the five home provinces, viz. Yamashiro, Yamato, Kawachi, Izumi, and
Settsu; _Tōkaidō_, or eastern sea circuit, 15 provinces; _Tōzandō_, or
eastern mountain circuit, eight provinces; _Sanindō_, or mountain back
circuit, eight provinces; _Sanyōdō_, or mountain front circuit, eight
provinces; and _Saikaidō_, or western sea circuit, nine provinces; in all
sixty-eight provinces. After the close of the war of restoration in 1868,
the large territories in the north of the Main island represented by the
provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, which had been conquered from the Ainos, were
subdivided into seven provinces, thus making seventy-three. Still later
the island of Yezo, with which were associated the Kurile islands, was
created a circuit under the name of _Hok-kaidō_, or north sea circuit,
having eleven provinces. The number of existing provinces therefore is
eighty-four. In recent times these eighty-four provinces have for
administrative purposes been consolidated into three imperial cities
(_fu_), forty-two prefectures (_ken_), and one territory (_chō_). The
imperial cities (_fu_) are Tōkyō, Ōsaka, and Kyōto; the one territory
(_chō_) comprises the island of Yezo and the adjacent small islands
including the Kuriles; and the prefectures (_ken_) have been formed from
the provinces by combining and consolidating them in accordance with their
convenience and proximity.
There are only a few large cities in Japan, but very many of a small
size.(13) Tōkyō,(14) the capital, contains 1,155,200 inhabitants. Ōsaka,
the second largest city contains 473,541; Kyōto, the old capital, 289,588;
Nagoya, 170,433; Kōbé, 136,968; and Yokohama, 127,987. These are all the
cities containing as many as 100,000 inhabitants. Besides these there are
four cities which have between 100,000 and 60,000; twelve which have
between 60,000 and 40,000, and twelve which have between 40,000 and
30,000. The number of smaller towns is very great. The division of the
country into _daimiates_, and the maintenance of a _daimyō_ town in each
led to the establishment of many cities and large villages.
The population of the empire of Japan is to a large extent massed in
cities and villages. Even in the country, among the farmers, the people
are gathered in settlements with wide spaces of cultivated and
uncultivated land between. This is due in a great measure to the character
of the crops and to the primitive nature of the cultivation. Rice, which
is the most common crop, requires irrigation for its successful tillage.
This limits the area occupied to the valleys and to those hillsides where
the streams can be diverted to the rice fields. The area of land under
actual cultivation is about 12,000,000 acres. It has been estimated that
the average amount of land under cultivation is only three quarters of an
acre for each of those engaged in farming. This amount seems to us very
little and can only be explained by the character of the cultivation. The
land almost always is made to bear two crops each year. As soon as one
crop is cleared away, and often even before that, another is planted.
According to the census(15) of 1890 the population of the Japanese empire
is as follows:
Kwazoku (nobles) 3,768
Shizoku (_samurai_) 2,008,641
Heimin (common people) 38,441,052
Total 40,453,461
The areas of the several large islands and their dependencies together
with their population are given below:
Sq. m. Population.
Main island and dependencies 87,485 31,052,068
Shikoku and dependencies 7,031 2,879,260
Kyūshū and dependencies 16,841 6,228,419
Yezo and dependencies 36,299 293,714
Totals 147,656 40,453,461
[Illustration]
Shintoists: Preacher
[Illustration]
Shintoists: Dancer
[Illustration]
Shintoists: Assistant
[Illustration]
Shintoists: The Mirror Dance
CHAPTER II. THE ORIGINAL AND SURVIVING RACES.
In the present population of Japan there are two distinct races, the Ainos
and the Japanese. Of the former there is only a small number now remaining
in the island of Yezo. There was also a remnant in the island of
Saghalien, but in 1875, when a treaty was made with Russia ceding the
Japanese claim to the southern half of Saghalien in exchange for the
Kurile islands, permission was granted for all Japanese subjects who
wished, to remove to the Japanese island of Yezo. Accordingly among other
Japanese subjects seven hundred and fifty Ainos removed to the valley of
the Ishikari, where they have continued to reside.
[Illustration]
Aino Family
The Ainos are probably the original race, who in early times inhabited the
Main island down to the Hakoné pass and possibly farther to the south.
From Japanese history we learn that the military forces of the empire were
constantly employed to suppress the disturbances caused by the barbarous
people of the north. The necessity of this forcible repression, which
frequently recurred, was a chief reason for the formation of a military
class in the early history of Japan. One of the duties imposed on
Yamato-dake by his imperial father (A.D. 71-130) was to chastise and
subdue the Yemishi. This is the name by which the barbarous peoples of the
north and east were known among the Japanese. According to Chamberlain(16)
in his translation of _Kojiki_, the Chinese characters with which the
Yemishi is written mean Prawn Barbarians, in allusion to the long beards
which make their faces resemble a prawn’s head. The hairy people now known
as Ainos are almost certainly referred to. The origin of the term Aino is
unknown. By the Japanese it is believed to be derived from _inu_, meaning
a dog, and to have been bestowed on them in contempt. The name is not used
by the Ainos themselves. In common with the inhabitants of the Kurile
islands and the Japanese portion of Saghalien they call themselves Yezo.
The present characteristics of the Ainos have led many to doubt whether
they are really the descendants of the hardy barbarians who so long
withstood the military power of the Japanese. But the effect of centuries
of repression and conquest must be taken into account. The Ainos have
become the peaceable and inoffensive people which we now find them, by
many generations of cruel and imperious restraint. That they should have
become in this sequence of events a quiet and submissive people is not
wonderful. The number of Ainos in the island of Yezo is given in 1880,
which is the last census made of them, as 16,637(17); and this number is
believed to be gradually decreasing. Travellers who have visited them
unite in testifying to their great amiability and docility. Physically
they are a sturdy and well developed race. The characteristic which has
been noticed in them more than any other is the abundant growth of hair.
The men have a heavy and bushy head of hair and a full beard which is
allowed to grow down to their chests. Other parts of the body are also
covered with a growth which far surpasses that of the ordinary races. In
the matter of food, clothing, houses and implements, they remain in the
most primitive condition. In personal habits they are far less cleanly
than their Japanese neighbors. Travellers(18) who have remained with them
for many weeks assert that in all that time they never saw them wash
either their persons or their clothes.
They practise few arts. The making of pottery even in its rudest forms is
unknown. All vessels in use are obtained by barter from the Japanese.
Occasionally an old-fashioned Japanese matchlock gun is found among them,
but mainly their hunting is carried on with bows and arrows. Their fishing
is conducted with the rude apparatus which their ancestors used. They have
no written language, and even the pictorial writing, which has often been
found among rude people, seems to be utterly unknown among them. Their
religious ideas(19) are of the most vague and incoherent description. The
objects of worship are chiefly inanimate objects such as rivers, rocks and
mountains. They seem to have a certain fear of the spirit land. They do
not readily talk about their deceased ancestors. Their places of burial
are concealed, and foreigners rarely obtain access to them.
In their rude superstitions the bear seems to have a singular part.
Whether their traditions concerning this animal had their origin in some
earlier fear of the bear as a ferocious neighbor it is impossible to
determine. In every community the men capture each spring a young cub
which they bring home. They entrust it to a woman who feeds it on the milk
from her breast. When it is too old to be further nursed in this way, it
is confined in a bear cage provided for the purpose. Then in the autumn of
the following year the grand bear festival is held. At an appointed signal
the door of the cage is opened and the bear, which has been infuriated by
hunger and teasing attacks, rushes out. The assembled hunters rush upon
him with bows and arrows, clubs and knives, and after an exciting struggle
despatch him. The carcass is cut in pieces and distributed among the
families of the community, who feast upon it with great delight. Mingled
with this rough and exciting scene is much _saké_ drinking. This is one
accomplishment which they have learned from the Japanese. The men are all
confirmed _saké_ drinkers, and both men and women persistent smokers. Of
the meaning and object of this bear feast the Ainos themselves are
ignorant. It goes back to a period beyond their present traditions.
Whether it has in it an element of bear worship it is impossible to learn.
The remains of the Stone age which are found in the northern part of the
Main island are usually attributed to the Ainos. These remains have been
collected and studied both by native scholars and by foreigners. Among the
most important of them have been the articles found in shell heaps
uncovered in different parts of the empire. The first(20) to which foreign
attention was drawn was that at Ōmori, near Tōkyō. Since then many others
have been opened and many valuable finds have been reported. The shell
heaps have evidently been used like kitchen-middens in Europe and
elsewhere, as places for dumping the refuse of shell-fish used for food.
These became places for the throwing of useless and broken articles used
in the household, and thus have been the means of preserving many of the
implements used in prehistoric times. The most significant discovery made
in these shell heaps was that at Ōmori, of the bones of human beings
artificially broken in such a way as to indicate that cannibalism had been
prevalent at the time. Whether this can be assumed as sufficient proof of
so grave a charge has been disputed. It is claimed(21) that in at least
seven similar shell heaps no human bones and no evidences of cannibalism
were found. If however the case is considered as sufficiently proved, it
is clear from this as well as from many other circumstances that the Ainos
of that early day were by no means the mild and gentle race which we now
find them. It is interesting to note that Marco Polo(22) mentions
cannibalism as one of the customs which were believed to exist in Japan in
his day.
Besides the Ainos there is evidence of the existence of another savage
tribe, which at an early date seems to have been found in many parts of
the Main island, and at a later date in the island of Yezo and the Kurile
islands on the north. They are the so-called pit-dwellers. In the very
earliest writings of the Japanese we find references to them. They dug
pits in the earth and built over them a roof, and used these pits or
cellars as rooms in which to sleep. The Japanese conquerors in the central
parts of the Main island had many conflicts with these pit-dwellers. And
in the north and east they as well as the Ainos were encountered by the
military forces of the empire. They were probably driven north by the more
powerful Ainos and have almost disappeared. Abundant evidence(23) however
is found in the island of Yezo of their previous existence. The Ainos in
their traditions call them Koro-pok-guru,(24) or hole-men. Among the
Japanese they are spoken of as Ko-bito, or dwarfs. There are said to be
still in Yezo the remains of villages where these men lived in earlier
times. In the Kurile islands, in the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and in the
southern part of Saghalien remnants of this primitive people are met with.
Turning now to the Japanese race which extends from the Kurile islands on
the north to the Ryūkyū islands on the south, we see at once that it is a
mixed race containing widely different elements. Even after the many
centuries during which the amalgamation has been going on, we recognize
still the varying types to which the individuals tend. In the south more
than in the north, and more among the ruling classes than in the laboring
classes there are specimens of a delicate, refined appearance, face oval,
eyes oblique, nose slightly Roman, and frame delicate but well
proportioned. Then there is another type which has been recognized by all
observers. It is found more in the north than the south and is much more
common among the laboring population than among the higher classes. The
face is broad and the cheek bones prominent. The nose is flat and the eyes
are horizontal. The frame is robust and muscular, but not so well
proportioned and regular as in the former type. These two types with many
intervening links are found everywhere. The characteristics are perhaps
more marked among the women than the men. Especially among the aristocracy
the women have been less affected by weather and exposure and physical
exertion than the men. In the regions about Kyōto and in the western
portions of the Main island the prevalence of what may be called the
aristocratic type is most marked. Even in the time of the Dutch trade with
Japan, Kaempfer(25) refers to the women of Saga, on the south coast of the
Inland sea, as “handsomer than in any other Asiatic country.” The northern
regions, including the old provinces of Mutsu and Dewa, show a much larger
element of the more robust type. The men are more muscular and of a darker
complexion. Their faces are broader and flatter and their hair and beard
more abundant. They show probably the influence of the admixture with the
Aino race, which within historic times inhabited these provinces.
Dr. Baelz, a German scholar who has spent many years in Japan, has devoted
much study to the races of Japan, and has made elaborate measurements both
of living specimens and skeletons. His conclusions may be safely followed,
as having been reached by adequate study and by personal
investigation.(26) Mainly following him therefore we give briefly the
results of the best thought in regard to the ethnography of the races now
inhabiting the Japanese islands.
The Ainos of the present day are the descendants of the original occupants
of northern and central portions of the Main island. Their share in the
ancestry of the present Japanese people is not great, but still sensible,
and has contributed to the personal peculiarities which are found in the
inhabitants of these regions. They probably came originally from the
continent by way of the Kurile islands, or by the island of Saghalien.
They belong to the northern group of the Mongolians who inhabit the
regions about Kamtschatka and adjacent parts of Siberia. They have left
marks of their occupancy on the Main island as far south as the Hakoné
pass, in the shell heaps, flint arrow-heads, and remains of primitive
pottery which are still found. These marks indicate a low degree of
civilization, and the persistence with which they withstood the Japanese
conquerors, and the harshness and contempt with which they were always
treated, have prevented them from mingling to any great extent with their
conquerors or accepting their culture.
The twofold character of the Japanese race as it is seen at present can
best be explained by two extensive migrations from the continent. The
first of these migrations probably took place from Korea, whence they
landed on the Main island in the province of Izumo. This will account for
the mythological legends which in the early Japanese accounts cluster to
so great an extent around Izumo. It will also explain why it was that when
Jimmu Tennō came on his expedition from the island of Kyūshū, he found on
the Main island inhabitants who in all essential particulars resembled his
own forces, and with whom he formed alliances. This first migration seems
to have belonged to a rougher and more barbarous tribe of the Mongolian
race, and has given rise to the more robust and muscular element now found
among the people.
The second migration may have come across by the same route and landed on
the island of Kyūshū. They may have marched across the island or skirted
around its southern cape and spread themselves out in the province of
Hyūga, where in the Japanese accounts we first find them. This migration
probably occurred long after the first, and came evidently from a more
cultured tribe of the great Mongolian race. That they came from the same
race is evident from their understanding the same language, and having
habits and methods of government which were not a surprise to the
new-comers, and in which they readily co-operated. On the contrary, the
ruder tribes at the north of the Main island were spoken of as
Yemishi,—that is, barbarians, and recognized from the first as different
and inferior.
While the natural and easiest route to Japan would be by way of the
peninsula of Korea, and by the narrow straits about 125 miles in
width,—divided into two shorter parts by the island Tsushima lying about
half-way between,—it is possible that this second migration may have taken
place through Formosa and the Ryūkyū islands. This would perhaps account
better for the Malay element which is claimed by many to be found in the
population of the southern islands. This is attempted to be accounted for
by the drifting of Malay castaways along the equatorial current upon the
Ryūkyū islands, whence they spread to the southern islands of Japan. But
the existence of this Malay element is denied by many observers who have
visited the Ryūkyū islands and aver that among the islanders there is no
evidence of the existence at any time of a Malay immigration, that the
language is only slightly different from the Japanese, and in personal
appearance they are as like to the Koreans and Chinese as the Japanese
themselves.
Some of the most important measurements which Dr. Baelz has made of the
Japanese races are here given, converted into English measures for more
ready comprehension.
The average height of the males among the Japanese, as obtained by the
measurements of skeletons verified by measurements of living specimens, is
5.02 feet, ranging from 4.76 feet to 5.44 feet. The average height of the
females measured was 4.66 feet, ranging from 4.46 feet to 4.92 feet.
Referring to the skulls measured by him he says that relatively they are
large, as is always the case among people of small size.
The measurements of the Ainos by Dr. Scheube as given by Dr. Rein(27) are:
average height of males 4.9 feet to 5.2 feet, and of females 4.8 feet to
5.0 feet, which do not differ very greatly from the measurements of the
Japanese as given by Dr. Baelz.
CHAPTER III. MYTHS AND LEGENDS.
The art of writing and printing was not introduced into Japan until A.D.
284, when it was brought from China. Up to that time therefore no written
accounts existed or could exist of the early history of the country. Oral
tradition was the only agency by which a knowledge of the events of that
epoch could be preserved and transmitted. That such a method of preserving
history(28) is uncertain and questionable no one can doubt. We may expect
to find therefore in the accounts which have come down to us of those
centuries which transpired before written records were introduced, much
that is contradictory and unintelligible, and much out of which the truth
can be gleaned only by the most painstaking research.
The oldest book of Japanese history which has come down to us is called
_Kojiki_,(29) or _Records of Ancient __ Matters_. This work was undertaken
by the direction of the Emperor Temmu (A.D. 673-686), who became impressed
with the necessity of collecting the ancient traditions which were still
extant, and preserving them in a permanent record. Before the work was
ended the emperor died, and for twenty-five years the collected traditions
were preserved in the memory of Hiyeda-no-are. At the end of that time the
Empress Gemmyō superintended its completion, and it was finally presented
to the Court in A.D. 711. By a comparison of this work with _Nihongi_, or
_Chronicles of Japan_, which was completed A.D. 720, only nine years after
the other, we are convinced that the era of Chinese classicism had not yet
fallen upon the country. The style of the older book is a purer Japanese,
and imparts to us the traditions of Japanese history uncolored by Chinese
philosophical ideas and classic pedantry which shortly after overwhelmed
Japanese literature. But in many particulars these two works, almost
equally ancient, supplement and explain each other. The events given in
the two are in most respects the same, the principal difference being that
the _Chronicles_ is much more tinctured with Chinese philosophy, and the
myths concerning the creation especially show the influence of that dual
system which had been introduced to give a philosophical aspect to the
Japanese cosmogony.
The _Kojiki_(30) has been translated into English, to which have been
added a valuable introduction and notes. The _Nihongi_ (_Chronicles of
Japan_) has never been translated entire into English, but has been used
by scholars in connection with the _Kojiki_. Among the Japanese it has
always been more highly esteemed than the _Kojiki_, perhaps because of its
more learned and classical style.
Besides these two historical works the student of early times finds his
chief assistance in the Shintō rituals(31) contained in a work called
_Yengishiki_ (_Code of Ceremonial Law_). They have been in part translated
by Mr. Satow, who for many years was the learned Japanese secretary of the
British legation, and who read two papers on them before the Asiatic
Society of Japan, and afterward prepared an article on the same subject
for the _Westminster Review_.(32)
It will be apparent from these circumstances that the knowledge of the
earlier events, indeed of all preceding the ninth century, must be derived
from tradition and cannot claim the same certainty as when based on
contemporaneous documents. Not only the whole of the so-called divine age,
but the reigns of the emperors from Jimmu to Richū, must be reckoned as
belonging to the traditional period of Japanese history, and must be
sifted and weighed by the processes of reason.
Relying on the narratives of the _Kojiki_ and the _Nihongi_, Japanese
scholars have constructed a table of the emperors which has been accepted
by the great mass of the readers, both foreign and native. It will be
found in the Appendix.(33) It must be remembered that the names of these
early emperors, their ages at the time of accession and at the time of
death, and the length of reign, must have all been handed down by
tradition during almost a thousand years. That errors and uncertainties
should have crept in seems inevitable. Either the names and order of the
successive emperors, or the length of time during which they reigned would
be liable to be misstated. If we examine the list of emperors(34) we find
that the ages at death of the first seventeen, beginning with Jimmu and
ending with Nintoku, sum up 1853 years, with an average of 109 years(35)
for each. The age of Jimmu is given as 127 years; of Kōan 137 years, of
Kōrei 128 years, of Keikō 143 years, of Nintoku, the last, 110 years, etc.
Then suddenly the ages of the emperors from Richū onward drop to 67, 60,
80, 56, etc., so that the ages of the seventeen emperors, beginning with
Richū, have an average of only 61-½ years. This reasonable average extends
down through the long series to the present time. It is plain that up to
this time there must have existed a different system of reckoning the ages
than that which pertained afterwards. Either the original epoch of the
Emperor Jimmu has been rendered more remote and the lives of the emperors
have been prolonged to fill up the space, or, if we assume the epoch of
Jimmu to be correct, we must suppose that a number of the emperors have
been dropped from the count.
The sudden depression in the ages occurs about the time of the
introduction of writing from China, which occurred in A.D. 284. Wani, who
came from Korea to Japan bringing continental culture with him, was
appointed tutor to the heir-apparent who became the Emperor Nintoku.
During his and subsequent reigns a knowledge of Chinese writing gradually
spread, so that the annals of the Imperial court were kept in regular and
stated order. This will account without difficulty for the sudden change
and for the irregularity of the early chronology.
Notwithstanding the almost absolute certainty of error which exists in the
received Japanese chronology, it is by far more convenient to accept it in
the form it is presented to us, and use it as if it were true. The early
history must be treated as traditional and only the later period from the
beginning of the fourth century can be accepted as in any sense
historical. Yet the events of the earlier period which have been preserved
for us by oral tradition are capable with due care and inspection of
furnishing important lessons and disclosing many facts in regard to the
lives and characteristics of the primitive Japanese.
In writing the history of Rome, Dr. Thomas Arnold(36) said that the only
way to treat its early history was to give the early legends in as nearly
the form in which they had been handed down as possible; that in this way
the spirit of the people would be preserved and the residuum of truth in
them would become the heritage of the present generation. We have tried to
treat the myths and legends of Japanese history in this manner, and have
given the principal stories as they are preserved among the Japanese.
_The Origin of the Celestial Deities._
The scene opens in the plain of high heaven. When heaven and earth began
there were three deities(37) in existence, that is:
Master-of-the-August-Centre-of-Heaven,
High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity,
Divine-Producing-Wondrous-Deity.
These three came into existence without creation and afterwards died.
Then two other deities were born from a thing that sprouted up like unto a
reed shoot when the earth, young and like unto floating oil, drifted about
medusa-like, viz.:
Pleasant-Reed-Shoot-Prince-Elder-Deity,
Heavenly-Externally-Standing-Deity.
These two deities likewise came into existence without creation and
afterward died.
The five deities above named are called the Heavenly Deities.
Next were born,
Earthly-Eternally-Standing-Deity,
Luxuriant-Integrating-Master-Deity.
These two deities likewise came into existence without creation and
afterwards died.
Next were born,
Mud-Earth-Lord and Mud-Earth-Lady,
Germ-Integrating-Deity and Life-Integrating-Deity,
Elder-of-the-Great-Place and Elder-Lady-of-the-Great-Place,
Perfect-Exterior and Oh-Awful-Lady,
The-Male-who-invites and The-Female-who-invites;
or Izanagi and Izanami.
The two deities named above together with these five pairs are called the
seven divine generations.
_The Creation of the Japanese Islands._
Then the heavenly deities gave commandment to Izanagi and Izanami to make,
consolidate, and give birth to this drifting land. For their divine
mission they received a heavenly jewelled spear. With this, standing on
the floating bridge of heaven, they reached down and stirred the brine and
then drew up the spear. The brine that dripped from the end of the spear
was piled up and became the island of Onogoro(38) or Self-Coagulated
Island. Then the pair descended upon this island and erected thereon a
palace eight fathoms long. Here they lived and begat successive islands.
The first was the island of Hirugo, which, as it was a miscarriage, they
put in a boat of bulrushes and let it float away. The second was the
island of Awa, which also is not reckoned among their offspring. The next
was the island of Awaji,(39) and the next the land of Iyo by which is
understood the present island of Shikoku.
So in succession they produced the islands of Mitsugo, near the island of
Oki, the island of Tsukushi, which is now called Kyūshū, the island of
Iki, the island of Tsu, and the island of Sado, and lastly the
Great-Yamato-the-Luxuriant-Island-of-the-Dragon-Fly, which is supposed to
mean the principal island, named in these pages the Main island. Afterward
they produced Kojima in Kibi, Ōshima, the island of Adzuki, the island of
Hime, the island of Chika, and the islands of Futago.
Thus were finished the labors of this industrious pair in producing the
islands of Japan. Then they turned to the duty of begetting additional
deities, and thirty-five are named as their descendants. But as their
names do not appear in the record of subsequent events, we omit them here.
Finally the Deity of Fire was born, and the mother in giving birth to this
child died and departed into hades. Izanagi was overwhelmed with grief at
his wife’s death. The tears which he shed turned into the
Crying-Weeping-Female-Deity. In his madness he drew the ten-grasp(40)
sabre with which he was augustly girded, and cut off the head of the Deity
of Fire. Three deities were born from the blood that stuck to the blade;
three were born from the blood that besprinkled the sword guard; two were
born from the blood which oozed out through his fingers as they grasped
the hilt; and eight were born from the head and trunk of the slaughtered
deity.
_Descent into Hades._
Then Izanagi resolved to follow his spouse into the land of hades. At the
gate of the palace of hades she came out to meet him. After an interview
with him she went back to seek the advice of the deities of hades. To her
impatient husband she seemed to tarry too long. So he broke off the
end-tooth of the comb stuck in his hair, and kindling it as a torch he
went in. He was appalled by the dreadful pollution of the place, and by
the loathsome condition of his spouse. He fled from the scene followed by
the furious guards. By guile and by force, however, he escaped and came
again to the upper regions.
_Purification of Izanagi._
Then Izanagi, in order to purify himself from the pollution of hades, came
to a small stream on the island of Tsukushi. So he threw down the august
staff which he carried and it became a deity. He took off his girdle and
it became a deity. He threw down his skirt and it became a deity. And he
took off his upper garment and it became a deity. And from his trousers
which he threw down there was born a deity. Three deities were born from
the bracelet which he took from his left arm, and three from the bracelet
which he took from his right arm. Thus twelve deities were born from the
things which he took off.
Then he found that the waters in the upper reach were too rapid, and the
waters in the lower reach were too sluggish. So he plunged into the waters
of the middle reach. And as he washed, there were born successive deities,
whose names it is not needful to mention. But when he washed his left
august eye there was born from it the
Heaven-Shining-Great-August-Deity,(41) or as she is often called the Sun
Goddess.
When he washed his right august eye there was born
His-Augustness-Moon-Night-Possessor. Then when he washed his august nose
there was born His-Brave-Swift-Impetuous-Male-Augustness. Thus fourteen
deities were born from his bathing. All these deities, as well as those
before produced, seem to have come into being in full maturity, and did
not need years of growth to develop their final powers.
Izanagi was greatly delighted with the beauty and brilliancy of these last
three children. He took from his neck his august necklace and gave it to
the Sun Goddess, saying, Rule thou in the plains of high heaven. Then he
gave command to the Moon-Night-Possessor, Rule thou the dominion of the
night.
And to His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness he commanded, Rule thou the plain of
the sea. But His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness did not assume command of his
domain, but cried and wept till his beard reached the pit of his stomach.
Then Izanagi said to him, How is it that thou dost not take possession of
thy domain, but dost wail and weep? He replied, I weep because I wish to
go to my mother in hades. Then Izanagi said, If that be so thou shalt not
dwell in this land. So he expelled him with a divine expulsion (whatever
that may mean).
_Visit of His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness to the Heavenly Plains._
Then His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness said, I will first take leave of my
sister who rules in the plains of heaven. When the Sun Goddess saw her
brother coming she put jewels in her hair and on her arms, slung two
quivers of arrows on her back, put an elbow pad upon her left arm, and,
brandishing her bow, she went out to meet him. She demanded of him why he
ascended hither. Then he replied that he had no malicious intentions; that
his august father had expelled him with a divine expulsion, and that he
had come to take leave of her before departing to the land of hades.
Thereupon she proposed to him a test of his sincerity. They stood on
opposite sides of the tranquil river of heaven. She begged him to reach
her his mighty sabre. She broke it into three pieces and crunched the
pieces in her mouth, and blew the fragments away. Her breath and the
fragments which she blew away were turned into three female deities. Then
His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness took the jewels which she wore in her hair,
and the jewels which she wore in her head-dress, and the jewels she wore
on her left arm, and the jewels she wore on her right arm, and crunched
them and blew them out, and they were turned into five male deities. Then
the Sun Goddess declared that the three female deities which were produced
from her brother’s sword belonged to him, and the five male deities which
were produced from her own jewels belonged to her. But
His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness was angry at this decision, and broke down
the fences of her rice fields, and filled up the water sluices, and
defiled her garden. And as she sat with her maidens in the weaving hall,
he broke a hole in the roof and dropped upon them a piebald horse which he
had flayed with a backward flaying.(42)
_Retirement of the Sun Goddess._
Then the Sun Goddess closed the door of the cave in which the weaving hall
was, and the whole plain of heaven and the Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains
were darkened, and night prevailed, and portents of woe were seen on every
hand. Myriads of deities assembled in the bed of the tranquil river of
heaven and besought the deity Thought-Includer, child of the
High-August-Producing-Wondrous-Deity, the second of the original trio of
deities, to propose a plan for inducing the Sun Goddess to reappear. They
gathered the cocks of the barn-door fowl and made them crow; they wrought
a metal mirror; they constructed a string of beautiful jewels; they
performed divination with the shoulder-blade of a stag; they took a plant
of Sakaki and hung on its branches the strings of jewels, the mirror, and
offerings of peace. Then they caused the rituals to be recited, and a
dance to be danced, and all the assembled deities laughed aloud. The Sun
Goddess heard these sounds of merriment and was amazed. She softly opened
the door and looked out, and asked the meaning of all this tumult. They
told her it was because they had found another goddess more illustrious
than she. At the same time they held before her luminous face the mirror
which they had made. Astonished, she stepped out, and they shut and
fastened the door behind her. And the plain of heaven and the
Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains became light again.
Then the assembled deities took council together, and caused
His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness to be punished and expelled with a divine
expulsion.
_His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness in Izumo._
So His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness came to the river Hi in Izumo. And he
found there an old man and an old woman and a young girl, and they were
weeping. And he asked them why they wept. And the old man answered. I once
had eight daughters; but every year an eight-forked serpent comes and
devours one of them; and now it is the time for it to come again. Then the
deity said, Wilt thou give me thy daughter if I save her from the serpent?
And he eagerly promised her. Then the deity said, Do you brew eight tubs
of strong _saké_, and set each on a platform within an enclosure. So they
brewed and set the _saké_ according to his bidding. Then the eight-forked
serpent came and putting a head in each tub drank up all the _saké_, and
being intoxicated therewith went to sleep. The deity then with his sabre
hacked the serpent in pieces, and the blood flowed out and reddened the
river. But when he came to the middle tail his sabre was broken, and when
he searched he found that within the tail was a great sword which he took
out. And this is the herb-quelling-great-sword.
Then His-Impetuous-Male-Augustness built for himself a palace and dwelt
there with his wife, and made the old man the master of his palace.
Here follows a line of legends relating to the deities of the land of
Izumo, which do not concern particularly our story, except that they show
that Izumo was closely connected with the early migrations from the
continent. It must be remembered that Izumo lies almost directly opposite
to Korea, and that this would be a natural point to which the nomadic
tribes of Asia would turn in seeking for new fields in which to settle.
_Plans for Pacifying the Land._
Then the heavenly deities consulted together how they might pacify the
lands of Japan. They sent down one of their number to report on its
condition. But he went no farther than the floating bridge of heaven, and
seeing the violence which prevailed he returned. Then they sent another;
but he made friends with the insurgent deities and brought back no report.
Again they sent an envoy, who married the daughter of the insurgent deity,
and for eight years sent back no report. After this they sent a pheasant
down to inquire why a report was not sent. This bird perched on a cassia
tree at the palace gate of the delinquent envoy, and he hearing its
mournful croaking shot it with an arrow, which flew up through the ether
and landed in the plains of heaven. The arrow was shot down again and
killed the envoy. Finally two other envoys were sent down, who landed in
Izumo, and after some parley with the refractory deities of the land
received their adhesion and settled and pacified the land. Then they
returned to the heavenly plains and reported that peace was established.
_Descent of the August Grandchild._
The Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains(43) being now reported as peaceful, the
heavenly deities sent
His-Augustness-Heaven-Plenty-Earth-Plenty-Heaven’s-Sun-Height-Prince-Rice-Ear-Ruddy-Plenty,(44)
who was a grandson of Her-Augustness-the-Sun-Goddess, to dwell in and rule
over it. There were joined to him in this mission(45) the
Deity-Prince-of-Saruta as his vanguard and five chiefs of companies. They
gave him also the string of jewels and the mirror with which the Sun
Goddess had been allured from the cave, and also the
herb-quelling-great-sword which His-Augustness-the-Impetuous-Male-Deity
had taken from the tail of the serpent. And they charged him saying,
Regard this mirror precisely as if it were our august spirit, and
reverence it as if reverencing us.
Then His-Augustness-Heaven’s-Prince-Rice-Ear-Ruddy-Plenty, taking leave of
the plains of heaven, and pushing asunder the heavenly spreading clouds,
descended upon the peak of Takachiho(46) in Tsukushi, a mountain which is
still pointed out in the present island of Kyūshū. And noting that the
place was an exceedingly good country, he built for himself a palace and
dwelt there. And he married a wife who was the daughter of a deity of the
place, who bore him three sons whom he named Prince Fire-Shine, Prince
Fire-Climax, and Prince Fire-Subside.
_Princes Fire-Shine and Fire-Subside._
Now Prince Fire-Shine was a notable fisherman and Prince Fire-Subside was
a hunter. And Prince Fire-Subside said unto his elder brother, Let us
exchange our occupations and try our luck. And after some hesitation on
the part of the elder brother the exchange was made. But Prince
Fire-Subside was not successful and lost the fish-hook in the sea. Then
Prince Fire-Shine proposed to his younger brother to exchange back the
implements which they had used. But the younger brother said he had had no
luck and had lost the hook in the sea. But Prince Fire-Shine was angry and
demanded his hook. Then Prince Fire-Subside broke his sword into many
fragments and made them into fish-hooks, which he gave to his brother in
place of the one he had lost. But he would not receive them. Then he made
a thousand fish-hooks and offered these. But he said, I want my original
hook.
And as Prince Fire-Subside was weeping by the sea shore the Deity
Salt-Possessor came to him and asked him why he wept. He replied, I have
exchanged a fish-hook with my elder brother, and have lost it, and he will
not be satisfied with any compensation I can make, but demands the
original hook. Then the Deity Salt-Possessor built a boat and set him in
it, and said to him, Sail on in this boat along this way, and you will
come to a palace built of fishes’ scales. It is the palace of the Deity
Ocean-Possessor. There will be a cassia tree by the well near the palace.
Go and sit in the top of that tree, and the daughter of the
Ocean-Possessor will come to thee and tell thee what to do.
So he sailed away in the boat and came to the palace of the
Ocean-Possessor, and he climbed the cassia tree and sat there. And the
maidens of the daughter of the Sea Deity came out to draw water, and saw
the beautiful young man sitting in the tree. Then he asked them for some
water. And they drew water and gave it to him in a jewelled cup. Without
drinking from it he took the jewel from his neck and put it in his mouth
and spat it into the vessel, and it clung to the vessel. So the maidens
took the vessel and the jewel clinging to it into the palace to their
mistress. And they told her that a beautiful young man was sitting in the
cassia tree by the well.
The Sea Deity then went out himself and recognized the young man as Prince
Fire-Subside. He brought him into the palace, spread rugs for him to sit
on, and made a banquet for him. He gave him his daughter in marriage, and
he abode there three years.
At last one morning his daughter reported to the Sea Deity that Prince
Fire-Subside, although he had passed three years without a sigh, yet last
night he had heaved one deep sigh. The Sea Deity asked him why he sighed.
Then Prince Fire-Subside told him about his difficulty with his brother,
and how he would accept no compensation for his lost fish-hook, but
demanded the return of the original. Thereupon the Sea Deity summoned
together all the fishes of the sea and asked them if any one of them had
swallowed this hook. And all the fishes said that the _tai_ had complained
of something sticking in its throat, and doubtless that was the lost hook.
The throat of the _tai_ therefore being examined, the hook was found and
given to Prince Fire-Subside.
Then the Sea Deity dismissed him to his own country, and gave him two
jewels, a flow-tide jewel and an ebb-tide jewel. And he set him on the
head of an immense crocodile and bade the crocodile convey him carefully
and come back and make a report. And Prince Fire-Subside gave the
recovered hook to his brother. But a spirit of animosity still dwelt in
his heart, and he tried to kill his brother. Then Prince Fire-Subside
threw out the flow-tide jewel, and the tide came in upon the Prince
Fire-Shine and was about to drown him. And he cried out to his brother and
expressed his repentance. Then Prince Fire-Subside threw out the ebb-tide
jewel and the tide flowed back and left him safe.
Then Prince Fire-Shine bowed his head before his younger brother, and
said, Henceforth I will be thy guard by day and night, and will faithfully
serve thee.
And His-Augustness-Prince-Fire-Subside succeeded his father and dwelt in
the palace of Takachiho five hundred and eighty years. The place of his
tomb is still shown on Mount Takachiho in the province of Hyūga of the
island of Kyūshū. And he left as his successor his son, whom the daughter
of the Sea Deity had borne him. And this son was the father of
His-Augustness-Divine-Yamato-Iware-Prince, who is known to posterity by
his canonical name of Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan.
CHAPTER IV. FOUNDING THE EMPIRE.
We have now come to the time when the movements which resulted in the
establishment of the empire of Japan took place. The events are still
overlaid with myth and legend, which could only have been transmitted by
oral tradition. But they have to do with characters and places which are
tied to the present by stronger cords than those of the divine age. What
the events really were which are involved in the myths of the preceding
chapter it is impossible to predicate. That the celestial invasion of the
island of Kyūshū means the coming thither of a chief and his followers
from the continent by way of Korea seems most reasonable. The
inter-mixture of Izumo with these legends may mean that another migration
of a kindred race took place to that part of the Main island. The easy
access to both Izumo and Kyūshū from Korea makes these migrations the
natural explanation of the landing of the Japanese upon these fertile and
tempting islands.
Without settling the difficult ethnographical questions which are involved
in this problem, we propose to follow the Kyūshū invaders into the Main
island. We will note the slow and laborious steps by which they proceeded
to establish a government, which through many changes and emergencies
continues to this day.
The Prince, whom we will continue to call Jimmu,(47) had an elder brother,
Prince Itsu-se, who seems, however, to have been less active and energetic
than the younger. At least, even from the first it is Prince Jimmu who is
represented as taking the initiative in the movements which were now
begun. The two brothers consulted together and resolved to conduct an
expedition towards the east. It will be remembered that their grandfather
had established his palace on Mount Takachiho, which is one of the two
highest peaks in Kyūshū, situated in the province of Hyūga, nearly in the
middle of the southern extension of the island of Kyūshū. It was from this
place that the two brothers started on their expedition. It was no doubt
such an expedition as the Norse Vikings of a later day often led into the
islands of their neighbors. They had with them a force composed of the
descendants of the invaders who had come with their grandfather from the
continent. They marched first through the country called Toyo, which was a
luxuriant and fertile region on the northeast part of the island. Thence
they marched to the palace of Wokada, situated in a district of the island
of Tsukushi, lying on the northwest coast facing Tsushima and the
peninsula of Korea, and bordering on the straits of the Inland sea. Here
they remained a year and probably built the boats by which they crossed
the Inland sea.
From Tsukushi they crossed to the province of Aki in the Main island on
the coast of the Inland sea, where it is said they remained seven years.
The progress seems like that of the hordes of the Goths in the early ages
of European history. It was not merely a military expedition, but a
migration of a tribe with all its belongings, women and children, old men
and old women, and household and agricultural effects. The military band
under Prince Jimmu and his brother formed the vanguard and protection of
the tribe. During their seven years’ sojourn in Aki they were compelled to
resort to agriculture as well as fishing for their support.
Then they skirted along the north coast of the Inland sea to Takashima in
the province of Kibi. Thence they crept with their awkward boats eastward
among the luxuriant islands. They met a native of the coast out in his
boat fishing and engaged his services as a guide. He conducted them to
Naniwa, which now bears the name of Ōsaka, where they encountered the
swift tides and rough sea which navigators still meet in this place.
Finally they landed at a point which we cannot recognize, but which must
have been in the neighborhood of Ōsaka at the mouth of the Yodo river.
Here their conflicts with the natives began. The whole region seems to
have been occupied by tribes not unlike their own, who had probably come
thither from the settlements in Izumo. The first to dispute their progress
was Prince Nagasuné (Long Legs), of Tomi, who raised an army and resisted
the landing of the invaders. It was in the battle that ensued at this
place that Prince Itsu-se, the elder brother, received a wound in his hand
from an arrow shot by Prince Nagasuné. The reason given reveals a curious
superstition which seems to have prevailed from this early time. The
Japanese prince on receiving the wound exclaims, “It is not right for me,
an august child of the Sun Goddess, to fight facing the sun. It is for
this reason that I am stricken by the wretched villain’s hurtful hand.”
Prince Itsu-se, after a few days, died from the effects of the wound. He
is buried on mount Kama in the province of Kii.
It is needless to recount all the legends which cluster around this
invasion of the central provinces of Japan; about the wild boar which came
out of the mountains near Kumano, before which Prince Jimmu and all his
warriors fell down in a faint; about the miraculous sword which was sent
down from the heavenly plains to aid him in subduing the
Central-Land-of-Reed-Plains; about a crow eight feet long which was sent
to guide him in his expedition, and about the deities with tails who in
several places were encountered. To our conception they seem meaningless,
and do not in any measure contribute to the progress of the story. They
bear evidence of a later invention, and do not belong legitimately to the
narrative.
At Uda, on the east coast of the Yamato peninsula, there lived two
brothers named Ukashi. The elder brother undertook to deceive Prince
Jimmu, and set a trap in which to capture and slay him. But the younger
brother revealed the plot, whereupon the followers of Prince Jimmu
compelled the traitor to retreat into his own trap, where they killed him.
The younger brother was honored and rewarded by Jimmu, and appears
afterward among the hereditary princes of the country.
Again, as he was making his progress through the country Prince Jimmu came
upon a company of the savages known as pit-dwellers,(48) whom the _Kojiki_
calls earth-spiders, and describes them as having tails. There appear to
have existed at this period remnants of these tribes as far south as the
35th parallel. At a later period they were driven out by the Ainos, and
nothing but some of their relics now exists, even in Yezo. The peculiarity
by which they were known was, that they lived in a sort of pit dug out of
the earth in the sides of the mountains, over which they built a roof of
limbs and grass. In the present case there were eighty of the warriors of
this tribe. Prince Jimmu made a banquet for them in one of their pits and
assigned an equal number of his own men to act as attendants. Each of
these attendants was girded with a sword. Then from a post outside he sang
a song,(49) and at a given signal in this song the eighty attendants fell
upon the eighty earth-spiders and slew them all.
Thus having subdued all opposing forces and brought the country into
subjection, Prince Jimmu established himself in a palace built for him at
Kashiwara in the province of Yamato. This is usually regarded by Japanese
historians as the beginning of the empire, and the present era(50) is
reckoned from this establishment of a capital in Yamato. From the record
of the length of the reigns of the several emperors contained in the
_Kojiki_, and the _Nihongi_, and later books, the date of the accession of
the Emperor Jimmu is fixed at 660 B.C. We have given elsewhere(51) our
reason for believing the record of the early reigns of doubtful
authenticity. Nevertheless, as it is impossible to propose a definite
change, it is better to use the accepted scheme with its admitted defects.
The Emperor Jimmu after his accession continued to reign seventy-five
years and, according to the _Kojiki_, died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven. The _Nihongi_, however, gives his age at death as one
hundred and twenty-seven, and this has been adopted by the government in
its published chronology.(52) His burial place is said to be on the
northern side of mount Unebi in the province of Yamato. It is just to
assign to the Emperor Jimmu the exalted place which the Japanese claim for
him in their history. That he was a prince of high enterprise is evident
from his adventurous expedition from the home of his family into the
barbarous and unknown regions of the Main island. He accomplished its
conquest with less slaughter and cruelty than the customs of the times
seemed to justify. He made it his policy to effect terms with the native
princes and seek their co-operation in his government. He extended his
sway so that it covered Anato, now known as Nagato, and Izumo on the west,
and reached probably to Owari on the east. All this time he had held a
firm hand on the island from which he had come, so that few if any
outbreaks occurred among its restless Turanian or native inhabitants.
The Emperor Jimmu was succeeded by his third son, known by his canonical
name as the Emperor Suizei. The reigning emperor, it seems, exercised the
right to select the son who should succeed him. This was not always the
oldest son, but from the time he was chosen he was known as _taishi_,
which is nearly equivalent to the English term crown prince. The Emperor
Suizei, it is said, occupied a palace at Takaoka, in Kazuraki, in the
province of Yamato. This palace was not far from that occupied by his
father, yet it was not the same. And in the reigns of the successive
sovereigns down to A.D. 709, when the capital was for a time established
at Nara, we observe it as a most singular circumstance that each new
emperor resided in a new palace. In the first place, the palace spoken of
in these early times was probably a very simple structure. Mr. Satow, in
his paper(53) on the temples at Isé, gives an account of the form and
construction of the prehistoric Japanese house. The Shintō temple in its
pure form is probably a survival of the original palace. Before the
introduction of edge-tools of iron and boring implements or nails, the
building must have been constructed in a very primitive fashion. It will
be understood that stone or brick were never used. Wood was the only
material for the frame. The roof was thatched with rushes or rice straw.
The pure Shintō temples of modern times are built with the utmost
simplicity and plainness. Although the occasion for adhering to primitive
methods has long since passed away, yet the buildings are conformed to the
styles of structure necessary before the introduction of modern tools and
appliances. To build a new palace therefore for a new emperor involved by
no means such an outlay of time and work as might be imagined.
It is not improbable that when a young man was chosen crown prince he had
an establishment of his own assigned to him, and this became his palace
which he occupied when he became emperor. When a man died, and especially
when an emperor died, it was an ancient custom to abandon his abode. It
became unclean by the presence in it of a dead body, and therefore was no
longer used.
[Illustration]
Shinto Temple
Nothing is narrated of the immediate successors of the Emperor Jimmu of
importance to this story. The accounts contained in either of the oldest
histories relate merely to the genealogies of the several sovereigns.
The Emperor Suizei was, as we have seen, the third son of Jimmu and
reigned thirty-two years, dying at the age of eighty-four.(54)
The third emperor was Annei, the only son of the Emperor Suizei. He
reigned thirty-seven years and died at the age of fifty-seven.
The fourth emperor was Itoku, the oldest son of the Emperor Annei. He
reigned thirty-three years and died at the age of seventy-seven.
The fifth emperor was Kōshō, the oldest son of the Emperor Itoku. He
reigned eighty-two years and died at the age of one hundred and fourteen
years.
The sixth emperor was Kōan, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōshō. He
reigned one hundred and one years and died at the age of one hundred and
thirty-seven.
The seventh emperor was Kōrei, the second son of the Emperor Kōan. He
reigned seventy-five years and died at the age of one hundred and
twenty-eight.
The eighth emperor was Kōgen, the oldest son of the Emperor Kōrei. He
reigned fifty-six years and died at the age of one hundred and sixteen.
The ninth emperor was Kaikwa, a younger son of the Emperor Kōgen. He
reigned fifty-nine years and died at the age of one hundred and eleven.
The tenth emperor was Sūjin, a younger son of the Emperor Kaikwa. He
reigned sixty-seven years and died at the age of one hundred and nineteen.
It is narrated that during his reign a pestilence broke out which was so
severe that the country was almost depopulated. The emperor was greatly
disturbed by this calamity, and there appeared to him in the night a
divine vision. The Great Deity, the Great Master of Things, appeared and
revealed to him, that if he would cause him to be appropriately worshipped
the pestilence would cease. The worship was accordingly ordained and
executed, and the pestilence forthwith abated.
In this reign expeditions were also sent into the northwestern and
northeastern districts of the Main island to repress the disturbances
which had arisen. The reports from these expeditions were in each case
favorable, and the whole empire was in a condition of quiet and
prosperity, such as had not before existed. Taxes were for the first time
levied on the proceeds of the chase and on the handiwork of the women.
Reservoirs for the collection of water, used in the irrigation of the rice
crops, were constructed in the imperial provinces, and encouragement was
everywhere given to the growing industries of the country.
The Emperor Sūjin was succeeded by his younger son who is known as the
eleventh emperor under the name of Suinin. He is said to have reigned
ninety-nine years, and to have died at the age of one hundred and
forty-one.
A conspiracy came near ending the life of this emperor. A brother of the
empress was ambitious to attain supreme authority. He approached his
sister with the subtle question, Which is dearer to thee, thine elder
brother or thy husband? She replied, My elder brother is dearer. Then he
said, If I be truly the dearer to thee, let me and thee rule the empire.
And he gave her a finely tempered dagger and said to her, Slay the emperor
with this in his sleep. So the emperor, unconscious of danger, was
sleeping one day with his head on the lap of the empress. And she,
thinking the time had come, was about to strike him with the dagger. But
her courage failed her, and tears fell from her eyes on the face of the
sleeping emperor. He started up, awakened by the falling tears, and said
to her, I have had a strange dream. A violent shower came up from the
direction of Saho and suddenly wet my face. And a small damask-colored
snake coiled itself around my neck. What can such a dream betoken? Then
the empress, conscience-stricken, confessed the conspiracy with her
brother.
The emperor, knowing that no time was to be lost, immediately collected a
force of troops and marched against his brother-in-law. He had entrenched
himself behind palisades of timber and awaited the emperor’s attack. The
empress, hesitating between her brother and her husband, had made her
escape to her brother’s palace. At this terrible juncture she was
delivered of a child. She brought the child to the palisades in sight of
the emperor, and cried out to him to take it under his care. He was deeply
moved by her appeal to him and forthwith planned to rescue both the child
and its mother. He chose from among his warriors a band of the bravest and
most cunning, and commanded them, saying, When ye go to take the child, be
sure that ye seize also the mother.
But she, fearing that the soldiers would try to snatch her when they came
for the child, shaved off her hair and covered her head with the loose
hair as if it were still adhering. And she made the jewel-strings around
her neck and arms rotten, and she rendered her garments, by which they
might catch hold of her, tender by soaking them in _saké_. When the
soldiers came to her she gave them the child and fled. Then they seized
her by the hair and it came away in their hands; and they clutched at the
jewel-strings and they broke; and then they grasped her garments, but they
had been rendered tender and gave way in their hands. So she escaped from
them and fled. Then they went back to the emperor and reported that they
had been unable to capture the mother, but they had brought the babe. The
emperor was angry at what the soldiers told him. He was angry at the
jewellers who had made the rotten jewel-strings and deprived them of their
lands. He called to the empress through the burning palisades around the
palace—for the soldiers had set fire to the palace—saying, A child’s name
must be given by its mother; what shall be the name of this child? And she
answered, Let it be called Prince Homu-chiwake. And again he called: How
shall he be reared? She replied, Take for him a foster-mother and bathing
woman who shall care for him. Then he asked again, saying: Who shall
loosen the small, fresh pendant which you have tied upon him? And she gave
directions concerning this also. Then the emperor paused no longer, but
slew the rebellious prince in his burning palace, and the empress perished
with her wicked brother.
Following this is a long legend concerning this child which was dumb from
its birth, and how he was sent to worship at the temple of the deities of
Izumo, and how he miraculously attained the power of speech and was
brought back to his father.
It was during the reign of this emperor also that Tajima-mori was sent to
China to fetch specimens of the orange-tree for introduction into Japan.
He returned with them, but when he reached the capital the emperor was
dead. The messenger was shocked and brought the specimens of the
orange-tree to the burial place of the emperor, where he died from grief.
Up to this time it seems to have been the cruel custom to bury with the
deceased members of the imperial family, and perhaps with others of high
rank, the living retainers and horses who had been in their service. It is
said that when the emperor’s younger brother died (B.C. 2) they buried
along with him his living retainers, placing them upright in a circle
around him and leaving their heads uncovered. Night and day were heard the
agonizing cries of these thus left to die of starvation. The emperor was
greatly moved and resolved that this terrible custom should be abolished.
Four years later the empress herself died, and the emperor called together
his counsellors to propose some plan by which this practice of living
sacrifices could be avoided. Thereupon one of his counsellors,
Nomi-no-Sukuné, advanced and begged the emperor to listen to a scheme
which he had to present. He suggested that, instead of burying the living
retainers with their master or mistress, clay images of men and women and
horses be set up in a circle around the burial place. The plan pleased the
emperor vastly, and images were at once made and buried around the dead
empress. As a mark of his high appreciation Nomi-no-Sukuné was appointed
chief of the clay-workers guild.
It appears probable that this cruel usage of burying living retainers with
their dead master was not entirely ended by this substitution of clay
images. As late as A.D. 646 the emperor found it necessary to prescribe
regulations for funerals and to forbid the burial of living retainers. Mr.
Satow(55) has given a most interesting account of this edict which
pertains not only to the practice of burial of retainers, but also to the
size of vaults and mounds and the number of laborers who might be employed
in preparing the structure.
The images used as a substitute for living retainers were called _Tsuchio
Ningio_ (clay images). They have been found in many parts of the country,
especially in the home provinces where the burial of the imperial families
and the connected nobility took place. This burying of images seems to
have died out about A.D. 700. Its discontinuance probably was owing to the
growing prevalence of Buddhism which discountenanced a custom founded on a
religion anterior to it.
[Illustration]
Buried Images
The Emperor Suinin was succeeded by his younger son Keikō who became the
twelfth emperor. He reigned fifty-nine years, and died at the age of one
hundred and forty-three. His son, Prince O-usu, who afterward was known as
Yamato-dake, is represented as pursuing a most daring and romantic career.
The myths concerning him are among the most picturesque in Japanese
history.
The first adventure narrated of him was regarding his elder brother. His
father asked him, Why does not thy elder brother make his appearance at
the imperial banquets? Do thou see after this and teach him his duty.
A few days after his father said again to him, Why dost not thy brother
attend to his duty? Hast thou not warned him as I bade thee?
The young prince replied that he had taken that trouble. Then his father
said, How didst thou take the trouble to warn him? And the prince coolly
told him that he had slain him and thrown his carcass away.
The emperor was alarmed at the coolness and ferocity of his son, and
bethought how he might employ him advantageously. Now there were at Kumaso
in Kyūshū two brothers, fierce and rebellious bandits, who paid small
respect to the imperial wishes. The emperor conceived that it would be a
fitting achievement for his fearless son to put an end to these reckless
outlaws. So Yamato-dake borrowed from his aunt her female apparel, and
hiding a sword in the bosom of his dress, he sought out the two outlaws in
their hiding-place. They were about to celebrate the occupancy of a new
cave which they had fitted up for themselves. They had invited a goodly
number of their neighbors, and especially of the female sex. Prince
Yamato-dake, who was young and fresh-looking, put on his female disguise
and let down his hair which was still long. He sauntered about the cave
and went in where the two outlaws were amusing themselves with their
female visitors. They were surprised and delighted to see this new and
beautiful face. They seated her between them and did their best to
entertain her.
Suddenly, when the outlaws were off their guard, he drew his sword from
his bosom and slew the elder brother. The younger rushed out of the door
of the cave, the prince close at his heels. With one hand he clutched him
by the back and with the other thrust him through with his sword. As he
fell he begged the prince to pause a moment and not to withdraw his sword
from his fatal wound.
Then the outlaw said, Who art thou? And he told him and for what purpose
he had come.
The outlaw said, There were in the west none so brave as we two brothers.
From this time forward it shall be right to praise thee as the August
Child Yamato-dake (the bravest in Yamato).
As soon as he had said this, the prince “ripped him up like a ripe
melon.”(56)
Then after he had subdued and pacified the rebellious princes of the
districts about the straits of Shimonoseki he returned to the emperor and
made his report.
Following this account of Yamato-dake’s adventures in the West, there are
given the interesting traditions concerning his expedition to the East,
and his encounters with the Ainos, who inhabited the northern part of the
island. That there was a basis of fact to these traditions there cannot be
a doubt. Yet the events have such an air of fable and poetry that it is
impossible to separate the fact from the legend. As we have done in
previous instances, we give the stories in their essential entirety,
leaving to scholars hereafter the task of winnowing the grains of fact out
of the chaff which the imagination of the race has left for us.
Prince Yamato-dake took on his expedition to the East the Prince
Mi-suki-tomo-mimi-take. The emperor gave him these instructions: “Subdue
and pacify the savage deities, and likewise the unsubmissive people of the
twelve roads(57) of the East.”
Prince Yamato-dake first visited the temple of the Sun Goddess in Isé,
where he worshipped at the shrine of his great ancestress. He must have
had a presentiment that he never would return alive from this expedition.
His aunt Yamato-hime,(58) who was the priestess of this temple, gave him
on his departure the sword(59) which the Impetuous-Male-Deity discovered
in the tail of the snake which he slew in Izumo. She also gave him a bag
which he was not to open until he found himself in pressing difficulty.
He came to the land of Owari, and appears there to have been smitten by
the charms of the Princess Miyazu. And, planning to wed her on his way
back, he plighted to her his troth and went on. Then he came to the
province of Sagami, where he met the chief of the land. But he deceived
him and said that in the midst of a vast moor there is a lagoon where
lives a deity. Yamato-dake went over the moor to find the deity. Whereupon
the chief set fire to the grass, expecting to see him consumed. But
Yamato-dake seeing his danger, and being assured that the time of pressing
difficulty had come, opened the bag which his aunt, Yamato-hime, had given
him. There he found a fire drill,(60) with which a fire could be struck.
He cut away the grass around him with the sword which had been given him,
and then set fire to the moor. When he was safe from the fire he sought
out and slew the traitorous chief and all the chiefs who were associated
with him.
From Sagami he undertook to cross in a boat the waters of Yedo bay to
Kazusa opposite. But the sea was rough and they were on the point of being
overwhelmed and drowned. Then his wife, the Princess Oto-Tachibana, who
accompanied him on this expedition, threw out mats from the boat, and
saying, “I will enter the sea instead of the prince; you must finish the
task on which you are sent,” she sprang from the boat and sat down on the
mats(61) she had thrown out. Immediately the waves were quiet and the boat
sailed on in safety. And the comb of the princess was washed ashore, and
the people built for it a sacred mausoleum in which it was kept.
Then Prince Yamato-dake penetrated the regions occupied by the Ainos(62)
and subdued them. Having accomplished this principal object of his
undertaking, he returned by way of the Usui pass opposite to mount Fuji.
As he stood in this lofty position and looked out on the sea where his
wife had sacrificed herself for his safety, he cried out: “Azuma ha ya!”
(O my wife!) Azuma is a name often used in poetry for the part of Japan
north of this pass. But whether this myth was invented to explain the
name, or the name was derived from the incident, it is impossible to
determine.
Then Prince Yomato-dake went into the high lands of Shinano and after he
had settled the disturbances which existed there, he came back to Owari
where he had left the Princess Miyazu. In one of his excursions into the
rebellious regions he was stricken with a fatal illness. In his enfeebled
condition he struggled on, almost unable to walk. He made his way towards
Isé. At Ōtsu, a village on the coast of Owari bay, he recovered the sword
which he had left on his way to the East. In his painful journey he sat
down under a pine tree. The spirit of poesy even in his pain came upon him
and he sang this little poem(63) in praise of the pine tree:
O mine elder brother, the single pine tree
That art on cape Ōtsu, which directly faces Owari!
If thou single pine tree! wert a person,
I would gird my sword upon thee,
I would clothe thee with my garments,—
O mine elder brother, the single pine tree!
He went on a little farther to Nobono and his sickness became more
serious. And there in the open fields he felt that his end had come. He
sent the spoils of his expedition to the temple of his great ancestress,
the Sun Goddess. He sent his faithful companion Prince Kibi-no-Takehito to
the emperor to carry his last message. It was: “I have chastised the
eastern barbarians according to your imperial order with the help of the
gods and with your imperial influence. I hoped to return in triumph with
my weapons wrapped in white. But I have been seized with a mortal disease,
and I cannot recover. I am lying in the sweet open fields. I do not care
for my life. I only regret that I cannot live to appear before thee and
make my report of my expedition.”
And he died in the thirty-second year of his age. And they buried him
there and built a mausoleum over his remains. The emperor lamented the
death of his gallant and immortal son, and made an imperial progress into
the regions which he had conquered and pacified.
The successor to the Emperor Keikō was known by the canonical name of
Seimu. He was the thirteenth emperor, and was the grandson of his
predecessor, having been a son of the hero Yamato-dake who was the crown
prince until his death. The Emperor Seimu reigned fifty-nine years and
died at the age of one hundred and eight. Nothing noteworthy is narrated
of his reign.
His successor, the fourteenth emperor, was Chūai, his eldest son. He
reigned only eight years and died at the age of fifty-two. It is
remarkable that his capital was in the island of Kyūshū and not in the
Main island, like his predecessors from the time of the Emperor Jimmu.
This removal was probably due to the preparations which had already begun
for the invasion of Korea. The island of Kyūshū is most favorably situated
for the preparation and sailing of such an expedition. The wife of this
emperor was Jingō-Kōgō, who was a much more forcible and energetic
character than her husband.
She is one of the heroines around whom much tradition has gathered, and
her successful invasion of Korea is an event which the Japanese writers
and artists are never tired of representing. The legend—for undoubtedly
much of the story is legendary—is essentially as follows:
The emperor was busy in Kyūshū in reducing to subjection the tribes of the
Kumaso who inhabited the southern portion of the island. Up to this time
these restless tribes had given much trouble to the empire and expeditions
were constantly needed to keep them in order. They were unquestionably of
a kindred race with the Japanese who accompanied the Emperor Jimmu into
the Main island. The empress, afterward known as Jingō-Kōgō and the
faithful prime-minister Take-no-uchi(64) were at their temporary palace at
Kashihi. The empress in an interview on the campaign became divinely
possessed. And she spoke to the emperor in the name of the deity that
possessed her saying, “There is a land at the westward, and in that land
there is abundance of various treasures dazzling to the eye, from gold and
silver downwards. I will now bestow this land upon thee.”
Then the emperor replied, “If you ascend to a high place and look
westward, no country is to be seen; there is only the great sea.” And he
pushed away the lute upon which he was playing and said, “They are lying
deities which have spoken to you.” Then the deity was very angry and spoke
again through the empress. “This empire is not a land over which thou art
fit to rule. Go thou the one road.”
The prime-minister Take-no-uchi then said to the emperor, “I am filled
with awe, my heavenly sovereign, at this fearful message. I pray thee
continue playing thy august lute.” Then he played softly; and gradually
the sound died away and all was still. And they took a light and looking
in his face, behold he was dead.
The empress and the prime-minister Take-no-uchi concealed for the time the
death of the emperor, and she herself proceeded to carry out the plan for
the invasion of Korea. With indefatigable energy she gathered her forces
and equipped a fleet for the descent upon Korea. She set out from Wani in
Kyūshū in the tenth month of the year A.D. 202. Even the fish of the sea
were her allies, for with one accord they bore the ship in which she
sailed across the intervening straits on their backs.
The coming of the Japanese was a complete surprise to the people of Korea.
At this time the peninsula now known to us as Korea and to the Japanese as
Chōsen, was divided into three kingdoms, Kōrai, Shiraki, and Kudara. The
fleet of Jingō-Kōgō landed in the kingdom of Shiraki. The king was so
completely unprepared for this incursion that he at once offered his
subjection and proposed to become a tributary kingdom. The proposition was
accepted. The kings of Kōrai and Kudara made similar proposals which also
were accepted. Each was to make an immediate contribution to the empress,
and annually thereafter to send tribute to the capital of Japan. Thus they
became the three tributary countries (_sankan_) dependent on Japan.
Although this invasion of a foreign country without cause or provocation
must be pronounced indefensible, yet it is not unlikely that the subject
kingdoms were quite as safe and free under the distant and little
intermeddlesome dominion of the Japanese empire, as they had been in the
past or were likely to be in the future from their troublesome neighbors,
China and the restless Mongolian tribes. To Japan the connection with the
continent was of momentous value. It opened up a natural and easy way for
the influx of those continental influences which were to be of so great
service in their future history.
The empress, having within three years completely accomplished the object
of her expedition, returned with her fleet to Kyūshū. She brought back
with her hostages from the conquered kingdoms, to ensure their fulfilment
of the promises they had made. She had learned many lessons of government
which she was not slow to introduce into her administration at home. Soon
after reaching Kyūshū she was delivered of the son of whom she was
pregnant at the time of the death of the emperor, and who afterwards
became the Emperor Ōjin.
The object which she and her faithful prime-minister had in concealing the
death of the emperor was accomplished. They now made the fact public, and
proclaimed her own son as her successor. Two older sons of Chūai by
another empress were unwilling to submit to the rule of a younger brother.
But the Empress Jingō, who had now become a national idol by her Korean
expedition, soon put down the conspiracy of these princes and reigned till
the end of her life and left a quiet succession to her son.
She is said to have reigned as empress-regent(65) sixty-eight years, and
to have died at the age of one hundred.
Her son became the fifteenth emperor and is known by the canonical name of
Ōjin. He commenced his reign in the year A.D. 270, and reigned forty years
and died at the age of one hundred and ten. But the beginning of his reign
is reckoned in the government list from the death of his father. The
Emperor Ōjin is widely worshipped as Hachiman the god of war, although he
is by no means noted as a warrior. The explanation of this curious
circumstance is found in the fact that his mother was pregnant with him
during her famous invasion of Korea, and her heroism and success are
attributed to the martial character of her unborn son.
The good fruits of the Korean conquest particularly showed themselves in
A.D. 284, when the king of Kudara sent his usual tribute to the emperor of
Japan. The ambassador for that year was Ajiki, a learned man who was
familiar with Chinese literature. At the request of the emperor he gave
the young prince, who afterwards became the Emperor Nintoku, lessons in
the Chinese language and literature. The year following the king of Kudara
seeing how much his efforts to furnish Chinese learning were appreciated,
sent an eminent Chinese scholar, Wani, who took with him the _Confucian
Analects_ and the _Thousand Character Essay_, two noted Chinese classics
and presented them to the emperor. The prince continued his studies under
Wani and became a very learned man.
The emperor had three sons between whom he wished to divide his authority,
wishing however to establish his youngest son as the crown prince and his
successor. He summoned them before him and put this question to the elder,
“Which should be preferred, a younger son or an older?” Then the elder son
replied that he thought the older son should be preferred. But the emperor
turned to the second son and asked him the same question. He replied that
as the older son was more grown and less of a care, he thought the younger
son would be more of a favorite. The emperor was pleased with this reply
because it coincided with his own sentiment. He created his youngest son,
Prince Waka-iratsu, the crown prince and ordered his second son, Prince
Osasagi, to assist him. He gave the charge of the mountains, rivers,
forests, fields, etc. to his eldest son.
So when the Emperor Ōjin died A.D. 310, the younger son urged his brother
to accept the imperial power; but he declined, saying: “How can I disobey
the commands of my father?” The oldest of the three brothers, learning of
the controversy, undertook to secure the authority for himself by a plot.
The conspiracy was, however, soon put down and the elder brother slain.
The friendly dispute between the two other brothers lasted three years and
was finally ended by the younger committing suicide, and thus devolving
the imperial office on his remaining brother. This brother was the noted
Emperor Nintoku. He began his reign in the year A.D. 313, and died A.D.
399 in the one hundred and tenth year of his age. He was a most careful
and considerate ruler. By observing his subjects he was convinced that
they were overburdened and impoverished with the taxes which the
government collected from them. So he announced by an imperial decree that
for three years all taxes should be remitted. Even the sums which were
necessary to keep the palace in repair and to provide his court with
suitable clothing were not collected. And the palace grew shabby, and its
roof leaked, and he himself went about in coarse and cheap garments. And
the farmers came to him and begged that they might contribute to his
wants. But he refused, and suffered three years to pass. In the meantime
the country revived, and the farmers being relieved from the burdens which
they had so long borne entered on a long period of encouraging prosperity.
He surveyed the land from a high outlook, and saw the curling smoke and
the fertile fields and rejoiced. Then he gave commands, and the taxes were
renewed, and the people paid them willingly, and they in their gratitude
called Nintoku the Sage Emperor.
It was in the reign of the Emperor Nintoku that the noted prime-minister
Prince Take-no-uchi is said to have died. He had served six emperors,
viz.: Keikō, Seimu, Chūai, Jingō-Kōgō, Ōjin, and Nintoku. His age(66) is
given variously from two hundred and eighty-two to three hundred and
eighty, in different books, one of which is a Chinese work and one a
Korean. It will be remembered that he was the chief adviser of the warlike
Empress Jingō in her invasion of Korea, and took an active part in the
events which followed that expedition. That there was such a figure in
Japanese history there can be little doubt, but that much of his life and
the great age to which he lived are like many of the stories of the
characters in the midst of which he lived, legendary and mythical, no one
can question.
It was in this reign also that we have it stated that historiographers
were sent out to the provinces and directed to make record of all
important events and forward them to the court.
We have now reached a point in Japanese history where the accounts
compiled by the historians of the times have written records on which to
rely. The legendary and marvellous stories which have been the bulk of the
preceding history may now be replaced by the soberer narrations which
writing has preserved for us. It will be seen that the lives(67) of the
emperors now drop from the astonishing age which in previous years they
attained to a very moderate and reasonable length. In the subsequent
chapters will be found the sober and chastened story to which Japanese
history is henceforth reduced.
CHAPTER V. NATIVE CULTURE AND CONTINENTAL INFLUENCES.
Before going on to the meagre story which is supplied to us by the early
years of Japanese history, it will be well to glean from the myths and
legends which tradition has preserved the lessons which they contain.
Although we may be unable to concede the truth of these traditions in
their entirety, and believe in the celestial origin of the race and the
wonders of the divine age, we may be able to obtain from them many
important facts regarding the habits and manner of life of the early
Japanese.
We have often referred to the admirable work Mr. Chamberlain has done in
his translation of the _Kojiki_, and in the scholarly notes he has added.
But in our present enquiries we must give him still greater credit for the
important lessons which he has drawn from the myths and legends of the
_Kojiki_ in his learned introduction. No writer at the present day can
afford to dispense with the deductions which he has been able to draw from
the oldest writings of the Japanese, and from the traditions of an older
date which these writings have preserved. Relying therefore chiefly on
this learned introduction,(68) we propose to enumerate in a summary manner
the particulars concerning the early Japanese life.
In the first place the government of the early Japanese was of the tribal
order. The emperor was the chieftain of an expedition which came from the
island of Kyūshū and established a government by conquest. The chiefs of
the various localities were reduced to subjection and became tributary to
the emperor, or were replaced by new chiefs appointed by the emperor. The
government was therefore essentially feudal in its characteristics. The
emperor depended for the consideration of his plans and for their
execution upon officers who were attached to his court. There were guilds
composed of those who manufactured various articles, or who were employed
to execute special plans. Thus we have guilds of clay image makers, guilds
of ladies attendant on the emperor, guilds of butlers, guilds of cooks,
guilds of guards, etc. To each of these there was a captain who became by
appointment hereditary chief. We have no mention of money for the payment
of services rendered. The taxes were probably paid in kind. And all
transactions as far as they are mentioned at all seem to have been of the
nature of barter.
The religious notions of the prehistoric Japanese were founded on the
myths relating to their ancestor. Notwithstanding the vast number of
deities who came into existence according to tradition, most of them
vanish as soon as they are named and are no more heard of. Even deities
like Izanagi and Izanami, who are represented as taking so important a
part in events, are not perpetuated as objects of worship in Japanese
history, and have no temples erected to their memory and no service
prescribed or maintained in their honor. The most important deity in the
Pantheon of the Japanese was Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami, who is also called in
Chinese characters Tensho Daijin or the Sun Goddess. She appears not only
in the myths concerning the origin of the Japanese race, but as the
grandmother of the divine prince Hiko-ho-no-ni-nigi, who first came down
to rule the Japanese empire. In the Shintō temples at Isé the principal
deity worshipped at Gekū is Uké-moche-no-Kami, and the secondary deities
Ninigi-no-Mikoto, who came down to found the Japanese empire and was the
grandmother of the Emperor Jimmu, and two others. At the Naikū the
principal deity is Amaterasu-ō-mi-kami (from heaven shining great deity),
also called the Sun Goddess, and two secondary deities. The temples at
Isé, especially those that are dedicated to the Sun Goddess, are the most
highly regarded of any in Japan. Other temples of considerable popularity
are situated in other parts of the empire. Thus there are Shintō temples
in Kyūshū and in Izumo, which are old parts of Japan settled long before
Buddhism was introduced.
The Shintō religion must be regarded as the primitive religion of the
Japanese people. It prevailed among them long before Buddhism was
propagated by priests from Korea. It differs from all known systems of
religion, in having no body of dogma by which its adherents are held
together. The greatest advocate of Shintoism, Moto-ori, a writer of the
18th century, admits that it has no moral code. He asserts that
“morals(69) were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral
people, but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as
every Japanese acted rightly if he only consulted his own heart.”
Reference is frequently made in the early stories to divination, or the
process of obtaining the will of the gods by indirection. The oldest
method of divination was by using the shoulder-blade of a deer. It was
scraped entirely free from flesh, and then placed over a fire made from
cherry wood. The divine will was determined by the cracks caused by the
fire in the bone. A later method of divination was by using the shell of a
tortoise in the same way as the shoulder-blade of the deer was used. They
had superstitions about fighting with the back to the sun; about using
only one light in the house at once; about breaking off the teeth of a
comb in the night-time; about the destination of the first arrow shot in
battle, etc.
The superstition of impurity being attached to the mother at the birth of
a child, and to the house and those associated with it in which a death
occurred, is often mentioned. A mother, when about to be delivered, was
required to retire alone into a separate dwelling or hut without windows.
This cruel custom has prevailed in the island of Hachijō(70) down almost
to the present time. A custom prevailed, also, of abandoning the dwelling
in which a death had occurred. The dead body was removed to a mourning
hut, where amid sobs and weeping the mourners continued to hold a
carousal, feasting upon the food provided for the dead. This abandonment
of the house occupied by the living may explain the custom, so often
referred to, of each new emperor occupying a different palace from that of
his predecessor. We have already referred to the dreadful custom which
prevailed until the reign of the Emperor Suinin, of burying living
retainers around the sepulchre of their dead master. The custom was
replaced by burying clay images of servants and animals around the tomb,
and this continued till about A.D. 700.
There is no evidence that children received any kind of education other
than a training in the use of arms and implements. The art of writing was
brought over from Korea in A.D. 284. Up to this time there is nothing to
show that the Japanese possessed any means of recording the events which
occurred. No books existed, and reading and writing were unknown. The
language spoken by the people was an ancient form of that which now
prevails. The earliest examples of this language are found in the songs
preserved in the _Kojiki_ and _Nihongi_. As in every language, the
earliest preserved specimens are poetry, so in Japanese the fragments
which have been remembered and brought down to us, are scraps of songs.
The origin of this language is, like the origin of the race, impossible at
present to verify. It seems plain that the race came from the continent by
way of Korea. If this is to be taken as the origin of the race, then the
language which developed into the Japanese came from the northern tribes
of China and of Siberia.
There is no indication of the method by which the early Japanese reckoned
time. The sun in the daytime and the cocks by night, must have given them
their division of hours. The year made itself apparent by the changes of
temperature. It was not, however, till the introduction of calendars from
China that anything like an accurate system of estimating and recording
time was introduced.
The food of the primitive Japanese was much more largely animal than it
became in later times. To the early Japanese there was no restriction in
the use of animal food, such as the Buddhists introduced. Fish and
shell-fish have always been, and doubtless from the first were, principal
articles of food. The five grains, so called, are often referred to, and
are specially mentioned in the Shintō rituals, whose origin goes back to
prehistoric times. These grains(71) are rice, millet, barley, and two
kinds of beans. Silkworms and their food plant, the mulberry, are likewise
spoken of. The only kind of drink referred to is _saké_. It will be
remembered that in the myth concerning the Impetuous Male Deity in Izumo,
the old man and old woman were directed to prepare eight tubs of _saké_,
by drinking which the eight-headed serpent was intoxicated. In the
traditional history of the emperors, they are represented as drinking
_saké_, sometimes even to intoxication. And in the rituals recited when
offerings are made to their deities, the jars of _saké_ are enumerated
among the things offered. The Japanese writers claim that _saké_ was a
native discovery, but there is a well supported belief that in very early
times they borrowed the art of manufacturing it from the Chinese. There is
at least a difficulty in believing that this liquor should have been
invented independently in the two countries. Chopsticks are mentioned in
early Japanese times, and clay vessels for food, and cups for drinking
made of oak leaves. On the whole, the conclusions to be drawn from the
earliest traditions concerning the Japanese lead us to regard them as
having attained a material degree of civilization in all matters
pertaining to food and drink. Yet it cannot be regarded as other than
strange that milk, cheese and butter are nowhere mentioned, and had never
been used.
In the matter of clothing we have little except hints to guide us in
forming inferences. The rituals enumerate(72) “bright cloth, soft cloth,
and coarse cloth.” Mr. Satow remarks(73) on this enumeration that “in the
earliest ages the materials used were the bark of the paper-mulberry
(_broussonetia papyrifera_), wistaria tendrils and hemp, but when the
silkworm was introduced the finer fabric naturally took the place of the
humbler in the offerings to the gods.” The paper-mulberry which is now
used for making paper, was in early times twisted into a thread and woven
into a very serviceable cloth. Cotton(74) which now furnishes so large a
part of the clothing of the people is nowhere mentioned. The skins of
animals were doubtless used as clothing before the introduction of
Buddhism made the killing of animals uncommon. In the legend of the
purification of Izanagi(75) we read of a girdle, of a skirt, of an upper
garment, of trousers, and of a hat. What the shapes of these garments were
we cannot tell, but the number of different garments indicates a
considerable development in the ideas of clothing. In the same myth, and
in many other places, mention is made of the bracelets which Izanagi wore
on the left and right arm. And when he wished to show his pleasure in the
daughter who had been produced in washing his left eye, he invested her
with his necklace taken from his own neck. Jewelry seems in these
prehistoric times to have been more commonly worn than in modern
historical times. The jewels(76) used were the _magatama_ and _kudatama_
which have been found in the ancient burial places.
[Illustration]
Magatama and Kudatama.
Rings have also been found which are believed to date back to prehistoric
times. From the clay images which have come down to us it is now
ascertained that the rings were worn as ornaments to the ears and never as
rings to the fingers. These rings are of copper or bronze, plated with
gold or silver. Combs and mirrors are spoken of, but how the metal mirrors
are made we do not know.
The only indications of the character of the houses(77) used by the early
Japanese are found in the traditions respecting the primitive Shintō
temples. The early methods of building were perpetuated in these temples,
and in the eighteenth century a very persistent effort was made for the
revival of pure Shintō. Under the influence of this movement the temples
at Isé and elsewhere were purified from the contaminations which had been
introduced by Buddhism. After the close of the war which resulted in the
restoration of the emperor to his proper authority in 1868 a small temple
in the most severe Shintō style was built at Kudan, one of the picturesque
heights of Yedo, in memory of the soldiers who perished in the conflict.
From a careful examination of all that can illustrate the houses of the
early Japanese, we infer that they were of extreme simplicity. Stone was
never used. The structures were entirely of wood. Even the palaces of the
emperors were what we would call merely huts. Four upright posts sunk in
the ground formed the corners. At the half-way intervals between these
posts, were planted four other posts; those at the gable ends were high
enough to sustain the ridge pole. On the other sides on the top of the
posts were laid two plates. Abutting on these plates and crossing each
other at the ridge pole stood the rafters, which sustained the thatched
roof. In the absence of nails and pins, the timbers were fastened together
by the tough tendrils of climbing plants. A hole in the gable end
permitted the escape of the smoke from the fire built on the ground floor.
Around the sides of the interior stood a raised couch on which the
occupants sat by day and slept at night. The other parts of the floor were
uncovered and consisted only of earth. They used mats made from the skins
of animals or from rushes, on which they sat and slept. The doors of their
dwellings were fastened by means of iron hooks, and swung on hinges unlike
the modern Japanese door which always is made to slide.
The agricultural plants spoken of are numerous but leave unmentioned many
of the plants of first importance. Tea, now so extensively cultivated, is
nowhere spoken of. Tobacco was a late importation and came in with the
Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Cotton was not introduced, as we have
already said, until the beginning of the ninth century. Potatoes,
including both the sweet potato and the white potato, are unmentioned. The
orange came to Japan according to the received tradition at the close of
the reign of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 29-70).
Very little is said of the implements used by the primitive Japanese.
Metal of any kind was almost unknown. We read of swords and fish-hooks,
but these are the only implements referred to which seem to have been made
of metal. Pots and cups of earthenware were used. The axes which they must
have used to cut down the trees for building and for fuel must have been
of stone, or sometimes of deer’s horn. Archæologists both native and
foreign have brought to light many ancient implements of the Stone age. An
interesting and detailed account of these discoveries will be found in the
work on _Japanese Archæology_ by Henry Von Siebold, Yokohoma, 1879.
The arms used by the warriors were spears, bows and arrows, and swords.
Numerous arrow heads have been found which bear a striking likeness to
those found in Europe and America. Spear heads of flint have also been
found. That the people were emerging from the Stone age is shown by the
swords made of metal which they are represented as habitually using. They
also seem to have had a small sword or dagger, as in the myth of the
traitorous plot entered into by the empress and her brother against the
Emperor Suinin. Castles in the modern sense are not referred to, although
the same word _shiro_ is used to represent the stockades with which they
protected themselves. The castles of modern times, such as those at
Kumamoto, Owari, and Yedo, are without doubt the outgrowth of the
primitive stockade, and the same name has continued to be applied in all
the successive changes.
Few domestic animals are mentioned. The horse is spoken of as an animal
for riding, but not for driving. The same thing may be said of the use of
horses in Japan even until modern times. The domestic fowl is referred to
in the myth of the disappearance of the Sun Goddess. Dogs are mentioned in
the later parts of the traditional period, but not cats. The cow and the
products of the cow are not referred to. To these domestic animals may be
added the cormorant,(78) which was used for fishing, in the same way that
it is used in the eastern parts of China and to a small extent in the
waters of Owari and Mino at the present time. The wild animals of that day
were the deer, the bear, the boar, the hare, etc. These animals were
hunted for their flesh and for their skins.
The islands of Japan being largely interspersed with water much of the
travel even from the earliest time was performed in boats. The expedition
of Jimmu from the island of Kyūshū was in part conducted in the boats
which the colony had constructed for the purpose. Whether these boats were
of the form now used in Japan it is impossible to determine. It is
probable however that the present form of boat is an evolution of the
primitive boat, which was used by the prehistoric Japanese and which was a
part of the equipment with which their ancestors came over from Korea to
the islands of Japan. Travel on land was principally on foot, although as
we have said the horse was used at this early day for riding. No wheeled
vehicle is mentioned. The bullock cart used in later times was restricted
to the use of the imperial household, and probably was introduced by the
Buddhists. There were government roads constructed from the home provinces
in different directions to those more distant. It is said that this scheme
was more fully carried out after the return of the Empress Jingō from her
conquest of Korea.
Let us now turn from these evidences of native culture to the events of
Japanese history which have to do with the introduction of the
civilization from the continent. For three thousand years before the
Christian era China has been looked upon as one of the cultured nations of
the earth. No written language has ever been or is now understood by so
many people as the Chinese. The Chinese were a civilized people centuries
before the Japanese had, even according to their own uncertain legends,
emerged into the light as an empire. If we accept the opinion which seems
most reasonable, that the Japanese came over to the Japanese islands from
the continent by way of Korea, and belong to the Mongol tribes of central
Asia, then we must assume that the Japanese were closely related to a
large section of the Chinese. They have been from the beginning of their
history a receptive people. They have stood ready to welcome the good
things which were offered to them, coming from whatever direction. They
accepted eagerly the Chinese written language and the philosophy with
which it came charged. They accepted Buddhism with its priesthood and
dogma and ritual, and permitted it to crowd their native religion until it
became a pitiful minority. They have in recent times accepted with a
hearty impetuosity the civilization of western nations, and are absorbing
it as rapidly as the habits and thoughts of a people can take in so
important a change.
We have already referred to the first introduction(79) of Chinese
literature into Japan. It took place in the reign of the Emperor Ōjin A.D.
284. The ambassador who brought the tribute from Korea that year was Ajiki
who was familiar with the Chinese literature. He gave lessons in Chinese
to the crown prince. The next year the king of Korea sent out an eminent
scholar named Wani,(80) who continued to give instruction to the crown
prince. From this time a knowledge of Chinese gradually spread and
scholars were attached to the government to make a written record of the
events which took place. Historiographers were sent out during the reign
of the Emperor Hanzei, A.D. 404, who were directed to make a record of all
important events and forward them to the court. These steps soon began to
show themselves in the absence of the wonderful and legendary from the
narrative of events. Beginning with the reign of the Emperor Richū the
ages of the emperors which before his time had been of such a marvellous
length now drop to a reasonable and moderate period.
The nineteenth emperor was Inkyō, the fourth son of the Emperor Nintoku.
He was of an amiable and philanthropic temperament, and accepted the
position of emperor with great reluctance. His health was delicate, and he
feared to take upon himself such a responsibility. In the meantime there
was an interregnum, and the court officials were anxious to have him enter
upon the duties of emperor. At last he consented and became emperor A.D.
412. It was during his reign that confusion arose concerning the family
names, or rather, that the confusion which had been long growing now had
its settlement. Family names had been a matter of growth, and many persons
claimed the right to use a certain name who were in no wise entitled to
it. The emperor took a singular and effectual method to settle the
troublesome and personal questions that arose. He summoned all those who
claimed to belong to any family whose claim was disputed to appear at
Amakashi and show that they were entitled to the names they claimed. He
placed jars of boiling water and required each one to plunge his hand in
the water. He who was injured by the hot water was pronounced a deceiver,
and he who came off unhurt was pronounced as entitled to the name. The
emperor took occasion to settle the questions concerning names, and put
the matter on a more stable basis. And as the art of writing now began to
be more common among the people mistakes in regard to names did not again
seriously recur.
The emperor’s ill-health was the occasion for the introduction of another
of the civilizing arts of the continent. When the annual tribute from
Korea was sent it so chanced that the ambassador who came with it was a
person versed in the medical art. If we estimate this man’s science or
skill by that of the Chinese practitioner of a later day, we should
certainly not place a very high value on it. It is narrated, however, that
he cured the imperial invalid, and by this means gained great credit for
his profession, and added another to the obligations which Japan owed to
the continent.
After the death of the Emperor Inkyō there was a quarrel about the
succession between his two sons, Prince Kinashi-no-Karu and Prince
Anaho-no-Ōji. The courtiers all favored the latter, who was the younger
brother, and he surrounded his elder brother in the house of
Monobe-no-Ōmai. Seeing no way of escape he committed suicide.(81) The
younger brother then became the twentieth emperor, who is known under the
canonical name of Ankō. He had another difficulty growing out of social
complications. He wanted to make the younger sister of Okusaka-no-Ōji, who
was the brother of the preceding Emperor Inkyō, the wife of
Ōhatsuse-no-Ōji, his own younger brother, who afterwards became the
Emperor Yuriyaku. He sent as a messenger the court official, Ne-no-Ōmi, to
ask the consent of her elder brother, who gladly gave it, and as a token
of his gratitude for this high honor he sent a rich necklace. Ne-no-Ōmi,
overcome with covetousness, kept the necklace for himself, and reported to
the emperor that Okusaka-no-Ōji refused his consent. The emperor was very
angry, and sent a detachment of troops against the supposed offender. They
surrounded the house and put him to death. His chief attendants, knowing
his innocence, committed suicide by the side of their dead master. The
emperor then completed his design of taking the sister of Okusaka-no-Ōji
as the wife of the Prince Ōhatsuse-no-Ōji, and he also took his widow and
promoted her to be his empress.
Out of these circumstances arose serious troubles. His new empress had a
young son by her first husband named Mayuwa-no-Ō, said to have been only
seven years old. With his mother he was an inmate of the palace, and was
probably a spoiled and wayward boy. The emperor was afraid lest this boy,
when he came to understand who had been the cause of the death of his
father, would undertake to revenge himself. He talked with the empress
about his fears and explained his apprehensions. The boy accidentally
heard the conversation, and was probably stimulated thereby to do the very
thing which the emperor feared. Creeping stealthily into the room where
the emperor lay asleep he stabbed him and then fled, taking refuge in the
house of the Grandee Tsubura. The emperor was fifty-six years of age at
the time of his death. This tragical event produced a great excitement.
The younger brother of the emperor, Ōhatsuse, amazed and angry because his
two older brothers were not, as he thought, sufficiently enraged by the
murder of the emperor, killed them both. Then he attacked the Grandee
Tsubura and the boy Mayuwa in their refuge. Seeing no way of escape
Tsubura, at the request of the boy, first slew him and then killed
himself.
Subsequently Ōhatsuse, who seemed to have been of a violent disposition,
murdered Ichinobe-no-Oshiha, son of the seventeenth emperor, Richū. His
two sons, then merely boys, Ōke and Woke (literally big basket and little
basket), hearing of this catastrophe escaped into the province of Harima
where they worked as cow-herds. Ōhatsuse was crowned as the twenty-first
emperor and is known by the canonical name of Yūriyaku Tennō.
In the year A.D. 470 an ambassador came from Go in China and by order of
the emperor was entertained by the Grandee Ne-no-Ōmi. A court official,
Toneri, was directed to see that this duty was suitably performed. Now
Ne-no-Ōmi, it will be remembered, was the grandee who, on a former
occasion, was sent by the Emperor Ankō to solicit the hand of the Princess
Hatahi-no-Ōji for the present emperor, who was then the crown prince. In
order to entertain the Chinese ambassador with becoming magnificence,
Ne-no-Ōmi robed himself in a gorgeous manner and among other things put on
the rich necklace which he had stolen. Toneri reported to the emperor the
superb entertainment which Ne-no-Ōmi had accorded to the Chinese
ambassador, and especially the necklace which he wore. The emperor
innocently asked that Ne-no-Ōmi should appear before him in order that he
might see his superb dress. The empress, who was with her husband when
Ne-no-Ōmi came in, recognized the necklace which had been sent by her
brother to the late emperor. The theft was charged and Ne-no-Ōmi compelled
to confess. The emperor proclaimed the innocence of Okusaka-no-Ōji and his
great regret at the mistaken punishments.
There are many traditions current in Japanese early history concerning
this emperor. In one he is represented in his imperial journeys to have
seen a house belonging to Lord Shiki built with a raised roof like that of
the imperial palace. He was greatly enraged that any subject should dare
to take such a liberty, and sent his attendants to burn the house down.
The poor frightened lord hastened to the emperor and humbly apologized for
his stupidity. And he presented to the emperor in token of his humble
submission a white dog clothed with cloth and led by a string. So he was
forgiven and his house was spared.
In another legend he is said to have come upon a beautiful girl by the
river side washing clothes. He stopped and conferred with her, and said to
her, “Do not thou marry a husband, I will send for thee.” With this he
returned to the palace and forgot about his promise. But the poor girl did
not forget. Year after year passed, till at last after eighty years of
waiting she was a very old woman. Then she thought, “My face and form are
lean and withered, there is no longer any hope. Nevertheless, if I do not
show the Heavenly Sovereign how truly I have waited, my disappointment
will be unbearable.” And so with such gifts as she could afford she
presented herself before the emperor. He wondering at her and her gifts
asked her, “What old woman art thou, and why art thou come hither?” She
replied, “Having in such and such a month and such and such a year
received the Heavenly Sovereign’s commands, I have been reverently
awaiting the great command until this day, and eighty years have passed
by. Now, my appearance is decrepit and there is no longer any hope.
Nevertheless, I have come forth in order to show and declare my
faithfulness.” Thereupon the Heavenly Sovereign, greatly agitated,
exclaimed, “I had quite forgotten my command; and thou meanwhile, ever
faithfully awaiting my commands, hast vainly let pass by the years of thy
prime. It is too pitiful.” He sent her back to her home with such
consolation as rich gifts could impart.
We give one more of the legends which cling to the name of this emperor.
He was making an imperial progress to the moor of Akizu for the purpose of
hunting. And as he sat down to rest a horse-fly bit his august arm. But
immediately a dragon-fly came and seized the horse-fly and flew away.
Thereupon he composed an august song as follows:
Who is it tells in the great presence that game is lying on the
peak of Womuro, at Mi-Yeshinu? Our Great Lord who tranquilly
carries on the government, being seated on the throne to await the
game, a horse-fly alights on and stings the fleshy part of his arm
fully clad in a sleeve of white stuff, and a dragon-fly quickly
eats up the horse-fly. That it might properly bear its name, the
land of Yamato was called the Island of the Dragon-Fly.(82)
After a long reign Yūriyaku is said in _Kojiki_ to have died at the age of
one hundred and twenty-four.
The son of the Emperor Yūriyaku, Prince Shiraka, succeeded him. He is
known in history as the Emperor Seinei. He lived only five years after his
accession and left no descendant to fill the throne. Search was
accordingly made for some one of imperial blood who might become emperor.
It will be remembered that the Emperor Yūriyaku, before his accession, had
murdered Prince Ichinobe-no-Oshiwa, son of the eighteenth emperor, and
that his two sons, then young boys, Princes Ōke and Woke, made their
escape into the province of Harima. A new governor of this province had
just arrived and was in attendance at the festivities in honor of the
opening of a new cave(83) by a citizen of the place. As usual there was
feasting, and drinking, and dancing. The two young men Ōke and Woke, who
occupied menial positions in this household, were called upon to dance.
After some hesitation they each in succession danced and sang some of the
songs which they had learned in their boyhood.(84) The new governor
recognized these songs to be such as were taught at the court, and on
enquiring found the young men to be grandsons of the Emperor Richū. He
brought them to the palace and presented them to their aunt Queen Ii-Toyo.
After a friendly contest between the two brothers, the younger one, Prince
Woke, became the twenty-third emperor under the canonical name of Kenzō.
His reign was a very short one, only eight years according to the _Kojiki_
and three years according to the _Nihongi_. The only incident of
consequence recorded of him is that he sought out the burial place of his
father, who had been murdered by the Emperor Yūriyaku, and transferred his
remains to a fitting mausoleum. He also contemplated the desecration of
the mausoleum of the murderer as a mark of his vengeance, but was
dissuaded by his brother from the undertaking.
He died without children and was succeeded by his elder brother Prince Ōke
who became A.D. 488 the twenty-fourth emperor under the canonical name of
Ninken.
Concerning the emperor and several of his successors there is little of
interest to record. The twenty-fifth emperor, Muretsu (A.D. 499), who was
a son of the emperor Ninken, was chiefly notable for his cruelty. Some of
the acts recorded of him can only be equalled by those of the degenerate
occupants of the imperial throne of Rome in its worst days. He reigned
eleven years and died without children. The twenty-sixth emperor was
Keitai Tennō, who was the fifth descendant from Ōjin Tennō. The only
noticeable events in his reign were an expedition to Korea to settle
difficulties which had then intervened, and an expedition to Chikushi, the
northern part of Kyūshū, to repress tumults which had arisen. The next
emperors were Ankan Tennō and Senkuwa Tennō, whose reigns were uneventful.
The twenty-ninth emperor was Kimmei Tennō, (A.D. 540-571), who was the son
of Keitai Tennō. He reigned thirty-two years and died at the age of
sixty-three. It was during his reign, in A.D. 552, that an ambassador from
Kudara, one of the three provinces of Korea, presented to the emperor an
image of Shaka, and also Buddhist books explaining the doctrine. He
commended highly the new religion, and the emperor was deeply impressed
with its novelties. This seems the more probable because up to this time
Japan looked upon China and Korea as leaders in civilization, and
therefore was disposed to regard what had obtained a footing there as
worthy of acceptance.
The prime-minister Soga-no-Iname favored the new religion, and urged that
the image of Shaka which had been brought over should be duly set up and
worshipped. But the ministers Monobe-no-Okoshi and Kumako opposed the
proposition, saying, “Our country has its own gods; and they perhaps will
be angry with us if we pay our devotions to a foreign god.”
But the emperor settled the matter by saying, “Let Iname try it.” He gave
the idol to Iname with the directions that he should set it up and pray to
it. Accordingly Iname took the image of Shaka and established it in a
house of his own, which he created a temple, and worshipped it.
But shortly after this an epidemic broke out in the country, and Okoshi
and Kumako declared that it was due to the strange god which had been
received from the western barbarians, and besought the emperor to have it
thrown away. The image therefore by the emperor’s command was thrown into
the sea near Naniwa,(85) and the temple in which it had been erected was
destroyed. This was the first movement towards the introduction of
Buddhism.
In the reign of the thirtieth emperor, Bitatsu Tennō, A.D. 572, who was
the son of Kimmei Tennō, Kudara again made a contribution of Buddhist
emblems, viz.: books of Buddhist doctrine; a priest of Ritsu sect; a
priest; a nun; a diviner; an image maker; and a Buddhist temple carpenter.
These were all housed in the temple of Owake-no-O at Naniwa. Seven years
after this two Japanese ambassadors who had been sent to Kudara brought
back with them several Buddhist images of stone, which the Daijin Umako
obtained as his possession. He built several Buddhist temples in which he
placed the images and other precious relics which he had secured. He also
built a pagoda and houses in which the priests and nuns resided. When
Umako was sick he asked from the emperor that he might avail himself of
the Buddhist ritual. The emperor gave him this privilege, but commanded
him to restrict it to himself.
The Emperor Bitatsu died A.D. 585 at the age of forty-eight. His successor
was Emperor Yōmei the thirty-first in order from the Emperor Jimmu. He was
by his mother a descendant of the Soga family and his first wife was also
a daughter of the prime-minister, the Noble Iname who was also of the Soga
family. The bitter hostility between the members of the court who favored
Buddhism and those who opposed it continued. The leader of the former
party was Umako now the prime-minister, while the opponents of Buddhism
were led by Moriya. One of the occasions when their hostility broke out
was when the emperor was taken sick and he wished to try the effect of the
Buddhist Sampō, that is, the three precious elements of Buddhism, Buddha,
the rites of Buddhism, and the Buddhist priests. Moriya and his party
advised against this conformity to Buddhism, but Umako supported him in
his wishes and introduced a Buddhist priest into the palace to attend upon
the emperor. In spite of all this effort, however, the emperor died,
having reigned only three years.
The death of the emperor was the signal for the breaking out of serious
disturbances. Moriya the champion of the old religion was killed and his
party overpowered. From this time Buddhism may be said to have triumphed
in Japan. The thirty-second emperor, Sujun, was crowned A.D. 588. He was
the son of the Emperor Kimmei, and at the time of his accession was
sixty-nine years of age. The communication with Korea continued, and more
and more of the Buddhist culture was introduced. Umako, who now had
undisputed sway in the government, sent out to Korea persons to study the
Buddhist faith, and consecrated many priests and nuns and erected temples
for the new worship.
But everything did not move smoothly. Umako, with all his zeal and
enthusiasm for Buddhism, was suspected of personal ambition, and was
looked upon with distrust. A plot to assassinate the emperor was planned
by Umako, which terminated his life, after a reign of only four years, in
the seventy-third year of his age.
The thirty-third sovereign was the Empress Suiko, who was the sister of
the Emperor Yōmei. Her coronation took place A.D. 593. Her reign was
chiefly remarkable for the active influence of Umaydo-no-Ōji (A.D.
572-622), who was the second son of the Emperor Yōmei, and who was made
crown prince under the empress, and aided her in the administration of the
political affairs of the government. This prince is better known by his
posthumous title of Shōtoku Taishi (great teacher of the divine virtue),
and is held in great reverence as the principal founder and promoter of
Buddhism in Japan. His name has been linked with many legends, which are
still current after the lapse of fourteen hundred years. It is said that
as soon as he was born he was able to speak, and was in all respects a
very clever boy. His memory was wonderfully acute. He had Napoleon the
Great’s talent of attending to several things at the same time. He could
hear the appeals of eight persons at once, and give to each a proper
answer. From this circumstance he sometimes went by the name of
Yatsumimi-no-Ōji, that is, Prince of Eight Ears.
The prince threw the whole influence of the government in favor of
Buddhism. Many temples were built in different central districts for the
convenience of the new religion. Under his influence the officers of the
government rivalled each other in founding temples and maintaining them at
their own expense. He took as his teacher a priest who had recently come
from Korea, and from him for the first time learned the five Buddhist
commandments:
1. Against stealing.
2. Against lying.
3. Against intemperance.
4. Against murder.
5. Against adultery.
He gave command to an artificer in copper to make large images of Buddha
for each of the officers in the government. The king of Koma in Korea
hearing of this great undertaking sent a contribution of three hundred
_ryō_ of gold. The images were finished in due time and an imposing
religious ceremonial was held in honor of the event. Many of the principal
temples of Buddhism in different parts of Japan take their origin from the
time of Shōtoku Taishi, and no single character in history is so
intimately connected with the development of Buddhism.
It was not only as a religious reformer, however, that he deserves to be
remembered. He was a a most painstaking and enlightened ruler. He
studiously gathered from the Chinese the elements and methods of
government and adapted them to his own country.(86) From his time the
study of Chinese literature became the essential culture of the active
minds of Japan.
Shōtoku Taishi died A.D. 622, having been the principal officer of the
government for twenty-nine years.
The impulse which Shōtoku had given to Buddhism did not subside. In the
year following his death officers were appointed to govern the growing
religious communities, called Sosho and Sozu, which in dignity and power
corresponded to archbishops and bishops in Christian nomenclature. The
first archbishop was Kwankin, a priest from Kudara, and the first bishop
was Tokuseki of Kurabe. These officials examined every priest and nun and
made a register of them. A census of Buddhism is also given which belongs
to this same period. According to this there were forty-six Buddhist
temples and 1385 priests and nuns.
In the year A.D. 626, Soga-no-Umako the _daijin_ and a life-long friend
and promoter of Buddhism died, and two years later the Empress Suiko died.
So nearly all the prominent participants in the events which had taken
place since the first entrance of Buddhism into Japan, had disappeared. In
the meantime a religion had taken possession of a field in which it was
destined to exert a wide influence and undergo a national development.
Along with this religion had come a literature and a culture, which when
absorbed into the life of this people gave them the permanent
characteristics which we now recognize as the Japanese civilization. The
freer and more frequent intercourse with China and Korea brought with it
not only a knowledge of books and writing, but many improvements in arts
and many new arts and agricultural industries. When the forces of the
Empress Jingō returned from Korea they brought with them persons skilled
in many industrial occupations. It is a tradition that a descendant of the
Kan dynasty in China had fled to Korea on the fall of that dynasty, and in
the twentieth year of the Emperor Ōjin (A.D. 290) had migrated to Japan
with a colony who were familiar with weaving and sewing. In the
thirty-seventh year of the same emperor an officer was sent to China to
obtain more weavers and sewers. The cultivation of the mulberry tree and
the breeding of silk-worms(87) was introduced from China in A.D. 457, and
in order to encourage this industry the empress herself engaged in it. At
this early period this important industry was begun, or at least received
an impulse which has been continued down to the present time.
With these industrial arts came in rapid succession the elements of a
higher civilization. Books on almanac-making, astronomy, geography and
divination were brought to Japan from Korea and China. The Chinese
calendar(88) was first used in the reign of the Empress Suiko under the
regency of Shōtoku Taishi. This almanac was based on the lunar periods and
the civil year began with the new moon occurring about the beginning of
February. But as the length of the civil year is not an exact multiple of
the number of days contained in a lunation, the twelve lunar months used
by the Chinese and Japanese will be about eleven days shorter than the
solar year. Hence to prevent the discrepancy from increasing and throwing
the seasons entirely out of their place in the calendar, an intercalary
month was inserted nearly every third year. It was inserted not at the end
of the year but whenever the discrepancy had reached the number of days in
a lunation. The month thus inserted was called by the same name as the
preceding with an explanatory prefix. From this period therefore the dates
of Japanese events may be relied upon with some degree of certainty. For
events occurring before this period, a knowledge of which must have been
transmitted by oral tradition, the dates assigned to them in the _Nihongi_
must have been computed by counting back to the supposed time according to
the calendar in use at the time of the writing.
The astronomy and geography introduced into Japan along with
almanac-making in the fifth century were without question very primitive
sciences. At this time even in Europe the knowledge of these sciences was
not advanced beyond the imperfect notions of the Greeks. It was not until
the sixteenth century, when the discoveries of the Portuguese and the
Spaniards and the English had revealed the shape and the divisions of the
earth, and the Jesuits had carried this knowledge to China and Japan, that
anything like a correct astronomy or geography was possible. By
divination, which is mentioned as one of the sciences brought over from
Korea, was meant the determination of future events or of lucky or unlucky
conditions.
The most important civilizing force introduced from China at this period
was the formal institutions of education. Although the first establishment
of a school dates from the reign of the Emperor Tenji (A.D. 668-671), yet
it was not till the reign of the Emperor Mommu (A.D. 697-707) that the
university was regularly organized. Branch schools were also established
in the several provinces. In the university there were departments for
Chinese literature, for medicine, for astronomy and almanac-making, and
for astrology. Under the first head were included the art of writing the
Chinese characters, the practice of composition, the study of the Chinese
classics, and the reading of books of Chinese history. In like manner the
training of the students in medicine chiefly consisted in making them
familiar with the methods which prevailed in China. The properties of
medicinal plants, the variations of the pulse in health and disease and in
the changing seasons, and the anatomy of the human body were the chief
subjects of study. The human cadaver was never dissected, but a knowledge
of anatomy was obtained from diagrams which were wholly hypothetical. In
early times medical officers were appointed to experiment with medicines
upon monkeys, and also to dissect the bodies of monkeys. From these
dissections, as well as from the printed diagrams of Chinese books the
imperfect knowledge which they had reached was derived. It was not till
1771 that Sugita Genpaku(89) and several other Japanese scholars had an
opportunity to dissect the body of a criminal, and by personal observation
found the utter falsity of the Chinese diagrams on which they had hitherto
relied, and the correctness of the Dutch books, which they had, contrary
to the laws of the country, learned to read.
The great reverence felt for Chinese culture led to the introduction at an
early date of the Chinese system of official rank. The system remained in
force down to the restoration in 1868. The officers were _Daijō-daijin_
(Prime-Minister), _Sa-daijin_ (Minister of the Left), _U-daijin_ (Minister
of the Right), together with eight boards,(90) charged with the various
duties of administration. These boards were divided into sections, and the
various departments of the government were respectively performed by them.
In this way the administration became thoroughly bureaucratic, in
imitation of the Chinese empire, to which the Japanese at this time looked
up with the most complete reverence.
In addition to these official boards, six official ranks were also
introduced from China. These ranks were designated, first, virtue; second,
humanity; third, propriety; fourth, truth; fifth, righteousness, and
sixth, wisdom. Each of these ranks(91) was divided into two orders termed
respectively the Greater and the Lesser. Thus there were twelve
distinctions in this system. It was introduced in the reign of the Empress
Suiko, A.D. 604, and is generally attributed to the Regent Shōtoku, who
was a great admirer of the continental civilization. It existed in this
form until the time of the Emperor Kōtoku, when, A.D. 649, it was extended
to nineteen distinctions. These were not given to the individual in
recognition of talent, but to families to be by them transmitted to their
posterity as hereditary rank.
For many years during this period of active intercourse with China and
Korea, Dazaifu, situated on the west coast of Kyūshū, north of the present
situation of Nagasaki, was the recognized port where strangers were
received. This city was the seat of a vice-royalty, having control over
the nine provinces of Kyūshū. The office of vice-governor was considered a
place of honorable banishment to which distinguished men who were
distasteful at court could be sent.
These continental influences continued for many years and indeed have
never ceased. There has always existed a class of scholars who looked upon
Chinese learning as the supreme pinnacle to which the human mind could
attain. This was especially true of the admirers of Confucius and
Confucianism. Although it was not until a much later period that the
culture of a Chinese philosophy attained its highest mark, yet even in the
early arrangement of the studies in the university we see the wide
influence which the writings of the Chinese classics exerted.
We close this chapter with an event which evinced the advance which
Japanese civilization had made, and aided greatly in promoting this
advance in the subsequent centuries. This event was the publication of the
_Kojiki_ (Record of Ancient Things) and the _Nihongi_ (Chronicles of
Japan). A book still older than these is said to have been composed in
A.D. 620, but it perished in a fire in A.D. 645, although a fragment is
said to have been rescued. The circumstances attending the preparation of
the _Kojiki_ are given by Mr. Satow in his paper(92) on the “Revival of
Pure Shintō,” and also by Mr. Chamberlain(93) in his introduction to the
translation. The Emperor Temmu had resolved to take measures to preserve
the true traditions from oblivion. He had the records carefully examined
and compiled. Then these collated traditions were one by one committed to
one of the household officers, Hiyeda-no-Are, who had a marvellously
retentive memory. Before the work of compilation was finished the emperor
died; but the Empress Gemmyō, who after an interval succeeded him, carried
it on to its completion in A.D. 712. By her direction the traditions were
taken down from Are’s dictation in the form in which we now have them. It
is by no means a pleasing or attractive work, even in the opinion of the
Japanese. It is bald and archaic in its form and composition. It is,
however, notable as being freer from the admixture of Chinese learning,
and therefore a better index of the native culture of the race than the
works which followed it.(94) Much of it consists of mere genealogies of
the emperors and naked statements of leading events, but there are besides
this many legends and poems which bear evidence of having been handed down
in essentially their present form. As an authority for the chronology of
the early events it is, of course, of small value. It is evident that
where a narrative of events has been carried through many centuries by
tradition alone, without written records to check or assist it, no
dependence can be placed on the chronology of the events, further than,
perhaps, on the order of sequence.
Only eight years after the publication of the _Kojiki_, a second work
termed _Nihongi_ or Chronicles of Japan was issued. It was prepared by
imperial command and appeared in A.D. 720 in the reign of the Empress
Genshō. It differs from the older book in being composed in the Chinese
idiom, and in being much more tinctured with the ideas of Chinese
philosophy. These two works, so nearly contemporaneous, both of them
composed in so great a degree of the legendary elements of Japanese
history, must be looked upon as marking a distinct epoch in the story of
Japan.
CHAPTER VI. THE MIDDLE AGES OF JAPAN.
The theory of the Japanese government during the greater part of its long
career has been that of an absolute monarchy. The emperor was supposed to
hold in his hands the supreme authority, and to dispose, as he saw fit, of
honors and emoluments, offices and administrative duties. There was no
fundamental law of succession, by which the order of accession to the
throne was regulated. The reigning emperor usually selected during his
lifetime some one of his sons, or, if he had no sons, some other prince of
the imperial family, who became the crown prince during the life of the
emperor, and on his death succeeded to the throne.(95) The selection was
usually made with the concurrence of the officers of the court, and very
often must be credited entirely to the preference of these officers.
Sometimes the emperor died before the appointment of a crown prince had
taken place. In this case the selection lay in the hands of the court
officers, and many cases are recorded in the history of the empire where
serious disturbances arose between the partisans of different aspirants to
the throne. These disturbances usually account for the _interregna_ which
are so often found between the reigns of successive sovereigns.
To the freedom which has prevailed, not only in the imperial house but
also in all the families of the empire, in regard to the rights of
succession, must be attributed the long and unbroken line which the
imperial house of Japan is able to show. That a line of sovereigns should
continue from the time of Jimmu down to the present without break by
reason of the failure of children, is of course impossible. But the
difficulty disappears when it is remembered, that in case of the failure
of a son to succeed, the father provided for the want by adopting as his
son some prince of the imperial family, and appointing him as his heir.
With this principle of adoption must be mentioned the practice of
abdication(96) which produced a marked and constantly recurring influence
in the history of Japan. Especially was this the case in the middle ages
of Japanese history. The practice spread from the imperial house downwards
into all departments of Japanese life. Although the principle of
abdication and adoption was probably brought from China and was adopted by
the Japanese as a mark of superior culture, yet these practices were
carried to a much greater extent in Japan than was ever thought of in
their original home. We shall see in the story of Japanese times the
amazing and ludicrous extent to which the abdication of reigning
sovereigns was carried. We shall witness even the great and sagacious
Ieyasu himself, after holding the office of shōgun for only two years,
retiring in favor of his son Hidetada, and yet from his retirement
practically exercising the authority of the office for many years.
In A.D. 668 the Emperor Tenji(97) began a brief reign of three years. As
he had been regent during the two preceding reigns, and chiefly managed
the administration, very little change occurred after his accession to
power. His reign is mainly remarkable for the first appearance in a
prominent position of the Fujiwara family. The emperor appointed his
counsellor Nakatomi-no-Kamatari as _nai-daijin_ (private minister), an
office next in rank after _sa-daijin_, and which was created at this time.
Nakatomi, was authorized to assume the family name of Fujiwara, meaning
wistaria-field. The ancestor of this family, Nakatomi-no-Muraji,(98) was
fabled to have come down from the celestial plains to the island of
Kyūshū. The family therefore ranks with that of the emperor as the oldest
and most honored in the empire. From the time of its establishment down to
the present it has enjoyed many honors and privileges, and has played a
very distinguished part in the history of the country. This family first
became prominent during the reign of the Emperor Kōtoku. The Soga family
from the times of the first introduction of Buddhism had grown to be the
most powerful and influential in the empire. Umako had held the position
of _daijin_ and his son Yemishi became _daijin_ after his father’s death.
Yemishi presumed upon his promotion to this high office and put on the
airs of hereditary rank. He built castles for himself and son and
organized guards for their defence. His son Iruka became _daijin_ after
his father’s death and conducted himself with even greater arrogance. At
last his conduct became intolerable and he was assassinated A.D. 645. The
chief actor in this plot was Nakatomi-no-Kamatari, who was at this time on
intimate terms with the prince who afterwards became the Emperor Tenji.
Further experiences, this time disastrous, with Korea were encountered
during this reign. A Japanese garrison had been maintained in Kudara, the
western division of Korea. But at this time the people of Shiraki with
help from China attacked this garrison and compelled it to retreat to
Japan. Along with the Japanese came many of the Koreans who had been
friendly with them, and who carried with them, like the Huguenots when
driven from France, a knowledge of many arts and a culture which were
eagerly welcomed by the rising Japanese empire. They were colonized in
convenient quarters in different provinces, and as an encouragement freed
from taxation for a time. Their influence upon the opening civilization of
Japan cannot be overlooked or neglected in our estimate of the forces
which conspired to produce the final result. In the book of Japanese
annals called _Nihon Shoki_ there is a statement(99) that in the fifth
month of the second year of _Reiki_ (A.D. 717) 1799 Koreans were collected
together in the province of Musashi and formed the district of “Koma-gōri”
or Korean district. Again in the third year of _Tempyō Hoji_ (A.D. 760)
forty inhabitants of Shinra (a kingdom of Korea) and thirty-four priests
and priestesses came to Japan and founded the “Shinra-gōri,” or Korean
district. These events occurred not long after the time we are now
considering and show that the Korean colonization still continued and that
the influence of the arts and culture which the colonists introduced was
marked and important.
Few events are noted during the reigns which succeeded. The following are
the most worthy of mention. The Emperor Temmu (A.D. 673-686) added several
new degrees of rank to those already established. He also favored the
Buddhist religion by making its services obligatory, and by forbidding the
eating of flesh. Silver was first discovered in Tsushima A.D. 674, which
was followed twenty years later by the manufacture of the first silver
money. Copper was discovered in Musashi in the reign of the Empress Gemmyō
(A.D. 708-715) and the making of copper money came into vogue. Before that
time the copper money in use was obtained from Korea and China. Gold coin
is said to have been first issued under the Emperor Junnin (A.D. 759-765).
An observatory was established for the inspection of the stars in
connection with the new department of astrology. The cultivation of the
lacquer tree and the mulberry and the raising of silk-worms were still
further encouraged and extended. Cremation was first practised about A.D.
700 in the case of a Buddhist priest who left directions that his body
should be burned. Since that time cremation has been employed for the
disposal of the dead by the Shin (or Monto) sect, and is now authorized
but not made obligatory by the government. The progress made by Buddhism
is shown by the census of temples which was made in the reign of the
Empress Jito (A.D. 690-702) and which gave the number as 545. The
publication of the _Kojiki_ in A.D. 712, and of the _Nihongi_ eight years
later, has already been referred to at the close of the preceding chapter.
These works are still looked upon as the foundations of Japanese
literature and the highest authorities of Japanese history.
In the reign of the Empress Gemmyō (A.D. 710) the imperial residence was
fixed at Nara. Up to this time the custom(100) derived from antiquity had
prevailed of changing the residence on the accession of each new emperor.
But the court continued at Nara for a period of seventy-five years running
through seven reigns; and in consequence Nara has always been looked upon
with peculiar reverence, and is the seat of several of the most notable
Buddhist and Shintō temples(101) and structures. It is here that
Kasuga-no-miya was founded in A.D. 767 and dedicated to the honor of the
ancestor of the Fujiwara family. Here also is Tō-dai-ji a Buddhist temple
famed for containing the bronze statue of Great Buddha. This colossal idol
was constructed in A.D. 736 under the Emperor Shōmu, during the time that
the imperial court resided at Nara. The height of the image is fifty-three
feet, being seven feet higher than the Daibutsu at Kamakura. The temple
was built over the image and in A.D. 1180 was destroyed by a fire which
melted the head of the image. This was replaced. The temple was burned
again A.D. 1567, from which time the image has remained as the Japanese
say “a wet god.”
In A.D. 794(102) during the reign of the Emperor Kwammu (A.D. 782-806) the
capital was removed to Kyōto on the banks of the Kamogawa. The situation
and the environs are lovely, and justify the affectionate reverence with
which it has ever been regarded. Here were built the palaces and offices
for the emperor and his court. It was officially called Miyako, that is,
residence of the sovereign. It continued to be occupied as the capital
until A.D. 1868, when the court was moved to Tōkyō. At this time the name
of the city was changed to Saikyō, which means western capital, in
distinction from Tōkyō, which means eastern capital.
The Emishi in the northern part of the Main island continued to give much
trouble to the government. During the reign of the Emperor Shōmu (A.D.
724-756) Fujiwara-no-Umakai was sent against these restless neighbors and
succeeded in reducing them to subjection, which lasted longer than usual.
A fort was built to keep them in subjection, called the castle of Taga.
There is still standing a stone monument at Taga, between Sendai and
Matsushima, on which is an inscription which has been translated by Mr.
Aston,(103) of the British legation. The inscription gives the date of its
first construction, which corresponds to A.D. 724, and of its restoration,
A.D. 762. Mr. Aston points out that the _ri_ here mentioned is not the
present Japanese _ri_ equivalent to miles 2.44, but the ancient _ri_ which
is somewhat less than half a mile. This makes it evident that the part of
the Main island north of a point near Sendai was at this time denominated
Yezo, and was occupied by the barbarous tribes who then as now called
themselves Yezo.
The employment of a Fujiwara in this expedition was probably purely
perfunctory. So far as we know, this family, which had by this time risen
to a position of great influence, was in no respect military, and the
appointment of Umakai as chief of the forces sent against the Ainos was
due to the political prominence of his family. For many centuries the
relations of the Fujiwara family to the imperial house was most intimate.
Indeed the late Viscount Mori,(104) in his introduction to _Education in
Japan_, speaks of this relation as a “proprietorship.” “The throne for a
time became virtually the property of one family, who exclusively
controlled it.” This family was that of Fujiwara,(105) to which reference
has already been made. The founder of this house, Kamatari, was a man of
great talent and administrative ability, and his immediate successors were
worthy of their ancestor’s fame, and in succession filled the office of
_daijin._ In this way the office came to be regarded as hereditary in the
Fujiwara family. The office of _kuambaku_, also from about A.D. 880,
became hereditary in the Fujiwara house. Owing to the great age and
prominence of the family, it became customary to marry the emperors and
princes of the imperial house to ladies taken from it, so that after a
time the mothers and wives of the princes of the imperial house were
without exception descendants of the Fujiwara, and the offices of the
court were in the hands of this family. In this condition of things the
abdication of emperors, before they had reigned long enough to learn the
duties of their position, became the common practice. This vicious custom
was encouraged by the Fujiwara, because it placed greater authority in
their hands, and left them to conduct the administration without
troublesome interference. The Emperor Seiwa (A.D. 859-880) commenced to
reign when he was nine years of age, and abdicated when he was
twenty-six.(106) Shujaku (A.D. 931-952) became emperor when he was eight
years of age and abdicated at the age of twenty-three. Toba became emperor
(A.D. 1108) at five years of age, and resigned at the age of twenty.
Rokujō was made emperor (A.D. 1166) at the age of two and resigned at the
age of four. Takakura, who succeeded Rokujō (A.D. 1169), was eight years
of age and abdicated at the age of nineteen. It often happened that there
were living at the same time several retired emperors, besides the actual
emperor.(107) Thus, in the period when Ichijō began his reign at the age
of seven (A.D. 987), there were three retired emperors still living, viz.:
Reizei, who began to reign (A.D. 968) at eighteen, and retired at twenty;
Enyū, who began to reign (A.D. 970) at eleven, and retired at twenty-six;
Kwazan, who began to reign (A.D. 985) at seventeen, and retired at
nineteen. At a period somewhat later than the one now under consideration,
during the reign of Go-Nijō, who had just been made emperor (A.D. 1301) at
seventeen, and who retired at nineteen, there were four retired emperors
living. When the emperors retired they often went into a Buddhist
monastery, taking the title of _hō-ō_ or _cloistered emperor_. From this
sacred seclusion they continued many times to wield the powers of
government.
The object of this abdication was twofold. The sovereigns themselves often
became restless and dissatisfied in the constrained attitude which they
were compelled to maintain. If they were in the least ambitious to meet
the requirements of their elevated position and realized in any degree the
legitimate claims which their country had upon them, their natural efforts
to take part in the administration were promptly checked, and they were
reminded that it was unbecoming and unfitting for the descendants of the
gods to mingle in ordinary earthly affairs. In this way it often fell out
that the ablest of the emperors retired from the actual position of
reigning emperor in order to free themselves from the restraints of
etiquette and from the burden of _ennui_ which held them captive. They
assumed the dignity of retired emperors, and often from their retirement
wielded a greater influence and exerted a far more active part in the
administration of affairs than they ever had been able to do when upon the
imperial throne.
Besides this motive which affected the occupants of the throne, there was
a corresponding one which led the officers of the court to encourage and
perhaps sometimes to compel the emperors to abdicate. These administrative
officers, into whose hands the management of the government had fallen,
were desirous to retain their authority, and therefore whenever an emperor
exhibited signs of independence, or any disposition to think or act for
himself, they contrived means to have him retire and leave in his place
some inexperienced boy who could be more easily controlled.
In this kind of supervising statesmanship the Fujiwara family became, and
for centuries remained, supreme experts. For a period of four hundred
years, from A.D. 645 to 1050, they monopolized nearly all the important
offices in the government. The wives and concubines of the feeble emperors
were all taken from its inexhaustible _repertoire_. The men of the family,
among whom were always some of administrative ability, found it a task of
no great difficulty to rule the emperor who was supposed to be divinely
inspired to rule the empire, especially when he was usually a boy whose
mother, wife, and court favorites were all supplied from the Fujiwara
family. This kind of life and environment could not fail to produce on the
successive emperors a sadly demoralizing effect. They were brought up in
an enervating atmosphere and their whole life was spent in arts and
employments which, instead of developing in them a spirit of independence
and a high ambition and ability to govern well the empire committed to
them, led them to devote themselves to pleasures, and to leave to others
less fortunate the duty of administering the affairs of government.
The same circumstances which demoralized the occupants of the imperial
throne served in a certain though less degree to enervate and enfeeble the
Fujiwara family. Although they sometimes appointed one of their number the
commander of an expedition against the Emishi, or to put down fresh
revolts in the island of Kyūshū, yet his duties were purely honorary. He
usually remained at home and sent one or more of the active military
chieftains to lead the forces against the enemy in the field. If the
expedition was successful, however, the honorary commander did not forget
to have himself duly promoted, and rewarded with additional lands and
income.
Other families besides the Fujiwara, rose in these long and weary
centuries to prominence, and seemed on the point of disputing the security
of their position. Thus the Tachibana in the eighth century attained high
honors and distinction. It was an old family, and even as far back as the
legend of Yamato-dake(108) we find that a princess of the Tachibana family
was his wife, who sacrificed herself in the bay of Yedo to appease the
turbulent waters. It was Maroyé, a member of the Tachibana family and a
favorite of the Emperor Shōmu (A.D. 724-756), who compiled the collection
of ancient Japanese poetry called Man-yōshū or collection of Myriad
Leaves.
Another family which attained prominence was the Sugawara. It originated
in the province of Kawachi. The most noted representative of this family
was Sugawara Michizané, who was first conspicuous as the teacher of the
young prince who afterward became the Emperor Uda (A.D. 888-898). He was a
brilliant scholar in Chinese, which was then the learned language of the
East. Even down to modern times his family has been devoted to learning.
The Sugawara(109) and Ōye families both had adopted literature as their
hereditary profession, and the government made them an allowance for the
expenses(110) of those who might be pursuing their studies in the national
university. The influence of Michizané over the emperor was marked and
salutary. Under his wise tutelage Uda showed so much independence that the
Fujiwara _Kwambaku_ found means to lead him to abdicate in favor of his
son, who became the sixtieth emperor, and is known under the historic name
of Daigo. Michizané became the counsellor and was created _nai-daijin_
under the new emperor, who at the time of his accession was only fourteen
years old. But the _Kwambaku_ Tokihira determined to free himself from the
adverse influence of this wise and honest counsellor. So he had him sent
in a kind of honorable banishment to Dazaifu, the seat of the vice-royalty
of the island of Kyūshū. It is said that he died here in A.D. 903. There
was a great re-action in regard to him after his death, and he was
canonized under the name of Tenjin(111) (Heavenly god), and is held sacred
as the patron saint of men of letters and of students. The twenty-fifth
day of each month is kept as a holiday in schools, sacred to Tenjin-Sama,
and the twenty-fifth of June as an annual _matsuri_.
[Illustration]
Michizane.
But the families which finally displaced the Fujiwara from their position
of supremacy were what were technically called the military families. The
separation of officers into civil and military was made under the reforms
introduced from China. The Fujiwara in the main restricted themselves to
civil duties. Wherever it was necessary to send military expeditions
against the barbarians of the north, or rebels in Kyūshū, or into the
disaffected districts of Korea, commanders were selected from families
devoted to military service. The Taira family was of this class. Hei is
the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese name Taira, and is more often used
in the literature of the times. The Taira family sprang from the Emperor
Kwammu (A.D. 782-806) through one of his concubines. The great-grandson of
Kwammu, Takamochi, received permission to adopt the name of Taira, and
thus became the founder of the family. They were the military vassals of
the crown for many generations.
A little later than the Taira arose another family, the Minamoto, whose
equivalent Chinese name was Gen. It sprang from the Emperor Seiwa (A.D.
859-880). His son Tadazumi became minister of war. Tadazumi had two sons,
who were granted the family name of Minamoto; the descendants of one of
them, Tsunemoto, being created military vassals.
The almost constant wars in which the empire was engaged led to the
extension of the military class. From the time now under discussion the
military class came to be looked upon as a distinct and separate part of
the population. It was composed of those who in the time of war showed an
aptitude for arms, and who were most serviceable in the campaigns which
they undertook. Gradually they became distinct from the agricultural
peasantry, and by education and training came to look upon arms as their
legitimate profession. They naturally attached themselves to the military
commanders who led them in their various expeditions, and thus were in
time regarded as the standing troops of the empire. This growth of a
military class, whose commanders were restless and ambitious, gradually
undermined the authority which the Fujiwara up to the tenth century had
almost unrestrictedly exercised. The employment of commanders from the
military families raised in them an ambition to share in the powers of
government. The struggles which ensued, first between the Fujiwara and
Taira, and then between the Taira and Minamoto, continued to keep the
country embroiled for more than a century. The suffering and desolation
resulting from these weary internecine wars can only be paralleled by such
conflicts as that between the White and Red Roses in England, or the
Thirty Years’ War in Germany. Of these struggles it will be possible to
give only an outline.
It has already been mentioned that the Taira family sprang from the
Emperor Kwammu,(112) whose great-grandson, Takamochi received permission
to take Taira as his family name. The Emperor Shirakawa tired of the
arrogance of the Fujiwara in A.D. 1087 retired into a cloister, and from
this seclusion continued to exercise a controlling influence in the
conduct of affairs. Tadamori a descendant of Taira-no-Takamochi was a
favorite in his court, and even had a _liaison_ with one of his
concubines.
The ex-emperor complaisantly informed the courtier that if the child to be
born proved to be a daughter he himself would adopt it, but if a son then
it should belong to Tadamori. Accordingly the child being a son was a
Taira, and rose to great eminence as Taira-no-Kiyomori. Tadamori acquired
for himself great credit by his successful expedition against Korean
pirates who had cruised along the eastern coasts of Japan. In the troubles
which subsequently arose in reference to the succession the Taira took an
important part. The Emperor Toba, who succeeded to the throne in A.D. 1108
at the age of six, abdicated in A.D. 1123 at the age of twenty-six. Both
his father, the ex-Emperor Horikawa, and his grandfather, the ex-Emperor
Shirakawa, were still living in retirement. He was succeeded by his son
the Emperor Shutoku in A.D. 1124, then six years old, who after reigning
seventeen years abdicated. He had a son but was succeeded A.D. 1142 by his
brother Konoye who was four years of age. This mature youth reigned
thirteen years and died without abdicating. On his death-bed he adopted as
the crown prince his brother Go-Shirakawa, thus displacing the lineal
heir. The succession was now bitterly disputed. The Minamoto chiefly
espoused the cause of the displaced heir, while Kiyomori and the Taira
together with Minamoto-no-Yoshitomo supported Go-Shirakawa. In a battle
fought A.D. 1156 Kyomori won the victory. This victory raised him to a
pinnacle of power. He began a career of nepotism and patronage which was
not inferior to that of the Fujiwara. The ex-Emperor Shutoku and his son
were banished to the province of Sanuki where it is said that Shutoku died
of starvation. Tametomo a member of the Minamoto clan who was famed for
his great strength and for his skill in archery was sent as an exile to
the island of Hachijō, southeast of the promontory of Izu. From this
island he escaped, and it is a tradition that he made his way to the
Ryūkyū islands where he rose to prominence and became the ancestor of the
kings of these islands.
Yoshitomo of the Minamoto clan, who had sided with Kiyomori in the recent
dynastic conflict was a brother of the Tametomo just mentioned. He was
greatly offended by the violent use which Kiyomori made of the power which
had come into his hands. With all the Minamoto and Fujiwara he conspired
to overthrow the victorious and arrogant Taira. But Kiyomori suspecting
the plans of his enemies took measures to counteract them and suddenly
fell upon them in the city of Kyōto. Yoshitomo was obliged to save himself
by fleeing to Owari, where he was assassinated by the agents of Kiyomori.
The death of the head of the Minamoto only made the tyrant more determined
to crush all opposition. Even the ex-Emperor Go-Shirakawa, who was a
son-in-law of Kiyomori, but who showed some signs of disapproval, was sent
into exile. Several of the sons of Yoshitomo were put to death; but
Yoritomo then a boy of thirteen was saved by the interference of the
mother-in-law of Kiyomori, and was sent into exile in the province of Izu,
and put into the safe-keeping of two faithful Taira men, one of whom Hōjō
Tokimasa will be heard of hereafter.
Besides the four sons of Yoshitomo by his wife, he had also three sons by
a concubine named Tokiwa. She was a woman of great beauty, and for that
reason as well as because she was the mother of the romantic hero
Yoshitsuné, she has often been chosen by Japanese artists as the subject
of their pictures. Tokiwa and her three children, of whom Yoshitsuné was
then an infant at the breast, fled at the breaking out of the storm upon
Yoshitomo and the Minamoto clan. They are often represented as wandering
through a storm of snow, Yoshitsuné being carried as an infant on the back
of his mother, and the other two little ones pattering along with unequal
steps at her side. In this forlorn condition they were met by one of the
Taira soldiers, who took pity on them and gave them shelter. From him they
learned that Kiyomori had taken the mother of Tokiwa prisoner, and held
her in confinement, knowing that this would surely bring back to him the
fair fugitive and her children. In the Chinese teachings of that day, in
which Tokiwa had been educated, the duty of a child to its mother was
paramount to that of a mother to her child. So Tokiwa felt that it was
unquestionably her duty to go back at once to the capital and surrender
herself in order to procure the release of her mother. But her maternal
heart rebelled when she remembered that her babes would surely be
sacrificed by this devotion. Her woman’s wit devised a scheme which might
possibly furnish a way between these terrible alternatives. She determined
to surrender herself and her children to Kiyomori, and depend upon her
beauty to save them from the fate which had been pronounced upon all the
Minamoto. So with her little flock she went back and gave herself up to
the implacable tyrant. Softened by her beauty and urged by a number of his
courtiers, he set her mother at liberty in exchange for her becoming his
concubine, and distributed her children in separate monasteries. The chief
interest follows the youngest boy, Yoshitsuné, who was sent to the
monastery at Kurama Yama(113) near Kyōto. Here he grew up a vigorous and
active youth, more devoted to woodcraft, archery, and fencing than to the
studies and devotions of the monastery. At sixteen years of age he was
urged by the priests to become a monk and to spend the rest of his days in
praying for the soul of his father. But he refused, and shortly after he
escaped from the monastery in company with a merchant who was about to
visit the northern provinces. Yoshitsuné reached Mutsu, where he entered
the service of Fujiwara-no-Hidehira, then governor of the province. Here
he spent several years devoting himself to the military duties which
chiefly pertained to the government of that rough and barbarous province.
He developed into the gallant and accomplished soldier who played a
principal part in the wars which followed, and became the national hero
around whose name have clustered the choicest traditions of his country.
Meanwhile, as we have seen, Yoritomo,(114) the oldest son of Yoshitomo,
and by inheritance the head of the Minamoto clan, had been banished to Izu
and committed to the care of two faithful Taira adherents. Yoritomo
married Masago, the daughter of Hōjō Tokimasa, one of these, and found
means to induce Tokimasa to join him in his plans to overthrow the tyrant
Kiyomori, who now ruled the empire with relentless severity. Even the
retired emperor joined in this conspiracy and wrote letters to Yoritomo
urging him to lead in the attempt to put down the Taira. Yoritomo summoned
the scattered members of the Minamoto clan and all the disaffected
elements of every kind to his assistance. It does not seem that this
summons was responded to with the alacrity which was hoped for. The
inexperience of Yoritomo and the power and resources of him against whom
they were called upon to array themselves, led the scattered enemies of
Kiyomori to hesitate to join so hopeless a cause. The rendezvous of the
Minamoto was at Ishibashi Yama, and it is said that only three hundred men
gathered at the call. They were followed and attacked by a greatly
superior force, and utterly routed. It is a tradition that Yoritomo and
six friends, who had escaped from the slaughter of this battle, hid
themselves in the hollow of an immense tree. Their pursuers, in searching
for them, sent one of their number to examine this tree. He was secretly a
friend of the Minamoto, and when he discovered the fugitives he told them
to remain, and announced to those who sent him that the tree was empty. He
even inserted his spear into the hollow and turned it about to show that
there was nothing there. When he did this two doves(115) flew out, and the
artful soldier reported that spiders’ webs were in the mouth of the
opening.
Yoritomo now fled to the promontory of Awa, east of what became known
afterward as Yedo bay. He sent messages in every direction summoning the
enemies of Kiyomori to join him. His brother Yoshitsuné gathered what
forces he could from the north and marched to the region which was to
become famous as the site of Kamakura. He was joined by others of his clan
and soon felt himself in such a position as to assume the aggressive. He
fixed upon Kamakura as his headquarters about A.D. 1180, and as his power
increased it grew to be a great city. It was difficult of access from
Kyōto and by fortifying the pass of Hakoné,(116) where the mountainous
regions of Shinano come down to the eastern coast not far from Fujisan, it
was rendered safe from attacks coming from the south.
While these notes of preparation were being sounded Kiyomori, who as
_daijō-daijin_ had ruled the empire for many years, died A.D. 1181, at the
age of sixty-four. He was fully aware of the portentous clouds which were
gathering around his family. On his death-bed he is said to have warned
them of the danger arising from the plans of Yoritomo. According to the
_Nihon-Gwaishi_, he said, “My regret is only that I am dying, and have not
yet seen the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto. After my decease do not
make offerings to Buddha on my behalf nor read sacred books. Only cut off
the head of Yoritomo of the Minamoto and hang it on my tomb.”
The death of Kiyomori(117) hastened the triumph of Yoritomo. Munemori the
son of Kiyomori became the head of the Taira clan, and continued the
contest. But Yoritomo’s combinations speedily reduced the country to his
power. Yoshitsuné with his army from the north was at Kamakura; Yoshinaka,
a cousin of Yoritomo, was in command of an army gathered in the highlands
of Shinano; while Yoritomo himself led the forces collected in Awa, Kazusa
and Musashi. The point to which all the armies were directed was the
capital where the Taira were still in full control. Yoshinaka was the
first to come in collision with the forces of the capital. Munemori had
sent out an army to oppose Yoshinaka who was swiftly approaching along the
Nakasendō. The Taira army was completely defeated and Yoshinaka marched
victoriously into the capital. Munemori with the reigning emperor Antoku,
then only a child six years of age, and all the imperial court crossed the
Inland sea to Sanuki, the northern province of the island of Shikoku. The
two retired emperors Go-Shirakawa, and Takakura who sympathized with the
revolutionary movements of Yoritomo, remained behind and welcomed
Yoshinaka to the capital. The retirement of the emperor from the palace
was taken as his abdication, and his younger brother, Go-Toba, then seven
years old, was proclaimed emperor.
Yoshinaka, puffed up by his rapid success, and disregarding the paramount
position of Yoritomo, assumed the superintendence of the government and
had himself appointed _sei-i-shōgun_,(118) which was the highest military
title then bestowed upon a subject. He even went so far as to antagonize
Yoritomo and undertook to pluck the fruits of the military movements which
had brought about this revolution of the government.
Yoritomo at once despatched Yoshitsuné at the head of his army to Kyōto to
put down this most unexpected and unnatural defection. He met Yoshinaka’s
army near lake Biwa and inflicted upon it a severe defeat. Overwhelmed
with shame and knowing that he deserved no consideration at the hands of
his outraged relatives, Yoshinaka committed suicide. Yoshitsuné then
followed the fugitive court. He destroyed the Taira palace at Hyōgo, and
then crossed over to Sanuki, whither the court had fled. Alarmed by the
swift vengeance which was pursuing them, Munemori together with the
emperor and his mother and all the court hastily embarked for what they
hoped might be an asylum in the island of Kyūshū. They were pursued by the
Minamoto army in the junks which had brought them to Sanuki. They were
overtaken at Dan-no-ura not far from the village of Shimonoseki, in the
narrow straits at the western extremity of the Inland sea. The naval
battle which here took place is the most famous in the annals of the
Japanese empire. According to the _Nihon-Gwaishi_ the Taira fleet
consisted of five hundred junks, and the Minamoto of seven hundred. The
vessels of the Taira were encumbered by many women and children of the
escaping families, which put them at a great disadvantage. The young
emperor, with his mother and grandmother, were also the precious freight
of this fugitive fleet. Of course, at this early date the vessels which
contended were unlike the monstrous men-of-war which now
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