A History of the Japanese People Part 14

Light is also thrown in Nintoku's annals on the method of boatbuilding practised by the j.a.panese in the fourth century. They used dug-outs. The provincial governor* of Totomi is represented as reporting that a huge tree had floated down the river Oi and had stopped at a bend. It was a single stem forked at one end, and the suzerain of Yamato was ordered to make a boat of it. The craft was then brought round by sea to Naniwa, "where it was enrolled among the Imperial vessels." Evidently from the days of Ojin and the Karano a fleet formed part of the Imperial possessions. This two-forked boat figures in the reign of Nintoku's successor, Richu, when the latter and his concubine went on board and feasted separately, each in one fork.

*This term, "provincial governor," appears now for the first time written with the ideographs "kokushi." Hitherto it has been written "kuni-no-miyatsuko." Much is heard of the koushi in later times. They are the embryo of the daimyo, the central figures of military feudalism.

THE FAMILY OF TAKENOUCHI-NO-SUKUNE

For the better understanding of j.a.panese history at this stage, a word must be said about a family of n.o.bles (sukune) who, from the days of Nintoku, exercised potent sway in the councils of State.

It will have been observed that, in the annals of the Emperor Keiko's reign, prominence is given to an official designated Takenouchi-no-Sukune, who thereafter seems to have served sovereign after sovereign until his death in the year 368, when he must have been from two hundred to three hundred years old. This chronological difficulty has provoked much scepticism. Dr. k.u.me, an eminent j.a.panese historian, explains, however, that Takenouchi was the name not of a person but of a family, and that it was borne by different scions in succeeding reigns. The first was a grandson of the Emperor Kogen (B.C. 214-158), and the representatives of the family in Nintoku's era had seven sons, all possessing the t.i.tle sukune. They were Hata no Yashiro, Koze no Ogara, Soga no Ishikawa, Heguri no Tsuku, Ki no Tsunu, Katsuragi no Sotsu, and Wakugo.

From these were descended the five uji of Koze, Soga, Heguri, Ki, and Katsuragi. Although its founder was an Emperor's grandson and therefore ent.i.tled to be called "Imperial Prince" (O), the family connexion with the Throne naturally became more remote as time pa.s.sed, and from the reign of Ojin we find its members cla.s.sed among subjects. Nevertheless, the Empress Iwa, whose jealousy harra.s.sed Nintoku so greatly, was a daughter of Katsuragi no Sotsu, and, as with the sole exception of the Emperor Shomu, every occupant of the throne had taken for his Empress a lady of Imperial blood, it may be a.s.sumed that the relationship between the Imperial and the Takenouchi families was recognized at that time. The roles which the five uji mentioned above acted in subsequent history deserve to be studied, and will therefore be briefly set down here.

THE KOZE-UJI

This uji had for founder Koze no Ogara. The representative of the fourth generation, Koze no Ohito, held the post of o-omi during the reign of the Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), and his great-grandson was minister of the Left under Kotoku (A.D. 545-654). Thereafter, the heads of the uji occupied prominent positions under successive sovereigns.

THE SOGA-UJI

Soga no Ishikawa founded this uji. His son, Machi, shared the administrative power with Heguri no Tsuku in the reign of Richu (A.D.

400-405), and Machi's great-grandson, Iname, immortalized himself by promoting the introduction of Buddhism in the reign of Kimmei (A.D.

540-571). Iname's son, Umako, and the latter's son, Yemishi, will be much heard of hereafter. No family, indeed, affected the course of j.a.panese history in early days more than did the Soga-uji.

THE HEGURI-UJI

During the reign of the Emperor Richu (A.D. 400-405), Heguri no Tsuku, founder of this uji, shared in the administration with Soga no Machi. His son, Heguri no Matori, was minister under Yuryaku (A.D.

457-459), and the fate which he and his son, Shibi, brought upon their family is one of the salient incidents of j.a.panese history.

THE KI-UJI

The representatives of this uji, from the days of its founder, Ki no Tsunu, took a prominent share in the empire's foreign affairs, but served also in the capacity of provincial governor and commander-in-chief.

THE KATSURAGI-UJI

Nintoku's Empress, Iwa, was a daughter of the ancestor of this uji, Katsuragi no Sotsu, and the latter's great-granddaughter, Hae, was the mother of two sovereigns, Kenso (A.D. 485-487) and Ninken (A.D.

488-498).

ENGRAVING: TOBACCO PIPE AND POUCH

ENGRAVING: HINOMI YAGURA (FIRE WATCH TOWER)

CHAPTER XII

THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS

The 17th Sovereign, Richu A.D. 400-405

" 18th " Hansho " 406-411

" 19th " Inkyo " 412-453

" 20th " Anko " 454-456

" 21st " Yuryaku " 457-479

RICHU'S REIGN

THE prehistoric era may be said to terminate with the accession of Richu. Thenceforth the lives and reigns of successive sovereigns cease to extend to incredible lengths, and though the chronology adopted by the writers of the Nihongi may not yet be implicitly accepted, its general accuracy is not open to dispute. The era of the five sovereigns standing at the head of this chapter--an era of fifty-nine years--inherited as legacies from the immediate past: a well-furnished treasury, a nation in the enjoyment of peace, a firmly established throne, and a satisfactory state of foreign relations.

These comfortable conditions seem to have exercised demoralizing influence. The bonds of discipline grew slack; fierce quarrels on account of women involved fratricide among the princes of the blood, and finally the life of an Emperor was sacrificed--the only instance of such a catastrophe in j.a.panese history.

Immediately after Nintoku's death this evil state of affairs was inaugurated by Prince Nakatsu, younger brother of the heir to the throne, who had not yet a.s.sumed the sceptre. Sent by the Crown Prince (Richu) to make arrangements for the latter's nuptials with the lady Kuro, a daughter of the Takenouchi family, Nakatsu personified Richu, debauched the girl, and to avoid the consequences of the act, sought to take the life of the man he had betrayed. It does not redound to the credit of the era that the debaucher found support and was enabled to hold his own for a time, though his treachery ultimately met with its merited fate. At this crisis of his life, Richu received loyal a.s.sistance from a younger brother, and his grat.i.tude induced him to confer on the latter the t.i.tle of Crown Prince. In thus acting, Richu may have been influenced by the fact that the alternative was to bequeath the throne to a baby, but none the less he stands responsible for an innovation which greatly impaired the stability of the succession. It should be noted, as ill.u.s.trating the influence of the Takenouchi family that, in spite of the shame she had suffered, the lady Kuro became the Emperor's concubine. In fact, among the four n.o.bles who administered the affairs of the empire during Richu's reign, not the least powerful were Heguri no Tsuku and Soga no Machi. Moreover, Richu, as has been stated already, was a son of Iwa, a lady of the same great family, and his two successors, Hansho and Inkyo, were his brothers by the same mother.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

The annals of Richu's reign confirm a principle which received its first ill.u.s.tration when the Emperor Keiko put to death for parricide the daughter of a k.u.maso chief, though she had betrayed her father in the interest of Keiko himself. Similar deference to the spirit of loyalty led to the execution of Sashihire in the time of Richu. A retainer of the rebellious Prince Nakatsu, Sashihire, a.s.sa.s.sinated that prince at the instance of Prince Mizuha, who promised large reward. But after the deed had been accomplished, Heguri no Tsuku advised his nephew, Mizuha, saying, "Sashihire has killed his own lord for the sake of another, and although for us he has done a great service, yet towards his own lord his conduct has been heartless in the extreme." Sashihire was therefore put to death. That this principle was always observed in j.a.pan cannot be a.s.serted, but that it was always respected is certain.

In Richu's reign there is found the first clear proof that tattooing was not practised in j.a.pan for ornamental purposes. Tattooing is first mentioned as a custom of the Yemishi when their country was inspected by Takenouchi at Keiko's orders. But in Richu's time it was employed to punish the muraji of Atsumi, who had joined the rebellion of Prince Nakatsu. He was "inked" on the face. It appears also that the same practice had hitherto been employed to distinguish horse-keepers, but the custom was finally abandoned in deference to an alleged revelation from Izanagi, the deity of Awaji, on the occasion of a visit by Richu to that island. In the context of this revelation it is noticeable that belief in the malign influence of offended deities was gaining ground. Thus, on the occasion of the sudden death of Princess Kuro, the voice of the wind was heard to utter mysterious words in the "great void" immediately before the coming of a messenger to announce the event, and the Emperor attributed the calamity to the misconduct of an official who had removed certain persons from serving at a shrine.

The annals of this reign are noteworthy as containing the earliest reference to the compilation of books. It is stated that in the year A.D. 403 "local recorders were appointed for the first time in the various provinces, who noted down statements and communicated the writings of the four quarters." An eminent critic--Mr. W. G.

Aston--regards this as an anachronism, since the coming of the Korean scholar, Wani (vide sup.), did not take place until the year 405, which date probably preceded by many years the appointment of recorders. But it has been shown above that the innovation due to Wani was, not the art of writing, but, in all probability, a knowledge of the Chinese cla.s.sics.

Another inst.i.tution established during this era was a treasury (A.D.

405), and the two learned Koreans who had come from Paikche (Kudara) were appointed to keep the accounts. A work of later date than the Chronicles or Records--the Shokuin-rei--says that in this treasury were stored "gold and silver, jewels, precious utensils, brocade and satin, saicenet, rugs and mattresses, and the rare objects sent as tribute by the various barbarians."

HANSHO

The Emperor Hansho's short reign of five years is not remarkable for anything except an indirect evidence that Chinese customs were beginning to be adopted at the j.a.panese Court. In the earliest eras, the ladies who enjoyed the sovereign's favour were cla.s.sed simply as "Empress" or "consort." But from the days of Hansho we find three ranks of concubines.

INKYO

Inkyo was a younger brother of his predecessor, Hansho, as the latter had been of Richu. No formal nomination of Inkyo as Prince Imperial had taken place, and thus for the first time the sceptre was found without any legalized heir or any son of the deceased sovereign to take it. In these circ.u.mstances, the ministers held a council and agreed to offer the throne to Inkyo, the elder of two surviving sons of Nintoku. Inkyo was suffering from a disease supposed to be incurable, and, distrusting his own competence, he persistently refused to accept the responsibility. The incident responsible for his ultimate consent was the intervention of a concubine, Onakatsu, afterwards Empress. Under pretext of carrying water for the prince she entered his chamber, and when he turned his back on her entreaty that he would comply with the ministers' desire, she remained standing in the bitter cold of a stormy day of January, until the water, which she had spilled over her arm, became frozen and she fell in a faint. Then the prince yielded. A year later envoys were sent to seek medical a.s.sistance in Korea, which was evidently regarded as the home of the healing science as well as of many other arts borrowed from China. A physician arrived from Sinra, and Inkyo's malady was cured.

In this reign took place a celebrated incident, already referred to, when the lineage of the n.o.bles was corrected by recourse to the ordeal of boiling water. But a much larger s.p.a.ce in the annals is occupied with the story of an affair, important only as ill.u.s.trating the manners and customs of the time. From an early period it had been usual that j.a.panese ladies on festive occasions should go through the graceful performance of "woven paces and waving hands," which const.i.tuted dancing, and, in the era now occupying our attention, there prevailed in the highest circles a custom that the danseuse should offer a maiden to the most honoured among the guests. One winter's day, at the opening of a new palace, the Empress Onakatsu danced to the music of the Emperor's lute. Onakatsu had a younger sister, Oto, of extraordinary beauty, and the Emperor, fain to possess the girl but fearful of offending the Empress, had planned this dance so that Onakatsu, in compliance with the recognized usage, might be constrained to place her sister at his disposal. It fell out as Inkyo wished, but there then ensued a chapter of incidents in which the dignity of the Crown fared ill. Again and again the beautiful Oto refused to obey her sovereign's summons, and when at length, by an unworthy ruse, she was induced to repair to the palace, it was found impossible to make her an inmate of it in defiance of the Empress' jealousy. She had to be housed elsewhere, and still the Imperial lover was baffled, for he dared not brave the elder sister's resentment by visiting the younger. Finally he took advantage of the Empress' confinement to pay the long-deferred visit, but, on learning of the event, the outraged wife set fire to the parturition house and attempted to commit suicide. "Many years have pa.s.sed," she is recorded to have said to the Emperor, "since I first bound up my hair and became thy companion in the inner palace. It is too cruel of thee, O Emperor! Wherefore just on this night when I am in childbirth and hanging between life and death, must thou go to Fujiwara?" Inkyo had the grace to be "greatly shocked" and to "soothe the mind of the Empress with explanations," but he did not mend his infidelity. At Oto's request he built a residence for her at Chinu in the neighbouring province of Kawachi, and thereafter the compilers of the Chronicles, with fine irony, confine their record of three consecutive years' events to a repet.i.tion of the single phrase, "the Emperor made a progress to Chinu."

It is not, perhaps, extravagant to surmise that the publicity attending this sovereign's amours and the atmosphere of loose morality thus created were in part responsible for a crime committed by his elder son, the Crown Prince Karu. Marriage between children of the same father had always been permitted in j.a.pan provided the mother was different, but marriage between children of the same mother was incest. Prince Karu was guilty of this offence with his sister, Oiratsume, and so severely did the nation judge him that he was driven into exile and finally obliged to commit suicide. With such records is the reign of Inkyo a.s.sociated. It is perplexing that the posthumous name chosen for him by historians should signify "sincerely courteous." Incidentally, four facts present themselves--that men wore wristbands and garters to which grelots were attached; that a high value was set on pearls; that metal was used for the construction of great men's gates, and that the first earthquake is said to have been experienced in A.D. 416.

ANKO

The records of this sovereign's reign make a discreditable page of j.a.panese history. Anko, having ascended the throne after an armed contest with his elder brother, which ended in the latter's suicide, desired to arrange a marriage between his younger brother, Ohatsuse, and a sister of his uncle, Okusaka. He despatched Ne no Omi, a trusted envoy, to confer with the latter, who gladly consented, and, in token of approval, handed to Ne no Omi a richly jewelled coronet for conveyance to the Emperor. But Ne no Omi, covetous of the gems, secreted the coronet, and told the Emperor that Okusaka had rejected the proposal with scorn. Anko took no steps to investigate the truth of this statement. It has been already seen that such investigations were not customary in those days. Soldiers were at once sent to slaughter Okusaka; his wife, Nakashi, was taken to be the Emperor's consort, and his sister, Hatahi, was married to Prince Ohatsuse.

Now, at the time of his death, Okusaka had a son, Mayuwa, seven years old. One day, the Emperor, having drunk heavily, confessed to the Empress, Nakashi, that he entertained some apprehension lest this boy might one day seek to avenge his father's execution. The child overheard this remark, and creeping to the side of his step-father, who lay asleep with his head in Nakashi's lap, killed him with his own sword. Such is the tale narrated in the Chronicles and the Records. But its incredible features are salient. A deed of the kind would never have been conceived or committed by a child, and the Empress must have been a conniving party.

To what quarter, then, is the instigation to be traced? An answer seems to be furnished by the conduct of Prince Ohatsuse. Between this prince and the throne five lives intervened; those of the Emperor Anko, of the latter's two brothers, Yatsuri no Shiro and Sakai no Kuro, both older than Ohatsuse, and of two sons of the late Emperor Richu, Ichin.o.be no Oshiwa and Mima. Every one of these was removed from the scene in the s.p.a.ce of a few days. Immediately after Anko's a.s.sa.s.sination, Ohatsuse, simulating suspicion of his two elder brothers, killed the o-omi, who refused to give them up. Ohatsuse then turned his attention to his grand-uncles, the two sons of Richu.

He sent a military force to destroy one of them without any pretence of cause; the other he invited to a hunting expedition and treacherously shot. If Ohatsuse did not contrive the murder of Anko, as he contrived the deaths of all others standing between himself and the throne, a great injustice has been done to his memory.

LOYALTY

These shocking incidents are not without a relieving feature. They furnished opportunities for the display of fine devotion. When Prince Okusaka died for a crime of which he was wholly innocent, two of his retainers, Naniwa no Hikaga, father and son, committed suicide in vindication of his memory. When Prince Sakai no Kuro and Mayuwa took refuge in the house of the o-omi Tsubura, the latter deliberately chose death rather than surrender the fugitives. When Prince Kuro perished, Nie-no-Sukune took the corpse in his arms and was burned with it. When Prince Ichin.o.be no Oshiwa fell under the treacherous arrow of Prince Ohatsuse, one of the former's servants embraced the dead body and fell into such a paroxysm of grief that Ohatsuse ordered him to be despatched. And during this reign of Yuryaku, when Lord Otomo was killed in a fatal engagement with the Sinra troops, his henchman, Tsumaro, crying, "My master has fallen; what avails that I alone should remain unhurt?" threw himself into the ranks of the enemy and perished. Loyalty to the death characterized the j.a.panese in every age.