A History of the Japanese People Part 15

YURYAKU

This sovereign was the Ohatsuse of whose unscrupulous ambition so much has just been heard. Some historians have described him as an austere man, but few readers of his annals will be disposed to endorse such a lenient verdict. He ordered that a girl, whose only fault was misplaced affection, should have her four limbs stretched on a tree and be roasted to death; he slew one of his stewards at a hunt, because the man did not understand how to cut up the meat of an animal; he removed a high official--Tasa, omi of Kibi--to a distant post in order to possess himself of the man's wife (Waka), and he arbitrarily and capriciously killed so many men and women that the people called him the "Emperor of great wickedness." One act of justice stands to his credit. The slanderer, Ne no Omi, who for the sake of a jewelled coronet had caused the death of Prince Okusaka, as related above, had the temerity to wear the coronet, sixteen years subsequently, when he presided at a banquet given in honour of envoys from China; and the beauty of the bauble having thus been noised abroad, Ne no Omi was required to show it at the palace. It was immediately recognized by the Empress, sister of the ill-starred prince, and Ne no Omi, having confessed his crime, was put to death, all the members of his uji being reduced to the rank of serfs. One moiety of them was formed into a hereditary corporation which was organized under the name of Okusakabe, in memory of Prince Okusaka.

ARTS AND CRAFTS

The reign of Yuryaku is partially saved from the reproach of selfish despotism by the encouragement given to the arts and crafts. It has already been related that the members of the Hata-uji, which had been const.i.tuted originally with artisans from China, gradually became dispersed throughout the provinces and were suffering some hards.h.i.+ps when Yuryaku issued orders for their rea.s.sembly and reorganization.

Subsequently the sovereign gave much encouragement to sericulture, and, inspired doubtless by the legend of the Sun G.o.ddess, inaugurated a custom which thereafter prevailed in j.a.pan through all ages, the cultivation of silkworms by the Empress herself. At a later date, learning from a Korean handicraftsman (tebito)--whose name has been handed down as Kwan-in Chiri--that Korea abounded in experts of superior skill, Yuryaku commissioned this man to carry to the King of Kudara (Paikche) an autograph letter asking for the services of several of these experts. This request was complied with, and the newcomers were a.s.signed dwellings at the village of Tsuno in Yamato;*

but as the place proved unhealthy, they were afterwards distributed among several localities.

*There were potters, saddlers, brocade-weavers, and interpreters.

It is also recorded that, about this time, there came from China a man called An Kiko, a descendant of one of the Wu sovereigns. He settled in j.a.pan, and his son, Ryu afterwards--named s.h.i.+nki--is reputed to have been the first exponent of Chinese pictorial art in j.a.pan. In the year A.D. 470, there was another arrival of artisans, this time from Wu (China), including weavers and clothiers. They landed in the province of Settsu, and to commemorate their coming a road called the "Kure-saka" (Wu acclivity) was constructed from that port to the s.h.i.+hatsu highway. The descendants of these immigrants were organized into two hereditary corporations (be) of silk-clothiers, the Asuka no Kinu-nui-be and the Ise no Kinu-nui-be.

Two years later (472), orders were issued for the cultivation of mulberry trees in all suitable provinces, and at the same time the previously rea.s.sembled members of the Hata-uji were once more distributed to various localities with the object of widening their sphere of instruction.

In the year 473 a very interesting event is recorded. The muraji of the Hanis.h.i.+ was ordered to furnish craftsmen to manufacture "pure utensils" for serving viands daily in the palace. These Hanis.h.i.+ are first spoken of as having been employed at the suggestion of Nomi-no-Sukune, in the days of the Emperor Suinin (A.D. 3), to make clay subst.i.tutes for the human beings thitherto inhumed at the sepulchres of notables. In response to this order the muraji summoned his own tami-be (private hereditary corporation) then located at seven villages in the provinces of Settsu, Yamas.h.i.+ro, Ise, Tamba, Tajima, and Inaba. They were organized into the Nie no Hanis.h.i.+be, or hereditary corporation of potters of table-utensils. Ceramists had previously come from Kudara (Paikche), and there can be no doubt that some progress was made in the art from the fifth century onwards. But there does not appear to be sufficient ground for a conclusion formed by some historians that the "pure utensils" mentioned above were of glazed pottery. The art of applying glaze to ceramic manufactures was not discovered until a much later period.

RELATIONS WITH KOREA

When Yuryaku ascended the throne, j.a.pan still enjoyed her original friends.h.i.+p with Paikche (Kudara), whence ladies-in-waiting were sent periodically to the Yamato Court. She also retained her military post at Mimana (Imna) and kept a governor there, but her relations with s.h.i.+ragi (Sinra) were somewhat strained, owing to harsh treatment of the latter's special envoys who had come to convey their sovereign's condolences on the death of the Emperor Inkyo (453). From the time of Yuryaku's accession, s.h.i.+ragi ceased altogether to send the usual gifts to the Emperor of j.a.pan. In the year 463, Yuryaku, desiring to possess himself of the wife of a high official, Tasa, sent him to be governor of Mimana, and in his absence debauched the lady. Tasa, learning how he had been dishonoured, raised the standard of revolt and sought aid of the s.h.i.+ragi people. Then Yuryaku, with characteristic refinement of cruelty, ordered Tasa's son, Oto, to lead a force against his father. Oto seemingly complied, but, on reaching the peninsula, opened communication with his father, and it was agreed that while Tasa should hold Imna, breaking off all relations with j.a.pan, Oto should adopt a similar course with regard to Paikche. This plot was frustrated by Oto's wife, Kusu, a woman too patriotic to connive at treason in any circ.u.mstances. She killed her husband, and the Court of Yamato was informed of these events.

From that time, however, j.a.pan's hold upon the peninsula was shaken.

Yuryaku sent four expeditions thither, but they accomplished nothing permanent. The power of Koma in the north increased steadily, and it had the support of China. Yuryaku's attempts to establish close relations with the latter--the Sung were then on the throne--seem to have been inspired by a desire to isolate Korea. He failed, and ultimately Kudara was overrun by Koma, as will be seen by and by. It is scarcely too much to say that j.a.pan lost her paramount status in Korea because of Yuryaku's illicit pa.s.sion for the wife of one of his subjects.

CHRONOLOGY

The first absolute agreement between the dates given in j.a.panese history and those given in Korean occurs in this reign, namely, the year A.D. 475. The severest critics therefore consent to admit the trustworthiness of the j.a.panese annals from the third quarter of the fifth century.

TREASURIES

In the record of Richu's reign, brief mention has been made of the establishment of a Government treasury. In early days, when religious rites and administrative functions were not differentiated, articles needed for both purposes were kept in the same store, under the charge of the Imibe-uji. But as the Court grew richer, owing to receipt of domestic taxes and foreign "tribute," the necessity of establis.h.i.+ng separate treasuries, was felt and a "domestic store"

(Uchi-kura) was formed during Richu's reign, the Koreans, Achi and Wani, being appointed to keep the accounts. In Yuryaku's time a third treasury had to be added, owing to greatly increased production of textile fabrics and other manufactures. This was called the Okura, a term still applied to the Imperial treasury, and there were thus three stores, Okura, Uchi-kura, and Imi-kura. Soga no Machi was placed in supreme charge of all three, and the power of the Soga family grew proportionately.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS

It is observable that at this epoch the sovereigns of j.a.pan had not yet begun to affect the sacred seclusion which, in later ages, became characteristic of them. It is true that, after ascending the throne, they no longer led their troops in war, though they did so as Imperial princes. But in other respects they lived the lives of ordinary men--joining in the chase, taking part in banquets, and mixing freely with the people. As ill.u.s.trating this last fact a strange incident may be cited. One day the Emperor Yuryaku visited the place where some carpenters were at work and observed that one of them, Mane, in shaping timber with an axe, used a stone for ruler but never touched it with the axe. "Dost thou never make a mistake and strike the stone?" asked the monarch. "I never make a mistake,"

replied the carpenter. Then, to disturb the man's sang-froid, Yuryaku caused the ladies-in-waiting (uneme) to dance, wearing only waist-cloths. Mane watched the spectacle for a while, and on resuming his work, his accuracy of aim was momentarily at fault. The Emperor rebuked him for having made an unwarranted boast and handed him over to the monono-be for execution. After the unfortunate man had been led away, one of his comrades chanted an impromptu couplet lamenting his fate, whereat the Emperor, relenting, bade a messenger gallop off on "a black horse of Kai" to stay the execution. The mandate of mercy arrived just in time, and when Mane's bonds were loosed, he, too, improvised a verse:

"Black as the night "Was the horse of Kai.

"Had they waited to "Saddle him, my life were lost "O, horse of Kai!"

The whole incident is full of instruction. A sovereign concerning himself about trivialities as petty as this pretext on which he sends a man to death; the shameful indignity put upon the ladies-in-waiting to minister to a momentary whim; the composition of poetry by common carpenters, and the ride for life on a horse which there is not time to saddle. It is an instructive picture of the ways of Yuryaku's Court.

In truth, this couplet-composing proclivity is one of the strangest features of the Yamato race as portrayed in the pages of the Records and the Chronicles. From the time when the fierce Kami, Susanoo, put his thoughts into verse as he sought for a place to celebrate his marriage, great crises and little crises in the careers of men and women respectively inspire couplets. We find an Emperor addressing an ode to a dragon-fly which avenges him on a gad-fly; we find a prince reciting impromptu stanzas while he lays siege to the place whither his brother has fled for refuge; we find a heartbroken lady singing a verselet as for the last time she ties the garters of her lord going to his death, and we find a sovereign corresponding in verse with his consort whose consent to his own dishonour he seeks to win.

Yet in the lives of all these men and women of old, there are not many other traces of corresponding refinement or romance. We are constrained to conjecture that many of the verses quoted in the Records and the Chronicles were fitted in after ages to the events they commemorate. Another striking feature in the lives of these early sovereigns is that while on the one hand their residences are spoken of as muro, a term generally applied to dwellings partially underground, on the other, we find more than one reference to high towers. Thus Yuryaku is shown as "ordering commissioners to erect a lofty pavilion in which he a.s.sumes the Imperial dignity," and the Emperor Nintoku is represented as "ascending a lofty tower and looking far and wide" on the occasion of his celebrated sympathy with the people's poverty.

ENGRAVING: ANCIENT ACROBATIC PERFORMANCE

ENGRAVING: DAIRISAMA (KINO) AND OKUSAMA (QUEEN) OF THE FEAST OF THE DOLLS

CHAPTER XIII

THE PROTOHISTORIC SOVEREIGNS (Continued)

The 22nd Sovereign, Seinei A.D. 480-484

" 23rd " Kenso " 485-487

" 24th " Ninken " 488-498

" 25th " Muretsu " 499-506

" 26th " Keitai " 507-531

" 27th " Ankan " 534-535

" 28th " Senkwa " 536-539

DISPUTE ABOUT THE SUCCESSION

THE Emperor Yuryaku's evil act in robbing Tasa of his wife, Waka, entailed serious consequences. He selected to succeed to the throne his son Seinei, by Princess Kara, who belonged to the Katsuragi branch of the great Takenouchi family. But Princess Waka conspired to secure the dignity for the younger of her own two sons, Iwaki and Hos.h.i.+kawa, who were both older than Seinei. She urged Hos.h.i.+kawa to a.s.sert his claim by seizing the Imperial treasury, and she herself with Prince Iwaki and others accompanied him thither. They underestimated the power of the Katsuragi family. Siege was laid to the treasury and all its inmates were burned, with the exception of one minor official to whom mercy was extended and who, in token of grat.i.tude, presented twenty-five acres of rice-land to the o-muraji, Lord Otomo, commander of the investing force.

THE FUGITIVE PRINCES

The Emperor Seinei had no offspring, and for a time it seemed that the succession in the direct line would be interrupted. For this lack of heirs the responsibility ultimately rested with Yuryaku. In his fierce ambition to sweep away every obstacle, actual or potential, that barred his ascent to the throne, he inveigled Prince Os.h.i.+wa, eldest son of the Emperor Richu, to accompany him on a hunting expedition, and slew him mercilessly on the moor of Kaya. Os.h.i.+wa had two sons, Oke and Woke, mere children at the time of their father's murder. They fled, under the care of Omi, a muraji, who, with his son, Adahiko, secreted them in the remote province of Inaba. Omi ultimately committed suicide in order to avoid the risk of capture and interrogation under torture, and the two little princes, still accompanied by Adahiko, calling themselves "the urchins of Tamba,"

became menials in the service of the obito of the s.h.i.+jimi granaries in the province of Harima.

Twenty-four years had been pa.s.sed in that seclusion when it chanced that Odate, governor of the province, visited the obito on an occasion when the latter was holding a revel to celebrate the building of a new house, it fell to the lot of the two princes to act as torch-bearers, the lowest role that could be a.s.signed to them, and the younger counselled his brother that the time had come to declare themselves, for death was preferable to such a life. Tradition says that, being invited to dance "when the night had become profound, when the revel was at its height and when every one else had danced in turn," the Prince Woke, accompanying his movements with verses extemporized for the occasion, danced so gracefully that the governor twice asked him to continue, and at length he announced the rank and lineage of his brother and himself. The governor, astonished, "made repeated obeisance to the youths, built a palace for their temporary accommodation, and going up to the capital, disclosed the whole affair to the Emperor, who expressed profound satisfaction."

Oke, the elder of the two, was made Prince Imperial, and should have ascended the throne on the death of Seinei, a few months later.

Arguing, however, that to his younger brother, Woke it was entirely due that they had emerged from a state of abject misery, Oke announced his determination to cede the honour to Woke, who, in turn, declined to take precedence of his elder brother. This dispute of mutual deference continued for a whole year, during a part of which time the administration was carried on by Princess Awo, elder sister of Woke. At length the latter yielded and a.s.sumed the sceptre. His first care was to collect the bones of his father, Prince Os.h.i.+wa, who had been murdered and buried unceremoniously on the moor of Kaya in Omi province. It was long before the place of interment could be discovered, but at length an old woman served as guide, and the bones of the prince were found mingled in inextricable confusion with those of his loyal va.s.sal, Nakachiko, who had shared his fate.

The ethics of that remote age are ill.u.s.trated vividly in this page of the record. A double sepulchre was erected in memory of the murdered prince and his faithful follower and the old woman who had pointed out the place of their unhonoured grave was given a house in the vicinity of the palace, a rope with a bell attached being stretched between the two residences to serve as a support for her infirm feet and as a means of announcing her coming when she visited the palace.

But the same benevolent sovereign who directed these gracious doings was with difficulty dissuaded from demolis.h.i.+ng the tomb and scattering to the winds of heaven the bones of the Emperor Yuryaku, under whose hand Prince Os.h.i.+wa had fallen.

THE VENDETTA

In connexion with this, the introduction of the principle of the vendetta has to be noted. Its first practical application is generally referred to the act of the boy-prince, Mayuwa, who stabbed his father's slayer, the Emperor Anko (A.D. 456). But the details of Anko's fate are involved in some mystery, and it is not until the time (A.D. 486) of Kenso that we find a definite enunciation of the Confucian doctrine, afterwards rigidly obeyed in j.a.pan, "A man should not live under the same heaven with his father's enemy." History alleges that, by his brother's counsels, the Emperor Kenso was induced to abandon his intention of desecrating Yuryaku's tomb, but the condition of the tomb to-day suggests that these counsels were not entirely effective.

BANQUETS

The annals of this epoch refer more than once to banquets at the palace. Towards the close of Seinei's reign we read of "a national drinking-festival which lasted five days," and when Kenso ascended the throne he "went to the park, where he held revel by the winding streams," the high officials in great numbers being his guests. On this latter occasion the ministers are said to have "uttered reiterated cries of 'banzai'"*, which has come into vogue once more in modern times as the equivalent of "hurrah."

*Banzai means literally "ten thousand years," and thus corresponds to viva.

THE EMPEROR NINKEN