A History of the Japanese People Part 5

THE YEMIs.h.i.+

The Yemis.h.i.+ are identified with the modern Ainu. It appears that the continental immigrants into j.a.pan applied to the semi-savage races encountered by them the epithet "Yebisu" or "Yemis.h.i.+," terms which may have been interchangeable onomatopes for "barbarian." The Yemis.h.i.+ are a moribund race. Only a remnant, numbering a few thousands, survives, now in the northern island of Yezo. Nevertheless it has been proved by Chamberlain's investigations into the origin of place-names, that in early times the Yemis.h.i.+ extended from the north down the eastern section of j.a.pan as far as the region where the present capital (Tokyo) stands, and on the west to the province now called Echizen; and that, when the Nihongi was written, they still occupied a large part of the main island.

We find the first mention of them in a poem attributed to the Emperor Jimmu. Conducting his campaign for the re-conquest of j.a.pan, Jimmu, uncertain of the disposition of a band of inhabitants, ordered his general, Michi, to construct a s.p.a.cious hut (muro) and invite the eighty doubtful characters to a banquet. An equal number of Jimmu's soldiers acted as hosts, and, at a given signal, when the guests were all drunk, they were slaughtered. Jimmu composed a couplet expressing his troops' delight at having disposed of a formidable foe so easily, and in this verselet he spoke of one Yemis.h.i.+ being reputed to be a match for a hundred men.

Whether this couplet really belongs to its context, however, is questionable; the eighty warriors killed in the muro may not have been Yemis.h.i.+ at all. But the verse does certainly tend to show that the Yemis.h.i.+ had a high fighting reputation in ancient times, though it will presently be seen that such fame scarcely consists with the facts revealed by history. It is true that when next we hear of the Yemis.h.i.+ more than seven and a half centuries have pa.s.sed, and during that long interval they may have been engaged in a fierce struggle for the right of existence. There is no evidence, however, that such was the case.

On the contrary, it would seem that the j.a.panese invaders encountered no great resistance from the Yemis.h.i.+ in the south, and were for a long time content to leave them unmolested in the northern and eastern regions. In A.D. 95, however, Takenouchi-no-Sukune was commissioned by the Emperor Keiko to explore those regions. He devoted two years to the task, and, on his return in 97, he submitted to his sovereign this request: "In the eastern wilds there is a country called Hi-taka-mi (Sun-height). The people of this country, both men and women, tie up their hair in the form of a mallet and tattoo their bodies. They are of fierce temper and their general name is Yemis.h.i.+. Moreover, the land is wide and fertile. We should attack it and take it." [Aston's translation.] It is observable that the princ.i.p.al motive of this advice is aggressive. The Yemis.h.i.+ had not molested the j.a.panese or shown any turbulence. They ought to be attacked because their conquest would be profitable: that was sufficient.

Takenouchi's counsels could not be immediately followed. Other business of a cognate nature in the south occupied the Court's attention, and thirteen years elapsed before (A.D. 110) the celebrated hero, Prince Yamato-dake, led an expedition against the Yemis.h.i.+ of the east. In commanding him to undertake this task, the Emperor, according to the Chronicles, made a speech which, owing to its Chinese tone, has been called apocryphal, though some, at any rate, of the statements it embodies are attested by modern observation of Ainu manners and customs. He spoke of the Yemis.h.i.+ as being the most powerful among the "eastern savages;" said that their "men and women lived together promiscuously," that there was "no distinction of father and child;" that in winter "they dwelt in holes and in summer they lived in huts;" that their clothing consisted of furs and that they drank blood; that when they received a favour they forgot it, but if an injury was done them they never failed to avenge it, and that they kept arrows in their top-knots and carried swords within their clothing. How correct these attributes may have been at the time they were uttered, there are no means of judging, but the customs of the modern Ainu go far to attest the accuracy of the Emperor Keiko's remarks about their ancestors.

Yamato-dake prefaced his campaign by wors.h.i.+pping at the shrine of Ise, where he received the sword "Herb-queller," which Susanoo had taken from the last chieftain of the Izumo tribesmen. Thence he sailed along the coast to Suruga, where he landed, and was nearly destroyed by the burning of a moor into which he had been persuaded to penetrate in search of game. Escaping with difficulty, and having taken a terrible vengeance upon the "brigands" who had sought to compa.s.s his destruction, he pushed on into Sagami, crossed the bay to Kazusa and, sailing north, reached the southern sh.o.r.e of s.h.i.+mosa, which was the frontier of the Yemis.h.i.+. The vessels of the latter a.s.sembled with the intention of offering resistance, but at the aspect of the j.a.panese fleet and the incomparably superior arms and arrows of the men it carried, they submitted unconditionally and became personal attendants on Yamato-dake.

Three things are noticeable in this narrative. The first is that the "brigands of Suruga" were not Yemis.h.i.+; the second, that the Yemis.h.i.+ offered no resistance, and the third, that the Yemis.h.i.+ chiefs are called in the Chronicles "Kami of the islands" and "Kami of the country"--t.i.tles which indicate that they were held in some respect by the j.a.panese. It is not explicitly recorded that Yamato-dake had any further encounter with the Yemis.h.i.+, but figurative references show that he had much fighting. The Chronicles quote him as saying, after his return to Kii from an extended march through the northeastern provinces and after penetrating as far as Hi-taka-mi (modern Hitachi), the headquarters of the Yemis.h.i.+, that the only Yemis.h.i.+ who remained unsubmissive were those of s.h.i.+nano and Kos.h.i.+ (Echigo, Etchu, and Echizen). But although Yamato-dake subsequently entered s.h.i.+nano, where he suffered much from the arduous nature of the ground, and though he sent a general to explore Kos.h.i.+, he ultimately retired to Owari, where he died from the effects of fatigue and exposure according to some authorities, of a wound from a poisoned arrow according to others. His last act was to present as slaves to the shrine of Ise the Yemis.h.i.+ who had originally surrendered and who had subsequently attached themselves to his person. They proved so noisy, however, that the priestess of the shrine sent them to the Yamato Court, which a.s.signed for them a settlement on Mount Mimoro. Here, too, their conduct was so turbulent that they received orders to divide and take up their abode at any place throughout the five provinces of Harima, Sanuki, Iyo, Aki, and Awa, where, in after ages, they const.i.tuted a hereditary corporation of Saeki (Saekibe).

These details deserve to be recorded, for their sequel shows historically that there is an Yemis.h.i.+ element in the j.a.panese race.

Thus, in later times we find the high rank of muraji borne by a member of the Saekibe. Fifteen years (A.D. 125) after the death of Yamato-dake, Prince Sajima was appointed governor-general of the fifteen provinces of Tosan-do (the Eastern Mountain circuit); that is to say, the provinces along the east coast. He died en route and his son, Prince Mimoro, succeeded to the office. During his tenure of power the Yemis.h.i.+ raised a disturbance, but no sooner was force employed against them than they made obeisance and threw themselves on the mercy of the j.a.panese, who pardoned all that submitted.

This orderly condition remained uninterrupted until A.D. 367, when the Yemis.h.i.+ in Kazusa made one of the very few successful revolts on record. They killed Tamichi, a j.a.panese general sent against them, and they drove back his forces, who do not appear to have taken very effective measures of retaliation. In 482 we find the Yemis.h.i.+ rendering homage to the Emperor Kenso, a ceremony which was repeated on the accession of the Emperor Kimmei (540).

But, though meek in the presence of peril, the Yemis.h.i.+ appear to have been of a brawling temperament. Thus, in 561, several thousands of them showed hostility on the frontier, yet no sooner were their chiefs threatened with death than they submitted. At that time all the provinces in the northeast and northwest--then included in Mutsu and Dewa--were in Yemis.h.i.+ possession. They rebelled again in 637, and at first gained a signal success, driving the j.a.panese general, Katana, into a fortress where he was deserted by his troops. His wife saved the situation. She upbraided her husband as he was scaling the palisades to escape by night, fortified him with wine, girded his sword on herself, and caused her female attendants--of whom there were "several tens"--to tw.a.n.g bowstrings. Katana, taking heart of grace, advanced single handed; the Yemis.h.i.+, thinking that his troops had rallied, gave way, and the j.a.panese soldiers, returning to their duty, killed or captured all the insurgents.

No other instance of equally determined resistance is recorded on the part of the Yemis.h.i.+. In 642, several thousands made submission in Kos.h.i.+. Four years later (646), we find Yemis.h.i.+ doing homage to the Emperor Kotoku. Yet in 645 it was deemed necessary to establish a barrier settlement against them in Echigo; and whereas, in 655, when the Empress Saimei ascended the throne, her Court at Naniwa entertained ninety-nine of the northern Yemis.h.i.+ and forty-five of the eastern, conferring cups of honour on fifteen, while at the same time another numerous body came to render homage and offer gifts, barely three years had elapsed when, in 655, a j.a.panese squadron of 180 vessels, under the command of Hirafu, omi of Abe, was engaged attacking the Yemis.h.i.+ at Akita on the northwest coast of the main island.

All this shows plainly that many districts were still peopled by Yemis.h.i.+ and that their docility varied in different localities. In the Akita campaign the usual surrender was rehea.r.s.ed. The Yemis.h.i.+ declared that their bows and arrows were for hunting, not for fighting, and the affair ended in a great feast given by Hirafu, the sequel being that two hundred Yemis.h.i.+ proceeded to Court, carrying presents, and were appointed to various offices in the localities represented, receiving also gifts of arms, armour, drums, and flags.*

*It is related that these flags had tops shaped like cuttlefish.

An interesting episode is recorded of this visit. One of the Yemis.h.i.+, having been appointed to a high post, was instructed to investigate the Yemis.h.i.+ population and the captive population. Who were these captives? They seem to have been Sushen, for at the feast given by Hirafu his Yemis.h.i.+ guests came accompanied by thirty-five captives, and it is incredible that j.a.panese prisoners would have been thus humiliated in the sight of their armed countrymen. There will be occasion to recur to this point presently. Here we have to note that in spite of frequent contact, friendly or hostile, and in spite of so many years of intercourse, the Yemis.h.i.+ seem to have been still regarded by the j.a.panese as objects of curiosity. For, in the year 654, envoys from Yamato to the Tang Emperor of China took with them a Yemis.h.i.+ man and woman to show to his Majesty.

The Chinese sovereign was much struck by the unwonted appearance of these people. He asked several questions, which are recorded verbatim in the Chronicles; and the envoys informed him that there were three tribes of Yemis.h.i.+; namely, the Tsugaru* Yemis.h.i.+, who were the most distant; next, the Ara Yemis.h.i.+ (rough or only partially subdued), and lastly, the Nigi Yemis.h.i.+ (quiet or docile); that they sustained life by eating, not cereals, but flesh, and that they dispensed with houses, preferring to live under trees and in the recesses of mountains. The Chinese Emperor finally remarked, "When we look at the unusual bodily appearance of these Yemis.h.i.+, it is strange in the extreme."

*The Story of Korea, by Longford.

Evidently whatever the original provenance of the Yemis.h.i.+, they had never been among the numerous peoples who observed the custom of paying visits of ceremony to the Chinese capital. They were apparently not included in the family of Far Eastern nations. From the second half of the seventh century they are constantly found carrying tribute to the j.a.panese Court and receiving presents or being entertained in return. But these evidences of docility and friends.h.i.+p were not indicative of the universal mood. The Yemis.h.i.+ located in the northeastern section of the main island continued to give trouble up to the beginning of the ninth century, and throughout this region as well as along the west coast from the thirty-eighth parallel of lat.i.tude northward the j.a.panese were obliged to build six castles and ten barrier posts between A.D. 647 and 800.

These facts, however, have no concern with the immediate purpose of this historical reference further than to show that from the earliest times the Yamato immigrants found no opponents in the northern half of the island except the Yemis.h.i.+ and the Sushen. One more episode, however, is germane. In the time (682) of the Emperor Temmu, the Yemis.h.i.+ of Kos.h.i.+, who had by that time become quite docile, asked for and received seven thousand families of captives to found a district.

A j.a.panese writing alleges that these captives were subjects of the Crown who had been seized and enslaved by the savages. But that is inconsistent with all probabilities. The Yamato might sentence these people to serfdom among men of their own race, but they never would have condemned j.a.panese to such a position among the Yemis.h.i.+.

Evidently these "captives" were prisoners taken by the Yamato from the Koreans, the Sushen, or some other hostile nation.

THE k.u.mASO

There has been some dispute about the appellation "k.u.maso." One high authority thinks that k.u.ma and So were the names of two tribes inhabiting the extreme south of j.a.pan; that is to say, the provinces now called Hyuga, Osumi, and Satsuma. Others regard the term as denoting one tribe only. The question is not very material. Among all the theories formed about the k.u.maso, the most plausible is that they belonged to the Sow race of Borneo and that they found their way to j.a.pan on the breast of the "Black Tide." Many similarities of custom have been traced between the two peoples. Both resorted freely to ornamental tattooing; both used s.h.i.+elds decorated with hair; both were skilled in making articles of bamboo, especially hats; both were fond of dancing with accompaniment of singing and hand-clapping; and both dressed their hair alike. j.a.panese annals use the word "k.u.maso"

for the first time in connexion with the annexation of Tsukus.h.i.+ (Kyushu) by the Izanagi expedition, when one of the four faces of the island is called the "land of k.u.maso." Plainly if this nomenclature may be taken as evidence, the k.u.maso must have arrived in j.a.pan at a date prior to the advent of the immigrants represented by Izanagi and Izanami; and it would further follow that they did not penetrate far into the interior, but remained in the vicinity of the place of landing, which may be supposed to have been some point on the southern coast of Kyushu. Nor does there appear to have been any collision between the two tides of immigrants, for the first appearance of the k.u.maso in a truculent role was in A.D. 81 when they are said to have rebelled.

The incident, though remote from the capital, was sufficiently formidable to induce the Emperor Keiko to lead a force against them in person from Yamato. En route he had to deal with "brigands"

infesting Suwo and Buzen, provinces separated by the Inland Sea and situated respectively on the south of the main island and the north of Kyushu. These provinces were ruled by chieftainesses, who declared themselves loyal to the Imperial cause, and gave information about the haunts and habits of the "brigands," who in Suwo had no special appellation but in Buzen were known as Tsuchi-gumo, a name to be spoken of presently. They were disposed of partly by stratagem and partly by open warfare. But when the Yamato troops arrived in Hyuga within striking distance of the k.u.maso, the Emperor hesitated. He deemed it wise not to touch the spear-points of these puissant foes.

Ultimately he overcame them by enticing the two daughters of the princ.i.p.al leaders and making a show of affection for one of them. She conducted j.a.panese soldiers to her father's residence, and having plied him with strong drink, cut his bow-string while he slept so that the soldiers could kill him with impunity. It is recorded that Keiko put the girl to death for her unfilial conduct, but the a.s.sa.s.sination of her father helped the j.a.panese materially in their campaign against the k.u.maso, whom they succeeded in subduing and in whose land the Emperor remained six years.

The k.u.maso were not quelled, however. Scarcely eight years had elapsed from the time of Keiko's return to Yamato when they rebelled again, "making ceaseless raids upon the frontier districts;" and he sent against them his son, Yamato-dake; with a band of skilled archers. This youth, one of the most heroic figures in ancient j.a.panese history, was only sixteen. He disguised himself as a girl and thus gained access to a banquet given by the princ.i.p.al k.u.maso leader to celebrate the opening of a new residence. Attracted by the beauty of the supposed girl, the k.u.maso chieftain placed her beside him, and when he had drunk heavily, Yamato-dake stabbed him to the heart,* subsequently serving all his band in the same way. After this, the k.u.maso remained quiet for nearly a century, but in the year 193,** during the reign of the Emperor Chuai, they once more rebelled, and the Emperor organized an expedition against them. He failed in the struggle and was killed by the k.u.maso's arrows.

Thenceforth history is silent about them.

*The Chronicles relate that when the k.u.maso was struck down he asked for a moment's respite to learn the name of his slayer, whose prowess astounded him. On receiving an answer he sought the prince's permission to give him a t.i.tle, and declared that instead of being called Yamato Oguna, the name hitherto borne by him, he should be termed Yamato-dake (Champion of j.a.pan) because he had conquered the hitherto unconquerable. The prince accepted the name, and then gave the k.u.maso his coup de grace.

**It should be understood that these dates, being prehistoric, are not wholly reliable.

Who, then, were they? It is related in the Chronicles that, after breaking the power of the k.u.maso, the Emperor Keiko made a tour of inspection in Tsukus.h.i.+ (Kyushu), and arriving at the district of k.u.ma, summoned two brothers, princes of k.u.ma, to pay homage. One obeyed, but the other refused, and soldiers were therefore sent to put him to death. Now k.u.ma was the name of the three kingdoms into which the Korean peninsula was divided in ancient times, and it has been suggested [Aston] that the land of k.u.ma in Korea was the parent country of k.u.ma in j.a.pan, Kom in the Korean language having the same meaning (bear) as k.u.ma in the j.a.panese. This, of course, involves the conclusion that the k.u.maso were originally Korean emigrants; a theory somewhat difficult to reconcile with their location in the extreme south of Kyushu.

The apparent silence of the annals about the subsequent career of the tribe is accounted for by supposing that the k.u.maso were identical with the Hayato (falcon men), who make their first appearance upon the scene in prehistoric days as followers of Hosuseri in his contest with his younger brother, Hohodemi, the hero of the legend about the palace of the sea G.o.d. Hohodemi according to the rationalized version of the legend having obtained a.s.sistance in the shape of s.h.i.+ps and mariners from an oversea monarch (supposed to have reigned in Korea), returned to Tsukus.h.i.+ to fight his brother, and being victorious, spared Hosuseri's life on condition that the descendants of the vanquished through eighty generations should serve the victor's descendants as mimes.

"On that account," says the Chronicles, "the various Hayato, descended from Hosuseri to the present time, do not leave the vicinity of the Imperial palace enclosure and render service instead of watch-dogs." The first mention of the name Hayato after the prehistoric battle in Kyushu, occurs in the year 399, when Sas.h.i.+hire, one of the tribe, was induced to a.s.sa.s.sinate his master, an Imperial prince. This incident goes to show that individual members of the tribe were then employed at Court; an inference confirmed fifty-one years later, when, on the death of Emperor Yuryaku, "the Hayato lamented night and day beside the misasagi (tomb) and refused the food offered to them, until at the end of seven days they died."

It can scarcely be doubted that we have here a reversion to the old custom which compelled slaves to follow their lords to the grave. The Hayato serving in the Court at that epoch held the status generally a.s.signed in ancient days to vanquished people, the status of serfs or slaves. Six times during the next 214 years we find the Hayato repairing to the Court to pay homage, in the performance of which function they are usually bracketted with the Yemis.h.i.+. Once (682) a wrestling match took place in the Imperial presence between the Hayato of Osumi and those of Satsuma, and once (694) the viceroy of Tsukus.h.i.+ (Kyushu) presented 174 Hayato to the Court.

THE TSUCHI-GUMO

In ancient j.a.pan there was a cla.s.s of men to whom the epithet "Tsuchi" (earth-spiders) was applied. Their ident.i.ty has been a subject of much controversy. The first mention made of them in j.a.panese annals occurs in connexion with the slaughter of eighty braves invited to a banquet by the Emperor Jimmu's general in a pit-dwelling at Osaka.* The Records apply to these men the epithet "Tsuchi-gumo," whereas the Chronicles represent the Emperor as celebrating the incident in a couplet which speaks of them as Yemis.h.i.+. It will be seen presently that the apparent confusion of epithet probably conveys a truth.

*This incident has been already referred to under the heading "Yemis.h.i.+." It is to be observed that the "Osaka" here mentioned is not the modern city of Osaka.

The next allusion to Tsuchi-gumo occurs in the annals of the year (662 B.C.) following the above event, according to the chronology of the Chronicles. The Emperor, having commanded his generals to exercise the troops, Tsuchi-gumo were found in three places, and as they declined to submit, a detachment was sent against them.

Concerning a fourth band of these defiant folk, the Chronicles say: "They had short bodies and long legs and arms. They were of the same cla.s.s as the pigmies. The Imperial troops wove nets of dolichos, which they flung over them and then slew them."

There are four comments to be made on this. The first is that the scene of the fighting was in Yamato. The second, that the chiefs of the Tsuchi-gumo had j.a.panese names--names identical, in two cases, with those of a kind of s.h.i.+nto priest (hafuri), and therefore most unlikely to have been borne by men not of j.a.panese origin. The third, that the presence of Tsuchi-gumo in Yamato preceded the arrival of Jimmu's expedition. And the fourth, that the Records are silent about the whole episode. As for the things told in the Chronicles about short bodies, long limbs, pigmies, and nets of dolichos, they may be dismissed as mere fancies suggested by the name Tsuchi-gumo, which was commonly supposed to mean "earth-spiders." If any inference may be drawn from the Chronicles' story, it is that there were j.a.panese in Yamato before Jimmu's time, and that Tsuchi-gumo were simply bands of j.a.panese raiders.

ENGRAVING: AINUS (INHABITANTS OF HOKKAIDO, THE NORTHERN ISLAND)

They are heard of next in the province of Bungo (on the northeast of Kyushu) where (A.D. 82) the Emperor Keiko led an army to attack the k.u.maso. Two bands of Tsuchi-gumo are mentioned as living there, and the Imperial forces had no little difficulty in subduing them. Their chiefs are described as "mighty of frame and having numerous followers." In dealing with the first band, Keiko caused his bravest soldiers to carry mallets made from camellia trees, though why such weapons should have been preferred to the trenchant swords used by the j.a.panese there is nothing to show. (Another account says "mallet-headed swords," which is much more credible). In dealing with the second, he was driven back once by their rain of arrows, and when he attacked from another quarter, the Tsuchi-gumo, their submission having been refused, flung themselves into a ravine and perished.

Here again certain points have to be noticed: that there were Tsuchi-gumo in Kyushu as well as in Yamato; that if one account describes them as pigmies, another depicts them as "mighty of frame,"

and that in Kyushu, as in Yamato, the Tsuchi-gumo had j.a.panese names.

Only once again do the annals refer to Tsuchi-gumo. They relate curtly that on his return from quelling the k.u.maso the Emperor Keiko killed a Tsuchi-gumo in the province of Hizen. The truth seems to be that fact.i.tious import has been attached to the Tsuchi-gumo. Mainly because they were pit-dwellers, it was a.s.sumed for a tune that they represented a race which had immigrated to j.a.pan at some date prior to the arrival of the Yemis.h.i.+ (modern Ainu). This theory was founded on the supposed discovery of relics of pit-dwellers in the islands of Yezo and Itorop, and their hasty identification as Kuro-pok-guru--the Ainu term for underground dwellers--whose modern representatives are seen among the Kurilsky or their neighbours in Kamchatka and Saghalien. But closer examination of the Yezo and Itorop pits showed that there was complete absence of any mark of antiquity--such as the presence of large trees or even deep-rooted brushwood;--that they were arranged in regular order, suggesting a military encampment rather than the abode of savages; that they were of uniform size, with few exceptions; that on excavation they yielded fragments of hard wood, unglazed pottery, and a j.a.panese dirk, and, finally, that their site corresponded with that of military encampments established in Yezo and the Kuriles by the j.a.panese Government in the early part of the nineteenth century as a defence against Russian aggression.

Evidently the men who constructed and used these pit-dwellings were not prehistoric savages but modern j.a.panese soldiers. Further very conclusive testimony has been collected by the Rev. John Batchelor, who has devoted profound study to the Ainu. He found that the inhabitants of s.h.i.+kotan, who had long been supposed to be a remnant of pre-Ainu immigrants, were brought thither from an island called s.h.i.+mus.h.i.+r in the Kurile group in 1885 by order of the j.a.panese Government; that they declared themselves to be descended from men of Saghalien; that they spoke nothing but the Ainu language, and that they inhabited pits in winter, as do also the Ainu now living in Saghalien. If any further proof were needed, it might be drawn from the fact that no excavation has brought to light any relics whatever of a race preceding and distinct from the Yemis.h.i.+ (Ainu), all the pits and graves. .h.i.therto searched having yielded Yamato or Yemis.h.i.+ skulls. Neither has there been found any trace of pigmies.

An Ainu myth is responsible for the belief in the existence of such beings: "In very ancient times, a race of people who dwelt in pits lived among us. They were so very tiny that ten of them could easily take shelter beneath one burdock leaf. When they went to catch herrings they used to make boats by sewing the leaves together, and always fished with a hook. If a single herring was caught, it took all the strength of the men of five boats, or ten sometimes, to hold it and drag it ash.o.r.e, while whole crowds were required to kill it with their clubs and spears. Yet, strange to say, these divine little men used even to kill great whales. Surely these pit-dwellers were G.o.ds."*

*"The Ainu and their Folk-lore," by Batchelor.

Evidently if such legends are to be credited, the existence of fairies must no longer be denied in Europe. Side by side with the total absence of all tangible relics may be set the fact that, whereas numerous place-names in the main island of j.a.pan have been identified as Ainu words, none has been traced to any alien tongue such as might be a.s.sociated with earlier inhabitants. Thus, the theory of a special race of immigrants anterior to the Yemis.h.i.+ has to be abandoned so far as the evidence of pit-dwelling is concerned.

The fact is that the use of partially underground residences cannot be regarded as specially characteristic of any race or as differentiating one section of the people of j.a.pan from another. To this day the poorer cla.s.ses in Korea depend for shelter upon pits covered with thatch or strong oil-paper. They call these dwellings um or um-mak, a term corresponding to the j.a.panese muro. Pit-dwellers are mentioned in old Chinese literature, and the references to the muro in the Records and Chronicles show that the muro of those days had a character similar to that of the modern Korean um-mak [Aston].

We read of a muro being dug; of steps down to it; and we read of a muro big enough to hold 160 persons at one time. The muro was not always simply a hole roofed over: it sometimes contained a house having a wooden frame lashed together with vine-tendrils, the walls lined with sedges and reeds and plastered with a mixture of gra.s.s and clay. The roof was thatched with reeds; there was a door opening inwards, and a raised platform served for sleeping purposes. A dwelling closely resembling this description was actually unearthed near Akita in O-U, in 1807. Muro were used in ancient times by the highest as Well as the poorest cla.s.ses. Susanoo is said by the Izumo Fudoki to have made for himself a muro; Jimmu's sort is represented as sleeping in a great muro, and the Emperor Keiko, when (A.D.82) prosecuting his campaign in Kyushu, is said to have constructed a muro for a temporary palace. "In fact, pit-dwelling in northern climates affords no indication of race."

CONCLUSION FROM HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

Thus the conclusion suggested by historical evidence is that the j.a.panese nation is composed of four elements: the Yamato; the Yemis.h.i.+ (modern Ainu); the k.u.maso (or Hayato), and the Sushen. As to the last of these, there is no conclusive indication that they ever immigrated in appreciable numbers. It does not follow, of course, that the historical evidence is exhaustive, especially j.a.panese historical evidence; for the annalists of j.a.pan do not appear to have paid any special attention to racial questions.

ENGRAVING: ANCIENT HANGING BELLS