A History of the Japanese People Part 1

A History of the j.a.panese People.

by Frank Brinkley and Dairoku Kikuchi.

FOREWORD

It is trite to remark that if you wish to know really any people, it is necessary to have a thorough knowledge of their history, including their mythology, legends and folk-lore: customs, habits and traits of character, which to a superficial observer of a different nationality or race may seem odd and strange, sometimes even utterly subversive of ordinary ideas of morality, but which can be explained and will appear quite reasonable when they are traced back to their origin.

The sudden rise of the j.a.panese nation from an insignificant position to a foremost rank in the comity of nations has startled the world.

Except in the case of very few who had studied us intimately, we were a people but little raised above barbarism trying to imitate Western civilisation without any capacity for really a.s.similating or adapting it. At first, it was supposed that we had somehow undergone a sudden transformation, but it was gradually perceived that such could not be and was not the case; and a crop of books on j.a.pan and the j.a.panese, deep and superficial, serious and fantastic, interesting and otherwise, has been put forth for the benefit of those who were curious to know the reason of this strange phenomenon. But among so many books, there has not yet been, so far as I know, a history of j.a.pan, although a study of its history was most essential for the proper understanding of many of the problems relating to the j.a.panese people, such as the relation of the Imperial dynasty to the people, the family system, the position of Buddhism, the influence of the Chinese philosophy, etc. A history of j.a.pan of moderate size has indeed long been a desideratum; that it was not forthcoming was no doubt due to the want of a proper person to undertake such a work.

Now just the right man has been found in the author of the present work, who, an Englishman by birth, is almost j.a.panese in his understanding of, and sympathy with, the j.a.panese people. It would indeed be difficult to find any one better fitted for the task--by no means an easy one--of presenting the general features of j.a.panese history to Western readers, in a compact and intelligible form, and at the same time in general harmony with the j.a.panese feeling. The Western public and j.a.pan are alike to be congratulated on the production of the present work. I may say this without any fear of reproach for self-praise, for although my name is mentioned in the t.i.tle-page, my share is very slight, consisting merely in general advice and in a few suggestions on some special points.

DAIROKU KIKUCHI.

KYOTO, 1912.

PREFACE

During the past three decades j.a.panese students have devoted much intelligent labour to collecting and collating the somewhat disjointed fragments of their country's history. The task would have been practically impossible for foreign historiographers alone, but now that the materials have been brought to light there is no insuperable difficulty in making them available for purposes of joint interpretation. That is all I have attempted to do in these pages, and I beg to solicit pardon for any defect they may be found to contain.

F. BRINKLEY.

TOKYO, 1912.

ENGRAVING: MT. FUJI SEEN FROM THE FUJI-GAWA

CHAPTER I

THE HISTORIOGRAPHER'S ART IN OLD j.a.pAN

MATERIALS FOR HISTORY

IN the earliest eras of historic j.a.pan there existed a hereditary corporation of raconteurs (Katari-be) who, from generation to generation, performed the function of reciting the exploits of the sovereigns and the deeds of heroes. They accompanied themselves on musical instruments, and naturally, as time went by, each set of raconteurs embellished the language of their predecessors, adding supernatural elements, and introducing details which belonged to the realm of romance rather than to that of ordinary history. These Katari-be would seem to have been the sole repository of their country's annals until the sixth century of the Christian era. Their repertories of recitation included records of the great families as well as of the sovereigns, and it is easy to conceive that the favour and patronage of these high personages were earned by ornamenting the traditions of their households and exalting their pedigrees. But when the art of writing was introduced towards the close of the fourth century, or at the beginning of the fifth, and it was seen that in China, then the centre of learning and civilization, the art had been applied to the compilation of a national history as well as of other volumes possessing great ethical value, the j.a.panese conceived the ambition of similarly utilizing their new attainment. For reasons which will be understood by and by, the application of the ideographic script to the language of j.a.pan was a task of immense difficulty, and long years must have pa.s.sed before the attainment of any degree of proficiency.

Thus it was not until the time of the Empress Suiko (593-628) that the historical project took practical shape. Her Majesty, at the instance, doubtless, of Prince Shotoku, one of the greatest names in all j.a.pan's annals, instructed the prince himself and her chief minister, Soga no Umako, to undertake the task of compiling historical doc.u.ments, and there resulted a Record of the Emperors (Tennoki), a Record of the Country (Koki), and Original Records (Hongi) of the Free People (i.e., the j.a.panese proper as distinguished from aliens, captives, and aborigines), of the great families and of the 180 Hereditary Corporations (Be). This work was commenced in the year 620, but nothing is known as to the date of its completion. It represents the first j.a.panese history. A shortlived compilation it proved, for in the year 645, the Soga chiefs, custodians of the doc.u.ments, threw them into the fire on the eve of their own execution for treason. One only, the Record of the Country, was plucked from the flames, and is believed to have been subsequently incorporated in the Kojiki '(Records of Ancient Things).' No immediate attempt seems to have been made to remedy the loss of these invaluable writings. Thirty-seven years later the Emperor Temmu took the matter in hand. One of his reasons for doing so has been historically transmitted. Learning that "the chronicles of the sovereigns and the original words in the possession of the various families deviated from the truth and were largely amplified with empty falsehoods," his Majesty conceived that unless speedy steps were taken to correct the confusion and eliminate the errors, an irremediable state of affairs would result.

Such a preface prepares us to learn that a body of experts was appointed to distinguish the true and the false, and to set down the former alone. The Emperor did, in fact, commission a number of princes and officials to compile an authentic history, and we shall presently see how their labours resulted. But in the first place a special feature of the situation has to be noted. The j.a.panese language was then undergoing a transition. In order to fit it to the Chinese ideographs for literary purposes, it was being deprived of its mellifluous polysyllabic character and reduced to monosyllabic terseness. The older words were disappearing, and with them many of the old traditions. Temmu saw that if the work of compilation was abandoned solely to princely and official litterateurs, they would probably sacrifice on the altar of the ideograph much that was venerable and worthy to be preserved. He therefore himself undertook the collateral task of having the antique traditions collected and expurgated, and causing them to be memorized by a chamberlain, Hiyeda no Are, a man then in his twenty-eighth year, who was gifted with ability to repeat accurately everything heard once by him. Are's mind was soon stored with a ma.s.s of ancient facts and obsolescent phraseology, but before either the task of official compilation or that of private restoration had been carried to completion the Emperor died (686), and an interval of twenty-five years elapsed before the Empress Gemmyo, on the 18th of September, 711, ordered a scholar, Ono Yasumaro, to transcribe the records stored in Are's memory. Four months sufficed for the work, and on the 28th of January, 712, Yasumaro submitted to the Throne the Kojiki (Records of Ancient Things) which ranked as the first history of j.a.pan, and which will be here referred to as the Records.

THE NIHONGI AND THE NIHON SHOKI

It is necessary to revert now to the unfinished work of the cla.s.sical compilers, as they may be called, whom the Emperor Temmu nominated in 682, but whose labours had not been concluded when his Majesty died in 686. There is no evidence that their task was immediately continued in an organized form, but it is related that during the reign of Empress Jito (690-696) further steps were taken to collect historical materials, and that the Empress Gemmyo (708-715)--whom we have seen carrying out, in 712, her predecessor Temmu's plan with regard to Hiyeda no Are--added, in 714, two skilled litterateurs to Temmu's cla.s.sical compilers, and thus enabled them to complete their task, which took the shape of a book called the Nihongi (Chronicle of j.a.pan).

This work, however, did not prove altogether satisfactory. It was written, for the most part, with a script called the Manyo syllabary; that is to say, with Chinese ideographs employed phonetically, and it did not at all attain the literary standard of its Chinese prototype.

Therefore, the Empress entrusted to Prince Toneri and Ono Yasumaro the task of revising it, and their amended ma.n.u.script, concluded in 720, received the name of Nihon Shoki (Written Chronicles of j.a.pan), the original being distinguished as Kana Nihongi, or Syllabic Chronicles. The Nihon Shoki consisted originally of thirty-one volumes, but of these one, containing the genealogies of the sovereigns, has been lost. It covers the whole of the prehistoric period and that part of the historic which extends from the accession of the Emperor Jimmu (660 B.C.) to the abdication of the Empress Jito (A.D. 697). The Kojiki extends back equally far, but terminates at the death of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 628).

THE FUDOKI

In the year 713, when the Empress Gemmyo was on the throne, all the provinces of the empire received orders to submit to the Court statements setting forth the natural features of the various localities, together with traditions and remarkable occurrences.

These doc.u.ments were called Fudoki (Records of Natural Features).

Many of them have been lost, but a few survive, as those of Izumo, Harima, and Hitachi.

CHARACTER OF THE RECORDS AND THE CHRONICLES

The task of applying ideographic script to phonetic purposes is exceedingly difficult. In the ideographic script each character has a distinct sound and a complete meaning. Thus, in China shan signifies "mountain," and ming "light." But in j.a.panese "mountain" becomes yama and "light" akari. It is evident, then, that one of two things has to be done. Either the sounds of the j.a.panese words must be changed to those of the Chinese ideographs; or the sounds of the Chinese ideographs must alone be taken (irrespective of their meaning), and with them a phonetic syllabary must be formed. Both of these devices were employed by a j.a.panese scholar of early times. Sometimes disregarding the significance of the ideographs altogether, he used them simply as representing sounds, and with them built up pure j.a.panese words; at other times, he altered the sounds of j.a.panese words to those of their Chinese equivalents and then wrote them frankly with their ideographic symbols.

In this way each j.a.panese word came to have two p.r.o.nunciations: first, its own original sound for colloquial purposes; and second, its borrowed sound for purposes of writing. At the outset the spoken and the written languages were doubtless kept tolerably distinct. But by degrees, as respect for Chinese literature developed, it became a learned accomplishment to p.r.o.nounce j.a.panese words after the Chinese manner, and the habit ultimately acquired such a vogue that the language of men--who wrote and spoke ideographically--grew to be different from the language of women--who wrote and spoke phonetically. When Hiyeda no Are was required to memorize the annals and traditions collected and revised at the Imperial Court, the language in which he committed them to heart was pure j.a.panese, and in that language he dictated them, twenty-nine years later, to the scribe Yasumaro. The latter, in setting down the products of Are's memory, wrote for the most part phonetically; but sometimes, finding that method too c.u.mbersome, he had recourse to the ideographic language, with which he was familiar. At all events, adding nothing nor taking away anything, he produced a truthful record of the myths, traditions, and salient historical incidents credited by the j.a.panese of the seventh century.

It may well be supposed, nevertheless, that Are's memory, however tenacious, failed in many respects, and that his historical details were comparatively meagre. An altogether different spirit presided at the work subsequently undertaken by this same Yasumaro, when, in conjunction with other scholars, he was required to collate the historical materials obtained abundantly from various sources since the vandalism of the Soga n.o.bles. The prime object of these collaborators was to produce a j.a.panese history worthy to stand side by side with the cla.s.sic models of China. Therefore, they used the Chinese language almost entirely, the chief exception being in the case of the old poems, a great number of which appear in the Records and the Chronicles alike. The actual words of these poems had to be preserved as well as the metre, and therefore it was necessary to indite them phonetically. For the rest, the Nihon Shoki, which resulted from the labours of these annalists and literati, was so Chinese that its authors did not hesitate to draw largely upon the cosmogonic myths of the Middle Kingdom, and to put into the mouths of j.a.panese monarchs, or into their decrees, quotations from Chinese literature. "As a repertory of ancient j.a.panese myth and legend there is little to choose between the Records and the Chronicles. The former is, on the whole, the fuller of the two, and contains legends which the latter pa.s.ses over in silence; but the Chronicles, as we now have them, are enriched by variants of the early myths, the value of which, for purposes of comparison, is recognized by scientific inquirers. But there can be no comparison between the two works when viewed as history. Hiyeda no Are's memory cannot be expected to compete in fullness and accuracy with the abundant doc.u.mentary literature accessible to the writers of the Chronicles, and an examination of the two works shows that, in respect to the record of actual events, the Chronicles are far the more useful authority".*

*Aston's Nihongi.

It will readily be supposed, too, that the authors of both works confused the present with the past, and, in describing the manners and customs of by-gone eras, unconsciously limned their pictures with colours taken from the palette of their own times, "when the national thought and inst.i.tutions had become deeply modified by Chinese influences." Valuable as the two books are, therefore, they cannot be accepted without large limitations. The Nihon Shoki occupied a high place in national esteem from the outset. In the year following its compilation, the Empress Gensho summoned eminent scholars to the Court and caused them to deliver lectures on the contents of the book, a custom which was followed regularly by subsequent sovereigns and still finds a place among the New Year ceremonials. This book proved to be the precursor of five others with which it is commonly a.s.sociated by j.a.panese scholars. They are the Zoku Nihongi (Supplementary Chronicles of j.a.pan), in forty volumes, which covers the period from 697 to 791 and was finished in 798; the Nihon Koki (Later Chronicles of j.a.pan), in forty volumes--ten only survive--which covers the period from 792 to 833; the Zoku Nihon Koki (Supplementary Later Chronicles), in twenty volumes, which covers the single reign of the Emperor Nimmyo (834-850) and was compiled in 869; the Montoku Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Montoku), in ten volumes, covering the reign of Montoku (851-858), and compiled in 879, and the Sandai Jitsu-roku (True Annals of Three Reigns) in fifty volumes, covering the period from 859 to 887 and compiled in 901. These five compilations together with the Nihon Shoki are honoured as the Six National Histories. It is noticeable that the writers were men of the highest rank, from prime ministers downwards. In such honour was the historiographer's art held in j.a.pan in the eighth and ninth centuries.

CHRONOLOGY

Before beginning to read j.a.panese history it is necessary to know something of the chronology followed in its pages. There have been in j.a.pan four systems for counting the pa.s.sage of time. The first is by the reigns of the Emperors. That is to say, the first year of a sovereign's reign--reckoning from the New Year's day following his accession--became the 1 of the series, and the years were thenceforth numbered consecutively until his death or abdication. This method might be sufficiently accurate if the exact duration of each reign were known as well as the exact sequence of the reigns. But no such precision could be expected in the case of unwritten history, transmitted orally from generation to generation. Thus, while j.a.panese annalists, by accepting the aggregate duration of all the reigns known to them, arrive at the conclusion that the first Emperor, Jimmu, ascended the throne in the year 660 B.C., it is found on a.n.a.lysis that their figures a.s.sign to the first seventeen sovereigns an average age of 109 years.

The second system was by means of periods deriving their name (nengo) from some remarkable incident. Thus, the discovery of copper in j.a.pan was commemorated by calling the year Wado (j.a.panese copper), and the era so called lasted seven years. Such a plan was even more liable to error than the device of reckoning by reigns, and a specially confusing feature was that the first year of the period dated retrospectively from the previous New Year's day, so that events were often recorded as having occurred in the final year of one period and in the opening year of another. This system was originally imported from China in the year A.D. 645, and is at present in use, the year 1910 being the forty-third of the Meiji (Enlightenment and Peace) period.

The third system was that of the s.e.xagenary cycle. This was operated after the manner of a clock having two concentric dials, the circ.u.mference of the larger dial being divided into ten equal parts, each marked with one of the ten "celestial signs," and the circ.u.mference of the smaller dial being divided into twelve equal parts each marked with one of the twelve signs of the zodiac. The long hand of the clock, pointing to the larger dial, was supposed to make one revolution in ten years, and the shorter hand, pointing to the small dial, revolved once in twelve years. Thus, starting from the point where the marks on the two dials coincide, the long hand gained upon the short hand by one-sixtieth each year, and once in every sixty years the two hands were found at the point of conjunction. Years were indicated by naming the "celestial stem" and the zodiacal sign to which the imaginary hands happen to be pointing, just as clock-time is indicated by the minutes read from the long hand and the hours from the short. The s.e.xagenary cycle came into use in China in 623 B.C. The exact date of its importation into j.a.pan is unknown, but it was probably about the end of the fourth century A.D.

It is a sufficiently accurate manner of counting so long as the tale of cycles is carefully kept, but any neglect in that respect exposes the calculator to an error of sixty years or some multiple of sixty.

Keen scrutiny and collation of the histories of China, Korea, and j.a.pan have exposed a mistake of at least 120 years connected with the earliest employment of the s.e.xagenary cycle in j.a.pan.

The fourth method corresponds to that adopted in Europe where the number of a year is referred to the birth of Christ. In j.a.pan, the accession of the Emperor Jimmu--660 B.C.--is taken for a basis, and thus the Occidental year 1910 becomes the 2570th year of the j.a.panese dynasty. With such methods of reckoning some collateral evidence is needed before accepting any of the dates given in j.a.panese annals.

Kaempfer and even Rein were content to endorse the chronology of the Chronicles--the Records avoid dates altogether--but other Occidental scholars* have with justice been more sceptical, and their doubts have been confirmed by several eminent j.a.panese historians in recent times. Where, then, is collateral evidence to be found?

*Notably Bramsen, Aston, Satow, and Chamberlain.

In the pages of Chinese and Korean history. There is, of course, no inherent reason for attributing to Korean history accuracy superior to that of j.a.panese history. But in China the habit of continuously compiling written annals had been practised for many centuries before j.a.panese events began even to furnish materials for romantic recitations, and no serious errors have been proved against Chinese historiographers during the periods when comparison with j.a.panese annals is feasible. In Korea's case, too, verification is partially possible. Thus, during the first five centuries of the Christian era, Chinese annals contain sixteen notices of events in Korea. If Korean history be examined as to these events, it is found to agree in ten instances, to disagree in two, and to be silent in four.* This record tends strongly to confirm the accuracy of the Korean annals, and it is further to be remembered that the Korean peninsula was divided during many centuries into three princ.i.p.alities whose records serve as mutual checks. Finally, Korean historians do not make any such demand upon our credulity as the j.a.panese do in the matter of length of sovereigns' reigns. For example, while the number of successions to the throne of j.a.pan during the first four centuries of the Christian era is set down as seven only, making fifty-six years the average duration of a reign, the corresponding numbers for the three Korean princ.i.p.alities are sixteen, seventeen, and sixteen, respectively, making the average length of a reign from twenty-four to twenty-five years. It is, indeed, a very remarkable fact that whereas the average age of the first seventeen Emperors of j.a.pan, who are supposed to have reigned from 660 B.C. down to A.D. 399, was 109 years, this incredible habit of longevity ceased abruptly from the beginning of the fifth century, the average age of the next seventeen having been only sixty-one and a half years; and it is a most suggestive coincidence that the year A.D. 461 is the first date of the accepted j.a.panese chronology which is confirmed by Korean authorities.

*Aston's essay on Early j.a.panese History

In fact, the conclusion is almost compulsory that j.a.panese authentic history, so far as dates are concerned, begins from the fifth century. Chinese annals, it is true, furnish one noteworthy and much earlier confirmation of j.a.panese records. They show that j.a.pan was ruled by a very renowned queen during the first half of the third century of the Christian era, and it was precisely at that epoch that the Empress Jingo is related by j.a.panese history to have made herself celebrated at home and abroad. Chinese historiographers, however, put Jingo's death in the year A.D. 247, whereas j.a.panese annalists give the date as 269. Indeed there is reason to think that just at this time--second half of the third century--some special causes operated to disturb historical coherence in j.a.pan, for not only does Chinese history refer to several signal events in j.a.pan which find no place in the latter's records, but also Korean history indicates that the j.a.panese dates of certain cardinal incidents err by exactly 120 years. Two cycles in the s.e.xagenary system of reckoning const.i.tute 120 years, and the explanation already given makes it easy to conceive the dropping of that length of time by recorders having only tradition to guide them.

On the whole, whatever may be said as to the events of early j.a.panese history, its dates can not be considered trustworthy before the beginning of the fifth century. There is evidently one other point to be considered in this context; namely, the introduction of writing.

Should it appear that the time when the j.a.panese first began to possess written records coincides with the time when, according to independent research, the dates given in their annals begin to synchronize with those of Chinese and Korean history, another very important landmark will be furnished. There, is such synchronism, but it is obtained at the cost of considerations which cannot be lightly dismissed. For, although it is pretty clearly established that an event which occured at the beginning of the fifth century preluded the general study of the Chinese language in j.a.pan and may not unreasonably be supposed to have led to the use of the Chinese script in compiling historical records, still it is even more clearly established that from a much remoter era j.a.pan had been on terms of some intimacy with her neighbours, China and Korea, and had exchanged written communications with them, so that the art of writing was a.s.suredly known to her long before the fifth century of the Christian era, to whatever services she applied it. This subject will present itself again for examination in more convenient circ.u.mstances.

ENGRAVING: YUKIMIDORO (Style of Stone Lantern used in j.a.panese Gardens)

ENGRAVING: "YATSUHAs.h.i.+" STYLE OF GARDEN BRIDGE

CHAPTER II